LETTER 156
To the holy lord Augustine, bishop, rightly and deservedly venerable and to be revered in all things, from Hilary.

1. The grace of your holiness, which is known to all, has persuaded my littleness to send you this letter in praise of your venerability by our people returning from Syracuse to Hippo, begging the supreme Trinity that you may receive this writing of mine for review, safe and sound by the favor of our God, holy lord, rightly and deservedly venerable, and to be revered in all things. And so I ask that you would deign to be mindful of me in your holy prayers, and to instruct our ignorance concerning what certain Christians at Syracuse maintain, saying: that a man can be without sin and can easily keep the commandments of God if he wills; that an infant not baptized, taken away by death, cannot deservedly perish, since it is born without sin; that a rich man remaining in his riches cannot enter the kingdom of God unless he sells all that he has, and that it cannot profit him even if he should perhaps fulfill the commandments out of those very riches; that one ought not to swear at all; and concerning the Church, which is the one of which it is written that it has neither wrinkle nor spot (Eph 5:27), whether this is the one in which we are now gathered or the one for which we hope—for some think that the Church is this one which is now thronged by the people, and that it can be without sin. Concerning all these things I ask your holiness, with as great entreaties as I can, that you would order us to be more openly instructed, so that we may know how far we ought to think. May the mercy of our God keep your holiness safe, for countless years I pray, holy lord, rightly and deservedly venerable, and to be revered in all things.

LETTER 157
Augustine, bishop, servant of Christ and of his Church, to his most beloved son Hilary, greetings in the Lord.

1. 1. From your letter I have learned not only of your well-being but also of your religious zeal concerning the word of God, and your pious care for your salvation, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so, giving thanks to God, I have not delayed to send a reply.

1. 2. If, then, you ask whether in this life anyone advances so far in the perfection of righteousness that he lives here altogether without any sin, consider what the apostle John said, whom the Lord loved especially among his disciples: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 Jn 1:8). If, then, those of whom you wrote to me say that they are without sin, you see that they deceive themselves and the truth is not in them. But if they confess that they are sinners, so that they may be able to merit the mercy of God, let them refrain from deceiving others also, in whom they try to instill this pride. For the Lord's Prayer is necessary for everyone, which the Lord gave even to the very rams of the flock, that is, to his apostles, so that each one may say to God: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Mt 6:12). For anyone to whom these words in the prayer were not necessary would have to be declared to live here without sin. If the Lord had foreseen that there would be any such persons, better surely than his apostles proved to be, he would have taught them another prayer in which they would not ask to have their sins forgiven, since all had already been forgiven them in baptism. For if holy Daniel, not before men as though in feigned humility, but before God, that is, in the prayer in which he was beseeching God, confessed not only the sins of his people but even his own, as was set down by his truthful lips, it seems to me that nothing else should be said to these people except what the Lord commands to a certain proud man through the prophet Ezekiel: Are you wiser than Daniel? (Ezek 28:3)

1. 3. But plainly, whoever, helped by the mercy and grace of God, has abstained from those sins that are also called crimes, and has not neglected to cleanse by works of mercy and pious prayers those sins without which life here is not lived, will deserve to depart from here without sin, although while he was living here he had some sins; for just as these were not lacking, so also the remedies by which they might be purged were present. But whoever, having found in this as it were an occasion, when he hears that no one here lives without sin by his own choice, gives himself over to his lusts and binds himself to wicked crimes, and perseveres in these criminal and abominable ways right up to his last day, whatever alms he may give in the meantime, both leads an unhappy life and ends it still more unhappily.

2. 4. But these people are to be tolerated in any case when they say that there is or has been here someone, apart from the one Holy of Holies, who has had no sin at all. But that which they say—that free choice suffices for a man to fulfill the Lord's precepts, even if he is not helped to good works by the grace of God and the gift of the Holy Spirit—must be wholly anathematized and detested with every execration. For those who assert this are utterly estranged from the grace of God; because, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, as the Apostle says of the Jews, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God (Rom 10:3). For the fullness of the law is nothing but love; and surely the love of God has been poured out in our hearts, not through ourselves nor by the powers of our own will, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5).

2. 5. Free choice, therefore, has power for good works if it is helped from above, which comes about by asking humbly and acting; but abandoned by divine help, however much it may excel in knowledge of the law, it will in no way have the solidity of righteousness, but the puffing up of impious pride and a deadly swelling. The same Lord's Prayer teaches this. For we say to God in vain, Lead us not into temptation (Mt 6:13), if this is so placed in our own power that we are able to fulfill it without any help from him. For it is said, Lead us not into temptation, which is understood as, Do not permit us to be led into it by abandoning us. For God is faithful, says the Apostle, who will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make a way of escape, that you may be able to endure it (1 Cor 10:13). Why did he say that God does this, if it lies in our power alone, without his help?

2. 6. For the law itself was given as a help to those who use it lawfully, so that through it they may know either what righteousness they have already received, for which they may give thanks, or what is still lacking to them, which they should earnestly ask for. But those who hear what the law says, You shall not covet (Exod 20:17), in such a way that, because they have learned it, they think it suffices for them, and do not believe and ask that the strength to do what is commanded be given them by the help of God's grace—for them the law came in, that the offense might abound (Rom 5:20), which was said of the Jews. For it is too little that they do not fulfill what the law commands, You shall not covet; but in addition they grow proud, and being ignorant of God's righteousness—that is, the righteousness that God gives, who justifies the ungodly—and seeking to establish their own, as though made by the powers of their own will, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law, unto righteousness to everyone who believes (Rom 10:3-4), who surely came for this, that where the offense abounded, grace might superabound (Rom 5:20). If the Jews were enemies of this grace, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, why are these people also enemies, if they have believed in the one whom the Jews killed? Or is it that those receive the reward who, after killing Christ, accused their own impiety and submitted themselves to his grace once recognized; while these undergo judgment who wish to believe in Christ in such a way that they try to kill his very grace?

2. 7. For those who rightly believe, believe in him for this: that they may hunger and thirst for righteousness and be filled by his grace. For everyone, as it is written, who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Rom 10:13)—not, surely, with the salvation of the body, which many have who do not call upon the name of the Lord, but with that salvation of which he himself says, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; and, explaining accordingly what he meant: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Mt 9:12-13). He called the righteous, then, healthy, but sinners sick. Let the sick man, then, not presume on his own strength; for he shall not be saved by the multitude of his strength (Ps 33:16 (32:16)). For if he presumes on it, let him take care that this strength is not such as the healthy usually have, but such as the frenzied usually have, who, though they are insane, think themselves so healthy that they neither seek a physician but even strike him as a nuisance—just as these people in a way strike Christ with insane pride, when they contend that the so kindly help of his grace is not necessary for doing righteousness, once the precept of the law has been given. Let them cease, then, to be so insane, and let them understand that they have free choice for this, as far as they can: not that they should spurn the help by a proud will, but that they should call upon the Lord by a pious will.

2. 8. For this free will will be the freer the healthier it is, and the healthier the more subject to the mercy and grace of God. For it faithfully prays and says, Direct my steps according to your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me (Ps 119:133 (118:133)). For how is it free, over which iniquity has dominion? But that it may not have dominion over it, see by whom it is invoked. For he does not say, Direct my steps according to free choice, that no iniquity may have dominion over me; but, Direct my steps, he says, according to your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me. He prays, he does not promise; he confesses, he does not profess; he longs for the fullest freedom, he does not boast of his own power. For not everyone who trusts in his own strength, but everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. But how are they to call, he says, upon him in whom they have not believed? (Rom 10:14) For this, then, do those who rightly believe believe: that they may call upon him in whom they have believed, and may have power to do what they have received in the lawful precepts; since what the law commands, faith obtains.

2. 9. For, to leave aside for now the many precepts of the law and to recall from it the one the Apostle chose to recall: when the law says, You shall not covet (Exod 20:17), what else does it seem to command but continence from unlawful desires? For the mind is borne, as if by a weight, wherever it is borne, by love. We are commanded, therefore, to take away from the weight of desire what we may add to the weight of love, until the former is consumed and the latter perfected; for the fullness of the law is love (Rom 13:10). And yet, concerning continence itself, see what is written: And when I knew, he says, that no one could be continent unless God granted it, and this very thing was wisdom, to know whose gift it was, I went to the Lord and besought him (Wis 8:21). Did he say: And when I knew that no one could be continent except through his own free choice, and this very thing was wisdom, to know that this good was from myself? He plainly did not say this, which certain people in their vanity say, but what had to be said in the truth of holy Scripture: When I knew, he says, that no one could be continent unless God granted it. God, therefore, commands continence and gives continence; he commands through the law, he gives through grace; he commands through the letter, he gives through the Spirit: for the law without grace makes the offense abound, and the letter without the Spirit kills. He commands for this reason: that we, having tried to do what is commanded, and wearied under the law by our own weakness, may know to ask for the help of grace; and if we have been able to do any good work, may not be ungrateful to the one who helps. This man too did this; for wisdom taught him whose gift it was.

2. 10. For the choice of the will is not taken away because it is helped; rather, it is helped because it is not taken away. For one who says to God, Be my helper (Ps 27:9 (26:9)), confesses that he wills to fulfill what he commanded, but asks help from the one who commanded so that he may be able. So this man too, when he knew that no one could be continent unless God granted it, went to the Lord and besought him: surely it was willingly that he went, willingly that he besought, nor would he have asked unless there had been a will. But unless he had asked, how much could the will have done? For even if it can before it asks, what does it profit, unless he gives thanks for what he can to the one from whom must be asked what he cannot yet do? Hence even one who is already continent does not, of course, have continence unless the will is present; but unless it had received, what would the will have? For what have you, he says, that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? (1 Cor 4:7)—that is, Why do you boast as though you had from yourself what, if you had not received it, you could not have from yourself? This was said so that he who boasts should boast not in himself but in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31); and that one who does not yet have something to boast of should not hope from himself, but should pray to the Lord. For it is better for one to have less to ask of God than to have more to attribute to himself; since it is profitable to rise from the depths rather than to fall from on high: for God, as it is written, resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Jas 4:6). To the abounding of offenses, then, the law teaches us what we ought to will, unless grace helps, so that we may be able to do what we will, and may fulfill what we have been able to do. And it will help if, not presuming on our own strength, we are not high-minded, but consent to humble things, and give thanks for what we can already do, and humbly, with a longing will, ask God for what we cannot yet do; supporting our prayer with the fruitful works of mercy, giving that it may be given to us, forgiving that it may be forgiven us.

3. 11. But as to what they say—that an infant taken away by death unbaptized cannot perish, since it is born without sin—the Apostle does not say this; and I think it is better that we believe the Apostle rather than these people. For that teacher of the Gentiles, in whom Christ was speaking, says: Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so it passed to all men, in whom all sinned; and a little later he says: For the judgment indeed was from one offense unto condemnation, but grace is from many offenses unto justification (Rom 5:12.16). Accordingly, if these people should perhaps find an infant not begotten from the concupiscence of that one man, let them say that he is not liable to that damnation, nor to be freed from that damnation through the grace of Christ. For what is from one offense unto condemnation, but in that offense by which Adam offended? And what is from many offenses unto justification, but that the grace of Christ looses not only that one offense, by which infants begotten from that one man are bound, but also the many offenses that men, as they grow, add by their evil ways? Yet he says that even that one offense, by which the carnal stock that draws its origin from that first man is bound, suffices for condemnation. Therefore the baptism of little ones is not superfluous, so that those who through generation are bound to that condemnation may through regeneration be loosed from that same condemnation: for just as no man is found who is generated carnally apart from Adam, so no man is found who is regenerated spiritually apart from Christ. But carnal generation is liable to that one offense and to its damnation; while spiritual regeneration causes to be abolished not only that one offense, on account of which infants are baptized, but also the many offenses that men, by living badly, have added to that in which they were generated. Therefore he goes on to say: For if by the offense of one death reigned through one, much more shall they who receive the abundance of grace and of righteousness reign in life through one, Jesus Christ. So then, as through the offense of one unto condemnation upon all men, so through the righteousness of one unto justification of life upon all men. For as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one many are made righteous (Rom 5:17-19).

3. 12. What will they say to this? Or what remains to them, except to contend that the Apostle erred? The vessel of election, the teacher of the Gentiles, the trumpet of Christ, cries out: The judgment from one unto condemnation; and these people cry back, asserting that little ones, whom they confess to draw their stock from that one man of whom he speaks, do not go into condemnation, even if they have not been baptized in Christ. The judgment, he says, from one unto condemnation: what does he mean by from one, but, from one offense? For it follows: But grace is from many offenses unto justification (Rom 5:16). Therefore from one side the judgment leads from even one offense unto condemnation; from the other side grace leads from even many offenses unto justification. Wherefore, if they do not dare to resist the Apostle, let them explain to us why the judgment leads from one offense unto condemnation, when men come to judgment to be damned for many offenses. Or if they think it was so said because the beginning of sin was made from Adam, which the rest imitated, so that from that one offense those would be drawn into judgment and condemnation who by imitating committed many sins—why was it not likewise said of grace and the justified? Why did he not say similarly: And grace from one offense unto justification? For just as men's many offenses are found in between that one which they imitated and the judgment by which they are punished—for they came from one to many, so as to be led from many to judgment and damnation—so those same many offenses are in the same way in between this very one in imitation of which they were committed, and the grace by which they are forgiven; since from that one they came to many, so as to come from many to the grace of justification. Since, then, in both, that is, both in judgment and in grace, as far as concerns the one and the many offenses, the account is one and the same, let these people tell us why he said that the judgment leads from one offense unto condemnation, but grace from many offenses unto justification. Or let them acquiesce that it was so said because in this matter two men are set up: Adam, from whom carnal generation consists, and Christ, from whom spiritual regeneration. But because the former is only man, while the latter is both God and man, that regeneration does not loose one offense alone, which is from Adam, in the way that that generation binds by one offense, which is from Adam. Rather, for that generation the connection of one offense suffices for condemnation; for whatever men afterward add from their evil works pertains not to that generation, but to human conduct. But for this regeneration it does not suffice to loose only that offense which is drawn from Adam, but whatever also is added afterward from the iniquitous works of human conduct. Therefore the judgment is from one unto condemnation, but grace from many offenses unto justification.

3. 13. For if by the offense of one death reigned through one—the offense from which little ones are cleansed through baptism—much more shall they who receive the abundance of grace and of righteousness reign in life through one, Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17): much more surely shall they reign in life, because it will be the kingdom of eternal life, whereas death passes in them temporally and will not reign forever. And so, as through the offense of one unto condemnation upon all men—from which condemnation little ones are to be freed through the sacrament of baptism—so through the righteousness of one unto justification of life upon all men (Rom 5:18). And here he said all, and there all; not because all men come to the grace of Christ's justification, since so many, estranged from it, die eternally, but because all who are reborn unto justification are reborn only through Christ, just as all who are born unto condemnation are born only through Adam. For there is no one in that generation apart from Adam, no one in this regeneration apart from Christ: therefore all, and all; and the same all he afterward calls also many, adding: For as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so also by the obedience of one man many are made righteous (Rom 5:19). Who are these many, but those whom just before he had called all?

3. 14. See how he commends the one and the one, that is, Adam and Christ—the former unto condemnation, the latter unto justification—although Christ came in the flesh so long after Adam: so that we may know that even the righteous of old, whoever they could be, were freed only through the same faith by which we also are freed, namely faith in the incarnation of Christ, which was foretold to them, as it is announced to us as accomplished. For this reason he calls Christ man, though he is also God, lest anyone suppose that the righteous of old could be freed only through Christ as God, that is, through the Word who was in the beginning, and not also through faith in his incarnation, by which Christ is called also man. For that sentence cannot be destroyed, of which he also says elsewhere: Through one man death, and through one man the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive (1 Cor 15:21-22). He means, of course, the resurrection of the righteous, where there is eternal life; not the resurrection of the wicked, where there will be eternal death: therefore he says, shall be made alive; because those shall be damned. Hence also in the ancient sacraments the circumcision of little ones was commanded to be done on the eighth day, since Christ, in whom is effected the stripping off of carnal offense which circumcision signifies, rose on the Lord's day, which is the eighth after the seventh of the sabbath. This faith, then, belonged also to the righteous of old. Hence the Apostle also says: Having the same spirit of faith, as it is written, I believed, therefore I have spoken; we also believe, therefore we also speak (2 Cor 4:13). He would not say, the same spirit of faith, unless he were reminding us that the righteous of old also had that same spirit of faith, that is, of the incarnation of Christ. But because to them future things were foretold which are announced to us as already accomplished, and what was veiled in the time of the Old Testament is revealed in the time of the New Testament, therefore its sacraments were varied, so that some were in the Old Testament and others in the New; though the faith itself is not varied, but is one: for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.

3. 15. But as to what he adds to those words we were treating, saying, But the law came in, that the offense might abound (Rom 5:20), this no longer pertains to that offense which is drawn from Adam, of which he was saying above, Death reigned through one (Rom 5:17); for whether we understand the natural law, which appears in the years of those who can already use reason, or the written law, which was given through Moses—since neither could it give life and free from the law of sin and death, which is drawn from Adam, but rather added increases of transgression: For where there is no law, says the same Apostle, there is no transgression (Rom 4:15). Accordingly, since there is a law also in the reason of a man who now uses the choice of freedom, written naturally in the heart, by which it is suggested that no one should do to another what he himself does not wish to suffer, according to this law all are transgressors, even those who have not received the law given through Moses, of whom it is read in the Psalm: I counted all the sinners of the earth transgressors (Ps 119:119 (118:119)). For not all the sinners of the earth transgressed the law given through Moses; yet unless they had transgressed some law, they would not be called transgressors: For where there is no law, there is no transgression. When the law given in paradise was transgressed, then, man is born from Adam with the law of sin and death, of which it is said: I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin which is in my members (Rom 7:23). Yet unless this is later strengthened by evil habit, it is more easily overcome—though not except by the grace of God. But when that other law is transgressed, which is in the use of reason of the rational soul at the age of a man who now uses reason, all the sinners of the earth become transgressors. And when even that law which was given through Moses is transgressed, the offense abounds much more. For if a law had been given which could give life, righteousness would altogether be from the law. But Scripture has shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe (Gal 3:21-22)—these words, if you recognize them, are the Apostle's. Concerning which law he says again: The law was added because of transgression, until the seed should come to whom the promise was made, ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator (Gal 3:19)—commending Christ, by whose grace all are saved, whether little ones from the law of sin and death with which we are born, or older ones who, by misusing the choice of the will, transgressed the natural law of reason itself, or those who received the law given through Moses and, transgressing it, were killed by the letter. But when a man transgresses even the precepts of the Gospel, let him be reckoned dead four days; yet even of him one must not despair, on account of the grace of him who did not say slowly, but cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth (Jn 11:43).

3. 16. The law, then, came in that the offense might abound: whether when men neglect what God commands, or when, presuming on their own strength, they do not implore the help of grace, and add pride to weakness. But when by the divine call they understand why they should groan, and call upon him in whom they rightly believe, saying: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your great mercy (Ps 51:1 (50:3)); and, I said, Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you (Ps 41:4 (40:5)); and, In your righteousness give me life (Ps 119:40 (118:40)); and, Remove from me the way of iniquity, and according to your law have mercy on me (Ps 119:29 (118:29)); and, Let not the foot of pride come to me, and let not the hand of sinners move me (Ps 36:11 (35:12)); and, Direct my steps according to your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me (Ps 119:133 (118:133)) (for by the Lord are a man's steps directed, and he will choose his way (Ps 37:23 (36:23))); and many other things, which were written for this reason, to admonish us that, for fulfilling what is commanded us, help must be asked from the one by whom it is commanded—when, therefore, a man stretches himself out to him and so groans, what follows comes to pass: Where the offense abounded, grace superabounded (Rom 5:20); and, Her many sins are forgiven, for she loved much (Lk 7:47); and the love of God is poured out in the heart, whence the fullness of the law may come to be—not through the powers of the choice that is in us, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For he knew the law who said, For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man; and yet he added, But I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:22-25). Why did he not rather say, Through my free choice, except because freedom without grace is not freedom, but defiance?

3. 17. When, therefore, the Apostle had said, The law came in, that the offense might abound; but where the offense abounded, grace superabounded (Rom 5:20), he went on and added: that, as sin reigned unto death, so also grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 5:21). Now when he had said, that, as sin reigned unto death, he did not say, Through one man, or through the first man, or through Adam: because he had already said, The law came in, that the offense might abound; and this abounding of the offense pertains not to the propagation from the first man, but to the transgression of human conduct, which was added in those of more advanced age, out of the abundance of iniquity, to that one offense by which alone little ones are held bound. But because this whole, even what does not pertain to the origin of that one offense, is nevertheless such as the grace of the Savior is fit to loose, therefore, when he had said, so also grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life, he added, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

3. 18. Let no one's arguments, then, brought forward against these apostolic words, hinder little ones from the salvation which is in Christ Jesus our Lord: for we ought to speak on their behalf all the more, the more they cannot speak for themselves. Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death; and so it passed to all men, in whom all sinned (Rom 5:12). As they cannot be free from that one man, so they cannot be free from that same sin, unless they are loosed from his guilt through the baptism of Christ. For until the law sin was in the world (Rom 5:13): this was not said because sin was thereafter in no one, but because what could be taken away only by the Spirit of grace could not be taken away by the letter of the law. Therefore, lest anyone, trusting in the strength—I do not say of his will, but rather of his vanity—should suppose that the law could suffice for free choice, and should mock the grace of Christ, the Apostle says: For until the law sin was in the world; but sin was not imputed when there was no law (Rom 5:13). He did not say, It was not; but, It was not imputed; because there was no law by whose accusation it might be shown—whether the law of reason in the little one, or the law of the letter in the people.

3. 19. But death reigned, he says, from Adam until Moses (Rom 5:14); because not even the law given through Moses could take away the reign of death, which the grace of Christ alone took away. But over whom it reigned, see: even over those, he says, who did not sin after the likeness of the transgression of Adam (Rom 5:14). Death reigned, then, even over those who did not sin. But why it reigned, he shows when he says, after the likeness of the transgression of Adam. For this is the better understanding of these words: that, when he had said death reigned over those who did not sin, as if to admonish us why it reigned over those who did not sin, he added, after the likeness of the transgression of Adam; that is, because there was in their members the likeness of the transgression of Adam. It can also be understood thus: death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin after the likeness of the transgression of Adam—because in themselves, since they had now been born and did not yet use reason, which he used when he sinned, nor had they received the precept that he transgressed, but were held bound by original fault alone—through which the reign of death is in them only insofar as they are not those who, reborn by the grace of Christ, belong to his kingdom; since temporal death, although it too is propagated from the original offense, destroys the body in them, but does not draw the soul to punishment, where he wished the reign of death to be understood: so that the soul reborn through grace may not die unto Gehenna, that is, may not be estranged or separated from the life of God; but the temporal death of the body, even in those who are redeemed by the death of Christ, is left for a time for the exercise of faith and the contest of the present struggle, in which the martyrs too have striven; and it too will be consumed in the renewal of the body which the resurrection promises. For there death will be wholly swallowed up in victory, from which the grace of Christ now takes away the kingdom, lest it draw the souls of his own to the punishments of hell. Some manuscripts, indeed, do not have, over those who did not sin, but, over those who sinned, after the likeness of the transgression of Adam; by which words this sense is in no way taken away. For according to this they are understood to have sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam, according to what was said above, in whom all sinned (Rom 5:12). But the Greek manuscripts, from which the Scripture was translated into Latin, mostly have what we have said.

3. 20. But as to what he added concerning Adam, who is the figure of him who was to come (Rom 5:14), this too is understood in more than one way. For either it is a figure of Christ by contrast, so that as in him all die, so also in Christ all are made alive; and as through his disobedience many were made sinners, so through the obedience of Christ many are made righteous: or he called him the figure of him who was to come because he himself imposed a figure of death on his posterity. Yet that is the better understanding, that he is believed to be a figure by contrast, which the Apostle greatly commends. Finally, lest the contrary things in this figure be weighed altogether as equal, he adds and says: But the gift is not like the offense: for if by the offense of one many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift in the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, abound unto many (Rom 5:15): so that it may be understood, not unto more in number, since the wicked who will be damned are more in number, but it will abound more, because in those who are redeemed through Christ the figure of death from Adam avails temporally, but the figure of life through Christ will avail eternally. Although Adam, then, is a figure of him who was to come by contrast, Christ nevertheless bestows more on the regenerate than he had harmed in the generated. And the gift is not like the result of the one who sinned: for the judgment indeed was from one unto condemnation, but grace is from many offenses unto justification (Rom 5:16). Not only in this, he says, is the figure unequal, because the former harmed temporally those whom Christ redeemed eternally, but also because the posterity, by that one's single offense, unless they are redeemed by Christ, are handed over to condemnation; whereas the redemption of Christ dissolves even the many offenses which the abundance of transgressing iniquity added to that one; concerning which we have already disputed above.

3. 21. Against these words of the Apostle and their sound understanding, acquiesce to no one, if you wish to live for Christ and in Christ. For if, as they say, the Apostle had recalled these things so that we might understand that sinners pertain to the first man for this reason—that we did not draw the offense from him by being born, but sin by imitating him—he would rather have set down the devil, who both sinned first and from whom the human race drew no propagation of substance, but followed him by imitation alone; whence he is called the father of the ungodly, just as Abraham is called our father on account of the imitation of faith, not on account of carnal origin. For this reason it was said of the devil himself: But they imitate him who are of his portion (Wis 2:25). Then, if on account of imitation the Apostle were recalling the first man in this place, because he was the first sinner among men, so as to say that all sinful men pertain to him for that reason—why did he not set down holy Abel, who was the first righteous man among men, to whom all the righteous would pertain on account of the imitation of righteousness? But he set down Adam, against whom he set down none but Christ; because as that man by his offense corrupted his posterity, so that God-man by his righteousness saved his inheritance: the one by transmitting the uncleanness of the flesh, which the impious devil could not do; the other by bestowing the grace of the Spirit, which the righteous Abel could not do.

3. 22. Many things on these questions we have said in other little works of ours and in ecclesiastical sermons: for there were even among us certain people who, wherever they could, would scatter these new seeds of their error; some of whom, through our ministry and that of our brothers, the mercy of the Lord healed of that plague. Yet I think there are not lacking some here, especially at Carthage; but they now mutter in secret, fearing the most firmly grounded faith of the Church. For one of them, named Celestius, had already begun to creep up to the honor of the presbyterate in the church of that same city; but by the most faithful liberty of the brothers, on account of these very disputes against the grace of Christ, he was brought before an episcopal court. Yet he was compelled to confess, on account of little ones being baptized, that redemption is necessary for them too. There, although he was unwilling to say anything more expressly about original sin, nevertheless by the very name of redemption he conceded no little against himself. For from what would they be redeemed, except from the power of the devil, in which they could not be except by the bond of original sin? Or by what price are they redeemed, except by the blood of Christ, of which it is most plainly written that it was poured out for the remission of sins (Mt 26:28)? But because he departed more convicted and detested by the Church than corrected and at peace, I feared lest perhaps he might be the very one there who is trying to disturb your faith: and so I thought I should make mention of his name. But whether it is he himself, or others who share his error—for they are more than we can hope; and where they are not refuted, they seduce others also to their sect, and so multiply, so that I do not know where they will break out—we nevertheless prefer that they be healed within the framework of the Church than that they be cut off from her body as it were as incurable members, if, however, necessity itself permits this. For it is to be feared that more may rot while the rotten ones are spared. But the mercy of our Lord is powerful, to free them rather from this plague: which it will do without doubt, if they faithfully attend to and hold what is written: Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Rom 10:13).

4. 23. Hear now a few words about the rich, which comes next in your letter to be inquired into. For you have set down that they say this: that a rich man remaining in his riches cannot enter the kingdom of God unless he sells all that he has, nor does it profit him even if he should perhaps fulfill the commandments out of those very riches. The arguments of these people are escaped by our fathers Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, who departed from this life so long before. For all these had no few riches, as the most faithful Scripture testifies: yet that many would come from the east and the west, and would recline in the kingdom of heaven not above them, or apart from them, but with them, he himself, who for our sake became poor though he was truly rich, foretold by a most truthful promise. And although the proud rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted sumptuously every day, was tormented when dead among the dead, nevertheless, if he had pitied the poor man covered with sores who lay despised before his gate, he too would have deserved mercy. And if poverty, not righteousness, had been the merit of that poor man, he certainly would not have been carried by the angels into the bosom of Abraham, who had been rich here. But so that it might be shown to us that neither was poverty in itself divinely honored in the one, nor were riches damned in the other, but that piety in the one and impiety in the other had their respective ends: so the fire of torment received the impious rich man, while the bosom of the rich man received the pious poor one. And this man, indeed, when he lived here as a rich man, so had riches and so little valued them in comparison with God's precepts that he was unwilling even by the immolation of his own son to offend the God who commanded it, whom he both hoped and wished to be the heir of his riches.

4. 24. Here, of course, they say that the ancient fathers did not sell all that they had and give to the poor because the Lord had not commanded this of them. For, the New Testament not yet being revealed—which ought not to come about except in the fullness of time—neither was their virtue to be revealed, by which virtue God knew in their hearts that they could most easily do this, he who bore them so distinguished a testimony that, although he is the God of all the saints, he deigned to speak as of his chief friends: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob: this is my name forever (Exod 3:15). But after the great sacrament of piety was manifested in the flesh, and the coming of Christ shone forth for the calling of all the Gentiles, in whom those fathers too had believed—but kept the olive of this faith, to be manifested in its own time, as it were in the root of that tree of which the Apostle speaks—it was said to the rich man: Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me (Mt 19:21).

4. 25. If they say this, they seem to say something reasonable. But let them hear the whole, let them attend to the whole; let them not open their ears in part and grow deaf in part. To whom did the Lord command these things? Surely to that rich man who was seeking to receive counsel for obtaining eternal life: for he had said this to the Lord: What shall I do to obtain eternal life? But he did not answer him: If you wish to come to life, go, sell all that you have; but: If you wish to come to life, keep the commandments (Mt 19:16-17). When the young man said that he had kept these, which the Lord recalled to him from the law, and asked what was still lacking to him, he received the answer: If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have and give to the poor (Mt 19:21). And lest he should think that he would in this way lose those things which he greatly loved: And you will have, he says, treasure in heaven. Then he added: And come, follow me; lest it be thought to profit anyone anything, when he has done these things, if he does not follow Christ. But he indeed went away sad, who had seen how he had kept those precepts of the law: for I think that he had answered that he had kept them more arrogantly than truly. Nevertheless the good Master distinguished the precepts of the law from that more excellent perfection: for there he said, If you wish to come to life, keep the commandments; but here, If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have, and so on. Why, then, do we deny that the rich, although they fall short of that perfection, nevertheless come to life, if they keep the commandments, and give that it may be given to them, and forgive that it may be forgiven them?

4. 26. For we believe the apostle Paul to have been a minister of the New Testament, when, writing to Timothy, he said: Charge the rich of this world not to be high-minded, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, who furnishes us with all things abundantly to enjoy. Let them do good, let them be rich in good works, let them give readily, 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): of which it was also said to that young man, If you wish to come to life. I think that, in charging these things, the Apostle was instructing the rich, not deceiving them: for he did not say, Charge the rich of this world to sell all that they have, give to the poor, and follow the Lord; but, not to be high-minded, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches. It was that pride, by which the rich man despised the righteous poor man lying before his gate, and that hope in the uncertainty of riches, by which on account of his purple, fine linen, and sumptuous feasts he thought himself blessed—not the riches themselves—that led him to the torments of hell.

4. 27. Or is it perhaps because the Lord added and said, Amen I say to you, a rich man will enter the kingdom of heaven with difficulty; and again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 19:23-24), that these people therefore think that a rich man, even if he does those things which the Apostle wrote should be charged upon the rich, cannot enter the kingdom of heaven? What, then, is it? Does the Apostle speak against the Lord, or do these people not know what they are saying? Let the Christian choose which of these he should believe. I think it better for us to believe that these people do not know what they say than that Paul speaks against the Lord. Then, why do they not also in what follows hear the Lord himself saying to the disciples, saddened over the misery of the rich: What is impossible for men is easy for God (Mt 19:26)?

4. 28. But, they say, this was said for this reason: because it would come to pass that, on hearing the Gospel, the rich, having sold their patrimony and distributed it to the poor, would follow the Lord and enter the kingdom of heaven, and so what seemed difficult would come about—not that, remaining in their riches and keeping the precepts of the Apostle, that is, not being high-minded, nor hoping in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, doing good, giving readily, and sharing with the needy, they would lay hold of the true life; but rather that they would fulfill these apostolic precepts too only by selling all their goods.

4. 29. If they say this—and I know that they do say it—they do not first attend to how the Lord, against their dogma, proclaimed his grace. For he did not say: What seems impossible to men is easy for men if they will; but: What is impossible for men, he says, is easy for God (Mt 19:26): showing that, when these things are rightly done, they are not done by the power of man, but by the grace of God. Let these people, then, attend to this; and if they rebuke those who glory in their riches, let them take care not to trust in their own virtue: for both alike are rebuked in the Psalm: Those who trust in their own strength, and who glory in the abundance of their riches (Ps 49:6 (48:7)). Let the rich, then, hear: What is impossible for men is easy for God; and whether, remaining in their riches and doing good works out of them, or having sold them and distributed them among the needs of the poor, they enter the kingdom of heaven, let them attribute their good to the grace of God, not to their own strength. For what is impossible for men is easy not for men, but for God. Let these people too hear this; and if they have already either sold all that is theirs and given to the poor, or are still doing it and arranging it, and in this way are preparing to enter the kingdom of heaven, let them not attribute this to their own virtue, but to that same divine grace. For what is impossible for men is easy not for them, since they too are men, but for God. For the Apostle also says this to them: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good will (Phil 2:12-13). Surely they say that for this reason they received from the Lord the counsel of perfection about selling their goods—that they might follow the Lord, since there was added, and come, follow me: why, then, in the good works they do, do they presume only on their own will, and not hear the Lord, whom they say they follow, rebuking and testifying: Without me you can do nothing (Jn 15:5)?

4. 30. But if the Apostle said, Charge the rich of this world not to be high-minded, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, in such a way that they should sell all that they possess, and by distributing these proceeds to the needy do what follows, give readily, share, lay up for themselves a good foundation for the future (1 Tim 6:17-19), and does not believe that they can enter the kingdom of heaven otherwise—then he deceives those whose households he so carefully orders with the soundness of doctrine, admonishing and charging how wives should show themselves to husbands, husbands to wives, children to parents, parents to children, slaves to masters, masters to slaves: for how can these things be done without a household and without some family estate?

4. 31. Or does this move them, that the Lord says: Whoever has left all that is his for my sake will receive in this world a hundredfold, and in the world to come will possess eternal life (Mt 19:29)? It is one thing to have left, another to have sold: for among the things he commanded to be left, a wife too is mentioned, whom it is permitted by no human laws to sell, and by the laws of Christ not even to put away, except for the cause of fornication. What, then, do these precepts mean (for they cannot be contrary to one another), except that sometimes a moment of necessity arises, where either the wife is to be put away or Christ: so that, to leave other cases aside, if a Christian husband should displease his very wife, and she should set before him either divorce from herself or divorce from Christ? Here what should he choose but Christ, and praiseworthily put away the wife for Christ's sake? For where both are Christians, the Lord has commanded that no one put away his wife, except for the cause of fornication. But where either of them is an unbeliever, let the counsel of the Apostle be attended to: If an unbeliever consents to dwell with a faithful husband, let the husband not put away the wife. Likewise also the faithful wife the husband, if he consents to dwell with her. But if the unbeliever, he says, departs, let him depart: for a brother or sister is not in bondage in such cases (1 Cor 7:12-15): that is, if the unbeliever is unwilling to be with the faithful spouse, here let the faithful one recognize his own freedom, lest he so reckon himself subject to bondage as to abandon the faith itself, for fear of losing the unbelieving spouse.

4. 32. This is understood also of children and parents, this of brothers and sisters: that all are to be left for Christ's sake, when this condition is set—that one should leave Christ if he desires to keep them with him. This, then, is to be understood in this place also of house and fields, this also of those things which are possessed by right of money. For similarly even of these he does not say: Whoever sells for my sake whatever it is lawful to sell; but: Whoever leaves. For it can happen that it is said to a Christian by some power, Either you shall not be a Christian, or if you wish to remain in this, you shall not have your house and possessions. Then truly even those rich who had so resolved to remain in their riches as to win God's favor by the good works done from them, should rather leave these for Christ's sake than Christ for the sake of these; so that they may receive in this world a hundredfold, by the perfection of which number all things are signified (for the whole world of riches belongs to the faithful man; and they become in this way as having nothing, yet possessing all things (2 Cor 6:10)), and in the world to come may possess eternal life; lest, Christ being left for the sake of these things, they be cast down into eternal death.

4. 33. For by this law and condition, not only those who by excellence of mind have received the counsel of perfection, so as to distribute what they have sold to the poor and, with shoulders freer from every burden of this world, to bear the light burden of Christ, but also whoever is weaker, and less fit for that most glorious perfection, who nevertheless remembers that he is truly a Christian—when he hears it set before him that, unless he leaves all these things, he is going to leave Christ—will rather lay hold of a tower of strength against the face of the enemy (Ps 61:3 (60:4)): because, when he built it on his faith, he computed the cost by which it could be completed, that is, he came to the faith with this mind, that he might renounce this world not only in words; for even if he bought something, he was as one not possessing, and if he used this world, he was as one not using it, not hoping in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God.

4. 34. For since everyone who renounces this world doubtless renounces all that is his, in order to be able to be Christ's disciple (for he himself, when he had set forth the parables about the cost necessary for building a tower and about preparing for war against another king, added thus: Whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple (Lk 14:33)), surely he renounces also his riches, if he has any—either so that, in no way loving them, he distributes them all to the needy and unburdens himself of superfluous loads; or so that, loving Christ more, he transfers his hope from them to him, and so uses them that, giving readily and sharing, he lays up treasure in heaven; and is prepared, just as parents and children and brothers and wife, in this way also to leave these things, if such a condition is set that he cannot have them except by leaving Christ. For if he renounces this world otherwise, when he comes to the sacrament of faith, he does what blessed Cyprian laments concerning the lapsed, saying: Renouncing the world in words only, and not in deeds. For of this it is said, when, a temptation coming, he fears to lose these things more than to deny Christ: Behold a man who began to build and could not finish (Lk 14:30). He is also the one who, while his adversary was still far off, sent envoys seeking peace; that is, while temptation was not yet afflicting, but still threatening and menacing, in order not to be without those things which he loves more, he consents to leave Christ and deny him. And there are many such, who even think that the Christian religion ought to favor them for increasing their wealth and multiplying earthly delights.

4. 35. But such are not the rich Christians who, although they hold these things, are nevertheless not so held by them as to prefer them to Christ; for with a truthful heart they have renounced the world, so as to place no hope in such things. These instruct their wives and children and whole households with sound discipline to hold the Christian religion. Their houses, fervent with hospitality, receive the righteous man in the name of a righteous man, that they may receive a righteous man's reward (Mt 10:41). They break their bread to the hungry, clothe the naked, redeem the captive, lay up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of the true life (1 Tim 6:19). And if perhaps for the faith of Christ monetary losses must be endured, they hate their riches; if this world threatens the bereavement or separation of their loved ones for Christ's sake, they hate parents, brothers, children, wives; and finally, if they must bargain with the adversary over the very life of this body, lest, being abandoned, Christ abandon them, they hate their own soul as well. For of all these they have received a commandment, that otherwise they cannot be disciples of Christ.

4. 36. And yet, because it is commanded them to hate even their own souls for Christ, they do not have them to be sold, or to be poured out by laying hands on themselves; but they are prepared to lose them by dying for the name of Christ, lest, by denying Christ, being dead they should live. So too their riches, which they were not prepared to sell at Christ's admonition, they ought to be prepared to lose for Christ, lest, Christ being lost, they perish together with them. From this we have rich men and women, and most illustrious persons, raised on high by the glory of martyrdom. Thus many who were reluctant to be perfected beforehand by the sale of their goods, were suddenly perfected by imitating the passion of Christ; and those who had wrought some weakness of flesh and blood with their riches suddenly strove against sin, for the faith, even unto blood. But those to whom the crown of martyrdom did not come, and who did not receive that so great and so splendid counsel of perfection about selling their goods, and yet, free from damnable crimes, fed the hungry Christ, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, took in the stranger—these will not indeed sit with Christ as those who will judge on high, but will stand at his right hand to be mercifully judged. For blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them (Mt 5:7). And judgment without mercy will be done to him who has not done mercy: but mercy triumphs over judgment (Jas 2:13).

4. 37. Accordingly, let these people cease to speak against the Scriptures, and in their exhortations to greater things, let them so stir men up that they do not condemn the lesser. For surely they cannot persuade to holy virginity by exhortation in any other way than by condemning the bonds of marriage, when, as the Apostle teaches, each one has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that (1 Cor 7:7)? Let them, then, walk the way of perfection, having sold all their goods and mercifully distributed them. But if they are truly Christ's poor, and gather not for themselves but for Christ, why do they punish his weaker members before they have received the judgment seats? For if they are to be such as those to whom the Lord says, You shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Mt 19:28), and such as those of whom the Apostle says, Do you not know that we shall judge angels? (1 Cor 6:3), let them rather prepare themselves to receive into the eternal dwellings not criminal but religious rich men, by whom they have been made friends from the mammon of iniquity (Lk 16:9). For I think that some of those who chatter these things shamelessly and imprudently are supported in their necessities by rich and pious Christians. For the Church has, as it were, her soldiers, and, as it were, her provincials: whence the Apostle says, Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? She has also a vineyard and planters, she has a flock and shepherds: whence he says accordingly, Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who feeds a flock and does not partake of its milk? (1 Cor 9:7) Although to dispute such things as these people dispute is not to be a soldier, but to rebel; not to plant a vineyard, but to root it up; not to gather those to be fed, but to separate from the flock those to be lost.

4. 38. But just as those very men who are fed and clothed by the religious services of the rich (for they receive nothing for their needs except from those who sell their goods) are nevertheless not judged and condemned by the more excellent members of Christ, who, with a greater virtue which the Apostle much commends, support themselves with their own hands: so neither ought these people to condemn Christians of lesser merit, by whose means they are supported; but rather, by living rightly and teaching rightly, to say to them: If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things? (1 Cor 9:11) For with much less shamelessness do the servants of God who live by selling the honest works of their hands condemn these people, from whom they receive nothing, than these people, who, unable to work with their hands because of some bodily weakness, condemn the very ones by whose means they live.

4. 39. I who write these things vehemently loved the perfection of which the Lord spoke when he said to the rich young man, Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me (Mt 19:21), and I did so not by my own strength, but with his grace helping. For not because I was not rich will it therefore be imputed less to me: for not even the apostles themselves, who did this first, were rich. But he leaves the whole world who leaves both what he has and what he wishes to have. But how much I have advanced in this way of perfection, I myself know better than any other man; but God knows better than I. And to this purpose I exhort others with all the strength I can, and in the name of the Lord I have companions to whom this has been persuaded through my ministry: yet in such a way that above all sound doctrine is held, and we do not by vain defiance judge those who do not do these things, telling them that it profits them nothing that they live chastely, though in marriage, that they govern their households and families in a Christian manner, that by works of mercy they lay up treasure for themselves for the future; lest, by disputing these things, we be found not expounders of the holy Scriptures, but their accusers. This I have mentioned because these people, when they are forbidden to say such things by those who have not received this counsel of the Lord, answer that those are unwilling to have such things disputed because they favor their own vices and refuse to fulfill the Lord's precepts: as if—to say nothing of those who, though weaker, nevertheless use riches religiously—even the greedy and avaricious themselves, using these things badly and fixing their muddy heart on earthly treasure, since the Church must necessarily carry these too until the end, just as those nets carry the bad fish to the shore, are not more tolerable in her than these people, who, by talking and disseminating such things, so wish to seem great—because they have sold their riches, or however small their patrimonies, at the Lord's command—that they strive by this unsound doctrine to disturb and overturn his inheritance, which is spread and diffused even to the ends of the earth.

5. 40. Hence, since on this occasion, but yet now briefly, I have said what I also think about the Church of Christ in this world—that is, that until the end of this world it must necessarily carry both good and bad, since you asked this too among your questions—I will at last at some point conclude this lengthy letter. Avoid swearing as much as you can. For it is better not to swear even what is true, since by the habit of swearing one both often falls into perjury and is always near to perjury. But these people, as far as I have heard some of them, are wholly ignorant of what it is to swear: for they think they are not swearing when they have in their mouth, God knows; and, God is witness; and, I call God to witness against my soul; because it is not said, By God, and because such things are found in the apostle Paul. But there too is found against them what they confess to be an oath, where the Apostle says: I die daily, by your glory, brethren, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord (1 Cor 15:31). For in the Greek manuscripts it is found that this is indeed an oath: lest anyone in the Latin tongue understand it said, by your glory, as it is said, by my coming again to you, and many similar things, where it is said, by something, and it is not an oath. But not because the Apostle, a man most firm in the truth, swore in his letters, ought swearing to be a sport to us. For it is much safer, as I have said, as far as concerns us, never to swear; so that there may be in our mouth, Yes, yes; no, no (Mt 5:37), as the Lord admonishes. Not because it is a sin to swear what is true, but because it is a most grave sin to swear falsely; into which he falls the sooner who is accustomed to swear.

5. 41. You have received what seems to me; let better men expound these things better—not these people, whose opinion I now know is to be rejected, but others who can truly do so. For I too am more ready to learn than to teach; and you will confer a great benefit if you do not let me remain ignorant of the things that are there disputed by the holy brothers against the empty talk of these people. May you live rightly and faithfully in the Lord, most beloved son.

LETTER 158
To the venerable and most beloved brother and fellow priest Augustine, and to the brothers who are with you, from Evodius and the brothers who are with me, greetings in the Lord.

1. I demand the debt of the letter I sent; and I first wished to learn that which I asked, and afterward to inquire into this. Hear the matter, since you deign to, which made me impatient, so that I hastened to know this too, if it can be done, in this life. I had a certain boy as a notary, the son of Melonius, a presbyter of Armenia: this boy, as he was already plunging himself into the world—for a clerk of the proconsul was taking him up—God plucked out through my lowliness. He was indeed, as boyhood has it, quick, somewhat restless, and as his age advanced (for he died in his twenty-second year), the gravity of his character and a good guardian, a good life, so adorned him that it is quite a delight to keep his memory. He was diligent in shorthand and laborious in writing well, and he had also begun to be devoted to reading, so that he himself would exhort my slowness, for the sake of reading, in the night hours; for at some hours of the night he himself would read to me, when all had fallen silent: nor would he pass over a reading unless he had understood it, and he would repeat it a third and a fourth time, and would not let it go until what he sought had appeared to him. I had begun to hold him not as a boy and notary, but as a friend rather necessary and pleasant to me. For his conversations delighted me.

2. He also longed, which was granted him, to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil 1:23). For he was sick for sixteen days at his parents' home, and by the force of his memory he spoke of the Scriptures during almost his whole illness. But as he began to be near the end of life, he sang in the hearing of all: My soul longs and hastens toward the courts of God (Ps 84:2 (83:3)); and after this he sang again: You have anointed my head with oil; and how excellent is your inebriating cup! (Ps 23:5 (22:5)) There he was occupied; with this consolation he was delighting himself. Then, when he began to be dissolved, he began to sign himself on the forehead, in such a way that his hand thus came down to the mouth which he desired to sign, when now the inner man, well renewed from day to day, had left the house of clay. So great a joy grew in me that I think that, having left his own body, he entered into my mind, and there bestows on me a certain brightness of his presence, because I rejoice exceedingly at his liberation and security; it cannot be told. For I bore for him no light anxiety, fearing for the youth's age. For I took care to ask of him whether perhaps he had been polluted by contact with a woman: he testified that he was free, all the more that our joy might be heaped up. He was dissolved, then. We gave him quite honorable funeral rites, worthy of so great a soul; for through three days we praised the Lord with hymns over his tomb, and on the third day we offered the sacraments of redemption.

3. But behold, after two days a certain respectable widow, Urbica of Figentes, who said that she had been a widow for twelve years, a handmaid of God, saw such a dream. She sees a certain deacon, stripped of his body four years before, with the servants and handmaids of God, virgins and widows, preparing a palace. It was being adorned in such a way that the brightness of the place shone, and the whole place seemed to be of silver. When she had inquired rather earnestly for whom this was being prepared, that deacon answered that it was being prepared for the boy who was carried off yesterday, the son of the presbyter. And in that same palace a certain old man dressed in white appeared, who ordered two men dressed in white to go and lift the body, taken from the tomb, up to heaven. And when, she says, the body had been taken from the tomb and lifted up to heaven, branches of roses, of the virgins (for so the cloistered ones are usually called), rose up from that same tomb.

4. I have narrated what happened. Now deign to hear the question, and teach what I ask. For the passing of this soul compels me to inquire into such things. While we are in the body, we have an inner sense, skillful in proportion to the agility of our zeal; and the more zealous we are, the more vigilant and fervent it is, and it seems probable that we are still held back by the impediment of the body. But who could tell all that the mind suffers from the body? Amid these disturbances and troubles, coming from suggestions, from temptations, from necessities, and from various calamities, the mind does not desert its fortitude: it resists, it conquers; sometimes it is conquered. Yet, since it remembers itself, it is made more agile and more anxious, roused by such great labors, and it breaks whatever knots of malice there are, and passes over to better things. What I mean, your holiness deigns to understand. Therefore, while we are in this life, we are hindered by such wants, and yet, as it is written, we more than conquer through him who loved us (Rom 8:37). Going out of the body, and escaping every burden and the easily besetting sin, who are we?

5. And first I ask whether there is some body which does not desert the incorporeal thing, that is, the substance of the soul itself, when it has left this earthly body—lest perhaps it be one of the four, either airy or ethereal. For since the soul is incorporeal, if it lacks every body, it is now one for all. And where will that rich man clothed in purple be, and the wounded Lazarus? How, too, will they be distinguished by their merits, so that the one has punishment and the other joy, if the soul appears as one out of all the incorporeal ones—if, that is, those things were not signified figuratively? But it is certain that things held in places are held by bodies, like that rich man in the flame and that poor man in the bosom of Abraham. If there are places, there are bodies, and in the bodies there are souls; or, if they are incorporeal, the punishments or rewards are in the consciences. Whether this one soul, made out of many souls, is afflicted and rejoices in one, so that a substance gathered out of many souls may appear; or whether this is said in the way that the incorporeal mind is one thing, and in it there is memory, and will, and understanding, and all these incorporeal causes have a fitting portion of their offices, and yet one does not impede another. In any case I think it can be answered that some are accompanied by punishment, and some by rewards, in one substance gathered out of many souls.

6. Or if it is not so, what hinders it, if each mind, when it lacks this solid body, has another body, so that the mind itself always animates some body; or to what does it make its passage, if there is any region to which necessity compels it to go? Since even the angels themselves cannot be called many if they are not numbered by bodies, as the Truth itself says in the Gospel: I could ask my Father, that he would send me twelve legions of angels (Mt 26:53). Then, since it is established that Samuel was seen in a body when he was roused at Saul's request, and that Moses, whose body was buried according to the Gospel, plainly came in a body to the Lord on the mountain when they stood together. Although in the apocrypha too, and in the secret writings of Moses himself, which lack scriptural authority, then when he went up the mountain to die, by the force of the body it is brought about that one thing was committed to the earth, another joined to the accompanying angel. But it does not press me enough to prefer the opinion of the apocrypha to those higher matters already settled. We must see, then, and trace out, whether by authority or by reason, what is sought. But it is said that the future resurrection shows that the soul has lacked every body. Nor does this hinder enough, since those angels, who are even invisible, when they wished to appear with bodies and to be seen—whatever that disposition of bodies may be, worthy of their spirits—nevertheless appeared to Abraham and to Tobit. So it can come about that, while the resurrection of this flesh, which is rightly believed to be future, takes place, the soul is nevertheless so restored that it is found never to have lacked some body. For since the body itself consists of the four elements, it seems to lose one, namely the hot, when it seems to migrate from this body. For what is earthly remains, and the moisture is not lacking; nor is the element of cold matter absent: only the hot is taken from it; which perhaps the mind itself draws with it, if it migrates from place to place. This I have said for now about the body.

7. It also seems to me that, if, placed in a vigorous body, as I have already said, it uses a strenuous intention of the mind, how much more, when set free, will it be agile, vigorous, fervent, strenuous, intent, and become more capacious and better—seeing that, while placed in the body, it had a taste of its power! Once that is laid aside, with the cloud also wiped away, it is made wholly serene, placed in tranquility without temptation; let it see what it has desired, let it embrace what it has loved. Let it remember its friends too, and recognize both those it had already sent ahead and those it left behind it: perhaps it is so; I do not know, I seek to learn. But it disturbs me enough, if the mind itself receives a certain drowsiness, lest it be such as when it sleeps while placed in the body, as if buried, and living only in hope, but otherwise having nothing, knowing nothing—especially if it is stirred by no dream. This thing terrifies me greatly, and seems to indicate that the mind is, as it were, extinguished.

8. This too I ask: if it should be found to have a body, whether it is also not without some sense? Certainly, if no necessity of smelling can be brought to bear on it, as I think, nor of tasting, nor even of touching, I am in doubt whether seeing and hearing remain. For what is it that demons are said to hear—not in all whom they vex, for there too is a question, but even when they appear in their own bodies? And as for sight, how do they pass from place to place, if they have a body, if they lack a visible sense as guide? Do you think that human souls are not so, when they go out of bodies, that they both have some body and are not without some sense? And what is that, too, that very many of the dead have been seen entering houses, as they were accustomed, either by day or by night, by those keeping watch, by those walking about? I have not heard this only once; and what is very often said to happen in some part of the night, in places where bodies are buried, and especially in the basilicas—that tumults and prayers occur. For I do not remember having heard this from one person only; for a witness of that vision is a certain holy presbyter, who noticed a multitude of such persons going out of the baptistery in luminous bodies, and afterward prayers in the middle of the church itself. All these things, then, either favor our inquiry, or, if they are tales, it is astonishing: yet I would like to know something from this matter, because they come, and visit, and are seen, apart from dreams.

9. From these another question arises. For I am not now concerned with the phantasm which the uneducated heart fashions for itself: I speak of visitations. As Joseph appeared through a dream, as very many have been visited. So, then, even our own whom we have sent ahead sometimes come, themselves appear through a dream, and speak. For I myself remember that Profuturus, and Privatus, and Servilius, holy men whom I remember to have gone before us from the monastery, spoke to me, and it came to pass as they said. Or if there is some better spirit which assumes their figure and visits the mind, let him see to it to whom all things are bare from the highest height. If, then, the Lord deigns to speak to your holiness through reason anything about all these things, I ask that you would deign to make me a sharer in this knowledge. But I did not wish to pass over this too; for perhaps it pertains to my inquiry.

10. The boy himself who is in question, at the time when he was being released, in a way set forth, proceeds. For there seemed to come, through a dream, his fellow student and fellow reader, with whom I used to take down notes, who had already been removed from the body eight months before. When he was asked by the one who then beheld him why he had come, he said: I have come to lead this friend of mine. And so it came to pass. For in that very house, to a certain old man almost awake, there appeared a man carrying a laurel in his hand, written upon. But when he was seen, there is added still further that, after the boy's departure, his father the presbyter had begun to be in the monastery with old Theasius for the sake of consoling themselves; but on the third day after the boy's death, that same boy seemed to enter the monastery, and was asked by a certain brother through a dream whether he knew that he had died. He said that he knew. Whether he had been received by God? And this too he reported about himself with great rejoicing. And when the reason was asked why he had come, he then said: I have been sent to fetch my father. The one to whom these things were shown wakes, and tells it. It reached even to the ear of bishop Theasius. He, much moved, rebuked the man who told it, lest it easily reach the ear of the presbyter and he be disturbed by such a message. Why prolong it? After perhaps four days, while he is speaking of the visitation—for he had felt a slight fever, there was no danger, the physician was away, who testified that there was utterly no cause for concern—but when he reclined on his bed, that same presbyter was released. Nor do I keep silent that on this very day on which the boy was being released, he asked his father for the kiss of peace, and asked a third time, and at each kiss said to his father, Father, let us give thanks to God; and he urged his father to say it together with him, as if exhorting his companion to migrate from this life. For between the two there are counted seven intervening days. What will come of such great matters? Who will be the most faithful teacher of these hidden causes? The fever of my heart pours itself back upon you in the time of distress. The dispensation of the boy's departure, and of his father's, is manifest, since two sparrows will not fall to the ground without the will of the Father (Mt 10:29).

11. That the soul therefore cannot be utterly without every body is shown, as I think, by this: that God alone is always without every body. But that the soul, which I judge will be the more vigilant after its passing, is shown by the laying aside of so great a corporeal mass; for then, expedited in action and in cognition from so great a bond, it appears, as I think, more excellent, and all that spiritual rest shows it free from all disturbances and errors, not withered, and as it were sluggish, and torpid, and entangled: indeed it suffices it to enjoy fully even that very freedom which it has attained, when it lacks the world and the body; for you prudently said that the understanding is fed by these things, and sets a spiritual mouth to the fountain of life, where it is happy and blessed in the property of its own mind. For once, while still placed in the monastery, I saw brother Servilius through a dream after his departure, who said that we, through reason, labor to tend toward understanding, but that he and such as he remain in the very delight of contemplation.

12. I ask too that you would show me in how many ways wisdom is spoken of: as God is wisdom, as a wise mind is wisdom—how it is said as light, as the wisdom of Bezalel who built the Tabernacle, or as a perfumer's skill, as the wisdom of Solomon, or if there is any other, and how they differ from one another: and whether that one eternal wisdom with the Father is to be understood in these grades, in the way that the various gifts are spoken of of the Holy Spirit, who divides to each his own as he wills (1 Cor 12:11). Or is it that, apart from that one wisdom alone which was not made, these were made and have their own substance? Or were they brought into effect and received from the definition of the work? I inquire into many things; may the Lord give you both the grace of finding, and the wisdom of dictating, and of writing to us speedily. I have written unskillfully and rustically; but because you deign to know what I ask, I beseech you through Christ the Lord that you correct me in these things, and teach what you understand that I desire to know.

LETTER 159
To the most blessed lord, and venerable and longed-for brother and my fellow priest Evodius, and to the brothers with you, from Augustine, and the brothers with me, greetings in the Lord.

1. This brother named Barbarus is a servant of God, established now for a long time at Hippo, and a fervent and zealous hearer of the word of God. He desired a letter from us to your holiness; in which we commend him to you in the Lord, and through him send you the greeting due. But to answer the letters of your holiness, in which you have woven enormous questions, is a most laborious task even for men at leisure and endowed with a far greater capacity for discussion and acuteness of understanding than we are. Of your two letters, indeed, in which you inquire into many great things, one somehow went astray, and though long sought could not be found; but the other, which was found, contains a most sweet commendation of a servant of God, a good and chaste young man—how he migrated from this life, and by what attestations of fraternal visions his merit could be made known to you. Then, from this occasion, you set forth and turn over a most obscure question about the soul: whether it goes out of the body with some body, by which it can be carried to corporeal places, or be contained in corporeal places. The treatment of this matter, then, if indeed it can be examined to clarity by such men as we are, demands a most busy care and effort, and through this a mind most free from these occupations. But if you wish briefly to hear what seems to me, I in no way judge that the soul goes out of the body with a body.

2. But how those visions and predictions of future things come about, let him now try to explain who knows by what power such great things are wrought in each mind when it thinks. For we see, and plainly perceive, that in it there come to be innumerable images of many visible things, and of things pertaining to the other senses of the body: and it makes no difference how orderly or confused they are, but only that they are, which is manifest. Whoever can explain by what power and how they come to be (all of which are certainly daily and continuous), let him dare to presume something and to define even concerning those rarest of visions. But I dare this so much the less, the less I am able to explain how that too comes about which, waking and sleeping, we experience as a continuous fact of life. While I was dictating this letter to you, was I not beholding you yourself in my mind, you being of course absent and unaware, and imagining, according to the knowledge I have of you, how you might be moved by these words? And in what way this came to be in my mind, I could not grasp or investigate; yet certain that it did not come to be by corporeal masses, nor by corporeal qualities, although it came to be most like a body. Hold this for now, as dictated by one occupied and hastening. But in the twelfth book of those that I wrote on Genesis, this question is treated vigorously, and from many examples of things experienced and credibly heard, that discussion grows into a forest. What we have been able to do or accomplish in it, you will judge when you read it; if, that is, the Lord deigns to grant that I may now publish those books, emended as fittingly as I can, and no longer keep the expectation of many brothers in suspense by a long discussion.

3. But I will briefly narrate one thing, from which you may reflect. Our brother Gennadius, known to almost everyone, and a physician most dear to us, who now lives at Carthage and at Rome was preeminent in the practice of his art—as you know him, a religious man, and most kindly toward the care of the poor with tireless mercy and a most ready heart—nevertheless once doubted, as he recently told us, when he was still a young man and most fervent in these almsgivings, whether there was any life after death. Since, then, God would in no way desert his mind and his works of mercy, there appeared to him in sleep a young man conspicuous and worthy of attention, who said to him: Follow me. While he followed him, he came to a certain city, where he began to hear, on the right side, the sounds of a most sweet song, beyond the usual and familiar sweetness; then, when he was intent on what it was, the youth said that these were the hymns of the blessed and the saints. But what he reported having seen on the left side, I do not remember well enough. He woke, and the dream fled, and he thought of it only as much as one thinks of a dream.

4. But on another night, behold, that same youth appeared to him again, and asked whether he was recognized: he answered that he recognized him well and plainly. Then the youth asked where he knew him. Nor did it escape his memory what he repeatedly answered; and he narrated that whole vision, and the hymns of the saints which he had come, with the youth as guide, to hear, with the ease of one recalling the freshest things. Here the youth asked whether what he had narrated he had seen in sleep or waking: he answered, in sleep. But the youth said: You recall well; it is true, you saw those things in sleep; but know that even now you are seeing me in sleep. When he had heard this, he believed it to be so, and confirmed it by his answer. Then the one who was teaching the man added and said: Where is your body now? He answered: In my bedroom. Do you know, said the youth, that your eyes in that same little body are now bound, and closed, and at rest, and that you see nothing with those eyes? He answered: I know. Then the youth said: What, then, are these eyes by which you see me? At this, finding nothing to answer, he fell silent. To him, hesitating, the youth disclosed what he was striving to teach by these questions; and at once said: Just as those eyes of your flesh, while you sleep and lie on your bed, are now idle and do nothing, and yet there are these by which you behold me and use this vision, so when you are dead, while the eyes of your flesh do nothing, there will be in you a life by which you live, and a sense by which you perceive. Beware henceforth lest you doubt that life remains after death. So the faithful man says that the doubt about this matter was taken from him: by whose teaching, except by the providence and mercy of God?

5. By this narration someone might say that we have not loosed the question of so great a matter, but bound it. Nevertheless, since it is free to each to believe or not to believe these words, each has himself, to which he may call himself away to the most profound question. A man wakes, and a man sleeps daily, and a man thinks: let him say whence come those things like the forms, like the qualities, like the motions of bodies, and yet not of corporeal matter; let him say if he can. But if he cannot, why does he hurl himself, concerning the rarest or untried things, to bring forward as it were a settled opinion, when he does not loose the continuous and daily ones? But I, although I cannot at all explain in words how those, as it were, corporeal things come to be without a body, nevertheless, just as I know that they do not come to be by a body—would that I likewise knew how to distinguish the things which are sometimes seen through the spirit, and are thought to be seen through the body; or in what way the visions of those whom error or impiety very often deludes are to be distinguished, when very many things are narrated like the visions of the pious and the holy! If I had wished to recall examples of these, time rather than abundance would have failed me. May you be made vigorous in the mercy of the Lord, most blessed lord, and venerable and longed-for brother.

LETTER 160
Evodius to bishop Augustine, greetings.

1. Perfect is that reason which furnishes the knowledge of all things, and especially of the eternal things that are grasped by the understanding: that this reason is eternal, and ought to have been eternal; that what neither began, nor is changed, nor is varied is eternal—reason itself teaches and shows; and reason must be eternal, not only because it teaches and demonstrates eternal things, but much more because eternity itself cannot be without reason; since, I think, there would be no eternity if reason itself had not been eternal. Then, that God is, or ought to have been, and ought to come about in no other way than that God should be, reason demonstrates. And whether or not there were those who knew this, nevertheless, since God is eternal, it must not be doubted that the reason is eternal which would maintain that God ought to be, and so that it would show itself to be coeternal with him.

2. But there are certain things which are compelled by reason to be, so that the reason is prior, and the effect of that thing which reason shows is to be is posterior: as, for example, when the world was made, reason had it that the world should be made. Reason, therefore, is prior to the world. Those things, then, which reason knew were to be, followed after, so that reason is first, and afterward the working of the world. Now, then, since reason shows that God is, or that it is necessary that God should be, which shall we set before which? Reason before God, or reason before the world, or God before reason, without which it is probable that God in no way is? For if to be eternal is, for God, to be eternal by reason, what is reason? Therefore it is either God, or of God, as reason itself teaches: and if it is itself God, reason shows that God is reason, and these can be coeval and coeternal. But if this reason is the likeness of God, it shows likewise that the reason is of God: and this will be coeval and coeternal. But that God could likewise not be unless God were, reason itself shows: and if this reason be taken away, which it is wicked to say, God will not be, if reason did not show that God is necessary. Then, therefore, God is, when his reason shows that God is. God therefore is, because he is: without doubt there is reason which taught that he is.

3. What, then, is first in God, if it can be said—reason, or God? But God will not be unless there were the reason that teaches that God ought to be. Reason too will not be unless God will be. There is therefore nothing first and last there. This divine nature, then, in a way has reason and God at once. But one begets one, either reason God, or God reason. But let reason and God be called perhaps the subject, or in the subject. God and reason are one in one. But God rightly begets reason, since reason demonstrates that God is. And God is understood by reason as the Son by the Father, and reason by God as the Father by the Son. For reason itself with God is God. For God never was without reason, nor reason without God. For then God is, if reason is; and then the Son is, if the Father is; so that if reason be taken away—as has been said, which it is not lawful to say—not even God himself is: for by his reason there is act and operation, so that he is God. Again, let us say the same things. If reason was not, God was not; and if God is not, reason was not. Reason therefore and God are an everlasting thing; and God and reason in a like way are an everlasting thing. But the connection and union of reason to God, and of God to reason, of the Father to the Son, of the Son to the Father, furnish each other, in a way, beginnings and causes of existing; since the one cannot be without the other. We fail in words, and whatever is said is said for this: that there not be silence. But shall we call God the seed of reason, or reason the seed of God? Since neither can fruit be without a root, nor is a root anything without fruit. (Let the likeness be drawn, so that something of understanding about God may be marked: for in a grain of wheat too there lives a fructifying reason, by which it is not allowed to be barren; but again, if there were no grain of wheat, reason would have nothing from which it might produce these things.)

4. Since, therefore, the reason which is God either shows God to be reason, or reason to be God, in a way showing the one by the other; the Father is not shown except through the Son, nor is the Son shown except through the Father; and then the Son is as it were in silence, when through the Father one comes to the Son, so that the one is in a way hidden, the other demonstrated: so that the one, demonstrating himself, demonstrates also the other, and the one cannot be known so that the other lies hidden; because, He who has seen me, he says, has seen the Father also (Jn 14:9); and, No one comes to the Father except through me (Jn 14:6); and, No one comes to me unless the Father has drawn him (Jn 6:44). We have entered upon an arduous and exceedingly difficult business, that we might understand something of God which we do not understand. Nevertheless, just as all things that are are not understood and are unknowable without some form, so much more without the Son, that is, without reason, is God unknown. For what? Was the Father ever without reason, irrational? Who would dare to say this? Therefore God is to be known by reason, one from one, or one in one to be at once one: because God is one, in whom must necessarily be that love which reason itself teaches must always be had, or which God commands must be shown.

LETTER 161
To the holy lord, brother to be venerably beloved and fellow priest Augustine, and to the brothers who are with you, from Evodius and the brothers who are with me, greetings in the Lord.

1. Through Jobinus, who had been sent to the estate of Marcianum, I some time ago, by a letter sent, asked one question about reason and God, of which I have not yet deserved an answer. But because we had in our hands, reading them, the letters of your holiness, one to the illustrious man Volusianus and another to Italica, an illustrious woman in Christ, it occurred to me that, in the earlier letter, concerning the carnal conception of our Lord Jesus Christ our God in the Virgin, and the nativity from her, you set down, "If a reason is sought, it will not be marvelous; if an example is demanded, it will not be unique"; and it seemed that something of the kind could be said about every nativity, whether of a man, or of any living thing, or of a seed. For if the reason for it be sought, it will not be traced out, and it will surely be marvelous; and if an example be demanded, since there is nothing of the kind among examples, it will be unique. For neither can any union of man and woman, or of any conception at any time—what is formed in secret—be set forth by reason; nor indeed will any reason be found of the seeds born from the earth, first rotting, afterward bearing fruit. For is it not marvelous too that a single worm, without any parent—if something be sought for uniqueness—is found perfect, formed by virginal conception inside an apple? Whence I think it was said as an example: I am a worm, and not a man (Ps 22:6 (21:7)). Of conceptions, then, whether of joined or of single beings, I do not know what reason could be furnished. Not only of the conception of the Virgin, then, is no reason rendered, but I think a reason can be supplied of no conception whatever.

2. If an example is demanded: behold, mares are said to conceive from the wind, and hens from ashes, and ducks from water, and some other animals to bring forth their own offspring without male seed. Certainly, if they do not bring them forth whole, yet they can conceive unimpaired: how, then, is it set down, "If an example is demanded, it will not be unique," when so many examples come forth? It is known to all that certain animals are born within bodies—not only of females, but even of men, I mean internally: is it that there too the seed makes the conception? Behold examples, behold marvels, of which no reason at all is rendered. Or if to this it is answered that in a virgin human being nothing of the kind ever happens, yet there are examples in other natures of things, since things born are also conceived without seeds, of which a reason can by no means be rendered at all. Yet even in generation it is possible to find something of this kind, which so brings forth offspring that the integrity of the nature is not violated. For I am wont to hear that the spider, without any male conception and without corruption of the bringing-forth, produces marvelously, according to the manner of its nature, all those threads from which, when they are stretched out, it is wont to hang, and shows that this has been granted to it alone, as it were as something unique. Therefore, if this too be sought, it is not only marvelous, but such examples of things can by no means be given. For I fear lest for this reason these things have come first among examples: so that those who would not have believed that a virgin could conceive might by these examples be convinced that it is indeed marvelous, but yet will not be unique: for all the works of God are marvelous, since they were made in wisdom. If, then, this is cast at us, what shall we answer?

3. This too presses me most vehemently, that the same can be said of the substance of the Lord's own glorified body: that it too could see the substance of God (for you said in the letter to Italica that it cannot, and it is certain): so that when we begin to render a reason why it cannot, this is cast at us—that if what was done in that conception and nativity is marvelous and unique, and they wish no reason and no example to be sought, since this was granted to one alone: so that, just as no reason is rendered to them about the conception and generation, but it is found unique in him alone, so about his vision no reason should be rendered nor any example required, but that it should be permitted to him alone, uniquely, to see the substance of the divinity with the body. If it be answered that a reason can be rendered, because a corporeal thing can by no means behold an incorporeal thing, I fear it may be answered that that conception too can be set forth by reason and confirmed by examples. For either reason will fail among men, and examples will cease, and they will confirm that the Only-begotten can be seen by his body to be God; or, if a reason be rendered here, it will follow that a reason can be rendered by certain too-clever men of that conception too, and of the generation that followed. What, then, is to be answered to such men, I inquire. For I do not sow contentions, but I ask how the insidious are to be answered. I, however, so believe the conception and bringing-forth of the Virgin as I have always believed; and that God cannot be seen even by the glorified body, I in any case gather by reason. Yet I think we must withstand men who are wont either to stir up seditions out of questions, or with fervent zeal to be awake to learning. Pray for us. May the peace and love of Christ make your holiness mindful of us, holy lord, and venerably most blessed brother.

LETTER 162
To the most blessed lord, and venerable brother and fellow bishop, holy Evodius, and to the brothers with you, from Augustine, and the brothers with me, greetings in the Lord.

1. You ask many things of a man much occupied; and, what is more serious, you think that those things ought to be hurried out by dictating which are so difficult that, even dictated or written with great diligence, they can scarcely be brought to the understanding even of such men as you yourself are. To this is added that not only you and such as you are to be reckoned as going to read what we write, but surely also those who, endowed with a less keen and less exercised mind, are nevertheless borne by such zeal to come to know our writings—whether with a friendly or a hostile mind—that they cannot be withheld from them at all. Considering this, you see how great care there ought to be in writing, especially about things so great that even great men labor over them. But if, when I have something in hand, it must be set aside and deferred so that answer may rather be made to the things that come up demanding it, what will happen if, even while these are being answered, others come up? Is it your pleasure that, even these being omitted, those be taken up, and that the later things which arise always become the prior ones, and that those alone get to be completed in which, while they are being written, nothing came up to be inquired into? Which, that it should happen to me, is most difficult; but I do not think this pleases you. I ought not, then, to have interrupted other things when yours came up, just as I ought not yours, if others again should rush in; and yet I am not permitted to keep this justice. For behold, in order to write back to you these very things by which I might admonish you of it, I set aside what I was doing, and turned my mind to this letter from another great intention.

2. But it was easy, as I think, to send back to you this excuse, not an unjust one, put into a letter; but to answer your inquiries is not so easy: and I think that, in the very little works which now hold me most intent, there will not be lacking certain places where I may unfold these very things which you ask, if the Lord favors. Already, too, of those questions which you just now sent, many are solved in the books I have not yet published, whether on the Trinity or on Genesis. Although, even if you reread those things which have long been known to you—or, unless I am mistaken, were known, since you have perhaps forgotten the things I wrote while you conferred and conversed with me, whether on the Size of the Soul or on Free Will—you will find whence to dissolve your doubts, even without my help, by applying, of course, some labor of thought, so that to those things which have there been brought to clear and certain understanding the consequent things may be knit. You have also the book on True Religion, which, if you recall and examine it, it would never seem to you that God is compelled by reason to be, or that by reasoning it is brought about that God ought to be. Since, in the reasoning of numbers, which we certainly have in daily use, if we say, Seven and three ought to be ten, we speak less considerately; for they ought not to be ten, but they are ten. About what things, therefore, it is rightly said that they ought to be—whether they already are, or that they may be—we have discussed enough, as I think, in those books which I have mentioned. For a man ought to be wise, if he is, that he may remain so; if he is not yet, that he may become so: but God ought not to be wise, but is.

3. Those things too about the visions, which I most recently wrote to you, and which you recall as subtly said, but as having entangled you in greater questions—review them again and again, and think more diligently, and let it not pass over, but let your consideration dwell on them; and from there perhaps you will somehow conjecture how the soul is present or absent. For in those visions it lingers in dreams, when it is absent from the sense and presence of beholding which it offers to the eyes while waking; but this absence from the eyes—that is, as it were from the luminaries of the body—of the soul, which happens when we sleep, if a greater force should increase it, so that the whole of what is there be withdrawn, is death. As, therefore, from the sense of beholding to the visions of dreams it does not depart with some body—unless perhaps we are going to suppose that those things which are seen in dreams are corporeal, and we ourselves among them are carried this way and that with some body; which I now think does not seem so to you—so, if it be wholly withdrawn and absent, which happens in death, it must not be thought to carry off with it some body from the body. For if it carried it off, surely even when we sleep and it departs from the eyes, insofar as it leaves them, it would carry off the eyes with it, however more subtle, yet corporeal; which it does not do. Nevertheless it carries off with it certain very similar things, but not corporeal, by which it beholds in dreams very similar visions, but not themselves corporeal either.

4. Further, if anyone contends that even the visions of dreams which appear similar to bodies are nothing but corporeal, he seems to himself to say something, nor is this slowness of mind easily convinced; for it belongs to many who are even not slightly acute, since they pay too little attention to how much images of bodies avail, which come to be in the spirit, and are not at all bodies. But when they are compelled to behold them, if they rightly attend, and find that they are not corporeal but most like bodies, they are nevertheless not at once able to render a reason about them—by what causes and how they come to be, by what nature, finally, they subsist of themselves, or in what subject they are: whether they come to be in the soul as letters from ink on parchment, where both substances are present, namely the parchment and the ink; or as a seal in wax, or any figure of which the wax is the subject—the former in the subject; or whether these things come to be in our spirit in both ways, sometimes thus, sometimes thus.

5. For not only do those things move us to think of the things which are absent from the senses of the body and are found in our memory, or which we ourselves, as it pleases, make, dispose, increase, diminish, and vary by position, condition, motion, and innumerable qualities and forms. Such perhaps are also those things by which we are deluded while sleeping, when we are not divinely admonished; except that these we do willingly, those we suffer apart from our choice. Not only do these things move us, which one not absurdly thinks come to be in the soul from the soul itself (although this too by more hidden causes, by which it is brought about that this rather than that comes into the soul's view); but also what the prophet says: And the angel who spoke in me said to me (Zech 1:9). For we must not believe that voices came from without to the corporeal ears of the prophet, when he says, who spoke in me, not, to me. Were they voices made of spirit, similar to corporeal ones, such as we make when, silently within ourselves, we run through many things by memory, very often even by singing, but yet uttered by the angel suggesting them to himself? And what is written in the Gospel: Behold, an angel of God appeared to him in sleep, saying (Mt 1:20)—for how did it appear, whether an angelic body to closed eyes (for to Abraham awake they so appeared that he even perceived them by touching, when he washed their feet), or a spirit to the spirit of one sleeping in some form like a body, just as we ourselves seem to ourselves in such a figure to be moved even through places while dreaming, far otherwise than the limbs lying on the bed are moved.

6. These things, therefore, are marvelous because they have a more hidden reason than can be seen or rendered by one man to another. For these are the causes of wonder, when either the reason of any thing lies hidden, or the same thing is not usual, because it is either singular or rare. From that cause, then, of the hidden reason, I said in the letter which you recall having read, when I was answering those who deny that it should be believed that a virgin bore Christ and remained a virgin: If a reason is sought, it will not be marvelous: for this was said, not because the thing lacks reason, but because it lies hidden from those for whom God willed this to be marvelous. But from another cause of wonder, which is for this reason, because something unusual occurs, it is written of the Lord that he marveled at the faith of the centurion; for neither could the reason of any thing lie hidden from him, but the wonder was set down as praise of one whose equal had not appeared among the Hebrew people: whence the wonder itself is sufficiently set forth, when the Lord says: Amen I say to you, I have not found such faith in Israel (Mt 8:10).

7. But as to what I added in that same letter: If an example is demanded, it will not be unique; in vain did you seem to yourself to have found, as it were, examples about the little worm that is born in an apple, and the spider that brings forth the thread of its weaving as it were from an intact body. For some things are said cleverly for the sake of a certain likeness, others more remotely, others more fittingly; but Christ alone was born of a virgin: whence you now understand, as I judge, why I said that this is without an example. All things, then, have their causes and their right and blameless reasons, which God works, whether usual or unusual. But when these causes and reasons lie hidden, we marvel at the things that come to be; but when they are open, we say accordingly that they come to be fittingly, and that there is nothing to wonder at, because the things have been done which reason required to be done. Or, if we marvel, we marvel not by being stupefied at unexpected things, but by praising the excellent: by which kind of wonder that centurion was praised. Nor for this reason is the sentence to be blamed in which it was said: If a reason is sought, it will not be marvelous; since there is another kind of wonder, even when the reason is manifest to the one wondering: for not on that account is the sentence blamed in which it was said: God tempts no one (Jas 1:13), since there is another kind of temptation, on account of which it was rightly said likewise: The Lord your God tempts you (Deut 13:3).

8. Nor let anyone suppose that for this reason it can rightly be said that the Father is seen by the Son with corporeal eyes, and not rather as the Son by the Father, because those who think this, when they have failed in rendering a reason, can themselves too say: "If a reason is sought, it will not be marvelous": for this was said, not because there is no reason, but because it lies hidden. But of that—not of a miracle, but of an error—whoever undertakes to refute those who hold the opinion ought to demonstrate that there is no reason. For just as there is no reason by which the nature of God should die, or be corrupted, or sin; and when we say that God cannot do this, we do not derogate from his power, but praise his eternity and truth: so when we say that he cannot be seen by corporeal eyes, the reason does not lie hidden, but is open to those who understand well, by which it is clear that God is not a body, and that nothing can be discerned by corporeal eyes except what is discerned by the interposition of some interval; but that this can be nothing but a body, and that substance which is less in a part than in the whole; which to believe of God ought to be wicked even for those who are not yet able to understand this.

9. The reason of the various changes lies hidden; and from this is the whole forest of visible marvels: yet does it therefore lie hidden that there are bodies, that we have a body, that there is no little body, however small, which does not according to its own measure occupy space of place; nor is whole everywhere in what it occupies, but is less in a part than in the whole? Since these things do not lie hidden, to them are to be knit the consequent things—which now it is too long to do—by which it may be shown that the reason does not lie hidden, but that there is no reason at all by which it ought to be believed, or can be understood, that God, who is everywhere whole, and is not diffused through spaces of places by corporeal mass, in which he would necessarily consist of greater and lesser parts, can be discerned by corporeal eyes. Whence I would say more if I had undertaken this in this letter, into whose length I have advanced without feeling it, almost forgetting my occupations, so that perhaps, which I did not think, I have satisfied your intention, who can, when admonished by a few things, think of more that fit; but not also the intention of those into whose hands these things can come not in vain, if they be discussed more diligently and more copiously. But men labor in learning, and cannot understand brief things, do not love to read lengthy ones. They labor likewise in teaching, who in vain force both few things on the slow and many on the lazy. Send also the copy of that letter which, going astray among us, could not be found.

