St. Augustine
cavenda est ira dei et hic et in futuro saeculo. Adiuro te per Christum, ut ad ista respondeas.
1Audivi pervenisse in manus tuas litteras meas; sed quod adhuc rescripta non merui, nequaquam inputaverim dilectioni tuae; aliquid procul dubio impedimenti fuit. Unde agnosco a me dominum potius deprecandum, ut tuae voluntati det facultatem mittendi quod rescripseris, nam rescribendi iam dedit, quia, cum volueris, facillime poteris.
2Etiam hoc ad me sane perlatum utrum quidem crederem, dubitavi, sed hinc quoque tibi aliquid utrum scriberem, dubitare non debui. Hoc autem breve est: suggestum caritati tuae a nescio quibus fratribus mihi dictum est, quod librum adversus te scripserim Romamque miserim. Hoc falsum esse noveris; deum nostrum testor hoc me non fecisse. Sed si forte aliqua in aliquibus scriptis meis reperiuntur, in quibus aliter aliquid quam tu sensisse reperiar, non contra te dictum, sed quod mihi videbatur, a me scriptum esse puto te debere cognoscere aut, si cognosci non potest, credere. Ita sane hoc dixerim, ut ego non
Letters of St. Augustine
you must beware of the wrath of God both here and hereafter. I adjure you by Christ to reply to what I have written.
I have heard that my letter has safely reached you,1 but I would by no means make it a charge against your affection that as yet I have not been favoured with a reply; no doubt something has come in your way. So I recognize that I must rather beseech the Lord to provide the opportunity of carrying out your intention to send the answer you have written, since He has already provided that of writing it, for you can very easily do so when you feel so disposed.
Further, I have hesitated whether indeed to give2 credence to a report which has reached me, but it is my duty not to hesitate about writing something to you concerning it as well. Briefly, this is the point: I have been told that certain brethren have hinted to your Charity that I wrote a book against you and sent it to Rome. Rest assured that this statement is untrue: I call our God to witness that this I have not done. But if some remarks happen to be found in some of my writings, in which I am found taking a different view from you on any point, I think you ought to know, or if you have no means of knowing, to believe, that what I have written is not directed against you, but is an expression of my own opinion. And indeed, in so saying, I not only profess myself