Letters 188.1–189.7

It was very welcome and pleasant to us that the letter of Your Reverence found us together at Hippo, so that we could send this reply jointly, rejoicing to learn of your well-being and in turn telling you, with mutual love, of ours, which we trust is dear to you, lady worthy to be honoured with the respect due in Christ, and deservedly illustrious daughter. We know very well that you know how much devout affection we owe you, and how great a care we have for you both before God and among men. For although our littleness came to know you first through letters and then also in bodily presence as devout and Catholic, that is, true members of Christ, yet it was also through our ministry that, when you received the word of God which you heard, as the apostle says, you received it not as the word of men but, as it truly is, the word of God. From this ministry of ours, by the help of the Saviour's grace and mercy, so great a fruit has arisen in your house that, when a human marriage had already been arranged, the holy Demetrias preferred the spiritual embrace of that Bridegroom, fairer than the sons of men, to whom virgins are wedded so as to have a richer fruitfulness of spirit without losing the integrity of the flesh. But we would not have known how that exhortation of ours was then received by the faithful and noble virgin, had we not learned, after we had left, when shortly afterwards she had professed holy virginity, by the most joyful news and truthful testimony of your letter, that this great gift of God, who plants and waters through his servants but gives the growth himself, had come about with us as his labourers.

This being so, let no one call us impertinent if, because of this closer bond, we are anxious to warn you to avoid teachings contrary to the grace of God. For although the apostle commands us to press on with preaching the word not only in season but also out of season, we do not count you among those to whom our speech or page might seem out of season when we urge you to watch carefully and avoid what does not belong to sound doctrine. That is why you received our warning with such gratitude that you said in your letter, to which we now reply: 'I give abundant thanks for so devout a warning, in that Your Reverence urges me not to lend my ears to those men who often corrupt the venerable faith with perverse treatises.'

As for what you add, saying, 'But let Your Priesthood know that I and my little household are far removed from such persons; and our whole family so follows the Catholic faith that it has never strayed into any heresy, nor ever fallen, I do not say into those sects which can scarcely be expiated, but not even into those which seem to have small errors', this is what compels us more and more not to be silent with you about those who try to corrupt even what is sound. For we regard your house as no small church of Christ. And the error of those is certainly not small who think that whatever righteousness, self-control, piety or chastity there is in us, we have from ourselves, on the ground that God so created us that beyond revealing knowledge to us he gives us no further help to do with love what we have learned by teaching that we should do; defining, that is, that nature and teaching alone are the grace and help of God for living justly and rightly. But for having a good will, in which our very living justly consists, and love itself, which so excels among all God's gifts that it is even called God, and by which alone whatever we fulfil of the divine law and admonition is fulfilled in us, they will not have us helped by God, but say that we are sufficient for these things by our own choice. Do not think this a minor error: to wish to profess oneself a Christian and not to wish to hear the apostle of Christ, who, having said, 'The love of God has been poured into our hearts', lest anyone think he had it only through his own choice, immediately added, 'through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.' You understand how greatly and how ruinously anyone errs who does not yet confess that this is the great grace of the Saviour, who ascended on high, led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.

How then could we pretend not to see, and fail to warn you, to whom we owe such love, to beware of such things, when we had read the book written to the holy Demetrias? Who wrote it, and whether it has reached you, we would rather learn from your reply. In that book, if it may be permitted, the virgin of Christ reads that she should believe her virginal holiness and all her spiritual riches to come to her from herself alone, and so, before she is fully blessed, learn to be (God forbid!) ungrateful to God. For these are the words written to her in that book: 'You have here too, then,' he says, 'reasons for which you may rightly be ranked above others, indeed all the more here; for your bodily nobility and wealth will be understood to be your family's, not yours, but no one but yourself can confer spiritual riches on you. In these, then, you are rightly to be praised, in these you deserve to be preferred to others, for they can exist only from you and in you.'

You surely see how great a danger is to be guarded against in these words. Certainly the statement that these goods can exist only in you is excellently and most truly said: that is plain food. But his saying 'only from you', that is pure poison. Far be it that the virgin of Christ should gladly hear these things, she who devoutly understands the poverty proper to the human heart and therefore knows no adornment there except the gifts of her Bridegroom. Let her rather hear the apostle saying: 'I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, so your minds may be corrupted from the chastity that is in Christ.' And therefore about these spiritual riches too let her listen not to him who says, 'No one but yourself can confer them on you', and, 'They can exist only from you and in you', but to him who says, 'We have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing power may be God's and not from us.'

