Letter 112: Augustine urges Donatus to turn public virtue toward Christ and church unity.
Augustine of Hippo→Donatus, former proconsul and correspondent of Augustine|c. 410 AD|Augustine of Hippo|From Hippo Regius|AI-assisted
conversionpublic officechurch unitydonatism
Source-visible Augustine letter absent from the New Advent/NPNF English index; modern English is a first-time Roman Letters translation from Latin.
To my distinguished brother Donatus, honorable with the sincerest affection: Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
I was very eager to see you while you were in office, and even when you came to Thibilis I could not. I believe this happened so that I might enjoy your mind when it was free from public cares, rather than have a greeting in which I was at leisure and you were busy, and neither of us had enough of what we desired. Remembering the honorable promise of your character from youth, I think your heart is richly fit for Christ to pour himself into it, so that you may bear fruit for him, fruit worthier of eternal and heavenly glory than of temporal and earthly praise.
Many people, indeed almost everyone I was able either to question or to hear praising you unprompted, have steadily praised the chastity and virtue of your administration. I received this report without any troubling variation, and I received it all the more certainly because those who praised you did not know our connection, and did not know whether I knew you even slightly. I could not suspect that they were merely trying to please my ears rather than speaking the truth about you. Praise is far removed from vanity when blame, too, would be safe from giving offense.
Even so, my distinguished brother, honorable with the sincerest affection, you do not now need to be taught, though perhaps you may be reminded: all this popular glory and public reputation is not something to rejoice in because it is in the mouth of the crowd, but because it rests in the realities themselves. Even if those realities displeased the public, they would still be precious by their own brightness and weight, not by the approval of the ignorant. The person who disapproves such things deserves more pity than the one disapproved for them deserves to be judged miserable. And when they do please people and are publicly proclaimed with the praise they deserve, they do not become greater or better by another's judgment; they are made whole by inward truth and strengthened by the force of conscience alone. From this, more happiness comes to those who judge rightly than to the one about whom the public judges well.
Since you know these things very well, good man, look, as you have begun to do, with the strongest gaze of the heart toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Let every empty swelling of pride collapse, and rise up into him. He does not lift up those who turn to him with empty wind, but sets those who lean and climb by the sure steps of faith on the everlasting height of heavenly and angelic dignity.
Through him I beg you to write back to me, and to encourage kindly and gently all your people in the districts of Sinitis or Hippo to enter the communion of the catholic church. I have learned that your praiseworthy father, an excellent man, was born to you in her lap; please greet him from me with the respect his merits deserve, and do not find it burdensome to visit us. I do not ask this shamelessly, even for the sake of your property here, which can be made better before God. May God's mercy embrace you and preserve you from every wrong.
EPISTOLA 112
Scripta intra a. 409 et 410.
A. queritur quod Donatum exproconsulem convenire non potuerit illi gratulans quod bene audiat ab omnibus (n. 1) hortaturque tu, abiecto omni fastu, Christum sectetur (n. 2) atque ad Ecclesiae catholicae communionem suos alliciat (n. 3).
DOMINO EXIMIO, ET SINCERISSIMA DILECTIONE HONORABILI FRATRI DONATO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
Amico ex corde gratulatur.
1. Quod te administrantem multum desiderans, etiam cum Tibilim venisses, videre non potui, credo propterea factum esse, ut animo tuo curis publicis expedito potius fruerer, quam ut illa salutatio, me apud te otioso, et te negotioso, neutri nostrum, quantum satis esset, desiderium temperaret: recolens quippe honestatem ab ineunte aetate indolis tuae, abundanter idoneum tuum pectus existimo cui se Christus largissime infundat, ut fructus ei afferas aeterna et coelesti gloria quam temporali et terreno praeconio digniores.
Aurae popularis ambitio vitanda.
