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Letter CLXXXVIII.
(a.d. 416.)
To the Lady Juliana, Worthy to Be
Honoured in Christ with the Service Due to Her Rank, Our Daughter
Deservedly Distinguished, Alypius and Augustin Send Greeting in the
Lord.
Chap. I.
1. Lady, worthy to be honoured in Christ with the
service due to your rank, and daughter deservedly distinguished, it
was very pleasant and agreeable to us that your letter reached us
when together at Hippo, so that we might send this joint reply to
you, to express our joy in hearing of your welfare, and with
sincere reciprocation of your love to let you know of our welfare,
in which we are sure that you take an affectionate interest. We are
well aware that you are not ignorant how great Christian affection
we consider due to you, and how much, both before God and among
men, we are interested in you. For though we knew you, at first by
letter, afterwards by personal intercourse, to be pious and
Catholic, that is, true members of the body of Christ, nevertheless, our
humble ministry also was of use to you, for when you had received
the word of God from us, “you received it,” as says the
apostle, “not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word
of God.”2833
Through
the grace and mercy of the Saviour, so great was the fruit arising
from this ministery of ours in your family, that when preparations
for her marriage2834
| 2834 In a letter of Jerome (the eighth) to Demetrias,
we have a very graphic narrative of the manner in which Demetrias
formed and carried into effect the vow for which she is here
commended. | were already completed, the holy
Demetrias preferred the spiritual embrace of that Husband who is
fairer than the sons of men, and in espousing themselves to whom
virgins retain their virginity, and gain more abundant spiritual
fruitfulness. We should not, however, yet have known how this
exhortation of ours had been received by the faithful and noble
maiden, as we departed shortly before she took on her the vow of
chastity, had we not learned from the joyful announcement and
reliable testimony of your letter, that this great gift of God,
planted and watered indeed by means of His servants, but owing its
increase to Himself, had been granted to us as labourers in His
vineyard.
2. Since these things are so, no one may
charge us with presuming, if, on the ground of this closer
spiritual relation, we manifest our solicitude for your welfare by
warning you to avoid opinions opposed to the grace of God. For
though the apostle commands us in preaching the word to be
“instant in season and out of season,”2835
yet we do not reckon you among the
number of those to whom a word or a letter from us exhorting you
carefully to avoid what is inconsistent with sound doctrine would
seem “out of season.” Hence it was that you received our
admonition in so kindly a manner, that, in the letter to which we
are now replying, you say, “I thank you heartily for the pious
advice which your Reverence gave me, not to lend an ear to those
men who, by their mischievous writings, often corrupt our holy
faith.”
3. In this letter you go on to say, “But
your Reverence knows that I and my household are entirely separated
from persons of this description; and all our family follow so
strictly the Catholic faith as never at any time to have wandered
from it, or fallen into any heresy,—I speak not of the heresy of
sects who have erred in a measure hardly admiting of expiation, but
of those whose errors seem to be trivial.” This statement renders
it more and more necessary for us, in writing to you, not to pass
over in silence the conduct of those who are attempting to corrupt
even those who are sound in the faith. We consider your house to be
no insignificant Church of Christ, nor indeed is the error of those
men trivial who think that we have of ourselves whatever
righteousness, temperance, piety, chastity is in us, on the ground
that God has so formed us, that beyond the revelation which He has
given He imparts to us no further aid for performing by our own
choice those things which by study we have ascertained to be our
duty; declaring nature and knowledge to be the grace of God, and
the only aid for living righteously and justly. For the possession,
indeed, of a will inclined to what is good, whence proceed the life
of uprightness and that love which so far excels all other gifts
that God Himself is said to be love, and by which alone is
fulfilled in us as far as we fulfil them, the divine law and
council,—for the possession, I say, of such a will, they hold
that we are not indebted to the aid of God, but affirm that we
ourselves of our own will are sufficient for these things. Let it
not appear to you a trifling error that men should wish to profess
themselves Christians, and yet be unwilling to hear the apostle of
Christ, who, having said, “The love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts,” lest any one should think that he had this love through
his own free will, immediately subjoined, “by the Holy Spirit who
is given unto us.”2836
Understand, then, how greatly and
how fatally that man errs who does not acknowledge that this is the
“great gift of the Saviour,”2837
who, when He ascended on high,
“led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”2838
Chap. II.
