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FRQM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 

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SAINT     AUGUSTINE 


BY  THE 

REV.    EDWARD    L.    CUTTS,  B.A., 

HON.  D.D.  UNIV.  OF  THE  SOUTH,  U.S., 

AUTHOR  OF  "TURNING  POINTS  OF  ENGLISH  AND  OF  GENERAL  CHURCH 
HISTORY,"  "JEROME,"  "  CONSTANTINE  THE  GREAT,"  ETC. 


PUBLISHED    UNDER    THE    DIRECTION    OF   THE   TRACT   COMMITTEE. 


LONDON : 
SOCIETY   FOR    PROMOTING    CHRISTIAN    KNOWLEDGE, 

NORTHUMBERLAND    AVENUE,    CHARING  CROSS,    W.C.  ; 
43,    QUEEN   VICTORIA    STREET,  B.C. 

BRIGHTON:    135,   NORTH   STREET. 

NEW  YORK  :    E.  &  J.  B.  YOUNG  &  CO. 

1888. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SERIES, 


WHILE  all  those  who  pretend  to  the  character  of  educated 
people  would  be  ashamed  to  be  ignorant  of  the  history  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  the  lives  and  achievements  of  the  great  men  of 
these  countries,  and  the  works  of  their  chief  writers,  it  is  to 
be  feared  that  they  content  themselves  often  with  a  very  slight 
knowledge  of  the  History  of  the  Christian  Church  and  of  the 
illustrious  Ecclesiastics  who  have  exercised  so  vast  an  influence 
upon  the  institutions  and  manners,  the  literature  and  philo 
sophy,  as  well  as  the  religion  of  modern  Europe. 

The  Series  of  Volumes,  of  which  the  present  forms  one,  is 
intended  to  present  to  ordinary  English  readers  Sketches  of  the 
Chief  Fathers  of  the  Church,  their  Biographies,  their  Works, 
and  their  Times. 

Those  already  prepared  are — 

LEO  THE  GREAT. 

GREGORY  THE  GREAT. 

ST.  AMBROSE. 

ST.  BASIL  THE  GREAT. 

ST.  JEROME. 

THE  VENERABLE    BEDE. 

THE  APOSTOLIC  FATHERS. 

THE  DEFENDERS  OF  THE  FAITH  (Apologists). 
Others  are  in  hand. 

It  is  hoped  that  the  series  will  supply  the  intelligent  Church 
man  with  a  lively,  accurate,  and  fairly  complete  view  of  the 
most  important  periods  of  Church  History. 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER  I. 
NORTH  AFRICA Page     9 

Description  of  the  African  Provinces — Former  ex 
istence  of  Lake  Triton ;  its  influence  on  the  Climate. 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE  EARLY  HISTORY  OF  NORTH  AFRICA.     .     >    [6 

The  Carthaginian  State — Its  rivalry  with  Rome — 
Its  Conquest — Roman  Colonization  of  North  Africa. 


CHAPTER  III. 
THE  CHURCHES  OF  NORTH  AFRICA     .      ...  20 

Planting  of  the  Church  in  Africa  —  The  cradle  of 
the  Latin  Church — Tertullian — The  Decian  Persecu 
tion — The  Lapsi — Novatian  Schism — The  Plague  of 
Carthage  —  Cyprian — The  Diocletian  Persecution  — 
Donatism. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  YOUTH  OF  AUGUSTINE 26 

His  Birth — Education  at  Thagaste,    at  Madaura — 
His  Father's  Death. 


CHAPTER  V. 
UNIVERSITY  LIFE  AT  CARTHAGE 30 

Description  of  New  Carthage — Its  Schools — Man 
ners  of  the  Students — Augustine's  University  Career 
— Becomes  a  Manichsean. 

A    2 


IV  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  YOUNG  RHETORIC-MASTER  AT  THAGASTE  Page  38 

Sets  up  as  Tutor  at  Thagaste — His  Mother's  Dream 
— The  Bishop's  Counsel — His  Friendship— On  the 
Death  of  his  Friend  returns  to  Carthage. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
THE  RHETORIC -MASTER    AT   CARTHAGE    AND 

ROME 43 

Sets  up  as  Tutor  at  Carthage — His  Superstition — 
His  Progress  in  Learning — His  doubts  of  Manicheeism 
—  El  is  Intercourse  with  Faustus — Disgusted  with 
the  manners  of  the  Students — Secretly  embarks  for 
Rome,  leaving  his  Mother  on  the  Sea-shore — Sets  up 
as  Tutor  at  Rome — Has  a  Fever — Disappointed  with 
the  manners  of  the  Students — Obtains  the  appoint 
ment  of  Professor  of  Rhetoric  at  Milan. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  PROFESSOR  ON  RHETORIC  IN  THE  UNI 
VERSITY  OF  MILAN 53 

Description  of  Milan — Intercourse  with  Ambrose — 
His  Mother  rejoins  Him — His  Friends  :  Alypius, 
Nebridius— Their  Search  after  Truth  and  the  Happy 
Life— The  Scheme  of  a  New  Society— Reads  the 
Neo-Platonists,  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  Catholic 
Religion — Story  of  Victorinus's  Conversion. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
His  CONVERSION 67 

Pontitianus  tells  him  of  Antony  the  Hermit— Story 
of  the  Conversion  of  the  Two  Friends — Augustine  in 
the  throes  of  Conversion — Hears  the  Voice,  "Take 
up  and  read  :"  takes  up  St.  Paul,  reads  Rom.  xiii. 
—Resolves  to  give  up  the  World  and  lead  an  Ascetic 
Life— Alypius  resolves  to  take  the  same  step. 


CONTENTS.  V 

CHAPTER  X. 
THE  RETREAT  AT  CASSIACUM     ....  Page     75 

Augustine  resigns  his  Professorship — Retires  with 
his  Friends  to  a  Villa  at  Cassiacum — Their  mode  of 
life  there — The  discussion  "  Against  the  Acade 
micians;"  "On  Order  ;  "  "On  the  Happy  Life  "- 
His  "Soliloquies" — Return  to  Milan — His  Baptism 
— Journey  to  Ostia — Conversation  between  Augustine 
and  Monica — Death  of  Monica  :  Her  Funeral — He 
returns  to  Rome. 


CHAPTER  XI. 
THE  RECLUSE    OF  THAGASTE 93 

A  Year  in  Rome — Returns  to  Africa — Lives  the 
Ascetic  Life  with  his  Friends  at  Thagaste — Writes 
"  On  the  Manners  of  the  Catholics  " — Biblical  Studies 
— Various  Writings — Death  of  Nebridius  :  of  Adeo- 
datus. 


CHAPTER  XII. 
AUGUSTINE   ORDAINED  PRIEST  AT  HIPPO    .     .105 

Revolt  of  Firmus,  of  Gildo — Description  of  Hippo 
— Augustine  visits  it — Ordained  Priest — Founds  a 
Religious  House  at  Hippo — Controversy  with  the 
Manichseans  —  With  the  Donatists  —  Consecrated 
Coadjutor  Bishop. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

EXPIRING  PAGANISM 115 

Madaura — Calamus — The  Pagan  Riots  at  Calamus 
— Correspondence  with  the  People  of  Madaura — With 
Dioscorus— With  Longinianus. 


VI  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

AUGUSTINE'S    RELATIONS     WITH    ILLUSTRIOUS 

CONTEMPORARIES Page  122 

Contemporary  great  Churchmen — Correspondence 
with  Simplicianus — Paulinas  of  Nola — Licentius — • 
Jerome. 


CHAPTER  XV. 
THE  FUGITIVES  FROM   ROME 134 

The  Siege  and  Sack  of  Rome — Fugitives  from 
Rome  to  Africa — Conduct  of  Count  Heraclian — 
Proba  and  her  Daughters — Demetrias — Pinianus  and 
Melania — The  attempt  to  force  the  Priesthood  upon 
Pinianus  at  Hippo. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
DONATISM 143 

Distraction  of  the  African  Churches — Want  of  Dis 
cipline  among  Donatists — Acts  of  Violence  against 
Catholics  :  against  Possidius,  Restitutus,  Maximian 
— P^scape  of  Augustine — Penal  Laws  against  Dona 
tists. 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
THE  CONFERENCE  AT  CARTHAGE 152 

The  Emperor  orders  a  Conference  between  Catho 
lics  and  Donatists — Letter  of  the  Catholic  Bishops 
—  Report  of  the  Proceedings — Decision  against  the 
Donatists — Laws  requiring  them  to  conform — Many 
conform,  the  rest  embittered — The  question  of 
"Toleration" — Revolt  of  Count  Heraclian — He 
invades  Italy  ;  Defeat,  and  Death — Death  of  Mar- 
cellinus. 


CONTENTS.  Vll 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE  BISHOP  IN  HIS  SEE Page  163 

Personal  appearance  of  Augustine — His  Dress  — 
Regulation  of  his  Clergy — Ascetic  Mode  of  Life — 
His  Rules  at  Table— His  Preaching— Care  of  the 
poor — Deciding  Cases — Relations  with  the  Civil 
Authorities. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

His  SERMONS 172 

Several  Extracts  from  his  Sermons. 

CHAPTER  XX. 
SPECIAL  WORKS  : — "  THE  CONFESSIONS,"  "  THE 

HOLY  TRINITY,"  "THE  CITY  OF  GOD"  .181 

Description  of  "  The  Confessions  " — The  Work  on 
the  "Holy  Trinity  "—Two  Anecdotes— "The  City 
of  God  " — Extracts  from  it. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 
THE  PELAGIAN  CONTROVERSY 1 95 

Ancient  Faith  of  the  Church — Pelagius's  Views — 
Shared  by  Celestius — Celestius  condemned  at  Car 
thage — Pelagius's  Letter  to  Demetrius — Pelagius  tried 
before  a  Synod  of  Jerusalem — Acquitted  by  a  Synod 
of  Diospolis — Celestius  acquitted  by  Zosimus — African 
Council  refuses  to  acquit  Him — Zosimus  condemns 
Him — Pelagianism  spreads  in  Gaul ;  ia  Britain — 
Increase  of  Augustine's  reputation. 


CHAPTER  XXIL 
THE  AUGUSTINIAN  THEOLOGY 204 

The  Philosophical  theory  of  the  Freedom  of  the 
Will — Augustine's  Doctrine  of  Original  Sin  :  of  Pre 
destination  :  of  Efficacious  Grace  :  of  Final  Persever 
ance — The  Flaw  in  this  Theology. 


Vlll  SAINT  AUGUSTINE. 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
THE  APPEAL  TO  ROME Page  212 

Apiarius,  an  African  Priest,  condemned  by  his 
Bishop,  appeals  to  Rome — African  Councils  had 
forbidden  Appeals  beyond  the  Sea — Zosimus  sends  a 
Commission — The  Spurious  Canons  of  Nicsea — The 
Sixth  Council  of  Carthage  ;  its  Canons  of  Discipline. 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
THE  ELECTION  OF  A  SUCCESSOR     .     .     .     .     .216 

Augustine  desires  repose — Heraclius — Proceedings 
at  his  Election  to  succeed  Augustine. 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
THE  VANDAL  INVASION 223 

Count  Boniface — His  Antecedents  and  Character  ; 
Fidelity  ;  Promotion — Aetius — His  Jealousy  of  Boni 
face — Intrigue  against  Him — Revolt  of  Boniface — 
Invites  the  Invasion  of  the  Vandals — Augustine's 
Letter  to  Him — Reconciliation  of  Boniface  with  the 
Empress  -The  Vandals  pursue  their  Conquest — Siege 
of  Hippo. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 
DEATH  OF  AUGUSTINE 233 

Augustine's  Letter  on  the  Duty  of  Bishops  during 
Invasion — His  Occupations  during  the  Siege — Sick 
ness — Death — His  Influence  as  a  Theologian — Con 
clusion  of  History  of  Africa. 


SAINT  AUGUSTINE, 

CHAPTER     I. 

NORTH    AFRICA. 

Description  of  the  African  Provinces — Former  existence  of  Lake 
Triton  ;  its  influence  on  the  Climate. 

TRACE  on  a  map  the  southern  coast  of  the  Mediter 
ranean  Sea.  It  runs  in  a  tolerably  straight  line  from 
south-of-west  to  north-of-east,  until  about  midway  it 
bends  round  southward,  and  forms  a  great  promon 
tory,  projecting  into  the  middle  of  the  sea,  opposite  the 
island  of  Sicily.  This  promontory  was  the  Carthaginian 
territory;  and  the  great  Punic  city,  the  rival  of  Rome, 
was  situated  at  its  most  prominent  angle.  At  the 
south-east  point  of  this  territory  is  situated  the  gulf  of 
the  Lesser  Syrtis ;  and  from  this  point  the  coast-line 
sweeps  round,  southward  and  eastward,  in  a  great 
quarter  circle,  at  whose  other  extremity  is  the  Greater 
Syrtis. 

This  is  the  southernmost  point  of  the  North 
African  coast,  and  marks  the  division  between  the 
Latin  part  of  Africa  and  the  Greek  part. 

From  this  southernmost  point  the  coast-line  starts 
again,  and  with  a  bold,  regular,  sinuous  curve,  pro 
jects  a  great  rounded  promontory  northward  into 


1  O  SAINT  AUGUSTINE. 

the  sea:  this  promontory  is  the  district  of  Cyrenaica. 
Then  the  coast-line  resumes  its  original  west  to  east 
course,  along  the  coast  of  Egypt,  past  the  mouths  of 
the  Nile,  till  it  joins  the  Syrian  coast  of  the  Asiatic 
continent  in  the  south-east  corner  of  the  great  seat. 
Going  back  to  the  Carthaginian  promontory,  the 
territory  of  Carthage  became  the  Roman  province  of 
Africa ;  starting  from  it  westward,  adjoining  Africa 
lies  Numidia,  a  district  of  about  equal  size  ;  and  the 
whole  remainder  of  the  coast-line  right  away  to  the 
Pillars  of  Hercules  is  that  of  Mauritania. 

Let  us  inquire  into  the  general  character  of  the 
country  whose  coast-line  we  have  thus  traced.  From 
the  Strait  of  Gibraltar  to  the  Nile  delta  the  country 
consists  of  a  strip  of  habitable  land,  hemmed  in 
between  the  sea  on  the  north  and  the  Great  Desert  on 
the  south,  varying  greatly  in  width  in  its  western 
and  eastern  halves.  The  western  half  of  this  sea 
board  has  the  great  chain  of  the  Atlas  mountains 
interposed  as  a  barrier  against  the  torrid  sands  of 
the  Sahara.  In  the  west  the  peaks  of  Atlas  attain  a 
height  of  12,000  feet,  and  are  covered  with  perpetual 
snow ;  in  the  eastern  portion  of  the  range  the  peaks 
are  only  half  that  height,  and  are  covered  with  snow 
for  part  of  the  year  only.  The  northern  slope  of  this 
range,  descending  in  a  series  of  broad,  natural  terraces 
to  the  sea,  watered  by  many  streams,  and  lying  on 
the  margin  of  the  temperate  zone,  is  one  of  the  finest 
regions  on  the  surface  of  the  earth. 

At  the  bottom  of  the  Great  Syrtis  the  sand  and 
water  meet,  and  form  the  natural  boundary  between 
the  two  great  ancient  political  divisions  of  the 


NORTH  AFRICA.  1 1 

African  coast  already  mentioned,  viz.,  to  the  west 
of  it,  the  Latin-speaking  provinces  of  Mauritania, 
Numidia,  and  Africa ;  to  the  east  of  it,  the  Greek- 
speaking  provinces  of  Cyrenaica  and  Egypt :  the  one 
in  Roman  times  belonging  to  the  Western,  the  other 
to  the  Eastern  Empire.  It  is  with  the  Latin-speaking 
provinces  that  we  are  at  present  specially  concerned. 

In  trying  to  realize  the  ancient  physical  geography 
of  the  country,  we  must  take  into  account  some 
remarkable  geological  changes  which  have  happened 
to  it. 

If  the  reader  will  again  look  at  the  map  and  put 
his  finger  on  the  Lesser  Syrtis,  then  carry  his  eye 
westward,  he  will  find  a  lake  marked  on  the  map, 
called  Lake  Triton  ;  and  still  further  west  he  will  find 
a  series  of  lakes,  indicated  in  a  vague  manner,  as  if 
their  limits  were  not  well-known.  This  part  of  the 
country  has  been  lately  surveyed  by  French  engineers 
employed  by  the  Government,  and  a  model  of  the 
country  was  exhibited  at  the  late  Paris  Exhibition. 
The  French  engineers  find  that  these  salt  lakes  are 
very  numerous,  and  are  all  more  or  less  connected 
with  one  another,  and  extend  in  an  unbroken  line 
from  within  a  few  miles  of  the  Lesser  Syrtis  to  a  dis 
tance  of  three  hundred  miles  westward.  The  desert 
parts  between  the  lagoons  abound  in  quicksands 
covered  over  with  a  saline  crust.  Some  of  these 
lakes  are  below  the  level  of  the  Mediterranean  ;  and 
the  object  of  the  French  surveyors  is  to  show  that 
the  whole  district  might  by  easy  engineering  works  be 
connected  with  the  Mediterranean,  and  converted  into 


12  SAINT  AUGUSTINE. 

an  inland  sea,  extending  three  hundred  miles  in 
length,  from  east  to  west,  and  forty  miles  in  breadth, 
from  north  to  south  : — an  area  somewhat  greater  than 
that  of  the  Irish  Sea.1 

It  would  seem  that  this  district  has  at  one  time 
been  covered  with  a  sea,  of  which  these  saline  lagoons 
and  dangerous  quicksands  are  the  traces,  and  that 
some  gradual  rise  in  the  level  of  the  land,  especially 
towards  the  eastern  extremity  of  this  inland  sea,  has 
cut  off  its  connection  with  the  Mediterranean,  and 
left  the  shallower  portions  of  the  sea  dry  and  desert, 
and  limited  the  water  to  the  deeper  portions,  whicH 
are  now  lagoons. 

These  facts  suggest  a  re-examination  of  the  descrip 
tions  of  the  country  by  the  old  geographers  :  Hero 
dotus,  B.C.  405;  Scylax,  B.C.  200;  Pomponius  Mela, 
A.D.  43  ;  Ptolemy,  A.D.  139  ;  and  from  a  careful  con 
sideration  of  their  descriptions,  Mr.  Irving  draws  the 
following  inferences :  that  in  the  time  of  Herodotus, 
the  bay  of  the  Lesser  Syrtis  opened  by  a  strait  into  a 
great  bay  known  by  the  name  of  the  Bay  of  Triton. 
In  the  time  of  Scylax,  two  hundred  years  later,  the 
Lesser  Syrtis  and  the  Bay  of  Triton  were  still  united 
by  a  channel  which  had  become  narrower.  In  the 
time  of  Pomponius  Mela,  the  communication  between 
the  Bay  of  Triton  and  the  Mediterranean  had  dis 
appeared.  In  the  time  of  Ptolemy,  the  one  bay  had 
taken  the  form  of  several  lakes.  The  proposal  of  the 

1  We  are  indebted  for  all  this  information  to  an  ingenious 
paper  by  Mr.  B.  A.  Irving,  M.A.,  of  Ambleside,  in  the 
Transactions  of  the  Cumberland  Association  for  the  Advance- 
went  of  Literature  and  Science,  part  iv. 


NORTH   AFRICA.  13 

French  engineers,  then,  is  simply  to  let  in  the  waters 
of  the  Mediterranean,  and  restore  this  inland  body  of 
waters  to  something  like  what  it  was  about  the  time 
of  the  Christian  era  and  for  one  or  two  hundred  years 
afterwards. 

What  is  the  object  of  this  undertaking  ?  It  is 
first  and  chiefly  to  ameliorate  the  climate  of  Algeria. 
"  Nowhere,"  says  Mr.  Irving,  "  are  the  contrasts  of 
nature  more  striking  than  in  the  southern  part  of  the 
French  province  of  Constantine.  There  meet  at  the 
Auress l  mountains  two  worlds  which  are  total  oppo- 
sites.  On  the  one  side,  to  the  north,  are  snowy  peaks, 
broad  mountain  pastures,  picturesque  villages  vieing 
with  each  other  in  the  richness  and  fertility  of  their 
gardens.  On  the  other  side,  to  the  south,  is  a  plain 
parched  by  a  burning  sun,  an  horizon  without  limit, 
hot,  rugged  mountain  sides,  with  broken  precipices 
and  deep  ravines,  without  vegetation,  strangely  har 
monizing  with  the  aridity  beyond." 

What  would  be  the  effect  of  the  restoration  of  this 
inland  sea  ?  The  formation  of  the  Suez  Canal  and 
the  filling  of  the  ancient  lakes  by  its  means  have  al 
ready  had  a  marked  effect  on  the  climate  of  the  isthmus. 
Formerly  it  hardly  rained  in  twenty  years,  now  there 
is  a  considerable  annual  rainfall.  Exactly  the  same 
process  would  take  place  at  the  restored  Bay  of  Triton. 
The  hot  winds  from  the  Sahara,  blowing  over  a  sea 
fifty  times  greater  than  the  canal  and  all  its  lakes,  would 
produce  an  enormous^  evaporation  ;  the  winds  laden 
with  this  moisture  would  blow  against  the  mountain- 

1  The  name  by  which  this  part  of  the  mountain-range  above 
described  is  now  known. 


14  SAINT  AUGUSTINE. 

range  placed  like  a  great  condenser  right  across  their 
path  ;  the  resulting  rainfall  would  irrigate  the  southern 
slope  of  the  mountain-range,  which  in  many  places 
has  an  inclination  so  gentle  as  "to  form  an  immense 
plain  consisting  of  an  alluvium  of  remarkable  fertility, 
which  only  requires  water  to  produce  many  crops  in  a 
year."  The  climate  on  the  north  of  the  mountain- 
range  would  also  be  affected,  and  would  become  more 
moist  and  more  temperate.  All  this  new  district  south 
of  the  mountains,  between  them  and  the  Bay  of  Tri 
ton,  would  obtain  easy  communication  by  water  with 
the  Mediterranean  and  the  civilized  world. 

But  if  this  would  be  the  state  of  the  country  conse 
quent  upon  an  artificial  restoration  of  the  great  Bay 
of  Triton,  it  follows  that  this  was  the  state  of  the 
country  at  the  time  the  bay  existed  ;  and  in  trying  to 
restore  to  our  mental  apprehension  the  Roman  pro 
vince  of  Africa  we  must  by  no  means  omit  this  great 
inland  sea  from  the  picture.  And  this,  perhaps, 
enables  us  more  easily  to  credit  the  accounts  which 
we  have  of  the  fertility,  the  wealth,  and  the  populous- 
ness  of  the  province  of  Africa  in  the  days  of  the  Roman 
Empire. 

The  provinces  of  Numidia  and  Mauritania,  rising 
by  three  broad  steps  from  the  sea  level  to  the  Atlas 
range,  with  a  soil  of  extraordinary  fertility,  formed  one 
vast  corn  country.  In  climate  they  belong  rather  to 
Europe  than  to  Africa,  having  the  same  productions 
as  those  of  Andalusia. l 

1  If  the  Sahara  were  ever,  as  seems  probable,  the  bed  of  a 
great  inland  sea,  it  was  long  before  historical  times,  and  need 
not  enter  into  our  consideration  here. 


SAINT    AUGUSTINE.  15 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    EARLY    HISTORY    OF    NORTH    AFRICA. 

The  Carthaginian  State — Its  rivaly  with  Rome — Its  Conquest — 
Roman  Colonization  of  North  Africa. 

THE  Phoenician  power  has  a  special  interest  for  us 
English  people,  because  it  is  the  first  Power  of  which 
history  tells  us  that  its  greatness  was  based,  like  our 
own,  on  commerce,  leading  to  colonization  and  to 
conquest. 

Carthage,  founded  probably  in  the  ninth  century 
before  Christ,  on  that  promontory  which  we  have 
described  as  projecting  into  the  very  middle  of  the 
Mediterranean,  opposite  the  island  of  Sicily,  was  the 
latest  of  the  Phoenician  colonies,  but  it  grew  into  the 
most  powerful ;  and  when  Tyre,  the  mother  city,  had 
decayed,  it  became  the  representative  of  the  ancient 
Punic  name.  It  entered  into  a  confederation  with 
the  other  Punic  colonies  which  dotted  the  Mediterra 
nean  coasts  ;  it  conquered  Sardinia  and  Corsica,  part  of 
Sicily  and  the  southern  coasts  of  Spain  ;  and  Carthage 
at  length  became  the  rival  of  Rome  for  the  mastery  of 
the  Mediterranean  world. 

The  rival  powers  came  into  collision  in  the  three 
Punic  wars  extending  over  118  years  (from  B.C.  264 
to  146),  on  whose  result  it  depended  whether  the 


1 6  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

civilization  of  Europe  should  be  moulded  on  the 
Punic  or  on  the  Roman  type.  The  victories  of 
Scipio  ended  in  the  total  destruction  of  Carthage 
in  the  year  146  B.C.  (the  very  year  in  which  the  fall 
of  Corinth  completed  the  Roman  conquest  of  Greece), 
and  solemn  curses  were  invoked  on  the  head  of  him 
who  should  rebuild  the  rival  city. 

Notwithstanding,  Caius  Gracchus,  twenty-four  years 
after  its  destruction,  planned  its  rebuilding ;  the 
plan  was  revived  by  Julius  Caesar ;  and  at  length 
Augustus  built  New  Carthage,  on  the  site  of  the 
ancient  city,  101  years  after  its  destruction,  and  made 
it  the  seat  of  the  Proconsul  of  Africa. 

The  province  of  Numidia,  on  the  death  of  King 
Juba,  the  protege  of  Rome,  was  made  a  Roman 
province  by  Julius  Caesar.  The  historian  Sallust 
was  sent  as  his  Legatus,  who  fixed  his  seat  of  govern 
ment  at  Cirta  (the  modern  Constantine).  In  A.D.  42 
Claudius  annexed  the  whole  of  the  province  of  Mau 
ritania  to  the  Empire.  Constantine,  in  his  revision 
of  the  administrative  arrangements  of  the  Empire, 
placed  the  government  of  Mauritania  in  the  pro 
vince  of  Gaul,  and  that  of  Numidia  under  the  Pro 
consul  of  Africa. 

The  Romans,  according  to  their  usual  policy,  planted 
numerous  colonies  in  these  fertile  regions  on  the 
southern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  constructed 
roads,  encouraged  agriculture  and  commerce,  and 
probably  made  the  country  more  prosperous  than  in 
any  previous  period  of  its  history.  Great  tracts  of 
the  fertile  corn  lands  were  allotted  to  the  great  fami 
lies  of  Rome,  who  cultivated  them  by  the  help  of 


THE    EARLY    HISTORY    OF    NORTH    AFRICA.  17 

slave  labour.  Numerous  towns  sprang  up,  and  were 
adorned  with  temples,  basilicas,  baths,  theatres.  The 
language  and  manners  of  Rome  were  generally  adopted, 
and  these  vast  fertile  regions  became  one  of  the  most 
valuable  portions  of  the  Empire,  and  the  great  granary 
on  which  the  Imperial  city  depended  for  the  food  of 
its  people. 

Dr.  Davis1  has  in  recent  years  explored  parts  of 
this  region,  and  he  has  found  everywhere  the  traces  of 
Roman  habitations.  He  speaks  of  passing  as  many  as 
twenty  ruined  villages,  mostly  Roman,  but  nameless, 
in  the  course  of  a  single  day.  At  Mokthar  are  the 
remains  of  a  large  city  six  miles  in  circumference, 
with  suburbs  of  larger  extent,  with  triumphal  arches, 
mausoleums,  walls,  and  gates.  At  Hydra,  and  Thala, 
and  Sbaitla,  are  similar  evidences  of  bygone  popula 
tion  and  prosperity  ;  at  Eljem,  a  Roman  amphitheatre 
almost  equal  in  size  to  that  at  Verona,  but  grander  in 
appearance,  and  only  surpassed,  if  surpassed  at  all,  by 
the  Colosseum  at  Rome.2  In  short,  the  whole  book 
is  a  series  of  evidences  that  this  province  of  Africa 
proper  was  in  Roman  times  teeming  with  population, 
abounding  in  wealth,  covered  with  fine  cities,  and  in 
the  highest  state  of  civilization. 

The  population  of  these  provinces,  like  that  of 
many  parts  of  the  Roman  Empire,  was  a  strange 

1  "Ruined  Cities  in  Africa,"  by  Dr.    N.    Davis,   London, 
1862. 

2  Engravings  of  its  exterior  and  interior  will  be  found  in  the 
Illustrated  London  News  of  January  Qth,   1874.     Eljem  repre 
sents  the  ancient  city  of  Thysarus. 

B 


1 8  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

mixture  of  races.  There  were  first  two  aboriginal 
races,  one  of  dark,  the  other  of  fair  complexion,  de 
scendants  of  the  fierce  Numidian  and  Mauritania!! 
nations  of  whom  we  read  in  the  history  of  the  Punic 
wars.  Then  there  were  the  descendants  of  the  Car 
thaginian  and  other  Punic  colonists,  whose  civiliza 
tion — of  which  we  know  little — had  a  Tyrian  origin 
and  character.  After  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem 
Jews  seem  to  have  settled  in  Carthage  and  others  of 
the  cities  of  this  district,  as  in  Egypt  and  Cyrenaica, 
in  numbers  sufficiently  large  to  form  an  important 
element  in  the  population.  Lastly,  there  was  the 
Roman  element. 

In  the  Roman  provinces  of  the  East,  where  there 
was  a  similarly  heterogeneous  population,  the  Roman 
element  was  often  little  more  than  a  clique  of  offi 
cials,  numerically  small  and  exercising  little  influence 
on  the  language  or  manners  of  the  people.  But  in 
some  way  which  history  has  failed  to  record,  perhaps 
by  a  considerable  Latin  immigration  at  an  early 
period  after  the  Roman  Conquest,  the  province  of 
Africa  proper  (coinciding  roughly  with  the  Carthagi 
nian  territory  already  described)  was  more  thoroughly 
Latinized  than  usual,  and  this  made  the  province  one 
of  the  most  Roman  out  of  Italy. 

Numidia  and  Mauritania  were  studded  with  Roman 
towns,  but  retained  a  larger  proportion  of  their  native 
inhabitants  than  Africa  proper.  And  the  native  tribes 
at  the  back  of  the  Roman  districts  maintained  their 
independence,  and  even  made  predatory  incursions, 
with  difficulty  restrained  by  the  Roman  arms ;  and 
finally,  joining  with  the  Vandal  invaders,  they  helped 


THE    EARLY    HISTORY   OF    NORTH    AFRICA.          1 9 

to  overthrow  the  Roman  rule  and  destroy  the  Roman 
civilization  in  one  of  the  fairest  portions  of  the 
Empire. 

The  African  provinces  in  the  political  revolutions 
of  the  Empire  usually  followed  without  resistance 
the  varying  fortunes  of  the  Italian  portion  of  it. 
Occasional  local  rebellions,  followed  by  proscriptions 
and  fines,  interrupted  the  general  tranquillity,  but  long 
intervals  of  peace  gave  space  for  a  steady  increase 
in  the  prosperity  of  Africa  up  to  the  time  at  which 
our  history  commences. 


B   2 


20  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    CHURCHES    OF    NORTH    AFRICA. 

Tlanting  of  the  Church  in  Africa— The  cradle  of  the  Latin 
Church — Tertullian — The  Decian  Persecution — The  Lapsi 
— Novatian  Schism — The  Plague  of  Carthage — -Cyprian— 
The  Diocletian  Persecution — Donatism. 

OF  the  planting  of  Christianity  in  North  Africa  abso 
lutely  nothing  is  told  by  ancient  history,  and  the 
very  few  relics  of  Christian  antiquity  which  have  at 
present  been  discovered  in  its  ruined  cities  throw 
no  light  whatever  upon  it.  This  early  Church  of 
North  Africa  has  a  special  interest,  inasmuch  as  it  was 
the  earliest  Latin-speaking  Church  and  the  cradle  of 
Latin  Christianity.  "  During  the  first  two  centuries 
the  Church  of  Rome  was  essentially  Greek.  The 
Roman  bishops  bear  Greek  names,"  with  one  excep 
tion,  A^ictor,  who  is  said  to  have  come  from  Africa. 
The  earliest  Roman  Liturgy  was  Greek  ;  the  few 
remains  of  the  early  Christian  literature  of  Rome  are 
Greek.  The  same  remark  holds  good  of  Gaul.  But 
the  Church  of  North  Africa  seems  to  have  been 
Latin-speaking  from  the  first.  The  first  Latin  version 
of  the  Scriptures  was  certainly  made  in  Africa  :  when 
it  was  made  is  uncertain,  but  was  current  in 
the  time  of  Tertullian.  Tertullian  is  the  first  great 
Christian  writer  in  Latin,  and  his  writings  are  the 


THE    CHURCHES    OF    NORTH    AFRICA.  21 

earliest  specimen  of  the  ecclesiastical  Latin  which 
became  the  common  language  of  the  learned  of  the 
Western  world  down  to  modern  times.  The  first 
"Apology"  of  Tertullian,  written  probably  about  the 
year  198  A.D.,  gives  us  our  first  and  only  knowledge 
of  the  existence  and  condition  of  the  Christian 
Churches  of  North  Africa  at  that  time.  He  speaks 
of  Christianity  as  at  that  early  period  already  widely 
spread.  "  We  are  a  people  of  yesterday,"  he  says, 
"  and  yet  we  have  filled  every  place  belonging  to  your 
cities,  islands,  castles,  towns,  assemblies,  your  very 
camp,  your  tribes,  companies,  palace,  senate,  forum. 
We  leave  you  your  temples  only.  We  can  count 
your  armies  ;  our  numbers  in  a  single  province  will 
be  greater."  In  a  second  "Apology,"  a  few  years  later, 
addressed  to  Scapula,  the  prefect,  he  says,  "  Thou 
sands  of  both  sexes,  of  every  rank,  will  eagerly  crowd 
to  martyrdom,  exhaust  your  fires,  and  weary  your 
swords.  Carthage  must  be  decimated  ;  the  principal 
persons  in  the  city,  even  perhaps  your  own  most 
intimate  friends  and  kindred,  must  be  sacrificed." 

This  first  African  Christian  with  whom  we  are 
acquainted  is  a  type  of  African  Christianity,  in  the 
fervour  of  his  temperament,  running  at  length,  as  it 
did,  into  the  extremes  of  a  fanatical  Puritanism,  and 
carrying  him  at  last  beyond  the  pale  of  the  orthodox 
Church  into  the  sect  of  the  Montanists. 

Under  the  deliberate  and  general  persecution  of 
Decius,  the  African  Christians  suffered  greatly.  Many, 
indeed,  lapsed  from  the  faith  in  fear  of  torture  and 
death,  among  them  some  of  the  bishops  and  clergy  ; 
many  obtained  from  the  officers,  by  bribes,  certificates 


22  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

that  they  had  complied  with  the  required  heathen 
sacrifices,  when  they  had  not.  The  former  were 
called  Lapsi,  the  latter  Libellatici.  But  the  fervour 
of  the  African  temperament  showed  itself  in  many 
cases  of  disregard  of  all  concealment  or  evasion,  and 
even  in  a  reckless  courting  of  martyrdom.  After  the 
persecution  was  over,  the  Zealots  showed  their  spirit 
of  fanatical  Puritanism  in  a  more  objectionable  way, 
by  the  harshness  with  which  they  endeavoured  to 
exclude  their  weaker  brethren  from  readmission  to 
the  communion  of  the  Church.  Novatian,  one  of  the 
presbyters  of  Carthage,  procured  irregular  consecra 
tion  as  a  bishop,  and  headed  a  schism  composed  of 
the  extremest  of  these  zealots ;  and  the  Novatians, 
though  not  a  very  powerful  body,  long  continued  to 
exist. 

We  must  not  omit  to  mention  as  a  pleasing  illus 
tration  of  the  better  side  of  this  fervent  zeal  and  con 
tempt  for  death,  the  conduct  of  the  Church  in  the  plague 
of  Carthage.  At  the  commencement  of  the  reign  of 
Valerian  a  plague,  which  the  armies  brought  back 
from  the  Persian  war,  ravaged  the  whole  western 
world,  and  was  specially  destructive  at  Carthage.  It 
spread  gradually  from  house  to  house.  The  panic 
usual  in  presence  of  such  a  visitation  seized  upon 
the  inhabitants,  and  the  usual  paralysis  of  all  natural 
affection  was  exhibited.  The  sick  were  left  untended, 
or  thrust  out  of  doors,  the  dead  were  left  unburied 
in  the  houses  and  streets.  The  illustrious  Cyprian 
was  Bishop  of  Carthage  at  the  time.  He  called  his 
flock  together  and  exhorted  them  to  show  the  sincerity 
of  their  faith,  and  to  illustrate  the  virtues  of  their 


THE    CHURCHES    OF    NORTH    AFRICA.  2$ 

religion  by  their  courage  and  their  charity.  He  bade 
them  not  to  confine  their  cares  to  their  own  relations 
or  to  the  Christian  brotherhood,  but  to  include  the 
heathen  in  their  ministrations.  The  city  was  divided 
into  districts,  different  offices  were  assigned  to  dif 
ferent  visitors.  The  rich  gave  their  money,  and  the 
poor  their  labour.  The  sick  were  tended,  the  dead 
were  buried.  The  confessors  of  the  Decian  Persecu 
tion  just  released  from  the  prisons  and  the  mines, 
with  the  scars  of  their  tortures  still  upon  them,  might 
probably  have  been  seen  risking  their  lives  anew  in 
these  acts  of  love  to  their  enemies. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Valerian,  an  Im 
perial  edict  subjected  all  the  bishops  who  refused  to 
abandon  the  faith  to  the  penalty  of  death,  and 
Cyprian  was  one  of  those  who  suffered. 

In  the  last  and  most  severe  of  all  the  persecutions, 
which  goes  by  the  name  of  the  Diocletian  Persecution, 
Maximinus  Daza  was  the  emperor  who  ruled  over 
Syria  and  Africa,  and  in  his  dominions  the  persecution 
was  more  general,  more  cruel,  and  more  lasting  than 
in  any  other  part  of  the  empire.  Again  the  old  ex 
periences  of  the  Decian  Persecution  were  repeated. 
Many  lapsed,  many  gave  up  the  sacred  books  to  be 
burned  and  earned  the  title  of  traditors.  On  the 
other  hand,  many  were  tortured,  imprisoned,  maimed, 
and  killed.  Again  the  African  spirit  showed  itself  in 
an  exaggerated  estimate  of  the  merit  of  martyrdom. 
Confessors,  while  in  prison  expecting  death,  assumed 
an  extravagant  tone  of  saintly  privilege,  and  thought 
that  in  the  blood  of  martyrdom  they  cleansed  away 
at  once  the  sins  of  a  lifetime.  Again,  after  the  per- 


24  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

secution  was  over  the  old  differences  arose  as  to  the 
treatment  of  the  lapsed,  and  the  disagreement  again 
broke  out  into  open  schism.  When  Caecilian,  a 
representative  of  the  moderate  party,  was  elected  to 
succeed  Mensurius  in  the  see  of  Carthage,  the 
Puritan  party  asserted  that  his  consecration  was  in 
valid  because  it  had  been  performed  by  Felix,  bishop 
of  Aptunga,  who  they  alleged  was  a  traditor,  and  they 
proceeded  to  elect  a  rival  bishop  in  Majorinus.  Just 
at  this  crisis  Constantine,  lately  converted,  sent  money 
to  Cjecilianus,  as  bishop  of  Carthage,  to  be  distributed 
among  the  African  churches  ;  the  Donatists  at  once 
appealed  to  the  emperor,  claiming  that  they  ought  to 
be  recognised  as  the  Church  in  Africa.  At  their 
request  the  question  was  submitted  to  the  judgment 
of  a  number  of  Gallic  and  Italian  bishops  meeting  at 
Rome,  who  decided  that  Csecilian's  consecration  was 
valid,  and  the  Donatists  were  in  the  wrong,  but 
offered  them  the  most  favourable  terms  of  reconcili 
ation.  The  Donatists  refused  to  accept  the  decision, 
and  the  question  was  again  examined  at  a  Synod  of 
the  whole  Church  of  the  Western  Empire,  meeting  at 
Aries  (A.D.  314),  which  again  decided  against  the 
Donatists.  They  again  refused  to  accept  the  decision, 
and  appealed  to  the  emperor  himself  as  the  ultimate 
source  of  justice.  The  emperor  himself  heard  the 
case,  and  again,  finally,  decided  against  the 
Donatists,  and  required  them  to  be  reconciled  to 
the  Church  under  penalties.  His  measures  of 
coercion  failed  to  reduce  them  to  obedience,  and 
Constantine  finally  left  them  as  wrong-headed  and 
obstinate  men  to  the  action  of  time,  hoping  that 


THE   CHURCHES    OF    NORTH    AFRICA.  25 

the  schism  would  die  out  if  not  kept  alive  by  per 
secution. 

But  the  contrary  happened.  The  stern  Puritan 
tenets  of  the  Donatists  were  in  harmony  with  the 
fervid  fanatical  African  temper.  The  sect  spread 
until  the  whole  Church  of  Africa  was  torn  in  pieces. 
In  nearly  every  town  there  were  rival  bishops  and 
rival  churches,  and  not  only  towns,  but  families  were 
distracted  by  fierce  religious  hate.  In  the  wilder  dis 
tricts  of  the  country  a  number  of  Zealots,  largely 
recruited,  it  is  probable,  from  the  excitable  native 
population,  carried  all  the  peculiar  characteristics  of 
the  Donatists  to  the  wildest  extremes.  They  were 
a  kind  of  travesty  of  the  fanatical  Coptic  monks  of  the 
deserts  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Alexandria.  They 
lived  a  life  of  stern  asceticism  ;  they  despised  deathr 
and  courted  martyrdom  ;  they  broke  in  upon  the 
pagan  ceremonies,  and  insulted  the  Catholic  worship  ; 
they  gathered  into  large  companies  and  roamed  about 
the  country,  a  terror  to  all  peaceful  people,  and  often 
guilty  of  outrages  against  the  Catholics.  They  were 
known  by  the  name  of  Circumcellions. 

When  we  gather  together  what  we  can  learn  of  the 
condition  of  society  and  of  the  Church  in  the  African 
provinces  in  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century,  it  is  a 
picture  of  great  material  prosperity,  but  a  strange 
patchwork  of  different  races  and  of  rival  religions. 


26  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    YOUTH    OF    AUGUSTINE. 

His  Birth — Education  at  Thagaste,  at  Madaura— His  Father's 
Death. 

THE  Confessions  of  Augustine  were  written  by  him 
with  the  special  object  of  tracing  out  and  recording 
his  spiritual  history.  "  Come,  and  I  will  tell  you 
what  He  hath  done  for  my  soul."  might  be  its  motto ; 
but  we  gather  out  of  it  the  salient  points  of  an 
ordinary  biography. 

Augustine  was  bom  on  the  i3th  of  Nov.,  A.D.  354, 
at  the  small  town  of  Thagaste  (now  Tajilt),  in  the 
province  of  Numidia.  His  father,  Patricius,  was  a 
poor  burgess  of  the  town,  a  pagan,  a  man  of  harsh 
disposition  and  licentious  life.  The  character  of  his 
mother,  Monica,  drawn  with  loving  care  by  the 
skilful  pen  of  her  son,  stands  side  by  side  with  his 
own  in  the  "  Confessions,"  and  she  has  thus  become 
one  of  the  best  known  and  most  interesting  female 
characters  in  Church  history. 

He  was  not  an  only  son.  He  had  a  brother, 
Navigius,  and  a  sister  whose  name  is  not  known. 
He  tells  us  that  at  his  birth  he  was  signed  with  the 
cross  and  sprinkled  with  salt,  but  not  baptized.  His 
mother  taught  him  something  of  the  chief  truths  of 


THE    YOUTH    OF   AUGUSTINE.  27 

the  Christian  religion  from  infancy;  and  when  in 
his  early  years  he  was  seized  with  a  dangerous  sick 
ness  he  begged  of  his  mother,  with  eagerness  and 
faith,  that  he  might  receive  baptism  ("Conf.,"  i.  17  and 
v.  1 6),  but  on  his  rapid  recovery  the  sacrament  was 
again  put  off.  This  was  in  accordance  with  a  feeling 
common  at  this  period,  of  which  we  meet  with  many 
examples,  and  which  Augustine  describes  at  some 
length  :  "As  if  I  must  needs  be  again  polluted  should 
I  live,  my  cleansing  was  deferred,  because  the  defile 
ments  of  sin  would,  after  that  washing,  bring  greater 
and  more  perilous  guilt."  For,  he  says,  it  was  the 
custom  to  reason  thus :  "  Let  him  alone,  let  him  do 
as  he  will,  for  he  is  not  yet  baptized."  "  But,"  he 
reasons,  "  as  to  bodily  health,  no  one  says,  '  Let  him 
be  worse  wounded  for  he  is  not  yet  healed.'  How 
much  better  then  had  I  been  at  once  healed,  and 
then,  by  my  friends'  diligence  and  my  own,  my  soul's 
recovered  health  had  been  kept  safe  in  Thy  keeping 
who  gavest  it.  Better  truly.  But  how  many  and  great 
waves  of  temptation  seemed  to  hang  over  me  from 
my  boyhood.  These  my  mother  foresaw  ;  and  pre 
ferred  to  expose  to  them  the  clay  whence  I  might 
afterwards  be  moulded,  than  the  very  cast  when  made  " 
("Conf.,"  i.  17,  18). 

We  gather  that  from  an  early  age  he  gave  tokens  of 
unusual  abilities ;  that  his  father  and  mother  were 
proud  of  him,  and  resolved  to  give  him  every  ad 
vantage  of  education.  He  gives  us  a  naive  picture 
of  his  school-days.  First,  he  learned  reading,  writing, 
and  arithmetic  in  the  school  of  his  native  town. 
Then  he  was  sent  to  the  better  school  of  the 


28  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

neighbouring  large  town  of  Madaura,  a  town,  as 
we  afterwards  learn,  the  majority  of  whose  inhabit 
ants  were  still  pagans,  and  where  the  statues  of 
the  ancient  gods  still  stood  uninjured  in  the  forum. 
Here  he  read  the  higher  subjects  of  grammar 
and  rhetoric.  Like  most  clever  boys  he  delighted 
in  the  lessons  which  appealed  to  his  imagination, 
and  hated  drudgery.  "  One  and  one  are  two, 
two  and  two  are  four,"  was  a  hateful  sing-song. 
"  The  wooden  horse  lined  with  armed  men/'  and  the 
burning  of  Troy,  and  "  Creusa's  shade  and  sad 
similitude,"  he  read  in  the  great  epic  of  his  native 
tongue  with  delight ;  but  he  hated  Greek ;  and 
though  Homer  contained  the  like  "  sweetly-vain  fic 
tions"  as  Virgil,  yet  to  him,  as  to  the  majority  of 
schoolboys  before  and  since,  "  the  difficulty  of  a 
foreign  tongue  dashed,  as  it  were,  with  gall  all  the 
sweetness  of  Grecian  fable,  for  not  one  word  of  it 
did  I  understand.  And  to  make  me  understand  I 
was  urged  vehemently  with  cruel  threats  and  punish 
ments."  His  elders,  and  even  his  parents,  used  to 
laugh  at  his  stripes,  his  then  ''great  and  grievous  ill;" 
and  in  his  childish  religion  he  used  to  pray  to  God 
that  he  might  not  be  beaten. 

At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  returned  home  to  live  with 
his  parents  for  a  time,  while  his  father  was  providing 
for  the  expense  of  sending  him  to  the  schools  of 
Carthage,  the  principal  university,  as  we  should  call 
it,  of  the  African  provinces.  At  this  crisis  his  father 
died,  having  been  previously  won — in  large  measure 
by  the  pious  example  of  Monica,  and  by  her  patient 
endurance  of  his  infidelities  and  bursts  of  temper — to 


THE    YOUTH    OF   AUGUSTINE.  29 

embrace  the  Christian  faith  and  amend  his  faults  of 
character.  A  wealthy  fellow-townsman,  Romanianus, 
now  came  forward  and  helped  the  widow  to  carry  out 
her  wishes  on  behalf  of  her  promising  son,  and  send 
him  to  complete  his  education  at  Carthage. 

In  the  1 2th  chapter  of  the  2nd  book  of  his  work 
"Against  the  Academicians,"  Augustine  makes  grateful 
acknowledgment  of  his  obligations  to  Romanianus. 
"  Poor  child  that  I  was,  when  it  was  necessary  to  me 
to  continue  my  studies  you  received  me  into  your 
house,  and,  what  was  more  valuable  still,  into  your 
heart.  Deprived  of  my  father,  your  friendship  con 
soled  me ;  your  conversation  re-animated  me  ;  your 
wealth  came  to  my  assistance.  Even  in  our  own 
town  [Thagaste]  your  affection  and  your  benefits  had 
made  me  a  person  almost  as  considerable  as  yourself." 


3O  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 


CHAPTER  V. 

UNIVERSITY    LIFE    AT    CARTHAGE. 

Description  of  New  Carthage — Its  Schools — Manners  of  the 
Students  —  Augustine's  University  Career  —  Becomes  a 
Manichaean. 

NOTWITHSTANDING  the  curse  which  Scipio  invoked 
against  him  who  should  rebuild  the  great  city  whose 
rivalry  had  so  long  held  Rome  in  fear,  Augustus, 
exactly  a  hundred  years  after  its  destruction,  rebuilt 
it  on  the  same  site. 

The  natural  advantages  of  the  site,  which  had  led 
to  the  original  choice,  dictated  its  re-occupation.  It 
was  a  peninsula  formed  by  the  great  lagoon  of  Tunis 
on  the  east,  and  by  an  open  bay  (now  by  the  reces 
sion  of  the  sea  converted  into  a  lagoon)  on  the  west. 
This  peninsula  possessed  the  further  advantage  of  a 
ridge  of  rock  rising  abruptly  out  of  the  level  ground, 
like  the  hill  of  the  Acropolis  at  Athens,  affording 
vantage-ground  for  a  citadel. 

The  New  Carthage  of  Augustus  was  to  a  great 
extent  a  restoration  of  the  Punic  city.  Not  only  the 
great  natural  features,  the  outer  and  inner  harbour, 
and  the  citadel  hill — the  Byrsa — inevitably  controlled 
the  general  arrangement  of  the  restored  city,  but 
advantage  was  taken  of  what  remained  of  the  work 
of  the  great  Punic  builders.  The  great  covered 


UNIVERSITY    LIFE    AT    CARTHAGE.  31 

reservoirs  on  the  south  and  west  sides  of  the  city 
(which  still  remain)  were  repaired  and  used ;  and  the 
great  aqueduct,  sixty  miles  in  length,  which  conveyed 
water  to  them  from  the  mountain  now  called  Jebel 
Zagwan.  The  chief  temples  of  the  ancient  city  still 
remained,  though  in  ruins,  and  these  were  restored 
with  greater  magnificence  than  ever,  though  perhaps 
with  new  dedications.  The  temples  of  the  goddess 
Coelestis,  of  Saturn,  of  Apollo,  occupied  various  sites 
on  the  level  ground  of  the  city.  The  Byrsa  rose 
terrace  above  terrace  in  the  midst ;  on  a  platform  on 
the  very  highest  part  of  the  ridge,  approached  by 
a  stair  of  sixty  steps,  was  the  temple  of  yEsculapius, 
and  the  rest  of  the  rock  was  occupied  by  the  palace 
of  the  Proconsul.  The  Forum  was  at  the  foot  of 
the  Byrsa,  between  it  and  the  harbours ;  here  also 
were  the  Senate-house  and  the  temple  of  Apollo, 
which  once  contained  an  image  of  gold  in  a  chapel 
overlaid  with  gold  to  the  weight  of  1,000  talents. 
Three  streets  ascended  from  the  Forum  to  the  Byrsa, 
the  middle  one,  called  the  Via  Salutaris,  probably 
leading  straight  to  the  grand  stair  which  gave  access 
to  the  temple  on  the  summit.  On  the  west  and 
south  sides  of  the  Byrsa  are  still  the  remains  of  baths, 
probably  the  Thermae  Gargilianse,  famous  in  the  eccle 
siastical  history  of  the  city.  The  remaining  streets 
on  the  level  ground  of  the  peninsula  were  for  the 
most  part  straight  and  at  right  angles.  North  of  the 
city  was  the  walled  suburb  of  Megara  or  Megalia, 
with  beautiful  gardens  watered  by  canals,  still  repre 
sented  by  the  gardens  of  the  modern  city  cf  Tunis. 
The  explorations  made  on  the  site  in  our  own  day  by 


32  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

Dr.  Davis l  have  helped  us  to  reconstruct  the  Roman 
Carthage.  The  tesselated  pavements  discovered  by 
him,  now  in  the  British  Museum,  are  perhaps  the 
finest  and  most  artistic  works  of  the  kind  which  have 
come  down  to  us,  and  give  us  a  standard  by  which 
we  may  estimate  the  grand  scale  and  sumptuous 
.splendour  of  the  great  houses  of  the  Imperial  officials 
and  wealthy  citizens  of  Nova  Carthago. 

The  city  was  the  seat  of  the  government  of  the 
Proconsul  of  Africa,  it  was  the  great  emporium  of 
the  commerce  which,  in  exchange  for  the  vast  exports 
of  corn  which  helped  to  feed  Rome,  imported  all  the 
luxuries  which  the  civilized  world  could  give  in  return, 
and  distributed  them  through  the  numerous  wealthy 
cities  and  great  villas  of  the  flourishing  province. 

The  city  was  also  the  seat  of  the  great  "  university" 
of  the  African  provinces.  The  Imperial  Govern 
ment  made  ample  provision  for  the  education  of  the 
people  throughout  the  empire.  Every  little  town, 
like  Thagaste,  had  its  elementary  schools ;  in  the 
greater  towns  schools  of  a  higher  grade ;  and  each 
provincial  capital  had  its  staff  of  professors — gramma 
rians,  philosophers,  rhetoricians — appointed  by  the 
Government,  paid  partly  by  a  Government  salary, 
partly  by  the  fees  of  the  students ;  the  discipline  of 
the  students  was  under  the  supervision  of  the  governor 
of  the  city,  and  from  among  the  students  the  most 
promising  were  taken  into  the  service  of  the  State. 

Rhetoric  was  the  highest  department  of  study. 
Even  in  our  day  and  country  eloquence  is  the  high 

1  "  Carthage  and  her  Remains,"  by  Dr.  N.  Davis. 


UNIVERSITY    LIFE    AT    CARTHAGE.  33 

road  to  some  of  the  highest  honours  of  the  State,  at 
the  Bar,  and  in  the  Senate.  In  those  days  it  was  still 
more  important.  More  of  the  work  of  the  world  was 
done  by  oral  communication  and  less  by  books,  and 
eloquence  then  was  systematically  cultivated.  The 
rhetorician  was  the  professor  of  the  highest  grade  in 
the  university.  His  art  was  not  merely  that  of  eloquent 
expression.  It  implied  first  a  sound  training  in  the 
lower  branches  of  education,  an  acquaintance  with 
the  literature  of  Greece  and  Rome,  a  knowledge  of 
the  imperfect  natural  science  of  the  time,  a  thorough 
acquaintance  with  the  great  philosophical  systems,  a 
trained  skill  in  all  the  arts  of  reasoning.  This  ency 
clopaedic  knowledge  and  this  dialectic  skill  were  mere 
raw  materials,  to  be  used  with  a  good  memory,  a  ready 
wit,  a  facile  skill  in  all  the  graces  of  language,  and  a 
profound  knowledge  of  human  nature,  with  the  final 
object  of  instructing,  convincing,  persuading,  per 
plexing;  whether  instructing  a  class  of  students, 
convincing  a  magistrate  on  the  tribunal,  persuading 
an  assembly  of  citizens,  overcoming  a  rival  professor, 
or  delighting  a  meeting  of  literati. 

It  is  remarkable  how  many  of  the  great  churchmen 
of  these  ages  were  originally  eminent  professors  of 
rhetoric ;  e.g.  all  the  great  men  of  the  African  Church, 
Tertullian,  Cyprian,  Augustine,  and  many  others  in 
other  branches  of  the  Church ;  and  it  is  impossible  to 
read  their  writings  without  recognising  the  clearness 
of  thought,  the  systematic  arrangement,  the  vigour  of 
expression,  the  felicity  of  diction,  which  their  training 
had  given  them. 

