--- title: "Letters · Epistulae" author: "Augustine" translator: "James Houston Baxter" languages: [la, en] shelf: "Church Fathers" section: 24 of 62 url: https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-letters/24/ cite: "Augustine, tr. James Houston Baxter, Letters · Epistulae, section 24. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-letters/24/" --- # Letters · Epistulae *Augustine, tr. James Houston Baxter* Augustine’s letters in Latin beside English. > Latin: ed. James Houston Baxter, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit, stoa0040.stoa011, CC BY-SA 4.0). > English: James Houston Baxter, from the Perseus Digital Library (stoa0040.stoa011.perseus-eng1). Notes are not included. > Rows follow the references the two texts share (books, chapters and sections), cut where both reach the end of a sentence. ## 24. Letter 24 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-letters/24/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-letters/24/#p-N [¶0] 1. I find it admirable but not surprising that, though age is beginning to chill your limbs, your heart still glows with patriotic zeal, and I am not sorry, but rather delighted, to learn that you do not merely remember the maxim that “to good men there is no limit or end of devotion to their country,” but actually exemplify it in your life and character. That is why we should like to have you enrolled in person as a citizen of a country which is above, in holy love for which we endure perils and toil, as far as in us lies, among those whose good we seek in urging them to make that country their own—and such a citizen that you would think there should be no limit or end to devotion to that fragment of it which is on pilgrimage in this land. So would you become a better man in proportion as you discharged here and now the duties due to that better country, in whose eternal peace you will find no end to rejoicing, if you prescribe for yourself no end to the devotion you bestow upon its temporal tasks. > Latin: 1. Iam senio frigescentibus membris fervere animum tuum patriae caritate nec miror et laudo, teque non tantum tenere memoriter verum etiam vita ac moribus demonstrare, quod nullus sit patriae consulendi modus aut finis bonis, non invitus immo etiam libens accipio. Unde supernae cuiusdam patriae, in cuius sancto amore pro nostro modulo inter eos quibus ad illam capessendam consulimus, periclitamur atque laboramus, talem etiam te ipsum civem habere vellemus, ut eius portiunculae in hac terra peregrinanti nullum consulendi modum finemque censeres, tanto effectus melior, quanto meliori civitati officia debita praerogares, in eius aeterna pace nullum gaudendi finem inventurus, cuius ad tempus laboribus nullum tibi finem statueris consulendi. [¶1] 2. But until you do so—for we must not surrender the hope that it is in your power to gain, or that even already you must be wisely thinking how you should gain that country to which your own father, who begot you here, has gone before you—until you do so. you must forgive us if for the sake of our country, which we have no desire ever to leave, we inflict distress upon your country, which you desire to leave in the full flower of prosperity. Yet if I were to hold a discussion with your Wisdom about its flowering, I have every confidence that you would not be difficult to convince, or rather that you would easily discover for yourself, in what way a country ought to flower. That poet who enjoys the most renown in your literature has commemorated certain flowers of Italy a; but in that country of yours we have experienced not so much " with what men it has flowered " as “with what arms it has blazed,” nay rather, not “arms,” but “fires,” and “not blazed,” but “set on fire.” If the heinous offence before us were left unpunished with no adequate chastisement of the miscreants, do you think that you would leave your country in full flower? Flowers indeed, but promising thorns, certainly not fruit! Just make the comparison and see whether you prefer your country to flower by practising piety or by escaping punishment, by the discipline of character or by the protection of violence; make the comparison and see whether in love for your country you outdo us, whether your desire to behold it in full flower is greater and more genuine than ours. > Latin: 2. Verum hoc donec fiat—neque enim desperandum est illam te patriam posse adquirere vel iam adquirendam prudentissime cogitare, ad quam te pater etiam, qui in ista genuit, antecessit-—hoc ergo donec fiat, da nobis veniam, si propter patriam nostram, quam cupimus numquam relinquere, contristamus patriam tuam, quam cupis florentem relinquere. De cuius quidem floribus si cum tua prudentia disputemus, non est verendum ne tibi difficile persuadeatur aut vero etiam