Letter LXIII.

(a.d. 401.)

To Severus, My lord Most Blessed and Venerable, a Brother Worthy of Being Embraced with Unfeigned Love, and Partner in the Priestly Office, and to the Brethren that are With Him, Augustin and the Brethren with Him Send Greeting in the Lord.

1. If I frankly say all that this case compels me to say, you may perhaps ask me where is my concern for the preservation of charity but if I may not thus say all that the case demands, may I not ask you where is the liberty conceded to friendship? Hesitating between these two alternatives, I have chosen to write so much as may justify me without accusing you. You wrote that you were surprised that we, notwithstanding our great grief at what was done, acquiesced in it, when it might have been remedied by our correction; as if when things wrongly done have been afterwards, so far as possible, corrected, they are no longer to be deplored; and more particularly, as if it were absurd for us to acquiesce in that which, though wrongly done, it is impossible for us to undo. Wherefore, my brother, sincerely esteemed as such, your surprise may cease. For Timotheus was ordained a subdeacon at Subsana against my advice and desire, at the time when the decision of his case was still pending as the subject of deliberation and conference between us. Behold me still grieving over this, although he has now returned to you; and we do not regret that in our consenting to his return we obeyed your will.

2. May it please you to hear how, by rebuke, admonition, and prayer, we had, even before he went away from this place, corrected the wrong which had been done, lest it should appear to you that up to that time nothing had been corrected by us because he had not returned to you. By rebuke, addressing ourselves first to Timotheus himself, because he did not obey you, but went away to your Holiness without consulting our brother Carcedonius, to which act of his the origin of this affliction is to be traced; and afterwards censuring the presbyter (Carcedonius) and Verinus, through whom we found that the ordination of Timotheus had been managed. When all of these admitted, under our rebuke, that in all the things alleged they had done wrong and begged forgiveness, we would have acted with undue haughtiness if we had refused to believe that they were sufficiently corrected. For they could not make that to be not done which had been done; and we by our rebuke were not expecting or desiring to do more than bring them to acknowledge their faults, and grieve over them. By admonition: first, in warning all never to dare again to do such things, lest they should incur God’s wrath; and then especially charging Timotheus, who said that he was bound only by his oath to go to your Grace, that if your Holiness, considering all that we had spoken together on the matter, should, as we hoped might be the case, decide not to have him with you, out of regard for the weak for whom Christ died, who might be offended, and for the discipline of the Church, which it is perilous to disregard, seeing that he had begun to be a reader in this diocese,—he should then, being free from the bond of his oath, devote himself with undisturbed mind to the service of God, to whom we are to give an account of all our actions. By such admonitions as we were able to give, we had also persuaded our brother Carcedonius to submit with perfect resignation to whatever might be seen to be necessary in regard to him for the preservation of the discipline of the Church. By prayer, moreover, we had laboured to correct ourselves, commending both the guidance and the issues of our counsels to the mercy of God, and seeking that if any sinful anger had wounded us, we might be cured by taking refuge under His healing right hand. Behold how much we had corrected by rebuke, admonition, and prayer!

3. And now, considering the bond of charity, that we may not be possessed by Satan,—for we are not ignorant of his devices,—what else ought we to have done than obey your wish, seeing that you thought that what had been done could be remedied in no other way than by our giving back to your authority him in whose person you complained that wrong had been done to you. Even our brother Carcedonius himself consented to this, not indeed without much distress of spirit, on account of which I entreat you to pray for him, but eventually without opposition, believing that he submitted to Christ in submitting to you. Nay, even when I still thought it might be our duty to consider whether I should not write a second letter to you, my brother, while Timotheus still remained here, he himself, with filial reverence, feared to displease you, and cut my deliberations short by not only consenting, but even urging, that Timotheus should be restored to you.

4. I therefore, brother Severus, leave my case to be decided by you. For I am sure that Christ dwells in your heart, and by Him I beseech you to ask counsel from Him, submitting your mind to His direction regarding the question whether, when a man had begun to be a Reader in the Church confided to my care, having read, not once only, but a second and a third time, at Subsana, and in company with the presbyter of the Church of Subsana had done the same also at Turres and Ciza and Verbalis, it is either possible or right that he be pronounced to have never been a Reader. And as we have, in obedience to God, corrected that which was afterwards done contrary to our will, do you also, in obedience to Him, correct in like manner that which was formerly, through your not knowing the facts of the case, wrongly done. For I have no fear of your failing to perceive what a door is opened for breaking down the discipline of the Church, if, when a clergyman of any church has sworn to one of another church that he will not leave him, that other encourage him to remain with him, alleging that he does so that he may not be the occasion of the breaking of an oath; seeing that he who forbids this, and declines to allow the other to remain with him (because that other could by his vow bind only his own conscience), unquestionably preserves the order which is necessary to peace in a way which none can justly censure.

EPISTOLA LXIII . Rursum de Timotheo qui postquam jurasset se a Severo non recessurum, ordinatus fuerat subdiaconus apud Subsanam in dioecesi Hipponensi: hoc praeter suam voluntatem factum esse testatur Augustinus; Timotheum tamen quem ad Severum redire voluit, declarat lectoris officio jam ante praestitum ipsi juramentum, functum fuisse in ecclesiis dioeceseos Hipponensis, adeoque sibi remittendum.

