Letter 200: Augustine praises Valerius's Christian conduct and sends him a book on marriage.

To my Illustrious and deservedly most excellent lord Valerius, my dearest son in the love of Christ: Augustine sends greetings in the Lord. For a long time I was troubled that I had written several times and had deserved no reply from Your Highness. Then suddenly I received three letters from Your Kindness: one, not addressed to me alone, through my fellow bishop Vindemialis, and not long afterward two through my fellow presbyter Firmus. Firmus is a holy man, joined to us in very familiar affection, as you could learn from him. By speaking with us at length about Your Excellence, and by truthfully showing what he knows you to be in the deepest affections of Christ, he outweighed not only the letters that the bishop I mentioned brought, or that he himself brought, but also those letters which we had complained that we had not received. His report about you was sweeter to us precisely because he said things you yourself could not write back, even if I had asked you, lest you become the herald of your own praises, which holy Scripture forbids. And yet I too am afraid to write these things to you, lest I incur the suspicion of flattery, my Illustrious and deservedly most excellent lord, and dearest son in the love of Christ. Consider, then, what delight and joy it gave me to hear your praises in Christ, or rather Christ's praises in you, from a man who could not deceive me because of his faith and could not be ignorant of them because of your friendship. We have heard other things from others too, though not so many or so certain: how sound and catholic your faith is; how devoutly you wait for the things to come; what love you have for God and the brothers; how you do not think proudly in high honors or hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, and are rich in good works; how your house is a place of rest and comfort for the saints and a terror to the impious; how much care you take that no one lay traps for the members of Christ while covered with the veil of Christ's name, whether among his older or more recent enemies; and how provident you are for those enemies' salvation, while hostile to their error. These and similar things, as I said, we often hear from others, but now through the brother mentioned above we have learned them more fully and with stronger witness. But about conjugal chastity, so that we may praise and love that too in you, what could we hear except from someone inside your household, someone familiar with you, who knew your life not on the surface but deeply? About this good of yours, this gift of God, it delights me too to speak with you more familiarly and at somewhat greater length. I know I am no burden to you if I send something lengthy, since by reading it you may spend more time with us. I have also learned that amid your many and great cares you read easily and willingly, and that you take great delight in my little works, even those written to others, if any have been able to come into your hands. How much more, then, what is written to you, where I speak as if you were present? You will deign to notice it more attentively and receive it more gratefully. So pass from this letter to the book I have sent with it. In its opening it will more conveniently explain to Your Reverence both why it was written and why it was sent especially to you.

EPISTOLA 200 Scripta exeunte a. 418 vel ineunte a. 419. A. Valerio comiti, laetus bonis de eo nuntiis et eius christianis sensibus et castitate (nn. 1-2), transmittens ipsi nuncupatum primum librum De nuptiis et concupiscentia (n. 3). DOMINO ILLUSTRI ET MERITO PRAESTANTISSIMO, ATQUE IN CHRISTI DILECTIONE CARISSIMO FILIO VALERIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM. Quantopere A. gaudet ob optimos de V. nuntios. 1. Cum diu moleste haberem quod aliquoties scripserim, et nulla tuae Sublimitatis rescripta meruerim, repente epistolas tres tuae Benignitatis accepi: unam non ad me solum datam per coepiscopum meum Vindemialem, et non longe post per compresbyterum Firmum duas; qui vir sanctus, nobisque, ut ab illo scire potuisti, familiarissima caritate coniunctus, multa nobiscum de tua excellentia colloquendo, et veraciter insinuando qualem et in Christi visceribus 1 noverit, non solum eas quas memoratus episcopus, vel quas ipse attulit, sed etiam illas quas non accepisse querebamur, litteras vicit. Et ideo de te narratio eius suavior nobis erat, quia ea dicebat quae ipse non posses, ne quidem me inquirente, rescribere, ne tuarum laudum, quod sancta Scriptura prohibet 2, fieres praedicator. Quamquam et ego verear haec ad te scribere, ne suspicionem adulantis incurram, domine illustris et merito praestantissime, atque in Christi dilectione carissime fili. Valeri fides pietas et caritas. 2. Laudes itaque tuas in Christo, sive magis in te laudes Christi, vide quid mihi delectationis et laetitiae fuit audire ab illo qui nec fallere me posset propter fidem suam, et eas ignorare non posset propter amicitiam tuam. Sed alia et ab aliis, etsi non tam multa vel certa, verumtamen audivimus, fides tua quam sit sana et catholica, quam pia exspectatio futurorum, quae Dei fratrumque dilectio, quam non superbe sapias in excelsis honoribus, nec speres in incerto divitiarum, sed in Deo vivo, et dives sis in operibus bonis 3; quam sit domus tua requies solatiumque sanctorum, et terror impiorum; quanta tibi cura sit ne quis insidietur membris Christi, coopertus velamine nominis Christi sive in veteribus eius, sive in recentioribus inimicis; quamque sis eorumdem inimicorum providus saluti, infestus errori. Haec atque huiusmodi, ut dixi, et ab aliis solemus audire; sed nunc ea per supra dictum fratrem plura et testatiora cognovimus. De nuptiis et concupiscentia I 1. Valerio transmittitur. 3. Porro autem de pudicitia coniugali, ut eam quoque in te laudare et amare possimus, quid audiremus, nisi ab aliquo interiore familiari tuo, qui vitam tuam, non in superficie, sed penitus nosset? De hoc itaque tuo bono, Dei dono, me quoque delectat familiarius et aliquanto diutius loqui tecum. Scio me non esse oneri tibi, si aliquid prolixum mitto, quod legendo, diutius sis nobiscum. Nam et hoc comperi, quod inter tuas multas magnasque curas, facile ac libenter legas, nostrisque opusculis, etiam quae ad alios conscripsimus, si qua in manus tuas venire potuerunt, admodum delecteris; quanto magis quod ad te scribitur, ubi tamquam praesenti loquar, et advertere dignaberis attentius, et accipere gratius? Ab hac ergo epistola perge ad librum quem simul misi, qui tuae Reverentiae et cur conscriptus sit, et cur ad te potissimum missus, ipse suo principio commodius intimabit.