Letters 130.25–135.2

There is still perhaps something you may ask: why the apostle said, "For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought." For we must by no means believe that either he or those to whom he said this did not know the Lord's Prayer. Why then do we think he said this, which he could say neither rashly nor falsely, except that temporal troubles and tribulations are often beneficial, either for healing the swelling of pride, or for proving and exercising patience, for which, once proved and exercised, a more glorious and richer reward is kept, or for chastising and abolishing sins of whatever kind; and yet we, not knowing what good they do, wish to be freed from every tribulation? The apostle shows that he himself was not free from this ignorance, unless perhaps he knew what he should pray for as he ought when, lest he be exalted by the greatness of the revelations, there was given him a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet him. On account of this he asked the Lord three times to take it away from him, surely not knowing what to pray for as he ought. At last he heard God's answer why what so great a man prayed for was not done, and why it was not expedient that it should be done: "My grace is sufficient for you; for power is made perfect in weakness."

In these tribulations, then, which can both benefit and harm, we do not know what we should pray for as we ought; and yet, because they are hard, because they are troublesome, because they go against the feeling of our weakness, we pray with the common human will that they may be taken from us. But we owe this devotion to the Lord our God: that if he does not take them away, we should not therefore think ourselves neglected by him, but rather, by devout patience in evils, hope for greater goods. For so power is made perfect in weakness. For to some who were impatient the Lord God in anger granted what they asked, just as, on the contrary, in mercy he refused it to the apostle. For we read what the Israelites asked for, and how, and received it; but once their desire was satisfied, their impatience was severely punished. He also gave a king to those who asked, according to their heart, as it is written, not according to his own heart. He granted also what the devil requested, that his servant might be tempted in order to be proved. He heard the request even of unclean spirits, that the legion of demons might be sent into a large herd of swine. These things are written lest anyone think highly of himself if he is heard when he impatiently asks for something that it would be more profitable not to obtain, or lest he cast himself down and despair of God's mercy toward him if he is not heard, when perhaps he asks for something by receiving which he would be more grievously afflicted, or corrupted by prosperity and utterly overthrown. In such things, therefore, we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. Hence if something happens against which we pray, by bearing it patiently and giving thanks in all things we ought by no means to doubt that what God's will, and not ours, contained was rather what ought to be. For that Mediator also gave us an example of this kind: when he had said, "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me," transforming in himself the human will by his taking of human nature, he at once added: "Yet not what I will, but what you will, Father." Hence rightly by the obedience of one many are made righteous.

But whoever asks of the Lord that one thing and seeks it asks with certainty and security, and does not fear that it may harm him when he has received it, since without it nothing else that he may receive, even rightly, is of any benefit. For this is the one true and only happy life: that, immortal and incorruptible in body and spirit, we should contemplate the delight of the Lord for ever. For the sake of this one thing the other things are sought and are not unfittingly asked for. Whoever has this will have all that he wishes, and there he will not be able to wish anything unfitting, because he will not be able to have it. For there is the fountain of life, for which we must now thirst in prayer, so long as we live in hope and do not yet see what we hope for, under the shelter of his wings, before whom is all our desire, that we may be filled with the abundance of his house and given to drink of the torrent of his pleasure; for with him is the fountain of life, in his light we shall see light, when our desire shall be satisfied with good things, and there will be nothing more that we seek with groaning, but only what we hold with joy. And yet, since this is the peace that surpasses all understanding, even when we ask for it in prayer, we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. For what we cannot think of as it is, we certainly do not know; but whatever occurs to us when we think, we cast aside, reject, and disapprove; we know that this is not what we seek, though we do not yet know what kind of thing that is.

There is therefore in us a certain learned ignorance, so to speak, but learned from the Spirit of God, who helps our weakness. For when the apostle had said, "But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience," he added: "Likewise the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with groanings that cannot be uttered; and he who searches the hearts knows what the Spirit has in mind, because he intercedes for the saints according to God." This is not to be understood as though we should think that the Holy Spirit of God, who in the Trinity is unchangeable God and with the Father and the Son one God, intercedes for the saints like someone who is not what God is. It is said, "He intercedes for the saints," because he makes the saints intercede, just as it was said, "The Lord your God tests you, to know whether you love him," that is, to make you know. He makes the saints intercede, then, with groanings that cannot be uttered, inspiring in them a desire for so great a thing, still unknown, for which we wait with patience. For how can what is unknown be uttered when it is desired? For certainly, if it were wholly unknown, it would not be desired; and again, if it were seen, it would not be desired nor sought with groanings.

