For if, on account of the heavenly Jerusalem, of which we are all citizens and in which they have longed to have a place of more excellent holiness, we owe them not only a civic but even a brotherly affection, how much more do you, among whom is even the carnal homeland of these ladies, in which for the love of Christ they despise their worldly nobility! I ask also that you deign to receive through them the duty of my salutation, with the same charity with which I have directed it, and to remember us in your prayers. They carry with them, indeed, relics of the most blessed and most glorious martyr Stephen, which your holiness is not unaware, even as we have done, how fittingly you ought to honour. 213. ECCLESIASTICAL ACTS.
In the consulship of the most glorious Theodosius for the twelfth time and of Valentinian Augustus for the second, on the sixth day before the Kalends of October, when Bishop Augustine, together with his fellow-bishops Religianus and Martinianus, had taken his seat in the Church of Peace of Hippo Regius, in the presence of the presbyters Saturninus, Leporius, Barnabas, Fortunatianus, Rusticus, Lazarus, and Eraclius, with the clergy standing by and a throng of people present, Bishop Augustine said: 'What I promised yesterday to your charity, on account of which I wished you to assemble more frequently, and I see that you have assembled more frequently, must now be done, all delay set aside. For if I should wish to speak of something else, you, held in suspense for that matter, would listen less. We are all mortal in this life, and the last day of this life is always uncertain for every man.
Yet in infancy childhood is hoped for, and in childhood adolescence is hoped for, and in adolescence youth is hoped for, and in youth the maturity of middle age is hoped for, and in middle age old age is hoped for. Whether it comes to pass is uncertain; yet there is something to be hoped for. But old age has no other age which it may hope for. It is uncertain how long old age itself may last for a man; yet this is certain, that no age remains which could succeed old age. Because God so willed, I came to this city in the vigour of my years; but yet I was young, and I have grown old.
I know that after the death of bishops churches are wont to be disturbed by ambitious or contentious men; and, as I have often experienced and grieved over, I ought, so far as it concerns me, to make provision for this city that it may not happen. As your charity knows, I was lately in the church of Milevis; for the brethren, and especially the servants of God who are there, asked me to come, because after the death of my fellow-bishop of blessed memory, Severus, some disturbance was feared there. I came, and, as He willed, God helped us by His mercy: they received the bishop whom their bishop had designated while he was alive. For when this had become known to them, they gladly embraced the will of their preceding bishop.
Yet something less had been done, whereby some were grieved: because brother Severus believed it might suffice to designate his successor before the clergy; he did not speak of it to the people. And thence arose some sadness in certain persons. Why say more? It pleased God, the sadness was put to flight, joy succeeded, and the bishop was ordained whom the preceding bishop had designated. Therefore, lest anyone complain of me, I bring my will—which I believe to be God's—to the knowledge of you all: I wish the presbyter Eraclius to be my successor.' It was acclaimed by the people: 'Thanks be to God! Praises to Christ!'—it was said twenty-three times—; 'Hear us, O Christ! Long life to Augustine!'—it was said sixteen times—;
'Thee our father! Thee our bishop!'—it was said eight times. And when silence was restored, Bishop Augustine said: 'There is no need for me to say anything of his praises; I show favour to his wisdom and I spare his modesty. It is enough that you know him; and I say that I wish this which I know that you wish, and, if I did not know it before, today I should prove it. This, then, I will; this I ask of the Lord our God, even in my frigid old age, with fervent desire; this I exhort, admonish, and beg you to pray with me: that God may confirm, all your minds being gathered together and fused in the peace of Christ, that which He has wrought in us. May He who has sent him to me keep him, keep him safe, keep him without reproach, so that he who gives joy to the living may fill the place of the dying.
