Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 5 part 72/118

'But this was said for this reason,' they say, 'because it was to come about that, upon hearing the Gospel, the rich would sell their patrimony and distribute it to the poor and follow the Lord and enter into the kingdom of heaven, and thus that which seemed difficult would come to pass—not that, remaining in their riches, by keeping the precepts of the Apostle (that is, by not being high-minded nor hoping in the uncertainty of riches but in the living God, by doing good, by giving readily and communicating to the needy) they should lay hold on true life, but rather that they should fulfill even these apostolic precepts by having sold all their goods.' If they say these things—for I know indeed that they do say them—they do not first attend to how the Lord preached His grace against their dogma. For He did not say:

'What seems impossible with men is easy for men, if they are willing.' But: 'What is impossible with men,' He says, 'is easy with God,' showing that, when these things are rightly done, they are done not by the power of man but by the grace of God. Let these people therefore attend to this, and, if they reprehend those who glory in their riches, let them beware of trusting in their own virtue; for both are alike reprehended in the psalm—they who trust in their own strength and they who glory in the abundance of their riches. Let the rich therefore hear:

'What is impossible with men, is easy with God'; and whether, remaining in their riches and out of them doing good works, or having sold them and distributed them among the needs of the poor, they enter into the kingdom of heaven, let them attribute their good not to their own powers but to the grace of God. For what is impossible with men is easy not with men but with God. Let these people also hear this, and, if they have either already sold all their goods and given to the poor, or are still doing so and disposing of them and in this way preparing to enter into the kingdom of heaven, let them not attribute this to their own virtue but to that same divine grace. For what is impossible with men, is easy not with them—since they too are men—but with God. This indeed the Apostle also says to them:

'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, according to His good will.' Certainly for this reason they say that they have received from the Lord the counsel of perfection concerning the selling of their goods, that they may follow the Lord, since there it was added: 'And come, follow me.' Why then, in these good things which they do, do they presume upon their own will alone, and do not hear the Lord whom they say they follow, rebuking and testifying: 'Without me you can do nothing'? But if the Apostle said 'Charge the rich of this world not to be high-minded nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches' in such a way that they should sell all that they possess and, by distributing the proceeds to the needy, do what follows:

'Let them give readily, communicate, lay up in store for themselves a good foundation for the time to come'—and if he does not believe that they can otherwise enter into the kingdom of heaven—then he deceives them: he who so diligently orders their households with the soundness of doctrine, admonishing and charging how wives ought to conduct themselves toward husbands, husbands toward wives, children toward parents, parents toward children, servants toward masters, masters toward servants. For how can these things be done without a house and without some family property? Or does this move them, that the Lord says: 'Whosoever shall have left all that is his for my sake shall receive in this world a hundredfold, and in the world to come shall possess eternal life'? It is one thing 'to have left,' another 'to have sold';

for among those things which He commanded to be left, the wife also is mentioned, whom it is lawful by no human laws to sell, and by the laws of Christ not even to put away, except for the cause of fornication. What then do these precepts mean—for they cannot be contrary to one another—unless that sometimes there arises a crisis of necessity, where either the wife must be put away or Christ must be, to pass over other things, if a Christian husband should displease his wife herself and she should propose to him either divorce from her or from Christ? Here what should he choose but Christ, and put away his wife laudably for the sake of Christ? For to both spouses, being Christians, the Lord gave the command that no one put away his wife except for the cause of fornication.

But where either party among them is an unbeliever, the counsel of the Apostle is heeded, that, if the unbeliever consents to dwell with the believing husband, the husband should not put away the wife, and likewise the believing wife the husband, if he has consented to dwell with her. 'But if the unbeliever depart,' he says, 'let him depart; for a brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases'—that is, if the unbeliever is unwilling to be with the believing spouse, here let the believer acknowledge his own liberty, lest he should so reckon himself subject to bondage as to let go the very faith rather than lose the unbelieving spouse.

This too is understood of children and parents, this too of brothers and sisters: that all are to be forsaken for Christ's sake, when this condition is set forth, that one must forsake Christ if he desires to keep them with himself. This therefore is also to be understood in this place of house and fields, this too of those things which are possessed by right of money. For likewise concerning these He did not say: 'Whosoever shall have sold for my sake' those things which it is indeed lawful to sell, but: 'Whosoever shall have left.' For it can happen that it be said to a Christian by some authority: 'Either you shall not be a Christian, or, if you wish to remain in this, you shall not have your house and possessions.'