Considering all these things, and anything else on this subject that the Lord may suggest to you which either did not occur to me or would have taken too long for me to say, strive in prayer to overcome this world: pray in hope, pray faithfully and lovingly, pray urgently and patiently, pray as a widow of Christ. For although praying belongs, as he taught, to all his members, that is, to all who believe in him and are joined to his body, yet a more diligent care of prayer is found specially enjoined on widows in his Scripture. For there were two Annas mentioned with honor: one married, who bore holy Samuel; the other a widow, who recognized the Holy of Holies while he was still an infant. The married one prayed in grief of soul and affliction of heart because she had no sons; then she obtained Samuel himself, and when she received him she gave him back to God, because she had vowed this when she asked. But how her prayer belongs to the Lord's Prayer is not easily discovered, unless it is that, in the petition placed there, "Deliver us from evil," it seems no small evil both to be married and to lack the fruit of marriage, since only the purpose of begetting children excuses marriage. But see what is written of that widow Anna: that she did not depart from the temple, serving with fasting and supplications night and day. In the same way the apostle, as I mentioned above, says: "She who is truly a widow and desolate has set her hope on the Lord and perseveres in prayers night and day." And the Lord, when urging us always to pray and not lose heart, mentioned a widow who, by constantly pressing him, turned even an unjust and ungodly judge, a despiser of God and men, to hear her case. How much more than others widows ought to devote themselves to prayer can be understood well enough from the fact that the example set before all, to encourage them to take up the practice of prayer, is drawn from widows.

What is it, in this kind of work, that is chosen in widows, if not their destitution and desolation? Therefore, if every soul understands itself to be destitute and desolate in this world, so long as it is away from the Lord, it surely commends its widowhood, as it were, to God its defender with constant and most earnest prayer. Pray, then, as a widow of Christ, who does not yet have the sight of him whose help you implore; and though you are very rich, pray as one poor; for you do not yet have the true riches of the world to come, where you need fear no loss. Though you have sons and grandsons and a numerous household, as was said above, pray as one desolate; for all temporal things are uncertain, even those that will remain for our consolation to the end of this life. But if you seek and set your mind on the things that are above, you desire what is eternal and certain; and so long as you do not yet have these, even when all your family are safe and attentive to you, you ought to count yourself desolate; and if you do, surely by your example so will your most devout daughter-in-law and the other holy widows and virgins established more securely under your care. For the more devoutly you manage your household, the more earnestly you ought to apply yourselves to prayer, not occupied with the business of present things except what the cause of devotion demands.

Be sure to remember also to pray earnestly for us. For we do not wish you so to pay us the honor of an office that we bear with danger as to withdraw the help that we know to be necessary. The household of Christ prayed for Peter, prayed for Paul; and we rejoice that you are in his household, and we need the help of brotherly prayers incomparably more than Peter and Paul. Pray in rivalry, with a harmonious and holy rivalry; for you do not strive against one another but against the devil, the enemy of all the saints. In fasting and vigils and every chastening of the body, by which prayer is greatly helped, let each of you do what she can; what one is less able to do, let her who is able do it, provided that the other loves in her what she herself does not do only because she cannot. Accordingly, let her who is weaker not hinder the stronger, and let her who is stronger not press the weaker. For you owe your conscience to God; but owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another. May the Lord hear you, who is able to do beyond what we ask and understand.

It is indeed as you say: the soul, placed in a corruptible body, is bound by a kind of earthly contagion and is in a way so pressed down and bent by such a burden that it more easily desires and thinks of many things below than of the one thing above. For holy Scripture also says so: "For the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind that thinks of many things." But our Savior came for this reason, he who by a word of healing raised up that woman in the Gospel who had been bent over for eighteen years (and she perhaps signified this), so that the Christian soul may not hear "Lift up your heart" in vain, nor answer in vain that it has it lifted up to the Lord. Considering this, you rightly regard the evils of this world as bearable in the hope of the world to come. For so, by a kind of good use, they are turned into good, since they do not increase our desire but exercise our patience. Of this the apostle says: "We know that for those who love God all things work together for good." "All things," he says; not only, then, those that are sought as pleasant, but also those that are avoided as troublesome, when we take the former in such a way as not to be caught by them, and bear the latter in such a way as not to be broken by them, and according to the divine precepts give thanks in all things to him of whom we say: "I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall always be in my mouth," and: "It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your statutes." For indeed, if the calm of deceitful prosperity always smiled on us here, the human soul would not seek that harbor of true and certain security, my distinguished lady, deservedly illustrious and most excellent daughter. Therefore, paying the duty of greeting owed to your excellence, and giving thanks that you take most devout care for our welfare, I ask of the Lord for you the rewards of the life to come and the consolations of the present, and I commend myself to the love and prayers of all of you in whose hearts Christ dwells through faith. [And in another hand:] May the true and truthful God truly console your heart and protect your welfare, my distinguished lady, deservedly illustrious and most excellent daughter.

