1. I could never find a more trustworthy man or one who could have easier access to your presence as bearer of my letter than the servant and minister of Christ, the deacon Paul, a a dear friend of us both, who has just now been provided for me by the Lord. I must say something to you, not with regard to the power and the honour you bear in this evil world, nor with regard to the preservation of your corruptible mortal body b (for it too is destined to pass away, and how long it may endure is always uncertain), but with regard to the salvation promised us by Christ. Because of it He was degraded and crucified here below, so that He might teach us rather to despise than to desire the good things of this world, and to set our affection and our hope upon that which He revealed in His resurrection; for He “is risen from the dead and dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him.” c I know that you have no lack of friends who love you as far as your life in this world is concerned, and, so far as it is concerned, give you advice, sometimes useful, sometimes not; for they are only human and the highest wisdom they as such can have looketh only to the present hour, and they do not know what may happen on the morrow.
1. Fideliorem hominem et qui faciliores haberet accessus ad aures tuas ferens litteras meas, numquam potui reperire, quam nunc dominus obtulit servum et ministrum Christi diaconum Paulum ambobus nobis carissimum, ut aliquid tibi loquerer non pro potentia tua et honore quem geris in isto saeculo maligno, nec pro incolumitate carnis tuae corruptibilis atque mortalis, quia et ipsa transitoria est, et quam diu sit, semper incertum est, sed pro illa salute quam nobis promisit Christus, qui propterea hic exhonoratus atque crucifixus est, ut doceret nos bona saeculi huius magis contemnere quam diligere, et hoc amare et sperare ab illo, quod in sua resurrectione monstravit; resurrexit enim a mortuis nec iam moritur, et mors ei ultra non dominabitur.
2. But as far as God is concerned, it is not easy for anyone to give you advice that will prevent the destruction of your soul; it is not that you lack friends who would do this, but because it is difficult for them to find an opportunity of speaking of those subjects with you. I myself, indeed, have always wanted to do so, but I have never found the place or the time to deal with you as I ought to deal with one for whom I have a great affection in Christ. Yet you know what I was like when you saw me at Hippo, on the occasion of your gracious visit to me a: I was so worn out and weak in body that I could scarcely speak. But now, my son, hearken to me when I converse with you by letter at least; while you were in danger, I never had a chance of sending one to you. from apprehension of danger to the bearer and fear that m v letter might come into the hands of people whom I should not have wished it to reach. I beg you. therefore, for forgiveness, if you have the impression that I was more apprehensive than I should have been; vet I have stated that I was apprehensive.
2. Scio non deesse homines qui te secundum vitam mundi huius diligunt et secundum ipsam tibi dant consilia, aliquando utilia aliquando inutilia, quia homines sunt et, sicut possunt, ad praesens sapiunt, nescientes quid contingat sequenti diei. Secundum autem deum, ne pereat anima tua, non facile tibi quisquam consulit, non quia desunt qui hoc faciant, sed quia difficile est invenire quando tecum ista possint loqui. Nam et ego semper desideravi, et numquam inveni locum vel tempus, ut agerem tecum quod me agere oportebat cum homine quem multum diligo in Christo. Scis autem qualem me apud Hipponem videris, quando ad me venire dignatus es, quia vix loquebar inbecillitate corporis fatigatus. Nunc ergo, fili, audi me saltem per litteras tibi sermocinantem, quas in periculis tuis numquam tibi mittere potui, periculum cogitans perlatoris et cavens ne ad eos, ad quos nollem, mea epistula perveniret. Unde peto ut ignoscas, si putas me plus timuisse quam debui; tamen dixi, quod timui.