By the notaries of the church, as you see, what we say is taken down, what you say is taken down; and both my discourse and your acclamations do not fall to the ground. To speak more plainly, we are now drawing up ecclesiastical proceedings; for thus I wish this matter, so far as it concerns men, to be confirmed.' It was acclaimed by the people: 'Thanks be to God! Praises to Christ!'—it was said thirty-six times—; 'Hear us, O Christ! Long life to Augustine!'—it was said thirteen times—; 'Thee our father! Thee our bishop!'—it was said eight times—; 'It is worthy and just!'—it was said twenty times—; 'Well deserving, well worthy!'—it was said five times—; 'It is worthy and just!'—it was said six times. And when silence was restored, Bishop Augustine said:
'So then, as I was saying, I wish my will and your will to be confirmed, so far as it concerns men, by the ecclesiastical acts; but so far as concerns the hidden will of the Almighty, let us all, as I have said, pray that God may confirm that which He works in us.' It was acclaimed by the people: 'We give thanks to thy judgment!'—it was said sixteen times—; 'So be it, so be it!'—it was said twelve times—; 'Thee our father! Eraclius our bishop!'—it was said six times. And when silence was restored, Bishop Augustine said: 'I know that you too know, but I do not wish that to be done concerning him which was done concerning me. What was done, many of you know; only those do not know it who were then either not yet born, or had not yet reached the age of knowing.
While my father and bishop of blessed memory, the aged Valerius, was still living in the body, I was ordained bishop and sat with him, which I did not know had been forbidden by the Council of Nicaea, nor did he himself know it. What, then, was censured in me, I do not wish to be censured in my son.' It was acclaimed by the people: 'Thanks be to God! Praises to Christ!'—it was said thirteen times. And when silence was restored, Bishop Augustine said: 'He will be a presbyter, as he now is; when God shall will, he will be a bishop in the future. But now, plainly, with the mercy of God helping me, I am going to do what up to now I have not done. You know that some years ago I wished to do something, and you did not permit it.
It pleased me and you, for the sake of the study of the Scriptures which my brethren and fathers, my fellow-bishops, deigned to lay upon me in two councils, of Numidia and of Carthage, that for five days no one should trouble me. And the acts were drawn up, it was pleasing, you acclaimed; your resolution and your acclamations were recited. For a little while it was observed regarding me; but it was violently broken in upon, and I am not permitted to be free for that to which I wish to devote myself. Before noon and after noon I am entangled in the affairs of men. I beseech you and bind you by Christ, that you suffer me to shift the burdens of my occupations onto this young man, that is, the presbyter Eraclius, whom today, in the name of Christ, I designate bishop as my successor.' It was acclaimed by the people:
'We give thanks to thy judgment!'—it was said twenty-six times. And when silence was restored, Bishop Augustine said: 'I give thanks to your charity and goodwill before the Lord our God; nay rather, for it I give thanks. Therefore, brethren, whatever it is that is brought to me, let it be carried through to him. Where my counsel shall be necessary, I will not refuse it; God forbid that I should withdraw my help. Yet whatever it is that used to be brought to me, let it be carried through to him.
Let him either consult me, if perchance he does not find what he ought to do, or ask for the helper whom he knows as a father—so that both nothing may be lacking to you, and I at last, at some time, if God shall grant me however small a span, may not give my own however small a life to sloth, nor hand it over to idleness, but may exercise myself in the holy Scriptures, as far as He Himself permits and bestows. This will profit both himself and, through him, you also. Let no one, therefore, begrudge my leisure, for my leisure has great business. I see that concerning this matter, for the sake of which I invited you, I have transacted with you all that I ought. This last thing I ask, that you who are able deign to subscribe to these acts. Here there is need of your response;
let me hold your response; concerning this assent, acclaim something.' It was acclaimed by the people: 'So be it, so be it!'—it was said twenty-five times—; 'It is worthy and just!'—it was said twenty-eight times—; 'So be it, so be it!'—it was said fourteen times—; 'Long since worthy, long since deserving!'—it was said twenty-five times—; 'We give thanks to thy judgment!'—it was said thirteen times—; 'Hear us, O Christ! Preserve Eraclius!'—it was said eighteen times. And when silence was restored, Bishop Augustine said: 'It is well, that we may be able to do concerning the things that are God's, regarding His sacrifice.
In this hour of our supplication I most earnestly commend to your charity, that you set aside all your causes and business, and pour out prayer to the Lord for this church, and for me, and for the presbyter Eraclius.' 214. TO THE MOST BELOVED LORD, AND TO BE HONOURED IN THE MEMBERS OF CHRIST, BROTHER VALENTINUS, AND TO THE BRETHREN WHO ARE WITH THEE, AUGUSTINE SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD. There have come to us two young men, Cresconius and Felix, saying that they are of your congregation, who reported to us that your monastery is disturbed by some dissension, in that certain among you so preach grace as to deny that man has free will, and—what is more grievous—say that on the day of judgment God will not render to each one according to his works.
