Laudator Temporis Acti

Augustine, Sermons 350B.1 (F. Haffner, "Unveröffentlichtes Fragment einer verlorenen Predigt des hl. Augustinus," Revue bénédictine 77 [1967] 325-328 [at ?]; tr. Edmund Hill, with his note):

So listen to me, Mr. Rich Man, and let my advice win your approval. Redeem your sins with almsgiving. Don't sit on your gold like a hen on eggs. Naked you came from your mother's womb, naked you are going to return into the earth! And if you are going to return naked into the earth, for whom are you amassing all these things upon the earth? I imagine, if you could carry anything with you, you would have devoured people alive. Look, you came forth naked, why not be bountiful with your money, whether you've made your pile by fair means or foul? Send ahead what makes you such an admired figure, make balloons of your much admired goods,⁴ in order to reach the kingdom of heaven.

4. Fac inflationes rerum permirarum; literally, make inflations of your much admired goods. But I doubt if they talked about inflation in the monetary sense in those days, though they certainly experienced it. They called it adulterating the coinage. So I am treating inflationes as if it means inflated objects, that is, balloons. Did they have balloons in those days? I don't know; perhaps this text is evidence that they did. Anyway, it is a pleasant image: send your wealth up to heaven by balloon.

Audi ergo me, o dives, et consilium meum placeat tibi. Peccata eleemosinis redime. Noli incubare auro; nudus existi de utero matris tuae, nudus es rediturus in terram. Et si nudus rediturus es in terram, cui congregas supra terram? Credo, si aliquid tecum portare possis, vivos homines devorasses. Ecce, nudus egredieris, cur non pecuniam vel bone vel male congregatam largiris? Promitte, quo mirus es, fac inflationes rerum permirarum, ut pervenias ad regnum caelorum.