Letters 199.40–203.1

So when it was said according to Luke, “And on earth distress of nations,” he meant to be understood not the nations belonging to the seed of Abraham, in whom all nations will be blessed, but the nations that will stand on the left when all nations are gathered before the judge of the living and the dead. For both parts will be in all nations, one that oppresses and the other that is oppressed; one that says, “Peace and security,” the other in which the sun is darkened and the moon does not give its light, from which the stars fall, and in which the powers of the heavens are shaken.

“And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty.” I see that this can be taken in two ways: either as coming in the Church as in a cloud, just as even now he does not cease to come, according to what he says, “From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven” (but “then with great power and majesty,” because his greater power and majesty will appear to the saints, to whom he will give great strength so that they are not overcome by so great a persecution); or in his own body, in which he sits at the right hand of the Father, in which also he died and rose again and ascended into heaven, according to what is written in the Acts of the Apostles: “When he had said these things, a cloud received him and he was taken up from them.” And since the angels also said there, “He will come in the same way as you saw him going into heaven,” he is rightly to be believed to be coming not only in the same body but also in a cloud, since he will come as he went away, and a cloud received him as he went away.

But which of these two is to be preferred here is hard to judge. The more obvious sense, indeed, is that anyone who hears or reads, “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty,” should take it as referring precisely to his coming not through the Church but in his own person, when he is to come to judge the living and the dead. But since the Scriptures are to be searched, and we ought not to be content with their surface, for they have been so shaped for our exercise that they want to be penetrated more deeply, what follows must be carefully examined. For when he had said, “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty,” he added and said: “But when these things begin to take place, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; when they already put forth fruit, you know that summer is near; so also you, when you see these things taking place, know that the kingdom of God is near.” When, then, he says, “When you see these things taking place,” what can we understand but the things mentioned above? But among these is also what he says: “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty.” Accordingly, even when this has been seen, the kingdom of God will not yet be here, but will be near.

We see that the other two evangelists also keep this order. For in Mark, when it had been said, “And the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken,” he says, “and then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.” Then he adds what Luke did not say: “And then he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of heaven.” Then, where Luke spoke of the fig tree and the other trees, Mark speaks of the fig tree alone: “From the fig tree learn the parable. When its branch has become tender and the leaves have come out, you know that summer is near; so also you, when you see these things taking place, know that it is near, at the doors.” What does “when you see these things taking place” mean, if not the things he said above? Among them is also what he says: “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory, and then he will send his angels and gather his elect.” So the end will not be then, but then it will be near.

Or should it be said that where he says, “When you see these things taking place,” not all the things mentioned above are to be understood, but some of them, namely with the exception of what was said, “And then they will see the Son of Man coming,” and so on, since that will be the end itself, and not the time when it is near? But Matthew made it clear that what is set down, “When you see these things taking place,” must be taken with no exceptions; for in him too, when it had been said, “And the powers of the heavens will be shaken,” he says, “and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with great power and majesty; and he will send his angels with a trumpet and a loud voice, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from the heights of the heavens to their bounds. From the fig tree learn the parable. When its branch has become tender and the leaves have come out, you know that summer is near; so also you, when you see all these things, know that it is near, at the doors.”

So we know that it is near when we see not some of these things but all of them, among which is this too, that the Son of Man will be seen coming, and will send his angels, and gathers his elect from the four parts of the world, that is, from the whole earth. This he does throughout the whole last hour, coming in his members as in clouds, or in the whole Church itself, which is his body, as in a great cloud bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, from the time when he began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.” So perhaps everything said by these three evangelists about his coming, if more carefully compared and examined together, may be found to refer to his daily coming in his body, which is the Church, of which coming he said, “From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven”; except for those places where that last coming in his own person, when he is to judge the living and the dead, is promised in such a way that it is said to be drawing near, and except that at the end of the discourse according to Matthew the coming itself is plainly described, whose nearness was shown above to be recognized by certain signs. For the discourse in Matthew concludes with this: “When the Son of Man comes in his majesty, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his majesty; then all nations will be gathered before him,” and so on, up to where he says, “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” No one doubts that this was foretold of Christ's last coming and the end of the age. For there have not been lacking those who, by no contemptible argument, have sought to show that even the five and five virgins belong to this coming of his that now takes place through the Church. But these things should not be rashly promised, lest something should arise that strongly contradicts them, especially since in such obscurities of the divine words, by which it has pleased God to exercise our understanding, not only is one of those who handle the holy Scriptures not improbably moved more acutely than another, but even any one of them understands sometimes less well, sometimes better.

