Sermons to the People 356.1–356.15

A sermon about ourselves must be rendered to your Charity today. For, as the apostle says, we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. Those who love us seek what to praise in us; but those who hate us disparage us. But we, placed in the middle between the two, with the help of the Lord our God, must so guard both our life and our reputation that those who praise us may not blush before those who disparage us. How we want to live, and how by God's favour we already live, though many of you know from holy Scripture, yet to remind you, the reading itself from the book of the Acts of the Apostles will be read to you, so that you may see where the pattern is described which we long to fulfil. While it is being read, then, I want you most attentive, so that after its reading I may say to your attention, God granting, what I have set myself to say. (And Lazarus the deacon read:) “When they had prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with confidence to everyone who wished. The multitude of believers had one soul and one heart: and none of them said that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. For there was no one in need among them. For as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of them, and laid them at the feet of the apostles. And it was distributed to each as each had need.” (And when Lazarus the deacon had read and handed the book to the bishop, Bishop Augustine said:) I too want to read. For it delights me more to be a reader of this word than a disputer of my own word. “When they had prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with confidence to everyone who wished. The multitude of believers had one soul and one heart: and none of them said that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. For there was no one in need among them. For as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of them, and laid them at the feet of the apostles. And it was distributed to each as each had need.” (And when the bishop had read, he said:)

You have heard what we want: pray that we may be able. But a certain necessity has arisen that I should treat these things more carefully: since, as you already know, a presbyter placed in our community—a community to which the reading you heard just now when we read it bears witness—made a will when dying, because he had the means to make one. There was something he could call his own, while he lived in a community where no one was allowed to call anything his own, but they had all things in common. If someone who loves and praises us were to proclaim this community to one who disparages us, and say, “With Bishop Augustine all who live with him live as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles,” at once that detractor, shaking his head and showing his teeth, would say, “Is it really so, do they live there as you say? Why do you lie? Why do you honour the unworthy with false praise? Did not a presbyter placed in their community just now make a will, and dispose of what he had as he wished, and leave it? Surely everything there is in common? Surely no one calls anything his own?” At these words what would my praiser do? Would not that detractor stop his mouth as if with lead? Would he not regret having praised? Covered with shame and confounded by the other's words, would he not curse either us or that testator? This was the necessity that brought us to this careful treatment.

I announce to you, then, something for you to rejoice at. All my brothers and clerics who live with me, presbyters, deacons, subdeacons, and Patricius my nephew, I have found such as I desired. Those who have not yet done what they had decided about their small property, whatever it is, are two: Valens the deacon, and my nephew just mentioned, the subdeacon. But in his case his mother's life stood in the way, because she lived from it. In him also the coming of the lawful age was awaited, so that what he did he might do most firmly. But he has not yet done it, because he has the little fields in common with his brother, and they possess them undivided. But once they are divided, he wants to give them to the Church, so that those who are in the resolve of holiness may be supported from them as long as they spend this life. For it is written, and the apostle says this: “But whoever does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, denies the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.” He also still has slaves in common with his brother, not yet divided. He plans to free them; he cannot before they are divided. For he does not yet know which belongs to whom. The division indeed belongs to him, because he is the elder; and the choice to his brother. And his brother too serves God; he is a subdeacon with my holy brother and fellow bishop Severus in the Church of Milevis. This is being done; this must be completed without delay, so that those slaves may be divided and freed, and so he may give to the Church, on condition that it takes on their support. As for my nephew, since he was converted and began to be with me, he too was hindered from doing anything with his little fields against the will of his mother, who had the usufruct and who died this year. Between him and his sisters there are certain matters, with Christ's help, to be settled quickly, so that he too may do what befits a servant of God, what that profession and this reading demand.

The deacon Faustinus, as almost all of you know, was converted here from worldly military service to the monastery: here baptized, then ordained deacon. But since what he seems to possess is small, he had left it, as the lawyers say, by right, not in fact, and it was held by his brothers. He never thought about it from the time he was converted; neither did he ask anything from his brothers, nor was anything asked of him. Now, since this point of time has come, with my advice he has divided the property: and he gave half to his brothers, half to the poor Church situated in that same place.