The  widowed  Monica  sent  her  son  of  seventeen, 
c 


34  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

with  his  brilliant  talents,  his  unformed  principles,  and 
ardent  temperament,  to  this  great  school  of  learning, 
to  this  luxurious  capital,  with  much  wise  and  plain- 
spoken  counsel  on  the  temptations  which  awaited 
him,  counsel  which  he  considered  "womanish"  as 
he  listened  to  it,  and  which  he  never  intended  to 
observe. 

Augustine  is  frank  in  his  admission  of  the  character 
of  his  university  career.  The  system,  we  have  seen, 
was  professorial,  the  students  attended  such  lectures 
as  they  pleased,  and  paid  their  fees  to  the  professors. 
They  were  practically  under  no  discipline,  and  were 
as  unruly  and  independent  as  German  students 
under  the  same  system  to-day.  They  acquired  the 
proverbial  Carthaginian  passion  for  the  theatre  and 
the  circus  ("Conf.,"  in.  2;  vi.  n);  they  roamed  about 
the  forum  and  the  principal  streets  ;  they  plunged 
into  the  dissolute  living  of  a  great  capital ;  they 
were  noisy  and  insubordinate  in  the  schools  of 
the  professors,  where  a  group  of  them  would  come 
in  riotously  in  the  middle,  or  leave  before  the  end, 
of  the  lecture  or  disputation.  The  "  fastest  set " 
had  given  themselves  the  name  of  Eversores, 
and  played  such  brutal  pranks  on  unoffending 
passers-by  or  modest  women  as,  the  Spectator^  tells 
us,  the  Mohocks  did  in  the  streets  of  London  in 
the  reign  of  Queen  Anne.  Augustine's  friendship 
with  some  of  them  made  him  one  of  the  set ;  and 
the  false  shame  which  is  one  of  the  great  temptations 
of  young  men,  made  him  take  part  in  their  follies 

1  Nos.  324  and  347. 


UNIVERSITY   LIFE   AT    CARTHAGE.  3$ 

and  vices,  though  he  protests  that  he  always  disliked 
their  brutal  practical  jokes.  But  in  the  midst  of  all 
this  dissipation  his  studies  were  not  altogether  neg 
lected  ;  his  natural  genius  asserted  itself,  and  he 
found  himself  chief  in  the  rhetoric  school.  His  chief 
antagonist,  he  tells  us,  was  Simplicius,  who  had  the 
advantage  of  a  prodigious  memory.  The  professor 
of  rhetoric  under  whom  they  studied  was  named 
Democritus. 

In  the  course  of  his  studies  he  fell  upon  the  "  Hor- 
tensius  "  of  Cicero,  which  had  a  great  effect  upon  his 
mind,  giving  him  a  distaste  for  the  dissipated  life  he 
had  been  leading,  and  inspiring  him  with  a  "  burning 
desire  "  for  wisdom.  In  short,  it  was  a  kind  of  first 
conversion,  not  to  religion  but  to  philosophy.  His 
thoughts,  indeed,  were  drawn  back  to  the  recollection 
of  his  early  teaching ;  and  the  "  apostolic  Scriptures 
being  at  that  time  unknown  to  him"  (in.  8),  he  turned 
to  them  in  order  to  see  what  they  contained,  and  how 
they  would  help  him  to  true  wisdom ;  but  he  tells  us 
"  they  seemed  to  him  unworthy  to  be  compared  to 
the  stateliness  of  Tully."  He  would  probably  read 
the  Scriptures  in  the  African  version,  the  earliest 
Latin  translation,  which  had  been  the  Bible  of  the 
African  Churches  from  the  second  century.  This 
version,  we  know,  was  very  rude,  and  even  barbarous 
in  style,  and  would  naturally  be  repugnant  to  the 
taste  of  a  young  student  whose  whole  training  had 
taught  him  to  expect  truth  to  be  presented  to  the 
mind  in  a  learned,  artificial,  ornate,  and  polished  dis 
course.  It  is  curious  that  Jerome  also  records  of 
himself  that  when  after  his  conversion  he  tried  to 
c  2 


36  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

read  the  Scriptures,  the  inartistic  style  of  the  Prophets 
repelled  him ;  he  would  read  them  in  the  old  Italic 
version,  which  was  less  rude  than  the  African ;  and 
that  his  involuntary  preference  for  Cicero  was  a  heavy 
burden  on  his  conscience.1  In  this  state  of  mind, 
believing  vaguely  in  Christianity,  thirsting  with  the 
ardour  of  youthful  genius  for  wisdom,  but  failing  to 
see  what  he  sought  in  the  apostolic  writings,  presented 
through  the  unfavourable  medium  of  a  barbarous 
Latin  version,  he  fell  among  some  of  the  professors  of 
the  Manichsean  system,  who  were  numerous  among 
the  strange  mixture  of  sects  and  parties  which  we 
have  already  described  as  existing  in  Africa.  This 
strange  system  seemed  to  offer  exactly  what  Augustine 
sought. 

It  held  itself  out  as  a  higher  form  of  Christianity. 
Taking  its  cue  from  the  ancient  philosophies,  which 
had  an  exoteric  and  an  esoteric  doctrine,  it  declared 
that  the  common  Christianity  of  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles  was,  no  doubt,  what  Jesus  taught  His  disciples; 
but  that  He  himself  said,  "  I  have  many  things  to  say 
unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now;  howbeit, 
when  He,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come,  He  will  guide 
you  into  all  truth."  Manes  professed  that  he  was  this 
promised  Paraclete,  and  that  what  he  taught  was  that 
"  all  truth  "  of  which  Christ  spake  ;  so  that  Mani- 
chseism  was  offered  to  Christian  inquirers  as  the 
Higher  Christianity.  The  young  student  was  just  in 
the  frame  of  mind  to  be  attracted  by  these  preten 
sions,  and  he  openly  joined  their  sect. 

1  See  the  "  Fathers  for  English  Readers  :  Jerome,"  p.  45. 


UNIVERSITY    LIFE    AT    CARTHAGE.  37 

It  was  also  during  his  university  career  that  this 
youth  of  eighteen  entered  into  an  illegitimate  connec 
tion  with  a  young  woman,  by  whom  he  had  a  son, 
Adeodatus,  whom  he  acknowledged,  and  to  whom  he 
was  much  attached.  Though  their  relations  were 
never  sanctioned  by  marriage,  yet  we  shall  find  that 
they  continued  with  mutual  fidelity  for  fourteen  years; 
and  that,  when  broken  off  by  Augustine's  departure 
from  Africa  (in  385),  both  bound  themselves  by  vows 
to  a  life  of  continency. 

In  three  years  his  course  of  study  was  ended,  and 
he  returned  with  honour  to  his  native  Thagaste. 


38  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    YOUNG    RHETORIC-MASTER    AT    THAGASTE. 

Sets  up  as  Tutor  at  Thagaste — His  Mother's  Dream — The 
Bishop's  Counsel — His  Friendship — On  the  Death  of  his 
Friend  returns  to  Carthage. 

AUGUSTINE'S  stay  at  Thagaste  was  a  brief  one,  but  its 
history  throws  light  upon  his  character. 

He  had  come  back  from  Carthage  an  avowed 
Manichaean,  and  not  content  with  holding  these 
opinions  himself  he  was  using  all  his  trained  skill 
as  a  disputant  to  confound  the  orthodox  and  win 
converts  to  his  views. 

His  pious  mother,  when  she  came  to  know  of  her 
son's  perversion,  "  wept  for  him  more  than  mothers 
weep  the  bodily  deaths  of  their  children"  (in.  19). 
She  did  more  than  grieve.  "  Shrinking  from  and 
detesting  the  blasphemies  of  his  error,  she  began  to 
doubt  whether  it  was  right  in  her  to  allow  her  son  to 
live  in  her  house  and  to  eat  at  the  same  table  with 
her  "  (in.  1 9).  It  is  characteristic  of  the  religious  tem 
perament  both  of  mother  and  son  that  she  was 
influenced  in  her  conduct  and  comforted  in  her  heart 
by  a  dream  or  vision,  which  both  accepted  as  provi 
dential. 

"  She  saw  herself  standing  on  a  certain  wooden 
rule  ;  and  a  shining  youth  coming  towards  her,  cheer- 


THE  YOUNG  RHETORIC-MASTER  AT  THAGASTE.      39 

ful  and  smiling  upon  her,  while  she  was  weeping  and 
overwhelmed  with  grief.  He,  having  inquired  of 
her  the  causes  of  her  grief  and  daily  tears,  and  she 
answering  that  she  was  bewailing  her  son's  perdition, 
he  bade  her  be  comforted,  and  told  her  to  look  and 
observe  that  '  Where  she  was  there  was  her  son  also.' 
And  when  she  looked  she  saw  her  son  standing  by 
her  on  the  same  rule."  When  Monica  told  her  son 
the  vision,  and  he  would  have  interpreted  it  against 
herself,  as  if  it  meant  that  she  would  one  day  come 
over  to  his  views,  she  without  hesitation  replied, 
"  No,  for  it  was  not  told  me  '  where  he,  there  thou 
also,'  but  '  where  thou,  there  he  also.'  "  And  Augus 
tine  admits  that  the  fact  "  that  she  was  not  perplexed 
by  the  plausibility  of  his  false  interpretation,  and  so 
quickly  saw  what  was  the  true  state  of  the  case, 
which  he  had  failed  to  perceive,  moved  him  more 
than  the  dream  itself." 

Of  the  same  period  he  relates  another  well-known 
anecdote,  which  has  comforted  thousands  of  mothers 
mourning  over  their  erring  children. 

She  begged  a  certain  bishop,  who  had  a  reputation 
for  successful  dealing  with  souls,  to  converse  with 
him,  and  seek  to  refute  his  errors  and  to  reason  him 
back  into  the  truth  ;  but  he  refused,  on  the  ground 
that  he  was  puffed  up  with  the  novelty  of  his  heresy, 
and  with  having  perplexed  in  argument  some  who 
had  unskilfully  encountered  him,  and  that  he  was  in 
his  present  frame  of  mind  unteachable.  But  he 
advised  to  "  let  him  alone  awhile,  and  pray  God  for 
him,  and  he  will  in  time  find  out  for  himself  the  error 
and  impiety  of  his  present  opinions.  He  told  her 


40  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

that  he  himself  had  been  brought  up  among  the 
Manichseans,  and  had  thus  on  reading  and  reflection 
abandoned  them.  And  when  she  was  not  satisfied 
with  this,  but  urged  him  with  tears  and  entreaties  to 
undertake  the  controversy,  he,  a  little  displeased  at 
her  importunity,  said,  '  Go  thy  ways,  and  God  help 
thee,  for  it  is  not  possible  that  the  son  of  these  tears 
should  perish.'  Which  answer  she  took  (as  she  often 
mentioned  in  her  conversation  with  me)  as  if  it  had 
sounded  from  heaven"  ("Conf.,"  in.  21). 

The  incident  which  led  to  Augustine's  removal  from 
Thagaste  shows  us  the  tenderness  of  his  emotional 
nature.  "  In  those  years  when  I  first  began  to  teach 
rhetoric  in  my  native  town  I  had  made  one  my  friend, 
from  a  community  of  pursuits,  but  too  dear  to  me,  of 
mine  own  age,  and,  as  myself,  in  the  first  opening 
flower  of  youth.  He  had  grown  up  from  a  child  with 
me,  and  we  had  been  both  school-fellowrs  and  play 
fellows."  This  friendship  was  renewed  when  Augus 
tine  returned  from  Carthage,  and  was  "  ripened  by  the 
warmth  of  kindred  studies."  Augustine  had  won  his 
friend  over  to  embrace  his  own  Manichaean  errors ; 
but  the  youth  was  seized  with  sickness.  "  Long  he 
lay  senseless  ;  and  his  recovery  being  despaired  of  he 
was  baptized  unconscious.  I,  meanwhile,  little  re 
garding  it,  and  presuming  that  his  soul  would  retain 
rather  what  it  had  received  of  me,  than  what  was 
wrought  on  his  unconscious  body.  But  it  proved  far 
otherwise,  for  he  was  refreshed  and  restored.  As 
soon  as  I  could  speak  to  him,  and  I  could  as  soon  as 
he  was  able  to  listen  (for  I  never  left  him;  and  we 
hung  but  too  much  upon  each  other),  I  essayed  to 


THE  YOUNG  RHETORIC-MASTER  AT  THAGASTE.      41 

jest  with  him,  expecting  him  to  join  me  in  jesting 
at  that  baptism  which  he  had  received  when  utterly 
absent  in  mind  and  feeling,  but  now  understood  that 
he  had  received.  But  he  shrank  from  me  as  from  an 
enemy ;  and  with  a  wonderful  and  sudden  freedom 
bade  me,  as  I  would  continue  his  friend,  forbear 
such  language  to  him.  I,  all  astonished  and  amazed, 
suppressed  all  rny  emotions  till  he  should  get  well 
and  his  health  be  strong  enough  for  me  to  deal  with 
him  as  I  would.  But  he  did  not  grow  well.  A  few 
days  after,  in  my  absence,  he  was  attacked  again  by 
the  fever,  and  so  departed. 

"  At  this  grief  my  heart  was  utterly  darkened,  and 
whatever  I  beheld  was  death.  My  native  place  was 
a  torment  to  me,  and  my  father's  house  a  strange  un- 
happiness ;  and  whatever  I  had  shared  with  him, 
wanting  him  became  a  distracting  torture.  My  eyes 
sought  him  everywhere,  but  he  was  not  given  to 
them  ;  and  I  hated  all  places  because  they  contained 
him  not ;  nor  would  they  now  tell  me  '  he  is  coming ' 
as  when  he  was  absent  but  alone.  .  .  .  Only 
tears  were  sweet  to  me,  for  they  succeeded  my  friend 
in  the  dearest  of  my  affections." 

And  so,  after  three  more  chapters  of  rather  rhe 
torical,  though  doubtless  very  sincere  lamentation,  he 
comes  to  the  conclusion — "Whither  should  my  heart 
flee  from  my  heart?  Whither  should  I  flee  from 
myself?  Whither  not  follow  myself  ?  And  yet  I  fled 
out  of  my  country  :  for  so  should  mine  eyes  less  look 
for  him  where  they  were  not  wont  to  see  him.  And 
thus  from  Thagaste  I  came  to  Carthage."  And  he 
found,  as  so  many  have  found  under  similar  griefs, 


42  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

time  and  change  the  great  consolers.  "Times  lose 
no  time ;  nor  do  they  roll  idly  by ;  through  our 
senses  they  work  strange  operations  on  the  mind. 
Behold  they  went  and  came,  day  by  day,  and  by 
coming  and  going  introduced  into  my  mind  other 
imaginations  and  other  remembrances  ;  and  little  by 
little  patched  me  up  again  with  my  old  kind  of 
delights  into  which  my  sorrow  gave  way"  (iv.  1-13). 

This  abandonment  of  his  native  place  and  of  his 
prospects  there,  was  at  first  opposed  by  his  friends  ; 
and  in  the  continuation  of  the  extract  already  begun 
from  the  book  against  the  Academicians,  Augustine 
gratefully  calls  to  mind  Romanianus's  kindness  to  him 
in  the  matter  : — 

"When,  without  having  confided  my  intention  either 
to  you  or  to  any  other  of  my  friends,  I  wished  to 
return  to  Carthage  in  order  to  find  a  higher  position, 
the  love  of  our  common  birthplace  made  you  hesitate 
to  approve  my  design ;  nevertheless,  when  you  saw 
that  it  was  no  longer  possible  to  overcome  the  violent 
desire  of  a  young  man  aiming  at  that  which  appeared 
to  him  a  better  way,  your  wonderful  goodness  changed 
from  hindrance  to  support.  You  supplied  all  which 
was  necessary  for  my  journey  ;  you  who  had  protected 
the  cradle,  and,  as  it  were,  nest  of  my  studies,  you 
sustained  the  boldness  of  my  first  flight" 


SAINT   AUGUSTINE.  43 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   RHETORIC-MASTER    AT   CARTHAGE   AND    ROME. 

Sets  up  as  Tutor  at  Carthage — His  Superstition — His  Progress 
in  Learning — His  doubts  of  Manichceism — His  Intercourse 
with  Faustus — Disgusted  with  the  manners  of  the  Students 
— Secretly  embarks  for  Rome,  leaving  his  Mother  on  the 
Sea-shore  —  Sets  up  as  Tutor  at  Rome — Has  a  Fever — 
Disappointed  with  the  manners  of  the  Students— Obtains 
the  appointment  of  Professor  of  Rhetoric  at  Milan. 

AT  Carthage  the  young  and  talented  rhetorician 
would  find  a  wider  field  for  his  abilities.  His 
"university"  reputation  would  be  likely  to  attract 
pupils ;  his  youth  would  be  no  hindrance ;  it  was 
doubtless  as  usual  then  as  it  is  now  for  the  man  who 
has  taken  a  high  degree  to  remain  at  his  university  as 
a  successful  private  tutor.  His  pupils  were  mostly 
studying  with  a  view  to  practice  in  the  law  courts. 
"  In  those  years,"  he  says,  "  I  taught  rhetoric,  and, 
for  love  of  gain,  made  sale  of  the  art  of  victorious 
loquacity.  Yet  I  preferred  (Lord,  thou  knowest) 
honest  scholars  (as  they  are  accounted),  and  these  I, 
without  artifice,  taught  artifices,  not  to  be  practised 
against  the  life  of  the  guiltless,  though  sometimes  for 
the  life  of  the  guilty "  (iv.  2).  Among  his  pupils 
were  Licentius,  the  son  of  his  friend  and  benefactor 
Romanianus,  and  Alypius,  both  of  whom  became 


44  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

attached  to  the  career  of  their  illustrious  master,  and 
will  reappear  in  the  sequel  of  his  history. 

It  is  curious  to  see  how  the  superstitions  of  the  old 
heathenism  still  lingered  among  people  who  were  no 
longer  heathens,  and  influenced  even  such  an  intellect 
as  that  of  Augustine.  He  tells  us  of  this  period  of 
his  life,  "  I  remember  that  when  I  had  settled  to  enter 
the  lists  for  a  theatrical  prize,  some  wizard  asked  me 
what  I  would  give  him  to  win  ;  but  I,  detesting  and 
abhorring"  not  disbelieving  and  despising  "such  foul 
mysteries,  answered,  '  Though  the  garland  were  of 
imperishable  gold,  I  would  not  suffer  a  fly  to  be  killed 
to  gain  me  it.'  For  he  was  to  kill  some  living  crea 
tures  in  his  sacrifices,  and  by  those  honours  to  invite 
the  devils  to  favour  me."  But  he  admits  that  "  the 
impostors  whom  they  style  mathematicians  I  con 
sulted  without  scruple,  because  they  seemed  to  use 
no  sacrifice,  nor  to  pray  to  any  spirit  for  their  divina 
tions."  The  Proconsul  Vindicianus,  "a  wise  man  and 
very  skilful  in  physic,"  "  who  had  with  his  own  pro 
consular  hand  put  the  agonistic  garland l  upon  his 
head,"  and  who  seems  to  have  taken  a  friendly  in 
terest  in  the  brilliant  young  prizeman,  took  the 
trouble  to  argue  with  him  against  the  delusions  of 
these  astrologers.  "  But  at  that  time  neither  he  nor 
my  dearest  Nebridius,  a  youth  singularly  good  and  of 
a  holy  fear,  who  derided  the  whole  body  of  divina 
tions,  could  persuade  me  to  cast  it  aside." 

He  gives  us  the  means  of  estimating  his  continued 
diligence  in  study  and  his  singular  abilities  when  he 

1   The  prize  of  some  Rhetorical  or  Poetical  competition. 


RHETORIC-MASTER  AT  CARTHAGE  AND  ROME.       45 

tells  us  that  when  "  scarce  twenty  years  old,  a  book 
of  Aristotle's  which  they  call  the  'Ten  Predicaments' 
falling  into  my  hands  (on  whose  very  name  I  hung 
as  on  something  great  and  divine,  so  often  as  my 
rhetoric-master  at  Carthage,  and  others  accounted 
learned,  mouthed  it  with  cheeks  bursting  with  pride), 
I  read  and  understood  it  unaided.  And  on  my  con 
ferring  with  others,  who  said  that  they  scarcely  un 
derstood  it  with  very  able  tutors,  not  only  orally 
explaining  it,  but  drawing  many  things  in  sand,  they 
could  tell  me  no  more  of  it  than  I  had  learned  read 
ing  it  by  myself"  (iv.  28).  "And  all  the  books  I 
could  procure  of  the  so-called  liberal  arts,  I  read  by 
myself  and  understood.  .  .  .  Whatever  was  written, 
either  on  rhetoric,  logic,  geometry,  music,  or  arith 
metic,  by  myself,  without  much  difficulty  or  any 
instructor,  I  understood,  thou  knowest,  O  my  God, 
because  both  quickness  of  understanding  and  acute- 
ness  in  discerning  is  thy  gift.  .  .  .  For  I  felt  not 
that  those  arts  were  attained  with  great  difficulty  even 
by  the  studious  and  talented,  until  I  attempted  to 
explain  them  to  such ;  when  he  most  excelled  in 
them  who  followed  me  not  altogether  slowly." 

At  the  age  of  six  or  seven-and-twenty,  he  tells  us 
he  wrote  a  book,  "  De  Apta  et  Pulchra,"  on  the 
Fitting  and  Beautiful,  full  of  the  Manichaean  notions 
which  then  possessed  his  mind  ;  it  had  long  been 
lost  when  he  spoke  of  it  in  his  "  Confessions." 

"  For  the  space  of  nine  years,  then,"  Augustine 
thus  sums  up  this  period  of  his  life,  "  from  my  nine 
teenth  year  to  my  eight-and-twentieth  I  lived  seduced 
and  seducing,  deceived  and  deceiving,  in  divers  lusts ; 


46  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

openly  by  sciences  which  they  call  liberal,  secretly 
in  a  false-named  religion ;  here  proud,  there  super 
stitious,  everywhere  vain.  Here  hunting  after  the 
emptiness  of  popular  praise,  down  even  to  theatrical 
applauses,  and  poetic  prizes,  and  stripes  for  grassy 
garlands ;  and  the  follies  of  shows,  and  the  intem 
perance  of  desires  ;  .  .  .  these  things  did  I  follow 
and  practise  with  my  friends,  deceived  by  me  and 
with  me." 

But  the  end  of  this  portion  of  his  life  was  ap 
proaching.  He  had  never  been  satisfied  with  his 
Manichsean  religion ;  it  had  presented  itself  to  him 
at  a  crisis  when  his  youthful,  enthusiastic  mind  was 
just  fired  with  a  desire  for  wisdom,  and  when  his  search 
for  wisdom  in  the  Apostolic  writings  had  been  disap 
pointed  ;  and  when  its  pretensions  to  esoteric  wisdom 
concealed  from  the  lower  order  of  minds  commended 
itself  to  his  pride  of  intellect.  But  he  soon  found 
that  the  professors  of  the  religion  at  Carthage  could 
not  answer  the  questions  his  acute  mind  proposed, 
and  he  found  also  that  some  of  the  things  which 
Manes  had  written  on  the  universe  were  inconsistent 
with  the  ascertained  facts  of  science.  "  I  had  read 
and  well  remembered  much  of  the  philosophers  ;  I 
compared  some  of  their  teachings  with  the  long  fables 
of  the  Manichaeans,  and  found  the  former  more  pro 
bable.  .  .  .  For  they  had  foretold,  many  years  before, 
eclipses  of  the  sun  and  moon — what  day  and  hour 
and  how  many  digits — nor  did  their  calculation  fail, 
but  it  came  to  pass  as  they  foretold  ;  and  they  wrote 
down  the  rules  they  had  found  out,  and  these  are 
known  at  this  day,  and  by  means  of  them  others  fore- 


RHETORIC-MASTER  AT  CARTHAGE  AND  ROME.      47 

tell  the  year,  and  month,  and  day,  and  hour  of  an 
eclipse,  and  what  part  of  its  light,  moon  and  sun 
shall  be  eclipsed,  and  so  it  shall  be  as  it  is  foreshowed. 
.  .  .  And  many  truths  concerning  the  Creation  I  had 
gathered  from  these  men,  and  saw  the  reason  thereof 
from  calculations,  proved  by  the  visible  testimonies  of 
the  stars;  and  comparing  them  with  the  sayings  of 
Manes  which  he  had  written  most  largely  on  these 
subjects,  I  found  no  account  of  solstices  and  equi 
noxes  or  the  eclipses  of  the  sun  and  moon,  nor  what 
ever  of  this  sort  I  had  learned  in  the  books  of  secular 
philosophy.  But  I  was  commanded  to  believe  [what 
Manichseus  had  said],  and  yet  it  corresponded  not 
with  what  had  been  established  by  calculations  and 
my  own  sight,  but  was  quite  contrary." 

But  when  he  started  these  and  such  like  objections, 
the  professors  of  the  religion  at  Carthage,  while  ad 
mitting  their  inability  to  answer  him,  referred  him  to 
Faustus,  the  bishop  of  their  sect  in  Milevis,  as  capable 
of  solving  all  his  difficulties.  "  For  almost  all  these 
nine  years  wherever  with  unsettled  mind  I  had  been 
their  disciple,  I  had  longed  but  too  intensely  for  the 
coming  of  this  Faustus.  For  the  rest  of  the  sect, 
whom  by  chance  I  had  lighted  upon  when  unable  to 
solve  my  objections  about  these  things,  still  held  out 
to  me  the  coming  of  Faustus,  by  conference  with 
whom  these  and  greater  difficulties,  if  I  had  them, 
were  to  be  most  readily  and  abundantly  cleared." 
He  thought  it  possible  that  the  sayings  of  Manes 
might  be  capable  of  some  explanation  not  inconsistent 
with  the  scientific  truths,  and  therefore  he  waited. 

At  length  Faustus  came  to  Carthage,  and  we  have, 


48  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

at  some  length,  an  interesting  account  of  him.  "  I 
found  him  a  man  of  pleasing  discourse,  and  who  could 
speak  fluently  and  in  better  terms,  yet  still  but  the  self 
same  things  which  they  [the  followers  of  the  sect  at 
Carthage]  were  wont  to  say.  But  what  availed  the 
utmost  neatness  of  the  cupbearer  to  my  thirst  for  a 
more  precious  draught  ?  My  ears  were  already  cloyed 
with  the  like ;  nor  did  they,  therefore,  seem  to  me 
better  because  better  said  ;  nor  therefore  true  because 
eloquent ;  nor  the  soul  therefore  wise  because  the  face 
was  comely  and  the  language  graceful."  And  when 
Augustine  came  to  converse  with  him  in  private,  "  I 
found  him  first  utterly  ignorant  of  liberal  sciences 
save  grammar,  and  that  but  in  an  ordinary  way.  But 
because  he  had  read  some  of  Tully's  Orations,  a  very 
few  books  of  Seneca,  some  things  of  the  poets,  and 
such  few  volumes  of  his  own  sect  as  were  written  in 
Latin,  and  was  daily  practised  in  speaking,  he  acquired 
a  certain  eloquence  which  proved  the  more  pleasing 
and  seductive  because  under  the  guidance  of  a  good 
wit,  and  with  a  kind  of  natural  gracefulness.  .  .  . 
But  when  it  was  clear  that  he  was  ignorant  of  those 
arts  in  which  I  thought  he  excelled,  I  began  to  de 
spair  of  his  opening  and  solving  the  difficulties  which 
perplexed  me  .  .  .  which,  when  I  proposed  to  him 
to  be  considered  and  discussed,  he,  so  far,  modestly 
shrank  from  the  burden.  For  he  knew  that  he  knew 
not  these  things,  and  was  not  ashamed  to  confess  it. 
For  he  was  not  one  of  those  talking  persons,  many  of 
whom  I  had  endured,  who  undertook  to  teach  me 
these  things  and  said  nothing.  But  this  man  had  a 
heart  which,  though  not  right  towards  Thee,  was  not 


RHETORIC-MASTER  AT  CARTHAGE  AND  ROME.      49 

yet  altogether  treacherous  to  himself.  .  .  .  Even  for 
this  I  liked  him  the  better.  For  fairer  is  the  modesty 
of  a  candid  mind  than  the  knowledge  of  those  things 
which  I  desired."  On  the  other  hand,  Faustus  began 
to  read  literature  under  the  guidance  of  Augustine, 
and  this,  no  doubt,  would  help  to  disabuse  Augustine's 
mind  of  any  lingering  tendency  to  look  up  to  one  who 
was  inferior  to  himself.  "  Thus  that  Faustus,  to  so 
many  a  snare  of  death,  had  now,  neither  willing  nor 
witting  it,  begun  to  loosen  that  snare  wherein  I  was 
taken.  For  Thy  hands,  O  my  God,  in  the  secret 
purpose  of  Thy  providence,  did  not  forsake  my  soul ; 
and  out  of  my  mother's  heart's  blood,  through  her 
tears  night  and  day  poured  out,  was  a  sacrifice  offered 
for  me  unto  Thee  ;  and  Thou  didst  deal  with  me  by 
wondrous  ways.  Thou  didst  it,  O  my  God  :  for  the 
steps  of  a  man  are  ordered  by  the  Lord,  and  He  shall 
dispose  his  way  (Ps.  xxxvii.  23),  or  how  shall  we 
obtain  salvation  but  from  Thy  hand,  remaking  what 
it  made?"  (v.  13). 

Augustine  did  not,  however,  openly  detach  him 
self  from  the  Manichoeans,  but  "  settled  to  be  content 
with  the  way  he  had  fallen  upon,  unless  something 
more  eligible  should  dawn  upon  him." 

He  now  resolved  to  remove  to  Rome.  His  friends 
urged  upon  him  that  higher  gains  and  higher  digni 
ties  were  within  the  reach  of  his  great  abilities  on 
that  grander  field  for  their  exercise.  And  he  was  not 
insensible  to  this  argument.  But  what  decided  him 
was  the  riotous  conduct  of  the  students  at  Carthage  : 
"  They  burst  in  audaciously  and  with  gestures  almost 
frantic  into  the  school  of  one  whose  pupils  they  are 

D 


50  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

not,  and  disturb  the  order  which  any  one  hath  esta 
blished  for  the  good  of  his  scholars.  Divers  outrages 
they  commit  with  a  wonderful  stolidity,  punishable 
by  law,  did  not  custom  uphold  them.  .  .  .  The 
manners  which  when  a  student  I  would  not  fall  into, 
I  was  fain  as  a  teacher  to  endure  in  others."  He  was 
assured  that  in  Rome  "  the  young  men  studied  more 
peacefully,  and  were  kept  quiet  under  a  restraint  of  a 
more  regular  discipline." 

He  tried  to  get  away  without  a  painful  leave-taking 
with  his  mother  when  he  was  going  to  embark ;  but 
she,  suspecting  his  intention,  followed  him  to  the 
shore,  holding  him  by  force  that  either  she  might  keep 
him  back  or  he  might  take  her  with  him.  He  feigned 
that  he  was  not  going,  but  that  he  had  a  friend  whom 
he  desired  to  see  off,  and  whom  he  could  not  leave 
till  the  wind  was  fair  for  the  ship  to  sail.  She  refused 
to  return  home  without  him,  and  he  persuaded  her  then 
to  take  shelter  in  a  place  hard  by  the  ship  where  was 
an  oratory  in  memory  of  the  blessed  Cyprian.  "  That 
night  I  privily  departed.  And  what,  O  Lord,  was 
she  with  so  many  tears  asking  of  Thee  but  that  Thou 
wouldest  not  suffer  me  to  sail  ?  But  Thou,  in  the 
depth  of  Thy  counsels,  and  hearing  the  main  point 
of  her  desire,  regardedst  not  what  she  then  asked,  that 
Thou  mightest  give  her  what  she  ever  asked.  The 
wind  blew  and  swelled  our  sails  and  withdrew  the 
shore  from  our  sight.  And  she  on  the  morrow  was 
there,  frantic  with  sorrow,  and  with  complaints  and 
groans  filled  Thy  ears,  who  didst  then  disregard  them ; 
and  the  earthly  part  of  her  affection  to  me  was 
chastened  by  the  allotted  scourges  of  sorrows.  For 


RHETORIC-MASTER  AT  CARTHAGE  AND  ROME.       51 

she  loved  my  being  with  her  as  mothers  do,  but  much 
more  than  many ;  and  she  knew  not  how  great  joy 
Thou  wert  about  to  work  for  her  out  of  my  absence. 
She  knew  not,  therefore  did  she  weep  and  wail, — and 
yet,  after  accusing  my  treachery  and  hard-heartedness, 
she  betook  herself  again  to  intercede  to  Thee  for  me 
— went  to  her  wonted  place,  and  I  to  Rome." 

At  Rome  Augustine  took  up  his  residence  with  a 
Manichsean  ("  Rome  secretly  harbouring  many  of 
them  "),  and  associated  not  only  with  the  disciples, 
but  also  with  those  whom  they  call  the  "  elect/'  but 
he  held  to  their  religion  loosely ;  freely  discouraged 
his  host  in  his  over-confidence  in  their  teaching  ;  and 
for  himself  was  inclined  to  adopt  the  Agnostic  doc 
trines  attributed,  but  falsely,  he  says,  to  the  Aca 
demic  philosophers. 

He  was  seized  with  fever  almost  immediately  on 
his  arrival  in  Rome.  On  his  recovery  he  began  to 
seek  pupils ;  but  he  soon  found  that,  if  in  Carthage 
the  young  men  occasionally  disturbed  the  schools  to 
which  they  did  not  belong  by  rushing  rudely  into 
them,  at  Rome  it  was  a  common  custom  for  the 
students  to  agree  together  to  leave  the  teacher  to 
whom  they  did  belong  without  paying  their  fees,  and 
to  transfer  themselves  en  masse  to  another  school. 

Just  at  this  time  the  city  of  Milan  had  applied  to- 
the  Prefect  of  Rome  to  send  them  a  rhetoric  reader 
for  their  city ;  he  would,  no  doubt,  be  one  of  the 
chief  professors  of  the  Imperial  Schools  maintained 
in  that  city  at  the  Government  expense. 

The  Prefect  of  Rome  at  this  time  was  the  well-, 
known  Symmachus,  a  heathen,  but  respected  by 
D  2 


52  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

Christians  as  well  as  heathens  for  his  high  character. 
Augustine  applied  to  him  through  some  of  his  Roman 
friends,  satisfied  the  prefect — himself  esteemed  the 
most  eloquent  orator  of  his  time — of  his  qualifica 
tions,  and  received  the  appointment. 

Augustine  had  only  been  in  Rome  six  months ;  he 
had,  therefore,  hardly  had  time  to  make  himself 
acquainted  with  the  magnificent  monuments  of  its 
ancient  grandeur  before  he  quitted  it.  We  may  make 
a  useful  synchronism  by  noting  that  the  time  of  his 
residence  was  in  the  year  following  that  in  which 
Symmachus  had  headed  a  deputation  of  senators  to 
Gratian  at  Milan  to  ask,  in  vain,  that  the  Altar  of 
Victory,  which  Gratian  had  removed  from  the  Senate- 
house,  might  be  restored,  and  in  the  year  preceding 
the  death  of  Pope  Damasus. 


SAINT    AUGUSTINE.  53 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    PROFESSOR    OF    RHETORIC    IN    THE    UNIVERSITY 
OF    MILAN. 

Description  of  Milan — Intercourse  with  Ambrose — His  Mother 
rejoins  Him — His  Friends:  Alypius,  Nebridius — Their 
search  after  Truth  and  the  Happy  Life — The  Scheme  of  a 
New  Society — Reads  the  Neo-Platonists,  convinced  of  the 
truth  of  the  Catholic  Religion — Story  of  Victorinus's  Con 
version. 

THE  newly-appointed  professor  of  rhetoric  of  the 
University  of  Milan  would  travel  from  Rome  along 
the  Flaminian  way,  using  the  Imperial  posts,  for  which 
Symmachus,  the  prefect  of  Rome,  would  give  him, 
as  a  state  employe,  the  requisite  permit.  Arrived  at 
Milan  he  would  find  it  inferior  to  the  immense  mag 
nitude  and  monumental  grandeur  of  Rome,  but  still 
a  great  city,  with  fine,  though  modern  public  build 
ings  and  numerous  palaces;  its  squares  and  public 
places  crowded  with  soldiers,  courtiers,  citizens ;  in 
short,  with  all  the  busy — and  all  the  idle — population 
of  a  great  capital ;  for  Milan  was  the  seat  of  the 
court  and  government  of  the  young  Valentinian.  It 
was  the  see  of  the  great  statesman-bishop,  Ambrose. 

Augustine's  "  Confessions,"  it  is  true,  are  a  record 
of  his  spiritual  experiences,  but  still  it  is  a  curious 
illustration  of  his  subjective  character  of  mind,  that 


54  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

his  nine  years  in  Carthage  affords  us  notices  of  nothing 
but  students  and  Manichaeans ;  and  his  six  months' 
residence  in  Rome  presents  us  again  with  nothing  but 
Manichseans  and  students.  It  is  equally  curious  to 
see  how,  when  he  arrives  in  Milan,  Ambrose  at  once 
fills  the  whole  sphere  of  his  recollections  :  "  To  Milan 
I  came,  to  Ambrose  the  bishop." 

As  Master  of  Rhetoric  in  Milan,  Augustine  held  a 
public  position  of  some  dignity,  which  would  at  once 
introduce  him  into  society.  The  bishop  seems  to 
have  received  him,  Manichsean  though  he  was,  with 
kindness,  and  at  once  to  have  exercised  a  strong 
influence  over  him.  "  That  man  of  God,"  he  says, 
*'  received  me  as  a  father,  and  showed  me  an  episcopal 
kindness  on  my  coming.  Thenceforth  I  began  to 
love  him ;  at  first,  indeed,  not  as  a  teacher  of  the 
truth  (which  I  utterly  despaired  of  in  Thy  Church), 
but  as  a  person  kind  towards  myself;  and  I  listened 
to  him  diligently  preaching  to  the  people,  not  with 
the  intent  I  ought,  for  of  the  matter  I  was  careless 
and  scornful,  but,  as  it  were  [with  the  natural  interest 
of  a  rhetoric  professor],  testing  his  eloquence,  whether 
it  answered  to  its  fame,  or  flowed  fuller  or  lower  than 
was  reported.  And  I  was  delighted  with  the  sweet 
ness  of  his  discourse,  more  recondite,  yet  in  manner 
less  winning  and  harmonious,  than  that  of  Faustus. 
Of  the  matter,  however,  there  was  ho  comparison  ; 
for  the  one  was  wandering  amid  Manichaean  delu 
sions,  the  other  teaching  salvation  most  soundly. 
But  'salvation  is  far  from  the  ungodly'  (Ps.  cxix.  155), 
such  as  I  then  stood  before  him ;  and  yet  was  1 
drawing  nearer  by  little  and  little,  and  unconsciously. 


THE   PROFESSOR    OF   RHETORIC   AT    MILAN.         55 

For  though  I  took  no  pains  to  learn  what  he  spake, 
but  only  to  hear  how  he  spake  (for  that  empty  care 
alone  was  left  me,  despairing  of  a  way  open  for 
man  to  Thee) ;  yet,  together  with  the  words  which  I 
would  choose,  came  also  into  my  mind  the  things 
which  I  would  refuse,  for  I  could  not  separate  them. 
And  while  I  opened  my  heart  to  admit  'how  elo 
quently  he  spake,'  there  also  entered  '  how  true  he 
spake ; '  but  this  by  degrees."  In  a  very  short  time 
the  preaching  of  Ambrose  convinced  Augustine  that 
many  of  the  opinions  which  the  Manichseans  had 
attributed  to  the  Catholic  Church  were  not  really 
held  by  it,  and  thus  swept  away  misconceptions  which 
had  prejudiced  him  against  the  truth.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  had  never  been  satisfied  in  the  Manichaean 
doctrine ;  his  intercourse  with  Faustus  had  proved  to 
him  that  no  satisfaction  was  to  be  attained  in  it ;  and 
the  teaching  of  Ambrose  completed  his  emancipation 
from  its  influence.  "  I  settled,  so  far,  that  the  Mani- 
chsens  were  to  be  abandoned;  judging  that,  even 
while  doubting,  I  might  not  continue  in  that  sect  to 
which  I  already  preferred  some  of  the  philosophers ; 
to  the  philosophers  notwithstanding,  for  that  they 
were  without  the  saving  name  of  Christ,  I  utterly 
refused  to  commit  the  care  of  my  sick  soul.  I  deter 
mined,  therefore,  to  be  a  catechumen  in  the  Church, 
to  which  I  had  been  commended  by  my  parents,  till 
something  certain  should  dawn  upon  me  whither  I 
might  steer  my  course"  (v.  23,  24). 

Another  powerful  influence  was  also  brought  to 
bear  upon  him;  his  mother  joined  him  in  Milan, 
after  a  stormy  voyage,  "in  which  she  had  comforted 


56  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

the  very  sailors,  assuring  them  of  a  safe  arrival, 
because  Thou  hadst  by  a  vision  assured  her 
thereof." 

When  Augustine  told  her  of  the  change  which  had 
taken  place  in  his  religious  opinions,  "that  he  was 
now  no  longer  a  Manichcean,  though  not  yet  a  Catholic 
Christian,  she  was  not  overjoyed  as  at  something 
unexpected,  ....  her  heart  was  shaken  with  no 
tumultuous  exultation  when  she  heard  that  what  she 
daily  with  tears  desired  of  Thee  was  already  in  so 
great  part  realized  ;  in  that  though  I  had  not  yet 
attained  the  truth  I  was  rescued  from  falsehood ;  but 
as  assured  that  Thou,  who  hadst  promised  the  whole, 
wouldest  one  day  give  the  rest,  she  replied  to  me 
most  calmly,  and  with  a  heart  full  of  confidence  '  She 
believed  in  Christ  that  before  she  departed  this  life 
she  should  see  me  a  Catholic  believer.'" 

Augustine  tells  us  that  he  heard  Ambrose  every 
Lord's  Day  "  rightly  expounding  the  Word  of  Truth  " 
among  the  people,  and  was  more  and  more  convinced 
that  all  the  arguments  he  had  been  accustomed  to 
hear  from  the  Manichseans  against  the  Scriptures 
were  unfounded  ;  but  still  he  was  not  convinced  of  the 
truth  of  the  Catholic  doctrine.  He  regrets  that  he 
had  little  opportunity  of  private  conference  with  the 
bishop,  for,  though  the  bishop  was  accessible  to  all, 
yet  he  was  usually  reading,  and  Augustine  hesitated 
to  interrupt  his  studies.  It  would  seem  as  if  the 
bishop,  after  the  fashion  of  hot  countries,  sat  habitually 
in  a  corner  of  the  cloister,  or  verandah,  which  sur 
rounded  the  open  court  of  the  house,  so  that  people 
could  come  and  go  without  disturbing  him;  and 


THE    PROFESSOR    OF    RHETORIC    AT    MILAN.         57 

those  who  wished  to  speak  to  him  could  watch  for 
an  opportunity  of  finding  him  disengaged. 

Besides  his  brother,  Augustine  had  in  Milan  a 
circle  of  friends,  and  among  them  two  of  the  oldest 
and  dearest,  whom  he  here  takes  occasion  to  introduce 
more  fully  to  his  readers. 

"  Alypius  was  born  in  the  same  town  with  me,  of 
persons  of  chief  rank  there,  but  younger  than  I.  For 
he  had  studied  under  me,  both  when  I  first  lectured 
in  our  town,  and  afterwards  at  Carthage  ;  and  he  loved 
me  much  because  I  seemed  to  him  kind  and  learned  ; 
and  I  him  for  his  great  towardliness  to  virtue  which 
was  eminent  in  one  so  young." 

At  first,  indeed,  when  Augustine  had  gone  to 
Carthage  as  a  teacher  and  Alypius  had  gone  as  a 
student,  there  was  for  a  time  no  communication  be 
tween  them,  owing  to  some  disagreement  between 
Augustine  and  the  young  man's  father,  in  which 
Augustine  supposed  that  Alypius  shared  his  father's 
quarrel. 

Alypius  had  given  himself  up  to  the  Carthaginian 
passion  for  the  circus  and  neglected  his  studies  ;  and 
Augustine  regretted  that  he  should  throw  away  his 
promise  of  distinction,  yet  felt  that  he  had  no  way  of 
interfering  with  him  "  either  by  the  kindness  of  a 
friend  or  the  authority  of  a  master."  But  Alypius 
had  also  regretted  the  estrangement,  and  made  the 
first  advances  to  a  restoration  of  intercourse  :  "he 
began  to  greet  me,  come  sometimes  into  my  lecture- 
room,  hear  a  little  and  be  gone."  But  as  one  day  I  sat 
in  my  accustomed  place,  with  my  scholars  before  me 
he  entered,  greeted  me,  sat  down,  and  applied  his  mind 


58  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

to  what  I  then  handled.  I  had  by  chance  a  passage 
in  hand,  which  while  I  was  explaining,  a  likeness  from 
the  Circensian  races  occurred  to  me  as  likely  to  make 
what  I  would  convey  pleasanter  and  plainer,  seasoned 
with  biting  mockery  of  those  whom  that  madness  en 
thralled.  God,  thou  knowest  that  I  thought  not  then 
of  curing  Alypius  of  that  infection.  But  he  took  it 
wholly  to  himself,  and  thought  that  I  said  it  simply 
for  his  sake.  And  what  another  would  have  taken  as 
occasion  of  offence  with  me,  that  right-minded  youth 
took  as  a  ground  of  being  offended  at  himself,  and 
loving  me  more  fervently.  For  Thou  hadst  said  it 
long  ago  and  put  it  into  Thy  book,  '  Rebuke  a  wise 
man  and  he  will  love  thee ' "  (Prov.  ix.  8).  He  there 
upon  gave  up  his  attendance  at  the  circus  altogether, 
and  "  prevailed  with  his  unwilling  father "  that  be 
might  be  the  scholar  of  Augustine. 

Augustine  tells  an  anecdote  of  Alypius  during  his 
student  life  in  Carthage.  "  When  he  was  yet  study 
ing  under  me  at  Carthage  and  was  thinking  over  at 
mid-day  in  the  Forum  what  he  was  to  say  by  heart 
(as  scholars  use  to  practise),  walking  up  and  down  by 
himself  before  the  judgment-seat,  with  his  note-book 
and  pen,  a  young  man,  a  lawyer,  bringing  a  hatchet, 
got  in  privily,  unperceived  by  Alypius,  as  far  as  the 
leaden  gratings  which  fence  in  the  silversmiths'  shops, 
and  began  to  cut  away  the  lead.  But  the  noise  of  the 
hatchet  being  heard  the  silversmiths  beneath  began  to 
make  a  stir,  and  sent  to  apprehend  whomever  they 
should  find.  But  he,  hearing  their  voices,  ran  away, 
leaving  the  hatchet,  fearing  to  be  taken  with  it.  Aly 
pius  now,  who  had  not  seen  him  enter,  was  aware  of 


THE   PROFESSOR   OF   RHETORIC   AT    MILAN.         59 

his  going  and  saw  with  what  speed  he  made  away,  and 
being  desirous  to  know  the  matter  entered  the  place ; 
where,  finding  the  hatchet,  he  was  standing  with  it  in 
his  hand  wondering  and  considering,  when  those  that 
had  been  sent  found  him  thus  alone  with  the  hatchet 
in  his  hand.  They  seized  him  and  haled  him  away, 
boasting  that  they  had  taken  a  notorious  thief,  the 
people  in  the  market-place  gathering  together  about 
them,  and  so  he  was  being  led  away  to  be  taken  before 

the  judge As  he  was  being  led  away  a  certain 

architect  met  them  who  had  the  chief  charge  of  the 
public  buildings.  He  had  divers  times  seen  Alypius 
at  a  certain  senator's  house,  to  whom  he  often  went 
to  pay  his  respects ;  who  at  once  recognising  him, 
took  him  aside  by  the  hand,  and  inquiring  the  occa 
sion  of  so  great  a  calamity,  heard  the  whole  matter, 
and  bade  all  present,  amid  much  uproar  and  threats, 
to  go  with  him.  So  they  came  to  the  house  of  the 
young  man  who  had  done  the  deed.  There  before 
the  door  was  a  boy  so  young  as  to  be  likely,  not  ap 
prehending  any  harm  to  his  master,  to  disclose  the 
whole.  For  he  had  attended  his  master  to  the  market 
place.  Whom  as  soon  as  Alypius  remembered  he  told 
the  architect ;  and  he,  showing  the  hatchet  to  the 
boy,  asked  him  '  whose  that  was  ? '  '  Ours/  he  im 
mediately  replied,  and  being  further  questioned,  he 
discovered  everything"  (vi.  15). 

After  Alypius  had  completed  his  studies  at  Carthage 
he  had  gone  to  Rome,  and  had  been  appointed 
Assessor  to  the  Count  of  the  Italian  Treasury,  and 
had  shown  an  unusual  integrity  in  his  office.  When 
Augustine  had  gone  to  Rome  the  friendship  between 


60  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

'.hem  was  renewed.  "  Him  had  I  found  at  Rome, 
and  he  clave  to  me  by  a  most  strong  tie,  and  went 
with  me  to  Milan,  both  that  he  might  not  leave  me, 
and  that  he  might  practise  something  of  the  law  he  had 
studied,  more  to  please  his  parents  than  himself. 
There  he  had  thrice  sat  as  assessor  with  much  uncor- 
ruptness,  wondered  at  by  others ;  he  wondering  at 
others  rather  who  could  prefer  gold  to  honesty.  He, 
being  such,  did  at  that  time  cleave  to  me,  and  with 
me  wavered  in  purpose  what  course  of  life  was  to  be 
taken  "  (vi.  16). 

His  other  chief  friend  was  Nebridius,  "who  having 
left  his  native  place  near  Carthage,  yea,  and  Carthage 
itself  where  he  had  much  lived,  having  left  his  excel 
lent  family  estate  and  house  and  a  mother  behind,  who 
was  not  to  follow  him,  had  come  to  Milan  for  no  other 
reason  but  that  with  me  he  might  live  in  a  most 
ardent  search  after  truth  and  wisdom.  Like  me  he 
sighed,  like  me  he  wavered,  an  ardent  searcher  after 
true  life,  and  a  most  acute  examiner  of  the  most  diffi 
cult  questions.  Thus  there  were  there  then  the  mouths 
of  three  indigent  persons  sighing  out  their  wants  one 
to  another,  and  waiting  upon  Thee  that  Thou  might- 
est  give  them  their  meat  in  due  season." 

It  is  a  touching  spectacle,  that  of  these  three  friends 
"  searching  after  truth  and  wisdom  ;"  and  Augustine 
represents  their  vague  desires  and  their  wavering 
judgment  with  his  usual  skill.  At  one  time  they 
thought,  "  Perish  everything  ;  dismiss  we  these  empty 
vanities  and  betake  ourselves  to  the  one  search  for 
truth.  Life  is  vain,  death  uncertain.  .  .  .  Wherefore 
delay  then  to  abandon  worldly  hopes  and  give  our- 


THE   PROFESSOR    OF    RHETORIC   AT    MILAN.         6 1 

selves  wholly  to  seek  after  God  and  the  blessed  life  ?  " 
Then  comes  the  opposite  view  :  "  But  wait  !  Even 
these  things  are  pleasant ;  we  must  not  lightly  aban 
don  them.  It  would  be  easy  for  us  now  to  obtain 
some  preferment,  and  then  what  should  we  wish  for 
more  ?  We  have  store  of  powerful  friends  ;  if  nothing 
else  offer  and  we  are  in  haste,  at  least  a  presidentship 
may  be  given  us,  and  a  wife  with  some  money,  that 
she  increase  not  our  charges,  and  this  shall  be  the 
bound  of  desire.  Many  great  men  and  most  worthy  of 
imitation  have  given  themselves  to  the  study  of  wistlom 
in  the  state  of  marriage." 

We  seem  to  gather  that  the  latter  alternative  was 
kept  before  their  minds  by  the  prudent  Monica,  who 
desired  to  see  her  son  break  off  the  illegitimate  con 
nection  in  which  he  still  lived,  and  to  have  him  married 
as  a  step  towards  his  entry  upon  a  Christian  life. 
Continued  effort  was  made  to  have  him  married  ;  "  a 
maiden  was  asked  in  marriage,  two  years  under  the 
fit  age ;  I  wooed,  I  was  promised,  chiefly  through 
my  mother's  pains,  that  so,  once  married,  the  health- 
giving  baptism  might  cleanse  me."  Monica  prevailed 
so  far  that  he  consented  to  part  with  his  concu 
bine,  who  returned  to  Africa,  vowing  a  continent  life, 
and  leaving  their  son  Adeodatus  behind  with  his 
father.  But  with  the  prospect  of  waiting  two  years 
before  the  marriage  which  had  been  arranged,  he 
fell  away  again  into  his  old  sin,  and  took  another 
concubine. 

Meantime  the  friends  continued  their  search  after 
truth,  and  their  speculations  as  to  the  happiest 
mode  of  life,  and,  like  many  other  enthusiastic  young 


62  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

men  in  all  ages,  they  contemplated  the  organization 
of  a  new  society  of  their  own  on  what  seemed  to 
them  sound  principles.  "  Many  of  us  friends  detest 
ing  the  turbulent  turmoils  of  human  life,  had  debated, 
and  were  now  almost  resolved  on  living  apart  from 
business  and  the  bustle  of  men.  And  this  was  to 
be  thus  obtained.  We  were  to  bring  whatever  we 
might  severally  procure,  and  make  one  household  of 
all ;  so  that  through  the  truth  of  our  friendship 
nothing  should  belong  specially  to  any;  but  the 
whole  thus  derived  from  all,  should  as  a  whole  belong 
to  each,  and  all  •  to  all.  We  thought  there  might  be 
some  ten  persons  in  this  society,  some  of  whom 
were  very  rich,  especially  Romanianus,  our  townsman, 
from  childhood  a  very  familiar  friend  of  mine,  whom 
the  grievous  perplexities  of  his  affairs  had  brought 
up  to  Court,  who  was  the  most  earnest  for  this 
project ;  and  therein  was  his  voice  of  great  weight 
because  his  ample  estate  far  exceeded  any  of  the 
rest.  We  had  settled  also  that  two  annual  officers, 
as  it  were,  should  provide  all  things  necessary,  the 
rest  being  undisturbed.  But,"  he  tells  us  with  a 
touch  of  humour,  "  when  we  began  to  consider 
whether  the  wives  which  some  of  us  already  had,  and 
others  hoped  to  have,  would  allow  this,  all  that  plan 
which  was  being  so  well  moulded,  fell  to  pieces  in 
our  hands  "  (vi.  24). 

Meantime  Augustine  was  unceasingly  revolving  in 
his  mind  the  great  problems  of  religion,  and  gradually 
working  towards  the  Catholic  faith.  To  summarize 
his  wonderfully  interesting  account  of  the  growth  01 
his  mind  out  of  error  into  truth  would  be  to  do  injustice 


THE    PROFESSOR   OF    RHETORIC   AT    MILAN.         63 

to  it ;  to  give  it  at  length  would  be  to  transcribe 
many  chapters  of  the  book  from  which  we  have 
already  made  perhaps  too  lengthy  extracts ;  an  d  the 
book  itself  is  within  every  one's  reach ; l  it  must 
suffice  therefore  to  say  here  that  he  had  first  to  extri 
cate  his  mind  from  the  material  notions  of  God, 
which  he  had  imbibed  from  the  Manichaean 
theosophy.  Then  the  problem  of  the  origin  of  evil 
took  possession  of  his  mind,  and  he  had  to  get  rid 
of  the  Eastern  theory,  embodied  in  the  Manichsean 
system,  of  two  rival  principles,  and  to  arrive  at 
length  at  the  conclusion  of  the  Catholic  faith,  that 
evil  is  not  a  substance,  but  "  the  perversion  of  the  will 
turned  aside  from  God  "  (vn.  22).  Lastly,  he  had  to 
think  out  and  grasp  for  himself  the  Catholic  teach 
ing  of  the  unity  of  God  and  man  in  Christ  Jesus. 

He  tells  us  that  he  was  much  indebted  to  certain 
Platonist  writers  (whom  he  frankly  tells  us  he  read 
in  a  Latin  translation  by  Victorinus),  who  served  to 
him,  as  to  so  many  others,  as  a  middle  term  in  the 
transition  from  Pagan  philosophy  to  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  Lastly,  he  took  up  again  the  writings  of  the 
New  Testament,  and  especially  the  Epistles  of  S. 
Paul,  and  the  difficulties  he  had  once  found  vanished 
away ;  his  conceptions  of  the  truth  were  corrected 
and  completed  ;  and,  so  far  as  intellectual  conviction 
went,  he  held  the  Catholic  faith. 

But  though  convinced,  he  was  not  converted ;  he 
still  lived  in  sin,  he  still  held  back  from  the  open 

1  Messrs.  Parker,  379,  Strand,  publish  an  edition  of  the 
"  Confessions  of  St.  Augustine  "  for  a  shilling.  Our  quotations 
are  taken  from  it. 