4. How, then, could we so far conceal our true
feelings as not to warn you, in whom we feel so deep an interest,
to beware of such doctrines, after we had read a certain book
addressed to the holy Demetrias? Whether this book has reached
you,2839
| 2839 In the end of this letter, Augustin distinctly
ascribes to Pelagius the authorship of the letter to Demetrias, as
also in his work on The Grace of Christ, ch. xxii. | and who is
its author, we are desirous to hear in your answer to this. In this
book, were it lawful for such a one to read it, a virgin of Christ
would read that her holiness and all her spiritual riches are to
spring from no other source than herself, and thus, before she
attains to the perfection of blessedness, she would learn,—which
may God forbid!—to be ungrateful to God. For the words addressed
to her in the said book are these:—“You have here, then, those
things on account of which you are deservedly, nay more, more
especially to be preferred before others; for your earthly rank and
wealth are understood to be derived from your relatives, not from
yourself, but your spiritual riches no one can have conferred on
you but yourself; for these, then, you are justly to be praised,
for these you are deservedly to be preferred to others, for
they can exist only from yourself, and in yourself.”2840
5. You see, doubtless, how dangerous is the
doctrine in these words, against which you must be on your guard.
For the affirmation, indeed, that these spiritual riches can exist
only in yourself, is very well and truly said: that evidently is
food; but the affirmation that they cannot exist except from you is
unmixed poison. Far be it from any virgin of Christ willingly to
listen to statements like these. Every virgin of Christ understands
the innate poverty of the human heart, and therefore declines to
have it adorned otherwise than by the gifts of her Spouse. Let her
rather listen to the apostle when he says: “I have espoused you
to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to
Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve
through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ.”2841
And therefore in regard to these
spiritual riches let her listen, not to him who says: “No one can
confer them on you except yourself, and they cannot exist except
from you and in you;” but to him who says: “We have this
treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may
be of God, and not of us.”2842
6. In regard to that sacred virginal chastity,
also, which does not belong to her from herself, but is the gift of
God, bestowed, however, on her who is believing and willing, let
her hear the same truthful and pious teacher, who when he treats of
this subject says: “I would that all men were even as I myself:
but every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner,
and another after that.”2843
Let her hear also Him who is the
only Spouse, not only of herself, but of the whole Church, thus
speaking of this chastity and purity: “All cannot receive this
saying, save they to whom it is given;”2844
that she may understand that for
her possession of this so great and excellent gift, she ought
rather to render thanks to our God and Lord, than to listen to the
words of any one who says that she possessed it from
herself,—words which we may not designate as those of a flatterer
seeking to please, lest we seem to judge rashly concerning the
hidden thoughts of men, but which are assuredly those of a
misguided eulogist. For “every good gift and every perfect
gift,” as the Apostle James says, “is from above, and cometh
down from the Father of Lights;”2845
from this source, therefore,
cometh this holy virginity, in which you who approve of it, and
rejoice in it, have been excelled by your daughter, who, coming
after you in birth, has gone before you in conduct; descended from
you in lineage, has risen above you in honour; following you in
age, has gone beyond you in holiness; in whom also that begins to
be yours which could not be in your own person. For she did not
contract an earthly marriage, that she might be, not for herself
only, but also for you, spiritually enriched, in a higher degree
than yourself, since you, even with this addition, are inferior to
her, because you contracted the marriage of which she is the
offspring. These things are gifts of God, and are yours, indeed,
but are not from yourselves; for you have this treasure in earthly
bodies, which are still frail as the vessels of the potter, that
the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of you. And be
not surprised because we say that these things are yours, and not
from you, for we speak of “daily bread” as ours, but yet add,2846
“give it
to us,” lest it should be thought that it was from
ourselves.
