A Source Book for Ancient Church History Part 50

Heathenism lingered as a force in society longer in the West than in the East, not merely among the peasantry, but among the higher cla.s.ses. This was partly due to the conservatism of the aristocratic cla.s.ses and the superior form in which the religious philosophy of Neo-Platonism had been presented to the West. This presentation was due, in no small part, to the work of such philosophers as Victorinus, who translated the earlier works of the Neo-Platonists so that it escaped the tendencies, represented by Jamblichus, toward theurgy and magic, and an alliance with polytheism and popular superst.i.tion. Victorinus himself became a Christian, pa.s.sing by an easy transition from Neo-Platonism to Christianity; a course in which he was followed by Augustine, and, no doubt, by others as well.

Augustine, _Confessiones_, VIII, 2. (MSL, 32:79.)

The conversion of Victorinus.

To Simplicia.n.u.s then I wentthe father of Ambrose,(164) in receiving Thy grace,(165) and whom he truly loved as a father. To him I narrated the windings of my error. But when I mentioned to him that I had read certain books of the Platonists, which Victorinus, formerly professor of rhetoric at Rome (who died a Christian, as I had heard), had translated into Latin, he congratulated me that I had not fallen upon the writings of other philosophers, which were full of fallacies and deceit, after the rudiments of this world [Col. 2:8], whereas they, in many respects, led to the belief in G.o.d and His word. Then to exhort me to the humility of Christ, hidden from the wise and revealed to babes, he spoke of Victorinus himself, whom, while he was in Rome, he had known intimately; and of him he related that about which I will not be silent. For it contained great praise of Thy grace, which ought to be confessed unto Thee, how that most learned old man, highly skilled in all the liberal sciences, who had read, criticised, and explained so many works of the philosophers; the teacher of so many n.o.ble senators, who, also, as a mark of his excellent discharge of his duties, had both merited and obtained a statue in the Roman Forum (something men of this world esteem a great honor), he, who had been, even to that age, a worshipper of idols and a partic.i.p.ator in the sacrilegious rites to which almost all the n.o.bility of Rome were addicted, and had inspired the people with the love of monster G.o.ds of every sort, and the barking Anubis, who hold their weapons against Neptune and Venus and Minerva [Vergil, _neid_, VIII, 736 _ff._], and those whom Rome once conquered, she now worshipped, all of which Victorinus, now old, had defended so many years with vain language,(166) he now blushed not to be a child of Thy Christ, and an infant at Thy fountain, submitting his neck to the yoke of humility, and subduing his forehead to the reproach of the cross.

O Lord, Lord, who hast bowed the heavens and come down, touched the mountains and they smoked [Psalm 144:5], by what means didst Thou convey Thyself into that bosom? He used to read, Simplicia.n.u.s said, the Holy Scriptures and most studiously sought after and searched out all the Christian writings, and he said to Simplicia.n.u.s, not openly, but secretly and as a friend: Knowest thou that I am now a Christian? To which he replied: I will not believe it, nor will I rank you among the Christians unless I see you in the Church of Christ. Whereupon he replied derisively: Do walls then make Christians? And this he often said, that already he was a Christian; and Simplicia.n.u.s used as often to make the same answer, and as often the conceit of the walls was repeated. For he was fearful of offending his friends, proud demon worshippers, from the height of whose Babylonian pride, as from the cedars of Lebanon, which the Lord had not yet broken [Psalm 29:5], he seriously thought a storm of enmity would descend upon him. But after that he had derived strength from reading and inquiry, and feared lest he should be denied by Christ before the holy angels if he was now afraid to confess Him before men [Matt.

10:33], and appeared to himself to be guilty of a great fault in being ashamed of the sacraments of the humility of Thy word, and not being ashamed of the sacrilegious rites of those proud demons, which as a proud imitator he had accepted, he became bold-faced against vanity and shamefaced toward the truth, and suddenly and unexpectedly said to Simplicia.n.u.s, as he himself informed me: Let us go to the Church; I wish to be made a Christian. And he, unable to contain himself for joy, went with him. When he had been admitted to the first sacrament of instruction [_i.e._, the Catechumenate], he, not long after, gave in his name that he might be regenerated by baptism. Meanwhile Rome marvelled and the Church rejoiced; the proud saw and were enraged; they gnashed with their teeth and melted away [Psalm 92:9]. But the Lord G.o.d was the hope of Thy servant, and He regarded not vanities and lying madness [Psalm 40:4].

