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| To the Clergy, etc., of the Church of Hippo
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Letter LXXVIII.
(a.d. 404.)
To My Most Beloved Brethren, the
Clergy, Elders, and People of the Church of Hippo, Whom I Serve in
the Love of Christ, I, Augustin, Send Greeting in the
Lord.
1. Would that you, giving earnest heed to the
word of God, did not require counsel of mine to support you under
whatsoever offences may arise! Would that your comfort rather came
from Him by whom we also are comforted; who has foretold not only
the good things which He designs to give to those who are holy and
faithful, but also the evil things in which this world is to
abound; and has caused these to be written, in order that we may
expect the blessings which are to follow the end of this world with
a certainty not less complete than that which attends our present
experience of the evils which had been predicted as coming before
the end of the world! Wherefore also the apostle says,
“Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures
might have hope.”1972
And wherefore did our Lord Himself
judge it necessary not only to say, “Then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father”1973
which
shall come to pass after the end of the world, but also to exclaim,
“Woe unto the world because of offences!”1974
if not to prevent us from
flattering ourselves with the idea that we can reach the mansions
of eternal felicity, unless we have overcome the temptation to
yield when exercised by the afflictions of time? Why was it
necessary for Him to say, “Because iniquity shall abound, the
love of many shall wax cold,” if not in order that those of whom
He spoke in the next sentence, “but he that shall endure to the
end shall be saved,”1975
might, when they saw love waxing
cold through abounding iniquity, be saved from being put to
confusion, or filled with fear, or crushed with grief about such
things, as if they were strange and unlooked for, and might rather,
through witnessing the events which had been predicted as appointed
to occur before the end, be assisted in patiently enduring unto the
end, so as to obtain after the end the reward of reigning in peace
in that life which has no end?
2. Wherefore, beloved, in regard to that scandal by
which some are troubled concerning the presbyter Boniface, I do not
say to you that you are not to be grieved for it; for in men who do
not grieve for such things the love of Christ is not, whereas those
who take pleasure in such things are filled with the malice of the
devil. Not, however, that anything has come to our knowledge which
deserves censure in the presbyter aforesaid, but that two in our
house are so situated that one of them must be regarded as beyond all doubt wicked; and
though the conscience of the other be not defiled, his good name is
forfeited in the eyes of some, and suspected by others. Grieve for
these things, for they are to be lamented; but do not so grieve as
to let your love grow cold, and yourselves be indifferent to holy
living. Let it rather burn the more vehemently in the exercise of
prayer to God, that if your presbyter is guiltless (which I am the
more inclined to believe, because, when he had discovered the
immoral and vile proposal of the other, he would neither consent to
it nor conceal it), a divine decision may speedily restore him to
the exercise of his official duties with his innocence vindicated;
and that if, on the other hand, knowing himself to be guilty, which
I dare not suspect, he has deliberately tried to destroy the good
name of another when he could not corrupt his morals, as he charges
his accuser with having done, God may not permit him to hide his
wickedness, so that the thing which men cannot discover may be
revealed by the judgment of God, to the conviction of the one or of
the other.
3. For when this case had long disquieted me,
and I could find no way of convicting either of the two as guilty,
although I rather inclined to believe the presbyter innocent, I had
at first resolved to leave both in the hand of God, without
deciding the case, until something should be done by the one of
whom I had suspicion, giving just and unquestionable reasons for
his expulsion from our house. But when he was labouring most
earnestly to obtain promotion to the rank of the clergy, either on
the spot from myself, or elsewhere through letter of recommendation
from me, and I could on no account be induced either to lay hands
in the act of ordination upon one of whom I thought so ill, or to
consent to introduce him through commendation of mine to any
brother for the same purpose, he began to act more violently
demanding that if he was not to be promoted to clerical orders,
Boniface should not be permitted to retain his status as a
presbyter. This demand having been made, when I perceived that
Boniface was unwilling that, through doubts as to his holiness of
life, offence should be given to any who were weak and inclined to
suspect him, and that he was ready to suffer the loss of his honour
among men rather than vainly persist even to the disquieting of the
Church in a contention the very nature of which made it impossible
for him to prove his innocence (of which he was conscious) to the
satisfaction of those who did not know him, or were in doubt or
prone to suspicion in regard to him, I fixed upon the following as
a means of discovering the truth. Both pledged themselves in a
solemn compact to go to a holy place, where the more awe-inspiring
works of God might much more readily make manifest the evil of
which either of them was conscious, and compel the guilty to
confess, either by judgment or through fear of judgment. God is
everywhere, it is true, and He that made all things is not
contained or confined to dwell in any place; and He is to be
worshipped in spirit and in truth by His true worshippers,1976
in order
that, as He heareth in secret, He may also in secret justify and
reward. But in regard to the answers to prayer which are visible to
men, who can search out His reasons for appointing some places
rather than others to be the scene of miraculous interpositions? To
many the holiness of the place in which the body of the blessed
Felix is buried is well known, and to this place I desired them to
repair; because from it we may receive more easily and more
reliably a written account of whatever may be discovered in either
of them by divine interposition. For I myself knew how, at Milan,
at the tomb of the saints, where demons are brought in a most
marvellous and awful manner to confess their deeds, a thief who had
come thither intending to deceive by perjuring himself, was
compelled to own his theft, and to restore what he had taken away;
and is not Africa also full of the bodies of holy martyrs? Yet we
do not know of such things being done in any place here. Even as
the gift of healing and the gift of discerning of spirits are not
given to all saints,1977
as the apostle declares; so it is
not at all the tombs of the saints that it has pleased Him who
divideth to each severally as He will, to cause such miracles to be
wrought.
