Resultados25 letters/passages
augustine_hippo · c. 402 · score 0.02
To the distinguished lord, most deservedly excellent, and greatly honored son in the love of Christ, Olympius: Augustine sends greetings in the Lord. Although as soon as we heard you had been deservedly elevated — when the very report was not yet certain to us — we believed nothing else about your disposition toward th …
augustine_hippo · c. 400 · score 0.02
… , greetings in the Lord. Against the disobedience of dissenters: the utility of imperial laws. 1. The laws that have been passed against the Donatists [imperial edicts aimed at suppressing the Donatist schism in North Africa] are for their own benefit, whatever they may think. A physician is not the patient's enemy bec …
augustine_hippo · c. 416 · score 0.02
… why, reluctantly and after much internal struggle, I came to support the use of imperial authority to break the social power of the Donatist leadership — not to force belief (which is impossible) but to create conditions in which people could hear the truth without fear. The scriptural basis for this position is the pa …
augustine_hippo · c. 402 · score 0.02
What I urge upon your Excellency by petition and suggestion, I have no doubt is the wish of all my colleagues throughout Africa. I judge that at the first opportunity it can and should easily be expedited, so that, as I said, these vain people — whose salvation we seek even as they oppose us — may know that the laws se …
augustine_hippo · c. 408 · score 0.02
Augustine to Marcellinus, greetings. You have forwarded to me the questions raised by Volusian and his circle of educated friends. Some of these questions are sharp, and I welcome them. Iron sharpens iron, and the Christian faith has nothing to fear from honest inquiry. Their chief objection, as I understand it, is thi …
augustine_hippo · c. 397 · score 0.02
… though we could move to compel you to pay the ten pounds of gold prescribed by imperial decree as the penalty for rebaptizing members of the Church — perhaps you could not even pay the fine, having spent so much money buying the very people you then compelled to undergo the rite. No, I do not tell you to fear man. I t …
augustine_hippo · c. 400 · score 0.01
… rs manufactured. 8. In the region of Hippo specifically, I must report that the imperial letters have not yet had the corrective effect we hoped for. The Donatists continue to act with intolerable aggression. I urge you, my son, to give your attention to this matter. The peace of the Church, and the safety of many inno …
augustine_hippo · c. 402 · score 0.01
… thank you for your letter, my son, and for the report on the enforcement of the imperial laws against the Donatists in your district. I know the task is unpleasant, and I know that you carry it out not from any love of coercion but from a sense of duty — both to the emperor and to the Church. Let me urge upon you only …
augustine_hippo · c. 397 · score 0.01
And you might even be warned, by the very property you have acquired, how impious are the things you have said against him. If you believe that human law secures your title to what you have bought with money, how much more securely does divine law secure Christ's title to what he has bought with his own blood? He of wh …
augustine_hippo · c. 397 · score 0.01
Alypius and Augustine to Castorius, our son deservedly beloved, worthy of honor, and to be received with respect — greetings in the Lord. A praiseworthy abdication for the peace of the Church. 1. The enemy [the devil] has certainly attempted what was in his power; but the Almighty has overcome him, to whom we sing: "Yo …
augustine_hippo · c. 401 · score 0.01
I received a letter which I have no difficulty believing to be yours, for it was brought by a man known to be a Catholic Christian who, I think, would not dare to deceive me. But even if these were not your words, I judged it necessary to write back to whoever did compose them. You may think me more desirous and seekin …
augustine_hippo · c. 391 · score 0.01
If these things please his supporters, then let his clergy and those who "sanctified" him press him to fulfill everything he vowed before his eight days of white garments are over. This young criminal's monstrous deed must not be kept silent. 4. The right hand of the Lord is powerful enough to restrain his fury from th …
augustine_hippo · c. 420 · score 0.01