2. A multis enim, imo prorsus ab omnibus quos vel percontari, vel ultro etiam praedicantes audire potui, castitatem virtutemque administrationis tuae constanter omnino laudantibus atque praeferentibus, et sine ullo scrupulo dissonae varietatis accepi, et eo certius quo ignorabant necessitudinem nostram, et utrum te vel tenuiter nossem penitus nesciebant praedicatores tui, ne magis eos auribus meis se dedisse, quam vera de te spargere crederem. Ibi enim est a vanitate remota laudatio, ubi etiam vituperatio ab offensione secura est. Verumtamen, o frater eximie, et sincerissima dilectione honorabilis, non nunc docendus es, sed fortasse admonendus, omnem istam gloriam famamque popularem non in ore vulgi esse laetabilem, sed in rebus ipsis: quae etiamsi vulgo displiceant, proprio tamen fulgore ac pondere, non imperitorum commendatione pretiosae sunt; magisque miserandus est qui talia improbat, quam ille qui de talibus improbatur iudicandus miser. Cum vero placent, et sibi debita laude populariter quoque praedicantur, nec sic quidem ipsae maiores melioresque fiunt alieno iudicio; quoniam integrantur intima veritate, et solius conscientiae robore solidantur. Unde magis hominibus recte existimantibus, quam ei de quo vulgus bene existimat, aliquid ex eo felicitatis accidit.
Ecclesiae paci operam navet Donatus.
3. Quae cum optime noveris, vir bone, intuere, ut coepisti, fortissima cordis acie Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, et ab omni inani fastu omnino detumescens, assurge in illum qui non ventose allevat conversos ad se, sed certis fidei passibus innitentes atque ascendentes collocat in sempiterno fastigio coelestis atque angelicae dignitatis. Per quem te obsecro ut rescribas mihi, tuosque omnes quos in Sinitensi vel Hipponensi habes, ad catholicae Ecclesiae communionem comiter et benigne adhorteris. In cuius gremio etiam patrem tuum laudabilem et egregium virum abs te genitum esse cognovi; quem ut debito meritis eius a me officio salutes peto, et nos visere non graveris. Quod etiam propter rem tuam, quam hic habes, meliorem apud Deum faciendam, non impudenter exposco. Dei misericordia te circumplectatur, et ab omni iniquitate conservet.
◆
To my distinguished brother Donatus, honorable with the sincerest affection: Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
I was very eager to see you while you were in office, and even when you came to Thibilis I could not. I believe this happened so that I might enjoy your mind when it was free from public cares, rather than have a greeting in which I was at leisure and you were busy, and neither of us had enough of what we desired. Remembering the honorable promise of your character from youth, I think your heart is richly fit for Christ to pour himself into it, so that you may bear fruit for him, fruit worthier of eternal and heavenly glory than of temporal and earthly praise.
Many people, indeed almost everyone I was able either to question or to hear praising you unprompted, have steadily praised the chastity and virtue of your administration. I received this report without any troubling variation, and I received it all the more certainly because those who praised you did not know our connection, and did not know whether I knew you even slightly. I could not suspect that they were merely trying to please my ears rather than speaking the truth about you. Praise is far removed from vanity when blame, too, would be safe from giving offense.
Even so, my distinguished brother, honorable with the sincerest affection, you do not now need to be taught, though perhaps you may be reminded: all this popular glory and public reputation is not something to rejoice in because it is in the mouth of the crowd, but because it rests in the realities themselves. Even if those realities displeased the public, they would still be precious by their own brightness and weight, not by the approval of the ignorant. The person who disapproves such things deserves more pity than the one disapproved for them deserves to be judged miserable. And when they do please people and are publicly proclaimed with the praise they deserve, they do not become greater or better by another's judgment; they are made whole by inward truth and strengthened by the force of conscience alone. From this, more happiness comes to those who judge rightly than to the one about whom the public judges well.
Since you know these things very well, good man, look, as you have begun to do, with the strongest gaze of the heart toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Let every empty swelling of pride collapse, and rise up into him. He does not lift up those who turn to him with empty wind, but sets those who lean and climb by the sure steps of faith on the everlasting height of heavenly and angelic dignity.
