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• Preface.
• Prolegomena. St. Augustin’s Life and Work.
• Chapter I.—: Literature.
• Chapter II.—: A Sketch of the Life of St. Augustin.
• Chapter III.—: Estimate of St. Augustin.
• Chapter IV.—: The Writings of St. Augustin.
• Chapter V.—: The Influence of St. Augustin Upon Posterity, and His Relation to Catholicism and Protestantism.
• Chief Events In the Life of St. Augustin, (as Given, Nearly, In the Benedictine Edition).
• The Confessions of St. Augustin.
• Translator’s Preface.
• The Opinion of St. Augustin Concerning His Confessions, As Embodied In His Retractations, II. 6
• The Thirteen Books of the Confessions of St. Aur. Augustin, Bishop of Hippo.
• Book I.: Commencing With the Invocation of God, Augustin Relates In Detail the Beginning of His Life, His Infancy and Boyhood, Up to His Fifteenth Year; At Which Age He Acknowledges That He Was More Inclined to All Youthful Pleasures and Vices Than to the
• Chap. I.—: He Proclaims the Greatness of God, Whom He Desires to Seek and Invoke, Being Awakened By Him.
• Chap. II.—: That the God Whom We Invoke Is In Us, and We In Him.
• Chap. III.—: Everywhere God Wholly Filleth All Things, But Neither Heaven Nor Earth Containeth Him.
• Chap. IV.—: The Majesty of God Is Supreme, and His Virtues Inexplicable.
• Chap. V.—: He Seeks Rest In God, and Pardon of His Sins.
• Chap. VI.—: He Describes His Infancy, and Lauds the Protection and Eternal Providence of God.
• Chap. VII.—: He Shows By Example That Even Infancy Is Prone to Sin.
• Chap. VIII.—: That When a Boy He Learned to Speak, Not By Any Set Method, But From the Acts and Words of His Parents.
• Chap. IX.—: Concerning the Hatred of Learning, the Love of Play, and the Fear of Being Whipped Noticeable In Boys: and of the Folly of Our Elders and Masters.
• Chap. X.—: Through a Love of Ball-playing and Shows, He Neglects His Studies and the Injunctions of His Parents.
• Chap. XI.—: Seized By Disease, His Mother Being Troubled, He Earnestly Demands Baptism, Which On Recovery Is Postponed—his Father Not As Yet Believing In Christ.
• Chap. XII.—: Being Compelled, He Gave His Attention to Learning; But Fully Acknowledges That This Was the Work of God.
• Chap. XIII.—: He Delighted In Latin Studies and the Empty Fables of the Poets, But Hated the Elements of Literature and the Greek Language.
• Chap. XIV.—: Why He Despised Greek Literature, and Easily Learned Latin.
• Chap. XV.—: He Entreats God, That Whatever Useful Things He Learned As a Boy May Be Dedicated to Him.
• Chap. XVI.—: He Disaproves of the Mode of Educating Youth, and He Points Out Why Wickedness Is Attributed to the Gods By the Poets.
• Chap. XVII.—: He Continues On the Unhappy Method of Training Youth In Literary Subjects.
• Chap. XVIII.—: Men Desire to Observe the Rules of Learning, But Neglect the Eternal Rules of Everlasting Safety.
• Book II.: He Advances to Puberty, and Indeed to the Early Part of the Sixteenth Year of His Age, In Which, Having Abandoned His Studies, He Indulged In Lustful Pleasures, And, With His Companions, Committed Theft.
• Chap. I.—: He Deplores the Wickedness of His Youth.
• Chap. II.—: Stricken With Exceeding Grief, He Remembers the Dissolute Passions In Which, In His Sixteenth Year, He Used to Indulge.
• Chap. III.—: Concerning His Father, a Freeman of Thagaste, the Assister of His Son’s Studies, and On the Admonitions of His Mother On the Preservation of Chastity.
• Chap. IV.—: He Commits Theft With His Companions, Not Urged On By Poverty, But From a Certain Distaste of Well-doing.
• Chap. V.—: Concerning the Motives to Sin, Which Are Not In the Love of Evil, But In the Desire of Obtaining the Property of Others.
• Chap. VI.—: Why He Delighted In That Theft, When All Things Which Under the Appearance of Good Invite to Vice Are True and Perfect In God Alone.
• Chap. VII.—: He Gives Thanks to God For the Remission of His Sins, and Reminds Every One That the Supreme God May Have Preserved Us From Greater Sins.
• Chap. VIII.—: In His Theft He Loved the Company of His Fellow-sinners.
• Chap. IX.—: It Was a Pleasure to Him Also to Laugh When Seriously Deceiving Others.
• Chap. X.—: With God There Is True Rest and Life Unchanging.
• Book III.: Of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Years of His Age, Passed At Carthage, When, Having Completed His Course of Studies, He Is Caught In the Snares of a Licentious Passion, and Falls Into the Errors of the ManichÆans.
• Chap. I.—: Deluded By an Insane Love, He, Though Foul and Dishonourable, Desires to Be Thought Elegant and Urbane.
• Chap. II.—: In Public Spectacles He Is Moved By an Empty Compassion. He Is Attacked By a Troublesome Spiritual Disease.
• Chap. III.—: Not Even When At Church Does He Suppress His Desires. In the School of Rhetoric He Abhors the Acts of the Subverters.
• Chap. IV.—: In the Nineteenth Year of His Age (his Father Having Died Two Years Before) He Is Led By the “hortensius” of Cicero to “philosophy,” to God, and a Better Mode of Thinking.
• Chap. V.—: He Rejects the Sacred Scriptures As Too Simple, and As Not to Be Compared With the Dignity of Tully.
• Chap. VI.—: Deceived By His Own Fault, He Falls Into the Errors of the ManichÆans, Who Gloried In the True Knowledge of God and In a Thorough Examination of Things.
• Chap. VII.—: He Attacks the Doctrine of the ManichÆans Concerning Evil, God, and the Righteousness of the Patriarchs.
• Chap. VIII.—: He Argues Against the Same As to the Reason of Offences.
• Chap. IX.—: That the Judgment of God and Men, As to Human Acts of Violence, Is Different.
• Chap. X.—: He Reproves the Triflings of the ManichÆans As to the Fruits of the Earth.
• Chap. XI.—: He Refers to the Tears, and the Memorable Dream Concerning Her Son, Granted By God to His Mother.
• Chap. XII.—: The Excellent Answer of the Bishop When Referred to By His Mother As to the Conversion of Her Son.
• Book IV.: Then Follows a Period of Nine Years From the Nineteenth Year of His Age, During Which Having Lost a Friend, He Followed the ManichÆans—and Wrote Books On the Fair and Fit, and Published a Work On the Liberal Arts, and the Categories of Aristotle
• Chap. I.—: Concerning That Most Unhappy Time In Which He, Being Deceived, Deceived Others; and Concerning the Mockers of His Confession.
• Chap. II.—: He Teaches Rhetoric, the Only Thing He Loved, and Scorns the Soothsayer, Who Promised Him Victory.
• Chap. III.—: Not Even the Most Experienced Men Could Persuade Him of the Vanity of Astrology, to Which He Was Devoted.
• Chap. IV.—: Sorely Distressed By Weeping At the Death of His Friend, He Provides Consolation For Himself.
• Chap. V.—: Why Weeping Is Pleasant to the Wretched.
• Chap. VI.—: His Friend Being Snatched Away By Death, He Imagines That He Remains Only As Half.
• Chap. VII.—: Troubled By Restlessness and Grief, He Leaves His Country a Second Time For Carthage.
• Chap. VIII.—: That His Grief Ceased By Time, and the Consolation of Friends.
• Chap. IX.—: That the Love of a Human Being, However Constant In Loving and Returning Love, Perishes; While He Who Loves God Never Loses a Friend.
• Chap. X.—: That All Things Exist That They May Perish, and That We Are Not Safe Unless God Watches Over Us.
• Chap. XI.—: That Portions of the World Are Not to Be Loved; But That God, Their Author, Is Immutable, and His Word Eternal.
• Chap. XII.—: Love Is Not Condemned, But Love In God, In Whom There Is Rest Through Jesus Christ, Is to Be Preferred.
• Chap. XIII.—: Love Originates From Grace and Beauty Enticing Us.
• Chap. XIV.—: Concerning the Books Which He Wrote “on the Fair and Fit,” Dedicated to Hierius.
• Chap. XV.—: While Writing, Being Blinded By Corporeal Images, He Failed to Recognise the Spiritual Nature of God.
• Chap. XVI.—: He Very Easily Understood the Liberal Arts and the Categories of Aristotle, But Without True Fruit.
• Book V.: He Describes the Twenty-ninth Year of His Age, In Which, Having Discovered the Fallacies of the ManichÆans, He Professed Rhetoric At Rome and Milan. Having Heard Ambrose, He Begins to Come to Himself.
• Chap. I.—: That It Becomes the Soul to Praise God, and to Confess Unto Him.
• Chap. II.—: On the Vanity of Those Who Wished to Escape the Omnipotent God.
• Chap. III.—: Having Heard Faustus, the Most Learned Bishop of the ManichÆans, He Discerns That God, the Author Both of Things Animate and Inanimate, Chiefly Has Care For the Humble.
• Chap. IV.—: That the Knowledge of Terrestrial and Celestial Things Does Not Give Happiness, But the Knowledge of God Only.
• Chap. V.—: Of ManichÆus Pertinaciously Teaching False Doctrines, and Proudly Arrogating to Himself the Holy Spirit.
• Chap. VI.—: Faustus Was Indeed an Elegant Speaker, But Knew Nothing of the Liberal Sciences.
• Chap. VII.—: Clearly Seeing the Fallacies of the ManichÆans, He Retires From Them, Being Remarkably Aided By God.
