Letter 85: 1. You would not call me so inexorable if you did not think me also a dissembler. For what else do you believe concerning my spirit, if I am to judge by what you have written, than that I cherish towards you dislike and antipathy which merit blame and detestation; as if in a matter about which, there could be but one opinion I was not careful le...
Augustine of Hippo→Unknown|c. 400 AD|Augustine of Hippo|Human translated
humorillnessproperty economics
Military conflict
To my most sincerely beloved lord and brother and fellow bishop Paulus, worthy of every blessing — Augustine, greetings in the Lord.
Augustine lovingly rebukes Paulus for his unworthy behavior.
1. So deeply do I love your soul that only God himself can know the measure of it — God who planted that love in me. Therefore I will not keep silent about what I have been hearing, which distresses me more than I can easily say. Reports have reached me — and I do not dismiss them lightly, since they come from trustworthy people — that you have been conducting yourself in a manner unworthy of the episcopal office. The lightness of your behavior has gravely offended the Church.
2. I beg you, brother: remember who you are and whose name you bear. You are a bishop — a shepherd set over the Lord's flock. The people watch you. They take their cue from your example. If the shepherd stumbles, the sheep scatter. Return to a manner of life worthy of the office you hold. Correct what can be corrected. Grieve over what cannot be undone. The Lord is merciful to the penitent, and I am writing not as your judge but as your brother, who longs for your restoration more than for your punishment. May the Lord preserve you, most beloved brother.
Letter 85 (A.D. 405)
To My Lord Paulus, Most Beloved, My Brother and Colleague in the Priesthood, Whose Highest Welfare is Sought by All My Prayers, Augustine Sends Greeting in the Lord.
1. You would not call me so inexorable if you did not think me also a dissembler. For what else do you believe concerning my spirit, if I am to judge by what you have written, than that I cherish towards you dislike and antipathy which merit blame and detestation; as if in a matter about which, there could be but one opinion I was not careful lest, while warning others, I myself should deserve reproof, 1 Corinthians 9:27 or were wishing to cast the mote out of your eye while retaining and fostering the beam in my own? Matthew 7:4 It is by no means as you suppose. Behold! I repeat this, and call God to witness, that if you were only to desire for yourself what I desire on your behalf, you would now be living in Christ free from all disquietude, and would make the whole Church rejoice in glory brought by you to His name. Observe, I pray you, that I have addressed you not only as my brother, but also as my colleague. For it cannot be that any bishop whatsoever of the Catholic Church should cease to be my colleague, so long as he has not been condemned by any ecclesiastical tribunal. As to my refusing to hold communion with you, the only reason for this is that I cannot flatter you. For inasmuch as I have begotten you in Christ, I am under very special obligation to render to you the salutary severity of love in faithful admonition and reproof. It is true that I rejoice in the numbers who have been, by God's blessing on your work, gathered into the Catholic Church; but this does not make me less bound to weep that a greater number are being by you scattered from the Church. For you have so wounded the Church of Hippo, that unless the Lord make you disengage yourself from all secular cares and burdens, and recall you to the manner of living and deportment which become the true bishop, the wound may soon be beyond remedy.
2. Seeing, however, that you continue to involve yourself more and more deeply in these affairs, and have, notwithstanding your vow of renunciation, entangled yourself again with the things which you had solemnly laid aside — a step which could not be justified even by the laws of ordinary human affairs; seeing also that you are reported to be living in a style of extravagance which cannot be maintained by the slender income of your church, — why do you insist upon communion with me, while you refuse to hear my rebuke of your faults? Is it that men whose complaints I cannot bear, may justly blame me for whatever you do? You are, moreover, mistaken in suspecting that those who find fault with you are persons who have always been against you even in your earlier life. It is not so: and you have no reason to be surprised that many things escape your observation. But even were this the case, it is your duty to secure that they find nothing in your conduct which they might reasonably blame, and for which they might bring reproach against the Church. Perhaps you think that my reason for saying these things is, that I have not accepted what you urged in your defense. Nay, rather my reason is, that if I were to say nothing regarding these things, I would be guilty of that for which I could urge nothing in my defense before God. I know your abilities; but even a man of dull mind is kept from disquietude if he sets his affections on heavenly things, whereas a man of acute mind has this gift in vain if he set his affections on earthly things. The office of a bishop is not designed to enable one to spend a life of vanity. The Lord God, who has closed against you all the ways by which you were disposed to make Him minister to your gain, in order that He may guide you, if you but understand Him, into that way, with a view to the pursuit of which that holy responsibility was laid upon you, will Himself teach you what I now say.
