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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9069-8.txt b/9069-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b326f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/9069-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10060 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Saint Augustin, by Louis Bertrand + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: Saint Augustin + +Author: Louis Bertrand + +Posting Date: September 25, 2014 [EBook #9069] +Release Date: October, 2005 +First Posted: September 2, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAINT AUGUSTIN *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldorondo, Tiffany Vergon, William +Flis, and Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + + +SAINT AUGUSTIN + +BY + +LOUIS BERTRAND + + +TRANSLATED BY VINCENT O'SULLIVAN + + + + +TRANSLATOR'S NOTE + + +The quotations from Saint Augustin's _Confessions_ are taken from Canon +Bigg's scholarly version, which seems to me the best in English. But there +are places where M. Bertrand's reading of the original text differs from +Dr. Bigg's, and in such cases I have felt myself obliged to follow the +author of this book. These differences never seriously affect the meaning +of a passage; sometimes it is a mere matter of choice, as with the word +_collactaneum_ (i, 7) which Dr. Bigg translates "twin," and M. Bertrand, +like Pusey, _frère de lait_, or "foster-brother." As a rule, Dr. Bigg +chooses the quietest terms, and M. Bertrand the most forcible. Those +curious in such matters may like to see an instance. + +The original text runs:-- + + Avulsa a latere meo tanquam impedimento conjugii, cum quâ cubare + solitus eram, cor ubi adhaerebat, concisum et vulneratum mihi erat, et + trahebat sanguinem. + + (_Confessiones_, vi, 15.) + +M. Bertrand translates:-- + + Quand on arracha de mes flancs, sous prétexte qu'elle empêchait mon + mariage, celle avec qui j'avais coutume de dormir, depuis si longtemps, + là où mon coeur était attaché au sien, il se déchira, et je traînais + mon sang avec ma blessure. + +Canon Bigg's version is:-- + + My mistress was torn from my side as an obstacle to my marriage, and my + heart, which clung to her, was torn and wounded till it bled. + +In this place, it will be observed that Dr. Bigg does not emphasize the +word _ubi_ which, as the reader will find on turning to page 185 of this +volume, M. Bertrand thinks so significant. + +The remaining English versions of the writings of Saint Augustin and of the +other Latin authors quoted are my own, except the passages from _The City +of God_, including the verse translation of Persius, which are taken, +with some necessary alterations, from the Seventeenth century translation +ascribed to John Healey. + +V. O'S. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + PROLOGUE + + + THE FIRST PART + + DAYS OF CHILDHOOD + + I. AN AFRICAN FREE-TOWN SUBJECT TO ROME + + II. THE FAMILY OF A SAINT + + III. THE COMFORT OF THE MILK + + IV. THE FIRST GAMES + + V. THE SCHOOLBOY OF MADAURA + + VI. THE HOLIDAYS AT THAGASTE + + + THE SECOND PART + + THE ENCHANTMENT OF CARTHAGE + + I. CARTHAGO VENERIS + + II. THE AFRICAN ROME + + III. THE CARTHAGE STUDENT + + IV. THE SWEETNESS OF TEARS + + V. THE SILENCE OF GOD + + + THE THIRD PART + + THE RETURN + + I. THE CITY OF GOLD + + II. THE FINAL DISILLUSION + + III. THE MEETING BETWEEN AMBROSE AND AUGUSTIN + + IV. PLANS OF MARRIAGE + + V. THE CHRIST IN THE GARDEN + + + THE FOURTH PART + + THE HIDDEN LIFE + + I. THE LAST SMILE OF THE MUSE + + II. THE ECSTASY OF SAINT MONNICA + + III. THE MONK OF THAGASTE + + IV. AUGUSTIN A PRIEST + + + THE FIFTH PART + + THE APOSTLE OF PEACE AND OF CATHOLIC UNITY + + I. THE BISHOP OF HIPPO + + II. WHAT WAS HEARD IN THE BASILICA OF PEACE + + III. THE BISHOP'S BURTHEN + + IV. AGAINST "THE ROARING LIONS" + + + THE SIXTH PART + + FACE TO FACE WITH THE BARBARIANS + + I. THE SACK OF ROME + + II. THE CITY OF GOD + + III. THE BARBARIAN DESOLATION + + IV. SAINT AUGUSTIN + + + INDEX + + + + +SAINT AUGUSTIN + + + + +PROLOGUE + + + Inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te. + "Our heart finds no rest until it rests in Thee." + + _Confessions_, I, i. + + +Saint Augustin is now little more than a celebrated name. Outside of +learned or theological circles people no longer read him. Such is true +renown: we admire the saints, as we do great men, on trust. Even his +_Confessions_ are generally spoken of only from hearsay. By this neglect, +is he atoning for the renewal of glory in which he shone during the +seventeenth century, when the Jansenists, in their inveterate obstinacy, +identified him with the defence of their cause? The reputation of sour +austerity and of argumentative and tiresome prolixity which attaches to +the remembrance of all the writers of Port-Royal, save Pascal--has that +affected too the work of Augustin, enlisted in spite of himself in the +ranks of these pious schismatics? And yet, if there have ever been any +beings who do not resemble Augustin, and whom probably he would have +attacked with all his eloquence and all the force of his dialectic, they +are the Jansenists. Doubtless he would have said with contempt: "The party +of Jansen," even as in his own day, with his devotion to Catholic unity, he +said: "The party of Donatus." + +It must be acknowledged also that the very sight of his works is +terrifying, whether we take the enormous folios in two columns of the +Benedictine edition, or the volumes, almost as compact, and much more +numerous, of recent editions. Behind such a rampart of printed matter he is +well defended against profane curiosity. It needs courage and perseverance +to penetrate into this labyrinth of text, all bristling with theology and +exegesis and metaphysics. But only cross the threshold of the repellent +enclosure, grow used to the order and shape of the building, and it will +not be long ere you are overcome by a warm sympathy, and then by a steadily +increasing admiration for the host who dwells there. The hieratic face +of the old bishop lights up, becomes strangely living, almost modern, in +expression. You discover under the text one of the most passionate lives, +most busy and richest in instruction, that history has to shew. What it +teaches is applicable to ourselves, answers to our interests of yesterday +and to-day. This existence, and the century in which it was passed, recall +our own century and ourselves. The return of similar circumstances has +brought similar situations and characters; it is almost our portrait. And +we feel half ready to conclude that at the present moment there is no +subject more actual than St. Augustin. + +At least he is one of the most interesting. What, indeed, is more romantic +than this wandering life of rhetorician and student that the youthful +Augustin led, from Thagaste to Carthage, from Carthage to Milan and to +Rome--begun in the pleasures and tumult of great cities, and ending in the +penitence, the silence, and recollection of a monastery? And again, what +drama is more full of colour and more profitable to consider than that last +agony of the Empire, of which Augustin was a spectator, and, with all his +heart faithful to Rome, would have prevented if he could? And then, what +tragedy more stirring and painful than the crisis of soul and conscience +which tore his life? Well may it be said that, regarded as a whole, the +life of Augustin was but a continual spiritual struggle, a battle of the +soul. It is the battle of every moment, the never-ceasing combat of body +and spirit, which the poets of that time dramatized, and which is the +history of the Christian of all times. The stake of the battle is a soul. +The upshot is the final triumph, the redemption of a soul. + +What makes the life of Augustin so complete and so truly typical is that +he fought the good fight, not only against himself, but against all the +enemies of the Church and the Empire. If he was a doctor and a saint, so +was he too the type of the man of action in one of the most disheartened +periods. That he triumphed over his passions--this, in truth, concerns only +God and himself. That he preached, wrote, shook crowds, disturbed minds, +may seem without importance to those who reject his doctrine. But that +across the centuries his soul, afire with charity, continues to warm our +own; that without our knowledge he still shapes us; and that, in a way +more or less remote, he is still the master of our hearts, and, in certain +aspects, of our minds--there is what touches each and all of us, without +distinction. Not only has Augustin always his great place in the living +communion of all christened people, but the Western soul is marked with the +stamp of his soul. + +First of all, his fate is confused with that of the dying Empire. He +witnessed, if not the utter disappearance, at least the gradual swooning +away of that admirable thing called the Roman Empire, image of Catholic +unity. Well, we are the wreckage of the Empire. Usually, we turn away with +contempt from those wretched centuries which underwent the descents of the +Barbarians. For us, that is the Lower-Empire, a time of shameful decadence +which deserves nothing but our scorn. However, it is out of this chaos +and this degradation that we have arisen. The wars of the Roman republic +concern us less than the outlawry of the Barbarian chiefs who separated our +Gaul from the Empire, and without knowing it, prepared the dawn of France. +After all, what are the rivalries of Marius and Sylla to us? The victory of +Aëtius over the Huns in the plains of Chalons concerns us a good deal more. +Further, it is unfair to the Lower-Empire to view it only as a time of +feebleness and cowardice and corruption. It was also an epoch of immense +activity, prolific of daring and high-flying adventurers, some of them +heroic. Even the most degenerate of the last Emperors never lost the +conviction of Roman majesty and grandeur. Unto the very end, they employed +all the ruses of their diplomacy to prevent the Barbarian chiefs from +imagining themselves anything else but vassals of the Empire. Honorius, at +bay in Ravenna, persisted in refusing Alaric the title of commander of the +_Cohortes Urbanæ_, even though his refusal were to lead to the sack of Rome +and imperil his own life. + +Simply by his fidelity to the Empire, Augustin shews himself one like +ourselves--a Latin of Occitania. But still closer resemblances draw him +near to us. His time was very like our own time. Upon even a slight +familiarity with his books we recognize in him a brother-soul who has +suffered, felt, thought, pretty nearly like us. He came into an ending +world, on the eve of the great cataclysm which was going to carry away an +entire civilization--a tragic turning-point of history, a time troubled and +often very grievous, which was hard to live in for all, and to even the +most determined minds must have appeared desperate. The peace of the Church +was not yet settled; consciences were divided. People hesitated between the +belief of yesterday and the belief of to-morrow. Augustin was among those +who had the courage to choose, and who, having once chosen their faith, +proclaimed it without weakening. The belief of a thousand years was dying +out, quenched by a young belief to which was promised an eternal duration. +How many delicate souls must have suffered from this division, which cut +them off from their traditions and obliged them, as they thought, to be +false to their dead along with the religion of their ancestors! All the +irritations which the fanatics of to-day inflict upon believing souls, many +must have had to suffer then. The sceptics were infused by the intolerance +of the others. But the worst (even as it is to-day) was to watch the +torrent of foolishness which, under cover of religion, philosophy, or +miracle-working, pretended to the conquest of mind and will. Amid this mass +of wildest doctrines and heresies, in this orgy of vapid intellectualism, +they had indeed solid heads who were able to resist the general +intoxication. And among all these people talking nonsense, Augustin appears +admirable with his good sense. + +This "intellectual," this mystic, was not only a man of prayer and +meditation. The prudence of the man of action and the administrator +balanced his outbursts of dialectical subtility, often carried too far. He +had that sense of realities such as we flatter ourselves that we have; he +had a knowledge of life and passion. Compared to the experience of, say, +Bossuet, how much wider was Augustin's! And with all that, a quivering +sensitiveness which is again like our own--the sensitiveness of times of +intense culture, wherein the abuse of thought has multiplied the ways of +suffering in exasperating the desire for pleasure. "The soul of antiquity +was rude and vain." It was, above all, limited. The soul of Augustin is +tender and serious, eager for certainties and those enjoyments which do +not betray. It is vast and sonorous; let it be stirred ever so little, and +from it go forth deep vibrations which render the sound of the infinite. +Augustin, before his conversion, had the apprehensions of our Romantics, +the causeless melancholy and sadness, the immense yearnings for "anywhere +but here," which overwhelmed our fathers. He is really very close to us. + +He has broadened our Latin souls by reconciling us with the Barbarian. The +Latin, like the Greek, only understood himself. The Barbarian had not the +right to express himself in the language of the Empire. The world was split +into two parts which endeavoured to ignore each other, Augustin has made us +conscious of the nameless regions, the vague countries of the soul, which +hitherto had lain shrouded in the darkness of barbarism. By him the union +of the Semitic and the Occidental genius is consummated. He has acted as +our interpreter for the Bible. The harsh Hebraic words become soft to our +ears by their passage through the cultivated mouth of the rhetorician. He +has subjugated us with the word of God. He is a Latin who speaks to us of +Jehovah. + +Others, no doubt, had done it before him. But none had found a similar +emotion, a note of tenderness so moving. The gentle violence of his charity +wins the adherence of hearts. He breathes only charity. After St. John, it +is he who is the Apostle of Love. + +His tireless voice dominated the whole of the West. The Middle Ages still +heard it. For centuries his sermons and treatises were copied over and +over again; they were repeated in cathedrals, commented in abstracts of +theology. People came to accept even his theory of the fine arts. All that +we have inherited from the ancients reaches us through Augustin. He is the +great teacher. In his hands the doctrinal demonstration of the Catholic +religion takes firm shape. To indicate the three great stages of the onward +march of the truth, one may say: Jesus Christ, St. Paul, St. Augustin. +Nearest to our weakness is the last. He is truly our spiritual father. He +has taught us the language of prayer. The words of Augustin's prayers are +still upon the lips of the devout. + +This universal genius, who during forty years was the speaking-trumpet of +Christendom, was also the man of one special century and country. Augustin +of Thagaste is the great African. + +Well may we be proud of him and adopt him as one of our glories--we who +have kept up, for now almost a century, a struggle like to that which +he maintained for the unity of the Roman Empire, we who consider Africa +as an extension of France. More than any other writer, he has expressed +the temperament and the genius of his country. This motley Africa, with +its eternal mixture of races at odds with one another, its jealous +sectarianism, the variety of its scenery and climate, the violence +of its sensations and passions, its seriousness of character and its +quick-changing humour, its mind at once practical and frivolous, its +materialism and its mysticism, its austerity and its luxury, its +resignation to servitude and its instincts of independence, its hunger +to rule--all that comes out with singularly vivid touches in the work of +Augustin. Not only was he his country's voice, but, as far as he could, he +realized its old dream of dominion. The supremacy in spiritual matters that +Carthage disputed so long and bitterly with Rome, it ended by obtaining, +thanks to Augustin. As long as he lived, the African Church was the +mistress of the Churches of the West. + +As for me--if I may venture to refer to myself in such a matter--I have had +the joy to recognize in him, besides the Saint and Teacher whom I revere, +the ideal type of the Latin of Africa. The image of which I descried the +outline long ago through the mirages of the South in following the waggons +of my rugged heroes, I have seen at last become definite, grow clear, wax +noble and increase to the very heaven, in following the traces of Augustin. + +And even supposing that the life of this child of Thagaste, the son of +Monnica, were not intermingled so deeply with ours, though he were for us +only a foreigner born in a far-off land, nevertheless he would still remain +one of the most fascinating and luminous souls who have shone amid our +darkness and warmed our sadness--one of the most human and most divine +creatures who have trod our highways. + + + + +THE FIRST PART + +DAYS OF CHILDHOOD + + Sed delectabat ludere. + "Only, I liked to play." + + _Confessions_, I, 9. + + + + +I + +AN AFRICAN FREE-TOWN SUBJECT TO ROME + + +Little streets, quite white, which climb up to clay-formed hills deeply +furrowed by the heavy winter rains; between the double row of houses, +brilliant in the morning sun, glimpses of sky of a very tender blue; here +and there, in the strip of deep shade which lies along the thresholds, +white figures crouched upon rush-mats--indolent outlines, draped with +bright colours, or muffled in rough and sombre wool-stuffs; a horseman who +passes, bent almost in two in his saddle, the big hat of the South flung +back over his shoulders, and encouraging with his heel the graceful trot of +his horse--such is Thagaste as we see it to-day, and such undoubtedly it +appeared to the traveller in the days of Augustin. + +Like the French town built upon its ruins, the African free-city lay in a +sort of plain taken between three round hills. One of them, the highest +one, which is now protected by a _bordj_, must have been defended in old +days by a _castellum_. Full-flowing waters moisten the land. To those +coming from the stony regions about Constantine and Setif, or the vast bare +plain of the Medjerda, Thagaste gives an impression of freshness and cool. +It is a laughing place, full of greenery and running water. To the Africans +it offers a picture of those northern countries which they have never seen, +with its wooded mountains covered by pines and cork trees and ilex. It +presents itself as a land of mountain and forest--especially forest. It is +a hunter's country. Game is plentiful there--boar, hare, redwing, quail, +partridge. In Augustin's time, wild beasts were apparently more numerous in +the district than they are to-day. When he compares his adversaries, the +Donatists, to roaring lions, he speaks like a man who knows what a lion is. + +To the east and west, wide stretches of woodland, rounded hill-summits, +streams and torrents which pour through the valleys and glens--there +you have Thagaste and the country round about--the world, in fact, as +it revealed itself to the eyes of the child Augustin. But towards the +south the verdure grows sparse; arid mountain-tops appear, crushed down +as blunted cones, or jutted in slim Tables of the Law; the sterility +of the desert becomes perceptible amid the wealth of vegetation. This +full-foliaged land has its harsh and stern localities. The African light, +however, softens all that. The deep green of the oaks and pines runs into +waves of warm and ever-altering tints which are a caress and a delight for +the eye. A man has it thoroughly brought home to him that he is in a land +of the sun. + +To say the least, it is a country of strongly marked features which affords +the strangest contrast with the surrounding districts. This wooded Numidia, +with its flowing brooks, its fields where the cattle graze, differs in the +highest degree from the Numidia towards Setif--a wide, desolate plain, +where the stubble of the wheat-fields, the sandy _steppes_, roll away in +monotonous undulations to the cloudy barrier of Mount Atlas which closes +the horizon. And this rough and melancholy plain in its turn offers a +striking contrast with the coast region of Boujeiah and Hippo, which is not +unlike the Italian Campania in its mellowness and gaiety. Such clear-cut +differences between the various parts of the same province doubtless +explain the essential peculiarities of the Numidian character. The bishop +Augustin, who carried his pastoral cross from one end to the other of this +country, and was its acting and thinking soul, may perhaps have owed to it +the contrasts and many-sidedness of his own rich nature. + +Of course, Thagaste did not pretend to be a capital. It was a free-town of +the second or third order; but its distance from the great centres gave it +a certain importance. The neighbouring free-towns, Thubursicum, Thagura, +were small. Madaura and Theveste, rather larger, had not perhaps the same +commercial importance. Thagaste was placed at the junction of many Roman +roads. There the little Augustin, with other children of his age, would +have a chance to admire the out-riders and equipages of the Imperial +Mail, halted before the inns of the town. What we can be sure of is that +Thagaste, then as now, was a town of passage and of traffic, a half-way +stopping-place for the southern and coast towns, as well as for those of +the Proconsulate and Numidia. And like the present Souk-Ahras, Thagaste +must have been above all a market. Bread-stuffs and Numidian wines were +bartered for the flocks of the Aures, leather, dates, and the esparto +basket-work of the regions of Sahara. The marbles of Simitthu, the +citron-wood of which they made precious tables, were doubtless handled +there. The neighbouring forests could furnish building materials to the +whole country. Thagaste was the great mart of woodland Numidia, the +warehouse and the bazaar, where to this day the nomad comes to lay in a +stock of provisions, and stares with childish delight at the fine things +produced by the inventive talent of the workers who live in towns. + +Thus images of plenty and joy surrounded the cradle of Augustin. The smile +of Latin beauty welcomed him also from his earliest steps. It is true that +Thagaste was not what is called a fine city. The fragments of antiquity +which have been unearthed there are of rather inferior workmanship. But how +little is needed to give wings to the imagination of an intelligent child! +At all events, Thagaste had a bathing-hall paved with mosaics and perhaps +ornamented with statues; Augustin used to bathe there with his father. +And again, it is probable that, like the neighbouring Thubursicum and +other free-cities of the same level, it had its theatre, its forum, its +nymph-fountains, perhaps even its amphitheatre. Of all that nothing +has been found. Certain inscribed stone tablets, capitals and shafts +of columns, a stone with an inscription which belonged to a Catholic +church--that is all which has been discovered up to this present time. + +Let us not ask for the impossible. Thagaste had columns--nay, perhaps a +whole street between a double range of columns, as at Thimgad. That would +be quite enough to delight the eyes of a little wondering boy. A column, +even injured, or scarcely cleansed from wrack and rubbish, has about it +something impressive. It is like a free melody singing among the heavy +masses of the building. To this hour, in our Algerian villages, the mere +sight of a broken column entrances and cheers us--a white ghost of beauty +streaming up from the ruins among the modern hovels. + +There were columns at Thagaste. + + + + +II + +THE FAMILY OF A SAINT + + +It was in this pleasant little town, shaded and beautified for many years +now by the arts of Rome, that the parents of Augustin lived. + +His father, Patricius, affords us a good enough type of the Romanized +African. He belonged to the order of _Decuriones_, to the "very brilliant +urban council of Thagaste" (_splendidissimus ordo Thagastensis_), as an +inscription at Souk-Ahras puts it. Although these strong epithets may be +said to be part of the ordinary official phraseology, they indicate, just +the same, the importance which went with such a position. In his township, +Patricius was a kind of personage. His son assures us that he was poor, but +we may suspect the holy bishop of exaggerating through Christian humility. +Patricius must certainly have owned more than twenty-five acres of land, +for this was made a condition of being elected to the _curia_. He had +vineyards and orchards, of which Augustin later on recalled the plentiful +and sweet-tasting fruits. In short, he lived in considerable style. It +is true that in Africa household expenses have never at any time been a +great extravagance. Still, the sons of Patricius had a pedagogue, a slave +specially engaged to keep them under his eye, like all the children of +families comfortably off. + +It has been said that as Augustin's father was a member of the _curia_, +he must have been a ruined man. The Decurions, who levied taxes and made +themselves responsible for their collection, were obliged to supply any +deficiency in the revenue out of their own money. Patricius, it is thought, +must have been one of the numerous victims of this disastrous system. But +no doubt there were a good many exceptions. Besides, there is nothing in +Augustin's reminiscences which authorizes us to believe that his father +ever knew embarrassment, to say nothing of actual poverty. What seems by +far the most probable is that he lived as well as he could upon the income +of his estate as a small country landowner. In Africa people are satisfied +with very little. Save for an unusually bad year following a time of long +drought, or a descent of locusts, the land always gives forth enough to +feed its master. + +To hunt, to ride horseback, now and then to go on parade, to look after +his small-holders and agricultural slaves, to drive one of those bargains +in which African cunning triumphs--such were the employments of Patricius. +In short, he drifted through life on his little demesne. Sometimes this +indolent man was overcome by a sudden passion for work; or again he was +seized by furious rages. He was violent and brutal. At such moments he +struck out right and left. He would even have hit his wife or flogged the +skin off her back if the quietude of this woman, her dignity and Christian +mildness, had not overawed him. Let us not judge this kind of conduct by +our own; we shall never understand it. The ancient customs, especially the +African customs, were a disconcerting mixture of intense refinement and +heedless brutality. + +That is why it will not do to exaggerate the outbursts of Patricius, which +his son mentions discreetly. Although he may not have been very faithful to +his wife, that was in those days, more than in ours, a venial sin in the +eyes of the world. At heart the African has always longed for a harem in +his house; he inclines naturally to the polygamy of Muslemism. In Carthage, +and elsewhere, public opinion was full of indulgence for the husband who +allowed himself liberties with the serving-women. People laughed at it, and +excused the man. It is true they were rather harder on the matron who took +the same kind of liberty with her men-slaves. However, that went on too. +The Bishop of Hippo, in his sermons, strongly rebuked the Christian married +couples for these frequent adulteries which were scarcely regarded as +errors. + +Patricius was a pagan, and this partly explains his laxity. It would +doubtless be going too far to say that he remained faithful to paganism +all his life. It is not likely that this urban councillor of Thagaste was +a particularly assured pagan. Speculative and intellectual considerations +made a very moderate appeal to him. He was not an arguer like his son. He +was pagan from habit, from that instinctive conservatism of the citizen +and landowner who sticks obstinately to his class and family traditions. +Prudence and diplomacy had also something to do with it. Many great +landlords continued to defend and practise paganism, probably from motives +similar to those of Patricius himself. As for him, he had no desire to get +wrong with the important and influential people of the country; he might +have need of their protection to save his small property from the ravenous +public treasury. Moreover, the best-paid posts were still controlled by the +pagan priesthood. And so Augustin's father thought himself very wise in +dealing cautiously with a religion which was always so powerful, and +rewarded its adherents so well. + +But for all that, it is undeniable that paganism about this time was in an +awkward position from a political point of view. The Government eyed it +with disapproval. Since the death of Constantine, the "accursed emperors" +had waged against it a furious war. In 353, just before the birth of +Augustin, Constantius promulgated an edict renewing the order for the +closing of the temples and the abolition of sacrifices--and that too under +pain of death and confiscation. But in distant provinces, such as Numidia, +the action of the central power was slow and irregular. It was often +represented by officials who were hostile or indifferent to Christianity. +The local aristocracy and their following scoffed at it more or less +openly. In their immense villas, behind the walls of their parks, the rich +landowners offered sacrifices and organized processions and feasts as +if there were no law at all. Patricius knew all that. And, on the other +side, he could take note of the encroachments of the new religion. During +the first half of the fourth century Thagaste had been conquered by the +Donatists. Since the edict of Constans against these schismatics, the +inhabitants of the little city had come back to Catholicism out of fear of +the severity of the imperial government. But the settlement was far from +being complete and final. As a consequence of the edict, the whole region +of the Aures had been in revolution. The Bishop of Bagai, fortified in +his episcopal city and basilica, had stood an actual siege from the Roman +troops. Almost everywhere the struggle between Donatists and Catholics +still went on below the surface. There cannot be the least doubt that +Thagaste took its share in these quarrels. To those who urged him to be +baptized, the father of Augustin might well answer with ironic politeness: +"I am only waiting till you agree among yourselves, to see where the truth +lies." In his heart this rather lukewarm pagan had no inveterate dislike to +Christianity. + +What proves it at once is that he married a Christian. + +How did Monnica become the wife of Patricius? How did these two beings, so +little alike, between whom there was such a great difference of age, not to +mention all the rest, come to join their fate? Those are questions which +it would never have occurred to the people of Thagaste to ask. Patricius +married to be like everybody else--and also because he was well over forty, +and his mother an old woman who would soon be no longer able to run his +house. + +Monnica also had her mother. The two old women had a meeting, with many +politenesses and ceremonious bowings, and because the thing appeared to +them reasonable and most suitable, they settled the marriage. Had Patricius +ever seen the girl that he was going to take, according to custom, so as to +have a child-bearer and housewife? It is quite likely he had not. Was she +pretty, rich, or poor? He considered such matters as secondary, since the +marriage was not a love-match but a traditional duty to fulfil. If the +union was respectable, that was quite enough. But however the matter fell +out, what is certain is that Monnica was very young. She was twenty-two +when Augustin was born, and he was probably not her first child. We know +that she was hardly marriageable when she was handed over, as Arab parents +do to-day with their adolescent or little girls, to the man who was going +to marry her. Now in Africa girls become marriageable at a very early age. +They are married at fourteen, sometimes even at twelve. Perhaps she was +seventeen or eighteen at most when she married Patricius. She must have had +first a son, Navigius, whom we shall meet later on at Milan, and also a +daughter, of whom we do not even know the name, but who became a nun, and +superior of a convent in the diocese of Hippo. For us the features of these +two other children of Monnica and Patricius are obliterated. They are +concealed by the radiance of their illustrious great brother. + +Monnica was fond of telling stories of her girlhood to her son. He has +handed down some of them to us. + +She was brought up strictly, according to the system of that time. Both her +parents came of families which had been Christian, and Catholic-Christian, +for many generations. They had never been carried away by the Donatist +schism; they were people very obstinate in their convictions--a character +quite as frequent in Africa as its opposite, the kind of Numidian or Moor, +who is versatile and flighty. It is not unimportant that Augustin came from +this hard-headed race, for this it was, with the aid of God's grace, that +saved him--the energetic temper of his will. + +Still, if the faith of the young Monnica was confirmed from her earliest +years, it is not so much to the lessons of her mother that she owed it, +as to the training of an old woman-servant of whom she always spoke with +gratitude. In the family of her master, this old woman had a place like the +one which to-day in a Turkish family is held by the nurse, the _dada_, who +is respected by all the harem and all the household. Doubtless she herself +was born in the house and had seen all the children born. She had carried +Monnica's father on her back when he was little, just as the Kabylian +women or the Bedouin nomads carry their babies still. She was a devoted +slave, just a bit unreasonable--a veritable housedog who in the zeal of +guardianship barks more than is necessary at the stranger who passes. She +was like the negress in the Arab houses to-day, who is often a better +Muslem, more hostile to the Christian, than her employers. The old woman +in Monnica's family had witnessed the last persecutions; she had perhaps +visited the confessors in prison; perhaps she had seen flow the blood of +the martyrs. These exciting and terrible scenes would have been graven on +her memory. What inflamed stories the old servant must have told her young +mistresses, what vital lessons of constancy and heroism! Monnica listened +to them eagerly. + +Because of her great faith, this simple slave was revered as a saint by +her owners, who entrusted her with the supervision of their daughters. She +proved a stern governess, who would stand no trifling with her rules. She +prevented these girls from drinking even water except at meals. Cruel +suffering for little Africans! Thagaste is not far from the country of +thirst. But the old woman said to them: + +"You drink water now because you can't get at the wine. In time to come, +when you are married and have bins and cellars of your own, you'll turn up +your nose at water, and your habit of drinking will be too much for you." + +Monnica came near fulfilling the prophecy of the honest woman. It was +before she was married. As she was very well-behaved and very temperate, +she used to be sent to the cellar to draw the wine from the cask. Before +pouring it into the flagon she would sip just a little. Being unaccustomed +to wine, she was not able to drink more; it was too strong for her gullet. +She did this, not because she liked the wine, but from naughtiness, to play +a trick on her parents who trusted her, and also, of course, because it was +prohibited. Each time she swallowed a little more, and so it went on till +she ended by finding it rather nice, and came to drinking greedily one +cup after another. One day a slave-girl, who went with her to the cellar, +began to grumble. Monnica gave her a sharp answer. Upon this the girl +called Monnica a drunkard.... Drunkard! This bitter taunt so humiliated the +self-respect of the future saint, that she got the better of her taste for +drink. Augustin does not say it was through piety she did this, but because +she felt the ugliness of such a vice. + +There is a certain roughness in this story of childhood, the roughness of +ancient customs, with which is always mingled some decency or dignity. +Christianity did the work of polishing the soul of Monnica. At the time we +are dealing with, if she was already a very devout young girl, she was far +as yet from being the grand Christian that she became afterwards. + +When she married Patricius she was a girl very reserved and cold to all +appearances (in reality, she was very passionate), precise in attending to +her religious duties, even a little strict, with her exaggeration of the +Christian austerity in her hate of all the brutalities and all the careless +morals that paganism condoned. Nevertheless, this rigid soul knew how to +bend when it was necessary. Monnica had tact, suppleness, and, when it +was needed, a very acute and very reasonable practical sense of which she +gave many a proof in the bringing up and management of her son Augustin. +This soul, hard for herself, veiled her uncompromising religion under an +unchangeable sweetness which was in her rather the work of grace than a +natural gift. + +There can be little doubt that her behaviour and character greatly +disturbed Patricius at the beginning of their married life. Perhaps he +regretted the marriage. What use had he for this nun alongside of him! +Both of them must have suffered the usual annoyances which always appeared +before long in unions of this kind between pagan and Christian. True, it +was no longer the time of Tertullian, the heroic century of persecutions, +when the Christian women glided into the prisons to kiss the shackles of +the martyrs. (What a revenge did woman take then for her long and enforced +confinement to the women's apartments! And how outrageous such conduct must +have seemed to a husband brought up in the Roman way!) But the practices +of the Christian life established a kind of intermittent divorce between +husbands and wives of different religion. Monnica often went out, either +alone, or accompanied by a faithful bondwoman. She had to attend the +services of the Church, to go about the town visiting the poor and giving +alms. And there were the fast-days which occurred two or three times a +week, and especially the long fast of Lent--a grievous nuisance when the +husband wanted to give a dinner-party just on those particular days! On +the vigil of festivals, Monnica would spend a good part of the night in +the Basilica. Regularly, doubtless on Sundays, she betook herself to the +cemetery, or to some chapel raised to the memory of a martyr who was often +buried there--in fact, they called these chapels "Memorials" (_memoriæ_). + +There were many of these chapels--even too many in the opinion of austere +Christians. Monnica went from one to another carrying in a large basket +made of willow branches some pieces of minced meat, bread, and wine mixed +with water. She met her friends in these places. They would sit down around +the tombs, of which some were shaped like tables, unpack the provisions, +and eat and drink piously in honour of the martyr. This was a residue +of pagan superstition among the Christians. These pious _agapæ_, or +love-feasts, often turned into disgusting orgies. When Augustin became +Bishop of Hippo he had considerable trouble to get his people out of the +habit of them. Notwithstanding his efforts, the tradition still lasts. +Every Friday the Muslem women keep up the custom of visiting the cemeteries +and the marabouts. Just as in the time of St. Monnica, they sit around the +tombs, so cool with their casing of painted tiles, in the shade of the +cypress and eucalyptus. They gobble sweetmeats, they gossip, they laugh, +they enjoy themselves--the husbands are not there. + +Monnica made these visits in a really pious state of mind, and was far +from trying to find in them opportunities for lewdness or carouse. She was +content to drink a little wine very carefully--she always bore in mind her +youthful sin. Besides, this wine weakened with water that she brought from +the house, was tepid by the time she reached the cemetery; it would be a +drink of very moderate relish, little likely to stimulate the senses. She +distributed what was left of it among the needy, together with the contents +of her basket, and came back modestly to her house. + +But however staid and reserved she might be, still these outings gave rise +to scandalous talk. They annoyed a suspicious husband. All the Africans are +that. Marital jealousy was not invented by Islam. Moreover, in Monnica's +time men and women took part in these funeral love-feasts and mingled +together disturbingly. Patricius got cross about it, and about a good many +other things too. His old mother chafed his suspicions by carrying to +him the ugly gossip and even the lies of the servants about his wife. By +dint of patience and mildness and attentions, Monnica ended by disarming +her mother-in-law and making it clear that her conduct was perfect. The +old woman flew into a rage with the servants who had lied to her, and +denounced them to her son. Patricius, like a good head of a household, had +them whipped to teach them not to lie any more. Thanks to this exemplary +punishment, and the good sense of the young wife, peace reigned once more +in the family. + +Women, friends of Monnica, were amazed that the good understanding was +not oftener upset, at least in an open manner, between husband and wife. +Everybody in Thagaste knew the quick-tempered and violent character of +Patricius. And yet there were no signs that he beat his wife. Nor did +any one say he did. Other women who had less passionate husbands were +nevertheless beaten by them. When they came to Monnica's house they shewed +her the marks of the whacks they had got, their faces swollen from blows, +and they burst out in abuse of men, clamouring against their lechery, +which, said these matrons, was the cause of the ill-treatment they had to +endure. + +"Blame your own tongue," retorted Monnica. + +According to her, women should close their eyes to the infidelities of +their husbands and avoid arguing with them when they were angry. Silence, +submissiveness, were the all-powerful arms. And since, as a young woman, +she had a certain natural merriment, she added, laughing: + +"Remember what was read to you on your wedding-day. You were told that you +are the handmaids of your husbands. Don't rebel against your masters!..." + +Possibly this was a keen criticism of the pagan code, so hard in its rules. +Still, in this matter, the Roman law was in agreement with the Gospel. +Sincere Christian as she was, the wife of Patricius never had any quarrel +with him on account of his infidelities. So much kindness and resignation +touched the dissolute and brutal husband, who besides was an excellent +man and warm-hearted. The modesty of his wife, after a while, made her +attractive in his eyes. He loved her, so to speak, on the strength of +his respect and admiration for her. He would indeed have been a churl to +find fault with a wife who interfered with him so little and who was a +perfect housekeeper, as we shall see later on when we come to her life at +Cassicium. In one point, where even she did not intend it, she forwarded +the interests of her husband by gaining him the good-will of the Christians +in Thagaste; while he, on his side, could say to the pagans who looked +askance at his marriage: "Am I not one of yourselves?" + +In spite of all the differences between him and Monnica, Patricius was a +contented husband. + + + + +III + +THE COMFORT OF THE MILK + + +Augustin came into this world the thirteenth of November of the year of +Christ 354. + +It was just one little child more in this sensual and pleasure-loving +Africa, land of sin and of carnal productiveness, where children are +born and die like the leaves. But the son of Monnica and Patricius was +predestined: he was not to die in the cradle like so many other tiny +Africans. + +Even if he had not been intended for great things, if he had been only a +head in the crowd, the arrival of this baby ought, all the same, to affect +us, for to the Christian, the destiny of the obscurest and humblest of +souls is a matter of importance. Forty years afterwards, Augustin, in his +_Confessions_, pondered this slight ordinary fact of his birth, which +happened almost unnoticed by the inhabitants of Thagaste, and in truth it +seems to him a great event, not because it concerns himself, bishop and +Father of the Church, but because it is a soul which at this imperceptible +point of time comes into the world. + +Let us clearly understand Augustin's thought. Souls have been ransomed by a +Victim of infinite value. They have themselves an infinite value. Nothing +which goes on in them can be ignored. Their most trifling sins, their +feeblest stirrings towards virtue, are vital for the eternity of their lot. +All shall be attributed to them by the just Judge. The theft of an apple +will weigh perhaps as heavily in the scales as the seizure of a province +or a kingdom. The evil of sin is in the evil intention. Now the fate +of a soul, created by God, on Him depends. Hence everything in a human +life assumes an extreme seriousness and importance. In the history of a +creature, all is worthy of being examined, weighed, studied, and perhaps +also, for the edification of others, told. + +Here is an altogether new way of regarding life, and, proceeding from that, +of understanding art. Even as the slaves, thanks to Christianity, came into +the spiritual city, so the most minute realities by this outlook are to be +included in literature. The _Confessions_ will be the first model of the +art of the new era. A deep and magnificent realism, because it goes even +to the very depths of the divine--utterly distinct, at any rate, from +our surface realism of mere amusement--is about to arise from this new +conception. Without doubt, in Augustin's eyes, beauty dwells in all things, +in so far forth as beauty is a reflection of the order and the thought +of the Word. But it has also a more essential character--it has a moral +signification and value. Everything, in a word, can be the instrument of +the loss or the redemption of a soul. The most insignificant of our actions +reverberates to infinitude on our fate. Regarded from this point, both +things and beings commence to live a life more closely leagued together and +at the same time more private; more individual and more general. All is in +the lump, and nevertheless all is separate. Our salvation concerns only +ourselves, and yet through charity it becomes involved with the salvation +of our fellows. + +In this spirit let us look at the cradle of Augustin. Let us look at it +with the eyes of Augustin himself, and also, perchance, of Monnica. Bending +over the frail body of the little child he once was, he puts to himself +all the great desperate questions which have shaken humanity for thousands +of years. The mystery of life and death rises before him, formidable. It +tortures him to the point of anguish, of confusion: "Yet suffer me to speak +before Thy mercy, me who am but dust and ashes. Yea, suffer me to speak, +for, behold, I speak not to man who scorns me, but to Thy mercy. Even Thou +perhaps dost scorn me, but Thou wilt turn and have pity. For what is it +that I would say, O Lord my God, save that I know not whence I came hither +into this dying life, shall I call it, or living death?... And, lo, my +infancy has long been dead, and I live. But Thou, O Lord, who ever livest +and in whom nothing ever dies--tell me, I beseech Thee, O God, and have +mercy on my misery, tell me whether another life of mine died before my +infancy began." + +One is reminded here of Pascal's famous prosopopoeia: "I know not who +has put me into the world, nor what the world is, nor myself. I am in a +terrible ignorance about everything.... All I know is that I must soon die, +but what I know least of all is this very death which I cannot escape." + +The phrases of the _Pensées_ are only the echo of the phrases of the +_Confessions_. But how different is the tone! Pascal's charge against human +ignorance is merciless. The God of Port-Royal has the hard and motionless +face of the ancient Destiny: He withdraws into the clouds, and only shews +Himself at the end to raise up His poor creature. In Augustin the accent +is tender, trusting, really like a son, and though he be harassed, one can +discern the thrill of an unconquerable hope. Instead of crushing man under +the iron hand of the Justice-dealer, he makes him feel the kindness of the +Father who has got all ready, long before its birth, for the feeble little +child: "The comforts of Thy pity received me, as I have heard from the +father and mother of my flesh.... And so the comfort of woman's milk was +ready for me. For my mother and my nurses did not fill their own bosoms, +but Thou, O Lord, by their means gavest me the food of infancy, according +to Thy ordinance...." + +And see! his heart overflows at this remembrance of his mother's milk. The +great doctor humbles his style, makes it simple and familiar, to tell us of +his first mewlings, and of his baby angers and joys. He too was a father; +he knew what is a new-born child, and a young mother who gives it suck, +because he had seen that with his own eyes close beside him. All the small +bothers which mingle with the pleasures of fatherhood he had experienced +himself. In his own son he studied himself. + + * * * * * + +This child, born of a Christian mother, and who was to become the great +defender of the faith, was not christened at his birth. In the early +Church, and especially in the African Church, it was not usual to do so. +The baptismal day was put as far off as possible, from the conviction that +the sins committed after the sacrament were much more serious than those +which went before. The Africans, very practical folk, clearly foresaw that +they would sin again even after baptism, but they wanted to sin at a better +rate, and lessen the inflictions of penance. This penance in Augustin's +time was far from being as hard as in the century before. Nevertheless, the +remembrance of the old severity always remained, and the habit was taken to +put off baptism so as not to discourage sinners overmuch. + +Monnica, always sedulous to conform with the customs of her country and +the traditions of her Church, fell in with this practice. Perhaps she may +have had also the opposition of her husband to face, for he being a pagan +would not have cared to give too many pledges to the Christians, nor to +compromise himself in the eyes of his fellow-pagans by shewing that he +was so far under the control of Christian zealots as to have his child +baptized out of the ordinary way. There was a middle course, and this was +to inscribe the child among the catechumens. According to the rite of the +first admission to the lowest order of catechumens, the sign of the cross +was made on Augustin's forehead, and the symbolic salt placed between his +lips. And so they did not baptize him. Possibly this affected his whole +life. He lacked the baptismal modesty. Even when he was become a bishop, he +never quite cast off the old man that had splashed through all the pagan +uncleannesses. Some of his words are painfully broad for chaste ears. The +influence of African conditions does not altogether account for this. It is +only too plain that the son of Patricius had never known entire virginity +of soul. + +They named him Aurelius Augustinus. Was Aurelius his family name? We cannot +tell. The Africans always applied very fantastically the rules of Roman +nomenclature. Anyhow, this name was common enough in Africa. The Bishop of +Carthage, primate of the province and a friend of Augustin, was also called +Aurelius. Pious commentators have sought to find in this name an omen of +Augustin's future renown as an orator. They have remarked that the word +_aurum_, gold, is contained in Aurelius--a prophetic indication of the +golden mouth of the great preacher of Hippo. + +Meanwhile, he was a baby like any other baby, who only knew, as he tells +us, how to take his mother's breast. However, he speaks of nurses who +suckled him; no doubt these were servants or slaves of the household. +They gave him their milk, like those Algerian women who, to-day, if their +neighbour is called away, take her child and feed it. Besides, with them +children are weaned much later than with us. You can see mothers sitting at +their doors put down their work and call to a child of two or three playing +in the street for him to come and take the breast. Did Augustin remember +these things? At least he recalled his nurses' games, and the efforts they +made to appease him, and the childish words they taught him to stammer. +The first Latin words he repeated, he picked up from his mother and the +servants, who must also have spoken Punic, the ordinary tongue of the +populace and small trader class. He learned Punic without thinking about +it, in playing with other children of Thagaste, just as the sons of our +colonists learn Arab in playing with little boys who wear chechias on their +heads. + +He is a Christian, a bishop, already a venerated Father, consulted by the +whole Catholic world, and he tells us all that. He tells it in a serious +and contrite way, with a manifest anxiety to attribute to God, as the sole +cause, all the benefits which embellished his childhood, as well as to +deplore his faults and wretchedness, fatal consequence of the original +Fall. And still, we can make out clearly that these suave and far-off +memories have a charm for him which he cannot quite guard himself against. +The attitude of the author of the _Confessions_ is ambiguous and a little +constrained. The father who has loved his child, who has joined in his +games, struggles in him against the theologian who later on was to uphold +the doctrine of Grace against the heretics. He feels that he must shew, not +only that Grace is necessary for salvation and that little children ought +to be baptized, but that they are capable of sinning. Yes, the children sin +even at nurse. And Augustin relates this story of a baby that he had seen: +"I know, because I have seen, jealousy in a babe. It could not speak, yet +it eyed its foster-brother _with pale cheeks and looks of hate_." Children +are already men. The egoism and greediness of the grown man may be already +descried in the newly born. + +However, the theologian of Grace was not able to drive from his mind +this verse of the Gospel: _Sinite ad me parvulos venire_--"Suffer little +children to come unto Me." But he interprets this in a very narrow sense, +luring it into an argument which furthers his case. For him, the small +height of children is a symbol of the humility without which no one can +enter God's kingdom. The Master, according to him, never intended us to +take children as an example. They are but flesh of sin. He only drew from +their littleness one of those similitudes which He, with His fondness for +symbols, favoured. + +Well, let us dare to say it: Augustin goes wrong here. Such is the penalty +of human thought, which in its justest statements always wounds some +truth less clear or mutilates some tender sentiment. Radically, Augustin +is right. The child is wicked as man is. We know it. But against the +relentlessness of the theologian we place the divine gentleness of Christ: +"Suffer little children to come unto Me, for of such is the Kingdom of +God." + + + + +IV + +THE FIRST GAMES + + +"I loved to play," Augustin says, in telling us of those far-off years. + +Is it surprising if this quick and supple intelligence, who mastered +without effort, and as if by instinct, the encyclopædic knowledge of his +age, who found himself at his ease amidst the deepest abstractions, did, at +the beginning, take life as a game? + +The amusements of the little Africans of to-day are not very many, nor very +various either. They have no inventive imagination. In this matter their +French playfellows have taught them a good deal. If they play marbles, or +hopscotch, or rounders, it is in imitation of the _Roumis_. And yet they +are great little players. Games of chance attract them above all. At these +they spend hour after hour, stretched out flat on their stomachs in some +shady corner, and they play with an astonishing intensity of passion. All +their attention is absorbed in what they are about; they employ on the game +all the cunning of their wits, precociously developed, and so soon stuck +fast in material things. + +When Augustin recalls the games of his childhood, he only mentions "nuts," +handball, and birds. To capture a bird, that winged, light, and brilliant +thing, is what all children long to do in every country on earth. But in +Africa, where there are plenty of birds, big people as well as little +love them. In the Moorish cafés, in the wretchedest _gourbis_, cages made +of reeds are hung on the walls, all rustling with trills and fluttering +of wings. Quail, thrushes, nightingales are imprisoned in them. The +nightingale, the singing-bird beyond all others, so difficult to tame, is +the honoured guest, the privileged dweller in these rustic cages. With +the rose, he is an essential part of Arab poetry. The woods round about +Thagaste were full of nightingales. Not the least doubt that the child +Augustin had felt the little musical throats of these singing-birds throb +between his hands. His sermons, his heaviest treatises, have a recollection +of them. He draws from them an evidence in favour of the creating Word who +has put beauty and harmony everywhere. In the song of the nightingale he +finds, as it were, an echo of the music of the spheres. + +If he loved birds, as a poet who knows not that he is a poet, did he love +as well to play at "nuts"? "Nuts," or thimble-rigging, is only a graceful +and crafty game, too crafty for a dreaming and careless little boy. It +calls for watchfulness and presence of mind. Grown men play at it as well +as children. A step of a staircase is used as a table by the players, or +the pavement of a courtyard. Three shells are laid on the stone and a +dried pea. Then, with rapid baffling movements, hands brown and alert fly +from one shell to another, shuffle them, mix them up, juggle the dried +pea sometimes under this shell, sometimes under that,--and the point is +to guess which shell the pea has got under. By means of certain astute +methods, an artful player can make the pea stick to his fingers, or to the +inside of the shell, and the opponent loses every time. They cheat with a +calm shamelessness. Augustin cheated too--which did not prevent him from +bitterly denouncing the cheating of his fellow-players. + +The truth is, that he would not have quite belonged to his country if he +had not lied and stolen now and then. He lied to his tutor and to his +schoolmasters. He stole at his parents' table, in the kitchen, and in the +cellar. But he stole like a man of quality, to make presents and to win +over his playfellows: he ruled the other boys by his presents--a noteworthy +characteristic in this future ruler of souls. Morals like these, a little +rough, shape free and bold natures. Those African children were much less +coddled, much less scolded, than to-day. Monnica had something else to do +than to look after the boys. So for them it was a continual life in the +open air, which makes the body strong and hard. Augustin and his companions +should be pictured as young wild-cats. + +This roughness came out strong at games of ball, and generally at all +the games in which there are two sides, conquerors and prisoners, or +fights with sticks and stones. Stone-throwing is an incurable habit +among the little Africans. Even now in the towns our police are obliged +to take measures against these ferocious children. In Augustin's time, +at Cherchell, which is the ancient _Cæsarea Mauretaniæ_, the childish +population was split into two hostile camps which stoned each other. On +certain holidays the fathers and big brothers joined the children; blood +flowed, and there were deaths. + +The bishop Augustin recalls with severity the "superb victories" he won in +jousts of this kind. But I find it hard to believe that such a delicate +child (he was sickly almost all his life) could have got much pleasure out +of these brutal sports. If he was drawn into them by the example of others, +it must have been through the imagination they appealed to him. In these +battles, wherein sides took the field as Romans against Carthaginians, +Greeks against Trojans, he believed himself Scipio or Hannibal, Achilles +or Hector. He experienced beforehand, as a rhetorician, the intoxication +of a triumph which playfellows who were stronger and better provided with +muscles gave him a hard fight for. He did not always get the upper hand, +except perhaps when he bribed the enemy. But an eager young soul, such +as he was, can hardly be content with half-victories; he wants to excel. +Accordingly, he sought his revenge in those games wherein the mind has the +chief part. He listened to stories with delight, and in his turn repeated +them to his little friends, thus trying upon an audience of boys that charm +of speech by which later he was to subdue crowds. They also played at +acting, at gladiators, at drivers and horses. Some of Augustin's companions +were sons of wealthy citizens who gave splendid entertainments to their +fellow-countrymen. As these dramatic representations, or games of the +arena or circus, drew near, the little child-world was overcome by a +fever of imitation. All the children of Thagaste imitated the actors, the +_mirmillones_, or the horsemen in the amphitheatre, just as the young +Spaniards of to-day imitate the _toreros_. + +In the midst of these amusements Augustin fell ill; he had fever and +violent pains in the stomach. They thought he was going to die. It appears +that it was himself who in this extreme situation asked for baptism. +Monnica was making all haste to have the sacrament administered, when +suddenly, against all expectation, the child recovered. Again was baptism +postponed, and from the same reason: to lessen the gravity of the sins +which young Augustin was bound to commit. His mother, who no doubt foresaw +some of them, again fell in with the custom. + +It is possible that Patricius interfered this time in a more decided way. +Just at this period Catholicism was in an unfavourable situation. The +short reign of Julian had started a violent pagan reaction. Everywhere +the temples were reopening, the sacrifices beginning again. Moreover, +the Donatists secretly aided the pagans. Their _Seids_, more or less +acknowledged, the Circoncelliones, bands of fanatical peasants, scoured +through the Numidian country, attacking the Catholics, ravaging and +pillaging, and burning their farms and villas. Was this a good time to +make a noisy profession of faith, to be enrolled among the ranks of the +conquered party? + +Little Augustin knew nothing of all these calculations of motherly prudence +and fatherly diplomacy: he begged for baptism, so he tells us. This seems +very remarkable in so young a child. But he lived in a house where all the +service was done by Christians. He heard the talk of Monnica's friends; +perhaps, too, of his grandparents, who were Catholics faithful and austere. +And then, his soul was naturally religious. That explains everything: +he asked for baptism to be like grown-up people, and because he was +predestined. Among children, the chosen have these sudden flashes of light. +At certain moments they feel what one day they shall be. Anyhow, Monnica +must have seen this sign with joy. + +He got well, and took up again his little boy's life, divided between play, +and dawdling, and school. + +School! painful memory for Augustin! They sent him to the _primus +magister_, the elementary teacher, a real terror, armed with a long switch +which came down without pity on idle boys. Seated on benches around him, or +crouched on mats, the boys sang out all together: "One and one are two, two +and two are four"--horrible refrain which deafened the whole neighbourhood. +The school was often a mere shed, or a _pergola_ in the fields which was +protected fairly well from sun and rain by cloths stretched overhead--a hut +rented for a trifle, wide open to the winds, with a mosquito-net stretched +out before the entrance. All who were there must have frozen in winter +and broiled in summer. Augustin remembered it as a slaves' chain-prison +(_ergastulum_) of boyhood. + +He hated school and what they taught there--the alphabet, counting, and +the rudiments of Latin and Greek grammar. He had a perfect horror of +lessons--of Greek above all. This schoolboy, who became, when his turn +came, a master, objected to the methods of school. His mind, which grasped +things instinctively at a single bound, could not stand the gradual +procedure of the teaching faculty. He either mastered difficulties at +once, or gave them up. Augustin was one of the numerous victims of the +everlasting mistake of schoolmasters, who do not know how to arrange +their lessons to accord with various kinds of mind. Like most of those +who eventually become great men, he was no good as a pupil. He was often +punished, thrashed--and cruelly thrashed. The master's scourge filled +him with an unspeakable terror. When he was smarting all over from cuts +and came to complain to his parents, they laughed at him or made fun of +him--yes, even the pious Monnica. Then the poor lad, not knowing whom to +turn to, remembered hearing his mother and the servants talk of a Being, +very powerful and very good, who defends the orphan and the oppressed. And +he said from the depths of his heart: + +"O my God, please grant that I am not whipped at school." + +But God did not hear his prayer because he was not a good boy. Augustin was +in despair. + +It is evident that these punishments were cruel, because forty years +afterwards he denounces them with horror. In his mind, they are tortures +comparable to the wooden horse or the iron pincers. Nothing is small +for children, especially for a sensitive child like Augustin. Their +sensitiveness and their imagination exaggerate all things out of due +measure. In this matter, also, schoolmasters often go wrong. They do not +know how to handle delicate organizations. They strike fiercely, when a +few words said at the right moment would have much more effect on the +culprit.... Monnica's son suffered as much from the rod as he took pride +in his successes at games. If, as Scipio, he was filled with a sensation +of glory in his battles against other boys, no doubt he pictured himself +a martyr, a St. Laurence or St. Sebastian, when he was swished. He never +pardoned--save as a Christian--his schoolmasters for having brutalized him. + +Nevertheless, despite his hatred for ill-ordered lessons, his precocious +intelligence was remarked by everybody. It was clear that such lucky gifts +should not be neglected. Monnica, no doubt, was the first to get this into +her head, and she advised Patricius to make Augustin read for a learned +profession. + +The business of the _curia_ was not exactly brilliant, and so he may have +perceived that his son might raise their fortunes if he had definite +employment. Augustin, a professor of eloquence or a celebrated pleader, +might be the saviour and the benefactor of his family. The town councils, +and even the Imperial treasury, paid large salaries to rhetoricians. In +those days, rhetoric led to everything. Some of the professors who went +from town to town giving lectures made considerable fortunes. At Thagaste +they pointed with admiration to the example of the rhetorician Victorinus, +an African, a fellow-countryman, who had made a big reputation over-seas, +and had his statue in the Roman Forum. And many years before, had not M. +Cornelius Fronto, of Cirta, another African, become the tutor of Marcus +Aurelius, who covered him with honours and wealth and finally raised him to +the Consulship? Pertinax himself, did he not begin as a simple teacher of +grammar, and become Proconsul of Africa and then Emperor of Rome? How many +stimulants for provincial ambition!... + +Augustin's parents reasoned as the middle-class parents of to-day. They +discounted the future, and however hard up they were, they resolved to +make sacrifices for his education. And as the schools of Thagaste were +inadequate, it was decided to send this very promising boy to Madaura. + + + + +V + +THE SCHOOLBOY OF MADAURA + + +A new world opened before Augustin. It was perhaps the first time he had +ever gone away from Thagaste. + +Of course, Madaura is not very far off; there are about thirty miles at +most between the two towns. But there are no short journeys for children. +This one lay along the military road which ran from Hippo to Theveste--a +great Roman causeway paved with large flags on the outskirts of towns, and +carefully pebbled over all the rest of the distance. Erect upon the high +saddle of his horse, Augustin, who was to become a tireless traveller +and move about ceaselessly over African roads during all his episcopal +life--Augustin got his first glimpse of the poetry of the open road, a +poetry which we have lost for ever. + +How amusing they were, the African roads of those days, how full of sights! +Pauses were made at inns with walls thick as the ramparts of citadels, +their interiors bordered by stables built in arcades, heaped up with +travellers' packs and harness. In the centre were the trough and cistern; +and to the little rooms opening in a circle on to the balcony, drifted up +a smell of oil and fodder, and the noise of men and of beasts of burthen, +and of the camels as they entered majestically, curving their long necks +under the lintel of the door. Then there was talk with the merchants, just +arrived from the south, who brought news of the nomad countries, and had +stories to tell. And then, without hurrying, a start was made again for the +next stage. Long files of chariots were encountered carrying provisions to +soldiers garrisoned on the frontier, or the State-distributed corn of the +Roman people to the sea-ports; or again, from time to time, the _lectica_, +brought along by slaves or mules, of a bishop on a visitation; and then the +litter, with close-drawn curtains, of a matron or some great personage. Of +a sudden all pulled sharp to one side; the vehicles lined up on the edge of +the road; and there passed at full speed, in a cloud of dust, a messenger +of the Imperial Post.... + +Certainly this road from Hippo to Theveste was one of the busiest and most +picturesque in the province: it was one of its main arteries. + +At first the look of the country is rather like the neighbourhood of +Thagaste. The wooded and mountainous landscape still spreads out its +little breast-shaped hills and its sheets of verdure. Here and there the +road skirts the deeply-ravined valley of the Medjerda. At the foot of the +precipitous slopes, the river can be heard brawling in a torrent over its +stony bed, and there are sharp descents among thickets of juniper and the +fringed roots of the dwarf-pines. Then, as the descent continues, the land +becomes thinner and spaces bare of vegetation appear oftener. At last, upon +a piece of tableland, Madaura comes into view, all white in the midst of +the vast tawny plain, where to-day nothing is to be seen but a mausoleum +in ruins, the remains of a Byzantine fortress, and vague traces vanishing +away. + +This is the first rise of the great plain which declines towards Theveste +and the group of the Aures Mountains. Coming from the woodland country of +Thagaste, the nakedness of it is startling. Here and there, thin cows crop +starveling shrubs which have grown on the bank of some _oued_ run dry. +Little asses, turned loose, save themselves at a gallop towards the tents +of the nomads, spread out, black and hairy, like immense bats on the +whiteness of the land. Nearer, a woman's red _haick_ interposes, the single +stain of bright colour breaking the indefinite brown and grey of the plain. +Here is felt the harshness of Numidia; it is almost the stark spaces of +the desert world. But on the side towards the east, the architecture of +mountains, wildly sculptured, stands against the level reaches of the +horizon. Upon the clear background of the sky, shew, distinctly, lateral +spurs and a cone like to the mystic representation of Tanit. Towards the +south, crumbling isolated crags appear, scattered about like gigantic +pedestals uncrowned of their statues, or like the pipes of an organ raised +there to capture and attune the cry of the great winds of the _steppe_. + +This country is characterized by a different kind of energy from Thagaste. +There is more air and light and space. If the plantation is sparse, the +beautiful shape of the land may be observed all the better. Nothing breaks +or lessens the grand effects of the light.... And let no one say that +Augustin's eyes cared not for all that, he who wrote after his conversion, +and in all the austerity of his repentance: "If sentient things had not a +soul, we should not love them so much." + +It is here, between Madaura and Thagaste, during the eager years of youth, +that he gathered together the seeds of sensations and images which, +later on, were to burst forth into fiery and boiling metaphors in the +_Confessions_, and in his homilies and paraphrases of Holy Scripture. Later +on, he will not have the time to observe, or he will have lost the power. +Rhetoric will stretch its commonplace veil between him and the unceasing +springtide of the earth. Ambition will turn him away from those sights +which reveal themselves only to hearts unselfish and indifferent. Then, +later on, Faith will seize hold of him to the exclusion of all else. He +will no longer perceive the creation save at odd moments in a kind of +metaphysical dream, and, so to speak, across the glory of the Creator. +But in these youthful years all things burst upon him with extraordinary +violence and ecstasy. His undulled senses swallowed greedily the whole +banquet offered by this wide world to his hunger for pleasure. The fugitive +beauty of things and beings, with all their charms, revealed itself to +him in its newness: _novissimarum rerum fugaces pulchritudines, earumque +suavitates_. This craving for sensation will still exist in the great +Christian teacher, and betray itself in the warm and coloured figures +of his style. Of course, he was not as a worldly describer, who studies +to produce phrases which present an image, or arranges glittering +pictures--all such endeavours he knew nothing about. But by instinct, and +thanks to his warm African temperament, he was a kind of impressionist and +metaphysical poet. + +If the rural landscape of Thagaste is reflected in certain passages--the +pleasantest and most well known--of the _Confessions_, all the intellectual +part of Augustin's work finds its symbolical commentary here in this arid +and light-splashed plain of Madaura. Like it, the thought of Augustin has +no shadows. Like it too, it is lightened by strange and splendid tints +which seem to come from far off, from a focal fire invisible to human eyes. +No modern writer has better praised the light--not only the immortal light +of the blessed, but that light which rests on the African fields, and +is on land and sea; and nobody has spoken of it with more amplitude and +wonder. The truth is, that in no country in the world, not even in Egypt, +in the rose-coloured lands of Karnak and Luxor, is the light more pure and +admirable than in these great bare plains of Numidia and the region of the +Sahara. Is there not enchantment for the eyes of the metaphysician in this +play of light, these nameless interfulgent colours which appear flimsy as +the play of thought? For the glowing floating haze is made of nothing--of +lines, of gleam, of unregulated splendour. And all this triumph of +fluctuating light and elusive colour is quenched with the sun, smoulders +into darkness, even as ideas in the obscure depths of the intelligence +which reposes.... + +Not less than this land, stern even to sadness, but hot and sumptuous, the +town of Madaura must have impressed Augustin. + +It was an old Numidian city, proud of its antiquity. Long before the Roman +conquest, it had been a fortress of King Syphax. Afterwards, the conquerors +settled there, and in the second century of our era, Apuleius, the most +famous of its children, could state before a proconsul, not without pride, +that Madaura was a very prosperous colony. It is probable that this old +town was not so much Romanized as its neighbours, Thimgad and Lambesa, +which were of recent foundation and had been built all at once by decree of +the Government. But it may well have been as Roman as Theveste, a no less +ancient city, where the population was probably just as mixed. Madaura, +like Theveste, had its temples with pillars and Corinthian porticoes, its +triumphal arches (these were run up everywhere), its forum surrounded by a +covered gallery and peopled with statues. Statues also were very liberally +distributed in those days. We know of at least three at Madaura which +Augustin mentions in one of his letters: A god Mars in his heroic +nakedness, and another Mars armed from head to foot; opposite, the statue +of a man, in realistic style, stretching out three fingers to neutralize +the evil eye. These familiar figures remained very clear in the +recollection of Augustin. In the evening, or at the hour of the siesta, he +had stretched himself under their pedestals and played at dice or bones in +the cool shade of the god Mars, or of the Man with outstretched fingers. +The slabs of marble of the portico made a good place to play or sleep. + +Among these statues, there was one perhaps which interested the lad and +stimulated all his early ambitions--that of Apuleius, the great man of +Madaura, the orator, philosopher, sorcerer, who was spoken of from one end +to the other of Africa. By dint of gazing at this, and listening to the +praises of the great local author, did the young scholar become aware of +his vocation? Did he have from this time a confused sort of wish to become +one day another Apuleius, a Christian Apuleius--to surpass the reputation +of this celebrated pagan? These impressions and admirations of youth have +always a more or less direct influence upon what use a boy makes of his +talents. + +Be that as it will, Augustin could not take a step in Madaura without +running against the legend of Apuleius, who was become almost a divinity +for his fellow-countrymen. He was looked upon not only as a sage, but as +a most wily nigromancer. The pagans compared him to Christ--nay, put him +higher than Christ. In their view he had worked much more astonishing +miracles than those of Jesus or of Apollonius of Tyana. And people told the +extravagant stories out of his _Metamorphoses_ as real, as having actually +happened. Nothing was seen on all sides but wizards, men changed into +animals, animals, or men and women, under some spell. In the inns, a man +watched with a suspicious look the ways of the maidservant who poured out +his drink or handed him a dish. Perhaps some magic potion was mingled with +the cheese or bread that she was laying on the table. It was an atmosphere +of feverish and delirious credulity. The pagan madness got the better of +the Christians themselves. Augustin, who had lived in this atmosphere, will +later find considerable trouble in maintaining his strong common sense amid +such an overflow of marvels. + +For the moment, the fantasy of tales filled him with at least as much +enthusiasm as the supernatural. At Madaura he lived in a miraculous world, +where everything charmed his senses and his mind, and everything stimulated +his precocious instinct for Beauty. + +More than Thagaste, no doubt, Madaura bore the marks of the building +genius of the Romans. Even to-day their descendants, the Italians, are the +masons of the world, after having been the architects. The Romans were the +building nation above all others. They it was who raised and established +towns upon the same model and according to the same ideal as an oration +or a poem. They really invented the house, _mansio_, not only the shelter +where one lives, but the building which itself lives, which triumphs over +years and centuries, a huge construction ornamental and sightly, existing +as much--and perhaps more--for the delight of the eyes as for usefulness. +The house, the _Town-with-deep-streets_, perfectly ordered, were a great +matter of amazement for the African nomad--he who passes and never settles +down anywhere. He hated them, doubtless, as the haunts of the soldier and +the publican, his oppressors, but he also regarded them with admiration +mixed with jealousy as the true expression of a race which, when it entered +a country, planted itself for eternity, and claimed to join magnificence +and beauty to the manifestation of its strength. The Roman ruins which +are scattered over modern Algeria humiliate ourselves by their pomp--us +who flatter ourselves that we are resuming the work of the Empire and +continuing its tradition. They are a permanent reproach to our mediocrity, +a continual incitement to grandeur and beauty. Of course, the Roman +architecture could not have had on Augustin, this still unformed young +African, the same effect as it has to-day on a Frenchman or a man from +Northern Europe. But it is certain that it formed, without his knowledge, +his thought and his power of sensation, and extended for him the lessons of +the Latin rhetoricians and grammarians. + +All that was not exactly very Christian. But from these early school years +Augustin got further and further away from Christianity, and the examples +he had under his eyes, at Madaura were hardly likely to strengthen him +in his faith. It was hardly an edifying atmosphere there for a Catholic +youth who had a lively imagination, a pleasure-loving temperament, and who +liked pagan literature. The greatest part of the population were pagans, +especially among the aristocrats. The Decurions continued to preside at +festivals in honour of the old idols. + +These festivals were frequent. The least excuse was taken to engarland +piously the doors of houses with branches, to bleed the sacrificial pig, +or slaughter the lamb. In the evening, squares and street corners were +illuminated. Little candles burned on all the thresholds. During the +mysteries of Bacchus, the town councillors themselves headed the popular +rejoicings. It was an African carnival, brutal and full of colour. People +got tipsy, pretended they were mad. For the sport of the thing, they +assaulted the passers and robbed them. The dull blows on tambourines, the +hysterical and nasal preludes of the flutes, excited an immense elation, at +once sensual and mystic. And all quieted down among the cups and leather +flagons of wine, the grease and meats of banquets in the open air. Even in +a country as sober as Africa, the pagan feasts were never much else than +excuses for gorging and orgies. Augustin, who after his conversion had only +sarcasms for the carnival of Madaura, doubtless went with the crowd, like +many other Christians. Rich and influential people gave the example. There +was danger of annoying them by making a group apart. And then, there was no +resisting the agreeableness of such festivals. + +Perhaps he was even brought to these love-feasts by those in whose charge +he was. For, in fact, to whom had he been entrusted? Doubtless to some +host of Patricius, a pagan like himself. Or did he lodge with his master, +a grammarian, who kept a boarding-house for the boys? Almost all these +schoolmasters were pagan too. Is it wonderful that the Christian lessons +of Monnica and the nurses at Thagaste became more and more blurred in +Augustin's mind? Many years after, an old Madaura grammarian, called +Maximus, wrote to him in a tone of loving reproach: "Thou hast drawn away +from us"--_a secta nostra deviasti_. Did he wish to hint that at this time +Augustin had glided into paganism? Nothing is more unlikely. He himself +assures us that the name of Christ remained always "graven on his heart." +But while he was at Madaura he lived indifferently with pagans and +Christians. + +Besides that, the teaching he got was altogether pagan in tone. No doubt he +picked out, as he always did, the subjects which suited him. Minds such as +his fling themselves upon that which is likely to nourish them: they throw +aside all the rest, or suffer it very unwillingly. Thus Augustin never +wavered in his dislike for Greek: he was a poor Greek scholar. He detested +the Greeks by instinct. According to Western prejudice, these men of +the East were all rascals or amusers. Augustin, as a practical African, +always regarded the Greeks as vain, discoursing wits. In a word, they +were not sincere people whom it would be safe to trust. The entirely +local patriotism of the classical Greek authors further annoyed this Roman +citizen who was used to regard the world as his country: he thought them +very narrow-minded to take so much interest in the history of some little +town. As for him, he looked higher and farther. It must be remembered that +in the second half of the fourth century the Greek attitude, broadened and +fully conscious of itself, set itself more and more against Latinism, above +all, politically. There it lay, a hostile and impenetrable block before the +Western peoples. And here was a stronger reason for a Romanized African to +dislike the Greeks. + +So he painfully construed the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_, very cross at the +difficulties of a foreign language which prevented him from grasping the +plots of the fine, fabulous narratives. There were, however, abridgments +used in the schools, a kind of summaries of the Trojan War, written by +Latin grammarians under the odd pseudonyms of Dares the Phrygian and Dictys +of Crete. But these abridgments were very dry for an imagination like +Augustin's. He much preferred the _Æneid_, the poem admired above all +by the Africans, on account of the episode devoted to the foundation of +Carthage. Virgil was his passion. He read and re-read him continually; +he knew him by heart. To the end of his life, in his severest writings, +he quoted verses or whole passages out of his much-loved poet. Dido's +adventure moved him to tears. They had to pluck the book out of his hands. + +Now the reason is that there was a secret harmony between Virgil's soul and +the soul of Augustin. Both were gracious and serious. One, the great poet, +and one, the humble schoolboy, they both had pity on the Queen of Carthage, +they would have liked to save her, or at any rate to mitigate her sadness, +to alter a little the callousness of Æneas and the harshness of the Fates. +But think of it! Love is a divine sickness, a chastisement sent by the +gods. It is just, when all's said, that the guilty one should endure her +agony to the very end. And then, such very great things are going to arise +out of this poor love! Upon it depends the lot of two Empires. What counts +a woman before Rome and Carthage? Besides, she was bound to perish: the +gods had decreed it.... There was in all that a concentrated emotion, a +depth of sentiment, a religious appeal which stirred Augustin's heart, +still unaware of itself. This obedience of the Virgilian hero to the +heavenly will, was already an adumbration of the humility of the future +Christian. + +Certainly, Augustin did not perceive very plainly in these turbid years +of his youth the full religious significance of Virgil's poem. Carried +away by his headstrong nature, he yielded to the heart-rending charm of +the romantic story: he lived it, literally, with the heroine. When his +schoolmasters desired him to elaborate the lament of the dying Queen Dido +in Latin prose, what he wrote had a veritable quiver of anguish. Without +the least defence against lust and the delusions of the heart, he spent +intellectually and in a single outburst all the strength of passion. + +He absorbed every love-poem with the eagerness of a participating soul. If +he took pleasure in the licentiousness of Plautus and Terence, if he read +delightfully those comedies wherein the worst weaknesses are excused and +glorified, I believe that he took still more pleasure in the Latin Elegiacs +who present without any shame the romantic madness of Alexandrine love. +For what sing these poets even to weariness, unless it be that no one can +resist the Cyprian goddess, that life has no other end but love? Love for +itself, to love for the sake of loving--there is the constant subject of +these sensualists, of Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, Ovid. After the story +of Dido, the youthful reader was ravished by the story of Ariadne, even +more disturbing, because no remorse modifies the frenzy of it. He read: + + _Now while the careless hero flees, beating the wave with his + and casting to the gales of the open sea his idle promises,--there, + standing among the shingle of the beach, the daughter of Minos follows + him, alas! with her beautiful sad eyes: she stares, astonied, like to a + Bacchante changed into a statue. She looks forth, and her heart floats + upon the great waves of her grief. She lets slip from her head her + fine-spun coif, she tears away the thin veils which cover her bosom, + and the smooth cincture which supports her quivering breasts. All that + slips from her body into the salt foam which ripples round her feet. + But little she cares for her coif or for her apparel carried away by + the tide! Lost, bewildered, with all her heart and all her soul, she is + clinging to thee, O Theseus._ + +And if Augustin, when he had read these burning verses of Catullus, looked +through the Anthologies which were popular in the African schools, he +would come upon "The Vigil of Venus," that eclogue which ends with such a +passionate cry: + + _O my springtime, when wilt thou come? When shall I be as the swallow? + When shall I cease to be silent?... May he love to-morrow, he + has not loved yet. And he who has already loved, may he love again + to-morrow._ + +Imagine the effect of such exhortations on a youth of fifteen! Truly, this +springtide of love, which the poet cries for in his distress, the son +of Monnica knew well was come for him. How he must have listened to the +musical and melancholy counsellor who told his pain to the leaves of the +book! What stimulant and what food for his boyish longings and dreams! And +what a divine chorus of beauties the great love-heroines of ancient epic +and elegy, Helen, Medea, Ariadne, Phædra, formed and re-formed continually +in his dazzled memory! When we of to-day read such verses at Augustin's +age, some bitterness is mixed with our delight. These heroes and heroines +are too far from us. These almost chimerical beings withdraw from us into +outlying lands, to a vanished world which will never come again. But for +Augustin, this was the world he was born into--it was his pagan Africa +where pleasure was the whole of life, and one lived only for the lusts of +the flesh. And the race of fabulous princesses--they were not dead, those +ladies: they were ever waiting for the well-beloved in the palaces at +Carthage. Yes, the scholar of Madaura lived wonderful hours, dreaming thus +of love between the pages of the poets. These young dreams before love +comes are more bewitching than love itself: a whole unknown world suddenly +discovered and entered with a quivering joy of discovery at each step. The +unused strength of illusion appears inexhaustible, space becomes deeper and +the heart more strong.... + +A long time afterwards, when, recovered from all that, Augustin speaks to +us of the Divine love, he will know fully the infinite value of it from +having gone through all the painful entrancements of the other. And he will +say to us, with the sureness of experience: "The pleasure of the human +heart in the light of truth and the abundance of wisdom--yea, the pleasure +of the human heart, of the faithful heart, and of the heart which is +holy, stands alone. You will find nothing in any voluptuousness fit to be +compared to it. I say not that this other pleasure is less, for that which +is called less hath only to increase to become equal. No, I shall not say +that all other pleasure is less. No comparison can be made. It is another +kind, it is another reality." + + + + +VI + +THE HOLIDAYS AT THAGASTE + + +In the city of Apuleius, the Christian Monnica's son became simply a pagan. +He was near his sixteenth year: the awkward time of early virility was +beginning for him. Prepared at Madaura, it suddenly burst out at Thagaste. + +Augustin came back to his parents, no doubt during the vacation. But +this vacation lasted perhaps a whole year. He had come to the end of his +juvenile studies. The grammarians at Madaura could teach him nothing more. +To round off his acquirements, it would be necessary to attend the lectures +of some well-known rhetorician. Now there were very good rhetoricians only +at Carthage. Besides, it was a fashion, and point of honour, for Numidian +families to send their sons to finish their education in the provincial +capital. Patricius was most eager to do this for his son, who at Madaura +had shewn himself a very brilliant pupil and ought not therefore to be +pulled up half-way down the course. But the life of a student cost a good +deal, and Patricius had no money. His affairs were always muddled. He was +obliged to wait for the rents from his farms, to grind down his tenants, +and, ultimately, despairing of any other way out of it, to ask for an +advance of money from a rich patron. That needed time and diplomacy. + +Days and months went by, and Augustin, with nothing to do, joined in with +easily-made friends and gave himself up to the pleasures of his time of +life, like all the young townsmen of Thagaste--pleasures rather rough and +little various, such as were to be got in a little free-town of those days, +and as they have remained for the natives of to-day, whether they live +a town or country life. To hunt, to ride horseback, to play at games of +chance, to drink, eat, and make love--they wanted nothing beyond that. When +Augustin in his _Confessions_ accuses himself of his youthful escapades he +uses the most scathing language. He speaks of them with horror and disgust. +Once more we are tempted to believe that he exaggerates through an excess +of Christian remorse. There are even some who, put on their guard by this +vehement tone, have questioned the historical value of the _Confessions_. +They argue that when the Bishop of Hippo wrote these things his views and +feelings had altered. He could no longer judge with the same eye and in +the same spirit the happenings of his youth. All this is only too certain: +when he wrote, it was as a Christian he judged himself, and not as a cold +historian who refuses to go beyond the brutal fact. He tried to unravel +the origin and to trace the consequences of the humblest of his actions, +because this is of the highest importance for salvation. But however severe +his judgment may be, it does not impair the reality of the fact itself. +Moreover, in natures like his, acts which others would hardly think of +have a vibration out of all proportion with the act itself. The evil of sin +depends upon the consciousness of the sin and the pleasure taken in it. +Augustin was very intelligent and very sensual. + +In any case, young Africans develop early, and the lechery of the race +is proverbial. It must have been a good deal stronger at a time when +Christianity still had to fight against pagan slackness in these matters, +ere Islam had imposed its hypocritical austerity upon the general conduct. +There is even room for wonder that in Augustin's case this crisis of +development did not happen earlier than his sixteenth year. It seems that +it was only more violent. In what language he describes it! "I dared to +roam the woods and pursue my vagrant loves beneath the shade." But he +was not yet in love--this he points out himself. In his case then it was +simple lust. "From the quagmire of concupiscence, from the well of puberty, +exhaled a mist which clouded and befogged my heart, so that I could not +distinguish between the clear shining of affection and the darkness of +lust.... I could not keep within the kingdom of light, where friendship +binds soul to soul.... And so I polluted the brook of friendship with the +sewage of lust." Let us not try to make it clearer than he has left it +himself. When one thinks of all the African vices, one dare not dwell upon +such avowals. "Lord," he says, "I was loathsome in Thy sight." And with +pitiless justice he analyses the effect of the evil: "It stormed confusedly +within me, whirling my thoughtless youth over the precipices of desire. And +I wandered still further from Thee, and Thou didst leave me to myself; the +torrent of my fornications tossed and swelled and boiled and ran over." And +during this time: "Thou saidst nothing, O my God!" This silence of God is +the terrible sign of hardened sin, of hopeless damnation. It meant utter +depravity of the will; he did not even feel remorse any more. + +Here he is, then, as if unfastened from his child's soul--separated from +himself. The object of his youthful faith has no more meaning for him. He +understands no longer, and it is all one to him that he does not. Thus, +told by himself, does this first crisis of Augustin's life emerge from the +autobiography; and it takes on a general significance. Once for all, under +a definite form, and to a certain degree classic, he has diagnosed with +his subtle experience of doctor of souls the pubescent crisis in all young +men of his age, in all the young Christians who are to come after him. For +the story of Augustin is the story of each of us. The loss of faith always +occurs when the senses first awaken. At this critical moment, when nature +claims us for her service, the consciousness of spiritual things is, in +most cases, either eclipsed or totally destroyed. The gradual usage to the +brutalities of the instinct ends by killing the sensitiveness of the inward +feelings. It is not reason which turns the young man from God; it is the +flesh. Scepticism but provides him with excuses for the new life he is +leading. + +Thus started, Augustin was not able to pull up half-way on the road of +pleasure; he never did anything by halves. In these vulgar revels of the +ordinary wild youth, he wanted again to be best, he wanted to be first as +he was at school. He stirred up his companions and drew them after him. +They in their turn drew him. Among them was found that Alypius, who was the +friend of all his life, who shared his faults and mistakes, who followed +him even in his conversion, and became Bishop of Thagaste. These two future +shepherds of Christ roamed the streets with the lost sheep. They spent +the nights in the open spaces of the town, playing, or wantonly dreaming +before cups of cool drinks. They lounged there, stretched out on mats, with +a crown of leaves on the head, a jasmine garland round the neck, a rose +or marigold thrust above the ear. They never knew what to do next to kill +time. So one fine evening the reckless crew took it into their heads to +rifle a pear tree of one of Patricius's neighbours. This pear tree was just +beyond the vineyard belonging to Augustin's father. The rascals shook down +the pears. They took a few bites to find out the taste, and having decided +this to be rather disappointing, they chucked all the rest to the hogs. + +In this theft, done merely for the pleasure of the thing, Augustin sees +an evidence of diabolical mischief. Doubtless he committed many another +misdeed where, like this, the whole attraction lay in the Satanic joy +of breaking the law. His fury for dissolute courses knew no rest. Did +Monnica observe anything of this change in Augustin? The boy, grown big, +had escaped from the supervision of the women's apartments. If the mother +guessed anything, she did not guess all. It fell to her husband to open her +eyes. With the freedom of manners among the ancients, Augustin relates the +fact quite plainly.... That took place in the bath-buildings at Thagaste. +He was bathing with his father, probably in the _piscina_ of cold baths. +The bathers who came out of the water with dripping limbs were printing +wet marks of their feet upon the mosaic flooring, when Patricius, who was +watching them, suddenly perceived that his son had about him the signs +of manhood, that he was already bearing--as Augustin says himself in his +picturesque language--the first signs of turbulent youth, like another +_toga praetexta_. Patricius, as a good pagan, welcomed with jubilation this +promise of grand-children, and rushed off joyously to brag of his discovery +to Monnica. She took the news in quite another way. Frightened at the idea +of the dangers to which her son's virtue was exposed, she lectured him +in private. But Augustin, from the height of his sixteen years, laughed +at her. "A lot of old-women's gossip! Why does she want to talk about +things she can't understand!..." Tired out at last, Monnica tried to get +a promise from her son that he would at least have some restraint in his +dissipation--that he would avoid women of the town, and above all, that he +would have nothing to do with married women. For the rest, she put him in +God's hands. + +It may be wondered--Augustin himself wonders--that she did not think of +finding him a wife. They marry early in Africa. Even now any Arab labourer +buys a wife for his son, hardly turned sixteen, so that the fires of a too +warm youth may be quenched in marriage. But Monnica, who was not yet a +saint, acted in this matter like a foreseeing and practical woman of the +prosperous class. A wife would be a drag for a young man like Augustin, who +seemed likely to have such a brilliant career. A too early marriage would +jeopardize his future. Before all things, it was important that he should +become an illustrious rhetorician, and raise the fortunes of the family. +For her, all else yielded to this consideration. But she hoped at least +that the headstrong student might consent to be good into the bargain. + +This was also Patricius's way of looking at the matter. And so, says +Augustin, "My father gave himself no concern how I grew towards Thee, or +how chaste I was, provided only that I became a man of culture--however +destitute of Thy culture, O God.... My mother and he slackened the curb +without regard to due severity, and I was suffered to enjoy myself +according to my dissolute fancy." Meanwhile, Patricius was now become +(very tardily) a catechumen. The entreaties of his wife had won him to the +Catholic faith. But his sentiments were not much more Christian--"He hardly +thought of Thee, my God," acknowledges his son, who nevertheless was +pleased at this conversion. If Patricius decided to get converted, it was +probably from political reasons. Since the death of Julian the Apostate, +paganism appeared finally conquered. The Emperor Valentinianus had just +proclaimed heavy penalties against night-sacrifices. In Africa, the +Count Romanus persecuted the Donatists. All the Christians in Thagaste +were Catholic. What was the good of keeping up a useless and dangerous +resistance? Perhaps the end of Patricius--which was near--was as edifying +as Monnica could wish. But at all events, at the present moment, he was +not the man to interfere with Augustin's pleasures: he only thought of +the eventual fortune of the young man. Alone, Monnica might have had some +influence on him, and she herself was fascinated by his future career in +the world. Perhaps, to quiet her conscience, she said to herself that this +frivolous education would be more or less of a help to her son towards +bringing him back to God, that a day would come when the famous rhetorician +would plead the cause of Christ?... + +Scandalized though she might be at his conduct, it is however apparent that +it was about this time she began to get fonder of him, to worry over him as +her favourite child. But it was not till much later that the union between +mother and son became quite complete. Too many old customs still remained +preventing close intercourse between the men and women of a family. And it +will hardly do to picture such intimacy from the intimacy which may exist +between a mother and son of our own time. There was none of the spoiling, +or indulgence, or culpable weakness which enervates maternal tenderness and +makes it injurious to the energy of a manly character. Monnica was severe +and a little rough. If she let her feelings be seen, it was solely before +God. And yet it is most certain that in the depth of her heart she loved +Augustin, not only as a future member of Christ, but humanly, as a woman +frustrated of love in a badly assorted marriage may spend her love on her +child. The brutality of pagan ways revolted her, and she poured on this +young head all her stored-up affection. In Augustin she loved the being she +wished she could love in her husband. + +A number of personal considerations were no doubt involved in the deep and +unselfish attachment she had for her son: instinctively, she looked for him +to protect her against the father's violence. She felt that he would be the +support of her old age, and also, she foresaw dimly what one day he would +be. All this aided to bring about the tie, the understanding, which grew +more and more close between Augustin and Monnica. And so from this time +they both appear to us as they were to appear to all posterity--the pattern +of the Christian Mother and Son. Thanks to them, the hard law of the +ancients has been abrogated. There shall be no more barriers between the +mother and her child. No longer shall it be vain exterior rites which draw +together the members of the same family: they shall communicate in spirit +and truth. Heart speaketh to heart. The fellowship of souls is founded, +and the ties of the domestic hearth are drawn close, as they never were in +antiquity. No more shall they work in concert only for material things; +they will join together to love--and to love each other more. The son will +belong more to his mother. + +At the time we have now come to, Monnica was already undertaking the +conquest of Augustin's soul. She prayed for him fervently. The young man +cared very little: gratitude came to him only after his conversion. At this +time he was thinking of nothing but amusement. For this he even forgot his +career. But Monnica and Patricius thought of it constantly--especially +Patricius, who gave himself enormous trouble to enable this student on a +holiday to finish his studies. Eventually he got together the necessary +money, possibly borrowed enough to make up the sum from some rich landowner +who was the patron of the people of small means in Thagaste--say, that +gorgeous Romanianus, to whom Augustin, in acknowledgment, dedicated one of +his first books. The young man could now take the road for Carthage. + +He left by himself, craving for knowledge and glory and pleasure, his heart +full of longing for what he knew not, and melancholy without cause. What +was going to become of him in the great, unknown city? + + + + +THE SECOND PART + +THE ENCHANTMENT OF CARTHAGE + + + Amare et amari. + "To love and to be loved." + +_Confessions_, III, i. + + + + +I + +CARTHAGO VENERIS + + +"I went to Carthage, where shameful loves bubbled round me like boiling +oil." + +This cry of repentance, uttered by the converted Augustin twenty-five +years later, does not altogether stifle his words of admiration for the +old capital of his country. One can see this patriotic admiration stirring +between the lines. Carthage made a very strong impression on him. He gave +it his heart and remained faithful to the end. His enemies, the Donatists, +called him "the Carthaginian arguer." After he became Bishop of Hippo, he +was continually going to Carthage to preach, or dispute, or consult his +colleagues, or to ask something from men in office. When he is not there, +he is ever speaking of it in his treatises and plain sermons. He takes +comparisons from it: "You who have been to Carthage--" he often says to +his listeners. For the boy from little Thagaste to go to Carthage, was +about the same as for our youths from the provinces to go to Paris. _Veni +Carthaginem_--in these simple words there is a touch of naive emphasis +which reveals the bewilderment of the Numidian student just landed in the +great city. + +And, in fact, it was one of the five great capitals of the Empire: there +were Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria--Carthage. Carthage was the +sea-port capital of the whole western Mediterranean. With its large new +streets, its villas, its temples, its palaces, its docks, its variously +dressed cosmopolitan population, it astonished and delighted the schoolboy +from Madaura. Whatever local marks were left about him, or signs of the +rustic simpleton, it brushed off. At first, Augustin must have felt himself +as good as lost there. + +There he was, his own master, with nobody to counsel and direct him. He +does indeed mention his fellow-countryman, that Romanianus, the patron of +his father and of other people in Thagaste, as a high and generous friend +who invited him to his house when he, a poor youth, came to finish his +studies in a strange city, and helped him, not only with his purse, but +with his friendship. Unfortunately the allusion is not very clear. Still, +it does seem to shew that Augustin, in the first days after his arrival at +Carthage, stayed with Romanianus. It is not in the least improbable that +Romanianus had a house at Carthage and spent the winter there: during the +rest of the year he would be in his country houses round about Thagaste. +This opulent benefactor might not have been satisfied with giving Augustin +a good "tip" for his journey when he was leaving his native town, but may +also have put him up in his own house at Carthage. Such was the atonement +for those enormous fortunes of antiquity: the rich had to give freely and +constantly. With the parcelling out of wealth we have become much more +egoistical. + +In any case, Romanianus, taken up with his pleasures and business, could +not have been much of a guide for Monnica's son. Augustin was therefore +without control, or very nearly. No doubt he came to Carthage with a strong +desire to increase his knowledge and get renown, but still more athirst +for love and the emotions of sentiment. The love-prelude was deliriously +prolonged for him. He was at that time so overwhelmed by it, that it is the +first thing he thinks of when he relates his years at Carthage. "To love +and be loved" seems to him, as to his dear Alexandrine poets, the single +object of life. Yet he was not in love, "but he loved the idea of love." +_Nondum amabam, et amare amabam ... amare amans...._ + +Truly, never a pagan poet had hitherto found such language to speak +of love. These subtle phrases are not only the work of a marvellous +word-smith: through their almost imperceptible shades of meaning may be +descried an entirely new soul, the pleasure-loving soul of the old world +awakening to spiritual life. Modern people have repeated the words more +than enough, but by translating them too literally--"I loved to love"--they +have perhaps distorted the sense. They have made Augustin a kind of +Romantic like Alfred de Musset, a dilettante in love. Augustin is not so +modern, although he often seems one of ourselves. When he wrote those words +he was a bishop and a penitent. What strikes him above all in looking back +upon his uneasy and feverish life as a youth and young man, is the great +onrush of all his being which swept him towards love. Plainly, man is made +for love, since he loves without object and without cause, since in itself +alone the idea of love is already for him a beginning of love. Only he +falls into error in giving to creatures a heart that the Creator alone can +fill and satisfy. In this love for love's sake, Augustin discerned the sign +of the predestined soul whose tenderness will find no rest but in God. That +is why he repeats this word "Love" with a kind of intoxication. He knows +that those who love like him cannot love long with a human love. Nor does +he blush to acknowledge it:--he loved--he loved with all his soul--he +loved to the point of loving the coming of love. Happy intimation for the +Christian! A heart so afire is pledged to the eternal marriage. + +With this heat of passion, this lively sensibility, Augustin was a prey for +Carthage. The voluptuous city took complete hold on him by its charm and +its beauty, by all the seductions of mind and sense, by its promises of +easy enjoyment. + +First of all, it softened this young provincial, used to the harder country +life of his home; it relaxed the Numidian contracted by the roughness of +his climate; it cooled his eyes burned by the sun in the full-flowing of +its waters and the suavity of its horizons. It was a city of laziness, and +above all, of pleasure, as well for those plunged in business as for the +idlers. They called it _Carthago Veneris_--Carthage of Venus. And certainly +the old Phoenician Tanit always reigned there. Since the rebuilding of her +temple by the Romans, she had transformed herself into _Virgo Coelestis_. +This Virgin of Heaven was the great Our Lady of unchastity, towards whom +still mounted the adoration of the African land four hundred years after +the birth of Christ. "Strange Virgin," Augustin was to say later, "who can +only be honoured by the loss of virginity." Her dissolving influence seemed +to overcome the whole region. There is no more feminine country than this +Carthaginian peninsula, ravished on all sides by the caress of the waters. +Stretched out between her lakes on the edge of the sea, Carthage lounged in +the humid warmth of her mists, as if in the suffocating atmosphere of her +vapour-baths. + +She stole away the energies, but she was an enchantment for the eyes. +From the top of the impressive flight of steps which led up to the temple +of Æsculapius on the summit of the Acropolis, Augustin could see at his +feet the huge, even-planned city, with its citadel walls which spread out +indefinitely, its gardens, blue waters, flaxen plains, and the mountains. +Did he pause on the steps at sunset, the two harbours, rounded cup-shape, +shone, rimmed by the quays, like lenses of ruby. To the left, the Lake of +Tunis, stirless, without a ripple, as rich in ethereal lights as a Venetian +lagoon, radiated in ever-altering sheens, delicate and splendid. In front, +across the bay, dotted with the sails of ships close-hauled to the wind, +beyond the wind-swept and shimmering intervals, the mountains of Rhodes +raised their aerial summit-lines against the sky. What an outlook on the +world for a young man dreaming of fame! And what more exhilarating spot +than this Mount Byrsa, where, in deep layers, so many heroic memories were +gathered and superimposed. The great dusty plains which bury themselves +far off in the sands of the desert, the mountains--yes, and isles and +headlands, all bowed before the Hill that Virgil sang and seemed to do +her reverence. She held in awe the innumerable tribes of the barbaric +continent; she was mistress of the sea. Rome herself, from the height of +her Palatine, surged less imperial. + +More than any other of the young men seated with him on the benches of the +school of rhetoric, Augustin hearkened to the dumb appeals which came +from the ancient ruins and new palaces of Carthage. But the supple and +treacherous city knew the secret of enchaining the will. She tempted him by +the open display of her amusements. Under this sun which touches to beauty +the plaster of a hut, the grossest pleasures have an attraction which men +of the North cannot understand. The overflowing of lust surrounds you. +This prolific swarming, all these bodies, close-pressed and soft with +sweat, give forth as it were a breath of fornication which melts the will. +Augustin breathed in with delight the heavy burning air, loaded with human +odours, which filled the streets and squares of Carthage. To all the bold +soliciting, to all the hands stretched out to detain him as he walked, he +yielded. + +But for a mind like his Carthage had more subtle allurements in reserve. +He was taken by her theatres, by the verses of her poets and the melodies +of her musicians. He shed tears at the plays of Menander and Terence; +he lamented upon the misfortunes of separated lovers; he shared their +quarrels, rejoiced and despaired with them. And still he awaited the +epiphany of Love--that Love which the performance of the actors shewed him +to be so touching and fine. + +Such then was Augustin, given over to the irresponsibility of his eighteen +years--a heart spoiled by romantic literature, a mind impatient to try +every sort of intellectual adventure in the most corrupting and bewitching +city known to the pagan centuries, set amidst one of the most entrancing +landscapes in the world. + + + + +II + +THE AFRICAN ROME + + +Carthage did not offer only pleasures to Augustin; it was besides an +extraordinary subject to think about for an understanding so alert and +all-embracing as his. + +At Carthage he understood the Roman grandeur as he could not at Madaura +and the Numidian towns. Here, as elsewhere, the Romans made a point of +impressing the minds of conquered races by the display of their strength +and magnificence. Above all, they aimed at the immense. The towns built +by them offered the same decorative and monumental character of the +Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, which the Romans had further +exaggerated--a character not without emphasis and over-elaboration, but +which was bound to astonish, and that was the main thing in their view. In +short, their ideal was not perceptibly different from that of our modern +town councillors. To lay out streets which intersected at right angles; to +create towns cut into even blocks like chessboards; to multiply prospects +and huge architectural masses--all the Roman cities of this period revealed +such an aim, with an almost identical plan. + +Erected after this type, the new Carthage caused the old to be forgotten. +Everybody agreed that it was second only to Rome. The African writers +squandered the most hyperbolical praises upon it. For them it is "The +splendid, the august, the sublime Carthage." Although there may well be a +certain amount of triviality or of patriotic exaggeration in these praises, +it is certain that the Roman capital of the Province of Africa was no less +considerable than the old metropolis of the Hanno and Barcine factions. +With a population almost as large as that of Rome, it had almost as great +a circumference. It must further be recalled that as it had no ramparts +till the Vandal invasion, the city overflowed into the country. With its +gardens, villas, and burial-places of the dead, it covered nearly the +entire peninsula, to-day depopulated. + +Carthage, as well as Rome, had her Capitol and Palatine upon Mount Byrsa, +where rose no doubt a temple consecrated to the Capitolean triune deities, +Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, not far from the great temple of Æsculapius, a +modern transformation of the old Punic Eschmoum. Hard by these sanctuaries, +the Proconsul's palace dominated Carthage from the height of the acclivity +of the Acropolis. The Forum was at the foot of the hill, probably in the +neighbourhood of the ports--a Forum built and arranged in the Roman way, +with its shops of bankers and money-changers placed under the circular +galleries, with the traditional image of Marsyas, and a number of statues +of local celebrities. Apuleius no doubt had his there. Further off was the +Harbour Square, where gathered foreigners recently landed and the idlers of +the city in search of news, and where the booksellers offered the new books +and pamphlets. There was to be seen one of the curiosities of Carthage--a +mosaic representing fabulous monsters, men without heads, and men with only +one leg and one foot--a huge foot under which, lying upon their backs, they +sheltered from the sun, as under a parasol. On account of this feature they +were called the _sciapodes_. Augustin, who like everybody else had paused +before these grotesque figures, recalls them somewhere to his readers.... +Beside the sea, in the lower town and upon the two near hills of the +Acropolis, were a number of detached buildings that the old authors have +preserved the names of and briefly described. Thanks to the zeal of +archæologists, it is now become impossible to tell where they stood. + +The pagan sanctuaries were numerous. That of the goddess Coelestis, the +great patroness of Carthage, occupied a space of five thousand feet. It +comprised, besides the actual [Greek: hieron], where stood the image of the +goddess, gardens, sacred groves, and courts surrounded with columns. The +ancient Phoenician Moloch had also his temple under the name of Saturn. +They called him _The Old One_, so Augustin tells us, and his worshippers +were falling away. On the other hand, Carthage had another sanctuary which +was very fashionable, a _Serapeum_ as at Alexandria, where were manifested +the pomps of the Egyptian ritual, celebrated by Apuleius. Neighbouring +the holy places, came the places of amusement: the theatre, the Odeum, +circus, stadium, and amphitheatre--this last, of equal dimensions with +the Colosseum at Rome, its gallery rising upon gallery, and its realistic +sculptures of animals and artisans. Then there were the buildings for the +public service: the immense cisterns of the East and the Malga, the great +aqueduct, which, after being carried along a distance of fifty-five miles, +emptied the water of the Zaghouan into the reservoirs at Carthage. Finally, +there were the Baths, some of which we know--those of Antoninus and of +Maximianus, and those of Gargilius, where one of the most important +Councils known to the history of the African Church assembled. There were +likewise many Christian basilicas at the time of Augustin. The authors +mention seventeen: it is likely there were more. That of Damous-el-Karita, +the only one of which considerable traces have been found, was vast and +richly decorated, and was perhaps the cathedral of Carthage. + +What other buildings there were are utterly lost to history. It +may be conjectured, however, that Carthage, as well as Rome, had a +_septizonium_--a decorative building with peristyles one above the other +which surrounded a reservoir. In fact, it is claimed that the one at +Rome was copied from Carthage. Straight streets paved with large flags +intersected around these buildings, forming a network of long avenues, very +bright and ventilated. Some of them were celebrated in the ancient world +either for their beauty or the animation of their trade: the street of the +Jewellers, the street of Health, of Saturn, of Coelestis, too, or of Juno. +The fig and vegetable markets and the public granaries were also some of +the main centres of Carthaginian life. + +It is unquestionable that Carthage, with its buildings and statues, its +squares, avenues and public gardens, looked like a large capital, and was +a perfect example of that ideal of rather brutal magnificence and strength +which the Romans obtruded everywhere. + +And even while it dazzled the young provincial from Thagaste, the African +Rome shewed him the virtue of order--social and political order. Carthage, +the metropolis of Western Africa, maintained an army of officials who +handled the government in its smallest details. First of all, there +were the representatives of the central power, the imperial rulers--the +Proconsul, a sort of vice-emperor, who was surrounded by a full court, a +civil and military staff, a privy council, an _officium_ which included a +crowd of dignitaries and subaltern clerks. Then there was the Proprætor +of Africa who, being in control of the government of the whole African +province, had an _officium_ still larger perhaps than the Proconsul's. +After them came the city magistrates, who were aided in their functions by +the Council of the Decurions--the Senate of Carthage. These Carthaginian +senators cut a considerable figure: for them their colleagues at Rome +were full of airs and graces, and the Emperors endeavoured to keep them +in a good-humour. All the details of city government came under their +supervision: the slaughter-houses, buildings, the gathering of municipal +taxes, and the police, which comprised even the guardians of the Forum. +Then there were the army and navy. The home port of a grain-carrying fleet +which conveyed the African cereals to Ostia, Carthage could starve Rome +if she liked. The grain and oil of all countries lay in her docks--the +storehouses of the state provisions, which were in charge of a special +prefect who had under his orders a whole corporation of overseers and +clerks. + +Augustin must have heard a good deal of grumbling at Carthage against this +excess of officialism. But, all the same, so well-governed a city was a +very good school for a young man who was to combine later the duties of +bishop, judge, and governor. The blessings of order, of what was called +"the Roman peace" no doubt impressed him the more, as he himself came from +a turbulent district often turned upside down by the quarrels of religious +sects and by the depredations of the nomads--a boundary-land of the Sahara +regions where it was much harder to bring the central government into +play than in Carthage and the coast-towns. To appreciate the beauty of +government, there is nothing like living in a country where all is at the +mercy of force or the first-comer's will. Such of the Barbarians who came +in contact with Roman civilization were overcome with admiration for the +good order that it established. But what astonished them more than anything +else was that the Empire was everywhere. + +No man, whatever his race or country, could help feeling proud to belong to +the Roman city. He was at home in all the countries in the world subject +to Rome. Our Europe, split into nationalities, can hardly understand now +this feeling of pride, so different from our narrow patriotisms. The way to +feel something of it is to go to the colonies: out there the least of us +may believe himself a sovereign, simply from the fact that he is a subject +of the governing country. This feeling was very strong in the old world. +Carthage, where the striking effect of the Empire appeared in all its +brilliancy, would increase it in Augustin. He had only to look around him +to value the extent of the privilege conferred by Rome on her citizens. Men +coming from all countries, without exception of race, were, so to speak, +made partners of the Empire and collaborated in the grandeur of the Roman +scheme. If the Proconsul who then occupied the Byrsa palace, the celebrated +Symmachus, belonged to an old Italian family, he whom he represented, +the Emperor Valentinian, was the son of a Pannonian soldier. The Count +Theodosius, the general who suppressed the insurrection of Firmus in +Mauretania, was a Spaniard, and the army he led into Africa was made up, +for the most part, of Gauls. Later on, under Arcadius, another Gaul, +Rufinus, shall be master of the whole of the East. + +An active mind like Augustin's could not remain indifferent before this +spectacle of the world thrown open by Rome to all men of talent. He had the +soul of a poet, quick to enthusiasm; the sight of the Eagles planted on +the Acropolis at Carthage moved him in a way he never forgot. He acquired +the habit of seeing big, and began to cast off race prejudices and all the +petty narrowness of a local spirit. When he became a Christian he did not +close himself up, like the Donatists, within the African Church. His dream +was that Christ's Empire upon earth should equal the Empire of the Cæsars. + +Still, it is desirable not to fall into error upon this Roman unity. +Behind the imposing front it shewed from one end to the other of the +Mediterranean, the variety of peoples, with their manners, traditions, +special religions, was always there, and in Africa more than elsewhere. +The population of Carthage was astonishingly mixed. The hybrid character +of this country without unity was illustrated by the streaks found in the +Carthaginian crowds. All the specimens of African races elbowed one another +in the streets, from the nigger, brought from his native Soudan by the +slave-merchant, to the Romanized Numidian. The inflow, continually renewed, +of traffickers and cosmopolitan adventurers increased this confusion. +And so Carthage was a Babel of races, of costumes, of beliefs and ideas. +Augustin, who was at heart a mystic, but also a dialectician extremely fond +of showy discussions, found in Carthage a lively summary of the religions +and philosophies of his day. During these years of study and reflection he +captured booty of knowledge and observation which he would know how to make +use of in the future. + +In the Carthage sanctuaries and schools, in the squares and the streets, +he could see pass the disciples of all the systems, the props of all the +superstitions, the devotees of all the religions. He heard the shrill +clamour of disputes, the tumult of fights and riots. When a man was at the +end of his arguments, he knocked down his opponent. The authorities had a +good deal of trouble to keep order. Augustin, who was an intrepid logician, +must have longed to take his share in these rows. But one cannot exactly +improvise a faith between to-day and to-morrow. While he awaited the +enlightenment of the truth, he studied the Carthaginian Babel. + +First of all, there was the official religion, the most obvious and perhaps +the most brilliant, that of the Divinity of the Emperors, which was still +kept up even under the Christian Cæsars. Each year, at the end of October, +the elected delegates of the entire province, having at their head the +_Sacerdos province_, the provincial priest, arrived at Carthage. Their +leader, clad in a robe broidered with palms, gold crown on head, made his +solemn entry into the city. It was a perfect invasion, each member dragging +in his wake a mob of clients and servants. The Africans, with their +taste for pomp and colour, seized the chance to give themselves over to a +display of ruinous sumptuosities: rich dresses, expensive horses splendidly +caparisoned, processions, sacrifices, public banquets, games at the circus +and amphitheatre. These strangers so overcrowded the city that the imperial +Government had to forbid them, under severe penalties, to stay longer +than five days. A very prudent measure! At these times, collisions were +inevitable between pagans and Christians. It was desirable to scatter such +crowds as soon as possible, for riots were always smouldering in their +midst. + +No less thronged were the festivals of the Virgin of Heaven. A survival +of the national religion, these feasts were dear to the hearts of the +Carthaginians. Augustin went to them with his fellow-students. "We trooped +there from every quarter," he says. There was a great gathering of people +in the interior court which led up to the temple. The statue, taken from +its sanctuary, was placed before the peristyle upon a kind of repository. +Wantons, arrayed with barbarous lavishness, danced around the holy +image; actors performed and sang hymns. "Our eager eyes," Augustin adds +maliciously, "rested in turn on the goddess, and on the girls, her +adorers." The Great Mother of the Gods, the Goddess of Mount Berecyntus, +was worshipped with similar license. Every year the people of Carthage went +to wash her solemnly in the sea. Her statue, carried in a splendid litter, +robed with precious stuffs, curled and farded, passed through the streets +of the city, with its guard of mummers and Corybants. These last, "with +hair greasy from pomade, pale faces, and a loose and effeminate walk, held +out bowls for alms to the onlookers." + +The devotion to Isis was yet another excuse for processions: the _Serapeum_ +was a rival attraction to the temple of the Heavenly Maiden. If we may +trust Tertullian, the Africans swore only by Serapis. Possibly Mithras +had also worshippers in Carthage. Anyhow, the occult religions were fully +represented there. Miracle-working was becoming more and more the basis +even of paganism. Never had the soothsayers been more flourishing. +Everybody, in secret, pried into the entrails of the sacrificial victims, +or used magic spells. As to the wizards and astrologists, they did business +openly. Augustin himself consulted them, like all the Carthaginians. The +public credulity had no limits. + +On the opposite side from the pagan worship, the sects which had sprung +from Christianity sprouted. True, Africa has given birth to but a small +number of heresies: the Africans had not the subtle mind of the Orientals +and they were not given to theorizing. But a good many of the Eastern +heresies had got into Carthage. Augustin must have still met Arians there, +although at this period Arianism was dying out in Africa. What is certain +is that orthodox Catholicism was in a very critical state. The Donatists +captured its congregations and churches; they were unquestionably in the +majority. They raised altar against altar. If Genethlius was the Catholic +bishop, the Donatist bishop was Parmenianus. And they claimed to be more +Catholic than their opponents. They boasted that they were the Church, the +single, the unique Church, the Church of Christ. But these schismatics +themselves were already splitting up into many sects. At the time Augustin +was studying at Carthage, Rogatus, Bishop of Tenes, had just broken +publicly with Parmenian's party. Another Donatist, Tyconius, published +books wherein he traversed many principles dear to his fellow-religionists. +Doubt darkened consciences. Amid these controversies, where was the truth? +Among whom did the Apostolic tradition dwell? + +To put the finishing touch on this anarchy, a sect which likewise derived +from Christianity--Manicheeism--began to have numerous adepts in Africa. +Watched with suspicion by the Government, it concealed part of its +doctrine, the most scandalous and subversive. But the very mystery which +enveloped it, helped it to get adherents. + +Among all these apostles preaching their gospel, these devotees beating +the drum before their god, these theologians reciprocally insulting and +excommunicating one another, Augustin brought the superficial scepticism of +his eighteenth year. He wanted no more of the religion in which his mother +had brought him up. He was a good talker, a clever dialectician; he was in +a hurry to emancipate himself, to win freedom for his way of thinking as +for his way of life; and he meant to enjoy his youth. With such gifts, and +with such dispositions, he could only choose among all these doctrines that +which would help most the qualities of his mind, at once flattering his +intellectual pretensions, and leaving his pleasure-loving instincts a loose +rein. + + + + +III + +THE CARTHAGE STUDENT + + +However strong were the attractions of the great city, Augustin well knew +that he had not been sent there to amuse himself, or to trifle as an +amateur with philosophy. He was poor, and he had to secure his future--make +his fortune. His family counted on him. Neither was he ignorant of the +difficult position of his parents and by what sacrifices they had supplied +him with the means to finish his studies. Necessarily he was obliged to be +a student who worked. + +With his extraordinary facility, he stood out at once among his +fellow-students. In the rhetoric school, where he attended lectures, +he was, he tells us, not only at the top, but he was the leader of his +companions. He led in everything. At that time, rhetoric was extremely +far-reaching: it had come to take in all the divisions of education, +including science and philosophy. Augustin claims to have learned all that +the masters of his time had to teach: rhetoric, dialectic, geometry, music, +mathematics. Having gone through the whole scholastic system, he thought of +studying law, and aided by his gift of words, to become a barrister. For a +gifted young man it was the shortest and surest road to money and honours. + +Unhappily for him, hardly was he settled down at Carthage than his father +died. This made his future again problematical. How was he to keep up his +studies without the sums coming from his father? The affairs of Patricius +must have been left in the most parlous condition. But Monnica, clinging to +her ambitious plans for her son, knew how to triumph over all difficulties, +and she continued to send Augustin money. Romanianus, the Mæcenas of +Thagaste, who was doubtless applied to by her, came once more to the rescue +of the hard-up student. The young man, set at ease about his expenses, +resumed light-heartedly his studious and dissipated life. + +As a matter of fact, this family bereavement does not seem to have caused +him much grief. In the _Confessions_ he mentions the death of his father in +a few words, and, so to speak, in parenthesis, as an event long foreseen +without much importance. And yet he owed him a great deal. Patricius was +hard pressed, and he took immense trouble to provide the means for his +son's education. But with the fine egotism of youth, Augustin perhaps +thought it enough to have profited by his father's sacrifices, and +dispensed himself from gratitude. In any case, his affection for his father +must have been rather lukewarm; the natural differences between them ran +too deep. In these years, Monnica filled all the heart of Augustin. + +But the influence of Monnica herself was very slight upon this grown-up +youth, eighteen years old. He had forgotten her lessons, and it did not +trouble him much if his conduct added to the worries of the widow, who was +now struggling with her husband's creditors. At heart he was a good son and +he deeply loved his mother, but inevitably the pressure of the life around +him swept him along. + +He has pictured his companions for us, after his conversion, as terrible +blackguards. No doubt he is too severe. Those young men were neither better +nor worse than elsewhere. They were rowdy, as they were in the other cities +of the Empire, and as one always is at that age. Imperial regulations +enjoined the police to have an eye on the students, to note their conduct +and what company they kept. They were not to become members of prohibited +societies, not to go too often to the theatre, nor to waste their time in +raking and feastings. If their conduct became too outrageous, they were to +be beaten with rods and sent back to their parents. At Carthage there was +a hard-living set of men who called themselves "The Wreckers." Their great +pleasure was to go and make a row at a professor's lecture; they would +burst noisily into the classroom and smash up anything they could lay hold +of. They amused themselves also by "ragging" the freshmen, jeering at their +simplicity, and playing them a thousand tricks. Things haven't much changed +since then. The fellow-students of Augustin were so like students of +to-day that the most modern terms suggest themselves to describe their +performances. + +Augustin, who was on the whole well conducted, and, as behoved a future +professor, had a respect for discipline, disapproved of "The Wreckers" and +their violence. This did not prevent him from enjoying himself in their +society. He was overcome with shame because he could not keep pace with +them--we must believe it at least, since he tells us so himself. With a +certain lack of assurance, blended however with much juvenile vanity, he +joined the band. He listened to that counsel of vulgar wisdom which is +disastrous to souls like his: "Do as others do." He accordingly did do +as the others; he knew all their debauchery, or he imagined he did, for +however low he went, he was never able to do anything mean. He was then so +far from the faith that he arranged love-trysts in the churches. "I was not +afraid to think of my lust, and plan a scheme for securing the deadly fruit +of sin, even within the walls of Thy church during the celebration of Thy +mysteries." We might be reading the confession of a sensualist of to-day. +One grows astonished at these morals, at once so old and so modern. What, +already! These young Christian basilicas, but newly sprung out of the +earth, where the men were strictly separated from the women--were they +already become places of assignation, where love-letters were slipped into +hands, and procuresses sold their furtive services!... + +At length the great happiness for which Augustin had so long been sighing +was granted him: he loved and he was loved. + +He loved as he indeed was able to love, with all the impetuosity of his +nature and all the fire of his temperament, with all his heart and all his +senses. "I plunged headlong into love, whose fetters I longed to wear." But +as he went at once to extremes, as he meant to give himself altogether, +and expected all in return, he grew irritated at not receiving this same +kind of love. It was never enough love for him. Yet he was loved, and the +very certainty of this love, always too poor to his mind, exasperated the +violence and pertinacity of his desire. "Because I was loved, I proudly +riveted round myself the chain of woe, to be soon scourged with the red-hot +iron rods of jealousy, torn by suspicions, fears, anger, and quarrels." +This was passion with chorus and orchestra, a little theatrical, with its +violences, its alternations between fury and ecstasy, such as an African, +steeped in romantic literature, would conceive it. Deceived, he flung +himself in desperate pursuit of the ever-flitting love. He had certainly +more than one passion. Each one left him more hungry than the last. + +He was sensual, and he felt each time how brief is pleasure, in what a +limited circle all enjoyment turns. He was tender, eager to give himself; +and he saw plainly that one never gives oneself quite altogether, that even +in the maddest hours of surrender one always reserves oneself in secret, +keeping for oneself something of oneself; and he felt that most of the time +his tenderness got no answer. When the joyous heart brings the offering of +its love, the heart of her he loves is absent. And when it is there, on the +edge of the lips, decked and smiling to meet the loved one, it is the other +who is absent. Almost never do they join together, and they never join +together altogether. And so this Love, which claims to be constant and even +eternal, ought to be, if it would prolong itself, a continual act of faith, +and hope, and charity. To believe in it in spite of its darkening and +falling away; to hope its return, often against all evidence; to pardon its +injustices and sometimes its foul actions--how many are capable of such +abnegation? Augustin went through all that. He was in despair about it. +And then, the nostalgia of predestined souls took hold of him. He had an +indistinct feeling that these human loves were unworthy of him, and that +if he must have a master, he was born to serve another Master. He had a +desire to shake off the platitude of here below, the melancholy fen where +stagnated what he calls "the marsh of the flesh"; to escape, in a word, +from the wretched huts wherein for a little he had sheltered his heart; to +burn all behind him, and so prevent the weakness of a return; and to go and +pitch his tent further, higher, he knew not where--upon some unapproachable +mountain where the air is icy, but before the eyes, the vasty stretches of +light and space.... + +These first loves of Augustin were really too fierce to last. They +burned up themselves. Augustin did not keep them up long. There was in +him, besides, an instinct which counteracted his exuberant, amorous +sentimentality--the sense of beauty. That in itself was enough to make him +pause on the downhill of riot. The anarchy and commotion of passion was +repellent to a mind devoted to clearness and order. But there was still +another thing--the son of the Thagaste freeholder had any amount of common +sense. That at least was left to him of the paternal heritage. A youth of +what we call the lower middle class, strictly brought up in the hard and +frugal discipline of the provinces, he felt the effects of his training. +The bohemianism in which his friends revelled could not hold him +indefinitely. Besides this, the career he desired, that of a barrister +or professor, had a preliminary obligation to maintain a certain outward +decorum. He himself tells us so; in the midst of his most disreputable +performances he aspired to be known for his fashion and wit--_elegans atque +urbanus_. Politeness of speech and manners, the courteous mutual deference +of the best society--such, was the ideal of this budding professor of +rhetoric. + +Anxiety about his future, joined to his rapid disenchantments, ere long +sobered the student: he just took his fling and then settled down. Love +turned for him into sensual habit. His head became clear for study and +meditation. The apprentice to rhetoric liked his business. Up to his +last breath, despite his efforts to change, he continued, like all his +contemporaries, to love rhetoric. He handled words like a worker in verbals +who is aware of their price and knows all their resources. Even after his +conversion, if he condemns profane literature as a poisoner of souls, he +absolves the beauty of language. "I accuse not words," he says. "Words +are choice and precious vessels. I accuse the wine of error that drunken +doctors pour out for us into these fair goblets." At the Rhetoric School he +took extreme pleasure in declaiming. He was applauded; the professor gave +him as an example to the others. These scholastic triumphs foretold others +more celebrated and reverberating. And so, in his heart, literary vanity +and ambition disputed the ever-lively illusions of love. And then, above +all! he had to live; Monnica's remittances were necessarily small; the +generosity of Romanianus had its limit. So he beat about to enlarge his +small student's purse. He wrote verses for poetic competitions. Perhaps +already he was able to act as tutor to certain of his fellow-students, less +advanced. + +If the need of loving tormented his sentimental heart, he tried to assuage +it in friendship. He loved friendship as he loved love. He was a passionate +and faithful friend up to his death. At this time of his life, he was +riveting friendships which were never to be broken. He had beside him his +fellow-countryman, Alypius, the future Bishop of Thagaste, who had followed +him to Carthage and would, later on, follow him to Milan; Nebridius, a not +less dear companion, fated to die early; Honoratus, whom he drew into his +errors and later did his best to enlighten; and, finally, that mysterious +young man, whose name he does not tell us, and whose loss he mourned as +never any one has mourned the death of a friend. + +They lived in daily and hourly intimacy, in continual fervour and +enthusiasm. They were great theatre-goers, where Augustin was able to +satisfy his desire for tender emotions and romantic adventures. They had +musical parties; they tried over again the popular airs heard at the +Odeum or some other of the innumerable theatres at Carthage. All the +Carthaginians, even the populace, were mad about music. The Bishop of +Hippo, in his sermons, recalls a mason upon his scaffolding, or a shoemaker +in his stall, singing away the tunes of well-known musicians. Then our +students strolled on the quays or in the Harbour Square, contemplating +the many-coloured sea, this splendour of waters at the setting sun, which +Augustin will extol one day with an inspiration unknown to the ancient +poets. Above all, they fell into discussions, commented what they had +lately read, or built up astonishing plans for the future. So flowed by a +happy and charming life, abruptly interpolated with superb anticipations. +With what a full heart the Christian penitent calls it back for us!--"What +delighted me in the intercourse of my friends, was the talk, the laughter, +the good turns we did each other, the common study of the masters of +eloquence, the comradeship, now grave now gay, the differences that left +no sting, as of a man differing with himself, the spice of disagreement +which seasoned the monotony of consent. Each by turns would instruct or +listen; impatiently we missed the absent friend, and savoured the joy of +his return. We loved each other with all our hearts, and such tokens of +friendship springing from the heart and displayed by a word, a glance, an +expression, by a thousand pretty complaisances, supply the heat which welds +souls together, and of many make one." + +It is easily understood that such ties as these had given Augustin a +permanent disgust for his rowdy comrades of a former time: he went no more +with "The Wreckers." The small circle he took pleasure in was quiet and +cheerful. Its merriment was controlled by the African gravity. He and his +friends come before my eyes, a little like those students of theology, or +those cultivated young Arabs, who discuss poetry, lolling indolently upon +the cushions of a divan, while they roll between their fingers the amber +beads of their rosary, or walking slowly under the arcades of a mosque, +draped in their white-silk simars, with a serious and meditative air, +gestures elegant and measured, courteous and harmonious speech, and +something discreet, polite, and already clerical in their tone and manners. + +In fact, the life which Augustin was at that time relishing was the pagan +life on its best and gentlest side. The subtle network of habits and daily +occupations enveloped him little by little. There was some risk of his +growing torpid in this soft kind of life, when suddenly a rude shock roused +him.... It was a chance, but in his eyes a providential chance, which put +the _Hortensius_ of Cicero between his hands. Augustin was about nineteen, +still a student; according to the order which prevailed in the schools, +the time had come for him to read and explain this philosophical dialogue. +He had no curiosity about the book. He took it from his sense of duty as +a student, because it figured on the schedule. He unrolled the book, and +began it, doubtless with calm indifference. All of a sudden, a great +unexpected light shone between the lines. His heart throbbed. His whole +soul sprang towards these phrases, so dazzling and revealing. He awoke +from his long drowsiness. Before him shone a marvellous vision.... As this +dialogue is lost, we can hardly to-day account for such enthusiasm, and +we hold that the Roman orator was a very middling philosopher. We know, +however, through Augustin himself, that the book contained an eloquent +praise of wisdom. And then, words are naught without the soul of the +reader; all this, falling into Augustin's soul, rendered a prolonged and +magnificent sound. It is evident, too, that just at the moment when he +unrolled the book he was in a condition to receive this uplifting summons. +In such minutes, when the heart, ignorant of itself, swells like the sea +before a storm, when all the inner riches of the being overflow, the +slightest glimmer is enough to reveal all these imprisoned forces, and the +least shock to set them free. + +He has at least preserved for us, in pious and faithful gratitude, some +phrases of this dialogue which moved him so deeply. Especially does he +admire this passage, wherein the author, after a long discussion, ends in +these terms: "If, as pretend the philosophers of old time, who are also +the greatest and most illustrious, we have a soul immortal and divine, it +behoves us to think, that the more it has persevered in its way, that is to +say, in reason, love, and the pursuit of truth, and the less it has been +intermingled and stained in human error and passion, the easier will it be +for it to raise itself and soar again to the skies." + +Such phrases, read in a certain state of mind, might well overwhelm this +young man, who was ere long to yearn for the cloister and was destined to +be the founder of African monasticism. To give his whole life to the study +of wisdom, to compel himself towards the contemplation of God, to live +here below an almost divine life--this ideal, impossible to pagan wisdom, +Augustin was called to realize in the name of Christ. That had dawned on +him, all at once, while he was reading the _Hortensius_. And this ideal +appeared to him so beautiful, so well worth the sacrifice of all he had +hitherto loved, that nothing else counted for him any more. He despised +rhetoric, the vain studies it compelled him to pursue, the honour and glory +it promised him. What was all that to the prize of wisdom? For wisdom he +felt himself ready to give up the world.... But these heroic outbursts +do not, as a rule, keep up very long in natures so changeable and +impressionable as Augustin's. Yet they are not entirely thrown away. +Thus, in early youth, come dim revelations of the future. There comes a +presentiment of the port to which one will some day be sailing; a glimpse +of the task to fulfil, the work to build up; and all this rises before the +eyes in an entrancement of the whole being. Though the bright image be +eclipsed, perhaps for years, the remembrance of it persists amid the worst +degradations or the worst mediocrities. He who one single time has seen it +pass, can never afterwards live quite like other people. + +This fever calmed, Augustin set himself to reflect. The ancient +philosophers promised him wisdom. But Christ also promised it! Was it not +possible to reconcile them? And was not the Gospel ideal essentially more +human than that of the pagan philosophers? Suppose he tried to submit to +that, to bring the faith of his childhood into line with his ambitions as a +young man of intellect? To be good after the manner of his mother, of his +grandparents, of the good Thagaste servants, of all the humble Christian +souls whose virtues he had been taught to respect, and at the same time to +rival a Plato by the strength of thought--what a dream! Was it possible?... +He tells us himself that the illusion was brief, and that he grew cool +about the _Hortensius_ because he did not find the name of Christ in it. He +deceives himself, probably. At this time he was not so Christian. He yields +to the temptation of a fine phrase: when he wrote his _Confessions_ he had +not yet entirely lost this habit. + +But what remains true is, that feeling the inadequateness of pagan +philosophy, he returned for a moment towards Christianity. The Ciceronian +dialogue, by disappointing his thirst for the truth, gave him the idea of +knocking at the door of the Church and trying to find out if on that side +there might not be a practicable road for him. This is why the reading +of _Hortensius_ is in Augustin's eyes one of the great dates of his life. +Although he fell back in his errors, he takes credit for his effort. +He recognizes in it the first sign, and, as it were, a promise of his +conversion. "Thenceforth, my God, began my upward way, and my return +towards Thee." + +He began then to study the Holy Scriptures with a more or less serious +intention to instruct himself in them. But to go to the Bible by way of +Cicero was to take the worst road. Augustin got lost there. This direct +popular style, which only cares about saying things, and not about how they +are said, could only repel the pupil of Carthage rhetoricians, the imitator +of the harmonious Ciceronian sentences. Not only had he much too spoiled +a taste in literature, but there was also too much literature in this +pose of a young man who starts off one fine morning to conquer wisdom. He +was punished for his lack of sincerity, and especially of humility. He +understood nothing of the Scripture, and "I found it," he says, "a thing +not known to the proud, nor yet laid open to children, but poor in +appearance, lofty in operation, and veiled in mysteries. At that time, I +was not the man to bow my head so as to pass in at its door."