Augustine, Letters

LCL 239: 266-267

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St. Augustine

sed vos benigne credere minime dubitamus.

No. 36 (Ep. CXLVI) Domino Dilectissimo Et Desiderantissimo Fratri Pelagio Augustinus in Domino Salutem

Gratias ago plurimum quod me litteris tuis ex-hilarare dignatus es et certum facere de salute vestra. Retribuat tibi dominus bona, quibus semper sis bonus, et cum illo aeterno vivas in aeternum, domine dilectissime et desiderantissime frater. Ego autem etsi in me non agnosco praeconia de me tua, quae tuae benignitatis epistula continet, benivolo tamen animo erga exiguitatem meam ingratus esse non possum, simul admonens ut potius ores pro me, quo talis a domino fiam, qualem me iam esse arbitraris.

[Et alia manu] Memor nostri incolumis domino placeas, domine dilectissime et desiderantissime frater.

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Letters of St. Augustine

at all that you will be good enough to recognize that it is so.

No. 36 (Ep. CXLVI) (a.d. 413) To Pelagius,^a my Lord Greatly Beloved and my Much Longed for Brother, Augustine Sends Greeting in the Lord

I am very grateful for your kindness in cheering me by a letter from you and in giving me news of your welfare. The Lord recompense you, my greatly beloved lord and much longed for brother, with such blessings that you may be ever blessed and may live eternally with Him Who is eternal. Although I do not recognize myself in those encomiums of me contained in your Benevolence’s letter, yet I cannot be ungrateful for your goodwill towards one so insignificant as I. At the same time I urge you rather to pray for me, that the Lord may make me what you imagine I already am.

[In another hand] May you abide in safety and be well-pleasing unto the Lord, my greatly beloved lord and much longed for brother. Forget us not!

^aThe heresiarch. Born in Britain, he was at Rome from about 401 to 409, when in consequence of the threatened invasion by Alaric, he withdrew to Sicily and afterwards to Africa. He visited Hippo when Augustine was absent, but they met later in Carthage. Pelagius soon sailed for Palestine, but his views were condemned by the Council of Carthage in 412. Augustine joined in the controversy, and between the Council and the writing of this letter wrote his treatises De Peccatorum Meritis and De Spiritu et Littera. Pelagius wrote from Palestine, and the above reply is cordial enough to show that Augustine was still hoping that Pelagius would see and renounce his error. At the Synod of Diospolis in 415 Pelagius used this letter, among others, as evidence of his good repute. Augustine was then led to defend himself from the charge of favouring the heretic, and in his De Gestis Pelagii, 50–53, he gives the text of his letter and discusses the language he used in it.

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DOI: 10.4159/DLCL.augustine-letters.1930

Augustine, Letters

LCL 239: 266-267

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