Then indeed even those rich men who had resolved so to remain in their riches that from the good works done with them they might merit God, let them rather forsake these things for Christ's sake than forsake Christ for these things, so that they may receive in this world a hundredfold—by the perfection of which number all things are signified (for the whole world of riches belongs to the faithful man, and in this way they become as having nothing yet possessing all things)—and in the world to come may possess eternal life, lest, having forsaken Christ for the sake of these things, they be hurled into eternal death.

For by this law and condition, not only those who by excellence of mind have received the counsel of perfection—that they should distribute their sold goods to the poor and, with shoulders freer from every burden of this world, bear the light burden of Christ—but also whoever is weaker and less suited to that most glorious perfection, who nevertheless remembers that he is truly a Christian, when he hears it proposed to him that, unless he forsake all these things, he is going to forsake Christ, will rather lay hold on the tower of fortitude in the face of the enemy; because, when he was building it in his own faith, he counted the cost by which it could be completed—that is, he came to the faith with such a mind that he renounced this world not in words only, since, even if he bought anything, he was as one not possessing, and if he used the world, he was as one not using it, hoping not in the uncertainty of riches but in the living God.

For since everyone who renounces this world without doubt renounces all that is his, that he may be able to be Christ's disciple—for He Himself, when He had set forth beforehand the similitudes concerning the cost necessary for the building of a tower and concerning the war to be prepared against another king, added thus:

'Whosoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple'—assuredly he renounces even his riches, if he has any, either in such a way that, not loving them at all, he distributes them entirely to the needy and unburdens himself of superfluous loads, or in such a way that, loving Christ more, he transfers his hope from them to Him and so uses them that, giving readily and communicating, he lays up treasure in heaven and is prepared, just as parents and children and brothers and wife, so also to leave these things behind, if such a condition be proposed that he cannot have them unless Christ be forsaken. For if he renounces this world otherwise, when he comes to the sacrament of faith, he does what the blessed Cyprian laments concerning the lapsed, saying:

'Renouncing the world with words only and not with deeds.' For of such a one it is said, when at the coming of temptation he fears more to lose these things than to deny Christ: 'Behold a man who began to build and could not finish.' He is also the one who, while his adversary was still far off, sends ambassadors seeking peace—that is, while temptation is not yet afflicting but still threatening and menacing—so that he may not lack these things which he loves more, he consents to leave Christ and deny Him. And there are many such, who even think that the Christian religion ought to be of assistance to them for increasing their wealth and multiplying their earthly delights.

But such are not the rich Christians who, although they hold these things, are nevertheless not so held by them as to prefer them to Christ, because with a truthful heart they have renounced the world, so as to place no hope in such things. These instruct their wives and children and all their households with sound discipline to hold to the Christian religion; their houses, fervent with hospitality, receive a righteous man in the name of a righteous man, that they may receive a righteous man's reward; they break their bread to the hungry, clothe the naked, redeem the captive, lay up in store for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on true life; and if perchance monetary losses are to be endured for the faith of Christ, they hate their riches;

if this world threatens them with the bereavement or separation of their kin for Christ's sake, they hate parents, brothers, children, wives; finally, if a bargain must be struck with the adversary concerning the very life of this body, lest, being deserted, Christ desert them, they hate over and above even their own soul. For concerning all these things they have received a command, that otherwise they cannot be disciples of Christ. And yet, because it has been commanded them to hate even their own souls for Christ, they are not therefore to sell them or to pour them out by laying hands upon themselves, but they are prepared to lose them by dying for the name of Christ, lest, dying, they live by denying Christ.

Thus also their riches, which at Christ's admonition they were not prepared to sell, they ought to be prepared to lose for Christ, lest, Christ being lost, they perish together with those riches. From this we have rich men and most illustrious persons of either sex exalted by the glory of martyrdom. So many, whom it had irked to be perfected beforehand by the sale of their goods, were suddenly made perfect by imitating the Passion of Christ; and those who out of some weakness of flesh and blood had spared their own riches, suddenly strove even unto blood against sin for the faith.

