106 



AUGUSTINE. 



Augustine, time in reading and prayer ; and were baptised to- 

 gether by Bishop Ambrose in the year 387. Au- 

 gustine immediately set out for his native country ; 

 stopped at Rome on his way, where he composed a 

 work against the Manichxans'; and while waiting at 

 Ostia for an opportunity to embark for Africa, was 

 deprived of his constant attendant and faithful coun- 

 sellor, his mother Monnica. As soon as he arrived 

 at Tagasta, he withdrew to a country residence, 

 where he lived with a few select friends, in imita- 

 tion of the first Christians, " having all things com- 

 mon." After spending about three years in this 

 manner, he went to visit a person of rank in the city 

 of Hippo Regius. During his residence there, it 

 happened that the priest's office was vacant, and Va- 

 lerius the bishop had assembled the canons for the 

 purpose of electing another incumbent. Augustine 

 having entered the church to witness the form of 

 proceeding, was instantly presented to the bishop, by 

 the unanimous consent of the assembly, as the fittest 

 person to be chosen ; and, in spite of all his remon- 

 strances, was ordained a presbyter in the year 391. 

 He still continued to follow the manner of life which 

 he had begun in his late retreat ; formed his associates 

 into a kind of religious society ; and thus at length 

 gave rise to the Augustine Friars, or eremites of St 

 Augustine. In 394, he had a dispute with Jerome, 

 in which he treated his venerable opponent with so 

 much respect, that they afterwards became very inti- 

 mate friends. As Valerius was a Greek, and found 

 considerable difficulty to speak publicly in the Latin 

 language, he appointed Augustine to preach in his 

 place, and even in his presence, though this was con- 

 trary to the custom of the African church. He sig- 

 nalized himself very much at a provincial council in 

 393, by pronouncing an exposition of the creed ; and, 

 in 395, by the influence of his friend and patron Va- 

 lerius, was installed as joint bishop of the church at 

 Hippo. He wrote much against the Manichaeans, 

 and was very successful in vindicating from their ob- 

 jections the authority and integrity of sacred scrip- 

 ture. He laboured also with great activity and abi- 

 lity to expose the dangerous principles of the Dona- 

 tists ; narrowly escaped assassination from some of 

 that sect in 398 ; but was not deterred from acting a 

 very conspicuous part in the council which was held 

 against them at Carthage in the year 411. By a 

 council of the African clergy in 418, he was pub- 

 licly requested to refute the errors of Pelagius and 

 Celestine ; and to him is principally due the credit of 

 having checked the progress of their opinions. In 

 the course of this controversy, Pelagius wrote to him 

 a very soothing and flattering epistle ; in reply to 

 which, Augustine requested him, " rather to pray 

 to God to make him, by his grace, such as he (i. e. 

 Pelagius) had described him, than continue to de- 

 scribe him such as he was not." In 426, in the 

 seventy-second year of his age, he chose a person 

 named Eradius to assist him in his public duties, and 

 after this employed himself almost entirely in writing 

 upon a great variety of subjects. In 430 Hippo was 

 invested by the Vai.dals, and sustained a siege of 

 fourteen months. The aged bishop resolved to share 

 the distresses of his people, and continued to encou- 

 rage them to the last. But he was soon overpower- 



ed by the excessive fatigue which he underwent, and Augotftlr. 

 died with every indication of sincere penitence and ' v~ " "' 

 fervent piety, on the 28th of August 430, in the 

 seventy-sixth year of his age. Abont seven months 

 after this event, the city of Hippo was taken and 

 burned by the Vandals ; but the library of Augus- 

 tine, containing an immense number of his own writ- 

 ings, was carefully preserved. The most accurate 

 and splendid edition of the works of Augustine, is 

 that which was given by the Benedictines, printed 

 iirst at Paris in 1679, and afterwards at Antwerp in 

 1700, with some augmentation by Le Clerc, under 

 the fictitious name of Phereponus. 



The literary talents of Augustine have been esti- 

 mated very high by those who were most competent 

 to judge of the subject. " The fame of Augustine, 

 bishop of Hippo," says Mosheim, " filled the whole 

 Christian world, and not without reason, as a variety i 



of great and shining qualities were united in the cha- 

 racter of that illustrious man. A sublime geniu6, an 

 uninterrupted and zealous pursuit of truth, an indefa- 

 tigable application, an invincible patience, a sincere 

 piety, a subtle and lively wit, conspired to establish 

 his fame upon the most lasting foundations." He i* 

 blamed by the same writer, however, as deficient in 

 solidity of judgment ; as having yielded too often Do 

 the violent impulse of a warm imagination ; and as 

 ready to write upon a variety of subjects before he 

 had examined them with a sufficient degree of atten- 

 tion and diligence. The force of this censure is in some 

 respects diminished by the opposite testimony of the 

 candid and discriminating Lardner, who affirms, that 

 good sense was the distinguishing part of his charac- 

 ter as a writer ; that in points which depended upon 

 reasoning, he was as able to form a right judgment 

 as those who have been preferred to him ; and that 

 in learning, in Greek literature, and in critical abi- 

 lity, his attainments must have been much greater 

 than has been supposed. To all these qualities, ac- 

 cording to Erasmus, aderat, interim, miranda quce- 

 dam animi lenilas . . . yuam Plato pulat non ita fre- 

 quenter deprehendi in his quibus contigit acrius in- 

 genium. With regard to his character, in a more 

 important point of view, there is no doubt that, du- 

 ring the first half of his life, he was the slave of de- 

 praved passions, and of the most extravagant opi- 

 nions. Of this his own Cmi/essions, and every account 

 that we have of his life, furnish the most unquestion- 

 able evidence. But we have the very same evidence 

 to believe, that, after the time of his solemnly assu- 

 ming the character of a Christian, he was as eminent 

 for his virtues as he had formerly been for his vices ; 

 that he discharged the public duties of his clerical 

 office with the utmost fidelity, earnestness, and affec- 

 tion ; that, in private life, he was distinguished by 

 humility, candour, and benevolence ; that his refor- 

 mation was complete, ami his penitence most sincere ; 

 and that the insinuations which have been thrown 

 out against the reality of his temperance and devo- 

 tion, are groundless and illiberal in the extreme. See 

 Moshcim's Church History, vol. i. p r . 2. cent. 4. 

 ch. 2. ; Godeau Hist, de t'Eglise, vol. ii. p. 549. ; 

 vol. iii. p. 94, 280. ; Lardner's Vied, vol. iii. p. 392.; 

 vol. v. p. 81. ; August ini Vita a Benedict, conscript. ; 

 Tillemont, Mem. Ecc/cs. tit. 13. (y) 



