PO, WHOM I SERVE IN THE LOVE OF CHRIST, I, of many shall wax cold;" " but He added immediately, "and he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved." Why, therefore, 1. Would that you, giving earnest heed to the should it seem strange that men bring calumnies word of God, did not require counsel of mine against the servants of God, and being unable to support you under whatsoever offences may to turn them aside from an upright life, endeavarise ! Would that your comfort rather came our to blacken their reputation, seeing that they from Him by whom we also are comforted; who do not cease uttering blasphemies daily against has foretold not only the good things which He God, the Lord of these servants, if they are dis- designs to give to those who are holy and faithpleased by anything in which the execution of ful, but also the evil things in which this world His righteous and secret counsel is contrary to is to abound; and has caused these to be writtheir desire? Wherefore I appeal to your wisten, in order that we may expect the blessings dom, my lords most beloved, and brethren wor- which are to follow the end of this world with a thy of all honour, and exhort you to exercise certainty not less complete than that which atyour minds in the way which best becomes tends our present experience of the evils which Christians, setting over against the empty cal- had been predicted as coming before the end umnies and groundless suspicions of men the of the world! Wherefore also the apostle says, written word of God, which has foretold that "Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were these things should come, and has warned us to written for our learning, that we through pameet them with fortitude. tience and comfort of the Scriptures might have 2. Let me therefore say in a few words to hope."4 And wherefore did our Lord Himself your Charity, that the presbyter Boniface has judge it necessary not only to say, "Then shall not been discovered by me to be guilty of any the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingcrime, and that I have never believed, and do dom of their Father"s which shall come to not yet believe, any charge brought against him. How, then, could I order his name to be deleted pass after the end of the world, but also to from the roll of presbyters, when filled with fences !" if not to prevent us from flattering exclaim, "Woe unto the world because of ofalarm by that word of our Lord in the gospel: ourselves with the idea that we can reach the "With what judgment ye judge ye shall be mansions of eternal felicity, unless we have overjudged "?2 For, seeing that the dispute which come the temptation to yield when exercised by has arisen between him and Spes has by their the afflictions of time? Why was it necessary consent been submitted to divine arbitration in for Him to say, "Because iniquity shall abound, a way which, if you desire it, can be made the love of many shall wax cold," if not in known to you, who am I, that I should pre-order that those of whom He spoke in the next sume to anticipate the divine award by deleting sentence, "but he that shall endure to the end or passing over his name? As a bishop, I ought shall be saved," might, when they saw love not rashly to suspect him; and as being only a waxing cold through abounding iniquity, be man, I cannot decide infallibly concerning things saved from being put to confusion, or filled with which are hidden from me. Even in secular fear, or crushed with grief about such things, as matters, when an appeal has been made to a if they were strange and unlooked for, and might higher authority, all procedure is sisted while rather, through witnessing the events which had the case awaits the decision from which there is no appeal; because if anything were changed the end, be assisted in patiently enduring unto the been predicted as appointed to occur before while the matter is depending on his arbitration, end, so as to obtain after the end the reward of this would be an insult to the higher tribunal. reigning in peace in that life which has no end? And how great the distance between even the highest human authority and the divine! May the mercy of the Lord our God never forsake you, my lords most beloved, and brethren worthy of all honour. I 2. Wherefore, beloved, in regard to that scandal by which some are troubled concerning the presbyter Boniface, I do not say to you that you are not to be grieved for it; for in men who do not grieve for such things the love of Christ is not, whereas those who take pleasure in such things are filled with the malice of the devil. Not, however, that anything has come to our knowledge which deserves censure in the presbyter aforesaid, but that two in our house are so situated that one of them must be regarded as 4 Rom. xv. 4. 5 Matt. xii. 43. 6 Matt. xviii. 7. beyond all doubt wicked; and though the conscience of the other be not defiled, his good name is forfeited in the eyes of some, and suspected by others. Grieve for these things, for they are to be lamented; but do not so grieve as to let your love grow cold, and yourselves be indifferent to holy living. Let it rather burn the more vehemently in the exercise of prayer to God, that if your presbyter is guiltless (which I am the more inclined to believe, because, when he had discovered the immoral and vile proposal of the other, he would neither consent to it nor conceal it), a divine decision may speedily restore him to the exercise of his official duties with his innocence vindicated; and that if, on the other hand, knowing himself to be guilty, which I dare not suspect, he has deliberately tried to destroy the good name of another when he could not corrupt his morals, as he charges his accuser with having done, God may not permit him to hide his wickedness, so that the thing which men cannot discover may be revealed by the judgment of God, to the conviction of the one or of the other. 