3. Hear me, therefore: nay, hear the Lord our God through me. His feeble servant. Recall to mind what manner of man you were while your first wife, of hallowed memory, was still in the flesh, and how just after her death you took a horror of the vanity of this life, and how you longed to enter the service of God. b We know, we can testify. what you said in conversation with us at Tubunae c about your state of mind and your intentions, when brother Alypius and I were alone with you. Indeed, I do not think that the earthly cares which now engross you have so prevailed as to be able to wipe that conversation from your memory. You wanted, in fact, to abandon all the public business that engaged you and to retire to a holy retreat and to live the life lived by God's servants the monks. What was it that restrained you? Only the reflection, which we urged on you, of the great advantage the work you were doing would be to the churches of Christ, if you pursued it with the sole purpose of protecting them from the hostile attacks of barbarians, a so that they might live, as the apostle says, “a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty,” b while you yourself would seek from this world nothing but what was necessary for the maintenance of your own life and that of your household, girding yourself with the chastest continence, and wearing along with the armour of the body the surer and stronger defence of the armour of the spirit.
3. Audi ergo me, immo dominum deum nostrum per ministerium infirmitatis meae; recole qualis fueris adhuc in corpore constituta religiosae memoriae priore coniuge tua et recenti eius obitu quo modo tibi vanitas saeculi huius horruerit et quo modo concupieris servitutem dei. Nos novimus, nos testes sumus, quid nobiscum apud Tubunas de animo et voluntate tua fueris conlocutus. Soli tecum eramus ego et frater Alypius. Non enim existimo tantum valuisse terrenas curas quibus impletus es, ut hoc de memoria tua penitus delere potuerint. Nempe omnes actus publicos quibus occupatus eras, relinquere cupiebas et te in otium sanctum conferre atque in ea vita vivere, in qua servi dei monachi vivunt. Ut autem non faceres, quid te revocavit, nisi quia considerasti ostendentibus nobis quantum prodesset Christi ecclesiis quod agebas, si ea sola intentione ageres, ut defensae ab infestationibus barbarorum quietam ei tranquillam vitam agerent, sicut dicit apostolus, in omni pietate et castitate, tu autem nihil ex hoc mundo quaereres nisi ea quae necessaria essent huic vitae sustentandae tuae ac tuorum, accinctus balteo castissimae continentiae et inter arma corporalia spiritalibus armis tutius fortiusque munitus.
4. When, in consequence, we were rejoicing in this design of yours, you sailed for Italy and you married a wife c; your sailing was an act of obedience, which you owed, according to the apostle, to “the higher powers” d; but you would not have married a wife if you had not been overcome by desire and abandoned the continence you took upon yourself. When I learned of this, I confess I was thunderstruck with amazement, yet in some measure I found consolation for my grief in the fact that I heard you had refused to marry her until she turned Catholic. But in spite of that, the heresy of those who deny the true Son of God has acquired such influence in your home that it was by them that your daughter was baptized. If the report that reached us was not untrue (and would to Heaven that it were!), that those same heretics have even re-baptized maidens consecrated to God, what fountains of tears we should need now to bewail such a calamity! Further, people say that you have not been content with your own wife, but have degraded yourself by having intercourse with some concubines or other. But perhaps this is lying gossip.
4. Cum ergo te esse in hoc proposito gauderemus, navigasti uxoremque duxisti. Sed navigasse oboedientiae fuit, quam secundum apostolum debebas sublimioribus potestatibus; uxorem autem non duxisses, nisi susceptam deserens continentiam concupiscentia victus esses. Quod ego cum comperissem, fateor, miratus obstipui; dolorem autem meum ex aliqua parte consolabatur, quod audivi te illam ducere noluisse, nisi prius catholica fuisset facta. Et tamen haeresis eorum qui verum filium dei negant, tantum praevaluit in domo tua, ut ab ipsis filia tua baptizaretur. Iam vero, si ad nos non falsa perlata sunt, quae utinam falsa sint, quod ab ipsis haereticis etiam ancillae deo dicatae rebaptizatae sint, quantis tantum malum plangendum est fontibus lacrimarum! Ipsam quoque uxorem non tibi suffecisse,sed concubinarum nescio quarum commixtione pollutum loquuntur homines et forsitan mentiuntur.