LETTER 163
Bishop Evodius, to bishop Augustine.

1. Some time ago I sent questions to your holiness: one about reason and God, I think through Jobinus, who serves the handmaids of God; another about the body of the Savior, of which it is estimated that it sees the substance of God. A third I now state: the rational soul which the Savior assumed along with the body—whether it is among one of those opinions which are set forth when the origin of the soul is inquired into, if it can be supported there by any truth; or whether, although it is rational, it is nevertheless not of those species which are spoken of concerning the soul of animals, but is held in another. A fourth I ask: who are those spirits of whom Peter, in his letter, sets down a testimony about the Lord, saying: Put to death in the flesh, made alive in the spirit, in which also, coming, he preached to those spirits who were in prison (1 Pet 3:18-19), and the rest; inserting this, that they were in hell, and that Christ, descending, evangelized all, and freed all from the darkness and the punishments through grace, so that from the time of the Lord's resurrection, judgment is awaited, hell being emptied. What, then, seems to your holiness in this matter, I desire to know.

LETTER 164
To the most blessed lord, brother and fellow bishop Evodius, from Augustine, greetings in the Lord.

1. 1. The question which you proposed to me from the letter of the apostle Peter is wont, as I do not think is hidden from you, to disturb us most vehemently—how those words are to be taken as spoken of hell. I therefore put the same question back to you, so that, whether you yourself are able, or you find someone who is able, you may take away the doubt from it and end my doubt. But if I am able first, when the Lord grants it, and am able to impart it to you, I will not defraud your charity: but now I will intimate what moves me there, so that, according to these things, you may either yourself think about those apostolic words, or consult whomever you find suitable.

1. 2. When he had said that Christ was put to death in the flesh, made alive in the spirit, he immediately added: in which, coming, he preached also to those spirits who were shut up in prison, who once were unbelieving, when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water (1 Pet 3:18-20): then he added and said: Which now also in a like form baptism saves you (1 Pet 3:21). It moves me, then, that if the Lord, when he died, preached among the dead to the spirits shut up in prison, what good those alone deserved that the Lord should descend to hell, who at that time were unbelieving when the ark was being built. For after the times of Noah, many thousands of so many nations, up to the passion of Christ, died, whom he could find among the dead: not, surely, of those who had believed in God, like the prophets and patriarchs of the stock of Abraham, like Noah himself before, and his whole house, which was saved through water—except perhaps one son, who was afterward reprobated; and as, besides the progeny of Jacob, there were others believing in God, like Job, like the city of Nineveh, and any others there are who either appear in the Scriptures or lie hidden in the human race: but I mean of those many thousands of men who, ignorant of God and given over to the worship of demons or images, from the times of Noah up to the passion of Christ departed from this life—whom Christ, finding them among the dead, how did he not preach to them, but only to those who in the days of Noah were unbelieving when the ark was being built? Or if he preached to all, why did Peter mention those alone, the so innumerable multitude of the rest being passed over?

2. 3. And that the Lord indeed, put to death in the flesh, came into hell, is sufficiently established. For it cannot be contradicted, either of the prophecy which said, For you will not leave my soul in hell (Ps 16:10 (15:10))—which, lest anyone dare to think otherwise, the same Peter expounds in the Acts of the Apostles—or of those words of the same Peter by which he asserts that he loosed the pains of hell, by which it was impossible for him to be held. Who, then, but an unbeliever would deny that Christ was among the dead in hell? But if it moves anyone how it is to be taken that the pains of hell were loosed by him (for he had not begun to be in them as in bonds, and so loosed them as if he had loosed the chains by which he had been bound), it is easy to understand that they were loosed as the snares of hunters can be loosed, so that they hold not; not because they held. It can also be so, that we believe him to have loosed those pains by which he himself could not be held, but by which others were held, whom he knew were to be freed.

2. 4. But who these are, it is rash to define. For if we say that absolutely all who were found there were then freed, who would not rejoice, if we could show this? Especially on account of certain men who have become familiarly known to us by their literary labor, whose eloquence and genius we admire: not only poets and orators, who in many places of their little works showed those same false gods of the Gentiles to be despised and laughed at, and sometimes even confessed one and true God, although with the rest they worshiped those superstitious things; but even those who said these things not by singing or declaiming, but by philosophizing: many too whose writings we do not have, but in whose writings we have learned of lives in a certain manner praiseworthy, so that—except for the worship of God, in which they erred, worshiping vain things which had been publicly instituted to be worshiped, and serving the creation rather than the Creator—in the rest of their morals of frugality, continence, chastity, sobriety, contempt of death for the safety of their homeland, and faith kept not only to citizens but even to enemies, they may deservedly be set forth for imitation. All which things, indeed, when they are not referred to the end of right and true piety, but to the empty pride of human praise and glory, even they themselves become in a way empty, and are rendered barren: yet by a certain quality of mind they so delight us, that we would wish those in whom they were to be freed from the torments of hell, either especially or with the rest, if human sense did not stand otherwise, and the justice of the Creator otherwise.

2. 5. Since these things are so, if the Savior loosed all from there and, as you wrote in inquiring, emptied hell, so that thenceforth the final judgment is now awaited—these are the things which in this matter not without reason move me, and which are wont meanwhile to occur to me as I think. First, by what authority that opinion is confirmed. For what is written, that at the death of Christ the pains of hell were loosed, can be understood either to pertain to him—that he loosed them, that is, made them void, so far as that he himself should not be held by them, especially since there follows, by which it was impossible for him to be held—or, if the cause is sought why he willed to come into hell, where those pains were by which he could not be held at all, since he was, as it is written, free among the dead (Ps 88:5 (87:6)), in whom the prince and ruler of death found nothing that was owed to punishment: this, namely, which is written, the pains of hell being loosed, can be taken not in all, but in certain ones, whom he judged worthy of that freeing; so that he be not thought to have descended there in vain, about to profit none of those who were there held shut up, nor yet that it should follow that what divine mercy and justice granted to certain ones should be thought to have been granted to all.

3. 6. And concerning that first man, the father of the human race, that he loosed him from there, almost the whole Church agrees; which it is to be believed she did not believe in vain, from whatever source this was handed down, even if from this no express authority of the canonical Scriptures be produced: although that which is written in the book of Wisdom—She preserved him who was first formed, the father of the world, when he alone was created, and led him out of his own offense, and gave him the power to govern all things (Wis 10:1-2)—seems to make for this opinion rather than for any other understanding. Some add that this benefit was granted also to the ancient saints, Abel, Seth, Noah and his house, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the other patriarchs and prophets, so that when the Lord came into hell, they were loosed from those pains.

3. 7. But in what way it is to be understood that Abraham, into whose bosom that pious poor man too was received, was in those pains, I for my part do not see: perhaps those explain it who can. But that two only, that is, Abraham and Lazarus, were in that bosom of memorable rest before the Lord descended into hell, and that of these two alone it was said to that rich man, Between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who wish to pass from here to you cannot, nor cross over from there to here (Lk 16:26)—I do not know whether there is anyone to whom this does not seem absurd. Further, if there were more than two there, who would dare to say that the patriarchs and prophets were not there, to whom in the Scripture so distinguished a testimony of God's justice and piety is borne? What, then, he conferred on these by loosing the pains of hell, in which they were not, I do not yet understand; especially since I could nowhere in the Scriptures find hell itself called in a good sense. But if this is nowhere read in the divine authorities, surely that bosom of Abraham, that is, the dwelling of a certain hidden rest, is not to be believed to be any part of hell. Although in these very words of so great a Master, where he says that Abraham said, Between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, it appears sufficiently, as I think, that the bosom of so great a felicity is not a certain part, and as it were a member, of hell. For what is a great chasm but a certain gulf, separating much the things between which it not only is but even has been fixed? Wherefore, if holy Scripture had said that Christ when dead came into that bosom of Abraham, without naming hell and its pains, I wonder whether anyone would dare to assert that he descended to hell.

3. 8. But because evident testimonies mention both hell and its pains, no cause occurs why the Savior should be believed to have come there, except to save men from its pains; but whether all whom he found in them, or certain ones whom he judged worthy of that benefit, I still inquire: yet that he was among the dead in hell, and conferred this benefit on those placed in its pains, I do not doubt. Whence, what he conferred on those righteous who were in the bosom of Abraham, when he descended into hell, I have not found—those from whom, according to the beatifying presence of his divinity, I never see him to have withdrawn: just as also on that very day on which he died, he promised to the thief that he would be with him in paradise, when he was about to descend to loose the pains of hell. Surely, then, he was in paradise and in the bosom of Abraham, even before, by his beatifying wisdom, and in hell by his judging power: for where is his divinity not, being besieged by no place? Nevertheless, according to the creature which, by assuming it from a certain time, while remaining God he became man—that is, according to the soul—that he was in hell, the Scripture openly declares, both sent before through prophecy and sufficiently set forth through apostolic understanding, by which it was said: You will not leave my soul in hell (Ps 16:10 (15:10)).

3. 9. I know that it seems to some that by the death of the Lord Christ such a resurrection was already granted to the righteous as is promised to us at the end; since it is written that, by that earthquake in which, at his passion, the rocks were split and the tombs opened, many bodies of the righteous arose, and were seen with him when he rose, in the holy city. If these, indeed, did not sleep again with their bodies laid down once more, we must see how Christ is understood to be the firstborn from the dead, if so many preceded him in that resurrection. But if it is answered that this was said by anticipation, so that the tombs are understood to have been opened by that earthquake while Christ hung on the cross, but the bodies of the righteous to have arisen not then, but when he had first arisen—although, as I said, it was joined by anticipation, so that both Christ may without ambiguity be believed the firstborn from the dead, and to those righteous it was immediately granted that, with him going before, they rose into eternal incorruption and immortality—there still remains what may move us: how it could be said by Peter, which surely was said most truly, when through that prophecy he asserted that not David but Christ had been foretold, that his flesh did not see corruption; and what he added about David, that his tomb is among them: whence surely he would not convince them, if his body were no longer there; because, even if he too had earlier risen in his recent death, and his flesh had not seen corruption, that tomb could nonetheless remain. But it seems hard that David was not in that resurrection of the righteous, if eternal life was already granted to them, from whose seed Christ is so frequently, and with such evidence, and with such honor, commended. That too will be endangered which is said to the Hebrews about the ancient righteous: That they provided something better for us, that they should not be perfected without us (Heb 11:40), if they are already set in that incorruption of resurrection which is promised to us, who are to be perfected, at the end.

4. 10. Why, then, Peter wished to mention only those to whom, shut up in prison, the Gospel was preached, who in the days of Noah were unbelieving when the ark was being built, you see how full of hiding places it is, and what things move me lest I dare to affirm anything from this. To this is added that, when the Apostle had said: Which now also in a like form baptism saves you—not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the appeal of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, swallowing up death, that we might be made heirs of eternal life, having gone into the heavens, with the angels and powers and virtues subjected to him (1 Pet 3:21-22)—he immediately added: Since Christ, then, suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same knowledge; for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sins, so as now to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer by the desires of men, but by the will of God (1 Pet 4:1-2): then he says: For the time past suffices for fulfilling the will of men for those who walked in lusts, and concupiscences, and drunkenness, in revelings, drinkings, and unlawful services of idols, in which they are astonished that you do not run into the same confusion of luxury, blaspheming. They shall render an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead (1 Pet 4:3-5): after these words he subjoins: For this reason the Gospel was preached also to the dead, that they might be judged indeed according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit (1 Pet 4:6).

4. 11. Whom does this profundity not move? He says the Gospel was preached to the dead: by whom, if we understand those who have gone out of the body, those, I think, will be the ones of whom he said above, Who were unbelieving in the days of Noah; or surely all whom Christ found in hell. What, then, does he mean, that they might be judged indeed according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit? How are they judged in the flesh, which they do not have, if they are in hell; or which they have not yet received, if they are even loosed from the pains of hell? For neither, if, as you say in inquiring, hell was emptied, are all who were then there to be believed to have risen in the flesh; nor did those who, rising, appeared with the Lord receive flesh for this, that they should be judged in it according to man: which I do not see how it can be taken even of those who were unbelieving in the days of Noah; for it is not written that they lived in the flesh, nor can it be believed that the pains of hell were loosed for this reason, that those who were freed from there should receive flesh to pay the penalty. What, then, is it, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit? Or perhaps this was granted to those whom Christ found in hell, that through the Gospel they should be made alive in the spirit, although in the future resurrection they are to be judged in the flesh, so that through some penalty of the flesh they may pass into the kingdom of God? But if it is so, why only of those who once did not believe in the days of Noah, and not also of the rest whom the visitation of Christ found there, did they revive in the spirit through the preaching of the Gospel, afterward to be judged in the flesh by a transitory penalty? But if we take it of all, the question remains why Peter mentioned only those who were then unbelieving when the ark was being built.

4. 12. This too moves me, that those who try to render a reason about this matter say that, when Christ descended to hell, for those who were found there those penal places, as it were prisons, were emptied—those who had not heard the Gospel, which while they lived was not yet preached throughout the whole world, and who had just causes why they had not believed what had not been announced to them; but that thenceforth those will not have an excuse who despise the preaching of the Gospel celebrated and diffused among all nations; and therefore, those prisons then being emptied, there now remains a just judgment by which the contumacious and unbelieving are punished even with eternal fire. Those who hold this do not consider that this excuse can be had by all who, even after the resurrection of Christ, before the Gospel reached them, departed from this life. For after the Lord returned from hell, no one was permitted to go again to hell, except after hearing the Gospel, when so many were dying throughout the whole world before this announcement reached them; all of whom will have the excuse which is said to have been offered to those to whom the Lord, when he had come, is said to have preached in hell, because before they had not heard.

4. 13. Unless perhaps it be said that even those who, after the Lord's resurrection, died, or are dying, before the Gospel had been announced to them, could or can there in hell hear it, so that there they may believe what is to be believed about the truth of Christ, and may have, even they, the remission and salvation which those deserved to whom Christ announced it there. For not because Christ again ascended from hell was his fame there extinguished; for from here too he ascended into heaven, and yet by his announcement those who believe in him will be saved. For he was exalted for this very reason, and there was given to him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, not only of things in heaven and on earth, but even of things in hell (Phil 2:9-10). But if we admit this opinion, by which it can be thought that men who, while they lived, in no way believed, can believe in Christ in hell—who could bear the absurdities that follow, and the things contrary to the faith? First, lest we seem to grieve in vain over those who have gone out of the body without that grace, and in vain to take care, and earnestly to exhort men to receive it before they die, lest they be punished with everlasting death. Or if only those believe uselessly and unfruitfully in hell who, when the Gospel was announced to them here, were unwilling to believe; but it will profit those to believe who did not here despise what they could in no way hear: another more absurd consequence follows—that the Gospel should not be preached here, since all surely are going to die, and ought to come to hell without any guilt of having despised the Gospel, so that it may be able to profit them when they have believed there: to hold which is of impious vanity.

5. 14. Wherefore let us hold most firmly what the faith, confirmed by the most well-founded authority, holds: that Christ died according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor 15:3-4), and the rest that have been written about him by the most attested truth: among which is also this, that he was in hell, and, the pains being loosed by which it was impossible for him to be held—from which he is also rightly understood to have loosed and freed those he willed—he received again the body which he had left on the cross, placed in the tomb. But in that question which you proposed about the words of the apostle Peter, since you perceive the things which move me, and others perhaps, if they be discussed more diligently, can move us, let us inquire, either by thinking of them among ourselves, or by consulting those whom it is fitting and we are able to consult.

5. 15. Consider, however, whether perhaps the whole of what the apostle Peter says about the spirits shut up in prison, who in the days of Noah had not believed, does not pertain to hell at all, but rather to those times whose figure he transferred to these times. For that deed was a figure of things to come: that those who now do not believe the Gospel, while the Church is being built up among all nations, may be understood to be like those who then did not believe when the ark was being built; but those who believed, and are saved through baptism, may be compared to those who were then saved in that same ark through water; whence he says: So also in a like form baptism saves you (1 Pet 3:21). To this likeness of figure, then, let us fit the rest also concerning the unbelievers, and not suspect that in hell the Gospel was preached, or is even now still preached, to make and to free believers, as if there too a Church had been established.

5. 16. To that sense which moves you, then, those who believed that Peter meant this seem to have been drawn for this reason: because he said that it was preached to the spirits shut up in prison, as if souls cannot be understood as spirits—souls which were then in the flesh, and were shut up in the darkness of ignorance as in a prison; from which kind of prison he desires to be freed who says, Bring my soul out of prison, that it may confess to your name (Ps 142:7 (141:8)); which is elsewhere called the shadow of death: from which, surely not in hell but here, those were freed of whom it is written, To those who sat in the shadow of death, a light has risen (Mt 4:16). But to those in the days of Noah it was preached in vain, because they did not believe, when the patience of God waited for them through the time of so many years in which that ark was built (for the very building of it was in a way a preaching); just as now those like them do not believe, who under the same figure are shut up in the darkness of ignorance as in a prison, looking in vain upon the Church being built throughout the whole world, with judgment imminent, as it were a flood by which then all the unbelieving perished: for the Lord says, As in the days of Noah, so will it be also in the days of the Son of man. They were eating, drinking, marrying, taking wives, until Noah entered the ark; the flood came, and destroyed them all (Lk 17:26-27). But because that deed also signified a future thing, therefore there the flood signified both baptism to the faithful and punishment to the unbelieving: just as, in a figure not of a deed but only of a saying, that which is written of the stone by which Christ was signified prefigured two things, both a stumbling block to the unbelieving and a building to the faithful. But sometimes in the same figure, whether of deed or of saying, even two things signify some one thing; as the faithful were signified by the timbers fitted into the building of the ark, and the same also by the eight souls who were freed in that same ark: just as in that Gospel likeness of the sheepfold, the same Christ is both the shepherd and the door.
That before the incarnation the Son of God spoke to men.

6. 17. Nor let it move anyone to hinder this understanding, that the apostle Peter said that this same Christ preached to those shut up in prison who once had not believed in the days of Noah, so that we should therefore think this is to be understood because at that time Christ had not yet come. For he had not yet come, namely in the flesh, as he came when after these things he was seen on earth and conversed with men: yet from the beginning of the human race—whether to convict the wicked, as Cain, and earlier Adam himself and his wife; or to console the good; or to admonish both, so that some might believe to their salvation, others not believe to their punishment—he himself surely came, not in the flesh, but in the spirit, addressing by suitable visions whom he willed, as he willed. But as to what I said, He came in the spirit—even the Son himself, in the substance of the Deity, since he is not a body, is surely spirit: but what does the Son do without the Holy Spirit, or without the Father, since all the works of the Trinity are inseparable?

6. 18. The very words of the Scripture in question also sufficiently indicate this, as I think, to those who attend diligently: For Christ, he says, died once for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death indeed in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit: in which, coming, he preached also to those spirits who were shut up in prison, who once had been unbelieving, when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built (1 Pet 3:18-20). Now, as I judge, the order of the words is attended to: Christ put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. In which spirit, coming, he preached also to those spirits who once had been unbelieving in the days of Noah: since, before he came in the flesh to die for us—which he did once—he often came before in the spirit to whom he willed, admonishing them by visions as he willed, surely in the spirit, by which spirit he was also made alive, when in his passion he had been put to death in the flesh. For what is it that he was made alive in the spirit, but that the same flesh, in which alone he had been put to death, rose by the life-giving spirit?

7. 19. For that Jesus was put to death in the soul, that is, in that spirit which is man's, who would dare to say, since the death of the soul is nothing but sin, from which he was wholly free, when he was put to death in the flesh for us? For if the souls of all men are from that one which was breathed into the first man, through whom sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so it passed to all men (Rom 5:12): either the soul of Christ is not from there, since he had no sin at all, neither original nor his own, on account of which death might seem owed to him—for he paid for us the death he did not owe, in whom the prince of the world and ruler of death found nothing; for it is not absurd that he who created the soul for the first man should create one also for himself—or, if it too is from there, by assuming it he cleansed it, so that, without any sin at all, neither committed nor transmitted, coming to us he was born of a virgin. But if souls are not propagated from that one, and the flesh alone draws original sin from Adam, then the Son of God created a soul for himself as he creates for others, which he nevertheless did not mix with the flesh of sin, but with the likeness of the flesh of sin. For he took from the Virgin the true substance indeed of flesh, yet not the flesh of sin, since it was neither sown nor conceived from carnal concupiscence; mortal indeed, and changeable through the ages, as most like to the flesh of sin, without sin.

7. 20. And through this, whatever opinion about the soul be true—of which I dare not yet rashly affirm any, except only to repudiate that by which souls are believed to be thrust, according to the merits of I know not what prior acts of their own, each into its own body as into a prison—certainly the soul of Christ was not only immortal according to the nature of the others, but was also put to death by no sin nor punished by any damnation, by which two causes the death of the soul can be understood; and therefore it could not be said that Christ was made alive in the spirit according to it. For he was made alive in that thing in which he had been put to death: therefore it was said of the flesh. For the soul itself revived by the soul returning, since it was itself dead by the soul departing. He was therefore said to be put to death in the flesh, because he died according to the flesh alone: but made alive in the spirit, because, by the working of that spirit in which he came to whom he willed and preached, even the flesh itself was made alive and rose, in which he now comes to men.

7. 21. Accordingly, that too which was afterward said of the unbelievers—who will render an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead (1 Pet 4:5)—does not follow that we should here understand as dead those who have gone out of the body. For it can be that he called the unbelievers dead; that is, dead in soul, of whom it is said, Let the dead bury their dead (Mt 8:22); but the living, those who believe in him, not in vain hearing, Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you (Eph 5:14); of whom the Lord himself also says, The hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live (Jn 5:25). Accordingly, even what follows, when Peter says, For this reason the Gospel was preached also to the dead, that they might be judged indeed according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit (1 Pet 4:6), does not compel us to understand it of hell. For this reason, in this life, the Gospel was preached also to the dead, that is, to the unbelieving and the wicked, so that when they have believed they might be judged indeed according to men in the flesh, that is, in various tribulations and in the very death of the flesh; whence the same Apostle says in another place that it is time that judgment begin at the house of the Lord (1 Pet 4:17): but live according to God in the spirit, because in it too they had been put to death, while they were held by the death of unbelief and impiety.

7. 22. Whoever is displeased by this exposition of Peter's words, or to whom, even if it does not displease, it nevertheless does not suffice, let him seek to understand them according to hell. And if he is able so to loose those things by which I said above I am moved as to take away their doubt, let him impart it to me also: and if this should be done, those words could be understood in both ways; but this opinion is convicted of no falsehood. As for those questions which you sent before, except for the vision of God through the body—on which a greater work must be undertaken—I have answered as I could, and sent it through the deacon Asellus, which I think you have already received. But in your recent memorandum, to which I have now replied, you had asked two things, both of which have been treated, one more broadly, the other more briefly: namely, about the words of the apostle Peter, and about the soul of the Lord. As for the copy of your letter which contains the question whether the substance of God can be seen corporeally as it were in a place, and which somehow went astray among us, and could not be found though long sought, I again ask that you not be reluctant to send it.

LETTER 165
To the truly holy lords and, in all charity of services, to be venerated, his sons Marcellinus and Anapsychia, from Jerome, greetings in Christ.

1. 1. At last I have received from Africa the letters of your concord; and I do not repent of the boldness by which, you being silent, I frequently pressed my letters upon you, that I might deserve a reply, and might learn that you are safe, not from others announcing it, but rather from your own discourse. Concerning the state of the soul I remember your little question, or rather a very great ecclesiastical question: whether it has fallen from heaven, as the philosopher Pythagoras and all the Platonists and Origen think; or is from the proper substance of God, as the Stoics, Mani, and the Spanish heresy of Priscillian suspect; or whether they are held in a treasury of God, made long ago, as certain churchmen trust by a foolish persuasion; or whether they are daily made by God and sent into bodies, according to what is written in the Gospel, My Father works until now, and I work (Jn 5:17); or whether they come by transmission, as Tertullian, Apollinaris, and the greatest part of the Westerners maintain, so that as body is born of body, so soul is born of soul, and subsists by a condition like that of the brute animals. On which, what seemed to me, I know I wrote in the little works against Rufinus—against that book which he gave to Anastasius of holy memory, bishop of the Roman Church; in which, by a slippery and crafty, or rather foolish, confession, while he strives to mock the simplicity of his hearers, he mocked his own faith, or rather his perfidy: which books I think your holy father Oceanus has; for they were published long ago, answering the calumnies in many books against Rufinus. Certainly you have there a holy and learned man, the bishop Augustine, who can teach you, as they say, by the living voice, and set forth his own—or rather, through himself, our—opinion.

2. 2. Some time ago I wished to take up the book of Ezekiel, and to fulfill the very frequent promise to my zealous readers; but at the very outset of dictating, my mind was so confounded by the devastation of the western provinces, and especially of the city of Rome, that, according to the common proverb, I was ignorant even of my own name: and for a long time I was silent, knowing that it was a time of tears. But this year, when I had unfolded three books, a sudden onslaught of barbarians—of whom your Virgil says, and the widely wandering Barcaeans, and holy Scripture says of Ishmael, He will dwell against the face of all his brothers (Gen 16:12)—so overran the border of Egypt, of Palestine, Phoenicia, Syria, dragging all things with it like a torrent, that we could scarcely escape their hands by the mercy of Christ. For if, according to the renowned orator, the laws are silent amid arms, how much more the studies of the Scriptures, which need both a multitude of books, and silence, and the diligence of copyists, and—what is proper to them—the security and leisure of those dictating! I have therefore sent two books to my holy daughter Fabiola, copies of which, if you wish, you may borrow from her. For owing to the narrowness of the time I could not have others transcribed: which, when you have read them and seen the vestibules, it will be an easy conjecture what the house itself will be. But I trust in the mercy of God, who helped us in the most difficult beginning of the aforesaid work, that he himself will help also in the next-to-last parts of the prophet, in which the wars of Gog and Magog are narrated; and in the last parts, in which the building, variety, and measure of the most sacred and inexplicable temple is described.

3. 3. Our holy brother Oceanus, to whom you desire to be commended, is so great and such a man, and so learned in the law of the Lord, that without our asking he can instruct you, and set forth our opinion on all the questions of the Scriptures, according to the measure of our common ability. May Christ our God, the Almighty, watch over you, safe and flourishing in a long life, truly holy lords.

LETTER 166
A Book on the Origin of the Human Soul
Augustine to Jerome

1. 1. Our God, who has called us into his kingdom and glory, I have both asked and ask, that this which I write to you, holy brother Jerome, consulting you about the things I do not know, he may will to be fruitful to us. For although I consult you, who are much greater than I in age, yet I myself too, already an old man, consult: but for learning what is needful, no age can seem to me too late; because, although it more befits old men to teach than to learn, yet it befits them more to learn than to be ignorant of what they teach. Indeed I bear nothing more troublesome, in all the straits which I suffer in the most difficult questions, than the absence of your charity at so great a distance, so that I can scarcely give, scarcely receive, your letters, at intervals not of days, not of months, but of several years; whereas, if it could be done, I would wish to have you present daily, with whom I might speak whatever I wished. Nor for that reason, however, ought I not to do what I could, even if I could not do all that I wished.

1. 2. Behold, there came to me a religious young man, in catholic peace a brother, in age a son, in honor our fellow presbyter, Orosius, vigilant in mind, ready in speech, burning with zeal, desiring to be a useful vessel in the house of the Lord, for refuting the false and pernicious doctrines which have slaughtered the souls of the Spaniards much more unhappily than the barbarian sword their bodies. For from there he hastened to us all the way from the shore of the ocean, stirred by the report that from me he could hear whatever he wished about the things he wished to know. Nor did he take no fruit from his coming. First, that he should not believe too much of me from report: then, I taught the man what I could; and what I could not, I advised him whence he could learn it, and exhorted him to go to you. In which matter, since he received my counsel, or rather command, willingly and obediently, I asked him that, coming from you, he would return to his own through us. Holding to this promise of his, I believed an occasion had been granted me by the Lord, by which I might write to you about the things I desire to know through you. For I was seeking whom I might send to you, nor did a suitable one easily occur to me, both in faithfulness of acting and in alacrity of obeying and in practice of traveling. When, therefore, I found this young man to be the very one such as I was asking from the Lord, I could not doubt.

2. 3. Receive, then, the things which I ask you not to be reluctant to open and discuss. The question about the soul moves many, among whom I confess that I too am one. For what I hold most firmly about the soul, I will not keep silent: then I will subjoin what I still wish to be cleared up for me. The soul of man is immortal, according to a certain manner of its own. For not in every way as God, of whom it was said that he alone has immortality (1 Tim 6:16). For about the deaths of the soul holy Scripture recalls many things; whence is that: Let the dead bury their dead (Mt 8:22): but it so dies, estranged from the life of God, that nevertheless it does not altogether cease to live in its own nature; so it is found mortal from some cause, that it is also not without reason called immortal. The soul is not a part of God. For if it were this, it would be in every way unchangeable and incorruptible. And if it were so, it would neither fail toward the worse, nor advance toward the better; nor would it either begin to have in itself something it did not have, or cease to have what it had, as far as pertains to its own affections: but that it is otherwise, there is no need of testimony from without; whoever attends to himself recognizes it. But it is said in vain by those who would have the soul to be a part of God, that this defect and baseness which we see in the most worthless men, this weakness and sickness which we feel in all men, is not from itself, but from the body: what does it matter whence it is sick, which, if it were unchangeable, could not be sick from any source whatever? For what is truly unchangeable and incorruptible can be changed or corrupted by the accession of nothing: otherwise not only Achilles, as the fables tell, but all flesh would be invulnerable, if no mischance befell it. The nature, then, is not unchangeable which is in any way, by any cause, in any part, changeable: but it is wicked to believe God otherwise than truly and supremely unchangeable. The soul, therefore, is not a part of God.

2. 4. That the soul too is incorporeal, although it can be persuaded to the slower-witted with difficulty, I confess is nevertheless persuaded to me. But lest I either superfluously raise a controversy of words, or deservedly suffer one—since, when the matter is settled, there is no need to contend about the name—if every substance, or essence, or whatever is more aptly named is a body, namely whatever in some way is in itself, then the soul is a body. Likewise, if it pleases to call incorporeal only that nature which is supremely unchangeable and is everywhere whole, the soul is a body; since it is not anything of such a kind. Further, if a body is nothing but what, through space of place, by some length, breadth, and height, is so set or moved that with a greater part of itself it occupies a greater place, and with a shorter a shorter, and is less in a part than in the whole, then the soul is not a body. For throughout the whole body which it animates, it is extended not by local diffusion, but by a certain vital intention: for through all its particles it is wholly present at once, and is not less in the lesser and greater in the greater; but somewhere more intently, somewhere more remissly, and in all it is whole, and in each it is whole. For not otherwise does it, which feels in a part of the body and not the whole, nevertheless feel wholly: for when something is touched in a tiny point in the living flesh, although that place is not only not that of the whole body, but scarcely seems to be in the body, yet it does not lie hidden from the whole soul; nor does what is felt run through all parts of the body, but is felt only there where it occurs. Whence, then, does what occurs not in the whole soon reach the whole, except because the soul is whole even there where it occurs, nor, to be whole there, deserts the rest? For the other parts too live, it being present, where nothing of the kind has occurred. And if this should occur, and both occur at once, both at once would not be hidden equally from the whole. Accordingly it could not be whole at once in all and in each particle of its body, if it were diffused through them as we see bodies diffused through spaces of places, occupying smaller places with their smaller parts, and larger with their larger. Wherefore, if the soul is to be called a body, it is certainly not a body such as the earthly, nor such as the moist, or airy, or ethereal. For all such are greater in greater places and lesser in lesser, and none of them is wholly present in any part of itself; but as there are parts of places, so they are occupied by parts of bodies. Whence it is understood that the soul, whether it is to be called a body or incorporeal, has a certain nature of its own, created of a substance more excellent than all these elements of the worldly mass, which truly cannot be thought of in any phantasm of corporeal images, which we perceive through the senses of the flesh, but is understood by the mind and felt by life. Nor do I say these things in order to teach you what is known to you, but to open what I most firmly hold about the soul, lest anyone, when I come to the things I inquire about, think that I hold nothing about the soul, either by knowledge or by faith.

2. 5. I am also certain that the soul, by no fault of God, by no necessity either of God's or its own, but by its own will, has collapsed into sin; and that it cannot be freed from the body of this death either by the power of its own will, as though sufficient for this of itself, or by the death of the body itself, but by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord; and that there is no soul at all in the human race for whose liberation the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, is not necessary. But whatever soul, without the grace of the Mediator and his sacrament, goes out of the body at any age of the body, goes both to future punishment, and at the last judgment will receive a body for punishment. But if, after the human generation which was made from Adam, it is regenerated in Christ, belonging to his society, it will both have rest after the death of the body, and will receive a body for glory. These are the things which I hold most firmly about the soul.

3. 6. Now receive, I beg, what I inquire, and do not spurn me; so may he not spurn you who for our sake deigned to be spurned. I ask where the soul contracted the guilt by which it is drawn into condemnation, even an infant's taken away by death, if the grace of Christ does not come to its aid through the sacrament by which little ones too are baptized. For you are not among those who have just now begun to babble certain novelties, saying that there is no guilt drawn from Adam which is loosed by baptism in the infant. If I knew that you held this—or rather, unless I knew that you do not hold it—I would by no means ask this of you, or think it should be asked. But because we hold your opinion on this matter to be in concord with the most well-founded catholic faith, by which, refuting also the empty talk of Jovinian, you adduced a testimony from the book of Job, No one is clean in your sight, not even an infant whose life is of one day upon the earth (Job 14:4-5; 25:4), then you added: And we are held guilty in the likeness of the transgression of Adam; and your book on the prophet Jonah declares this quite remarkably and clearly, where you said that little ones are rightly compelled to fast on account of that very original sin: not unfittingly do I ask you where the soul contracted this guilt, on account of which it must be freed, even at that age, through the sacrament of Christian grace.

3. 7. I indeed, some years ago, when I was writing certain books on Free Will, which have gone out into the hands of many and are now held by very many, so thought that the four opinions about the incarnation of the soul should be treated—whether the rest are propagated from that one which was given to the first man; or whether new ones too are made even now for each individual; or whether, existing already somewhere, they are either sent divinely or fall of their own accord into bodies—that whichever of them was true would not hinder my intention, by which I was then acting with as much strength as I could against those who try to bring in, against God, a nature of evil endowed with its own principle, that is, against the Manichees; for of the Priscillianists I had as yet heard nothing, who fable blasphemies not much unlike those of the others. Therefore I did not add a fifth opinion, which you mentioned among the rest in your letter, lest you should pass over any, where, answering a man of religious memory and most dear to us in the charity of Christ, Marcellinus, who inquired about this question, you wrote that the soul is a part of God: first, because the question is not about its incarnation but about its nature when this is asked; then, because those against whom I was acting hold this, and I was especially acting to separate the blameless and inviolable nature of the Creator from the vices and defect of the creature, since they contend that the very substance of the good God, in the part by which it was captured, was corrupted and oppressed by the substance of evil—to which they attribute its own principle and princes—and led to a necessity of sinning. This error of heretical opinion being excepted, then, I desire to know which of the four remaining opinions is to be chosen. For whichever is to be chosen, far be it that it should impugn this faith of which we are certain: that for every soul, even that of a little infant, there is necessary a liberation from the bond of sin, and that this is none except through Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

4. 8. Accordingly, not to make it long, you certainly hold this: that God makes individual souls even now for individuals being born. To which opinion, when it is objected that God consummated all creatures on the sixth day and rested on the seventh, you adduce the testimony from the Gospel: My Father works until now (Jn 5:17). For so you wrote to Marcellinus: in which letter you also deigned most benevolently to make mention of me, because he had me here in Africa, who could more easily set forth that opinion to him. But if I could have, he would not have inquired this of you, placed so far away; if, indeed, he wrote this to you from Africa. For when he wrote, I do not know; I only know that about this he well knew my hesitation: whence he wished to act without consulting me. Although, even if he had consulted me, I would rather have exhorted him, and given thanks that it could be conferred upon us all, had you not preferred to write back briefly rather than to answer fully: I believe lest you should labor superfluously where I was, whom you thought to know best what he had asked. Behold, I wish that opinion to be mine too, but I do not yet confirm that it is.

4. 9. You have sent disciples to me, that I may teach them the things I have not yet myself learned. Teach, then, what I am to teach: for many demand of me that I teach, and to them I confess that I am ignorant of this, as of many other things: and perhaps, although in my presence they are abashed, yet among themselves they say: You are a teacher in Israel, and are you ignorant of these things? (See Jn 3:10)—which indeed the Lord said to one who was one of those who delighted to be called Rabbi: whence he had come to the true teacher by night, because perhaps he blushed to learn, who had been accustomed to teach. But it delights me rather to hear the teacher than to be heard as a teacher. For I recall what he said to those whom he chose before the rest: But you, he says, do not be called Rabbi by men; for one is your teacher, Christ (Mt 23:8.10). Nor did another teach Moses even through Jethro, nor another Cornelius even through Peter who came first, nor another Peter even through Paul who came later: for by whomever the truth is spoken, it is spoken by the gift of him who is the Truth itself. What if for this reason we still do not know these things, and could not find them either by praying, or by reading, or by thinking and reasoning—so that we may be proved, not only with how great charity we teach the unlearned, but with how great humility we learn even from the learned?

4. 10. Teach, then, I beg, what I am to teach, teach what I am to hold, and tell me, if souls are made individually even today for individuals being born, where in little ones they sin, so that they need in the sacrament of Christ the remission of sin, sinning in Adam from whom the flesh of sin was propagated: or, if they do not sin, by what justice of the Creator they are so bound by another's sin, when they are inserted into the mortal members propagated from there, that damnation follows them unless aid be brought through the Church; whereas it is not in their power that the grace of baptism can come to their aid. By what equity, then, are so many thousands of souls damned, which in the deaths of little ones go out of bodies without the indulgence of the Christian sacrament, if, newly created with no preceding sin of their own, but by the will of the Creator they clung individually to individuals being born, to animate whom he created and gave them—he who surely knew that each of them, by no fault of its own, was going to go out of the body without the baptism of Christ? Since, therefore, we can neither say of God that he either compels souls to be made sinful, or punishes the innocent; nor is it lawful for us to deny that those which go out of bodies without the sacrament of Christ, even of little ones, are drawn only into damnation: I beseech you, how is this opinion defended, by which souls are believed to be made, not all from that one of the first man, but as that one for one, so individuals for individuals?

5. 11. But those things which are said as other objections against this opinion, I think I can easily refute; such as that by which certain people seem to press it: how did God consummate all his works on the sixth day, and rest on the seventh, if he still creates new souls? To whom, if we say what you set down from the Gospel in the aforesaid letter, My Father works until now (Jn 5:17), they answer: it is said, he works, by administering the things instituted, not by instituting new natures, lest the Scripture of Genesis be contradicted, where it is read most plainly that God consummated all his works. For even that it is written that he rested, is surely to be understood of creating new creatures, not of governing them; because then he made the things that were not, from making which he rested: because he had consummated all the things which, before they were, he saw must be made, so that thenceforth he should create and make whatever he made, not the things that were not, but from the things that already were. Thus both are shown to be true—both that it was said, he rested from his works, and that it was said, he works until now: since the Gospel cannot be contrary to Genesis.

5. 12. But to those who say these things so that it may not be believed that God now, like that one, makes new souls which were not, but creates them from that one which already was, or sends them from some fountain or treasury which he then made, it is easily answered that even in those six days God created many things from those natures which he had already created, as from the waters birds and fish, but from the earth trees, hay, animals: but that he then made the things which were not, is manifest. For there was no bird, no fish, no tree, no animal: and it is rightly understood that he rested from these things created which were not, and were created, that is, ceased, lest further the things which were not should be created. But now, when it is said that God does not send souls already existing in some fountain, nor sprinkle them from himself as his own particles, nor draw them originally from that one, nor fetter them in carnal chains for offenses committed before the flesh, but creates new ones individually for individuals, each its own for each being born, he is not said to do anything which he had not done before. For already on the sixth day he had made man to his own image; which surely is understood to have been done according to the rational soul. This he does now too, not by instituting what was not, but by multiplying what was. Whence both is true—that he rested from instituting the things which were not—and this is true—that he works until now, not only by governing the things he made, but also by creating something more numerously, not which he had not yet, but which he had already created. Either in this way, then, or in any other way whatever, we get out from under what is objected to us about God's rest from his works, lest on that account we should not believe that new souls are now still made, not from that one, but as that one.

5. 13. For as to what is said—Why does he make souls for those whom he knows will quickly die?—we can answer that hereby the sins of the parents are either convicted or scourged. We can also rightly leave these things to the moderation of him whom we know to give a most ornate and most orderly course to all things passing temporally, among which are also the births and deaths of animals; but that we cannot perceive these things, which, if we could perceive, we would be soothed with an ineffable delight. For not in vain was it said of God through the prophet, who had learned these things divinely inspired: Who brings forth the world by number (See Isa 40:26). Whence music, that is, the knowledge or sense of modulating well, was granted by God's bounty, for the admonition of a great matter, even to mortals having rational souls. Whence, if a man skilled in making a song knows what delays to assign to which sounds, so that what is sung may run and pass most beautifully by sounds departing and succeeding; how much more does God, whose wisdom, by which he made all things, is far to be preferred to all arts, permit no spaces of time in natures being born and dying—which, like syllables and words, pertain to the particles of this age—to pass, in this as it were marvelous song of passing things, either more briefly or more at length than the modulation foreknown and predetermined demands! And since I have said this even of a tree's leaf, and of the number of our hairs, how much more of the rising and setting of a man, whose temporal life is not extended more briefly or more at length than God the disposer of times knows to be consonant with the governance of the universe!

5. 14. That too which they say—that everything which began to be in time cannot be immortal, because all things that have arisen perish, and things grown grow old, so that in this way they may compel us to believe that the human mind is therefore immortal because it was created before all times—does not move our faith: for, to say nothing else, the immortality of Christ's flesh began to be in time, which nevertheless now does not die, and death will no longer have dominion over him (Rom 6:9).

5. 15. But that which you set down in the book against Rufinus—that certain people calumniate this opinion, because it seems unworthy that God should give souls to adulterous conceptions, whence they try to construct that, by the merits of a life lived before the flesh, souls can justly be brought as it were to workhouses of this kind—does not move me, who think of many things by which this calumny can be refuted. And what you yourself answered—that the fault of the sowing is not in the wheat which is said to have been carried off by theft, but in him who stole the grain; nor on that account ought the earth not to cherish the seeds in its bosom, because the sower cast them with an unclean hand—is a most elegant likeness. And even before I read it, this objection about adulterous offspring made no straits for me in this question, since I regard generally that God makes many good things even out of our evils and our sins. But the creation of any animal whatever, if it has a pious and prudent considerer, stirs up ineffable praise of the Creator; how much more the creation, not of any animal, but of man! But if the cause of creating is sought, none is more quickly and better answered than that every creature of God is good. And what is more worthy than that the good God should make good things, which no one can make but God?

6. 16. These and other things I can, as I can, say against those who try to undermine this opinion by which souls are believed to be made for individuals as that one was. But when it comes to the punishments of little ones, I am, believe me, hemmed in by great straits, nor do I at all find what to answer: I do not mean only those punishments which that damnation has after this life, to which they must necessarily be drawn, if they go out of the body without the sacrament of Christian grace; but those very ones which in this life are set before our eyes, to our grief, which, if I should wish to enumerate, time would fail me sooner than examples. They languish with illnesses, are tortured by pains, are racked by hunger and thirst, are crippled in their limbs, are deprived of their senses, are vexed by unclean spirits. It must surely be shown how they justly suffer these things without any evil cause of their own. For it is not lawful to say either that these things happen with God not knowing, or that he cannot resist those doing them, or that he either does or permits these things unjustly. Is it that, as we rightly say that irrational animals are given for the uses of more excellent natures, even if vicious—as in the Gospel we see most plainly that swine were granted to the demons for the use they desired—can we rightly say this also of man? For he is an animal, but rational, though mortal. There is a rational soul in those limbs which pay penalties by such afflictions; God is good, God is just, God is omnipotent: to doubt this is altogether the part of a madman. Let a just cause, then, be told of such great evils which happen in little ones. Indeed, when older people suffer these things, we are wont to say either that, as in Job, merits are being tested, or that, as in Herod, sins are being punished: and from certain examples which God willed to be manifest, it is granted to man to conjecture others which are obscure; but this in older people. But of little ones, explain what we should answer, if there are no sins to be punished in them by such great punishments: for surely there is no justice to be tested at those ages.

6. 17. And of the diversity—or rather the absurdity—of mental capacities, what shall I say? Which indeed lies hidden in little ones, but, drawn from the very natural beginnings, appears in grown men, some of whom are so slow and forgetful that they could not learn even the first elements of letters; while certain ones are of such fatuity that they do not differ much from cattle, whom they commonly call idiots. It is answered perhaps: The bodies do this. But did the soul, according to this opinion which we wish to defend, choose a body for itself, and in choosing, when it was deceived, err? Or, when it was compelled to enter a body by the necessity of being born, other bodies being preoccupied by the crowds of souls, did it itself find no other, and, as a place at some spectacle, so occupy not the flesh it wished, but the flesh it was able to? Can we either say, or ought we to think, these and such things? Teach, then, what we ought to think, what we ought to say, so that the account of new souls, made individually for individual bodies, may stand for us.

7. 18. I indeed said something, not about mental capacities, but at least about the punishments of little ones which they suffer in this life, in those books on Free Will. Of what kind it is, and why it does not suffice me in this question which we have in hand, I will intimate, and I will insert into this letter that very passage excerpted from the third book. For it is thus: "But concerning the torments of the body by which little ones are afflicted, who through their age have no sins—if the souls by which they are animated did not exist before the men themselves began to be—a greater complaint is wont to be laid down, and as it were mercifully, when it is said, What evil have they done, that they should suffer these things? as if there could be a merit of innocence before anyone could do any harm! But since God works some good in the amending of older people, when by the pains and deaths of their little ones who are dear to them they are scourged, why should these things not happen, since, when they have passed, it will be as if they had not happened for those in whom they happened; but those on whose account they happened will either be better, if, amended by temporal inconveniences, they choose to live more rightly, or will have no excuse in the punishment of the future judgment, if, amid the anguishes of this life, they have been unwilling to turn their desire to eternal life? But who knows what God reserves for those very little ones, in the secret of his judgments, by way of good compensation—those by whose torments either the hardness of older people is bruised, or their faith is exercised, or their mercy is proved? Since, although they have done nothing rightly, yet they have suffered these things not as sinning in anything. For not in vain does the Church commend as received into the honor of the martyrs even those infants who were killed when our Lord Jesus Christ was sought by Herod to be slain."

7. 19. These things I then said, when I wished to fortify this very opinion of which we now treat. For, as I recalled a little before, whichever of those four opinions about the incarnation of the soul was true, I was striving to show the substance of the Creator blameless, and most remote from the society of our sins. And therefore whichever of them could be convicted by the truth and repudiated did not pertain to the care of my intention which I then had; since, all having been examined by a more diligent disputation, whichever of them rightly conquered the rest would be most secure for me, when, even according to all of them, I was demonstrating that what I was maintaining persisted unconquered. But now I wish, if I can, by right reason to choose one out of all; and therefore, looking more attentively at the defense of this very one of which we now treat, in those words of mine which I recalled from that book, I do not see it valid and firm.

7. 20. For as its support there is that which I said there: "But who knows what God reserves for those very little ones, in the secret of his judgments, by way of good compensation—those by whose torments either the hardness of older people is bruised, or their faith is exercised, or their mercy is proved?" But I see this said not without reason of those who suffer something of the kind for the name of Christ and true religion, even without knowing it, or who are already imbued with the sacrament of Christ; because without the society of the one Mediator they cannot be freed from damnation, so that this compensation can be granted them, even for those evils which here, in various afflictions, they have endured. But now, since this question cannot be resolved unless answer be made also about those little ones who breathe their last after the gravest torments without the sacrament of Christian society—what compensation is to be thought of for those for whom, moreover, damnation has been prepared? For about the baptism of little ones too, in that same book, not indeed sufficiently, but as much as seemed enough for that work, I somehow answered, that it profits even those who do not know it, and do not yet have their own faith: yet about the damnation of those little ones who depart from this life without it, I did not then think anything should be said, because what is now being treated was not being treated.

7. 21. But to omit and disregard the things which they suffer for a brief time, nor are recalled once they are past—can we similarly disregard that through one man came death, and through one man the resurrection of the dead? For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:21-22)? For through this apostolic, divine, and clear sentence it shines forth quite evidently that no one goes into death except through Adam, no one goes into eternal life except through Christ. For this is, all, and all: because as all men, through the first, that is, through carnal generation, pertain to Adam, so all men come to the second, that is, the spiritual generation, whoever come to Christ. Therefore it was said, both here all, and there all: because as all who die, die only in Adam, so all who will be made alive, will be made alive only in Christ. And through this, whoever should tell us that anyone can be made alive in the resurrection of the dead except in Christ is to be detested as a plague of the common faith. Likewise, whoever should say that in Christ even little ones who go out of life without participation in his sacrament will be made alive—he surely both goes against the apostolic preaching and condemns the whole Church, where, for that reason, there is haste and running to baptize little ones, since it is believed without doubt that they can otherwise in no way be made alive in Christ. But whoever is not made alive in Christ, it remains that he abide in that condemnation of which the Apostle says: Through the offense of one, upon all men unto condemnation (Rom 5:18). That little ones are born liable to this offense, both the whole Church believes, and you yourself, already disputing against Jovinian and expounding the prophet Jonah, as I recalled a little before, defined by a most truthful faith; I believe also in other places of your little works which I have either not read, or do not at present recall. The cause, then, of this damnation in little ones I inquire; because I neither see that there is any sin of the souls at that age, if new ones are made individually for individuals, nor do I believe that any is damned by God which he sees to have no sin.

8. 22. Or perhaps it must be said that in the little one the flesh alone is the cause of sin; but that a new soul is made for it, by which—living according to the precepts of God, in the help of the grace of Christ—even the flesh, tamed and subjugated, may be able to gain the merit of incorruption: but because in the little one the soul cannot yet do this, unless it has received the sacrament of Christ, through this grace there is acquired for his flesh what could not yet be acquired by his conduct; but if the soul of a little one goes out without that sacrament, the soul itself indeed will be in eternal life, from which no sin could separate it, but its flesh will not rise in Christ, that sacrament not having been received before death?

8. 23. This opinion I have never heard, never read. But plainly I have heard and believed, and on that account have also spoken: that the hour comes when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice; and those who have done good will come forth to the resurrection of life—that is the resurrection of which it is said, and through one man the resurrection of the dead; that is the one by which in Christ all will be made alive—but those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment (Jn 5:28-29). What, then, is here to be understood of those infants who, before they could do either good or evil, were stripped of the body without baptism? Nothing here was said of such. But if their flesh therefore will not rise, because they did neither anything good nor anything evil, then neither will that of those rise who, having received the grace of baptism, died at that age in which they could do nothing well or ill. But if those will rise among the saints, that is, among those who have done good—among whom shall those too rise, unless among those who have done evil—lest we should believe that some human souls will not receive their bodies, either to the resurrection of life, or to the resurrection of judgment? Which opinion, before it is refuted, displeases already by its very novelty: then who would bear it, if those who run to baptism with their little ones should believe that they run for the sake of their flesh, not for their souls? Blessed Cyprian indeed, founding no new decree, but keeping the most firm faith of the Church, to correct those who thought that a little one should not be baptized before the eighth day of its nativity, said that it was not the flesh, but the soul, that was not to be lost; and held, with certain of his fellow bishops, that one rightly born can be baptized as soon as born.

8. 24. But against some opinion of Cyprian, where perhaps he did not see what should have been seen, let each think what he pleases; only let no one think against the most manifest apostolic faith, which proclaims that from the offense of one all are led into condemnation: from which condemnation none frees but the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, in whom alone all are made alive, whoever are made alive. Let no one think against the most well-founded custom of the Church, where, if it were run to baptism only for the sake of the bodies of little ones, the dead too would be offered to be baptized.

8. 25. Since these things are so, the cause must be sought and rendered why souls which are newly created for individuals being born are damned, if little ones die apart from the sacrament of Christ: for that they are damned, if they go out of the body thus, both holy Scripture and the holy Church are witness. Whence that opinion about the creation of new souls, if it does not assail this most well-founded faith, let it be mine too; if it assails it, let it not be yours either.

8. 26. I do not wish it said to me that for this opinion we must take what is written: Who formed the spirit of man within him (Zech 12:1); and, Who formed their hearts individually (Ps 33:15 (32:15)). Something most strong and most invincible must be sought, which does not compel us to believe God the damner of any souls without some fault. For either it is worth just as much, or perhaps it is more, to create than to form; and yet it is written: Create in me a clean heart, O God (Ps 51:10 (50:12)): nor on that account can it be thought that the soul in this place wishes itself to be made before it was something. As, therefore, while already existing, it is created by the renewal of righteousness, so while already existing, it is formed by the conformation of doctrine. Nor does that which is written in Ecclesiastes—Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to the Lord who gave it (Eccl 12:7)—confirm this opinion which we wish to be ours: for this rather supports those who think that all souls are from one. For as the dust, they say, returns to the earth, as it was; and yet the flesh, of which this was said, does not return to the man from whom it was propagated, but to the earth, from which the first man was made: so the spirit too, propagated from the spirit of that one, nevertheless does not return to him, but to the Lord by whom it was given to him. But because this testimony so sounds for them that it does not in every way seem to be contrary to this opinion which I wish to defend, I thought your prudence should only be admonished, lest by such testimonies you try to rescue me from these straits. For although no one brings it about, by wishing, that what is not true be true, yet, if it could be done, I would wish this opinion to be true; just as I wish that, if it is true, it be defended by you most clearly and most invincibly.

9. 27. But this difficulty follows also those who suppose that souls already existing elsewhere, and prepared from the beginning of the divine works, are sent by God into bodies. For of these too the same thing is asked: if the blameless souls come obediently to where they are sent, why are they punished in little ones, if, unbaptized, they have ended this life? The difficulty is exactly the same in both opinions. They seem to themselves to get out of this question more easily who assert that souls are entangled in individual bodies according to the merits of a prior life. For they think that this is to die in Adam: namely, to pay penalties in the flesh which was propagated from Adam: from which guilt, they say, the grace of Christ frees the little with the great. This indeed is rightly, truly, and most excellently said, that the grace of Christ frees from the guilt of sins the little with the great. But that souls sin in another, higher life, and are thence cast headlong into carnal prisons—I do not believe, I do not acquiesce, I do not consent. First, because these people say that this comes about through I know not what cycles, so that after I know not how many volumes of ages one must return again to this burden of corruptible flesh and to paying penalties: than which opinion I do not know what more horrible can be thought. Then, what just man, finally, has died, about whom we ought not (if these people speak true) to be anxious, lest, sinning in the bosom of Abraham, he be cast down into the flames of that rich man? For why could he not sin even after this body, if he could even before? Lastly, it is far one thing to have sinned in Adam, whence the Apostle says, in whom all sinned; and another to have sinned outside Adam, I know not where, and therefore to be thrust into Adam, that is, into the flesh propagated from Adam, as into a prison. But that opinion, that all souls are made from one, I do not wish even to discuss, unless it be necessary; and would that this one, of which we now treat, if it is true, be so defended by you that this be no longer necessary.

9. 28. But although I desire, ask, with ardent vows long for and await, that through you the Lord may take from me the ignorance of this matter: nevertheless, if—which God forbid—I shall by no means have deserved it, let me ask patience for myself from the Lord our God; in whom we so believe that, if he does not open some things to us even knocking, we ought in no way to murmur against him. Let us remember that it was first said to the Apostles themselves: I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now (Jn 16:12). Among these, as far as concerns me, let me reckon even this: nor, since I know this, let me be indignant as unworthy, lest by this very thing I be convicted still more unworthy. For there are many other things I likewise do not know, which I cannot recall or enumerate: and I would tolerably be ignorant of this too, did I not fear lest some of these opinions, against that which we hold by a most firm faith, creep upon incautious minds. But before I know which of them is rather to be chosen, I profess that I think this not rashly: that the one which is true does not oppose the most robust and most well-founded faith, by which the Church of Christ believes that not even little human beings, very recently born, can be freed from damnation except through the grace of the name of Christ, which he commended in his sacraments.

LETTER 167
A Book on the Opinion of James
Augustine to Jerome

1. 1. What I wrote to you, brother Jerome, to be honored by me in Christ, asking about the human soul—if new ones are made individually even now for individuals being born, where they contract the bond of sin which we do not doubt must be loosed through the sacrament of the grace of Christ even in infants recently born—since it proceeded into no small volume, I was unwilling to burden with any other question: but what presses more sharply is much less to be neglected. Accordingly I ask, and through God I beseech, that you set forth for me—which I judge will profit many—or, if you already have it set forth, whether by you or by some other, that you direct it to us: how is that to be taken which is written in the letter of the apostle James, For whoever keeps the whole law, but offends in one point, has become guilty of all (Jas 2:10)? Which matter is so great and of such moment that I much repent of not having written to you about it long ago.

1. 2. For this question turns on the present life to be lived—how we may come to eternal life—not on the past to be searched out, which oblivion has utterly sunk, such as is that which I thought should be asked about the soul. But it is narrated that something was elegantly said which fits this matter quite aptly. When a certain man had fallen into a well, where there was so much water that it rather received him so that he should not die, than choked him so that he should not speak, another came up, and seeing him, wondering, said: How did you fall in here? But he said: I beg you, think how you may free me from here; do not ask how I fell in here. So, since we confess, and hold by the catholic faith, that even the soul of a little infant is to be freed by the grace of Christ from the guilt of sin, as from a well, it is enough for it that we know the manner in which it is made safe, even if we never know how it came into that evil. But I thought it should be asked for this reason: lest perhaps from those opinions about the incarnation of the soul we hold some too incautiously, which would altogether contradict the freeing of the little one's soul, denying that it is in that evil. This, therefore, being most firmly held—that the soul of a little one is to be freed from the guilt of sin, and to be freed in no other way except by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord—if we can also know the cause and origin of the evil itself, we more readily and more instructedly resist empty talkers, who are not disputants but wranglers; but if we cannot, the duty of mercy ought not on that account to grow sluggish, just because the beginning of the misery lies hidden. But against those who seem to themselves to know what they do not know, we are the safer for this, that we do not ignore our ignorance. For it is one thing which it is evil not to know; another which either cannot be known, or there is no need to know, or is indifferent to the life we seek: but this which I now inquire about, from the letter of the apostle James, turns on this very life in which we live, and in which we strive to please God so that we may live forever.

1. 3. How, then, is it to be understood, I beseech you: Whoever keeps the whole law, but offends in one point, has become guilty of all (Jas 2:10)? Is it that one who has committed theft—nay rather, who has said to the rich man, Sit here, but to the poor, Stand there (Jas 2:3)—is guilty of homicide, and of adultery, and of sacrilege? And if he is not, how is one who offends in one point become guilty of all? Or does what he said about the rich and the poor not pertain to those things of which, if anyone offend in one, he becomes guilty of all? But we must recall whence that sentence came, and what prior things gave birth to it, and connected to which it depends. My brothers, he says, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with respect of persons. For if there enters your assembly a man with a gold ring in fine clothing, and there enters also a poor man in mean attire, and you pay attention to the one clothed in splendid clothing, and say to him, You sit here well; but to the poor man you say, You stand there, or, Sit under my footstool: do you not judge among yourselves, and have become judges of wicked thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers: did not God choose the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man (Jas 2:1-6): namely on account of him to whom it was said, Stand there, when to the one having the gold ring it had been said, You sit here well. And then it follows, treating and unfolding more broadly that same sentence: Do not, he says, the rich oppress you by their power, and drag you to judgment? Do they not themselves blaspheme the good name which has been invoked over you? If indeed you fulfill the royal law, according to the Scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well: but if you accept persons, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors (Jas 2:6-9). See how he calls transgressors of the law those who say to the rich, Sit here, and to the poor, Stand there. See: lest they should think it a contemptible sin to transgress the law in this one matter, he went on and added: But whoever keeps the whole law, but offends in one point, has become guilty of all. For he who said, You shall not commit adultery, said also, You shall not kill. And if you do not kill, but commit adultery, you have become a transgressor of the law (Jas 2:10-11): on account of what he had said, convicted by the law as transgressors. Since these things are so, it seems to follow (unless it be shown to be understood in another way) that one who has said to the rich man, Sit here, and to the poor man, Stand there, paying to the latter not the honor he paid to the former, is to be judged both an idolater, and a blasphemer, and an adulterer, and a homicide, and—not to recall all, which is long—guilty of all crimes: for, offending in one, he has become guilty of all.

2. 4. But indeed, does one who has one virtue have all, and one who does not have one have none? If this is true, that sentence is confirmed. But I wish it to be expounded, not confirmed; which through itself, with us, is firmer than all the authorities of the philosophers. And that point about virtues and vices, if it is truly said, does not have as its consequence that on this account all sins are equal. For that point about the inseparability of the virtues—even if perhaps I am mistaken, yet if I rightly remember, which I scarcely remember—pleased all the philosophers who said that those same virtues are necessary for the living of life. But this point about the parity of sins only the Stoics dared to dispute, against all the sense of the human race: which vanity of theirs you most clearly convicted from the holy Scriptures, in that Jovinian, who in this opinion was a Stoic, but in catching at and defending pleasures an Epicurean. In which most sweet and most splendid disputation of yours it appeared sufficiently evident that it did not please our authors—or rather the Truth herself, who spoke through them—that all sins are equal. But how it can come about that, even if this about the virtues is true, we are nevertheless not on that account compelled to confess the equality of all sins, I will try, as much as I can, with the Lord's help, to open: and if I accomplish this, you will approve; but where I fall short of the case, you will supply.

2. 5. Certainly they persuade us of this—that one who has one virtue has all, and that all are lacking to him to whom one is lacking—because prudence can be neither cowardly, nor unjust, nor intemperate: for if it were any of these, it would not be prudence. Further, if prudence will be such only when it is also brave, and just, and temperate, then surely, where it is, it has the rest with it. So too fortitude cannot be imprudent, or intemperate, or unjust: so temperance must be prudent, brave, and just: so justice is not, unless it be prudent, brave, and temperate. Thus, where any one of them is true, the others likewise are; but where the others are lacking, that one is not true, even if in some way it seems to be like it.

2. 6. For there are, as you know, certain vices contrary to the virtues by an open distinction, as imprudence to prudence. But there are certain ones contrary only because they are vices, yet similar by a certain deceptive appearance, as to that same prudence not imprudence, but cunning. For I now call cunning that which is more usually understood and named in malicious people; not as our Scripture is wont to speak, which often sets down cunning in a good sense: whence, Be cunning as serpents (Mt 10:16); and that, That it may give cunning to the innocent (Prov 1:4). Although even among them the most eloquent of the Roman tongue said, Nor yet were guile or cunning lacking to him for taking precaution, setting down cunning in a good sense: but among them it is most rare, among ours most frequent. Likewise, among the parts of temperance, most openly contrary is extravagance to frugality: but that which is commonly called stinginess is indeed a vice, yet similar to frugality, not by nature, but by a most deceptive appearance. Likewise by a manifest dissimilarity injustice is contrary to justice: but the lust of avenging oneself is wont as it were to imitate justice, but it is a vice. Cowardice is perspicuously contrary to fortitude: but harshness differs by nature, deceives by likeness. Constancy is a certain part of virtue; from it, inconstancy is far averse, and undoubtedly stands against it: but stubbornness affects to be called constancy, and is not; because the one is a virtue, the other a vice.

2. 7. So that it may not be necessary to recall the same things again, let us set down, by way of example, something from which the rest can be understood. Catiline, as those wrote of him who were able to know him, could bear cold, thirst, hunger, and was patient of fasting, of cold, of want of sleep, beyond what is credible to anyone, and through this seemed both to himself and to his own to be endowed with great fortitude. But this fortitude was not prudent; for it chose evils for goods: it was not temperate; for it was defiled by most base corruptions: it was not just; for he had conspired against his homeland. And therefore it was not even fortitude; but harshness imposed on itself the name of fortitude, in order to deceive the foolish: for if it were fortitude, it would be not a vice, but a virtue; but if it were a virtue, it would never be left by the other virtues, as by inseparable companions.

2. 8. Wherefore, while it is asked, even concerning the vices, whether they likewise all are where one will be, or none are where one will not be, it is laborious to show this, because to one virtue two vices are wont to be opposed—both that which is openly contrary, and that which is shadowed by an appearance of likeness. Whence that fortitude of Catiline, because it was not fortitude, which did not have the other virtues with it, was more easily seen to be so: but that it was cowardice, where there was the exercise of enduring and tolerating any most grievous troubles whatsoever, beyond what is credible to anyone, can be persuaded with difficulty. But perhaps to those who look more keenly, cowardice appears to be that very harshness; because it had neglected the labor of those good pursuits by which true fortitude is acquired. Nevertheless, because there are bold men who are not timid, and again timid men who lack boldness, when each is a vice—since one who is brave by true virtue neither rashly dares, nor inconsiderately fears—we are compelled to confess that the vices are more than the virtues.

2. 9. Whence sometimes a vice is removed by a vice; as by the love of praise, the love of money: sometimes one yields so that more succeed; as one who was a drunkard, if he has drunk moderately, may have learned both stinginess and ambition. Vices, therefore, can also yield to vices succeeding, not to virtues; and therefore they are more. But where a virtue has once entered, since it brings the rest with it, surely all the vices that were there will yield: for not all were there, but sometimes just as many, sometimes more succeeded fewer, or fewer more.

3. 10. Whether these things are so must be inquired more diligently. For that is not a divine sentence by which it is said, One who has one virtue has all; and to him in whom one is lacking, none is present: but this seemed so to men—very ingenious indeed, zealous, but yet men. But I do not know how I should say—I do not say of a man, from whom virtue (virtus) is said to be named, but even of a woman who keeps for her husband the faith of the marriage bed, if she does this on account of the precept and promise of God, and is first faithful to him—that she does not have chastity, or that chastity is no virtue, or a small one; so too of a husband who keeps this same faith to his wife: and yet there are very many such, of whom I would say that none is without some sin, and surely that sin, of whatever kind, comes from some vice. Whence conjugal chastity in religious men and women, since it is without doubt a virtue—for it is neither nothing nor a vice—does not nevertheless have all the virtues with it. For if all were there, there would be no vice; if no vice, no sin at all: but who is without some sin? Who, then, is without some vice, that is, a certain kindling or as it were root of sin, when he who reclined on the Lord's breast cries out: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 Jn 1:8)? Nor need this be argued at length with you; but I say it on account of others who may perhaps read this. For you indeed, in that same splendid work against Jovinian, diligently proved this too from the holy Scriptures: where also, from this very letter, whose words are the ones whose meaning we now inquire into, you set down what is written: For in many things we all offend (Jas 3:2). For he does not say, You offend, but we offend, though it was the apostle of Christ speaking: and although in this place he says, But whoever keeps the whole law, but offends in one point, has become guilty of all, there he says, not in one, but in many; and not certain ones, but all, offend.

3. 11. But far be it that any believer should suppose that so many thousands of servants of Christ, who truly say that they have sin, lest they deceive themselves and the truth be not in them, have no virtue, since wisdom is a great virtue: for wisdom itself said to man, Behold, piety is wisdom (Job 28:28). Far be it, then, that we should say that so many and so great faithful and pious men of God do not have piety, which the Greeks call either eusebeia, or more expressly and fully theosebeia: but what is piety, except the worship of God? And whence is he worshiped, except by love? Love, therefore, from a pure heart and a good conscience and unfeigned faith (1 Tim 1:5), is a great and true virtue, since it is itself also the end of the precept. Rightly was it called strong as death (Song 8:6): either because no one conquers it, as none conquers death; or because in this life, up to death, is the measure of love, as the Lord says, Greater love than this no one has, than that one lay down his life for his friends (Jn 15:13); or rather, because as death tears the soul from the senses of the flesh, so love from carnal concupiscences. To this knowledge is subservient, when it is useful; for without it knowledge puffs up: but what love has filled by building up, there knowledge will find nothing empty to puff up. Moreover, he showed useful knowledge by defining it, where, when he had said, Behold, piety is wisdom, he immediately added: But to abstain from evils is knowledge (Job 28:28). Why, then, do we not say that one who has this virtue has all, since the fullness of the law is love? Or is it that the more it is in a man, the more he is endowed with virtue; but the less, the less virtue is in him, since it is itself virtue: and the less virtue is in him, the more is vice? Where, then, it shall be full and perfect, nothing will remain of vice.

3. 12. Accordingly the Stoics seem to me to be deceived, because they are unwilling that a man advancing in wisdom should have wisdom at all, but that he then has it when he is altogether perfect in it: not that they deny he is advanced; but unless, by emerging from a certain deep, he suddenly flashes out into the free airs of wisdom, they hold him in no part wise. For just as it makes no difference for the drowning of a man whether he has water deep over him by many stadia, or by one palm, or by a finger: so they say that those who tend toward wisdom advance indeed, as rising from the bottom of a whirlpool into the air; but unless by advancing, as by emerging, they have escaped all folly, like the water pressing upon them, they have no virtue, nor are they wise: but when they have escaped, they soon have it whole, nor does anything of folly remain, whence any sin at all could exist.

3. 13. This likeness, where folly is set as water and wisdom as air, so that the mind, emerging as it were from the drowning of folly, suddenly breathes again into wisdom, does not seem to me sufficiently fitted to the authority of our Scriptures: but rather that one, by which vice or folly is compared to darkness, but to light virtue or wisdom, as far as such likenesses can be drawn from corporeal things to intelligible ones. Not, therefore, as one rising from the waters into the air, where, when he has passed their surface, he is suddenly inspired with as much as suffices; but as one proceeding from darkness into light, by gradually advancing is illuminated. Until this is done most fully, we nevertheless already say of him, as of one going out from a most hidden cave, that he is breathed upon by the nearness of the light, the more so the more he approaches the exit: so that what shines in him is surely from the light toward which he proceeds; but what is still obscure is from the darkness whence he goes out. And so both, No living person will be justified in the sight of God (Ps 143:2 (142:2)); and yet, the just lives by faith (Rom 1:17). And the saints are clothed with righteousness, one more, another less: and no one here lives without sin, and this one more, another less; but the best is the one who has the least.

4. 14. But why have I, as if forgetting to whom I speak, become like a teacher, when I had proposed what I wish to learn from you? But because, concerning the parity of sins—whence the question fell into what I was treating—I had determined to set forth my opinion for you to examine, I will now at last conclude it. For even if it is true that one who has one virtue has all, and one who does not have one has none, not even so are sins equal. For where there is no virtue, nothing indeed is right; nor yet on that account is one thing not more crooked than the crooked, and more distorted than the distorted. But if, which I think is truer and more congruous with the sacred Scriptures, the intentions of the soul are like the members of the body, not because they appear in places, but because they are felt in affections; and one is illuminated more, another less, another wholly lacks light and is overshadowed by a shadowy obstacle: surely, just as each one is affected by the illumination of pious love—in one act more, in another less, in some nothing—so it can be said that he has one virtue and does not have another, has one more, another less. For we can rightly say, There is greater love in this man than in that; and, Some in this man, none in that, as far as pertains to the love which is piety: and in one and the same man, that he has greater chastity than patience, and greater today than yesterday, if he advances; and still does not have continence, and has no small mercy.

4. 15. And, to embrace generally and briefly what notion I have of virtue, as far as pertains to living rightly: virtue is love, by which that which is to be loved is loved. This is in some greater, in others less, in others none; but the fullest, which now cannot be increased, as long as a man lives here, is in no one; but as long as it can be increased, surely that which is less than it ought to be is from vice. From which vice there is no just man on earth who does good and does not sin (Eccl 7:20): from which vice no living person will be justified in the sight of God (Ps 143:2 (142:2)). On account of which vice, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 Jn 1:8): on account of which, however much we advance, it is necessary for us to say, Forgive us our debts (Mt 6:12); although in baptism all things said, done, thought have already been forgiven. And so he who sees rightly sees whence, and when, and where that perfection is to be hoped for, to which there is nothing that can be added. But if there were no precepts, surely there would be no place where a man might more surely inspect himself, and see from what he should turn away, toward what he should strive, for what he should give thanks, what he should pray for. Great, then, is the usefulness of the precepts, if so much is granted to free choice that the grace of God may be more honored.

5. 16. If these things are so, how does one who has kept the whole law become guilty of all if he offends in one point? Or perhaps, because the fullness of the law is love, by which God and neighbor are loved—in which precepts of love the whole law and the prophets hang—he rightly becomes guilty of all who acts against that on which all hang? But no one sins except by acting against it: because You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love of neighbor works no evil. But the fullness of the law is love (Rom 13:9-10). But no one loves his neighbor except by loving God, so as to spend on him whom he loves as himself, as much as he can, that he too may love God: whom if he himself does not love, he loves neither himself nor his neighbor. And through this, one who has kept the whole law, if he has offended in one point, becomes guilty of all; because he acts against love, on which the whole law hangs. He becomes guilty of all, then, by acting against that on which all hang.

5. 17. Why, then, should sins not be called equal? Or perhaps because one who sins more grievously acts more against love, one who sins more lightly less? And by this very fact he admits a more and a less by which one becomes guilty of all: but the one sinning more grievously, or in more points, is more guilty; the one sinning more lightly, or in fewer points, less guilty—with so much greater guilt, namely, the more he has sinned, and with so much less, the less; yet even if he offends in one point, he is guilty of all, because he acts against that on which all hang? And if these things are true, in that way too that is resolved which a man even of apostolic grace says: For in many things we all offend (Jas 3:2). For we all offend, but one more grievously, one more lightly, according as each has sinned more or less: with so much greater guilt in committing sin, the less he is in loving God and neighbor; and again, with so much less in the perpetration of sin, the greater he is in the love of God and neighbor. And so, with so much fuller iniquity, the more empty of love. And then we are perfect in love, when nothing remains of weakness.

5. 18. Nor indeed, as I judge, must it be thought a light sin to hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons, if we refer that difference of sitting and standing to ecclesiastical honors: for who would bear that a rich man be chosen for the seat of honor in the Church, a poorer man more instructed and more holy being despised? But if he speaks of daily seatings together, who does not sin in this? If, however, he sins, unless when within himself he so judges that the other seems to him to be the better the richer he is: for this he seems to have signified, when he says, Do you not judge among yourselves, and have become judges of wicked thoughts? (Jas 2:4)

6. 19. The law of liberty, then, is the law of love, of which he says: If, however, you fulfill the royal law according to the Scriptures, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well. But if you accept persons, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors (Jas 2:8-9). And after that sentence most difficult to understand, of which I have said enough of what I thought should be said, recalling that same law of liberty: So speak, he says, and so do, as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty (Jas 2:12). And since he knows what he said a little before, that in many things we all offend, he suggests the Lord's as it were daily medicine for the daily, though lighter, wounds. For judgment, he says, without mercy to him who does not do mercy (Jas 2:13). For hence also the Lord: Forgive, he says, and it will be forgiven you; give, and it will be given you (Lk 6:37-38). But mercy triumphs over judgment (Jas 2:13): it was not said, Mercy conquers judgment, for it is not adverse to judgment; but, triumphs, because more are gathered through mercy—but those who have shown mercy. For blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them (Mt 5:7).

6. 20. And this surely is just: that it be forgiven them, because they forgave; and given to them, because they gave. For there is in God both mercy in judging, and judgment in pitying. On account of which it is said to him: Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord (Ps 101:1 (100:1)): for whoever, as it were too just, awaits judgment without mercy as though secure, provokes a most just wrath, fearing which he said, Enter not into judgment with your servant (Ps 143:2 (142:2)). Whence it is said to a contumacious people: Why do you wish to contend with me in judgment? (See Jer 2:29) For when the just king shall sit on his throne, who will boast that he has a chaste heart? Or who will boast that he is clean from sin? (Prov 20:8-9) What hope is there, then, unless mercy triumphs over judgment? But toward those who have done mercy, by truly saying, Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive; and by giving without murmuring; for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:7). Finally, holy James from this place speaks of the works of mercy, that he may console those whom that sentence had vehemently terrified; when he admonishes how even the daily sins, without which one does not live here, are expiated by daily remedies: lest a man, who, when he offends in one point becomes guilty of all, by offending in many—since in many things we all offend—should, on account of the great heap of his guilt gathered bit by bit, be carried to the tribunal of so great a judge, and not find the mercy which he did not do; but rather, by forgiving and giving, deserve to have his sins forgiven him, and the promises rendered to him.

6. 21. I have said many things, by which I would perhaps cause you tedium, who do not expect to learn these things, which nevertheless you approve, since you have been accustomed to teach them. But if there is anything in them, as far as pertains to the matter itself—for in what eloquence they are unfolded, I do not much care—if, then, there is anything in them which offends your erudition, I ask that by writing back you admonish me, and not be reluctant to correct me. For unhappy is he who does not both worthily honor such great and so holy labors of your studies, and give thanks for them to the Lord our God, by whose gift you are such. Whence, since I ought more willingly to learn from anyone what I uselessly do not know, than more readily to teach anyone what I do know, how much more justly do I demand of you this debt of love—by whose teaching, in the name and help of the Lord, ecclesiastical letters in the Latin tongue have been helped as much as they never could before! But especially that sentence, Whoever keeps the whole law, but offends in one point, has become guilty of all, if your charity knows that it can be expounded better in some other way, I beseech through the Lord that you would deign to communicate it to us.

LETTER 168
To the truly most blessed lord, and deservedly venerable father, bishop Augustine, from Timasius and James, greetings in the Lord.

The grace of God, ministered through your word, has so refreshed and recreated us that we say in plain brotherhood: He sent his word, and healed them (Ps 107:20 (106:20)), most blessed lord, and deservedly venerable father. We have indeed found that your holiness has sifted the text of that little book with such diligence, that we are astonished at the answers rendered to its single points—whether in those things which it befits a Christian to refute, detest, or flee; or in those in which he is found to have erred not slightly, although by I know not what cunning, in believing that even in those very things the grace of God should be suppressed. But there is one thing that affects us in so great a benefit: that this so splendid gift of God's grace shone forth late; since it happened that some became absent, to whose blindness this illumination of so clear a truth was owed; to whom, even if more slowly, we do not doubt that, God being propitious, the same grace will come, who wills all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4). But we, even though long ago, taught by the spirit of clarity which is in you, had cast off the subjection of that error, give thanks even now for this also: that these things which we believed before, we have now learned to open to others, your holiness's more abundant discourse spreading open the way of ease. And in another hand: May the mercy of our God glorify your blessedness, safe and mindful of us, forever.

LETTER 169
Bishop Augustine, to bishop Evodius.

1. 1. If your holiness counts it of such value to know the things which occupy me more, from which I do not wish to be turned aside to something else, send someone who may copy them for you. For already several have been completed which had been begun by us this year before Easter, as Lent drew near. For to those three books on the City of God, against the demon-worshipers, its enemies, we have added two others: by which five books I think enough has been disputed against those who think the gods must be worshiped for the felicity of the present life, and, supposing that this felicity is hindered by us, are hostile to the Christian name. Next must be said, as we promised in the first book, against those who think the worship of their gods necessary for the life to come after death—on account of which life we are Christians. I have also dictated expositions of three psalms, in no small volumes: the sixty-seventh, the seventy-first, the seventy-seventh. The rest, not yet dictated or treated, are vehemently awaited and demanded of us. From these I do not wish to be called back and delayed by any questions whatever rushing in from the side: so much so that I do not now wish to attend even to the books on the Trinity, which I have long turned over in hand and have not yet completed, since they are too laborious, and I think can be understood by few; whence the things which we hope will be useful to many press more urgently.

1. 2. For the Apostle did not say, as you write, He who is ignorant will be ignored (1 Cor 14:38), about this matter—as though he is to be punished with this penalty who is not able by his understanding so to distinguish the ineffable unity of the Trinity as memory, understanding, and will are distinguished in our mind: the Apostle said this for another reason. Read, and you will see that he was speaking of those things which would build up the faith or morals of the many, not of those which scarcely reach the understanding of a few, and that a slight one—however slight it can be in this life about so great a matter; that is, that prophecy be preferred to tongues, that these be not conducted in confusion, as though the spirit of prophecy compelled even the unwilling to speak, that women keep silence in church, that all things be done honestly and according to order. While he was dealing with these things, he says: If anyone seems to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things I write to you are the Lord's commandment. But if anyone is ignorant, he will be ignored (1 Cor 14:37-38): by these words restraining, and recalling to a peaceful order, the restless—so much the readier to sedition the more they seemed to themselves to excel in spirit, while by being proud they threw all into confusion. If anyone, then, seems to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge, he says, that the things I write to you are the Lord's commandment. If anyone seems to be—and surely is not: for he who is, without doubt acknowledges it, and has no need of admonition and exhortation, because he judges all things, and is judged by no one (1 Cor 2:15). Those, then, were making seditions and disturbances in the Church who seemed to be in the Church what they were not. These he teaches to acknowledge that it is the Lord's commandment, since God is not a God of sedition, but of peace (1 Cor 14:33). But if anyone is ignorant, he will be ignored, that is, he will be disapproved. For God, if you refer it to knowledge, does not ignore those to whom he is going to say, I do not know you (Mt 7:23); but their disapproval was intimated by this word.

1. 3. But since the Lord says, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Mt 5:8), and that vision is promised to us at the end as the highest reward; it is not to be feared, if we are now not able to behold to clarity the things we believe about the nature of God, that on this account it was said, He who is ignorant will be ignored. For because in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom did not know God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe (1 Cor 1:21). This foolishness of preaching, and the foolish thing of God which is wiser than men, draws many to salvation, so that not only those who are not yet able by certain understanding to behold the nature of God which they hold by faith, but even those who do not yet in their own soul distinguish incorporeal substance from the general class of body as certainly as they are certain that they live, know, will—are not on that account estranged from the salvation which that foolishness of preaching confers on the faithful.

