Latin original · 24 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 5:4592–5:4615 (4615 verses in all)
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But such penance after baptism can be useful, if anyone shall have sinned. This man, however, since he denies that a place for penance is given after baptism, when he says, as you wrote, that there is penance only before baptism, gives to understand that he meant this: that the apostles had given penance in place of baptism, so that they gave it before baptism, and those to whom it was given were afterwards not baptized, because that penance served them in place of baptism — which I have never heard the Novatians say. Wherefore inquire diligently, lest perhaps he be of some other error and feign or think himself to be a Novatian; or, if the Novatians do say this too, I do not know:
but this at least I know, that whoever says this is utterly a stranger to the rule of the catholic faith and to the doctrine of Christ and of the apostles. For men do penance before baptism for their former sins, yet in such a way that they are also baptized, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter speaking to the Jews and saying: Do penance, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and your sins shall be forgiven you. Men also do penance, if after baptism they have so sinned as to deserve to be excommunicated and afterwards reconciled, as those do in all the churches who are properly called penitents. For of such penance the apostle Paul spoke, where he says:
Lest, when I come again, my God humble me among you, and I mourn many of those who have sinned before and have not done penance for the uncleanness and lasciviousness and fornication which they have committed; for he wrote these things only to those who had already been baptized. We have also in the Acts of the Apostles Simon, already baptized, when he wished to buy with money that the Holy Spirit might be given by the imposition of his hand, admonished by Peter to do penance for this grave sin. There is also a penance of the good and humble faithful, almost daily, in which we beat our breasts, saying: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. For we do not wish those things to be forgiven us
which we do not doubt were remitted in baptism, but assuredly those which, however small, yet frequent, creep in upon human frailty; which, if they be gathered together against us, will so burden and oppress us as some one great sin. For what does it matter to a shipwreck, whether a ship be covered and overwhelmed by one great wave, or whether water creeping in little by little into the bilge, and through negligence left and neglected, fill the ship and sink it? On account of this, fastings and almsgivings and prayers keep watch; in which, when we say: Forgive us, as we also forgive, we make manifest that we have something
that may be forgiven us; and in these words, humbling our souls, we do not cease in a certain manner to do daily penance. To what you have written I think I have replied briefly but sufficiently; it remains that the man not be contentious, for the winning of whom you thought such a letter should be given to me. To the excellent lady and deservedly honourable in Christ, and to-be-received daughter Florentina, Augustine the bishop sends greeting in the Lord. Your holy resolve, and the chaste fear of the Lord ingrained in your heart, remaining unto the age of ages, stirs up in no mean measure our care for you, not only in prayers before God but also in admonitions to yourself.
This indeed I have done more than once in my letters, which I gave to be addressed with the honour due from me to the mother of your reverence. But because she deigned to write back to me that you first wished to receive letters of mine, and then at last, if perchance you had need of anything from my ministry — which I know I owe with a free service, so far as I can, to your venerable zeal and to that of all such — that you would not keep silent, but by writing back would intimate it: behold, I have done what I learned you wished, though not through yourself, lest I should seem inhumanely to close upon you the door of confidence. It remains that you yourself bring forth, if you think anything is to be sought from me: for either I know what you shall have inquired,
and I will not deny it; or I am so ignorant of it that I am ignorant without any detriment to faith and salvation, and concerning this too I will make you secure, if I can, by rendering an account; or certainly, if I both am ignorant and yet it must be known, either I will obtain from the Lord that I may not fail you — for often the duty of imparting is a merit of receiving — or I will so answer you that you may know, concerning this very matter which we alike are ignorant of, to whom we ought to knock. These things I have premised, lest you should hope for certain that whatever you shall inquire of me you will hear, and, when this does not come to pass, should judge that I acted more audaciously than prudently, in that I gave you the faculty of inquiring, if you wish, anything.
For this I did not as a perfect teacher, but as one to be perfected together with those who are to be taught, O excellent lady and deservedly honourable in Christ and to-be-received daughter. Indeed, even in those matters which I somehow know, I desire you rather to be knowing than to be in need of our knowledge. For neither, in order that we may teach what we know, ought we to wish for the ignorance of others; for much better are we all taught by God, which surely, in that heavenly fatherland, when that which is promised shall have been completed in us, will be perfected — so that a man shall not say to his neighbour: 'Know the Lord'; for all shall know Him, as it is written, from the least to the greatest of them. And most solicitously must the vice of pride be guarded against in teaching, which in learning is not so.