5. These evils, numerous and grave and known to everybody, have been perpetrated by you since your marriage, and so what am I to say? You are a Christian, you possess intelligence, a you cherish the fear of God. Consider for yourself the things I am unwilling to utter, and you will find how great are the evils for which you ought to do penance. I believe it is for that that the Lord is sparing you and delivering you from all dangers, so that you may do it as it should be done, but on condition that you hearken to the words, “Tarry not to be converted to the Lord and put not off from day to day.” b You maintain that your cause is just, c but I cannot judge of that, for I am unable to hear both sides; but whatever your cause be, and of that at present there is no need of inquiry or discussion, can you deny before God that you would not have fallen into these straits if you had not loved the good things of this world, which like a servant of God, as we knew you to be formerly, you ought entirely to have despised and counted as nothing? Accepting what was bestowed on you, you should have employed it to advance your godliness; that which was denied you or was entrusted to you to administer, you should not have sought after in such a way as to reduce yourself because of it to the present straits, in which, because of the love felt for vain things, evil things are done—few, indeed, by you, but many because of you, and since fear is felt for things which hurt for only a short time (if indeed they hurt at all), things are done which really hurt for all eternity.
5. Ista, quae omnibus patent, tot et tanta mala, quae a te. posteaquam coniugatus es, consecuta sunt, quid ego dicam? Christianus es, cor habes, deum times. Tu ipse considera quae nolo dicere, et invenies de quantis malis debeas agere paenitentiam, propter quam tibi credo dominum parcere et a periculis omnibus liberare, ut agas eam sicut agenda est, sed si illud audias quod scriptum est: Ne tardes converti ad dominum neque differas de die in diem. Iustam quidem dicis habere te causam, cuius ego iudex non sum, quoniam partes ambas audire non possum: sed qualiscumque sit tua causa, de qua modo quaerere vel disputare non opus est, numquid coram deo potes negare quod in istam necessitatem non pervenisses, nisi bona huius saeculi dilexisses, quae tamquam servus dei, quem te ante noveramus, contemnere omnino et pro nihilo habere debuisti et oblata quidem sumere, ut eis utereris ad pietatem, non autem negata vel delegata sic quaerere, ut propter illa in istam necessitatem perducereris, ubi, cum amantur vana, perpetrantur mala, pauca quidem a te sed multa propter te et, cum timentur quae ad exiguum tempus nocent, si tamen nocent, committuntur ea quae vere noceant in aeternum?
6. To mention only one of these things: who can fail to see that many men cleave to you for the preservation of your power or your personal safety, who (assuming that they are all loyal to you and that you need not apprehend treachery from any one of them) yet desire through you to attain to those good things which they too love, not in order to please God, but from worldly motives? As a result, you, whose duty it was to bridle and check your desires, are compelled to satisfy those of others; and before that can be done, many things have to be done that are displeasing to God. Even so, such desires as theirs are not quite satisfied, for it is easier altogether to cut them off in those who love God, than ever to give them appeasement in those who love the world. That is why Holy Scripture says, “Love not the world nor the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever, as God abideth for ever.”a When, then, will you succeed with so many armed men whose desires have to be humoured and whose vindictiveness is to be feared—when, I repeat, will you succeed in bringing the desires of these men who love the world, not to actual repletion (for that is simply impossible), but to a moderate gratification, in order to avoid a universal destruction, if you do not do the things that God forbids and for which His vengeance will fall on the doers? And to afford them gratification, you see the havoc has been so widespread that now hardly anything, however small its value, can be found for them to plunder. a And what shall I say about the devastation of Africa that is being wrought by African barbarians?