Yet I do not know whether we could see anything more certain in this question, if we could by any method or means, than what I already set out in my previous letter: when the whole world will be filled with the gospel. For what Your Venerableness thinks, that this was already done by the apostles themselves, I have shown by sure evidence is not so. For there are among us, that is, in Africa, innumerable barbarian peoples among whom the gospel has not yet been preached, as we can readily learn every day from those who are brought from there as captives and are now mixed among the slaves of the Romans. Yet it is only a few years since some of them, very rare and very few, who adjoin the Roman frontiers at peace, so that they have no kings of their own but prefects are set over them by the Roman Empire, began to be Christians, and their prefects themselves too. But those further inland, who are under no Roman authority, are not held by the Christian religion at all in any of their people; and yet it cannot in any way rightly be said that they do not belong to God's promise.

For the Lord promised to the seed of Abraham, with an oath interposed, not the Romans but all nations. In accordance with this promise it has already happened that some nations not held under Roman rule have received the gospel and been joined to the Church, which bears fruit and grows in the whole world. For it still has room to grow, until what was prophesied of Christ under the figure of Solomon comes to pass: “He will rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth”: from the river, that is, where he was baptized, because from there he began to preach the gospel; and from sea to sea is the whole world with all that is in it, since the whole is girded by the sea of Ocean. How else will that prophecy be fulfilled: “All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord”? For they will come not by migrating from their places but by believing in their places. For of believers the Lord said, “No one can come to me unless it has been granted him by my Father”; and the prophet says, “And they will worship him, each from his own place, all the islands of the nations.” He said “all the islands,” as though to say “even all the islands,” showing thereby that no land will be left where the Church is not, since none of the islands is left, some of which are set even in the Ocean, and we have learned that some of them have already received the gospel. And so in each and every island too is fulfilled what was said, “He will rule from sea to sea,” by which each island is girded, as also in the whole earth, which is in a way the greatest island of all, because Ocean girds it too; and we already know that the Church has reached its shores in the western parts, and wherever on its shores it has not yet reached, it will certainly reach by bearing fruit and growing.

If, then, since the prophecy of truth cannot lie, it is necessary that all the nations, as many as God has made, should worship him, how will they worship him unless they call on him? And how will they call on him in whom they have not believed? Or how will they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? Or how will they preach unless they are sent? For he sends his angels and gathers his elect from the four winds, that is, from the whole earth. So among the nations where the Church does not yet exist, it must exist; not that all who are there should believe, for all nations were promised, not all the people of all nations; for not all have faith. So every nation believes in all those who were chosen before the foundation of the world; in the rest it does not believe, and hates those who believe. For how else will this too be fulfilled, “You will be hated by all nations for my name's sake,” unless in all nations there are both those who hate and those whom they hate?

How, then, was this preaching completed by the apostles, when there are still nations, as is most certain to us, in which it has only just begun to be fulfilled, and in which it has not yet begun? So it was not said to the apostles, “You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth,” as though they alone, to whom he was then speaking, would fulfil so great a task; but just as he seems to have said to them alone what he said, “Behold, I am with you until the consummation of the age,” and yet who does not understand that he promised it to the whole Church, which, as some die and others are born, will be here until the consummation of the age? So too he said this to them, which does not apply to them at all, and yet it was said as though it applied to them alone: “When you see all these things, know that it is near, at the doors”; for to whom does this apply, if not to those who will be in the flesh when all things are fulfilled? How much more does that apply which was to be done in great part through them, although the same work was reserved for their successors too!

