Letter 154: Macedonius praises Augustine's writing and says he granted the requested help.

To Augustine, bishop, deservedly venerable lord and truly respected father: Macedonius. Your wisdom moves me in an extraordinary way, both in the books you have published and in the letters you do not hesitate to send when interceding for guilty people. The books have such sharpness, learning, and holiness that nothing could surpass them. The letters show such modesty that, if I do not do what you ask, I judge the fault to rest with me, not with the case, my deservedly venerable lord and truly respected father. You do not press, as many people in this place do, to wrench out whatever you happen anxiously to want. Instead, with modesty serving you, you point out what seems properly requestable from a judge hemmed in by so many concerns; and among good people, modesty has the greatest power in difficult matters. So I immediately granted the desire of those whom you commended. Indeed, I had already opened a path for hope. I have read through your books. They were not so weak or idle that they allowed me to pay attention to anything else. They laid hands on me and, tearing me away from other causes of anxiety, bound me with their own chains. May God be gracious to me: I cannot decide what I should admire more in them - the perfection of the priest, the doctrines of philosophy, the full knowledge of history, or the charm of the eloquence. That eloquence can entice even the untrained so that they do not stop until they have unfolded the books, and after they have unfolded them, they still ask for more. You have convicted stubborn shamelessness by showing that even in the centuries pagans call good, worse things happened because of the obscurity of human affairs, and that all their supposed good fortune was smeared with a certain sweetness by which people were led not to blessedness but to cliffs. Our teachings and the mysteries of the one simple and true God promise eternal life through the purest virtues, and they also soften the worldly events that must happen to us because we have been born. You used the very strong example of the recent calamity. Although it powerfully fortified your argument, if either alternative had been possible, I would not have wished that event to support you. But since the complaint of foolish people had arisen from that very point, it was necessary to summon arguments for truth from the same place. For now, occupied with other cares - empty ones, if we think about the end of things, yet almost necessary under the condition of being born - I have written this reply. If there is leisure, and life remains, I will also write about Italy, so that a work of such learning may receive the duties owed to it, even if they cannot satisfy the debt. May almighty God keep Your Holiness safe and joyful through a very long life, my deservedly desirable lord and truly respected father.

EPISTOLA 154 Scripta inter a. 413 et a. 414. Macedonius Augustino significans se praestitisse quod ab ipso petierat (n. l); tum etiam ipsius libros magna cum voluptate et admiratione perlegisse (nn. 2-3). DOMINO MERITO VENERABILI ET VERE SUSPICIENDO PATRI AUGUSTINO EPISCOPO, MACEDONIUS. Augustini sapientia ac verecundia. 1. Miro modo afficior sapientia tua, et in illis quae edidisti, et in his quae interveniens pro sceleratis mittere non gravaris. Nam et illa tantum habent acuminis, scientiae, sanctitatis, ut nihil supra sit: et haec tantum verecundiae, ut nisi faciam quod mandas, culpam penes me remanere, non in negotio esse diiudicem, domine merito venerabilis, et vere suspiciende pater. Non enim instas (quod plerique homines istius loci faciunt) ut quodcumque sollicitus volueris, extorqueas; sed quod tibi a iudice tot curis obstricto petibile visum fuerit, admones subserviente verecundia, quae maxima difficilium inter bonos efficacia est. Proinde statim commendatis effectum desiderii tribui: nam sperandi viam ante patefeceram. Sententiarum gravitas et verborum pondera in De civ. Dei. 2. Explicui tuos libros; neque enim tam languidi aut inertes erant, ut me aliud quam se curare paterentur: iniecerunt manum, ereptumque aliis sollicitudinum causis, suis vinculis illigarunt (ita enim mihi Deus propitius sit), ut ego anceps sim quid in illis magis mirer, sacerdotii perfectionem, philosophiae dogmata, historiae plenam notitiam, an facundiae iucunditatem, quae ita imperitos etiam illicere potest, ut donec explicent non desistant, et cum explicaverint, adhuc requirant. Convicti namque sunt impudenter pertinaces, iam inde a bonis quae memorant saeculis, pro naturae rerum obscuritate contigisse peiora, falsosque omnes illitis quadam dulcedine felicitatibus suis, per quas non ad beatitudinem, sed ad praerupta sunt ducti: haec vero nostra praecepta, et simplicis verique Dei mysteria, praeter vitam perpetuam quam purissimis virtutibus pollicentur, etiam haec saecularia et necessario qui nati sumus eventura mitigare. Et usus es validissimo exemplo recentis calamitatis, quo licet firmissime causam muniveris, tamen si utrumvis licuisset, id tibi nolueram suffragari. Sed quando orta inde fuerat convincendorum stultitiae querela, necesse fuit inde argumenta veritatis accersere. Officia et salutationes. 3. Haec interim occupatus aliis curis, quae etsi vanae sunt, cum rerum exitum cogitamus, tamen quasi necessariae pro nascendi conditione, rescripsi Si otium fuerit et superstes vita, etiam de Italia rescribam, ut tantae doctrinae opus debitis, etsi non satisfacientibus, remuneretur officiis. Incolumem laetamque Sanctitatem tuam Deus omnipotens aevo largissimo tueatur, domine merito desiderabilis, et vere suspiciende pater.