Letter 135: 1. O man who art a pattern of goodness and uprightness, you ask me to apply to you for instruction in regard to some of the obscure passages which occur in my reading. I accept at your command the favour of this kindness, and willingly offer myself to be taught by you, acknowledging the authority of the ancient proverb, We are never too old to l...

To our lord, truly holy, and deservedly venerable father, Bishop Augustine — Volusianus. The questions of Volusianus and his circle. 1. You ask me, a man known for integrity and justice, to write something about the questions that have been agitated among my friends. I obey willingly, because your encouragement spurred the very conversations you now ask me to report, and because I take pleasure in having someone to whom I can safely refer difficulties that I cannot resolve on my own. 2. We were discussing, then — a circle of educated men, not all of them Christian — the claims of the Christian religion. And a certain man of considerable learning [perhaps Longinianus or another pagan intellectual in the circle] raised objections that none of us could answer to everyone's satisfaction. His chief difficulty was this: how can we believe that the Lord of the universe, the infinite and omnipresent God, was enclosed within the body of a wailing infant? That the ruler of heaven and earth left his throne — if he can be said to have a throne — and was confined to the cramped quarters of a human body? That he endured the slow processes of human growth, from infancy through childhood to manhood? These things, he said, are beneath the dignity of God and unworthy of serious belief. He pressed further: if God became man, did the governance of the universe pause during those months in the womb? Was the world ungoverned while its creator learned to walk? These are not frivolous questions, and I confess they trouble me too. I therefore send them to you, trusting in your ability to give the answers that will satisfy not only me but my friends as well.

Letter 135 (A.D. 412) To Bishop Augustine, My Lord Truly Holy, and Father Justly Revered, Volusianus Sends Greeting. 1. O man who art a pattern of goodness and uprightness, you ask me to apply to you for instruction in regard to some of the obscure passages which occur in my reading. I accept at your command the favour of this kindness, and willingly offer myself to be taught by you, acknowledging the authority of the ancient proverb, We are never too old to learn. With good reason the author of this proverb has not restricted by any limits or end our pursuit of wisdom; for truth, secluded in its original principles, is never so disclosed to those who approach it as to be wholly revealed to their knowledge. It seems to me, therefore, my lord truly holy, and father justly revered, worth while to communicate to you the substance of a conversation which recently took place among us. I was present at a gathering of friends, and a great many opinions were brought forward there, such as the disposition and studies of each suggested. Our discourse was chiefly, however, on the department of rhetoric which treats of proper arrangement. I speak to one familiar with the subject, for you were not long ago a teacher of these things. Upon this followed a discussion regarding invention in rhetoric, its nature, what boldness it requires, how great the labour involved in methodical arrangement, what is the charm of metaphors, and the beauty of illustrations, and the power of applying epithets suitable to the character and nature of the subject in hand. Others extolled with partiality the poet's art. This part also of eloquence is not left unnoticed or unhonoured by you. We may appropriately apply to you that line of the poet: The ivy is intertwined with the laurels which reward your victory. We spoke, accordingly, of the embellishments which skilful arrangement adds to a poem, of the beauty of metaphors, and of the sublimity of well-chosen comparisons; then we spoke of smooth and flowing versification, and, if I may use the expression, the harmonious variation of the pauses in the lines. The conversation turned next to a subject with which you are very familiar, namely, that philosophy which you were wont yourself to cherish after the manner of Aristotle and Isocrates. We asked what had been achieved by the philosopher of the Lyceum, by the varied and incessant doubtings of the Academy, by the debater of the Porch, by the discoveries of natural philosophers, by the self-indulgence of the Epicureans; and what had been the result of their boundless zeal in disputation with each other, and how truth was more than ever unknown by them after they assumed that its knowledge was attainable. 2. While our conversation continues on these topics, one of the large company says: Who among us is so thoroughly acquainted with the wisdom taught by Christianity as to be able to resolve the doubts by which I am entangled, and to give firmness to my hesitating acceptance of its teaching by arguments in which truth or probability may claim my belief? We are all dumb with amazement. Then, of his own accord, he breaks forth in these words: I wonder whether the Lord and Ruler of the world did indeed fill the womb of a virgin — did His mother endure the protracted fatigues of ten months, and, being yet a virgin, in due season bring forth her child, and continue even after that with her virginity intact? To this he adds other statements: Within the small body of a crying infant He is concealed whom the universe scarcely can contain; He bears the years of childhood, He grows up, He is established in the rigour of manhood; this Governor is so long an exile from His own dwelling-place, and the care of the whole world is transferred to one body of insignificant dimensions. Moreover, He falls asleep, takes food to support Him, is subject to all the sensations of mortal men. Nor did the proofs of so great majesty shine forth with adequate fullness of evidence; for the casting out of devils, the curing of the sick, and the restoration of the dead to life are, if you consider others who have wrought these wonders, but small works for God to do. We prevent him from continuing such questions, and the meeting having broken up, we referred the matter to the valuable decision of experience beyond our own, lest, by too rashly intruding into hidden things, the error, innocent thus far, should become blameworthy. You have heard, O man worthy of all honour, the confession of our ignorance; you perceive what is requested at your hands. Your reputation is interested in our obtaining an answer to these questions. Ignorance may, without harm to religion, be tolerated in other priests; but when we come to Bishop Augustine, whatever we find unknown to him is no part of the Christian system. May the Supreme God protect your venerable Grace, my lord truly holy and justly revered!