As for what the apostle said, “Have they not heard? Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world,” although he spoke in past-tense words, he nevertheless said what was to be, not what had already been done and completed; just as the prophet himself, whom he used as a witness, does not say “will go out into all the earth,” but “Their sound has gone out,” which certainly had not yet happened. Of the same kind is this too: “They have pierced my hands and feet,” which we know happened so long afterward. But lest we believe that these expressions were only prophetic and not apostolic as well, does not the same apostle say, “Which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth; and without doubt great is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, appeared to angels, was preached among the nations, believed in the world, taken up in glory”? Surely it is plain that what he put last is not yet completed even now; how much less then, when he was saying it! For the Church will be taken up in glory when it is said, “Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom”; and yet what was known for certain to be going to happen was said as though it had happened.

Much less is it to be wondered at that he also used present-tense words in what you recalled him saying likewise: “Because of the hope that is laid up for you, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it is also in the whole world bearing fruit and growing,” although the gospel did not yet hold the whole world; but he said that it was bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, to signify thereby how far it would come by bearing fruit and growing. If, then, it is hidden when the whole world from sea to sea will be entirely filled by the Church bearing fruit and growing, beyond doubt it is hidden when the end will be; for it will not be before then.

But to open my mind to you on this question, as to a holy man of God and a most sincere brother: error is indeed to be avoided on both sides, as far as a man can avoid it, whether the Lord is believed to be coming sooner or later than he will come; but it seems to me that no one errs when he knows that he does not know something, but when he thinks he knows what he does not know. Let us therefore set aside that wicked servant who, saying in his heart, “My master is delaying his coming,” lords it over his fellow servants and mixes in feasting with drunkards; for he beyond doubt hates his master's coming. With that wicked servant set aside, let us put before our eyes three good servants, managing the Lord's household diligently and soberly, longing thirstily for their Lord's coming, awaiting it watchfully, loving it faithfully. If one of them thinks the Lord will come sooner, another later, while the third confesses his ignorance on this matter, although all agree with the gospel, because all love the Lord's appearing and await it with longing and watchfulness, let us still see which agrees with it more.

One says: “Let us watch and pray, because the Lord will come soon.” Another says: “Let us watch and pray, because this life is short and uncertain, even though the Lord will come later.” The third says: “Let us watch and pray, because this life is both short and uncertain, and we do not know the time when the Lord will come.” The gospel says: “Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.” I ask you, what else do we hear this third one saying than what we hear the gospel saying? All of them, indeed, out of longing for the kingdom of God, would wish what the first thinks to be true; but the second denies it, while the third denies neither, but confesses that he does not know which of them speaks the truth. Accordingly, if what the first had foretold comes to pass, the second and third will rejoice with him; for all love the Lord's appearing, and so they will exult that what they love has come sooner. But if it does not come to pass and what the second said begins rather to appear true, it is to be feared that during the very delay those who had believed what the first had said may be disturbed and may begin to think the Lord's coming not late but non-existent; and you see how great a ruin of souls that is. And if they are of such great faith that they turn to what the second foretold and await the Lord faithfully and patiently even though he delays, still there will be abundant reproaches, insults, and mockeries from enemies who turn many of the weak away from the Christian faith by saying that the kingdom was promised them as falsely as it was falsely said that he would come soon. But as for those who believe what the second says, that the Lord will come later, if it is found false by the Lord's coming sooner, those who had believed him will in no way be disturbed in faith, but will enjoy an unexpected joy. Therefore the one who says the Lord will come sooner speaks more desirably, but is dangerously mistaken. Would that it were true, for it will be troublesome if it is not true! But the one who says the Lord will come later, and yet believes, hopes for, and loves his coming, certainly, even if he is mistaken about the delay, is happily mistaken; for he will have greater patience if it is so, greater joy if it is not. And so, by those who love the Lord's appearing, the former is heard more pleasantly, the latter believed more safely. But the one who confesses that he does not know which of these is true hopes for the one, bears with the other, and errs in neither, because he neither affirms nor denies either of them. I beg you not to despise me for being such a man, for I too love you for affirming what I desire to be true; and the more I love what you promise, and the more I see how dangerous it would be if you were mistaken, the less I want you to be mistaken. Forgive me if I have been burdensome to your holy mind; for the more rarely it happens, the more it has delighted me to speak with you at length, at least by letter.