Yet they also indicated this, that many of you do not so hold, but confess that free will is aided by the grace of God, so that we may be wise and act rightly, and that when the Lord comes to render to each one according to his works, He may find our works good, which God has prepared that we should walk in them. Those who hold this, hold rightly. I beseech you therefore, brethren, as the Apostle besought the Corinthians, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you. For first the Lord Jesus—as it is written in the Gospel of the Apostle John—came not that He might judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him; but afterward,
as the Apostle Paul writes, God will judge the world, when He 'shall come,' as the whole Church confesses in the Creed, 'to judge the living and the dead.' If, then, there is no grace of God, how does He save the world? And if there is no free will, how does He judge the world? Accordingly, understand my book or letter, which the aforesaid men brought with them to us, according to this faith: that you neither deny the grace of God, nor so defend free will as to separate it from the grace of God, as though without that grace we could by any reasoning either think anything or do anything according to God—which we assuredly cannot. For on this account the Lord, when He was speaking of the fruit of righteousness, said to His disciples: 'Without me you can do nothing.'
Whence you may know that the aforesaid letter was written to Sixtus, presbyter of the Roman Church, against the new heretics, the Pelagians, who say that the grace of God is given according to our merits, so that he who glories should glory not in the Lord but in himself, that is, in man, not in the Lord. But this the Apostle forbids, saying: 'Let no one glory in man'; and in another place: 'He who glories,' he says, 'let him glory in the Lord.' But those heretics, thinking that they are made righteous by their own selves, as though God had not given this to them, but they themselves to themselves, glory assuredly not in the Lord but in their own selves. To such the Apostle says: 'For who distinguishes thee?'
This he says for the reason that, out of that mass of perdition which came from Adam, God alone distinguishes a man, so as to make him a vessel unto honour, not unto dishonour. But since carnal man, vainly puffed up, when he had heard, 'For who distinguishes thee?' might answer, either by word or by thought, and say, 'My faith distinguishes me, my prayer distinguishes me, my righteousness distinguishes me,' the Apostle at once meets his thoughts and says: 'For what hast thou that thou didst not receive? But if thou didst also receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?' For thus do they glory, as if they had not received, who think themselves to be justified by their own selves, and thereby glory in themselves, not in the Lord.
Wherefore I, in this letter which has reached you, have proved by the testimonies of the holy Scriptures—which you can there examine—that our good works, and our pious prayers, and our right faith could in no way have been in us, unless we had received these from Him of whom the Apostle James says:
'Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights,' lest anyone should say that the grace of God was handed over to him by the merits of his works, or by the merits of his prayers, or by the merits of his faith, and lest it be thought true what those heretics say, that the grace of God is given according to our merits—which is altogether most false; not because there is no merit, either good of the pious or evil of the impious—otherwise how will God judge the world?—but because the mercy and grace of God converts a man, of which the Psalm says: 'My God, His mercy shall go before me,' that the impious may be justified, that is, that from impious he may become righteous and begin to have good merit, which the Lord will crown when the world shall be judged.
There were many things which I desired to send you, by reading which you might be able more diligently and more fully to know the whole case which was transacted in the episcopal councils against those same Pelagian heretics; but the brethren who had come to us from your number made haste—through whom we have not written back these things, but have written; for they had brought us no letters of your charity. Nevertheless we received them, since their simplicity sufficiently indicated that they could have fabricated nothing to us. And they made haste for this reason, that they might keep the Passover among you, whereby, with the Lord's help, so holy a day might find your peace rather than your dissension.
But you will do better—and this I greatly ask—if you do not find it burdensome to send to me the very man by whom they say they were disturbed. For either he does not understand my book, or perhaps he himself is not understood, when he attempts to resolve and unravel a most difficult question, intelligible to few. For it is that question concerning the grace of God, which has caused men who do not understand to suppose that the Apostle Paul says: 'Let us do evil, that good may come.' Whence the Apostle Peter, in his second epistle:
'Wherefore, beloved,' he says, 'awaiting these things, give diligence that you may be found undefiled and unspotted before Him in peace; and account the patience of our Lord as salvation, even as our most beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom that was given to him, wrote to you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable pervert, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.' Beware therefore of that which so great an Apostle so terribly says; and where you feel that you do not understand, meanwhile believe the divine oracles.
