1. The sorrow of the church at Thiava b prevents my heart from being at rest until I hear that they have been brought back to the same disposition towards you as before, and that must be done quickly. For if the Apostle was so much concerned about one individual when he said, “Lest such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow,”a adding there the words, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices,” b it much more becomes us to act with circumspection so that we may not have the same thing to lament in a whole flock, and especially in those who have but recently come over to the peace of the Catholic Church, and whom I can in no wise abandon. But as the shortness of time did not allow us any opportunity to take careful counsel together on the matter and to clarify our opinions, may it please your Holiness to accept the decision I have reached after lengthy consideration since we parted, and, if you decide likewise, let the letter I have written them in our common name be dispatched to them without delay.
1. Tristitia Thiavensis ecclesiae cor meum conquie- scere non permittit. donec eos tecum audiam in pristinum animum restitutos, quod cito faciendum est. Si enim de homine uno tantum sategit apostolus dicens: Ne maiore tristitia absorbeatur, qui eius modi est, ubi etiam ait: Ut non possideamur a satana, non enim ignoramus mentes eius, quanto magis nos oportet vigilanter agere ne hoc in toto grege plangamus et maxime in eis qui nunc catholicae paci accesserunt et quos nullo modo relinquere possum. Sed quia temporis non sivit angustia ut simul inde nobis diligenter deliberatam liceret eliquare sententiam, quid mihi post digressum nostrum diu cogitanti placuerit, accipiat sanctitas tua et si tibi quoque placet, iam litterae quas ad eos communi nomine scripsi, sine dilatione mittantur.
2. Your proposal was that they should have the one half and that I should make up the other half to them from some other source. But it is my opinion that if they were deprived of the whole property, it might reasonably be said that we had so greatly exerted ourselves not for the sake of the money, but for the sake of justice. But when we yield them a half and on those terms arrange at some time a settlement with them, it will look pretty obvious that we were interested in only the financial aspect, and you see what a pernicious result would follow. For on one hand we shall be regarded by them as having taken one half to which we had no right, and they on the other will be regarded by us as having unfairly and dishonourably agreed to accept help from a half which belonged entirely to the poor. For your remark that we must beware, while endeavouring to settle a doubtful matter, of causing more serious wounds, will have as much force if they be granted a half. For because of this half, those whose conversion to monastic life we wish to encourage will find excuses for delaying and putting off the sale of their own property so as to be dealt with under this precedent. Moreover, is it surprising that by this doubtful matter the whole Christian community is so much offended when they imagine their bishops, whom they honour so highly, to be smitten with sordid avarice, so long as they do not avoid the appearance of evil?
2. Dixisti ut dimidium habeant et alterum dimidium eis a me undecumque provideretur. Ego autem puto quia, si totum eis auferretur, esset quod diceremur non de pecunia nos sed de iustitia tantopere laborasse. Cum vero dimidium eis concedimus et eo modo cum eis pacem quandoque componimus, satis apparebit nostram curam nihil aliud quam pecuniariam fuisse et vides quae pernicies consequatur. Et illis enim videbimur alienam rem dimidiam tulisse et illi nobis videbuntur inhoneste et inique se passos fuisse, ut adiuvarentur de dimidio quod totum pauperum fuerat. Nam quod dixisti: “Cavendum est, ne cum rem dubiam emendari volumus, maiora vulnera faciamus,” tantundem valebit, si eis dimidium concedatur. Propter ipsum quippe dimidium illi, quorum conversioni consulere volumus, ut hoc exemplo secum agatur, rerum suarum venditionem per moras illas excusatorias dilaturi sunt. Deinde mirum si de re dubia est totius plebis tam grande scandalum, cum episcopos suos, quos pro magno habent, sordida avaritia maculatos putant, dum maligna species non vitatur?
