Letter 113: Augustine asks Cresconius to help secure humane legal treatment for Faventius.
Augustine of Hippo→Cresconius, correspondent of Augustine|c. 416 AD|Augustine of Hippo|From Hippo Regius|AI-assisted
legal affairsintercessionchurch refugejustice
Source-visible Augustine letter absent from the New Advent/NPNF English index; modern English is a first-time Roman Letters translation from Latin.
If I ignore this case, about which I am now writing once again to your religious good will, Your Excellency will rightly blame and rebuke me, and so will the man, whoever he is, in whose case Faventius was seized in this way. He will judge, reasonably enough, that if he himself had fled to the help of the church and something similar had happened to him, I would have ignored his need and distress in the same way.
And even if human reputation is to be disregarded, what shall I say to the Lord our God? What account shall I give if I do not do all I can for the safety of a man who has committed himself to the church I serve, asking to be protected and helped, my dearly beloved and venerable son?
I therefore ask Your Kindness, since it is difficult and hardly credible that you do not already know, or cannot learn, in what case he is being detained, to be willing for the moment to support my petition with the apparitor who is holding him. Ask him to do what the emperor's law prescribes: to have Faventius questioned before the municipal records, whether he wishes to be granted thirty days in which, under moderate custody in the city where he is detained, he may put his affairs in order and provide for his expenses. During that period, if with your good will we can bring his case to an end by friendly discussion, we will rejoice. If we cannot, the outcome of the courts will find him as God allows, according to the merit of the case itself and the will of the almighty Lord.
EPISTOLA 113
Scripta intra a. 409 et 423.
A. rogat Cresconium ut suae pro Faventio petitioni faveat.
DOMINO DILECTISSIMO, MERITOQUE HONORABILI ET SUSCIPIENDO FRATRI CRESCONIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
1. Si ab ista causa dissimulavero, de qua tuae religioni ecce iterum scribo; non solum Eximietas tua, sed etiam ipse, quisquis ille est, in cuius causa Faventius sic raptus est, merito me culpabit, et recte reprehendet: iudicans utique, si etiam ipse ad auxilium Ecclesiae confugisset, si ei simile aliquid accidisset, ita me fuisse ab eius necessitate et tribulatione dissimulaturum. Deinde, si hominum existimatio contemnenda est, ipsi Domino Deo nostro quid dicam, et quam rationem reddam, si quantum possum non egero pro eius salute, qui se Ecclesiae, cui servio, tuendum adiuvandumque commisit, domine dilectissime et venerabilis fili? Rogo itaque Benignitatem tuam, quoniam difficile et incredibile est, ut non iam vel noveris vel nosse possis in qua causa detentus sit, hoc interim apud apparitorem qui eum tenet, petitionem meam adiuvare digneris, ut faciat quod Imperatoris leget praecipitur : ut eum apud Acta municipalia interrogari faciat, utrum sibi velit dies triginta concedi, quibus agat sub moderata custodia in ea civitate in qua detentus est, ut sua ordinet, sumptusque provideat. Quorum dierum spatio, tua nobis annuente benevolentia, si eius causam amica disceptatione finire potuerimus, gratulabimur: si autem non potuerimus, inveniet eum exitus iudiciorum qui placuerit Deo, secundum causae ipsius meritum vel Domini omnipotentissimi voluntatem.
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If I ignore this case, about which I am now writing once again to your religious good will, Your Excellency will rightly blame and rebuke me, and so will the man, whoever he is, in whose case Faventius was seized in this way. He will judge, reasonably enough, that if he himself had fled to the help of the church and something similar had happened to him, I would have ignored his need and distress in the same way.
And even if human reputation is to be disregarded, what shall I say to the Lord our God? What account shall I give if I do not do all I can for the safety of a man who has committed himself to the church I serve, asking to be protected and helped, my dearly beloved and venerable son?
I therefore ask Your Kindness, since it is difficult and hardly credible that you do not already know, or cannot learn, in what case he is being detained, to be willing for the moment to support my petition with the apparitor who is holding him. Ask him to do what the emperor's law prescribes: to have Faventius questioned before the municipal records, whether he wishes to be granted thirty days in which, under moderate custody in the city where he is detained, he may put his affairs in order and provide for his expenses. During that period, if with your good will we can bring his case to an end by friendly discussion, we will rejoice. If we cannot, the outcome of the courts will find him as God allows, according to the merit of the case itself and the will of the almighty Lord.
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 113
Scripta intra a. 409 et 423.
A. rogat Cresconium ut suae pro Faventio petitioni faveat.
DOMINO DILECTISSIMO, MERITOQUE HONORABILI ET SUSCIPIENDO FRATRI CRESCONIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM.
1. Si ab ista causa dissimulavero, de qua tuae religioni ecce iterum scribo; non solum Eximietas tua, sed etiam ipse, quisquis ille est, in cuius causa Faventius sic raptus est, merito me culpabit, et recte reprehendet: iudicans utique, si etiam ipse ad auxilium Ecclesiae confugisset, si ei simile aliquid accidisset, ita me fuisse ab eius necessitate et tribulatione dissimulaturum. Deinde, si hominum existimatio contemnenda est, ipsi Domino Deo nostro quid dicam, et quam rationem reddam, si quantum possum non egero pro eius salute, qui se Ecclesiae, cui servio, tuendum adiuvandumque commisit, domine dilectissime et venerabilis fili? Rogo itaque Benignitatem tuam, quoniam difficile et incredibile est, ut non iam vel noveris vel nosse possis in qua causa detentus sit, hoc interim apud apparitorem qui eum tenet, petitionem meam adiuvare digneris, ut faciat quod Imperatoris leget praecipitur : ut eum apud Acta municipalia interrogari faciat, utrum sibi velit dies triginta concedi, quibus agat sub moderata custodia in ea civitate in qua detentus est, ut sua ordinet, sumptusque provideat. Quorum dierum spatio, tua nobis annuente benevolentia, si eius causam amica disceptatione finire potuerimus, gratulabimur: si autem non potuerimus, inveniet eum exitus iudiciorum qui placuerit Deo, secundum causae ipsius meritum vel Domini omnipotentissimi voluntatem.