St. Augustine
nervorum suorum luctamine nihil certi cuiquam re linquere nititur, ipsa re adprobes, qui sit iste deus, quem vobis Christiani quasi proprium vindicatis et in locis abditis praesentem vos videre componitis. Nos etenim deos nostros luce palam ante oculos atque aures omnium mortalium piis precibus adoramus et per suaves hostias propitios nobis efficimus et a cunctis haec cerni et probari contendimus.
4Sed ulterius huic certamini me senex invalidus subtraho et in sententiam Mantuani rhetoris libenter pergo:
trahat sua quemque voluptas.
Post haec non dubito, vir eximie, qui a mea secta deviasti, hanc epistulam aliquorum furto detractam flammis vel quolibet pacto perituram. Quod si acciderit, erit damnum chartulae, non nostri sermonis, cuius exemplar penes omnes religiosos perpetuo retinebo. Dii te servent, per quos et eorum atque cunctorum mortalium communem patrem universi mortales, quos terra sustinet, mille modis concordi discordia veneramur et colimus.
ISeriumne aliquid inter nos agimus, an iocari libet? Nam sicut tua epistula loquitur, utrum causae ipsius infirmitate, an morum tuorum comitate sit factum, ut
Letters of St. Augustine
the strength of its sinews to robbing every man of certainty. Prove by the facts themselves who is that god whom you Christians claim as your peculiar property and whose presence you feign to see in secret places.a We indeed with reverent prayers worship our gods in daylight, openly before the eyes and ears of all mortals, and we earn their favour by acceptable sacrifices, taking pains to let our actions be seen and approved by everyone.
But I am a feeble old man, so I withdraw from4 any further contest and gladly give my adherence to that sentiment of the eloquent Mantuan:
Let each man be drawn by his own pleasure.b
After this, my distinguished friend, seceder that you are from my own faith, I fully expect that some thieves will steal this letter and that it will be burned or otherwise destroyed. In that event, it will only be the papyrus that will be lost, not what I have said, for I shall for ever keep a copy of it accessible to all the devout. May the gods keep you! Through them all we mortals whom earth bears worship and adore in a thousand ways and with harmonious variance one who is the common father both of the gods and of all mortal men.
Is it a serious discussion we are engaged in, or1 do you want only to be amused? The tone of your letter leaves me wondering whether your preference for humorous remarks to studied arguments is the
- aA very common charge against the Christians, arising no doubt from a misunderstanding of their private celebration of the Eucharist. It is made by Pliny and Fronto, among others, and is discussed and repudiated by all the Apologists, until in the third century it gradually disappears.
- bVirg. Buc. ii. 65.