1. 4. For if Christ died only for those who can by certain understanding distinguish these things, we labor almost in vain in the Church. But if, as the truth holds, the weak peoples of believers run to the physician, to be healed through Christ, and him crucified, so that where sin abounded, grace may superabound (Rom 5:20); it comes about in marvelous ways, through the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, and through his inscrutable judgments, that both some who distinguish the incorporeal from bodies, when they seem to themselves great because of this, and mock the foolishness of preaching by which believers are saved, wander far from the one way which alone leads to eternal life; and many, glorying in the cross of Christ and not departing from that same way, even if they are ignorant of those things which are most subtly discussed—since not one of the little ones for whom Christ died perishes—come to that same eternity, truth, love, that is, to a stable, certain, and full felicity, where, to those abiding, seeing, loving, all things are perspicuous.

2. 5. Accordingly, let us believe with firm piety in one God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; in such a way that neither is the Son believed to be him who is the Father, nor the Father him who is the Son, nor the Father nor the Son him who is the Spirit of both. Let nothing in this Trinity be thought to differ in times or places; but let these three be equal and coeternal, and altogether of one nature: not that one creature was created by the Father, and another by the Son, and another by the Holy Spirit; but that all things and each, which have been or are created, subsist with the Trinity creating; nor that anyone is freed by the Father without the Son and the Holy Spirit, or by the Son without the Father and the Holy Spirit, or by the Holy Spirit without the Father and the Son; but by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the one, true, and truly immortal—that is, in every way unchangeable—God alone. But many things are said even separately in the Scriptures of the individual persons, so that it may be intimated that, although the Trinity is inseparable, it is nevertheless a Trinity: so that, just as they cannot be said at once when they are mentioned with corporeal sounds, although they are at once inseparably, so too in certain places of the Scriptures, and through certain creatures, they are shown individually and by turns—as the Father in the voice with which it sounded, You are my Son (Mk 1:11); and the Son in the man whom he assumed from the Virgin; and the Holy Spirit in the corporeal form of a dove: these show those three separately indeed, but in no way separated.

2. 6. Toward understanding this in some way we take up memory, understanding, will. For although we enunciate these individually, one by one, in their own separate times, yet we do nothing and say nothing of these without the other two. Nor on that account are these three to be thought so compared to the Trinity that they fit in every part: for to what likeness, in disputing, is so great a fitness granted that it is fitted in every part to the thing to which it is to be applied? Or when is anything similar taken up from the creature to the Creator? First, then, this likeness is found dissimilar in this: that these three, memory, understanding, will, are in the soul; the soul is not these same three: but that Trinity is not in God, but is itself God. Therefore a marvelous simplicity is there commended; because there it is not one thing to be, another to understand, or whatever else is said of God's nature: but the soul, because it is, even while it does not understand, is one thing that which it is, another that which it understands. Then who would dare to say that the Father does not understand through himself, but through the Son, as memory does not understand through itself, but through understanding, or rather the soul itself, in which these are, understands only through understanding, as it remembers only through memory, and wills only through will? To this, then, that likeness is applied, so that in some way it may be understood how, of these three in the soul, although the individual names are enunciated by which those same individual things are shown, yet each name is enunciated with these three cooperating, since it is said both by remembering, and by understanding, and by willing: so there is no creature by which either the Father alone, or the Son alone, or the Holy Spirit alone is shown, which the Trinity does not work at the same time—the Trinity which works inseparably: and through this, neither the voice of the Father, nor the soul and flesh of the Son, nor the dove of the Holy Spirit was made except with that same Trinity cooperating.

2. 7. Nor indeed was that sound of the voice, which immediately ceased to be, fitted into the unity of the person of the Father, nor was that corporeal form of the dove fitted into the unity of the person of the Holy Spirit. For it too, like that bright cloud which covered the Savior on the mountain with the three disciples, or rather like that fire which showed that same Holy Spirit, the office of signification being fulfilled, soon ceased to be. But the man alone—because for the sake of that very nature to be freed all those things were done—was fitted by a marvelous and singular assumption into the unity of the person of the Word of God, that is, of the only Son of God, the Word nevertheless remaining unchangeably in its own nature, in which nothing composite, with which it subsists, is to be suspected by any phantasm of the human mind. It is read indeed: And the Spirit of wisdom is manifold (Wis 7:22); but it is rightly called also simple. For manifold, since there are many things which it has; but simple, because it is not other than what it has: as the Son was said to have life in himself (Jn 5:26), and is himself that same life. But the man came to the Word, the Word did not come into the man convertibly; and so the Son of God is said together with the man assumed: whence the same Son of God is unchangeable and coeternal with the Father, but in the Word alone; and the Son of God was buried, but in the flesh alone.

2. 8. Accordingly, the words which are said of the Son of God must be seen in what respect they are said. For by the man assumed the number of persons was not increased, but the same Trinity remained. For just as in any man, except that one who was singularly assumed, the soul and body are one person, so in Christ the Word and the man are one person. And just as a man, for example, a philosopher, is so called only according to the soul, and yet we do not on that account absurdly, but by a most congruous and most usual manner of speech, say a philosopher beaten, a philosopher dead, a philosopher buried, although the whole happens according to the flesh, not according to that which is philosopher: so Christ is God, Son of God, Lord of glory, and whatever of this kind is said according to the Word; and yet it is rightly said that God was crucified, since it is not held uncertain that he suffered this according to the flesh, not according to that by which he is Lord of glory.

2. 9. But that sound of the voice, and the corporeal form of the dove, and the divided tongues as it were of fire which settled upon each of them, just as those things on Mount Sinai which were made in a terrible form, and just as that pillar of cloud by day and of flame by night, were done and finished by a significative operation. In these, this is especially to be guarded against, lest the nature of God—whether of the Father, or of the Son, or of the Holy Spirit—be believed to be changeable and convertible. Nor let it move us that sometimes the thing which signifies receives the name of the thing which it signifies. The Holy Spirit was said in corporeal form, as it were a dove, to have descended and remained upon him. For so too the rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4), because it signifies Christ.

3. 10. But I wonder that it seems to you that the sound of that voice by which it was said, You are my Son, could be made by sole corporeal nature, not with the soul mediating, but by the divine nod; and that it does not seem to you that in the same way there could be made the corporeal form of any animal whatever, and a motion like that of a living thing, by the divine nod, with no animal spirit interposed. For if a corporeal creature obeys God without the ministry of an animating soul, so that sounds are produced such as are wont to be produced from an animate body, so that the form of articulate speech is brought to the ears; why should it not obey, so that without the ministry of an animating soul the figure and motion of a bird, by the same power of the Creator, is brought before the sight? Or can the sense of hearing merit this, the sense of seeing not, since from the adjacent matter of body both are formed—both what sounds to the ears and what appears to the sight, both the articulations of voice and the lineaments of members, both audible and visible motion—so that both there is a true body which is perceived by the bodily sense, and there is nothing more than what is perceived by the bodily sense? For the soul is perceived by no bodily sense even in any animate thing. There is no need, therefore, to ask how the corporeal form of the dove appeared, just as we do not ask how the voices of an articulate body sounded. For if the soul could not be the mediator where the voice—not as a voice—is said to be made; how much more could it not be, where it is said as a dove, signified by this word with sole corporeal form rendered to the eyes, not the nature of a living animal expressed? In this way too is that said: There came suddenly from heaven a sound, as of a rushing mighty wind, and there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire (Acts 2:2-3): where a certain form, as it were of wind, and as it were of perceptible fire, like to the usual and known natures, not the very usual and known natures made for a time, seem to be signified.

3. 11. But if a subtler reason, or a more excellent investigation of the matter, shows that the nature which is moved neither temporally nor locally is not moved except through that which can be moved only temporally, not locally, it will follow that all those things were effected through the ministry of a living creature, as they are done through angels: whence to discuss it more diligently is both long and not necessary. To this is added that there are visions which appear to the spirit as if to the senses of the body, not only to those sleeping or raving, but sometimes to those of sound mind and awake; not by the deceit of demons mocking, but by some spiritual revelation, which is made through incorporeal forms like to bodies; which can in no way be distinguished, unless they be more fully revealed by divine help, and judged by the understanding of the mind, scarcely sometimes when they happen, but for the most part afterward when they have passed. Since these things are so—whether in corporeal natures, or with sole corporeal form, but spiritual nature, they seem to appear to our spirit as if to the senses of the body—when holy Scripture mentions these, we ought not rashly to judge of which of these two kinds they are, and whether they happen with a living creature mediating, if they happen by a body: provided, however, that we either without any doubt believe, or by whatever understanding grasp, that the invisible and unchangeable nature of the Creator, that is, of the supreme and ineffable Trinity, is removed and separated both from the senses of mortal carnal beings and from all convertibility, whether for the better, or for the worse, or for anything else and another.

4. 12. These things, about the two questions—that is, about the Trinity, and about the dove, in which the Holy Spirit was shown not by his own nature, but by a significative form (just as the Son of God too was crucified by the Jews not by his own nativity, of which the Father said, Before the morning star I begot you (Ps 110:3 (109:3)), but in the man assumed from the womb of the Virgin)—you see how I, most occupied, was nevertheless able to write to you who are at leisure. Nor did I think all the things must be treated which you set down in your letter; but I judge that I have answered those two which you wished to hear from me, even if not sufficiently for your avidity, yet obediently for your charity.

4. 13. But besides those two books which I mentioned above that I added to the three, and the exposition of three psalms, I have also written a book to the holy presbyter Jerome on the Origin of the Soul, consulting him how that opinion can be defended which he wrote to Marcellinus of religious memory to be his own, "that new individual souls are made for those being born," so that the most well-founded faith of the Church may not be undermined, by which we believe unshaken that in Adam all die, and, unless they are freed by the grace of Christ—which he works through his sacrament even in little ones—they are drawn into condemnation. I have also written another to the same, how it seems to him that what is written in the letter of James is to be taken: But whoever keeps the whole law, but offends in one point, has become guilty of all. But in this I have said also what seems to me: while in that, about the origin of the soul, I only asked what seems to him, by a certain consultative disputation. For I did not wish to lose the occasion of a certain most holy and most zealous young presbyter, Orosius, who came to us from farthest Spain, that is, from the shore of the ocean, inflamed by the ardor of the holy Scriptures alone; whom I persuaded to go to him too. To this very Orosius also I answered, in one not large book, with as much brevity and clarity as I could, certain questions which disturbed him about the heresy of the Priscillianists, and certain opinions of Origen which the Church has not received. I have also written a certain large book against the heresy of Pelagius, certain brothers compelling me, on whom he had urged a most pernicious opinion against the grace of Christ. If you wish to have all these, send someone who may copy them all for you. But permit me to be free for seeking out and dictating these things, which, since they are necessary to many, I judge must be preferred to your inquiries, which pertain to very few.

LETTER 170
To the excellent lord, and deservedly honorable and religious brother Maximus, from Alypius and Augustine, greetings in the Lord.

1. When we inquired of our holy brother and fellow bishop Peregrinus especially about the salvation, not corporeal but spiritual, of yourself and of your people, his answers made us glad about you, but sad about your people, because they are not joined to the catholic Church by a salutary correction. And because we hoped this would soon come to pass, we greatly grieve that it has not yet been done, excellent lord, and deservedly honorable and religious brother.

2. Accordingly, greeting your charity in the peace of the Lord, we both enjoin and ask that you not delay to teach those people what you have learned; namely, that there is one God alone, to whom is owed that service which by the Greek word is called latreia. For the very word is in the law, where it is written: You shall adore the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve (Deut 6:13): whom if we should say to be the Father only, it will be answered, Then latreia is not owed to the Son; which it is wicked to say. But if it is owed, how then is it owed to one God only, if it is owed both to the Father and the Son, except because the one God, whom alone we are bidden to serve by latreia, is so called the one God that both the Father is understood and the Son, indeed even also the Holy Spirit? For of him the Apostle says: Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a great price. Glorify God in your body (1 Cor 6:19-20): what God, but the Holy Spirit, whose temple he had said our bodies were? Latreia, therefore, is owed to the Holy Spirit. For if we were bidden to make a temple for him, as Solomon made one of wood and stones, surely in making the temple we would be convicted of offering latreia: how much more do we owe latreia to him for whom we do not make a temple, but are one!

3. And through this, if latreia is owed to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and is offered by us—of which it was said, You shall adore the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve—without doubt the Lord our God, whom alone we ought to serve by latreia, is not the Father alone, nor the Son alone, nor the Holy Spirit alone, but the Trinity itself, one God alone, Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit: not that the Father is himself who is the Son, or the Holy Spirit is himself either Father or Son, since in that Trinity the Father is Father of the Son alone, and the Son is Son of the Father alone, but the Holy Spirit is the Spirit both of the Father and of the Son; but on account of the one and the same nature and inseparable life, the Trinity itself, as far as a man can, faith going before, is understood to be the one Lord our God, of whom it was said, You shall adore the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve, and whom the Apostle proclaims; for he says: For from him, and in him, and through him are all things: to him be glory forever and ever. Amen (Rom 11:36).

4. For the only-begotten Son is not from God the Father in the way that the whole creation is from him, which he created from nothing. For him he begot of his own substance, he did not make from nothing: nor did he beget him in time, through whom he founded all times. For just as a flame does not precede in time the brightness which it begets, so the Father never was without the Son. For he is the Wisdom of God the Father, of which it is written: For he is the brightness of eternal light (Wis 7:26). To the light, then, whose brightness he is, that is, to God the Father, he is without doubt coeternal: and therefore not as in the beginning God made heaven and earth (Gen 1:1), so in the beginning he made the Word; but in the beginning was the Word (Jn 1:1). The Holy Spirit too was not made from nothing as a creature: but so proceeds from the Father and the Son that he was made neither by the Son nor by the Father.

5. This Trinity is of one and the same nature and substance: not less in the individual persons than in all, nor greater in all than in the individual ones; but as great in the Father alone, or in the Son alone, as in the Father and Son together; and as great in the Holy Spirit alone as together in the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. For the Father, that he might have the Son from himself, did not diminish himself; but so begot from himself another self, that he remained whole in himself, and was in the Son as great as he was even alone. Likewise the Holy Spirit too, whole from the whole, does not precede that from which he proceeds, but is as great with him as he is from him, neither diminishing him by proceeding, nor increasing him by cleaving to him. And all these are neither confusedly one, nor disjointedly three: but since they are one, they are three, and since they are three, they are one. Accordingly, he who granted to so many hearts of his faithful to be one heart, how much more does he preserve in himself that these three, both individually God, and all together not three gods, but one God! This is the one Lord our God, who is served with all piety, to whom alone that latreia is owed.

6. Since he, in things which are born in time, has by his goodness brought it about that any thing should beget offspring of its own substance—as man begets man, not of another nature, but of that of which he himself is—see how impiously it is said that he himself did not beget that which he himself is. For these are names of relationship, not of nature, and therefore are said toward something, or relatively, which are sometimes the same, sometimes diverse. The same, namely, when brother is referred to brother, friend to friend, neighbor to neighbor, kinsman to kinsman, and any like terms, which it is endless to wish to run through all. For in these, what this one is to that one, that the other is to this one. But they are diverse, as father to son, son to father, father-in-law to son-in-law, son-in-law to father-in-law, master to servant, servant to master. This one is not indeed to that one what that one is to this one; but both are nevertheless men: the relation is diverse, not the nature. For if you attend to what each is to the other, this one is not to that one what that one is to this one: because this one is father, that one son; or this one father-in-law, that one son-in-law; or this one master, that one servant. But if you attend to what each is to himself, or in himself, the one is what the other is; because the one is man as the other is. Whence your prudence understands that it is not reasonably said by those from whose error the Lord freed you, that the nature of God the Father and of God the Son is therefore diverse, because the one is Father, the other Son; and that God the Father did not beget that which he himself is, because he did not beget the Father of his Son, which he himself is to him: for who does not see that these words do not show natures in themselves, but signify the persons of one to another?

7. Such too is that which they say with a like error, that the Son is therefore of another nature, and of a diverse substance, because the Father is not God from another God, but the Son is indeed God, but from God the Father: for here too not substance is indicated, but origin, that is, not what each is, but whence each is or is not. For Abel and Adam were not therefore not of one nature and substance, because the one was a man from that man, the other from no one. If, then, the nature of each is asked, Abel is a man, Adam is a man: but if the origin, the first man from whom Abel is, no man from whom Adam is. So in God the Father and God the Son, if the nature of each be asked, each is God, nor is the one more God than the other: but if the origin, the Father is the God from whom is God the Son; but from whom the Father is, there is no God.

8. In vain, then, trying to answer this, they say: But man begets with passion, while God begot the Son without passion. For this not only helps them in nothing, but helps us very much. For if to temporal and passible things God granted that they should beget what they are, how much more did he himself, eternal and impassible, beget not other than what he himself is, one the only one; to our unspeakable admiration on this account, since without passion, and with so great equality with himself, that he preceded him neither in power nor in age! But for this reason the whole that he has, that he can, he attributes not to himself but to the Father, because he is not from himself, but from the Father. For he is equal to the Father, but this too he received from the Father; nor did he so receive that whence he is equal, as though he were first unequal; but born equal, as always born, so always equal. He did not, then, beget an unequal one, and add equality to one already born; but in begetting he gave it, because he begot an equal, not an unequal. Therefore to be in the form of God equal to God was not robbery (Phil 2:6) to him, but nature; since he took this by being born, not presumed it by being proud.

9. But he says that the Father is greater for this reason: because he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil 2:7), not losing the form of God: on account of which form of a servant, he was made less not only than the Father, but even than himself and the Holy Spirit; nor only than this most excellent Trinity, but he was even made a little less than the angels (Heb 2:9); and he was less than men too, when he was subject to his parents. On account of this form of a servant, surely, which, the fullness of time coming, having emptied himself he received, he said: The Father is greater than I (Jn 14:28). But on account of that form which, even emptied, he did not lose, he said: I and the Father are one (Jn 10:30); both made man, that is, and remaining God: for the man was assumed by God, God was not consumed in the man. Therefore very reasonably the man Christ is both less than the Father, and the same Christ, God, is equal to the Father.

10. Since, then, we rejoice that you, in our presence and with great exultation of the people of God, have been joined to this right and catholic faith, why are we still sad about the sluggishness of your people? We beseech you, through the mercy of God, that with his help you take away this grief from our hearts. For it is not to be believed that your authority could avail much for the perversity of your people, and avail nothing for their correction. Or do they perhaps despise you, because you came into the participation of the catholic Church at this age, when they ought rather to admire and venerate you, because you conquered a most ancient error by a kind of senile youth? Far be it that they should resist you speaking true things, who had consented to you straying from the truth; far be it that they should be unwilling to think rightly with you, with whom it delighted them to err. Only pray for them, and press upon them. Nay rather, bring them with you to the house of God, who are with you in your house; or let it not irk you to come into the house of God with those who had been wont to gather in your house; especially since the catholic mother both asks some of you, and asks back others: she asks those whom she found with you; she asks back those whom she lost through you. Let her not be tortured by losses, but rather rejoice in gains: let her acquire children she did not have, not bewail those she had. We pray to God that you may do what we exhort; and we hope of his mercy that, by the letters of our holy brother and fellow bishop Peregrinus, and by the replies of your charity, our heart will soon be filled with joy about this matter, and our tongue with exultation.

LETTER 171
To the most blessed lord, and venerably most dear brother and fellow bishop Peregrinus, from Alypius and Augustine, greetings in the Lord.

1. We have sent a letter to our honorable brother Maximus, believing that he would receive it gratefully: whether, however, we have accomplished anything, deign to write back at the next occasion you can find. Let him know, indeed, that we are accustomed to write lengthy letters to our most intimate friends, not only laymen, but even bishops, in the way this is written, to them—so that they are both quickly written, and the paper is more conveniently held when they are read—lest perhaps, not knowing this custom of ours, he should think an injury has been done him.

LETTER 171/A
From Augustine to Maximus

1. Conform your life and morals to the precepts of God, which we have received that we may act well, beginning from religious fear. For the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Ps 111:10 (110:10)), where human pride is broken and weakened. Then, that, gentle and meek through piety, you may not, by spirited contention, struggle against even those things you do not yet understand, and which seem to the unskilled absurd and self-contradictory in the holy Scriptures, nor superimpose your own sense upon the senses of the divine Books; but rather yield, and meekly defer understanding, than, unmeek, accuse what is hidden. Third, when human weakness begins to be opened to you for the knowledge of yourself, and you know where you lie, what penal bonds of mortality, propagated from Adam, you drag with you, and how far you are a pilgrim from the Lord; and you have perceived another law in your members fighting against the law of your mind, and leading you captive in the law of sin which is in your members; you may cry out: Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? (Rom 7:23-24)—so that, mourning, you may be consoled by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, promising the very liberation. Fourth, now desire to fulfill righteousness much more vehemently and fervently than the pleasures of the flesh are wont to be desired by the most worthless men; except that, in the hope of divine help, in this appetite there is a tranquil ardor and a more secure flame. But in this fourth step of life one presses earnestly upon prayers, that to those hungering and thirsting the fullness of righteousness may be granted; so that it may not only not be burdensome, but even delight, to abstain from the pleasure of all corruption, whether one's own or another's, whether by struggling or by opposing. That this may be easily granted from above, a fifth is added: the counsel of showing mercy, that in what you can you may help the needy; because in what you cannot yet, you desire to be helped by the Almighty. But the gift of mercy is twofold: when punishment is remitted, and when kindness is shown. These two the Lord briefly comprehended thus: Forgive, and it will be forgiven you; give, and it will be given you (Lk 6:37-38). But this work avails also for the cleansing of the heart, so that, as far as is permitted in this life, we may be able to behold by pure understanding the unchangeable substance of God. For something is held against us which must be relaxed, that our gaze may break forth into the light: whence the Lord himself says: But give alms, and behold, all things are clean to you (Lk 11:41). Wherefore a sixth follows: the cleansing itself of the heart.

2. But that a right and pure gaze may be directed into the true light, neither those things which we do well and laudably, nor those things which we discern keenly and sagaciously, are to be referred to the end of pleasing men, or of relieving the necessities of the body. For God wishes to be worshiped freely; because there is nothing on account of which he himself should be sought. When we come to this purity of understanding by the steps of a good life, whether more slowly or more quickly, then let us dare to say that we are able somewhat to touch with the mind the unity of the supreme and ineffable Trinity: where the highest peace will be; because there is nothing beyond which to be awaited, when, reformed to the image of their own kind, made sons of God out of men, they fully enjoy the paternal unchangeableness. For first: Blessed are the poor in spirit (Mt 5:3); where there is the fear of God. Then: Blessed are the meek (Mt 5:4); where there is docile piety. Third: Blessed are those who mourn (Mt 5:5); where there is the knowledge of one's own weakness. Fourth: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt 5:6); where there is the fortitude of striving to have the lusts subdued. Fifth: Blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them (Mt 5:7); where there is the counsel of helping, that you may deserve to be helped. Then one comes to the sixth step, in which it is said: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Mt 5:8); where the pure understanding, fit for understanding, cannot behold the Trinity, in however small a part, unless we also do not seek human praise, though we do praiseworthy things. Accordingly, by the seventh step we come to the tranquility of that peace which the world cannot give. For even to those four virtues which the philosophers too were once able to trace out with memorable industry, that is, prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice, if for the perfect worship of religion we add these three joined, that is, faith, hope, and love, we surely find the sevenfold number. For rightly these three are not omitted, without which we know that no one can either worship God or please him.

LETTER 172
To the truly holy lord, and venerable to me with all affection, pope Augustine, from Jerome, greetings in Christ.

1. The honorable man, my brother, son of your worthiness, the presbyter Orosius, I received both by his own merit and at your bidding. But there fell a most difficult time, when it was better for me to be silent than to speak, so that our studies ceased and, as Appius says, a doglike eloquence was exercised. And so to your two little books, which you dedicated to my name, most learned and shining with all the splendor of eloquence, I could not for the time answer: not that I think there is anything in them to be blamed, but because, according to the blessed Apostle, Let each one abound in his own sense; one indeed in this way, another in that (Rom 14:5). Certainly, whatever could be said, and drawn by a sublime mind from the fountains of the holy Scriptures, has been set down and discussed by you. But I beg your reverence, suffer me a little to praise your genius. For we discuss between ourselves for the sake of erudition. But rivals, and especially heretics, if they see diverse opinions between us, will calumniate that they descend from rancor of mind. But it is my decree to love you, to look up to you, to revere, to admire you, and to defend your sayings as my own. Certainly even in the dialogue which I recently published, I made mention of your blessedness, as was fitting: and rather let us give effort, that the most pernicious heresy be taken from the churches, which always feigns penitence, that it may have the faculty of teaching in the churches; lest, if it betrays itself in the open light, expelled outdoors it die.

2. Your holy and venerable daughters Eustochium and Paula walk worthily both of their lineage and of your exhortation, and especially greet your blessedness; as does also the whole brotherhood which strives to serve the Lord Savior with us. The holy presbyter Firmus we sent last year, on their business, to Ravenna, and thence to Africa and Sicily, whom we think to be now staying in the parts of Africa. The holy ones clinging to your side, I pray that you greet with my service. I have also directed my letters to the holy presbyter Firmus; which, if they come to you, be not reluctant to direct to him. May Christ the Lord keep you safe and mindful of me, truly holy lord and most blessed pope. Postscript: We suffer a great scarcity of notaries of the Latin tongue in this province; and therefore we cannot obey your commands, especially in the edition of the Septuagint, which is marked with asterisks and obeli: for very much of our prior labor we lost through the fraud of someone.

LETTER 173
To Donatus, presbyter of the party of Donatus, from Augustine, bishop of the catholic Church.

1. If you could see the grief of my heart, and my anxiety for your salvation, perhaps you would pity your own soul, pleasing God in hearing the word, not ours but his own; nor would you so fix his Scriptures in your memory as to shut your heart against them. It displeases you that you are drawn to salvation, though you have drawn so many of ours to perdition. For what did we wish, except that you be seized, and presented, and saved that you might not perish? But that you were injured in your body, you did this to yourself, who would not use the beast soon brought to you, and dashed yourself heavily to the ground: for surely the other who was brought with you, your colleague, came uninjured, who did not do such things to himself.

2. But neither do you think this ought to have been done to you, because you suppose that no one should be compelled to the good. Consider what the Apostle said: One who desires the episcopate desires a good work (1 Tim 3:1); and yet so many, that they may take up the episcopate, are held unwilling, led, shut in, kept, suffer so many things they do not wish, until the will to take up the good work is present in them: how much more are you to be drawn from the pernicious error in which you are enemies to yourselves, and to be led to the truth, either to be known or to be chosen—not only that you may salutarily have honor, but also that you may not perish most wretchedly! You say that God gave free choice; that therefore a man ought not to be compelled even to the good. Why, then, are those of whom I spoke above compelled to the good? Attend, then, to what you do not wish to consider. A good will is mercifully bestowed for this reason: that the evil will of man may be directed. For who does not know that a man is neither damned except by the merit of an evil will, nor freed unless he has a good will? Yet not on that account are those who are loved to be left, with impunity and cruelly, to their evil will; but where power is given, they are both to be prohibited from evil and compelled to the good.

3. For if an evil will is always to be left to its liberty, why were the Israelites, refusing and murmuring, prohibited from evil by such hard scourges, and compelled toward the land of promise? If an evil will is always to be left to its liberty, why was Paul not permitted to use the most evil will by which he persecuted the Church, but was prostrated that he might be blinded, and blinded that he might be changed, changed that he might be sent, sent that he might suffer for the truth such things as he had done in error? If an evil will is always to be left to its liberty, why is the father admonished in the holy Scriptures to correct his hard son not only with words, but even to beat his sides, that, compelled and tamed, he may be directed to good discipline? Whence the same says: You indeed strike him with the rod; but you free his soul from death (Prov 23:14). If an evil will is always to be left to its liberty, why are the negligent shepherds corrected, and it is said to them: The straying sheep you have not called back, the lost one you have not sought (Ezek 34:4)? And you are sheep of Christ, you carry the Lord's mark in the sacrament which you received; but you stray and perish. Let us not displease you, therefore, because we call back the straying and seek the lost. For we do better to follow the will of the Lord admonishing us to compel you to return to his fold, than to consent to the will of the straying sheep, so as to permit you to perish. Do not, then, any longer say what I constantly hear you saying: I wish to err thus, I wish to perish thus. For we do better not to permit this at all, as far as we can.

4. Just now, that you cast yourself into the well to die, you surely did by free will. But how cruel the servants of God would be, if they permitted you to this evil will of yours, and did not free you from that death! Who would not deservedly blame them? Who would not rightly judge them impious? And yet you willingly cast yourself into the water to die; they unwillingly lifted you from the water, that you might not die: you acted according to your will, but to your destruction; they against your will, but for your salvation. If, then, this corporeal safety is so to be guarded that it is preserved even in the unwilling by those who love them, how much more that spiritual safety, in the desertion of which eternal death is feared! Although in this death which you wished to bring upon yourself, you would die not only for a time, but even forever; because even if you were compelled not to salvation, not to the peace of the Church, not to the unity of Christ's body, not to holy and undivided love, but to some evils, not even so ought you to bring death upon yourself.

5. Consider the divine Scriptures, and examine as much as you can, and see whether any of the just and faithful ever did this, when they suffered such great evils from those who were driving them to eternal destruction, not to eternal life, to which you are compelled. I have heard that you said the apostle Paul signified that this ought to be done, where he says: Even if I deliver my body to be burned (1 Cor 13:3); because, namely, he was calling all things good which without love profit nothing, such as are the tongues of men and angels, and all sacraments, and all knowledge, and all prophecy, and all faith so that mountains be moved, and the distribution of one's goods to the poor; and so it seems to you that he numbered this too among good things—that each should bring death upon himself. But attend diligently and acknowledge how the Scripture says that one delivers his body to be burned. Not, surely, that he should cast himself into the fire when he suffers a persecuting enemy; but when it is set before him that he should either do some evil or suffer some evil, let him choose to do no evil rather than not to suffer evil: and so deliver his body into the power of the slayer, as those three men did who were compelled to adore the golden statue, and unless they did so, the one who compelled them threatened them with a burning fiery furnace. They were unwilling to adore the idol; they did not cast themselves into the fire: and yet even of them it is so written, that they delivered their bodies, so that they would neither serve nor adore any god, but their God. Behold how the Apostle said: If I deliver my body to be burned.

6. But see what follows: If I have not love, it profits me nothing (1 Cor 13:3). To this love you are called, from this love you are not allowed to perish; and you think it profits you something if you hurl yourself into destruction, when it would profit you nothing even if another killed you, an enemy of love! But set outside the Church, and separated from the framework of unity and the bond of love, you would be punished with eternal torment, even if for the name of Christ you were burned alive: for this is what the Apostle says: Even if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing (1 Cor 13:3). Recall your mind, then, to sound consideration and sober thought; attend diligently whether you are called to error and impiety, and suffer any troubles whatever for the truth. But if you rather are engaged in error and impiety, while where you are called there is truth and piety, since there is Christian unity and the love of the Holy Spirit; why do you still try to be an enemy to yourself?

7. Therefore the mercy of God brought it about that both we and your bishops came to Carthage in so frequent and numerous a gathering, and most orderly conferred among ourselves about that very dissension. The proceedings were written down, our subscriptions too are kept; read them, or suffer them to be read to you, and then choose what you will. I have heard that you said you could do something with us about those proceedings, if we omit the words of your bishops, where they said: "Neither does one cause prejudge another cause, nor one person another person." You wish us to omit these words, where through them, unknowing, truth itself spoke. But you are going to say that they erred here, and fell too incautiously into a false opinion. But we say that they said this truly, and we prove this most easily through you yourself. For if your bishops, chosen by the whole party of Donatus, who would sustain the cause of all, and if they had done anything pleasing and acceptable the rest would hold it—yet in that which you think they said rashly and not rightly, you do not wish them to prejudge you; therefore they said truly, that neither does one cause prejudge another cause, nor one person another person. And there you ought to acknowledge that, if you do not wish the person of so many of your bishops, set among those seven, to prejudge the person of Donatus, presbyter of Mutugenna, how much less ought the person of Caecilian, even if something evil were found in him, to prejudge the whole unity of Christ, which is not shut up in one villa of Mutugenna, but diffused throughout the whole world?

8. But behold, we do what you wished; we deal with you as if your bishops had not said: "Neither does one cause prejudge another cause, nor one person another person." Find you what they ought to have said, when there was set against them the cause and person of Primian, who both condemned his condemners along with the rest, and received the condemned and detested back again into their honors, and chose rather to acknowledge and accept the baptism which the dead had given (for of those very ones it had been said in that famous sentence that "the shores are full of the corpses of the dead" [in the Bagai council]) than to blow it away and rescind it, and dissolved entirely what you, understanding badly, are wont to say: One who is baptized by a dead man, what does his washing profit him? If, then, they did not say, "Neither does one cause prejudge another cause, nor one person another person," they would be held guilty in the cause of Primian: but since they said this, they made the catholic Church immune, as we asserted, from the cause of Caecilian.

9. But read the rest, examine the rest. See whether against Caecilian himself, of whose person they tried to prejudge the Church, they could prove anything evil. See whether they did not rather do much even for him, and, by the more numerous readings which they brought forward and recited against themselves, wholly confirm that his cause was good. Read these things, or let them be read to you. Consider all, review diligently, and choose what you will follow: whether to rejoice with us in the peace of Christ, in the unity of the catholic Church, in brotherly love; or, for a wicked dissension, for the party of Donatus, for a sacrilegious division, longer to endure the importunity of our love toward you.

10. For you attend and often repeat, as I hear, that it is written in the Gospel that seventy disciples withdrew from the Lord, and were permitted to the choice of their evil and impious withdrawal, and that to the other twelve who remained it was answered: Do you too wish to go? (Jn 6:67) And you do not attend that then for the first time the Church was sprouting in fresh shoots, and that prophecy was not yet fulfilled in her: And all the kings of the earth shall adore him; all nations shall serve him (Ps 72:11 (71:11)): which surely, the more it is fulfilled, the greater power the Church uses, so that it not only invites, but even compels to the good. This the Lord then wished to signify, who, although he had great power, yet first chose to commend humility. This he showed quite evidently also in that likeness of the banquet, where he sent to those invited, and they would not come, and he said to the servant: Go out into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor, and the weak, and the blind, and the lame. And the servant said to the master, It is done as you commanded, and still there is room. And the master said to the servant, Go out into the roads and hedges, and compel them to enter, that my house may be filled (Lk 14:21-23). See now how of those who came first it was said, Bring in here; it was not said, compel: so were signified the beginnings of the Church growing to this, that there should be strength even to compel. Accordingly, because it behooved that, the Church now strengthened in its powers and greatness, men be compelled even to the banquet of eternal salvation, after it was said, It is done as you commanded, and still there is room; Go out, he says, into the roads and hedges, and compel them to enter. Wherefore, if you were walking quietly outside this banquet of the holy unity of the Church, we would find you as if in the roads; but now, because through the many evil and savage things which you commit against ours, you are as it were full of thorns and roughness, we find you as if in the hedges, and we compel you to enter. He who is compelled is forced where he does not wish; but when he has entered, he now willingly feeds. Restrain, then, so iniquitous and unquiet a mind, that in the true Church of Christ you may find the saving banquet.

LETTER 173/A
To the most beloved lords, holy brothers and fellow presbyters Deogratias and Theodorus, and the fellow deacons Titianus and brother Comes, from Augustine.

1. Although not by your letter, yet by a most certain and most faithful messenger, I have learned that you desire me to write something by which, without any doubt and without any obscurity which cannot be penetrated by the slower-witted, the Holy Spirit may be proved to be God. Accordingly, let your brotherhood know—so far as I can recall from the holy Scriptures on this matter—that one whom what the Apostle says does not satisfy, Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a great price; glorify and bear God in your body (1 Cor 6:19-20), is wholly ignorant whence it can be persuaded to him that the Holy Spirit is God, as far as concerns the authority of the divine words: but as far as concerns reason, which can be undertaken either by a man or by such a man as we are, this matter is disputed with the greatest labor. But whoever yields to the most eminent authority of the divine Scriptures, let him first look at what is written: You shall adore the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve (Deut 6:13), which in Greek is so set down that there is understood not that service which is owed even to human masters, but that which is to be shown to God only, which is called latreia; whence idolatry too is rightly condemned, when latreia is shown to idols, while latreia is to be shown to the true God only. But he does not say, You shall adore the Lord your God alone, but, him alone, he says, shall you serve. There he said alone, where he said you shall serve, namely with that service which is called latreia; to this service pertain temple, sacrifice, priest, and whatever is of this kind. And through this the Apostle would in no way say that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, unless that service were owed to him which is called latreia. Further, such a service would not be owed unless he to whom it is owed were God, especially since he says that our bodies are members of Christ, whom they do not deny to be God—even those who deny the Holy Spirit to be God and who contend that Christ is greater than the Holy Spirit. How, then, would the members of a greater be the temple of a lesser? Whence not only through this is the Holy Spirit without doubt understood to be God—because a temple cannot piously and rightly be attributed except to God—but he is also necessarily found to be one God with the Father and the Son, because the Trinity is one God. For since the attribution of a temple pertains to that service which is called latreia, and it is written, You shall adore the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve, that is, to him alone shall you show latreia, surely, since latreia, when it is rightly shown, is shown to God, and to him to whom a temple is shown latreia is shown, and there is one God alone to whom latreia is to be shown, and the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are without doubt one God; and this is what he says, Glorify and bear God in your body, of whom he had said, Your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God. These things, as I could, I preferred to dictate most hastily, rather than to defer the desire of your charity by any excuse. If you think this too little, keep yourselves for reading the books on the Trinity, which in the name of the Lord I am preparing now to publish, lest perhaps that one persuade what a brief letter cannot.

LETTER 174
To the most blessed lord, and to be revered with most sincere love, holy brother and fellow priest, pope Aurelius, from Augustine, greetings in the Lord.

1. The books on the Trinity, who is the supreme and true God, I began as a young man and published as an old man. For I had set aside this work after I learned that they had been snatched or stolen from me before I had finished them and revised them, so as to polish them as my plan had been. For I had decided to publish them, not one by one, but all together, for this reason: since the consequent ones are knit to the preceding by an advancing inquiry. Since, then, through those men—because before I wished, they could reach some of them—my plan could not be fulfilled, I had left the dictation interrupted, thinking to complain of this very thing in some of my writings, so that those who could might know that those same books had not been published by me, but taken away before they seemed to me worthy of my publication. But, compelled by the most vehement demand of many brothers, and especially by your command, I took care, with the Lord's help, to finish so laborious a work; and, emended not as I wished but as I could, lest they should differ very much from those which, stolen, had already gone out into the hands of men, I have sent them to your veneration through our son, the fellow deacon Cresimus, and have permitted them to be heard, copied, and read by anyone. In which, if my plan could have been kept, they would surely, even though having the same opinions, be much more disentangled and plainer, as far as the difficulty of explaining such great matters and our capacity would allow. But there are some who have the first four, or rather even five, without prefaces, and the twelfth without a not small final part: but if this edition can become known to them, they will, if they wish and are able, emend all. I ask, indeed, that you order this letter to be placed before—separately, indeed, but yet at the head of those same books. Farewell. Pray for me.

LETTER 175
To the most blessed and most honorable lord, holy brother Innocent, from Aurelius, Numidius, Rusticianus, Fidentianus, Evagrius, Antonius, Palatinus, Adeodatus, Vincentius, Publianus, Theasius, Tutus, Pannonius, Victor, Restitutus, Rusticus, Fortunatianus, another Restitutus, Ampelius, Ambivius, Felix, Donatianus, Adeodatus, Octavius, Serotinus, Maiorinus, Posthumianus, Crispulus, Victor, another Victor, Leucius, Marianus, Fructuosus, Faustinianus, Quodvultdeus, Candorius, Maximus, Megasius, Rusticus, Rufinianus, Proculus, Severus, Thomas, Januarius, Octavianus, Praetextatus, Sixtus, Quodvultdeus, Penthadius, Quodvultdeus, Cyprianus, Servilius, Pelagianus, Marcellus, Venantius, Didymus, Saturninus, Bizacenus, Germanus, Germanianus, Inventius, Maiorinus, Inventius, Candidus, Cyprianus, Aemilianus, Romanus, Africanus, Marcellinus, we who were present at the council of the Church of Carthage.

1. When, according to custom, we had come solemnly to the Church of Carthage, and a synod gathered from us for various causes was being held, our fellow presbyter Orosius gave us a letter of our holy brothers and fellow priests Heros and Lazarus, a copy of which we have determined should be appended to these. When these had been read, then, we recognized Pelagius and Celestius as the authors of a wicked error, and one to be anathematized by us all. Whence it came about that we asked to have reviewed what, almost five years before, had been transacted here at Carthage concerning the name of Celestius. When this had been recited, as your holiness will be able to gather from what is appended, although a manifest judgment too was established, by which at that time, by episcopal judgment, so great a wound seemed to be cut from the Church: nevertheless we decreed this by common deliberation, that the authors of a persuasion of this kind—although the same Celestius is also said afterward to have attained to the presbyterate—unless they most openly anathematize these things, ought themselves to be anathematized; so that, if not their own, at least the health of those who have been or can be deceived by them may be procured, the sentence which has been passed against them being known.

2. This action, then, lord brother, we have thought should be intimated to your holy charity, so that to the statutes of our mediocrity may be applied also the authority of the apostolic See, for guarding the salvation of many, and even correcting the perversity of certain ones. For these people, by their damnable disputations, act so that, by not defending but rather extolling free choice into a sacrilegious pride, they leave no place for the grace of God, by which we are Christians, by which also the very choice of our will is truly made free, while it is freed from the domination of carnal concupiscences, the Lord saying: If the Son frees you, then you will be truly free (Jn 8:36); which help faith obtains, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. But these people assert, as we have learned from brothers who have even read their books, that the grace of God is to be reckoned in this: that he instituted and created such a nature of man as can, through its own will, fulfill the law of God, whether written naturally in the heart or given in letters; and that this same law too pertains to the grace of God, because God gave it as a help to men.

3. But that grace by which, as has been said, we are Christians, whose preacher the Apostle is, saying: For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man: but I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind, and taking me captive under the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:22-25)—this they are wholly unwilling to acknowledge; yet they do not dare openly to attack it: but what else do they do, when they do not cease to persuade animal men, who do not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God, that human nature alone can suffice them for working and perfecting righteousness and fulfilling the commandments of God? not attending to what is written: The Spirit helps our weakness (Rom 8:26); and: It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy (Rom 9:16); and that we are one body in Christ, but individually members one of another, having diverse gifts according to the grace which has been given us (Rom 12:5-6); and: By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace in me was not empty, but I labored more abundantly than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God with me (1 Cor 15:10); and: Thanks be to God, who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:57); and: Not that we are sufficient to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God (2 Cor 3:5); and, We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the eminence of power may be God's, and not from us (2 Cor 4:7); and innumerable such things, which, if we wished to gather them from all the Scriptures, a volume would not suffice. And we fear lest, by recalling to you these very things which you preach with greater grace from the apostolic See, we may seem to act unfittingly: but we do it for this reason, because, since we are weaker, wherever each of us is thought more attentive in preaching the word of God, the more frequently and the more boldly we suffer them rising up against us.

4. If, then, Pelagius shall justly have seemed to your veneration too to be absolved by the episcopal proceedings which are said to have been drawn up in the East; nevertheless the error itself and the impiety, which now has many assertors scattered through diverse places, must be anathematized even by the authority of the apostolic See. For let your holiness consider, and have compassion on us with pastoral bowels, how pestiferous and deadly to the sheep of Christ is what necessarily follows from their sacrilegious disputations: that we ought not even to pray that we enter not into temptation, which the Lord both admonished his disciples and placed in the prayer he taught; or that our faith fail not, which he testified he had asked for the apostle Peter. For if these things are placed in the power of the possibility of nature and the choice of the will, who does not see that they are asked of the Lord in vain, and prayed for falsely, when by praying are sought things which are obtained by the sufficient powers of our nature already so constituted? and that the Lord Jesus ought not to have said: Watch and pray, but only: Watch, that you enter not into temptation? nor to most blessed Peter, first of the Apostles: I have prayed for you, but, I admonish you, or I command and enjoin you, that your faith fail not?

5. By the contention of these people there is also contradiction to our blessings, so that we seem to say in vain over the people whatever we pray from the Lord for them, that by living rightly and piously they may please him; or those things which the Apostle prays for the faithful, saying: 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 (Eph 3:14-16). If, then, we should wish, in blessing, to say over the people, Grant them, O Lord, to be strengthened with power through your Spirit; the disputation of these people contradicts us, affirming that free choice is denied, if this is asked of God which is in our power: "For if we wish to be strengthened with power," they say, "we can, by that possibility of nature which we do not now receive, but received when we were created."

6. They also deny that little ones must be baptized for the salvation which is given through the Savior Christ, and thus by this death-bearing doctrine they slay them forever, promising that even if they are not baptized, they will have eternal life, and do not pertain to those of whom the Lord says: For the Son of man came to seek and to save what had perished (Lk 19:10); because, they say, these have not perished, nor is there anything in them to be saved or redeemed at so great a price: since there is nothing vitiated in them, nothing held captive under the power of the devil, nor was the blood poured out for them which is read to have been poured out for the remission of sins. Although that through the baptism of Christ there is redemption even of little ones, Celestius has already confessed in his little book in the Church of Carthage: but many who are reported to be or to have been their disciples do not cease to affirm, wherever they can, these evils by which they try to overturn the foundations of the Christian faith. Whence, even if Pelagius and Celestius are corrected, or say that they never held these things, and deny that whatever writings have been brought forward against them are their own, nor is there a way by which they may be convicted of falsehood: yet in general, whoever dogmatizes and affirms that human nature can suffice itself for conquering sins and doing the commandments of God, and is in this way found an adversary to the grace of God, which is more evidently declared by the prayers of the saints; and whoever denies that little ones are freed from perdition through the baptism of Christ, and receive everlasting salvation, let him be anathema. But whatever other things are charged against them, we do not doubt that your veneration, when you have examined the episcopal proceedings which are said to have been drawn up in the East in the same case, will judge in such a way that we may all rejoice in the mercy of God. Pray for us, most blessed lord pope.

LETTER 176
To the most blessed and deservedly venerable lord, and in Christ to be honored, pope Innocent, from Silvanus the elder, Valentinus, Aurelius, Donatus, Restitutus, Lucianus, Alypius, Augustine, Placentius, Severus, Fortunatus, Possidius, Novatus, Secundus, Maurentius, Leo, Faustinianus, Cresconius, Malcus, Litorius, Fortunatus, Donatus, Ponticanus, Saturninus, Cresconius, Honorius, Cresconius, Lucius, Adeodatus, Processus, Secundus, Felix, Asiaticus, Rufinus, Faustinus, Servus, Terentius, Cresconius, Sperantius, Quadratus, Lucillus, Sabinus, Faustinus, Cresconius, Victor, Gignantius, Possidonius, Antoninus, Innocentius, Felix, Antonius, Victor, Honoratus, Donatus, Petrus, Praesidius, Cresconius, Lampadius, Delphinus, from the council of Mileve, greetings in the Lord.

1. Because the Lord, by a special gift of his grace, has placed you in the apostolic See, and has bestowed you such on our times, that it would rather count to us as the fault of negligence, if we kept silent before your veneration the things that are to be suggested for the Church, than that you could receive them either disdainfully or negligently; we beg that you deign to apply pastoral diligence to the great dangers of the weak members of Christ.

2. For a new and too pernicious heresy of the enemies of the grace of Christ tries to rise up, who try by impious disputations to take away from us even the Lord's Prayer. For although the Lord taught that we should say, Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Mt 6:12), these people say that a man can, in this life, the commandments of God being known, come to so great a perfection of righteousness without the help of the grace of the Savior, through free choice of the will alone, that it is no longer necessary for him to say: Forgive us our debts. But that which follows, Lead us not into temptation, is not to be understood as though we ought to ask divine help that, being tempted, we may not fall into sin; but that this is placed in our power, and for fulfilling this the will of man alone suffices: as though the Apostle said in vain, It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy (Rom 9:16); and: God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted beyond what you are able; but will make with the temptation also a way out, that you may be able to endure it (1 Cor 10:13). The Lord too would have said in vain to the apostle Peter, I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not (Lk 22:32); and to all his own, Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation (Mt 26:41); if this whole is of human power. They also contend, with a wicked presumption, that little children too, even if they are renewed by no sacraments of Christian grace, will have eternal life, voiding what the Apostle says: Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so it passed to all men, in whom all sinned (Rom 5:12); and in another place: As in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:22).

3. So that, to omit the other things which they discuss in great number against the holy Scriptures, these two for now—by which they strive to overturn altogether the whole of what we are as Christians—what faithful hearts can endure: that God is not to be asked to be our helper against the evil of sin and for working righteousness, and that the sacrament of Christian grace does not aid little ones to attain eternal life: intimating these things to your apostolic breast, we have no need to say much, and to exaggerate so great an impiety in words, since without doubt they so move you that you can in no way dissimulate about correcting them, lest they creep further and contaminate, or rather slay, many, while under the name of Christ they make them utterly estranged from the grace of Christ.

4. But the authors of this most pernicious error are reported to be Pelagius and Celestius, whom indeed we prefer to be healed in the Church, rather than, salvation being despaired of, cut off from the Church, if no necessity compels it. One of whom, that is, Celestius, is said also to have attained the presbyterate in Asia: about whom, what was transacted a few years ago, your holiness is better instructed by the Church of Carthage. But Pelagius, as letters sent by certain of our brothers say, established at Jerusalem, is asserted to deceive some: yet many more, who could more diligently trace out his views, contend against him for the grace of Christ and the truth of the catholic faith; but especially your holy son, our brother and fellow presbyter Jerome.

5. But we judge that, with the help of the mercy of the Lord our God, who deigns both to direct you consulting and to hear you praying, those who hold such perverse and pernicious views will more easily yield to the authority of your holiness, drawn from the authority of the holy Scriptures, so that we may rather congratulate ourselves on their correction than be saddened by their destruction. But whatever they themselves choose, surely your venerability sees that it must be instantly and quickly provided against, that they not entangle others, of whom they can entangle very many in their snares, if it be dissimulated. These things we have directed to your holiness, written from the council of Numidia, imitating the Church of Carthage and our fellow bishops of the province of Carthage, whom we have learned to have written to the apostolic See, which you, blessed one, illustrate, about this cause. And in another hand: Mindful of us, may you be increased in the grace of God, most blessed and deservedly venerable lord, and in Christ to be honored, holy pope.

LETTER 177
To the most blessed and deservedly most honorable lord, brother, pope Innocent, from Aurelius, Alypius, Augustine, Evodius, and Possidius, greetings in the Lord.

1. From the two councils of the province of Carthage and of Numidia, we have sent to your holiness letters subscribed by no small number of bishops, against the enemies of the grace of Christ, who trust in their own strength, and in a way say to our Creator: You made us men; but we made ourselves righteous. They who say that human nature is free for this reason, that they may not seek a Liberator; for this reason whole, that they may judge a Savior superfluous. For they say it has such power that, by its own strength, once received in the origin of its creation, it can, through free choice, with nothing further helping from the grace of him who created it, tame and extinguish all desires and overcome temptations; and many of them rise up against us, and say to our soul: There is no salvation for it in its God (Ps 3:2 (3:3)). The household of Christ, then, which says, When I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor 12:10), and to which its Lord says, I am your salvation (Ps 35:3 (34:3)), with anxious heart, with fear and trembling awaits the help of the Lord also through the charity of your veneration.

2. For we have heard that there are in the city of Rome, where he lived a long time, some who for various causes favor him; some, namely, because he is reported to have persuaded such things, but more who do not believe that he holds such things; especially because in the East, where he lives, ecclesiastical proceedings are boasted to have been drawn up by which he is thought to have been cleared: where indeed, if the bishops pronounced him catholic, it is to be believed to have been done for no other reason than that he said he confessed the grace of God, and that a man can so live righteously by his own labor and will, that he did not deny he was helped to this by the grace of God. For on hearing these words, the catholic prelates could understand no other grace of God than that which they are accustomed to read in the Books of God and to preach to the peoples of God: namely that of which the Apostle says: I do not make void the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the Law, then Christ died in vain (Gal 2:21); without doubt the grace by which we are justified from iniquity, and by which we are saved from weakness, not that by which we were created with our own will. For if those bishops had understood him to call that grace which we have even with the impious, with whom we are men, but to deny that by which we are Christians and sons of God; who of the catholic priests would—we do not say hear him patiently, but bear him before his eyes? Wherefore the judges are not to be blamed, because by ecclesiastical custom they heard the name of grace, not knowing what men of this kind are wont to scatter, either in the books of their doctrine, or in the ears of their followers.

3. It is not a matter of one Pelagius, who has perhaps already been corrected—which would that it were so; but of so many, by whose loquacious contention, and by their drawing the weak and unlearned souls as it were bound, but wearying by the very contention the firm and stable in faith, all places are now everywhere full. Either, then, he must be summoned to Rome by your veneration, and diligently asked what grace he means, by which he confesses—if indeed he now confesses—that men are helped to not sinning and to living righteously; or this very thing must be dealt with him by letters: and when he has been found to mean that grace which ecclesiastical and apostolic truth teaches, then without any scruple of the Church, without the hiding place of any ambiguity, he must be absolved, then truly there must be rejoicing over his cleansing.

4. For whether he says that grace is free choice, or that grace is the remission of sins, or that grace is the precept of the law; he says nothing of those things which, through the supplying of the Holy Spirit, pertain to conquering concupiscences and temptations—the Spirit whom he most richly poured out upon us who ascended into heaven, and leading captivity captive gave gifts to men (Eph 4:8). For from this we pray that we may be able to overcome the temptation of sins, that the Spirit of God, of whom we have received a pledge, may help our weakness. But he who prays and says, Lead us not into temptation, surely does not pray to be a man, which he is by nature; nor pray to have free choice, which he already received when the nature itself was created; nor pray for the remission of sins, because this is said above, Forgive us our debts; nor pray to receive a commandment: but plainly prays that he may do the commandment. For if he has been led into temptation, that is, has failed in temptation, he surely commits the sin which is against the commandment. He prays, then, that he may not sin, that is, that he do no evil, which the apostle Paul prays for the Corinthians, saying: But we pray to the Lord that you do no evil (2 Cor 13:7). Whence it sufficiently appears that, for not sinning, that is, for not doing evil, although there is no doubt that the choice of the will exists, yet its power does not suffice unless the weakness is helped. The prayer itself, therefore, is the clearest testimony of grace: let him confess this, and we will rejoice whether he is upright or corrected.

5. Law and grace must be distinguished. Law knows how to command, grace to help. Nor would the law command, unless there were a will; nor would grace help, if the will were enough. It is commanded that we have understanding, where it is said: Do not be like the horse and mule, which have no understanding (Ps 32:9 (31:9)); and yet we pray that we have understanding, where it is said: Give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments (Ps 119:73 (118:73)). It is commanded that we have wisdom, where it is said: Be wise at last, O foolish ones (Ps 94:8 (93:8)); and yet it is prayed that we have wisdom, where it is said: But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all abundantly and does not reproach; and it will be given him (Jas 1:5). It is commanded that we have continence, where it is said: Restrain yourself (Sir 18:30); and yet we pray that we have continence, where it is said: When I knew that no one could be continent unless God granted it, and this very thing was wisdom, to know whose gift it was, I went to the Lord and besought him (Wis 8:21). Finally, lest it be too long to run through all, it is commanded that we do no evil, where it is said: Turn away from evil (Ps 37:27 (36:27)); and yet it is prayed that we do no evil, where it is said: But we pray to the Lord that you do no evil (2 Cor 13:7). It is commanded that we do good, where it is said: Turn away from evil, and do good (Ps 37:27 (36:27)); and yet it is prayed that we do good, where it is said: We do not cease praying and asking for you: and among the other things which he prays for them, he says: That you may walk worthily of God in every pleasing thing, in every good work and word (Col 1:9-10). As, therefore, we acknowledge the will, when these things are commanded; so let him too acknowledge grace, when they are asked for.

6. We have sent to your reverence a book which certain religious and honorable young men, servants of God, gave us—whose names too we do not keep silent; for they are called Timasius and James: who, as we have heard, and as you too deign to know, by the exhortation of Pelagius himself left the hope they had in the world, and now, continent, serve God. When at length, by some effort of ours, the Lord inspiring it, they were freed from this same error, they brought forward this same book, saying that it is Pelagius's, and earnestly asked that it be answered. It was done; the answer itself was written back to them: giving thanks, they wrote back. We have sent both, both the one to which answer was made, and what was answered: and lest we should be too burdensome, we have made marks at those places where we ask you not to be reluctant to inspect how, the question being set against him that he denied the grace of God, he so answered that he said it was nothing but the nature in which God created us.

7. But if he denies this book to be his, or those same places in the book, we do not contend; let him anathematize them, and most openly confess that grace which Christian doctrine shows and proclaims to be proper to Christians, which is not nature, but that by which nature is saved and helped: which fosters nature not by doctrine sounding in the ears or by any visible aid, like a planter and waterer as it were from without; but by the supplying of the Spirit, and a hidden mercy, as he does who gives the increase, God (1 Cor 3:7). For although by a not-to-be-disapproved reasoning it is called the grace of God by which we were created, so that we might be something, and might not be something such as a corpse which does not live, or a tree which does not feel, or a beast which does not understand, but men, who would both be, and live, and feel, and understand, and be able to give thanks for so great a benefit to our Creator; whence this too can deservedly be called grace, since it was given not by the merits of any preceding good works, but by the gratuitous goodness of God: yet other is that by which, predestined, we are called, justified, glorified, so that we can say: If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him for us all (Rom 8:31-32).

8. About this grace the question was turning, when by those whom Pelagius gravely offended and disturbed it was said to him that he assailed it by his disputations, in which he asserted that, not only for doing but even for perfecting the divine commandments, human nature suffices itself through free choice. This grace the apostolic doctrine not undeservedly calls by that name, by which we are saved and justified by faith in Christ. Of this it is written: I do not make void the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the Law, then Christ died in vain (Gal 2:21): of this it is written: You are emptied of Christ, you who are justified in the Law; you have fallen from grace (Gal 5:4): of this it is written: But if by grace, then no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace (Rom 11:6): of this it is written: But to him who works the wages are not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt: but to him who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned unto righteousness (Rom 4:4-5); and many other things, which you can yourself better remember, and understand more prudently, and preach more illustriously. But that grace by which we were created men, even if we understand that it is not undeservedly so to be called, it is nevertheless a wonder if we read it so called in any lawful prophetic, evangelical, and apostolic Letters.

9. Since, then, concerning this grace most known to faithful and catholic Christians, the question was set against him, that he should cease to assail it; what is it that, when he had set this against himself in his book, as it were by an opposing person, so that by answering he might clear himself, he answered nothing else than that the nature of created man refers to the grace of the Creator; and so said that righteousness can be fulfilled without sin through free choice with the help of divine grace, because God gave this to man in the very possibility of nature? To whom it is deservedly answered: Then the scandal of the cross has been made void. Then Christ died in vain. For if he had not died for our offenses, and risen for our justification, nor ascended on high, and, leading captivity captive, given gifts to men, would that possibility of nature which he defends not be in men?

10. Or was perhaps the commandment of God lacking, and therefore Christ died? Nay, even this was already holy, and just, and good: it had already been said: You shall not covet: it had already been said: You shall love your neighbor as yourself, in which saying the Apostle says the whole law is fulfilled. And since, unless he loves God, no one loves himself, therefore the Lord says that on these two precepts hang the whole Law and the Prophets: which two precepts had already been given to men divinely. Or was the eternal reward promised to righteousness not yet there? This he himself does not say, who in his Letters set down that even in the Old Testament the kingdom of heaven was promised. If, then, for doing and perfecting righteousness there was already the possibility of nature through free choice, there was already the holy and just and good commandment of God's Law, there was already the everlasting reward promised; then Christ died in vain.

11. Therefore neither through the Law is there righteousness, nor through the possibility of nature, but from faith and the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, the one mediator of God and men: who, unless in the fullness of time he had died for our offenses, and risen for our justification, surely both the faith of the ancients and ours would be made void. But faith being made void, what righteousness would remain to man, since the just man lives by faith? For from the time that, through one man, sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so it passed to all men, in whom all sinned: without doubt from the body of this death, where another law fights against the law of the mind, his own possibility has freed and frees no one, which, lost, needs a Redeemer, wounded, a Savior; but the grace of God through faith in the one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus: who, being also God, made man; and, remaining God, made man, himself remade what he had made.

12. But I think it escapes him that the faith of Christ, which afterward came into revelation, was in secret in the times of our fathers; through which faith nevertheless they too, by the grace of God, were freed, whoever in all times of the human race could be freed—by the hidden judgment of God, yet not a blameworthy one. Whence the Apostle says: Having the same spirit of faith, surely the same as they too, according to what is written, I believed, therefore I have spoken; we also believe, therefore we also speak (2 Cor 4:13); hence it is that the Mediator himself says: Abraham your father desired to see my day; and he saw it, and rejoiced (Jn 8:56): hence Melchizedek, having brought forth the sacrament of the Lord's table, knew how to prefigure his eternal priesthood.

13. But now, the Law being given in letters, which the Apostle says came in that the offense might abound (Rom 5:20), and of which he says: If, then, the inheritance is from the Law, it is no longer from the promise. But to Abraham God gave it through a promise. What then is the law? It was set forth for the sake of transgression, until the seed should come to whom the promise was made, ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator. But a mediator is not of one; but God is one. Is the law, then, against the promises of God? Far be it. For if a law had been given which could give life, righteousness would altogether be from the Law. But Scripture has shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe (Gal 3:18-22); is it not sufficiently shown that this was done through the Law, that sin might be acknowledged, and by transgression increased (for where there is no law, there is no transgression (Rom 4:15)); and so, against the victory of sin, refuge might be taken to the divine grace which is in the promises: and thus the Law would not be against the promises of God; because through it there comes the knowledge of sin, and from the transgression of the Law the abundance of sin, so that for liberation the promises of God may be sought, which is the grace of God; and there may begin to be in man a righteousness, not his own, but God's, that is, given by the gift of God?

14. Which even now certain people, being ignorant of God's righteousness, as was then said of the Jews, and wishing to establish their own, have not submitted to the righteousness of God (Rom 10:3). For they too think themselves justified through the Law, free choice sufficing them for keeping it—that is, by their own righteousness, brought forth from human nature; not given from divine grace, on account of which it is called the righteousness of God. Whence likewise it is written: For through the Law is the knowledge of sin. But now without the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, attested by the Law and the Prophets (Rom 3:20-21). When he says, has been manifested, he shows that it was there even then, but like that rain which Gideon obtained, then as it were hidden in the fleece, but now as it were on the threshing floor, manifest. Since, then, the Law without grace could be not the death of sin, but the strength of it—for so it was said: The sting of death is sin, but the strength of sin is the Law (1 Cor 15:56)—just as many flee from the face of reigning sin to grace, now as it were open on the threshing floor, so few fled to it, then as it were hidden in the fleece. But this distribution of the times is referred to the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, of which it was said: How inscrutable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! (Rom 11:33)

15. Wherefore, if both before the time of the Law, and in the very time of the Law, the just fathers living by faith were justified not by the possibility of a weak and needy and vitiated nature, sold under sin, but by the grace of God through faith; and now the same grace, coming into the open already revealed, justifies: let Pelagius, then, anathematize his writings, where he disputes against it—even if not through contumacy, yet through ignorance—defending the possibility of nature for conquering sins and fulfilling the commandments; or, if he denies these to be his own, or says that the things which he denies to be his own were inserted into his writings by his enemies, let him nevertheless anathematize and condemn them, by the fatherly exhortation and authority of your holiness. If, then, he wishes, let him learn to take away the scandal burdensome to himself and pernicious to the Church; which scandal his hearers and perverse lovers do not cease to scatter everywhere. For if they learn that this same book, which they either think is his or know to be his, has been anathematized and condemned by him himself, by the authority of the catholic bishops, and especially of your holiness, which we in no way doubt is of greater weight with him, we suppose they will no longer dare, by speaking against the grace of God, which has been revealed through the passion and resurrection of Christ, to disturb faithful and simply Christian breasts; but rather, with the help of the Lord's mercy, your prayers burning with charity and piety contending together with us, they will trust, not in their own strength, but in that same grace, to be not only blessed forever, but also righteous and holy. Whence the letter too, written by one of us to him himself—to whom, through a certain eastern deacon, but a citizen of Hippo, he transmitted certain writings as it were of his own cleansing—we have rather thought should be directed to your blessedness, judging it better and asking that you yourself deign to send it to him: for so he will rather not disdain to read it, attending in it more to him who sent it than to him who wrote it.

16. But that which they say—that a man can be without sin, and easily keep the commandments of God if he wills—although when this is said with the help of grace, which nevertheless was revealed and given through the incarnation of his Only-begotten, it seems to be said more tolerably: yet, since it can not undeservedly move us, where and when through that same grace this is effected in us, that we should be without any sin at all; whether in this life, when the flesh lusts against the spirit, or rather in that life when there shall come to pass the saying which is written, Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? For the sting of death is sin (1 Cor 15:55-56); it must be more diligently treated on account of certain others who held, and committed to memory in their writings, that even in this life a man can be without sin—not from the beginning of his nativity, but by conversion from sins to righteousness, and from a reprobate life to a good life. For so they understood what is written of Zechariah and Elizabeth, that they walked in all the justifications of the Lord without complaint. This which was said, without complaint, they took as said for without sin: not indeed denying, nay even—which is found in other places in their writings—piously confessing the help of the grace of our Lord, not through the natural spirit of man, but through the principal Spirit of God. They seem to have considered too little that Zechariah himself was surely a priest; but all priests then necessarily had, by the law of God, first to offer sacrifice for their own sins, then for the people's. As, therefore, now by the sacrifice of prayer we are convicted of not being without sin, since we are bidden to say, Forgive us our debts; so then too, by the sacrifices of animal victims, the priests were convicted of not being without sin, who were bidden to offer for their own sins.

17. But if the matter is so, that through the grace of the Savior we advance indeed in this life, desire failing, love growing; but are perfected in that life, desire extinguished, love completed: surely that which is written, He who is born of God does not sin (1 Jn 3:9), was said according to that love which alone does not sin. For to the nativity which is of God, love, to be increased and perfected, pertains; not that desire which is to be diminished and consumed: which nevertheless, as long as it is in our members, by a certain law of its own fights against the law of the mind; but he who is born of God, neither obeying its desires, nor presenting his members as weapons of iniquity to sin, can say: Now it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me (Rom 7:17).

18. But however this question may stand—because, even if a man is not found in this life without sin, it is nevertheless said that it can come about through the help of grace and the Spirit of God, which, that it may come about, must be striven for and asked—one tolerably errs in this; nor is it a diabolical impiety, but a human error, to affirm that it must be worked at and wished for, even if what he affirms he cannot show: for he believes that to be possible which it is certainly praiseworthy to will. But for us it suffices that no one in the Church of God among the faithful is found, in whatever advancement and excellence of righteousness, who would dare to say to himself that the petition of the Lord's Prayer is not necessary, Forgive us our debts; and would say that he has no sin, lest he deceive himself, and the truth be not in him, although he now lives without complaint. For it is not whatever sin even of human temptation, but a grave sin, that comes into complaint.

19. The other things which are charged against him, as your blessedness shall see them defended in the proceedings, so will you without doubt judge about them. The most gentle sweetness of your heart will surely give us pardon, that we have sent your holiness a letter more lengthy perhaps than you would wish. For we do not pour back our little stream to increase your bounteous fountain; but in this not-small temptation of the time—from which may he free us to whom we say, Lead us not into temptation—we wish this to be proved by you, whether our stream too, though slight, flows from the same head of waters from which yours also abundantly flows, and to be consoled by your replies about the common participation in the one grace.

LETTER 178
To the most blessed lord, and to be revered in the truth of Christ, brother and fellow priest Hilary, from Augustine, greetings in the Lord.

1. Our honorable son Palladius, sailing from our shore, by asking a favor rather gave one, that I should commend not only him to your kindness, but even myself to your prayers, most blessed lord, and to be revered in the love of Christ, brother. When I do this, surely your holiness too will do what we both presume about the matter. But what things are about us, since I know that your love is anxious for us, as ours for you, your holiness will hear from the said bearer. Nevertheless, what is most necessary I will briefly say. A certain new heresy, hostile to the grace of Christ, tries to rise up against the Church of Christ; but it is not yet evidently separated from the Church: of men, namely, who dare to attribute to human weakness so much power that they contend that this alone pertains to the grace of God—that we were created with free choice and the possibility of not sinning, and received the commandments of God to be fulfilled by us; but that for keeping and fulfilling those same commandments we need no divine help. But that the remission of sins is necessary for us, because the things which were done badly by us in the past we are not able to make undone. But for avoiding future sins and conquering them, and for overcoming all temptations by virtue, the human will, by the natural possibility, suffices without any further help of the grace of God. Nor do little ones need the grace of the Savior, by which through his baptism they may be freed from perdition, on the ground that they have drawn no contagion of damnation from Adam.

2. How hostile these things are to the grace of God, which has been granted to the human race through Jesus Christ our Lord, and how they strive to overturn the foundations of the whole Christian faith, your venerability sees with us. Nor ought we to have kept silent before you, so that with pastoral care you may beware of men of this kind, whom indeed we wish and choose rather to be healed in the Church than to be cut off from it. For already, while I was writing these things, we had learned that in the Church of Carthage a decree of an episcopal council had been established against them, to be directed by letter to the holy and venerable pope Innocent; and we, from the council of Numidia, had likewise already written to that same apostolic See.

3. For all of us who have hope in Christ ought to resist this pestiferous impiety, and concordantly condemn and anathematize it: which contradicts even our prayers, granting indeed that we say, Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors; and so granting it that it asserts that a man, in this corruptible body which weighs down the soul, can by his own strength attain to so great a righteousness that it is no longer necessary for him to say, Forgive us our debts. But that which follows, Lead us not into temptation, they do not so take as though God must be prayed to help us to overcome the temptations of sins, but lest some human mishap, rushing upon us bodily, afflict us; since to conquer the temptations of sins is so now placed in our power, by the possibility of nature, that we judge it must be obtained by prayers in vain. We cannot in one brief letter gather all or most of the arguments of so great an impiety, especially because, when I was writing these things, the bearers about to sail did not allow me to delay longer. But I think I have not been burdensome to your holy senses, that about so great an evil, to be avoided with all vigilance, the Lord helping, I could not keep silent.

LETTER 179
To the most blessed lord, and deservedly venerable brother and fellow bishop John, from Augustine, greetings in the Lord.

1. That I did not deserve writings from your holiness, I dare in no way to be angry: for I believe rather that a bearer was lacking, than I suspect that I was despised by your veneration, most blessed lord, and deservedly venerable brother. But now, since I have learned that the servant of God Lucas, through whom I have directed these things, would quickly return, I will give to the Lord, and to your kindness, abundant thanks, if you shall have deigned to visit me with a letter. But to Pelagius our brother, your son, whom I hear you love much, I suggest that you show him this love: that the men who have known him and diligently heard him may not suppose that your holiness is deceived by him.

2. For certain of his disciples, young men most honorably born, and instructed in liberal studies, left the hope they had in the world by his exhortation, and betook themselves to the service of God. In whom, however, when there had appeared certain things adverse to sound doctrine, which is contained in the Gospel of the Savior and declared by apostolic discourses—that is, when they were found to dispute against the grace of God, on account of which we are Christians, and in which by the spirit, from faith, we await the hope of righteousness—and they began to be amended by our admonitions, they gave me a book which they said was that same Pelagius's, asking that I rather answer it: which, after I saw I ought to do, so that in that way the wicked error itself might be more perfectly taken from their hearts, I read and answered.

3. In this book he calls the grace of God nothing but the nature by which we were created with free choice. But that grace which holy Scripture commends by innumerable testimonies, teaching that by it we are justified, that is, made righteous, and in every good work, whether in doing or in perfecting, are helped by the mercy of God—which even the prayers of the saints most plainly show, by which those things are asked from the Lord which are commanded by the Lord—this grace, then, he not only passes over in silence, but speaks many things contrary to it. For he affirms, and vehemently contends, that human nature can suffice itself, through free choice alone, for working righteousness and keeping all the commandments of God. Whence who would not see, when he has read this same book, how the grace of God is assailed, of which the Apostle says: Wretched man that I am! Who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 7:24-25); and that no place is left for divine help, on account of which, praying, we ought to say, Lead us not into temptation; and the Lord too seems to have said in vain to the apostle Peter, I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not (Lk 22:32), if this whole is fulfilled in us with no help of God, but by the power of the will?

4. By these perverse and impious disputations, then, not only is there contradiction to our prayers, by which we ask of the Lord whatever we read and hold that the saints asked; but there is also resistance to our blessings, when over the people we say, wishing for them and asking from the Lord, that he may make them abound in love toward one another, and toward all (1 Thess 3:12), and grant them, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit (Eph 3:16); and fill them with all joy and peace in believing, that they may abound in hope, and in the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom 15:13). Why do we ask these things for them, which we know the Apostle asked from the Lord for the peoples, if now our nature, created with free choice, can grant all these to itself by its own will? Why too does the same Apostle say: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (Rom 8:14), if we are led by the spirit of our nature, that we may be made sons of God? Why does he say likewise: The Spirit helps our weakness (Rom 8:26), if our nature is so created that it does not need to be helped by the Spirit to the works of righteousness? Why is it written: But God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will make with the temptation also a way out, that you may be able to endure it (1 Cor 10:13), if we are now so constituted that by the powers of free choice we can, by enduring, overcome all temptations?

5. Why should I deal at greater length with your holiness? Since I feel myself burdensome; especially because you hear my letter through an interpreter. If you love Pelagius, let him too love you, or rather himself; and let him not deceive you. For when you hear him confess the grace of God and the help of God, you think he says this which you too, who are wise by the catholic rule, mean, since you do not know what he has written in his book. On account of this, I have sent the book itself, and mine by which I answered it; whence your venerability may perceive what grace or help of God he means, when it is charged against him that he contradicts the grace and help of God. Accordingly, show him, by teaching, and exhorting, and by praying for his salvation, which ought to be in Christ, that he confess that grace of God which the holy ones of God are proved to have confessed, when they asked from the Lord those very things which he commanded them to do: since they would neither be commanded, except that our will might be shown; nor would they be asked for, except that the weakness of the will might be helped by him who had commanded.

6. Let him be openly asked whether it pleases him that we must pray to the Lord that we not sin. And if this displeases him, let the Apostle be read in his ears, saying: But we pray to God that you do no evil (2 Cor 13:7): but if it pleases him, let him openly preach the grace by which we are helped, lest he himself do much evil. For by this grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, all are freed, whoever are freed: since no one, apart from it, can be freed in any other way. On account of this it is written: As in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:22): not because no one will be damned, but because no one will be freed otherwise. Because, as none but through Adam are sons of man, so none but through Christ are sons of God. All sons of man, therefore, can come to be only through Adam, and all of them sons of God only through Christ. Let him, then, openly express here too what he means: whether it pleases him that even little ones, who cannot yet will or refuse righteousness, are nevertheless, on account of the one man, through whom sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so it passed to all men, in whom all sinned, freed through the grace of Christ; whether he believes that even for them the blood of Christ was poured out on account of original sin, which surely was poured out for the remission of sins. About these things especially we wish to know from him what he believes, what he holds, what he certainly confesses and preaches. But in the other things which are charged against him, even if he is convicted of erring, yet, until he is corrected, he is more tolerably borne with.

7. I ask too that you deign to transmit to us the ecclesiastical proceedings by which he is reported to have been cleared. This I ask from the desire of many bishops, whom, with me, an uncertain report about this matter disturbs: but I have written this alone for this reason, because I was unwilling to let pass the occasion of the bearer hastening from us, whom I heard could quickly return to us. In place of these proceedings he has now sent us, not indeed any part of the proceedings, but a certain defense as it were written by himself, by which he said he had answered the objections of the Gauls. In which, to omit other things, when he answered that which was charged against him, that he had said a man can be without sin, and keep the commandments of God if he wills: "We said," he says, "this; for God gave him this possibility. We did not say that anyone is found, from infancy to old age, who has never sinned; but that, converted from sins by his own labor, and helped by the grace of God, he can be without sin, nor on this account will he be in the future unable to be turned."

8. In this answer of Pelagius your reverence sees that he has confessed this: that the earlier life of a man, which is from infancy, is not without sin, but that he can be converted to a life which is without sin, by his own labor and helped by the grace of God. Why, then, in this book to which I answered, does he say that someone lived here so that he sinned nothing at all? For these are his words about this matter: "This," he says, "can rightly be said of those of whose good or evil the Scripture makes no mention: but of those whose righteousness it recalls, it would without doubt also have recalled their sins, if it had perceived that they had sinned in anything. But suppose," he says, "that at other times, on account of the great number of the crowd, it dissembled to weave together the sins of all; in the very first beginning of the world, where there were only four men, what," he says, "do we say, why it would not wish to recall the deeds of all? Was it on account of an enormous multitude, which did not yet exist? or because it recalled only those who had committed something, but of him who had committed nothing it could not have recalled? Certainly," he says, "at the first time Adam and Eve, from whom Cain and Abel were born, are reported to have been only four men. Eve sinned; the Scripture revealed this: Adam too transgressed; the same Scripture did not keep silent: but that Cain also sinned the Scripture itself too testified. Of whom it indicates not only the sins, but even the quality of the sins. But if Abel too had sinned," he says, "this too the Scripture would without doubt have said: if it did not say it, then he too did not sin."

9. These words I have plucked from his book, which your holiness will be able to find in that same volume too; so that you may understand how you ought to believe him denying the rest. Unless perhaps he should say that Abel himself sinned nothing; but that for this reason he was not without sin, and therefore cannot be compared to the Lord, who alone in mortal flesh was without sin, because there was in Abel original sin, which he had drawn from Adam, not committed of himself in himself: would that he might say at least this, so that we might meanwhile hold his certain opinion about the baptism of little ones! Or if perhaps, because he said from infancy to old age, he therefore says that Abel did not sin, because he is not shown to have grown old. His words do not indicate this: he said the earlier life from the beginning was sinful; but the later can be without sin. For he says that he did not say "that anyone is found, from infancy to old age, who has not sinned; but that, converted from sins by his own labor, and helped by the grace of God, he can be without sin." For when he says "converted from sins," he shows that the earlier life is led in sins. Let him confess, then, that Abel sinned, whose first life was in the world, which he confesses does not lack sins, and let him look at his own book, where it is established that he said what he says in this defense: "We did not say."

10. But if he denies that even this book, or this place in this book, is his; I indeed have suitable witnesses, honorable and faithful men, and without doubt his lovers, by whose attestation I can clear myself, that they themselves gave me this same book, and that this is read there, and that they said it was Pelagius's—so that at least this may suffice for me, that he not say it was either written or falsified by me. Now among those let each choose whom to believe; it is not mine to dispute longer about this matter. We ask that you at least transmit to him, if he denies that he holds these things which are charged against him as hostile to the grace of Christ. For his defense is so covered that, if it deceives your holy prudence, who do not know his other writings, by no ambiguity of words, we will rejoice with great joy; not much caring whether he never held those perverse and impious things, or has at some time corrected himself from them.

LETTER 180
To the deservedly most dear lord, and to be honored in the members of Christ, brother Oceanus, from Augustine, greetings.

1. I have received together two letters of your charity, in one of which you make mention of a third, and recall that you sent it first; which I do not recall having received—or rather I seem to recall well that I did not receive it. But for those which I received, I give abundant thanks to your kindness toward us. That I did not answer them immediately, I was snatched away by one and another storm of various occupations. Whence now, having gotten a drop of free time, I preferred to answer something, rather than to hold a long silence toward your most sincere charity, and to become, by taciturnity, more importunate than by loquacity.

2. What holy Jerome thinks about the origin of souls, I already knew, and I had already read these very words which you set down from his book in your letter. But it is not this that makes the question troublesome, which moves some—how God justly bestows souls even on adulterous conceptions; since to those living well, and converted to God by faith and piety, not even their own sins, much less their parents', can be a hindrance. But it is deservedly asked, if it is true that new individual souls are made from nothing for individuals being born, how so innumerable souls of little ones—which it is certain to God will go out of bodies, before the years of reason, before they can have a taste of or grasp anything just or unjust, without baptism—are justly given over to damnation, by him surely with whom there is no iniquity. There is no need to say more about this matter, since you know what I wish, or rather what I do not wish, to say; I think it enough for a wise man what I have said. Nevertheless, if you have read anything from this by which that question can be resolved, or heard it from his mouth, or the Lord has granted you, thinking, to know it; impart it, I beseech, to me, that I may give more abundant thanks.

3. But that about an officious and useful lie, which you thought should be resolved by the example of the Lord saying that not even the Son knows the day and hour of the ending of this age; I was delighted by the effort of your genius indeed, when I read it, but it seems to me in no way that a figurative manner of speaking can rightly be called a lie. For it is not a lie when we call a day glad, because it makes us glad; or a lupine sad, because it saddens the face of the taster with a bitter flavor; as God is said to know, when he makes a man know; for this saying to Abraham you yourself recalled. By no means are these lies; which you yourself most easily perceive. Accordingly blessed Hilary, when he opened an obscure question by this obscure kind of figurative speech, so that we might understand that in this he said himself not knowing, in which he makes others, by concealing, not knowing, did not excuse a lie, but showed that it was not a lie; not only in these more usual figures, but even in that which is called metaphor, which is known to all by the custom of speaking. For that the vines bud, that the crops wave, that young men flourish, someone will contend is a lie, because in these things he sees neither waves, nor stones, nor grasses, nor trees, where these words are properly said?

