Letter 249: Augustine counsels Restitutus on tolerating bad Christians for the sake of unity.

To my most desired lord, my dearest brother and fellow deacon Restitutus, loved with honorable sincerity: Augustine sends greetings in the Lord. The faithful sharer of your anxieties, our brother Deogratias, has shown me the heat that indicates the devout flame of your heart. So read Tychonius, whom you know well, though not in order to approve everything in him; you know well what must be avoided there. Still, he seems to me to have treated and resolved this question vigorously: how, in the church of God, if there are corrupt or even criminal things that we cannot correct or extinguish, they are to be borne without breaking the bond of unity. Yet even in his writings, once the aim has been set right, we ought to return to the very sources of the divine Scriptures. There we can see how few testimonies and examples he has placed on this matter, and how no one could include them all unless he wanted to transfer almost every page of the holy books into his own writings. There is scarcely any page that does not remind us that within the very fellowship of the sacraments by which we are formed for eternal life, we must be peaceful with those who hate peace, until our long pilgrimage passes by with groaning. Then, in the strength of Jerusalem our eternal mother, we will enjoy the most secure peace and the abundance of true brothers in her towers, whose small number we now lament among many false ones. And what is the strength of that city except her God, who is our God? You see, then, in whom alone peace is made: both in individual people, who without him are at war with themselves even when no outward scandal has arisen, and in all people together, who, although in this life they love one another and are held by the bonds of faithful friendship, are still not joined supremely and perfectly either by bodily presence or by agreement of mind. May your heart be strengthened in the Lord, remembering us.

EPISTOLA 249 Scripta post a. 395. A. Restituto de malis Christianis et Ecclesiae scandalis tolerandis unitatis gratia ad Scripturae testimonia ac Tychonii scripta provocans. DOMINO DESIDERANTISSIMO, ET HONORIFICA SINCERITATE CARISSIMO FRATRI, ET CONDIACONO RESTITUTO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM. 1. Aestus indicantes piam flammam cordis tui, indicavit mihi fidelissimus, ut scis, particeps eorum, frater Deogratias. Lege itaque Tychonium quem bene nosti, non quidem omnia probaturus; nam quae in illo cavenda sint, bene nosti. Hanc tamen quaestionem, quomodo in Ecclesia Dei si qua forte perversa vel etiam scelerata corrigere aut exstinguere non valemus, salvo unitatis vinculo toleranda sint, strenue videtur mihi tractavisse atque solvisse. Quamquam in eius litteris tantummodo intentione correcta, ad ipsos divinarum Scripturarum fontes recurrere nos oportet, ut ibi videamus quam pauca de hac re testimonia sententiarum, vel exempla gestorum posuerit, et quam nemo possit omnia ponere, nisi qui pene omnes sanctorum Librorum paginas in sua scripta transferre voluerit: ita prope nulla est quae nos non admoneat, intus in ipsa societate Sacramentorum quibus imbuimur ad vitam aeternam, cum his qui oderunt pacem esse debere pacificos, donec ingemiscendo nostra longinqua peregrinatio transeat 1; atque in virtute Ierusalem matris aeternae securissima pace perfruamur, et in turribus eius abundantia verorum fratrum 2, quorum nunc inter multos falsos gemimus paucitatem. Quae est autem virtus illius civitatis, nisi Deus eius Deus noster? Vides igitur in quo solo fiat pax, et singulis hominibus, qui secum sine illo bellum gerunt, etiam nullo extrinsecus oborto scandalo; et omnibus simul, qui quamquam in hac se vita diligant, et amicitiae fidae nexibus teneantur, tamen nec praesentia corporis nec consensione animi summe perfecteque copulantur. Confortetur cor tuum in Domino, memor nostri.