64  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

profession  of  a  Christian.  In  his  own  words,  "  he 
had  found  the  goodly  pearl,  which,  selling  all  that  he 
had,  he  ought  to  have  bought,"  and  he  hesitated. 

In  this  state  he  went  to  Simplicianus,  who  had  been 
Ambrose's  father  in  the  faith,  and  who  was  subse 
quently  his  successor  in  the  see,  and  told  him  his 
spiritual  history.  When  Simplicianus  heard  that  he 
had  been  reading  Victorinus's  translations  of  the 
Platonists,  he  told  him  the  spiritual  history  of  Vic- 
torinus,  whom  he  had  intimately  known  in  Rome. 
"  A  man  most  learned  and  skilled  in  the  liberal 
sciences,  who  had  read  and  weighed  so  many  works 
of  the  philosophers  ;  the  instructor  of  so  many  noble 
senators ;  who  as  a  monument  of  his  excellent  dis 
charge  of  his  office  had  the  honour  of  a  statue  erected 
to  him  in  the  Roman  Forum  ;  who  to  old  age  had 
been  a  worshipper  of  idols  and  partaker  of  the  sacri 
legious  rites,  to  which  almost  all  the  nobility  of  Rome 
were  given  up  ;  and  had  kept  alive  among  the  people 
the  love  of  the  ancient  gods,  whom  with  thundering 
eloquence  he  had  so  many  years  defended  ;  but  who 
had  become  a  child  of  Christ,  a  new-born  babe  of  the 
font,  submitting  his  neck  to  the  yoke  of  humility,  and 
subduing  his  forehead  to  the  reproach  of  the  Cross." 

He  used  to  read,  Simplicianus  said,  the  holy 
Scripture,  he  studiously  sought  out  and  read  the  Chris 
tian  writings,  and  used  to  say  to  Simplicianus,  not 
openly,  but  privately  as  to  a  friend,  "  Understand  that 
I  am  already  a  Christian."  To  which  he  answered, 
"  I  will  not  believe  it,  nor  will  I  rank  you  among 
Christians,  till  I  see  you  in  the  Church  of  Christ." 
The  other  in  banter  replied,  "  Do  walls  then  make 


THE   PROFESSOR    OF    RHETORIC   AT    MILAN.         65 

Christians  ? "  And  this  statement  and  reply  and  re 
joinder  were  often  renewed  between  them.  For 
Victorinus  feared  to  offend  his  friends,  proud 
demon  worshippers,  from  the  height  of  whose  Baby 
lonian  dignity  he  feared  the  weight  of  enmity  would 
fall  upon  him.  But  after  by  reading  and  earnest 
thought  he  had  gathered  firmness,  and  feared  to  be 
denied  by  Christ  before  the  holy  angels  should  he  now  be 
afraid  to  confess  Him  before  men,  he  became  bold 
faced  against  vanity  and  shamefaced  towards  the 
truth,  and  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  said  to  Sim- 
plicianus  (as  he  himself  told  it),  "  Let  us  go  to  the 
church,  I  wish  to  be  made  a  Christian."  "  And  having 
been  admitted  to  the  first  sacrament  and  become  a 
catechumen,  not  long  after  he  further  gave  in  his 
name  that  he  might  be  regenerated  by  Baptism  ; 
Rome  wondering,  the  Church  rejoicing.  When  the 
hour  was  come  for  making  profession  of  his  faith 
(which  at  Rome  the  candidates  for  baptism  deliver 
from  an  elevated  place,  in  the  sight  of  all  the  faithful, 
in  a  set  form  of  words  committed  to  memory)  the 
presbyters,  he  said,  offered  Victorinus  (as  was  done  to 
those  who  seemed  likely  through  bashfulness  to  be 
alarmed)  to  make  his  profession  more  privately.  But 
he  chose  rather  to  profess  his  salvation  in  the 
presence  of  the  holy  multitude.  .  .  .  Then  when  he 
went  up  to  make  his  profession,  all,  as  they  knew 
him,  whispered  his  name  one  to  another  in  a  tone  of 
gratulation.  And  who  there  knew  him  not  ?  There 
ran  a  low  murmur  through  all  the  mouths  of  the 
rejoicing  multitude,  Victorinus  !  Victorinus  !  Sudden 
was  the  burst  of  rapture  when  they  saw  him ;  sud- 
E 


66  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

denly  were  they  hushed  that  they  might  hear  him  " 

(vni.  35)- 

"When  Simplicianus  related  to  me  this  of  Vic- 
torinus,  I  was  on  fire  to  imitate  him  ;  for  this  end 
had  he  related  it.  But  when  he  added  that  in  the 
days  of  Julian  a  law  was  made  forbidding  Christians  to 
teach  the  liberal  sciences  or  oratory  ;  and  how  Victori- 
nus  had  chosen  rather  to  abandon  the  wordy  school 
than  Thy  Word,  by  which  Thou  makest  eloquent  the 
tongues  of  the  dumb  (Wisd.  x.  21),  he  seemed  to  me 
not  more  resolute  than  blessed  in  having  thus  found 
opportunity  to  wait  on  Thee  alone.  Which  thing  I 
was  sighing  for ;  bound  as  I  was  not  with  another's 
irons  but  by  my  own  iron  will.  My  will  the  enemy 
held,  and  thence  had  made  a  chain  for  me  and  bound 
me.  For  of  a  froward  will  was  a  lust  made  ;  and  a 
lust  served  became  custom  ;  and  custom  not  resisted 
became  necessity.  By  which  links,  as  it  were,  joined 
together  (whence  I  called  it  a  chain)  hard  bondage 
held  me  enthralled.  But  that  new  will  which  had 
begun  to  be  in  me,  freely  to  serve  Thee,  and  to  wish 
to  enjoy  Thee,  O  God,  the  only  assured  pleasantness, 
was  not  yet  able  to  overcome  my  former  wilfulness 
strengthened  of  age.  Thus  did  my  two  wills,  one 
new  and  the  other  old,  one  carnal,  the  other  spiritual, 
strive  within  me,  and  by  their  discord  undid  my 
soul." 


SAINT   AUGUSTINE.  67 


CHAPTER  IX. 

HIS     CONVERSION. 

Pontitianus  tells  him  of  Antony  the  Hermit — Story  of  the  Con 
version  of  the  Two  Friends — Augustine  in  the  throes  of 
Conversion — Hears  the  Voice,  "  Take  up  and  read  " :  takes 
up  St.  Paul,  reads  Rom.  xiii. — Resolves  to  give  up  the 
World  and  lead  an  Ascetic  Life — Alypius  resolves  to  take 
the  same  step. 

WHILE  Augustine  was  in  this  state  of  mind,  "  on  a 
day  there  came  to  see  me  and  Alypius  (Nebridius 
being  absent,  I  recollect  not  why)  one  Pontitianus,  our 
countryman  so  far  as  being  an  African,  in  high  office 
in  the  emperor's  court.  What  he  would  with  us  I 
knew  not,  but  we  sat  down  to  converse,  and  it  hap 
pened  that  upon  a  table  for  some  game  before  us  he 
observed  a  book,  took,  opened  it,  and  contrary  to  his 
expectation  found  it  the  Apostle  Paul ;  for  he  had 
thought  of  some  of  those  books  which  I  was  wearying 
myself  in  teaching.  Whereat,  smiling  and  looking  at 
me,  he  expressed  his  joy  and  wonder  that  he  had  on 
a  sudden  found  this  book,  and  this  only,  before  my 
eyes.  For  he  was  a  Christian,  and  baptized,  and 
often  bowed  himself  before  Thee,  our  God,  in  the 
church,  in  frequent  and  continued  prayers. 

"  When,  then,  I  had  told  him  that  I  bestowed  very 
great  pains  upon  those  Scriptures,  a  conversation  arose 
E  2 


68  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

(suggested  by  some  remark  of  his),  on  Antony,  the 
Egyptian  monk,  whose  name  was  in  high  reputation 
among  Thy  servants,  though  to  that  hour  unknown  to 
us.  Which  when  he  discovered,  he  dwelt  the  more 
upon  that  subject,  informing  and  wondering  at  our 
ignorance  of  one  so  eminent.  But  we  stood  amazed, 
hearing  Thy  wonderful  works  most  fully  attested,  in 
times  so  recent  and  almost  in  our  own,  wrought  in 
the  true  Faith  and  Catholic  Church.  We  all  won 
dered  ;  we,  that  they  were  so  great,  and  he,  that  they 
had  not  reached  us. 

"  Thence  his  discourse  turned  to  the  flocks  in  the 
monasteries  and  their  holy  ways,  a  sweet-smelling 
savour  unto  Thee,  and  the  fruitful  deserts  of  the 
wilderness,  whereof  we  knew  nothing.  And  there 
was  a  monastery  at  Milan,  full  of  good  brethren, 
under  the  city  walls,  under  the  fostering  care  of 
Ambrose,  and  we  knew  it  not.  He  went  on  with  his 
discourse,  and  we  listened  in  intent  silence. 

"  He  told  us  then  how  one  afternoon  at  Trier  when 
the  emperor  was  taken  up  with  the  Circensian  games, 
he  and  three  others  his  companions,  went  out  to 
walk  in  gardens  near  the  city  walls,  and  there  as 
they  happened  to  walk  in  pairs,  one  went  apart  with 
him,  and  the  other  two  wandered  by  themselves  ; 
and  these  in  their  wanderings  lighted  upon  a  certain 
cottage  inhabited  by  certain  of  Thy  servants,  poor  in 
spirit  of  ivhoni  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  and  there 
they  found  a  little  book  of  the  life  of  Antony. 
This,  one  of  them  began  to  read  and  admire,  and 
kindle  at  it ;  and  as  he  read  to  meditate  on  taking  up 
such  a  life,  and  giving  over  his  secular  service  to 


HIS    CONVERSION.  69 

serve  thee.  And  these  two  were  of  those  whom 
they  call  Agents  for  the  public  affairs.  Then  suddenly, 
filled  with  an  holy  love  and  a  sober  shame,  in  anger 
with  himself,  he  cast  his  eyes  upon  his  friend,  saying  : 
'  Tell  me,  I  pray  thee,  what  would  we  attain  by  all 
these  labours  of  ours  ?  What  aim  we  at  ?  What 
serve  we  for?  Can  our  hopes  in  court  rise  higher 
than  to  be  the  emperor's  favourites  ?  And  in  this 
what  is  there  not  brittle  and  full  of  perils  ?  And  by 
how  many  perils  arrive  we  at  a  greater  peril  ?  And 
when  arrive  we  thither  ?  But  a  friend  of  God,  if  I 
wish  it,  I  become  now  at  once.'  And  after  reading 
a  while  longer,  during  which  his  soul  was  '  in  pain 
with  the  travail  of  a  new  life,'  he  turned  again  to  his 
friend  and  said  :  '  Now  have  I  broken  loose  from 
those  our  hopes,  and  am  resolved  to  serve  God ;  and 
this  from  this  hour,  in  this  place,  I  begin  upon.  If 
thou  likest  not  to  imitate  me  do  not  oppose  me.' 
And  his  friend  answered  that  he  would  partake  so 
glorious  a  service  and  so  glorious  a  reward.  Then 
Pontitianus,  the  other  with  him,  came  in  search  of 
them,  to  whom  they  told  their  resolve,  and  begged 
them  if  they  would  not  join  them,  not  to  molest 
them.  Pontitianus  and  his  friend  piously  congratu 
lated  the  other  two  friends,  and  begged  their  prayers, 
and  so  with  hearts  lingering  on  the  earth  went 
away  to  the  palace  ;  but  the  others  fixing  their  heart 
on  heaven,  remained  in  the  cottage.  And  both  had 
affianced  brides,  who,  when  they  heard  thereof,  also 
dedicated  their  virginity  unto  God." 

Then  follows  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  the 
many  remarkable  passages  in  the  book,  where  Augus- 


70  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

tine  describes  the  way  in  which  a  man  sometimes, 
suddenly,  for  the  first  time  obtains  a  sight  of  his  real 
self : — "  Such  was  the  story  of  Pontitianus  ;  but  Thou, 
O  Lord,  while  he  was  speaking,  didst  turn  me  round 
towards  myself,  taking  me  from  behind  my  back, 
where  I  had  placed  me,,  unwilling  to  observe  myself, 
and  setting  me  before  my  face,  that  I  might  see  how 
foul  I  was,  crooked  and  defiled,  bespotted  and 
ulcerous.  And  I  beheld  and  stood  aghast ;  and 
whither  to  flee  from  myself  I  found  not.  And  if  I 
sought  to  turn  mine  eye  from  off  myself,  he  went  on 
with  his  relation/  and  then  again  didst  Thou  set  me 
over  against  myself,  and  thrustedst  me  before  my  eyes 
that  '  I  might  find  out  mine  iniquity  and  hate  it '  (Ps. 
xxxvi.  2).  I  had  known  it,  but  made  as  though  I 
saw  it  not,  winked  at  it  and  forgot  it.  ...  I  was 
gnawed  within,  and  exceedingly  confounded  with  an 
horrible  shame  while  Pontitianus  was  speaking.  And 
he  having  brought  to  a  close  his  tale,  and  the  business 
he  came  for,  went  his  way  and  I  into  myself. 

"  What  said  I  not  against  myself,  with  wha\. 
scourges  of  condemnation  lashed  I  not  my  soul,  that 
it  might  follow  me,  striving  to  go  after  Thee.  Yet  it 
drew  back;  refused,  but  excused  itself.  All  argu 
ments  were  spent  and  confuted ;  there  remained  a 
mute  shrinking  ;  and  she  feared  as  she  would  death,  to 
be  restrained  from  the  flux  of  that  custom  whereby 
she  was  wasting  to  death."  Then  he  turned  upon 
Alypius  :  "  What  ails  us  ?  I  exclaim  :  what  is  it  ? 
what  heardest  thou  ?  the  unlearned  start  up  and  take 
Heaven  by  force ;  and  we,  with  our  learning,  and 
without  heart,  lo  !  where  we  wallow  in  flesh  and  blood." 


HIS    CONVERSION.  71 

Some  such  words  he  uttered  and  tore  himself  away. 
"  A  little  garden  there  was  to  our  lodging,  which  we 
had  the  use  of,  as  of  the  whole  house,  for  the  master 
of  the  house,  our  host,  was  not  living  there.  Thither 
the  tumult  of  my  heart  hurried  me,  where  no  man 
might  hinder  the  hot  contention  wherein  I  had 
engaged  with  myself,  until  it  should  end  as  Thou 
knewest,  I  knew  not."  Alypius  followed  him,  "  for 
his  presence  did  not  lessen  my  privacy,  and  how 
could  he  forsake  me  so  disturbed."  And  he  enters 
into  an  analysis  of  the  contest  between  the  "  will " 
and  "  will  not,"  which  may  be  compared  with  St. 
Paul's  famous  description  in  the  seventh  chapter  to 
the  Romans.  "  The  mind  commands  the  body  and 
it  obeys  instantly ;  the  mind  commands  itself  and  is 
resisted.  The  mind  commands  the  hand  to  be 
moved,  and  such  readiness  is  there  that  command  is 
scarce  distinct  from  obedience.  The  mind  commands 
the  mind,  its  own  self,  and  yet  it  doth  not.  Whence 
this  monstrousness  ?  ...  It  doth  not  command 
entirely,  therefore,  what  it  commandeth  is  not.  For 
were  the  will  entire,  it  would  not  even  command  it 
to  be,  because  it  would  already  be.  It  is,  therefore, 
no  monstrousness  partly  to  will  partly  to  nill,  but  a 
disease  of  the  mind.  .  .  .  They  are  vain  talkers  who, 
observing  that  there  are  two  wills,  affirm  that  there 
are  two  minds  in  men,  one  good,  the  other  evil.  .  . 
Myself,  when  I  was  deliberating  upon  serving  the 
Lord  my  God  now,  as  I  had  long  purposed,  it  was 
I  who  willed,  I  who  nilled,  I,  I  myself.  I  neither 
willed  entirely  nor  nilled  entirely.  Therefore  was  I 
at  strife  with  myself,  and  rent  asunder  by  myself. 


72  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

And  this  rent  befell  me  against  my  will,  and  yet  in 
dicated  not  the  presence  of  another  mind,  but  the 
punishment  of  my  own.  *  Therefore,  it  was  no  more  I 
that  wrought  it,  but  sin  that  dwelt  in  me  ; '  the  punish 
ment  of  a  sin  more  freely  committed  in  that  I  was 
a  son  of  Adam.  Let  them  no  more  say  then,  when 
they  perceive  two  conflicting  wills  in  one  man  that 
the  conflict  is  between  two  contrary  souls  of  two  con 
trary  substances,  from  two  contrary  principles,  one 
good  the  other  bad  "...  but  "  where  one  deliberates 
one  soul  fluctuates  between  two  contrary  wills  "... 
"it  is  the  same  soul  which  willed  not  this  nor  that 
with  an  entire  will ;  and,  therefore,  is  rent  asunder 
with  grievous  perplexities,  while,  out  of  truth,  it  pre 
fers  this,  but  out  of  habit  sets  not  that  aside  "  (vin. 
20-24). 

At  last  he  could  no  longer  bear  even  the  presence 
of  Alypius,  but  going  to  another  part  of  the  garden, 
he  cast  himself  down  under  a  fig-tree,  giving  full  vent 
to  his  tears  .  .  .  "  and  I  sent  up  those  sorrowful 
words,  'How  long?  how  long?  To-morrow,  and  to 
morrow  !  Why  not  now  ?  Why  is  there  not  this 
hour  an  end  to  my  uncleanness  ? '  So  was  I  speak 
ing,  and  weeping  in  the  most  bitter  contrition  of  my 
heart,  when  lo  !  I  heard  from  a  neighbouring  house  a 
voice,  as  of  boy  or  girl,  I  know  not,  chanting  and  oft 
repeating,  'Take  up  and  read,  take  up  and  read.' 
Instantly  my  countenance  altered ;  I  began  to  think 
most  intently  whether  children  were  wont  in  any  kind 
of  play  to  sing  such  words  ;  and  I  could  not  remem 
ber  ever  to  have  heard  the  like.  So  checking  the 
torrent  of  my  tears,  I  arose ;  interpreting  it  to  be  no 


HIS    CONVERSION.  73 

other  than  a  command  from  God,  to  open  the  book 
and  read  the  first  chapter  I  should  find.  For  I  had  heard 
of  Antony  that  coming  in  during  the  reading  of  the 
Gospel,  he  received  the  admonition  as  if  what  was 
being  read  was  spoken  to  him  :  '  Go,  sell  all  that  thou 
hast,  and  give  to  the  poor,  and  thou  shalt  have  treasure 
in  Heaven,  and  come  and  follow  Me,'  and  by  such 
oracle  he  was  forthwith  converted  unto  Thee.  Eagerly 
then  I  returned  to  the  place  where  Alypius  was 
sitting,  for  there  had  I  laid  the  volume  of  the  apostle 
when  I  arose  thence.  I  seized,  I  opened,  and  in 
silence  read  that  section  on  which  my  eyes  first  fell : 
'  Not  in  rioting  and  drunkenness,  not  in  chambering 
and  wantonness,  not  in  strife  and  envying ;  but  put  ye 
on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  make  not  provision  for 
the  flesh  to  fulfil  the  lust  thereof  No  further  would 
I  read,  nor  needed  I ;  for  instantly  at  the  end  of  this 
sentence,  by  a  light,  as  it  were,  of  serenity  infused 
into  my  heart,  all  the  darkness  of  doubt  vanished 
away. 

"Then  putting  my  finger  between,  or  some  other 
mark,  I  shut  the  volume,  and  with  a  calmed  coun 
tenance  made  it  known  to  Alypius.  And  what  was 
wrought  in  him,  which  I  knew  not,  he  thus  showed 
me.  He  asked  to  see  what  I  had  read :  I  showed 
him ;  and  he  looked  even  further  than  I  had  read, 
and  I  knew  not  what  followed.  This  followed  : 
*  Him  that  is  weak  in  the  faith  receive  ye ;'  which  he 
applied  to  himself,  and  disclosed  to  me.  And  by 
this  admonition  was  he  strengthened  :  and  by  a  good 
resolution  and  purpose,  and  most  corresponding  to 
his  character,  wherein  he  did  always  very  far  differ 


74  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

from  me,  for  the  better,  without  any  turbulent  delay 
he  joined  me.  Thence  we  go  in  to  my  mother  ;  we 
tell  her  :  she  rejoiceth :  we  relate  in  order  how  it 
took  place  ;  she  leaps  for  joy,  and  triumpheth  and 
blesseth  Thee  '  Who  art  able  to  do  above  that  which 
we  ask  or  think;'  for  she  perceived  that  Thou  hadst 
given  her  more  for  me  than  she  was  wont  to  beg 
by  her  pitiful  and  most  sorrowful  groanings.  For 
Thou  convertedst  me  unto  Thyself,  so  that  I  sought 
neither  wife,  nor  any  hope  of  this  world,  standing  in 
that  Rule  of  Faith  where  Thou  hadst  showed  me 
unto  her  in  a  vision  so  many  years  before.  '  O  Lord, 
I  am  Thy  servant :  I  am  Thy  servant  and  the  son  of 
Thine  handmaid.  Thou  hast  broken  my  bonds 
asunder.  I  will  offer  to  Thee  the  sacrifice  of  praise.' " 


SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE    RETREAT   AT    CASSIACUM. 

Augustine  resigns  his  Professorship — Retires  with  his  Friends 
to  a  Villa  at  Cassiacum — Their  mode  of  life  there — The 
discussion  "Against  the  Academicians;"  "On  Order;" 
"On  the  Happy  Life"  —  His  "Soliloquies"  —  Return 
to  Milan — His  Baptism — Journey  to  Ostia — Conversation 
between  Augustine  and  Monica — Death  of  Monica :  Her 
Funeral — He  returns  to  Rome. 

AUGUSTINE  accepted  the  verses  of  St.  Paul's  i3th 
chapter  to  the  Romans,  to  which  his  attention  had 
been  thus  remarkably1  directed,  as  the  rule  of  his 
life,  and  resolved  to  act  up  to  their  letter,  abandoning 
his  profession,  adopting  a  life  of  continence,  and  em 
bracing  that  ascetic  mode  of  life  .whose  description, 
in  the  life  of  Antony,  has  so  fired  his  imagination. 

1  We  think  it  right  to  say  that  we  deliberately  abstain  from 
using  the  word  "providentially"  here,  and  to  say  that  the 
example  of  even  so  great  a  man  as  Augustine  ought  not  to  lead 
others  into  the  same  superstitious  practice.  It  was  the  custom 
of  the  heathen  when  in  doubt  to  open  a  copy  of  the  yEneid  of 
Virgil  and  accept  the  first  lines  upon  which  the  eye  alighted  as 
a  kind  of  oracular  solution  of  the  doubt ;  this  superstition  was 
called  the  Sortes  Virgilianse.  It  is  not  a  less  unreasonable 
superstition  when  the  book  used  is  the  Bible  instead  of  Virgil. 
There  are  many  proofs  that  Augustine,  great  as  he  was,  was 
not  free  from,  and  was  even  by  temperament  inclined  to,  the 
superstitious  spirit  of  his  time. 


76  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

Thus,  his  search  after  the  truth  led  him  to  embrace 
the  Catholic  Faith  :  his  study  of  the  happiest  mode 
of  life  led  him  to  the  Ascetic  Life. 

Augustine  resolved  to  fulfil  the  duties  of  his  pro 
fessorship  for  the  three  weeks  which  yet  intervened 
before  the  Vacation  of  the  Vintage,  and  then  without 
ostentation  to  retire  from  the  profession  of  rhetoric 
altogether.  He  was  able  to  give,  as  "a  secondary 
and  not  feigned  excuse,"  for  this  step,  that  "  in  this 
summer  his  lungs  began  to  give  way  amid  too  great 
literary  labour,  and  too  much  speaking,"  so  that  "  he 
could  not  draw  a  deep  breath  without  difficulty  and 
pain."  Alypius  and  Nebridius  agreed  to  accept 
baptism  with  him.  Verecundus,  one  of  his  Milanese 
friends,  had  a  country  house  at  Cassiacum,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  city,  which  he  put  at  the 
disposal  of  Augustine  and  his  friends  as  a  temporary 
retreat.  M.  Poujoulat  identifies  Cassiacum  with  the 
modern  Cassago  de  Brianza,  seven  or  eight  leagues 
from  Milan  ;  and  the  ancient  palace  of  the  Visconti 
of  Modrone  occupies  the  site  of  the  villa  of  Vere 
cundus.  It  is  situated  on  the  summit  of  a  little  hill 
in  a  rich  valley  surrounded  by  mountains ;  a  little 
stream  flowing  in  cascades  through  a  wooded  ravine 
passes  near  the  palace,  which,  by  the  help  of  a  little 
aqueduct,  would  supply  the  baths  which  form  so  pro 
minent  a  feature  in  the  story. 

Hither  Augustine  retired  when  the  Vacation  o) 
the  Vintage  released  him  from  his  professorship;  and 
here  he  spent  the  seven  months  which  intervened 
till  the  following  Easter  summoned  him  to  Milan  for 
his  baptism,  i.e.t  from  Aug.  23,  386,  till  about  March 


THE    RETREAT    AT    CASSIACUM.  77 

23,  387.  Here  were  gathered  round  him  some  of 
those  friends  who  were  attached  by  natural  ties,  or  had 
attached  themselves  by  ties  of  friendship,  to  his  for 
tunes  ;  Alypius  and  Nebridius,  his  ancient  friends ; 
two  scholars  of  twenty  years  of  age,  Licentius,  the  son 
of  Romanianus,  and  Trigetius,  a  youth  who  had  aban 
doned  a  military  career  for  the  study  of  philosophy ; 
his  brother  Navigius ;  two  of  his  relations,  Lastidianus 
and  Rusticus.  His  son,  Adeodatus,  also  was  one  of 
the  company,  of  whom  his  father  gives  a  charming 
sketch  : — "  We  joined  with  us  the  boy  Adeodatus, 
born,  after  the  flesh,  of  my  sin.  Excellently  hadst 
Thou  made  him.  He  was  not  quite  fifteen,  and  in 
wit  surpassed  many  grave  and  learned  men.  I  con 
fess  unto  Thee  Thy  gifts,  O  Lord  my  God,  Creator  ot 
all,  and  abundantly  able  to  reform  all  our  deformities; 
for  I  had  no  part  in  that  boy  but  the  sin.  For  that 
we  brought  him  up  in  Thy  discipline,  it  was  Thou, 
none  else,  had  inspired  us  with  it.  I  confess  unto 
Thee  Thy  gifts.  There  is  a  book  of  ours  entitled 
'  The  Master;'  it  is  a  dialogue  between  him  and  me. 
Thou  knowest  that  all  there  ascribed  to  the  person 
conversing  with  me  were  his  ideas  in  his  sixteenth 
year.  Much  besides,  and  yet  more  admirable,  I  found 
in  him.  That  talent  struck  awe  into  me  ;  and  who 
but  Thou  could  be  the  workmaster  of  such  wonders  ? 
Soon  didst  Thou  take  his  life  from  the  earth." 
("  Conf,"  ix.  14.)  Evodius  also  joined  them,  "a 
young  man  of  our  own  city  [Thagaste],  who,  being 
an  officer  of  the  Court,  was,  before  us,  converted  to 
Thee  and  baptized,  and,  quitting  his  secular  warfare, 
girded  himself  to  the  heavenly  warfare." 


78  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

Their  happy  life  in  this  charming  retirement 
at  Cassiacum  was  something  like  a  realization 
of  their  search  for  truth  and  the  happy  life.  They 
rose  early,  and  sometimes  spent  the  morning 
in  reading;  Licentius  and  Trigetius  were  still  the 
scholars  of  the  ex-professor  of  rhetoric;  they  had 
their  couches  in  his  chamber ;  he  read  some  classic 
author  with  them ;  Licentius  fancied  himself  a  poet 
and  was  busy  with  some  verses  on  the  loves  of 
Pyramus  and  Thisbe.  He  watched  over  them  with 
affection,  their  youthful  gaiety  pleased  him.  The 
whole  society  dined  together  at  mid-day ;  frugality 
presided  over  their  repasts ;  they  satisfied  hunger 
without  clogging  the  vivacity  of  the  mind.  In  the 
afternoons  they  were  accustomed  to  assemble  under 
a  great  tree  in  the  adjoining  meadow,  and  there  spend 
the  hours  in  pleasant  and  profitable  discussion  of  the 
great  subjects  which  occupied  all  their  minds.  If  the 
weather  did  not  permit  this  outdoor  gathering,  they 
assembled  in  a  hall  of  the  baths  attached  to  the  villa. 
Of  these  discussions  Augustine  was  naturally  the  life 
and  soul ;  it  was  in  fact  a  little  school  of  philosophy, 
a  little  Academe  of  which  Augustine  was  the  Plato. 
Some  of  the  members  of  the  society  had  their  tablets 
always  ready — the  reporting  of  spoken  discourses  was 
perhaps  even  more  common,  and  as  correctly  done, 
in  those  days  as  in  these — and  the  rapid  stylus  noted 
down  all  that  was  said.  Sometimes  the  discussion 
was  prolonged  into  the  twilight,  and  a  servant  came 
running  with  a  torch  to  the  great  tree,  or  brought  a 
lamp  into  the  hall  of  the  baths,  that  the  writers  might 
not  lose  any  of  their  master's  words.  Augustine  did 


THE    RETREAT   AT   CASSIACUM.  79 

not  seek  his  couch  till  he  had  prayed  to  God ;  and 
then  he  devoted  either  the  former  or  the  latter 
portion  of  the  night  to  long  and  profound  medita 
tions. 

Augustine's  literary  habits  led  him  at  once  to  make 
use  of  the  notes  of  these  discussions,  to  revise  and 
edit  them,  and  put  them  into  a  form  of  permanent 
usefulness.  In  imitation  of  the  Dialogues  of 
Plato  he  sketches,  with  exquisite  literary  skill,  the 
accidental  origin  of  these  books,  retains  the  form 
of  dialogue  in  which  they  actually  grew,  and  relieves 
the  grave  discussion  with  the  little  incidents  by  which 
it  was  actually  broken  up. 

The  book  "  Against  the  Academicians "  is  thus 
based  upon,  and  retains  the  form  of,  one  of  these 
philosophic  discussions.  In  his  graphic  introduction 
Augustine  enables  us  almost  to  see  the  beauty  of  the 
autumn  day,  and  the  broad  spreading  tree  in  the 
meadow  of  Cassiacum,  and  the  group  of  friends 
seated  under  its  shade.  We  are  made  auditors  of 
the  whole  discussion,  as  Alypius  defends  the  cause  of 
the  Academicians  and  Augustine  argues  against  them, 
and  the  other  friends  put  in  a  word  now  and  then, 
and  the  young  scholars  rapidly  write  down  the  con 
versation,  and  Monica  hangs  upon  her  son's  words. 
The  Academicians — i.e.  the  philosophers  who  so  called 
themselves  in  this  fourth  century — maintained  that 
man  was  not  able  to  discover  truth,  but  that  happiness 
consisted  in  the  search  for  it.  Licentius  maintained 
this  opinion.  Trigetius  maintained,  on  the  contrary, 
that  to  be  happy  it  is  necessary  to  be  wise  and 
virtuous,  but  the  mere  search  after  wisdom  and  virtue 


80  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

does  not  suffice  for  happiness.  Augustine,  summing 
up  the  debate,  defines  that  the  happiness  of  life 
consists  in  an  exact  conformity  of  the  human  reason 
to  man's  instincts,  desires,  and  wants ;  and  that  there 
could  be  no  happiness  possible  if  reason  hungering 
after  truth  were  incapable  of  satisfying  its  desire. 
To  declare  that  it  is  not  possible  for  us  to  dis 
cover  truth,  is  to  declare  the  uselessness  of  the 
faculties  which  distinguish  us  from  the  beasts,  it  is  to 
annihilate  the  highest  and  noblest  part  of  our  being. 
One  only  arrives  at  truth  after  long  and  painful  re 
search,  but  this  research  is  not  without  its  charm  to 
the  intelligence.  Wisdom  is  a  star  which  does  not 
come  to  shine  in  our  souls  as  easily  as  the  light  of  the 
sun  enlightens  our  eyes..  He  concludes  :  "In  what 
ever  manner  wisdom  is  to  be  attained,  I  see  that  I 
do  not  yet  know  it.  Nevertheless,  being  only  in  my 
thirty-second  year,  I  ought  not  to  despair  of  acquiring 
it  some  day  :  since  I  am  resolved  to  apply  myself  to 
the  search,  despising  all  which  men  regard  as  de 
sirable.  I  confess  that  the  reasons  of  the  Acade 
micians  give  me  much  fear  in  this  enterprise  ;  but  I 
am  I  think  sufficiently  armed  against  them  by  this 
discussion.  Everybody  knows  that  there  are  two 
methods  of  knowledge  —  authority  and  reason.  I 
am  persuaded  that  we  ought  not  in  any  way  to 
deviate  from  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ,  for  I  find 
none  more  weighty.  As  for  things  which  one  is 
able  to  examine  by  force  of  reason  (for  my  character 
is  such  that  I  desire  with  impatience  not  only  to 
believe  the  truth,  but  also  to  be  able  to  perceive  it 


THE    RETREAT   AT   CASSIACUM.  8 1 

by  the  intellect1),  I  hope  to  find  among  the  Plato- 
nicians  a  doctrine  which  shall  not  be  opposed  to  our 
sacred  mysteries." 

On  the  last  day  of  the  discussion,  night  arrives  before 
its  conclusion,  and  a  servant  brings  a  torch  to  light 
the  scene.  It  is  the  turn  of  Alypius  to  reply ;  but 
he  concludes  the  silting  by  declaring  his  pleasure  in 
being  overcome  :  "  I  cannot  sufficiently  admire,"  he 
says,  "how  Augustine  has  treated  so  pleasantly  a 
subject  so  thorny,  with  what  force  he  has  triumphed 
over  despair,  with  what  moderation  he  has  put  forth 
his  own  views,  with  what  clearness  he  has  solved 
such  obscure  problems.  Oh,  my  friends,  you  wait  for 
my  reply.  Listen  rather  to  the  master.  We  have  a 
chief  who  can  lead  us  into  the  secrets  of  truth,  under 
the  inspiration  of  God  himself." 

The  book  "  On  Order  "  originated  thus  :— As 
Augustine  lay  awake  meditating,  according  to  his 
custom,  the  fall  of  the  little  stream  which  flowed 
past  the  villa  and  supplied  its  baths  forced  itself 
upon  his  attention.  In  the  stillness  of  the  night, 
the  irregularity  of  the  murmur  of  the  fall,  now 
soft  now  loud,  attracted  his  notice — that  rhythmical 
irregularity  which  is  so  visible  to  the  eye  in  the 
rocket-like  jets  which  dart  at  intervals,  now  in  this 
part  now  in  that,  down  the  fall  of  the  Staubbach  at 
Lauterbrunnen.  At  that  moment  Trigetius,  sigh 
ing  in  his  sleep,  disturbed  Licentius  lying  awake- 
Licentius  struck  his  bed  with  a  stick  to  make  Trigetius 

1  Ita  enim  jam  sum  affectus,  ut  quid  sit  verum,  non  credendo 
solum  sed  etiam  intelligendo,  apprehendere  impatienter  de- 
siderim. 


S2  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

cease.  Augustine  perceiving  that  he  was  awake  said, 
"  Do  you  observe  the  unequal  flow  of  the  stream  ? 
What  do  you  think  is  the  cause  of  it?"  Trigetius 
awoke  at  their  voices  and  joined  in  the  conversation. 
Licentius  conjectured  that  it  might  be  the  masses  of 
autumn  leaves  which  sometimes  at  the  bends  of  the 
stream  interrupted  its  flow.  But  Licentius  expressed 
surprise  that  Augustine  should  be  surprised  at  so 
small  a  matter.  "  But  whence  then  comes  surprise," 
asks  Augustine  ;  "  what  is  its  origin  ?  if  not  something 
extraordinary,  something  contrary  to  the  evident  order 
of  events."  "  Contrary  to  the  evident  order,  I  admit," 
replies  Licentius,  "  for  as  for  anything  absolutely  con 
trary  to  order  I  do  not  believe  in  the  possibility  of 
such  a  thing."  This  was  the  germ  of  the  discussion 
which  began  that  night,  and  was  continued  next  day, 
and  for  some  following  days,  on  the  existence  of  an 
absolute  order  in  the  midst  of  the  apparent  want  of 
order  in  the  universe,  which  we  find  in  Augustine's 
book  "On  Order." 

Augustine  introduces  his  mother  into  the  discus 
sion  with  filial  affection.  Monica  was  a  woman  of 
acute  intelligence  as  well  as  a  holy  soul,  and  listened 
with  interest  to  these  discussions.  But  it  is  easy  to' 
see  that  Augustine's  motive  for  introducing  his  mother 
into  his  works,  was  the  same  which  led  Jerome  to 
introduce  the  names  of  Paula  and  Eustochium  into 
his  j1  the  desire  to  connect  her  name  with  his,  to 
publish  her  virtues  and  his  obligations  to  her,  to  share 
with  her  whatever  reputation  his  works  might  attain. 

1  See  '  The  Fathers  for  English  Readers:  Jerome,"  p.  152 
and  p.  208. 


THE    RETREAT    AT    CASSIACUM.  83 

He  anticipates  criticism  by  putting  into  the  mouth  of 
Monica  the  remonstrance,  "What  are  you  doing? 
In  what  books  have  you  ever  seen  women  allowed  to 
enter  into  such  discussions  ?  "  "  If  it  should  happen," 
replies  he,  "  that  my  books  should  fall  into  the  hands 
of  men  who  do  not,  when  they  have  seen  my  name, 
ask  who  is  he?  and  throw  them  aside  [i.e.  if  he  should 
acquire  such  reputation  that  men,  seeing  his  name  on 
the  title-page,  will  willingly  read  what  he  has  written], 
if  not  despising  the  simplicity  of  the  recital  they 
shall  read  further,  these  men  will  not  be  offended  to 
see  me  talk  philosophy  with  you,  and  will  not  despise 
any  of  those  whose  sentiments  are  recorded  in  my 
writings."  He  makes  a  very  skilful,  artistic  use  of  this 
introduction  of  his  mother,  by  contrasting  her  posses 
sion  of  the  truth  by  the  mode  of  faith  with  their  own 
search  after  truth  by  the  method  of  reason.  "  Among 
the  ancients,"  he  says,  addressing  her,  "there  were 
women  who  gave  themselves  to  the  study  of  philo 
sophy,  and  your  philosophy  pleases  me  much.  For, 
not  to  leave  you  ignorant  of  it,  my  mother,  what  they 
call  in  Greek,  philosophy,  is  called  in  Latin,  the  love  of 
wisdom.  ...  I  should  not  have  condemned  you  in 
these  memoirs  if  you  had  not  loved  wisdom  ;  still 
less  should  I  have  condemned  you  if  you  had  loved 
it  as  well  as  me.  But  I  know  that  you  love  it  still 
more  than  you  love  me,  and  I  know  how  much  you 
love  me  !  You  are  so  advanced  in  the  divine  science, 
that  you  are  terrified  neither  by  the  fear  of  any  mis 
fortune,  nor  by  the  dread  of  death ;  and  this  equa 
nimity  proclaims,  by  the  consent  of  all  men,  the 
attainment  of  the  very  kernel  of  philosophy  ;  could  I 
F  2 


84  SAxNT   AUGUSTINE. 

hesitate  after  that  to  become  myself  your  disciple  ?  " 
On  the  last  day  of  these  conversations  on  Order,  the 
daylight  fled  before  the  conclusion  was  reached,  and 
a  lamp  was  brought  into  the  hall  of  the  baths,  where 
the  conversation  was  being  held,  that  the  scribes  might 
see  to  note  on  their  tablets  the  words  of  the  master. 

The  origin  of  the  book  "  On  the  Blessed  Life,"  is 
told  in  the  same  way.  On  the  i3th  November,  386 
A.D.,  which  was  Augustine's  birthday,  all  the  friends, 
except  Alypius,  who  had  gone  into  Milan,  were  as 
sembled  at  dinner  to  celebrate  the  event.  After  dinner 
Augustine  asked  them  some  questions  on  true  happi 
ness  ;  and  for  two  days  they  continued  after  dinner 
to  discuss  what  constitutes  happiness.  Various  solu 
tions  of  the  question  are  proposed  by  the  interlocutors. 
Monica  brings  their  conjectures  to  an  end  by  suggest 
ing  that  they  only  are  happy  who  possess  that  which 
they  desire,  provided  that  what  they  desire  is  good. 
Augustine,  approving  and  adopting  this  definition, 
adds,  that  the  good  must  be  a  permanent  good,  and 
that  only  God  can  be  this  permanent  good ;  and  so 
leads  up  to  the  great  conclusion  of  the  discussion  that 
happiness  consists  in  the  knowledge  and  possession  of 
God,  and  that  this  ought  to  be  the  end  and  aim  of  all 
human  endeavour. 

Besides  the  results  of  these  conversations,  we  have 
also  the  fruits  of  those  nightly  meditations  of  which 
we  have  spoken  above,  in  a  book  of  "  Soliloquies." 
These  also  take  the  form  of  dialogue,  but  it  is  a 
dialogue  between  Augustine  himself  and  Reason.  The 
principal  subject  of  them  is  the  two  great  questions : 
What  is  God  ?  What  is  the  soul  ? 

I  wish,  says  Augustine,  to  know  God  and  the  soul. 


THE    RETREAT   AT   CASSIACUM.  85 

Do  you  wish  to  know  nothing  more  ?  asks  Reason. 

In  one  place,1  which  is  very  characteristic  of  the 
manner  of  the  dialogue,  he  inquires  what  are  the 
relations  of  life  and  of  science  to  happiness. 

Reason. — What  do  you  prefer  to  know  first? 

Augustine. — If  I  am  immortal. 

Reason. — You  love  life,  then  ? 

Augustine. — I  admit  it. 

.    Reason. — If  you  learn  that  you  are  immortal  shall 
you  be  satisfied  ? 

Augustine. — That  would  doubtless  be  a  great  thing, 
but  it  would  be  a  small  thing  to  me. 

Reason.  —But  this  small  thing,  if  you  had  it,  would 
make  you  happy  ? 

A  ugustine. — Greatly. 

Reason. — You  would  weep  no  more  ? 

Augustine. — Never  more. 

Reason. — But  if  it  should  turn  out  that  life  is  such, 
that  it  is  not  given  to  you  to  know  more  than  you  do 
know,  should  you  still  abstain  from  weeping  ? 

Augustine. — On  the  contrary  ;  I  should  weep  as  if 
life  were  nothing  worth. 

Reason. — It  is  not,  then,  for  the  sake  of  life  that  you 
love  life,  but  for  the  sake  of  knowledge  ? 

Augustine. — It  is  so. 

Reason. — But  what  if  it  is  precisely  knowledge 
which  makes  men  unhappy  ? 

Augustine.— 'This  cannot  be.  If  it  were  so  no  one 
could  be  happy.  The  sole  source  of  my  internal 
unhappiness  is  my  ignorance.  If  knowledge  made 
men  unhappy  our  unhappiness  would  be  eternal. 

1  "Solil.,"lib.  ii.,c.  I. 


86  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

Reason. — I  sec,  then,  what  you  desire.  Since  you 
believe  that  knowledge  cannot  make  any  one  unhappy, 
because  it  is  probable  that  it  is  intelligence  which 
makes  men  happy,  and  that  no  one  is  happy  if  he 
does  not  see,  and  that  he  cannot  see  unless  he  lives ; 
you  wish  to  live,  to  see,  and  to  know ;  but  you  wish 
to  live  in  order  to  see,  and  to  see  in  order  to  know." 
The  book  "  On  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul  "  formed 
a  sequel  to  the  "  Soliloquies." 

We  have  given  the  interesting  story  of  the  origin  of 
these  books  written  at  Cassiacum,  and  a  brief  note  of 
their  subject ;  our  space  does  not  admit  of  an  analy 
sis  of  them  or  of  extracts  from  them  ;  but  we  may 
say  a  few  words  as  to  their  general  character.  They 
were  written  at  an  interesting  crisis,  at  the  transition 
not  only  of  Augustine  but  of  the  world,  from  heathen 
philosophy  to  Christianity.  Augustine,  indeed,  had 
never  been  a  heathen.  He  had  imbibed  Christian 
doctrine  from  his  mother's  lips  in  infancy.  When 
carried  away  to  Manichaeism  he  regarded  it  as  a  form 
of  Christianity.  He  tells  us  that  Neo-Platonism,  with 
all  its  attractions  for  his  intellect,  failed  to  gain  his 
adhesion,  because  the  teaching  of  his  childhood  pre 
vented  him  from  adopting  any  religion  which  had  not 
"the  saving  name  of  Christ"  ("Conf."  v.  25)  as  its 
centre.  But  this  reverence  for  Christ  was  little  more 
than  a  sentiment ;  his  beliefs  were  anything  but  those 
of  a  Christian.  His  profession  had  made  it  necessary 
for  him  to  be  well  versed  in  the  philosophies  of  his 
time,  his  intellectual  character  led  him  to  feel  all  their 
attraction ;  the  new  Platonism — the  ultimate  form 
which  the  Platonic  philosophy  had  assumed  under 
the  influence  of  Christianity — had  a  real  hold  upon 


THE    RETREAT   AT   CASSIACUM.  87 

his  reason  and  his  taste.  In  these  Conversations  and 
Meditations  at  Cassiacum,  in  the  interval  between  his 
conversion  and  his  baptism,  with  powers  stimulated 
by  the  mental  crisis,  he  was  reviewing  the  light  which 
the  ancient  philosophy  at  its  brightest  could  throw 
upon  the  great  problems  of  Being  and  Life.  Whether 
truth  is  attainable  ;  whether  the  apparent  disorder  of 
the  world  and  of  life  is  embraced  and  harmonized  by 
a  grand  universal  order ;  what  is  the  happiest  mode 
of  human  life  ;  whether  the  soul  is  immortal  ? 

In  reading  his  books  on  these  subjects,  we  become 
aware  of  the  genius  of  Augustine,  and  of  the  charac 
ter  of  his  genius.  He  is  not  a  mere  rhetorician 
dazzling  us  with  brilliant  phrases,  or  a  sophist  playing 
with  philosophical  puzzles ;  he  is  a  profound  meta 
physician,  he  is  a  thinker  of  the  highest  degree  of 
originality,  and  depth,  and  logical  vigour.  Among 
those  works  already  reviewed  we  have  phrases  which 
have  become  household  words,  thoughts  which  have 
formed  the  text  of  treatises,  and  have  proved  the 
germ  of  philosophical  systems.1 

1  In  lib.  ii.  c.  I  of  the  "Soliloquies"  we  have  the  " Noverim 
me  noverim  te,"  God  grant  me  to  know  Thee,  and  to  know 
myself,  which  forms  the  text  of  Bossuet's  "  Trait*  de  la  Con- 
naissance  de  Dieu  et  de  soi-meme."  Again,  in  a  fragment  of  the 
4 '  Soliloquies  :  " — "  Reason,  You  who  wish  to  know  yourself,  do 
you  know  whether  you  exist?  Angtistine.  I  do. — Reason. 
Whence  do  you  know  it?  Aug.  I  am  ignorant  of  that. — 
Reason.  Are  you  conscious  of  yourself  as  of  a  simple  or  com 
pound  being?  Aug.  lam  ignorant  of  that. — Reason.  Do  you 
know  whether  you  think?  Aug.  I  do. — Reason.  It  is  a  truth, 
then,  that  you  think?  Aug.  That  is  a  truth."  We  have  the 
"I  think,  therefore  I  am,"  which  is  the  basis  of  the  system  of 
Descartes  and  of  Locke. 


88  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

After  six  months  thus  happily  and  profitably  spent, 
the  festival  of  Easter  approached,  which  was  then 
one  of  the  great  annual  seasons  for  baptism,  and 
Augustine  and  his  friends  returned  to  Milan.  There 
does  not  appear  to  be  any  reason  for  thinking  that 
Ambrose  was  at  this  time  aware  of  the  special  import 
ance  of  the  conversion  of  the  ex-Professor  of  Rhetoric, 
and  there  seems  to  have  been  no  such  special  inter 
course  between  the  two  great  saints  as  we  should  have 
been  disposed  to  expect.  Augustine,  we  have  seen, 
lamented  that  while  at  Milan  he  failed  in  his  attempts 
to  obtain  private  conference  with  the  much-engaged 
bishop ;  we  learn  that  the  bishop  advised  the  new 
convert  to  read  Isaiah  in  preparation  for  his  baptism, 
but  that  Augustine  did  not  find  in  it  what  he  needed 
at  the  time,  and  laid  it  aside  in  favour  of  those  philo 
sophical  speculations  which  we  have  been  reviewing. 

Augustine,  with  his  son  Adeodatus  and  his  friend 
Alypius,  was  baptized  by  Ambrose  on  Easter-eve, 
A.D.  387.  The  popular  imagination,  so  apt  to  seize 
the  poetry  of  great  events  and  to  embody  it  in  legend, 
has  not  overlooked  this  event  of  Augustine's  baptism  by 
Ambrose.  The  legend  runs  that  when  the  baptism  was 
ended,  the  spirit  of  prophecy  filled  their  hearts  with  a 
psalm  of  thanksgiving ;  Ambrose  sang  the  first  verse, 
Augustine  the  second,  and  so  in  alternate  verses  the 
noblest  of  the  Church's  Canticles,  the  "  Te  Deum 
Laudamus,"  sprang  in  inspired  utterance  from  their  lips. 

Augustine,  considering  where  he  could  best  serve 
God,  resolved  to  return  to  his  native  country ;  his 
mother  and  brother,  his  son,  and  Alypius  accom 
panied  him,  with  the  addition  of  Evodius,  a  native  of 


THE    RETREAT   AT   CASSIACUM.  89 

Thagaste,  who  had  resolved  to  dedicate  himself  to 
the  service  of  God,  and  who  now  attached  himself  lo 
Augustine.  They  travelled  to  Rome  and  thence  to 
Ostia,  the  port  of  Rome,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber, 
ready  to  embark  for  Carthage. 

It  was  while  resting  there  a  few  days  that  that  last 
intercourse  of  the  heart  occurred  between  the  mother 
and  son  which  forms  one  of  the  most  beautiful  pas 
sages  of  the  "Confessions."  "The  day  now  approach 
ing  whereon  she  was  to  depart  this  life  (which  day 
Thou  well  knewest  we  knew  not),  it  came  to  pass, 
Thyself,  as  I  believe,  by  Thy  secret  ways  so  ordering 
it,  that  she  and  I  stood  alone,  leaning  on  a  certain 
window  which  looked  into  the  garden  of  the  house 
where  we  now  lay  at  Ostia ;  where,  removed  from  the 
din  of  men,  we  were  recruiting  from  the  fatigues  of  a 
long  journey,  for  the  voyage.  We  were  discoursing 
then  together, alone,  very  sweetly;  and  'forgetting  those 
things  which  are  behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto  those 
things  which  are  before,'  we  were  inquiring  between 
ourselves  in  the  presence  of  the  Truth,  which  Thou 
art,  of  what  sort  the  eternal  life  of  the  saints  was  to 
be,  '  which  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  nor  hath 
it  entered  into  the  heart  of  man.'  .  .  .  And  when 
our  discourse  was  brought  to  that  point  that  the  very 
highest  delight  of  the  earthly  senses  was,  in  respect  of 
the  sweetness  of  that  life,  not  only  not  worthy  of 
comparison,  but  not  even  of  mention,  we,  raising  up 
ourselves  with  a  more  glowing  affection  towards  the 
'  Self-same,'  did  by  degrees  pass  through  all  things 
bodily,  even  the  very  heavens,  whence  sun  and  moon 
and  stars  shine  upon  the  earth ;  yea,  we  were  soaring 
higher  yet  by  inward  musing,  and  discourse,  and 


90  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

admiring  of  Thy  works.  .  .  .  We  were  saying  then  : 
*  If  to  any  the  tumult  of  the  flesh  were  hushed, 
hushed  the  images  of  earth  and  waters  and  air  and 
heaven  ;  yea,  the  very  soul  hushed  to  herself,  and  by 
not  thinking  on  self  surmounting  self;  hushed  all 
dreams  and  imaginary  revelations,  and  tongues,  and 
signs,  since  all  these  say,  We  made  twt  ourselves,  but 
lie  made  its  that  abideth  for  ever.  If  then,  having 
uttered  this,  they  too  should  be  hushed,  and  He  alone 
speak,  not  by  them  but  by  Himself,  that  we  may 
hear  His  word,  not  through  any  tongue  of  flesh,  nor 
angel's  voice,  nor  sound  of  thunder,  nor  in  the  dark 
riddle  of  a  similitude ;  but  might  hear  Him  whom, 
in  these  things,  we  love ;  might  hear  his  very  Self 
without  these  (as  we  two  now  strained  ourselves,  and 
in  swift  thought  touched  on  that  eternal  Wisdom  which 
abideth  over  all) — could  this  be  continued  on,  and 
other  discordant  visions  withdrawn— this  one  ravish, 
and  absorb  and  wrap  up  its  beholder  amid  these  in 
ward  joys,  so  that  life  might  for  ever  be  like  that  one 
moment  of  understanding  which  now  we  sigh  for, 
were  not  this  to  enter  into  the  Master's  joy  ?  And 
when  shall  that  be  ?  When  we  shall  all  rise  again, 
though  we  shall  not  all  be  changed' 

"  Such  things  was  I  speaking,  and  even  if  not  in 
this  very  manner  and  in  these  very  words,  yet,  Lord, 
Thou  knowest  that  on  that  day,  when  we  were  speak 
ing  of  these  things,  and  this  world  with  all  its  delights 
became,  as  we  spake,  contemptible  to  us,  my  mother 
said  :  *  Son,  for  my  own  part,  I  have  no  further  delight 
in  anything  in  this  life.  What  I  do  here  any  longer 
and  to  what  end  I  am  here,  I  know  not,  now  that  my 
hopes  in  this  world  are  accomplished.  One  thing 


THE    RETREAT   AT    CASSIACUM.  91 

there  was  for  which  I  desired  to  linger  for  awhile  in 
this  life,  that  I  might  see  thee  a  Catholic  Christian 
before  I  died.  My  God  hath  done  this  for  me  more 
abundantly,  since  I  now  see  thee  withal  despising 
earthly  happiness,  become  His  servant.  What  do 
I  longer  here?'" 

Five  days  after  she  fell  sick  of  a  fever.  When 
someone  asked  whether  she  were  not  afraid  to  leave 
her  body  so  far  from  her  own  city,  she  replied  :  "  No 
thing  is  far  to  God,  nor  was  it  to  be  feared  lest  at  the 
end  of  the  world  He  should  not  recognize  whence 
He  were  to  raise  me  up."  In  truth,  "  she  had  ever 
been  careful  and  anxious  as  to  her  place  of  burial, 
which  she  had  provided  and  prepared  for  herself  by 
the  body  of  her  husband  ; ';  but  when  another  hoped 
she  might  yet  live  to  die  in  her  own  land,  she  turned 
her  eyes  to  Augustine  and  said,  "  Behold  what  he 
saith/'  and  soon  after  :  "  Lay  this  body  anywhere,  let 
not  care  for  that  any  way  disquiet  you ;  this  only  I 
request,  that  you  would  remember  me  at  the  Lord's 
altar  wherever  you  be."  "  On  the  ninth  day  of  her 
sickness,  and  the  fifty-sixth  year  of  her  age,  and  the 
three-and-thirtieth  of  mine,  was  that  religious  and 
holy  soul  freed  from  the  body."  There  is  a  touching 
natural  simplicity  in  the  record  of  "the  wound 
wrought  through  the  sudden  wrench  of  that  most 
sweet  and  dear  custom  of  living  together."  "  I  joyed 
indeed  in  her  testimony  when  in  that  her  last  sickness, 
mingling  her  endearments  with  my  acts  of  duty ;  she 
called  me  '  dutiful,'  and  mentioned,  with  great  affec 
tion  of  tone,  that  she  never  had  heard  any  harsh  or 
reproachful  sound  uttered  by  my  mouth  against  her. 
But  yet,  O  my  God,  who  madest  us,  what  comparison 


92  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

is  there  betwixt  that  honour  that  I  paid  to  her  and 
her  slavery  for  me  ?  " 

We  learn  something  of  the  funeral  customs  of  the 
time.  Augustine  closed  his  mother's  eyes.  "  The  boy 
Adeodatus  burst  into  a  passion  of  weeping  at  his 
grandmother's  death,  but  was  checked  by  all  the  rest, 
for  we  thought  it  not  fitting  to  solemnize  that  funeral 
with  tearful  laments  and  groanings,  for  thereby  do  they 
for  the  most  part  express  grief  for  the  departed  as 
though  unhappy  or  altogether  dead  ;  whereas  she  was 
neither  unhappy  in  her  death  nor  altogether  dead. 
Of  this  we  were  assured  on  good  grounds,  the  testi 
mony  of  her  good  conversation  and  faith  unfeigned." 
"  Then  Evodius  took  up  the  Psalter  and  began  to 
sing,  our  whole  house  answering  him,  the  Psalm,  2 
will  sing  of  mercy  and  judgment ',  to  Thee,  O  Lord. 
But  hearing  what  we  were  doing,  many  brethren  and 
religious  women  came  together ;  and  whilst  they 
(whose  office  it  was)  made  ready  for  the  burial  as  the 
manner  is,  I  (in  a  part  of  the  house  where  I  might 
properly)  together  with  those  who  thought  not  fit  to 
leave  me,  discussed  upon  something  fitting  the  time. 
.  .  .  And  behold  the  corpse  was  carried  to  the  burial ; 
we  went  and  returned  without  tears.  For  neither  in 
those  prayers  which  we  poured  forth  unto  Thee  when 
the  Sacrifice  of  our  ransom  was  offered  for  her,  when 
now  the  corpse  was  by  the  grave's  side,  as  the  manner 
there  is,  previous  to  its  being  laid  therein,  did  I  weep 
even  during  those  prayers ;  yet  was  I  the  whole  day 
in  secret  heavily  sad,  and  with  troubled  mind  prayed 
Thee,  as  I  could,  to  heal  my  sorrow." 