4. Wherefore, although I had purposed not to
let this most heavy burden on my heart come to your knowledge, lest
I should disquiet you by a painful but useless vexation, it has
pleased God to make it known to you, perhaps for this reason, that
you may along with me devote yourselves to prayer, beseeching Him
to condescend to reveal that which He knoweth, but which we cannot
know in this matter. For I did not presume to suppress or erase
from the roll of his colleagues the name of this presbyter, lest I
should seem to insult the Divine Majesty, upon whose arbitration
the case now depends, if I were to forestall His decision by any
premature decision of mine: for even in secular affairs, when a
perplexing case is referred to a higher authority, the inferior
judges do not presume to make any change while the reference is
pending. Moreover, it was decreed in a Council of bishops1978
| 1978 Third Council of Carthage,
A.D. 397, Can. 7, 8. | that no
clergyman who has not yet been proved guilty be suspended from
communion, unless he fail to present himself for the examination of
the charges against him. Boniface, however, humbly agreed to
forego his
claim to a letter of commendation, by the use of which on his
journey he might have secured the recognition of his rank,
preferring that both should stand on a footing of equality in a
place where both were alike unknown. And now if you prefer that his
name should not be read that we “may cut off occasion,” as the
apostle says, from those that desire occasion1979
to justify their unwillingness to
come to the Church, this omission of his name shall be not our
deed, but theirs on whose account it may be done. For what does it
harm any man, that men through ignorance refuse to have his name
read from that tablet, so long as a guilty conscience does not blot
his name out of the Book of Life?
5. Wherefore, my brethren who fear God,
remember what the Apostle Peter says: Your adversary, the devil, as
a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”1980
When he
cannot devour a man through seducing him into iniquity, he attempts
to injure his good name, that if it be possible, he may give way
under the reproaches of men and the calumnies of slandering
tongues, and may thus fall into his jaws. If, however, he be unable
even to sully the good name of one who is innocent, he tries to
persuade him to cherish unkindly suspicions of his brother, and
judge him harshly, and so become entangled, and be an easy prey.
And who is able to know or to tell all his snares and wiles?
Nevertheless, in reference to those three, which belong more
especially to the case before us; in the first place, lest you
should be turned aside to wickedness through following bad
examples, God gives you by the apostle these warnings: “Be ye not
unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath
righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion, hath light
with darkness?”1981
and in another place: “Be not
deceived; evil communications corrupt good manners: awake to
righteousness,1982
| 1982 Aug. translates, “be sober and righteous.” | and sin
not.”1983
Secondly,
that ye may not give way under the tongues of slanderers, He saith
by the prophet, “Hearken unto Me, ye that know righteousness, the
people in whose heart is My law: fear ye not the reproach of men,
neither be ye afraid of their revilings.1984
| 1984 “Nor count it a great thing that they despise
you.”—Aug. | For the moth shall eat them up
like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but My
righteousness shall be for ever.”1985
And thirdly, lest you should be
undone through groundless and malevolent suspicions concerning any
servants of God, remember that word of the apostle, “Judge
nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring
to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the
counsels of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of
God;”1986
and this
also, “The things which are revealed belong to you, but the
secret things belong unto the Lord your God.”1987
| 1987 Deut. xxix. 29. This verse is the nearest I
can find to the words here quoted by the apostle. The reference in
the Bened. edition to 1 Cor. v. 12 must be a mistake. |
6. It is indeed manifest that such things do
not take place in the Church without great sorrow on the part of
saints and believers; but let Him be our Comforter who hath
foretold all these events, and has warned us not to become cold in
love through abounding iniquity, to endure to the end that we may
be saved. For, as far as I am concerned, if there be in me a spark
of the love of Christ, who among you is weak, and I am not weak?
