Letter 50079: I write briefly about a small matter that has, as small matters often do, grown larger than it should.

Augustine to the presbyters and people of Hippo, greetings. I write briefly about a small matter that has, as small matters often do, grown larger than it should. Some of you have been troubled by the practice of certain members of our community who take oaths in the name of the martyrs — swearing by the memory of Saint Cyprian or other blessed ones as a way of guaranteeing their truthfulness in business dealings. I understand the impulse. The martyrs are honored among us, and invoking their names feels like invoking something holy. But the Lord was clear: "Do not swear at all — not by heaven, for it is God's throne, not by earth, for it is his footstool, not by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Simply let your 'yes' be 'yes' and your 'no' be 'no'" [Matthew 5:34-37]. The martyrs would be the first to agree. They did not shed their blood so that we could drag their names into our commercial transactions. They shed their blood for Christ. Honor them by imitating their faith, not by using their names as guarantees for your merchandise. Let your word be your bond. A Christian whose word cannot be trusted without an oath has a bigger problem than the oath can solve. Farewell.

Letter 79 (A.D. 404) Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more — all for only $19.99... A short and stern challenge to some Manichæan teacher who had succeeded Fortunatus (supposed to be Felix). Your attempts at evasion are to no purpose: your real character is patent even a long way off. My brethren have reported to me their conversation with you. You say that you do not fear death; it is well: but you ought to fear that death which you are bringing upon yourself by your blasphemous assertions concerning God. As to your understanding that the visible death which all men know is a separation between soul and body, this is a truth which demands no great grasp of intellect. But as to the statement which you annex to this, that death is a separation between good and evil, do you not see that, if the soul be good and the body be evil, he who joined them together, is not good? But you affirm that the good God has joined them together; from which it follows that He is either evil, or swayed by fear of one who is evil. Yet you boast of your having no fear of man, when at the same time you conceive God to be such that, through fear of Darkness, He would join together good and evil. Be not uplifted, as your writing shows you to be, by supposing that I magnify you, by my resolving to check the out-flowing of your poison, lest its insidious and pestilential power should do harm: for the apostle does not magnify those whom he calls dogs, saying to the Philippians, Beware of dogs; Philippians 3:2 nor does he magnify those of whom he says that their word does eat as a canker. 2 Timothy 2:17 Therefore, in the name of Christ, I demand of you to answer, if you are able, the question which baffled your predecessor Fortunatus. For he went from the scene of our discussion declaring that he would not return, unless, after conferring with his party, he found something by which he could answer the arguments used by our brethren. And if you are not prepared to do this, begone from this place, and do not pervert the right ways of the Lord, ensnaring and infecting with your poison the minds of the weak, lest, by the Lord's right hand helping me, you be put to confusion in a way which you did not expect.