Whence Holy Scripture also admonishes us, saying: 'Let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak'; and the psalmist says: 'To my hearing thou shalt give exultation and gladness,' and immediately he added: 'And the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice.' For he saw that in hearing humility is most easily preserved, which is difficult in teaching, since it is necessary that the teacher hold the higher place, where it is a laborious task to hold it lest pride creep in. Do you see in what manner we are endangered, we from whom this is expected, that we should not only be teachers, but also, being men, should teach the things of God? Yet the singular solace of our labours and perils is this, that you should so advance as to arrive at that place where you will need no man as teacher.
But by this peril not only we—for what are we compared to him of whom I am about to speak?—not we alone, then, but also that teacher of the Gentiles testifies that he was endangered, when he says: 'Lest I be exalted by the greatness of my revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh,' and the rest. Whence the Lord himself, the wondrous physician of this swelling of pride, says: 'Be not called Rabbi by men; for one is your master, Christ'—which same teacher of the Gentiles, holding fast to this, says: 'Neither he that planteth is anything, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.'
This too that one remembered, who, great as he was among those born of women, humbled himself in all things, declaring himself unworthy to carry the sandals of Christ. For what else does he show when he says: 'He that hath the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom standeth and heareth him, and rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom's voice'? This is that hearing of which I made mention a little before, set down in the psalm: 'To my hearing thou shalt give exultation and gladness, and the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice.' Therefore know that I rejoice the more surely, the more solidly, the more soundly over your faith and hope and love, the less you shall have needed to learn anything not only from me, but from any man at all.
Nevertheless, since, when I was there, your good parents—most loving of your good studies—while you out of your youth were bashful, deigned to make known to me with what ardour of piety and true wisdom you were aflame, and most kindly asked that I should not deny my small service to your instruction wherever there was need, I thought that you should be admonished by this letter, according to the choices mentioned above: that you should ask what you wish, lest I be superfluous if I should attempt to teach what you already know, provided, however, that you hold most firmly that, even if you have been able to learn anything wholesomely through me, it is He who will teach you, who is the inward master of the inner man, who shows to you in your heart that what is said is true—namely, that neither he that planteth is anything, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.
267. To the most religious and most excellent lady, and in the love of Christ his praiseworthy daughter Fabiola, Augustine sends greeting in the Lord. Although you have already sent a reply, I have nevertheless so read the letter of your holiness that I judged it a duty to answer it. For you grieved over the pilgrimage, and rightly did you set before it the desire for that heavenly homeland where we shall no longer be divided by any expanse of lands, but shall ever rejoice in the contemplation of the one God—the pilgrimage by which it comes about that we perpetually rejoice with the saints. Happy are you in faithfully pondering such things, happier in loving them, and therefore you shall also be most happy in attaining them.
But even now consider more diligently by what we are the more said to be absent: whether because we do not see each other's bodies, or because we do not give and receive signs of our minds, which is to converse. For I think that, though separated in body by far-distant regions, if we could know each other's thoughts, we would be more with one another than if, seeing each other in one place, we should sit silent, uttering no signs of our inmost feeling in our voices, indicating our minds by no movements of our bodies. Wherefore you understand that each one is for this reason more present to himself than one is to another, because each one is more known to himself than to another—not his own face, which,
unless a mirror be present, is carried about and lies hidden, but by beholding his own conscience, which he sees even with his eyes closed. How great, therefore, is even this life of ours, which is reckoned a great thing! 268. To the most beloved and most longed-for lords, of the holy people to whom I minister as a member of Christ, Augustine sends greeting in the Lord. The most well-known and most approved devotion of your holiness in our Lord Jesus Christ has given me confidence, so that even absent I might presume that in which, when present, I have been accustomed to rejoice. I who am ever with you in spirit, not only because the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ does not cease to breathe forth so great a sweetness, but also because you do not permit me myself, who serve you in the Gospel, to suffer any distress.
For when our brother Fascius was pressed by the tax-collectors for a debt of seventeen solidi, that he should repay it—which for the present he had no means to discharge—lest he should suffer bodily injury, he fled for help to the holy Church. Those exactors also, since they were compelled to set out and therefore could grant no delay, burdened me with the gravest complaints, so that I should either hand him over to them or provide whence they might receive what they showed was owed to them. And when I had offered to Fascius that I would speak to your holiness concerning his needs, deterred by shame, he begged that I would not do so.
