--- title: "Letters · Epistulae" author: "Augustine" translator: "James Houston Baxter" languages: [la, en] shelf: "Church Fathers" section: 30 of 62 url: https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-letters/30/ cite: "Augustine, tr. James Houston Baxter, Letters · Epistulae, section 30. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-letters/30/" --- # 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. ## 30. Letter 30 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-letters/30/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-letters/30/#p-N [¶0] 1. Your Holiness is well acquainted with Faventius, b the tenant of the estate at Paratianis. c Being apprehensive of something or other at the hands of the proprietor of that same estate, he fled for refuge to the Church of Hippo, where he remained, as those who seek sanctuary d usually do, waiting to see if by my interposition he could bring the affair to a satisfactory end. Becoming, as each day passed, less and less vigilant—a usual occurrence—and lulled to security by the delusion that his enemy was growing remiss, he was leaving a friend's house after supper when he was suddenly seized and abducted by one Florentinus, said to be an officer of the Count, e aided by what they thought to be for the purpose a suffi- ciently large band of armed men. This was reported to me; but since there was as yet no information who his abductors were nor where they had taken him, though suspicion fell on the man who had frightened him into seeking protection from the Church, I at once communicated with the tribune in command of the coast-guards. He sent soldiers; no one could be found, but in the morning we discovered the house in which he had been detained and found that his keeper had left with him after cock-crow. I also sent to the place to which it was said he had been carried off. When the afore-mentioned officer was found, he refused to grant to the priest I had sent permission even to see him. Next day I sent a letter requesting for him the privilege winch the Emperor appointed in such cases as this, a namely, that those under summons to appear in court should be asked at the municipal bench if they were willing to spend thirty days in that town under lenient observation, to put their affairs in order or to prepare their finances. My expectation was that during that period we could perhaps reach a settlement of his case by friendly discussion. Already, however, he had gone off with that officer and was taken to prison, but there is some fear that if he be brought before the governor's tribunal, he may suffer some hardship, for although that judge has an excellent reputation for rectitude, Faventius's opponent in the case is a very wealthy man. So to prevent the exercise of any undue influence in that court by his money, I beg your Holiness, my dearest lord and venerable brother, to hand my letter to the honourable magistrate, a man very dear to me, and to read this one to him, for I do not think it necessary to write a second account of the same case; and let him postpone the hearing of his case, since I do not know whether he is innocent or guilty. And let him not make light of the fact that in dealing with him the legal procedure was not observed, in that he was seized and abducted and was not taken, as the Emperor enjoined, before the municipal court to be questioned whether he wished to avail himself of the concession of delay. In this way we may be able to reach a settlement with his opponent. > Latin: 1. Paventium bene novit sanctitas tua, qui Paratianensis saltus conductor fuit. Is cum ab eiusdem possessionis domino nescio quid sibi metueret, ad Hipponiensem confugit ecclesiam, et ibi erat, ut confugientes solent, expectans quo modo per intercessionem nostram sua negotia terminaret. Qui, ut saepe fit, per dies singulos minus minusque sollicitus et quasi adversario cessante securus, cum ab amico suo de cena egrederetur, subito raptus est a Florentino quodam, ut dicunt, comitis officiali per armatorum manum, quanta eis ad hoc factum sufficere visa est. Quod cum mihi nuntiaretur,1 et adhuc quo vel a quibus raptus fuerit, nesciretur, suspicio tamen esset de illo quem metuens se per ecclesiam tuebatur, continuo misi ad tribunum, qui custodiendo litori constitutus est. Misit militares; nemo potuit reperiri. Sed mane cognovimus, et in qua domo fuerit et quod post galli cantum cum illo abscesserit qui eum tenuerat. Etiam illuc misi, quo dicebatur abductus, ubi memoratus officialis inventus concedere presbytero quem miseram, noluit, ut eum saltem videret. Alio die misi litteras, petens ut ei concederetur quod iussit in causis talibus imperator, id est ut actis municipalibus interrogarentur, qui praecepti fuerint exhibendi, utrum velint in ea civitate sub custodia moderata triginta dies agere, ut rem suam ordinent vel praeparent sumptus, id utique existimans quod per ipsos dies possemus fortasse causam eius amica disceptatione finire. Iam vero cum illo officiali profectus ductus est. Sed metus est ne forte ad consularis perductus officium mali aliquid patiatur. Habet enim causam cum homine pecuniosissimo, quamvis iudicis integritas fama clarissima praedicetur. Ne quid tamen apud officium pecunia praevaleat, peto sanctitatem tuam, domine dilectissime et venerabilis frater, ut honorabili nobisque carissimo consulari digneris tradere litteras meas et has ei legere, quia bis eandem causam insinuare necessarium non esse arbitratus sum: et eius causae differat audientiam, quoniam nescio utrum in ea nocens an innocens sit, et, quod circa eundem leges non servatae sunt, ut sic raperetur neque, ut ab imperatore praeceptum est, ad acta municipalia perduceretur interrogandus utrum beneficium dilationis vellet accipere, non contemnat, ut per hoc possimus cum eius adversario rem finire.