54. Ep. 139.3 (CSEL 44:152–53); trans. Parsons, FOTC 20:56–57. (continued)
(3) I do not know which of our shorter works we were dictating when you left us. Therefore, I will recall all that I dictated, from the time we came back from Carthage: I wrote back to the Spanish bishop Optatus once again concerning the question of the origin of the soul;55 I replied to Gaudentius of Timgad, bishop of the Donatists, as he answered the things I had earlier written to him;56 I dictated something against the Arians (replying) to what our Dionysius had sent me from Vicus Juliani and three sermons to be sent to Carthage; among other things, as I was getting ready to go back to the books On the City of God, all of a sudden, I received a letter from the holy Renatus, sending me from Caesarea two books of someone named Victor, an ex-Donatist or ex-Rogatist, a former disciple of that Vincent to whom I once wrote, who has become a Catholic.57 And he wanted something about the soul, rebuking my hesitations because I did not dare define whether the soul came from generation or was breathed into each person anew as he was being born, and he stated that he was attracted to the idea that the soul did not come from begetting but was given to us. In those two books of his, he said very many false and absurd things as well as things against the Catholic faith. Because our friend mentioned above asked me strongly to refute them, because with his smooth speech they are perverting many, I did write one book on this to the very same dear friend of ours, and I want to write to Victor himself, since it is quite necessary. And that I may do what remains to be done with the Gospel of John, I have now begun to dictate some sermons for the people, not too long, to be sent on to Carthage on the condition that if the same elderly gentleman58 wants more in the future, he says so and, when he so says, to stop putting off their publication. So far I have dictated six. I have set aside Saturday and Sunday nights for them. Therefore, I have dictated from the time of my arrival, that is, from September 11 to December 1, about 6,000 lines.
(4) . . . But I am annoyed because of the demands which are thrust on me to write, arriving unannounced from here, there, and everywhere. They interrupt and hold up all the other things we have so neatly lined up in order. They never seem to stop and can't be put aside.59
55. "Optatus": Optatus was bishop of Mauretania Tingitana in what is now western Morocco; though in Africa, it was under civil administration from Spain. The reference here is to ep. 190.
56. "Gaudentius of Timgad": Gaudentius was a leading Donatist bishop who, after the forced unification of Donatist and Catholic congregations in 411, had threatened to burn himself and his flock alive in his church. Augustine refers here to Contra Gaudentium, book 2.
57. "Victor, . . . ex-Rogatist": Vincentius Victor converted to Catholicism from the Rogatists, an offshoot of the Donatists who rejected the violence of the Circumcellions. Vincentius came across Augustine's ep. 192 and, upset by Augustine's unwillingness to take a stand on the origin of the soul, composed a two-volume attack. Augustine eventually responded with On the Soul and Its Origin (De anima et eius origine).
58. "The elderly gentleman": Aurelius of Carthage. The reference is to Augustine's Tractates on the Gospel of John, likely, Tractates 55–60.
59. Ep. 23*A.3–4 (BA 46B:372–78); trans. Eno, FOTC 81:166–69. A similar listing of his writing projects appears at the beginning and end of ep. 169 to Evodius, dating from 415; also ep. 224 to Quodvultdeus.