Finally the hour arrived when he should make profession of his faith, which, at Rome, they, who are about to approach Thy grace, are accustomed to deliver from an elevated place, in view of the faithful people, in a set form of words learnt by heart. But the presbyters, he said, offered Victorinus the privilege of making his profession more privately, as was the custom to do to those who were likely, on account of bashfulness, to be afraid; but he chose, rather, to profess his salvation in the presence of the holy a.s.sembly. For it was not salvation that he had taught in rhetoric and yet he had publicly professed that. How much less, therefore, ought he, when p.r.o.nouncing Thy word, to dread Thy meek flock, who, in the delivery of his own words, had not feared the mad mult.i.tudes! So then, when he ascended to make his profession, and all recognized him, they whispered his name one to the other, with a tone of congratulation. And who was there among them that did not know him? And there ran through the mouths of all the rejoicing mult.i.tude a low murmur: Victorinus!

Victorinus! Sudden was the burst of exultation at the sight of him, and as sudden the hush of attention that they might hear him. He p.r.o.nounced the true faith with an excellent confidence, and all desired to take him to their hearts, and by their love and joy they did take him to them; such were the hands with which they took him.

82. Augustines Life and Place in the Western Church

Aurelius Augustinus, the greatest of the Latin fathers, was born 354, at Tagaste, in Numidia. He was educated to be a teacher of rhetoric, and practised his profession at Carthage, Rome, and Milan. From 374 to 383, he was a Manichan catechumen, for although his mother, Monnica, was a Christian, his religious education had been very meagre, and he was repelled by the literary character of the Scriptures as commonly interpreted. In 387, after a long struggle, and pa.s.sing through various schools of thought, he, with his son Adeodatus, were baptized at Milan by Ambrose. In 391 he became a presbyter, and in 394 bishop of Hippo Regius, a small town in North Africa. He died 430, during the Vandal invasion. Of his works, the _Confessions_ are the most widely known, as they have become a Christian cla.s.sic of edification of the first rank. They give an account of his early life and conversion, but are more useful as showing his type of piety than as a biography. From them is learned the secret of his influence upon the Western world. The literary activity of Augustine was especially developed in connection with the prolonged controversies, in which he was engaged throughout his episcopate (see 83, 84), but he wrote much in addition to controversial treatises. The group of characteristic doctrines known as Augustinianism, viz.: Original Sin, Predestination, and Grace and the doctrines connected with them, were, to a large extent, the outcome of his own religious experience. He had known the power and depth of sin. He had discovered the hand of G.o.d leading him in spite of himself. He knew that his conversion was due, not to his own effort or merit, but to G.o.ds grace.

The works of Augustine have been translated in part in PNF, ser. I, vols.

I-VIII. There are many translations of the _Confessions_; among others, one by E. B. Pusey, in Library of the Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, reprinted in Everymans Library.

(_a_) Augustine, _Confessiones_, VIII, 12. (MSL, 32:761.)

The conversion of Augustine.

This is, perhaps, the most famous pa.s.sage in the _Confessions_. It came at the end of a long series of attempts to find peace in various forms of philosophy and religion. Augustine regarded it as miraculous, the crown and proof of the work of grace in him. The scene was in Milan, 387, in the garden of the villa he occupied with his friend Alypius. The princ.i.p.al obstacle to his embracing Christianity was his reluctance to abandon his licentious life. To this the reference is made in the pa.s.sage from Scripture which he read, _i.e._, Rom. 13:13, 14.

When a profound reflection had, from the depths of my soul, drawn together and heaped up all my misery before the sight of my heart, there arose a mighty storm, accompanied by as mighty a shower of tears. That I might pour it all forth in its own words I arose from beside Alypius; for solitude suggested itself to me as fitter for the business of weeping. So I retired to such a distance that even his presence could not be oppressive to me. Thus it was with me at that time, and he perceived it; for something, I believe, I had spoken, wherein the sound of my voice appeared choked with weeping, and thus I had risen up. He then remained where we had been sitting, very greatly astonished. I flung myself down, I know not how, under a certain fig-tree, giving free course to my tears, and the streams of my eyes gushed out, an acceptable sacrifice unto Thee.

And not indeed in these words, yet to this effect, spake I much unto TheeBut Thou, O Lord, how long? [Psalm 13:1]. How long, Lord? Wilt Thou be angry forever? Oh, remember not against us former iniquities [Psalm 79:5, 8]; for I felt that I was held fast by them. I sent up these sorrowful cries: How long, how long? To-morrow, and to-morrow? Why not now? Why is there not this hour an end to my uncleanness?

