# Augustine's charity can correct and punish

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH06.P023](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH06.P023/#char=1135,1174): "It divided the crime from the criminal."

A close earlier formulation occurs in Augustine's Letter 211 (dated 423 in the inspected edition), §11: correction should proceed ‘with due love for the persons and hatred of the sin.’ The setting is a rule for a women's monastery, including witness testimony, reprimand, and possible expulsion. Augustine presents correction as treatment of a spiritual wound and protection of the community. This supports Chesterton's claim that charitable regard and condemnation of wrongdoing can coexist. It also makes the distinction more demanding than a slogan: love must govern how wrongdoing is established and corrected. Chesterton's permission for wrath and love to ‘run wild’ is his own rhetorical intensification; Augustine's procedure includes safeguards and defined authority. The comparison establishes a patristic precedent, not evidence of Chesterton's direct borrowing. [Letter 211, §11](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102211.htm), J. G. Cunningham's translation in *Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers*, first series, vol. 1 (1887), as revised for New Advent.

## Sources

- [Augustine, Letter 211](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102211.htm), §11, especially the conclusion; translation credit at About this page

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