Through him I beg you to write back to me, and to encourage kindly and gently all your people in the districts of Sinitis or Hippo to enter the communion of the catholic church. I have learned that your praiseworthy father, an excellent man, was born to you in her lap; please greet him from me with the respect his merits deserve, and do not find it burdensome to visit us. I do not ask this shamelessly, even for the sake of your property here, which can be made better before God. May God's mercy embrace you and preserve you from every wrong.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
EPISTOLA 112
Scripta intra a. 409 et 410.
A. queritur quod Donatum exproconsulem convenire non potuerit illi gratulans quod bene audiat ab omnibus (n. 1) hortaturque tu, abiecto omni fastu, Christum sectetur (n. 2) atque ad Ecclesiae catholicae communionem suos alliciat (n. 3).
DOMINO EXIMIO, ET SINCERISSIMA DILECTIONE HONORABILI FRATRI DONATO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
Amico ex corde gratulatur.
1. Quod te administrantem multum desiderans, etiam cum Tibilim venisses, videre non potui, credo propterea factum esse, ut animo tuo curis publicis expedito potius fruerer, quam ut illa salutatio, me apud te otioso, et te negotioso, neutri nostrum, quantum satis esset, desiderium temperaret: recolens quippe honestatem ab ineunte aetate indolis tuae, abundanter idoneum tuum pectus existimo cui se Christus largissime infundat, ut fructus ei afferas aeterna et coelesti gloria quam temporali et terreno praeconio digniores.
Aurae popularis ambitio vitanda.
2. A multis enim, imo prorsus ab omnibus quos vel percontari, vel ultro etiam praedicantes audire potui, castitatem virtutemque administrationis tuae constanter omnino laudantibus atque praeferentibus, et sine ullo scrupulo dissonae varietatis accepi, et eo certius quo ignorabant necessitudinem nostram, et utrum te vel tenuiter nossem penitus nesciebant praedicatores tui, ne magis eos auribus meis se dedisse, quam vera de te spargere crederem. Ibi enim est a vanitate remota laudatio, ubi etiam vituperatio ab offensione secura est. Verumtamen, o frater eximie, et sincerissima dilectione honorabilis, non nunc docendus es, sed fortasse admonendus, omnem istam gloriam famamque popularem non in ore vulgi esse laetabilem, sed in rebus ipsis: quae etiamsi vulgo displiceant, proprio tamen fulgore ac pondere, non imperitorum commendatione pretiosae sunt; magisque miserandus est qui talia improbat, quam ille qui de talibus improbatur iudicandus miser. Cum vero placent, et sibi debita laude populariter quoque praedicantur, nec sic quidem ipsae maiores melioresque fiunt alieno iudicio; quoniam integrantur intima veritate, et solius conscientiae robore solidantur. Unde magis hominibus recte existimantibus, quam ei de quo vulgus bene existimat, aliquid ex eo felicitatis accidit.
Ecclesiae paci operam navet Donatus.
3. Quae cum optime noveris, vir bone, intuere, ut coepisti, fortissima cordis acie Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, et ab omni inani fastu omnino detumescens, assurge in illum qui non ventose allevat conversos ad se, sed certis fidei passibus innitentes atque ascendentes collocat in sempiterno fastigio coelestis atque angelicae dignitatis. Per quem te obsecro ut rescribas mihi, tuosque omnes quos in Sinitensi vel Hipponensi habes, ad catholicae Ecclesiae communionem comiter et benigne adhorteris. In cuius gremio etiam patrem tuum laudabilem et egregium virum abs te genitum esse cognovi; quem ut debito meritis eius a me officio salutes peto, et nos visere non graveris. Quod etiam propter rem tuam, quam hic habes, meliorem apud Deum faciendam, non impudenter exposco. Dei misericordia te circumplectatur, et ab omni iniquitate conservet.