• Chap. VIII.—: He Sets Out For Rome, His Mother In Vain Lamenting It.
• Chap. IX.—: Being Attacked By Fever, He Is In Great Danger.
• Chap. X.—: When He Had Left the ManichÆans, He Retained His Depraved Opinions Concerning Sin and the Origin of the Saviour.
• Chap. XI.—: Helpidius Disputed Well Against the ManichÆans As to the Authenticity of the New Testament.
• Chap. XII.—: Professing Rhetoric At Rome, He Discovers the Fraud of His Scholars.
• Chap. XIII.—: He Is Sent to Milan, That He, About to Teach Rhetoric, May Be Known By Ambrose.
• Chap. XIV.—: Having Heard the Bishop, He Perceives the Force of the Catholic Faith, Yet Doubts, After the Manner of the Modern Academics.
• Book VI.: Attaining His Thirtieth Year, He, Under the Admonition of the Discourses of Ambrose, Discovered More and More the Truth of the Catholic Doctrine, and Deliberates As to the Better Regulation of His Life.
• Chap. I.—: His Mother Having Followed Him to Milan, Declares That She Will Not Die Before Her Son Shall Have Embraced the Catholic Faith.
• Chap. II.—: She, On the Prohibition of Ambrose, Abstains From Honouring the Memory of the Martyrs.
• Chap. III.—: As Ambrose Was Occupied With Business and Study, Augustin Could Seldom Consult Him Concerning the Holy Scriptures.
• Chap. IV.—: He Recognises the Falsity of His Own Opinions, and Commits to Memory the Saying of Ambrose.
• Chap. V.—: Faith Is the Basis of Human Life; Man Cannot Discover That Truth Which Holy Scripture Has Disclosed.
• Chap. VI.—: On the Source and Cause of True Joy,—the Example of the Joyous Beggar Being Adduced.
• Chap. VII.—: He Leads to Reformation His Friend Alypius, Seized With Madness For the Circensian Games.
• Chap. VIII.—: The Same When At Rome, Being Led By Others Into the Amphitheatre, Is Delighted With the Gladiatorial Games.
• Chap. IX.—: Innocent Alypius, Being Apprehended As a Thief, Is Set At Liberty By the Cleverness of an Architect.
• Chap. X.—: The Wonderful Integrity of Alypius In Judgment. the Lasting Friendship of Nebridius With Augustin.
• Chap. XI.—: Being Troubled By His Grievous Errors, He Meditates Entering On a New Life.
• Chap. XII.—: Discussion With Alypius Concerning a Life of Celibacy.
• Chap. XIII.—: Being Urged By His Mother to Take a Wife, He Sought a Maiden That Was Pleasing Unto Him.
• Chap. XIV.—: The Design of Establishing a Common Household With His Friends Is Speedily Hindered.
• Chap. XV.—: He Dismisses One Mistress, and Chooses Another.
• Chap. XVI.—: The Fear of Death and Judgment Called Him, Believing In the Immortality of the Soul, Back From His Wickedness, Him Who Aforetime Believed In the Opinions of Epicurus.
• Book VII.: He Recalls the Beginning of His Youth, I. E. the Thirty-first Year of His Age, In Which Very Grave Errors As to the Nature of God and the Origin of Evil Being Distinguished, and the Sacred Books More Accurately Known, He At Length Arrives At
• Chap. I.—: He Regarded Not God Indeed Under the Form of a Human Body, But As a Corporeal Substance Diffused Through Space.
• Chap. II.—: The Disputation of Nebridius Against the ManichÆans, On the Question “whether God Be Corruptible Or Incorruptible.”
• Chap. III.—: That the Cause of Evil Is the Free Judgment of the Will.
• Chap. IV.—: That God Is Not Corruptible, Who, If He Were, Would Not Be God At All.
• Chap. V.—: Questions Concerning the Origin of Evil In Regard to God, Who, Since He Is the Chief Good, Cannot Be the Cause of Evil.
• Chap. VI.—: He Refutes the Divinations of the Astrologers, Deduced From the Constellations.
• Chap. VII.—: He Is Severely Exercised As to the Origin of Evil.
• Chap. VIII.—: By God’s Assistance He By Degrees Arrives At the Truth.
• Chap. IX.—: He Compares the Doctrine of the Platonists Concerning the Λόγος With the Much More Excellent Doctrine of Christianity.
• Chap. X.—: Divine Things Are the More Clearly Manifested to Him Who Withdraws Into the Recesses of His Heart.
• Chap. XI.—: That Creatures Are Mutable and God Alone Immutable.
• Chap. XII.—: Whatever Things the Good God Has Created Are Very Good.
• Chap. XIII.—: It Is Meet to Praise the Creator For the Good Things Which Are Made In Heaven and Earth.
• Chap. XIV.—: Being Displeased With Some Part of God’s Creation, He Conceives of Two Original Substances.
• Chap. XV.—: Whatever Is, Owes Its Being to God.
• Chap. XVI.—: Evil Arises Not From a Substance, But From the Perversion of the Will.
• Chap. XVII.—: Above His Changeable Mind, He Discovers the Unchangeable Author of Truth.
• Chap. XVIII.—: Jesus Christ, the Mediator, Is the Only Way of Safety.
• Chap. XIX.—: He Does Not Yet Fully Understand the Saying of John, That “the Word Was Made Flesh.”
• Chap. XX.—: He Rejoices That He Proceeded From Plato to the Holy Scriptures, and Not the Reverse.
• Chap. XXI.—: What He Found In the Sacred Books Which Are Not to Be Found In Plato.
• Book VIII.: He Finally Describes the Thirty-second Year of His Age, the Most Memorable of His Whole Life, In Which, Being Instructed By Simplicianus Concerning the Conversion of Others, and the Manner of Acting, He Is, After a Severe Struggle, Renewed In
• Chap. I.—: He, Now Given to Divine Things, and Yet Entangled By the Lusts of Love, Consults Simplicianus In Reference to the Renewing of His Mind.
• Chap. II.—: The Pious Old Man Rejoices That He Read Plato and the Scriptures, and Tells Him of the Rhetorician Victorinus Having Been Converted to the Faith Through the Reading of the Sacred Books.
• Chap. III.—: That God and the Angels Rejoice More On the Return of One Sinner Than of Many Just Persons.
• Chap. IV.—: He Shows By the Example of Victorinus That There Is More Joy In the Conversion of Nobles.
• Chap. V.—: Of the Causes Which Alienate Us From God.
• Chap. VI.—: Pontitianus’ Account of Antony, the Founder of Monachism, and of Some Who Imitated Him.
• Chap. VII.—: He Deplores His Wretchedness, That Having Been Born Thirty-two Years, He Had Not Yet Found Out the Truth.
• Chap. VIII.—: The Conversation With Alypius Being Ended, He Retires to the Garden, Whither His Friend Follows Him.
• Chap. IX.—: That the Mind Commandeth the Mind, But It Willeth Not Entirely.
• Chap. X.—: He Refutes the Opinion of the ManichÆans As to Two Kinds of Minds,—one Good and the Other Evil.
• Chap. XI.—: In What Manner the Spirit Struggled With the Flesh, That It Might Be Freed From the Bondage of Vanity.
• Chap. XII.—: Having Prayed to God, He Pours Forth a Shower of Tears, And, Admonished By a Voice, He Opens the Book and Reads the Words In Rom. XIII. 13; By Which, Being Changed In His Whole Soul, He Discloses the Divine Favour to His Friend and His Mother
• Book IX.: He Speaks of His Design of Forsaking the Profession of Rhetoric; of the Death of His Friends, Nebridius and Verecundus; of Having Received Baptism In the Thirty-third Year of His Age; and of the Virtues and Death of His Mother, Monica.
• Chap. I.—: He Praises God, the Author of Safety, and Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, Acknowledging His Own Wickedness.
• Chap. II.—: As His Lungs Were Affected, He Meditates Withdrawing Himself From Public Favour.
• Chap. III.—: He Retires to the Villa of His Friend Verecundus, Who Was Not Yet a Christian, and Refers to His Conversion and Death, As Well As That of Nebridius.
• Chap. IV.—: In the Country He Gives His Attention to Literature, and Explains the Fourth Psalm In Connection With the Happy Conversion of Alypius. He Is Troubled With Toothache.
• Chap. V.—: At the Recommendation of Ambrose, He Reads the Prophecies of Isaiah, But Does Not Understand Them.
• Chap. VI.—: He Is Baptized At Milan With Alypius and His Son Adeodatus. the Book “de Magistro.”
• Chap. VII.—: Of the Church Hymns Instituted At Milan; of the Ambrosian Persecution Raised By Justina; and of the Discovery of the Bodies of Two Martyrs.
• Chap. VIII.—: Of the Conversion of Evodius, and the Death of His Mother When Returning With Him to Africa; and Whose Education He Tenderly Relates.
• Chap. IX.—: He Describes the Praiseworthy Habits of His Mother; Her Kindness Towards Her Husband and Her Sons.
• Chap. X.—: A Conversation He Had With His Mother Concerning the Kingdom of Heaven.
• Chap. XI.—: His Mother, Attacked By Fever, Dies At Ostia.
• Chap. XII.—: How He Mourned His Dead Mother.
• Chap. XIII.—: He Entreats God For Her Sins, and Admonishes His Readers to Remember Her Piously.
• Book X.: Having Manifested What He Was and What He Is, He Shows the Great Fruit of His Confession; and Being About to Examine By What Method God and the Happy Life May Be Found, He Enlarges On the Nature and Power of Memory. Then He Examines His Own Acts,
• Chap. I.—: In God Alone Is the Hope and Joy of Man.
• Chap. II.—: That All Things Are Manifest to God. That Confession Unto Him Is Not Made By the Words of the Flesh, But of the Soul, and the Cry of Reflection.
