Letter 144: 1. If that which greatly distressed me in your town has now been removed; if the obduracy of hearts which resisted most evident and, as we might call it, notorious truth, has by the force of truth been overcome; if the sweetness of peace is relished, and the love which tends to unity is the occasion no longer of pain to eyes diseased, but of lig...

To my honorable lords and deservedly esteemed, most dear and most longed-for brethren in every rank of honor, the citizens of Cirta, Bishop Augustine sends greeting. 1. If what gravely saddened us in your city has been consumed, if the hardness of the human heart, resisting the most manifest and, as it were, public truth, has been overcome by the force of that same truth, if the sweetness of peace is now savored and the love of unity no longer repels sore eyes but illuminates and strengthens healthy ones—these are not our works, but God's. I would not attribute them entirely to human efforts even if, while we were among you, so great a conversion of the multitude had occurred as we were speaking and exhorting. He alone accomplishes and effects this, who through His ministers outwardly admonishes with signs of things, but through the things themselves inwardly teaches by Himself. Nor should we be more sluggish in our eagerness to visit you because whatever praiseworthy thing has been accomplished among you was done not by us but by Him who alone does wondrous things. For we ought to hasten far more eagerly to behold divine works than our own, since even we, if we are any good work, are His and not men's—whence the Apostle said: Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 2. Xenocrates, as you write—and we too recall from those letters—by discoursing on the fruit of temperance converted Polemo, not merely a drunkard but actually drunk at the time, suddenly to a different way of life. Although, therefore, as you prudently and truthfully understood, that man was not won for God but only freed from the dominion of luxury, nevertheless not even that better thing accomplished in him would I attribute to human effort, but to divine. For of the body itself, which is the lowest part of us, if there are any goods—such as beauty, strength, health, and the like—they come only from God the creator and perfecter of nature. How much more can no one else bestow the goods of the soul! For what can human folly think more proudly or ungratefully than to suppose that, while God makes a person beautiful in body, a person is made chaste in soul by human effort? In the book of Christian Wisdom it is written thus: Since I knew that no one can be continent unless God grants it, and this itself was a mark of wisdom—to know whose gift this was. Therefore, if Polemo, having been made continent from being dissolute, had so known whose gift this was that, casting aside the superstitions of the pagans, he worshipped Him devoutly, he would have become not only continent but also truly wise and healthfully religious—which would have availed him not only for the honor of this present life but also for future immortality. How much less, then, should I claim credit for this conversion of yours, or of your people, which you have now reported to us—a conversion accomplished, while I was neither speaking nor even present, without doubt by divine action, in those in whom it was truly accomplished! Therefore recognize this above all, think upon it with pious humility. To God, brethren, give thanks to God; fear God, lest you fall away; love Him, that you may advance. 3. But if some are still secretly separated by love of a man, and falsely gathered by fear of a man, let such persons observe that, since God sees into the human conscience, they neither deceive Him as witness nor escape Him as judge. But if anything about the question of unity itself troubles them, for the sake of their salvation, let them demand of themselves what I consider most just: that concerning the Catholic Church—that is, the Church spread throughout the whole world—they should believe what the divine Scriptures say rather than what human tongues slander. Concerning the dissension itself that arose among men (who, whatever they were, surely do not prejudice the promises of God, who said to Abraham: In your seed shall all nations be blessed—which was believed when heard as a prophecy and is denied when seen fulfilled), let them consider for now only this briefest and, unless I am mistaken, most invincible point: either that case was tried in an overseas ecclesiastical tribunal, or it was not. If it was not tried there, then the fellowship of Christ throughout all the overseas peoples is innocent—a fellowship in whose communion we rejoice—and therefore those who separated themselves from these innocent people did so by sacrilegious rupture. But if the case was tried there, who does not understand, who does not perceive, who does not see that those were defeated in it whose communion was thereby separated? Let them choose, then, which they prefer to believe: the verdict pronounced by the ecclesiastical judges, or the murmurings of defeated litigants. Against this argument, briefest to state and easiest to understand, consider carefully with your prudence how nothing sober can be answered—and yet the wicked Polemo is more easily overturned by the intoxication of ingrained error. Forgive a letter perhaps longer than it is pleasant, but nevertheless, as I judge, more useful than it is flattering, my honorable lords and deservedly esteemed, most dear and most longed-for brethren. As for our coming to you, may God fulfill the desire of both parties. For with what ardent charity we burn to visit you, we cannot express in words; but we have no doubt that you kindly believe it.