... + +He grew tired very quickly. He turned his back on the Bible, as he +had thrown aside _Hortensius_, and he went to find pasture elsewhere. +Nevertheless, his mind had been set in motion. Nevermore was he to know +repose, till he had found truth. He demanded this truth from all the sects +and all the churches. So it was, that in despair he flung himself into +Manicheeism. + +Some have professed amazement that this honest and practical mind should +have stuck fast in a doctrine so tortuous, so equivocal, contaminated by +fancies so grossly absurd. But perhaps it is forgotten that there was +everything in Manicheeism. The leaders of the sect did not deliver the bulk +of the doctrine all at once to their catechumens; the entire initiation was +a matter of several degrees. Now Augustin never went higher than a simple +_auditor_ in the Manichean Church. What attracted specially fine minds to +the Manichees, was that they began by declaring themselves rationalists. +To reconcile faith with natural science and philosophy has been the fad +of heresiarchs and free-thinkers in all ages. The Manicheans bragged that +they had succeeded. They went everywhere, crying out: "Truth, Truth!" That +suited Augustin very well: it was just what he was looking for. He hastened +to the preachings of these humbugs, impatient to receive at last this +"truth," so noisily announced. From what they said, it was contained in +several large books written by their prophet under the guidance of the Holy +Ghost. There was quite a library of them. By way of bamboozling the crowd, +they produced some of them which looked very important, ponderous as +Tables of the Law, richly bound in vellum, and embellished with striking +illuminations. How was it possible to doubt that the entire revelation was +contained in such beautiful books? One felt at once full of respect for a +religion which was able to produce in its favour the testimony of such a +mass of writings. + +However, the priests did not open them. To allay the impatience of their +hearers, they amused them by criticizing the books and dogmas of the +Catholics. This preliminary criticism was the first lesson of their +instruction. They pointed out any number of incoherences, absurdities, +and interpolations in the Bible: according to them, a great part of the +Scriptures had been foisted on the world by the Jews. But they triumphed +especially in detecting the contradictions of the Gospel narratives. They +sapped them with syllogisms. It is easy to understand that these exercises +in logic should have at once attracted the youthful Augustin. With his +extraordinary dialectical subtilty, he soon became very good at it +himself--much better even than his masters. He made speeches in their +assemblies, fenced against a text, peremptorily refuted it, and reduced his +adversaries to silence. He was applauded, covered with praise. A religion +which brought him such successes must be the true one. + +After he became a bishop, he tried to explain to himself how it was that +he fell into Manicheeism, and could find only two reasons. "The first," +he says, "was a friendship which took hold of me under I know not what +appearance of kindness, and was like a cord about my neck.... The second +was those unhappy victories that I almost always won in our disputes." + +But there is still another which he mentions elsewhere, and it had +perhaps the most weight. This was the loose moral code which Manicheeism +authorized. This doctrine taught that we are not responsible for the evil +we do. Our sins and vices are the work of the evil Principle--the God of +Darkness, enemy of the God of Light. Now at the moment when Augustin was +received as _auditor_ by the Manichees, he had a special need of excusing +his conduct by a moral system so convenient and indulgent. He had just +formed his connection with her who was to become the mother of his child. + + + + +IV + +THE SWEETNESS OF TEARS + + +Augustin was nearly twenty. He had finished his studies in rhetoric within +the required time. According to the notions of that age, a young man +ought to have concluded his course by his twentieth year. If not, he was +considered past mending and sent back there and then to his family. + +It may appear surprising that a gifted student like Augustin did not finish +his rhetoric course sooner. But after his terms at Madaura, he had lost +nearly a year at Thagaste. Besides, the life of Carthage had so many charms +for him that doubtless he was in no hurry to leave. However that may be, +the moment was now come for him to make up his mind about his career. +The wishes of his parents, the advice of his masters, as well as his own +ambitions and qualities, urged him, as we know, to become a barrister. But +now, suddenly, all his projects for the future changed. Not only did he +give up the law, but at the very moment when all appeared to smile on him, +at the opening of his youth, he left Carthage to go and bury himself as a +teacher of grammar in the little free-town his birthplace. + +As he has neglected to give any explanation of this sudden determination, +we are reduced to conjectures. It is likely that his mother was bothered +about household expenses and could no longer afford to keep him at +Carthage. Besides, she had other children, a son and daughter, to start in +life. Augustin was on the point of being, if not poor, at least very hard +up. He must do something to earn his living, and as quickly as possible. +In these conditions, the quickest way out of the difficulty was to sell +to others what he had bought from his masters. To live, he would open a +word-shop, as he calls it disdainfully. But as he had only just ceased to +be a student, he could not dream of becoming a professor in a great city +such as Carthage, and setting himself up in rivalry to so many celebrated +masters. The best thing he could do, if he did not want to vegetate, was to +fall back on some more modest post. Now his protector, Romanianus, wanted +him to go to Thagaste. This rich man had a son almost grown up, whom it was +necessary to put as soon as possible in the hands of a tutor. Augustin, +so often helped by the father, was naturally thought of to look after the +youth. Furthermore, Romanianus, who appreciated Augustin's talent, must +have been anxious to attract him to Thagaste and keep him there. With an +eye to the interests of his free-town, he desired to have such a shining +light in the place. So he asked this young man, whom he patronized, to +return to his native district and open a grammar school. He promised +him pupils, and, above all, the support of his influence, which was +considerable, Monnica, as we may conjecture, added her entreaties to those +of the great head of the Thagaste municipality. Augustin yielded. + +Did it grieve him very much to make up his mind to this exile? It must have +been extremely hard for a young man of twenty to give up Carthage and its +pleasures. Moreover, it is pretty nearly certain that at this time he had +already started that connection which was to last so long. To leave a +mistress whom he loved, and that in all the freshness of a passion just +beginning--one wonders how he was able to make up his mind to it. And yet +he did leave, and spent nearly a year at Thagaste. + +One peculiar mark of the youth, and even of the whole life of Augustin, is +the ease with which he unlearns and breaks off his habits--the sentimental +as well as the intellectual. He used up a good many doctrines before +resting in the Catholic truth; and even afterwards, in the course of a +long life, he contradicted and corrected himself more than once in his +controversies and theological writings. His _Retractations_ prove this. One +might say that the accustomed weighs on him as a hindrance to his liberty; +that the look of the places where he lives becomes hateful to him as a +threat of servitude. He feels dimly that his true country is elsewhere, and +that if he must settle anywhere it is in the house of his Heavenly Father. +_Inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te...._ "Restless are our +hearts, O my God, until they rest in Thee." Long before St. Francis of +Assisi, he practised the mystic rule: "As a stranger and a pilgrim." It is +true that in his twentieth year he was very far from being a mystic. But he +already felt that restlessness which made him cross the sea and roam Italy +from Rome to Milan. He is an impulsive. He cannot resist the mirages of his +heart or his imagination. He is always ready to leave. The road and its +chances tempt him. He is eager for the unknown. He lets himself be carried +in delight by the blowing wind. God calls him; he obeys without knowing +where he goes. This unsettled young man, halting between contrary passions, +who feels at home nowhere, has already the soul of an apostle. + +This changeableness of mood was probably the true cause of his departure +for Thagaste. But other more apparent reasons, reasons more patent to a +juvenile consciousness, guided him also. No doubt he was not sorry to +reappear in his little town, although he was so young, with the importance +and authority of a master. His former companions were going to become his +pupils. And then the Manichees had fanaticized him. Carried away by the +neophyte's bubbling zeal, elevated by his triumphs at the public meetings +in Carthage, he meant to shine before his fellow-countrymen, and perhaps +convert them. He departed with his mind made up to proselytize. Let us +believe also, that in spite of his dissolute life, and the new passion that +filled his heart, he did not come back to Thagaste without an affectionate +thought at the back of his head for his mother. + +The reception that Monnica had in reserve for him was going to surprise him +considerably. Since her widowhood, the wife of Patricius had singularly +advanced in the way of Christian perfection. The early Church not only +offered widows the moral help of its sacraments and consolations, it also +granted a special dignity with certain privileges to those who made a vow +to refrain from sex-intercourse. They had in the basilicas, even as the +consecrated virgins, a place of honour, divided from that of the other +matrons by a balustrade. They wore a special dress. They were obliged to +a conduct which would shew them worthy of all the outer marks of respect +which surrounded them. The austerity of Monnica had increased with the zeal +of her faith. She set an example to the Church people at Thagaste. Docile +to the teachings of her priests, eager to serve her brethren, multiplying +alms as much as she could with her straitened means, she was unfailing at +the services of the Church. Twice daily, morning and evening, she might be +seen, exact to the hour of prayer and sermon. She did not go there, her son +assures us, to mingle in cabals and the gossip of pious females, but to +hear God's word in homily, and that God might hear her in prayer. + +The widow compelled all who were about her to the same severe rule which +she herself observed. In this rigid atmosphere of his home, the student +from Carthage, with his free, fashionable airs, must have caused a painful +astonishment. Monnica felt at once that she and her son understood each +other no longer. She began by remonstrating with him. Augustin rebelled. +Things got worse when, with his presumption of the young professor +new-enamelled by the schools, the harsh and aggressive assurance of the +heresiarch, he boasted as loud as he could of being a Manichee. Monnica, +deeply wounded in her piety and motherly tenderness, ordered him to give up +his errors. He refused, and only replied by sarcasms to the poor woman's +complaints. Then she must have believed that the separation was final, that +Augustin had committed an irreparable crime. Being an African Christian, +absolute in her faith and passionate for its defence, she regarded her +son as a public danger. She was filled with horror at his treason. It is +possible, too, that guided by the second-sight of her affection, she saw +clearer into Augustin's heart than he did himself. She was plunged in +sorrow that he mistook himself to this extent, and refused the Grace which +desired to win him to the Catholic unity. And as he was not content with +losing himself, but also drew others into peril--disputing, speech-making +before his friends, abusing his power of language to throw trouble into +consciences--Monnica finally made up her mind. She forbade her son to eat +at her table, or to sleep under her roof. She drove him from the house. + +This must have been a big scandal in Thagaste. It does not appear, however, +that Augustin cared much. In all the conceit of his false knowledge, he had +that kind of inhumanity which drives the intellectual to make litter of the +sweetest and deepest feelings as a sacrifice to his abstract idol. Not only +did he not mind very much if his apostasy made his mother weep, but he did +not trouble, either, to reconcile the chimeras of his brain with the living +reality of his soul and the things of life. Whatever he found inconvenient, +he tranquilly denied, content if he had talked well and entangled his +adversary in the net of his syllogisms. + +Put in interdict by Monnica, he simply went and quartered himself on +Romanianus. The sumptuous hospitality he received there very soon consoled +him for his exile from his home. And if his self-esteem had been affronted, +the pride of living familiarly with so important a personage was, for a +vain young man, a very full compensation. + +In fact, this Romanianus roused the admiration of the whole country by his +luxury and lavish expenditure. He was bound to ruin himself in the long +run, or, at any rate, to raise up envious people bent upon his ruin. Being +at the head of the Decurions, he was the protector, not only of Thagaste, +but of the neighbouring towns. He was the great patron, the influential +man, who had nearly the whole country for his dependents. The town council, +through gratitude and flattery, had had his name engraved upon tables of +brass, and had put up statues to him. It had even conferred powers on him +wider than municipal powers. The truth is that Romanianus did not dole +out his benefactions to his fellow-citizens. He gave them bear-fights and +other spectacles till then unknown at Thagaste. He did not grudge public +banquets, and every day a free meal was to be got at his house. The guests +were served plentifully. After having eaten his dinner, they dipped in +the purse of the host. Romanianus knew the art of doing an obliging thing +discreetly, and even how to anticipate requests which might be painful. So +he was proclaimed unanimously, "the most humane, the most liberal, the most +polite and happiest of men." + +Generous to his dependents, he did not forget himself. He built a villa +which, by the space it occupied, was a real palace, with _thermæ_ walled +in precious marbles. He passed his time in the baths, or gaming, or +hunting--in short, he led the life of a great landed proprietor of those +days. + +No doubt these villas had neither the beauty nor the art-value of the great +Italian villas, which were a kind of museums in a pretty, or grand, natural +frame; but they did not lack charm. Some of them, like that of Romanianus, +were built and decorated at lavish expense. Immensely large, they took +in sometimes an entire village; and sometimes, also, the villa, properly +speaking, the part of the building where the master dwelt, was fortified, +closed in by walls and towers like a feudal castle. Upon the outer gates +and the entrance door might be read in big letters: "The Property of +So-and-so." Often, the inscription was repeated upon the walls of an +enclosure or of a farm, which really belonged to a dependent of the great +man. Under the shelter of the lord's name, these small-holders defended +themselves better against fiscal tyranny, or were included in the +immunities of their patrons. So was formed, under the cover of patronage, +a sort of African feudalism. Augustin's father, who owned vineyards, was +certainly a vassal of Romanianus. + +As the African villa was a centre of agricultural activity, it maintained +on the estate a whole population of slaves, workmen, and small-holders. +The chief herdsman's house neighboured that of the forester. Through +deer-parks, enclosed by latticed fences, wandered gazelles. Oil factories, +vats and cellars for wine, ran on from the bath-buildings and the offices. +Then there was the main building with its immense doorway, its belvedere of +many stories, as in the Roman villas, its interior galleries, and wings to +the right and left of the _atrium_. In front lay the terraces, the gardens +with straight walks formed by closely-clipped hedges of box which led to +pools and jets of water, to arbours covered with ivy, to nymph-fountains +ornamented with columns and statues. In these gardens was a particular +place called the "philosopher's corner." The mistress of the house used to +go there to read or dream. Her chair, or folding-seat, was placed under the +shade of a palm tree. Her "philosopher" followed her, holding her parasol +and leading her little favourite dog. + +It is easy to realize that Augustin managed to stand his mother's severity +without overmuch distress in one of these fine country houses. To be +comfortable there, he had only to follow his natural inclination, which +was, he tells us, epicureanism. It is most certain that at this period +the only thing he cared about and sought after was pleasure. Staying +with Romanianus, he took his share in all the pleasant things of life, +_suavitates illius vitæ_--shared the amusements of his host, and only +bothered about his pupils when he had nothing better to do. He must have +been as little of a grammarian as possible--he hadn't the time. With +the tyrannical friendship of rich people, who are hard put to it to +find occupation, Romanianus doubtless monopolized him from morning till +night. They hunted together, or dined, or read poetry, or discussed in +the evergreen alleys of the garden or "the philosopher's corner." And +naturally, the recent convert to Manicheeism did his best to indoctrinate +and convert his patron--so far at least as a careless man like Romanianus +could be converted. Augustin accuses himself of having "flung" Romanianus +into his own errors. Augustin probably was not so guilty. His wealthy +friend does not seem to have had any very firm convictions. In all +likelihood, he was a pagan, a sceptical or hesitating pagan, such +as existed in numbers at that time. Led by Augustin, he drew near to +Manicheeism. Then, when Augustin gave up Manicheeism for Platonic +philosophy, we see Romanianus take the airs of a philosopher. Later, when +Augustin came back to Catholicism, he drew Romanianus in his wake towards +that religion. This man of fashion was one of those frivolous people who +never go deep into things, for whom ideas are only a pastime, and who +consider philosophers or men of letters as amusers. But it is certain +that he liked to listen to Augustin, and let himself be influenced. If he +trifled with Manicheeism, the reason was that Augustin dazzled him with his +arguments and fine phrases. This orator of twenty had already extraordinary +charm. + +So Augustin led a delightful life with Romanianus. Everything pleased +him--his talking triumphs, the admiration of his hearers, the flattery +and luxury which surrounded him. Meanwhile, Monnica was plunged in grief +at his conduct, and implored God to draw him from his errors. She began +to be sorry that she had sent him away, and with the clear-sightedness of +the Christian, she perceived that Romanianus' house was not good for the +prodigal. It would be better to have him back. Near her he would run less +risk of being corrupted. Through intense praying, came to her a dream +which quickened her determination. "She dreamed that she was weeping and +lamenting, with her feet planted on a wooden rule, when she saw coming +towards her a radiant youth who smiled upon her cheerfully. He asked the +reason of her sorrow and her daily tears ... and when she told him she was +bewailing my perdition, he bade her be of good comfort, look and see, for +where she was, there was I also. She looked, and saw me standing by her +side on the same rule." + +Filled with joy by this promise from on high, Monnica asked her son to +come home. He did come back, but with the quibbles of the Sophist, the +rhetorician cavilled against his mother. He tried to upset her happiness. +He said to her: + +"Since, according to your dream, we are to be both standing on the same +rule, that means that you are going to be a Manichean." + +"No," answered Monnica. "_He_ did not say, where he is you will be, but +where you are he will be." + +Augustin confesses that this strong good sense made a certain impression +on him. Nevertheless he did not change. For still nine years he remained a +Manichee. + +As a last resource, Monnica begged a bishop she knew, a man deeply read in +the Scriptures, to speak with her son and refute his errors. But so great +was the reputation of Augustin as an orator and dialectician that the holy +man dared not try a fall with such a vigorous jouster. He answered the +mother very wisely, that a mind so subtle and acute could not long continue +in such gross sophisms. And he offered his own example, for he, too, had +been a Manichee. But Monnica pressed him with entreaties and tears. At last +the bishop, annoyed by her persistence, but at the same time moved by her +tears, answered with a roughness mingled with kindness and compassion: + +"Go, go! Leave me alone. Live on as you are living. It cannot be that the +son of such tears should be lost." + +_Filius istarum lacrymarum_: the son of such tears!... Was it indeed the +country bishop, or rather the rhetorician Augustin who, in a burst of +gratitude, hit upon this sublime sentence? Certain it is that later on +Augustin saw in his mother's tears as it were a first baptism whence he +came forth regenerate. After having borne him according to the flesh, +Monnica, by her tears and moans, gave him birth into the spiritual life. +Monnica wept because of Augustin. Monnica wept for Augustin. This is rather +astonishing in the case of so severe a mother--this African a trifle +rough. The expressions--tears and moans and weeping--occur so often in +her son's writings, that we are at first tempted to take them for pious +metaphors--figures of a sacred rhetoric. We suspect that Monnica's tears +must come from the Bible, an imitation of King David's penitential tears. +But it would be quite an error to believe that. Monnica wept real tears. +In her whole-hearted prayers she bedewed the pavement of the basilica; she +moistened the balustrade against which she leant her forehead. This austere +woman, this widow whose face nobody saw any more, whose body was shapeless +by reason of the mass of stuffs, grey and black, which wrapped her from +head to foot--this rigid Christian concealed a heart full of love. Love +such as this was then a perfectly new thing. + +That an African woman should carry her piety to the point of fanaticism; +that she should work to conquer her son to her faith; that, if he strayed +from it, she should hate him and drive him out with curses--this has been +seen in Africa at all times. But that a mother should mourn at the thought +that her child is lost for another life; that she grows terror-stricken and +despairing when she thinks that she may possess a happiness in which he +will have no part, and walk in the gardens of Heaven while her child will +not be there--no, this had never been seen before. "Where I am you will +be," near me, against my heart, our two hearts meeting in the one same +love--in this union of souls, continued beyond the grave, lies all the +Christian sweetness and hope. + +Augustin was no longer, or not yet, a Christian. But in his tears he is +the true son of his mother. This gift of tears that Saint Lewis of France +begged God with so much earnestness and contrition to grant him, Monnica's +son had to the full. "For him to weep was a pleasure." [1] He inebriated +himself with his tears. Now, just while he was at Thagaste, he lost a +friend whom he loved intensely. This death set free the fountain of tears. +They are not yet the holy tears which he will shed later before God, but +only poor human tears, more pathetic perhaps to our own weakness. + +[Footnote 1: Sainte-Beuve.] + +Who was this friend? He tells us in very vague terms. We only know that +they had grown up as boys together and had gone to the same schools; that +they had just passed a year together, probably at Carthage; that this young +man, persuaded by him, was become a Manichee; and that, in a word, they +loved passionately. Augustin, while speaking of him, recalls in a deeper +sense what Horace said of his friend Virgil: _dimidium animæ_--"O thou half +of my soul!" + +Well, this young man fell gravely sick of a fever. As all hope was at an +end, they baptized him, according to the custom. He grew better, was almost +cured, "As soon as I was able to talk to him," says Augustin--"and that was +as soon as he could bear it, for I never left his side, and we were bound +up in one another--I ventured a jest, thinking that he would jest too, +about the baptism which he had received, when he could neither think nor +feel. But by this time he had been told of his baptism. He shrank from +me as from an enemy, and with a wonderful new-found courage, warned me +never to speak so to him again, if I wished to remain his friend. I was +so astounded and confused that I said no more, resolving to wait till +he should regain his strength, _when I would tell him frankly what I +thought_." + +So, at this serious moment, he whom they called "the Carthaginian disputer" +was sorry not to be able to measure himself in a bout of dialectics with +his half-dead friend. The intellectual poison had so perverted his mind, +that it almost destroyed in him the feelings of common decency. But if his +head, as he acknowledges, was very much spoiled, his heart remained intact. +His friend died a few days after, and Augustin was not there. He was +stunned by it. + +His grief wrought itself up to wildness and despair. "This sorrow fell like +darkness on my heart, and wherever I looked I saw nothing but death. My +country became a torture, my father's house a misery. All the pleasures +that I had shared with him, turned into hideous anguish now that he was +gone. My eyes sought for him everywhere, and found him not. I hated the +familiar scenes because he was not there, and they could no more cry to +me, 'Lo! he will come.' as they used when he was absent but alive...." +Then Augustin began to weep louder, he prolonged his weeping, finding +consolation only in tears. Monnica's tenderness was restrained; in him it +was given full vent and exaggerated. At that time, the Christian moderation +was unknown to him, as well as the measure which the good taste of the +ancients prompted. He has often been compared to the most touching +geniuses, to Virgil, to Racine, who had also the gift of tears. But +Augustin's tenderness is more abandoned, and, so to speak, more romantic. +It even works up, sometimes, into an unhealthy excitement. + +To be full of feeling, as Augustin was then, is not only to feel with +excessive sensitiveness the least wounds, the slightest touches of love or +hate, nor is it only to give oneself with transport; but it is especially +to take delight in the gift of oneself, to feel at the moment of full +abandonment that one is communicating with something infinitely sweet, +which already has ceased to be the creature loved. It is love for love, it +is to weep for the pleasure of tears, it is to mix with tenderness a kind +of egoism avid of experiences. Having lost his friend, Augustin loathes all +the world. He repeats: "Tears were my only comfort. I was wretched, and +my wretchedness was dear to me." And accordingly, he did not want to be +consoled. But as, little by little, the terrors of that parting subsided, +he perceived himself that he played with grief and made a joy of his +tears. "My tears," he says, "were dearer to me than my friend had been." +By degrees the friend is almost forgotten. Though Augustin may hate life +because his friend has gone, he confesses naively that he would not have +sacrificed his existence for the sake of the dead. He surmises that what +is told of Orestes and Pylades contending to die for each other is but a +fable. Ultimately, he comes to write: "Perhaps I feared to die, _lest the +other half of him whom I had loved so dearly, should perish_." He himself, +in his _Retractations_, condemns this phrase as pure rhetoric. It remains +true that what was perhaps the deepest sorrow of his life--this sorrow so +sincere and painful which had "rent and bloodied his soul"--ended with a +striking phrase. + +It should be added, that in a stormy nature like his, grief, like love, +wears itself out quickly. It burns up passion and sentiment as it does +ideas. When at length he regained his calm, everything appeared drab. +Thagaste became intolerable. With his impulsive temperament, his changeable +humour, he all at once hit upon a plan: To go back to Carthage and open a +rhetoric school. Perhaps, too, the woman he loved and had abandoned there +was pressing him to return. Perhaps she told him that she was about to +become a mother. Always ready to go away, Augustin scarcely hesitated. +It is more than likely that he did not consult Monnica. He only told +Romanianus, who, as he had all kinds of reasons for wanting to keep +Augustin at Thagaste, at first strongly objected. But the young man pointed +to his future, his ambition to win fame. Was he going to bury all that in a +little town? + +Romanianus yielded, and with a generosity that is no longer seen, he paid +the expenses this time too. + + + + +V + +THE SILENCE OF GOD + + +Augustin was going to live nine years at Carthage--nine years that he +squandered in obscure tasks, in disputes sterile or unfortunate for himself +and others--briefly, in an utter forgetfulness of his true vocation. "And +during this time Thou wert silent, O my God!" he cries, in recalling only +the faults of his early youth. Now, the silence of God lay heavy. And yet +even in those years his tormented soul had not ceased to appeal. "Where +wert Thou then, O my God, while I looked for Thee? Thou wert before me. But +I had drawn away from myself and I could not find myself. How much less, +then, could I find Thee." + +This was certainly the most uneasy, and, at moments, the most painful time +of his life. Hardly was he got back to Carthage than he had to struggle +against ever-increasing money difficulties. Not only had he to get his +own living, but the living of others--possibly his mother's and that of +his brother and sister--at all events, he had to support his mistress and +the child. It is possible that the infant was born before its father left +Thagaste; if not, the birth must have occurred shortly after. + +The child was called Adeodatus. There is a kind of irony in this name, +which was then usual, of Adeodatus--"Gift of God." This son of his sin, as +Augustin calls him, this son whom he did not want, and the news of whose +birth must have been a painful shock--this poor child was a gift of Heaven +which the father could have well done without. And then, when he saw him, +he was filled with joy, and he cherished him as a real gift from God. + +He accepted his fatherhood courageously, and, as it happens in such +cases, he was drawn closer to his mistress, their association taking on +something of conjugal dignity. Did the mother of Adeodatus justify such +attachment--an attachment which was to last more than ten years? The +mystery in which Augustin intended that the woman he had loved the most +should remain enveloped for all time, is nearly impenetrable to us. No +doubt she was of a very humble, not to say low class, since Monnica judged +it impossible to bring about a marriage between the ill-assorted pair. +There must have been an extreme inequality between the birth and education +of the lovers. This did not prevent Augustin from loving his mistress +passionately, for her beauty perhaps, or perhaps for her goodness of heart, +or both. Nevertheless, it is surprising, that in view of his changing +humour, and his prompt and impressionable soul, he remained faithful to +her so long. What was to prevent his taking his son and going off? Ancient +custom authorized such an act. But Augustin was tender-hearted. He was +afraid to cause pain; he dreaded for others the wounds that caused him so +much suffering himself. So he stayed on from kindness, from pity, habit +too, and also because, in spite of everything, he loved the mother of his +child. Up to the time of his conversion, they lived like husband and wife. + +So now, to keep his family, he really turns "a dealer in words." In spite +of his youth (he was barely twenty) the terms he had kept at Thagaste as +a teacher of grammar allowed him to take his place among the rhetoricians +at Carthage. Thanks to Romanianus, he got pupils at once. His protector at +Thagaste sent his son, that young Licentius whose education Augustin had +already begun, with one of his brothers, doubtless younger. It seems likely +that the two youths lived in Augustin's house. A small fact which their +master has preserved, looks like a proof of this. A spoon having been lost +in the house, Augustin, to find out where it was, told Licentius to go +and consult a wizard, one Albicerius, who had, just then, a great name in +Carthage. This message is scarcely to be explained unless we suppose the +lad was lodging in his professor's house. Another of the pupils is known to +us. This is Eulogius, who was later on a rhetorician at Carthage, and of +whom Augustin relates an extraordinary dream. Finally, there was Alypius, +a little younger than himself, his friend--"the brother of his heart," as +he calls him. Alypius had been attending his lessons at Thagaste. When the +schoolmaster abruptly threw up his employment, the father of the pupil +was angry, and in sending his son to Carthage, he forbade him to go near +Augustin's class. But it was difficult to keep such eager friends apart. +Little by little, Alypius overcame his father's objections, and became a +pupil of his friend. + +Augustin's knowledge, when he began to lecture, could not have been very +deep, for he had only lately quitted the student's bench himself. His +duties forced him to learn what he did not know. In teaching he taught +himself. It was at this time that he did most of the reading which +afterwards added substance to his polemics and treatises. He tells us +himself that he read in those days all that he could lay hands on. He is +very proud of having read by himself and understood without any assistance +from a master, the _Ten Categories_ of Aristotle, which was considered one +of the most abstruse works of the Stagirite. In an age when instruction was +principally by word of mouth, and books comparatively rare, it is obvious +that Augustin was not what we call an "all-devouring reader." We do not +know if Carthage had many libraries, or what the libraries were worth. It +is no less true that the author of _The City of God_ is the last of the +Latin writers who had a really all-round knowledge. It is he who is the +link between modern times and pagan antiquity. The Middle Age hardly knew +classical literature, save by the allusions and quotations of Augustin. + +So in spite of family and professional cares, he did not lose his +intellectual proclivities. The conquest of truth remained always his great +ambition. He still hoped to find it in Manicheeism, but he began to think +that it was a long time coming. The leaders of the sect could not have +trusted him thoroughly. They feared his acute and subtle mind, so quick +to detect the flaw in a thesis or argument. That is why they postponed +his initiation into their secret doctrines. Augustin remained a simple +_auditor_ in their Church. By way of appeasing the enormous activity of +his intelligence, they turned him on to controversy, and the critical +discussion of the Scriptures. Giving themselves out for Christians, they +adopted a part of them, and flung aside as interpolated or forged all that +was not in tune with their theology. Augustin, as we know, triumphed in +disputes of this kind, and was vain because he excelled in them. + +And when he grew tired of this negative criticism and asked his evangelists +to give him more substantial food, they put him on some exoteric doctrine +calculated to appeal to a young imagination by its poetic or philosophical +colouring. The catechumen was not satisfied, but he put up with it for +lack of anything better. Very prettily he compares these enemies of the +Scriptures to the snarers of birds, who defile or fill with earth all the +water-places where the birds use to drink, save one mere; and about this +they set their snares. The birds all fly there, not because the water +is better, but because there is no other water, and they know not where +else to go and drink. So Augustin, not knowing where to quench his thirst +for truth, was fain to make the best of the confused pantheism of the +Manichees. + +What remains noteworthy is, that however unstable his own convictions were, +he yet converted everybody about him. It was through him that his friends +became Manichees: Alypius one of the first; then Nebridius, the son of a +great landowner near Carthage; Honoratius, Marcianus; perhaps, too, the +youngest of his pupils, Licentius and his brother--all victims of his +persuasive tongue, which he exerted later on to draw them back from their +errors. So great was his charm--so deep, especially, was public credulity! + +This fourth century was no longer a century of strong Christian faith. On +the other hand, the last agony of paganism was marked by a new attack of +the lowest credulity and superstition. As the Church energetically combated +both one and the other, it is not surprising that it was chiefly the +pagans who were contaminated. The old religion was to end by foundering in +magic. The greatest minds of the period, the neo-Platonists, the Emperor +Julian himself, were miracle-workers, or at any rate, adepts in the occult +sciences. Augustin, who was then separated from Christianity, followed the +general impulse, together with the young men he knew. Just now we saw him +sending to consult the soothsayer, Albicerius, about the loss of a spoon. +And this man of intellect believed also in astrologers and nigromancers. + +Strips of lead have been found at Carthage upon which are written magic +spells against horses entered for races in the circus. Just like the +Carthaginian jockeys, Augustin had recourse to these hidden and fraudulent +practices, to make sure of success. On the eve of a verse competition in +the theatre, he fell in with a wizard who offered, if they could agree +about the price, to sacrifice a certain number of animals to buy the +victory. Upon this, Augustin, very much annoyed, declared that if the prize +were a crown of immortal gold, not a fly should be sacrificed to help him +win it. Really, magic was repellent to the honesty of his mind, as well +as to his nerves, by reason of the suspicious and brutal part of its +operations. As a rule, it was involved with haruspicy, and had a side of +sacred anatomy and the kitchen which revolted the sensitive--dissection +of flesh, inspection of entrails, not to mention the slaughtering and +strangling of victims. Fanatics, such as Julian, gave themselves up with +delight to these disgusting manipulations. What we know of Augustin's soul +makes it quite clear why he recoiled with horror. + +Astrology, on the contrary, attracted him by its apparent science. Its +adepts called themselves "mathematicians," and thus seemed to borrow from +the exact sciences something of their solidity. Augustin often discussed +astrology with a Carthage physician, Vindicianus, a man of great sense +and wide learning, who even reached Proconsular honours. In vain did he +point out to the young rhetorician that the pretended prophecies of the +mathematicians were the effect of chance; in vain did Nebridius, less +credulous than his friend, join his arguments to those of the crafty +physician; Augustin clung obstinately to his chimera. His dialectical mind +discovered ingenious justifications for what the astrologers claimed. + +Thus, dazzled by all the intellectual phantasms, he strayed from one +science to another, repeating meanwhile in his heart the motto of his +Manichean masters: "The Truth, the Truth!". But whatever might be the +attractions of the speculative life, he had first to face the needs of +actual life. The sight of his child called him back to a sense of his +position. To get money, and for that purpose to push himself forward, put +himself in evidence, increase his reputation--Augustin worked at that as +hard as he could. It led him to enter for the prize of dramatic poetry. +He was declared the winner. His old friend, the physician Vindicianus, who +was then Proconsul, placed the crown, as he says, upon his "disordered +head." The future Father of the Church writing for the theatre--and what a +theatre it was then!--is not the least extraordinary thing in this life so +disturbed and, at first sight, so contradictory. + +It was also from literary ambition that about the same time he wrote a book +on æsthetics called _Upon the Beautiful and the Fit_, which he dedicated to +a famous colleague, the Syrian Hierius, "orator to the City of Rome," one +of the professors of the official education appointed either by the Roman +municipality or the Imperial treasury. This Levantine rhetorician had an +immense success in the capital of the Empire. His renown had got beyond +academical and fashionable circles and crossed the sea. Augustin admired +him on trust, like everybody else. It is clear that, at this time he could +not imagine a more glorious fortune for himself than to become, like +Hierius, orator to the City of Rome. Later in life, the Bishop of Hippo, +while condemning the vanity of his youthful ambitions, must have made some +extremely ironical reflections as to their modesty. How mistaken he was +about himself! An Augustin had dreamed of equalling one day this obscure +pedagogue, of whom nobody, save for him, would ever have spoken again. Men +of instinct, like Augustin, continually go wrong in this way about their +object and the means to employ. But their mistakes are only in appearance. +A will stronger than their own leads them, by mysterious ways, whither they +ought to go. + +This first book of Augustin's is lost, and we are unable to say whether +there be any reason to regret it. He himself recalls it to us in a very +indifferent tone and rather vague terms. It would seem, however, that his +æsthetic had a basis of Manichean metaphysics. But what is significant for +us, in this youthful essay, is that the first time Augustin wrote as an +author it was to define and to praise Beauty. He did not yet know, at least +not directly from the text, the dialogues of Plato, and he is already +inclined to Platonism. He was this by nature. His Christianity will be a +religion all of light and beauty. For him, the supreme Beauty is identical +with the supreme Love. "Do we love anything," he used to say to his +friends, "except what is beautiful?" _Num amamus aliquid, nisi pulchrum?_ +Again, at the end of his life, when he strives in _The City of God_ to +make clear for us the dogma of the resurrection of the body, he thinks our +bodies shall rise free from all earthly flaws, in all the splendour of the +perfect human type. Nothing of the body will be lost. It will keep all its +limbs and all its organs _because they are beautiful_. One recognizes in +this passage, not only the Platonist, but the traveller and art-lover, who +had gazed upon some of the finest specimens of ancient statuary. + +This first book had hardly any success. Augustin does not even say whether +the celebrated Hierius paid him a compliment about it, and he has an air +of giving us to understand that he had no other admirer but himself. New +disappointments, more serious mortifications, changed little by little his +state of mind and his plans for the future. He was obliged to acknowledge +that after years of effort he was scarcely more advanced than at the start. +There was no chance to delude himself with vain pretences: it was quite +plain to everybody that the rhetorician Augustin was not a success. Now, +why was this? Was it that he lacked the gift of teaching? Perhaps he had +not the knack of keeping order, which is the most indispensable of all +for a schoolmaster. What suited him best no doubt was a small and select +audience which he charmed rather than ruled. Large and noisy classes he +could not manage. At Carthage, these rhetoric classes were particularly +difficult to keep in order, because the students were more rowdy than +elsewhere. At any moment "The Wreckers" might burst in and make a row. +Augustin, who had not joined in these "rags" when he was a student, saw +himself obliged to endure them as a professor. He had nothing worse to +complain of than his fellow-professors, in whose classes the same kind of +disturbance took place. That was the custom and, in a manner of speaking, +the rule in the Carthage schools. For all that, a little more authoritative +bearing would not have harmed him in the eyes of these disorderly boys. But +he had still graver defects for a professor who wants to get on: he was not +a schemer, and he could not make the most of himself. + +It is quite possible that he did not possess the qualities which just then +pleased the pagan public in a rhetorician. The importance that the ancients +attached to physical advantages in an orator is well known. Now, according +to an old tradition, Augustin was a little man and not strong: till the end +of his life he complained of his health. He had a weak voice, a delicate +chest, and was often hoarse. Surely this injured him before audiences used +to all the outward emphasis and all the studied graces of Roman eloquence. +Finally, his written and spoken language had none of those brilliant and +ingenious curiosities of phrase which pleased in literary and fashionable +circles. This inexhaustibly prolific writer is not in the least a stylist. +In this respect he is inferior to Apuleius, or Tertullian, though he leaves +them far behind in the qualities of sincere and deep sentiment, poetic +flow, colour, the vividness of metaphor, and, besides, the emotion, the +suavity of the tone. With all that, no matter how hard he tried, he could +never grasp what the rhetoricians of his time understood by style. This is +why his writings, as well as his addresses, were not very much liked. + +Nevertheless, good judges recognized his value, and guessed the powers, +lying still unformed within him, which he was misusing ere they were +mature. He was received at the house of the Proconsul Vindicianus, who +liked to talk with him, and treated him with quite fatherly kindness. +Augustin knew people in the best society. He did all his life. His charm +and captivating manners made him welcome in the most exclusive circles. +But just because he was valued by fashionable society, it came home to him +more painfully that he had not the position he deserved with the public +at large. Little by little his humour grew bitter. In this angry state of +mind he was no longer able to consider things with the same confidence and +serenity. His mental disquietudes took hold of him again. + +His ideas were affected, first of all. He began to have doubts, more +and more definite, about Manicheeism. He began by suspecting the rather +theatrical austerity which the initiated of the sect made such a great +parade of. Among other turpitudes, he saw one day in one of the busiest +parts of Carthage "three of the Elect whinny after some women or other who +were passing, and begin making such obscene signs that they surpassed the +coarsest people for impudence and shamelessness." He was scandalized at +that; but, after all, it was a small thing. He himself was not so very +virtuous then. Generally your intellectual worries very little about +squaring his conduct with his principles, and does not bother about the +practical part. No; what was much worse in his eyes is that the Manichean +physical science, a congeries of fables more or less symbolical, suddenly +struck him as ruinous. He had just been studying astronomy, and he found +that the cosmology of the Manichees--of these men who called themselves +materialists--did not agree with scientific facts. Therefore Manicheeism +must be wrong universally, since it ran counter to reason confirmed by +experience. + +Augustin spoke about his doubts, not only to his friends, but to the +priests of his sect. These got out of the difficulty by evasions and the +most dazzling promises. A Manichee bishop, a certain Faustus, was coming +to Carthage. He was a man of immense learning. Most certainly he would +refute every objection without the least trouble. He would confirm the +young _auditors_ in their faith.... So Augustin and his friends waited for +Faustus as for a Messiah. Their disappointment was immense. The supposed +doctor turned out to be an ignorant man, who possessed no tincture of +science or philosophy, and whose intellectual baggage consisted of nothing +but a little grammar. A delightful talker and a wit, the most he could do +was to discourse pleasantly on literature. + +This disappointment, joined to the set-backs in his profession, brought +about a crisis of soul and conscience in Augustin. So this Truth which he +had sighed after so long, which had been so much promised to him, was only +a decoy! One must be content not to know!... Then what was left to do since +truth was unapproachable? Possibly fortune and honours would console him +for it. But he was far enough from them too. He felt that he was on the +wrong road, that he was getting into a rut at Carthage, as he had got into +a rut at Thagaste. He must succeed, whatever the cost!... And then he gave +way to one of those moments of weariness, when a man has no further hope of +saving himself save by some desperate step. He was sick of where he was and +of those about him. His friends, whom he knew too well, had nothing more +to teach him, and could not help him in the only search which passionately +interested him. And his entanglement became irksome. Here was nine years +that this sharing of bed and board had lasted. His son was at that +unattractive age which rather bores a young father than it revives an +affection already old. No doubt he did not want to abandon him. He did not +intend to break altogether with his mistress. But he felt the need of a +change of air, to take himself off somewhere else, where he could breathe +more freely and get fresh courage for his task. + +Then it dawned on him to try his fortune at Rome. It was there that +literary reputations were made. He would find there, no doubt, better +judges than at Carthage. He would very likely end by getting a post in the +public instruction, with a steady salary--this would relieve him of present +worries, at all events. Probably he had already this plan in his head when +he sent his treatise _On the Beautiful_ to Hierius, orator to the City of +Rome; he thought that by this politeness he might depend, later, on the +backing of the well-known rhetorician. Lastly, his friends, Honoratius, +Marcianus, and the others, earnestly persuaded him to go and find a stage +worthy of him at Rome. Alypius, who was at this time finishing his law +studies there, and must have felt their separation, pressed him to come to +Rome and promised him success. + +Once more, Augustin was ready to go away. He was not long in making up his +mind. He was going to leave all belonging to him, his mistress, his child, +till the time when his new position would enable him to send for them. He +himself tells us that the chief motive which led him to decide on this +journey was that the Roman students were said to be better disciplined +and less noisy than the students at Carthage. Evidently, that is a reason +which would weigh with a professor who objected to act the policeman in his +class. But besides the reasons we have given, there were others which must +have influenced his decision. Theodosius had lately ordered very heavy +penalties against the Manichees. Not only did he condemn them to death, but +he had instituted a perfect Inquisition, with the special duty of spying +upon and prosecuting these heretics. Did it occur to Augustin that he might +hide better in Rome, where he was unknown, than in a city where he was a +marked man on account of his proselytizing zeal? In any case, his departure +gave rise to calumnies which his adversaries, the Donatists, did not +fail many years later to bring up again and make worse. They accused him +of having run away from prosecution; he fled the country, so they said, +on account of a judgment which was out against him, pronounced by the +Proconsul Messianus. Augustin had no trouble in refuting these false +insinuations. But all these facts seem to prove that the most ordinary +prudence warned him to cross the sea as soon as possible. + +Accordingly, he prepared to set sail. Let us hope that in spite of his +lofty indifference to material things, he made some provision for the +existence of the woman and child he left behind. As for her, she appeared +to agree without over-many violent scenes to this parting, which, he said, +was temporary. It was not the same with his mother. The very idea of Rome, +which seemed to her another Babylon, terrified this austere African woman. +What spiritual dangers lay in wait for her son there! She wanted to keep +him near her, both to bring him to the faith and also to love him--this +Augustin who had been her only human love. And then he was doubtless the +chief support of the widow. Without him, what was going to become of her? + +The fugitive was forced to put a trick on Monnica so as to carry out his +plan. She would not leave him a moment, folded him in her arms, implored +him with tears not to go. The night he was to sail she followed him down to +the dock, although Augustin, to allay her suspicions, had told her a lie. +He pretended that he was only going down to the ship with a friend to see +him off. But Monnica, only half believing, followed. Night fell. Meanwhile, +the ship, anchored in a little bay to the north of the city, did not move. +The sailors were waiting till a wind rose to slip their moorings. The +weather was moist and oppressive, as it usually is in the Mediterranean in +August and September. There was not a breath of air. The hours passed on. +Monnica, overcome by heat and fatigue, could hardly stand. Then Augustin +cunningly persuaded her to go and pass the night in a chapel hard by, since +it was plain that the ship would not weigh anchor till dawn. After many +remonstrances, she at length agreed to rest in this chapel--a _memoria_ +consecrated to St. Cyprian, the great martyr and patron of Carthage. + +Like most of the African sanctuaries of those days, and the _marabouts_ +of to-day, this one must have been either surrounded, or approached, by a +court with a portico in arcades, where it was possible to sleep. Monnica +sat down on the ground under her heap of veils among other poor people and +travellers, who were come like her to try to find a little cool air on this +stifling night near the relics of the blessed Cyprian. She prayed for her +child, offering to God "the blood of her heart," begging God not to let +him go, "for she loved to keep me with her" says Augustin, "as mothers are +wont, yes, far more than most mothers." And like a true daughter of Eve, +"weeping and crying, she sought again with groans the son she had brought +forth with groans." She prayed for a long time; then, worn out with sorrow, +she slept. The porter of the chapel, without knowing it, watched that +night not only the mother of the rhetorician Augustin, but the ancestor +of an innumerable line of souls; this humble woman, who slept there on +the ground, on the flags of the courtyard, carried in her heart all the +yearning of all the mothers of the future. + +While she slept, Augustin went stealthily on board. The silence and the +tempered splendour of the night weighed him down. Sometimes the cry of the +sailors on watch took a strange note in the lustrous vaporous spaces. The +Gulf of Carthage gleamed far off under the scintillation of the stars, +under the palpitating of a milky way all white like the flowers of the +garden of Heaven. But Augustin's heart was heavy, heavier than the air +weighted by the heat and sea-damp--heavy from the lie and the cruelty he +had just committed. He saw already the awakening and sorrow of his mother. +His conscience was troubled, overcome by remorse and forebodings.... +Meanwhile, his friends tried to cheer him, and urged him to have courage +and hope. Marcianus, while embracing him, reminded him of the verses of +Terence: + + "This day which brings to thee another life + Demands that thou another man shalt be." + +Augustin smiled sadly. At last the ship began to move. The wind had risen, +the wind of the grand voyage which was bearing him to the unknown.... +Suddenly, at the keen freshness of the open sea, he thrilled. His strength +and confidence rushed back. To go away! What enchantment for all those who +cannot fasten themselves to a corner of the earth, who know by instinct +that they belong _elsewhere_, who always pass "as strangers and as +pilgrims," and who go away with relief, as if they cast a burthen behind +them. Augustin was of those people--of those who, among the fairest +attractions of the Road, never cease to think of the Return. But he knew +not where God was leading him. Marcianus was right: a new life was really +beginning for him; only it was not the life that either of them hoped for. + +He who departed as a rhetorician, to sell words, was to come back as an +apostle, to conquer souls. + + + + +THE THIRD PART + +THE RETURN + + + Et ecce ibi es in corde eorum, in corde confitentium tibi, et + projicientium se in te, et plorantium in sinu tuo, post vias suas + difficiles. + + "And behold! Thou art there in their hearts, in the hearts of + that confess to Thee, and cast themselves upon Thee, and sob upon Thy + breast, after their weary ways." + + _Confessions_, V, 2. + + + + +I + +THE CITY OF GOLD + + +Augustin fell ill just after he got to Rome. It would seem that he arrived +there towards the end of August or beginning of September, before the +students reassembled, just at the time of heat and fevers, when all Romans +who could leave the city fled to the summer resorts on the coast. + +Like all the great cosmopolitan centres at that time, Rome was unhealthy. +The diseases of the whole earth, brought by the continual inflow of +foreigners, flourished there. Accordingly, the inhabitants had a panic fear +of infection, like our own contemporaries. People withdrew prudently from +those suffering from infectious disorders, who were left to their unhappy +fate. If, from a sense of shame, they sent a slave to the patient's +bedside, he was ordered to the sweating-rooms, and there disinfected from +head to foot, before he could enter the house again. + +Augustin must have had at least the good luck to be well looked after, +since he recovered. He had gone to the dwelling of one of his Manichee +brethren, an _auditor_ like himself, and an excellent kind of man, whom he +stayed with all the time he was in Rome. Still, he had such a bad attack of +fever that he very nearly died. "I was perishing," he says; "and I was all +but lost." He is frightened at the idea of having seen death so near, at a +moment when he was so far from God--so far, in fact, that it never occurred +to him to ask for baptism, as he had done, in like case, when he was +little. What a desperate blow would that have been for Monnica! He still +shudders when he recalls the danger: "Had my mother's heart been smitten +with that wound, it never could have been healed. _For I cannot express +her tender love towards me_, or with how far greater anguish she travailed +of me now in the spirit, than when she bore me in the flesh." But Monnica +prayed. Augustin was saved. He ascribes his recovery to the fervent prayers +of his mother, who, in begging of God the welfare of his soul, obtained, +without knowing it, the welfare of his body. + +As soon as he was convalescent, he had to set to work to get pupils. He was +obliged to ask the favours of many an important personage, to knock at many +an inhospitable door. This unfortunate beginning, the almost mortal illness +which he was only just recovering from, this forced drudgery--all that did +not make him very fond of Rome. It seems quite plain that he never liked +it, and till the end of his life he kept a grudge against it for the sorry +reception it gave him. In the whole body of his writings it is impossible +to find a word of praise for the beauty of the Eternal City, while, on +the contrary, one can make out through his invectives against the vices +of Carthage, his secret partiality for the African Rome. The old rivalry +between the two cities was not yet dead after so many centuries. In +his heart, Augustin, like a good Carthaginian--and because he was a +Carthaginian--did not like Rome. + +The most annoying things joined together as if on purpose to disgust him +with it. The bad season of the year was nigh when he began to reside there. +Autumn rains had started, and the mornings and evenings were cold. What +with his delicate chest, and his African constitution sensitive to cold, +he must have suffered from this damp cold climate. Rome seemed to him a +northern city. With his eyes still full of the warm light of his country, +and the joyous whiteness of the Carthage streets, he wandered as one exiled +between the gloomy Roman palaces, saddened by the grey walls and muddy +pavements. Comparisons, involuntary and continual, between Carthage and +Rome, made him unjust to Rome. In his eyes it had a hard, self-conscious, +declamatory look, and gazing at the barren Roman _campagna_, he remembered +the laughing Carthage suburbs, with gardens, villas, vineyards, olivets, +circled everywhere by the brilliance of the sea and the lagoons. + +And then, besides, Rome could not be a very delightful place to live in for +a poor rhetoric master come there to better his fortune. Other strangers +before him had complained of it. Always to be going up and down the flights +of steps and the ascents, often very steep, of the city of the Seven Hills; +to be rushing between the Aventine and Sallust's garden, and thence to +the Esquiline and Janiculum! To bruise the feet on the pointed cobbles of +sloping alley-ways! These walks were exhausting, and there seemed to be no +end to this city. Carthage was also large--as large almost as Rome. But +there Augustin was not seeking employment. When he went for a walk there, +he strolled. Here, the bustle of the crowds, and the number of equipages, +disturbed and exasperated the southerner with his lounging habits. Any +moment there was a risk of being run over by cars tearing at full gallop +through the narrow streets: men of fashion just then had a craze for +driving fast. Or again, the passenger was obliged to step aside so +that some lady might go by in her litter, escorted by her household, +from the handicraft slaves and the kitchen staff, to the eunuchs and +house-servants--all this army manoeuvring under the orders of a leader who +held a rod in his hand, the sign of his office. When the street became +clear once more, and at last the palace of the influential personage +to whom a visit had to be paid was reached, there was no admittance +without greasing the knocker. In order to be presented to the master, +it was necessary to buy the good graces of the slave who took the name +(_nomenclator_), and who not only introduced the suppliant, but might, with +a word, recommend or injure. Even after all these precautions, one was not +yet sure of the goodwill of the patron. Some of these great lords, who were +not always themselves sprung from old Roman families, prided themselves +upon their uncompromising nationalism, and made a point of treating +foreigners with considerable haughtiness. The Africans were regarded +unfavourably in Rome, especially in Catholic circles. Augustin must have +had an unpleasant experience of this. + +Through the long streets, brilliantly lighted at evening (it would seem +that the artificial lighting of Rome almost equalled the daylight), he +would return tired out to the dwelling of his host, the Manichee. This +dwelling, according to an old tradition, was in the Velabrum district, in +a street which is still to-day called _Via Greca_, and skirts the very old +church of Santa Maria-in-Cosmedina--a poor quarter where swarmed a filthy +mass of Orientals, and where the immigrants from the Levantine countries, +Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, Egyptians, lodged. The warehouses on the Tiber +were not very far off, and no doubt there were numbers of labourers, +porters, and watermen living in this neighbourhood. What a place for +him who had been at Thagaste the guest of the magnificent Romanianus, +and intimate with the Proconsul at Carthage! When he had climbed up the +six flights of stairs to his lodging, and crouched shivering over the +ill-burning movable hearth, in the parsimonious light of a small bronze or +earthenware lamp, while the raw damp sweated through the walls, he felt +more and more his poverty and loneliness. He hated Rome and the stupid +ambition which had brought him there. And yet Rome should have made a vivid +appeal to this cultured man, this æsthete so alive to beauty. Although the +transfer of the Court to Milan had drawn away some of its liveliness and +glitter, it was still all illuminated by its grand memories, and never had +it been more beautiful. It seems impossible that Augustin should not have +been struck by it, despite his African prejudices. However well built the +new Carthage might be, it could not pretend to compare with a city more +than a thousand years old, which at all periods of its history had +maintained the princely taste for building, and which a long line of +emperors had never ceased to embellish. + +When Augustin landed at Ostia, he saw rise before him, closing the +perspective of the _Via Appia_, the Septizonium of Septimus Severus--an +imitation, doubtless, on a far larger scale, of the one at Carthage. This +huge construction, water-works probably of enormous size, with its ordered +columns placed line above line, was, so to speak, the portico whence opened +the most wonderful and colossal architectural mass known to the ancient +world. Modern Rome has nothing at all to shew which comes anywhere near it. +Dominating the Roman Forum, and the Fora of various Emperors--labyrinths of +temples, basilicas, porticoes, and libraries--the Capitol and the Palatine +rose up like two stone mountains, fashioned and sculptured, under the heap +of their palaces and sanctuaries. All these blocks rooted in the soil, +suspended, and towering up from the flanks of the hills, these interminable +regiments of columns and pilasters, this profusion of precious marbles, +metals, mosaics, statues, obelisks--in all that there was something +enormous, a lack of restraint which disturbed the taste and floored the +imagination. But it was, above all, the excessive use of gold and gilding +that astonished the visitor. Originally indigent, Rome became noted for +its greed of gold. When the gold of conquered nations began to come into +its hands, it spread it all over with the rather indiscreet display of +the upstart. When Nero built the Golden House he realized its dream. The +Capitol had golden doors. Statues, bronzes, the roofs of temples, were all +gilded. All this gold, spread over the brilliant surfaces and angles of +the architecture, dazzled and tired the eyes: _Acies stupet igne metalli_, +said Claudian. For the poets who have celebrated it, Rome is the city of +gold--_aurata Roma_. + +A Greek, such as Lucian, had perhaps a right to be shocked by this +architectural debauch, this beauty too crushing and too rich. A Carthage +rhetorician, like Augustin, could feel at the sight of it nothing but the +same irritated admiration and secret jealousy as the Emperor Constans felt +when he visited his capital for the first time. + +Even as the Byzantine Cæsar, and all the provincials, Augustin, no doubt, +examined the curiosities and celebrated works which were pointed out to +strangers: the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus; the baths of Caracalla and +Diocletian; the Pantheon; the temple of Roma and of Venus; the Place of +Concord; the theatre of Pompey; the Odeum, and the Stadium. Though he might +be stupefied by all this, he would remember, too, all that the Republic +had taken from the provinces to construct these wonders, and would say to +himself: "'Tis we who have paid for them." In truth, all the world had +been ransacked to make Rome beautiful. For some time a muffled hostility +had been brewing in provincial hearts against the tyranny of the central +power, especially since it had shewn itself incapable of maintaining peace, +and the Barbarians were threatening the frontiers. Worn out by so many +insurrections, wars, massacres, and pillages, the provinces had come to ask +if the great complicated machine of the Empire was worth all the blood and +money that it cost. + +For Augustin, moreover, the crisis was drawing near which was to end in his +return to the Catholic faith. He had been a Christian, and as such brought +up in principles of humility. With these sentiments, he would perhaps +decide that the pride and vanity of the creature at Rome claimed far too +much attention, and was even sacrilegious. It was not only the emperors who +disputed the privileges of immortality with the gods, but anybody who took +it into his head, provided that he was rich or had any kind of notoriety. +Amid the harsh and blinding gilt of palaces and temples, how many statues, +how many inscriptions endeavoured to keep an obscure memory green, or the +features of some unknown man! Of course, at Carthage too, where they copied +Rome, as in all the big cities, there were statues and inscriptions in +abundance upon the Forum, the squares, and in the public baths. But what +had not shocked Augustin in his native land, did shock him in a strange +city. His home-sick eyes opened to faults which till then had been veiled +by usage. In any case, this craze for statues and inscriptions prevailed at +Rome more than anywhere else. The number of statues on the Forum became so +inconvenient, that on many occasions certain ones were marked for felling, +and the more insignificant shifted. The men of stone drove out the living +men, and forced the gods into their temples. And the inscriptions on the +walls bewildered the mind with such a noise of human praise, that ambition +could dream of nothing beyond. It was all a kind of idolatry which revolted +the strict Christians; and in Augustin, even at this time, it must have +offended the candour of a soul which detested exaggeration and bombast. + +The vices of the Roman people, with whom he was obliged to live cheek by +jowl, galled him still more painfully. And to begin with, the natives hated +strangers. At the theatres they used to shout: "Down with the foreign +residents!" Acute attacks of xenophobia often caused riots in the city. +Some years before Augustin arrived, a panic about the food supply led to +the expulsion, as useless mouths, of all foreigners domiciled in Rome, +even the professors. Famine was an endemic disease there. And then, these +lazy people were always hungry. The gluttony and drunkenness of the Romans +roused the wonder and also the disgust of the sober races of the Empire--of +the Greeks as well as the Africans. They ate everywhere--in the streets, at +the theatre, at the circus, around the temples. The sight was so ignoble, +and the public intemperance so scandalous, that the Prefect, Ampelius, was +obliged to issue an order prohibiting people who had any self-respect from +eating in the street, the keepers of wine-shops from opening their places +before ten o'clock in the morning, and the hawkers from selling cooked meat +in the streets earlier than a certain hour of the day. But he might as well +have saved himself the trouble. Religion itself encouraged this greediness. +The pagan sacrifices were scarcely more than pretexts for stuffing. Under +Julian, who carried the great public sacrifices of oxen to an abusive +extent, the soldiers got drunk and gorged themselves with meat in the +temples, and came out staggering. Then they would seize hold of any +passers-by, whom they forced to carry them shoulder-high to their barracks. + +All this must be kept in mind so as to understand the strictness and +unyielding attitude of the Christian reaction. This Roman people, like the +pagans in general, was frightfully material and sensual. The difficulty of +shaking himself free from matter and the senses is going to be the great +obstacle which delays Augustin's conversion; and if it was so with him, a +fastidious and intellectual man, what about the crowd? Those people thought +of nothing but eating and drinking and lewdness. When they left the tavern +or their squalid rooms, they had only the obscenities of mimes, or the +tumbles of the drivers in the circus, or the butcheries in the amphitheatre +to elevate them. They passed the night there under the awnings provided by +the municipality. Their passion for horse-races and actors and actresses, +curbed though it was by the Christian emperors, continued even after +the sack of Rome by the Barbarians. At the time of the famine, when the +strangers were expelled, they excepted from this wholesale banishment three +thousand female dancers with the members of their choirs, and their leaders +of orchestra. + +The aristocracy did not manifest tastes much superior. Save a few +cultivated minds, sincerely fond of literature, the greatest number only +saw in the literary pose an easy way of being fashionable. These became +infatuated about an unknown author, or an ancient author whose books were +not to be had. They had these books sought for and beautifully copied. +They, "who hated study like poison," spoke only of their favourite author: +the others did not exist for them. As a matter of fact, music had ousted +literature: "the libraries were closed like sepulchres." But fashionable +people were interested in an hydraulic organ, and they ordered from the +lute-makers "lyres the size of chariots." Of course, this musical craze was +sheer affectation. Actually, they were only interested in sports: to race, +to arrange races, to breed horses, to train athletes and gladiators. As a +pastime, they collected Oriental stuffs. Silk was then fashionable, and so +were precious stones, enamels, heavy goldsmiths' work. Rows of rings were +worn on each finger. People took the air in silk robes, held together by +brooches carved in the figures of animals, a parasol in one hand, and a fan +with gold fringes in the other. The costumes and fashions of Constantinople +encroached upon the old Rome and the rest of the Western world. + +Immense fortunes, which had gathered in the hands of certain people, either +through inheritance or swindling, enabled them to keep up a senseless +expenditure. Like the American millionaires of to-day, who have their +houses and properties in both hemispheres, these great Roman lords +possessed them in every country in the Empire. Symmachus, who was Prefect +of the City when Augustin was in Rome, had considerable estates not only in +Italy and in Sicily, but even in Mauretania. And yet, in spite of all their +wealth and all the privileges they enjoyed, these rich people were neither +happy nor at ease. At the least suspicion of a despotic power, their lives +and property were threatened. Accusations of magic, of disrespect to +the Cæsar, of plots against the Emperor--any pretext was good to plunder +them. During the preceding reign, that of the pitiless Valentinian, the +Roman nobility had been literally decimated by the executioner. A certain +vice-Prefect, Maximinus, had gained a sinister reputation for cleverness in +the art of manufacturing suspects. By his orders, a basket at the end of a +string was hung out from one of the windows of the Prætorium, into which +denunciations might be cast. The basket was in use day and night. + +It is clear that at the time that Augustin settled in Rome this abominable +system was a little moderated. But accusation by detectives was always in +the air. And living in this atmosphere of mistrust, hypocrisy, bribery, and +cruelty--small wonder if the Carthaginian fell into bitter reflections upon +Roman corruption. However impressive from the front, the Empire was not +nice to look at close at hand. + +But Augustin was, above all, home-sick. When he strolled tinder the shady +trees of the Janiculum or Sallust's gardens, he already said to himself +what he would repeat later to his listeners at Hippo: "Take an African, put +him in a place cool and green, and he won't stay there. He will feel he +must go away and come back to his blazing desert." As for himself, he had +something better to regret than a blazing desert. In front of the City of +Gold, stretched out at his feet, and the horizon of the Sabine Hills, he +remembered the feminine softness of the twilights upon the Lake of Tunis, +the enchantment of moonlit nights upon the Gulf of Carthage, and that +astonishing landscape to be discovered from the height of the terrace of +Byrsa, which all the grandeur of the Roman _campagna_ could not make him +forget. + + + + +II + +THE FINAL DISILLUSION + + +'The new professor had managed to secure a certain number of pupils whom +he gathered together in his rooms. He could make enough to live at Rome +by himself, if he could not support there the woman and child he had left +behind at Carthage. In this matter of finding work, his host and his +Manichee friends had done him some very good turns. Although forced to +conceal their beliefs since the edict of Theodosius, there were a good many +Manichees in the city. They formed an occult Church, strongly organized, +and its adepts had relations with all classes of Roman society. Possibly +Augustin presented himself as one driven out of Africa by the persecution. +Some compensation would be owing to this young man who had suffered for the +good cause. + +It was his friend Alypius, "the brother of his heart," who, having preceded +him to Rome to study law at his parents' wishes, now was the most useful in +helping Augustin to make himself known and find pupils. Himself a Manichee, +converted by Augustin, and a member of one of the leading families in +Thagaste, he had not long to wait for an important appointment in the +Imperial administration. He was assessor to the Treasurer-General, or +"Count of the Italian Bounty Office," and decided fiscal questions. Thanks +to his influence, as well as to his acquaintances among the Manichees, he +was a valuable friend for the new arrival, a friend who could aid him, not +only with his purse, but with advice. Without much capacity for theorizing, +this Alypius was a practical spirit, a straight and essentially honest +soul, whose influence was excellent for his impetuous friend. Of very +chaste habits, he urged Augustin to restraint. And even in abstract +studies, the religious controversies which Augustin dragged him into, his +strong good sense moderated the imaginative dashes, the overmuch subtilty +which sometimes led the other beyond healthy reason. + +Unhappily they were both very busy--the judge and the rhetorician--and +although their friendship became still greater during this stay in Rome, +they were not able to see each other as much as they desired. Their +pleasures, too, were perhaps not the same. Augustin did not in the least +care about being chaste, and Alypius had a passion for the amphitheatre--a +passion which his friend disapproved of. Some time earlier, at Carthage, +Augustin had filled him with disgust of the circus. But hardly was Alypius +arrived in Rome, than he became mad about the gladiatorial shows. Some +fellow-students took him to the amphitheatre, almost by force. Thereupon, +he said that he would stay, since they had dragged him there; but he bet +that he would keep his eyes shut all through the fight, and that nothing +could make him open them. He sat down on the benches with those who had +brought him, his eyelids pressed down, refusing to look. Suddenly there was +a roar of shouting, the shout of the crowd hailing the fall of the first +wounded. His lids parted of themselves; he saw the flow of blood. "At the +sight of the blood" says Augustin, "he drank in ruthlessness; no longer +did he turn away, but fixed his gaze, and he became mad--and he knew no +more.... He was fascinated by the criminal atrocity of this battle, and +drunk with the pleasure of blood." + +These breathless phrases of the _Confessions_ seem to throb still with the +wild frenzy of the crowd. They convey to us directly the kind of Sadic +excitement which people went to find about the arena. Really, a wholesome +sight for future Christians, for all the souls that the brutality of +pagan customs revolted! The very year that Augustin was at Rome, certain +prisoners of war, Sarmatian soldiers, condemned to kill each other in the +amphitheatre, chose suicide rather than this shameful death. There was in +this something to make him reflect--him and his friends. The fundamental +injustices whereon the ancient world rested--the crushing of the slave +and the conquered, the contempt for human life--these things they touched +with the finger when they looked on at the butcheries in the amphitheatre. +All those whose hearts sickened with disgust and horror before these +slaughter-house scenes, all those who longed for a little more mildness, a +little more justice, were all recruits marked out for the peaceful army of +the Christ. + +For Alypius, especially, it was not a bad thing to have known this +blood-drunkenness at first hand: he shall be only the more ashamed when +he falls at the feet of the merciful God. Equally useful was it for him +to have personal experience of the harshness of men's justice; and in the +fulfilment of his duties as a judge to observe its errors and flaws. While +he was a student at Carthage he just escaped being condemned to death upon +a false accusation of theft--the theft of a piece of lead! Already they +were dragging him, if not to the place of capital punishment, at least to +prison, when a chance meeting with a friend of his who was a senator saved +him from the threatening mob. At Rome, while Assessor to the Count of the +Italian Bounty Office, he had to resist an attempt to bribe him, and by +doing so risked losing his appointment, and, no doubt, something worse +too. Official venality and dishonesty were evils so deeply rooted, that +he himself nearly succumbed. He wanted some books copied, and he had the +temptation to get this done at the charge of the Treasury. This peculation +had, in his eyes, a good enough excuse, and it was certain to go +undetected. Nevertheless, when he thought it over he changed his mind, and +virtuously refrained from giving himself a library at the expense of the +State. + +Augustin, who relates these anecdotes, draws the same moral from them as +we do, to wit--that for a man who was going to be a bishop and, as such, +administrator and judge, this time spent in the Government service was a +good preparatory school. Most of the other great leaders of this generation +of Christians had also been officials; before ordination, they had been +mixed up in business and politics, and had lived freely the life of their +century. So it was with St. Ambrose, with St. Paulinus of Nola, with +Augustin himself, and Evodius and Alypius, his friends. + +And yet, however absorbed in their work the two Africans might be, it +is pretty near certain that intellectual questions took the lead of +all others. This is manifest in Augustin's case at least. He must have +astonished the good Alypius when he got to Rome by acknowledging that he +hardly believed in Manicheeism any longer. And he set forth his doubts +about their masters' cosmogony and physical science, his suspicions +touching the hidden immorality of the sect. As for himself, the +controversies, which were the Manichees' strong point, did not dazzle him +any longer. At Carthage, but lately, he had heard a Catholic, a certain +Helpidius, oppose to them arguments from Scripture, which they were unable +to refute. To make matters worse, the Manichee Bishop of Rome made a bad +impression on him from the very outset. This man, he tells us, was of rough +appearance, without culture or polite manners. Doubtless this unmannerly +peasant, in his reception of the young professor, had not shewn himself +sufficiently alive to his merits, and the professor felt aggrieved. + +From then, his keen dialectic and his satirical spirit (Augustin had +formidable powers of ridicule all through his life) were exercised upon +the backs of his fellow-religionists. Provisionally, he had admitted +as indisputable the basic principles of Manicheeism: first of all, the +primordial antagonism of the two substances, the God of Light and the God +of Darkness; then, this other dogma, that particles of that Divine Light, +which had been carried away in a temporary victory of the army of Darkness, +were immersed in certain plants and liquors. Hence, the distinction they +made between clean and unclean food. All those foods were pure which +contained some part of the Divine Light; impure, those which did not. The +purity of food became evident by certain qualities of taste, smell, and +appearance. But now Augustin found a good deal of arbitrariness in these +distinctions, and a good deal of simplicity in the belief that the Divine +Light dwelt in a vegetable. "Are they not ashamed," he said, "to search God +with their palates or with their nose? And if His presence is revealed by +a special brilliancy, by the goodness of the taste or the smell, why allow +that dish and condemn this, which is of equal savour, light, and perfume? + +"Yea, why do they look upon the golden melon as come out of God's +treasure-house, and yet will have none of the golden fat of the ham or the +yellow of an egg? Why does the whiteness of lettuce proclaim to them the +Divinity, and the whiteness of cream nothing at all? And why this horror +of meat? For, look you, roast sucking-pig offers us a brilliant colour, an +agreeable smell, and an appetizing taste--sure signs, according to them, of +the Divine Presence."... Once started on this topic, Augustin's vivacity +has no limits. He even drops into jokes which would offend modern +shamefacedness by their Aristophanic breadth. + +These arguments, to say the truth, did not shake the foundations of the +doctrine, and if a doctrine must be judged according to its works, the +Manichees might entrench themselves behind their rigid moral rules, and +their conduct. Contrary to the more accommodating Catholicism, they paraded +a puritan intolerance. But Augustin had found out at Carthage that this +austerity was for the most part hypocrisy. At Rome he was thoroughly +enlightened. + +The Elect of the religion made a great impression by their fasts and their +abstinence from meat. Now it became clear that these devout personages, +under pious pretexts, literally destroyed themselves by over-eating and +indigestion. They held, in fact, that the chief work of piety consisted in +setting free particles of the Divine Light, imprisoned in matter by the +wiles of the God of Darkness. They being the Pure, they purified matter by +absorbing it into their bodies. The faithful brought them stores of fruit +and vegetables, served them with real feasts, so that by eating these +things they might liberate a little of the Divine Substance. Of course, +they abstained from all flesh, flesh being the dwelling-place of the Dark +God, and also from fermented wine, which they called "the devil's gall." +But how they made up for it over the rest! Augustin makes great fun of +these people who would think it a sin if they took as a full meal a small +bit of bacon and cabbage, with two or three mouthfuls of undiluted wine, +and yet ordered to be served up, from three o'clock in the afternoon, all +kinds of fruit and vegetables, the most exquisite too, rendered piquant +by spices, the Manichees holding that spices were very full of fiery and +luminous principles. Then, their palates titillating from pepper, they +swallowed large draughts of mulled wine or wine and honey, and the juice +of oranges, lemons, and grapes. And these junketings began over again at +nightfall. They had a preference for certain cakes, and especially for +truffles and mushrooms--vegetables more particularly mystic. + +Such a diet put human gluttony to a heavy test. Many a scandal came to +light in the Roman community. The Elect made themselves sick by devouring +the prodigious quantity of good cheer brought to them with a view to +purification. As it was a sacrilege to let any be lost, the unhappy people +forced themselves to get down the lot. There were even victims: children, +gorged with delicacies, died of stuffing. For children, being innocent +things, were deemed to have quite special purifying virtues. + +Augustin was beginning to get indignant at all this nonsense. Still, except +for these extravagances, he continued to believe in the asceticism of the +Elect--asceticism of such severity that the main part of the faithful found +it impossible to practise. And see! just at this moment, whom should he +discover very strange things about but Bishop Faustus, that Faustus whom he +had looked for at Carthage as a Messiah. The holy man, while he preached +renunciation, granted himself a good many indulgences: he lay, for one +thing, on feathers, or upon soft goatskin rugs. And these puritans were not +even honest. The Manichee Bishop of Rome, that man of rough manners who had +so offended Augustin, was on the point of being convicted of stealing the +general cash-box. Lastly, there were rumours in the air, accusing the Elect +of giving themselves over to reprehensible practices in their private +meetings. They condemned marriage and child-bearing as works of the devil, +but they authorized fornication, and even, it is said, certain acts against +nature. That, for Augustin, was the final disillusion. + +In spite of it, he did not separate openly from the sect. He kept his +rank of _auditor_ in the Manichee Church. What held him to it, were some +plausible considerations on the intellectual side. Manicheeism, with its +distinction of two Principles, accounted conveniently for the problem of +evil and human responsibility. Neither God nor man was answerable for sin +and pain, since it was the other, the Dark Principle, who distributed +them through the world among men. Augustin, who continued to sin, +continued likewise to be very comfortable with such a system of morals and +metaphysics. Besides, he was not one of those convinced, downright minds +who feel the need to quarrel noisily with what they take to be error. +No one has opposed heresies more powerfully, and with a more tireless +patience, than he has. But he always put some consideration into the +business. He knew by experience how easy it is to fall into error, and he +said this charitably to those whom he wished to persuade. There was nothing +about him like St. Jerome. + +Personal reasons, moreover, obliged him not to break with his +fellow-religionists who had supported him, nursed him even, on his arrival +at Rome, and who, as we shall see in a moment, might still do him services. +Augustin was not, like his friend Alypius, a practical mind, but he had +tact, and in spite of all the impulsiveness and mettle of his nature, +a certain suppleness which enabled him to manoeuvre without too many +collisions in the midst of the most embarrassing conjunctures. Through +instinctive prudence he prolonged his indecision. Little by little, he who +had formerly flung himself so enthusiastically in pursuit of Truth, glided +into scepticism--the scepticism of the Academics in its usual form. + +And at the same time that he lost his taste for speculative thinking, new +annoyances in his profession put the finishing touch on his discouragement. +If the Roman students were less noisy than those of Carthage, they had a +deplorable habit of walking off and leaving their masters unpaid. Augustin +was ere long victimized in this way: he lost his time and his words. As at +Carthage, so at Rome, he had to face the fact that he could not live by his +profession. What was he to do? Would he have to go back home? He had fallen +into despair, when an unforeseen chance turned up for him. + +The town council of Milan threw open a professorship of Rhetoric to public +competition. It would be salvation for him if he could get appointed. For +a long time he had wanted a post in the State education. In receipt of a +fixed salary, he would no longer have to worry about beating up a class, +or to guard against the dishonesty of his pupils. He put his name down +immediately among the candidates. But no more in those days than in ours +was simple merit by itself enough. It was necessary to pull strings. His +friends the Manichees undertook to do this for him. They urged his claims +warmly on the Prefect Symmachus, who doubtless presided at the competitive +trials. By an amusing irony of fate, Augustin owed his place to people he +was getting ready to separate from, whom even he was soon going to attack, +and also to a man who was in a way the official enemy of Christianity. +The pagan Symmachus appointing to an important post a future Catholic +bishop--there is matter for surprise in that! But Symmachus, who had been +Proconsul at Carthage, protected the Africans in Rome. Furthermore, it +is likely that the Manichees represented their candidate to him as a man +hostile to Catholics. Now in this year, A.D. 384, the Prefect had just +begun an open struggle with the Catholics. He believed, therefore, that he +made a good choice in appointing Augustin. + +So a chain of events, with which his will had hardly anything to do, +was going to draw the young rhetorician to Milan--yes, and how much +farther!--to where he did not want to go, to where the prayers of Monnica +summoned him unceasingly: "Where I am, there shall you be also." When he +was leaving Rome, he did not much expect that. What he chiefly thought of +was that he had at last won an independent financial position, and that he +was become an official of some importance. He had a flattering evidence +of this at once: It was at the expense of the city of Milan and in the +Imperial carriages that he travelled through Italy to take up his new post. + + + + +III + +THE MEETING BETWEEN AMBROSE AND AUGUSTIN + + +Before he left Rome, and during his journey to Milan, Augustin must have +recalled more than once the verses of Terence which his friend Marcianus +had quoted by way of encouragement and advice the night he set sail for +Italy: + + "This day which brings to thee another life + Demands that thou another man shalt be." + +He was thirty years old. The time of youthful wilfulness was over. Age, +disappointments, the difficulties of life, had developed his character. +He was now become a man of position, an eminent official, in a very large +city which was the second capital of the Western Empire and the principal +residence of the Court. If he wished to avoid further set-backs in his +career, it behoved him to choose a line of conduct carefully thought out. + +And first of all, it was time to get rid of Manicheeism. A Manichee would +have made a scandal in a city where the greatest part of the population +was Christian, and the Court was Catholic, although it did not conceal +its sympathy with Arianism. It was a long time now since Augustin had +been a Manichee in his heart. Accordingly, he was not obliged to feign +in order to re-enter a Church which already included him formally among +its catechumens. Doubtless he was a very lukewarm catechumen, since at +intervals he inclined to scepticism. But he thought it decent to remain, +at least for the time being, in the Catholic body, in which his mother had +brought him up, until the day when some sure light should arise to direct +his path. Now St. Ambrose was at that time the Catholic Bishop of Milan. +Augustin was very eager to gain his goodwill. Ambrose was an undoubted +political power, an important personage, a celebrated orator whose renown +was shed all across the Roman world. He belonged to an illustrious family. +His father had been Prætorian prefect of Gaul. He himself, with the +title of Consul, was governing the provinces of Emilia and Liguria when +the Milanese forced him, much against his will, to become their bishop. +Baptized, ordained priest, and consecrated, one on top of the other, it +was only apparently that he gave up his civil functions. From the height +of his episcopal throne he always personified the highest authority in the +country. + +As soon as he arrived at Milan, Augustin hurried to call upon his bishop. +Knowing him as we do, he must have approached Ambrose in a great transport +of enthusiasm. His imagination, too, was kindled. In his thought this was +a man of letters, an orator, a famous writer, almost a fellow-worker, that +he was going to see. The young professor admired in Bishop Ambrose all the +glory that he was ambitious of, and all that he already believed himself +to be. He fancied, that however great might be the difference in their +positions, he would find himself at once on an equal footing with this high +personage, and would have a familiar talk with him, as he used to have at +Carthage with the Proconsul Vindicianus. He told himself also that Ambrose +was a priest, that is to say, a doctor of souls: he meant to open to him +all his spiritual wretchedness, the anguish of his mind and heart. He +expected consolation from him, if not cure. + +Well, he was mistaken. Although in all his writings he speaks of "the holy +Bishop of Milan" with feelings of sincere respect and admiration, he lets +it be understood that his expectations were not realized. If the Manichean +bishop of Rome had offended him by his rough manners, Ambrose disconcerted +him alike by his politeness, his kindliness, and by the reserve, +perhaps involuntarily haughty, of his reception. "He received me," says +Augustin, "like a father, and as a bishop he was pleased enough at my +coming:"--_peregrinationem meam satis episcopaliter dilexit_. This _satis +episcopaliter_ looks very like a sly banter at the expense of the saint. It +is infinitely probable that St. Ambrose received Augustin, not exactly as a +man of no account, but still, as a sheep of his flock, and not as a gifted +orator, and that, in short, he shewed him the same "episcopal" benevolence +as he had from a sense of duty for all his hearers. It is possible too +that Ambrose was on his guard from the outset with this African, appointed +a municipal professor through the good offices of the pagan Symmachus, +his personal enemy. In the opinion of the Italian Catholics, nothing +good came from Carthage: these Carthaginians were generally Manichees +or Donatists--sectaries the more dangerous because they claimed to be +orthodox, and, mingling with the faithful, hypocritically contaminated +them. And then Ambrose, the great lord, the former Governor of Liguria, the +counsellor of the Emperors, may not have quite concealed a certain ironic +commiseration for this "dealer in words," this young rhetorician who was +still puffed up with his own importance. + +Be this as it will, it was a lesson in humility that St. Ambrose, without +intending it, gave to Augustin. The lesson was not understood. The rhetoric +professor gathered only one thing from the visit, which was, that the +Bishop of Milan had received him well. And as human vanity immediately +lends vast significance to the least advances of distinguished or powerful +persons, Augustin felt thankful for it. He began to love Ambrose almost as +much as he admired him, and he admired him for reasons altogether worldly. +"Ambrose I counted one of the happy ones of this world, because he was held +in such honour by the great." The qualification which immediately follows +shews naively enough the sensual Augustin's state of mind at that time: +"Only it seemed to me that celibacy must be a heavy burthen upon him." + +In those years the Bishop of Milan might, indeed, pass for a happy man +in the eyes of the world. He was the friend of the very glorious and +very victorious Theodosius; he had been the adviser of the young Emperor +Gratian, but lately assassinated; and although the Empress Justina, devoted +to the Arians, plotted against him, he had still great influence in the +council of Valentinian II--a little Emperor thirteen years old, whom a +Court of pagans and Arians endeavoured to draw into an anti-Catholic +reaction. + +Almost as soon as Augustin arrived in Milan, he was able to see for himself +the great authority and esteem which Ambrose possessed, the occasion being +a dispute which made a great noise. + +Two years earlier, Gratian had had the statue and altar of _Victory_ +removed from the _Curia_, declaring that this pagan emblem and its +accompaniments no longer served any purpose in an assembly of which the +majority was Christian. By the same stroke, he suppressed the incomes of +the sacerdotal colleges with all their privileges, particularly those of +the Vestals; confiscated for the revenue the sums granted for the exercise +of religion; seized the property of the temples; and forbade the priests +to receive bequests of real estate. This meant the complete separation +of the State and the ancient religion. The pagan minority in the Senate, +with Symmachus, the Prefect, at its head, protested against this edict. +A deputation was sent to Milan to place the pagan grievances before +the Emperor. Gratian refused to receive them. It was thought that his +successor, Valentinian II, being feebler, would be more obliging. A new +senatorial committee presented themselves with a petition drawn up by +Symmachus--a genuine piece of oratory which Ambrose himself admired, or +pretended to admire. This speech made a deep impression when it was read +in the Imperial Council. But Ambrose intervened with all his eloquence. +He demanded that the common law should be applied equally to pagans as to +Christians, and it was he who won the day. _Victory_ was not replaced in +the Roman _Curia_, neither were the goods of the temples returned. + +Augustin must have been very much struck by this advantage which +Catholicism had gained. It became clear that henceforth this was to be +the State religion. And he who envied so much the fortunate of the world, +might take note, besides, that the new religion brought, along with the +faith, riches and honours to its adepts. At Rome he had listened to the +disparaging by pagans and his Manichee friends of the popes and their +clergy. They made fun of the fashionable clerics and legacy hunters. It was +related that the Roman Pontiff, servant of the God of the poor, maintained +a gorgeous establishment, and that his table rivalled the Imperial table in +luxury. The prefect Prætextatus, a resolute pagan, said scoffingly to Pope +Damasus: "Make me Bishop of Rome, and I'll become a Christian at once." + +Certainly, commonplace human reasons can neither bring about nor account +for a sincere conversion. Conversion is a divine work. But human reasons, +arranged by a mysterious Will with regard to this work, may at least +prepare a soul for it. Anyhow, it cannot be neglected that Augustin, coming +to Milan full of ambitious plans, there saw Catholicism treated with so +much importance in the person of Ambrose. This religion, which till then he +had despised, now appeared to him as a triumphant religion worth serving. + +But though such considerations might attract Augustin's attention, they +took no hold on his conscience. It was well enough for an intriguer about +the Court to get converted from self-interest. As for him, he wanted all or +nothing; the chief good in his eyes was certainty and truth. He scarcely +believed in this any longer, and surely had no hope of finding it among +the Catholics; but still he went to hear Ambrose's sermons. He went in the +first place as a critic of language, with the rather jealous curiosity of +the trained man who watches how another man does it. He wanted to judge +himself if the sacred orator was as good as his reputation. The firm and +substantial eloquence of this former official, this statesman who was more +than anything a man of action, immediately got control of the frivolous +rhetorician. To be sure, he did not find in Ambrose's sermons the +exhilaration or the verbal caress which had captivated him in those of +Faustus the Manichean; but yet they had a persuasive grace which held him. +Augustin heard the bishop with pleasure. Still, if he liked to hear him +talk, he remained contemptuous of the doctrine he preached. + +Then, little by little, this doctrine forced itself on his meditations: +he perceived that it was more serious than he had thought hitherto, or, +at least, that it could be defended. Ambrose had started in Italy the +exegetical methods of the Orientals. He discovered in Scripture allegorical +meanings, sometimes edifying, sometimes deep, always satisfying for a +reasonable mind. Augustin, who was inclined to subtilty, much relished +these explanations which, if ingenious, were often forced. The Bible +no longer seemed to him so absurd. Finally, the immoralities which the +Manichees made such a great point of against the Holy Writ, were justified, +according to Ambrose, by historical considerations: what God did not allow +to-day, He allowed formerly by reason of the conditions of existence. +However, though the Bible might be neither absurd nor contrary to morals, +this did not prove that it was true. Augustin found no outlet for his +doubts. + +He would have been glad to have Ambrose help him to get rid of them. Many a +time he tried to have a talk with him about these things. But the Bishop of +Milan was so very busy a personage! "I could not ask him," says Augustin, +"what I wanted as I wanted, because the shoals of busy people who consulted +him about their affairs, and to whose infirmities he ministered, came +between me and his ear and lips. And in the few moments when he was not +thus surrounded, he was refreshing either his body with needful food, or +his mind with reading. While he read his eye wandered along the page and +his heart searched out the meaning, but his voice and his tongue were at +rest. Often when we attended (for the door was open to all, and no one was +announced), we saw him reading silently, but never otherwise, and after +sitting for some time without speaking (_for who would presume to trouble +one so occupied?_) we went away again. We divined that, for the little +space of time which was all that he could secure for the refreshment of his +mind, he allowed himself a holiday from the distraction of other people's +business, and did not wish to be interrupted; _and perhaps he was afraid +lest eager listeners should invite him to explain the harder passages of +his author, or to enter upon the discussion of difficult topics_, and +hinder him from perusing as many volumes as he wished.... _Of course +the reason that guided a man of such remarkable virtue must have been +good...._" + +Nobody could comment more subtly--nor, be it said also, more +maliciously--the attitude of St. Ambrose towards Augustin, than Augustin +himself does it here. At the time he wrote this page, the events he was +relating had happened a long time ago. But he is a Christian, and, in his +turn, he is a bishop: he understands now what he could not understand +then. He feels thoroughly at heart that if Ambrose withdrew himself, it +was because the professor of rhetoric was not in a state of mind to have a +profitable discussion with a believer: he lacked the necessary humility of +heart and intellect. But at the moment, he must have taken things in quite +another way, and have felt rather hurt, not to say more, at the bishop's +apparent indifference. + +Just picture a young writer of to-day, pretty well convinced of his value, +but uneasy about his future, coming to ask advice of an older man already +famous--well, Augustin's advances to Ambrose were not unlike that, save +that they had a much more serious character, since it was not a question of +literature, but of the salvation of a soul. At this period, what Augustin +saw in Ambrose, even when he consulted him on sacred matters, was chiefly +the orator, that is to say, a rather older rival.... He enters. He is shewn +into the private room of the great man, without being announced, _like any +ordinary person_. The great man does not lay aside his book to greet him, +does not even speak a word to him.... What would the official professor of +Rhetoric to the City of Milan think of such a reception? One can make out +clearly enough through the lines of the _Confessions_. He said to himself +that Ambrose, being a bishop, had charge of souls, and he was surprised +that the bishop, no matter how great a lord he might be, made no attempt +whatever to offer him spiritual aid. And as he was still devoid of +Christian charity, no doubt he thought too that Ambrose was conscious +that he had not the ability to wrestle with a dialectician of Augustin's +strength, and that, into the bargain, the prelate was to seek in knowledge +of the Scriptures. And, in truth, Ambrose had been made a bishop so +suddenly that he must have found himself obliged to improvise a hasty +knowledge. Anyhow, Augustin concluded that if he refused to discuss, it was +because he was afraid of being at a disadvantage. + +Very surely St. Ambrose had no notion of what the catechumen was thinking. +He soared too high to trouble about miserable stings to self-respect. In +his ministry he was for all alike, and he would have thought it against +Christian equality to shew any special favour to Augustin. If, in the brief +talks he had with the young rhetorician, he was able to gather anything of +his character, he could not have formed a very favourable opinion of it. +The high-strung temperament of the African, these vague yearnings of the +spirit, these sterile melancholies, this continual temporizing before the +faith--all that could only displease Ambrose, the practical Roman, the +official used all his life to command. + +However that was, Augustin, in following years, never allowed himself the +least reproach towards Ambrose. On the contrary, everywhere he loads him +with praise, quotes him repeatedly in his treatises, and takes refuge on +his authority. He calls him his "father." But once, when he is speaking +of the spiritual desolation in which he was plunged at Milan, there does +escape him something like a veiled complaint which appears to be aimed at +Ambrose. After recalling the eagerness with which he sought truth in those +days, he adds: "If any one could have been found then to trouble about +instructing me, he would have had a most willing and docile pupil." + +This phrase, in such marked contrast with so many laudatory passages in +the _Confessions_ about St. Ambrose, seems to be indeed a statement of +the plain truth. If God made use of Ambrose to convert Augustin, it is +nevertheless likely that Ambrose personally did nothing, or very little, to +bring about this conversion. + + + + +IV + +PLANS OF MARRIAGE + + +But even as he draws nearer the goal, Augustin would appear, on the +contrary, to get farther away from it. Such are God's secret paces, Who +snatches souls like a thief: He drops on them without warning. Till the +very eve of the day when Christ shall come to take him, Augustin will be +all taken up with the world and the care of making a good figure in it. + +Although Ambrose's sermons stimulated him to reflect upon the great +historical reality which Christianity is, he had as yet but dim glimpses +of it. He had given up his superficial unbelief, and yet did not believe +in anything definite. He drifted into a sort of agnosticism compounded of +mental indolence and discouragement. When he scrutinized his conscience to +the depths, the most he could find was a belief in the existence of God and +His providence--quite abstract ideas which he was incapable of enlivening. +But whatever was the use of speculating upon Truth and the Sovereign Good! +The main thing to do was to live. + +Now that his future was certain, Augustin endeavoured to arrange his life +with a view to his tranquillity. He had no longer very large ambitions. +What he principally wanted to do was to create for himself a nice little +existence, peaceful and agreeable, one might almost say, middle-class. His +present fortune, although small, was still enough for that, and he was in a +hurry to enjoy it. + +Accordingly, he had not been long in Milan ere he sent for his mistress and +his son. He had rented an apartment in a house which gave on a garden. The +owner, who did not live there, allowed him the use of the whole house. A +house, the dream of the sage! And a garden in Virgil's country! Augustin, +the professor, should have been wonderfully happy. His mother soon joined +him. Gradually a whole tribe of Africans came down on him, and took +advantage of his hospitality. Here was his brother, Navigius, his two +cousins, Rusticus and Lastidianus, his friend Alypius, who could not make +up his mind to part from him, and probably Nebridius, another of his +Carthage friends. Nothing could be more in harmony with the customs of the +time. The Rhetorician to the City of Milan had a post which would pass +for superb in the eyes of his poor relations. He was acquainted with very +important people, and had access to the Imperial Court, whence favours and +bounties came. Immediately, the family ran to put themselves under his +protection and be enrolled beneficiaries, to get what they could out of +his new fortune and credit. And then these immigrations of Africans and +Orientals into the northern countries always come about in the same way. It +is enough if one of them gets on there: he becomes immediately the drop of +ink on the blotting-paper. + +The most important person in this little African phalanstery was +unquestionably Monnica, who had taken in hand the moral and material +control of the house. She was not very old--not quite fifty-four--but she +wanted to be in her own country. That she should have left it, and faced +the weariness of a long journey over sea and land, she must have had very +serious reasons. The poverty into which she had fallen since the death of +her husband would not be an adequate explanation of her departure from +her native land. She had still some small property at Thagaste; she could +have lived there. The true motives of her departure were of an altogether +different order. First of all, she passionately loved her son, to the point +that she was not able to live away from him. Let us recall Augustin's +touching words: "For she loved to keep me with her, as mothers are wont, +yes, far more than most mothers." Besides that, she wanted to save him. She +completely believed that this was her work in the world. + +Beginning from now, she is no longer the widow of Patricius: she is already +Saint Monnica. Living like a nun, she fasted, prayed, mortified her body. +By long meditating on the Scriptures, she had developed within her the +sense of spiritual realities, so that before long she astonished Augustin +himself. She had visions; perhaps she had trances. As she came over the sea +from Carthage to Ostia, the ship which carried her ran into a wild gale. +The danger became extreme, and the sailors themselves could no longer hide +their fear. But Monnica intrepidly encouraged them. "Never you fear, we +shall arrive in port safe and sound!" God, she declared, had promised her +this. + +If, in her Christian life, she knew other minutes more divine, that was +truly the most heroic. Across Augustin's calm narrative, we witness the +scene. This woman lying on the deck among passengers half dead from fatigue +and terror, suddenly flings back her veils, stands up before the maddened +sea, and with a sudden flame gleaming over her pale face, she cries to the +sailors: "What do you fear? We shall get to port. _I am sure of it!_" The +glorious act of faith! + +At this solemn moment, when she saw death so near, she had a clear +revelation of her destiny; she knew with absolute certainty that she was +entrusted with a message for her son, and that her son would receive this +message, in spite of all, in spite of the wildness of the sea--aye, in +spite of his own heart. + +When this sublime emotion had subsided, it left with her the conviction +that sooner or later Augustin would change his ways. He had lost himself, +he was mistaken about himself. This business of rhetorician was unworthy +of him. The Master of the field had chosen him to be one of the great +reapers in the time of harvest. For a long while Monnica had foreseen the +exceptional place that Augustin was to take in the Church. Why fritter +away his talent and intelligence in selling vain words, when there were +heresies to combat, the Truth to make shine forth, when the Donatists were +capturing the African basilicas from the Catholics? What, in fact, was the +most celebrated rhetorician compared to a bishop--protector of cities, +counsellor of emperors, representative of God on earth? All this might +Augustin be. And he remained stubborn in his error! Prayers and efforts +must be redoubled to draw him from that. It was also for herself that she +struggled, for the dearest of her hopes as a mother. To bear a soul to +Jesus Christ--and a chosen soul who would save in his turn souls without +number--for this only had she lived. And so it was that on the deck, tired +by the rolling of the ship, drenched by the seas that were breaking on +board, and hardly able to stand in the teeth of the wind, she cried out to +the sailors: "What do you fear? We shall get to port. I am sure of it...." + +At Milan she was regarded by Bishop Ambrose as a model parishioner. She +never missed his sermons and "hung upon his lips as a fountain of water +springing up to eternal life." And yet it does not appear that the great +bishop understood the mother any better than he did the son: he had not +the time. For him Monnica was a worthy African woman, perhaps a little odd +in her devotion, and given to many a superstitious practice. Thus, she +continued to carry baskets of bread and wine and pulse to the tombs of the +martyrs, according to the use at Carthage and Thagaste. When, carrying +her basket, she came to the door of one of the Milanese basilicas, the +doorkeeper forbade her to enter, saying that it was against the bishop's +orders, who had solemnly condemned such practices because they smacked +of idolatry. The moment she learned that this custom was prohibited by +Ambrose, Monnica, very much mortified, submitted to take away her basket, +for in her eyes Ambrose was the providential apostle who would lead her son +to salvation. And yet it must have grieved her to give up this old custom +of her country. Save for the fear of displeasing the bishop, she would +have kept it up. Ambrose was gratified by her obedience, her fervour and +charity. When by chance he met the son, he congratulated him on having such +a mother. Augustin, who did not yet despise human praise, no doubt expected +that Ambrose would in turn pay some compliments to himself. But Ambrose did +not praise him at all, and perhaps he felt rather vexed. + +He himself, however, was always very busy; he had hardly any time to profit +by the pious exhortations of the bishop. His day was filled by his work +and his social duties. In the morning he lectured. The afternoon went in +friendly visits, or in looking up men of position whom he applied to for +himself or his relations. In the evening, he prepared to-morrow's lecture. +In spite of this very full and stirring life, which would seem to satisfy +all his ambitions, he could not manage to stifle the cry of his heart in +distress. He did not feel really happy. In the first place, it is doubtful +whether he liked Milan any better than Rome. He felt the cold there very +much. The Milanese winters are very trying, especially for a southerner. +Thick fogs rise from the canals and the marsh lands which surround the +city. The Alpine snows are very near. This climate, damper and frostier +even than at Rome, did no good to his chest. He suffered continually from +hoarseness; he was obliged to interrupt his lectures--a most disastrous +necessity for a man whose business it is to talk. These attacks became so +frequent that he was forced to wonder if he could keep on long in this +state. Already he felt that he might be obliged to give up his profession. +Then, in those hours when he lost heart, he flung to the winds all his +youthful ambitions. As a last resort, the voiceless rhetorician would take +a post in one of the administrative departments of the Empire. The idea of +being one day a provincial governor did not rouse any special repugnance. +What a fall for him! "Yes, but it is the wisest, the wisest thing," +retorted the ill-advising voice, the one we are tempted to listen to when +we doubt ourselves. + +Friendship, as always with Augustin, consoled him for his hopeless +thoughts. Near him was "the brother of his heart," the faithful Alypius, +and also Nebridius, that young man so fond of metaphysical discussions. +Nebridius had left his rich estate in the Carthaginian suburbs, and a +mother who loved him, simply to live with Augustin in the pursuit of truth. +Romanianus was also there, but for a less disinterested reason. The Mæcenas +of Thagaste, after his ostentatious expenditure, found that his fortune +was threatened. A powerful enemy, who had started a law-suit against him, +worked to bring about his downfall. Romanianus had come to Milan to +defend himself before the Emperor, and to win the support of influential +personages about the Court. And so it came about that he saw a great deal +of Augustin. + +Besides this little band of fellow-countrymen, the professor of rhetoric +had some very distinguished friends among the aristocracy. He was +especially intimate with that Manlius Theodorus whom the poet Claudian +celebrates, and to whom he himself later on was to dedicate one of his +books. This rich man, who had been Proconsul at Carthage, where no doubt he +had met Augustin, lived at this time retired in the country, dividing his +leisure hours between the study of the Greek philosophers, especially of +the Platonists, and the cultivation of his vineyards and olive trees. + +Here, as at Thagaste, in these beautiful villas on the shores of the +Italian lakes, the son of Monnica gave himself up once more to the +sweetness of life. "I liked an easy life," he avows in all simplicity. +He felt himself to be more Epicurean than ever. He might have chosen +Epicureanism altogether, if he had not always kept a fear of what is beyond +life. But when he was the guest of Manlius Theodoras, fronting the dim blue +mountains of lake Como, framed in the high windows of the _triclinium_, +he did not think much about what is beyond life. He said to himself: "Why +desire the impossible? So very little is needed to satisfy a human soul." +The enervating contact of luxury and comfort imperceptibly corrupted him. +He became like those fashionable people whom he knew so well how to charm +with his talk. Like the fashionable people of all times, these designated +victims of the Barbarians built, with their small daily pleasures, a +rampart against all offensive or saddening realities, leaving the important +questions without answer, no longer even asking them. And they said: +"I have beautiful books, a well-heated house, well-trained slaves, a +delightfully arranged bathroom, a comfortable vehicle: life is sweet. I +don't wish for a better. What's the use? This one is good enough for me." +At the moment when his tired intellect gave up everything, Augustin was +taken in the snare of easy enjoyment, and desired to resemble these people +at all points, to be one of them. But to be one of them he must have a +higher post than a rhetorician's, and chiefly it would be necessary to put +all the outside forms and exterior respectability into his life that the +world of fashion shews. Thus, little by little, he began to think seriously +of marriage. + +His mistress was the only obstacle in the way of this plan. He got rid of +her. + +That was a real domestic drama, which he has tried to hide; but it must +have been extremely painful for him, to judge by the laments which he gives +vent to, despite himself, in some phrases, very brief and, as it were, +ashamed. In this drama Monnica was certainly the leader, though it is +likely that Augustin's friends also played their parts. No doubt, they +objected to the professor of rhetoric, that he was injuring his reputation +as well as his future by living thus publicly with a concubine. But +Monnica's reasons were more forcible and of quite another value. + +To begin with, it is very natural that she should have suffered in her +maternal dignity, as well as in her conscience as a Christian, by having to +put up with the company of a stranger who was her son's mistress. However +large we may suppose the house where the African tribe dwelt, a certain +clashing between the guests was unavoidable. Generally, disputes as to +who shall direct the domestic arrangements divide mother-in-law and +daughter-in-law who live under one roof. What could be Monnica's feelings +towards a woman who was not even a daughter-in-law and was regarded by her +as an intruder? She did not consider it worth while to make any attempt at +regulating the entanglement of her son by marrying them: this person was +of far too low a class. It is all very well to be a saint, but one does +not forget that one is the widow of a man of curial rank, and that a +middle-class family with self-respect does not lower itself by admitting +the first-comer into its ranks by marriage. But these were secondary +considerations in her eyes. The only one which could have really preyed on +her mind is that this woman delayed Augustin's conversion. On account of +her, as Monnica saw plainly, he put off his baptism indefinitely. She was +the chain of sin, the unclean past under whose weight he stifled. He must +be freed from her as soon as possible. + +Convinced therefore that such was her bounden duty, she worked continually +to make him break off. By way of putting him in some sort face to face with +a deed impossible to undo, she searched to find him a wife, with the fine +eagerness that mothers usually put into this kind of hunt. She discovered +a girl who filled, as they say, all the requirements, and who realized all +the hopes of Augustin. She had a fortune considerable enough not to be a +burthen on her husband. Her money, added to the professor's salary, would +allow the pair to live in ease and comfort. So they were betrothed. In +the uncertainty about all things which was Augustin's state just then, he +allowed his mother to work at this marriage. No doubt he approved, and like +a good official he thought it was time for him to settle down. + +From that moment, the separation became inevitable. How did the poor +creature who had been faithful to him during so many years feel at this +ignominious dismissal? What must have been the parting between the child +Adeodatus and his mother? How, indeed, could Augustin consent to take him +from her? Here, again, he has decided to keep silent on this painful drama, +from a feeling of shame easy to understand. Of course, he was no longer +strongly in love with his mistress, but he was attached to her by some +remains of tenderness, and by that very strong tie of pleasure shared. He +has said it in words burning with regret. "When they took from my side, as +an obstacle to my marriage, her with whom I had been used for such a long +time to sleep, my heart was torn at the place where it was stuck to hers, +and the wound was bleeding." The phrase casts light while it burns. "At the +place where my heart stuck to hers"--_cor ubi adhærebat_. He acknowledges +then that the union was no longer complete, since at many points he had +drawn apart. If the soul of his mistress had remained the same, his had +changed: however much he might still love her, he was already far from her. + +Be that as it will, she behaved splendidly in the affair--this forsaken +woman, this poor creature whom they deemed unworthy of Augustin. She was a +Christian; perhaps she perceived (for a loving woman might well have this +kind of second-sight) that it was a question not only of the salvation of +a loved being, but of a divine mission to which he was predestined. She +sacrificed herself that Augustin might be an apostle and a saint--a great +servant of God. So she went back to her Africa, and to shew that she +pardoned, if she could not forget, she vowed that she would never know any +other man. "She who had slept" with Augustin could never be the wife of any +one else. + +However low she may have been to begin with, the unhappy woman was great at +this crisis. Her nobility of soul humiliated Augustin, and Monnica herself, +and punishment was not slow in falling on them both--on him, for letting +himself be carried away by sordid plans for success in life, and upon her, +the saint, for having been too accommodating. As soon as his mistress was +gone, Augustin suffered from being alone. "I thought that I should be +miserable," says he, "without the embraces of a woman." Now his promised +bride was too young: two years must pass before he could marry her. How +could he control himself till then? Augustin did not hesitate: he found +another mistress. + +There was Monnica's punishment, cruelly deceived in her pious intentions. +In vain did she hope a great deal of good from this approaching marriage: +the silence of God shewed her that she was on the wrong track. She begged +for a vision, some sign which would reveal to her how this new-planned +marriage would turn out. Her prayer was not heard. + +"Meanwhile," says Augustin, "my sins were being multiplied." But he did +not limit himself to his own sins: he led others into temptation. Even in +matrimonial matters, he felt the need of making proselytes. So he fell upon +the worthy Alypius. He, to be sure, guarded himself chastely from women, +although in the outset of his youth, to be like everybody else, he had +tried pleasure with women; but he had found that it did not suit his taste. +However, Augustin put conjugal delights before him with so much heat, that +he too began to turn his thoughts that way, "not that he was overcome by +the desire of pleasure, _but out of curiosity_." For Alypius, marriage +would be a sort of philosophic and sentimental experience. + +Here are quite modern expressions to translate very old conditions of soul. +The fact is, that these young men, Augustin's friends and Augustin himself, +were startlingly like those of a generation already left behind, alas! who +will probably keep in history the presumptuous name they gave themselves: +_The Intellectuals_. + +Like us, these young Latins of Africa, pupils of the rhetoricians and the +pagan philosophers, believed in hardly anything but ideas. All but ready to +affirm that Truth is not to be come at, they thought, just the same, that +a vain hunt after it was a glorious risk to run, or, at the very least, an +exciting game. For them this game made the whole dignity and value of life. +Although they had spasms of worldly ambition, they really despised whatever +was not pure speculation. In their eyes, the world was ugly; action +degrading. They barred themselves within the ideal garden of the sage, "the +philosopher's corner," as they called it, and jealously they stopped up all +the holes through which the painful reality might have crept through to +them. But where they differed from us, is that they had much less dryness +of soul, with every bit as much pedantry--but such ingenuous pedantry! +That's what saved them--their generosity of soul, the youth of their +hearts. They loved each other, and they ended by growing fond of life and +getting in contact with it again. Nebridius journeyed from Carthage to +Milan, abandoning his mother and family, neglecting considerable interests, +not only to talk philosophy with Augustin, but to live with him as a +friend. From this moment they might have been putting in practice those +words of the Psalm, which Augustin ere long will be explaining to his monks +with such tender eloquence: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for +brethren to dwell together in unity!" + +This is not baseless hypothesis: they had really a plan for establishing a +kind of lay monastery, where the sole rule would be the search after Truth +and the happy life. There would be about a dozen solitaries. They would +make a common stock of what means they possessed. The richest, and among +these Romanianus, promised to devote their whole fortune to the community. +But the recollection of their wives brought this naive plan to nothing. +They had neglected to ask the opinions of their wives, and if these, as +was likely, should refuse to enter the convents with their husbands, the +married men could not face the scheme of living without them. Augustin +especially, who was on the point of starting a new connection, declared +that he would never find the courage for it. He had also forgotten that +he had many dependents: his whole family lived on him. Could he leave his +mother, his son, his brother, and his cousins? + +In company with Alypius and Nebridius, he sincerely lamented that this +fair dream of coenobite life was impracticable. "We were three famishing +mouths," he says, "complaining of our distress one to another, and waiting +upon Thee that Thou mightest give us our meat in due season. And in all +the bitterness that Thy mercy put into our worldly pursuits, we sought the +reason why we suffered; and all was darkness. Then we turned to each other +shuddering, and asked: 'How much longer can this last?'..." + +One day, a slight commonplace fact which they happened upon brought home +to them still more cruelly their intellectual poverty. Augustin, in his +official position as municipal orator, had just delivered the official +panegyric of the Emperor. The new year was opening: the whole city was +given over to mirth. And yet he was cast down, knowing well that he had +just uttered many an untruth, and chiefly because he despaired of ever +being happy. His friends were walking with him. Suddenly, as they crossed +the street, they came upon a beggar, quite drunk, who was indulging in the +jolliest pranks. So there was a happy man! A few pence had been enough +to give him perfect felicity, whereas they, the philosophers, despite +the greatest efforts and all their knowledge, could not manage to win +happiness. No doubt, as soon as the drunkard grew sober, he would be more +wretched than before. What matters that, if this poor joy--yes, though it +be an illusion--can so much cheer a poor creature, thus raise him so far +above himself! That minute, at least, he shall have lived in full bliss. +And to Augustin came the temptation to do as the beggar-man, to throw +overboard his philosophical lumber and set himself simply to live without +afterthoughts, since life is sometimes good. + +But an instinct, stronger than the instinct of pleasure, said to him: +"_There is something else!_--Suppose that were true?--Perhaps you might be +able to find out." This thought tormented him unceasingly. Now eager, now +disheartened, he set about trying to find the "something else." + + + + +V + +THE CHRIST IN THE GARDEN + + +"I was tired of devouring time and of being devoured by it." The whole +moral crisis that Augustin is about to undergo might be summed up in these +few words so concentrated and so strong. No more to scatter himself among +the multitude of vain things, no more to let himself flow along with the +minutes as they flowed; but to pull himself together, to escape from the +rout so as to establish himself upon the incorruptible and eternal, to +break the chains of the old slave he continues to be so as to blossom forth +in liberty, in thought, in love--that is the salvation he longs for. If it +be not yet the Christian salvation, he is on the road which leads to that. + +One might amuse oneself by drawing a kind of ideal map-route of his +conversion, and fastening into one solid chain the reasons which made him +emerge at the act of faith: he himself perhaps, in his _Confessions_, +has given way too much to this inclination. In reality, conversion is an +interior fact, and (let us repeat it) a divine fact, which is independent +of all control by the reason. Before it breaks into light, there is a long +preparation in that dark region of the soul which to-day is called the +subconscious. Now nobody has more _lived_ his ideas than did Augustin +at this time of his life. He took them, left them, took them up again, +persisted in his desperate effort. They reflect in their disorder his +variable soul, and the misgivings which troubled it to its depths. And yet +it cannot be that this interior fact should be in violent contradiction +with logic. The head ought not to hinder the heart. With the future +believer, a parallel work goes on in the feelings and in the thought. If we +are not able to reproduce the marches and counter-marches, or follow their +repeatedly broken line, we can at least shew the main halting-places. + +Let us recall Augustin's state of mind when he came to Milan. He was a +sceptic, the kind of sceptic who regards as useless all speculation upon +the origin of things, and for whom cognition is but an approximation of the +true. Vaguely deist, he saw in Jesus Christ only a wise man among the wise. +He believed in God and the providences of God, which amounts to this: That +although materialist by tendency, he admitted the divine interference in +human affairs--the miracle. This is an important point which differentiates +him from modern materialists. + +Next, he listened to the preaching of Ambrose. The Bible no longer seemed +to him absurd or at variance with a moral scheme. Ambrose's exegesis, +half allegorical, half historic, might be accepted, taken altogether, +by self-respecting minds. But what, above all, struck Augustin in the +Scriptures, was the wisdom, the practical efficiency. Those who lived by +the Christian rule were not only happy people, but, as Pascal would say, +good sons, good husbands, good fathers, good citizens. He began to suspect +that this life here below is bearable and has a meaning only when it is +fastened to the life on high. Even as for nations glory is daily bread, so +for the individual the sacrifice to something which is beyond the world is +the only way of living in the world. + +So, little by little, Augustin corrected the false notions that the +Manichees had filled him with about Catholicism. He acknowledged that in +attacking it he had "been barking against the vain imaginations of carnal +thoughts." Still, he found great difficulty in getting free of all his +Manichean prejudices. The problem of Evil remained inexplicable for him, +apart from Manichee teachings. God could not be the author of evil. This +truth admitted, he went on from it to think, against his former masters, +that nothing is bad in itself--bad because it has within it a corrupting +principle. On the contrary, all things are good, though in varying degrees. +The apparent defects of creation, perceived by our senses, blend into +the harmony of the whole. The toad and the viper have their place in the +operation of a perfectly arranged world. But physical ill is not the only +ill; there is also the evil that we do and the evil that others do us. +Crime and pain are terrible arguments against God. Now the Christians +hold that the first is the product solely of the human will, of liberty +corrupted by original sin, and that the other is permitted by God as a +means of purifying souls. Of course, this was a solution, but it implied a +belief in the dogmas of the Fall and of the Redemption. Augustin did not +accept them yet. He was too proud to recognize an impaired will and the +need of a Saviour. "My puffed-out face," he says, "closed up my eyes." + +Nevertheless he had taken a great step in rejecting the fundamental dogma +of Manicheeism--the double Principle of good and evil. Henceforth for +Augustin there exists only one Principle, unique and incorruptible--the +Good, which is God. But his view of this divine substance is still +quite materialistic, to such an extent is he governed by his senses. In +his thought, it is corporeal, spatial, and infinite. He pictures it as +a kind of limitless sea, wherein is a huge sponge bathing the world +that it pervades throughout.... He was at this point, when one of his +acquaintances, "a man puffed up with immense vanity," gave him some of +the Dialogues of Plato, translated into Latin by the famous rhetorician +Victorinus Afer. It is worth noting, as we pass, that Augustin, now +thirty-two years old, a rhetorician by profession and a philosopher by +taste, had not yet read Plato. This is yet another proof to what extent the +instruction of the ancients was oral, resembling in this the Mussulmans' +instruction of to-day. Up to now, he had only known Plato by hearsay. He +read him, and it was as a revelation. He learned that a reality could exist +without diffusion through space. He saw God as unextended and yet infinite. +The sense of the divine Soul was given to him. Then the primordial +necessity of the Mediator or Word was borne in upon his mind. It is the +Word which has created the world. It is through the Word that the world, +and God, and all things, including ourselves, become comprehensible to us. +What an astonishment! Plato corresponded with St. John! "In the beginning +was the Word"--_in principio erat verbum_--said the fourth Gospel. But +it was not only an Evangelist that Augustin discovered in the Platonist +dialogues, it was almost all the essential part of the doctrine of Christ. +He saw plainly the profound differences, but for the moment he was struck +by the resemblances, and they carried him away. What delighted him, first +of all, is the beauty of the world, constructed after His own likeness by +the Demiurgus. God is Beauty; the world is fair as He who made it. This +metaphysical vision entranced Augustin; his whole heart leaped towards +this ineffably beautiful Divinity. Carried away by enthusiasm he cries: "I +marvelled to find that now I loved Thee, O my God, and not a phantasm in +Thy stead. If I was not yet in a state to enjoy Thee, _I was swept up to +Thee by Thy beauty_." + +But such an abandonment could not endure: "I was not yet in a state to +enjoy Thee." There is Augustin's main objection to Platonism. He felt +that instead of touching God, of enjoying Him, he would be held by purely +mental conceptions, that he would be always losing his way among the +phantasmagoria of idealism. What was the use of giving up the illusory +realities of the senses, if it were not to get hold of more _solid_ +realities? Though his intelligence, his poet's imagination, might be +attracted by the glamour of Platonism, his heart was not satisfied. "It is +one thing," he says, "from some wooded height to behold the land of peace, +another thing to march thither along the high road." + +St. Paul it was who shewed him this road. He began to read the _Epistles_ +carefully, and the more he read of them the more he became aware of the +abyss which separates philosophy from wisdom--the one which marshals the +ideas of things, the other which, ignoring ideas, leads right up to the +divine realities whereon the others are suspended. The Apostle taught +Augustin that it was not enough to get a glimpse of God through the crystal +of concepts, but that it is necessary to be united to Him in spirit and in +truth--to possess and enjoy Him. And to unite itself to this Good, the soul +must get itself into a fit state for such a union, purify and cure itself +of all its fleshly maladies, descry its place in the world and hold to it. +Necessity of repentance, of humility, of the contrite and humble heart. +Only the contrite and humble heart shall see God. "The broken heart shall +be cured," says the Scripture, "but the heart of the proud man shall be +shattered." So Augustin, the intellectual, had to change his methods, +and he felt that this change was right. If the writer who wants to write +beautiful things ought to put himself beforehand into some sort of a state +of grace, wherein not only vile actions, but unworthy thoughts become +impossible, the Christian, in like manner, must cleanse and prepare +his inward eye to perceive the divine verities. Augustin grasped this +thought in reading St. Paul. But what, above all, appealed to him in the +_Epistles_, was their paternal voice, the mildness and graciousness hidden +beneath the uncultivated roughness of the phrases. He was charmed by this. +How different from the philosophers! "Those celebrated pages have no trace +of the pious soul, the tears of repentance, nor of Thy sacrifice, O my God, +nor of the troubled spirit.... No one there hearkened to the Christ that +calleth, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour!' They think it scorn to learn +from Him, because He is meek and lowly of heart. For Thou hast hidden these +things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." + +But it is not much to bend: what is, above all, requisite for him is to get +rid of his passions. Now Augustin's passions were old friends. How could +he part with them? He lacked courage for this heroic treatment. Just think +of what a young man of thirty-two is. He is always thinking of women. Lust +holds him by the entanglements of habit, and he takes pleasure in the +impurity of his heart. When, yielding to the exhortations of the Apostle, +he tried to shape his conduct to his new way of thinking, the old friends +trooped to beg of him not to do anything of the kind. "They pulled me," he +says, "by the coat of my flesh, and they murmured in my ear--What, are you +leaving us? Shall we be no more with you, for ever? _Non erimus tecum ultra +in aeternum?_... And from that instant, the thing you well know, and still +another thing, will be forbidden you for ever--for eternity...." + +Eternity! Dread word. Augustin shook with fear. Then, calming himself, he +said to them: "I know you; I know you too well! You are Desire without +hope, the Gulf without soundings that nothing can fill up. I have suffered +enough because of you." And the anguished dialogue continued: "What +matters that! If the only possible happiness for you is to suffer on our +account, to fling your body into the voracious gulf, without end, without +hope!"--"Let cowards act so!... For me there is another happiness than +yours. There is _something else_: I am certain." Then the friends, put +a little out of countenance by this convinced tone, muttered in a lower +voice: "Still, just suppose you are losing this wretched pleasure for +a phantasm still more empty.... Besides, you are mistaken about your +strength. You cannot--no, you never can exist without us." They had touched +the galling spot: Augustin knew his weakness only too well. And his burning +imagination presented to him with extraordinary lucidity these pleasures +which he could not do without. They were not only embracements, but also +those trifles, those superfluous nothings, "those light pleasantnesses +which make us fond of life." The perfidious old friends continued to +whisper: "Wait a bit yet! The things you despise have a charm of their +own; they bring even no small sweetness. You ought not to cut yourself off +light-heartedly, for it would be shameful to return to them afterwards." +He passed in review all the things he was going to give up; he saw them +shine before him tinted in the most alluring colours: gaming, elaborate +entertainments, music, song, perfumes, books, poetry, flowers, the coolness +of forests (he remembered the woods about Thagaste, and his hunting days +with Romanianus)--in a word, all that he had ever cared about, even to +"that freshness of the light, so kind to human eyes." + +Augustin was not able to decide in this conflict between temptation and the +decree of his conscience, and he became desperate. His will, enfeebled by +sin, was unable to struggle against itself. And so he continued to endure +life and to be "devoured by time." + +The life of that particular period, if it was endurable for quiet folk +who were careful to have nothing to do with politics--this life of the +Empire near its end, could be nothing but a scandalous spectacle for an +honest-minded and high-souled man such as Augustin. It ought to have +disgusted him at once with remaining in the world. At Milan, connected as +he was with the Court, he was in a good position to see how much baseness +and ferocity may spring from human avarice and ambition. If the present +was hideous, the future promised to be sinister. The Roman Empire no longer +existed save in name. Foreigners, come from all the countries of the +Mediterranean, plundered the provinces under its authority. The army was +almost altogether in the hands of the Barbarians. They were Gothic tribunes +who kept order outside the basilica where Ambrose had closed himself in +with his people to withstand the order of the Empress Justina, who wished +to hand over this church to the Arians. Levantine eunuchs domineered over +the exchequer-clerks in the palace, and officials of all ranks. All these +people plundered where they could. The Empire, even grown feeble, was +always an excellent machine to rule men and extract gold from nations. +Accordingly, ambitious men and adventurers, wherever they came from, tried +for the Purple: it was still worth risking one's skin for. Even more than +the patriots (and there were still some very energetic men of this sort +who were overcome with grief at the state of things), the men of rapine +and violence were interested in maintaining the Empire. The Barbarians +themselves desired to be included, so that they might pillage it with more +impunity. + +As for the emperors, even sincere Christians, they were obliged to become +abominable tyrants to defend their constantly threatened lives. Never were +executions more frequent or more cruel than at this time. At Milan they +might have shewn Augustin, hard by the Imperial sleeping apartments, the +cave where the preceding Emperor, choleric Valentinian, kept two bears, +"Bit of Gold" and "Innocence," who were his rapid executioners. He fed them +with the flesh of those condemned to die. Possibly "Bit of Gold" was still +living. "Innocence"--observe the atrocious irony of this name--had been +restored to the liberty of her native forests, as a reward for her good and +loyal services. + +Was Augustin, who still thought of becoming an official, going to mix in +with this lot of swindlers, assassins, and brute beasts? As he studied them +near at hand, he felt his goodwill grow weak. Like all those who belong +to worn-out generations, he must have been disgusted with action and the +villainies it involves. Just before great catastrophes, or just after, +there is an epidemic of black pessimism which freezes delicate souls. +Besides, he was ill--a favourable circumstance for a disappointed man if he +entertains thoughts of giving up the world. In the fogs of Milan his chest +and throat became worse and worse. And then it is likely enough that he was +not succeeding better as rhetorician than he had at Rome. It was a kind +of fatality for all Africans. However great their reputation in their own +country, that was the end of it as soon as they crossed the sea. Apuleius, +the great man of Carthage, had tried the experiment to his cost. They had +made fun of his guttural Carthaginian pronunciation. The same kind of thing +happened to Augustin. The Milanese turned his African accent into ridicule. +He even found among them certain purists who discovered solecisms in his +phrases. + +But these scratches at his self-respect, this increasing disgust of men +and things, were small matters compared to what was going on within him. +Augustin had a sick soul. The forebodings he had always been subject to +were now become the suffering of every moment. At certain times he was +assailed by those great waves of sadness which unfurl all of a sudden from +the depths of the unknown. In such minutes we believe that the whole world +is hurling itself against us. The great wave rolled him over; he got up +again all wounded. And he felt stretch forth in him a new will which was +not his own, under which the other, the will to sin, struggled. It was +like the approach of an invisible being whose contact overcame him with an +anguish which was full of pleasure. This being wanted to open out within +him, but the weight of his old sins prevented. Then his soul cried out in +pain. + +In those moments, what a relief it was to let himself float on the +canticles of the Church! The liturgical chants were then something new in +the West. It was in the very year we are dealing with that St. Ambrose +started the custom in the Milanese basilicas. + +The childhood of our hymns! One cannot think about that without being +moved. One envies Augustin for having heard them in their spring freshness. +These lovely musics, which were to sound during so many centuries, and +still soar against the vaults of cathedrals, were leaving the nest for the +first time. We cannot think that a day will come when they will fold their +wings and fall silent. Since human bodies, temples of the Holy Ghost, will +live again in glory, one would like to believe with Dante that the hymns, +temples of the Word, are likewise immortal, and that they will still be +heard in the everlasting. Doubtless in the twilight glens of Purgatory the +bewailing souls continue to sing the _Te lucis ante terminum_, even as in +the star-circles, where the Blessed move ever, will always leap up the +triumphant notes of the _Magnificat_.... + +Even on those who have lost the faith, the power of these hymns is +irresistible. "If you knew," said Renan, "the charm that the Barbarian +magicians knew how to put into their canticles. When I remember them, my +heart melts." The heart of Augustin, who had not yet the faith, melted too +in hearing them: "How I have cried, my God, over the hymns and canticles +when the sweet sound of the music of Thy Church thrilled my soul! As the +music flowed into my ears, and Thy truth trickled into my heart, the tide +of devotion swelled high within me, and the tears ran down, and there was +gladness in those tears." His heart cast off its heaviness, while his mind +was shaken by the heavenly music. Augustin loved music passionately. At +this time he conceived God as the Great Musician of the spheres; and soon +he will write that "we are a strophe in a poem." At the same time, the +vivid and lightning figures of the Psalms, sweeping over the insipid +metaphors of the rhetoric which encumbered his memory, awoke in the depths +of him his wild African imagination and sent him soaring. And then the +affectionate note, the plaint in those sacred songs: _Deus, Deus meus!