0231 Domino beatissimo, et venerabili, et sincerissima charitate amplectendo fratri et consacerdoti SEVERO, et qui tecum sunt fratribus, AUGUSTINUS, et fratres qui mecum sunt, in Domino salutem.

1. Si dicam quae me ipsa causa cogit dicere, ubi erit sollicitudo charitatis? Si autem non dicam, ubi erit libertas amicitiae? Verumtamen fluctuans interim, elegi me purgare potius quam te arguere. Scripsisti te mirari, nos cum dolore nostro tolerare voluisse, quod correctione emendari potuisset: quasi non sint dolenda quae male facta sunt, etiamsi quantum possunt, postea corriguntur; aut non id maxime tolerandum sit, quod cum manifestum sit perperam factum, fieri non possit infectum. Desine itaque mirari, frater sincerissime. Nam ordinatus est apud Subsanam subdiaconus Timotheus, praeter meum consilium et voluntatem; cum quid de illo agendum esset, adhuc inter nostras alternas sententias deliberatio nutaret. Ecce adhuc doleo, quamvis jam ad te redierit; in quo nos tuae voluntati paruisse non poenitet.

2. Audi etiam quid objurgando, quid monendo, quid orando correxerimus, et antequam hinc esset profectus; ne adhuc propterea videatur tibi nihil a nobis tunc fuisse correctum, quia nondum ad vos ipse redierat. Objurgando correximus, primo ipsum qui tibi non obtemperavit, ut inconsulto fratre Carcedonio ad tuam Sanctitatem ante profisceretur, unde origo hujus nostrae tribulationis exorta est; deinde presbyterum et Verinum, per quos ut ordinaretur factum esse comperimus. Cum enim omnes objurgantibus nobis haec omnia non recte facta esse confessi sunt, et ut sibi ignosceretur rogaverunt; nimis superbe ageremus, si non crederemus esse correctos. Neque enim agere poterant ut facta non essent; sed nec nos aliud objurgando agebamus, nisi ut se male egisse cognoscerent et dolerent. Monendo autem correximus, primo omnes, ut deinceps talia non auderent, ne iram Dei experirentur: deinde praecipue Timotheum, qui sola juratione se cogi dicebat ad tuam pergere Charitatem; ut si Sanctitas tua, quod fore sperabamus, considerans quae simul locuti fuerimus, propter infirmorum scandalum, pro quibus Christus mortuus est et propter Ecclesiae disciplinam, quam periculose negligunt, quoniam hic jam lector esse coeperat, nolles eum esse tecum; jam liber a vinculo jurationis, aequissimo animo Deo serviret, cui sumus rationem nostrorum actuum reddituri. Ipsum quoque fratrem Carcedonium, quantum potuimus, monendo ad hoc perduxeramus, ut etiam ipse patientissime acciperet quidquid de illo fieri, conservandae ecclesiasticae disciplinae provisio et necessitas cogeret Orando autem correxeramus nos ipsos, ut et gubernationes et exitus nostrorum consiliorum misericordiae Dei commendaremus, et si quid indignationis nos momorderat, sub illius medicinalem dexteram confugiendo sanaremur. Ecce quam multa, partim objurgando, partim monendo, partim orando correxeramus.

3. Et nunc considerantes vinculum charitatis, ut non possideamur a satana, non enim ignoramus 0232 mentes ejus, quid aliud facere debuimus nisi obtemperare voluntati tuae, qui non putasti quod factum est corrigi potuisse, nisi ipse, in quo tibi injuriam factam esse conquereris, juri tuo redderetur? Hoc etiam frater ipse Carcedonius, quamvis non post levem animi perturbationem, de qua peto ut ores pro illo, tamen Christum in te cogitans, aequanimiter fecit. Et cum adhuc ego, utrum apud nos remorante Timotheo, alias ad tuam Germanitatem litteras mitterem, cogitandum putarem; veritus est ipse paternam commotionem tuam; et praecidit deliberationem meam, non solum sinens, sed etiam instans ut tibi Timotheus redderetur.

4. Ego autem, frater Severe, causam meam judicio tuo dimitto. Certus sum enim Christum habitare in corde tuo; per quem te obsecro ut ipsum consulas, tuae menti sibi subditae praesidentem, utrum homo, qui in ecclesia meae dispensationi credita jam legere coeperat, et non semel, sed iterum et tertio, apud Subsanam et presbytero Subsanensis Ecclesiae comitatus, et apud Turres, et apud Cizan et apud Verbalis egerat, non fuisse lector possit aut debeat judicari . Et sicut nos, quod postea nobis invitis factum est, Deo jubente correximus; sic et tu quod prius te nesciente factum est, eodem jubente similiter corrige. Neque enim vereor ne tu parum intelligas quantus aditus aperitur ad dissolvendum ordinem Ecclesiasticae disciplinae, si alterius Ecclesiae clericus cuicumque juraverit quod ab ipso non sit recessurus, eum secum esse permittat, ideo se facere affirmans, ne auctor sit ejus perjurii; cum profecto qui hoc non sinet, nec illum apud ipsum remanere permittet, quia de se, non de altero jurare potuit, ipse pacificam regulam sine aliqua reprehensione custodiat.