But those to whom the crown of martyrdom did not come, and who did not receive that so illustrious and so great counsel of perfection concerning the selling of their goods, and yet, being free from damnable crimes, fed Christ when hungry, gave drink to Him when thirsty, clothed Him when naked, took Him in when a stranger—these indeed shall not sit with Christ in lofty position to judge, but shall stand at His right hand to be judged mercifully; for blessed are the merciful, since He shall have mercy on them, and judgment shall be without mercy to him who has not shown mercy, but mercy exults over judgment. Accordingly, let these people cease to speak against the Scriptures, and in their exhortations to greater things let them so stir men up as not to condemn the lesser.

For they cannot persuade to holy virginity by exhortation in any other way unless they condemn the bonds of marriage, though the Apostle teaches that each one has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that. Let them therefore walk the way of perfection, having sold all their goods and mercifully dispensed them; but if they are truly the poor of Christ and gather not for themselves but for Christ, why do they punish His weaker members before they have received the seats of judgment? For if they shall be such as those to whom the Lord says: 'You shall sit upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel,' and such as those of whom the Apostle says: 'Know you not that we shall judge angels?'

let them rather prepare themselves to receive into the eternal tabernacles not criminal but religious rich men, by whom they have been made friends of the mammon of iniquity. For I think that some of those who prattle these things so shamelessly and so imprudently are supported in their necessities by Christian and pious rich men. For the Church has in a certain manner its soldiers and in a certain manner its provincials, whence the Apostle says: 'Who serves as a soldier at his own expense at any time?' It has its vineyard and planters, it has its flock and shepherds, whence he consequently says: 'Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who feeds a flock and does not partake of the milk of the flock?'

Although to dispute such things as these people dispute is not to serve as a soldier but to rebel, is not to plant a vineyard but to uproot it, is not to gather together those to be fed but to separate from the flock those to be destroyed. But just as these very men, who are fed and clothed by the religious services of the rich—for they receive nothing for their necessities except from those who sell their goods—are nevertheless not judged and condemned by the more excellent members of Christ, who with greater virtue, which the Apostle much commends, provide for themselves by their own hands, so neither ought these to condemn Christians of lesser merit, by whose resources they are provided for, but rather, by living rightly and teaching rightly, to say to them:

'If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we reap your carnal things?' For with much less shamelessness do those servants of God who live by the honest works of their own hands, having sold them, condemn these men from whom they receive nothing, than do these men, who, on account of some weakness of body being unable to work with their hands, condemn those very ones by whose means they live. I, who write these things, have vehemently loved the perfection of which the Lord spoke when He said to the rich young man: 'Go, sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me,' and I have done so not by my own powers but by the help of His grace. For it will not on that account be less imputed to me, because I was not rich;

for neither were the apostles themselves rich, who did this first. But he forsakes the whole world who forsakes both that which he has and that which he desired to have. And how much I have advanced in this way of perfection, I myself indeed know more than any other man, but God knows more than I. And to this purpose, with all the strength I can, I exhort others, and in the name of the Lord I have companions to whom this has been urged through my ministry—yet in such a way that above all sound doctrine be held, and that they be not [condemned].

lest we, in judging those who do not do these things, condemn them with empty obstinacy, saying that it profits them nothing that they live chastely, albeit in the married state; that they govern their households and families in a Christian manner; that by works of mercy they lay up treasure for themselves against the time to come — lest by disputing over these matters we be found not expounders of the Holy Scriptures but their accusers. I have mentioned this for the following reason: when these men are forbidden to say such things by those who have not received this counsel of the Lord, they answer that the reason such things are unwilling to be discussed is that these people favour their own vices and shrink from fulfilling the Lord's precepts.

As though — to say nothing of those who, though weaker, nevertheless use their riches devoutly, and even of those greedy and avaricious men who use them ill and fix a muddy heart upon earthly treasure — as though such men (whom the Church must of necessity bear along until the end, just as those nets bore the bad fish until they reached the shore) were not more tolerable within her than these, who by such preaching and disseminating wish to appear great precisely because they have sold their riches, or whatever small patrimonies they had, in obedience to the Lord's precept, only that by this unsound teaching they might strive to trouble and overthrow His inheritance, which is spread abroad and diffused even to the ends of the earth.