EPISTOLA 85
Scripta forte inter a. 405 et a. 407.
A. Paulum quemdam, episcopum, obiurgat quod levitate sua ecclesiam graviter offendebat (n. 1) monetque ut ad frugem dignamque episcopo vitam redeat (n. 2).
DOMINO SINCERITER DILECTISSIMO ET VOTIS OMNIBUS BEATIFICANDO FRATRI ET CONSACERDOTI PAULO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
A. Paulum quem amat obiurgat propter malos mores.
1. Tam inexorabilem me non vocares, nisi etiam mendacem putares. Quid enim aliud de animo meo credis, quando mihi talia scribis, nisi me tenere adversus te naevum discordiae et odium detestandum: quasi in re manifesta non caveam, ne aliis praedicans, ipse reprobus inveniar 1; aut ita velim eicere stipulam de oculo tuo, ut in meo trabem nutriam 2? Non est quod putas. Ecce iterum dico et testor Deum, quia si tu tibi ea velles quae tibi ego volo, iam olim securus in Christo viveres, et in nominis eius gloria totam eius Ecclesiam laetificares. Ecce iam scripsi non tantum te esse fratrem meum, sed etiam collegam meum. Neque enim fieri potest, ut non sit collega meus quilibet episcopus Ecclesiae catholicae, qualiscumque sit, nullo ecclesiastico iudicio damnatus. Sed ut tibi non communicem, nulla causa est, nisi quia tibi adulari non possum. Tibi enim maxime debeo, quia in Christo Iesu per Evangelium ego te genui, salubrem mordacitatem charitatis veraciter obiurgando. Nec ita gaudeo multos in Ecclesiam catholicam adiuvante Domino per te esse collectos, ut non debeam plangere plures inde dispergi. Sic enim vulnerasti Ecclesiam Hipponensem, ut nisi te Dominus omnibus curis et sarcinis saecularibus expeditum, ad veram episcopalem vitam victumque revocaverit, tale vulnus sanari non possit.
Ad vivendum ut decet intelligentia utendum esse.
2. Cum autem tu magis magisque implicare te non cesses, ut etiam rebus quibus renuntiasti, te post renuntiationem inserueris, quod nec apud humanas ipsas leges ullo modo defendi potest; et in ea professione vivere dicaris, cui frugalitas Ecclesiae tuae sufficere non possit: utquid quaeris communionem meam, cum audire numquam volueris admonitionem meam? An ut quidquid facis mihi imputent homines, quorum querelas sustinere non possum? Frustra autem suspicaris eos esse obtrectatores tuos, qui tibi semper et in vita priore adversati sunt. Non est ita; nec mirum quod multa te latent. Sed etiamsi hoc verum esset, nihil in tuis moribus invenire debuerunt, quod recte reprehenderent, et unde Ecclesiam blasphemarent. Adhuc me putas fortasse ideo ista dicere, quia non accepi satisfactionem tuam. Imo propterea dico, ne ipse non possim satis Deo facere de peccatis meis, si haec tibi tacuero. Novi quia cor habes, sed et tardum securum est, quando in coelo est; et acutum cor nihil est, quando in terra est. Non est episcopatus artificium transigendae vitae fallacis. Docebit te quod dico Dominus Deus, qui tibi interclusit omnes vias, ad quas illo uti voluisti, ut dirigat te, si intellegas, in illam viam, propter quam ambulandam tibi tam sancta sarcina imposita est.
◆
To my most sincerely beloved lord and brother and fellow bishop Paulus, worthy of every blessing — Augustine, greetings in the Lord.
Augustine lovingly rebukes Paulus for his unworthy behavior.
