Letter XLVIII.

(a.d. 398.)

To My Lord Eudoxius, My Brother and Fellow-Presbyter, Beloved and Longed For, and to the Brethren Who are with Him,243    The monastery of these brethren was in the island of Capraria—the same, I suppose, with Caprera—now so widely famous as Garibaldi’s home.Augustin and the Brethren Who are Here Send Greeting.

1. When we reflect upon the undisturbed rest which you enjoy in Christ, we also, although engaged in labours manifold and arduous, find rest with you, beloved. We are one body under one Head, so that you share our toils, and we share your repose: for “if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or if one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.”244    1 Cor. xii. 26. Therefore we earnestly exhort and beseech you, by the deep humility and most compassionate majesty of Christ, to be mindful of us in your holy intercessions; for we believe you to be more lively and undistracted in prayer than we can be, whose prayers are often marred and weakened by the darkness and confusion arising from secular occupations: not that we have these on our own account, but we can scarcely breathe for the pressure of such duties imposed upon us by men compelling us, so to speak, to go with them one mile, with whom we are commanded by our Lord to go farther than they ask.245    Matt. v. 41. We believe, nevertheless, that He before whom the sighing of the prisoner comes246    Ps. lxxix. 11. will look on us persevering in the ministry in which He was pleased to put us, with promise of reward, and, by the assistance of your prayers, will set us free from all distress.

2. We exhort you in the Lord, brethren, to be stedfast in your purpose, and persevere to the end; and if the Church, your Mother, calls you to active service, guard against accepting it, on the one hand, with too eager elation of spirit, or declining it, on the other, under the solicitations of indolence; and obey God with a lowly heart, submitting yourselves in meekness to Him who governs you, who will guide the meek in judgment, and will teach them His way.247    Ps. xxv. 9. Do not prefer your own ease to the claims of the Church; for if no good men were willing to minister to her in her bringing forth of her spiritual children, the beginning of your own spiritual life would have been impossible. As men must keep the way carefully in walking between fire and water, so as to be neither burned nor drowned, so must we order our steps between the pinnacle of pride and the whirlpool of indolence; as it is written, “declining neither to the right hand nor to the left.”248    Deut. xvii. 11. For some, while guarding too anxiously against being lifted up and raised, as it were, to the dangerous heights on the right hand, have fallen and been engulphed in the depths on the left. Again, others, while turning too eagerly from the danger on the left hand of being immersed in the torpid effeminacy of inaction, are, on the other hand, so destroyed and consumed by the extravagance of self-conceit, that they vanish into ashes and smoke. See then, beloved, that in your love of ease you restrain yourselves from all mere earthly delight, and remember that there is no place where the fowler who fears lest we fly back to God may not lay snares for us; let us account him whose captives we once were to be the sworn enemy of all good men; let us never consider ourselves in possession of perfect peace until iniquity shall have ceased, and “judgment shall have returned unto righteousness.”249    Ps. lvii. 1 and xciv. 15.

3. Moreover, when you are exerting yourselves with energy and fervour, whatever you do, whether labouring diligently in prayer, fasting, or almsgiving, or distributing to the poor, or forgiving injuries, “as God also for Christ’s sake hath forgiven us,”250    Eph. iv. 32. or subduing evil habits, and chastening the body and bringing it into subjection,251    1 Cor. ix. 27. or bearing tribulation, and especially bearing with one another in love (for what can he bear who is not patient with his brother?), or guarding against the craft and wiles of the tempter, and by the shield of faith averting and extinguishing his fiery darts,252    Eph. vi. 16. or “singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts,” or with voices in harmony with your hearts;253    Eph. v. 19.—whatever you do, I say, “do all to the glory of God,”254    1 Cor. x. 31. who “worketh all in all,”255    1 Cor. xii. 6. and be so “fervent in Spirit”256    Rom. xii. 11. that your “soul may make her boast in the Lord.”257    Ps. xxxiv. 2. Such is the course of those who walk in the “straight way,” whose “eyes are ever upon the Lord, for He shall pluck their feet out of the net.”258    Ps. xxv. 15. Such a course is neither interrupted by business, nor benumbed by leisure, neither boisterous nor languid, neither presumptuous nor desponding, neither reckless nor supine. “These things do, and the God of peace shall be with you.”259    Phil. iv. 9.

4. Let your charity prevent you from accounting me forward in wishing to address you by letter. I remind you of these things, not because I think you come short in them, but because I thought that I would be much commended unto God by you, if, in doing your duty to Him, you do it with a remembrance of my exhortation. For good report, even before the coming of the brethren Eustasius and Andreas from you, had brought to us, as they did, the good savour of Christ, which is yielded by your holy conversation. Of these, Eustasius has gone before us to that land of rest, on the shore of which beat no rude waves such as those which encompass your island home, and in which he does not regret Caprera, for the homely raiment260    Cilicium, the garment of goats’ hair worn by the brethren. These were the staple article of manufacture in Caprera, “the goat island.” with which it furnished him he wears no more.

EPISTOLA XLVIII . Augustinus Eudoxio abbati monachorum insulae Caprariae, exhortans ut otio ad pietatem, non ad ignaviam utantur, et sicubi Ecclesia requirat illorum operam, ne detrectent.