SAINT   AUGUSTINE.  93 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    RECLUSE    OF   THAGASTE. 

A  Year  in  Rome — Returns  to  Africa — Lives  the  Ascetic  Life  with 
his  Friends  at  Thagaste— Writes  "  On  the  Manners  of  the 
Catholics  "—Biblical  Studies — Various  Writings — Death  of 
Nebridius — Of  Adeodatus. 

How  the  death  of  Monica  affected  the  plans  of 
Augustine,  or  whether  any  other  cause  intervened  to 
induce  him  to  change  them,  we  do  not  know ;  all  we 
know  is  that  he  did  for  the  present  abandon  the  de 
sign  of  returning  to  Africa,  and  instead  retraced  his 
steps,  with  Adeodatus  and  Evodius,  to  Rome.  There 
they  spent  a  year,  of  whose  history  Augustine  no 
where  gives  us  the  slightest  hint.  He  would  have 
found  himself  appreciated  in,  and  he  would  have  ap 
preciated,  that  ascetic  Christian  school  in  the  high 
society  of  Rome,  which  Jerome1  has  made  so  well 
known  to  us  ;  but  we  are  ignorant  whether  he  found 
his  way  into  it.  From  the  time  of  his  baptism 
Augustine  had  openly  declared  his  special  vocation 
by  assuming  the  dark  robe  and  leathern  girdle  which 
were  the  recognised  habit  of  one  who  had  adopted 
the  ascetic  life. 

After  a  sojourn  of  nearly  a  year  at  Rome  he  at 
length  set  out  again  for  Africa,  where  he  arrived  in 
the  summer  of  the  year  388.  It  was  five  years  since 

1  See  "The  Fathers  for  English  Readers  :  Jerome,"  chap.  iv. 


04  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

he  had  stolen  away  from  Carthage,  leaving  his  mother 
watching  and  praying  in  the  oratory  of  St.  Cyprian. 
What  changes  had  happened  to  him  since  then  ;  not 
so  much  external  changes,  from  Rome  to  Milan  and 
Milan  to  Rome,  but  what  internal  changes  had  come 
to  pass  in  him,  from  Augustine  the  talented  and 
ambitious  rhetorician,  a  Manichaean,  leading  an  irre 
gular  life,  to  Augustine  the  Christian  and  ascetic ! 

His  plan  was  to  seek  some  retreat  near  Tha- 
gaste  where,  with  his  friends,  he  might  live  a  life  of 
study  and  contemplation.  After  a  short  sojourn  at 
Carthage,  he  accordingly  proceeded  to  his  native 
town,  sold  his  little  patrimony,  and  distributed  part 
of  it  to  the  poor,  keeping  for  himself  a  house  in  the 
environs,  in  which  he  lived  in  community  with  Adeo- 
datus,  Romanianus,  Lucinianus,  and  some  other  dis 
ciples  who  put  themselves  under  his  guidance. 

The  history  of  Augustine  is  chiefly  a  history  of  his 
literary  labours.  His  life  at  Thagaste  was  fruitful  of 
two  important  works  :  one,  "  On  the  Manners  of  the 
Catholic  Church  and  the  Manners  of  the  Mani- 
chaeans  ;"  the  other  "  On  the  Greatness  of  the  Soul." 
The  latter  work,  on  the  nature  of  the  soul,  the 
cause  of  its  being,  its  aspirations,  its  powers,  its  aims, 
is  an  event  in  the  history  of  philosophy ;  it  is  one  of 
the  three  or  four  works  in  which  the  philosophical 
genius  of  its  author  is  most  favourably  displayed. 

The  Manichaeans  were  at  this  time  the  most  dan 
gerous  opponents  of  the  Catholic  faith,  and  Augustine 
had  special  reasons  for  undertaking  the  defence  of  the 
faith  against  them.  It  was  the  apparent  severity  of 
their  morals  which  especially  led  people  to  sympathize 
with  them,  and  it  was  to  a  comparison  between  the 


THE    RECLUSE   OF   THAGASTE.  95 

life  of  the  Manichaeans  and  the  Christian  life  as  seen 
in  the  Catholic  Church  that  Augustine  addressed 
himself,  as  the  first  of  a  series  of  works  against  them, 
which  occupied  some  subsequent  years  of  his  life. 

In  treating  in  this  work  of  the  morals  of  Christi 
anity,  Augustine  takes  the  opportunity  to  give  a  very 
interesting  sketch  of  the  Christian  Church  and  the 
Christian  life  of  his  time.  He  points  out  how  love 
to  God  and  love  to  man  form  the  basis  of  Christian 
manners  ;  how  the  Church,  like  a  wise  mother,  trains 
her  children  by  teachings  and  exercises  proportioned 
to  their  strength  and  attainments.  She  reserves  for 
children  easy  instructions  and  exercises  ;  she  assigns 
to  grown  men  more  elevated  truths  and  exercises 
worthy  of  their  strength  ;  to  the  aged  she  gives  the 
pure  and  serene  illuminations  of  wisdom.  She  teaches 
to  all  the  duties  of  their  several  callings  ;  she  prescribes 
to  husbands  gentle  authority,  and  to  wives  chaste 
obedience,  and  places  children  under  a  kind  of  free- 
servitude,  for  in  the  family  all  authority  is  that  of  ten 
derness  and  gentleness  ;  she  holds  brothers  to  be  more 
closely  allied  by  the  bond  of  religion  than  by  that  of 
blood,  and  inspires  with  mutual  kindness  those  who 
are  connected  by  relationship,  and  adds  the  union  of 
hearts  to  that  of  nature. 

"  The  Catholic  Church  teaches  servants  to  attach 
themselves  to  their  masters,  rather  out  of  love  of 
their  duty  than  by  the  necessity  of  their  condition  ; 
she  teaches  masters  kindness  to  their  servants,  by 
keeping  before  their  eyes  that  God  is  the  common 
master  of  both.  She  does  not  limit  herself  to  uniting 
the  citizens  of  the  same  town,  she  unites  the  different 
nations,  yea,  all  men  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  not 


96  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

only  in  the  bonds  of  civil  society,  but  in  teaching 
them  that  they  are  all  descended  from  one  Father 
she  teaches  them  that  they  are  all  brethren.  She 
teaches  kings  to  govern  their  people  well,  and  people 
to  obey  their  kings.  By  gathering  nourishment  from 
the  bosom  of  the  Church  man  grows  in  strength,  and 
finds  himself  at  last  capable  of  following  after  God, 
and  attaining  to  Him." 

Then,  in  answer  to  the  claims  of  the  Manichceans 
to  a  special  austerity  of  virtue,  Augustine  goes  on  to 
sketch  the  "  Religious  "  of  his  time  : — the  tens  of 
thousands  of  the  faithful  who,  chiefly  in  the  East  and 
in  Egypt,  astonished  the  world  by  the  spectacle  of 
their  perfection  :  the  solitaries,  hidden  in  the  depths 
of  the  deserts,  living  on  bread  and  water,  passing 
their  days  in  intercourse  with  God,  in  contemplating 
His  supreme  beauty  with  the  eye  of  a  purified  intelli 
gence,  who  are  accused  of  being  useless  to  mankind, 
as  if  their  prayers  did  not  draw  down  blessings  upon 
the  world,  as  if  the  example  of  their  life  were  not 
mighty  in  inspiring  men  with  the  love  of  virtue.  He 
goes  on  to  describe  those  who,  not  so  greatly  surpass 
ing  the  limits  of  ordinary  human  weakness,  united  in 
communities,  live  humble,  gentle,  tranquil  lives,  in 
chastity,  in  prayers,  in  reading,  in  spiritual  confer 
ences.  None  of  them  possesses  anything,  but  the 
labour  of  their  own  hands  affords  them  a  quiet  inde 
pendence.  As  soon  as  one  has  finished  any  work  he 
carries  it  to  the  dean,  for  the  religious  are  divided 
into  tens,  and  the  chief  of  each  ten  is  called  its  dean. 
The  dean  relieves  the  religious  from  all  temporal 
cares ;  he  supplies  them  with  all  they  need ;  and  the 
deans  render  account  to  the  abbot  or  father.  At  the 


THE    RECLUSE   OF   THAGASTE.  97 

end  of  the  day  each  quits  his  cell  to  appear  before 
the  father.  Several  of  these  communities  number 
3,000  monks,  and  more.  The  father  addresses  all 
these  religious  gathered  'about  him ;  they  listen  in  a 
wonderful  silence,  and  the  impression  which  his  dis 
course  makes  upon  them  is  only  shown  in  sighs  and 
tears ;  or  if  his  words  excite  some  extraordinary 
emotion  of  holy  joy,  it  is  with  so  much  reserve  and 
so  little  noise  that  it  is  hardly  to  be  perceived.  After 
the  exhortation  they  go  to  their  meal,  which  is  very 
simple  and  very  frugal ;  flesh  and  wine  are  not  per 
mitted.  What  is  to  spare  of  the  produce  of  the  work 
of  the  community  is  distributed  to  the  poor  :  these 
religious  work  so  diligently  and  spend  so  little,  that 
they  are  often  able  to  send  ship-loads  of  food  to 
places  where  there  is  exceptional  distress.  But,  says 
Augustine,  we  have  said  enough  of  that  which 
all  the  world  knows.  And  he  goes  on  to  speak  of 
the  communities  of  women,  chaste,  temperate,  and 
laborious.  They  spin  and  weave  cloth  to  clothe 
themselves  and  their  brethren,  who  in  exchange  for 
clothing  furnish  the  nuns  with  food.  It  is  not  the 
young  monks,  but  only  the  wisest  and  most  trusted 
of  the  old  men  who  carry  these  provisions,  which 
they  lay  down  at  the  gate  of  the  monastery,  and  go 
no  further.  Should  I  undertake  to  praise  such 
manners,  such  a  life,  such  an  order,  such  an  institu 
tion,  I  could  not  do  so  worthily.  He  goes  on  to  say, 
that  the  purity  of  manners  and  holiness  of  the 
Church  are  not  confined  within  such  narrow  limits 
as  the  solitaries  and  religious  communities.  Among 
the  bishops,  the  priests,  the  deacons,  and  the  other 
G 


98  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

ministers  to  whom  the  dispensation  of  the  holy 
mysteries  is  committed,  their  virtue  is  the  more 
admirable,  since  it  is  more  difficult  to  maintain  it  in 
intercourse  with  the  world  and  the  distractions  of 
the  life  which  they  lead  in  it.  They  have  not  merely 
to  guide  people  who  are  well,  but  to  heal  people  who 
are  sick.  It  is  necessary  even  to  bear  with  the  vices 
of  the  people  with  much  patience  if  one  desires  to 
get  to  the  end  of  them  ;  before  one  is  in  a  position 
to  remedy  an  evil  one  is  often  obliged  to  tolerate  it 
for  a  long  time.  But  it  is  difficult  for  them  to  main 
tain  in  the  midst  of  the  distraction  of  human  affairs 
tranquillity  of  mind,  and  any  kind  of  regulated  life. 
The  solitaries  are  where  they  live  well  the  bishops  and 
priests  are  where  they  are  only  learning  to  live  well." 
Augustine  passes  on  to  the  Cenobites  who  live  in 
the  cities.  "  I  have  seen,"  he  says,  "a  great  number 
of  them  at  Milan  ;  they  live  a  holy  life  in  the  same 
house  under  the  guidance  of  a  learned  and  pious 
priest.  I  have  even  seen  at  Rome  many  of  these 
monasteries,  of  which  each  is  governed  by  that  one 
of  the  brethren  who  has  the  most  wisdom  and  the 
most  knowledge  in  the  things  of  God.  They  submit 
themselves  with  exactitude  and  constancy  to  the 
rules  of  Christian  charity,  holiness,  and  liberty. 
These  religious  also  are  not  chargeable  to  any  one ; 
they  live  of  the  labour  of  their  own  hands,  according 
to  the  custom  of  the  Orientals,  and  the  example  of 
the  Apostle  St.  Paul.  I  have  been  told  that  some  of 
these  religious  carry  the  practice  of  fasting  so  far 
that  it  is  almost  incredible.  The  ordinary  practice 
among  them  is  to  make  only  one  meal  a  day,  in  the 


THE    RECLUSE   OF   THAGASTE.  qc 

evening ;  but  there  are  some  who  sometimes  go  three 
or  four  days  without  either  eating  or  drinking.  And 
it  is  not  only  men  who  live  in  this  manner,  but 
women  also.  Many  widows  and  virgins  dwell  toge 
ther,  making  linen  and  woollen  stuffs,  whose  sale 
supplies  all  their  wants.  The  most  worthy  and  capable 
are  at  the  head  of  the  community.  They  are  not 
only  capable  of  regulating  and  forming  the  morals, 
but  also  of  forming  the  intellects  of  the  others.  No 
one  is  obliged  to  austerities  which  they  cannot  bear ; 
nothing  is  imposed  upon  the  unwilling ;  no  one  is 
blamed  by  the  rest  for  avowing  that  he  is  not  able 
to  do  as  much  as  they ;  the  charity  so  recommended 
by  all  our  holy  Scriptures  is  not  forgotten  among 
them.  The  greater  number  of  these  religious  abstain 
from  flesh  and  wine  except  when  they  are  ill ;  they 
accept  this  abstinence  in  a  spirit  of  penitence,  and 
do  not  condemn  themselves  to  it  out  of  superstitious 
notions,  like  the  Manichseans,  who  regard  flesh  as  un 
clean  and  wine  as  the  gall  of  the  powers  of  darkness." 

It  was  the  life  of  these  Cenobites  of  the  cities 
which  Augustine  imitated  at  Thagaste ;  he  himself 
was  the  learned  and  pious  guide  who  formed  not  only 
the  morals  but  the  intellect  of  the  little  community. 

Augustine  passed  about  three  years  in  this  retreat 
at  Thagaste,  leading  the  ascetic  life  of  fasting, 
prayer,  and  meditation,  and  forming  the  minds  and 
morals  of  his  little  community.  At  this  time  he 
occupied  himself  with  an  edition  of  the  Bible, 
which,  indeed,  he  never  published,  but  for  which 
he  collated  the  principal  versions  of  the  Bible,  such 
as  the  Septuagint,  the  edition  of  Aquila,  and  the 
G  2 


100  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

recent  translation  of  Jerome.  His  literary  diligence 
also  produced  during  these  years  a  number  of  works, 
A  book  "On  Music,"  one  called  "The  Master"— the 
dialogue  between  himself  and  Adeodatus,  already 
alluded  to  p.  77.  A  book  "  On  Free  Will,"  and  an 
other  on  "  True  Religion." 

In  this  latter  work  he  sets  himself  to  display  in  all 
their  brightness  the  excellence  of  the  true  religion  and 
the  duties  which  it  enjoins.  "  Religion,"  he  says, 
"  is  the  only  thing  which  can  lead  us  to  happiness. 
One  cannot  doubt  that  Christianity  is  the  true  religion. 
Plato  even  would  have  recognised  it  as  such  had  he 
seen  the  most  sublime  doctrines  of  his  philosophy 
preached  throughout  the  world,  embraced,  and  fol 
lowed  by  multitudes  of  all  conditions  of  life."  After 
giving  the  characteristics  which  distinguish  error  from 
truth,  false  religion  from  the  true,  he  indicates  the 
foundations  of  the  true  religion,  viz.,  history  and 
prophecy ;  he  runs  through  the  principal  doctrines  of 
Christianity,  and  concludes  with  some  interesting  con 
siderations  on  its  morals,  and  exhorts  all  men  to 
embrace  and  to  follow  the  true  religion. 

Augustine  was  the  last  great  writer  of  the  Church 
who  was  called  upon  to  combat  the  expiring  classical 
heathenism ;  and  it  is  interesting  to  see  how  far  that 
heathenism  had  been  modified  in  the  hands  of  its 
professors  under  the  influence  of  Christian  ideas 
before  it  finally  succumbed  to  those  ideas.  It  was 
during  this  sojourn  at  Thagaste  that  Augustine  had  a 
correspondence  with  Maximus,  a  grammarian  (pro 
fessor  of  Belles  Lettres)  at  Madaura,  and  it  is  thus 
that  the  philosopher  states  his  own  belief.  "Yes," 
he  says,  "  the  forum  of  Madaura  is  filled  with  statues 


THE  RECLUSE  OF  THAGASTE.         TO  I 

of  the  gods ;  and  I  approve  of  this  custom ;  but  do 
not  suppose  that  there  is  anyone  so  foolish  as  not  to 
understand  that  there  is  only  one  supreme  God,  who 
has  neither  origin  nor  descent,  the  sole  and  almighty 
creator  of  the  whole  of  Nature.  We  adore,  under 
the  names  of  various  deities,  His  powers  spread 
throughout  the  universe  to  preserve  and  uphold,  for 
we  are  all  ignorant  of  the  true  name  which  belongs  to 
Him ;  and  it  is  thus  that  in  offering  a  different 
homage  to  different  attributes  of  the  divinity,  man 
arrives  at  adoring  Him  in  His  entirety."1 

During  this  period  Nebridius,  the  early  friend  of 
Augustine,  died,  not  in  the  house  of  Augustine,  but 
on  his  own  estate,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Carthage. 
There  is  an  affectionate  correspondence  between  them. 
Nebridius  gently  reproaches  his  friend  that  he  does 
not  make  some  arrangement  for  their  being  together. 
Augustine  points  out  the  impossibility.  "  Shall  he 
send  a  carriage  to  bring  him  to  Thagaste  ?  But 
Nebridius  is  sick,  and  his  mother,  who  was  unwilling 
to  part  with  him  in  health,  would  be  still  less  willing 
in  the  state  of  suffering  in  which  he  now  is.  Should 
Augustine  go  to  him  ?  But  he  has  companions  in 
his  retreat  whom  he  cannot  bring  with  him,  and 
whom  he  believes  it  his  duty  not  to  part  from. 
Nebridius  is  capable  of  conversing  usefully  with  him 
self,  Augustine's  young  companions  are  not.  Should 
he  come  and  go,  and  spend  his  time  sometimes  with 
him  and  sometimes  with  them  ?  But  that  would  not 
be  to  live  together  or  to  live  according  to  their  plans. 
From  Thagaste  to  the  home  of  Nebridius  is  not  a 
mere  drive,  it  is  a  journey,  and  in  these  continual 
1  Letter  16. 


TC2  SAINT  AUGUSTINE. 

journeys  there  would  be  neither  repose  nor  leisure. 
Besides,  Augustine  is  ill  and  suffering ;  he  cannot 
do  all  he  would  wish,  and  resigns  himself  not  to  wish 
what  he  cannot  do.  All  these  cares  of  going  and 
coming  do  not  belong  to  those  who  are  thinking  of 
that  last  journey  which  is  called  death,  the  only 
journey  which  deserves  to  occupy  the  mind  of  man. 
There  are,  indeed,  privileged  persons  who,  in  the 
confusion  of  travel,  preserve  the  peace  and  calm  of 
their  heart,  and  who,  amid  confusions,  do  not  lose 
sight  of  their  latter  end.  But  Augustine  finds  it 
difficult  to  familiarize  himself  with  death  in  the 
midst  of  the  bustle  of  affairs.  He  needs  a  profound 
retreat,  and  an  entire  separation  from  noise. 

Nebridius  is  delighted  with  the  letters  of  Augus 
tine  ;  it  is  a  startling  saying,  but  we  recognise  it  as 
characteristic  of  the  phase  of  thought  with  which  we 
have  been  already  made  familiar,  and  we  recognise  a 
certain  amount  of  truth  there  is  in  it,  when  he  tells 
him,  "  Your  letters  speak  to  my  ears  like  Christ,  like 
Plato,  like  Plotinus."  Nebridius  died  a  Christian 
shortly  afterwards.  Augustine  says  of  him  in  the 
"Confessions,"  "Whatever  that  be  which  is  signified  by 
the  bosom  of  Abraham,1  there  lives  my  Nebridius,  my 
sweet  friend,  and  Thy  child,  O  Lord,  there  he  liveth; 
for  what  other  place  is  there  for  such  a  soul  ?  " 

Towards  the  end  of  this  period  Augustine  suffered 
a  loss  which  must  have  touched  him  still  more 
nearly,  in  the  death  of  his  son  Adeodatus,  of  whose 
talents  and  virtues  he  has  left  the  records  which  we 
have  already  quoted.2 

1   "Conf."ix.  6.  2  Infra,  p.  77. 


SAINT   AUGUSTINE.  1 03 


CHAPTER  XII. 

AUGUSTINE    ORDAINED    PRIEST    AT    HIPPO. 

Revolt,  of  Firmus  ;  of  Gildo — Description  of  Hippo — Augustine 
visits  it — Ordained  Priest  —  Founds  a  Religious  House  at 
Hippo  —  Controversy  with  the  Manichoeans  —  With  the 
Donatists — Consecrated  Coadjutor  Bishop. 

THE  African  provinces  had  usually  followed  the 
fortunes  of  the  Western  Empire.  In  the  revolt  of 
the  powerful  Moorish  family  of  which  Firmus  was 
the  head,  which  was  suppressed  by  the  Count  Theo- 
dosius  (father  of  the  great  emperor  of  that  name), 
the  apparent  fidelity  of  his  brother  Gildo  had 
obtained  as  his  reward  the  immense  patrimony  which 
the  treason  of  Firmus  had  forfeited  :  long  and  meri 
torious  service  in  the  armies  of  Rome  had  raised 
him  to  the  dignity  of  a  military  count ;  the  narrow 
policy  of  the  court  of  Theodosius  had  adopted  the 
mischievous  expedient  of  supporting  the  interests  of 
the  Emperor  in  Africa,  by  making  this  powerful 
family  the  representative  of  the  Imperial  authority ; 
and  Gildo  was  nominated  to  succeed  Firmus  in  the 
chief  command  of  the  military  force  of  Africa.  His 
ambition  soon  usurped  also  the  administration  ot 
justice  and  of  the  finances,  without  account  and 
without  control.  While  nominally  acting  as  the 
•^presentative  of  the  emperor,  he  virtually  ruled  with 


104  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

absolute  authority  for  twelve  years,  from  A.D.  386  to 
398.  During  those  twelve  years  he  oppressed  the 
provinces  of  Africa  with  his  tyrannies,  exactions,  his 
cruelties,  and  his  lusts.  In  the  civil  war  between 
Theodosius  and  Eugenius,  the  Count  of  Africa  main 
tained  a  haughty  neutrality,  refused  to  assist  either  of 
the  contending  parties  with  troops  or  vessels,  and 
when  fortune  declared  in  favour  of  Theodosius, 
offered  him  the  profession  of  a  hollow  allegiance. 
The  death  of  Theodosius  and  the  discord  between 
his  sons  confirmed  the  power  of  the  Moor.  But 
when  Stilicho,  the  great  companion-in-arms  of  Theo 
dosius,  and  guardian  of  the  young  Honorius,  began  to 
give  tokens  that  he  would  not  suffer  Gildo's  usurped 
power  in  Africa  to  continue  unchallenged,  Gildo 
offered  to  transfer  his  allegiance  to  Arcadius,  and  so 
to  annex  the  African  provinces  to  the  Eastern 
Empire.  In  398  the  forces  of  Rome  under  command 
of  Mascezel,  the  younger  brother  of  Gildo,  obtained 
an  almost  bloodless  victory  over  the  African  forces, 
and  the  tyranny  of  Gildo  came  to  an  end. 

That  which  concerns  us  in  this  episode  of  the 
usurpation  of  Gildo  is,  that  the  usurper  was  sup- 
ported  by  the  Donatists  of  Africa,  while  the  Catholics, 
though  they  offered  no  resistance  to  his  power,  were 
known  to  be  unfavourable  to  it.  The  fury  of  the  tyrant 
was  therefore  directed  against  the  orthodox  party, 
who  suffered  indignities  and  oppression  at  his  hands. 

It  was  in  the  second  year  of  Gildo's  usurpation 
that  Augustine  came  to  Africa,  it  was  in  his  fifth 
year  that  we  resume  the  narrative  in  this  chapter. 

The  city  of  Constantine  was  the  chief  city  of  the 


AUGUSTINE    ORDAINED    PRIEST   AT    HIPPO.       105 

province  of  Numidia  ;  Hippo  was  only  a  small  city  of 
the  same  province,  and  Thagaste  was  a  little,  incon 
siderable  town ;  but  the  situation  of  Hippo  as  a  sea 
port  and  its  fortifications  gave  it  a  certain  importance. 
It  was  situated  on  the  east  side  of  a  bold  promontory, 
formed  by  the  mountain  of  Papua,  a  spur  of  the 
Atlas  range  which  here  projects  into  the  Great  Sea. 
Its  principal  buildings  were  a  basilica,  baths,  and 
a  fortified  palace  situated  on  one  of  the  two  low  hills 
which  lay  within  its  enclosure.  Two  rivers  washed 
its  walls.  The  more  considerable — the  Sebus — 
flowing  past  its  eastern  face,  had  its  bed  artificially 
deepened  to  a  depth  of  25  feet,  so  as  to  form  an 
internal  port ;  the  remains  of  a  Roman  quay  may 
still  be  seen  along  its  left  bank.  Its  seaport  has 
shared  the  fate  of  that  of  Carthage,  in  being  filled 
up  with  sand.  On  the  opposite  bank,  the  discovery 
of  funereal  urns  shows  how  far  the  necropolis  of  the 
little  city  extended.  The  plains  on  the  north  of  the 
city  were  dominated  by  the  lofty  mountain  of  Papua, 
whose  lower  slopes  are  yet  clothed  with  a  forest  of 
magnificent  chestnut-trees,  and  whose  severe  peaks 
contrast  with  the  fertile  meadows  and  harvests,  the  fig- 
trees  and  vines,  which  clothe  the  plain.  The  aqueduct 
still  remains  which  conveyed  water  from  the  moun 
tain  to  the  city,  and  the  cisterns  in  which  it  was  stored. 
The  modern  town  of  Bona  is  built  out  of  the  ruins 
of  the  ancient  Hippo.  Its  population  consisted  of 
various  and  discordant  elements.  The  Donatist 
schismatics,  here  as  in  many  other  towns  of  Africa, 
were  the  most  numerous  and  dominant  party ;  there 
were  a  large  number  of  Manichseans,  and  some  Arians; 


106  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

there  was  a  strong  pagan  element ;  there  was  n. 
considerable  proportion  of  Jews ;  and  the  Catholic 
Church  had  no  easy  position  among  all  these  oppo 
nents.  The  Bishop  Valerius  was  a  man  of  earnest 
piety,  but  he  was  a  Greek  by  birth  ;  and  it  was  a 
disadvantage  to  himself  and  his  cause  that  he  was 
not  able  to  preach  fluently  in  Latin. 

Some  important  person  in  the  service  of  the  State 
at  Hippo  had  shown  a  disposition  to  embrace  the 
Catholic  faith,  and  even  to  adopt  the  religious  life,  and 
having  heard  of  the  reputation  of  the  learned  theo 
logian  and  ascetic  of  Thagaste,  had  expressed  a 
desire  to  confer  with  him  on  these  subjects.  Augus 
tine's  zeal  led  him  to  comply  with  his  wishes.  Arrived 
at  Hippo,  he  was  present  in  the  church — the  Basilica 
of  Peace — at  the  very  time  that  Bishop  Valerius  was 
preaching  to  the  people,  and  insisting  upon  the 
necessity  of  their  giving  a  new  priest  to  the  service 
of  the  Catholic  Church  of  the  city. 

At  this  time  it  was  a  wide-spread  practice  in  the 
Church  to  force  ordination  and  consecration  upon  men 
who  in  the  judgment  of  the  Church  were  well  quali 
fied  to  be  priests  and  bishops,  in  spite  of  their  un 
willingness.  The  theory  which  underlies  this  strange 
practice  was,  that  the  men  who  were  most  fit  for  it 
were  the  most  likely  to  shrink  from  the  responsibilities 
of  the  sacred  ministry,  and  therefore  it  was  thought 
right  to  regard  their  unwillingness  as  only  another 
proof  of  fitness,  and  to  use  a  holy  violence  in  forcing 
the  office  upon  them.  This  was  so  common  a  custom 
that  for  some  time  past  Augustine  had  avoided  any 
place  where  the  see  was  vacant,  lest  his  growing 


AUGUSTINE    ORDAINED    PRIEST   AT    HIPPO.        1 07 

reputation  should  lead  to  his  having  the  office  of 
bishop  thus  thrust  upon  him. 

While  Valerius  was  speaking  about  the  need  of 
another  priest,  some  who  recognised  Augustine 
made  known  that  he  was  present ;  the  people  laid 
hold  of  him,  and  at  once  presented  him  to  the  bishop 
for  ordination.  Augustine  made  what  opposition  he 
could,  but  without  avail ;  and  he  was  thus  by  surprise 
ordained  a  priest  of  the  Church  of  Hippo.  He  thus 
towards  the  end  of  the  year  390  commenced  the 
ministry  here,  which  as  priest  and  bishop  extended 
over  the  subsequent  forty  years. 

Valerius  was  not  ignorant  of  the  value  of  his  young 
priest,  and  made  full  use  of  his  talents  for  the  benefit 
of  his  church.  It  was  then  the  custom  in  the  churches 
of  Africa  for  the  bishop  only  to  preach,  but  Valerius 
had  the  courage  to  break  through  this  custom,  in  spite 
of  murmurs,  in  favour  of  Augustine,  and  made  him 
habitually  preach.  The  effect  of  his  eloquence  was 
such  as  fully  to  justify  the  innovation,  and  to  spread 
the  new  fashion,  so  that  in  a  short  time  it  became 
common  to  see  priests  in  the  pulpits  of  the  African 
churches.  It  was  not  only  in  the  pulpit  that  the 
talents  of  Augustine  were  made  useful,  the  aged 
bishop  was  glad  to  entrust  to  him  almost  the  entire 
administration  of  the  diocese. 

The  little  community  at  Thagaste  thus  suddenly 
deprived  of  its  head  was  not  broken  up.  After  his 
ordination,  Augustine  had  probably  returned  to  it  for 
the  brief  retreat  which  he  asked  of  his  bishop  in  order 
to  prepare  himself  for  the  office  which,  though  he  had 
received  it  unwillingly,  he  had  accepted  as  provi- 


IOS  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

dentially  laid  upon  him,  and  set  himself  with  all  his 
heart  and  powers  to  fulfil  its  sacred  duties.  Doubt 
less  he.  had  then  made  some  temporary  arrangement 
for  its  continuance ;  but  he  very  soon  established  a 
similar  monastery  in  the  gardens  adjoining  the  church 
of  Hippo  :  there  his  friends  Alypius  and  Evodius 
rejoined  him,  and  new  disciples,  Severus,  Possidius, 
and  others,  gathered  round  him  ;  and  he  again  re 
sumed,  so  far  as  his  duties  as  a  priest  permitted,  the 
life  which  he  had  originally  chosen.  When  he  suc 
ceeded  to  the  see,  Augustine  turned  his  episcopal 
house  into  a  kind  of  monastery,  in  which  he  lived  in 
common  with  his  clergy.  These  were  not  establish 
ments  of  mere  recluses,  but,  with  Augustine  to  form  the 
minds  and  morals  of  their  inmates,  they  came  to  serve 
the  purpose  of  a  "  theological  college "  for  the 
diocese,  and  even  for  neighbouring  dioceses ;  for 
the  fame  of  the  learning  and  holiness  of  these  esta 
blishments  spread  far  and  wide,  and  from  all  parts 
demands  were  continually  made  upon  Augustine  for 
his  disciples  to  be  ordained  as  priests.  Ten  of  them 
ultimately  became  bishops,  and  all  of  them  were 
judged  worthy  of  the  title  of  saint.  Among  them  are 
some  names  well  known  to  us :  Alypius  became  bishop 
of  Thagaste,  Evodius  of  Usala ;  Possidius,  one  of  the 
first  to  join  the  community  at  Hippo,  became  bishop 
of  Calamus,  and  is  one  of  the  two  contemporary  bio 
graphers  of  Augustine ;  Severus,  bishop  of  Milevis ; 
Profuturus,  of  Cirta,  succeeded  by  Fortunatus ; 
Urban,  of  Sicca ;  Boniface,  and  Peregrinus ;  the 
name  of  the  tenth  bishop  who  proceeded  from  the 
community  is  unknown  to  us.  The  monastery  at 


AUGUSTINE    ORDAINED    PRIEST    AT    HIPPO.       109 

Hippo  after  a  time  became  insufficient  for  the 
numbers  who  desired  to  enter  it,  and,  although  the 
city  was  not  a  very  considerable  one,  several  other 
such  religious  houses  were  opened  in  it. 

The  bishops  of  other  dioceses,  seeing  the  good 
fruits  of  the  monastery  of  Hippo,  established  similar 
communities  in  their  dioceses,  so  that  the  number  of 
such  houses  multiplied  rapidly;  the  wealthy  giving 
freely  of  their  wealth  to  aid  in  their  foundation. 
Augustine  also  founded  a  similar  house  for  women ; 
several  of  his  relations  entered  it,  and  his  sister  was 
for  a  long  time  its  head.  Augustine  seldom  visited 
it ;  he  made  it  a  rule  to  be  exceedingly  guarded  in 
his  relations  with  women ;  but  his  influence  gave 
a  tone  to  the  life  of  this  monastery  of  women ;  his 
authority  was  needed  sometimes  to  allay  dissensions  ; 
and  he  taught  them  by  means  of  letters  which  have 
come  down  to  us.  At  the  conclusion  of  one  of  these 
letters1  he  sketches  a  Rule,  whose  principles  are  com 
munity  of  life,  humility,  obedience,  and  prayer. 

We  have  already  said  that  there  were  many  Mani- 
chseans  at  Hippo,  they  were  numerous  throughout 
Africa,  and  at  the  moment  were  the  most  successful 
of  the  opponents  of  the  Catholic  faith.  Augustine 
entered  into  the  controversy  with  all  his  brilliant 
powers.  He  challenged  one  of  their  most  famous 
doctors,  a  priest  named  Fortunatus,  to  a  public 
discussion.  It  was  held  in  the  hall  of  the  principal 
baths  of  the  city,  the  Baths  of  Sosius,  and  For 
tunatus  was  so  completely  worsted  in  the  argument  in 

1  EP.  cix. 


110  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

the  face  of  friends  and  foes,  that  he  quitted  the  city 
never  to  return.  Augustine  also  wrote  at  this  time  two 
books  against  them,  "  On  the  Utility  of  the  Faith,"  and 
"  On  the  Two  Souls."  In  the  year  393,  on  the  advice 
of  Augustine,  a  General  Council  of  all  the  African 
churches  assembled  at  Hippo,  in  the  Basilica  of 
Peace,  under  the  presidency  of  Aurelius,  bishop  of 
Carthage.  The  reputation  of  Augustine  was  by  this 
time  so  great  and  so  universal,  that  though  only  a 
priest  he  was,  contrary  to  all  precedent,  invited  by 
the  council  to  pronounce  a  discourse  before  it.  He 
preached  "  on  the  Faith  and  the  Creed,"  treating  the 
subject  with  special  reference  to  the  prevalent  Mani- 
chaean  errors.  This  council,  in  consequence  of  some 
irregularity  which  had  occurred  through  ignorance, 
made  a  canon  that  the  Bishop  of  Carthage  should 
annually  notify  to  the  African  bishops  the  right  time 
for  the  observance  of  the  following  Easter,  a  notifica 
tion  which  he  himself  received,  according  to  ancient 
custom  formally  ratified  by  the  Council  of  Nicsea, 
from  the  Bishop  of  Alexandria;  and  also  that  a  General 
Council  of  the  African  Churches  should  be  held  an 
nually  at  Carthage  or  at  some  other  city,  and  that  all 
the  bishops  should  attend  in  person  or  by  representa 
tion.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  series  of  "plenary" 
councils  of  the  African  Churches,  whose  delibera 
tions  and  decisions  we  shall  find  exercised  a  consider 
able  influence  throughout  the  Church. 

It  was  not  only  against  the  Manichaeans  that 
Augustine  waged  a  ceaseless  war,  but  also  against 
the  Donatists,  the  rival  sect,  which,  holding  the  same 
faith  but  differing  on  some  questions  of  discipline, 


AUGUSTINE   ORDAINED    PRIEST    AT    HIPPO.       Ill 

divided  the  Christians  of  Africa  into  two  hostile  par 
ties,  and  thus  enfeebled  the  cause  of  the  true  faith  in 
the  presence  of  its  numerous  opponents. 

The  sect  had  existed  now  for  years  ;  in  many 
places  it  embraced  a  majority  of  the  Christian  in 
habitants.  Many  must  have  been  born  and  grown 
up  in  it,  and  accepted  it  as  the  true  Church,  without 
having  ever  inquired  into  the  history  of  the  schism 
and  the  grounds  of  its  justification.  It  only  needed 
that  their  serious  attention  should  be  gained  to  the 
consideration  of  the  historical  facts  and  the  obvious 
arguments  to  win  back  many  of  them  to  the  Catholic 
Church.  Augustine  was  eminently  qualified  for  the 
work.  His  reputation  attracted  Donatists  as  well 
as  Catholics  to  his  preaching ;  and  once  under  the 
influence  of  his  dialectical  skill  and  his  winning  elo 
quence  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  he  won  many 
over  to  the  ranks  of  the  Church.  He  was  indefati 
gable  in  his  endeavours,  in  public  addresses  and 
private  conversations,  by  writing  books  against  them 
and  replying  to  their  books.  He  wrote  letters  to  each 
of  their  bishops  and  to  the  most  considerable  of  their 
party  to  beg  them  to  return  within  the  pale  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  or  at  least  to  enter  into  communi 
cation  on  the  subject  of  their  division  with  the 
doctors  of  the  Church.  Finding  his  letters  in 
effectual,  he  sought  opportunities  of  making  a  per 
sonal  appeal  to  them,  and  besought  them,  "  in  the 
name  of  God,  let  us  together  seek  for  the  truth." 
"  Take  care,"  they  replied,  "  of  your  own.  You  have 
your  flock,  and  we  have  ours,  leave  ours  alone  as  we 
leave  yours  alone."  "  Here,"  replied  Augustine.  "  is 


I  [  2  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

your  flock,  and  here  is  ours,  but  where  is  that  which 
Jesus  Christ  purchased  with  His  blood  ?"  But  the 
chiefs  of  the  Donatists  refused  to  enter  into  con 
ference  with  him,  and  even  tried  to  prevent  their 
writings  from  falling  into  his  hands,  since  that  gave 
him  the  opportunity  of  publishing  crushing  replies. 
But  they  preached  openly  that  Augustine  was  not  to 
be  considered  as  a  man  of  holy  life,  but  as  a  wolf 
who  ravaged  the  flock,  and  that  whoever  killed  him 
would  obtain  of  God  remission  of  his  sins  as  the 
reward  of  his  good  deed.  What  made  Augustine 
assail  the  schism  of  the  Donatists  with  greater  per 
tinacity  than  any  other  of  the  sects  which  were  sepa 
rated  from  the  Church,  was  the  fear  that  Catholics 
should  think  this  schism  a  matter  of  small  importance, 
and  that  people  should  be  encouraged  to  continue 
in  it. 

The  reputation  of  Augustine  increased  day  by  day, 
and  the  good  old  bishop  and  the  Catholics  of  Hippo 
feared  lest  some  day  he  should  be  called  to  fill  some 
vacant  see  and  they  should  lose  the  invaluable  advan 
tage  of  his  services  and  great  talents.  The  Bishop, 
moreover,  was  growing  less  and  less  capable  of  dis 
charging  the  duties  of  the  Episcopate.  Valerius 
therefore  proposed  that  Augustine  should  be  at  once 
consecrated  bishop-coadjutor  and  should  succeed 
him  at  Hippo.  Megalus,  bishop  of  Calamus,  the 
primate  of  Numidia,  alone  raised  a  voice  against  the 
proposal,  on  the  ground  of  some  calumnious  reports 
against  Augustine,  but  on  inquiry  into  those  reports 
he  was  convinced  of  their  falsity,  and  consented 
himself  to  act  as  the  chief  of  the  consecrating  bishops. 


AUGUSTINE   ORDAINED    PRIEST   AT    HIPPO.        113 

Augustine  was  consecrated  bishop  at  the  close  of  the 
year  395.  Within  a  few  months  Valerius  departed 
to  his  rest,  and  Augustine,  at  the  age  of  forty-one,  com 
menced  the  episcopate,  which  for  five-and-thirty  years 
he  exercised  indeed  at  Hippo,  but  for  the  advan 
tage  of  the  whole  Church,  not  only  of  that  but  of 
all  succeeding  ages. 

The  long  episcopate  of  Augustine  has  little  of 
external  incident  to  mark  the  efflux  of  its  five-and- 
thirty  years ;  indeed,  from  his  conversion  to  his 
death  there  is  little  of  incident  in  his  life ;  and  the 
few  incidents  made  little  real  difference  to  his  life. 
His  writings  are  the  real  work  of  his  life,  and  it  is 
very  probable  that  we  should  have  had  the  "  Confes 
sions  "  and  "  Soliloquies,"  the  work  "  On  the  Trinity  " 
and  "  The  City  of  God,"  all  the  same  if  he  had  con 
tinued  to  live  the  life  of  a  recluse  in  his  retreat  at 
Thagaste. 

Much  of  the  literary  work  of  Augustine  was  con 
troversial.  We  have  more  than  once  alluded  to  the 
manifold  divisions  of  society  in  Africa,  and  the  bitter 
ness  of  their  mutual  animosities.  It  was  natural  to 
one  of  Augustine's  philosophical  interest  in  all  phases 
of  human  opinion  that  he  should  seek  to  comprehend 
in  all  their  breadth  and  fathom  to  their  depths  all 
these  various  systems.  It  was  inevitable  that  one  so 
skilled  in  the  use  of  all  the  weapons  of  controversy 
should  take  a  certain  pleasure  in  the  conflict  and  the 
victory.  He  recognised  it  as  a  duty  to  God  and  his 
Church  to  use  the  powers  which  God  had  given 
him  in  the  defence  of  the  truth. 

Three  great  controversies  extend  over  almost  the 
H 


114  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

whole  of  his  Christian  life  :  against  the  Manichaeans, 
against  the  Donatists,  and  against  the  Pelagians. 
The  parties  which  then  loomed  so  large,  and  seemed 
to  threaten  the  faith  or  divide  the  unity  of  the  Church, 
have  been  dead  a  thousand  years ;  but  some  of  the 
principles  which  underlay  these  parties  lie  in  human 
nature,  and  reappear  from  time  to  time.  Wild  specu 
lations  about  the  origin  of  the  universe  exercise  the 
mind  of  this  generation,  and  form  the  special  attrac 
tion  against  which  the  Church  has  to  contend  in  this 
nineteenth  century,  just  as  Manichseanism  did  in  the 
fourth.  A  Puritan  dissatisfaction  with  the  laxity  of 
Church  discipline  has  given  rise  in  England  to  a 
formidable  and  long-standing  sectarian  rivalry  with 
the  Church,  which  now  among  us,  as  then  in  Africa, 
is  the  greatest  cause  of  the  weakness  of  our  Christianity 
in  the  face  of  infidelity  and  vice.  An  unconscious 
trust  in  the  force  of  human  will,  and  tacit  disbelief  in 
the  necessity  of  God's  grace,  probably  go  towards  form 
ing  that  sturdy  self-reliance  and  dislike  of  religious 
sentiment  which  are  strongly  characteristic  of  our 
English  temper.  In  fine,  the  English  society  of  the 
present  day  is  not  so  very  unlike  that  of  Africa  in  the 
time  of  Augustine  in  the  multiplicity  of  its  religious 
divisions.  God  grant  that  our  "  unhappy  divisions  " 
lead  not  in  our  case,  as  in  theirs,  to  the  same  con 
clusion.  The  Church  of  North  Africa  is  the  only 
great  division  of  the  ancient  Church  of  God  which 
has  entirely  ceased  to  exist,  and  that  utter  ruin  is  to 
be  plainly  traced  to  its  internal  dissensions  and  mutual 
antagonisms. 


SAINT   AUGUSTINE.  [15 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

EXPIRING     PAGANISM. 

Madaura — Calamus — The  Pagan  Riots  at  Calamus — Corre 
spondence  with  the  People  of  Madaura — With  Dioscorus — 
With  Longinianus. 

THE  ancient  paganism  still  lingered,  not  only  in  the 
country  districts  but  in  some  of  the  towns.  The 
town  of  Madaura,  to  whose  school  the  boy  Augustine 
was  sent,  we  have  already  learnt,  was  a  town  where 
the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  were  still  pagan,  and 
where  the  statues  of  the  ancient  gods  still  uninjured 
adorned  the  forum.  Calamus,  one  of  the  most  im 
portant  towns  of  Numidia,  was  another  in  which  the 
pagan  element  was  still  numerous.  Considerable 
ruins  of  this  town,  now  called  Ghelma,  about  sixty 
miles  south  of  Hippo,  still  remain,  with  its  basilica, 
its  theatre,  and  its  outer  wall  in  fair  preservation. 

A  law  of  Honorius,  of  the  year  407,  Nov.  24,  had 
forbidden  the  celebration  of  the  pagan  solemnities, 
but  when  the  ist  of  June  arrived  in  the  following 
year  the  pagan  inhabitants  of  Calamus  defied  the  law, 
and  celebrated  their  solemn  festival,  which  was,  per 
haps,  that  of  Flora.  Not  content  with  this  assertion 
of  their  own  religion,  the  spirit  of  antagonism  to  the 
rival  religion,  whose  legal  supremacy  they  thus  pro-, 
tested  against,  broke  out  in  some  acts  of  outrage  and 
H  2 


1  I  6  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

violence  against  the  Christians  of  the  town.  The 
troops  of  dancers,  celebrating  their  solemnities,  passed 
in  insulting  procession  before  the  doors  of  the  church. 
The  clergy,  having  endeavoured  to  prevent  the  insult, 
were  assailed  with  stones,  as  were  all  the  Christian 
congregation.  A  week  after,  the  Bishop  of  Calamus 
took  an  opportunity  to  remind  the  assembled  citizens 
of  the  Imperial  law,  though  no  one  indeed  was  ignor 
ant  of  it ;  and  again  the  mob  assailed  the  church 
with  showers  of  stones.  Two  days  afterwards  the 
magistrates  of  the  town  refused  an  audience  to  the 
clergy  who  demanded  that  their  complaints  should 
be  put  on  record  in  the  public  acts.  The  same  day 
a  heavy  hailstorm  fell  upon  the  city.  The  pagans 
attributed  the  unwonted  visitation  to  the  Christians, 
and  in  revenge  assailed  them  with  stones  for  the 
third  time ;  moreover,  they  set  fire  to  the  church  and 
the  houses  of  the  priests,  and  one  of  the  priests  was 
killed.  The  bishop  was  only  saved  by  concealing 
himself  in  a  recess  whence  he  could  hear  the  cries 
of  those  who  sought  to  kill  him.  This  riot  was 
allowed  to  proceed  from  ten  in  the  morning  till 
night  was  far  advanced  without  any  attempt  on  the 
part  of  the  authorities  of  the  city  to  put  a  stop  to  the 
disorder.  A  stranger  of  some  authority  or  influence 
interposed  to  save  some  of  the  clergy  from  the  hands 
of  the  mob,  and  to  rescue  some  of  the  things  which 
had  been  plundered.  Augustine  visited  the  town  to 
console  the  sufferers,  and  was  entreated  by  the  chief 
pagan  inhabitants  of  the  town  to  interpose  his  good 
offices  to  save  them  from  the  punishment  to  which 
the  riotous  conduct  of  the  mob  and  the  connivance 


EXPIRING    PAGANISM.  117 

of  the  magistrates  had  rendered  the  whole  town 
liable.  We  have  also  one  of  two  letters  written  by 
Nectarius,  asking  his  intercession  for  the  offenders, 
and  drawing  a  pitiful  picture  of  a  town  whose  citizens 
are  dragged  to  execution.  Augustine  replies,  a  little 
warmly,  that  he  does  not  understand  what  Nectarius 
means  by  his  picture ;  Augustine  is  not  aware  that 
any  such  fate  threatens  Calamus.  But  he  asks  Nec 
tarius  if  he  does  not  think  it  right  that  the  pagans 
who  pillage  Catholics,  and  kill  them,  and  burn  their 
houses,  should  be  restrained  by  fear  of  punishment ; 
which  just  punishment,  he  intimates,  he  declines  to 
take  any  steps  to  avert. 

Another  illustration  of  the  attitude  of  the  expiring 
paganism  towards  Christianity,  of  a  very  different 
kind,  but  equally  interesting  in  its  way,  is  supplied 
by  several  series  of  correspondence  between  Augus 
tine  and  some  pagan  contemporaries.  The  inhabit 
ants  of  Madaura  having  to  write  to  Augustine  on 
some  matter  of  business  addressed  him  as  "  Father," 
and  wished  him  "  health  in  the  Lord."  "  Our  most 
honoured  lord,"  they  said,  lt  may  God  and  his  Christ 
give  you  in  the  midst  of  your  clergy  a  long  and  happy 
life."  Augustine  says  in  consequence  of  these  expres 
sions  he  has  made  inquiries  of  the  bearer  of  their 
letter  and  found  that  Madaura  has  not  changed. 
But  in  that  case  they  are  only  playing  with  the 
name  of  Christ.  He  takes  advantage  of  these  ex 
pressions  to  call  their  serious  attention  to  Christianity. 
He  calls  their  attention  to  various  prophecies  of 
the  Scriptures  which  have  been  fulfilled ;  to  the 
dispersion  of  the  Jews  over  all  the  world  and  the 


Il8  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

cessation  of  the  kingdom  among  them  ;  to  the 
immense  progress  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ  which 
arose  among  the  Jews, — these  are  the  evidences 
which  he  invites  them  to  consider.  He  points  out 
to  them  the  fate  of  the  idols  and  their  temples  : 
no  one  dreams  of  raising  again  the  temples  which 
have  fallen  into  ruin ;  some  are  closed,  with  no  one 
to  care  for  them ;  others  have  been  diverted  to  other 
uses.  The  idols  are  broken,  burnt,  or  buried.  The 
powers  which  persecuted  the  Christians  in  the  name 
of  the  false  gods  have  been  vanquished,  not  by  the 
arms  of  the  followers  of  Christ,  but  by  their  patient 
courage  under  the  axe  of  the  executioner.  The 
sovereign  majesty  is  turned  against  the  idols  and 
kneels  at  the  tomb  of  a  fisherman.  No  prophecy 
has  proved  vain  :  the  Last  Judgment  has  been  fore 
told  ;  that  will  be  fulfilled  also.  There  is  no  longer 
an  excuse  for  not  going  to  Christ  when  everything 
proclaims  His  glory.  The  name  of  Christ  is  in  the 
mouths  of  all  men  who  desire  to  fulfil  a  duty  or  to  rise 
to  a  virtue.  He  defines  God  and  His  Word,  explains 
the  Incarnation,  and  declares  all  there  is  which  is  so 
marvellously  powerful  in  the  Incarnation  of  God. 
In  conclusion,  he  says  to  the  citizens  of  Madaura  that 
he  should  not  have  spoken  to  them  of  Jesus  Christ, 
if  they  had  not  spoken  of  Him  in  their  letter.  He 
entreats  them  to  abandon  error,  and  in  return  for 
their  addressing  him  as  father,  he  says  that  he  regards 
them  not  only  as  brethren  but  as  fathers,  in  memory 
of  the  instruction  with  which  Madaura  had  nourished 
his  youthful  intelligence.  Another  similar  opportunity 
was  given  him  by  Dioscorus,  a  learned  pagan,  the 


EXPIRING    PAGANISM.  119 

Emperor's  remembrancer,  who  wrote  to  Augustine,  on 
his  ancient  renown  as  a  rhetorician,  to  consult  him 
on  some  passages  of  Cicero.  The  bishop  excuses 
himself  courteously  from  discussing  Cicero,  but  asks 
his  correspondent's  consideration  of  what  he  ventures 
to  put  before  him  on  the  subject  of  Christianity. 
Dioscorus,  we  learn,  in  the  end  became  a  Christian. 

Three  letters  also  remain  of  a  correspondence 
between  Augustine  and  Longinianus,  who  was  perhaps 
a  grammarian  at  Madaura.  Augustine,  who  had  had 
some  relations  with  him,  and  believed  him  to  be  a 
man  sincerely  desirous  of  knowing  the  truth  and 
acting  rightly,  was  the  first  to  write,  asking  him  what 
he  thought  of  Christ,  and  whether  he  was  of  opinion 
that  it  was  possible  to  attain  the  happy  life  by  the 
way  of  Christianity ;  and,  if  so,  by  that  way  only  ?  If 
Longinianus  does  not  walk  in  that  way,  is  it  in  con 
sequence  of  some  doubt,  or  of  mere  delay  ? 

Longinianus,  in  reply,  addresses  him  as  his  very 
venerable  lord  and  very  holy  father ;  he  regards  it  as 
a  happiness  of  which  he  is  quite  unworthy,  to  have 
received  a  letter  from  this  great  and  good  man  ;  it  is 
like  a  ray  of  his  virtues  which  has  come  to  shine  upon 
his  own  face.  Augustine  has  imposed  a  great  burden 
in  putting  such  questions  to  a  man  of  his  belief, 
especially  at  such  a  time.  Longinianus  professes  to 
follow  a  teaching  rich  in  moral  precepts,  which  he 
declares  to  be  more  ancient  than  Socrates,  more 
ancient  than  the  books  of  the  Jews,  the  glory  of 
which  he  attributes  to  Orpheus,  to  Ages,  to  Tris- 
megistus,  mediators  in  old  time  between  the  gods  and 
the  world,  in  the  beginning  of  the  ages,  before 


120  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  had  a  name.  This  was  the 
language  of  neo-platonism.  But  his  vague  philosophic 
faith  does  not  hinder  his  respect  for  Augustine.  He 
can  see  nothing  in  all  the  ages  comparable  with  the 
bishop  of  Hippo — at  least  if  one  does  not  accept  as 
historical  the  ideal  portrait  (of  Socrates)  drawn  by 
Xenophon.  He  swears  that  he  has  seen  nothing, 
read  nothing,  which  approaches  the  bishop  for  his 
profound  and  constant  labour  for  God,  and  for  his 
purity  of  heart  and  firmness  of  belief.  Augustine 
asks  him  by  what  way  one  may  attain  to  God  :  it  is 
for  the  bishop  rather  to  teach  him.  Longinianus  does 
not  pretend  yet  to  possess  all  which  is  necessary  to 
raise  a  man  towards  the  throne  of  the  eternal  good, 
but  he  is  engaged  in  laying  up  provisions  for  the 
journey.  "  You  wish  me,"  he  says,  "  to  tell  you  what 
according  to  my  views  is  the  way  which  leads  most 
surely  to  God.  Hear,  then,  that  which  our  fathers  have 
taught  me  :  piety  and  justice,  purity  and  innocence, 
truth  in  word  and  deed,  perseverance  in  spite  of  the 
instability  of  human  affairs,  the  protecting  aid  of 
the  gods,  the  support  of  the  divine  powers,  or 
rather  of  the  powers  of  the  sole  and  universal  God, 
incomprehensible  and  ineffable,  those  powers  which 
you  call  angels,  the  solemn  rites  of  the  ancient  sacri 
fices,  and  the  salutary  expiations  which  purify  the 
souls  and  bodies  of  mortals, — this,  according  to  the 
teaching  of  our  ancestors,  this  is  the  safe  road  which 
leads  man  to  God.  As  for  Christ,  this  God  formed 
of  flesh  and  spirit,  who  is  the  God  of  your  belief, 
by  whom  you  believe  yourself  certain  to  attain  to  the 
supreme,  blessed,  and  true  Creator,  the  Father  of  all. 


