Letter 50116: To Generosus, my noble and justly distinguished lord, my honored and much-loved son, Augustine sends greeting in the...
To Generosus, my noble and justly distinguished lord, my honored and much-loved son, Augustine sends greeting in the Lord.
The praise and good reputation that surround your administration have always brought me the greatest pleasure — both out of the affection I feel for you on account of your personal merit, and for the goodwill you have shown us. Yet until now I have never burdened your Excellency with any petition or request for a favor, my much-loved lord and justly honored son.
When your Excellency reads the letters I have sent to my venerable brother and fellow bishop Fortunatus [context: bishop of a neighboring see, likely in North Africa], you will understand what has happened in the city where I serve the Church of God — and your generous heart will immediately see why I have been compelled to impose on your already well-occupied time with this request.
I am entirely confident that, given the feeling you hold toward us in the name of Christ — a feeling we have every reason to expect — you will handle this matter in a way that befits not merely an upright magistrate, but a Christian one.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
Related Letters
Although the praises and favourable report of your administration and your own illustrious good name always give me the greatest pleasure because of the love which we feel due to your merit and to your benevolence, on no occasion have I hitherto been burdensome to your Excellency as an intercessor requesting any favour from you, my much-loved lo...
You have asked me for a clear account of why we — the Catholic communion — believe that ours is the true Church and...
1. Since you were pleased to acquaint us with the letter sent to you by a Donatist presbyter, although, with the spirit of a true Catholic, you regarded it with contempt, nevertheless, to aid you in seeking his welfare if his folly be not incurable, we beg you to forward to him the following reply. He wrote that an angel had enjoined him to decl...
It's human nature that people who stammer end up talking more — they keep going out of embarrassment at their own...
The calling does not change with the circumstances, Isidoros.