For man's will is free, and there is the grace of God, without whose aid free will can neither be converted to God nor make progress toward God; and, as you piously believe, pray that you may also wisely understand. For to this very end, that is, that we may wisely understand, there is assuredly free will. For unless we understood and had discernment by free will, it would not be commanded us, when Scripture says: 'Understand, therefore, you who are foolish among the people; and you fools, at some time be wise.' By the very fact, indeed, that it is commanded and enjoined that we understand and be wise, it requires our obedience, which can be none without free will.
But if this very thing—that we should understand and be wise—could be done through free will without the aid of grace, it would not be said to God: 'Give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments'; nor would it be written in the Gospel: 'Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures'; nor would the Apostle James say: 'But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all abundantly and upbraids not, and it shall be given him.' But the Lord is able both to grant to us, and to grant to us, that by swiftest tidings we may rejoice concerning your peace and pious agreement. I greet you not only in my own name, but also in the name of the brethren who are with me, and I ask that you pray for us with one accord and instantly. May the Lord be with you. Amen. 215.
TO THE MOST BELOVED LORD, AND TO BE HONOURED IN THE MEMBERS OF CHRIST, BROTHER VALENTINUS, AND TO THE BRETHREN WHO ARE WITH THEE, AUGUSTINE SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD. Let your charity know that Cresconius, Felix, and another Felix, servants of God, who came to us from your congregation, kept the Passover with us. These we detained somewhat longer, that they might return to you better instructed against the new heretics, the Pelagians, into whose error he falls who thinks that the grace of God is given according to certain human merits—that grace which alone sets man free through our Lord Jesus Christ.
But again, whoever thinks that, when the Lord comes to judgment, a man who has already been able through his age to use the free choice of his will is not judged according to his works, is no less in error. For only the little children, who do not yet have their own works, either good or evil, will be condemned according to original sin alone—those to whom the grace of the Saviour has not come to their aid through the washing of regeneration. But all the rest, who, already using free will, have added their own sins over and above original sin, if they are not rescued from the power of darkness through the grace of God, nor transferred to the kingdom of Christ, will bear judgment not only according to the merits of their origin, but also according to the merits of their own will.
But the good, they too indeed will obtain reward according to the merits of their good will; yet they have obtained that very good will itself through the grace of God. And thus is fulfilled what is written: 'Wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that works evil, of the Jew first and of the Greek; but glory and honour and peace to everyone that works good, to the Jew first and to the Greek.' Concerning which most difficult question—that is, concerning the will and grace—I had no need to dispute at greater length even in this letter, since I had already given them another, as of men about to return more quickly.
And I have also written to you a book, which, if with the Lord's help you read diligently and understand vividly, I judge that there will be no further dissensions among you concerning this matter. They also carry with them other things, which we believed ought to be sent to you, whereby you may recognize in what manner the Catholic Church, in the mercy of God, has repelled the poisons of the Pelagian heresy. For what was written to Pope Innocent, bishop of the city of Rome, from the council of the province of Carthage, and from the council of Numidia, and somewhat more diligently by five bishops, and what he himself wrote back to these three,
likewise what was written to Pope Zosimus from the African council, and his rescript sent to all the bishops of the whole world, and what in a later plenary council of all Africa we briefly determined against that same error, and the aforementioned book of mine which I have now written to you—all these things both in your presence we read with them, and through them we have sent to you. We also read to them the book of the most blessed martyr Cyprian, 'On the Lord's Prayer,' and showed how he taught that all things which pertain to our conduct, whereby we live rightly, are to be sought from our Father who is in heaven, lest, presuming upon free will, we fall away from divine grace.
