St. Augustine
gratia eius intellecta atque dilecta etiam loquendo expugnent, quod iam loqui non audent.
1Quamvis longe absens fuerim, quando per Proiectum clericum ad me directa Hipponem sanctitatis tuae scripta venerunt, tamen, posteaquam veni eisque lectis rescriptorum debitorem me factum esse cognovi, reddendi tempus opperiebar. Et ecce subito profecturi a nobis carissimi fratris nostri Albini acolithi gratissima occurrit occasio. De tua igitur, quae mihi exoptatissima est, salute laetatus sanctitati tuae salutationem debitam reddo. Semper autem debeo caritatem, quae sola etiam reddita semper detinet debitorem. Redditur enim, cum inpenditur; debetur autem, etiamsi reddita fuerit, quia nullum est tempus, quando inpendenda iam non sit. Nec, cum redditur, amittitur, sed potius reddendo multiplicatur; habendo enim redditur, non carendo. Et cum reddi non possit, nisi habeatur, nec haberi potest, nisi reddatur; immo etiam, cum
Letters of St. Augustine
through the Lord’s assistance to understand and love His grace, they may by their utterance refute the errors which they no longer dare to utter.
I was far away when the clerk Projectus brought the1 letters your Holiness sent to me at Hippo, yet as soon as I returned and read them and realized that I was in your debt, I was awaiting a chance of paying my debt, when lo! the unexpected departure from us of our well-beloved brother, the acolyte Albinus, has provided a most welcome opportunity. Rejoicing, therefore, in your good health, which is the object of my earnest desire, I return your Holiness the salutation I was owing you. But I always owe you love, the only debt which, after being repaid, still keeps one a debtor. For it is repaid when it is expended, but is still owing even if it has been repaid, since there is no time when it does not require to be expended. Nor is it lost when it is repaid, but rather by repayment it is multiplied, for it is repaid by retaining it, not by getting quit of it. And since it cannot be repaid unless it be retained, so it cannot be retained unless it be repaid—nay rather, when a man repays it,