Leo I, the Great, as he has been called, be gins the line of popes of that name, so many of whom have been distinguished. It has been said that his pontificate, next to that of Saint Gregory I, is the most significant in Christian antiquity. He acquired prominence very early, being sent to Gaul as a comparatively young man by the Emperor Valentinian III, to bring about a reconciliation between the militgry and civil authorities of the province, who were at loggerheads and threatened a disruption of the peace of the empire. He was somewhat known in the west of Europe before this for the great mystical writer Cassian had dedicated a book to him. He accomplished his mission for the emperor so well that though he was absent in Gaul at the death of the Pope. he was chosen as successor. }Lis pontificate was in a stormy time, as can well be understood from his experiences with Hun and Vandal, and besides, there were serious internal trou bles in the Church, widespread heresies, that threatened disruption. In spite of all these handicaps, Leo succeeded in maintaining eccle siastical discipline and fostering the intellectual and spiritual life of Europe.
The greatest political character of the cen tury is Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths. He defeated King Odoacer at the first battle of the Isonzo (489), and after several further defeats, concluded peace with him. The two kings were to live together in Italy. Ockiacer being subordinate. The following year Odoacer was slain at a banquet, and Theodoric became the sole ruler. He came to be the subject of a whole series of myths, particularly in the old High German, under the name of Dietrich of Bern (approximate German pronunciation of Theodonc of Verona). He ruled in northern for 33 years, and succeeded in incorporat ing in his dominions Sicily, Noricum, Istris, Pannonia and Dalmatia. He was the first ruler of history to maintain a standing army. He had 100,000 men, all Goths, and a fleet of 1,00C ships, manned also by Goths, for the protection and extension of his domains. He ' used his own people for war, employing the Romans in the business of administration and encouraging their devotion to commerce and industry. At heart a barbarian, he had many good traits, and his motto is said to have been °Let other kings gain booty and half-ruined towns by war and slaughter; my object is; by God's help, to conquer in such a way that my subjects may regret that they did not come under my rule before? His reign in many ways justified even that lofty maxim. He stained his reign by the martyring of BOethius, but was very fortunate in the Prime Minister to whom he gave his confidence, Cassiodorus, but these de tails belong to the next century. In the clos ing year of the 5th century, Theodoric issued an edict embodying the principles upon which he hoped to govern. It was founded on Ro man law and its aim was to secure the educa tion of the Goths in Roman culture until there could be a union of the two peoples on an equal plane. In his youth a hostage in Con stantinople, Theodoric had come under the influence of Byzantine art and literature, not yet in that decadence which was to come a little later. The memory of the city aroused in him a sense of rivalry and created a rever ence for the old monuments of art in Italy, and he did his best to preserve the magnificent Roman remains then in existence, and to adorn further the Italian cities. While a Christian,
Theodoric had embraced Arianism and this serously complicated matters in the ruling of his kingdom.
The greatest intellectual force of the 5th century was Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo, whose work has continued to in fluence men deeply ever since. Schaff says of him, °Compared to the great philosophers of past centuries and modern times, he is the equal of them all; among theologians he is undeni ably the first, and such has been his influence that none of the Fathers, Scholastics or Re formers has surpassed it? His life is the best key to his times. He received a Christian edu cation but put off receiving baptism. He prayed, he tells in his Confessions, but without the sin cere desire of being heard and drifted through the experiences of many a young man in the larger cities at almost any time. The surprise is to see how closely the elements which in fluenced Augustine 1,500 years ago resemble those of our generation. As he tells himself, the licentious example of other students, the attraction of the theatre, the intoxication of his success as a writer and a scholar, and his pride of always being a leader in everything even evil, joined to the seductions of a great city, still more than half pagan, led him into sad ways in Carthage where he was studying law. The devotion of his mother Monica finally brought him to his better self but not until he had experiences that gave him the material for his (Confessions,' the most attractive per sonal book, it has often been declared, that was ever written.
He was 33 when he went to Saint Ambrose at Milan to be baptized on Easter Day. Now he was whole-hearted in his Christianity. He resolved to give up all he possessed to the poor and take up a life of poverty, prayer and study. He kept his resolutions so well that in admira tion at his change of heart so finely maintained, the people demanded that he be made a priest, and the old Bishop of Hippo forced him to become his coadjutor with the right of succes sion. As Bishop of Hippo Augustine wrote his immortal works in defense of the Church. He has more deeply influenced the thought of Christianity than any other except possibly Saint Paul. He treated the most difficult ques tions, grace and free-will for instance, ex haustively and a great many heretics have in sisted on finding a foundation for their teach ings in expressions of his. Augustine is the yrmcipal Christian authority on nearly all the difficult problems of faith and it is surprising how many anticipations of what is of ten considered to be modern thought are in his writings. Augustine's teaching was for in stance, that the seven days of creation were not literal periods of 24 hours but that creation had been instantaneous and only the seeds of things had been created (seniina rerum), and these had gone on developing afterward. (See MAN, CHRISTIAN ANTHROPOLOGY OF). His philosophic and theological teaching with regard to the human will and its place between its own freedom and divine grace is a marvelous con tribution to human psychology in the deep analysis of motive and purpose which he has made. Augustine's exposition of human •ways and moods as he saw them makes it per fectly clear that men have not changed in any way in the millenium and a half since his time.