non facile occurrat, quem ad modum florere civitas debeat. Commemoravit poeta ille vestrarum clarissimus litterarum quosdam flores Italiae; sed nos in vestra patria non tam experti sumus “quibus floruerit ” terra illa “viris,” quam “quibus arserit armis,” immo vero non armis sed flammis nec arserit, sed incendent. Quod tantum scelus si fuerit in-punitum nulla digna correctione pravorum, florentem te patriam putas relicturum? O flores non plane fructuum sed spinarum! Compara nunc, utrum malis florere patriam tuam pietate an impunitate, correctis molibus an securis ausibus; compara ista et vide, utrum in patriae tuae amore nos vincas, utrum eam magis venusque cupias florere quam nos. [¶2] 3. Look for a moment at those very books “On the State” a from which you imbibed that sentiment of a loyal subject, that “to good men there is no limit or end of devotion to their country.” Look at them, I pray you, and notice the praise with which frugality and self-control are extolled, and fidelity to the marriage-bond, and chaste, honourable, and upright character. When a country is distinguished for these qualities, it may truly be said to be in full flower. Now, it is in the churches that are springing up throughout the world, in the sacred lecture-rooms, one might say, of the nations, that these moral qualities are being taught and learned, and most especially the piety with which worship is paid to the true and truthful God, Who not only commands men to undertake, but also gives them the power to perform, all those things by which the human spirit is trained and fitted for fellowship with God and for dwelling in the everlasting heavenly country. It is for that reason that He predicted the future overthrow of the images of the many false gods and enjoined that that overthrow should begin now. a For there is nothing that makes men so unsuited for fellowship by reason of their depraved lives as does the imitation of those gods, such as they are described and commended by pagan literature. > Latin: 3. Intuere paululum ipsos de re publica libros, unde illum affectum amantissimi civis ebibisti, quod nullus sit patriae consulendi modus aut finis bonis. Intuere, obsecro te, et cerne quantis ibi laudibus frugalitas et continentia praedicetur et erga coniugale vinculum fides castique honesti ac probi mores, quibus cum praepollet civitas, vere florere dicenda est. Hi autem mores in ecclesiis toto orbe crescentibus tamquam in sanctis auditoriis populorum docentur atque discuntur, et maxime pietas qua verus et verax colatur deus, qui haec omnia quibus animus humanus divinae societati ad inhabitandam aeternam caelestemque civitatem instruitur et aptatur, non solum iubet adgredienda, verum etiam donat implenda. Inde est quod deorum multorum falsorumque simulacra et praedixit eversum iri et praecepit everti. Nihil enim homines tam insociabiles reddit vitae perversitate quam illorum deorum imitatio, quales describuntur et commendantur litteris eorum. [¶3] 4. In short, those learned men who in private discussion sought after and even portrayed what seemed to them the model republic and earthly state instead of bringing it into being and giving it shape by public service, usually put forward as examples for the training of the youthful character those men they deemed famous and praiseworthy rather than their own gods. And, in fact, that young man in Terence b who, on gazing upon a painted wall-panel which represented the adultery of the king of the gods, felt fuel added to the fire of passion that was consuming him by the encouragement given by an authority so eminent, would certainly not have fallen into that sin through desire nor have been overcome by it through bringing it to pass, if he had chosen Cato as his model rather than Jove. But how could he do that when in the temples he was compelled to reverence Jove instead of Cato? And yet perhaps I should not put forward these scenes from comedy to confute the wantonness and the sacrilegious superstition of the ungodly. Read or recall how carefully it is argued in those same books that the writing or acting of comedies could by no means have received public approbation if they had not harmonized with the character of those who approved of them. So the authority of the most outstanding men, both those who are prominent in the State and those who discuss the nature of the State, establishes our point that by imitating the gods—not, to be sure, true gods, but false and fabricated gods—the most depraved of men become still worse. > Latin: 4. Denique illi doctissimi viri qui rem publicam civitatemque terrenam, qualis eis esse debere videbatur, magis domesticis disputationibus requirebant vel etiam describebant, quam publicis actionibus instituebant atque formabant, egregios atque laudabiles quos putabant homines