3. For when a man turns to monastic life and does so in a genuine spirit, he does not think of that, especially when he has been warned of the great sinfulness of such conduct. But if he is a deceiver and is “seeking his own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's,” a he certainly is without charity, and “what does it profit him, if he bestow all his goods upon the poor and give his body to be burned” b? Further, as we already agreed together, that difficulty may be avoided for the future, and an arrangement made with any individual who is turning monk, that he cannot be admitted to the society of the brethren before he has rid himself of all those encumbrances and throws off his life of ease, his property having now ceased to belong to him. There is, indeed, no other possible way of avoiding this spiritual death of weak brethren and this grievous obstacle to the salvation of those for the winning of whom to the peace of Catholicism we so strenuously labour, unless by giving them very clearly to under- stand that we are in no way concerned about money in such cases; and this they will not understand unless we leave for their use the property which they always supposed to belong to their priest, because, if it did not belong to him, they ought to have known this from the beginning.
3. Nam cum quisque ad monasterium convertitur, si veraci corde convertitur, illud non cogitat maxime admonitus quantum malum sit. Si autem fallax est et sua quaerit, non quae Iesu Christi, non habet utique caritatem et quid ei prodest, si distribuerit omnia sua pauperibus et tradiderit corpus suum, ut ardeat? Huc accedit quia illud, sicut iam conlocuti sumus, deinceps vitari potest et agi cum eo qui convertitur, si non potest admitti ad societatem fratrum, antequam se omnibus illis impedimentis exuerit et ex otio tendatur, cum eius res iam esse destiterit. Haec autem mors infirmorum et tantum impedimentum salutis eorum, pro quibus tantopere laboramus, ut eos catholicae paci lucremur, aliter vitari non potest, nisi ut apertis- sime intellegant nullo modo nos de pecunia satagere in talibus causis, quod nullo modo intellecturi sunt, nisi illam rem quam semper presbyteri esse putaverunt, eorum usibus relinquamus, quia et si eius non erat, hoc ab initio scire debuerant.
4. It seems to me, therefore, that in matters of this kind we should abide by this rule, that whatever belonged by the law of possession to one who is ordained to be the clergyman of any place, is the appurtenance of that church over which he was ordained. Now, by the same law, the property in question so far belonged to the priest Honoratus that, had he still been, when he died, in the monastery of Tagaste, instead of being ordained to another post, and had neither sold his property nor transferred it to any other by an express deed of gift, no one but his heirs would have succeeded to it, just as brother Aemilianus succeeded to the thirty shillings left by brother Privatus. These precautions must then be taken beforehand, but if they have not been taken, we should in their case comply with those laws which were drawn up to regulate the possession or the disposal of property according to civil society, so that we may avoid as far as possible not only all reality, but even all appearance of evil, a and retain the untarnished reputation which is so necessary to our office as executors. And just how evil this appearance is, let your holy Wisdom observe. After hearing of their disappointment, which we fully realized, from fear that I might perchance be mistaken (as usually happens when I incline with the more partiality to my own opinion), I stated the case to our brother and colleague, Samsucius, without telling him at the time what I have now decided, but rather adding what we had both decided when we were resisting their claims. He was very much shocked and marvelled that we had so decided, and what disturbed him was nothing else than this very appearance of foul dealing, very unworthy not only of our life and character, but of anyone's.
4. Videtur itaque mihi haec regula esse in rebus huiusce modi retinenda, ut, quicquid eo iure quo talia possidentur, eius fuerit qui alicubi clericus ordinatur, ad eam pertineat ecclesiam in qua ordinatur. Usque adeo autem eodem iure presbyteri Honorati est illud, unde agitur, ut non solum alibi ordinatus sed adhuc in Tagastensi monasterio constitutus si re sua non vendita nec per manifestam donationem in quempiam translata moreretur, non nisi heredes eius in eam succederent, sicut frater Aemilianus in illos triginta solidos fratri Privato successit. Haec ergo ante praecavenda sunt; si autem praecauta non fuerint, ea iura eis servare oportet, quae talibus habendis vel non habendis secundum civilem societatem sunt instituta, ut ab omni non solum re sed etiam specie maligna, quantum possumus, nos abstineamus et bonam famam custodiamus dispensationi nostrae multum necessariam. Quam vero species maligna sit, advertat sancta prudentia tua. Excepta illorum tristitia, quam experti sumus, ne quid forte ipse fallerer, sicut fieri solet, dum in sententiam meam proclivior erro, narravi causam fratri et collegae nostro Samsucio, nondum dicens quod mihi modo videtur, sed illud potius adiungens quod utrique nostrum visum sit, cum illis resisteremus. Vehementer exhorruit et nobis hoc visum esse miratus est, nulla re alia permotus nisi ipsa specie foeda, non nostra sed cuiuslibet vita ac moribus indignissima.
