1. I was young when I began my work on the Trinity, b the supreme, true God; I am old now when it is published. I had indeed abandoned the task, after learning that someone had stolen it from me or at least stolen a march on me before I could finish and revise it and give it the final touch I had intended. For I had decided not to publish the books separately but all together, for the reason that the later books are linked up with the earlier in a progressive inquiry. Seeing, then, that my intention was prevented from being carried out because of those persons who were able to have access to some of the books before I wanted them to, I broke off my dictation and abandoned it, thinking to voice my complaint in some other work of mine, so as to let those who could, know that those same books were not published by me, but were taken out of my hands before they seemed to me fit for publication by me. But compelled by the most urgent demands of many of my brethren and most of all by your command, I have taken the trouble to bring to completion, with the help of God, a work on which I have expended so much effort, and now by our son and dear fellow-deacon I am sending them to your Grace, and handing them over for anyone to hear, read, or copy, corrected as well as I could, not as well as I would, in case they might differ too much from those copies which were stolen from me and are already in circulation. If I could have stuck to what I intended in them, they should have contained the same opinions, but should certainly have been much less obscure and more easy to read, as far as the difficulty of explaining such weighty matters and my own ability allowed it. Now there are some people who possess the first four or rather five books without the introductions and the twelfth without the last portion, which is of a fair length; but if this edition happens to come to their notice, they will be able to make all the corrections, if they have the wish and the ability. I beg you by all means to give instructions for the placing of this letter at the head of those books, but apart from them. Pray for me.
1. De trinitate, quae deus summus et verus est, libros iuvenis inchoavi, senex edidi. Omiseram quippe hoc opus, posteaquam comperi praereptos mihi esse sive subreptos, antequam eos absolverem et retractatos, ut mea dispositio fuerat, expolirem. Non enim singillatim, sed omnes simul edere ea ratione decreveram, quoniam praecedentibus consequentes inquisitione proficiente nectuntur. Cum ergo per eos homines qui, priusquam vellem, ad quosdam illorum pervenire potuerunt, dispositio mea nequivisset impleri, interruptam dictationem reliqueram cogitans hoc ipsum in aliquibus scriptis meis conqueri, ut scirent qui possent non a me fuisse eosdem libros editos, sed ablatos priusquam mihi editione mea digni viderentur. Verum multorum fratrum vehementissima postulatione et maxime tua iussione compulsus, opus tam laboriosum adiuvante domino terminare curavi, eosque emendatos, non ut volui, sed ut potui, ne ab illis, qui subrepti iam in manus hominum exierant, plurimum discreparent, venerationi tuae per filium nostrum condiaconum carissimum misi et cuicumque audiendos, legendos describendosque permisi. In quibus si servari mea dispositio potuisset, essent profecto, etsi easdem sententias habentes, multo tamen enodatiores atque planiores, quantum rerum tantarum explicandarum difficultas et facultas nostra pateretur. Sunt autem qui primos quattuor vel potius quinque etiam sine prooemiis habent et duodecimum sine extrema parte non parva. Sed si eis haec editio potuerit innotescere, omnia, si voluerint et valuerint, emendabunt. Peto sane ut hanc epistulam seorsum quidem sed tamen ad caput eorundem librorum iubeas anteponi. Ora pro me.