There too we showed in what manner that most glorious martyr admonished us to pray even for our enemies, who have not yet believed in Christ, that they may believe; and this would surely be done in vain unless the Church believed that even the wicked and unbelieving wills of men can, through the grace of God, be turned to good. But this book of the holy Cyprian we have not sent, because they told us that it is there among you as well. My letter also, which was given to Sixtus, a presbyter of the Roman Church —
which they brought with them to us — we read it together with them and showed that it was written against those who say that the grace of God is given according to our merits, that is, against these same Pelagians. As far, then, as we were able, we dealt with these brethren, both yours and ours, that they might persevere in the sound catholic faith, which neither denies free will, whether toward an evil life or toward a good one, nor attributes so much to it that without the grace of God it can avail anything — whether to be converted from evil to good, or to advance perseveringly in good, or to attain to the everlasting good where it need no longer fear that it may fail. You also, dearly beloved, I exhort even in this letter with that which the Apostle exhorts us all:
not to think more highly than one ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to each one the measure of faith. Give heed to what the Holy Spirit admonishes through Solomon. 「Make straight paths,」 he says, 「for your feet, and order your ways; turn not aside to the right hand nor to the left. But turn your foot away from the evil way; for God knows the ways that are on the right, but those that are on the left are perverse. He himself, however, will make your courses straight, and will bring forth your journeys in peace.」 In these words of Holy Scripture consider, brethren, that if there were no free will, it would not be said. 「Make straight paths for your feet, and order your ways; turn not aside to the right hand nor to the left.」
And yet, if this could be done without the grace of God, it would not afterward be said. 「But he himself will make your courses straight, and will bring forth your journeys in peace.」 Do not, then, turn aside to the right hand nor to the left, although the ways that are on the right are praised and those on the left are censured. For this is why he added. 「But turn your foot away from the evil way,」 that is, from the left, which he makes plain in what follows, saying. 「For the ways that are on the right, God knows; but those on the left are perverse.」 Those ways, therefore, we ought to walk which God knows, of which it is read in the Psalm. 「The Lord knows the way of the righteous, and the way of the ungodly shall perish.」
For this way the Lord does not know, because it is on the left, just as he is going to say to those set on the left. 「I know you not.」 But what does it mean, that he who assuredly knows all things — whether the good of men or the evil — does not know it? What is 「I know you not,」 save 「Such as you are, I did not make you」? Just as that which was said of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, that he knew no sin — what is it save that he had done none? And accordingly, that which was said. 「The ways that are on the right, the Lord knows」 — how is it to be understood, save that he himself made the right ways, that is, the ways of the righteous, which are surely the good works that God prepared, as the Apostle says, that we should walk in them? But the left ways are perverse,
that is, the ways of the ungodly, he assuredly does not know, because he himself did not make them for man, but man made them for himself. On this account he says. 「But I have hated the perverse ways of the wicked」; these are on the left. But it is answered to us. 「Why then did he say, ‘Turn not aside to the right hand nor to the left,’ when he ought rather to have said, ‘Hold to the right and turn not aside to the left,’ if the ways that are on the right are good?’」 Why, do we suppose, save because the ways that are on the right are indeed good, yet to turn aside to the right is not good? For he is to be understood as turning aside to the right who wishes to ascribe to himself, and not to God, those very good works which pertain to the right ways. And therefore, when he had said. 「For the ways that are on the right, God knows,」
but those on the left are perverse — as though it were said to him. 「How then do you not wish that we turn aside to the right?」 — he went on and added. 「But he himself will make your courses straight, and will bring forth your journeys in peace.」 So then understand what is commanded you. 「Make straight paths for your feet, and order your ways,」 so that you may know, when you do this, that it is granted you by the Lord God to do it. And you will not turn aside to the right, although you walk in the right ways, if you do not trust in your own strength; and he himself will be your strength, who will make your courses straight and bring forth your journeys in peace. Wherefore, most beloved, whoever says. 「My own will suffices me to do good works,」 turns aside to the right.
But again, those who think that the good life is to be abandoned, when they hear the grace of God so preached that it is believed and understood that it itself makes the wills of men good out of evil ones, and itself also keeps those which it has made good — and on this account they say. 「Let us do evil, that good may come」 — turn aside to the left. For this reason I said to you. 「Turn not aside to the right hand nor to the left,」 that is, neither so defend free will that you attribute good works to it without the grace of God, nor so defend grace that, as though secure because of it, you love evil works — which may the grace of God itself turn away from you. For the Apostle, setting before himself the words of such people, says. 「What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?」