While I had long been troubled that I had written several times and had not been favored with any reply from Your Highness, I suddenly received three letters from Your Kindness: one, not addressed to me alone, through my fellow bishop Vindemialis, and not long afterward two through our fellow presbyter Firmus. That holy man, joined to us, as you could learn from him, by a most intimate love, talked with us at length about Your Excellency and truthfully conveyed what kind of man he has known you to be in the heart of Christ; and so he surpassed not only the letters that the bishop I mentioned, or he himself, brought, but even those that we complained we had not received. And his account of you was the sweeter to us because he told things that you yourself could not write back even if I asked, lest you become the herald of your own praises, which holy Scripture forbids. Although I too am afraid to write these things to you, lest I incur the suspicion of flattery, my illustrious lord, justly most eminent, and son most dear in the love of Christ.

See, then, what delight and joy it was for me to hear your praises in Christ, or rather the praises of Christ in you, from a man who could neither deceive me, because of his faithfulness, nor be ignorant of them, because of his friendship with you. But we had heard other things from others too, though not so many or so certain: how sound and Catholic your faith is, how devout your expectation of things to come, what love you have for God and the brothers; how you are not haughty-minded in your lofty honors, nor hope in the uncertainty of riches but in the living God, and are rich in good works; how your house is a rest and comfort for the saints and a terror to the ungodly; how great a care you have that no one should lie in wait for the members of Christ while covered with the veil of Christ's name, whether among his old enemies or his more recent ones; and how provident you are for the salvation of those same enemies, while hostile to their error. These and suchlike things, as I said, we often hear from others too; but now, through the brother mentioned above, we have learned more of them and with surer testimony.

Furthermore, as to your conjugal chastity, so that we may praise and love that too in you, from whom could we hear of it except from some close friend of yours, who knew your life not on the surface but deeply? It delights me, then, to speak with you more intimately and at somewhat greater length about this good of yours, the gift of God. I know that I am no burden to you if I send something long, so that by reading it you may be with us longer. For I have learned this too, that amid your many great cares you read easily and willingly, and take great delight in our little works, even those we have written to others, if any have been able to come into your hands; how much more will you be good enough to attend more closely and receive more gladly what is written to you, where I may speak as though to one present! From this letter, then, pass on to the book I have sent with it, which will itself make known to Your Reverence more conveniently, in its opening, both why it was written and why it was sent to you in particular.

It had been decreed some time ago that Pelagius and Caelestius, the inventors of an abominable doctrine, should be driven from the city of Rome as a kind of contagion to Catholic unity, lest they pervert the minds of the ignorant by their perverse persuasion. In this our Clemency followed the judgment of Your Holiness, by which it is agreed that they were condemned by all after a just examination of the case. But since the stubborn evil of an obstinate crime required that the decree be repeated, we have decided by a recent enactment too that, if anyone, knowing that they are hiding in any part of the provinces, delays either to expel or to report them, he shall be subject to the prescribed penalty as an accomplice.