potius quam deos suos imitandos proponebant erudiendae indoli iuventutis. Et re vera Terentianus ille adulescens qui spectans tabulam pictam in pariete, ubi pictura inerat de adulterio regis deorum, libidinem qua rapiebatur, stimulis etiam tantae auctoritatis accendit, nullo modo in illud flagitium vel concupiscendo laberetur vel perpetrando inmergeretur, si Catonem maluisset imitari quam Iovem; sed quo pacto id faceret, cum in templis adorare cogeretur Iovem potius quam Catonem? Verum haec ex comoedia quibus impiorum luxus et sacrilega superstitio convinceretur, proferre forsitan non debemus. Lege vel recole in eisdem libris quam prudenter disseratur nullo modo potuisse scriptiones et actiones recipi comoediarum, nisi mores recipientium consonarent. Ita clarissimorum virorum in re publica excellentium et de re publica disputantium auctoritate Armatur nequissimos homines fieri deorum imitatione peiores, non sane verorum sed falsorum atque Actorum. [¶4] 5. But it may be objected that all those ancient tales about the life and character of the gods are to be understood and interpreted far differently by men of wisdom. Thus, in fact, we heard just the other day harmless interpretations of this kind read to the people gathered in the temples. a Tell me, is the human race so blind to truth as not to perceive facts so evident and open? In so many places Jove is exhibited committing his numerous adulteries by painters, founders, smiths, sculptors, writers, reciters, actors, singers and dancers; what was the use of reciting, in his own Capitol at any rate, decrees forbidding such sins? If, with no one to forbid them, these foul deeds that are the culmination of turpitude and ungodliness are enthusiastically acclaimed by the people, worshipped in the temples, applauded in the theatres b; if, when victims are sacrificed to their perpetrators, even the poor are despoiled of their flock, and when actors represent them in dance and action, the rich lavish their fortunes on them—are countries to be described as in flower? Such flowers as these certainly do not owe their birth to fruitful soil or to any bounteous virtue; they have found a worthy parent in that goddess Flora, c whose theatrical games are celebrated with such unusually abandoned and shameless vileness that anyone may understand what is the nature of a divinity that cannot be conciliated unless there perish as victims on her altars not birds or beasts or even human bodies, but (a much viler scandal) human modesty and shame. > Latin: 5. At enim illa omnia quae antiquitus de vita deorum moribusque conscripta sunt, longe aliter sunt intellegent atque interpretanda sapientibus. Ita vero in templis populis congregatis recitari huiusce modi salubres interpretationes heri et nudiustertius audivimus. Quaeso te, sicine caecum est humanum genus adversus veritatem, ut tam aperta et manifesta non sentiat? Tot locis pingitur, funditur, tunditur, sculpitur, scribitur, legitur, agitur, cantatur, saltatur Iuppiter adulteria tanta committens; quantum erat, ut in suo saltem Capitolio ista prohibens legeretur? Haec mala dedecoris impietatisque plenissima si nemine prohibente in populis ferveant, adorentur in templis, rideantur in theatris, cum his victimas immolant, vastetur pecus etiam pauperum, cum haec histriones agunt et saltant, effundantur patrimonia divitum, civitates florere dicuntur? Horum plane florum non terra fertilis, non aliqua opulens virtus sed illa dea Flora digna mater inventa est, cuius ludi scenici tam effusiore et licentiore turpidine celebrantur, ut quivis intellegat quale daemonium sit, quod placari aliter non potest nisi illic non aves, non quadrupedes, non denique sanguis humanus, sed multo scelestius pudor humanus tamquam immolatus intereat. [¶5] 6. I have spoken of these things because of the statement in your letter that the nearer you come to the end of your life, the more strongly you desire to leave your country in sound condition and full flower. Take away all those frivolous and unwholesome practices and let men turn to the genuine worship of God and to purity and godliness of character, then you will see your country in full flower, not in the empty opinion of the foolish, but in the sober judgement of the wise, when this country that gave you birth after the flesh has become a part of that country to which we are born not by the body, but by faith. There, after the wintry labours of this life, all God's saints and faithful people will flower in an endless eternity. Therefore is it our dear desire neither to put away Christian meekness nor to leave your country as a baleful example for others to follow. In our attempt to realize this hope, God will be at hand to help, provided He be not too grievously wroth with them. Otherwise both the meekness that we desire to