Letters

Augustine’s letters run from the time of his conversion to his death in 430. Cited here are the letters in which he argues with Donatist leaders about how the schism began: Letter 43, written in 397 to a group of Donatist laymen, and Letter 88, sent in 406 by the clergy of Hippo to the Donatist bishop Januarius.

For the events of 311–316 these letters are late and partisan, written eighty to ninety years afterwards by the Donatists’ chief opponent. Augustine does not rely on memory, however. He appeals throughout to the public records of the hearings and copies some of them out, among them the report of the proconsul Anulinus to Constantine dated 15 April 313 and Constantine’s letter on the inquiry into Felix of Aptunga (88.2, 88.4). The translator of Optatus reprints both, from Augustine, among the appendices to his edition; they are not part of the file that Optatus himself attached.

The collection also contains letters written to Augustine. His exchange with Jerome over Paul’s rebuke of Peter in Galatians 2 is cited from Letters 28, 40 and 82, which are Augustine’s, and Letter 75, which is Jerome’s reply and is numbered 112 among Jerome’s own letters. The translation dates them to 394 or 395, 397, 405 and 404; see Paul Opposes Peter at Antioch.