Letter 81: Having anxiously inquired of our holy brother Firmus regarding your state, I was glad to hear that you are well. I expected him to bring, or, I should rather say, I insisted upon his giving me, a letter from you; upon which he told me that he had set out from Africa without communicating to you his intention. I therefore send to you my respectfu...

Augustine to Jerome, greetings in the Lord. A short note this time, brother — not because I have nothing to say, but because I want to keep the channel open between us without always burdening it with controversy. I am sending you this letter by a trusted brother, and I beg you: if you have written anything in reply to my earlier letters, send it back with him. I have been waiting anxiously. Not because I enjoy arguments — God knows I have enough of those here in Africa with the Donatists — but because an argument with you is worth more than agreement with most others. Your mind sharpens mine, even when it draws blood. I also want you to know that I have been reading your new translation of the Old Testament from the Hebrew with enormous interest. The work is staggering — its learning, its precision, its ambition. I have questions, of course. I always have questions. But the questions come from admiration, not from hostility. Write back. Even a short reply would be a mercy. Farewell in Christ.

From Jerome to Augustine (A.D. 405) To Augustine, My Lord Truly Holy, and Most Blessed Father, Jerome Sends Greeting in the Lord. Having anxiously inquired of our holy brother Firmus regarding your state, I was glad to hear that you are well. I expected him to bring, or, I should rather say, I insisted upon his giving me, a letter from you; upon which he told me that he had set out from Africa without communicating to you his intention. I therefore send to you my respectful salutations through this brother, who clings to you with a singular warmth of affection; and at the same time, in regard to my last letter, I beg you to forgive the modesty which made it impossible for me to refuse you, when you had so long required me to write you in reply. That letter, moreover, was not an answer from me to you, but a confronting of my arguments with yours. And if it was a fault in me to send a reply (I beseech you hear me patiently), the fault of him who insisted upon it was still greater. But let us be done with such quarrelling; let there be sincere brotherliness between us; and henceforth let us exchange letters, not of controversy, but of mutual charity. The holy brethren who with me serve the Lord send you cordial salutations. Salute from us the holy brethren who with you bear Christ's easy yoke; especially I beseech you to convey my respectful salutation to the holy father Alypius, worthy of all esteem. May Christ, our almighty God, preserve you safe, and not unmindful of me, my lord truly holy, and most blessed father. If you have read my commentary on Jonah, I think you will not recur to the ridiculous gourd-debate. If, moreover, the friend who first assaulted me with his sword has been driven back by my pen, I rely upon your good feeling and equity to lay blame on the one who brought, and not on the one who repelled, the accusation. Let us, if you please, exercise ourselves in the field of Scripture without wounding each other.

EPISTOLA 81 Scripta forte a. 404. Hieronymus excusat quod Augustini litteris liberius responderit epistola 75 rogatque ut, omissis contentiosis quaestionibus, deinceps secum invicem amice conferant et placide versentur in campo Scripturae Sanctae. DOMINO VERE SANCTO ET BEATISSIMO PAPAE AUGUSTINO, HIERONYMUS, IN CHRISTO SALUTEM. 1. Cum a sancto fratre nostro Firmo sollicite quaererem quid ageres, sospitem te laetus audivi. Rursum cum tuas litteras non dico sperarem, sed exigerem; nesciente te, de Africa se profectum esse dixit. Itaque reddo tibi per eum salutationis officia, qui te unico amore complectitur: simulque obsecro ut ignoscas pudori meo, quod diu praecipienti ut rescriberem, negare non potui. Nec ego tibi, sed causae causa respondit. Et si culpa est respondisse, quaeso ut patienter audias, multo maior est provocasse. Sed facessant istiusmodi querimoniae: sit inter nos pura germanitas; et deinceps non quaestionum, sed charitatis ad nos scripta mittamus. Sancti fratres, qui nobiscum Domino serviunt, affatim te salutant. Sanctos qui tecum Christi leve trahunt iugum, praecipue sanctum et suscipiendum papam Alypium, ut meo obsequio salutes, precor. Incolumem te et memorem mei, Christus Deus noster tueatur omnipotens, domine vere sancte et beatissime papa. Si legisti librum Explanationum in Ionam, puto quod ridiculam cucurbitae non recipias quaestionem. Si autem amicus, qui me primus gladio petiit, stilo repulsus est; sit humanitatis tuae atque iustitiae, accusantem reprehendere, non respondentem. In Scripturarum campo, si placet, sine nostro invicem dolore ludamus.