preserve and the punishment that it is our aim to impose in moderation may be arrested, if God in His hidden wisdom ordaineth differently, whether He appoint that this immeasurable evil be punished with a keener chastisement, or whether, should the guilty fail to repent and to turn to Him, He shall will in still more vehement wrath to leave it in this world unpunished. > Latin: 6. Haec dixi, propter quod scripsisti, quantum tibi aetas fini proxima est, cupere te ut patriam tuam incolumem ac florentem relinquas. Tollantur illa omnia vana et insana, convertantur homines ad verum dei cultum moresque castos et pios; tunc patriam tuam florentem videbis non opinione stultorum sed veritate sapientium, cum haec patria carnalis generationis tuae portio fuerit illius patriae, cui non corpore sed fide nascimur, ubi omnes sancti et fideles dei post labores velut hiemales vitae huius intermina aeternitate florebunt. Nobis itaque cordi est neque Christianam amittere mansuetudinem neque perniciosum ceteris imitationis exemplum in illa civitate relinquere. Quo modo id agamus, aderit deus, si eis non ita graviter indignetur. Alioquin et mansuetudo quam servare cupimus, et disciplina qua uti moderate nitimur, impediri potest, si deo aliud in occulto placet sive iudicanti hoc tantum malum flagello acriore plectendum sive etiam vehementius nascenti, si non correctis nec ad se conversis ad tempus esse voluerit inpunitum. [¶6] 7. Your Wisdom lays down for me certain principles for the conduct of my episcopal office and pleads that your native place has been brought to a serious pass by a grave misdemeanour on the part of its in- habitants. “Should we estimate it by the severity of the public law. it deserves to be punished with a harsher sentence, but a bishop "—you say—" may not do aught but contribute to men's welfare, and attend court a to improve conditions there, and win before Almighty God pardon for other men's sins.” It is certainly our endeavour to secure greater mercy, either from ourselves or from any other through our intercession, in the sentencing of those who are punished, and it is our desire to contribute to men's welfare. But that welfare consists in the happiness that comes from righteous living, not in the impunity that may attend evil-doing. And as for pardon, we earnestly endeavour to win it not merely for our own sins, but for those of others as well, but we certainly cannot obtain it except for those who have repented. You go on then to say, “I entreat you with all possible urgency not to prosecute the guiltless, if the matter must come to a prosecution, but to ward off any trouble from the innocent.” > Latin: 7. Praescribit nobis quodam modo prudentia tua de persona episcopali et dicis patriam tuam non levi populi sui errato prolapsam. “Quod quidem si iuris publici rigore metiamur, debet plecti severiore censura; sed episcopum,” inquis, “fas non est nisi salutem hominibus impertire et pro statu meliore causis adesse et apud omnipotentem deum veniam aliorum mereri delictis.” Hoc omnino servare conamur, ut severiore censura nemo plectatur neque a nobis neque ab alio ullo intercedentibus nobis, et salutem hominibus cupimus impertire, quae posita est in recte vivendi felicitate, non in male faciendi securitate. Veniam quoque non tantum nostris verum et aliorum instamus delictis mereri, quod impetrare nisi pro correctis omnino non possumus. Adiungis etiam et dicis: “Quanta possum supplicatione deposco, ut si defendenda res est, innoxius defendatur, ab innocentibus molestia separetur.” [¶7] 8. Let me briefly remind you of the offence, then draw the distinction for yourself between the innocent and the guilty. In defiance of quite recent legislation a sacrilegious celebration was held on the first of June, a pagan feast-day, with no prohibition from anyone and with such insolent effrontery that an impudent crowd of dancers actually passed along the same street in front of the church-doors—a thing that never happened even in Julian's time. When the clergy attempted to stop this most illegal and insulting procedure, the church was stoned. Then, almost a week later, when the bishop had drawn the attention of the magistrates to the well-known laws on the subject, and they were, to all intents and purposes, preparing to put the legal prescriptions into effect, the church was stoned again. Next day, when our people wanted to lodge a complaint in court, with the object, apparently, of inspiring those abandoned characters with fear, their rights were denied them, and on the very same day, to see if menaces from heaven might not dismay them, their stonings were answered by a shower of hail: but when it was over, they immediately cast another shower of stones and finally fire upon the roofs of the church and the people within. One servant of