7. Wherefore obey the precept of Scripture,
“Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks;”2847
for you
pray in order that you may have constantly and increasingly these
gifts, you render thanks because you have them not of yourself. For
who separates you from that mass of death and perdition derived
from Adam? Is it not He “who came to seek and to save that which
was lost?”2848
Was, then,
a man, indeed, on hearing the apostle’s question, “Who maketh
thee to differ?” to reply, “My own good will, my faith, my
righteousness,” and to disregard what immediately follows?
“What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst
receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received
it?”2849
We are
unwilling, then, yea, utterly unwilling, that a consecrated virgin,
when she hears or reads these words: “Your spiritual riches no
one can have conferred on you; for these you are justly to be
praised, for these you are deservedly to be preferred to others,
for they can exist only from yourself, and in yourself,” should
thus boast of her riches as if she had not received them. Let her
say, indeed, “In me are Thy vows, O God, I will render praises
unto Thee;”2850
but since
they are in her, not from her, let her remember also
to say, “Lord, by Thy will Thou hast furnished strength to my
beauty,”2851
because,
though it be from her, inasmuch as it is the acting of her own
will, without which we cannot do what is good, yet we are not to
say, as he said, that it is “only from her.” For our own will,
unless it be aided by the grace of God, cannot alone be even in name good
will, for, says the apostle, “it is God who worketh in us, both
to will, and to do according to good will,”2852
—not, as these persons think,
merely by revealing knowledge, that we may know what we ought to
do, but also by inspiring Christian love, that we may also by
choice perform the things which by study we have
learned.
8. For doubtless the value of the gift of
continence was known to him who said, “I perceived that no man
can be continent unless God bestowed the gift.” He not only knew
then how great a benefit it was, and how eagerly it ought to be
coveted, but also that, unless God gave it, it could not exist; for
wisdom had taught him this for he says, “This also was a point of
wisdom, to know whose gift it was; and the knowledge did not
suffice him, but he says, “I went to the Lord and made my
supplication to Him.”2853
God then aids us in this matter,
not only by making us know what is to be done, but also by making
us do through love what we already know through learning. No one,
therefore, can possess, not only knowledge, but also continence,
unless God give it to him. Whence it was that when he had knowledge
he prayed that he might have continence, that it might be in him,
because he knew that it was not from him; or if on account of the
freedom of his will it was in a certain sense from himself, yet it
was not from himself alone, because no one can be continent unless
God bestow on him the gift. But he whose opinions I am censuring,
in speaking of spiritual riches, among which is doubtless that
bright and beautiful gift of continence, does not say that they may
exist in you, and from yourself, but says that they can exist
only from you, and in you, in such a way that, as a virgin of
Christ has these things nowhere else than in herself, so it can be
believed possible for her to have them from no other source than
from herself, and in this way (which may a merciful God avert from
her heart!) she shall so boast as if she had not received
them!
Chap. III.
9. We indeed hold such an opinion concerning
the training of this holy virgin, and the Christian humility in
which she was nourished and brought up, as to be assured that when
she read these words, if she did read, them, she would break out
into lamentations, and humbly smite her breast, and perhaps burst
into tears, and pray in faith to the Lord to whose service she was
dedicated and by whom she was sanctified, pleading with Him that
these were not her own words, but another’s, and asking that her
faith might not be such as to believe that she had anything whereof
to glory in herself and not in the Lord. For her glory is in
herself, not in the words of another, as the apostle says: “Let
every man prove his own work, and then shall he have glory
(rejoicing) in himself alone, and not in another.”2854
But God
forbid that her glory should be in herself, and not in Him to whom
the Psalmist says, “Thou art my glory, and the lifter up of mine
head.”2855
For her
glory is then profitably in herself, when God, who is in her, is
Himself her glory, from whom she has every good, by which she is
good, and shall have all things by which she shall be made better,
in as far as she may become better in this life, and by which she
shall be made perfect when rendered so by divine grace, not by
human praise. “For her soul shall be praised in the Lord,”2856
“who
satisfieth her desire with good things,”2857
because He Himself has inspired
this desire, that His virgin should not boast of any good, as if
she had not received it.
10. Inform us, then, in reply to this letter,
whether we have judged truly in supposing these to be your
daughter’s sentiments. For we know well that you and all your
family are, and have been, worshippers of the indivisible Trinity.