As to your welfare, which I wish to be both in this world and in Christ, I am perhaps not unequal even to the prayers of your holy mother. Therefore, returning the greeting due to your merits, I urge you, as far as I can, not to grudge the care you give to the writings that are truly and certainly holy. For it is a genuine and solid thing; it does not court the mind with painted eloquence, nor does it rattle out anything empty and hollow under a veneer of language. It greatly moves one who is eager not for words but for realities, and it greatly alarms the one whom it is going to make secure. I urge you above all to read the apostles' writings; for from these you will be stirred to come to know the prophets, whose testimonies the apostles use. And if, either in reading or in reflecting, any question arises for you in resolving which I may seem needed, write, so that I may write back. For with the Lord's help I shall perhaps be better able to do this than to discuss such things with you in person, not only because of the various occupations both mine and yours (for when I am free it does not happen that you are free too), but also because of the intruding presence of people who are often not suited to such business and take more delight in contests of tongue than in the light of knowledge. But what is set down in writing is always free to be read when the reader is free, and it does not become burdensome by its presence, since it is taken up when you wish and put down when you wish.

I have learned that Your Nobility has heard the Circumcellions and clerics of the party of Donatus whom the care for public order had brought from the district of Hippo to trial for their deeds, and that most of them have confessed to the murder they committed against Restitutus, a Catholic presbyter, and to the beating of Innocentius, another Catholic presbyter, and to gouging out his eye and cutting off his finger. This has struck me with the greatest anxiety lest Your Sublimity should judge that they must be punished with such severity of the laws that they suffer what they did. Therefore by this letter I implore you, by the faith you have in Christ, by the mercy of the Lord Christ himself, neither to do this nor to allow it to be done at all. For although we could keep silent about the death of those who appear to have been brought to examination not on the accusation of our people but by the report of those whose duty it was to watch over the public peace, yet we do not wish the sufferings of the servants of God to be avenged by equal punishments, as by retaliation. Not that we object to wicked men being deprived of the freedom to commit crimes; but we wish rather that it should suffice that, alive and not mutilated in any part of the body, they should either be directed by the restraint of the laws from their insane restlessness to the quiet of sanity, or be removed from their evil works and assigned to some useful work. This too is indeed called a condemnation; but who does not understand that it should be called a benefit rather than a punishment, when neither is license given to savage boldness nor is the medicine of repentance withdrawn?

Fulfil, Christian judge, the duty of a devoted father: be angry at wickedness in such a way that you remember to consider humanity, and do not indulge the lust for vengeance in the atrocity of sins, but apply the will to heal the wounds of sinners. Do not lose the fatherly care which you kept in the very inquiry, when you extracted the confession of such great crimes not by the rack stretching the body, not by the claws furrowing it, not by flames burning it, but by beating with rods. This manner of coercion is commonly used by teachers of the liberal arts, by parents themselves, and often also by bishops in their courts. Do not, then, punish more harshly what you discovered more gently. There is greater need to inquire than to punish; for even the gentlest men examine a hidden crime diligently and urgently for this purpose, that they may find whom to spare. Hence it is often necessary that the inquiry be carried on more sharply, so that when the crime has been brought to light there may be room for clemency to appear. For all good works love to be set in the light, not for human glory, but "that they may see your good works," the Lord says, "and glorify your Father who is in heaven." And so it was not enough for the apostle to admonish us to keep gentleness, but also to make it known to all: "Let your gentleness," he says, "be known to all people"; and in another place: "showing gentleness to all people." So too that most illustrious mildness of holy David, when he mercifully spared his enemy delivered into his hands, would not stand out unless his power had equally appeared. Let not the power to punish, then, make you harsh, when the necessity of examining did not shake your mildness. Having discovered the crime, do not seek an executioner, when in discovering it you would not employ a torturer.