About holy virginal continence itself, too, that it is not hers from herself but is a gift of God, though conferred on one who believes and wills, let her hear the same truthful and devout teacher, who says, when dealing with this: 'I would that all were as I myself am; but each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and another of another.' Let her hear also the one Bridegroom, not of herself only but of the whole Church, saying of such chastity and integrity: 'Not all receive this word, but those to whom it is given'; so that she may understand that for having so great and splendid a good she ought rather to give thanks to God our Lord than to listen to anyone's words that she has it as if from herself, words, not to say of a fawning flatterer (lest we seem to judge rashly the hidden things of men), but certainly of a mistaken praiser. For 'every best gift and every perfect gift', as the apostle James also says, 'is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.' From there, then, comes also the holy virginity by which your daughter, to your willing joy, has surpassed you: later in birth, earlier in deed; from you by descent, before you in honour; following you in age, preceding you in holiness; in her has begun to be yours what could not be in you. For she did not marry in the flesh, so that she might be increased spiritually not only for herself but also for you beyond you; since you too are less than she by this exchange, that you married so that she might be born. These are gifts of God, and they are indeed yours, but not from you; for you have this treasure in earthly and still fragile bodies, as in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing power may be God's and not from you. And do not be surprised that we say they are both yours and not from you; for we call our daily bread 'ours', yet we add 'Give us', lest it be thought to be from us.

Accordingly, as it is written, 'Pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks': you pray that you may have these things perseveringly and with progress; you give thanks because you do not have them from yourselves. For who distinguishes you from that mass of death and perdition from Adam? Is it not he who came to seek and to save what was lost? Or when a man hears the apostle saying, 'For who distinguishes you?', will he answer, 'My good will, my faith, my righteousness', and not at once hear what follows: 'What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?' We do not wish, then, that the holy virgin, when she hears or reads, 'No one but yourself can confer spiritual riches on you; in these you are rightly to be praised, in these you deserve to be preferred to others, for they can exist only from you and in you', should boast at all as if she had not received. Let her indeed say, 'In me, O God, are the vows of praise that I will render to you'; but since they are in her, not also from her, let her remember also to say, 'Lord, by your will you gave strength to my beauty.' For although they are in some sense also from her, because of her own choice, without which we do not do good, yet not, as this man said, 'only from her'. For unless one's own choice is helped by God's grace, not even a good will can exist in a human being. 'For it is God', says the apostle, 'who works in you both to will and to work according to his good will', not, as these men think, only by revealing knowledge so that we may know what we ought to do, but also by inspiring love, so that what we have learned by teaching we may also do by loving.

For he certainly knew how great a good continence is who said: 'And when I knew that no one can be continent unless God gives it.' So he knew not only how great a good this is and how desirable to long for, but also that it could not exist unless God gave it; for wisdom had taught him; for he says this: 'And this very thing was a mark of wisdom, to know whose gift this was.' Yet knowledge was not enough for him, but he says: 'I went to the Lord and besought him.' God, then, does not help us only so that we may know what is to be done, but also so that we may do by loving what we already know by learning. So no one can be not only knowing but also continent unless God gives it. Hence, though he already had knowledge, he prayed to have continence also, so that what he knew might be in him, since it would not be from him; or if in some measure from him too, because of his own choice, yet not only from him, since no one can be continent unless God gives it. But this man, about spiritual riches, among which is certainly that luminous and beautiful continence, does not say, 'They can be in you and from you', but says, 'They can exist only from you and in you', so that, just as they are nowhere else than in her, so they may be believed able to come from nowhere else than from her, and for this reason (may the merciful Lord turn it from her heart!) she may boast as if she had not received.

For our part, from the discipline of the holy virgin and the Christian humility in which she was nourished and brought up, we suppose that when she read those words, if indeed she read them, she groaned and humbly beat her breast and perhaps even wept, and confidently prayed to God, to whom she is dedicated and by whom she is sanctified, that just as those words are not her own but another's, so her faith too might not be such as to believe she has anything in which to glory in herself and not in the Lord. For her glory is indeed in herself, not in another's words, as the apostle says: 'But let each one test his own work, and then he will have his glory in himself and not in another.' But far be it that she should be her own glory, and not he to whom it is said, 'My glory, and the one who lifts up my head.' Her glory is in her healthfully when God, who is in her, is himself her glory, from whom she has all the goods by which she is good, and will have all those by which she will be better, as far as she can be better in this life, and those by which she will be perfect, when she is perfected by divine grace, not by human praise. For in the Lord shall her soul be praised, who has satisfied her desire with good things, since he also inspired this desire, so that his virgin may not glory in any good as if she had not received it.

