Letter 224: Augustine tells Quodvultdeus why the requested heresy catalogue is delayed.

To my sincerely beloved lord, brother and fellow deacon Quodvultdeus: Bishop Augustine. When this chance to write came to me through the presbyter of Fussala, whom I commend to your charity, I reread your letter in which you ask me to write something about the heresies that could have arisen since the Lord's coming in the flesh began to be proclaimed. I did this to see whether I ought now to undertake the work itself and send you something from it, where you would see that the briefer you want it made, the more difficult it is. But I could not even do that. Such cares came upon me that I could not in any way pretend not to see them, for they turned me away even from the work I had in hand. The work is this: I am answering the books of Julian, the eight he published after the four to which I had already replied. When brother Alypius received them at Rome, he had not yet copied all of them; but when an opportunity presented itself, he did not want to let it pass, and sent five of them to me, promising that he would soon send the other three. He pressed me hard not to delay answering. Compelled by his insistence, I slowed the work I was doing, so that I would not fail either task: one by day, the other by night, whenever other duties, constantly coming from one side and the other, spared me. The work I was doing was very necessary. I was reviewing my own little works, and if anything in them offended me or could offend others, I was working either to criticize it or to defend what ought and could be read. I had already finished two volumes after reviewing all my books, whose number I did not know until then; I learned that there were two hundred thirty-two. The letters remained, and then the popular sermons, which the Greeks call homilies. I had already read very many of the letters but had not yet dictated anything about them, when those books of Julian began to occupy me too. I have now begun to answer the fourth of them. When I have finished it and answered the fifth, if the other three do not arrive, I plan, if God wills, to begin what you ask, while doing both tasks at once: this one, and the review of my works, assigning one to the night hours and the other to the day. I have told Your Holiness this so that, in proportion to your desire to receive what you ask, you may ask the Lord all the more ardently to give me help, so that I may serve your praiseworthy zeal and the usefulness of those for whom you think it will profit, my sincerely beloved brother. Again I commend the bearer, and the business for which he traveled there. If you learn before whom it must be handled, I ask you not to tire of helping. We cannot abandon the needs of people like these. They are not our tenants, but something greater: they are our brothers, and in the love of Christ they belong to our care. Live to God.

EPISTOLA 224 Scripta post superiorem. A. Quodvultdeo, spondens se catalogum scripturum si per alias occupationes liceat, cum occupatissimus sit in confutandis posterioribus Iuliani libris atque in Retractationibus conscribendis (nn. 1-2), iterum latorem commendans (n. 3). DOMINO SINCERITER DILECTISSIMO, FRATRI ET CONDIACONO QUODVULTDEO, AUGUSTINUS EPISCOPUS. A. gravibus curis impeditus. 1. Cum mihi haec scribendi offerretur occasio per Fussalensem presbyterum, quem commendo caritati tuae, recensui epistolam tuam, in qua petis ut de haeresibus quae oriri potuerunt ex quo Domini in carne nuntiari coepit adventus, aliquid scriberem. Hoc autem feci, ut viderem utrum iam deberem opus ipsum aggredi, et inde tibi aliquid mittere; ubi considerares tanto esse difficilius, quanto vis effici brevius. Sed ne hoc quidem potui, talibus curis supervenientibus impeditus, a quibus omnino dissimulare non possem: nam me et ab eo quod habebam in manibus, averterunt. A. urgetur ut respondeat Iuliano dum suos retractat libros. 2. Hoc autem est, ubi respondeo libris Iuliani, quos octo edidit post illos quatuor quibus ante respondi. Hos enim cum Romae accepisset frater Alypius, nondum omnes descripserat, cum oblatam occasionem noluit praeterire, per quam mihi quinque transmisit; promittens alios tres cito se esse missurum, et multum instans ne respondere differrem. Cuius instantia coactus sum remissius agere quod agebam; ut operi utrique non deessem, uni diebus, alteri noctibus, quando mihi ab aliis occupationibus hinc atque hinc venire non desistentibus parceretur. Agebam vero rem plurimum necessariam: nam retractabam opuscula mea; et si quid in eis me offenderet, vel alios offendere posset, partim reprehendendo, partim defendendo quod legi deberet et posset, operabar. Et duo volumina iam absolveram, retractatis omnibus libris meis, quorum numerum nesciebam: eosque ducentos triginta duos esse cognovi. Restabant epistolae, deinde tractatus populares, quos Graeci homilias vocant. Et plurimas iam epistolarum legeram, sed adhuc nihil inde dictaveram, cum me etiam isti Iuliani libri occupare coeperunt, quorum nunc quarto respondere coepi. Quando ergo id explicavero, quintoque respondero, si tres non supervenerint, dispono (si Deus voluerit) et quod poscis incipere, simul agens utrumque, et hoc scilicet, et illud de retractatione opusculorum meorum, nocturnis et diurnis temporibus in singula distributis. A. perlatorem commendat. 3. Hoc ideo insinuavi Sanctitati tuae, ut quantum tibi desiderium est sumendi quod poscis, tanto flagrantius a Domino mihi poscas adiutorium, quo serviam laudabili studio tuo, atque utilitati eorum quibus id existimas profuturum, domine sinceriter dilectissime frater. Commendo iterum perlatorem, et negotium propter quod eo perrexit; si cognoveris apud quem agendum sit, peto ne pigeat adiuvare. Non enim possumus necessitates hominum eiusmodi deserere, qui nostri non coloni, sed quod maius est, fratres sunt, et in caritate Christi ad curam pertinent nostram. Deo vivas.