St. Augustine
qui iam in hac aetate cernunt quam sit amor huius saeculi periculosus et noxius. Atque utinam, cum magna et dura quatiuntur, parva et flexibilia corrigantur. De domo illa quid dicam, nisi benignissimae tuae curae gratias agam? Nam eam quam dare possumus, nolunt, quam volunt autem dare non possumus. Neque enim, sicut falso audierunt, a decessore meo relicta est ecclesiae, sed inter antiqua eius praedia possidetur et antiquae alteri ecclesiae sic cohaeret quem ad modum ista qua de agitur, alteri.
1Nollem quidem in his afflictionibus esse Africanam ecclesiam constitutam, ut terrenae ullius potestatis indigeret auxilio. Sed quia, sicut apostolus dicit, non est potestas nisi a deo, procul dubio, cum per vos sincerissimos catholicae matris filios eidem subvenitur, auxilium nostrum in nomine domini est, qui fecit caelum et terram. Quis enim non sentiat in
Letters of St. Augustine
Already, young as they are, they perceive how dangerous and harmful is the love of the present world. And would that, when the tall and sturdy things are shaken, the lowly and yielding may receive correction! What shall I say about that house, except to thank you for your very generous thought? For the house I can give they do not wish, and the one they wish, I cannot give, since it was not left to the Church by my predecessor, as they were wrongly informed, but is held among its ancient properties and adjoins the one ancient church just as the one now under consideration adjoins the other.a
I should wish indeed that the African Church were1 not placed in such afflictions as to require the aid of any earthly power, but since, as the Apostle says, “there is no power but of God,”c it is true that when you, a very whole-hearted son of our Catholic Mother, come to her aid, “our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.”d For amid such grievous afflictions who does not realize, my excellent lord, worthy of all honour, and eminently
- aIt is uncertain which churches are here meant. In addition to the Donatist church and basilica Leontiana mentioned in Ep. xxix. 11 above (p. 89), there were at Hippo other four churches: the basilica maior or basilica Pacis, beside which was a chapel to St. Stephen (Ep. ccxiii., C.D. xxii. 8. 22, Serm. 318, 319, 356); the basilica ad octo martyres, built by Augustine (Serm. 356. 10); a chapel ad viginti martyres (C.D. xxii. 8. 9, Serm. 148, 325), and a chapel dedicated to St. Theogenes (memoria sancti Theogenis, Serm. 273.7).
- bThe name is of very frequent occurrence in Africa; in Augustine’s works there are about twenty-five different individuals so called. This Donatus was proconsul of Africa, retiring from that post about 410, when Augustine addresses him in Ep. cxii.
- cRom. xiii. 1.
- dPs. cxx. 2.