To my honourable and justly esteemed lords, the inhabitants of Cirta, of all ranks, brethren dearly beloved and longed for, Bishop Augustine sends greetings. 1. If that which greatly distressed me in your town has now been removed; if the obduracy of hearts which resisted most evident and, as we might call it, notorious truth, has by the force of truth been overcome; if the sweetness of peace is relished, and the love which tends to unity is the occasion no longer of pain to eyes diseased, but of light and vigour to eyes restored to health -- this is God's work, not ours; on no account would I ascribe these results to human efforts, even had such a remarkable conversion of your whole community taken place when I was with you, and in connection with my own preaching and exhortations. The operation and the success are His who, by His servants, calls men's attention outwardly by the signs of things, and Himself teaches men inwardly by the things themselves. The fact, however, that whatever praiseworthy change has been wrought among you is to be ascribed not to us, but to Him who alone does wonderful works? Is no reason for our being more reluctant to be persuaded to visit you. For we ought to hasten much more readily to see the works of God than our own works, for we ourselves also, if we be of service in any work, owe this not to men but to Him; wherefore the apostle says, "Neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters: but God that gives the increase." 2. You allude in your letter to a fact which I also remember from classic literature, that by discoursing on the benefits of temperance, Xenocrates suddenly converted Polemo from a dissipated to a sober life, though this man was not only habitually intemperate, but was actually intoxicated at the time. Now although this was, as you have wisely and truthfully apprehended, a case not of conversion to God, but of emancipation from the thraldom of self-indulgence, I would not ascribe even the amount of improvement wrought in him to the work of man, but to the work of God. For even in the body, the lowest part of our nature, all excellent things, such as beauty, vigour, health, and so on, are the work of God, to whom nature owes its creation and perfection; how much more certain, therefore, must it be that no other can impart excellent properties to the soul! For what imagination of human folly could be more full of pride and ingratitude than the notion that, although God alone can give comeliness to the body, it belongs to man to give purity to the soul? It is written in the book of Christian Wisdom, "I perceived that no one can have self-restraint unless God give it to him, and that this is a part of true wisdom to know whose gift it is." If, therefore, Polemo, when he exchanged a life of dissipation for a life of sobriety, had so understood whence the gift came, that, renouncing the superstitions of the heathen, he had rendered worship to the Divine Giver, he would then have become not only temperate, but truly wise and savingly religious, which would have secured to him not merely the practice of virtue in this life, but also the possession of immortality in the life to come. How much less, then, should I presume to take to myself the honour of your conversion, or of that of your people which you have now reported to me, which, when I was neither speaking to you nor even present with you, was accomplished unquestionably by divine power in all in whom it has really taken place. This, therefore, know above all things, meditate on this with devout humility. To God, my brethren, to God give thanks. Fear Him, that you may not go backward: love Him, that you may go forward. 3. If, however, love of men still keeps some secretly alienated from the flock of Christ, while fear of other men constrains them to a feigned reconciliation, I charge all such to consider that before God the conscience of man has no covering, and that they can neither impose on Him as a Witness, nor escape from Him as a Judge. But if, by reason of anxiety as to their own salvation, anything as to the question of the unity of Christ's flock perplex them, let them make this demand upon themselves -- and it seems to me a most just demand, -- that in regard to the Catholic Church, i.e. the Church spread abroad over the whole world, they believe rather the words of Divine Scripture than the calumnies of human tongues. Moreover, with respect to the schism which has arisen among men (who assuredly, whatsoever they may be, do not frustrate the promises of God to Abraham, "In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," -- promises believed when brought to their ears as a prophecy, but denied, forsooth, when set before their eyes as an accomplished fact), let them meanwhile ponder this one very brief, but, if I mistake not, unanswerable argument: the question out of which the dispute arose either has or has not been tried before ecclesiastical tribunals beyond the sea; if it has not been tried before these, then no guilt in this matter is chargeable on the whole flock of Christ in the nations beyond the sea, in communion with which we rejoice, and therefore their separation from these guiltless communities is an act of impious schism; if, on the other hand, the question has been tried before the tribunal of these churches, who does not understand and feel, nay, who does not see, that those whose communion is now separated from these churches were the party defeated in the trial? Let them therefore choose to whom they should prefer to give credence, whether to the ecclesiastical judges who decided the question, or to the complaints of the vanquished litigants. Observe wisely how impossible it is for them reasonably to answer this brief and most intelligible dilemma; nevertheless, it were easier to turn Polemo from a life of intemperance, than to drive them out of the madness of inveterate error. Pardon me, my noble and worthy lords, brethren most dearly beloved and longed for, for writing you a letter more prolix than agreeable, but fitted, as I think, to benefit rather than to flatter you. As to my coming to you, may God fulfil the desire which we both equally cherish! For I cannot express in words, but I am sure you will gladly believe, with what fervour of love I burn to see you.