• Chap. III.—: He Who Confesseth Rightly Unto God Best Knoweth Himself.
• Chap. IV.—: That In His Confessions He May Do Good, He Considers Others.
• Chap. V.—: That Man Knoweth Not Himself Wholly.
• Chap. VI.—: The Love of God, In His Nature Superior to All Creatures, Is Acquired By the Knowledge of the Senses and the Exercise of Reason.
• Chap. VII.—: That God Is to Be Found Neither From the Powers of the Body Nor of the Soul.
• Chap. VIII.—: Of the Nature and the Amazing Power of Memory.
• Chap. IX.—: Not Only Things, But Also Literature and Images, Are Taken From the Memory, and Are Brought Forth By the Act of Remembering.
• Chap. X.—: Literature Is Not Introduced to the Memory Through the Senses, But Is Brought Forth From Its More Secret Places.
• Chap. XI.—: What It Is to Learn and to Think.
• Chap. XII.—: On the Recollection of Things Mathematical.
• Chap. XIII.—: Memory Retains All Things.
• Chap. XIV.—: Concerning the Manner In Which Joy and Sadness May Be Brought Back to the Mind and Memory.
• Chap. XV.—: In Memory There Are Also Images of Things Which Are Absent.
• Chap. XVI.—: The Privation of Memory Is Forgetfulness.
• Chap. XVII.—: God Cannot Be Attained Unto By the Power of Memory, Which Beasts and Birds Possess.
• Chap. XVIII.—: A Thing When Lost Could Not Be Found Unless It Were Retained In the Memory.
• Chap. XIX.—: What It Is to Remember.
• Chap. XX.—: We Should Not Seek For God and the Happy Life Unless We Had Known It.
• Chap. XXI.—: How a Happy Life May Be Retained In the Memory.
• Chap. XXII.—: A Happy Life Is to Rejoice In God, and For God.
• Chap. XXIII.—: All Wish to Rejoice In the Truth.
• Chap. XXIV.—: He Who Finds Truth, Finds God.
• Chap. XXV.—: He Is Glad That God Dwells In His Memory.
• Chap. XXVI.—: God Everywhere Answers Those Who Take Counsel of Him.
• Chap. XXVII.—: He Grieves That He Was So Long Without God.
• Chap. XXVIII.—: On the Misery of Human Life.
• Chap. XXIX.—: All Hope Is In the Mercy of God.
• Chap. XXX.—: Of the Perverse Images of Dreams, Which He Wishes to Have Taken Away.
• Chap. XXXI.—: About to Speak of the Temptations of the Lust of the Flesh, He First Complains of the Lust of Eating and Drinking.
• Chap. XXXII.—: Of the Charms of Perfumes Which Are More Easily Overcome.
• Chap. XXXIII.—: He Overcame the Pleasures of the Ear, Although In the Church He Frequently Delighted In the Song, Not In the Thing Sung.
• Chap. XXXIV.—: Of the Very Dangerous Allurements of the Eyes; On Account of Beauty of Form, God, the Creator, Is to Be Praised.
• Chap. XXXV.—: Another Kind of Temptation Is Curiosity, Which Is Stimulated By the Lust of the Eyes.
• Chap. XXXVI.—: A Third Kind Is “pride,” Which Is Pleasing to Man, Not to God.
• Chap. XXXVII.—: He Is Forcibly Goaded On By the Love of Praise.
• Chap. XXXVIII.—: Vain-glory Is the Highest Danger.
• Chap. XXXIX.—: Of the Vice of Those Who, While Pleasing Themselves, Displease God.
• Chap. XI.—: The Only Safe Resting-place For the Soul Is to Be Found In God.
• Chap. Xli.—: Having Conquered His Triple Desire, He Arrives At Salvation.
• Chap. Xlii.—: In What Manner Many Sought the Mediator.
• Chap. Xliii.—: That Jesus Christ, At the Same Time God and Man, Is the True and Most Efficacious Mediator.
• Book XI.: The Design of His Confessions Being Declared, He Seeks From God the Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and Begins to Expound the Words of Genesis I. 1, Concerning the Creation of the World. the Questions of Rash Disputers Being Refuted, “what Did
• Chap. I.—: By Confession He Desires to Stimulate Towards God His Own Love and That of His Readers.
• Chap. Ii—: He Begs of God That Through the Holy Scriptures He May Be Led to Truth.
• Chap. III.—: He Begins From the Creation of the World—not Understanding the Hebrew Text.
• Chap. IV.—: Heaven and Earth Cry Out That They Have Been Created By God.
• Chap. V.—: God Created the World Not From Any Certain Matter, But In His Own Word.
• Chap. VI.—: He Did Not, However, Create It By a Sounding and Passing Word.
• Chap. VII.—: By His Co-eternal Word He Speaks, and All Things Are Done.
• Chap. VIII.—: That Word Itself Is the Beginning of All Things, In the Which We Are Instructed As to Evangelical Truth.
• Chap. IX.—: Wisdom and the Beginning.
• Chap. X.—: The Rashness of Those Who Inquire What God Did Before He Created Heaven and Earth.
• Chap. XI.—: They Who Ask This Have Not As Yet Known the Eternity of God, Which Is Exempt From the Relation of Time.
• Chap. XII.—: What God Did Before the Creation of the World.
• Chap. XIII.—: Before the Times Created By God, Times Were Not.
• Chap. XIV.—: Neither Time Past Nor Future, But the Present Only, Really Is.
• Chap. XV.—: There Is Only a Moment of Present Time.
• Chap. XVI.—: Time Can Only Be Perceived Or Measured While It Is Passing.
• Chap. XVII.—: Nevertheless There Is Time Past and Future.
• Chap. XVIII.—: Past and Future Times Cannot Be Thought of But As Present.
• Chap. XIX.—: We Are Ignorant In What Manner God Teaches Future Things.
• Chap. XX.—: In What Manner Time May Properly Be Designated.
• Chap. XXI.—: How Time May Be Measured.
• Chap. XXII.—: He Prays God That He Would Explain This Most Entangled Enigma.
• Chap. XXIII.—: That Time Is a Certain Extension.
• Chap. XXIV.—: That Time Is Not a Motion of a Body Which We Measure By Time.
• Chap. XXV.—: He Calls On God to Enlighten His Mind.
• Chap. XXVI.—: We Measure Longer Events By Shorter In Time.
• Chap. XXVII.—: Times Are Measured In Proportion As They Pass By.
• Chap. XXVIII.—: Time In the Human Mind, Which Expects, Considers, and Remembers.
• Chap. XXIX.—: That Human Life Is a Distraction, But That Through the Mercy Or God He Was Intent On the Prize of His Heavenly Calling.
• Chap. XXX.—: Again He Refutes the Empty Question, “what Did God Before the Creation of the World?”
• Chap. XXXI.—: How the Knowledge of God Differs From That of Man.
• Book XII.: He Continues His Explanation of the First Chapter of Genesis According to the Septuagint, and By Its Assistance He Argues, Especially, Concerning the Double Heaven, and the Formless Matter Out of Which the Whole World May Have Been Created; Aft
• Chap. I.—: The Discovery of Truth Is Difficult, But God Has Promised That He Who Seeks Shall Find.
• Chap. II.—: Of the Double Heaven,—the Visible, and the Heaven of Heavens.
• Chap. III.—: Of the Darkness Upon the Deep, and of the Invisible and Formless Earth.
• Chap. IV.—: From the Formlessness of Matter, the Beautiful World Has Arisen.
• Chap. V.—: What May Have Been the Form of Matter.
• Chap. VI.—: He Confesses That At One Time He Himself Thought Erroneously of Matter.
• Chap. VII.—: Out of Nothing God Made Heaven and Earth.
• Chap. VIII.—: Heaven and Earth Were Made “in the Beginning;” Afterwards the World, During Six Days, From Shapeless Matter.
• Chap. IX.—: That the Heaven of Heavens Was an Intellectual Creature, But That the Earth Was Invisible and Formless Before the Days That It Was Made.
• Chap. X.—: He Begs of God That He May Live In the True Light, and May Be Instructed As to the Mysteries of the Sacred Books.
• Chap. XI.—: What May Be Discovered to Him By God.
• Chap. XII.—: From the Formless Earth God Created Another Heaven and a Visible and Formed Earth.
• Chap. XIII.—: Of the Intellectual Heaven and Formless Earth, Out of Which, On Another Day, the Firmament Was Formed.
• Chap. XIV.—: Of the Depth of the Sacred Scripture, and Its Enemies.
• Chap. XV.—: He Argues Against Adversaries Concerning the Heaven of Heavens.
• Chap. XVI.—: He Wishes to Have No Intercourse With Those Who Deny Divine Truth.
• Chap. XVII.—: He Mentions Five Explanations of the Words of Genesis 1. I.
• Chap. XVIII.—: What Error Is Harmless In Sacred Scripture.
• Chap. XIX.—: He Enumerates the Things Concerning Which All Agree.
• Chap. Xx—: of the Words, “in the Beginning,” Variously Understood.
• Chap. XXI.—: Of the Explanation of the Words, “the Earth Was Invisible.”
• Chap. XXII.—: He Discusses Whether Matter Was From Eternity, Or Was Made By God. 1
• Chap. XXIII.—: Two Kinds of Disagreements In the Books to Be Explained.
• Chap. XXIV.—: Out of the Many True Things, It Is Not Asserted Confidently That Moses Understood This Or That.
• Chap. XXV.—: It Behoves Interpreters, When Disagreeing Concerning Obscure Places, to Regard God the Author of Truth, and the Rule of Charity.
• Chap. XXVI.—: What He Might Have Asked of God Had He Been Enjoined to Write the Book of Genesis.
• Chap. XXVII.—: The Style of Speaking In the Book of Genesis Is Simple and Clear.
• Chap. XXVIII.—: The Words, “in the Beginning,” And, “the Heaven and the Earth,” Are Differently Understood.
• Chap. XXIX.—: Concerning the Opinion of Those Who Explain It “at First He Made.”
• Chap. XXX.—: In the Great Diversity of Opinions, It Becomes All to Unite Charity and Divine Truth.
• Chap. XXXI.—: Moses Is Supposed to Have Perceived Whatever of Truth Can Be Discovered In His Words.