3. For when this case had long disquieted me, and I could find no way of convicting either of the two as guilty, although I rather inclined to believe the presbyter innocent, I had at first resolved to leave both in the hand of God, without deciding the case, until something should be done by the one of whom I had suspicion, giving just and unquestionable reasons for his expulsion from our house. But when he was labouring most earnestly to obtain promotion to the rank of the clergy, either on the spot from myself, or elsewhere through letter of recommendation from me, and I could on no account be induced either to lay hands in the act of ordination upon one of whom I thought so ill, or to consent to introduce him through commendation of mine to any brother for the same purpose, he began to act more violently, demanding that if he was not to be promoted to clerical orders, Boniface should not be permitted to retain his status as a presbyter. This demand having been made, when I perceived that Boniface was unwilling that, through doubts as to his holiness of life, offence should be given to any who were weak and inclined to suspect him, and that he was ready to suffer the loss of his honour among men rather than vainly persist even to the disquieting of the Church in a contention the very nature of which made it impossible for him to prove his innocence (of which he was conscious) to the satisfaction of those who did not know him, or were in doubt or prone to suspicion in regard to him, I fixed upon the following as a means of discovering the truth. Both pledged themselves in a solemn compact to go to a holy place, where the more awe-inspiring works of God! might much more readily make manifest the evil of which either of them was conscious, and compel the guilty to confess, either by judgment or through fear of judgment. God is everywhere, it is true, and He that made all things is not contained or confined to dwell in any place; and He is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth by His true worshippers, in order that, as He heareth in secret, He may also in secret justify and reward. But in regard to the answers to prayer which are visible to men, who can search out His reasons for appointing some places rather than others to be the scene of miraculous interpositions? To many the holiness of the place in which the body of the blessed Felix is buried is well known, and to this place I desired them to repair; because from it we may receive more easily and more reliably a written account of whatever may be discovered in either of them by divine interposition. For I myself knew how, at Milan, at the tomb of the saints, where demons are brought in a most marvellous and awful manner to confess their deeds, a thief who had come thither intending to deceive by perjuring himself, was compelled to own his theft, and to restore what he had taken away; and is not Africa also full of the bodies of holy martyrs ? Yet we do not know of such things being done in any place here. Even as the gift of healing and the gift of discerning of spirits are not given to all saints, as the apostle declares; so it is not at all the tombs of the saints that it has pleased Him who divideth to each severally as He will, to cause such miracles to be wrought. 4. Wherefore, although I had purposed not to let this most heavy burden on my heart come to your knowledge, lest I should disquiet you by a painful but useless vexation, it has pleased God to make it known to you, perhaps for this reason, that you may along with me devote yourselves to prayer, beseeching Him to condescend to reveal that which He knoweth, but which we cannot know in this matter. For I did not presume to suppress or erase from the roll of his colleagues the name of this presbyter, lest I should seem to insult the Divine Majesty, upon whose arbitration the case now depends, if I were to forestall His decision by any premature decision of mine: for even in secular affairs, when a perplexing case is referred to a higher authority, the inferior judges do not presume to make any change while the reference is pending. Moreover, it was decreed in a Council of bishops 3 that no clergyman who has not yet been proved guilty be suspended from communion, unless he fail to present himself for the examination of the charges against him. Boniface, however, humbly agreed to fore go his claim to a letter of commendation, by the use of which on his journey he might have secured the recognition of his rank, preferring that both should stand on a footing of equality in a place where both were alike unknown. And now, if you prefer that his name should not be read, that we "may cut off occasion," as the apostle says, from those that desire occasion' to justify their unwillingness to come to the Church, this omission of his name shall be not our deed, but theirs on whose account it may be done. For what does it harm any man, that men through ignorance refuse to have his name read from that tablet, so long as a guilty conscience does not blot his name out of the Book of Life? who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of God; "8 and this also, "The things which are revealed belong to you, but the secret things belong unto the Lord your God."9 6. It is indeed manifest that such things do not take place in the Church without great sorrow on the part of saints and believers; but let Him be our Comforter who hath foretold all these events, and has warned us not to become cold in love through abounding iniquity, to endure to the end that we may be saved. For, as far as I am concerned, if there be in me a spark of the love of Christ, who among you is weak, and I 5. Wherefore, my brethren who fear God, am not weak? who among you is