_--"O +God! O _my_ God!" The Divinity was no longer a cold abstraction, a phantom +that withdrew into an unapproachable infinite; He became the actual +possession of the loving soul. He leant over His poor scarred creature, +took him in His arms, and comforted him like a kind father. + +Augustin wept with tenderness and ecstasy, but also with despair. He wept +upon himself. He saw that he had not the courage to be happy with the only +possible happiness. What, indeed, was he seeking, unless it were to capture +this "blessed life" which he had pursued so long? What he had tried to get +out of all his loves was the complete gift of his soul--to realize himself +completely. Now, this completeness of self is only in God--_in Deo salutari +meo_. The souls we have wounded are in unison with us, and with themselves, +only in God.... And the sweet Christian symbolism invited him with its +most enticing images: the Shades of Paradise; the Fountain of Living +Water; the Repose in the Lord God; the green Branch of the Dove, harbinger +of peace.... But the passions still resisted. "To-morrow! Wait a little +yet! Shall we be no more with you, for ever? _Non erimus tecum ultra in +aeternum?_..." What a dismal sound in these syllables, and how terrifying +for a timid soul! They fell, heavy as bronze, on the soul of Augustin. + +An end had to be put to it somehow. What was needed was some one who would +force him out of his indecision. Instinctively, led by that mysterious will +which he felt had arisen within him, he went to see, and consult in his +distress, an old priest named Simplicianus, who had converted or directed +Bishop Ambrose in his young days. No doubt Augustin spoke to him of what he +had lately been reading, and particularly of his Platonist studies, and of +all the efforts he made to enter the communion of Christ. He acknowledged +that he was convinced, but he could not bend to the practice of the +Christian life. Then, very skilfully, as one artful in differentiating +souls, perceiving that vanity was not yet dead in Augustin, Simplicianus +offered him as an example the very translator of those Platonic books which +he had just been reading so enthusiastically--that famous Victorinus Afer, +that orator so learned and admired, who had his statue in the Roman Forum. +Because of some remains of philosophical pride, and also from fear of +offending his friends among the Roman aristocracy, who were still almost +altogether pagan, Victorinus was a Christian only in his head. In vain +Simplicianus pointed out to him how illogical his conduct was. But suddenly +and unexpectedly he decided. The day of the baptism of the catechumens, +this celebrated man mounted the platform set up in the basilica for the +profession of faith of the newly converted, and there, like the meanest of +the faithful, he delivered his profession before all the assembled people. +That was a dramatic stroke. The crowd, jubilant over this fine performance, +cheered the neophyte. And on all sides they shouted: "Victorinus! +Victorinus!" + +Augustin listened to this little story, whereof all the details were so +happily chosen to act on an imagination like his:--the statue in the +Roman Forum; the platform from the height of which the orator had spoken +a language so new and unexpected; the exulting shouts of the crowd: +"Victorinus! Victorinus!" Already he saw himself in the same position. +There he was in the basilica, on the platform, in presence of Bishop +Ambrose; he too repeated his profession of faith, and the people of Milan +clapped their hands--"Augustin! Augustin!" But can a humble and contrite +heart thus take pleasure in human adulation? If Augustin did become a +convert, it would be entirely for God and before God. Very quickly he put +aside the temptation.... Nevertheless, this example, coming from so exalted +a man, made a very deep and beneficial impression. He looked upon it as a +providential sign, a lesson in courage which concerned him personally. + +Some time after that, he received a visit from a fellow-countryman, a +certain Pontitianus, who had a high position in the Imperial household. +Augustin happened to be alone in the house with his friend Alypius. They +sat down to talk, and by chance the visitor noticed the Epistles of St. +Paul lying on a table for playing games. This started the conversation. +Pontitianus, who was a Christian, praised the ascetic life, and especially +the wonders of holiness wrought by Antony and his companions in the +Egyptian deserts. This subject was in the air. In Catholic circles at +Rome, they spoke of little else than these Egyptian solitaries, and of +the number, growing larger and larger, of those who stripped themselves +of their worldly goods to live in utter renunciation. What was the good +of keeping these worldly goods, that the avarice of Government taxation +confiscated so easily, and that the Barbarians watched covetously from +afar! The brutes who came down from Germany would get hold of them sooner +or later. And even supposing one might save them, retain an ever-uncertain +enjoyment of them, was the life of the time really worth the trouble of +living? There was nothing more to hope for the Empire. The hour of the +great desolation was at hand.... + +Pontitianus, observing the effect of his words on his hearers, was led +to tell them a quite private adventure of his own. He was at Trèves, in +attendance on the Court. Well, one afternoon while the Emperor was at +the circus, he and three of his friends, like himself attached to the +household, went for a stroll beyond the city walls. Two of them parted +from the others and went off into the country, and there they came upon +a hut where dwelt certain hermits. They went in, and found a book--_The +Life of St. Antony_. They read in it; and for them that was a conversion +thunder-striking, instantaneous. The two courtiers resolved to join the +solitaries there and then, and they never went back to the Palace. And they +were betrothed!... + +The tone of Pontitianus as he recalled this conscience-drama which he +had witnessed, betrayed a strange emotion which gradually took hold of +Augustin. His guest's words resounded in him like the blows of a clapper in +a bell. He saw himself in the two courtiers of Trèves. He too was tired of +the world, he too was betrothed. Was he going to do as the Emperor--remain +in the circus taken up with idle pleasures, while others took the road to +the sole happiness? + +When Pontitianus was gone, Augustin was in a desperate state. The repentant +soul of the two courtiers had passed into his. His will uprose in grievous +conflict and tortured itself. He seized Alypius roughly by the arm and +cried out to him in extraordinary excitement: + +"What are we about? Yes, I say, what are we about? Did you not hear? Simple +men arise and take Heaven by violence, and we with all our heartless +learning--look how we are wallowing in flesh and blood!" + +Alypius stared at him, stupefied. "The truth is," adds Augustin, "that I +scarcely knew what I said. My face, my eyes, my colour, and the change in +my voice expressed my meaning much better than my words." If he guessed +from this upheaval of his whole frame how close at hand was the heavenly +visitation, all he felt at the moment was a great need to weep, and he +wanted solitude to weep freely. He went down into the garden. Alypius, +feeling uneasy, followed at a distance, and in silence sat down beside him +on the bench where he had paused. Augustin did not even notice that his +friend was there. His agony of spirit began again. All his faults, all his +old stains came once more to his mind, and he grew furious against his +cowardly feebleness as he felt how much he still clung to them. Oh, to tear +himself free from all these miseries--to finish with them once for all!... +Suddenly he sprang up. It was as if a gust of the tempest had struck him. +He rushed to the end of the garden, flung himself on his knees under a +fig-tree, and with his forehead pressed against the earth he burst into +tears. Even as the olive-tree at Jerusalem which sheltered the last watch +of the Divine Master, the fig-tree of Milan saw fall upon its roots a sweat +of blood. Augustin, breathless in the victorious embrace of Grace, panted: +"How long, how long?... To-morrow and to-morrow?... Why not now? Why not +this hour make an end of my vileness?..." + +Now, at this very moment a child's voice from the neighbouring house began +repeating in a kind of chant: "_Take and read, take and read_." Augustin +shuddered. What was this refrain? Was it a nursery-rhyme that the little +children of the countryside used to sing? He could not recollect it; he had +never heard it before.... Immediately, as upon a divine command, he rose to +his feet and ran back to the place where Alypius was sitting, for he had +left St. Paul's Epistles lying there. He opened the book, and the passage +on which his eyes first fell was this: _Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, +and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof_.... The +flesh!... The sacred text aimed at him directly--at him, Augustin, still so +full of lust! This command was the answer from on high.... + +He put his finger between the leaves, closed the volume. His frenzy had +passed away. A great peace was shed upon him--it was all over. With a calm +face he told Alypius what had happened, and without lingering he went into +Monnica's room to tell her also. The Saint was not surprised. It was long +now since she had been told, "Where I am, there shalt thou be also." But +she gave way to an outburst of joy. Her mission was done. Now she might +sing her canticle of thanksgiving and enter into God's peace. + +Meanwhile, the good Alypius, always circumspect and practical, had opened +the book again and shewn his friend what followed the verse, for Augustin, +in his excitement, had neglected to read further. The Apostle said, "_Him +that is weak in the faith receive ye_." This also applied to Augustin. +That was only too certain: his new faith was still very unsteady. Let not +presumption blind him! Yes, no doubt with all his soul he desired to be a +Christian. It now remained for him to become one. + + + + +THE FOURTH PART + +THE HIDDEN LIFE + + + Fac me, Pater, quaerere te. + "Cause me to seek Thee, O my Father." + + _Soliloquies_, I, i. + + + + +I + +THE LAST SMILE OF THE MUSE + + +Now that Augustin had been at last touched by grace, was he after all +going to make a sensational conversion like his professional brother, the +celebrated Victorinus? + +He knew well enough that there is a good example set by these noisy +conversions which works on a vast number of people. And however "contrite +and humble" his heart might be, he was quite aware that in Milan he +was an important personage. What excitement, if he were to resign his +professorship on the ground that he wished to spend the rest of his life in +the ascetic way of the Christians!... But he preferred to avoid the scandal +on one side, and the loud praise on the other. God alone and some very dear +friends should witness his repentance. + +There were now hardly twenty days before the vacation. He would be patient +till then. Thus, the parents of his pupils would not have any ground to +reproach him for leaving them before the end of term, and as his health +was getting worse, he would have a good excuse to give up his post. The +dampness of the climate had given him a sort of chronic bronchitis which +the summer had not cured. He had difficulty in breathing; his voice was +muffled and thin--so much so, that he began to think his lungs were +attacked. Augustin's health really needed care. This was a quite good +enough reason to interrupt his lectures. Having fulfilled his professional +duties to the very end--and he assures us that it took some courage--he +left the professorial chair with the declared intention of never occupying +it again. + +Here, then, he is free from all worldly ties. From now on he can prepare +himself for baptism in silence and retreat. But still he must live somehow! +Augustin had more souls depending on him than ever: his son, his mother, +his brother, his cousins--a heavy burthen which he had been struggling +under for a long time. It is probable that once more Romanianus, who was +still in Milan, came to his assistance. It will be remembered that the +Mæcenas of Thagaste had taken up warmly the plan of a lay monastery which +Augustin and his friends had lost their heads over, and he had promised +to subscribe a large sum. Augustin's retreat was a first step towards +realizing this plan in a new shape. Romanianus, no doubt, approved of +it. In any case, he asked Augustin to keep on giving lessons to his son +Licentius. Another young man, Trygetius, begged for the same favour. +Augustin therefore did not intend to give up his employment altogether. He +had changed, for the present at least, from a Government professor into a +private one. + +This meant that he had a certain living. All he wanted now was a shelter. +A friend, a colleague, the grammarian Verecundus, graciously offered him +this. Verecundus thus repaid a favour which Augustin had quite recently +done him. It was at Augustin's request that Nebridius, who was a friend of +both, agreed to take over the classes of the grammarian, who was obliged +to go away. Although rich, full of talent, and very eager for peace and +solitude, Nebridius, simply out of good-nature, was willing to take the +place of Verecundus in his very modest employment. One cannot too much +admire the generosity and kindliness of these ancient and Christian +manners. In those days, friendship knew nothing of our narrow and shabby +egoisms. + +Now Verecundus owned a country house just outside Milan, at Cassicium. He +suggested to Augustin to spend the vacation there, and even to live there +permanently with all his people, on condition of looking after the property +and keeping it up. + +Attempts have been made to find traces of this hospitable dwelling where +the future monk of Thagaste and Hippo bade farewell to the world. Cassicium +has disappeared. The imagination is free to rebuild it fancifully in any +part of the rich country which lies about Milan. Still, if the youthful +Licentius has not yielded too much to metaphor in the verses wherein he +recalls to Augustin "Departed suns among Italian mountain-heights," it is +likely that the estate of Verecundus lay upon those first mountain-slopes +which roll into the Brianza range. Even to-day, the rich Milanese have +their country houses among those hills. + +To Augustin and his companions this flourishing Lombardy must have seemed +another promised land. The country, wonderfully fertile and cultivated, +is one orchard, where fruit trees cluster, and, in all ways, deep streams +wind, slow-flowing and stocked with fish. Everywhere is the tremor of +running water--inconceivably fresh music for African ears. A scent of mint +and aniseed; fields with grass growing high and straight in which you +plunge up to the knees. Here and there, deeply engulfed little valleys +with their bunches of green covert, slashed with the rose plumes of the +lime trees and the burnished leaves of the hazels, and where already the +northern firs lift their black needles. Far off, blended in one violet +mass, the Alps, peak upon peak, covered with snow; and nearer in view, +sheer cliffs, jutting fastnesses, ploughed through with black gorges which +make flare out plainer the bronze-gold of their slopes. Not far off, the +enchanted lakes slumber. It seems that an emblazonment fluctuates from +their waters, and writhing above the crags which imprison them drifts +athwart a sky sometimes a little chill--Leonardo's pensive sky of shadowed +amethyst--again of a flushed blue, whereupon float great clouds, silken +and ruddy, as in the backgrounds of Veronese's pictures. The beauty of the +light lightens and beautifies the over-heavy opulence of the land. + +And wherever the country house of Verecundus may be placed, some bit of +this triumphal landscape will be found. As for the house itself, Augustin +has said enough about it for us to see it fairly well. It was no doubt one +of those old rustic buildings, inhabited only some few months of the year, +in the warmest season, and for the rest of the time given over to the +frolics of mice and rats. Without any pretence to architectural form, it +had been enlarged and renovated simply for the greater convenience of those +who lived there. There was no attempt at symmetry; the main door was not in +the middle of the building, and there was another door on one of the sides. +The sole luxury of this country house was perhaps the bath-houses. These +baths, however simple they might be, nevertheless reminded Augustin of +the decoration of gymnasiums. Does this mean that he found there rich +pavements, mosaics, and statues? These were quite usual things in Roman +villas. The Italians have always had, at all periods, a great fondness +for statues and mosaics. Not very particular about the quality, they made +up for it by the quantity. And when they could not treat themselves to +the real thing, it was good enough to give themselves the make-believe in +painting. I can imagine easily enough Verecundus' house, painted in fresco +from top to bottom, inside and out, like those houses at Pompeii, or the +modern Milanese villas. + +There was no attempt at ornamental gardens at Cassicium. The surroundings +must have been kitchen-garden, grazing-land, or ploughed fields, as in +a farm. A meadow--not in the least the lawns found in front of a large +country house--lay before the dwelling, which was protected from sun and +wind by clumps of chestnut trees. There, stretched on the grass under the +shade of one of these spreading trees, they chatted gaily while listening +to the broken song of the brook, as it flowed under the windows of the +baths. They lived very close to nature, almost the life of field-tillers. +The whole charm of Cassicium consisted in its silence, its peace, and, +above all, its fresh air. Augustin's tired lungs breathed there a purer air +than in Milan, where the humid summer heat is crushing. His soul, yearning +for retirement, discovered a retreat here in harmony with his new desires, +a country solitude of which the Virgilian grace still appealed to his +literary imagination. The days he passed there were days of blessedness for +him. Long afterwards he was deeply moved when he recalled them, and in an +outburst of gratitude towards his host, he prayed God to pay him his debt. +"Thou wilt recompense him, O Lord, on the day of the resurrection of the +just.... For that country house at Cassicium where we found shelter in Thee +from the burning summer of our time, Thou wilt repay to Verecundus the +coolness and evergreen shade of Thy paradise...." + +That was an unequalled moment in Augustin's life. Following immediately +upon the mental crisis which had even worn out his body, he seems to be +experiencing the pleasure of convalescence. He slackens, and, as he says +himself, he rests. His excitement is quenched, but his faith remains +as firm as ever. With a cairn and supremely lucid mind he judges his +condition; he sees clearly all that he has still to do ere he becomes a +thorough Christian. First, he must grow familiar with the Scripture, solve +certain urgent questions--that of the soul, for example, its nature and +origin--which possessed him just then. Then he must change his conduct, +alter his ways of thought, and, if one may so speak, disinfect his mind +still all saturated with pagan influences: a delicate work--yes, and an +uneasy, at times even painful, which would take more than one day. + +After twenty centuries of Christianity, and in spite of our claim to +understand all things, we do not yet realize very well what an abyss +lies between us and paganism. When by chance we come upon pagan traces +in certain primitive regions of the South of Europe, we get muddled, and +attribute to Catholicism what is but a survival of old abolished customs, +so far from us that we cannot recognize them any more. Augustin, on the +contrary, was right next to them. When he strolled over the fields and +through the woods around Cassicium, the Fauns and woodland Nymphs of the +old mythology haunted his memory, and all but stood before his eyes. He +could not take a walk without coming upon one of their chapels, or striking +against a boundary-mark still all greasy from the oil with which the +superstitious peasants had drenched it. Like himself, the old pagan land +had not yet quite put on the Christ of the new era. He was like that Hermes +Criophorus, who awkwardly symbolized the Saviour on the walls of the +Catacombs. Even as the Bearer of Rams changed little by little into the +Good Shepherd, the Bishop of Hippo emerged slowly from the rhetorician +Augustin. + +He became aware of it during that languid autumn at Cassicium--that autumn +heavy with all the rotting of summer, but which already promised the +great winter peace. The yellow leaves of the chestnuts were heaped by the +roadside. They fell in the brook which flowed near the baths, and the +slowed water ceased to sing. Augustin strained his ears for it. His soul +also was blocked, choked up by all the deposit of his passions. But he knew +that soon the chant of his new life would begin in triumphal fashion, and +he said over to himself the words of the psalm: _Cantate mihi canticum +novum_--"Sing unto me a new song." + +Unfortunately for Augustin, his soul and its salvation was not his only +care at Cassicium: he had a thousand others. So it shall be with him +throughout his life. Till the very end he will long for solitude, for the +life in God, and till the end God will charge him with the care of his +brethren. This great spirit shall live above all by charity. + +At the house of Verecundus he was not only the head, but he had a complete +country estate to direct and supervise. Probably all the guests in the +house helped him. They divided the duties. The good Alypius, who was used +to business and versed in the twisted ways of the law, took over the +foreign affairs--the buying and selling, probably the accounts also. He was +continually on the road to Milan. Augustin attended to the correspondence, +and every morning appointed their work to the farm-labourers. Monnica +looked after the household, no easy work in a house where nine sat down to +table every day. But the Saint fulfilled her humble duties with touching +kindness and forgetfulness of self: "She took care of us," says Augustin, +"as if we had all been her children, and she served us as if each of us had +been her father." + +Let us look a little at these "children" of Monnica. Besides Alypius, whom +we know already, there was the young Adeodatus, the child of sin--"my son +Adeodatus, whose gifts gave promise of great things, unless my love for +him betrays me." Thus speaks his father. This little boy was, it seems, +a prodigy, as shall be the little Blaise Pascal later: "His intelligence +filled me with awe"--_horrori mihi erat illud ingenium_--says the father +again. What is certain is that he had a soul like an angel. Some sayings +of his have been preserved by Augustin. They are fragrant as a bunch of +lilies. + +The other members of the family are nearer the earth. Navigius, Augustin's +brother, an excellent man of whom we know nothing save that he had a bad +liver--the icterus of the African colonist--and that on this account he +abstained from sweetmeats. Rusticus and Lastidianus, the two cousins, +persons as shadowy as the "supers" in a tragedy. Finally, Augustin's +pupils, Trygetius and Licentius. The first, who had lately served some time +in the army, was passionately fond of history, "like a veteran." Although +his master in some of his Dialogues has made him his interlocutor, his +character remains for us undeveloped. With Licentius it is different. This +son of Romanianus, the Mæcenas of Thagaste, was Augustin's beloved pupil. +It is easy to make that out. All the phrases he devotes to Licentius have a +warmth of tone, a colour and relief which thrill. + +This Licentius comes before us as the type of the spoiled child, the son of +a wealthy family, capricious, vain, presuming, unabashed, never hesitating +if he sees a chance to have a joke with his master. Forgetful, besides, +prone to sudden fancies, superficial, and rather blundering. With all +that, the best boy in the world--a bad head, but a good heart. He was a +frank pagan, and I believe remained a pagan all his life, in spite of the +remonstrances of Augustin and those of the gentle Paulinus of Nola, who +lectured him in prose and verse. A great eater and a fine drinker, he +found himself obliged to do penance at St. Monnica's rather frugal table. +But when the fever of inspiration took hold of him, he forgot eating and +drinking, and in his poetical thirst he would would have drained--so his +master says--all the fountains of Helicon. Licentius had a passion for +versifying: "He is an almost perfect poet," wrote Augustin to Romanianus. +The former rhetorician knew the world, and the way to talk to the father +of a wealthy pupil, especially if he is your benefactor. At Cassicium, +under Augustin's indulgent eyes, the pupil turned into verse the romantic +adventure of Pyramus and Thisbe. He declaimed bits of it to the guests +in the house, for he had a fine loud voice. Then he flung aside the +unfinished poem and suddenly fell in love with Greek tragedies of which, +as it happened, he understood nothing at all, though this did not prevent +him from boring everybody he met with them. Another day it was the Church +music, then quite new, which flung him into enthusiasm. That day they heard +Licentius singing canticles from morning till night. + +In connection with this, Augustin relates with candid freedom an anecdote +which to-day needs the indulgence of the reader to make it acceptable. As +it gives light upon that half-pagan, half-Christian way of life which was +still Augustin's, I will repeat it in all its plainness. + +It happened, then, one evening after dinner, that Licentius went out and +took his way to a certain mysterious retreat, and there he suddenly began +singing this verse of the Psalm: "Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause +Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved." As a matter of fact, he had +hardly sung anything else for a long time. He kept on repeating this verse +over and over again, as people do with a tune they have just picked up. But +the pious Monnica, who heard him, could not tolerate the singing of such +holy words in such a place. She spoke sharply to the offender. Upon this +the young scatter-brains answered rather flippantly: + +"Supposing, good mother, that an enemy had shut me up in that place--do you +mean to say that God wouldn't have heard me just the same?" + +The next day he thought no more about it, and when Augustin reminded him, +he declared that he felt no remorse. + +"As far as I am concerned," replied the excellent master, "I am not in the +least shocked by it.... The truth is, that neither that place, which has +so much scandalized my mother, nor the darkness of night, is altogether +inappropriate to this canticle. For whence, think you, do we implore God +to drag us, so that we may be converted and gaze upon His face? Is it not +from that jakes of the senses wherein our souls are plunged, and from that +darkness of which the error is around us?..." + +And as they were discussing that day the order established by Providence, +Augustin made it a pretext to give a little edifying lecture to his pupil. +Having heard the sermon to the end, the sharp Licentius put in with sly +maliciousness: + +"I say, what a splendid arrangement of events to shew me that nothing +happens except in the best way, and for our great good!" + +This reply gives us the tone of the conversation between Augustin and +his pupils. Nevertheless, however free and merry the talks might be, the +purpose was always instructive, and it was always substantial. Let us not +forget that the Milanese rhetorician is still a professor. The best part of +his days was devoted to these two youths who had been put under his charge. +As soon as he had settled the business of the farm, talked to the peasants, +and given his orders to the workmen, he fell back upon his business of +rhetorician. In the morning they went over Virgil's _Eclogues_ together. At +night they discussed philosophy. When the weather was fine they walked in +the fields, and the discussion continued under the shade of the chestnut +trees. If it rained, they took refuge in the withdrawing-room adjoining the +baths. Beds were there, cushions, soft chairs convenient for talking, and +the equal temperature from the vapour-baths close at hand was good for +Augustin's bronchial tubes. + +There is no stiffness in these dialogues, nothing which smacks of the +school. The discussion starts from things which they had under the eyes, +often from some slight accidental happening. One night when Augustin could +not sleep--he often suffered from insomnia--the dispute began in bed, for +the master and his pupils slept in the same room. Lying there in the dark, +he listened to the broken murmur of the stream. He was trying to think out +an explanation of the pauses in the sound, when Licentius shifted under the +bedclothes, and reaching out for a piece of stick lying on the floor, he +rapped with it on the foot of the bed to frighten the mice. So he was not +asleep either, nor Trygetius, who was stirring about in his bed. Augustin +was delighted: he had two listeners. Immediately he put this question: "Why +do those pauses come in the flow of the stream? Do they not follow some +secret law?..." They had hit upon a subject for debate. During many days +they discussed the order of the world. + +Another time, as they were going into the baths, they stopped to look +at two cocks fighting. Augustin called the attention of the youths "to +a certain order full of propriety in all the movements of these fowls +deprived of reason." + +"Look at the conqueror," said he. "He crows triumphantly. He struts and +plumes himself as a proud sign of victory. And now look at the beaten one, +without voice, his neck unfeathered, a look of shame. All that has I know +not what beauty, in harmony with the laws of nature...." + +New argument in favour of order: the debate of the night before is started +rolling again. + +For us, too, it is well worth while to pause on this little homely scene. +It reveals to us an Augustin not only very sensitive to beauty, but very +attentive to the sights of the world surrounding him. Cockfights were still +very popular in this Roman society at the ending of the Empire. For a long +time sculptors had found many gracious subjects in the sport. Reading this +passage of Augustin's, one recalls, among other similar designs, that +funeral urn at the Lateran upon which are represented two little boys, one +crying over his beaten cock, while the other holds his tenderly in his +arms and kisses it--the cock that won, identified by the crown held in its +spurs. + +Augustin is always very close to these humble realities. Every moment +outside things start up in the dialogues between the master and his +pupils.... They are in bed on a rainy night in November. Gradually, a vague +gleam rests on the windows. They ask each other if that can be the moon, or +the break of day.... Another time, the sun rises in all its splendour, and +they decide to go into the meadow and sit on the grass. Or else, the sky +darkens and lights are brought in. Or again, it is the appearance of +diligent Alyphis, just come back from Milan.... + +In the same way as he notes these light details in passing, Augustin +welcomes all his guests into his dialogues and admits them to the debate: +his mother, his brother, the cousins, Alypius between his business +journeys, down to the child Adeodatus. He knew the value of ordinary good +sense, the second-sight of a pure heart, or of a pious soul strengthened by +prayer. Monnica used often to come into the room when they were arguing, +to let them know that dinner was ready, or for something of the kind. Her +son asked her to remain. Modestly she shewed her astonishment at such an +honour. + +"Mother," said Augustin, "do you not love truth? Then why should I blush +to give you a place among us? Even if your love for truth were only +half-hearted, I ought still to receive you and listen to you. How much more +then, since you love it more than you love me, _and I know how much you +love me_.... Nothing can separate you from truth, neither fear, nor pain +of whatever kind it be--no, nor death itself. Do not all agree that this +is the highest stage of philosophy? How can I hesitate after that to call +myself your disciple?" + +And Monnica, utterly confused by such praise, answered with affectionate +gruffness: + +"Stop talking! You have never told bigger lies." + +Most of the time these conversations were simply dialectic games in the +taste of the period, games a little pedantic, and fatiguing from subtilty. +The boisterous Licentius did not always enjoy himself. He was often +inattentive; and his master scolded him. But all the same, the master +understood how to amuse his two foster-children while he exercised their +intelligence. At the end of one discussion he said to them laughing: + +"Just at this hour, the sun warns me to put the playthings I had brought +for the children back in the basket...." + +Let us remark in passing that this is the last time, before those +centuries which are coming of universal intellectual silence or arid +scholasticism--the last time that high questions will be discussed in this +graceful light way, and with the same freedom of mind. The tradition begun +by Socrates under the plane-trees on the banks of the Ilissus, is ending +with Augustin under the chestnuts of Cassicium. + +And yet, however gay and capricious the form, the substance of these +dialogues, "On the Academics," "On Order," and "On the Happy Life," is +serious, and even very serious. The best proof of their importance in +Augustin's eyes is, that after taking care to have them reported in +shorthand, he eventually published them. The _notarii_ attended these +discussions and let nothing be lost. The rise of the scrivener, of the +notary, dates from this period. The administration of the Lower-Empire was +frightfully given to scribbling. By contact with it, the Church became so +too. Let us not press our complaints about it, since this craze for writing +has procured for us, with a good deal of shot-rubbish, some precious +historical documents. In Augustin's case, these reports of his lectures at +Cassicium have at least the value of shewing us the state of soul of the +future Bishop of Hippo at a decisive moment of his life. + +For these _Dialogues_, although they look like school exercises, reveal the +intimate thoughts of Augustin on the morrow of his conversion. While he +seems to be refuting the Academics, he is fighting the errors from which +he, personally, had suffered so long. He clarified his new ideal. No; the +search for truth, without hope of ever reaching it, cannot give happiness. +And genuine happiness is only in God. And if a rhythm is to be found in +things, then it is necessary to make the soul rhythmic also and so enable +it to contemplate God. It is necessary to still within it the noise of the +passions. Hence, the need of inward reformation, and, at a final analysis, +of asceticism. + +But Augustin knew full well that these truths must be adapted to the +weakness of the two lads he was teaching, and also to the common run of +mankind. He has not yet in these years the uncompromising attitude which +ere long will give him a sterner virtue--an attitude, however, unceasingly +tempered by his charity and by the persistent recollections of his reading. +It was now that he shaped the rule of conduct in worldly morals and +education which the Christian experience of the future will adopt: "If you +have always order in your hearts," he said to his pupils, "you must return +to your verses. _For a knowledge of liberal sciences, but a controlled and +exact knowledge_, forms men who will love the truth.... But there are other +men, or, to put it better, other souls, who, although held in the body, are +sought for the eternal marriage by the best and fairest of spouses. For +these souls it is not enough to live; they wish to live happy.... But as +for you, go, _meanwhile_, and find your Muses!" + +"Go and find your Muses!" What a fine saying! How human and how wise! Here +is clearly indicated the double ideal of those who continue to live in the +world according to the Christian law of restraint and moderation, and of +those who yearn to live in God. With Augustin the choice is made. He will +never more look back. These Dialogues at Cassicium are his supreme farewell +to the pagan Muse. + + + + +II + +THE ECSTASY OF SAINT MONNICA + + +They stayed through the winter at Cassicium. However taken up he might be +by the work of the estate and the care of his pupils, Augustin devoted +himself chiefly to the great business of his salvation. + +The _Soliloquies_, which he wrote then, render even the passionate tone of +the meditations which he perpetually gave way to during his watches and +nights of insomnia. He searched for God, moaning: _Fac me, Pater, quærere +te_--"Cause me to seek Thee, O my Father." But still, he sought Him more as +a philosopher than as a Christian. The old man in him was not dead. He had +not quite stripped off the rhetorician or the intellectual. The over-tender +heart remained, which had so much sacrificed to human love. In those ardent +dialogues between himself and his reason, it is plain to see that reason +is not quite the mistress. "I love only God and the soul," Augustin states +with a touch of presumption. And his reason, which knows him well, answers: +"Do you not then love your friends?"--"I love the soul; how therefore +should I not love them?" What does this phrase, of such exquisite +sensibility, and even already so aloof from worldly thoughts--what does +it lack to give forth a sound entirely Christian? Just a slight change of +accent. + +He himself began to see that he would do better not to philosophize so much +and to draw nearer the Scripture, in listening to the wisdom of that with +a contrite and humble heart. Upon the directions of Ambrose, whose advice +he had asked by letter, he tried to read the prophet Isaiah, because +Isaiah is the clearest foreteller of the Redemption. He found the book so +difficult that he lost heart, and he put it aside till later. Meanwhile, +he had forwarded his resignation as professor of Rhetoric to the Milan +municipality. Then, when the time was come, he sent to Bishop Ambrose +a written confession of his errors and faults, and represented to him +his very firm intention to be baptized. He was quietly baptized on the +twenty-fifth of April, during the Easter season of the year 387, together +with his son Adeodatus, and his friend Alypius. Alypius had prepared most +piously, disciplining himself with the harshest austerities, to the point +of walking barefoot on the frozen soil. + +So now the solitaries of Cassicium are back in Milan. Augustin's two pupils +were gone. Trygetius doubtless had rejoined the army. Licentius had gone +to live in Rome. But another fellow-countryman, an African from Thagaste, +Evodius, formerly a clerk in the Ministry of the Interior, came to join +the small group of new converts. Evodius, the future Bishop of Uzalis, in +Africa, and baptized before Augustin, was a man of scrupulous piety and +unquestioning faith. He talked of devout subjects with his friend, who, +just fresh from baptism, experienced all the quietude of grace. They spoke +of the community which St. Ambrose had either founded or organized at +the gates of Milan, and in comparison with a life so austere, Augustin +perceived that the life he had led at Cassicium was still stained with +paganism. He must carry out his conversion to the end and live as a hermit +after the manner of Antony and the solitaries of the Thebaid. Then it +occurred to him that he still owned a little property at Thagaste--a house +and fields. There they would settle and live in self-denial like the +monks. The purity of the young Adeodatus predestined him to this ascetic +existence. As for Monnica, who long since had taken the widow's veil, she +had to make no change in her ways to lead a saintly life in the company of +her son and grandson. It was agreed among them all to go back to Africa, +and to start as soon as possible. + +Thus, just after his baptism, Augustin shews but one desire: to bury +himself in a retreat, to lead a humble and hidden life, divided between the +study of the Scripture and the contemplation of God. Later on, his enemies +were to accuse him of having become a convert from ambition, in view of the +honours and riches of the episcopate. This is sheer calumny. His conversion +could not have been more sincere, more disinterested--nor more heroic +either: he was thirty-three years old. When we think of all he had loved +and all he gave up, we can only bow the head and bend the knee before the +lofty virtue of such an example. + +In the course of the summer the caravan started and crossed the Apennines +to set sail at Ostia. The date of this exodus has never been made quite +clear. Perhaps Augustin and his companions fled before the hordes of the +usurper Maximus, who, towards the end of August, crossed the Alps and +marched on Milan, while the young Valentinian with all his Court took +refuge at Aquileia. In any case, it was a trying journey, especially in the +hot weather. When Monnica arrived she was very enfeebled. At Ostia they had +to wait till a ship was sailing for Africa. Propitious conditions did not +offer every day. At this period, travellers were at the mercy of the sea, +of the wind, and of a thousand other circumstances. Time did not count; it +was wasted freely. The ship sailed short distances at a time, skirting the +coasts, where the length of the stay at every point touched depended on the +master. On board these ships--feluccas hardly decked over--if the crossing +was endless and unsafe, it was, above all, most uncomfortable. People were +in no hurry to undergo the tortures of it, and spaced them out as much +as possible by frequent stoppages. On account of all these reasons, our +Africans made a rather long stay at Ostia. They lodged, no doubt, with +Christian brethren, hosts of Augustin or Monnica, in a tranquil house far +out of earshot of the cosmopolitan crowd which overflowed in the hotels on +the quay. + +Ostia, situated at the mouth of the Tiber, was both the port and +bond-warehouse of Rome. The Government stores-ships landed the African oil +and corn there. It was a junction for commerce, the point where immigrants +from all parts of the Mediterranean disbarked. To-day there is only left +a wretched little village. But at some distance from this hamlet, the +excavations of archæologists have lately brought to light the remains of +a large town. They have discovered at the entrance a place of burial with +arcosol-tombs; and here perhaps the body of St. Monnica was laid. In this +place of graves they came upon also a beautiful statue injured--a funeral +Genius, or a Victory, with large folded wings like those of the Christian +angels. Further on, the forum with its shops, the guard-house of the +night-cohort, baths, a theatre, many large temples, arcaded streets paved +with large flags, warehouses for merchandise. There may still be seen, +lining the walls, the holes in which the ends of the amphoræ used to be +dropped to keep them upright. All this wreckage gives an idea of a populous +centre where the stir of traffic and shipping was intense. + +And yet in this noisy town, Augustin and his mother found means to withdraw +themselves and join together in meditation and prayer. Amid this rather +vulgar activity, in a noise of trade and seafaring, a mystic scene develops +where the purified love of mother and son gleams upon us as in a light of +apotheosis. They had at Ostia a foretaste, so to speak, of the eternal +union in God. This was in the house where they had come on arrival. They +talked softly, resting against a window which looked upon the garden.... +But the scene has been made popular by Ary Scheffer's too well-known +painting. You remember it: two faces, pale, bloodless, stripped of flesh, +in which live only the burning eyes cast upward to the sky--a dense sky, +baffling, heavy with all the secrets of eternity. No visible object, +nothing, absolutely nothing, distracts them from their contemplation. The +sea itself, although indicated by the painter, almost blends into the +blue line of the horizon. Two souls and the sky--there you have the whole +subject. + +It is living poetry congealed in abstract thought. The attitude of the +characters, majestically seated, instead of leaning on the window-ledge, +has, in Scheffer's picture, I know not what touch of stiffness, of slightly +theatrical. And the general impression is a cold dryness which contrasts +with the lyric warmth of the story in the _Confessions_. + +For my part, I always thought, perhaps on the testimony of the picture, +that the window of the house at Ostia opened above the garden in view of +the sea. The sea, symbol of the infinite, ought to be present--so it seemed +to me--at the final conversation between Monnica and Augustin. At Ostia +itself I was obliged to give up this too literary notion; the sea is not +visible there. No doubt at that time the channel was not so silted up as it +is to-day. But the coast lies so low, that just hard by the actual mouth of +the Tiber, the nearness of the sea can only be guessed by the reflection of +the waves in the atmosphere, a sort of pearly halo, trembling on the edge +of the sky. At present I am inclined to think that the window of the house +at Ostia was very likely turned towards the vast melancholy horizon of the +_Agro Romano_. "We passed through, one after another," says Augustin, "all +the things of a material order, unto heaven itself." Is it not natural to +suppose that these things of a material order--these shapes of the earth +with its plantations, its rivers, towns, and mountains--were under their +eyes? The bleak spectacle which unrolled before their gaze agreed, at all +events, with the disposition of their souls. + +This great desolate plain has nothing oppressive, nothing which retains +the eyes upon details too material. The colours about it are pale and +slight, as if on the point of swooning away. Immense sterile stretches, +fawn-coloured throughout, with here and there shining a little pink, a +little green; gorse, furze-bushes by the deep banks of the river, or a few +_boschetti_ with dusty leaves, which feebly stand out upon the blondness +of the soil. To the right, a pine forest. To the left, the undulations of +the Roman hills expire into an emptiness infinitely sad. Afar, the violet +scheme of the Alban mountains, with veiled and dream-like distances, shape +indefinitely against the pearl light, limpid and serene, of the sky. + +Augustin and Monnica, resting on the window-ledge, looked forth. Doubtless +it was towards evening, at the hour when southern windows are thrown open +to the cool after a burning day. They looked forth. "We marvelled," says +Augustin, "at the beauty of Thy works, O my God!..." Rome was back there +beyond the hills, with its palaces, its temples, the gleam of its gilding +and its marbles. But the far-off image of the imperial city could not +conquer the eternal sadness which rises from the _Agro_. An air of funeral +loneliness lay above this plain, ready to be engulfed by the creeping +shadows. How easy it was to break free of these vain corporeal appearances +which decomposed of themselves! "Then," Augustin resumes, "we soared with +glowing hearts still higher." (He speaks as if he and his mother were risen +with equal flight to the vision. It is more probable that he was drawn +up by Monnica, long since familiar with the ways of the spirit, used to +visions, and to mystic talks with God....) Where was this God? All the +creatures, questioned by their anguished entreaty, answered: _Quære super +nos_--"Seek above us!" They sought; they mounted higher and higher: "And +so we came to our own minds, and passed beyond them into the region of +unfailing plenty, where Thou feedest Israel for ever with the food of +truth.... And as we talked, and we strove eagerly towards this divine +region, _by a leap with the whole force of our hearts, we touched it for +an instant_.... Then we sighed, we fell back, and left there fastened the +first fruits of the Spirit, and heard again the babble of our own tongues, +this mortal speech wherein each word has a beginning and an ending." + +"We fell back!" The marvellous vision had vanished. But a great silence was +about them, silence of things, silence of the soul. And they said to each +other: + +"If the tumult of the flesh were hushed; hushed these shadows of earth, +sea, sky; suppose this vision endured, and all other far inferior modes of +vision were taken away, and this alone were to ravish the beholder, and +absorb him, and plunge him in mystic joy, so that eternal life might be +like this moment of comprehension which has made us sigh with Love--might +not that be the fulfilment of 'Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord'? Ah, +when shall this be? Shall it not be, O my God, when we rise again among the +dead...?" + +Little by little they came down to earth. The dying colours of the +sunset-tide smouldered into the white mists of the _Agro_. The world +entered into night. Then Monnica, impelled by a certain presentiment, said +to Augustin: + +"My son, as for me, I find no further pleasure in life. What I am still to +do, or why I still linger here, I know not.... There was only one thing +made me want to tarry a little longer in this life, that I might see you a +Christian and a Catholic before I died. My God has granted me this boon far +beyond what I hoped for. So what am I doing here?" + +She felt it; her work was done. She had exhausted, as Augustin says, all +the hope of the century--_consumpta spe sæculi_. For her the parting was +near. This ecstasy was that of one dying, who has raised a corner of the +veil, and who no longer belongs to this world. + + * * * * * + +And, in fact, five or six days later she fell ill. She had fever. The +climate of Ostia bred fevers, as it does to-day, and it was always +unsanitary on account of all the foreigners who brought in every infection +of the Orient. Furthermore, the weariness of a long journey in summer had +worn out this woman, old before her time. She had to go to bed. Soon she +got worse, and then lost consciousness. They believed she was in the agony. +They all came round her bed--Augustin, his brother Navigius, Evodius, the +two cousins from Thagaste, Rusticus, and Lastidianus. But suddenly she +shuddered, raised herself, and asked in a bewildered way: + +"Where was I?" + +Then, seeing the grief on their faces, she knew that she was lost, and she +said in a steady voice: + +"You will bury your mother here." + +Navigius, frightened by this sight of death, protested with all his +affection for her: + +"No. You will get well, mother. You will come home again. You won't die in +a foreign land." + +She looked at him with sorrowful eyes, as if hurt that he spoke so little +like a Christian, and turning to Augustin: + +"See how he talks," she said. + +And after a silence, she went on in a firmer voice, as if to impress on her +sons her final wishes: + +"Lay this body where you will, and be not anxious about it. Only I beseech +you, remember me at the altar of God, wherever you are." + +That was the supreme renunciation. How could an African woman, so much +attached to her country, agree to be buried in a stranger soil? Pagan +notions were still very strong in this community, and the place of burial +was an important consideration. Monnica, like all other widows, had settled +upon hers. At Thagaste she had had her place prepared beside her husband +Patricius. And here now she appeared to give that up. Augustin's companions +were astonished at such abnegation. As for himself, he marvelled at the +completeness of the change worked in his mother's soul by Grace. And as he +thought over all the virtues of her life, the strength of her faith--from +that moment, he had no doubt that she was a saint. + +She still lingered for some time. Finally, on the ninth day of her illness, +she died at the age of fifty-six. + +Augustin closed her eyes. A great sorrow surged into his heart. And yet he +who was so quick to tears had the courage not to cry.... Suddenly a noise +of weeping rose in the room of death: it was the young Adeodatus, who +lamented at the sight of the corpse. He sobbed in such a heartbroken way +that those who were there, demoralized by the distress of it, were obliged +to rebuke him. This struck Augustin so deeply, that many years afterwards +the broken sound of this sobbing still haunted his ears. "Methought," he +says, "that it was my own childish soul which thus broke out in the weeping +of my son." As for him, with the whole effort of his reason struggling +against his heart, he only wanted to think of the glory which the saint +had just entered into. His companions felt likewise. Evodius caught up a +psalter, and before Monnica's body, not yet cold, he began to chant the +Psalm, "My song shall be of mercy and judgment; unto Thee, O Lord, will I +sing." All who were in the house took up the responses. + +In the meantime, while the layers-out were preparing the corpse for burial, +the brethren drew Augustin into another room. His friends and relations +stood round him. He consoled the others and himself. He spoke, as the +custom was, upon the deliverance of the faithful soul and the happiness +which is promised. They might have imagined that he had no sense of grief, +"But in Thy hearing, O my God, where none of them could hear, I was chiding +the softness of my heart, and holding back the tide of sorrow.... Alas! +well did I know what I was choking down in my heart." + +Not even at the church, where the sacrifice was offered for Monnica's +soul, nor at the cemetery before the coffin, did he weep. From a sense of +Christian seemliness, he feared to scandalize his brethren by imitating +the desolation of the pagans and of those who die without hope. But this +very effort that he made to keep back his tears became another cause of +suffering. The day ended in a black sadness, a sadness he could not shake +off. It stifled him. Then he remembered the Greek proverb--"The bath +drives away sorrow;" and he determined to go and bathe. He went into the +_tepidarium_ and stretched himself out on the hot slab. Useless remedy! +"The bitterness of my trouble was not carried from my heart with the sweat +that flowed from my limbs." The attendants rolled him in warm towels and +led him to the resting-couch. Worn out by tiredness and so many emotions, +he fell into a heavy sleep. The next day, upon awaking, a fresh briskness +was in all his being. Some verses came singing into his memory; they were +the first words of the confident and joyous hymn of St. Ambrose: + + "Creator of the earth and sky, + Ruling the firmament on high, + Clothing the day with robes of light, + Blessing with gracious sleep the night,-- + + That rest may comfort weary men + To face their usual toil again, + And soothe awhile the harassed mind, + And sorrow's heavy load unbind." + +Suddenly, at the word _sorrow_, the thought of his dead mother came back +to him, with the regret for that kind heart he had lost. A wave of despair +overwhelmed him. He flung himself sobbing on the bed, and at last wept all +the tears he had pent up so long. + + + + +III + +THE MONK OF THAGASTE + + +Almost a year went by before Augustin continued his journey. It is hard to +account for this delay. Why should he thus put off his return to Africa, he +who was so anxious to fly the world? + +It is likely that Monnica's illness, the arrangements about her funeral, +and other matters to settle, kept him at Ostia till the beginning of +winter. The weather became stormy, the sea dangerous. Navigation was +regularly interrupted from November--sometimes even earlier, from the +first days of October, if the tempests and the equinox were exceptionally +violent. It would then be necessary to wait till spring. Besides, word +came that the fleet of the usurper Maximus, then at war with Theodosius, +blockaded the African coast. Travellers ran the risk of being captured by +the enemy. From all these reasons, Augustin would be prevented from sailing +before the end of the following summer. In the meantime, he went to live in +Rome. He employed his leisure to work up a case against the Manichees, his +brethren of the day before. Once he had adopted Catholicism, he must have +expected passionate attacks from his former brothers in religion. To close +their mouths, he gathered against them an elaborate mass of documents, +bristling with the latest scandals. He busied himself also with a +thorough study of their doctrines, the better to refute them: in him the +dialectician never slept. Then, when he had an opportunity, he visited the +Roman monasteries, studying their rule and organization, so as to decide on +a model for the convent which he always intended to establish in his own +country. At last, he went back to Ostia some time in August or September, +388, where he found a ship bound for Carthage. + +Four years earlier, about the same time of year, he had made the same +voyage, coming the opposite way. He had a calm crossing; hardly could one +notice the movement of the ship. It is the season of smooth seas in the +Mediterranean. Never is it more etherial than in these summer months. The +vague blue sky is confused with the bleached sea, spread out in a large +sheet without creases--liquid and flexible silk, swept by quivering amber +glow and orange saffron when the sun falls. No distinct shape, only strange +suffusions of soft light, a pearl-like haze, the wistful blue reaching away +indefinably. + +At Carthage, Augustin had grown used to the magnificence of this pageantry +of the sea. Now, the sea had the same appeased and gleaming face he had +seen four years sooner. But how much his soul had since been changed! +Instead of the tumult and falsehood which rent his heart and filled it +with darkness, the serene light of Truth, and deeper than the sea's peace, +the great appeasement of Grace. Augustin dreamed. Far off the Æolian isles +were gloomed in the impending shadows, the smoky crater of Stromboli was +no more than a black point circled by the double blue of waves and sky. So +the remembrance of his passions, of all that earlier life, sank under the +triumphant uprising of heavenly peace. He believed that this blissful state +was going to continue and fill all the hours of his new life, and he knew +of nothing so sweet.... + +This time, again, he was mistaken about himself. Upon the thin plank of the +boat which carried him, he did not feel the force of the immense element, +asleep now under his feet, but quick to be unchained at the first gust of +wind; and he did not feel either the overflowing energy swelling his heart +renewed by Grace--an energy which was going to set in motion one of the +most complete and strenuous existences, one of the richest in thought, +charity, and works which have enlightened history. Thinking only of the +cloister, amidst the friends who surrounded him, no doubt he repeated the +words of the Psalm: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren +to dwell together in unity." He pressed the hands of Alypius and Evodius, +and tears came to his eyes. + +The sun was gone. All the cold waste of waters, forsaken by the gleam, +blurred gradually in vague anguish beneath the fall of night. + + * * * * * + +After skirting the Sicilian coasts, they arrived at last at Carthage. +Augustin did not linger there; he was eager to see Thagaste once more, and +to retire finally from the world. Favourable omens drew him to the place, +and seemed to hearten him in his resolution. A dream had foretold his +return to his former pupil, Elogius, the rhetorician. He was present, too, +at the miraculous cure of a Carthage lawyer, Innocentius, in whose house he +dwelt with his friends. + +Accordingly, he left for Thagaste as soon as he could. There he made +himself popular at once by giving to the poor, as the Gospel prescribed, +what little remained of his father's heritage. But he does not make clear +enough what this voluntary privation exactly meant. He speaks of a house +and some little meadows--_paucis agellulis_--that he sequestrated. Still, +he did not cease to live in the house all the time he was at Thagaste. The +probability is that he did sell the few acres of land he still owned and +bestowed the product of the sale on the poor. As to the house, he must have +made it over with the outbuildings to the Catholic body of his native town, +on condition of keeping the usufruct and of receiving for himself and his +brethren the necessities of life. At this period many pious persons acted +in this way when they gave their property to the Church. Church goods +being unseizable, and exempt from taxation, this was a roundabout way of +getting the better of fiscal extortion, whether in the shape of arbitrary +confiscations, or eviction by force of arms. In any case, such souls as +were tired of the world and longing for repose, found in these bequests an +heroic method of saving themselves the trouble of looking after a fortune +or a landed estate. When these fortunes and lands were extensive, the +generous donors felt, we are told, an actual relief in getting rid of them. + +This financial question settled, Augustin took up the task of turning the +house into a monastery, like those he had seen at Rome and Milan. His son +Adeodatus, his friends Alypius and Evodius, Severus, who became Bishop +of Milevia, shared his solitude. But it is certain that he had other +solitaries with him whom he alludes to in his letters. Their rule was as +yet a little easy, no doubt. The brothers of Thagaste were not confined +in a cloister. They were simply obliged to fasts, to a special diet, to +prayers and meditations in common. + +In this half-rustic retreat (the monastery was situated at the gates of +the town) Augustin was happy: he had at last realized the project he had +had so long at heart. To enter into himself, pray, above all, to study +the Scripture, to fathom even its most obscure places, to comment it with +the fervour and piety which the African of all times has brought to _what +is written down_--it seemed to him that he had enough there to fill all +the minutes of his life. But no man can teach, lecture, discuss, write, +during twenty years, in vain. However much Augustin might be converted, he +remembered the school at Thagaste, just as he did at Cassicium. Still, it +was necessary to finish with this sort of thing once for all. The new monk +made what may be called his will as a professor. + +He finished, at this time, or revised his school treatises, which he had +begun at Milan, comprising all the liberal arts--grammar, dialectic, +rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, philosophy, music. Of all these books he +only finished the first, the treatise on grammar. The others were only +summaries, and are now lost. On the other hand, we have still the six +books on music, likewise begun at Milan, which he finished, almost as an +amusement, at Thagaste. They are dialogues between himself and his pupil, +the poet Licentius, upon metre and scansion. But we know from himself that +he intended to make this book longer, and to write a second part upon +melody, that is to say, music, properly so called. He never found the time: +"Once," he says, "the burthen of ecclesiastical affairs was placed on my +shoulders, _all these pleasant things_ slipped from my hands." + +Thus, the monk Augustin only rests from prayer and meditation to study +music and poetry. He has thought it necessary to excuse himself. "In all +that," says he, "I had but one purpose. For, as I did not wish to pluck +away too suddenly either young men, or those of another age, on whom God +had bestowed good wits, from ideas of the senses and carnal literature, +_things it is very hard for them not to be attached to_, I have tried +by reasoning lessons to turn them little by little, and by the love of +unchanging truth, to attach them to God, sole master of all things.... He +who reads these books will see that if I have touched upon the poets and +grammarians, 'twas more by the exigency of the journey than by any desire +to settle among them.... Such is the life I have chosen to walk with the +feeble, not being very strong myself, rather than to hurl myself out on the +void with wings still half-fledged...." + +Here again, how human all that is, and wise--yes, and modest too. Augustin +has no whit of the fanatic about him. No straighter conscience than his, +or even more persistent in uprooting error. But he knows what man is, that +life here below is a voyage among other men weak as himself, and he fits in +with the needs of the voyage. Oh, yes, no doubt, for the Christian who has +arrived at supreme renunciation--what is poetry, what is knowledge, "what +is everything that is not eternal?" But this carnal literature and science +are so many steps of a height proportionate to our feebleness, to lead +us imperceptibly to the conceptual world. As a prudent guide of souls, +Augustin did not wish to make the ascent too rapidly. As for music, he has +still more indulgence for that than for any of the other arts, for "it +is by sounds that we best perceive the power of numbers in every variety +of movement, and their study thus leads us gradually to the closest and +highest secrets of truth, and discovers to those who love and seek it +the divine Wisdom and Providence in all things...." He is always coming +back to it--to this music he loves so much; he comes back to it in spite +of himself. Later, in great severity, he will reproach himself for the +pleasure he takes in the liturgical chants, but nevertheless the old +instinct will remain. He was born a musician. He will remain one to his +last gasp. + +If he did not break completely with profane art and letters at this present +moment of his life, his chief reasons were of a practical order. Still +another object may be discerned in these educational treatises--namely, to +prove to the pagans that one may be a Christian and yet not be a barbarian +and ignorant. Augustin's position in front of his adversaries is very +strong indeed. None of them can attempt to cope with him either in breadth +of knowledge, or in happy versatility, or in plenitude of intellectual +gifts. He had the entire heritage of the ancient world between his hands. +Well might he say to the pagans: "What you admire in your orators and +philosophers, I have made my own. Behold it! On my lips recognize the +accent of your orators.... Well, all that, which you deem so high, I +despise. The knowledge of this world is nothing without the wisdom of +Christ." + +Of course, Augustin has paid the price of this all-round knowledge--too +far-reaching, perhaps, at certain points. He has often too much paraded his +knowledge, his dialectic and oratorical talents. What matters that, if even +in this excess he aims solely at the welfare of souls--to edify them and +set them aglow with the fire of his charity? At Thagaste, he disputes with +his brethren, with his son Adeodatus. He is always the master--he knows it; +but what humility he puts into this dangerous part! The conclusion of his +book, _The Master_, which he wrote then, is that all the words of him who +teaches are useless, if the hidden Master reveal not the truth to him who +listens. + +So, under his ungainly monk's habit, he continues his profession of +rhetorician. He has come to Thagaste with the intention of retiring from +the world and living in God; and here he is disputing, lecturing, writing +more than ever. The world pursues him and occupies him even in his retreat. +He says to himself that down there at Rome, at Carthage, at Hippo, there +are men speaking in the forums or in the basilicas, whispering in secret +meetings, seducing poor souls defenceless against error. These impostors +must be immediately unmasked, confounded, reduced to silence. With all his +heart Augustin throws himself into this work at which he excels. Above all, +he attacks his old friends the Manichees.... He wrote many tracts against +them. From the animosity he put into these, may be judged to what extent +Manicheeism filled his thoughts, and also the progress of the sect in +Africa. + +This campaign was even the cause of a complete change in his way of +writing. With the object of reaching the plainest sort of people, he began +to employ the popular language, not recoiling before a solecism, when the +solecism appeared to him indispensable to explain his thought. This must +have been a cruel mortification for him. In his very latest writings he +made a point of shewing that no elegance of language was unknown to him. +But his real originality is not in that. When he writes the fine style, +his period is heavy, entangled, often obscure. On the other hand, nothing +is more lively, clear and coloured, and, as we say to-day, more direct, +than the familiar language of his sermons and certain of his treatises. +This language he has really created. He wanted to clarify, comment, give +details, and he felt how awkward classical Latin is to decompose ideas +and render shades. And so, in a popular Latin, already very close to the +Romance languages, he has thrown out the plan of analytical prose, the +instrument of thought of the modern West. + +Not only did he battle against the heretics, but his restless friendship +continually scaled the walls of his cell to fly to the absent ones dear +to his heart. He feels that he must expand to his friends, and make them +sharers in his meditations: this nervous man, in poor health, spends a part +of his nights meditating. The argument he has hit upon in last night's +insomnia--his friends must be told that! He heaps his letters on them. He +writes to Nebridius, to Romanianus, to Paulinus of Nola; to people unknown +and celebrated, in Africa, Italy, Spain, and Palestine. A time will come +when his letters will be real encyclicals, read throughout Christendom. He +writes so much that he is often short of paper. He has not tablets enough +to put down his notes. He asks Romanianus to give him some. His beautiful +tablets, the ivory ones, are used up; he has used the last one for a +ceremonial letter, and he asks his friend's pardon for writing to him on +a wretched bit of vellum. + +Besides all that, he interests himself in the affairs of his +fellow-townsmen. Augustin is a personage at Thagaste. The good folk of the +free-town are well aware that he is eloquent, that he has a far-reaching +acquaintance, and that he has great influence in high quarters. They +ask for his protection and his interference. It is even possible that +they obliged him to defend them in the courts. They were proud of their +Augustin. And as they were afraid that some neighbouring town might steal +away their great man, they kept a guard round his house. They prevented him +from shewing himself too much in the neighbourhood. Augustin himself agreed +with this, and lived retired as far as he could, for he was afraid they +would make him a bishop or priest in spite of himself. In those days that +was a danger incurred by all Christians who were rich or had talent. The +rich gave their goods to the poor when they took orders. The men of talent +defended the interests of the community, or attracted opulent benefactors. +And because of all these reasons, the needy or badly managed churches +stalked as a prey the celebrated Augustin. + +In spite of this supervision, this unremitting rush of business, the work +of all kinds which he undertook, he experienced at Thagaste a peace which +he was never to find again. One might say that he pauses and gathers +together all his strength before the great exhausting labour of his +apostolate. In this Numidian country, so verdant and cool, where a thousand +memories of childhood encompassed him, where he was not able to take a step +without encountering the ever-living image of his mother, he soared towards +God with more confidence. He who sought in the things of sense ladder-rungs +whereby to mount to spiritual realities, still turned kindly eyes on +the natural scene. From the windows of his room he saw the forest pines +rounding their heads, like little crystal goblets with stems slim and thin. +His scarred chest breathed in deliriously the resinous breath of the fine +trees. He listened like a musician to the orchestra of birds. The changing +scenes of country life always attracted him. It is now that he wrote: +"Tell me, does not the nightingale seem to you to modulate her voice +delightfully? Is not her song, so harmonious, so suave, so well attuned to +the season, the very voice of the spring?..." + + + + +IV + +AUGUSTIN A PRIEST + + +This halt did not last long. Soon was going to begin for Augustin the time +of tribulation, that of his struggles and apostolic journeys. + +And first, he must mourn his son Adeodatus, that young man who seemed +destined to such great things. It is indeed most probable that the young +monk died at Thagaste during the three years that his father spent there. +Augustin was deeply grieved; but, as in the case of his mother's death, he +mastered his sorrow by all the force of his Christian hope. No doubt he +loved his son as much as he was proud of him. It will be remembered what +words he used to speak of this youthful genius, whose precocity frightened +him. Little by little his grief quietened down, and in its place came a +mild resignation. Some years later he will write about Adeodatus: "Lord, +early didst Thou cut off his life from this earth, but I remember him +without a shadow of misgiving. My remembrance is not mixed with any fear +for his boyhood, or the youth he was, or the man he would have been." No +fear! What a difference between this and the habitual feelings of the +Jansenists, who believed themselves his disciples! While Augustin thinks of +his son's death with a calm and grave joy which he can scarce hide, those +of Port Royal could only think in trembling of the judgment of God. Their +faith did not much resemble the luminous and confident faith of Augustin. +For him, salvation is the conquest of joy. + +At Thagaste he lived in joy. Every morning in awaking before the forest +pines, glistening with the dews of the morning, he might well say with a +full heart: "My God, give me the grace to live here under the shades of Thy +peace, while awaiting that of Thy Paradise." But the Christians continued +to watch him. It was to the interest of a number of people that this light +should not be hid under a bushel. Perhaps a snare was deliberately laid for +him. At any rate, he was imprudent enough to come out of his retreat and +travel to Hippo. He thought he might be safe there, because, as the town +had a bishop already, they would not have any excuse to get him consecrated +in spite of himself. + +An inhabitant of Hippo, a clerk of the Imperial Ministry of the Interior, +begged his spiritual assistance. Doubts, he maintained, still delayed him +on the way to an entire conversion. Augustin alone could help him to get +clear of them. So Augustin, counting already on a new recruit for the +Thagaste monastery, went over there at the request of this official. + +Now, if there was a bishop at Hippo (a certain Valerius), priests were +lacking. Furthermore, Valerius was getting on in years. Originally Greek, +he knew Latin badly, and not a word of Punic--a great hindrance for him in +his duties of judge, administrator, and catechist. The knowledge of the two +languages was indispensable to an ecclesiastic in such a country, where the +majority of the rural population spoke only the old Carthaginian idiom. +All this proves to us that Catholicism was in bad shape in the diocese +of Hippo. Not only was there a lack of priests, but the bishop was a +foreigner, little familiar with African customs. There was a general +demand for a native to take his place--one young, active, and well enough +furnished with learning to hold his own against the heretics and the +schismatics of the party of Donatus, and also sufficiently able to watch +over the interests of the Church at Hippo, and above all, to make it +prosperous. Let us not forget that at this time, in the eyes of a crowd of +poor wretches, Christianity was first and foremost the religion which gave +out bread. Even in those early days, the Church did its best to solve the +eternal social question. + +While Augustin was at Hippo, Valerius preached a sermon in the basilica in +which, precisely, he deplored this lack of priests the community suffered +from. Mingled with the congregation, Augustin listened, sure that he would +be unrecognized. But the secret of his presence had leaked out. People +pointed to him while the bishop was preaching. The next thing was that some +furious enthusiasts seized hold of him and dragged him to the foot of the +episcopal chair, yelling: + +"Augustin a priest! Augustin a priest!" + +Such were the democratic ways of the Church in those days. The +inconveniences are plain enough. What is certain is, that if Augustin had +resisted, he might have lost his life, and that the bishop would have +provoked a riot in refusing him the priesthood. In Africa, religious +passions are not to be trifled with, especially when they are exasperated +by questions of profit or politics. In his heart, the bishop was delighted +with this brutal capture which gained him the distinction of such a +well-known fellow-worker. There and then he ordained the Thagaste monk. And +so, as Augustin's pupil, Possidius, the future Bishop of Guelma, puts it, +"This shining lamp, which sought the darkness of solitude, was placed upon +the lamp-stand..." Augustin, who saw the finger of God in this adventure, +submitted to the popular will. Nevertheless, he was in despair, and he +wept at the change they were forcing on him. Then, some of those present, +mistaking the significance of his tears, said to console him: + +"Yes, you are right. The priesthood is not good enough for your merits. But +you may be certain that you will be our bishop." + +Augustin well knew all that the crowd meant by that, and what it expected +of its bishop. He who only thought of leaving the world, grew frightened +at the practical cares he would have to take over. And the spiritual side +of his jurisdiction frightened him no less. To speak of God! Proclaim the +word of God! He deemed himself unworthy of so high a privilege. He was so +ill-prepared! To remedy this fault of preparation, as well as he could, he +desired that he might be given a little leisure till the following Easter. +In a letter addressed to Valerius, and no doubt intended to be made public, +he humbly set forth the reasons why he asked for delay. They were so +apposite and so creditable, that very likely the bishop yielded. The new +priest received permission to retire to a country house near Hippo. His +flock, who did not feel at all sure of their shepherd, would not have let +him go too far off. + +He took up his duties as soon as possible. Little by little he became, +to all intents, the coadjutor of the bishop, who charged him with the +preaching and the baptism of catechumens. These were the two most important +among the episcopal prerogatives. The bishops made a point of doing these +things themselves. Certain colleagues of Valerius even grew scandalized +that he should allow a simple priest to preach before him in his own +church. But soon other bishops, struck by the advantages of this +innovation, followed the example of Valerius, and allowed their clerks to +preach even in their presence. The priest of Hippo did not lose his head +among so many honours. He felt chiefly the perils of them, and he regarded +them as a trial sent by God. "I have been forced into this," he said, +"doubtless in punishment of my sins; for from what other motive can I think +that the second place at the helm should be given to me--to me who do not +even know how to hold an oar...." + +Meanwhile, he had not relinquished his purpose of monastic life. Though +a priest, he meant to remain a monk. It was heart-breaking for him to be +obliged to leave his monastery at Thagaste. He spoke of his regret to +Valerius, who, perceiving the usefulness of a convent as a seminary for +future priests, gave him an orchard belonging to the church of Hippo, that +he might found a new community there. So was established the monastery +which was going to supply a great number of clerks and bishops to all the +African provinces. + +Among the ruins of Hippo, that old Roman and Phoenician city, they search +for the place where Augustin's monastery stood, without much hope of ever +finding it. Some have thought to locate it upon that hill where the water +brought from the near mountains by an aqueduct used to pour into immense +reservoirs, and where to-day rises a new basilica which attracts all eyes +out at sea. Behind the basilica is a convent where the Little Sisters of +the Poor lodge about a hundred old people. So is maintained among the +African Mussulmans the remembrance of the grand Christian _marabout_. One +might possibly wish to see there a building more in the pure and quiet +taste of antiquity. But after all, the piety of the intention is enough. +This hospital serves admirably to call up the memory of the illustrious +bishop who was charity itself. As for the basilica, Africa has done all she +can to make it worthy of him. She has given her most precious marbles, and +one of her fairest landscapes as a frame. + +It is chiefly in the evening, in the closing dusk, that this landscape +reveals all its special charm and its finer values. The roseate glow of the +setting sun throws into sharp relief the black profile of the mountains, +which command the Seybouse valley. Under the mustering shadows, the pallid +river winds slowly to the sea. The gulf, stretching limitless, shines like +a slab of salt strangely bespangled. In this atmosphere without mists, the +sharp outlines of the coast, the dense movelessness of the aspect, has an +indescribable effect. It is like a hitherto unknown and virginal revelation +of the earth. Then the stars bloom out, with a flame, an hallucinating +palpability. Charles's Wain, burning low on the gorges of the Edough, seems +like a golden waggon rolling through the fields of Heaven. A deep peace +settles upon farmland and meadow country, only broken by a watch-dog's bark +now and then.... + +But it matters not which spot is chosen in the surroundings of Hippo to +place Augustin's monastery, the view will be equally beautiful. From all +parts of the plain, mounded by heaps of ruins, the sea can be seen--a wide +bay circled in soft bland curves, like at Naples. All around, an arena of +mountains--the green ravines of the Edough and its wooded slopes. Along the +surbased roads rise the great sonorous pines, and through them wanders the +æolian complaint of the sea-winds. Blue of the sea, blue of the sky, noble +foliage of Italy's ancient groves--it is one of Lamartine's landscapes +under a more burning sun. The gaiety of the mornings there is a physical +luxury for heart and eyes, when the new-born light laughs upon the painted +cupolas of the houses, and dark blue veils float between the walls, glaring +white, of the steep streets. + +Among the olives and orange-trees of Hippo, Augustin must have seen happy +days pass by, as at Thagaste. The rule he had given the convent, which he +himself obeyed like any one else, was neither too slack nor too strict--in +a word, such as it should be for men who have lived in the culture of +letters and works of the mind. There was no affectation of excessive +austerity. Augustin and his monks wore very simple clothes and shoes, but +suitable for a bishop and his clerks. Like laymen, they wore the byrrhus, +a garment with a hood, which seems very like the ancestor of the Arab +burnous. To keep an even line between daintiness and negligence in costume, +to have no exaggeration in anything, is what Augustin aimed at. The poet +Rutilius Numatianus, who about that time was attacking the sordid and +culture-hating monks with sombre irony, would have had a chance to admire +a restraint and decorum in the Hippo monastery which recalled what was +best in the manners of the ancient world. At table, a like moderation. +Vegetables were generally provided, and sometimes meat when any one +was sick, or guests arrived. They drank a little wine, contrary to the +regulations of St. Jerome, who condemned wine as a drink for devils. When +a monk infringed the rule, his share of the wine was stopped. + +Through some remains of fastidious habits in Augustin, or perhaps because +he had nothing else, the table service he used himself was silver. On the +other hand, the pots and dishes were of earthenware, or wood, or common +alabaster. Augustin, who was very temperate in eating and drinking, seemed +at table to pay attention only to what was being read or talked about. +He cared very little what he ate, provided the food was not a stimulant +to lubricity. He used to say to those Christians who paraded a Pharisaic +severity: "It is the pure heart which makes pure food." Then, with his +constant desire for charity, he prohibited all spiteful gossip in the +conversation in the refectory. In those times of religious struggle, the +clerics ferociously blackened each other's characters. Augustin caused to +have written on the walls a distich, which ran thus: + + "He who takes pleasure in slandering the life of the absent, + Should know he is unworthy to sit at this table." + +"One day," says Possidius, "some of his intimate friends, even other +bishops, having forgotten this sentence, he reproached them warmly, and +very much perturbed, he cried out that he was going to remove those verses +from the refectory, or rise from table and withdraw to his cell. I was +present with many others when this happened." + +It was not only slanderous talk or interior dissensions which troubled +Augustin's peace of mind. He combined the duties of priest, of a head of +a convent, and of an apostle. He had to preach, instruct the catechumens, +battle against the disaffected. The town of Hippo was very unruly, full +of heretics, schismatics, pagans. Those of the party of Donatus were +triumphant, driving the Catholics from their churches and lands. When +Augustin came into the country, Catholicism was very low. And then the +ineradicable Manichees continued to recruit proselytes. He never stopped +writing tracts, disputing against them, overwhelming them under the close +logic of his arguments. At the request of the Donatists themselves, he had +an argument with one of their priests, a certain Fortunatus, in the baths +of Sossius at Hippo. He reduced this man to silence and to flight. Not in +the least discouraged were the Manichees: they sent another priest. + +If the enemies of the Church shewed themselves stubborn, Augustin's own +congregation were singularly turbulent, hard to manage. The weakness of old +Valerius must have allowed a good many abuses to creep into the community. +Ere long the priest of Hippo had a foretaste of the difficulties which +awaited him as bishop. + +Following the example of Ambrose, he undertook to abolish the custom +of feasts in the basilicas and on the tombs of the martyrs. This was a +survival of paganism, of which the festivals included gluttonous eating and +orgies. At every solemnity, and they were frequent, the pagans ate in the +courts and under the porticoes around the temples. In Africa, above all, +these public repasts gave an opportunity for repugnant scenes of stuffing +and drunkenness. As a rule, the African is very sober; but when he does let +himself go he is terrible. This is quite easily seen to-day, in the great +Muslem feasts, when the rich distribute broken bits of meat to the poor of +their district. As soon as these people, used to drink water and to eat a +little boiled rice, have tasted meat, or drunk only one cup of wine, there +is no holding them: there are fights, stabbing matches, a general brawl +in the hovels. Just picture this popular debauch in full blast in the +cemeteries and the courts of the basilicas, and it will be understood why +Augustin did his best to put an end to such scandals. + +For this purpose, he joined hands first of all with his bishop, Valerius, +and then with the Primate of Carthage, Aurelius, who shall be henceforth +his firmest support in his struggle against the schismatics. + +During Lent, the subject fitting in naturally with the season, he +spoke against these pagan orgies; and this gave rise to a good deal of +discontent, outside. Easter went by without trouble. But the day after the +Ascension, the people of Hippo were used to celebrate what they called "the +Joy-day," by a traditional good feed and drink. The day before, which was +the religious festival, Augustin intrepidly spoke against "the Joy-day." +They interrupted the preacher. Some of them shouted that as much was done +at Rome in St. Peter's basilica. At Carthage, they danced round the tomb of +St. Cyprian. To the shrilling of flutes, amid the dull blows of the gongs, +mimes gave themselves up to obscene contortions, while the spectators +sang to the clapping of their hands.... Augustin knew all about that. +He declared that these abominations might have been tolerated in former +times so as not to discourage the pagans from becoming converts; but that +henceforth the people, altogether Christian, should give them up. In the +end, he spoke with such touching eloquence that the audience burst into +tears. He believed he had won. + +The next day it was all to do over again. Agitators had worked among the +crowd to such an extent that a riot was feared. Nevertheless, Augustin, +preceded by his bishop, entered the basilica at the hour of service. At the +same moment the Donatists were banqueting in their church, which was quite +near. Through the walls of their own church the Catholics heard the noise +of this carouse. It required the coadjutor's most urgent remonstrances to +keep them from imitating their neighbours. The last murmurs died down, and +the ceremony ended with the singing of the sacred hymns. + +Augustin had carried the position. But the conflict had got to the point +that he had to threaten the people with his resignation, and, as he wrote +to Alypius, "to shake out on them the dust from his clothes." All this +promised very ill for the future. He who already considered the priesthood +as a trial, saw with terror the bishopric drawing near. + + + + +THE FIFTH PART + +THE APOSTLE OF PEACE AND OF CATHOLIC UNITY + + + Dic eis ista, ut plorent ... et sic eos rape tecum ad Deum: quia de + spiritu ejus haec dicis eis, si dicis ardens igne caritatis. + + "Tell them this, O my soul, that they may weep ... and thus carry them + up with thyself to God; because by His Spirit thou sayest these things, + if Thou speakest burning with the flame of charity." + + _Confessions_, IV, 12. + + + + +I + +THE BISHOP OF HIPPO + + +In his monastery, Augustin was still spied upon by the neighbouring +Churches, who wanted him for their bishop. They would capture him on the +first opportunity. The old Valerius, fearing his priest would be taken +unawares, urged him to hide himself. But he knew by the very case of +Augustin, forced into the priesthood in spite of himself, that the greatest +precautions are useless against those determined to gain their ends by any +means. It would be safest to anticipate the danger. + +He determined therefore to share the bishopric with Augustin, to have him +consecrated during his own lifetime, and to indicate him as his successor. +This was against the African usage, and what was more, against the Canons +of the Council of Nice--though it is true that Valerius, like Augustin +himself, was unaware of this latter point. But surely the rule could be +waived in view of the exceptional merits of the priest of Hippo. The old +bishop began by sounding Aurelius, the Primate of Carthage, and when he was +satisfied as to the agreement and support of this high personage, he took +the opportunity of a religious solemnity to make known his intentions to +the people. + +Some of the neighbouring bishops--Megalius, Bishop of Guelma and Primate of +Numidia, among them--being gathered at Hippo to consecrate a new bishop, +Valerius announced publicly in the basilica that he wished Augustin to be +consecrated at the same ceremony. This had been the wish of his people +for a long time. Really, in demanding this honour for his priest, the old +bishop did no more than follow the wish of the public. Immediately, his +words were received with cheers. The faithful with loud shouts demanded +Augustin's consecration. + +Megalius alone objected. He even made himself the voice of certain +calumnies, so as to have the candidate put aside as unworthy. There is +nothing astonishing in such an attitude. This Megalius was old (he died a +short time after), and, like all old men, he took the gloomiest view of +innovations. Already, in the face of settled custom, had Valerius granted +Augustin the right to preach in his presence. And see now, by a new +sinking, he was attempting to place two bishops at once in the see of +Hippo! Whatever this young priest's talents might be, enough, had been +done for him--a recent convert into the bargain, and, what was still more +serious, a refugee from the Manicheans. What was not related about the +abominations committed in the mysteries of those people? Just how far had +Augustin dipped into them? They snarled against him everywhere at Hippo, +and at Carthage too, where he had compromised himself by his excessive +zeal; Catholics and Donatists alike gossiped. Megalius, a punctilious +defender of discipline and the hierarchy, no doubt gathered up these +malevolent rumours with pleasure. He used them as an excuse for making +Augustin mark time, so to speak. Commonplace people always feel a secret +delight in humiliating to the common rule those whom they can feel are +beings of a different quality from themselves. + +One of the slanders set abroad about Valerius' priest, Megalius seems to +have believed. He allowed himself to be persuaded that Augustin had given +a philtre to a woman, one of his penitents, whom he wished to possess. It +was then the fashion among the pious to exchange _eulogies_, or bits of +holy bread, to signify a spiritual communion. Augustin was said to have +mixed certain magic potions with some of these breads and offered them +hypocritically to the woman he was in love with. This accusation started a +big scandal, and the remembrance of it persisted long, because five or six +years later the Donatist Petilian was still repeating it. + +Augustin cleared himself victoriously. Megalius avowed his mistake. He did +better: not only did he apologize to him he had slandered, but he solemnly +asked forgiveness from his fellow-bishops for having misled them upon false +rumours. It is probable that some time during the inquiry he had got to +know Valerius' coadjutor better. Augustin's charm, taken with the austerity +of his life, acted upon the vexed old man and altered his views. Be that +so or not, it was at any rate by Megalius, Bishop of Guelma and Primate of +Numidia, that Augustin was consecrated Bishop of Hippo. + +He was in consternation over his rise. He has said it again and again. We +may take his word for it. Yet the honours and advantages of the episcopate +were then so considerable that his enemies were able to describe him as an +ambitious man. Nothing could agree less with his character. In his heart, +Augustin only wished to live in quiet. Since his retreat at Cassicium, +fortune he had given up, as well as literary glory. His sole wish was to +live in pondering the divine truths, and to draw nearer to God. _Videte et +gustate quam mitis sit Dominus_--"O taste and see that the Lord is good." +This perhaps, of the whole Bible, is the verse he liked best, which +answered best to the close desire of his soul; and he quotes it oftenest +in his sermons. Then, to study the Holy Writings, scan the least syllables +of them, since all truth lies there--well, a whole life is not too much +for such labour as that! And to do it, one should sever all ties with the +world, take refuge forbiddingly in the cloister. + +But this sincere Christian analysed himself too skilfully not to perceive +that he had a dangerous tendency to isolation. He took too much pleasure +in cutting himself off from the society of mankind to enshroud himself +in study and meditation. He who acknowledged a secret tendency to the +Epicurean indolence--was he going to live a life of the dilettante and the +self-indulgent under cover of holiness? Alone could action save him from +selfishness. Others doubtless fulfilled the laws of charity in praying, +in mortifying themselves for their brethren. But when, like him, a man +has exceptional faculties of persuasion and eloquence, such vigour in +dialectics, such widespread culture, such power to bring to naught the +wrong--would it not be insulting to God to let such gifts lie idle, and a +serious failure in charity to deprive his brethren of the support of such +an engine? + +Besides that, he well knew that no man draws near to truth without a +purified heart. Might not his passions, which were so violent, begin to +torment him again after this respite with greater frenzy than before his +conversion? Against that, too, action was the main antidote. In the duties +of the bishopric he saw a means of asceticism--a kind of courageous +purification. He would load himself of his own will with so many anxieties +and so much work that he would have no time left to listen to the insidious +voice of his "old friends." Could he manage to silence them at once? +This unheard-of grace--would it be granted to him? Or would not rather +the struggle continue in the depths of his conscience? What comes out as +certain is that those terrible passions which turned his youth upside down, +nevermore play any part in his life. From the moment he fell on his knees +under the fig-tree at Milan, his sinful heart is a dead heart. He has been +freed from almost all the weaknesses of the old nature, not only from its +vices and carnal affections, but from its most pardonable lapses--save, +perhaps, some old sediment of intellectual and literary vanity. + +His books, at the first glance, shew us him no more save as the doctor, and +already the saint. What is seen at once is an entirely bare intelligence, +an entirely pure heart, fired only by the divine love. And yet the +affectionate and tender heart which his had been, always warms his +discussions and his most abstract exegesis. It does not take long to feel +the heat of them, the power of pouring forth emotion. Augustin takes no +heed of that. Of himself he no longer thinks; he no longer belongs to +himself. If he has accepted the episcopate, it is so as to give himself +altogether to the Church, to be all things to all men. He is the man-word, +the man-pen, the sounding-board of the truth. He becomes the man of the +miserable crowds which the Saviour covered with His pity. He is theirs, to +convince them and cure them of their errors. He is a machine which works +without ever stopping for the greater glory of Christ. Bishop, pastor, +leader of souls--he has no desire for anything else. + +But it was a heavy labour for this intellectual, who till then had lived +only among books and ideas. The day after his consecration, he must have +regarded it with more terror than ever. During his nights of insomnia, or +at the recreation hour in the monastery garden, he thought over it with +great distress. His eyes wide open in the darkness of his cell, he sought +to define a theory upon the nature and origin of the soul; or else, at the +fall of day, he saw between the olive branches "the sea put on fluctuating +shades like veils of a thousand colours, sometimes green, a green of +infinite tints; sometimes purple; blue sometimes...." And his soul, easily +stirred to poetry, at once arose from these material splendours to the +invisible region of ideas. Then, immediately, he caught himself up: it +was not a question of all that! He said to himself that he was henceforth +the bishop Augustin, that he had charge of souls, that he must work for +the needs of his flock. He would have to struggle in a combat without a +moment's respite. Thereupon he arranged his plans of attack and defence. +With a single glance he gauged the huge work before him. + +A crushing work, truly! He was Bishop of Hippo, but a bishop almost without +a flock, in comparison with the rival community of Donatists. The bishop of +the dissentients, Proculeianus, boasted that he was the true representative +of orthodoxy, and as he had on his side the advantage of numbers, he +certainly cut a much greater figure in the town than the successor of +Valerius, with all his knowledge and all his eloquence. The schismatics' +church, as we have seen, was quite near the Catholic church. Their noise +interfered with Augustin's sermons. Possibly the situation had become +slightly better in Hippo since the edict of Theodosius. But it was not so +long ago that those of the Donatist party had the upper hand. A little +before the arrival of the new bishop, the Donatist clergy forbade their +faithful to bake bread for Catholics. A fanatical baker had even refused a +Catholic deacon who was his landlord. These schismatics believed themselves +strong enough to put those who did not belong to them under interdict. + +The rout of Catholicism appeared to be an accomplished fact from one end to +the other of Africa. Quite recently a mere fraction of the Donatist party +had been able to send three hundred and ten bishops to the Council of +Bagai, who were to judge the recalcitrants of their own sect. Among these +bishops, the terrible Optatus of Thimgad became marked on account of his +bloody zeal, rambling round Numidia and even the Proconsulate at the head +of armed bands, burning farms and villas, rebaptizing the Catholics by main +force, spreading terror on all sides. + +Augustin knew all this, and when he sought help from the local authorities +he was obliged to acknowledge sadly that there was no support to be +expected from Count Gildo, who had tyrannized over Carthage and Africa for +nearly ten years. This Gildo was a native, a Moor, to whom the ministers of +the young Valentinian II had thought it a good stroke of policy to confide +the government of the province. Knowing the weakness of the Empire, the +Moor only thought of cutting out for himself an independent principality +in Africa. He openly favoured Donatism, which was the most numerous and +influential party. The Bishop of Thimgad, Optatus, swore only by him, +regarding him as his master and his "god." In consequence, he was called +"the Gildonian." + +Against such enemies, the Imperial authority could only act irregularly. +Augustin was well aware of it. He knew that the Western Empire was in a +critical position. Theodosius had just died, in the midst of war with the +usurper Eugenius. The Barbarians, who made up the greater part of the Roman +armies, shewed themselves more and more threatening. Alaric, entrenched +in the Peloponnesus, was getting ready to invade Italy. However, the +all-powerful minister of the young Honorius, the half-Barbarian Stilicho, +did his best to conciliate the Catholics, and assured them that he would +continue the protection they had had from Theodosius, Augustin therefore +turned to the central power. It alone could bring about a little order in +the provinces--and then, besides, the new emperors were firmly attached +to the defence of Catholicism. The Catholic Bishop of Hippo did his +best, accordingly, to keep on good terms with the representatives of the +Metropolitan Government--the proconsuls; the proprætors; the counts; +and the tribunes, or the secretaries, sent by the Emperor as Government +commissioners. + +There was no suspicion of flattery in his attitude, no idolatry of power. +At Milan, Augustin had been near enough to the Court to know what the +Imperial functionaries were worth. Now, he simply adapted himself as well +as he could to the needs of the moment. And with all that, he could have +wished in the depths of his heart that this power were stronger, so as to +give the Church more effective support. This cultured man, brought up in +the respect of the Roman majesty, was by instinct a faithful servant of +the Cæsars. A man who held to authority and tradition, he maintained that +obedience is due to princes: "There is a general agreement," he said, +"of human society to obey its Kings." In one of his sermons he compares +thought, which commands the body, to the Emperor seated upon his throne, +and from the depths of his palace dictating orders which set the whole +Empire moving--a purely ideal image of the sovereign of that time, but one +which pleased his Latin imagination. Alas! Augustin had no illusions about +the effect of Imperial edicts; he knew too well how little they were +regarded, especially in Africa. + +So he could hardly count upon Government support for the defence of +Catholic unity and peace. He found he must trust to himself; and all +his strength was in his intelligence, in his charity, in his deeply +compassionate soul. Most earnestly did he wish that Catholicism might be a +religion of love, open to all the nations of the earth, even as its Divine +Founder Himself had wished. A glowing and dominating intelligence, charity +which never tired--those were Augustin's arms. And they were enough. These +qualities gave him an overwhelming superiority over all the men of his +time. Among them, pagans or Christians, he looks like a colossus. From what +a height he crushes, not only the professors who had been his colleagues, +such as Nectarius of Guelma or Maximus of Madaura, but the most celebrated +writers of his time--Symmachus, for instance, and Ammianus Marcellinus. +After reading a treatise of Augustin's, one is astounded by the +intellectual meagreness of these last pagans. The narrowness of their +mind and platitude of thought is a thing that leaves one aghast. Even the +illustrious Apuleius, who belonged to the golden age of African literature, +the author of _The Doctrine of Plato_, praises philosophy and the Supreme +Being in terms which recall the professions of faith of the chemist and +druggist, Homais, in _Madame Bovary_. + +Nor among those who surrounded Augustin, his fellow-bishops, was there one +fit to be compared with him, even at a distance. Except perhaps Nebridius, +his dearest friends, Alypius, Severus, or Evodius, are merely disciples, +not to say servants of his thought. Aurelius, Primate of Carthage, an +energetic administrator, a firm and upright character, if he is not on +Augustin's level, is at any rate capable of understanding and supporting +him. The others are decent men, like that Samsucius, Bishop of Tours, very +nearly illiterate, but full of good sense and experience, and on this +ground consulted respectfully by his colleague of Hippo. Or else they are +plotters, given to debauch, engaged in business, like Paulus, Bishop of +Cataqua, who became involved in risky speculations, swindled the revenue, +and by his expensive way of life ruined his diocese. Others, on the +Donatist side, are mere swashbucklers, half-brigands, half-fanatics, like +the Gildonian Optatus, Bishop of Thimgad, a manifestation in advance of +the Mussulman _marabout_ who preached the holy war against the Catholics, +raiding, killing, burning, converting by sabre blows and bludgeoning. + +Amid these insignificant or violent men, Augustin will endeavour to realize +to the full the admirable type of bishop, at once spiritual father, +protector, and support of his people. He had promised himself to sacrifice +no whit of his ideal of Christian perfection. As bishop, he will remain a +monk, as he did during his priesthood. Beside the monastery established in +Valerius' garden, where it is impossible to receive properly his guests and +visitors, he will start another in the episcopal residence. He will conform +to the monastic rule as far as his duties allow. He will pray, study the +Scriptures, define dogmas, refute heresies. At the same time, he means to +neglect nothing of his material work. He has mouths to feed, property to +look after, law-cases to examine. He will labour at all that. For this +mystic and theorist it means a never-ceasing immolation. + +First, to give the poor their daily bread. Like all the communities of that +time, Hippo maintained a population of beggars. Often enough, the diocesan +cash-box was empty. Augustin was obliged to hold out the hand, to deliver +from the height of his pulpit pathetic appeals for charity. Then, there are +hospitals to be built for the sick, a lodging-house for poor wanderers. +The bishop started these institutions in houses bequeathed to the church +of Hippo. For reasons of economy, he thought better not to build. That +would overload his budget. Next came the greatest of all his cares--the +administration of Church property. To increase this property, he stipulated +that his clergy should give up all they possessed in favour of the +community, thus giving the faithful an example of voluntary poverty. +He also accepted gifts from private persons. But he also often refused +these--for example, the bequest of a father or mother, who, in a moment of +anger, disinherited their children. He did not wish to profit by the bad +feelings of parents to plunder orphans. On another side, he objected to +engage the Church in suits at law with the exchequer upon receiving certain +heritages. When a business man at Hippo left to the diocese his share of +profits in the service of boats for carrying Government stores, Augustin +came to the conclusion that it would be better to refuse. In case of +shipwreck, they would be obliged to make good the lost corn to the +Treasury, or else to put the captain and surviving sailors to the torture +to prove that the crew was not responsible for the loss of the ship. +Augustin would not hear tell of it. + +"Is it fit," he said, "that a bishop should be a shipowner?... A bishop +a torturer? Oh, no; that does not agree at all with a servant of Jesus +Christ." + +The people of Hippo did not share his views. They blamed Augustin's +scruples. They accused him of compromising the interests of the Church. One +day he had to explain himself from the pulpit: + +"Well I know, my brothers, that you often say between yourselves: 'Why do +not people give anything to the Church of Hippo? Why do not the dying make +it their heir? The reason is that Bishop Augustin is too easy; he gives all +back to the children; he keeps nothing!' I acknowledge it, I only accept +gifts which are good and pious. Whoever disinherits his son to make the +Church his heir, let him find somebody willing to accept his gifts. It is +not I who will do it, and by God's grace, I hope it will not be anybody.... +Yes, I have refused many legacies, but I have also accepted many. Need I +name them to you? I will give only one instance. I accepted the heritage of +Julian. Why? Because he died without children...." + +The listeners thought that their bishop really put too fine a point on +things. + +They further reproached him with not knowing how to attract and flatter the +rich benefactors. Augustin would not allow, either, that they had any right +to force a passing stranger to receive the priesthood and consequently to +give up his goods to the poor. All this really was very wise, not only +according to the spirit of the Gospel, but according to human prudence. +If Augustin, for the sake of the good fame of his Church, did not wish to +incur the accusation of grasping and avarice, he dreaded nothing so much +as a law-case. To accept lightly the gifts and legacies offered was to lay +himself open to expensive pettifogging. Far better to refuse than to lose +both his money and reputation. So were reconciled, in this man of prayer +and meditation, practical good sense with the high disinterestedness of the +Christian teaching. + +The bishop was disinterested; his people were covetous. The people of those +times wished the Church to grow rich, because they were the first to profit +by its riches. Now these riches were principally in houses and land. The +diocese of Hippo had to deal with many houses and immense _fundi_, upon +which lived an entire population of artisans and freed-men, agricultural +labourers, and even art-workers--smelters, embroiderers, chisellers on +metals. Upon the Church lands, these small people were protected from taxes +and the extortions of the revenue officers, and no doubt they found the +episcopal government more fatherly and mild than the civil. + +Augustin, who had made a vow of poverty and given his heritage to the poor, +became by a cruel irony a great landowner as soon as he was elected Bishop +of Hippo. Doubtless he had stewards under him to look after the property +of the diocese. This did not save him from going into details of management +and supervising his agents. He heard the complaints, not only of his +own tenants, but also of those who belonged to other estates and were +victimized by dishonest bailiffs. Anyhow, we have a thousand signs to shew +that no detail of country life was unfamiliar to him. + +On horseback or muleback, he rode for miles through the country about +Hippo to visit his vineyards and olivets. He examined, found out things, +questioned the workmen, went into the presses and the mills. He knew the +grape good to eat, and the grape to make wine with. He pointed out where +the ensilage pits had been dug in too marshy land, which endangered the +young corn. As a capable landowner he was abreast of the law, careful +about the terms of contracts. He knew the formulas employed for sales or +benefactions. He saw to it that charcoal was buried around the landmarks in +the fields, so that if the post disappeared, its place could be found. And +as he was a poet, he gathered on his course a whole booty of rural images +which later on went to brighten his sermons. He made ingenious comparisons +with the citron-tree, "which is seen to give flowers and fruits all the +year if it be watered constantly," or else with the goat "who gets upon her +two hind legs to crop the bitter leaves of the wild olive." + +These journeys in the open air, however tiring they might be, were after +all a rest for his overworked brain. But there was one among his episcopal +duties which wearied him to disgust. Every day he had to listen to parties +in dispute and give judgment. Following recent Imperial legislation, the +bishop became judge in civil cases--a tiresome and endless work in a +country where tricky quibbling raged with obstinate fury. The litigants +pursued Augustin, overran his house, like those fellahs in dirty burnous +who block our law-courts with their rags. In the _secretarium_ of the +basilica, or under the portico of the court leading to the church, Augustin +sat like a Mussulman cadi in the court of the mosque. + +The emperors had only regulated an old custom of apostolic times in placing +the Christians under the jurisdiction of their bishop. In accordance with +St. Paul's advice, the priests did their utmost to settle differences among +the faithful. Later, when their number had considerably increased, the +Government adopted a system not unlike the "Capitulations" in countries +under the Ottoman suzerainty. Lawsuits between clerics and laymen could not +be equitably judged by civil servants, who were often pagans. Moreover, the +parties based their claims on theological principles or religious laws that +the arbitrator generally knew nothing about. In these conditions, it was +natural enough that the Imperial authority should say to the disputants, +"Fight it out among yourselves". + +And it happened, just at the moment when Augustin began to fill the see of +Hippo, that Theodosius broadened still more the judicial prerogatives of +the bishops. The unhappy judge was overwhelmed with law-cases. Every day he +sat till the hour of his meal, and sometimes the whole day when he fasted. +To those who accused him of laziness, he answered: + +"I can declare on my soul that if it were question of my own convenience, I +should like much better to work at some manual labour at certain hours of +the day, as the rule is in well-governed monasteries, and have the rest of +the time free to read or pray or meditate upon the Holy Scripture, instead +of being troubled with all the complications and dull talk of lawsuits." + +The rascality of the litigants made him indignant. From the pulpit he gave +them advice full of Christian wisdom, but which could not have been much +relished. A suit at law, according to him, was a loss of time and a cause +of sorrow. It would be better to let the opponent have the money, than to +lose time and be filled with uneasiness. Nor was this, added the preacher +in all good faith, to encourage injustice; for the robber would be robbed +in his turn by a greater robber than himself. + +These reasons seemed only moderately convincing. The pettifoggers did not +get discouraged. On the contrary, they infested the bishop with their +pleas. As soon as he appeared, they rushed up to him in a mob, surrounded +him, kissed his hand and his shoulder, protesting their respect and +obedience, urging him, constraining him to busy himself about their +affairs. Augustin yielded. But the next day in a vehement sermon he cried +out to them: + +_Discedite a me, maligni!_--"Go far from me, ye wicked ones, and let me +study in peace the commandments of my God!" + + + + +II + +WHAT WAS HEARD IN THE BASILICA OF PEACE + + +Let us try to see Augustin in his pulpit and in his episcopal city. + +We cannot do much more than reconstruct them by analogy. Royal Hippo is +utterly gone. Bona, which has taken its place, is about a mile and a half +away, and the fragments which have been dug out of the soil of the dead +city are very inadequate. But Africa is full of Christian ruins, and +chiefly of basilicas. Rome has nothing equal to offer. And that is easily +understood. The Roman basilicas, always living, have been changed in the +course of centuries, and have put on, time after time, the garb forced upon +them by the fashion. Those of Africa have remained just as they were--at +least in their principal lines--on the morrow of the Arab invasion, as +Augustin's eyes had seen them. They are ruins, no doubt, and some very +mutilated, but ruins of which no restoration has altered the plan or +changed the features. + +As the traces of Hippo and its church are swept away or deeply buried, we +are obliged, in order to get some approximate idea, to turn towards another +African town which has suffered less from time and devastation. Theveste +with its basilica, the best preserved, the finest and largest in all +Africa, can restore to us a little of the look and colour and atmosphere of +Hippo in those final years of the fourth century. + +Ancient Theveste was much larger than the present town, the French Tebessa. +This, even reduced to the perimeter of the Byzantine fortress built under +Justinian, still surprises the traveller by its singularly original aspect. +Amid the wide plains of alfa-grass which surround it, with its quadrangular +enclosure, its roads on the projection of the walls behind the battlements, +its squat turrets, it has a look as archaic, as strange, as our own +Aigues-Mortes amid its marshy fen. Nothing can be more rich and joyous to +the eye than the rust which covers its ruins--a complete gilding that one +would say had been laid on by the hand of man. + +It has a little temple which is a wonder and has been compared to the +ancient Roman temple--the _Maison Carrée_--at Nîmes. But how much warmer, +more living are the stones! The shafts of the columns, and the pilasters of +the peristyle, barked by time, seem as scaly and full of sap as the trunks +of palm-trees. The carved acanthus-leaves in the capitals of the pillars +droop like bunches of palms reddened by the summer. + +Quite near, at the end of a narrow street, lined with modern and squalid +hovels, the triumphal arch of Septimus Severus and of Caracalla extends its +luminous bow; and high above the heavy mass of architecture, resting upon +slim aerial little columns, a buoyant _ædiculus_ shines like a coral +tabernacle or a coffer of yellow ivory. + +All about, forms in long draperies are huddled. The Numidian burnous has +the whiteness of the toga. It has also the same graceful folds. At the +sight of them you suddenly feel yourself to be in a strange land--carried +back very far across the centuries. No sooner is the vision of antiquity +outlined than it grows firm. Down below there, a horseman, clad in white, +is framed with his white horse in the moulded cincture of a door. He +passes, and upon the white wall of the near tower his shadow rests a +moment, like a bas-relief upon the marble of a frieze. + +Beyond the Byzantine enclosure, the basilica, with its minor buildings, +forms another town almost as large as the present Theveste, and also closed +in by a belt of towers and ramparts. One is immediately struck by the +opulent colour of the stones--rose, grown pale and thinner in the sun; and +next, by the solid workmanship and the structural finish. The stones, as +in the Greek temples, are placed on top of one another in regular layers: +the whole holds together by the weight of the blocks and the polish of the +surfaces. + +The proportions are on a large scale. There was no grudging for the +buildings, or the materials, or the land. In front of the basilica is a +wide rectangular court bordered with terraces; a portico at the far end; +and in the middle four large fountains to water the walk. A flagged avenue, +closed by two gateways, divides this court from the basilica, properly so +called, which is reached by a staircase between two columns. The staircase +leads to the _atrium_ decorated by a Corinthian portico. In the centre +is the font for purifications, a huge monolithic bason in the shape of a +four-leaved clover. Three doors give entrance from the _atrium_ to the +basilica, which is divided by rows of green marble columns into three +aisles. The galleries spread out along the side aisles. The floor was in +mosaic. In the apse, behind the altar, stood the bishop's throne. + +Around the main building clustered a great number of others: a baptistry; +many chapels (one vaulted in the shape of a three-leaved clover) dedicated, +probably, to local martyrs; a graveyard; a convent with its cells, and its +windows narrow as loop-holes; stables, sheds, and barns. Sheltered within +its walls and towers, amid its gardens and outbuildings, the basilica of +Theveste thus early resembled one of our great monasteries of the Middle +Age, and also in certain ways the great mosques of Islam--the one at +Cordova, or that at Damascus, with their vestibules surrounded by arcades, +their basons for purification, and their walks bordered with orange-trees. +The faithful and the pilgrims were at home there. They might spend the day +stretched upon the flags of the porticoes, in loafing or sleeping in the +blue shade of the columns and the cool of the fountains. In the full sense +of the word, the church was the House of God, open to all. + +Very likely the basilicas at Hippo had neither the size nor the splendour +of this one. Nor were there very many. At the time Augustin was ordained +priest, that is to say, when the Donatists had still a majority in the +town, it seems clear that the orthodox community owned but one single +church, the _Basilica major_, or Basilica of Peace. Its very name proves +this. With the schismatics, "Peace" was the official name for Catholicism. +"Basilica of Peace" meant simply "Catholic Basilica." Was not this as +much as to say that the others belonged to the dissenters? Doubtless they +restored later on, after the promulgations of Honorius, the Leontian +Basilica, founded by Leontius, Bishop of Hippo, and a martyr. A third was +built by Augustin during his episcopate--the Basilica of the Eight Martyrs +of the White Mace. + +It was in the Major, or Cathedral, that Augustin generally preached. To +preach was not only a duty, but one of the privileges of a bishop. As has +been said, the bishop alone had the right to preach in his church. This +arose from the fact that the African dioceses, although comparatively +widespread, had scarcely more people than one of our large parishes to-day. +The position of a bishop was like that of one of our parish priests. There +were almost as many as there were villages, and they were counted by +hundreds. + +However that may be, preaching, the real apostolic ministry, was an +exhausting task. Augustin preached almost every day, and often many times a +day--rough work for a man with such a fragile chest. Thus it often happened +that, to save his voice, he had to ask his audience to keep still. He spoke +without study, in a language very near the language of the common people. +Stenographers took down his sermons as he improvised them: hence those +repetitions and lengthinesses which astonish the reader who does not know +the reason for them. There is no plan evident in these addresses. Sometimes +the speaker has not enough time to develop his thought. Then he puts off +the continuation till the next day. Sometimes he comes with a subject all +prepared, and then treats of another, in obedience to a sudden inspiration +which has come to him with a verse of Scripture he has just read. Other +times, he comments many passages in succession, without the least care for +unity or composition. + +Let us listen to him in this Basilica of Peace, where during thirty-five +years he never failed to announce the Word of God.... The chant of the +Psalms has just died away. At the far end of the apse, Augustin rises from +his throne with its back to the wall, his pale face distinct against the +golden hue of the mosaic. From that place, as from the height of a pulpit, +he commands the congregation, looking at them above the altar, which is a +plain wooden table placed at the end of the great aisle. + +The congregation is standing, the men on one side, the women on the other. +On the other side of the balustrade which separates them from the crowd, +are the widows and consecrated virgins, wrapped in their veils black or +purple. Some matrons, rather overdressed, lean forward in the front rank +of the galleries. Their cheeks are painted, their eyelashes and eyebrows +blackened, their ears and necks overloaded with jewels. Augustin has +noticed them; after a while he will read them a lesson. This audience is +all alive with sympathy and curiosity before he begins. With all its faith +and all its passion it collaborates with the orator. It is turbulent also. +It expresses its opinions and emotions with perfect freedom. The democratic +customs of those African Churches surprise us to-day. People made a noise +as at the theatre or the circus. They applauded; they interrupted the +preacher. Certain among them disputed what was said, quoting passages from +the Bible. + +Augustin is thus in perpetual communication with his audience. Nobody has +done less soaring than he. He keeps his eye on the facial expressions +and the attitudes of his public. He talks to them familiarly. When his +sermon is a little lengthy, he wants to know if his listeners are getting +tired--he has kept them standing so long! The time of the morning meal +draws near. Bellies are fasting, stomachs wax impatient. Then says he to +them with loving good-fellowship: + +"Go, my very dear brothers and sisters, go and restore your strength--I do +not mean that of your minds, for I see well that they are tireless, but the +strength of your bodies which are the servants of your souls. Go then and +restore your bodies so that they may do their work well, and when they are +restored, come back here and take your spiritual food." + +Upon certain days, a blast of the sirocco has passed over the town. The +faithful, crowded in the aisles, are stifling, covered with sweat. The +preacher himself, who is very much worked up, has his face dripping, and +his clothes are all wet. By this he perceives that once more he has been +extremely long. He excuses himself modestly. Or again, he jokes like a +rough apostle who is not repelled by the odour of a lot of human-kind +gathered together. + +"Oh, what a smell!" says he. "I must have been speaking a long while +to-day." + +These good-natured ways won the hearts of the simple folk who listened to +him. He is aware of the charm he exerts on them, and of the sympathy they +give him back in gratitude for his charity. + +"You have loved to come and hear me, my brothers," he said to them. "But +whom have you loved? If it is me--ah, even that is good, my brothers, for +I want to be loved by you, if I do not want to be loved for myself. As for +me, I love you in Christ. And you too, do you love me in Him. Let our love +for one another moan together up to God--and that is the moaning of the +Dove spoken of in the Scripture...." + +Although he preaches from the height of his episcopal throne, he is anxious +that his hearers should regard him, Christianly, as their equal. So he +seems as little of the bishop as possible. + +"All Christians are servants of the same master.... I have been in the +place where you are--you, my brothers, who listen to me. And now, if I +give the spiritual bread from the height of this chair to the servants of +the Master of us all--well, it is but a few years since I received this +spiritual food with them in a lower place. A bishop, I speak to laymen, but +I know to how many future bishops I speak...." + +So he puts himself on an equal footing with his audience by the brotherly +accent in his words. It is not Christendom, the Universal Church, or I know +not what abstract listener he addresses, but the Africans, the people of +Hippo, the parishioners of the Basilica of Peace. He knows the allusions, +the comparisons drawn from local customs, which are likely to impress their +minds. The day of the festival of St. Crispina, a martyr of those parts, +after he had developed his subject at very great length, he asked pardon in +these terms: + +"Let us think, brothers, that I have invited you to celebrate the birthday +of the blessed Crispina, and that I have kept up the feast a little too +long. Well, might not the same thing happen if some soldier were to ask you +to dinner and obliged you to drink more than is wise? Let me do as much for +the Word of God, with which you should be drunk and surfeited." + +Marriages, as well as birthday feasts, supplied the orator with vivid +allegories. Thus he says that when a marriage feast is made in a house, +organs play upon the threshold, and musicians and dancers begin to sing and +to act their songs. And yet how poor are these earthly enjoyments which +pass away so soon!... "In the House of God, the feast has no end." + +Continually, through the commentaries on the Psalms, like comparisons rise +to the surface--parables suited to stir the imagination of Africans. A +thousand details borrowed from local habits and daily life enliven the +exegesis of the Bishop of Hippo. The mules and horses that buck when one +is trying to cure them, are his symbol for the recalcitrant Donatists. The +little donkeys, obstinate and cunning, that trot in the narrow lanes of +Algerian _casbahs_, appear here and there in his sermons. The gnats bite in +them. The unendurable flies plaster themselves in buzzing patches on the +tables and walls. Then there are the illnesses and drugs of that country: +the ophthalmias and collyrium. What else? The tarentulas that run along +the beams on the ceiling; the hares that scurry without warning between +the horses' feet on the great Numidian plains. Elsewhere, he reminds his +audience of those men who wear an earring as a talisman; of the dealings +between traders and sailors--a comparison which would go home to this +seafaring people. + +The events of the time, the little happenings of the moment, glide into +his sermons. At the same time as the service in church to-day, there is +going to be horse-racing at the circus, and fights of wild beasts or +gladiators at the arena. In consequence, there will not be many people +in the Basilica. "So much the better," says Augustin. "My lungs will get +some rest." Another time, it is advertised through the town that most +sensational attractions will be offered at the theatre--there will be a +scene representing the open sea. The preacher laughs at those who have +deserted the church to go and see this illusion: "They will have," says +he, "the sea on the stage; but we, brothers--ah, we shall have our port in +Jesus Christ." This Saturday, while he is preaching, some Jewish women set +themselves to dance and sing on the terraces of the near houses, by way of +celebrating the Sabbath. In the basilica, the bashing of the crotolos can +be heard, and the thuds of the tambourines. "They would do better," says +Augustin, "to work and spin their wool." + +He dwells upon the catastrophes which were then convulsing the Roman world. +The news of them spread with wonderful rapidity. Alaric's Barbarians +have taken Rome and put it to fire and sword. At Jerusalem has been an +earthquake, and the bishop John organizes a subscription for the sufferers +throughout Christendom. At Constantinople, globes of fire have been seen in +the sky. The _Serapeum_ of Alexandria has just been destroyed in a riot.... + +All these things follow each other in lively pictures, without any apparent +order, throughout Augustin's sermons. It is not he who divides his +discourse into three parts, and refrains from passing to the second till he +has learnedly expounded the first. Whether he comments upon the Psalms or +the Gospels, his sermons are no more than explanations of the Scriptures +which he interprets, sometimes in a literal sense, and sometimes in an +allegoric. Let us acknowledge it--his allegoric discourses repel us by +their extreme subtilty, sometimes by their bad taste; and when he confines +himself to the letter of the text, he stumbles among small points of +grammar which weary the attention. We follow him no longer. We think +his audience was very obliging to listen so long--and on their feet--to +these endless dissertations.... And then, suddenly, a great lyrical and +oratorical outburst which carries us away--a wind which blows from the +high mountains, and in the wink of an eye sweeps away like dust all those +fine-spun reasonings. + +He is fond of certain commonplaces, and also of certain books of the +Bible--for instance, _The Song of Songs_ and the Gospel of St. John, the +one satisfying in him the intellectual, and the other the mystic of love. +He confronts the verse of the Psalm: "Before the morning star have I +begotten thee," with the sublime opening of the Fourth Gospel: "In the +beginning was the Word." He lingers upon the beauty of Christ: _Speciosus +forma præ filiis hominum_, "Thou art fairer than the children of men." This +is why he is always repeating with the Psalmist: "Thy face, Lord, have I +sought"--_Quæsivi vultum tuum, Domine._ And the orator, carried away by +enthusiasm, adds: "Magnificent saying! Nothing more divine could be said. +Those feel it who truly love." Another of his favourite subjects is the +kindness of God: _Videte et gustate quam mitis sit Dominus_--"O taste +and see that the Lord is good." Naught can equal the pleasure of this +contemplation, of this life in God. Augustin conceives it as a musician +who has fathomed the secret of numbers. "Let your life," he said, "be one +prolonged song.... We do not sing only with the voice and lips when we +intone a canticle, but in us is an inward singing, because there is also in +us Some One who listens...." + +To live this rhythmic and divine life we must get free of ourselves, give +ourselves up utterly in a great outburst of charity. + +"Why," he cries--"Oh, why do you hesitate to give yourselves lest you +should lose yourselves? It is rather by not giving yourselves that you +lose yourselves. Charity herself speaks to you by the mouth of Wisdom and +upholds you against the terror which fills you at the sound of those words: +'Give yourself.' If some one wanted to sell you a piece of land, he would +say to you: 'Give me your gold.' And for something else, he would say: +'Give me your silver, give me your money.' Listen to what Charity says to +you by the mouth of Wisdom: 'My son, give me thy heart.' 'Give me,' quoth +she. Give what? 'My son, give me thy heart.'... Thy heart was not happy +when it was governed by thee, and was thine, for it turned this way and +that way after gawds, after impure and dangerous loves. 'Tis from there thy +heart must be drawn. Whither lift it up? Where to place it? 'Give me thy +heart,' says Wisdom, 'let it be mine, and it will belong to thee for +always.'" + +After the chant of love, the chant of the Resurrection. _Cantate mihi +canticum novum_--"Sing to me a new song!" Augustin repeats these words over +and over again. "We wish to rise from the dead," cry souls craving for +eternity. And the Church answers: "Verily, I say unto you, that you shall +rise from the dead. Resurrection of bodies, resurrection of souls, ye shall +be altogether reborn." Augustin has explained no dogma more passionately. +None was more pleasing to the faithful of those times. Ceaselessly they +begged to be strengthened in the conviction of immortality and of meeting +again brotherlike in God. + +With what intrepid delight it rose--this song of the Resurrection in +those clear African basilicas swimming in light, with all their brilliant +ornamentation of mosaics and marbles of a thousand colours! And what +artless and confident language those symbolic figures spoke which peopled +their walls--the lambs browsing among clusters of asphodels, the doves, the +green trees of Paradise. As in the Gospel parables, the birds of the field +and farmyard, the fruits of the earth, figured the Christian truths and +virtues. Their purified forms accompanied man in his ascension towards +God. Around the mystic chrisms, circled garlands of oranges and pears and +pomegranates. Cocks, ducks, partridges, flamingoes, sought their pasture in +the Paradisal fields painted upon the walls of churches and cemeteries. + +Those young basilicas were truly the temples of the Resurrection, where +all the creatures of the Ark saved from the waters had found their refuge. +Never more in the centuries to follow shall humanity know this frank joy at +having triumphed over death--this youth of hope. + + + + +III + +THE BISHOP'S BURTHEN + + +Augustin is not only the most human of all the saints, he is also one +of the most amiable in all the senses of that hackneyed word--amiable +according to the world, amiable according to Christ. + +To be convinced of this, he should be observed in his dealings with his +hearers, with his correspondents, even with those he attacks--with the +bitterest enemies of the faith. Preaching, the administration of property, +and sitting in judgment were but a part of that episcopal burthen, _Sarcina +episcopatus_, under which he so often groaned. He had furthermore to +catechize, baptize, direct consciences, guard the faithful against error, +and dispute with all those who threatened Catholicism. Augustin was a light +of the Church. He knew it. + +Doing his best, with admirable conscientiousness and charity he undertook +these tasks. God knows what it must have cost this Intellectual to fulfil +precisely all the duties of his ministry, down to the humblest. What +he would have liked, above all, was to pass his life in studying the +Scriptures and meditating on the dogmas--not from a love of trifling with +theories, but because he believed such knowledge necessary to whoever gave +forth the Word of God. Most of the priests of that age arrived at the +priesthood without any previous study. They had to improvise, as quick +as they could, a complete education in religious subjects. We are left +astounded before the huge labour which Augustin must have given to acquire +his. Before long he even dominated the whole exegetical and theological +knowledge of his time. In his zeal for divine letters, he knew sleep no +more. + +And yet he did not neglect any of his tasks. Like the least of our +parish priests, he prepared the neophytes for the Sacraments. He was +an incomparable catechist, so clear-sighted and scrupulous that his +instructions may still be taken as models by the catechists of to-day. +Neither did he, as an aristocrat of the intelligence, only trouble himself +with persons of culture, and leave to his deacons the care of God's common +people. All had a right to his lessons, the simple peasants as well as the +rich and scholarly. One day, a farmer he was teaching walked off and left +him there in the middle of his discourse. The poor man, who had fasted, and +now listened to his bishop standing, was faint from hunger and felt his +legs tremble under him. He thought it better to run away than to fall down +exhausted at the feet of the learned preacher. + +With his knowledge of men, Augustin carefully studied the kind of people +his catechumens were, and adapted his instructions to the character of +each. If they were city folk, Carthaginians, used to spending their time in +theatres and taverns, drunken and lazy, he took a different tone with them +from what he used with rustics who had never left their native _gourbi_. +If he were dealing with fashionable people who had a taste for literature, +he did not fail to exalt the beauties of the Scripture, although, he would +say, they had there a very trifling attraction compared to the truths +contained in it. Of all the catechumens, the hardest to deal with, the +most fearsome in his eyes, were the professors--the rhetoricians and the +grammarians. These men are bloated with vanity, puffed up with intellectual +pride. Augustin knew something about that. It will be necessary to rouse +them violently, and before anything else, to exhort them to humility of +mind. + +The good saint goes further. Not only is he anxious about the souls, but +also about the bodies of his listeners. Are they comfortable for listening? +As soon as they feel tired they must not hesitate to sit down, as is the +usage in the basilicas beyond seas. + +"Would not our arrogance be unbearable," he asked, "if we forbade men who +are our brothers to sit down in our presence, and, much more, men whom we +ought to try with all possible care to make our brothers?..." + +If they are seen to yawn, "then things ought to be said to them to awaken +their attention, or to scatter the sad thoughts which may have come into +their minds." The catechist should shew, now a serene joy--the joy of +certainty; now a gaiety which charms people into belief; "and always that +light-heartedness we should have in teaching." Even if we ourselves are sad +from this reason or that, let us remember that Jesus Christ died for those +who are listening to us. Is not the thought of bringing Him disciples +enough to make us joyful? + +Bishop Augustin set the example for his priests. It is not enough to +have prepared the conversion of his catechumens with the subtlety of the +psychologist, and such perfect Christian charity; but he accompanies them +to the very end, and charges them once more before the baptismal piscina. + +How he is changed! One thinks of the boon-fellow of Romanianus and of +Manlius Theodorus, of the young man who followed the hunts at Thagaste, +and who held forth on literature and philosophy in a select company before +the beautiful horizons of the lake of Como. Here he is now with peasants, +slaves, sailors, and traders. And he takes pleasure in their society. It is +his flock. He ought to love it with all his soul in Jesus Christ. What an +effort and what a victory upon himself an attitude so strange reveals to +us! For really this liking for mean people was not natural to him. He must +have put an heroic will-power into it, helped by Grace. + +A like sinking of his preferences is evident in the director of consciences +he became. Here he was obliged to give himself more thoroughly. He was +at the mercy of the souls who questioned him, who consulted him as +their physician. He spends his time in advising them, and exercises a +never-failing supervision of their morals. It is an almost discouraging +enterprise to bend these hardened pagans--above all, these Africans--to +Christian discipline. Augustin is continually reproaching their +drunkenness, gluttony, and lust. The populace were not the only ones to get +drunk and over-eat themselves. The rich at their feasts literally stuffed +till they choked. The Bishop of Hippo never lets a chance go by to recall +them to sobriety. + +Oftener still, he recalls them to chastity. He writes long letters on this +subject which are actual treatises. The morals of the age and country are +fully disclosed in them. Husbands are found loudly claiming a right to free +love for themselves, while they force their wives to conjugal fidelity. The +adultery they allow themselves, they punish with death in their wives. They +make an abusive practice of divorce. Upon the most futile reasons, they +send the wife the _libellus repudii_--the bill repudiating the marriage--as +the various peoples of Islam do still. This society in a state of +transition was always creating cases of conscience for strict Christians. +For example: If a man cast off his wife under pretext of adultery, might +he marry again? Augustin held that no marriage can be dissolved as long as +both parties are living. But may not this prohibition provoke husbands to +kill their adulterous wives, so as to be free to take a new wife? Another +problem: A catechumen divorced under the pagan law and since remarried, +presents himself for baptism. Is he not an adulterer in the eyes of the +Church? A man who lives with a woman and does not hide it, who even +declares his firm intention of continuing to live with his concubine--can +he be admitted to baptism? Augustin has to answer all these questions, and +go into the very smallest details of casuistry. + +Is it forbidden to eat the meats consecrated to idols, even when a man +or woman is dying of hunger? May one enter into agreements with native +camel-drivers and carriers who swear by their gods to keep the bargain? +May a lie be told in certain conditions?--say, so as to get among heretics +in pretending to be one of themselves, and thus be able to spy on them +and denounce them? May adultery be practised with a woman who promises in +exchange to point out heretics?... The Bishop of Hippo severely condemns +all these devious or shameful ways, all these compromises which are +contrary to the pure moral teaching of the Gospel. But he does this without +affecting intolerance and rigidity, and with a reminder that the evil of +sin lies altogether in the intention, and in the consent of the will. In a +word, one must tolerate and put up with what one is powerless to hinder. + +Other questions, which it is quite impossible to repeat here, give us a +strange idea of the corruption of pagan morals. Augustin had all he +could do to maintain the Christian rule in such surroundings, where the +Christians themselves were more or less tainted with paganism. But if this +troop of sinners and backsliders was hard to drive, the devout were perhaps +harder. There were the _continents_--the widowers and widows who had made a +vow of chastity and found this vow heavy; the consecrated virgins who lived +in too worldly a fashion; the nuns who rebelled against their spiritual +director or their superior; the monks, either former slaves who did not +want to do another stroke of work, or charlatans who played upon public +credulity in selling talismans and miraculous ointments. Then, the married +women who refused themselves to their husbands; and those who gave away +their goods to the poor without their husbands' consent; and also the proud +virgins and widows who despised and condemned marriage. + +Then came the crowd of pious souls who questioned Augustin on points of +dogma, who wanted to know all, to clear up everything; those who thought +they should be able here below to see God face to face, to know how we +shall arise, and who asked if the angels had bodies.... Augustin complains +that they are annoying, when he has so many other things to trouble him, +and that they take him from his studies. But he tries charitably to satisfy +them all. + +Besides all this, he was obliged to keep up a correspondence with a great +number of people. In addition to his friends and fellow-bishops, he wrote +to unknown people and foreigners; to men in high place and to lowly people; +to the proconsuls, the counts and the vicars of Africa; to the very mighty +Olympius, Master of the Household to the Emperor Honorius; or again, "to +the Right Honourable Lady Maxima," "to the Illustrious Ladies Proba and +Juliana," "to the Very Holy Lady Albina"--women who belonged either to the +provincial nobility, or to the highest aristocracy of Rome. To whom did he +not write?... + +And what is admirable in these letters is that he does not answer +negligently to get rid of a tiresome duty. Almost all of them are full +of substantial teaching, long thought over. Many were intended to be +published--they are practically charges. And yet, however grave the tone +of them may be, the cultivated man of the world he had been may be traced. +His correspondents, after the fashion of the time, overwhelm the bishop +with the most fulsome praises. These he accepts, with much ceremony +indeed, but he does accept them as evidence of the charity of his +brethren. Ingenuously, he does his best to return them. Let us not grow +over-scandalized because our men of letters of to-day have debased the +value of complimentary language by squandering and exaggerating it. The +most austere cotemporaries of Augustin, and Augustin himself, outdid them +by a long way in the art and in the abuse of compliments. + +Paulinus of Nola, always beflowered and elegant, wrote to Augustin: +"Your letters are a luminous collyrium spread over the eyes of my mind." +Augustin, who remonstrated with him upon the scarcity of his own letters, +replies in language which our own _Précieuses_ would not have disowned: +"What! You allow me to pass two summers--and two African summers!--in such +thirst?... Would to God that you would allow enter to the opulent banquet +of your book, the long fast from your writings which you have put me +upon during all a year! If this banquet be not ready, I shall not give +over my complaints, unless, indeed, that in the time between, you send me +something to keep up my strength." A certain Audax, who begged the honour +of a special letter from the great man, calls him "the oracle of the Law"; +protests that the whole world celebrates and admires him; and finally, at +the end of his arguments, conjures him in verse to "Let fall upon me the +dew of thy divine word." Augustin, with modesty and benignity, returns his +compliments, but not without slipping into his reply a touch of banter: +"Allow me to point out to you that your fifth line has seven feet. Has +your ear betrayed you, or did you want to find out if I was still capable +of judging these things?"