AUGUSTINIANS, in the Roman Catholic Church, a generic name for religious orders that follow the so-called "Rule of St. Augustine." The chief of these orders are : Augustinian Canons (q.v.), Augustinian Hermits (q.v.) or Friars, Premonstratensians (q.v.), Trinitarians (q.v.), Gilbertines (see GILBERT OF SEMPRING HAM, ST.).
Augustine never wrote a Rule, properly so called; but Ep. 21I (al mg) is a long letter of practical advice to a community of nuns, on their daily life; and Serm. 355, 3 56 describe the common life he led along with his clerics in Hippo. When, in the second half of the iith century, the clergy of a great number of collegiate churches were undertaking to live a substantially mo nastic form of life, it was natural that they should look back to this classical model for clerics living in community. And so attention was directed to St. Augustine's writings on community life; and out of them, and spurious writings attributed to him, the "Rule of St. Augustine" was compiled towards the close of the 11th century.
See Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum (1846) , vol. vi. and ref. as under AUGUSTINIAN CANONS.