1. So deeply do I love your soul that only God himself can know the measure of it — God who planted that love in me. Therefore I will not keep silent about what I have been hearing, which distresses me more than I can easily say. Reports have reached me — and I do not dismiss them lightly, since they come from trustworthy people — that you have been conducting yourself in a manner unworthy of the episcopal office. The lightness of your behavior has gravely offended the Church.
2. I beg you, brother: remember who you are and whose name you bear. You are a bishop — a shepherd set over the Lord's flock. The people watch you. They take their cue from your example. If the shepherd stumbles, the sheep scatter. Return to a manner of life worthy of the office you hold. Correct what can be corrected. Grieve over what cannot be undone. The Lord is merciful to the penitent, and I am writing not as your judge but as your brother, who longs for your restoration more than for your punishment. May the Lord preserve you, most beloved brother.
Human translation — New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
Latin / Greek Original
EPISTOLA 85
Scripta forte inter a. 405 et a. 407.
A. Paulum quemdam, episcopum, obiurgat quod levitate sua ecclesiam graviter offendebat (n. 1) monetque ut ad frugem dignamque episcopo vitam redeat (n. 2).
DOMINO SINCERITER DILECTISSIMO ET VOTIS OMNIBUS BEATIFICANDO FRATRI ET CONSACERDOTI PAULO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
A. Paulum quem amat obiurgat propter malos mores.
1. Tam inexorabilem me non vocares, nisi etiam mendacem putares. Quid enim aliud de animo meo credis, quando mihi talia scribis, nisi me tenere adversus te naevum discordiae et odium detestandum: quasi in re manifesta non caveam, ne aliis praedicans, ipse reprobus inveniar 1; aut ita velim eicere stipulam de oculo tuo, ut in meo trabem nutriam 2? Non est quod putas. Ecce iterum dico et testor Deum, quia si tu tibi ea velles quae tibi ego volo, iam olim securus in Christo viveres, et in nominis eius gloria totam eius Ecclesiam laetificares. Ecce iam scripsi non tantum te esse fratrem meum, sed etiam collegam meum. Neque enim fieri potest, ut non sit collega meus quilibet episcopus Ecclesiae catholicae, qualiscumque sit, nullo ecclesiastico iudicio damnatus. Sed ut tibi non communicem, nulla causa est, nisi quia tibi adulari non possum. Tibi enim maxime debeo, quia in Christo Iesu per Evangelium ego te genui, salubrem mordacitatem charitatis veraciter obiurgando. Nec ita gaudeo multos in Ecclesiam catholicam adiuvante Domino per te esse collectos, ut non debeam plangere plures inde dispergi. Sic enim vulnerasti Ecclesiam Hipponensem, ut nisi te Dominus omnibus curis et sarcinis saecularibus expeditum, ad veram episcopalem vitam victumque revocaverit, tale vulnus sanari non possit.
Ad vivendum ut decet intelligentia utendum esse.
2. Cum autem tu magis magisque implicare te non cesses, ut etiam rebus quibus renuntiasti, te post renuntiationem inserueris, quod nec apud humanas ipsas leges ullo modo defendi potest; et in ea professione vivere dicaris, cui frugalitas Ecclesiae tuae sufficere non possit: utquid quaeris communionem meam, cum audire numquam volueris admonitionem meam? An ut quidquid facis mihi imputent homines, quorum querelas sustinere non possum? Frustra autem suspicaris eos esse obtrectatores tuos, qui tibi semper et in vita priore adversati sunt. Non est ita; nec mirum quod multa te latent. Sed etiamsi hoc verum esset, nihil in tuis moribus invenire debuerunt, quod recte reprehenderent, et unde Ecclesiam blasphemarent. Adhuc me putas fortasse ideo ista dicere, quia non accepi satisfactionem tuam. Imo propterea dico, ne ipse non possim satis Deo facere de peccatis meis, si haec tibi tacuero. Novi quia cor habes, sed et tardum securum est, quando in coelo est; et acutum cor nihil est, quando in terra est. Non est episcopatus artificium transigendae vitae fallacis. Docebit te quod dico Dominus Deus, qui tibi interclusit omnes vias, ad quas illo uti voluisti, ut dirigat te, si intellegas, in illam viam, propter quam ambulandam tibi tam sancta sarcina imposita est.