Wherefore, since on this occasion, yet only briefly, I have now said what I think concerning the Church of Christ in this present age — namely, that until the end of this age she must of necessity bear both the good and the bad, for you asked this too among your questions — I shall at last bring this lengthy letter to a close. But guard yourself against swearing, as far as you can. For it is better not to swear at all, even truly, since by the habit of swearing one often falls into perjury and is always near to perjury. But those men, so far as I have heard some of them, are utterly ignorant of what swearing is; for they think they are not swearing when they have on their lips: 「God knows」 and 「God is witness」 and 「I call God to witness upon my soul」 — because it is not said:

「By God」 — and because such expressions are found in the apostle Paul. But even there, against them, is found that expression which he confesses to be an oath, where the Apostle says: 「I die daily; by your glory, brethren, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.」 For in the Greek codices it is found that this is beyond all doubt an oath, lest anyone in the Latin tongue should understand the phrase 「by your glory」 to be said in the manner in which it is said 「by my coming again to you」 and many similar phrases, where one says 「by something」 and it is not an oath. But it does not follow that, because the Apostle swore in his writings — a man most firmly established in truth — an oath ought to be a plaything for us.

For it is far safer, as I have said, so far as it pertains to us, never to swear, so that in our mouth there may be: 「Yea, yea; nay, nay,」 as the Lord admonishes — not because it is a sin to swear truly, but because it is a most grievous sin to swear falsely, into which he more readily falls who has grown accustomed to swearing. You have received what seems best to me; let those better than I expound these things — not these men, whose opinion I already know to be worthy of reproof, but others who can do so truthfully. For I too am readier to learn than to teach, and you will confer a great benefit if you do not let me remain ignorant of those things which are there discussed by the holy brethren against the empty talk of these men. May you live rightly and happily in the Lord, most beloved son. 158.

To the lord and most venerably beloved brother and fellow-priest Augustine, and to the brethren who are with you, Evodius and the brethren who are with me send greeting in the Lord. I earnestly demand payment of the debt of the letter which I sent, and I wished first to learn that which I asked, and afterwards to inquire into this. But let me relate, since you deem it worthy, what it was that made me impatient, so that I hastened to know this too, if it can be known in this life. I had a certain young man, a notary, the son of a priest named Memlonitanus of Armenia. This youth, while he was still sinking in the world — for he was employed in the office of the proconsul's advocate — God rescued through my lowliness.

He was indeed, as youthful age has it, quick and somewhat restless; but as age advanced — for he departed in his twenty-second year — such gravity of character and a good life as guardian so adorned him that it is quite delightful to hold his memory. He was moreover diligent in shorthand and well-industrious in writing, and he had also begun to be eager for reading, so much so that he would urge on my own slowness for the sake of reading during the night hours; for at some time he himself would read to me in the night, when all was silent, and he would not pass over a reading unless he had understood it, and he would go over it a third and a fourth time, and would not let it go until what he sought had become clear to him.

I had begun to regard him not as a boy and a notary, but rather as a certain very necessary and delightful friend. For his conversation too delighted me. He also longed for that which was granted to him — to be dissolved and to be with Christ. For he lay sick for sixteen days at his parents' home, and, mindful of himself, spoke almost throughout his whole illness of the Scriptures. But as he began to draw near to the end of his life, he sang, with all listening: 「My soul desires and hastens toward the courts of God」; and after this he again sang: 「Thou hast anointed my head with oil, and thy inebriating cup, how glorious it is!」 In this he was occupied; with this consolation he delighted himself.

Then, when he began to be dissolved, he began to sign himself on the forehead, so that his hand would descend to the mouth, which he desired to sign as well, since now the inner man, well renewed from day to day, had dismissed the muddy house. Such great joy accrued to me that I judge that, having dismissed his own body, he entered into my soul and there grants me a certain luminosity of his presence. It cannot be told how exceedingly I rejoice in his liberation and security. For I bestowed on him no light solicitude, fearing for the youth's age; for I took care to inquire of him whether perchance he had been polluted by contact with a woman. He testified that he was free, and this all the more that our joy might be heaped up. He was therefore dissolved.

