39. Vita 22 (Geerlings, 68–70); trans. Muller and Deferrari, FC 15:99–100. (continued)
The Bishop 105 den and you be God's fields [where we graze]. No one should give a cloak or linen tunic, unless it be for common use. Whatever we get, we get from the common room. As for me, I want to have whatever I have from what's held in common, and so I don't want your Graces to donate such things that only I, as it were, might make proper use of. An expensive cloak, for example, might be donated to me. It might be well suited for a bishop, but it is really not suited to Augustine, that is, a poor man born of poor parents. Otherwise, people will say that I wear expensive clothes, things I could not have had either in my father's house or in that secular profession of mine. It's not right that I should have clothes that I can't pass along to my brother if he doesn't have something. Clothes such as a presbyter can have, things a deacon or a subdeacon might suitably wear—that's the sort of thing that I wish to accept because I accept what's for common use. If someone gives something better, I sell it . . . I sell it, and I give the money to the poor.40
Church Finances and
Care of the Poor
Augustine largely delegated to others the financial administration of the church. In the following passage, Possidius offers an overview of Augustine's policies. From Possidius of Calama, Life of Saint Augustine:
(24) The care of the church buildings and all its property Augustine assigned and entrusted, in turn, to more capable clerics, for he never held the key nor wore a ring, but all receipts and expenditures were recorded by these household overseers. At the end of the year, the accounts were read to him so that he might know how much was received and how much was spent, and also what balance remained. In many cases, he took the word of the overseer rather than investigate its veracity by actual proof. He never wished to buy a house, land, or a farm; however, if anything of the kind was donated, perchance, or left as a legacy, he did not refuse it, but insisted that the gift be accepted. Still, we know that he did refuse some legacies, not because they could not be used for the poor, but because it seemed right and just that the children, parents, or relatives of the deceased should own them, even though that was not the will of the deceased. . . . New buildings Augustine never desired, avoiding entanglements of his soul in them, because he wanted it always free from all temporal annoyance. Nevertheless, he did not prohibit those who wanted to build them, unless their plans were too extravagant. Meanwhile, if his church needed money, he told the Christian people that he had nothing to give to the poor. For the benefit of captives and the
40. S. 356.13 (PL 39:1579–80); my trans.