Letter 253: Augustine asks Benenatus to protect the church's interests in a marriage negotiation.

To my Most Blessed, venerable, and dearly desired brother Benenatus, and to the brothers who are with you: Augustine sends greetings in the Lord. Through the man by whom I greet Your Holiness, we rejoice in his faith and in his good zeal toward the church. He wished to come to Your Kindness with my letter, my dearly loved and venerable brother. Because I have heard that you are thinking of settling that matter, if it is true - and I will be surprised if it is true - you know how, with episcopal fatherly care, you ought to provide for the catholic church. If the report is true, as I said, do not conduct the matter with just anyone, but rather with a catholic household, from which the church can have not only no opposition but also faithful assistance.

EPISTOLA 253 Scripta post a. 395. A. Benenato episcopo de eadem puella (ut videtur) in matrimonium non tradenda nisi iuveni catholicae domus. DOMINO BEATISSIMO, ET VENERABILI AC DESIDERABILI FRATRI BENENATO, ET QUI TECUM SUNT FRATRIBUS, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM. 1. Per quem saluto Sanctitatem tuam, de fide eius et bono circa Ecclesiam studio gratulamur. Voluit autem ad tuam Benignitatem cum litteris meis venire, domine dilectissime ac venerabilis frater. Et quoniam audivi quod de negotio illo transigere cogitas, si verum est (quod miror, si verum est), nosti quemadmodum debeas episcopali paternitate catholicae Ecclesiae providere; ut non cum quolibet id agas, si tamen, ut dixi, verum est quod audivi, sed potius cum domo catholica, cuius non solum nullam adversitatem, verum etiam fidele adiutorium habere possit Ecclesia.