But human error insinuates itself in other forms than in erroneous
opinions concerning the indivisible Trinity. There are other
subjects also, in regard to which men fall into very dangerous
errors. As, for example, that of which we have spoken in this
letter at greater length, perhaps, than might have sufficed to a
person of your stedfast and pure wisdom. And yet we know not to
whom, except to God, and therefore to the Trinity, wrong is done by
the man who denies that the good that comes from God is from God;
which evil may God avert from you, as we believe He does! May God
altogether forbid that the book out of which we have thought it our
duty to extract some words, that they might be more easily
understood, should produce any such impression, we do not say on
your mind, or on that of the holy virgin your daughter, but on the
mind of the least deserving of your male or female servants.
11. But if you study more carefully even those words
in which the writer appears to speak in favour of grace or the aid
of God, you will find them so ambiguous that they may have
reference either to nature or to knowledge, or to forgiveness of
sins. For even in regard to that which they are forced to
acknowledge, that we ought to pray that we may not enter into
temptation, they may consider that the words mean that we are so
far helped to it that, by our praying and knocking, the knowledge
of the truth is so
revealed to us that we may learn what it is our duty to do, not so
far as that our will receives strength, whereby we may do that
which we learn to be our duty; and as to their saying that it is by
the grace or help of God that the Lord Christ has been set before
us as an example of holy living, they interpret this so as to teach
the same doctrine, affirming, namely, that we learn by His example
how we ought to live, but denying that we are so aided as to do
through love what we know by learning.
12. Find in this book, if you can, anything in
which, excepting nature and the freedom of the will (which pertains
to the same nature), and the remission of sin and the revealing of
doctrine, any such aid of God is acknowledged as that which he
acknowledges who said: “When I perceived that no man can be
continent unless God bestow the gift, and that this also is a point
of wisdom to know whose gift it is, I went to the Lord, and made my
supplication to Him.”2858
For he did not desire to receive,
in answer to his prayer, the nature in which he was made; nor was
he solicitous to obtain the natural freedom of the will with which
he was made; nor did he crave the remission of sins, seeing that he
prayed rather for continence, that he might not sin; nor did he
desire to know what he ought to do, seeing that he already
confessed that he knew whose gift this continence was; but he
wished to receive from the Spirit of wisdom such strength of will,
such ardour of love, as should suffice for fully practising the
great virtue of continence. If, therefore, you succeed in finding
any such statement in that book, we will heartily thank you if, in
your answer, you deign to inform us of it.
13. It is impossible for us to tell how
greatly we desire to find in the writings of these men, whose works
are read by very many for their pungency and eloquence, the open
confession of that grace which the apostle vehemently commends, who
says that “God has given to every man the measure of faith,”2859
“without
which it is impossible to please God,”2860
“by which the just live,”2861
“which
worketh by love,”2862
before which and without which no
works of any man are in any respect to be reckoned good, since
“whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”2863
He affirms that God distributes to
every man,2864
and that
we receive divine assistance to live piously and justly, not only
by the revelation of that knowledge which without charity
“puffeth up,”2865
but by our being inspired with
that “love which is the fulfilling of the law,”2866
and which
so edifies our heart that knowledge does not puff it up. But
hitherto I have failed to find any such statements in the writings
of these men.
14. But especially we should wish that these
sentiments should be found in that book from which we have quoted
the words in which the author, praising a virgin of Christ as if no
one except herself could confer on her spiritual riches, and as if
these could not exist except from herself, does not wish her to
glory in the Lord, but to glory as if she had not received them. In
this book, though it contain neither his name nor your own honoured
name, he nevertheless mentions that a request had been made to him
by the mother of the virgin to write to her. In a certain epistle
of his, however, to which he openly attaches his name, and does not
conceal the name of the sacred virgin, the same Pelagius says that
he had written to her, and endeavours to prove, by appealing to the
said work, that he most openly confessed the grace of God, which he
is alleged to have passed over in silence, or denied. But we beg
you to condescend to inform us, in your reply, whether that be the
very book in which he has inserted these words about spiritual
riches, and whether it has reached your Holiness.
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