Thus I, constrained by the greater necessity, received seventeen solidi from our brother Macedonius, which I immediately paid out for his cause, he promising that he could meet the repayment of them by a certain day, and consenting that, if he could not meet it, mention of the matter should be made to your mercy, which you are accustomed to show as brotherly to the brethren. Now therefore, since he is absent, it remains that you come to the aid, not of him whom no one presses while absent, but of my pledge, whose reckoning is always present before you. For already the day on which he had promised he would meet it has passed, and I find no answer to give to him who entrusted his solidi to my good faith, except to do what I promised I would do.
But since I was not reminded of this matter so that I might make a discourse upon it on the day of Pentecost, when your greater gathering was present, I ask that you would deign to hold this letter in place of my voice were it present, God—our Lord, in whom you have believed—admonishing and exhorting you in your hearts, who never departs from us who fear and honour his name, in whom we too are ever joined to you, although we may seem to have departed from you in body; who promises you the harvest of eternal life from this seed of good works, as the apostle says: 'Let us not grow weary in well-doing; for in its own time we shall reap unwearied.' And so, while we have time, let us work good toward all, but especially toward those of the household of faith.
Since, therefore, this our brother—a faithful Christian, a catholic—is of the household of faith, for the supplying of whose need I ask you: do what the Lord commands, without sadness, without murmuring, and do it with joy and cheerfulness; for you give credit to God, not to man, since He promises that you shall lose none of the things which you do mercifully, but shall receive them again in that day with immortal interest. And since the apostle himself says: 'But this I say: He who sows sparingly,
少收'—you ought to understand that this is the time in which, while we are yet in this life, we should hastily and eagerly procure the gift of eternal life, since, when the end of the age shall come, it will not be given except to those who have purchased it for themselves through faith, before they could see it. I have also written to the presbyters, that if anything be lacking after the contribution of your holiness, they should supply it from what the Church has, provided, however, that you offer cheerfully according as it pleases you; for whether it be given from your own or from the Church's, all things are God's, and your devotion will be sweeter than the treasures of the Church—as the apostle says: 'Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit.' Gladden therefore my heart, for I desire to rejoice over your fruits;
for you are the trees of God, which He deigns to water with continual showers, even through our ministry. May the Lord keep you from all evil, both here and in the age to come, most beloved and most longed-for lord brethren. 269. To his most blessed and venerable brother and fellow-priest Nobilius, Augustine. So great is the solemnity to which the affection of your brotherhood invites me, that my will would drag this poor little body of mine to you, did not infirmity hold it back. I could come, were it not winter; I could scorn the winter, were I young; for either the fervour of youth would bear the harshness of the season, or the fervour of summer would temper the cold of age. As it is, in winter I cannot endure so long a journey together with chilly old age,
which I carry along with me, most blessed lord, holy and venerable brother and fellow-priest. I render the salutation due to your merits; but my own welfare I commend to your prayers, myself also beseeching from the Lord that the prosperity of peace may attend the dedication of so great a building. 270. When in an earlier time I had journeyed to the city of Leges, I was exceedingly saddened that I could by no means find you there whole. For I found you halved, and, so to speak, a part of your soul—my dearest Severus, over whom I rejoiced in part. For I would have rejoiced perfectly, had I found you whole. Whence in the part in which I had found you I was thankful, and on account of your part, which I in no way beheld, I was in every way saddened. Therefore I said to my soul:
'Why art thou sad, and why dost thou trouble me? Hope in God, and He will make present the friend whom thou lovest.' Whence I trust in the Lord and hope that He will make me rejoice in the sight of you. Oh, if love could be discerned with the eyes! Surely you would see how great is our love toward you. For either, being equal to your love, it would bring you great joy, or, if it were greater, it would bring you a great zeal for imitation. Therefore, since I love you in the Lord, love him who loves you; and, that others also may love with you, exhort them through ecclesiastical authority. For as to what you ask in your letter, that I should pray for you, I would rightly do it, if I myself were free from sins, so that it were permitted to pray for others.
And therefore I admonish you, that you should send up unceasing prayers of your soul for me to the Lord, and, mindful of your profession, that you should set before your eyes that day on which the just man shall not fear an evil report—and therefore the just man shall not fear, because he shall not hear: 'Go into the eternal fire,' but: 'Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom'—to which may He lead us, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.