Letter 247: Augustine urges Romulus to stop making poor tenants pay twice and to fear God's judgment.

To my dearly loved son Romulus: Augustine sends greetings in the Lord. Truth is both sweet and bitter. When it is sweet, it spares; when it is bitter, it heals. If you do not refuse to drink what I offer in this letter, you will find that I have spoken truly. I wish that the insults you heap on me harmed you no more than they harm me. I wish, at least, that the injustice you do to poor and wretched people harmed you only as much as it harms those to whom you do it. They suffer for a time; you should look at what you are storing up for yourself on the day of wrath and of the revelation of God's just judgment, when he will repay each person according to his works. I beg his mercy to correct you here, in whatever way he knows best, rather than reserve you for that day when there will no longer be any place for correction. May he who gave you his fear, because of which I do not despair of you, open your understanding, so that you see what you are doing, shudder at it, and amend it. The things that seem small to you, almost nothing, are very great evils. When desire has been subdued enough to let you consider them, you will wet the ground with tears, that God may have mercy on you. If I am unjust in pleading with you that poor and needy people should not pay twice what they owe, after the tenants have given payment to your agent, serving the steward set over them and ordering them, and he cannot deny that he received it, then if I am unjust because I think it unjust to exact twice from people who can hardly manage to pay once, do what you wish. But if you see that it is unjust, do what is fitting, do what God commands, and do what I ask. It is not chiefly for them, as the one whom I fear knows, but for you yourself that I ask you on your own behalf, as Scripture says, "Have mercy on your soul by pleasing God." At this point you should not be asked but rebuked, for Scripture also says, "Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline." Yet if I had to ask for my own sake, perhaps I would not ask you. Because I must ask for your sake, I ask you even while you are angry: spare yourself, be pleased with yourself rightly, and let him whom you ask be pleased with you. On Saturday, while you were still dining, I sent word asking you not to leave unless you had seen me. You sent back that you would do so. You got up on Sunday, and, as I heard, came into the church, prayed, left, and refused to see me. May God forgive you. What else can I say to you except what he knows I desire? But I know that unless you correct yourself, he is just. When you spare yourself, you spare me too. I am not so wretched or so far from the compassion of Christ that my heart is not struck by a grievous wound when those whom I have begotten in his Gospel behave like this. You will say again, "I did not order them to give anything to Ponticanus." The answer is, "But you ordered them to serve Ponticanus." They could not distinguish how far they were to serve and how far not, especially when he was asking for things they knew they owed. They should have had letters from you to show the agent, if he was demanding against your will, and they could have read to him that they were not to pay unless they had received your letters. For if you once gave a verbal order that they should not give anything to an agent, it is a great deal to expect them to remember it. It is a great deal even for you to remember whether you really ordered it, whether you ordered them or others, whether you ordered all of them. Especially since even now, when you heard that the same money had been given to another agent and kept safe, you were not displeased that they had given it. But when I said, "What if this man too had diverted it? Would it have had to be exacted from them again?" then it began to displease you that they had given it. And though you had often told me that you never entrusted your duties either to Valerius or to Aginesis, suddenly, when the matter of the wine arose, because they ought to have shown it if it had begun to sour and you were told that one of them was absent, I think you forgot what you had said to me so many times and said that they should have shown it to Aginesis and acted according to his judgment. When I said, "Surely you are not accustomed to entrust these duties to them," you answered, "But Aginesis had my letters," as though those to whom you give some commission always recite your letters to country people so that they believe you gave the order. Since they see these men commissioned by you, they do not think that they would dare presume anything rashly unless power had been given by you. Amid these uncertainties it is not clear what you command, and they can hold to nothing firm unless they have your letters, which they can show to everyone and obey only when your letters are produced, whenever something is to be paid. But why should I dispute with you so long and burden your busy life with words, when perhaps, because you are angry at what I say, you may wish to rage against these miserable people? It will be counted to them as good merit that they bear your anger for the sake of your salvation, for which I say so much to you. As for you, I do not want to say anything harsher, lest you think I speak so not from fear for you but from ill will. Fear God if you do not wish to be deceived. I call him as witness over my soul that in saying this I fear more for you than for those for whom I seem to be interceding. If you believe me, thanks be to God. If you do not, I am comforted by the Lord's saying: "Say, Peace to this house; and if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him; if not, it will return to you." May God's mercy guard you, my dearly loved son.