... Truly, he is always capable of judging these +things, nor is he sorry to have it known. A young Greek named Dioscorus, +who is passing through Carthage, questions him upon the philosophy of +Cicero. Augustin exclaims at any one daring to interrupt a bishop about +such trifles. Then, little by little, he grows milder, and carried away by +his old passion, he ends by sending the young man quite a dissertation on +this good subject. + +Those are among his innocent whimsicalities. Then, alongside of letters +either too literary, or erudite, or profound, there are others which are +simply exquisite, such as the one he wrote to a young Carthage girl called +Sapida. She had embroidered a tunic for her brother. He was dead, and she +asked Augustin kindly to wear this tunic, telling him that if he would +do this, it would be a great comfort for her in her grief. The bishop +consented very willingly. "I accept this garment," he said to her, "and I +have begun to wear it before writing to you...." Then gently he pities her +sorrow, and persuades her to resignation and hope. + +"We should not rebuke people for weeping over the dead who are dear to +them.... When we think of them, and through habit we look for them still +around us, then the heart breaks, and the tears fall like the blood of our +broken heart...." + +At the end, in magnificent words, he chants the hymn of the Resurrection: + +"My daughter, your brother lives in his soul, if in his body he sleeps. +Does not the sleeper wake? God, who has received his soul, will put it +again in the body He has taken from him, not to destroy it--oh, no, but +some day to give it to him back." + + * * * * * + +This correspondence, voluminous as it is, is nothing beside his numberless +treatises in dogma and polemic. These were the work of his life, and it is +by these posterity has known him. The theologian and the disputer ended by +hiding the man in Augustin. To-day, the man perhaps interests us more. And +this is a mistake. He himself would not have allowed for a moment that his +_Confessions_ should be preferred to his treatises on Grace. To study, to +comment the Scriptures, to draw more exact definitions from the dogmas--he +saw no higher employment for his mind, or obligation more important for +a bishop. To believe so as to understand, to understand the better to +believe--it is a ceaseless movement of the intelligence which goes from +faith to God and from God to faith. He throws himself into this great +labour without a shade of any attempt to make literature, with a complete +sinking of his tastes and his personal opinions, and in it he entirely +forgets himself. + +One single time he has thought of himself, and it is precisely in the +_Confessions_, the spirit of which modern people understand so ill, and +where they try to find something quite different from what the author +intended. He composed them just after he was raised to the bishopric, to +defend himself against the calumnies spread about his conduct. It seems as +if he wanted to say to his detractors: "You believe me guilty. Well, I am +so, and more perhaps than you think, but not in the way you think." A great +religious idea alters this personal defence. It is less a confession, or an +excuse for his faults, in the present sense of the word, than a continual +glorification of the divine mercy. It is less the shame of his sins he +confesses, than the glory of God. + +After that, he never thought again of anything but Truth and the Church, +and the enemies of Truth and the Church: the Manichees, the Arians, the +Pelagians--the Donatists, above all. He lets no error go by without +refuting it, no libel without an answer. He is always on the breach. He +might well be compared, in much of his writings, to one of our fighting +journalists. He put into this generally thankless business a wonderful +vigour and dialectical subtlety. Always and everywhere he had to have the +last word. He brought eloquence to it, yet more charity--sometimes even +wit. And lastly, he had a patience which nothing could dishearten. He +repeats the same things a hundred times over. These tiresome repetitions, +into which he was driven by the obstinacy of his opponents, caused him +real pain. Every time it became necessary, he took up again the endless +demonstration without letting himself grow tired. The moment it became a +question of the Truth, Augustin could not see that he had any right to keep +quiet. + +In Africa and elsewhere they made fun of what they called his craze for +scribbling. He himself, in his _Retractations_, is startled by the number +of his works. He turns over the Scripture saying which the Donatists +amusingly opposed to him: _Væ mullum loquentibus_--"Woe unto them of many +words." But calling God to witness, he says to Him: _Væ tacentibus de +te_--"Woe unto those who keep silent upon Thee." In the eyes of Augustin, +the conditions were such that silence would have been cowardly. And +elsewhere he adds: "They may believe me or not as they will, but I like +much better to read than to write books...." + +In any case, his modesty was evident. "I am myself," he acknowledges, +"almost always dissatisfied with what I say." To the heretics he declares, +with a glance back at his own errors, "I know by experience how easy it +is to be wrong." When there is some doubt in questions of dogma, he does +not force his explanations, but suggests them to his readers. How much +intellectual humility is in that prayer which ends his great work on the +Trinity: "Lord my God, one Trinity, if in these books I have said anything +which comes from Thee, may Thou and Thy chosen receive it. But if it is +from me it comes, may Thou and Thine forgive me." + +And again, how much tolerance and charity in those counsels to the faithful +of his diocese who, having been formerly persecuted by the Donatists, now +burned to get their revenge: + +"It is the voice of your bishop, my brothers, sounding in your ears. He +implores you, all of you who are in this church, to keep yourselves from +insulting those who are outside, but rather to pray that they may enter +with you into communion." + +Elsewhere, he reminds his priests that they must preach at the Jews in a +spirit of friendliness and loving-kindness, without troubling to know if +they listen with gratitude or indignation. "We ought not," said he, "to +bear ourselves proudly against these broken branches of Christ's tree."... + +This charity and moderation took nothing from the firmness of his +character. This he proved in a startling way in the discussion he had with +St. Jerome over a passage In the Epistle to the Galatians, and upon the +new translation, of the Bible which Jerome had undertaken. The solitary of +Bethlehem saw a "feint" on the part of St. Paul in the disputed passage: +Augustin said, a "lie." What, then, would become of evangelic truth if +in such a place the Apostle had lied? And would not this be a means of +authorizing all the exegetical fantasies of heresiarchs, who already +rejected as altered or forged all verses of the holy books which conflicted +with their own doctrines?... + +As to the new translation of the Bible, it would bring about trouble in the +African churches, where they were accustomed to the ancient version of the +Septuagint. The mistranslations, pointed out by Jerome in the old version, +would upset the faithful and lead them to suspect that the entire Scripture +was false. In this double matter, Augustin defended at once orthodoxy and +tradition from very praiseworthy reasons of prudence. + +Jerome retorted in a most aggressive and offensive tone. He flatly accused +the Bishop of Hippo of being jealous of him and of wishing to cut out a +reputation for learning at his expense. In front of his younger and more +supple adversary, he took on the air of an old wrestler who was still +capable of knocking out any one who had the audacity to attack him. He +hurled at Augustin this phrase heavy with menaces: "The tired ox stands +firmer than ever on his four legs." + +For all that, Augustin stuck to his opinion, and he confined himself +to replying gently: "In anything I say, I am not only always ready to +receive your observations upon what you find wounding and contrary to your +feelings, but I even ask your advice as earnestly as I can."... + + + + +IV + +AGAINST "THE ROARING LIONS" + + +One day (this was soon after he became bishop) Augustin went to visit a +Catholic farmer in the suburbs of Hippo, whose daughter had been lessoned +by the Donatists, and had just enrolled herself among their consecrated +virgins. The father at first had shouted at the deserter, and flogged her +unmercifully by way of improving her state of mind. Augustin, when he heard +of the affair, condemned the farmer's brutality and declared that he would +never receive the girl back into the community unless she came of her own +free will. He then went out to the place to try and settle the matter. On +the way, as he was crossing an estate which belonged to a Catholic matron, +he fell in with a priest of the Donatist Church at Hippo. The priest at +once began to insult him and his companions, and yelled: + +"Down with the traitors! Down with the persecutors!" + +And he vomited out abominations against the matron herself who owned the +land. As much from prudence as from Christian charity, Augustin did not +answer. He even prevented those with him from falling upon the insulter. + +Incidents of this kind happened almost every day. About the same time, +the Donatists of Hippo made a great noise over the rebaptizing of another +apostate from the Catholic community. This was a good-for-nothing loafer +who beat his old mother, and the bishop severely rebuked his monstrous +conduct. + +"Well, as you talk in that tone of voice," said the loafer, "I'm going to +be a Donatist." + +Through bravado, he continued to ill-treat the poor old woman, and to make +the worst kind of threats. He roared in savage fury: + +"Yes, I'll become a Donatist, and I'll have your blood." + +And the young ruffian did really go over to the Donatist party. In +accordance with the custom among the heretics, he was solemnly rebaptized +in their basilica, and he exhibited himself on the platform clad in the +white robe of the purified. People in Hippo were much shocked. Augustin, +full of indignation, addressed his protests to Proculeianus, the Donatist +bishop. "What! is this man, all bloody with a murder in his conscience, +to walk about for eight days in white robes as a model of innocence and +purity?" But Proculeianus did not condescend to reply. + +These cynical proceedings were trifling compared to the vexations which the +Donatists daily inflicted on their opponents. Not only did they tamper with +Augustin's people, but the country dwellers of the Catholic Church were +continually interfered with on their lands, pillaged, ravaged, and burned +out by mobs of fanatical brigands who organized a rule of terror from one +end of Numidia to the other. Supported in secret by the Donatists, they +called themselves "the Athletes of Christ." The Catholics had given them +the contemptuous name of "Circoncelliones," or prowlers around cellars, +because they generally plundered cellars and grain-houses. Troops of +fanaticized and hysterical women rambled round with them, scouring the +country like your true bacchantes, clawing the unfortunate wretches who +fell into their hands, burning farms and harvests, broaching barrels of +wine and oil, and crowning these exploits by orgies with "the Athletes of +Christ." When they saw a haystack blazing in the fields, the country-folk +were panic-stricken--the "Circoncelliones" were not far off. Soon they +appeared, brandishing their clubs and bellowing their war cry: _Deo +laudes!_--"Praise be to God." "Your shout," said Augustin to them, "is more +dreaded by our people than the roaring of lions." + +Something had to be done to quell these furious monsters, and to resist +the encroachments and forcible acts of the heretics. These, by way of +frightening the Catholic bishops, told them roundly: + +"We don't want any of your disputes, and we are going to rebaptize just as +it suits us. We are going to lay snares for your sheep and to rend them +like wolves. As for you, if you are good shepherds, keep quiet!" + +Augustin was not a man to keep quiet, nor yet to spend his strength in +small local quarrels. He saw big; he did not imprison himself within the +limits of his diocese. He knew that Numidia and a good part of Africa +were in the hands of the Donatists; that they had a rival primate to the +Catholic primate at Carthage; that they had even sent a Pope of their +community to Rome. In a word, they were in the majority. Everywhere a +dissenting Church rose above the orthodox Church, when it did not succeed +in stifling it altogether. At all costs the progress of this sect must be +stopped. In Augustin's eyes there was no more urgent work. For him and his +flock it was a question of insuring their lives, since they were attacked +even in their fields and houses. From the moment he first came to Hippo, +as a simple priest, he had thrown himself intrepidly into this struggle. +He never ceased till Donatism was conquered and trampled underfoot. To +establish peace and Catholic unity everywhere was the great labour of his +episcopate. + +Who, then, were these terrible Donatists whom we have been continually +striking against since the beginning of this history? + +It would soon be a century since they had been disturbing and desolating +Africa. Just after the great persecution of Diocletian, the sect was born, +and it increased with amazing rapidity. During this persecution, evidence +had not been wanting of the moral slackness in the African Church. A large +number of lay people apostatized, and a good number of bishops and priests +handed over to the pagan authorities, besides the devotional objects, +the Scriptures and the muniments of their communities. In Numidia, and +especially at Constantine, scandalous scenes took place. The cowardice +of the clergy was lamentable. Public opinion branded with the names of +_traditors_, or traitors, those who had weakened and given over the sacred +books to the pagans. + +The danger once over, the Numidians, whose behaviour had been so little +brilliant, determined to redeem themselves by audacity, and to prove +with superb impudence that they had been braver than the others. So they +set themselves to shout _traditor_ against whoever displeased them, and +particularly against those of Carthage and the Proconsulate. At bottom it +was the old rivalry between the two Africas, East and West. + +Under the reign of Constantine a peace had been patched up, when it fell +out that a new Bishop of Carthage had to be elected, and the Archdeacon +Cæcilianus, whose name was put forward, was accused of preventing the +faithful from visiting the martyrs in their prisons. The zealots contended +that in collusion with his bishop, Mensurius, he had given up the Holy +Scriptures to the Roman authorities to be burned. The election promised to +be stormy. The supporters of the Archdeacon, who feared the hostility of +the Numidian bishops, did not wait for their arrival. They hurried things +over. Cæcilianus was elected and consecrated by three bishops of the +district, of whom one was a certain Felix of Abthugni. + +At once the opposite clan, backed up by the Numidians, objected. At their +head was a wealthy Spanish woman named Lucilla, an unbalanced devotee, +who, it seemed, always carried about her person a bone of a martyr, and +a doubtful one at that. She would ostentatiously kiss her relic before +receiving the Eucharist. The Archdeacon Cæcilianus forbade this devotion as +superstitious, and thus made a relentless enemy of the fanatical Spaniard. +All the former accusations were renewed against him, and it was added +that Felix of Abthugni, who had consecrated him, was a _traditor_. Hence +the election was void, by the single fact of the unworthiness of the +consecrating bishops. Lucilla, having bribed a section of the bishops +assembled in council, Cæcilianus was deposed, and the deacon Majorinus +elected in his room. He himself was soon after succeeded by Donatus, an +active, clever, and energetic man, who organized resistance so ably, and +who represented so well the spirit of the sect, that he left it his name. +Henceforth, Donatism enters into history. + +But Cæcilianus had on his side the bishops overseas and the Imperial +Government. The Pope of Rome and the Emperor recognized him as legitimately +elected. Besides that, he cleared himself of all the grievances urged +against him. Finally, an inquiry, conducted by laymen, proved that Felix of +Abthugni was not a _traditor_. The Donatists appealed to Constantine, then +to two Councils convoked successively at Rome and Arles. Everywhere they +were condemned. Moreover, the Council of Arles declared that the character +of him who confers the Sacraments has no influence whatever on their +validity. Thus, baptism and ordination, even conferred by a _traditor_, +were canonically sound. + +This decision was regarded as an abominable heresy by the Donatists. As a +matter of fact, there was an old African tradition, accepted by St. Cyprian +himself, that an unworthy priest could not administer the Sacraments. The +local prejudice would not yield: all were rebaptized who had been baptized +by the Catholics--that is to say, by the supporters of the _traditors_. + +The theological question was complicated with a question of property which +was all but insoluble. Since the Donatist bishops were resolved to separate +from the Catholic communion, did they mean to give up, with their title, +their basilicas and the property belonging to their churches? Supposing +that they themselves were disinterested, they had behind them the crowd of +clients and land-tillers who got their living out of the Church, and dwelt +on Church property. Never would these people allow a rival party to alter +the direction of the charities, to plant themselves in their fields and +their _gourbis_, to expel them from their cemeteries and basilicas. Other +reasons, still deeper perhaps, induced the Donatists to persevere in the +schism. These religious dissensions were agreeable to that old spirit +of division which at all times has been the evil genius of Africa. The +Africans have always felt the need of segregating themselves from one +another in hostile _cofs_. They hate each other from one village to +another--for nothing, just, for the pleasure of hating and felling each +other to the ground. + +At bottom, here is what Donatism really was: It was an extra sharp attack +of African individualism. These rebels brought in nothing new in dogma. +They would not even have been heretics without their claim to rebaptize. +They limited themselves to retain a position gained long ago; to keep +their churches and properties, or to seize those of the Catholics upon the +pretence that they were themselves the legitimate owners. With that, they +affected a respect for tradition, an austerity in morals and discipline, +which made them perfect puritans. Yes, they were the pure, the +irreconcilables, who alone had not bent before the Roman officials. All +this was very pleasing to the discontented and quarrelsome, and caressed +the popular instinct in its tendency to particularism. + +That is why the sect became, little by little, mistress of almost the +whole country. Then it subdivided, crumbled up into little churches which +excommunicated each other. In Southern Numidia, the citadels of orthodox +Donatism, so to speak, were Thimgad and Bagai. Carthage, with its primate, +was the official centre. But in the Byzacena and Tripolitana Regio, +there were the Maximianists, and the Rogatists in Mauretania, who had +cut themselves off from the Great Church. These divisions of the schism +corresponded closely enough to the natural compartments of North Africa. +There must be some incompatibility of temper between these various regions. +To this day, Algiers prides itself on not thinking like Constantine, which +does not think like Bona or like Tunis. + +Are we to see in Donatism a nationalist or separatist movement directed +against the Roman occupation? That would be to transport quite modern ideas +into antiquity. No more in Augustin's time than in our own was there such a +thing as African nationality. But if the sectaries had no least thought of +separating from Rome, it is none the less true that they were in rebellion +against her representatives, temporal as well as spiritual. Supposing that +Rome had yielded to them--an impossible event, of course--that would have +meant a surrender to the claims of Africans who wished to be masters of +their property as well as of their religious beliefs in their own country. +What more could they have wanted? It little mattered to them who was the +nominal master, provided that they had the realities of government in their +hands. Altogether, Donatism is a regionalist revindication, very strongly +characterized. It is a remarkable fact that it was among the indigenous +population, ignorant of Latin, that the most of its adherents were +recruited. + + * * * * * + +Such was the position of the Church in Africa when Augustin was named +Bishop of Hippo. He judged it at once, with his clear-sightedness, his +strong good sense, his broad outlook of a Roman citizen freed from the +smallnesses of a local spirit, his Christian idealism which took no heed +of the accidents or considerations of worldly prosperity. What! was +Catholicism to become an African religion, a restricted sect, wretchedly +tied to the letter of tradition, to the exterior practices of worship? To +reign in a little corner of the world--did Christ die for that? Never! +Christ died for the wide world. The only limits of His Church are the +limits of the universe. And besides, in this resolution to exclude, what +becomes of the great principle of Charity? It is by charity, above all, +that we are Christians. Faith without love is a faith stagnant and dead.... + +Augustin also foresaw the consequences of spiritual separation; he had them +already under his eyes. The Church is the great spring, not only of love, +but of intelligence. Once cut away from this reviving spring, Donatism +would become dry and stunted like a branch stripped from a tree. The +deep sense of its dogmas would become impoverished as its works emptied +themselves of the spirit of charity. Obstinacy, narrowness, lack of +understanding, fanaticism, and cruelty--there you had the inevitable fruits +of schism. Augustin knew the rudeness and ignorance of his opponents, even +of the most cultivated among them: he might well ask himself in anguish +what would become of the African Church deprived of the benefit of Roman +culture, isolated from the great intellectual current which united all the +churches beyond seas. Finally, he knew his fellow-countrymen; he knew that +the Donatists, even victorious, even sole masters of the land, would turn +against themselves the fury they now satisfied against the Catholics, and +never stop tearing each other in pieces. Here was now nearly a hundred +years that they had kept Africa in fire and blood. This meant before very +long a return to barbarism. Separated from Catholicism, they would really +separate from the Empire and even from civilization. And so it was that +in fighting for Catholic unity, Augustin fought for the Empire and for +civilization. + +Confronted with these barbarians and sectaries, his attitude could not be +doubtful for a single moment. He must do his best to bring them back to the +Church. It was only a matter of hitting upon the most effectual means. + +Preaching, for an orator such as he was, should be an excellent weapon. +His eloquence, his dialectic, his profane and sacred learning, gave him an +immense superiority over the defenders of the opposite side. He certainly +kept in the Church many Catholics who were ready to apostatize. But before +the crowd of schismatics, all these high gifts were as good as lost. +The people were in no wise anxious to know upon which side truth was to +be found. They were Donatists, as they were Numidians or Carthaginians, +without knowing why--because everybody about them was. Many might have +answered like that grammarian of Constantine, who told the Inquisitors with +astute simplicity: + +"I am a professor of Roman literature, a teacher of Latin grammar. My +father was a decurion at Constantine; my grandfather was a soldier and +had served in the guard. Our family is of Moorish blood.... As for me, I +am quite ignorant about the origin of the schism: I am just one of the +ordinary faithful of the people called Christians. When I was at Carthage, +Bishop Secundus came there one day. I heard tell that they found out that +Bishop Cæcilianus had been ordained irregularly by I don't know who, and +they elected another bishop against him. That's how the schism began at +Carthage. I have no means of knowing much about the origin of the schism, +because there has never been more than one church in our city. If there has +been a schism here, we know nothing about it." + +When a grammarian talked thus, what could have been the thoughts of +agricultural labourers, city workmen, and slaves? They belonged to an +estate, or a quarter of a town, where no other faith than theirs had ever +been professed. They were Donatists like their employers, like their +neighbours, like the other people of the _cof_ to which they had belonged +from father to son. The theological side of the question left them +absolutely indifferent. If Augustin tried to debate with them, they refused +to listen and referred him to their bishops. That was the word of command. + +The bishops, on their side, avoided all discussion. Augustin tried in vain +to arrange an argument with Proculeianus, his Donatist colleague at Hippo. +And if some of them shewed themselves more obliging, the evasions and +reticences of the antagonist, and sometimes outside circumstances, made the +debate utterly futile. At Thubursicum the audience raised such a noise in +the place where Augustin was debating with the bishop Fortunius, that they +were no longer able to hear each other. At other times, the meeting sank to +an oratorical joust, wherein they tired themselves out passading against +words, instead of attacking the matters at issue. Augustin felt that he was +losing his time. Besides, the Donatist bishops presented an obstinate front +against which everything smashed. + +"Leave us in our errors," they said ironically. "If we are lost in your +eyes, why follow us about? We don't want to be saved." + +And they prohibited their flocks from saluting Catholics, from speaking to +them, from going into their churches or into their houses, from sitting +down in the midst of them. They laid an interdict on their adversaries. +Primanius, the Donatist Primate of Carthage, upon being invited to a +conference, answered proudly: + +"The sons of the martyrs can have nothing to do with the race of traitors." + +This being the state of the case, no method of pacification was left but +written controversy. Augustin shewed himself tireless at it. It was chiefly +in these letters and treatises against the Donatists that he was not afraid +to repeat himself. He knew that he was dealing with the deaf, and with +the deaf who did not want to hear: he was obliged to raise his voice. +With admirable self-denial he reiterated the same arguments a hundred +times over, a hundred times took up the history of the quarrel from the +beginning, spreading such a light over the quibbles and refinings of his +contradictors, that it should have brought conviction to the bluntest +minds. "No," he repeated, "Cæcilianus was not a _traditor_, nor Felix of +Abthugni either who consecrated him bishop. The documents are there to +prove this. And even supposing they were, can the fault of a single man +be charged to the whole Church?... Then why do you baptize the Catholics +under the pretence that their priests are _traditors_ and as such unworthy +to administer the Sacraments? It is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and not +the virtue of the priest which renders baptism efficacious. If it were +otherwise, what was the good of the Redemption? It is the fact that by the +voluntary death of Christ, all men have been called to salvation. Salvation +is not the privilege of Africans only. Being Catholic, the Church should +take in the whole world...." + +In the long run, these continual repetitions end by seeming wearisome to +modern readers: for us there arises out of all these discussions a dense +and intolerable boredom. But let us remember that all this was singularly +living for Augustin's cotemporaries, that these thankless developments were +read with passion. And then, too, it was a question of the unity of the +Church which involved, as we cannot too often repeat, the interest of the +Empire and civilization. + +Against so persuasive a power the Donatists opposed a conspiracy of +silence. Their bishops forbade the people to read what Augustin wrote. They +did more--they concealed their own libels so that it was impossible to +reply to them. But Augustin used all his skill to unearth them. He refuted +them, and had his refutations recopied and posted on the walls of the +basilicas. The copies circulated through the province and the whole Roman +world. + +This would have had an excellent result if the quarrel had been entirely +over questions of theory. But immense property interests came into it, +and rancours and terrible hates. Augustin was forced to pass from verbal +polemics to direct action--defensive action, at first, and then attack. + +While he and his fellow-bishops did their utmost to preach peace, the +Donatist bishops urged their followers to the holy war. Augustin even +received threats on his life. During one of his visitations, he was nearly +assassinated. Men in ambush lay in wait for him. By a providential chance, +he took the wrong road, and owed his life to this mistake. His pupil +Possidius, who was then Bishop of Guelma, was not so lucky. Brought to +bay in a house by the Donatist bishop Crispinus, he defended himself +desperately. They set fire to the house to turn him out. When there was +nothing else left but to be burned alive, he did come out. The band of +Donatists seized him, and would have beaten his brains out, if Crispinus +himself, fearing a prosecution for murder, had not interfered. But the +assailants sacked the property and slaughtered all the horses and mules +in the stables. At Bagai, Bishop Maximianus was stabbed in his basilica. +A furious mob smashed the altar and began to strike the victim with the +fragments, and left him for dead on the flags. The Catholics lifted up his +body, but the Donatists plucked him out of their hands and flung him from +the top of a tower, and he fell on a dunghill which broke the fall. The +unhappy man still breathed, and by a miracle he recovered. + +Meanwhile, the Circoncelliones, armed with their bludgeons, continued to +pillage and burn the farms. They tortured the owners to extract their money +from them. They made them toil round the mill-path like beasts of burthen, +while they lashed at them with whips. At their back, the Donatist priests +invaded the Catholic churches and lands. There and then they rebaptized +the labourers. These doings were, indeed, very like the practices of the +African Mussulmans to-day, who, in like circumstances, always begin by +converting the Christian farm-hands by main force. Then they purified +the basilicas by scraping down the walls and washing the floors with big +douches of water; and after demolishing the altar, they scattered salt +where it had stood. It was a perfect disinfection. The Donatists treated +the Catholics like the plague-stricken. + +Such acts cried out for vengeance. Augustin, who up till this time had +recoiled from asking the public authorities to prosecute, who, as an +observer of the apostolic tradition, did not recognize the interference +of the civil power in Church matters--well, Augustin had to give way to +circumstances, and also to the pressure brought to bear on him by his +colleagues. Councils assembled at Carthage petitioned the Emperor to take +exceptional measures against the Donatists, who laughed at all the laws +directed against heretics. When they were summoned before the courts they +demonstrated to the judges, who were often pagans incompetent to decide in +these questions, that it was they who really belonged to the only orthodox +Church. Something must be done to end this equivocal position, and to bring +about once for all a categorical condemnation of the schism. Augustin, +acting in concert with the primate Aurelius, was the ruling spirit of these +meetings. + +Let us not judge his conduct by modern ideas, or be in a hurry to exclaim +against his intolerance. He and the Catholic bishops, in acting thus, +were complying with the old tradition which had influenced all the pagan +governments. Rome, particularly, though it recognized all the local sects, +all the foreign religions, never allowed any of its subjects to refuse to +fall in with the official religion. The persecutions of the Christians and +the Jews had no other motive. Now that it was become the State religion, +Christianity, willingly or unwillingly, had to summon people to the same +obedience. The Emperors made a special point of this from political reasons +easy to understand--to prevent riots and maintain public order. Even if the +bishops had refrained from all complaint, the Imperial Government would +have acted without them and suppressed the disturbances caused by the +heretics. + +Just look at the situation and the men as they were at that moment in +Africa. It was the Catholics who were persecuted, and that with revolting +fury and cruelty. They were obliged to defend themselves. In the next +place, the distribution of property in those countries made conversions +in batches singularly easy. Multitudes of farm tenants, workmen, and +agricultural slaves, lived upon the immense estates of one owner. Without +any interest in dogmatic questions, they were Donatists simply because +their master was. To change these devouring wolves into tranquil sheep, it +was often quite enough if the master got converted. The great blessing of +peace depended upon pressure being brought to bear on certain persons. When +all day and every day there was a risk of being murdered or burned out by +irresponsible ruffians, the temptation was very strong to fall back on such +a prompt and simple remedy. Augustin and his colleagues ended by making up +their minds to do so. For that matter, they had no choice. They were bound +to strike, or be themselves suppressed by their enemies. + +However, before resorting to rigorous measures, they resolved to send forth +a supreme appeal for reconciliation. The Catholics proposed a meeting to +the Donatists in which they would loyally examine one another's grievances. +As personal or material questions made the great bar to an understanding, +they promised that every Donatist bishop who turned convert should keep +his see. In places where a schismatic and an orthodox bishop were found +together, they would come to a friendly agreement to govern the diocese by +turns. Where it was impossible for this to be done, it was proposed that +the Catholic should resign in favour of the other. Augustin lent all his +eloquence to carry this motion, which was sufficiently heroic for a good +number of bishops who were not so detached as he from the goods of this +world. And one must allow that it was difficult to go much further in the +way of self-denial. + +After a good deal of skirmishing and hesitation on the side of the +schismatics, the Conference met at Carthage in June of the year 411, under +the presidency of an Imperial commissioner, the tribune Marcellinus. Once +again, the Donatists saw themselves condemned. Upon the report of the +commissioner, a decree of Honorius classed them definitely among heretics. +They were forbidden to rebaptize or to assemble together, under penalties +of fine and confiscation. Refractory countrymen and slaves would be liable +to corporal punishment, and as for the clerics, they would be banished. + +The effect of these new laws was not long in appearing, and it fully +answered the wishes of the orthodox bishops. Many populations returned, or +pretended to return, to the Catholic communion. This result was largely +the work of Augustin, who for twenty years had worked to bring it about by +preaching and controversy. But, as might be expected, he did not overdo +his triumph. Without delay, he set himself to preach moderation to the +conquerors. Nor had he waited till the enemy was defeated to do that. Ten +years before, while the Donatists were besetting the Catholics everywhere, +he said to the priests of his communion: + +"Remember this, my brothers, so as to practise and preach it with +never-varying gentleness. Love the men; kill the lie! Lean on truth without +pride; fight for it without cruelty. Pray for those whom you chide, and for +those to whom you shew their error." + +However, the victory of the party of peace was not so thorough as it had +seemed at first. A good many fanatics here and there grew obstinate in +their resistance. The Circoncelliones, maddened, distinguished themselves +by a new outbreak of ravages and cruelties. They tortured and mutilated all +the Catholics who fell into their hands. They had invented an unheard-of +refinement of torture, which was to cover with lime diluted with vinegar +the eyes of their victims. The priest Restitutus was assassinated in the +suburbs of Hippo. A bishop had his tongue and his hand cut off. If the +towns were pretty quiet, terror began to reign once more in the country +places. + +The Roman authorities exerted themselves to put an end to these bloody +scenes. They heavily chastised the offenders whenever they could catch +them. In his charity, Augustin interceded for them with the judges. He +wrote to the tribune Marcellinus: + +"We would not that the servants of God should be revenged by hurts like to +those they suffered. Surely, we are not against depriving the guilty of the +means to do harm, but we consider it will be enough, without taking their +lives or wrenching any limb from them, to turn them from their senseless +tumult by the restraining power of the laws, in bringing them back to calm +and reason; or, in a last resort, to take away the opportunity for criminal +actions by employing them in some useful work.... Christian judge, in this +matter fulfil the duty of a father, and while repressing injustice, do not +forget humanity." + +This compassion of Augustin was shewn particularly in his meeting with +Emeritus, the Donatist Bishop of Cherchell (or as it was then called, +Mauretanian Cæsarea), one of the most stubborn among the irreconcilables. +His attitude in dealing with this uncompromising enemy was not only humane, +but courteous, full of graciousness, and of the most sensitive charity. + +This fell out in the autumn of the year 418, seven years after the great +Conference at Carthage. Augustin was sixty-four years old. How was it +that he who had always had such feeble health undertook at this age the +long journey from Hippo to Cæsarea? We know that the Pope, Zozimus, had +entrusted him with a mission to the Church of that town. With his tireless +zeal, always ready to march for the glory of Christ, the old bishop +doubtless saw in this journey a fresh opportunity for an apostle. So +he started off, in spite of the roads, which were very unsafe in those +troublous times, in spite of the crushing heat of the season--the end of +September. He travelled six hundred miles across the endless Numidian +plain and the mountainous regions of the Atlas, preaching in the churches, +halting in the towns and the hamlets to decide questions of private +interest, ever pursued by a thousand business worries and by the squabbles +of litigants and the discontented. At last, after many weeks of fatigue and +tribulation, he reached Cherchell, where he was the guest of Deuterius, the +metropolitan Bishop of Mauretania. + +Now Emeritus, the deposed bishop, lived mysteriously in the suburbs, in +constant fear of some forcible action on the part of the authorities. +When he learned the friendly intentions of Augustin, he came out of his +hiding-place and shewed himself in the town. In one of the squares of +Cæsarea the two prelates met. Augustin, who had formerly seen Emeritus at +Carthage, recognized him, hurried over to him, saluted him, and at once +suggested a friendly talk. + +"Let us go into the church," he said. "This square is hardly suitable for a +talk between two bishops." + +Emeritus, flattered, agreed. The conversation continued in such a cordial +tone that Augustin was already rejoicing upon having won back the +schismatic. Deuterius, following the line of conduct which the Catholic +bishops had adopted, spoke of resigning and handing over the see to the +other. It was agreed that within two days Emeritus should come to the +cathedral for a public discussion with his colleague of Hippo. At the +appointed hour he appeared. A great crowd of people gathered to hear +the two orators. The basilica was full. Then Augustin, turning to the +impenitent Donatist, said to him mildly: + +"Emeritus, my brother, you are here. You were also at our Conference at +Carthage. If you were beaten there, why do you come here now? If, on the +other hand, you think that you were not beaten, tell us what leads you to +believe that you had the advantage...." + +What change had Emeritus undergone in two days? Whatever it was, he +disappointed the hopes of Augustin and the people of Cæsarea. He returned +only ambiguous phrases to the most pressing and brotherly urging. Finally, +he took refuge in an angry silence from which it was found impossible to +draw him. + +Augustin went home without having converted the heretic. No doubt he was +sorely disappointed. Nevertheless, he shewed no resentment; he even took +measures to ensure the safety of the recalcitrant, in a charitable fear +less the roused people might do him a bad turn. With all that, when he +looked back at the results of nearly thirty years of struggle against +schism, he might well say to himself that he had done good work for the +Church. Donatism, in fact, was conquered, and conquered by him. Was he +at last to have a chance to rest himself, with the only rest suitable +to a soul like his, in a steady meditation and study of the Scriptures? +Henceforth, would he be allowed to live a little less as a bishop and a +little more as a monk? This was always the strong desire of his heart.... + +But new and worse trials awaited him at Hippo. + + + + +THE SIXTH PART + +FACE TO FACE WITH THE BARBARIANS + + + Et nunc veniant omnes quicumque amant Paradisum, locum quietis, locum + securitatis, locum perpetuae felicitatis, locum in quo non pertimescas + Barbarum. + + "And now let all those come who love Paradise, the place of quiet, the + place of safety, the place of eternal happiness, the place where the + Barbarian need be feared no more." + + _Sermon upon the Barbarian Persecution_, vii, 9. + + + + +I + +THE SACK OF ROME + + +During June of the year 403, an astonishing event convulsed the former +capital of the Empire. The youthful Honorius, attended by the regent +Stilicho, came there to celebrate his triumph over Alaric and the Gothic +army, defeated at Pollentia. + +The pageantry of a triumph was indeed a very astonishing sight for +the Romans of that period. They had got so unused to them! And no +less wonderful was the presence of the Emperor at the Palatine. Since +Constantine's reign, the Imperial palaces had been deserted. They had +hardly been visited four times in a century by their master. + +Rome had never got reconciled to the desertion of her princes. When the +Court was moved to Milan, and then to Ravenna, she felt she had been +uncrowned. Time after time the Senate appealed to Honorius to shew himself, +at least, to his Roman subjects, since political reasons were against his +dwelling among them. This journey was always put off. The truth is, the +Christian Cæsars did not like Rome, and mistrusted her still half-pagan +Senate and people. It needed this unhoped-for victory to bring Honorius +and his councillors to make up their minds. The feeling of a common danger +had for the moment drawn the two opposing religions together, and here +they were apparently making friends in the same patriotic delight. Old +hates were forgotten. In fact, the pagan aristocracy had hopes of better +treatment from Stilicho. On account of all these reasons, the triumphant +Cæsar was received at Rome with delirious joy. + +The Court, upon leaving Ravenna, had crossed the Apennines. A halt was +called on the banks of the Clitumnus, where in ancient times the great +white herds were found which were sacrificed at the Capitol during a +triumph. But the gods of the land had fallen; there would be no opiman bull +this time on their altars. The pagans felt bitter about it. + +Thence, by Narnia and the Tiber valley, they made their way down into the +plain. The measured step of the legions rang upon the large flags of the +Flaminian way. They crossed the Mulvius bridge--and old Rome rose like a +new city. In anticipation of a siege, the regent had repaired the Aurelian +wall. The red bricks of the enclosure and the fresh mason-work of the +towers gleamed in the sun. Finally, striking into the _Via lata_, the +procession marched to the Palatine. + +The crowd was packed in this long, narrow street, and overflowed into the +nearest alleys. Women, elaborately dressed, thronged the balconies, and +even the terraces of the palace. All at once the people remarked that the +Senate was not walking before the Imperial chariot. Stilicho, who wished to +conciliate their good graces, had, contrary to custom, dispensed them from +marching on foot before the conqueror. People talked with approval of this +wily measure in which they saw a promise of new liberties. But applause and +enthusiastic cheers greeted the young Honorius as he passed by, sharing +with Stilicho the honour of the triumphal car. + +The unequalled splendour of his _trabea_, of which the embroideries +disappeared under the number and flash of colour of the jewels, left the +populace gaping. The diadem, a masterpiece of goldsmith's work, pressed +heavily on his temples. Emerald pendants twinkled on each side of his neck, +which, as it was rather fat, with almost feminine curves, suggested at once +to the onlookers a comparison with Bacchus. They found he had an agreeable +face, and even a soldierly air with his square shoulders and stocky neck. +Matrons gazed with tender eyes on this Cæsar of nineteen, who had, at that +time, a certain beauty, and the brilliance, so to speak, of youth. This +degenerate Spaniard, who was really a crowned eunuch, and was to spend his +life in the society of the palace eunuchs and die of dropsy--this son of +Theodosius was just then fond of violent exercise, of hunting and horses. +But he was even now becoming ponderous with unhealthy fat. His build and +bloated flesh gave those who saw him at a distance a false notion of his +strength. The Romans were most favourably impressed by him, especially the +young men. + +But the army, the safeguard of the country, was perhaps even more admired +than the Emperor. The legions, following the ruler, had almost deserted +the capital. The flower of the troops were almost unknown there. In +consequence, the march past of the cavalry was quite a new sight for the +people. A great murmur of admiration sounded as the _cataphracti_ appeared, +gleaming in the coats of mail which covered them from head to foot. Upon +their horses, caparisoned in defensive armour, they looked like equestrian, +statues--like silver horsemen on bronze horses. Childish cries greeted each +_draconarius_ as he marched by carrying his ensign--a dragon embroidered on +a long piece of cloth which flapped in the wind. And the crowd pointed at +the crests of the helmets plumed with peacock feathers, and the scarfs of +scarlet silk flowing over the camber of the gilded cuirasses.... + +The military show poured into the Forum, swept up the _Via Sacra_, and when +it had passed under the triumphal arches of the old emperors, halted at the +Palace of Septimus Severus. In the Stadium, the crowd awaited Honorius. +When he appeared on the balcony of the Imperial box, wild cheering burst +out on all the rows of seats. The Emperor, diadem on head, bowed to the +people. Upon that the cheers became a tempest. Rome did not know how to +express her happiness at having at last got her master back. + +On the eve of the worst catastrophes she had this supreme day of glory, of +desperate pride, of unconquerable faith in her destiny. The public frenzy +encouraged them in the maddest hopes. The poet Claudian, who had followed +the Court, became the mouthpiece of these perilous illusions. "Arise!" he +cried to Rome, "I prithee arise, O venerable queen! Trust in the goodwill +of the gods. O city, fling away the mean fears of age, _thou who art +immortal as the heavens_!..." + +For all that, the Barbarian danger continued to threaten. The victory +of Pollentia, which, moreover, was not a complete victory, had settled +nothing. Alaric was in flight in the Alps, but he kept his eye open for a +favourable chance to fall back upon Italy and wrench concessions of money +and honours from the Court of Ravenna. Supported by his army of mercenaries +and adventurers in the pay of the Empire like himself, his dealings with +Honorius were a kind of continual blackmail. If the Imperial Government +refused to pay the sums which he protested it owed him for the maintenance +of his troops, he would pay himself by force. Rome, where fabulous riches +had accumulated for so many centuries, was an obvious prey for him and his +men. He had coveted it for a long time; and to get up his courage for this +daring exploit, as well as to work upon his soldiers, he pretended that he +had a mission from Heaven to chastise and destroy the new Babylon. In his +Pannonian forests it would seem he had heard mysterious voices which said +to him: "Advance, and thou shalt destroy the city!" + +This leader of clans had nothing of the conqueror about him. He understood +that he was in no wise cut out to wear the purple; he himself felt the +Barbarian's cureless inferiority. But he also felt that neither was he +born to obey. If he asked for the title of Prefect of the City, and if he +persisted in offering his services to the Empire, it was as a means to get +the upper hand of it more surely. Repulsed, disdained by the Court, he +tried to raise himself in his own eyes and in the eyes of the common people +by giving himself the airs of an instrument of justice, a man designed by +fate, who marches blindly to a terrible purpose indicated by the divine +wrath. It often happened that he was duped by his own mummery. This turbid +Barbarian soul was prone to the most superstitious terrors. + +Notwithstanding his rodomontades, it is certain that in his heart he was +scared by Rome. He hardly dared to attack it. In the first place, it was +not at all a convenient operation for him. His army of mercenaries had no +proper implements to undertake the siege of this huge city, of which the +defence lines were thrown out in so wide a perimeter. He had to come back +to it twice, before he could make up his mind to invest it seriously. The +first time, in 408, he was satisfied with starving the Romans by cutting +off the food supply. He had pitched his camp on the banks of the Tiber in +such a way as to capture the shipping between the capital and the great +store-houses built near the mouth of the river. From the ramparts, the +Romans could see the Barbarian soldiers moving about, with their sheepskin +coats dyed to a crude red. Panic-stricken, the aristocracy fled to its +villas in Campania, or Sicily, or Africa. They took with them whatever +they were able to carry. They sought refuge in the nearest islands, even +in Sardinia and Corsica, despite their reputation for unhealthiness. They +even hid among the rocks of the seashore. The terror was so great that the +Senate agreed to everything demanded by Alaric. He was paid an enormous +indemnity which he claimed as a condition of his withdrawal. + +The following year he used the same method of intimidation to force on the +people an emperor he had chosen, and to get conferred on him the title of +Prefect of the City which he had desired so long. Finally, in the year 410, +he struck the supreme blow. + +The Barbarian knew what he was about, and that he did not risk much in +blockading Rome. Famine would open the gates to him sooner or later. All +who were able had left the city, especially the rich. There was no garrison +to defend it. Only a lazy populace remained behind the walls, unused to +arms, and still more enfeebled by long starvation. And yet this wretched +and decimated population, in an outburst of patriotism, resisted with +desperate energy. The siege was long. Doubtless it began before the spring; +it ended only at the end of the summer. In the night of the twenty-fourth +of August, 410, amid the glare of lightning and crashes of thunder, Alaric +entered Rome by the Salarian gate. It is certain that he only managed it +even then by treachery. The prey was handed to him. + +The sack of Rome seems to have lasted for three days and three nights. Part +of the town was burned. The conquered people underwent all the horrors +which accompany such events--violent and stupid destruction, rapes, murders +of individuals, wholesale slaughter, torture, and mutilation. But in +reality the Barbarians only wanted the Roman gold. They acted like perfect +highway robbers. If they tortured their victims without distinction of age +or sex, it was to pluck the secret of their treasure-houses out of them. +It is even said that in these conditions the Roman avarice produced some +admirable examples of firmness. Some let themselves be tortured to their +last gasp rather than reveal where their treasures were hid. At last, when +Alaric decided that his army was gorged enough with spoil, he gave the +order to evacuate the city, and took to the roads with his baggage-waggons +full. + +Let us be careful not to judge these doings after our modern notions. The +capture of Rome by Alaric was not a national disaster. It was plundering on +a huge scale. The Goth had no thought at all of destroying the Empire. He +was only a mercenary in rebellion--an ambitious mercenary, no doubt--but, +above all, a looter. + +As a consequence of this attack on the Eternal City, one after another +caught the disease of plunder, which contaminated even the functionaries +and the subjects of Rome. Amid the general anarchy, where impunity seemed +certain, nobody restrained himself any longer. In Africa especially, where +the old instinct of piracy is always half-awake, they applied themselves to +ransack the fugitive Romans and Italians. Many rich people were come there, +seeking a place of safety in the belief that they would be more secure when +they had put the sea between themselves and the Barbarians. The report of +their riches had preceded them, exaggerated out of all measure by popular +rumour. Among them were mentioned patricians such as the Anicii, whose +property was so immense and their palaces so splendid that they could not +find purchasers. These multi-millionaires in flight were a miraculous +windfall for the country. They were bled without mercy. + +Quicker than any one else, the military governor of Africa, Count +Heraclianus, was on the spot to pick the pockets of the Italian immigrants. +No sooner were they off the boat than he had very distinguished ladies +seized, and only released them when he had extorted a large ransom. He sold +those unable to pay to the Greek and Syrian slave-merchants who provided +human flesh for the Oriental harems. When the example came from such a +height, the subordinates doubtless said to themselves that they would +be very wrong to have the least shame. From one end of the province to +the other, everybody struggled to extract as much as possible from the +unfortunate fugitives. Augustin's own parishioners at Hippo undertook to +tear a donation from one of those gorgeous Anicii, whose lands stretched +further than a kite could fly--from Pinian, the husband of St. Melania +the younger. They wanted to force him to be ordained priest in spite of +himself, which, as has been explained, involved the handing over of his +goods to the Catholic community. Augustin, who opposed this, had to give in +to the crowd. There was almost a riot in the basilica. + +Such were the far-off reverberations of the capture of Rome by Alaric. +Carthaginians and Numidians pillaged the Romans just like the Barbarians. + +Now, how did it come about that this monstrous loot took on before the eyes +of contemporaries the magnitude of a world-catastrophe? For really nothing +was utterly lost. The Empire remained standing. After Alaric's retreat, +the Romans had come back to their city and they worked to build up the +ruins. Ere long, the populace were crying out loud that if the circus +and amphitheatre games were given back to them, they would look upon the +descent of the Goths as a bad dream. + +It is no less certain that this sensational occurrence had struck the whole +Mediterranean world into a perfect stupor. It seized upon the imaginations +of all. The idea that Rome could not be taken, that it was integral and +almost sacred, had such a hold on people's minds, that they refused to +credit the sinister news. Nobody reflected that the sack of Rome by the +Barbarians should have been long ago foreseen--that Rome, deprived of +a garrison, abandoned by the Imperial army, was bound to attract the +covetousness of the Goths, and that the pillage of a place without defence, +already enfeebled by famine, was not a very glorious feat, very difficult, +or very extraordinary. People only saw the brutal fact: the Eternal City +had been captured and burned by the mercenaries. All were under the +influence of the shock caused by the narratives of the refugees. In one of +his sermons, Augustin has transmitted to us an echo of the general panic: + +"Horrible things," said he, "have been told us. There have been ruins, and +fires, and rapine, and murder, and torture. That is true; we have heard it +many times; we have shuddered at all this disaster; we have often wept, and +we have hardly been able to console ourselves." + +This capture of Rome was plainly a terrible warning for the future. But +party spirit strangely exaggerated the importance and meaning of the +calamity. For pagans and Christians alike it became a subject for speeches, +a commonplace of religious polemic. Both saw the event as a manifestation +of the wrath of Heaven. + +"While we sacrificed to our gods," the pagan said, "Rome was standing, Rome +was happy. Now that our sacrifices are forbidden, you see what has become +of Rome...." + +And they went about repeating that Christianism was responsible for the +ruin of the Empire. On their side, the Christians answered: In the first +place, Rome has not fallen: it is always standing. It has been only +chastised, and this happened because it is still half pagan. By this +frightful punishment (and they heightened the description of the horrors +committed), God has given it a warning. Let it be converted, let it return +to the virtues of its ancestors, and it will become again the mistress of +nations. + +There is what Augustin and the bishops said. Still, the flock of the +faithful were only half convinced. It was all well enough to remonstrate +to them that the Christians of Rome, and even a good number of pagans, +had been spared at the name of Christ, and that the Barbarian leader had +bestowed a quite special protection and respect upon the basilicas of +the holy apostles; it was impossible to prevent their thinking that many +Christians had perished in the sack of the city, that consecrated virgins +had experienced the last outrages, and that, as a matter of fact, all the +inhabitants had been robbed of their property.... Was it thus that God +protected His chosen? What advantage was there in being Christian if they +had the same treatment as the idolaters? + +This state of mind became extremely favourable for paganism to come back +again on the offensive. Since the very hard laws of Theodosius, which +forbade the worship of the ancient gods, even within the house, the pagans +had not overlooked any chance to protest against the Imperial severity. +At Carthage there were always fights in the streets between pagans and +Christians, not to say riots. In the colony of Suffetula, sixty Christians +had been massacred. The year before the capture of Rome, there had been +trouble with the pagans at Guelma. Houses belonging to the Church were +burned, a monk killed in a brawl. Whenever the Government inspection +relaxed, or the political situation appeared favourable, the pagans hurried +to proclaim their belief. Only just lately, in Rome beleaguered by Alaric, +the new consul, Tertullus, had thought fit to revive the old customs. +Before assuming office, he studied gravely the sacred fowls in their cages, +traced circles in the sky with the augur's wand, and marked the flight of +birds. Besides, a pagan oracle circulated persistently among the people, +promising that after a reign of three hundred and sixty-five years +Christianity would be conquered. The centuries of the great desolation were +fulfilled; the era of revenge was about to begin for the outcast gods. + +These warlike symptoms did not escape Augustin's vigilance. His indignation +no longer arose only from the fact that paganism was so slow in dying; he +was now afraid that the feebleness of the Empire might allow it to take on +an appearance of life. It must be ended, as Donatism had been ended. The +old apostle was summoned to a new campaign, and in it he would spend the +best of his strength to the eve of his death. + + + + +II + +THE CITY OF GOD + + +For thirteen or fourteen years, through a thousand employments and a +thousand cares, amid the panics and continual alarums which kept the +Africans on the alert in those times, Augustin worked at his _City of God_, +the most formidable machine of war ever directed against paganism, and also +the arsenal fullest of proofs and refutations which the disputants and +defenders of Catholicism have ever had at their disposal. + +It is not for us to examine the details of this immense work, for our sole +aim is to study Augustin's soul, and we quote scarcely anything from his +books save those parts wherein a little of this ardent soul pulsates--those +which are still living for us of the twentieth century, which contain +teachings and ways of feeling still likely to move us. Now, Augustin's +attitude towards paganism is one of those which throw the greatest light on +his nature and character. And it may even yet come to be our own attitude +when we find opposed to us a conception of life and the world which +may indeed be ruined for a time, but is reborn as soon as the sense of +spirituality disappears or grows feeble. + + "Immortal Paganism, art thou dead? So they say. + But Pan scoffs under his breath, and the Chimæra laughs." [1] + +[Footnote 1: Sainte-Beuve.] + +Like ourselves, Augustin, brought up by a Christian mother, knew it only +through literature, and, so to speak, æsthetically. Recollections of +school, the emotions and admirations of a cultivated man--there is what the +old religion meant for him. Nevertheless, he had one great advantage over +us for knowing it well: the sight of the pagan customs and superstitions +was still under his eyes. + +That the lascivious, romantic, and poetic adventures of the ancient gods, +their statues, their temples, and all the arts arising from their religion, +had beguiled him and filled him with enthusiasm before his conversion, is +only too certain. But all this mythology and plastic art were looked upon +as secondary things then, even by pagans. The serious, the essential part +of the religion was not in that. Paganism, a religion of Beauty, is an +invention of our modern æsthetes; it was hardly thought of in that way in +Augustin's time. + +Long before this, the Roman Varro, the great compiler of the religious +antiquities of paganism, made a threefold distinction of the doctrine +concerning the gods. The first--that of the theatre, as he calls it, or +fabulous mythology, adapted to poets, dramatists, sculptors, and jesters. +Invented by these, it is only a fantasy, a play of imagination, an ornament +of life. The third is civil theology, serious and solid, which claims the +respect and piety of all. "It is that which men in cities, and chiefly the +priests, _ought to be_ cunning in. It teaches which gods to worship in +public, and with what ceremonies and sacrifices each one must be served." +Finally, the second, physical or metaphysical theology, is reserved for +philosophers and exceptional minds; it is altogether theoretical. The +only important and truly religious one, which puts an obligation on the +believer, is the third--the civil theology. + +Now, we never take account of this. What we persist in regarding as +paganism is what Varro himself called "a religion for the theatre"--matter +of opera, pretext for ballets, for scenery, and for dance postures. +Transposed into another key by our poets, this mythology is inflated now +and then by mysticism, or by a vague symbolism. Playthings of our pretty +wits! The living paganism, which Augustin struggled against, which crowds +defended at the price of their blood, in which the poor believed and the +wisest statesmen deemed indispensable as a safeguard of cities--that +paganism is quite another matter. Like all religions which are possible, +it implied and it _enforced_ not only beliefs, but ritual, sacrifices, +festivals. And this is what Augustin, with the other Christians of that +time, spurned with disgust and declared to be unbearable. + +He saw, or he had seen with his own eyes, the reality of the pagan worship, +and the most repellent of all to our modern delicacy--the sacrifices. At +the period when he wrote _The City of God_, private sacrifices, as well as +public, were forbidden. This did not prevent the devout from breaking the +law whenever a chance offered. They hid themselves more or less when they +sacrificed before a temple, a chapel, or on some private estate. The rites +could not be carried out according to all the minute instructions of the +pontifical books. It was no more than a shadow of the ceremonies of former +times. But in his childhood, in the reign of Julian, for instance, Augustin +could have attended sacrifices which were celebrated with full pomp and +according to all the ritual forms. They were veritable scenes of butchery. +For Heaven's sake let us forget the frieze of the Parthenon, and its +sacrificers with their graceful lines! If we want to have a literal +translation of this sculpture, and find the modern representation of a +hecatomb, we must go to the slaughter-houses at La Villette. + +Among the heaps of broken flesh, the puddles of blood, the mystic Julian +was attacked by a kind of drunkenness. There were never enough beasts +strangled or slaughtered to suit him. Nothing satisfied his fury for sacred +carnage. The pagans themselves made fun of this craze for sacrificing. +During the three years his reign lasted the altars streamed with blood. +Oxen by hundreds were slain upon the floors of the temples, and the +butchers throttled so many sheep and other domestic animals that they gave +up keeping count of them. Thousands of white birds, pigeons or sea-gulls, +were destroyed day by day by the piety of the prince. He was called the +_Victimarius_, and when he started upon his campaign against the Persians, +an epigram was circulated once more which had been formerly composed +against Marcus Aurelius (the philosophic emperor!) who was equally generous +of hecatombs: "To Marcus Cæsar from the white oxen. It will be all over +with us if you come back a conqueror." People said that Julian, on his +return, would depopulate stables and pasture-lands. + +The populace, who gathered their very considerable profit from these +butcheries, naturally encouraged such an excess of devotion. At Rome, under +Caligula, more than a hundred and sixty thousand victims were immolated in +three months--nearly two thousand a day. And these massacres took place +upon the approaches of the temples; in the middle of the city; on the +forums; in narrow squares crowded with public buildings and statues. Just +try to call up the scene in summer, between walls at a white heat, with the +smells and the flies. Spectators and victims rubbed against one another, +pressed close in the restricted space. One day, Caligula, while he was +attending a sacrifice, was splashed all over by the blood of a flamingo as +they cut its neck. But the august Cæsar was not so fastidious; he himself +operated in these ceremonies armed with a mallet and clad in the short +shirt of the killers. The ignominy of all this revolted the Christians, +and whoever had nerves at all sensitive. The bloody mud in which passers +slipped, the hissing of the fat, the heavy odour of flesh, were sickening. +Tertullian held his nose before the "stinking fires" on which the victims +were roasting. And St. Ambrose complained that in the Roman Curia the +senators who were Christians were obliged to breathe in the smoke and +receive full in the face the ashes of the altar raised before the statue of +Victory. + +The manipulations of the _haruspicina_ seemed an even worse abomination in +the eyes of the Christians. Dissection of bowels, examination of entrails, +were practices very much in fashion in all classes of society. The +pagans generally took more or less interest in magic. One was scarcely +a philosopher without being a miracle-worker. In this there was a kind +of perfidious rivalry to the Christian miracles. The ambitious or the +discontented opened the bellies of animals to learn when the Emperor was +going to die, and who would succeed him. But although it did not pretend to +magic, the _haruspicina_ made an essential part of the sacrifices. As soon +as the dismemberment was done, the diviners examined the appearance of +the entrails. Consulting together, they turned them over frequently with +anxious attention. This business might continue for a long time. Plutarch +relates that Philip, King of Macedonia, when sacrificing an ox on the +Ithomæa, with Aratus of Sicyon and Demetrius of Pharos, wished to inquire +out from the entrails of the victim concerning the wisdom of a piece of +strategy. The _haruspex_ put the smoking mass in his hands. The King shewed +it to his companions, who derived contradictory presages from it. He +listened to one side and the other, holding meanwhile the ox's entrails +in his hands. Eventually, he decided for the opinion of Aratus, and then +tranquilly gave the handful back to the sacrificer.... + +No doubt in Augustin's time these rites were no longer practised openly. +For all that, they were of the first importance in the ancient religion, +which desired nothing better than to restore them. It is easy to understand +the repulsion they caused in the author of _The City of God_. He who would +not have a fly killed to make sure of the gold crown in the contest of +poets, looked with horror on these sacred butchers, and manglers, and +cooks. He flung the garbage of the sacrifices into the sewer, and shewed +proudly to the pagans the pure oblation of the eucharistic Bread and Wine. + +But what, above all, he attacked, because it was a present and permanent +scandal, was the gluttony, the drunkenness, and lust of the pagans. Let us +not exaggerate these vices--not the two first, at least. Augustin could not +judge them as we can. It is certain that the Africans of his time--and for +that matter, those of to-day--would have struck us modern people as very +sober. The outbursts of intemperance which he accuses them of only happened +at intervals, at times of public festivity or some family celebration. But +as soon as they did begin they were terrible. When one thinks of the orgies +of our Arabs behind locked doors! + +But it is no less true that the pagan vices spread themselves out +cynically under the protecting shadow of religion. Popular souses of +eating and drinking were the obligatory accompaniments of the festivals +and sacrifices. A religious festival meant a carouse, loads of victuals, +barrels of wine broached in the street. These were called the Dishes, +_Fercula_, or else, the Rejoicing, _Lætitia_. The poor people, who knew +meat only by sight, ate it on these days, and they drank wine. The effect +of this unaccustomed plenty was felt at once. The whole populace were +drunk. The rich in their houses possibly did it with more ceremony, but it +was really the same brutishness. The elegant Ovid, who in the _Art of Love_ +teaches fine manners to the beginners in love, advises them not to vomit at +table, and to avoid getting drunk like the husbands of their mistresses. + +Plainly, religion was only an excuse for these excesses. Augustin goes too +far when he makes the gods responsible for this riot of sensuality. What is +true is that they did nothing to hinder it. And it is also true that the +lechery, which he flings so acridly in the face of the pagans, the gross +stage-plays, the songs, dances, and even prostitution, were all more or +less included in the essence of paganism. The theatre, like the games of +the arena and circus, was a divine institution. At certain feasts, and in +certain temples, fornication became sacred. All the world knew what took +place at Carthage in the courts and under the porticoes of the Celestial +Virgin, and what the ears of the most chaste matrons were obliged to hear, +and also what the use was of the castrated priests of the Great Mother +of the gods. Augustin, who declaims against these filthy sports, has not +forced the note of his denunciation to make out a good case. If anybody +wants to know in more detail the sights enjoyed at the theatre, or what +were the habits of certain pious confraternities, he has only to read what +is told by Apuleius, the most devout of pagans. He takes evident pleasure +in these stories, or, if he sometimes waxes indignant, it is the depravity +of men he accuses. The gods soar at a great height above these wretched +trifles. To Augustin, on the contrary, the gods are unclean devils who fill +their bellies with lust and obscenities, as if they were hankering for the +blood and grease of sacrifices. + +And so he puts his finger on the open wound of paganism--its basic +immorality, or, if you like, its unmorality. Like our scientism of to-day, +it was unable to lay down a system of morals. It did not even try to. What +Augustin has written on this subject in _The City of God_, is perhaps the +strongest argument ever objected to polytheism. Anyhow, pages like this are +very timely indeed to consider: + +"But such friends and such worshippers of those gods, whom they rejoice +to follow and imitate in all villainies and mischiefs--do they trouble +themselves about the corruption and great decay of the Republic? Not so. +Let it but stand, say they; let it but prosper by the number of its troops +and be glorious by its victories; or, _which is best of all, let it but +enjoy security and peace_, and what care we? Yes, what we care for above +all is that every one may have the means to increase his wealth, to pay the +expenses of his usual luxury, and that the powerful may still keep under +the weak. Let the poor crouch to the rich to be fed, or to live at ease +under their protection; let the rich abuse the poor as things at their +service, and to shew how many they have soliciting them. Let the people +applaud such as provide them with pleasures, not such as have a care for +their interests. _Let naught that is hard be enjoined, nothing impure +be prohibited_.... Let not subdued provinces obey their governors as +supervisors of their morality, but as masters of their fortune and the +procurers of their pleasures. What matters it if this submission has no +sincerity, but rests upon a bad and servile fear! _Let the law protect +estates rather than fair justice_. Let there be a good number of public +harlots, either for all that please to enjoy themselves in their company, +or for those that cannot keep private ones. Let stately and sumptuous +houses be erected, so that night and day each one according to his liking +or his means may gamble and drink and revel and vomit. Let the rhythmed +tinkling of dances be ordinary, the cries, the uncontrolled delights, +the uproar of all pleasures, even the bloodiest and most shameful in the +theatres. He who shall assay to dissuade from these pleasures, let him +be condemned as a public enemy. And if any one try to alter or suppress +them--let the people stifle his voice, let them banish him, let them +kill him. On the other hand, those that shall procure the people these +pleasures, and authorize their enjoyment, let them be eternized for the +true gods."... + +However, Augustin acknowledges a number of praiseworthy minds among +pagans--those philosophers, with Plato in the first rank, who have done +their best to put morality into the religion. The Christian teacher renders +a magnificent tribute to Platonism. But these high doctrines have scarcely +got beyond the portals of the schools, and this moral teaching which +paganism vaunts of, is practically limited to the sanctuaries. "Let them +not talk," says he, "of some closely muttered instructions, taught in +secret, and whispered in the ear of a few adepts, which hold I know not +what lessons of uprightness and virtue. But let them shew the temples +ordained for such pious meetings, wherein were no sports with lascivious +gestures and loose songs.... Let them shew us the places where the gods' +doctrine was heard against covetousness, the suppression of ambition, the +bridling of luxury, and where wretches might learn what the poet Persius +thunders unto them, saying: + + 'Learn, wretches, and conceive the course of things, + What man is, and why nature forth him brings;... + How to use money; how to help a friend; + What we on earth, and God in us, intend.' + +Let them shew where their instructing gods were used to give such lessons; +and where their worshippers used to go _often_ to hear these matters. +As for us, we can point to our churches, built for this sole purpose, +wheresoever the religion of Christ is diffused." + +Can it surprise, then, if men so ignorant of high morality, and so deeply +embedded in matter, were also plunged in the grossest superstitions? +Materialism in morals always ends by producing a low credulity. Here +Augustin triumphs. He sends marching under our eyes, in a burlesque array, +the innumerable army of gods whom the Romans believed in. There are so many +that he compares them to swarms of gnats. Although he explains that he is +not able to mention them all, he amuses himself by stupefying us with the +prodigious number of those he discovers. Dragged into open day by him, a +whole divine population is brought out of the darkness and forgetfulness +where it had been sleeping perhaps for centuries: the little gods who work +in the fields, who make the corn grow and keep off the blight, those who +watch over children, who aid women in labour, who protect the hearth, who +guard the house. It was impossible to take a step among the pagans, to make +a movement, without the help of a god or goddess. Men and things were as if +fettered and imprisoned by the gods. + +"In a house," says Augustin scoffingly, "there is but one porter. He is but +a mere man, yet he is sufficient for that office. But it takes three gods, +Forculus for the door, Cardea for the hinge, Limentinus for the threshold. +Doubtless, Forculus all alone could not possibly look after threshold, door +and hinges." And if it is a case of a man and woman retiring to the bridal +chamber after the wedding, a whole squadron of divinities are set in motion +for an act so simple and natural. "I beseech you," cries Augustin, "leave +something for the husband to do!" + +This African, who had such a strong sense of the unity and fathomless +infinity of God, waxed indignant at this sacrilegious parcelling of the +divine substance. But the pagans, following Varro, would answer that it was +necessary to distinguish, among all these gods, those who were just the +imagination of poets, and those who were real beings--between the gods of +fable and the gods of religion. "Then," as Tertullian had said already, +"if the gods be chosen as onions are roped, it is obvious that what is not +chosen is condemned." "Tertullian carries his fancy too far," comments +Augustin. The gods refused as fabulous are not held reprobate on that +account. The truth is, they are a cut of the same piece as the admitted +gods. "Have not the pontiffs, like the poets, a bearded Jupiter and a +Mercury without beard?... Are the old Saturn and the young Apollo so much +the property of the poets that we do not see their statues too in the +temples?..." + +And the philosophers, in their turn, however much they may protest against +the heap of fabulous gods and, like Plato and Porphyry, declare that there +exists but one God, soul of the universe, yet they no less accepted the +minor gods, and intermediaries or messengers betwixt gods and men, whom +they called demons. These hybrid beings, who pertained to humanity by their +passions, and to the divinity by the privilege of immortality, had to be +appeased by sacrifices, questioned and gratified by magic spells. And there +is what the highest pagan wisdom ended in--yes, in calling up spirits, and +the shady operations of wizards and wonder-smiths. That is what the pagans +defended, and demanded the continuation of with so much obstinacy and +fanaticism. + +By no means, replied Augustin. It does not deserve to survive. It is not +the forsaking of these beliefs and superstitious practices which has +brought about the decay of the Empire. If you are asking for the temples +of your gods to be opened, it is because they are easy to your passions. +At heart, you scoff at them and the Empire; all you want is freedom and +impunity for your vices. There we have the real cause of the decadence! +Little matter the idle grimaces before altars and statues. Become chaste, +sober, brave, and poor, as your ancestors were. Have children, agree to +compulsory military service, and you will conquer as they did. Now, all +these virtues are enjoined and encouraged by Christianity. Whatever certain +heretics may say, the religion of Christ is not contrary to marriage or the +soldier's profession. The Patriarchs of the old law were blest in marriage, +and there are just and holy wars. + +And even supposing, that in spite of all efforts to save it, the Empire is +condemned, must we therefore despair? We should be prepared for the end +of the Roman city. Like all the things of this world, it is liable to old +age and death. It will die then, one day. Far from being cast down, let +us strengthen ourselves against this disaster by the realization of the +eternal. Let us strengthen our hold upon that which passes not. Above the +earthly city, rises the City of God, which is the communion of holy souls, +the only one which gives complete and never-failing joy. Let us try to be +the citizens of that city, and to live the only life worth calling life. +For the life here below is but the shadow of a shadow.... + +The people of those times were wonderfully prepared to hearken to such +exhortations. On the eve of the Barbarian invasions, these Christians, for +whom the dogma of the Resurrection was perhaps the chief reason of their +faith, these people, sick at heart, who looked on in torture at the ending +of a world, must have considered this present life as a bad dream, from +which there should be no delay in escaping. + +At the very moment even that Augustin began to write _The City of God_, his +friend Evodius, Bishop of Uzalis, told him this story. + +He had as secretary a very young man, the son of a priest in the +neighbourhood. This young man had begun by obtaining a post as stenographer +in the office of the Proconsul of Africa. Evodius, who was alarmed at what +might happen to his virtue in such surroundings, having first made certain +of his absolute chastity, offered to take him into his service. In the +bishop's house, where he had scarcely anything to do but read the Holy +Scripture, his faith became so enthusiastic that he longed for nothing now +but death. To go out of this life, "to be with Christ," was his eager wish. +It was heard. After sixteen days of illness he died in the house of his +parents. + +"Now, two days after his funeral, a virtuous woman of Figes, a servant of +God, a widow for twelve years, had a dream, and in her dream she saw a +deacon who had been dead some four years, together with men, and women too, +virgins and widows--she saw these servants of God getting ready a palace. +This dwelling was so rich that it shone with light, and you would have +believed it was all made of silver. And when the widow asked whom these +preparations were for, the deacon replied that they were for a young man, +dead the evening before, the son of a priest. In the same palace, she saw +an old man, all robed in white, and he told two other persons, also robed +in white, to go to the tomb of this young man, and lift out the body, and +carry it to Heaven. When the body had been drawn from the tomb and carried +to Heaven, there arose (said she) out of the tomb a bush of virgin-roses, +which are thus named because they never open...." + +So the son of the priest had chosen the better part. What was the good of +remaining in this abominable world, where there was always a risk of being +burned or murdered by Goths and Vandals, when, in the other world, angels +were preparing for you palaces of light? + + + + +III + +THE BARBARIAN DESOLATION + + +Augustin was seventy-two years old when he finished the _City of God_. This +was in 426. That year, an event of much importance occurred at Hippo, and +the report of it was inserted in the public acts of the community. + +"The sixth of the calends of October," _The Acts_ set forth, "the very +glorious Theodosius being consul for the twelfth time, and Valentinian +Augustus for the second, Augustin the bishop, accompanied by Religianus +and Martinianus, his fellow-bishops, having taken his place in the +Basilica of Peace at Hippo, and the priests Saturnius, Leporius, Barnaby, +Fortunatianus, Lazarus, and Heraclius, being present, with all the clergy +and a vast crowd of people--Augustin the bishop said: + +"'Let us without delay look to the business which I declared yesterday to +your charity, and for which I desired you to gather here in large numbers, +as I see you have done. If I were to talk to you of anything else, you +might be less attentive, seeing the expectation you are in. + +"'My brothers, we are all mortal in this life, and no man knows his last +day. God willed that I should come to dwell in this town in the force of my +age. But, as I was a young man then--see, I am old now, and as I know that +at the death of bishops, peace is troubled by rivalry or ambition (this +have I often seen and bewailed it)--I ought, so far as it rests with me, to +turn away so great a mischief from your city.... I am going then to tell +you that my will, which I believe also to be the will of God, is that I +have as successor the priest Heraclius.' + +"At these words all the people cried out: + +"'Thanks be to God! Praise be to Christ!' + +"And this cry they repeated three-and-twenty times. + +"'Christ, hear us! Preserve us Augustin!' + +"This cry they repeated sixteen times. + +"'Be our father! Be our bishop!' + +"This cry they repeated eight times. + +"When the people became silent, the bishop Augustin spoke again in these +words: + +"'There is no need for me to praise Heraclius. As much as I do justice +to his wisdom, in equal measure should I spare his modesty.... As you +perceive, the secretaries of the church gather up what we say and what you +say. My words and your shouts do not fall to the ground. To put it briefly, +these are ecclesiastical decrees that we are now drawing up, and I desire +by these means, as far as it is in the power of man, to confirm what I have +declared to you.' + +"Here the people cried out: + +"'Thanks be to God! Praise be to Christ!' + + * * * * * + +"'Be our father, and let Heraclius be our bishop!' + +"When silence was made again, Augustin the bishop thus spoke: + +"'I understand what you would say. But I do not wish that it happen to him +as it happened to me. Many of you know what was done at that time.... I was +consecrated bishop during the lifetime of my father and bishop, the aged +Valerius, of blessed memory, and with him I shared the see. I was ignorant, +as he was, that this was forbidden by the Council of Nice. I would not +therefore that men should blame in Heraclius, my son, what they blamed in +me.' + +"With that the people cried out thirteen times: + +"'Thanks be to God! Praise be to Christ!' + +"After a little silence, Augustin the bishop said again: + +"'So he will remain a priest till it shall please God for him to be a +bishop. But with the aid and mercy of Christ, I shall do in future what up +to now I have not been able to do.... You will remember what I wanted to +do some years ago, and you have not allowed me. For a work upon the Holy +Scriptures, with which my brothers and my fathers the bishops had deigned +to charge me in the two Councils of Numidia and Carthage, _I was not to be +disturbed by anybody during five days of the week_. That was a thing agreed +upon between you and me. The act was drawn up, and you all approved of +it after hearing it read. But your promise did not last long. I was soon +encroached upon and overrun by you all. I am no longer free to study as I +desire. Morning and afternoon, I am entangled in your worldly affairs. I +beg of you and supplicate you in Christ's name to suffer me to shift the +burthen of all these cares upon this young man, the priest Heraclius, whom +I signal, in His name, as my successor in the bishopric.' + +"Upon this the people cried out six-and-twenty times: + +"'We thank thee for thy choice!' + +"And the people having become silent, Augustin the bishop said: + +"'I thank you for your charity and goodwill, or rather, I thank God for +them. So, my brothers, you will address yourselves to Heraclius upon all +the points you are used to submit to me. Whenever he needs counsel, my care +and my help will not be wanting.... In this way, without any loss to you, +I shall be able to devote the remainder of life which it may please God +still to leave me, not to laziness and rest, but to the study of the Holy +Scriptures. This work will be useful to Heraclius, and hence to yourselves. +Let nobody then envy my leisure, for this leisure will be very busy.... + +"'It only remains for me to ask you, at least those who can, to sign these +acts. Your agreement I cannot do without; so kindly let me learn it by your +voices.' + +"At these words the people shouted: + +"'Let it be so! Let it be so!' + + * * * * * + +"When all there became silent, Augustin the bishop made an end, saying: + +"'It is well. Now let us fulfil our duty to God. While we offer Him the +Sacrifice, and during this hour of supplication, I would urge of your +charity to lay aside all business and personal cares, and to pray the Lord +God for this church, for me, and for the priest Heraclius.'" + +The dryness and official wording of the document do not succeed in stifling +the vividness and colour of this crowded scene. Through the piety of the +formal cries, it is easy to see that Augustin's hearers were hard to +manage. This flock, which he loved and scolded so much, was no easier to +lead now than when he first became bishop. Truly it was no sinecure to rule +and administrate the diocese of Hippo! The bishop was literally the servant +of the faithful. Not only had he to feed and clothe them, to spend his time +over their business and quarrels and lawsuits, but he belonged to them body +and soul. They kept a jealous eye on the employment of his time; if he +went away, they asked for an explanation. Whenever Augustin went to preach +at Carthage or Utica, he apologized to his own people. And before he can +undertake a commentary on the Scriptures, a commentary, moreover, which he +has been asked by two Councils to prepare, he must get their permission, +or, at any rate, their agreement. + +At last, at seventy-two years old, after he had been a bishop for +thirty-one years, he got their leave to take a little rest. But what a +rest! He himself said: "This leisure will be very busy"--this leisure which +is going to fill the five holidays in the week. He intends to study and +fathom the Scripture, and this, besides, to the profit of his people and +clergy and the whole Church. It is the fondest dream of his life--the +plan he was never able to realize. All that, at first sight, astonishes +us. We ask ourselves, "What else had he been doing up to this time in his +treatises and letters and sermons, in all that sea of words and writings +which his enemies threw up at him, if he was not studying and explaining +the Holy Scriptures?" The fact is, that in most of these writings and +sermons he elucidates the truth only in part, or else he is confuting +heresiarchs. What he wanted to do was to study the truth for its own sake, +without having to think of and be hindered by the exposure of errors; and +above all, to seize it in all its breadth and all its depths, to have +done with this blighting and irritating eristic, and to reflect in a vast +_Mirror_ the whole and purest light of the sacred dogmas. + +He never found the time for it. He had to limit himself to a handbook +of practical morals, published under this title before his death, and +now lost. Once more the heresiarchs prevented him from leading a life of +speculation. During his last years, amid the cruellest anxieties, he had +to battle with the enemies of Grace and the enemies of the Trinity, with +Arius and Pelagius. Pelagius had found an able disciple in a young Italian +bishop, Julian of Eclanum, who was a formidable opponent to the aged +Augustin. As for Arianism, which had seemed extinguished in the West, here +it was given a new life by the Barbarian invasion. + +It was a grave moment for Catholicism, as it was for the Empire. The Goths, +the Alani, and the Vandals, after having laid waste Gaul and Spain, were +taking measures to pass over into Africa. Should they renew the attempts +of Alaric and Radagaisus against Italy, they would soon be masters of the +entire Occident. Now these Barbarians were Arians. Supposing (and it seemed +more and more likely) that Africa and Italy were vanquished after Gaul and +Spain, then it was all over with Western Catholicism. For the invaders +carried their religion in their baggage, and forced it on the conquered. +Augustin, who had cherished the hope of equalling the earthly kingdom +of Christ to that of the Cæsars, was going to see the ruin of both. +His terrified imagination exaggerated still more the only too real and +threatening peril. He must have lived hours of agony, expecting a disaster. + +If only the truth might be saved, might swim in this sea of errors which +spread like a flood in the wake of the Barbarian onflow! It was from this +wish, no doubt, that sprang the tireless persistence which the old bishop +put into a last battle with heresy. If he selected Pelagius specially to +fall upon with fury, if he forced his principles to their last consequences +in his theory of Grace, the dread of the Barbarian peril had perhaps +something to do with it. This soul, so mild, so moderate, so tenderly +human, promulgated a pitiless doctrine which does not agree with his +character. But he reasoned, no doubt, that it was impossible to drive +home too hard the need of the Redemption and the divinity of the Redeemer +in front of these Arians, these Pelagians, these enemies of Christ, who +to-morrow perhaps would be masters of the Empire. + +Therefore, Augustin continued to write, and discuss, and disprove. There +came a time when he had to think of fighting otherwise than with the pen. +His life, the lives of his flock, were threatened. He had to see to the +bodily defence of his country and city. The fact was, that some time +before the great drive of the Vandals, forerunners of them, in the shape +of hordes of African Barbarians, had begun to lay waste the provinces. The +Circoncelliones were not dead, nor their good friends the Donatists either. +These sectaries, encouraged by the widespread anarchy, came out of their +hiding-places and shewed themselves more insolent and aggressive than ever. +Possibly they hoped for some effective support against the Roman Church +from the Arian Vandals who were drawing near, or at least a recognition of +what they believed to be their rights. Day after day, bands of Barbarians +were landing from Spain. In the rear of these wandering troops of brigands +or irregular soldiers, the old enemies of the Roman peace and civilization, +the Nomads of the South, the Moors of the Atlas, the Kabylian mountaineers, +flung themselves upon country and town, pillaging, killing, and burning +everything that got in their way. All was laid desolate. "Countries but +lately prosperous and populated have been changed into solitudes," said +Augustin. + +At last, in the spring of the year 429, the Vandals and the Alani, having +joined forces on the Spanish coast under their King, Genseric, crossed +the Straits of Gibraltar. It was devastation on a large scale this time. +An army of eighty thousand men set themselves methodically to plunder the +African provinces. Cherchell, which had already been sorely tried during +the revolt of Firmus the Moor, was captured again and burned. All the towns +and fortified places on the coast fell, one after another. Constantine +alone, from the height of its rock, kept the invaders at bay. To starve out +those who fled from towns and farms and took refuge in the fastnesses of +the Atlas, the Barbarians destroyed the harvest, burned the grain-houses, +and cut down the vines and fruit trees. And they set fire to the forests +which covered the slopes of the mountains, to force the refugees out of +their hiding-places. + +This stupid ravaging was against the interest of the Vandals themselves, +because they were injuring the natural riches of Africa, the report of +which had brought them there. Africa was for them the land of plenty, where +people could drink more wine than they wanted and eat wheaten bread. It was +the country where life was comfortable, easy, and happy. It was the granary +of the Mediterranean, the great supply-store of Rome. But their senseless +craving for gold led them to ruin provinces, in which, nevertheless, they +counted upon settling. They behaved in Africa as they had behaved in Rome +under Alaric. By way of tearing gold out of the inhabitants, they tortured +them as they had tortured the wealthy Romans. They invented worse ones. +Children, before their parents' eyes, were sliced in two like animals in a +slaughterhouse. Or else their skulls were smashed against the pavements and +walls of houses. + +The Church was believed to be very rich; and perhaps, as it had managed +to comprise in its domains the greatest part of the landed estates, it +was upon it chiefly that the Barbarians flung themselves. The priests and +bishops were tortured with unheard-of improvements of cruelty. They were +dragged in the rear of the army like slaves, so that heavy ransoms might +be extracted from the faithful in exchange for their pastors. They were +obliged to carry the baggage like the camels and mules, and when they gave +out the Barbarians prodded them with lances. Many sank down beside the +road and never rose more. But it is certain that fanaticism added to the +covetousness and ferocity of the Vandals. These Arians bore a special +grudge against Catholicism, which was, besides, in their eyes, the religion +of the Roman domination. This is why they made their chief attacks on +basilicas, convents, hospitals, and all the property of the Church. And +throughout the country public worship was stopped. + +In Hippo, these atrocities were known before the Barbarians arrived. The +people must have awaited them and prepared to receive them with gloomy +resignation. Africa had not been tranquil for a century. After the risings +of Firmus and Gildo, came the lootings of the southern Nomads and the +Berber mountaineers. And it was not so long since the Circoncelliones were +keeping people constantly on the alert. But this time everybody felt that +the great ruin was at hand. They were stunned by the news that some town +or fortified place had been captured by the Vandals, or that some farm or +villa in the neighbourhood was on fire. + +Amid the general dismay, Augustin did his best to keep calm. He, indeed, +saw beyond the material destruction, and at every new rumour of massacre +or burning he would repeat to his clerics and people the words of the Wise +Man: + +"Doth the firm of heart grieve to see fall the stones and beams, and death +seize the children of men?" + +They accused him of being callous. They did not understand him. While all +about him mourned the present misfortunes, he was already lamenting over +the evil to come, and this clear-sightedness pained him more than the shock +of the daily horrors committed by the Barbarians. His disciple Possidius, +the Bishop of Guelma, who was with him in these sad days, naively applied +to him the saying out of _Ecclesiastes_: "In much wisdom is much grief." +Augustin did really suffer more than others, because he thought more +profoundly on the disaster. He foresaw that Africa was going to be lost to +the Empire, and consequently to the Church. They were bound together in his +mind. What was there to do against brutal strength? All the eloquence and +all the charity in the world would be as nothing against that unchained +elemental mass of Vandals. It was as impossible to convert the Barbarians +as it had been to convert the Donatists. Force was the only resource +against force. + +Then in despair the man of God turned once more to Cæsar. The monk appealed +to the soldier. He charged Boniface, Count of Africa, to save Rome and the +Church. + +This Boniface, a rather ambiguous personage, was a fine type of the +swashbuckler and official of the Lower-Empire. Thracian by origin, he +joined the trickery of the Oriental to all the vices of the Barbarian. He +was strong, clever in all bodily exercises like the soldiers of those days, +overflowing with vigour and health, and even brave at times. In addition, +he was fond of wine and women, and ate and drank like a true pagan. He +was married twice, and after his second marriage he kept in the sight and +knowledge of everybody a harem of concubines. He was sent, first of all, +to Africa as a Tribune--that is to say, as Commissioner of the Imperial +Government, probably to carry out the decrees of Honorius against the +Donatists; and ere long he was made commander of the military forces of the +province, with the title of Count. + +In reality, while seeming to protect the country, he set himself to plunder +it, as the tradition was among the Roman officials. His _officium_, still +more grasping than himself, persuaded him to deeds which the Bishop of +Hippo, who was, however, anxious to remain on the right side of him, +protested against by hints. Boniface was obliged to overlook much robbery +and pillage on the part of his subordinates so as to keep them faithful. +Moreover, he himself stole. He was bound to close his eyes to the +depredations of others, that his own might be winked at. Once become the +accomplice of this band of robbers, he had no longer the authority to +control them. + +How did Augustin ever believe in the goodwill and good faith of this +adventurer full of coarse passions, so far as to put his final hopes in +him? Augustin knew men very well; he could detect low and hypocritical +natures at a distance. How came it that he was taken in by Boniface? + +Well, Augustin wanted his support, first of all, when he came as Imperial +Commissioner to Carthage to bring the Donatists into line. Generally, we +see only the good points of people who do us good turns. Besides, in order +to propitiate the bishop, and the devout Court at Ravenna, the Tribune +advertised his great zeal in favour of Catholicism. His first wife, a very +pious woman whom he seems to have loved much, encouraged him in this. +When she died, he was so overcome by despair that he took refuge in the +extremest practices of religion--and in this, perhaps, he was quite +sincere. It is also possible that he was becoming discredited at Ravenna, +where they must have known about his oppressions and suspected his +ambitious intrigues. Anyhow, whether he was really disgusted with the +world, or whether he deemed it prudent to throw a little oblivion over +himself just then, he spoke on all hands of resigning his post and living +in retreat like a monk. It was just at this moment that Augustin and +Alypius begged him not to desert the African army. + +They met the Commander-in-Chief at Thubunæ, in Southern Numidia, where, +no doubt, he was reducing the Nomads. We must remark once more Augustin's +energy in travelling, to the very eve of his death. It was a long and +dangerous road from Hippo to Thubunæ. Before making up his mind to so much +fatigue, the old bishop must have judged the situation to be very serious. +At Thubunæ, was Boniface playing a game, or was he, indeed, so crushed by +his grief that the world had become unbearable and he pondered genuine +thoughts of changing his way of life? What is sure is, that he gave the +two prelates the most edifying talk. When they heard the Count of Africa +speaking with unction of the cloister and of his desire to retire there, +they were a little astonished at so much piety in a soldier. Besides, +these excellent resolutions were most inconvenient for their plans. They +remonstrated with him that it was quite possible to save one's soul in +the army, and quoted the example of David, the warrior king. They ended +by telling him all the expectations they founded upon his resource and +firmness. They begged him to protect the churches and convents against +fresh attacks of the Donatists, and especially against the Barbarians of +Africa. These were at this moment breaking down all the old defence lines +and laying waste the territories of the Empire. + +Boniface allowed himself to be easily convinced--promised whatever he was +asked. But he never budged. From now on, his conduct becomes most singular. +He is in command of all the military strength of the province, and he takes +no steps to suppress the African looters. It would seem as if he only +thought of filling the coffers of himself and his friends. The country was +so systematically scoured by them that, as Augustin said, there was nothing +more left to take. + +This inactivity lent colour to the rumours of treason. Nor is it impossible +that he had cherished a plan from the beginning of his command to cut out +an independent principality for himself in Africa. Was this the reason that +he dealt softly with the native tribes, so as to make certain of their help +in case of a conflict with the Imperial army? However that may be, his +behaviour was not frank. Some years later, he landed on the Spanish coast +to war against the Vandals under the command of the Prefect Castinus, and +there he married a Barbarian princess who was by religion an Arian. It +is true that the new Countess of Africa became a convert to Catholicism. +But her first child was baptized by Arian priests, who rebaptized, at the +same time, the Catholic slaves of Boniface's household. This marriage +with a Vandal, these concessions to Arianism, gave immense scandal to the +orthodox. Rumours of treason began to float about again. + +No doubt Boniface took great advantage of his fidelity to the Empress +Placidia. But he was standing between the all-powerful Barbarians and the +undermined Empire. He wanted to remain on good terms with both, and then, +when the hour came, to go over to the stronger. This double-faced diplomacy +caused his downfall. His rival Aëtius accused him of high treason before +Placidia. The Court of Ravenna declared him an enemy of the Empire, and an +army was sent against him. Boniface did not hesitate; he went into open +rebellion against Rome. + +Augustin was thunderstruck by his desertion. But what way was there to make +this violent man listen to reason, who had at least the appearances of +right on his side, since there was a chance they had slandered him to the +Empress, and who thought it quite natural to take vengeance on his enemies? +His recent successes had still more intoxicated him. He had just defeated +the two generals who had been sent to reduce him, and he was accordingly +master of the situation in Africa. What was he going to do? The worst +resolutions were to be feared from this conqueror, all smarting, and hungry +for revenge.... Nevertheless, Augustin resolved to write to him. His letter +is a masterpiece of tact, of prudence, and also of Christian and episcopal +firmness. + +It would have been dangerous to declare to this triumphant rebel: "You are +in the wrong. Your duty is to submit to the Emperor, your master." Boniface +was quite capable of answering: "What are you interfering for? Politics are +no business of yours. Look after your Church!" This is why Augustin very +cleverly speaks to him from beginning to end of his letter simply as a +bishop, eager for the salvation of a very dear son in Jesus Christ. And so, +by keeping strictly to his office of spiritual director, he gained his end +more surely and entirely; and, as a doctor of souls, he ventured to remind +Boniface of certain truths which he would never have dared to mention as +counsellor. + +According to Augustin, the disgrace of the Count, and the evils which +this event had brought on Africa, came principally from his attachment to +worldly benefits. It was the ambition and covetousness of himself and his +followers which had done all the harm. Let him free himself from perishable +things, let him prevent the thefts and plundering of those under him. +Let him, who some time ago wished to live in perfect celibacy, now keep +at least to his wife and no other. Finally, let him remember his sworn +allegiance. Augustin did not mean to go into the quarrel between Boniface +and Placidia, and he gave no opinion as to the grievances of either. He +confined himself to saying to the general in rebellion: "If you have +received so many benefits from the Roman Empire, do not render evil for +good. If, on the other hand, you have received evil, do not render evil for +evil." + +It is clear that the Bishop of Hippo could scarcely have given any other +advice to the Count of Africa. To play the part of political counsellor +in the very entangled state of affairs was extremely risky. How was it +possible to exhort a victorious general to lay down his arms before +the conquered? And yet, in estimating the situation from the Christian +standpoint alone, Augustin had found a way to say everything essential, all +that could profitably be said at the moment. + +How did Boniface take a letter which was, in the circumstances, so +courageous? What we know is that he did not alter his plans. It would +indeed have been very difficult for him to withdraw and yield; and more +than ever since a new army under Sigisvultus had been sent against him in +all haste. A real fatality compelled him to remain in revolt against Rome. +Did he believe he was ruined, as has been stated, or else, through his +family connections--let us remember that his wife was a Barbarian--had he +been for a long time plotting with Genseric to divide Africa? He has been +accused of that. What comes out is, that as soon as he heard of the arrival +of Sigisvultus and the new expeditionary force, he called in the Vandals to +his aid. This was the great invasion of 429. + +Ere long, the Barbarians entered Numidia. The borderlands about Hippo were +threatened. Stricken with terror, the inhabitants in a mass fled before the +enemy, leaving the towns empty. Those who were caught in them rushed into +the churches, imploring the bishops and priests to help them. Or else, +giving up all hope of life, they cried out to be baptized, confessed, +did penance in public. The Vandals, as we have seen, aimed specially at +the clergy; they believed that the Catholic priests were the soul of the +resistance. Should not these priests, then, in the very interest of the +Church, save themselves for quieter times, and escape the persecution by +flight? Many sheltered themselves behind the words of Christ: "When they +persecute you in this city, flee ye into another." + +But Augustin strongly condemned the cowardliness of the deserters. In a +letter addressed to his fellow-bishop, Honoratus, and intended to be read +by all the clergy in Africa, he declares that bishops and priests should +not abandon their churches and dioceses, but stay at their post till the +end--till death and till martyrdom--to fulfil the duties of their ministry. +If the faithful were able to withdraw into a safe place, their pastors +might accompany them; if not, they should die in the midst of them. Thus +they would have at least the consolation of lending aid to the dying in +their last moments, and especially of preventing the apostasies which +readily took place under the shock of the terror. For Augustin, who foresaw +the future, the essential thing was that later, when the Vandal wave had +swept away, Catholicism might flourish again in Africa. To this end, the +Catholics must be made to remain in the country, and the greatest possible +number be strengthened in their faith. Otherwise, the work of three +centuries would have to be done all over again. + +We must admire this courage and clear-mindedness in an old man of +seventy-five, who was being continually harassed by the complaints and +lamentations of a crowd of demoralized fugitives. The position became more +and more critical. The siege lines were drawing closer. But in the midst of +all this dread, Augustin was given a gleam of hope: Boniface made his peace +with the Empire. Henceforward, his army, turning against the Barbarians, +might protect Hippo and perhaps save Africa. + +Had Augustin a hand in this reconciliation? There is not the least doubt +that he desired it most earnestly. In a letter to Count Darius, the +special envoy sent from Ravenna to treat with the rebel general, he warmly +congratulates the Imperial plenipotentiary on his mission of peace. "You +are sent," he said to him, "to stop the shedding of blood. Therefore +rejoice, illustrious and very dear son in Jesus Christ, rejoice in this +great and real blessing, and rejoice upon it in the Lord, Who has made you +what you are, and entrusted to you a task so beautiful and important. May +God seal the good work He has done for us through you!" ... And Darius +answered: "May you be spared to pray such prayers for the Empire and the +Roman State a long time yet, my Father." + +But the Empire was lost in Africa. If the reconciliation of the rebellious +Count had given some illusions to Augustin, they did not last long. +Boniface, having failed in his endeavours to negotiate the retreat of the +Vandals, was defeated by Genseric, and obliged to fall back into Hippo with +an army of mercenary Goths. Thus it came about that Barbarians held against +other Barbarians one of the last Roman citadels in Africa. From the end of +May, 430, Hippo was blockaded on the land side and on the side of the sea. + +In great tribulation, Augustin resigned himself to this supreme +humiliation, and to all the horrors which would have to be endured if the +city were captured. As a Christian, he left all to the will of God, and +he would repeat to those about him the words of the Psalm: "Righteous art +Thou, O Lord, and upright are Thy judgments." A number of fugitive priests, +and among them Possidius, Bishop of Guelma, had taken refuge in the +episcopal residence. One day, when he lost heart, Augustin, who was at +table with them, said: + +"In front of all these disasters, I ask God to deliver this city from the +siege, or, if that be not His decree, to give His servants the necessary +strength to do His will, or at least to take me from this world and receive +me into His bosom." + +But it is more than probable that discouragement of that kind was +only momentary with him, and that in his sermons, as well as in his +conversations with Boniface, he did his utmost to stimulate the courage of +the people and the general. His correspondence includes a series of letters +written about this time to the Count of Africa, which manifest here and +there a very warlike spirit. These letters are most certainly apocryphal. +Yet they do reveal something of what must have been the sentiments just +then of the people of Hippo and of Augustin himself. One of these letters +emphatically congratulates Boniface upon an advantage gained over the +Barbarians. + +"Your Excellency knows, I believe, that I am stretched upon my bed, and +that I long for my last day to come. I am overjoyed at your victory. I urge +you to save the Roman city. Rule your soldiers like a good Count. Do not +trust too much to your own strength. Put your glory in Him Who gives +courage, and you will never fear any enemy. Farewell!" + +The words do not matter much. Whatever may have been Augustin's last +farewell to the defender of Hippo, it was no doubt couched in language not +unlike this. In any case, posterity has wished to believe that the dying +bishop maintained to the end his unyielding demeanour face to face with the +Barbarians. It would be a misuse of words to represent him as a patriot +in the present sense of the term. It is no less true that this African, +this Christian, was an admirable servant of Rome. Until his death he kept +his respect for it, because in his eyes the Empire meant order, peace, +civilization, the unity of faith in the unity of rule. + + + + +IV + +SAINT AUGUSTIN + + +In the third month of the siege, he fell ill. He had a fever--no doubt an +infectious fever. The country people, the wounded soldiers who had taken +refuge in Hippo after the rout of Boniface, must have brought in the germs +of disease. It was, moreover, the end of August, the season of epidemics, +of damp heats and oppressive evenings, the time of the year most dangerous +and trying for sick people. + +All at once, Augustin took to his bed. But even there, upon the bed in +which he was going to die, he was not left in quiet. People came to ask his +prayers for some possessed by devils. The old bishop was touched; he wept +and asked God to give him this grace, and the devils went out of those poor +crazy men. This cure, as may well be thought, made a great noise in the +city. A man brought him another one sick to be healed. Augustin, being most +weary, said to the man: + +"My son, you see the state I am in. If I had any power over illnesses, I +should begin by curing myself." + +But the man had no idea of being put off: he had had a dream. A mysterious +voice had said to him, "Go and see Augustin: he will put his hands on the +sick person, who will rise up cured." And, in fact, he did. I think these +are the only miracles the saint made in his life. But what matters that, +when the continual miracle of his charity and his apostolate is considered? + +Soon the bishop's illness grew worse. Eventually, he succeeded in +persuading them not to disturb him any more, and that they would let him +prepare for death in silence and recollection. During the ten days that +he still lingered, nobody entered his cell save the physicians, and the +servants who brought him a little food. He availed himself of the quiet to +repent of his faults. For he was used to say to his clergy that "even after +baptism, Christians--nay, priests, however holy they might be, ought never +go out of life without having made a general confession." And the better +to rouse his contrition, he had desired them to copy out on leaves the +Penitential Psalms, and to put these leaves on the wall of his room. He +read them continually from his pillow. + +Here, then, he is alone with himself and God. A solemn moment for the great +old man! + +He called up his past life, and what struck him most, and saddened him, was +the foundering of all his human hopes. The enemies of the Church, whom he +had battled with almost without ceasing for forty years, and had reason to +believe conquered--all these enemies were raising their heads: Donatists, +Arians, Barbarians. With the Barbarians' help, the Arians were going to be +the masters of Africa. The churches, reformed at the price of such long +efforts, would be once more destroyed. And see now! the authority which +might have supported them, which he had perhaps too much relied upon--well, +the Empire was sinking too. It was the end of order, of substantial peace, +of that minimum of safety which is indispensable for all spiritual effort. +From one end to the other of the Western world, Barbarism triumphed. + +Sometimes, amid these sad thoughts of the dying man, the clangour of +clarions blared out--there was a call to arms on the ramparts. And these +musics came to him in his half-delirious state very mournfully, like the +trumpets proclaiming the Judgment Day. Yes, it might well be feared that +the Day of Wrath was here! Was it really the end of the world, or only the +end of a world?... Truly, there were then enough horrors and calamities to +make people think of the morrow with dismay. Many of the signs predicted +by Scripture dazed the imagination: desolations, wars, persecutions of the +Church, increased with terrific steadiness and cruelty. Yet all the signs +foretold were not there. How many times already had humanity been deceived +in its fear and its hope! In reality, though all seemed to shew that the +end of time was drawing nigh, no one could tell the day nor the hour of +the Judgment. Hence, men should watch always, according to the words of +Christ.... But if this trial of Barbarian war was to pass like the others, +how woeful it was while it endured! How hard for Augustin, above all, who +saw nearly the whole of his work thrown down. + +One thought at least consoled him, that since his conversion, for forty +years and more, he had done all he was able--he had worked for Christ +even beyond his strength. He said to himself that he left behind him the +fruit of a huge labour, a whole body of doctrine and apology which would +safeguard against error whatever was left of his flock and of the African +Church. He himself had founded a Church which might serve as an example, +his dear Church of Hippo, that he had done his best to fashion after the +divine plan. And he had also founded convents, and a library full of books, +which had become still larger recently through the generosity of Count +Darius. He had lessoned his clergy who, once the disasters were past, would +scatter the good seed of Truth. Books, monasteries, priests, a sure and +solid nourishment for the mind, shelters and guides for souls--there is +what he bequeathed to the workers of the future. And with a little joy +mingling with his sorrow, he read on the corner of the wall where his bed +was, this verse of the Psalm: _Exibit homo ad opus suum et operationem suam +usque ad vesperum_--"Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until +the evening." He, too, had worked until evening. + +If the earthly reward seemed to slip from him now, if all was sinking +around him, if his episcopal city was beleaguered, if he himself, although +still a strong man--"he had the use of all his limbs," says Possidius; +"a keen ear and perfect sight"--if he himself was dying too soon, it was +doubtless in expiation for the sins of his youth. At this remembrance of +his disorders, the tears fell over his face.... And yet, however wild had +been his conduct at that time, he could descry in it the sure marks of his +vocation. He recalled the despair and tears of his mother, but also his +enthusiasm when he read the _Hortensius_; his disgust for the world and +all things when he lost his friend. In the old man he recognized the new. +And he said to himself: "Nay! but that was myself. I have not changed. I +have only found myself. I have only changed my ways. In my youth, in the +strongest time of my mistakes, I had already risen to turn to Thee, my +God!" + +His worst foolishness had been the desire to understand all things. He had +failed in humility of mind. Then God had given him the grace to submit his +intelligence to the faith. He had believed, and then he had understood, as +well as he could, as much as he could. In the beginning, he acknowledged +very plainly that he did not understand. And then faith had thrown open +the roads of understanding. He had splendidly employed his reason, within +the limits laid down against mortal weakness. Had that not been the proud +desire of his youth? To understand! What greater destiny? + +To love also. After he had freed himself from carnal passions, he had much +employed his heart. He thought of all the charity he had poured out upon +his people and the Church, upon all he had loved in God--upon all he had +done, upon all the consequence of his labour, inspired and strengthened by +the divine love.... Yes, to love--all was in that! Let the Barbarians come! +Had not Christ said: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the +world"? So long as there shall be two men gathered together for love of +Him, the world will not be entirely lost, the Church and civilization will +be saved. The religion of Christ is a leaven of action, understanding, +sacrifice, and charity. If the world be not at this hour already condemned, +if the Day of Judgment be still far off, it is from this religion that +shall arise the new influences of the future.... + +And so Augustin forgot his sufferings and his human disappointments in +the thought that, in spite of all, the Church is eternal. The City of God +gathered in the wreckage of the earthly city: "The Goth cannot capture what +Christ protects"--_Non tollit Gothus quod custodit Christus_. And as his +sufferings increased, he turned all his thoughts on this unending City, +"where we rest, where we see, where we love," where we find again all the +beloved ones who have gone away. All--he called them all in this supreme +moment: Monnica, Adeodatus, and her who had nearly lost herself for him, +and all those he had held dear.... + +On the fifth day of the calends of September, Augustin, the bishop, +was very low. They were praying for him in the churches at Hippo, and +especially in the Basilica of Peace, where he had preached and worked for +others so long. Possidius of Guelma was in the bishop's room, and the +priests and monks. They sent up their prayers with those of the dying man. +And no doubt they sang for the last time before him one of those liturgical +chants which long ago at Milan had touched him even to tears, and now, +since the siege, in the panic caused by the Barbarians, they dared not sing +any more. Augustin, guarding himself even now against the too poignant +sweetness of the melody, attended only to the sense of the words. And he +said: + +"My soul thirsts after the living God. When shall I appear before His +face?" + +Or again: + +"He Who is Life has come down into this world. He has suffered our death, +and He has caused it to die by the fullness of His life.... Life has come +down to you--and will you not ascend towards Him and live?..." + +He was passing into Life and into Glory. He was going very quietly, amid +the chanting of hymns and the murmur of prayers.... Little by little his +eyes were veiled, the lines of his face became rigid. His lips moved no +more. Possidius, the faithful disciple, bent over him. Like a patriarch of +the Scriptures, Augustin of Thagaste "slept with his fathers."... + + * * * * * + +And now, whatever may be the worth of this book, which has been planned +and carried out in a spirit of veneration and love for the saint, for the +great heart and the great intellect that Augustin was, for this unique type +of the Christian, the most perfect and the most admirable perhaps that +has ever been seen--the author can only repeat in all humility what was +said fifteen hundred years ago by the Bishop of Guelma, Augustin's first +biographer: + +"I do desire of the charity of those into whose hands this work shall fall, +to join with me in thanksgiving and blessing to Our Lord, Who has inspired +me to make known this life to those present and those absent, and has given +me the strength to do it. Pray for me and with me, that I may try here +below to follow in the steps of this peerless man, whom, by God's goodness, +I have had the happiness of living with for such a long time...." + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Saint Augustin, by Louis Bertrand + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAINT AUGUSTIN *** + +***** This file should be named 9069-8.txt or 9069-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/0/6/9069/ + +Produced by Charles Aldorondo, Tiffany Vergon, William +Flis, and Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: Saint Augustin + +Author: Louis Bertrand + +Posting Date: September 25, 2014 [EBook #9069] +Release Date: October, 2005 +First Posted: September 2, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAINT AUGUSTIN *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldorondo, Tiffany Vergon, William +Flis, and Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + + +SAINT AUGUSTIN + +BY + +LOUIS BERTRAND + + +TRANSLATED BY VINCENT O'SULLIVAN + + + + +TRANSLATOR'S NOTE + + +The quotations from Saint Augustin's _Confessions_ are taken from Canon +Bigg's scholarly version, which seems to me the best in English. But there +are places where M. Bertrand's reading of the original text differs from +Dr. Bigg's, and in such cases I have felt myself obliged to follow the +author of this book. These differences never seriously affect the meaning +of a passage; sometimes it is a mere matter of choice, as with the word +_collactaneum_ (i, 7) which Dr. Bigg translates "twin," and M. Bertrand, +like Pusey, _frere de lait_, or "foster-brother." As a rule, Dr. Bigg +chooses the quietest terms, and M. Bertrand the most forcible. Those +curious in such matters may like to see an instance. + +The original text runs:-- + + Avulsa a latere meo tanquam impedimento conjugii, cum qua cubare + solitus eram, cor ubi adhaerebat, concisum et vulneratum mihi erat, et + trahebat sanguinem. + + (_Confessiones_, vi, 15.) + +M. Bertrand translates:-- + + Quand on arracha de mes flancs, sous pretexte qu'elle empechait mon + mariage, celle avec qui j'avais coutume de dormir, depuis si longtemps, + la ou mon coeur etait attache au sien, il se dechira, et je trainais + mon sang avec ma blessure. + +Canon Bigg's version is:-- + + My mistress was torn from my side as an obstacle to my marriage, and my + heart, which clung to her, was torn and wounded till it bled. + +In this place, it will be observed that Dr. Bigg does not emphasize the +word _ubi_ which, as the reader will find on turning to page 185 of this +volume, M. Bertrand thinks so significant. + +The remaining English versions of the writings of Saint Augustin and of the +other Latin authors quoted are my own, except the passages from _The City +of God_, including the verse translation of Persius, which are taken, +with some necessary alterations, from the Seventeenth century translation +ascribed to John Healey. + +V. O'S. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + PROLOGUE + + + THE FIRST PART + + DAYS OF CHILDHOOD + + I. AN AFRICAN FREE-TOWN SUBJECT TO ROME + + II. THE FAMILY OF A SAINT + + III. THE COMFORT OF THE MILK + + IV. THE FIRST GAMES + + V. THE SCHOOLBOY OF MADAURA + + VI. THE HOLIDAYS AT THAGASTE + + + THE SECOND PART + + THE ENCHANTMENT OF CARTHAGE + + I. CARTHAGO VENERIS + + II. THE AFRICAN ROME + + III. THE CARTHAGE STUDENT + + IV. THE SWEETNESS OF TEARS + + V. THE SILENCE OF GOD + + + THE THIRD PART + + THE RETURN + + I. THE CITY OF GOLD + + II. THE FINAL DISILLUSION + + III. THE MEETING BETWEEN AMBROSE AND AUGUSTIN + + IV. PLANS OF MARRIAGE + + V. THE CHRIST IN THE GARDEN + + + THE FOURTH PART + + THE HIDDEN LIFE + + I. THE LAST SMILE OF THE MUSE + + II. THE ECSTASY OF SAINT MONNICA + + III. THE MONK OF THAGASTE + + IV. AUGUSTIN A PRIEST + + + THE FIFTH PART + + THE APOSTLE OF PEACE AND OF CATHOLIC UNITY + + I. THE BISHOP OF HIPPO + + II. WHAT WAS HEARD IN THE BASILICA OF PEACE + + III. THE BISHOP'S BURTHEN + + IV. AGAINST "THE ROARING LIONS" + + + THE SIXTH PART + + FACE TO FACE WITH THE BARBARIANS + + I. THE SACK OF ROME + + II. THE CITY OF GOD + + III. THE BARBARIAN DESOLATION + + IV. SAINT AUGUSTIN + + + INDEX + + + + +SAINT AUGUSTIN + + + + +PROLOGUE + + + Inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te. + "Our heart finds no rest until it rests in Thee." + + _Confessions_, I, i. + + +Saint Augustin is now little more than a celebrated name. Outside of +learned or theological circles people no longer read him. Such is true +renown: we admire the saints, as we do great men, on trust. Even his +_Confessions_ are generally spoken of only from hearsay. By this neglect, +is he atoning for the renewal of glory in which he shone during the +seventeenth century, when the Jansenists, in their inveterate obstinacy, +identified him with the defence of their cause? The reputation of sour +austerity and of argumentative and tiresome prolixity which attaches to +the remembrance of all the writers of Port-Royal, save Pascal--has that +affected too the work of Augustin, enlisted in spite of himself in the +ranks of these pious schismatics? And yet, if there have ever been any +beings who do not resemble Augustin, and whom probably he would have +attacked with all his eloquence and all the force of his dialectic, they +are the Jansenists. Doubtless he would have said with contempt: "The party +of Jansen," even as in his own day, with his devotion to Catholic unity, he +said: "The party of Donatus." + +It must be acknowledged also that the very sight of his works is +terrifying, whether we take the enormous folios in two columns of the +Benedictine edition, or the volumes, almost as compact, and much more +numerous, of recent editions. Behind such a rampart of printed matter he is +well defended against profane curiosity. It needs courage and perseverance +to penetrate into this labyrinth of text, all bristling with theology and +exegesis and metaphysics. But only cross the threshold of the repellent +enclosure, grow used to the order and shape of the building, and it will +not be long ere you are overcome by a warm sympathy, and then by a steadily +increasing admiration for the host who dwells there. The hieratic face +of the old bishop lights up, becomes strangely living, almost modern, in +expression. You discover under the text one of the most passionate lives, +most busy and richest in instruction, that history has to shew. What it +teaches is applicable to ourselves, answers to our interests of yesterday +and to-day. This existence, and the century in which it was passed, recall +our own century and ourselves. The return of similar circumstances has +brought similar situations and characters; it is almost our portrait. And +we feel half ready to conclude that at the present moment there is no +subject more actual than St. Augustin. + +At least he is one of the most interesting. What, indeed, is more romantic +than this wandering life of rhetorician and student that the youthful +Augustin led, from Thagaste to Carthage, from Carthage to Milan and to +Rome--begun in the pleasures and tumult of great cities, and ending in the +penitence, the silence, and recollection of a monastery? And again, what +drama is more full of colour and more profitable to consider than that last +agony of the Empire, of which Augustin was a spectator, and, with all his +heart faithful to Rome, would have prevented if he could? And then, what +tragedy more stirring and painful than the crisis of soul and conscience +which tore his life? Well may it be said that, regarded as a whole, the +life of Augustin was but a continual spiritual struggle, a battle of the +soul. It is the battle of every moment, the never-ceasing combat of body +and spirit, which the poets of that time dramatized, and which is the +history of the Christian of all times. The stake of the battle is a soul. +The upshot is the final triumph, the redemption of a soul. + +What makes the life of Augustin so complete and so truly typical is that +he fought the good fight, not only against himself, but against all the +enemies of the Church and the Empire. If he was a doctor and a saint, so +was he too the type of the man of action in one of the most disheartened +periods. That he triumphed over his passions--this, in truth, concerns only +God and himself. That he preached, wrote, shook crowds, disturbed minds, +may seem without importance to those who reject his doctrine. But that +across the centuries his soul, afire with charity, continues to warm our +own; that without our knowledge he still shapes us; and that, in a way +more or less remote, he is still the master of our hearts, and, in certain +aspects, of our minds--there is what touches each and all of us, without +distinction. Not only has Augustin always his great place in the living +communion of all christened people, but the Western soul is marked with the +stamp of his soul. + +First of all, his fate is confused with that of the dying Empire. He +witnessed, if not the utter disappearance, at least the gradual swooning +away of that admirable thing called the Roman Empire, image of Catholic +unity. Well, we are the wreckage of the Empire. Usually, we turn away with +contempt from those wretched centuries which underwent the descents of the +Barbarians. For us, that is the Lower-Empire, a time of shameful decadence +which deserves nothing but our scorn. However, it is out of this chaos +and this degradation that we have arisen. The wars of the Roman republic +concern us less than the outlawry of the Barbarian chiefs who separated our +Gaul from the Empire, and without knowing it, prepared the dawn of France. +After all, what are the rivalries of Marius and Sylla to us? The victory of +Aetius over the Huns in the plains of Chalons concerns us a good deal more. +Further, it is unfair to the Lower-Empire to view it only as a time of +feebleness and cowardice and corruption. It was also an epoch of immense +activity, prolific of daring and high-flying adventurers, some of them +heroic. Even the most degenerate of the last Emperors never lost the +conviction of Roman majesty and grandeur. Unto the very end, they employed +all the ruses of their diplomacy to prevent the Barbarian chiefs from +imagining themselves anything else but vassals of the Empire. Honorius, at +bay in Ravenna, persisted in refusing Alaric the title of commander of the +_Cohortes Urbanae_, even though his refusal were to lead to the sack of Rome +and imperil his own life. + +Simply by his fidelity to the Empire, Augustin shews himself one like +ourselves--a Latin of Occitania. But still closer resemblances draw him +near to us. His time was very like our own time. Upon even a slight +familiarity with his books we recognize in him a brother-soul who has +suffered, felt, thought, pretty nearly like us. He came into an ending +world, on the eve of the great cataclysm which was going to carry away an +entire civilization--a tragic turning-point of history, a time troubled and +often very grievous, which was hard to live in for all, and to even the +most determined minds must have appeared desperate. The peace of the Church +was not yet settled; consciences were divided. People hesitated between the +belief of yesterday and the belief of to-morrow. Augustin was among those +who had the courage to choose, and who, having once chosen their faith, +proclaimed it without weakening. The belief of a thousand years was dying +out, quenched by a young belief to which was promised an eternal duration. +How many delicate souls must have suffered from this division, which cut +them off from their traditions and obliged them, as they thought, to be +false to their dead along with the religion of their ancestors! All the +irritations which the fanatics of to-day inflict upon believing souls, many +must have had to suffer then. The sceptics were infused by the intolerance +of the others. But the worst (even as it is to-day) was to watch the +torrent of foolishness which, under cover of religion, philosophy, or +miracle-working, pretended to the conquest of mind and will. Amid this mass +of wildest doctrines and heresies, in this orgy of vapid intellectualism, +they had indeed solid heads who were able to resist the general +intoxication. And among all these people talking nonsense, Augustin appears +admirable with his good sense. + +This "intellectual," this mystic, was not only a man of prayer and +meditation. The prudence of the man of action and the administrator +balanced his outbursts of dialectical subtility, often carried too far. He +had that sense of realities such as we flatter ourselves that we have; he +had a knowledge of life and passion. Compared to the experience of, say, +Bossuet, how much wider was Augustin's! And with all that, a quivering +sensitiveness which is again like our own--the sensitiveness of times of +intense culture, wherein the abuse of thought has multiplied the ways of +suffering in exasperating the desire for pleasure. "The soul of antiquity +was rude and vain." It was, above all, limited. The soul of Augustin is +tender and serious, eager for certainties and those enjoyments which do +not betray. It is vast and sonorous; let it be stirred ever so little, and +from it go forth deep vibrations which render the sound of the infinite. +Augustin, before his conversion, had the apprehensions of our Romantics, +the causeless melancholy and sadness, the immense yearnings for "anywhere +but here," which overwhelmed our fathers. He is really very close to us. + +He has broadened our Latin souls by reconciling us with the Barbarian. The +Latin, like the Greek, only understood himself. The Barbarian had not the +right to express himself in the language of the Empire. The world was split +into two parts which endeavoured to ignore each other, Augustin has made us +conscious of the nameless regions, the vague countries of the soul, which +hitherto had lain shrouded in the darkness of barbarism. By him the union +of the Semitic and the Occidental genius is consummated. He has acted as +our interpreter for the Bible. The harsh Hebraic words become soft to our +ears by their passage through the cultivated mouth of the rhetorician. He +has subjugated us with the word of God. He is a Latin who speaks to us of +Jehovah. + +Others, no doubt, had done it before him. But none had found a similar +emotion, a note of tenderness so moving. The gentle violence of his charity +wins the adherence of hearts. He breathes only charity. After St. John, it +is he who is the Apostle of Love. + +His tireless voice dominated the whole of the West. The Middle Ages still +heard it. For centuries his sermons and treatises were copied over and +over again; they were repeated in cathedrals, commented in abstracts of +theology. People came to accept even his theory of the fine arts. All that +we have inherited from the ancients reaches us through Augustin. He is the +great teacher. In his hands the doctrinal demonstration of the Catholic +religion takes firm shape. To indicate the three great stages of the onward +march of the truth, one may say: Jesus Christ, St. Paul, St. Augustin. +Nearest to our weakness is the last. He is truly our spiritual father. He +has taught us the language of prayer. The words of Augustin's prayers are +still upon the lips of the devout. + +This universal genius, who during forty years was the speaking-trumpet of +Christendom, was also the man of one special century and country. Augustin +of Thagaste is the great African. + +Well may we be proud of him and adopt him as one of our glories--we who +have kept up, for now almost a century, a struggle like to that which +he maintained for the unity of the Roman Empire, we who consider Africa +as an extension of France. More than any other writer, he has expressed +the temperament and the genius of his country. This motley Africa, with +its eternal mixture of races at odds with one another, its jealous +sectarianism, the variety of its scenery and climate, the violence +of its sensations and passions, its seriousness of character and its +quick-changing humour, its mind at once practical and frivolous, its +materialism and its mysticism, its austerity and its luxury, its +resignation to servitude and its instincts of independence, its hunger +to rule--all that comes out with singularly vivid touches in the work of +Augustin. Not only was he his country's voice, but, as far as he could, he +realized its old dream of dominion. The supremacy in spiritual matters that +Carthage disputed so long and bitterly with Rome, it ended by obtaining, +thanks to Augustin. As long as he lived, the African Church was the +mistress of the Churches of the West. + +As for me--if I may venture to refer to myself in such a matter--I have had +the joy to recognize in him, besides the Saint and Teacher whom I revere, +the ideal type of the Latin of Africa. The image of which I descried the +outline long ago through the mirages of the South in following the waggons +of my rugged heroes, I have seen at last become definite, grow clear, wax +noble and increase to the very heaven, in following the traces of Augustin. + +And even supposing that the life of this child of Thagaste, the son of +Monnica, were not intermingled so deeply with ours, though he were for us +only a foreigner born in a far-off land, nevertheless he would still remain +one of the most fascinating and luminous souls who have shone amid our +darkness and warmed our sadness--one of the most human and most divine +creatures who have trod our highways. + + + + +THE FIRST PART + +DAYS OF CHILDHOOD + + Sed delectabat ludere. + "Only, I liked to play." + + _Confessions_, I, 9. + + + + +I + +AN AFRICAN FREE-TOWN SUBJECT TO ROME + + +Little streets, quite white, which climb up to clay-formed hills deeply +furrowed by the heavy winter rains; between the double row of houses, +brilliant in the morning sun, glimpses of sky of a very tender blue; here +and there, in the strip of deep shade which lies along the thresholds, +white figures crouched upon rush-mats--indolent outlines, draped with +bright colours, or muffled in rough and sombre wool-stuffs; a horseman who +passes, bent almost in two in his saddle, the big hat of the South flung +back over his shoulders, and encouraging with his heel the graceful trot of +his horse--such is Thagaste as we see it to-day, and such undoubtedly it +appeared to the traveller in the days of Augustin. + +Like the French town built upon its ruins, the African free-city lay in a +sort of plain taken between three round hills. One of them, the highest +one, which is now protected by a _bordj_, must have been defended in old +days by a _castellum_. Full-flowing waters moisten the land. To those +coming from the stony regions about Constantine and Setif, or the vast bare +plain of the Medjerda, Thagaste gives an impression of freshness and cool. +It is a laughing place, full of greenery and running water. To the Africans +it offers a picture of those northern countries which they have never seen, +with its wooded mountains covered by pines and cork trees and ilex. It +presents itself as a land of mountain and forest--especially forest. It is +a hunter's country. Game is plentiful there--boar, hare, redwing, quail, +partridge. In Augustin's time, wild beasts were apparently more numerous in +the district than they are to-day. When he compares his adversaries, the +Donatists, to roaring lions, he speaks like a man who knows what a lion is. + +To the east and west, wide stretches of woodland, rounded hill-summits, +streams and torrents which pour through the valleys and glens--there +you have Thagaste and the country round about--the world, in fact, as +it revealed itself to the eyes of the child Augustin. But towards the +south the verdure grows sparse; arid mountain-tops appear, crushed down +as blunted cones, or jutted in slim Tables of the Law; the sterility +of the desert becomes perceptible amid the wealth of vegetation. This +full-foliaged land has its harsh and stern localities. The African light, +however, softens all that. The deep green of the oaks and pines runs into +waves of warm and ever-altering tints which are a caress and a delight for +the eye. A man has it thoroughly brought home to him that he is in a land +of the sun. + +To say the least, it is a country of strongly marked features which affords +the strangest contrast with the surrounding districts. This wooded Numidia, +with its flowing brooks, its fields where the cattle graze, differs in the +highest degree from the Numidia towards Setif--a wide, desolate plain, +where the stubble of the wheat-fields, the sandy _steppes_, roll away in +monotonous undulations to the cloudy barrier of Mount Atlas which closes +the horizon. And this rough and melancholy plain in its turn offers a +striking contrast with the coast region of Boujeiah and Hippo, which is not +unlike the Italian Campania in its mellowness and gaiety. Such clear-cut +differences between the various parts of the same province doubtless +explain the essential peculiarities of the Numidian character. The bishop +Augustin, who carried his pastoral cross from one end to the other of this +country, and was its acting and thinking soul, may perhaps have owed to it +the contrasts and many-sidedness of his own rich nature. + +Of course, Thagaste did not pretend to be a capital. It was a free-town of +the second or third order; but its distance from the great centres gave it +a certain importance. The neighbouring free-towns, Thubursicum, Thagura, +were small. Madaura and Theveste, rather larger, had not perhaps the same +commercial importance. Thagaste was placed at the junction of many Roman +roads. There the little Augustin, with other children of his age, would +have a chance to admire the out-riders and equipages of the Imperial +Mail, halted before the inns of the town. What we can be sure of is that +Thagaste, then as now, was a town of passage and of traffic, a half-way +stopping-place for the southern and coast towns, as well as for those of +the Proconsulate and Numidia. And like the present Souk-Ahras, Thagaste +must have been above all a market. Bread-stuffs and Numidian wines were +bartered for the flocks of the Aures, leather, dates, and the esparto +basket-work of the regions of Sahara. The marbles of Simitthu, the +citron-wood of which they made precious tables, were doubtless handled +there. The neighbouring forests could furnish building materials to the +whole country. Thagaste was the great mart of woodland Numidia, the +warehouse and the bazaar, where to this day the nomad comes to lay in a +stock of provisions, and stares with childish delight at the fine things +produced by the inventive talent of the workers who live in towns. + +Thus images of plenty and joy surrounded the cradle of Augustin. The smile +of Latin beauty welcomed him also from his earliest steps. It is true that +Thagaste was not what is called a fine city. The fragments of antiquity +which have been unearthed there are of rather inferior workmanship. But how +little is needed to give wings to the imagination of an intelligent child! +At all events, Thagaste had a bathing-hall paved with mosaics and perhaps +ornamented with statues; Augustin used to bathe there with his father. +And again, it is probable that, like the neighbouring Thubursicum and +other free-cities of the same level, it had its theatre, its forum, its +nymph-fountains, perhaps even its amphitheatre. Of all that nothing +has been found. Certain inscribed stone tablets, capitals and shafts +of columns, a stone with an inscription which belonged to a Catholic +church--that is all which has been discovered up to this present time. + +Let us not ask for the impossible. Thagaste had columns--nay, perhaps a +whole street between a double range of columns, as at Thimgad. That would +be quite enough to delight the eyes of a little wondering boy. A column, +even injured, or scarcely cleansed from wrack and rubbish, has about it +something impressive. It is like a free melody singing among the heavy +masses of the building. To this hour, in our Algerian villages, the mere +sight of a broken column entrances and cheers us--a white ghost of beauty +streaming up from the ruins among the modern hovels. + +There were columns at Thagaste. + + + + +II + +THE FAMILY OF A SAINT + + +It was in this pleasant little town, shaded and beautified for many years +now by the arts of Rome, that the parents of Augustin lived. + +His father, Patricius, affords us a good enough type of the Romanized +African. He belonged to the order of _Decuriones_, to the "very brilliant +urban council of Thagaste" (_splendidissimus ordo Thagastensis_), as an +inscription at Souk-Ahras puts it. Although these strong epithets may be +said to be part of the ordinary official phraseology, they indicate, just +the same, the importance which went with such a position. In his township, +Patricius was a kind of personage. His son assures us that he was poor, but +we may suspect the holy bishop of exaggerating through Christian humility. +Patricius must certainly have owned more than twenty-five acres of land, +for this was made a condition of being elected to the _curia_. He had +vineyards and orchards, of which Augustin later on recalled the plentiful +and sweet-tasting fruits. In short, he lived in considerable style. It +is true that in Africa household expenses have never at any time been a +great extravagance. Still, the sons of Patricius had a pedagogue, a slave +specially engaged to keep them under his eye, like all the children of +families comfortably off. + +It has been said that as Augustin's father was a member of the _curia_, +he must have been a ruined man. The Decurions, who levied taxes and made +themselves responsible for their collection, were obliged to supply any +deficiency in the revenue out of their own money. Patricius, it is thought, +must have been one of the numerous victims of this disastrous system. But +no doubt there were a good many exceptions. Besides, there is nothing in +Augustin's reminiscences which authorizes us to believe that his father +ever knew embarrassment, to say nothing of actual poverty. What seems by +far the most probable is that he lived as well as he could upon the income +of his estate as a small country landowner. In Africa people are satisfied +with very little. Save for an unusually bad year following a time of long +drought, or a descent of locusts, the land always gives forth enough to +feed its master. + +To hunt, to ride horseback, now and then to go on parade, to look after +his small-holders and agricultural slaves, to drive one of those bargains +in which African cunning triumphs--such were the employments of Patricius. +In short, he drifted through life on his little demesne. Sometimes this +indolent man was overcome by a sudden passion for work; or again he was +seized by furious rages. He was violent and brutal. At such moments he +struck out right and left. He would even have hit his wife or flogged the +skin off her back if the quietude of this woman, her dignity and Christian +mildness, had not overawed him. Let us not judge this kind of conduct by +our own; we shall never understand it. The ancient customs, especially the +African customs, were a disconcerting mixture of intense refinement and +heedless brutality. + +That is why it will not do to exaggerate the outbursts of Patricius, which +his son mentions discreetly. Although he may not have been very faithful to +his wife, that was in those days, more than in ours, a venial sin in the +eyes of the world. At heart