EXPIRING    PAGANISM.  121 

I  neither  can  nor  dare  tell  you  all  I  think  of  Him," 
Longinianus  ends  by  saying  that  his  sole  merit  is  in 
his  respect  for  Augustine.  To  this  Augustine  gives  an 
admirable  reply,  "  Without  grace  human  virtue  is  not 
able  to  lead  us  to  God,  nor  are  pious  practices  able  to 
lead  us  to  virtue.  Virtue,  no  doubt,  is  of  more  value 
than  sacrifices  and  expiations,  but  it  can  do  nothing 
without  grace.  The  grace  of  God  comes  first  as  the 
cause  of  all  good ;  then  human  virtue  flowing  from 
the  grace  of  God ;  lastly,  the  religious  practices  which 
assist  virtue,  but  do  not  take  its  place  :  these  are 
the  methods,  and  these  only,  which,  in  their  union, 
are  able  to  lead  man  to  God."  We  need  not  con 
tinue  the  correspondence.  We  have  only  cited  it  as 
an  illustration  of  the  attitude  of  the  latest  generation 
of  cultured  paganism  towards  the  Christianity  before 
which  it  was  vanishing  out  of  existence. 


122  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

AUGUSTINE'S  RELATIONS  WITH  ILLUSTRIOUS 
CONTEMPORARIES. 

Contemporary  great  Churchmen — Correspondence  with  Simpli- 
cianus — Paulinus  of  Nola — Licentius — Jerome. 

ONE  of  the  most  remarkable  features  of  the  age  of 
which  we  are  writing  is  that  it  includes  so  many  of 
the  greatest  names  among  the  great  fathers  of  the 
Church.  Antony,  the  father  of  the  ascetic  life  (died 
A.D.  356),  Athanasius  (died  373),  Basil  (died  380), 
Gregory  of  Nazianzum  (died  390),  Ambrose  (died 
397),  Chrysostom  (died  401),  Jerome  (died  420), 
Augustine  (died  430),  and  others  of  lesser  note  were 
contemporaries,  or  nearly  so.  The  admirable  postal 
arrangements  of  the  Roman  Empire  made  travelling 
easy  and  safe  throughout  its  vast  extent,  and  commu 
nication  by  letter  conveyed  by  friends  was  not  infre 
quent.  All  the  great  men  of  this  period  with  whom 
we  are  acquainted  maintained  a  large  correspondence 
with  all  parts  of  the  Empire,  and  their  letters  are 
always  a  most  interesting  and  important  part  of  their 
writings.  Of  the  letters  of  Augustine  one  hundred 
and  fifty  have  come  down  to  us,  beginning  with  the 
time  of  his  retreat  at  Cassiacum  and  extending  to  the 
last  years  of  his  life,  addressed  to  correspondents  in 
almost  all  parts  of  Christendom. 


AUGUSTINE   AND    HIS    CONTEMPORARIES.         123 

One  feature  of  this  intercommunication,  which  is 
of  special  interest,  is  the  intercourse  which  the  great 
Churchmen  of  the  time  maintained  with  one  another. 
The  question  of  the  circulation  or  the  publication  of 
their  books  falls  into  the  same  category.  For  the 
books  of  a  great  writer  were  multiplied  by  scribes,  and 
sent  by  him  to  personal  friends  and  illustrious  contem 
poraries,  while  friends  and  contemporaries  often  wrote 
to  beg  for  copies  of  new  works  from  the  great  authors. 

We  shall  find  it  interesting  to  note  a  few  examples 
of  the  communications  of  Augustine  with  his  contem 
poraries. 

We  have  already  seen  that,  though  Augustine  was 
for  some  years  a  resident  at  Milan  and  its  immediate 
neighbourhood,  and  though  Ambrose  was  his  spiritual 
father,  yet  the  personal  intercourse  between  them  was 
small.  Ambrose  seems  not  to  have  recognised  the 
genius,  and  could  not  foresee  the  future  eminence  of 
the  young  rhetoric  professor,  who  attended  his  sermons 
and  who  at  last  sought  baptism  at  his  hands.  And  in 
after-life,  when  Augustine  had  become  famous,  there 
seems  to  have  been  little  intercourse  between  them. 
On  the  death  of  Ambrose  (A.D.  3971)  he  was  suc 
ceeded  by  the  good  old  Simplician,  who  had  been 
Ambrose's  spiritual  father,  and  who,  we  have  seen,  had 
also  been  useful  to  Augustine  in  the  throes  of  his  own 
conversion.1  He  at  once  wrote  to  Augustine,  and 
spoke  in  high  terms  of  Augustine's  works  ;  and 
suggested  several  subjects  for  his  consideration. 
These  questions  of  Simplician  are  the  origin  of  a 

1  See  p.  64,  infra. 


124  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

treatise  in  two  chapters,1  which  deal  with  some  of  the 
deepest  questions  of  theology. 

Another  of  the  correspondents  of  Augustine, 
Paulinus  of  Nola,  a  great  name  in  his  day,  may  need 
some  words  of  introduction  to  our  readers.  Born  at 
Bordeaux,  in  353,  of  a  senatorial  house,  of  great 
ability,  and  highly  cultured,  he  rose  to  the  first  digni 
ties  of  the  Empire.  Himself  the  possessor  of  a  rich 
patrimony,  he  married  Therasia,  one  of  the  richest 
heiresses  of  Spain.  At  the  age  of  forty,  with  the  con 
currence  of  his  wife,  he  renounced  the  enjoyment  of 
wealth  and  honour,  of  society  and  literature  ;  retired 
to  Spain,  and  lived  a  life  of  voluntary  poverty ;  dis 
posing  gradually  of  all  his  wealth,  and  distributing  it  in 
works  of  piety  and  charity.  It  is  said  that  he  gave 
the  first  example  of  that  heroism  of  charity  which 
was  afterwards  exhibited  by  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  in 
giving  himself  up  as  a  slave  in  order  to  effect  the 
release  of  the  son  of  a  poor  widow,  since  he  had 
nothing  else  wherewith  to  ransom  him.  The  people 
of  Barcelona,  where  he  lived,  forced  the  priesthood 
upon  him,  after  the  fashion  of  which  we  have  seen 
one,  and  shall  see  some  other  examples,  in  spite  of 
his  unwillingness.  ';  Not,"  he  says,  "  that  I  had  a 
distaste  for  the  office,  but  because  I  did  not  desire  to 
establish  myself  at  Barcelona."  In  effect  in  the  follow 
ing  year  he  went  into  Italy,  where  he  made  the  friend 
ship  of  Ambrose,  and  finally  settled  in  a  country-house 
in  the  environs  of  Nola.  He  had  a  special  devotion 

•    "  De  Diversis  Quoestionibus  ad  Simplicianum." 


AUGUSTINE   AND    HIS    CONTEMPORARIES.         125 

to  St.  Felix,  whose  tomb  was  at  Nola ;  the  popular 
devotion  had  already  surrounded  the  tomb  with  five 
large  churches  ;  Paulinus  added  a  sixth  of  still  greater 
architectural  beauty,  and  decorated  it  with  pictures  of 
subjects  from  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  on 
every  anniversary  of  the  Saint's  festival,  being  a  poet  of 
some  skill,  he  produced  a  hymn  in  his  honour.  Besides 
works  in  verse  and  prose,  he  has  left  a  considerable 
correspondence,  and  his  writings  justify  the  reputation 
he  had  among  his  contemporaries.  Long  after  the 
date  at  which  we  introduce  him  to  the  reader,  the 
people  of  Nola  forced  the  bishopric  of  the  place  upon 
him.  But  at  the  time  of  which  we  are  writing  the 
ex -consul  was  a  simple  ascetic. 

Alypius,  who  was  acquainted  with  him,  sent  him 
copies  of  some  of  the  works  of  Augustine.  Paulinus 
thereupon  wrote  to  Augustine,  expressing  his  admira 
tion  of  the  works  which  had  reached  him ;  asking  for 
his  other  works ;  and  proposing  some  questions  to 
him  on  points  which  had  occupied  his  own  thoughts. 

This  correspondence  between  Augustine  and 
Faulinus  brings  forward  again  one  of  the  minor 
characters  of  the  history  in  whom  we  have  learned  to 
take  some  interest.  The  young  Licentius  the  son 
of  Romanianus,  Augustine's  former  pupil,  one  of  the 
little  group  of  students  at  Cassiacum,  had  written  to 
his  old  master.  He  was  now  in  Italy,  and  was 
not  living  satisfactorily.  He  had  continued  to  cul 
tivate  his  love  of  versification,  and  his  letter  to 
Augustine  was  in  verse,  in  which,  in  the  midst  of 
classical  conceits  were  some  verses  of  a  more 


126  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

natural  tone  of  thought,  in  which  he  expresses  fond 
recollections  of  the  days  passed  at  Cassiacum,  and 
regrets  his  absence  from  his  master.  Augustine 
writes  an  affectionate  letter  of  good  counsel  to 
Licentius,  and  begs  him  to  go  and  see  Paulinus  of 
Nola.  This  he  encloses  in  one  to  his  father  Roma- 
nianus  ;  and  at  the  same  time  encloses  one  to  Paulinus 
in  which  he  asks  two  proofs  of  his  friendship  :  first, 
that  he  will  give  him  a  faithful  criticism  of  his  books, 
acting  the  part  of  the  righteous  in  smiting  him 
friendly,  and  reproving  him,  and  not  of  the  wicked, 
who  break  the  head  with  the  precious  balm  of  flattery; 
secondly  he  commends  Licentius,  whom  he  calls  his 
son,  to  the  kindness  of  Paulinus.  In  the  following 
year  we  find  Paulinus  writing  a  letter  to  Romanianus, 
and  adding  an  address,  half  in  prose,  half  in  verse,  to 
Licentius,  in  which  he  urges  him  to  listen  to  the  voice 
of  Augustine,  and  to  give  himself  to  God.  We  learn 
that  in  the  end  Licentius  fulfilled  the  dearest  wishes 
of  these  two  great  saints  on  his  behalf. 

The  relations  of  Augustine  with  Jerome  have  a 
considerable  interest  and  some  theological  impor 
tance.  The  contrast  between  these  two  great  men — 
the  two  greatest  Churchmen  of  their  age — heightens 
the  interest  of  their  relations.  The  aged  scholar, 
once  the  secretary  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  the  leader 
of  the  ascetic  party  which  had  sprung  up  among  the 
ladies  of  the  great  Roman  houses,  a  candidate 
for  the  see  of  Rome,  had  now  been  settled  for  many 
years  in  the  cell  of  his  monastery  beside  the  grotto 
of  Bethlehem.  He  was  the  greatest  scholar  of  the 


AUGUSTINE   AND    HIS    CONTEMPORARIES.         127 

age,  from  his  cell  had  proceeded  those  careful  re 
censions  of  the  texts  of  the  sacred  books,  those  invalu 
able  translations,  those  learned  commentaries,  which 
have  been  of  inestimable  advantage  to  the  whole 
Western  Church  from  that  day  to  this.  Age,  which 
had  ripened  his  scholarship  and  increased  his  repu 
tation,  had  not  tamed  his  fiery  temper  or  taken  the 
edge  off  his  bitter  pen. 

The  youthful  priest,  and  presently  bishop,  of  Hippo, 
was  rapidly  rising  into  a  reputation,  not  inferior  to 
that  of  Jerome,  but  based  on  different  qualities. 
Augustine  was  the  profoundest  Christian  metaphy 
sician  of  that  or  perhaps  any  subsequent  age ;  of  a 
temper  the  opposite  of  Jerome's,  kindly  and  sensitive ; 
as  skilful  in  the  weapons  of  controversy  as  Jerome, 
but  his  opposite  in  tone ;  courteous  and  polished ; 
always  seeking  to  persuade  and  win,  rather  than,  like 
Jerome,  to  refute  and  overwhelm. 

This  comparison  between  them  is  suggested  by  the 
fact  that  the  relations  between  them  for  many  years 
were  those  of  controversy.  Some  details  of  this 
famous  discussion  have  been  given  in  the  life  of 
Jerome  l  in  the  series  of  which  the  present  is  another 
volume ;  we  need,  therefore,  here  give  no  more  than 
the  slightest  sketch  of  it,  with  such  special  incidents  or 
extracts  as  will  illustrate  the  character  of  Augustine. 

In  his  commentary  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Gala- 
tians  Jerome  had  explained  the  scene  between  Peter 
and  Paul  at  Antioch,  when  Paul  rebuked  Peter  to 
his  face  for  having  taken  part  with  the  Judaizing 

1  "  The  Fathers  for  English  Readers  :  Jerome,"  chap.  xxiv. 


128  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

Christians  (Gal.  ii.  11-14),  on  the  theory  that  the 
scene  had  been  preconcerted  between  the  Apostles, 
and  that  the  pretended  rebuke  of  Paul  and  submis 
sion  of  Peter  was,  in  fact,  a  pious  fraud.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  year  395  Augustine,  then  a  priest  at 
Hippo,  of  the  age  of  41,  wrote  for  the  first  time  to  the 
illustrious  solitary  of  Bethlehem,  then  of  the  age  of 
64.  He  had  lately  received  news  of  him  by  Alypius, 
who  had  returned  from  a  visit  to  the  Holy  Land. 
He  tells  him  that  he  knows  him  through  his  works 
as  well  as  he  knows  any  man  in  the  world ;  what  he 
does  not  know  of  him  is  the  least  important  part  of 
him,  his  person ;  and  that  even  in  this  respect 
Alypius's  description  has  put  him  as  it  were  living 
before  his  eyes.  He  begs  him  to  oblige  the  Christian 
students  of  Africa  by  giving  them  a  Latin  translation 
of  the  Greek  versions  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Lastly, 
he  speaks  of  his  commentary  on  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians.  It  appears  to  him  dangerous  to  admit 
that  the  inspired  authors  used  deceit  in  any  particular, 
as  opening  the  door  to  the  most  disastrous  assaults 
upon  the  faith  ;  and  begs  Jerome's  serious  reconside 
ration  of  the  question. 

This  letter  was  entrusted  to  Profuturus,  who  was 
about  to  travel  to  the  Holy  Land ;  he  was  also  the 
bearer  of  some  of  Augustine's  works,  which  he  sends 
for  Jerome's  acceptance,  begging  him — as  he  had 
begged  Paulinus — to  give  him  his  impartial  criticisms, 
citing  to  him  also  the  text  of  the  Psalms  :  "  The 
righteous  shall  reprove  me  and  correct  me  with 
mercy,  but  the  oil  of  the  wicked  shall  not  touch  my 
head  ; "  he  confesses  that  he  is  always  a  bad  judge  of 


AUGUSTINE   AND    HIS   CONTEMPORARIES.         I2y 

his  own  works,  sometimes  through  too  much  want  of 
self-confidence,  sometimes  through  too  much  self- 
satisfaction.  Unfortunately,  just  as  Profuturus  was 
about  to  set  out,  he  was  forced  to  accept  the  see  of 
Constantine,  and  the  books  and  letters  of  Augustine 
failed  to  find  their  way  to  Bethlehem. 

Two  years  later  Augustine,  now  bishop,  received  a 
brief  note  from  Jerome,  introducing  some  traveller  to 
his  good  offices,  and  took  the  opportunity  to  write 
again.  His  letter  is  full  of  terms  of  respect  and 
affection ;  but  he  returns  again  to  the  question  on 
which  he  had  written  already.  He  insists  upon  the 
grave  consequences  of  admitting  that  falsehood  enters, 
though  only  in  one  point,  into  the  divine  books.  He 
does  not  desire  to  add  his  mite  to  the  treasure  oi 
Jerome's  erudition,  but  he  suggests  that  nothing  can 
be  more  proper  than  that  Jerome  should  himself 
correct  the  statement  which  has  escaped  him  in  this 
place  of  his  commentary,  and  invites  him  to  sing  his 
Palinode,  since  the  beauty  of  Christian  truth  is 
greater  than  that  of  the  Grecian  Helen.  This  letter 
was  entrusted  to  a  priest  named  Paul  for  conveyance. 
But,  by  great  ill  fortune,  this  letter  also  was  not  carried 
to  its  destination.  Neither  of  the  two  letters,  how 
ever,  were  lost,  they  were  handed  about  with  other 
writings  of  Augustine ;  were  copied,  and  got  into 
general  circulation  ;  and  only  in  this  way,  after  long 
delay,  came  indirectly  to  the  knowledge  of  Jerome. 

At  length,  after  no    less    than    seven    years  had 

elapsed,  viz.,  in  402,  a  traveller  from  the  Holy  Land 

informed  Augustine   that    it    was    the    talk    of    the 

monasteries    of    Bethlehem    that   he   had   attacked 

i 


130  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

Jerome  in  a  book,  which  he  had  not  sent  to  him,  and 
that  he  was  seeking  to  increase  his  own  reputation 
by  attacking  that  of  Jerome  without  giving  him  the 
opportunity  to  reply.  Augustine  immediately  wrote 
again  to  Jerome,  disclaiming  the  writing  of  such  a 
book  and  the  being  actuated  by  such  intentions. 

Jerome  then  at  length  replied.  It  was  not  a  book 
in  which  he  was  charged  with  having  attacked  him,  but 
a  letter ;  in  which  he  thought  he  recognised  the  style 
of  Augustine  ;  but  since  it  did  not  bear  his  signature, 
and  had  only  come  into  his  hands  indirectly,  he 
had  hesitated  to  conclude  that  it  was  his,  lest  he 
should  do  him  an  injustice.  He  begs  to  be  excused 
entering  into  a  controversy  with  Augustine  ;  he  pleads 
that  he  is  an  old  man,  who,  in  his  day  did  what  he 
could  ;  now  it  is  the  turn  of  Augustine.  But,  in  return 
for  Augustine's  poetical  allusion,  he  will  give  him 
another  in  the  story  of  Dares  and  Entellus,  and 
remind  him  of  the  vulgar  proverb,  "The  tired  ox 
treads  the  more  heavily."  He  sends  him  his  reply 
to  part  of  the  attack  of  Rufinus,  with  whom  he  was 
carrying  on  a  war  of  bitter  words,  and  concludes  with 
some  expressions  of  good  will. 

In  reply,  Augustine  disarms  the  anger  of  Jerome 
by  expressions  of  regret,  and  submission,  and  affec 
tion,  which  Jerome,  who  had  also  warm  affections, 
could  not  resist.  Jerome  thereupon  enters  seriously 
into  the  discussion  of  the  subject  to  which  Augustine 
had  invited  him ;  and  the  correspondence  was 
carried  on  at  considerable  length  and  extended  over 
several  years.  We  need  not  enter  more  fully  into  it. 
We  need  only  note  one  or  two  characteristic  passages. 


AUGUSTINE    AND    HIS    CONTEMPORARIES.         13! 

Jerome  begins  by  saying  that,  if  Augustine  had  read 
his  preface  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  a  little 
more  attentively,  he  would  have  seen  that  the  opinion 
expressed  by  Jerome  was  simply  that  of  Origen  and 
the  other  Greek  theologians,  and  that  he  had  left  his 
readers  at  liberty  to  approve  or  reject  the  opinion  of 
the  Greeks.  The  object  of  Origen's  interpretation 
was  to  refute  the  blasphemies  of  Porphyry,  who  had 
brought  it  as  an  accusation  against  Christianity  that  its 
two  chief  Apostles  had  thus  disagreed  about  it.  He 
asks  Augustine  to  produce  his  authorities  in  support  of 
his  opinion.  Thus  Jerome  throughout  reposes  on  the 
great  names  he  cites  on  the  side  of  the  interpretation 
which  he  has  espoused.  He  says,  with  a  little  sneer 
at  the  youthful  bishop  his  antagonist,  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  a  bishop  like  him  to  make  his  opinions  known 
throughout  the  universe,  and  to  engage  all  other 
bishops  to  adopt  them.  As  for  me,  he  says,  hidden 
under  a  lowly  roof  with  a  few  monks,  that  is  to  say,  a 
few  sinners  like  myself,  I  dare  not  pronounce  on  such 
great  questions.  I  content  myself  with  avowing  in 
genuously  that  I  read  the  books  of  the  ancients,  and 
according  to  the  custom  of  all  commentators  I  note 
the  different  explanations,  that  every  one  may  take 
that  which  pleases  him.  Jerome  is  unconscious  that 
he  is  exhibiting  his  weakness  as  well  as  his  strength. 
His  strength  is  his  scholarship,  his  knowledge  of 
what  all  the  ancients  have  said  ;  his  weakness  is  this 
very  reliance  on  the  ancients  and  the  want  of  an  in 
dependent  judgment  on  the  merits  of  the  case.  He 
is  unconscious  that,  while  taunting  Augustine  with  his 
weak  point,  his  ignorance  of  the  Greek  theologians, 

I     2 


132  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

he  has  failed  to  recognise  the  original  and  profound: 
thought  and  sound  judgment  which  make  Augustine 
as  great  an  authority  as  any  of  the  "  ancients." 
Augustine  remarks  with  dignity  that  the  books  of 
holy  Scripture  are  the  only  books  whose  infallibility 
he  recognises,  and  that  he  holds  all  other  writings  to 
be  subject  to  critical  examination.  It  is  an  interest 
ing  passage  on  the  light  in  which  the  holy  Scriptures 
were  then  universally  regarded.  In  another  similar 
passage  Jerome  compares  Augustine  and  himself  with 
mock  humility  : — Augustine,  he  says,  is  still  young;  he 
is  placed  in  the  pontifical  chair,  let  him  instruct 
the  peoples,  let  him  enrich  the  Roman  granaries  with 
new  African  harvests ;  it  is  enough  for  the  poor 
Jerome  to  whisper  in  a  corner  of  a  monastery  to  some 
sinner  like  himself  who  listens  to  him  or  reads  to  him. 
Another  interesting  passage  is  on  the  abrogation  of 
the  ceremonial  law.  Jerome  had  charged  Augustine 
with  teaching  that  Jewish  Christians  were  bound  to 
continue  to  observe  their  ancient  law.  He  replies  : 
Paul  and  other  Christians  of  the  purest  faith,  indeed, 
countenanced  the  ancient  ceremonies  by  some 
times  observing  them,  for  fear  that  observances  of  a 
prophetic  significance,  observed  by  the  piety  of  the 
fathers,  should  be  detested  by  their  descendants  as 
sacrilegious.  But  since  the  coming  of  the  faith  these 
precepts  had  lost  their  vitality,  It  was  necessary  to 
carry  them  like  dead  bodies  to  the  sepulchre  ;  not 
in  dissimulation  but  in  reverence ;  and  not  to  abandon 
them  all  at  once  to  the  calumnies  of  enemies,  as  it 
were  to  the  teeth  of  dogs.  If  now,  he  adds,  some 
Christian,  though  Jew  by  birth,  would  celebrate  these 


AUGUSTINE   AND    HIS    CONTEMPORARIES.         133 

ceremonies,  this  would  not  be  any  longer  to  give 
them  a  pious  funeral  and  to  carry  them  to  the  grave  ; 
it  would  be  to  disinter  their  quiet  ashes,  and  impiously 
violate  the  sanctity  of  the  tomb.  Jerome's  last 
letter  has  not  come  down  to  us,  but  there  is  some 
reason  to  believe  that  the  arguments  of  Augustine 
had  on  mature  consideration  had  their  effect  upon 
him,  for  Augustine,  writing  in  416  to  Oceanus,  one  of 
the  Roman  friends  of  Jerome,  cites  the  work  of  Jerome 
against  Pelagius,  published  under  the  name  of  "  Cri- 
tobulus,"  where  the  recluse  of  Bethlehem  judges 
that  all  bishops  are  open  to  blame  "  since  St.  Paul 
found  something  to  blame  even  in  St.  Peter." 


134  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE    FUGITIVES    FROM    ROME. 

The  Siege  and  Sack  of  Rome — Fugitives  from  Rome  to  Africa 
— Conduct  of  Count  Ileraclian — Proha  and  her  Daughters — 
Demetrias — Pinianus  and  Melania — The  attempt  to  force 
the  Priesthood  upon  Pinianus  at  Hippo. 

IN  the  last  year  of  the  fourth  century  the  barbarians, 
who  had  so  long  been  the  great  danger  of  the  Empire, 
began  the  series  of  assaults  which  overwhelmed  the 
Empire  of  the  West.  Alaric,  king  of  the  Goths,  in 
vaded  Italy  in  the  years  400  to  403.  In  404  Hono- 
rius  sought  a  safer  residence  than  Milan  behind  the 
marshes  and  fortifications  of  Ravenna.  In  406  the 
Germans  invaded  Italy  under  Rhadagaisus,  and  over 
ran  Gaul.  In  407  the  British  army  revolted  under 
the  usurper  Constantine.  In  408  Alaric  besieged 
Rome,  but  accepted  a  vast  ransom  as  the  price  of  its 
safety.  In  409  he  again  marched  upon  Rome,  and 
set  up  a  puppet  emperor  in  the  person  of  Attalus. 

Attalus  sent  officers  and  troops  to  take  possession 
of  the  African  provinces,  but  the  Count  Heraclian 
defeated  them ;  sent  a  large  sum  of  money  to  Ravenna; 
by  which  the  fidelity  of  the  imperial  guards  was 
secured ;  and  withheld  the  usual  supplies  of  corn, 
which  introduced  famine  and  tumult  into  Rome,  and 
embarrassed  the  Gothic  conqueror.  Alaric  was  dis- 


THE    FUGITIVES    FROM    ROME.  135 

posed  to  come  to  terms  with  Honorius  ;  but,  on  the 
rejection  of  his  overtures,  he  marched  for  the  third 
time  upon  Rome,  and  the  world  heard  with  amazement 
and  horror  that  the  Eternal  City  had  been  sacked  by 
the  barbarians. 

While  the  provinces  of  the  West  were  thus  deso 
lated,  those  of  Africa  escaped  the  general  ruin.  Great 
numbers  of  the  noblest  and  wealthiest  of  the  inha 
bitants  of  Rome  and  of  Italy,  fleeing  before  the  bar* 
barians,  sought  an  asylum  in  Africa.  We  blush  for 
our  kind  as  we  read  that  the  fugitives,  landing  here 
and  there  on  the  coasts  of  Africa,  were  frequently 
treated  with  no  more  hospitality  than  that  which  a 
stranded  ship  used  to  receive  at  the  hands  of  Cornish 
wreckers.  And  it  was  not  only  the  rough  inhabitants 
of  the  coasts  who  thus  made  gain  of  the  ruin  of  their 
countrymen  \  the  Count  Heraclian  sold  his  protection 
dear  to  the  wealthier  fugitives  :  and  is  even  accused 
of  having  sold  Italian  maidens  who  had  lost  their  pro 
tectors — some  of  them  of  the  noblest  Roman  houses — 
to  Syrian  merchants,  to  be  disposed  of  in  the  harems 
of  the  East.  "  The  most  illustrious  of  these  fugitives 
was  the  noble  and  pious  Proba,  the  widow  of  the 
prefect  Petronius.  After  the  death  of  her  husband, 
the  most  powerful  subject  of  Rome,  she  had  remained 
at  the  head  of  the  Anician  family,  and  successively 
supplied  from  her  private  fortune  the  expenses  of  the 
consulship  of  her  three  sons.  When  the  city  was  be 
sieged  and  taken  by  the  Goths,  Proba  supported  with 
Christian  resignation  the  loss  of  immense  riches, 
embarked  in  a  small  vessel  from  whence  she  beheld 
at  sea  the  flames  of  her  burning  palace,  and  fled  with 


136  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

her  daughter  Lseta,  and  her  grand-daughter,  the  cele 
brated  virgin  Demetrias,1  to  the  coast  of  Africa. 
The  benevolent  profusion  with  which  the  matron  dis 
tributed  the  fruits,  or  the  price,  of  her  estates  con 
tributed  to  alleviate  the  misfortunes  of  exile  and  cap 
tivity.  But  even  the  family  of  Proba  herself  was  not 
exempt  from  the  rapacious  oppression  of  Count  Hera- 
clian."  2  On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  fugitives  are 
accused  of  abandoning  themselves  to  an  extravagant 
and  vicious  gaiety,  with  a  thoughtless  frivolity  which 
amazed  the  bystanders  ;  these  Romans  escaped  from 
the  wreck  of  Rome  plunged  into  the  vicious  pleasures 
of  Carthage,  and  filled  its  theatres  with  their  cries  of 
delight.  It  would  seem  that  every  great  public  cala 
mity  loosens  the  customary  restraints  of  a  conventional 
morality,  and  leads  the  vicious  to  make  haste  to  put 
in  practice  the  Epicurean  maxim,  "  Let  us  eat  and 
drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die."  Augustine  endeavoured 
to  interpose,  with  little  effect,  on  behalf  of  some  of 
the  oppressed  fugitives  ;  he  sought  with  better  suc 
cess  to  teach  some  of  them  Christian  resignation. 

1 A  few  years  later  Demetrias  became  very  famous.  On  the  eve 
of  the  day  appointed  for  her  marriage  "  this  foremost  maiden  of 
the  Roman  world  for  nobility  and  wealth," — so  Jerome  describes 
her — declared  her  resolution  to  embrace  the  life  of  a  Church 
Virgin.  She  received  the  veil  in  the  chief  church  of  Carthage 
at  the  hands  of  the  Bishop  Aurelius.  A  multitude  of  other 
young  ladies,  and  a  crowd  of  dependants  and  servants  followed 
this  illustrious  example  ;  and  the  affair  made  a  great  noise. 
"  All  the  churches  throughout  Africa  rejoiced,"  says  Jerome. 
Augustine  and  Alypius,  Jerome,  and  Pelagius,  wrote  to  her 
congratulations  and  counsels. 

1  Gibbon,  "  Decline  and  Fall,"  chap.  xxxi. 


THE    FUGITIVES    FROM    ROME.  137 

One  of  his  letters1  is  addressed  to  the  Lady  Proba 
on  the  subject  of  Prayer,  and  is  one  of  the  most  beau 
tiful  of  his  letters. 

Among  other  fugitives  from  Rome  were  Albina,  with 
her  daughter  and  son-in-law,  Pinianus  and  Melania. 

The  readers  of  Church  history  will  remember  how 
in  the  early  part  of  the  history  of  Jerome1  we  become 
acquainted  with  the  Lady  Melania,  a  young  widow  of 
high  rank  and  great  wealth,  who  had  abandoned 
her  position  in  the  first  society  of  Rome ;  left  her 
son  to  the  care  of  guardians  ;  made  the  pilgrimage 
of  the  Holy  Land  and  the  Thebaid  with  Rufinus, 
the  Church  historian,  for  her  guide  ;  and  finally  built 
two  monasteries  at  Jerusalem,  one  for  men  presided 
over  by  Rufinus,  the  other  for  women  under  her  own 
care.  He  will  remember  how  her  grand-daughter  and 
namesake,  Melania,  in  spite  of  her  grandmother's 
endeavours  to  win  her  over  to  an  ascetic  life,  was 
happily  married  to  Pinianus,  the  son  of  Severus,  the 
Prefect  of  Rome. 

Pinianus  and  Melania,  with  Albina,  fleeing,  like 
so  many  others  of  the  great  families  of  Rome, 
from  the  face  of  the  invading  barbarians,  sought  re 
fuge  in  Africa.  They  came  to  Thagaste,  where  they 
built  and  endowed  two  monasteries,  one  for  twenty- 
four  men,  the  other  for  three  hundred  women,  and 
otherwise  made  large  benefactions  to  the  Church. 
From  Thagaste  they  came  to  Hippo  to  visit  Augus 
tine,  where  their  high  rank  and  wealth,  their  fervent 

1  Letter  cxxx. 

3  "Fathers  for  English  Readers  :  Jerome,"  p.  28  and  p.  115. 


138  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

piety  and  munificence,  made  them  remarkable  per 
sonages.  While  they  were  attending  the  divine  ser 
vice  at  Hippo  the  people  recognised  them,  and  all 
at  once  a  cry  was  raised  nominating  Pinianus  as  a 
priest,  and  demanding  his  immediate  ordination. 

We  ought  not  to  be  surprised  that  a  custom  bad  in 
itself  should  fall  into  worse  abuses,  but  we  are  shocked 
to  learn  that  the  custom  of  forcing  ordination  or  con 
secration  upon  unwilling  persons  had  fallen  into  such 
abuse  that  covetousness  sometimes  led  a  Church  thus 
to  compel  wealthy  persons  to  enter  into  its  ministry, 
because  it  was  also  the  custom  for  a  priest  or  bishop  to 
bestow  his  wealth,  or  great  part  of  it,  upon  his  Church. 
In  this  case  we  are  told  it  was  not  so  much  the  dis 
tinguished  piety  of  Pinianus  as  his  well-known  wealth 
which  made  the  people  of  Hippo  so  desirous  to  secure 
for  themselves  both  him  and  it.  It  is  to  be  regretted 
that  the  conduct  of  Augustine  is  not  free  from  blame 
in  the  matter.  At  first,  indeed,  he  descended  from 
his  throne  behind  the  altar,  and  went  down  to  the 
nave  to  the  people,  and  declared  to  them  that  he 
would  not  ordain  Pinianus  without  his  own  consent, 
and  that,  if  they  found  some  means  of  getting  Pinia 
nus  for  their  priest,  in  spite  of  his  opposition,  they 
should  no  longer  have  Augustine  as  their  bishop. 
After  these  words  he  returned  to  his  seat,  and  the 
multitude  was  for  a  moment  silenced.  But  presently 
they  renewed  their  clamours,  adding,  that  if  Augustine 
refused  to  ordain  Pinianus  some  other  bishop  would. 
Augustine  told  those  who  were  about  him  that  he  had 
given  Pinianus  a  promise  not  to  ordain  him  without 
his  consent ;  that  he  was  master  in  his  own  Church  ; 


THE    FUGITIVES    FROM    ROME.  139 

and  that  no  bishop  had  the  right  to  ordain  a  priest  in 
the  Church  of  Hippo  without  his  authorisation.  The 
people,  who  did  not  hear  this  explanation,  continued 
their  cries.  They  accused  Alypius,  the  bishop  of 
Thagaste,  who  was  present,  of  having  interfered  to 
prevent  Pinianus  from  being  made  priest  at  Hippo  in 
order  to  keep  him  for  himself  at  Thagaste.  Augus 
tine  would  have  retired,  but  so  great  was  the  excite 
ment  of  the  crowd  that  he  feared  they  might  proceed 
to  some  act  of  violence,  and  he  remained,  in  order 
that  his  presence  might  be  some  check  upon  them. 
Then  a  monk  came  forward  and  announced  to  the 
people  that  Pinianus  declared  through  him  that  if 
they  persisted  in  ordaining  him  against  his  will  he 
would  immediately  quit  Africa.  Augustine  spoke  to 
Pinianus  and  obtained  from  him  a  promise  that  he 
would  remain  at  Hippo  if  they  did  not  force  the 
ministry  upon  him.  He  announced  this  to  the  people, 
who,  however,  were  not  satisfied  with  it.  They  de 
manded  that  he  should  promise,  if  he  should  ever 
enter  into  the  priesthood,  to  do  so  in  the  Church  of 
Hippo.  Pinianus  consented.  Then  came  the  ques 
tion  of  the  terms  of  the  oath  in  which  Pinianus  was 
to  confirm  these  promises.  He  wished  to  make  some 
exceptions  to  the  promise  never  to  quit  Hippo  ;  for 
example,  in  case  of  invasion  by  the  barbarians. 
Augustine  represented  that  to  anticipate  such  an 
event  would  seem  to  the  people  like  the  presage  of 
calamity ;  that  in  such  an  event  every  one  would  quit 
Hippo,  and  his  oath  would  not  be  binding ;  and 
thought  it  better  to  say  nothing  on  the  subject.  Then 
Melania  suggested  that  in  the  case  of  a  pestilence 


140  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

they  ought  to  be  at  liberty  to  leave  the  city ;  but 
Pinianus  himself  objected  to  this  condition.  It  was 
finally  agreed  to  add  to  the  oath  to  stay  at  Hippo 
the  general  words  "  except  in  case  of  need,"  although 
Augustine  foresaw  that  the  words  would  probably 
appear  to  the  people  a  mere  evasion,  depriving  the 
promise  of  all  value. 

In  effect,  when  one  of  the  deacons  in  a  loud  voice 
recited  the  oath  which  Pinianus  proposed  to  take, 
so  soon  as  they  heard  the  saving  clause  with  which  it 
concluded,  the  storm  burst  out  anew.  At  length, 
Pinianus  consented  to  take  the  oath  without  any 
saving  clause,  and  solemnly  repeated  the  words. 
The  people  responded,  "  Blessed  be  God,"  and  re 
quired  him  to  sign  the  promise,  and  he  signed  it. 
Some  then  demanded  that  Augustine  and  Alypius 
should  also  sign  the  document,  and  Augustine  was 
in  the  act  of  doing  so  when  Melania  interfered  and 
objected,  and  the  signature  remained  incomplete. 

These  facts  are  indicated  in  a  letter1  to  Albina, 
the  mother  of  Melania,  in  which  Augustine  explained 
the  transaction  and  defended  his  own  conduct.  The 
family  of  Pinianus  believed  that  the  people  of  Hippo 
had  been  influenced  by  an  infamous  cupidity,  and 
blamed  Augustine  for  having  suggested  the  oath. 
Augustine  explains  that  the  oath  had  been  taken  in 
his  presence,  but  not  at  his  instigation.  He  defends 
his  people  from  the  charge  of  cupidity,  since  he  says 
they  would  not  have  shared  in  the  treasures  with 
which  it  might  have  pleased  Pinianus  to  enrich  the 

1  Letter  cxxvi. 


THE   FUGITIVES   FROM   ROME.  141 

Church  of  Hippo.  It  was  not  the  money  of  Pinianus 
but  his  contempt  of  money  which  had  touched  the 
people.  But,  if  the  people  of  Hippo  would  not  have 
benefited  by  the  treasures  of  Pinianus,  then  he  says 
the  accusation  of  cupidity  must  fall  on  the  clergy,  and 
chiefly  on  the  bishop.  To  these  suspicions  Augustine 
pleads  the  disinterestedness  of  his  own  soul,  fully 
known  to  God  only.  Instead  of  complaining  of  the 
wrong  these  suspicions  do  him,  he  is  only  concerned 
to  heal  the  heart  of  Albina,  which  has  allowed  itself 
to  be  poisoned  with  these  injurious  thoughts.  He 
takes  God  to  witness  that  the  administration  of  the 
goods  of  the  Church  which  falls  upon  him  he  regards 
as  a  heavy  burden  from  which  he  would  gladly  be 
freed.  He  takes  God  to  witness  that  he  believes 
Alypius  is  influenced  by  the  same  sentiments,  and 
that  he  does  not  deserve  the  charges  which  the  people 
of  Hippo  brought  against  him.  Albina  had  very  per 
tinently  demanded  of  Augustine  whether  he  believed 
that  an  oath  obtained  by  force  was  obligatory.  Augus 
tine  had  already  dealt  with  this  question  authoritatively 
in  a  letter l  to  Alypius ;  he  repeats  to  Albina  that  a 
Christian,  even  in  the  presence  of  certain  death,  ought 
not  to  take  the  name  of  his  God  and  Saviour  to 
witness  to  a  lie.  The  Christians  of  Hippo,  he  says, 
do  not  pretend  to  keep  Pinianus  in  a  state  of  slavery  ; 
he  is  at  liberty  to  go  and  come  according  to  his  needs, 
provided  that  at  each  departure  it  is  his  intention  to 
return  to  Hippo.  Moreover,  his  oath  was  offered 
voluntarily,  it  was  not  obtained  by  force ;  if  a  man  so 

1  Letter  cxxv. 


142  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

considerable  as  Pinianus  should  repudiate  his  oath, 
his  example  would  be  a  great  encouragement  to  per 
jury.  For  himself  it  was  not  his  duty  to  prevent 
Pinianus  from  taking  the  oath,  it  was  not  for  him  to 
allow  his  Church  to  be  turned  upside  down  rather 
than  accept  what  a  worthy  man  offered  him. 

In  judging  Augustine's  conduct  in  the  transaction 
we  must  bear  in  mind  the  received  opinions  and 
habits  of  the  time.  Basil  the  Great  had  not  scrupled 
to  force  the  episcopate  of  Nazianzum  on  his  dearest 
friend  Gregory.  Augustine  himself  had  suffered  a 
similar  compulsion.  He  clearly  did  not  think  that 
any  wrong  would  have  been  done  to  Pinianus  if  he 
had  been  forced  into  the  sacred  ministry  on  this  occa 
sion.  But,  after  making  every  allowance,  we  conclude 
by  sharing  Albina's  common-sense  view  of  the  trans 
action  ;  Augustine's  defence  exhibits  too  much  of 
his  old  skill  as  an  advocate,  and  is  nothing  but 
ingenious  special  pleading ;  and  his  declaring  that  he 
will  not  complain  of  the  wrong  her  suspicions  do  him, 
but  is  only  concerned  that  she  should  indulge  such 
wicked  thoughts,  is  not  in  good  taste. 

We  rejoice,  however,  that  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  common  sense  obtained  the  upper  hand  at  last ; 
and  that  Pinianus  was  virtually  released  from  the 
obligation  of  his  extorted  oath  ;  for  we  find  that  Pini 
anus  and  Melania  returned  to  Thagaste,  where,  with 
Albina,  they  spent  seven  years  of  a  severely  ascetic 
life,  and  that  they  subsequently  went  to  Jerusalem, 
and  died  there. 


SAINT    AUGUSTINE.  143 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

DONATISM. 

Distraction  of  the  African  Churches — Want  of  Discipline  among 
Donatists— Acts  of  Violence  against  Catholics  :  against 
Possidius,  Restitutus,  Maximian—  Escape  of  Augustine — 
Penal  Laws  against  Donatists. 

IT  is  difficult  without  entering  into  some  detail  to 
give  an  idea  of  the  confusion  caused  throughout  the 
African  provinces  by  the  bitter  animosity  between 
the  Catholics  and  Donatists. 

At  the  time  when  Augustine  succeeded  to  the 
episcopate  of  Hippo  the  schism  extended  over  the 
whole  of  the  African  provinces,  and  the  schismatics 
exceeded  the  Catholics  in  numbers.  Not  only  in 
every  town  were  there  rival  bishops  and  Churches, 
but  the  peace  of  families  was  broken  up  by  discords. 
Husband  and  wife  worshipped  at  different  altars, 
parents  and  children,  masters  and  servants,  belonged 
to  rival  Churches. 

The  schism,  according  to  the  eternal  nature  of 
schisms,  had  subdivided ;  there  were  four  parties 
among  the  Donatists  —  the  Claudianists,  the  Pri- 
mianists,  the  Maximianists,  and  the  Rogatists ; 
they  agreed  only  in  their  common  hatred  of  the 
Catholics. 

Political  feeling,  as  is  almost  inevitably  the  case, 


144  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

had  become  mixed  up  with  the  religious  partisan 
ship.  The  orthodox  Emperors,  from  Constantino 
downwards,  had  given  recognition  and  imperial 
favours  to  the  Catholics,  and  had  from  time  to  time 
discouraged  the  Donatists  and  other  schismatical 
bodies  by  penal  legislation.  The  result  was,  that 
while  the  Catholics  were  confirmed  in  their  loyalty 
to  the  Emperors,  the  sects  were  always  disaffected, 
and  ready  to  throw  their  influence  on  the  side  of  any 
opposition  to  or  revolt  against  the  imperial  authority. 
By  the  time  of  Augustine  half  a  century  of  mutual 
wrongs  had  accumulated,  and  embittered  the  quarrel. 
Constans,  after  trying  conciliation  in  vain,  had 
ordered  the  Donatist  congregations  to  be  dispersed 
by  force.  At  Sciliba  the  congregation  resisted,  and 
many  of  them  were  slain  by  the  soldiers.  Honoratus 
their  bishop,  was  among  the  slain  ;  he  was  reckoned 
as  a  martyr  by  his  co-religionists,  and  an  annual  com 
memoration  of  his  martyrdom  afforded  an  annual 
provocation  to  inflammatory  addresses  and  party 
riots,  and  kept  alive  in  the  memory  of  the  Donatists 
this  early  act  of  imperial  persecution.  When  Firmus,  the 
Moor,  revolted,  the  Donatists  espoused  his  cause,  and 
the  Catholics  were  persecuted.  When  Theodosius l 
had  restored  order,  the  Donatists  were  punished  as 
rebels.  When  Gildo,  again,  assumed  an  independent 
authority  the  same  thing  occurred,  the  Donatists  sup 
ported  his  usurpation,  and  he  gratified  them  by 
inflicting  indignities  and  cruelties  upon  their  religious 
rivals  :  and  when  Gildo  was  defeated  the  Catholics 

1  The  father  of  the  Emperor  Theodosius. 


DONATISM.  145 

were  again  taken  under  the  imperial  protection  and 
the  Donatists  were  regarded  with  disfavour. 

Augustine,  we  have  seen,  as  soon  as  he  came  in 
contact  with  the  Donatists  at  Hippo,  set  himself  with 
great  earnestness  and  zeal  to  oppose  them.  But  his 
zeal  against  their  schism  was  accompanied  by  charity 
towards  themselves.  His  object  was  not  merely  to 
gain  a  victory  over  opponents,  but  to  win  them  over, 
and  so  heal  the  breach  in  the  body  of  the  Church  ; 
and,  while  he  employed  all  the  resources  of  his 
polemical  skill  and  eloquence  against  their  cause,  he 
advocated  and  practised  a  tone  of  personal  courtesy 
and  a  policy  of  conciliation.  A  Council  was  held  at 
Hippo  in  393  under  the  influence  of  Augustine  at 
which  canons  were  passed  to  facilitate  the  return  of 
Donatists  into  the  Church.  It  was  the  first  of  the  series 
of  important  Councils  of  the  whole  African  Church 
already  alluded  to,  eighteen  in  number,  extending 
from  the  year  393  to  419,  in  which  many  important 
questions  of  Church  doctrine  and  discipline  were  dis 
cussed  and  regulated  by  canons  which  were  subse 
quently  accepted  by  the  whole  Church. 

This  policy  of  conciliation  was  not  unsuccessful, 
many  were  won  over  from  the  more  moderate  of  the 
opponents ;  but  this  not  unnaturally  inflamed  the 
hostility  of  the  rest.  Augustine  gives  us  examples  of 
some  of  the  grievances  of  which  the  Church  had  to 
complain.  His  earnest  endeavours  to  persuade  the 
Donatist  bishops  not  to  receive  those  who  left  the 
Catholics  in  disgrace,  and  his  refusal  to  receive  Dona 
tists  under  such  circumstances,  shows  the  usual  effect 
of  the  existence  of  rival  Churches  in  the  destruction  of 
K 


146  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

discipline  in  them  all.  He  gives  us  one  illustration  of  it.1 
A  young  man,  a  Catholic,  had  been  guilty  of  cruelly 
treating  and  beating  his  aged  mother,  and  threatening 
to  kill  her ;  and  his  offence  was  exaggerated  by  its 
having  been  committed  in  the  holy  days,  when  even 
the  punishment  of  criminals  is  suspended,  out  of 
respect  for  the  holy  season.2  His  bishop  had  re 
proved  him  for  it ;  and  in  spite  he  went  over  to  the 
Donatists  ;  and  presently  there  he  was  to  be  seen  in 
their  church,  clad  in  the  white  robe  of  the  catechumen, 
and  receiving  baptism  a  second  time. 

Of  the  acts  of  violence  attempted  or  committed  by 
the  Donatists  against  the  Catholics  Augustine  gives 
several  examples.  Possidius,  the  disciple  of  Augustine 
who  had  succeeded  Megalus  in  the  see  of  Calamus, 
was  going  to  a  town  in  his  diocese,  when  an  armed 
party  of  Donatists  headed  by  one  of  their  priests, 
Crispinus,  who  was,  moreover,  a  relation  of  Possidius, 
lay  in  wait  in  order  to  kill  him.  The  bishop, 
being  warned  of  it  took  another  road,  and  sought 
refuge  in  a  place  called  Livet.  But  the  Donatists 
followed  him  thither,  and  attacked  the  house  where 
he  was.  They  assailed  it  with  stones,  they  tried  to 
force  the  door ;  they  were  proceeding  to  set  fire  to 
the  house,  when  the  inhabitants  interfered,  for  fear  of 
a  general  conflagration.  At  length  they  succeeded  in 
forcing  the  doors  ;  they  pillaged  the  house,  maltreated 
the  people  in  it,  carried  off  Possidius,  and  inflicted  all 
sorts  of  outrages  upon  him ;  they  would  have  killed 
him,  had  not  Crispus,  seeing  the  number  of  witnesses 

1  Letter  xxxiv.  to  Eusebius.  2  By  a  law  of  Gratian. 


DONAT1SM.  147 

who  were  looking  on,  and  who  threatened  them  with 
the  vengeance  of  the  magistrates,  restrained  them. 
They  left  him  on  the  ground  covered  with  wounds 
and  bathed  in  blood.  The  affair  was  brought  before 
the  magistrates,  but  the  Donatists  by  their  intrigues 
procured  the  acquittal  of  the  accused.  When  the 
Emperor  Honorius  was  informed  of  the  sentence  he 
condemned  the  Donatists  and  the  judges  who  had 
acquitted  them  to  pay  each  a  fine  of  ten  pounds  of 
gold. 

A  priest  of  the  diocese  of  Hippo,  named  Restitutus, 
formerly  a  Donatist,  had  been  convinced  of  his  error, 
and  had  embraced  the  Catholic  faith.  In  revenge 
the  Circumcellions  took  him  by  force  from  his  house, 
carried  him  off  in  broad  daylight  to  a  neighbouring 
castle;  there,  in  the  sight  of  numerous  spectators 
who  did  not  dare  to  interfere,  they  stripped  him,  beat 
him  with  a  stick,  and  when  he  fainted  rolled  him  in 
the  mud,  covered  him  with  a  matting,  and,  having 
exposed  him  for  a  long  time  in  this  condition  to 
the  mockery  of  some  and  the  pity  of  others,  they 
carried  him  off  to  one  of  their  churches,  where  they 
kept  him  twelve  days  a  prisoner,  until  the  magistrate 
of  the  province,  being  informed  of  it,  sent  and  released 
him.  The  offenders  were  punished  for  this  act  of 
violence ;  but  some  years  later  this  same  priest, 
having  again  fallen  into  an  ambuscade  of  the  Circum 
cellions,  was  put  to  death  by  them.  The  murderers 
were  arrested  and  brought  before  Marcellinus  at  Car 
thage,  when  Augustine  charitably  wrote  to  intercede 
on  their  behalf.  In  the  course  of  his  letter  he  alludes 
to  another  outrage,  in  which  they  had  put  out  the 
K  2 


148  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

eye  and  cut  off  the  finger  of  another  priest  called 
Innocent. 

Maximian,  the  Catholic  bishop  of  Bagai,  enforced 
by  law  the  restitution  of  a  church  which  the  Donatists 
had  taken  from  the  Catholics.  In  revenge  the 
Donatists  one  day  entered  his  city  and  his  church  at 
the  time  that  he  was  conducting  the  divine  service. 
They  broke  the  altar  and  struck  him  with  the  frag 
ments.  They  stripped  off  his  vestments,  dragged  him 
along  the  pavement  of  the  church,  and  tortured  him 
for  a  long  time.  At  last  they  carried  him  to  the  top 
of  a  tower,  and  flung  him  from  its  summit.  They 
believed  him  to  be  dead,  and  left  him.  But  he  had 
fallen  upon  a  hillock  of  sand,  where  he  was  found 
insensible  by  some  beggars,  who  in  hope  of  reward 
carried  him  into  the  city,  where  he  was  restored  to 
life  and  health. 

Augustine  himself,  who  had  frequent  occasion  to 
travel  about  the  country,  was  often  in  danger  from  the 
Circumcellions.  Once  he  fell  info  their  hands,  and 
was  beaten  by  them.  Another  time,  when  they  had 
waylaid  him  with  the  intention  of  doing  him  some 
violence,  he  and  his  party  lost  their  way,  and  so 
escaped  the  ambuscade. 

In  consequence  of  these  and  similar  outrages,  the 
Council  assembled  at  Carthage  in  the  year  404  thought 
it  right  to  appeal  to  the  Emperor  for  special  measures 
of  protection  against  this  new  outburst  of  violence.  A 
law  of  Theodosius  had  condemned  schismatic  bishops 
and  priests  to  pay  a  fine  of  ten  pounds  of  gold; 
the  Council  asked  that  this  law  might  be  applied  to 
Donatists  in  all  places  where  Catholics  had  suffered 


DONATISM.  149 

violence  or  damage  at  the  hands  of  the  Circumcellions. 
Another  law  deprived  heretics  of  the  right  of  giving 
or  receiving  property  by  gift  or  inheritance;  the 
Council  proposed  that  this  should  be  enforced  in 
the  case  of  Donatists  who  persisted  in  their  schism. 
Lastly,  a  third  law  made  cities  and  the  proprietors 
of  estates  responsible  for  all  violences  which  the 
Circumcellions  should  commit  against  Catholics 
within  their  limits. 

Whilst  the  deputies  of  the  Council  carried  these 
requests  to  Honorius,  complaints  were  also  sent  to 
the  imperial  court  from  many  places  of  the  violences 
of  the  Donatists.  Maximian,  the  bishop  of  Bagai 
above-mentioned,  on  his  recovery  from  the  violence 
which  he  had  suffered,  went  to  Italy  to  demand  in 
person  justice  and  protection.  He  found  there,  not 
only  the  deputies  of  the  Council  of  Carthage,  but  a 
crowd  of  others  who  had  come  to  lay  at  the  foot  of 
the  throne  complaints  similar  to  his. 

Honorius  was  moved  by  these  proofs  of  the  confu 
sion  and  violence  which  existed  in  Africa,  and  passed 
severe  edicts  against  heretics.  He  declared  that  he 
desired  altogether  to  exterminate  the  heresy  of  the 
Donatists,  and  with  this  view  he  ordered  that  all  their 
property  should  be  sequestered  till  they  joined  the 
Catholic  Church  ;  he  confiscated  their  churches ;  en 
franchised  those  of  their  slaves  who  were  willing  to 
become  Catholics  ;  interdicted  their  assemblies  under 
pain  of  beating;  and  more  than  granted  all  the  demands 
of  the  Council  of  Carthage. 

These  severe  laws  contributed  to  multiply  conver 
sions.  Many  of  those  who  had  been  born  and  brought 


[50  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

up  in  the  sect  but  did  not  hold  its  tenets  by  personal 
conviction,  saved  themselves  from  these  penalties  by 
at  least  a  feigned  conversion ;  many  who  had  secretly 
been  convinced,  but  who  feared  the  violence  of  the 
Circumcellions,  now  came  over.  Whole  populations l 
came  over,  and  the  new  converts  displayed  a  zeal 
greater  even  than  that  of  the  Catholics  themselves. 
On  the  other  hand,  those  who  were  left  behind  were 
enraged.  The  Circumcellions  roamed  from  place  to 
place,  attacking  by  night  the  houses  of  Catholics, 
pillaging  their  goods  and  ill-treating  their  persons, 
and  blinding  the  ecclesiastics  by  putting  chalk  and 
vinegar  into  their  eyes.  But  these  excesses  disgusted 
moderate  men,  and  did  not  serve  the  cause  for  which 
they  were  employed. 

The  dispute  between  the  Catholics  and  the  Do- 
natists,  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind,  was  almost 
entirely  confined  to  the  African  provinces.  In  all 
the  rest  of  Christendom  there  was  no  doubt  which 
was  the  Church  and  which  was  the  schism.  And 
thus  it  was  sometimes  possible  for  Christians  of  well- 
known  character  or  special  influence,  who  were  outside 
the  arena  of  contention,  to  interpose  with  effect.  One 
instance  of  this  will  have  a  special  interest  for  those 
who  are  acquainted  with  the  history  of  Jerome  and 
his  friends.  Pammachius,  the  quondam  fellow-stu 
dent  and  ancient  friend  of  Jerome,  who  had  married 
Paulina,  the  third  daughter  of  the  famous  lady 
Paula,  had,  like  many  of  the  wealthy  nobles  of  Rome, 
great  estates  in  Africa.  He  wrote  to  the  farmers  and 

j  Letters  xlviii.,  Ixxx. 