Augustine to Pope Celestine, greetings. I write with a heavy heart about a serious matter involving Antoninus, formerly the bishop of Fussala. This is a situation I feel personally responsible for, and I want to lay the facts before you honestly. When the town of Fussala needed a bishop, I recommended a young man named …
augustine_hippo · c. 416 · score 0.01
… ica, it lays out the historical, theological, and practical arguments for using imperial force against the Donatists. The letter is simultaneously one of Augustine's most influential and most controversial works. It was cited by medieval inquisitors and by early modern persecutors of heresy. It was also cited by August …
augustine_hippo · c. 395 · score 0.01
Letter 58 — To Pammachius, Roman Senator (A.D. 401) To my noble and worthy lord Pammachius, my son dearly beloved in Christ — Augustine sends greetings in the Lord. The grace of Christ at work in you has given you a claim on the love of all his members, and has made you as well known and as dear to us as it is possible …
augustine_hippo · c. 402 · score 0.01
For the Lord has offered no small consolation in these troubles by willing that you should have far greater power than you had when we were already rejoicing in your many great good works. We rejoice greatly in the firm and steadfast faith of many — not a few — who have been converted to the Christian religion or Catho …
augustine_hippo · c. 402 · score 0.01
Augustine to Donatus, the proconsul of Africa, greetings. I write to you, most excellent lord, not as a bishop issuing commands to a magistrate — for that is not my place — but as a pastor making a request on behalf of people whose welfare concerns us both. Cases involving Donatists are coming before your court with in …
augustine_hippo · c. 391 · score 0.01
Augustine to Proculeianus, greetings. The titles I have prefixed to this letter — "my lord" and "honorable" and "most beloved" — I need not defend at any length. They may offend the petty prejudices of narrow-minded people, but I address you as "lord" rightly: we are both trying to free each other from error. Until the …
augustine_hippo · c. 393 · score 0.01
… le world: a schism had been made by wicked men, condemned by ecclesiastical and imperial judgment, and was sustained by nothing but obstinate fury. If, however, anyone says that the Council of Seventy was legitimate, let him first show that Caecilianus was present or lawfully summoned. But he was neither present nor su …
augustine_hippo · c. 401 · score 0.01
Why then should not the Church compel her lost sons to return, since the lost sons themselves compel others to perish? But I insist that the terror of temporal power is useful only as a preparation for instruction. The rod alone does not heal; neither does teaching alone always reach the hardened. But when the fear of …
augustine_hippo · c. 400 · score 0.01
Augustine to Emeritus, greetings. I know you have no desire to hear from me, brother. The Donatist bishop of Caesarea does not welcome letters from a Catholic bishop of Hippo. But I write anyway, because the love of Christ compels me, and because the truth does not respect the boundaries we draw between our communities …
augustine_hippo · c. 401 · score 0.01
Those who believed in Christ exalted above the heavens, even without seeing him, were nevertheless denying his glory over all the earth, even while seeing it — though the Prophet embraced both truths in one sentence. Those formerly savage enemies of ours, who heavily harassed our peace and quiet with various forms of v …
augustine_hippo · c. 392 · score 0.01
Augustine to Eusebius, my excellent lord and brother, greetings. I did not impose on you — by nagging or pleading against your reluctance — the duty of arbitrating between bishops, as you call it. Even if I had wanted to, I could easily have shown how qualified you are to judge between us in a case so clear and simple. …
augustine_hippo · c. 409 · score 0.01
Augustine to the magistrate Marcellinus, greetings. I am writing to you about the Donatist prisoners currently in your custody. I know that some of them are accused of violent acts — attacks on Catholic clergy, destruction of church property, and in certain cases, attempted murder. The evidence against several of them …
augustine_hippo · c. 391 · score 0.01
Let Samsucius be present; let him deal with Proculeianus. I will ask him, and I trust in the name of Christ that he will readily agree to take my place in this matter. The Lord will help him as he contends for the truth — unpolished in speech, perhaps, but schooled in true faith. There is therefore no reason for Procul …