You know under what discipline and scourge of God the deacon Severus is: yet he has not lost the light of the mind. He had bought one house here for his mother and sister, whom he wanted to bring here from his home town. But he had bought it not with his own money, which he did not have, but from a collection of devout men, whom, when I asked, he even pointed out by name. About that house I cannot say what he has done or what he plans, except that he too has put the whole matter at my will, so that whatever I wished should be done with it. But he has certain cases with his mother, of which he has made me judge; so that when those cases have been concluded, what I wish may be done with that house. And what shall I be able to wish, God guiding, except what justice commands and piety demands? He also has some little fields in his home town: he plans to distribute them so as to give also to the poor Church situated in that place.

The deacon from Hippo is a poor man; he has nothing to give anyone: yet from his labours, before he was a cleric, he had bought some slaves; today he is going to free them in your sight by episcopal record.

The deacon Heraclius moves before your eyes; his works shine before your eyes. From his work and the money he spent we have the shrine of the holy martyr. With his money he also bought an estate, on my advice: for he wanted that money to be paid out through my hands as I pleased. If I were greedy for money, or cared more in this matter about the very necessities I have for the poor, I would have accepted the money. Why, someone says? Because that estate which he bought and gave to the Church as yet yields nothing to the Church. For he had less than the price, and because he had borrowed, he is still repaying it from its produce. I am an old man; how much produce can come to me from that estate? Do I promise myself that I shall live so many years, until it has paid off its price? So what it barely pays back over a long time in instalments I would have had in full at once, if I had been willing to accept it. I did not; I looked to something else. For I confess to you, his age itself was still suspect to me, and I feared that perhaps, as people are, this would displease his mother; and she would say that the young man had been induced by me so that I might consume his patrimony and leave him in need. So I wanted his money to be kept in that estate; so that if anything, which God forbid, turned out other than we wish, the farm might be given back, so that the bishop's reputation might not be blamed. For I know how necessary my reputation is to you: for my conscience is enough for me. He also bought a plot of ground behind this church, known to you, and built a house with his own money. And this you know. A few days before I was to have this sermon with you on this matter, he gave it to the Church. For he was waiting to finish it and give it when finished. He had no need to build a house, except that he thought his mother would come here. If she had come, she would have lived in her son's property; now if she comes, she will live in her son's work. I bear him witness: he has remained poor, but he has remained in the possession of love. Some slaves had been left to him, already living in the monastery, whom he is going to free today by church record. So let no one say, “He is rich”; let no one think it, let no one speak ill, let no one tear himself or his soul with his own teeth. He has no money stored away: would that he might pay back what he owes!

The others, that is, the subdeacons, are poor, by God's favour; they await God's mercy. They have nothing from which to give: having no means, they have ended the desires of the world. They live with us in common fellowship: no one distinguishes them from those who brought something. The unity of love must be put before the advantage of an earthly inheritance.

There remain the presbyters. For I wanted to climb to them step by step. To put it quickly, they are God's poor. They brought nothing to the house of our community except that than which nothing is dearer, love. Yet since I know that rumours have arisen about their riches, they are not to be compelled to anything by me, but to be cleared before you by my sermon.

