Letter 64: 1. We do not disdain to look upon bodies which are defective in beauty, especially seeing that our souls themselves are not yet so beautiful as we hope that they shall be when He who is of ineffable beauty shall have appeared, in whom, though now we see Him not, we believe; for then we shall be like Him, when we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:...

Letter 64 — To Quintianus, Presbyter Under Suspension (A.D. 401) To my lord Quintianus, my most beloved brother and fellow-priest — Augustine sends greetings in the Lord. We do not turn away from bodies that lack physical beauty — all the more so since our souls are not yet as beautiful as we hope they will one day be, when he who is of unspeakable beauty appears, and "we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). If you receive my counsel in the brotherly spirit it is offered, I urge you to think the same way about your soul — not presuming that it is already perfect, but, as the apostle commands, "rejoicing in hope." He adds: "patient in tribulation" (Romans 12:12) — "for we are saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope... if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience" (Romans 8:24-25). Do not let that patience fail in you. With a good conscience, "wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the Lord" (Psalm 27:14). Now, to be plain with you: if you come to us while you remain out of communion with the venerable bishop Aurelius, you cannot be admitted to communion with us either. But we would deal with you in the same charity that I am sure will guide his own conduct. Your coming to us should not, however, cause you embarrassment on that score — the duty of submitting to this, out of respect for Church discipline, ought to rest with you, especially if your own conscience is clear, as God knows it to be. If Aurelius has deferred the examination of your case, he has done so not from any personal dislike of you, but simply because of the pressure of other engagements. If you knew the circumstances bearing on him as well as you know your own, the delay would neither surprise nor grieve you. The same is true of my own situation — I ask you to take my word for it, as you cannot see how I am occupied. There are other bishops older than I am, more deserving of authority and closer to you in location, through whose assistance you can more easily resolve the matters pending in the church entrusted to your care. That said, I have not failed to mention your distress and the substance of your letter to my venerable brother and colleague, the aged Aurelius, for whom I have the deepest respect. I took care to inform him of your innocence of the charges laid against you by sending him a copy of your letter. I only received — no more than a day or two before Christmas — your letter informing me that he intended to visit the church at Badesile, which you fear might stir the people up against you. The notice was too short for me to write to your people before his arrival, even if it were appropriate for me to do so. Wait on the Lord, dear brother, with a patient heart. Farewell in the Lord.

Letter 64 (A.D. 401) To My Lord Quintianus, My Most Beloved Brother and Fellow-Presbyter, Augustine Sends Greeting in the Lord. 1. We do not disdain to look upon bodies which are defective in beauty, especially seeing that our souls themselves are not yet so beautiful as we hope that they shall be when He who is of ineffable beauty shall have appeared, in whom, though now we see Him not, we believe; for then we shall be like Him, when we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:2 If you receive my counsel in a kindly and brotherly spirit, I exhort you to think thus of your soul, as we do of our own, and not presumptuously imagine that it is already perfect in beauty; but, as the apostle enjoins, rejoice in hope, and obey the precept which he annexes to this, when he says, Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation: Romans 12:12 for we are saved by hope, as he says again; but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Romans 8:24-25 Let not this patience be wanting in you, but with a good conscience wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. 