--- title: "Letters · Epistulae" author: "Augustine" translator: "James Houston Baxter" languages: [la, en] shelf: "Church Fathers" section: 53 of 62 url: https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-letters/53/ cite: "Augustine, tr. James Houston Baxter, Letters · Epistulae, section 53. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-letters/53/" --- # 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. ## 53. Letter 53 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-letters/53/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-letters/53/#p-N [¶0] 1. From my holy brethren and fellow-bishops Urbanus and Novatus c I have learned of your character and high position; one of them had the good fortune to make your acquaintance in the town of Hilari near Carthage and recently at Sicca, the other at Sitifis. Through them it has been brought about that I too cannot regard you as unknown to me. For the fact that my bodily weakness and the twofold cold, of winter and of old age, does not permit me to have converse with you face to face, has not prevented me from seeing you, for one of these friends, when present with me on a visit he was good enough to make, revealed to me the countenance of your heart, if not of your body, and the other did so by letter, so that I have all the greater pleasure in seeing the more inward man. This countenance of yours both you and I, by God's favour, behold with joy in the Holy Gospel, as in a mirror, where the words are written that were uttered by Him who is truth: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”a Those men are indeed great and they have their own honour who as warriors display not only great courage but also (what is the source of more genuine praise) great fidelity, and by their toils and perils, with the assistance of God's protection and aid, subdue foes before invincible, and procure peace for the state and for the tranquillized provinces. > Latin: 1. A sanctis fratribus et coepiscopis meis Urbano et Novato, qualis sis vir et quantus, accepi, quorum alteri apud Carthaginem in Hilarensi oppido et modo in Siccensi, alteri autem apud Sitifim te nosse pro-venit. Per hos ergo factum est ut nec ego te habere incognitum possem. Neque enim quia me infirmitas corporis et geminum frigus, id est hiemis et aetatis, non sinit coram tecum conloqui, ideo non te vidi; nam iste mihi etiam praesens, quando ad me venire dignatus est, ille autem litteris, non faciem tuae carnis sed cordis ostendit, ut tanto suavius quanto interius te viderem. Hanc faciem tuam etiam in sancto evangelio et nos et tu ipse propitio deo tamquam in speculo laetissimus inspicis, ubi scriptum est a veritate dicente: Beati pacifici, quoniam filii dei vocabuntur. [¶1] 2. But it is a greater glory to slay war with a word than men with the sword and to gain and maintain peace by means of peace, not by means of war. For even those who fight are certainly seeking peace, if they are good men, but seeking it by the shedding of blood, while you have been sent to prevent the seeking of anyone's blood. Others are therefore under the necessity of taking life, while you have the felicity of sparing it. Wherefore rejoice, my deservedly illustrious and most distinguished lord and son warmly cherished in Christ, in the great and genuine blessing that is yours and enjoy it in the Lord to Whom you owe it that you are what you are and that you have undertaken the task it is yours to accomplish. May God " strengthen that which He hath wrought for us through you"a! Accept this my greeting and be good enough to repay it with one from you. As I am informed by the letter of my brother Novatus, he has taken steps to make your learned Excellency acquainted with me also in my writings. If, then, you have read the works he gave you, I too have become known to your more inward perceptions, nor would you, I imagine, find me very unsatisfactory, if your reading has been done with greater inclination to love than to harshness. It is not asking very much, but it will be very much appreciated, if in return for my writings, both this one and those others, you send me a single letter. I greet too with all due affection the pledge of peace, b whom you have been happy enough to receive by the favour of the Lord our God. > Latin: 2. Magni quidem sunt et habent gloriam suam non solum fortissimi sed etiam, quod verioris origo laudis, fidelissimi bellatores et quorum laboribus atque periculis dei protegentis atque opitulantis auxilio hostis indomitus vincitur, quies rei publicae pacatisque provinciis comparatur; sed maioris est gloriae ipsa bella verbo occidere quam homines ferro, et ad-quirere vel obtinere pacem pace non bello. Nam et hi qui pugnant, si boni sunt, procul dubio pacem sed tamen per sanguinem quaerunt; tu autem, ne cuiusquam sanguis quaereretur, es missus. Est itaque aliis illa necessitas, tibi ista felicitas. Proinde, domine merito inlustris et magnificentissime atque in Christo carissime fili, gaude isto tuo tam magno et vero bono et fruere in deo, unde sumpsisti ut talis esses et talia gerenda susciperes. Confirmet deus quod per te operatus est nobis. Accipe hanc salutationem nostram et tuam dignare rependere. Sicut mihi scripsit frater Novatus, egit ut me excellentia et eruditio tua etiam in meis opusculis nosset. Si ergo legisti quae dedit, ego quoque innotui interioribus tuis sensibus, non multum displicere, quantum existimo, si propensiore caritate quam severitate legisti. Non est multum sed multum gratum, si pro litteris nostris et his et illis unam nobis epistulam reddas. Saluto etiam pignus pacis, quod domino deo nostro adiuvante feliciter accepisti, ea dilectione qua debeo.