EPISTOLA 247 Scripta post a. 395. A. Romulo, viro potenti quem in Christo genuerat, obiurgans obsecrat cum ne nimis acerbus et iniustus sit tributorum exactor, illique ignoscens quod fuerit offensus (nn. 1-3) minitansque, si tyrannice exigere pergat, extremum iudicium (n. 4). DOMINO DILECTISSIMO ROMULO FILIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM. Romulus acerbus colonorum vexator. 1. Veritas et dulcis est et amara. Quando dulcis est, parcit; et quando amara, curat. Si non recusas bibere quod in hac epistola offero, probabis quod dixi. Utinam sicut mihi non obest, sic nec tibi obesset quidquid contumeliarum mihi irrogas: et utinam vel tantum tibi obesset iniquitas quam miseris et pauperibus facis, quantum obest ipsis quibus eam facis. Illi enim ad tempus laborant, tu autem vide quid tibi thesaurizes in die irae et revelationis iusti iudicii Dei, qui reddet unicuique secundum opera sua 1. Cuius misericordiam deprecor ut hic te corrigat quomodo ipse novit, potius quam reservet in illum diem quando nullus iam erit correctionis locus; ut qui tibi dedit timorem suum 2, propter quem de te non despero, aperiat tibi sensum, ut videas quae facis, et exhorreas, et emendes. Parva enim et quasi nulla tibi videntur, quae tam magna mala sunt, ut quando te domita cupiditas ea considerare permiserit, riges lacrymis terram, ut Deus misereatur tui. Aut si ego iniquus sum, qui hoc tecum ago ne miseri et egeni homines bis reddant quod debent, cum coloni actori suo dederint, subdito praeposito et iubenti servientes, nec ille se accepisse negare potuerit: si ergo ego iniquus sum, quia mihi videtur iniustum ut bis exigantur, qui vix semel reddere sufficiunt; fac quod vis. Si autem tu vides quia iniustum est; fac quod decet, fac quod Deus iubet, et ego rogo. A. ignoscit Romulo. 2. Non pro illis magis (novit ille quem timeo), sed pro teipso teipsum rogo, ut, quomodo scriptum est: Miserearis animae tuae placens Deo 3. Et modo quidem non rogandus, sed obiurgandus es: nam et hoc scriptum est: Ego quem amo, redarguo, et castigo 4. Ego tamen si pro me rogandus esses, forte non te rogarem: quia vero pro te rogandus es, rogo te iratum ut parcas tibi, ut placeris tibi, ut tibi placetur ille quem rogas. Misi ad te die sabbati, cum adhuc pranderes, ut non proficiscereris, nisi me vidisses: renuntiasti ita te esse facturum. Surrexisti die dominico, et, ut audivi, venisti in ecclesiam, et orasti, et profectus es, et me videre noluisti. Deus tibi ignoscat. Quid enim aliud tibi dicam, nisi quod ipse novit quia cupio? sed scio quia nisi te correxeris, ille iustus est. Cum autem tibi parcis, et mihi parcis: neque enim tam miser sum et alienus a visceribus Christi, ut non gravissimo vulnere feriatur cor meum, quando sic agunt, quos in eius Evangelio genui 5. Praedium a R. fraude procuratum. 3. Iterum dicturus es: "Non eis iussi ut darent Ponticano". Respondetur tibi: "Sed iussisti ut servirent Ponticano"; nec possent distinguere quousque servirent, et quousque non servirent, maxime cum ea peteret quae se debere sciebant. Tuas autem litteras habere debuerunt, quas proferrent actori, si te nolente exigebat, et relegerent ei non se debere dare, nisi cum tuas litteras accepissent. Nam si verbo aliquando iussisti ne actori aliquid darent, multum est ut meminerint; multum est ut tu ipse memineris an vere iusseris, an ipsis iusseris, an aliis, an omnibus: maxime quia etiam nunc alteri actori audisti datam et salvam esse ipsam pecuniam, et non tibi displicuit quia dederunt. Sed cum ego dixissem: "Quid si et iste intervertisset, ab ipsis iterum exigendum erat? rursus tibi coepit displicere quia dederunt: et cum mihi saepe dixisses, numquam te iniunxisse vices tuas vel Valerio vel Aginesi, subito cum de vino ageretur, quia debuerunt ostendere si acescere coeperat, et diceretur tibi quod absens erat; credo, excidit tibi quid mihi toties dixeras, et dixisti, quia habuerunt Aginesi ostendere, et ex ipsius agere arbitrio. Ibi ego cum dixissem: "Certe vices tuas istis non soles iniungere"; respondisti: "Sed litteras meas habebat Aginesis": quasi semper illi quibus aliquid iniungis, litteras tuas recitent rusticanis hominibus, ut credant quia tu iussisti. Sed quia eos vident tibi sic iniungi, non utique credunt temere illos aliquid audere praesumere, nisi a te data potestate. Ideoque inter ista incerta non apparet quid iubeas, nec possunt firmum aliquid retinere, nisi litteras tuas habuerint, quas omnibus proferant, et nonnisi tuis litteris prolatis obtemperent, quando eis aliquid dandum est. A. magis Romulo timet quam colonis, quorum mura tuetur. 4. Sed quid opus est tam diu tecum disputare, et onerare verbis occupationes tuas, ut forte cum irasceris verbis meis, velis saevire in homines miseros? Illis imputabitur ad meritum bonum, quia pro salute tua, propter quam tibi tanta loquor, te patiuntur iratum: tibi autem nolo aliquid gravius dicere, ne putes me non timendo, sed male optando tale aliquid loqui. Time Deum si non vis decipi: ipsum testem invoco super animam meam 6, plus me tibi timere cum haec dico, quam illis pro quibus apud te intercedere videor. Si credis, Deo gratias: si autem non credis, consolatur me quod Dominus ait: Dicite: "Pax huic domui"; et si est tibi filius pacis, requiescet super eum pax vestra; si quo minus, ad vos revertetur 7. Dei misericordia te tueatur, domine dilectissime fili.