• Chap. XXXII.—: First, the Sense of the Writer Is to Be Discovered, Then That Is to Be Brought Out Which Divine Truth Intended.
• Book XIII.: Of the Goodness of God Explained In the Creation of Things, and of the Trinity As Found In the First Words of Genesis. the Story Concerning the Origin of the World (gen. I.) Is Allegorically Explained, and He Applies It to Those Things Which G
• Chap. I.—: He Calls Upon God, and Proposes to Himself to Worship Him.
• Chap. II.—: All Creatures Subsist From the Plenitude of Divine Goodness.
• Chap. III.—: Genesis I. 3,—of “light,”—he Understands As It Is Seen In the Spiritual Creature.
• Chap. IV.—: All Things Have Been Created By the Grace of God, and Are Not of Him As Standing In Need of Created Things.
• Chap. V.—: He Recognises the Trinity In the First Two Verses of Genesis.
• Chap. VI.—: Why the Holy Ghost Should Have Been Mentioned After the Mention of Heaven and Earth.
• Chap. VII.—: That the Holy Spirit Brings Us to God.
• Chap. VIII.—: That Nothing Whatever, Short of God, Can Yield to the Rational Creature a Happy Rest.
• Chap. IX.—: Why the Holy Spirit Was Only “borne Over” the Waters.
• Chap. X.—: That Nothing Arose Save By the Gift of God.
• Chap. XI.—: That the Symbols of the Trinity In Man, to Be, to Know, and to Will, Are Never Thoroughly Examined.
• Chap. XII.—: Allegorical Explanation of Genesis, Chap. I., Concerning the Origin of the Church and Its Worship.
• Chap. XIII.—: That the Renewal of Man Is Not Completed In This World.
• Chap. XIV.—: That Out of the Children of the Night and of the Darkness, Children of the Light and of the Day Are Made.
• Chap. XV.—: Allegorical Explanation of the Firmament and Upper Works, Ver. 6.
• Chap. XVI.—: That No One But the Unchangeable Light Knows Himself.
• Chap. XVII.—: Allegorical Explanation of the Sea and the Fruit-bearing Earth—verses 9 and 11.
• Chap. XVIII.—: Of the Lights and Stars of Heaven—of Day and Night, Ver. 14.
• Chap. XIX.—: All Men Should Become Lights In the Firmament of Heaven.
• Chap. XX.—: Concerning Reptiles and Flying Creatures (ver. 20),—the Sacrament of Baptism Being Regarded.
• Chap. XXI.—: Concerning the Living Soul, Birds, and Fishes (ver. 24),—the Sacrament of the Fucharist Being Regarded.
• Chap. XXII.—: He Explains the Divine Image (ver. 26) of the Renewal of the Mind.
• Chap. XXIII.—: That to Have Power Over All Things (ver. 26) Is to Judge Spiritually of All.
• Chap. XXIV.—: Why God Has Blessed Men, Fishes, Flying Creatures, and Not Herbs and the Other Animais (ver. 28).
• Chap. XXV.—: He Explains the Fruits of the Earth (ver. 29) of Works of Mercy.
• Chap. XXVI.—: In the Confessing of Benefits, Computation Is Made Not As to the “gift,” But As to the “fruit,”—that Is, the Good and Right Will of the Giver.
• Chap. XXVII.—: Many Are Ignorant As to This, and Ask For Miracles, Which Are Signified Under the Names of “fishes” and “whales.”
• Chap. XXVIII.—: The Proceeds to the Last Verse, “all Things Are Very Good,”—that Is, the Work Being Altogether Good.
• Chap. XXIX.—: Although It Is Said Eight Times That “god Saw That It Was Good,” Yet Time Has No Relation to God and His Word.
• Chap. XXX.—: He Refutes the Opinions of the ManichÆans and the Gnostics Concerning the Origin of the World.
• Chap. XXXI.—: We Do Not See “that It Was Good” But Through the Spirit of God, Which Is In Us.
• Chap. XXXII.—: Of the Particular Works of God, More Especially of Man.
• Chap. XXXIII.—: The World Was Created By God Out of Nothing.
• Chap. XXXIV.—: He Briefly Repeats the Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis (ch. I.), And Confesses That We See It By the Divine Spirit.
• Chap. XXXV.—: He Prays God For That Peace of Rest Which Hath No Evening.
• Chap. XXXVI.—: The Seventh Day, Without Evening and Setting, the Image of Eternal Life and Rest In God.
• Chap. XXXVII.—: Of Rest In God, Who Ever Worketh, and Yet Is Ever At Rest.
• Chap. XXXVIII.—: Of the Difference Between the Knowledge of God and of Men, and of the Repose Which Is to Be Sought From God Only.
• Letters of St. Augustin.
• Preface.
• Prefatory Note.
• First Division.
• Letter I. ( 386.)
• Letter II. ( 386.)
• Letter III. ( 387.)
• Letter IV. ( 387.)
• Letter V. ( 388.)
• Letter VI. ( 389.)
• Letter VII. ( 389.)
• Letter VIII. ( 389.)
• Letter IX. ( 389.)
• Letter X. ( 389.)
• Letter XI. ( 389.)
• Letter XII. ( 389.)
• Letter XIII. ( 389.)
• Letter XIV. ( 389.)
• Letter XV. ( 390.)
• Letter XVI. ( 390.)
• Letter XVII. ( 390.)
• Letter XVIII. ( 390.)
• Letter XIX. ( 390.)
• Letter XX. ( 390.)
• Letter XXI. ( 391.)
• Letter XXII. ( 392.)
• Letter XXIII. ( 392.)
• Letter XXIV.
• Letter XXV. ( 394.)
• Letter XXVI. ( 395.)
• Letter XXVII. ( 395.)
• Letter XXVIII. ( 394 Or 395.)
• Letter XXIX. ( 395.)
• Letter XXX. ( 396.)
• Second Division. Letters Which Were Written By Augustin After His Becoming Bishop of Hippo, and Before the Conference Held With the Donatists At Carthage, and the Discovery of the Heresy of Pelagius In Africa ( 396-410).
• Letter XXXI. ( 396.)
• Letter XXXII.
• Letter XXXIII. ( 396.)
• Letter XXXIV. ( 396.)
• Letter XXXV. ( 396.)
• Letter XXXVI. ( 396.)
• Letter XXXVII. ( 397.)
• Letter XXXVIII. ( 397.)
• Letter XXXIX. ( 397.)
• Letter Xl. ( 397.)
• Letter Xli. ( 397.)
• Letter Xlii. ( 397.)
• Letter Xliii. ( 397.)
• Letter Xliv. ( 398.)
• Letter Xlv.
• Letter Xlvi. ( 398.)
• Letter Xlvii. ( 398.)
• Letter Xlviii. ( 398.)
• Letter Xlix.
• Letter L. 13 ( 399.)
• Letter Li. ( 399 Or 400.)
• Letter Lii.
• Letter Liii. ( 400.)
• Letter Liv.
• Letter Lv.
• Letters Lvi. and Lvii.
• Letter Lviii. ( 401.)
• Letter Lix. ( 401.)
• Letter Lx. ( 401.)
• Letter Lxi. ( 401.)
• Letter Lxii. ( 401.)
• Letter Lxiii. ( 401.)
• Letter Lxiv. ( 401.)
• Letter Lxv. ( 402.)
• Letter Lxvi. ( 402.)
• Letter Lxvii. ( 402.)
• Letter Lxviii. ( 402.)
• Letter Lxix. ( 402.)
• Letter Lxx. ( 402.)
• Letter Lxxi. ( 403.)
• Letter Lxxii. ( 404.)
• Letter Lxxiii. ( 404.)
• Letter Lxxiv. ( 404.)
• Letter Lxxv. ( 404.)
• Letter Lxxvi. ( 402.)
• Letter Lxxvii. ( 404.)
• Letter Lxxviii. ( 404.)
• Letter Lxxix. ( 404.)
• Letter Lxxx. ( 404.)
• Letter Lxxxi. ( 405.)
• Letter Lxxxii. ( 405.)
• Letter Lxxxiii. ( 405.)
• Letter Lxxxiv. ( 405.)
• Letter Lxxxv. ( 405.)
• Letter Lxxxvi. ( 405.)
• Letter Lxxxvii. ( 405.)
• Letter Lxxxviii. ( 406.)
• Letter Lxxxix. ( 406.)
• Letter XC. ( 408.)
• Letter XCI. ( 408.)
• Letter XCII. ( 408.)
• Letter XCIII. ( 408.)
• Letter XCIV. ( 408.)
• Letter XCV. ( 408.)
• Letter XCVI. ( 408.)
• Letter XCVII. ( 408.)
• Letter XCVIII. ( 408.)
• Letter XCIX. ( 408 Or Beginning of 409.)
• Letter C. ( 409.)
• Letter CI. ( 409.)
• Letter CII. ( 409.)
• Letter CIII. ( 409.)
• Letter CIV. ( 409.)
• Letter CXI. ( November, 409.)
• Letter CXV. ( 410.)
• Letter CXVI.
• Letter CXVII. ( 410.)
• Letter CXVIII. ( 410.)
• Letter CXXII. ( 410.)
• Letter CXXIII. ( 410.)
• Third Division. Letters Which Were Written By Augustin After the Time of the Conference With the Donatists and the Rise of the Pelagian Heresy In Africa; I.E., During the Last Twenty Years of His Life ( 411-430).
• Letter CXXIV. ( 411.)
• Letter CXXV. ( 411.)
• Letter CXXVI. ( 411.)
• Letter CXXX. ( 412.)
• Letter CXXXI. ( 412.)
• Letter CXXXII. ( 412.)
• Letter CXXXIII. ( 412.)
• Letter CXXXV. ( 412.)
• Letter CXXXVI. ( 412.)
• Letter CXXXVII. ( 412.)
• Letter CXXXVIII. ( 412.)
• Letter CXXXIX. ( 412.)
• Letter Cxliii. ( 412.)
• Letter Cxliv. ( 412.)
• Letter Cxlv. ( 412 Or 413.)
• Letter Cxlvi. ( 413.)
• Letter Cxlviii. ( 413.)
• Letter Cl. ( 413.)
• Letter Cli. ( 413 Or 414.)
• Letter Clviii. ( 414.)
• Letter Clix. ( 415.)
• Letter Clxiii. ( 414.)
• Letter Clxiv. ( 414.)
• Letter Clxv. ( 410. 1 )
• Letter Clxvi. ( 415.)
• Letter Clxvii. ( 415.)
• Letter Clxix. ( 415.)
• Letter Clxxii. ( 416.)
• Letter Clxxiii. ( 416.)
• Letter Clxxx. ( 416.)
• Letter Clxxxviii. ( 416.)
• Letter Clxxxix. ( 418.)
• Letter CXCI. ( 418.)
• Letter CXCII. ( 418.)
• Letter CXCV. ( 418.)
• Letter CCI. ( 419.)
• Letter CCII. ( 419.)
• Letter CCIII. ( 420.)
• Letter CCVIII. ( 423.)
• Letter CCIX. ( 423.)
• Letter CCX. ( 423.)
• Letter CCXI. ( 423.)
• Letter CCXII. ( 423.)
• Letter CCXIII. ( September 26th, 426.)
• Letter CCXVIII. ( 426.)
• Letter CCXIX. ( 426.)
• Letter CCXX. ( 427.)
• Letter CCXXVII. ( 428 Or 429.)
• Letter CCXXVIII. ( 428 Or 429.)
• Letter CCXXIX. ( 429.)
• Letter CCXXXI. ( 429.)
• Fourth Division. [hitherto the Order Followed In the Arrangement of the Letters Has Been the Chronological. It Being Impossible to Ascertain Definitely the Date of Composition of Thirty-nine of the Letters, These Have Been Placed By the Benedictine Edi
• Letter CCXXXII.
• Letter CCXXXVII.
• Letter Ccxlv.
• Letter Ccxlvi.
• Letter Ccl.
• Letter Ccliv.
• Letter Cclxiii.
• Letter Cclxix.
• First Series.
• Contributors. Philip Schaff, D. D., Editor-in-chief.
• Names of Translators and Editors.
• Works.