the African has always longed for a harem in +his house; he inclines naturally to the polygamy of Muslemism. In Carthage, +and elsewhere, public opinion was full of indulgence for the husband who +allowed himself liberties with the serving-women. People laughed at it, and +excused the man. It is true they were rather harder on the matron who took +the same kind of liberty with her men-slaves. However, that went on too. +The Bishop of Hippo, in his sermons, strongly rebuked the Christian married +couples for these frequent adulteries which were scarcely regarded as +errors. + +Patricius was a pagan, and this partly explains his laxity. It would +doubtless be going too far to say that he remained faithful to paganism +all his life. It is not likely that this urban councillor of Thagaste was +a particularly assured pagan. Speculative and intellectual considerations +made a very moderate appeal to him. He was not an arguer like his son. He +was pagan from habit, from that instinctive conservatism of the citizen +and landowner who sticks obstinately to his class and family traditions. +Prudence and diplomacy had also something to do with it. Many great +landlords continued to defend and practise paganism, probably from motives +similar to those of Patricius himself. As for him, he had no desire to get +wrong with the important and influential people of the country; he might +have need of their protection to save his small property from the ravenous +public treasury. Moreover, the best-paid posts were still controlled by the +pagan priesthood. And so Augustin's father thought himself very wise in +dealing cautiously with a religion which was always so powerful, and +rewarded its adherents so well. + +But for all that, it is undeniable that paganism about this time was in an +awkward position from a political point of view. The Government eyed it +with disapproval. Since the death of Constantine, the "accursed emperors" +had waged against it a furious war. In 353, just before the birth of +Augustin, Constantius promulgated an edict renewing the order for the +closing of the temples and the abolition of sacrifices--and that too under +pain of death and confiscation. But in distant provinces, such as Numidia, +the action of the central power was slow and irregular. It was often +represented by officials who were hostile or indifferent to Christianity. +The local aristocracy and their following scoffed at it more or less +openly. In their immense villas, behind the walls of their parks, the rich +landowners offered sacrifices and organized processions and feasts as +if there were no law at all. Patricius knew all that. And, on the other +side, he could take note of the encroachments of the new religion. During +the first half of the fourth century Thagaste had been conquered by the +Donatists. Since the edict of Constans against these schismatics, the +inhabitants of the little city had come back to Catholicism out of fear of +the severity of the imperial government. But the settlement was far from +being complete and final. As a consequence of the edict, the whole region +of the Aures had been in revolution. The Bishop of Bagai, fortified in +his episcopal city and basilica, had stood an actual siege from the Roman +troops. Almost everywhere the struggle between Donatists and Catholics +still went on below the surface. There cannot be the least doubt that +Thagaste took its share in these quarrels. To those who urged him to be +baptized, the father of Augustin might well answer with ironic politeness: +"I am only waiting till you agree among yourselves, to see where the truth +lies." In his heart this rather lukewarm pagan had no inveterate dislike to +Christianity. + +What proves it at once is that he married a Christian. + +How did Monnica become the wife of Patricius? How did these two beings, so +little alike, between whom there was such a great difference of age, not to +mention all the rest, come to join their fate? Those are questions which +it would never have occurred to the people of Thagaste to ask. Patricius +married to be like everybody else--and also because he was well over forty, +and his mother an old woman who would soon be no longer able to run his +house. + +Monnica also had her mother. The two old women had a meeting, with many +politenesses and ceremonious bowings, and because the thing appeared to +them reasonable and most suitable, they settled the marriage. Had Patricius +ever seen the girl that he was going to take, according to custom, so as to +have a child-bearer and housewife? It is quite likely he had not. Was she +pretty, rich, or poor? He considered such matters as secondary, since the +marriage was not a love-match but a traditional duty to fulfil. If the +union was respectable, that was quite enough. But however the matter fell +out, what is certain is that Monnica was very young. She was twenty-two +when Augustin was born, and he was probably not her first child. We know +that she was hardly marriageable when she was handed over, as Arab parents +do to-day with their adolescent or little girls, to the man who was going +to marry her. Now in Africa girls become marriageable at a very early age. +They are married at fourteen, sometimes even at twelve. Perhaps she was +seventeen or eighteen at most when she married Patricius. She must have had +first a son, Navigius, whom we shall meet later on at Milan, and also a +daughter, of whom we do not even know the name, but who became a nun, and +superior of a convent in the diocese of Hippo. For us the features of these +two other children of Monnica and Patricius are obliterated. They are +concealed by the radiance of their illustrious great brother. + +Monnica was fond of telling stories of her girlhood to her son. He has +handed down some of them to us. + +She was brought up strictly, according to the system of that time. Both her +parents came of families which had been Christian, and Catholic-Christian, +for many generations. They had never been carried away by the Donatist +schism; they were people very obstinate in their convictions--a character +quite as frequent in Africa as its opposite, the kind of Numidian or Moor, +who is versatile and flighty. It is not unimportant that Augustin came from +this hard-headed race, for this it was, with the aid of God's grace, that +saved him--the energetic temper of his will. + +Still, if the faith of the young Monnica was confirmed from her earliest +years, it is not so much to the lessons of her mother that she owed it, +as to the training of an old woman-servant of whom she always spoke with +gratitude. In the family of her master, this old woman had a place like the +one which to-day in a Turkish family is held by the nurse, the _dada_, who +is respected by all the harem and all the household. Doubtless she herself +was born in the house and had seen all the children born. She had carried +Monnica's father on her back when he was little, just as the Kabylian +women or the Bedouin nomads carry their babies still. She was a devoted +slave, just a bit unreasonable--a veritable housedog who in the zeal of +guardianship barks more than is necessary at the stranger who passes. She +was like the negress in the Arab houses to-day, who is often a better +Muslem, more hostile to the Christian, than her employers. The old woman +in Monnica's family had witnessed the last persecutions; she had perhaps +visited the confessors in prison; perhaps she had seen flow the blood of +the martyrs. These exciting and terrible scenes would have been graven on +her memory. What inflamed stories the old servant must have told her young +mistresses, what vital lessons of constancy and heroism! Monnica listened +to them eagerly. + +Because of her great faith, this simple slave was revered as a saint by +her owners, who entrusted her with the supervision of their daughters. She +proved a stern governess, who would stand no trifling with her rules. She +prevented these girls from drinking even water except at meals. Cruel +suffering for little Africans! Thagaste is not far from the country of +thirst. But the old woman said to them: + +"You drink water now because you can't get at the wine. In time to come, +when you are married and have bins and cellars of your own, you'll turn up +your nose at water, and your habit of drinking will be too much for you." + +Monnica came near fulfilling the prophecy of the honest woman. It was +before she was married. As she was very well-behaved and very temperate, +she used to be sent to the cellar to draw the wine from the cask. Before +pouring it into the flagon she would sip just a little. Being unaccustomed +to wine, she was not able to drink more; it was too strong for her gullet. +She did this, not because she liked the wine, but from naughtiness, to play +a trick on her parents who trusted her, and also, of course, because it was +prohibited. Each time she swallowed a little more, and so it went on till +she ended by finding it rather nice, and came to drinking greedily one +cup after another. One day a slave-girl, who went with her to the cellar, +began to grumble. Monnica gave her a sharp answer. Upon this the girl +called Monnica a drunkard.... Drunkard! This bitter taunt so humiliated the +self-respect of the future saint, that she got the better of her taste for +drink. Augustin does not say it was through piety she did this, but because +she felt the ugliness of such a vice. + +There is a certain roughness in this story of childhood, the roughness of +ancient customs, with which is always mingled some decency or dignity. +Christianity did the work of polishing the soul of Monnica. At the time we +are dealing with, if she was already a very devout young girl, she was far +as yet from being the grand Christian that she became afterwards. + +When she married Patricius she was a girl very reserved and cold to all +appearances (in reality, she was very passionate), precise in attending to +her religious duties, even a little strict, with her exaggeration of the +Christian austerity in her hate of all the brutalities and all the careless +morals that paganism condoned. Nevertheless, this rigid soul knew how to +bend when it was necessary. Monnica had tact, suppleness, and, when it +was needed, a very acute and very reasonable practical sense of which she +gave many a proof in the bringing up and management of her son Augustin. +This soul, hard for herself, veiled her uncompromising religion under an +unchangeable sweetness which was in her rather the work of grace than a +natural gift. + +There can be little doubt that her behaviour and character greatly +disturbed Patricius at the beginning of their married life. Perhaps he +regretted the marriage. What use had he for this nun alongside of him! +Both of them must have suffered the usual annoyances which always appeared +before long in unions of this kind between pagan and Christian. True, it +was no longer the time of Tertullian, the heroic century of persecutions, +when the Christian women glided into the prisons to kiss the shackles of +the martyrs. (What a revenge did woman take then for her long and enforced +confinement to the women's apartments! And how outrageous such conduct must +have seemed to a husband brought up in the Roman way!) But the practices +of the Christian life established a kind of intermittent divorce between +husbands and wives of different religion. Monnica often went out, either +alone, or accompanied by a faithful bondwoman. She had to attend the +services of the Church, to go about the town visiting the poor and giving +alms. And there were the fast-days which occurred two or three times a +week, and especially the long fast of Lent--a grievous nuisance when the +husband wanted to give a dinner-party just on those particular days! On +the vigil of festivals, Monnica would spend a good part of the night in +the Basilica. Regularly, doubtless on Sundays, she betook herself to the +cemetery, or to some chapel raised to the memory of a martyr who was often +buried there--in fact, they called these chapels "Memorials" (_memoriae_). + +There were many of these chapels--even too many in the opinion of austere +Christians. Monnica went from one to another carrying in a large basket +made of willow branches some pieces of minced meat, bread, and wine mixed +with water. She met her friends in these places. They would sit down around +the tombs, of which some were shaped like tables, unpack the provisions, +and eat and drink piously in honour of the martyr. This was a residue +of pagan superstition among the Christians. These pious _agapae_, or +love-feasts, often turned into disgusting orgies. When Augustin became +Bishop of Hippo he had considerable trouble to get his people out of the +habit of them. Notwithstanding his efforts, the tradition still lasts. +Every Friday the Muslem women keep up the custom of visiting the cemeteries +and the marabouts. Just as in the time of St. Monnica, they sit around the +tombs, so cool with their casing of painted tiles, in the shade of the +cypress and eucalyptus. They gobble sweetmeats, they gossip, they laugh, +they enjoy themselves--the husbands are not there. + +Monnica made these visits in a really pious state of mind, and was far +from trying to find in them opportunities for lewdness or carouse. She was +content to drink a little wine very carefully--she always bore in mind her +youthful sin. Besides, this wine weakened with water that she brought from +the house, was tepid by the time she reached the cemetery; it would be a +drink of very moderate relish, little likely to stimulate the senses. She +distributed what was left of it among the needy, together with the contents +of her basket, and came back modestly to her house. + +But however staid and reserved she might be, still these outings gave rise +to scandalous talk. They annoyed a suspicious husband. All the Africans are +that. Marital jealousy was not invented by Islam. Moreover, in Monnica's +time men and women took part in these funeral love-feasts and mingled +together disturbingly. Patricius got cross about it, and about a good many +other things too. His old mother chafed his suspicions by carrying to +him the ugly gossip and even the lies of the servants about his wife. By +dint of patience and mildness and attentions, Monnica ended by disarming +her mother-in-law and making it clear that her conduct was perfect. The +old woman flew into a rage with the servants who had lied to her, and +denounced them to her son. Patricius, like a good head of a household, had +them whipped to teach them not to lie any more. Thanks to this exemplary +punishment, and the good sense of the young wife, peace reigned once more +in the family. + +Women, friends of Monnica, were amazed that the good understanding was +not oftener upset, at least in an open manner, between husband and wife. +Everybody in Thagaste knew the quick-tempered and violent character of +Patricius. And yet there were no signs that he beat his wife. Nor did +any one say he did. Other women who had less passionate husbands were +nevertheless beaten by them. When they came to Monnica's house they shewed +her the marks of the whacks they had got, their faces swollen from blows, +and they burst out in abuse of men, clamouring against their lechery, +which, said these matrons, was the cause of the ill-treatment they had to +endure. + +"Blame your own tongue," retorted Monnica. + +According to her, women should close their eyes to the infidelities of +their husbands and avoid arguing with them when they were angry. Silence, +submissiveness, were the all-powerful arms. And since, as a young woman, +she had a certain natural merriment, she added, laughing: + +"Remember what was read to you on your wedding-day. You were told that you +are the handmaids of your husbands. Don't rebel against your masters!..." + +Possibly this was a keen criticism of the pagan code, so hard in its rules. +Still, in this matter, the Roman law was in agreement with the Gospel. +Sincere Christian as she was, the wife of Patricius never had any quarrel +with him on account of his infidelities. So much kindness and resignation +touched the dissolute and brutal husband, who besides was an excellent +man and warm-hearted. The modesty of his wife, after a while, made her +attractive in his eyes. He loved her, so to speak, on the strength of +his respect and admiration for her. He would indeed have been a churl to +find fault with a wife who interfered with him so little and who was a +perfect housekeeper, as we shall see later on when we come to her life at +Cassicium. In one point, where even she did not intend it, she forwarded +the interests of her husband by gaining him the good-will of the Christians +in Thagaste; while he, on his side, could say to the pagans who looked +askance at his marriage: "Am I not one of yourselves?" + +In spite of all the differences between him and Monnica, Patricius was a +contented husband. + + + + +III + +THE COMFORT OF THE MILK + + +Augustin came into this world the thirteenth of November of the year of +Christ 354. + +It was just one little child more in this sensual and pleasure-loving +Africa, land of sin and of carnal productiveness, where children are +born and die like the leaves. But the son of Monnica and Patricius was +predestined: he was not to die in the cradle like so many other tiny +Africans. + +Even if he had not been intended for great things, if he had been only a +head in the crowd, the arrival of this baby ought, all the same, to affect +us, for to the Christian, the destiny of the obscurest and humblest of +souls is a matter of importance. Forty years afterwards, Augustin, in his +_Confessions_, pondered this slight ordinary fact of his birth, which +happened almost unnoticed by the inhabitants of Thagaste, and in truth it +seems to him a great event, not because it concerns himself, bishop and +Father of the Church, but because it is a soul which at this imperceptible +point of time comes into the world. + +Let us clearly understand Augustin's thought. Souls have been ransomed by a +Victim of infinite value. They have themselves an infinite value. Nothing +which goes on in them can be ignored. Their most trifling sins, their +feeblest stirrings towards virtue, are vital for the eternity of their lot. +All shall be attributed to them by the just Judge. The theft of an apple +will weigh perhaps as heavily in the scales as the seizure of a province +or a kingdom. The evil of sin is in the evil intention. Now the fate +of a soul, created by God, on Him depends. Hence everything in a human +life assumes an extreme seriousness and importance. In the history of a +creature, all is worthy of being examined, weighed, studied, and perhaps +also, for the edification of others, told. + +Here is an altogether new way of regarding life, and, proceeding from that, +of understanding art. Even as the slaves, thanks to Christianity, came into +the spiritual city, so the most minute realities by this outlook are to be +included in literature. The _Confessions_ will be the first model of the +art of the new era. A deep and magnificent realism, because it goes even +to the very depths of the divine--utterly distinct, at any rate, from +our surface realism of mere amusement--is about to arise from this new +conception. Without doubt, in Augustin's eyes, beauty dwells in all things, +in so far forth as beauty is a reflection of the order and the thought +of the Word. But it has also a more essential character--it has a moral +signification and value. Everything, in a word, can be the instrument of +the loss or the redemption of a soul. The most insignificant of our actions +reverberates to infinitude on our fate. Regarded from this point, both +things and beings commence to live a life more closely leagued together and +at the same time more private; more individual and more general. All is in +the lump, and nevertheless all is separate. Our salvation concerns only +ourselves, and yet through charity it becomes involved with the salvation +of our fellows. + +In this spirit let us look at the cradle of Augustin. Let us look at it +with the eyes of Augustin himself, and also, perchance, of Monnica. Bending +over the frail body of the little child he once was, he puts to himself +all the great desperate questions which have shaken humanity for thousands +of years. The mystery of life and death rises before him, formidable. It +tortures him to the point of anguish, of confusion: "Yet suffer me to speak +before Thy mercy, me who am but dust and ashes. Yea, suffer me to speak, +for, behold, I speak not to man who scorns me, but to Thy mercy. Even Thou +perhaps dost scorn me, but Thou wilt turn and have pity. For what is it +that I would say, O Lord my God, save that I know not whence I came hither +into this dying life, shall I call it, or living death?... And, lo, my +infancy has long been dead, and I live. But Thou, O Lord, who ever livest +and in whom nothing ever dies--tell me, I beseech Thee, O God, and have +mercy on my misery, tell me whether another life of mine died before my +infancy began." + +One is reminded here of Pascal's famous prosopopoeia: "I know not who +has put me into the world, nor what the world is, nor myself. I am in a +terrible ignorance about everything.... All I know is that I must soon die, +but what I know least of all is this very death which I cannot escape." + +The phrases of the _Pensees_ are only the echo of the phrases of the +_Confessions_. But how different is the tone! Pascal's charge against human +ignorance is merciless. The God of Port-Royal has the hard and motionless +face of the ancient Destiny: He withdraws into the clouds, and only shews +Himself at the end to raise up His poor creature. In Augustin the accent +is tender, trusting, really like a son, and though he be harassed, one can +discern the thrill of an unconquerable hope. Instead of crushing man under +the iron hand of the Justice-dealer, he makes him feel the kindness of the +Father who has got all ready, long before its birth, for the feeble little +child: "The comforts of Thy pity received me, as I have heard from the +father and mother of my flesh.... And so the comfort of woman's milk was +ready for me. For my mother and my nurses did not fill their own bosoms, +but Thou, O Lord, by their means gavest me the food of infancy, according +to Thy ordinance...." + +And see! his heart overflows at this remembrance of his mother's milk. The +great doctor humbles his style, makes it simple and familiar, to tell us of +his first mewlings, and of his baby angers and joys. He too was a father; +he knew what is a new-born child, and a young mother who gives it suck, +because he had seen that with his own eyes close beside him. All the small +bothers which mingle with the pleasures of fatherhood he had experienced +himself. In his own son he studied himself. + + * * * * * + +This child, born of a Christian mother, and who was to become the great +defender of the faith, was not christened at his birth. In the early +Church, and especially in the African Church, it was not usual to do so. +The baptismal day was put as far off as possible, from the conviction that +the sins committed after the sacrament were much more serious than those +which went before. The Africans, very practical folk, clearly foresaw that +they would sin again even after baptism, but they wanted to sin at a better +rate, and lessen the inflictions of penance. This penance in Augustin's +time was far from being as hard as in the century before. Nevertheless, the +remembrance of the old severity always remained, and the habit was taken to +put off baptism so as not to discourage sinners overmuch. + +Monnica, always sedulous to conform with the customs of her country and +the traditions of her Church, fell in with this practice. Perhaps she may +have had also the opposition of her husband to face, for he being a pagan +would not have cared to give too many pledges to the Christians, nor to +compromise himself in the eyes of his fellow-pagans by shewing that he +was so far under the control of Christian zealots as to have his child +baptized out of the ordinary way. There was a middle course, and this was +to inscribe the child among the catechumens. According to the rite of the +first admission to the lowest order of catechumens, the sign of the cross +was made on Augustin's forehead, and the symbolic salt placed between his +lips. And so they did not baptize him. Possibly this affected his whole +life. He lacked the baptismal modesty. Even when he was become a bishop, he +never quite cast off the old man that had splashed through all the pagan +uncleannesses. Some of his words are painfully broad for chaste ears. The +influence of African conditions does not altogether account for this. It is +only too plain that the son of Patricius had never known entire virginity +of soul. + +They named him Aurelius Augustinus. Was Aurelius his family name? We cannot +tell. The Africans always applied very fantastically the rules of Roman +nomenclature. Anyhow, this name was common enough in Africa. The Bishop of +Carthage, primate of the province and a friend of Augustin, was also called +Aurelius. Pious commentators have sought to find in this name an omen of +Augustin's future renown as an orator. They have remarked that the word +_aurum_, gold, is contained in Aurelius--a prophetic indication of the +golden mouth of the great preacher of Hippo. + +Meanwhile, he was a baby like any other baby, who only knew, as he tells +us, how to take his mother's breast. However, he speaks of nurses who +suckled him; no doubt these were servants or slaves of the household. +They gave him their milk, like those Algerian women who, to-day, if their +neighbour is called away, take her child and feed it. Besides, with them +children are weaned much later than with us. You can see mothers sitting at +their doors put down their work and call to a child of two or three playing +in the street for him to come and take the breast. Did Augustin remember +these things? At least he recalled his nurses' games, and the efforts they +made to appease him, and the childish words they taught him to stammer. +The first Latin words he repeated, he picked up from his mother and the +servants, who must also have spoken Punic, the ordinary tongue of the +populace and small trader class. He learned Punic without thinking about +it, in playing with other children of Thagaste, just as the sons of our +colonists learn Arab in playing with little boys who wear chechias on their +heads. + +He is a Christian, a bishop, already a venerated Father, consulted by the +whole Catholic world, and he tells us all that. He tells it in a serious +and contrite way, with a manifest anxiety to attribute to God, as the sole +cause, all the benefits which embellished his childhood, as well as to +deplore his faults and wretchedness, fatal consequence of the original +Fall. And still, we can make out clearly that these suave and far-off +memories have a charm for him which he cannot quite guard himself against. +The attitude of the author of the _Confessions_ is ambiguous and a little +constrained. The father who has loved his child, who has joined in his +games, struggles in him against the theologian who later on was to uphold +the doctrine of Grace against the heretics. He feels that he must shew, not +only that Grace is necessary for salvation and that little children ought +to be baptized, but that they are capable of sinning. Yes, the children sin +even at nurse. And Augustin relates this story of a baby that he had seen: +"I know, because I have seen, jealousy in a babe. It could not speak, yet +it eyed its foster-brother _with pale cheeks and looks of hate_." Children +are already men. The egoism and greediness of the grown man may be already +descried in the newly born. + +However, the theologian of Grace was not able to drive from his mind +this verse of the Gospel: _Sinite ad me parvulos venire_--"Suffer little +children to come unto Me." But he interprets this in a very narrow sense, +luring it into an argument which furthers his case. For him, the small +height of children is a symbol of the humility without which no one can +enter God's kingdom. The Master, according to him, never intended us to +take children as an example. They are but flesh of sin. He only drew from +their littleness one of those similitudes which He, with His fondness for +symbols, favoured. + +Well, let us dare to say it: Augustin goes wrong here. Such is the penalty +of human thought, which in its justest statements always wounds some +truth less clear or mutilates some tender sentiment. Radically, Augustin +is right. The child is wicked as man is. We know it. But against the +relentlessness of the theologian we place the divine gentleness of Christ: +"Suffer little children to come unto Me, for of such is the Kingdom of +God." + + + + +IV + +THE FIRST GAMES + + +"I loved to play," Augustin says, in telling us of those far-off years. + +Is it surprising if this quick and supple intelligence, who mastered +without effort, and as if by instinct, the encyclopaedic knowledge of his +age, who found himself at his ease amidst the deepest abstractions, did, at +the beginning, take life as a game? + +The amusements of the little Africans of to-day are not very many, nor very +various either. They have no inventive imagination. In this matter their +French playfellows have taught them a good deal. If they play marbles, or +hopscotch, or rounders, it is in imitation of the _Roumis_. And yet they +are great little players. Games of chance attract them above all. At these +they spend hour after hour, stretched out flat on their stomachs in some +shady corner, and they play with an astonishing intensity of passion. All +their attention is absorbed in what they are about; they employ on the game +all the cunning of their wits, precociously developed, and so soon stuck +fast in material things. + +When Augustin recalls the games of his childhood, he only mentions "nuts," +handball, and birds. To capture a bird, that winged, light, and brilliant +thing, is what all children long to do in every country on earth. But in +Africa, where there are plenty of birds, big people as well as little +love them. In the Moorish cafes, in the wretchedest _gourbis_, cages made +of reeds are hung on the walls, all rustling with trills and fluttering +of wings. Quail, thrushes, nightingales are imprisoned in them. The +nightingale, the singing-bird beyond all others, so difficult to tame, is +the honoured guest, the privileged dweller in these rustic cages. With +the rose, he is an essential part of Arab poetry. The woods round about +Thagaste were full of nightingales. Not the least doubt that the child +Augustin had felt the little musical throats of these singing-birds throb +between his hands. His sermons, his heaviest treatises, have a recollection +of them. He draws from them an evidence in favour of the creating Word who +has put beauty and harmony everywhere. In the song of the nightingale he +finds, as it were, an echo of the music of the spheres. + +If he loved birds, as a poet who knows not that he is a poet, did he love +as well to play at "nuts"? "Nuts," or thimble-rigging, is only a graceful +and crafty game, too crafty for a dreaming and careless little boy. It +calls for watchfulness and presence of mind. Grown men play at it as well +as children. A step of a staircase is used as a table by the players, or +the pavement of a courtyard. Three shells are laid on the stone and a +dried pea. Then, with rapid baffling movements, hands brown and alert fly +from one shell to another, shuffle them, mix them up, juggle the dried +pea sometimes under this shell, sometimes under that,--and the point is +to guess which shell the pea has got under. By means of certain astute +methods, an artful player can make the pea stick to his fingers, or to the +inside of the shell, and the opponent loses every time. They cheat with a +calm shamelessness. Augustin cheated too--which did not prevent him from +bitterly denouncing the cheating of his fellow-players. + +The truth is, that he would not have quite belonged to his country if he +had not lied and stolen now and then. He lied to his tutor and to his +schoolmasters. He stole at his parents' table, in the kitchen, and in the +cellar. But he stole like a man of quality, to make presents and to win +over his playfellows: he ruled the other boys by his presents--a noteworthy +characteristic in this future ruler of souls. Morals like these, a little +rough, shape free and bold natures. Those African children were much less +coddled, much less scolded, than to-day. Monnica had something else to do +than to look after the boys. So for them it was a continual life in the +open air, which makes the body strong and hard. Augustin and his companions +should be pictured as young wild-cats. + +This roughness came out strong at games of ball, and generally at all +the games in which there are two sides, conquerors and prisoners, or +fights with sticks and stones. Stone-throwing is an incurable habit +among the little Africans. Even now in the towns our police are obliged +to take measures against these ferocious children. In Augustin's time, +at Cherchell, which is the ancient _Caesarea Mauretaniae_, the childish +population was split into two hostile camps which stoned each other. On +certain holidays the fathers and big brothers joined the children; blood +flowed, and there were deaths. + +The bishop Augustin recalls with severity the "superb victories" he won in +jousts of this kind. But I find it hard to believe that such a delicate +child (he was sickly almost all his life) could have got much pleasure out +of these brutal sports. If he was drawn into them by the example of others, +it must have been through the imagination they appealed to him. In these +battles, wherein sides took the field as Romans against Carthaginians, +Greeks against Trojans, he believed himself Scipio or Hannibal, Achilles +or Hector. He experienced beforehand, as a rhetorician, the intoxication +of a triumph which playfellows who were stronger and better provided with +muscles gave him a hard fight for. He did not always get the upper hand, +except perhaps when he bribed the enemy. But an eager young soul, such +as he was, can hardly be content with half-victories; he wants to excel. +Accordingly, he sought his revenge in those games wherein the mind has the +chief part. He listened to stories with delight, and in his turn repeated +them to his little friends, thus trying upon an audience of boys that charm +of speech by which later he was to subdue crowds. They also played at +acting, at gladiators, at drivers and horses. Some of Augustin's companions +were sons of wealthy citizens who gave splendid entertainments to their +fellow-countrymen. As these dramatic representations, or games of the +arena or circus, drew near, the little child-world was overcome by a +fever of imitation. All the children of Thagaste imitated the actors, the +_mirmillones_, or the horsemen in the amphitheatre, just as the young +Spaniards of to-day imitate the _toreros_. + +In the midst of these amusements Augustin fell ill; he had fever and +violent pains in the stomach. They thought he was going to die. It appears +that it was himself who in this extreme situation asked for baptism. +Monnica was making all haste to have the sacrament administered, when +suddenly, against all expectation, the child recovered. Again was baptism +postponed, and from the same reason: to lessen the gravity of the sins +which young Augustin was bound to commit. His mother, who no doubt foresaw +some of them, again fell in with the custom. + +It is possible that Patricius interfered this time in a more decided way. +Just at this period Catholicism was in an unfavourable situation. The +short reign of Julian had started a violent pagan reaction. Everywhere +the temples were reopening, the sacrifices beginning again. Moreover, +the Donatists secretly aided the pagans. Their _Seids_, more or less +acknowledged, the Circoncelliones, bands of fanatical peasants, scoured +through the Numidian country, attacking the Catholics, ravaging and +pillaging, and burning their farms and villas. Was this a good time to +make a noisy profession of faith, to be enrolled among the ranks of the +conquered party? + +Little Augustin knew nothing of all these calculations of motherly prudence +and fatherly diplomacy: he begged for baptism, so he tells us. This seems +very remarkable in so young a child. But he lived in a house where all the +service was done by Christians. He heard the talk of Monnica's friends; +perhaps, too, of his grandparents, who were Catholics faithful and austere. +And then, his soul was naturally religious. That explains everything: +he asked for baptism to be like grown-up people, and because he was +predestined. Among children, the chosen have these sudden flashes of light. +At certain moments they feel what one day they shall be. Anyhow, Monnica +must have seen this sign with joy. + +He got well, and took up again his little boy's life, divided between play, +and dawdling, and school. + +School! painful memory for Augustin! They sent him to the _primus +magister_, the elementary teacher, a real terror, armed with a long switch +which came down without pity on idle boys. Seated on benches around him, or +crouched on mats, the boys sang out all together: "One and one are two, two +and two are four"--horrible refrain which deafened the whole neighbourhood. +The school was often a mere shed, or a _pergola_ in the fields which was +protected fairly well from sun and rain by cloths stretched overhead--a hut +rented for a trifle, wide open to the winds, with a mosquito-net stretched +out before the entrance. All who were there must have frozen in winter +and broiled in summer. Augustin remembered it as a slaves' chain-prison +(_ergastulum_) of boyhood. + +He hated school and what they taught there--the alphabet, counting, and +the rudiments of Latin and Greek grammar. He had a perfect horror of +lessons--of Greek above all. This schoolboy, who became, when his turn +came, a master, objected to the methods of school. His mind, which grasped +things instinctively at a single bound, could not stand the gradual +procedure of the teaching faculty. He either mastered difficulties at +once, or gave them up. Augustin was one of the numerous victims of the +everlasting mistake of schoolmasters, who do not know how to arrange +their lessons to accord with various kinds of mind. Like most of those +who eventually become great men, he was no good as a pupil. He was often +punished, thrashed--and cruelly thrashed. The master's scourge filled +him with an unspeakable terror. When he was smarting all over from cuts +and came to complain to his parents, they laughed at him or made fun of +him--yes, even the pious Monnica. Then the poor lad, not knowing whom to +turn to, remembered hearing his mother and the servants talk of a Being, +very powerful and very good, who defends the orphan and the oppressed. And +he said from the depths of his heart: + +"O my God, please grant that I am not whipped at school." + +But God did not hear his prayer because he was not a good boy. Augustin was +in despair. + +It is evident that these punishments were cruel, because forty years +afterwards he denounces them with horror. In his mind, they are tortures +comparable to the wooden horse or the iron pincers. Nothing is small +for children, especially for a sensitive child like Augustin. Their +sensitiveness and their imagination exaggerate all things out of due +measure. In this matter, also, schoolmasters often go wrong. They do not +know how to handle delicate organizations. They strike fiercely, when a +few words said at the right moment would have much more effect on the +culprit.... Monnica's son suffered as much from the rod as he took pride +in his successes at games. If, as Scipio, he was filled with a sensation +of glory in his battles against other boys, no doubt he pictured himself +a martyr, a St. Laurence or St. Sebastian, when he was swished. He never +pardoned--save as a Christian--his schoolmasters for having brutalized him. + +Nevertheless, despite his hatred for ill-ordered lessons, his precocious +intelligence was remarked by everybody. It was clear that such lucky gifts +should not be neglected. Monnica, no doubt, was the first to get this into +her head, and she advised Patricius to make Augustin read for a learned +profession. + +The business of the _curia_ was not exactly brilliant, and so he may have +perceived that his son might raise their fortunes if he had definite +employment. Augustin, a professor of eloquence or a celebrated pleader, +might be the saviour and the benefactor of his family. The town councils, +and even the Imperial treasury, paid large salaries to rhetoricians. In +those days, rhetoric led to everything. Some of the professors who went +from town to town giving lectures made considerable fortunes. At Thagaste +they pointed with admiration to the example of the rhetorician Victorinus, +an African, a fellow-countryman, who had made a big reputation over-seas, +and had his statue in the Roman Forum. And many years before, had not M. +Cornelius Fronto, of Cirta, another African, become the tutor of Marcus +Aurelius, who covered him with honours and wealth and finally raised him to +the Consulship? Pertinax himself, did he not begin as a simple teacher of +grammar, and become Proconsul of Africa and then Emperor of Rome? How many +stimulants for provincial ambition!... + +Augustin's parents reasoned as the middle-class parents of to-day. They +discounted the future, and however hard up they were, they resolved to +make sacrifices for his education. And as the schools of Thagaste were +inadequate, it was decided to send this very promising boy to Madaura. + + + + +V + +THE SCHOOLBOY OF MADAURA + + +A new world opened before Augustin. It was perhaps the first time he had +ever gone away from Thagaste. + +Of course, Madaura is not very far off; there are about thirty miles at +most between the two towns. But there are no short journeys for children. +This one lay along the military road which ran from Hippo to Theveste--a +great Roman causeway paved with large flags on the outskirts of towns, and +carefully pebbled over all the rest of the distance. Erect upon the high +saddle of his horse, Augustin, who was to become a tireless traveller +and move about ceaselessly over African roads during all his episcopal +life--Augustin got his first glimpse of the poetry of the open road, a +poetry which we have lost for ever. + +How amusing they were, the African roads of those days, how full of sights! +Pauses were made at inns with walls thick as the ramparts of citadels, +their interiors bordered by stables built in arcades, heaped up with +travellers' packs and harness. In the centre were the trough and cistern; +and to the little rooms opening in a circle on to the balcony, drifted up +a smell of oil and fodder, and the noise of men and of beasts of burthen, +and of the camels as they entered majestically, curving their long necks +under the lintel of the door. Then there was talk with the merchants, just +arrived from the south, who brought news of the nomad countries, and had +stories to tell. And then, without hurrying, a start was made again for the +next stage. Long files of chariots were encountered carrying provisions to +soldiers garrisoned on the frontier, or the State-distributed corn of the +Roman people to the sea-ports; or again, from time to time, the _lectica_, +brought along by slaves or mules, of a bishop on a visitation; and then the +litter, with close-drawn curtains, of a matron or some great personage. Of +a sudden all pulled sharp to one side; the vehicles lined up on the edge of +the road; and there passed at full speed, in a cloud of dust, a messenger +of the Imperial Post.... + +Certainly this road from Hippo to Theveste was one of the busiest and most +picturesque in the province: it was one of its main arteries. + +At first the look of the country is rather like the neighbourhood of +Thagaste. The wooded and mountainous landscape still spreads out its +little breast-shaped hills and its sheets of verdure. Here and there the +road skirts the deeply-ravined valley of the Medjerda. At the foot of the +precipitous slopes, the river can be heard brawling in a torrent over its +stony bed, and there are sharp descents among thickets of juniper and the +fringed roots of the dwarf-pines. Then, as the descent continues, the land +becomes thinner and spaces bare of vegetation appear oftener. At last, upon +a piece of tableland, Madaura comes into view, all white in the midst of +the vast tawny plain, where to-day nothing is to be seen but a mausoleum +in ruins, the remains of a Byzantine fortress, and vague traces vanishing +away. + +This is the first rise of the great plain which declines towards Theveste +and the group of the Aures Mountains. Coming from the woodland country of +Thagaste, the nakedness of it is startling. Here and there, thin cows crop +starveling shrubs which have grown on the bank of some _oued_ run dry. +Little asses, turned loose, save themselves at a gallop towards the tents +of the nomads, spread out, black and hairy, like immense bats on the +whiteness of the land. Nearer, a woman's red _haick_ interposes, the single +stain of bright colour breaking the indefinite brown and grey of the plain. +Here is felt the harshness of Numidia; it is almost the stark spaces of +the desert world. But on the side towards the east, the architecture of +mountains, wildly sculptured, stands against the level reaches of the +horizon. Upon the clear background of the sky, shew, distinctly, lateral +spurs and a cone like to the mystic representation of Tanit. Towards the +south, crumbling isolated crags appear, scattered about like gigantic +pedestals uncrowned of their statues, or like the pipes of an organ raised +there to capture and attune the cry of the great winds of the _steppe_. + +This country is characterized by a different kind of energy from Thagaste. +There is more air and light and space. If the plantation is sparse, the +beautiful shape of the land may be observed all the better. Nothing breaks +or lessens the grand effects of the light.... And let no one say that +Augustin's eyes cared not for all that, he who wrote after his conversion, +and in all the austerity of his repentance: "If sentient things had not a +soul, we should not love them so much." + +It is here, between Madaura and Thagaste, during the eager years of youth, +that he gathered together the seeds of sensations and images which, +later on, were to burst forth into fiery and boiling metaphors in the +_Confessions_, and in his homilies and paraphrases of Holy Scripture. Later +on, he will not have the time to observe, or he will have lost the power. +Rhetoric will stretch its commonplace veil between him and the unceasing +springtide of the earth. Ambition will turn him away from those sights +which reveal themselves only to hearts unselfish and indifferent. Then, +later on, Faith will seize hold of him to the exclusion of all else. He +will no longer perceive the creation save at odd moments in a kind of +metaphysical dream, and, so to speak, across the glory of the Creator. +But in these youthful years all things burst upon him with extraordinary +violence and ecstasy. His undulled senses swallowed greedily the whole +banquet offered by this wide world to his hunger for pleasure. The fugitive +beauty of things and beings, with all their charms, revealed itself to +him in its newness: _novissimarum rerum fugaces pulchritudines, earumque +suavitates_. This craving for sensation will still exist in the great +Christian teacher, and betray itself in the warm and coloured figures +of his style. Of course, he was not as a worldly describer, who studies +to produce phrases which present an image, or arranges glittering +pictures--all such endeavours he knew nothing about. But by instinct, and +thanks to his warm African temperament, he was a kind of impressionist and +metaphysical poet. + +If the rural landscape of Thagaste is reflected in certain passages--the +pleasantest and most well known--of the _Confessions_, all the intellectual +part of Augustin's work finds its symbolical commentary here in this arid +and light-splashed plain of Madaura. Like it, the thought of Augustin has +no shadows. Like it too, it is lightened by strange and splendid tints +which seem to come from far off, from a focal fire invisible to human eyes. +No modern writer has better praised the light--not only the immortal light +of the blessed, but that light which rests on the African fields, and +is on land and sea; and nobody has spoken of it with more amplitude and +wonder. The truth is, that in no country in the world, not even in Egypt, +in the rose-coloured lands of Karnak and Luxor, is the light more pure and +admirable than in these great bare plains of Numidia and the region of the +Sahara. Is there not enchantment for the eyes of the metaphysician in this +play of light, these nameless interfulgent colours which appear flimsy as +the play of thought? For the glowing floating haze is made of nothing--of +lines, of gleam, of unregulated splendour. And all this triumph of +fluctuating light and elusive colour is quenched with the sun, smoulders +into darkness, even as ideas in the obscure depths of the intelligence +which reposes.... + +Not less than this land, stern even to sadness, but hot and sumptuous, the +town of Madaura must have impressed Augustin. + +It was an old Numidian city, proud of its antiquity. Long before the Roman +conquest, it had been a fortress of King Syphax. Afterwards, the conquerors +settled there, and in the second century of our era, Apuleius, the most +famous of its children, could state before a proconsul, not without pride, +that Madaura was a very prosperous colony. It is probable that this old +town was not so much Romanized as its neighbours, Thimgad and Lambesa, +which were of recent foundation and had been built all at once by decree of +the Government. But it may well have been as Roman as Theveste, a no less +ancient city, where the population was probably just as mixed. Madaura, +like Theveste, had its temples with pillars and Corinthian porticoes, its +triumphal arches (these were run up everywhere), its forum surrounded by a +covered gallery and peopled with statues. Statues also were very liberally +distributed in those days. We know of at least three at Madaura which +Augustin mentions in one of his letters: A god Mars in his heroic +nakedness, and another Mars armed from head to foot; opposite, the statue +of a man, in realistic style, stretching out three fingers to neutralize +the evil eye. These familiar figures remained very clear in the +recollection of Augustin. In the evening, or at the hour of the siesta, he +had stretched himself under their pedestals and played at dice or bones in +the cool shade of the god Mars, or of the Man with outstretched fingers. +The slabs of marble of the portico made a good place to play or sleep. + +Among these statues, there was one perhaps which interested the lad and +stimulated all his early ambitions--that of Apuleius, the great man of +Madaura, the orator, philosopher, sorcerer, who was spoken of from one end +to the other of Africa. By dint of gazing at this, and listening to the +praises of the great local author, did the young scholar become aware of +his vocation? Did he have from this time a confused sort of wish to become +one day another Apuleius, a Christian Apuleius--to surpass the reputation +of this celebrated pagan? These impressions and admirations of youth have +always a more or less direct influence upon what use a boy makes of his +talents. + +Be that as it will, Augustin could not take a step in Madaura without +running against the legend of Apuleius, who was become almost a divinity +for his fellow-countrymen. He was looked upon not only as a sage, but as +a most wily nigromancer. The pagans compared him to Christ--nay, put him +higher than Christ. In their view he had worked much more astonishing +miracles than those of Jesus or of Apollonius of Tyana. And people told the +extravagant stories out of his _Metamorphoses_ as real, as having actually +happened. Nothing was seen on all sides but wizards, men changed into +animals, animals, or men and women, under some spell. In the inns, a man +watched with a suspicious look the ways of the maidservant who poured out +his drink or handed him a dish. Perhaps some magic potion was mingled with +the cheese or bread that she was laying on the table. It was an atmosphere +of feverish and delirious credulity. The pagan madness got the better of +the Christians themselves. Augustin, who had lived in this atmosphere, will +later find considerable trouble in maintaining his strong common sense amid +such an overflow of marvels. + +For the moment, the fantasy of tales filled him with at least as much +enthusiasm as the supernatural. At Madaura he lived in a miraculous world, +where everything charmed his senses and his mind, and everything stimulated +his precocious instinct for Beauty. + +More than Thagaste, no doubt, Madaura bore the marks of the building +genius of the Romans. Even to-day their descendants, the Italians, are the +masons of the world, after having been the architects. The Romans were the +building nation above all others. They it was who raised and established +towns upon the same model and according to the same ideal as an oration +or a poem. They really invented the house, _mansio_, not only the shelter +where one lives, but the building which itself lives, which triumphs over +years and centuries, a huge construction ornamental and sightly, existing +as much--and perhaps more--for the delight of the eyes as for usefulness. +The house, the _Town-with-deep-streets_, perfectly ordered, were a great +matter of amazement for the African nomad--he who passes and never settles +down anywhere. He hated them, doubtless, as the haunts of the soldier and +the publican, his oppressors, but he also regarded them with admiration +mixed with jealousy as the true expression of a race which, when it entered +a country, planted itself for eternity, and claimed to join magnificence +and beauty to the manifestation of its strength. The Roman ruins which +are scattered over modern Algeria humiliate ourselves by their pomp--us +who flatter ourselves that we are resuming the work of the Empire and +continuing its tradition. They are a permanent reproach to our mediocrity, +a continual incitement to grandeur and beauty. Of course, the Roman +architecture could not have had on Augustin, this still unformed young +African, the same effect as it has to-day on a Frenchman or a man from +Northern Europe. But it is certain that it formed, without his knowledge, +his thought and his power of sensation, and extended for him the lessons of +the Latin rhetoricians and grammarians. + +All that was not exactly very Christian. But from these early school years +Augustin got further and further away from Christianity, and the examples +he had under his eyes, at Madaura were hardly likely to strengthen him +in his faith. It was hardly an edifying atmosphere there for a Catholic +youth who had a lively imagination, a pleasure-loving temperament, and who +liked pagan literature. The greatest part of the population were pagans, +especially among the aristocrats. The Decurions continued to preside at +festivals in honour of the old idols. + +These festivals were frequent. The least excuse was taken to engarland +piously the doors of houses with branches, to bleed the sacrificial pig, +or slaughter the lamb. In the evening, squares and street corners were +illuminated. Little candles burned on all the thresholds. During the +mysteries of Bacchus, the town councillors themselves headed the popular +rejoicings. It was an African carnival, brutal and full of colour. People +got tipsy, pretended they were mad. For the sport of the thing, they +assaulted the passers and robbed them. The dull blows on tambourines, the +hysterical and nasal preludes of the flutes, excited an immense elation, at +once sensual and mystic. And all quieted down among the cups and leather +flagons of wine, the grease and meats of banquets in the open air. Even in +a country as sober as Africa, the pagan feasts were never much else than +excuses for gorging and orgies. Augustin, who after his conversion had only +sarcasms for the carnival of Madaura, doubtless went with the crowd, like +many other Christians. Rich and influential people gave the example. There +was danger of annoying them by making a group apart. And then, there was no +resisting the agreeableness of such festivals. + +Perhaps he was even brought to these love-feasts by those in whose charge +he was. For, in fact, to whom had he been entrusted? Doubtless to some +host of Patricius, a pagan like himself. Or did he lodge with his master, +a grammarian, who kept a boarding-house for the boys? Almost all these +schoolmasters were pagan too. Is it wonderful that the Christian lessons +of Monnica and the nurses at Thagaste became more and more blurred in +Augustin's mind? Many years after, an old Madaura grammarian, called +Maximus, wrote to him in a tone of loving reproach: "Thou hast drawn away +from us"--_a secta nostra deviasti_. Did he wish to hint that at this time +Augustin had glided into paganism? Nothing is more unlikely. He himself +assures us that the name of Christ remained always "graven on his heart." +But while he was at Madaura he lived indifferently with pagans and +Christians. + +Besides that, the teaching he got was altogether pagan in tone. No doubt he +picked out, as he always did, the subjects which suited him. Minds such as +his fling themselves upon that which is likely to nourish them: they throw +aside all the rest, or suffer it very unwillingly. Thus Augustin never +wavered in his dislike for Greek: he was a poor Greek scholar. He detested +the Greeks by instinct. According to Western prejudice, these men of +the East were all rascals or amusers. Augustin, as a practical African, +always regarded the Greeks as vain, discoursing wits. In a word, they +were not sincere people whom it would be safe to trust. The entirely +local patriotism of the classical Greek authors further annoyed this Roman +citizen who was used to regard the world as his country: he thought them +very narrow-minded to take so much interest in the history of some little +town. As for him, he looked higher and farther. It must be remembered that +in the second half of the fourth century the Greek attitude, broadened and +fully conscious of itself, set itself more and more against Latinism, above +all, politically. There it lay, a hostile and impenetrable block before the +Western peoples. And here was a stronger reason for a Romanized African to +dislike the Greeks. + +So he painfully construed the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_, very cross at the +difficulties of a foreign language which prevented him from grasping the +plots of the fine, fabulous narratives. There were, however, abridgments +used in the schools, a kind of summaries of the Trojan War, written by +Latin grammarians under the odd pseudonyms of Dares the Phrygian and Dictys +of Crete. But these abridgments were very dry for an imagination like +Augustin's. He much preferred the _AEneid_, the poem admired above all +by the Africans, on account of the episode devoted to the foundation of +Carthage. Virgil was his passion. He read and re-read him continually; +he knew him by heart. To the end of his life, in his severest writings, +he quoted verses or whole passages out of his much-loved poet. Dido's +adventure moved him to tears. They had to pluck the book out of his hands. + +Now the reason is that there was a secret harmony between Virgil's soul and +the soul of Augustin. Both were gracious and serious. One, the great poet, +and one, the humble schoolboy, they both had pity on the Queen of Carthage, +they would have liked to save her, or at any rate to mitigate her sadness, +to alter a little the callousness of AEneas and the harshness of the Fates. +But think of it! Love is a divine sickness, a chastisement sent by the +gods. It is just, when all's said, that the guilty one should endure her +agony to the very end. And then, such very great things are going to arise +out of this poor love! Upon it depends the lot of two Empires. What counts +a woman before Rome and Carthage? Besides, she was bound to perish: the +gods had decreed it.... There was in all that a concentrated emotion, a +depth of sentiment, a religious appeal which stirred Augustin's heart, +still unaware of itself. This obedience of the Virgilian hero to the +heavenly will, was already an adumbration of the humility of the future +Christian. + +Certainly, Augustin did not perceive very plainly in these turbid years +of his youth the full religious significance of Virgil's poem. Carried +away by his headstrong nature, he yielded to the heart-rending charm of +the romantic story: he lived it, literally, with the heroine. When his +schoolmasters desired him to elaborate the lament of the dying Queen Dido +in Latin prose, what he wrote had a veritable quiver of anguish. Without +the least defence against lust and the delusions of the heart, he spent +intellectually and in a single outburst all the strength of passion. + +He absorbed every love-poem with the eagerness of a participating soul. If +he took pleasure in the licentiousness of Plautus and Terence, if he read +delightfully those comedies wherein the worst weaknesses are excused and +glorified, I believe that he took still more pleasure in the Latin Elegiacs +who present without any shame the romantic madness of Alexandrine love. +For what sing these poets even to weariness, unless it be that no one can +resist the Cyprian goddess, that life has no other end but love? Love for +itself, to love for the sake of loving--there is the constant subject of +these sensualists, of Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, Ovid. After the story +of Dido, the youthful reader was ravished by the story of Ariadne, even +more disturbing, because no remorse modifies the frenzy of it. He read: + + _Now while the careless hero flees, beating the wave with his + and casting to the gales of the open sea his idle promises,--there, + standing among the shingle of the beach, the daughter of Minos follows + him, alas! with her beautiful sad eyes: she stares, astonied, like to a + Bacchante changed into a statue. She looks forth, and her heart floats + upon the great waves of her grief. She lets slip from her head her + fine-spun coif, she tears away the thin veils which cover her bosom, + and the smooth cincture which supports her quivering breasts. All that + slips from her body into the salt foam which ripples round her feet. + But little she cares for her coif or for her apparel carried away by + the tide! Lost, bewildered, with all her heart and all her soul, she is + clinging to thee, O Theseus._ + +And if Augustin, when he had read these burning verses of Catullus, looked +through the Anthologies which were popular in the African schools, he +would come upon "The Vigil of Venus," that eclogue which ends with such a +passionate cry: + + _O my springtime, when wilt thou come? When shall I be as the swallow? + When shall I cease to be silent?... May he love to-morrow, he + has not loved yet. And he who has already loved, may he love again + to-morrow._ + +Imagine the effect of such exhortations on a youth of fifteen! Truly, this +springtide of love, which the poet cries for in his distress, the son +of Monnica knew well was come for him. How he must have listened to the +musical and melancholy counsellor who told his pain to the leaves of the +book! What stimulant and what food for his boyish longings and dreams! And +what a divine chorus of beauties the great love-heroines of ancient epic +and elegy, Helen, Medea, Ariadne, Phaedra, formed and re-formed continually +in his dazzled memory! When we of to-day read such verses at Augustin's +age, some bitterness is mixed with our delight. These heroes and heroines +are too far from us. These almost chimerical beings withdraw from us into +outlying lands, to a vanished world which will never come again. But for +Augustin, this was the world he was born into--it was his pagan Africa +where pleasure was the whole of life, and one lived only for the lusts of +the flesh. And the race of fabulous princesses--they were not dead, those +ladies: they were ever waiting for the well-beloved in the palaces at +Carthage. Yes, the scholar of Madaura lived wonderful hours, dreaming thus +of love between the pages of the poets. These young dreams before love +comes are more bewitching than love itself: a whole unknown world suddenly +discovered and entered with a quivering joy of discovery at each step. The +unused strength of illusion appears inexhaustible, space becomes deeper and +the heart more strong.... + +A long time afterwards, when, recovered from all that, Augustin speaks to +us of the Divine love, he will know fully the infinite value of it from +having gone through all the painful entrancements of the other. And he will +say to us, with the sureness of experience: "The pleasure of the human +heart in the light of truth and the abundance of wisdom--yea, the pleasure +of the human heart, of the faithful heart, and of the heart which is +holy, stands alone. You will find nothing in any voluptuousness fit to be +compared to it. I say not that this other pleasure is less, for that which +is called less hath only to increase to become equal. No, I shall not say +that all other pleasure is less. No comparison can be made. It is another +kind, it is another reality." + + + + +VI + +THE HOLIDAYS AT THAGASTE + + +In the city of Apuleius, the Christian Monnica's son became simply a pagan. +He was near his sixteenth year: the awkward time of early virility was +beginning for him. Prepared at Madaura, it suddenly burst out at Thagaste. + +Augustin came back to his parents, no doubt during the vacation. But +this vacation lasted perhaps a whole year. He had come to the end of his +juvenile studies. The grammarians at Madaura could teach him nothing more. +To round off his acquirements, it would be necessary to attend the lectures +of some well-known rhetorician. Now there were very good rhetoricians only +at Carthage. Besides, it was a fashion, and point of honour, for Numidian +families to send their sons to finish their education in the provincial +capital. Patricius was most eager to do this for his son, who at Madaura +had shewn himself a very brilliant pupil and ought not therefore to be +pulled up half-way down the course. But the life of a student cost a good +deal, and Patricius had no money. His affairs were always muddled. He was +obliged to wait for the rents from his farms, to grind down his tenants, +and, ultimately, despairing of any other way out of it, to ask for an +advance of money from a rich patron. That needed time and diplomacy. + +Days and months went by, and Augustin, with nothing to do, joined in with +easily-made friends and gave himself up to the pleasures of his time of +life, like all the young townsmen of Thagaste--pleasures rather rough and +little various, such as were to be got in a little free-town of those days, +and as they have remained for the natives of to-day, whether they live +a town or country life. To hunt, to ride horseback, to play at games of +chance, to drink, eat, and make love--they wanted nothing beyond that. When +Augustin in his _Confessions_ accuses himself of his youthful escapades he +uses the most scathing language. He speaks of them with horror and disgust. +Once more we are tempted to believe that he exaggerates through an excess +of Christian remorse. There are even some who, put on their guard by this +vehement tone, have questioned the historical value of the _Confessions_. +They argue that when the Bishop of Hippo wrote these things his views and +feelings had altered. He could no longer judge with the same eye and in +the same spirit the happenings of his youth. All this is only too certain: +when he wrote, it was as a Christian he judged himself, and not as a cold +historian who refuses to go beyond the brutal fact. He tried to unravel +the origin and to trace the consequences of the humblest of his actions, +because this is of the highest importance for salvation. But however severe +his judgment may be, it does not impair the reality of the fact itself. +Moreover, in natures like his, acts which others would hardly think of +have a vibration out of all proportion with the act itself. The evil of sin +depends upon the consciousness of the sin and the pleasure taken in it. +Augustin was very intelligent and very sensual. + +In any case, young Africans develop early, and the lechery of the race +is proverbial. It must have been a good deal stronger at a time when +Christianity still had to fight against pagan slackness in these matters, +ere Islam had imposed its hypocritical austerity upon the general conduct. +There is even room for wonder that in Augustin's case this crisis of +development did not happen earlier than his sixteenth year. It seems that +it was only more violent. In what language he describes it! "I dared to +roam the woods and pursue my vagrant loves beneath the shade." But he +was not yet in love--this he points out himself. In his case then it was +simple lust. "From the quagmire of concupiscence, from the well of puberty, +exhaled a mist which clouded and befogged my heart, so that I could not +distinguish between the clear shining of affection and the darkness of +lust.... I could not keep within the kingdom of light, where friendship +binds soul to soul.... And so I polluted the brook of friendship with the +sewage of lust." Let us not try to make it clearer than he has left it +himself. When one thinks of all the African vices, one dare not dwell upon +such avowals. "Lord," he says, "I was loathsome in Thy sight." And with +pitiless justice he analyses the effect of the evil: "It stormed confusedly +within me, whirling my thoughtless youth over the precipices of desire. And +I wandered still further from Thee, and Thou didst leave me to myself; the +torrent of my fornications tossed and swelled and boiled and ran over." And +during this time: "Thou saidst nothing, O my God!" This silence of God is +the terrible sign of hardened sin, of hopeless damnation. It meant utter +depravity of the will; he did not even feel remorse any more. + +Here he is, then, as if unfastened from his child's soul--separated from +himself. The object of his youthful faith has no more meaning for him. He +understands no longer, and it is all one to him that he does not. Thus, +told by himself, does this first crisis of Augustin's life emerge from the +autobiography; and it takes on a general significance. Once for all, under +a definite form, and to a certain degree classic, he has diagnosed with +his subtle experience of doctor of souls the pubescent crisis in all young +men of his age, in all the young Christians who are to come after him. For +the story of Augustin is the story of each of us. The loss of faith always +occurs when the senses first awaken. At this critical moment, when nature +claims us for her service, the consciousness of spiritual things is, in +most cases, either eclipsed or totally destroyed. The gradual usage to the +brutalities of the instinct ends by killing the sensitiveness of the inward +feelings. It is not reason which turns the young man from God; it is the +flesh. Scepticism but provides him with excuses for the new life he is +leading. + +Thus started, Augustin was not able to pull up half-way on the road of +pleasure; he never did anything by halves. In these vulgar revels of the +ordinary wild youth, he wanted again to be best, he wanted to be first as +he was at school. He stirred up his companions and drew them after him. +They in their turn drew him. Among them was found that Alypius, who was the +friend of all his life, who shared his faults and mistakes, who followed +him even in his conversion, and became Bishop of Thagaste. These two future +shepherds of Christ roamed the streets with the lost sheep. They spent +the nights in the open spaces of the town, playing, or wantonly dreaming +before cups of cool drinks. They lounged there, stretched out on mats, with +a crown of leaves on the head, a jasmine garland round the neck, a rose +or marigold thrust above the ear. They never knew what to do next to kill +time. So one fine evening the reckless crew took it into their heads to +rifle a pear tree of one of Patricius's neighbours. This pear tree was just +beyond the vineyard belonging to Augustin's father. The rascals shook down +the pears. They took a few bites to find out the taste, and having decided +this to be rather disappointing, they chucked all the rest to the hogs. + +In this theft, done merely for the pleasure of the thing, Augustin sees +an evidence of diabolical mischief. Doubtless he committed many another +misdeed where, like this, the whole attraction lay in the Satanic joy +of breaking the law. His fury for dissolute courses knew no rest. Did +Monnica observe anything of this change in Augustin? The boy, grown big, +had escaped from the supervision of the women's apartments. If the mother +guessed anything, she did not guess all. It fell to her husband to open her +eyes. With the freedom of manners among the ancients, Augustin relates the +fact quite plainly.... That took place in the bath-buildings at Thagaste. +He was bathing with his father, probably in the _piscina_ of cold baths. +The bathers who came out of the water with dripping limbs were printing +wet marks of their feet upon the mosaic flooring, when Patricius, who was +watching them, suddenly perceived that his son had about him the signs +of manhood, that he was already bearing--as Augustin says himself in his +picturesque language--the first signs of turbulent youth, like another +_toga praetexta_. Patricius, as a good pagan, welcomed with jubilation this +promise of grand-children, and rushed off joyously to brag of his discovery +to Monnica. She took the news in quite another way. Frightened at the idea +of the dangers to which her son's virtue was exposed, she lectured him +in private. But Augustin, from the height of his sixteen years, laughed +at her. "A lot of old-women's gossip! Why does she want to talk about +things she can't understand!..." Tired out at last, Monnica tried to get +a promise from her son that he would at least have some restraint in his +dissipation--that he would avoid women of the town, and above all, that he +would have nothing to do with married women. For the rest, she put him in +God's hands. + +It may be wondered--Augustin himself wonders--that she did not think of +finding him a wife. They marry early in Africa. Even now any Arab labourer +buys a wife for his son, hardly turned sixteen, so that the fires of a too +warm youth may be quenched in marriage. But Monnica, who was not yet a +saint, acted in this matter like a foreseeing and practical woman of the +prosperous class. A wife would be a drag for a young man like Augustin, who +seemed likely to have such a brilliant career. A too early marriage would +jeopardize his future. Before all things, it was important that he should +become an illustrious rhetorician, and raise the fortunes of the family. +For her, all else yielded to this consideration. But she hoped at least +that the headstrong student might consent to be good into the bargain. + +This was also Patricius's way of looking at the matter. And so, says +Augustin, "My father gave himself no concern how I grew towards Thee, or +how chaste I was, provided only that I became a man of culture--however +destitute of Thy culture, O God.... My mother and he slackened the curb +without regard to due severity, and I was suffered to enjoy myself +according to my dissolute fancy." Meanwhile, Patricius was now become +(very tardily) a catechumen. The entreaties of his wife had won him to the +Catholic faith. But his sentiments were not much more Christian--"He hardly +thought of Thee, my God," acknowledges his son, who nevertheless was +pleased at this conversion. If Patricius decided to get converted, it was +probably from political reasons. Since the death of Julian the Apostate, +paganism appeared finally conquered. The Emperor Valentinianus had just +proclaimed heavy penalties against night-sacrifices. In Africa, the +Count Romanus persecuted the Donatists. All the Christians in Thagaste +were Catholic. What was the good of keeping up a useless and dangerous +resistance? Perhaps the end of Patricius--which was near--was as edifying +as Monnica could wish. But at all events, at the present moment, he was +not the man to interfere with Augustin's pleasures: he only thought of +the eventual fortune of the young man. Alone, Monnica might have had some +influence on him, and she herself was fascinated by his future career in +the world. Perhaps, to quiet her conscience, she said to herself that this +frivolous education would be more or less of a help to her son towards +bringing him back to God, that a day would come when the famous rhetorician +would plead the cause of Christ?... + +Scandalized though she might be at his conduct, it is however apparent that +it was about this time she began to get fonder of him, to worry over him as +her favourite child. But it was not till much later that the union between +mother and son became quite complete. Too many old customs still remained +preventing close intercourse between the men and women of a family. And it +will hardly do to picture such intimacy from the intimacy which may exist +between a mother and son of our own time. There was none of the spoiling, +or indulgence, or culpable weakness which enervates maternal tenderness and +makes it injurious to the energy of a manly character. Monnica was severe +and a little rough. If she let her feelings be seen, it was solely before +God. And yet it is most certain that in the depth of her heart she loved +Augustin, not only as a future member of Christ, but humanly, as a woman +frustrated of love in a badly assorted marriage may spend her love on her +child. The brutality of pagan ways revolted her, and she poured on this +young head all her stored-up affection. In Augustin she loved the being she +wished she could love in her husband. + +A number of personal considerations were no doubt involved in the deep and +unselfish attachment she had for her son: instinctively, she looked for him +to protect her against the father's violence. She felt that he would be the +support of her old age, and also, she foresaw dimly what one day he would +be. All this aided to bring about the tie, the understanding, which grew +more and more close between Augustin and Monnica. And so from this time +they both appear to us as they were to appear to all posterity--the pattern +of the Christian Mother and Son. Thanks to them, the hard law of the +ancients has been abrogated. There shall be no more barriers between the +mother and her child. No longer shall it be vain exterior rites which draw +together the members of the same family: they shall communicate in spirit +and truth. Heart speaketh to heart. The fellowship of souls is founded, +and the ties of the domestic hearth are drawn close, as they never were in +antiquity. No more shall they work in concert only for material things; +they will join together to love--and to love each other more. The son will +belong more to his mother. + +At the time we have now come to, Monnica was already undertaking the +conquest of Augustin's soul. She prayed for him fervently. The young man +cared very little: gratitude came to him only after his conversion. At this +time he was thinking of nothing but amusement. For this he even forgot his +career. But Monnica and Patricius thought of it constantly--especially +Patricius, who gave himself enormous trouble to enable this student on a +holiday to finish his studies. Eventually he got together the necessary +money, possibly borrowed enough to make up the sum from some rich landowner +who was the patron of the people of small means in Thagaste--say, that +gorgeous Romanianus, to whom Augustin, in acknowledgment, dedicated one of +his first books. The young man could now take the road for Carthage. + +He left by himself, craving for knowledge and glory and pleasure, his heart +full of longing for what he knew not, and melancholy without cause. What +was going to become of him in the great, unknown city? + + + + +THE SECOND PART + +THE ENCHANTMENT OF CARTHAGE + + + Amare et amari. + "To love and to be loved." + +_Confessions_, III, i. + + + + +I + +CARTHAGO VENERIS + + +"I went to Carthage, where shameful loves bubbled round me like boiling +oil." + +This cry of repentance, uttered by the converted Augustin twenty-five +years later, does not altogether stifle his words of admiration for the +old capital of his country. One can see this patriotic admiration stirring +between the lines. Carthage made a very strong impression on him. He gave +it his heart and remained faithful to the end. His enemies, the Donatists, +called him "the Carthaginian arguer." After he became Bishop of Hippo, he +was continually going to Carthage to preach, or dispute, or consult his +colleagues, or to ask something from men in office. When he is not there, +he is ever speaking of it in his treatises and plain sermons. He takes +comparisons from it: "You who have been to Carthage--" he often says to +his listeners. For the boy from little Thagaste to go to Carthage, was +about the same as for our youths from the provinces to go to Paris. _Veni +Carthaginem_--in these simple words there is a touch of naive emphasis +which reveals the bewilderment of the Numidian student just landed in the +great city. + +And, in fact, it was one of the five great capitals of the Empire: there +were Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria--Carthage. Carthage was the +sea-port capital of the whole western Mediterranean. With its large new +streets, its villas, its temples, its palaces, its docks, its variously +dressed cosmopolitan population, it astonished and delighted the schoolboy +from Madaura. Whatever local marks were left about him, or signs of the +rustic simpleton, it brushed off. At first, Augustin must have felt himself +as good as lost there. + +There he was, his own master, with nobody to counsel and direct him. He +does indeed mention his fellow-countryman, that Romanianus, the patron of +his father and of other people in Thagaste, as a high and generous friend +who invited him to his house when he, a poor youth, came to finish his +studies in a strange city, and helped him, not only with his purse, but +with his friendship. Unfortunately the allusion is not very clear. Still, +it does seem to shew that Augustin, in the first days after his arrival at +Carthage, stayed with Romanianus. It is not in the least improbable that +Romanianus had a house at Carthage and spent the winter there: during the +rest of the year he would be in his country houses round about Thagaste. +This opulent benefactor might not have been satisfied with giving Augustin +a good "tip" for his journey when he was leaving his native town, but may +also have put him up in his own house at Carthage. Such was the atonement +for those enormous fortunes of antiquity: the rich had to give freely and +constantly. With the parcelling out of wealth we have become much more +egoistical. + +In any case, Romanianus, taken up with his pleasures and business, could +not have been much of a guide for Monnica's son. Augustin was therefore +without control, or very nearly. No doubt he came to Carthage with a strong +desire to increase his knowledge and get renown, but still more athirst +for love and the emotions of sentiment. The love-prelude was deliriously +prolonged for him. He was at that time so overwhelmed by it, that it is the +first thing he thinks of when he relates his years at Carthage. "To love +and be loved" seems to him, as to his dear Alexandrine poets, the single +object of life. Yet he was not in love, "but he loved the idea of love." +_Nondum amabam, et amare amabam ... amare amans...._ + +Truly, never a pagan poet had hitherto found such language to speak +of love. These subtle phrases are not only the work of a marvellous +word-smith: through their almost imperceptible shades of meaning may be +descried an entirely new soul, the pleasure-loving soul of the old world +awakening to spiritual life. Modern people have repeated the words more +than enough, but by translating them too literally--"I loved to love"--they +have perhaps distorted the sense. They have made Augustin a kind of +Romantic like Alfred de Musset, a dilettante in love. Augustin is not so +modern, although he often seems one of ourselves. When he wrote those words +he was a bishop and a penitent. What strikes him above all in looking back +upon his uneasy and feverish life as a youth and young man, is the great +onrush of all his being which swept him towards love. Plainly, man is made +for love, since he loves without object and without cause, since in itself +alone the idea of love is already for him a beginning of love. Only he +falls into error in giving to creatures a heart that the Creator alone can +fill and satisfy. In this love for love's sake, Augustin discerned the sign +of the predestined soul whose tenderness will find no rest but in God. That +is why he repeats this word "Love" with a kind of intoxication. He knows +that those who love like him cannot love long with a human love. Nor does +he blush to acknowledge it:--he loved--he loved with all his soul--he +loved to the point of loving the coming of love. Happy intimation for the +Christian! A heart so afire is pledged to the eternal marriage. + +With this heat of passion, this lively sensibility, Augustin was a prey for +Carthage. The voluptuous city took complete hold on him by its charm and +its beauty, by all the seductions of mind and sense, by its promises of +easy enjoyment. + +First of all, it softened this young provincial, used to the harder country +life of his home; it relaxed the Numidian contracted by the roughness of +his climate; it cooled his eyes burned by the sun in the full-flowing of +its waters and the suavity of its horizons. It was a city of laziness, and +above all, of pleasure, as well for those plunged in business as for the +idlers. They called it _Carthago Veneris_--Carthage of Venus. And certainly +the old Phoenician Tanit always reigned there. Since the rebuilding of her +temple by the Romans, she had transformed herself into _Virgo Coelestis_. +This Virgin of Heaven was the great Our Lady of unchastity, towards whom +still mounted the adoration of the African land four hundred years after +the birth of Christ. "Strange Virgin," Augustin was to say later, "who can +only be honoured by the loss of virginity." Her dissolving influence seemed +to overcome the whole region. There is no more feminine country than this +Carthaginian peninsula, ravished on all sides by the caress of the waters. +Stretched out between her lakes on the edge of the sea, Carthage lounged in +the humid warmth of her mists, as if in the suffocating atmosphere of her +vapour-baths. + +She stole away the energies, but she was an enchantment for the eyes. +From the top of the impressive flight of steps which led up to the temple +of AEsculapius on the summit of the Acropolis, Augustin could see at his +feet the huge, even-planned city, with its citadel walls which spread out +indefinitely, its gardens, blue waters, flaxen plains, and the mountains. +Did he pause on the steps at sunset, the two harbours, rounded cup-shape, +shone, rimmed by the quays, like lenses of ruby. To the left, the Lake of +Tunis, stirless, without a ripple, as rich in ethereal lights as a Venetian +lagoon, radiated in ever-altering sheens, delicate and splendid. In front, +across the bay, dotted with the sails of ships close-hauled to the wind, +beyond the wind-swept and shimmering intervals, the mountains of Rhodes +raised their aerial summit-lines against the sky. What an outlook on the +world for a young man dreaming of fame! And what more exhilarating spot +than this Mount Byrsa, where, in deep layers, so many heroic memories were +gathered and superimposed. The great dusty plains which bury themselves +far off in the sands of the desert, the mountains--yes, and isles and +headlands, all bowed before the Hill that Virgil sang and seemed to do +her reverence. She held in awe the innumerable tribes of the barbaric +continent; she was mistress of the sea. Rome herself, from the height of +her Palatine, surged less imperial. + +More than any other of the young men seated with him on the benches of the +school of rhetoric, Augustin hearkened to the dumb appeals which came +from the ancient ruins and new palaces of Carthage. But the supple and +treacherous city knew the secret of enchaining the will. She tempted him by +the open display of her amusements. Under this sun which touches to beauty +the plaster of a hut, the grossest pleasures have an attraction which men +of the North cannot understand. The overflowing of lust surrounds you. +This prolific swarming, all these bodies, close-pressed and soft with +sweat, give forth as it were a breath of fornication which melts the will. +Augustin breathed in with delight the heavy burning air, loaded with human +odours, which filled the streets and squares of Carthage. To all the bold +soliciting, to all the hands stretched out to detain him as he walked, he +yielded. + +But for a mind like his Carthage had more subtle allurements in reserve. +He was taken by her theatres, by the verses of her poets and the melodies +of her musicians. He shed tears at the plays of Menander and Terence; +he lamented upon the misfortunes of separated lovers; he shared their +quarrels, rejoiced and despaired with them. And still he awaited the +epiphany of Love--that Love which the performance of the actors shewed him +to be so touching and fine. + +Such then was Augustin, given over to the irresponsibility of his eighteen +years--a heart spoiled by romantic literature, a mind impatient to try +every sort of intellectual adventure in the most corrupting and bewitching +city known to the pagan centuries, set amidst one of the most entrancing +landscapes in the world. + + + + +II + +THE AFRICAN ROME + + +Carthage did not offer only pleasures to Augustin; it was besides an +extraordinary subject to think about for an understanding so alert and +all-embracing as his. + +At Carthage he understood the Roman grandeur as he could not at Madaura +and the Numidian towns. Here, as elsewhere, the Romans made a point of +impressing the minds of conquered races by the display of their strength +and magnificence. Above all, they aimed at the immense. The towns built +by them offered the same decorative and monumental character of the +Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, which the Romans had further +exaggerated--a character not without emphasis and over-elaboration, but +which was bound to astonish, and that was the main thing in their view. In +short, their ideal was not perceptibly different from that of our modern +town councillors. To lay out streets which intersected at right angles; to +create towns cut into even blocks like chessboards; to multiply prospects +and huge architectural masses--all the Roman cities of this period revealed +such an aim, with an almost identical plan. + +Erected after this type, the new Carthage caused the old to be forgotten. +Everybody agreed that it was second only to Rome. The African writers +squandered the most hyperbolical praises upon it. For them it is "The +splendid, the august, the sublime Carthage." Although there may well be a +certain amount of triviality or of patriotic exaggeration in these praises, +it is certain that the Roman capital of the Province of Africa was no less +considerable than the old metropolis of the Hanno and Barcine factions. +With a population almost as large as that of Rome, it had almost as great +a circumference. It must further be recalled that as it had no ramparts +till the Vandal invasion, the city overflowed into the country. With its +gardens, villas, and burial-places of the dead, it covered nearly the +entire peninsula, to-day depopulated. + +Carthage, as well as Rome, had her Capitol and Palatine upon Mount Byrsa, +where rose no doubt a temple consecrated to the Capitolean triune deities, +Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, not far from the great temple of AEsculapius, a +modern transformation of the old Punic Eschmoum. Hard by these sanctuaries, +the Proconsul's palace dominated Carthage from the height of the acclivity +of the Acropolis. The Forum was at the foot of the hill, probably in the +neighbourhood of the ports--a Forum built and arranged in the Roman way, +with its shops of bankers and money-changers placed under the circular +galleries, with the traditional image of Marsyas, and a number of statues +of local celebrities. Apuleius no doubt had his there. Further off was the +Harbour Square, where gathered foreigners recently landed and the idlers of +the city in search of news, and where the booksellers offered the new books +and pamphlets. There was to be seen one of the curiosities of Carthage--a +mosaic representing fabulous monsters, men without heads, and men with only +one leg and one foot--a huge foot under which, lying upon their backs, they +sheltered from the sun, as under a parasol. On account of this feature they +were called the _sciapodes_. Augustin, who like everybody else had paused +before these grotesque figures, recalls them somewhere to his readers.... +Beside the sea, in the lower town and upon the two near hills of the +Acropolis, were a number of detached buildings that the old authors have +preserved the names of and briefly described. Thanks to the zeal of +archaeologists, it is now become impossible to tell where they stood. + +The pagan sanctuaries were numerous. That of the goddess Coelestis, the +great patroness of Carthage, occupied a space of five thousand feet. It +comprised, besides the actual [Greek: hieron], where stood the image of the +goddess, gardens, sacred groves, and courts surrounded with columns. The +ancient Phoenician Moloch had also his temple under the name of Saturn. +They called him _The Old One_, so Augustin tells us, and his worshippers +were falling away. On the other hand, Carthage had another sanctuary which +was very fashionable, a _Serapeum_ as at Alexandria, where were manifested +the pomps of the Egyptian ritual, celebrated by Apuleius. Neighbouring +the holy places, came the places of amusement: the theatre, the Odeum, +circus, stadium, and amphitheatre--this last, of equal dimensions with +the Colosseum at Rome, its gallery rising upon gallery, and its realistic +sculptures of animals and artisans. Then there were the buildings for the +public service: the immense cisterns of the East and the Malga, the great +aqueduct, which, after being carried along a distance of fifty-five miles, +emptied the water of the Zaghouan into the reservoirs at Carthage. Finally, +there were the Baths, some of which we know--those of Antoninus and of +Maximianus, and those of Gargilius, where one of the most important +Councils known to the history of the African Church assembled. There were +likewise many Christian basilicas at the time of Augustin. The authors +mention seventeen: it is likely there were more. That of Damous-el-Karita, +the only one of which considerable traces have been found, was vast and +richly decorated, and was perhaps the cathedral of Carthage. + +What other buildings there were are utterly lost to history. It +may be conjectured, however, that Carthage, as well as Rome, had a +_septizonium_--a decorative building with peristyles one above the other +which surrounded a reservoir. In fact, it is claimed that the one at +Rome was copied from Carthage. Straight streets paved with large flags +intersected around these buildings, forming a network of long avenues, very +bright and ventilated. Some of them were celebrated in the ancient world +either for their beauty or the animation of their trade: the street of the +Jewellers, the street of Health, of Saturn, of Coelestis, too, or of Juno. +The fig and vegetable markets and the public granaries were also some of +the main centres of Carthaginian life. + +It is unquestionable that Carthage, with its buildings and statues, its +squares, avenues and public gardens, looked like a large capital, and was +a perfect example of that ideal of rather brutal magnificence and strength +which the Romans obtruded everywhere. + +And even while it dazzled the young provincial from Thagaste, the African +Rome shewed him the virtue of order--social and political order. Carthage, +the metropolis of Western Africa, maintained an army of officials who +handled the government in its smallest details. First of all, there +were the representatives of the central power, the imperial rulers--the +Proconsul, a sort of vice-emperor, who was surrounded by a full court, a +civil and military staff, a privy council, an _officium_ which included a +crowd of dignitaries and subaltern clerks. Then there was the Propraetor +of Africa who, being in control of the government of the whole African +province, had an _officium_ still larger perhaps than the Proconsul's. +After them came the city magistrates, who were aided in their functions by +the Council of the Decurions--the Senate of Carthage. These Carthaginian +senators cut a considerable figure: for them their colleagues at Rome +were full of airs and graces, and the Emperors endeavoured to keep them +in a good-humour. All the details of city government came under their +supervision: the slaughter-houses, buildings, the gathering of municipal +taxes, and the police, which comprised even the guardians of the Forum. +Then there were the army and navy. The home port of a grain-carrying fleet +which conveyed the African cereals to Ostia, Carthage could starve Rome +if she liked. The grain and oil of all countries lay in her docks--the +storehouses of the state provisions, which were in charge of a special +prefect who had under his orders a whole corporation of overseers and +clerks. + +Augustin must have heard a good deal of grumbling at Carthage against this +excess of officialism. But, all the same, so well-governed a city was a +very good school for a young man who was to combine later the duties of +bishop, judge, and governor. The blessings of order, of what was called +"the Roman peace" no doubt impressed him the more, as he himself came from +a turbulent district often turned upside down by the quarrels of religious +sects and by the depredations of the nomads--a boundary-land of the Sahara +regions where it was much harder to bring the central government into +play than in Carthage and the coast-towns. To appreciate the beauty of +government, there is nothing like living in a country where all is at the +mercy of force or the first-comer's will. Such of the Barbarians who came +in contact with Roman civilization were overcome with admiration for the +good order that it established. But what astonished them more than anything +else was that the Empire was everywhere. + +No man, whatever his race or country, could help feeling proud to belong to +the Roman city. He was at home in all the countries in the world subject +to Rome. Our Europe, split into nationalities, can hardly understand now +this feeling of pride, so different from our narrow patriotisms. The way to +feel something of it is to go to the colonies: out there the least of us +may believe himself a sovereign, simply from the fact that he is a subject +of the governing country. This feeling was very strong in the old world. +Carthage, where the striking effect of the Empire appeared in all its +brilliancy, would increase it in Augustin. He had only to look around him +to value the extent of the privilege conferred by Rome on her citizens. Men +coming from all countries, without exception of race, were, so to speak, +made partners of the Empire and collaborated in the grandeur of the Roman +scheme. If the Proconsul who then occupied the Byrsa palace, the celebrated +Symmachus, belonged to an old Italian family, he whom he represented, +the Emperor Valentinian, was the son of a Pannonian soldier. The Count +Theodosius, the general who suppressed the insurrection of Firmus in +Mauretania, was a Spaniard, and the army he led into Africa was made up, +for the most part, of Gauls. Later on, under Arcadius, another Gaul, +Rufinus, shall be master of the whole of the East. + +An active mind like Augustin's could not remain indifferent before this +spectacle of the world thrown open by Rome to all men of talent. He had the +soul of a poet, quick to enthusiasm; the sight of the Eagles planted on +the Acropolis at Carthage moved him in a way he never forgot. He acquired +the habit of seeing big, and began to cast off race prejudices and all the +petty narrowness of a local spirit. When he became a Christian he did not +close himself up, like the Donatists, within the African Church. His dream +was that Christ's Empire upon earth should equal the Empire of the Caesars. + +Still, it is desirable not to fall into error upon this Roman unity. +Behind the imposing front it shewed from one end to the other of the +Mediterranean, the variety of peoples, with their manners, traditions, +special religions, was always there, and in Africa more than elsewhere. +The population of Carthage was astonishingly mixed. The hybrid character +of this country without unity was illustrated by the streaks found in the +Carthaginian crowds. All the specimens of African races elbowed one another +in the streets, from the nigger, brought from his native Soudan by the +slave-merchant, to the Romanized Numidian. The inflow, continually renewed, +of traffickers and cosmopolitan adventurers increased this confusion. +And so Carthage was a Babel of races, of costumes, of beliefs and ideas. +Augustin, who was at heart a mystic, but also a dialectician extremely fond +of showy discussions, found in Carthage a lively summary of the religions +and philosophies of his day. During these years of study and reflection he +captured booty of knowledge and observation which he would know how to make +use of in the future. + +In the Carthage sanctuaries and schools, in the squares and the streets, +he could see pass the disciples of all the systems, the props of all the +superstitions, the devotees of all the religions. He heard the shrill +clamour of disputes, the tumult of fights and riots. When a man was at the +end of his arguments, he knocked down his opponent. The authorities had a +good deal of trouble to keep order. Augustin, who was an intrepid logician, +must have longed to take his share in these rows. But one cannot exactly +improvise a faith between to-day and to-morrow. While he awaited the +enlightenment of the truth, he studied the Carthaginian Babel. + +First of all, there was the official religion, the most obvious and perhaps +the most brilliant, that of the Divinity of the Emperors, which was still +kept up even under the Christian Caesars. Each year, at the end of October, +the elected delegates of the entire province, having at their head the +_Sacerdos province_, the provincial priest, arrived at Carthage. Their +leader, clad in a robe broidered with palms, gold crown on head, made his +solemn entry into the city. It was a perfect invasion, each member dragging +in his wake a mob of clients and servants. The Africans, with their +taste for pomp and colour, seized the chance to give themselves over to a +display of ruinous sumptuosities: rich dresses, expensive horses splendidly +caparisoned, processions, sacrifices, public banquets, games at the circus +and amphitheatre. These strangers so overcrowded the city that the imperial +Government had to forbid them, under severe penalties, to stay longer +than five days. A very prudent measure! At these times, collisions were +inevitable between pagans and Christians. It was desirable to scatter such +crowds as soon as possible, for riots were always smouldering in their +midst. + +No less thronged were the festivals of the Virgin of Heaven. A survival +of the national religion, these feasts were dear to the hearts of the +Carthaginians. Augustin went to them with his fellow-students. "We trooped +there from every quarter," he says. There was a great gathering of people +in the interior court which led up to the temple. The statue, taken from +its sanctuary, was placed before the peristyle upon a kind of repository. +Wantons, arrayed with barbarous lavishness, danced around the holy +image; actors performed and sang hymns. "Our eager eyes," Augustin adds +maliciously, "rested in turn on the goddess, and on the girls, her +adorers." The Great Mother of the Gods, the Goddess of Mount Berecyntus, +was worshipped with similar license. Every year the people of Carthage went +to wash her solemnly in the sea. Her statue, carried in a splendid litter, +robed with precious stuffs, curled and farded, passed through the streets +of the city, with its guard of mummers and Corybants. These last, "with +hair greasy from pomade, pale faces, and a loose and effeminate walk, held +out bowls for alms to the onlookers." + +The devotion to Isis was yet another excuse for processions: the _Serapeum_ +was a rival attraction to the temple of the Heavenly Maiden. If we may +trust Tertullian, the Africans swore only by Serapis. Possibly Mithras +had also worshippers in Carthage. Anyhow, the occult religions were fully +represented there. Miracle-working was becoming more and more the basis +even of paganism. Never had the soothsayers been more flourishing. +Everybody, in secret, pried into the entrails of the sacrificial victims, +or used magic spells. As to the wizards and astrologists, they did business +openly. Augustin himself consulted them, like all the Carthaginians. The +public credulity had no limits. + +On the opposite side from the pagan worship, the sects which had sprung +from Christianity sprouted. True, Africa has given birth to but a small +number of heresies: the Africans had not the subtle mind of the Orientals +and they were not given to theorizing. But a good many of the Eastern +heresies had got into Carthage. Augustin must have still met Arians there, +although at this period Arianism was dying out in Africa. What is certain +is that orthodox Catholicism was in a very critical state. The Donatists +captured its congregations and churches; they were unquestionably in the +majority. They raised altar against altar. If Genethlius was the Catholic +bishop, the Donatist bishop was Parmenianus. And they claimed to be more +Catholic than their opponents. They boasted that they were the Church, the +single, the unique Church, the Church of Christ. But these schismatics +themselves were already splitting up into many sects. At the time Augustin +was studying at Carthage, Rogatus, Bishop of Tenes, had just broken +publicly with Parmenian's party. Another Donatist, Tyconius, published +books wherein he traversed many principles dear to his fellow-religionists. +Doubt darkened consciences. Amid these controversies, where was the truth? +Among whom did the Apostolic tradition dwell? + +To put the finishing touch on this anarchy, a sect which likewise derived +from Christianity--Manicheeism--began to have numerous adepts in Africa. +Watched with suspicion by the Government, it concealed part of its +doctrine, the most scandalous and subversive. But the very mystery which +enveloped it, helped it to get adherents. + +Among all these apostles preaching their gospel, these devotees beating +the drum before their god, these theologians reciprocally insulting and +excommunicating one another, Augustin brought the superficial scepticism of +his eighteenth year. He wanted no more of the religion in which his mother +had brought him up. He was a good talker, a clever dialectician; he was in +a hurry to emancipate himself, to win freedom for his way of thinking as +for his way of life; and he meant to enjoy his youth. With such gifts, and +with such dispositions, he could only choose among all these doctrines that +which would help most the qualities of his mind, at once flattering his +intellectual pretensions, and leaving his pleasure-loving instincts a loose +rein. + + + + +III + +THE CARTHAGE STUDENT + + +However strong were the attractions of the great city, Augustin well knew +that he had not been sent there to amuse himself, or to trifle as an +amateur with philosophy. He was poor, and he had to secure his future--make +his fortune. His family counted on him. Neither was he ignorant of the +difficult position of his parents and by what sacrifices they had supplied +him with the means to finish his studies. Necessarily he was obliged to be +a student who worked. + +With his extraordinary facility, he stood out at once among his +fellow-students. In the rhetoric school, where he attended lectures, +he was, he tells us, not only at the top, but he was the leader of his +companions. He led in everything. At that time, rhetoric was extremely +far-reaching: it had come to take in all the divisions of education, +including science and philosophy. Augustin claims to have learned all that +the masters of his time had to teach: rhetoric, dialectic, geometry, music, +mathematics. Having gone through the whole scholastic system, he thought of +studying law, and aided by his gift of words, to become a barrister. For a +gifted young man it was the shortest and surest road to money and honours. + +Unhappily for him, hardly was he settled down at Carthage than his father +died. This made his future again problematical. How was he to keep up his +studies without the sums coming from his father? The affairs of Patricius +must have been left in the most parlous condition. But Monnica, clinging to +her ambitious plans for her son, knew how to triumph over all difficulties, +and she continued to send Augustin money. Romanianus, the Maecenas of +Thagaste, who was doubtless applied to by her, came once more to the rescue +of the hard-up student. The young man, set at ease about his expenses, +resumed light-heartedly his studious and dissipated life. + +As a matter of fact, this family bereavement does not seem to have caused +him much grief. In the _Confessions_ he mentions the death of his father in +a few words, and, so to speak, in parenthesis, as an event long foreseen +without much importance. And yet he owed him a great deal. Patricius was +hard pressed, and he took immense trouble to provide the means for his +son's education. But with the fine egotism of youth, Augustin perhaps +thought it enough to have profited by his father's sacrifices, and +dispensed himself from gratitude. In any case, his affection for his father +must have been rather lukewarm; the natural differences between them ran +too deep. In these years, Monnica filled all the heart of Augustin. + +But the influence of Monnica herself was very slight upon this grown-up +youth, eighteen years old. He had forgotten her lessons, and it did not +trouble him much if his conduct added to the worries of the widow, who was +now struggling with her husband's creditors. At heart he was a good son and +he deeply loved his mother, but inevitably the pressure of the life around +him swept him along. + +He has pictured his companions for us, after his conversion, as terrible +blackguards. No doubt he is too severe. Those young men were neither better +nor worse than elsewhere. They were rowdy, as they were in the other cities +of the Empire, and as one always is at that age. Imperial regulations +enjoined the police to have an eye on the students, to note their conduct +and what company they kept. They were not to become members of prohibited +societies, not to go too often to the theatre, nor to waste their time in +raking and feastings. If their conduct became too outrageous, they were to +be beaten with rods and sent back to their parents. At Carthage there was +a hard-living set of men who called themselves "The Wreckers." Their great +pleasure was to go and make a row at a professor's lecture; they would +burst noisily into the classroom and smash up anything they could lay hold +of. They amused themselves also by "ragging" the freshmen, jeering at their +simplicity, and playing them a thousand tricks. Things haven't much changed +since then. The fellow-students of Augustin were so like students of +to-day that the most modern terms suggest themselves to describe their +performances. + +Augustin, who was on the whole well conducted, and, as behoved a future +professor, had a respect for discipline, disapproved of "The Wreckers" and +their violence. This did not prevent him from enjoying himself in their +society. He was overcome with shame because he could not keep pace with +them--we must believe it at least, since he tells us so himself. With a +certain lack of assurance, blended however with much juvenile vanity, he +joined the band. He listened to that counsel of vulgar wisdom which is +disastrous to souls like his: "Do as others do." He accordingly did do +as the others; he knew all their debauchery, or he imagined he did, for +however low he went, he was never able to do anything mean. He was then so +far from the faith that he arranged love-trysts in the churches. "I was not +afraid to think of my lust, and plan a scheme for securing the deadly fruit +of sin, even within the walls of Thy church during the celebration of Thy +mysteries." We might be reading the confession of a sensualist of to-day. +One grows astonished at these morals, at once so old and so modern. What, +already! These young Christian basilicas, but newly sprung out of the +earth, where the men were strictly separated from the women--were they +already become places of assignation, where love-letters were slipped into +hands, and procuresses sold their furtive services!... + +At length the great happiness for which Augustin had so long been sighing +was granted him: he loved and he was loved. + +He loved as he indeed was able to love, with all the impetuosity of his +nature and all the fire of his temperament, with all his heart and all his +senses. "I plunged headlong into love, whose fetters I longed to wear." But +as he went at once to extremes, as he meant to give himself altogether, +and expected all in return, he grew irritated at not receiving this same +kind of love. It was never enough love for him. Yet he was loved, and the +very certainty of this love, always too poor to his mind, exasperated the +violence and pertinacity of his desire. "Because I was loved, I proudly +riveted round myself the chain of woe, to be soon scourged with the red-hot +iron rods of jealousy, torn by suspicions, fears, anger, and quarrels." +This was passion with chorus and orchestra, a little theatrical, with its +violences, its alternations between fury and ecstasy, such as an African, +steeped in romantic literature, would conceive it. Deceived, he flung +himself in desperate pursuit of the ever-flitting love. He had certainly +more than one passion. Each one left him more hungry than the last. + +He was sensual, and he felt each time how brief is pleasure, in what a +limited circle all enjoyment turns. He was tender, eager to give himself; +and he saw plainly that one never gives oneself quite altogether, that even +in the maddest hours of surrender one always reserves oneself in secret, +keeping for oneself something of oneself; and he felt that most of the time +his tenderness got no answer. When the joyous heart brings the offering of +its love, the heart of her he loves is absent. And when it is there, on the +edge of the lips, decked and smiling to meet the loved one, it is the other +who is absent. Almost never do they join together, and they never join +together altogether. And so this Love, which claims to be constant and even +eternal, ought to be, if it would prolong itself, a continual act of faith, +and hope, and charity. To believe in it in spite of its darkening and +falling away; to hope its return, often against all evidence; to pardon its +injustices and sometimes its foul actions--how many are capable of such +abnegation? Augustin went through all that. He was in despair about it. +And then, the nostalgia of predestined souls took hold of him. He had an +indistinct feeling that these human loves were unworthy of him, and that +if he must have a master, he was born to serve another Master. He had a +desire to shake off the platitude of here below, the melancholy fen where +stagnated what he calls "the marsh of the flesh"; to escape, in a word, +from the wretched huts wherein for a little he had sheltered his heart; to +burn all behind him, and so prevent the weakness of a return; and to go and +pitch his tent further, higher, he knew not where--upon some unapproachable +mountain where the air is icy, but before the eyes, the vasty stretches of +light and space.... + +These first loves of Augustin were really too fierce to last. They +burned up themselves. Augustin did not keep them up long. There was in +him, besides, an instinct which counteracted his exuberant, amorous +sentimentality--the sense of beauty. That in itself was enough to make him +pause on the downhill of riot. The anarchy and commotion of passion was +repellent to a mind devoted to clearness and order. But there was still +another thing--the son of the Thagaste freeholder had any amount of common +sense. That at least was left to him of the paternal heritage. A youth of +what we call the lower middle class, strictly brought up in the hard and +frugal discipline of the provinces, he felt the effects of his training. +The bohemianism in which his friends revelled could not hold him +indefinitely. Besides this, the career he desired, that of a barrister +or professor, had a preliminary obligation to maintain a certain outward +decorum. He himself tells us so; in the midst of his most disreputable +performances he aspired to be known for his fashion and wit--_elegans atque +urbanus_. Politeness of speech and manners, the courteous mutual deference +of the best society--such, was the ideal of this budding professor of +rhetoric. + +Anxiety about his future, joined to his rapid disenchantments, ere long +sobered the student: he just took his fling and then settled down. Love +turned for him into sensual habit. His head became clear for study and +meditation. The apprentice to rhetoric liked his business. Up to his +last breath, despite his efforts to change, he continued, like all his +contemporaries, to love rhetoric. He handled words like a worker in verbals +who is aware of their price and knows all their resources. Even after his +conversion, if he condemns profane literature as a poisoner of souls, he +absolves the beauty of language. "I accuse not words," he says. "Words +are choice and precious vessels. I accuse the wine of error that drunken +doctors pour out for us into these fair goblets." At the Rhetoric School he +took extreme pleasure in declaiming. He was applauded; the professor gave +him as an example to the others. These scholastic triumphs foretold others +more celebrated and reverberating. And so, in his heart, literary vanity +and ambition disputed the ever-lively illusions of love. And then, above +all! he had to live; Monnica's remittances were necessarily small; the +generosity of Romanianus had its limit. So he beat about to enlarge his +small student's purse. He wrote verses for poetic competitions. Perhaps +already he was able to act as tutor to certain of his fellow-students, less +advanced. + +If the need of loving tormented his sentimental heart, he tried to assuage +it in friendship. He loved friendship as he loved love. He was a passionate +and faithful friend up to his death. At this time of his life, he was +riveting friendships which were never to be broken. He had beside him his +fellow-countryman, Alypius, the future Bishop of Thagaste, who had followed +him to Carthage and would, later on, follow him to Milan; Nebridius, a not +less dear companion, fated to die early; Honoratus, whom he drew into his +errors and later did his best to enlighten; and, finally, that mysterious +young man, whose name he does not tell us, and whose loss he mourned as +never any one has mourned the death of a friend. + +They lived in daily and hourly intimacy, in continual fervour and +enthusiasm. They were great theatre-goers, where Augustin was able to +satisfy his desire for tender emotions and romantic adventures. They had +musical parties; they tried over again the popular airs heard at the +Odeum or some other of the innumerable theatres at Carthage. All the +Carthaginians, even the populace, were mad about music. The Bishop of +Hippo, in his sermons, recalls a mason upon his scaffolding, or a shoemaker +in his stall, singing away the tunes of well-known musicians. Then our +students strolled on the quays or in the Harbour Square, contemplating +the many-coloured sea, this splendour of waters at the setting sun, which +Augustin will extol one day with an inspiration unknown to the ancient +poets. Above all, they fell into discussions, commented what they had +lately read, or built up astonishing plans for the future. So flowed by a +happy and charming life, abruptly interpolated with superb anticipations. +With what a full heart the Christian penitent calls it back for us!--"What +delighted me in the intercourse of my friends, was the talk, the laughter, +the good turns we did each other, the common study of the masters of +eloquence, the comradeship, now grave now gay, the differences that left +no sting, as of a man differing with himself, the spice of disagreement +which seasoned the monotony of consent. Each by turns would instruct or +listen; impatiently we missed the absent friend, and savoured the joy of +his return. We loved each other with all our hearts, and such tokens of +friendship springing from the heart and displayed by a word, a glance, an +expression, by a thousand pretty complaisances, supply the heat which welds +souls together, and of many make one." + +It is easily understood that such ties as these had given Augustin a +permanent disgust for his rowdy comrades of a former time: he went no more +with "The Wreckers." The small circle he took pleasure in was quiet and +cheerful. Its merriment was controlled by the African gravity. He and his +friends come before my eyes, a little like those students of theology, or +those cultivated young Arabs, who discuss poetry, lolling indolently upon +the cushions of a divan, while they roll between their fingers the amber +beads of their rosary, or walking slowly under the arcades of a mosque, +draped in their white-silk simars, with a serious and meditative air, +gestures elegant and measured, courteous and harmonious speech, and +something discreet, polite, and already clerical in their tone and manners. + +In fact, the life which Augustin was at that time relishing was the pagan +life on its best and gentlest side. The subtle network of habits and daily +occupations enveloped him little by little. There was some risk of his +growing torpid in this soft kind of life, when suddenly a rude shock roused +him.... It was a chance, but in his eyes a providential chance, which put +the _Hortensius_ of Cicero between his hands. Augustin was about nineteen, +still a student; according to the order which prevailed in the schools, +the time had come for him to read and explain this philosophical dialogue. +He had no curiosity about the book. He took it from his sense of duty as +a student, because it figured on the schedule. He unrolled the book, and +began it, doubtless with calm indifference. All of a sudden, a great +unexpected light shone between the lines. His heart throbbed. His whole +soul sprang towards these phrases, so dazzling and revealing. He awoke +from his long drowsiness. Before him shone a marvellous vision.... As this +dialogue is lost, we can hardly to-day account for such enthusiasm, and +we hold that the Roman orator was a very middling philosopher. We know, +however, through Augustin himself, that the book contained an eloquent +praise of wisdom. And then, words are naught without the soul of the +reader; all this, falling into Augustin's soul, rendered a prolonged and +magnificent sound. It is evident, too, that just at the moment when he +unrolled the book he was in a condition to receive this uplifting summons. +In such minutes, when the heart, ignorant of itself, swells like the sea +before a storm, when all the inner riches of the being overflow, the +slightest glimmer is enough to reveal all these imprisoned forces, and the +least shock to set them free. + +He has at least preserved for us, in pious and faithful gratitude, some +phrases of this dialogue which moved him so deeply. Especially does he +admire this passage, wherein the author, after a long discussion, ends in +these terms: "If, as pretend the philosophers of old time, who are also +the greatest and most illustrious, we have a soul immortal and divine, it +behoves us to think, that the more it has persevered in its way, that is to +say, in reason, love, and the pursuit of truth, and the less it has been +intermingled and stained in human error and passion, the easier will it be +for it to raise itself and soar again to the skies." + +Such phrases, read in a certain state of mind, might well overwhelm this +young man, who was ere long to yearn for the cloister and was destined to +be the founder of African monasticism. To give his whole life to the study +of wisdom, to compel himself towards the contemplation of God, to live +here below an almost divine life--this ideal, impossible to pagan wisdom, +Augustin was called to realize in the name of Christ. That had dawned on +him, all at once, while he was reading the _Hortensius_. And this ideal +appeared to him so beautiful, so well worth the sacrifice of all he had +hitherto loved, that nothing else counted for him any more. He despised +rhetoric, the vain studies it compelled him to pursue, the honour and glory +it promised him. What was all that to the prize of wisdom? For wisdom he +felt himself ready to give up the world.... But these heroic outbursts +do not, as a rule, keep up very long in natures so changeable and +impressionable as Augustin's. Yet they are not entirely thrown away. +Thus, in early youth, come dim revelations of the future. There comes a +presentiment of the port to which one will some day be sailing; a glimpse +of the task to fulfil, the work to build up; and all this rises before the +eyes in an entrancement of the whole being. Though the bright image be +eclipsed, perhaps for years, the remembrance of it persists amid the worst +degradations or the worst mediocrities. He who one single time has seen it +pass, can never afterwards live quite like other people. + +This fever calmed, Augustin set himself to reflect. The ancient +philosophers promised him wisdom. But Christ also promised it! Was it not +possible to reconcile them? And was not the Gospel ideal essentially more +human than that of the pagan philosophers? Suppose he tried to submit to +that, to bring the faith of his childhood into line with his ambitions as a +young man of intellect? To be good after the manner of his mother, of his +grandparents, of the good Thagaste servants, of all the humble Christian +souls whose virtues he had been taught to respect, and at the same time to +rival a Plato by the strength of thought--what a dream! Was it possible?... +He tells us himself that the illusion was brief, and that he grew cool +about the _Hortensius_ because he did not find the name of Christ in it. He +deceives himself, probably. At this time he was not so Christian. He yields +to the temptation of a fine phrase: when he wrote his _Confessions_ he had +not yet entirely lost this habit. + +But what remains true is, that feeling the inadequateness of pagan +philosophy, he returned for a moment towards Christianity. The Ciceronian +dialogue, by disappointing his thirst for the truth, gave him the idea of +knocking at the door of the Church and trying to find out if on that side +there might not be a practicable road for him. This is why the reading +of _Hortensius_ is in Augustin's eyes one of the great dates of his life. +Although he fell back in his errors, he takes credit for his effort. +He recognizes in it the first sign, and, as it were, a promise of his +conversion. "Thenceforth, my God, began my upward way, and my return +towards Thee." + +He began then to study the Holy Scriptures with a more or less serious +intention to instruct himself in them. But to go to the Bible by way of +Cicero was to take the worst road. Augustin got lost there. This direct +popular style, which only cares about saying things, and not about how they +are said, could only repel the pupil of Carthage rhetoricians, the imitator +of the harmonious Ciceronian sentences. Not only had he much too spoiled +a taste in literature, but there was also too much literature in this +pose of a young man who starts off one fine morning to conquer wisdom. He +was punished for his lack of sincerity, and especially of humility. He +understood nothing of the Scripture, and "I found it," he says, "a thing +not known to the proud, nor yet laid open to children, but poor in +appearance, lofty in operation, and veiled in mysteries. At that time, I +was not the man to bow my head so as to pass in at its door."... + +He grew tired very quickly. He turned his back on the Bible, as he +had thrown aside _Hortensius_, and he went to find pasture elsewhere. +Nevertheless, his mind had been set in motion. Nevermore was he to know +repose, till he had found truth. He demanded this truth from all the sects +and all the churches. So it was, that in despair he flung himself into +Manicheeism. + +Some have professed amazement that this honest and practical mind should +have stuck fast in a doctrine so tortuous, so equivocal, contaminated by +fancies so grossly absurd. But perhaps it is forgotten that there was +everything in Manicheeism. The leaders of the sect did not deliver the bulk +of the doctrine all at once to their catechumens; the entire initiation was +a matter of several degrees. Now Augustin never went higher than a simple +_auditor_ in the Manichean Church. What attracted specially fine minds to +the Manichees, was that they began by declaring themselves rationalists. +To reconcile faith with natural science and philosophy has been the fad +of heresiarchs and free-thinkers in all ages. The Manicheans bragged that +they had succeeded. They went everywhere, crying out: "Truth, Truth!" That +suited Augustin very well: it was just what he was looking for. He hastened +to the preachings of these humbugs, impatient to receive at last this +"truth," so noisily announced. From what they said, it was contained in +several large books written by their prophet under the guidance of the Holy +Ghost. There was quite a library of them. By way of bamboozling the crowd, +they produced some of them which looked very important, ponderous as +Tables of the Law, richly bound in vellum, and embellished with striking +illuminations. How was it possible to doubt that the entire revelation was +contained in such beautiful books? One felt at once full of respect for a +religion which was able to produce in its favour the testimony of such a +mass of writings. + +However, the priests did not open them. To allay the impatience of their +hearers, they amused them by criticizing the books and dogmas of the +Catholics. This preliminary criticism was the first lesson of their +instruction. They pointed out any number of incoherences, absurdities, +and interpolations in the Bible: according to them, a great part of the +Scriptures had been foisted on the world by the Jews. But they triumphed +especially in detecting the contradictions of the Gospel narratives. They +sapped them with syllogisms. It is easy to understand that these exercises +in logic should have at once attracted the youthful Augustin. With his +extraordinary dialectical subtilty, he soon became very good at it +himself--much better even than his masters. He made speeches in their +assemblies, fenced against a text, peremptorily refuted it, and reduced his +adversaries to silence. He was applauded, covered with praise. A religion +which brought him such successes must be the true one. + +After he became a bishop, he tried to explain to himself how it was that +he fell into Manicheeism, and could find only two reasons. "The first," +he says, "was a friendship which took hold of me under I know not what +appearance of kindness, and was like a cord about my neck.... The second +was those unhappy victories that I almost always won in our disputes." + +But there is still another which he mentions elsewhere, and it had +perhaps the most weight. This was the loose moral code which Manicheeism +authorized. This doctrine taught that we are not responsible for the evil +we do. Our sins and vices are the work of the evil Principle--the God of +Darkness, enemy of the God of Light. Now at the moment when Augustin was +received as _auditor_ by the Manichees, he had a special need of excusing +his conduct by a moral system so convenient and indulgent. He had just +formed his connection with her who was to become the mother of his child. + + + + +IV + +THE SWEETNESS OF TEARS + + +Augustin was nearly twenty. He had finished his studies in rhetoric within +the required time. According to the notions of that age, a young man +ought to have concluded his course by his twentieth year. If not, he was +considered past mending and sent back there and then to his family. + +It may appear surprising that a gifted student like Augustin did not finish +his rhetoric course sooner. But after his terms at Madaura, he had lost +nearly a year at Thagaste. Besides, the life of Carthage had so many charms +for him that doubtless he was in no hurry to leave. However that may be, +the moment was now come for him to make up his mind about his career. +The wishes of his parents, the advice of his masters, as well as his own +ambitions and qualities, urged him, as we know, to become a barrister. But +now, suddenly, all his projects for the future changed. Not only did he +give up the law, but at the very moment when all appeared to smile on him, +at the opening of his youth, he left Carthage to go and bury himself as a +teacher of grammar in the little free-town his birthplace. + +As he has neglected to give any explanation of this sudden determination, +we are reduced to conjectures. It is likely that his mother was bothered +about household expenses and could no longer afford to keep him at +Carthage. Besides, she had other children, a son and daughter, to start in +life. Augustin was on the point of being, if not poor, at least very hard +up. He must do something to earn his living, and as quickly as possible. +In these conditions, the quickest way out of the difficulty was to sell +to others what he had bought from his masters. To live, he would open a +word-shop, as he calls it disdainfully. But as he had only just ceased to +be a student, he could not dream of becoming a professor in a great city +such as Carthage, and setting himself up in rivalry to so many celebrated +masters. The best thing he could do, if he did not want to vegetate, was to +fall back on some more modest post. Now his protector, Romanianus, wanted +him to go to Thagaste. This rich man had a son almost grown up, whom it was +necessary to put as soon as possible in the hands of a tutor. Augustin, +so often helped by the father, was naturally thought of to look after the +youth. Furthermore, Romanianus, who appreciated Augustin's talent, must +have been anxious to attract him to Thagaste and keep him there. With an +eye to the interests of his free-town, he desired to have such a shining +light in the place. So he asked this young man, whom he patronized, to +return to his native district and open a grammar school. He promised +him pupils, and, above all, the support of his influence, which was +considerable, Monnica, as we may conjecture, added her entreaties to those +of the great head of the Thagaste municipality. Augustin yielded. + +Did it grieve him very much to make up his mind to this exile? It must have +been extremely hard for a young man of twenty to give up Carthage and its +pleasures. Moreover, it is pretty nearly certain that at this time he had +already started that connection which was to last so long. To leave a +mistress whom he loved, and that in all the freshness of a passion just +beginning--one wonders how he was able to make up his mind to it. And yet +he did leave, and spent nearly a year at Thagaste. + +One peculiar mark of the youth, and even of the whole life of Augustin, is +the ease with which he unlearns and breaks off his habits--the sentimental +as well as the intellectual. He used up a good many doctrines before +resting in the Catholic truth; and even afterwards, in the course of a +long life, he contradicted and corrected himself more than once in his +controversies and theological writings. His _Retractations_ prove this. One +might say that the accustomed weighs on him as a hindrance to his liberty; +that the look of the places where he lives becomes hateful to him as a +threat of servitude. He feels dimly that his true country is elsewhere, and +that if he must settle anywhere it is in the house of his Heavenly Father. +_Inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te...._ "Restless are our +hearts, O my God, until they rest in Thee." Long before St. Francis of +Assisi, he practised the mystic rule: "As a stranger and a pilgrim." It is +true that in his twentieth year he was very far from being a mystic. But he +already felt that restlessness which made him cross the sea and roam Italy +from Rome to Milan. He is an impulsive. He cannot resist the mirages of his +heart or his imagination. He is always ready to leave. The road and its +chances tempt him. He is eager for the unknown. He lets himself be carried +in delight by the blowing wind. God calls him; he obeys without knowing +where he goes. This unsettled young man, halting between contrary passions, +who feels at home nowhere, has already the soul of an apostle. + +This changeableness of mood was probably the true cause of his departure +for Thagaste. But other more apparent reasons, reasons more patent to a +juvenile consciousness, guided him also. No doubt he was not sorry to +reappear in his little town, although he was so young, with the importance +and authority of a master. His former companions were going to become his +pupils. And then the Manichees had fanaticized him. Carried away by the +neophyte's bubbling zeal, elevated by his triumphs at the public meetings +in Carthage, he meant to shine before his fellow-countrymen, and perhaps +convert them. He departed with his mind made up to proselytize. Let us +believe also, that in spite of his dissolute life, and the new passion that +filled his heart, he did not come back to Thagaste without an affectionate +thought at the back of his head for his mother. + +The reception that Monnica had in reserve for him was going to surprise him +considerably. Since her widowhood, the wife of Patricius had singularly +advanced in the way of Christian perfection. The early Church not only +offered widows the moral help of its sacraments and consolations, it also +granted a special dignity with certain privileges to those who made a vow +to refrain from sex-intercourse. They had in the basilicas, even as the +consecrated virgins, a place of honour, divided from that of the other +matrons by a balustrade. They wore a special dress. They were obliged to +a conduct which would shew them worthy of all the outer marks of respect +which surrounded them. The austerity of Monnica had increased with the zeal +of her faith. She set an example to the Church people at Thagaste. Docile +to the teachings of her priests, eager to serve her brethren, multiplying +alms as much as she could with her straitened means, she was unfailing at +the services of the Church. Twice daily, morning and evening, she might be +seen, exact to the hour of prayer and sermon. She did not go there, her son +assures us, to mingle in cabals and the gossip of pious females, but to +hear God's word in homily, and that God might hear her in prayer. + +The widow compelled all who were about her to the same severe rule which +she herself observed. In this rigid atmosphere of his home, the student +from Carthage, with his free, fashionable airs, must have caused a painful +astonishment. Monnica felt at once that she and her son understood each +other no longer. She began by remonstrating with him. Augustin rebelled. +Things got worse when, with his presumption of the young professor +new-enamelled by the schools, the harsh and aggressive assurance of the +heresiarch, he boasted as loud as he could of being a Manichee. Monnica, +deeply wounded in her piety and motherly tenderness, ordered him to give up +his errors. He refused, and only replied by sarcasms to the poor woman's +complaints. Then she must have believed that the separation was final, that +Augustin had committed an irreparable crime. Being an African Christian, +absolute in her faith and passionate for its defence, she regarded her +son as a public danger. She was filled with horror at his treason. It is +possible, too, that guided by the second-sight of her affection, she saw +clearer into Augustin's heart than he did himself. She was plunged in +sorrow that he mistook himself to this extent, and refused the Grace which +desired to win him to the Catholic unity. And as he was not content with +losing himself, but also drew others into peril--disputing, speech-making +before his friends, abusing his power of language to throw trouble into +consciences--Monnica finally made up her mind. She forbade her son to eat +at her table, or to sleep under her roof. She drove him from the house. + +This must have been a big scandal in Thagaste. It does not appear, however, +that Augustin cared much. In all the conceit of his false knowledge, he had +that kind of inhumanity which drives the intellectual to make litter of the +sweetest and deepest feelings as a sacrifice to his abstract idol. Not only +did he not mind very much if his apostasy made his mother weep, but he did +not trouble, either, to reconcile the chimeras of his brain with the living +reality of his soul and the things of life. Whatever he found inconvenient, +he tranquilly denied, content if he had talked well and entangled his +adversary in the net of his syllogisms. + +Put in interdict by Monnica, he simply went and quartered himself on +Romanianus. The sumptuous hospitality he received there very soon consoled +him for his exile from his home. And if his self-esteem had been affronted, +the pride of living familiarly with so important a personage was, for a +vain young man, a very full compensation. + +In fact, this Romanianus roused the admiration of the whole country by his +luxury and lavish expenditure. He was bound to ruin himself in the long +run, or, at any rate, to raise up envious people bent upon his ruin. Being +at the head of the Decurions, he was the protector, not only of Thagaste, +but of the neighbouring towns. He was the great patron, the influential +man, who had nearly the whole country for his dependents. The town council, +through gratitude and flattery, had had his name engraved upon tables of +brass, and had put up statues to him. It had even conferred powers on him +wider than municipal powers. The truth is that Romanianus did not dole +out his benefactions to his fellow-citizens. He gave them bear-fights and +other spectacles till then unknown at Thagaste. He did not grudge public +banquets, and every day a free meal was to be got at his house. The guests +were served plentifully. After having eaten his dinner, they dipped in +the purse of the host. Romanianus knew the art of doing an obliging thing +discreetly, and even how to anticipate requests which might be painful. So +he was proclaimed unanimously, "the most humane, the most liberal, the most +polite and happiest of men." + +Generous to his dependents, he did not forget himself. He built a villa +which, by the space it occupied, was a real palace, with _thermae_ walled +in precious marbles. He passed his time in the baths, or gaming, or +hunting--in short, he led the life of a great landed proprietor of those +days. + +No doubt these villas had neither the beauty nor the art-value of the great +Italian villas, which were a kind of museums in a pretty, or grand, natural +frame; but they did not lack charm. Some of them, like that of Romanianus, +were built and decorated at lavish expense. Immensely large, they took +in sometimes an entire village; and sometimes, also, the villa, properly +speaking, the part of the building where the master dwelt, was fortified, +closed in by walls and towers like a feudal castle. Upon the outer gates +and the entrance door might be read in big letters: "The Property of +So-and-so." Often, the inscription was repeated upon the walls of an +enclosure or of a farm, which really belonged to a dependent of the great +man. Under the shelter of the lord's name, these small-holders defended +themselves better against fiscal tyranny, or were included in the +immunities of their patrons. So was formed, under the cover of patronage, +a sort of African feudalism. Augustin's father, who owned vineyards, was +certainly a vassal of Romanianus. + +As the African villa was a centre of agricultural activity, it maintained +on the estate a whole population of slaves, workmen, and small-holders. +The chief herdsman's house neighboured that of the forester. Through +deer-parks, enclosed by latticed fences, wandered gazelles. Oil factories, +vats and cellars for wine, ran on from the bath-buildings and the offices. +Then there was the main building with its immense doorway, its belvedere of +many stories, as in the Roman villas, its interior galleries, and wings to +the right and left of the _atrium_. In front lay the terraces, the gardens +with straight walks formed by closely-clipped hedges of box which led to +pools and jets of water, to arbours covered with ivy, to nymph-fountains +ornamented with columns and statues. In these gardens was a particular +place called the "philosopher's corner." The mistress of the house used to +go there to read or dream. Her chair, or folding-seat, was placed under the +shade of a palm tree. Her "philosopher" followed her, holding her parasol +and leading her little favourite dog. + +It is easy to realize that Augustin managed to stand his mother's severity +without overmuch distress in one of these fine country houses. To be +comfortable there, he had only to follow his natural inclination, which +was, he tells us, epicureanism. It is most certain that at this period +the only thing he cared about and sought after was pleasure. Staying +with Romanianus, he took his share in all the pleasant things of life, +_suavitates illius vitae_--shared the amusements of his host, and only +bothered about his pupils when he had nothing better to do. He must have +been as little of a grammarian as possible--he hadn't the time. With +the tyrannical friendship of rich people, who are hard put to it to +find occupation, Romanianus doubtless monopolized him from morning till +night. They hunted together, or dined, or read poetry, or discussed in +the evergreen alleys of the garden or "the philosopher's corner." And +naturally, the recent convert to Manicheeism did his best to indoctrinate +and convert his patron--so far at least as a careless man like Romanianus +could be converted. Augustin accuses himself of having "flung" Romanianus +into his own errors. Augustin probably was not so guilty. His wealthy +friend does not seem to have had any very firm convictions. In all +likelihood, he was a pagan, a sceptical or hesitating pagan, such +as existed in numbers at that time. Led by Augustin, he drew near to +Manicheeism. Then, when Augustin gave up Manicheeism for Platonic +philosophy, we see Romanianus take the airs of a philosopher. Later, when +Augustin came back to Catholicism, he drew Romanianus in his wake towards +that religion. This man of fashion was one of those frivolous people who +never go deep into things, for whom ideas are only a pastime, and who +consider philosophers or men of letters as amusers. But it is certain +that he liked to listen to Augustin, and let himself be influenced. If he +trifled with Manicheeism, the reason was that Augustin dazzled him with his +arguments and fine phrases. This orator of twenty had already extraordinary +charm. + +So Augustin led a delightful life with Romanianus. Everything pleased +him--his talking triumphs, the admiration of his hearers, the flattery +and luxury which surrounded him. Meanwhile, Monnica was plunged in grief +at his conduct, and implored God to draw him from his errors. She began +to be sorry that she had sent him away, and with the clear-sightedness of +the Christian, she perceived that Romanianus' house was not good for the +prodigal. It would be better to have him back. Near her he would run less +risk of being corrupted. Through intense praying, came to her a dream +which quickened her determination. "She dreamed that she was weeping and +lamenting, with her feet planted on a wooden rule, when she saw coming +towards her a radiant youth who smiled upon her cheerfully. He asked the +reason of her sorrow and her daily tears ... and when she told him she was +bewailing my perdition, he bade her be of good comfort, look and see, for +where she was, there was I also. She looked, and saw me standing by her +side on the same rule." + +Filled with joy by this promise from on high, Monnica asked her son to +come home. He did come back, but with the quibbles of the Sophist, the +rhetorician cavilled against his mother. He tried to upset her happiness. +He said to her: + +"Since, according to your dream, we are to be both standing on the same +rule, that means that you are going to be a Manichean." + +"No," answered Monnica. "_He_ did not say, where he is you will be, but +where you are he will be." + +Augustin confesses that this strong good sense made a certain impression +on him. Nevertheless he did not change. For still nine years he remained a +Manichee. + +As a last resource, Monnica begged a bishop she knew, a man deeply read in +the Scriptures, to speak with her son and refute his errors. But so great +was the reputation of Augustin as an orator and dialectician that the holy +man dared not try a fall with such a vigorous jouster. He answered the +mother very wisely, that a mind so subtle and acute could not long continue +in such gross sophisms. And he offered his own example, for he, too, had +been a Manichee. But Monnica pressed him with entreaties and tears. At last +the bishop, annoyed by her persistence, but at the same time moved by her +tears, answered with a roughness mingled with kindness and compassion: + +"Go, go! Leave me alone. Live on as you are living. It cannot be that the +son of such tears should be lost." + +_Filius istarum lacrymarum_: the son of such tears!... Was it indeed the +country bishop, or rather the rhetorician Augustin who, in a burst of +gratitude, hit upon this sublime sentence? Certain it is that later on +Augustin saw in his mother's tears as it were a first baptism whence he +came forth regenerate. After having borne him according to the flesh, +Monnica, by her tears and moans, gave him birth into the spiritual life. +Monnica wept because of Augustin. Monnica wept for Augustin. This is rather +astonishing in the case of so severe a mother--this African a trifle +rough. The expressions--tears and moans and weeping--occur so often in +her son's writings, that we are at first tempted to take them for pious +metaphors--figures of a sacred rhetoric. We suspect that Monnica's tears +must come from the Bible, an imitation of King David's penitential tears. +But it would be quite an error to believe that. Monnica wept real tears. +In her whole-hearted prayers she bedewed the pavement of the basilica; she +moistened the balustrade against which she leant her forehead. This austere +woman, this widow whose face nobody saw any more, whose body was shapeless +by reason of the mass of stuffs, grey and black, which wrapped her from +head to foot--this rigid Christian concealed a heart full of love. Love +such as this was then a perfectly new thing. + +That an African woman should carry her piety to the point of fanaticism; +that she should work to conquer her son to her faith; that, if he strayed +from it, she should hate him and drive him out with curses--this has been +seen in Africa at all times. But that a mother should mourn at the thought +that her child is lost for another life; that she grows terror-stricken and +despairing when she thinks that she may possess a happiness in which he +will have no part, and walk in the gardens of Heaven while her child will +not be there--no, this had never been seen before. "Where I am you will +be," near me, against my heart, our two hearts meeting in the one same +love--in this union of souls, continued beyond the grave, lies all the +Christian sweetness and hope. + +Augustin was no longer, or not yet, a Christian. But in his tears he is +the true son of his mother. This gift of tears that Saint Lewis of France +begged God with so much earnestness and contrition to grant him, Monnica's +son had to the full. "For him to weep was a pleasure." [1] He inebriated +himself with his tears. Now, just while he was at Thagaste, he lost a +friend whom he loved intensely. This death set free the fountain of tears. +They are not yet the holy tears which he will shed later before God, but +only poor human tears, more pathetic perhaps to our own weakness. + +[Footnote 1: Sainte-Beuve.] + +Who was this friend? He tells us in very vague terms. We only know that +they had grown up as boys together and had gone to the same schools; that +they had just passed a year together, probably at Carthage; that this young +man, persuaded by him, was become a Manichee; and that, in a word, they +loved passionately. Augustin, while speaking of him, recalls in a deeper +sense what Horace said of his friend Virgil: _dimidium animae_--"O thou half +of my soul!" + +Well, this young man fell gravely sick of a fever. As all hope was at an +end, they baptized him, according to the custom. He grew better, was almost +cured, "As soon as I was able to talk to him," says Augustin--"and that was +as soon as he could bear it, for I never left his side, and we were bound +up in one another--I ventured a jest, thinking that he would jest too, +about the baptism which he had received, when he could neither think nor +feel. But by this time he had been told of his baptism. He shrank from +me as from an enemy, and with a wonderful new-found courage, warned me +never to speak so to him again, if I wished to remain his friend. I was +so astounded and confused that I said no more, resolving to wait till +he should regain his strength, _when I would tell him frankly what I +thought_." + +So, at this serious moment, he whom they called "the Carthaginian disputer" +was sorry not to be able to measure himself in a bout of dialectics with +his half-dead friend. The intellectual poison had so perverted his mind, +that it almost destroyed in him the feelings of common decency. But if his +head, as he acknowledges, was very much spoiled, his heart remained intact. +His friend died a few days after, and Augustin was not there. He was +stunned by it. + +His grief wrought itself up to wildness and despair. "This sorrow fell like +darkness on my heart, and wherever I looked I saw nothing but death. My +country became a torture, my father's house a misery. All the pleasures +that I had shared with him, turned into hideous anguish now that he was +gone. My eyes sought for him everywhere, and found him not. I hated the +familiar scenes because he was not there, and they could no more cry to +me, 'Lo! he will come.' as they used when he was absent but alive...." +Then Augustin began to weep louder, he prolonged his weeping, finding +consolation only in tears. Monnica's tenderness was restrained; in him it +was given full vent and exaggerated. At that time, the Christian moderation +was unknown to him, as well as the measure which the good taste of the +ancients prompted. He has often been compared to the most touching +geniuses, to Virgil, to Racine, who had also the gift of tears. But +Augustin's tenderness is more abandoned, and, so to speak, more romantic. +It even works up, sometimes, into an unhealthy excitement. + +To be full of feeling, as Augustin was then, is not only to feel with +excessive sensitiveness the least wounds, the slightest touches of love or +hate, nor is it only to give oneself with transport; but it is especially +to take delight in the gift of oneself, to feel at the moment of full +abandonment that one is communicating with something infinitely sweet, +which already has ceased to be the creature loved. It is love for love, it +is to weep for the pleasure of tears, it is to mix with tenderness a kind +of egoism avid of experiences. Having lost his friend, Augustin loathes all +the world. He repeats: "Tears were my only comfort. I was wretched, and +my wretchedness was dear to me." And accordingly, he did not want to be +consoled. But as, little by little, the terrors of that parting subsided, +he perceived himself that he played with grief and made a joy of his +tears. "My tears," he says, "were dearer to me than my friend had been." +By degrees the friend is almost forgotten. Though Augustin may hate life +because his friend has gone, he confesses naively that he would not have +sacrificed his existence for the sake of the dead. He surmises that what +is told of Orestes and Pylades contending to die for each other is but a +fable. Ultimately, he comes to write: "Perhaps I feared to die, _lest the +other half of him whom I had loved so dearly, should perish_." He himself, +in his _Retractations_, condemns this phrase as pure rhetoric. It remains +true that what was perhaps the deepest sorrow of his life--this sorrow so +sincere and painful which had "rent and bloodied his soul"--ended with a +striking phrase. + +It should be added, that in a stormy nature like his, grief, like love, +wears itself out quickly. It burns up passion and sentiment as it does +ideas. When at length he regained his calm, everything appeared drab. +Thagaste became intolerable. With his impulsive temperament, his changeable +humour, he all at once hit upon a plan: To go back to Carthage and open a +rhetoric school. Perhaps, too, the woman he loved and had abandoned there +was pressing him to return. Perhaps she told him that she was about to +become a mother. Always ready to go away, Augustin scarcely hesitated. +It is more than likely that he did not consult Monnica. He only told +Romanianus, who, as he had all kinds of reasons for wanting to keep +Augustin at Thagaste, at first strongly objected. But the young man pointed +to his future, his ambition to win fame. Was he going to bury all that in a +little town? + +Romanianus yielded, and with a generosity that is no longer seen, he paid +the expenses this time too. + + + + +V + +THE SILENCE OF GOD + + +Augustin was going to live nine years at Carthage--nine years that he +squandered in obscure tasks, in disputes sterile or unfortunate for himself +and others--briefly, in an utter forgetfulness of his true vocation. "And +during this time Thou wert silent, O my God!" he cries, in recalling only +the faults of his early youth. Now, the silence of God lay heavy. And yet +even in those years his tormented soul had not ceased to appeal. "Where +wert Thou then, O my God, while I looked for Thee? Thou wert before me. But +I had drawn away from myself and I could not find myself. How much less, +then, could I find Thee." + +This was certainly the most uneasy, and, at moments, the most painful time +of his life. Hardly was he got back to Carthage than he had to struggle +against ever-increasing money difficulties. Not only had he to get his +own living, but the living of others--possibly his mother's and that of +his brother and sister--at all events, he had to support his mistress and +the child. It is possible that the infant was born before its father left +Thagaste; if not, the birth must have occurred shortly after. + +The child was called Adeodatus. There is a kind of irony in this name, +which was then usual, of Adeodatus--"Gift of God." This son of his sin, as +Augustin calls him, this son whom he did not want, and the news of whose +birth must have been a painful shock--this poor child was a gift of Heaven +which the father could have well done without. And then, when he saw him, +he was filled with joy, and he cherished him as a real gift from God. + +He accepted his fatherhood courageously, and, as it happens in such +cases, he was drawn closer to his mistress, their association taking on +something of conjugal dignity. Did the mother of Adeodatus justify such +attachment--an attachment which was to last more than ten years? The +mystery in which Augustin intended that the woman he had loved the most +should remain enveloped for all time, is nearly impenetrable to us. No +doubt she was of a very humble, not to say low class, since Monnica judged +it impossible to bring about a marriage between the ill-assorted pair. +There must have been an extreme inequality between the birth and education +of the lovers. This did not prevent Augustin from loving his mistress +passionately, for her beauty perhaps, or perhaps for her goodness of heart, +or both. Nevertheless, it is surprising, that in view of his changing +humour, and his prompt and impressionable soul, he remained faithful to +her so long. What was to prevent his taking his son and going off? Ancient +custom authorized such an act. But Augustin was tender-hearted. He was +afraid to cause pain; he dreaded for others the wounds that caused him so +much suffering himself. So he stayed on from kindness, from pity, habit +too, and also because, in spite of everything, he loved the mother of his +child. Up to the time of his conversion, they lived like husband and wife. + +So now, to keep his family, he really turns "a dealer in words." In spite +of his youth (he was barely twenty) the terms he had kept at Thagaste as +a teacher of grammar allowed him to take his place among the rhetoricians +at Carthage. Thanks to Romanianus, he got pupils at once. His protector at +Thagaste sent his son, that young Licentius whose education Augustin had +already begun, with one of his brothers, doubtless younger. It seems likely +that the two youths lived in Augustin's house. A small fact which their +master has preserved, looks like a proof of this. A spoon having been lost +in the house, Augustin, to find out where it was, told Licentius to go +and consult a wizard, one Albicerius, who had, just then, a great name in +Carthage. This message is scarcely to be explained unless we suppose the +lad was lodging in his professor's house. Another of the pupils is known to +us. This is Eulogius, who was later on a rhetorician at Carthage, and of +whom Augustin relates an extraordinary dream. Finally, there was Alypius, +a little younger than himself, his friend--"the brother of his heart," as +he calls him. Alypius had been attending his lessons at Thagaste. When the +schoolmaster abruptly threw up his employment, the father of the pupil +was angry, and in sending his son to Carthage, he forbade him to go near +Augustin's class. But it was difficult to keep such eager friends apart. +Little by little, Alypius overcame his father's objections, and became a +pupil of his friend. + +Augustin's knowledge, when he began to lecture, could not have been very +deep, for he had only lately quitted the student's bench himself. His +duties forced him to learn what he did not know. In teaching he taught +himself. It was at this time that he did most of the reading which +afterwards added substance to his polemics and treatises. He tells us +himself that he read in those days all that he could lay hands on. He is +very proud of having read by himself and understood without any assistance +from a master, the _Ten Categories_ of Aristotle, which was considered one +of the most abstruse works of the Stagirite. In an age when instruction was +principally by word of mouth, and books comparatively rare, it is obvious +that Augustin was not what we call an "all-devouring reader." We do not +know if Carthage had many libraries, or what the libraries were worth. It +is no less true that the author of _The City of God_ is the last of the +Latin writers who had a really all-round knowledge. It is he who is the +link between modern times and pagan antiquity. The Middle Age hardly knew +classical literature, save by the allusions and quotations of Augustin. + +So in spite of family and professional cares, he did not lose his +intellectual proclivities. The conquest of truth remained always his great +ambition. He still hoped to find it in Manicheeism, but he began to think +that it was a long time coming. The leaders of the sect could not have +trusted him thoroughly. They feared his acute and subtle mind, so quick +to detect the flaw in a thesis or argument. That is why they postponed +his initiation into their secret doctrines. Augustin remained a simple +_auditor_ in their Church. By way of appeasing the enormous activity of +his intelligence, they turned him on to controversy, and the critical +discussion of the Scriptures. Giving themselves out for Christians, they +adopted a part of them, and flung aside as interpolated or forged all that +was not in tune with their theology. Augustin, as we know, triumphed in +disputes of this kind, and was vain because he excelled in them. + +And when he grew tired of this negative criticism and asked his evangelists +to give him more substantial food, they put him on some exoteric doctrine +calculated to appeal to a young imagination by its poetic or philosophical +colouring. The catechumen was not satisfied, but he put up with it for +lack of anything better. Very prettily he compares these enemies of the +Scriptures to the snarers of birds, who defile or fill with earth all the +water-places where the birds use to drink, save one mere; and about this +they set their snares. The birds all fly there, not because the water +is better, but because there is no other water, and they know not where +else to go and drink. So Augustin, not knowing where to quench his thirst +for truth, was fain to make the best of the confused pantheism of the +Manichees. + +What remains noteworthy is, that however unstable his own convictions were, +he yet converted everybody about him. It was through him that his friends +became Manichees: Alypius one of the first; then Nebridius, the son of a +great landowner near Carthage; Honoratius, Marcianus; perhaps, too, the +youngest of his pupils, Licentius and his brother--all victims of his +persuasive tongue, which he exerted later on to draw them back from their +errors. So great was his charm--so deep, especially, was public credulity! + +This fourth century was no longer a century of strong Christian faith. On +the other hand, the last agony of paganism was marked by a new attack of +the lowest credulity and superstition. As the Church energetically combated +both one and the other, it is not surprising that it was chiefly the +pagans who were contaminated. The old religion was to end by foundering in +magic. The greatest minds of the period, the neo-Platonists, the Emperor +Julian himself, were miracle-workers, or at any rate, adepts in the occult +sciences. Augustin, who was then separated from Christianity, followed the +general impulse, together with the young men he knew. Just now we saw him +sending to consult the soothsayer, Albicerius, about the loss of a spoon. +And this man of intellect believed also in astrologers and nigromancers. + +Strips of lead have been found at Carthage upon which are written magic +spells against horses entered for races in the circus. Just like the +Carthaginian jockeys, Augustin had recourse to these hidden and fraudulent +practices, to make sure of success. On the eve of a verse competition in +the theatre, he fell in with a wizard who offered, if they could agree +about the price, to sacrifice a certain number of animals to buy the +victory. Upon this, Augustin, very much annoyed, declared that if the prize +were a crown of immortal gold, not a fly should be sacrificed to help him +win it. Really, magic was repellent to the honesty of his mind, as well +as to his nerves, by reason of the suspicious and brutal part of its +operations. As a rule, it was involved with haruspicy, and had a side of +sacred anatomy and the kitchen which revolted the sensitive--dissection +of flesh, inspection of entrails, not to mention the slaughtering and +strangling of victims. Fanatics, such as Julian, gave themselves up with +delight to these disgusting manipulations. What we know of Augustin's soul +makes it quite clear why he recoiled with horror. + +Astrology, on the contrary, attracted him by its apparent science. Its +adepts called themselves "mathematicians," and thus seemed to borrow from +the exact sciences something of their solidity. Augustin often discussed +astrology with a Carthage physician, Vindicianus, a man of great sense +and wide learning, who even reached Proconsular honours. In vain did he +point out to the young rhetorician that the pretended prophecies of the +mathematicians were the effect of chance; in vain did Nebridius, less +credulous than his friend, join his arguments to those of the crafty +physician; Augustin clung obstinately to his chimera. His dialectical mind +discovered ingenious justifications for what the astrologers claimed. + +Thus, dazzled by all the intellectual phantasms, he strayed from one +science to another, repeating meanwhile in his heart the motto of his +Manichean masters: "The Truth, the Truth!". But whatever might be the +attractions of the speculative life, he had first to face the needs of +actual life. The sight of his child called him back to a sense of his +position. To get money, and for that purpose to push himself forward, put +himself in evidence, increase his reputation--Augustin worked at that as +hard as he could. It led him to enter for the prize of dramatic poetry. +He was declared the winner. His old friend, the physician Vindicianus, who +was then Proconsul, placed the crown, as he says, upon his "disordered +head." The future Father of the Church writing for the theatre--and what a +theatre it was then!