2. It is, of course, obvious that if you come to us while debarred from communion with the venerable bishop Aurelius, you cannot be admitted to communion with us; but we would act towards you with that same charity which we are assured shall guide his conduct. Your coming to us, however, should not on this account be embarrassing to us, because the duty of submission to this, out of regard to the discipline of the Church, ought to be felt by yourself, especially if you have the approval of your own conscience, which is known to yourself and to God. For if Aurelius has deferred the examination of your case, he has done this not from dislike to you, but from the pressure of other engagements; and if you knew his circumstances as well as you know your own, the delay would cause you neither surprise nor sorrow. That it is the same with myself, I entreat you to believe in my word, as you are equally unable to know how I am occupied. But there are other bishops older than I am, and both in authority more worthy and in place more convenient, by whose help you may more easily expedite the affairs now pending in the Church committed to your charge. I have not, however, failed to make mention of your distress, and of the complaint in your letter to my venerable brother and colleague the aged Aurelius, whom I esteem with the respect due to his worth; I took care to acquaint him with your innocence of the things laid to your charge, by sending him a copy of your letter. It was not until a day, or at the most two, before Christmas, that I received the letter in which you informed me of his intention to visit the Church at Badesile, by which you fear lest the people be disturbed and influenced against you. I do not therefore presume to address by letter your people; for I could write a reply to any who had written to me, but how could I put myself forward unasked to write to a people not committed to my care? 3. Nevertheless, what I now say to you, who alone have written to me, may, through you, reach others who should hear it. I charge you then, in the first place, not to bring the Church into reproach by reading in the public assemblies those writings which the Canon of the Church has not acknowledged; for by these, heretics, and especially the Manichæans (of whom I hear that some are lurking, not without encouragement, in your district), are accustomed to subvert the minds of the inexperienced. I am amazed that a man of your wisdom should admonish me to forbid the reception into the monastery of those who have come from you to us, in order that a decree of the Council may be obeyed, and at the same time should forget another decree of the same Council, declaring what are the canonical Scriptures which ought to be read to the people. Read again the proceedings of the Council, and commit them to memory: you will there find that the Canon which you refer to as prohibiting the indiscriminate reception of applicants for admission to a monastery, was not framed in regard to laymen, but applies to the clergy alone. It is true there is no mention of monasteries in the canon; but it is laid down in general, that no one may receive a clergyman belonging to another diocese [except in such a way as upholds the discipline of the Church]. Moreover, it has been enacted in a recent Council, that any who desert a monastery, or are expelled from one, shall not be elsewhere admitted either to clerical office or to the charge of a monastery. If, therefore, you are in any measure disturbed regarding Privatio, let me inform you that he has not yet been received by us into the monastery; but that I have submitted his case to the aged Aurelius, and will act according to his decision. For it seems strange to me, if a man can be reckoned a Reader who has read only once in public, and on that occasion read writings which are not canonical. If for this reason he is regarded as an ecclesiastical reader, it follows that the writing which he read must be esteemed as sanctioned by the Church. But if the writing be not sanctioned by the Church as canonical, it follows that, although a man may have read it to a congregation, he is not thereby made an ecclesiastical reader, [but is, as before, a layman]. Nevertheless I must, in regard to the young man in question, abide by the decision of the arbiter whom I have named. 4. As to the people of Vigesile, who are to us as well as to you beloved in the bowels of Christ, if they have refused to accept a bishop who has been deposed by a plenary Council in Africa, they act wisely, and cannot be compelled to yield, nor ought to be. And whoever shall attempt to compel them by violence to receive him, will show plainly what is his character, and will make men well understand what his real character was at an earlier time, when he would have had them believe no evil of him. For no one more effectually discovers the worthlessness of his cause, than the man who, employing the secular power, or any other kind of violent means, endeavours by agitating and complaining to recover the ecclesiastical rank which he has forfeited. For his desire is not to yield to Christ service which He claims, but to usurp over Christians an authority which they disown. Brethren, be cautious; great is the craft of the devil, but Christ is the wisdom of God.