God who was wandering about and may have run into them, they put to death, the others partly taking shelter wherever they could, partly escaping wherever they could. In the meantime the bishop was hiding in a certain spot into which he had thrust himself to lie all cramped, and from which he kept hearing the voices of those who were seeking him to put him to death and were reproaching themselves for letting him escape and so for perpetrating such a heinous crime to no effect. This went on from almost four o'clock until a late hour of night. No attempt at repression, no attempt at rescue was made by any of those who could have exercised some weight of authority. Only one person interfered, a stranger, by whom a considerable number of God's servants were delivered from the hands of those who were seeking to slay them, and much property as well was recovered from looters. His example made it clear how easily those outrages might have been wholly prevented, or have been arrested if they had actually begun, provided only that the inhabitants and, most of all, the leading citizens had forbidden them, either from the very first or after they had started. > Latin: 8. Accipe breviter quae commissa sint, et noxios ab innocentibus ipse discerne. Contra recentissimas leges Kalendis Iuniis festo paganorum sacrilega sollemnitas agitata est, nemine prohibente, tam insolenti ausu, ut. quod nec Iuliani temporibus factum est, petulantissima turba saltantium in eodem prorsus vico ante fores transiret ecclesiae. Quam rem inlicitissimam atque indignissimam clericis prohibere temptantibus, ecclesia lapidata est. Deinde post dies ferme octo, cum leges notissimas episcopus ordini replicasset, et dum ea quae iussa sunt velut implere disponunt, iterum ecclesia lapidata est. Postridie nostris ad inponendum perditis metum, quod videbatur, apud acta dicere volentibus publica iura negata sunt, eodemque ipso die, ne vel divinitus terrerentur, grando lapidationibus reddita est; qua transacta continuo tertiam lapidationem et postremo ignes ecclesiasticis tectis atque hominibus intulerunt, unum servorum dei, qui oberrans occurrere potuit, occiderunt, ceteris partim ubi potuerant latitantibus, partim qua potuerant fugientibus, cum interea contrusus atque coartatus quodam loco se occultaret episcopus, ubi se ad mortem quaerentium voces audiebat sibique increpantium quod eo non invento gratis tantum perpetrassent scelus. Gesta sunt haec ab hora ferme decima usque ad noctis partem non minimam. Nemo compescere, nemo sub venire temptavit illorum quorum esse gravis posset auctoritas, praeter unum peregrinum, per quem et plurimi servi dei de manibus interficere conantium liberati sunt et multa extorta praedantibus. Per quem clarum factum est quam facile illa vel omnino non fierent vel coepta desisterent, si cives maximeque primates ea fieri perficique vetuissent. [¶8] 9. Accordingly you will hardly be able to draw a distinction in the whole community between the innocent and the guilty, but only perhaps between the less guilty and the more guilty. For slight is the sin of those who were deterred by fear (and especially by fear of offending those known to them to be men of great influence in the town and hostile towards the Church) from venturing to give any assistance; but all are guilty who, although not participating or instigating, were consenting to the outrage; more guilty are those who perpetrated it, and most guilty of all are those who instigated it. Let us assume that we have only suspicions who these instigators were, and no certain knowledge, and let us refrain from discussing facts which simply cannot be ascertained without the torturing of the witnesses. Let us, too. make allowance for the fear felt by those who thought it better to pray to God for the bishop and God's servants than to give offence to influential enemies of the Church. What about those who remain? Do you give it as your opinion that they should escape all punishment and censure? And do you think we should set the example of leaving so barbarous an outrage unpunished? We have no desire to gratify our anger by exacting retribution for past offences, but we are concerned to provide for the future in a spirit of compassion. Evil men have certain points in which they can be punished by Christians not only in gentleness, but also with profit and improvement to themselves. They have the life and health of the body; they have the means of sustaining that life; they have the means of living a wicked life. Let the first two be untouched so that there may be some who repent; this is our prayer, this, as far as in us lies, we spare no effort to secure. But for the third, if it be God's will to take it away like some foul and virulent growth, He will inflict punishment in great compassion; but if it be His