Atigustine

ATIGUSTINE, Aumumtus Sr., the greatest of, the Latin fathers, was b. at Tagaste, a t. of Numidia, on the 13th of Nov., 354 A.D. His father, Patricius, was poor, but of good family, and filled the office of magistrate. Be continued a pagan till advanced in years, and was only baptized shortly before his death. He does not scent to have been remark able for any elevation of mind; on the contrary, one may fairly conclude, from his son's statements, that he was an irascible, kind-hearted man, more intent ou his son's advance ment in this world than in that which is to come. His temper often caused great sorrow to his gentle and pious wife, who loved him faithfully, however, and was therefore rewarded with the secret by which she could charm the evil spirit out of him. Patricius was very anxious that A. should become a scholar, as he noticed that not a few people in his day were obtaining large incomes by their "wits." A. was accordingly sent to school rat Madaura, and subsequently to Carthage, to complete his studies; Previous to this, however, he had enjoyed the inestimable felicity of a religious education at home. His mother, Monnica, had been his best instructor. Neander truly says: " Whatever treasures of virtue and worth the life of faith, even of a soul not trained by scientific culture, can bestow, was set before him in the example of his pious The energy and penetration of intellect exhibited by the young A. excited the most flattering hopes. 1S hen he left home for Carthage, a joyous, ardent, and resolute stu dent, a bright career of worldly prosperity seemed to open before him. But strong as A. was, the temptations of Carthage were stronger. His nature, deep, impetuous, and passionate, thirsted for excitement. He had just reached the age when happiness is conceived to be synonymous with pleasure, and Carthage, the second city of the empire, was rank as Rome in its sensual corruptions. A. fell. In his Conte.s.sions, he paints the frightful abyss into which he felt himself plunged; nor does he seek to excuse himself; on the contrary, the shadow of his guilt is thrown forward over all his boyish life, and he displays even a morbid zeal and acuteness in pointing out what others, less censorious, might term the frivolous errors of his childhood, but which seemed to A. the parents of his subsequent vices, and therefore equally bad and equally reprehensible. Before he had reached his 18th year, his mistress bore him a son, who was named Atleodatus afterwards baptized along with him at Milan. The thing which appears to have first stirred his deeper being into life was a passage which he suddenly came across in the Horten,qins of Cicero, treating of the worth and dignity of philosophy. To use the language of Neander: The conflict now began in his soul which lasted through eleven years of his life. As the simplicity of the sacred Scriptures possessed no attractions for his taste—a taste formed by rhetorical studies and the artificial discipline of the declamatory schools —especially as his mind was now in the same tone and direction with that of the emperor Julian, when the latter was conducted to the Platonic theosophy; as, moreover, he found so many timings in the doctrines of the church which, from want of inward experience, could not be otherwise than unintelligible to him. while he attempted to grasp, by the understanding from without, what can be understood only from the inner life, from the feeling of inward wants, and one's own inward experiences; so under these circumstances, the delusive pretensions of the Manichtuan sect, which, instead of a blind belief on authority, held out the promise of clear knowledge and a satisfactory solution of all questions relating to things human and divine, presented the stronger attractions to his inexperienced youth." A. now became a professed Manichtean. Returning to his native town, he lectured for a short time on "grammar"—that is to say, on literature. Soon afterwards, he returned to Carthage, to pursue his profession under more favora ble auspices. Here he wrote, in his 27th year, his first work, Do Apto et Pulehro a treatise on aesthetics, which has unfortunately been lost. About the same time his spiritual nature became keener and more imperative in its demands. The futile specu lations of the visionary sect to which he had attached himself now became apparent. Ile had a series of interviews and conversations with Faustus, one of the most celebrated teachers of Manichaeism; and these so utterly disappointed his expectations, that he left the society in disgust and sad bewilderment, after having wasted ten years in a fruitless search for wisdom and truth, In 383, he went to Rome, followed by the tears, the prayers, and the anxieties of his excellent mother, who was not, however, bereaved of hope, for both her faith and her love were strong. After a short stay, A. left Rome, and proceeded to Milan, where he became a teacher of rhetoric. No change could have been more fortunate. At this time, the bishop of Milan was the eloquent and devout St. Ambrose. An intimacy sprang up between the two. A. often went to hear his friend preach. lie was rot,