4. But further, by your genius and erudition you most easily perceive how much that differs from what the Apostle says: When I saw that they were not walking rightly toward the truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter before all, If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of the Gentiles and not as a Jew, how do you compel the Gentiles to Judaize? (Gal 2:14) There is here no figurative obscurity, the words are the proper ones of an open manner of speaking. This surely the Teacher of the Gentiles, to those whom he was in travail with until Christ should be formed in them, and to whom under divine attestation he had foretold, But the things I write to you, behold, before God, that I do not lie (Gal 1:20), either said truly, or falsely: if falsely—which God forbid—you perceive what follows... and, dreading both, he admonishes both an indication of truth, and in the apostle Peter an example of marvelous humility.

5. But why longer about this? since about this question between us, I and the aforesaid venerable brother Jerome have dealt sufficiently by letters; and in this most recent work, which under the name of Critobulus against Pelagius he has just published, he held the same opinion about this deed and the apostolic sayings, which we too have followed, that of most blessed Cyprian. Rather that about the origin of souls—not on account of adulterous births, but on account of the damnation of the innocent, which God forbid—which, I think, is not foolishly asked; if you have learned anything from so great and so excellent a man which can rightly be answered to those who are in doubt, I beg you not to refuse to communicate it with us. For you have so appeared to me, in your letters, learned and pleasant, that it is worthwhile to converse with you by letters. As for I know not what book of that same man of God, which the presbyter Orosius brought, and gave to your charity to be copied, where he is praised for having disputed splendidly about the resurrection of the flesh, I ask you now not to delay sending it to us. For this reason we did not quickly demand it, because we surely thought both to copy and to emend it; to which double work we now think the most ample time has been granted. Mindful of us, may you live to God.

LETTER 181
Innocent, to Aurelius and all the holy bishops who were present at the council of the Church of Carthage, his most beloved brothers, greetings in the Lord.

1. In inquiring into divine matters, which it befits priests to treat with all solicitude, and especially a true, just, and catholic council, keeping the examples of ancient tradition, and mindful of ecclesiastical discipline, you have, by true reasoning, confirmed the vigor of our religion no less now in consulting than before when you pronounced, you who approved that it should be referred to our judgment, knowing what is owed to the apostolic See, since all of us placed in this position desire to follow that very Apostle from whom the episcopate itself and the whole authority of this name emerged. Following whom, we know how both to condemn evils and to approve things laudable; just as that which you, keeping by your priestly office the institutions of the fathers, judge ought not to be trampled, since they decreed it not by human, but by divine sentence: that whatever might be transacted even in disjoined and remote provinces, they would not reckon it to be finished, unless it came to the notice of this See; that by the whole authority of this See whatever just pronouncement there was might be confirmed, and from there the other Churches (just as all waters proceed from their native fount, and through the diverse regions of the whole world the pure streams of an incorrupt head flow forth) might take what they should command, whom they should wash, whom the water worthy of clean bodies should avoid as soiled with filth that cannot be cleansed.

2. I rejoice, then, dearest brothers, that through our brother and fellow bishop Julius you sent letters to us, and that, along with those Churches over which you preside, you show your solicitude for the usefulness of all, and demand that there be decreed, for all through all the Churches of the whole world, what may profit them in common: so that the Church, established by its rules, and confirmed by this decree of just pronouncement, by which it may beware of those men, may not be able to dread such persons as, instructed—or rather destroyed—by perverse subtleties of words, disputing under the image of catholic faith, breathing out as it were a pestiferous poison, that they may corrupt the hearts of right-thinking men toward the worse part, seek to overturn the whole discipline of true doctrine.

3. It must, then, be healed more quickly, lest the disease, to be execrated, creep further into minds: just as a physician, when he has seen that there is some weakness of this earthly body, esteems it a great proof of his art, if anyone given up for lost quickly escapes by his intervention; or when he has looked upon a festering wound, applies poultices or other things by which that which had arisen as a wound may be able to be closed; and if, remaining, it cannot be healed, lest it corrupt the rest of the body by its rot, he amputates with the knife what was harming, so as to keep the rest whole and untouched. That, then, must be cut off, which crept as a wound upon a body too pure and sound, lest, when it is wiped away too slowly, the bilge-water of this evil, not to be drained out, settle in the very inmost parts.

4. For what shall we hereafter rightly think in our minds about these people, who think they owe to themselves that they are good, and do not consider him whose grace they daily obtain? But now these people, who are such, obtain no grace of God, who trust that they can attain by themselves as much, without him, as scarcely those who ask of him deserve to receive. For what can be so iniquitous, so barbarous, so ignorant of all religion, so hostile to Christian minds, as for you to deny that you owe to him whatever you obtain in daily grace, to whom you yourself confess you owe that you were born? Will you, then, be more excellent for yourself in providing than he can be in you, who made you that you might be! And when you think you owe him that you live, how do you not think you owe him that, by obtaining his daily grace, you so live? And you who deny that we need divine help, as if we were perfected wholly from our own possibility, how do we not provoke his help upon us, when we can be such even from ourselves?

5. For one who denies the help of God, I would like to ask what he says: that we do not deserve it, or that he cannot grant it? or that there is nothing on account of which each should ask for it? That God can do this, the very works testify; and that we need daily help, we cannot deny. For whether we live well, we provoke it, that we may live better and more holily; or, thinking perversely, we are turned from good things, that we may return to the right way, we need his help more. For what could seem so deadly, so headlong to a fall, so exposed to all dangers, as if, thinking that this alone can suffice us, that we received free choice when we were born, we should henceforth seek nothing further from the Lord—that is, forgetful of our author, should abjure his power, that we may show ourselves free, as though he no longer had anything he could give, who made you free in your origin? not knowing that, unless the grace of God, implored by great prayers, descend upon us, we should in no way strive to conquer the errors of earthly defilement and the worldly body, since not free choice, but only the help of God, can make us equal to resisting.

6. For if that man cries out that he has need of divine help, who would not worthily seek it, if free choice profited anyone more—since indeed a blessed man and already chosen by the Lord needed nothing; yet so beseeches God, asking: Be my helper; do not forsake me, nor despise me, O God of my salvation (Ps 27:9 (26:9))—do we ask free choice for ourselves; he asks God as helper for himself! What we are born with, we say can suffice us; he begs God that he be not forsaken! Do we not, I ask, manifestly learn what we should pray for, when that man, so blessed, as we said above, longs not to be despised? For those must necessarily argue these things, who confirm those things. For let David be accused as ignorant of prayer, and ignorant of his own nature, who, although he knows that so much is in his nature, longs, prone in prayers, for God as helper, and as constant helper—nor does a constant one suffice him, but that he never despise him—and through the whole body of the Psalter both preaches and cries out this! If, then, that man so great confessed this both to be said constantly, and to be so necessary that he taught it; how do Pelagius and Celestius, all the answer of the Psalms set aside, and such doctrine renounced, trust that they will persuade some that we ought neither to seek the help of God, nor need it; when all the saints testify that they can do nothing without it?

7. For that man, having once endured free choice, while he used his own goods too inconsiderately, falling, was sunk into the depths of transgression; and found nothing by which he could thence rise; and, deceived in his liberty forever, would have lain crushed by this ruin, had not the coming of Christ afterward relieved him by his grace: who, through the purification of the new regeneration, purged every past fault by the washing of his baptism, and, confirming his state so that he might proceed more rightly and stably, nevertheless did not deny his grace for the future. For although he had redeemed man from past sins, yet, knowing that he could sin again, he reserved many things for his repair, by which he might be able to correct him even after these: he furnishes daily remedies, on which unless we lean and trust, we shall in no way be able to conquer human errors. For it is necessary that, by whom helping we conquer, by him again not helping we be conquered. But I could say more, were it not established that you have said all.

8. Whoever, then, seems to assent to this opinion, by which he says that we have no need of divine help, professes himself an enemy to the catholic faith, and ungrateful for the benefits of God. For they are not worthy even of our communion, which by such preaching they have polluted. For they themselves, of their own accord, while they follow what they say, have fled further from true religion. For since this whole consists in our profession, and in our daily prayers we do nothing except how we may obtain the mercy of God; how can we bear those boasting these things? What, I ask, so great an error blinds their breasts, that, if they themselves perceive no grace of God, because they are neither worthy nor deserving, they do not even consider concerning others what divine grace daily bestows on individuals? These indeed are most worthy of all blindness, who have not even left themselves this: that they should believe themselves able to be called back from errors by divine help. For by denying the help, they have utterly taken it away, not from others, but from themselves; who must be torn further away, and removed far from the bowels of the Church, lest, occupying many for a long time, the incurable error grow afterward. For if they shall have been long engaged under this impunity, they must necessarily lead many into this depravity of their mind, and deceive innocents, or rather the imprudent, who follow the catholic faith. For they will think those think rightly, whom they shall have seen still continuing in the Church.

9. Let the insane wound, then, be separated from the sound body, and, the breath of the raging disease removed, let those things which are sincere endure more cautiously, and let the purer flock be cleansed from the contagion of this evil cattle. Let there be the unimpaired perfection of the whole body, which we have learned that you follow and hold by this pronouncement against them, and which we, with one and a like assent, keep along with you. But if they shall provoke in themselves some help of God, which hitherto they have denied, and shall acknowledge that they have need of his aid, that they may be freed from this defilement into which by the bending of their heart they had fallen, and, as if drawn into the light from foul darkness, all things removed and renounced by which their whole gaze was soiled and darkened, lest they look upon the truth, condemn these things which hitherto they held, and at some time lending their mind to right disputations, somewhat corrected from this defilement, give and submit themselves to be healed by true counsels. And if they do this, it will be in the power of the pontiffs to come somewhat to their aid, and to grant to such wounds some care, which the Church is wont not to deny to the lapsed when they have come to their senses: so that, called back from their precipices, they may be brought back within the fold of the Lord; lest, placed outside, and excluded from so great a guard of the fortification of faith, they be exposed to all dangers, to be devoured by the teeth of wolves and harassed, which they cannot resist by this perversity of doctrine by which they had irritated them against themselves. But it is sufficiently shown that an answer has been made to your admonitions, so abounding with examples of our law; nor have we thought there remained anything to say, since it is established that nothing was passed over by you, nothing suppressed, by which they may be refuted and utterly acknowledged to be convicted. And therefore no testimonies are set down by us, both because your report is full of them, and it is sufficiently established that so many most learned priests have said all, nor does it befit to believe that you passed over anything that could profit the cause. (And in another hand:) Fare well, brothers.

LETTER 182
Innocent, to Silvanus the elder, Valentinus, and the rest who took part in the synod of Mileve, his most beloved brothers, greetings in the Lord.

1. Among the other cares of the Roman Church, and the occupations of the apostolic See, by which we treat the consultations of various people with faithful and modest discussion, our brother and fellow bishop Julius unexpectedly brought to me the letters of your charity, which you sent from the council of Mileve with a more attentive care for the faith, subjoining also the writings of a like complaint of the synod of Carthage. Surely the Church exults that the shepherds show so great solicitude to the flocks committed to them, that they not only permit none of these to err, but, if the grass of perverse delight has rather seduced any of the sheep, and if they remain in error, either wish them to be utterly segregated, or, avoiding the things that were once illicitly sought, to be guarded by the circumspection of the former custody, consulting, namely, in both directions: lest either, by receiving such people, the rest be seduced by a like example; or, by spurning those returning, they seem to be thrown to the bites of wolves. A most prudent consultation, and full of catholic faith. For who could either tolerate one erring, or not receive one correcting himself? For as I judge it hard to show connivance to those sinning, so I judge it impious to deny the hand to those converted.

2. Diligently and fittingly, then, you consult the secrets of the apostolic honor (the honor, I say, of him whom, besides the things which are without, there awaits the solicitude of all the Churches) about anxious matters, what opinion is to be held, following, namely, the form of the ancient rule, which you know to have been always kept with me throughout the whole world. But these things I let pass; for I do not believe this is hidden from your prudence: for why did you confirm it by your action, except knowing that through all the provinces answers always flow from the apostolic fount to those asking? Especially as often as a matter of faith is sifted, I think all our brothers and fellow bishops ought to refer it only to Peter, that is, to the author of their name and honor, just as now your charity has referred it—what can profit all the Churches throughout the whole world in common. For they must necessarily be made more cautious, when the inventors of evils, at the report of the double synod, shall see themselves separated from ecclesiastical communion by the statutes of our sentence.

3. Your charity, then, will enjoy a twofold good. For you will both gain the grace of the canons kept, and the whole world will use your benefit. For what catholic man would wish to mingle speech further with the adversaries of Christ? who even to share the very light of life by communion? Surely let the authors of the new heresy be fled. For what more bitter thing could they fashion against God, than when they made void the divine helps, and took away the cause of daily prayer? This is to say, What need have I of God? Deservedly may the hymn-singer say against these: Behold the men who did not set God as their helper (Ps 52:7 (51:9)). Denying, then, the help of God, they say that a man can suffice himself, and does not need divine grace, deprived of which he must necessarily, ensnared in the snares of the devil, fall, while for fulfilling all the commandments of life he strives by liberty alone. O perverse doctrine of most depraved minds! Let him at last attend to this: that liberty itself so deceived the first man, that, while he used its reins too indulgently, he fell into transgression by presumption; nor could he be rescued from this, unless the providence of regeneration, by the coming of Christ the Lord, had reformed the state of the former liberty. Let him hear David saying, Our help is in the name of the Lord (Ps 124:8 (123:8)); and: Be my helper, do not forsake me, nor despise me, O God of my salvation (Ps 27:9 (26:9)): which he would have said in vain, if that which he asked of the Lord with tearful discourse was placed only in his own will.

4. Since these things are so, and since in all the divine pages we read that nothing but the help of God is to be knit to the free will, and that it, destitute of heavenly aids, can do nothing; in what way do Pelagius and Celestius, pertinaciously, as you assert, defending this possibility for it alone, persuade themselves—nay, what is more worthy of common grief, already very many? Indeed we could use manifold examples to destroy such teaching, were we not aware that your holiness is fully versed in all the divine Scriptures; especially since your report is filled with so many and such testimonies, that by these alone the present dogma can be rescinded; and there is no need of recondite ones, since they dare neither to oppose, nor are able, even those things which, easily occurring to you, you have set down. Therefore they try to take away the grace of God, which it is necessary that, even with the liberty of our former state restored to us, we seek: since we can avoid the other machinations of the devil too only by that same grace helping.

5. But that which your fraternity asserts they preach—that little ones can be granted the rewards of eternal life even without the grace of baptism—is exceedingly foolish. For unless they eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, they will not have life in themselves (Jn 6:53). But those who defend that they have this without regeneration seem to me to wish to make void baptism itself, when they preach that these have what is believed to be conferred on them only by baptism. If, then, they wish that not to be reborn is no hindrance, they must necessarily confess that not even the sacred streams of regeneration profit. But that the depraved doctrine of these superfluous men may be cut apart by the swift reasoning of truth, the Lord proclaims this in the Gospel, saying: Let the children come to me, and do not forbid them to come to me (Mt 19:14).

6. Wherefore we decree, by the authority of apostolic vigor, that Pelagius and Celestius, that is, the inventors of new words, which, as the Apostle said, are wont to produce nothing of edification, but rather most vain questions, be deprived of ecclesiastical communion, until they come to their senses from the snares of the devil, by whom they are held captive according to his will; and that meanwhile they not be received into the Lord's fold, which they themselves, following the path of the perverse way, wished to desert: for they are to be cut off who disturb you, and wish to turn the Gospel of Christ (Gal 5:10.12; 1:7). But at the same time we enjoin that whoever try, with like pertinacity, to defend this, an equal punishment constrain them. For not only those who do, but also those who consent to those doing; because I judge there is not much difference between the mind of the one committing and the favor of the one consenting. And I add still more: very often he unlearns to err, to whom no one consents. Let this sentence, then, dearest brothers, remain fixed against the aforesaid: let them be far from the courts of the Lord, let them lack pastoral custody, lest the dire contagions of two sheep creep perhaps through the incautious crowd, and the wolf with rapacious heart rejoice within the Lord's fold over so great companies of poured-out sheep, while the wound of two is dissemblingly disregarded by the guardians. We must take care, then, lest, by permitting wolves, we seem to be hirelings rather than shepherds.

7. We surely command, since Christ the Lord signified by his own voice that he does not wish the death of the dying, but only that he turn back and live, that if ever they shall come to their senses to soundness, laying aside the error of the depraved dogma, and condemn those things by whose transgression they themselves condemned themselves, the accustomed medicine, that is, their reception, be not denied them by the Church: lest, while perhaps we forbid them returning, truly remaining outside the fold and awaiting, they be gulped down by the rabid jaws of the enemy, which they have armed against themselves with the darts of evil disputation. Fare well, brothers. Given on the sixth day before the kalends of February, in the consulship of the most illustrious men Honorius and Constantius.

LETTER 183
To his most beloved brothers Aurelius, Alypius, Augustine, Evodius, and Possidius, bishops, from Innocent, greetings.

1. The letters of your fraternity, full of faith, and confirmed with all the vigor of catholic religion, sent from two councils through our brother and fellow bishop Julius, we received with a most grateful mind, because their tenor and whole context stands, with sound reasoning, in the consideration of the daily grace of God, and in the correction of those who think otherwise; so that it can both take away from them all error, and, by some example given of our law, present them a worthy teacher whom they ought to follow. But about these things we have already, as I think, said enough above, when, answering your reports, we wrote back what we thought both about their perfidy and about your opinion. But there comes up and is supplied, again and again, what may be said against them, nor can there ever be lacking what may conquer, since what is conquered by the strength of our faith and by truth itself more fully is so wretched and impious. For one who has spurned and despised all hope of life, confounding his heart by a hostile and damnable disputation, when he believes that there is nothing he may receive from God, nor anything left that he may ask for the healing of himself; who has taken this from himself, what has he left further?

2. If, then, there are any whom so great a perversity has bound in defense of themselves, who give and join themselves to this dogma, hoping that this pertains to catholic doctrine, which, abhorrent and far off, is utterly proved adverse—infected by their admonitions and words, and led to fall—they will hasten to return to the right path of the way, lest the error, besieging their mind as it were fed upon their senses, invade them longer. For if Pelagius, wherever he has stood his ground, has deceived the minds of those who easily or simply believed him disputing, by this affirmation: whether they be in this city (whom, not knowing them, we can neither make manifest nor deny, since even if they exist they lie hidden, nor do they ever dare either to defend him preaching these things, or to boast such things with any of ours present, nor can anyone easily be detected in so great a multitude of the people, nor anywhere be recognized), or whether they live in any place of the earth; by the mercy and grace of our God we believe that they are easily corrected, the condemnation of him being heard who shall have been found the pertinacious and resisting author of this dogma; nor does it matter where these are, provided that, wherever they can be found, they are to be healed.

3. To us, however, it cannot be persuaded that he has been cleared, although there have been brought to us, by I know not what laymen, proceedings by which he would have us believe that he was both heard and absolved: which, whether they are true, we doubt, because they came under no prosecution of that council, nor have we received any letters about this matter from those before whom he pleaded the causes of this thing. But if he could have been confident of his own cleansing, we believe rather that he would have done this, which could have been much truer, that by his letters he would compel those who judged the case to indicate it. But since there are some things set down in those very proceedings, which, being charged, he partly suppressed by avoiding them, partly confounded with total obscurity by twisting many words upon himself; some he cleared rather by false arguments than by true reasoning, as for the time could seem—denying some, turning others by a false interpretation.

4. But would that, which is rather to be wished, he might now turn himself to the true way of the catholic faith from that error of his path, so as to desire and wish to be cleared, considering the daily grace of God, and acknowledging his help, that it may seem true, and he be approved by all, corrected by manifest reasoning, not by the indication of proceedings, but with his heart converted to the catholic faith! Whence we can neither blame nor approve their judgment, since we do not know whether the proceedings are true; or, if they are true, whether it is established that he rather slipped away than cleared himself with all truth. And if he is confident and knows that he is not worthy of our condemnation, so that he may say that he has now refuted this whole which he had said, he ought not to be summoned by us, but rather himself to hasten, that he may be absolved. For if he still thinks in such a way, when will he commit himself to our judgment, whatever letters he has received, since he knows he must be condemned? But if he were to be summoned, it would better be done by those who seem to be nearer and not separated by a long space of earth. But care will not be lacking, if he furnishes matter for the medicine. For he can condemn what he had thought, and, his letters given, ask pardon for his error, as befits one returning to us, dearest brothers.

5. The book, indeed, which was said to be his, transmitted to us by your charity, we have unrolled: in which we read many things written against the grace of God, many blasphemous things, nothing that would please, and almost nothing that would not utterly displease, to be condemned and trampled by anyone; the like of which no one but he who had written these things would receive into his mind and think. For to dispute more broadly in this place about the law, as it were with Pelagius set before us and resisting, we have not thought necessary, since we converse with you who know the whole and rejoice with an assent equal to ours. For these examples are better set down when we treat with those who, it is established, are ignorant of these matters. For about the possibility of nature, about free choice, and about all the grace of God, and daily grace, to whom that thinks rightly would it not be most abundant to dispute? Let him, then, anathematize these things which he thought, that those who had been undone by his discourses and precepts may at last know what the true faith holds. For they will more easily be called back, when they perceive these things condemned by their author. But if he wishes pertinaciously to persist in this impiety, we must act so that aid may be brought at least to those whom not his, but rather this man's, error has led in; lest this medicine too perish for them, whose such care he neither admits nor asks. (And in another hand:) May God keep you safe, dearest brothers. Given on the sixth day before the kalends of February.

LETTER 184
Innocent, to the bishops Aurelius and Augustine.

1. The return of our most acceptable fellow presbyter Germanus ought not to be empty of our office. For to greet most dear friends through dear ones seems to us in a way natural and consequent. We desire, then, most lovingly, that your brotherhood rejoice in the Lord, and we pray that you repay equal vows to God for us, because, as you well know, we accomplish more by common and mutual prayers than by single or private ones.

LETTER 184/A
To the most beloved lords, and holy sons Peter and Abraham, from Augustine, greetings in the Lord.

1. 1. Your holy zeal, by which you think many things must be asked of me, that you may be able to resist contentious impieties not unarmed, justice ought not to spurn, nor can charity. But a diligent answer to all things one letter, however lengthy it be, does not contain. But you should know that in very many of our little works I have already answered, as much as I could, either to all, or to almost all, the things you ask. Which if you read—since I hear that you have so ordered the life by which you serve God, that you have leisure for reading—either all instruction will lie open to you, or I judge not much will be lacking, especially because there is in you the inner Teacher, by whose grace you are such. For how does a man help a man to learn anything, if we are not taught by the Lord (See Jn 6:45)? And yet in this letter I will by no means defraud your expectation, as the Lord helps, of a brief answer at least.

1. 2. The Lord says: He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned (Mk 16:16). If, then, when little ones are baptized, it is not said in vain but done truly, that they are held among believers, whence also a new offspring are named by the mouth of all Christians; surely, if they do not believe, they will be condemned: and through this, because they themselves added nothing by living badly to original sin, it can be said that in that damnation their punishment is by their merit the least, yet not none. But whoever thinks there will be no diversity of punishments, let him read what is written: It will be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgment than for that city (Mt 10:15). Let not, then, a middle place between the kingdom and punishment be sought for infants by deceivers; but let them pass from the devil to Christ, that is, from death to life, lest the wrath of God remain over them: for from this wrath of God none but the grace of God frees. But what is the wrath of God, but the punishment owed and the vengeance by a just God? for neither is God disturbed by any commotion, as a changeable mind is angered; but that which is called the wrath of God is nothing else than the just punishment of sin, which it is no wonder that it passes into posterity.

1. 3. For carnal concupiscence, by which they are sown and conceived, was not before sin, nor would it have been at all, unless a reciprocal punishment, namely the disobedience of his own flesh too, had followed the disobedience of man. By which evil, although the good of marriage uses it well, yet not even nuptial intercourse—that is, the licit and honorable intercourse for the sake of procuring children—can take place without it. But without it it could take place, if human nature had remained in the state in which it was created, not sinning. For the genital members too could, like the rest, be moved to perform their proper work by the nod of the will, not excited by the heat of lust. For who would deny that those words of God, Increase and multiply (Gen 1:28), were not a curse of sins, but a blessing of marriage? Through this concupiscence, then, since Christ was neither sown nor conceived (since the bringing-forth of the Virgin was far otherwise); through this concupiscence, I say, whatever of men is sown, conceived, and born, that it may not be punished, must be reborn. Because, even if it is born of reborn parents, carnal generation cannot grant to this what spiritual regeneration alone granted to them. Just as not only from the seed of the wild olive, but even from the seed of the olive, nothing is born but the wild olive, although the olive is not the wild olive. Many things about these we have said also in our other writings, which I wish you rather to read than that you compel us to repeat the same things.

2. 4. But to the unbelievers, who are held by no authority of the Christians' Books, answer is made more laboriously. Nor can their perversity be corrected by the weight of the divine Scripture, against whom rather the Scripture itself, which is more openly accused by them, must surely be defended. And if the Lord helps you too, that you may be able, you nevertheless accomplish little with those whom you desire to be Christians, if you conquer their unbelief by truthful disputations, unless you also ask faith for them by suppliant prayers. For faith itself too, as you know, is a gift of God, who divides to each a measure of faith (Rom 12:3)—and such a gift, that it is necessary that understanding precede it. For the prophet is not deceived who says: Unless you believe, you will not understand (Isa 7:9 (LXX)). And because, that they might believe, not for the already faithful, but still for the unbelieving Jews, the Apostle prayed, when he said: Brothers, the good will indeed of my heart, and my prayer to God, is made for them unto salvation (Rom 10:1); for them, namely, who had killed Christ, who surely would kill this man too, if power were given. For such the Lord too, when hanging he was mocked, and blessed Stephen, when he was stoned, prayed.

3. 5. Of these unbelievers, indeed, whom we are accustomed to call either Gentiles, or, by a word now in common use, Pagans, since there are two kinds; one of those who prefer the superstitions, as they think, to the Christian religion; the other of those who are bound by no name of religion: I, in certain books which I have entitled On the City of God, of which I think the notice has already reached you, and the rest of which, if the Lord wills, I am laboring to finish amid my occupations, against the first kind of these, which the Apostle marks where he says, The things that the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God (1 Cor 10:20); or surely where he says, They worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator (Rom 1:25); I have composed ten not small volumes, of which the first five refute those who contend that, for attaining or retaining that earthly and temporal felicity of human affairs, the worship not of the one supreme and true God, but of many gods, is necessary. But the other five following are against those who, lifting themselves up too swollenly and inflatedly against the saving doctrine, think to come to the blessedness which is hoped for after this life, even through the worship of demons and many gods. Where their noble philosophers too, in three of these five, but the last books, are refuted by us. The rest, from the eleventh, however many they may be able to be, of which I have already finished three and have the fourth in hand, will contain those things which we hold and believe about the City of God; lest we seem to have wished only to refute the views of others, and not also to assert our own in this work. But that fourth after the ten, which is the fourteenth book of the whole work, will, if the Lord wills, have unraveled all the questions which you set before me in your letter.

3. 6. Further, with the other kind of unbelievers, who either believe there is no divine power, or do not believe that human affairs pertain to it, I do not know whether there should be any discourse held about some question of piety; although scarcely anyone in our times is found so foolish, that he would dare to say even in his heart: There is no God (Ps 14:1 (13:1)). But those other fools are not lacking who have said: The Lord will not see (Ps 94:7 (93:7)); that is, he does not extend his providence to these earthly things. Nevertheless, in these books, which I wish your charity to read, while the City of God asserts not only that God exists—which is so implanted in nature that scarcely any impiety ever roots it out—but also that he bears the care of human affairs, from the very institution of men up to the blessing of the just with the holy angels, and the damnation of the impious with the malign angels, it will, if God wills, and to whom he wills, become credible.

3. 7. This letter, then, must not be burdened further, most beloved. For where you may hope to know through our ministry what you wish, we have said enough; and those same books, if you do not yet have them, that you may be able to have them, we have arranged—as far as our slender means allow—through the holy brother and my fellow presbyter Firmus, who loves you much, and who intimated to us rather diligently that he gives thanks to your mutual love.

LETTER 185
A Book on the Correction of the Donatists
Augustine to Boniface

1. 1. I praise, and rejoice, and marvel, most beloved son Boniface, that amid the cares of wars and arms you vehemently desire to know the things which are God's. Truly from this it appears that you serve, even by your very military valor, the faith which you have in Christ. So, to intimate briefly to your charity what difference there is between the error of the Arians and that of the Donatists: the Arians say that the substances of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are diverse; but the Donatists do not say this, but confess one substance of the Trinity. And if some of them have said that the Son is less than the Father is, they have nevertheless not denied that he is of the same substance: but very many among them say that they believe altogether about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit what the catholic Church believes. Nor is that question at issue with them; but they unhappily litigate about communion alone, and exercise rebel enmities against the unity of Christ by the perversity of their error. But sometimes, as we have heard, some of them, wishing to conciliate the Goths to themselves, when they see that they can do something, say that they believe what those too believe. But they are convicted by the authority of their elders; because not even Donatus himself, of whose party they glory to be, is asserted to have believed thus.

1. 2. But let not these things disturb you, most beloved son. For heresies and scandals were foretold to come, that we may be instructed among enemies; and so both our faith and our love may be more approved: faith, surely, that we be not deceived by them; but love, that we may take counsel, as much as we can, even for their correction—not only urging that they not harm the weak, and that they be freed from the wicked error, but also praying for them, that the Lord may open their sense, and they may understand the Scriptures. Because in the holy Books, where the Lord Christ is manifested, there his Church too is declared: but these people, by a marvelous blindness, since they do not know Christ himself apart from the Scriptures, nevertheless do not recognize his Church by the authority of the divine Letters, but invent it by the vanity of human calumnies.

1. 3. They acknowledge with us Christ in that which is read: They have pierced my hands and my feet; they have numbered all my bones. They themselves considered and looked upon me; they divided my garments among themselves, and over my garment they cast lots (Ps 22:16-18 (21:17-19)): but they are unwilling to acknowledge the Church in that which a little after follows: All the ends of the earth shall be reminded and shall turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall adore in his sight: for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he shall rule the nations (Ps 22:27-28 (21:28-29)). They acknowledge with us Christ in that which is read: The Lord said to me, You are my Son, today I have begotten you: but they are unwilling to acknowledge the Church in that which follows: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession (Ps 2:7-8). They acknowledge with us Christ in that which the Lord himself speaks in the Gospel: It behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day: but they are unwilling to acknowledge the Church in that which follows: and that repentance and remission of sins be preached in his name among all nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Lk 24:46-47). And there are innumerable testimonies of the holy Books, which I ought not to crowd into this book. In which, just as the Lord Christ appears—whether according to the divinity by which he is equal to the Father, since in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Jn 1:1); or according to the lowliness of the flesh assumed, since the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14)—so his Church too appears, not in Africa alone, as these people rave with most shameless vanity, but diffused throughout the whole world.

1. 4. For they prefer their own lawsuits to the divine testimonies, because in the case of Caecilian, once bishop of the Church of Carthage, against whom they charged crimes which they neither could nor can prove, they divided themselves from the catholic Church, that is, from the unity of all nations. Although, even if the things charged against Caecilian by them were true, and could at some time be shown to us, we would anathematize him, now dead: but yet we ought not to abandon the Church of Christ, which is not fashioned by litigious opinions, but proved by divine attestations, on account of any man whatever; because it is good to trust in the Lord rather than to trust in man (Ps 118:8 (117:8)). For—which I would say without injury to his innocence—if Caecilian sinned, Christ did not on that account lose his inheritance. It is easy for a man to believe things, whether true or false, about another man; but it is of wicked shamelessness, on account of a man's crimes, which you cannot show to the world, to wish to condemn the communion of the world.

1. 5. Whether Caecilian was ordained by handers-over of the divine Codices, I do not know; I did not see it, I heard it from his enemies: it is not recited to me from the Law of God, not from the proclamation of the Prophets, not from the holiness of the Psalms, not from the Apostle of Christ, not from the utterance of Christ. But the Church diffused throughout the whole world, with which the party of Donatus does not communicate, the testimonies of all the Scriptures proclaim with a consonant voice. In your seed shall all nations be blessed (Gen 22:18), the Law of God said. From the rising of the sun to its setting, a clean sacrifice is offered to my name; for my name is glorified among the nations (Mal 1:11), the Lord said through the Prophet. He shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth (Ps 72:8 (71:8)), the Lord said through the Psalm. Bearing fruit and growing in the whole world (Col 1:6), the Lord said through the Apostle. You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8), the Son of God said by his own mouth. Caecilian, bishop of the Church of Carthage, is accused by human lawsuits: the Church of Christ, established among all nations, is commended by divine voices. Piety itself, truth, love, does not permit us to accept against Caecilian the testimony of those men whom we do not see in the Church to which God bears testimony: for those who do not follow the divine testimonies have lost the weight of human testimony.

2. 6. I add that they themselves sent the case of Caecilian to the judgment of the emperor Constantine by accusing him; nay rather, that they brought Caecilian himself, after episcopal judgments, where they could not crush him, to the examination of the aforesaid emperor, as most pertinacious persecutors. And what they now blame in us, to deceive the unskilled, saying that Christians ought not to ask anything from Christian emperors against the enemies of Christ, they themselves did first. Which even in the conference which we held together at Carthage, they did not dare to deny: nay, they even dared to boast that before the emperor their elders had criminally pursued Caecilian; adding moreover the lie that they conquered him there and made him condemned. How, then, are they themselves not persecutors, who, since by accusing they persecuted Caecilian, and were overcome by him, wished to arrogate to themselves a false glory by a most shameless lie; not only not thinking it a fault, but even boasting it for their praise, if they could prove that Caecilian had been condemned by their elders accusing? But how in that conference they were in every way conquered—since the proceedings are very lengthy, and for you, occupied with other matters necessary for the Roman peace, it is much that they be read—a Summary of them can perhaps be read to you, which I believe my brother and fellow bishop Optatus has; or if he does not have it, he can most easily receive it from the Church of Sitifis: since indeed even this book is now perhaps, by its own length, burdensome to your cares.

2. 7. For this has befallen the Donatists which befell the accusers of holy Daniel. For as against those the lions, so against these have the laws been turned, by which they wished to crush the innocent; except that, on account of the mercy of Christ, these laws which seem adverse to them are rather for them: since many have been corrected through them, and are daily corrected; and they give thanks that they are corrected, and freed from that furious ruin. And those who hated now love, and as much as in their insanity they detested the most healthful laws as troublesome to them, so much, their health recovered, do they rejoice; and they are roused, with a like love now together with us, toward the remaining ones with whom they were going to perish, so that we may equally press on lest those perish. For a physician too is troublesome to a frenzied man, and a father to an undisciplined son; the one by binding, the other by beating; but both by loving. But if they should neglect them, and permit them to perish, that mildness, rather, is a false cruelty. For if the horse and the mule, which have no understanding, resist with bites and kicks the men by whom their wounds, needing care, are handled; and although among their teeth and kicks the men are often in danger, and sometimes harassed, yet they do not abandon them, until through pains and medicinal troubles they recall them to health: how much more is a man not to be abandoned by a man, and a brother by a brother, lest he perish forever—one who, corrected, can understand how great a benefit was being bestowed on him, when he was complaining that he was suffering persecution!

2. 8. As, then, the Apostle says: Untiring, while we have time, let us work good toward all (Gal 6:9-10): let those who can, by the discourses of catholic preachers; those who can, by the laws of catholic princes; partly through those who obey divine admonitions, partly through those who obey imperial commands, let all be called to salvation, let all be recalled from ruin. For emperors too, when for falsehood against truth they establish evil laws, the well-believing are proved, and the persevering are crowned: but when for truth against falsehood they establish good laws, the raging are terrified, and the understanding are corrected. Whoever, then, is unwilling to obey the laws of emperors which are passed against the truth of God, gains a great reward: but whoever is unwilling to obey the laws of emperors which are passed for the truth of God, gains a great punishment. For even in the times of the Prophets, all the kings who in the people of God did not prohibit and overturn the things that had been instituted against the precepts of God are blamed; and those who prohibited and overturned them are praised above the merits of the others. And king Nebuchadnezzar, when he was a servant of idols, established a sacrilegious law that an image be adored; but those who were unwilling to obey his impious constitution did piously and faithfully: yet the same king, corrected by a divine miracle, established a pious and laudable law for the truth, that whoever should speak blasphemy against the true God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego should utterly perish with his house. If any despised this law, and deservedly suffered what had been established, they ought to say what these people say, that they are just, because they suffered persecution by the king's law: which they would surely say, if they were as insane as these people are insane who divide the members of Christ, and blow upon the sacraments of Christ, and glory in persecution; because they are prohibited from doing these things by the laws of emperors, which they established for the unity of Christ; and they fallaciously boast their innocence, and the glory of martyrs, which they cannot receive from the Lord, they seek from men.

2. 9. But the true martyrs are those of whom the Lord says: Blessed are those who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake (Mt 5:10). Not, then, those who suffer persecution for iniquity, and for the impious division of Christian unity, but those who suffer it for righteousness, these are the true martyrs. For Hagar too suffered persecution from Sarah; and she who did it was holy, she who suffered it was iniquitous. Is the holy David, whom the iniquitous Saul persecuted, to be compared to this persecution which Hagar suffered? It differs greatly, surely, not because he suffered, but because he suffered for righteousness. And the Lord himself was crucified with thieves: but those whom the passion joined, the cause separated. Therefore in the Psalm that voice is to be understood of the true martyrs, wishing themselves to be distinguished from the false martyrs: Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from an unholy nation (Ps 43:1 (42:1)): he did not say, "Distinguish my punishment"; but, Distinguish my cause. For the punishment of the impious can be alike, but the cause of the martyrs is unalike; whose is also that voice: They have persecuted me unjustly, help me (Ps 119:86 (118:86)): therefore he judged himself worthy to be helped justly, because they persecuted unjustly; for if they persecuted justly, he was not to be helped, but corrected.

2. 10. But if they think, as they said in the conference, that no one can justly persecute anyone—that the true Church is that which suffers persecution, not that which does it—I omit to say what I recalled above, that, if it is as they say, Caecilian belonged to the true Church, when their elders were persecuting him by accusing even up to the judgment of the emperor. For we say that he belonged to the true Church, not because he suffered persecution, but because he suffered for righteousness; but that they were alienated from the Church, not because they persecuted, but because they persecuted unjustly: this, then, is what we say. But if they do not inquire into the causes why anyone does persecution, or why he suffers it, but think this to be the sign of a true Christian, if he does not do persecution but suffers it; without doubt they place Caecilian within that definition, who did not do it, but suffered it: but their own elders they cast outside that definition, who did it, did not suffer it.

2. 11. But this, as I said, I omit; this I say: if the true Church is that which suffers persecution, not that which does it; let them ask of the Apostle what Church Sarah signified, when she did persecution to her handmaid. For he says that our free mother, the heavenly Jerusalem, that is, the true Church of God, was figured in that woman who afflicted the handmaid. But if we discuss it better, she rather persecuted Sarah by being proud, than Sarah her by restraining: for the one did injury to her mistress, the other imposed discipline upon the proud one. Then I ask, if the good and holy do persecution to no one, but only suffer it, whose do they think is the voice in the Psalm where it is read: I will pursue my enemies, and overtake them, and I will not turn back until they fail (Ps 18:37 (17:38))? If, then, we wish to speak or acknowledge the truth, there is an unjust persecution which the impious do to the Church of Christ; and there is a just persecution which the Church of Christ does to the impious. This, then, is blessed, which suffers persecution for righteousness; but those wretched, who suffer persecution for unrighteousness. Accordingly, this persecutes by loving, those by raging; this that it may correct, those that they may overthrow; this that it may recall from error, those that they may hurl into error: finally, this persecutes its enemies and overtakes them, until they fail in vanity, that they may advance in truth; but those, repaying evil for good, because we take counsel for them toward eternal salvation, try to take away even the temporal from us, so loving murders that they perpetrate them on themselves, when they cannot perpetrate them on others. For as the love of the Church labors so to free them from that perdition, that none of them die; so their fury labors either to kill us, that it may feed the lust of its cruelty, or even themselves, lest they seem to have lost the power of killing men.

3. 12. But those who do not know their custom think that they now kill themselves only when, by the occasion of these laws which were established for unity, such great peoples are freed from their most insane domination. But those who know what they were wont to do even before these laws do not wonder at their deaths, but recall their ways; especially when, while the worship of idols still existed, they came in enormous throngs to the most frequented solemnities of the Pagans, not to break the idols, but to be killed by the worshipers of idols. For if they had wished to do that with legitimate power received, if anything had befallen them, they could have had some kind of shadow of the name of martyrs; but they came for this alone, that, the idols left intact, they themselves might be slain: for individual most vigorous young worshipers of idols were wont to vow to those very idols how many each would kill. Some too thrust themselves to be slaughtered upon armed travelers, terribly threatening that they would strike them, unless they were slain by them. Sometimes they violently extorted from judges passing by, that they be struck by the executioners or by the staff. Whence a certain one is reported to have so mocked them, that he ordered them to be bound as if to be struck, and let go, and so escaped their onset bloodless and unharmed. And then to kill themselves over steep precipices, through waters and flames, was a daily sport to them. For the devil taught them these three kinds of death, so that, wishing to die, when they did not find anyone whom they might terrify, that they be struck by his sword, they would cast themselves over rocks, or give themselves to fires and whirlpools. But who is to be believed to have taught them these things, possessing their heart, except he who suggested to our Savior too, as it were from the Law, that he cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple? Whose suggestion they would surely ward off from themselves, if they carried Christ the teacher in their heart. But because they have rather given place in themselves to the devil, either they perish as that herd of swine which the throng of demons cast from the mountain into the sea; or, snatched from those deaths, and gathered into the pious bosom of mother Catholic, they are so freed, as was freed by the Lord that one whom his father offered to be healed of a demon, saying that he was wont sometimes to fall into water, sometimes into fire.

3. 13. Whence great mercy is shown to them, when even through these laws of the emperors they are first snatched, unwilling, from that sect, where through the doctrines of lying demons they learned these evils, so that afterward in the Catholic Church they may be healed, accustomed to good precepts and morals. For many of them, whose pious fervor of faith and love we now marvel at in the unity of Christ, with great gladness give thanks to God that they lacked that error, where they thought these evil things good: which thanks they would now, willing, not give, unless they had first, even unwilling, departed from that wicked society. What shall we say of those who daily confess to us that they had long ago wished to be catholics; but they dwelt among those among whom they could not be what they wished, through the weakness of fear, where, if they should say one word for the Catholic Church, both they and their houses would be utterly overthrown? Who is so demented as to deny that aid ought to have been brought to these by imperial commands, that they might be rescued from so great an evil, while those whom they feared are compelled to fear, and by that same fear are either themselves corrected, or at least, when they feign themselves corrected, spare the corrected, by whom they were before feared?

3. 14. But if they wish to kill themselves, lest those who are to be freed be freed, and in that way to terrify the piety of those freeing, so that, while it is feared lest certain lost ones perish, those be not rescued from perdition who either now were unwilling to perish, or, coerced, could not perish; what does Christian love do here, especially since those who threaten their voluntary and furious deaths are very few in comparison with the peoples to be freed? What, then, does brotherly affection do? whether, while for a few it fears the transitory fires of furnaces, it sends all away to the eternal fires of Gehenna; and leaves so many, either now willing, or afterward unable, to come through catholic peace to perpetual life, to everlasting destruction, by guarding lest certain ones die by a voluntary destruction, who live to the hindrance of the salvation of others, whom they do not permit to live according to the doctrine of Christ, that they may teach them at any time, according to the custom of diabolical doctrine, to hasten to those voluntary deaths which are now feared in them? or does it rather preserve those whom it can, even if those whom it cannot preserve perish of their own accord? For it ardently longs that all may live; but it labors more that all may not perish. But thanks to the Lord, that among us too—not indeed in all, but very much in most places, and through other parts of Africa—without any deaths of these insane ones, the catholic peace has run and runs. But those deadly things happen there where there is so furious and useless a kind of men, who at other times too were wont to do these same things.

4. 15. And indeed, before these laws were sent by the catholic emperors, the doctrine of the peace and unity of Christ was gradually growing, and each was passing over to it from that party as he learned, and wished, and was able; while, nevertheless, among them the most demented herds of lost men were disturbing the quiet of the innocent in various causes. What master was not compelled to fear his own slave, if he fled to their patronage? Who dared even to threaten an overturner? or a creditor? Who could exact anything from a consumer of storehouses, from any debtor whatever, who sought their help and defense? By fear of cudgels and burnings and present death, the documents of the worst slaves were broken, that they might depart free. The bonds extorted from debtors were given back. Whoever had despised their hard words were compelled, by harder blows, to do what they commanded. The houses of innocent men who had offended them were either leveled to the ground, or burned with fires. Certain heads of households, born in an honorable position, and brought up in a noble manner, were carried off scarcely alive after their beatings, or bound to the mill, and driven by the lash to turn it in a circle, like contemptible beasts. For what help of the laws from the civil powers availed anything against them? what official panted in their presence? what tax-collector exacted what they did not wish? who tried to avenge those who were extinguished by their slaughters, except that their own insanity demanded the penalties for them, when some, by provoking against themselves the swords of men whom they terrified with death that they might be struck by them, others through various precipices, others through waters, others through fires, cast themselves everywhere into voluntary deaths, and threw away their savage souls by the torments inflicted on themselves by themselves?

4. 16. Very many, set in that very heretical superstition, shuddered at these things; and although they thought it sufficed for their innocence that such things displeased them, it was said to them by the catholics: "If these evils do not pollute your innocence, how do you say that the Christian world is polluted by the false, or at least unknown, sins of Caecilian? how do you, by a wicked crime, separate yourselves from catholic unity, as if from the Lord's threshing floor, which until the time of winnowing must necessarily have both wheat to be stored in the granary, and chaff to be consumed by fires?" And so the account was rendered to certain ones, so that some, prepared to endure even the enmities of the lost, passed over to catholic unity; but more, although they wished it, yet did not dare to make enemies of those men, to whom there had been so great a license of raging: for some, when they had passed over to us, suffered most cruel things.

4. 17. It also happened that at Carthage, against a certain deacon of theirs named Maximian, who was being proud against his bishop, certain bishops of that same party, a schism having been made and the party of Donatus divided among the people of Carthage, ordained a bishop against a bishop. Which, when it displeased many of them, they condemned that same Maximian with twelve others who had been present at his ordination, but to the rest belonging to that same society of schism they gave, on an appointed day, the faculty of returning. But afterward, certain ones of those twelve, and of those to whom the delay had been given, returning after the day set, they received in their own honors, for the sake of their peace; and whomever the condemned had baptized outside their communion, they did not dare to rebaptize. This deed of theirs began to avail much against them for the Catholic Church, so that their mouths were utterly closed. Which matter, when (as was fitting) it was scattered more insistently for healing the minds of men from schism, and was shown wherever it could be by the discourses and disputations of catholics—that for the peace of Donatus they had received their own condemned ones whole into their honor, and had not dared to rescind the baptism which the condemned, or even the deferred, had given outside their Church; and that they cast upon the world, against the peace of Christ, the contamination of I know not whose sins, and made void the baptism given even in those Churches from which the Gospel itself came to Africa: very many were confounded, and, blushing at the manifest truth, were corrected, more frequently than usual, and much more wherever some little liberty breathed again from their savagery.

4. 18. But then they so blazed up, and were incited by such goads of hatreds, that against their snares and violences and most open robberies scarcely any Churches of our communion could be secure, scarcely any road safe by which any might journey who against their rage preached the catholic peace, and convicted their dementia by perspicuous truth. To such a degree, indeed, was a hard condition set, in a way, not only before laymen, or any clerics, but even before the catholic bishops themselves. For either the truth had to be kept silent, or their savagery endured. But if the truth were kept silent, not only would no one be freed by its silence, but many would even be lost by their seduction: but if by the preaching of the truth their fury were provoked to rage, some being freed and ours strengthened, again fear would hinder the weak from following the truth. Since, then, the Church was afflicted by these straits, whoever thinks that all things should rather be endured than that the help of God should be sought, that it be brought through Christian emperors, attends too little to the fact that a good account could not be rendered of this negligence.

5. 19. For as to what those say who do not wish just laws to be established against their impieties—that the Apostles did not ask such things from the kings of the earth—they do not consider that it was then another time, and that all things are done in their own times. For what emperor then had believed in Christ, who would serve him by passing laws for piety against impiety, when that prophetic word was still being fulfilled: Why have the nations raged, and the peoples meditated vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes gathered together as one against the Lord, and against his Christ (Ps 2:1-2): but that was not yet being done which a little after is said in the same psalm: And now, O kings, understand; be instructed, you who judge the earth. Serve the Lord in fear, and exult before him with trembling (Ps 2:10-11). How, then, do kings serve the Lord in fear, except by prohibiting and punishing with religious severity the things that are done against the commands of the Lord? For one serves in one way, because he is a man; in another, because he is also a king: for because he is a man, he serves him by living faithfully; but because he is also a king, he serves by sanctioning with fitting vigor laws that command just things and prohibit the contrary. As Hezekiah served, by destroying the groves and temples of idols, and those high places which had been built against the precepts of God: as Josiah served, by doing such things himself too: as the king of the Ninevites served, by compelling the whole city to placate the Lord: as Darius served, by giving the idol into the power of Daniel to be broken, and casting his enemies to the lions: as Nebuchadnezzar served, of whom we have already spoken, by prohibiting all set in his kingdom from blaspheming God by a terrible law. In this, then, do kings serve the Lord, insofar as they are kings, when they do, for serving him, those things which they cannot do except as kings.

5. 20. Since, then, kings did not yet serve the Lord in the times of the Apostles, but still meditated vain things against the Lord and against his Christ, that all the things foretold by the Prophets might be fulfilled, impieties could surely not then be prohibited by laws, but rather exercised. For so the order of the times rolled on, that both the Jews killed the preachers of Christ, thinking they did a service to God, as Christ had foretold, and the Gentiles raged against the Christians, and the patience of the martyrs conquered all. But after it began to be fulfilled which is written, And all the kings of the earth shall adore him; all nations shall serve him (Ps 72:11 (71:11)), who, sound in mind, would say to kings: "Do not care, in your kingdom, by whom the Church of your Lord is held or assailed; let it not pertain to you, in your kingdom, who wishes to be either religious or sacrilegious"—to whom it cannot be said: "Let it not pertain to you, in your kingdom, who wishes to be chaste, who unchaste"? For why, since free choice has been given divinely to man, are adulteries punished by laws, and sacrileges permitted? Or is it lighter not to keep faith with God by the soul, than a woman with a man? Or if those things which are committed not by contempt, but by ignorance of religion, are to be punished more mildly, are they therefore to be neglected?

6. 21. It would be better, indeed—who would doubt it?—for men to be led to worship God by teaching, than to be compelled by fear of punishment or by pain: but not because the former are better are the latter, who are not such, to be neglected. For it has profited many (which we have proved and prove by experiences) first to be compelled by fear or pain, that afterward they could be taught, or follow in deed what they had already learned in words. They set before us the opinion of a certain secular author, who said:
By shame and by liberality, I believe,
it is better to keep children than by fear.
This indeed is true; but as those whom love directs are better, so those whom fear corrects are more. For, that answer may be made to these people from that same author, in him too they read:
Unless compelled by evil, you know not how to do right.
Further, the divine Scripture, both for the sake of those better ones, said: There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear (1 Jn 4:18); and for the sake of these inferior ones, who are more, it says: A hard slave will not be amended by words; for even if he understands, he will not obey (Prov 29:19). When it said that he is not amended by words, it did not command that he be abandoned, but tacitly admonished by what he ought to be amended: otherwise it would not say, He will not be amended by words; but would only say, He will not be amended. For in another place it says that not only a slave, but even an undisciplined son, must be coerced by blows; and with great fruit: for, You indeed, it says, strike him with the rod; but you will free his soul from death (Prov 23:14); and elsewhere it says: He who spares the staff hates his son (Prov 13:24). For give me one who with right faith and true understanding says, with all the strength of his soul: My soul has thirsted for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God? (Ps 42:2 (41:3)); and for such a one neither the fear of temporal punishments, nor of imperial laws, nor even of Gehenna is necessary, to whom it is so desirable a good to cling to God, that he not only dreads to be estranged from that felicity as a great punishment, but even bears it grievously to be deferred. But yet, before the good sons say, We have a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil 1:23), many are first, as it were bad slaves and in a way wicked fugitives, recalled to their Lord by the lash of temporal scourges.

6. 22. For who can love us more than Christ, who laid down his life for his sheep? And yet, when he had called Peter and the other Apostles by a word alone, Paul—formerly Saul, afterward the great builder of his Church, but before that a horrible devastator—he not only restrained by his voice, but even prostrated by his power, and, that he might urge him, raging in the darkness of unbelief, to desire the light of the heart, he first struck him with bodily blindness. If that punishment were not, he would not afterward be healed from it: and when, with open eyes, he saw nothing, if he had kept them safe, the Scripture would not narrate that at the imposition of the hand of Ananias, that their gaze might be opened, there fell from there as it were the scales by which they had been closed. Where is what these people are wont to cry out: "It is free to believe or not to believe? To whom did Christ apply force? whom did he compel?" Behold, they have the apostle Paul; let them acknowledge in him Christ first compelling, and afterward teaching; first striking, and afterward consoling. But it is wonderful how he who entered the Gospel compelled by bodily punishment, labored in the Gospel more than all those who were called by a word alone; and him whom a greater fear compelled to love, his perfect love cast out fear.

6. 23. Why, then, should the Church not compel her lost sons to return, if the lost sons compelled others to perish? Although even those whom they did not compel, but only seduced, if by terrible but healthful laws they be recalled into her bosom, the pious mother embraces more tenderly, and rejoices over them much more than over those whom she had never lost. Does it not pertain to pastoral diligence, even those sheep which have not been violently snatched, but blandly and gently seduced, and have strayed from the flock, and begun to be possessed by strangers, when found, to recall to the Lord's fold, if they should wish to resist, by the terrors of scourges, or even by pains: especially since, if they multiply by fecundity among fugitive slaves and robbers, there is more of right in that the Lord's mark is acknowledged in them; which in those whom we receive, and yet do not rebaptize, is in no way violated? For the error of the sheep is so to be corrected, that the seal of the Redeemer be not corrupted in it. For neither, if anyone be marked with the royal mark by a marked deserter, and they receive pardon, and that one return to the army, but this one begin to be in the army in which he was not yet; in either of them is that mark rescinded. Or is it not rather acknowledged in both, and approved with due honor, since it is royal? Because, then, they cannot show that the thing to which they are compelled is evil, they contend that they ought not to be compelled to the good. But we have shown Paul compelled by Christ: the Church, therefore, in compelling these people, imitates her Lord, who first waited to compel no one, that the prophetic preaching about the faith of kings and nations might be fulfilled.

6. 24. For hence too is not absurdly understood that apostolic sentence, where blessed Paul says: Ready to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience shall first have been fulfilled (2 Cor 10:6). Whence the Lord himself too commands the guests to his great supper first to be brought in, afterward to be compelled: for when his servants had answered him, Lord, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room; Go out, he says, into the roads and hedges, and whomever you find, compel them to enter (Lk 14:22-23). In those, then, who were first gently brought in, the prior obedience was fulfilled; but in these who are compelled, disobedience is coerced: for what is, compel them to enter, when it had first been said, bring in, and it had been answered, It is done as you commanded, and still there is room? If he had wished it understood that they should be compelled by the terrors of miracles, rather were many divine miracles done toward those who were first called, especially toward the Jews, of whom it was said, The Jews seek signs (1 Cor 1:22): among the Gentiles too such miracles in the times of the Apostles commended the Gospel, so that, if they were commanded to be compelled by such things, the former, as I said, would rather deservedly be believed to have been the guests compelled. Wherefore, if by the power which through the religion and faith of kings, at the time when it was due, the Church received by a divine gift, those who are found in the roads and hedges, that is, in heresies and schisms, are compelled to enter; let them not blame the fact that they are compelled, but attend to that to which they are compelled. The banquet of the Lord is the unity of the body of Christ, not only in the sacrament of the altar, but also in the bond of peace. Of these people, surely, we can most truly say that they compel no one to the good: for whomever they compel, they compel only to evil.

7. 25. Nevertheless, before those laws by which they are compelled to enter the holy banquet were sent into Africa, it seemed to some brothers, among whom I too was, that, although the rage of the Donatists raged everywhere, it ought not to be asked of the emperors that they command that the heresy itself not exist at all, by establishing a penalty for those who should wish to be in it; but that they should rather establish this, that those who either by speaking preached the catholic truth, or by establishing read it, should not suffer their furious violences. Which we thought could in some measure be done in this way: if the law of Theodosius of most pious memory, which he promulgated generally against all heretics—that whatever bishop or cleric of them should be found anywhere should be fined ten pounds of gold—they should confirm more expressly against the Donatists, who denied that they were heretics, in such a way that not all should be struck by that fine, but those in whose regions the catholic Church suffered any violences from their clerics, or from the Circumcellions, or from their peoples: so that, namely, after the protestation of the catholics who had suffered these things, the bishops or other ministers should be held, by the care of the magistrates, to pay the fine. For so we supposed that, they being terrified, and not daring to do any such thing, the catholic truth could freely be taught and held, so that no one should be compelled to it, but whoever wished should follow it without fear, lest we have false and simulating catholics. And although it seemed otherwise to other brothers, now graver in age, or attending to the examples of many cities and places where we saw a firm and true catholic Church, which had nevertheless there been established and strengthened by such benefits of God, while through the laws of former emperors men were compelled to catholic communion; we obtained, nevertheless, that rather what I have said should be asked of the emperors: it was decreed in our council, legates were sent to the court.

7. 26. But the greater mercy of God, who knew how necessary the terror of these laws and a certain medicinal trouble was for the depraved or cold minds of many, and for that hardness which cannot be amended by words, but yet can by some little severity of discipline, brought it about that our legates could not obtain what they had undertaken. For certain most grave complaints of bishops from other places had already anticipated us, who had suffered many evils from those very people, and had been driven from their own sees; especially the horrendous and incredible slaughter of Maximian, the catholic bishop of the Church of Bagai, brought it about that our legation now had nothing to do. For a law had now been promulgated, that the heresy of the Donatists of so great savagery, which seemed to be spared more cruelly than it itself raged, should not only not be permitted to be violent, but not to be at all with impunity: not, however, by capital punishment, on account of preserving Christian mildness even toward the unworthy, but by monetary fines set down, and exile established for their bishops or ministers.

7. 27. For the aforesaid bishop of Bagai, since, before the ordinary judge, a sentence having been spoken between the parties, he had obtained a basilica which they had invaded when it was catholic, as he stood at the altar they rushed in with a horrendous onset and cruel fury, and beat him monstrously with cudgels and weapons of every kind, and finally with the wood of that same altar, broken off; they even struck him in the groin with a dagger; by which wound the blood flowing out would have rendered him lifeless, had not their greater savagery profited him to life. For while they were dragging him, gravely wounded, over the ground, dust thrust into the gushing vein stopped the blood, by whose flowing he was going to his death. Then, when at length left by them, our people tried to carry him off with psalms; they, kindled with a more burning anger, snatched him from the hands of those carrying him, the catholics being badly beaten and put to flight, whom they surpassed in an enormous multitude, and easily terrified by raging. Thence, lifting him onto a certain tower, thinking he had now expired, when he still lived, they cast him down. But, caught by a certain soft mound, and beheld by certain ones passing by night by a lantern, recognized and gathered up, and carried to a religious house, with great care applied, after many days he was revived from that despair: yet rumor had announced him, by the crime of the Donatists, slain even across the sea; whither after he came, and his most unhoped-for life appeared, he showed by his scars, so many, so enormous, so recent, that rumor had not in vain announced him dead.

7. 28. He therefore sought help from the Christian emperor, not so much for the sake of avenging himself, as of protecting the Church entrusted to him. Which if he had omitted, his patience would not have been praiseworthy, but his negligence deservedly to be blamed. For the apostle Paul too was not taking counsel for his transitory life, but for the Church of God, when against those who had conspired to kill him he brought it about that their plan was betrayed to the tribune: whence it came about that an armed soldier led him down to the place to which he was to be conducted, lest he suffer their ambushes. He did not at all hesitate to implore the Roman laws too, proclaiming that he was a Roman citizen, whom it was then not permitted to afflict with stripes: likewise, lest he be handed over to the Jews desiring to kill him, he demanded the help of Caesar, a Roman prince indeed, but not a Christian. Where he sufficiently showed what the dispensers of Christ ought afterward to do, when they should find Christian emperors and the Church in danger. Hence, then, it came about that the religious and pious emperor, such causes being brought to his notice, preferred to correct utterly, by most pious laws, the error of that impiety, and to reduce to catholic unity, by terrifying and coercing, those who against Christ carried the signs of Christ, rather than only to take away the license of raging, and leave them to err and perish.

7. 29. But now, when these laws had come into Africa, especially those who were seeking an occasion, or feared the savagery of the raging, or were ashamed to offend their own people, immediately passed over to the Church. Many too who were held only by the custom handed down there by their parents, but had never before considered what cause the heresy itself had, and had never wished to inquire and consider, soon, when they began to attend, and to find nothing in it worthy on account of which they should suffer such great losses, were made catholics without any difficulty: for solicitude taught those whom security had made negligent. And many followed the authority and persuasion of all these preceding ones, who were less suited to understand by themselves what difference there was between the error of the Donatists and the catholic truth.

7. 30. So, while the true mother joyfully received great throngs of peoples into her bosom, there remained hard crowds, standing in that plague with an unhappy animosity. Of these too very many communicated by feigning, others lay hidden by their fewness. But those who feigned, by little and little growing accustomed, and hearing the preaching of the truth—especially after the conference and disputation which was held between us and their bishops at Carthage—were in great part corrected. But in certain places, where a more pertinacious and unpacified multitude prevailed, which the fewer ones could not resist whose opinion about communion was better, or the crowds, subject to the authority of a few more powerful ones, obeyed toward the bad part, it was labored somewhat longer. Of these there are some in whom it is still labored, in which labor the catholics, and especially the bishops and clerics, have suffered many horrendous and hard things, which it is long to recall; when even the eyes of certain ones were put out, and a certain bishop's hand and tongue were cut off; some too were slaughtered. I pass over the most cruel slaughters, and the plunderings of houses, through nocturnal assaults and burnings, not only of private dwellings, but even of churches; into which flames there were not lacking those who would cast even the Lord's Codices.

7. 31. But us, afflicted by evils of this kind, the consequent fruit consoled. For wherever these things were committed by the lost, there Christian unity advanced more fervently and more perfectly, and the Lord is more abundantly praised, who deigned to grant that his servants by their sufferings should win their brothers, and gather his sheep, dispersed by a deadly error, into the peace of eternal salvation by his blood. The Lord is powerful and merciful, whom we daily ask that he give to the rest too repentance, and that they come to their senses from the snares of the devil, by whom they are held captive according to his will: who seek nothing but whence they may calumniate us, and repay evil for good; because they do not know how to understand what mind and love we keep toward them, and how we wish to recall the straying and to find the lost, according to the precept of the Lord, which he gave to the shepherds through the prophet Ezekiel.

8. 32. But they—which we have said elsewhere too at some time—what we do to them, they do not impute to themselves; and what they do to themselves, they impute to us. For who of us would wish not only that any of them perish, but even that they lose anything? But if the house of David could not otherwise deserve to have peace, except that Absalom his son were extinguished in the war which he was waging against his father—although with great care he commanded his men to keep him alive and safe as much as they could, that there might be one whom paternal affection might pardon when penitent—what remained for him but to weep for the lost one, and to console his sorrow by the peace acquired for his kingdom? So, then, the catholic mother—when those wage war against her who are none other than her sons, since surely from that same great tree which by the extension of its branches is diffused throughout the whole world this little branch in Africa is broken off, while she is in travail with them in love that they may return to the root without which they cannot have true life—if by the perdition of some she gathers so many others, especially because these perish not, like Absalom, by the chance of war, but rather by a voluntary destruction, soothes and heals the grief of her maternal heart by the liberation of such great peoples. Whose joys in the peace of Christ, frequent gatherings, alacrities, and the crowded and cheerful assemblies for hearing and singing hymns and for receiving the word of God, and the recollection in many of them, with great grief, of past error, and the consideration, with joy, of the truth recognized, and with indignation and detestation of their lying masters, that they now know about our sacraments how false the things were that they boasted; the confessions too of many of them that they had long wished to be catholics, but did not dare among men of so great fury: if, then, you should see under one view the congregations of these peoples through very many regions of Africa, freed from that perdition; then you would say it had been of excessive cruelty, if, while it was feared lest desperate men, comparable by no estimation to the innumerable multitude of these, should be burned by their own and voluntary fires, these were left to be lost forever and tortured by everlasting fires.

8. 33. For if two persons dwelt in one house, which we knew most certainly was going to fall, and they were unwilling to believe us foretelling it, and persisted in remaining in it; if we could rescue them from there even unwilling, to whom we would afterward show the ruin impending over it, that they should not dare further to return under its danger, I think that, unless we did so, we would not undeservedly be judged cruel. Further, if one of them should say to us, When you enter to rescue us, I will at once slay myself; but the other should be unwilling either to go out from there, or to be rescued, but yet not dare to kill himself; what would we choose—whether to leave both to be crushed by the ruin, or, at least one being freed by our merciful effort, to let the other perish, not by our fault, but rather by his own? No one is so unhappy as not most easily to judge what ought to be done in such cases. And about two men, namely one lost and one freed, I have set forth this likeness: what, then, is to be thought about a few lost ones, and an innumerable multitude of freed peoples? For neither are those men who perish by their own will as many as the estates, hamlets, villages, fortresses, towns, cities, freed by these laws from that pestiferous and eternal destruction.

8. 34. But if we think more diligently about the matter of which we speak, I think that, if there were very many in a falling house, and at least one could be freed from there, and, when we tried to do this, the others should kill themselves by precipice, we would grieve about the rest, but console ourselves by the salvation of at least one; yet we would not, lest the others destroy themselves, permit all to perish with none freed. What, then, is to be judged about the work of mercy which, for the sake of obtaining eternal life and avoiding eternal punishment, we owe to bestow on men; if, for the sake of this salvation, not only temporal, but even brief, to be freed for that very brief time, true and kindly reason compels us so to come to the aid of men?

9. 35. But as for what they charge against us, that we covet and take away their property; would that they might become catholics, and possess in peace with us and in love not only the things they call theirs, but even ours! But they are so blinded by the desire of calumniating that they do not attend to how contrary among themselves are the things they say. They certainly say, and seem most enviously to complain to themselves, that we coerce them into our communion by the violent command of laws: which surely we would in no way do, if we wished to possess their property. What greedy man seeks a co-possessor? what man inflamed with the desire of domineering, or lifted up by the pride of domination, desires to have a partner? Let them attend to those very ones, formerly their own, now our associates and joined to us by brotherly love, how they hold their own—not only the things they had, but even ours which they did not have: which, however, if we are poor among the poor, are both ours and theirs; but if we possess privately the things which suffice us, those are not ours, but the poor's, of whom we bear in a way the stewardship, not claiming the ownership to ourselves by a damnable usurpation.

9. 36. Whatever, then, was possessed in the name of the Churches of the party of Donatus, the Christian emperors, by religious laws, commanded to pass over to the Catholic Church along with those same Churches. Since, then, the poor of those same Churches, who were fed by those same little possessions, are with us, let them rather, placed outside, cease to covet others' property; but let them enter into the society of unity, that we may govern equally, not only those things which they call theirs, but even those which are called ours too. For it is written: All things are yours; but you are Christ's; and Christ is God's (1 Cor 3:22-23). Under that head, in his one body, let us be one, and of these such things let us do what is written in the Acts of the Apostles: They had one soul and one heart; and no one called anything his own, but all things were common to them (Acts 4:32). Let us love what we sing: Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in one! (Ps 133:1 (132:1)) so that they may thus experience and know how truly the catholic mother cries to them what blessed Paul writes to the Corinthians: I do not seek the things that are yours, but you (2 Cor 12:14).

9. 37. But if we consider what was said in the book of Wisdom: Therefore the just took the spoils of the impious (Wis 10:19-20); likewise what is read in Proverbs: But the riches of the impious are laid up as treasure for the just (Prov 13:22); then we shall see that it is not to be asked who has the property of heretics, but who is in the society of the just. We know indeed that they arrogate to themselves so great a righteousness that they boast not only to have it, but even to give it to other men. For they say that one whom they have baptized is justified by them; where nothing remains for them but to say to him who is baptized by them, that he believe in his own baptizer: for why should he not do so, when the Apostle says: To one who believes in him who justifies the impious, his faith is reckoned unto righteousness (Rom 4:5)? Let him, then, believe in him, if he himself justifies him, that his faith may be reckoned unto righteousness. But I think that they themselves too shudder at themselves, if indeed they deign even to consider these things. For there is none just and justifying, except God. But of these too can be said what the Apostle said of the Jews, that, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and wishing to establish their own, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God (Rom 10:3).

9. 38. But far be it that any of us should so call himself just, that he should either wish to establish his own righteousness, that is, as if given to himself by himself—when it is said to him: For what have you that you did not receive? (1 Cor 4:7)—or dare to boast himself without sin in this life, as they themselves said in our conference, that they are in that Church which now does not have spot or wrinkle or any such thing: not knowing that this is fulfilled in those of them who either immediately after baptism, or with the debts forgiven which are asked to be forgiven in the prayer, go out from this body; but that in the whole Church it will then come to pass, that it should be altogether without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, when it shall have to be said: Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? For the sting of death is sin (1 Cor 15:55-56).

9. 39. But in this life, where the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, if their Church is already such, then let them not say to God what the Lord taught us to pray: Forgive us our debts. For since in baptism all things have been forgiven, why does the Church ask this, if even in this life it does not have spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing? Let them despise also the apostle John crying out in his Epistle: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity (1 Jn 1:8-9). On account of this hope the whole Church says: Forgive us our debts, that, not being proud, but confessing, he may cleanse us from all iniquity, and so the Lord Christ may present to himself in that day a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; which he now cleanses by the washing of water in the word: because neither does anything remain in baptism which is not forgiven of all past sins (provided, however, that baptism itself be not held in vain outside, but either be given within, or, if it has already been given outside, one do not remain outside with it); and whatever, by those who live here after baptism received, of any faults whatever is contracted by human weakness, is forgiven on account of that very washing. For it profits nothing to say to one not baptized: Forgive us our debts.

9. 40. So now he cleanses his Church by the washing of water in the word, that he may then present it to himself not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, namely wholly beautiful and perfect, when death shall be swallowed up in victory. Now, then, insofar as that flourishes in us by which we are born of God, living by faith, we are just: but insofar as we draw from Adam the remnants of mortality, we are not without sin. For both this is true: He who is born of God does not sin (1 Jn 3:9); and this is true: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 Jn 1:8). The Lord Christ, therefore, is both just, and justifying; but we are justified freely by his grace. But he justifies none but his body, which is the Church: and therefore, if the body of Christ takes the spoils of the impious, and the riches of the impious are laid up as treasure for the body of Christ, the impious ought not to remain outside, that they may calumniate, but rather to enter, that they may be justified.

9. 41. Whence also that which is written about the day of judgment: Then shall the just stand in great constancy against those who afflicted them, and took away their labors (Wis 5:1), is surely not so to be understood that the Canaanite shall stand against Israel, since the Canaanite took away the labors of Israel; but Naboth shall stand against Ahab, since Ahab took away the labors of Naboth: for the Canaanite is impious, Naboth just. In the same way, the pagan shall not stand against the Christian who took away his labors, when the temples of idols were despoiled or demolished; but the Christian shall stand against the pagan who took away his labors, when the bodies of the martyrs were laid low. So, then, the heretic shall not stand against the catholic who took away his labors, when the laws of catholic emperors prevailed; but the catholic shall stand against the heretic who took away his labors, when the furies of the impious Circumcellions prevailed. For the Scripture itself resolves the question, which does not say: "Then shall men stand," but: Then shall the just stand: and therefore in great constancy, because in a good conscience.

9. 42. But no one here is just by his own righteousness, that is, as if made for himself by himself; but, as the Apostle says: As to each one God has divided a measure of faith. And he follows on and adds: For as in one body we have many members, but all the members do not have the same function; so we, being many, are one body in Christ (Rom 12:3-5). And through this, no one can be just, as long as he is separated from the unity of this body. For just as a member, if it be cut off from the body of a living man, cannot keep the spirit of life; so a man who is cut off from the body of Christ the just can in no way keep the spirit of righteousness, even if he keep the figure of a member, which he took up in the body. Into the framework, then, of this body let them come, and let them possess their labors not by the desire of domineering, but by the piety of using them well. But we purge our will, as has already been said, from the filth of this desire, by whatever enemy judging, when we inquire after those very ones whose labors are spoken of, as much as we can, that they may use, with us, both their own and ours, in catholic society.

10. 43. But this, they say, is what moves us: if we are unjust, why do you seek us? To whom we answer: We seek you unjust, that you may not remain unjust; we seek the lost, that we may be able to rejoice over the found, saying: The brother was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found (Lk 15:32). Why, then, he says, do you not baptize me, that you may wash me from sins? I answer: Because I do not do injury to the mark of the emperor, when I correct the error of the deserter. Why, he says, do I not even do penance before you? Nay, unless you do, you cannot be saved: for how will you rejoice that you are corrected, unless you grieve that you were perverse? What, then, he says, do we receive among you, when we pass over to you? I answer: You do not, indeed, receive baptism, which could be in you outside the framework of the body of Christ, but could not profit; but you receive the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, without which no one will be able to see God, and love, which, as it is written, covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet 4:8). Which so great a good—without which the Apostle testifies that neither the tongues of men and angels, nor the knowledge of all sacraments, nor prophecy, nor so great faith that mountains be moved, nor all that a man possesses distributed to the poor, nor the suffering of the body in fires, profit anything: this so great a good, then, if you think it small or nothing, you deservedly err unhappily; you deservedly, if you do not pass over into catholic unity, perish.

10. 44. If, then, they say, it behooves us to repent of having been outside the Church and against the Church, that we may be able to be saved; how do we, after that penance, remain among you clerics, or even bishops? This would not be done—since in truth, which must be confessed, it ought not to be done—were it not healed by the compensation of peace itself. But let those say this to themselves, and much rather humbly grieve, who lie in so great a death of cutting-off, that by this as it were wound of the mother Catholic they may revive. For when a cut-off branch is grafted, another wound is made in the tree, by which it can be received, that it may live which without the life of the root was perishing: but when, received, it has coalesced with the receiver, both vigor and fruit follow; but if it has not coalesced, that branch indeed withers, but the life of the tree will remain. For there is also such a kind of grafting, that, no branch which is within being cut off, that which is outside is grafted in, yet not with no wound, but with even a very slight wound of the tree. So, then, these too, when they come to the catholic root, and the honor of clerical office or episcopate is not taken from them, even after the penance of their error, something is indeed done as it were in the bark of the mother tree against the integrity of severity: yet because neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters (1 Cor 3:7), prayers being poured out to the mercy of God, the peace of the grafted branches coalescing, love covers a multitude of sins.

10. 45. For that it was established in the Church, that no one after the penance of any crime should receive clerical office, or return to clerical office, or remain in clerical office, was done not by despair of pardon, but by the rigor of discipline: otherwise it will be disputed against the keys given to the Church, of which it was said: Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven (Mt 16:19). But lest perhaps, even crimes being detected, the mind, swelling with the hope of ecclesiastical honor, should proudly do penance, it was most severely resolved that, after penance done for a damnable crime, no one be a cleric, so that, by the despair of temporal elevation, the medicine of humility might be greater and truer. For holy David too did penance for deadly crimes, and yet stood firm in his honor. And blessed Peter, when he poured out the most bitter tears, surely repented of having denied the Lord, and yet remained an Apostle. But not on that account is the diligence of later men to be thought superfluous, who, where nothing was taken from salvation, added something to humility, by which salvation might be more safely fortified, having experienced, I believe, the feigned penances of certain ones through affected powers of honors. For the experiences of many diseases compel many medicines to be found. But in causes of this kind, where through grave rents of dissensions it is not the danger of this or that man, but the slaughters of peoples lie, something must be taken from severity, that sincere love may come to the aid of healing greater evils.

10. 46. Let these, then, have, about their past detestable error, as Peter had about his lying fear, a bitter grief, and let them come to the true Church of Christ, that is, the mother Catholic: let them be in her clerics, let them be bishops usefully, who against her were hostilely. We do not envy, nay rather we embrace, we wish it, we exhort, and those whom we find in the roads and hedges, we compel to enter. And so we persuade some who do not yet believe that we seek not their property, but themselves. The apostle Peter, when he denied the Savior, and wept, and remained an Apostle, had not yet received the promised Holy Spirit: but much more these did not receive him, where, divided from the framework of the body—which body alone the Holy Spirit gives life to—they held the sacraments of the Church outside the Church and against the Church, and fought, as it were in a civil war, with our standards and arms raised against us. Let them come; let there be peace in the strength of Jerusalem, which strength is love: to which holy city it was said, Let there be peace in your strength, and abundance in your towers (Ps 122:7 (121:7)). Let them not lift themselves up against the maternal solicitude, which she both had and has for them, and for the gathering of so great peoples whom they deceive or were deceiving: let them not be proud because she so receives them; let them not refer to the evil of their own elation that which she does for the good of peace.

10. 47. Thus she has been accustomed to come to the aid of multitudes perishing through schisms and heresies. This displeased Lucifer, because it was done in receiving and healing those who had perished by the Arian poison; and he to whom it displeased fell into the darkness of schism, the light of love being lost. This toward these people the African Catholic Church kept from the beginning, by the sentence of the bishops who in the Roman Church judged between Caecilian and the party of Donatus, and, one certain Donatus being condemned, who was shown to have been the author of the schism, judged that the rest, corrected, even if they had been ordained outside the Church, should be received in their honors: not because even outside the unity of the body of Christ they could have the Holy Spirit; but chiefly on account of those whom, placed outside, they could deceive, and hinder from the reception of that gift; then that even their own weakness, more gently received within, might become curable, no pertinacity now closing the eyes of the heart against the evidence of truth. But what else did they themselves too think, when the Maximianists, whom they had condemned in a sacrilegious schism, as their council indicates, and into whose place they had already ordained others, after they saw that the peoples did not depart from them, lest they lose all, they received in their honors; and to the baptism which the condemned, outside, had given them, raised no contradiction or question? Why, then, do they wonder, or complain, or calumniate, that we so receive them for the true peace of Christ, and do not recall what they themselves did for the vain peace of Donatus, which is against Christ? Which deed of theirs, if it be held against them and intelligently asserted, they will have nothing at all to answer.

11. 48. But as for what they say: "If we have sinned against the Holy Spirit, because we blew upon your baptism, why do you seek us, since this sin can in no way be forgiven us, the Lord saying: Whoever sins against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come (Mt 12:32)?"—they do not attend that, according to this sense, no one is to be freed. For who does not speak against the Holy Spirit and sin against him—whether one who is not yet a Christian, or one who is an Arian heretic, or a Eunomian, or a Macedonian, who say that he is a creature; or a Photinian, who denies that there is any substance of his at all, but that there is only one God the Father; or other heretics, whom it is long to recall? Are none of these, then, to be freed? Or were the Jews themselves, to whom the Lord cast this, if they had believed in him, not to be baptized? For the Savior did not say: "In baptism it will be forgiven"; but, it will not be forgiven, he says, neither in this world, nor in the world to come.

11. 49. Let them understand, then, that not every sin against the Holy Spirit is signified, which will in no way be forgiven, but some particular one. For just as, when he said, If I had not come, they would not have sin (Jn 15:22), he surely did not wish every sin to be understood, since they were full of many and great sins; but some particular sin, which, if they did not have it, all that they had could be forgiven them—that is, that they did not believe in him when he came; for this sin they would not have, if he had not come: so too, when he said, Whoever sins against the Holy Spirit, or, Whoever speaks a word against the Holy Spirit (Mt 12:32), he did not wish every sin against the Holy Spirit by deed or word to be understood, but some certain and particular one. But this is hardness of heart even to the end of this life, by which a man refuses, in the unity of the body of Christ which the Holy Spirit gives life to, to receive the remission of sins. For when he had said to the disciples, Receive the Holy Spirit, he immediately added: If you forgive anyone his sins, they will be forgiven him; if you retain anyone's, they will be retained (Jn 20:22-23). Whoever, then, resists and fights against this gift of the grace of God, or in any way is estranged from it up to the end of this temporal life, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come; this, namely, so great a sin, that by it all sins are held, which is not proved to have been committed by anyone except when he has gone out of the body. But as long as he lives here, the patience of God, as the Apostle says, leads him to repentance: but if he himself, by a most persevering iniquity, as the Apostle consequently adds, according to the hardness of his heart and his impenitent heart, treasures up for himself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God (Rom 2:4-5), it will not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come.

11. 50. But these people with whom we deal, or about whom we deal, are not to be despaired of; for they are still in the body: but let them not seek the Holy Spirit except in the body of Christ, whose sacrament they have outside, but they do not hold within the very thing whose that sacrament is; and therefore they eat and drink judgment to themselves. For the one bread is the sacrament of unity, since, as the Apostle says, One bread, one body, we many are (1 Cor 10:17). Accordingly the catholic Church alone is the body of Christ, of which he the Savior is the head of his own body. Outside this body the Holy Spirit gives life to no one; because, as the Apostle himself says, The love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5): but he is not a partaker of the divine love who is an enemy of unity. They do not, therefore, have the Holy Spirit who are outside the Church: for of them it is written, Those who segregate themselves, animal, not having the Spirit (Jude 19). But neither does he receive him who is feigned in the Church, since of that too it is written, For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee the feigned (Wis 1:5). Whoever, then, wishes to have the Holy Spirit, let him beware of remaining outside the Church, let him beware of entering it as a pretender: or if he has already entered such, let him beware of persisting in that same pretense, that he may truly coalesce with the tree of life.