Finally, you were sent for the benefit of the church. I solemnly declare that this is of benefit to the Catholic Church, or, lest I seem to go beyond the bounds of my stewardship, to the church belonging to the diocese of Hippo Regius; this is what is expedient. If you do not listen to a friend who asks, listen to a bishop who counsels; although, since I am speaking to a Christian, I may say without arrogance, especially in such a case, that it befits you to listen to a bishop who commands, my excellent lord, deservedly distinguished and dearest son. I know, indeed, that church cases have been entrusted chiefly to Your Excellency; but because I believe that this matter belongs to the most illustrious and honorable proconsul, I have also given a letter to him, which I ask you not to mind handing to him yourself and supporting, if need be. And I beseech you both not to regard our intercession, suggestion, or anxiety as importunate, and not to tarnish the sufferings of the Catholic servants of God, which ought to be useful for the spiritual edification of the weak, by a punishment of their enemies, by whom they suffered, in kind; but rather, setting aside judicial severity, by no means to neglect to commend both your own faith, since you are sons of the church, and the gentleness of the mother herself. May almighty God increase Your Excellence in every good thing, my excellent lord, deservedly distinguished and dearest son.

I do not doubt that in this power which God has given you, a man over men, you think of the divine judgment, where judges too will stand to give account of their own judgment. For I know that you are imbued with the Christian faith, which gives me greater confidence toward Your Excellency, not only to ask but also to admonish, for the sake of that Lord in whose household you are enrolled with us by heavenly right, in whom we share alike the hope of eternal life, and whom we invoke for you in the sacred mysteries. Therefore, my distinguished lord, deservedly exalted and most excellent son, I ask first that I may not seem to you to intrude importunately upon your official acts with that anxiety which I am bound above all to bear for the church entrusted to me, whose interests I serve, and which I desire not so much to preside over as to benefit. Next, I beseech you not to disdain to accept what I advise or ask, and not to hesitate to agree to it.

The care of those who serve public order, after a report had been sent ahead, has brought certain Circumcellions and Donatist clerics before the courts and the laws. When they were heard by the most illustrious and honorable tribune and notary, your brother, my son Marcellinus, being coerced not by the torments of claws and flames but by rods, they confessed the horrible crimes they had committed against my brothers and fellow presbyters: namely, that they had ambushed and slaughtered one of them, and had dragged the other from his house and mutilated him, gouging out his eye and cutting off his finger. When I had learned that they had confessed this, and so had no doubt that they would come under the jurisdiction of your axe, I hastened to send this letter to Your Nobility, in which I entreat you and beseech you by the mercy of Christ, so may we rejoice in your greater and more certain happiness, that like for like may not be paid back to them; although the laws in punishing cannot cut off a finger and pluck out an eye with blows of a stone, as these men could in their savagery. So I am secure about those who confessed that they did this, that they will not receive this retribution; but I fear lest either they or those by whom the murder was clearly committed should be punished by death through the sentence of your authority. That this may not happen, I ask you as a Christian asks a judge, and I admonish you as a bishop admonishes a Christian.

We read indeed that the apostle said of you that you do not bear the sword without cause and are ministers of God, avengers against those who do evil. But the cause of the province is one thing, the cause of the church another: the administration of the one must be conducted with terror, the gentleness of the other must be commended with clemency. If I were speaking to a judge who was not a Christian, I would act otherwise; yet even so I would not abandon the church's cause, and, as far as he would deign to permit, I would insist that the sufferings of the Catholic servants of God, which ought to be of benefit as examples of patience, should not be defiled by the blood of their enemies; and if he would not agree, I would suspect that he was resisting with a hostile mind. But now, since the matter is being dealt with before you, my reasoning is different, and my counsel different. We see you, indeed, as the governor of a most exalted power, but we also recognize you as a son of Christian piety. Let your sublimity submit, let your faith submit. I am treating with you a common cause, but in it you can do what I cannot; take counsel with us and stretch out your help.