Whether we are mistaken about this disposition of hers, please make us more certain by writing back. For we know very well that you, with all your household, are and have been worshippers of the undivided Trinity. But human error does not creep in only by thinking otherwise about the undivided Trinity. For there are other matters in which people err most ruinously, such as this one, about which we have spoken in this letter perhaps at greater length than your faithful and chaste prudence needed. And yet whoever denies that the good which is from God is from God, we do not know whom he wrongs if not God, and therefore that Trinity itself; may this evil be far from you, as we believe it is. Far be it altogether that that book should have produced any such thing in the mind, we do not say of you or of your holy virgin daughter, but of any servant of yours, man or woman, of the lowest standing. From it we thought we should quote some words which could be understood more easily.

But if you look more carefully even at the passages where he seems to speak in favour of the grace or help of God, you will find them so ambiguous that they can be referred either to nature or to teaching or to the forgiveness of sins. For even the fact that they are forced to confess that we must pray not to enter into temptation they can refer to this: they can answer that we are helped to this extent, that when we pray and knock the understanding of the truth is opened to us, in which we may learn what we ought to do, not that our will receives strength by which to do what we learn. And when they say that the Lord Christ has been set before us as an example of good living, as part of the grace or help of God, they refer this back to the same teaching, namely that in his example we learn how we ought to live; but they will not have us helped so that what we come to know by learning we may also do by loving.

Or else find something in that book, if you can, where, apart from nature, apart from the choice of the will, which belongs to that same nature, and apart from the forgiveness of sins and the revelation of teaching, he confesses such a help of God as he confessed who said: 'When I knew that no one can be continent unless God gives it, and this very thing was a mark of wisdom, to know whose gift this was, I went to the Lord and besought him.' For he did not wish by praying to receive the nature in which he had been created, nor was he concerned about the natural choice of will with which he had been created, nor did he desire forgiveness of sins, since he was rather wishing for continence so as not to sin, nor did he long to know what was to be done, since he already confessed that he knew whose gift this was; but he certainly wished to receive, by the spirit of wisdom, such strength of will and such ardour of love as would suffice to fulfil the greatness of continence. If, then, you can find anything of this kind there, we shall give most abundant thanks if you deign to let us know by writing back. For it cannot be said enough how much we desire to find in the writings of those men who, because of their keenness and eloquence, are read by very many, an open confession of that grace which the apostle so strongly commends: who says that God has apportioned to each even the measure of faith itself, without which it is impossible to please God, by which the righteous live, which works through love, before and without which no good works of anyone at all are to be counted, since whatever is not from faith is sin; and that we are helped by God to live devoutly and justly not only by the revelation of knowledge, which without love puffs up, but also by the inspiration of love itself, which is the fulfilment of the law and which builds up our heart so that knowledge does not puff it up. But so far we have nowhere been able to find anything of the kind in their writings. Above all we should wish it to be in this book from which we have copied out and set down those words, where, praising the virgin of Christ as though no one but herself could confer spiritual riches on her and as though they could exist only from her, he does not want her to glory in the Lord but to glory as if she had not received. In that book, although he did not name either her or Your Reverence, he nevertheless mentions that he was asked by the virgin's mother to write to her. But in a certain letter of his, where the same Pelagius puts his own name quite openly and does not conceal the name of the holy virgin, he says that he wrote to her, and he tries by the testimony of this same work to prove that he confesses most openly the grace of God, which he is alleged either to pass over in silence or to deny. But whether this is the same book in which he put those words about spiritual riches, and whether it has reached Your Holiness, we ask you to deign to inform us in your reply.

I had already written to Your Charity, but while an opportunity was being sought to send the letter, my dearest son Faustus arrived on his way to Your Excellency. When he had received the letter I had already written, to deliver it to Your Kindness, he told me that you very much desired me to write you something to build you up toward eternal salvation, of which you have hope in Christ Jesus our Lord. And although I was busy, he pressed me not to put it off, as much as, you know, he sincerely loves you. So, to meet his haste, I preferred to write something hastily rather than delay your devout desire, my excellent lord and deservedly distinguished and honourable son.

What I can say briefly, then, is this: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength', and, 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' This is the word that the Lord made short upon the earth, saying in the Gospel: 'On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.' Make progress daily, then, in this love, both by praying and by doing good, so that with the help of him who commanded it and gave it to you it may be nourished and grow, until, being perfected, it perfects you. For this is the love which, as the apostle says, 'has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us'; this is the love of which he also says, 'Love is the fulfilment of the law'; this is the love through which faith works, as he says again: 'Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.'