who among you is offended, and I burn not?1988
Do not therefore add to my
distresses, by your yielding either by groundless suspicions or by
occasion of other men’s sins. Do not, I beseech you, lest I say
of you, “They have added to the pain of my wounds.”1989
For it is
much more easy to bear the reproach of those who take open pleasure
in these our pains, of whom it was foretold in regard to Christ
Himself, “They that sit in the gate speak against Me, and I was
the song of the drunkards,”1990
for whom also we have been taught
to pray, and to seek their welfare. For why do they sit at the
gate, and what do they watch for, if it be not for this, that so
soon as any bishop or clergyman or monk or nun has fallen, they may
have ground for believing, and boasting, and maintaining that all
are the same as the one that has fallen, but that all cannot be
convicted and unmasked? Yet these very men do not straightway cast
forth their wives, or bring accusation against their mothers, if
some married woman has been discovered to be an adulteress. But the
moment that any crime is either falsely alleged or actually proved
against any one who makes a profession of piety, these men are
incessant and unwearied in their efforts to make this charge be
believed against all religious men. Those men, therefore, who
eagerly find what is sweet to their malicious tongues in the things
which grieve us, we may compare to those dogs (if, indeed, they are
to be understood as increasing his misery) which licked the sores
of the beggar who lay before the rich man’s gate, and endured
with patience every hardship and indignity until he should come to
rest in Abraham’s bosom.1991
7. Do not add to my sorrows, O ye who have some hope
toward God. Let not the wounds which these lick be multiplied by
you, for whom we
are in jeopardy every hour, having fightings without and fears
within, and perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils by
the heathen, and perils by false brethren.1992
| 1992 2 Cor. vii. 5 and xi. 26. | I know that you are grieved, but
is your grief more poignant than mine? I know that you are
disquieted, and I fear lest by the tongues of slanderers some weak
one for whom Christ died should perish. Let not my grief be
increased by you, for it is not through my fault that this grief
was made yours. For I used the utmost precautions to secure, if it
were possible, both that the steps necessary for the prevention of
this evil should not be neglected, and that it should not be
brought to your knowledge, since this could only cause unavailing
vexation to the strong, and dangerous disquietude to the weak,
among you. But may He who hath permitted you to be tempted by
knowing this, give you strength to bear the trial, and “teach you
out of His law, and give you rest from the days of adversity, until
the pit be digged for the wicked.”1993
8. I hear that some of you are more cast down
with sorrow by this event, than by the fall of the two deacons who
had joined us from the Donatist party, as if they had brought
reproach upon the discipline of Proculeianus;1994
| 1994 Donatist bishop of Hippo. | whereas this checks your boasting
about me, that under my discipline no such inconsistency among the
clergy had taken place. Let me frankly say to you, whoever you are
that have done this, you have not done well. Behold, God hath
taught you, “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord;”1995
and ye
ought to bring no reproach against heretics but this, that they are
not Catholics. Be not like these heretics, who, because they have
nothing to plead in defence of their schism, attempt nothing beyond
heaping up charges against the men from whom they are separated,
and most falsely boast that in these we have an unenviable
pre-eminence, in order that since they can neither impugn nor
darken the truth of the Divine Scripture, from which the Church of
Christ spread abroad everywhere receives its testimony, they may
bring into disfavour the men by whom it is preached, against whom
they are capable of affirming anything—whatever comes into their
mind. “But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have
heard Him, and have been taught by Him.”1996
For He Himself has guarded His
believing people from undue disquietude concerning wickedness, even
in stewards of the divine mysteries, as doing evil which was their
own, but speaking good which was His. “All therefore whatsoever
they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after
their works: for they say, and do not.”1997
Pray by all means for me, lest
perchance “when I have preached to others, I myself should be a
castaway;”1998
but when
you glory, glory not in me, but in the Lord. For however watchful
the discipline of my house may be, I am but a man, and I live among
men; and I do not presume to pretend that my house is better than
the ark of Noah, in which among eight persons one was found a
castaway;1999
or better
than the house of Abraham, regarding which it was said, “Cast out
the bondwoman and her son;”2000
or better than the house of Isaac,
regarding whose twin sons it was said, “I loved Jacob, and I
hated Esau;”2001
or better
than the house of Jacob himself, in which Reuben defiled his
father’s bed;2002
or better
than the house of David, in which one son wrought folly with his
sister,2003
and
another rebelled against a father of such holy clemency; or better
than the band of companions of Paul the apostle, who nevertheless
would not have said, as above quoted, “Without are fightings, and
within are fears,” if he had dwelt with none but good men; nor
would have said, in speaking of the holiness and fidelity of
Timothy, “I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for
your state; for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus
Christ’s;”2004
or better
than the band of the disciples of the Lord Christ Himself, in which
eleven good men bore with Judas, who was a thief and a traitor; or,
finally, better than heaven itself, from which the angels
fell.
9. I frankly avow to your Charity, before the
Lord our God, whom I have taken, since the time when I began to
serve Him, as a witness upon my soul, that as I have hardly found
any men better than those who have done well in monasteries, so I
have not found any men worse than monks who have fallen; whence I
suppose that to them applies the word written in the Apocalypse,
“He that is righteous, let him be still more righteous; and he
that is filthy, let him be still more filthy.”2005
Wherefore, if we be grieved by
some foul blemishes, we are comforted by a much larger proportion
of examples of an opposite kind. Let not, therefore, the dregs
which offend your eyes cause you to hate the oil-presses whence the
Lord’s storehouses are supplied to their profit with a more
brightly illuminating oil.
May the mercy of our Lord keep you in His peace,
safe from all the snares of the enemy, my dearly beloved
brethren.
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