EPISTOLA 135 Scripta a. 4111412. Volusianus Augustino exponens quae disputentur inter amicos sui circuli (n. 1) proponensque ea quae contra dicerentur a quodam contra christianam religionem (n. 2). DOMINO VERE SANCTO, AC MERITO VENERABILI PATRI AUGUSTINO EPISCOPO, VOLUSIANUS. Volusiani eiusque circuli quaestiones. 1. Petis me, vir probitatis iustitiaeque documentum, ut aliqua ex ambiguis lectionis perite discenda perconter. Amplector gratiam muneris imperati, meque libens in disciplinas tuas offero, veteris sententiae auctoritatem secutus, quae nullam ad perdiscendum abundare credit aetatem 1. Neque immerito sapiens, prudentiae studia nullis terminis, neque fine conclusit, quando primordiis suis remota virtus numquam adeo reseratur adeuntibus, ut omnis protinus ad agnitionem patescat. Domine vere sancte, ac merito venerabilis pater, est operae pretium cognoscere habitam inter nos proxime confabulationem. Quibusdam amicorum conventibus aderamus, frequentes proferebantur illic pro ingeniis studisque sententiae. Erat tamen sermo rhetorica partitio: apud agnoscentem loquor; nam etiam ista paulo ante docuisti. Adstruebatur quid esset inventionis acrimonia, quantus disponendi labor, quae translationis gratia, quae iconismatum pulchritudo, et pro ingenio naturaque materiae apposita etiam dicendi facultas. Alii rursus poeticam elevabant faventes. Ne hanc quidem eloquentiae partem tacitam aut inhonoram relinquis, ut convenienter poeta dixerit: Inter victrices hederam tibi serpere lauros 2. Dicebatur ergo quantus oeconomiae esset ornatus, quae metaphorarum venustas, quanta in comparatione sublimitas; iam leves enodesque versus, atque, ut ita dixerim, caesurarum modulata variatio. Tunc ad familiarem tuam philosophiam sermo deflectit, quam ipse Aristotelico more tamquam Isocraticam fovere consueveras. Quaerebamus et quid egerit praeceptor ex Lyceo; quid Academiae multiplex et continuata cunctatio; quid ille disputator ex Porticu; quid Physicorum peritia; quid Epicureorum voluptas; quid inter omnes infinita disputandi libido, tuncque magis ignorata veritas, postquam praesumptum est quod possit agnosci. Quaedam contra Christi religionem dicta. 2. Dum in his confabulatio nostra remoratur, unus e multis: Et quis, inquit, est sapientia ad perfectum Christianitatis imbutus, qui ambigua in quibus haereo possit aperire, dubiosque assensus meos vera vel verisimili credulitate firmare? Stupemus tacentes. Tunc in haec sponte prorumpit: Miror utrum mundi Dominus et rector intemeratae feminae corpus impleverit, pertulerit decem mensium longa illa fastidia mater 3, et tamen virgo enixa sit solemnitate pariendi, et post haec virginitas intacta permanserit. His et alia subnectit: Intra corpusculum vagientis infantiae latet, cui par vix putatur universitas; patitur puerilitatis annos, adolescit, iuventute solidatur; tam diu a sedibus suis abest ille regnator, atque ad unum corpusculum totius mundi cura transfertur; deinde in somnos resolvitur, cibo alitur, omnes mortalium sentit affectus; nec ullis competentibus signis tantae maiestatis indicia clarescunt, quoniam larvalis illa purgatio, debilium curae, reddita vita defunctis, haec, si et alios cogites, Deo parva sunt. Intervenimus ulterius inquirenti, solutoque conventu, ad potioris peritiae merita distulimus, ne dum incautive secreta temerantur, in culpam deflecteret error innocuus. Accepisti, vir totius gloriae capax, imperitiae confessionem; quid a partibus vestris desideretur agnoscis. Interest famae tuae, ut quaesita noverimus. Utcumque absque detrimento cultus divini in aliis sacerdotibus toleratur inscitia; at cum ad antistitem Augustinum venitur, legi deest quidquid contigerit ignorari. Incolumem Venerationem tuam divinitas summa tueatur, domine vere sancte, ac merito venerabilis pater.