Letter 114: Augustine asks Florentinus to treat Faventius according to imperial law and mercy.
Augustine of Hippo→Florentinus, official of the count|c. 416 AD|Augustine of Hippo|From Hippo Regius|AI-assisted
legal affairsintercessionimperial lawjustice
Source-visible Augustine letter absent from the New Advent/NPNF English index; modern English is a first-time Roman Letters translation from Latin.
To my dearly loved son Florentinus: Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
By whose authority you seized Faventius, you must consider for yourself. This much I know: every authority established under imperial power is subject to the emperor's laws.
I have already sent, through my brother and fellow presbyter Coelestinus, the law which you certainly ought not to have been ignorant of even before I sent it. It grants those ordered by some authority to appear in court the right to be brought before the municipal records and asked there whether they wish to spend thirty days in the city where they are being held, under moderate custody, so that they can arrange their income and put their affairs in order as necessary. As that presbyter reported to me, this law was read to Your Religiousness.
Even so, I have sent it again with this letter. I am not trying to frighten you; I am asking you. I intercede humanely for a human being, and with such episcopal mercy as humanity and piety themselves allow. My son and lord, please be willing to grant this both to your own reputation and to my petition, and do not find it burdensome, with my intervention and plea added, to do what the emperor's law commands, since you serve in his commonwealth.
EPISTOLA 114
Scripta post superiorem.
A. precatur Florentinum, Comitis officialem, ut in eadem Faventii causa adiutor sit.
DOMINO DILECTISSIMO FILIO FLORENTINO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
1. Cuius potestatis iussione Faventium rapueris, ipse videris: hoc autem scio, quod omnis potestas sub imperio constituta, imperatoris sui legibus servit. Quamvis ergo iam per fratrem et compresbyterum meum Coelestinum miserim legem, quam quidem et antequam mitterem, ignorare utique non deberes, qua concessum est eis qui praecipiuntur ab aliqua potestate iudiciis exhiberi, ut ad Gesta municipalia perducantur, atque illic interrogentur utrum velint triginta dies in ea civitate ubi tenentur, agere sub moderata custodia, ad parandos sibi fructus, vel rem suam, sicut necesse fuerit, ordinandam; quae lex, sicut mihi memoratus presbyter renuntiavit, tuae religioni recitata est: tamen etiam nunc eam cum his litteris identidem misi; non terrens, sed rogans, et pro homine humane, et episcopali misericordia, quantum ipsa permittit humanitas et pietas, intercedens, domine fili, ut et hoc existimationi tuae et petitioni meae praestare digneris, et quod lex Imperatoris iubet, cuius reipublicae militas, meo quoque interventu et deprecatione accedente facere non graveris.
◆
To my dearly loved son Florentinus: Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
By whose authority you seized Faventius, you must consider for yourself. This much I know: every authority established under imperial power is subject to the emperor's laws.
I have already sent, through my brother and fellow presbyter Coelestinus, the law which you certainly ought not to have been ignorant of even before I sent it. It grants those ordered by some authority to appear in court the right to be brought before the municipal records and asked there whether they wish to spend thirty days in the city where they are being held, under moderate custody, so that they can arrange their income and put their affairs in order as necessary. As that presbyter reported to me, this law was read to Your Religiousness.
Even so, I have sent it again with this letter. I am not trying to frighten you; I am asking you. I intercede humanely for a human being, and with such episcopal mercy as humanity and piety themselves allow. My son and lord, please be willing to grant this both to your own reputation and to my petition, and do not find it burdensome, with my intervention and plea added, to do what the emperor's law commands, since you serve in his commonwealth.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
EPISTOLA 114
Scripta post superiorem.
A. precatur Florentinum, Comitis officialem, ut in eadem Faventii causa adiutor sit.
DOMINO DILECTISSIMO FILIO FLORENTINO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
1. Cuius potestatis iussione Faventium rapueris, ipse videris: hoc autem scio, quod omnis potestas sub imperio constituta, imperatoris sui legibus servit. Quamvis ergo iam per fratrem et compresbyterum meum Coelestinum miserim legem, quam quidem et antequam mitterem, ignorare utique non deberes, qua concessum est eis qui praecipiuntur ab aliqua potestate iudiciis exhiberi, ut ad Gesta municipalia perducantur, atque illic interrogentur utrum velint triginta dies in ea civitate ubi tenentur, agere sub moderata custodia, ad parandos sibi fructus, vel rem suam, sicut necesse fuerit, ordinandam; quae lex, sicut mihi memoratus presbyter renuntiavit, tuae religioni recitata est: tamen etiam nunc eam cum his litteris identidem misi; non terrens, sed rogans, et pro homine humane, et episcopali misericordia, quantum ipsa permittit humanitas et pietas, intercedens, domine fili, ut et hoc existimationi tuae et petitioni meae praestare digneris, et quod lex Imperatoris iubet, cuius reipublicae militas, meo quoque interventu et deprecatione accedente facere non graveris.