11. 51. I have directed to you a lengthy book, and perhaps burdensome to your occupations. If, then, it can be read to you, even in parts, the Lord will give you understanding, that you may have what to answer to those to be corrected and healed, whom mother Church commends, even to you yourself as to a faithful son, to be corrected and healed, where you can and how you can, whether by yourself speaking and answering, or by leading them to the teachers of the Church, with the help of the Lord.

LETTER 185/A
Augustine to Boniface

1. It is very pleasing to me that amid your estate occupations you do not neglect to have care also of religion, and desire that men set in dispersion and division be recalled to the way of salvation and peace.

LETTER 186
To the most blessed lord, and to be embraced in a brotherly way in the bowels of Christ, more than can be said longed-for brother and fellow bishop Paulinus, from Alypius and Augustine.

1. 1. At last, at some time, God has provided us a most faithful bearer of letters, our brother Januarius, deservedly most dear to us all; through whom, even if we did not write, your sincerity could know all that is about us, as it were through a living and understanding letter. Pelagius—whom we believe, that he might be distinguished from the one who is called Pelagius of Terentius, to have been surnamed the Briton—that you loved as a servant of God, we know: but now how you love him, we do not know. For we too not only loved, but even love him; but we love him now in one way, we loved him once in another: for then, because he seemed to us of right faith; but now, that by God's mercy he may be freed from the things which he is said to hold hostile and adverse to the grace of God. For when rumor for some time bandied this about him, it was surely not easily to be believed; for rumor is wont to lie: but to bring us nearer to believing, there came the fact that we read a certain book of his, striving to persuade utterly those things which efface from the hearts of the faithful the grace of God imparted to the human race through the one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, believed by the hearts of the faithful—handed to us by servants of Christ, who had most zealously heard him teaching such things, and had followed him. To which book, at their request, because we saw that it ought to be done, the name of the author being kept silent, lest, offended, he be rendered more incurable, an answer was made by the disputation of one of us. In which book this is contained, and is in manifold and abundant ways asserted, which he treats also in a certain letter given to your veneration, where he says that he ought not to be thought to defend free choice without the grace of God, since he said that a possibility of willing and working, without which we could will and do no good, was implanted in us by the Creator: so that, namely, by this teacher himself, that grace of God is understood which is common to Pagans and Christians, to the impious and the pious, to the faithful and the unfaithful.

1. 2. These evils, by which the coming of the Savior would be made void—where we can say this which the Apostle says of the Law, If righteousness is by nature, then Christ died in vain (See Gal 2:21)—we refuted, as we could, in the hearts of those who held these things, so that, these being known, he too, if it could be done, might amend them unprovoked; and so both the ruin of the error might be destroyed, and the man's modesty spared. But after letters came to us from the East, most openly ventilating this same cause, we ought in no way now, by whatever episcopal authority, to be lacking to the Church. There were sent, therefore, about this matter, from two councils, the Carthaginian and the Milevitan, reports to the apostolic See, before the ecclesiastical proceedings, by which Pelagius is reported to have been cleared before the bishops of the province of Palestine, had reached either our hands, or Africa. We wrote also to pope Innocent of blessed memory, besides the reports of the councils, a familiar letter, where we dealt with this same cause somewhat longer. To all of this he wrote back to us in the way which it was right and fitting for the prelate of the apostolic See.

1. 3. All of which you will now be able to read, if perhaps either none or not all of them had reached you: where you will see that, the moderation due toward the man being kept—lest he be condemned if he condemned what was depraved—nevertheless that novel and pernicious error itself was so compressed by ecclesiastical authority, that we much marvel that there are still some who try, by any error whatever, to resist the grace of God; if, indeed, they have learned that these things were done, which the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (which the true and catholic faith always holds, the Church) transfers the little ones with the great from the death of the first man to the life of the second man; not only by giving grief over sins, but also by so helping toward not sinning and living rightly those who can now use the choice of the will, that unless it helps, we can have nothing of piety and righteousness, whether in deed, or even in the very will: for God works in us both to will and to work, for his good will.

2. 4. For who distinguishes us from that mass and conglomeration of perdition, except he who came to seek and to save what had perished? Whence the Apostle asks, saying: For who distinguishes you? where, if a man should say, My faith, my will, my good work; it is answered him: For what have you that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? (1 Cor 4:7) All this, surely, is for this reason, not that a man should not boast, but that he who boasts should boast in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31); not of works, lest perhaps anyone be exalted: not because good works are made void, since God renders to each according to his works, and there is glory and honor and peace to everyone who works good (Rom 2:10); but because works are from grace, not grace from works; since the faith which works through love would work nothing, unless the love of God itself were poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Nor would faith itself be in us, unless God divided to each a measure of faith.

2. 5. It is good, then, for a man that, with all the strength of his free choice, he say truly: My strength, I will keep it for you (Ps 59:9 (58:10)): for he who thought he could, without his help, keep what he had given, having set out into a far country and living prodigally, consumed all, and worn down by the misery of hard servitude, and returned into himself, said: I will arise, and go to my father (Lk 15:18): which good thought when would he have had, unless the most merciful father had inspired it too in him in secret? Understanding which, that minister of the New Testament says: Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God (2 Cor 3:5). Whence he too, when he had said, My strength, I will keep it for you; lest even this very thing, that he keeps it, he should arrogate to his own strength, as though it had come to his mind that, unless the Lord guards the city, in vain do those who guard it keep watch; and he who keeps Israel neither sleeps nor slumbers (Ps 127:1; 121:4 (126:1; 120:4)); added the cause whence he becomes fit to keep it, or rather by what keeper he is preserved: Because you, O God, he says, are my upholder (Ps 59:9 (58:10)).

2. 6. Let this man, then, recollect, if he can, his own merits, whence it came about that God deigned to be his upholder, as though God were upheld. Let him recollect whether he sought, or was sought, namely by him who came to seek and to save what had perished. For if he should wish to seek what he merited before grace, that he should receive it, a man will be able to find his own evils, not goods, even if the grace of the Savior should find him having a life of one day upon the earth. Because if a man works some good that he may merit grace, the wages are not imputed to him according to grace, but according to debt. But if he believes in him who justifies the impious, that his faith may be reckoned unto righteousness (for the just lives by faith), surely before he is justified by grace, that is, made just, what is the impious man but impious? whom, if debt followed him, what would be rendered to his merit but punishment? If, then, by grace, it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. For to works debt is rendered, grace is given freely; whence too it is named.

3. 7. But if anyone should say that faith merits the grace of working well; we cannot deny it, nay rather we most gratefully confess it. For we wish that these our brothers, who boast much of their works, may have this faith, by which they may obtain the love which alone truly works well: but love is so far a gift of God, that it is even called God. Those, then, who have the faith by which they obtain justification, have come by the grace of God to the law of righteousness: whence it is said: In an acceptable time I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you (2 Cor 6:2). Accordingly, in those who by the election of grace are saved, God the helper works both to will and to work, for his good will; since to those who love God all things work together unto good: if all things, surely also that very love which we obtain by faith, that we may love, by his grace, him who first loved us that we might believe in him, and by loving may work well—which we did not work that we might be loved.

3. 8. But these people await rewards for their merits as though owed, nor do they attribute the merits themselves to the grace of God, but to the powers of their own will, just as it was said of carnal Israel, that, pursuing the law of righteousness, they did not come to the law of righteousness: why? Because not from faith, but as it were from works. For that is the righteousness from faith, which the Gentiles laid hold of, of whom it was said: What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not know righteousness, laid hold of righteousness; but the righteousness which is from faith. But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not come to the law of righteousness: why? Because not from faith, but as it were from works. For they stumbled at the stone of stumbling, as it is written: Behold, I place in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of scandal; and whoever believes in him will not be confounded (Rom 9:31-33). That is the righteousness from faith, by which we believe that we are justified, that is, made just, by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, that we may be found in him, not having our own righteousness which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ (Phil 3:9). Which righteousness from God in faith is surely in the faith by which we believe that righteousness is given us divinely, not made by us in us by our own strength.

3. 9. For why did the Apostle call that righteousness which is from the Law his own, not from God? as though the Law were not from God? Who but an impious man would think this? But because the Law commands by the letter, does not help by the Spirit, whoever so hears the letter of the Law that it seems to him enough to have known what it commands or prohibits, so that he trusts to fulfill this by the strength of his own choice, and does not flee by faith to be helped to the life-giving Spirit, lest the letter, having made him guilty, kill him; he surely has zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of God's righteousness, that is, that which is given from God, and wishing to establish his own, that it be only from the Law, he has not submitted to the righteousness of God: for Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to everyone who believes (Rom 10:3-4), as the same Apostle says, that we may be the righteousness of God in him (2 Cor 5:21). Justified, therefore, from faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 5:1): but justified freely by his grace, lest faith itself be proud.

3. 10. Nor let him say to himself, If from faith, how freely? for what faith merits, why is it not rather rendered than given? Let not the faithful man say these things, because when he has said, That I may merit justification, I have faith; it is answered him: For what have you that you did not receive? (1 Cor 4:7) Since, then, faith obtains justification, as to each one God has divided even the measure of faith itself, no human merit precedes the grace of God, but grace itself merits to be increased, that, increased, it may merit to be perfected, the will accompanying, not leading, following on foot, not going before. Whence he who said, My strength, I will keep it for you, and rendered the cause, saying, Because you, O God, are my upholder; as it were inquiring by what merits he had attained this, and finding nothing in himself before the grace of God: My God, he says, his mercy will go before me (Ps 59:10 (58:11)). However much, he says, I consider my preceding merits, his mercy will go before me. Accordingly, keeping for him the strength bestowed by him, by the same preserver he does not lose what by the same bestower he received. Nor does he merit greater things for any other reason than by piously and faithfully knowing from whom all his goods are, and by knowing this not from himself, lest even this be in him which is not from God. Whence the Apostle most excellently says: We have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is from God; that we may know the things that have been given us by God (1 Cor 2:12). And through this even man's merit itself is a gratuitous gift: nor does anyone merit to receive any good thing from the Father of lights, from whom comes down every best gift, except by receiving what he does not merit.

4. 11. But it is much more indulgent, and without any doubt more gratuitous, that which the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord bestows on infants—that generation from Adam may not harm them, and regeneration in Christ may profit them—in whom the mercy of God so long before goes before even the very sense of receiving: who certainly, if at this tiny age they go out of the body, knowingly receive eternal life and the kingdom of heaven, by the merit of that gift which here, although it surely profited, they did not know. Certainly in them, after the teaching of the former things, these are only the former gifts, in the giving of which the grace of God so works, that neither the will of the recipients is either sent before, or joined, or follows after: since so great a benefit is given not only to those not willing, but even to those resisting; which would be imputed to them as a great sacrilege, if the choice of the will already availed anything in them.

4. 12. This we have said on account of those who, not able in the cause of grace to search out the inscrutable judgments of God—why, from the mass of Adam, which surely from one wholly collapsed into condemnation, he makes that vessel for honor, that for dishonor—nevertheless dare to constitute little ones guilty of their own sins, so that those who cannot think good or evil things are supposed, through free choice, to be able to merit either punishment or grace: whereas rather the apostolic truth, by saying, From one all unto condemnation (See Rom 5:18), sufficiently shows that they are born in punishment, that, not by merit, but by mercy, they are reborn in grace. Otherwise grace is no longer grace, if it is given not freely by divine works, but rendered to human merits. Which grace alone so distinguishes from punishment, that, since punishment is owed from Adam to all, but grace through the one Jesus Christ is owed to none, but gratuitous, that it may truly be grace—the judgments of God can be inscrutable, as God, why he himself distinguishes the little ones, whom no merits distinguish; but cannot be iniquitous, because all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (Ps 25:10 (24:10)). Whence when to one the grace of mercy is shown, he has nothing to boast of human merit; since not from works, lest perhaps anyone be exalted. But when to another the truth of vengeance is rendered, he has no reason justly to complain: for that is rendered which is by right owed to sin; since the one in whom all sinned is surely not iniquitously punished even in each individual. In whose punishment it is more clearly shown what is conferred on the vessels of mercy by undeserved, but true grace, that is, gratuitous.

5. 13. But whence they argue against the Apostle, who most openly says: Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so it passed to all men, in whom all sinned (Rom 5:12), saying that even little ones have their own sins through free choice, it is tiresome to attend to, and irksome to bring forward, but we are rather compelled to say it. For what great and acute minds have been able to think, either it is of poverty to avoid by keeping silent, or of arrogance to pass over by despising. "Behold," they say, "Esau and Jacob struggle within the maternal womb, and while they are born, one is supplanted by the other, and, the hand of the one following and holding being found on the foot of the one preceding, a persevering struggle is in a way proved. How, then, in infants doing these things, is there no choice of one's own will, either to good or to evil, whence rewards or punishments may follow upon preceding merits?"

5. 14. To this we say that those movements and as it were quarrel of the little ones were a sign of great things, because it was not choice, but a portent. For neither are we going to give free choice of will even to asses, since a beast of burden of this kind, as it is written, a dumb beast of burden, answering with a man's voice, rebuked the madness of the prophet. But those who contend that such movements—not portentous, but voluntary acts, and made not about the little ones, but by the little ones—what will they answer to the Apostle, who, when he saw that these twins too were to be recalled as a proof of gratuitous grace: For when they were not yet born, nor had done anything good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of him who calls, it was said, The elder shall serve the younger (Rom 9:11-12)? then adding the testimony of the prophet, who indeed said these things long after, but yet declared the ancient counsel of God about this matter: As it is written, he says: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated (Rom 9:13; Mal 1:2-3).

5. 15. The Teacher of the Gentiles, in faith and truth, testifies that these twins, not yet born, had done nothing good or evil, that grace might be commended; so that what was said, The elder shall serve the younger, might be understood as said not of works, but of him who calls, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not go before the merit of man. For he does not say the election of the human will or nature, since the condition of death and damnation was equal in each; but without doubt the election of grace, which does not find the ones to be chosen, but makes them—of which, speaking also in what follows in that same Epistle, he says: So then even at this time a remnant has been saved by the election of grace. But if by grace, it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace (Rom 11:5-6). With which place this place sufficiently agrees, where it is recalled that it was said, not of works, but of him who calls: The elder shall serve the younger. Why, then, is so resistance made, so shamelessly, to the most splendid commender of grace, about the free choice of infants and the acts of the not-yet-born? why is grace held to be anticipated by merits—which would not be grace, if it were imputed according to merit? Why, against the salvation which was sent to the lost, which came to the unworthy, however acute, however copious and ornate, is it nevertheless—a wonder—contended by a Christian disputation?

6. 16. "But how," they say, "is there no iniquity with God, if by loving he distinguishes those whom no merits of works distinguish?" This is said to us as though the Apostle himself did not see, did not set forth, did not answer it. He surely saw what, these things being heard, human weakness or ignorance might think, and, setting the same question to himself, he says: What then shall we say? Is there iniquity with God? He immediately answered: Far be it. And rendering the reason why far be it, that is, why there is no iniquity with God, he does not say: "For he judges the merits or works even of little ones, even if they are still set in the maternal womb"—for how would he say this, who had already said about the not-yet-born, and about those who had as yet done nothing good or evil, that it was said not of works, but of him who calls, The elder shall serve the younger?—but, when he wished to show why there is no iniquity with God in them, he says: For to Moses he says, I will have mercy on whom I have had mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I have been merciful (Rom 9:14-15). What did he teach us here, except that from that mass of the first man, to whom death is by merit owed, it pertains not to the merits of men, but to the mercy of God, that anyone is freed: and so there is no iniquity with God; because neither by remitting, nor by exacting what is owed, is he unjust? For there is grace as indulgence, where there could be just vengeance. And hence it more evidently appears, to the one freed from owed punishment and freely justified, how great a benefit is conferred, that another equally guilty is punished without the iniquity of the one punishing.

6. 17. Finally he subjoins and says: Therefore it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy (Rom 9:16): this was said on account of those who are justified, freed by grace. But on account of those over whom the wrath of God remains—since God uses even these well, to teach others whom he deigns to free—he subjoined and said: For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, For this I have raised you up, that I may show in you my power, and that my name may be announced in all the earth (Rom 9:17). Then concluding to both: Therefore, he says, he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens (Rom 9:18); surely neither by any iniquity, but both by mercy and truth. And yet still the bold weakness is moved, namely of those who, according to the conjectures of the human heart, try to think the inscrutable height of the judgments of God!

6. 18. Setting this question to himself from the adverse side, the Apostle says: You will say to me then, Why does he still complain? for who resists his will? Let us think this said to us. What else, then, than what the Apostle answered, ought we to answer? or if such things move us too, because we too are men, it behooves us all together to hear him saying: O man, who are you that you should answer God? Does the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me thus? Or does not the potter of the clay have power, from the same mass, to make one vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? (Rom 9:19-21) If this mass were so in the middle that, as it merited nothing good, so it merited nothing evil either, it would not in vain seem iniquity, that from it vessels for dishonor should be made: but since through the free choice of the first man the whole flowed from one into condemnation, without doubt that vessels are made from it for honor is to be attributed not to its own righteousness, which no grace preceded, but to the mercy of God; but that they are made for dishonor, not to the iniquity of God—far be it that it be with God—but to judgment. Whoever is thus wise with the catholic Church does not dispute against grace for merits, but sings to the Lord mercy and judgment, so that he neither, ungrateful, refuse mercy, nor, unjust, accuse judgment.

6. 19. For there is another lump of which the same Apostle says: But if the firstfruits are holy, so also is the lump; and if the root is holy, so also are the branches (Rom 11:16). That is from Abraham, not from Adam, that is, from the communion of the sacrament and the likeness of faith, not from the mortal stock: but this lump, or, as it is read in very many manuscripts, mass, since the whole is of death, when through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so it passed to all men, in whom all sinned; by mercy one vessel is made for honor, but by judgment another for dishonor. Neither there do merits precede the grace of the liberator; nor here do sins escape the justice of the punisher. Which indeed, in the older ages, against the contentious, does not so evidently appear, where they fight as it were protected by some obscurity for the merits of men: but for this reason, against their contention, the Apostle found those in whom, not yet born, nor doing anything good or evil, it was said, not of works, but of him who calls, The elder shall serve the younger.

6. 20. In which matter, since the judgments of God are too deep and inscrutable, and his ways past finding out, let a man meanwhile hold that there is no iniquity with God; but by what equity he has mercy on whom he wills, and hardens whom he wills, let him confess himself, as a man, to be ignorant: yet in such a way that, on account of that which he holds unshaken—that there is no iniquity with God—although no one is justified by him by preceding merits, he nevertheless know that no one is hardened except by merit. For it is piously and truly believed that God, by justifying the guilty and impious, frees them from owed punishments: but if God is believed to damn anyone undeserving and liable to no sin, he is not believed to be alien from iniquity. Where, then, the unworthy is freed, so much the greater giving of thanks is owed, the more just a punishment was owed: but where the undeserving is damned, neither mercy nor truth is maintained.

6. 21. "How," they say, "is Esau not damned undeserving, if it was said, not of works, but of him who calls, The elder shall serve the younger? For as no good works of the one preceded, that he should pertain to grace, so neither evil works of the other, that he should pertain to punishment." Plainly no works in either, good or evil, but their own: but each was liable to that one in whom all sinned, that all should die in him: for whoever from that one were going to be many in themselves, were then one in him. Accordingly that sin would be of one alone, if none had gone out from him: but further, in whom there was a common nature, none is immune from its fault. If, then, both, who were not yet working their own things, good or evil, were nevertheless born guilty from their origin; let him praise mercy who is freed, let him not blame judgment who is punished.

7. 22. Here, if we should say, How much better that both were freed; nothing more fitting will be said to us than: O man, who are you that you should answer God? (Rom 9:20) For he knows what he does, and how great a number there ought to be, first of all men, then of the saints, like the stars, like the angels; and, to speak of earthly things, like the cattle, fish, birds, like the trees and grasses, like, finally, our leaves and hairs. For we can, by human thought, still say, Since all these things which he made are good, how much better had he doubled and multiplied them, that they might be far more than they are: for if the world would not contain them, could he not also make it itself as much greater as he wished? And yet however much he would make either those things more, or this world more capacious and greater, nonetheless the same things could be said about multiplying them, and there would be no immoderate measure.

7. 23. For this too can be said—whether it be grace by which the unjust are justified, of which it is not lawful for us to doubt, or, as some wish, free choice always goes before, whose merit either punishment or reward follows—why were they created at all who, God foreknew without doubt, would so sin as to be damned by eternal fire? For although he did not make their sins, yet the natures themselves, which through themselves are without doubt good, in which nevertheless from the choice of the will the vices of sins were going to be, and in many such as eternal punishment was to be rendered—who but God created them? Why, except because he willed? but why he willed, O man, who are you that you should answer God? Does the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me thus? Or does not the potter of the clay have power, from the same lump, to make one vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? (Rom 9:20-21)

7. 24. And, to say now what follows: But if God, willing to show his wrath, and to demonstrate his power, endured in much patience the vessels of wrath, which have been perfected for perdition, that he might make known the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy (Rom 9:22-23). Behold, a reason has now been rendered to man, as much as was owed to man; if, indeed, he grasp even this, who for the liberty of his choice contends in servitude to so great a weakness: behold, the causes have been told. You then, who are you that you should answer God; if God, willing to show his wrath, and to demonstrate his power—that he can even use evils best, evils, that is, not by divine condition, but by nature vitiated by the iniquity of the will, which by God the founder was founded good—endured in much patience the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction: not that they were necessary to him, whether angelic or human sins, to whom not even the righteousness of any creature is necessary; but that he might make known the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy, lest in good works they should extol themselves as if from their own strength, but humbly understand that, unless the grace of God, not owed but gratuitous, came to their aid, that would have to be rendered to their merits which they saw rendered to others in the same mass?

7. 25. A defined number, then, of the foreknowledge of God is certain, and a multitude of the saints, to whom, loving God—which he gave them by the Holy Spirit poured out in their hearts—all things work together unto good, to those who are called according to his purpose. Since those whom he foreknew, he also 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 also he called: here we ought to understand, according to his purpose. For there are others called, but not chosen; and through this not called according to his purpose. But those whom he called (that is, according to his purpose) them also he justified: but those whom he justified, them also he glorified (Rom 8:28-30). These are the sons of promise, these are the chosen who are saved by the election of grace, where it was said: But if by grace, it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace (Rom 11:6). These are the vessels of mercy, in which God, even through the vessels of wrath, makes known the riches of his glory. Of these comes to be, through the Holy Spirit, one heart and one soul, which blesses God, and does not forget all his retributions: who is propitious to all its iniquities; who heals all its weaknesses; who redeems its life from corruption; who crowns it in mercy (Ps 103:2-4 (102:2-4)), because it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.

7. 26. But the other men, not belonging to that society, whose soul and body nevertheless the goodness of God wrought, and whatever the nature itself has besides the vice which the audacity of a proud will inflicted upon it, were for this reason created by the foreknowing God: that in them he might show what the free choice of the deserter, without his grace, was worth; and that in their just and owed punishments the vessels of mercy—which, not by the merits of their own works, but by the gratuitous grace of God, are distinguished from that conglomeration—might learn what had been conferred on them; so that every mouth may be stopped, and he who boasts may boast in the Lord.

8. 27. Whoever teaches otherwise, and does not acquiesce in the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said: The Son of man came to seek and to save what had perished (Lk 19:10)—for he does not say, What was going to perish, but what had perished; showing what, except that by the sin of the first man the nature of the whole human race had perished?—whoever, then, teaches otherwise, and not acquiescing in the doctrine which is according to piety, against the grace of the Savior, and against the blood of the Redeemer, defends human nature as it were whole and free, and yet affects to be reckoned by the Christian name; what will he say about the distinguishing of little ones, why one is taken up into the life of the second man, another left in the death of the first man? If he should say that merits of free choice preceded; the Apostle answered the things we said above about the not-yet-born nor doing anything good or evil. But if he should say what is still defended in the books which Pelagius is most recently reported to have published; although he now seems to have anathematized, in the episcopal judgment of Palestine, those who say that Adam's sin harmed himself alone, and not the human race: if you say that both were born without judgment, and drew nothing from the damnation of the first man; surely, since he does not dare to deny that one who has been regenerated in Christ is adopted into the kingdom of heaven; let him answer what is going to be of him who, by no fault of his own not baptized, has been anticipated by this temporal death. If we do not think he is going to say that God will damn with eternal death an innocent one, not having original sin, before the years in which he could have his own; he is therefore compelled to answer what Pelagius, in the ecclesiastical judgment, that he might in some way be pronounced catholic, was compelled to anathematize—that infants, even if they are not baptized, have eternal life: for this being denied, what remains but eternal death?

8. 28. And through this he will dispute against the opinion of the Lord saying: Your fathers ate manna in the desert, and died: this is the bread which came down from heaven, that if anyone eat of it he may not die (Jn 6:49-50); for he was not speaking of this death, which even those who eat of that bread must necessarily suffer: and a little after: Amen, amen I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you will not have life in you (Jn 6:53); surely that which is to be after this death: and against the authority of the apostolic See, where, when this very matter was being treated, this evangelical testimony was adduced, lest little ones not baptized be believed able to have life: and against the express words of Pelagius himself before the bishops by whom he was heard, where he anathematized those who said that infants not baptized have eternal life.

8. 29. Which we have recalled for this reason, because indeed among you, or rather in your city, if what we have heard is true, certain ones strive with so great obstinacy for this error, that they say it is easier even to desert and despise Pelagius, who, holding these things, anathematized them, than to depart from the truth of this opinion, as it seems to them. But if they yield to the apostolic See, or rather to the very master and Lord of the Apostles, who says that they will not have life in themselves, unless they eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, which they surely cannot unless baptized; then surely they will at some time confess that little ones not baptized cannot have life, and through this, however more tolerably than all who commit even their own sins, yet are punished with eternal death.

8. 30. Since these things are so, let them dare to dispute, and let them strive to persuade whom they can, that God, the just, with whom there is no iniquity, will damn with perpetual death little ones innocent of their own sins, if they are not even bound and constrained by that one from Adam. But if this is most absurd, and utterly alien from the justice of God—and yet no one who remembers himself a Christian of the catholic faith denies or doubts that little ones, not having received the grace of regeneration in Christ, without the food of his flesh and the drinking of his blood, do not have life in themselves, and through this are liable to everlasting punishment—surely it remains that, because they themselves did nothing good or evil, therefore the punishment of their death is just, because they die in him, in whom all sinned; whence in him alone are they made alive, from whom neither could original sin be drawn, nor one's own perpetrated.

8. 31. He himself called us not only from the Jews, but even from the Gentiles; since even of that Jerusalem which killed the Prophets, and stoned those sent to her, although she was unwilling, he himself gathered those whom he willed, both before his incarnation, as the very Prophets, and after the Word was made flesh, as the Apostles and the thousands of men who placed the prices of their goods before the feet of the Apostles. For all those are sons of Jerusalem, unwilling that they be gathered, who nevertheless, she being unwilling, were gathered; of whom he says: If I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges (Mt 12:27). Of these it had been foretold: If the sons of Israel are as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved (Isa 10:22; Rom 9:27). The word of God cannot fail, nor has he rejected his people whom he foreknew, who nevertheless were the remnant saved by the election of grace. But if by grace—which must often be said—it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace: these are surely not our words, but the Apostle's. What, then, he cried out to Jerusalem unwilling that her sons be gathered, this we cry out against those who are unwilling that the sons of the Church, willing, be gathered: nor are they corrected even after the judgment which was made about Pelagius himself in Palestine; from which he would have gone out condemned, had he not himself condemned the things charged against him contrary to the grace of God—sayings which he could not obscure.

9. 32. For besides those things which, as he could, he dared to defend by some reasoning or other, certain things were charged against him which, unless, all evasion being removed, he had anathematized, he himself would have gone out anathematized. For it was charged that he says: "That Adam was made mortal, who, whether he sinned or did not sin, would have died: and that his sin harmed himself alone, and not the human race: and that infants newly born are in that state in which Adam was before the transgression: and that neither through the death or the transgression of Adam does the whole human race die, nor through the resurrection of Christ does the whole human race rise: and that infants, even if they are not baptized, have eternal life: and that rich men baptized, unless they renounce all things, even if they seem to do any good, it is not reckoned to them, nor can they have the kingdom of God: and that the grace of God and help is given not for individual acts, but is in free choice, or in the law and doctrine: and that the grace of God is given according to our merits: and that the sons of God cannot be called such, unless they have been made altogether without sin: and that there is no free choice, if it needs the help of God; since each one has in his own will to do something, or not to do it: and that our victory is not from the help of God, but from free choice: and that pardon is not given to the penitent according to the grace and mercy of God, but according to the merit and labor of those who through penance have been worthy of mercy."

9. 33. All these things Pelagius so anathematized—which the proceedings themselves sufficiently testify—that he brought no disputation toward defending them in any way; whence it follows that whoever follows the authority of that episcopal judgment, and the confession of Pelagius himself, ought to hold these things, which the catholic Church has always held: that Adam, unless he had sinned, would not have died: that his sin harmed not himself alone, but the human race too: and that infants newly born are not in that state in which Adam was before the transgression, so that to them too pertains even what the Apostle briefly says: Through one man death, and through one man the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:21-22). Whence it comes about that infants not baptized cannot have not only the kingdom of heaven, but even eternal life. Let him confess also that rich men baptized, even if they do not lack their riches, and are such as the Apostle describes to Timothy, saying: Charge the rich of this world not to be high-minded, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, who furnishes all things abundantly to enjoy; let them be rich in good works, give readily, 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), cannot be deprived of the kingdom of God. Let him confess that the grace of God and help is given even for individual acts; and that it is not given according to our merits, that grace may be true, that is, given freely through the mercy of him who said: I will have mercy on whom I have had mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I have been merciful (Rom 9:15). Let him confess that those can be called sons of God who daily say, Forgive us our debts: which surely they would not truly say, if they were altogether without sin. Let him confess that there is free choice, even if it needs divine help. Let him confess that when we fight against temptations and unlawful concupiscences, although even there we have our own will, yet our victory comes not from it, but from the help of God. For not otherwise will be true what the Apostle says: It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy (Rom 9:16). Let him confess that pardon is given to the penitent according to the grace and mercy of God, not according to their merits; since the Apostle called even repentance itself a gift of God, where he says of certain ones: Lest perhaps God give them repentance (2 Tim 2:25). Let him confess all these things simply, without any evasions, if anyone consents to catholic authority and to the express words of Pelagius himself in the ecclesiastical proceedings. For neither is it to be believed that the things contrary to these were truly anathematized, unless these, to which they are contrary, are held with a faithful heart, and brought forth by an open confession.

10. 34. Nor in those more recent books, which that same Pelagius is said to have published after that judgment, although he seems to consent to the help of divine grace, does it sufficiently evidently appear what he thinks about this matter. For sometimes he so weighs the power of the will in equal measures on an even scale, that he defines it to avail as much for not sinning as for sinning: which, if it is so, no place is reserved for the help of grace, without which we say that the choice of the will avails nothing for not sinning. But sometimes he confesses that we are fortified by the daily help of the grace of God, although we have a strong and firm free choice for not sinning: which surely he ought to have confessed weak and infirm, until all the weaknesses of our soul be healed. For he was not praying for weakness of body who said: Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak; heal me, Lord, for my bones are troubled: for, to show that he was asking for his soul, he went on and added, and my soul is troubled exceedingly (Ps 6:2-3 (6:3-4)).

10. 35. He seems, then, to think the help of grace granted as it were superfluously, that is, so that, even if it be not granted, we nevertheless have a strong and firm free choice for not sinning. But lest we be thought to suspect this of him rashly, and perhaps someone should say that he so thinks free choice strong and firm for not sinning (although without the grace of God it cannot effect and accomplish this), as we say that sound eyes are firm for seeing, which nevertheless they can in no way do if the help of light be lacking; in another place he shows what he would say, or what he thought, where he says: "That the grace of God is given to men for this, that what they are commanded to do by free choice they may be able more easily to fulfill through grace." Surely when he says, more easily, what does he wish to be understood, except that, even if grace be lacking, the things divinely commanded can be fulfilled through free choice, either easily, or even with difficulty?

10. 36. Where, then, is: What is man, that you are mindful of him? (Ps 8:4 (8:5)) Where, finally, those testimonies which the prelate of the Church of Jerusalem, as is read in those same proceedings, recalls that he said to Pelagius himself, when it had been brought to him that he said a man could be without sin without the grace of God? For these three very great testimonies were spoken by him against an impious presumption of this kind: that which the Apostle says: I labored more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God with me (1 Cor 15:10); and: It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy (Rom 9:16); and: Unless the Lord build the house, they have labored in vain who build it (Ps 127:1 (126:1)). How, then, is what God commands fulfilled, without his help, even with difficulty, when, if the Lord does not build, the builder is said to have labored in vain; and it is not written: "It is indeed of him who wills, and of him who runs, but more easily of God who has mercy," but it is written: It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy; not because there is no will and running of man, but because he can do nothing unless he have mercy: nor did the Apostle say: "And I," but he said: Yet not I, but the grace of God with me: not because he himself did nothing good, but because he would do nothing, if it did not help? Although that possibility of free choice, as much to good as to evil, by an even weighing of the scale, leaves no place even for this ease, which at least he seems to have confessed by saying: "They can more easily fulfill through grace"; for if good is more easily fulfilled through grace, but evil is done most easily without grace: surely that possibility is not weighed by an even scale.

11. 37. But why more? Not only ought we to be cautious to avoid these people, but also not to grow sluggish in teaching or admonishing them, if they suffer it. We bestow more on them, however, without doubt, if we pray that they be corrected, lest with such great talents they either perish, or destroy others by a damnable presumption: because they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge; and, being ignorant of God's righteousness, that is, the righteousness which is from God, and wishing to establish their own, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God (Rom 10:3). For whom, surely, since they are called Christians, it must be more observed than for the Jews, of whom the Apostle said this, lest they stumble at the stone of stumbling, by as it were acutely defending nature and free choice, like the philosophers of this world, who vehemently acted that they might be thought, or might think, that they could make for themselves a blessed life by the virtue of their own will. Let these, then, beware lest by the wisdom of word they make void the cross of Christ, and this be for them to stumble at the stone of stumbling. For human nature, even if it remained in that integrity in which it was created, would in no way preserve itself, its Creator not helping: since, then, without the grace of God it cannot keep the salvation which it received; how, without the grace of God, can it repair what it has lost?

11. 38. But not for this reason ought we not to pray for these people, because, if they are not corrected, it is to be imputed to their will, who are unwilling to believe that the grace of the Savior is necessary to them even for this very thing which they think consists in the powers of the will alone. For those too to whom these are in this cause altogether most similar, of whom the Apostle said this, that, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and wishing to establish their own, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God, surely did not believe by the fault of their own will. For they were not compelled, unwilling, to be unbelievers; but, by being unwilling to believe, they did not lack the crime of unbelief. And yet, because the will, that it may be moved to believe true things, does not suffice to itself, unless God helps by grace—the Lord himself saying, when he spoke of unbelievers: No one comes to me, unless it be given him by the Father (Jn 6:65); on account of this the Apostle too, although he insistently preached the Gospel to them, yet saw it was too little, unless he also prayed for them that they might believe: for he says: Brothers, the good will indeed of my heart, and my prayer to God is made for them unto salvation; and then he added those things which we said: For I bear them witness that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge (Rom 10:1-2), and so on. Let us pray, then, for them, holy brother.

12. 39. For you perceive with us by what evil error they are held. For your letters are fragrant with the most sincere odor of Christ, where you appear a most genuine lover and confessor of his grace. But that we thought we should speak with you for a long time about this matter, first, because it is most delightful, we have done: for what ought to be more delightful than, to the weak, the grace by which they are healed, or, to the sluggish, the grace by which they are roused, or, to the willing, the grace by which they are helped? then, that, if we could by our disputation, with God's help, do anything, your assertion—not your faith, but of faith—against such people might be supported, just as we too are helped to this capacity by the letters of your brotherhood.

12. 40. For what is more abundant and fuller of most truthful confession than that which is in a certain letter of yours, where you humbly bewailed that our nature did not remain as it was created, but was vitiated through that father of the human race, saying: "Poor and grieving I, who am still concreted with the squalor of the earthly image, and refer more, by the senses of the flesh and earthly acts, to the first than to the second Adam, how shall I dare to depict myself to you, when I am proved to deny the image of the heavenly one by earthly corruption? On both sides shame shuts me in. I blush to depict what I am; I do not dare to depict what I am not: I hate what I am; and I am not what I love. But what will it profit wretched me to hate iniquity, and to love virtue; when I rather do that which I hate, nor strive, sluggish, rather to do that which I love? Discordant with myself, I am torn by an internal war, while the spirit fights against the flesh, the flesh against the spirit, and the law of the body assails the law of the mind by the law of sin. Unhappy I, who have not even by the wood of the cross digested in myself the venomous taste of the hostile tree! For that paternal poison through Adam endures in me, by which the father, transgressing, infected the whole of his kind": and the rest which you connect, much about this misery, groaning, awaiting the redemption of your body, and knowing yourself to be saved not yet in fact, but in hope.

12. 41. But perhaps you too transfigured another into yourself, when you said these things, and suffer no importunate and odious troubles from the flesh lusting against the spirit, although you do not consent to it: nevertheless both you, and whoever suffers these things, and awaits the grace of Christ by which he may be freed from the body of this death, were there—not yet, indeed, evidently in himself, but latently in that man—when the forbidden food was touched, and the perdition was conceived, going far and wide through all, unless by another path, through the Virgin, he had come who came to seek and to save what had perished. But about praying, and demanding with groans the help of advancing and living rightly, what part of your letter is not fervent? what is there of your discourse, however long, where there is not scattered, with groaning piety, what we say in the prayer: Lead us not into temptation? Let us, then, in turn both console ourselves in all these things, and exhort, and, as much as the Lord gives, help one another. But what things, and about whom, we have heard which we much grieve and are unwilling easily to believe, your holiness will hear from our common friend, by whose returning safe in the mercy of God we hope that we can be made most certain about all things.
(From Revisions 2.49)
I wrote a book on the Presence of God, where our intention is especially vigilant against the Pelagian heresy, not expressly named: but in it there is also a laborious and subtle disputation about the presence of the nature which we call the true and supreme God, and about his temple. This book thus begins: I confess, most beloved brother Dardanus.

LETTER 187
A Book on the Presence of God
Augustine to Dardanus

1. 1. I confess, most beloved brother Dardanus, more illustrious to me in the love of Christ than in the dignity of this world, that I have answered your letter more slowly than I ought. The causes of which I would not wish you to inquire, lest you bear me more grievously excusing myself at length, than you endured me writing back too slowly; since I would rather you easily pardon my offense, than judge about my defense: whatever those causes were, believe that there could have been no contempt of you with me. Nay rather, I would have written back most quickly, if I had despised you. Nor now, because at length, at some time, I have written back, have I therefore at least at some time labored at something worthy of you as a reader, and which I could deservedly entitle with your name; but I preferred now to write back somehow, rather than to endure that this summer too pass with me a debtor of this office. Nor did your dignity terrify me and make me hesitating, since your humanity is more pleasing than that is suspect. But from that very thing whence I love you more, hence I find it more difficult whence I may suffice for so great an avidity of your religious love.

1. 2. To this was added that, besides the flame of mutual love, by which it comes about that we love even those whom we have never seen, while we believe that they have what we love—where you surely anticipated me, and made me fear that the opinion and expectation you have of me may be deceived in me—besides this, then, you set forth for me in your letter such questions, that, if they had been set forth by anyone whatever, they would become no small business even for my leisure, which is lacking to me. But when they are set forth by you, for whom, searching the depths, the surface of their solution is by no means enough, and they are set forth to one most occupied and walled in and bound by the masses of other cares; it belongs to your prudence and benevolence to consider how peaceable you ought to hold me, either that I did not answer for a long time, or if even now, for the greatness of your intention, I shall not answer.

2. 3. You ask, then: "The mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, how is he now believed to be in heaven, since, hanging on the wood, and now about to die, he said to the believing thief: Today you will be with me in paradise (Lk 23:43)?" And from this perhaps you say that paradise is to be understood as composed in some part of heaven; or, because God is everywhere, that that man too who is in God is everywhere diffused; from this surely wishing it to be understood that he too could be in paradise who is everywhere.

2. 4. Here I ask, or rather acknowledge, in what way you take the man Christ. Not, surely, as certain heretics, the Word of God and flesh, that is, without a human soul, so that the Word was for the flesh in place of a soul: or the Word of God and a soul and flesh, but without a human mind, so that the Word of God was for the soul in place of a human mind. Not, surely, do you so take the man Christ, but as you spoke above, where you said that you take Christ to be the omnipotent God by such a reasoning of belief that you would not believe him God, unless you had believed him also perfect man. Surely when you say perfect man, you wish the whole human nature to be understood there: but he is not a perfect man, if either a soul be lacking to the flesh, or to the soul itself a human mind.

2. 5. If, then, we think it was said according to the man whom the Word, God, assumed: Today you will be with me in paradise, paradise is not to be supposed from these words to be in heaven: for not even on that very day was the man Christ Jesus going to be in heaven; but in hell according to the soul, and in the tomb according to the flesh. And that the flesh was laid in the tomb on that day, the Gospel most plainly shows: but that the soul descended into hell, the apostolic doctrine proclaims; since blessed Peter adduces a testimony to this matter from the Psalms, where he shows it was foretold: For 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). That was said of the soul, because it was not left there, whence it returned so quickly: that was said of the body, because by a swift resurrection it could not be corrupted in the tomb. But no one understands paradise to be in the tomb. And if anyone were so absurd as to try to be wise in this way, because that tomb was in a garden; surely from this he would be recalled from that opinion, that the one to whom it was said, Today you will be with me in paradise, was not on that day with Christ in that tomb: nor would the burial of the flesh, perceiving nothing of joy or grief in death, be offered to his faith as a great gift, while he was thinking of rest where there is perception.

2. 6. It remains, therefore, that if it was said according to the man, Today you will be with me in paradise, paradise is to be understood as in hell, where Christ was going to be on that day according to his human soul. But whether that bosom of Abraham, where the impious rich man, while he was in the torments of hell, saw the poor man resting, is to be reckoned by the name of paradise, or to be thought to pertain to hell, I would not easily say. For of that rich man we read it was said: And the rich man died, and was buried in hell; and, while he was in the torments in hell. But in the death or rest of the poor man hell is not named: but, It happened, he says, that the poor man died, and was carried by the angels into the bosom of Abraham. Then to the burning rich man Abraham says: Between us and you a great chasm has been fixed (Lk 16:22-26): as it were between hell and the seats of the blessed. For not easily anywhere in the Scriptures is the name of hell found set down in a good sense. Whence too it is wont to be asked, if only penal places are rightly understood as hell, how we may piously believe that the soul of the Lord Christ was in hell. But it is well answered that he descended for this reason, that he might come to the aid of those to whom it was fitting: whence blessed Peter says that he loosed the pains of hell, by which it was impossible for him to be held. Further, if both regions, of those grieving and of those resting—that is, both where that rich man was tortured, and where that poor man rejoiced—are to be believed to be in hell; who would dare to say that the Lord Jesus came only to the penal parts of hell, and was not among those who rest in Abraham's bosom? Where, if he was, he himself is to be understood as the paradise which he deigned to promise to the thief's soul on that day. And if these things are so, the name of paradise is general, where one lives happily. For not because that was called paradise where Adam was before sin, was the Scripture therefore prohibited from calling the Church too paradise, with the fruit of its apple trees.

3. 7. But the sense is much more expedited, and free from all these ambiguities, if it be taken that Christ said, not according to that which he was as man, but according to that which he was as God: Today you will be with me in paradise. For the man Christ was on that day going to be in the tomb according to the flesh, in hell according to the soul: but the same Christ as God is everywhere always. For he is the light which shines even in the darkness, although the darkness does not comprehend it. He is the Power and Wisdom of God, of which it is written that it reaches from end to end mightily, and disposes all things sweetly (Wis 8:1); and reaches everywhere by its purity, and nothing defiled runs into it. Wherever, then, paradise is, whoever of the blessed is there, is there with him who is everywhere.

3. 8. For since Christ is God and man; God, surely, whence he says, I and the Father are one (Jn 10:30); but man, whence he says, The Father is greater than I (Jn 14:28); and the same is the only-begotten Son of God from the Father, and son of man from the seed of David according to the flesh: both are to be observed in him when he speaks, or when the Scripture speaks of him, and it must be looked at what is said according to what. For as one man is a rational soul and flesh, so one Christ is the Word and man. Accordingly, as far as concerns the Word, Christ is creator; for all things were made through him (Jn 1:3): but as far as concerns the man, Christ is created; for he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh (Rom 1:3), and made in the likeness of men. Likewise, because in the man there are two, soul and flesh; according to the soul he was sad unto death, according to the flesh he suffered death.

3. 9. Nor yet, when we say Christ the Son of God, do we separate the man; or when we say the same Christ the son of man, do we separate God. For according to the man he was on earth, not in heaven where he now is, when he said: No one ascends into heaven, except him who descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven (Jn 3:13): although according to that which he was the Son of God, he was in heaven; but according to that which he was the son of man, he was still on earth, and had not yet ascended into heaven. Similarly, since according to that which he is the Son of God, he is the Lord of glory; but according to that which he is the son of man, he was crucified; the Apostle nevertheless says: For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor 2:8). And through this both the son of man was, according to God, in heaven, and the Son of God, according to the man, was being crucified on earth. As, then, it could rightly be said that the Lord of glory was crucified, when that passion pertained to the flesh alone: so it could rightly be said, Today you will be with me in paradise, since, according to human lowliness, he was going to be on that day through the flesh in the tomb, through the soul in hell; but according to divine unchangeableness, he had never withdrawn from paradise, because he is everywhere always.

3. 10. Do not, then, doubt that the man Christ Jesus is now there whence he is to come; and recall by memory, and faithfully hold, the Christian confession, that he rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, nor will come from anywhere but thence to judge the living and the dead. And so he will come, that angelic voice testifying, as he was seen to go into heaven, that is, in the same form and substance of flesh; to which surely he gave immortality, he did not take away its nature. According to this form he is not to be supposed everywhere diffused. For it must be guarded against, lest we so build up the divinity of the man, that we take away the truth of the body. But it is not consequent that what is in God should be everywhere, as God. For of us too the most truthful Scripture says that in him we live, and move, and are (Acts 17:28); nor yet are we everywhere as he is; but that man is in God in one way, since God too is in the man in another way, by a certain proper and singular mode. For God and man are one person, and both are one Christ Jesus; everywhere through that which he is God, but in heaven through that which he is man.

4. 11. Although even in that very thing which is said—that God is everywhere diffused—a carnal thought must be resisted, and the mind called away from the senses of the body, lest we suppose that God is diffused through all things by a spacious magnitude, as soil, or moisture, or air, or this light is diffused (for every magnitude of this kind is less in its part than in the whole); but rather so as wisdom is great, even in a man whose body is small. And if there are two wise men, of whom one is larger in body, neither wiser, that wisdom is not greater in the larger, less in the smaller, or less in one than in two; but as much in this one as in that, and as much in each as in both: for neither, if they are altogether equally wise, do both know more than each; just as, if they are equally immortal, both do not live more than each.

4. 12. Finally, the very immortality of the body, which preceded in the flesh of Christ, and is promised to be ours at the end, although it is a great thing, is surely not great in mass; but although it is held corporeally, it is a certain incorporeal excellence. For since the immortal body itself is less in a part than in the whole, its immortality is as full in a part as in the whole; and although some members are greater than others, yet some members are not more immortal than others. As now, when we are sound in every part according to the manner of present health in the body, not because the whole hand is greater than the finger do we say that the health of the whole hand is greater than that of the finger; but in those unequal members the health itself is equal, when the shorter are so compared to the larger, that what cannot be as great as another, can nevertheless be as sound. But there would be greater health in the larger members, if the larger were the sounder: but since it is not so, but the larger and the smaller are equally sound, the quantity in the masses of the members is surely unequal, but in the unequal the health is equal.

4. 13. Since, then, a body is some substance, its quantity is in the magnitude of its mass; but its health is not its quantity, but its quality. The quantity of a body, therefore, could not obtain what its quality could. For its parts being so distant, which cannot be at once, since each holds its own spaces of places, the smaller smaller, and the larger larger, it could not be whole or as great in each individual part; but the quantity is ampler in the ampler parts, shorter in the shorter, and in no part as great as throughout the whole: but the quality of the body, which is called health, when the body is wholly sound, is as great in the larger as in the smaller parts; for those which are less great are not therefore less sound, or those which are ampler therefore sounder. Far be it, then, that what the quality of a created body can do in the body, the very substance of the Creator cannot do in itself.

4. 14. God, then, is diffused through all things. For he himself says through the prophet: Heaven and earth I fill (Jer 23:24); and what I set down a little before of his wisdom: It reaches from end to end mightily, and disposes all things sweetly (Wis 8:1); and likewise it is written: The Spirit of the Lord has filled the world (Wis 1:7); and it is said to him in a certain psalm: Where shall I go from your spirit, and where shall I flee from your face? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I descend into hell, you are present (Ps 139:7-8 (138:7-8)). But God is so diffused through all things, that he is not the quality of the world, but the substance creating the world, ruling the world without labor, and containing it without burden. Yet not through spaces of places, as if diffused by mass, so that in half the body of the world he is half, and in the other half half, and so whole throughout the whole; but whole in heaven alone, and whole in earth alone, and whole in heaven and in earth, and contained by no place, but whole everywhere in himself.

4. 15. So the Father, so the Son, so the Holy Spirit, so the Trinity one God. For neither did they divide the world among themselves into three parts, which the individual ones might fill individually, as though the Son or the Holy Spirit would not have where to be in the world, if the Father had occupied the whole. The true, incorporeal, and unchangeable divinity is not so. For they are not bodies, whose magnitude is ampler in three than in each; nor do they hold places by their masses, so that, by distant spaces, they cannot be at once. For if the soul, set in the body, finds not only no straits, but even a certain breadth—not of corporeal places, but of spiritual joys—when there comes to pass what the Apostle says: Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? (1 Cor 6:19); nor can it be said except most foolishly that the Holy Spirit has no place in our body, which our soul has wholly filled: how much more foolishly is it said that the Trinity is anywhere hindered by any straits, so that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit cannot be everywhere at once!

5. 16. But that is much more wonderful, that, although God is everywhere whole, he nevertheless does not dwell in all. For it cannot be said to all what the Apostle says, either what I have already said, or even this: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Cor 3:16) Whence too, on the contrary, he says of certain ones: But whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ, this one is not his (Rom 8:9). Who, further, would dare to suppose—except whoever is utterly ignorant of the inseparability of the Trinity—that the Father or the Son could dwell in anyone in whom the Holy Spirit does not dwell, or the Holy Spirit in anyone in whom the Father and the Son do not also? Whence it must be confessed that God is everywhere by the presence of his divinity, but not everywhere by the grace of his dwelling. For on account of this dwelling, where without doubt the grace of his love is acknowledged, we do not say, Our Father who art everywhere, although this too is true, but: Our Father who art in heaven; that we may rather recall his temple in prayer, which we ourselves too ought to be, and insofar as we are, so far do we pertain to his society and the family of adoption. For if the people of God, not yet made equal to his angels, still in this pilgrimage is called his temple, how much more is his temple in heaven, where there is the people of angels, to whom we are to be joined and made equal, when, the pilgrimage finished, we shall have received what was promised!

5. 17. Since, then, he who is everywhere does not dwell in all; even in those in whom he dwells, he does not dwell equally. For whence is that which Elisha asked, that the Spirit of God which was in Elijah might be doubly in him? and whence, among all the saints, are some holier than others, except by having God the indweller more abundantly? How, then, did we above say truly that God is everywhere whole, when in some he is ampler, in some less? But what we said is not negligently to be considered, that he is everywhere whole in himself. Therefore he is not in those things which some grasp more, some less. For he is said to be everywhere, because he is absent from no part of things; whole, because he does not present his part to a part of things, and to another part another part, equal to equals, but to the lesser a lesser, and to the greater a greater; but he is wholly present, equally, not only to the universe of creation, but even to any part of it. And those are said to be far from him who, by sinning, have become most unlike; and these to draw near to him who, by living piously, receive his likeness. As eyes are rightly said to be so much the farther from this light, the blinder they are. For what is so far from light as blindness, even if the light be present and pour over extinguished eyes? But eyes are deservedly said to draw near the light, which advance, by the access of health, by receiving the keenness of sight.

6. 18. Further, what we thought might be too little distinctly understood when we said that God is everywhere whole, unless we added, In himself, I see must be expounded more diligently. For how is he everywhere, if in himself? Everywhere, namely, because he is nowhere absent. But in himself, because he is not contained by those to whom he is present, as though he could not be without them. For take away the spaces of places from bodies, they will be nowhere, and because they will be nowhere, they will not even be. Take away the bodies themselves from the qualities of bodies, there will be no place where they may be, and therefore it is necessary that they not be. For when a body is equally sound, or equally white, throughout its whole mass, there is not in one part of it greater health or whiteness than in another, nor greater in the whole than in a part of it; because the whole is not constituted sounder or whiter than the part. But if it be unequally sound or unequally white, it can come to pass that in a smaller part there be greater health or whiteness, when smaller members are sounder or whiter than larger; so far is it that what is said to be great or small in qualities consists in mass. Nevertheless, if the very mass of the body, however great or small it be, be utterly taken away, there will be no place where its qualities may be, although they are not to be measured by mass. But God, if he be grasped less by him to whom he is present, is not on that account himself less. For he is whole in himself, nor is he in those in whom he is so as to need them, as though he could not be except in them. But just as he is not absent from him in whom he does not dwell, and is wholly present, although that one does not have him; so to him in whom he dwells he is wholly present, although that one does not wholly grasp him.

6. 19. For he does not divide himself, for dwelling, through the hearts or bodies of men, granting one part of himself to this one, another to that, as this light through the entrances and windows of houses: but rather, if a deaf man does not grasp any sound, since it is a corporeal and transitory thing, and a hard-of-hearing man does not grasp the whole, and among those who hear, when they are equally near it, one grasps it more than another, the more acute he is, but less, the more obtuse his hearing, although it does not sound to one more variously, more or less, but is equally present to all in the place in which they are; how much more excellently does God, by his incorporeal nature and unchangeably living, who cannot, like sound, be stretched and divided through the delays of times, nor needs airy space as his own place, where he may be present to those present, but remaining in himself by eternal stability, can be wholly present to all things, and wholly to each, although those in whom he dwells have him according to the diversity of their capacity, some more, some less, whom he himself builds for himself, by the grace of his goodness, as a most beloved temple!

6. 20. And divisions of gifts indeed have been spoken of, as it were through the parts and members of one body, where we are both at once all one temple, and individually individual temples; because God is not greater in all than in each: and it comes about, for the most part, that the many grasp him less, one more. But when the Apostle had said: But there are divisions of gifts, he immediately added: but the same Spirit: likewise, when he had recalled those very divisions of gifts: But all these, he says, one and the same Spirit works, dividing his own to each as he wills (1 Cor 12:4.11). Dividing, then, not himself divided, because he is one and the same. But those divisions are spoken of, as of members in a body; because the ears do not avail the same as the eyes, and so the other members are concordantly distributed to diverse offices: which nevertheless, when we are sound, rejoice together in a common and equal health, one, and not diverse, nor greater in one place, lesser in another, but although they are themselves unequal. The head of this body is Christ, the unity of this body is commended by our sacrifice: which the Apostle briefly signified, saying: One bread, one body, we many are (1 Cor 10:17). Through our head we are reconciled to God, because in him the divinity of the Only-begotten was made a partaker of our mortality, that we too might be partakers of his immortality.

6. 21. This sacrament is far from the hearts of the proud wise, and therefore not Christian, and through this not truly wise. I speak even of those wise who knew God; because, knowing God, as the Apostle says, they did not glorify him as God, or give thanks (Rom 1:21). But you know in what sacrifice it is said: "Let us give thanks to the Lord our God." From the lowliness of which sacrifice the pomp and cothurnus of those people is far away. And therefore it is a very wonderful thing how God is the indweller of certain ones not yet knowing God, and of certain ones knowing him is not. For neither do those pertain to the temple of God who, knowing God, did not glorify him as God, or give thanks; and to the temple of God pertain little ones sanctified by the sacrament of Christ, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, who certainly through their age cannot yet know God: whence those could know him whom they could not have, these could have him before they knew him. But most blessed are those for whom to have God is the same as to know him: for that knowledge is the fullest, the truest, the happiest.

7. 22. Hence now we must treat also that question which you added after the subscription of your letter: "If little ones still do not know God, how could John, even before he was born, at the coming and presence of the mother of the Lord, exult in his mother's womb?" For when you had recalled that you had read my book On the Baptism of Little Ones, you added and said: "About pregnant women I desire to know what you think, since the mother of John the Baptist answered the faith of belief on behalf of the child."

7. 23. These are certainly the words of Elizabeth, the mother of John: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, as the voice of your salutation came to my ears, the infant exulted in joy in my womb (Lk 1:42-44). But that she might say this, as the Evangelist prefaced, she was filled with the Holy Spirit (Lk 1:41), by whose revealing she without doubt knew what that exultation of the infant signified; that is, that there had come the mother of him whose precursor and shower he was to be. There could, then, be that signifying of so great a matter to be known by the elders, not known by the little one. For neither, when this was narrated before in the Gospel, was it said: "The infant believed in his womb"; but, exulted: nor did she herself say: "The infant exulted in faith in my womb"; but, exulted in joy. But we see exultation not only of little ones, but even of cattle, surely not coming from any faith, or religion, or any rational knowledge whatever. But this plainly stood out as unusual and new, because it was in the womb, and at the coming of her who was going to bear the Savior of men. Therefore wonderful, therefore to be reckoned among great signs: therefore this exultation, and as it were a return-salutation rendered to the mother of the Lord, just as miracles are wont to come about, was done divinely in the infant, not humanly by the infant.

7. 24. Although even if the use of reason and will was so far accelerated in that child, that within the maternal members he could already recognize, believe, consent—which in other little ones the age is awaited that they may be able—even this is to be reckoned among the miracles of the divine power, not to be drawn to examples of human nature. For when God willed, even the dumb beast of burden spoke rationally; nor on that account are men admonished to await even asinine counsels in their deliberations. Wherefore I neither despise what was done in John, nor from there fix a rule of what is to be thought about little ones: nay rather I therefore wonderfully proclaim it in him, because in others I do not find it. There is indeed something similar also in that struggle of the twins in Rebecca's womb; but this too was so far a portent, that on that account the woman sought a divine oracle, and heard that by those two little infants two peoples were figured.

7. 25. But that little ones, who do not yet know even human things, do not know divine things, if we should wish to show it by words, I fear lest we seem to do injury to our very senses, when by speaking we persuade that, where the evidence of truth most easily surpasses all the powers and office of speech. Do we not see that, even when they have begun to produce some kind of signs of articulate voice, and to pass from infancy to the beginning of speaking, they still feel and say such things, in which, if they had remained, and with advancing years persisted in being such, no one—even one too foolish—would doubt them to be foolish? Unless perhaps it remains that, in the wailing of infancy, or in the very silence still of the womb, we believe the little ones to have been wise, but afterward, when they began to speak with us, to have come, by growing, to this ignorance which we see. Which to suppose, you see how absurd it is, since the sense of children bursting out into some kind of words—which is surely almost nothing toward the things the elders are wise about—is nevertheless, compared to that in which they are born, able to be called understanding. But whence, in that so great safeguard of salvation, when Christian grace comes to their aid, that they struggle against it with such voices and movements as they can is not imputed to them, and all their resistance is counted for nothing, until the sacraments be performed in them, by which what was drawn from the original damnation may be expiated—except because they so far do not know what they do, that they are not judged even to do it? Further, if they already used the choice of reason and will, by which assent ought to be applied to that sanctification, how great an evil it would be to resist so great a grace, and how not only what was done would profit nothing, but guilt would even increase from it, what Christian would not know?

8. 26. We say, then, that in baptized little ones, although they do not know it, the Holy Spirit dwells. For they so do not know him, although he is in them, as they do not know their own mind too; whose reason in them, which they cannot yet use, is as it were a certain spark put to sleep, to be roused by the access of age. Nor ought this to seem a wonder in little ones, since the Apostle says even to certain older ones: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Cor 3:16)—of whom a little before he had said: But the animal man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:14); whom he calls little ones too, not by the age of the flesh, but of the mind. They did not, therefore, perceive by knowledge the Holy Spirit who dwelt in them; and, the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, they were still animal, not yet spiritual, because they could not yet perceive by knowledge their own indweller, the Spirit.

8. 27. But he is said to dwell even in such for this reason: because in them he acts secretly, that they may be his temple; and this he perfects in those advancing and persevering in advancing. For by hope we have been saved, as the Apostle says; although in another place he says: He saved us by the washing of regeneration (Titus 3:5). When, then, here he says, He saved us, as though salvation itself were already given, how it is to be understood, he expounds there, where he says: For by hope we have been saved. But hope which is seen is not hope; for what anyone sees, why does he hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, by patience we await it (Rom 8:24-25). For many things are said in the divine Scriptures as though they were done, when they are understood to be still in hope. Whence is that too which the Lord says to the disciples: All things which I heard from my Father I have made known to you (Jn 15:15): which is so far said according to the hope of future things, that he afterward says to them: I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now (Jn 16:12). He acts, then, in those mortals in whom he still dwells, the very building of his dwelling, which he perfects not in this, but in another life after this, when death shall be swallowed up in victory, and it shall be said to it: Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? But what is the sting of death, except sin? (1 Cor 15:54-56)

8. 28. On account of which, even now, reborn of water and the Spirit, and all our sins—whether of origin from Adam, in whom all sinned, or of our deeds, words, and thoughts—deleted in the cleansing of that washing; yet, because we remain in this human life which is a temptation upon the earth, we deservedly say: Forgive us our debts. And this prayer the whole Church says, which the Savior cleanses by the washing of water in the word, that he may present it to himself glorious, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; then, surely, when it shall be perfected in fact, where now, by advancing, one walks in hope. For how is it now not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, which, whether in all the men pertaining to it who already use the reason of the mind and the choice of the will, and bear the burden of mortal flesh, or surely—which even the contentious must necessarily confess—in many of its members truly says: Forgive us our debts?

8. 29. Since, then, those advancing, in whom, while mortal, he dwells, while from day to day they are renewed, he justifies more and more, hears them praying, cleanses them confessing, that he may present to himself a temple immaculate forever; he is deservedly said not to dwell in those who, knowing God, did not glorify him as God, or give thanks. For by worshiping and serving the creature rather than the Creator, they were unwilling to be the temple of the one true God: and so, while they wish to have him with many, they more easily brought it about that they did not have him, than that they should mingle him with many or false gods. And he is deservedly said to dwell in those whom, called according to his purpose, he took up to be justified and glorified, even before they are able to know his incorporeal nature, which is everywhere whole, as far as it can be known in part, through a mirror and in an enigma, by a man in this life, when he has advanced most. For there are, in whom he dwells, many such as the Apostle says: I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal. As to little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not food: for you were not yet able; but neither indeed are you yet able (1 Cor 3:1-2). To these surely he says also that: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you? If the last day of this life finds such people, even before they come to the spiritual age of mind, where they are nourished not with milk, but with solid food; their indweller will perfect in them whatever of understanding they had less here, since they did not withdraw from the unity of the body of Christ who was made the way for us, and from the society of the temple of God. Whence, that they may not withdraw, they perseveringly hold in the Church the rule of faith common to little and great, and walk in that to which they have come, until God reveal to them, if they are wise in anything otherwise; they do not dogmatize their carnal thoughts; because they do not harden by remaining in contentious defenses, but in a way by walking, that is, by advancing, they sweat, obtaining the perspicuity of understanding through the piety of faith.

9. 30. Since these things are so, those two things which come about in one man, to be born and to be reborn, pertain to two men: one to that first Adam, the other to the second who is called Christ. But, the Apostle says, not first what is spiritual, but what is animal; afterward the spiritual. The first man of the earth, earthly; the second man from heaven, heavenly: as is the earthly, such also are the earthly; and as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of him who is from heaven (1 Cor 15:46-49): likewise he says: Through one man death, and through one man the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:21-22). He said all, and all, for this reason: because into death no one but through that one, into life no one but through this one. In the first it lay open what man's choice was worth toward death; but in the second, what the help of God was worth toward life. Finally, the first man, only man; but the second, God and man: for sin was committed, God being abandoned; righteousness does not come about without God. And through this we would neither die, unless by carnal propagation we came from his members; nor would we live, unless by spiritual connection we were members of this one. Therefore it was needful for us to be born, and to be reborn, but for him, for our sake, only to be born. For we, by being reborn, pass from sin to righteousness; but he made a passage from no sin to righteousness: but in that he was baptized, he commended the sacrament of our regeneration, more deeply by his lowliness; signifying, nevertheless, our old man by his passion, our new man by his resurrection.

9. 31. For the disobedience of the concupiscence which dwells in mortal flesh, by which it comes about that those same members are moved apart from the choice of the will, is reduced by conjugal righteousness to such a measure, that they be generated by parents lawfully joined, for whom it is necessary to be regenerated. Yet Christ did not wish to come by a meeting of male and female of this kind to his flesh; but from a virgin desiring nothing of the kind in his conception, he took the likeness of the flesh of sin for us, by which the flesh of sin might be cleansed in us. For as through the offense of one, the Apostle says, upon all men unto condemnation; so through the righteousness of one upon all men unto justification of life. For no one is born except by carnal concupiscence working, which is drawn from the first man who is Adam; and no one is reborn except by spiritual grace working, which is given through the second man, who is Christ. Wherefore, if by being born we pertain to that one, by being reborn to this one, and no one can be reborn before he is born; surely that one was born singularly, who did not need to be reborn; because he did not make a passage from sin, in which he never was, nor was he conceived in iniquity, nor did his mother nourish him in sins in the womb: because the Holy Spirit came upon her, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her; whence what was born of her, holy, is called the Son of God. For the good of marriage does not extinguish, but moderates, the evil of the disobedient members, so that, carnal concupiscence being in a way limited, there may at least be conjugal chastity. But the Virgin Mary, to whom it was said, And the power of the Most High will overshadow you (Lk 1:35), in conceiving the holy offspring, burned with no ardor of this concupiscence under such a shade. With this corner stone excepted, then, I do not see how men are built into a house of God to have God dwelling in them, except when they have been reborn; which they cannot be before they are born.

10. 32. Whatever opinion, then, we have about pregnant women—or rather about men still set within the maternal members—whether we think that they can or cannot be granted some mode of sanctification; whether on account of John, who, not yet brought forth into this light, nevertheless exulted in joy (which surely who would believe could have come about except by the working of the Holy Spirit?), or on account of Jeremiah, to whom the Lord says: Before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you (Jer 1:5): yet that sanctification by which we are made both individually temples of God, and all together one temple of God, is only of the reborn; which men cannot be unless born. But no one will well end the life in which he was born, unless reborn before he ends it.

10. 33. But if anyone says that a man is already born even when he is still in the mother's womb, and adduces a testimony from the Gospel, because it was said to Joseph about the pregnant Virgin, mother of the Lord: For what is born in her is of the Holy Spirit (Mt 1:20); does there accede to this nativity a second nativity? Otherwise it will not now be a second, but a third. But the Lord, when he spoke of this: Unless one, he says, be reborn anew (Jn 3:3); reckoning, namely, as the first that nativity which comes about by the mother bringing forth, not conceiving and pregnant, which comes about from her, not which comes about in her. For neither do we say that a man whom the mother bore is reborn, as though he were born again, who had already once been born in the womb: but, that nativity not being reckoned which makes her pregnant, a man is said to be born by birth, that he may be able to be reborn of water and the Spirit. According to which nativity from the mother, even the Lord himself is said to be born in Bethlehem of Judah. If, then, a man can be regenerated by the grace of the Spirit in the womb, since it still remains for him to be born, he is therefore reborn before he is born; which can in no way come about. Accordingly, into the framework of the body of Christ, as into a living structure of the temple of God, which is his Church, men born are transferred, not by works of righteousness which they did, but by being reborn through grace, as from the mass of ruin to the foundation of the building. For besides this building, which is constructed to be blessed for the eternal habitation of God, all the life of man is unhappy, and is to be called death rather than life. Whoever, then, is to be dwelt in by God, that the wrath of God may not remain over him, will not be alien from this body, from this temple, from this city. But everyone not reborn is alien.

11. 34. Further, the sacrament of our regeneration the Mediator, manifested, wished to be manifest. But to the ancient righteous it was something hidden, although they too were saved by that same faith, which was to be revealed in its own time. For we do not dare to prefer the faithful of our time to the friends of God through whom these things were prophesied to us, since God commends himself to be the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, so that he says this is his name forever. But if circumcision is believed to have been for the ancient saints in place of baptism, what will be answered about those who, before this was commanded, pleased God, yet not without faith? Because without faith, as it is written to the Hebrews, it is impossible to please God. But having, the Apostle says, the same Spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed, therefore I have spoken; we also believe, therefore we also speak (2 Cor 4:13). He would not say, the same, unless their Spirit of faith too were that same one. But just as they, when that same sacrament was hidden, believed the incarnation of Christ to be future, so we too believe it accomplished: and both by us and by them his coming to judgment is awaited as future. For there is no other mystery of God except Christ, in whom the dead in Adam must be made alive; because as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive, as we discussed above.

12. 35. Wherefore God, who is everywhere present, and everywhere whole, does not dwell in all, but only in those whom he makes his most blessed temple, or his most blessed temples, rescuing them from the power of darkness, and transferring them into the kingdom of the Son of his love, which begins from regeneration. But his temple is spoken of in one way by signification, when it comes about through the hands of men from inanimate things, as the tabernacle, of woods, veils, skins, and movable things of this kind; as also through king Solomon, a temple constructed of stones, woods, metals: but in another way by the very true thing which was figured by those significations. Whence it is said: And you, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house (1 Pet 2:5): and whence likewise it is written: For we are the temple of the living God, as God says: I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (2 Cor 6:16).

12. 36. Nor ought it to move us, that through certain ones not pertaining to this temple, or not yet pertaining—that is, in whom God does not dwell, or does not yet dwell—he works some power; as through that one who cast out demons in the name of Christ, although he did not follow Christ, whom he ordered to be permitted, on account of the commendation, useful to many, of his name. He says too that many will say to him on the last day: In your name we did many mighty works (Mt 7:22); to whom surely he would not answer: I do not know you, if they pertained to the temple of God, which by dwelling he blesses. Cornelius too, the centurion, before he was incorporated into this temple by regeneration, saw an angel sent to him, and heard him saying that his prayers were heard, and his alms accepted. For God does these things as everywhere present, or through his holy angels.

12. 37. For that sanctification of Jeremiah, before he came out of the womb, although some take it as a type of the Savior, who did not need regeneration; yet even if it be taken of the Prophet himself, it can not unfittingly be understood also according to predestination: as the Gospel calls those not yet regenerated sons of God, where Caiaphas, when he had said about the Lord: It is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and the whole nation not perish; the Gospel, following on, immediately added: But this he said not of himself; but being high priest of that year he prophesied that Jesus was to die for the nation; and not only for the nation, but that he might gather into one the sons of God who were dispersed (Jn 11:50-52). He called sons of God surely, besides the Hebrew nation, those set also among all the other nations, not yet faithful, not yet baptized. How, then, sons of God, except according to predestination, according to which the Apostle too says that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4)? But that gathering into one was going to make them sons of God. For neither was it said into one as some corporeal place, since the prophet foretold concerning such a calling of the nations: And they will adore him, each one from his own place, all the islands of the nations (Zeph 2:11); but, gather into one, was said into one spirit, and into one body, of which the one head is Christ. Such a gathering is the building of the temple of God. Such a gathering not carnal generation, but spiritual regeneration makes.

13. 38. God dwells, then, in individuals as in his temples, and in all together gathered into one, as in his temple. Which temple, as long as, like the ark of Noah, it floats in this world, there comes about what is written in the Psalm: The Lord inhabits the flood: although also, on account of the many peoples of the faithful among all nations, whom the Apocalypse signifies by the name of waters, it can be fittingly understood: The Lord inhabits the flood. But there follows: And the Lord will sit as king forever (Ps 29:10 (28:10)): surely in his very temple now set in eternal life after the floating of this world. God, therefore, is everywhere present, and everywhere wholly present; nor everywhere dwelling, but in his temple, to which by grace he is kind and propitious: but he is grasped, dwelling, by some more, by some less.

13. 39. But of our very head the Apostle says: That in him dwells all the fullness of the divinity bodily (Col 2:9). Not bodily because God is corporeal; but either he used a transferred word, as it were he dwelt in a man-made temple not bodily but shadowily, that is, by prefiguring signs—for he calls all those observances shadows of things to come (Col 2:17), even by a transferred word; for the supreme God, as it is written, does not dwell in man-made temples—or surely it was said bodily, because in the body of Christ too which he assumed from the Virgin, as in a temple, God dwells. For hence it is that, when to the Jews seeking a sign he had said: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up; the evangelist, expounding accordingly what this was, says: But this he said of the temple of his body (Jn 2:19.21).

13. 40. What, then, is it? Do we think this is the difference between the head and the rest of the members, that in any member, however principal—as in some great prophet or apostle—although divinity dwells, yet not, as in the head which is Christ, all the fullness of the divinity? For in our body too sense is in the individual members; but not so great as in the head, where it is altogether fivefold: for there are sight, and hearing, and smell, and taste, and touch; but in the rest there is touch alone. Or, besides this—that, as in a temple, in that body dwells all the fullness of the divinity—is there something else that is the difference between that head and the excellence of any member? There is plainly: that by a certain singular assumption of that man one person was made with the Word. For of no saint could it be said, or can be, or will be able to be: The Word was made flesh: no saint, by any preeminence of grace, received the name of Only-begotten, that what the Word of God itself is before the ages, this it should be called together with the assumed man. Singular, then, is that assumption, nor can it in any way be common with any holy men, however preeminent in wisdom and holiness. Where there is a sufficiently perspicuous and clear proof of divine grace. For who would be so sacrilegious as to dare to affirm that any soul could, by the merit of free choice, bring it about that it be another Christ? That, then, one single soul should pertain to the person of the only-begotten Word, by what pact, through free choice given commonly to all and naturally, could it have merited, unless a singular grace had bestowed this; which it is lawful to proclaim, about which it is wicked to wish to judge?

13. 41. If these things we have, according to our strength, as much as the Lord helped, rightly treated; when you extend yourself to think of God everywhere present, and not diffused by distant spaces, as it were by some mass or extension, but everywhere whole, turn your mind away from all the images of bodies which human thought is wont to turn over. For neither so is wisdom, nor justice, nor so, finally, love thought of, about which it is written: God is love (1 Jn 4:8). But when you think of his dwelling, think of the unity and gathering of the saints: especially in heaven, where for this reason he is chiefly said to dwell, because there his will is made the perfect obedience of those in whom he dwells; then on earth, where, building, he dwells in his house, to be dedicated at the end of the age. But that Christ our Lord, the only-begotten Son of God, equal to the Father, and the same son of man, than whom the Father is greater, is both everywhere whole present as God, and in that same temple of God as the indwelling God, and in some place of heaven on account of the manner of a true body, do not doubt. But when it delights me to speak with you, I do not know whether I have kept the measure of sufficient discourse, as if I were compensating for a long silence by loquacity. But because by the religion and benevolence with which you anticipated me, you are so engrafted into my heart, that I converse with you as with a friend truly: whatever in the work of our pen you recognize to have been usefully wrought, give thanks to God. But if you perceive any faults of mine, as a most dear friend pardon them; wishing, namely, medicine for me with that same sincerity of love with which you also grant pardon.

LETTER 188
To the lady, to be honored with the offices due in Christ, and deservedly illustrious daughter Juliana, from Alypius and Augustine, greetings in the Lord.

1. 1. It happened to us quite gratefully and pleasantly that the letter of your reverence found us set together at Hippo, so that we might equally render this reply, rejoicing at the news of your well-being, and in turn announcing ours—which we trust is dear to you—by mutual love, lady to be honored with the offices due in Christ, and deservedly illustrious daughter. But we know quite well how great an affection of religion we owe you, and how great care of you there is to us both before God and among men. For although our littleness first by letters, then also by bodily presence, came to know you, pious and catholic, that is, true members of Christ; yet even through our ministry, when you had received the word of the hearing of God, as the Apostle says, you received it not as the word of men, but, as it truly is, the word of God. Of which our ministry, with the grace and mercy of the Savior helping, so great a fruit arose in your house, that, human nuptials being already prepared, holy Demetrias preferred the spiritual embrace of that Bridegroom, to whom, beautiful beyond the sons of men, virgins are wedded, to have the more abundant fecundity of the spirit, and not to lose the integrity of the flesh. But we would not know how that exhortation of ours was then received by the faithful and noble virgin, had we not learned, by the most joyful news and truthful testimony of your letter, that, after we had set out, when after a little while she had professed virginal holiness, this enormous gift of God—which through his servants he plants and waters, but through himself gives the increase—came to pass through us as workers.

1. 2. Since these things are so, no one will call us improper, if, in admonishing you to avoid the dogmas contrary to the grace of God, we are anxious with a more propense intimacy. For although the Apostle commands us to be insistent in preaching the word not only in season, but even out of season; yet we do not have you in the number of those men to whom our discourse or page would seem out of season, when we address you that you may vigilantly avoid that which does not pertain to sound doctrine. Hence, then, it is that you received our admonition with so grateful a mind, that in your letter, to which we now write back, you said: "Indeed, as to what your reverence exhorts me, that I not lend my ears to those men who often corrupt the venerable faith by depraved treatises, I give abundant thanks for so pious an admonition."

1. 3. What, then, you add and say: "But let your priesthood know that I and my little house are far separated from persons of this kind: and our whole family so follows the catholic faith, that it has at no time deviated into any heresy, nor ever lapsed; I do not say into those sects which are scarcely expiated, but not even into those which are seen to have small errors"; this is what compels us more and more not to keep silence with you about those who try to vitiate even the things that are sound. For we reckon your house no small Church of Christ. Nor indeed is the error of those small who think that we have from ourselves whatever of righteousness, continence, piety, chastity is in us, on the ground that God so created us, that beyond—besides the knowledge which he reveals to us—he helps us in nothing to do, by loving too, the things which we know by learning are to be done; defining, namely, that nature and doctrine alone are the grace of God and help, that we may live rightly and justly. But for having a good will—where this very thing is, that we live justly, and the very love which so excels among all the gifts of God that it is even called God, by which alone is fulfilled in us whatever of the divine law and admonition we fulfill—they are unwilling that we be helped divinely, but say that we ourselves suffice for ourselves to these things by our own choice. Let not this error seem to you slight: to profess oneself willing to be a Christian, and to be unwilling to hear the Apostle of Christ, who, when he had said: The love of God is poured out in our hearts; lest anyone think that he has it only through his own choice, immediately added, by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5). That this is the great grace of the Savior, who, ascending on high, led captivity captive and gave gifts to men—whoever does not yet confess it, you understand how much and how destructively he errs.

2. 4. How, then, could we dissimulate about admonishing you, to whom we owe so great a love, that you beware of such things, when we had read a book—whom anyone wrote to holy Demetrias, or whether it reached you, we wish rather to know from your reply—in which book, if it is lawful, let the virgin of Christ read whence she may believe that her virginal holiness, and all her spiritual riches, are from herself alone; and so, before she be most fully blessed, let her learn to be—which God forbid—ungrateful to God. For the words written to her in that same book are these: "You have, then, even here," he says, "things by which you may deservedly be set before others; nay rather, hence the more: for bodily nobility and opulence will be understood to be of your people, not yours; but spiritual riches no one but you yourself can confer on you. In these, then, you are rightly to be praised, in these deservedly to be preferred to the rest, which cannot be except from you and in you."

2. 5. You see, surely, how great a ruin is to be guarded against in these words. For that which was said: "These goods cannot be except in you," was said most excellently and most truly; this plainly is food: but what he says, "except from you," this is altogether poison. Far be it that the virgin of Christ hear these things gladly, who piously understands the proper poverty of the human heart, and therefore there knows not how to be adorned except by the gifts of her Bridegroom. Let her hear rather the Apostle saying: I betrothed you to one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his cunning, so also your minds be corrupted from the chastity which is in Christ (2 Cor 11:2-3): and therefore about these spiritual riches too, let her hear, not him who says, "No one can confer them on you but you, and they cannot be except from you and in you"; but him who says, We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the eminence of power may be God's, and not from us (2 Cor 4:7).

2. 6. About that holy virginal continence too—that it is not to her from herself, but is a gift of God, although bestowed on one believing and willing—let her hear that same truthful and pious teacher, who, when he dealt with this, says: I would wish all to be as myself; but each one has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that (1 Cor 7:7). Let her hear too him who is not only her own, but the unique Bridegroom of the whole Church, saying about such chastity and integrity: Not all grasp this word, but those to whom it is given (Mt 19:11); that she may understand, from the fact that she has so great and splendid a good, that she ought rather to give thanks to God and our Lord, than to hear the words of anyone—that she has it as it were from herself—words, not to say of a flattering sycophant, lest we seem rashly to judge of the hidden things of men, but certainly of an erring praiser. For every best gift, and every perfect gift, as the apostle James too says, is from above, descending from the Father of lights (Jas 1:17): hence, then, holy virginity too, by which the daughter, willing and rejoicing, conquered you—later in birth, prior in deed, by lineage from you, in honor before you, in age following, in holiness preceding; in which there began to be yours too what could not be in you. For she did not wed carnally, that she might be increased spiritually not only for herself, but even for you beyond yourself: since you too are less than she by this compensation, that you so wedded that she might be born. These are gifts of God, and they are indeed yours, but not from you: for you have this treasure in earthly bodies, and as yet fragile, as in earthen vessels, that the eminence of power may be God's, and not from you. Nor wonder that we say it is both yours and not from you: for we call the daily bread ours too, but yet add: Give us, lest it be thought to be "from us."

