Letter 174: Augustine sends Aurelius his corrected books On the Trinity.

To my Most Blessed lord Aurelius, holy brother, fellow priest, and pope, to be revered with the sincerest love: Augustine sends greetings in the Lord. I began the books On the Trinity, who is the highest and true God, when I was young; I have published them as an old man. I had set the work aside after I learned that the books had been snatched from me, or stolen, before I had finished them and revised them as I intended. I had decided not to publish them one by one, but all together, because the later books are joined to the earlier ones by the progress of the inquiry. Since that plan could not be carried out, because certain people were able to get some of the books before I wished it, I had abandoned the interrupted dictation. I was thinking of complaining about this in some of my writings, so that those who could know it would know that these books had not been published by me, but had been taken away before they seemed to me worthy of my own edition. But at the very urgent request of many brothers, and above all compelled by your command, I took care, with the Lord's help, to finish so laborious a work. I have sent them to Your Veneration through our son and fellow deacon Cresimus, corrected not as I wished, but as I could, so that they would not differ too much from the copies already taken into people's hands. Anyone may hear them, copy them, and read them. If my plan could have been preserved in them, they would certainly have been much clearer and plainer, even while keeping the same judgments, as far as the difficulty of explaining such great matters and my own ability allowed. Some people, however, have the first four books, or rather five, without the prefaces, and the twelfth without a sizeable final section. If this edition can become known to them, they will correct everything if they wish and are able. I do ask that you have this letter placed separately, but still at the head of those books. Farewell. Pray for me.

EPISTOLA 174 Scripta a. 416. Augustinus Aurelio, Carthaginiensi episcopo, transmittens libros De Trinitate, tandem absolutos secundum ipsius Aurelii aliorumque desiderium, et emendatos. DOMINO BEATISSIMO, ET SINCERISSIMA CARITATE VENERANDO, SANCTO FRATRI ET CONSACERDOTI PAPAE AURELIO, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM 1. De Trinitate, quae Deus summus et verus est, libros iuvenis inchoavi, senex edidi. Omiseram quippe hoc opus, posteaquam comperi praereptos mihi esse sive subreptos antequam eos absolverem, et retractatos, ut mea dispositio fuerat, expolirem. Non enim singillatim, sed omnes simul edere ea ratione decreveram, quoniam praecedentibus consequentes inquisitione proficiente nectuntur. Cum ergo per eos homines (quia priusquam vellem, ad quosdam illorum pervenire potuerunt) dispositio mea nequivisset impleri, interruptam dictationem reliqueram, cogitans hoc ipsum in aliquibus meis scriptis conqueri, ut scirent, qui possent, non a me fuisse eosdem libros editos, sed ablatos priusquam mihi editione mea digni viderentur. Verum multorum fratrum vehementissima postulatione, et maxime tua iussione compulsus, opus tam laboriosum, adiuvante Domino terminare curavi; eosque emendatos non ut volui, sed ut potui, ne ab illis qui subrepti iam in manus hominum exierant, plurimum discreparent, Venerationi tuae per filium nostrum condiaconum Cresimum misi, et cuicumque audiendos, describendos, legendosque permisi: in quibus si servari mea dispositio potuisset, essent profecto, etsi easdem sententias habentes, multo tamen enodatiores atque planiores, quantum rerum tantarum explicandarum difficultas et facultas nostra pateretur. Sunt autem qui primos quatuor vel potius quinque etiam sine prooemiis habent, et duodecimum sine extrema parte non parva: sed si eis haec editio potuerit innotescere, omnia si voluerint et valuerint, emendabunt. Peto sane ut hanc epistolam, seorsum quidem, sed tamen ad caput eorumdem librorum iubeas anteponi. Vale. Ora pro me.