offended, and remember what the Apostle Peter says: Your I burn not? 10 Do not therefore add to my disadversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh tresses, by your yielding either by groundless about, seeking whom he may devour." When suspicions or by occasion of other men's sins. he cannot devour a man through seducing him Do not, I beseech you, lest I say of you, "They into iniquity, he attempts to injure his good have added to the pain of my wounds." " For name, that if it be possible, he may give way it is much more easy to bear the reproach of under the reproaches of men and the calumnies those who take open pleasure in these our pains, of slandering tongues, and may thus fall into his of whom it was foretold in regard to Christ Himjaws. If, however, he be unable even to sully self, "They that sit in the gate speak against Me, the good name of one who is innocent, he tries and I was the song of the drunkards," 12 for whom to persuade him to cherish unkindly suspicions also we have been taught to pray, and to seek of his brother, and judge him harshly, and so their welfare. For why do they sit at the gate, become entangled, and be an easy prey. And and what do they watch for, if it be not for this, who is able to know or to tell all his snares and that so soon as any bishop or clergyman or monk wiles? Nevertheless, in reference to those three, or nun has fallen, they may have ground for bewhich belong more especially to the case before lieving, and boasting, and maintaining that all us; in the first place, lest you should be turned are the same as the one that has fallen, but that aside to wickedness through following bad ex- all cannot be convicted and unmasked? Yet amples, God gives you by the apostle these warn- these very men do not straightway cast forth ings: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with their wives, or bring accusation against their unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteous- mothers, if some married woman has been disness with unrighteousness, and what communion covered to be an adulteress. But the moment hath light with darkness?" 3 and in another place: that any crime is either falsely alleged or actu"Be not deceived; evil communications corrupt ally proved against any one who makes a progood manners: awake to righteousness, and sin fession of piety, these men are incessant and not." 5 Secondly, that ye may not give way unwearied in their efforts to make this charge be under the tongues of slanderers, He saith by the believed against all religious men. Those men, prophet, "Hearken unto Me, ye that know therefore, who eagerly find what is sweet to their righteousness, the people in whose heart is My malicious tongues in the things which grieve us, law fear ye not the reproach of men, neither we may compare to those dogs (if, indeed, they be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth are to be understood as increasing his misery) shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm which licked the sores of the beggar who lay shall eat them like wool; but My righteous- before the rich man's gate, and endured with ness shall be for ever."7 And thirdly, lest you patience every hardship and indignity until he should be undone through groundless and malev- should come to rest in Abraham's bosom.13 olent suspicions concerning any servants of God, remember that word of the apostle, "Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, : 7. Do not add to my sorrows, O ye who have some hope toward God. Let not the wounds which these lick be multiplied by you, for whom we are in jeopardy every hour, having fightings without and fears within, and perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils by the heathen, and perils by false brethren.' I know that you are grieved, but is your grief more poignant than mine? I know that you are disquieted, and I fear lest by the tongues of slanderers some weak one for whom Christ died should perish. Let not my grief be increased by you, for it is not through my fault that this grief was made yours. For I used the utmost precautions to secure, if it were possible, both that the steps necessary for the prevention of this evil should not be neglected, and that it should not be brought to your knowledge, since this could only cause unavailing vexation to the strong, and dangerous disquietude to the weak, among you. But may He who hath permitted you to be tempted by knowing this, give you strength to bear the trial, and "teach you out of His law, and give you rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked." 2 8. I hear that some of you are more cast down with sorrow by this event, than by the fall of the two deacons who had joined us from the Donatist party, as if they had brought reproach upon the discipline of Proculeianus ;3 whereas this checks your boasting about me, that under my discipline no such inconsistency among the clergy had taken place. Let me frankly say to you, whoever you are that have done this, you have not done well. Behold, God hath taught you, "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord; "4 and ye ought to bring no reproach against heretics but this, that they are not Catholics. Be not like these heretics, who, because they have nothing to plead in defence of their schism, attempt nothing beyond heaping up charges against the men from whom they are separated, and most falsely boast that in these we have an unenviable pre-eminence, in order that since they can neither impugn nor darken the truth of the Divine Scripture, from which the Church of Christ spread abroad everywhere receives its testimony, they may bring into disfavour the men by whom it is preached, against whom they are capable of affirming anything whatever comes into their mind. "But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by Him."5 For He Himself has guarded His believing people from undue disquietude concerning wickedness, even in stewards of the divine mysteries, as doing evil which was their own, but speaking good which was His. "All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not 1 2 Cor. vii. 5 and xi. 26. 