54. Ep. 139.3 (CSEL 44:152–53); trans. Parsons, FOTC 20:56–57.
The Bishop 115
As Augustine makes clear here in this letter, which dates from either late 411 or early 412, he did not so much write as dictate. From Letter 139 to Flavius Marcellinus:
(3) I have forgotten why I received back the copy of the book on the baptism of children53 which I had sent to your Excellency, unless, perhaps, it was because I found it faulty when I had looked it over, and I wanted to correct it, but I have been so unbelievably busy that I have not done so. There was also a letter to be written and added to the manuscript, and I began to dictate it while I was there, and you must know that I have added a little to it and it is still unfinished. If I could give you an account of my days and of the labor I expend at night on other pressing duties, you would be surprised and very sorry at the great burdens which weigh me down, which cannot be put off, and which prevent me from doing those things which you ask and urge me to do, willing though I am and more grieved than I can say at not being able to do them. When I get a little time, free from my obligations to those men who put such pressure upon me that I cannot in any way avoid them—and I ought not to show them contempt—there are plenty of details having a priority on the scraps of time devoted to dictation, and they are such as will not bear delay. . . . Charity, like a nurse caring for her children, gives the weak preference over the strong, not that they are more worthy of love, but more needy of help, and she wishes them to be like the others whom she passes over for a time as a mark of trust, not of contempt. Such necessities cannot be lacking for dictating something, and they prevent me from dictating what I ardently long to do, when a small bit of time is left me between my piled-up duties, which keep me weighed down with other people's ambitions and necessities, and I do not know what else I can do.54
Three Months of Writing
In one of the Divjak letters, we get a further glimpse into Augustine's work habits. On December 1, 419, Augustine wrote Possidius, listing what he had written over the previous three months. It totaled 6,000 lines (= 60,000 words)! The picture here reminds one of a chess master playing multiple games simultaneously. From Letter 23*A (Divjak):
53. "Book on the baptism of children": Augustine is referring to On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins and On the Baptism of Infants (De peccatorum meritis et remissione et de baptismo parvulorum), which he wrote in late 411 or early 412 in response to Marcellinus's request. Augustine looked back on this as his first anti-Pelagian treatise (retr. 2.37); for excerpts, see Chapter 10.
54. Ep. 139.3 (CSEL 44:152–53); trans. Parsons, FOTC 20:56–57.