LETTER XXIII.

( 392.)

to maximin, my well-beloved lord and brother, worthy of honour, augustin, presbyter of the catholic church, sends greeting in the lord.

1. Before entering on the subject on which I have resolved to write to your Grace, I shall briefly state my reasons for the terms used in the title of this letter, lest these should surprise either yourself or any other person. I have written “to my lord,” because it is written: “Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”1 Seeing, therefore, that in this duty of writing to you I am actually by love serving you, I do only what is reasonable in calling you “my lord,” for the sake of that one true Lord who gave us this command. Again, as to my having written “well-beloved,” God knoweth that I not only love you, but love you as I love myself; for I am well aware that I desire for you the very blessings which I am fain to make my own. As to my adding the words “worthy of honour,” I did not mean, by adding this, to say that I honour your episcopal office, for to me you are not a bishop; and this I trust you will take as spoken with no intention to give offence, but from the conviction that in our mouth Yea should be Yea, and Nay, Nay: for neither you nor any one who knows us can fail to know that you are not my bishop, and I am not your presbyter. “Worthy of honour” I therefore willingly call you on this ground, that I know you to be a man; and I know that man was made in the image and likeness of God, and is placed in honour by the very order and law of nature, if by understanding the things which he ought to understand he retain his honour. For it is written, “Man being placed in honour did not understand: he is compared to the brutes devoid of reason, and is made like unto them.”2 Why then may I not address you as worthy of honour, inasmuch as you are a man, especially since I dare not despair of your repentance and salvation so long as you are in this life? Moreover, as to my calling you “brother,” you are well acquainted with the precept divinely given to us, according to which we are to say, “Ye are our brethren,” even to those who deny that they are our brethren; and this has much to do with the reason which has made me resolve to write to you, my brother. Now that the reason for my making such an introduction to my letter has been given, I bespeak your calm attention to what follows.