DONATISM. 


'5* 


labourers  on  his  African  estates,  explaining  the  merits 
of  the  question  between  the  Donatists  and  the  Church, 
with  the  result  that  those  of  them  who  were  Donatists 
abandoned  the  schism  and  entered  the  Catholic  pale. 
One  of  Augustine's  letters  is  addressed  to  Pamma- 
chius  on  this  occasion,  congratulating  him  on  the 
course  he  had  taken,  and  on  its  success,  and  ex 
pressing  regret  that  his  good  example  was  not  more 
frequently  followed. 


152  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE  CONFERENCE  AT  CARTHAGE. 

The  Emperor  orders  a  Conference  between  Catholics  and 
Donatists — Letter  of  the  Catholic  Bishops — Report  of  the 
Proceedings— Decision  against  the  Donatists — Laws  re 
quiring  them  to  conform  —  Many  conform,  the  rest  em 
bittered — The  question  of  "  Toleration" — Revolt  of  Count 
Ileraclian — He  invades  Italy  ;  Defeat,  and  Death — Death 
of  Marcellinus. 

IT  was  ten  weeks  after  the  fall  and  sack  of  Rome 
that  an  edict  was  issued  from  Ravenna,  ordering  a  last 
great  attempt  to  settle  the  religious  divisions  of  Africa — 
which  constituted  also  a  political  danger — by  means  of 
a  solemn  conference  between  the  contending  parties, 
and  nominating  Marcellinus  as  the  representative  of 
the  emperor  to  preside  over  the  Conference.  A 
reference  to  the  precedent  set  by  Constantine  in  the 
case  of  the  councils  of  his  reign,  and  followed  by  the 
subsequent  emperors,  will  show  that  the  duties  of 
the  Imperial  officer  were  limited  to  securing  the  full 
freedom  and  good  order  of  the  deliberations.  Mar 
cellinus  was  clearly  appointed  to  this  duty  as  the 
head  of  the  administration  of  justice  in  the  provinces 
of  Africa  at  the  time ;  but  no  better  President  of  the 
Council  could  have  been  appointed,  since  he  was 
a  man  of  the  highest  character  and  an  earnest 
Christian. 


THE   CONFERENCE   AT   CARTHAGE.  153 

This  was  the  fulfilment  of  the  desires  of  the  Catholic 
party.  Again  and  again  had  Augustine,  confident 
in  the  truth  of  his  cause,  invited  the  chiefs  of  the 
Donatists  to  a  public  conference  ;  again  and  again 
had  they,  fearing  his  dialectic  skill  and  eloquence, 
declined  the  encounter.  But  on  a  recent  occasion, 
when  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Donatists  was  brought 
before  the  tribunal  of  the  civil  magistrate,  he  had 
declared  that  if  opportunity  were  given  them,  they 
could  establish  their  claims  by  argument.  They 
could  not  therefore  now  decline  the  Imperial  summons 
to  a  conference ;  and  both  sides  prepared  to  put 
forth  their  utmost  strength. 

The  conduct  of  the  Catholic  prelates  on  the  occa 
sion  calls  forth  our  highest  admiration.  They  sin 
cerely  desired  not  a  triumph  over  their  enemies 
which  the  Imperial  policy  assured  them,  but  a  recon 
ciliation  which  should  heal  the  wounds  from  which 
the  Church  and  the  State  alike  were  suffering.  They 
put  forth  a  manifesto,  drawn  up  by  Augustine,  in 
which  the  spirit  of  charity  sought  beforehand  to 
propitiate  the  other  side.  The  Catholic  bishops 
declared  beforehand  that  if  the  Donatists  should  be 
able  to  prove  that  the  true  Church  was  to  be  found 
only  in  their  body,  they  were  prepared  to  resign 
their  sees,  and  to  enter  into  their  body  as  simple 
laymen.  They  declared  that  if,  on  the  other  hand, 
they  should  be  able  to  convince  the  Donatists,  they 
were  willing  to  recognise  their  bishops  and  clergy ; 
that  in  the  towns  where  there  were  two  rival  bishops, 
they  should  rule  together  during  their  joint  lifetime, 
and  the  survivor  should  retain  the  see  ;  or  where  the 


154  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

people  were  unwilling  to  have  such  a  double  episco 
pate  both  should  resign,  and  a  new  election  take 
place.  "  Why,"  says  the  letter  of  the  bishops,  "  should 
we  not  make  to  our  Redeemer  this  sacrifice  of 
humility?  He  came  down  from  heaven  to  take  a 
body  and  to  make  us  its  members,  and  should  we 
hesitate  to  descend  from  our  seats  in  order  to  put  an 
end  to  the  evils  which  tear  His  body  and  divide  His 
members  ?  It  is  enough  for  us  to  be  faithful  and 
obedient  Christians.  We  were  ordained  bishops  for 
the  advantage  of  the  people  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  we 
will  resign  the  episcopate  if  this  sacrifice  can  contri 
bute  to  restore  peace  among  Christians." 

The  Conference  was  summoned  for  May  18,  411. 
Both  sides  mustered  in  great  strength.  The  Catholic 
bishops  came  to  the  city  one  by  one  without  any  public 
demonstration;  they  numbered  286.  The  Donatist 
bishops,  to  the  number  of  278,  entered  the  city  in 
grand  procession.  A  hundred  and  twenty  Catholic 
bishops  were  kept  away  by  sickness  or  old  age,  and 
64  sees  were  vacant.  The  Donatists  also  claimed 
that  many  of  their  bishops  were  absent,  and  that  their 
total  number  exceeded  those  of  the  Catholics.  If 
these  figures  be  correct,  they  give  us  more  than  900 
bishops  in  the  provinces  of  Africa.  Allowing  for  the 
fact  that  many  towns  had  two  rival  bishops,  it  is  still 
evident  that  not  only  every  town,  but  many  places  of 
lesser  importance  must  have  been  episcopal  sees. 

On  June  i  the  Conference  was  formally  opened 
in  the  Baths  of  Gargilius,  in  the  centre  of  the  city, 
in  a  hall  of  vast  size,  well  lighted,  and  agreeably  cool 
even  in  the  heat  of  an  African  June. 


THE  CONFERENCE  AT  CARTHAGE.       155 

It  was  impossible  for  all  the  564  bishops  actually 
present  to  attempt  to  take  a  personal  part  in  the 
discussion  without  hopeless  confusion.  At  the  sug 
gestion  of  Marcellinus,  the  president,  eighteen  were 
chosen  on  each  side, — seven  to  act  as  advocates, 
seven  others  to  aid  them  with  documents  or  sugges 
tions,  four  others  to  watch  over  the  correctness  of  the 
notaries,  who  were  to  make  a  full  and  exact  report 
of  the  proceedings.  Of  the  seven  advocates  on  the 
Catholic  side,  the  majority  are  already  known  to  us ; 
they  were  Augustine,  Aurelius,  Alypius,  Possidius, 
Vincentius,  Fortunatus,  and  Fortunatianus.  The 
seven  Donatist  advocates  were,  Petilianus  of  Car 
thage,  Emeritus  of  Csesarea,  Fortunius  of  Tubursis, 
Primitus,  Prothasius,  Montanus,  Gaudentius,  and 
Adeodatus. 

The  Donatists  showed  from  the  beginning  a  want 
of  confidence  in  their  cause,  and  a  want  of  charity 
towards  their  opponents,  in  striking  contrast  with  the 
sentiments  published  in  the  letter  of  the  Catholic 
bishops.  They  interposed  delays,  and  tried  to  carry 
the  discussion  away  from  the  main  points  at  issue. 
After  the  formal  opening  of  the  first  session,  and  the 
putting  in  in  writing  by  both  sides  of  a  definition  of 
the  matters  in  question,  the  rest  of  the  session  was 
wasted  in  chicaneries.  In  the  second  session  nothing 
of  importance  was  done,  the  Dcnatists  asking  time 
to  examine  at  leisure  the  proceedings  of  the  first 
session,  and  to  prepare  themselves  better  for  the 
discussion.  At  the  opening  of  the  third  session  (after 
a  delay  of  five  days),  the  Donatists  indicated  very 
unmistakably  the  feelings  which  had  occupied  their 


156  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

hearts.  When  the  president  desired  the  bishops  to 
be  seated,  Petilian  refused,  on  the  ground  that 
Scripture  forbade  them  to  sit  down  among  the 
wicked ;  the  eighteen  Catholic  bishops  thought  it 
courteous  not  to  sit  while  their  eighteen  antagonists 
were  standing ;  and,  finally,  Marcellinus,  out  of  re 
spect  for  the  bishops,  declined  to  sit  down  ;  and  so 
the  discussion  was  conducted  standing. 

The  whole  discussion,  with  the  exception  of  some 
formal  matters,  was  left  by  the  Catholics  in  the  hands 
of  Augustine.  He  conducted  it  with  admirable 
knowledge,  prescience,  and  patient  firmness,  in  lan 
guage  terse  and  clear.  The  principal  orator  on  the 
Donatist  side  was  Petilian,  formerly  an  advocate, 
who,  it  was  said,  had  been  recently  raised  to  the 
Episcopate  with  a  view  to  his  undertaking  the  cham 
pionship  of  the  Donatist  cause  on  this  occasion. 

The  reader  will,  perhaps,  the  better  understand 
the  proceedings  of  the  Conference  if  we  premise 
clearly,  that  besides  the  questions  of  fact  between 
the  Catholics  and  Donatists  relating  to  the  traditor- 
ship  of  Felix  of  Aptunga  and  the  consecration  of 
Caecilian,  there  were  also  questions  of  doctrine  in 
volved  of  more  permanent  interest.  Both  sides 
claimed  to  be  the  Catholic  Church.  The  Donatists 
held  that  the  validity  of  the  ministerial  acts  of  a 
minister  of  the  Church  depended  upon  his  personal 
holiness  ;  therefore  they  held  that  Csecilian,  con 
secrated  by  a  traditor,  was  not  validly  consecrated. 
They  also  held  that  holiness  was  an  essential  characte 
ristic  of  the  true  Church;  they  laid  down  the  principle 
of  the  mutual  moral  responsibility  of  men  in  the  same 


THE    CONFERENCE    AT   CARTHAGE.  157 

communion;  they  asserted  the  culpability  of  Caecilian, 
and  inferred  that  the  African  Catholics,  continuing  in 
the  communion  of  Caecilian,  were  implicated  in  his 
fault,  and  had  fallen  from  their  place  in  the  Church 
of  God. 

When  Petilian  tried  to  fasten  upon  Augustine  an 
admission  that  he  was  a  son  of  Caecilian,  Augus 
tine  replied,  "  It  is  written  we  have  one  Father  who 
is  not  of  this  world.  Why  do  you  ask  me  about 
Caecilian  ?  If  he  was  innocent,  I  rejoice ;  if  he  was 
guilty,  what  then  ?  he  was  like  a  straw  floating  in  the 
air,  like  the  goats  feeding  in  the  same  pasture  with  the 
sheep,  like  the  fish  in  the  net:  we  are  not  to  refuse  to 
breathe  the  air  because  of  the  straws  in  it,  we  are  not 
to  break  the  divine  nets  and  by  schismatic  hatreds 
to  drag  them  to  shore  before  the  time."  Augustine 
insisted  on  this  obvious  truth,  that  our  Lord  declared 
that  the  Church  upon  earth  would  always  contain 
good  and  bad ;  and  pressed  home  the  argument  that 
the  Donatists  themselves,  in  their  treatment  of  the 
Maximianists,  had  insisted  upon  this  principle.  Then 
the  Donatists  entangled  in  this  inconsistency  cried 
out  that  one  case  did  not  prejudice  another  case,  or 
one  person  another  person.1  Augustine  seized  at 
once  upon  the  important  admission.  The  reply  he 
said  is  brief,  but  it  is  clear  and  exact  in  favour  of  the 
Catholics.  It  followed  that  the  culpability  of  Caecilian, 
if  he  were  culpable,  did  not  implicate  the  Church. 
But  the  question  of  Caecilian's  culpability  was  care 
fully  exa  mined.  The  original  documents  bearing  upon 

1  Nee  causa  causoe,  nee  persona  personoe  proejudicat. 


I5S  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

the  question  were  adduced  ;  the  formal  declaration 
of  his  innocence  by  the  synods  at  Rome  and  Aries, 
and  by  the  Emperor  Conslantine  ;  the  declaration  of 
the  innocence  of  Felix  of  Aptunga. 

The  decision  of  Marcellinus,  like  all  the  previous 
judicial  decisions,  was  against  the  Donatists.  He 
declared  the  innocence  of  Felix  of  Aptunga  and  of 
Caecilian  of  Carthage.  Then,  in  accordance  with 
the  Imperial  instructions,  he  ordered  that  the  churches 
should  be  given  up  to  the  Catholics,  and  forbade 
the  religious  assemblies  of  the  Donatists.  For  the 
present  the  Donatist  bishops  were  allowed  to  return 
without  molestation  to  their  cities,  that  they  might 
take  steps  to  obey  the  law.  Those  who  had  troops 
of  Circumcellions  in  their  territories,  or  on  their 
estates,  were  bidden  to  do  all  in  their  power  to  restrain 
them  on  pain  of  the  confiscation  of  the  estates ;  for 
it  was  necessary  that  the  mad  outrages  of  these 
fanatics  should  be  suppressed,  as  well  in  the  interest 
of  the  public  peace  as  of  the  Catholic  faith.  Marcel 
linus  declared,  in  conclusion,  that  an  examination  of 
the  Acts  of  the  Council  would  afford  a  complete 
demonstration  that  the  Donatists  had  been  in  the 
wrong.  The  Catholic  bishops  took  wise  and  energetic 
measures  for  profiting  by  this  conclusion  of  the  Con 
ference.  Augustine  himself  drew  up  a  careful  abridge 
ment  of  the  Acts  of  the  Council,  and  the  bishops 
circulated  thousands  of  copies  of  it,  that  the  facts  and 
arguments  might  be  made  known  to  all  Catholics 
and  Donatists  throughout  Africa.  It  was  in  the  year 
311  that  sixty-six  bishops  at  Carthage  had  elected 
Majorinus  as  a  rival  bishop  to  Crecilian,  and  com- 


THE    CONFERENCE   AT    CARTHAGE.  159 

menced  the  schism;  it  was  in  411  that  278 
Donatist  bishops  were  condemned  at  Carthage ; 
the  schism  had  filled  Africa  with  confusion  for  a 
century.  And  even  now  it  was  not  ended. 

Great  numbers,  however,  now  for  the  first  time  fully 
informed  of  the  real  history  of  the  schism,  abandoned 
the  Donatists  and  united  themselves  with  the  Church. 
Augustine  continued  his  efforts.  He  wrote  several 
letters  and  treatises  on  the  subject.  He  attended  a 
council  of  bishops  at  Cirta,  in  which  the  Donatists 
were  in  a  majority,  and  spoke  with  such  effect  that 
nearly  all  the  Donatists  of  Cirta  were  converted. 
In  his  own  diocese,  also,  he  had  the  happiness  before 
his  death  to  see  nearly  all  the  Christian  inhabitants 
reconciled  to  the  Church.  But  still  the  schism,  which 
had  the  traditions  of  a  century  behind  it,  and  which 
had  its  roots  in  the  natural  character  of  the  people, 
could  not  be  eradicated.  When  local  circumstances 
relaxed  the  repressive  hand  of  the  civil  power  it  was 
always  ready  to  spring  into  action.  It  did  not  dis 
appear  until  Christianity  itself  disappeared  from  North 
Africa  before  the  conquering  sword  of  the  Saracen. 

It  is  not  to  be  disguised  that  Augustine,  the  most 
courteous  of  controversialists,  in  practice  the  most 
gentle  of  adversaries,  always  ready  to  advocate  the 
policy  of  conciliation,  and  to  believe  in  the  power  of 
truth,  maintained  in  principle  the  right,  and  in  some 
cases  the  duty  and  policy,  of  coercion ;  of  true  tolera 
tion,  had  he  lived  in  these  times,  he  might  have  been 
the  advocate ;  but  of  that  attitude  of  philosophic 
neutrality  in  presence  of  heresy  or  schism,  too  often 
miscalled  toleration,  he  would  have  been  the  earnest 


l6o  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

and  able  opponent.  He  would  have  pointed  out 
that  this  attitude  of  neutrality  is  not  the  mere 
toleration  of  wrong  on  the  part  of  right,  it  is  indif 
ference  between  right  and  wrong.  He  would,  after 
his  manner,  have  gone  down  to  the  bottom  of  the 
question,  and  have  shown  that  this  indifferentism  is 
based  upon  the  assumption  that  no  man  has  a  right  to 
take  for  granted  that  it  is  he  who  possesses  the  truth ; 
it  is  based  upon  the  assumption  that  the  truth  cannot 
be  certainly  ascertained ;  he  would  have  pointed  out 
that  this  is  the  very  agnosticism  which  he  contended 
against  in  his  work,  "  Against  the  Academicians."  He 
would,  perhaps,  with  eloquent  indignation,  have  de 
clared,  that  when  men  give  themselves  so  little  trouble 
to  ascertain  what  is  the  truth,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at  that  they  should  fail  to  ascertain  it ;  and  that  it 
is  only  in  accordance  with  the  natural  pride  of  intellect 
that  they  should  fall  back  upon  the  theory  that  k 
cannot  be  ascertained. 

It  is  of  curious  and  painful  interest  to  see  how  the 
natural  history  of  schism  in  all  its  usual  features  is 
illustrated  in  the  history  of  the  Church  in  Africa.  Its 
rise,  not  on  any  question  of  the  faith,  but  on  a  point 
of  discipline  ;  its  self-righteous  spirit  in  narrowing  the 
terms  of  communion;  its  arrogance  in  unchurching  the 
whole  Christian  body  outside  its  own  narrow  sect.  It 
is  instructive  to  see  the  inevitable  Nemesis  of  schism 
follow,  when  itself  is  broken  up  on  the  same  grounds 
on  which  it  first  broke  up  the  unity  of  the  Church ; 
and  finds  itself  using  against  the  new  sect  the  very 
arguments  which  it  refused  to  listen  to  when  originally 
addressed  to  itself;  when  the  very  strictness  of  dis- 


THE    CONFERENCE   AT    CARTHAGE.  l6l 

cipline  which  was  the  original  justification  of  the  schism 
is  lost  in  the  readiness  to  offer  a  refuge  to  those  whom 
a  righteous  discipline,  or  the  fear  of  it,  has  driven  from 
the  Church  ;  when  it  makes  alliance  with  schismatics 
and  heretics  whose  principles  it  abhors,  on  the  ground 
of  their  common  opposition  to  the  Church ;  when, 
refused  recognition  by  the  State,  it  declaims  against 
the  mingling  of  politics  with  religion,  and  ends  by 
playing  the  role  of  a  political  opposition. 

We  see  in  the  Church  of  Africa  in  a  very  striking 
way  all  the  confusion  and  strife  which  such  a  schism 
causes,  how  it  injures  the  cause  of  Christ,  how  it 
finally  brings  ruin  upon  itself,  and  ruins  the  Church 
of  Christ  with  it. 

In  the  year  413,  the  immunity  which  Africa  had 
enjoyed  from  the  wars  and  commotions  which  had 
harassed  the  rest  of  the  Roman  world  was  interrupted 
by  the  criminal  ambition  of  the  Count  Heraclian. 
We  have  seen  that  at  the  time  of  the  greatest  peril  of 
Honorius  the  fidelity  of  Heraclhn  and  his  timely 
succours  had  given  a  favourable  turn  to  the  Imperial 
fortunes.  Now  when  Alaric  was  dead,  and  the  hopes 
of  Rome  were  beginning  to  revive,  Heraclian  threw 
off  his  allegiance,  assumed  the  title  of  Emperor, 
gathered  together  a  great  fleet,  and  landed  at  Ostia  at 
the  head  of  an  invading  army.  He  was  encountered, 
however,  on  his  march  towards  Rome  by  the  Count 
Marinus,  and  suffered  a  total  defeat.  He  fled  with  a 
single  ship  back  to  Carthage.  But  the  whole  province 
had  returned  to  its  allegiance  ;  the  defeated  rebel  was 
seized  and  beheaded.  Marinus  passed  over  to  Africa 
L 


1 62  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

to  pursue  the  accomplices  of  Heraclian.  The  Dona- 
tists  seem  to  have  gained  his  ear  and  to  have  made 
him  the  instrument  of  their  hatreds.  They  obtained 
.of  him  an  order  to  arrest  and  imprison  Marcellinus 
and  his  brother  on  a  charge  of  treason,  and  thus  re 
venged  themselves  for  his  decision  against  them  at 
the  Conference  of  Carthage.  All  the  bishops  of 
Africa,  with  Augustine  at  their  head,  and  all  the  most 
respectable  of  the  people,  interceded  in  behalf  of 
these  illustrious  prisoners.  A  deputation  was  sent  to 
the  Court  of  Ravenna,  and  Marinus  promised  to  take 
no  steps  against  them  until  the  return  of  the  deputa 
tion  conveying  the  decision  of  the  emperor.  The 
answer  of  Honorius  was  most  generous  j  he  declared 
that  he  did  not  offer  them  a  pardon,  because  that 
would  be  to  declare  that  they  had  been  guilty,  and  he 
ordered  them  at  once  to  be  set  at  liberty.  Meantime 
Marinus  had  not  kept  his  promise  ;  he  had  summoned 
them  before  his  tribunal.  When  Augustine  heard  of 
it,  he  proceeded  at  once  to  Marinus  to  remonstrate, 
but  while  he  was  yet  on  the  road,  he  learnt  that 
they  had  already  been  sentenced  and  executed.  The 
emperor  was  enraged  when  he  heard  it,  despoiled 
Marinus  of  his  dignities,  and  sent  him  into  exile. 


SAINT   AUGUSTINE.  163 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

THE    BISHOP    IN    HIS    SEE. 

Personal  Appearance  of  Augustine — His  Dress — Regulation  of 
his  Clergy — Ascetic  Mode  of  Life — His  Rules  at  Table — 
His  Preaching  —  Care  of  the  Poor  —  Deciding  Cases — 
Relations  with  the  Civil  Authorities. 

HITHERTO  we  have  regarded  Augustine  chiefly  as  the 
great  controversialist  and  theologian  ;  let  us  for  a 
little  while  look  at  his  home-life  as  Bishop  of  Hippo. 
And  here  is  the  place  where  we  should  naturally  de 
scribe  the  personal  appearance  of  the  man.  His 
biogiapher  unfortunately  has  neglected  to  draw  a 
-portrait  of  him  ;  the  traditional  mediaeval  representa 
tions  have  no  authority ;  but  we  can  hardly  help  trying 
to  imagine  what  manner  of  man  he  was,  in  order  that 
we  may  form  for  ourselves  a  more  vivid  picture  of  the 
scenes  in  which  he  is  so  often  the  central  figure. 

We  picture  him  to  ourselves,  then,  tall,  slender,  with 
the  narrow  chest  and  slight  stoop  of  the  student  with 
weak  lungs  ;  clothed  in  the  long,  plain,  dark  tunic  and 
leather  girdle  of  an  ascetic,  which  more  strikingly  dis 
play  these  characteristics  of  his  figure.  His  face — 
some  of  our  readers  would  be  startled  at  the  first  sight 
of  it, — has  the  dark  hue  of  one  who  was  born  and  has 
lived  the  greater  part  of  his  life  under  the  sun  of  Africa. 
Features  thin  and  aquiline,  with  the  lofty  forehead 
i.  ? 


164  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

which  belongs  to  the  metaphysician  and  poet,  eyes 
full  of  genius,  a  mouth  and  general  expression  full  of 
sweetness  and  sensibility,  a  manner  full  of  dignified 
courtesy,  and  that  sweet  seventy  which  the  ascetic 
life  so  often  seems  to  give. 

We  have  already  seen  that  while  he  was  yet  a  priest 
he  lived  with  his  monks  in  the  religious  home  which 
Valerius  had  permitted  him  to  build  in  the  garden 
adjoining  the  episcopal  church  ;  when  he  succeeded 
Valerius  in  the  see,  he  still  continued  to  wear  his 
recluse  habit,  and  carried  his  ascetic  mode  of  life  into 
the  episcopal  house.  Even  in  his  official  robes  he 
would  not  wear  costly  vestments.  When  some  were 
presented  to  him  he  sold  them  and  gave  the  price  to 
the  poor.  He  explained  in  a  sermon,  "  Perhaps  a 
bishop  may  be  allowed  to  wrear  a  costly  vestment,  but 
such  does  not  become  Augustine,  who  is  poor,  and 
born  of  poor  parents  .  .  .  Would  you  that  men  should 
say  that  I  had  found  in  the  Church  the  means  of 
clothing  myself  more  costly  than  I  should  have  been 
able  to  do  in  my  father's  house,  or  in  my  secular 
life?  .  .  .  If  you  wish  me  to  wear  the  vestments  which 
are  given  me,  give  me  such  as  I  shall  not  blush  to 
wear ;  but  I  confess  that  a  costly  habit  does  make  me 
blush.  It  does  not  become  my  condition,  it  does  not 
accord  with  my  preaching  ;  it  is  not  suitable  to  a  body 
broken  with  age,  and  to  these  gray  hairs  which  you  see." 

He  required  his  clergy  to  live  with  him  as  a  reli 
gious  community,  in  celibacy,  voluntary  poverty, 
humility,  and  prayer.  They  wore  the  same  habit, 
ate  at  the  same  table,  lived  by  the  same  rule.  Augus 
tine  had  too  much  moderation  to  push  this  life  to 


THE    BISHOP    IN    HIS    SEE.  165 

the  extremities  which  were  not  uncommon  in  his 
time.  Their  habit  did  not  affect  a  picturesque 
poverty  ;  and  their  board  did  not  lack  both  flesh 
and  wine,  though  they  limited  themselves  chiefly  to 
a  vegetable  diet.  The  bishop  ruled  on  the  principles 
which  he  had  himself  so  much  commended  in  his 
book  on  the  "  Manners  of  the  Catholics,"  not  forcing 
men  to  austerities  against  their  power  or  will.  But 
he  was  firm  in  his  insistence  on  the  fundamental 
bases  of  his  rule.  We  gather  here  and  there  little 
details  of  this  common  life  ;  we  read  of  the  priest 
Leporius  who  had  property,  but  who  hastened  to  dis 
pose  of  it  in  acts  of  chanty  ;  we  learn  that  the  priest 
Barnabas  was  accused  (falsely)  of  having  bought  land 
and  contracted  debts  while  steward  of  the  episcopal 
house.  The  deacon  Severus  who  had  lost  his  sight, 
but  not  the  inner  and  spiritual  light,  wished  to  bring  his 
mother  and  sister  from  a  distance  to  live  near  him, 
he  was  enabled  to  buy  a  house  for  their  residence,  not 
with  his  own  money,  but  by  the  pious  generosity  of 
the  faithful  ;  afterwards  we  find  his  mother  and  sister 
did  not  come,  and  Severus  put  the  house  at  the 
bishop's  disposal  again.  Another  deacon  who  had 
slaves  before  he  entered  the  community,  gave  them 
their  freedom  through  the  mediation  of  the  bishop  in 
the  presence  of  the  congregation.1 

That  scandals  should  sometimes  occur  under  such 
a  rule  is  only  to  be  expected,  but  the  only  one  we  hear 


1  In  accordance  with  a  law  of  Constanline  the  Great,  which 
legalized  this  mode  of  manumission.  See  "  Constantine  the 
Great,"  p.  236,  S.P.C.K, 


1 66  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

of  is  in  the  case  of  the  priest  Januarius  who  on  his  death 
bed  confessed  that  he  had  privily  saved  some  money, 
and  wished  to  leave  it  to  the  Church  of  Hippo. 
Augustine  refused  to  receive  the  legacy.1  He  was 
much  disturbed  by  the  occurrence,  and  preached  two 
sermons  on  the  subject.  In  the  first  he  made  known 
the  fault  of  Januarius,  and  declared  that  he  did  not 
desire  to  keep  his  clergy  bound  to  a  mode  of  life  which 
they  did  not  choose  of  their  own  free  will,  and  that 
he  would  therefore  give  them  all  permission  to  resume 
their  freedom,  and  would,  after  the  approaching  festi 
val  of  the  Epiphany,  inform  the  people  what  they  had 
resolved  to  do.  Before  the  second  sermon  Augustine 
first  bade  a  deacon  read  the  passage  of  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles  which  tells  of  the  common  life  of  the 
first  Christian  converts  of  Jerusalem  (Acts  ii.  44-47  ; 
iv-  32>  37)»  and  then  announced  to  the  people  that 
all  the  clergy  of  his  community  desired  to  continue  to 
live  as  the  first  Christians  of  Jerusalem  had  lived ; 
and  that  therefore  the  law  of  poverty  would  be  rigidly 
maintained  by  them  ;  and  that  the  bishop  would  cut 
off  from  the  body  of  his  clergy  anyone  who,  contrary 
to  this  rule,  possessed  any  property  whatever.  "Him 
whom  I  shall  have  condemned  in  this  manner,"  said 
he,  "  let  him  appeal  to  a  thousand  councils  against  my 
sentence ;  let  him,  if  he  will,  go  and  carry  his  com 
plaint  beyond  the  seas  against  me ;  whatever  he  may 
do,  I  trust,  by  the  divine  assistance,  that  he  shall  not 


1  An  Egyptian  abbot  under  similar  circumstances  had  the 
bag  of  money  which  his  monk  had  saved  flung  into  his  grave, 
with  the  terrible  anathema,  "  Thy  money  perish  with  thee." 


THE    BISHOP    IN    HIS    SEE.  167' 

be  received  as  a  cleric  wherever  I  exercise  the  autho 
rity  of  a  bishop.  They  have  all  agreed  with  cheerful 
ness  to  the  rule  which  I  have  established.  I  trust  in 
the  power  and  mercy  of  God  that  they  will  conform 
themselves  to  it  with  perfect  faithfulness." 

A  bishop  of  those  days  had  a  constant  series  of 
visitors,  to  whom  it  was  his  duty  to  show  a  frank 
hospitality.  Augustine  received  them  at  the  common 
table  of  the  community ;  and  it  was  for  their  sakes 
especially  that  the  flesh  and  wine  graced  the  episcopal 
board  : — the  table  furniture,  we  are  told,  was  of  woody 
and  pottery,  and  marble  ;  only  the  spoons  were  of 
silver  : — and  it  was  probably  for  their  sakes  especially 
that  a  verse  was  carved  on  the  board  : — 

Quisquis  amat  dictis  absentum  rodere  vitam 
Hanc  mensam  vetitam  noveret  esse  sibi : — 

i:  ne  who  loves  to  tear  in  pieces  the  characters  of 
the  absent,  be  it  known  to  him  that  he  is  forbidden 
to  sit  at  this  table."  And  he  used  to  enforce  this  les 
son  on  guests  who  disregarded  it  by  saying  to  them 
that  he  must  efface  his  verses,  or,  that  they  would 
compel  him  to  leave  the  table. 

Another  objectionable  custom  of  the  Christians  in 
the  conversation  of  those  days  was  an  unnecessary 
taking  of  the  Holy  Name  to  witness  the  truth  of 
what  was  stated.  The  bishop  used  to  check  this  at 
his  own  table  by  imposing  a  playful  penalty  on  any 
one  who  offended  in  this  respect,  the  penalty  being  to 
go  without  his  wine  at  dinner. 

The  incident  of  Pinianus,  which  we  have  related 
in  a  previous  chapter,1  helps  us  to  realize  the  bishop  in 
1  Chapter  XV. 


1 68  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

his  principal  function,  officiating  daily  in  the  divine 
celebration  in  the  principal  basilica  of  the  town.  We 
there  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  bishop,  with  his  brother 
bishop  of  Thagaste,  surrounded  by  his  clergy,  in  the 
sanctuary  of  the  church,  while  the  people,  it  is  evi 
dent  from  the  narrative,  are  at  some  distance  from 
him  in  the  nave.  In  preaching,  and  it  was  the  rule 
for  the  bishop  always  to  preach,  he  ascended  the 
ambo,  the  clergy  sat  on  their  stone  bench  surround 
ing  the  eastern  apse  of  the  church,  and  the  people 
stood  to  hear.  Some  of  the  clergy,  with  practised 
skill,  took  down  on  their  tablets  the  words  as  they  fell 
from  his  lips.  The  great  metaphysician,  the  skilled 
controversialist,  remembered  in  the  pulpit  that  he 
was  the  pastor  of  his  flock,  and  addressed  to  them 
such  plain  instructions  in  Christian  doctrine,  such 
practical  exhortations  to  holy  living,  as  tended  to  their 
edification.  Not  that  his  sermons  were  not  great 
sermons,  but  that  their  greatness  depended  upon  their 
adaptation  to  the  character  of  the  audience,  and  the 
effect  they  had  upon  them.  In  reading  them  as  they 
have  come  down  to  us  we  sometimes  wonder  at  the 
effect  which  we  are  told  they  produced  ;  but  it  is  often 
the  case  that  a  sermon  which  had  a  great  effect  in 
its  delivery  seems  inadequate  to  produce  such  an 
effect  when  read.  Augustine's  great  reputation  pre 
disposed  the  hearers  to  lend  themselves  to  his  elo 
quence,  like  instruments  ready  tuned  to  the  hands  of 
a  great  player.  The  persuasive  grace,  the  manifest 
earnestness,  the  affection  for  his  hearers,  the  emotion 
with  \vhich  his  own  soul  thrilled  communicated  by  sym 
pathy  to  the  souls  of  his  hearers,  the  tears  which  trembled 


THE    BISHOP    IN    HIS    SEE.  169 

on  his  lips  when  they  did  not  overflow  his  eyes,  these 
were  the  traits  which  made  the  standing  crowd  which 
filled  the  nave  of  the  basilica  hang  on  his  words,  and 
thrill  and  weep  with  him.  We  shall  more  conveniently 
give  some  examples  of  the  matter  of  his  sermons  in 
another  chapter.  We  may  add  here  an  anecdote  as 
to  the  external  methods  and  effects  of  his  preaching. 
On  one  occasion,  while  at  dinner,  he  called  the  atten 
tion  of  those  about  him  to  the  fact  that  in  his  sermon 
in  the  morning  he  had  suddenly  broken  off  the  thread, 
and  under  some  sudden  impulse  had  taken  up  an 
other  subject.  In  a  day  or  two  a  man  came  to  tell 
him  that,  though  a  Donatist,  he  had  come  to  the 
Catholic  Church  on  that  morning  to  hear  Augustine 
preach,  and  that  his  sermon  had  convinced  him  of  his 
error,  and  he  now  desired  to  be  received  into  the 
Catholic  Church. 

The  care  of  the  poor  was  an  important  part  of  the 
bishop's  functions,  and  one  which  Augustine  dis 
charged  with  loving  diligence.  "The  glory  of  a 
bishop,"  he  says,  "  is  his  care  of  the  poor."  When 
Alaric  was  threatening  to  invade  Africa,  the  people  of 
Hippo  set  themselves  to  strengthen  the  fortifications 
of  their  city,  and  in  the  anxiety  of  the  time  and  the 
demand  upon  the  city's  resources  the  poor  were 
overlooked.  Augustine,  then  absent  in  Carthage, 
writes  to  his  flock,  and  begs  them  that  the  usual  gift 
of  winter  clothing  to  the  poor  may  not  be  omitted. 

Among  the  duties  of  a  bishop  in  those  days  was 
that  of  hearing  and  deciding  cases  which  were  re 
ferred  to  him  for  decision,  instead  of  being  taken 
before  the  law-courts.  We  gather  that  Augustine 


170  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

.spent  much  time  in  the  morning  in  this  irksome  but 
important  duty,  and  that  the  hearing  of  a  case  some 
times  interfered  with  the  hour  of  dinner.  In  one  of 
his  sermons1  he  begs  the  people  to  pardon  him  if  in 
the  midst  of  the  cares  and  distractions  of  the  epis 
copal  office  he  has  shown  severity  or  done  injustice 
to  any  of  them.  "  Often  in  strait  places,"  he  says, 
"  the  hen  treads,  but  not  with  all  her  weight,  upon  the 
chickens'  whom  she  warms,  but  she  is  not  the  less 
their  mother." 

A  man  of  the  eminence  of  Augustine  was  also  in 
relation  with  the  civil  authorities  of  Africa.  The 
illustrious  and  pious  Marcellinus  was  his  friend,  and 
it  is  supposed  that  it  is  to  his  instance  that  we  owe  the 
undertaking  of  the  great  work  "  On  the  City  of  God." 
The  Count  Boniface  wrote  to  him  for  his  spiritual 
counsels,  and  maintained  a  correspondence  with  him. 
The  bishop  made  use  of  his  influence  to  interpose 
sometimes  on  behalf  of  the  oppressed,  and  to  inter 
cede  for  the  criminal.  Macedonius,  the  vicar  of 
Africa,  after  having  more  than  once  acceded  to  the 
intercession  of  Augustine,  at  length  wrote  to  ask  him 
if  he  thought  that  Christianity  authorized  this  episco 
pal  disposition  to  give  impunity  to  crime.  Augustine 
defended  his  conduct  in  an  admirable  letter,2  which 
has  been  preserved  to  us.  He  explains  that  while  he 
detests  the  crime  he  pities  the  criminal,  and  that  if  he 
interposes  to  obtain  impunity  for  the  crime  it  is  to 
give  the  criminal  time  to  repent  and  enter  upon  a 
better  life.  We  can  only  repent  in  this  world,  and 

1  Homily  xxiv.  2  Letter  cliii. 


THE    BISHOP    IN    HIS    SEE.  171 

the  love  which  we  have  for  men  obliges  us  to  inter 
cede  for  criminals,  lest  after  the  punishment,  which 
ends  with  their  life,  they  fall  into  a  punishment  with 
out  end.  When  his  prayers  have  snatched  a  criminal 
from  the  severity  of  the  laws,  he  says,  he  makes 
him  undergo  a  course  of  penitence,  that  he  may 
obtain  pardon  also  of  the  Master  of  all  justice. 


1 72  SAINT  AUGUSTINE. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

HIS    SERMONS. 
Several  Extracts  from  His  Sermons. 

WE  have  in  the  last  chapter  said  something  of  the 
external  circumstances  of  the  Bishop  of  Hippo's 
preaching.  We  proceed  in  the  present  chapter  to 
illustrate  their  matter  by  a  few  extracts,  which  need 
no  further  preface. 

Let  us  first  take  a  sermon1  in  which  there  are  some 
striking  thoughts  on  death  : — 

"  A  man  makes  his  will  before  he  dies,  he  is 
anxious  about  what  he  leaves  behind,  and  he  is  not 
anxious  about  himself.  Your  children  will  have  all, 
and  you  nothing.  Your  mind  is  concerned  to  make 
easy  the  way  of  those  who  come  after  you,  and  you 
give  yourself  no  concern  about  the  way  which  you 
yourself  are  going.  Men  only  think  of  death  when 
they  see  a  corpse  carried  to  the  grave.  Then  they 
say  '  Alas  !  it  is  so  and  so.  He  was  about  only 
yesterday.  It  is  not  a  week  since  I  saw  him ;  he 
spoke  to  me  about  such  and  such  a  matter.  How 
striking  it  is  !  Man  is  as  nothing  here  below.'  This 
is  what  people  say  while  they  are  still  weeping  for  the 
dead,  while  they  prepare  his  grave,  during  the  funeral 

1  Sermon  ccclxi. 


HIS    SERMONS.  173 

procession,  and  while  they  lower  him  into  his  grave. 
But  once  buried,  all  these  thoughts  are  buried  with 
him.  Men  again  busy  themselves  with  their  affairs, 
and  the  heir  forgets  him  whom  he  has  just  followed 
to  the  grave,  and  calculates  the  worth  of  his  inherit 
ance.  He  also  must  die,  but  see  how  he  goes  on 
with  frauds,  rapines,  perjuries,  to  obtain  pleasures 
which  perish  whilst  one  tastes  them  ;  and,  what  is 
worst,  men  draw  from  the  grave  itself  an  argument  for 
burying  the  soul :  '  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow 
we  die.'  The  thought  of  immortality  comes  to  alleviate 
the  melancholy  image  of  the  grave.  St.  Paul  calls 
the  dead  them  that  sleep,  in  order  to  announce  the 
waking,  i.e.  the  resurrection. 

"  One  sometimes  hears  those  who  believe  in  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead  spoken  of  as  mad.  *  Who/ 
they  say,  '  has  returned  from  the  tomb  ?  Who  has 
come  to  tell  us  what  they  do  in  Hades  ?  Have  I 
ever  heard  the  voice  of  my  brothers,  of  my  grand 
father,  of  my  ancestors?'  ....  Unhappy  that 
you  are,  you  would  believe  if  your  father  should 
rise  again  from  the  dead ;  and  after  the  resurrec 
tion  of  the  Lord  of  all  you  do  not  believe.  And 
what  could  your  father  do  if  he  were  to  rise  again  and 
come  to  speak  to  you  but  soon  return  again  to  death  ? 
But  see  how  much  greater  is  here.  See  with  what 
power  Christ  is  risen  again,  since  '  He  dies  no  more, 
death  hath  no  more  dominion  over  Him.'  The  disciples 
and  the  faithful  have  been  able  to  see  and  to  touch 
Him ;  their  faith  was  thus  confirmed  in  order  that 
they  might  afterwards  carry  it  among  men.  If  you 
take  us  for  impostors,  ask  all  the  world  ;  everywhere 


174  SAINT  AUGUSTINE. 

Christianity  gives  life  to  the  world ;  those  who  have 
not  yet  believed  in  Jesus  Christ  are  not  bold  enough 
to  attack  the  truth  of  the  resurrection.  There  is 
testimony  in  the  heaven,  testimony  on  the  earth, 
testimony  of  the  angels,  testimony  of  Hades  ;  there 
is  not  a  single  voice  which  does  not  cry  that  Jesus 

Christ  is  risen  again. 

*  *  *  * 

"  Someone  whom  you  love  has  ceased  to  live,  you 
hear  her  voice  no  more,  she  mingles  no  more  among 
the  joys  of  the  living,  and  you,  you  weep.  Do  you 
also  weep  over  the  seed  when  you  have  cast  it  into 
the  earth?  If  a  man,  knowing  nothing  of  what  hap 
pens  when  one  casts  seed  into  the  earth,  were  to 
lament  over  the  loss  of  the  corn,  if  he  were  to  groan 
thinking  that  the  corn  is  lost,  and  if  he  were  to  fix 
his  eyes  full  of  tears  upon  the  clods  which  covered 
it,  you,  better  informed  than  he,  would  you  not  pity 
his  ignorance,  would  you  not  say  to  him  :  '  Trouble 
not  yourself ;  that  which  you  have  buried  is  no  longer 
:in  the  barn,  it  is  no  longer  within  your  reach,  but 
wait  a  few  days  and  this  field  which  seems  to  you  so 
barren  will  be  covered  with  an  abundant  harvest,  and 
you  shall  be  filled  with  joy  at  the  sight,  as  we  who, 
blowing  that  this  will  happen,  are  full  of  joy  in  the 
hope?' 

"But  the  harvests  come  every  year,  while  the  harvest 
of  the  human  race  only  takes  place  once,  and  that 
only  at  the  end  of  this  world,  we  cannot  therefore 
show  you  that.  But  the  example  of  one  chief  grain 
has  been  given  us.  The  Lord  speaking  of  his  own 
future  death  has  said,  '  Except  a  corn  of  wheat  fall  to 


HIS    SERMONS.  175 

.the  ground  and  die,  it  abideth  alone,  but  if  it  die 
it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit '  (John  xii.  24).  It  is 
the  example  of  a  single  grain,  but  it  is  so  great  an 
example  that  all  ought  to  have  faith  because  of  it. 
Moreover  every  creature,  if  we  will  hearken,  speaks 
to  us  of  the  resurrection ;  and  these  daily  examples 
ought  to  make  us  know  what  God  will  do  also  with 
.the. human  race.  The  resurrection  of  the  dead  shall 
take  place  only  once,  but  the  sleep  and  waking  of 
everything  which  breathes  takes  place  every  day,  and 
we  see  in  sleep  the  image  of  death,  and  in  the  waking 
the  image  of  the  resurrection.  From  that  which 
happens  every  day  believe  that  which  will  happen 
once.  How  do  the  leaves  of  the  trees  fall  and  put 
forth  again?  Where  do  they  go  when  they  fall? 
Whence  do  they  come  when  they  spring  again? 
Behold  the  winter ;  all  the  trees  are  sapless  and  seem 
dead  ;  but  spring  comes,  and  all  reclothe  themselves 
with  leaves.  Is  it  the  first  time  this  phenomenon  has 
happened  ?  No,  the  same  happened  last  year.  The 
year  then  goes  and  returns ;  and  men  made  in  the 
image  of  God — when  they  go  shall  they  never  return?" 

Here  is  a  doctrinal  passage  :  —  "  The  Eternal 
Word,  in  becoming  man,  has  no  more  changed  than 
a  man  who  takes  a  garment ;  he  does  not  become 
garment  but  continues  always  the  same.  If  a 
senator  forbidden  to  enter  in  the  habit  of  a  senator 
into  a  prison  where  he  wished  to  go  in  order  to  con 
sole  an  unfortunate  slave,  took  the  habit  of  a  slave, 
he  would  appear  mean  as  to  his  exterior,  but  he 
would  still  retain  his  dignity,  and  this  dignity  but 


176  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

be  heightened  by  so  much  as  the  deliverer  had  been 
willing  to  abase  himself  in  his  great  pity. 

"  To  be  born,  to  labour,  and  to  die ;  these  are  the 
fruits  this  earth  produces ;  this  is  what  Jesus  Christ 
found  among  men.  What  has  He  given  in  exchange  ? 
Regeneration,  resurrection,  life  eternal ! " 

When  he  speaks  of  God  he  is  always  eloquent :  "O 
my  beloved  brethren,"  he  cries  in  another  sermon,1 
"  what  transitory  word  like  ours  can  worthily  praise  the 
Eternal  Word,  the  Word  of  God  ?  How  shall  so  poor 
an  instrument  recount  the  infinite  grandeurs?  Let 
the  heavens  praise  Him ;  let  the  heights  of  heaven 
praise  Him  ;  let  the  powers  of  the  air  praise  Him  ; 
let  the  great  lights  of  heaven  and  the  stars  re-echo 
His  glory ;  let  the  earth  praise  Him  as  well  as  it  is 
able ;  if  it  knows  not  how  to  praise  Him  worthily,  at 
least  let  it  not  be  ungrateful.  Declare  and  know  Him 
who  in  His  power  reaches  from  one  end  to  the  other, 
and  who  ordereth  all  things  by  His  goodness.  How 
doth  He  rise  to  run  this  immense  course  in  which 
He  goeth  forth  from  the  uttermost  part  of  the  heaven, 
and  runneth  about  unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the 
heaven  again.  If  he  reacheth  everywhere,  whence 
doth  He  set  out  ?  And  if  He  reaches  everywhere, 
whither  does  He  go  ?  He  is  not  limited  by  place  nor 
changed  by  time ;  He  has  neither  coming  in  nor 
going  out ;  dwelling  in  Himself  He  filleth  and  encom- 
passeth  all  things.  What  spaces  do  not  possess 
Him  in  His  omnipotence,  and  contain  Him  in 

1  Sermon  ccclxxvii. 


HIS    SERMONS.  177 

His  immensity,  and  feel  Him  in  His  activity.  Con 
sider  all  that;  I  have  said,  and  it  is  as  nothing.  But 
in  order  that  humble  creatures  might  be  able  to  say 
something  of  Him,  He  humbled  himself  in  the  form 
of  a  servant ;  He  came  down  in  the  form  of  a  ser 
vant,  and,  according  to  the  Gospel,  He  grew  by 
degrees  in  knowledge  and  wisdom.  Under  the  form 
of  a  servant,  He  was  patient  and  fought  valiantly ; 
He  died,  and  conquered  death.  Under  this  form  He 
returned  to  heaven,  He  who  had  never  left  heaven. 
.  .  .  Who  is  then  this  King  of  Glory,  for  whom  it  is 
said,  '  Lift  up  your  gates,  O  princes,  be  ye  lift  up, 
ye  everlasting  doors.''  Lift  yourselves  up,  for  He  is 
great ;  you  will  not  be  great  enough  for  Him  ;  lift  up 
yourselves  that  this  King  of  Glory  may  come  in.  And 
the  princes  are  astonished,  they  know  Him  not.  *  Who 
is  this  King  of  Glory  ? '  He  is  not  only  God,  He  is 
also  man  ;  He  is  not  only  man,  but  He  is  God.  He 
suffers,  nevertheless  He  is  God.  He  rises  again, 
nevertheless  He  is  man.  Is  He,  then,  God  and  man  ? 
1 Lift  zip  your  gates,  O  princes,  be  ye  lift  up,  ye  everlast 
ing  doors,  and  the  King  of  Glory  shall  enter  in.'  .  .  . 
It  is  a  new  thing  for  Hades  to  receive  a  God.  It  is 
a  new  thing  for  the  heavens  to  receive  a  man  ;  and 
everywhere  the  princes,  in  surprise,  ask,  '  Who  is  this 
King  of  Glory  ? '  Hearken  to  the  answer  !  '  //  is  the 
Lord  strong  and  mighty,  the  Lord  mighty  in  battle, ,' " 

Let  us  choose  an  extract  of  another  kind.1     "  The 
first  disciples  upon  whom  the  Paraclete  descended 

1  Sermon  ccxlvii 
M 


178  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

received  the  gift  of  tongues.  If  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
still  given  to  us  now,  why  does  no  one  any  longer 
speak  the  languages  of  all  nations  ?  Why,  because 
that  which  was  signified  by  the  gift  of  tongues  is  now 
fulfilled.  In  that  first  time  the  whole  Church  was 
contained  within  the  single  house  where  the  disciples 
were  assembled.  Consisting  of  men  small  in  number, 
but  rich  in  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  she  possessed 
already  all  the  languages  of  the  universe  ;  but  this 
Church  so  small,  speaking  the  languages  of  all  people, 
is  it  not  the  same  Church  which  now  stretches  from 
the  rising  of  the  sun  to  the  going  down  of  the  same, 
and  which  is  speaking  always  in  the  languages  of  all 
people  ? 

"  Let  no  one  then  say,  '  If  I  have  received  the  Holy 
Spirit,  why  do  I  not  speak  the  languages  of  all 
nations  ? '  The  spirit  which  gives  life  to  each  one  of 
us  is  called  the  soul,  and  you  see  what  the  soul 
effects  in  the  body ;  it  puts  life  into  all  the  members. 
By  the  eyes  it  sees  ;  by  the  ears  it  hears  ;  by  the 
nose  it  smells  ;  by  the  tongue  it  speaks ;  by  the  feet 
it  walks  ;  by  the  hands  it  labours  ;  it  is  present  in  all 
the  members  that  they  may  live  ;  it  gives  life  to  all, 
and  to  each  its  function.  The  eye  does  not  hear ; 
the  ear  does  not  see ;  neither  the  eye  nor  the  ear 
speak  j  and  while  the  whole  lives  the  functions  are 
divided,  the  life  is  common.  So  is  the  Church  of 
God.  In  some  of  the  saints  it  works  miracles ;  in 
others  it  preaches  the  truth  ;  in  these  it  maintains 
virginity,  in  those  conjugal  chastity ;  the  works  are 
different  according  to  the  difference  of  the  persons. 
Each  has  his  peculiar  work,  but  all  participate  in  the 


HIS    SERMONS. 


179 


same  life.  That  which  the  soul  is  to  the  human  body 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  to  the  Body  of  Christ,  which  is  the 
Church.  That  which  the  soul  effects  in  a  single  body, 
the  Holy  Spirit  effects  in  the  whole  Church.  But 
observe  what  it  is  you  ought  to  avoid,  to  do,  and 
to  fear.  In  the  human  body  it  happens  sometimes 
that  a  member  is  cut  off — a  hand,  a  ringer,  a  foot. 
Does  the  soul  accompany  the  severed  member? 
While  it  was  joined  to  the  body  it  lived ;  when  it  is 
cut  off  it  loses  life.  So  the  Christian,  while  he  is  a 
member  of  the  Church  his  life  in  his  body,  he  is  a 
Catholic.  Is  he  cut  off,  he  becomes  a  heretic  :  the 
spirit  does  not  accompany  the  severed  member.  .  .  . 
<CO  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  true  Temple  of  the 
King  which  is  built  of  men,  whose  living  stones  are 
the  faithful  sons  of  God.  One  Temple,  all  whose 
parts,  firmly  united,  form  but  one  whole,  where  there 
is  no  ruin,  or  rent,  or  division ;  charity  is  the  cement 
thereof.  Jesus  Christ  sent  His  ambassadors.  The 
Apostles  gave  birth  to  the  Church,  they  are  our 
fathers.  But  they  were  not  able  to  remain  long  with 
us.  He  who  desired  to  leave  the  world,  but  who  for 
their  sakes  prolonged  his  days  among  his  brethren, 
even  he  is  departed.  Is  the  Church  therefore  aban 
doned?  Not  so.  It  is  written,  'Instead  of  your 
fathers  you  shall  have  children  : '  instead  of  the  Apo 
stles  bishops  have  been  appointed  your  fathers.  The 
Church  gives  to  bishops  the  name  of  fathers,  and  it 
is  she  who  has  given  them  birth.  O  holy  Church, 
think  not  that  you  are  abandoned  because  you  no 
longer  see  Peter,  because  you  no  longer  see  Paul, 
nor  the  rest  of  the  fathers  who  have  begotten  you. 
M  2 


iSo  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

See  how  the  temple  of  God  is  increased  !  See  the 
Catholic  Church  :  her  children  are  established  as 
princes  on  the  earth ;  they  have  been  appointed  in 
the  place  of  fathers.  Let  those  who  are  separated 
return  to  the  temple  of  the  King.  God  has  estab 
lished  His  temple  everywhere,  everywhere  He  has 
firmly  set  the  foundation  of  the  Apostles  and  Pro 
phets. 

"  We  call  to  mind  the  stone  of  which  Daniel  speaks. 
This  stone,  cut  out  from  a  mountain,  which  is  itself 
become  a  great  mountain,  has  filled  all  the  earth. 
This  stone  is  Jesus  Christ,  who  has  broken  in  pieces 
the  empire  of  idols  and  filled  the  whole  universe 
with  His  glory.  Behold  the  vast  mountain  which  all 
eyes  can  see.  Behold  the  city  of  which  it  is  said, 
'A  city  set  upon  a  hill  cannot  be  hid.'  But  there 
are  men  who  run  against  this  mountain ;  and  while 
we  say  to  them  '  Come  up,'  they  answer,  '  There  is 
nothing,'  and  prefer  to  stun  their  heads  against  it 
than  take  up  their  abode  in  it.  ...  O  my  brother 
what  are  you  doing  in  obscure  retreats  ?  Why  are 
you  seeking  in  the  midst  of  darkness  ?  '  He  has 
placed  his  tabernacle  in  the  sun.'  .  .  .  There  are  who 
say  this  Church  has  lived  long  enough,  it  is  dead. 
O  impious  words  !  Does  it  exist  no  longer  because 
you  have  separated  yourself  from  it?  Take  care 
lest  you  die  speedily,  while  it  lives  on  for  ever  with 
out  you  ! " 


SAINT   AUGUSTINE.  l8l 


CHAPTER     XX. 

SPECIAL    WORKS: — "THE    CONFESSIONS,"    "THE    HOLY 
TRINITY,"    "THE  CITY   OF  GOD." 

Description  of  "  The  Confessions  " — The  Work  on  the  "  Holy 
Trinity" — Two  Anecdotes—  "  The  City  of  God  "—Extracts 
from  it. 

MERELY  to  give  a  catalogue  of  the  numerous  works 
of  Augustine  would  fill  several  of  these  pages,  and 
such  a  mere  catalogue  would  be  useless  to  our  readers ; 
to  attempt  the  briefest  description  of  the  works  would 
occupy  far  too  much  of  our  space,  and  perhaps  of  our 
readers'  patience.  It  will  probably  be  more  useful  to 
select  two  or  three  of  the  most  popularly  interesting 
works,  and  to  say  a  few  words  about  them. 

