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| To the Very Devout Italica
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Letter XCIX.
(a.d. 408 or Beginning of 409.)
To the Very Devout Italica, an
Handmaid of God, Praised Justly and Piously by the Members of
Christ, Augustin Sends Greeting in the Lord.
1. Up to the time of my writing this reply, I
had received three letters from your Grace, of which the first
asked urgently a letter from me, the second intimated that what I
wrote in answer had reached you, and the third, which conveyed the
assurance of your most benevolent solicitude for our interest in
the matter of the house belonging to that most illustrious and
distinguished young man Julian, which is in immediate contact with
the walls of our Church. To this last letter, just now received, I
lose no time in promptly replying, because your Excellency’s
agent has written to me that he can send my letter without delay to
Rome. By his letter we have been greatly distressed, because he has
taken pains to acquaint us2316
| 2316 Tillemont (vol. xiii. note 44) conjectures that
the word “non” before “nobis insinuare
curavit” should not be in the text,—a conjecture which
commends itself to our judgment, though it is unsupported by Mss. | with the things which are taking
place in the city (Rome) or around its walls, so as to give us
reliable information concerning that which we were reluctant to
believe on the authority of vague rumours. In the letters
which were
sent to us previously by our brethren, tidings were given to us of
events, vexatious and grievous, it is true, but much less
calamitous than those of which we now hear. I am surprised beyond
expression that my brethren the holy bishops did not write to me
when so favourable an opportunity of sending a letter by your
messengers occurred, and that your own letter conveyed to us no
information concerning such painful tribulation as has befallen
you,—tribulation which, by reason of the tender sympathies of
Christian charity, is ours as well as yours. I suppose, however,
that you deemed it better not to mention these sorrows, because you
considered that this could do no good, or because you did not wish
to make us sad by your letter. But in my opinion, it does some good
to acquaint us even with such events as these: in the first place,
because it is not right to be ready to “rejoice with them that
rejoice,” but refuse to “weep with them that weep;” and in
the second place, because “tribulation worketh patience, and
patience experience, and experience hope; and hope maketh not
ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”2317
2. Far be it, therefore, from us to refuse to
hear even of the bitter and sorrowful things which befall those who
are very dear to us! For in some way which I cannot explain, the
pain suffered by one member is mitigated when all the other members
suffer with it.2318
And this
mitigation is effected not by actual participation in the calamity,
but by the solacing power of love; for although only some suffer
the actual burden of the affliction, and the others share their
suffering through knowing what these have to bear, nevertheless the
tribulation is borne in common by them all, seeing that they have
in common the same experience, hope, and love, and the same Divine
Spirit. Moreover, the Lord provides consolation for us all,
inasmuch as He hath both forewarned us of these temporal
afflictions, and promised to us after them eternal blessings; and
the soldier who desires to receive a crown when the conflict is
over, ought not to lose courage while the conflict lasts, since He
who is preparing rewards ineffable for those who overcome, does
Himself minister strength to them while they are on the field to
battle.
3. Let not what I have now written take away
your confidence in writing to me, especially since the reason which
may be pled for your endeavouring to lessen our fears is one which
cannot be condemned. We salute in return your little children, and
we desire that they may be spared to you, and may grow up in
Christ, since they discern even in their present tender age how
dangerous and baneful is the love of this world. God grant that the
plants which are small and still flexible may be bent in the right
direction in a time in which the great and hardy are being shaken.
As to the house of which you speak, what can I say beyond
expressing my gratitude for your very kind solicitude? For the
house which we can give they do not wish; and the house which they
wish we cannot give, for it was not left to the church by my
predecessor, as they have been falsely informed, but is one of the
ancient properties of the church, and it is attached to the one
ancient church in the same way as the house about which this
question has been raised is attached to the other.2319
| 2319 We have no further information regarding this
affair. The prospect of an amicable settlement seems remote. |
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