2. When I was in your district, and was with all my power expressing my abhorrence of the sad and deplorable custom followed by men who, though they boast of the name of Christians, do not hesitate to rebaptize Christians, there were not wanting some who said in praise of you, that you do not conform to this custom. I confess that at first I did not believe them; but afterwards, considering that it was possible for the fear of God to take possession of a human soul exercised in meditation upon the life to come, in such a way as to restrain a man from most manifest wickedness, I believed their statement, rejoicing that by holding such a resolution you showed yourself averse to complete alienation from the Catholic Church. I was even on the outlook for an opportunity of conversing with you, in order that, if it were possible, the small difference which still remained between us might be taken away, when, behold, a few days ago it was reported to me that you had rebaptized a deacon of ours belonging to Mutugenna! I was deeply grieved both for his melancholy fall and for your sin, my brother, which surprised and disappointed me. For I know what the Catholic Church is. The nations are Christ’s inheritance, and the ends of the earth are His possession. You also know what the Catholic Church is; or if you do not know it, apply your attention to discern it, for it may be very easily known by those who are willing to be taught. Therefore, to rebaptize even a heretic who has received in baptism the seal of holiness which the practice3 of the Christian Church has transmitted to us, is unquestionably a sin; but to rebaptize a Catholic is one of the worst of crimes. As I did not, however, believe the report, because I still retained my favourable impression of you, I went in person to Mutugenna. The miserable man himself I did not succeed in finding, but I learned from his parents that he had been made one of your deacons. Nevertheless I still think so favourably of you, that I will not believe that he has been rebaptized.