5. I beseech you, therefore, not to postpone signing and sending the letter I have written them in our common name. And if from it you very clearly realize that this course is just, let not those who are weak be compelled now to learn what I myself do not yet understand, so that in this affair we may observe towards them this saying of the Lord's: “I have many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now.”a For He had compassion on such weakness and made the further remark about the payment of tribute: “Then are the children free; notwithstanding, lest we offend them,” b and so on, when He sent Peter to pay the half-shekel that was at that time exacted. He was acquainted with another law by which He had no such obligation, but Peter paid tribute for Him in accordance with that same law by which, as I have already said, the heir of the priest Honoratus would have succeeded, if he had died before either giving away or selling his property. And yet. under the law of the Church itself, Paul the Apostle had compassion on the weak and did not exact the subsidy due to himself, c though quite convinced in his own mind that he had every right to exact it, but with no other intention than to escape the suspicion which would spoil the sweet savour of Christ and to defend himself from that appearance of evil in those districts where he knew that such was his duty and in fact before he had experienced men's disappointment. But now, though we are somewhat behindhand, let us even profit by our experience and put right what we ought beforehand to have guarded against.
5. Proinde obsecro, ut epistulam quam eis communi nomine scripsi, subscriptam non differas mittere. Et si forte illic illud iustum acutissime pervides, non cogantur infirmi modo discere, quod ego nondum intellego, ut hoc circa eos in hac causa servetur quod dominus ait: Multa habeo vobis dicere, sed non potestis illa portare modo. Tali quippe infirmitati parcens etiam illud de tributo solvendo ait: Ergo liberi sunt filii; sed ne scandalizemus eos et cetera, quando Petrum misit ut didrachmas quae tunc exigebantur, solverent. Noverat enim aliud ius, quo nihil tale debebat; sed eo iure tributum ei ille solvebat, quo iure diximus heredem presbyteri Honorati successurum fuisse, si, antequam rem suam vel donaret vel venderet, moreretur. Quamquam in ipso ecclesiae iure Paulus apostolus parcit infirmis et debitum stipendium non exigit, certus conscientia quod rectissime exigeret, sed nihil aliud quam suspicionem devitans bonum odorem Christi turbantem et ab illa maligna specie sese abstinens in eis regionibus, ubi hoc noverat oportere, et forte antequam tristitiam hominum fuisset expertus. Sed nos tardiores vel experti corrigamus quod praevidere debuimus.
6. Finally, since I am completely a prey to fear and recall the proposal you made when we parted, that the brethren at Tagaste should hold me responsible for the half of the sum named, if you clearly view this proposal as fair, I do not reject it, but on this condition, that I pay the amount when I have it, that is. when so great a sum falls to our monastery at Hippo that it may be done without unduly straitening us, so that, after subtracting the large amount owing them, our people may acquire no less than an equal share in proportion to the number of resident brethren.
6. Postremo, quia omnia timeo et memini in digressu nostro quid proposueris, quod me fratres Tagastenses teneant debitorem in dimidio illius pretii, si hoc iustum esse liquido perspicis, ea dum taxat condicione non abnuo, ut, cum habuero, reddam, id est cum aliquid tantum obvenerit Hipponiensi monasterio, ubi hoc sine angustia fieri possit, ut tanta ibi summa detracta non minus quam aequalis pro numero cohabitantium pars ad nostros perveniat.