AUGUSTINUS

AUGUSTINUS

217

and by means of evil spirits, darkness has in-vaded light: out of that twofold element theworld has been formed. Jesus Christ and theParaclete came from the sun, to teach us how weshould cast aside the principle of night. Thisprinciple being assimilated by the Manichaeansto matter, the result was the encouragement ofAsceticism, and then, by a natural reaction, theindulgence of licentiousness. [Makichaeism.]Augustine embraced the Manichaean heresy atthe age of 19, a.d. 373, and for the space ofnine years was more or less under its influence(Confess, iii. 11, iv. 1).

From Manichaeism, Augustine went over toNeo-Platonism, and he was right in congratu-lating himself on the change ( Confess . viii. 10).This system of philosophy may be considered asa desperate attempt made by Hellenism to springinto new life, through an association with themysticism of the Hindus. It was far superior toGnosis. The Neo-Platonists did not aim at anembodiment of Christianity: on the contrary,they attacked it, but at the same time they bor-rowed from it many of its doctrines. They, too,spoke of union with God; but that union wasabsorption ; the annihilation of the creature lordin the contemplation of the sole and sovereignBeing. The ecstacy of Neo-Platonism was anexact transcript of Brahminical asceticism. Al-though St. Augustine could not find a resting-place in such a system, yet he derived some ad-vantage from his acquaintance with it. Whilstponderiug the impersonal Logos of Philo andPlotinus, he gradually rose to an ideal whichconnected itself with the reminiscences of hischildhood, and, thus prepared, he returned to theperusal of the Holy Scriptures. But the hour ofdeliverance had not yet struck; and all thosediligent studies were doomed to remain barrenuntil Augustine had taken a final leave of thedissipations of his youth. From Carthage hewent to Tagaste, where he gave lectures onrhetoric; but he soon returned to the metro-polis of proconsular Africa ( Confess . iv. 7).While teaching at Carthage he published hisfirst work in his twenty-seventh year, entitledVe Apto et Pulchro, which he dedicated toHierius, a Homan orator, known to him only byhis high reputation. This work is now lost;and indeed the author himself seems to havebeen singularly careless about it, for when hewrote his Confessions he had lost sight of italtogether, and says he docs not rememberwhether it was in two or three books. It wasat Tagaste that he became acquainted withAlypius, who after being his pupil soon provedto be his dearest friend ( Confess . vi. 6). FromCarthage Augustine went to Rome in 383 withthe view of finding a stage more worthy of histalents as a teacher of rhetoric; but his hopesof glory were blighted, and he almost suc-cumbed to a violent illness. Not long after-wards Monnica, whom his departure fromAfrica had well nigh driven to despair,joined him at Milan (385), where he expecteda high position as a public teacher. The sightof Ambrose, conspicuous by his austerity, and bythe stamp of power and greatness visible in hisperson and in his eloquence, impressed Augustinein the strongest manner. He was never wearyof listening to the Bishop of Milan, who seemedlike a Christian tribune of the people, preserving

in the religion of Christ the masculine vigour ofthe old Roman nationality. “ He received melike a true father,” says Augustine ( Confess . v.

13) . “ Touched by his eloquence, my heart openeditself to the truth of what he said” ( Confess . v.

14) . The life of the Bishop of Milan spoke, how-ever, more clearly than the sermons which hepreached. Augustine resumed with profit thestudy of the Holy Scriptures ; he had a kind offoretaste of the beauty and majesty of his mo-ther’s religion; he was drawn towards it, andalmost won over to it. If conversion had notyet come, it was because he had not yet learutto be subdued. The difficulties which stoppedhim seemed solely of an intellectual kind; butthey were really moral ones; he did not believe,because he would not believe; and if he wouldnot, it was because he felt at what cost he mustfollow Christ. He still kept dragging along thechain of guilt, and, in order to deceive himself,he opposed to the Gospel objections of a meta-physical kind. Meanwhile the call from aboveresounded with increasing strength: Augustinewas at the same time roused and irritated, at-tracted and repelled. At last a violent crisiscame, a struggle even unto blood, which he hashimself described to us with sincere and impas-sioned eloquence ( Confess . viii. 7, 8).

Scarcely was Augustine converted than he re-tired into solitude, the better to prepare himselffor his baptism, which took place at Milan on the25th of April, 387. He was then 33 years of age.His friend Alypius, and his son Adeodatus, themonument of his sins and of the grace of God,were baptized at the same time. On his wayback to Africa with Monnica, he had the griefof seeing her die at Ostia; yet he felt that heenjoyed, through the Lord, closer communionwith her whom he had lost, than he had everdone in the stormy days of his youth ( Confess .ix. 11). At last he landed on that African soilwhere he was to display as much zeal in theservice of God as he had before shown ardourin the pursuit of folly: a successor of Tertullinnand of Cyprian, he was to surpass his illus-trious forerunners both by his activity and by hisgenius; though, on returning to Africa, he hadno other thought than that of burying himselfin retirement from the world.

Augustine spent a few years in his nativetown, Tagaste, where with some friends heformed a kind of holy community, living almostafter the fashion of Coenobites, on an estatejointly belonging to them (August. Epist. 225).It was then that he had the joy of leading toChrist, by his letters, Nebndius, one of thedearest friends of his youth, who died shortlyafter his baptism ( Confess . ix. 3). Augustine’sworks on Genesis , on True Religion , and on Music ,belong to this epoch (August. Vita Possid. 3).In 391 he went to Hippo on a visit to the im-perial commissioner, a friend of his ( Vita Possid.3); the bishop, Valerius, prevailed upon him tostay, ordained him a priest (Vita Possid. 4),sought his help and his advice in every businessconcerning the Church, and made him his col-league or associate in the episcopate in 395.He then entered upon a career of labour andof struggles when all his qualities shone forth.The illustrious Christian was also a distin-guished prelate: he retained all the austerehabits of an ascetic, in a position which ini-