3. Wherefore, my beloved brother, I beseech you, by the divine and human natures of our Lord Jesus Christ, have the kindness to reply to this letter, telling me what has been done, and so to write as knowing that I intend to read your letter aloud to our brethren in the church. This I have written, lest, by afterwards doing that which you did not expect me to do, I should give offence to your Charity, and give you occasion for making a just complaint against me to our common friends. What can reasonably prevent you from answering this letter I do not see. For if you do rebaptize, you have nothing to apprehend from your colleagues when you write that you are doing that which they would command you to do even if you were unwilling; and if you, moreover, defend this by the best arguments known to you, as a thing which ought to be done, your colleagues, so far from being displeased on this account, will praise you. But if you do not rebaptize, hold fast your Christian liberty, my brother Maximin; hold it fast, I implore you: fixing your eye on Christ, fear not the censure, tremble not before the power of any man. Fleeting is the honour of this world, and fleeting are all the objects to which earthly ambition aspires. Neither thrones ascended by flights of steps,1 nor canopied pulpits,2 nor processions and chantings of crowds of consecrated virgins, shall be admitted as available for the defence of those who have now these honours, when at the judgment-seat of Christ conscience shall begin to lift its accusing voice, and He who is the Judge of the consciences of men shall pronounce the final sentence. What is here esteemed an honour shall then be a burden: what uplifts men here, shall weigh heavily on them in that day. Those things which meanwhile are done for the Church’s welfare as tokens of respect to us, shall then be vindicated, it may be, by a conscience void of offence; but they will avail nothing as a screen for a guilty conscience.