Domino dilecto et exoptatissimo fratri et compresbytero EUDOXIO et qui tecum sunt fratribus, AUGUSTINUS, et qui mecum sunt fratres, in Domino salutem.

1. Quando quietem vestram cogitamus, quam habetis in Christo, etiam nos, quamvis in laboribus variis asperisque versemur, in vestra charitate requiescimus. Unum enim corpus sub uno capite sumus, ut et vos in nobis negotiosi, et nos in vobis otiosi simus, quia si patitur unum membrum, compatiuntur omnia membra; et si glorificatur unum membrum, congaudent omnia membra (I Cor. XII, 26). Admonemus 0188 ergo et petimus et obsecramus per Christi altissimam humilitatem et misericordissimam celsitudinem, ut nostri memores sitis in sanctis orationibus vestris, quas vos vigilantiores et magis sobrias habere credimus: nostras enim saepe sauciat et debilitat caligo et tumultus saecularium actionum; quas etsi nostras non habemus, eorum tamen qui nos angariant mille passus, et jubemur ire cum eis alia duo (Matth. V, 41), tantae nobis ingeruntur ut vix respirare possimus: credentes tamen quod ille in cujus conspectu intrat gemitus compeditorum (Psal. LXXVIII, 11), perseverantes nos in eo ministerio, in quo dignatus est collocare cum promissa mercede, adjuvantibus orationibus vestris ab omni angustia liberabit.

2. Vos autem, fratres, exhortamur in Domino ut propositum vestrum custodiatis, et usque in finem perseveretis: ac si quam operam vestram mater Ecclesia desideraverit, nec elatione avida suscipiatis, nec blandiente desidia respuatis; sed miti corde obtemperetis Deo, cum mansuetudine portantes eum qui vos regit, qui dirigit mites in judicio, qui docet mansuetos vias suas (Psal. XXIV, 9). Nec vestrum otium necessitatibus Ecclesiae praeponatis, cui parturienti si nulli boni ministrare vellent, quomodo nasceremini, non inveniretis. Sicut autem inter ignem et aquam tenenda est via, ut nec exuratur homo nec demergatur; sic inter apicem superbiae et voraginem desidiae iter nostrum temperare debemus, sicut scriptum est: Non declinantes, neque ad dexteram, neque ad sinistram (Deut. XVII, 11). Sunt enim qui dum nimis timent ne quasi in dexteram rapti extollantur, in sinistram lapsi demerguntur. Et sunt rursus qui dum nimis se auferunt a sinistra, ne torpida vacationis mollitie sorbeantur, ex altera parte jactantiae fastu corrupti atque consumpti, in favillam fumumque vanescunt. Sic ergo, dilectissimi, diligite otium, ut vos ab omni terrena delectatione refrenetis, et memineritis nullum locum esse, ubi non possit laqueos tendere qui timet ne revolemus ad Deum; et inimicum omnium bonorum, cujus captivi fuimus judicemus , nullamque nobis esse perfectam requiem cogitemus , donec transeat iniquitas (Psal. LVI, 2), et in judicium justitia convertatur (Psal. XCIII, 15).

3. Item cum aliquid strenue atque alacriter agitis et impigre operamini, sive in orationibus, sive in jejuniis, sive in eleemosynis; vel tribuentes aliquid indigentibus, vel donantes injurias, sicut et Deus in Christo donavit nobis (Ephes. IV, 32); sive domantes perniciosas consuetudines, castigantesque corpus, et servituti subjicientes (I Cor. IX, 27); sive sufferentes tribulationem, et ante omnia vos ipsos invicem in dilectione; quid enim sufferat qui fratrem non suffert? sive prospicientes astutiam atque insidias tentatoris, et scuto fidei jacula ejus ignita repellentes et exstinguentes (Ephes. VI, 16); sive cantantes et psallentes 0189 in cordibus vestris Domino (Ephes. V, 19), vel vocibus a corde non dissonis, omnia in gloriam Dei facite (I Cor. X, 31), qui operatur omnia in omnibus (Id. XII, 6); atque ita fervete spiritu (Rom. XII, 11), ut in Domino laudetur anima vestra (Psal. XXXIII, 3). Ipsa est enim actio recti itineris, quae oculos semper habet ad Dominum, quoniam ipse evellet de laqueo pedes (Psal. XXIV, 15). Talis actio nec frangitur negotio, nec frigida est otio, nec turbulenta, nec marcida est; nec audax, nec fugax; nec praeceps, nec jacens. Haec agite, et Deus pacis erit vobiscum (II Cor. XIII, 11).

4. Nec importunum me existimet Charitas vestra, quia vobis vel per epistolam loqui volui. Non enim hoc vos monui, quod vos non arbitror facere; sed credidi me non parum commendari Deo a vobis, si ea quae munere illius facitis, cum allocutionis nostrae memoria faciatis. Nam et ante jam fama, et nunc fratres qui venerunt a vobis, Eustasius et Andreas, bonum Christi odorem de vestra sancta conversatione ad nos attulerunt. Quorum Eustasius in eam requiem praecessit, quae nullis fluctibus sicut insula tunditur, nec Caprariam desiderat, quia nec cilicio jam quaerit indui.