In this love all our holy fathers, patriarchs, prophets and apostles pleased God; in this all the true martyrs contended against the devil even to blood, and because it did not grow cold or fail in them, they conquered; in this all good believers make progress daily, longing to reach not a kingdom of mortals but the kingdom of heaven, not a temporal but an eternal inheritance, not gold and silver but the incorruptible riches of the angels, not any goods of this world, in which one lives in fear and which no one can take with him when he dies, but the vision of God, whose sweetness and delight surpasses all the beauty not only of earthly but also of heavenly bodies, surpasses all the comeliness of souls however righteous and holy, surpasses all the splendour of the angels and powers above, surpasses whatever is not only said but even thought of him. And let us not despair of so great a promise because it is very great, but rather believe that we shall receive it because he who promised it is very great. For as the blessed apostle John says: 'We are children of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be; we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.'

Do not think that no one who serves as a soldier under arms can please God. Among these was holy David, to whom the Lord gave such great testimony; among these also very many of the righteous of that time. Among these was also that centurion who said to the Lord: 'I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me, and I say to this one, Go, and he goes, and to another, Come, and he comes, and to my servant, Do this, and he does it'; of whom the Lord also said, 'Amen, I say to you, I have not found such faith in Israel.' Among these was also that Cornelius, to whom an angel was sent and said, 'Cornelius, your alms have been accepted and your prayers heard'; where he told him to send to the blessed apostle Peter and hear from him what he ought to do; and to that apostle he sent a devout soldier too, to ask him to come to him. Among these were also those who, when they had come to be baptized by John, the holy forerunner of the Lord and friend of the Bridegroom, of whom the Lord himself said, 'Among those born of women there has not arisen one greater than John the Baptist', and asked him what they should do, he answered them: 'Do not extort from anyone, do not accuse anyone falsely; be content with your wages.' He certainly did not forbid those to serve under arms whom he told that their wages should be enough for them.

Those indeed hold a higher place with God who, having left all these worldly occupations, serve him also with the highest continence of chastity. But 'each', as the apostle says, 'has his own gift from God, one of one kind and another of another.' Some, then, fight for you by praying against invisible enemies; you labour for them by fighting against visible barbarians. Would that there were one faith in all, for then there would be less labour and the devil with his angels would be more easily conquered! But since in this world the citizens of the kingdom of heaven must be tossed by temptations among the erring and ungodly, so that they may be exercised and tested like gold in the furnace, we ought not to wish before the time to live with the holy and righteous alone, so that we may deserve to receive this in its own time.

Think this first, then, when you arm yourself for battle: that your strength, even your bodily strength, is itself a gift of God; for so you will consider not to use God's gift against God. For when faith is pledged, it must be kept even with the enemy against whom war is waged; how much more with the friend for whom one fights! Peace should be the aim of the will, war only of necessity, so that God may free us from necessity and keep us in peace. For peace is not sought in order to stir up war, but war is waged in order to obtain peace. Be a peacemaker, then, even in waging war, so that by conquering you may bring those you defeat to the benefit of peace: 'For blessed are the peacemakers', says the Lord, 'for they shall be called children of God.' And if human peace is so sweet for the temporal well-being of mortals, how much sweeter is divine peace for the eternal well-being of angels! So let necessity, not will, slay the enemy who fights. As violence is returned to one who rebels and resists, so mercy is now owed to one conquered or captured, especially where there is no fear of a disturbance of peace.

Let conjugal chastity adorn your character, let sobriety and frugality adorn it; for it is very shameful that one whom no man conquers should be conquered by lust, and that one who is not overcome by the sword should be overwhelmed by wine. If worldly riches are lacking, let them not be sought in the world by evil deeds; if they are present, let them be stored up in heaven by good deeds. They ought neither to puff up a manly and Christian spirit if they come, nor to break it if they go. Let us rather think of what the Lord says: 'Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.' And certainly, when we hear that we should lift up our hearts, we must not answer falsely what you know we answer. In these things I know you to be very zealous, and I greatly delight in your good report and greatly congratulate you in the Lord, so that this letter may be for you a mirror in which to see what you are rather than a place to learn what you ought to be. Nevertheless, whatever you find, whether in this letter or in the Holy Scriptures, that you still lack for a good life, press on to acquire it both by acting and by praying; and for what you have, give thanks to God as the fount of goodness from whom you have it; and in all your good actions give him the glory and yourself the humility. For as it is written, 'Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.' But however far you advance in the love of God and neighbour and in true piety, as long as you live in this life, do not believe that you are without sin; for of this life we read in the holy writings: 'Is not human life on earth a trial?' Therefore, since as long as you are in this body you must always say in prayer what the Lord taught, 'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors', remember to forgive quickly if anyone sins against you and asks you for pardon, so that you may pray truthfully and be able to obtain pardon for your sins. I have written this to Your Affection in haste, since the haste of the bearer pressed me; but I thank God that I have not failed your good desire in some way. May the mercy of God always protect you, my excellent lord and deservedly distinguished and honourable son.