however, as yet a Christian.- He only emerged, as it were, from Manichveism —the region of night-clouds and shadows—and was now gazing on the gray dawn of the Platonic philosophy, prophetic of t: e noontide splendors of Christianity which were soon to burst upon his vision. Still, A. did not afterwards despise this preliminary training; he was too great and honest a man for that. He confesses that the Platonic writings "enkindled in his mind an incredible ardor;" they awakened his deeper spiritual natu-7., which keenly upbraided him with his sins. Once more he studied the Bible, although from a purely Platonic point of view, and rather wishing to find in it " those truths which he had already made himself acquainted with front the Platonic philosophy, bat presented in a different form." He began to think that Christ and Paul. by their glorious life and death, their divine morality, their great holifiess, and manifold virtues, must have enjoyed much of that "highest wisdom" which the philosophers thought confined to themselves. For some time he clung to his Platonic Christianity, and shaped the doctrines of the Bible according to it; but when he found that it was weak to overcome temptations, and that "he himself was continually borne down by the ungodly impulses which he thought he had already subdued," the necessity of a living personal God and Savior to rescue him from the condemnation of his own conscience, and impart a sanctifying vitality to the abstract truths which lie worshiped, shone clear through all the stormy struggles of his heart. In the eighth and ninth books of his Confessions, he has left a noble though painful picture of his inward life during this momentous crisis. It is sufficient to say that the spirit of God triumphed. On the 25th of April, 387 A.D., A. along with his natural son, Adeodatus, of whom he seems to have been justly fond, was baptized by Ambrose at Milan. Shortly after he set out on his return home. At Ostia, on the Tiber, his beloved mother, who had followed him to Milan, died; her eyes had seen the salvation of her son, and she could depart in peace. After her death, and before leaving Italy for Africa, A. wrote his treatises, De iforibus Ecelesite Catholiew et de Mordats niekceorum; De Quantitate and De Libero Arbitrio. It is unnecessary to relate at any length the subsequent life of Augustine. His character and principles of action had become fixed, and lie now brought the whole majesty of his intellect to bear upon the side of Christianity. Having, as was then customary for converts, divided his goods among the poor, lie retired into private life. and composed several treatises—De Genesi Contra Manklaros, De Alusied, De Jfagi4ro, and De Veld Religione, which secured him a high repu tation. In 891, he was ordained a priest by Valerius, bishop of Hippo; and during the next four years, though earnestly engaged in the work of preaching, contrived to write three different works. In 895, lie was made colleague of Valerius. Then ensued a period of hot strife, known in church history as the l)onatist and Pelagian controver sies. A., as may naturally be supposed, having passed through so fierce a fire of per sonal experience on religious questions, would be very jealous both of what he knew to be the truth, and of what he only thought to be the truth. This, added to his acute and profound intellect, made him, in spite of the poverty of his historical erudition, a most 'formidable and relentless antagonist. But this portion of his career will fall to be treated more properly under Pelagius and Pelagianism (q.v.). In 897, appeared his Confessions, in 13 books. It is a deep, earnest, and sacred autobiography of one of the greatest intellects the world has seen. Passages of it have no parallel except in the Psalms of David. In 413, he commenced his De Ciritate Del. and finished it iu 426. It is generally considered his most powerful work. Exception may be taken to much that it contains. The learning is uo doubt very considerable, but it is not accurate. A. was an indifferent scholar: he had studied the Latin authors well; but of Greek "he knew little, and of Hebrew, nothing." Many of his reasonings are based on false and unten able premises, and he erred often in his etymological explanations: but in spite of these and other drawbacks, the final impression left on the mind is, that the work is one of the most profound and lasting monuments of human genius. In 428, A. published his Retrattationes, in which lie makes a recension of all his previous writings. It is a work of great candor. He frankly acknowledges such errors and mistakes as he had discov ered himself to have committed, explains and modifies numerous statements, and mod estly reviews his whole opinions. Hisend was now drawing nigh. In 429, the Vandals, under the barbarian Genserie. landed in Africa; next year they besieged Hippo. A., now in his 76th year, prayed that God would help his unhappy church, and grant himself a release out of this present evil world. lie d. on the 28th of Aug., 430, in the third month of the siege.