Letter LIX.
(a.d. 401.)
To My Most Blessed Lord and
Venerable Father Victorinus, My Brother in the Priesthood, Augustin
Sends Greeting in the Lord.
1. Your summons to the Council reached me on the
fifth day before the Ides of November, in the evening, and found me
very much indisposed, so that I could not possibly attend. However, I submit to your pious and wise judgment whether certain perplexities which the summons occasioned were due to my own ignorance or to sufficient grounds. I read in that summons that it was written also to the districts of Mauritania, which, as we know, have their own primates. Now, if these provinces were to be represented in a Council held in Numidia, it was by all means proper that the names of some of the more eminent bishops who are in Mauritania should be attached to the circular letter; and not finding this, I have been greatly surprised. Moreover, to the bishops of Numidia it has been addressed in such a confused and careless manner, that my own name I find in the third place, although I know my proper order to be much further down in the roll of bishops. This wrongs others, and grieves me. Moreover, our venerable father and colleague, Xantippus of Tagosa, says that the primacy belongs to him, and by very many he is regarded as the primate, and he issues such letters as you have sent. Even supposing that this be a mistake, which your Holiness can easily discover and correct, certainly his name should not have been omitted in the summons which you have issued. If his name had been placed in the middle of the list, and not in the first line, I would have wondered much; how much greater, then, is my surprise, when I find in it no mention whatever made of him who, above all others, behoved to be present in the Council, that by the bishops of all the Numidian churches this question of the order of the primacy might be debated before any other!
2. For these reasons, I might even hesitate to
come to the Council, lest the summons in which so many flagrant
mistakes are found should be a forgery; even were I not hindered
both by the shortness of the notice, and manifold other important
engagements standing in the way. I therefore beg you, most blessed
prelate, to excuse me, and to be pleased to give attention, in the
first instance, to bring about between your Holiness and the aged
Xantippus a cordial mutual understanding as to the question which
of you ought to summon the Council; or at least, as I think would
be still better, let both of you, without prejudging the claim of
either, conjointly call together our colleagues, especially those
who have been nearly as long in the episcopate as yourselves, who
may easily discover and decide which of you has truth on his
side, that this
question may be settled first among a few of you; and then, when
the mistake has been rectified, let the younger bishops be gathered
together, who, having no others whom it would be either possible or
right for them to accept as witnesses in this matter but
yourselves, are meanwhile at a loss to know to which of you the
preference is to be given.
I have sent this letter sealed with a ring which
represents a man’s profile.