Among  these  special  works,  we  must  name  first  that 
remarkable  book  "  The  Confessions,"  which  we  have 
already  so  largely  quoted  as  the  chief  authority  for 
the  earlier  part  of  the  biographical  matter  of  our 
sketch.  It  has  had  by  far  the  largest  circulation  of  any 
of  his  works,  and  may  perhaps  be  classed  with  "  The 
Imitation  of  Christ,"  and  the  "  Pilgrim's  Progress," 
as  one  of  the  three  most  popular  religious  books 
in  the  world.  Its  characteristics  are  the  frankness  of 
its  confessions ;  its  wonderful  analysis  of  a  human 
heart,  and  a  religious  experience ;  the  literary  skill 
with  which  it  is  executed.  No  doubt  the  great  cause  of 
its  popularity  is  that  it  has  supplied  a  mirror  in  which 
so  many  have  recognised  the  likeness  of  their  own 
spiritual  struggles,  have  learnt  to  understand  them- 


I  82  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

selves,  and  have  been  able  to  study  the  process  by 
which  they  might  co-operate  with  the  grace  of  God  in 
attaining  truth  and  peace. 

The  great  work  "  On  the  Holy  Trinity,"  he  began,  he 
says,  when  young,  and  finished  when  old.  He  seems 
to  have  commenced  it  about  the  year  400,  to  have 
laid  it  aside,  and  resumed  it  more  than  once,  and  to 
have  finished  it  at  length  about  the  year  416  or  418. 
The  subject  had  engaged  all  the  great  minds  of  the 
Eastern  Churches  for  a  century,  and  the  works  pro 
duced  during  the  Arian  and  kindred  controversies 
had  enriched  the  theology  of  the  Greek-speaking 
Christians.  But  these  controversies  had  been  agi 
tated  chiefly  among  the  Eastern  Christians  ;  the 
West,  orthodox-minded  throughout,  had  contented 
itself  with  accepting  the  orthodox  definitions  of 
the  Eastern  Councils.  The  great  writings  of  the 
Greeks  had  not  been  translated  into  Latin,  and  were 
unknown  in  the  West,  except  to  a  very  few  of  its 
most  learned  scholars.  The  doctrine  therefore  re 
mained  to  be  set  before  the  Western  Church  as  fully 
and  profoundly  as  it  had  been  before  the  Eastern. 
This  is  the  task  which  Augustine  accomplished.  It 
is  probable,  from  his  limited  acquaintance  with  Greek, 
that  he  did  not  derive  so  much  help  from  the  labour 
of  the  Greek  theologians  as  might  have  been  supposed; 
but  the  originality  and  power  of  his  own  genius  made 
him  the  one  man  in  the  Western  Church  who  with 
out  such  aid  was  equal  to  the  work.  No  one  has 
written  with  more  profound  insight,  more  sound 
theology,  or  greater  eloquence  on  this  great  theme. 
And  all  subsequent  writers  upon  it  have  done  little 


SPECIAL  WORKS.  183 

more  than  reproduce  his  thoughts.  It  would  be  easy 
to  give  a  summary  of  the  contents  of  the  work,  but  of 
little  interest  to  our  readers.  We  prefer  to  record  two 
legendary  stories  which  serve  to  show  the  popular 
appreciations  of  the  great  work  and  of  its  writer. 

The  first  story  is  the  well-known  one,  that  while 
Augustine,  meditating  on  the  Trinity,  was  walking  to- 
and-fro  on  the  sea-shore  of  Hippo,  he  saw  a  little 
child,  busy,  as  children  will  be,  digging  a  hole  in  the 
sand,  and  then  filling  it  with  water  which  he  fetched 
in  a  cockle-shell  from  the  sea.  Augustine  paused 
and  spoke  to  the  child  :  "  What  are  you  doing,  my 
child  ?  "  "I  am  trying  to  empty  the  sea  into  this  hole 
which  I  have  dug."  "  My  child,  it  is  impossible  to  get 
the  great  sea  into  that  small  cavity."  "  Not  more  im 
possible,  Augustine,"  replied  the  angel,  "  than  for  thy 
finite  mind  to  comprehend  the  mystery  of  the  Trinity." 

The  other  story,  which  is  less  known,  gives  the 
opposite  view  of  the  work.  A  woman  of  Hippo,  who 
had  some  favour  to  ask  of  Augustine,  sought  him  .in 
his  room,  and  finding  him  apparently  disengaged, 
addressed  her  petition  to  him  with  humility  and 
earnestness ;  but  he  did  not  even  turn  his  head  to 
look  at  her.  Again  she  ventured  to  address  him  still 
more  urgently,  but  he  did  not  take  the  slightest  notice 
of  her  ;  and  she  went  away  discouraged.  Next  morn 
ing  as  she  attended  at  the  Divine  Service  at  which  the 
bishop  officiated,  she  was  rapt  in  spirit  into  heaven, 
and  there  saw  Augustine  before  the  Throne,  absorbed 
in  contemplation  of  Him  who  sat  thereon.  A  voice 
told  her  that  when  she  had  sought  him  on  the  pre 
vious  day  in  his  chamber,  though  his  body  was  there, 


I  84  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

he  had  been  thus  absent  in  spirit,  in  contemplation 
of  the  mystery  of  the  Trinity ;  therefore  he  had  not 
seen  or  heard  her  :  but  bade  her  seek  him  again,  and 
he  would  do  all  she  wished. 

The  book  entitled  "  The  City  of  God,"  begun  in 
412,  and  finished  in  427,  three  years  before  his  death, 
is  one  of  the  most  important  monuments  of  Christian 
antiquity.  As  the  strange  succession  of  misfortunes 
which  overtook  the  persecuting  emperors  and  then 
families  a  century  before,  in  contrast  with  the  pro 
sperity  of  Constantius  and  Constantine,  had  made 
the  whole  world  declare  that  the  God  of  the  Christians 
was  revealing  Himself  in  the  providential  government 
of  the  world,  so  now  the  rapid  and  terrible  succession 
of  disasters  which  overwhelmed  the  Western  Empire 
made  men  look  round  for  a  supernatural  explanation 
of  the  awful  judgment;  and  the  Pagans  loudly  de 
clared  that  it  was  the  manifest  vengeance  of  the 
ancient  gods  of  Rome  on  the  race  which  had  de 
serted  the  altars  of  the  deities  who  had  given  their 
ancestors  a  thousand  years  of  conquest.  The  mind 
of  the  Christian  world  was  greatly  troubled.  It  had 
fondly  believed  that  the  general  adoption  of  Christi 
anity  by  the  Empire  was  to  be  the  beginning  of  that 
last  age  of  universal  peace  and  happiness  which  the 
ancient  prophets  had  foretold.  And  when  the 
Christian  empire  thus  fell,  under  circumstances  which 
men  had  been  accustomed  to  regard  as  denoting  the 
manifest  anger  and  just  judgment  of  God,  the  faith 
of  Christians  was  shaken  ;  and  they  knew  not  how 
to  answer  the  taunts  of  those  who  accused  them  of 
having  been  the  cause  of  the  ruin  of  the  world. 


SPECIAL   WORKS.  185 

It  gave  rise  to  a  new  series  of  Apologies.  Every 
great  Christian  preacher  found  himself  called  upon, 
not  only  to  defend  Christianity  against  the  pagans 
when  they  turned  the  argument  from  the  providential 
government  of  the  world  against  them,  but  also  to 
reassure  the  minds  of  perplexed  Christians,  and  to 
comfort  the  faithful  under  these  unexpected  and  ter 
rible  calamities.  Ambrose,  in  his  reply  to  Symmachus 
pleading  on  behalf  of  the  Altar  of  Victory  and  the 
old  religion,  had  already  laid  down  the  main  lines  of 
the  argument.1  Jerome  dealt  with  the  subject  in  his 
letters.  Orosius,  the  Spaniard,  wrote  a  book  upon  it. 
Salvian,  a  generation  later,  wrote  another.  It  was 
at  the  request  of  others  that  Augustine  at  length 
addressed  himself  to  a  thorough  treatment  of  the 
theme ;  and  this  grew  under  his  hands  into  the  im 
portant  work,  the  most  important  of  all  his  works, 
of  which  we  are  now  to  give  some  brief  account. 

The  books  included  under  the  common  title  of 
"  The  City  of  God,"  form  almost  two  distinct  works. 
The  first,  which  occupies  the  first  ten  books,  is 
devoted  to  the  special  question  which  gave  rise  to 
the  work.  The  pagans  maintained  that  the  gods, 
angered  by  the  desertion  of  their  worship  and  the 
general  adoption  of  Christianity,  had  withdrawn  from 
the  Romans  and  transferred  to  the  barbarians  that 
favour  which  had  constituted  the  good  fortune  of 
pagan  Rome.  Augustine  first  enumerates  with  much 
eloquence  the  misfortunes  which  Rome  had  suffered 
under  the  alleged  protection  of  these  gods.  They 

"  The  Fathers  for  English  Readers  :  St.  Ambrose,"  p.  46. 


1 86  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

did  not  save  Troy  l  from  destruction.  They  did  not 
protect  Rome  from  the  Gauls,  from  the  Tuscans. 
They  did  not  save  Regulus.  They  did  not  arrest  the 
arms  of  Pyrrhus,  of  Hannibal.  Where  were  their 
protecting  deities  on  the  days  of  defeat  and  slaughter 
at  Ticinus,  at  Thrasymenus,  at  Cannae  ?  on  the  day 
when  80,000  Romans  were  slaughtered  by  Mithridates? 
in  the  days  of  the  wars  and  proscriptions  of  Marius 
and  Sulla  ?  Had  Alaric  been  more  cruel  than  the  old 
Consul  or  the  fortunate  Dictator  ?  And  in  the  civil 
wars  of  Caesar  and  Pompey,  and  the  proscriptions  of 
Antony  and  the  young  Octavius,  and  the  rout  of 
Crassus — where  were  the  gods  when  all  these  mis 
fortunes  fell  upon  the  Romans  ?  Then,  also,  they 
never  protected  the  vanquished  from  the  victors. 
"  Open,"  says  Augustine,  "  open  the  histories  of  all 
the  wars,  whether  before  the  foundation  of  Rome  or 
since  the  establishment  of  the  Empire ;  read  them, 
and  show  us  foreigners  and  enemies,  when  masters 
of  a  city,  sparing  those  who  have  taken  refuge  in  the 
temples  of  their  gods ;  show  us  a  barbarian  chief 
giving  the  order,  when  the  city  was  at  his  mercy,  to 
spare  all  who  should  be  found  in  such  and  such  a 
temple."  He  alludes  to  the  fact  that  Alaric  gave 
orders  that  those  who  sought  refuge  in  the  churches 
of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  should  not  be  molested. 

"  Priam  slain  upon  the  altar  extinguished  with  his 
blood  the  fires  he  had  kindled.  Diomede  and 
Ulysses  'slew  the  guards  of  the  citadel,  and  seizing 

1  The  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that  the  Romans  claimed  to 
be  the  descendants  of  a  colony  of  Trojans  who,  after  the  de 
struction  of  their  city,  had  settled  in  Italy. 


SPECIAL   WORKS.  187 

the  statue  of  the  goddess,  dared  to  touch  her  chaste 
fillets  with  their  bloody  hands '"  ("^Eneid,"  lib.  11. 
1.  163).  "  See,  then,  to  what  gods  the  Romans  boast 
of  having  confided  the  tutelage  of  their  city.  O  ever 
worthy  of  immeasurable  pity  !  These  gods — what 
sort  of  gods  are  they?  Virgil  declares  they  were 
conquered  ;  to  escape  the  conqueror  they  were  in 
debted  to  the  piety  of  a  man.1  And  Rome  was 
wisely  committed  to  such  protectors,  and  but  for 
their  loss  its  ruin  would  have  been  impossible  !  What 
folly.  Why,  to  honour  as  saviours  and  patrons  these 
vanquished  gods  is  to  attach  your  destinies  rather  to 
unfavourable.auspices  than  to  beneficent  deities.  For 
is  it  not  infinitely  wiser  to  believe,  not  that  Rome  in 
preserving  them  had  averted  its  own  ruin,  but  that 
they  would  have  long  since  been  lost  if  Rome  had 
not  generously  taken  them  under  the  protection  of  its 
power  ?." 

He  enumerates  the  Roman  divinities,  with  their 
characters  and  their  special  ministries,  and  shows 
that  the  aggrandizement  and  the  duration  of  the 
Empire  were  not  the  work  of  any  of  them,  neither  the 
work  of  destiny,  which  has  no  existence.  It  was  not 
fortune  or  chance  which  made  the  Roman  Empire. 
Then  in  a  grand  passage  he  vindicates  the  truth  of 
the  question.  It  is  the  providence  of  God  which 
establishes  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth ;  which  dis 
tributes  them  to  the  good  and  to  the  evil.  The 

1  ./Eneas  says  to  Anchises,  as  they  make  their  escape  from 
burning  Troy,  "  You,  my  father,  take  in  your  hand  these  sacred 
things,  our  country's  household  gods." — ">Eneid,"  lib.  II. 
1.  717. 


l8S  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

kingdoms  are  governed  by  the  providence  of  God. 
He  who  is  the  creator  of  all  intelligences  and  all 
bodies,  who  is  the  source  of  all  happiness,  who  has 
made  man  a  reasonable  animal  composed  of  a  soul 
and  a  body,  who  has  given  to  the  evil  and  to  the 
good  existence  with  the  stones,  vegetative  life  with 
the  trees,  sensitive  life  with  the  beasts,  intellectual 
life  with  the  angels  ;  God,  from  whom  proceed  all 
form,  all  beauty,  all  order ;  God,  who  is  the  principle 
of  measure,  number,  and  weight,  and  by  whom  all 
things  in  nature  exist ;  He  from  whom  the  germs 
derive  their  forms,  and  forms  their  germs,  and  both 
their  mutual  relations  ;  Who  has  made  flesh  and  given 
it  its  beauty,  its  strength,  its  fruitfulness,  the  supple 
ness  of  its  members  and  their  proportions  ;  He  who 
has  given  memory,  sense,  and  desires,  even  to  the 
souls  of  beasts,  and  has  added  to  the  human  soul 
mind,  understanding,  will ;  He  who  has  given  mutual 
fitness  and  harmony,  not  only  to  the  heavens  and 
the  earth,  to  angels  and  to  men,  but  to  the  entrails 
of  the  smallest  and  meanest  animal,  to  the  feather  of 
the  bird,  the  flower  of  the  smallest  herb,  the  leaf  of 
the  tree,  He  could  not  leave  the  kingdoms  and  empires 
of  the  world  outside  the  laws  of  His  Providence. 

"  See,  then,  why  the  true  God,  who  holds  all  the 
kingdoms  in  His  hand  has  deigned  to  aid  the  Roman 
Empire,  and  to  raise  it  to  such  a  height  of  grandeur. 
The  power  of  Rome  was  the  reward  of  the  moral 
virtues  of  the  ancient  Romans,  laborious,  unselfish, 
temperate,  devoted  exclusively  to  the  glory  of  the 
State.  '  Verily,  I  say  unto  you  they  have  their  reward.' 
...  If  Christians  wish  to  make  sure  of  future  happi- 


SPECIAL   WORKS.  [89 

ness,  let  them  do  in  order  to  obtain  heaven  all  which 
the  Romans  did  to  conquer  the  earth.  Nay,  one 
does  not  always  ask  so  much  of  them.  But  the 
^bours,  the  abnegation,  the  sacrifices  of  the  ancient 
Romans  were  a  great  lesson  to  Christians  who  aspire 
to  the  Eternal  Empire.  Just  as  God  makes  His 
sun  to  shine  on  the  good  and  on  the  wicked,  and 
His  rain  to  fall  on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust,  so 
He  gives  to  them  indifferently  the  kingdoms  of  this 
world,  but  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  He  gives  only 
to  the  good. 

"  I  return  to  my  subject,  impatient,  with  a  last  word 
on  the  ingratitude  of  these  blasphemers  who  impute 
to  Christ  the  evils  which  their  own  perversity  has  so 
justly  drawn  upon  themselves  ;  they  so  unworthy  of 
pardon,  but  pardoned  for  the  love  of  Christ  while 
they  are  ignorant  of  it ;  they  whose  arrogant  folly 
against  this  Divine  Name,  those  sacrilegious  tongues 
which  have  falsely  taken  the  name  upon  themselves 
to  save  themselves  from  death ;  these  pusillanimous 
tongues,  speechless  lately  in  the  holy  places  which  they 
found  safe  asylums,  inviolable  ramparts,  against  the 
fury  of  the  enemy,  and  from  which  they  issue  furious 
enemies,  uttering  curses  against  their  Deliverer.1  .  .  . 

"  Ruin,  murder,  pillage,  fire,  desolation— all  the 
horrors  which  have  happened  in  the  recent  disaster  of 
Rome— are  the  result  of  the  customs  of  war.  But 
that  which  is  strange  and  new  in  it  is  that  the  ferocity 

1  He  alludes  to  the  fact  that  many  of  the  pagans  took  refuge 
in  the  churches,  and  thus  professing  to  be  Christians,  were 
saved. 


IQO  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

of  barbarians  should  become  so  merciful  as  to  point 
out  to  the  people  the  two  greatest  basilicas  as  ai\ 
asylum  where  no  one  should  be  hurt,  whence  no  one 
should  be  dragged ;  to  which  the  more  humane  of 
the  conquerors  led  their  captives  in  order  to  secure 
their  freedom,  from  which  the  more  cruel  might  not 
take  them  to  sell  them  into  slavery.  It  is  to  the  Name 
of  Christ,  it  is  to  the  Christian  religion,  that  the 
honour  of  this  clemency  is  due.  He  who  does  not 
see  it  is  blind;  he  who  does  not  see  it  with  silent 
submission  is  ungrateful;  he  who  speaks  against  these 
acts  of  mercy  is  mad." 

Augustine  mentions  one  incident  of  the  sack  which 
brings  all  these  general  statements  more  vividly  before 
the  mind.  We  tell  it  in  the  words  of  Gibbon  :]— 
"  While  the  barbarians  roamed  through  the  city  in 
quest  of  prey,  the  humble  dwelling  of  an  aged  virgin 
who  had  devoted  her  life  to  the  service  of  the  altar 
was  forced  open  by  one  of  the  powerful  Goths.  He 
immediately  demanded,  though  in  civil  language, 
all  the  gold  and  silver  in  her  possession ;  and  was 
astonished  at  the  readiness  with  which  she  conducted 
him  to  a  splendid  hoard  of  massy  plate  of  the  richest 
materials  and  the  most  curious  workmanship.  The 
barbarian  viewed  with  wonder  and  delight  this  valu 
able  acquisition,  till  he  was  interrupted  by  a  serious 
admonition,  addressed  to  him  in  the  following  words  : 
'  These/  said  she,  '  are  the  consecrated  vessels  be 
longing  to  St.  Peter ;  if  you  presume  to  touch  them, 
the  sacrilegious  deed  will  remain  on  your  conscience. 

1  "Decline  and  Fall,"  book  xxxi. 


SPECIAL    WORKS.  19  I 

for  my  part  I  dare  not  keep  what  I  am  unable  to 
defend.'  The  Gothic  captain,  struck  with  reverential 
awe,  despatched  a  messenger  to  tell  the  king  what  he 
had  discovered ;  and  received  a  peremptory  order 
from  Alaric  that  all  the  consecrated  plate  and  orna 
ments  should  be  transported  without  damage  or  delay 
to  the  Church  of  the  Apostle.  From  the  extremity, 
perhaps,  of  the  Quirinal  Hill  to  the  distant  quarter  of 
the  Vatican,  a  numerous  detachment  of  Goths,  march 
ing  in  order  of  battle  through  the  principal  streets, 
protected,  with  glittering  arms,  the  long  train  of  their 
devout  companions  who  bore  aloft  on  their  heads  the 
sacred  vessels  of  gold  and  silver,  and  the  martial 
shouts  of  the  barbarians  were  mingled  with  the  sound 
of  religious  psalmody.  From  all  the  adjacent  houses 
a  crowd  of  Christians  hastened  to  join  this  edifying 
procession ;  and  a  multitude  of  fugitives,  without  dis 
tinction  of  age  or  rank  or  even  of  sect,  had  the  good 
fortune  to  escape  to  the  secure  and  hospitable  sanc 
tuary  of  the  Vatican." 

In  the  second  section  of  "  The  City  of  God,"  extend 
ing  over  the  five  books,  from  the  tenth  to  the  fifteenth, 
the  author  treats  of  the  second  part  of  his  subject : 
the  gods  of  paganism,  useless  in  this  world  to  their 
worshippers,  and  even  hurtful  to  them  by  the  example 
of  the  infamies  which  mythology  and  the  poets  relate 
of  them,  are  also  entirely  useless  to  them  after  this 
life. 

Long  and  learned  details  on  the  pagan  mythology 
on  the  doctrines  of  the  poets,  and  of  the  principal 
philosophers  of  antiquity,  and  the  analysis  of  a  great 
work  by  Varro,  entirely  lost  to  us,  make  this  second 


1Q2  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

part  full  of  interest,  at  the  same  time  that  it  is  full  of 
great  historical  value.  "It  is  a  far  more  comprehen 
sive  survey  of  the  whole  religious  philosophy  of  anti 
quity  than  had  been  yet  displayed  in  any  Christian 
work."1  In  his  zeal  for  the  destruction  of  paganism 
he  pursues  it  even  to  its  last  refuges ;  he  unveils  its 
miseries,  its  contradictions,  its  shameful  mysteries  ; 
he  strips  it  of  the  brilliant  mantle  with  which  the 
poets  have  toned  it  down,  and  exposes  it  naked  to 
the  derision  of  the  world,  an  object  of  scorn  to  its  own 
adherents,  and  of  disgust  not  only  to  the  Christian 
but  to  every  honourable  mind.  It  must  be  admitted, 
however,  that  in  the  multifarious  mass  of  knowledge, 
brought  together  with  great  learning  and  industry, 
and  amidst  digressions,  always  interesting  in  them 
selves,  we  often  lose  sight  of  the  main  purpose  of  the 
work. 

The  second  part  of  the  work,  consisting  of  the  last 
twelve  chapters,  takes  up  a  new  theme.  Its  subject 
is  the  development  of  the  two  rival  ideas  of  human 
life,  as  shown  in  the  actual  history  of  the  world.  He 
traces  from  the  earliest  days  the  history  of  what  he 
calls  the  City  of  Men  and  the  City  of  God.  These 
cities  are  built  upon  two  contrary  affections.  Love 
of  self,  carried  to  the  length  of  disregard  of  God, 
makes  the  City  of  Men.  The  love  of  God,  carried 
to  the  length  of  contempt  of  self,  makes  the  City  of 
God.  This  thought  is  the  soul  of  the  work.  It 
begins  with  the  division  of  the  angels  ;  then  it  pursues 
the  subject  on  earth  and  in  heaven.  On  earth  where 

1  Dean  Milman,  "  Hist,  of  Christianity,"  book  iii.  chap.  IO. 


SPECIAL   WORKS. 


193 


men  divide  themselves  into  worshippers  of  the  true 
God  and  worshippers  of  false  gods.  Cain  and  Abel 
or  rather  Seth,  are  the  fathers  of  the  two  cities  of 
earth  and  of  heaven.  And  from  this  beginning  of 
the  history  of  the  human  race  the  author  gives  a 
survey  of  sacred  history  which  brings  out  the  philo 
sophy  of  the  Old  Testament  history.  Then  he  gives 
a  summary  of  secular  history  from  the  Assyrian 
monarchy  downwards,  again  bringing  out  the  philo 
sophy  of  the  history  of  the  world — i.e.,  in  both  cases 
exhibiting  the  course  of  human  history  flowing  on 
under  the  influences  of  the  passions  and  interests 
and  free  will  of  men,  but  always  under  the  guiding 
hand  of  the  providence  of  God. 

He  does  not  overlook  such  telling  facts  as  that 
the  Hebrew  prophets  preceded  the  philosophers : 
Pythagoras,  the  earliest,  did  not  appear  till  after  the 
Babylonian  Captivity  ;  that  the  sacred  authors  are  all 
agreed  on  the  facts  and  the  doctrines  of  religion, 
while  the  philosophers  hold  the  most  contradictory 
opinions.  Varro,  he  says,  counted  284  different  philo 
sophical  opinions  on  what  was  the  sovereign  good. 
Augustine  is  the  first  to  utter  the  thought  which  has 
been  reproduced  with  great  effect  by  several  modern 
writers,  that  Providence  made  use  of  Rome  as  an  in 
strument  to  unite  the  nations  under  one  law,  and  so 
prepare  the  way  for  Christ.  The  nineteenth  book 
contains  some  striking  and  original  thoughts  on  the 
tendency  of  all  things  in  the  world  towards  peace  ; 
the  desire  for  which  is  at  the  bottom  of  every  human 
soul,  whatever  violent  passions  agitate  it.  He  speaks 
the  mind  of  the  Church  on  the  subject  of  theinstitu- 

N 


194  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

tion  of  slavery  which  formed  the  very  basis  of  Roman 
society.  "  It  is  not,"  he  says,  "  in  conformity  with  the 
law  of  nature  ;  it  is  one  of  the  consequences  of  sin  ;  it 
is  a  degeneration  of  man.  God  said,  l  Let  man  have 
dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  the  birds  of  the  air, 
and  all  the  animals  upon  earth ; '  but  He  did  not  say 
let  man  have  dominion  over  man.  .  .  .  All  progress 
towards  good  will  be  a  progress  towards  liberty."  The 
twenty-fourth  and  last  chapter  is  an  eloquent  repre 
sentation  of  the  joys  and  splendours  conferred  upon 
man  in  this'  magnificent  world,  from  which  he  draws 
the  deduction,  if  God  has  deigned  to  give  to  man 
during  his  laborious  pilgrimage  here  so  beautiful  a 
dwelling,  what  will  be  the  ineffable  beauty  of  the 
future  dwelling  of  the  blessed,  where  there  will  be 
neither  wars,  nor  sufferings,  nor  death  ? 

"  The  City  of  God  "  is  one  of  those  immortal  works 
sealed  by  the  admiration  of  all  succeeding  ages, 
and  which  must  ever  retain  its  value.  "  It  is,"  says 
M.  Poujoulat,  "  the  Encyclopaedia  of  the  fifth  century." 
It  traverses  the  whole  field  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
ancient  world.  It  is  the  Christian  poem  of  the  desti 
nies  of  the  human  race.  It  has  been  said,  in  depre 
ciation,  that  much  of  Augustine's  learning  was  second 
hand.  But  his  reputation  does  not  rest  on  his  learn 
ing.  Jerome  was,  beyond  question,  the  great  scholar 
of  the  age,  as  Ambrose  was  the  great  ecclesiastical 
statesman,  and  Chrysostom  the  great  preacher. 
Augustine  was  the  great  thinker  of  the  age  ;  he  takes, 
as  by  right,  all  the  learning  of  the  ancient  world 
which  students  had  gathered  together,  as  the  raw 
material  of  his  philosophy. 


SAINT   AUGUSTINE.  1 95 


CHAPTER    XXL 

THE    PELAGIAN    CONTROVERSY. 

Ancient  Faith  of  the  Church — Pelagius's  Views— Shared  by 
Celestius — Celestius  condemned  at  Carthage— Pelagius's 
Letter  to  Demetrius — Pelagius  tried  before  a  Synod  of 
Jerusalem — Acquitted  by  a  Synod  of  Diospolis — Celestius 
acquitted  by  Zosimus — African  Council  refuses  to  acquit 
him  —  Zosimus  condemns  him — Pelagianism  spreads  in 
Gaul ;  in  Britain — Increase  of  Augustine's  reputation. 

THERE  were  three  great  controversies  in  which 
Augustine  was  engaged — not  to  mention  occasional 
treatises  against  the  expiring  pagan  philosophy,  and 
Arianism  revived  in  Africa  by  the  influx  of  the 
Arian  Vandals — three  great  controversies  extending 
over  a  number  of  years,  and  overlapping  one  an 
other. 

The  first  was  the  Manichsean  controversy.  Mani- 
chseanism  was  indeed  dying  out  without  Augustine's 
aid,  but  probably  his  own  antecedents  made  him 
consider  it  a  duty  specially  incumbent  upon  him  to 
embrace  every  opportunity  of  opposing  the  error 
which  he  had  once  helped  to  defend  and  spread. 

The  second  great  controversy  was  against  Donatism. 
No  doubt  this  great  schism  was  the  greatest  evil 
against  which  the  Church  in  Africa  had  to  contend, 
and  Augustine's  triumph  over  it  was  a  very  consider 
able  and  important  achievement.  But  it  was  almost 

N    2 


196  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

a  local  schism,  hardly  known  in  other  branches  of  the 
Church. 

"  The  Pelagian  controversy  was  that  as  to  which 
Augustine  exercised  the  most  powerful  influence  on 
his  own  age,  and  which  has  chiefly  made  his  authority 
important  through  succeeding  times."  1  The  great 
controversies  which  had  hitherto  agitated  the  Church 
arose  in  the  East,  and  all  related  to  the  nature  of  the 
Godhead  and  the  relations  of  the  Persons  of  the 
Holy  Trinity;  .one  was  now  to  arise  in  the  West  on 
the  nature  of  man  and  his  relations  to  God. 

It  had  always  been  held  in  the  Church,  though  no 
occasion  had  called  for  precise  and  authoritative  de 
finitions  on  the  subject,  that  Adam  had  transmitted 
to  his  posterity  an  inheritance  of  sinfulness,  but  that 
man's  will  was  free  to  choose  good  or  evil,  to  receive 
or  reject  salvation. 

Augustine  himself  had  modified  his  views  with  the 
course  of  time  and  study.  In  his  earlier  writings 
against  the  Manichseans  he  had  maintained  the 
absolute  freedom  and  sufficiency  of  man's  will  tc 
receive  or  reject  the  offers  of  God.  But  as  early  as 
A.D.  397  he  had  come  to  regard  faith  and  a  good  will 
as  also  effects  of  Divine  grace.  "  Pelagianism  was  a 
natural  reaction,  if  not  directly  against  Augustine's 
teaching,  yet  against  those  views  of  which  Augus 
tine  is  the  most  distinguished  representative."2 

Pelagius  is  believed  to  have  been  a  Briton,  the  first 
native  of  our  island  who  distinguished  himself  in 

1  Canon  Robertson's  "Hist,  of  the  Christian  Church,  "ii.  139. 
8  Canon  Mozley's  "Treatise  on  the  Augustinian  Doctrine  ol 
Predestination,"  p.  46. 


THE    PELAGIAN    CONTROVERSY.  1 97 

literature  or  theology.  The  name  by  which  he  was 
generally  known  is  traditionally  said  to  be  a  Greek 
translation  of  his  British  name  of  Morgan,  i.e.,  sea 
born.  He  had  embraced  the  ascetic  life,  like  nearly 
all  the  foremost  churchmen  of  the  times,  and  from 
his  acquaintance  with  the  Greek  language  and  the 
Greek  theological  writings,  it  is  supposed  that  he  had 
resided  in  the  East.  About  the  end  of  the  fourth 
century  he  took  up  his  abode  at  Rome,  where  he  was 
admitted  into  the  highest  Christian  society,  and  his 
abilities  obtained  him  a  considerable  reputation.  His 
temper  and  tone  of  mind  led  him  to  regard  with  sus 
picion  and  dislike  the  school  of  theology  which  tended 
to  represent  man  as  entirely  evil  by  nature,  and 
entirely  helpless  to  embrace  and  pursue  good.  He 
ran  to  the  opposite  extreme ;  and  taught  that  the  faL 
left  human  nature,  as  we  inherit  it,  unchanged,  and 
left  man's  will  free  to  choose  good  and  to  pursue  it ; 
while  he  did  not  deny  that  God  gives  grace,  and  that 
grace  is  a  powerful  aid  in  the  spiritual  life.  Pelagius 
taught  such  doctrines  as  these  in  his  private  teachings., 
but  seems  to  have  made  no  attempt  to  call  general 
attention  to  them  or  to  found  a  school. 

At  Rome  Pelagius  became  acquainted  with  Celes- 
tius,  who  from  a  characteristic  expression l  of  Jerome 
has  been  supposed  to  be  a  Scot,  i.e.  a  native  of  Ireland. 
Celestius,  a  man  of  family,  who  had  practised  as  an 
advocate,  and  had  forsaken  that  profession  for  an 
ascetic  life,  had  adopted  the  same  kind  of  opinions  as 
Pelagius,  whether  from  him,  or  independently,  does 

1  Scotorum  pultibus  prxgravatus — i.e..  heavy  with  Scotcli 
porridge. 


198  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

not  appear,  and  his  temperament  led  him  to  put 
them  forward  more  publicly  and  maintain  them  with 
more  of  self-assertion. 

After  the  sack  of  Rome  the  two  friends  sought 
refuge,  like  so  many  others,  in  Africa ;  Pelagius 
shortly  went  on  to  the  East,  leaving  Celestius  at 
Carthage,  and  it  does  not  appear  that  they  ever  met 
again. 

The  controversy  began  about  Celestius.  He  sought 
to  obtain  ordination  as  a  priest  at  Carthage ;  but 
Paulinas',  who  had  formerly  been  a  deacon  at  Milan, 
and  who  is  known  to  us  as  the  biographer  of  Ambrose,1 
interposed,  and  charged  him  with  heretical  opinions. 
The  question  was  examined  by  a  synod.  He  was 
accused  of  holding  that  Adam  would  have  died,  even 
if  he  had  not  sinned;  that  his  sin  did  not  injure  any 
but  himself;  that  infants  are  born  in  the  condition  in 
which  Adam  originally  was  ;  that  neither  do  all  man 
kind  die  in  Adam,  nor  do  they  rise  again  in  Christ ; 
that  infants  though  unbaptized  have  eternal  life  ;  that 
the  Law  admitted  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  even 
as  the  Gospel  does ;  and  that  before  our  Lord's 
coming  there  were  men  without  sin.  He  defended 
himself  by  saying  that  he  allowed  the  necessity  ot 
infant  baptism ;  that  the  propositions  generally, 
whether  true  or  not,  related  to  matters  of  speculation 
on  which  the  Church  had  given  no  decision ;  and 
that  consequently  they  could  not  be  heretical.  The 
council  however  condemned  and  excommuicated  him. 
He  appealed  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome, — the  first  appeal 

1  "Fathers  for  English  Readers  :  Ambrose." 


THE    PELAGIAN    CONTROVERSV.  *  y9 

which  is  recorded  as  having  been  made  to  Rome  from 
another  province.1  No  notice  was  taken  of  his  appeal, 
and  Celestius  left  Carthage  for  Ephesus. 

Augustine  was  now  drawn  into  the  controversy. 
The  progress  of  the  new  opinions  attracted  his  atten 
tion.  He  was  induced  to  write  two  tracts  against 
them  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  Count  Marcellinus  ; 
and  at  the  request  of  the  Bishop  Aurelius  he  preached 
against  them  at  Carthage. 

The  history  of  the  controversy  now  shifts  to  Pelagius 
in  the  Holy  Land.  At  first  Jerome  was  on  friendly 
terms  with  him  as  a  learned  ascetic,  but  he  soon 
found  out  his  heterodox  views  and  became  his  vehe 
ment  opponent. 

It  was  soon  after  his  settlement  in  Palestine  that 
Pelagius  received  the  request,  which  we  have  had 
occasion  to  mention  elsewhere,2  from  Proba,  the 
mother  of  Demetrius,  to  address  some  counsels  to 
her  daughter  on  the  occasion  of  her  professing 
virginity.  The  letter  throws  light  upon  the  habitual 
teaching  of  Pelagius  3  : — "  He  tells  Demetrius  that  it 
is  his  practice  in  such  matters  to  begin  by  laying 
down  what  human  nature  can  do,  lest,  from  an  in 
sufficient  conception  of  its  powers,  too  low  a  standard 
of  duty  and  exertion  should  be  taken  ;  for,  he  says, 
men  are  careless  in  proportion  as  they  think  meanly 
of  themselves,  and  for  this  reason  it  is  that  Scripture 
so  often  endeavours  to  animate  us  by  styling  us  sons 
of  God.  The  powers  of  man,  like  the  faculties  and 
instincts  of  all  creatures,  are  God's  gifts.  Instead  of 

1  Robertson,  ii.  144.  a  Supra  p.  137,  note. 

3  Robertson,  ii.  145. 


200  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

thinking,  with  the  vulgar,  that  the  power  of  doing 
evil  is  a  defect  in  man — instead  of  reproaching  the 
Creator  as  if  he  had  made  man  evil — we  ought  rather 
to  regard  the  enjoyment  of  free  will  as  a  special 
dignity  and  prerogative  of  our  nature.  He  dwells  on 
the  virtues  of  those  who  had  lived  before  the  Saviour's 
coming,  and  declares  the  conscience,  which  approves 
or  reproves  our  actions,  to  be,  so  to  speak,  a  sort  of 
natural  holiness  in  our  souls. 

In  July,  415,  Pelagius  was  charged  with  heresy  before 
John,  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  and  a  synod  of  his  clergy, 
by  Orosius,  a  young  Spanish  priest  who  had  lately 
come  into  the  Holy  Land  with  a  recommendation 
from  Augustine  to  Jerome.  The  accuser  related  the 
proceedings  which  had  taken  place  at  Carthage  in 
the  case  of  Celestius,  and  read  a  letter  from  Augus 
tine.  Pelagius  asked,  "What  is  Augustine  to  me?" 
but  was  rebuked  for  speaking  disrespectfully  of  a 
gieac  prelate  by  whom  unity  had  been  restored  to  the 
African  Church.  The  inquiry  was  conducted  under 
difficulties.  Orosius  could  not  speak  Greek ;  the 
members  of  the  Synod  could  not  speak  Latin ;  the 
interpreter  was  unskilful  or  unfaithful ;  the  bishop 
was  disposed  to  think  the  young  Spaniard  hasty  in 
his  accusations,  and  to  take  a  favourable  view  of 
Pelagius.  Orosius  at  length  proposed  that  as  the 
question  was  one  of  Latin  theology,  and  as  the  parties 
were  Latins,  it  should  be  referred  to  the  chief  bishop 
of  the  Latin  Church,  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  To  this 
John  agreed,  ordering  in  the  meantime  that  Pelagius 
should  refrain  from  publishing  his  opinions,  and  that 
his  opponents  should  refrain  from  molesting  him. 


HIE    PELAGIAN    CONTROVERSY.  2OI 

We  need  hardly  point  out  that  this  reference  to  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  was  a  natural  one  under  the  circum 
stances,  and  involves  no  acknowledgment  of  the  later 
pretensions  of  that  see. 

At  the  end  of  the  same  year  two  bishops  of  Gaul 
brought  an  accusation  against  Pelagius  before  Eulogius, 
the  metropolitan  of  Caesarea,  who  summoned  a  synod 
of  fourteen  bishops  to  Diospolis  (the  ancient  Lydda). 
When  the  synod  met,  however,  one  of  the  accusers 
was  sick ;  the  other  excused  himself  on  account  of 
his  companion's  illness ;  and  Pelagius  was  left  to 
make  his  case  good  without  opposition.  He  dis 
avowed  some  of  the  opinions  attributed  to  him, 
explained  others,  and  his  statement  appeared  to  the 
synod  to  be  satisfactory.  The  acts  of  the  Synod  of 
Carthage  were  read.  Pelagius  declined  to  enter  into 
the  question  whether  Celestius  held  the  opinions  attri 
buted  to  him,  but  declared  that  he  himself  did  not ;  he 
consented  to  anathematize  the  holders  of  these  and 
similar  opinions  of  which  he  had  been  accused :  and 
the  council  recognized  his  orthodoxy.  Pelagius  was 
much  elated,  and  shortly  after  put  forth  a  book,  "  On 
the  Freedom  of  the  Will." 

The  history  shifts  again  to  Celestius  and  to  Rome. 
Celestius  had  procured  ordination  as  priest  at 
Ephesus ;  he  appeared  again  in  Rome,  and  taking 
occasion  from  Pelagius's  acquittal  by  the  Synod  of 
Diospolis,  he  requested  that  his  own  opinions  might 
De  re-examined.  Zosimus,  the  bishop  of  Rome,  was 
won  over  to  believe  in  the  orthodoxy  of  Celestius, 
and  after  having  held  a  council,  at  which  Celestius 
disavowed  all  doctrines  which  the  Roman  see  had 


2O2  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

condemned,  he  wrote  a  letter  of  reproof  to  the 
Africans,  blaming  them  for  listening  too  readily  to 
charges  against  good  men.  The  African  prelates, 
assembled  in  synod  at  Carthage,  asserted  their  inde 
pendence  of  Rome  ;  declared  that  their  condemna 
tion  of  Celestius  must  stand  till  he  had  clearly  re 
tracted  his  errors  ;  and  passed  nine  canons  (A.D.  418), 
which  were  afterwards  generally  accepted  throughout 
the  Church,  and  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  most 
'mportant  bulwark  against  Pelagianism.  In  forward 
ing  these  canons  to  Rome,  the  African  prelates  re 
torted  upon  Zosimus  that  he  himself  had  been  hasty 
in  his  credulity,  and  exposed  the  artifices  by  which 
Celestius  had  disguised  his  errors.  From  this  time 
Augustine  no  longer  spoke  of  the  Pelagians  as  bre 
thren  but  as  heretics. 

The  civil  power  now  intervened,  probably  at  the 
solicitation  of  the  Africans;  declared  the  Pelagians 
heretics,  and  subjected  them  to  disabilities  and  pe 
nalties.  Zosimus,  pressed  by  the  Court  and  by  the 
anti-Pelagian  party  in  Rome,  professed  an  intention 
of  re-examining  the  whole  matter,  and  summoned 
Celestius  to  appear  before  a  council.  Celestius 
quitted  Rome.  Zosimus  condemned  him  and  Pela- 
gius  as  heretics,  accepted  the  African  decisions,  and 
required  all  bishops  to  subscribe  them  as  a  test  of 
orthodoxy. 

The  views  known  by  the  name  of  Pelagius  never 
theless  spread.  Nineteen  Italian  bishops  were  de 
posed  for  holding  them.  A  modification  of  them 
conveniently  described  as  semi-Pelagianism  prevailed 
in  Gaul,  and  the  Gallic  bishops  appealed  to  Augustine 
for  the  help  of  his  pen.  They  spread  in  Britain,  and 


THE    PELAGIAN    CONTROVERSY.  203 

the  British  clergy  appealed  to  the  Church  of  Gaul  for 
aid,  which  (A.D.  429)  sent  two  of  its  ablest  bishops, 
Germanus  of  Auxerre  and  Lupus  of  Troyes,  and 
again  in  answer  to  a  second  appeal  (in  A.D.  447)  sent 
Germanus  and  Severus  to  aid  them  in  their  con 
troversy  with  the  heretics. 

In  all  this  controversy  Augustine,  with  the  general 
assent,  took  the  foremost  place  as  the  champion  of 
orthodox  truth.  A  council  of  bishops  held  at  Milevis 
and  another  at  Carthage  formally  charged  him  to  study 
the  doctrine  of  the  Church  on  the  questions  raised  by 
Celestius  and  Pelagius,  and  to  deal  with  them  in  a 
special  work.  Jerome  said,  "  Since  Augustine,  this 
holy  and  eloquent  bishop,  has  resolved  to  write 
against  Pelagius,  I  consider  myself  dispensed  hence 
forward  from  this  duty,  considering  it  unnecessary. 
For  either  I  should  say  the  same  things  as  he,  which 
would  be  superfluous,  or  I  should  say  different  things, 
and  then  I  could  not  be  otherwise  than  inferior  to 
this  eminent  mind,  which  will  always  anticipate  me 
in  that  which  it  is  best  to  say."  In  short,  the  credit 
of  meeting  promptly,  sagaciously,  and  effectually 
these  dangerous  opinions,  is  due  especially  to  the 
African  Church,  and  in  that  Church  especially  to 
Augustine.  The  controversy  greatly  added  to  his 
reputation  throughout  the  Church.  Prosper  of  Aqui- 
taine  celebrated  his  glory  in  verse.  Jerome  wrote  to 
express  his  admiration  and  affection: — " Pr-eserve," 
said  he,  "  this  great  reputation  which  you  have  ac 
quired  throughout  the  whole  world.  The  Catholics 
respect  and  admire  you  as  the  restorer  of  the  ancient 
faith,  and  what  is  not  less  glorious,  you  are  an  object 
of  hate  and  terror  to  the  heretics." 


204  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE    AUGUSTINIAN    THEOLOGY 

The  Philosophical  Theory  of  the  Freedom  of  the  Will- 
Augustine's  Doctrine  of  Original  Sin  :  of  Predestination  : 
of  Efficacious  Grace  :  of  Final  Perseverance — The  Flaw  in 
this  Theology. 

WE  have  spoken  generally  of  the  eminence  of  Augus 
tine  as  a  theologian.  It  remains  to  be  said  that  he 
held  certain  views  on  predestination  and  on  grace 
which  run  through  all  the  writings  of  his  later  life,  so 
as  to  give  a  special  tone  to  his  theology  and  to  dif 
ferentiate  his  system  of  doctrine,  as  a  whole,  from 
the  catholic  theology,  and  to  form  an  Augustinian 
school  of  thought. 

The  subject  has  been  thoroughly  treated  in  Canon 
Mozley's  work  on  the  Augustinian  doctrine  of  Pre 
destination,1  and  some  extracts  from  his  work,  with  a 
few  connecting  sentences,  will  sufficiently  place  the 
subject  in  outline  before  our  readers. 

"  The  Western  Church,  as  a  whole,  has  entered 
more  deeply  into  the  mysteries  of  the  inner  man  than 
the  Eastern  has,  into  that  mixed  sense  of  spiritual 
weakness  and  desire,  of  a  void  which  no  efforts  can 
fill,  and  of  a  struggle  endless  upon  all  natural  prin- 

1  London  :  J.  Murray.     1878. 


THE   AUGUSTINIAN    THEOLOGY.  205 

ciples.  .  .  .  Tertullian  first  set  the  example  of  strength 
and  copiousness  in  laying  down  the  nature  of  original 
sin ;  he  was  followed  by  Cyprian  and  Ambrose.  But 
language  could  not  ultimately  rest  in  a  stage,  in 
wlr'ch,  however  strong  and  significant,  it  did  not  state 
what  definite  thing  had  happened  to  human  nature 
in  consequence  of  the  fall,  and  just  stopped  short  of 
expressing  what,  upon  a  real  examination,  it  meant. 
If  a  man  is  able  to  do  a  right  action,  and  does  a 
wrong  one,  he  is  personally  guilty,  indeed,  but  it  can 
not  be  said  that  his  nature  is  corrupt.  The  passions 
and  affections  may  be  inconveniently  strong,  and  so 
the  nature  be  at  a  disadvantage ;  but  no  mere  strength 
of  the  passions  and  affections  show  the  nature  cor 
rupt  so  long  as  the  will  retains  its  power.  On  the 
contrary,  the  nature  is  proved  to  be  fundamentally 
sound,  by  the  very  fact  of  its  being  equal  to  the  per 
formance  of  the  right  act.  The  test  of  a  sound  or 
corrupt  nature,  then,  is  an  able  or  an  impotent  will ; 
and,  if  a  corruption  of  nature  means  anything  at  all, 
it  means  the  loss  of  free  will.  This  was  the  legitimate 
advance  which  was  wanted  to  complete  the  expression 
of  the  doctrine;  and  this  complement  was  left  to 

Augustine  to  give 

"  Philosophy  raises  an  insuperable  difficulty  to  the 
freedom  of  any  created  will ;  for  freedom  of  the  will 
implies  an  original  source  of  action  in  the  being  who 
has  it,  original  not  relatively  only,  in  the  way  in 
which  any  cause,  however  secondary,  is  original  as 
compared  with  its  effect,  but  absolutely;  to  be  an 
original  cause  of  anything  is  contrary  to  the  very 
essence  of  a  being  who  is  not  original.  Tertullian 


206  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

had  a  distinct  philosophical  conception  of  this  diffi 
culty,  and  met  it  by  the  only  answer  open  to  a  be 
liever  in  free  will,  an  assertion  of  the  truth  together 
with  an  acknowledgment  of  the  difficulty.  Originality 
is  the  highest  form  of  being ;  and  everything  which 
does  not  move  itself,  whatever  be  its  grandeur  or 
sublimity  as  a  spectacle,  is  intrinsically  despicable  in 
comparison  with  that  which  does.  The  Divine 
Power,  then,  resolving  upon  its  own  highest  exertion, 
chose  originality  itself  as  a  subject  of  creation,  and 
made  a  being  which,  when  made,  was  in  its  turn  truly 
creative,  the  author  and  cause  of  its  own  motions  and 
acts.  And  whereas  the  creature  would,  as  such,  have 
possessed  nothing  of  his  own,  God,  by  an  incompre 
hensible  act  of  liberality,  alienated  good  from  Him 
self  in  order  that  the  creature  might  be  the  true 
proprietor  of  it,  and  exhibit  a  goodness  of  which  His 
own  will  was  the  sole  cause.  And  this  redounded 
ultimately  to  God's  glory,  for  the  worthiest  and 
noblest  creature  must  know  Him  best.  Tertullian, 
then,  distinctly  and  philosophically  recognized  a 
created  will  which  was  yet  an  original  cause  in  nature. 
But  St.  Augustine,  while,  on  the  ground  of  Scripture, 
he  assigned  free  will  to  man  before  the  fall,  never 
recognized  philosophically  an  original  source  of  good 
in  the  creature.  As  a  philosopher  he  argued  wholly 
upon  the  divine  attribute  of  power,  or  the  operation 
of  a  First  Cause,  to  which  he  simply  referred  and 
subordinated  all  motion  in  the  universe;  and  laid 
down  in  his  dicta  on  this  subject  the  foundation  of 
scholastic  necessitarianism. 

"  Thus  philosophically  predisposed,   the  mind  of 


THE   AUGUSTINIAN    THEOLOGY.  207 

St.  Augustine  took  up  the  doctrine  of  original  sin  as 
handed  down  by  the  voice  of  the  Church  .  .  .  and 
brought  the  mass  of  language  which  three  centuries 
had  used  to  a  point.  He  explained  the  corruption 
of  human  nature  to  mean  the  loss  of  free  will ;  and 
this  statement  was  the  fundamental  barrier  which 
divided  the  later  from  the  earlier  scheme  and  rationale 
of  original  sin.  The  will,  according  to  the  earlier 
school,  was  not  substantially  affected  by  the  fall.  Its 
circumstances,  its  meatis  and  appliances,  were  altered, 
not  itself;  and,  endowed  with  spiritual  aids  in  Para 
dise,  deprived  of  them  at  the  fall,  re-endowed  with 
them  under  the  Gospel,  it  retained  throughout  these 
operations  one  and  the  self-same  unchanged  essential 
power,  in  that  power  of  choice  whereby  it  was  in 
every  successive  state  of  higher  or  lower  means  able 
to  use  and  avail  itself  of  whatever  means  it  had. 
But  in  Augustine's  scheme  the  will  itself  was  disabled 
at  the  fall,  and  not  only  certain  impulses  to  it  with 
drawn,  its  power  of  choice  was  gone,  and  man  was 
unable  not  only  to  rise  above  a  defective  goodness, 
but  to  avoid  positive  sin.  He  was  henceforth,  prior 
to  the  operation  of  grace,  in  a  state  of  necessity  on 
the  side  of  evil,  a  slave  to  the  devil  and  his  own 
inordinate  lusts. 

"...  Original  sin  was  thus  represented,  in  its 
nature  and  effects,  by  Augustine,  as  positive  sin,  '  and 
so  deserving  of,  and  in  fact,-'m  the  case  of  heathen, 
e.g.,  and  unbaptized  infants,  actually  receiving,  eternal 
punishment/  In  asserting  the  desert  of  punishment 
Augustine  did  no  more  than  draw  out  the  true  scrip 
tural  and  catholic  doctrine;  but  in  asserting 


2O8  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

he  exceeded  the  true  doctrine,  and  did  not  take  into 
account  that  Scripture  and  reason  also  declare  that  one 
man  is  not  responsible  for  another  man's  sins ;  and 
from  this  it  follows  that  the  posterity  of  Adam  are 
not)  as  such,  sinful,  and  therefore  do  not  deserve  such 
punishment.  '  The  doctrine  of  original  sin  ought  not 
to  be  understated  or  curtailed  because  it  leads  to 
extreme  conclusions  on  one  side  of  the  truth ;  and 
Augustine,  who  is  not  deterred  by  such  results  from 
the  full  statement  of  it,  is,  so  far,  a  more  faithful 
interpreter  of  it  than  the  earlier  school.  But  those 
who  draw  out  this  doctrine  to  the  full,  and  do  not 
balance  it  by  other  truths,  give  it  force  at  the  expense 
of  tenableness  and  justice  '  "  (pp.  116-125). 

On  the  doctrine  of  Predestination  Augustine  "held 
the  existence  of  an  eternal  divine  decree,  separating, 
antecedently  to  any  difference  of  desert,  one  portion 
of  the  human  race  from  another ;  and  ordaining  one 
to  everlasting  life  and  the  other  to  everlasting  misery. 
It  was  not  predestination  to  special  means  of  grace, 
or  a  predestination  to  happiness  and  glory  based  on 
foreseen  faith  and  obedience,  which  he  maintained, 
but  an  absolute  unconditional  predestination  to  salva 
tion  or  damnation.  This  doctrine  occurs  frequency 
in  many  of  his  treatises,  wholly  pervades  some,  and 
forms  the  basis  of  his  whole  teaching  in  the  latter 
portion  of  his  theological  life"  (p.  126).  He  "regarded 
this  predestination  as  a  perplexing  mystery — a  doc 
trine  which  disagreed  with  our  natural  ideas  of  God's 
justice,  and  which  could  only  be  defended  by  a  refer 
ence  to  his  inscrutable  and  sovereign  will "  (p.  134). 
He  had  to  defend  his  doctrine,  not  only  against 


THE   AUGUSTINIAN    THEOLOGY.  209 

Pelagians,  but  against  Catholic  Christians1;  e.g.,  the 
Church  of  Marseilles,  as  we  learn  through  Prosper 
and  Hilary,  protested  against  the  doctrine  of  the 
book  "  De  Corruptione  et  Gratia,"  and  were  an 
swered  by  the  book  "  De  Predestinatione  Sanctorum." 
"  Scripture  informs  us  of  a  mystery  on  the  subject ; 
...  it  counterbalances  those  passages  which  convey 
the  predestinarian  doctrine  by  passages  as  plain  the 
other  way,  but  St.  Augustine  makes  predestinarian 
statements  and  does  not  balance  them  by  contrary 
ones.  Rather  he  endeavours  to  explain  away  those 
contrary  statements  of  Scripture."  He  erects  those 
passages  of  Scripture  which  are  suggestive  of  predes 
tination  into  a  system,  explaining  away  the  opposite 
ones,  and  converts  the  obscurity  and  inconsistency 
of  Scripture  language  into  that  clearness  and  consis 
tency  by  which  a  definite  truth  is  stated.  His  was 
the  error  of  those  who  follow  without  due  consider 
ation  the  strong  first  impression  which  the  human 
mind  entertains,  that  there  must  be  some  definite 
truth  to  be  arrived  at  on  the  question  under  consider 
ation,  whatever  it  may  be  ;  and  who  therefore  imagine 
that  they  cannot  be  doing  other  than  good  service  if 
they  only  add  to  what  is  defective  enough  to  make 
it  complete,  or  take  away  from  what  is  ambiguous 
enough  to  make  it  decisive."  .  .  .  Whereas,  "  if  Reve- 

1  Dollinger  speaks  of  St.  Augustine's  views  "  on  the  necessity 
of  sinning  and  the  irresistible  operations  of  the  divine  grace  as 
not  in  perfect  conformity  with  the  tradition  of  the  Church. 
("Eccl.  Hist,"  Cox's  transl.,  ii.  44.)    "St.  Augustine's  theory- 
respecting  original  sin  and  grace  never  became  the  doctrine  of 
the  Church."     (Moehler  on  "Symbolism,"  ii.  64.) 
O 


210  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

lation  as  a  whole  does  not  speak  explicitly.  Revelation 
did  not  intend  to  do  so ;  and  to  impose  a  definite 
truth  upon  it,  when  it  designedly  stops  short  of  one, 
is  as  real  an  error  of  interpretation  as  to  deny  a  truth 
which  it  expresses  "  (p.  147). 

"  The  doctrine  of  absolute  predestination  implies 
the  doctrine  of  efficacious  or  irresistible  grace,  for  the 
end  implies  the  means ;  and  therefore,  if  eternal  life 
is  insured,  the  necessary  qualifications  for  that  life, 
which  are  holiness  and  virtue,  must  be  insured  also. 
But  these  can  only  be  insured  by  such  a  divine 
influence  as  does  not  depend  for  its  effect  on  the 
contingency  of  man's  will ;  i.e.,  by  what  divines  call 
irresistible  or  efficacious  grace — a  grace  which  St. 
Augustine  accordingly  maintains." 