6. De quibus ut unum aliquid dicam, quis non videat quod multi homines tibi cohaereant ad tuendam tuam potentiam vel salutem, qui, etiam si tibi omnes fideles sint nec ab aliquo eorum ullae timeantur insidiae, nempe tamen ad ea bona quae ipsi quoque non secundum deum sed secundum saeculum diligunt, per te cupiunt pervenire, ac per hoc, qui refrenare et compescere debuisti cupiditates tuas, explere cogeris alienas? Quod ut fiat, necesse est multa quae deo displicent, fiant. Nec sic tamen explentur tales cupiditates; nam facilius resecantur in eis qui deum diligunt, quam in eis, qui mundum diligunt, aliquando satiantur. Propter quod dicit scriptura divina: Nolite diligere mundum nec ea quae in mundo sunt. Si quis dilexerit mundum, dilectio patris non est in eo, quia omne quod in mundo est, concupiscentia carnis est et concupiscentia oculorum et ambitio saeculi, quae non est a patre, sed ex mundo est. Et mundus transit et concupiscentia eius; qui autem facit voluntatem dei manet in aeternum, sicut et deus manet in aeternum. Quando ergo poteris tot hominum armatorum, quorum fovenda est cupiditas, timetur atrocitas, quando, inquam, poteris eorum concupiscentiam qui diligunt mundum, non dico satiare, quod fieri nullo modo potest, sed aliqua ex parte pascere, ne universa plus pereant, nisi tu facias quae deus prohibet et facientibus comminatur? Propter quod vides tam multa contrita, ut iam vile aliquid quod rapiatur, vix inveniatur.
7. They meet with no opposition, so long as you are taken up with the difficulties of your own situation and take no measures to avert this calamity. After the appointment of Boniface as Count of the Household and of Africa with so great an army and such extensive authority—Boniface, who, while tribune, aided by a few confederates, quelled all those tribes by force of arms and the menace of his name, b—who would ever believe, who would ever be afraid, that those barbarians would be so daring, would encroach so far, would spread such devastation, seize so much plunder, make desolate so many places that were once crowded with people? Did not everyone declare that, as soon as you took over the authority of Count, the African barbarians would not only be subdued, but would actually be made tributary to the Roman Empire? And now you see how men's hopes have been dashed to the ground. On this subject I need not linger, for your own mind can suggest more to you than I can say.
7. Quid autem dicam de vastatione Africae, quam faciunt Afri barbari resistente nullo, dum tu talis tuis necessitatibus occupatis nec aliquid ordinas unde ista calamitas avertatur? Quis autem crederet, quis autem timeret, Bonifatio domesticorum et Africae comite in Africa constituto cum tam magno exercitu et potestate, qui tribunus cum paucis foederatis omnes ipsas gentes expugnando et terrendo pacaverat, nunc tantum fuisse barbaros ausuros, tantum progressuros, tanta vastaturos, tanta rapturos, tanta loca quae plena populis fuerant, deserta facturos? Qui non dicebant, quandocumque tu comitivam sumeres potestatem, Afros barbaros non solum domitos sed etiam tributarios futuros Romanae rei publicae? Et nunc quam in contrarium versa sit spes hominum, vides. Nec diutius hinc tecum loquendum est, quia plus ea tu potes cogitare quam nos dicere.
8. But perhaps you reply to this with the defence that the blame must rather be laid upon those who have injured you, who instead of a fair reward for the virtues you displayed in office, rendered you the very opposite. The rights or wrongs of that I personally am unable to examine and decide; rather look at and look into your own case, not as it Res between you and any men, but as it lies, to your own personal knowledge, between you and God; for as you live in Christ as a believer, you ought to cherish fear of giving offence to Him. The cases that engage my attention are rather those of the world above, for it is to their own sins that men ought to attribute the fact that Africa is undergoing such calamities. Nevertheless, I do not want you to be of the number of those evil and unrighteous men whom God uses to scourge with temporal punishments those whom He chooses; since for the unrighteous themselves, whose evil nature He justly employs to inflict temporal evils on others, He reserves everlasting punishment, if they do not reform. But as for yourself, fix your mind upon God, turn your thoughts to Christ, Who has bestowed such great blessings and endured such great sufferings. Those who desire to attain to His kingdom and to live with Him and under Him in everlasting blessedness, love even their enemies, do good to those who hate them and pray for those who persecute them a; and if at any time in the interests of discipline they employ irksome severity, they do not, however, lay aside their sincere affection. If, then, benefits have been conferred upon you by the Roman Empire, though they be earthly and transitory b (for that Empire itself is earthly, and not heavenly, and it can bestow only what lies within its own power); if, then, benefits have been bestowed upon you, render not evil for good; but if evil has been inflicted upon you, render not evil for evil. a Which of these two has been your lot, I do not wish to discuss nor am I able to decide; for my part I am speaking to a Christian: render not evil for good nor yet evil for evil.