4. If, then, it be indeed the case that, under the promptings of a devout and pious mind, you abstain from dispensing a second baptism, and rather accept the baptism of the Catholic Church as the act of the one true Mother, who to all nations both offers a welcome to her bosom, that they may be regenerated, and gives a mother’s nourishment to them when they are regenerated, and as the token of admission into Christ’s one possession, which reaches to the ends of the earth; if, I say, you indeed do this, why do you not break forth into a joyful and independent confession of your sentiments? Why do you hide under a bushel the lamp which might so profitably shine? Why do you not rend and cast from you the old sordid livery of your craven-hearted bondage, and go forth clad in the panoply of Christian boldness, saying, “I know but one baptism consecrated and sealed with the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost: this sacrament, wherever I find it, I am bound to acknowledge and approve; I do not destroy what I discern to be my Lord’s, I do not treat with dishonour the banner of my King”? Even the men who parted the raiment of Christ among them did not rudely rend in pieces the seamless robe;3 and they were men who had not then any faith in Christ’s resurrection; nay, they were witnessing His death. If, then, persecutors forbore from rending the vesture of Christ when He was hanging upon the cross, why should Christians destroy the sacrament of His institution now when He is sitting in heaven upon His throne? Had I been a Jew in the time of that ancient people, when there was nothing better that I could be, I would undoubtedly have received circumcision. That “seal of the righteousness which is by faith” was of so great importance in that dispensation before it was abrogated4 by the Lord’s coming, that the angel would have strangled the infant-child of Moses, had not the child’s mother, seizing a stone, circumcised the child, and by this sacrament averted impending death.5 This sacrament also arrested the waters of the Jordan, and made them flow back towards their source. This sacrament the Lord Himself received in infancy, although He abrogated it when He was crucified. For these signs of spiritual blessings were not condemned, but gave place to others which were more suitable to the later dispensation. For as circumcision was abolished by the first coming of the Lord, so baptism shall be abolished by His second coming. For as now, since the liberty of faith has come, and the yoke of bondage has been removed, no Christian receives circumcision in the flesh; so then, when the just are reigning with the Lord, and the wicked have been condemned, no one shall be baptized, but the reality which both ordinances prefigure—namely, circumcision of the heart and cleansing of the conscience—shall be eternally abiding. If, therefore, I had been a Jew in the time of the former dispensation, and there had come to me a Samaritan who was willing to become a Jew, abandoning the error which the Lord Himself condemned when He said, “Ye worship ye know not what; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews;”6 —if, I say, a Samaritan whom Samaritans had circumcised had expressed his willingness to become a Jew, there would have been no scope for the boldness which would have insisted on the repetition of the rite; and instead of this, we would have been compelled to approve of that which God had commanded, although it had been done by heretics. But if, in the flesh of a circumcised man, I could not find place for the repetition of the circumcision, because there is but one member which is circumcised, much less is place found in the one heart of man for the repetition of the baptism of Christ. Ye, therefore, who wish to baptize twice, must seek as subjects of such double baptism men who have double hearts.

5. Publish frankly, therefore, that you are doing what is right, if it be the case that you do not rebaptize; and write me to that effect, not only without fear, but with joy. Let no Councils of your party deter you, my brother, from this step: for if this displease them, they are not worthy to have you among them; but if it please them, we trust that there shall soon be peace between you and us, through the mercy of our Lord, who never forsakes those who fear to displease Him, and who labour to do what is acceptable in His sight; and let not our honours—a dangerous burden, of which an account must yet be given—be a hindrance, making it unhappily impossible for our people who believe in Christ, and who share with one another in daily bread at home, to sit down at the same table of Christ. Do we not grievously lament that husband and wife do in most cases, when marriage makes them one flesh, vow mutual fidelity in the name of Christ, and yet rend asunder Christ’s own body by belonging to separate communions? If, by your moderate measures and wisdom, and by your exercise of that love which we all owe to Him who shed His blood for us, this schism, which is such a grievous scandal, causing Satan to triumph and many souls to perish, be taken out of the way in these parts, who can adequately express how illustrious is the reward which the Lord prepares for you, in that from you should proceed an example which, if imitated, as it may so easily be, would bring health to all His other members, which throughout the whole of Africa are lying now miserably exhausted? How much I fear lest, since you cannot see my heart, I appear to you to speak rather in irony than in the sincerity of love! But what more can I do than present my words before your eye, and my heart before God?

6. Let us put away from between us those vain objections which are wont to be thrown at each other by the ignorant on either side. Do not on your part cast up to me the persecutions of Macarius. I, on mine, will not reproach you with the excesses of the Circumcelliones. If you are not to blame for the latter, neither am I for the former; they pertain not to us. The Lord’s floor is not yet purged—it cannot be without chaff; be it ours to pray, and to do what in us lies that we may be good grain. I could not pass over in silence the rebaptizing of our deacon; for I know how much harm my silence might do to myself. For I do not propose to spend my time in the empty enjoyment of ecclesiastical dignity; but I propose to act as mindful of this, that to the one Chief Shepherd I must give account of the sheep committed unto me. If you would rather that I should not thus write to you, you must, my brother, excuse me on the ground of my fears; for I do fear greatly, lest, if I were silent and concealed my sentiments, others might be rebaptized by you. I have resolved, therefore, with such strength and opportunity as the Lord may grant, so to manage this discussion, that by our peaceful conferences, all who belong to our communion may know how far apart from heresy and schism is the position of the Catholic Church, and with what care they should guard against the destruction which awaits the tares and the branches cut off from the Lord’s vine. If you willingly accede to such conference with me, by consenting to the public reading of the letters of both, I shall unspeakably rejoice. If this proposal is displeasing to you, what can I do, my brother, but read our letters, even without your consent, to the Catholic congregation, with a view to its instruction? But if you do not condescend to write me a reply, I am resolved at least to read my own letter, that, when your misgivings as to your procedure are known, others may be ashamed to be rebaptized.

7. I shall not, however, do this in the presence of the soldiery, lest any of you should think that I wish to act in a violent way, rather than as the interests of peace demand; but only after their departure, that all who hear me may understand, that I do not propose to compel men to embrace the communion of any party, but desire the truth to be made known to persons who, in their search for it, are free from disquieting apprehensions. On our side there shall be no appeal to men’s fear of the civil power; on your side, let there be no intimidation by a mob of Circumcelliones. Let us attend to the real matter in debate, and let our arguments appeal to reason and to the authoritative teaching of the Divine Scriptures, dispassionately and calmly, so far as we are able; let us ask, seek, and knock, that we may receive and find, and that to us the door may be opened, and thereby may be achieved, by God’s blessing on our united efforts and prayers, the first step towards the entire removal from our district of that impiety which is such a disgrace to Africa. If you do not believe that I am willing to postpone the discussion until after the soldiery have left, you may delay your answer until they have gone; and if, while they are still here, I should wish to read my own letter to the people, the production of the letter will of itself convict me of breaking my word. May the Lord in His mercy prevent me from acting in a way so contrary to morality, and to the good resolutions with which, by laying His yoke on me, He has been pleased to inspire me!

8. My bishop would perhaps have preferred to send a letter himself to your Grace, if he had been here; or my letter would have been written, if not by his order, at least with his sanction. But in his absence, seeing that the rebaptizing of this deacon is said to have occurred recently, I have not by delay allowed the feelings caused by the action to cool down, being moved by the promptings of the keenest anguish on account of what I regard as really the death of a brother. This my grief the compensating joy of reconciliation between us and you may perhaps be appointed to heal, through the help of the mercy and providence of our Lord. May the Lord our God grant thee a calm and conciliatory spirit, my dearly beloved lord and brother!

[1 ]Gal. v. 13.

[2 ]Ps. xlix. 12, version of the LXX.

[3 ]Disciplina.

[1 ]Absidæ gradatæ.

[2 ]Cathedræ velatæ.

[3 ]John xix. 24.

[4 ]Evacuaretur.

[5 ]Ex. iv. 24, 25. Augustin believes that the angel sought to slay, not Moses, but the child, for which he gives reasons in his Quæstiones in Exodum. See Rosenmuller, Scholia.

[6 ]John iv. 22.