2 Ps. xciv. 12, 13. 3 Donatist bishop of Hippo. 4 1 Cor. i. 31. 5 Eph. iv. 20, 21. 8 ye after their works: for they say, and do not."6 Pray by all means for me, lest perchance "when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway; "7 but when you glory, glory not in me, but in the Lord. For however watchful the discipline of my house may be, I am but a man, and I live among men; and I do not presume to pretend that my house is better than the ark of Noah, in which among eight persons one was found a castaway; or better than the house of Abraham, regarding which it was said, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son; "9 or better than the house of Isaac, regarding whose twin sons it was said, "I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau ; " 10 or better than the house of Jacob himself, in which Reuben defiled his father's bed;" or better than the house of David, in which one son wrought folly with his sister," and another rebelled against a father of such holy clemency; or better than the band of companions of Paul the apostle, who nevertheless would not have said, as above quoted, "Without are fightings, and within are fears," if he had dwelt with none but good men; nor would have said, in speaking of the holiness and fidelity of Timothy, "I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state; for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's; " 13 or better than the band of the disciples of the Lord Christ Himself, in which eleven good men bore with Judas, who was a thief and a traitor; or, finally, better than heaven itself, from which the angels fell. 9. I frankly avow to your Charity, before the Lord our God, whom I have taken, since the time when I began to serve Him, as a witness upon my soul, that as I have hardly found any men better than those who have done well in monasteries, so I have not found any men worse than monks who have fallen; whence I suppose that to them applies the word written in the Apocalypse, "He that is righteous, let him be still more righteous; and he that is filthy, let him be still more filthy." 4 Wherefore, if we be grieved by some foul blemishes, we are comforted by a much larger proportion of examples of an opposite kind. Let not, therefore, the dregs which offend your eyes cause you to hate the oil-presses whence the Lord's storehouses are supplied to their profit with a more brightly illuminating oil. May the mercy of our Lord keep you in His peace, safe from all the snares of the enemy, my dearly beloved brethren. 6 Matt. xxiii. 3. 10 Mal. i. 2. 11 Gen. xlix. 4. 12 2 Sam. xiii. 14. 13 Phil. ii. 20, 21. 14 Rev. xxii. II. LETTER LXXIX. (A.D. 404.) LETTER LXXXI. (A.D. 405.) A short and stern challenge to some Manichæan TO AUGUSTIN, MY LORD TRULY HOLY, AND MOST teacher who had succeeded Fortunatus (supposed to be Felix). BLESSED FATHER, JEROME SENDS GREETING IN Your attempts at evasion are to no purpose: your real character is patent even a long way Having anxiously inquired of our holy brother off. My brethren have reported to me their con- Firmus regarding your state, I was glad to hear versation with you. You say that you do not that you are well. I expected him to bring, or, fear death; it is well: but you ought to fear that I should rather say, I insisted upon his giving death which you are bringing upon yourself by me, a letter from you; upon which he told me your blasphemous assertions concerning God. that he had set out from Africa without commuAs to your understanding that the visible death nicating to you his intention. I therefore send which all men know is a separation between to you my respectful salutations through this soul and body, this is a truth which demands no brother, who clings to you with a singular warmth great grasp of intellect. But as to the state- of affection; and at the same time, in regard to ment which you annex to this, that death is a my last letter, I beg you to forgive the modesty separation between good and evil, do you not which made it impossible for me to refuse you, see that, if the soul be good and the body be when you had so long required me to write evil, he who joined them together is not good? you in reply. That letter, moreover, was not an But you affirm that the good God has joined them answer from me to you, but a confronting of my together; from which it follows that He is either arguments with yours. And if it was a fault in evil, or swayed by fear of one who is evil. Yet me to send a reply (I beseech you hear me payou boast of your having no fear of man, when tiently), the fault of him who insisted upon it at the same time you conceive God to be such was still greater. But let us be done with 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 outflowing 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;" nor does he magnify those of whom he says that their word doth eat as a canker. 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. 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 gourddebate. 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 5 in the field of Scripture without wounding each other. LETTER LXXXII. A Reply to Letters LXXII., LXXV., and LXXXI. TO JEROME, MY LORD BELOVED AND HONOURED IN THE BOWELS OF CHRIST, MY HOLY BROTHER AND FELLOW-PRESBYTER, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD. 1. Long ago I sent to your Charity a long letter in reply to the one which you remember sending to me by your holy son Asterius, who is now not only my brother, but also my colleague. Whether 5 Ludamus. |