Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/285

AUGUSTINE. Augustine's subsequent elloits to establish his authority over the native British Cliurcli were not su sueeessful as liis missionary hibors, owing apparently to his lack of tact. He died in Canterbury, ilaj- 2(j, G04. His liody was re- moved to the Cathedral of Canterbury in 1091. Bede's lli^toria Ecclcxiaxlicu (lenlis Aiir/lortim is the great authority for the life of ISaint Augus- tine. Consult all the documents, in Latin and English, in A. .J. Mason, The Mis-lion of Saint Auguatine to Enflhind ((Cambridge, 1807). The celebration of the loOOth anniversary of .Augus- tine's landing brought out in Loudon in 1897 several volumes upon him — e.g. by JO. W. Ben- son, Father Brou, S..J., G. F. Browne, W. E. Collins. Consult also, J. A. Cooke, Early Churches in Great Britain Prior to the Coming of Augustine (London, 1807).

The site and remains of Saint Augustine's monastery were purchased in 1844 by ilr. Beres- ford Hope, by whom they were presented to the -Vrchbishop of Canterbury in trust, for the erec- tion of Saint Augustine's Missionary College, at Canterbury, in connection with the Church of England. This institution was incorporated by royal charter in 1848.

AUGUSTINE, Saint (Lat. Aurelius Augustinus) (354-430). Bishop of Hippo, in North Africa, the greatest of the Latin Fathers, and one of the most eminent doctors of the Western Church. He is called Aurelius Augustinus by Orosius and Prosper of Aquitania. From his autobiographical Confession.i. and from the biography written by his friend Possidius, we gather the most important facts of his life. He was bom in Tagaste. a town in Numidia, November 13. 354, and died in Hippo, August 28, 430, during the siege of that town by the Vandals. His father, Patricius, was a pagan (afterwards converted), but his mother Monica, was a devoted Christian, who labored long and earnestly for her .son's conversion, and who has been canonized by the Church. Augustine was brought up to be a rhetorician, and studied at Tagaste, JIadaura, and Carthage. From about the age of 16 until shortly before his conversion, he lived in concubinage, which, along with other youthful irregularities, he afterwards bitterly lamented (cf. his Confessions, Book III.). One of the greatest obstacles to his conversion was this state of concubinage, against whose bondage lie struggled for a long time in vain; he seemed to be sincerely and deeply attached to the object of his passion, to whom he was faithful for many years. By her he had one son, whom he named Adeodatus ('the gift of God').

The perusal of Cicero's Nortensius awakened Augustine to a more serious view of life, and he became an earnest seeker after truth. bit experimented with several systems before finally entering the Christian Church. For nine years he was a follower of Manichteism (q.v.), a Persian dualistic philosophy then widely current in the Western Empire. With its fundamental principle of conflict between two opposing world-powers, symbolized by light and darkness, good and evil. Manichicism seemed to Augustine to correspond to the facts of experience, and to furnish the most plausible hypothesis upon which to construct a philosophical and ethical system. Moreover, its demands upon novices {auditores) were not strict enough to cause great uneasiness of conscience; witness Augustine's petition recorded in his Confessions (viii. 17), "Lord, make me pure and chaste — but not quite yet!" He never advanced to full membership, not becoming one of the perfecti. After nine years he abandoned this system, failing after diligent inquiry to find in it the solution of his greatest difficulties. His next stage of development was skepticism.

About this time (a.d. 383) Augustine left Cartilage for Rome. His mother, almost heart-broken at his secret flight, took ship and followed. He did not remain long in the capital, but went on to .Milan, where he fell under the influence of the Neo-Platonic philosophy, which has so often carried serious thinkers over from doubt to faith, and where he also met the great Bishop Ambrose, who at that time was the most distinguished ecclesiastic in Italy. Augustine presently found himself attracted once more toward Christianity, and asking what answer it had to give to the problems of life. In obedience to what seemed to him the direct call of God, he turned to the Scriptures and read the words, "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof" (Rom. xiii. 14). This decided the question. Augustine resolved to embrace Chris- tianity and to believe as the Church believed. With his natural son he was baptized by Ambrose on Easter Eve. 387. His mother, who had rejoined him in Italy, was rejoiced at this answer to her prayers and hopes. She died soon afterwards at Ostia.

The remaining 43 years of Augustine's life were devoted to the service of the Church. He returned to Africa, was made presbyter in 301, and bishop of Hippo in 305, which latter office he held until his death. It was a period of political and theological unrest, for, while the barbarians pressed in upon the Empire, even sacking Rome itself, schism and heresy also threatened the Church. .Augustine threw himself into the theological conflict, not from inclination, hut from a sense of duty. With voice and pen he waged war, and usually he conquered. The whole of Western Christendom has entered into the fruits of his victories. Beside the Manichtean controversy, Augustine was engaged in two great theological conflicts. One was with the Donatists (q.v.). a numerous but schismatic body, and related chiefly to questions of Church discipline and order. It also involved a certain puritan theory of the Church and her ministry which Augustine did not share. In the course of this discussion he developed his ecclesiastical and sacramental theories. Tlie other was with the Pelagians, followers of a British monk who disliked the idea of absolute predestination, and related to such doctrinal questions as man's primitive state, the fill, depravity, and so on. In the course of this conflict, which was long and bitter, Augustine developed his theories of sin and grace, of divine sovereignty and predestination. The Roman Catholic Church has found especial satisfaction in Augustine's teaching respecting the Church and its sacraments, while Protestants have sought authority for their characteristic doctrines in his anthropology and soteriology.

He taught that the true Church was characterized by four qualities — unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity. Outside this Church there could be no salvation. It alone was the