Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 75
Augustine of Hippo advises a layman to hand a petition to a count (comes) by the agency of a bishop or a presbyter. Augustine, Letter 244, North Africa, early 5th century AD.
Letter 244
 
2. A layman, Chrisimus, thought about a suicide because he had lost his property for some reason. Augustine tries to dissuade him and encloses a letter of support to a count.
 
Scripsi sane etiam ad uirum laudabilem comitem, quam epistulam in tuo erit arbitrio utrum dari uelis; nam per quem detur, non dubito deesse non posse adiuuante domino uel episcopum uel presbyterum uel quemlibet.
 
(ed. Goldbacher 1911: 581)
Letter 244.2
 
2. A layman, Chrisimus, thought about a suicide because he had lost his property for some reason. Augustine tries to dissuade him and encloses a letter of support to a count.
 
I have of course also written to the count, who is a praiseworthy man, and it will be left to your choice whether you want to present the letter to him. For I have no doubt that there must be someone by whom, with the help of the Lord, it might be presented, either a bishop or a presbyter or anyone at all.
 
(trans. Teske 2005: 171-2, slighltly altered)

Place of event:

Region
  • Latin North Africa
City
  • Hippo Regius

About the source:

Author: Augustine of Hippo
Title: Letters, Epistulae
Origin: Hippo Regius (Latin North Africa)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The letters of Augustine of Hippo cover a wide range of topics: Holy Scripture, dogma and liturgy, philosophy, religious practice and everyday life. They range from full-scale theological treatises to small notes asking someone for a favour. The preserved corpus includes 308 letters, 252 written by Augustine, 49 that others sent to him and seven exchanged between third parties. 29 letters have been discovered only in the 20th century and edited in 1981 by Johannes Divjak; they are distinguished by the asterisk (*) after their number.
The preserved letters of Augustine extend over the period from his stay at Cassiciacum in 386 to his death in Hippo in 430.
Edition:
Edition:
A. Goldbacher ed., S. Augustini Hipponiensis Episcopi Epistulae, Pars 4, Ep. 185-270, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 57, Vienna-Leipzig 1911.
 
Translation:
Saint Augustine, Letters 211–270, 1*–29*, trans. R. Teske. New York, 2005.

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
    Relation with - Secular authority
      Intercession
        Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER75, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=75