Resultados25 letters/passages
augustine_hippo · c. 419 · score 0.02
… e Emperors Honorius and Theodosius, Augusti, to Bishop Aurelius — greetings. An imperial decree against the Pelagians. 1. Pelagius and Caelestius [the two chief proponents of the heresy denying original sin and the necessity of divine grace], authors of a wicked and execrable doctrine, have been condemned by the judgme …
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. 408 · score 0.02
The ruler who restrains the wicked man by force may be doing the wicked man the greatest possible service — by preventing him from committing further sins that will weigh against him at the judgment. Third: the virtues Christ commands — patience, mercy, forgiveness, humility — are not alternatives to justice. They are …
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. 423 · score 0.01
Augustine to Darius, greetings. I received your letter and your gift — a book — and I thank you for both. The letter warmed my heart. The book fed my mind. A man who sends both is a friend indeed. You say you admire my writings. I am embarrassed by praise, but I will not pretend I do not hear it. What I will say is thi …
augustine_hippo · c. 408 · score 0.01
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 0.01
… 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. 408 · score 0.01
Augustine to Marcellinus, greetings. You have asked me to address, at greater length, the objection raised by Volusian's circle about the compatibility of Christian teaching with the duties of the state. I do so gladly, because this is perhaps the most important practical question facing the Church in our time. The cha …
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. 405 · score 0.01
1. The praise and renown of your administration and your splendid reputation have always given me the greatest delight — both on account of the affection we owe to your personal merits and your goodwill toward us — and yet never until now has my intercession burdened your Excellency with a request for any favor, my mos …
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. 389 · score 0.01
Augustine to Maximus of Madaura. 1. Are we having a serious discussion, or do you simply want us to amuse each other? From the tone of your letter, I honestly cannot tell whether it is the weakness of your position or the charm of your personality that has led you to be more witty than weighty in your arguments. First, …
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. 396 · score 0.01
Letter 59 — To Victorinus: A Badly-Organized Council Summons (A.D. 401) To my most blessed lord and venerable father Victorinus, my brother in the priesthood — Augustine sends greetings in the Lord. Your summons to the Council reached me late on the evening of the fifth day before the Ides of November, and I was unwell …
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. 408 · score 0.01
To our lord, truly holy, and deservedly venerable father, Bishop Augustine — Volusianus. The questions of Volusianus and his circle. 1. You ask me, a man known for integrity and justice, to write something about the questions that have been agitated among my friends. I obey willingly, because your encouragement spurred …
augustine_hippo · c. 390 · score 0.01
Return to the state of mind in which you wrote those words. Say to me again: "You have only to say the word." Here, then, is my word, if my saying it is enough to move you: Give yourself to me. Give yourself to my Lord, who is the Lord of us both and who gave you your gifts. For what am I, except His servant and your f …
augustine_hippo · c. 388 · score 0.01
For if we manage temporal blessings justly, kindly, and with the sobriety that befits their passing nature — if they are held by us without holding us, multiplied without entangling us, and serve us without enslaving us — then we earn the reward of blessings that are eternal. As the Truth himself said: "If you have not …
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. 397 · score 0.01
Letter 65 — To the Aged Xantippus: The Case of Abundantius (A.D. 402) To the aged Xantippus, my most blessed lord, worthy of all veneration, my father and colleague in the priestly office — Augustine sends greetings in the Lord. With the respect your worth demands, and earnestly asking for a place in your prayers, I br …
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 …