I say to you who perhaps do not know (for most of you know) that the presbyter Leporius, though distinguished in worldly birth and born in a most honourable position among his people, I received already serving God, having left everything he had, and penniless: not because he had nothing, but because he had already done what this reading urges. He did not do it here; but we know where he did it. The unity of Christ and the Church is one: wherever he did a good work, it belongs to us too, if we rejoice together. There is a garden, you know where; there he established a monastery for his own people, because they too serve God. That garden does not belong to the Church, nor to him. “And to whom?” someone will say. To the monastery that is there. But in truth, up to this time he took care of them in such a way as to keep with himself the small means by which they are supported, and himself, as it seemed, spend them on them. But so that no occasion might be given for this to people who gnaw their own suspicions and do not fill their bellies, it pleased both me and him that they should manage things as if he had already left the world. For when he dies, will he be dispensing anything to them? It is better that he see them living well there, and, God guiding, so living in the discipline of Christ that he only rejoices over them and is not occupied with their needs. He has no money he can call his own: he had a guesthouse to build, which you now see built. I enjoined it on him; I ordered it. He obeyed me most willingly, and, as you see, he has carried it out, as at my order he also built the basilica of the Eight Martyrs from what God gave through you. For he began with money that had been given to the Church for the guesthouse, and when he had begun to build, as devout people wish their works written in heaven, they helped as each wished, and he built it. We have the work before our eyes: everyone sees what has been done. As for money, since he has none, let them believe me; let them restrain their teeth, not break them. He had bought with that guesthouse money a certain house in Carraria, which he thought would be useful to him for its stones; but the stones of that house were not needed for the building, since they were provided from elsewhere. So the house remained as it was; it pays rent, but to the Church, not to the presbyter. Let no one say any more: “In the presbyter's house, in front of the presbyter's house, to the presbyter's house.” Look where the presbyter's house is: where my house is, there is the presbyter's house; he has no house elsewhere; but wherever he is, he has God.

What more do you seek? Only that I remember I also promised to report to you what I had done between the two, the brother and the sister, the children of the presbyter Januarius, because a money dispute had arisen between them, yet, as between siblings, with love kept safe, by God's favour. I had promised to hear them, so as to end by judgment whatever there was between them. I had prepared myself as judge: but before I judged, they themselves settled what I was going to judge. I found nothing to judge, but something to rejoice at. They agreed altogether harmoniously to my will and counsel, that they should be equal in the money their father left, the Church renouncing it.

After my sermon people will talk; but whatever people say, whatever breeze is blowing, something of it will be carried to my ears. And if it is such that we have again to clear ourselves, I will answer the detractors, I will answer the slanderers, I will answer the unbelieving who do not believe us who are set over them, as I can; I will answer what the Lord gives: for now there is no need, because perhaps they will say nothing. Those who love us will rejoice freely; those who hate us will grieve silently. Yet if they exercise their tongues, they will hear with you, by God's favour, my reply, not my quarrel. For I am not going to name people and say, “That man said this, this one disparaged thus,” since perhaps even false things may be reported to me, for that too can happen. Still, whatever is reported, if it seems necessary, I will speak of it to your Charity. I want our life to be before your eyes. I know that those who seek licence to do evil seek for themselves examples of those who live badly, and defame many, so as to seem to have found companions. So we have done what is ours; we have nothing more that we can do. We are before your eyes. We desire nothing of anyone except your good works.