EPISTOLA 144 Scripta forte ante a. 411. Augustinus Cirtensibus a factione Donatistarum conversis ad Ecclesiae catholicae societatem gratulatur admonens ut hoc Dei tribuant muneri, qui ministris suis utitur (n. 1) ut accidit Polemoni cum Xenocratem loquentem audivisset (n. 2); hortatur denique obstinatos ut de Catholica Ecclesia Scripturis divinis non humanis commentis credant (n. 3). DOMINIS HONORABILIBUS ET MERITO SUSCIPIENDIS, CARISSIMIS AC DESIDERATISSIMIS FRATRIBUS IN OMNI HONORUM GRADU, CIRTENSIBUS, AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS. Conversionem Deus operatur per ministros suos. 1. Si id quod in vestra civitate nos graviter contristabat, absumptum est, si duritia cordis humani, resistens manifestissimae et quodammodo publicae veritati, eiusdem veritatis vi evicta est, si sapit dulcedo pacis, unitatisque caritas non iam reverberat oculos saucios, sed sanos illustrat ac vegetat; non sunt haec opera nostra, sed Dei: non haec humanis operibus omnino tribuerem, nec si cum apud vos essemus, tanta conversio multitudinis nobis loquentibus et hortantibus proveniret. Hoc agit ille et efficit, qui per ministros suos rerum signis extrinsecus admonet, rebus autem ipsis per seipsum intrinsecus docet. Nec ideo pigrius moveri nos oportet ad visendos vos, quoniam quidquid in vobis laudabile est factum, non a nobis, sed ab illo factum est qui facit mirabilia solus 1. Multo enim alacrius debemus accurrere ad spectanda opera divina quam nostra; quia et nos, si quid boni sumus opus, illius, non hominum sumus: unde Apostolus dixit: Neque qui plantat est aliquid, neque qui rigat; sed qui incrementum dat Deus 2. Polemo a Xenocrate in melius mutatus. 2. Xenocrates Polemonem, ut scribitis, et nos ex illis litteris recordamur, de fruge temperantiae disputando, non solum ebriosum, verum etiam tunc ebrium, ad mores alios repente convertit. Quamquam ergo ille, sicut prudenter et veraciter intellexistis, non Deo fuerit acquisitus, sed tantum a dominatu luxuriae liberatus, tamen ne idipsum quidem, quod melius in eo factum est, humano operi tribuerim, sed divino. Ipsius namque corporis, quod est infimum nostrum, si qua bona sunt, sicut forma et vires et salus, et si quid eiusmodi est, non sunt nisi ex Deo creatore ac perfectore naturae; quanto magis animi bona donare nullus alius potest! Quid enim superbius, vel ingratius cogitare potest humana vecordia, si putaverit cum carne pulchrum faciat Deus hominem, animo castum ab homine fieri? Hoc in libro christianae Sapientiae sic scriptum est: Cum scirem, inquit, quia nemo esse potest continens, nisi Deus det; et hoc ipsum erat sapientiae scire cuius esset hoc donum 3. Polemo ergo, si ex luxurioso continens factus ita sciret cuius esset hoc donum, ut eum abiectis superstitionibus Gentium pie coleret; non solum continens, sed etiam veraciter sapiens et salubriter religiosus existeret: quod ei non tantum ad praesentis vitae honestatem, verum et ad futurae immortalitatem valeret. Quanto minus igitur mihi arrogare debeo conversionem istam vestram, vel populi vestri, quam modo nobis nuntiastis, quae me nec loquente, nec saltem praesente, procul dubio divinitus facta est, in quibus veraciter facta est! Hoc itaque praecipue cognoscite, hoc pie humiliterque cogitate. Deo, fratres, Deo gratias agite; Deum timete, ne deficiatis; amate, ut proficiatis. Scripturis divinis, non humanis mendaciis credendum. 3. Si autem adhuc quosdam amor hominis occulte segregat, et timor hominis fallaciter congregat; observent qui tales sunt, quoniam Deum cui nuda est humana conscientia, nec testem fallunt, nec iudicem fugiunt. Si quid autem illos de quaestione ipsius unitatis, pro suae salutis sollicitudine permovet, hoc sibi quantum existimo iustissimum extorqueant, ut de catholica Ecclesia, id est toto orbe diffusa, potius id credant quod divinae Scripturae dicunt, non quod linguae humanae maledicunt. De ipsa vero dissensione quae inter homines orta est (qui qualeslibet fuerint, non utique praeiudicant promissis Dei, qui dixit ad Abraham: In semine tuo benedicentur omnes gentes 4; quod creditum est cum audiretur praedictum, et negatur cum videtur impletum), hoc tantum interim brevissimum, et, nisi fallor, invictissimum cogitent; aut actam esse istam causam in ecclesiastico transmarino iudicio, aut non esse actam. Si acta ibi non est, innocens est Christi societas per omnes transmarinas gentes, cuius societatis nos communione gaudemus, et ideo ab eis innocentibus utique sacrilega diremptione separantur: si vero acta est ibi ista causa, quis non intellegat, quis non sentiat, quis non videat, eos in ea victos, quorum inde communio separata est? Eligant ergo utrum malint credere, quod pronuntiaverunt ecclesiastici cognitores, an quod murmurant victi litigatores. Adversus istam complexionem dictu brevissimam, intellectu facillimam, attendite pro vestra prudentia diligenter, quam nihil sobrium responderi possit; et tamen malus Polemo magis ebrietate inveterati erroris evertitur. Date veniam prolixiori fortassis epistolae quam iucundiori; verumtamen, ut arbitror, utiliori quam blandiori, domini honorabiles et merito suscipiendi, carissimi ac desiderantissimi fratres. De adventu autem nostro ad vos, utrorumque desiderium Deus impleat. Quanto enim caritatis ardore accendamur ad visendos vos, verbis explicare non possumus; sed vos benigne credere minime dubitamus.