Above all, however, for correcting the obstinacy of certain bishops who either support their perverse arguments by tacit consent or do not destroy them by public opposition, it will be fitting, dearest and most loving father, that the authority of Your Holiness should stand, so that the Christian devotion of all may agree in the abolition of this preposterous heresy. Your Reverence will therefore have everyone admonished by suitable letters, so that they may know that by the decree of Your Holiness this rule is laid down for them: that whoever, from impious obstinacy, neglects to subscribe to the condemnation of the persons named above, so that his pure mind may be evident, shall be punished with the loss of the episcopate, expelled from their cities for ever, and deprived of communion. For since we ourselves, in accordance with the Council of Nicaea, worship with a sincere confession God, the Creator of all things and the author of our empire, Your Holiness will not allow men of a detestable sect, devising new and unheard-of things to the injury of religion, to conceal in secret discussions a sacrilege once condemned by public authority. For the guilt is one and the same for those who have given harmful favor either by pretending not to see, and so conniving, or by not condemning. [And in another hand:] May the Godhead keep you safe for many years, dearest and most loving father. Given on the fifth day before the Ides of June at Ravenna. A letter in the same terms was also given to the holy bishop Augustine.

The holy presbyter Innocent, the bearer of this letter, did not take a letter from me to Your Worthiness last year, as though he would never return to Africa. Yet we give thanks to God that it so turned out that you overcame our silence with your letters. For every opportunity is most welcome to me by which I write to Your Reverence, calling God to witness that, if it were possible, I would take the wings of a dove and be held in your embrace: always, indeed, because of the merit of your virtues, but now above all because, with you as fellow workers and leaders, the heresy of Caelestius has been slain. It has so infected the hearts of many that, though they feel themselves overcome and condemned, they still do not give up the poison of their minds, and, the only thing they can do, they hate us, through whom they think they have lost the freedom to teach heresy.

As to your question whether I have written a reply against the books of Annianus, the pseudo-deacon of Celeda, who is most lavishly fed so that he may supply frivolous words for another's blasphemy, know that I received those very books, sent in sheets by our holy brother the presbyter Eusebius, not long ago; and since then, whether from illnesses coming upon me or from the falling asleep of your holy and venerable daughter Eustochium, I have grieved so much that I almost thought they should be ignored; for he sticks in the same mud and, apart from jingling and begged words, says nothing else. Yet we have achieved much, in that, while he tries to answer my letter, he has betrayed himself more openly and laid bare his blasphemies to all. For whatever he denies having said in that wretched synod of Diospolis, he professes in this work. Nor is it a great matter to answer the silliest trifles. But if the Lord grants me life and we have a supply of secretaries, we will answer in a few night's labors, not to refute a heresy that is already dead, but to confute ignorance and blasphemy by our words; and Your Holiness would do this better, so that we are not compelled to praise our own work against a heretic. Our common holy children, Albina, Pinianus, and Melania, send you warmest greetings. I have handed this little letter from holy Bethlehem to the holy presbyter Innocent to deliver. Your niece Paula earnestly begs you to remember her, and sends you warm greetings. May the mercy of Christ our Lord keep you safe and mindful of me, truly holy lords and fathers venerable in the affection of all.

I have received the letter of Your Eminence, in which you ask me to write to you. You would not desire this unless you also found pleasing and welcome what you thought I could write; and that is, that if you desired the vanities of this world without having experienced them, you should despise them now that you have experienced them. For in them the sweetness is deceptive, the labor fruitless, the fear perpetual, the eminence dangerous; the beginning is without foresight and the end with regret. So it is with all things that in this toil of mortality are sought more eagerly than prudently. But the hope of the godly is different, the fruit of their labor different, the reward of their dangers different. For in this world it is impossible not to fear, not to grieve, not to labor, not to be in danger; but it makes a great difference for what cause, with what expectation, to what end each one suffers these things. For my part, when I look at the lovers of this world, I do not know when wisdom could be opportune for healing their minds. For when their affairs are, as it were, prosperous, they reject wholesome warnings with disdain and regard them as an old wives' tale; but when they are in distress in adversity, they think more of escaping what distresses them for the present than of grasping what may heal them and bring them where they can never be distressed at all. Yet sometimes some bring the ears of the heart near and apply them to the truth, more rarely in prosperity, more often in adversity; but they are few, for so it was foretold, and I want you to be among them, because I truly love you, my distinguished lord and most eminent and most longed-for son. Let this admonition be my return of your greeting; for although I do not want you to suffer hereafter such things as you have endured, still more do I not want you to have endured them without some change of life for the better.