---
title: "Letters · Epistulae"
author: "Augustine"
translator: "James Houston Baxter"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Church Fathers"
section: 45 of 62
url: https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-letters/45/
cite: "Augustine, tr. James Houston Baxter, Letters · Epistulae, section 45. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-letters/45/"
---

# 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.

## 45. Letter 45

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-letters/45/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-letters/45/#p-N

[¶0] 1. Now quite unexpectedly I have received three letters from your Benignity, one of them, not exclusively to me, by the hands of my fellow-bishop Vindemialis, c and not long afterwards two by the hands of my fellow-priest Firmus. d That holy man, with whom I have ties of the most intimate and affectionate nature, as you may have heard from him, talked at length to me about your Excellency and gave me such a true conception of you, as he found you in “the tender mercies of Christ,”e that he outdid not only the letters brought to me by the afore-mentioned bishop or by himself, but even those I was complaining of not receiving. And his account of you was all the more pleasant in that he told me those things which, for fear of becoming addicted to singing your own praises (which Holy Scripture forbids a), you yourself cannot write back tome even when I pointedly ask them. In fact I myself am afraid to compliment you on them when I write to you, my distinguished and justly renowned lord and well-beloved son in the love of Christ, in case I incur the suspicion of flattering you.

> Latin: 1. Cum diu moleste haberem, quod aliquotiens scripserim et nulla tuae sublimitatis rescripta meruerim, repente epistulas tres tuae benignitatis accepi, unam non ad me solum datam per coepiscopum meum Vindemialem et non longe post per conpresbyterum Firmum duas. Qui vir sanctus nobisque, ut ab illo scire potuisti, familiarissima caritate coniunctus, multa nobiscum de tua excellentia conloquendo et veraciter insinuando, qualem te in Christi visceribus noverit, non solum eas quas memoratus episcopus vel quas ipse adtulit, sed etiam illas quas non accepisse nos querebamur, litteras vicit. Et ideo de te narratio eius suavior nobis erat, quia ea dicebat, quae ipse non possis ne quidem me inquirente rescribere, ne tuarum laudum, quod sancta scriptura prohibet, fieres praedicator. Quamquam et ego verear haec ad te scribere, ne suspicionem adulantis incurram, domine inlustris et merito praestantissime atque in Christi dilectione carissime fili.

[¶1] 2. So you can just imagine what a pleasure and delight it was to me to hear your praises in Christ, or rather the praises of Christ in you, from one whose own truthfulness prevents him from deceiving me and whose friendship with you provides him with a knowledge of them. Yet others too have furnished me with other information, which though not so full or so sure, was still worth hearing: how sound and catholic your faith is, how godly your hope of the world to come, what love you have towards God and towards the brethren, how humble-minded you are amid your high honours, and how your hope is not placed in the uncertainty of riches but in the living God, b how abounding you are in good works, and what a rest and consolation your home is to the holy and what a terror to the ungodly, what zeal you exhibit to keep any who skulk under the cloak of the name of Christ, whether they be His old or His newer enemies, from laying snares for the members of Christ; and yet how-careful you are to procure the salvation of these same enemies, while opposing their errors. These and such-like things, as I said, I am in the habit of hearing from others too, but now I have had much fuller and surer testimony to them through the above-mentioned brother.

> Latin: 2. Laudes itaque tuas in Christo, sive magis in te laudes Christi, vide quid mihi delectationis et laetitiae fuit audire ab illo qui nec fallere me posset propter fidem suam, et eas ignorare non posset propter amicitiam tuam. Sed alia et ab aliis etsi non tam multa vel certa, verum tamen audivimus, fides tua quam sit sana et catholica, quam pia expectatio futurorum, quae dei fratrumque dilectio, quam non superbe sapias in excelsis honoribus nec speres in incerto divitiarum sed in deo vivo, et dives sis in operibus bonis, quam sit domus tua requies solaciumque sanctorum et terror impiorum, quanta tibi cura sit, ne quis insidietur membris Christi coopertus velamine nominis Christi sive in veteribus eius sive in recentioribus inimicis, quamque sis eorundem inimicorum saluti providus, infestus errori. Haec atque huius modi, ut dixi, et ab aliis solemus audire, sed nunc ea per supra dictum fratrem plura et testatiora cognovimus.

[¶2] 3. Further, about your conjugal continence, what information could I have to be in a position to praise and love that too in you, save from someone intimately familiar with you, who knew your life not on the surface, but within? So, since you are thus, by God's blessing, good possessing, a I too take pleasure in talking with you more intimately and at rather greater length. I know I shall not weary you if I send you something comprehensive, the reading of which will keep you all the longer in my company. For I have learned too that among your many arduous duties you are ready and glad to read my little books, and take considerable delight in them, when they happen to come into your hands, even if they are addressed to others; how much greater should be your pleasure in receiving one addressed to yourself, in which I speak to you as though you were present, and how much more thorough the attention you kindly bestow upon it! From this letter, then, pass on to the book that accompanies it; why it was written and why it was especially sent to you, your Reverence will more conveniently find out from the opening chapter.

> Latin: 3. Porro autem de pudicitia coniugali, ut eam quoque in te laudare et amare possimus, quid audiremus nisi ab aliquo interiore familiari tuo, qui vitam tuam non in superficie sed penitus nosset? De hoc itaque tuo bono, dei dono, me quoque delectat familiarius et aliquanto diutius loqui tecum. Scio me non esse oneri tibi, si aliquid prolixum mitto, quod legendo diutius sis nobiscum. Nam et hoc comperi, quod inter tuas multas magnasque curas facile ac libenter legas, nostrisque opusculis, etiam quae ad alios conscripsimus, si qua in manus tuas venire potuerunt, admodum delecteris; quanto magis, quod ad te scribitur, ubi tamquam praesenti loquar, et advertere dignaris attentius et accipere gratius! Ab hac ergo epistula perge ad librum, quem simul misi, qui tuae reverentiae, et cur conscriptos sit et cur ad te potissimum missus, ipse suo principio commodius intimabit.