Excellency by means of this epistolary converse the anxieties arising from my controversies. For in proportion as we have been gladdened by the surprising success of your measures in favour of catholic unity throughout the other parts of Africa, so do we regret, my distinguished lord and son truly and deservedly honoured and cherished in Christ’s love, that the district of Hippo Regius and the territories adjoining it on the borders of Numidia have not yet been honoured with the vigorous support of your edict as governor. I have thought it better to mention this fact to your Excellency, so that it may not be attributed rather to negligence on my part, since I bear the burden of episcopal office at Hippo. If you condescend to ascertain from my brethren and colleagues, who are in a position to recount the facts to your Highness, or from the priest whom I am sending with this letter, how far the heretics have had the boldness and effrontery to go in this same region of Hippo, I am confident you will, with the help of the Lord our God, take steps to have this puffed-up irreverence and conceit healed by methods tending to discourage it rather than cut away by measures that are purely retaliatory.

I find it admirable but not surprising that, though1 age is beginning to chill your limbs, your heart still