2. 7. Accordingly, as it is written: Pray without ceasing, in all things give thanks (1 Thess 5:17-18): for you pray as those having perseveringly and advancingly; you give thanks, because you have it not from yourselves. For who distinguishes you from that mass of death and perdition from Adam? Is it not he who came to seek and to save what had perished? Or, when a man hears the Apostle saying: For who distinguishes you? is he going to answer, My good will, my faith, my righteousness, and not immediately to hear what follows: For what have you that you did not receive? But if you have received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? (1 Cor 4:7) We do not wish, then, that the holy virgin, when she hears or reads: "Spiritual riches no one can confer on you but you: in these you are rightly to be praised, in these deservedly to be preferred to the rest, which cannot be except from you and in you"; we do not at all wish her so to boast as though she had not received. Let her say indeed: In me, O God, are your vows, which I will render as praises to you (Ps 56:12 (55:12)): but because in her, not also from her, let her remember to say too: Lord, in your will you bestowed strength upon my beauty (Ps 30:7 (29:8)): because, even if it be also from her on account of her own choice, without which we do not work good, yet not, as that man said, except from her. For one's own choice, unless it be helped by the grace of God, cannot itself even be a good will in name. For it is God, the Apostle says, who works in you both to will and to work, for his good will (Phil 2:13): not, as those people think, only by revealing knowledge, that we may know what we ought to do; but also by inspiring love, that what we know by learning, we may also do by loving.

2. 8. For surely he knew how great a good continence was, who said: And when I knew that no one can be continent unless God grant it. Not only, then, did he know how great this good was, and how desirably it was to be longed for, but also that, unless God gave it, it could not be: for wisdom had taught him; for he says this: And this very thing was wisdom, to know whose gift it was. Nor yet did knowledge suffice him; but he says: I went to the Lord, and besought him (Wis 8:21). Not only, therefore, in this does God help us, that we may know what is to be done, but also that, by loving, we may do what we already know by learning. No one, then, can be not only knowing, but even continent, unless God grant it. Whence, when he already had knowledge, he prayed that he might have continence too, that there might be in him too what he knew, because it would not be from him: or, if on account of free choice, something also somewhat his own and from him, yet not except from him; because no one can be continent unless God grant it. But that man, about spiritual riches—among which surely is also that very luminous and beautiful continence—does not say: "They can be in you and from you"; but says, "they cannot be except from you and in you"; that, just as they are to her nowhere except in her, so they are believed to be able to be to her from nowhere except from her, and on account of this (which the merciful Lord turn away from her heart!) she so boast as though she had not received.

3. 9. And we indeed, about the holy virgin's discipline and Christian humility, in which she was nourished and brought up, think this: that when she read those words—if indeed she read them—she groaned, and humbly beat her breast, and perhaps even wept, and confidently prayed to the Lord to whom she is dedicated and by whom she is sanctified, that, just as those are not the words of herself, but of another, so neither may her faith be such as to believe that she has anything about which she may boast in herself, not in the Lord. For her glory is indeed in herself, not in the words of another, as the Apostle says: But let each one prove his own work, and then he will have glory in himself, and not in another (Gal 6:4). But far be it that her glory be herself, and not he to whom it is said, My glory, and the lifter up of my head! (Ps 3:3 (3:4)) For so, surely, is her glory in her wholesomely, when God who is in her is himself her glory, from whom she has all the goods by which she is good; and will have all by which she will be better, insofar as in this life she can be better; and by which she will be perfect, when she shall have been perfected by divine grace, not by human praise. For in the Lord her soul will be praised (Ps 34:2 (33:3)), who satisfied her desire with good things (Ps 103:5 (102:5)); because even this desire he himself inspired, that his virgin might not so boast in any good as though she had not received it.

3. 10. About this affection of hers, then, whether we are not deceived, make us rather more certain by writing back. For that we know quite well: that you, with all yours, are and have been worshipers of the undivided Trinity. But not from this alone does human error creep in, that something be thought otherwise about the undivided Trinity. For there are also other things in which one errs most perniciously, as is this, about which we have perhaps spoken in this letter longer than would be enough for your faithful and chaste prudence. Although whoever denies that the good which is from God is from God, we do not know to whom he does injury except to God, and through this surely to that Trinity: which evil be far from you, as we believe it is far! Far be it altogether that this book should have done any such thing in the mind—we do not say of yours, or of your daughter the holy virgin, but in that of any servant or handmaid of yours of the lowest merit—from which we thought certain words, which could be more easily understood, should be set down.

3. 11. But if you attend more diligently even to those things which there he seems to say as it were for the grace or help of God, you will find them so ambiguous that they can be referred either to nature, or to doctrine, or to the remission of sins. For even as to what they are compelled to confess—that we ought to pray that we enter not into temptation—they can refer it to this: that they answer that we are helped to this only so far as that, to us praying and knocking, the understanding of the truth is opened, where we may learn what we ought to do, not that our will may receive strength by which we may do what we learn. And as to what they say to us, about the grace or help of God, that the Lord Christ is a set example of living well, they recall it to that same doctrine; because, namely, in his example we learn how we ought to live: but they do not wish us to be helped to this, that what we know by learning, we may also do by loving.

3. 12. Or surely, find in that same book something, if you can, where—nature being excepted, that being excepted which pertains to that same nature, the choice of the will, the remission of sins and the revelation of doctrine being excepted—he confesses such a help of God as he confesses who said: 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, I went to the Lord and besought him (Wis 8:21). For that man neither wished by praying to receive the nature in which he had been created; nor was busying himself about the natural choice of the will, with which he had been created; nor was desiring the remission of sins, who rather longed for continence, that he might not sin; nor was wishing to know what was to be done, since he already confessed that he knew whose gift it was: but he surely wished to receive such great strength of will, such great ardor of love, by the Spirit of wisdom, as would suffice to fulfill the greatness of continence. If, then, you can find any such thing there, we will give most abundant thanks, if you deign to intimate it by writing back.

3. 13. For it cannot be said enough how much we desire that, in the writings of those men who, on account of their acuteness and eloquence, are read by very many, there be found an open confession of that grace which the Apostle vehemently commends, who says that God divided to each one even the measure of faith itself (without which it is impossible to please God, from which the just lives, which works through love, before which and without which the good works of anyone are to be esteemed altogether nothing, since everything that is not from faith is sin (Rom 14:23)): and that we are helped divinely not by the revelation of knowledge alone, that we may live piously and justly, which without love puffs up; but also by the inspiration of that very love, which is the fullness of the law, and which builds up our heart, so that knowledge may not puff up. But as yet nowhere have we been able to find any such thing in their writings.

3. 14. But we would most wish this to be in that book, from which we set down those copied words, where, praising the virgin of Christ as though no one but herself could confer spiritual riches on her, and as though they could not be except from her, he does not wish her to boast in the Lord, but to boast as though she had not received. In which book, although he expressed neither his own name nor that of your reverence, yet he recalls that it was asked of him by the virgin's mother that he write to her. But in a certain letter of his, the same Pelagius, where he both sets down his own name most plainly, and does not keep silent the name of the holy virgin, says that he wrote to her, and strives to prove, by the testimony of his own work, that he most plainly confesses the grace of God which he is asserted either to keep silent or to deny. But whether it is the book in which he set down those words about spiritual riches, or whether it has reached your holiness, we ask that you deign to make us more certain by your reply.

LETTER 189
To the excellent lord, and deservedly distinguished and honorable son Boniface, from Augustine, greetings in the Lord.

1. I had already written back to your charity, but while an occasion for directing the letter was being sought, there came up my most beloved son Faustus, proceeding to your excellency. Who, when he had received the very letter which I had already made, to be carried to your benevolence, suggested to me that you much desire that I write you something which may build you up to everlasting salvation, the hope of which you have in our Lord Jesus Christ. And although he so insisted with me, occupied as I am, that I should not delay to do it, you know how sincerely he loves you. To meet him, then, as he hastened, I preferred hastily to write something, rather than to delay your religious desire, excellent lord, and deservedly distinguished and honorable son.

2. What, then, I can briefly say: Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength; and, love your neighbor as yourself: for this is the word which the Lord made short upon the earth, saying in the Gospel: On these two precepts the whole Law and the Prophets hang (Mt 22:37-40). In this love, then, advance daily, both by praying and by acting well, that, with him helping who commanded and granted it to you, it may be nourished and grow, until, perfect, it perfect you. For it is itself the love which, as the Apostle says, is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5); it is that of which he likewise says: The fullness of the law is love (Rom 13:10): it is that through which faith works; whence he says again: Neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which works through love (Gal 5:6).

3. In this love, then, all our holy fathers and Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles pleased God. In this all the true martyrs strove against the devil even unto blood; and because in them it neither cooled nor failed, therefore they conquered. In this all the good faithful daily advance, desiring to come not to the kingdom of mortals, but to the kingdom of heaven; not to a temporal, but to an everlasting inheritance; not to gold and silver, but to the incorruptible riches of the angels; not to any goods of this world, in which one lives with fear, nor can anyone take them with himself when he dies, but to seeing God: whose sweetness and delight exceeds the beauty of all bodies, not only earthly, but even heavenly; exceeds all the comeliness of souls however just and holy; exceeds all the form of the supernal angels and powers; exceeds whatever is not only said, but even thought, about him. And let us not, because this so great promise is exceedingly great, on that account despair of it; but rather, because the exceedingly great one promised it, let us believe that we shall receive it: for, as the blessed apostle John says: 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).

4. Do not suppose that no one can please God who serves in the arms of war. Among these was holy David, to whom the Lord bore so great a testimony: among these too were very many just men of that time. Among these was also that centurion who said to the Lord: I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it: of whom the Lord also said: Amen I say to you, I have not found such faith in Israel (Mt 8:8-10). Among these was also that Cornelius to whom the angel sent said: Cornelius, your alms are accepted, and your prayers are heard: where he admonished him to send to the blessed apostle Peter, and to hear from him what he ought to do; to which Apostle, that he might come to him, he sent even a religious soldier. Among these were also those who, when they had come to John, the holy precursor of the Lord and friend of the Bridegroom, of whom the Lord himself says, Among those born of women there has not arisen a greater than John the Baptist, to be baptized, and had asked of him what they should do; he answered them: Do violence to no one, accuse no one falsely; let your wages suffice you (Lk 3:14). He surely did not forbid them to serve under arms, to whom he commanded that their wages ought to suffice.

5. They are indeed of a greater place with God who, having abandoned all these secular actions, serve him even by the supreme continence of chastity; but each one, as the Apostle says, has his own gift from God; one in this way, another in that (1 Cor 7:7). Some, then, by praying for you, fight against invisible enemies; you, by fighting for them, labor against visible barbarians. Would that there were one faith in all, because both there would be less labor, and the devil with his angels would more easily be conquered! But because in this world it is necessary that the citizens of the kingdom of heaven be agitated by temptations among the erring and the impious, that they may be exercised, and proved like gold as in a furnace, we ought not to wish to live before the time with the saints and just alone, that in its own time we may deserve to receive this.

6. This, then, first consider, when you are armed for battle, that your strength, even the bodily itself, is a gift of God. For so you will think, of the gift of God, not to act against God. For faith, when it is promised, must be kept even to the enemy against whom war is waged; how much more to the friend for whom one fights! The will ought to have peace, war necessity, that God may free from necessity and preserve in peace. For peace is not sought that war may be stirred up, but war is waged that peace may be acquired. Be, then, even in waging war, peaceable, that you may, by conquering, bring those whom you fight to the usefulness of peace: For blessed are the peacemakers, says the Lord, for they shall be called sons of God (Mt 5:9). But if human peace is so sweet for the temporal safety of mortals, how much sweeter is the divine peace for the eternal safety of the angels! And so let necessity, not will, slay the enemy fighting. As violence is rendered to one rebelling and resisting, so mercy is now owed to one conquered or captured, especially in one in whom no disturbance of peace is feared.

7. Let conjugal chastity adorn your morals, let sobriety and frugality adorn them: for it is very base that one whom a man does not conquer should be conquered by lust, and that he be overwhelmed by wine who is not conquered by the sword. Worldly riches, if they are lacking, let them not be sought in the world by evil works; but if they are present, let them be kept in heaven by good works. A manly and Christian mind ought neither, if they come, to be lifted up, nor, if they depart, to be broken. Let us rather think that which the Lord says: Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Mt 6:21); and surely when we hear that we should have the heart on high, we ought not to answer falsely what you know we answer.

8. And in these things indeed I have known you to be well zealous, and I am much delighted by your reputation, and much congratulate you in the Lord, so that this letter may be for you rather a mirror where you may see what you are like, than where you may learn what you ought to be like: nevertheless, whatever, whether in this or in the holy Scriptures, you find that is still lacking to you for a good life, urge yourself to acquire it both by acting and by praying; and for those things which you have, give thanks to God, as to the fountain of goodness whence you have them; and in all your good acts give him the glory, yourself the humility. For as it is written: Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, descending from the Father of lights (Jas 1:17). But however much you advance in the love of God and neighbor, and in true piety, as long as you dwell in this life, do not believe yourself to be without sin: for of this very thing it is read in the holy Letters: Is not human life upon the earth a temptation? (Job 7:1) Accordingly, since always, as long as you are in this body, it is necessary for you to say in prayer what the Lord taught, Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors; remember to forgive quickly, if anyone sins against you and asks pardon of you, that you may truly be able to pray, and may avail to obtain pardon for your sins. These things I have written to your charity hastily, since the haste of the bearer pressed me. But I give thanks to God, since I have not, in whatever way, been lacking to your good desire. May the mercy of God always protect you, excellent lord, and deservedly distinguished and honorable son.

LETTER 190
To the most blessed lord, and by sincere love longed-for brother and fellow bishop Optatus, from Augustine, greetings in the Lord.

1. 1. Although I have received no letters of your holiness given to me myself; yet because those which you sent to Mauretania Caesariensis came while I was present at Caesarea, whither an ecclesiastical necessity enjoined on us by the venerable pope Zosimus, bishop of the apostolic See, had drawn us: it came about that I myself too read through what you wrote, the servant of God, holy Renatus, a brother most dear to us in Christ, handing me that same letter of yours; at whose request, and with him vehemently insisting on me though occupied with other things, I was compelled to answer them. There came to this also the arrival of another holy brother of ours, to be named with due honor, and, as far as I learned from him, your kinsman Muressis, while we were staying in the aforesaid town; who reported to me that letters of your veneration had been sent to him too about this matter, and consulted me about this very question, that what I thought of it he might make to reach you, either by my reply or by his own: namely, whether souls are born, like bodies, by propagation, and are from that one which was created for the first man; or whether the omnipotent Creator, who surely works until now, makes new ones, proper to individuals, without any propagation.

1. 2. About which matter, before I admonish your sincerity of anything, I wish you to know that in so many of my little works I never dared to bring forth a defined opinion about this question, and shamelessly to put into letters, for instructing others, what was not unfolded with me. But by the consideration of what things and causes I am moved, so that my assent inclines to neither assertion, but I still debate between both, it is too long to bring out in this letter; nor so necessary that, this being omitted, what is enough cannot be disputed about this question—if not for removing hesitation, certainly for avoiding rashness.

1. 3. For that in which the Christian faith especially consists—that through a man death, and through a man the resurrection of the dead: for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:21-22); and that through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death: and so death passed to all men, in whom all sinned (Rom 5:12); and that the judgment indeed was from one unto condemnation: but grace from many offenses unto justification of life (Rom 5:16); and that through the offense of one upon all men unto condemnation, and through the righteousness of one upon all men unto justification of life (Rom 5:18): and any other testimonies which declare that no one is born of Adam except bound by the chain of offense and damnation, and that no one is freed thence except by being reborn through Christ—we ought so unshakenly to hold, that we may know that one who has denied this in no way pertains to the faith of Christ, and to that grace of God which is given through Christ to little and great. Whence, if the origin of the soul lies hidden, provided that the redemption be clear, there is no danger: for we do not believe in Christ that we may be born, but that we may be reborn, in whatever way we have been born.

1. 4. But we say that the origin of the soul lies hidden without danger to this extent: that we nevertheless do not believe it to be a part of God, but a creature. Nor born of God, but made by him, and to be adopted into his family by a marvelous condescension of grace, not by an equal dignity of nature. Nor that it is a body, but a spirit; not the Creator, surely, but created. Nor that it came into this corruptible body by which it is weighed down for this reason, that the merits of a life lived badly before, in the heavenly or in any other parts of the world, compelled it to that. For the Apostle says, when he spoke of Rebecca's twins, that, not yet born, they had done nothing good or evil; so that it was said, not of works—by which none was distinguished one from the other—but of him who calls, that the elder was going to serve the younger.

2. 5. These things, then, being most firmly established, if it is so recondite and set in the hidden works of God, that it is not declared even by the manifest utterance of the divine Scriptures, whether for this reason the not-yet-born are to be believed to have done nothing good or evil, because individuals receive souls not propagated from others, but created from nothing immediately; or because, when they were originally in their parents, they themselves were as yet none who would lead their own and proper lives: yet let that faith be safe, by which we believe that no man—whether of a greater, or of however young and recent an age—is freed from the contagion of the ancient death and the bond of the sin which he contracted by his first nativity, except through the one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

2. 6. By the most healthful faith in which man, and the same God, even those just men were saved, who, before he came in the flesh, believed that he would come in the flesh. For the faith is the same, both ours and theirs, since they believed that to be future which we believe accomplished: whence the apostle Paul says: But having the same Spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed, therefore I have spoken, we also believe, therefore we also speak (2 Cor 4:13). If, then, those too who foretold that Christ would come in the flesh had the same Spirit of faith as those who announced that he had come; the sacraments could be diverse according to the diversity of the times, yet most concordantly recurring to the unity of the same faith. It is written in the Acts of the Apostles, the apostle Peter speaking: Now therefore why do you tempt God, to impose a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But by the grace of the Lord Jesus we believe that we are saved, just as they too (Acts 15:10-11). If, then, they too, that is, the fathers, not able to bear the yoke of the old law, believed that they were saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus; it is manifest that this grace made even the ancient just men live by faith: For the just lives by faith (Rom 1:17).

2. 7. But the law came in that the offense might abound; that grace might superabound, by which the abundance of offense might be healed. For if a law had been given which could give life, righteousness would altogether be from the law. For what good the law was given, he consequently added, saying: But Scripture has shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe (Gal 3:21-22). The law, then, had to be given which would show the man himself to himself more manifestly, lest the proud human mind should suppose that it could be just from itself, and, being ignorant of God's righteousness—that is, that which is to man from God—and wishing to establish its own—that is, as it were gained by its own strength—should not be made subject to the righteousness of God. It behooved, then, that, the commandment being added whose voice is, You shall not covet, even the crime of transgression should accrue to the proud sinner; and so the weakness, not healed by the law, but convicted, might seek the medicine of grace.

2. 8. Accordingly, since all the just—that is, the truthful worshipers of God, whether before the incarnation, or after the incarnation of Christ—neither lived nor live except by faith in the incarnation of Christ, in whom is the fullness of grace; surely that which is written, that there is no other name under heaven in which we must be saved (Acts 4:12), avails for the saving of the human race from that time in which in Adam the human race was vitiated. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. Because as in the kingdom of death no one is without Adam, so in the kingdom of life no one is without Christ. As through Adam all men are unjust, so through Christ all are just men. As through Adam all, mortal in punishment, were made sons of the age, so too through Christ all, immortal in grace, are made sons of God.

3. 9. But why even those are created whom the Creator foreknew to pertain to damnation, not to grace, the blessed Apostle recalls with so much more succinct brevity, as with the greater authority. For he says that God, willing to show his wrath, and to demonstrate his power, brought in much patience the vessels of wrath, which have been perfected for perdition, and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy (Rom 9:22-23); whom above he had said, as a potter of clay, from the same mass to make one vessel for honor, another for dishonor (Rom 9:21). But it would deservedly seem unjust that vessels of wrath are made for perdition, if that whole mass from Adam were not damned. That, then, vessels of wrath are made thence by being born, pertains to owed punishment: but that vessels of mercy are made by being reborn, pertains to undue grace.

3. 10. God, then, shows his wrath; not, surely, a perturbation of mind, such as is that which is called the wrath of man, but a just and fixed vengeance, because from the stock of disobedience is drawn the propagation of sin and punishment. And man born of woman, as it is written in the book of Job, is of short life and full of wrath (Job 14:1 (LXX)). For he is a vessel of that thing with which he is full: whence they are called vessels of wrath. He shows also his power, by which he uses even evils well, bestowing on them many natural and temporal goods, and accommodating their malice for exercising and, by comparison, admonishing the good, that in them they may learn to give thanks to God that they have been distinguished from them, not by their own merits, which in the same mass were equal, but by his mercy. Which appears most of all in little ones, of whom, when through the grace of Christ they are reborn, and, ending this life at that tender age, pass into the eternal and blessed life, it cannot be said that they are distinguished by free choice from other infants who, without this grace, die in the damnation of that same mass.

3. 11. But if only those were created from Adam who were to be recreated by grace, and besides those who are adopted into the sons of God, no other men were born, the benefit which is given to the unworthy would lie hidden; because to none coming from the same damnable stock would the owed punishment be rendered. But since he brought in much patience the vessels of wrath which have been perfected for perdition, he not only showed his wrath and demonstrated his power by rendering vengeance, and by using well those who are not good, but he also made known the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy. For thus one freely justified says what is bestowed on him, while, not by his own merit, but by the glory of the most bounteous mercy of God, he is distinguished from one damned, with whom he himself too, by the same justice, was to be damned.

3. 12. But he willed that so many be created and born, whom he foreknew not to pertain to his grace, that by an incomparable multitude there should be more of them than of those whom he deigned to predestine, as sons of promise, into the glory of his kingdom; that even by the very multitude of the rejected it might be shown how of no moment, with the just God, is the multitude, however great, of the most justly damned. And that hence too those who are redeemed from that very damnation may understand that this was owed to that whole mass, which they saw rendered to so great a part of it—not only in those who add to original sin many things by the choice of an evil will, but even in so many little ones who, bound only by the chain of original sin, without the grace of the Mediator are snatched from this light. For that whole mass of just damnation would receive what was owed, unless from it the potter, not only just, but even merciful, made other vessels for honor according to grace, not according to debt; while he both comes to the aid of little ones, of whom no merits can be spoken, and goes before older ones, that they may be able to have some merits.

4. 13. Since these things are so, if your assertion does not tend to this, that you say that new souls cannot, on account of the innocence of their newness, before they use free choice for sinning, be liable to original damnation; but you confess by the catholic faith that they, even if at that tender age they go out of the body, are going into the damnation of perdition, unless they be freed by the sacrament of the Mediator, who came to seek and to save what had perished: inquire where, or whence, or when they began to have the merit of damnation, if they are new, so indeed that you make neither God, nor any nature which God did not found, the author either of their sin or of the damnation of the innocent. And if you find what I have admonished you to seek—which I myself, I confess, have not yet found—defend it as much as you can, and assert that the newness of the souls of infants is of such a kind that they are drawn by no propagation; and what you have found, communicate with us by brotherly love.

4. 14. But if you do not find why or how the souls of infants become sinful, and, having nothing of malice in themselves, by what they are compelled to draw from Adam that for which they are damned, since you believe them not propagated from that first sinful one, but new and innocent, to be shut up in the flesh of sin; let not your assent, even so, be rashly bent to the other opinion, so that you believe them to be drawn by propagation from that one; lest perhaps another may be able to find what you yourself cannot, or you may at some time find what now you could not. For even those who assert that souls are propagated from the one which God gave to the first man, and so say that they are drawn from the parents, if they follow Tertullian's opinion, surely contend that they are not spirits, but bodies, and arise from corporeal seeds. Than which what can be said more perversely? Nor is it to be wondered that Tertullian dreamed this, who supposes even God the creator himself to be nothing but a body.

4. 15. This dementia being repelled from the Christian heart and mouth, whoever confesses that the soul, as it is, is not a body but a spirit, and yet is led into the sons from the parents; in this indeed he is hemmed in by no straits, that the true faith proclaims that all souls, even of little ones, whom the Church baptizes surely not into a false, but into a true remission of sins, draw original sin, committed by the proper will of the first man, and transmitted to all posterity by generation, to be purged by regeneration alone: but when it begins to be considered and treated what is said, it is a wonder if any human sense comprehends in what way, as a lamp is kindled from a lamp and, without detriment to the one, another fire arises thence, so a soul comes to be from the soul of the parent in the offspring, or is transmitted into the offspring; whether the incorporeal seed of the soul, by some hidden and invisible way of its own, runs separately from the father into the mother when conception comes about in the woman; or—what is more incredible—lies hidden in the seed of the body. But when the seeds flow forth in vain without any conceptions, whether the seed of the soul does not go out at the same time, or, with the highest speed and in an atom of time, runs back whence it had gone out, or perishes: and if it perishes, how the soul itself, whose seed is mortal, is immortal; or whether it receives immortality then, when it is formed to live, as righteousness when it is formed to be wise. And by what pact God forms it in the man, even if the soul is drawn seminally from the soul, as he forms in the man the members of the body, although the body is drawn seminally from the body. For if a spiritual creature too were not formed by God, it would not be written: Who forms the spirit of man within him (Zech 12:1): and in that which is read, Who forms individually the hearts of men (Ps 33:15 (32:15)); if by hearts souls are signified, who would doubt that they can be formed? but it is asked whether from the one soul of the first man; as he forms individually the faces of men, from the one body, nevertheless, of the first man.

5. 16. When these and many such things are asked about this matter, which can be explored by no sense of the flesh, and are far removed from our experience, and lie hidden in the most secret bosoms of nature; a man ought not to blush to confess that he does not know what he does not know, lest, while he lies that he knows, he never deserve to know. But who denies that God is the creator and maker not only of the one, but of every soul, except one who most openly opposes his words? For without any ambiguity he says through the prophet: Every breath I made (Isa 57:16); wishing souls, namely, to be understood, which the following words make manifest. Not, then, the one which he breathed into the first man made from earth, but he himself made every breath, he himself still makes it. It is asked, however, whether he makes every breath from that one breath, as every body of man from that one body: or whether he makes new bodies indeed from the one, but new souls from nothing. For who makes the kinds of things, congruous to their origins, even from seeds, except he who made the seeds themselves without seeds? But where a thing naturally obscure conquers our small measure, and the open divine Scripture does not come to aid, human conjecture rashly presumes to define anything from this. But according to the lives which they begin to have as their own, we say that new men are born, whether in soul or in body. But according to original sin, they are born old; therefore by baptism they are renewed.

5. 17. Something certain, then, about the origin of the soul I have not yet found in the canonical Scriptures. For those who assert that new souls come to be without any propagation, among the testimonies by which they strive to show this, set down also those two which I recalled a little before: Who forms the spirit of man within him; and: Who forms individually the hearts of men; about which you see how it can be answered by those resisting: for whether, when he forms, he forms from another, or from nothing, is uncertain. But that testimony among the rest seems to be chief, which is read in the book of Solomon, Ecclesiastes: And the dust will return to the earth, as it was; and the spirit will return to God, who gave it (Eccl 12:7). But it is most easily answered: "The body to the earth from which the first body of man was made, and the spirit to God by whom the first soul of man was made: for just as our body," they say, "although it is propagated from that first body, yet returns thither whence that first body was made; so our soul, although propagated from that soul, returns not to nothing, because it is immortal, but to him by whom that first soul itself was made." And through this, that which is written of the spirit of each man, that it returns to God who gave it, does not resolve that most obscure question; because, whether from that one, or from no other, God surely gave it.

5. 18. Likewise those who, by inconsiderate rashness, defend the propagation of souls, among the other testimonies which they think favor their cause, can think none to be brought forward, as it were more manifest and express, for themselves, than that which is written in Genesis: But all the souls which entered with Jacob into Egypt, who came out of his loins (Gen 46:26). For by this, as it were a most evident testimony, souls can be believed to be propagated into the sons from the parents; since it seems said openly enough that souls too came out of Jacob's loins, not the bodies of the sons alone. So that in that way too they would have understood, as the whole from the part, what Adam said when his wife was shown to him: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh (Gen 2:23): for he did not say, And soul of my soul; but so it can come about that, the flesh being named, both are understood, just as here he named souls, and yet wished bodies too in the sons to be understood.

5. 19. But this testimony, surely, as it were so clear and manifest, would not suffice to unravel this question, not even if it were read in the feminine gender, who came out of his loins, so that we should understand souls which came out. But for this reason it would not suffice, since by the name of soul too only the body can be signified, by a certain manner of speech in which what contains is signified by that which is contained; as a certain poet says: The wines crown, when the wine vessels were crowned: for the wine is contained, the vessel contains. As, then, we call the church a basilica, by which is contained the people who is truly called the Church; so that by the name of church—that is, of the people who is contained—we signify the place which contains: so, because souls are contained by bodies, the bodies of the sons can be understood by the named souls. For so too is that better taken which the Law says, that one is defiled who has entered over a dead soul—that is, over the corpse of one deceased—so that by the name of dead soul the dead body is understood, which contained the soul; because even when the people, that is, the Church, is absent, that place is nonetheless called a church. These things would be answered, if, as I said, it had been set down in the feminine gender, "which came out of Jacob's loins," that is, which souls. But now, since the masculine gender is set down, that is, "who came out of Jacob's loins"; who would not rather so understand: "All the souls of those who came out of his loins," that is, the souls of the men: so that even thus they can be understood to have come out of the father's loins according to the body only, the men whose those souls were, by whose number so many men are understood?

6. 20. But I would wish to read that little book of yours which you mentioned in your letter, lest perhaps you set down there some testimonies not ambiguous. But when a friend most dear to me and most zealous of the divine Letters had asked me what I thought about this question, and I, modesty laid aside, had confessed to him from this my fevers and ignorance, he wrote thence, far across the sea, to a most learned man: to whom that man wrote back that he should rather consult me, not knowing that he had already done so, nor had he been able to hear anything certain and defined from me. He intimated, however, in that same brief letter of his, that he rather believes souls to come to be than to be propagated: at the same time admonishing too that (since he himself is in the East) the western Church is wont to think the propagation of souls. By this greater occasion found, I wrote to him no brief book, consulting him, and asking that he first teach me, and then send to me those whom I may teach.

6. 21. Which book of mine can be read with me as that of an inquirer, not a teacher, and rather of one desiring to learn: but it ought not to be sent anywhere, or given to anyone outside, except when I shall have received a reply, with the Lord helping; that which he thinks I am going to defend most readily and most gladly, if he can teach me how souls come not from Adam, and yet from him find a just lot of damnation, unless they come, by being reborn, to the remission of sins. For far be it that we should believe either that the souls of little ones receive in the washing of regeneration a false cleansing of sins, or that God, or any nature which God did not found, is the author of that defilement from which they are cleansed. Until, then, either he writes back, or I, if God wills, in some way learn, if it draws no origin from that sinful one, what cause there is for the soul's undergoing original sin, which it is necessary be in all little ones; and how neither does God compel it, innocent, since he is not the author of sinning, nor any nature of evil, since there is none; I dare to proclaim nothing of the kind.

6. 22. But you, dearest brother, if you willingly or patiently admit it, I admonish lest, less cautious, you run into a new heresy, which strives to tear up the established foundations of the most ancient faith by disputing against the grace of God, which the Lord Christ bestows on little and great with ineffable goodness: of which heresy, since Pelagius and Celestius had stood forth as the authors, or at least the keenest and best-known persuaders, by the vigilance of episcopal councils, with the help of the Savior who protects his Church, they have been condemned throughout the whole Christian world, even by two venerable prelates of the apostolic See, pope Innocent and pope Zosimus, unless, corrected, they also do penance. Of which condemnation copies of recent letters—whether those which specially flowed to the Africans, or those which universally to all bishops, from the said See—lest perhaps they have not yet reached your holiness, we have arranged to be sent to you by those brothers to whom we gave these letters too, that they might direct them to your veneration. But these people are not heretics for this reason, that they say souls do not draw their origin from that first sinful one, which can either perhaps by some reasoning be said true, or be unknown without a lapse of faith: but from this they try to effect (whence they are judged altogether the most open heretics) that the souls of little ones draw nothing of evil from Adam, which is to be expiated by the washing of regeneration. For Pelagius's argument about this matter, which among his other damnable things has even been joined to the letters of the apostolic See, is thus: "If the soul," he says, "is not from transmission, but the flesh alone has the transmission of sin; the flesh alone, then, deserves punishment. For it is unjust that a soul born today, not from the mass of Adam, should bear so ancient another's sin; because by no reasoning is it granted that God, who forgives proper sins, should impute another's."

6. 23. If, then, you can so assert the newness of souls without any propagation, that, by a just reasoning and not alien from the catholic faith, they be shown, even so, liable to the sin of the first man; assert what you think, as you can. But if you cannot make them alien from propagation otherwise than by at the same time making them free from every bond of sin; restrain yourself altogether from a disputation of this kind. For the remission of sins is not false even in the baptism of little ones, nor is it said in word only, but is truly done. For, that I may now use the words which are read in the very letter of the most blessed prelate Zosimus: "The Lord is faithful in his words, and his baptism holds the same fullness in fact and words—that is, in deed, confession, and true remission of sins—in every sex, age, condition of the human race. For no one but he who is a slave of sin is made free, nor can be called redeemed, except one who was truly before captive through sin, as it is written: If the Son frees you, you will be truly free (Jn 8:36). For through him we are reborn spiritually, through him we are crucified to the world. By his death the bond contracted by propagation of that death introduced and transmitted from Adam to all of us, the whole soul, is broken, in which no one at all of those born, before he is freed through baptism, is not held liable." In these words of the apostolic See the catholic faith is so ancient and founded, so certain and clear, that it is wicked for a Christian to doubt about it.

6. 24. Since, then, by the death of Christ the bond of death, contracted by the propagation not of one or of some, but of the whole soul, is broken; if you can so defend souls as alien from propagation, that nevertheless they be shown, by a most right reasoning, bound by this bond, which is to be broken by the death of Christ alone, and appear justly obligated, not by their own propagation, but by this debt of the flesh: not only defend it, no one prohibiting, but even show us how we can defend it with you. But if what you think about the newness of souls cannot be asserted otherwise than that you say they are not held by the sin of the first man; or that, through propagation not their own, but of the flesh, with God as author, or with I know not what nature of evil, the most innocent are made sinful: better does the origin of the soul lie hidden, provided that we do not doubt it to be a creature of God, than that either God be called the author of sin, or against God an alien nature of evil be brought in, or the baptism of little ones be reckoned void.

6. 25. But that your charity may hear from me too something defined about this question—to be esteemed of no small value, nay rather especially necessary and to be retained—however the origin of souls may stand, whether they are propagated from that one, or from no other; that the soul of the Mediator drew no sin from Adam it is not lawful to doubt. For if none is propagated from another, where all are held by the propagated flesh of sin: how much less is it to be believed that a soul could have come from the propagation of a sinful one, whose flesh came from the Virgin, conceived not by lust, but by faith, that it might be in the likeness of the flesh of sin, not in the flesh of sin! But if the rest are held liable to the sin of the first sinful soul for this reason, that they are propagated from it; surely that one which the Only-begotten fitted to himself either drew no sin thence, or was altogether not drawn thence. For he was surely able to draw to himself a soul without sin, who loosed our sins; or he who created a new soul for that flesh which he made from earth without a parent, was able to create a new one for the flesh which he took from a woman without a man.

6. 26. These things, as I could—not indeed to letters given to me, but yet to letters of your holiness given to those most dear to us—I have answered, not with the skill which you desired, but with anxious love. If you receive it gratefully, and keep both a brotherly and useful admonition, not by erring, but by prudently considering, with the peace of the Church—thanks be to God. But if you wonder that I do not yet know these things, or even do not wonder, and do not refuse to teach me, by mutual love, anything certain about the origin of souls, saving this faith which is most certain and most clear—much more abundantly, thanks be to God. Mindful of us, may you live always to the Lord, most blessed lord, and by sincere love longed-for brother.

LETTER 191
To the venerable lord, and to be received in the love of Christ, holy brother and fellow presbyter Sixtus, from Augustine, greetings in the Lord.

1. From the time that the letters of your kindness, directed through our holy brother the presbyter Firmus, came to Hippo while I was absent, after I was able to read them when I had returned—although their bearer had already set out from there—this first and most pleasing occasion of writing back occurred, through our most beloved son Albinus the acolyte. But because we were not then together, to whom together you wrote, it came about that you received separate letters of individuals, not one letter of both. For the bearer of this departed from me by way of my venerable brother and fellow bishop Alypius, who would write back another to your holiness, passing through; to whom he himself also carried those letters of yours which I had already read. With how great joy these suffused us, what would a man strive to speak which he cannot speak out? Nor do I think you yourself know it sufficiently, but believe us, how great a good you did by sending us such writings. For just as you are a witness of your own mind, so we of ours, how it is affected by the most luminous sincerity of those letters. For if we copied with exulting alacrity that most brief letter of yours, which about this very matter you directed to the most blessed elder Aurelius through Leo the acolyte, and read it with great zeal to those we could, where you set forth to us what you think about that most pernicious dogma, or what, on the contrary, about the grace of God, which he bestows on little and great, to which that dogma is most hostile: with how great exultation do you think we read these more lengthy writings of yours, or with what care offered them to others, that they might be read, to whom we were able, and still offer to whom we are able! For what can be read or heard more pleasing, than so pure a defense of the grace of God against its enemies, from the mouth of him who was before boasted of as a patron of great weight of those same enemies? or whence ought we to give more abundant thanks to God, than that his grace is so defended by those to whom it is given, against those to whom either it is not given, or what is given is thankless; because, that it may be thankful to them, by the hidden and just judgment of God it is not given?

2. Wherefore, venerable lord, and to be received in the love of Christ, holy brother, although you do most excellently when you write about this matter to the brothers among whom those people are wont to boast of your friendship; yet this greater care remains for you, that not only those be punished with a healthful severity who dare to chatter more freely that error most hostile to the Christian name, but also that these be most diligently guarded against by pastoral vigilance, on account of the weaker and simpler sheep of the Lord, into whose ears, more pressingly indeed and more timidly, but yet, they do not cease to whisper it, penetrating houses, as the Apostle says, and doing the rest that follow with practiced impiety. Nor are those to be neglected who, by fear, suppress to the depth of silence what they think, but yet do not cease to think that same perversity. For some of them, before that pestilence was condemned even by the most manifest judgment of the apostolic See, could become known to you, whom you now perceive to have suddenly fallen silent; nor can it be known whether they are healed, except when they shall not only have kept silent those false dogmas, but even shall have defended the true things contrary to them with that zeal with which they are wont to defend those: who, however, are surely to be treated more gently. For what need is there that those be terrified, whom their very taciturnity sufficiently shows to be terrified? Nor for that reason are those to be passed over, as if sound, by the diligence of medicine, whose wound is in the hidden. For although they are not to be terrified, yet they are to be taught; and, as I judge, they can more easily, while in them the fear of severity helps the teacher of truth, that, with the Lord aiding, his grace understood and loved, they may even by speaking assail what they now do not dare to speak.

LETTER 192
To the venerable and exceedingly longed-for lord, holy brother and fellow deacon Celestine, from Augustine, greetings in the Lord.

1. Although I was far absent when, through Proiectus the cleric, the writings of your holiness directed to me came to Hippo; yet after I came, and, having read them, recognized that I had been made a debtor of a reply, I awaited a time for rendering it: and behold, suddenly there occurred the most pleasing occasion of our most dear brother Albinus the acolyte, about to set out from us. Rejoicing, then, at your well-being, which is most longed-for to me, I render to your holiness the greeting due. But I always owe love, which alone, even when rendered, always holds the debtor. For it is rendered when it is bestowed, but is owed even if it has been rendered; because there is no time when it is not now to be bestowed. Nor, when it is rendered, is it lost, but rather by rendering it is multiplied: for it is rendered by having, not by lacking. And since it cannot be rendered unless it be had, nor can be had unless it be rendered: nay rather, even when it is rendered by a man, it grows in the man; and so much the greater is acquired, the more it is rendered to. But how is that denied to friends, which is owed even to enemies? But to enemies it is bestowed cautiously, to friends it is repaid securely. It acts, however, as much as it can, that even from those to whom it repays good for evil, it may receive what it bestows. For we desire that one to become a friend whom we truly love as an enemy: because we do not love him unless we wish him good; which surely he will not have, unless he lose the evil of his enmities.

2. Love, then, is not bestowed as money. For besides that by bestowing the latter is diminished, the former is increased; they differ between themselves also in this, that, the money to whomever we give, we will then be more benevolent to him, if we do not seek to receive it back: but one cannot be a true bestower of love, unless he be a kindly exactor. Since money, when it is received, accrues to him to whom it is given, but departs from him by whom it is given: but love not only grows in him who exacts it from one whom he loves, even if he does not receive it; but also that one from whom he receives it then begins to have it when he renders it. Accordingly, lord brother, I gladly render to you mutual love, and joyfully receive it: which I receive, I still demand again; which I render, I still owe. For one Master, with whom we are fellow disciples, we ought, through his Apostle, to hear as docile, commanding and saying: Owe no one anything, except that you love one another (Rom 13:8).

LETTER 193
To the most beloved lord, and in the members of Christ to be proclaimed with most sincere love, son Mercator, from Augustine, greetings in the Lord.

1. 1. The letters of your charity, which, first sent by you, I received at Carthage, affected me with so great a joy, that even in the later ones I most gratefully received your being angry that I had not written back to you. For that very indignation of yours was not the beginning of a quarrel, but an indication of love. But that I did not write back from Carthage, it was not the occasion of bearers that was lacking, but other more urgent matters held us most occupied and most intent, until we set out thence. But when we departed thence, we proceeded as far as Mauretania Caesariensis, whither an ecclesiastical necessity drew us; through which whole lands, while diverse things that were thrust upon the senses snatched our intention this way and that, there was the insistence of no admonisher that I write back to you, no opportunity of a bearer occurred. Then returning, I found among our people other letters of your sincerity already exasperated by complaint, and another book against the new heretics, filled with testimonies of the holy Scriptures; which being read and run through, even those which you had first sent, because the most opportune occasion of our most dear brother Albinus, acolyte of the Roman Church, offered itself, it had to be answered.

1. 2. I, then, most beloved son, far be it that I should negligently receive you writing to me, or sending your writings to me to be considered, or contemn them with proud vanity, especially since my joy about you is so much the greater, the more unexpected and unforeseen it comes: for I confess, I did not know that you had advanced so much. And what ought to be more desirable to us, than that there abound those who refute everywhere the errors infesting the catholic faith and lying in wait for the weak and unlearned brothers, and keenly and faithfully defend the Church of Christ against the profane novelties of words; since, as it is written: The multitude of the wise is the health of the world (Wis 6:26 (6:24))? I have inspected your heart, then, in your writings, as much as I could, and found it to be embraced, and to be exhorted that, with most persevering diligence, you stretch yourself forward, the Lord helping your strength, who gave you the strength that he might nourish it.

2. 3. But they have come not a little near to the truth in the question about the baptism of little ones—whom we try to recall, wandering, into the way—since they confess that an infant, however recently poured forth by the bringing-forth of the mother, nevertheless believes through those by whom it is offered to be baptized. For when they say, as you write, that infants do not so believe unto the remission of sins, as though those too be remitted to them, whom they think to have no sin; but (because they too receive the same washing by which there comes about, in whomever it comes about, the remission of sins) that they believe this to come about in others, which does not come about in them: when, then, they say, "They do not so believe, but they so believe"; surely they do not doubt that they believe. Let them, then, hear the Lord: He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who is unbelieving toward the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains over him (Jn 3:36). Wherefore infants, because they are made believers through others by whom they are offered to be baptized, are surely through those unbelieving, if they are with such as do not believe that they ought to be offered, while they believe it profits nothing: and through this, if through believers they believe, and have eternal life; surely through unbelievers they are unbelieving, and shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains over them. For it was not said: "It comes over them"; but: It remains over them, because from origin it was already in them, nor is it taken away from them at all except by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. About this wrath it is read also in the book of Job: Man born of woman, of short life and full of wrath (Job 14:1 (LXX)). Whence, then, the wrath of God over the innocence of a little one, except by the lot and filth of original sin? about which it is likewise written in that same book, that no one is clean from it, not even an infant whose life is of one day upon the earth.

2. 4. So it is not the case that the argument so insistently pressed against them has accomplished nothing, and that the catholic voices resounding on every side into their ears have had no effect, since, wishing to argue against the sacraments of the Church, they nonetheless confessed that infants believe. Let them not, then, promise life to such infants, even if they have not been baptized: for of what other life is it said, He who does not believe in the Son shall not see life (Jn 3:36)? Nor let them so declare them estranged from the kingdom of heaven that they still defend them from damnation: for what is signified by the wrath which the Lord testifies remains upon the one who does not believe (See Jn 3:36), if not damnation? A great advance has surely been made, and the case has been settled without any troublesome dispute. For if they grant that infants believe, then beyond doubt, just as that sentence holds them, Unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, he shall not enter the kingdom of heaven (Jn 3:5), so too does this one, which is the same Lord's: He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe shall be condemned (Mk 16:16). Since, then, these men confess that when infants are baptized they are believers, let them not doubt that those who do not believe are condemned; and let them now dare to say, if they can, that those who draw no evil from their origin and bear no contagion of sin are condemned by a just God.

3. 5. But as for what you mentioned in your letter, that they object to us Enoch and Elijah, on the ground that they did not die but were taken with their own bodies out of this human way of life, I do not understand how this helps them in the matter under discussion. For, to pass over the fact that they too are said to be going to die afterward—as many expound John's Apocalypse concerning those two prophets of whom, with their names left unspoken, it speaks, namely that those two holy men will then appear with the very bodies in which they now live, so that they too, like the other martyrs, may die for the truth of Christ—to pass over this, then, and leave that question aside, however it may stand, how, I ask you, does it help these men? For they do not thereby show that human beings do not die in body on account of sin. For if God, who grants their very sins to so many of his faithful, willed also to grant to some this penalty of sin, who are we to answer God why one man is dealt with thus and another thus?

3. 6. We therefore say what the Apostle most plainly says: The body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you (Rom 8:10-11). Yet we do not say this in such a way as to deny that God can do now, in those whom he wills, without death what we believe without doubt he will do for so many after death. Nor for that reason will it be false that through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death, and so it passed to all men (Rom 5:12). For this was said because, unless death had entered through sin, there would be no death. For even when we say, "All are sent into hell because of sins," do we therefore say something false, because not all human beings are sent into hell? That is true, not because every human being is sent there, but because no one is sent there except by the deserts of sins. Of the same kind, by contrast, is also that sentence: Through the justification of one, unto all men unto justification of life (Rom 5:18)—for not all human beings belong to the justification of Christ; but this was said because no one is justified except through Christ.

3. 7. That question, rather, is not without reason the troubling one: why the penalty of sin remains when the sin does not remain; that is, if the death even of the body is the penalty of sin, this is a question rather—why an infant dies once it has been baptized—than why Elijah did not die once he was justified. For in the one case, the sin being ended, it is troubling that the penalty of sin has followed; in the other, the sin likewise being ended, it ought not to be troubling if the penalty of sin does not follow. If, then, we have, as far as we could with the Lord's help, resolved that question about the death of the baptized—why, the abolition of sin having been accomplished, a certain penalty of sin nevertheless follows—in the books On the Baptism of Infants, which I know are very well known to you, how much less ought this to trouble us where it is said, "Why did the righteous Elijah not die, if death is the penalty of sin?"—as if one were to say, "Why did the sinner Elijah not die, if death is the penalty of sin?"

3. 8. Unless perhaps they raise one difficulty from another and say, "If Enoch and Elijah were so far from having sin that they did not even suffer death, which is the penalty of sin, how is it that no one here lives without sin?" As though it were not more probable to answer them, "Those whom the Lord willed to live with their sins ended were for that reason not permitted to live here, because here no one can live without sin." But these and similar things could be said against them only if they proved for certain, from some other source, that those men will never die. But since they cannot teach this, and since it is better believed that those men will come to death, there is no reason why they should wish to set them before us as an objection that will in no way help their cause.

4. 9. But those of whom the Apostle spoke, when he was speaking of the resurrection of the dead, And we who are alive, who remain, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thess 4:17), do indeed raise some question; but in themselves, not on account of these men. For even if they too are not going to die, I do not at all see how they help these men, since such things can be said of these as were said of those two. But in truth, as far as the words of the blessed Apostle are concerned, he seems to assert that certain people, at the end of the age, when the Lord comes and the resurrection of the dead is to take place, will not die, but, found alive, will suddenly be changed into that immortality which is given also to the other saints, and will be caught up together with them, as he says, in the clouds; nor has anything else seemed right to me, whenever I have wished to ponder these words.

4. 10. But on this point I would rather hear those more learned, lest the Apostle be found to say even to those who think that some will pass over to perpetual life made alive without death first preceding: You fool, what you sow is not made alive unless it first dies (1 Cor 15:36). For that too which is read in many manuscripts, We shall all rise again (1 Cor 15:51)—how could this come about unless we all die? For there is no resurrection unless death has preceded. And what some manuscripts have, we shall all sleep, far more easily and plainly compels this to be understood; and if anything else of the kind is found in the sacred Scriptures, it seems to drive us to suppose that no human being will attain immortality unless death has preceded. Accordingly, where the Apostle said, And we who are alive, who remain at the coming of the Lord, shall not go before those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself, at the command, at the voice of the archangel, and at the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who remain, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thess 4:15-17)—I would wish, as I said, to hear those more learned on these matters, and, if these words can somehow be so expounded that in them it can be understood that all human beings who are living, or are to live after us, are going to die, to correct what I once thought otherwise on this point. For we ought not to be teachers unwilling to be taught: and surely it is better that a small man be corrected than that a hard one be broken; so that by the things we have written our own weakness or that of others may be exercised and instructed in such a way that nevertheless no canonical authority, as it were, is established in them.

4. 11. For if in these words of the Apostle no other sense can be found, and it becomes clear that he wished to be understood as the words themselves seem to cry out—that is, that at the end of the age and at the Lord's coming there will be people who are not stripped of the body but clothed over with immortality, so that the mortal is swallowed up by life—then to this view there will doubtless agree what we confess in the rule of faith, that the Lord is to come to judge the living and the dead; so that here we do not understand the living to be the righteous and the dead the unrighteous, although the righteous and the unrighteous are to be judged, but the living to be those whom his coming finds not yet to have departed, and the dead those whom it finds already to have departed from their bodies. And if this is established to be so, those words will have to be examined as to how we are to take them: What you sow is not made alive unless it first dies, and We shall all rise again, or We shall all sleep, so that they are not opposed to this view, by which some are believed to be going to live for eternity even with their bodies, without having tasted death.

4. 12. But whichever of these two be found the truer and more penetrating understanding, what does it have to do with the case of these men, whether all are struck with the death that is owed, or some are spared this condition—since it is nevertheless established that death not only of the soul but also of the body would not have followed had sin not preceded, and that it is by a more wondrous power of grace that the righteous come back to life from death to eternal blessedness than that they do not come into the experience of death? Let this be said enough concerning those of whom you wrote to me; though I now think that they no longer say that, even if Adam had not sinned, he would have died at least in body.

4. 13. As for the rest, regarding the question of the resurrection, on account of those who are believed not to be going to die but to pass from this mortality to immortality without death intervening, a more diligent inquiry must be made; and if you have heard or read, or have even been able yourself to think out, anything settled and definite on this point by reasonable and complete discussion, or if you can yet hear, read, or think it out, I ask that you not be reluctant to send it to me. For I (this must be confessed to your Charity) love to learn more than to teach. For we are admonished of this also by the apostle James when he says, Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak (Jas 1:19). So that we may learn, the sweetness of truth ought to invite us; but that we may teach, the necessity of love ought to compel us—and here it is rather to be wished that this necessity by which one person teaches another something might pass away, so that we may all be taught by God (Jn 6:45); which indeed we are, when we learn the things that pertain to true piety, even when a human being seems to teach them. For neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase (1 Cor 3:7). Since, then, if God did not give the increase, the apostolic planters and waterers would be nothing, how much more I, or you, or any people of this time, when we seem to ourselves to be teachers!

LETTER 194
TO SIXTUS, MOST BELOVED LORD IN THE LORD OF LORDS, HOLY BROTHER AND FELLOW PRESBYTER, AUGUSTINE SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.

1. 1. In the letter I sent by our most dear brother Albinus the acolyte, I promised that I would send a longer one by our holy brother and fellow presbyter Firmus, who brought us the letter of your Sincerity, full of the sincerity of your faith, which conferred on us joy as great as we are more able to have than to express. For—this must be confessed to your Charity—we were exceedingly saddened when rumor was spreading abroad that you favored the enemies of Christian grace. But, that this sadness might be wiped from our hearts, that same rumor did not keep silent that, first of all, you yourself before a very large congregation had been the first to pronounce an anathema upon them; then, when the letters of the Apostolic See concerning their condemnation had been sent to Africa, your own letters too followed, addressed to the venerable old man Aurelius; and though these were brief, they sufficiently indicated your vigor against their error. But now, when in your letters the very faith of the Roman Church—to which especially the blessed apostle Paul spoke much and in many ways concerning the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord—spoke with us more openly and more fully as to what you thought about and against that doctrine, not only did all that cloud of sadness flee from our hearts, but so great a light of gladness shone there that that grief and fear seemed to have done nothing in us except to make the ensuing joys burn the more amply.

1. 2. And so, most dear brother, although we do not see you with the eyes of the flesh, yet in mind, in the faith of Christ, in the grace of Christ, in the members of Christ, we hold, embrace, and kiss you; and now that the most holy and most faithful bearer of our mutual conversations is returning from us to you—whom you wished to be with us not only the conveyor of your writings but also the narrator and witness of what has been done—we render our reply and converse with you somewhat longer, urging that you press on in teaching those whom, as far as we have learned, you have sufficiently pressed in frightening. For there are some who think that impieties most justly condemned are still to be defended rather freely; and there are those who penetrate homes more secretly, and what they now fear to cry out in the open they do not cease to sow in secret; and there are those who have fallen wholly silent, restrained by great fear, but who still retain in their heart what they no longer dare to bring forth with their mouth—men who nevertheless may be very well known to the brethren from their earlier defense of that very doctrine. Accordingly, some are to be more severely restrained, others more watchfully tracked down, others to be handled indeed more gently but no less diligently taught, so that, if they are not feared lest they ruin others, still they are not neglected lest they perish.

2. 3. For when they think that free choice is taken from them if they do not agree that a man does not have even a good will itself without the help of God, they do not understand that they are not strengthening human choice but puffing it up, so that it is carried along through empty things and not set in the Lord as on a stable rock: for the will is prepared by the Lord (See Prov 8:35 (LXX)).

2. 4. But when they suppose that they believe God to be a respecter of persons if they believe that, without any preceding merits, he has mercy on whom he wills (Rom 9:18), and calls those whom he deigns to call, and makes whom he wills religious, they pay too little attention to the fact that the owed penalty is rendered to the condemned, and unowed grace to the one set free, so that neither may the former complain that he is unworthy, nor the latter boast that he is worthy; and that there is rather no respecting of persons there, where one and the same mass of damnation and offense enfolds them, so that the one set free may learn from the one not set free that the same punishment would befit him too, had not grace come to his aid. But if it is grace, then it is rendered for no merits, but bestowed by gratuitous goodness.

2. 5. "But it is unjust," they say, "that in one and the same evil cause this one should be set free and that one punished." Surely, then, it is just that both be punished: who would deny this? Let us, then, give thanks to the Savior, since we perceive that there is not rendered to us what we recognize was owed to us too in the damnation of those like us. For if both were set free, it would surely be hidden what is owed to sin through justice; if no one, what grace would bestow. So that, then, in this most difficult question we may rather use the words of the Apostle: God, willing to show his wrath and to make known his power, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath, which are fitted for destruction; and to make known the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy (Rom 9:22-23); to whom the thing formed cannot say, Why have you made me thus? (Rom 9:20) since he has power from the same mass to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor (See Rom 9:21). And here, since this whole mass is deservedly damned, justice renders the owed dishonor, grace bestows the unowed honor—not by the prerogative of merit, not by the necessity of fate, not by the rashness of fortune, but by the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, which the Apostle does not open but marvels at as closed, crying out: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Or who has first given to him, that he should be repaid? For from him, and through him, and in him are all things: to him be glory forever and ever. Amen (Rom 11:33-36).

3. 6. But they are unwilling that to him be the glory in the justifying of the ungodly by gratuitous grace—those who, being ignorant of his righteousness and wishing to establish their own (Rom 10:3), or, now pressed by the voices of religious and pious men crying out, confess that they are divinely helped to having or doing righteousness in such a way that some merit of their own precedes, as if they were the first to wish to give, that it might be repaid to them by him of whom it is said, Who has first given to him, that he should be repaid? (Rom 11:35)—supposing that their merits go ahead toward him of whom they hear, or rather are unwilling to hear: For from him, and through him, and in him are all things (Rom 11:36). And from the riches of which there is a depth of his wisdom and knowledge, from these are the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy, which he calls into adoption; which riches he wills to make known even through the vessels of wrath that are fitted for destruction. And what are the unsearchable ways, if not those of which it is sung in the Psalm: All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (Ps 25:10 (24:10))? Therefore his mercy and truth are unsearchable: since he has mercy on whom he wills (Rom 9:18), not by justice but by the grace of mercy; and whom he wills he hardens (Rom 9:18), not by iniquity but by the truth of retribution. Which mercy and truth nevertheless so meet each other—for it is written, Mercy and truth have met together (Ps 85:10 (84:11))—that neither does mercy impede the truth by which the worthy is struck, nor truth the mercy by which the unworthy is set free. What merits of his own, then, will the one set free boast, when, if things worthy of his merits were rendered, he would be nothing but condemned? Are there then no merits of the righteous? There certainly are, because they are righteous. But that they might become righteous, there were no merits: for they were made righteous when they were justified; but, as the Apostle says, justified freely by his grace (Rom 3:24).

3. 7. Since, therefore, these men are enemies and hostile to this grace, Pelagius nevertheless—in the ecclesiastical court in Palestine (for otherwise he would not have come away from there unpunished)—anathematized those who say that the grace of God is given according to merits. But in their later disputations too nothing else is found than that grace is given for merits—the grace of whose commendation the apostolic letter to the Romans especially speaks, so that from there his preaching might spread, as from the head of the world, throughout the whole world: for it is the grace by which the ungodly is justified, that is, by which one who was before ungodly becomes righteous. And therefore no merits precede the receiving of this grace, since to the merits of the ungodly not grace but punishment is owed: nor would this be grace if it were not given gratuitously, but rendered as a debt.

3. 8. But when these men are asked what grace Pelagius thought was given without any preceding merits, when he anathematized those who say that the grace of God is given according to our merits, they answer that this very grace given without any preceding merits is the human nature in which we were created: for before we existed we could not merit anything, so as to exist. Let this deceit be cast out of the hearts of Christians: for the Apostle by no means commends this grace, by which we were created so as to be human, but the grace by which we were justified when we were evil human beings. For this is the grace through Jesus Christ our Lord. For Christ died not for no one, that they might be created as human beings, but for the ungodly, that they might be justified: for he was already a human being who said, Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:24-25).

3. 9. They can indeed say that the remission of sins is the grace that is given for no preceding merits: for what good merit can sinners have? But the remission of sins itself is not without some merit, if faith obtains it: for the merit of faith is not nothing; by which faith that man said, God, be merciful to me a sinner (Lk 18:13), and went down justified by the merit of faithful humility, since he who humbles himself shall be exalted (Lk 18:14). It remains, then, that faith itself, from which all righteousness takes its beginning—on account of which it is said to the Church in the Song of Songs, You shall come and pass over from the beginning of faith (See Song 4:8 (LXX))—it remains, I say, that faith itself we should attribute not to the human choice which these men extol, nor to any preceding merits, since from it begin whatever good merits there are; but that we should confess it to be the gratuitous gift of God, if we are thinking of true grace, that is, grace without merits: because, as it is read in the same letter, God apportions to each one a measure of faith (Rom 12:3). Good works indeed are done by a person; but faith is brought about in a person, without which those works are done by no one. For everything that is not of faith is sin (Rom 14:23).

3. 10. Wherefore, lest a man extol even the merit of his prayer itself—even if to one who prays there is given help for overcoming the desires of temporal things and for loving eternal goods and God himself, the fount of all goods—the faith which prays was given to one not praying, which surely, had it not been given, could not pray. For how shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without one who preaches? Faith, therefore, is from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Rom 10:14, 17). Accordingly the minister of Christ, the preacher of this faith, according to the grace that was given him, is a planter and a waterer: and yet neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase (1 Cor 3:7), who apportions to each one a measure of faith (Rom 12:3). Hence too it is said elsewhere: Peace to the brethren, and love with faith; which, lest they should attribute it to themselves, he at once subjoined, from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph 6:23): because faith is not of all who hear the word, but of those to whom God apportions a measure of faith; just as neither do all things sprout that are planted and watered, but those to which God gives the increase. But why one believes and another does not believe, when both hear the same thing, and, if a miracle is done in their sight, both see the same thing—this is the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, whose judgments are inscrutable, and with whom there is no iniquity, while he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens (Rom 9:18): for these things are not unjust because they are hidden.

3. 11. Then, after the remission of sins, unless the Holy Spirit inhabits the cleansed house, does not the unclean spirit return with seven others, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first (See Lk 11:24-26)? But that the Holy Spirit may dwell there, does he not breathe where he wills (Jn 3:8); and is not the love of God, without which no one lives well, poured out in our hearts, not by us, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5)? For the Apostle defined this faith, saying: Neither circumcision is anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith, which works through love (Gal 5:6). For this is the faith of Christians, not of demons: for the demons also believe and tremble (Jas 2:19); but do they also love? For if they did not believe, they would not say, You are the Holy One of God (Mk 1:24), or, You are the Son of God (Mk 3:11). But if they loved, they would not say, What have we to do with you? (Mk 1:24)

3. 12. Faith, then, draws us to Christ—faith which, unless it were given to us from above as a gratuitous gift, he himself would not say: No one can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him (Jn 6:44). Hence too, a little later, he says: The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe (Jn 6:63-64); then the Evangelist subjoins: For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed, and who it was that would betray him (Jn 6:64). And lest anyone should suppose that believers belonged to his foreknowledge in the same way as those who do not believe—that is, that faith itself was not given them from above, but only their will was foreknown—he at once added and said: And he said, Therefore I told you that no one can come to me unless it be given him by my Father (Jn 6:65). Hence it was that, of those who had heard him speaking of his flesh and his blood, some were scandalized and withdrew, while some remained by believing: because no one can come to him unless it be given by the Father, and thereby also by the Son himself, and by the Holy Spirit. For the gifts and works of the inseparable Trinity are not separate; but the Son, in thus honoring the Father, offers no evidence of any disparity, but provides a great example of humility.

3. 13. Here again these defenders of free choice—rather, deceivers, because puffers-up, and puffers-up because presumptuous—speaking not against us but against the Gospel, what else do they say than what the Apostle put to himself as if it were said by such men? You will say to me then, Why does he still find fault? For who resists his will? (Rom 9:19) This contradiction he set against himself as if from another, as it were from the voice of those who are unwilling to accept what he had said above: Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens (Rom 9:18). To such men, then, let us say with the Apostle—for we cannot find anything better than he to say: O man, who are you to answer back to God? (Rom 9:20)

3. 14. For we seek the merit of hardening, and we find it. For by the merit of sin the whole mass is damned; nor does God harden by imparting malice, but by not imparting mercy. For those to whom it is not imparted are neither worthy nor do they merit it: but rather they are worthy of this, they merit this, that it not be imparted. But we seek the merit of mercy, and we do not find it, because there is none—lest grace be made void, if it is not given freely but rendered for merits.

3. 15. For if we say that faith preceded, in which there was the merit of grace, what merit did a man have before faith, that he should receive faith? For what does he have that he has not received? But if he has received, why does he boast as if he had not received? (1 Cor 4:7) For just as a man would not have wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, the fear of God, unless, according to the prophetic word, he had received the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and fortitude, of knowledge and piety and the fear of God (Isa 11:2-3); just as he would not have virtue, love, continence, unless he had received the Spirit of whom the Apostle says, For you have not received the Spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of continence (2 Tim 1:7): so he would not have faith unless he had received the Spirit of faith, of whom that same one says: But having the same Spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed, therefore I have spoken; we too believe, and therefore we speak (2 Cor 4:13). And that he received it not by merit but by the mercy of him who has mercy on whom he wills (Rom 9:18), he most plainly shows where he says of himself: I obtained mercy, that I might be faithful (1 Cor 7:25).

4. 16. If we say that the merit of prayer precedes, so that the gift of grace may follow: prayer indeed, by obtaining whatever it obtains, plainly shows that it is the gift of God, lest a man suppose that what he has is from himself—which, if it were in his power, would surely not be asked for; nevertheless, lest even the merits of prayer be thought to precede, by which grace would be given not gratuitously, and would then not even be grace, because rendered as a debt, prayer itself too is found among the gifts of grace. For what we should pray for as we ought, we do not know, says the Teacher of the Gentiles, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unutterable groanings (Rom 8:26). But what is "intercedes," if not "makes us intercede"? For to intercede with groanings is the surest indication of one in need. But it is unlawful to believe that the Holy Spirit is in need of anything. Rather it was said "intercedes" because he makes us intercede, and inspires in us the disposition of interceding and groaning; as in the Gospel: For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father, who speaks in you (Matt 10:20). For neither does this take place in us as though we do nothing. The help of the Holy Spirit, therefore, is so expressed that he himself is said to do what he makes us do.

4. 17. For that it is to be understood not as our spirit, of which it was said intercedes with unutterable groanings, but as the Holy Spirit, by whom our weakness is helped, the Apostle himself sufficiently shows. For he began thus: The Spirit, he says, helps our weakness (Rom 8:26); then he subjoined thus: For what we should pray for as we ought, we do not know, and the rest. Of this Spirit indeed he says more openly elsewhere: For you have not received a spirit of slavery again in fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption of sons, in whom we cry, Abba, Father (Rom 8:15). Behold, here he did not say that the Spirit himself cries in praying, but, in whom we cry, Abba, Father. Yet in another place he says: Because you are sons of God, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father (Gal 4:6). Here he does not say "in whom we cry," but he preferred to call the Spirit himself the one who cries, by whom it is brought about that we cry: as are those expressions, The Spirit himself intercedes with unutterable groanings, and It is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.

4. 18. As, therefore, no one is rightly wise, rightly understands, rightly prevails in counsel and fortitude, no one is knowingly pious or piously knowing, no one fears God with a chaste fear, unless he has received the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and fortitude, of knowledge and piety and the fear of God (Isa 11:2-3); nor does anyone have true virtue, sincere love, religious continence, except through the Spirit of power and of love and of continence: so without the Spirit of faith no one will rightly believe, nor without the Spirit of prayer will anyone pray to good effect. Not that there are so many spirits, but one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each his own as he wills (1 Cor 12:11); because the Spirit breathes where he wills (Jn 3:8): but—this must be confessed—he helps in one way when not yet dwelling within, in another when dwelling within. For when not yet dwelling within he helps that they may become faithful; dwelling within, he helps those already faithful.

5. 19. What, then, is a man's merit before grace, by which merit he might receive grace, since all our good merit is brought about in us only by grace; and since, when God crowns our merits, he crowns nothing other than his own gifts? For just as from the beginning of faith we obtained mercy, not because we were faithful, but that we might become so; so in the end, in which there will be eternal life, he will crown us, as it is written, in compassion and mercy (Ps 103:4 (102:4)). Not in vain, therefore, is it sung to God: And his mercy will go before me (Ps 59:10 (58:11)); and, His mercy will follow me (Ps 23:6 (22:6)). Hence even eternal life itself, which will surely be had in the end without end, and is therefore rendered for preceding merits—yet because those very merits by which it is rendered were not won by us through our own sufficiency, but brought about in us through grace, it too is called grace, for no other reason than that it is given freely; not indeed because it is not given for merits, but because even the very merits for which it is given were themselves given. But where do we find that even eternal life is called grace? We have, in the same magnificent defender of grace, the apostle Paul: The wages of sin, he says, is death; but the grace of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23).

5. 20. See, I beg you, with what brevity and yet how watchfully he set the words, which, if diligently considered, will somewhat clear up the obscurity of this question. For when he had said, The wages of sin is death, who would not judge that he was adding most fittingly and consistently, if he said, "But the wages of righteousness is eternal life"? And it is true; because, as by the merit of sin death is rendered as wages, so by the merit of righteousness eternal life is rendered as wages. Or if he were unwilling to say "of righteousness," he might say "of faith"; since the righteous lives by faith (Rom 1:17). Hence too it is called a reward in very many places of the holy Scriptures: but nowhere is righteousness or faith called a reward, because a reward is rendered for righteousness or faith. And what a reward is to a worker, that wages are to a soldier.

5. 21. But the blessed Apostle, fighting most watchfully against that exaltation which tries to creep in even upon the great—so much so that, on its account, he says there was given to him an angel of Satan to buffet him, lest he raise the summit of presumption—against this plague of exaltation, then, he says, The wages of sin is death. Rightly "wages," because it is owed, because it is worthily repaid, because it is rendered by desert. Then, lest righteousness extol itself on its own good merit, just as human evil merit is undoubtedly sin, he did not state it from the contrary, saying, "The wages of righteousness is eternal life"; but, The grace, he says, of God is eternal life. And, lest this be sought by some other way apart from the Mediator, he added, in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23): as if to say, "Having heard that the wages of sin is death, why do you prepare to extol yourself, O human—not righteousness, but, under the name of righteousness, plain pride? Why do you prepare to extol yourself and to demand eternal life, contrary to death, as owed wages? That to which eternal life is owed is true righteousness: but if it is true righteousness, it is not from you; it is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (Jas 1:17). That you might have it—if indeed you have it—you surely received it: for what good do you have that you have not received? (1 Cor 4:7) Wherefore, O human, if you are to receive eternal life, it is indeed the wages of righteousness, but to you it is grace, to whom even righteousness itself is grace. For it would be rendered to you as something owed, if the righteousness to which it is owed were from yourself. But now of his fullness we have received (Jn 1:16) not only the grace by which we now live justly in labors unto the end, but also grace in return for this grace, that afterward we may live in rest without end." Nothing does faith believe more wholesomely than this, because nothing more true does the understanding find: and we ought to hear the prophet saying, Unless you believe, you shall not understand (Isa 7:9 (LXX)).

6. 22. "But," one says, "people who are unwilling to live rightly and faithfully will excuse themselves, saying: What have we done, we who live badly, since we have not received the grace by which we might live well?" They cannot truly say that they do nothing evil, since they live badly: for if they do nothing evil, they live well; but if they live badly, they live badly of their own—either what they drew originally, or what they have added on top. But if they are vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, to whom what is owed is rendered, let them impute this to themselves, because they are made from that mass which, on account of the sin of one, in whom all sinned, God deservedly and justly damned: but if they are vessels of mercy, to whom, made from the same mass, he was unwilling to render the owed punishment, let them not puff themselves up, but glorify him who showed them mercy that was not owed; and if they are minded otherwise in anything, this too he himself will reveal to them.

6. 23. Finally, in what way will these men excuse themselves? Surely in that way which, briefly, as if from their voice, the Apostle set against himself, so that they say: Why does he still find fault? For who resists his will? (Rom 9:19) For this is to say: "Why is there a complaint about us, that we offend God by living badly, when no one can resist his will, who has hardened us by not granting mercy?" If, then, these men are not ashamed by this excuse to contradict not us but the Apostle, why should it irk us to say to them what the Apostle said, this same thing again and again: O man, who are you to answer back to God? Does the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me thus? Or has the potter no power over the clay (Rom 9:20-21)—from the same mass, surely deservedly and rightly damned—to make one vessel for unowed honor on account of the grace of mercy, another for owed dishonor on account of the justice of wrath, and to make known the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy, thus showing what he bestows on them, when the vessels of wrath receive that punishment which was equally owed to all? Let it suffice meanwhile for a Christian still living by faith, and not yet seeing what is perfect, but knowing in part, to know or believe that God frees no one except by gratuitous mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ, and damns no one except by most equitable truth through the same our Lord Jesus Christ. But why he frees or does not free this one rather than that one, let him search who can the so great depth of his judgments—yet let him beware the precipice. Is there then injustice with God? By no means! (Rom 9:14) But his judgments are inscrutable, and his ways unsearchable (Rom 11:33).

6. 24. And at least in those of greater age it can deservedly be said: These were unwilling to understand, that they might act well. These—what is graver—understood, and did not obey: because, as it is written, A hard servant will not be corrected by words; for even if he understands, he will not obey (See Prov 29:19). Whence will he not obey, except by his own most wicked will? To whom a graver damnation is owed by divine equity: for to whom more is given, more is required of him (See Lk 12:48). For Scripture calls those inexcusable from whom the truth is not hidden and in whom iniquity persists. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, says the Apostle, upon all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of those men who hold back the truth in unrighteousness: because what is known of God is manifest in them. For God has manifested it to them. For his invisible things, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made; his eternal power also and divinity: so that they are inexcusable (Rom 1:18-20).

6. 25. If, then, he calls those inexcusable who could see his invisible things, understood through the things that are made, and yet did not obey the truth but remained unrighteous and ungodly—for they did not fail to know him, but, knowing, he says, God, they did not glorify him as God, nor give thanks (Rom 1:21)—how much more inexcusable are those who, instructed from his law, trust that they themselves are guides of the blind, and, teaching others, do not teach themselves; who preach that one must not steal, and steal; and the rest that the Apostle says of them! For to them he says: Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, every one who judges: for wherein you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you do the same things that you judge (Rom 2:1, 19, 21).

6. 26. The Lord himself also says in the Gospel: If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin (Jn 15:22). Surely it is not that they would have no sin at all, who were full of other great and many sins; but he wishes this sin to be understood as one they would not have had if he had not come—namely, that, when they had heard him, they did not believe in him. He asserts that they have no excuse by which they could say: "We did not hear, therefore we did not believe." For human pride, presuming as it were on the powers of free choice, thinks itself excused when what it sins seems to be of ignorance, not of will.

6. 27. According to this excuse, divine Scripture calls inexcusable whomever it convicts of sinning knowingly. Yet the just judgment of God does not spare even those who have not heard: For whoever have sinned without the Law, will perish without the Law (Rom 2:12). And although they may seem to excuse themselves, he does not admit this excuse, who knows that he made man upright and gave him a precept of obedience, and that it was only by the free choice of will, which he wrongly used, that sin, which would pass into his descendants, flowed forth. For neither are those damned who have not sinned, since that sin passed from one into all, in whom, before their own sins in each individual, all sinned in common. And thereby every sinner is inexcusable, whether by the guilt of origin or by the addition of his own will as well; whether he knows or is ignorant, whether he judges or does not judge: because the very ignorance, in those who were unwilling to understand, is without doubt sin; but in those who could not, it is the penalty of sin. Therefore in both there is no just excuse, but just damnation.

6. 28. But the divine words call those inexcusable who sin not in ignorance but knowingly, for this reason: that, according to the judgment of their own pride, by which they trust greatly in the powers of their own will, they may see themselves to be inexcusable; because they no longer have their excuse from ignorance, and there is not yet the righteousness for which they presumed the will to suffice. But he to whom the Lord has granted the grace both of knowing and of obeying says: Through the Law comes knowledge of sin (Rom 3:20); and, I did not know sin except through the Law; for I did not know concupiscence, unless the Law said, You shall not covet (Rom 7:7). Nor does he wish a man to be understood as ignorant of the law that gives precepts, but as in need of the grace that sets free, where he says: I delight in the law of God according to the inner man (Rom 7:22): and with this not only knowledge but also delight in the law, he afterward says: Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:24-25). No one, therefore, frees from the wounds of that brigand except the grace of the one Savior. No one frees those sold under sin (Rom 7:14) from the chains of the one who takes captive, except the grace of the one who redeems.

6. 29. And thereby all who wish to be excused in their wickednesses and iniquities are for that reason most justly punished, since those who are freed are freed only by grace. For if the excuse there were just, it would no longer be grace, but justice, that freed them. But since only grace frees, it finds nothing just in the one whom it frees—not will, not action, not even the excuse itself: for if this is just, whoever uses it is freed by desert, not by grace. For we know that by the grace of Christ even some of those are freed who say, Why does he still find fault? For who resists his will? (Rom 9:19) If this is a just excuse, then they are freed not by gratuitous grace, but on account of the justice of this excuse. But if it is grace by which they are freed, then surely this excuse is not just. For grace is then true grace, by which a man is freed, if it is not rendered according to the debt of justice. Nothing, therefore, comes about in those who say, Why does he still find fault? For who resists his will? except what is read in the book of Solomon: The foolishness of a man violates his ways, but he blames God in his heart (Prov 19:3).

6. 30. Although, then, God makes the vessels of wrath unto destruction, that he may show his wrath and demonstrate his power, by which he uses even evils well; and that he may make known the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy, which he makes for honor—not owed to the damnable mass, but bestowed by the bounty of his grace—yet in those same vessels of wrath, made for owed dishonor on account of the merit of the mass, that is, in men created indeed on account of the goods of nature but destined for punishment on account of their vices, he himself knows how to damn, not to make, the iniquity which truth most rightly disapproves. For just as human nature, which all praise without doubt, is attributed to his will, so the fault of man, which all condemn without refusal, is attributed to man's will. And this will of man either transmitted a hereditary defect into the descendants whom it had in itself when it sinned, or acquired the other defects as well, when each one lived ruinously in himself. But neither from what is drawn originally, nor from those evils which each one, in his own life, by not understanding or by being unwilling to understand, gathers up, or even, instructed from the law, aggravates by the addition of transgression—from none of these is anyone freed and justified except by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord; not only by the remission of sins, but first by the very inspiration of faith and the fear of God, the disposition and effect of prayer being wholesomely imparted, until he heal all our infirmities, and redeem our life from corruption, and crown us in compassion and mercy.

7. 31. But these men, who think that God becomes a respecter of persons if in one and the same cause his mercy comes upon some, while his wrath remains upon others, surely lose all the force of human argument in the case of infants. For—to keep silent meanwhile about the fact that there is upon infants too, however recently come from the maternal womb, that penalty of which the Apostle, speaking, says, Through the offense of one, unto all men unto condemnation (Rom 5:18), from which only that one frees, of whom he likewise says, Through the justification of one, unto all men unto justification of life (Rom 5:18)—to pass over this meanwhile, then, and say this only of infants, which they too, terrified by the evangelical authority, or rather broken by the most harmonious conspiracy of faith of Christian peoples, concede without any refusal, namely, that no infant, unless born again of water and the Spirit, enters the kingdom of heaven: what cause, I ask, are they going to allege for this, that one infant is so governed as to depart hence baptized, while another, handed over to the hands of unbelievers, or even of believers before he is offered by them to be baptized, breathes his last? Will they ascribe this to fate, or to fortune? I do not think they will burst out into such madness, desiring as they do to hold the Christian name in however small a degree.

7. 32. Why, then, will no infant, without having received the bath of regeneration, enter the kingdom of heaven? Did he himself perhaps choose the unbelieving or negligent parents of whom he was to be born? What shall I say of the unexpected and sudden innumerable deaths by which often even the infants of religious Christians are forestalled and snatched away before Baptism; while, on the contrary, the infants of the sacrilegious and of the enemies of Christ, coming in some way into the hands of Christians, depart from this life not without the sacrament of regeneration? What will those say here who contend that, in order for grace to be given, some human merits must precede, lest God be a respecter of persons? What merits, at last, have here preceded? If you think of the merits of these very infants, they have none of their own; the same mass is common to both. If you consider the merits of the parents, those are good whose children perished by sudden deaths without the baptism of Christ; but those are evil whose children, through some power of Christians, came to the sacraments of the Church. And yet the providence of God, by whom our hairs are numbered (Matt 10:30), without whose will a sparrow does not fall to the ground (Matt 10:29)—a providence which is neither pressed by fate, nor impeded by chance happenings, nor corrupted by any iniquity—does not, that they may be born again unto the heavenly inheritance, provide for all the infants of his own children, and yet provides even for some infants of the ungodly. This infant, sprung from faithful married parents, received with the joy of the parents, is suffocated by the drowsiness of the mother or the nurse, and is made bereft and devoid of the faith of his own; that infant, born of a sacrilegious defilement, exposed by the cruel fear of the mother, is gathered up by the merciful devotion of strangers, is baptized by their Christian solicitude, and is made a sharer and partaker of the eternal kingdom. Let them ponder these things, let them consider these things; let them dare here to call God either a respecter of persons in his grace, or a rewarder of preceding merits.

7. 33. For even if they try to suspect some merits of greater age, whether good or evil, what will they say about these infants—of whom the one could acquire by no evil merits of his own the violence of the one who suffocated him, nor the other by good merits the diligence of the one who baptized him? They are of excessive vanity and blindness, if, even after considering these things, they do not yet deign to cry out with us: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways! (Rom 11:33) Let them not, then, oppose with most obstinate insanity the gratuitous mercy of God. Let them allow the Son of man, at whatever age, to seek and to save what was lost (Lk 19:10); and let them not dare to judge concerning his inscrutable judgments, why in one and the same cause his mercy comes upon one, while his wrath remains upon another.

