Treatises on Various Subjects

Introduction

INTRODUCTION ~ T' AUGUSTINE'S minor moral treatise, De patientia, was probably preached as a sermon, as the phrase. 'dearly beloved' (Ch.3) indicates. It is usually as· signed to the year 417, since it was quite clearly written before the condemnation of Pelagianism in 418.1 Because is was not included in the Retractations, there has been some doubt as to its authorship, and Erasmus, in particular, hesi. tated to assign it to St. Augustine. On the grounds of its style and language, he put it in the same category with Continence, Faith in Things Unseen, and The Substance of Charity. The Benedictine editors, however, refused to accept this verdict. Though they admit certain peculiarities of style, such as assonance and rhymed endings,2 they found nothing in the translation at variance with St. Augustine'S treatment else. where of similar topics. In support of their opinion, there is the statement of St. Augustine himself in Letter 231 to Count Darius: 'I also sent you other books, though you did not ask for them, that I might not do only what you asked; [they are] Faith in Things Unseen, Patience, Providence, and a large one, Faith, Hope, and Charity.' St. Augustine introduces his subject by saying that divine and human patience are two different things, and that it is 1 Cf. S. M. Zarb. Chronologia 82. 2 E.g. (Ch. 12): cau/ior fuit iste in doloribus quam ille in nemo";!Jus ... consensit ille oblectamentis, non cessit iste tormentis. 235 236 SAINT AUGUSTINE with the latter that he is concerned (Ch.l). In the second chapter the virtue of patience is defined, and the ensuing pages (Chs.3-5) show that suffering for unworthy objectives or with criminal intent is in no way to be considered patience, for the true virtue (Ch.6) is known only through its cause. Patience, then, is practiced without attention to temporal gain (Ch.7) as was clear in the case of David and Christ (Ch.9), and with the hope of an eternal reward as both the martyrs (Ch.1O) and Job (Chs.ll-13) show. Then (Ch.15) the author raises the question as to the source of patience: does it come from man's free will, or whence? In answering this question, patience is compared at length with charity, and St. Augustine ends (Ch.29) by insisting that true patience, like charity, is a gift of God. The present translation is based on Zycha's text in the Vienna Corpus, though the Migne text has also been consulted. H. Browne's translation has proved helpful. For Biblical quotations , the Challoner-Rheims Version is used for the Old Testament , with slight adaptations in a few cases, and, for the New Testament, the Confraternity Edition. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY Texts and Transl~tion: J. P. Migne, Patrologia Latina 40.611·626. J. Zycha, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 41 (Vien· na 1900) 663·691. H. Browne, Seventeen Short Treatises by Saint Augustine (Oxford 1836) . Secondary works: Hugh Pope, O.P.• Saint Augustine of .Hippo (Westminster. Md. 1949). Seraphinus M. Zarb. O.P., Chronologia operum S. Augustini (Roma 1934) . ...