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 AUGUSTINE

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AUGUSTINE

tine, was reiterated by councils held later at Carthage and Mileve and confirmed by Pope Innocent I (417). A second period of Pelagian intrigues developed at Rome, but Pope Zosimus, whom the stratagems of Celestius had for a moment deluded, being en- lightened by Augustine, pronounced the solemn condemnation of these heretics in 418. Thenceforth the combat was conducted in writing against JuHan of Eclanum, who assumed the leadership of the party and violently attacked Augustine. Towards 426 there entered the lists a school which afterwards acquired the name of Semipelagian, the first members being monks of Hadrumetum in Africa, who were followed by others from Marseilles, led by Cassian, the celebrated abbot of Saint-Victor. I'nable to admit the absolute gratuitousness of predestination, they sought a middle course between Augustine and Pelagius, and maintained that grace must be given to those who merit it and denied to others; hence goodwill has the precedence, it desires, it asks, and 5od rewards. Informed of their views by Prosper of Aquitaine, the holy Doctor once more expounded, in "De Pra?destinatione Sanctorum", how even these first desires for salvation are due to the grace of God, which therefore absolutely controls our predestina- tion. , ^,.

(d) Struggles against Anantsm and Closing 1 ears. — In 426 the holy Bishop of Hippo, at the age of seventy-two, wishing to spare his episcopal city the turmoil of an election after his death, caused both clere\- and people to acclaim the choice of the deacon Heraclius as his auxiliarj- and succes.sor, and trans- ferred to him the administration of externals. Au- gustine might then have enjoyed some rest had Africa not been agitated by the undeserved disgrace and the revolt of Count Boniface (427). The Goths, sent bv the Empress Placidia to oppose Boniface, and the Vandals, whom the latter summoned to his assistance, were all Arians. Maximinus, an Arian bishop, entered Hippo with the imperial troops. The holy Doctor defended the Faith at a public con- ference (428) and in various wTitings. Being deeply grieved at the devastation of Africa, he laboured to effect a reconciliation between Count Boniface and the empress. Peace was indeed re-established, but not -n-ith Genseric, the Vandal king. Boniface, vanquished, sought refuge in Hippo, whither many bishops had already fled for protection and this well fortified city was to suffer the horrors of an eighteen months"' siege. Endeavouring to control his anguish Augustine continued to refute Julian of Eclanum; but early in the siege he was stricken with what he realized to be a fatal illness, and, after three months of admirable patience and fervent prayer, departed from this land of exile, in the sevcntv-sixth year of his age.

II His WoHKS. — Augustine was one of the most prolific geniuses that humanity has ever known, and is admired not only for the number of his works, but also for the variety of subjects, which traverse the whole realm of thought. The form in which he casts his work exercises a ven,' powerful attraction on the reader. Bardenhe\^•er praises his extraordmaiy suppleness of expression and his marvellous gift of describing interior things, of painting the various states of the soul and the facts of the spiritual worW. His latinity bears the stamp of his age. In general, his style is noble and chaste; but, says the .same author "in his sermons and other popular writings he purposely drops to the language of the people . A detailed analvsis is impossible here. We shall merely indicate his principal VTitmgs and the date (often approximative) of their composition. ^

(1) Autobiography and Correspondence. —l^he Con- fessions" are the histon,- of his heart; the "Retrac- tations", of his mind; while the "Letters show his activity in the Church,

(a) The "Confessions" (towards a. d. 400) are, in the Biblical sense of the word confiten, not an avowal or an account, but the praise of a soul that admires the action of God witlun itself. Of all the works of the holv Doctor none has been more uni- versally read and admired, none has caused more salutary tears to flow. Neither in respect of pene- trating analvsis of the most complex impressions of the soul, nor communicative feeling, nor elevation

of sentiment, nor depth of philosophic views, is there any book like it in all hteratme. (b) The "Retrac- tations" (towards the end of lus life, 426-428) are a revision of the works of the saint in clironological order, explaining the occasion and dominant idea of each. They are a guide of inestimable price for seizing the progress of Augustine's thought, (c) The "Letters", amounting in the Benedictine collection to 270 (53 of them from Augustine's correspondents), are a treasure of the greatest value, for the knowledge of his life, influence and even his doctrine.

(2) Philosophy. — These \\Titings, for the most part- composed in the \-illa of Cassisiacum, from his conversion to his baptism (386-387), continue the autobiography of the saint by initiating us into the researches and Platonic hesitations of his mmd. There is less freedom in them than in the Confessions. They are literary essays, writings whose simplicity is the acme of art and elegance. Nowhere is the style of Augustine so chastened, nowhere is his language so pure. Their dialogue form shows that they were inspired by Plato and Cicero. The chief ones are: "Contra Academicos" (the most important of aU); "De Beata Vita"; "De Ordine"; the two books of "Soliloquies", which must be distinguished from the "Soliloquies" and "Meditations ' which are certainly not authentic; "De Immortalitate animT"- "De Magistro" (a dialogue between .Au- gustine and his son Adeodatus); and six curious books (the sixth especially) on Music ^ ^ ,.,

(3) General Apolog<i.—(a) In the "City of God (begun in 413, but the books XX-XXII are of 426) \ugustine answers the pagans, who attributed the fall of Rome (410) to the abolition of pagan worship Considering this problem of Divine Providence with - regard to the Roman Empire, he widens the honzon still more and in a burst of genius he creates the philosophy of history, embracing as he does ^•"th a glance the destinies of the world grouped around the Christian religion, the only one wluch goes back to the beginning and leads humanity to its final term. "The City of God" is considered as the most im- portant work of the great bishop. The other works chiefly interest theologians; but it, like the Con- fessions" belongs to general literatme and appeals to every soul. The "Confessions" are theology which has been lived in the soul, and the liistorj' of God's action on individuals, while "The City of God

is theology framed in the history of humanity, and explaining" the action of God in the world, (b) Other apologetic wTitings, like the "De Vera Re- lioione" (a little masterpiece composed at Tagaste, 389-391), "De Utihtate Credendi" (391), "Liber de fide rerum qua- non ^^dentur" (400), and the "Letter CXX to Consentius", constitute Augustine the great theorist of the Faith, and of its relations to reason. "He is the first of the Fathers", says Hamack (Dogmengescliichte, III, 97) " who felt the need of forcing his faith to rea.son". And indeed he, who so repeatedly affirms that faith precedes the intelligent apprehension of the truths of revelation- he it is who marks out with greater clearness of defi- nition and more precisely than anyone else the func- tion of the reason in preceding and verifjnng the witness's claim to credence, and in accompanying the mind's act of adhesion. (Letter to Consentius. n 3. 8, etc.) What would not have been the stupe- faction of Augustine if anyone had told him that