8. Sed forte ad ista respondes illis hoc esse potius inputandum, qui te laeserunt, qui tuis officiosis virtutibus non paria sed contraria reddiderunt. Quas causas ego audire et iudicare non possum; tuam causam potius aspice et inspice, quam non cum hominibus quibuslibet, sed cum deo habere te cognoscis; quia in Christo fideliter vivis, ipsum debes timere ne offendas. Nam causas ego superiores potius adtendo, quia, ut Africa tanta mala patiatur, suis debent inputare homines peccatis. Verum tamen nolo te ad eorum numerum pertinere, per quos malos et iniquos deus flagellat poenis temporalibus quos voluerit. Ipsis namque iniquis, si correcti non fuerint, servat aeterna supplicia, quorum malitia iuste utitur ut aliis mala ingerat temporalia. Tu deum adtende, tu Christum considera, qui tanta bona praestitit et tanta mala pertulit. Quicumque ad eius regnum cupiunt pertinere et cum illo ac sub illo semper beate vivere, diligunt etiam inimicos suos, bene faciunt illis qui eos oderunt, et orant pro eis a quibus persecutionem patiuntur, et, si quando adhibent pro disciplina molestam severitatem, non tamen amittunt sincerissimam caritatem. Si ergo bona tibi sunt praestita quamvis terrena transitoria ab imperio Romano, quia et ipsum terrenum est, non caeleste, nec potest praestare nisi quod habet in potestate; si ergo bona in te conlata sunt, noli reddere mala pro bonis; si autem mala tibi inrogata sunt, noli reddere mala pro malis. Quid istorum duorum sit, nec discutere volo nec valeo iudicare; ego Christiano loquor: noli reddere vel mala pro bonis vel mala pro malis.
9. You perhaps say to me, “What do you want me to do in these straits?” If you ask advice from me as after the spirit of this world, how your safety, transitory as it is, may be secured, and your power and wealth either preserved in their present condition or increased to greater dimensions, I am at a loss what to answer you; things as uncertain as these do not admit of any certain counsel. b But if, as in the sight of God. you consult me about saving your soul from destruction and fear the word of Truth Who says, “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”, c I certainly have an answer to give; I am ready with advice which you must hear from me. Yet what need is there for me to say anything different from what I have already said: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God, abideth for ever, even as God abideth for ever.” d Here is advice for you; lay hold of it and act upon it. Let it now be seen if you are a strong man: vanquish the desires with which you love the world. Do penance for the misdeeds of the past, when these desires had you vanquished and empty passions dragged you in their train. If you will receive this advice and hold fast to it and keep it, you will both attain to those blessings which are certain and pass through the midst of these uncertain things without harm to your own soul.
9. Dicis mihi fortasse: “In tanta necessitate quid vis ut faciam?” Si consilium a me secundum hoc saeculum quaeris, quo modo ista salus tua transitoria tuta sit, et potentia atque opulentia vel ista servetur quam nunc habes, vel etiam maior addatur, quid tibi respondeam, nescio; incerta quippe ista certum consilium habere non possunt. Si autem secundum deum me consulis ne anima tua pereat, et times verba veritatis dicentis: Quid prodest homini, si totum mundum lucretur, animae autem suae damnum patiatur? habeo plane, quod dicam; est apud me consilium quod a me audias. Quid autem opus est ut aliud dicam quam illud quod supra dixi: Noli diligere mundum nec ea quae in mundo sunt. Si quis enim dilexerit mundum, non est caritas patris in illo, quoniam omnia quae in mundo sunt, concupiscentia carius est et concupiscentia oculorum et ambitio saeculi, quae non est a patre, sed ex mundo est. Et mundus transit et concupiscentia eius; qui autem fecerit voluntatem dei, manet in aeternum, sicut et deus manet in aeternum? Ecce consilium; arripe et age. Hic appareat, si vir fortis es; vince cupiditates, quibus iste diligitur mundus, age paenitentiam de praeteritis malis, quando ab eis cupiditatibus victus per desi- deria vana trahebaris. Hoc consilium si acceperis, si tenueris atque servaveris, et ad bona illa certa pervenies et cum salute animae tuae inter ista incerta versaberis.
