Resultados25 letters/passages
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. 423 · score 0.02
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 0.02
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 0.02
… 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
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. 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. 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 …
augustine_hippo · c. 398 · score 0.01
Augustine to Jerome, my dear and venerable brother, greetings in the Lord. Your letter reached me — and I must confess, it stung. But truth sometimes stings, and I would rather be stung by a friend than flattered by an enemy. Let me address the matter of the letter's delivery first, because this seems to have caused yo …
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. 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. 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 …
augustine_hippo · c. 408 · score 0.01
I read your letter, in which I saw the outline of a great dialogue, expressed with praiseworthy brevity. I ought to respond without offering any excuse for delay. For it happened opportunely that I had some small leisure from the affairs of others. The works to which I had planned to devote this leisure I postponed a l …
augustine_hippo · c. 422 · score 0.01
Farewell, dear friend. I pray for you daily. [Context: Count Boniface was the Roman military governor of Africa and one of the most powerful men in the Western Empire. Augustine had known him for years and had once hoped he would enter the religious life. Instead, Boniface became entangled in the deadly politics of the …
augustine_hippo · c. 389 · score 0.01
Augustine, Presbyter, to my lord Bishop Valerius — most blessed and venerable, my father in the Lord — greetings in the Lord. 1. Before anything else, I ask you to consider something carefully: when the offices of bishop, presbyter, or deacon are carried out in a perfunctory, time-serving way, no work in this life is e …
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. 389 · score 0.01
Augustine, Presbyter, to Bishop Aurelius — greetings. 1. When I kept trying and failing to find the right words for this reply, I finally gave up composing and simply cast myself on God, asking him to let me say something worthy of the zeal and care for his Church that you and I share — and worthy of the respect I owe …