We rendered him funeral rites sufficiently honourable and worthy of so great a soul; for over his tomb we praised the Lord together with hymns for three days, and on the third day we offered the sacraments of redemption. But behold, two days later, a certain honourable widow named Urbica, of Figentes, who said that she had been a widow for twelve years, a handmaid of God, saw a dream of this sort. She sees a certain deacon, who had departed the body four years before, together with the servants and handmaids of God, virgins and widows, preparing a palace. It was being adorned in such a way that the brightness of the place shone, so that the whole place seemed silver. When she inquired more eagerly for whom these things were being prepared, that deacon replied that they were being prepared for the boy who had been taken up yesterday, the son of the priest.

And in the same palace a certain old man clothed in white appeared, who commanded two men clothed in white to go and lift up the body, taken from the tomb, to heaven. And when, she says, the body had been taken from the tomb and lifted up to heaven, branches of virgin-roses — for so the enclosed ones are wont to be called — rose up from that same tomb. I have related what took place. Now deign to hear the question, and teach me what I ask. For the passing of this soul compels me to inquire into such matters. Now while we are in the body, we have an inner sense, skilful in proportion to the agility of our zeal, and so much the more vigilant and fervent as we have been the more studious; and it still seems probable that we are held back by the impediment of the body.

But who could recount all the things which the soul suffers from the body? Amid these turmoils and vexations coming from suggestions, from temptations, from necessities and diverse calamities, the soul does not forsake its fortitude; it resists, it conquers. Sometimes it is conquered. Yet, because it is mindful of itself, it becomes more agile and more careful, roused by such great labours, and it breaks whatever knots of malice there are and passes over to better things. What I mean, your holiness deigns to understand. Therefore, when we are in this life and are hindered by such wants, and yet, as it is written, we more than conquer through him who loved us — when we go forth from the body and escape every burden and the ready-clinging sin, who are we then?

And first I ask whether there be any body which does not forsake the incorporeal thing, that is, the very substance of the soul, when it has dismissed this earthly body — lest perchance it be one of the four elements, either the airy or the ethereal. For though the soul be incorporeal, if it lacks all body, then there is now one soul of all. And where will that rich man in purple be, and Lazarus wounded with sores? How, moreover, will they be distinguished by their merits, so that the one has punishment, the other joy, if one single soul out of all the incorporeal ones should appear — unless indeed those things were signified figuratively? But it is certain that, if they are held in places, they are held in bodies — as that rich man in the flame, and the other in Abraham's bosom. If there are places, there are bodies, and in the bodies there are souls, incorporeal souls;

or, if the punishments or rewards are in the consciences, whatever this one soul is that is made out of many souls, it is afflicted and rejoices in one, as it appears — a substance gathered out of many souls. Or if this is said: in the manner in which the mind is one incorporeal thing, and in it there is memory and will and understanding, and all these causes are incorporeal and each has its fitting portion of function, and yet the one does not hinder the other — in whatever way I think a reply may be given, so that both some punishments and some rewards may accompany it in one substance gathered out of many souls;

or, if it is not so, what hinders — if each mind, when it lacks this solid body, should have another body, so that the mind itself may always animate some body, or whither it makes its passage, if there is any region to which necessity compels it to go? — since indeed the very angels cannot be called many if they are not reckoned by bodies, as Truth itself says in the Gospel: 「I could ask my Father, that he might send me twelve legions of angels」; and since moreover it is established that Samuel was seen in the body when he was roused up at Saul's request; and Moses, whose body was buried, according to the Gospel manifestly came in the body to the Lord on the mountain, when they stood together.

Although also in the apocrypha and in the secret writings of Moses himself, which lack scriptural authority, it is stated that then, when he ascended the mountain to die, by the power of the body it came about that there was one thing which was committed to the earth, and another which was joined to the accompanying angel. But it does not sufficiently press me to bring forward the opinion of the apocrypha, when those higher matters have been settled. Therefore what is sought must be looked into and traced out either by authority or by reason. But it is said that the future resurrection shows that the soul was lacking every body.

Nor does this sufficiently hinder, seeing that those angels, who are even invisible to bodies, willed to appear and to be seen; and whatever that disposition of bodies may be, worthy of their spirits, nevertheless they appeared in human form to Abraham and to Tobias. So it can come about that, while the resurrection of this flesh — which is rightly believed — is indeed to be, nevertheless that soul is so rendered up that it is found never to have lacked some body. For since the body itself consists of four elements, it seems to lose one, namely the warm, when it seems to migrate out of this body. For that which is earthy remains, and the liquid is not wanting; nor is the element of cold matter absent;