10. But perhaps you ask me again how you are to accomplish this, involved as you are in the great distresses of this world. Be earnest in prayer and say to God the words you find in the Psalm, “Bring thou me out of my distresses,” a for then are these distresses ended when those desires are overcome. He who has answered your prayers and our prayers for you and has delivered you from the many great dangers of the warfare in which men visibly risk their bodies, in which the stake is but this life that must sooner or later come to an end, while the soul escapes destruction unless it be held in captivity by evil desires—He will Himself also answer your prayer for an invisible and spiritual victory over your inward and invisible foes, that is these same desires, and help you to “use this world as not abusing it,”b so that with its good things you may do good, instead of becoming evil. For these things are good in themselves and are not given to men save by Him Who has power over all things in heaven and in earth: and on the one hand they are bestowed upon the good, so that they may not be thought to be evil; on the other, they are bestowed upon the evil, so that they.may not be thought to be the great or supreme good; and likewise they are taken away from the good, in order to try them, and from the evil, in order to punish them.
10. Sed forte iterum quaeris a me, quo modo ista facias tantis mundi huius necessitatibus implicatus. Ora fortiter et dic deo, quod habes in psalmo: De necessitatibus meis erue me. Tunc enim finiuntur istae necessitates, quando vincuntur illae cupiditates. Qui exaudivit te et nos pro te, ut libereris de tot tantisque periculis visibilium corporaliumque bellorum, ubi sola ista vita quandoque finienda periclitatur, anima vero non perit, si non malignis cupiditatibus captiva teneatur, ipse te exaudiet, ut interiores et invisibiles hostes, id est ipsas cupiditates, invisibiliter et spiritaliter vincas et sic utaris hoc mundo tamquam non utens, ut ex bonis eius bona facias, non malus fias, quia et ipsa bona sunt nec dantur hominibus nisi ab illo, qui habet omnium caelestium et terrestrium potestatem. Sed ne putentur mala, dantur et bonis; ne putentur magna vel summa bona, dantur et malis itemque auferuntur ista et bonis, ut probentur, et malis, ut crucientur.
11. Who is so ignorant, who so foolish, as not to see that the health of this mortal body and the strength of its corruptible members, and victory over men who are our foes, and honour and temporal power and all other earthly blessings, are bestowed upon both the good and the evil and are taken away from both the good and the evil? But the health of the soul, along with the immortality of the body, and the strength of righteousness and victory over the desires that are our foes, and glory and honour and peace for evermore, are bestowed upon the good alone. These things, then, love and desire and seek by every possible means. To secure them and hold them fast, give alms, pour forth prayers, practise fasting as much as you can without harming your body; but love not those earthly blessings, however much you may abound in them. Make such use of them that you do many good deeds by them and no single evil deed because of them. For all such things will pass away, but good deeds do not pass away, even those which are done with the aid of the good things that pass away.