EPISTOLA 64 Scripta paulo post mensem Septembris a. 401. A. Quintianum ad patientiam hortatur, dum Aurelio episcopo reconciliatum cupit (n. 1-2) agensque de Privatione, quem ille querebatur suae ecclesiae clericum in Augustini monasterium esse (n. 3); gratulatur demum Vigesilitanae plebi quod episcopum degradatum suscipere noluerit (n. 4).   Domino dilectissimo fratri et compresbytero Quintiano, Augustinus, in Domino salutem Patientia ac spes quam necessariae. 1. Nos non dedignamur aspicere corpora minus pulchra, praesertim cum ipsae animae nostrae nondum pulchrae sint, sicut eas futuras speramus, cum ille ineffabiliter pulcher nobis apparuerit, in quem modo non videntes credimus: tunc enim similes ei erimus, quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est 1. Quod et tu de anima tua, si libenter et fraterne me accipis, admonemus ut sentias, nec eamdem pulchram esse praesumas, sed quemadmodum Apostolus praecipit, in spe gaudeas, et quod sequitur facias; sic enim dicit: Spe gaudentes, in tribulatione patientes 2; spe enim salvi facti sumus; sicut rursus idem ipse dicit: Spes autem quae videtur, non est spes: quod enim videt quis, quid sperat? Si autem quod non videmus speramus, per patientiam exspectamus 3. Haec patientia in te non deficiat, et in bona conscientia sustine Dominum, et viriliter age, et confortetur cor tuum, et sustine Dominum 4. A. dicit se promptum ad amicum iuvandum. 2. Manifestum est quidem quod si ad nos venires, venerabili episcopo Aurelio non communicans, nec apud nos posses communicare; sed ea caritate nos faceremus, qua et illum facere non dubitamus. Nec ideo tamen onerosus nobis esset adventus tuus; quia et te oportet aequo animo facere pro Ecclesiae disciplina, praesertim salva conscientia, quam tu nosti et Deus. Neque enim et ille si causam tuam discutiendam distulit, odio tui fecit, et non necessitatibus suis; quas tu si ita nosses quemadmodum tuam nosti, nec mirareris nec contristareris. Quod etiam de nostris petimus credas, quia similiter eas non potes nosse. Sunt autem maiores nobis, et auctoritate digniores, et loco viciniores episcopi, per quos facilius possitis ad curam vestram pertinentis Ecclesiae causas exsequi. Nec ego tamen tacui apud venerabilem et debita mihi pro eius meritis honorificentia suscipiendum fratrem et collegam meum senem Aurelium, tribulationem vestram et querimoniam litterarum vestrarum; sed per exemplum epistolae tuae, innocentiam tuam ei perferre curavi. Litteras autem tuas vel pridie, vel ante biduum Natalis Domini accepi, quando illum insinuasti ad Ecclesiam Badesilitanam venturum, a qua timetis Dei plebem conturbari atque corrumpi. Quapropter per litteras quidem alloqui plebem vestram non audeo; rescribere autem eis qui mihi scriberent, possem: ultro autem ad plebem scribere, quae dispensationi meae commissa non est, unde possem? Ecclesiae decreta de clericis ac monachis. 3. Verumtamen quod tibi uni dico, qui mihi scripsisti, per teipsum perveniat ad eos quibus opus est dici. Vos ipsi prius nolite in scandalum mittere Ecclesiam, legendo in populis scripturas quas canon ecclesiasticus non recepit; his enim heretici, et maxime Manichaei, solent imperitas mentes evertere, quos in campo vestro libenter latitare audio. Miror ergo prudentiam tuam, quod me admonueris ut iubeam non recipi eos qui ad nos a vobis ad monasterium veniunt, ut quod statutum est a nobis in concilio permaneret; et tu non memineris in concilio institutum, quae sint Scripturae canonicae quae in populo Dei legi debeant. Recense ergo concilium, et omnia quae ibi legeris commenda memoriae; et ibi etiam invenies, de solis clericis fuisse statutum, non etiam de laicis, ut undecumque venientes non recipiantur in monasterium. Non quia monasterii facta mentio est; sed quia sic institutum est, ut clericum alienum nemo suscipiat. Recenti autem concilio statutum est, ut de aliquo monasterio qui recesserint, vel proiecti fuerint, non fiant alibi clerici aut praepositi monasteriorum. Si ergo de Privatione te aliquid movit, scias eum a nobis nondum esse susceptum in monasterium; sed causam ipsius ad senem Aurelium misi, ut quod de illo statuerit, hoc faciam. Miror enim utrum iam potest lector deputari, qui nonnisi semel scripturas etiam non canonicas legit. Si enim propterea iam ille lector ecclesiasticus, profecto et illa scriptura ecclesiastica est. Si autem illa scriptura ecclesiastica non est, quisquis eam quamvis in ecclesia legerit, ecclesiasticus lector non est. Tamen de isto adolescente, quod memorato antistiti visum fuerit, hoc oportet observem. Reiciendus episcopus degradatus. 4. Plebs autem Vigesilitana, vobiscum nobis in visceribus Christi carissima 5, si episcopum in plenario Africae concilio degradatum suscipere noluerit, sano capite faciet, et nec cogi potest, nec debet. Et quisquis eam violenter coegerit, ostendet qualis sit; et qualis ante fuerit, quando de se nihil mali credi volebat, faciet intellegi. Nullus enim sic proditur qualem causam habuerit, quam ille qui per saeculares potestates, vel quaslibet violentias, cum perturbatione et querela conatur recipere honorem quem perdidit. Non vult enim volenti Christo servire, sed Christianis nolentibus dominari. Fratres, cauti estote: multum astutus est diabolus; sed Christus Dei Sapientia est 6.