8. 34. For who are these who would answer back to God, since he, when Rebecca had twins from one act of intercourse with Isaac our father, when they were not yet born and had done nothing good or evil, that according to election his purpose might stand, the election, namely, of grace, not of debt—the election by which he himself makes those to be chosen, and does not find them—not from works, but from him who calls, said that the elder would serve the younger (Rom 9:10-12)? To this judgment the blessed Apostle took up also the testimony of a far later prophet: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated (Rom 9:13); so that it might be understood that this, made plain afterward through the prophet, was, before they were born, in the predestination of God through grace. For what did he love in Jacob, before, once born, he had done anything good, except the gratuitous gift of his mercy? And what did he hate in Esau, before, once born, he had done anything evil, except original sin? For neither in the former would he love righteousness, which the former had done none of; nor in the latter would he hate the nature, which he himself had made good.

8. 35. But it is astonishing, when they are hemmed in by these straits, into what precipices they hurl themselves, fearing the nets of truth. "He hated the one and loved the other of the not-yet-born," they say, "for this reason: because he foresaw their future works." Who would not be astonished that this most acute insight was lacking to the Apostle? For he did not see it, when, the question being raised against him as by an adversary, he did not rather give that answer—so brief, so plain, so (as these men think) true and conclusive. For when he had proposed the astonishing matter, how it could rightly be said of those not yet born and doing nothing good or evil that God loved one and hated the other, expressing the hearer's emotion by the very question raised against himself: What then shall we say? he says; is there injustice with God? By no means (Rom 9:14). Here, then, was the place to say what these men hold: "For God foresaw their future works, when he said that the elder would serve the younger." But the Apostle does not say this; rather, lest anyone dare to boast of the merits of his works, he wished what he said to avail for the commending of God's grace and glory. For when he had said, By no means is there injustice with God—as though we said to him, "Whence do you show this, since you assert that it was said not from works but from him who calls, The elder shall serve the younger?"—For he says to Moses, he says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I will be merciful. Therefore it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy (Rom 9:15-16). Where now are merits, where works, whether past or future, as accomplished or to be accomplished by the powers of free choice? Has not the Apostle brought forth an open verdict on the commending of gratuitous grace, that is, of true grace? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the heretics?

8. 36. But what was being done, that the Apostle should say this, that he should recall the example of those twins? What was he endeavoring to persuade? What did he desire to inculcate? Surely this, which their madness assails, which the proud do not grasp, which those are unwilling to be wise about who, ignorant of God's righteousness and wishing to establish their own, are not subject to the righteousness of God (Rom 10:3): for the Apostle was treating sufficiently of grace itself, and therefore commended the children of the promise. For what God promises, none but God does: for it has some measure of reason and truth that man should promise and God should do; but that man should say he himself does what God promised is the reprobate sense of proud impiety.

8. 37. Commending, then, the children of the promise, he shows this first signified through Isaac the son of Abraham. For the work of God appears more evidently in him whom the usual order of nature did not beget, from barren wombs and bodies worn out with old age, so that in the children of God, who were foretold as future, this might be a sign of a divine work, not a human one. In Isaac, he says, shall your seed be called (Rom 9:7): that is, not those who are the children of the flesh are the children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned as seed (Rom 9:8). For this is the word of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son (Rom 9:9). And not only that, he says, but also Rebecca, having conceived from one act of intercourse with Isaac our father (Rom 9:10). To what purpose did he add "from one act of intercourse," except that Jacob should not boast of his own merits, nor of the merits of others among his forebears, nor even of those of that single father—the father's will perhaps having been changed for the better—saying that he was loved by the Creator because his father, when he sowed him, was more praiseworthy in better morals? "From one act of intercourse," he says: there was then one merit of the father toward sowing them, one merit of the mother toward conceiving them: because, even if the mother carried them enclosed in her womb until she gave birth, and perhaps varied her wills and dispositions, she varied them not toward one but surely toward both, whom she carried alike in her womb.

8. 38. The intention of the Apostle, therefore, must be looked at: how, for the sake of commending grace, he is unwilling that the one of whom it was said, Jacob I loved, should glory except in the Lord; so that, when, from the same father, the same mother, one act of intercourse, before they had done anything good or evil, God loves one and hates the other, Jacob may understand that, from that mass of original iniquity in which he sees his brother—with whom he had a common cause—to have deserved by justice to be damned, he himself could be set apart only by grace. For when they were not yet born, he says, nor had done anything good or evil, that according to election the purpose of God might stand, not from works but from him who calls, it was said to her, The elder shall serve the younger (Rom 9:11-12).

8. 39. But that the election of grace comes about with no preceding merits of works, the same Apostle most plainly shows in another place: So then, he says, even at this present time a remnant according to the election of grace has been saved. But if by grace, then no longer from works; otherwise grace is no longer grace (Rom 11:5-6). According to this grace, therefore, consequently taking up the prophetic testimony too: As it is written, he says, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated (Rom 9:13); and immediately: What then shall we say? he says; is there injustice with God? By no means (Rom 9:14). But why "by no means"? Is it on account of the works of both that he foreknew as future? Nay, this too "by no means": for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I will be merciful. Therefore it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy (Rom 9:15-16). And so that, in the vessels which are fitted for destruction, which is owed to the damned mass, the vessels made for honor from the same mass might recognize what the divine mercy has bestowed on them: For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, he says, For this I raised you up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be glorified in all the earth (Rom 9:17). Finally, he concludes regarding both: Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens (Rom 9:18): this he does with whom there is no iniquity. He has mercy, then, by a gratuitous gift; but he hardens by a most just desert.

8. 40. But let the arrogance of the proud unbeliever, or the excuse of the damnable man who is punished, still say: Why does he still find fault? For who resists his will? (Rom 9:19) Let him say it, and let him hear what befits a human being: O man, who are you to answer back to God? (Rom 9:20) and the rest, on which I have already discoursed enough and often, as far as I could. Let him hear these things and not despise them. But if he despises them, let him find that, even so that he might despise them, he was hardened; but if he does not despise them, let him believe that, even so that he might not despise them, he was helped—but hardened by what is owed, helped by grace.

9. 41. For even if—of the two twins from the patriarch Isaac, which we have already shown is said with how great blindness—God foresaw the future works of those who lived and grew old, and therefore loved Jacob but hated Esau, no one can on that account say of infants who are going to die, in such a way that he does not provide for this one to receive Baptism but provides for that one, that God foresees their future works: for how are those things called future which will be none at all?

9. 42. "But God," they say, "in those whom he takes away from here, foresees how each one would have lived if he lived; and therefore the one whom he knew was going to live wickedly he causes to die without Baptism; thus punishing in him evil works, not those he did, but those he was going to do." If, then, even works not committed are punished by God, let them first consider how falsely they promise that infants who die without Baptism will not go into damnation—infants who, if for that reason they are not baptized, because they were going to live badly if they lived: for on account of that very bad life they will doubtless be damned, if even the evils which were going to be are damned. Next, if the sacrament of Baptism is provided for them to receive whom God knew, if they lived, would have lived well, why are not all kept in the life which they would adorn with good works? Why even do some of those who are baptized, living long, live most wickedly, and sometimes arrive even at apostasy? Why did he not cast the very first pair of sinners, whom God surely knew were going to sin, out of paradise beforehand, lest they commit there what was unworthy of so holy a place, if even sins not yet committed are justly punished? What, finally, is bestowed on him who is snatched away, lest malice change his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul (Wis 4:11), if even those things are justly punished which, though he did not do them, he was nevertheless going to do by living? Lastly, why is not the bath of regeneration rather provided for the one going to die who was going to live badly if he lived, so that the sins he was going to commit might be remitted to him in Baptism? For who is so senseless as to deny that those things can be remitted through Baptism which he says can be punished without Baptism?

10. 43. But in disputing against those who, convicted on every side, endeavor to convince men that God is an avenger even of sins not committed, we must beware lest we be thought to be fabricating these things against them; while they, on the other hand, may by no means be believed to be so dull as to either hold these views or try to persuade anyone of them; yet, had I not heard them say these things, I would not have thought they must be refuted. For they are hemmed in both by the authority of the divine readings and by the firm rite of the Church handed down and retained from antiquity in the baptism of infants, where it is most plainly shown that infants, both when they are exorcized and when they answer, through those who carry them, that they renounce the devil, are set free from the dominion of the devil; and, not finding a way out, they go on into headlong folly, while they are unwilling to change their opinion.

10. 44. This indeed they think they say most acutely: "How does sin pass into the children of the faithful, which we do not doubt was remitted in the parents through Baptism?" As though carnal generation could not have on that account what only spiritual regeneration takes away: or as though in Baptism the weakness of the concupiscence of the flesh were at once healed, just as its guilt is at once abolished—but it is by the grace of being reborn, not by the condition of being born. Hence whoever is born, even of one reborn, through this concupiscence, will without doubt harm the one born, unless he too is likewise reborn. But whatever difficulty there is in this question, it does not so hinder the workers in the field of Christ from baptizing infants unto the remission of sins, whether they are born of the faithful or of unbelievers, as it does not hinder farmers from grafting—by the care of grafting—wild olives into olive trees, whether they spring from wild olives or from olives. For if, in order that he might answer, it were proposed to a countryman what the cause is that, since an olive is one thing and a wild olive another, nevertheless nothing but a wild olive is born from either seed, he does not omit the work of grafting, even if he cannot resolve that question: otherwise, while he thinks that the shoots sprung from the seed of the olive are nothing but olives, the sloth of his idleness brings it about that the whole field runs wild with bitter sterility.

10. 45. For that which they devised, when they were pressed by the weight of truth—because the Lord is faithful in his words (See Ps 145:13 (144:13)), and therefore his Church in no way deceitfully baptizes infants unto the remission of sins, but, so that what is done may be done by faith, what is said surely comes about—what, then, they devised, when this most plain mass of truth pressed them, what Christian would not laugh at it, however very crafty he perceives it to be? For they say: "Infants do indeed answer truly, through the mouths of those who carry them, that they believe unto the remission of sins—not, however, because sins are remitted to themselves, but because they believe that in the Church or in Baptism sins are remitted in those in whom they are found, not in those in whom there are none." And thereby they are unwilling that "they should be so baptized unto the remission of sins as though the remission itself takes place in them—infants whom they contend have no sin—but because, although without sin, they are nevertheless baptized in that Baptism by which the remission of sins takes place in any sinners whatever."

10. 46. It may indeed be that this shifty cunning could be refuted more subtly and acutely at leisure. Nevertheless, according to this craftiness of theirs, they do not find what to answer to this: that infants are exorcized and breathed upon. For this is done deceitfully without doubt, if the devil does not have dominion over them; but if he does have dominion, and therefore they are not deceitfully exorcized and breathed upon, through what does he have dominion, if not through sin, being surely the prince of sinners? Accordingly, if they now blush and dare not say that these things are done in the Church mendaciously, let them confess that what was lost is sought even in infants: for it had been lost only on account of sin, and what cannot be sought except by grace cannot be found. But thanks be to God, that at least, when they argue against the remission of sins, lest it be believed to take place in infants, they nevertheless now confess—though through the hearts and mouths of their elders—that infants believe. As, therefore, they hear the Lord saying, Whoever is not born again of water and the Holy Spirit shall not enter the kingdom of heaven (Jn 3:5), on account of which they concede that they must be baptized, so let them hear the same Lord saying, He who does not believe shall be condemned (Mk 16:16): because, just as they confess that infants are reborn through the ministry of those who baptize, so too that they believe through the hearts and mouths of those who answer for them. Let them dare, then, to say that the innocent will be condemned by a just God, if he is bound by no bond of original sin.

10. 47. If this discourse is lengthy and burdensome to your occupations, grant pardon; because, in order to write these things to you, and, provoked by your letter, the tokens of your benevolence toward us, to converse with you about these matters, I too forced myself to interrupt my own occupations. If you should learn that they devise anything else against the catholic faith, and whatever you yourselves, with faithful and plainly pastoral love, discourse against them, lest they lay waste the weak of the Lord's flock, make it known to us. For by the restlessness of heretics our diligence is roused, as from the sleep of sloth, that we may search the Scriptures more watchfully, whence they may be met, lest they harm the sheepfold of Christ: thus, through the manifold grace of the Savior, even what the enemy contrives unto ruin God turns into help; since to those who love God all things work together for good (Rom 8:28). May you ever live in God, mindful of us, most dear brother.

LETTER 195
Written perhaps in the year 418.
TO AUGUSTINE, HOLY AND MOST BLESSED LORD AND POPE, FROM JEROME.

1. At all times indeed I have venerated your Blessedness with the honor that befits it, and have loved the Lord and Savior dwelling in you: but now, if it can be, we add something to the heap and fill up what is already full, so that we do not allow even a single hour to pass without mention of your name—you who have stood firm against the winds blowing against you by the ardor of your faith, and have preferred, as far as it lay in you, to be saved alone out of Sodom rather than to remain with those who perish. Your prudence knows what I mean. Hail to your virtue! You are celebrated throughout the world; the Catholics venerate and look up to you as the founder anew of the ancient faith; and—what is a sign of greater glory—all the heretics detest you: and they persecute me with an equal hatred, so that those whom they cannot kill with swords they kill by their wish. May the clemency of Christ the Lord keep you unharmed and mindful of us, venerable lord and most blessed pope.

LETTER 196
TO ASELLICUS, MOST BLESSED LORD, BROTHER AND FELLOW BISHOP, AUGUSTINE SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.

1. 1. The letter of your Holiness, which you sent to the venerable old man Donatian on the dispute about avoiding Judaism, he himself deigned to send to me, and, by asking more vehemently, commanded that I should reply to it: and fearing to disregard him, I reply as I can with the Lord's help, judging it agreeable to your Charity too that, in writing to you, I have not refused to comply with him who commanded it—him whom, for his merits, we both venerate.

1. 2. That Christians, especially those coming from the Gentiles, ought not to judaize, the apostle Paul teaches when he says: I said to Peter before them all, If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how do you compel the Gentiles to judaize? (Gal 2:14) And following on, he added: We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners from among the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, we too have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; because by the works of the Law no flesh shall be justified (Gal 2:15-16).

1. 3. Now not only do those works of the Law which are in the old sacraments, and which now, the New Testament being revealed, are not observed by Christians—such as the circumcision of the foreskin, the carnal rest of the Sabbath, abstinence from certain foods, the immolation of cattle in sacrifices, the new moon, the unleavened bread, and the rest of this kind—not only do these not justify a man, but even that which was said in the Law, You shall not covet (Exod 20:17) (which surely no one doubts must be said to Christians too), does not justify a man except through faith in Jesus Christ and the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For the same Apostle says: What then shall we say? Is the Law sin? By no means. But I did not know sin except through the Law; for I did not know concupiscence, unless the Law said, You shall not covet. But sin, taking occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all concupiscence. For without the Law sin was dead. But I lived once without the Law. But when the commandment came, sin revived; and I died; and the commandment which was unto life was found by me to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it slew me. And so the Law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Did then that which is good become death to me? By no means. But sin, that it might appear sin, wrought death in me through what is good; that sin, through the commandment, might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I do, I do not understand; for I do not do what I will, but what I hate, that I do. But if I do what I do not will, I consent to the Law, that it is good (Rom 7:7-16).

1. 4. We see, then, in these apostolic words, that the Law is not only not sin, but is even holy, and the commandment by which it was said You shall not covet holy and just and good. But sin deceives through what is good, and through it slays those who, since they are carnal, suppose that by their own powers they can fulfill the spiritual Law; and through this they become not only sinners, which they would be even if they had not received the Law, but also transgressors, which they would not be unless they had received the Law: for so he says in another place, Where there is no Law, neither is there transgression (Rom 4:15). The Law, then, entered in, as he likewise testifies elsewhere, that the offense might abound. But where the offense abounded, grace abounded the more (Rom 5:20).

2. 5. This, then, is the usefulness of the Law: that it shows a man to himself, so that he may know his weakness and see how, through prohibition, carnal concupiscence is increased rather than healed. For things forbidden are desired more ardently, while the carnal person is compelled to observe what is spiritually commanded. But that one may become spiritual, so as to fulfill the spiritual Law, this comes about not by the Law itself, but by grace; that is, not by command, but by benefit; not by the letter commanding, but by the Spirit helping. And a man begins, according to grace, to be renewed in the inner man, so that he may do in mind what he loves, and not consent to the flesh doing what he hates; that is, not so that he does not covet at all, but so that he does not go after his concupiscences. And this indeed is so great that, even if it came about in every way—and although, while we are in the body of this death, the desires of sin are present, if we nevertheless gave assent to none of them—there would be no reason why we should say to our Father who is in heaven, Forgive us our debts (Matt 6:12). Nor would we therefore already be such as we shall be when this mortal puts on immortality: for then we shall not only obey no desire of sin, but there will be no such desires which we are commanded not to obey.

2. 6. Now, then, where it is said, It is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me (Rom 7:17), it is said of the concupiscence of the flesh, which works its motions in us, even when we do not obey them, so long as sin does not reign in our mortal body so that we obey its desires, nor do we yield our members as weapons of iniquity to sin (Rom 6:12-13): persevering and progressing in which righteousness not yet completed, we shall at some time come to its completion, where the concupiscence of sin is not to be restrained and bridled, but is none at all. For the Law set this down by saying You shall not covet—not as what we can achieve here, but as that toward which by progressing we tend. But this comes about not by the Law which commands it, but by faith which obtains it; not by the letter by which it is ordered, but by the Spirit by which it is given: therefore not by the merits of the laboring man, but by the grace of the bestowing Savior. And so the usefulness of the Law is that it may convict a man of his weakness, and compel him to implore the medicine of grace which is in Christ. For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe him whom they have not heard? (Rom 10:13-14) Whence a little later he says: Faith, therefore, is from hearing; and hearing through the word of Christ (Rom 10:17).

2. 7. Since these things are so, those who rejoice that they are Israelites carnally, and glory in the Law apart from the grace of Christ, are those of whom the Apostle likewise says that, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and wishing to establish their own, they are not subject to the righteousness of God (Rom 10:3). For he called it God's righteousness, which comes to a man from God; but their own, which they suppose suffices for them to do the commandments without the help and gift of him who gave the Law. And like these are those who, although they profess to be Christians, so oppose the very grace of Christ that they think they fulfill the divine commandments by human powers; and thus they too, being ignorant of God's righteousness and wishing to establish their own, are not subject to the righteousness of God, and judaize—not indeed in name, but yet in error. This kind of men had found for themselves, as heads, Pelagius and Celestius, the keenest advocates of this impiety, who by the recent judgment of God, through his diligent and faithful servants, have been deprived even of catholic communion, and, on account of their impenitent heart, still persist in their damnation.

2. 8. Whoever seeks to be a stranger to this carnal and animal—and therefore not undeservedly reprehensible and damnable—Judaism, ought to make estranged from himself not only those old observances which, the New Testament being now revealed, after those things came which were signified by them as future, doubtless ceased to be necessary, so that he is not judged in food and drink, or in respect of a feast day, or a new moon, or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come (Col 2:16-17); but even those which are so commanded in the Law that they avail to form the morals of the faithful—that is, that, renouncing impiety and worldly desires, we may live temperately and justly and piously in this world (Titus 2:12); whence is also that which the Apostle especially chose to commend out of the Law, You shall not covet (Rom 7:7), and whatever about loving God and neighbor is commanded in the Law without any figures of sacraments, on which two commandments the Lord Christ himself says that the whole Law and the Prophets depend—these he so accepts, so embraces, so does not doubt must be observed, that whatever he gains in them he attributes not to himself, but to the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

3. 9. Nevertheless, when anyone has in this way become a true and genuine Christian, whether he should also be called a Jew or an Israelite is deservedly asked. And if this is understood to be so not in flesh but in spirit, he ought not to impose the name itself on himself in the usage of speech, but to retain it by spiritual understanding, lest, on account of the ambiguity of the word, which daily speech does not distinguish, he seem to profess what is hostile to the Christian name. And this question—that is, whether one who is a Christian can also be understood to be a Jew or an Israelite—the same blessed Apostle opens and resolves for us, where he says: Circumcision indeed profits, if you keep the Law: but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. If, then, the uncircumcision keeps the precepts of the Law, shall not its uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision, and shall not that which by nature is uncircumcision, fulfilling the Law, judge you, who through the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God (Rom 2:25-29). Since, then, we hear the Apostle of Christ commending to us the Jew in secret, not by circumcision of the flesh but of the heart, and in the spirit, not the letter—who is this, if not a Christian?

3. 10. And so we are Jews, not carnally but spiritually, just as we are the seed of Abraham not according to the flesh, like those who glory in that very name with carnal pride, but according to the spirit of faith, which they are not. For we know that we were promised, when God said to him, I have made you a father of many nations (Rom 4:17; Gen 17:5). And we know how much the Apostle says on this matter. For we say, he says, that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it reckoned? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which was in uncircumcision: that he might be the father of all who believe through uncircumcision, that it might be reckoned to them also for righteousness; and that he might be the father of circumcision, not only to those who are of the circumcision, but also to those who follow the footsteps of the faith which our father Abraham had in uncircumcision (Rom 4:9-12). And a little later: Therefore, he says, it is of faith, that according to grace the promise might be firm to all the seed; not to that only which is of the Law, but also to that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, For I have made you a father of many nations (Rom 4:16-17). Likewise to the Galatians: As Abraham, he says, believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. Understand, then, that those who are of faith, these are the children of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God justifies the Gentiles by faith, foretold to Abraham, In you shall all the nations be blessed: so that those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham (Gal 3:6-9). Now somewhat later in the same letter: Brethren, he says, I speak after the manner of men; yet no one annuls or adds to a man's confirmed testament. To Abraham the promises were made, 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 3:15-16). Likewise a little later: For you are all one in Christ Jesus, he says; and if you are Christ's, then you are the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise (Gal 3:28-29).

3. 11. According to this apostolic understanding, then, the Jews who are not Christians, although they trace their origin from the flesh of Abraham, are found not to be the children of Abraham. For when he says, Understand, then, that those who are of faith, these are the children of Abraham (Gal 3:7), he surely signifies that those who are not of faith are not the children of Abraham. And thereby, unless Abraham is a father to the Jews in the way that he is to us, what does it profit them that they have sprung from his flesh and have held the name without the power? But when they pass over to Christ and begin to be by faith the children of Abraham, then they will be Jews, not outwardly but inwardly, by circumcision of the heart, in the spirit, not the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. But estranged from this faith, they will be reckoned among the broken branches of that olive tree into whose root the same Apostle says the wild olive—that is, the Gentiles—is grafted; which surely happens not through the flesh but through faith, nor through the Law but through grace, nor through the letter but through the spirit, nor by circumcision of the flesh but of the heart, nor outwardly but inwardly, nor by praise from men but from God: so that each Christian is, as a son of Abraham not carnal but spiritual, so also a Jew not carnal but spiritual, and an Israelite not carnal but spiritual. For about this name too the Apostle speaks thus: For not all who are of Israel, these are Israel; nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but in Isaac shall your seed be called: that is, not those who are the children of the flesh are the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned as seed (Rom 9:6-8). Are these not great wonders, and a deep mystery, that many born of Israel are not Israel, and that many are not children, though they are the seed of Abraham? For how are they not, in the way that we are? Except that they are not children of the promise belonging to the grace of Christ, but children of the flesh bearing an empty name? And thereby neither are they Israel as we are, nor are we Israel as they are. For we are so according to spiritual regeneration, they according to carnal generation.

3. 12. For it must be observed and distinguished that one Israel is that which received the name on account of the flesh, but another that which obtained, on account of the spirit, the reality signified by that name. For were Israelites born from Hagar, Sarah's handmaid? Was not Ishmael born from her, and did he not propagate by his seed not the nation of the Israelites but of the Ishmaelites? But from Sarah came Israel through Isaac, who was born of the promise to Abraham. Yet, although in respect of carnal propagation the matter so stands, one comes to the spiritual understanding, and it is found that the carnal Israelites, who trace their carnal origin from her, do not belong to Sarah; and that there belong to her rather the Christians, who are not, like Ishmael, children of the flesh, but, like Isaac, children of the promise, belonging not to Isaac's carnal seed but to the spiritual mystery. For thus the Apostle speaks to the Galatians: Tell me, you who wish to be under the Law, have you not heard the Law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a handmaid, and one by a free woman. But he who was of the handmaid was born according to the flesh; but he who was of the free woman, through the promise. These things are said by way of allegory. For these are the two Testaments. The one indeed from Mount Sinai, bringing forth unto bondage, which is Hagar: for Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, which is joined to the Jerusalem that now is, for she is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother. For it is written, Rejoice, you barren one who do not bear; break forth and cry, you who do not travail; for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband. But we, brethren, are, like Isaac, children of the promise. But as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also now. But what does the Scripture say? Cast out the handmaid and her son; for the son of the handmaid shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. But we, brethren, are not children of the handmaid, but of the free woman; by which freedom Christ has set us free (Gal 4:21-31; 5:1).

3. 13. Behold, according to this spiritual and apostolic understanding, we rather belong to the free woman Sarah, who draw no carnal propagation from her; while the Jews, who draw carnal propagation from her, are shown to belong rather to the handmaid Hagar, from whom they draw no carnal propagation. In the grandsons too of Abraham and Sarah—that is, the sons of Isaac and Rebecca, those twins Esau and Jacob (who was afterward called Israel)—this same great and deep mystery is found. Speaking of which, the same Apostle, when he had recalled, through Isaac, the children of the promise belonging to the grace of Christ, says: And not only that, but also Rebecca, having conceived from one act of intercourse with Isaac our father. For when they were not yet born, nor had done anything good or evil, that according to election the purpose of God might stand, not from works but from him who calls, it was said to her, The elder shall serve the younger; as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated (Rom 9:10-13). This apostolic and catholic teaching certainly indicates to us plainly enough that, according to the origin of the flesh, the Jews—that is, the Israelites—belong to Sarah, but the Ishmaelites to Hagar; while, according to the mystery of the spirit, the Christians belong to Sarah, the Jews to Hagar. Likewise, according to the origin of the flesh, the nation of the Idumeans belongs to Esau, who was also called Edom, but the nation of the Jews to Jacob, who was also called Israel; whereas, according to the mystery of the spirit, the Jews belong to Esau, the Christians to Israel. For thus is fulfilled what is written, The elder shall serve the younger—that is, the people of the Jews, born first, shall serve the people of the Christians, born later. Behold how we are Israel by divine adoption, glorying not in human kinship; and Jews not outwardly but in secret, not by the letter but by the spirit, not by circumcision of the flesh but of the heart.

4. 14. Since these things are so, we ought not, nevertheless, to confound the usage of human speech with inept loquacity, and, in distinguishing things, to mix common words with a disturbed signification—so that someone should affect to call by the unaccustomed word "Jews" those who are Christians and are called by the most usual appellation Christians; or, although he is and is called a Christian, should delight rather in the name of Israelite; and what he ought always to understand in mystery, but to bring forth more sparingly with the mouth, this he should rather choose to make frequent in the daily usage of speaking, by inept insolence and, if it can be said, unskilled knowledge. For did the Apostles, through whom we learned these things, not know them—how we are rather the seed of Abraham, heirs of the promise according to Isaac; and Jews in spirit, not the letter, by circumcision of the heart, not the flesh; and Israel not according to the flesh, but the Israel of God? They surely knew these things much more wisely and certainly than we; and yet in the usage of speaking they called Jews and Israelites those who, coming according to the flesh from the stock of Abraham, were commonly called by this name by all.

4. 15. The Jews ask for signs, says the apostle Paul, and the Greeks seek wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling block, but to the Gentiles foolishness; but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:22-24). Those whom he called Greeks he signified also by the name of Gentiles, because this language especially excels among the Gentiles; yet the Jews themselves he called those whom all call by this name. For if the Christians themselves are Jews, then to the Christians Christ crucified is a stumbling block, of whom it was said, to the Jews indeed a stumbling block. Who but a most insane person would hold this? Likewise he says: Give no offense to Jews or Greeks or to the Church of God (1 Cor 10:32). How would he distinguish these, if he ought to call the Church of God too "Jews" in the daily usage of speaking? Likewise he says: Whom he has also called, namely us, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles (Rom 9:24). How did he call from the Jews, if he rather called from the non-Jews, that they might be Jews? Likewise concerning the Israelites: What then shall we say? he says; That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness; the righteousness, that is, which is of faith. But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not arrive at the law of righteousness. Why? Because it was not of faith, but as if of works: for they stumbled at the stone of stumbling (Rom 9:30-32). Likewise: But to Israel what does he say? All the day I have stretched out my hands to a people that does not believe and contradicts (Rom 10:21). And following on, he adds: I say then, Has God cast off his people? By no means. For I too am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast off his people, whom he foreknew (Rom 11:1-2). How here did the Apostle call Israel unbelieving and contradicting, if the Christians are Israel; or how did he call himself an Israelite? Was it from the fact that he had become a Christian? Surely not; but from the fact that according to the flesh he was of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin—which we are not according to the flesh, although according to faith we are the seed of Abraham, and thereby also Israel. But it is one thing that the understanding of the deeper sacrament recognizes, another that the daily usage of the word demands.

4. 16. Finally, this Aptus, whoever he is, of whom you wrote that he teaches Christians to judaize, calls himself, as your Holiness intimated, a Jew and an Israelite in such a way that he forbids the foods which the Law, given through God's holy servant Moses, forbade for the fittingness of that time, and urges the other observances of that time, now abolished and removed among Christians—which the Apostle calls shadows of things to come (See Col 2:17), so that in them both the prophecy may be understood and their observance shown to be now made void: whence it appears why this Aptus wishes to be called an Israelite and a Jew, not spiritually but altogether carnally. But we are neither held bound by those observances which, the New Testament being revealed, are made void, and the precepts of the Law necessary even for this time—such as You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, which is summed up in this saying, You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Rom 13:9)—we have learned and we teach must be observed, not by human powers, as though establishing our own righteousness, but by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, in that righteousness which is to us from him. Nor do we for that reason deny that we are the seed of Abraham, to whom the Apostle says, You, then, are the seed of Abraham (Gal 3:29); or Jews in secret, of whom the same says, For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not the letter, whose praise is not from men but from God (Rom 2:28-29); or spiritual Israelites, belonging, namely, to him to whom it was foretold that the elder would serve the younger: but we impose these names on ourselves not unbecomingly, and we contain them by the understanding of mysteries, not bandy them about by the insolence of words.

LETTER 197
TO HESYCHIUS, MOST BLESSED LORD, FROM AUGUSTINE.

1. Now that your son, our fellow presbyter Cornutus, is returning to your Holiness—the one through whom I received the letter of your Veneration, by which you deigned to visit my littleness—I at last render my reply, and the owed duty of returning your greeting, much commending myself to your prayers most acceptable to the Lord, most blessed lord and brother. But concerning the prophetic sayings often foretold, about which you wished that I should write something, it seemed better to me to direct to your Blessedness the expositions of those same words by the most learned man, holy Jerome (lest perhaps you do not have them), excerpted from his little works. But if you already had them, and they did not satisfy your inquiry, I ask that you not be reluctant to write back to me what you think of these matters, and how you yourself understand those prophetic oracles. For I think that passage about the Weeks of Daniel must be understood especially according to the time that has already passed: for concerning the coming of the Savior, which is awaited at the end, I do not dare to number the times; nor do I think that any prophet has fixed beforehand the number of years concerning this matter, but that there rather prevails what the Lord himself says, No one can know the times which the Father has placed in his own power (Acts 1:7).

2. For as to what he says in another place, But of that day and hour no one knows (Matt 24:36), there are those who so take it as to think that they can compute the times, but that only the very day and hour no one knows: where I forbear to say how the Scriptures are accustomed to put "day" or "hour" even for a period of time. But certainly that saying about the ignorance of the times was uttered most plainly. For when on this point the Lord was questioned by his disciples, No one, he says, can know the times which the Father has placed in his own power (Acts 1:7). For he did not say "the day" or "the hour," but "the times," which are not usually said in a short span, like a day or an hour—especially if we look at the Greek text, from which language we know that same book, where this is written, was translated into ours, although it could not be sufficiently expressed in Latin. For there it is read in Greek, chronous e kairous. But our translators call both of these words "times," whether chronous or kairous, although these two have between themselves a difference not to be neglected. For the Greeks call kairoi indeed times, yet not those that pass in the rolls of intervals, but those that are perceived in things opportune or inopportune for something—as harvest, vintage, heat, cold, peace, war, and the like; but they call chronoi the very spans of times.

3. And this certainly the Apostles themselves did not so inquire after, as though they wished to know one last day or hour—that is, a small part of a day; but whether the time was now opportune in which the kingdom should be restored to Israel. Then they heard: No one can know the times which the Father has placed in his own power (Acts 1:7)—that is, chronous e kairous: which, if it were said in Latin, "times or opportunities," not even thus would what was said be expressed; because whether times are opportune or inopportune, they are called kairoi. To compute the times, then, that is, the kairoi, so that we may know when the end of this age or the coming of the Lord will be, seems to me nothing other than to wish to know what he himself says no one can know.

4. But the opportunity of that time will surely not be before the Gospel is preached in the whole world for a testimony to all nations. For a most plain sentence is read on this matter from the Savior, who says: And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (Matt 24:14). "Then it will come"—what is this, if not "before, it will not come"? How long after, then, it may come is uncertain to us; but that it will not come before, we surely ought not to doubt. If, therefore, the servants of God were to undertake this labor, that, traversing the world, they might gather as best they could what nations remain where the Gospel has not yet been preached, from this we could in some way perceive how far this time is from the end of the age. But if, on account of certain inaccessible and inhospitable places, it is not believed possible that the world be traversed by the servants of God, and that it be faithfully reported how many and how great nations are still without the Gospel of Christ, much less, I think, can it be comprehended in the Scriptures how great are the times to be until the end, since in them we read, No one can know the times which the Father has placed in his own power (Acts 1:7). Hence, even if it were now most certainly announced to us that the Gospel is preached among all nations, not even thus could we say how much time remains until the end; but we would deservedly say that it more and more draws near. Unless perhaps someone answer that, with the Gospel preached with such speed, the Roman nations and very many barbarian ones have been occupied, and thus some have been converted to the faith of Christ not gradually but suddenly, so that it is not incredible that in a few years—if not of our life, who have already grown old, then surely of the young who will come to old age—absolutely all the remaining nations could be filled with the Gospel. But if it will be so, it can more easily be proved by experience, when it has been done, than be found by reading, before it is done.

5. This the opinion of a certain man, whom the presbyter Jerome too marks for rashness, has compelled me to say—because he dared to expound the Weeks of Daniel concerning the future coming of Christ, not the past. But if for your better merits the Lord has revealed or shall reveal something better to the holy humility of your heart, I ask that you deign to share it with us, and to receive this reply of ours as that of a man who would indeed prefer to have knowledge rather than ignorance of those things you inquired of me; but because I have not yet been able to attain it, I rather choose to confess a cautious ignorance than to profess a false knowledge.

LETTER 198
TO AUGUSTINE, MOST BLESSED LORD, AND BROTHER AND FELLOW BISHOP TO BE VENERATED WITH MOST SINCERE LOVE, HESYCHIUS SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.

1. While I was desiring and awaiting it, our holy fellow presbyter Cornutus brought me the letter of your Blessedness which you sent, which gladdened me, because you deigned to have a good remembrance of us—you who also, in a few words, in the proper speech of your holy mind, signified to me in passing about the things I had asked. And you added some things from the little works of the holy fellow presbyter Jerome, that I might be able to fulfill my question by reading his work on the holy Scriptures. And because you deigned to ask of us that we should intimate by letter to your most sincere Charity what we thought about these very questions, I have written below, regarding the things about which I read in your writing, as far as the slight understanding of my mediocrity was able to think or understand.

2. Since all things are carried on by the will and power of God almighty, the Creator of all creation—both the things that have been done, and those too that are to be, are made known by the voices of the holy Prophets, who, before the things that were to be came about, spoke to men by the divine will. Whence it is full enough of wonder, if God established that those things which he willed to be foretold could in no way reach men's perception, according to that passage which the Lord spoke to the blessed Apostles, saying: No one can know the times which the Father has placed in his own power (Acts 1:7). First, because in the most ancient books of the Churches it is not written thus, "No one can"; but it is written, It is not for you to know the times or the moments which the Father has placed in his own power (Acts 1:7): which sense of the saying is rightly completed by the following word, when it says, But you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). He willed, then, that the Apostles be understood as witnesses not of the consummation of the world, but of his name and resurrection.

3. For about knowing the times the Lord himself admonishes: Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the Lord has set over his household, to give them food in due time? Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he comes, shall find so doing (Matt 24:45-46). The household of Christ is fed by the word of preaching, and he is found a faithful servant who, in due time, furnishes the necessary food to those who await the Lord, to those who believe. For the evil servant is thus rebuked: But if that evil servant shall say, My lord delays his coming; the lord of that servant will come in a day when he does not look for him, and in an hour that he does not know (Matt 24:48, 50); and the rest. Likewise he shows why the time is not recognized, saying: Hypocrites, you know how to discern the face of the sky; why do you not discern this time? (See Matt 16:3; Lk 12:56) Likewise the Apostle: In the last days perilous times shall be at hand (2 Tim 3:1); and the rest. Likewise the Apostle: But of the times and the moments we have no need to write to you: for you yourselves know diligently that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them, as the pangs upon a woman in travail, and they shall not escape (1 Thess 5:1-3). Likewise the Apostle: Do you not remember that, when I was with you, I told you these things? And now you know what restrains, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of iniquity already works; only that he who now holds, let him hold, until he be taken out of the way: and then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the spirit of his mouth (2 Thess 2:5-8). Likewise the Lord in the Gospel rebukes the Jews: And you, if you had known the time of your visitation, perhaps you would have remained; but now they are hidden from your eyes (See Lk 19:42-44). And the Lord thus preaches to the Jews: Repent; the times are fulfilled; believe the Gospel (See Mk 1:15). And to the Jews indeed he rightly said "fulfilled," because their times ended thirty-five or forty years after his preaching. And in Daniel: Until the beast was slain, and perished, and its body was given to be burned; and the kingdom of the other beasts was taken away, and length of life was given to them until a time and a time (See Dan 7:11-12); which is said in Greek, heos chronou kai kairou. And there follows: And behold, one coming with the clouds of heaven like the Son of man (Dan 7:13). The mystery of the beast, from the removal of the other beasts, is manifest to those who understand the Scripture.

4. The coming of the Lord must be loved and awaited. For there is great blessedness for those who love his coming, as the blessed apostle Paul gives witness: For the rest, he says, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me in that day: and not to me only, but to those also who love the coming of the Lord (2 Tim 4:8). And the Lord in the Gospel: Then the righteous shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt 13:43). Likewise the prophet: For behold, darkness and gloom shall cover the earth over the nations; but in you the Lord shall appear, and his majesty shall be seen in you (See Isa 60:2). Likewise the prophet: But those who wait for the Lord shall exult with strength; they shall put forth wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not hunger (See Isa 40:31). And very many such things are found which pertain to the blessedness of those who love the coming of the Lord.

5. But that no one can gather the measures of the times is manifest. The Gospel indeed says: Of that day and hour no one knows (Matt 24:36); but I, on account of the incapacity of my understanding, say that neither the day, nor the month, nor the year of his coming can be known; but it befits me, by seeing and believing the signs which are of his coming, both to await it and to render this food to those who believe, so that, awaiting it, they may love the coming of him who said, When you see all these things, know that it is near, at the doors (Matt 24:33). The evangelical and prophetic signs, then, which are fulfilled in us, manifest the coming of the Lord. For in vain do those who either inquire or who cavil seek to comprehend in a reckoning the days and years, since it is written, And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened (Matt 24:22). It is certain that the time lacks reckoning which is to be shortened by the Lord, who appointed the times; but that his coming has drawn near, some of whose signs of coming we see, out of those that have been done, to be fulfilled; and again he says: But when these things begin to come to pass, breathe again and lift up your heads, for your redemption shall draw near (Lk 21:28). But what signs he said must be seen is manifest in the Gospel of holy Luke: And Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled (Lk 21:24). This has been done, and no one doubts that it is being done. And there follows: And there shall be signs in the sun, and the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations (Lk 21:25). The things that we suffer even punishment compels us to confess, if perhaps the will does not heed it: for it is manifest that, at one time, both signs in heaven and the distress of nations on earth are seen and endured by men. And there follows: Men withering away for fear, and expectation of the things which shall come upon the whole world (Lk 21:26). It is certain that no country, no place, in our times is not afflicted or humbled, as it was said, For fear, and expectation of the things which shall come upon the whole world: and all the signs which the Gospel above manifests to those who read it are for the greatest part fulfilled.

6. But as for what was said, And this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, and then the end will come (Matt 24:14)—first . . . since the Lord's own promise was such, that his Apostles themselves should become witnesses of his name and resurrection in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth, and the Apostle teaches by this authority: But I say, Have they not heard? Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Rom 10:18). Likewise: Because of the hope which is laid up for you, which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel, which has come to you, as it is also in all the world, bearing fruit and increasing (Col 1:5-6). But the faith announced by the Apostles among the nations had many persecutors, so that, being held back, it grew strong more slowly, that this might be fulfilled: Before all these things, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and to prisons, bringing you before kings and governors, for my name's sake (Lk 21:12): so that this might be fulfilled which was written, And you shall be speedily rebuilt by those by whom you were destroyed (See Isa 60:10). For from the time when, by the will of God, the most clement emperors began to be Christian—although the faith, by reason of persecution, was growing little by little in the world—once the kings were made Christian, the Gospel of Christ penetrated everywhere in a short time.

7. The exposition of the blessed Daniel concerning the Weeks, although our holy fellow presbyter Jerome expounded it as the teachers of the Churches had handed it down, leaves the reader in suspense. For if that most learned man, our fellow presbyter, says it is dangerous to judge of the opinions of the masters of the Churches and to prefer one to another, how much more cannot the reader do this, which the master doubted to do! But we believe what the Lord says: For heaven and earth shall pass away; but one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the Law, until all things are accomplished (Matt 5:18). How, then, the mystery of the Weeks has been fulfilled up to the nativity and passion of Christ, I wonder; since the Prophet spoke that in the half of a week, saying, In the half of the week my sacrifice and supplication shall be taken away, and the abomination of desolations shall be unto sacrifice (See Dan 9:27). If, then, this abomination had already been fulfilled, how does the Lord admonish and say, When you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let him who reads understand (Matt 24:15)? But, lest I should be a despiser of the petition of your Blessedness, I have written to your Charity these things as I have thought them. But deign to instruct and gladden us more fully by writing back the word of your grace.

LETTER 199
ON THE END OF THE AGE
TO HESYCHIUS, MOST BLESSED LORD, AND BROTHER AND FELLOW BISHOP TO BE LOOKED UP TO WITH VENERATION, AUGUSTINE SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.

1. 1. I have received the letter of your Veneration, in which you very wholesomely exhort that the coming of our Savior be loved and desired. You do this as the good servant of that same Householder, eager for the gains of your Lord, and wishing to have very many companions in the love by which you yourself are kindled especially and perseveringly. Considering, then, what you recalled from the Apostle—that he said the Lord would render the crown of righteousness not only to himself, but also to all who love his manifestation—we live rightly, and act in this world as pilgrims, when our heart progressively extends itself in this love; whether he come sooner or later than is thought, whose manifestation is loved with faithful love and desired with pious affection. For that servant who says, My lord delays, and beats his fellow servants, eats and drinks with the drunken (See Matt 24:48-49), surely does not love his manifestation. For his mind appears from his morals; which morals, though briefly, the good Master therefore took care to express, that is, pride and luxury, lest what he said, My lord delays, be believed to be said with desire for his lord, with which that one burned who said, My soul has thirsted for the living God: when shall I come and appear before the face of God? (Ps 42:2 (41:3)) For by saying When shall I come? he bore it grievously that he was suffering delays; because even what is hastened in time seems slow to desire. But how is his coming slow, or how is it to be far off, when the Apostles themselves, at the time when they were still in the flesh, said, It is the last hour (1 Jn 2:18), although they had heard from the Lord, It is not for you to know the times (Acts 1:7)? This, then, they did not know, which we too do not know (I speak as far as concerns me, and those who, with me, do not know this); and yet those to whom it was said, It is not for you to know the times which the Father has placed in his own power, loved his manifestation, and gave their fellow servants their food in due time, and did not beat them by lording it over them, nor revel with the lovers of the world, saying, My lord delays.

1. 2. The ignorance of the times, then, is one thing; the corruption of morals and love of vices another. For when the apostle Paul said, Be not quickly moved in mind, nor be terrified, neither by word nor by letter, as though sent through us, as if the day of the Lord were at hand (2 Thess 2:2), he surely did not wish them to believe those who thought that the coming of the Lord was now drawing near: nor yet did he wish that, like that servant, they should say, My lord delays his coming, and give themselves over to pride and luxury to be ruined; but he so did not wish them to give ear to false rumors about the last day drawing near, that he nevertheless wished them to await the coming of their Lord prepared, with loins girded and lamps burning (See Lk 12:35): to whom he says, But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day; we are not of the night nor of darkness (1 Thess 5:4-5). But that one who says, My lord delays his coming, so as to beat his fellow servants and feast with the drunken, is not a son of light, but of darkness; and therefore that day will overtake him like a thief: which each one ought to dread even of the last day of this life of his. For in whatever state his own last day finds anyone, in that state the world's last day will overtake him; since such as anyone dies on that day, such will he be judged on that day.

1. 3. To this pertains what is written thus in the Gospel according to Mark: Watch, therefore, for you do not know when the lord of the house comes—at evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning—lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. But what I say to you, I say to all, Watch (Mk 13:35-37). For to whom does he say "to all," if not to his elect and beloved belonging to his body, which is the Church? He said it, then, not only to those who were then hearing him as he spoke, but also to those who were after them before us, and to us ourselves, and to those who will be after us until his last coming. But will that day find all in this life, or will anyone say that what he says, Watch, lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping, pertains even to the dead? Why, then, does he say "to all" what pertains only to those who will then be alive, except that it pertains to all in the way I have said? For that day will then come to each one, when the day comes for him to depart hence in such a state as he is to be judged on that day. And thereby every Christian ought to watch, lest the coming of the Lord find him unprepared. But that day will find unprepared the one whom the last day of this his life shall find unprepared. For certainly this at least was manifest to the Apostles, that the Lord was not going to come in their times, while they lived here in the flesh: and yet who would doubt that they especially watched and kept what he said to all, lest, coming suddenly, he find them unprepared?

2. 4. I do not yet indeed understand in what way what your Holiness wrote ought to be taken—that the Lord said to the Apostles, It is not for you to know the times or the moments which the Father has placed in his own power (Acts 1:7), for this reason: because, following on, he added, But you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). This sense of Scripture you so expound as to say: "He willed, then, that the Apostles be understood as witnesses not of the consummation of the world, but of his name and resurrection." He did not, indeed, say "It is not for you to preach the times"; but, It is not for you to know. But if you wish what he said, It is not for you to know, to be so understood as if he said, "It is not for you to make known," that is, "it is not for you to teach this"—who of us would dare to teach, or presume that he knows, what that divine Master did not teach even those disciples by whom, present, he was questioned, present, nor could those so holy and great teachers teach the Church?

2. 5. Or will it be answered that the Apostles did not teach these things, but the Prophets did? For you said this, and it is true, that those things which are to be are made known by the voices of the holy Prophets, who, you say, before they came about, spoke to men, by the divine will, the things that were to be. But if your Veneration says it is full enough of wonder if God established that the things he willed to be foretold could in no way reach men's perception, how much more full of wonder is it if the things which the Prophets spoke to men, these the Apostles were either prohibited from knowing or from teaching! But how would the Prophets, teaching these times of which we treat, not be understood by the Apostles, if they are understood by us? Or if the Apostles understood them, prophesying this measure of time, how would they not teach what they understood, when through their proclamation the very Prophets too became known, who taught them these things in their Books? And therefore, through the same writings by which they themselves had learned these things, others too could learn them, among those nations among whom the Apostles commended the prophetic authority. Why, then, was it said to them, It is not for you to know—or, if it is to be so understood, "It is not for you to teach"—the times which the Father has placed in his own power; since they so taught them, when those in whose writings they were learned became known through them? Whence it is more credible that God did not wish to be known what he willed to be foretold, but did not wish to be foretold what he saw was not usefully known.

2. 6. "Why, then," you say, "does the Lord himself admonish concerning the knowing of the times, where he says, Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the Lord has set over his household, to give them food in due time? (Matt 24:45)" and so forth. Nay rather, he admonishes, not that the good servant should know the end of the times, but that at every time he should watch in good work, because he does not know the end of the times. He does not admonish that we should attain the times, which the Father has placed in his own power, beyond the Apostles; but he admonishes that, since we do not know when the Lord comes, we should imitate the Apostles in preparation of heart: of which I have already said enough above. But he reproaches the Jews because they do not know the time, saying: Hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky (See Matt 16:3), and so forth; because they did not recognize that time which he now wished to be recognized, that is, that of his first coming, by which they should believe in him who would wish to await his other coming, watching, whenever it should be. For he who has not recognized the first coming of the Lord will not be able to prepare himself for the second, by believing in him and faithfully watching, lest that day overtake him like a thief in the darkness, whether it come later or sooner than is hoped.

3. 7. The apostle Paul also says, as you remind, In the last times perilous times shall be at hand (2 Tim 3:1), and the rest. But does he therefore teach the times which the Father has placed in his own power? Or does anyone therefore know how long or short these very times are, which it must be confessed are the last? For we ought indeed to consider how long ago it was said, Little children, it is the last hour (1 Jn 2:18).

3. 8. Again you recall that the same Apostle said: But of the times and the moments we have no need to write to you: for you yourselves know diligently that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; and when they shall say, Peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them, as the pangs upon a woman in travail, and they shall not escape (1 Thess 5:1-3). And here he did not say after how much time this would be, but how it would be; that is, not how great would be the brevity or length of the period, but that, however great the interval and span of time, this last evil would nevertheless not come upon them except when they shall have said, Peace and security. By which words the Apostle seems to have removed the hope or fear of this last day from this our time: for we do not see the very lovers of this age, upon whom sudden destruction will come, already saying, Peace and security.

3. 9. What, then, it suffices to know, the Apostle himself sufficiently shows, by saying: Of the times and the moments we have no need to write to you; or, as other manuscripts have it, You have no need that it be written to you (1 Thess 5:1). Nor, following on, did he add, "For you yourselves know diligently how much time remains"; but he says, For you yourselves know diligently that the hour of the Lord will come as a thief in the night (See 1 Thess 5:2). This, then, it is needful to know, so that those who are unwilling to be overtaken by that hour as by a thief in the night may take care to be sons of light and to watch with a prepared heart. For if, to avoid this evil—that is, lest the hour of the Lord find him unprepared like a thief—it were needful to know the spans of times, the Apostle would not say it was not needful to write this, but would rather judge, as a most provident teacher, that this must be written to them. But now he showed that not even this was needful for them, for whom it sufficed to know that the hour of the Lord would come like a thief upon the unprepared and the sleeping, and that, by knowing this, they themselves might be watchfully prepared, after however long a time it should come; and he kept his own measure, so that, although an apostle, he nevertheless did not presume to teach others what he knew the Lord had said to the Apostles: It is not for you to know.

3. 10. You set down also what the same Apostle said: Do you not remember that, when I was with you, I told you these things? And now you know what restrains, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of iniquity already works; only that he who holds, let him now hold, until he be taken out of the way: and then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the spirit of his mouth (2 Thess 2:5-8). Would that you deigned not only to set down these apostolic words, but also to expound them: so obscure indeed are they and mystically said, that nevertheless it appears that he said nothing of fixed times, and opened up no interval or span of them. For he says, that he may be revealed in his own time: nor did he say after how much time this would be. Then he subjoined, For the mystery of iniquity already works. This mystery of iniquity, however it be understood as to what it is—by one in this way, by another in that—nevertheless, so long as it works, is hidden. Nor did the Apostle express it as a man from the number of those to whom it was said, It is not for you to know the times: for although he was not yet among them when this was said to them, we do not doubt that he too belonged to their college and fellowship.

3. 11. Likewise, what follows—only that he who now holds, let him hold, until he be taken out of the way: and then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the spirit of his mouth (2 Thess 2:7-8)—teaches us that the Antichrist will be manifest: since indeed he seems to have touched, with a somewhat clearer signification, that he is to be slain by the spirit of the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ; but after how much time this will be, he did not speak even obscurely. For who he is who now holds, or what he holds, or what he means by saying be taken out of the way, anyone can constrain himself to understand, or in some measure surmise, since he reads it written in some fashion; but how long he holds, and after how great spans of time he is taken out of the way, is here altogether passed over in silence.

4. 12. "Likewise," you say, "the Lord in the Gospel rebukes the Jews, saying: And you, if you had known the time of your visitation, perhaps you would have remained; but now they are hidden from your eyes (See Lk 19:42-44)." But this pertains to the time of the Lord's first coming, not the second, about which the question now is. For about his second coming he said, It is not for you to know the times, not about the first: for about that one the disciples asked him, which they hoped for, not about this one, which they already saw. For if the Jews had known his first coming, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory; and therefore they could have not been overturned, but remained. Now, as for what he says to them, Repent; the times are fulfilled; believe the Gospel (See Mk 1:15), you yourself too have affirmed that it was said of those times of the Jews which were soon, after a few years, to pass away, and which we now know are already past—the city, that is, being overturned in which their kingdom had been established.

4. 13. Accordingly, as for what your Veneration set down from Daniel about the beast slain, and about the kingdom of the other beasts, and amid these about the Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven, you said it was manifest to those who understand the Scripture. But if you will deign to expound how these things pertain to knowing the span of time after which the coming of the Savior will be, in such a way that they are found manifest without any ambiguity, I myself too will confess, with great giving of thanks, that what the Lord said, It is not for you to know the times, was said only to the Apostles, not to their successors, who were going to know them.

5. 14. The coming of the Lord, then, must be loved and awaited, as you holily exhort; and you say there is great blessedness for those who love his coming, and you bring forward the testimony of the Apostle, whose words you set down thus: For the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me in that day: and not to me only, but to those also who love the coming of the Lord (2 Tim 4:8). For then, as you recall from the Gospel, The righteous shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt 13:43); and what the prophet says, For behold, gloom and darkness shall cover the earth over the nations; but in you the Lord shall appear, and his majesty shall be seen in you (See Isa 60:2); likewise what is written, But those who wait for the Lord shall exult with strength; they shall put forth wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not hunger (See Isa 40:31).

5. 15. This you say plainly most piously and most truly, commending the blessedness of those who love the coming of the Lord. But those too to whom the Apostle said, Be not quickly moved in mind, as though the day of the Lord were at hand (See 2 Thess 2:2), surely loved the coming of the Lord: nor in saying this did the Teacher of the Gentiles break them off from that love by which he wished them to be inflamed; and therefore he did not wish them to believe those from whom they heard that the day of the Lord was at hand, lest perhaps, when the time had passed in which they had believed he would come, and they did not perceive that he had come, they should think that the rest too was deceitfully promised them, and despair even of the very reward of faith. He, then, does not love the coming of the Lord who asserts that it draws near, nor he who asserts that it does not draw near; but rather he who, whether it be near or far, awaits it with sincerity of faith, firmness of hope, and ardor of love. For if the Lord is loved the more, the more he is believed and preached to be coming sooner, then those who said his coming was already at hand loved him more than those whom the Apostle forbade to believe them, or than the Apostle himself, who surely did not believe this.

6. 16. But if my weakness is not burdensome to your Holiness, I ask that you not be reluctant to expound more openly how you said that "no one can gather the measures of the times"; lest perhaps this too seem to me as it does to your Charity, and any of us await in vain to be instructed by the other. For when you had said this, you then subjoined and said: "The Gospel indeed says, Of the day and hour no one knows (Matt 24:36); but I," you say, "on account of the capacity of my understanding, say that neither the month nor the year of his coming can be known." For this seems to sound as though it cannot be known in what year he will come, but it can be known in what week of years, or in what decade; as though it could be said and defined within those or those seven years, or within those or those ten years. But if not even this can be comprehended, I ask whether the time of his coming can at least be defined in such a way that, when we say he will come within, for example, fifty or a hundred years, or however many of a greater or lesser number of years, we are ignorant in which of them. If you have already comprehended this, it is much that you have been able to comprehend. And this very thing is what I ask that you kindly impart to us, applying suitable proofs by which you have been able to track it down: but if you do not presume to have comprehended even this, you think what I think.

6. 17. For that these are the last times, with many signs of things appearing which we read the Lord foretold, all of us who believe these things perceive. But even a span of a thousand years, if their end were the end of the age, could the whole of it be called the last time, or even the last day, because it is written, A thousand years before your eyes are as one day (Ps 90:4 (89:4)); so that whatever was carried on through those thousand years would be said to be carried on in the last time or the last day. For again I say what in this case must often be said: let us consider how many years ago the blessed evangelist John said, It is the last hour (1 Jn 2:18). For if we were then, on hearing this, when would we believe that so many years would pass afterward, and not rather, with John himself still set in the body, hope that the Lord would come? For he did not say, "It is the last time," or "the last year," or "month," or "day"; but, It is the last hour: and behold, how long is this hour! And yet he did not lie: but surely he must be understood to have put "hour" for "time." Which some so take as to set up six thousand years as one day, and to divide it into twelve parts, as it were hours, so that thus the last five hundred years seem to have the last hour: in which years, they say, John was already speaking, when he said it was the last hour.

6. 18. But to know something is one thing, to surmise it another. For why not rather, if six thousand years are to be reckoned one day, is one hour not the twelfth but the twenty-fourth part of it—that is, not five hundred but two hundred fifty years? For the whole day, the whole circuit of the sun, is more truly named not from the East to the West, but from the East to the East, whence, the whole day being completed—that is, twenty-four hours—it rises again: and thereby this last hour, from the time when John spoke this, nearly seventy years before, is found already to have passed at the least, and the end of the age has not yet come. To this is added that, the ecclesiastical history being diligently inspected, the apostle John is found to have died long before five thousand five hundred years from the beginning of the human race were completed. It was not yet, then, the last hour, if the twelfth part of six thousand years—that is, five hundred years—is reckoned as the span of one hour. Moreover, if, according to the Scriptures, we set one day to be a thousand years, much more long ago did the last hour of so long a day pass; I do not say if its twenty-fourth part, which is a little more than forty years, but if its twelfth part be reckoned, which has double those years. Whence it is more fittingly believed that that apostle put "hour" for "time"; how long which hour is, we are ignorant, because it is not ours to know the times which the Father has placed in his own power (Acts 1:7): although we know it to be the last hour—much more surely we, then, than those who were before us, from the time it began to be, or to be called, the last hour.

7. 19. But as for why it seems to your Veneration that the measures of times cannot be comprehended, so as to define in what year the end will be, because, according to the Lord's promise, those days shall be shortened (Matt 24:22), I do not understand it at all. For if they will be so shortened that out of more they become fewer, I ask, according to what truth were they going to be more, unless they were shortened? For the Weeks of holy Daniel you suppose pertain not to the first coming of the Lord, as has seemed to many, but rather to the second. Will they, then, be so shortened that there will be even one week less in them, and the prophecy will be false, which with so great diligence took care to define the number of the weeks, so that it said something to be fulfilled even in the half of a week? I wonder if by the prophecy of Christ the prophecy of Daniel is destroyed. Then, what sort of thing is it that we should suppose that Daniel—or rather the angel from whom he was learning these things—was ignorant that the Lord would shorten those days, and erred in saying this; or knew indeed, but lied to the one whom he was teaching? But if this is absurd, why do we not rather believe that Daniel prophesied so many weeks according to that by which the Lord was going to shorten those days?—if indeed that number of years refers to the second coming of the Lord (which I do not know how it can be shown).

7. 20. Finally, much more certainly and securely is the Lord's coming said to be within seventy, or at most within a hundred, years, if these Weeks foretell it. For there are four hundred ninety years in seventy weeks: and from the nativity of the Lord today are computed nearly four hundred twenty years; and from his resurrection or ascension, more or less three hundred ninety years. And thereby, if it be computed from the time he was born, seventy remain; if from the time he suffered, about a hundred remain: within which all the Weeks of Daniel, if they were prophesied of his last coming, will be fulfilled. He, then, who says, "Within so many years it will be," then says something false if it will be beyond: but because they will be shortened, they will be able to be fewer, not more. Rightly, therefore, is it said, "Within these it will be," since, however much they are shortened, it will be true: for that very shortening, if it is to be understood in such a way that they become fewer, does not allow the day of the Lord to come beyond them, but more and more within them, the fewer they are. This shortening, then, does not disturb the reckoner who has defined in such a way as to say that within so many years the day of the Lord will come; rather it helps him, since the more the days are reduced to fewness, the more it will be within, and it will not be able to be beyond: and therefore that will be true which is so defined as to say, "Within so many years it will be," although it is not known in what year it will be.

7. 21. Accordingly, the whole question is whether the Weeks of Daniel were fulfilled at the first coming of the Lord, or prophesied the end of the age, or pertain to both. For there were not lacking those who held even this, saying that they were completed at the time of Christ's first coming, and that from there until the end of the age just as many are again to be completed. For my part I see that, if the first coming did not complete them, the second must necessarily complete them; since that prophecy cannot be false: which, if it was fulfilled at the time of the first coming, does not compel us to understand that it will be fulfilled also concerning the end of the age. And thereby it is uncertain, even if it is true; and indeed it must not be denied, but neither must it be presumed, that this will be. It remains, therefore, that whoever wishes to compel this prophecy to be believed to be fulfilled at the end of the age should contend as much as he can, and show, if he can, that it was not completed at the first coming of the Lord—against so many expounders of the divine words, who demonstrate that it was completed thereby, not only by the computation of times, but also by the very facts, especially because it is written there, And the Holy of holies shall be anointed (Dan 9:24): or because in the same prophecy the Hebrew manuscripts have more expressly, Christ shall be slain, and it shall not be his (See Dan 9:26)—that is, it shall not be his city; since he was so alienated from the Jews, who for that reason believed that he was not their Savior and redeemer, because they were able to kill him. For Christ is not to be anointed or slain at the end of the age, so that this prophecy of Daniel should then be awaited to be fulfilled, which is not yet believed fulfilled.

8. 22. But that, from the evangelical and prophetic signs which we perceive coming to pass, we ought to hope for the near coming of the Lord, who denies? For daily it becomes more and more near. But at how great an interval it draws near—this, it has been said, it is not for you to know. See when the Apostle said, For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night has gone before, and the day has drawn near (Rom 13:11-12): and behold, how many years have passed! And yet what he said is not false. How much more now must it be said that the coming of the Lord draws near, when so great an approach to the end has been made! The Apostle certainly says: The Spirit manifestly says that in the last times some will depart from the faith (1 Tim 4:1). Surely those times were not yet—that is, of the heretics and of such men as he describes in the same discourse—but they have now come: and thereby in the last times we seem to be admonished even through them concerning the end of the age. And likewise, saying elsewhere, But know this, that in the last days fierce times shall be at hand, or, as other manuscripts have it, perilous (2 Tim 3:1); then expressing what they will be like, For men shall be lovers of themselves, he says, lovers of money, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, irreligious, without affection, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, insolent, blinded, lovers of pleasures more than of God, having an appearance of piety but denying its power (2 Tim 3:2-5). It is a wonder if such men were ever lacking. Finally, because they were then too, he adds and says, And avoid these. For of these are they who penetrate homes (2 Tim 3:5-6). He does not say "They will penetrate," as though here too foretelling something future, as he had said above, perilous times shall be at hand; but he says, They penetrate homes, and lead captive silly women (2 Tim 3:6): he does not say "They will lead," or "they are going to lead," but, they already lead.

8. 23. Nor must it be thought that in this place, instead of words of future time, he put words of present time; since he was admonishing that they be avoided by the one to whom he writes. Nor yet did he say in vain, In the last days perilous times shall be at hand; and, showing from this that those times would be perilous, he foretold that such men would be, except because they will be so much the more numerous, and will abound the more, the more it draws near to the end. We see, then, that such men now abound. But what, if they will be more abundant after us, and altogether most abundant when the very end is at hand and pressing, which, how long it will be away, is not known? For "the last days" were said even in those very first days of the Apostles, when the Lord's ascension into heaven was recent, when on the day of Pentecost he sent the promised Holy Spirit, and some were amazed, marveling at those who spoke in tongues they had not learned, while others, mocking, said they were full of new wine. On which day Peter, speaking to those who were variously moved about this matter, says: For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is the third hour of the day. But heed that this is what was said through the prophet, It shall be in the last days, says the Lord, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh (Acts 2:15-17), and the rest.

8. 24. Already then, therefore, those were the last days; how much more now, even if only so many days remain until the end as have passed from the Lord's ascension to this day, or whether something less or more remains?—which we surely do not know, because it is not for us to know the times or the moments which the Father has placed in his own power (Acts 1:7): since nevertheless we know that we act in the last times, in the last days, in the last hour, like the Apostles; but much more those who were after them before us, and much more we, and more than we those who will be after us, until one comes to those who will be, if it can be said, the last of the last, and to the very last of all, whom the Lord wishes to be understood where he says, And I will raise him up on the last day (Jn 6:40): how far off which is, cannot be comprehended.

9. 25. The signs which in the Gospel are foretold as future, as your Holiness recalls, according to Luke, are the same according to Matthew and according to Mark. For these three narrate what the Lord said, when he was asked by his disciples when those things would be which he had foretold concerning the overthrow of the temple, and what would be the sign of his coming and of the consummation of the age. For they do not disagree in the facts, if one says something that another passes over in silence, or says it in another way: rather, compared with one another, they help, so that the reader's understanding may be guided. But to discourse about them all is now too long. For to those asking, the Lord answered the things that were going to follow from that time onward—whether concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, whence arose the occasion of the very question; or concerning his coming through the Church, in which he does not cease to come until the end: for in his own he is recognized as coming, while his members are daily born; of which coming he says, Henceforth you shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds (Matt 26:64)—of which clouds it was said through the prophet, I will command my clouds not to rain upon it (Isa 5:6); or concerning the very end, in which he will appear to judge the living and the dead.

9. 26. Since, then, he speaks of signs which pertain to these three things—that is, to the destruction of that city; to his coming in his body, which is the Church; and to his coming in the head of the Church, which is he himself—which of those signs is to be referred to which of these three must be discerned by diligent consideration, lest perhaps what pertains to the overthrow of Jerusalem we think must be referred to the end of the age; or, on the contrary, what pertains to the end of the age we affirm to pertain to the destruction of that city; or what pertains to his coming in his body, which is the Church, we say pertains to his last coming in his body, which is the head of the Church; or, again, what pertains to his last coming through himself, we assert to pertain to that coming which is through the Church. Among all of which there are some things manifest, but some so obscure that it is either laborious to discern them, or rash, so long as they are not understood, to define anything about them.

9. 27. For who does not see that to that city pertains what was said, But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by an army, then know that its desolation has drawn near (Lk 21:20)? Likewise, who does not see that to the last coming of the Lord pertains what was said, When you see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is near (Lk 21:31)? But that which was said, Woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse in those days. But pray that your flight be not in winter or on the sabbath. For then shall be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world, nor shall be (Matt 24:19-21), is so set down according to Matthew and according to Mark that it is uncertain whether it ought to be understood of the destruction of that city or of the end of the age. For thus this very thing is read in Mark: But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse in those days. Pray that they may not be in winter. For those days shall be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation which God founded, until now, nor shall be. And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he has shortened the days (Mk 13:17-20). And not differently does Matthew. But Luke so set this down that it appears to pertain to the destruction of that city; for thus it is read in him: But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse in those days. For there shall be great distress upon the earth, and wrath upon this people; and they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the nations be fulfilled (Lk 21:23-24).

9. 28. But how one came to this, Matthew writes thus: When, therefore, you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let him who reads understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house; and let him who is in the field not return to take his tunic. But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse in those days (Matt 24:15-19), and so forth. But Mark thus: But when you shall see the abomination of desolation standing where it ought not—let him who reads understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let him who is upon the housetop not come down into the house, nor go in to take anything out of his house; and let him who is in the field not return back to take his garment. But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse in those days! (Mk 13:14-17) and the rest. But Luke, to show that the abomination of desolation which was foretold by Daniel was then brought about, when Jerusalem was stormed, recalls in the same place these words of the Lord: But when you shall see Jerusalem surrounded by an army, then know that its desolation has drawn near (Lk 21:20). It appears, then, that there was then set the abomination of desolation, of which those two evangelists spoke. Finally, this one too likewise follows: Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains (Lk 21:21). And in place of what those said, and let him who is upon the housetop not come down into the house, nor go in to take anything out of the house, this one said, and let those who are in the midst of it depart (Lk 21:21): so that it might be shown, by those words set down among the other Evangelists, that haste of flight was commanded. And in place of what those set down, and let him who is in the field not return back to take his garment, this one says more openly, and let those who are in the countryside not enter into it; because these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled (Lk 21:21-22). Then this one too likewise follows, so that it is altogether manifest that this passage of the Gospel of all three is about this very matter: But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse in those days! (Lk 21:23) and the rest pertaining to this, which I have already recalled above.

9. 29. Luke, then, laid open—what could be uncertain—that what was said about the abomination of desolation, and what was said about the shortening of the days for the sake of the elect, pertains not to the end of the age but to the storming of Jerusalem; because, even if he himself did not say those very things, he nevertheless said more openly the rest about this very matter, by which he showed that those things too pertain to it. For we ought not to doubt that, when Jerusalem was overthrown, there were in that people elect of God, who from the circumcision had believed, or were going to believe—elect before the foundation of the world—on account of whom those days would be shortened, that the evils might become tolerable. For some seem to me to have understood more fittingly that the evils themselves are signified by the name of "days," just as evil days are spoken of in other places of divine Scripture: for the days themselves are not evil, but the things that come to pass in them. These, then, are said to be shortened, so that, God granting endurance, they might be felt less, and thus the things that were great might become brief.

9. 30. But whether that shortening of days is to be understood in this way, or as their being reduced to fewness, or as their being shortened by a swifter course of the sun (for there are not lacking those who think this too—that the days are said to be going to be shorter, just as the day was longer when Joshua the son of Nun prayed): nevertheless the evangelist Luke taught that both this shortening of days and the abomination of desolation—the two things which he himself did not say, but Matthew and Mark said—pertain to the overthrow of Jerusalem, saying with them other things more openly about this same matter, which they set down more obscurely. For Josephus, who wrote the history of the Jews, says that such evils then befell that people that they seem scarcely credible: whence it was not undeservedly said that such tribulation neither had been from the beginning of creation, nor would be. But even if in the time of Antichrist such, or perhaps greater, will be, it must be understood as said of that people, that for it no greater such will be: for if they are going to receive Antichrist first and especially, that same people will then be making the tribulation rather than suffering it.

9. 31. There is no reason, then, why we should think that the Weeks of the prophet Daniel were either disturbed on account of the shortening of days, or were not completed at that time, but are to be completed at the end of the age. For they were not fulfilled before the passion of the Lord. Those who think this are most rightly refuted by your own sentence, in which you said: "If, then, this abomination had already been fulfilled, how does the Lord admonish and say, When you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let him who reads understand?" By these words of your Blessedness those are deservedly to be corrected who say that it, when the Lord spoke these things, had been fulfilled before his passion and resurrection. But those who say, as the evangelist Luke too most plainly testifies, that it was brought about when Jerusalem was overthrown—what is to be answered to them, those ought to see who suppose these things to be future at the end of the age, or near the end; although the very abomination of desolation, on account of the obscurity of the saying, could not be understood by all in one way.

9. 32. And what was said, Let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house; and let him who is in the field not return to take his tunic (Matt 24:17-18), can be more fittingly understood spiritually—that in all tribulations care must be taken lest anyone, overcome, come down to the carnal life from spiritual loftiness, or, having progressed, reaching out to the things before (See Phil 3:13), by failing look back to the things behind. But if in every tribulation, how much more in that one ought it to have been commanded that care be taken, which was foretold as going to be such for that city as had not been from the beginning, nor would be; and if in this one, how much more in that which will be the last for the world, that is, for the Church spread throughout the whole world! For Luke himself also—not indeed when the Lord was asked by his disciples about his coming, where Matthew and Mark recalled this, but in another place where the Pharisees asked him when the kingdom of God would come—narrated that he said something of this kind: In that hour, he says, let him who is on the housetop, and his goods in the house, not come down to take them; and let him who is in the field likewise not return back (Lk 17:31).

9. 33. But now, on account of the computation of times, it is the Weeks of Daniel that are in question, which, if they were not completed about the times of the Lord's first coming, but are to be completed at the end—who would believe that the Apostles were ignorant of this, or knew it indeed but were forbidden to teach it? Although, if this is so, the nations usefully do not know what the Lord forbade to teach those whom he wished to be teachers of the nations. But if they have already been completed—because the Holy of holies has now been anointed, Christ has now been slain, so that it should not be his city, the sacrifice has now been taken away from that temple, the anointing has been taken away—deservedly was it answered to the Apostles asking about the end, It is not for you to know the times which the Father has placed in his own power (Acts 1:7); since the times which through Daniel's prophecy they could know did not pertain to the end of the age, about which they had asked.

10. 34. But as for signs from heaven and earth—have we seen greater ones than those who were before us? Is it not the case that, if the history of the nations is read, so great wonders are found to have occurred from heaven and earth that some are not even believed? But—to omit many things which it would be long to pursue—when have we seen two suns? Which were seen, those who were then committed to writing, before the Lord had come in the flesh. When have we seen the sun so darkened as it was darkened when the Light of the world hung on the wood? Unless perhaps we shall number among the heavenly portents the eclipses of sun and moon, which the computers of the stars are accustomed to note and foretell, because we have seen the moon more often in its fullness, but the sun more rarely, yet nonetheless fail according to their computation at the end of the moon. That eclipse of the sun was not such, when Christ was crucified, and therefore it was truly marvelous and portentous. For it had been the Passover of the Jews, which is celebrated only at the fullness of the moon: but according to the numbers of the astrologers it is certain that the sun cannot fail when the moon is full, but when it is the end of the moon; not indeed always, but otherwise never, when it fails according to those numbers. What such thing, then, has anyone ever remembered to have appeared from heaven, since the Lord foretold those things, such as appeared when he suffered? Wherefore, if such things too will appear—if they are not rather to be understood spiritually—they will then appear, when the end will so draw near that they ought to appear.

10. 35. But by wars, through diverse intervals of times and places, when has the earth not been ground down? For—to pass over things too ancient—under the emperor Gallienus, when barbarism was overrunning the Roman provinces on every side, how many of our brethren who were then in the flesh do we suppose could have believed the end to be near, since it happened long after the Lord's ascension! And thereby what these things too will be like, when the end will be altogether near, we are ignorant; if indeed these were not so foretold that they ought rather to be understood in the Church. For there are two nations, and two kingdoms; one, namely, of Christ, the other of the devil, of which it could be said, Nation shall rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom (Matt 24:7): which does not cease to happen, from the time it was said, Repent; for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near (Matt 4:17). See when this was said, and from then how many years have passed; and yet it was said most truly. For in the last days the Lord came through the Virgin: nor would this hour be called the last, unless with the kingdom of heaven drawing near—through which whole hour come to pass the things which the Lord, his kingdom drawing near, foretold would be: but at how great a span this hour is extended, if it was said to the Apostles, It is not for you to know, how much more ought any man, such as I am, to recognize his own measure, lest he be wise beyond what he ought to be wise (See Rom 12:3)!

11. 36. "But our punishment," you say, "compels us to confess that the end is already at hand, while what was foretold is fulfilled: Men withering away for fear and expectation of the things which shall come upon the whole world (Lk 21:26). It is certain," you say, "that no country, no place, in our times is not afflicted or troubled; as it was said, For fear, and expectation of the things which shall come upon the whole world." If, then, these evils which the human race now suffers are sure tokens that the Lord is now going to come, what is it that the Apostle says, When they shall say, Peace and security (1 Thess 5:3)? For when the Gospel had said, Men withering away for fear and expectation, it immediately subjoined: For the powers of the heavens shall be moved: and then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty (Lk 21:26-27).

11. 37. Let us see, then, whether perhaps it is better understood that not those things foretold by those words are now being fulfilled, but rather that they are then going to come, when there will be such tribulation upon the whole world; so that what will be troubled throughout the whole world pertains to the Church, not to those who will trouble it. For they themselves are going to say, Peace and security, so that sudden destruction may come upon them, and the coming of the Lord may overtake them like a thief in the night; while, on the contrary, those who love the manifestation of the Lord will rejoice and exult. But now these evils, which are believed to be, as it were, the highest and the last, we see to be common to both nations and both kingdoms—that is, of Christ and of the devil: for by these the good are afflicted equally with the evil; nor is there anyone who says Peace and security, wherever they befall, or where it is feared lest they befall. Among which evils, nevertheless, luxurious banquets are still everywhere frequented, drunkenness is hot, avarice rages, wanton songs resound, organs, pipes, lyres, citharas, dice, many and various kinds of sounds and games: is this to wither away for fear, or rather to grow sodden with lust? But these things the sons of darkness will have and practice more abundantly, when they shall say, Peace and security.

11. 38. What of the very sons of light and sons of the day, who are not in darkness, that that day should overtake them like a thief? Do they not still use this world as not using it (See 1 Cor 7:31)? For although it was said many years ago, in the times of the Apostles, they nevertheless consider with pious solicitude what was said, The time is short (1 Cor 7:29). Is it not the case that by the greatest part of them planting, building, buying, possessing are done, honors are still borne, wives are taken? I speak of those who, awaiting their Lord, when he comes from the wedding, nevertheless do not abstain from carnal weddings, but with most obedient love hear the Apostle commanding how wives ought to live with husbands, husbands with wives, children with parents, parents with children, slaves with masters, masters with slaves: do not all these, in all these things, use this world? They plow, sail, buy, beget, serve as soldiers, administer. I think they will not be so, when there will be the things which were foretold in the Gospel—signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and the waves; men withering away for fear and expectation of the things which shall come upon the whole world: for the powers of the heavens shall be moved.

11. 39. These things indeed I judge are better understood in the Church, lest the Lord Jesus, with his second coming drawing near, seem to have foretold as something great the things that were accustomed to befall this world even before his first coming, and lest we be mocked by those who have read of these things—which we dread as, so to speak, the last and the greatest of all—many in the history of the nations, and much greater. For the Church is the sun and the moon and the stars, to which it was said, Fair as the moon, chosen as the sun (Song 6:10). By this our Joseph is adored in this world, as in Egypt, exalted from the most humble estate: for that Joseph's mother certainly could not adore him, who died before Jacob came to his son, so that the truth of that prophetic dream might be reserved to be fulfilled in Christ the Lord. For when the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give its light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be moved, as this passage was recalled by the other two Evangelists, the Church will not appear; the impious persecutors then raging beyond measure, and, fear being removed, as though the felicity of the world were smiling, saying, Peace and security: then the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be moved; since many who seemed to shine with grace will yield to the persecutors and fall, and indeed the most courageous of the faithful will be troubled. But for this reason, according to Matthew and Mark, it is said that this will be after the tribulation of those days, not because these things will happen when that whole persecution is past; but because the tribulation will precede, so that the falling away of some may follow: and because through all those days it will so come to pass, therefore it is "after the tribulation of those days," but nevertheless it will come to pass in those same days.

11. 40. What, then, was said according to Luke, and on the earth distress of nations (Lk 21:25)—by "nations" he wished to be understood not those belonging to the seed of Abraham, in which all nations shall be blessed, but the nations which will stand on the left, when all nations shall be gathered before the Judge of the living and the dead. For both parties will be in all nations; one which oppresses, the other which is oppressed: one which says Peace and security; the other in which the sun is darkened, and the moon does not give its light, and from which the stars fall, and in which the powers of the heavens are moved.

11. 41. And then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty (Lk 21:27). This I see can be taken in two ways: either as coming in the Church, as in a cloud, just as even now he does not cease to come, according to what he says, Henceforth you shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven (Matt 26:64)—but then "with great power and majesty" for this reason, because his greater power and majesty will appear to the saints, to whom he will give great strength, lest they be overcome by so great a persecution: or as coming in his body, in which he sits at the right hand of the Father, in which also he died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, according to what is written in the Acts of the Apostles, When he had said these things, a cloud received him, and he was taken up from them (Acts 1:9). And because there too it was said by the angels, So shall he come, as you have seen him going into heaven (Acts 1:11), deservedly is he to be believed to be going to come not only in the same body, but also in a cloud; since he will come as he departed, and a cloud received him as he departed.

11. 42. But which of these two is rather to be chosen here, it is difficult to judge. The more ready sense indeed is that anyone, when he has heard or read, And then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty, should take it straightway as his coming, not through the Church but through himself, when he is going to come to judge the living and the dead: but since the Scriptures must be searched, and we ought not to be content with their surface—which has been so modulated for our exercise that it wishes itself to be penetrated more deeply—the things that follow must be diligently inspected. For when he had said, And then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty, he added and said, But when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near. And he told them a parable: See the fig tree and all the trees; when they now put forth fruit from themselves, you know that summer is near: so also you, when you see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is near (Lk 21:28-31). When, then, he says, When you see these things come to pass, what shall we be able to understand but those things which were recalled above? But among these is also what he says, And then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty. Accordingly, even when this has been seen, it will not yet be the kingdom of God, but it will be near.

11. 43. This order we see the other two evangelists too keep. For in Mark, when it had been said, And the powers that are in the heavens shall be moved, And then, he says, they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds with much power and glory (Mk 13:25-26). Then he subjoins what Luke did not say: And then he shall send his angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven (Mk 13:27). Then, what the former set down about the fig tree and the other trees, this one, setting down about the fig tree alone: But from the fig tree learn the parable. When its branch is now tender, and the leaves are put forth, you know that summer is near: so also you, when you see these things come to pass, know that it is near, at the doors (Mk 13:28-29). What is When you see these things come to pass, but those things which he said above? Among which is also that which he says, And then they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds with much power and glory: and then he shall send his angels, and gather his elect. Not, then, will the end be then, but then it will be near.