--is not the least extraordinary thing in this life so +disturbed and, at first sight, so contradictory. + +It was also from literary ambition that about the same time he wrote a book +on aesthetics called _Upon the Beautiful and the Fit_, which he dedicated to +a famous colleague, the Syrian Hierius, "orator to the City of Rome," one +of the professors of the official education appointed either by the Roman +municipality or the Imperial treasury. This Levantine rhetorician had an +immense success in the capital of the Empire. His renown had got beyond +academical and fashionable circles and crossed the sea. Augustin admired +him on trust, like everybody else. It is clear that, at this time he could +not imagine a more glorious fortune for himself than to become, like +Hierius, orator to the City of Rome. Later in life, the Bishop of Hippo, +while condemning the vanity of his youthful ambitions, must have made some +extremely ironical reflections as to their modesty. How mistaken he was +about himself! An Augustin had dreamed of equalling one day this obscure +pedagogue, of whom nobody, save for him, would ever have spoken again. Men +of instinct, like Augustin, continually go wrong in this way about their +object and the means to employ. But their mistakes are only in appearance. +A will stronger than their own leads them, by mysterious ways, whither they +ought to go. + +This first book of Augustin's is lost, and we are unable to say whether +there be any reason to regret it. He himself recalls it to us in a very +indifferent tone and rather vague terms. It would seem, however, that his +aesthetic had a basis of Manichean metaphysics. But what is significant for +us, in this youthful essay, is that the first time Augustin wrote as an +author it was to define and to praise Beauty. He did not yet know, at least +not directly from the text, the dialogues of Plato, and he is already +inclined to Platonism. He was this by nature. His Christianity will be a +religion all of light and beauty. For him, the supreme Beauty is identical +with the supreme Love. "Do we love anything," he used to say to his +friends, "except what is beautiful?" _Num amamus aliquid, nisi pulchrum?_ +Again, at the end of his life, when he strives in _The City of God_ to +make clear for us the dogma of the resurrection of the body, he thinks our +bodies shall rise free from all earthly flaws, in all the splendour of the +perfect human type. Nothing of the body will be lost. It will keep all its +limbs and all its organs _because they are beautiful_. One recognizes in +this passage, not only the Platonist, but the traveller and art-lover, who +had gazed upon some of the finest specimens of ancient statuary. + +This first book had hardly any success. Augustin does not even say whether +the celebrated Hierius paid him a compliment about it, and he has an air +of giving us to understand that he had no other admirer but himself. New +disappointments, more serious mortifications, changed little by little his +state of mind and his plans for the future. He was obliged to acknowledge +that after years of effort he was scarcely more advanced than at the start. +There was no chance to delude himself with vain pretences: it was quite +plain to everybody that the rhetorician Augustin was not a success. Now, +why was this? Was it that he lacked the gift of teaching? Perhaps he had +not the knack of keeping order, which is the most indispensable of all +for a schoolmaster. What suited him best no doubt was a small and select +audience which he charmed rather than ruled. Large and noisy classes he +could not manage. At Carthage, these rhetoric classes were particularly +difficult to keep in order, because the students were more rowdy than +elsewhere. At any moment "The Wreckers" might burst in and make a row. +Augustin, who had not joined in these "rags" when he was a student, saw +himself obliged to endure them as a professor. He had nothing worse to +complain of than his fellow-professors, in whose classes the same kind of +disturbance took place. That was the custom and, in a manner of speaking, +the rule in the Carthage schools. For all that, a little more authoritative +bearing would not have harmed him in the eyes of these disorderly boys. But +he had still graver defects for a professor who wants to get on: he was not +a schemer, and he could not make the most of himself. + +It is quite possible that he did not possess the qualities which just then +pleased the pagan public in a rhetorician. The importance that the ancients +attached to physical advantages in an orator is well known. Now, according +to an old tradition, Augustin was a little man and not strong: till the end +of his life he complained of his health. He had a weak voice, a delicate +chest, and was often hoarse. Surely this injured him before audiences used +to all the outward emphasis and all the studied graces of Roman eloquence. +Finally, his written and spoken language had none of those brilliant and +ingenious curiosities of phrase which pleased in literary and fashionable +circles. This inexhaustibly prolific writer is not in the least a stylist. +In this respect he is inferior to Apuleius, or Tertullian, though he leaves +them far behind in the qualities of sincere and deep sentiment, poetic +flow, colour, the vividness of metaphor, and, besides, the emotion, the +suavity of the tone. With all that, no matter how hard he tried, he could +never grasp what the rhetoricians of his time understood by style. This is +why his writings, as well as his addresses, were not very much liked. + +Nevertheless, good judges recognized his value, and guessed the powers, +lying still unformed within him, which he was misusing ere they were +mature. He was received at the house of the Proconsul Vindicianus, who +liked to talk with him, and treated him with quite fatherly kindness. +Augustin knew people in the best society. He did all his life. His charm +and captivating manners made him welcome in the most exclusive circles. +But just because he was valued by fashionable society, it came home to him +more painfully that he had not the position he deserved with the public +at large. Little by little his humour grew bitter. In this angry state of +mind he was no longer able to consider things with the same confidence and +serenity. His mental disquietudes took hold of him again. + +His ideas were affected, first of all. He began to have doubts, more +and more definite, about Manicheeism. He began by suspecting the rather +theatrical austerity which the initiated of the sect made such a great +parade of. Among other turpitudes, he saw one day in one of the busiest +parts of Carthage "three of the Elect whinny after some women or other who +were passing, and begin making such obscene signs that they surpassed the +coarsest people for impudence and shamelessness." He was scandalized at +that; but, after all, it was a small thing. He himself was not so very +virtuous then. Generally your intellectual worries very little about +squaring his conduct with his principles, and does not bother about the +practical part. No; what was much worse in his eyes is that the Manichean +physical science, a congeries of fables more or less symbolical, suddenly +struck him as ruinous. He had just been studying astronomy, and he found +that the cosmology of the Manichees--of these men who called themselves +materialists--did not agree with scientific facts. Therefore Manicheeism +must be wrong universally, since it ran counter to reason confirmed by +experience. + +Augustin spoke about his doubts, not only to his friends, but to the +priests of his sect. These got out of the difficulty by evasions and the +most dazzling promises. A Manichee bishop, a certain Faustus, was coming +to Carthage. He was a man of immense learning. Most certainly he would +refute every objection without the least trouble. He would confirm the +young _auditors_ in their faith.... So Augustin and his friends waited for +Faustus as for a Messiah. Their disappointment was immense. The supposed +doctor turned out to be an ignorant man, who possessed no tincture of +science or philosophy, and whose intellectual baggage consisted of nothing +but a little grammar. A delightful talker and a wit, the most he could do +was to discourse pleasantly on literature. + +This disappointment, joined to the set-backs in his profession, brought +about a crisis of soul and conscience in Augustin. So this Truth which he +had sighed after so long, which had been so much promised to him, was only +a decoy! One must be content not to know!... Then what was left to do since +truth was unapproachable? Possibly fortune and honours would console him +for it. But he was far enough from them too. He felt that he was on the +wrong road, that he was getting into a rut at Carthage, as he had got into +a rut at Thagaste. He must succeed, whatever the cost!... And then he gave +way to one of those moments of weariness, when a man has no further hope of +saving himself save by some desperate step. He was sick of where he was and +of those about him. His friends, whom he knew too well, had nothing more +to teach him, and could not help him in the only search which passionately +interested him. And his entanglement became irksome. Here was nine years +that this sharing of bed and board had lasted. His son was at that +unattractive age which rather bores a young father than it revives an +affection already old. No doubt he did not want to abandon him. He did not +intend to break altogether with his mistress. But he felt the need of a +change of air, to take himself off somewhere else, where he could breathe +more freely and get fresh courage for his task. + +Then it dawned on him to try his fortune at Rome. It was there that +literary reputations were made. He would find there, no doubt, better +judges than at Carthage. He would very likely end by getting a post in the +public instruction, with a steady salary--this would relieve him of present +worries, at all events. Probably he had already this plan in his head when +he sent his treatise _On the Beautiful_ to Hierius, orator to the City of +Rome; he thought that by this politeness he might depend, later, on the +backing of the well-known rhetorician. Lastly, his friends, Honoratius, +Marcianus, and the others, earnestly persuaded him to go and find a stage +worthy of him at Rome. Alypius, who was at this time finishing his law +studies there, and must have felt their separation, pressed him to come to +Rome and promised him success. + +Once more, Augustin was ready to go away. He was not long in making up his +mind. He was going to leave all belonging to him, his mistress, his child, +till the time when his new position would enable him to send for them. He +himself tells us that the chief motive which led him to decide on this +journey was that the Roman students were said to be better disciplined +and less noisy than the students at Carthage. Evidently, that is a reason +which would weigh with a professor who objected to act the policeman in his +class. But besides the reasons we have given, there were others which must +have influenced his decision. Theodosius had lately ordered very heavy +penalties against the Manichees. Not only did he condemn them to death, but +he had instituted a perfect Inquisition, with the special duty of spying +upon and prosecuting these heretics. Did it occur to Augustin that he might +hide better in Rome, where he was unknown, than in a city where he was a +marked man on account of his proselytizing zeal? In any case, his departure +gave rise to calumnies which his adversaries, the Donatists, did not +fail many years later to bring up again and make worse. They accused him +of having run away from prosecution; he fled the country, so they said, +on account of a judgment which was out against him, pronounced by the +Proconsul Messianus. Augustin had no trouble in refuting these false +insinuations. But all these facts seem to prove that the most ordinary +prudence warned him to cross the sea as soon as possible. + +Accordingly, he prepared to set sail. Let us hope that in spite of his +lofty indifference to material things, he made some provision for the +existence of the woman and child he left behind. As for her, she appeared +to agree without over-many violent scenes to this parting, which, he said, +was temporary. It was not the same with his mother. The very idea of Rome, +which seemed to her another Babylon, terrified this austere African woman. +What spiritual dangers lay in wait for her son there! She wanted to keep +him near her, both to bring him to the faith and also to love him--this +Augustin who had been her only human love. And then he was doubtless the +chief support of the widow. Without him, what was going to become of her? + +The fugitive was forced to put a trick on Monnica so as to carry out his +plan. She would not leave him a moment, folded him in her arms, implored +him with tears not to go. The night he was to sail she followed him down to +the dock, although Augustin, to allay her suspicions, had told her a lie. +He pretended that he was only going down to the ship with a friend to see +him off. But Monnica, only half believing, followed. Night fell. Meanwhile, +the ship, anchored in a little bay to the north of the city, did not move. +The sailors were waiting till a wind rose to slip their moorings. The +weather was moist and oppressive, as it usually is in the Mediterranean in +August and September. There was not a breath of air. The hours passed on. +Monnica, overcome by heat and fatigue, could hardly stand. Then Augustin +cunningly persuaded her to go and pass the night in a chapel hard by, since +it was plain that the ship would not weigh anchor till dawn. After many +remonstrances, she at length agreed to rest in this chapel--a _memoria_ +consecrated to St. Cyprian, the great martyr and patron of Carthage. + +Like most of the African sanctuaries of those days, and the _marabouts_ +of to-day, this one must have been either surrounded, or approached, by a +court with a portico in arcades, where it was possible to sleep. Monnica +sat down on the ground under her heap of veils among other poor people and +travellers, who were come like her to try to find a little cool air on this +stifling night near the relics of the blessed Cyprian. She prayed for her +child, offering to God "the blood of her heart," begging God not to let +him go, "for she loved to keep me with her" says Augustin, "as mothers are +wont, yes, far more than most mothers." And like a true daughter of Eve, +"weeping and crying, she sought again with groans the son she had brought +forth with groans." She prayed for a long time; then, worn out with sorrow, +she slept. The porter of the chapel, without knowing it, watched that +night not only the mother of the rhetorician Augustin, but the ancestor +of an innumerable line of souls; this humble woman, who slept there on +the ground, on the flags of the courtyard, carried in her heart all the +yearning of all the mothers of the future. + +While she slept, Augustin went stealthily on board. The silence and the +tempered splendour of the night weighed him down. Sometimes the cry of the +sailors on watch took a strange note in the lustrous vaporous spaces. The +Gulf of Carthage gleamed far off under the scintillation of the stars, +under the palpitating of a milky way all white like the flowers of the +garden of Heaven. But Augustin's heart was heavy, heavier than the air +weighted by the heat and sea-damp--heavy from the lie and the cruelty he +had just committed. He saw already the awakening and sorrow of his mother. +His conscience was troubled, overcome by remorse and forebodings.... +Meanwhile, his friends tried to cheer him, and urged him to have courage +and hope. Marcianus, while embracing him, reminded him of the verses of +Terence: + + "This day which brings to thee another life + Demands that thou another man shalt be." + +Augustin smiled sadly. At last the ship began to move. The wind had risen, +the wind of the grand voyage which was bearing him to the unknown.... +Suddenly, at the keen freshness of the open sea, he thrilled. His strength +and confidence rushed back. To go away! What enchantment for all those who +cannot fasten themselves to a corner of the earth, who know by instinct +that they belong _elsewhere_, who always pass "as strangers and as +pilgrims," and who go away with relief, as if they cast a burthen behind +them. Augustin was of those people--of those who, among the fairest +attractions of the Road, never cease to think of the Return. But he knew +not where God was leading him. Marcianus was right: a new life was really +beginning for him; only it was not the life that either of them hoped for. + +He who departed as a rhetorician, to sell words, was to come back as an +apostle, to conquer souls. + + + + +THE THIRD PART + +THE RETURN + + + Et ecce ibi es in corde eorum, in corde confitentium tibi, et + projicientium se in te, et plorantium in sinu tuo, post vias suas + difficiles. + + "And behold! Thou art there in their hearts, in the hearts of + that confess to Thee, and cast themselves upon Thee, and sob upon Thy + breast, after their weary ways." + + _Confessions_, V, 2. + + + + +I + +THE CITY OF GOLD + + +Augustin fell ill just after he got to Rome. It would seem that he arrived +there towards the end of August or beginning of September, before the +students reassembled, just at the time of heat and fevers, when all Romans +who could leave the city fled to the summer resorts on the coast. + +Like all the great cosmopolitan centres at that time, Rome was unhealthy. +The diseases of the whole earth, brought by the continual inflow of +foreigners, flourished there. Accordingly, the inhabitants had a panic fear +of infection, like our own contemporaries. People withdrew prudently from +those suffering from infectious disorders, who were left to their unhappy +fate. If, from a sense of shame, they sent a slave to the patient's +bedside, he was ordered to the sweating-rooms, and there disinfected from +head to foot, before he could enter the house again. + +Augustin must have had at least the good luck to be well looked after, +since he recovered. He had gone to the dwelling of one of his Manichee +brethren, an _auditor_ like himself, and an excellent kind of man, whom he +stayed with all the time he was in Rome. Still, he had such a bad attack of +fever that he very nearly died. "I was perishing," he says; "and I was all +but lost." He is frightened at the idea of having seen death so near, at a +moment when he was so far from God--so far, in fact, that it never occurred +to him to ask for baptism, as he had done, in like case, when he was +little. What a desperate blow would that have been for Monnica! He still +shudders when he recalls the danger: "Had my mother's heart been smitten +with that wound, it never could have been healed. _For I cannot express +her tender love towards me_, or with how far greater anguish she travailed +of me now in the spirit, than when she bore me in the flesh." But Monnica +prayed. Augustin was saved. He ascribes his recovery to the fervent prayers +of his mother, who, in begging of God the welfare of his soul, obtained, +without knowing it, the welfare of his body. + +As soon as he was convalescent, he had to set to work to get pupils. He was +obliged to ask the favours of many an important personage, to knock at many +an inhospitable door. This unfortunate beginning, the almost mortal illness +which he was only just recovering from, this forced drudgery--all that did +not make him very fond of Rome. It seems quite plain that he never liked +it, and till the end of his life he kept a grudge against it for the sorry +reception it gave him. In the whole body of his writings it is impossible +to find a word of praise for the beauty of the Eternal City, while, on +the contrary, one can make out through his invectives against the vices +of Carthage, his secret partiality for the African Rome. The old rivalry +between the two cities was not yet dead after so many centuries. In +his heart, Augustin, like a good Carthaginian--and because he was a +Carthaginian--did not like Rome. + +The most annoying things joined together as if on purpose to disgust him +with it. The bad season of the year was nigh when he began to reside there. +Autumn rains had started, and the mornings and evenings were cold. What +with his delicate chest, and his African constitution sensitive to cold, +he must have suffered from this damp cold climate. Rome seemed to him a +northern city. With his eyes still full of the warm light of his country, +and the joyous whiteness of the Carthage streets, he wandered as one exiled +between the gloomy Roman palaces, saddened by the grey walls and muddy +pavements. Comparisons, involuntary and continual, between Carthage and +Rome, made him unjust to Rome. In his eyes it had a hard, self-conscious, +declamatory look, and gazing at the barren Roman _campagna_, he remembered +the laughing Carthage suburbs, with gardens, villas, vineyards, olivets, +circled everywhere by the brilliance of the sea and the lagoons. + +And then, besides, Rome could not be a very delightful place to live in for +a poor rhetoric master come there to better his fortune. Other strangers +before him had complained of it. Always to be going up and down the flights +of steps and the ascents, often very steep, of the city of the Seven Hills; +to be rushing between the Aventine and Sallust's garden, and thence to +the Esquiline and Janiculum! To bruise the feet on the pointed cobbles of +sloping alley-ways! These walks were exhausting, and there seemed to be no +end to this city. Carthage was also large--as large almost as Rome. But +there Augustin was not seeking employment. When he went for a walk there, +he strolled. Here, the bustle of the crowds, and the number of equipages, +disturbed and exasperated the southerner with his lounging habits. Any +moment there was a risk of being run over by cars tearing at full gallop +through the narrow streets: men of fashion just then had a craze for +driving fast. Or again, the passenger was obliged to step aside so +that some lady might go by in her litter, escorted by her household, +from the handicraft slaves and the kitchen staff, to the eunuchs and +house-servants--all this army manoeuvring under the orders of a leader who +held a rod in his hand, the sign of his office. When the street became +clear once more, and at last the palace of the influential personage +to whom a visit had to be paid was reached, there was no admittance +without greasing the knocker. In order to be presented to the master, +it was necessary to buy the good graces of the slave who took the name +(_nomenclator_), and who not only introduced the suppliant, but might, with +a word, recommend or injure. Even after all these precautions, one was not +yet sure of the goodwill of the patron. Some of these great lords, who were +not always themselves sprung from old Roman families, prided themselves +upon their uncompromising nationalism, and made a point of treating +foreigners with considerable haughtiness. The Africans were regarded +unfavourably in Rome, especially in Catholic circles. Augustin must have +had an unpleasant experience of this. + +Through the long streets, brilliantly lighted at evening (it would seem +that the artificial lighting of Rome almost equalled the daylight), he +would return tired out to the dwelling of his host, the Manichee. This +dwelling, according to an old tradition, was in the Velabrum district, in +a street which is still to-day called _Via Greca_, and skirts the very old +church of Santa Maria-in-Cosmedina--a poor quarter where swarmed a filthy +mass of Orientals, and where the immigrants from the Levantine countries, +Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, Egyptians, lodged. The warehouses on the Tiber +were not very far off, and no doubt there were numbers of labourers, +porters, and watermen living in this neighbourhood. What a place for +him who had been at Thagaste the guest of the magnificent Romanianus, +and intimate with the Proconsul at Carthage! When he had climbed up the +six flights of stairs to his lodging, and crouched shivering over the +ill-burning movable hearth, in the parsimonious light of a small bronze or +earthenware lamp, while the raw damp sweated through the walls, he felt +more and more his poverty and loneliness. He hated Rome and the stupid +ambition which had brought him there. And yet Rome should have made a vivid +appeal to this cultured man, this aesthete so alive to beauty. Although the +transfer of the Court to Milan had drawn away some of its liveliness and +glitter, it was still all illuminated by its grand memories, and never had +it been more beautiful. It seems impossible that Augustin should not have +been struck by it, despite his African prejudices. However well built the +new Carthage might be, it could not pretend to compare with a city more +than a thousand years old, which at all periods of its history had +maintained the princely taste for building, and which a long line of +emperors had never ceased to embellish. + +When Augustin landed at Ostia, he saw rise before him, closing the +perspective of the _Via Appia_, the Septizonium of Septimus Severus--an +imitation, doubtless, on a far larger scale, of the one at Carthage. This +huge construction, water-works probably of enormous size, with its ordered +columns placed line above line, was, so to speak, the portico whence opened +the most wonderful and colossal architectural mass known to the ancient +world. Modern Rome has nothing at all to shew which comes anywhere near it. +Dominating the Roman Forum, and the Fora of various Emperors--labyrinths of +temples, basilicas, porticoes, and libraries--the Capitol and the Palatine +rose up like two stone mountains, fashioned and sculptured, under the heap +of their palaces and sanctuaries. All these blocks rooted in the soil, +suspended, and towering up from the flanks of the hills, these interminable +regiments of columns and pilasters, this profusion of precious marbles, +metals, mosaics, statues, obelisks--in all that there was something +enormous, a lack of restraint which disturbed the taste and floored the +imagination. But it was, above all, the excessive use of gold and gilding +that astonished the visitor. Originally indigent, Rome became noted for +its greed of gold. When the gold of conquered nations began to come into +its hands, it spread it all over with the rather indiscreet display of +the upstart. When Nero built the Golden House he realized its dream. The +Capitol had golden doors. Statues, bronzes, the roofs of temples, were all +gilded. All this gold, spread over the brilliant surfaces and angles of +the architecture, dazzled and tired the eyes: _Acies stupet igne metalli_, +said Claudian. For the poets who have celebrated it, Rome is the city of +gold--_aurata Roma_. + +A Greek, such as Lucian, had perhaps a right to be shocked by this +architectural debauch, this beauty too crushing and too rich. A Carthage +rhetorician, like Augustin, could feel at the sight of it nothing but the +same irritated admiration and secret jealousy as the Emperor Constans felt +when he visited his capital for the first time. + +Even as the Byzantine Caesar, and all the provincials, Augustin, no doubt, +examined the curiosities and celebrated works which were pointed out to +strangers: the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus; the baths of Caracalla and +Diocletian; the Pantheon; the temple of Roma and of Venus; the Place of +Concord; the theatre of Pompey; the Odeum, and the Stadium. Though he might +be stupefied by all this, he would remember, too, all that the Republic +had taken from the provinces to construct these wonders, and would say to +himself: "'Tis we who have paid for them." In truth, all the world had +been ransacked to make Rome beautiful. For some time a muffled hostility +had been brewing in provincial hearts against the tyranny of the central +power, especially since it had shewn itself incapable of maintaining peace, +and the Barbarians were threatening the frontiers. Worn out by so many +insurrections, wars, massacres, and pillages, the provinces had come to ask +if the great complicated machine of the Empire was worth all the blood and +money that it cost. + +For Augustin, moreover, the crisis was drawing near which was to end in his +return to the Catholic faith. He had been a Christian, and as such brought +up in principles of humility. With these sentiments, he would perhaps +decide that the pride and vanity of the creature at Rome claimed far too +much attention, and was even sacrilegious. It was not only the emperors who +disputed the privileges of immortality with the gods, but anybody who took +it into his head, provided that he was rich or had any kind of notoriety. +Amid the harsh and blinding gilt of palaces and temples, how many statues, +how many inscriptions endeavoured to keep an obscure memory green, or the +features of some unknown man! Of course, at Carthage too, where they copied +Rome, as in all the big cities, there were statues and inscriptions in +abundance upon the Forum, the squares, and in the public baths. But what +had not shocked Augustin in his native land, did shock him in a strange +city. His home-sick eyes opened to faults which till then had been veiled +by usage. In any case, this craze for statues and inscriptions prevailed at +Rome more than anywhere else. The number of statues on the Forum became so +inconvenient, that on many occasions certain ones were marked for felling, +and the more insignificant shifted. The men of stone drove out the living +men, and forced the gods into their temples. And the inscriptions on the +walls bewildered the mind with such a noise of human praise, that ambition +could dream of nothing beyond. It was all a kind of idolatry which revolted +the strict Christians; and in Augustin, even at this time, it must have +offended the candour of a soul which detested exaggeration and bombast. + +The vices of the Roman people, with whom he was obliged to live cheek by +jowl, galled him still more painfully. And to begin with, the natives hated +strangers. At the theatres they used to shout: "Down with the foreign +residents!" Acute attacks of xenophobia often caused riots in the city. +Some years before Augustin arrived, a panic about the food supply led to +the expulsion, as useless mouths, of all foreigners domiciled in Rome, +even the professors. Famine was an endemic disease there. And then, these +lazy people were always hungry. The gluttony and drunkenness of the Romans +roused the wonder and also the disgust of the sober races of the Empire--of +the Greeks as well as the Africans. They ate everywhere--in the streets, at +the theatre, at the circus, around the temples. The sight was so ignoble, +and the public intemperance so scandalous, that the Prefect, Ampelius, was +obliged to issue an order prohibiting people who had any self-respect from +eating in the street, the keepers of wine-shops from opening their places +before ten o'clock in the morning, and the hawkers from selling cooked meat +in the streets earlier than a certain hour of the day. But he might as well +have saved himself the trouble. Religion itself encouraged this greediness. +The pagan sacrifices were scarcely more than pretexts for stuffing. Under +Julian, who carried the great public sacrifices of oxen to an abusive +extent, the soldiers got drunk and gorged themselves with meat in the +temples, and came out staggering. Then they would seize hold of any +passers-by, whom they forced to carry them shoulder-high to their barracks. + +All this must be kept in mind so as to understand the strictness and +unyielding attitude of the Christian reaction. This Roman people, like the +pagans in general, was frightfully material and sensual. The difficulty of +shaking himself free from matter and the senses is going to be the great +obstacle which delays Augustin's conversion; and if it was so with him, a +fastidious and intellectual man, what about the crowd? Those people thought +of nothing but eating and drinking and lewdness. When they left the tavern +or their squalid rooms, they had only the obscenities of mimes, or the +tumbles of the drivers in the circus, or the butcheries in the amphitheatre +to elevate them. They passed the night there under the awnings provided by +the municipality. Their passion for horse-races and actors and actresses, +curbed though it was by the Christian emperors, continued even after +the sack of Rome by the Barbarians. At the time of the famine, when the +strangers were expelled, they excepted from this wholesale banishment three +thousand female dancers with the members of their choirs, and their leaders +of orchestra. + +The aristocracy did not manifest tastes much superior. Save a few +cultivated minds, sincerely fond of literature, the greatest number only +saw in the literary pose an easy way of being fashionable. These became +infatuated about an unknown author, or an ancient author whose books were +not to be had. They had these books sought for and beautifully copied. +They, "who hated study like poison," spoke only of their favourite author: +the others did not exist for them. As a matter of fact, music had ousted +literature: "the libraries were closed like sepulchres." But fashionable +people were interested in an hydraulic organ, and they ordered from the +lute-makers "lyres the size of chariots." Of course, this musical craze was +sheer affectation. Actually, they were only interested in sports: to race, +to arrange races, to breed horses, to train athletes and gladiators. As a +pastime, they collected Oriental stuffs. Silk was then fashionable, and so +were precious stones, enamels, heavy goldsmiths' work. Rows of rings were +worn on each finger. People took the air in silk robes, held together by +brooches carved in the figures of animals, a parasol in one hand, and a fan +with gold fringes in the other. The costumes and fashions of Constantinople +encroached upon the old Rome and the rest of the Western world. + +Immense fortunes, which had gathered in the hands of certain people, either +through inheritance or swindling, enabled them to keep up a senseless +expenditure. Like the American millionaires of to-day, who have their +houses and properties in both hemispheres, these great Roman lords +possessed them in every country in the Empire. Symmachus, who was Prefect +of the City when Augustin was in Rome, had considerable estates not only in +Italy and in Sicily, but even in Mauretania. And yet, in spite of all their +wealth and all the privileges they enjoyed, these rich people were neither +happy nor at ease. At the least suspicion of a despotic power, their lives +and property were threatened. Accusations of magic, of disrespect to +the Caesar, of plots against the Emperor--any pretext was good to plunder +them. During the preceding reign, that of the pitiless Valentinian, the +Roman nobility had been literally decimated by the executioner. A certain +vice-Prefect, Maximinus, had gained a sinister reputation for cleverness in +the art of manufacturing suspects. By his orders, a basket at the end of a +string was hung out from one of the windows of the Praetorium, into which +denunciations might be cast. The basket was in use day and night. + +It is clear that at the time that Augustin settled in Rome this abominable +system was a little moderated. But accusation by detectives was always in +the air. And living in this atmosphere of mistrust, hypocrisy, bribery, and +cruelty--small wonder if the Carthaginian fell into bitter reflections upon +Roman corruption. However impressive from the front, the Empire was not +nice to look at close at hand. + +But Augustin was, above all, home-sick. When he strolled tinder the shady +trees of the Janiculum or Sallust's gardens, he already said to himself +what he would repeat later to his listeners at Hippo: "Take an African, put +him in a place cool and green, and he won't stay there. He will feel he +must go away and come back to his blazing desert." As for himself, he had +something better to regret than a blazing desert. In front of the City of +Gold, stretched out at his feet, and the horizon of the Sabine Hills, he +remembered the feminine softness of the twilights upon the Lake of Tunis, +the enchantment of moonlit nights upon the Gulf of Carthage, and that +astonishing landscape to be discovered from the height of the terrace of +Byrsa, which all the grandeur of the Roman _campagna_ could not make him +forget. + + + + +II + +THE FINAL DISILLUSION + + +'The new professor had managed to secure a certain number of pupils whom +he gathered together in his rooms. He could make enough to live at Rome +by himself, if he could not support there the woman and child he had left +behind at Carthage. In this matter of finding work, his host and his +Manichee friends had done him some very good turns. Although forced to +conceal their beliefs since the edict of Theodosius, there were a good many +Manichees in the city. They formed an occult Church, strongly organized, +and its adepts had relations with all classes of Roman society. Possibly +Augustin presented himself as one driven out of Africa by the persecution. +Some compensation would be owing to this young man who had suffered for the +good cause. + +It was his friend Alypius, "the brother of his heart," who, having preceded +him to Rome to study law at his parents' wishes, now was the most useful in +helping Augustin to make himself known and find pupils. Himself a Manichee, +converted by Augustin, and a member of one of the leading families in +Thagaste, he had not long to wait for an important appointment in the +Imperial administration. He was assessor to the Treasurer-General, or +"Count of the Italian Bounty Office," and decided fiscal questions. Thanks +to his influence, as well as to his acquaintances among the Manichees, he +was a valuable friend for the new arrival, a friend who could aid him, not +only with his purse, but with advice. Without much capacity for theorizing, +this Alypius was a practical spirit, a straight and essentially honest +soul, whose influence was excellent for his impetuous friend. Of very +chaste habits, he urged Augustin to restraint. And even in abstract +studies, the religious controversies which Augustin dragged him into, his +strong good sense moderated the imaginative dashes, the overmuch subtilty +which sometimes led the other beyond healthy reason. + +Unhappily they were both very busy--the judge and the rhetorician--and +although their friendship became still greater during this stay in Rome, +they were not able to see each other as much as they desired. Their +pleasures, too, were perhaps not the same. Augustin did not in the least +care about being chaste, and Alypius had a passion for the amphitheatre--a +passion which his friend disapproved of. Some time earlier, at Carthage, +Augustin had filled him with disgust of the circus. But hardly was Alypius +arrived in Rome, than he became mad about the gladiatorial shows. Some +fellow-students took him to the amphitheatre, almost by force. Thereupon, +he said that he would stay, since they had dragged him there; but he bet +that he would keep his eyes shut all through the fight, and that nothing +could make him open them. He sat down on the benches with those who had +brought him, his eyelids pressed down, refusing to look. Suddenly there was +a roar of shouting, the shout of the crowd hailing the fall of the first +wounded. His lids parted of themselves; he saw the flow of blood. "At the +sight of the blood" says Augustin, "he drank in ruthlessness; no longer +did he turn away, but fixed his gaze, and he became mad--and he knew no +more.... He was fascinated by the criminal atrocity of this battle, and +drunk with the pleasure of blood." + +These breathless phrases of the _Confessions_ seem to throb still with the +wild frenzy of the crowd. They convey to us directly the kind of Sadic +excitement which people went to find about the arena. Really, a wholesome +sight for future Christians, for all the souls that the brutality of +pagan customs revolted! The very year that Augustin was at Rome, certain +prisoners of war, Sarmatian soldiers, condemned to kill each other in the +amphitheatre, chose suicide rather than this shameful death. There was in +this something to make him reflect--him and his friends. The fundamental +injustices whereon the ancient world rested--the crushing of the slave +and the conquered, the contempt for human life--these things they touched +with the finger when they looked on at the butcheries in the amphitheatre. +All those whose hearts sickened with disgust and horror before these +slaughter-house scenes, all those who longed for a little more mildness, a +little more justice, were all recruits marked out for the peaceful army of +the Christ. + +For Alypius, especially, it was not a bad thing to have known this +blood-drunkenness at first hand: he shall be only the more ashamed when +he falls at the feet of the merciful God. Equally useful was it for him +to have personal experience of the harshness of men's justice; and in the +fulfilment of his duties as a judge to observe its errors and flaws. While +he was a student at Carthage he just escaped being condemned to death upon +a false accusation of theft--the theft of a piece of lead! Already they +were dragging him, if not to the place of capital punishment, at least to +prison, when a chance meeting with a friend of his who was a senator saved +him from the threatening mob. At Rome, while Assessor to the Count of the +Italian Bounty Office, he had to resist an attempt to bribe him, and by +doing so risked losing his appointment, and, no doubt, something worse +too. Official venality and dishonesty were evils so deeply rooted, that +he himself nearly succumbed. He wanted some books copied, and he had the +temptation to get this done at the charge of the Treasury. This peculation +had, in his eyes, a good enough excuse, and it was certain to go +undetected. Nevertheless, when he thought it over he changed his mind, and +virtuously refrained from giving himself a library at the expense of the +State. + +Augustin, who relates these anecdotes, draws the same moral from them as +we do, to wit--that for a man who was going to be a bishop and, as such, +administrator and judge, this time spent in the Government service was a +good preparatory school. Most of the other great leaders of this generation +of Christians had also been officials; before ordination, they had been +mixed up in business and politics, and had lived freely the life of their +century. So it was with St. Ambrose, with St. Paulinus of Nola, with +Augustin himself, and Evodius and Alypius, his friends. + +And yet, however absorbed in their work the two Africans might be, it +is pretty near certain that intellectual questions took the lead of +all others. This is manifest in Augustin's case at least. He must have +astonished the good Alypius when he got to Rome by acknowledging that he +hardly believed in Manicheeism any longer. And he set forth his doubts +about their masters' cosmogony and physical science, his suspicions +touching the hidden immorality of the sect. As for himself, the +controversies, which were the Manichees' strong point, did not dazzle him +any longer. At Carthage, but lately, he had heard a Catholic, a certain +Helpidius, oppose to them arguments from Scripture, which they were unable +to refute. To make matters worse, the Manichee Bishop of Rome made a bad +impression on him from the very outset. This man, he tells us, was of rough +appearance, without culture or polite manners. Doubtless this unmannerly +peasant, in his reception of the young professor, had not shewn himself +sufficiently alive to his merits, and the professor felt aggrieved. + +From then, his keen dialectic and his satirical spirit (Augustin had +formidable powers of ridicule all through his life) were exercised upon +the backs of his fellow-religionists. Provisionally, he had admitted +as indisputable the basic principles of Manicheeism: first of all, the +primordial antagonism of the two substances, the God of Light and the God +of Darkness; then, this other dogma, that particles of that Divine Light, +which had been carried away in a temporary victory of the army of Darkness, +were immersed in certain plants and liquors. Hence, the distinction they +made between clean and unclean food. All those foods were pure which +contained some part of the Divine Light; impure, those which did not. The +purity of food became evident by certain qualities of taste, smell, and +appearance. But now Augustin found a good deal of arbitrariness in these +distinctions, and a good deal of simplicity in the belief that the Divine +Light dwelt in a vegetable. "Are they not ashamed," he said, "to search God +with their palates or with their nose? And if His presence is revealed by +a special brilliancy, by the goodness of the taste or the smell, why allow +that dish and condemn this, which is of equal savour, light, and perfume? + +"Yea, why do they look upon the golden melon as come out of God's +treasure-house, and yet will have none of the golden fat of the ham or the +yellow of an egg? Why does the whiteness of lettuce proclaim to them the +Divinity, and the whiteness of cream nothing at all? And why this horror +of meat? For, look you, roast sucking-pig offers us a brilliant colour, an +agreeable smell, and an appetizing taste--sure signs, according to them, of +the Divine Presence."... Once started on this topic, Augustin's vivacity +has no limits. He even drops into jokes which would offend modern +shamefacedness by their Aristophanic breadth. + +These arguments, to say the truth, did not shake the foundations of the +doctrine, and if a doctrine must be judged according to its works, the +Manichees might entrench themselves behind their rigid moral rules, and +their conduct. Contrary to the more accommodating Catholicism, they paraded +a puritan intolerance. But Augustin had found out at Carthage that this +austerity was for the most part hypocrisy. At Rome he was thoroughly +enlightened. + +The Elect of the religion made a great impression by their fasts and their +abstinence from meat. Now it became clear that these devout personages, +under pious pretexts, literally destroyed themselves by over-eating and +indigestion. They held, in fact, that the chief work of piety consisted in +setting free particles of the Divine Light, imprisoned in matter by the +wiles of the God of Darkness. They being the Pure, they purified matter by +absorbing it into their bodies. The faithful brought them stores of fruit +and vegetables, served them with real feasts, so that by eating these +things they might liberate a little of the Divine Substance. Of course, +they abstained from all flesh, flesh being the dwelling-place of the Dark +God, and also from fermented wine, which they called "the devil's gall." +But how they made up for it over the rest! Augustin makes great fun of +these people who would think it a sin if they took as a full meal a small +bit of bacon and cabbage, with two or three mouthfuls of undiluted wine, +and yet ordered to be served up, from three o'clock in the afternoon, all +kinds of fruit and vegetables, the most exquisite too, rendered piquant +by spices, the Manichees holding that spices were very full of fiery and +luminous principles. Then, their palates titillating from pepper, they +swallowed large draughts of mulled wine or wine and honey, and the juice +of oranges, lemons, and grapes. And these junketings began over again at +nightfall. They had a preference for certain cakes, and especially for +truffles and mushrooms--vegetables more particularly mystic. + +Such a diet put human gluttony to a heavy test. Many a scandal came to +light in the Roman community. The Elect made themselves sick by devouring +the prodigious quantity of good cheer brought to them with a view to +purification. As it was a sacrilege to let any be lost, the unhappy people +forced themselves to get down the lot. There were even victims: children, +gorged with delicacies, died of stuffing. For children, being innocent +things, were deemed to have quite special purifying virtues. + +Augustin was beginning to get indignant at all this nonsense. Still, except +for these extravagances, he continued to believe in the asceticism of the +Elect--asceticism of such severity that the main part of the faithful found +it impossible to practise. And see! just at this moment, whom should he +discover very strange things about but Bishop Faustus, that Faustus whom he +had looked for at Carthage as a Messiah. The holy man, while he preached +renunciation, granted himself a good many indulgences: he lay, for one +thing, on feathers, or upon soft goatskin rugs. And these puritans were not +even honest. The Manichee Bishop of Rome, that man of rough manners who had +so offended Augustin, was on the point of being convicted of stealing the +general cash-box. Lastly, there were rumours in the air, accusing the Elect +of giving themselves over to reprehensible practices in their private +meetings. They condemned marriage and child-bearing as works of the devil, +but they authorized fornication, and even, it is said, certain acts against +nature. That, for Augustin, was the final disillusion. + +In spite of it, he did not separate openly from the sect. He kept his +rank of _auditor_ in the Manichee Church. What held him to it, were some +plausible considerations on the intellectual side. Manicheeism, with its +distinction of two Principles, accounted conveniently for the problem of +evil and human responsibility. Neither God nor man was answerable for sin +and pain, since it was the other, the Dark Principle, who distributed +them through the world among men. Augustin, who continued to sin, +continued likewise to be very comfortable with such a system of morals and +metaphysics. Besides, he was not one of those convinced, downright minds +who feel the need to quarrel noisily with what they take to be error. +No one has opposed heresies more powerfully, and with a more tireless +patience, than he has. But he always put some consideration into the +business. He knew by experience how easy it is to fall into error, and he +said this charitably to those whom he wished to persuade. There was nothing +about him like St. Jerome. + +Personal reasons, moreover, obliged him not to break with his +fellow-religionists who had supported him, nursed him even, on his arrival +at Rome, and who, as we shall see in a moment, might still do him services. +Augustin was not, like his friend Alypius, a practical mind, but he had +tact, and in spite of all the impulsiveness and mettle of his nature, +a certain suppleness which enabled him to manoeuvre without too many +collisions in the midst of the most embarrassing conjunctures. Through +instinctive prudence he prolonged his indecision. Little by little, he who +had formerly flung himself so enthusiastically in pursuit of Truth, glided +into scepticism--the scepticism of the Academics in its usual form. + +And at the same time that he lost his taste for speculative thinking, new +annoyances in his profession put the finishing touch on his discouragement. +If the Roman students were less noisy than those of Carthage, they had a +deplorable habit of walking off and leaving their masters unpaid. Augustin +was ere long victimized in this way: he lost his time and his words. As at +Carthage, so at Rome, he had to face the fact that he could not live by his +profession. What was he to do? Would he have to go back home? He had fallen +into despair, when an unforeseen chance turned up for him. + +The town council of Milan threw open a professorship of Rhetoric to public +competition. It would be salvation for him if he could get appointed. For +a long time he had wanted a post in the State education. In receipt of a +fixed salary, he would no longer have to worry about beating up a class, +or to guard against the dishonesty of his pupils. He put his name down +immediately among the candidates. But no more in those days than in ours +was simple merit by itself enough. It was necessary to pull strings. His +friends the Manichees undertook to do this for him. They urged his claims +warmly on the Prefect Symmachus, who doubtless presided at the competitive +trials. By an amusing irony of fate, Augustin owed his place to people he +was getting ready to separate from, whom even he was soon going to attack, +and also to a man who was in a way the official enemy of Christianity. +The pagan Symmachus appointing to an important post a future Catholic +bishop--there is matter for surprise in that! But Symmachus, who had been +Proconsul at Carthage, protected the Africans in Rome. Furthermore, it +is likely that the Manichees represented their candidate to him as a man +hostile to Catholics. Now in this year, A.D. 384, the Prefect had just +begun an open struggle with the Catholics. He believed, therefore, that he +made a good choice in appointing Augustin. + +So a chain of events, with which his will had hardly anything to do, +was going to draw the young rhetorician to Milan--yes, and how much +farther!--to where he did not want to go, to where the prayers of Monnica +summoned him unceasingly: "Where I am, there shall you be also." When he +was leaving Rome, he did not much expect that. What he chiefly thought of +was that he had at last won an independent financial position, and that he +was become an official of some importance. He had a flattering evidence +of this at once: It was at the expense of the city of Milan and in the +Imperial carriages that he travelled through Italy to take up his new post. + + + + +III + +THE MEETING BETWEEN AMBROSE AND AUGUSTIN + + +Before he left Rome, and during his journey to Milan, Augustin must have +recalled more than once the verses of Terence which his friend Marcianus +had quoted by way of encouragement and advice the night he set sail for +Italy: + + "This day which brings to thee another life + Demands that thou another man shalt be." + +He was thirty years old. The time of youthful wilfulness was over. Age, +disappointments, the difficulties of life, had developed his character. +He was now become a man of position, an eminent official, in a very large +city which was the second capital of the Western Empire and the principal +residence of the Court. If he wished to avoid further set-backs in his +career, it behoved him to choose a line of conduct carefully thought out. + +And first of all, it was time to get rid of Manicheeism. A Manichee would +have made a scandal in a city where the greatest part of the population +was Christian, and the Court was Catholic, although it did not conceal +its sympathy with Arianism. It was a long time now since Augustin had +been a Manichee in his heart. Accordingly, he was not obliged to feign +in order to re-enter a Church which already included him formally among +its catechumens. Doubtless he was a very lukewarm catechumen, since at +intervals he inclined to scepticism. But he thought it decent to remain, +at least for the time being, in the Catholic body, in which his mother had +brought him up, until the day when some sure light should arise to direct +his path. Now St. Ambrose was at that time the Catholic Bishop of Milan. +Augustin was very eager to gain his goodwill. Ambrose was an undoubted +political power, an important personage, a celebrated orator whose renown +was shed all across the Roman world. He belonged to an illustrious family. +His father had been Praetorian prefect of Gaul. He himself, with the +title of Consul, was governing the provinces of Emilia and Liguria when +the Milanese forced him, much against his will, to become their bishop. +Baptized, ordained priest, and consecrated, one on top of the other, it +was only apparently that he gave up his civil functions. From the height +of his episcopal throne he always personified the highest authority in the +country. + +As soon as he arrived at Milan, Augustin hurried to call upon his bishop. +Knowing him as we do, he must have approached Ambrose in a great transport +of enthusiasm. His imagination, too, was kindled. In his thought this was +a man of letters, an orator, a famous writer, almost a fellow-worker, that +he was going to see. The young professor admired in Bishop Ambrose all the +glory that he was ambitious of, and all that he already believed himself +to be. He fancied, that however great might be the difference in their +positions, he would find himself at once on an equal footing with this high +personage, and would have a familiar talk with him, as he used to have at +Carthage with the Proconsul Vindicianus. He told himself also that Ambrose +was a priest, that is to say, a doctor of souls: he meant to open to him +all his spiritual wretchedness, the anguish of his mind and heart. He +expected consolation from him, if not cure. + +Well, he was mistaken. Although in all his writings he speaks of "the holy +Bishop of Milan" with feelings of sincere respect and admiration, he lets +it be understood that his expectations were not realized. If the Manichean +bishop of Rome had offended him by his rough manners, Ambrose disconcerted +him alike by his politeness, his kindliness, and by the reserve, +perhaps involuntarily haughty, of his reception. "He received me," says +Augustin, "like a father, and as a bishop he was pleased enough at my +coming:"--_peregrinationem meam satis episcopaliter dilexit_. This _satis +episcopaliter_ looks very like a sly banter at the expense of the saint. It +is infinitely probable that St. Ambrose received Augustin, not exactly as a +man of no account, but still, as a sheep of his flock, and not as a gifted +orator, and that, in short, he shewed him the same "episcopal" benevolence +as he had from a sense of duty for all his hearers. It is possible too +that Ambrose was on his guard from the outset with this African, appointed +a municipal professor through the good offices of the pagan Symmachus, +his personal enemy. In the opinion of the Italian Catholics, nothing +good came from Carthage: these Carthaginians were generally Manichees +or Donatists--sectaries the more dangerous because they claimed to be +orthodox, and, mingling with the faithful, hypocritically contaminated +them. And then Ambrose, the great lord, the former Governor of Liguria, the +counsellor of the Emperors, may not have quite concealed a certain ironic +commiseration for this "dealer in words," this young rhetorician who was +still puffed up with his own importance. + +Be this as it will, it was a lesson in humility that St. Ambrose, without +intending it, gave to Augustin. The lesson was not understood. The rhetoric +professor gathered only one thing from the visit, which was, that the +Bishop of Milan had received him well. And as human vanity immediately +lends vast significance to the least advances of distinguished or powerful +persons, Augustin felt thankful for it. He began to love Ambrose almost as +much as he admired him, and he admired him for reasons altogether worldly. +"Ambrose I counted one of the happy ones of this world, because he was held +in such honour by the great." The qualification which immediately follows +shews naively enough the sensual Augustin's state of mind at that time: +"Only it seemed to me that celibacy must be a heavy burthen upon him." + +In those years the Bishop of Milan might, indeed, pass for a happy man +in the eyes of the world. He was the friend of the very glorious and +very victorious Theodosius; he had been the adviser of the young Emperor +Gratian, but lately assassinated; and although the Empress Justina, devoted +to the Arians, plotted against him, he had still great influence in the +council of Valentinian II--a little Emperor thirteen years old, whom a +Court of pagans and Arians endeavoured to draw into an anti-Catholic +reaction. + +Almost as soon as Augustin arrived in Milan, he was able to see for himself +the great authority and esteem which Ambrose possessed, the occasion being +a dispute which made a great noise. + +Two years earlier, Gratian had had the statue and altar of _Victory_ +removed from the _Curia_, declaring that this pagan emblem and its +accompaniments no longer served any purpose in an assembly of which the +majority was Christian. By the same stroke, he suppressed the incomes of +the sacerdotal colleges with all their privileges, particularly those of +the Vestals; confiscated for the revenue the sums granted for the exercise +of religion; seized the property of the temples; and forbade the priests +to receive bequests of real estate. This meant the complete separation +of the State and the ancient religion. The pagan minority in the Senate, +with Symmachus, the Prefect, at its head, protested against this edict. +A deputation was sent to Milan to place the pagan grievances before +the Emperor. Gratian refused to receive them. It was thought that his +successor, Valentinian II, being feebler, would be more obliging. A new +senatorial committee presented themselves with a petition drawn up by +Symmachus--a genuine piece of oratory which Ambrose himself admired, or +pretended to admire. This speech made a deep impression when it was read +in the Imperial Council. But Ambrose intervened with all his eloquence. +He demanded that the common law should be applied equally to pagans as to +Christians, and it was he who won the day. _Victory_ was not replaced in +the Roman _Curia_, neither were the goods of the temples returned. + +Augustin must have been very much struck by this advantage which +Catholicism had gained. It became clear that henceforth this was to be +the State religion. And he who envied so much the fortunate of the world, +might take note, besides, that the new religion brought, along with the +faith, riches and honours to its adepts. At Rome he had listened to the +disparaging by pagans and his Manichee friends of the popes and their +clergy. They made fun of the fashionable clerics and legacy hunters. It was +related that the Roman Pontiff, servant of the God of the poor, maintained +a gorgeous establishment, and that his table rivalled the Imperial table in +luxury. The prefect Praetextatus, a resolute pagan, said scoffingly to Pope +Damasus: "Make me Bishop of Rome, and I'll become a Christian at once." + +Certainly, commonplace human reasons can neither bring about nor account +for a sincere conversion. Conversion is a divine work. But human reasons, +arranged by a mysterious Will with regard to this work, may at least +prepare a soul for it. Anyhow, it cannot be neglected that Augustin, coming +to Milan full of ambitious plans, there saw Catholicism treated with so +much importance in the person of Ambrose. This religion, which till then he +had despised, now appeared to him as a triumphant religion worth serving. + +But though such considerations might attract Augustin's attention, they +took no hold on his conscience. It was well enough for an intriguer about +the Court to get converted from self-interest. As for him, he wanted all or +nothing; the chief good in his eyes was certainty and truth. He scarcely +believed in this any longer, and surely had no hope of finding it among +the Catholics; but still he went to hear Ambrose's sermons. He went in the +first place as a critic of language, with the rather jealous curiosity of +the trained man who watches how another man does it. He wanted to judge +himself if the sacred orator was as good as his reputation. The firm and +substantial eloquence of this former official, this statesman who was more +than anything a man of action, immediately got control of the frivolous +rhetorician. To be sure, he did not find in Ambrose's sermons the +exhilaration or the verbal caress which had captivated him in those of +Faustus the Manichean; but yet they had a persuasive grace which held him. +Augustin heard the bishop with pleasure. Still, if he liked to hear him +talk, he remained contemptuous of the doctrine he preached. + +Then, little by little, this doctrine forced itself on his meditations: +he perceived that it was more serious than he had thought hitherto, or, +at least, that it could be defended. Ambrose had started in Italy the +exegetical methods of the Orientals. He discovered in Scripture allegorical +meanings, sometimes edifying, sometimes deep, always satisfying for a +reasonable mind. Augustin, who was inclined to subtilty, much relished +these explanations which, if ingenious, were often forced. The Bible +no longer seemed to him so absurd. Finally, the immoralities which the +Manichees made such a great point of against the Holy Writ, were justified, +according to Ambrose, by historical considerations: what God did not allow +to-day, He allowed formerly by reason of the conditions of existence. +However, though the Bible might be neither absurd nor contrary to morals, +this did not prove that it was true. Augustin found no outlet for his +doubts. + +He would have been glad to have Ambrose help him to get rid of them. Many a +time he tried to have a talk with him about these things. But the Bishop of +Milan was so very busy a personage! "I could not ask him," says Augustin, +"what I wanted as I wanted, because the shoals of busy people who consulted +him about their affairs, and to whose infirmities he ministered, came +between me and his ear and lips. And in the few moments when he was not +thus surrounded, he was refreshing either his body with needful food, or +his mind with reading. While he read his eye wandered along the page and +his heart searched out the meaning, but his voice and his tongue were at +rest. Often when we attended (for the door was open to all, and no one was +announced), we saw him reading silently, but never otherwise, and after +sitting for some time without speaking (_for who would presume to trouble +one so occupied?_) we went away again. We divined that, for the little +space of time which was all that he could secure for the refreshment of his +mind, he allowed himself a holiday from the distraction of other people's +business, and did not wish to be interrupted; _and perhaps he was afraid +lest eager listeners should invite him to explain the harder passages of +his author, or to enter upon the discussion of difficult topics_, and +hinder him from perusing as many volumes as he wished.... _Of course +the reason that guided a man of such remarkable virtue must have been +good...._" + +Nobody could comment more subtly--nor, be it said also, more +maliciously--the attitude of St. Ambrose towards Augustin, than Augustin +himself does it here. At the time he wrote this page, the events he was +relating had happened a long time ago. But he is a Christian, and, in his +turn, he is a bishop: he understands now what he could not understand +then. He feels thoroughly at heart that if Ambrose withdrew himself, it +was because the professor of rhetoric was not in a state of mind to have a +profitable discussion with a believer: he lacked the necessary humility of +heart and intellect. But at the moment, he must have taken things in quite +another way, and have felt rather hurt, not to say more, at the bishop's +apparent indifference. + +Just picture a young writer of to-day, pretty well convinced of his value, +but uneasy about his future, coming to ask advice of an older man already +famous--well, Augustin's advances to Ambrose were not unlike that, save +that they had a much more serious character, since it was not a question of +literature, but of the salvation of a soul. At this period, what Augustin +saw in Ambrose, even when he consulted him on sacred matters, was chiefly +the orator, that is to say, a rather older rival.... He enters. He is shewn +into the private room of the great man, without being announced, _like any +ordinary person_. The great man does not lay aside his book to greet him, +does not even speak a word to him.... What would the official professor of +Rhetoric to the City of Milan think of such a reception? One can make out +clearly enough through the lines of the _Confessions_. He said to himself +that Ambrose, being a bishop, had charge of souls, and he was surprised +that the bishop, no matter how great a lord he might be, made no attempt +whatever to offer him spiritual aid. And as he was still devoid of +Christian charity, no doubt he thought too that Ambrose was conscious +that he had not the ability to wrestle with a dialectician of Augustin's +strength, and that, into the bargain, the prelate was to seek in knowledge +of the Scriptures. And, in truth, Ambrose had been made a bishop so +suddenly that he must have found himself obliged to improvise a hasty +knowledge. Anyhow, Augustin concluded that if he refused to discuss, it was +because he was afraid of being at a disadvantage. + +Very surely St. Ambrose had no notion of what the catechumen was thinking. +He soared too high to trouble about miserable stings to self-respect. In +his ministry he was for all alike, and he would have thought it against +Christian equality to shew any special favour to Augustin. If, in the brief +talks he had with the young rhetorician, he was able to gather anything of +his character, he could not have formed a very favourable opinion of it. +The high-strung temperament of the African, these vague yearnings of the +spirit, these sterile melancholies, this continual temporizing before the +faith--all that could only displease Ambrose, the practical Roman, the +official used all his life to command. + +However that was, Augustin, in following years, never allowed himself the +least reproach towards Ambrose. On the contrary, everywhere he loads him +with praise, quotes him repeatedly in his treatises, and takes refuge on +his authority. He calls him his "father." But once, when he is speaking +of the spiritual desolation in which he was plunged at Milan, there does +escape him something like a veiled complaint which appears to be aimed at +Ambrose. After recalling the eagerness with which he sought truth in those +days, he adds: "If any one could have been found then to trouble about +instructing me, he would have had a most willing and docile pupil." + +This phrase, in such marked contrast with so many laudatory passages in +the _Confessions_ about St. Ambrose, seems to be indeed a statement of +the plain truth. If God made use of Ambrose to convert Augustin, it is +nevertheless likely that Ambrose personally did nothing, or very little, to +bring about this conversion. + + + + +IV + +PLANS OF MARRIAGE + + +But even as he draws nearer the goal, Augustin would appear, on the +contrary, to get farther away from it. Such are God's secret paces, Who +snatches souls like a thief: He drops on them without warning. Till the +very eve of the day when Christ shall come to take him, Augustin will be +all taken up with the world and the care of making a good figure in it. + +Although Ambrose's sermons stimulated him to reflect upon the great +historical reality which Christianity is, he had as yet but dim glimpses +of it. He had given up his superficial unbelief, and yet did not believe +in anything definite. He drifted into a sort of agnosticism compounded of +mental indolence and discouragement. When he scrutinized his conscience to +the depths, the most he could find was a belief in the existence of God and +His providence--quite abstract ideas which he was incapable of enlivening. +But whatever was the use of speculating upon Truth and the Sovereign Good! +The main thing to do was to live. + +Now that his future was certain, Augustin endeavoured to arrange his life +with a view to his tranquillity. He had no longer very large ambitions. +What he principally wanted to do was to create for himself a nice little +existence, peaceful and agreeable, one might almost say, middle-class. His +present fortune, although small, was still enough for that, and he was in a +hurry to enjoy it. + +Accordingly, he had not been long in Milan ere he sent for his mistress and +his son. He had rented an apartment in a house which gave on a garden. The +owner, who did not live there, allowed him the use of the whole house. A +house, the dream of the sage! And a garden in Virgil's country! Augustin, +the professor, should have been wonderfully happy. His mother soon joined +him. Gradually a whole tribe of Africans came down on him, and took +advantage of his hospitality. Here was his brother, Navigius, his two +cousins, Rusticus and Lastidianus, his friend Alypius, who could not make +up his mind to part from him, and probably Nebridius, another of his +Carthage friends. Nothing could be more in harmony with the customs of the +time. The Rhetorician to the City of Milan had a post which would pass +for superb in the eyes of his poor relations. He was acquainted with very +important people, and had access to the Imperial Court, whence favours and +bounties came. Immediately, the family ran to put themselves under his +protection and be enrolled beneficiaries, to get what they could out of +his new fortune and credit. And then these immigrations of Africans and +Orientals into the northern countries always come about in the same way. It +is enough if one of them gets on there: he becomes immediately the drop of +ink on the blotting-paper. + +The most important person in this little African phalanstery was +unquestionably Monnica, who had taken in hand the moral and material +control of the house. She was not very old--not quite fifty-four--but she +wanted to be in her own country. That she should have left it, and faced +the weariness of a long journey over sea and land, she must have had very +serious reasons. The poverty into which she had fallen since the death of +her husband would not be an adequate explanation of her departure from +her native land. She had still some small property at Thagaste; she could +have lived there. The true motives of her departure were of an altogether +different order. First of all, she passionately loved her son, to the point +that she was not able to live away from him. Let us recall Augustin's +touching words: "For she loved to keep me with her, as mothers are wont, +yes, far more than most mothers." Besides that, she wanted to save him. She +completely believed that this was her work in the world. + +Beginning from now, she is no longer the widow of Patricius: she is already +Saint Monnica. Living like a nun, she fasted, prayed, mortified her body. +By long meditating on the Scriptures, she had developed within her the +sense of spiritual realities, so that before long she astonished Augustin +himself. She had visions; perhaps she had trances. As she came over the sea +from Carthage to Ostia, the ship which carried her ran into a wild gale. +The danger became extreme, and the sailors themselves could no longer hide +their fear. But Monnica intrepidly encouraged them. "Never you fear, we +shall arrive in port safe and sound!" God, she declared, had promised her +this. + +If, in her Christian life, she knew other minutes more divine, that was +truly the most heroic. Across Augustin's calm narrative, we witness the +scene. This woman lying on the deck among passengers half dead from fatigue +and terror, suddenly flings back her veils, stands up before the maddened +sea, and with a sudden flame gleaming over her pale face, she cries to the +sailors: "What do you fear? We shall get to port. _I am sure of it!_" The +glorious act of faith! + +At this solemn moment, when she saw death so near, she had a clear +revelation of her destiny; she knew with absolute certainty that she was +entrusted with a message for her son, and that her son would receive this +message, in spite of all, in spite of the wildness of the sea--aye, in +spite of his own heart. + +When this sublime emotion had subsided, it left with her the conviction +that sooner or later Augustin would change his ways. He had lost himself, +he was mistaken about himself. This business of rhetorician was unworthy +of him. The Master of the field had chosen him to be one of the great +reapers in the time of harvest. For a long while Monnica had foreseen the +exceptional place that Augustin was to take in the Church. Why fritter +away his talent and intelligence in selling vain words, when there were +heresies to combat, the Truth to make shine forth, when the Donatists were +capturing the African basilicas from the Catholics? What, in fact, was the +most celebrated rhetorician compared to a bishop--protector of cities, +counsellor of emperors, representative of God on earth? All this might +Augustin be. And he remained stubborn in his error! Prayers and efforts +must be redoubled to draw him from that. It was also for herself that she +struggled, for the dearest of her hopes as a mother. To bear a soul to +Jesus Christ--and a chosen soul who would save in his turn souls without +number--for this only had she lived. And so it was that on the deck, tired +by the rolling of the ship, drenched by the seas that were breaking on +board, and hardly able to stand in the teeth of the wind, she cried out to +the sailors: "What do you fear? We shall get to port. I am sure of it...." + +At Milan she was regarded by Bishop Ambrose as a model parishioner. She +never missed his sermons and "hung upon his lips as a fountain of water +springing up to eternal life." And yet it does not appear that the great +bishop understood the mother any better than he did the son: he had not +the time. For him Monnica was a worthy African woman, perhaps a little odd +in her devotion, and given to many a superstitious practice. Thus, she +continued to carry baskets of bread and wine and pulse to the tombs of the +martyrs, according to the use at Carthage and Thagaste. When, carrying +her basket, she came to the door of one of the Milanese basilicas, the +doorkeeper forbade her to enter, saying that it was against the bishop's +orders, who had solemnly condemned such practices because they smacked +of idolatry. The moment she learned that this custom was prohibited by +Ambrose, Monnica, very much mortified, submitted to take away her basket, +for in her eyes Ambrose was the providential apostle who would lead her son +to salvation. And yet it must have grieved her to give up this old custom +of her country. Save for the fear of displeasing the bishop, she would +have kept it up. Ambrose was gratified by her obedience, her fervour and +charity. When by chance he met the son, he congratulated him on having such +a mother. Augustin, who did not yet despise human praise, no doubt expected +that Ambrose would in turn pay some compliments to himself. But Ambrose did +not praise him at all, and perhaps he felt rather vexed. + +He himself, however, was always very busy; he had hardly any time to profit +by the pious exhortations of the bishop. His day was filled by his work +and his social duties. In the morning he lectured. The afternoon went in +friendly visits, or in looking up men of position whom he applied to for +himself or his relations. In the evening, he prepared to-morrow's lecture. +In spite of this very full and stirring life, which would seem to satisfy +all his ambitions, he could not manage to stifle the cry of his heart in +distress. He did not feel really happy. In the first place, it is doubtful +whether he liked Milan any better than Rome. He felt the cold there very +much. The Milanese winters are very trying, especially for a southerner. +Thick fogs rise from the canals and the marsh lands which surround the +city. The Alpine snows are very near. This climate, damper and frostier +even than at Rome, did no good to his chest. He suffered continually from +hoarseness; he was obliged to interrupt his lectures--a most disastrous +necessity for a man whose business it is to talk. These attacks became so +frequent that he was forced to wonder if he could keep on long in this +state. Already he felt that he might be obliged to give up his profession. +Then, in those hours when he lost heart, he flung to the winds all his +youthful ambitions. As a last resort, the voiceless rhetorician would take +a post in one of the administrative departments of the Empire. The idea of +being one day a provincial governor did not rouse any special repugnance. +What a fall for him! "Yes, but it is the wisest, the wisest thing," +retorted the ill-advising voice, the one we are tempted to listen to when +we doubt ourselves. + +Friendship, as always with Augustin, consoled him for his hopeless +thoughts. Near him was "the brother of his heart," the faithful Alypius, +and also Nebridius, that young man so fond of metaphysical discussions. +Nebridius had left his rich estate in the Carthaginian suburbs, and a +mother who loved him, simply to live with Augustin in the pursuit of truth. +Romanianus was also there, but for a less disinterested reason. The Maecenas +of Thagaste, after his ostentatious expenditure, found that his fortune +was threatened. A powerful enemy, who had started a law-suit against him, +worked to bring about his downfall. Romanianus had come to Milan to +defend himself before the Emperor, and to win the support of influential +personages about the Court. And so it came about that he saw a great deal +of Augustin. + +Besides this little band of fellow-countrymen, the professor of rhetoric +had some very distinguished friends among the aristocracy. He was +especially intimate with that Manlius Theodorus whom the poet Claudian +celebrates, and to whom he himself later on was to dedicate one of his +books. This rich man, who had been Proconsul at Carthage, where no doubt he +had met Augustin, lived at this time retired in the country, dividing his +leisure hours between the study of the Greek philosophers, especially of +the Platonists, and the cultivation of his vineyards and olive trees. + +Here, as at Thagaste, in these beautiful villas on the shores of the +Italian lakes, the son of Monnica gave himself up once more to the +sweetness of life. "I liked an easy life," he avows in all simplicity. +He felt himself to be more Epicurean than ever. He might have chosen +Epicureanism altogether, if he had not always kept a fear of what is beyond +life. But when he was the guest of Manlius Theodoras, fronting the dim blue +mountains of lake Como, framed in the high windows of the _triclinium_, +he did not think much about what is beyond life. He said to himself: "Why +desire the impossible? So very little is needed to satisfy a human soul." +The enervating contact of luxury and comfort imperceptibly corrupted him. +He became like those fashionable people whom he knew so well how to charm +with his talk. Like the fashionable people of all times, these designated +victims of the Barbarians built, with their small daily pleasures, a +rampart against all offensive or saddening realities, leaving the important +questions without answer, no longer even asking them. And they said: +"I have beautiful books, a well-heated house, well-trained slaves, a +delightfully arranged bathroom, a comfortable vehicle: life is sweet. I +don't wish for a better. What's the use? This one is good enough for me." +At the moment when his tired intellect gave up everything, Augustin was +taken in the snare of easy enjoyment, and desired to resemble these people +at all points, to be one of them. But to be one of them he must have a +higher post than a rhetorician's, and chiefly it would be necessary to put +all the outside forms and exterior respectability into his life that the +world of fashion shews. Thus, little by little, he began to think seriously +of marriage. + +His mistress was the only obstacle in the way of this plan. He got rid of +her. + +That was a real domestic drama, which he has tried to hide; but it must +have been extremely painful for him, to judge by the laments which he gives +vent to, despite himself, in some phrases, very brief and, as it were, +ashamed. In this drama Monnica was certainly the leader, though it is +likely that Augustin's friends also played their parts. No doubt, they +objected to the professor of rhetoric, that he was injuring his reputation +as well as his future by living thus publicly with a concubine. But +Monnica's reasons were more forcible and of quite another value. + +To begin with, it is very natural that she should have suffered in her +maternal dignity, as well as in her conscience as a Christian, by having to +put up with the company of a stranger who was her son's mistress. However +large we may suppose the house where the African tribe dwelt, a certain +clashing between the guests was unavoidable. Generally, disputes as to +who shall direct the domestic arrangements divide mother-in-law and +daughter-in-law who live under one roof. What could be Monnica's feelings +towards a woman who was not even a daughter-in-law and was regarded by her +as an intruder? She did not consider it worth while to make any attempt at +regulating the entanglement of her son by marrying them: this person was +of far too low a class. It is all very well to be a saint, but one does +not forget that one is the widow of a man of curial rank, and that a +middle-class family with self-respect does not lower itself by admitting +the first-comer into its ranks by marriage. But these were secondary +considerations in her eyes. The only one which could have really preyed on +her mind is that this woman delayed Augustin's conversion. On account of +her, as Monnica saw plainly, he put off his baptism indefinitely. She was +the chain of sin, the unclean past under whose weight he stifled. He must +be freed from her as soon as possible. + +Convinced therefore that such was her bounden duty, she worked continually +to make him break off. By way of putting him in some sort face to face with +a deed impossible to undo, she searched to find him a wife, with the fine +eagerness that mothers usually put into this kind of hunt. She discovered +a girl who filled, as they say, all the requirements, and who realized all +the hopes of Augustin. She had a fortune considerable enough not to be a +burthen on her husband. Her money, added to the professor's salary, would +allow the pair to live in ease and comfort. So they were betrothed. In +the uncertainty about all things which was Augustin's state just then, he +allowed his mother to work at this marriage. No doubt he approved, and like +a good official he thought it was time for him to settle down. + +From that moment, the separation became inevitable. How did the poor +creature who had been faithful to him during so many years feel at this +ignominious dismissal? What must have been the parting between the child +Adeodatus and his mother? How, indeed, could Augustin consent to take him +from her? Here, again, he has decided to keep silent on this painful drama, +from a feeling of shame easy to understand. Of course, he was no longer +strongly in love with his mistress, but he was attached to her by some +remains of tenderness, and by that very strong tie of pleasure shared. He +has said it in words burning with regret. "When they took from my side, as +an obstacle to my marriage, her with whom I had been used for such a long +time to sleep, my heart was torn at the place where it was stuck to hers, +and the wound was bleeding." The phrase casts light while it burns. "At the +place where my heart stuck to hers"--_cor ubi adhaerebat_. He acknowledges +then that the union was no longer complete, since at many points he had +drawn apart. If the soul of his mistress had remained the same, his had +changed: however much he might still love her, he was already far from her. + +Be that as it will, she behaved splendidly in the affair--this forsaken +woman, this poor creature whom they deemed unworthy of Augustin. She was a +Christian; perhaps she perceived (for a loving woman might well have this +kind of second-sight) that it was a question not only of the salvation of +a loved being, but of a divine mission to which he was predestined. She +sacrificed herself that Augustin might be an apostle and a saint--a great +servant of God. So she went back to her Africa, and to shew that she +pardoned, if she could not forget, she vowed that she would never know any +other man. "She who had slept" with Augustin could never be the wife of any +one else. + +However low she may have been to begin with, the unhappy woman was great at +this crisis. Her nobility of soul humiliated Augustin, and Monnica herself, +and punishment was not slow in falling on them both--on him, for letting +himself be carried away by sordid plans for success in life, and upon her, +the saint, for having been too accommodating. As soon as his mistress was +gone, Augustin suffered from being alone. "I thought that I should be +miserable," says he, "without the embraces of a woman." Now his promised +bride was too young: two years must pass before he could marry her. How +could he control himself till then? Augustin did not hesitate: he found +another mistress. + +There was Monnica's punishment, cruelly deceived in her pious intentions. +In vain did she hope a great deal of good from this approaching marriage: +the silence of God shewed her that she was on the wrong track. She begged +for a vision, some sign which would reveal to her how this new-planned +marriage would turn out. Her prayer was not heard. + +"Meanwhile," says Augustin, "my sins were being multiplied." But he did +not limit himself to his own sins: he led others into temptation. Even in +matrimonial matters, he felt the need of making proselytes. So he fell upon +the worthy Alypius. He, to be sure, guarded himself chastely from women, +although in the outset of his youth, to be like everybody else, he had +tried pleasure with women; but he had found that it did not suit his taste. +However, Augustin put conjugal delights before him with so much heat, that +he too began to turn his thoughts that way, "not that he was overcome by +the desire of pleasure, _but out of curiosity_." For Alypius, marriage +would be a sort of philosophic and sentimental experience. + +Here are quite modern expressions to translate very old conditions of soul. +The fact is, that these young men, Augustin's friends and Augustin himself, +were startlingly like those of a generation already left behind, alas! who +will probably keep in history the presumptuous name they gave themselves: +_The Intellectuals_. + +Like us, these young Latins of Africa, pupils of the rhetoricians and the +pagan philosophers, believed in hardly anything but ideas. All but ready to +affirm that Truth is not to be come at, they thought, just the same, that +a vain hunt after it was a glorious risk to run, or, at the very least, an +exciting game. For them this game made the whole dignity and value of life. +Although they had spasms of worldly ambition, they really despised whatever +was not pure speculation. In their eyes, the world was ugly; action +degrading. They barred themselves within the ideal garden of the sage, "the +philosopher's corner," as they called it, and jealously they stopped up all +the holes through which the painful reality might have crept through to +them. But where they differed from us, is that they had much less dryness +of soul, with every bit as much pedantry--but such ingenuous pedantry! +That's what saved them--their generosity of soul, the youth of their +hearts. They loved each other, and they ended by growing fond of life and +getting in contact with it again. Nebridius journeyed from Carthage to +Milan, abandoning his mother and family, neglecting considerable interests, +not only to talk philosophy with Augustin, but to live with him as a +friend. From this moment they might have been putting in practice those +words of the Psalm, which Augustin ere long will be explaining to his monks +with such tender eloquence: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for +brethren to dwell together in unity!" + +This is not baseless hypothesis: they had really a plan for establishing a +kind of lay monastery, where the sole rule would be the search after Truth +and the happy life. There would be about a dozen solitaries. They would +make a common stock of what means they possessed. The richest, and among +these Romanianus, promised to devote their whole fortune to the community. +But the recollection of their wives brought this naive plan to nothing. +They had neglected to ask the opinions of their wives, and if these, as +was likely, should refuse to enter the convents with their husbands, the +married men could not face the scheme of living without them. Augustin +especially, who was on the point of starting a new connection, declared +that he would never find the courage for it. He had also forgotten that +he had many dependents: his whole family lived on him. Could he leave his +mother, his son, his brother, and his cousins? + +In company with Alypius and Nebridius, he sincerely lamented that this +fair dream of coenobite life was impracticable. "We were three famishing +mouths," he says, "complaining of our distress one to another, and waiting +upon Thee that Thou mightest give us our meat in due season. And in all +the bitterness that Thy mercy put into our worldly pursuits, we sought the +reason why we suffered; and all was darkness. Then we turned to each other +shuddering, and asked: 'How much longer can this last?'..." + +One day, a slight commonplace fact which they happened upon brought home +to them still more cruelly their intellectual poverty. Augustin, in his +official position as municipal orator, had just delivered the official +panegyric of the Emperor. The new year was opening: the whole city was +given over to mirth. And yet he was cast down, knowing well that he had +just uttered many an untruth, and chiefly because he despaired of ever +being happy. His friends were walking with him. Suddenly, as they crossed +the street, they came upon a beggar, quite drunk, who was indulging in the +jolliest pranks. So there was a happy man! A few pence had been enough +to give him perfect felicity, whereas they, the philosophers, despite +the greatest efforts and all their knowledge, could not manage to win +happiness. No doubt, as soon as the drunkard grew sober, he would be more +wretched than before. What matters that, if this poor joy--yes, though it +be an illusion--can so much cheer a poor creature, thus raise him so far +above himself! That minute, at least, he shall have lived in full bliss. +And to Augustin came the temptation to do as the beggar-man, to throw +overboard his philosophical lumber and set himself simply to live without +afterthoughts, since life is sometimes good. + +But an instinct, stronger than the instinct of pleasure, said to him: +"_There is something else!_--Suppose that were true?--Perhaps you might be +able to find out." This thought tormented him unceasingly. Now eager, now +disheartened, he set about trying to find the "something else." + + + + +V + +THE CHRIST IN THE GARDEN + + +"I was tired of devouring time and of being devoured by it." The whole +moral crisis that Augustin is about to undergo might be summed up in these +few words so concentrated and so strong. No more to scatter himself among +the multitude of vain things, no more to let himself flow along with the +minutes as they flowed; but to pull himself together, to escape from the +rout so as to establish himself upon the incorruptible and eternal, to +break the chains of the old slave he continues to be so as to blossom forth +in liberty, in thought, in love--that is the salvation he longs for. If it +be not yet the Christian salvation, he is on the road which leads to that. + +One might amuse oneself by drawing a kind of ideal map-route of his +conversion, and fastening into one solid chain the reasons which made him +emerge at the act of faith: he himself perhaps, in his _Confessions_, +has given way too much to this inclination. In reality, conversion is an +interior fact, and (let us repeat it) a divine fact, which is independent +of all control by the reason. Before it breaks into light, there is a long +preparation in that dark region of the soul which to-day is called the +subconscious. Now nobody has more _lived_ his ideas than did Augustin +at this time of his life. He took them, left them, took them up again, +persisted in his desperate effort. They reflect in their disorder his +variable soul, and the misgivings which troubled it to its depths. And yet +it cannot be that this interior fact should be in violent contradiction +with logic. The head ought not to hinder the heart. With the future +believer, a parallel work goes on in the feelings and in the thought. If we +are not able to reproduce the marches and counter-marches, or follow their +repeatedly broken line, we can at least shew the main halting-places. + +Let us recall Augustin's state of mind when he came to Milan. He was a +sceptic, the kind of sceptic who regards as useless all speculation upon +the origin of things, and for whom cognition is but an approximation of the +true. Vaguely deist, he saw in Jesus Christ only a wise man among the wise. +He believed in God and the providences of God, which amounts to this: That +although materialist by tendency, he admitted the divine interference in +human affairs--the miracle. This is an important point which differentiates +him from modern materialists. + +Next, he listened to the preaching of Ambrose. The Bible no longer seemed +to him absurd or at variance with a moral scheme. Ambrose's exegesis, +half allegorical, half historic, might be accepted, taken altogether, +by self-respecting minds. But what, above all, struck Augustin in the +Scriptures, was the wisdom, the practical efficiency. Those who lived by +the Christian rule were not only happy people, but, as Pascal would say, +good sons, good husbands, good fathers, good citizens. He began to suspect +that this life here below is bearable and has a meaning only when it is +fastened to the life on high. Even as for nations glory is daily bread, so +for the individual the sacrifice to something which is beyond the world is +the only way of living in the world. + +So, little by little, Augustin corrected the false notions that the +Manichees had filled him with about Catholicism. He acknowledged that in +attacking it he had "been barking against the vain imaginations of carnal +thoughts." Still, he found great difficulty in getting free of all his +Manichean prejudices. The problem of Evil remained inexplicable for him, +apart from Manichee teachings. God could not be the author of evil. This +truth admitted, he went on from it to think, against his former masters, +that nothing is bad in itself--bad because it has within it a corrupting +principle. On the contrary, all things are good, though in varying degrees. +The apparent defects of creation, perceived by our senses, blend into +the harmony of the whole. The toad and the viper have their place in the +operation of a perfectly arranged world. But physical ill is not the only +ill; there is also the evil that we do and the evil that others do us. +Crime and pain are terrible arguments against God. Now the Christians +hold that the first is the product solely of the human will, of liberty +corrupted by original sin, and that the other is permitted by God as a +means of purifying souls. Of course, this was a solution, but it implied a +belief in the dogmas of the Fall and of the Redemption. Augustin did not +accept them yet. He was too proud to recognize an impaired will and the +need of a Saviour. "My puffed-out face," he says, "closed up my eyes." + +Nevertheless he had taken a great step in rejecting the fundamental dogma +of Manicheeism--the double Principle of good and evil. Henceforth for +Augustin there exists only one Principle, unique and incorruptible--the +Good, which is God. But his view of this divine substance is still +quite materialistic, to such an extent is he governed by his senses. In +his thought, it is corporeal, spatial, and infinite. He pictures it as +a kind of limitless sea, wherein is a huge sponge bathing the world +that it pervades throughout.... He was at this point, when one of his +acquaintances, "a man puffed up with immense vanity," gave him some of +the Dialogues of Plato, translated into Latin by the famous rhetorician +Victorinus Afer. It is worth noting, as we pass, that Augustin, now +thirty-two years old, a rhetorician by profession and a philosopher by +taste, had not yet read Plato. This is yet another proof to what extent the +instruction of the ancients was oral, resembling in this the Mussulmans' +instruction of to-day. Up to now, he had only known Plato by hearsay. He +read him, and it was as a revelation. He learned that a reality could exist +without diffusion through space. He saw God as unextended and yet infinite. +The sense of the divine Soul was given to him. Then the primordial +necessity of the Mediator or Word was borne in upon his mind. It is the +Word which has created the world. It is through the Word that the world, +and God, and all things, including ourselves, become comprehensible to us. +What an astonishment! Plato corresponded with St. John! "In the beginning +was the Word"--_in principio erat verbum_--said the fourth Gospel. But +it was not only an Evangelist that Augustin discovered in the Platonist +dialogues, it was almost all the essential part of the doctrine of Christ. +He saw plainly the profound differences, but for the moment he was struck +by the resemblances, and they carried him away. What delighted him, first +of all, is the beauty of the world, constructed after His own likeness by +the Demiurgus. God is Beauty; the world is fair as He who made it. This +metaphysical vision entranced Augustin; his whole heart leaped towards +this ineffably beautiful Divinity. Carried away by enthusiasm he cries: "I +marvelled to find that now I loved Thee, O my God, and not a phantasm in +Thy stead. If I was not yet in a state to enjoy Thee, _I was swept up to +Thee by Thy beauty_." + +But such an abandonment could not endure: "I was not yet in a state to +enjoy Thee." There is Augustin's main objection to Platonism. He felt +that instead of touching God, of enjoying Him, he would be held by purely +mental conceptions, that he would be always losing his way among the +phantasmagoria of idealism. What was the use of giving up the illusory +realities of the senses, if it were not to get hold of more _solid_ +realities? Though his intelligence, his poet's imagination, might be +attracted by the glamour of Platonism, his heart was not satisfied. "It is +one thing," he says, "from some wooded height to behold the land of peace, +another thing to march thither along the high road." + +St. Paul it was who shewed him this road. He began to read the _Epistles_ +carefully, and the more he read of them the more he became aware of the +abyss which separates philosophy from wisdom--the one which marshals the +ideas of things, the other which, ignoring ideas, leads right up to the +divine realities whereon the others are suspended. The Apostle taught +Augustin that it was not enough to get a glimpse of God through the crystal +of concepts, but that it is necessary to be united to Him in spirit and in +truth--to possess and enjoy Him. And to unite itself to this Good, the soul +must get itself into a fit state for such a union, purify and cure itself +of all its fleshly maladies, descry its place in the world and hold to it. +Necessity of repentance, of humility, of the contrite and humble heart. +Only the contrite and humble heart shall see God. "The broken heart shall +be cured," says the Scripture, "but the heart of the proud man shall be +shattered." So Augustin, the intellectual, had to change his methods, +and he felt that this change was right. If the writer who wants to write +beautiful things ought to put himself beforehand into some sort of a state +of grace, wherein not only vile actions, but unworthy thoughts become +impossible, the Christian, in like manner, must cleanse and prepare +his inward eye to perceive the divine verities. Augustin grasped this +thought in reading St. Paul. But what, above all, appealed to him in the +_Epistles_, was their paternal voice, the mildness and graciousness hidden +beneath the uncultivated roughness of the phrases. He was charmed by this. +How different from the philosophers! "Those celebrated pages have no trace +of the pious soul, the tears of repentance, nor of Thy sacrifice, O my God, +nor of the troubled spirit.... No one there hearkened to the Christ that +calleth, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour!' They think it scorn to learn +from Him, because He is meek and lowly of heart. For Thou hast hidden these +things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." + +But it is not much to bend: what is, above all, requisite for him is to get +rid of his passions. Now Augustin's passions were old friends. How could +he part with them? He lacked courage for this heroic treatment. Just think +of what a young man of thirty-two is. He is always thinking of women. Lust +holds him by the entanglements of habit, and he takes pleasure in the +impurity of his heart. When, yielding to the exhortations of the Apostle, +he tried to shape his conduct to his new way of thinking, the old friends +trooped to beg of him not to do anything of the kind. "They pulled me," he +says, "by the coat of my flesh, and they murmured in my ear--What, are you +leaving us? Shall we be no more with you, for ever? _Non erimus tecum ultra +in aeternum?_... And from that instant, the thing you well know, and still +another thing, will be forbidden you for ever--for eternity...." + +Eternity! Dread word. Augustin shook with fear. Then, calming himself, he +said to them: "I know you; I know you too well! You are Desire without +hope, the Gulf without soundings that nothing can fill up. I have suffered +enough because of you." And the anguished dialogue continued: "What +matters that! If the only possible happiness for you is to suffer on our +account, to fling your body into the voracious gulf, without end, without +hope!"--"Let cowards act so!... For me there is another happiness than +yours. There is _something else_: I am certain." Then the friends, put +a little out of countenance by this convinced tone, muttered in a lower +voice: "Still, just suppose you are losing this wretched pleasure for +a phantasm still more empty.... Besides, you are mistaken about your +strength. You cannot--no, you never can exist without us." They had touched +the galling spot: Augustin knew his weakness only too well. And his burning +imagination presented to him with extraordinary lucidity these pleasures +which he could not do without. They were not only embracements, but also +those trifles, those superfluous nothings, "those light pleasantnesses +which make us fond of life." The perfidious old friends continued to +whisper: "Wait a bit yet! The things you despise have a charm of their +own; they bring even no small sweetness. You ought not to cut yourself off +light-heartedly, for it would be shameful to return to them afterwards." +He passed in review all the things he was going to give up; he saw them +shine before him tinted in the most alluring colours: gaming, elaborate +entertainments, music, song, perfumes, books, poetry, flowers, the coolness +of forests (he remembered the woods about Thagaste, and his hunting days +with Romanianus)--in a word, all that he had ever cared about, even to +"that freshness of the light, so kind to human eyes." + +Augustin was not able to decide in this conflict between temptation and the +decree of his conscience, and he became desperate. His will, enfeebled by +sin, was unable to struggle against itself. And so he continued to endure +life and to be "devoured by time." + +The life of that particular period, if it was endurable for quiet folk +who were careful to have nothing to do with politics--this life of the +Empire near its end, could be nothing but a scandalous spectacle for an +honest-minded and high-souled man such as Augustin. It ought to have +disgusted him at once with remaining in the world. At Milan, connected as +he was with the Court, he was in a good position to see how much baseness +and ferocity may spring from human avarice and ambition. If the present +was hideous, the future promised to be sinister. The Roman Empire no longer +existed save in name. Foreigners, come from all the countries of the +Mediterranean, plundered the provinces under its authority. The army was +almost altogether in the hands of the Barbarians. They were Gothic tribunes +who kept order outside the basilica where Ambrose had closed himself in +with his people to withstand the order of the Empress Justina, who wished +to hand over this church to the Arians. Levantine eunuchs domineered over +the exchequer-clerks in the palace, and officials of all ranks. All these +people plundered where they could. The Empire, even grown feeble, was +always an excellent machine to rule men and extract gold from nations. +Accordingly, ambitious men and adventurers, wherever they came from, tried +for the Purple: it was still worth risking one's skin for. Even more than +the patriots (and there were still some very energetic men of this sort +who were overcome with grief at the state of things), the men of rapine +and violence were interested in maintaining the Empire. The Barbarians +themselves desired to be included, so that they might pillage it with more +impunity. + +As for the emperors, even sincere Christians, they were obliged to become +abominable tyrants to defend their constantly threatened lives. Never were +executions more frequent or more cruel than at this time. At Milan they +might have shewn Augustin, hard by the Imperial sleeping apartments, the +cave where the preceding Emperor, choleric Valentinian, kept two bears, +"Bit of Gold" and "Innocence," who were his rapid executioners. He fed them +with the flesh of those condemned to die. Possibly "Bit of Gold" was still +living. "Innocence"--observe the atrocious irony of this name--had been +restored to the liberty of her native forests, as a reward for her good and +loyal services. + +Was Augustin, who still thought of becoming an official, going to mix in +with this lot of swindlers, assassins, and brute beasts? As he studied them +near at hand, he felt his goodwill grow weak. Like all those who belong +to worn-out generations, he must have been disgusted with action and the +villainies it involves. Just before great catastrophes, or just after, +there is an epidemic of black pessimism which freezes delicate souls. +Besides, he was ill--a favourable circumstance for a disappointed man if he +entertains thoughts of giving up the world. In the fogs of Milan his chest +and throat became worse and worse. And then it is likely enough that he was +not succeeding better as rhetorician than he had at Rome. It was a kind +of fatality for all Africans. However great their reputation in their own +country, that was the end of it as soon as they crossed the sea. Apuleius, +the great man of Carthage, had tried the experiment to his cost. They had +made fun of his guttural Carthaginian pronunciation. The same kind of thing +happened to Augustin. The Milanese turned his African accent into ridicule. +He even found among them certain purists who discovered solecisms in his +phrases. + +But these scratches at his self-respect, this increasing disgust of men +and things, were small matters compared to what was going on within him. +Augustin had a sick soul. The forebodings he had always been subject to +were now become the suffering of every moment. At certain times he was +assailed by those great waves of sadness which unfurl all of a sudden from +the depths of the unknown. In such minutes we believe that the whole world +is hurling itself against us. The great wave rolled him over; he got up +again all wounded. And he felt stretch forth in him a new will which was +not his own, under which the other, the will to sin, struggled. It was +like the approach of an invisible being whose contact overcame him with an +anguish which was full of pleasure. This being wanted to open out within +him, but the weight of his old sins prevented. Then his soul cried out in +pain. + +In those moments, what a relief it was to let himself float on the +canticles of the Church! The liturgical chants were then something new in +the West. It was in the very year we are dealing with that St. Ambrose +started the custom in the Milanese basilicas. + +The childhood of our hymns! One cannot think about that without being +moved. One envies Augustin for having heard them in their spring freshness. +These lovely musics, which were to sound during so many centuries, and +still soar against the vaults of cathedrals, were leaving the nest for the +first time. We cannot think that a day will come when they will fold their +wings and fall silent. Since human bodies, temples of the Holy Ghost, will +live again in glory, one would like to believe with Dante that the hymns, +temples of the Word, are likewise immortal, and that they will still be +heard in the everlasting. Doubtless in the twilight glens of Purgatory the +bewailing souls continue to sing the _Te lucis ante terminum_, even as in +the star-circles, where the Blessed move ever, will always leap up the +triumphant notes of the _Magnificat_.... + +Even on those who have lost the faith, the power of these hymns is +irresistible. "If you knew," said Renan, "the charm that the Barbarian +magicians knew how to put into their canticles. When I remember them, my +heart melts." The heart of Augustin, who had not yet the faith, melted too +in hearing them: "How I have cried, my God, over the hymns and canticles +when the sweet sound of the music of Thy Church thrilled my soul! As the +music flowed into my ears, and Thy truth trickled into my heart, the tide +of devotion swelled high within me, and the tears ran down, and there was +gladness in those tears." His heart cast off its heaviness, while his mind +was shaken by the heavenly music. Augustin loved music passionately. At +this time he conceived God as the Great Musician of the spheres; and soon +he will write that "we are a strophe in a poem." At the same time, the +vivid and lightning figures of the Psalms, sweeping over the insipid +metaphors of the rhetoric which encumbered his memory, awoke in the depths +of him his wild African imagination and sent him soaring. And then the +affectionate note, the plaint in those sacred songs: _Deus, Deus meus!_--"O +God! O _my_ God!" The Divinity was no longer a cold abstraction, a phantom +that withdrew into an unapproachable infinite; He became the actual +possession of the loving soul. He leant over His poor scarred creature, +took him in His arms, and comforted him like a kind father. + +Augustin wept with tenderness and ecstasy, but also with despair. He wept +upon himself. He saw that he had not the courage to be happy with the only +possible happiness. What, indeed, was he seeking, unless it were to capture +this "blessed life" which he had pursued so long? What he had tried to get +out of all his loves was the complete gift of his soul--to realize himself +completely. Now, this completeness of self is only in God--_in Deo salutari +meo_. The souls we have wounded are in unison with us, and with themselves, +only in God.... And the sweet Christian symbolism invited him with its +most enticing images: the Shades of Paradise; the Fountain of Living +Water; the Repose in the Lord God; the green Branch of the Dove, harbinger +of peace.... But the passions still resisted. "To-morrow! Wait a little +yet! Shall we be no more with you, for ever? _Non erimus tecum ultra in +aeternum?_..." What a dismal sound in these syllables, and how terrifying +for a timid soul! They fell, heavy as bronze, on the soul of Augustin. + +An end had to be put to it somehow. What was needed was some one who would +force him out of his indecision. Instinctively, led by that mysterious will +which he felt had arisen within him, he went to see, and consult in his +distress, an old priest named Simplicianus, who had converted or directed +Bishop Ambrose in his young days. No doubt Augustin spoke to him of what he +had lately been reading, and particularly of his Platonist studies, and of +all the efforts he made to enter the communion of Christ. He acknowledged +that he was convinced, but he could not bend to the practice of the +Christian life. Then, very skilfully, as one artful in differentiating +souls, perceiving that vanity was not yet dead in Augustin, Simplicianus +offered him as an example the very translator of those Platonic books which +he had just been reading so enthusiastically--that famous Victorinus Afer, +that orator so learned and admired, who had his statue in the Roman Forum. +Because of some remains of philosophical pride, and also from fear of +offending his friends among the Roman aristocracy, who were still almost +altogether pagan, Victorinus was a Christian only in his head. In vain +Simplicianus pointed out to him how illogical his conduct was. But suddenly +and unexpectedly he decided. The day of the baptism of the catechumens, +this celebrated man mounted the platform set up in the basilica for the +profession of faith of the newly converted, and there, like the meanest of +the faithful, he delivered his profession before all the assembled people. +That was a dramatic stroke. The crowd, jubilant over this fine performance, +cheered the neophyte. And on all sides they shouted: "Victorinus! +Victorinus!" + +Augustin listened to this little story, whereof all the details were so +happily chosen to act on an imagination like his:--the statue in the +Roman Forum; the platform from the height of which the orator had spoken +a language so new and unexpected; the exulting shouts of the crowd: +"Victorinus! Victorinus!" Already he saw himself in the same position. +There he was in the basilica, on the platform, in presence of Bishop +Ambrose; he too repeated his profession of faith, and the people of Milan +clapped their hands--"Augustin! Augustin!" But can a humble and contrite +heart thus take pleasure in human adulation? If Augustin did become a +convert, it would be entirely for God and before God. Very quickly he put +aside the temptation.... Nevertheless, this example, coming from so exalted +a man, made a very deep and beneficial impression. He looked upon it as a +providential sign, a lesson in courage which concerned him personally. + +Some time after that, he received a visit from a fellow-countryman, a +certain Pontitianus, who had a high position in the Imperial household. +Augustin happened to be alone in the house with his friend Alypius. They +sat down to talk, and by chance the visitor noticed the Epistles of St. +Paul lying on a table for playing games. This started the conversation. +Pontitianus, who was a Christian, praised the ascetic life, and especially +the wonders of holiness wrought by Antony and his companions in the +Egyptian deserts. This subject was in the air. In Catholic circles at +Rome, they spoke of little else than these Egyptian solitaries, and of +the number, growing larger and larger, of those who stripped themselves +of their worldly goods to live in utter renunciation. What was the good +of keeping these worldly goods, that the avarice of Government taxation +confiscated so easily, and that the Barbarians watched covetously from +afar! The brutes who came down from Germany would get hold of them sooner +or later. And even supposing one might save them, retain an ever-uncertain +enjoyment of them, was the life of the time really worth the trouble of +living? There was nothing more to hope for the Empire. The hour of the +great desolation was at hand.... + +Pontitianus, observing the effect of his words on his hearers, was led +to tell them a quite private adventure of his own. He was at Treves, in +attendance on the Court. Well, one afternoon while the Emperor was at +the circus, he and three of his friends, like himself attached to the +household, went for a stroll beyond the city walls. Two of them parted +from the others and went off into the country, and there they came upon +a hut where dwelt certain hermits. They went in, and found a book--_The +Life of St. Antony_. They read in it; and for them that was a conversion +thunder-striking, instantaneous. The two courtiers resolved to join the +solitaries there and then, and they never went back to the Palace. And they +were betrothed!... + +The tone of Pontitianus as he recalled this conscience-drama which he +had witnessed, betrayed a strange emotion which gradually took hold of +Augustin. His guest's words resounded in him like the blows of a clapper in +a bell. He saw himself in the two courtiers of Treves. He too was tired of +the world, he too was betrothed. Was he going to do as the Emperor--remain +in the circus taken up with idle pleasures, while others took the road to +the sole happiness? + +When Pontitianus was gone, Augustin was in a desperate state. The repentant +soul of the two courtiers had passed into his. His will uprose in grievous +conflict and tortured itself. He seized Alypius roughly by the arm and +cried out to him in extraordinary excitement: + +"What are we about? Yes, I say, what are we about? Did you not hear? Simple +men arise and take Heaven by violence, and we with all our heartless +learning--look how we are wallowing in flesh and blood!" + +Alypius stared at him, stupefied. "The truth is," adds Augustin, "that I +scarcely knew what I said. My face, my eyes, my colour, and the change in +my voice expressed my meaning much better than my words." If he guessed +from this upheaval of his whole frame how close at hand was the heavenly +visitation, all he felt at the moment was a great need to weep, and he +wanted solitude to weep freely. He went down into the garden. Alypius, +feeling uneasy, followed at a distance, and in silence sat down beside him +on the bench where he had paused. Augustin did not even notice that his +friend was there. His agony of spirit began again. All his faults, all his +old stains came once more to his mind, and he grew furious against his +cowardly feebleness as he felt how much he still clung to them. Oh, to tear +himself free from all these miseries--to finish with them once for all!... +Suddenly he sprang up. It was as if a gust of the tempest had struck him. +He rushed to the end of the garden, flung himself on his knees under a +fig-tree, and with his forehead pressed against the earth he burst into +tears. Even as the olive-tree at Jerusalem which sheltered the last watch +of the Divine Master, the fig-tree of Milan saw fall upon its roots a sweat +of blood. Augustin, breathless in the victorious embrace of Grace, panted: +"How long, how long?... To-morrow and to-morrow?... Why not now? Why not +this hour make an end of my vileness?..." + +Now, at this very moment a child's voice from the neighbouring house began +repeating in a kind of chant: "_Take and read, take and read_." Augustin +shuddered. What was this refrain? Was it a nursery-rhyme that the little +children of the countryside used to sing? He could not recollect it; he had +never heard it before.... Immediately, as upon a divine command, he rose to +his feet and ran back to the place where Alypius was sitting, for he had +left St. Paul's Epistles lying there. He opened the book, and the passage +on which his eyes first fell was this: _Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, +and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof_.... The +flesh!... The sacred text aimed at him directly--at him, Augustin, still so +full of lust! This command was the answer from on high.... + +He put his finger between the leaves, closed the volume. His frenzy had +passed away. A great peace was shed upon him--it was all over. With a calm +face he told Alypius what had happened, and without lingering he went into +Monnica's room to tell her also. The Saint was not surprised. It was long +now since she had been told, "Where I am, there shalt thou be also." But +she gave way to an outburst of joy. Her mission was done. Now she might +sing her canticle of thanksgiving and enter into God's peace. + +Meanwhile, the good Alypius, always circumspect and practical, had opened +the book again and shewn his friend what followed the verse, for Augustin, +in his excitement, had neglected to read further. The Apostle said, "_Him +that is weak in the faith receive ye_." This also applied to Augustin. +That was only too certain: his new faith was still very unsteady. Let not +presumption blind him! Yes, no doubt with all his soul he desired to be a +Christian. It now remained for him to become one. + + + + +THE FOURTH PART + +THE HIDDEN LIFE + + + Fac me, Pater, quaerere te. + "Cause me to seek Thee, O my Father." + + _Soliloquies_, I, i. + + + + +I + +THE LAST SMILE OF THE MUSE + + +Now that Augustin had been at last touched by grace, was he after all +going to make a sensational conversion like his professional brother, the +celebrated Victorinus? + +He knew well enough that there is a good example set by these noisy +conversions which works on a vast number of people. And however "contrite +and humble" his heart might be, he was quite aware that in Milan he +was an important personage. What excitement, if he were to resign his +professorship on the ground that he wished to spend the rest of his life in +the ascetic way of the Christians!... But he preferred to avoid the scandal +on one side, and the loud praise on the other. God alone and some very dear +friends should witness his repentance. + +There were now hardly twenty days before the vacation. He would be patient +till then. Thus, the parents of his pupils would not have any ground to +reproach him for leaving them before the end of term, and as his health +was getting worse, he would have a good excuse to give up his post. The +dampness of the climate had given him a sort of chronic bronchitis which +the summer had not cured. He had difficulty in breathing; his voice was +muffled and thin--so much so, that he began to think his lungs were +attacked. Augustin's health really needed care. This was a quite good +enough reason to interrupt his lectures. Having fulfilled his professional +duties to the very end--and he assures us that it took some courage--he +left the professorial chair with the declared intention of never occupying +it again. + +Here, then, he is free from all worldly ties. From now on he can prepare +himself for baptism in silence and retreat. But still he must live somehow! +Augustin had more souls depending on him than ever: his son, his mother, +his brother, his cousins--a heavy burthen which he had been struggling +under for a long time. It is probable that once more Romanianus, who was +still in Milan, came to his assistance. It will be remembered that the +Maecenas of Thagaste had taken up warmly the plan of a lay monastery which +Augustin and his friends had lost their heads over, and he had promised +to subscribe a large sum. Augustin's retreat was a first step towards +realizing this plan in a new shape. Romanianus, no doubt, approved of +it. In any case, he asked Augustin to keep on giving lessons to his son +Licentius. Another young man, Trygetius, begged for the same favour. +Augustin therefore did not intend to give up his employment altogether. He +had changed, for the present at least, from a Government professor into a +private one. + +This meant that he had a certain living. All he wanted now was a shelter. +A friend, a colleague, the grammarian Verecundus, graciously offered him +this. Verecundus thus repaid a favour which Augustin had quite recently +done him. It was at Augustin's request that Nebridius, who was a friend of +both, agreed to take over the classes of the grammarian, who was obliged +to go away. Although rich, full of talent, and very eager for peace and +solitude, Nebridius, simply out of good-nature, was willing to take the +place of Verecundus in his very modest employment. One cannot too much +admire the generosity and kindliness of these ancient and Christian +manners. In those days, friendship knew nothing of our narrow and shabby +egoisms. + +Now Verecundus owned a country house just outside Milan, at Cassicium. He +suggested to Augustin to spend the vacation there, and even to live there +permanently with all his people, on condition of looking after the property +and keeping it up. + +Attempts have been made to find traces of this hospitable dwelling where +the future monk of Thagaste and Hippo bade farewell to the world. Cassicium +has disappeared. The imagination is free to rebuild it fancifully in any +part of the rich country which lies about Milan. Still, if the youthful +Licentius has not yielded too much to metaphor in the verses wherein he +recalls to Augustin "Departed suns among Italian mountain-heights," it is +likely that the estate of Verecundus lay upon those first mountain-slopes +which roll into the Brianza range. Even to-day, the rich Milanese have +their country houses among those hills. + +To Augustin and his companions this flourishing Lombardy must have seemed +another promised land. The country, wonderfully fertile and cultivated, +is one orchard, where fruit trees cluster, and, in all ways, deep streams +wind, slow-flowing and stocked with fish. Everywhere is the tremor of +running water--inconceivably fresh music for African ears. A scent of mint +and aniseed; fields with grass growing high and straight in which you +plunge up to the knees. Here and there, deeply engulfed little valleys +with their bunches of green covert, slashed with the rose plumes of the +lime trees and the burnished leaves of the hazels, and where already the +northern firs lift their black needles. Far off, blended in one violet +mass, the Alps, peak upon peak, covered with snow; and nearer in view, +sheer cliffs, jutting fastnesses, ploughed through with black gorges which +make flare out plainer the bronze-gold of their slopes. Not far off, the +enchanted lakes slumber. It seems that an emblazonment fluctuates from +their waters, and writhing above the crags which imprison them drifts +athwart a sky sometimes a little chill--Leonardo's pensive sky of shadowed +amethyst--again of a flushed blue, whereupon float great clouds, silken +and ruddy, as in the backgrounds of Veronese's pictures. The beauty of the +light lightens and beautifies the over-heavy opulence of the land. + +And wherever the country house of Verecundus may be placed, some bit of +this triumphal landscape will be found. As for the house itself, Augustin +has said enough about it for us to see it fairly well. It was no doubt one +of those old rustic buildings, inhabited only some few months of the year, +in the warmest season, and for the rest of the time given over to the +frolics of mice and rats. Without any pretence to architectural form, it +had been enlarged and renovated simply for the greater convenience of those +who lived there. There was no attempt at symmetry; the main door was not in +the middle of the building, and there was another door on one of the sides. +The sole luxury of this country house was perhaps the bath-houses. These +baths, however simple they might be, nevertheless reminded Augustin of +the decoration of gymnasiums. Does this mean that he found there rich +pavements, mosaics, and statues? These were quite usual things in Roman +villas. The Italians have always had, at all periods, a great fondness +for statues and mosaics. Not very particular about the quality, they made +up for it by the quantity. And when they could not treat themselves to +the real thing, it was good enough to give themselves the make-believe in +painting. I can imagine easily enough Verecundus' house, painted in fresco +from top to bottom, inside and out, like those houses at Pompeii, or the +modern Milanese villas. + +There was no attempt at ornamental gardens at Cassicium. The surroundings +must have been kitchen-garden, grazing-land, or ploughed fields, as in +a farm. A meadow--not in the least the lawns found in front of a large +country house--lay before the dwelling, which was protected from sun and +wind by clumps of chestnut trees. There, stretched on the grass under the +shade of one of these spreading trees, they chatted gaily while listening +to the broken song of the brook, as it flowed under the windows of the +baths. They lived very close to nature, almost the life of field-tillers. +The whole charm of Cassicium consisted in its silence, its peace, and, +above all, its fresh air. Augustin's tired lungs breathed there a purer air +than in Milan, where the humid summer heat is crushing. His soul, yearning +for retirement, discovered a retreat here in harmony with his new desires, +a country solitude of which the Virgilian grace still appealed to his +literary imagination. The days he passed there were days of blessedness for +him. Long afterwards he was deeply moved when he recalled them, and in an +outburst of gratitude towards his host, he prayed God to pay him his debt. +"Thou wilt recompense him, O Lord, on the day of the resurrection of the +just.... For that country house at Cassicium where we found shelter in Thee +from the burning summer of our time, Thou wilt repay to Verecundus the +coolness and evergreen shade of Thy paradise...." + +That was an unequalled moment in Augustin's life. Following immediately +upon the mental crisis which had even worn out his body, he seems to be +experiencing the pleasure of convalescence. He slackens, and, as he says +himself, he rests. His excitement is quenched, but his faith remains +as firm as ever. With a cairn and supremely lucid mind he judges his +condition; he sees clearly all that he has still to do ere he becomes a +thorough Christian. First, he must grow familiar with the Scripture, solve +certain urgent questions--that of the soul, for example, its nature and +origin--which possessed him just then. Then he must change his conduct, +alter his ways of thought, and, if one may so speak, disinfect his mind +still all saturated with pagan influences: a delicate work--yes, and an +uneasy, at times even painful, which would take more than one day. + +After twenty centuries of Christianity, and in spite of our claim to +understand all things, we do not yet realize very well what an abyss +lies between us and paganism. When by chance we come upon pagan traces +in certain primitive regions of the South of Europe, we get muddled, and +attribute to Catholicism what is but a survival of old abolished customs, +so far from us that we cannot recognize them any more. Augustin, on the +contrary, was right next to them. When he strolled over the fields and +through the woods around Cassicium, the Fauns and woodland Nymphs of the +old mythology haunted his memory, and all but stood before his eyes. He +could not take a walk without coming upon one of their chapels, or striking +against a boundary-mark still all greasy from the oil with which the +superstitious peasants had drenched it. Like himself, the old pagan land +had not yet quite put on the Christ of the new era. He was like that Hermes +Criophorus, who awkwardly symbolized the Saviour on the walls of the +Catacombs. Even as the Bearer of Rams changed little by little into the +Good Shepherd, the Bishop of Hippo emerged slowly from the rhetorician +Augustin. + +He became aware of it during that languid autumn at Cassicium--that autumn +heavy with all the rotting of summer, but which already promised the +great winter peace. The yellow leaves of the chestnuts were heaped by the +roadside. They fell in the brook which flowed near the baths, and the +slowed water ceased to sing. Augustin strained his ears for it. His soul +also was blocked, choked up by all the deposit of his passions. But he knew +that soon the chant of his new life would begin in triumphal fashion, and +he said over to himself the words of the psalm: _Cantate mihi canticum +novum_--"Sing unto me a new song." + +Unfortunately for Augustin, his soul and its salvation was not his only +care at Cassicium: he had a thousand others. So it shall be with him +throughout his life. Till the very end he will long for solitude, for the +life in God, and till the end God will charge him with the care of his +brethren. This great spirit shall live above all by charity. + +At the house of Verecundus he was not only the head, but he had a complete +country estate to direct and supervise. Probably all the guests in the +house helped him. They divided the duties. The good Alypius, who was used +to business and versed in the twisted ways of the law, took over the +foreign affairs--the buying and selling, probably the accounts also. He was +continually on the road to Milan. Augustin attended to the correspondence, +and every morning appointed their work to the farm-labourers. Monnica +looked after the household, no easy work in a house where nine sat down to +table every day. But the Saint fulfilled her humble duties with touching +kindness and forgetfulness of self: "She took care of us," says Augustin, +"as if we had all been her children, and she served us as if each of us had +been her father." + +Let us look a little at these "children" of Monnica. Besides Alypius, whom +we know already, there was the young Adeodatus, the child of sin--"my son +Adeodatus, whose gifts gave promise of great things, unless my love for +him betrays me." Thus speaks his father. This little boy was, it seems, +a prodigy, as shall be the little Blaise Pascal later: "His intelligence +filled me with awe"--_horrori mihi erat illud ingenium_--says the father +again. What is certain is that he had a soul like an angel. Some sayings +of his have been preserved by Augustin. They are fragrant as a bunch of +lilies. + +The other members of the family are nearer the earth. Navigius, Augustin's +brother, an excellent man of whom we know nothing save that he had a bad +liver--the icterus of the African colonist--and that on this account he +abstained from sweetmeats. Rusticus and Lastidianus, the two cousins, +persons as shadowy as the "supers" in a tragedy. Finally, Augustin's +pupils, Trygetius and Licentius. The first, who had lately served some time +in the army, was passionately fond of history, "like a veteran." Although +his master in some of his Dialogues has made him his interlocutor, his +character remains for us undeveloped. With Licentius it is different. This +son of Romanianus, the Maecenas of Thagaste, was Augustin's beloved pupil. +It is easy to make that out. All the phrases he devotes to Licentius have a +warmth of tone, a colour and relief which thrill. + +This Licentius comes before us as the type of the spoiled child, the son of +a wealthy family, capricious, vain, presuming, unabashed, never hesitating +if he sees a chance to have a joke with his master. Forgetful, besides, +prone to sudden fancies, superficial, and rather blundering. With all +that, the best boy in the world--a bad head, but a good heart. He was a +frank pagan, and I believe remained a pagan all his life, in spite of the +remonstrances of Augustin and those of the gentle Paulinus of Nola, who +lectured him in prose and verse. A great eater and a fine drinker, he +found himself obliged to do penance at St. Monnica's rather frugal table. +But when the fever of inspiration took hold of him, he forgot eating and +drinking, and in his poetical thirst he would would have drained--so his +master says--all the fountains of Helicon. Licentius had a passion for +versifying: "He is an almost perfect poet," wrote Augustin to Romanianus. +The former rhetorician knew the world, and the way to talk to the father +of a wealthy pupil, especially if he is your benefactor. At Cassicium, +under Augustin's indulgent eyes, the pupil turned into verse the romantic +adventure of Pyramus and Thisbe. He declaimed bits of it to the guests +in the house, for he had a fine loud voice. Then he flung aside the +unfinished poem and suddenly fell in love with Greek tragedies of which, +as it happened, he understood nothing at all, though this did not prevent +him from boring everybody he met with them. Another day it was the Church +music, then quite new, which flung him into enthusiasm. That day they heard +Licentius singing canticles from morning till night. + +In connection with this, Augustin relates with candid freedom an anecdote +which to-day needs the indulgence of the reader to make it acceptable. As +it gives light upon that half-pagan, half-Christian way of life which was +still Augustin's, I will repeat it in all its plainness. + +It happened, then, one evening after dinner, that Licentius went out and +took his way to a certain mysterious retreat, and there he suddenly began +singing this verse of the Psalm: "Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause +Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved." As a matter of fact, he had +hardly sung anything else for a long time. He kept on repeating this verse +over and over again, as people do with a tune they have just picked up. But +the pious Monnica, who heard him, could not tolerate the singing of such +holy words in such a place. She spoke sharply to the offender. Upon this +the young scatter-brains answered rather flippantly: + +"Supposing, good mother, that an enemy had shut me up in that place--do you +mean to say that God wouldn't have heard me just the same?" + +The next day he thought no more about it, and when Augustin reminded him, +he declared that he felt no remorse. + +"As far as I am concerned," replied the excellent master, "I am not in the +least shocked by it.... The truth is, that neither that place, which has +so much scandalized my mother, nor the darkness of night, is altogether +inappropriate to this canticle. For whence, think you, do we implore God +to drag us, so that we may be converted and gaze upon His face? Is it not +from that jakes of the senses wherein our souls are plunged, and from that +darkness of which the error is around us?..." + +And as they were discussing that day the order established by Providence, +Augustin made it a pretext to give a little edifying lecture to his pupil. +Having heard the sermon to the end, the sharp Licentius put in with sly +maliciousness: + +"I say, what a splendid arrangement of events to shew me that nothing +happens except in the best way, and for our great good!" + +This reply gives us the tone of the conversation between Augustin and +his pupils. Nevertheless, however free and merry the talks might be, the +purpose was always instructive, and it was always substantial. Let us not +forget that the Milanese rhetorician is still a professor. The best part of +his days was devoted to these two youths who had been put under his charge. +As soon as he had settled the business of the farm, talked to the peasants, +and given his orders to the workmen, he fell back upon his business of +rhetorician. In the morning they went over Virgil's _Eclogues_ together. At +night they discussed philosophy. When the weather was fine they walked in +the fields, and the discussion continued under the shade of the chestnut +trees. If it rained, they took refuge in the withdrawing-room adjoining the +baths. Beds were there, cushions, soft chairs convenient for talking, and +the equal temperature from the vapour-baths close at hand was good for +Augustin's bronchial tubes. + +There is no stiffness in these dialogues, nothing which smacks of the +school. The discussion starts from things which they had under the eyes, +often from some slight accidental happening. One night when Augustin could +not sleep--he often suffered from insomnia--the dispute began in bed, for +the master and his pupils slept in the same room. Lying there in the dark, +he listened to the broken murmur of the stream. He was trying to think out +an explanation of the pauses in the sound, when Licentius shifted under the +bedclothes, and reaching out for a piece of stick lying on the floor, he +rapped with it on the foot of the bed to frighten the mice. So he was not +asleep either, nor Trygetius, who was stirring about in his bed. Augustin +was delighted: he had two listeners. Immediately he put this question: "Why +do those pauses come in the flow of the stream? Do they not follow some +secret law?..." They had hit upon a subject for debate. During many days +they discussed the order of the world. + +Another time, as they were going into the baths, they stopped to look +at two cocks fighting. Augustin called the attention of the youths "to +a certain order full of propriety in all the movements of these fowls +deprived of reason." + +"Look at the conqueror," said he. "He crows triumphantly. He struts and +plumes himself as a proud sign of victory. And now look at the beaten one, +without voice, his neck unfeathered, a look of shame. All that has I know +not what beauty, in harmony with the laws of nature...." + +New argument in favour of order: the debate of the night before is started +rolling again. + +For us, too, it is well worth while to pause on this little homely scene. +It reveals to us an Augustin not only very sensitive to beauty, but very +attentive to the sights of the world surrounding him. Cockfights were still +very popular in this Roman society at the ending of the Empire. For a long +time sculptors had found many gracious subjects in the sport. Reading this +passage of Augustin's, one recalls, among other similar designs, that +funeral urn at the Lateran upon which are represented two little boys, one +crying over his beaten cock, while the other holds his tenderly in his +arms and kisses it--the cock that won, identified by the crown held in its +spurs. + +Augustin is always very close to these humble realities. Every moment +outside things start up in the dialogues between the master and his +pupils.... They are in bed on a rainy night in November. Gradually, a vague +gleam rests on the windows. They ask each other if that can be the moon, or +the break of day.... Another time, the sun rises in all its splendour, and +they decide to go into the meadow and sit on the grass. Or else, the sky +darkens and lights are brought in. Or again, it is the appearance of +diligent Alyphis, just come back from Milan.... + +In the same way as he notes these light details in passing, Augustin +welcomes all his guests into his dialogues and admits them to the debate: +his mother, his brother, the cousins, Alypius between his business +journeys, down to the child Adeodatus. He knew the value of ordinary good +sense, the second-sight of a pure heart, or of a pious soul strengthened by +prayer. Monnica used often to come into the room when they were arguing, +to let them know that dinner was ready, or for something of the kind. Her +son asked her to remain. Modestly she shewed her astonishment at such an +honour. + +"Mother," said Augustin, "do you not love truth? Then why should I blush +to give you a place among us? Even if your love for truth were only +half-hearted, I ought still to receive you and listen to you. How much more +then, since you love it more than you love me, _and I know how much you +love me_.... Nothing can separate you from truth, neither fear, nor pain +of whatever kind it be--no, nor death itself. Do not all agree that this +is the highest stage of philosophy? How can I hesitate after that to call +myself your disciple?" + +And Monnica, utterly confused by such praise, answered with affectionate +gruffness: + +"Stop talking! You have never told bigger lies." + +Most of the time these conversations were simply dialectic games in the +taste of the period, games a little pedantic, and fatiguing from subtilty. +The boisterous Licentius did not always enjoy himself. He was often +inattentive; and his master scolded him. But all the same, the master +understood how to amuse his two foster-children while he exercised their +intelligence. At the end of one discussion he said to them laughing: + +"Just at this hour, the sun warns me to put the playthings I had brought +for the children back in the basket...." + +Let us remark in passing that this is the last time, before those +centuries which are coming of universal intellectual silence or arid +scholasticism--the last time that high questions will be discussed in this +graceful light way, and with the same freedom of mind. The tradition begun +by Socrates under the plane-trees on the banks of the Ilissus, is ending +with Augustin under the chestnuts of Cassicium. + +And yet, however gay and capricious the form, the substance of these +dialogues, "On the Academics," "On Order," and "On the Happy Life," is +serious, and even very serious. The best proof of their importance in +Augustin's eyes is, that after taking care to have them reported in +shorthand, he eventually published them. The _notarii_ attended these +discussions and let nothing be lost. The rise of the scrivener, of the +notary, dates from this period. The administration of the Lower-Empire was +frightfully given to scribbling. By contact with it, the Church became so +too. Let us not press our complaints about it, since this craze for writing +has procured for us, with a good deal of shot-rubbish, some precious +historical documents. In Augustin's case, these reports of his lectures at +Cassicium have at least the value of shewing us the state of soul of the +future Bishop of Hippo at a decisive moment of his life. + +For these _Dialogues_, although they look like school exercises, reveal the +intimate thoughts of Augustin on the morrow of his conversion. While he +seems to be refuting the Academics, he is fighting the errors from which +he, personally, had suffered so long. He clarified his new ideal. No; the +search for truth, without hope of ever reaching it, cannot give happiness. +And genuine happiness is only in God. And if a rhythm is to be found in +things, then it is necessary to make the soul rhythmic also and so enable +it to contemplate God. It is necessary to still within it the noise of the +passions. Hence, the need of inward reformation, and, at a final analysis, +of asceticism. + +But Augustin knew full well that these truths must be adapted to the +weakness of the two lads he was teaching, and also to the common run of +mankind. He has not yet in these years the uncompromising attitude which +ere long will give him a sterner virtue--an attitude, however, unceasingly +tempered by his charity and by the persistent recollections of his reading. +It was now that he shaped the rule of conduct in worldly morals and +education which the Christian experience of the future will adopt: "If you +have always order in your hearts," he said to his pupils, "you must return +to your verses. _For a knowledge of liberal sciences, but a controlled and +exact knowledge_, forms men who will love the truth.... But there are other +men, or, to put it better, other souls, who, although held in the body, are +sought for the eternal marriage by the best and fairest of spouses. For +these souls it is not enough to live; they wish to live happy.... But as +for you, go, _meanwhile_, and find your Muses!" + +"Go and find your Muses!" What a fine saying! How human and how wise! Here +is clearly indicated the double ideal of those who continue to live in the +world according to the Christian law of restraint and moderation, and of +those who yearn to live in God. With Augustin the choice is made. He will +never more look back. These Dialogues at Cassicium are his supreme farewell +to the pagan Muse. + + + + +II + +THE ECSTASY OF SAINT MONNICA + + +They stayed through the winter at Cassicium. However taken up he might be +by the work of the estate and the care of his pupils, Augustin devoted +himself chiefly to the great business of his salvation. + +The _Soliloquies_, which he wrote then, render even the passionate tone of +the meditations which he perpetually gave way to during his watches and +nights of insomnia. He searched for God, moaning: _Fac me, Pater, quaerere +te_--"Cause me to seek Thee, O my Father." But still, he sought Him more as +a philosopher than as a Christian. The old man in him was not dead. He had +not quite stripped off the rhetorician or the intellectual. The over-tender +heart remained, which had so much sacrificed to human love. In those ardent +dialogues between himself and his reason, it is plain to see that reason +is not quite the mistress. "I love only God and the soul," Augustin states +with a touch of presumption. And his reason, which knows him well, answers: +"Do you not then love your friends?"