Lastly,  he  maintains  the  doctrine  of  final  persever 
ance,  viz.,  that  to  those  whom  God  predestinates  to 
eternal  life  He  gives  both  efficacious  grace  and  the 
gift  to  use  it,  so  as  to  gain  the  holiness  necessary  for 
those  that  shall  see  God,  and  to  persevere  to  the  end 
of  life  without  falling  away  from  the  grace  given. 

Canon  Mozley  points  out  the  flaws  which  un 
derlie  the  whole  argument.  Augustine  and  his 
school  "  commenced  with  an  assumption,  which  no 
modern  philosopher  would  allow,  that  the  Divine 
Power  was  an  absolutely  unlimited  thing.  That 
the  Divine  Power  is  not  liable  to  any  foreign  con 
trol  is  a  principle  which  every  one  must  admit 
who  believes  properly  in  a  Deity;  but  that  there 
is  no  intrinsic  limit  to  it  in  the  possibilities  of 
things  would  not  be  admitted  in  the  present  state 
of  philosophy,  in  which  this  whole  subject  is  properly 


THE   AUGUSTINIAN    THEOLOGY.  211 

understood  to  be  out  of  the  range  of  human  reason." 
"  Upon  this  abstract  idea  of  the  Divine  Power  rose 
up  the  Augustinian  doctrine  of  predestination  and 
grace,  while  upon  the  abstract  idea  of  Free  Will,  as 
an  unlimited  faculty,  rose  up  the  Pelagian  theory." 
"  The  question  cannot  be  determined  absolutely,  one 
way  or  another ;  it  lies  between  two  great  contradic 
tory  truths,  neither  of  which  can  be  set  aside,  nor 
made  to  give  way  to  the  other."  "  They  are  able  to 
be  held  together  because  they  are  only  incipient,  and 
not  final  and  complete  truths,"  and  this  is,  in  fact, 
the  mode  in  which  this  question  is  settled  by  the 
common  sense  of  mankind,  which  agrees  that  we 
must  hold  together  the  doctrine  of  God's  foreknow 
ledge  and  predestination  and  man's  free  will,  although 
we  do  not  see  how  they  agree  (pp.  304-306). 

The  Augustinian  theology  excited  little  attention 
in  the  Eastern  Church,  which  continued  to  hold  the 
traditional  belief.  In  the  Western  Church,  though  never 
authoritatively  sanctioned,  it  had  a  deep  and  wide 
spread  influence,  and  is  the  theology  of  the  School 
men,  e.g.,  of  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

Calvin,  with  his  logical  and  systematizing  French 
mind,  revived  it,  with  certain  exaggerations,  at  the 
Reformation.  Most  of  the  English  refugees  from  the 
Marian  persecution  returned  at  the  beginning  of 
Elizabeth's  reign  imbued  with  the  doctrines  of 
Calvin ;  and  many  of  the  more  eminent  of  them,  being 
promoted  to  bishoprics  and  other  dignities,  spread 
these  doctrines  throughout  the  English  Church  ;  and 
the  religious  mind  of  England  is  thus  to  this  day 
strongly  tinged  with  the  Augustinian  theology. 
o  2 


212  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE     APPEAL     TO     ROME. 

Apiarius,  an  African  Priest,  condemned  by  his  Bishop,  appeals 
to  Rome — African  Councils  had  forbidden  Appeals  beyond 
the  Sea — Zosimus  sends  a  Commission — The  Spurious 
Canons  of  Nicaea — The  Sixth  Council  of  Carthage  ;  its 
Canons  of  Discipline. 

IN  the  years  418-19  an  incident  happened  in  Africa  of 
considerable  importance  as  illustrating  the  relations, 
in  the  primitive  constitution  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
between  the  Roman  See  and  the  other  branches  of 
the  Church. 

Apiarius,  a  priest  of  Sicca,  convicted  of  various 
faults,  had  been  excommunicated  by  his  bishop, 
Urban,  one  of  the  disciples  of  Augustine.  Apiarius 
appealed  to  Zosimus,  the  bishop  of  Rome,  against  the 
decision  of  his  bishop. 

So  Origen  had  appealed  from  the  Bishop  of  Alex 
andria  to  the  Bishop  of  Csesarea,  and  Arius  in  turn 
had  appealed  to  the  Bishop  of  Nicomedia ;  and  it 
was  not  very  unusual  in  the  early  Church  for  an 
ecclesiastic  who  believed  himself  unjustly  treated  by 
his  bishop  to  appeal  to  some  influential  bishop  of 
another  branch  of  the  Church,  and  not  unusual  for 
him  who  was  appealed  to  to  interpose  his  good  offices 
on  behalf  of  his  suppliant. 


THE   APPEAL   TO    ROME.  213 

But  the  case  of  appeals  from  Africa  to  Rome  was 
somewhat  different  from  this.  Africa  was  a  province  of 
the  Western  Empire ;  and  the  great  see  of  the  West 
ern  Empire  had  a  special  attraction  for  the  Churches 
of  these  Latin-speaking  provinces.  There  was  a 
growing  disposition  on  the  part  of  aggrieved  African 
Christians  to  seek  for  the  interference  of  the  Roman 
bishop,  and  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  occu 
pants  of  the  Roman  see  to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of 
all  the  Churches  of  the  Western  Empire,  and  not 
even  to  limit  their  interference  to  the  West.  The 
African  prelates,  on  the  other  hand,  had  steadily 
asserted  and  successfully  maintained  the  entire  inde 
pendence  of  the  African  Church  of  all  foreign  inter 
ference.  Cyprian  and  three  African  Councils  of  his 
time  maintained  the  entire  independence  and  auto 
nomy  of  the  African  Church  against  Stephen,  bishop 
of  Rome,  on  the  question  of  the  rebaptism  of  heretics. 
Successive  African  Councils  had  forbidden  appeals 
beyond  the  sea. 

Now,  again,  the  affair  of  Apiarius  gave  occasion  to 
a  solemn  reassertion  of  the  independence  of  the 
African  Church,  and  placed  the  great  name  of  Augus 
tine  beside  that  of  Cyprian  as  the  defender  of  the 
independence  of  individual  Churches  against  the 
usurpations  of  the  see  of  Rome. 

Zosimus  received  the  appeal  of  Apiarius,  and  ap 
pointed  three  legates  to  inquire  into  the  case,  and 
deal  with  it  on  the  spot,  viz.,  Faustinus,  bishop  of 
Potentia,  in  the  March  of  Ancona,  and  two  Roman 
priests,  Philip  and  Asellus.  Zosimus  claimed  that 
priests  and  deacons  excommunicated  by  their  bishop 


214  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

had  an  appeal  to  the  neighbouring  bishops,  and  that 
bishops  had  an  appeal  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  He 
founded  this  claim  upon  certain  canons  which  he  put 
forth  as  canons  of  the  great  General  Council  of  Nicsea, 
to  which  the  whole  Church  paid  great  deference  ;  but 
which  were  really  canons  of  the  local  and  not  very  im 
portant  Council  held  at  Sardica  in  the  year  343-4. 

The  three  legates  declared  the  object  of  their  mis 
sion  at  an  assembly  of  bishops  held  at  Carthage 
towards  the  end  of  the  year  418.  The  African 
bishops  objected  that  the  claim  was  contrary  to  the 
customs  of  the  African  Church,  and  declared  that  no 
such  canons  as  those  quoted  in  support  of  it  existed 
in  their  copies  of  the  Canons  of  Nicsea ;  and  the 
assembly  broke  up.  Five  months  later,  on  the  25th 
of  May,  419,  the  usual  annual  council  of  the  African 
Churches  assembled  at  Carthage,  in  the  basilica  of 
Fausta,  under  the'  presidency  of  Aurelius,  the  bishop  ; 
it  is  known  as  the  Sixth  Council  of  Carthage,  and  is 
famous  in  the  history  of  the  Church  for  its  decisions 
on  the  whole  subject  of  ecclesiastical  discipline.  The 
first  question  taken  up  by  the  council  was  that  of  the 
alleged  canons  of  Nicsea.  Alypius,  of  Thagaste, 
opened  the  subject  by  stating  that  the  Greek  copies 
of  the  canons  of  that  council,  which  had  been  con 
sulted,  contained  nothing  of  the  kind.  He  suggested 
that  the  holy  pope  l  Aurelius  should  send  to  Con 
stantinople  to  examine  the  original  documents,  and 

1  All  bishops  were  called  popes  in  those  days  ;  the  pope,  par 
excellence,  was  the  Bishop  of  Alexandria.  Elaborate  titles  of 
respect  had  long  been  applied  to  bishops.  Lord  and  Holy 
Pope  was  the  usual  complimentary  title  of  a  bishop. 


THE    APPEAL   TO    ROME.  215 

should  communicate  with  the  bishops  of  Alexandria 
and  Antioch — the  heads  of  the  other  great  divisions 
of  the  Church.  He  was  further  of  opinion  that 
Boniface  (who  had  succeeded  Zosimus  in  the  see  of 
Rome)  should  also  be  invited  to  take  similar  steps  to 
satisfy  himself  on  this  important  question.  The  pro 
posal  was  adopted;  and  the  council  proceeded  to 
make,  or  renew,  thirty-three  canons  dealing  in  a  com 
prehensive  way  with  the  subject  of  ecclesiastical  dis 
cipline.  These  canons  of  Carthage  were  subsequently 
adopted  by  all  the  Churches  of  the  West ;  translated 
into  Greek,  they  were  also  embodied  among  the 
canons  of  the  Eastern  Church  ;•  and  they  remain  as 
a  monument  of  the  ancient  constitution  of  the  Church, 
and  a  testimony  against  the  subsequent  usurpations 
and  pretensions  of  the  Roman  see.  The  particular 
case  of  Apiarius  was  happily  disposed  of.  He  asked 
pardon  for  his  faults,  and  his  bishop  withdrew  his 
excommunication ;  but  he  was"  removed  from  the 
Church  of  Sicca  and  sent  to  exercise  his  ministry 
elsewhere.  In  the  letter  of  the  council  to  Boniface 
occurs  the  sentence  :  "  We  hope  that  now  you  are 
seated  on  the  throne  of  the  Church  of  Rome  we 
shall  no  more  have  to  endure  a  worldly  pride  un 
worthy  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ." 

The  examination  undertaken  by  the  African  pre 
lates  resulted  in  the  discovery  that  the  Church  of 
Rome  had  put  forward  the  canons  of  Sardica  as  part 
of  those  passed  at  Nicaea,  the  first  of  the  long  series  of 
frauds  and  falsifications  by  which  that  see  gradually 
encroached  upon  the  rights  of  Churches,  and  revolu 
tionized  the  primitive  constitution  of  the  Church. 


2l6  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE    ELECTION    OF   A    SUCCESSOR. 

Augustine  desires  repose — Heraclius — Proceedings  at  his  Elec 
tion  to  succeed  Augustine. 

AT  the  age  of  72  (A.D.  426)  Augustine  began  to  desire 
help  in  the  duties  of  the  episcopal  office,  and  he  de 
sired  also  to  secure  the  nomination  of  a  suitable  suc 
cessor  when  his  episcopate  should  be  terminated  by 
death.  His  own  choice  fell  upon  one  of  his  priests 
named  Heraclius.  Heraclius,  like  himself,  had  de 
voted  his  earlier  years  to  the  ordinary  studies  of  a 
liberal  education,  and  had  followed  the  profession  of 
an  advocate.  But  Having  come  to  Hippo,  at  an  age 
already  mature,  he  had  put  himself  entirely  into 
Augustine's  hands,  as  his  instructor  in  divine  learning 
and  his  guide  in  holy  living.  His  father  had  left  him 
considerable  wealth.  On  his  ordination  as  priest  he 
had  devoted  half  of  it  to  the  erection  of  a  church,  and 
wished  to  give  the  other  half  to  Augustine  to  appro 
priate  as  he  should  think  best.  But  Augustine  acted 
with  the  prudence  which  was  habitual  with  him  in  all 
such  matters.  He  directed  Heraclius  to  purchase  an 
estate  with  the  money,  and  then  to  give  the  estate  to 
the  Church.  Augustine,  in  giving  an  account  of  the 
transaction  to  the  people — it  was  his  practice  to  inform 
them  of  all  which  he  did  in  the  administration  of  the 


THE    ELECTION    OF    A    SUCCESSOR.  2 17 

diocese — said,  "  I  confess  that  I  did  not  put  entire 
confidence  in  his  youth,  and  besides,  knowing  some 
thing  of  human  nature,  I  feared  lest  his  mother  should 
be  displeased,  and  should  complain  of  what  I  did  in 
depriving  the  son  of  what  he  had  received  from  his 
father,  and  leaving  him  henceforth  in  poverty.  I 
thought  it  right  then  to  make  him  use  his  money  in 
the  purchase  of  this  estate,  in  order  that  if  any  mis 
fortune  should  happen  to  him,  which  I  pray  God  may 
not  be,  I  should  be  able  to  restore  to  him  this  estate, 
and  save  my  reputation  from  suffering.  But  I  bear 
this  witness  in  his  behalf  that  he  has  lived  in  poverty, 
and  that  he  possesses  nothing  but  charity." 

Heraclius  occasionally  preached  in  the  absence  ot 
the  bishop,  but  had  never  preached  in  his  presence, 
because  it  was  Augustine's  habit  (as  we  have  seen  it 
was  the  custom  of  the  African  Churches)  always  to 
preach  himself ;  but  he  now  bade  him  preach  in  his 
presence,  that  he  might  be  assured  of  his  capacity  for 
this  part  of  the  duty  of  a  bishop. 

We  have  already  been  present  twice  with  the  con 
gregation  of  the  faithful  of  Hippo  in  the  Basilica  of 
Peace  ;  once  when  Augustine  himself  had  the  priest 
hood  forced  upon  him,  and  again  when  the  people 
tried  to  force  the  priesthood  upon  Pinianus.  We  are 
to  be  present  once  more,  and  the  proceedings  on  this 
occasion  have  been  so  fully  reported  that  we  can 
follow  them  in  their  minute  particulars. 

On  Sunday,  24th  September,  426,  a  great  crowd 
filled  the  nave  of  the  basilica.  In  the  tribune  were 
not  only  Augustine,  but  two  other  bishops,  Religianus 
and  Martinianus ;  seven  priests  of  the  Church  of 


2l8  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

Hippo,  Saturninus,  Leporius,  Barnabas,  Fortunatius, 
Rusticus,  Lazarus,  and  Heraclius  ;  with  the  deacons 
and  sub-deacons.  Augustine  came  forward  to  address 
the  assembly.  He  began  by  saying  that  at  divers 
seasons  of  life  men  hope,  but  arrived  at  the  last 
season  they  hope  no  more.  "  I  came  to  this  city 
in  the  vigour  of  my  youth,"  he  continued ;  "  I  was 
young,  and  now  I  am  old.  I  know  that  after  the 
death  of  bishops,  ambitions  and  strife  often  trouble 
the  Church.  It  is  my  duty,  as  much  as  lies  in  me, 
to  spare  this  city  from  that  which  has  more  than 
once  afflicted  me  elsewhere.  As  your  charity  knows, 
I  went  recently  to  Milevis,  our  brethren  and  the 
servants  of  God l  there  inviting  me.  The  death  of 
my  brother  and  colleague,  Severus,  had  caused  the 
fear  of  a  popular  commotion.  I  went  then  to  Milevis, 
and,  the  mercy  of  God  having  blessed  my  efforts, 
they  received  with  a  great  peace  the  successor  whom 
Severus  had  designated  while  yet  living ;  the  people 
welcomed  the  nomination  of  the  bishop  from  the 
moment  that  they  were  made  acquainted  with  it. 
Nevertheless,  some  of  the  faithful  were  dissatisfied 
that  Severus  had  limited  himself  to  designating  his 
successor  to  the  clergy  instead  of  designating  him 
also  to  the  people.  What  need  I  more  say  ?  Thanks 
be  to  God,  the  anxiety  of  the  people  vanished  and 
gave  place  to  joy,  and  the  choice  of  Severus  was 
accepted.  As  for  me,  desiring  to  give  no  one  room 
for  complaint,  I  declare  to  you  all  my  will,  which  I 
believe  to  be  that  of  God  ;  I  wish  the  priest  Heraclius 
to  be  my  successor." 

1  The  clergy. 


THE    ELECTION    OF   A    SUCCESSOR.  2 19 

We  are  made  conscious  of  the  scrupulous  formality 
with  which  the  Acta — the  report — of  the  proceedings 
were  drawn  up,  when  we  find  the  notaries  carefully 
recording  the  words  in  which  the  people  signified 
their  assent,  and  even  counting  the  number  of  times 
their  words  were  repeated,  as  evidence  of  the 
unanimity  and  heartiness  of  the  popular  vote.  When 
Augustine  had  said  these  words,  we  are  told  the 
people  cried,  "Let  us  give  thanks  to  God :  let  us  give 
praises  to  Christ;"  these  words  were  repeated  twenty- 
three  times.  "  O  Christ,  hear  us,  prolong  the  life  of 
Augustine;"  the  people  repeated  this  prayer  sixteen 
times.  They  said  eight  times,  "  You  for  our  father, 
you  for  our  bishop." 

When  these  acclamations  had  ceased,  Augustine 
continued :  "  There  is  no  need  that  I  should  praise 
Heraclius  ;  I  love  his  wisdom,  I  spare  his  modesty. 
It  is  enough  that  you  know  him ;  when  I  ask  for  him 
for  my  successor,  I  know  that  you  wish  it  also  ;  had 
I  not  known  it,  your  acclamations  to-day  would 
have  proved  it.  This,  then,  is  what  I  wish,  this  is 
what  I  ask  of  God  with  ardent  prayer  in  spite  of  the 
coldness  of  my  old  age.  I  exhort  you,  I  warn  you, 
I  conjure  you,  to  ask  it  together  with  me,  in  order 
that  the  peace  of  Christ  may  unite  all  our  thoughts. 
May  God  confirm  that  which  He  has  wrought  in  us. 
May  He  who  has  sent  Heraclius  to  me  guard  him, 
keep  him  whole,  safe,  and  without  fault,  in  order 
that  after  he  has  been  the  joy  of  my  life  he  may 
replace  me  after  my  death.  You  see  that  the  notaries 
of  the  Church  gather  up  what  I  say,  and  what  you 
say ;  my  words  and  your  acclamations  do  not  fall  to 


220  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

the  ground.  To  speak  more  plainly,  these  are  eccle 
siastical  proceedings  which  we  are  transacting  at  this 
moment,  and  thus  I  wish  to  confirm  my  will  as  much 
as  lies  in  my  power. 

Then  the  people  cried  thirty  times,  "  Let  us  give 
thanks  to  God,  let  us  give  praise  to  Christ."  They 
repeated  thirteen  times,  "  O  Christ,  hear  us,  prolong 
the  life  of  Augustine."  They  repeated  eight  times, 
"  You  for  our  father,  you  for  our  bishop."  They  re 
peated  twenty  times,  "  It  is  right  and  just."  The 
people  repeated  five  times,  "  He  has  well  deserved 
it,  he  is  very  worthy  of  it." 

Augustine  having  again  invited  the  people  to  pray 
to  God  for  the  confirmation  of  their  will  and  his 
own,  the  people  responded  sixteen  times,  "  We  thank 
you  for  your  choice."  They  said  twelve  times,  "  Let 
it  be  so;"  and  six  times,  "You  for  our  father,  Heraclius 
for  our  bishop." 

Augustine  then  said  that  his  own  ordination  as 
Valerius's  coadjutor  while  Valerius  was  living  had 
been  contrary  to  a  canon  of  the  Council  of  Nicaea, 
which  was  then  unknown  to  him,  and  that  a  similar 
course  ought  not  to  be  taken  in  the  case  of 
Heraclius.  The  people  answered  in  these  words, 
thirteen  times  repeated,  "  Let  us  give  thanks  to  God ; 
let  us  give  praise  to  Christ"1 

1  M.  Ponjoulat  reminds  us  that  in  this  curious  procedure  both 
the  people  in  their  acclamations  and  the  notaries  in  their  careful 
record  of  them  were  following  traditional  Roman  usages.  When 
the  Senate  elected  Tacitus  as  the  successor  of  Aurelian  in  its 
sitting  of  Sept.  25,  A.D.  275,  Tacitus  remarked  to  the  Conscript 
Fathers  that  he  was  already  in  the  decline  of  life,  and  that  a 


THE    ELECTION    OF   A    SUCCESSOR.  221 

The  bishop  then  recalled  to  them  that  they  ought, 
by  a  distinct  promise,  to  leave  him  free  five  days 
in  the  week  to  devote  to  a  work  upon  the  Scriptures 
which  the  Fathers  of  the  Councils  of  Numidia  and 
Carthage  had  laid  upon  him.  An  act  [minute]  to 
this  effect  was  read,  and  the  acclamations  of  the 
people  seemed  to  assure  to  Augustine  the  leisure 
which  he  desired.  Augustine  begged  them  hereafter 
to  apply  to  Heraclius.  They  responded  twenty-six 
times,  "  We  thank  you  for  your  choice."  Augustine 
assured  the  people  that  his  counsels  should  not  be 
wanting  to  Heraclius,  and  that  the  leisure  which  he 
should  obtain  should  not  be  wasted.  Before  asking 
the  signature  of  the  act  of  election,  the  bishop  ap 
pealed  again,  and  for  the  last  time,  for  the  decision 

younger  chief  would  be  more  capable  of  leading  the  soldiers. 
His  excuses  were  lost  in  the  acclamations  of  the  illustrious 
assembly  ;  and  their  exclamations,  and  the  number  of  times 
they  were  repeated,  were  recorded  by  the  notaries  in  the  public 
acts.  Flavius  Vopiscus  records  :  "  The  Senate  responded  by 
their  acclamations  : — Trajan  also  was  old  when  he  ascended 
the  throne  (ten  times).  Hadrian  came  to  it  when  old  (ten 
times).  Antoninus  was  no  longer  young  when  he  obtained  it 
(ten  times).  Have  you  not  read,  "I  recognise  the  white  hair 
and  the  white  beard  of  the  King  of  the  Romans  "  ?  : — 

.   .  .    "Nosco  crines  incanaque  menta 

Regis  Romani." — "yEneid,"  book  vi.  (ten  times). 

Who  knows  better  how  to  reign  than  an  old  man  (ten  times). 
We  do  not  make  you  a  soldier,  but  an  emperor  (twenty  times). 
You  will  order  the  soldiers  to  fight  (thirty  times).  Severus  said 
it  was  the  head  and  not  the  feet  which  commanded  (thirty 
times).  It  is  your  soul  and  not  your  body  that  we  care  for 
(twenty  times).  Augustus  Tacitus,  the  gods  preserve  you  ! 


222  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

of  the  people,  and  acclamations  many  times  repeated 
resounded  through  the  Basilica  of  Peace.  Then 
Augustine  invited  the  people  to  join  with  great 
fervour  in  the  holy  sacrifice  about  to  begin,  and 
asked  them  to  pray  for  the  Church  of  Hippo,  for 
himself,  and  for  the  priest  Heraclius. 

The  scene,  interesting  in  itself,  is  also  valuable  as 
an  illustration  of  the  usual  mode  of  election  of  a 
bishop  in  the  fifth  century,  and  of  the  modifications 
introduced  occasionally  by  a  wise  bishop,  with  a  view 
to  prevent  the  ambitions  and  jealousies  among  the 
clergy  and  the  party  spirit  among  the  people,  to 
which  the  usual  mode  of  election  was  liable. 

Heraclius  appears  no  more  in  the  history.  Doubt 
less  he  relieved  Augustine  of  much  of  the  routine 
work  of  his  office;  but  we  find  that,  as  was  very 
natural,  the  people  still  sought  Augustine's  counsel 
and  his  judgment,  and  encroached  very  much  upon 
the  literary  leisure  which  he  had  sought  to  secure. 


SAINT   AUGUSTINE.  223 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

THE     VANDAL     INVASION. 

Count  Boniface — His  Antecedents  and  Character;  Fidelity; 
Promotion — Aetius — His  Jealousy  of  Boniface — Intrigue 
against  Him — Revolt  of  Boniface — Invites  the  Invasion  of 
the  Vandals — Augustine's  Letter  to  Him — Reconciliation  of 
Boniface  with  the  Empress  —The  Vandals  pursue  their 
Conquest — Siege  of  Hippo. 

IN  the  agony  of  the  Western  Empire  two  names  stand 
out  conspicuously  as  the  last  bulwarks  of  the  Roman 
greatness,  Aetius  and  Boniface,  "  the  last  of  the 
Romans."  Boniface  had  commanded  the  garrison  of 
Marseilles  in  413,  when  it  was  besieged  byAdolphus, 
the  brother  and  successor  of  Alaric ;  he  had  saved 
the  city  from  the  Goths,  wounding  their  king  in 
battle  with  his  own  hand.  Afterwards  in  Africa,  in 
command  of  a  handful  of  troops,  he  waged  such  a 
vigilant  and  successful  warfare  against  the  independent 
nomad  tribes  who  were  accustomed  to  harass  the 
settled  provinces  with  frequent  incursions,  that  he 
compelled  them  to  keep  the  peace.  The  Tribune 
Boniface  was  also  a  Catholic  Christian  of  exemplary 
piety. 

In  417,  Boniface  was  promoted  to  the  office  of 
Count  of  Africa.  In  that  year  in  reply  to  some  in 
quiries  as  to  the  relations  of  the  civil  authority  to  the 
Donatist  party,  Augustine  wrote  a  long  letter  to  the 


224  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

count,  in  which  he  gave  a  summary  of  the  history  of 
the  party,  and  justified  the  execution  of  the  Imperial 
laws  against  them.  In  the.  following  year,  418,  we 
have  another  letter  of  Augustine  to  the  count,  "  On  the 
duties  of  men  of  war."  It  is  an  essay  on  the  proposi 
tion  that  it  is  lawful  for  Christians  to  fight  in  the  in 
terests  of  peace  and  for  the  security  of  their  country. 
Some  years  after  the  count,  suffering  under  the  loss 
of  his  wife,  expressed  in  an  interview  with  Augustine, 
Alypius  also  being  present,  his  desire  to  abandon  the 
world  and  retire  to  a  monastery.  The  two  bishops 
dissuaded  him  ;  they  represented  that  he  might  serve 
God  and  the  Church  more  usefully  in  his  present  capa 
city  ;  that  the  Church  of  Africa  had  need  not  only  of 
saintly  ascetics  to  call  down  blessings  from  heaven  by 
their  prayers,  but  also  of  generals  and  statesmen  who 
would  defend  her  against  the  ravages  of  the  barbarians 
and  the  Circumcellions.  They  pointed  out  that  his 
position  as  Count  of  Africa  did  not  prevent  him  from 
living  the  life  of  continency  and  asceticism  which  he 
desired.  The  Empress  Pulcheria,  at  that  moment 
ruling  the  East  wisely  and  vigorously,  was  a  Church 
virgin,  and  had  turned  the  palace  at  Constantinople 
into  a  religious  house.  Augustine  himself  was  living 
the  life  of  an  ascetic  while  governing  the  see  of  Hippo. 
The  count  had  adopted  Augustine's  counsels. 

The  Emperor  Honorius,  after  his  unfortunate  and 
inglorious  reign  of  eight-and-twenty  years,  died  on  the 
27th  of  August,  A.D.  422.  A  few  months  before  his 
death,  his  sister  Placidia  and  her  children  had  been 
driven  from  Ravenna  by  a  palace  intrigue  and  had 
retired  to  the  court  of  Constantinople.  This  absence 


THE   VANDAL    INVASION.  225 

of  the  rightful  successor  to  the  empire  left  an  oppor 
tunity  to  an  usurper,  which  was  seized  by  John,  one 
of  the  chief  officials  of  the  Government.  In  this  crisis 
Boniface,  the  count  of  Africa,  remained  faithful  to 
Placidia  and  her  son.  He  defeated  the  troops  sent 
by  John  to  seize  upon  the  reins  of  authority  in  Africa, 
he  sent  supplies  of  money  to  the  empress  at  Constan 
tinople,  and  withheld  the  usual  supplies  of  corn  from 
Rome.  An  army  marched  from  Constantinople  upon 
Ravenna,  and  at  the  same  time  a  conspiracy  was 
organized  against  the  usurper  in  his  own  court ;  the 
gates  of  Ravenna  were  thrown  open  to  the  Eastern 
troops,  and  John  met  the  fate  which  he  had  deserved. 
Boniface  was  called  to  court,  and  the  gratitude  of  the 
empress  was  shown  in  his  elevation  to  the  office  of 
Count  of  the  Domestics,  the  highest  office  in  the 
Empire,  while  he  still  retained  his  important  command 
in  Africa. 

Soon  afterwards,  Augustine  was  surprised  and 
grieved  to  learn  that  Boniface  had  married  a  second 
wife,  who  moreover  was  an  Arian,  and,  on  the  birth 
of  a  daughter,  he  allowed  her  to  be  baptized  by  the 
Arian  s. 

The  elevation  of  Boniface  excited  the  jealousy  of 
Aetius.  Aetius,  the  son  of  Gaudentius,  Master  of 
the  Cavalry,  had  been  brought  up  at  the  Imperial 
court.  He  had  been  given  as  a  hostage  to  Alaric ; 
and  afterwards  had  resided  in  the  same  capacity 
in  the  camp  of  Attila,  whose  friendship  he  had 
gained,  and  had  entered  into  relations  with  the  Huns 
which  might  on  occasion  serve  his  own  ambition. 
On  the  death  of  Honorius  he  thought  that  such  an 
p 


226  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

occasion  had  arrived,  and  invited  an  army  of  60,000 
Huns  to  strengthen  the  forces  of  the  usurper  John. 
On  the  death  of  John,  Aetius  hastened  to  reconcile 
himself  with  Placidia ;  the  Huns  were  satisfied  with 
money  and  promises  and  dismissed,  and  Aetius  re 
stored  to  favour. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  blackest  treachery,  and 
the  most  unhappy  in  its  results,  which  even  the  his 
tory  of  the  Empire  contains.  Aetius  aspired  to  the 
highest  honours  of  the  State,  which  his  subsequent 
history  shows  that  he  had  the  abilities  to  fill  worthily. 
Two  such  men,  united,  might  have  saved  the  Empire. 
But  Aetius  was  jealous  of  the  talents  of  Boniface,  and 
of  the  position  which  his  fidelity  had  given  him  in  the 
Imperial  favour,  and  laid  a  plot  for  his  ruin.  His 
position  at  the  court  of  Ravenna  gave  him  an  advan 
tage  over  Boniface,  who  was  in  his  distant  government 
at  Carthage.  He  persuaded  Placidia  to  believe  that 
the  Count  of  Africa  was  intending  to  make  himself 
independent,  and  counselled  his  recall  to  court.  At 
the  same  time  he  wrote  as  a  friend  to  Boniface  to 
warn  him  that  the  Empress  was  afraid  of  his  greatness, 
and  that  his  recall  to  court  was  only  the  prelude  to 
his  death.  Boniface  believed  his  friend ;  was  en 
raged  at  the  ingratitude  of  the  Empress ;  resolved  to 
resist  the  fate  with  which  he  was  threatened,  fell  into 
the  snare  which  Aetius  had  prepared  for  him,  and 
broke  out  into  open  rebellion.  He  was  declared  an 
enemy  to  the  State,  and  the  forces  of  the  Western 
Empire  were  mustered  against  the  rebel  count. 

Boniface,  weighing  his  own  resources  against  those 
at  the  disposal  of  the  empress,  knew  himself  unable 


THE   VANDAL    INVASION.  227 

to  maintain  the  unequal  war,  and  took  the  resolution 
to  invite  barbarian  allies  to  his  aid.  The  Vandals 
under  Gonderic  had  lately  proved  their  valour  in 
Spain.  His  second  wife,  Pelagia,  was  the  niece  of 
their  king.  To  him  Boniface  sent  an  embassy,  asking 
his  alliance  and  offering  an  advantageous  and  per 
petual  settlement  in  Africa  as  the  price  of  their  assist 
ance.  The  able  and  fierce  Genseric,  who  at  this 
crisis  succeeded  his  half-brother  Gonderic  as  king  of 
the  Vandals,  accepted  the  invitation.  Ships,  both  of 
Spain  and  Africa,  were  assembled  at  Gibraltar,  and  the 
Vandal  armies  to  the  number  of  50,000  were  trans 
ferred  to  the  African  side  of  the  narrow  strait.  The 
ambition  of  Genseric  was  without  bounds  and  without 
scruples  ;  to  the  skill  of  a  barbarian  warrior  he  added 
the  dark  policy  of  an  ambitious  king ;  he  proposed  to 
himself  to  play  a  grander  part  in  Africa  than  that  of 
helping  to  secure  it  to  the  rebellious  count,  and  re 
maining  satisfied  with  a  province  as  his  pay.  The 
western  parts  of  Mauritania,  which  border  on  the 
great  desert  and  the  Atlantic  ocean,  were  filled  with 
fierce  and  intractable  tribes,  whose  savage  tempers 
had  been  exasperated  rather  than  restrained  by  their 
dread  of  the  Roman  arms.  Genseric  established  rela 
tions  with  them,  and  engaged  them  as  allies  in  his 
designs. 

Meantime  communications  had  passed  between 
Ravenna  and  Carthage.  The  friends  of  Boniface  had 
requested  that  some  one  might  be  sent  to  confer  with 
him  on  the  part  of  the  empress.  Darius,  an  officer  of 
high  distinction,  was  named  for  the  important  em 
bassy.  In  the  first  interview  at  Carthage  the  intrigue 
p  2 


228  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

of  Aetius  was  at  once  discovered.  Impunity  was  pro 
mised  on  the  part  of  Placidia,  and  Boniface  returned 
to  his  allegiance ;  and  both  proceeded  to  take  steps 
to  restore  the  tranquillity  of  the  province.  But 
though  the  Roman  troops  and  the  inhabitants  of  the 
provinces  readily  returned  with  their  general  to  their 
allegiance,  the  King  of  the  Vandals  refused  all  terms 
of  accommodation,  and  proceeded  to  effect  the 
conquest  of  Africa  for  himself.  The  barbarian  tribes 
flocked  to  his  standards  ;  and  the  swarthy  heroes  of 
the  Atlas  and  the  wild  riders  of  the  desert  fought 
side  by  side  with  the  fair  blue-eyed  Northmen,  who 
in  the  space  of  twenty  years  had  fought  their  way 
across  a  continent  from  the  Elbe  to  Seville  and 
Carthagena,  and  now  resolved  to  win  themselves  a 
kingdom  under  the  suns  of  Africa.  The  Donatists 
scattered  throughout  the  provinces,  nowr  as  always, 
sided  with  the  enemy  of  the  Empire.  1'he  Vandals, 
Arians  in  religion,  seemed  to  them  as  natural  allies  in 
their  common  opposition  to  the  orthodox  Church  ; 
and  the  conquests  of  the  Vandals  were  facilitated  by 
the  active  zeal  or  the  secret  favour  of  a  domestic 
faction.1 

A  battle  took  place  in  which  the  troops  of  Boniface 
and  his  hasty  levies  were  defeated  by  the  Vandals, 
with  considerable  loss.  Boniface  retired  into  Hippo, 
which  with  Cirta  and  Carthage  alone  remained  to 
the  Empire,  and  the  open  country  was  abandoned  to 
the  ravages  of  the  barbarians. 

The  attitude  of  Augustine  during  these  events  is  on 

k  Gibbon,  "  Decline  and  Fall,"  chap,  xxxiii. 


THE    VANDAL    INVASION.  229 

record.  In  a  letter  to  Boniface  he  writes  : — "  You 
say  that  you  have  had  good  reasons  for  acting  as  you 
have  done.  I  am  not  a  judge  of  them,  because  I 
am  not  able  to  hear  both  sides ;  but  whatever  may 
have  been  your  reasons,  which  there  is  no  need  to 
consider  and  weigh  at  this  moment,  can  you  deny 
before  God  that  you  would  not  have  come  to  this 
necessity,  if  you  had  not  loved  the  good  things  of  this 
world,  which  you  ought  to  have  despised  and 
reckoned  as  nothing  worth,  remaining  faithful  to  your 
pious  intention  of  serving  God  ?  .  .  . 

"  What  shall  I  say  of  Africa,  devastated  by  the 
barbarians  even  of  Africa  itself,  and  without  any  one 
to  hinder  them  ?  Under  the  pressure  of  your  personal 
anxieties  you  do  nothing  to  avert  these  misfortunes. 
When  Boniface  was  but  a  tribune,  he  conquered  and 
restrained  all  these  nations  with  a  handful  of  allies. 
Who  would  have  believed  that  when  Boniface  was 
Count  of  the  Palace  and  of  Africa,  with  a  large  army 
and  great  power,  the  barbarians  would  have  invaded 
us  with  such  audacity,  would  have  ravaged  every 
where,  pillaged  everything,  and  changed  so  many 
places,  lately  so  populous,  into  deserts.  It  used  to  be 
said  that  from  the  day  that  you  were  endued  with  the 
authority  of  Count,  the  barbarians  would  be  not  only 
conquered,  but  made  tributaries  to  the  Roman  power. 
You  see  what  has  now  become  of  men's  hopes ;  I 
shall  speak  very  briefly  of  it ;  your  own  thoughts  will 
be  more  full  and  forcible  than  words  of  mine.  But 
perhaps  you  will  reply  that  I  ought  to  attribute 
these  evils  to  those  who  have  injured  you,  and  who 
have  repaid  with  unjust  harshness  your  courageous 


230  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

services.  These  are  things  of  which  I  have  no  know 
ledge,  and  cannot  judge.  Examine  and  judge  your 
self;  not  to  ascertain  if  you  are  in  the  right  before 
men,  but  if  you  are  in  the  right  before  God."  He 
puts  before  him  the  example  of  Christ,  who  conferred 
on  men  so  many  good  things,  and  received  from  them 
so  many  evil  things.  They  who  desire  to  belong  to 
His  Divine  kingdom  love  their  enemies,  do  good  to 
those  who  hate  them,  and  pray  for  those  who  per 
secute  them. 

If  the  Count  has  received  benefits  from  the  Empire 
— benefits  earthly  and  transitory  as  the  Empire  itself 
— he  ought  not  to  return  evil  for  good ;  if  he  has 
received  injuries  from  it,  it  is  not  evils  which  he 
ought  to  return.  Augustine  does  not  trouble  himself 
to  inquire  which  it  really  is  which  Boniface  has 
received  ;  he  is  speaking  to  a  Christian,  and  a 
Christian  returns  neither  evil  for  good,  nor  evil  for 
evil. 

The  Count  will  say,  perhaps,  "  But  what  am  I  to 
do  in  the  situation  in  which  I  am  ? "  If  it  is  of  the 
preservation,  and  even  the  augmentation  of  his 
wealth  and  power  that  Boniface  is  thinking,  Augustine 
does  not  know  what  to  answer ;  what  certain  counsel 
is  it  possible  to  give  in  matters  so  uncertain  ?  But  if 
the  Count  asks  to  be  enlightened  as  concerns  God, 
the  bishop  will  reply  that  we  ought  not  to  love,  but  to 
despise  the  things  of  this  world ;  and  that  it  profiteth 
a  man  nothing  to  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his 
own  soul.  Detachment  from  the  world,  strife  against 
its  lusts,  penitence  for  past  misdeeds,  this  is  the 
counsel  which  Augustine  will  give  him  ;  it  concerns 


THE    VANDAL    INVASION.  231 

his  strength  of  will  to  follow  the  advice.  The  Count 
will  ask  again  how  he  can  escape  from  the  engage 
ments  by  which  he  is  bound  ?  The  bishop  tells  him 
that  God  will  deliver  him  in  the  war  against  his 
invisible  enemies,  as  He  has  so  often  delivered  him 
from  his  external  foes.  The  good  things  of  life,  the 
prosperity  of  this  world,  are  given  indifferently  to  the 
good  and  the  evil,  but  the  safety  of  the  soul,  the 
glory  and  peace  of  eternity,  are  given  only  to  the 
good.  Augustine  recommends  to  the  Count  the  love 
and  the  pursuit  of  those  imperishable  goods,  and 
invites  him  to  alms,  prayer,  and  fasting ;  and,  if  the 
interests  of  the  public  good  permitted  it,  he  would 
counsel  him  to  renounce  arms,  and  retire  into  the 
pious  retreats  where  the  soldiers  of  Christ  wage  war 
against  the  princes,  the  powers,  and  the  spirits  of  evil. 
There  is  something  magnanimous  in  the  return  of 
Boniface  to  his  allegiance,  which  corresponds  with 
our  ideas  of  his  character,  and  which  may  not  have 
been  uninfluenced  by  the  severe  fidelity  of  Augustine's 
counsels.  We  may  feel  sure  that  when  the  Count 
fell  back  upon  Hippo,  and  took  refuge  with  a  handful 
of  his  broken  troops  within  its  walls,  his  repentance 
had  opened  the  heart  of  the  aged  bishop  to  him,  and 
that  warm  heart  and  eloquent  tongue  would  know 
how  to  soothe  the  wounded  conscience,  and  cheer 
the  oppressed  spirit  of  the  great  and  erring  statesman. 
It  was  a  terrible  penance  he  had  to  endure.  The 
pride  of  his  life  had  been  that  he  had  given  Africa 
rest  from  the  barbarians,  he  had  promoted  her  pro 
sperity,  he  had  given  her  people  a  just  administration, 
he  had  made  Africa  contribute,  at  a  critical  moment, 


232  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

to  the  welfare  of  the  Empire.  His  penance  was,  to 
be  shut  up  for  months  in  Hippo  while  the  barbarians, 
who  had  invaded  Africa  on  his  invitation,  ravaged  the 
provinces,  committing  all  the  atrocities  in  which  bar 
barians  indulge  among  a  wealthy,  luxurious  popu 
lation.  And  though  Augustine  had  no  share  in 
causing  these  misfortunes,  his  sensitive  spirit  would 
feel  them  deeply.  "  This  devastation/'  says  Possi- 
donius,  who  was  an  eye-witness  of  it,  "  embittered 
the  later  days  of  Augustine's  life.  He  saw  the  towns 
ruined,  the  country  houses  destroyed,  the  inhabitants 
killed  or  fugitives,  the  churches  destitute  of  priests, 
the  virgins  and  religious  dispersed.  Some  had  suc 
cumbed  to  torments,  others  had  perished  by  the 
sword,  others  again  were  carried  into  captivity  and 
served  hard  and  brutal  masters."  It  was,  above  all, 
against  the  churches  and  the  monasteries  that  they 
exercised  their  cruelty.  They  employed  the  most 
cruel  tortures  to  compel  the  priests  to  give  up  the 
gold  and  silver  of  the  churches.  They  would  never 
believe  that  they  had  given  up  everything,  and  the 
more  the  unhappy  men  gave  the  more  they  were  tor 
mented,  in  the  hope  of  extracting  still  more  from 
them.  A  great  number  of  bishops  and  persons  of 
the  highest  distinction  were  reduced  to  slavery,  com 
pelled  to  carry  loads  like  beasts  of  burden,  and  urged 
onward  with  the  point  of  spear  and  sword.  Mansuetus, 
bishop  of  Utica,  was  burnt  alive.  Papinianus,  bishop 
of  Vita,  had  his  body  covered  with  plates  of  red-hot 
iron. 


SAINT   AUGUSTINE.  233 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

DEATH     OF     AUGUSTINE. 

Augustine's  Letter  on  the  Duty  of  Bishops  during  Invasion — 
His  Occupations  during  the  Siege — Sickness — Death — His 
Influence  as  a  Theologian  —  Conclusion  of  History  of 
Africa. 

AT  the  beginning  of  the  calamities  related  in  the  pre 
vious  chapter,  some  bishops  of  Africa  had  consulted 
Augustine  as  to  their  duty  in  such  a  crisis.  Quod- 
vultdeus,  one  of  them,  wrote  to  ask  if  he  ought 
to  let  his  people  flee,  and  withdraw  himself  to  avoid 
the  peril.  Augustine  answered  that  he  ought  not  to 
deter  his  people  from  fleeing,  but  that  the  bishops 
ought  not  to  abandon  their  churches,  nor  to  break 
the  ties  which  bound  them  to  their  ministry ;  that 
they  could  do  nothing  therefore  but  give  themselves 
up  with  entire  confidence  to  the  will  of  God,  and 
wait  for  His  help. 

This  answer  being  made  public,  a  bishop,  named 
Honoratus,  demurred  to  it,  recalling  that  Jesus 
Christ  had  commanded  His  disciples  to  flee  from 
danger,  and  had  Himself  set  an  example  of  it. 
Augustine  answered  him  at  length  in  a  remarkable 
letter.  Honoratus  had  quoted  the  text — "  When  they 
persecute  you  in  one  city,  flee  into  another."  "Who  will 
believe,"  he  asks,  "  that  the  Saviour  wished  in  these 


234  SAINT    AUGUSTINE. 

words  to  ordain  that  the  flocks  which  He  has  re« 
deemed  with  His  blood  should  be  deprived  of  the 
ministry  without  which  they  cannot  live  ?  Was  this 
what  He  did  when  an  infant  carried  by  his  parents, 
He  fled  into  Egypt?  He  had  not  yet  assembled 
churches  which  He  might  fear  to  abandon.  If  some 
bishop  is  persecuted,  he  is  at  liberty  to  flee  from  city 
to  city,  because  his  church  will  not  therefore  be 
deprived  of  a  pastor.  If  the  entire  population  is  able 
to  flee  to  fortified  places,  the  bishop  ought  to  go 
with  them.  But  there  are  always  some  of  the  faithful 
who  cannot  flee,  and  it  is  with  them  that  the  bishop 
ought  to  remain,  because  they  have  most  need  of  his 
spiritual  help.  He  ought  to  live  with  them,  and 
suffer  with  them,  whatever  it  shall  please  the  Father 
of  the  family  to  send.  ....  Those  suffer  for  the 
others,  who,  being  able  to  flee,  have  chosen  rather  to 
remain,  and  not  to  abandon  their  brothers  in  their 
misfortunes.  This  is  the  love  which  the  Apostle  St. 
John  teaches  when  he  says,  'Christ  gave  His  life  for  us, 
and  we  ought  also  to  give  our  lives  for  the  brethren.' 
Those  who  are  taken  when  they  fled,  or  when  they 
were  detained  unwillingly,  these  die  for  themselves, 
not  for  their  brethren;  but  they  who,  when  their 
brothers  had  need  of  them  in  order  to  their  salvation, 
would  not  abandon  them,  they  without  doubt  give 
their  lives  for  their  brethren.  No  one  could  exact 
that  the  ministers  of  the  Lord  should  remain  in 
places  where  their  ministry  can  no  longer  be  exer 
cised  because  their  flock  is  destroyed  or  dispersed. 
But  if  the  flock  remain,  and  their  ministers  take  to 
flight,  and  deprive  them  of  their  ministrations,  will 


DEATH    OF   AUGUSTINE.  235 

not  their  flight  be  like  that  of  hirelings  who  have  no 
care  for  the  flock?  Let  us  be  more  afraid  to  see 
the  living  stones  of  the  Church  perish  by  our  absence 
than  to  see  the  stones  and  wood  of  the  material 
buildings  burnt  in  our  presence.  Let  us  fear  lest  the 
members  of  Christ  perish  for  want  of  spiritual 
nourishment,  rather  than  that  the  members  of  our 
own  body  should  perish  by  the  violence  of  the 
enemy." 

Amidst  these  wars  and  miseries,  even  when  his  city 
was  actually  besieged  by  the  Vandals,  the  labours  of 
Augustine  did  not  pause.  A  troop  of  Arian  Goths 
in  the  Imperial  service  which  formed  part  of  the 
garrison  of  Hippo,  had  an  Arian  bishop  to  minister 
to  them  ;  and  with  this  bishop,  Maximin,  he  engaged 
in  a  public  discussion,  which  he  followed  up  with  a 
written  refutation  of  his  arguments.  Prosper,  of 
Aquitaine,  and  the  bishops  of  Gaul  were  hard  pressed 
by  the  Pelagians,  who  abounded  in  that  province 
and  in  Britain,  and  who  claimed  for  their  views  the 
support  of  tradition  and  that  of  the  Fathers  of  the 
Church ;  they  invoked  the  aid  of  the  powerful  pen 
and  the  great  authority  of  Augustine,  and  he  at  once 
responded  to  the  call  by  writing  the  two  books,  "  On 
the  Predestination  of  the  Saints,"  and  "  On  the  Gift 
of  Perseverance."  He  occupied  himself  also  in  col 
lecting  and  arranging  his  letters. 

Three  months  after  the  commencement  of  the  siege 
Augustine,  who  was  now  seventy-six  years  of  age,  and 
had  long  been  in  failing  health,  fell  sick.  Several  bishops 
who  had  retreated  with  the  remnant  of  their  flocks 
into  this  last  bulwark  of  Africa,  lived  with  Augustine. 


236  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

Possidonius,  his  biographer,  was  one  of  them.  He 
gives  us  a  glimpse  of  the  society  at  Augustine's  epi 
scopal  house  during  these  sad  times.  "  The  mis 
fortunes  which  we  witnessed  made  the  subject  of 
our  usual  conversations.  We  considered  the  terrible 
judgments  which  the  Divine  justice  was  accomplish 
ing  before  our  eyes,  and  we  said,  '  Thou  art  just  and 
good,  and  Thy  judgments  are  true.'  We  mingled  our 
griefs,  our  groans,  and  our  tears,  and  we  made  of 
them  a  sacrifice  to  the  Father  of  mercies  and  God 
of  all  comfort,  beseeching  Him  to  deliver  us  from 
the  evils  we  endured  and  from  those  we  feared. 

"  I  remember  one  day,  as  we  conversed  with 
Augustine  at  table  on  the  miseries  of  the  time,  he 
said  to  us  :  '  What  I  ask  of  God  in  these  painful  times 
is  that  He  would  please  to  deliver  this  city  from  the 
enemies  who  besiege  it ;  or,  if  He  has  otherwise 
ordained  it,  that  He  will  give  His  servants  strength 
to  endure  all  the  evils  which  He  shall  permit  to 
happen  to  them ;  or  at  least  that  He  will  withdraw 
me  from  this  world,  and  be  pleased  to  call  me  to 
Himself.'  We  profited  by  this  instruction,  and  we 
joined  our  prayers  to  his,  we  and  those  of  our  com 
pany,  and  also  the  others  who  were  then  in  the  city. 

"In  the  third  month  of  the  siege  he  was  attacked 
with  fever,  which  obliged  him  to  keep  his  bed,  from 
which  he  never  rose  again.  We  saw  by  that  that  God 
had  not  rejected  the  prayer  of  his  servant,  even  as  on 
other  occasions  He  had  accepted  the  prayers  and 
tears  he  had  offered  asking  some  favour,  whether  for 
himself  or  for  others." 

Our  view  of  the  saint  and  of  his  times  would  be 


DEATH    OF   AUGUSTINE.  237 

incomplete  if  we  did  not  extract  another  sentence 
from  the  same  narrator  of  his  last  hours,  in  which  he 
tells  us  that  "  while  the  saint  on  his  death-bed  was 
already  in  his  mortal  agony,  a  man  whose  son  was 
sick  brought  him  and  begged  the  dying  bishop  to  lay 
his  hands  upon  him.  He  answered  that  if  he  had  the 
power  thus  to  heal  the  sick,  he  should  exercise  it  first 
upon  himself.  But  the  man  told  him  that  he  had  had 
a  dream  in  which  a  voice  had  uttered  these  words  : 
'  Go,  seek  the  bishop  Augustine,  ask  him  to  lay  hands 
on  your  son  and  he  shall  be  healed.'  Augustine  then 
did  as  the  man  asked  him  ;  he  laid  his  hands  on  the 
sick  young  man  and  he  was  healed  instantly.  God 
willed,  by  this  miracle  which  he  caused  to  be  done 
by  the  saint  at  the  end  of  his  life,  to  put  the  seal,  as 
it  were,  on  the  holiness  of  his  life,  as  well  as  on  his 
pious  and  learned  writings.  I  know,  also,  that  when 
Augustine  was  only  a  priest,  and  after  he  became  a 
bishop,  people  came  to  ask  him  to  pray  for  the  pos 
sessed,  and  that,  offering  to  God  his  prayers  and  tears, 
he  obtained  their  deliverance." 

His  biographer  tells  us  that  Augustine  had  often 
said  to  him  that  even  the  very  best  of  Christians 
ought  not  to  leave  this  world  without  worthy  and 
sufficient  penitence ;  and  so  he  acted  when  his  own 
time  came.  As  he  felt  death  approaching,  he  begged 
his  friends  and  the  bishops  who  were  living  in  his 
house  not  to  enter  his  chamber  except  at  the  same 
time  with  his  physician  or  the  attendants  who  waited 
on  him,  that  he  might  be  as  little  interrupted  as  pos 
sible.  He  had  the  "  Penitential  Psalms  "  written  out 
large  and  affixed  to  the  wall  of  his  chamber,  within 


238  SAINT   AUGUSTINE. 

his  sight.  And  thus,  in  solitude  and  prayer,  he  passed 
the  last  six  days  of  his  life. 

He  died  in  the  night  of  the  28th  or  2pth  of  August, 
430,  at  the  age  of  seventy- six,  forty  of  which  he  had 
lived  as  priest  and  bishop  at  Hippo.  He  had  hardly 
closed  his  eyes  when  a  letter  from  Theodosius,  the 
Emperor  of  the  East,  arrived,  inviting  his  attendance 
at  the  General  Council  of  Ephesus. 

Thus,  then,  we  have  endeavoured  to  place  before 
our  readers  one  of  the  great  saints  of  the  Church, 
with  his  vast  genius,  his  emotional  temperament,  his 
early  failings  and  his  ascetic  virtues ;  and  round  this 
central  figure  we  have  endeavoured  to  sketch  a  history 
of  that  great  African  branch  of  the  Church  of  Christ, 
which  alone  of  all  the  great  branches  of  the  early 
Church  has  utterly  decayed  and  perished. 

We  need  only  add  here,  to  the  appreciations  of 
Augustine's  personal  character  and  literary  genius 
which  we  have  made  from  time  to  time  as  the  occasion 
arose,  that  no  human  mind  since  that  of  St.  Paul  has 
so  widely,  deeply,  permanently  influenced  the  Church 
of  Christ.  The  theology  of  the  Western  Church 
throughout  the  Middle  Ages  was  deeply  affected  by 
his  writings ;  the  Reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century 
went  back  to  them  for  their  dogmatic  theology  ;  and 
we,  perhaps,  in  the  perplexities  of  our  age,  might  do 
well  to  go  back  to  the  philosophical  and  doctrinal 
writings  of  the  great  thinker  of  the  Western  Church. 

Another  sentence  will  suffice  to  conclude  the  poli 
tical  history  which  we  have  left  unfinished.  For 


VANDAL   AND    SARACEN    CONQUESTS.  239 

eleven  months  after  Augustine's  death  the  Vandals 
still  persevered  in  their  siege  of  Hippo ;  but  Count 
Boniface,  receiving  succours  by  the  sea,  was  able  to 
prolong  his  resistance  and  make  good  the  city  against 
them.  At  length  they  raised  the  siege,  and  shortly 
after,  troops  arriving  from  Rome  and  from  Constanti 
nople,  the  Count  again  took  the  field,  and  having  again 
been  defeated  in  a  great  battle  (A.D.  431),  he  placed 
the  remnant  of  his  troops  on  board  the  transports 
which  brought  them,  allowed  the  inhabitants  of  Hippo 
to  occupy  the  places  of  the  slain,  and  so  abandoned 
the  scene  of  his  glories,  his  errors,  and  his  misfor 
tunes.  The  Vandals  set  fire  to  the  deserted  city  and 
left  the  ruins  of  Hippo  as  the  monument  to  its  great 
bishop.  Eight  years  afterwards,  439,  Carthage  fell, 
and  the  Vandal  conquest  of  Africa  was  complete. 
Another  sixteen  years  and  Genseric  had  taken  and 
sacked  Rome,  455,  and  brought  back  its  spoils  to 
enrich  his  African  dominion.  Throughout  the  hun 
dred  years  of  the  Vandal  dominion  in  Africa  the 
orthodox  Christians  endured  a  persecution  as  terrible 
as  that  of  Decius  or  Diocletian.  The  conquest  of 
the  province  by  Belisarius,  A.D.  535,  gave  it  a  gleam 
of  hope  of  the  return  of  civilization  and  religion. 
The  conquest  of  the  Saracens  in  A.D.  698  closed  the 
ancient  history  of  the  provinces  of  Africa,  Numidia, 
and  Mauritania,  and  commenced  the  modern  story 
of  Tunis,  Algiers,  and  Morocco. 

THE    END. 


AND   SONS,   PBINTEBS, 
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