And I exhort you, my brothers, if you want to give something to the clergy, know that you ought not, as it were, to foster their faults against me. Offer to all what you wish; offer from your own will. What is common will be distributed to each as each has need. Look to the treasury, and we shall all have. It delights me greatly if that is our manger, so that we may be God's beasts of burden and you God's field. Let no one give a cloak, or a linen tunic, or anything, except to the common stock: I too receive from the common stock for myself, since I know that I want whatever I have to be common. I do not want your Holiness to offer such things as I alone might wear, as it were, more becomingly; for example, someone offers me a costly cloak: perhaps it befits a bishop, though it does not befit Augustine, that is, a poor man born of poor people. Now people will say that I have found costly clothes which I could not have had either in my father's house or in that worldly profession of mine. It is not fitting: I ought to have such a one as I can give to my brother if he has none. Such as a presbyter can have, such as a deacon and subdeacon can fittingly have, such I want to receive: because I receive into the common stock. If anyone gives a better one, I sell it, as I am accustomed to do; so that when the garment cannot be common, the price of the garment can be common. I sell it and give to the poor. If it pleases him that I should have it, let him give such a one as I need not blush at. For I confess to you, I blush at a costly garment: because it does not befit this profession, this admonition; it does not befit these limbs, it does not befit these grey hairs. I say this too: if perhaps in our house or our community someone is ill, or recovering from illness, so that it is necessary to feed him before the hour of the midday meal, I do not forbid devout men or women to send them what they think fit to send: yet no one will have lunch or dinner outside. Look, I say it, you have heard, they hear: whoever wants to have property and live from his own, and act against these precepts of ours, it is not enough for me to say he will not stay with me: he will not be a cleric either. For I had said, and I know I said it, that if they did not want to take up our common life, I would not take their clerical office from them; but they might stay apart, live apart, live to God as they knew how. And yet I set before their eyes how great an evil it is to fall from one's resolve. For I preferred to have even the lame rather than mourn the dead. For whoever is a hypocrite is dead. So, just as I would not take the clerical office from whoever wanted to stay outside and live from his own: so now, since this common life has pleased them, by God's favour, whoever lives with hypocrisy, whoever is found having property, I do not allow him to make a will from it, but I will strike him from the list of clergy. Let him appeal against me to a thousand councils, let him sail against me wherever he wishes, let him be wherever he can: God will help me, so that where I am bishop he cannot be a cleric. You have heard; they have heard. But I hope in our God and his mercy that, as they have received this arrangement of mine cheerfully, so they will keep it purely and faithfully.

I have said that the presbyters who live with me have nothing of their own, among whom is also the presbyter Barnabas. But about him I have heard certain things bandied about, above all that he bought a farm from my dear and honourable son Eleusinus. This is false; he gave it to the monastery; he did not sell it. I am witness. What more you seek, I do not know. I am witness: he gave it, he did not sell it. But while it is not believed that he could give it, he is believed to have sold it. Blessed man, who did so good a work that it was not believed! Yet at least now believe, and stop listening gladly to detractors. I have said already: I am witness. It was said of him that in the year of his office as superior he deliberately incurred debts, so that, while I wanted the debts repaid, I would give him leave to ask for the Victorianum estate: as if he had said to me, “So that I may pay my debts, give me the Victorianum estate for ten years.” This too is false. But there was ground for a rumour to arise: he incurred debts that had to be repaid. They were partly repaid by us, from what we could. Something remained that was owed, even to that monastery which God founded through him. When, then, it remained, we began to look for how to pay the debt. No one came forward to lease that estate except one offering a rent of forty solidi. But we saw that the estate could yield more, so that the debt might be repaid more quickly; and I entrusted it to his good faith, so that the brothers should seek no profits from that lease, but whatever the estate produced, they should count from its very fruits towards the debt. It is being done in good faith. The presbyter is ready for me to appoint someone else, to render the fruits to the brothers. Let it be someone from your number to whom I may entrust this; from the number of those very people who brought such reports to us. For there are devout men among you who grieved that this rumour was falsely blamed, and yet believed it was done. Let one of them, then, come to us, take over the property, sell all the fruits faithfully at their prices, so that what is owed may be repaid more easily, and today the presbyter's responsibility for it ends. The place too where the monastery was established was given by my honourable son Eleusinus, already mentioned, to that presbyter Barnabas before he was ordained presbyter; in that place he founded a monastery. But because the place had been given in his name, he changed the deeds, so that it is possessed in the name of the monastery. As for the Victorianum estate, I ask, I exhort, I request that if anyone is devout he act in good faith and render this service to the Church, so that I may quickly repay the debt. But if none of the laity is found, I appoint another; this man will not go there. What more do you want? Let no one tear the servants of God to pieces: for it does not profit those who tear. For the servants of God the reward indeed grows through false disparagement; but punishment grows too for those who disparage. Not without reason was it said, “Rejoice and exult, when they disparage you, saying false things: for your reward is great in heaven.” We do not want to have a great reward at your loss. Let us have less there, and yet reign there with you.