I was saying these things and was weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo, I hear the voice as of a boy or girl, I know not which, coming from a neighboring house, chanting and oft repeating: Take up and read; take up and read. Immediately my countenance was changed, and I began most earnestly to consider whether it was usual for children in any kind of game to sing such words; nor could I remember ever to have heard the like anywhere. So, restraining the torrent of my tears, I rose up, interpreting it in no other way than as a command to me from Heaven to open the book and read the first chapter I should light upon. For I had heard of Anthony [see also 77, _e_], that accidentally coming in whilst the Gospel was being read, he received the admonition as if what was read was addressed to him: Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me [Matt.

19:21]. And by such oracle was he forthwith converted unto Thee. So quickly I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting; for there had I put down the volume of the Apostles, when I rose thence. I seized, I opened, and in silence I read that paragraph on which my eye first fell: Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the l.u.s.ts thereof [Rom. 13:13, 14]. No further would I read; there was no need; for instantly, as the sentence ended, by a light, as it were, of security infused into my heart, all the gloom of doubt vanished away.

Closing the book, then, and putting either my finger between, or some other mark, I now with a tranquil countenance made it known to Alypius.

And he thus disclosed to me what was wrong in him, which I knew not. He asked to look at what I had read. I showed him; and he looked even further than I had read, and I knew not what followed. This, in fact, followed: Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye [Rom. 14:1]; which he applied to himself, and discovered to me. By this admonition was he strengthened; and by a good resolution and purpose, very much in accord with his character (wherein, for the better, he was always far different from me), without any restless delay he joined me. Thence we go to my mother. We tell hershe rejoices. We relate how it came to pa.s.sshe exults and triumphs, and she blesses Thee, who art able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think [Eph. 3:20]; for she perceived Thee to have given her more for me than she used to ask by her pitiful and most doleful groanings. For Thou didst so convert me unto Thyself, that I sought neither a wife, nor any other hope of this worldstanding in that rule of faith in which Thou, so many years before, had showed me unto her.

And thou didst turn her grief unto gladness [Psalm 30:11], much more plentiful than she had desired, and much dearer and chaster than she used to crave, by having grandchildren of my flesh.

(_b_) Augustine, _Confessiones_, X, 27, 29, 43. (MSL, 32:795, 796, 808.)

The following pa.s.sages from the _Confessions_ are intended to ill.u.s.trate Augustines type of piety.

Ch. 29. My whole hope is only in Thy exceeding great mercy. Give what Thou commandest and command what Thou wilt.(167) Thou imposest continency upon us. And when I perceived, saith one, that no one could be continent except G.o.d gave it; and this was a point of wisdom also to know whose this gift was [Wis. 8:21]. For by continency are we bound up and brought into one, whence we were scattered abroad into many. For he loves Thee too little, who besides Thee loves aught which he loves not for Thee. O love, who ever burnest and art never quenched! O charity, my G.o.d, kindle me!

Thou commandest continency; give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.

Ch. 27. Too late have I loved Thee, O fairness, so ancient, yet so new!

Too late have I loved Thee. For behold Thou wast within and I was without, and I was seeking Thee there; I, without love, rushed heedlessly among the things of beauty Thou madest. Thou wast with me, but I was not with Thee.

Those things kept me far from Thee, which, unless they were in Thee, were not. Thou didst call and cry aloud, and Thou broke through my deafness.

Thou didst gleam and shine and chase away my blindness. Thou didst exhale fragrance and I drew in my breath and I panted for Thee. I tasted, and did hunger and thirst. Thou didst touch me, and I burned for Thy peace.

Ch. 43. O how Thou hast loved us, O good Father, who sparedst not thine only Son, but didst deliver Him up for us wicked ones! [Rom. 8:32.] O how Thou hast loved us, for whom He, who thought it not robbery to be equal with Thee, became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross [Phil. 2:8]. He alone, free among the dead [Psalm 88:5], that had power to lay down His life, and power to take it again [John 10:18]; for us was He unto Thee both victor and the victim, and the victor became the victim; for He was unto Thee both priest and sacrifice, and priest because sacrifice; making us from being slaves to become Thy sons, by being born of Thee, and by serving us. Rightly, then, is my strong hope in Him, because Thou didst cure all my diseases by Him who sitteth at Thy right hand and maketh intercession for us [Rom. 8:34]; else should I utterly despair. For numerous and great are my infirmities, yea numerous and great are they; but Thy medicine is greater. We might think that Thy word was removed from union with man and despair of ourselves had not He been made flesh and dwelt among us [John 1:14].