--"I love the soul; how therefore +should I not love them?" What does this phrase, of such exquisite +sensibility, and even already so aloof from worldly thoughts--what does +it lack to give forth a sound entirely Christian? Just a slight change of +accent. + +He himself began to see that he would do better not to philosophize so much +and to draw nearer the Scripture, in listening to the wisdom of that with +a contrite and humble heart. Upon the directions of Ambrose, whose advice +he had asked by letter, he tried to read the prophet Isaiah, because +Isaiah is the clearest foreteller of the Redemption. He found the book so +difficult that he lost heart, and he put it aside till later. Meanwhile, +he had forwarded his resignation as professor of Rhetoric to the Milan +municipality. Then, when the time was come, he sent to Bishop Ambrose +a written confession of his errors and faults, and represented to him +his very firm intention to be baptized. He was quietly baptized on the +twenty-fifth of April, during the Easter season of the year 387, together +with his son Adeodatus, and his friend Alypius. Alypius had prepared most +piously, disciplining himself with the harshest austerities, to the point +of walking barefoot on the frozen soil. + +So now the solitaries of Cassicium are back in Milan. Augustin's two pupils +were gone. Trygetius doubtless had rejoined the army. Licentius had gone +to live in Rome. But another fellow-countryman, an African from Thagaste, +Evodius, formerly a clerk in the Ministry of the Interior, came to join +the small group of new converts. Evodius, the future Bishop of Uzalis, in +Africa, and baptized before Augustin, was a man of scrupulous piety and +unquestioning faith. He talked of devout subjects with his friend, who, +just fresh from baptism, experienced all the quietude of grace. They spoke +of the community which St. Ambrose had either founded or organized at +the gates of Milan, and in comparison with a life so austere, Augustin +perceived that the life he had led at Cassicium was still stained with +paganism. He must carry out his conversion to the end and live as a hermit +after the manner of Antony and the solitaries of the Thebaid. Then it +occurred to him that he still owned a little property at Thagaste--a house +and fields. There they would settle and live in self-denial like the +monks. The purity of the young Adeodatus predestined him to this ascetic +existence. As for Monnica, who long since had taken the widow's veil, she +had to make no change in her ways to lead a saintly life in the company of +her son and grandson. It was agreed among them all to go back to Africa, +and to start as soon as possible. + +Thus, just after his baptism, Augustin shews but one desire: to bury +himself in a retreat, to lead a humble and hidden life, divided between the +study of the Scripture and the contemplation of God. Later on, his enemies +were to accuse him of having become a convert from ambition, in view of the +honours and riches of the episcopate. This is sheer calumny. His conversion +could not have been more sincere, more disinterested--nor more heroic +either: he was thirty-three years old. When we think of all he had loved +and all he gave up, we can only bow the head and bend the knee before the +lofty virtue of such an example. + +In the course of the summer the caravan started and crossed the Apennines +to set sail at Ostia. The date of this exodus has never been made quite +clear. Perhaps Augustin and his companions fled before the hordes of the +usurper Maximus, who, towards the end of August, crossed the Alps and +marched on Milan, while the young Valentinian with all his Court took +refuge at Aquileia. In any case, it was a trying journey, especially in the +hot weather. When Monnica arrived she was very enfeebled. At Ostia they had +to wait till a ship was sailing for Africa. Propitious conditions did not +offer every day. At this period, travellers were at the mercy of the sea, +of the wind, and of a thousand other circumstances. Time did not count; it +was wasted freely. The ship sailed short distances at a time, skirting the +coasts, where the length of the stay at every point touched depended on the +master. On board these ships--feluccas hardly decked over--if the crossing +was endless and unsafe, it was, above all, most uncomfortable. People were +in no hurry to undergo the tortures of it, and spaced them out as much +as possible by frequent stoppages. On account of all these reasons, our +Africans made a rather long stay at Ostia. They lodged, no doubt, with +Christian brethren, hosts of Augustin or Monnica, in a tranquil house far +out of earshot of the cosmopolitan crowd which overflowed in the hotels on +the quay. + +Ostia, situated at the mouth of the Tiber, was both the port and +bond-warehouse of Rome. The Government stores-ships landed the African oil +and corn there. It was a junction for commerce, the point where immigrants +from all parts of the Mediterranean disbarked. To-day there is only left +a wretched little village. But at some distance from this hamlet, the +excavations of archaeologists have lately brought to light the remains of +a large town. They have discovered at the entrance a place of burial with +arcosol-tombs; and here perhaps the body of St. Monnica was laid. In this +place of graves they came upon also a beautiful statue injured--a funeral +Genius, or a Victory, with large folded wings like those of the Christian +angels. Further on, the forum with its shops, the guard-house of the +night-cohort, baths, a theatre, many large temples, arcaded streets paved +with large flags, warehouses for merchandise. There may still be seen, +lining the walls, the holes in which the ends of the amphorae used to be +dropped to keep them upright. All this wreckage gives an idea of a populous +centre where the stir of traffic and shipping was intense. + +And yet in this noisy town, Augustin and his mother found means to withdraw +themselves and join together in meditation and prayer. Amid this rather +vulgar activity, in a noise of trade and seafaring, a mystic scene develops +where the purified love of mother and son gleams upon us as in a light of +apotheosis. They had at Ostia a foretaste, so to speak, of the eternal +union in God. This was in the house where they had come on arrival. They +talked softly, resting against a window which looked upon the garden.... +But the scene has been made popular by Ary Scheffer's too well-known +painting. You remember it: two faces, pale, bloodless, stripped of flesh, +in which live only the burning eyes cast upward to the sky--a dense sky, +baffling, heavy with all the secrets of eternity. No visible object, +nothing, absolutely nothing, distracts them from their contemplation. The +sea itself, although indicated by the painter, almost blends into the +blue line of the horizon. Two souls and the sky--there you have the whole +subject. + +It is living poetry congealed in abstract thought. The attitude of the +characters, majestically seated, instead of leaning on the window-ledge, +has, in Scheffer's picture, I know not what touch of stiffness, of slightly +theatrical. And the general impression is a cold dryness which contrasts +with the lyric warmth of the story in the _Confessions_. + +For my part, I always thought, perhaps on the testimony of the picture, +that the window of the house at Ostia opened above the garden in view of +the sea. The sea, symbol of the infinite, ought to be present--so it seemed +to me--at the final conversation between Monnica and Augustin. At Ostia +itself I was obliged to give up this too literary notion; the sea is not +visible there. No doubt at that time the channel was not so silted up as it +is to-day. But the coast lies so low, that just hard by the actual mouth of +the Tiber, the nearness of the sea can only be guessed by the reflection of +the waves in the atmosphere, a sort of pearly halo, trembling on the edge +of the sky. At present I am inclined to think that the window of the house +at Ostia was very likely turned towards the vast melancholy horizon of the +_Agro Romano_. "We passed through, one after another," says Augustin, "all +the things of a material order, unto heaven itself." Is it not natural to +suppose that these things of a material order--these shapes of the earth +with its plantations, its rivers, towns, and mountains--were under their +eyes? The bleak spectacle which unrolled before their gaze agreed, at all +events, with the disposition of their souls. + +This great desolate plain has nothing oppressive, nothing which retains +the eyes upon details too material. The colours about it are pale and +slight, as if on the point of swooning away. Immense sterile stretches, +fawn-coloured throughout, with here and there shining a little pink, a +little green; gorse, furze-bushes by the deep banks of the river, or a few +_boschetti_ with dusty leaves, which feebly stand out upon the blondness +of the soil. To the right, a pine forest. To the left, the undulations of +the Roman hills expire into an emptiness infinitely sad. Afar, the violet +scheme of the Alban mountains, with veiled and dream-like distances, shape +indefinitely against the pearl light, limpid and serene, of the sky. + +Augustin and Monnica, resting on the window-ledge, looked forth. Doubtless +it was towards evening, at the hour when southern windows are thrown open +to the cool after a burning day. They looked forth. "We marvelled," says +Augustin, "at the beauty of Thy works, O my God!..." Rome was back there +beyond the hills, with its palaces, its temples, the gleam of its gilding +and its marbles. But the far-off image of the imperial city could not +conquer the eternal sadness which rises from the _Agro_. An air of funeral +loneliness lay above this plain, ready to be engulfed by the creeping +shadows. How easy it was to break free of these vain corporeal appearances +which decomposed of themselves! "Then," Augustin resumes, "we soared with +glowing hearts still higher." (He speaks as if he and his mother were risen +with equal flight to the vision. It is more probable that he was drawn +up by Monnica, long since familiar with the ways of the spirit, used to +visions, and to mystic talks with God....) Where was this God? All the +creatures, questioned by their anguished entreaty, answered: _Quaere super +nos_--"Seek above us!" They sought; they mounted higher and higher: "And +so we came to our own minds, and passed beyond them into the region of +unfailing plenty, where Thou feedest Israel for ever with the food of +truth.... And as we talked, and we strove eagerly towards this divine +region, _by a leap with the whole force of our hearts, we touched it for +an instant_.... Then we sighed, we fell back, and left there fastened the +first fruits of the Spirit, and heard again the babble of our own tongues, +this mortal speech wherein each word has a beginning and an ending." + +"We fell back!" The marvellous vision had vanished. But a great silence was +about them, silence of things, silence of the soul. And they said to each +other: + +"If the tumult of the flesh were hushed; hushed these shadows of earth, +sea, sky; suppose this vision endured, and all other far inferior modes of +vision were taken away, and this alone were to ravish the beholder, and +absorb him, and plunge him in mystic joy, so that eternal life might be +like this moment of comprehension which has made us sigh with Love--might +not that be the fulfilment of 'Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord'? Ah, +when shall this be? Shall it not be, O my God, when we rise again among the +dead...?" + +Little by little they came down to earth. The dying colours of the +sunset-tide smouldered into the white mists of the _Agro_. The world +entered into night. Then Monnica, impelled by a certain presentiment, said +to Augustin: + +"My son, as for me, I find no further pleasure in life. What I am still to +do, or why I still linger here, I know not.... There was only one thing +made me want to tarry a little longer in this life, that I might see you a +Christian and a Catholic before I died. My God has granted me this boon far +beyond what I hoped for. So what am I doing here?" + +She felt it; her work was done. She had exhausted, as Augustin says, all +the hope of the century--_consumpta spe saeculi_. For her the parting was +near. This ecstasy was that of one dying, who has raised a corner of the +veil, and who no longer belongs to this world. + + * * * * * + +And, in fact, five or six days later she fell ill. She had fever. The +climate of Ostia bred fevers, as it does to-day, and it was always +unsanitary on account of all the foreigners who brought in every infection +of the Orient. Furthermore, the weariness of a long journey in summer had +worn out this woman, old before her time. She had to go to bed. Soon she +got worse, and then lost consciousness. They believed she was in the agony. +They all came round her bed--Augustin, his brother Navigius, Evodius, the +two cousins from Thagaste, Rusticus, and Lastidianus. But suddenly she +shuddered, raised herself, and asked in a bewildered way: + +"Where was I?" + +Then, seeing the grief on their faces, she knew that she was lost, and she +said in a steady voice: + +"You will bury your mother here." + +Navigius, frightened by this sight of death, protested with all his +affection for her: + +"No. You will get well, mother. You will come home again. You won't die in +a foreign land." + +She looked at him with sorrowful eyes, as if hurt that he spoke so little +like a Christian, and turning to Augustin: + +"See how he talks," she said. + +And after a silence, she went on in a firmer voice, as if to impress on her +sons her final wishes: + +"Lay this body where you will, and be not anxious about it. Only I beseech +you, remember me at the altar of God, wherever you are." + +That was the supreme renunciation. How could an African woman, so much +attached to her country, agree to be buried in a stranger soil? Pagan +notions were still very strong in this community, and the place of burial +was an important consideration. Monnica, like all other widows, had settled +upon hers. At Thagaste she had had her place prepared beside her husband +Patricius. And here now she appeared to give that up. Augustin's companions +were astonished at such abnegation. As for himself, he marvelled at the +completeness of the change worked in his mother's soul by Grace. And as he +thought over all the virtues of her life, the strength of her faith--from +that moment, he had no doubt that she was a saint. + +She still lingered for some time. Finally, on the ninth day of her illness, +she died at the age of fifty-six. + +Augustin closed her eyes. A great sorrow surged into his heart. And yet he +who was so quick to tears had the courage not to cry.... Suddenly a noise +of weeping rose in the room of death: it was the young Adeodatus, who +lamented at the sight of the corpse. He sobbed in such a heartbroken way +that those who were there, demoralized by the distress of it, were obliged +to rebuke him. This struck Augustin so deeply, that many years afterwards +the broken sound of this sobbing still haunted his ears. "Methought," he +says, "that it was my own childish soul which thus broke out in the weeping +of my son." As for him, with the whole effort of his reason struggling +against his heart, he only wanted to think of the glory which the saint +had just entered into. His companions felt likewise. Evodius caught up a +psalter, and before Monnica's body, not yet cold, he began to chant the +Psalm, "My song shall be of mercy and judgment; unto Thee, O Lord, will I +sing." All who were in the house took up the responses. + +In the meantime, while the layers-out were preparing the corpse for burial, +the brethren drew Augustin into another room. His friends and relations +stood round him. He consoled the others and himself. He spoke, as the +custom was, upon the deliverance of the faithful soul and the happiness +which is promised. They might have imagined that he had no sense of grief, +"But in Thy hearing, O my God, where none of them could hear, I was chiding +the softness of my heart, and holding back the tide of sorrow.... Alas! +well did I know what I was choking down in my heart." + +Not even at the church, where the sacrifice was offered for Monnica's +soul, nor at the cemetery before the coffin, did he weep. From a sense of +Christian seemliness, he feared to scandalize his brethren by imitating +the desolation of the pagans and of those who die without hope. But this +very effort that he made to keep back his tears became another cause of +suffering. The day ended in a black sadness, a sadness he could not shake +off. It stifled him. Then he remembered the Greek proverb--"The bath +drives away sorrow;" and he determined to go and bathe. He went into the +_tepidarium_ and stretched himself out on the hot slab. Useless remedy! +"The bitterness of my trouble was not carried from my heart with the sweat +that flowed from my limbs." The attendants rolled him in warm towels and +led him to the resting-couch. Worn out by tiredness and so many emotions, +he fell into a heavy sleep. The next day, upon awaking, a fresh briskness +was in all his being. Some verses came singing into his memory; they were +the first words of the confident and joyous hymn of St. Ambrose: + + "Creator of the earth and sky, + Ruling the firmament on high, + Clothing the day with robes of light, + Blessing with gracious sleep the night,-- + + That rest may comfort weary men + To face their usual toil again, + And soothe awhile the harassed mind, + And sorrow's heavy load unbind." + +Suddenly, at the word _sorrow_, the thought of his dead mother came back +to him, with the regret for that kind heart he had lost. A wave of despair +overwhelmed him. He flung himself sobbing on the bed, and at last wept all +the tears he had pent up so long. + + + + +III + +THE MONK OF THAGASTE + + +Almost a year went by before Augustin continued his journey. It is hard to +account for this delay. Why should he thus put off his return to Africa, he +who was so anxious to fly the world? + +It is likely that Monnica's illness, the arrangements about her funeral, +and other matters to settle, kept him at Ostia till the beginning of +winter. The weather became stormy, the sea dangerous. Navigation was +regularly interrupted from November--sometimes even earlier, from the +first days of October, if the tempests and the equinox were exceptionally +violent. It would then be necessary to wait till spring. Besides, word +came that the fleet of the usurper Maximus, then at war with Theodosius, +blockaded the African coast. Travellers ran the risk of being captured by +the enemy. From all these reasons, Augustin would be prevented from sailing +before the end of the following summer. In the meantime, he went to live in +Rome. He employed his leisure to work up a case against the Manichees, his +brethren of the day before. Once he had adopted Catholicism, he must have +expected passionate attacks from his former brothers in religion. To close +their mouths, he gathered against them an elaborate mass of documents, +bristling with the latest scandals. He busied himself also with a +thorough study of their doctrines, the better to refute them: in him the +dialectician never slept. Then, when he had an opportunity, he visited the +Roman monasteries, studying their rule and organization, so as to decide on +a model for the convent which he always intended to establish in his own +country. At last, he went back to Ostia some time in August or September, +388, where he found a ship bound for Carthage. + +Four years earlier, about the same time of year, he had made the same +voyage, coming the opposite way. He had a calm crossing; hardly could one +notice the movement of the ship. It is the season of smooth seas in the +Mediterranean. Never is it more etherial than in these summer months. The +vague blue sky is confused with the bleached sea, spread out in a large +sheet without creases--liquid and flexible silk, swept by quivering amber +glow and orange saffron when the sun falls. No distinct shape, only strange +suffusions of soft light, a pearl-like haze, the wistful blue reaching away +indefinably. + +At Carthage, Augustin had grown used to the magnificence of this pageantry +of the sea. Now, the sea had the same appeased and gleaming face he had +seen four years sooner. But how much his soul had since been changed! +Instead of the tumult and falsehood which rent his heart and filled it +with darkness, the serene light of Truth, and deeper than the sea's peace, +the great appeasement of Grace. Augustin dreamed. Far off the AEolian isles +were gloomed in the impending shadows, the smoky crater of Stromboli was +no more than a black point circled by the double blue of waves and sky. So +the remembrance of his passions, of all that earlier life, sank under the +triumphant uprising of heavenly peace. He believed that this blissful state +was going to continue and fill all the hours of his new life, and he knew +of nothing so sweet.... + +This time, again, he was mistaken about himself. Upon the thin plank of the +boat which carried him, he did not feel the force of the immense element, +asleep now under his feet, but quick to be unchained at the first gust of +wind; and he did not feel either the overflowing energy swelling his heart +renewed by Grace--an energy which was going to set in motion one of the +most complete and strenuous existences, one of the richest in thought, +charity, and works which have enlightened history. Thinking only of the +cloister, amidst the friends who surrounded him, no doubt he repeated the +words of the Psalm: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren +to dwell together in unity." He pressed the hands of Alypius and Evodius, +and tears came to his eyes. + +The sun was gone. All the cold waste of waters, forsaken by the gleam, +blurred gradually in vague anguish beneath the fall of night. + + * * * * * + +After skirting the Sicilian coasts, they arrived at last at Carthage. +Augustin did not linger there; he was eager to see Thagaste once more, and +to retire finally from the world. Favourable omens drew him to the place, +and seemed to hearten him in his resolution. A dream had foretold his +return to his former pupil, Elogius, the rhetorician. He was present, too, +at the miraculous cure of a Carthage lawyer, Innocentius, in whose house he +dwelt with his friends. + +Accordingly, he left for Thagaste as soon as he could. There he made +himself popular at once by giving to the poor, as the Gospel prescribed, +what little remained of his father's heritage. But he does not make clear +enough what this voluntary privation exactly meant. He speaks of a house +and some little meadows--_paucis agellulis_--that he sequestrated. Still, +he did not cease to live in the house all the time he was at Thagaste. The +probability is that he did sell the few acres of land he still owned and +bestowed the product of the sale on the poor. As to the house, he must have +made it over with the outbuildings to the Catholic body of his native town, +on condition of keeping the usufruct and of receiving for himself and his +brethren the necessities of life. At this period many pious persons acted +in this way when they gave their property to the Church. Church goods +being unseizable, and exempt from taxation, this was a roundabout way of +getting the better of fiscal extortion, whether in the shape of arbitrary +confiscations, or eviction by force of arms. In any case, such souls as +were tired of the world and longing for repose, found in these bequests an +heroic method of saving themselves the trouble of looking after a fortune +or a landed estate. When these fortunes and lands were extensive, the +generous donors felt, we are told, an actual relief in getting rid of them. + +This financial question settled, Augustin took up the task of turning the +house into a monastery, like those he had seen at Rome and Milan. His son +Adeodatus, his friends Alypius and Evodius, Severus, who became Bishop +of Milevia, shared his solitude. But it is certain that he had other +solitaries with him whom he alludes to in his letters. Their rule was as +yet a little easy, no doubt. The brothers of Thagaste were not confined +in a cloister. They were simply obliged to fasts, to a special diet, to +prayers and meditations in common. + +In this half-rustic retreat (the monastery was situated at the gates of +the town) Augustin was happy: he had at last realized the project he had +had so long at heart. To enter into himself, pray, above all, to study +the Scripture, to fathom even its most obscure places, to comment it with +the fervour and piety which the African of all times has brought to _what +is written down_--it seemed to him that he had enough there to fill all +the minutes of his life. But no man can teach, lecture, discuss, write, +during twenty years, in vain. However much Augustin might be converted, he +remembered the school at Thagaste, just as he did at Cassicium. Still, it +was necessary to finish with this sort of thing once for all. The new monk +made what may be called his will as a professor. + +He finished, at this time, or revised his school treatises, which he had +begun at Milan, comprising all the liberal arts--grammar, dialectic, +rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, philosophy, music. Of all these books he +only finished the first, the treatise on grammar. The others were only +summaries, and are now lost. On the other hand, we have still the six +books on music, likewise begun at Milan, which he finished, almost as an +amusement, at Thagaste. They are dialogues between himself and his pupil, +the poet Licentius, upon metre and scansion. But we know from himself that +he intended to make this book longer, and to write a second part upon +melody, that is to say, music, properly so called. He never found the time: +"Once," he says, "the burthen of ecclesiastical affairs was placed on my +shoulders, _all these pleasant things_ slipped from my hands." + +Thus, the monk Augustin only rests from prayer and meditation to study +music and poetry. He has thought it necessary to excuse himself. "In all +that," says he, "I had but one purpose. For, as I did not wish to pluck +away too suddenly either young men, or those of another age, on whom God +had bestowed good wits, from ideas of the senses and carnal literature, +_things it is very hard for them not to be attached to_, I have tried +by reasoning lessons to turn them little by little, and by the love of +unchanging truth, to attach them to God, sole master of all things.... He +who reads these books will see that if I have touched upon the poets and +grammarians, 'twas more by the exigency of the journey than by any desire +to settle among them.... Such is the life I have chosen to walk with the +feeble, not being very strong myself, rather than to hurl myself out on the +void with wings still half-fledged...." + +Here again, how human all that is, and wise--yes, and modest too. Augustin +has no whit of the fanatic about him. No straighter conscience than his, +or even more persistent in uprooting error. But he knows what man is, that +life here below is a voyage among other men weak as himself, and he fits in +with the needs of the voyage. Oh, yes, no doubt, for the Christian who has +arrived at supreme renunciation--what is poetry, what is knowledge, "what +is everything that is not eternal?" But this carnal literature and science +are so many steps of a height proportionate to our feebleness, to lead +us imperceptibly to the conceptual world. As a prudent guide of souls, +Augustin did not wish to make the ascent too rapidly. As for music, he has +still more indulgence for that than for any of the other arts, for "it +is by sounds that we best perceive the power of numbers in every variety +of movement, and their study thus leads us gradually to the closest and +highest secrets of truth, and discovers to those who love and seek it +the divine Wisdom and Providence in all things...." He is always coming +back to it--to this music he loves so much; he comes back to it in spite +of himself. Later, in great severity, he will reproach himself for the +pleasure he takes in the liturgical chants, but nevertheless the old +instinct will remain. He was born a musician. He will remain one to his +last gasp. + +If he did not break completely with profane art and letters at this present +moment of his life, his chief reasons were of a practical order. Still +another object may be discerned in these educational treatises--namely, to +prove to the pagans that one may be a Christian and yet not be a barbarian +and ignorant. Augustin's position in front of his adversaries is very +strong indeed. None of them can attempt to cope with him either in breadth +of knowledge, or in happy versatility, or in plenitude of intellectual +gifts. He had the entire heritage of the ancient world between his hands. +Well might he say to the pagans: "What you admire in your orators and +philosophers, I have made my own. Behold it! On my lips recognize the +accent of your orators.... Well, all that, which you deem so high, I +despise. The knowledge of this world is nothing without the wisdom of +Christ." + +Of course, Augustin has paid the price of this all-round knowledge--too +far-reaching, perhaps, at certain points. He has often too much paraded his +knowledge, his dialectic and oratorical talents. What matters that, if even +in this excess he aims solely at the welfare of souls--to edify them and +set them aglow with the fire of his charity? At Thagaste, he disputes with +his brethren, with his son Adeodatus. He is always the master--he knows it; +but what humility he puts into this dangerous part! The conclusion of his +book, _The Master_, which he wrote then, is that all the words of him who +teaches are useless, if the hidden Master reveal not the truth to him who +listens. + +So, under his ungainly monk's habit, he continues his profession of +rhetorician. He has come to Thagaste with the intention of retiring from +the world and living in God; and here he is disputing, lecturing, writing +more than ever. The world pursues him and occupies him even in his retreat. +He says to himself that down there at Rome, at Carthage, at Hippo, there +are men speaking in the forums or in the basilicas, whispering in secret +meetings, seducing poor souls defenceless against error. These impostors +must be immediately unmasked, confounded, reduced to silence. With all his +heart Augustin throws himself into this work at which he excels. Above all, +he attacks his old friends the Manichees.... He wrote many tracts against +them. From the animosity he put into these, may be judged to what extent +Manicheeism filled his thoughts, and also the progress of the sect in +Africa. + +This campaign was even the cause of a complete change in his way of +writing. With the object of reaching the plainest sort of people, he began +to employ the popular language, not recoiling before a solecism, when the +solecism appeared to him indispensable to explain his thought. This must +have been a cruel mortification for him. In his very latest writings he +made a point of shewing that no elegance of language was unknown to him. +But his real originality is not in that. When he writes the fine style, +his period is heavy, entangled, often obscure. On the other hand, nothing +is more lively, clear and coloured, and, as we say to-day, more direct, +than the familiar language of his sermons and certain of his treatises. +This language he has really created. He wanted to clarify, comment, give +details, and he felt how awkward classical Latin is to decompose ideas +and render shades. And so, in a popular Latin, already very close to the +Romance languages, he has thrown out the plan of analytical prose, the +instrument of thought of the modern West. + +Not only did he battle against the heretics, but his restless friendship +continually scaled the walls of his cell to fly to the absent ones dear +to his heart. He feels that he must expand to his friends, and make them +sharers in his meditations: this nervous man, in poor health, spends a part +of his nights meditating. The argument he has hit upon in last night's +insomnia--his friends must be told that! He heaps his letters on them. He +writes to Nebridius, to Romanianus, to Paulinus of Nola; to people unknown +and celebrated, in Africa, Italy, Spain, and Palestine. A time will come +when his letters will be real encyclicals, read throughout Christendom. He +writes so much that he is often short of paper. He has not tablets enough +to put down his notes. He asks Romanianus to give him some. His beautiful +tablets, the ivory ones, are used up; he has used the last one for a +ceremonial letter, and he asks his friend's pardon for writing to him on +a wretched bit of vellum. + +Besides all that, he interests himself in the affairs of his +fellow-townsmen. Augustin is a personage at Thagaste. The good folk of the +free-town are well aware that he is eloquent, that he has a far-reaching +acquaintance, and that he has great influence in high quarters. They +ask for his protection and his interference. It is even possible that +they obliged him to defend them in the courts. They were proud of their +Augustin. And as they were afraid that some neighbouring town might steal +away their great man, they kept a guard round his house. They prevented him +from shewing himself too much in the neighbourhood. Augustin himself agreed +with this, and lived retired as far as he could, for he was afraid they +would make him a bishop or priest in spite of himself. In those days that +was a danger incurred by all Christians who were rich or had talent. The +rich gave their goods to the poor when they took orders. The men of talent +defended the interests of the community, or attracted opulent benefactors. +And because of all these reasons, the needy or badly managed churches +stalked as a prey the celebrated Augustin. + +In spite of this supervision, this unremitting rush of business, the work +of all kinds which he undertook, he experienced at Thagaste a peace which +he was never to find again. One might say that he pauses and gathers +together all his strength before the great exhausting labour of his +apostolate. In this Numidian country, so verdant and cool, where a thousand +memories of childhood encompassed him, where he was not able to take a step +without encountering the ever-living image of his mother, he soared towards +God with more confidence. He who sought in the things of sense ladder-rungs +whereby to mount to spiritual realities, still turned kindly eyes on +the natural scene. From the windows of his room he saw the forest pines +rounding their heads, like little crystal goblets with stems slim and thin. +His scarred chest breathed in deliriously the resinous breath of the fine +trees. He listened like a musician to the orchestra of birds. The changing +scenes of country life always attracted him. It is now that he wrote: +"Tell me, does not the nightingale seem to you to modulate her voice +delightfully? Is not her song, so harmonious, so suave, so well attuned to +the season, the very voice of the spring?..." + + + + +IV + +AUGUSTIN A PRIEST + + +This halt did not last long. Soon was going to begin for Augustin the time +of tribulation, that of his struggles and apostolic journeys. + +And first, he must mourn his son Adeodatus, that young man who seemed +destined to such great things. It is indeed most probable that the young +monk died at Thagaste during the three years that his father spent there. +Augustin was deeply grieved; but, as in the case of his mother's death, he +mastered his sorrow by all the force of his Christian hope. No doubt he +loved his son as much as he was proud of him. It will be remembered what +words he used to speak of this youthful genius, whose precocity frightened +him. Little by little his grief quietened down, and in its place came a +mild resignation. Some years later he will write about Adeodatus: "Lord, +early didst Thou cut off his life from this earth, but I remember him +without a shadow of misgiving. My remembrance is not mixed with any fear +for his boyhood, or the youth he was, or the man he would have been." No +fear! What a difference between this and the habitual feelings of the +Jansenists, who believed themselves his disciples! While Augustin thinks of +his son's death with a calm and grave joy which he can scarce hide, those +of Port Royal could only think in trembling of the judgment of God. Their +faith did not much resemble the luminous and confident faith of Augustin. +For him, salvation is the conquest of joy. + +At Thagaste he lived in joy. Every morning in awaking before the forest +pines, glistening with the dews of the morning, he might well say with a +full heart: "My God, give me the grace to live here under the shades of Thy +peace, while awaiting that of Thy Paradise." But the Christians continued +to watch him. It was to the interest of a number of people that this light +should not be hid under a bushel. Perhaps a snare was deliberately laid for +him. At any rate, he was imprudent enough to come out of his retreat and +travel to Hippo. He thought he might be safe there, because, as the town +had a bishop already, they would not have any excuse to get him consecrated +in spite of himself. + +An inhabitant of Hippo, a clerk of the Imperial Ministry of the Interior, +begged his spiritual assistance. Doubts, he maintained, still delayed him +on the way to an entire conversion. Augustin alone could help him to get +clear of them. So Augustin, counting already on a new recruit for the +Thagaste monastery, went over there at the request of this official. + +Now, if there was a bishop at Hippo (a certain Valerius), priests were +lacking. Furthermore, Valerius was getting on in years. Originally Greek, +he knew Latin badly, and not a word of Punic--a great hindrance for him in +his duties of judge, administrator, and catechist. The knowledge of the two +languages was indispensable to an ecclesiastic in such a country, where the +majority of the rural population spoke only the old Carthaginian idiom. +All this proves to us that Catholicism was in bad shape in the diocese +of Hippo. Not only was there a lack of priests, but the bishop was a +foreigner, little familiar with African customs. There was a general +demand for a native to take his place--one young, active, and well enough +furnished with learning to hold his own against the heretics and the +schismatics of the party of Donatus, and also sufficiently able to watch +over the interests of the Church at Hippo, and above all, to make it +prosperous. Let us not forget that at this time, in the eyes of a crowd of +poor wretches, Christianity was first and foremost the religion which gave +out bread. Even in those early days, the Church did its best to solve the +eternal social question. + +While Augustin was at Hippo, Valerius preached a sermon in the basilica in +which, precisely, he deplored this lack of priests the community suffered +from. Mingled with the congregation, Augustin listened, sure that he would +be unrecognized. But the secret of his presence had leaked out. People +pointed to him while the bishop was preaching. The next thing was that some +furious enthusiasts seized hold of him and dragged him to the foot of the +episcopal chair, yelling: + +"Augustin a priest! Augustin a priest!" + +Such were the democratic ways of the Church in those days. The +inconveniences are plain enough. What is certain is, that if Augustin had +resisted, he might have lost his life, and that the bishop would have +provoked a riot in refusing him the priesthood. In Africa, religious +passions are not to be trifled with, especially when they are exasperated +by questions of profit or politics. In his heart, the bishop was delighted +with this brutal capture which gained him the distinction of such a +well-known fellow-worker. There and then he ordained the Thagaste monk. And +so, as Augustin's pupil, Possidius, the future Bishop of Guelma, puts it, +"This shining lamp, which sought the darkness of solitude, was placed upon +the lamp-stand..." Augustin, who saw the finger of God in this adventure, +submitted to the popular will. Nevertheless, he was in despair, and he +wept at the change they were forcing on him. Then, some of those present, +mistaking the significance of his tears, said to console him: + +"Yes, you are right. The priesthood is not good enough for your merits. But +you may be certain that you will be our bishop." + +Augustin well knew all that the crowd meant by that, and what it expected +of its bishop. He who only thought of leaving the world, grew frightened +at the practical cares he would have to take over. And the spiritual side +of his jurisdiction frightened him no less. To speak of God! Proclaim the +word of God! He deemed himself unworthy of so high a privilege. He was so +ill-prepared! To remedy this fault of preparation, as well as he could, he +desired that he might be given a little leisure till the following Easter. +In a letter addressed to Valerius, and no doubt intended to be made public, +he humbly set forth the reasons why he asked for delay. They were so +apposite and so creditable, that very likely the bishop yielded. The new +priest received permission to retire to a country house near Hippo. His +flock, who did not feel at all sure of their shepherd, would not have let +him go too far off. + +He took up his duties as soon as possible. Little by little he became, +to all intents, the coadjutor of the bishop, who charged him with the +preaching and the baptism of catechumens. These were the two most important +among the episcopal prerogatives. The bishops made a point of doing these +things themselves. Certain colleagues of Valerius even grew scandalized +that he should allow a simple priest to preach before him in his own +church. But soon other bishops, struck by the advantages of this +innovation, followed the example of Valerius, and allowed their clerks to +preach even in their presence. The priest of Hippo did not lose his head +among so many honours. He felt chiefly the perils of them, and he regarded +them as a trial sent by God. "I have been forced into this," he said, +"doubtless in punishment of my sins; for from what other motive can I think +that the second place at the helm should be given to me--to me who do not +even know how to hold an oar...." + +Meanwhile, he had not relinquished his purpose of monastic life. Though +a priest, he meant to remain a monk. It was heart-breaking for him to be +obliged to leave his monastery at Thagaste. He spoke of his regret to +Valerius, who, perceiving the usefulness of a convent as a seminary for +future priests, gave him an orchard belonging to the church of Hippo, that +he might found a new community there. So was established the monastery +which was going to supply a great number of clerks and bishops to all the +African provinces. + +Among the ruins of Hippo, that old Roman and Phoenician city, they search +for the place where Augustin's monastery stood, without much hope of ever +finding it. Some have thought to locate it upon that hill where the water +brought from the near mountains by an aqueduct used to pour into immense +reservoirs, and where to-day rises a new basilica which attracts all eyes +out at sea. Behind the basilica is a convent where the Little Sisters of +the Poor lodge about a hundred old people. So is maintained among the +African Mussulmans the remembrance of the grand Christian _marabout_. One +might possibly wish to see there a building more in the pure and quiet +taste of antiquity. But after all, the piety of the intention is enough. +This hospital serves admirably to call up the memory of the illustrious +bishop who was charity itself. As for the basilica, Africa has done all she +can to make it worthy of him. She has given her most precious marbles, and +one of her fairest landscapes as a frame. + +It is chiefly in the evening, in the closing dusk, that this landscape +reveals all its special charm and its finer values. The roseate glow of the +setting sun throws into sharp relief the black profile of the mountains, +which command the Seybouse valley. Under the mustering shadows, the pallid +river winds slowly to the sea. The gulf, stretching limitless, shines like +a slab of salt strangely bespangled. In this atmosphere without mists, the +sharp outlines of the coast, the dense movelessness of the aspect, has an +indescribable effect. It is like a hitherto unknown and virginal revelation +of the earth. Then the stars bloom out, with a flame, an hallucinating +palpability. Charles's Wain, burning low on the gorges of the Edough, seems +like a golden waggon rolling through the fields of Heaven. A deep peace +settles upon farmland and meadow country, only broken by a watch-dog's bark +now and then.... + +But it matters not which spot is chosen in the surroundings of Hippo to +place Augustin's monastery, the view will be equally beautiful. From all +parts of the plain, mounded by heaps of ruins, the sea can be seen--a wide +bay circled in soft bland curves, like at Naples. All around, an arena of +mountains--the green ravines of the Edough and its wooded slopes. Along the +surbased roads rise the great sonorous pines, and through them wanders the +aeolian complaint of the sea-winds. Blue of the sea, blue of the sky, noble +foliage of Italy's ancient groves--it is one of Lamartine's landscapes +under a more burning sun. The gaiety of the mornings there is a physical +luxury for heart and eyes, when the new-born light laughs upon the painted +cupolas of the houses, and dark blue veils float between the walls, glaring +white, of the steep streets. + +Among the olives and orange-trees of Hippo, Augustin must have seen happy +days pass by, as at Thagaste. The rule he had given the convent, which he +himself obeyed like any one else, was neither too slack nor too strict--in +a word, such as it should be for men who have lived in the culture of +letters and works of the mind. There was no affectation of excessive +austerity. Augustin and his monks wore very simple clothes and shoes, but +suitable for a bishop and his clerks. Like laymen, they wore the byrrhus, +a garment with a hood, which seems very like the ancestor of the Arab +burnous. To keep an even line between daintiness and negligence in costume, +to have no exaggeration in anything, is what Augustin aimed at. The poet +Rutilius Numatianus, who about that time was attacking the sordid and +culture-hating monks with sombre irony, would have had a chance to admire +a restraint and decorum in the Hippo monastery which recalled what was +best in the manners of the ancient world. At table, a like moderation. +Vegetables were generally provided, and sometimes meat when any one +was sick, or guests arrived. They drank a little wine, contrary to the +regulations of St. Jerome, who condemned wine as a drink for devils. When +a monk infringed the rule, his share of the wine was stopped. + +Through some remains of fastidious habits in Augustin, or perhaps because +he had nothing else, the table service he used himself was silver. On the +other hand, the pots and dishes were of earthenware, or wood, or common +alabaster. Augustin, who was very temperate in eating and drinking, seemed +at table to pay attention only to what was being read or talked about. +He cared very little what he ate, provided the food was not a stimulant +to lubricity. He used to say to those Christians who paraded a Pharisaic +severity: "It is the pure heart which makes pure food." Then, with his +constant desire for charity, he prohibited all spiteful gossip in the +conversation in the refectory. In those times of religious struggle, the +clerics ferociously blackened each other's characters. Augustin caused to +have written on the walls a distich, which ran thus: + + "He who takes pleasure in slandering the life of the absent, + Should know he is unworthy to sit at this table." + +"One day," says Possidius, "some of his intimate friends, even other +bishops, having forgotten this sentence, he reproached them warmly, and +very much perturbed, he cried out that he was going to remove those verses +from the refectory, or rise from table and withdraw to his cell. I was +present with many others when this happened." + +It was not only slanderous talk or interior dissensions which troubled +Augustin's peace of mind. He combined the duties of priest, of a head of +a convent, and of an apostle. He had to preach, instruct the catechumens, +battle against the disaffected. The town of Hippo was very unruly, full +of heretics, schismatics, pagans. Those of the party of Donatus were +triumphant, driving the Catholics from their churches and lands. When +Augustin came into the country, Catholicism was very low. And then the +ineradicable Manichees continued to recruit proselytes. He never stopped +writing tracts, disputing against them, overwhelming them under the close +logic of his arguments. At the request of the Donatists themselves, he had +an argument with one of their priests, a certain Fortunatus, in the baths +of Sossius at Hippo. He reduced this man to silence and to flight. Not in +the least discouraged were the Manichees: they sent another priest. + +If the enemies of the Church shewed themselves stubborn, Augustin's own +congregation were singularly turbulent, hard to manage. The weakness of old +Valerius must have allowed a good many abuses to creep into the community. +Ere long the priest of Hippo had a foretaste of the difficulties which +awaited him as bishop. + +Following the example of Ambrose, he undertook to abolish the custom +of feasts in the basilicas and on the tombs of the martyrs. This was a +survival of paganism, of which the festivals included gluttonous eating and +orgies. At every solemnity, and they were frequent, the pagans ate in the +courts and under the porticoes around the temples. In Africa, above all, +these public repasts gave an opportunity for repugnant scenes of stuffing +and drunkenness. As a rule, the African is very sober; but when he does let +himself go he is terrible. This is quite easily seen to-day, in the great +Muslem feasts, when the rich distribute broken bits of meat to the poor of +their district. As soon as these people, used to drink water and to eat a +little boiled rice, have tasted meat, or drunk only one cup of wine, there +is no holding them: there are fights, stabbing matches, a general brawl +in the hovels. Just picture this popular debauch in full blast in the +cemeteries and the courts of the basilicas, and it will be understood why +Augustin did his best to put an end to such scandals. + +For this purpose, he joined hands first of all with his bishop, Valerius, +and then with the Primate of Carthage, Aurelius, who shall be henceforth +his firmest support in his struggle against the schismatics. + +During Lent, the subject fitting in naturally with the season, he +spoke against these pagan orgies; and this gave rise to a good deal of +discontent, outside. Easter went by without trouble. But the day after the +Ascension, the people of Hippo were used to celebrate what they called "the +Joy-day," by a traditional good feed and drink. The day before, which was +the religious festival, Augustin intrepidly spoke against "the Joy-day." +They interrupted the preacher. Some of them shouted that as much was done +at Rome in St. Peter's basilica. At Carthage, they danced round the tomb of +St. Cyprian. To the shrilling of flutes, amid the dull blows of the gongs, +mimes gave themselves up to obscene contortions, while the spectators +sang to the clapping of their hands.... Augustin knew all about that. +He declared that these abominations might have been tolerated in former +times so as not to discourage the pagans from becoming converts; but that +henceforth the people, altogether Christian, should give them up. In the +end, he spoke with such touching eloquence that the audience burst into +tears. He believed he had won. + +The next day it was all to do over again. Agitators had worked among the +crowd to such an extent that a riot was feared. Nevertheless, Augustin, +preceded by his bishop, entered the basilica at the hour of service. At the +same moment the Donatists were banqueting in their church, which was quite +near. Through the walls of their own church the Catholics heard the noise +of this carouse. It required the coadjutor's most urgent remonstrances to +keep them from imitating their neighbours. The last murmurs died down, and +the ceremony ended with the singing of the sacred hymns. + +Augustin had carried the position. But the conflict had got to the point +that he had to threaten the people with his resignation, and, as he wrote +to Alypius, "to shake out on them the dust from his clothes." All this +promised very ill for the future. He who already considered the priesthood +as a trial, saw with terror the bishopric drawing near. + + + + +THE FIFTH PART + +THE APOSTLE OF PEACE AND OF CATHOLIC UNITY + + + Dic eis ista, ut plorent ... et sic eos rape tecum ad Deum: quia de + spiritu ejus haec dicis eis, si dicis ardens igne caritatis. + + "Tell them this, O my soul, that they may weep ... and thus carry them + up with thyself to God; because by His Spirit thou sayest these things, + if Thou speakest burning with the flame of charity." + + _Confessions_, IV, 12. + + + + +I + +THE BISHOP OF HIPPO + + +In his monastery, Augustin was still spied upon by the neighbouring +Churches, who wanted him for their bishop. They would capture him on the +first opportunity. The old Valerius, fearing his priest would be taken +unawares, urged him to hide himself. But he knew by the very case of +Augustin, forced into the priesthood in spite of himself, that the greatest +precautions are useless against those determined to gain their ends by any +means. It would be safest to anticipate the danger. + +He determined therefore to share the bishopric with Augustin, to have him +consecrated during his own lifetime, and to indicate him as his successor. +This was against the African usage, and what was more, against the Canons +of the Council of Nice--though it is true that Valerius, like Augustin +himself, was unaware of this latter point. But surely the rule could be +waived in view of the exceptional merits of the priest of Hippo. The old +bishop began by sounding Aurelius, the Primate of Carthage, and when he was +satisfied as to the agreement and support of this high personage, he took +the opportunity of a religious solemnity to make known his intentions to +the people. + +Some of the neighbouring bishops--Megalius, Bishop of Guelma and Primate of +Numidia, among them--being gathered at Hippo to consecrate a new bishop, +Valerius announced publicly in the basilica that he wished Augustin to be +consecrated at the same ceremony. This had been the wish of his people +for a long time. Really, in demanding this honour for his priest, the old +bishop did no more than follow the wish of the public. Immediately, his +words were received with cheers. The faithful with loud shouts demanded +Augustin's consecration. + +Megalius alone objected. He even made himself the voice of certain +calumnies, so as to have the candidate put aside as unworthy. There is +nothing astonishing in such an attitude. This Megalius was old (he died a +short time after), and, like all old men, he took the gloomiest view of +innovations. Already, in the face of settled custom, had Valerius granted +Augustin the right to preach in his presence. And see now, by a new +sinking, he was attempting to place two bishops at once in the see of +Hippo! Whatever this young priest's talents might be, enough, had been +done for him--a recent convert into the bargain, and, what was still more +serious, a refugee from the Manicheans. What was not related about the +abominations committed in the mysteries of those people? Just how far had +Augustin dipped into them? They snarled against him everywhere at Hippo, +and at Carthage too, where he had compromised himself by his excessive +zeal; Catholics and Donatists alike gossiped. Megalius, a punctilious +defender of discipline and the hierarchy, no doubt gathered up these +malevolent rumours with pleasure. He used them as an excuse for making +Augustin mark time, so to speak. Commonplace people always feel a secret +delight in humiliating to the common rule those whom they can feel are +beings of a different quality from themselves. + +One of the slanders set abroad about Valerius' priest, Megalius seems to +have believed. He allowed himself to be persuaded that Augustin had given +a philtre to a woman, one of his penitents, whom he wished to possess. It +was then the fashion among the pious to exchange _eulogies_, or bits of +holy bread, to signify a spiritual communion. Augustin was said to have +mixed certain magic potions with some of these breads and offered them +hypocritically to the woman he was in love with. This accusation started a +big scandal, and the remembrance of it persisted long, because five or six +years later the Donatist Petilian was still repeating it. + +Augustin cleared himself victoriously. Megalius avowed his mistake. He did +better: not only did he apologize to him he had slandered, but he solemnly +asked forgiveness from his fellow-bishops for having misled them upon false +rumours. It is probable that some time during the inquiry he had got to +know Valerius' coadjutor better. Augustin's charm, taken with the austerity +of his life, acted upon the vexed old man and altered his views. Be that +so or not, it was at any rate by Megalius, Bishop of Guelma and Primate of +Numidia, that Augustin was consecrated Bishop of Hippo. + +He was in consternation over his rise. He has said it again and again. We +may take his word for it. Yet the honours and advantages of the episcopate +were then so considerable that his enemies were able to describe him as an +ambitious man. Nothing could agree less with his character. In his heart, +Augustin only wished to live in quiet. Since his retreat at Cassicium, +fortune he had given up, as well as literary glory. His sole wish was to +live in pondering the divine truths, and to draw nearer to God. _Videte et +gustate quam mitis sit Dominus_--"O taste and see that the Lord is good." +This perhaps, of the whole Bible, is the verse he liked best, which +answered best to the close desire of his soul; and he quotes it oftenest +in his sermons. Then, to study the Holy Writings, scan the least syllables +of them, since all truth lies there--well, a whole life is not too much +for such labour as that! And to do it, one should sever all ties with the +world, take refuge forbiddingly in the cloister. + +But this sincere Christian analysed himself too skilfully not to perceive +that he had a dangerous tendency to isolation. He took too much pleasure +in cutting himself off from the society of mankind to enshroud himself +in study and meditation. He who acknowledged a secret tendency to the +Epicurean indolence--was he going to live a life of the dilettante and the +self-indulgent under cover of holiness? Alone could action save him from +selfishness. Others doubtless fulfilled the laws of charity in praying, +in mortifying themselves for their brethren. But when, like him, a man +has exceptional faculties of persuasion and eloquence, such vigour in +dialectics, such widespread culture, such power to bring to naught the +wrong--would it not be insulting to God to let such gifts lie idle, and a +serious failure in charity to deprive his brethren of the support of such +an engine? + +Besides that, he well knew that no man draws near to truth without a +purified heart. Might not his passions, which were so violent, begin to +torment him again after this respite with greater frenzy than before his +conversion? Against that, too, action was the main antidote. In the duties +of the bishopric he saw a means of asceticism--a kind of courageous +purification. He would load himself of his own will with so many anxieties +and so much work that he would have no time left to listen to the insidious +voice of his "old friends." Could he manage to silence them at once? +This unheard-of grace--would it be granted to him? Or would not rather +the struggle continue in the depths of his conscience? What comes out as +certain is that those terrible passions which turned his youth upside down, +nevermore play any part in his life. From the moment he fell on his knees +under the fig-tree at Milan, his sinful heart is a dead heart. He has been +freed from almost all the weaknesses of the old nature, not only from its +vices and carnal affections, but from its most pardonable lapses--save, +perhaps, some old sediment of intellectual and literary vanity. + +His books, at the first glance, shew us him no more save as the doctor, and +already the saint. What is seen at once is an entirely bare intelligence, +an entirely pure heart, fired only by the divine love. And yet the +affectionate and tender heart which his had been, always warms his +discussions and his most abstract exegesis. It does not take long to feel +the heat of them, the power of pouring forth emotion. Augustin takes no +heed of that. Of himself he no longer thinks; he no longer belongs to +himself. If he has accepted the episcopate, it is so as to give himself +altogether to the Church, to be all things to all men. He is the man-word, +the man-pen, the sounding-board of the truth. He becomes the man of the +miserable crowds which the Saviour covered with His pity. He is theirs, to +convince them and cure them of their errors. He is a machine which works +without ever stopping for the greater glory of Christ. Bishop, pastor, +leader of souls--he has no desire for anything else. + +But it was a heavy labour for this intellectual, who till then had lived +only among books and ideas. The day after his consecration, he must have +regarded it with more terror than ever. During his nights of insomnia, or +at the recreation hour in the monastery garden, he thought over it with +great distress. His eyes wide open in the darkness of his cell, he sought +to define a theory upon the nature and origin of the soul; or else, at the +fall of day, he saw between the olive branches "the sea put on fluctuating +shades like veils of a thousand colours, sometimes green, a green of +infinite tints; sometimes purple; blue sometimes...." And his soul, easily +stirred to poetry, at once arose from these material splendours to the +invisible region of ideas. Then, immediately, he caught himself up: it +was not a question of all that! He said to himself that he was henceforth +the bishop Augustin, that he had charge of souls, that he must work for +the needs of his flock. He would have to struggle in a combat without a +moment's respite. Thereupon he arranged his plans of attack and defence. +With a single glance he gauged the huge work before him. + +A crushing work, truly! He was Bishop of Hippo, but a bishop almost without +a flock, in comparison with the rival community of Donatists. The bishop of +the dissentients, Proculeianus, boasted that he was the true representative +of orthodoxy, and as he had on his side the advantage of numbers, he +certainly cut a much greater figure in the town than the successor of +Valerius, with all his knowledge and all his eloquence. The schismatics' +church, as we have seen, was quite near the Catholic church. Their noise +interfered with Augustin's sermons. Possibly the situation had become +slightly better in Hippo since the edict of Theodosius. But it was not so +long ago that those of the Donatist party had the upper hand. A little +before the arrival of the new bishop, the Donatist clergy forbade their +faithful to bake bread for Catholics. A fanatical baker had even refused a +Catholic deacon who was his landlord. These schismatics believed themselves +strong enough to put those who did not belong to them under interdict. + +The rout of Catholicism appeared to be an accomplished fact from one end to +the other of Africa. Quite recently a mere fraction of the Donatist party +had been able to send three hundred and ten bishops to the Council of +Bagai, who were to judge the recalcitrants of their own sect. Among these +bishops, the terrible Optatus of Thimgad became marked on account of his +bloody zeal, rambling round Numidia and even the Proconsulate at the head +of armed bands, burning farms and villas, rebaptizing the Catholics by main +force, spreading terror on all sides. + +Augustin knew all this, and when he sought help from the local authorities +he was obliged to acknowledge sadly that there was no support to be +expected from Count Gildo, who had tyrannized over Carthage and Africa for +nearly ten years. This Gildo was a native, a Moor, to whom the ministers of +the young Valentinian II had thought it a good stroke of policy to confide +the government of the province. Knowing the weakness of the Empire, the +Moor only thought of cutting out for himself an independent principality +in Africa. He openly favoured Donatism, which was the most numerous and +influential party. The Bishop of Thimgad, Optatus, swore only by him, +regarding him as his master and his "god." In consequence, he was called +"the Gildonian." + +Against such enemies, the Imperial authority could only act irregularly. +Augustin was well aware of it. He knew that the Western Empire was in a +critical position. Theodosius had just died, in the midst of war with the +usurper Eugenius. The Barbarians, who made up the greater part of the Roman +armies, shewed themselves more and more threatening. Alaric, entrenched +in the Peloponnesus, was getting ready to invade Italy. However, the +all-powerful minister of the young Honorius, the half-Barbarian Stilicho, +did his best to conciliate the Catholics, and assured them that he would +continue the protection they had had from Theodosius, Augustin therefore +turned to the central power. It alone could bring about a little order in +the provinces--and then, besides, the new emperors were firmly attached +to the defence of Catholicism. The Catholic Bishop of Hippo did his +best, accordingly, to keep on good terms with the representatives of the +Metropolitan Government--the proconsuls; the propraetors; the counts; +and the tribunes, or the secretaries, sent by the Emperor as Government +commissioners. + +There was no suspicion of flattery in his attitude, no idolatry of power. +At Milan, Augustin had been near enough to the Court to know what the +Imperial functionaries were worth. Now, he simply adapted himself as well +as he could to the needs of the moment. And with all that, he could have +wished in the depths of his heart that this power were stronger, so as to +give the Church more effective support. This cultured man, brought up in +the respect of the Roman majesty, was by instinct a faithful servant of +the Caesars. A man who held to authority and tradition, he maintained that +obedience is due to princes: "There is a general agreement," he said, +"of human society to obey its Kings." In one of his sermons he compares +thought, which commands the body, to the Emperor seated upon his throne, +and from the depths of his palace dictating orders which set the whole +Empire moving--a purely ideal image of the sovereign of that time, but one +which pleased his Latin imagination. Alas! Augustin had no illusions about +the effect of Imperial edicts; he knew too well how little they were +regarded, especially in Africa. + +So he could hardly count upon Government support for the defence of +Catholic unity and peace. He found he must trust to himself; and all +his strength was in his intelligence, in his charity, in his deeply +compassionate soul. Most earnestly did he wish that Catholicism might be a +religion of love, open to all the nations of the earth, even as its Divine +Founder Himself had wished. A glowing and dominating intelligence, charity +which never tired--those were Augustin's arms. And they were enough. These +qualities gave him an overwhelming superiority over all the men of his +time. Among them, pagans or Christians, he looks like a colossus. From what +a height he crushes, not only the professors who had been his colleagues, +such as Nectarius of Guelma or Maximus of Madaura, but the most celebrated +writers of his time--Symmachus, for instance, and Ammianus Marcellinus. +After reading a treatise of Augustin's, one is astounded by the +intellectual meagreness of these last pagans. The narrowness of their +mind and platitude of thought is a thing that leaves one aghast. Even the +illustrious Apuleius, who belonged to the golden age of African literature, +the author of _The Doctrine of Plato_, praises philosophy and the Supreme +Being in terms which recall the professions of faith of the chemist and +druggist, Homais, in _Madame Bovary_. + +Nor among those who surrounded Augustin, his fellow-bishops, was there one +fit to be compared with him, even at a distance. Except perhaps Nebridius, +his dearest friends, Alypius, Severus, or Evodius, are merely disciples, +not to say servants of his thought. Aurelius, Primate of Carthage, an +energetic administrator, a firm and upright character, if he is not on +Augustin's level, is at any rate capable of understanding and supporting +him. The others are decent men, like that Samsucius, Bishop of Tours, very +nearly illiterate, but full of good sense and experience, and on this +ground consulted respectfully by his colleague of Hippo. Or else they are +plotters, given to debauch, engaged in business, like Paulus, Bishop of +Cataqua, who became involved in risky speculations, swindled the revenue, +and by his expensive way of life ruined his diocese. Others, on the +Donatist side, are mere swashbucklers, half-brigands, half-fanatics, like +the Gildonian Optatus, Bishop of Thimgad, a manifestation in advance of +the Mussulman _marabout_ who preached the holy war against the Catholics, +raiding, killing, burning, converting by sabre blows and bludgeoning. + +Amid these insignificant or violent men, Augustin will endeavour to realize +to the full the admirable type of bishop, at once spiritual father, +protector, and support of his people. He had promised himself to sacrifice +no whit of his ideal of Christian perfection. As bishop, he will remain a +monk, as he did during his priesthood. Beside the monastery established in +Valerius' garden, where it is impossible to receive properly his guests and +visitors, he will start another in the episcopal residence. He will conform +to the monastic rule as far as his duties allow. He will pray, study the +Scriptures, define dogmas, refute heresies. At the same time, he means to +neglect nothing of his material work. He has mouths to feed, property to +look after, law-cases to examine. He will labour at all that. For this +mystic and theorist it means a never-ceasing immolation. + +First, to give the poor their daily bread. Like all the communities of that +time, Hippo maintained a population of beggars. Often enough, the diocesan +cash-box was empty. Augustin was obliged to hold out the hand, to deliver +from the height of his pulpit pathetic appeals for charity. Then, there are +hospitals to be built for the sick, a lodging-house for poor wanderers. +The bishop started these institutions in houses bequeathed to the church +of Hippo. For reasons of economy, he thought better not to build. That +would overload his budget. Next came the greatest of all his cares--the +administration of Church property. To increase this property, he stipulated +that his clergy should give up all they possessed in favour of the +community, thus giving the faithful an example of voluntary poverty. +He also accepted gifts from private persons. But he also often refused +these--for example, the bequest of a father or mother, who, in a moment of +anger, disinherited their children. He did not wish to profit by the bad +feelings of parents to plunder orphans. On another side, he objected to +engage the Church in suits at law with the exchequer upon receiving certain +heritages. When a business man at Hippo left to the diocese his share of +profits in the service of boats for carrying Government stores, Augustin +came to the conclusion that it would be better to refuse. In case of +shipwreck, they would be obliged to make good the lost corn to the +Treasury, or else to put the captain and surviving sailors to the torture +to prove that the crew was not responsible for the loss of the ship. +Augustin would not hear tell of it. + +"Is it fit," he said, "that a bishop should be a shipowner?... A bishop +a torturer? Oh, no; that does not agree at all with a servant of Jesus +Christ." + +The people of Hippo did not share his views. They blamed Augustin's +scruples. They accused him of compromising the interests of the Church. One +day he had to explain himself from the pulpit: + +"Well I know, my brothers, that you often say between yourselves: 'Why do +not people give anything to the Church of Hippo? Why do not the dying make +it their heir? The reason is that Bishop Augustin is too easy; he gives all +back to the children; he keeps nothing!' I acknowledge it, I only accept +gifts which are good and pious. Whoever disinherits his son to make the +Church his heir, let him find somebody willing to accept his gifts. It is +not I who will do it, and by God's grace, I hope it will not be anybody.... +Yes, I have refused many legacies, but I have also accepted many. Need I +name them to you? I will give only one instance. I accepted the heritage of +Julian. Why? Because he died without children...." + +The listeners thought that their bishop really put too fine a point on +things. + +They further reproached him with not knowing how to attract and flatter the +rich benefactors. Augustin would not allow, either, that they had any right +to force a passing stranger to receive the priesthood and consequently to +give up his goods to the poor. All this really was very wise, not only +according to the spirit of the Gospel, but according to human prudence. +If Augustin, for the sake of the good fame of his Church, did not wish to +incur the accusation of grasping and avarice, he dreaded nothing so much +as a law-case. To accept lightly the gifts and legacies offered was to lay +himself open to expensive pettifogging. Far better to refuse than to lose +both his money and reputation. So were reconciled, in this man of prayer +and meditation, practical good sense with the high disinterestedness of the +Christian teaching. + +The bishop was disinterested; his people were covetous. The people of those +times wished the Church to grow rich, because they were the first to profit +by its riches. Now these riches were principally in houses and land. The +diocese of Hippo had to deal with many houses and immense _fundi_, upon +which lived an entire population of artisans and freed-men, agricultural +labourers, and even art-workers--smelters, embroiderers, chisellers on +metals. Upon the Church lands, these small people were protected from taxes +and the extortions of the revenue officers, and no doubt they found the +episcopal government more fatherly and mild than the civil. + +Augustin, who had made a vow of poverty and given his heritage to the poor, +became by a cruel irony a great landowner as soon as he was elected Bishop +of Hippo. Doubtless he had stewards under him to look after the property +of the diocese. This did not save him from going into details of management +and supervising his agents. He heard the complaints, not only of his +own tenants, but also of those who belonged to other estates and were +victimized by dishonest bailiffs. Anyhow, we have a thousand signs to shew +that no detail of country life was unfamiliar to him. + +On horseback or muleback, he rode for miles through the country about +Hippo to visit his vineyards and olivets. He examined, found out things, +questioned the workmen, went into the presses and the mills. He knew the +grape good to eat, and the grape to make wine with. He pointed out where +the ensilage pits had been dug in too marshy land, which endangered the +young corn. As a capable landowner he was abreast of the law, careful +about the terms of contracts. He knew the formulas employed for sales or +benefactions. He saw to it that charcoal was buried around the landmarks in +the fields, so that if the post disappeared, its place could be found. And +as he was a poet, he gathered on his course a whole booty of rural images +which later on went to brighten his sermons. He made ingenious comparisons +with the citron-tree, "which is seen to give flowers and fruits all the +year if it be watered constantly," or else with the goat "who gets upon her +two hind legs to crop the bitter leaves of the wild olive." + +These journeys in the open air, however tiring they might be, were after +all a rest for his overworked brain. But there was one among his episcopal +duties which wearied him to disgust. Every day he had to listen to parties +in dispute and give judgment. Following recent Imperial legislation, the +bishop became judge in civil cases--a tiresome and endless work in a +country where tricky quibbling raged with obstinate fury. The litigants +pursued Augustin, overran his house, like those fellahs in dirty burnous +who block our law-courts with their rags. In the _secretarium_ of the +basilica, or under the portico of the court leading to the church, Augustin +sat like a Mussulman cadi in the court of the mosque. + +The emperors had only regulated an old custom of apostolic times in placing +the Christians under the jurisdiction of their bishop. In accordance with +St. Paul's advice, the priests did their utmost to settle differences among +the faithful. Later, when their number had considerably increased, the +Government adopted a system not unlike the "Capitulations" in countries +under the Ottoman suzerainty. Lawsuits between clerics and laymen could not +be equitably judged by civil servants, who were often pagans. Moreover, the +parties based their claims on theological principles or religious laws that +the arbitrator generally knew nothing about. In these conditions, it was +natural enough that the Imperial authority should say to the disputants, +"Fight it out among yourselves". + +And it happened, just at the moment when Augustin began to fill the see of +Hippo, that Theodosius broadened still more the judicial prerogatives of +the bishops. The unhappy judge was overwhelmed with law-cases. Every day he +sat till the hour of his meal, and sometimes the whole day when he fasted. +To those who accused him of laziness, he answered: + +"I can declare on my soul that if it were question of my own convenience, I +should like much better to work at some manual labour at certain hours of +the day, as the rule is in well-governed monasteries, and have the rest of +the time free to read or pray or meditate upon the Holy Scripture, instead +of being troubled with all the complications and dull talk of lawsuits." + +The rascality of the litigants made him indignant. From the pulpit he gave +them advice full of Christian wisdom, but which could not have been much +relished. A suit at law, according to him, was a loss of time and a cause +of sorrow. It would be better to let the opponent have the money, than to +lose time and be filled with uneasiness. Nor was this, added the preacher +in all good faith, to encourage injustice; for the robber would be robbed +in his turn by a greater robber than himself. + +These reasons seemed only moderately convincing. The pettifoggers did not +get discouraged. On the contrary, they infested the bishop with their +pleas. As soon as he appeared, they rushed up to him in a mob, surrounded +him, kissed his hand and his shoulder, protesting their respect and +obedience, urging him, constraining him to busy himself about their +affairs. Augustin yielded. But the next day in a vehement sermon he cried +out to them: + +_Discedite a me, maligni!_--"Go far from me, ye wicked ones, and let me +study in peace the commandments of my God!" + + + + +II + +WHAT WAS HEARD IN THE BASILICA OF PEACE + + +Let us try to see Augustin in his pulpit and in his episcopal city. + +We cannot do much more than reconstruct them by analogy. Royal Hippo is +utterly gone. Bona, which has taken its place, is about a mile and a half +away, and the fragments which have been dug out of the soil of the dead +city are very inadequate. But Africa is full of Christian ruins, and +chiefly of basilicas. Rome has nothing equal to offer. And that is easily +understood. The Roman basilicas, always living, have been changed in the +course of centuries, and have put on, time after time, the garb forced upon +them by the fashion. Those of Africa have remained just as they were--at +least in their principal lines--on the morrow of the Arab invasion, as +Augustin's eyes had seen them. They are ruins, no doubt, and some very +mutilated, but ruins of which no restoration has altered the plan or +changed the features. + +As the traces of Hippo and its church are swept away or deeply buried, we +are obliged, in order to get some approximate idea, to turn towards another +African town which has suffered less from time and devastation. Theveste +with its basilica, the best preserved, the finest and largest in all +Africa, can restore to us a little of the look and colour and atmosphere of +Hippo in those final years of the fourth century. + +Ancient Theveste was much larger than the present town, the French Tebessa. +This, even reduced to the perimeter of the Byzantine fortress built under +Justinian, still surprises the traveller by its singularly original aspect. +Amid the wide plains of alfa-grass which surround it, with its quadrangular +enclosure, its roads on the projection of the walls behind the battlements, +its squat turrets, it has a look as archaic, as strange, as our own +Aigues-Mortes amid its marshy fen. Nothing can be more rich and joyous to +the eye than the rust which covers its ruins--a complete gilding that one +would say had been laid on by the hand of man. + +It has a little temple which is a wonder and has been compared to the +ancient Roman temple--the _Maison Carree_--at Nimes. But how much warmer, +more living are the stones! The shafts of the columns, and the pilasters of +the peristyle, barked by time, seem as scaly and full of sap as the trunks +of palm-trees. The carved acanthus-leaves in the capitals of the pillars +droop like bunches of palms reddened by the summer. + +Quite near, at the end of a narrow street, lined with modern and squalid +hovels, the triumphal arch of Septimus Severus and of Caracalla extends its +luminous bow; and high above the heavy mass of architecture, resting upon +slim aerial little columns, a buoyant _aediculus_ shines like a coral +tabernacle or a coffer of yellow ivory. + +All about, forms in long draperies are huddled. The Numidian burnous has +the whiteness of the toga. It has also the same graceful folds. At the +sight of them you suddenly feel yourself to be in a strange land--carried +back very far across the centuries. No sooner is the vision of antiquity +outlined than it grows firm. Down below there, a horseman, clad in white, +is framed with his white horse in the moulded cincture of a door. He +passes, and upon the white wall of the near tower his shadow rests a +moment, like a bas-relief upon the marble of a frieze. + +Beyond the Byzantine enclosure, the basilica, with its minor buildings, +forms another town almost as large as the present Theveste, and also closed +in by a belt of towers and ramparts. One is immediately struck by the +opulent colour of the stones--rose, grown pale and thinner in the sun; and +next, by the solid workmanship and the structural finish. The stones, as +in the Greek temples, are placed on top of one another in regular layers: +the whole holds together by the weight of the blocks and the polish of the +surfaces. + +The proportions are on a large scale. There was no grudging for the +buildings, or the materials, or the land. In front of the basilica is a +wide rectangular court bordered with terraces; a portico at the far end; +and in the middle four large fountains to water the walk. A flagged avenue, +closed by two gateways, divides this court from the basilica, properly so +called, which is reached by a staircase between two columns. The staircase +leads to the _atrium_ decorated by a Corinthian portico. In the centre +is the font for purifications, a huge monolithic bason in the shape of a +four-leaved clover. Three doors give entrance from the _atrium_ to the +basilica, which is divided by rows of green marble columns into three +aisles. The galleries spread out along the side aisles. The floor was in +mosaic. In the apse, behind the altar, stood the bishop's throne. + +Around the main building clustered a great number of others: a baptistry; +many chapels (one vaulted in the shape of a three-leaved clover) dedicated, +probably, to local martyrs; a graveyard; a convent with its cells, and its +windows narrow as loop-holes; stables, sheds, and barns. Sheltered within +its walls and towers, amid its gardens and outbuildings, the basilica of +Theveste thus early resembled one of our great monasteries of the Middle +Age, and also in certain ways the great mosques of Islam--the one at +Cordova, or that at Damascus, with their vestibules surrounded by arcades, +their basons for purification, and their walks bordered with orange-trees. +The faithful and the pilgrims were at home there. They might spend the day +stretched upon the flags of the porticoes, in loafing or sleeping in the +blue shade of the columns and the cool of the fountains. In the full sense +of the word, the church was the House of God, open to all. + +Very likely the basilicas at Hippo had neither the size nor the splendour +of this one. Nor were there very many. At the time Augustin was ordained +priest, that is to say, when the Donatists had still a majority in the +town, it seems clear that the orthodox community owned but one single +church, the _Basilica major_, or Basilica of Peace. Its very name proves +this. With the schismatics, "Peace" was the official name for Catholicism. +"Basilica of Peace" meant simply "Catholic Basilica." Was not this as +much as to say that the others belonged to the dissenters? Doubtless they +restored later on, after the promulgations of Honorius, the Leontian +Basilica, founded by Leontius, Bishop of Hippo, and a martyr. A third was +built by Augustin during his episcopate--the Basilica of the Eight Martyrs +of the White Mace. + +It was in the Major, or Cathedral, that Augustin generally preached. To +preach was not only a duty, but one of the privileges of a bishop. As has +been said, the bishop alone had the right to preach in his church. This +arose from the fact that the African dioceses, although comparatively +widespread, had scarcely more people than one of our large parishes to-day. +The position of a bishop was like that of one of our parish priests. There +were almost as many as there were villages, and they were counted by +hundreds. + +However that may be, preaching, the real apostolic ministry, was an +exhausting task. Augustin preached almost every day, and often many times a +day--rough work for a man with such a fragile chest. Thus it often happened +that, to save his voice, he had to ask his audience to keep still. He spoke +without study, in a language very near the language of the common people. +Stenographers took down his sermons as he improvised them: hence those +repetitions and lengthinesses which astonish the reader who does not know +the reason for them. There is no plan evident in these addresses. Sometimes +the speaker has not enough time to develop his thought. Then he puts off +the continuation till the next day. Sometimes he comes with a subject all +prepared, and then treats of another, in obedience to a sudden inspiration +which has come to him with a verse of Scripture he has just read. Other +times, he comments many passages in succession, without the least care for +unity or composition. + +Let us listen to him in this Basilica of Peace, where during thirty-five +years he never failed to announce the Word of God.... The chant of the +Psalms has just died away. At the far end of the apse, Augustin rises from +his throne with its back to the wall, his pale face distinct against the +golden hue of the mosaic. From that place, as from the height of a pulpit, +he commands the congregation, looking at them above the altar, which is a +plain wooden table placed at the end of the great aisle. + +The congregation is standing, the men on one side, the women on the other. +On the other side of the balustrade which separates them from the crowd, +are the widows and consecrated virgins, wrapped in their veils black or +purple. Some matrons, rather overdressed, lean forward in the front rank +of the galleries. Their cheeks are painted, their eyelashes and eyebrows +blackened, their ears and necks overloaded with jewels. Augustin has +noticed them; after a while he will read them a lesson. This audience is +all alive with sympathy and curiosity before he begins. With all its faith +and all its passion it collaborates with the orator. It is turbulent also. +It expresses its opinions and emotions with perfect freedom. The democratic +customs of those African Churches surprise us to-day. People made a noise +as at the theatre or the circus. They applauded; they interrupted the +preacher. Certain among them disputed what was said, quoting passages from +the Bible. + +Augustin is thus in perpetual communication with his audience. Nobody has +done less soaring than he. He keeps his eye on the facial expressions +and the attitudes of his public. He talks to them familiarly. When his +sermon is a little lengthy, he wants to know if his listeners are getting +tired--he has kept them standing so long! The time of the morning meal +draws near. Bellies are fasting, stomachs wax impatient. Then says he to +them with loving good-fellowship: + +"Go, my very dear brothers and sisters, go and restore your strength--I do +not mean that of your minds, for I see well that they are tireless, but the +strength of your bodies which are the servants of your souls. Go then and +restore your bodies so that they may do their work well, and when they are +restored, come back here and take your spiritual food." + +Upon certain days, a blast of the sirocco has passed over the town. The +faithful, crowded in the aisles, are stifling, covered with sweat. The +preacher himself, who is very much worked up, has his face dripping, and +his clothes are all wet. By this he perceives that once more he has been +extremely long. He excuses himself modestly. Or again, he jokes like a +rough apostle who is not repelled by the odour of a lot of human-kind +gathered together. + +"Oh, what a smell!" says he. "I must have been speaking a long while +to-day." + +These good-natured ways won the hearts of the simple folk who listened to +him. He is aware of the charm he exerts on them, and of the sympathy they +give him back in gratitude for his charity. + +"You have loved to come and hear me, my brothers," he said to them. "But +whom have you loved? If it is me--ah, even that is good, my brothers, for +I want to be loved by you, if I do not want to be loved for myself. As for +me, I love you in Christ. And you too, do you love me in Him. Let our love +for one another moan together up to God--and that is the moaning of the +Dove spoken of in the Scripture...." + +Although he preaches from the height of his episcopal throne, he is anxious +that his hearers should regard him, Christianly, as their equal. So he +seems as little of the bishop as possible. + +"All Christians are servants of the same master.... I have been in the +place where you are--you, my brothers, who listen to me. And now, if I +give the spiritual bread from the height of this chair to the servants of +the Master of us all--well, it is but a few years since I received this +spiritual food with them in a lower place. A bishop, I speak to laymen, but +I know to how many future bishops I speak...." + +So he puts himself on an equal footing with his audience by the brotherly +accent in his words. It is not Christendom, the Universal Church, or I know +not what abstract listener he addresses, but the Africans, the people of +Hippo, the parishioners of the Basilica of Peace. He knows the allusions, +the comparisons drawn from local customs, which are likely to impress their +minds. The day of the festival of St. Crispina, a martyr of those parts, +after he had developed his subject at very great length, he asked pardon in +these terms: + +"Let us think, brothers, that I have invited you to celebrate the birthday +of the blessed Crispina, and that I have kept up the feast a little too +long. Well, might not the same thing happen if some soldier were to ask you +to dinner and obliged you to drink more than is wise? Let me do as much for +the Word of God, with which you should be drunk and surfeited." + +Marriages, as well as birthday feasts, supplied the orator with vivid +allegories. Thus he says that when a marriage feast is made in a house, +organs play upon the threshold, and musicians and dancers begin to sing and +to act their songs. And yet how poor are these earthly enjoyments which +pass away so soon!... "In the House of God, the feast has no end." + +Continually, through the commentaries on the Psalms, like comparisons rise +to the surface--parables suited to stir the imagination of Africans. A +thousand details borrowed from local habits and daily life enliven the +exegesis of the Bishop of Hippo. The mules and horses that buck when one +is trying to cure them, are his symbol for the recalcitrant Donatists. The +little donkeys, obstinate and cunning, that trot in the narrow lanes of +Algerian _casbahs_, appear here and there in his sermons. The gnats bite in +them. The unendurable flies plaster themselves in buzzing patches on the +tables and walls. Then there are the illnesses and drugs of that country: +the ophthalmias and collyrium. What else? The tarentulas that run along +the beams on the ceiling; the hares that scurry without warning between +the horses' feet on the great Numidian plains. Elsewhere, he reminds his +audience of those men who wear an earring as a talisman; of the dealings +between traders and sailors--a comparison which would go home to this +seafaring people. + +The events of the time, the little happenings of the moment, glide into +his sermons. At the same time as the service in church to-day, there is +going to be horse-racing at the circus, and fights of wild beasts or +gladiators at the arena. In consequence, there will not be many people +in the Basilica. "So much the better," says Augustin. "My lungs will get +some rest." Another time, it is advertised through the town that most +sensational attractions will be offered at the theatre--there will be a +scene representing the open sea. The preacher laughs at those who have +deserted the church to go and see this illusion: "They will have," says +he, "the sea on the stage; but we, brothers--ah, we shall have our port in +Jesus Christ." This Saturday, while he is preaching, some Jewish women set +themselves to dance and sing on the terraces of the near houses, by way of +celebrating the Sabbath. In the basilica, the bashing of the crotolos can +be heard, and the thuds of the tambourines. "They would do better," says +Augustin, "to work and spin their wool." + +He dwells upon the catastrophes which were then convulsing the Roman world. +The news of them spread with wonderful rapidity. Alaric's Barbarians +have taken Rome and put it to fire and sword. At Jerusalem has been an +earthquake, and the bishop John organizes a subscription for the sufferers +throughout Christendom. At Constantinople, globes of fire have been seen in +the sky. The _Serapeum_ of Alexandria has just been destroyed in a riot.... + +All these things follow each other in lively pictures, without any apparent +order, throughout Augustin's sermons. It is not he who divides his +discourse into three parts, and refrains from passing to the second till he +has learnedly expounded the first. Whether he comments upon the Psalms or +the Gospels, his sermons are no more than explanations of the Scriptures +which he interprets, sometimes in a literal sense, and sometimes in an +allegoric. Let us acknowledge it--his allegoric discourses repel us by +their extreme subtilty, sometimes by their bad taste; and when he confines +himself to the letter of the text, he stumbles among small points of +grammar which weary the attention. We follow him no longer. We think +his audience was very obliging to listen so long--and on their feet--to +these endless dissertations.... And then, suddenly, a great lyrical and +oratorical outburst which carries us away--a wind which blows from the +high mountains, and in the wink of an eye sweeps away like dust all those +fine-spun reasonings. + +He is fond of certain commonplaces, and also of certain books of the +Bible--for instance, _The Song of Songs_ and the Gospel of St. John, the +one satisfying in him the intellectual, and the other the mystic of love. +He confronts the verse of the Psalm: "Before the morning star have I +begotten thee," with the sublime opening of the Fourth Gospel: "In the +beginning was the Word." He lingers upon the beauty of Christ: _Speciosus +forma prae filiis hominum_, "Thou art fairer than the children of men." This +is why he is always repeating with the Psalmist: "Thy face, Lord, have I +sought"--_Quaesivi vultum tuum, Domine._ And the orator, carried away by +enthusiasm, adds: "Magnificent saying! Nothing more divine could be said. +Those feel it who truly love." Another of his favourite subjects is the +kindness of God: _Videte et gustate quam mitis sit Dominus_--"O taste +and see that the Lord is good." Naught can equal the pleasure of this +contemplation, of this life in God. Augustin conceives it as a musician +who has fathomed the secret of numbers. "Let your life," he said, "be one +prolonged song.... We do not sing only with the voice and lips when we +intone a canticle, but in us is an inward singing, because there is also in +us Some One who listens...." + +To live this rhythmic and divine life we must get free of ourselves, give +ourselves up utterly in a great outburst of charity. + +"Why," he cries--"Oh, why do you hesitate to give yourselves lest you +should lose yourselves? It is rather by not giving yourselves that you +lose yourselves. Charity herself speaks to you by the mouth of Wisdom and +upholds you against the terror which fills you at the sound of those words: +'Give yourself.' If some one wanted to sell you a piece of land, he would +say to you: 'Give me your gold.' And for something else, he would say: +'Give me your silver, give me your money.' Listen to what Charity says to +you by the mouth of Wisdom: 'My son, give me thy heart.' 'Give me,' quoth +she. Give what? 'My son, give me thy heart.'... Thy heart was not happy +when it was governed by thee, and was thine, for it turned this way and +that way after gawds, after impure and dangerous loves. 'Tis from there thy +heart must be drawn. Whither lift it up? Where to place it? 'Give me thy +heart,' says Wisdom, 'let it be mine, and it will belong to thee for +always.'" + +After the chant of love, the chant of the Resurrection. _Cantate mihi +canticum novum_--"Sing to me a new song!" Augustin repeats these words over +and over again. "We wish to rise from the dead," cry souls craving for +eternity. And the Church answers: "Verily, I say unto you, that you shall +rise from the dead. Resurrection of bodies, resurrection of souls, ye shall +be altogether reborn." Augustin has explained no dogma more passionately. +None was more pleasing to the faithful of those times. Ceaselessly they +begged to be strengthened in the conviction of immortality and of meeting +again brotherlike in God. + +With what intrepid delight it rose--this song of the Resurrection in +those clear African basilicas swimming in light, with all their brilliant +ornamentation of mosaics and marbles of a thousand colours! And what +artless and confident language those symbolic figures spoke which peopled +their walls--the lambs browsing among clusters of asphodels, the doves, the +green trees of Paradise. As in the Gospel parables, the birds of the field +and farmyard, the fruits of the earth, figured the Christian truths and +virtues. Their purified forms accompanied man in his ascension towards +God. Around the mystic chrisms, circled garlands of oranges and pears and +pomegranates. Cocks, ducks, partridges, flamingoes, sought their pasture in +the Paradisal fields painted upon the walls of churches and cemeteries. + +Those young basilicas were truly the temples of the Resurrection, where +all the creatures of the Ark saved from the waters had found their refuge. +Never more in the centuries to follow shall humanity know this frank joy at +having triumphed over death--this youth of hope. + + + + +III + +THE BISHOP'S BURTHEN + + +Augustin is not only the most human of all the saints, he is also one +of the most amiable in all the senses of that hackneyed word--amiable +according to the world, amiable according to Christ. + +To be convinced of this, he should be observed in his dealings with his +hearers, with his correspondents, even with those he attacks--with the +bitterest enemies of the faith. Preaching, the administration of property, +and sitting in judgment were but a part of that episcopal burthen, _Sarcina +episcopatus_, under which he so often groaned. He had furthermore to +catechize, baptize, direct consciences, guard the faithful against error, +and dispute with all those who threatened Catholicism. Augustin was a light +of the Church. He knew it. + +Doing his best, with admirable conscientiousness and charity he undertook +these tasks. God knows what it must have cost this Intellectual to fulfil +precisely all the duties of his ministry, down to the humblest. What +he would have liked, above all, was to pass his life in studying the +Scriptures and meditating on the dogmas--not from a love of trifling with +theories, but because he believed such knowledge necessary to whoever gave +forth the Word of God. Most of the priests of that age arrived at the +priesthood without any previous study. They had to improvise, as quick +as they could, a complete education in religious subjects. We are left +astounded before the huge labour which Augustin must have given to acquire +his. Before long he even dominated the whole exegetical and theological +knowledge of his time. In his zeal for divine letters, he knew sleep no +more. + +And yet he did not neglect any of his tasks. Like the least of our +parish priests, he prepared the neophytes for the Sacraments. He was +an incomparable catechist, so clear-sighted and scrupulous that his +instructions may still be taken as models by the catechists of to-day. +Neither did he, as an aristocrat of the intelligence, only trouble himself +with persons of culture, and leave to his deacons the care of God's common +people. All had a right to his lessons, the simple peasants as well as the +rich and scholarly. One day, a farmer he was teaching walked off and left +him there in the middle of his discourse. The poor man, who had fasted, and +now listened to his bishop standing, was faint from hunger and felt his +legs tremble under him. He thought it better to run away than to fall down +exhausted at the feet of the learned preacher. + +With his knowledge of men, Augustin carefully studied the kind of people +his catechumens were, and adapted his instructions to the character of +each. If they were city folk, Carthaginians, used to spending their time in +theatres and taverns, drunken and lazy, he took a different tone with them +from what he used with rustics who had never left their native _gourbi_. +If he were dealing with fashionable people who had a taste for literature, +he did not fail to exalt the beauties of the Scripture, although, he would +say, they had there a very trifling attraction compared to the truths +contained in it. Of all the catechumens, the hardest to deal with, the +most fearsome in his eyes, were the professors--the rhetoricians and the +grammarians. These men are bloated with vanity, puffed up with intellectual +pride. Augustin knew something about that. It will be necessary to rouse +them violently, and before anything else, to exhort them to humility of +mind. + +The good saint goes further. Not only is he anxious about the souls, but +also about the bodies of his listeners. Are they comfortable for listening? +As soon as they feel tired they must not hesitate to sit down, as is the +usage in the basilicas beyond seas. + +"Would not our arrogance be unbearable," he asked, "if we forbade men who +are our brothers to sit down in our presence, and, much more, men whom we +ought to try with all possible care to make our brothers?..." + +If they are seen to yawn, "then things ought to be said to them to awaken +their attention, or to scatter the sad thoughts which may have come into +their minds." The catechist should shew, now a serene joy--the joy of +certainty; now a gaiety which charms people into belief; "and always that +light-heartedness we should have in teaching." Even if we ourselves are sad +from this reason or that, let us remember that Jesus Christ died for those +who are listening to us. Is not the thought of bringing Him disciples +enough to make us joyful? + +Bishop Augustin set the example for his priests. It is not enough to +have prepared the conversion of his catechumens with the subtlety of the +psychologist, and such perfect Christian charity; but he accompanies them +to the very end, and charges them once more before the baptismal piscina. + +How he is changed! One thinks of the boon-fellow of Romanianus and of +Manlius Theodorus, of the young man who followed the hunts at Thagaste, +and who held forth on literature and philosophy in a select company before +the beautiful horizons of the lake of Como. Here he is now with peasants, +slaves, sailors, and traders. And he takes pleasure in their society. It is +his flock. He ought to love it with all his soul in Jesus Christ. What an +effort and what a victory upon himself an attitude so strange reveals to +us! For really this liking for mean people was not natural to him. He must +have put an heroic will-power into it, helped by Grace. + +A like sinking of his preferences is evident in the director of consciences +he became. Here he was obliged to give himself more thoroughly. He was +at the mercy of the souls who questioned him, who consulted him as +their physician. He spends his time in advising them, and exercises a +never-failing supervision of their morals. It is an almost discouraging +enterprise to bend these hardened pagans--above all, these Africans--to +Christian discipline. Augustin is continually reproaching their +drunkenness, gluttony, and lust. The populace were not the only ones to get +drunk and over-eat themselves. The rich at their feasts literally stuffed +till they choked. The Bishop of Hippo never lets a chance go by to recall +them to sobriety. + +Oftener still, he recalls them to chastity. He writes long letters on this +subject which are actual treatises. The morals of the age and country are +fully disclosed in them. Husbands are found loudly claiming a right to free +love for themselves, while they force their wives to conjugal fidelity. The +adultery they allow themselves, they punish with death in their wives. They +make an abusive practice of divorce. Upon the most futile reasons, they +send the wife the _libellus repudii_--the bill repudiating the marriage--as +the various peoples of Islam do still. This society in a state of +transition was always creating cases of conscience for strict Christians. +For example: If a man cast off his wife under pretext of adultery, might +he marry again? Augustin held that no marriage can be dissolved as long as +both parties are living. But may not this prohibition provoke husbands to +kill their adulterous wives, so as to be free to take a new wife? Another +problem: A catechumen divorced under the pagan law and since remarried, +presents himself for baptism. Is he not an adulterer in the eyes of the +Church? A man who lives with a woman and does not hide it, who even +declares his firm intention of continuing to live with his concubine--can +he be admitted to baptism? Augustin has to answer all these questions, and +go into the very smallest details of casuistry. + +Is it forbidden to eat the meats consecrated to idols, even when a man +or woman is dying of hunger? May one enter into agreements with native +camel-drivers and carriers who swear by their gods to keep the bargain? +May a lie be told in certain conditions?--say, so as to get among heretics +in pretending to be one of themselves, and thus be able to spy on them +and denounce them? May adultery be practised with a woman who promises in +exchange to point out heretics?... The Bishop of Hippo severely condemns +all these devious or shameful ways, all these compromises which are +contrary to the pure moral teaching of the Gospel. But he does this without +affecting intolerance and rigidity, and with a reminder that the evil of +sin lies altogether in the intention, and in the consent of the will. In a +word, one must tolerate and put up with what one is powerless to hinder. + +Other questions, which it is quite impossible to repeat here, give us a +strange idea of the corruption of pagan morals. Augustin had all he +could do to maintain the Christian rule in such surroundings, where the +Christians themselves were more or less tainted with paganism. But if this +troop of sinners and backsliders was hard to drive, the devout were perhaps +harder. There were the _continents_--the widowers and widows who had made a +vow of chastity and found this vow heavy; the consecrated virgins who lived +in too worldly a fashion; the nuns who rebelled against their spiritual +director or their superior; the monks, either former slaves who did not +want to do another stroke of work, or charlatans who played upon public +credulity in selling talismans and miraculous ointments. Then, the married +women who refused themselves to their husbands; and those who gave away +their goods to the poor without their husbands' consent; and also the proud +virgins and widows who despised and condemned marriage. + +Then came the crowd of pious souls who questioned Augustin on points of +dogma, who wanted to know all, to clear up everything; those who thought +they should be able here below to see God face to face, to know how we +shall arise, and who asked if the angels had bodies.... Augustin complains +that they are annoying, when he has so many other things to trouble him, +and that they take him from his studies. But he tries charitably to satisfy +them all. + +Besides all this, he was obliged to keep up a correspondence with a great +number of people. In addition to his friends and fellow-bishops, he wrote +to unknown people and foreigners; to men in high place and to lowly people; +to the proconsuls, the counts and the vicars of Africa; to the very mighty +Olympius, Master of the Household to the Emperor Honorius; or again, "to +the Right Honourable Lady Maxima," "to the Illustrious Ladies Proba and +Juliana," "to the Very Holy Lady Albina"--women who belonged either to the +provincial nobility, or to the highest aristocracy of Rome. To whom did he +not write?... + +And what is admirable in these letters is that he does not answer +negligently to get rid of a tiresome duty. Almost all of them are full +of substantial teaching, long thought over. Many were intended to be +published--they are practically charges. And yet, however grave the tone +of them may be, the cultivated man of the world he had been may be traced. +His correspondents, after the fashion of the time, overwhelm the bishop +with the most fulsome praises. These he accepts, with much ceremony +indeed, but he does accept them as evidence of the charity of his +brethren. Ingenuously, he does his best to return them. Let us not grow +over-scandalized because our men of letters of to-day have debased the +value of complimentary language by squandering and exaggerating it. The +most austere cotemporaries of Augustin, and Augustin himself, outdid them +by a long way in the art and in the abuse of compliments. + +Paulinus of Nola, always beflowered and elegant, wrote to Augustin: +"Your letters are a luminous collyrium spread over the eyes of my mind." +Augustin, who remonstrated with him upon the scarcity of his own letters, +replies in language which our own _Precieuses_ would not have disowned: +"What! You allow me to pass two summers--and two African summers!--in such +thirst?... Would to God that you would allow enter to the opulent banquet +of your book, the long fast from your writings which you have put me +upon during all a year! If this banquet be not ready, I shall not give +over my complaints, unless, indeed, that in the time between, you send me +something to keep up my strength." A certain Audax, who begged the honour +of a special letter from the great man, calls him "the oracle of the Law"; +protests that the whole world celebrates and admires him; and finally, at +the end of his arguments, conjures him in verse to "Let fall upon me the +dew of thy divine word." Augustin, with modesty and benignity, returns his +compliments, but not without slipping into his reply a touch of banter: +"Allow me to point out to you that your fifth line has seven feet. Has +your ear betrayed you, or did you want to find out if I was still capable +of judging these things?"... Truly, he is always capable of judging these +things, nor is he sorry to have it known. A young Greek named Dioscorus, +who is passing through Carthage, questions him upon the philosophy of +Cicero. Augustin exclaims at any one daring to interrupt a bishop about +such trifles. Then, little by little, he grows milder, and carried away by +his old passion, he ends by sending the young man quite a dissertation on +this good subject. + +Those are among his innocent whimsicalities. Then, alongside of letters +either too literary, or erudite, or profound, there are others which are +simply exquisite, such as the one he wrote to a young Carthage girl called +Sapida. She had embroidered a tunic for her brother. He was dead, and she +asked Augustin kindly to wear this tunic, telling him that if he would +do this, it would be a great comfort for her in her grief. The bishop +consented very willingly. "I accept this garment," he said to her, "and I +have begun to wear it before writing to you...." Then gently he pities her +sorrow, and persuades her to resignation and hope. + +"We should not rebuke people for weeping over the dead who are dear to +them.... When we think of them, and through habit we look for them still +around us, then the heart breaks, and the tears fall like the blood of our +broken heart...." + +At the end, in magnificent words, he chants the hymn of the Resurrection: + +"My daughter, your brother lives in his soul, if in his body he sleeps. +Does not the sleeper wake? God, who has received his soul, will put it +again in the body He has taken from him, not to destroy it--oh, no, but +some day to give it to him back." + + * * * * * + +This correspondence, voluminous as it is, is nothing beside his numberless +treatises in dogma and polemic. These were the work of his life, and it is +by these posterity has known him. The theologian and the disputer ended by +hiding the man in Augustin. To-day, the man perhaps interests us more. And +this is a mistake. He himself would not have allowed for a moment that his +_Confessions_ should be preferred to his treatises on Grace. To study, to +comment the Scriptures, to draw more exact definitions from the dogmas--he +saw no higher employment for his mind, or obligation more important for +a bishop. To believe so as to understand, to understand the better to +believe--it is a ceaseless movement of the intelligence which goes from +faith to God and from God to faith. He throws himself into this great +labour without a shade of any attempt to make literature, with a complete +sinking of his tastes and his personal opinions, and in it he entirely +forgets himself. + +One single time he has thought of himself, and it is precisely in the +_Confessions_, the spirit of which modern people understand so ill, and +where they try to find something quite different from what the author +intended. He composed them just after he was raised to the bishopric, to +defend himself against the calumnies spread about his conduct. It seems as +if he wanted to say to his detractors: "You believe me guilty. Well, I am +so, and more perhaps than you think, but not in the way you think." A great +religious idea alters this personal defence. It is less a confession, or an +excuse for his faults, in the present sense of the word, than a continual +glorification of the divine mercy. It is less the shame of his sins he +confesses, than the glory of God. + +After that, he never thought again of anything but Truth and the Church, +and the enemies of Truth and the Church: the Manichees, the Arians, the +Pelagians--the Donatists, above all. He lets no error go by without +refuting it, no libel without an answer. He is always on the breach. He +might well be compared, in much of his writings, to one of our fighting +journalists. He put into this generally thankless business a wonderful +vigour and dialectical subtlety. Always and everywhere he had to have the +last word. He brought eloquence to it, yet more charity--sometimes even +wit. And lastly, he had a patience which nothing could dishearten. He +repeats the same things a hundred times over. These tiresome repetitions, +into which he was driven by the obstinacy of his opponents, caused him +real pain. Every time it became necessary, he took up again the endless +demonstration without letting himself grow tired. The moment it became a +question of the Truth, Augustin could not see that he had any right to keep +quiet. + +In Africa and elsewhere they made fun of what they called his craze for +scribbling. He himself, in his _Retractations_, is startled by the number +of his works. He turns over the Scripture saying which the Donatists +amusingly opposed to him: _Vae mullum loquentibus_--"Woe unto them of many +words." But calling God to witness, he says to Him: _Vae tacentibus de +te_--"Woe unto those who keep silent upon Thee." In the eyes of Augustin, +the conditions were such that silence would have been cowardly. And +elsewhere he adds: "They may believe me or not as they will, but I like +much better to read than to write books...." + +In any case, his modesty was evident. "I am myself," he acknowledges, +"almost always dissatisfied with what I say." To the heretics he declares, +with a glance back at his own errors, "I know by experience how easy it +is to be wrong." When there is some doubt in questions of dogma, he does +not force his explanations, but suggests them to his readers. How much +intellectual humility is in that prayer which ends his great work on the +Trinity: "Lord my God, one Trinity, if in these books I have said anything +which comes from Thee, may Thou and Thy chosen receive it. But if it is +from me it comes, may Thou and Thine forgive me." + +And again, how much tolerance and charity in those counsels to the faithful +of his diocese who, having been formerly persecuted by the Donatists, now +burned to get their revenge: + +"It is the voice of your bishop, my brothers, sounding in your ears. He +implores you, all of you who are in this church, to keep yourselves from +insulting those who are outside, but rather to pray that they may enter +with you into communion." + +Elsewhere, he reminds his priests that they must preach at the Jews in a +spirit of friendliness and loving-kindness, without troubling to know if +they listen with gratitude or indignation. "We ought not," said he, "to +bear ourselves proudly against these broken branches of Christ's tree."... + +This charity and moderation took nothing from the firmness of his +character. This he proved in a startling way in the discussion he had with +St. Jerome over a passage In the Epistle to the Galatians, and upon the +new translation, of the Bible which Jerome had undertaken. The solitary of +Bethlehem saw a "feint" on the part of St. Paul in the disputed passage: +Augustin said, a "lie." What, then, would become of evangelic truth if +in such a place the Apostle had lied? And would not this be a means of +authorizing all the exegetical fantasies of heresiarchs, who already +rejected as altered or forged all verses of the holy books which conflicted +with their own doctrines?... + +As to the new translation of the Bible, it would bring about trouble in the +African churches, where they were accustomed to the ancient version of the +Septuagint. The mistranslations, pointed out by Jerome in the old version, +would upset the faithful and lead them to suspect that the entire Scripture +was false. In this double matter, Augustin defended at once orthodoxy and +tradition from very praiseworthy reasons of prudence. + +Jerome retorted in a most aggressive and offensive tone. He flatly accused +the Bishop of Hippo of being jealous of him and of wishing to cut out a +reputation for learning at his expense. In front of his younger and more +supple adversary, he took on the air of an old wrestler who was still +capable of knocking out any one who had the audacity to attack him. He +hurled at Augustin this phrase heavy with menaces: "The tired ox stands +firmer than ever on his four legs." + +For all that, Augustin stuck to his opinion, and he confined himself +to replying gently: "In anything I say, I am not only always ready to +receive your observations upon what you find wounding and contrary to your +feelings, but I even ask your advice as earnestly as I can."... + + + + +IV + +AGAINST "THE ROARING LIONS" + + +One day (this was soon after he became bishop) Augustin went to visit a +Catholic farmer in the suburbs of Hippo, whose daughter had been lessoned +by the Donatists, and had just enrolled herself among their consecrated +virgins. The father at first had shouted at the deserter, and flogged her +unmercifully by way of improving her state of mind. Augustin, when he heard +of the affair, condemned the farmer's brutality and declared that he would +never receive the girl back into the community unless she came of her own +free will. He then went out to the place to try and settle the matter. On +the way, as he was crossing an estate which belonged to a Catholic matron, +he fell in with a priest of the Donatist Church at Hippo. The priest at +once began to insult him and his companions, and yelled: + +"Down with the traitors! Down with the persecutors!" + +And he vomited out abominations against the matron herself who owned the +land. As much from prudence as from Christian charity, Augustin did not +answer. He even prevented those with him from falling upon the insulter. + +Incidents of this kind happened almost every day. About the same time, +the Donatists of Hippo made a great noise over the rebaptizing of another +apostate from the Catholic community. This was a good-for-nothing loafer +who beat his old mother, and the bishop severely rebuked his monstrous +conduct. + +"Well, as you talk in that tone of voice," said the loafer, "I'm going to +be a Donatist." + +Through bravado, he continued to ill-treat the poor old woman, and to make +the worst kind of threats. He roared in savage fury: + +"Yes, I'll become a Donatist, and I'll have your blood." + +And the young ruffian did really go over to the Donatist party. In +accordance with the custom among the heretics, he was solemnly rebaptized +in their basilica, and he exhibited himself on the platform clad in the +white robe of the purified. People in Hippo were much shocked. Augustin, +full of indignation, addressed his protests to Proculeianus, the Donatist +bishop. "What! is this man, all bloody with a murder in his conscience, +to walk about for eight days in white robes as a model of innocence and +purity?" But Proculeianus did not condescend to reply. + +These cynical proceedings were trifling compared to the vexations which the +Donatists daily inflicted on their opponents. Not only did they tamper with +Augustin's people, but the country dwellers of the Catholic Church were +continually interfered with on their lands, pillaged, ravaged, and burned +out by mobs of fanatical brigands who organized a rule of terror from one +end of Numidia to the other. Supported in secret by the Donatists, they +called themselves "the Athletes of Christ." The Catholics had given them +the contemptuous name of "Circoncelliones," or prowlers around cellars, +because they generally plundered cellars and grain-houses. Troops of +fanaticized and hysterical women rambled round with them, scouring the +country like your true bacchantes, clawing the unfortunate wretches who +fell into their hands, burning farms and harvests, broaching barrels of +wine and oil, and crowning these exploits by orgies with "the Athletes of +Christ." When they saw a haystack blazing in the fields, the country-folk +were panic-stricken--the "Circoncelliones" were not far off. Soon they +appeared, brandishing their clubs and bellowing their war cry: _Deo +laudes!