11. Quis enim nesciat, quis ita sit stultus, ut non videat quod salus huius mortalis corporis et mem- brorum corruptibilium virtus et victoria de hominibus inimicis et honor atque potentia temporalis et cetera ista bona terrena et bonis dentur et malis et bonis auferantur et malis? Salus vero animae cum in-mortalitate corporis virtusque iustitiae et victoria de cupiditatibus inimicis et gloria et honor et pax in aeternum non dantur nisi bonis. Ista ergo dilige, ista concupisce, ista modis omnibus quaere. Propter haec adquirenda et obtinenda fac elemosynas, funde orationes, exerce ieiunia, quantum sine laesione tui corporis potes. Bona vero illa terrena noli diligere, quanta libet tibi abundent. Sic eis utere, ut bona multa ex illis, nullum autem malum facias propter illa. Omnia quippe talia peribunt, sed bona opera non pereunt, etiam quae de bonis pereuntibus fiunt.
12. If you had not a wife, I should tell you what we said to you already at Tubunae, that you should live in the holy state of continence; to that I should add what we then forbade you to do, namely, that you should withdraw from your military labours as far as is possible without endangering the peace of mankind, and obtain the leisure to follow that quiet life you then expressed your desire to follow, in the community of the holy, where the soldiers of Christ a contend in silence, not with the purpose of taking men's lives, but of conquering “principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness,”a that is, the devil and his angels. b For these are the enemies whom the holy vanquish, enemies they cannot see; and yet they vanquish the enemies they cannot see by vanquishing the objects of their senses. But to that kind of life I am prevented from urging you, for your wife stands in the way, and without her consent you cannot adopt a life of continence; because, although you had no right to marry her after what you said at Tubunae, yet she became your wife in all innocence and single-mindedness, knowing nothing of your declaration. Yet would that you could persuade her to continence, so that with nothing in your way you could render unto God what you know you owe Him! But if you cannot arrange that with her, preserve at least your conjugal chastity and ask God, Who can “bring you out of your distresses,” to grant that you may be able to do sooner or later what you find impossible now. But yet, in order to love God, you must give up loving the world; in your warfare (if you have still to be engaged in it) keep the faith and ensue peace; use this world's goods to do good deeds, and to obtain this world's goods do not do evil deeds—in these duties a wife is not a hindrance, or ought not to be. I have written thus to you, my beloved son, at the bidding of the love wherewith I love you, not in the way of this world, but in God's way. And when I recall to mind the words of Scripture, “Reprove a wise man and he will love thee; reprove a fool and he will hate thee more,” c I had to think of you as surely not a fool, but a wise man.
12. Si enim coniugem non haberes, dicerem tibi quod et Tubunis diximus, ut in castitate continentiae viveres; adderem quod tunc fieri prohibuimus, ut iam te. quantum rerum humanarum salva pace potuisses, ab istis bellicis rebus abstraheres et ei vitae vacares in societate sanctorum, cui tunc vacare cupiebas. ubi in silentio pugnant milites Christi, non ut occidant homines, sed ut expugnent principes et potestates et spiritalia nequitiae, id est diabolum et angelos eius. Hos enim hostes sancti vincunt, quos videre non possunt; et tamen, quos non vident vincunt, ista vincendo quae sentiunt. Sed ut te ad istam vitam non exhorter, coniunx impedimento est, sine cuius consensione continenter tibi non liceat vivere, quia, etsi tu eam post illa tua verba Tubunensia ducere non debebas, illa tibi tamen nihil eorum sciens innocenter et simpliciter nupsit. Atque utinam posses ei persuadere continentiam, ut sine impedimento redderes deo quod te debere cognoscis! Sed si cum illa agere non potes, serva saltem pudicitiam coniugalem et roga deum, qui te de necessitatibus eruat, ut, quod non potes modo, possis aliquando. Verum tamen, ut deum diligas, non diligas mundum; ut in ipsis bellis, si adhuc in eis te versari opus est, fidem teneas, pacem quaeras; ut ex mundi bonis facias opera bona et propter mundi bona non facias opera mala, aut non impedit coniunx aut impedire non debet. Haec ad te, fili dilectissime, ut scriberem, caritas iussit, qua te secundum deum, non secundum hoc saeculum diligo, quia et cogitans quod scriptum est: Corripe sapientem et amabit te, corripe stultum et adiciet odisse te, non te utique stultum sed sapientem debui cogitare.