(_c_) Augustine, _De Civitate Dei_, XIII, 3, 14. (MSL, 41:378; 86.)

The Fall of Man and Original Sin.

The _City of G.o.d_ is Augustines great theodicy, apology, and philosophy of universal history. It was begun shortly after the capture of Rome, and the author was engaged upon it from 413 to 426. It was the source whence the medival ecclesiastics drew their theoretical justification for the curialistic principles of the relation of State and Church, and at the same time the one work of St. Augustine that Gibbon the historian regarded highly.

For an a.n.a.lysis see Presense, art. Augustine in DCB.

Compare the position of Augustine with the following pa.s.sage from St. Ambrose, _On the Death of Satyrus_, II, 6, Death is alike to all, without difference for the poor, without exception for the rich. And so although through the sin of one alone, yet it pa.s.sed upon all; In Adam I fell, in Adam I was cast out of paradise. In Adam I died; how shall the Lord call me back, except He find me in Adam; guilty as I was in him, so now justified in Christ. [MSL, 16:1374.]

The first men would not have suffered death if they had not sinned. But having become sinners they were so punished with death, that whatsoever sprang from their stock should also be punished with the same death. For nothing else could be born of them than what they themselves had been. The condemnation changed their nature for the worse in proportion to the greatness of their sin, so that what was before as punishment in the man who had first sinned, followed as of nature in others who were born. In the first man, therefore, the whole human nature was to be transmitted by the woman to posterity when that conjugal union received the divine sentence of its own condemnation; and what man was made, not when he was created but when he sinned, and was punished, this he propagated, so far as the origin of sin and death are concerned.

Ch. 14. For G.o.d, the author of natures, not of vices, created man upright; but man, being by his own will corrupt and justly condemned, begot corrupted and condemned children. For we were all in that one man when we were all that one man, who fell into sin by the woman who had been made from him before the sin. For not yet was the particular form created and distributed to us, in which we as individuals were to live; but already the seminal nature was there from which we were to be propagated; and this being vitiated by sin, and bound by the chain of death, and justly condemned, man could not be born of man in any other state. And thus from the bad use of free will, there originated a whole series of evils, which with its train of miseries conducts the human race from its depraved origin, as from a corrupt root, on to the destruction of the second death, which has no end, those only being excepted who are freed by the grace of G.o.d.

(_d_) Augustine, _De Correptione et Gratia_, 2. (MSL, 44:917.)

Grace and Free Will.

Now the Lord not only shows us what evil we should shun, and what good we should do, which is all the letter of the law can do; but moreover He helps us that we may shun evil and do good [Psalm 37:27], which none can do without the spirit of grace; and if this be wanting, the law is present merely to make us guilty and to slay us. It is on this account that the Apostle says: The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life [II Cor.

3:6]. He, then, who lawfully uses the law, learns therein evil and good, and not trusting in his own strength, flees to grace, by the help of which he may shun evil and do good. But who flees to grace except when the steps of a man are ordered by the Lord, and He wills his ways? [Psalm 37:23.] And thus also to desire the help of grace is the beginning of grace. It is to be confessed, therefore, that we have free choice to do both evil and good; but in doing evil every one is free from righteousness and is a servant of sin, while in doing good no one can be free, unless he have been made free by Him who said: If the Son shall make you free, then you shall be free indeed [John 8:36]. Neither is it thus, that when any one shall have been made free from the dominion of sin, he no longer needs the help of his Deliverer; but rather thus, that hearing from Him, Without me ye can do nothing [John 15:5], he himself also says to Him: Be Thou my helper! Forsake me not!

(_e_) Augustine, _De Civitate Dei_, XV, 1. (MSL, 41:437.)

Predestination.

Inasmuch as all men are born condemned, and of themselves have not the power to turn to grace, which alone can save them, it follows that the bestowal of grace whereby they may turn is not dependent upon the man but upon G.o.ds sovereign good pleasure. This is expressed in the doctrine of Predestination. For a discussion of the position of Augustine respecting Predestination and his other doctrines as connected with it, see J. B. Mozley, _A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of Predestination_, 1873, a book of great ability. _Cf._ also Tixeront, _History of Dogmas_, vol. II.