11. 44. Or must it be said that not all the things recalled above are to be understood where he says, When you see these things come to pass, but some of them—this, namely, being excepted, which was said, And then they shall see the Son of man coming, etc.? For this will be the very end, not then will it be near. But Matthew made clear that what was set down, When you see these things come to pass, is to be taken with none excepted: for in him too, when it had been said, And the powers of the heavens shall be moved; and then, he says, shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn. And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty: and he shall send his angels with a trumpet and a great voice, and they shall gather his elect from the four winds, from the heights of the heavens to their ends. But from the fig tree learn the parable. When its branch is now tender, and the leaves put forth, you know that summer is near: so also you, when you see all these things, know that it is near, at the doors (Matt 24:29-33).

11. 45. Then, therefore, we know it is near, when we have seen not some of these things, but all these things, among which is also this, that the Son of man will be seen coming, and he will send his angels, and from the four parts of the world—that is, from the whole globe of the earth—gather his elect; which the whole last hour does, he coming in his members as in clouds, or in the whole Church itself, which is his body, as in a great cloud bearing fruit and increasing in the whole world, from the time he began to preach and to say, Repent; for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near (Matt 4:17): so that perhaps all the things said by these three evangelists about his coming, more diligently compared with one another and discussed, may be found to pertain to this, that he comes daily in his body, which is the Church (of which coming of his he said, Henceforth you shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven (Matt 26:64)); except those places where that last coming, in himself, when he is going to judge the living and the dead, is so promised by him that it is said to draw near, and where, at the end of the discourse according to Matthew, that very coming is evidently expressed, whose nearness is shown above to be understood by certain signs. For to this the discourse itself is concluded in Matthew: But when the Son of man comes, he says, in his majesty, and all the angels with him; then shall he sit upon the seat of his majesty, then shall all nations be gathered before him (Matt 25:31-32); and the rest, up to that point where he says, And these shall go into eternal punishment; but the righteous into eternal life (Matt 25:46). For no one doubts that this was foretold concerning Christ's last coming and concerning the end of the age. For about those five and five virgins too there were not lacking those who, by no contemptible disputation, wished to teach that they pertain to this coming of his which now comes to pass through the Church. But these things must not be rashly promised, lest something occur which strongly contradicts—especially because, in such obscurities of the divine words, by which it has pleased God to exercise our understandings, not only is one moved more acutely than another among those who treat the holy Scriptures not improbably; but even any single one of them sometimes understands less, sometimes better.

12. 46. I do not know, however, whether we could behold anything more certain in this question, by any reasoning or means—if we could by any—than what I have already set down in the earlier letter, namely, when the whole world will be filled with the Gospel. For that your Veneration supposes this was already done through the very Apostles, I have proved by sure proofs is not so. For there are among us—that is, in Africa—innumerable barbarian nations, among whom the Gospel has not yet been preached, as we can readily learn daily from those who are led captive from there and now mingle with the servitude of the Romans. Yet it is only a few years since some of them—a very few and rare ones, who, made peaceful, cleave to the Roman borders in such a way that they do not have their own kings, but prefects are set over them by the Roman empire—both they and their very prefects began to be Christians. But the interior ones, who are under no Roman power, are altogether not held by the Christian religion in any of their own, nor can it in any way rightly be said that these do not pertain to the promise of God.

12. 47. For not the Romans, but all the nations, did the Lord promise to the seed of Abraham, with an oath also intervening: from which promise it has already come to pass that some nations which are not held under Roman dominion have received the Gospel, and been joined to the Church, which bears fruit and increases in the whole world. For it still has wherein to increase, until that comes to pass which was prophesied of Christ in the figure of Solomon: He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth (Ps 72:8 (71:8)). From the river, namely, where he was baptized, because from there he began to preach the Gospel: but "from sea to sea" is the whole globe with all nations, since the whole is girded by the ocean sea. But how otherwise will that prophecy be fulfilled, All nations, as many as you have made, shall come and adore before you, O Lord (Ps 86:9 (85:9))? For they will not come by migrating from their own places, but by believing in their own places. For about believers the Lord said, No one can come to me, unless it be given him by my Father (Jn 6:65). But the prophet says, And they shall adore him, each one from his own place, all the islands of the nations (Zeph 2:11). He said "all the islands," as though he said, "even all the islands"; hence showing how no land is left where the Church is not, when no island is left—of which some are situated even in the Ocean, and some of them we have learned have already received the Gospel. And thus in each single island that is fulfilled which was said, He shall have dominion from sea to sea, by which each island is girded; just as in the whole globe of lands, which is, as it were, in a manner the greatest of all islands, because the Ocean girds it too, to whose shores in the western parts we now know the Church has reached, and to whatever of the shores it has not yet reached, it surely will reach, by bearing fruit and increasing.

12. 48. If, then, because the prophecy of truth cannot lie, it is necessary that all nations, as many as God has made, adore him, how will they adore him unless they call upon him? But how shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe him whom they have not heard? But how shall they hear without one who preaches? Or how shall they preach unless they be sent? For he sends his angels, and gathers his elect from the four winds, that is, from the whole globe of lands. Among those nations, then, in which the Church is not yet, it behooves that it be—not that all who are there should believe; for all nations are promised, not all the people of all nations: for faith is not of all. Every nation, therefore, believes in all who were elect before the foundation of the world, in the rest it does not believe, and it hates the believers. For how will that too be fulfilled, You shall be hated by all nations for my name's sake (Matt 24:9), unless in all nations there are both those who hate and those whom they hate?

12. 49. In what way, then, was this preaching completed by the Apostles, when there are still up to now nations (which is most certain to us) in which it has just begun, and in which it has not yet begun, to be fulfilled? It was not, therefore, said to the Apostles, You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8), as though they alone, to whom he was then speaking, were going to fulfill so great an office: but just as he seems to have said to them alone what he said, Behold, I am with you until the consummation of the age (Matt 28:20)—which yet who does not understand he promised to the whole Church, which, some dying, others being born, will be here until the consummation of the age? Just as he said to them that too which does not pertain to them at all, and yet was so said as though it pertained to them alone: When you see all these things, know that it is near, at the doors (Matt 24:33): for to whom does this pertain, if not to those who will then be in the flesh, when all things will be fulfilled? How much more that which was for the great part to be done through them, although the same action was reserved for their successors too?

12. 50. But what the Apostle said, Have they not heard? Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Rom 10:18)—although he spoke with words of past time, yet he said what was going to be, not what was already done and completed; just as the very prophet whom he used as witness did not say, "Their sound shall go out into all the earth," but, Their sound has gone out (Ps 19:4 (18:5)), which surely had not yet been done: such as is also that, They have dug my hands and feet (Ps 22:16 (21:17)), which we know was done so long afterward. But lest we believe these only to have been prophetic ways of speaking, and not also apostolic ones, does not the same Apostle himself say: Which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without doubt great is the sacrament of piety, which was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, appeared to angels, was preached among the nations, was believed in the world, was taken up in glory (1 Tim 3:15-16)? Surely it is manifest that this, which he set last, even now is not yet completed; how much more then, when he was saying these things? For the Church will then be taken up in glory, when it will be said, Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom (Matt 25:34): and yet it was said as though it had been done, what was certainly known to be going to be.

12. 51. Much less, then, must it be wondered at that he used also words of present time in that which you have recalled he likewise said: Because of the hope which is laid up for you, which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel, which has come to you, as it is also in all the world, bearing fruit and increasing (Col 1:5-6), although the Gospel did not yet hold the whole world: but he said it was bearing fruit and increasing in the whole world, that he might thus signify how far it was going to come by bearing fruit and increasing. If, then, it is hidden when the whole world, altogether from sea to sea, will be filled, the Church bearing fruit and increasing, doubtless it is hidden when the end will be; for it will not be before.

13. 52. But, to open to you, as to a holy man of God and a most sincere brother, what I think about this question: error indeed must be avoided in both directions, as far as it can be avoided by a man—whether the Lord be believed going to come sooner or later than he is going to come; but to me no one seems to err when he knows that he does not know something, but when he thinks he knows what he does not know. Let us, therefore, remove from our midst that evil servant who, saying in his heart, My lord delays his coming, lords it over his fellow servants, and mingles in feasting with the drunken: for he doubtless hates the coming of his Lord. That evil servant being removed, let us set before our eyes three good servants, treating the Lord's household diligently and soberly, thirstily desiring the coming of their Lord, watchfully awaiting it, faithfully loving it: if one of them thinks the Lord will come sooner, another later, but the third confesses his ignorance about this matter; although all are in harmony with the Gospel, since all love the manifestation of the Lord, and desiringly and watchfully await it, let us nevertheless see which is more in harmony.

13. 53. One says: "Let us watch and pray, because the Lord will come sooner." Another says: "Let us watch and pray, because this life is short and uncertain, although the Lord will come later." The third says: "Let us watch and pray, because this life is both short and uncertain, and we do not know the time when the Lord will come." The Gospel says: See, watch, and pray; for you do not know when the time is (Mk 13:33). I beg you, what else do we hear this third one say than what we hear the Gospel say? All indeed, out of desire for the kingdom of God, wish that to be true which the first one says; but the second denies this; the third, however, denies none of these, but confesses that he does not know which of those speaks the truth. Accordingly, if that comes to pass which the first foretold, the second and the third will rejoice with him; for all love the manifestation of the Lord. They will exult, then, that what they love has come sooner. But if it does not come to pass, and it begins to appear that what the second was saying is rather true, it is to be feared lest, amid the very delays, those who had believed what the first had said be disturbed, and begin to think the Lord's coming not late, but none at all: which—you see how great is the destruction of souls. But if they are of such great faith that they turn to the predictions of the second, and faithfully and patiently await the Lord even as he delays; there will nevertheless abound reproaches and insults and mockeries of the enemies turning many of the weak away from the Christian faith, by saying that the kingdom was as deceitfully promised to them as it was deceitfully said to be coming soon. But those who believe what the second says, that the Lord will come later, if it is found false, the Lord coming sooner; in no way will those who had believed him be troubled in faith, but will enjoy an unexpected joy.

13. 54. Wherefore he who says the Lord will come sooner speaks more desirably, but is dangerously deceived. Would, then, that it be true; because it will be grievous, if it be not true! But he who says the Lord will come later, and yet believes, hopes, loves his coming, surely, even if he is deceived about his delay, is happily deceived: for he will have greater patience, if it will be so; greater gladness, if it will not be. And thereby, by those who love the manifestation of the Lord, the former is heard more sweetly, the latter believed more safely: but he who confesses that he is ignorant which of these is true, desires the one, tolerates the other, errs in none of them, because he neither affirms nor denies any of them. I beg you not to despise me, being such a one; because I too love you, who affirm that which I desire to be true, and so much the more do I not wish you to be deceived, the more I love what you promise, and the more I see it dangerous if you are deceived. Grant pardon, if I have been burdensome to your holy feelings: for the more rarely it happens, the more it has delighted me to speak with you longer, at least by letter.

LETTER 200
TO VALERIUS, ILLUSTRIOUS LORD AND DESERVEDLY MOST EXCELLENT, AND MOST DEAR SON IN THE LOVE OF CHRIST, AUGUSTINE SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.

1. When for a long time I was taking it ill that I had several times written and merited no reply from your Sublimity, suddenly I received three letters of your Benignity: one given not to me alone, through my fellow bishop Vindemialis, and not long after, two through the fellow presbyter Firmus; which holy man—joined to us, as you could learn from him, in a most intimate love—by conversing with us much about your excellence, and by truly intimating what sort of man he had known you to be in the bowels of Christ, surpassed not only those letters which the said bishop, or which he himself, brought, but even those which we were complaining we had not received. And therefore his narration about you was sweeter to us, because he was saying things which you yourself could not write back, not even at my inquiry, lest you become a herald of your own praises, which holy Scripture forbids. Although I too fear to write these things to you, lest I incur the suspicion of one flattering—illustrious lord and deservedly most excellent, and most dear son in the love of Christ.

2. See, then, what delight and gladness it was to me to hear your praises in Christ—or rather, in you, the praises of Christ—from him who could neither deceive me, on account of his faith, nor be ignorant of them, on account of his friendship with you. But other things too, and from others, even if not so many or so certain, we have nevertheless heard: how sound and catholic your faith is, how pious your expectation of things to come, what your love of God and of the brethren, how you are not proudly wise amid your exalted honors, nor hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, and are rich in good works; how your house is the rest and solace of the saints, and the terror of the impious; how great your care is that no one lay snares for the members of Christ, covered with the veil of the name of Christ, whether among his old or his more recent enemies; and how provident you are for the salvation of those same enemies, hostile to their error. These things and the like, as I said, we are accustomed to hear from others too; but now, through the aforesaid brother, we have learned them more numerous and better attested.

3. But further, concerning conjugal chastity, that we might be able to praise and love it too in you, what would we hear, except from some intimate of yours, who knew your life not on the surface but inwardly? About this good of yours, then, the gift of God, it delights me too to speak with you more intimately and somewhat longer. I know that I am not a burden to you if I send something lengthy, by reading which you may be with us longer. For I have learned this too, that amid your many and great cares you read easily and gladly, and are much delighted by our little works—even those which we have written to others, if any could come into your hands; how much more by what is written to you, where I shall speak as though to one present, and you will deign to attend more carefully, and receive more gratefully? From this letter, then, proceed to the book which I have sent together with it, which will more conveniently intimate to your Reverence, by its own beginning, both why it was written and why it was sent especially to you.

LETTER 201
THE EMPERORS HONORIUS AND THEODOSIUS, AUGUSTI, TO BISHOP AURELIUS, GREETING.

1. Some time ago indeed it had been decreed that Pelagius and Celestius, the inventors of an unspeakable doctrine, should be driven from the city of Rome, as certain contagions of catholic truth, lest they pervert the minds of the ignorant by a perverse persuasion. In this our clemency followed the judgment of your Holiness, by which it is established that they were condemned by all in a just examination of sentence. But because the persistent evil of an obstinate crime demanded that the decree be doubled, by a recent sanction too we have decreed that, if anyone, not unaware that they are lurking in any part of the provinces, should delay either to drive them out or to betray them, he should be subject, as an accomplice, to the prescribed penalty.

2. But especially for correcting the obstinacy of certain bishops, who either by tacit consent build up their depraved disputations, or do not destroy them by public assault, most dear and most loving father, it will be fitting that the authority of your Holiness press upon them; so that the Christian devotion of all may consent to the abolition of this preposterous heresy. Your Religiousness, then, by suitable writings, will cause all to be admonished, who shall know, by the determination of your Sanctity, that this determination is prescribed for them: that whoever by impious obstinacy shall have neglected to subscribe to the condemnation of the aforesaid men—whereby a pure mind may be made plain—shall, punished by the loss of the episcopate, be barred, expelled forever from the cities, deprived of communion. For since we ourselves, according to the Synod of Nicaea, venerate with sincere confession God the Founder of all things and the Author of our empire, your Holiness will not suffer the men of this detestable sect, devising new and unusual things to the injury of religion, to hide in secret tracts a sacrilege once condemned by public authority. For one and the same is the fault of those who shall have furnished harmful favor, whether by dissembling their connivance or by not condemning, most dear and most loving father. (And in another hand): May the Divinity keep you unharmed for many years. Given on the fifth day before the Ides of June, at Ravenna, in the consulship of Monaxius and Plinta. Given in the same tenor also to the holy bishop Augustine.

LETTER 202
TO THE TRULY HOLY LORDS, AND TO BE VENERATED WITH ALL AFFECTION AND RIGHT, THE BISHOPS ALYPIUS AND AUGUSTINE, FROM JEROME, GREETING IN CHRIST.

1. The holy presbyter Innocent, who is the bearer of this discourse, last year, as though he were by no means going to return to Africa, did not take up my writings to your Dignity. Yet we give thanks to God that it so came about that you overcame our silence by your letters. For to me every occasion is most welcome through which I write to your Reverence; calling God to witness that, if it could be, I would, taking the wings of a dove, entwine myself in your embraces—always indeed for the merit of your virtues, but now especially because, with you as fellow workers and authors, the Celestian heresy has been throttled: which has so infected the hearts of many that, although they feel themselves overcome and condemned, they nevertheless do not lay aside the venoms of their minds; and, what alone they can do, they hate us, through whom they think they have lost the liberty of teaching the heresy.

2. But as for what you ask, whether I have written back against the books of Annianus, the pseudo-deacon of Celeda, who is most copiously fed, that he may supply the frivolous words of another's blasphemy: know that I received those very books, sent in pamphlets by the holy brother Eusebius the presbyter, not long ago; and that since then, either by reason of oncoming illnesses, or by the falling-asleep of your holy and venerable daughter Eustochium, I have so grieved that I thought them almost to be despised. For he sticks in the same mud, and, except for tinkling and begged-for words, says nothing else. Yet we have accomplished much, in that, while he tries to answer my letter, he betrayed himself more openly, and laid open his blasphemies to all. For whatever he denies he said in that wretched synod of Diospolis, he professes in this work; nor is it a great thing to answer most inept dirges. But if the Lord grants life and we have a supply of secretaries, we will answer in a few late-night labors—not to convince a heresy that is dead, but to refute its inexperience and blasphemy by our discourses: and your Holiness would do this better, lest we be compelled, against a heretic, to praise our own. The common holy children, Albina, Pinianus, and Melania, greet you very much. These little letters I have handed over from holy Bethlehem to be carried by the holy presbyter Innocent. Your granddaughter Paula prays pitiably that you be mindful of her, and greets you much. May the clemency of our Lord Jesus Christ keep you unharmed and mindful of me, truly holy lords and fathers to be venerated with the affection of all.

LETTER 202/A
TO OPTATUS, MOST BLESSED AND SINCERELY MOST DEAR AND MOST LONGED-FOR LORD, BROTHER AND FELLOW BISHOP, AUGUSTINE SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.

1. 1. Through the religious presbyter Saturninus I received the letter of your Veneration, demanding of me with great zeal what I do not yet have. But you opened to me the reason why you did this: namely, that you believe an answer has already been given to me consulting about this matter. Would that it were so! Far be it from me that I should defraud you—whose most eager expectation I know—of the sharing of this gift. But if you believe anything, dearest brother, behold, nearly five years have rolled by since I sent to the East a book not of my presumption but of my consultation; and I have not yet merited a reply by which this question might be unraveled for me—the question in which you desire me to bring you a sure verdict. I would, then, have sent both, if I had both.

1. 2. But this which I have, without the other which I do not yet have, it does not seem to me that I now owe to send or publish to anyone; lest he who is perhaps going to answer me, as I desire, rightly be angry that my inquiry, elaborated with most laborious discussion, should be spread through men's hands and notice without his answer, which is not yet to be despaired of; and lest he judge that I have done this more boastfully than usefully, as though I could ask what he could not unravel, when perhaps he can, and while he does it, it must be awaited. For I know rather that he is occupied with other things which must by no means be deferred, and must be weighed at a higher price.

1. 3. That your Holiness too may know this, attend a little to what he wrote to me in another year, by the bearer through whom I had written, as he was returning; for I have transferred this from his letter into this one: "There fell out," he says, "a most difficult time, when it was better for me to be silent than to speak; so that our studies ceased, lest, according to Appius, a doglike eloquence be exercised. And so to your two little books, which you dedicated to my name, most learned and shining with all the splendor of eloquence, I could not for a time reply—not because I think there is anything in them to be reprehended, but because, according to the blessed Apostle, Each one abounds in his own sense; one indeed thus, another thus (Rom 14:5). Certainly whatever could be said, and drawn by a lofty genius from the founts of the holy Scriptures, has been set down and discussed by you. But I beg your Reverence, suffer a little that I praise your genius. For we discourse among ourselves for the sake of erudition. But rivals, and especially heretics, if they see diverse opinions between us, will cavil that they descend from rancor of mind. But for me it is decreed to love, receive, cultivate, admire you, and to defend your sayings as my own. Certainly even in the dialogue which I lately published I made mention of your Blessedness, as was fitting: and let us rather give our effort that this most pernicious heresy be removed from the Churches, which always feigns penitence that it may have the faculty of teaching in the Churches; lest, if it betrays itself in the open light, expelled outdoors, it die."

2. 4. You see, then, venerable brother, that these words of my dearest one, given in reply to my inquiry, did not deny that answer, but excused it on account of the time, because he was compelled to spend his care on other more urgent things. You see also how benevolent a mind he bears toward me, and what he admonishes; namely, lest what we do among ourselves for the sake of erudition—with charity and the sincerity of friendship surely preserved—rivals, and especially heretics, should cavil descends from rancor of mind. Accordingly, if men read both our works, both where I have inquired and where he has answered the things inquired about—because it also behooves that, if the same question has been sufficiently explained according to his opinion, I should give thanks that I have been instructed—the fruit will be not small, when this comes into the notice of very many: so that those after us may not only know what they ought to think about this matter, which has been discussed between us by diligent debate, but may also learn, by our example, by God's mercy and favor, how, among dearest brethren, the disputation of mutual inquiry need not be lacking, yet love remain inviolate.

2. 5. But if my writing, where only a most obscure matter is read as inquired, without his reply, where perhaps the finding will appear, should go abroad, let it proceed more widely, let it reach even those who, comparing, as the Apostle says, themselves with themselves (2 Cor 10:12), do not understand with what mind something is done by us, which they themselves do not know how to do with that mind; and they will set forth my goodwill toward a most beloved friend, to be honored for his immense merits, not as they see it (since they do not even see it), but as it pleases them, and as, at the dictation of their hatred, they surmise: which surely, as far as is in us, we ought to guard against.

2. 6. But if perhaps what we do not wish to become known through us should, even against our will, become known to those to whom we do not wish it: what will remain, except to bear the will of the Lord with an equal mind? For I ought not to write to anyone what I had always wished to lie hidden. For if—which God forbid—by some chance or necessity he should never write back, doubtless our consultation, which we sent to him, will at some time be made manifest. Nor will it be useless to readers: because, even if they do not find those things they seek, they will surely find how they are to be inquired into and not rashly affirmed, the things they do not know; and, according to what they read there, they too will take care, with studious charity, not discordant contention, to consult those whom they can; until either they find what they want, or by the very inquiry exercise the edge of the mind, so that they recognize that there is no need to inquire further. Now, however, so long as the answer of the friend already consulted is not yet to be despaired of, that our consultation must not be published—as far, at least, as is in us—I think I have persuaded your Charity: although you yourself did not ask for it alone, but desired that there be sent to you, joined to it, also the answer of the one I consulted; which I would surely do, if I had it. But if, to use the words of your Holiness which you set down in your letter—"a lucid demonstration of my wisdom, which the Author of light has attributed to me for the merit, as you write, of my life"—you do not mean by this my very consultation and inquiry, but think that the finding of that thing which I sought has already come to me, and ask rather for it, that I should send it: I would do it, if it were as you think. For I, I confess, have not yet found how the soul draws sin from Adam (whence it is not lawful to doubt), and is not itself drawn from Adam; which I must more diligently inquire into than more inconsiderately assert.

3. 7. Your letter has: "I know not how many old men, and men instructed by learned priests, whom you could not recall to the understanding of your modesty and to an assertion most full of truth"; nor yet do you express what is "your assertion most full of truth, to which you could not recall the old men, and men instructed by learned priests." For if these old men held, or hold, what they received from learned priests, how had the rustic and less instructed crowd of clerics generated annoyances for you in those matters in which they had been "instructed by learned priests"? But if those old men, or the crowd of clerics, by their own depravity deviated from what they had received from learned priests, they ought rather to have been corrected by those priests' authority, and restrained from a most contentious tumult. But again, when you say that, "being a new and untrained teacher, you feared to corrupt the traditions of so great and such bishops, and to convert men to the better part, and dreaded the injury of the deceased," what do you give to understand, except that those whom you desired to correct, by being unwilling to forsake the traditions of learned and great bishops now deceased, refused to acquiesce in a "new and untrained teacher"? In which matter I am for now silent about them; but I vehemently desire to know your "assertion," which you say is "most full of truth"—I do not mean the opinion itself, but its assertion.

4. 8. For that you disapprove of those who affirm that all the souls of men are propagated and transmitted from that one which was given to the first-formed man, through the succession of generations, you have indeed sufficiently brought to our notice; but by what reasoning, or by what testimonies of the divine Scriptures, you have shown this to be false—because your letter does not contain it—we do not know. Next, what you yourself hold in place of that which you disapprove, does not evidently appear to me as I read your letter—both the one which you formerly sent to the brethren of Caesarea, and the one which you most recently directed to me—except that I see you believe, as you write, that "God made men, and makes them, and will make them; and that there is nothing in heaven or on earth which has not stood and does not stand by him as author." This indeed is so true that no one ought to doubt it. But it still behooves you to express whence God makes the souls which you deny are made from propagation: whether from somewhere else, and, if so, what that is; or altogether from nothing. For that view of Origen and Priscillian, or if there are any others who think anything of the kind—that earthly and mortal bodies are given against the merits of a prior life—far be it that you should think it: for to this opinion apostolic authority is utterly opposed, saying that Esau and Jacob, before they were born, had done nothing good or evil. Therefore not wholly, but in part, your opinion on this matter is known to us; but its assertion—that is, whence it is taught to be true what you think—is wholly hidden from us.

4. 9. For this reason I had asked in my earlier letter that you deign to send me the Booklet of Faith which you recall you wrote, and to which you complained that some presbyter deceitfully subscribed; which even now I ask, and what testimonies of the divine writings you were able to apply to unlocking this question. For you say in the letter to the Caesareans that it pleased you that, for the full proof of the truth, even secular judges should take cognizance; with whom presiding, at the common entreaty, and examining all things for the faith, the Divinity, as you write, by the infusion of his mercy bestowed this: that they should bring forth a greater affirmation and assertion for their views than your modesty against them was maintaining with the authorities of immense testimonies. These authorities of immense testimonies, then, I desire with immense zeal to know.

4. 10. For you seem to have followed one single cause, by which to refute your contradictors: namely, that they denied that our souls are the work of God. But if they think this, deservedly is their opinion judged to be condemned. For if they said this of the very bodies, they would doubtless have to be amended or detested. For what Christian would deny that the bodies of each one being born are works of God? Nor yet do we therefore deny that they are begotten by parents, because we confess that they are divinely fashioned. When, then, it is said that, likewise, there are certain incorporeal seeds of our souls, of their own kind, and that they are both drawn from parents and yet that from them the souls are made by the work of God—to refute this, not human conjecture but divine Scripture must be brought as witness. For from the holy Books of canonical authority there could be supplied to us a supply of testimonies by which it is proved that God makes souls: but by such testimonies those are refuted who deny that each single soul in men being born is a work of God; not those who confess this, and yet contend that they, like bodies, are indeed formed by God working, but from the propagation of parents. To refute these you must seek sure divine testimonies; or, if you have already found them, they must, in mutual charity, be sent to us who have not yet found them, although we inquire most earnestly, as far as we can.

5. 11. For your consultation, brief and last, in the letter which you sent to the brethren of Caesarea, runs thus: "I entreat," you say, "that you teach me, your son and disciple, and one newly and recently coming, by God's help, to these mysteries, by such instruction as you ought and as is fitting, and as it befits prudent priests to answer: whether rather that opinion is to be held which says the soul is by transmission, and that through a certain hidden origin and secret order the other souls flow into the whole race of men from the transfusion of Adam the first-formed; or rather that definition is to be chosen, and that belief retained, which all your brethren and the priests set here retain and affirm, which testifies and believes that God was, and is, and will be the Author of all things and of all men." Of these two, then, which by consulting you have proposed, you wish that one be chosen, and that one of the two be answered to you; which ought to be done by those who know, if those two were so contrary to each other that, one being chosen, the other should consequently be rejected.

5. 12. But now, if someone should not choose one of these two, but answer that both are true—that is, that the other souls flow into the whole race of men from the transfusion of Adam the first-formed, and that nonetheless he believes and says that God was, and is, and will be the Author of all things and of all men—what do you judge must be contradicted in him? Shall we say, "If souls are propagated from parents, God is not the Author of all things, because he does not make souls"? For it will be answered, if we say this: "Then, because bodies are propagated from parents, God is not the Author of all things, if for this reason he must be said not to make bodies." But who would deny that God is the Author of all human bodies—yet say that he is the author only of that one which he first fashioned from the earth, or certainly also of his very spouse, because he himself formed her too from his side; but not also of the rest, because we cannot deny that from those the other bodies of men have flowed?

6. 13. And thereby, if those with whom you have a conflict in this question so assert the propagation of souls from the derivation of that one as to deny that God now makes and forms them, press on in refuting, convicting, and correcting them, as much as, with the Lord's help, you can. But if they affirm that certain beginnings are drawn from that one, and thereafter from parents, and yet that single souls in single men are created and formed by God the Author of all things, inquire what is to be answered to them—especially from the holy Scriptures—which is not ambiguous nor can be otherwise understood. Or if you have already found it, as I asked above, direct it to us too. But if it still lies hidden from you, as from me, press on indeed with all your might to refute those who say that souls are not from the divine work, which you said in your first letter they murmured among their more secret fables, and then, on account of this foolish and impious opinion, withdrew from your fellowship and the service of the Church; and against them in all ways defend and protect what you set down in the same letter: that God made souls, and makes them, and will make them; and that there is nothing in heaven or on earth which has not stood, or does not stand, by him as author. For this is most truly and most rightly believed, said, defended, and proved of absolutely every kind of creature. For God was, and is, and will be the Author of all things and of all men—which you set down in your last consultation to our fellow bishops of the province of Caesarea, and in a manner exhorted that they should rather choose this, by the example of all the brethren and fellow priests who are with you, and who hold it.

6. 14. But it is one question, where it is asked whether God is the Author and Maker of all souls and bodies, which the truth holds; or whether some natures arise which he himself does not make, which opinion is utterly of error: but it is another, where it is asked whether God makes human souls from propagation or without propagation, which souls it is nevertheless not lawful to doubt are made by him. In which question I wish you to be sober and watchful; and not so to destroy the propagation of souls that you incautiously run into the Pelagian heresy. For if of human bodies, whose propagation is known to all, we nevertheless say—and truly say—that God is the creator, not only of that first man, or of the first spouses, but of all propagated from them: I think it is easily understood that those who defend the propagation of souls do not wish us to destroy them by this, since God makes souls when he also makes bodies, which we cannot deny are made from propagation; but that other proofs must be sought, by which those who think souls are propagated may be repelled, if the truth declares that they err: about which matter those men were rather, if it could be, to be questioned, on account of whose injury, being deceased—as you write in the letter which you sent to me later—"you dreaded to convert men to the better part. For these deceased men, you said, were such and so great and so learned bishops, that, being a new and untrained teacher, you feared to wish to corrupt their traditions." And so, if I could know by what testimonies such, and so great, and so learned men were asserting that opinion about the propagation of souls . . . which, however, in the letter given to the Caesareans, by no means regarding their authority, you said was "a new invention and an unheard-of doctrine"; whereas surely, even if it is an error, we know that it is not new, but old and ancient.

7. 15. But when in some question certain causes not undeservedly compel us to doubt, neither ought we on this account to doubt whether we ought to doubt. For about doubtful matters one must without doubting doubt. You see how the Apostle does not doubt to doubt about himself, whether he was caught up into the third heaven in the body or out of the body—whether this or that, I do not know, God knows (2 Cor 12:2-3). Why, then, may it not be lawful for me, so long as I do not know, to doubt whether my soul came into this life from propagation or without propagation, when I do not doubt that in either way it was made by the highest and true God? Why is it not lawful for me to say, "I know that my soul subsists from the work of God, and is altogether the work of God; whether from propagation, like the body, or apart from propagation, like that which was given to the first man, I do not know, God knows"? Which of these do you wish me to confirm? I could, if I knew. But if you yourself know, lo, you have me more desirous to learn what I do not know than to teach what I know. But if you do not know, like me, pray like me, that, whether through any servant of his or through himself, that Master may teach us, who said to his disciples, Do not wish to be called rabbi by men; for one is your Master, Christ (Matt 23:8, 10)—if indeed he knows it is expedient for us that we should know even such things, who knows not only what he teaches, but also what it is expedient for him to tell us.

7. 16. For I confess my desire to your Charity. I desire indeed to know this too, which you ask; but I would much rather know, if it could be, when there will be presented—he who is desired by all nations (See Hag 2:7)—and when the kingdom of the saints will be, than whence I began to come into this earth: and yet that, when his disciples, our Apostles, asked it of him who knows all things, they received the answer, It is not for you to know the time or the times which God has placed in his own power (Acts 1:7). What if he knows this too, that it is not for us to know—he who surely knows what is useful for us to know? And that indeed I know through him, that it is not for us to know the times which the Father has placed in his own power. But whether the origin of souls, which I do not yet know, is for us to know—that is, whether it pertains to us to know it—not even this do I know. For if I knew at least this, that it is not for us to know it, I would cease not only to affirm, so long as I do not know, but even to inquire. But now, although it is so obscure and deep that I beware there more the rashness of teaching than I have the desire of learning, yet I wish to know even this, if I can. And although that is much more necessary which that holy man says, Make known to me, O Lord, my end (Ps 39:4 (38:5)) (for he does not say "my beginning"), would yet that not even my beginning, as far as pertains to this question, lay hidden from me.

8. 17. But even about my own beginning I am not ungrateful to my Teacher, in that I know the human soul is a spirit, not a body, and that it is rational, or intellectual; and that it is not the nature of God, but rather a creature in some measure mortal, insofar as it can be changed for the worse, and estranged from the life of God, by participation in which it is blessed; and in some measure immortal, since it cannot lose the sense by which, after this life, it is either well or ill. I know also that it did not deserve to be enclosed in flesh for acts done before the flesh; but neither that it is therefore in man without the stain of sin, even if its life upon the earth were of one day, as it is written. And thereby I know that no one is born from Adam through the series of generation without sin; whence even for infants it is necessary to be reborn in Christ through the grace of regeneration. These so many, and not small, things about the beginning or origin of our souls—among which there are more pertaining to that knowledge which stands by faith—I both rejoice to have learned and confirm that I know. Wherefore, if I do not know, in the origin of souls, whether God makes them for men from propagation or without propagation, which souls I nevertheless do not doubt are made by him—I do indeed rather choose to know this too than not to know it: but so long as I cannot, I better doubt about it than dare to confirm something as certain which is perhaps contrary to that matter about which I ought not to doubt.

8. 18. You, then, my good brother, since you consult me and wish that I define one of these—whether the other souls come to be from that one man, like bodies, through propagation, or without propagation, like that one soul of that one man, single souls for single men, made by the Creator (for that they are made by him, whether thus or thus, we do not deny)—allow that I too consult, how the soul draws sin originally from that whence it is not itself originally drawn. For that all souls draw original sin from Adam we likewise do not deny, lest we rush into the detestable Pelagian heresy. If this which I ask, you too do not know, allow me patiently to be ignorant of both—both what you ask and what I ask: but if you already know what I ask, when you have taught me this too, then that which you wish me to answer, I will answer, fearing nothing there. I ask, then, that you not be angry, because I could not confirm what you ask, but could show what you should ask; which, when you have found it, do not doubt to confirm what you were asking.

8. 19. And this indeed I judged should be written to your Holiness, who already, as if certain, think the propagation of souls must be disapproved. But for the rest, if I had to write back to those who assert it, perhaps I would show how they are ignorant of what they think they know; and how much they ought to dread, lest they dare to assert it.

8. 20. Indeed, in the reply of my friend, which I have inserted into this letter, lest perhaps it move you that he mentioned two books sent by me, to which he answered he had no free time to reply: one is about this question, not both; but in the other I sought, by consulting and treating, that which I asked of him. But as for what he admonishes and exhorts, "that we should rather give our effort that this most pernicious heresy be removed from the Churches," he means that very Pelagian heresy, which I admonish you, brother, as much as I can, to avoid most cautiously, when you either think or already dispute about the origin of souls; lest it steal upon you that it must be believed that any soul whatever, except the one Mediator's, does not draw original sin from Adam—bound by generation, to be loosed by regeneration.

LETTER 203
TO LARGUS, DISTINGUISHED AND MOST EXCELLENT LORD, AND MOST LONGED-FOR SON, AUGUSTINE SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.

1. I have received the letter of your Eximiousness, in which you asked me to write to you. Which indeed you would not desire, unless you held also this—what you supposed I could write—agreeable and pleasant. And that is, that the vanities of this age, if you desired them untried, you should despise once tried. For in them the sweetness is deceitful, the labor fruitless, the fear perpetual, the height perilous. The beginning is without foresight, and the end with repentance. So it is with all things which, in this hardship of mortality, are sought more covetously than prudently. But another is the hope of the pious, another the fruit of their labor, another the reward of their perils. For in this world it is impossible not to fear, not to grieve, not to labor, not to be in peril: but it makes the greatest difference for what cause, with what expectation, with what end each one suffers these things. I indeed, when I behold the lovers of this age, do not know when wisdom can be opportune for healing their minds: for when they have things as it were prosperous, with haughtiness they reject wholesome warnings, and reckon them as an old wives' refrain; but when they are in adversity, they think rather of escaping that by which they are presently distressed, than of taking that by which they may be cured, and by which they may arrive where they can be distressed no longer. Sometimes, however, certain ones apply and bring the ears of the heart to the truth—more rarely amid prosperity, more often amid adversity; but yet they are few, for so they were foretold; among whom I desire you to be, because I truly love you, distinguished and most excellent lord and most longed-for son. Let this admonition be my return of greeting to you; because, although I do not wish you henceforth to suffer such things as you have endured, I nevertheless grieve more that you have endured these very things without any change of life for the better.

LETTER 204
TO DULCITIUS, EXIMIOUS LORD AND HONORABLE SON, AUGUSTINE, GREETING IN THE LORD.

1. I ought not to have disregarded your petition, by which you desired to be instructed by me how it behooves you to answer the heretics, whose salvation is sought in the mercy of the Lord, and also by the instancy of your strenuousness. For although their immense multitudes (whereat we much rejoice) understand what benefit is conferred on them, some of them, however, ungrateful to God and men by a pitiable instinct of fury, where they cannot lay us waste by their own slaughters, believe they terrify us by their own destruction—either seeking their own gladness from our deaths, or our sadness from their own deaths. But the furious error of a few men ought not to impede the salvation of so many and so great peoples. What we wish toward them not only God and prudent men, but even they themselves, although they are most hostile to us, perceive. For when they think we are to be terrified by their own ruin, they do not doubt that we fear lest they perish.

2. But what shall we do, seeing that many, with the Lord's help, through your occasion find the way of peace? Can we, or ought we, prohibit you from this instancy for unity, while we fear lest some, most hardened and most cruel to themselves, destroy themselves not by our will but by their own? We would indeed wish that all who bear against Christ the sign of Christ, and glory against the Gospel out of the Gospel itself, which they do not understand, should depart from their perversity, and rejoice with us in his unity. But since God, by a disposition hidden enough, yet just, has predestined some of them to the extreme penalties, doubtless it is better that, with very many of incomparable number reintegrated and gathered from that pestilent division and dispersion, some perish by their own fires, than that all alike should burn in the eternal fires of hell by the desert of their sacrilegious dissension. For the Church grieves over these who perish just as holy David grieved over his rebellious son, for whose salvation he had, with solicitous love, commanded that it be preserved. For when that son was, by the desert of his abominable impiety, destroyed, David groaned even with the testimony of a tearful voice: yet, with the proud and malignant one departing to his own place, the people of God, who had been divided by his tyranny, recognized their king; and the perfection of unity consoled the father's grief over the lost son.

3. We do not, then, reprehend, eximious lord and honorable son, that you judged such men at Thamugadi should first be admonished by an edict: but because there you said, "Know that you are to be given over to deserved slaughter," they supposed, as their replies indicate, that you had threatened this—that you would kill them when apprehended—not understanding that you spoke of that slaughter which they themselves wish to inflict upon themselves. For you did not receive over them the right of the sword by any laws, nor is it commanded by the imperial constitutions, whose execution was enjoined upon you, that they be killed. But in your second edict, of your Charity, you made more plainly clear what you wished. And as for the fact that you thought even their bishop himself should be addressed by letter most humanely, you showed with how great gentleness those are tempered in the catholic Church who, even by the power of the Christian Emperor, are set over errors to be corrected, whether by terrifying or by chastising; except that you treated him with more honorific words than befitted a heretic.

4. But as for the fact that you wished me to answer his reply, I believe you judged that this too ought to be furnished to the Thamugadians, namely, that the deceitful teaching of the very one by whom they were being seduced should be somewhat more diligently refuted: but we are both most occupied, and we have already, in very many others of our little works, refuted vain talk of this kind. For now I know not how often, by disputing and writing, we have shown that they cannot have the death of martyrs, because they do not have the life of Christians; since it is not the penalty that makes a martyr, but the cause. We have also taught that free choice was so given to man, that nevertheless, both by divine and by human laws, punishments of grave sins are most rightly appointed; and that it pertains to the religious kings of the earth to restrain with fitting severity not only adulteries or homicides or other shameful deeds and crimes of this kind, but also sacrileges: and that those are much deceived who think that such men as these are received by us as they are, because we do not rebaptize them. For how are they received as they are, when they are heretics, and by passing over to us become catholics? For depraved hearts are not therefore forbidden to be corrected, because sacraments once given are not allowed to be repeated.

5. But about the most furious deaths which some of them inflict upon themselves—on account of which they are accustomed to be detestable and abominable even to many of their own, whose minds so great madness has not possessed—we have often answered them according to the Scriptures and the reasonings of Christians, since it is written, He who is wicked to himself, to whom will he be good? (Sir 14:5) Or certainly let him who thinks it expedient and lawful for himself to kill himself also kill his neighbor set in the same temptations, when he wishes to die, since the Scripture says, You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:39). But that, with no laws or lawful powers commanding, it is not lawful to kill another, even one willing and asking and no longer able to live, the Scripture of Kingdoms sufficiently indicates, where King David ordered the slayer of King Saul to be killed, when that man had said that he had been asked by Saul, already wounded and half-alive, to do this, and to free, by a single stroke of a wound, his soul struggling against the bonds of the body and desiring to be loosed, from those torments. Accordingly, since everyone who, without any authority of lawful power, kills a man is a homicide, whoever kills himself would not be a homicide, only if he is not a man. All these things in many ways we have said in many other of our discourses and letters.

6. Nevertheless—what must be confessed—about that elder Razis, whom, constrained by the utmost lack of examples, they boast that they have at last scarcely found, in the books of the Maccabees, as if for an authority for the crime by which they destroy themselves, having searched through all the ecclesiastical authorities—I recall that I have never yet answered them. But, what may suffice for your Charity and for any prudent persons to refute them: if, for the life of Christians, they are prepared to transfer the examples of all deeds from the Jewish nation and those Writings, then let them transfer this too. But if there are there very many things even of those men who are praised by the truth of those Writings, which are either not suited to this present time or were even at that time not rightly done; of such a kind is also this which that Razis committed against himself: who, when he was noble among his own, and had much advanced in Judaism (which the Apostle says were to him, in comparison with Christian righteousness, losses and dung), and on account of this same was called the father of the Jews—what wonder is it if, as upon a man, proud exaltation crept in, so that he preferred to be slain by his own hand rather than, after that loftiness in the sight of his own, to endure an unworthy servitude in the hands of his enemies?

7. Such things are wont to be praised in the writings of the Gentiles. But in these books of the Maccabees, although the man himself was praised, his deed is nevertheless narrated, not praised, and set as it were before the eyes to be judged rather than imitated; not indeed to be judged by our judgment, which we too as men might have, but by the judgment of sober teaching, which is clear in those very old Books too. For that Razis was far from those words where it is read: Whatever shall be brought upon you, accept it; and in pain endure, and in your humility have patience (Sir 2:4). That man, then, was not wise in choosing death, but impatient in bearing humiliation.

8. It is written that he wished to die nobly and manfully; but is it therefore wisely? Nobly, namely, lest as a captive he lose the liberty of his birth; and manfully, in that he had such great strength of soul as to be fit to kill himself; which, since he could not accomplish with the sword, he cast himself headlong from the wall, and thus, still alive, ran to a sheer rock, and there, now bloodless, drew forth his own entrails, which, torn apart with both hands, he scattered upon the people, and then afterward, exhausted, fell. These things are great, yet not good: for not everything that is great is good; since there are great evils too. God said, You shall not kill the innocent and just (Exod 23:7). If, then, that man was not innocent and just, why is he set forth to be imitated? But if he was innocent and just, why is the slayer of an innocent and just man—that is, of Razis himself—besides thought to be praised?

9. For now, lest it become too lengthy, let these things suffice for the filling of this letter. But I owe the Thamugadians this ministry of charity, since they have been well commended to me both by your wish and by my honorable and most dear son Eleusinus, who exercised the tribuneship among them, so that I should so answer both letters of Gaudentius, the bishop of the Donatists—and especially the later one, which he thinks he made according to the holy Scriptures—that nothing be thought to have been passed over.

LETTER 205
TO HIS MOST BELOVED BROTHER CONSENTIUS, FROM AUGUSTINE.

1. 1. As far as concerns the bodily eyes, there are some whom we see and do not know, whose pursuits and life are unknown to us; some we know and do not see, whose love and affection have become known to us, among whom we number you too; and therefore we desire the more to see you, that you may be among those whom we both see and know. For those who, unknown, are thrust upon our eyes are not only not desirable, but scarcely tolerable, unless by some signs the beauty of the inner man appears in them. But those whose mind, like yours, has appeared to us by understanding before the body by seeing—we now indeed know them; but we desire also to see them, that through that which is beheld by the eyes we may enjoy, much more pleasantly and familiarly, the inner friend whom we already know. But perhaps God will grant us this too concerning you, with human affairs quieter and more tranquil, as we wish, so that it may be of honorable charity rather than of troublesome necessity. Now let me answer, as I shall be able with the Lord's help, the things which, besides the letter, you sent on another sheet to be inquired of me.

1. 2. You ask "whether the body of the Lord now has bones and blood, or the remaining features of flesh." What if you added, whether also garments? Would not the question be increased? For what cause, except that the things which in the use of this our life we know to be corruptible, we can scarcely think of without corruption, when certain proofs of the divine miracles have already been given, from which we may conjecture greater ones? For if the garment of the Israelites could be without wearing out for so many years in the desert, if the dead skin of their shoes endured so long without decay, God can everywhere extend, for as long a time as he wills, the incorrupt quality of any bodies whatever. I therefore believe that the Lord's body is in heaven such as it was on earth, when he ascended into heaven. But he had said to the disciples, as we read in the Gospel, doubting about his resurrection, and thinking that what they saw was not a body but a spirit: See my hands and my feet; handle and see, for a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see me to have (Lk 24:39). As he was handled with their hands when he was on earth, so he was led from their sight when he went into heaven. There the angelic voice sounded: So shall he come, as you have seen him going into heaven (Acts 1:11). Let faith be present, and no question will remain.

1. 3. Unless perhaps there is something to be inquired about the blood, because, when he had said, Handle and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, he did not add "blood." Let us too, then, not add to inquire what he did not add to say: and, for brevity, if it please, let the question be ended. For perhaps, with the occasion of blood taken, a more troublesome searcher will press us, and will say: If blood, why not also phlegm, why not also yellow bile and black bile, by which four humors the medical discipline too testifies that the nature of the flesh is tempered? But whatever anyone may add, let him beware of adding corruption, lest he corrupt the soundness and chastity of his faith.

1. 4. From the custom of things experienced, human weakness measures the unexperienced works of God, and thinks it chatters somewhat acutely when it says: If it is flesh, it is also blood; if blood, also the other humors; if the other humors, then also corruption. In that way it would say: If it is flame, it also burns; if it burns, it also scorches; if it scorches, then the fire sent into the furnace by the impious king burned the bodies of the three men. But if whoever thinks rightly about the divine works does not doubt that this miracle was done in the three men, why should it not be believed that he who made those bodies not able to be corrupted by fire, made that body able to be corrupted neither by fire, nor by hunger, nor by disease, nor by old age, nor by any other force by which corruption is wont to ruin human bodies? But if anyone says that it was not to the flesh of those three men that incorruption against the fire was added, but rather from the fire itself the faculty of corrupting was taken away; why do we fear that he who made the fire unable to corrupt could not make the flesh unable to be corrupted? For if that is understood not of a change of the flesh, but of a change of the fire, it is much more marvelous: for at one and the same time it both did not burn the bodies of men, that it might not be able to harm, and burned the wood of the furnace, that it might be able to blaze. But those who do not even believe these things distrust too much the divine power, and with them, or to them, our discourse is now not directed: but those who believe these things, from these may also somehow conjecture those things which they faithfully inquire. The divine power, then, avails, from this visible and tangible nature of bodies, with certain things remaining, to take away what qualities it wills: and thereby it avails also to strengthen mortal members—with the features of form remaining, but the corruption of mortality being dead—with a stable vigor; so that decay be absent, the figure be present; motion be present, weariness be absent; the power of eating be present, the necessity of hungering be absent.

2. 5. As for what is read in the Apostle, Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor 15:50), the question is indeed resolved even in that way which you have recalled, so that by the name of flesh and blood are understood the works of flesh and blood: but, because the Apostle was speaking not of works but of the manner of the resurrection, and was turning that question over in his disputation, it is better in that place understood that flesh and blood is put for the corruption of flesh and blood. For if the name of flesh signifies the operation, why should it not signify also the corruption, as it was said, All flesh is grass (Isa 40:6)? For here too that very corruptibility was signified: for it follows, And all the honor of flesh as the flower of grass; the grass has withered, the flower has fallen (Isa 40:6-7; 1 Pet 1:24). Does this too apply to that flesh of which it was said, Handle and see, for a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see me to have? For how could it wither or fall, when it is written that Christ rising from the dead dies now no more, and death shall no longer have dominion over him (Rom 6:9)?

2. 6. Accordingly, inspect that apostolic sentence from above, and consider the whole. When he wished to persuade the resurrection of the dead to those who said that there is no resurrection of the dead, having set forth the resurrection of Christ as an example, among the other things he discussed there, he brought against himself a question and said: But someone will say, How do the dead rise? And with what body do they come? (1 Cor 15:35) that is, with what kind of body? Then, applying proofs of seeds: You fool, he says, what you sow is not made alive unless it first dies; and what you sow, you do not sow the body that shall be, but a bare grain, as it may be of wheat, or of some of the rest; but God gives it a body as he has willed, and to each of the seeds its own body (1 Cor 15:36-38). According to this, then, he had said, You do not sow the body that shall be. For it is not that wheat will not be from wheat; but because no one sows the herb, or the stalk, and the manifold coverings of the grains in the chaff, with which the seeds nevertheless rise, therefore he says, But a bare grain: wishing hence to show that if God can add what was not in the bare seed, much more can he restore what was in the body of man.

2. 7. Now what he adjoins pertains to the difference of those who rise again, on account of the diverse glories of the faithful and the saints. Not all flesh, he says, is the same flesh: one indeed of men, another the flesh of cattle, another of birds, another of fishes. And there are heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies; but one is the glory of the heavenly, and another of the earthly. And one is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, and another the glory of the stars. For star differs from star in glory: so also is the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor 15:39-42). In all these the sense is this: If the kinds of flesh, although all are mortal, nevertheless differ among themselves according to the diversities of living things; and if bodies, although all are visible, nevertheless differ according to the diversities of places, whence one is the glory of the heavenly, another of the earthly; and if among things in the lofty places, although all are heavenly, they too nevertheless differ in the brightnesses of their lights; it is no wonder that in the resurrection of the dead the glory of merits will differ.

2. 8. Hence now he comes to that which all flesh that rises to eternal life has in common, and he says: It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it shall rise in glory; it is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power; it is sown an animal body, it shall rise a spiritual body (1 Cor 15:42-44). In these words of the Apostle, is it lawful to think that our bodies will rise better than Christ's, when the example is set forth about him, which we ought faithfully to heed and, through his grace, to hope for? And thereby in no way could the body of Christ rise with corruption, if ours is promised to rise in incorruption; nor could that one rise without glory, if ours will rise in glory. But what glory is there, where there is still corruption? It is too absurd, then, that we should believe that body to have been both sown in weakness—that is, put to death—and to have risen in weakness; when our body is sown in weakness, rises in power; and the same Apostle says of Christ, Although he was crucified out of weakness, yet he lives out of the power of God (2 Cor 13:4). But who would be so absurdly wise as to believe that body sown an animal body, raised an animal body, if ours is sown an animal body, shall rise a spiritual body?

2. 9. It is established, then, and in no way to be doubted, that the body of Christ—which, although it did not see the corruption of putrefaction in the sepulcher, whence it is written, Nor will you give your holy one to see corruption (Ps 16:10 (15:10); Acts 2:27), could nevertheless be pierced through with nails and a lance—now altogether consists in incorruption; and that what was sown in the dishonor of passion and death is now in the glory of eternal life; and that what could be crucified out of weakness now reigns in power; and that what was an animal body, since it was taken from Adam, is now spiritual, since it is now inseparably joined to the spirit. For when the Apostle wished to bring a testimony of the Scriptures about the animal body, he set down that which is read in Genesis: If there is, he says, an animal body, there is also a spiritual; as it is written, The first Adam was made into a living soul (1 Cor 15:44-45; Gen 2:7). You surely recall how it is written: And God breathed into his face the breath of life; and man was made into a living soul (Gen 2:7). But it was said also of the animals, Let the earth bring forth a living soul (Gen 1:24). The animal body, then, is understood to be called like the other animals on account of the dissolution and corruption of death, which is daily restored by food, and afterward, the structure of the living thing being separated, is dissolved. But the spiritual body is that which is now, with the spirit, immortal.

2. 10. Although some judge that a body then becomes spiritual when even the body itself is changed into spirit, and that what man was, out of body and spirit, will both, and the whole, be spirit, as if the Apostle had said, "It is sown a body, it shall rise a spirit." But he said, It is sown an animal body, it shall rise a spiritual body: accordingly, just as the animal body is not a soul, but a body, so also the spiritual body we ought to think not a spirit, but a body. Who, moreover, would dare to suppose either that Christ's body did not rise spiritual; or that, if it rose spiritual, it was then no longer a body, but a spirit—when this opinion of the disciples is refuted, where, when, seeing him, they thought they saw a spirit, he says, Handle and see, for a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see me to have? Now therefore that flesh was a spiritual body, and yet was not a spirit, but a body, to be loosed and separated from the soul by no further death: just as the animal body, such as was animated by the breath of God when man was made into a living soul, even it too, from animal, would have been going to be spiritual without the intervention of death, had not the transgression of the precept, sin having first been committed, inflicted the penalty, before God should give the crown of preserved righteousness.

2. 11. Whence the Lord Christ came to us through us, when, righteous, he found us sinners; through the couch, as it were, of our humility, but not with the disease of our iniquity. For he appeared to us through an animal—that is, a mortal—body; who surely, if he had willed, would have come at first with an immortal body. But because we had to be healed by the humility of the Son of God, he descended even to our weakness, and showed the merit and reward of our faith by the power of his resurrection. Therefore the Apostle follows and says, The last Adam into a life-giving spirit (1 Cor 15:45). Whether the first Adam be understood, who was formed of dust before, and the last Adam, who was procreated of the Virgin; or whether both are fulfilled in each man, so that the first Adam is man in a mortal body, and the last Adam the same man in an immortal body: he nevertheless wished this to be the difference between a living soul and a life-giving spirit, that there the body is animal, here spiritual. For the soul in an animal body does indeed live, but does not give life so far as to take away corruption: but in a spiritual body, since, perfectly cleaving to the Lord, it is one spirit, it so gives life as to make the body spiritual, consuming all corruption, fearing no separation.

2. 12. Accordingly it follows: But not first what is spiritual, but what is animal; afterward what is spiritual. The first man of the earth, earthly; the second man from heaven, heavenly. As is the earthly, such also are the earthly; and as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of him who is from heaven (1 Cor 15:46-49). What is As is the earthly, such also are the earthly, except, mortal from the mortal? And what is As is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly, except, immortal through the immortal? The former through Adam, the latter through Christ. For the Lord became earthly for this, although he was heavenly, that he might make those who were earthly heavenly; that is, he became, from immortal, mortal—by taking the form of a servant, not by changing the nature of the Lord—that he might make those who were mortal immortal, by imparting the grace of the Lord, not by retaining the injury of the servant.

2. 13. When, therefore, the Apostle, disputing about the resurrection of the body, taught that our bodies would be, from corruptible, incorruptible, from contemptible, glorious, from weak, strong, from animal, spiritual—that is, from mortal, immortal—he added that which is now in question, and said: But this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor 15:50). And lest anyone should think that the Apostle had defined this according to the substance of the flesh, he made clear what he meant by subjoining, Nor shall corruption possess incorruption (1 Cor 15:50). As though he said, "What I said, Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God, I said for this reason, because corruption shall not possess incorruption." In this place, then, by the name of flesh and blood he wished the corruption of mortality to be understood.

2. 14. Finally, as though it were said to him, "How will it be flesh, and not be flesh? For it will be flesh, since the Lord after the resurrection says, Handle and see, for a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see me to have; but it will not be flesh, since flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God": he expounds what he meant, adding: Behold, I tell you a mystery: we shall all indeed rise again—or, as the Greek manuscripts have it, we shall all indeed sleep—but we shall not all be changed (1 Cor 15:51). Whether he wished this change to be understood for the worse or for the better, the following words show. In an atom, he says—that is, in a point of time which cannot be divided—in the twinkling of an eye—that is, in the utmost swiftness—at the last trumpet—that is, at the last sign that will be given, so that these things be fulfilled: for the trumpet shall sound, he says, and the dead shall rise incorrupt, and we shall be changed (1 Cor 15:52). This change, then, must without doubt be understood for the better, because all, both the righteous and the unrighteous, are going to rise: but, as the Lord says in the Gospel, those who have done well, unto the resurrection of life; but those who have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment (Jn 5:29)—calling "judgment" the everlasting penalty, as in another place: He who does not believe, he says, is already judged (Jn 3:18). Accordingly those who are going to rise unto judgment will not be changed into that incorruption which cannot even suffer the corruption of pain. For that belongs to the faithful and the saints: but these will be tortured with perpetual corruption; because their fire shall not be extinguished, and their worm shall not die (See Mk 9:48; Isa 66:24).

2. 15. What, then, does this distinction mean, And the dead shall rise incorrupt, and we shall be changed, except that all will rise incorrupt, but of these the righteous too will be changed into that incorruption which no corruption can at all harm? And thereby those who will not be changed into it will indeed rise incorrupt, in the integrity of their members, but yet to be corrupted by the pain of punishments, when they shall have heard, Go, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41). From which evil hearing the righteous man will not fear. But when he had said of that change of the righteous, we shall be changed, as though we asked how this comes about, or what that change will be like, he adds and says: For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality (1 Cor 15:53). It must not, as I suppose, be doubted that, according to this saying, Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God, there will not be there the corruption and mortality of flesh and blood: for according to these qualities he named flesh and blood in this place.

2. 16. Wherefore, to set down something by way of example which for now occurs: as it is written, Lest perhaps he who tempts have tempted you, and our labor be in vain (1 Thess 3:5)—and here the devil is understood, as though God does not tempt at all, of whom in another place Scripture says, But he himself tempts no one (Jas 1:13); nor is this sentence contrary to that by which it is said, The Lord your God tempts you (See Deut 13:3); but the question is resolved, since the word "temptation" has diverse meanings, in that one is the temptation of deception, another the temptation of testing; according to the former, no one is understood to tempt except the devil, but according to the latter, God tempts: so when it is said, "Flesh shall possess the kingdom of God," and, "Flesh shall not possess the kingdom of God," let the meaning of this name too be distinguished, and there will be no question: since flesh according to the substance, according to which it was said, A spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see me to have, will possess the kingdom of God; but flesh, when it is understood according to corruption, will not possess it. For this was expounded when it was said, Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God, in what was immediately added, nor shall corruption possess incorruption; as we have, I think, sufficiently discussed.

3. 17. But as for what you ask, whether the features of bodies are formed singly by God the Creator, it will not move you, if, as far as the human mind can, you understand the power of the divine operation. For how shall we be able to deny that God even now works all things that are created, when the Lord says, My Father works until now (Jn 5:17)? Whence that cessation of the seventh day must be understood to have been made from founding the natures themselves, not from the administration of those that are reported as founded. Since, then, the nature of things is administered by the Creator, and through ordered ranks, in their predetermined places and times, all things are born, God works until now. For if God does not now form these things, how is it read, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you (Jer 1:5)? How also can it be taken, But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven (Matt 6:30)? Unless perhaps it is to be believed that the grass is clothed by God, and bodies are not formed by God! For when he said clothes, he sufficiently indicates not a past ordination but a present operation. Hence too is that saying of the Apostle about seeds, which I recalled above: You do not sow the body that shall be, he says, but a bare grain, as it may be of wheat, or of some of the rest; but God gives it a body as he has willed (1 Cor 15:37-38). He did not say "gave," or "disposed"; but, he disposes all things sweetly (Wis 8:1). But it is much, even to understand slenderly, how changeable and temporal things are founded not by changeable motions of the Creator, but by his eternal and stable power.

4. 18. As for that which you thought should be inquired about—whether all the baptized, if they have departed from the body without penitence, entangled in diverse crimes, are going to obtain pardon at some time—I have already written a book of no small size; which, if you take care to have copied out, perhaps you will seek nothing further on this point.

4. 19. You also wish to know through me whether that breath of God into Adam is the very soul itself. Briefly I answer: either it is the soul itself, or by it the soul was made. But even if it is the soul itself, it was made. For about the soul God speaks through the prophet Isaiah, where he says, Every breath I have made (See Isa 57:16); which the following words sufficiently indicate: for it follows, On account of sin I grieved him a little—that is, the breath itself; and the rest, which can be understood only of the human soul. For in this question it must especially be guarded against, lest the soul be believed to be not a nature made by God, but the very substance of God, like the only-begotten Son, who is his Word, or some particle of him; as though that nature and substance, by which God is whatever he is, could be changeable: which no one who feels that he has a soul fails to feel the soul to be. As I was dictating these things, the bearer, now awaiting the wind, was urging me vehemently to set sail. And so if you read here anything said in a disordered and uncultivated way, or if you perceive the whole to be so, give your effort to the teaching, pardon to the tongue. (And in another hand): May you live for God, most beloved son.

LETTER 206
TO VALERIUS, DESERVEDLY ILLUSTRIOUS AND MOST EXCELLENT LORD, AND MOST DEAR SON IN CHRIST, AUGUSTINE SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.

1. As often as men ask of me that I commend them to your benignity and faith, if I do not do it, I do not seem to myself to judge rightly of your mercy toward those in need of help, or of your benevolence toward us. And so I do it, and especially the ministers of Christ, who bear the care of the Church, of which we rejoice that you are a coheir and son, I do not hesitate to commend to your Excellency, deservedly illustrious and most excellent lord, and most dear son in Christ. And so, since our holy brother and fellow bishop Felix asked this of me, I surely ought not to refuse. I commend to you, then, a bishop of Christ in need of the help of an exalted man: do, then, what you can; since the Lord has granted you to be able to do very much, whose gains we know you to be most eager for.

LETTER 207
TO CLAUDIUS, MOST BLESSED BROTHER AND FELLOW BISHOP, AUGUSTINE SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.

1. Since, stirred by brotherly affection, you yourself, before I asked, sent me the four books of Julian which he wrote against one of mine, I thought nothing more fitting to be done than that you especially, by reading the things I answer, should judge whether I have answered rightly and fittingly. For from these four books someone—I know not who—had written some excerpts to the illustrious and religious man Count Valerius, against this same book of mine, which he had learned I had written to him: and when these had come into my hands by the care of that same exalted man, I did not delay to add to that one first a second volume, in which I refuted all those things, as I could. But now, when I was inspecting those same books more diligently, I found that the one who had selected some things from them had not set down everything as it is read in these books: whence it could seem to Julian, or to any of his party, that I had rather lied, because, of course, those things which were excerpted from these books and sent to the said Count could not have become known just as these four books did. Whoever, then, reads also that second book of mine, written to Count Valerius just as the first, let him know that in certain places I answered not Julian, but rather the one who selected those things from his books, and did not set them down as he found them, but thought somewhat must be changed—perhaps that in that way he might make as it were his own what was clearly another's. But now, believing more true the copies which your Holiness sent, I see that I must answer the author himself, who boasts that he has refuted one book of mine with his four, and ceases not everywhere to scatter the venoms of the faith. I have undertaken, then, this work in the help of the Savior of the little and the great; and I know that you have prayed for me that I might fulfill it, and for those whom we believe and wish our labors of this kind will profit. Attend, then, now to my reply, the beginning of which will follow this letter. Farewell in the Lord, mindful of us, most blessed brother.

LETTER 208
TO FELICIA, A LADY DESERVEDLY TO BE RECEIVED AND TO BE HONORED IN THE MEMBERS OF CHRIST, A DAUGHTER, AUGUSTINE SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.

1. I do not doubt that your mind is troubled, both for your own faith and for the weakness or iniquity of others; since the holy Apostle, full of the bowels of charity, confesses and says, Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I do not burn? (2 Cor 11:29) Whence I myself too, pricked, and solicitous for your salvation which is in Christ, thought that these letters, whether of consolation or of exhortation, should be given to your Holiness: since in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is his Church and the unity of his members, you have been made most truly a sister to us, who, as an honorable member, are loved in his framework, and live with us by his Holy Spirit.

2. Whence I admonish you not to be more gravely disturbed by these scandals, which were for this reason foretold as going to come, that when they came we might remember they had been foretold, and not be greatly moved by them. For the Lord himself in the Gospel thus foretold them: Woe to the world because of scandals! It must be that scandals come: but woe to that man through whom the scandal comes! (Matt 18:7) Who are these men, except those of whom the Apostle says, seeking their own, not the things of Jesus Christ (Phil 2:21)? There are, then, some who hold pastoral chairs in order to provide for the flocks of Christ; but others who sit in them in order to rejoice in their temporal honors and worldly advantages. These two kinds of pastors, some dying, others being born, must necessarily persevere in the Catholic Church itself until the end of the age and until the judgment of the Lord. For if in the times of the Apostles there were such men, among whom, as false brethren, the Apostle groaned and said, In perils among false brethren (2 Cor 11:26), and did not separate them through pride, but bore with them through forbearance; how much more in our times is it necessary that there be such, when about the time of this age, which draws near to the end, the Lord says most plainly, Because iniquity shall abound, the charity of many shall grow cold (Matt 24:12)? But what follows ought to console and exhort us: He who shall persevere, he says, unto the end, he shall be saved (Matt 24:13).

3. But as there are pastors good and bad, so also in the flocks themselves there are both good and bad. The good are signified by the name of sheep; the bad are called goats: but they feed mingled together alike, until the Prince of pastors comes, who is called the one Pastor; and, as he himself promised, separates, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats (Matt 25:32). For to us he commanded the gathering, but to himself he reserved the separation: because he ought to separate who knows not how to err. For those who, proud servants, easily dared to separate before the time which the Lord reserved to himself, have rather themselves been separated from catholic unity: for, unclean by schism, whence could they have a clean flock?

4. Therefore, that we may remain in unity, and, offended by the scandals of the chaff, not forsake the Lord's threshing floor, but rather persevere as the wheat until the end of the winnowing, and bear the broken-up straw with the firm weight of charity, our Pastor himself in the Gospel admonishes us about the good pastors, that, on account of their good works, we should not place our hope in those very men, but should glorify him who made them such, the Father who is in heaven; and about the bad pastors, whom he wished to signify by the name of Scribes and Pharisees, teaching good things and doing evil.

5. For about the good pastors he speaks thus: You are the light of the world. A city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden; nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but upon a lampstand, that it may give light to all who are in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt 5:14-16). But about the bad pastors he admonishes the sheep, saying: They sit upon the chair of Moses. What they say, do; but what they do, do not wish to do: for they say, and do not (Matt 23:2-3). Hearing these things, the sheep of Christ, even through bad teachers, hear his voice, and do not leave his unity; because the good which they hear them say is not theirs, but his: and therefore the sheep feed secure, because even under bad pastors they are nourished by the Lord's pastures. But they do not do the deeds of the bad pastors; because such works are not his, but theirs. But those whom they see to be good, they not only hear the good things they say, but also imitate the good things they do. Of such was the Apostle, who said, Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ (1 Cor 11:1). He was a light kindled from the everlasting Light, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and was set on a lampstand, because he gloried in his cross: whence he says, But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal 6:14). And because he sought not his own, but the things of Jesus Christ: although he exhorts those whom he had begotten through the Gospel to his imitation, he nevertheless gravely rebukes those who made schisms through the names of the Apostles; and chides those who said, I am of Paul: Was Paul, he says, crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Cor 1:12-13)

6. Hence we understand both that the good pastors seek not their own, but the things of Jesus Christ; and that the good sheep, although they imitate the deeds of the good pastors, nevertheless do not place their hope in those by whose ministry they have been gathered, but rather in the Lord, by whose blood they have been redeemed: so that when perhaps they fall in with bad pastors, who preach his teaching and do their own evil works, they may do what they say, but not do what they do; nor, on account of the sons of iniquity, forsake the pastures of unity. For in the catholic Church—which is enlarged and spread not in Africa alone, like the party of Donatus, but, as it was promised, through all nations, bearing fruit and increasing, as the Apostle says, in the whole world—there are both the good and the bad. But those separated from it, so long as they think against it, cannot be good; because, even if some of them a praiseworthy way of life seems to show good, the very division makes them bad, as the Lord says, He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters (Matt 12:30).

7. Whence I also exhort you, lady deservedly to be received and to be honored in the members of Christ, daughter, that what the Lord has granted you, you faithfully hold; and that you love with your whole heart both him and his Church, who did not permit you to lose or to let perish the fruit of your virginity with the lost. For if you departed from this age separated from the unity of the body of Christ, the preserved integrity of your body would profit you nothing. But God, who is rich in mercy, did toward you what is written in the Gospel; when those invited to the supper of the householder excused themselves, he said among other things to his servants, Go out into the highways and hedges, and whomever you find, compel them to come in (Lk 14:23). You, then, although you owe a most sincere love even to his good servants, by whose ministry you have been compelled to enter, ought nevertheless to place your hope in him who prepared the banquet, for which you too are solicitous unto eternal and blessed life. For, commending to him your heart, and your purpose, and your holy virginity, and your faith, and hope, and charity, you will not be moved by the scandals which will abound until the end; but, by the stable strength of piety, you will be safe, and glorious in the Lord, by persevering in his unity until the end. But how you have received this solicitude of mine for you, which I have taken care to intimate to you by such letters as I could, make me know by your reply. May the mercy and grace of God ever protect you.

LETTER 209
TO CAELESTINE, MOST BLESSED LORD, AND HOLY POPE TO BE VENERATED WITH DUE CHARITY, AUGUSTINE SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.

1. First I render congratulation to your merits, that the Lord our God has established you in that See without any division, as we have heard, of his people. Then I intimate to your Holiness what concerns us, so that you may come to our aid not only by praying for us, but also by counseling and helping. For, set in great tribulation, I have directed these writings to your Blessedness: since, wishing to profit certain members of Christ in our vicinity, I, improvident and incautious, brought a great disaster upon them.

2. Fussala is the name of a fortified town bordering on the territory of Hippo: there was never before a bishop there, but, together with the region adjoining it, it belonged to the parish of the Church of Hippo. That land had few catholics; the other communities there, set among a great multitude of people, the error of the Donatists pitiably held, so that in that very town there was no catholic at all. It came about, in the mercy of God, that all those places cleaved to the unity of the Church; through how great labors and perils of ours, it would be long to explain—so much so that the presbyters who were first appointed by us for gathering them were stripped, beaten, maimed, blinded, killed: whose passions, however, were not useless and barren, the security of unity being there perfected. But because the said town is separated from Hippo by forty miles, when, in ruling them and in gathering their remnants, however small—which were straying in both sexes, no longer threatening but fleeing—I saw myself extended more widely than was fitting, and not sufficing for the diligence which I perceived ought, by most certain reasoning, to be applied, I took care that a bishop should be ordained and established there.

3. That this might be done, I was seeking a man fit and suited to that place, who was also instructed in the Punic tongue; and I had a presbyter ready, of whom I was thinking, for whose ordination I obtained by letter, by asking, that the holy old man who then held the primacy of Numidia should come from afar. With him now present, and the minds of all in suspense in so great a matter, on the spot that one who had seemed to me ready failed me, resisting in every way. But I—who surely, as the outcome taught, ought rather to have deferred than to hasten a perilous business—while I was unwilling that the most grave and most holy old man, wearied all the way to us, should return to his own without effect, on account of which he had come so far, offered to those not asking a certain youth, Antonius, who was then with me—nurtured indeed by us in the monastery from a tender age, but, except for the office of reading, known by no grades and labors of the clergy. But those wretched men, ignorant of what was going to be, most obediently trusted me as I offered him. What more? It was done; he began to be their bishop.

4. What shall I do? I do not wish, before your Veneration, to burden the one whom I gathered to be nurtured; I do not wish to desert those whom, to be gathered, I brought forth with fears and pains; and how I may do both I cannot find. For the matter came to such great scandal that there pleaded against him here among us those who had obeyed us about receiving his episcopate, as though we were counseling them well. In which cases, when the capital crimes of defilements—which had been charged not by those of whom he was the bishop, but by certain others—could by no means be proved, and he seemed to be cleared of those things which were most odiously bandied about, he became so pitiable both to us and to others, that whatever was charged by the townspeople and the men of that region concerning intolerable domination, concerning robberies and diverse oppressions and crushings, by no means seemed to us such that, on account of this, or on account of all things heaped together, we should think him to be deprived of the episcopate, but that the things which were proved to have been taken away must be restored.

5. Finally, we so tempered our sentences that, the episcopate being saved, yet there should not be left altogether unpunished the things which ought not to be set forth either for that same man henceforth and again to do, or for the rest to imitate. We preserved, then, his honor whole, for the youth to be corrected; but in correcting, we diminished his power, namely, that he should no longer preside over those with whom he had so acted that, by a just grief, they could by no means bear him to preside over them, and might show, with their own peril and his, the impatience of their grief, perhaps about to burst out into some crime. Whose mind of such a kind appeared evidently even then, when the bishops dealt with them about him; whereas now the notable man Celer, of whose over-powerful administration against himself he complained, bears no power, either in Africa or anywhere.

6. But why should I delay with many words? Labor together with us, I beg, by piety venerable lord, most blessed and to be venerated with due charity, holy Pope, and order all that has been directed to you to be read aloud. See how he conducted the episcopate; how far he consented to our judgment—deprived of communion, unless first all things were restored to the people of Fussala, and afterward, the matter being done, the things being valued, he set aside the solidi, that communion might be restored to him; with what crafty persuasion he led the holy old man, our primate, a most grave man, to trust him in all things, so as to commend him, as one in every way blameless, to the venerable Pope Boniface; and the rest, which it is needless to be recalled by me, since the said venerable old man has reported all things to your Sanctity.

7. But in those manifold Acts, in which our judgment about him is contained, I should rather fear lest we seem to you to have judged less severely than was fitting, did I not know you to be so inclined to mercy that you judge not only us, because we spared him, but even him himself, ought to be spared. But he tries to turn into prescription, and to usurp, what was done by us either kindly or leniently. He cries out: "I ought either to sit in my own chair, or not to be a bishop"; as though he now sits anywhere but in his own. For on account of this those places were left and committed to him, in which he was also formerly bishop, lest he be said to have been unlawfully translated to another's chair against the statutes of the fathers. Or should anyone be such an exactor, whether of severity or of leniency, that those who shall not have seemed to be deprived of the honor of the episcopate should in no way have anything punished in them; or that those in whom something shall have seemed to be punished should be deprived of the honor of the episcopate?

8. There exist examples, the Apostolic See itself judging, or confirming the judgments of others, that certain men, for certain faults, were neither stripped of episcopal honor nor left altogether unpunished. Which, that I may not seek them most remote from our times, I will recall recent ones. Let Priscus, bishop of the province of Caesarea, cry out: "Either the place to the primacy ought to have been open to me as to the rest, or the episcopate ought not to have remained to me." Let another bishop of the same province, Victor, cry out—he to whom, left in the same penalty in which Priscus too was, no bishop communicates anywhere except in his own diocese; let him cry out, I say: "Either I ought to have communicated everywhere, or I ought not even in my own places to have communicated." Let a third bishop of the same province, Laurentius, cry out, and cry out altogether with this man's words: "Either I ought to have sat in the chair to which I was ordained, or I ought not to have been a bishop." But who would blame these things, except one who attends too little that neither must all things be left unavenged, nor must all things be punished in one way?

9. Since, then, with pastoral and watchful caution the most blessed Pope Boniface set down in his letter, speaking of the bishop Antonius, and said, "If he has faithfully indicated to us the order of things," receive now the order of things which that man kept silent in his booklet, and thereafter what was done after the reading in Africa of the letters of that man of holy memory; and come to the aid of men who beg your help in the mercy of Christ much more eagerly than that man, from whose restlessness they desire to be freed. For trials, and public powers, and military attacks, as though about to execute the sentence of the Apostolic See, either he himself, or most frequent rumors, threaten, so that wretched men, catholic Christians, dread graver things from a catholic bishop than, when they were heretics, they dreaded from the laws of catholic emperors. Do not allow these things to be done, I beg you by the blood of Christ, by the memory of the apostle Peter, who admonished the overseers of Christian peoples not to lord it violently over the brethren. I commend to the benignity of the charity of your Holiness the catholic Fussalans, my sons in Christ, and the bishop Antonius, my son in Christ, because I love both, both I commend. Nor am I angry with the Fussalans, because they bring a just complaint about me to your ears, that I inflicted upon them a man not yet proved to me, not yet at least confirmed in age, by whom they were so afflicted: nor do I wish harm to be done to this man, against whose depraved desire I resist the more, the more sincere a charity I have toward him. May both deserve your mercy; those, that they may not suffer evils, he, that he may not do them: those, lest they hate the Catholic Church, if by catholic bishops, and especially by the Apostolic See itself, they are not helped against a catholic bishop; but he, lest he bind himself by so great a crime that those whom he strives to make his own against their will, he make estranged from Christ.

10. As for me indeed—what must be confessed to your Blessedness—in this peril of both parties so great a fear and grief torment me, that I think of withdrawing from the office of conducting the episcopate, and of giving myself over to laments befitting my error, if I shall behold the Church of God laid waste through the one to whose episcopate I gave my vote through imprudence, and—which God himself avert—perish even with the destruction of the one who lays it waste. For recalling what the Apostle says, If we judged ourselves, we would not be judged by the Lord (1 Cor 11:31), I will judge myself, that he may spare me who is going to judge the living and the dead. But if you both refresh the members of Christ which are in that region from their deadly fear and sadness, and console my old age by this merciful justice, he will repay you, both in the present and in the future life, good things for good—he who through you comes to our aid in this tribulation, and who established you in that See.

LETTER 210
TO FELICITAS, MOST BELOVED AND MOST HOLY MOTHER, AND TO BROTHER RUSTICUS, AND TO THE SISTERS WHO ARE WITH YOU, AUGUSTINE, AND THOSE WHO ARE WITH ME, SEND GREETING IN THE LORD.

1. Good is the Lord, and his mercy is everywhere spread abroad, which consoles us, in his own bowels, concerning your charity. For how much he loves those who believe and hope in him, and who love both him and one another, and what he reserves for them hereafter, he shows especially from this, that on the unbelieving, and the despairing, and the perverse—to whom, persevering in evil will unto the end, he threatens eternal fire with the devil—he nevertheless, in this age, bestows so great goods; who makes his sun rise over the good and the bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45): for something has been said briefly, that more may be thought. For how many gifts and gratuitous favors the impious have in this life from him whom they despise, who can enumerate? Among which is that great one, that by the examples of interposed tribulations, which, like a good physician, he mixes with the sweetness of this age, he admonishes them, if they will attend, to flee from the wrath to come; and, while they are on the way—that is, in this life—to be reconciled with the word of God, which they have made their adversary by living badly. What, then, is not mercifully bestowed on men by the Lord God, from whom even tribulation is a benefit? For prosperity is the gift of God consoling; but adversity is the gift of God admonishing: and if he bestows these things, as I said, even on the bad, what does he prepare for those who endure for him? In whose number rejoice that you have, by his grace, been gathered, bearing with one another in love, being eager to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace (Eph 4:2-3). For there will not be lacking what you may bear with one another in turn, until the Lord shall so have purified you, death being swallowed up in victory (1 Cor 15:54), that God may be all in all (1 Cor 15:28).

2. But dissensions ought never to be loved; yet sometimes they either are born of charity, or prove charity. For who is easily found who is willing to be reprehended? And where is that wise man of whom it was said, Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you (Prov 9:8)? But ought we therefore not to reprehend and rebuke a brother, lest, secure, he tend toward death? For it is wont to happen, and frequently it comes about, that for an hour he is saddened when he is reprehended, and resists, and contends; and yet afterward considers with himself in silence, where there is no one but God and himself, and does not fear to displease men because he is rebuked, but fears to displease God because he is not corrected, and thenceforth does not do that for which he was justly reprehended, and, as much as he hates his own sin, so much loves the brother whom he felt to be the enemy of his sin. But if he is of that number of whom it was said, Rebuke a fool, and he will add to hate you (See Prov 9:8), the dissension is not born of his charity, but yet it exercises and proves the charity of his reprover: because hatred is not repaid him; but the love which compels reproof endures untroubled, even when he who was reprehended hates. But if he who rebukes wishes to render evil for evil to the one who is indignant at the rebuker, he was not worthy to rebuke, but plainly worthy that he himself too ought to be rebuked. Do these things, that among you either indignations may not arise, or, having arisen, may at once be destroyed by the swiftest peace. Give greater effort to being reconciled among yourselves than to refuting one another. For just as vinegar corrupts a vessel if it remains there too long, so anger corrupts the heart, if it endures into another day. Do these things, then, and the God of peace will be with you, praying together also for us, that we may eagerly fulfill the things we well admonish.