will to go farther and to allow not even this, the reason for this higher and certainly more just design rests with Himself. Our duty is to devote our zeal and efforts, according to the light that is granted us, to praying God for His approval of our intention to promote the welfare of all and to let nothing be done through us that is not for the good both of ourselves and of the Church; for He knows that much better than we do. > Latin: 9. Proinde in universa illa civitate non innocentes a nocentibus sed minus nocentes a nocentioribus poteris fortasse discernere. Nam in parvo peccato illi sunt qui metu deterriti maximeque, ne offenderent eos quos in illo oppido plurimum posse et inimicos ecclesiae noverant, opem ferre non ausi sunt; scelerato autem omnes, quibus etsi non facientibus neque inmittentibus tamen volentibus ista commissa sunt; sceleratiores, qui commiserunt; sceleratissimi, qui inmiserunt. Sed de inmissione suspicionem putemus esse, non veritatem, nec ea discutiamus, quae nisi tormentis eorum per quos inquiruntur, inveniri omnino non possunt. Demus etiam veniam timori eorum, qui potius deum pro episcopo et servis eius deprecandum quam potentes inimicos ecclesiae offendendos esse putaverunt. Quid eos qui restant, nullane censes disciplina cohercendos et proponendum aestimas inpunitum tam immanis furoris exemplum? Non praeterita vindicando pascere iram nostram studemus, sed misericorditer in futurum consulendo satagimus. Habent homines mali ubi et per Christianos non solum mansuete verum etiam utiliter salubriterque plectantur; habent enim quod corpore incolumi vivunt, habent unde vivunt, habent unde male vivunt. Duo prima salva sint, ut quos paeniteat sint; hoc optamus, hoc, quantum in nobis est, etiam inpensa opera instamus. Tertium vero si deus voluerit tamquam putre noxiumque resecari, valde misericorditer puniet; si autem vel amplius voluerit vel ne hoc quidem permiserit, altioris et profecto iustioris consilii ratio penes ipsum est; a nobis curam officiumque oportet inpendi, quousque videre conceditur, deprecantibus eum, ut animum nostrum adprobet, quo cunctis volumus esse consultum, nihilque fieri sinat per nos quod et nobis et ecclesiae suae non expedire longe melius novit ipse quam nos. [¶9] 10. Recently when I was at Calama with the purpose of consoling the distress, or else appeasing the indignation, of our people in their grievous sorrow, I used all my influence with the Christians to bring about what I thought was at the moment expedient. Then when the pagans themselves, the fount and cause of this great outrage, besought me for an interview, I received them, with the object of advising them on this occasion of the course of action that they ought to pursue if they were wise, not only to banish the present anxiety but also to seek for everlasting salvation. They listened to many things that I said, and even made many petitions themselves; but far be it from me to be such a servant as to take delight in petitions by those who make no petitions to my Master. So with your quick mind you will clearly see that, while preserving our meekness and Christian moderation, we must direct our efforts either to deterring others from imitating their ob- stinacy or to praying that others may imitate their repentance. The losses that were inflicted are either being borne by Christians or are being made good by Christians. As for the gain of souls, which we long to secure even at the peril of our own body, we hope that your district will furnish an unusually precious harvest and that other districts will not be kept back by that example. May God in His mercy grant us to rejoice over your salvation! > Latin: 10. Modo cum apud Calamam essemus, ut nostri in tam gravi dolore vel consolarentur afflicti vel sedarentur accensi, quantum potuimus, quod in tempore oportuisse existimavimus,cum Christianis egimus. Deinde ipsos etiam paganos, mali tanti caput et causam, petentes ut ab eis videremur, admisimus, ut hac occasione admoneremus eos, quid facere deberent, si saperent, non tantum pro removenda praesenti sollicitudine verum etiam pro inquirenda salute perpetua. Multa a nobis audierunt, multum etiam ipsi rogaverunt; sed absit ut tales servi simus, quos ab eis rogari delectet, a quibus noster dominus non rogatur. Unde pervides pro vivacitate mentis tuae ad hoc esse nitendum servata mansuetudine et moderatione Christiana, ut aut ceteros deterreamus eorum imitari perversitatem aut ceteros optemus eorum imitari correctionem. Damna, quae inlata sunt, vel tolerantur a Christianis vel resarciuntur per Christianos. Animarum nos lucra, quibus adquirendis cum periculo etiam sanguinis inhiamus, et in loco illo quaestuosius provenire et aliis locis illo exemplo non impediri desideramus. Dei misericordia nobis praestet de tua salute gaudere.