Diligent care was taken that the enemies of the church, who are accustomed to stir up ignorant minds by the empty talk of their seduction, as if glorying in the persecution they boast of suffering, should confess the horrible crimes they committed against Catholic clerics, and be entangled in their own words. The records must be read to heal the souls they have poisoned with their pestilent persuasion. Would you wish us to be afraid to read on to the end of the records, if they contain the bloody punishment of these men, where we place the very conscience of the case, lest those who suffered seem to have returned evil for evil? If, then, nothing else were laid down for restraining the malice of the lost, perhaps extreme necessity would press for such men to be put to death; although, as far as we are concerned, if nothing milder could be done to them, we would rather they were set free than that the sufferings of our brothers should be avenged by shedding their blood. But now, since something can be done by which both the gentle church may be commended and the boldness of the cruel restrained, why do you not bend your sentence toward the more prudent and milder side, which judges are permitted to do even in cases not of the church? Fear, then, with us the judgment of God the Father, and commend the gentleness of the mother. For when you act, the church acts, for whose sake you act and as whose son you act. Contend with the wicked in goodness. They by monstrous crime tore limbs from a living body; you by a work of mercy cause their limbs, kept whole, to serve some useful work instead of the wicked works they used to practice. They did not spare the servants of God who preached correction to them; you spare them now that they are arrested, spare them now that they are brought to trial, spare them now that they are convicted. They with impious steel shed Christian blood; you for Christ's sake keep even the sword of justice from their blood. They, having killed a minister of the church, cut short his time to live; you grant the enemies of the church, while they live, time to repent. Such a Christian judge you ought to be in the church's cause, while we ask, admonish, and intercede. People usually appeal against a milder sentence when their enemies, after conviction, are treated more leniently; but we so love our enemies that, unless we presumed on your Christian obedience, we would appeal against your severe sentence. May almighty God keep Your Excellency in ever greater power and happiness, my distinguished lord, deservedly exalted and most excellent son.

You ask me, you who are a model of uprightness and justice, to put to you some of the obscure points of learned reading that I want to learn. I embrace the favor of the gift you have bidden, and willingly offer myself to your teaching, following the authority of the ancient saying which holds that no age is too advanced for thorough learning. Nor without reason did the wise man set no limits or end to the pursuit of wisdom, since virtue, withdrawn in its first beginnings, is never so opened to those who approach it that it lies open at once to full knowledge, my truly holy lord and deservedly venerable father. It is worth while to learn of a conversation we recently held among ourselves. I was present at a gathering of some friends, and many opinions were offered there according to each one's talents and studies. Yet the talk was a division of rhetoric. I speak to one who knows; you taught these very things a little while ago. It was discussed what the sharpness of invention is, how great the labor of arrangement, what the grace of metaphor, what the beauty of similes, and the power of speaking suited to the talent and nature of the subject. Others again extolled poetry with favor; you do not leave even this part of eloquence silent or unhonored, so that the poet might fittingly have said: "Ivy creeping for you among the victor's laurels." It was said, then, how great is the adornment of arrangement, what the charm of metaphors, how great the sublimity in comparison; then the smooth and knotless verses, and, so to speak, the modulated variety of the caesuras. Then the talk turned to philosophy, familiar to you, which you yourself were accustomed to cherish, in the Aristotelian manner, as if esoteric. We asked what the teacher from the Lyceum had achieved, what the manifold and continual suspension of judgment of the Academy, what that disputant from the Porch, what the skill of the natural philosophers, what the pleasure of the Epicureans, what the endless lust for disputing among them all, and truth then even more unknown, once it was presumed that it could be known.

While our conversation lingered on these things, one of the many said: "And who is there so imbued with wisdom, to the full perfection of Christianity, that he can open the doubtful points on which I am stuck and confirm my hesitant assent with a belief that is true or probable?" We were amazed and silent. Then he burst out of his own accord into these words: "I wonder whether the Lord and ruler of the world filled the body of an undefiled woman; whether the mother endured those long ten months of discomfort and yet, a virgin, gave birth with the usual solemnity of childbearing, and after this her virginity is thought to remain intact." To these he added other points: "He who is scarcely thought to be equaled by the whole universe lies hidden within the little body of a wailing infant; he endures the years of childhood, grows up, is strengthened in youth; for so long that ruler is absent from his seat, and the care of the whole world is transferred to one little body. Then he is overcome by sleep, nourished by food, feels all the affections of mortals, and by no fitting signs do the marks of so great a majesty shine out. That casting out of evil spirits, the healing of the sick, life restored to the dead: if you think of others too, these are small things for God." We interrupted him as he inquired further, broke up the gathering, and deferred the matter to the merits of better knowledge, lest, while secrets were rashly profaned, an innocent error should turn into fault. You have received, man capable of every glory, a confession of ignorance. You know what is desired from your side. It concerns your reputation that we should come to know what has been asked. Ignorance may somehow be tolerated in other priests without loss to divine worship; but when one comes to Bishop Augustine, whatever happens to be unknown to him is wanting to our religion. May the supreme Divinity keep Your Veneration safe, my truly holy lord and deservedly venerable father.