The Bishop 117
Nominating a Successor
In 426, Augustine announced his retirement and nominated a successor, a presbyter named Eraclius (or Heraclius). What follows is the official transcript of an event scrupulously recorded and preserved by the church's stenographers. Augustine refers, in passing, to his career and to the controversy that arose when he had first been consecrated coadjutor bishop by Valerius. It also offers a fascinating glimpse of Augustine's congregation. It may remind readers of modern political rallies with their sometimes carefully scripted applause. Preserved as Letter 213:
(1) On the 26th day of September, in the 12th consulship of the most glorious Theodosius and the 2nd of Valentinian Augustus, after Bishop Augustine had seated himself on his throne in the Basilica of Peace, attended by his brother bishops, Religianus and Martinianus, in the presence of the presbyters Saturninus, Leporius, Barnabas, Fortunatianus, Rusticus, Lazarus, and Eraclius, as well as of the accompanying clerics and a large crowd of people, Bishop Augustine spoke thus:
"Yesterday I made a promise to your Charity because I wished you to be here in large numbers, so we must now forgo all delay and proceed to business, for if I were to speak of anything else you would not listen because your attention is on the proceedings. In this life we are all mortals, and the last day of this life is always uncertain for everyone. In infancy our hopes are fixed on childhood, in childhood we look to adolescence, in adolescence we look forward to adulthood, in adulthood to middle age, and in middle age to old age. Whether this will be our lot we do not know, but it is what we hope for. Old age, however, has no other period to expect. How long old age itself will last is hidden from us, but it is certain that there is no other age to follow old age. God willed that I should come to this city in the vigor of manhood, but I have now passed through middle age and have reached old age. I know that after the decease of bishops churches are regularly thrown into confusion by ambitious or restless men, a fact which I have often observed and grieved over, and I consider it my duty, as far as it depends on me, to take measures that it may not happen to this city. . . . Therefore, that no one may complain of me, I make known to all of you my choice which I believe is the choice of God: I want the presbyter Eraclius for my successor."
The people raised a shout: "Thanks be to God! Praise to Christ!"—this was said twenty-three times; "Hear us, O Christ! Long life to Augustine!"—this was said sixteen times; "You are our father, you our bishop!"—this was said eight times.
(2) When silence was restored, Bishop Augustine said: "I have no need to speak in his praise; I am silent about his wisdom; I yield to his modesty; it is enough that you know him, and I say that I wish what I know is your wish; if I had not known it before, I should have proof of it today. Therefore, I wish this, I ask it of the Lord our God with prayers that are ardent even in the chill of age, and I exhort, advise, and entreat that you join with me in praying that, while the minds of all are transformed and welded together in the peace of Christ, God may confirm what He has wrought in us. May He who sent this man to me keep him, may He keep him safe, may He keep him blameless, so that as he is my joy in life, he may take my place at my death.
"What I am saying is being taken down, as you see, by the stenographers of the Church; what you say is being taken down as well. [Because of this] neither my words nor your shouts of approval fall uselessly to the ground. To speak more openly, we are putting together an official ecclesiastical record, for I wish this act to be ratified as far as it is humanly possible."
A shout was raised by the people: "Thanks be to God! Praise to Christ!"—said thirty-six times; "Hear us, O Christ! Long life to Augustine!"—said thirteen times; "You are our father, you our bishop!"—eight times; "It is right and just!"—said twenty times; "He is well-deserving, he is truly worthy!"—said five times; "It is right and just!"—said six times.
(3) When silence was restored, Bishop Augustine said: "Therefore, as I was saying, I wish the ratification of my choice and your choice, as far as it rests with human beings, to be recorded in the annals of the Church; but as to what belongs to the hidden will of almighty God, let us pray, as I said, that He may confirm what He works in us."
A shout was raised by the people: "We give thanks for your decision!"—said sixteen times; "May it be so, may it be so!"—said twelve times; "You are our father, Bishop Eraclius!"—said six times.
(4) When silence was restored, Bishop Augustine said: "I know what you also know, but I do not want what happened to me to happen to him. Many of you know what happened; the only ones who do not know are those who were either not yet born or had not yet attained the age of knowledge. While my father and bishop, the elder Valerius of blessed memory, was still alive, I was ordained bishop and I sat with him; something which I did not know had been forbidden by the Council of Nicaea, nor did he know it.60 Therefore, I do not wish my son to be blamed for what was blamed in me."
A shout was raised by the people: "Thanks be to God, praise to Christ!"—said thirteen times.
(5) When silence was restored, Bishop Augustine said: "He will be a presbyter as he is, and when God wills he will be a bishop. But now at least I shall do, with the help of God's mercy, what up to now I have not done. You know what I wanted to do a few years ago, and you did not let me. It was agreed between you and me that no one should disturb me for five days so that I might devote myself to the study of the Scriptures which my brothers and fathers, my fellow bishops, were pleased to lay upon me at the two Councils of Numidia and Carthage. It was entered in the acts, it was voted, you acclaimed it, your vote and your acclaim were read out to you. It was kept in my
60. "Forbidden by the Council of Nicaea": Augustine refers here to Canon 8; see note 14 above.