Augustine's charity can correct and punish
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, J. G. Cunningham's translation in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 1 (1887), as revised for New Advent.
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