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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 388 · score 0.01
Maximus of Madaura to Augustine. 1. I keep hoping to receive frequent communications from you, and to be stimulated by that reasoning of yours which recently challenged me in the most pleasant way — without any breach of good manners. So I have not held back from replying in the same spirit, lest you take my silence fo …
augustine_hippo · c. 392 · score 0.01
Paul's rebuke was real, necessary, and true. And the fact that Scripture preserves it is one of the great guarantees of its honesty: it does not conceal the faults of the apostles. I say this with the deepest respect for your learning, which surpasses mine in every way. But truth matters more than deference, and I trus …
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. 405 · score 0.01
Augustine to Fortunatus, greetings. Your letter reached me at a difficult time, brother — which is to say, it reached me at a time like any other, since difficult times seem to be the only kind I know. You ask a simple question: should a bishop attend the games? The answer is simple too: no. Not because there is someth …
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. 390 · score 0.01
The chains of this world, by contrast, have real harshness and deceptive charm, certain pain and uncertain pleasure, hard toil and troubled rest -- an experience full of misery and a hope empty of happiness. And you are submitting your neck, hands, and feet to these chains? You desire to be burdened with honors of this …
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 …