_--"Praise be to God." "Your shout," said Augustin to them, "is more +dreaded by our people than the roaring of lions." + +Something had to be done to quell these furious monsters, and to resist +the encroachments and forcible acts of the heretics. These, by way of +frightening the Catholic bishops, told them roundly: + +"We don't want any of your disputes, and we are going to rebaptize just as +it suits us. We are going to lay snares for your sheep and to rend them +like wolves. As for you, if you are good shepherds, keep quiet!" + +Augustin was not a man to keep quiet, nor yet to spend his strength in +small local quarrels. He saw big; he did not imprison himself within the +limits of his diocese. He knew that Numidia and a good part of Africa +were in the hands of the Donatists; that they had a rival primate to the +Catholic primate at Carthage; that they had even sent a Pope of their +community to Rome. In a word, they were in the majority. Everywhere a +dissenting Church rose above the orthodox Church, when it did not succeed +in stifling it altogether. At all costs the progress of this sect must be +stopped. In Augustin's eyes there was no more urgent work. For him and his +flock it was a question of insuring their lives, since they were attacked +even in their fields and houses. From the moment he first came to Hippo, +as a simple priest, he had thrown himself intrepidly into this struggle. +He never ceased till Donatism was conquered and trampled underfoot. To +establish peace and Catholic unity everywhere was the great labour of his +episcopate. + +Who, then, were these terrible Donatists whom we have been continually +striking against since the beginning of this history? + +It would soon be a century since they had been disturbing and desolating +Africa. Just after the great persecution of Diocletian, the sect was born, +and it increased with amazing rapidity. During this persecution, evidence +had not been wanting of the moral slackness in the African Church. A large +number of lay people apostatized, and a good number of bishops and priests +handed over to the pagan authorities, besides the devotional objects, +the Scriptures and the muniments of their communities. In Numidia, and +especially at Constantine, scandalous scenes took place. The cowardice +of the clergy was lamentable. Public opinion branded with the names of +_traditors_, or traitors, those who had weakened and given over the sacred +books to the pagans. + +The danger once over, the Numidians, whose behaviour had been so little +brilliant, determined to redeem themselves by audacity, and to prove +with superb impudence that they had been braver than the others. So they +set themselves to shout _traditor_ against whoever displeased them, and +particularly against those of Carthage and the Proconsulate. At bottom it +was the old rivalry between the two Africas, East and West. + +Under the reign of Constantine a peace had been patched up, when it fell +out that a new Bishop of Carthage had to be elected, and the Archdeacon +Caecilianus, whose name was put forward, was accused of preventing the +faithful from visiting the martyrs in their prisons. The zealots contended +that in collusion with his bishop, Mensurius, he had given up the Holy +Scriptures to the Roman authorities to be burned. The election promised to +be stormy. The supporters of the Archdeacon, who feared the hostility of +the Numidian bishops, did not wait for their arrival. They hurried things +over. Caecilianus was elected and consecrated by three bishops of the +district, of whom one was a certain Felix of Abthugni. + +At once the opposite clan, backed up by the Numidians, objected. At their +head was a wealthy Spanish woman named Lucilla, an unbalanced devotee, +who, it seemed, always carried about her person a bone of a martyr, and +a doubtful one at that. She would ostentatiously kiss her relic before +receiving the Eucharist. The Archdeacon Caecilianus forbade this devotion as +superstitious, and thus made a relentless enemy of the fanatical Spaniard. +All the former accusations were renewed against him, and it was added +that Felix of Abthugni, who had consecrated him, was a _traditor_. Hence +the election was void, by the single fact of the unworthiness of the +consecrating bishops. Lucilla, having bribed a section of the bishops +assembled in council, Caecilianus was deposed, and the deacon Majorinus +elected in his room. He himself was soon after succeeded by Donatus, an +active, clever, and energetic man, who organized resistance so ably, and +who represented so well the spirit of the sect, that he left it his name. +Henceforth, Donatism enters into history. + +But Caecilianus had on his side the bishops overseas and the Imperial +Government. The Pope of Rome and the Emperor recognized him as legitimately +elected. Besides that, he cleared himself of all the grievances urged +against him. Finally, an inquiry, conducted by laymen, proved that Felix of +Abthugni was not a _traditor_. The Donatists appealed to Constantine, then +to two Councils convoked successively at Rome and Arles. Everywhere they +were condemned. Moreover, the Council of Arles declared that the character +of him who confers the Sacraments has no influence whatever on their +validity. Thus, baptism and ordination, even conferred by a _traditor_, +were canonically sound. + +This decision was regarded as an abominable heresy by the Donatists. As a +matter of fact, there was an old African tradition, accepted by St. Cyprian +himself, that an unworthy priest could not administer the Sacraments. The +local prejudice would not yield: all were rebaptized who had been baptized +by the Catholics--that is to say, by the supporters of the _traditors_. + +The theological question was complicated with a question of property which +was all but insoluble. Since the Donatist bishops were resolved to separate +from the Catholic communion, did they mean to give up, with their title, +their basilicas and the property belonging to their churches? Supposing +that they themselves were disinterested, they had behind them the crowd of +clients and land-tillers who got their living out of the Church, and dwelt +on Church property. Never would these people allow a rival party to alter +the direction of the charities, to plant themselves in their fields and +their _gourbis_, to expel them from their cemeteries and basilicas. Other +reasons, still deeper perhaps, induced the Donatists to persevere in the +schism. These religious dissensions were agreeable to that old spirit +of division which at all times has been the evil genius of Africa. The +Africans have always felt the need of segregating themselves from one +another in hostile _cofs_. They hate each other from one village to +another--for nothing, just, for the pleasure of hating and felling each +other to the ground. + +At bottom, here is what Donatism really was: It was an extra sharp attack +of African individualism. These rebels brought in nothing new in dogma. +They would not even have been heretics without their claim to rebaptize. +They limited themselves to retain a position gained long ago; to keep +their churches and properties, or to seize those of the Catholics upon the +pretence that they were themselves the legitimate owners. With that, they +affected a respect for tradition, an austerity in morals and discipline, +which made them perfect puritans. Yes, they were the pure, the +irreconcilables, who alone had not bent before the Roman officials. All +this was very pleasing to the discontented and quarrelsome, and caressed +the popular instinct in its tendency to particularism. + +That is why the sect became, little by little, mistress of almost the +whole country. Then it subdivided, crumbled up into little churches which +excommunicated each other. In Southern Numidia, the citadels of orthodox +Donatism, so to speak, were Thimgad and Bagai. Carthage, with its primate, +was the official centre. But in the Byzacena and Tripolitana Regio, +there were the Maximianists, and the Rogatists in Mauretania, who had +cut themselves off from the Great Church. These divisions of the schism +corresponded closely enough to the natural compartments of North Africa. +There must be some incompatibility of temper between these various regions. +To this day, Algiers prides itself on not thinking like Constantine, which +does not think like Bona or like Tunis. + +Are we to see in Donatism a nationalist or separatist movement directed +against the Roman occupation? That would be to transport quite modern ideas +into antiquity. No more in Augustin's time than in our own was there such a +thing as African nationality. But if the sectaries had no least thought of +separating from Rome, it is none the less true that they were in rebellion +against her representatives, temporal as well as spiritual. Supposing that +Rome had yielded to them--an impossible event, of course--that would have +meant a surrender to the claims of Africans who wished to be masters of +their property as well as of their religious beliefs in their own country. +What more could they have wanted? It little mattered to them who was the +nominal master, provided that they had the realities of government in their +hands. Altogether, Donatism is a regionalist revindication, very strongly +characterized. It is a remarkable fact that it was among the indigenous +population, ignorant of Latin, that the most of its adherents were +recruited. + + * * * * * + +Such was the position of the Church in Africa when Augustin was named +Bishop of Hippo. He judged it at once, with his clear-sightedness, his +strong good sense, his broad outlook of a Roman citizen freed from the +smallnesses of a local spirit, his Christian idealism which took no heed +of the accidents or considerations of worldly prosperity. What! was +Catholicism to become an African religion, a restricted sect, wretchedly +tied to the letter of tradition, to the exterior practices of worship? To +reign in a little corner of the world--did Christ die for that? Never! +Christ died for the wide world. The only limits of His Church are the +limits of the universe. And besides, in this resolution to exclude, what +becomes of the great principle of Charity? It is by charity, above all, +that we are Christians. Faith without love is a faith stagnant and dead.... + +Augustin also foresaw the consequences of spiritual separation; he had them +already under his eyes. The Church is the great spring, not only of love, +but of intelligence. Once cut away from this reviving spring, Donatism +would become dry and stunted like a branch stripped from a tree. The +deep sense of its dogmas would become impoverished as its works emptied +themselves of the spirit of charity. Obstinacy, narrowness, lack of +understanding, fanaticism, and cruelty--there you had the inevitable fruits +of schism. Augustin knew the rudeness and ignorance of his opponents, even +of the most cultivated among them: he might well ask himself in anguish +what would become of the African Church deprived of the benefit of Roman +culture, isolated from the great intellectual current which united all the +churches beyond seas. Finally, he knew his fellow-countrymen; he knew that +the Donatists, even victorious, even sole masters of the land, would turn +against themselves the fury they now satisfied against the Catholics, and +never stop tearing each other in pieces. Here was now nearly a hundred +years that they had kept Africa in fire and blood. This meant before very +long a return to barbarism. Separated from Catholicism, they would really +separate from the Empire and even from civilization. And so it was that +in fighting for Catholic unity, Augustin fought for the Empire and for +civilization. + +Confronted with these barbarians and sectaries, his attitude could not be +doubtful for a single moment. He must do his best to bring them back to the +Church. It was only a matter of hitting upon the most effectual means. + +Preaching, for an orator such as he was, should be an excellent weapon. +His eloquence, his dialectic, his profane and sacred learning, gave him an +immense superiority over the defenders of the opposite side. He certainly +kept in the Church many Catholics who were ready to apostatize. But before +the crowd of schismatics, all these high gifts were as good as lost. +The people were in no wise anxious to know upon which side truth was to +be found. They were Donatists, as they were Numidians or Carthaginians, +without knowing why--because everybody about them was. Many might have +answered like that grammarian of Constantine, who told the Inquisitors with +astute simplicity: + +"I am a professor of Roman literature, a teacher of Latin grammar. My +father was a decurion at Constantine; my grandfather was a soldier and +had served in the guard. Our family is of Moorish blood.... As for me, I +am quite ignorant about the origin of the schism: I am just one of the +ordinary faithful of the people called Christians. When I was at Carthage, +Bishop Secundus came there one day. I heard tell that they found out that +Bishop Caecilianus had been ordained irregularly by I don't know who, and +they elected another bishop against him. That's how the schism began at +Carthage. I have no means of knowing much about the origin of the schism, +because there has never been more than one church in our city. If there has +been a schism here, we know nothing about it." + +When a grammarian talked thus, what could have been the thoughts of +agricultural labourers, city workmen, and slaves? They belonged to an +estate, or a quarter of a town, where no other faith than theirs had ever +been professed. They were Donatists like their employers, like their +neighbours, like the other people of the _cof_ to which they had belonged +from father to son. The theological side of the question left them +absolutely indifferent. If Augustin tried to debate with them, they refused +to listen and referred him to their bishops. That was the word of command. + +The bishops, on their side, avoided all discussion. Augustin tried in vain +to arrange an argument with Proculeianus, his Donatist colleague at Hippo. +And if some of them shewed themselves more obliging, the evasions and +reticences of the antagonist, and sometimes outside circumstances, made the +debate utterly futile. At Thubursicum the audience raised such a noise in +the place where Augustin was debating with the bishop Fortunius, that they +were no longer able to hear each other. At other times, the meeting sank to +an oratorical joust, wherein they tired themselves out passading against +words, instead of attacking the matters at issue. Augustin felt that he was +losing his time. Besides, the Donatist bishops presented an obstinate front +against which everything smashed. + +"Leave us in our errors," they said ironically. "If we are lost in your +eyes, why follow us about? We don't want to be saved." + +And they prohibited their flocks from saluting Catholics, from speaking to +them, from going into their churches or into their houses, from sitting +down in the midst of them. They laid an interdict on their adversaries. +Primanius, the Donatist Primate of Carthage, upon being invited to a +conference, answered proudly: + +"The sons of the martyrs can have nothing to do with the race of traitors." + +This being the state of the case, no method of pacification was left but +written controversy. Augustin shewed himself tireless at it. It was chiefly +in these letters and treatises against the Donatists that he was not afraid +to repeat himself. He knew that he was dealing with the deaf, and with +the deaf who did not want to hear: he was obliged to raise his voice. +With admirable self-denial he reiterated the same arguments a hundred +times over, a hundred times took up the history of the quarrel from the +beginning, spreading such a light over the quibbles and refinings of his +contradictors, that it should have brought conviction to the bluntest +minds. "No," he repeated, "Caecilianus was not a _traditor_, nor Felix of +Abthugni either who consecrated him bishop. The documents are there to +prove this. And even supposing they were, can the fault of a single man +be charged to the whole Church?... Then why do you baptize the Catholics +under the pretence that their priests are _traditors_ and as such unworthy +to administer the Sacraments? It is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and not +the virtue of the priest which renders baptism efficacious. If it were +otherwise, what was the good of the Redemption? It is the fact that by the +voluntary death of Christ, all men have been called to salvation. Salvation +is not the privilege of Africans only. Being Catholic, the Church should +take in the whole world...." + +In the long run, these continual repetitions end by seeming wearisome to +modern readers: for us there arises out of all these discussions a dense +and intolerable boredom. But let us remember that all this was singularly +living for Augustin's cotemporaries, that these thankless developments were +read with passion. And then, too, it was a question of the unity of the +Church which involved, as we cannot too often repeat, the interest of the +Empire and civilization. + +Against so persuasive a power the Donatists opposed a conspiracy of +silence. Their bishops forbade the people to read what Augustin wrote. They +did more--they concealed their own libels so that it was impossible to +reply to them. But Augustin used all his skill to unearth them. He refuted +them, and had his refutations recopied and posted on the walls of the +basilicas. The copies circulated through the province and the whole Roman +world. + +This would have had an excellent result if the quarrel had been entirely +over questions of theory. But immense property interests came into it, +and rancours and terrible hates. Augustin was forced to pass from verbal +polemics to direct action--defensive action, at first, and then attack. + +While he and his fellow-bishops did their utmost to preach peace, the +Donatist bishops urged their followers to the holy war. Augustin even +received threats on his life. During one of his visitations, he was nearly +assassinated. Men in ambush lay in wait for him. By a providential chance, +he took the wrong road, and owed his life to this mistake. His pupil +Possidius, who was then Bishop of Guelma, was not so lucky. Brought to +bay in a house by the Donatist bishop Crispinus, he defended himself +desperately. They set fire to the house to turn him out. When there was +nothing else left but to be burned alive, he did come out. The band of +Donatists seized him, and would have beaten his brains out, if Crispinus +himself, fearing a prosecution for murder, had not interfered. But the +assailants sacked the property and slaughtered all the horses and mules +in the stables. At Bagai, Bishop Maximianus was stabbed in his basilica. +A furious mob smashed the altar and began to strike the victim with the +fragments, and left him for dead on the flags. The Catholics lifted up his +body, but the Donatists plucked him out of their hands and flung him from +the top of a tower, and he fell on a dunghill which broke the fall. The +unhappy man still breathed, and by a miracle he recovered. + +Meanwhile, the Circoncelliones, armed with their bludgeons, continued to +pillage and burn the farms. They tortured the owners to extract their money +from them. They made them toil round the mill-path like beasts of burthen, +while they lashed at them with whips. At their back, the Donatist priests +invaded the Catholic churches and lands. There and then they rebaptized +the labourers. These doings were, indeed, very like the practices of the +African Mussulmans to-day, who, in like circumstances, always begin by +converting the Christian farm-hands by main force. Then they purified +the basilicas by scraping down the walls and washing the floors with big +douches of water; and after demolishing the altar, they scattered salt +where it had stood. It was a perfect disinfection. The Donatists treated +the Catholics like the plague-stricken. + +Such acts cried out for vengeance. Augustin, who up till this time had +recoiled from asking the public authorities to prosecute, who, as an +observer of the apostolic tradition, did not recognize the interference +of the civil power in Church matters--well, Augustin had to give way to +circumstances, and also to the pressure brought to bear on him by his +colleagues. Councils assembled at Carthage petitioned the Emperor to take +exceptional measures against the Donatists, who laughed at all the laws +directed against heretics. When they were summoned before the courts they +demonstrated to the judges, who were often pagans incompetent to decide in +these questions, that it was they who really belonged to the only orthodox +Church. Something must be done to end this equivocal position, and to bring +about once for all a categorical condemnation of the schism. Augustin, +acting in concert with the primate Aurelius, was the ruling spirit of these +meetings. + +Let us not judge his conduct by modern ideas, or be in a hurry to exclaim +against his intolerance. He and the Catholic bishops, in acting thus, +were complying with the old tradition which had influenced all the pagan +governments. Rome, particularly, though it recognized all the local sects, +all the foreign religions, never allowed any of its subjects to refuse to +fall in with the official religion. The persecutions of the Christians and +the Jews had no other motive. Now that it was become the State religion, +Christianity, willingly or unwillingly, had to summon people to the same +obedience. The Emperors made a special point of this from political reasons +easy to understand--to prevent riots and maintain public order. Even if the +bishops had refrained from all complaint, the Imperial Government would +have acted without them and suppressed the disturbances caused by the +heretics. + +Just look at the situation and the men as they were at that moment in +Africa. It was the Catholics who were persecuted, and that with revolting +fury and cruelty. They were obliged to defend themselves. In the next +place, the distribution of property in those countries made conversions +in batches singularly easy. Multitudes of farm tenants, workmen, and +agricultural slaves, lived upon the immense estates of one owner. Without +any interest in dogmatic questions, they were Donatists simply because +their master was. To change these devouring wolves into tranquil sheep, it +was often quite enough if the master got converted. The great blessing of +peace depended upon pressure being brought to bear on certain persons. When +all day and every day there was a risk of being murdered or burned out by +irresponsible ruffians, the temptation was very strong to fall back on such +a prompt and simple remedy. Augustin and his colleagues ended by making up +their minds to do so. For that matter, they had no choice. They were bound +to strike, or be themselves suppressed by their enemies. + +However, before resorting to rigorous measures, they resolved to send forth +a supreme appeal for reconciliation. The Catholics proposed a meeting to +the Donatists in which they would loyally examine one another's grievances. +As personal or material questions made the great bar to an understanding, +they promised that every Donatist bishop who turned convert should keep +his see. In places where a schismatic and an orthodox bishop were found +together, they would come to a friendly agreement to govern the diocese by +turns. Where it was impossible for this to be done, it was proposed that +the Catholic should resign in favour of the other. Augustin lent all his +eloquence to carry this motion, which was sufficiently heroic for a good +number of bishops who were not so detached as he from the goods of this +world. And one must allow that it was difficult to go much further in the +way of self-denial. + +After a good deal of skirmishing and hesitation on the side of the +schismatics, the Conference met at Carthage in June of the year 411, under +the presidency of an Imperial commissioner, the tribune Marcellinus. Once +again, the Donatists saw themselves condemned. Upon the report of the +commissioner, a decree of Honorius classed them definitely among heretics. +They were forbidden to rebaptize or to assemble together, under penalties +of fine and confiscation. Refractory countrymen and slaves would be liable +to corporal punishment, and as for the clerics, they would be banished. + +The effect of these new laws was not long in appearing, and it fully +answered the wishes of the orthodox bishops. Many populations returned, or +pretended to return, to the Catholic communion. This result was largely +the work of Augustin, who for twenty years had worked to bring it about by +preaching and controversy. But, as might be expected, he did not overdo +his triumph. Without delay, he set himself to preach moderation to the +conquerors. Nor had he waited till the enemy was defeated to do that. Ten +years before, while the Donatists were besetting the Catholics everywhere, +he said to the priests of his communion: + +"Remember this, my brothers, so as to practise and preach it with +never-varying gentleness. Love the men; kill the lie! Lean on truth without +pride; fight for it without cruelty. Pray for those whom you chide, and for +those to whom you shew their error." + +However, the victory of the party of peace was not so thorough as it had +seemed at first. A good many fanatics here and there grew obstinate in +their resistance. The Circoncelliones, maddened, distinguished themselves +by a new outbreak of ravages and cruelties. They tortured and mutilated all +the Catholics who fell into their hands. They had invented an unheard-of +refinement of torture, which was to cover with lime diluted with vinegar +the eyes of their victims. The priest Restitutus was assassinated in the +suburbs of Hippo. A bishop had his tongue and his hand cut off. If the +towns were pretty quiet, terror began to reign once more in the country +places. + +The Roman authorities exerted themselves to put an end to these bloody +scenes. They heavily chastised the offenders whenever they could catch +them. In his charity, Augustin interceded for them with the judges. He +wrote to the tribune Marcellinus: + +"We would not that the servants of God should be revenged by hurts like to +those they suffered. Surely, we are not against depriving the guilty of the +means to do harm, but we consider it will be enough, without taking their +lives or wrenching any limb from them, to turn them from their senseless +tumult by the restraining power of the laws, in bringing them back to calm +and reason; or, in a last resort, to take away the opportunity for criminal +actions by employing them in some useful work.... Christian judge, in this +matter fulfil the duty of a father, and while repressing injustice, do not +forget humanity." + +This compassion of Augustin was shewn particularly in his meeting with +Emeritus, the Donatist Bishop of Cherchell (or as it was then called, +Mauretanian Caesarea), one of the most stubborn among the irreconcilables. +His attitude in dealing with this uncompromising enemy was not only humane, +but courteous, full of graciousness, and of the most sensitive charity. + +This fell out in the autumn of the year 418, seven years after the great +Conference at Carthage. Augustin was sixty-four years old. How was it +that he who had always had such feeble health undertook at this age the +long journey from Hippo to Caesarea? We know that the Pope, Zozimus, had +entrusted him with a mission to the Church of that town. With his tireless +zeal, always ready to march for the glory of Christ, the old bishop +doubtless saw in this journey a fresh opportunity for an apostle. So +he started off, in spite of the roads, which were very unsafe in those +troublous times, in spite of the crushing heat of the season--the end of +September. He travelled six hundred miles across the endless Numidian +plain and the mountainous regions of the Atlas, preaching in the churches, +halting in the towns and the hamlets to decide questions of private +interest, ever pursued by a thousand business worries and by the squabbles +of litigants and the discontented. At last, after many weeks of fatigue and +tribulation, he reached Cherchell, where he was the guest of Deuterius, the +metropolitan Bishop of Mauretania. + +Now Emeritus, the deposed bishop, lived mysteriously in the suburbs, in +constant fear of some forcible action on the part of the authorities. +When he learned the friendly intentions of Augustin, he came out of his +hiding-place and shewed himself in the town. In one of the squares of +Caesarea the two prelates met. Augustin, who had formerly seen Emeritus at +Carthage, recognized him, hurried over to him, saluted him, and at once +suggested a friendly talk. + +"Let us go into the church," he said. "This square is hardly suitable for a +talk between two bishops." + +Emeritus, flattered, agreed. The conversation continued in such a cordial +tone that Augustin was already rejoicing upon having won back the +schismatic. Deuterius, following the line of conduct which the Catholic +bishops had adopted, spoke of resigning and handing over the see to the +other. It was agreed that within two days Emeritus should come to the +cathedral for a public discussion with his colleague of Hippo. At the +appointed hour he appeared. A great crowd of people gathered to hear +the two orators. The basilica was full. Then Augustin, turning to the +impenitent Donatist, said to him mildly: + +"Emeritus, my brother, you are here. You were also at our Conference at +Carthage. If you were beaten there, why do you come here now? If, on the +other hand, you think that you were not beaten, tell us what leads you to +believe that you had the advantage...." + +What change had Emeritus undergone in two days? Whatever it was, he +disappointed the hopes of Augustin and the people of Caesarea. He returned +only ambiguous phrases to the most pressing and brotherly urging. Finally, +he took refuge in an angry silence from which it was found impossible to +draw him. + +Augustin went home without having converted the heretic. No doubt he was +sorely disappointed. Nevertheless, he shewed no resentment; he even took +measures to ensure the safety of the recalcitrant, in a charitable fear +less the roused people might do him a bad turn. With all that, when he +looked back at the results of nearly thirty years of struggle against +schism, he might well say to himself that he had done good work for the +Church. Donatism, in fact, was conquered, and conquered by him. Was he +at last to have a chance to rest himself, with the only rest suitable +to a soul like his, in a steady meditation and study of the Scriptures? +Henceforth, would he be allowed to live a little less as a bishop and a +little more as a monk? This was always the strong desire of his heart.... + +But new and worse trials awaited him at Hippo. + + + + +THE SIXTH PART + +FACE TO FACE WITH THE BARBARIANS + + + Et nunc veniant omnes quicumque amant Paradisum, locum quietis, locum + securitatis, locum perpetuae felicitatis, locum in quo non pertimescas + Barbarum. + + "And now let all those come who love Paradise, the place of quiet, the + place of safety, the place of eternal happiness, the place where the + Barbarian need be feared no more." + + _Sermon upon the Barbarian Persecution_, vii, 9. + + + + +I + +THE SACK OF ROME + + +During June of the year 403, an astonishing event convulsed the former +capital of the Empire. The youthful Honorius, attended by the regent +Stilicho, came there to celebrate his triumph over Alaric and the Gothic +army, defeated at Pollentia. + +The pageantry of a triumph was indeed a very astonishing sight for +the Romans of that period. They had got so unused to them! And no +less wonderful was the presence of the Emperor at the Palatine. Since +Constantine's reign, the Imperial palaces had been deserted. They had +hardly been visited four times in a century by their master. + +Rome had never got reconciled to the desertion of her princes. When the +Court was moved to Milan, and then to Ravenna, she felt she had been +uncrowned. Time after time the Senate appealed to Honorius to shew himself, +at least, to his Roman subjects, since political reasons were against his +dwelling among them. This journey was always put off. The truth is, the +Christian Caesars did not like Rome, and mistrusted her still half-pagan +Senate and people. It needed this unhoped-for victory to bring Honorius +and his councillors to make up their minds. The feeling of a common danger +had for the moment drawn the two opposing religions together, and here +they were apparently making friends in the same patriotic delight. Old +hates were forgotten. In fact, the pagan aristocracy had hopes of better +treatment from Stilicho. On account of all these reasons, the triumphant +Caesar was received at Rome with delirious joy. + +The Court, upon leaving Ravenna, had crossed the Apennines. A halt was +called on the banks of the Clitumnus, where in ancient times the great +white herds were found which were sacrificed at the Capitol during a +triumph. But the gods of the land had fallen; there would be no opiman bull +this time on their altars. The pagans felt bitter about it. + +Thence, by Narnia and the Tiber valley, they made their way down into the +plain. The measured step of the legions rang upon the large flags of the +Flaminian way. They crossed the Mulvius bridge--and old Rome rose like a +new city. In anticipation of a siege, the regent had repaired the Aurelian +wall. The red bricks of the enclosure and the fresh mason-work of the +towers gleamed in the sun. Finally, striking into the _Via lata_, the +procession marched to the Palatine. + +The crowd was packed in this long, narrow street, and overflowed into the +nearest alleys. Women, elaborately dressed, thronged the balconies, and +even the terraces of the palace. All at once the people remarked that the +Senate was not walking before the Imperial chariot. Stilicho, who wished to +conciliate their good graces, had, contrary to custom, dispensed them from +marching on foot before the conqueror. People talked with approval of this +wily measure in which they saw a promise of new liberties. But applause and +enthusiastic cheers greeted the young Honorius as he passed by, sharing +with Stilicho the honour of the triumphal car. + +The unequalled splendour of his _trabea_, of which the embroideries +disappeared under the number and flash of colour of the jewels, left the +populace gaping. The diadem, a masterpiece of goldsmith's work, pressed +heavily on his temples. Emerald pendants twinkled on each side of his neck, +which, as it was rather fat, with almost feminine curves, suggested at once +to the onlookers a comparison with Bacchus. They found he had an agreeable +face, and even a soldierly air with his square shoulders and stocky neck. +Matrons gazed with tender eyes on this Caesar of nineteen, who had, at that +time, a certain beauty, and the brilliance, so to speak, of youth. This +degenerate Spaniard, who was really a crowned eunuch, and was to spend his +life in the society of the palace eunuchs and die of dropsy--this son of +Theodosius was just then fond of violent exercise, of hunting and horses. +But he was even now becoming ponderous with unhealthy fat. His build and +bloated flesh gave those who saw him at a distance a false notion of his +strength. The Romans were most favourably impressed by him, especially the +young men. + +But the army, the safeguard of the country, was perhaps even more admired +than the Emperor. The legions, following the ruler, had almost deserted +the capital. The flower of the troops were almost unknown there. In +consequence, the march past of the cavalry was quite a new sight for the +people. A great murmur of admiration sounded as the _cataphracti_ appeared, +gleaming in the coats of mail which covered them from head to foot. Upon +their horses, caparisoned in defensive armour, they looked like equestrian, +statues--like silver horsemen on bronze horses. Childish cries greeted each +_draconarius_ as he marched by carrying his ensign--a dragon embroidered on +a long piece of cloth which flapped in the wind. And the crowd pointed at +the crests of the helmets plumed with peacock feathers, and the scarfs of +scarlet silk flowing over the camber of the gilded cuirasses.... + +The military show poured into the Forum, swept up the _Via Sacra_, and when +it had passed under the triumphal arches of the old emperors, halted at the +Palace of Septimus Severus. In the Stadium, the crowd awaited Honorius. +When he appeared on the balcony of the Imperial box, wild cheering burst +out on all the rows of seats. The Emperor, diadem on head, bowed to the +people. Upon that the cheers became a tempest. Rome did not know how to +express her happiness at having at last got her master back. + +On the eve of the worst catastrophes she had this supreme day of glory, of +desperate pride, of unconquerable faith in her destiny. The public frenzy +encouraged them in the maddest hopes. The poet Claudian, who had followed +the Court, became the mouthpiece of these perilous illusions. "Arise!" he +cried to Rome, "I prithee arise, O venerable queen! Trust in the goodwill +of the gods. O city, fling away the mean fears of age, _thou who art +immortal as the heavens_!..." + +For all that, the Barbarian danger continued to threaten. The victory +of Pollentia, which, moreover, was not a complete victory, had settled +nothing. Alaric was in flight in the Alps, but he kept his eye open for a +favourable chance to fall back upon Italy and wrench concessions of money +and honours from the Court of Ravenna. Supported by his army of mercenaries +and adventurers in the pay of the Empire like himself, his dealings with +Honorius were a kind of continual blackmail. If the Imperial Government +refused to pay the sums which he protested it owed him for the maintenance +of his troops, he would pay himself by force. Rome, where fabulous riches +had accumulated for so many centuries, was an obvious prey for him and his +men. He had coveted it for a long time; and to get up his courage for this +daring exploit, as well as to work upon his soldiers, he pretended that he +had a mission from Heaven to chastise and destroy the new Babylon. In his +Pannonian forests it would seem he had heard mysterious voices which said +to him: "Advance, and thou shalt destroy the city!" + +This leader of clans had nothing of the conqueror about him. He understood +that he was in no wise cut out to wear the purple; he himself felt the +Barbarian's cureless inferiority. But he also felt that neither was he +born to obey. If he asked for the title of Prefect of the City, and if he +persisted in offering his services to the Empire, it was as a means to get +the upper hand of it more surely. Repulsed, disdained by the Court, he +tried to raise himself in his own eyes and in the eyes of the common people +by giving himself the airs of an instrument of justice, a man designed by +fate, who marches blindly to a terrible purpose indicated by the divine +wrath. It often happened that he was duped by his own mummery. This turbid +Barbarian soul was prone to the most superstitious terrors. + +Notwithstanding his rodomontades, it is certain that in his heart he was +scared by Rome. He hardly dared to attack it. In the first place, it was +not at all a convenient operation for him. His army of mercenaries had no +proper implements to undertake the siege of this huge city, of which the +defence lines were thrown out in so wide a perimeter. He had to come back +to it twice, before he could make up his mind to invest it seriously. The +first time, in 408, he was satisfied with starving the Romans by cutting +off the food supply. He had pitched his camp on the banks of the Tiber in +such a way as to capture the shipping between the capital and the great +store-houses built near the mouth of the river. From the ramparts, the +Romans could see the Barbarian soldiers moving about, with their sheepskin +coats dyed to a crude red. Panic-stricken, the aristocracy fled to its +villas in Campania, or Sicily, or Africa. They took with them whatever +they were able to carry. They sought refuge in the nearest islands, even +in Sardinia and Corsica, despite their reputation for unhealthiness. They +even hid among the rocks of the seashore. The terror was so great that the +Senate agreed to everything demanded by Alaric. He was paid an enormous +indemnity which he claimed as a condition of his withdrawal. + +The following year he used the same method of intimidation to force on the +people an emperor he had chosen, and to get conferred on him the title of +Prefect of the City which he had desired so long. Finally, in the year 410, +he struck the supreme blow. + +The Barbarian knew what he was about, and that he did not risk much in +blockading Rome. Famine would open the gates to him sooner or later. All +who were able had left the city, especially the rich. There was no garrison +to defend it. Only a lazy populace remained behind the walls, unused to +arms, and still more enfeebled by long starvation. And yet this wretched +and decimated population, in an outburst of patriotism, resisted with +desperate energy. The siege was long. Doubtless it began before the spring; +it ended only at the end of the summer. In the night of the twenty-fourth +of August, 410, amid the glare of lightning and crashes of thunder, Alaric +entered Rome by the Salarian gate. It is certain that he only managed it +even then by treachery. The prey was handed to him. + +The sack of Rome seems to have lasted for three days and three nights. Part +of the town was burned. The conquered people underwent all the horrors +which accompany such events--violent and stupid destruction, rapes, murders +of individuals, wholesale slaughter, torture, and mutilation. But in +reality the Barbarians only wanted the Roman gold. They acted like perfect +highway robbers. If they tortured their victims without distinction of age +or sex, it was to pluck the secret of their treasure-houses out of them. +It is even said that in these conditions the Roman avarice produced some +admirable examples of firmness. Some let themselves be tortured to their +last gasp rather than reveal where their treasures were hid. At last, when +Alaric decided that his army was gorged enough with spoil, he gave the +order to evacuate the city, and took to the roads with his baggage-waggons +full. + +Let us be careful not to judge these doings after our modern notions. The +capture of Rome by Alaric was not a national disaster. It was plundering on +a huge scale. The Goth had no thought at all of destroying the Empire. He +was only a mercenary in rebellion--an ambitious mercenary, no doubt--but, +above all, a looter. + +As a consequence of this attack on the Eternal City, one after another +caught the disease of plunder, which contaminated even the functionaries +and the subjects of Rome. Amid the general anarchy, where impunity seemed +certain, nobody restrained himself any longer. In Africa especially, where +the old instinct of piracy is always half-awake, they applied themselves to +ransack the fugitive Romans and Italians. Many rich people were come there, +seeking a place of safety in the belief that they would be more secure when +they had put the sea between themselves and the Barbarians. The report of +their riches had preceded them, exaggerated out of all measure by popular +rumour. Among them were mentioned patricians such as the Anicii, whose +property was so immense and their palaces so splendid that they could not +find purchasers. These multi-millionaires in flight were a miraculous +windfall for the country. They were bled without mercy. + +Quicker than any one else, the military governor of Africa, Count +Heraclianus, was on the spot to pick the pockets of the Italian immigrants. +No sooner were they off the boat than he had very distinguished ladies +seized, and only released them when he had extorted a large ransom. He sold +those unable to pay to the Greek and Syrian slave-merchants who provided +human flesh for the Oriental harems. When the example came from such a +height, the subordinates doubtless said to themselves that they would +be very wrong to have the least shame. From one end of the province to +the other, everybody struggled to extract as much as possible from the +unfortunate fugitives. Augustin's own parishioners at Hippo undertook to +tear a donation from one of those gorgeous Anicii, whose lands stretched +further than a kite could fly--from Pinian, the husband of St. Melania +the younger. They wanted to force him to be ordained priest in spite of +himself, which, as has been explained, involved the handing over of his +goods to the Catholic community. Augustin, who opposed this, had to give in +to the crowd. There was almost a riot in the basilica. + +Such were the far-off reverberations of the capture of Rome by Alaric. +Carthaginians and Numidians pillaged the Romans just like the Barbarians. + +Now, how did it come about that this monstrous loot took on before the eyes +of contemporaries the magnitude of a world-catastrophe? For really nothing +was utterly lost. The Empire remained standing. After Alaric's retreat, +the Romans had come back to their city and they worked to build up the +ruins. Ere long, the populace were crying out loud that if the circus +and amphitheatre games were given back to them, they would look upon the +descent of the Goths as a bad dream. + +It is no less certain that this sensational occurrence had struck the whole +Mediterranean world into a perfect stupor. It seized upon the imaginations +of all. The idea that Rome could not be taken, that it was integral and +almost sacred, had such a hold on people's minds, that they refused to +credit the sinister news. Nobody reflected that the sack of Rome by the +Barbarians should have been long ago foreseen--that Rome, deprived of +a garrison, abandoned by the Imperial army, was bound to attract the +covetousness of the Goths, and that the pillage of a place without defence, +already enfeebled by famine, was not a very glorious feat, very difficult, +or very extraordinary. People only saw the brutal fact: the Eternal City +had been captured and burned by the mercenaries. All were under the +influence of the shock caused by the narratives of the refugees. In one of +his sermons, Augustin has transmitted to us an echo of the general panic: + +"Horrible things," said he, "have been told us. There have been ruins, and +fires, and rapine, and murder, and torture. That is true; we have heard it +many times; we have shuddered at all this disaster; we have often wept, and +we have hardly been able to console ourselves." + +This capture of Rome was plainly a terrible warning for the future. But +party spirit strangely exaggerated the importance and meaning of the +calamity. For pagans and Christians alike it became a subject for speeches, +a commonplace of religious polemic. Both saw the event as a manifestation +of the wrath of Heaven. + +"While we sacrificed to our gods," the pagan said, "Rome was standing, Rome +was happy. Now that our sacrifices are forbidden, you see what has become +of Rome...." + +And they went about repeating that Christianism was responsible for the +ruin of the Empire. On their side, the Christians answered: In the first +place, Rome has not fallen: it is always standing. It has been only +chastised, and this happened because it is still half pagan. By this +frightful punishment (and they heightened the description of the horrors +committed), God has given it a warning. Let it be converted, let it return +to the virtues of its ancestors, and it will become again the mistress of +nations. + +There is what Augustin and the bishops said. Still, the flock of the +faithful were only half convinced. It was all well enough to remonstrate +to them that the Christians of Rome, and even a good number of pagans, +had been spared at the name of Christ, and that the Barbarian leader had +bestowed a quite special protection and respect upon the basilicas of +the holy apostles; it was impossible to prevent their thinking that many +Christians had perished in the sack of the city, that consecrated virgins +had experienced the last outrages, and that, as a matter of fact, all the +inhabitants had been robbed of their property.... Was it thus that God +protected His chosen? What advantage was there in being Christian if they +had the same treatment as the idolaters? + +This state of mind became extremely favourable for paganism to come back +again on the offensive. Since the very hard laws of Theodosius, which +forbade the worship of the ancient gods, even within the house, the pagans +had not overlooked any chance to protest against the Imperial severity. +At Carthage there were always fights in the streets between pagans and +Christians, not to say riots. In the colony of Suffetula, sixty Christians +had been massacred. The year before the capture of Rome, there had been +trouble with the pagans at Guelma. Houses belonging to the Church were +burned, a monk killed in a brawl. Whenever the Government inspection +relaxed, or the political situation appeared favourable, the pagans hurried +to proclaim their belief. Only just lately, in Rome beleaguered by Alaric, +the new consul, Tertullus, had thought fit to revive the old customs. +Before assuming office, he studied gravely the sacred fowls in their cages, +traced circles in the sky with the augur's wand, and marked the flight of +birds. Besides, a pagan oracle circulated persistently among the people, +promising that after a reign of three hundred and sixty-five years +Christianity would be conquered. The centuries of the great desolation were +fulfilled; the era of revenge was about to begin for the outcast gods. + +These warlike symptoms did not escape Augustin's vigilance. His indignation +no longer arose only from the fact that paganism was so slow in dying; he +was now afraid that the feebleness of the Empire might allow it to take on +an appearance of life. It must be ended, as Donatism had been ended. The +old apostle was summoned to a new campaign, and in it he would spend the +best of his strength to the eve of his death. + + + + +II + +THE CITY OF GOD + + +For thirteen or fourteen years, through a thousand employments and a +thousand cares, amid the panics and continual alarums which kept the +Africans on the alert in those times, Augustin worked at his _City of God_, +the most formidable machine of war ever directed against paganism, and also +the arsenal fullest of proofs and refutations which the disputants and +defenders of Catholicism have ever had at their disposal. + +It is not for us to examine the details of this immense work, for our sole +aim is to study Augustin's soul, and we quote scarcely anything from his +books save those parts wherein a little of this ardent soul pulsates--those +which are still living for us of the twentieth century, which contain +teachings and ways of feeling still likely to move us. Now, Augustin's +attitude towards paganism is one of those which throw the greatest light on +his nature and character. And it may even yet come to be our own attitude +when we find opposed to us a conception of life and the world which +may indeed be ruined for a time, but is reborn as soon as the sense of +spirituality disappears or grows feeble. + + "Immortal Paganism, art thou dead? So they say. + But Pan scoffs under his breath, and the Chimaera laughs." [1] + +[Footnote 1: Sainte-Beuve.] + +Like ourselves, Augustin, brought up by a Christian mother, knew it only +through literature, and, so to speak, aesthetically. Recollections of +school, the emotions and admirations of a cultivated man--there is what the +old religion meant for him. Nevertheless, he had one great advantage over +us for knowing it well: the sight of the pagan customs and superstitions +was still under his eyes. + +That the lascivious, romantic, and poetic adventures of the ancient gods, +their statues, their temples, and all the arts arising from their religion, +had beguiled him and filled him with enthusiasm before his conversion, is +only too certain. But all this mythology and plastic art were looked upon +as secondary things then, even by pagans. The serious, the essential part +of the religion was not in that. Paganism, a religion of Beauty, is an +invention of our modern aesthetes; it was hardly thought of in that way in +Augustin's time. + +Long before this, the Roman Varro, the great compiler of the religious +antiquities of paganism, made a threefold distinction of the doctrine +concerning the gods. The first--that of the theatre, as he calls it, or +fabulous mythology, adapted to poets, dramatists, sculptors, and jesters. +Invented by these, it is only a fantasy, a play of imagination, an ornament +of life. The third is civil theology, serious and solid, which claims the +respect and piety of all. "It is that which men in cities, and chiefly the +priests, _ought to be_ cunning in. It teaches which gods to worship in +public, and with what ceremonies and sacrifices each one must be served." +Finally, the second, physical or metaphysical theology, is reserved for +philosophers and exceptional minds; it is altogether theoretical. The +only important and truly religious one, which puts an obligation on the +believer, is the third--the civil theology. + +Now, we never take account of this. What we persist in regarding as +paganism is what Varro himself called "a religion for the theatre"--matter +of opera, pretext for ballets, for scenery, and for dance postures. +Transposed into another key by our poets, this mythology is inflated now +and then by mysticism, or by a vague symbolism. Playthings of our pretty +wits! The living paganism, which Augustin struggled against, which crowds +defended at the price of their blood, in which the poor believed and the +wisest statesmen deemed indispensable as a safeguard of cities--that +paganism is quite another matter. Like all religions which are possible, +it implied and it _enforced_ not only beliefs, but ritual, sacrifices, +festivals. And this is what Augustin, with the other Christians of that +time, spurned with disgust and declared to be unbearable. + +He saw, or he had seen with his own eyes, the reality of the pagan worship, +and the most repellent of all to our modern delicacy--the sacrifices. At +the period when he wrote _The City of God_, private sacrifices, as well as +public, were forbidden. This did not prevent the devout from breaking the +law whenever a chance offered. They hid themselves more or less when they +sacrificed before a temple, a chapel, or on some private estate. The rites +could not be carried out according to all the minute instructions of the +pontifical books. It was no more than a shadow of the ceremonies of former +times. But in his childhood, in the reign of Julian, for instance, Augustin +could have attended sacrifices which were celebrated with full pomp and +according to all the ritual forms. They were veritable scenes of butchery. +For Heaven's sake let us forget the frieze of the Parthenon, and its +sacrificers with their graceful lines! If we want to have a literal +translation of this sculpture, and find the modern representation of a +hecatomb, we must go to the slaughter-houses at La Villette. + +Among the heaps of broken flesh, the puddles of blood, the mystic Julian +was attacked by a kind of drunkenness. There were never enough beasts +strangled or slaughtered to suit him. Nothing satisfied his fury for sacred +carnage. The pagans themselves made fun of this craze for sacrificing. +During the three years his reign lasted the altars streamed with blood. +Oxen by hundreds were slain upon the floors of the temples, and the +butchers throttled so many sheep and other domestic animals that they gave +up keeping count of them. Thousands of white birds, pigeons or sea-gulls, +were destroyed day by day by the piety of the prince. He was called the +_Victimarius_, and when he started upon his campaign against the Persians, +an epigram was circulated once more which had been formerly composed +against Marcus Aurelius (the philosophic emperor!) who was equally generous +of hecatombs: "To Marcus Caesar from the white oxen. It will be all over +with us if you come back a conqueror." People said that Julian, on his +return, would depopulate stables and pasture-lands. + +The populace, who gathered their very considerable profit from these +butcheries, naturally encouraged such an excess of devotion. At Rome, under +Caligula, more than a hundred and sixty thousand victims were immolated in +three months--nearly two thousand a day. And these massacres took place +upon the approaches of the temples; in the middle of the city; on the +forums; in narrow squares crowded with public buildings and statues. Just +try to call up the scene in summer, between walls at a white heat, with the +smells and the flies. Spectators and victims rubbed against one another, +pressed close in the restricted space. One day, Caligula, while he was +attending a sacrifice, was splashed all over by the blood of a flamingo as +they cut its neck. But the august Caesar was not so fastidious; he himself +operated in these ceremonies armed with a mallet and clad in the short +shirt of the killers. The ignominy of all this revolted the Christians, +and whoever had nerves at all sensitive. The bloody mud in which passers +slipped, the hissing of the fat, the heavy odour of flesh, were sickening. +Tertullian held his nose before the "stinking fires" on which the victims +were roasting. And St. Ambrose complained that in the Roman Curia the +senators who were Christians were obliged to breathe in the smoke and +receive full in the face the ashes of the altar raised before the statue of +Victory. + +The manipulations of the _haruspicina_ seemed an even worse abomination in +the eyes of the Christians. Dissection of bowels, examination of entrails, +were practices very much in fashion in all classes of society. The +pagans generally took more or less interest in magic. One was scarcely +a philosopher without being a miracle-worker. In this there was a kind +of perfidious rivalry to the Christian miracles. The ambitious or the +discontented opened the bellies of animals to learn when the Emperor was +going to die, and who would succeed him. But although it did not pretend to +magic, the _haruspicina_ made an essential part of the sacrifices. As soon +as the dismemberment was done, the diviners examined the appearance of +the entrails. Consulting together, they turned them over frequently with +anxious attention. This business might continue for a long time. Plutarch +relates that Philip, King of Macedonia, when sacrificing an ox on the +Ithomaea, with Aratus of Sicyon and Demetrius of Pharos, wished to inquire +out from the entrails of the victim concerning the wisdom of a piece of +strategy. The _haruspex_ put the smoking mass in his hands. The King shewed +it to his companions, who derived contradictory presages from it. He +listened to one side and the other, holding meanwhile the ox's entrails +in his hands. Eventually, he decided for the opinion of Aratus, and then +tranquilly gave the handful back to the sacrificer.... + +No doubt in Augustin's time these rites were no longer practised openly. +For all that, they were of the first importance in the ancient religion, +which desired nothing better than to restore them. It is easy to understand +the repulsion they caused in the author of _The City of God_. He who would +not have a fly killed to make sure of the gold crown in the contest of +poets, looked with horror on these sacred butchers, and manglers, and +cooks. He flung the garbage of the sacrifices into the sewer, and shewed +proudly to the pagans the pure oblation of the eucharistic Bread and Wine. + +But what, above all, he attacked, because it was a present and permanent +scandal, was the gluttony, the drunkenness, and lust of the pagans. Let us +not exaggerate these vices--not the two first, at least. Augustin could not +judge them as we can. It is certain that the Africans of his time--and for +that matter, those of to-day--would have struck us modern people as very +sober. The outbursts of intemperance which he accuses them of only happened +at intervals, at times of public festivity or some family celebration. But +as soon as they did begin they were terrible. When one thinks of the orgies +of our Arabs behind locked doors! + +But it is no less true that the pagan vices spread themselves out +cynically under the protecting shadow of religion. Popular souses of +eating and drinking were the obligatory accompaniments of the festivals +and sacrifices. A religious festival meant a carouse, loads of victuals, +barrels of wine broached in the street. These were called the Dishes, +_Fercula_, or else, the Rejoicing, _Laetitia_. The poor people, who knew +meat only by sight, ate it on these days, and they drank wine. The effect +of this unaccustomed plenty was felt at once. The whole populace were +drunk. The rich in their houses possibly did it with more ceremony, but it +was really the same brutishness. The elegant Ovid, who in the _Art of Love_ +teaches fine manners to the beginners in love, advises them not to vomit at +table, and to avoid getting drunk like the husbands of their mistresses. + +Plainly, religion was only an excuse for these excesses. Augustin goes too +far when he makes the gods responsible for this riot of sensuality. What is +true is that they did nothing to hinder it. And it is also true that the +lechery, which he flings so acridly in the face of the pagans, the gross +stage-plays, the songs, dances, and even prostitution, were all more or +less included in the essence of paganism. The theatre, like the games of +the arena and circus, was a divine institution. At certain feasts, and in +certain temples, fornication became sacred. All the world knew what took +place at Carthage in the courts and under the porticoes of the Celestial +Virgin, and what the ears of the most chaste matrons were obliged to hear, +and also what the use was of the castrated priests of the Great Mother +of the gods. Augustin, who declaims against these filthy sports, has not +forced the note of his denunciation to make out a good case. If anybody +wants to know in more detail the sights enjoyed at the theatre, or what +were the habits of certain pious confraternities, he has only to read what +is told by Apuleius, the most devout of pagans. He takes evident pleasure +in these stories, or, if he sometimes waxes indignant, it is the depravity +of men he accuses. The gods soar at a great height above these wretched +trifles. To Augustin, on the contrary, the gods are unclean devils who fill +their bellies with lust and obscenities, as if they were hankering for the +blood and grease of sacrifices. + +And so he puts his finger on the open wound of paganism--its basic +immorality, or, if you like, its unmorality. Like our scientism of to-day, +it was unable to lay down a system of morals. It did not even try to. What +Augustin has written on this subject in _The City of God_, is perhaps the +strongest argument ever objected to polytheism. Anyhow, pages like this are +very timely indeed to consider: + +"But such friends and such worshippers of those gods, whom they rejoice +to follow and imitate in all villainies and mischiefs--do they trouble +themselves about the corruption and great decay of the Republic? Not so. +Let it but stand, say they; let it but prosper by the number of its troops +and be glorious by its victories; or, _which is best of all, let it but +enjoy security and peace_, and what care we? Yes, what we care for above +all is that every one may have the means to increase his wealth, to pay the +expenses of his usual luxury, and that the powerful may still keep under +the weak. Let the poor crouch to the rich to be fed, or to live at ease +under their protection; let the rich abuse the poor as things at their +service, and to shew how many they have soliciting them. Let the people +applaud such as provide them with pleasures, not such as have a care for +their interests. _Let naught that is hard be enjoined, nothing impure +be prohibited_.... Let not subdued provinces obey their governors as +supervisors of their morality, but as masters of their fortune and the +procurers of their pleasures. What matters it if this submission has no +sincerity, but rests upon a bad and servile fear! _Let the law protect +estates rather than fair justice_. Let there be a good number of public +harlots, either for all that please to enjoy themselves in their company, +or for those that cannot keep private ones. Let stately and sumptuous +houses be erected, so that night and day each one according to his liking +or his means may gamble and drink and revel and vomit. Let the rhythmed +tinkling of dances be ordinary, the cries, the uncontrolled delights, +the uproar of all pleasures, even the bloodiest and most shameful in the +theatres. He who shall assay to dissuade from these pleasures, let him +be condemned as a public enemy. And if any one try to alter or suppress +them--let the people stifle his voice, let them banish him, let them +kill him. On the other hand, those that shall procure the people these +pleasures, and authorize their enjoyment, let them be eternized for the +true gods."... + +However, Augustin acknowledges a number of praiseworthy minds among +pagans--those philosophers, with Plato in the first rank, who have done +their best to put morality into the religion. The Christian teacher renders +a magnificent tribute to Platonism. But these high doctrines have scarcely +got beyond the portals of the schools, and this moral teaching which +paganism vaunts of, is practically limited to the sanctuaries. "Let them +not talk," says he, "of some closely muttered instructions, taught in +secret, and whispered in the ear of a few adepts, which hold I know not +what lessons of uprightness and virtue. But let them shew the temples +ordained for such pious meetings, wherein were no sports with lascivious +gestures and loose songs.... Let them shew us the places where the gods' +doctrine was heard against covetousness, the suppression of ambition, the +bridling of luxury, and where wretches might learn what the poet Persius +thunders unto them, saying: + + 'Learn, wretches, and conceive the course of things, + What man is, and why nature forth him brings;... + How to use money; how to help a friend; + What we on earth, and God in us, intend.' + +Let them shew where their instructing gods were used to give such lessons; +and where their worshippers used to go _often_ to hear these matters. +As for us, we can point to our churches, built for this sole purpose, +wheresoever the religion of Christ is diffused." + +Can it surprise, then, if men so ignorant of high morality, and so deeply +embedded in matter, were also plunged in the grossest superstitions? +Materialism in morals always ends by producing a low credulity. Here +Augustin triumphs. He sends marching under our eyes, in a burlesque array, +the innumerable army of gods whom the Romans believed in. There are so many +that he compares them to swarms of gnats. Although he explains that he is +not able to mention them all, he amuses himself by stupefying us with the +prodigious number of those he discovers. Dragged into open day by him, a +whole divine population is brought out of the darkness and forgetfulness +where it had been sleeping perhaps for centuries: the little gods who work +in the fields, who make the corn grow and keep off the blight, those who +watch over children, who aid women in labour, who protect the hearth, who +guard the house. It was impossible to take a step among the pagans, to make +a movement, without the help of a god or goddess. Men and things were as if +fettered and imprisoned by the gods. + +"In a house," says Augustin scoffingly, "there is but one porter. He is but +a mere man, yet he is sufficient for that office. But it takes three gods, +Forculus for the door, Cardea for the hinge, Limentinus for the threshold. +Doubtless, Forculus all alone could not possibly look after threshold, door +and hinges." And if it is a case of a man and woman retiring to the bridal +chamber after the wedding, a whole squadron of divinities are set in motion +for an act so simple and natural. "I beseech you," cries Augustin, "leave +something for the husband to do!" + +This African, who had such a strong sense of the unity and fathomless +infinity of God, waxed indignant at this sacrilegious parcelling of the +divine substance. But the pagans, following Varro, would answer that it was +necessary to distinguish, among all these gods, those who were just the +imagination of poets, and those who were real beings--between the gods of +fable and the gods of religion. "Then," as Tertullian had said already, +"if the gods be chosen as onions are roped, it is obvious that what is not +chosen is condemned." "Tertullian carries his fancy too far," comments +Augustin. The gods refused as fabulous are not held reprobate on that +account. The truth is, they are a cut of the same piece as the admitted +gods. "Have not the pontiffs, like the poets, a bearded Jupiter and a +Mercury without beard?... Are the old Saturn and the young Apollo so much +the property of the poets that we do not see their statues too in the +temples?..." + +And the philosophers, in their turn, however much they may protest against +the heap of fabulous gods and, like Plato and Porphyry, declare that there +exists but one God, soul of the universe, yet they no less accepted the +minor gods, and intermediaries or messengers betwixt gods and men, whom +they called demons. These hybrid beings, who pertained to humanity by their +passions, and to the divinity by the privilege of immortality, had to be +appeased by sacrifices, questioned and gratified by magic spells. And there +is what the highest pagan wisdom ended in--yes, in calling up spirits, and +the shady operations of wizards and wonder-smiths. That is what the pagans +defended, and demanded the continuation of with so much obstinacy and +fanaticism. + +By no means, replied Augustin. It does not deserve to survive. It is not +the forsaking of these beliefs and superstitious practices which has +brought about the decay of the Empire. If you are asking for the temples +of your gods to be opened, it is because they are easy to your passions. +At heart, you scoff at them and the Empire; all you want is freedom and +impunity for your vices. There we have the real cause of the decadence! +Little matter the idle grimaces before altars and statues. Become chaste, +sober, brave, and poor, as your ancestors were. Have children, agree to +compulsory military service, and you will conquer as they did. Now, all +these virtues are enjoined and encouraged by Christianity. Whatever certain +heretics may say, the religion of Christ is not contrary to marriage or the +soldier's profession. The Patriarchs of the old law were blest in marriage, +and there are just and holy wars. + +And even supposing, that in spite of all efforts to save it, the Empire is +condemned, must we therefore despair? We should be prepared for the end +of the Roman city. Like all the things of this world, it is liable to old +age and death. It will die then, one day. Far from being cast down, let +us strengthen ourselves against this disaster by the realization of the +eternal. Let us strengthen our hold upon that which passes not. Above the +earthly city, rises the City of God, which is the communion of holy souls, +the only one which gives complete and never-failing joy. Let us try to be +the citizens of that city, and to live the only life worth calling life. +For the life here below is but the shadow of a shadow.... + +The people of those times were wonderfully prepared to hearken to such +exhortations. On the eve of the Barbarian invasions, these Christians, for +whom the dogma of the Resurrection was perhaps the chief reason of their +faith, these people, sick at heart, who looked on in torture at the ending +of a world, must have considered this present life as a bad dream, from +which there should be no delay in escaping. + +At the very moment even that Augustin began to write _The City of God_, his +friend Evodius, Bishop of Uzalis, told him this story. + +He had as secretary a very young man, the son of a priest in the +neighbourhood. This young man had begun by obtaining a post as stenographer +in the office of the Proconsul of Africa. Evodius, who was alarmed at what +might happen to his virtue in such surroundings, having first made certain +of his absolute chastity, offered to take him into his service. In the +bishop's house, where he had scarcely anything to do but read the Holy +Scripture, his faith became so enthusiastic that he longed for nothing now +but death. To go out of this life, "to be with Christ," was his eager wish. +It was heard. After sixteen days of illness he died in the house of his +parents. + +"Now, two days after his funeral, a virtuous woman of Figes, a servant of +God, a widow for twelve years, had a dream, and in her dream she saw a +deacon who had been dead some four years, together with men, and women too, +virgins and widows--she saw these servants of God getting ready a palace. +This dwelling was so rich that it shone with light, and you would have +believed it was all made of silver. And when the widow asked whom these +preparations were for, the deacon replied that they were for a young man, +dead the evening before, the son of a priest. In the same palace, she saw +an old man, all robed in white, and he told two other persons, also robed +in white, to go to the tomb of this young man, and lift out the body, and +carry it to Heaven. When the body had been drawn from the tomb and carried +to Heaven, there arose (said she) out of the tomb a bush of virgin-roses, +which are thus named because they never open...." + +So the son of the priest had chosen the better part. What was the good of +remaining in this abominable world, where there was always a risk of being +burned or murdered by Goths and Vandals, when, in the other world, angels +were preparing for you palaces of light? + + + + +III + +THE BARBARIAN DESOLATION + + +Augustin was seventy-two years old when he finished the _City of God_. This +was in 426. That year, an event of much importance occurred at Hippo, and +the report of it was inserted in the public acts of the community. + +"The sixth of the calends of October," _The Acts_ set forth, "the very +glorious Theodosius being consul for the twelfth time, and Valentinian +Augustus for the second, Augustin the bishop, accompanied by Religianus +and Martinianus, his fellow-bishops, having taken his place in the +Basilica of Peace at Hippo, and the priests Saturnius, Leporius, Barnaby, +Fortunatianus, Lazarus, and Heraclius, being present, with all the clergy +and a vast crowd of people--Augustin the bishop said: + +"'Let us without delay look to the business which I declared yesterday to +your charity, and for which I desired you to gather here in large numbers, +as I see you have done. If I were to talk to you of anything else, you +might be less attentive, seeing the expectation you are in. + +"'My brothers, we are all mortal in this life, and no man knows his last +day. God willed that I should come to dwell in this town in the force of my +age. But, as I was a young man then--see, I am old now, and as I know that +at the death of bishops, peace is troubled by rivalry or ambition (this +have I often seen and bewailed it)--I ought, so far as it rests with me, to +turn away so great a mischief from your city.... I am going then to tell +you that my will, which I believe also to be the will of God, is that I +have as successor the priest Heraclius.' + +"At these words all the people cried out: + +"'Thanks be to God! Praise be to Christ!' + +"And this cry they repeated three-and-twenty times. + +"'Christ, hear us! Preserve us Augustin!' + +"This cry they repeated sixteen times. + +"'Be our father! Be our bishop!' + +"This cry they repeated eight times. + +"When the people became silent, the bishop Augustin spoke again in these +words: + +"'There is no need for me to praise Heraclius. As much as I do justice +to his wisdom, in equal measure should I spare his modesty.... As you +perceive, the secretaries of the church gather up what we say and what you +say. My words and your shouts do not fall to the ground. To put it briefly, +these are ecclesiastical decrees that we are now drawing up, and I desire +by these means, as far as it is in the power of man, to confirm what I have +declared to you.' + +"Here the people cried out: + +"'Thanks be to God! Praise be to Christ!' + + * * * * * + +"'Be our father, and let Heraclius be our bishop!' + +"When silence was made again, Augustin the bishop thus spoke: + +"'I understand what you would say. But I do not wish that it happen to him +as it happened to me. Many of you know what was done at that time.... I was +consecrated bishop during the lifetime of my father and bishop, the aged +Valerius, of blessed memory, and with him I shared the see. I was ignorant, +as he was, that this was forbidden by the Council of Nice. I would not +therefore that men should blame in Heraclius, my son, what they blamed in +me.' + +"With that the people cried out thirteen times: + +"'Thanks be to God! Praise be to Christ!' + +"After a little silence, Augustin the bishop said again: + +"'So he will remain a priest till it shall please God for him to be a +bishop. But with the aid and mercy of Christ, I shall do in future what up +to now I have not been able to do.... You will remember what I wanted to +do some years ago, and you have not allowed me. For a work upon the Holy +Scriptures, with which my brothers and my fathers the bishops had deigned +to charge me in the two Councils of Numidia and Carthage, _I was not to be +disturbed by anybody during five days of the week_. That was a thing agreed +upon between you and me. The act was drawn up, and you all approved of +it after hearing it read. But your promise did not last long. I was soon +encroached upon and overrun by you all. I am no longer free to study as I +desire. Morning and afternoon, I am entangled in your worldly affairs. I +beg of you and supplicate you in Christ's name to suffer me to shift the +burthen of all these cares upon this young man, the priest Heraclius, whom +I signal, in His name, as my successor in the bishopric.' + +"Upon this the people cried out six-and-twenty times: + +"'We thank thee for thy choice!' + +"And the people having become silent, Augustin the bishop said: + +"'I thank you for your charity and goodwill, or rather, I thank God for +them. So, my brothers, you will address yourselves to Heraclius upon all +the points you are used to submit to me. Whenever he needs counsel, my care +and my help will not be wanting.... In this way, without any loss to you, +I shall be able to devote the remainder of life which it may please God +still to leave me, not to laziness and rest, but to the study of the Holy +Scriptures. This work will be useful to Heraclius, and hence to yourselves. +Let nobody then envy my leisure, for this leisure will be very busy.... + +"'It only remains for me to ask you, at least those who can, to sign these +acts. Your agreement I cannot do without; so kindly let me learn it by your +voices.' + +"At these words the people shouted: + +"'Let it be so! Let it be so!' + + * * * * * + +"When all there became silent, Augustin the bishop made an end, saying: + +"'It is well. Now let us fulfil our duty to God. While we offer Him the +Sacrifice, and during this hour of supplication, I would urge of your +charity to lay aside all business and personal cares, and to pray the Lord +God for this church, for me, and for the priest Heraclius.'" + +The dryness and official wording of the document do not succeed in stifling +the vividness and colour of this crowded scene. Through the piety of the +formal cries, it is easy to see that Augustin's hearers were hard to +manage. This flock, which he loved and scolded so much, was no easier to +lead now than when he first became bishop. Truly it was no sinecure to rule +and administrate the diocese of Hippo! The bishop was literally the servant +of the faithful. Not only had he to feed and clothe them, to spend his time +over their business and quarrels and lawsuits, but he belonged to them body +and soul. They kept a jealous eye on the employment of his time; if he +went away, they asked for an explanation. Whenever Augustin went to preach +at Carthage or Utica, he apologized to his own people. And before he can +undertake a commentary on the Scriptures, a commentary, moreover, which he +has been asked by two Councils to prepare, he must get their permission, +or, at any rate, their agreement. + +At last, at seventy-two years old, after he had been a bishop for +thirty-one years, he got their leave to take a little rest. But what a +rest! He himself said: "This leisure will be very busy"--this leisure which +is going to fill the five holidays in the week. He intends to study and +fathom the Scripture, and this, besides, to the profit of his people and +clergy and the whole Church. It is the fondest dream of his life--the +plan he was never able to realize. All that, at first sight, astonishes +us. We ask ourselves, "What else had he been doing up to this time in his +treatises and letters and sermons, in all that sea of words and writings +which his enemies threw up at him, if he was not studying and explaining +the Holy Scriptures?" The fact is, that in most of these writings and +sermons he elucidates the truth only in part, or else he is confuting +heresiarchs. What he wanted to do was to study the truth for its own sake, +without having to think of and be hindered by the exposure of errors; and +above all, to seize it in all its breadth and all its depths, to have +done with this blighting and irritating eristic, and to reflect in a vast +_Mirror_ the whole and purest light of the sacred dogmas. + +He never found the time for it. He had to limit himself to a handbook +of practical morals, published under this title before his death, and +now lost. Once more the heresiarchs prevented him from leading a life of +speculation. During his last years, amid the cruellest anxieties, he had +to battle with the enemies of Grace and the enemies of the Trinity, with +Arius and Pelagius. Pelagius had found an able disciple in a young Italian +bishop, Julian of Eclanum, who was a formidable opponent to the aged +Augustin. As for Arianism, which had seemed extinguished in the West, here +it was given a new life by the Barbarian invasion. + +It was a grave moment for Catholicism, as it was for the Empire. The Goths, +the Alani, and the Vandals, after having laid waste Gaul and Spain, were +taking measures to pass over into Africa. Should they renew the attempts +of Alaric and Radagaisus against Italy, they would soon be masters of the +entire Occident. Now these Barbarians were Arians. Supposing (and it seemed +more and more likely) that Africa and Italy were vanquished after Gaul and +Spain, then it was all over with Western Catholicism. For the invaders +carried their religion in their baggage, and forced it on the conquered. +Augustin, who had cherished the hope of equalling the earthly kingdom +of Christ to that of the Caesars, was going to see the ruin of both. +His terrified imagination exaggerated still more the only too real and +threatening peril. He must have lived hours of agony, expecting a disaster. + +If only the truth might be saved, might swim in this sea of errors which +spread like a flood in the wake of the Barbarian onflow! It was from this +wish, no doubt, that sprang the tireless persistence which the old bishop +put into a last battle with heresy. If he selected Pelagius specially to +fall upon with fury, if he forced his principles to their last consequences +in his theory of Grace, the dread of the Barbarian peril had perhaps +something to do with it. This soul, so mild, so moderate, so tenderly +human, promulgated a pitiless doctrine which does not agree with his +character. But he reasoned, no doubt, that it was impossible to drive +home too hard the need of the Redemption and the divinity of the Redeemer +in front of these Arians, these Pelagians, these enemies of Christ, who +to-morrow perhaps would be masters of the Empire. + +Therefore, Augustin continued to write, and discuss, and disprove. There +came a time when he had to think of fighting otherwise than with the pen. +His life, the lives of his flock, were threatened. He had to see to the +bodily defence of his country and city. The fact was, that some time +before the great drive of the Vandals, forerunners of them, in the shape +of hordes of African Barbarians, had begun to lay waste the provinces. The +Circoncelliones were not dead, nor their good friends the Donatists either. +These sectaries, encouraged by the widespread anarchy, came out of their +hiding-places and shewed themselves more insolent and aggressive than ever. +Possibly they hoped for some effective support against the Roman Church +from the Arian Vandals who were drawing near, or at least a recognition of +what they believed to be their rights. Day after day, bands of Barbarians +were landing from Spain. In the rear of these wandering troops of brigands +or irregular soldiers, the old enemies of the Roman peace and civilization, +the Nomads of the South, the Moors of the Atlas, the Kabylian mountaineers, +flung themselves upon country and town, pillaging, killing, and burning +everything that got in their way. All was laid desolate. "Countries but +lately prosperous and populated have been changed into solitudes," said +Augustin. + +At last, in the spring of the year 429, the Vandals and the Alani, having +joined forces on the Spanish coast under their King, Genseric, crossed +the Straits of Gibraltar. It was devastation on a large scale this time. +An army of eighty thousand men set themselves methodically to plunder the +African provinces. Cherchell, which had already been sorely tried during +the revolt of Firmus the Moor, was captured again and burned. All the towns +and fortified places on the coast fell, one after another. Constantine +alone, from the height of its rock, kept the invaders at bay. To starve out +those who fled from towns and farms and took refuge in the fastnesses of +the Atlas, the Barbarians destroyed the harvest, burned the grain-houses, +and cut down the vines and fruit trees. And they set fire to the forests +which covered the slopes of the mountains, to force the refugees out of +their hiding-places. + +This stupid ravaging was against the interest of the Vandals themselves, +because they were injuring the natural riches of Africa, the report of +which had brought them there. Africa was for them the land of plenty, where +people could drink more wine than they wanted and eat wheaten bread. It was +the country where life was comfortable, easy, and happy. It was the granary +of the Mediterranean, the great supply-store of Rome. But their senseless +craving for gold led them to ruin provinces, in which, nevertheless, they +counted upon settling. They behaved in Africa as they had behaved in Rome +under Alaric. By way of tearing gold out of the inhabitants, they tortured +them as they had tortured the wealthy Romans. They invented worse ones. +Children, before their parents' eyes, were sliced in two like animals in a +slaughterhouse. Or else their skulls were smashed against the pavements and +walls of houses. + +The Church was believed to be very rich; and perhaps, as it had managed +to comprise in its domains the greatest part of the landed estates, it +was upon it chiefly that the Barbarians flung themselves. The priests and +bishops were tortured with unheard-of improvements of cruelty. They were +dragged in the rear of the army like slaves, so that heavy ransoms might +be extracted from the faithful in exchange for their pastors. They were +obliged to carry the baggage like the camels and mules, and when they gave +out the Barbarians prodded them with lances. Many sank down beside the +road and never rose more. But it is certain that fanaticism added to the +covetousness and ferocity of the Vandals. These Arians bore a special +grudge against Catholicism, which was, besides, in their eyes, the religion +of the Roman domination. This is why they made their chief attacks on +basilicas, convents, hospitals, and all the property of the Church. And +throughout the country public worship was stopped. + +In Hippo, these atrocities were known before the Barbarians arrived. The +people must have awaited them and prepared to receive them with gloomy +resignation. Africa had not been tranquil for a century. After the risings +of Firmus and Gildo, came the lootings of the southern Nomads and the +Berber mountaineers. And it was not so long since the Circoncelliones were +keeping people constantly on the alert. But this time everybody felt that +the great ruin was at hand. They were stunned by the news that some town +or fortified place had been captured by the Vandals, or that some farm or +villa in the neighbourhood was on fire. + +Amid the general dismay, Augustin did his best to keep calm. He, indeed, +saw beyond the material destruction, and at every new rumour of massacre +or burning he would repeat to his clerics and people the words of the Wise +Man: + +"Doth the firm of heart grieve to see fall the stones and beams, and death +seize the children of men?" + +They accused him of being callous. They did not understand him. While all +about him mourned the present misfortunes, he was already lamenting over +the evil to come, and this clear-sightedness pained him more than the shock +of the daily horrors committed by the Barbarians. His disciple Possidius, +the Bishop of Guelma, who was with him in these sad days, naively applied +to him the saying out of _Ecclesiastes_: "In much wisdom is much grief." +Augustin did really suffer more than others, because he thought more +profoundly on the disaster. He foresaw that Africa was going to be lost to +the Empire, and consequently to the Church. They were bound together in his +mind. What was there to do against brutal strength? All the eloquence and +all the charity in the world would be as nothing against that unchained +elemental mass of Vandals. It was as impossible to convert the Barbarians +as it had been to convert the Donatists. Force was the only resource +against force. + +Then in despair the man of God turned once more to Caesar. The monk appealed +to the soldier. He charged Boniface, Count of Africa, to save Rome and the +Church. + +This Boniface, a rather ambiguous personage, was a fine type of the +swashbuckler and official of the Lower-Empire. Thracian by origin, he +joined the trickery of the Oriental to all the vices of the Barbarian. He +was strong, clever in all bodily exercises like the soldiers of those days, +overflowing with vigour and health, and even brave at times. In addition, +he was fond of wine and women, and ate and drank like a true pagan. He +was married twice, and after his second marriage he kept in the sight and +knowledge of everybody a harem of concubines. He was sent, first of all, +to Africa as a Tribune--that is to say, as Commissioner of the Imperial +Government, probably to carry out the decrees of Honorius against the +Donatists; and ere long he was made commander of the military forces of the +province, with the title of Count. + +In reality, while seeming to protect the country, he set himself to plunder +it, as the tradition was among the Roman officials. His _officium_, still +more grasping than himself, persuaded him to deeds which the Bishop of +Hippo, who was, however, anxious to remain on the right side of him, +protested against by hints. Boniface was obliged to overlook much robbery +and pillage on the part of his subordinates so as to keep them faithful. +Moreover, he himself stole. He was bound to close his eyes to the +depredations of others, that his own might be winked at. Once become the +accomplice of this band of robbers, he had no longer the authority to +control them. + +How did Augustin ever believe in the goodwill and good faith of this +adventurer full of coarse passions, so far as to put his final hopes in +him? Augustin knew men very well; he could detect low and hypocritical +natures at a distance. How came it that he was taken in by Boniface? + +Well, Augustin wanted his support, first of all, when he came as Imperial +Commissioner to Carthage to bring the Donatists into line. Generally, we +see only the good points of people who do us good turns. Besides, in order +to propitiate the bishop, and the devout Court at Ravenna, the Tribune +advertised his great zeal in favour of Catholicism. His first wife, a very +pious woman whom he seems to have loved much, encouraged him in this. +When she died, he was so overcome by despair that he took refuge in the +extremest practices of religion--and in this, perhaps, he was quite +sincere. It is also possible that he was becoming discredited at Ravenna, +where they must have known about his oppressions and suspected his +ambitious intrigues. Anyhow, whether he was really disgusted with the +world, or whether he deemed it prudent to throw a little oblivion over +himself just then, he spoke on all hands of resigning his post and living +in retreat like a monk. It was just at this moment that Augustin and +Alypius begged him not to desert the African army. + +They met the Commander-in-Chief at Thubunae, in Southern Numidia, where, +no doubt, he was reducing the Nomads. We must remark once more Augustin's +energy in travelling, to the very eve of his death. It was a long and +dangerous road from Hippo to Thubunae. Before making up his mind to so much +fatigue, the old bishop must have judged the situation to be very serious. +At Thubunae, was Boniface playing a game, or was he, indeed, so crushed by +his grief that the world had become unbearable and he pondered genuine +thoughts of changing his way of life? What is sure is, that he gave the +two prelates the most edifying talk. When they heard the Count of Africa +speaking with unction of the cloister and of his desire to retire there, +they were a little astonished at so much piety in a soldier. Besides, +these excellent resolutions were most inconvenient for their plans. They +remonstrated with him that it was quite possible to save one's soul in +the army, and quoted the example of David, the warrior king. They ended +by telling him all the expectations they founded upon his resource and +firmness. They begged him to protect the churches and convents against +fresh attacks of the Donatists, and especially against the Barbarians of +Africa. These were at this moment breaking down all the old defence lines +and laying waste the territories of the Empire. + +Boniface allowed himself to be easily convinced--promised whatever he was +asked. But he never budged. From now on, his conduct becomes most singular. +He is in command of all the military strength of the province, and he takes +no steps to suppress the African looters. It would seem as if he only +thought of filling the coffers of himself and his friends. The country was +so systematically scoured by them that, as Augustin said, there was nothing +more left to take. + +This inactivity lent colour to the rumours of treason. Nor is it impossible +that he had cherished a plan from the beginning of his command to cut out +an independent principality for himself in Africa. Was this the reason that +he dealt softly with the native tribes, so as to make certain of their help +in case of a conflict with the Imperial army? However that may be, his +behaviour was not frank. Some years later, he landed on the Spanish coast +to war against the Vandals under the command of the Prefect Castinus, and +there he married a Barbarian princess who was by religion an Arian. It +is true that the new Countess of Africa became a convert to Catholicism. +But her first child was baptized by Arian priests, who rebaptized, at the +same time, the Catholic slaves of Boniface's household. This marriage +with a Vandal, these concessions to Arianism, gave immense scandal to the +orthodox. Rumours of treason began to float about again. + +No doubt Boniface took great advantage of his fidelity to the Empress +Placidia. But he was standing between the all-powerful Barbarians and the +undermined Empire. He wanted to remain on good terms with both, and then, +when the hour came, to go over to the stronger. This double-faced diplomacy +caused his downfall. His rival Aetius accused him of high treason before +Placidia. The Court of Ravenna declared him an enemy of the Empire, and an +army was sent against him. Boniface did not hesitate; he went into open +rebellion against Rome. + +Augustin was thunderstruck by his desertion. But what way was there to make +this violent man listen to reason, who had at least the appearances of +right on his side, since there was a chance they had slandered him to the +Empress, and who thought it quite natural to take vengeance on his enemies? +His recent successes had still more intoxicated him. He had just defeated +the two generals who had been sent to reduce him, and he was accordingly +master of the situation in Africa. What was he going to do? The worst +resolutions were to be feared from this conqueror, all smarting, and hungry +for revenge.... Nevertheless, Augustin resolved to write to him. His letter +is a masterpiece of tact, of prudence, and also of Christian and episcopal +firmness. + +It would have been dangerous to declare to this triumphant rebel: "You are +in the wrong. Your duty is to submit to the Emperor, your master." Boniface +was quite capable of answering: "What are you interfering for? Politics are +no business of yours. Look after your Church!" This is why Augustin very +cleverly speaks to him from beginning to end of his letter simply as a +bishop, eager for the salvation of a very dear son in Jesus Christ. And so, +by keeping strictly to his office of spiritual director, he gained his end +more surely and entirely; and, as a doctor of souls, he ventured to remind +Boniface of certain truths which he would never have dared to mention as +counsellor. + +According to Augustin, the disgrace of the Count, and the evils which +this event had brought on Africa, came principally from his attachment to +worldly benefits. It was the ambition and covetousness of himself and his +followers which had done all the harm. Let him free himself from perishable +things, let him prevent the thefts and plundering of those under him. +Let him, who some time ago wished to live in perfect celibacy, now keep +at least to his wife and no other. Finally, let him remember his sworn +allegiance. Augustin did not mean to go into the quarrel between Boniface +and Placidia, and he gave no opinion as to the grievances of either. He +confined himself to saying to the general in rebellion: "If you have +received so many benefits from the Roman Empire, do not render evil for +good. If, on the other hand, you have received evil, do not render evil for +evil." + +It is clear that the Bishop of Hippo could scarcely have given any other +advice to the Count of Africa. To play the part of political counsellor +in the very entangled state of affairs was extremely risky. How was it +possible to exhort a victorious general to lay down his arms before +the conquered? And yet, in estimating the situation from the Christian +standpoint alone, Augustin had found a way to say everything essential, all +that could profitably be said at the moment. + +How did Boniface take a letter which was, in the circumstances, so +courageous? What we know is that he did not alter his plans. It would +indeed have been very difficult for him to withdraw and yield; and more +than ever since a new army under Sigisvultus had been sent against him in +all haste. A real fatality compelled him to remain in revolt against Rome. +Did he believe he was ruined, as has been stated, or else, through his +family connections--let us remember that his wife was a Barbarian--had he +been for a long time plotting with Genseric to divide Africa? He has been +accused of that. What comes out is, that as soon as he heard of the arrival +of Sigisvultus and the new expeditionary force, he called in the Vandals to +his aid. This was the great invasion of 429. + +Ere long, the Barbarians entered Numidia. The borderlands about Hippo were +threatened. Stricken with terror, the inhabitants in a mass fled before the +enemy, leaving the towns empty. Those who were caught in them rushed into +the churches, imploring the bishops and priests to help them. Or else, +giving up all hope of life, they cried out to be baptized, confessed, +did penance in public. The Vandals, as we have seen, aimed specially at +the clergy; they believed that the Catholic priests were the soul of the +resistance. Should not these priests, then, in the very interest of the +Church, save themselves for quieter times, and escape the persecution by +flight? Many sheltered themselves behind the words of Christ: "When they +persecute you in this city, flee ye into another." + +But Augustin strongly condemned the cowardliness of the deserters. In a +letter addressed to his fellow-bishop, Honoratus, and intended to be read +by all the clergy in Africa, he declares that bishops and priests should +not abandon their churches and dioceses, but stay at their post till the +end--till death and till martyrdom--to fulfil the duties of their ministry. +If the faithful were able to withdraw into a safe place, their pastors +might accompany them; if not, they should die in the midst of them. Thus +they would have at least the consolation of lending aid to the dying in +their last moments, and especially of preventing the apostasies which +readily took place under the shock of the terror. For Augustin, who foresaw +the future, the essential thing was that later, when the Vandal wave had +swept away, Catholicism might flourish again in Africa. To this end, the +Catholics must be made to remain in the country, and the greatest possible +number be strengthened in their faith. Otherwise, the work of three +centuries would have to be done all over again. + +We must admire this courage and clear-mindedness in an old man of +seventy-five, who was being continually harassed by the complaints and +lamentations of a crowd of demoralized fugitives. The position became more +and more critical. The siege lines were drawing closer. But in the midst of +all this dread, Augustin was given a gleam of hope: Boniface made his peace +with the Empire. Henceforward, his army, turning against the Barbarians, +might protect Hippo and perhaps save Africa. + +Had Augustin a hand in this reconciliation? There is not the least doubt +that he desired it most earnestly. In a letter to Count Darius, the +special envoy sent from Ravenna to treat with the rebel general, he warmly +congratulates the Imperial plenipotentiary on his mission of peace. "You +are sent," he said to him, "to stop the shedding of blood. Therefore +rejoice, illustrious and very dear son in Jesus Christ, rejoice in this +great and real blessing, and rejoice upon it in the Lord, Who has made you +what you are, and entrusted to you a task so beautiful and important. May +God seal the good work He has done for us through you!" ... And Darius +answered: "May you be spared to pray such prayers for the Empire and the +Roman State a long time yet, my Father." + +But the Empire was lost in Africa. If the reconciliation of the rebellious +Count had given some illusions to Augustin, they did not last long. +Boniface, having failed in his endeavours to negotiate the retreat of the +Vandals, was defeated by Genseric, and obliged to fall back into Hippo with +an army of mercenary Goths. Thus it came about that Barbarians held against +other Barbarians one of the last Roman citadels in Africa. From the end of +May, 430, Hippo was blockaded on the land side and on the side of the sea. + +In great tribulation, Augustin resigned himself to this supreme +humiliation, and to all the horrors which would have to be endured if the +city were captured. As a Christian, he left all to the will of God, and +he would repeat to those about him the words of the Psalm: "Righteous art +Thou, O Lord, and upright are Thy judgments." A number of fugitive priests, +and among them Possidius, Bishop of Guelma, had taken refuge in the +episcopal residence. One day, when he lost heart, Augustin, who was at +table with them, said: + +"In front of all these disasters, I ask God to deliver this city from the +siege, or, if that be not His decree, to give His servants the necessary +strength to do His will, or at least to take me from this world and receive +me into His bosom." + +But it is more than probable that discouragement of that kind was +only momentary with him, and that in his sermons, as well as in his +conversations with Boniface, he did his utmost to stimulate the courage of +the people and the general. His correspondence includes a series of letters +written about this time to the Count of Africa, which manifest here and +there a very warlike spirit. These letters are most certainly apocryphal. +Yet they do reveal something of what must have been the sentiments just +then of the people of Hippo and of Augustin himself. One of these letters +emphatically congratulates Boniface upon an advantage gained over the +Barbarians. + +"Your Excellency knows, I believe, that I am stretched upon my bed, and +that I long for my last day to come. I am overjoyed at your victory. I urge +you to save the Roman city. Rule your soldiers like a good Count. Do not +trust too much to your own strength. Put your glory in Him Who gives +courage, and you will never fear any enemy. Farewell!" + +The words do not matter much. Whatever may have been Augustin's last +farewell to the defender of Hippo, it was no doubt couched in language not +unlike this. In any case, posterity has wished to believe that the dying +bishop maintained to the end his unyielding demeanour face to face with the +Barbarians. It would be a misuse of words to represent him as a patriot +in the present sense of the term. It is no less true that this African, +this Christian, was an admirable servant of Rome. Until his death he kept +his respect for it, because in his eyes the Empire meant order, peace, +civilization, the unity of faith in the unity of rule. + + + + +IV + +SAINT AUGUSTIN + + +In the third month of the siege, he fell ill. He had a fever--no doubt an +infectious fever. The country people, the wounded soldiers who had taken +refuge in Hippo after the rout of Boniface, must have brought in the germs +of disease. It was, moreover, the end of August, the season of epidemics, +of damp heats and oppressive evenings, the time of the year most dangerous +and trying for sick people. + +All at once, Augustin took to his bed. But even there, upon the bed in +which he was going to die, he was not left in quiet. People came to ask his +prayers for some possessed by devils. The old bishop was touched; he wept +and asked God to give him this grace, and the devils went out of those poor +crazy men. This cure, as may well be thought, made a great noise in the +city. A man brought him another one sick to be healed. Augustin, being most +weary, said to the man: + +"My son, you see the state I am in. If I had any power over illnesses, I +should begin by curing myself." + +But the man had no idea of being put off: he had had a dream. A mysterious +voice had said to him, "Go and see Augustin: he will put his hands on the +sick person, who will rise up cured." And, in fact, he did. I think these +are the only miracles the saint made in his life. But what matters that, +when the continual miracle of his charity and his apostolate is considered? + +Soon the bishop's illness grew worse. Eventually, he succeeded in +persuading them not to disturb him any more, and that they would let him +prepare for death in silence and recollection. During the ten days that +he still lingered, nobody entered his cell save the physicians, and the +servants who brought him a little food. He availed himself of the quiet to +repent of his faults. For he was used to say to his clergy that "even after +baptism, Christians--nay, priests, however holy they might be, ought never +go out of life without having made a general confession." And the better +to rouse his contrition, he had desired them to copy out on leaves the +Penitential Psalms, and to put these leaves on the wall of his room. He +read them continually from his pillow. + +Here, then, he is alone with himself and God. A solemn moment for the great +old man! + +He called up his past life, and what struck him most, and saddened him, was +the foundering of all his human hopes. The enemies of the Church, whom he +had battled with almost without ceasing for forty years, and had reason to +believe conquered--all these enemies were raising their heads: Donatists, +Arians, Barbarians. With the Barbarians' help, the Arians were going to be +the masters of Africa. The churches, reformed at the price of such long +efforts, would be once more destroyed. And see now! the authority which +might have supported them, which he had perhaps too much relied upon--well, +the Empire was sinking too. It was the end of order, of substantial peace, +of that minimum of safety which is indispensable for all spiritual effort. +From one end to the other of the Western world, Barbarism triumphed. + +Sometimes, amid these sad thoughts of the dying man, the clangour of +clarions blared out--there was a call to arms on the ramparts. And these +musics came to him in his half-delirious state very mournfully, like the +trumpets proclaiming the Judgment Day. Yes, it might well be feared that +the Day of Wrath was here! Was it really the end of the world, or only the +end of a world?... Truly, there were then enough horrors and calamities to +make people think of the morrow with dismay. Many of the signs predicted +by Scripture dazed the imagination: desolations, wars, persecutions of the +Church, increased with terrific steadiness and cruelty. Yet all the signs +foretold were not there. How many times already had humanity been deceived +in its fear and its hope! In reality, though all seemed to shew that the +end of time was drawing nigh, no one could tell the day nor the hour of +the Judgment. Hence, men should watch always, according to the words of +Christ.... But if this trial of Barbarian war was to pass like the others, +how woeful it was while it endured! How hard for Augustin, above all, who +saw nearly the whole of his work thrown down. + +One thought at least consoled him, that since his conversion, for forty +years and more, he had done all he was able--he had worked for Christ +even beyond his strength. He said to himself that he left behind him the +fruit of a huge labour, a whole body of doctrine and apology which would +safeguard against error whatever was left of his flock and of the African +Church. He himself had founded a Church which might serve as an example, +his dear Church of Hippo, that he had done his best to fashion after the +divine plan. And he had also founded convents, and a library full of books, +which had become still larger recently through the generosity of Count +Darius. He had lessoned his clergy who, once the disasters were past, would +scatter the good seed of Truth. Books, monasteries, priests, a sure and +solid nourishment for the mind, shelters and guides for souls--there is +what he bequeathed to the workers of the future. And with a little joy +mingling with his sorrow, he read on the corner of the wall where his bed +was, this verse of the Psalm: _Exibit homo ad opus suum et operationem suam +usque ad vesperum_--"Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until +the evening." He, too, had worked until evening. + +If the earthly reward seemed to slip from him now, if all was sinking +around him, if his episcopal city was beleaguered, if he himself, although +still a strong man--"he had the use of all his limbs," says Possidius; +"a keen ear and perfect sight"--if he himself was dying too soon, it was +doubtless in expiation for the sins of his youth. At this remembrance of +his disorders, the tears fell over his face.... And yet, however wild had +been his conduct at that time, he could descry in it the sure marks of his +vocation. He recalled the despair and tears of his mother, but also his +enthusiasm when he read the _Hortensius_; his disgust for the world and +all things when he lost his friend. In the old man he recognized the new. +And he said to himself: "Nay! but that was myself. I have not changed. I +have only found myself. I have only changed my ways. In my youth, in the +strongest time of my mistakes, I had already risen to turn to Thee, my +God!" + +His worst foolishness had been the desire to understand all things. He had +failed in humility of mind. Then God had given him the grace to submit his +intelligence to the faith. He had believed, and then he had understood, as +well as he could, as much as he could. In the beginning, he acknowledged +very plainly that he did not understand. And then faith had thrown open +the roads of understanding. He had splendidly employed his reason, within +the limits laid down against mortal weakness. Had that not been the proud +desire of his youth? To understand! What greater destiny? + +To love also. After he had freed himself from carnal passions, he had much +employed his heart. He thought of all the charity he had poured out upon +his people and the Church, upon all he had loved in God--upon all he had +done, upon all the consequence of his labour, inspired and strengthened by +the divine love.... Yes, to love--all was in that! Let the Barbarians come! +Had not Christ said: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the +world"? So long as there shall be two men gathered together for love of +Him, the world will not be entirely lost, the Church and civilization will +be saved. The religion of Christ is a leaven of action, understanding, +sacrifice, and charity. If the world be not at this hour already condemned, +if the Day of Judgment be still far off, it is from this religion that +shall arise the new influences of the future.... + +And so Augustin forgot his sufferings and his human disappointments in +the thought that, in spite of all, the Church is eternal. The City of God +gathered in the wreckage of the earthly city: "The Goth cannot capture what +Christ protects"--_Non tollit Gothus quod custodit Christus_. And as his +sufferings increased, he turned all his thoughts on this unending City, +"where we rest, where we see, where we love," where we find again all the +beloved ones who have gone away. All--he called them all in this supreme +moment: Monnica, Adeodatus, and her who had nearly lost herself for him, +and all those he had held dear.... + +On the fifth day of the calends of September, Augustin, the bishop, +was very low. They were praying for him in the churches at Hippo, and +especially in the Basilica of Peace, where he had preached and worked for +others so long. Possidius of Guelma was in the bishop's room, and the +priests and monks. They sent up their prayers with those of the dying man. +And no doubt they sang for the last time before him one of those liturgical +chants which long ago at Milan had touched him even to tears, and now, +since the siege, in the panic caused by the Barbarians, they dared not sing +any more. Augustin, guarding himself even now against the too poignant +sweetness of the melody, attended only to the sense of the words. And he +said: + +"My soul thirsts after the living God. When shall I appear before His +face?" + +Or again: + +"He Who is Life has come down into this world. He has suffered our death, +and He has caused it to die by the fullness of His life.... Life has come +down to you--and will you not ascend towards Him and live?..." + +He was passing into Life and into Glory. He was going very quietly, amid +the chanting of hymns and the murmur of prayers.... Little by little his +eyes were veiled, the lines of his face became rigid. His lips moved no +more. Possidius, the faithful disciple, bent over him. Like a patriarch of +the Scriptures, Augustin of Thagaste "slept with his fathers."... + + * * * * * + +And now, whatever may be the worth of this book, which has been planned +and carried out in a spirit of veneration and love for the saint, for the +great heart and the great intellect that Augustin was, for this unique type +of the Christian, the most perfect and the most admirable perhaps that +has ever been seen--the author can only repeat in all humility what was +said fifteen hundred years ago by the Bishop of Guelma, Augustin's first +biographer: + +"I do desire of the charity of those into whose hands this work shall fall, +to join with me in thanksgiving and blessing to Our Lord, Who has inspired +me to make known this life to those present and those absent, and has given +me the strength to do it. Pray for me and with me, that I may try here +below to follow in the steps of this peerless man, whom, by God's goodness, +I have had the happiness of living with for such a long time...." + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Saint Augustin, by Louis Bertrand + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAINT AUGUSTIN *** + +***** This file should be named 9069.txt or 9069.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/0/6/9069/ + +Produced by Charles Aldorondo, Tiffany Vergon, William +Flis, and Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Saint Augustin + +Author: Louis Bertrand + +Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9069] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on September 2, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAINT AUGUSTIN *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldorondo, Tiffany Vergon, William Flis, +and Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +SAINT AUGUSTIN + +BY + +LOUIS BERTRAND + + +TRANSLATED BY VINCENT O'SULLIVAN + + + + +TRANSLATOR'S NOTE + + +The quotations from Saint Augustin's _Confessions_ are taken from Canon +Bigg's scholarly version, which seems to me the best in English. But there +are places where M. Bertrand's reading of the original text differs from +Dr. Bigg's, and in such cases I have felt myself obliged to follow the +author of this book. These differences never seriously affect the meaning +of a passage; sometimes it is a mere matter of choice, as with the word +_collactaneum_ (i, 7) which Dr. Bigg translates "twin," and M. Bertrand, +like Pusey, _frere de lait_, or "foster-brother." As a rule, Dr. Bigg +chooses the quietest terms, and M. Bertrand the most forcible. Those +curious in such matters may like to see an instance. + +The original text runs:-- + + Avulsa a latere meo tanquam impedimento conjugii, cum qua cubare + solitus eram, cor ubi adhaerebat, concisum et vulneratum mihi erat, et + trahebat sanguinem. + + (_Confessiones_, vi, 15.) + +M. Bertrand translates:-- + + Quand on arracha de mes flancs, sous pretexte qu'elle empechait mon + mariage, celle avec qui j'avais coutume de dormir, depuis si longtemps, + la ou mon coeur etait attache au sien, il se dechira, et je trainais + mon sang avec ma blessure. + +Canon Bigg's version is:-- + + My mistress was torn from my side as an obstacle to my marriage, and my + heart, which clung to her, was torn and wounded till it bled. + +In this place, it will be observed that Dr. Bigg does not emphasize the +word _ubi_ which, as the reader will find on turning to page 185 of this +volume, M. Bertrand thinks so significant. + +The remaining English versions of the writings of Saint Augustin and of the +other Latin authors quoted are my own, except the passages from _The City +of God_, including the verse translation of Persius, which are taken, +with some necessary alterations, from the Seventeenth century translation +ascribed to John Healey. + +V. O'S. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + PROLOGUE + + + THE FIRST PART + + DAYS OF CHILDHOOD + + I. AN AFRICAN FREE-TOWN SUBJECT TO ROME + + II. THE FAMILY OF A SAINT + + III. THE COMFORT OF THE MILK + + IV. THE FIRST GAMES + + V. THE SCHOOLBOY OF MADAURA + + VI. THE HOLIDAYS AT THAGASTE + + + THE SECOND PART + + THE ENCHANTMENT OF CARTHAGE + + I. CARTHAGO VENERIS + + II. THE AFRICAN ROME + + III. THE CARTHAGE STUDENT + + IV. THE SWEETNESS OF TEARS + + V. THE SILENCE OF GOD + + + THE THIRD PART + + THE RETURN + + I. THE CITY OF GOLD + + II. THE FINAL DISILLUSION + + III. THE MEETING BETWEEN AMBROSE AND AUGUSTIN + + IV. PLANS OF MARRIAGE + + V. THE CHRIST IN THE GARDEN + + + THE FOURTH PART + + THE HIDDEN LIFE + + I. THE LAST SMILE OF THE MUSE + + II. THE ECSTASY OF SAINT MONNICA + + III. THE MONK OF THAGASTE + + IV. AUGUSTIN A PRIEST + + + THE FIFTH PART + + THE APOSTLE OF PEACE AND OF CATHOLIC UNITY + + I. THE BISHOP OF HIPPO + + II. WHAT WAS HEARD IN THE BASILICA OF PEACE + + III. THE BISHOP'S BURTHEN + + IV. AGAINST "THE ROARING LIONS" + + + THE SIXTH PART + + FACE TO FACE WITH THE BARBARIANS + + I. THE SACK OF ROME + + II. THE CITY OF GOD + + III. THE BARBARIAN DESOLATION + + IV. SAINT AUGUSTIN + + + INDEX + + + + +SAINT AUGUSTIN + + + + +PROLOGUE + + + Inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te. + "Our heart finds no rest until it rests in Thee." + + _Confessions_, I, i. + + +Saint Augustin is now little more than a celebrated name. Outside of +learned or theological circles people no longer read him. Such is true +renown: we admire the saints, as we do great men, on trust. Even his +_Confessions_ are generally spoken of only from hearsay. By this neglect, +is he atoning for the renewal of glory in which he shone during the +seventeenth century, when the Jansenists, in their inveterate obstinacy, +identified him with the defence of their cause? The reputation of sour +austerity and of argumentative and tiresome prolixity which attaches to +the remembrance of all the writers of Port-Royal, save Pascal--has that +affected too the work of Augustin, enlisted in spite of himself in the +ranks of these pious schismatics? And yet, if there have ever been any +beings who do not resemble Augustin, and whom probably he would have +attacked with all his eloquence and all the force of his dialectic, they +are the Jansenists. Doubtless he would have said with contempt: "The party +of Jansen," even as in his own day, with his devotion to Catholic unity, he +said: "The party of Donatus." + +It must be acknowledged also that the very sight of his works is +terrifying, whether we take the enormous folios in two columns of the +Benedictine edition, or the volumes, almost as compact, and much more +numerous, of recent editions. Behind such a rampart of printed matter he is +well defended against profane curiosity. It needs courage and perseverance +to penetrate into this labyrinth of text, all bristling with theology and +exegesis and metaphysics. But only cross the threshold of the repellent +enclosure, grow used to the order and shape of the building, and it will +not be long ere you are overcome by a warm sympathy, and then by a steadily +increasing admiration for the host who dwells there. The hieratic face +of the old bishop lights up, becomes strangely living, almost modern, in +expression. You discover under the text one of the most passionate lives, +most busy and richest in instruction, that history has to shew. What it +teaches is applicable to ourselves, answers to our interests of yesterday +and to-day. This existence, and the century in which it was passed, recall +our own century and ourselves. The return of similar circumstances has +brought similar situations and characters; it is almost our portrait. And +we feel half ready to conclude that at the present moment there is no +subject more actual than St. Augustin. + +At least he is one of the most interesting. What, indeed, is more romantic +than this wandering life of rhetorician and student that the youthful +Augustin led, from Thagaste to Carthage, from Carthage to Milan and to +Rome--begun in the pleasures and tumult of great cities, and ending in the +penitence, the silence, and recollection of a monastery? And again, what +drama is more full of colour and more profitable to consider than that last +agony of the Empire, of which Augustin was a spectator, and, with all his +heart faithful to Rome, would have prevented if he could? And then, what +tragedy more stirring and painful than the crisis of soul and conscience +which tore his life? Well may it be said that, regarded as a whole, the +life of Augustin was but a continual spiritual struggle, a battle of the +soul. It is the battle of every moment, the never-ceasing combat of body +and spirit, which the poets of that time dramatized, and which is the +history of the Christian of all times. The stake of the battle is a soul. +The upshot is the final triumph, the redemption of a soul. + +What makes the life of Augustin so complete and so truly typical is that +he fought the good fight, not only against himself, but against all the +enemies of the Church and the Empire. If he was a doctor and a saint, so +was he too the type of the man of action in one of the most disheartened +periods. That he triumphed over his passions--this, in truth, concerns only +God and himself. That he preached, wrote, shook crowds, disturbed minds, +may seem without importance to those who reject his doctrine. But that +across the centuries his soul, afire with charity, continues to warm our +own; that without our knowledge he still shapes us; and that, in a way +more or less remote, he is still the master of our hearts, and, in certain +aspects, of our minds--there is what touches each and all of us, without +distinction. Not only has Augustin always his great place in the living +communion of all christened people, but the Western soul is marked with the +stamp of his soul. + +First of all, his fate is confused with that of the dying Empire. He +witnessed, if not the utter disappearance, at least the gradual swooning +away of that admirable thing called the Roman Empire, image of Catholic +unity. Well, we are the wreckage of the Empire. Usually, we turn away with +contempt from those wretched centuries which underwent the descents of the +Barbarians. For us, that is the Lower-Empire, a time of shameful decadence +which deserves nothing but our scorn. However, it is out of this chaos +and this degradation that we have arisen. The wars of the Roman republic +concern us less than the outlawry of the Barbarian chiefs who separated our +Gaul from the Empire, and without knowing it, prepared the dawn of France. +After all, what are the rivalries of Marius and Sylla to us? The victory of +Aetius over the Huns in the plains of Chalons concerns us a good deal more. +Further, it is unfair to the Lower-Empire to view it only as a time of +feebleness and cowardice and corruption. It was also an epoch of immense +activity, prolific of daring and high-flying adventurers, some of them +heroic. Even the most degenerate of the last Emperors never lost the +conviction of Roman majesty and grandeur. Unto the very end, they employed +all the ruses of their diplomacy to prevent the Barbarian chiefs from +imagining themselves anything else but vassals of the Empire. Honorius, at +bay in Ravenna, persisted in refusing Alaric the title of commander of the +_Cohortes Urbanae_, even though his refusal were to lead to the sack of Rome +and imperil his own life. + +Simply by his fidelity to the Empire, Augustin shews himself one like +ourselves--a Latin of Occitania. But still closer resemblances draw him +near to us. His time was very like our own time. Upon even a slight +familiarity with his books we recognize in him a brother-soul who has +suffered, felt, thought, pretty nearly like us. He came into an ending +world, on the eve of the great cataclysm which was going to carry away an +entire civilization--a tragic turning-point of history, a time troubled and +often very grievous, which was hard to live in for all, and to even the +most determined minds must have appeared desperate. The peace of the Church +was not yet settled; consciences were divided. People hesitated between the +belief of yesterday and the belief of to-morrow. Augustin was among those +who had the courage to choose, and who, having once chosen their faith, +proclaimed it without weakening. The belief of a thousand years was dying +out, quenched by a young belief to which was promised an eternal duration. +How many delicate souls must have suffered from this division, which cut +them off from their traditions and obliged them, as they thought, to be +false to their dead along with the religion of their ancestors! All the +irritations which the fanatics of to-day inflict upon believing souls, many +must have had to suffer then. The sceptics were infused by the intolerance +of the others. But the worst (even as it is to-day) was to watch the +torrent of foolishness which, under cover of religion, philosophy, or +miracle-working, pretended to the conquest of mind and will. Amid this mass +of wildest doctrines and heresies, in this orgy of vapid intellectualism, +they had indeed solid heads who were able to resist the general +intoxication. And among all these people talking nonsense, Augustin appears +admirable with his good sense. + +This "intellectual," this mystic, was not only a man of prayer and +meditation. The prudence of the man of action and the administrator +balanced his outbursts of dialectical subtility, often carried too far. He +had that sense of realities such as we flatter ourselves that we have; he +had a knowledge of life and passion. Compared to the experience of, say, +Bossuet, how much wider was Augustin's! And with all that, a quivering +sensitiveness which is again like our own--the sensitiveness of times of +intense culture, wherein the abuse of thought has multiplied the ways of +suffering in exasperating the desire for pleasure. "The soul of antiquity +was rude and vain." It was, above all, limited. The soul of Augustin is +tender and serious, eager for certainties and those enjoyments which do +not betray. It is vast and sonorous; let it be stirred ever so little, and +from it go forth deep vibrations which render the sound of the infinite. +Augustin, before his conversion, had the apprehensions of our Romantics, +the causeless melancholy and sadness, the immense yearnings for "anywhere +but here," which overwhelmed our fathers. He is really very close to us. + +He has broadened our Latin souls by reconciling us with the Barbarian. The +Latin, like the Greek, only understood himself. The Barbarian had not the +right to express himself in the language of the Empire. The world was split +into two parts which endeavoured to ignore each other, Augustin has made us +conscious of the nameless regions, the vague countries of the soul, which +hitherto had lain shrouded in the darkness of barbarism. By him the union +of the Semitic and the Occidental genius is consummated. He has acted as +our interpreter for the Bible. The harsh Hebraic words become soft to our +ears by their passage through the cultivated mouth of the rhetorician. He +has subjugated us with the word of God. He is a Latin who speaks to us of +Jehovah. + +Others, no doubt, had done it before him. But none had found a similar +emotion, a note of tenderness so moving. The gentle violence of his charity +wins the adherence of hearts. He breathes only charity. After St. John, it +is he who is the Apostle of Love. + +His tireless voice dominated the whole of the West. The Middle Ages still +heard it. For centuries his sermons and treatises were copied over and +over again; they were repeated in cathedrals, commented in abstracts of +theology. People came to accept even his theory of the fine arts. All that +we have inherited from the ancients reaches us through Augustin. He is the +great teacher. In his hands the doctrinal demonstration of the Catholic +religion takes firm shape. To indicate the three great stages of the onward +march of the truth, one may say: Jesus Christ, St. Paul, St. Augustin. +Nearest to our weakness is the last. He is truly our spiritual father. He +has taught us the language of prayer. The words of Augustin's prayers are +still upon the lips of the devout. + +This universal genius, who during forty years was the speaking-trumpet of +Christendom, was also the man of one special century and country. Augustin +of Thagaste is the great African. + +Well may we be proud of him and adopt him as one of our glories--we who +have kept up, for now almost a century, a struggle like to that which +he maintained for the unity of the Roman Empire, we who consider Africa +as an extension of France. More than any other writer, he has expressed +the temperament and the genius of his country. This motley Africa, with +its eternal mixture of races at odds with one another, its jealous +sectarianism, the variety of its scenery and climate, the violence +of its sensations and passions, its seriousness of character and its +quick-changing humour, its mind at once practical and frivolous, its +materialism and its mysticism, its austerity and its luxury, its +resignation to servitude and its instincts of independence, its hunger +to rule--all that comes out with singularly vivid touches in the work of +Augustin. Not only was he his country's voice, but, as far as he could, he +realized its old dream of dominion. The supremacy in spiritual matters that +Carthage disputed so long and bitterly with Rome, it ended by obtaining, +thanks to Augustin. As long as he lived, the African Church was the +mistress of the Churches of the West. + +As for me--if I may venture to refer to myself in such a matter--I have had +the joy to recognize in him, besides the Saint and Teacher whom I revere, +the ideal type of the Latin of Africa. The image of which I descried the +outline long ago through the mirages of the South in following the waggons +of my rugged heroes, I have seen at last become definite, grow clear, wax +noble and increase to the very heaven, in following the traces of Augustin. + +And even supposing that the life of this child of Thagaste, the son of +Monnica, were not intermingled so deeply with ours, though he were for us +only a foreigner born in a far-off land, nevertheless he would still remain +one of the most fascinating and luminous souls who have shone amid our +darkness and warmed our sadness--one of the most human and most divine +creatures who have trod our highways. + + + + +THE FIRST PART + +DAYS OF CHILDHOOD + + Sed delectabat ludere. + "Only, I liked to play." + + _Confessions_, I, 9. + + + + +I + +AN AFRICAN FREE-TOWN SUBJECT TO ROME + + +Little streets, quite white, which climb up to clay-formed hills deeply +furrowed by the heavy winter rains; between the double row of houses, +brilliant in the morning sun, glimpses of sky of a very tender blue; here +and there, in the strip of deep shade which lies along the thresholds, +white figures crouched upon rush-mats--indolent outlines, draped with +bright colours, or muffled in rough and sombre wool-stuffs; a horseman who +passes, bent almost in two in his saddle, the big hat of the South flung +back over his shoulders, and encouraging with his heel the graceful trot of +his horse--such is Thagaste as we see it to-day, and such undoubtedly it +appeared to the traveller in the days of Augustin. + +Like the French town built upon its ruins, the African free-city lay in a +sort of plain taken between three round hills. One of them, the highest +one, which is now protected by a _bordj_, must have been defended in old +days by a _castellum_. Full-flowing waters moisten the land. To those +coming from the stony regions about Constantine and Setif, or the vast bare +plain of the Medjerda, Thagaste gives an impression of freshness and cool. +It is a laughing place, full of greenery and running water. To the Africans +it offers a picture of those northern countries which they have never seen, +with its wooded mountains covered by pines and cork trees and ilex. It +presents itself as a land of mountain and forest--especially forest. It is +a hunter's country. Game is plentiful there--boar, hare, redwing, quail, +partridge. In Augustin's time, wild beasts were apparently more numerous in +the district than they are to-day. When he compares his adversaries, the +Donatists, to roaring lions, he speaks like a man who knows what a lion is. + +To the east and west, wide stretches of woodland, rounded hill-summits, +streams and torrents which pour through the valleys and glens--there +you have Thagaste and the country round about--the world, in fact, as +it revealed itself to the eyes of the child Augustin. But towards the +south the verdure grows sparse; arid mountain-tops appear, crushed down +as blunted cones, or jutted in slim Tables of the Law; the sterility +of the desert becomes perceptible amid the wealth of vegetation. This +full-foliaged land has its harsh and stern localities. The African light, +however, softens all that. The deep green of the oaks and pines runs into +waves of warm and ever-altering tints which are a caress and a delight for +the eye. A man has it thoroughly brought home to him that he is in a land +of the sun. + +To say the least, it is a country of strongly marked features which affords +the strangest contrast with the surrounding districts. This wooded Numidia, +with its flowing brooks, its fields where the cattle graze, differs in the +highest degree from the Numidia towards Setif--a wide, desolate plain, +where the stubble of the wheat-fields, the sandy _steppes_, roll away in +monotonous undulations to the cloudy barrier of Mount Atlas which closes +the horizon. And this rough and melancholy plain in its turn offers a +striking contrast with the coast region of Boujeiah and Hippo, which is not +unlike the Italian Campania in its mellowness and gaiety. Such clear-cut +differences between the various parts of the same province doubtless +explain the essential peculiarities of the Numidian character. The bishop +Augustin, who carried his pastoral cross from one end to the other of this +country, and was its acting and thinking soul, may perhaps have owed to it +the contrasts and many-sidedness of his own rich nature. + +Of course, Thagaste did not pretend to be a capital. It was a free-town of +the second or third order; but its distance from the great centres gave it +a certain importance. The neighbouring free-towns, Thubursicum, Thagura, +were small. Madaura and Theveste, rather larger, had not perhaps the same +commercial importance. Thagaste was placed at the junction of many Roman +roads. There the little Augustin, with other children of his age, would +have a chance to admire the out-riders and equipages of the Imperial +Mail, halted before the inns of the town. What we can be sure of is that +Thagaste, then as now, was a town of passage and of traffic, a half-way +stopping-place for the southern and coast towns, as well as for those of +the Proconsulate and Numidia. And like the present Souk-Ahras, Thagaste +must have been above all a market. Bread-stuffs and Numidian wines were +bartered for the flocks of the Aures, leather, dates, and the esparto +basket-work of the regions of Sahara. The marbles of Simitthu, the +citron-wood of which they made precious tables, were doubtless handled +there. The neighbouring forests could furnish building materials to the +whole country. Thagaste was the great mart of woodland Numidia, the +warehouse and the bazaar, where to this day the nomad comes to lay in a +stock of provisions, and stares with childish delight at the fine things +produced by the inventive talent of the workers who live in towns. + +Thus images of plenty and joy surrounded the cradle of Augustin. The smile +of Latin beauty welcomed him also from his earliest steps. It is true that +Thagaste was not what is called a fine city. The fragments of antiquity +which have been unearthed there are of rather inferior workmanship. But how +little is needed to give wings to the imagination of an intelligent child! +At all events, Thagaste had a bathing-hall paved with mosaics and perhaps +ornamented with statues; Augustin used to bathe there with his father. +And again, it is probable that, like the neighbouring Thubursicum and +other free-cities of the same level, it had its theatre, its forum, its +nymph-fountains, perhaps even its amphitheatre. Of all that nothing +has been found. Certain inscribed stone tablets, capitals and shafts +of columns, a stone with an inscription which belonged to a Catholic +church--that is all which has been discovered up to this present time. + +Let us not ask for the impossible. Thagaste had columns--nay, perhaps a +whole street between a double range of columns, as at Thimgad. That would +be quite enough to delight the eyes of a little wondering boy. A column, +even injured, or scarcely cleansed from wrack and rubbish, has about it +something impressive. It is like a free melody singing among the heavy +masses of the building. To this hour, in our Algerian villages, the mere +sight of a broken column entrances and cheers us--a white ghost of beauty +streaming up from the ruins among the modern hovels. + +There were columns at Thagaste. + + + + +II + +THE FAMILY OF A SAINT + + +It was in this pleasant little town, shaded and beautified for many years +now by the arts of Rome, that the parents of Augustin lived. + +His father, Patricius, affords us a good enough type of the Romanized +African. He belonged to the order of _Decuriones_, to the "very brilliant +urban council of Thagaste" (_splendidissimus ordo Thagastensis_), as an +inscription at Souk-Ahras puts it. Although these strong epithets may be +said to be part of the ordinary official phraseology, they indicate, just +the same, the importance which went with such a position. In his township, +Patricius was a kind of personage. His son assures us that he was poor, but +we may suspect the holy bishop of exaggerating through Christian humility. +Patricius must certainly have owned more than twenty-five acres of land, +for this was made a condition of being elected to the _curia_. He had +vineyards and orchards, of which Augustin later on recalled the plentiful +and sweet-tasting fruits. In short, he lived in considerable style. It +is true that in Africa household expenses have never at any time been a +great extravagance. Still, the sons of Patricius had a pedagogue, a slave +specially engaged to keep them under his eye, like all the children of +families comfortably off. + +It has been said that as Augustin's father was a member of the _curia_, +he must have been a ruined man. The Decurions, who levied taxes and made +themselves responsible for their collection, were obliged to supply any +deficiency in the revenue out of their own money. Patricius, it is thought, +must have been one of the numerous victims of this disastrous system. But +no doubt there were a good many exceptions. Besides, there is nothing in +Augustin's reminiscences which authorizes us to believe that his father +ever knew embarrassment, to say nothing of actual poverty. What seems by +far the most probable is that he lived as well as he could upon the income +of his estate as a small country landowner. In Africa people are satisfied +with very little. Save for an unusually bad year following a time of long +drought, or a descent of locusts, the land always gives forth enough to +feed its master. + +To hunt, to ride horseback, now and then to go on parade, to look after +his small-holders and agricultural slaves, to drive one of those bargains +in which African cunning triumphs--such were the employments of Patricius. +In short, he drifted through life on his little demesne. Sometimes this +indolent man was overcome by a sudden passion for work; or again he was +seized by furious rages. He was violent and brutal. At such moments he +struck out right and left. He would even have hit his wife or flogged the +skin off her back if the quietude of this woman, her dignity and Christian +mildness, had not overawed him. Let us not judge this kind of conduct by +our own; we shall never understand it. The ancient customs, especially the +African customs, were a disconcerting mixture of intense refinement and +heedless brutality. + +That is why it will not do to exaggerate the outbursts of Patricius, which +his son mentions discreetly. Although he may not have been very faithful to +his wife, that was in those days, more than in ours, a venial sin in the +eyes of the world. At heart the African has always longed for a harem in +his house; he inclines naturally to the polygamy of Muslemism. In Carthage, +and elsewhere, public opinion was full of indulgence for the husband who +allowed himself liberties with the serving-women. People laughed at it, and +excused the man. It is true they were rather harder on the matron who took +the same kind of liberty with her men-slaves. However, that went on too. +The Bishop of Hippo, in his sermons, strongly rebuked the Christian married +couples for these frequent adulteries which were scarcely regarded as +errors. + +Patricius was a pagan, and this partly explains his laxity. It would +doubtless be going too far to say that he remained faithful to paganism +all his life. It is not likely that this urban councillor of Thagaste was +a particularly assured pagan. Speculative and intellectual considerations +made a very moderate appeal to him. He was not an arguer like his son. He +was pagan from habit, from that instinctive conservatism of the citizen +and landowner who sticks obstinately to his class and family traditions. +Prudence and diplomacy had also something to do with it. Many great +landlords continued to defend and practise paganism, probably from motives +similar to those of Patricius himself. As for him, he had no desire to get +wrong with the important and influential people of the country; he might +have need of their protection to save his small property from the ravenous +public treasury. Moreover, the best-paid posts were still controlled by the +pagan priesthood. And so Augustin's father thought himself very wise in +dealing cautiously with a religion which was always so powerful, and +rewarded its adherents so well. + +But for all that, it is undeniable that paganism about this time was in an +awkward position from a political point of view. The Government eyed it +with disapproval. Since the death of Constantine, the "accursed emperors" +had waged against it a furious war. In 353, just before the birth of +Augustin, Constantius promulgated an edict renewing the order for the +closing of the temples and the abolition of sacrifices--and that too under +pain of death and confiscation. But in distant provinces, such as Numidia, +the action of the central power was slow and irregular. It was often +represented by officials who were hostile or indifferent to Christianity. +The local aristocracy and their following scoffed at it more or less +openly. In their immense villas, behind the walls of their parks, the rich +landowners offered sacrifices and organized processions and feasts as +if there were no law at all. Patricius knew all that. And, on the other +side, he could take note of the encroachments of the new religion. During +the first half of the fourth century Thagaste had been conquered by the +Donatists. Since the edict of Constans against these schismatics, the +inhabitants of the little city had come back to Catholicism out of fear of +the severity of the imperial government. But the settlement was far from +being complete and final. As a consequence of the edict, the whole region +of the Aures had been in revolution. The Bishop of Bagai, fortified in +his episcopal city and basilica, had stood an actual siege from the Roman +troops. Almost everywhere the struggle between Donatists and Catholics +still went on below the surface. There cannot be the least doubt that +Thagaste took its share in these quarrels. To those who urged him to be +baptized, the father of Augustin might well answer with ironic politeness: +"I am only waiting till you agree among yourselves, to see where the truth +lies." In his heart this rather lukewarm pagan had no inveterate dislike to +Christianity. + +What proves it at once is that he married a Christian. + +How did Monnica become the wife of Patricius? How did these two beings, so +little alike, between whom there was such a great difference of age, not to +mention all the rest, come to join their fate? Those are questions which +it would never have occurred to the people of Thagaste to ask. Patricius +married to be like everybody else--and also because he was well over forty, +and his mother an old woman who would soon be no longer able to run his +house. + +Monnica also had her mother. The two old women had a meeting, with many +politenesses and ceremonious bowings, and because the thing appeared to +them reasonable and most suitable, they settled the marriage. Had Patricius +ever seen the girl that he was going to take, according to custom, so as to +have a child-bearer and housewife? It is quite likely he had not. Was she +pretty, rich, or poor? He considered such matters as secondary, since the +marriage was not a love-match but a traditional duty to fulfil. If the +union was respectable, that was quite enough. But however the matter fell +out, what is certain is that Monnica was very young. She was twenty-two +when Augustin was born, and he was probably not her first child. We know +that she was hardly marriageable when she was handed over, as Arab parents +do to-day with their adolescent or little girls, to the man who was going +to marry her. Now in Africa girls become marriageable at a very early age. +They are married at fourteen, sometimes even at twelve. Perhaps she was +seventeen or eighteen at most when she married Patricius. She must have had +first a son, Navigius, whom we shall meet later on at Milan, and also a +daughter, of whom we do not even know the name, but who became a nun, and +superior of a convent in the diocese of Hippo. For us the features of these +two other children of Monnica and Patricius are obliterated. They are +concealed by the radiance of their illustrious great brother. + +Monnica was fond of telling stories of her girlhood to her son. He has +handed down some of them to us. + +She was brought up strictly, according to the system of that time. Both her +parents came of families which had been Christian, and Catholic-Christian, +for many generations. They had never been carried away by the Donatist +schism; they were people very obstinate in their convictions--a character +quite as frequent in Africa as its opposite, the kind of Numidian or Moor, +who is versatile and flighty. It is not unimportant that Augustin came from +this hard-headed race, for this it was, with the aid of God's grace, that +saved him--the energetic temper of his will. + +Still, if the faith of the young Monnica was confirmed from her earliest +years, it is not so much to the lessons of her mother that she owed it, +as to the training of an old woman-servant of whom she always spoke with +gratitude. In the family of her master, this old woman had a place like the +one which to-day in a Turkish family is held by the nurse, the _dada_, who +is respected by all the harem and all the household. Doubtless she herself +was born in the house and had seen all the children born. She had carried +Monnica's father on her back when he was little, just as the Kabylian +women or the Bedouin nomads carry their babies still. She was a devoted +slave, just a bit unreasonable--a veritable housedog who in the zeal of +guardianship barks more than is necessary at the stranger who passes. She +was like the negress in the Arab houses to-day, who is often a better +Muslem, more hostile to the Christian, than her employers. The old woman +in Monnica's family had witnessed the last persecutions; she had perhaps +visited the confessors in prison; perhaps she had seen flow the blood of +the martyrs. These exciting and terrible scenes would have been graven on +her memory. What inflamed stories the old servant must have told her young +mistresses, what vital lessons of constancy and heroism! Monnica listened +to them eagerly. + +Because of her great faith, this simple slave was revered as a saint by +her owners, who entrusted her with the supervision of their daughters. She +proved a stern governess, who would stand no trifling with her rules. She +prevented these girls from drinking even water except at meals. Cruel +suffering for little Africans! Thagaste is not far from the country of +thirst. But the old woman said to them: + +"You drink water now because you can't get at the wine. In time to come, +when you are married and have bins and cellars of your own, you'll turn up +your nose at water, and your habit of drinking will be too much for you." + +Monnica came near fulfilling the prophecy of the honest woman. It was +before she was married. As she was very well-behaved and very temperate, +she used to be sent to the cellar to draw the wine from the cask. Before +pouring it into the flagon she would sip just a little. Being unaccustomed +to wine, she was not able to drink more; it was too strong for her gullet. +She did this, not because she liked the wine, but from naughtiness, to play +a trick on her parents who trusted her, and also, of course, because it was +prohibited. Each time she swallowed a little more, and so it went on till +she ended by finding it rather nice, and came to drinking greedily one +cup after another. One day a slave-girl, who went with her to the cellar, +began to grumble. Monnica gave her a sharp answer. Upon this the girl +called Monnica a drunkard.... Drunkard! This bitter taunt so humiliated the +self-respect of the future saint, that she got the better of her taste for +drink. Augustin does not say it was through piety she did this, but because +she felt the ugliness of such a vice. + +There is a certain roughness in this story of childhood, the roughness of +ancient customs, with which is always mingled some decency or dignity. +Christianity did the work of polishing the soul of Monnica. At the time we +are dealing with, if she was already a very devout young girl, she was far +as yet from being the grand Christian that she became afterwards. + +When she married Patricius she was a girl very reserved and cold to all +appearances (in reality, she was very passionate), precise in attending to +her religious duties, even a little strict, with her exaggeration of the +Christian austerity in her hate of all the brutalities and all the careless +morals that paganism condoned. Nevertheless, this rigid soul knew how to +bend when it was necessary. Monnica had tact, suppleness, and, when it +was needed, a very acute and very reasonable practical sense of which she +gave many a proof in the bringing up and management of her son Augustin. +This soul, hard for herself, veiled her uncompromising religion under an +unchangeable sweetness which was in her rather the work of grace than a +natural gift. + +There can be little doubt that her behaviour and character greatly +disturbed Patricius at the beginning of their married life. Perhaps he +regretted the marriage. What use had he for this nun alongside of him! +Both of them must have suffered the usual annoyances which always appeared +before long in unions of this kind between pagan and Christian. True, it +was no longer the time of Tertullian, the heroic century of persecutions, +when the Christian women glided into the prisons to kiss the shackles of +the martyrs. (What a revenge did woman take then for her long and enforced +confinement to the women's apartments! And how outrageous such conduct must +have seemed to a husband brought up in the Roman way!) But the practices +of the Christian life established a kind of intermittent divorce between +husbands and wives of different religion. Monnica often went out, either +alone, or accompanied by a faithful bondwoman. She had to attend the +services of the Church, to go about the town visiting the poor and giving +alms. And there were the fast-days which occurred two or three times a +week, and especially the long fast of Lent--a grievous nuisance when the +husband wanted to give a dinner-party just on those particular days! On +the vigil of festivals, Monnica would spend a good part of the night in +the Basilica. Regularly, doubtless on Sundays, she betook herself to the +cemetery, or to some chapel raised to the memory of a martyr who was often +buried there--in fact, they called these chapels "Memorials" (_memoriae_). + +There were many of these chapels--even too many in the opinion of austere +Christians. Monnica went from one to another carrying in a large basket +made of willow branches some pieces of minced meat, bread, and wine mixed +with water. She met her friends in these places. They would sit down around +the tombs, of which some were shaped like tables, unpack the provisions, +and eat and drink piously in honour of the martyr. This was a residue +of pagan superstition among the Christians. These pious _agapae_, or +love-feasts, often turned into disgusting orgies. When Augustin became +Bishop of Hippo he had considerable trouble to get his people out of the +habit of them. Notwithstanding his efforts, the tradition still lasts. +Every Friday the Muslem women keep up the custom of visiting the cemeteries +and the marabouts. Just as in the time of St. Monnica, they sit around the +tombs, so cool with their casing of painted tiles, in the shade of the +cypress and eucalyptus. They gobble sweetmeats, they gossip, they laugh, +they enjoy themselves--the husbands are not there. + +Monnica made these visits in a really pious state of mind, and was far +from trying to find in them opportunities for lewdness or carouse. She was +content to drink a little wine very carefully--she always bore in mind her +youthful sin. Besides, this wine weakened with water that she brought from +the house, was tepid by the time she reached the cemetery; it would be a +drink of very moderate relish, little likely to stimulate the senses. She +distributed what was left of it among the needy, together with the contents +of her basket, and came back modestly to her house. + +But however staid and reserved she might be, still these outings gave rise +to scandalous talk. They annoyed a suspicious husband. All the Africans are +that. Marital jealousy was not invented by Islam. Moreover, in Monnica's +time men and women took part in these funeral love-feasts and mingled +together disturbingly. Patricius got cross about it, and about a good many +other things too. His old mother chafed his suspicions by carrying to +him the ugly gossip and even the lies of the servants about his wife. By +dint of patience and mildness and attentions, Monnica ended by disarming +her mother-in-law and making it clear that her conduct was perfect. The +old woman flew into a rage with the servants who had lied to her, and +denounced them to her son. Patricius, like a good head of a household, had +them whipped to teach them not to lie any more. Thanks to this exemplary +punishment, and the good sense of the young wife, peace reigned once more +in the family. + +Women, friends of Monnica, were amazed that the good understanding was +not oftener upset, at least in an open manner, between husband and wife. +Everybody in Thagaste knew the quick-tempered and violent character of +Patricius. And yet there were no signs that he beat his wife. Nor did +any one say he did. Other women who had less passionate husbands were +nevertheless beaten by them. When they came to Monnica's house they shewed +her the marks of the whacks they had got, their faces swollen from blows, +and they burst out in abuse of men, clamouring against their lechery, +which, said these matrons, was the cause of the ill-treatment they had to +endure. + +"Blame your own tongue," retorted Monnica. + +According to her, women should close their eyes to the infidelities of +their husbands and avoid arguing with them when they were angry. Silence, +submissiveness, were the all-powerful arms. And since, as a young woman, +she had a certain natural merriment, she added, laughing: + +"Remember what was read to you on your wedding-day. You were told that you +are the handmaids of your husbands. Don't rebel against your masters!..." + +Possibly this was a keen criticism of the pagan code, so hard in its rules. +Still, in this matter, the Roman law was in agreement with the Gospel. +Sincere Christian as she was, the wife of Patricius never had any quarrel +with him on account of his infidelities. So much kindness and resignation +touched the dissolute and brutal husband, who besides was an excellent +man and warm-hearted. The modesty of his wife, after a while, made her +attractive in his eyes. He loved her, so to speak, on the strength of +his respect and admiration for her. He would indeed have been a churl to +find fault with a wife who interfered with him so little and who was a +perfect housekeeper, as we shall see later on when we come to her life at +Cassicium. In one point, where even she did not intend it, she forwarded +the interests of her husband by gaining him the good-will of the Christians +in Thagaste; while he, on his side, could say to the pagans who looked +askance at his marriage: "Am I not one of yourselves?" + +In spite of all the differences between him and Monnica, Patricius was a +contented husband. + + + + +III + +THE COMFORT OF THE MILK + + +Augustin came into this world the thirteenth of November of the year of +Christ 354. + +It was just one little child more in this sensual and pleasure-loving +Africa, land of sin and of carnal productiveness, where children are +born and die like the leaves. But the son of Monnica and Patricius was +predestined: he was not to die in the cradle like so many other tiny +Africans. + +Even if he had not been intended for great things, if he had been only a +head in the crowd, the arrival of this baby ought, all the same, to affect +us, for to the Christian, the destiny of the obscurest and humblest of +souls is a matter of importance. Forty years afterwards, Augustin, in his +_Confessions_, pondered this slight ordinary fact of his birth, which +happened almost unnoticed by the inhabitants of Thagaste, and in truth it +seems to him a great event, not because it concerns himself, bishop and +Father of the Church, but because it is a soul which at this imperceptible +point of time comes into the world. + +Let us clearly understand Augustin's thought. Souls have been ransomed by a +Victim of infinite value. They have themselves an infinite value. Nothing +which goes on in them can be ignored. Their most trifling sins, their +feeblest stirrings towards virtue, are vital for the eternity of their lot. +All shall be attributed to them by the just Judge. The theft of an apple +will weigh perhaps as heavily in the scales as the seizure of a province +or a kingdom. The evil of sin is in the evil intention. Now the fate +of a soul, created by God, on Him depends. Hence everything in a human +life assumes an extreme seriousness and importance. In the history of a +creature, all is worthy of being examined, weighed, studied, and perhaps +also, for the edification of others, told. + +Here is an altogether new way of regarding life, and, proceeding from that, +of understanding art. Even as the slaves, thanks to Christianity, came into +the spiritual city, so the most minute realities by this outlook are to be +included in literature. The _Confessions_ will be the first model of the +art of the new era. A deep and magnificent realism, because it goes even +to the very depths of the divine--utterly distinct, at any rate, from +our surface realism of mere amusement--is about to arise from this new +conception. Without doubt, in Augustin's eyes, beauty dwells in all things, +in so far forth as beauty is a reflection of the order and the thought +of the Word. But it has also a more essential character--it has a moral +signification and value. Everything, in a word, can be the instrument of +the loss or the redemption of a soul. The most insignificant of our actions +reverberates to infinitude on our fate. Regarded from this point, both +things and beings commence to live a life more closely leagued together and +at the same time more private; more individual and more general. All is in +the lump, and nevertheless all is separate. Our salvation concerns only +ourselves, and yet through charity it becomes involved with the salvation +of our fellows. + +In this spirit let us look at the cradle of Augustin. Let us look at it +with the eyes of Augustin himself, and also, perchance, of Monnica. Bending +over the frail body of the little child he once was, he puts to himself +all the great desperate questions which have shaken humanity for thousands +of years. The mystery of life and death rises before him, formidable. It +tortures him to the point of anguish, of confusion: "Yet suffer me to speak +before Thy mercy, me who am but dust and ashes. Yea, suffer me to speak, +for, behold, I speak not to man who scorns me, but to Thy mercy. Even Thou +perhaps dost scorn me, but Thou wilt turn and have pity. For what is it +that I would say, O Lord my God, save that I know not whence I came hither +into this dying life, shall I call it, or living death?... And, lo, my +infancy has long been dead, and I live. But Thou, O Lord, who ever livest +and in whom nothing ever dies--tell me, I beseech Thee, O God, and have +mercy on my misery, tell me whether another life of mine died before my +infancy began." + +One is reminded here of Pascal's famous prosopopoeia: "I know not who +has put me into the world, nor what the world is, nor myself. I am in a +terrible ignorance about everything.... All I know is that I must soon die, +but what I know least of all is this very death which I cannot escape." + +The phrases of the _Pensees_ are only the echo of the phrases of the +_Confessions_. But how different is the tone! Pascal's charge against human +ignorance is merciless. The God of Port-Royal has the hard and motionless +face of the ancient Destiny: He withdraws into the clouds, and only shews +Himself at the end to raise up His poor creature. In Augustin the accent +is tender, trusting, really like a son, and though he be harassed, one can +discern the thrill of an unconquerable hope. Instead of crushing man under +the iron hand of the Justice-dealer, he makes him feel the kindness of the +Father who has got all ready, long before its birth, for the feeble little +child: "The comforts of Thy pity received me, as I have heard from the +father and mother of my flesh.... And so the comfort of woman's milk was +ready for me. For my mother and my nurses did not fill their own bosoms, +but Thou, O Lord, by their means gavest me the food of infancy, according +to Thy ordinance...." + +And see! his heart overflows at this remembrance of his mother's milk. The +great doctor humbles his style, makes it simple and familiar, to tell us of +his first mewlings, and of his baby angers and joys. He too was a father; +he knew what is a new-born child, and a young mother who gives it suck, +because he had seen that with his own eyes close beside him. All the small +bothers which mingle with the pleasures of fatherhood he had experienced +himself. In his own son he studied himself. + + * * * * * + +This child, born of a Christian mother, and who was to become the great +defender of the faith, was not christened at his birth. In the early +Church, and especially in the African Church, it was not usual to do so. +The baptismal day was put as far off as possible, from the conviction that +the sins committed after the sacrament were much more serious than those +which went before. The Africans, very practical folk, clearly foresaw that +they would sin again even after baptism, but they wanted to sin at a better +rate, and lessen the inflictions of penance. This penance in Augustin's +time was far from being as hard as in the century before. Nevertheless, the +remembrance of the old severity always remained, and the habit was taken to +put off baptism so as not to discourage sinners overmuch. + +Monnica, always sedulous to conform with the customs of her country and +the traditions of her Church, fell in with this practice. Perhaps she may +have had also the opposition of her husband to face, for he being a pagan +would not have cared to give too many pledges to the Christians, nor to +compromise himself in the eyes of his fellow-pagans by shewing that he +was so far under the control of Christian zealots as to have his child +baptized out of the ordinary way. There was a middle course, and this was +to inscribe the child among the catechumens. According to the rite of the +first admission to the lowest order of catechumens, the sign of the cross +was made on Augustin's forehead, and the symbolic salt placed between his +lips. And so they did not baptize him. Possibly this affected his whole +life. He lacked the baptismal modesty. Even when he was become a bishop, he +never quite cast off the old man that had splashed through all the pagan +uncleannesses. Some of his words are painfully broad for chaste ears. The +influence of African conditions does not altogether account for this. It is +only too plain that the son of Patricius had never known entire virginity +of soul. + +They named him Aurelius Augustinus. Was Aurelius his family name? We cannot +tell. The Africans always applied very fantastically the rules of Roman +nomenclature. Anyhow, this name was common enough in Africa. The Bishop of +Carthage, primate of the province and a friend of Augustin, was also called +Aurelius. Pious commentators have sought to find in this name an omen of +Augustin's future renown as an orator. They have remarked that the word +_aurum_, gold, is contained in Aurelius--a prophetic indication of the +golden mouth of the great preacher of Hippo. + +Meanwhile, he was a baby like any other baby, who only knew, as he tells +us, how to take his mother's breast. However, he speaks of nurses who +suckled him; no doubt these were servants or slaves of the household. +They gave him their milk, like those Algerian women who, to-day, if their +neighbour is called away, take her child and feed it. Besides, with them +children are weaned much later than with us. You can see mothers sitting at +their doors put down their work and call to a child of two or three playing +in the street for him to come and take the breast. Did Augustin remember +these things? At least he recalled his nurses' games, and the efforts they +made to appease him, and the childish words they taught him to stammer. +The first Latin words he repeated, he picked up from his mother and the +servants, who must also have spoken Punic, the ordinary tongue of the +populace and small trader class. He learned Punic without thinking about +it, in playing with other children of Thagaste, just as the sons of our +colonists learn Arab in playing with little boys who wear chechias on their +heads. + +He is a Christian, a bishop, already a venerated Father, consulted by the +whole Catholic world, and he tells us all that. He tells it in a serious +and contrite way, with a manifest anxiety to attribute to God, as the sole +cause, all the benefits which embellished his childhood, as well as to +deplore his faults and wretchedness, fatal consequence of the original +Fall. And still, we can make out clearly that these suave and far-off +memories have a charm for him which he cannot quite guard himself against. +The attitude of the author of the _Confessions_ is ambiguous and a little +constrained. The father who has loved his child, who has joined in his +games, struggles in him against the theologian who later on was to uphold +the doctrine of Grace against the heretics. He feels that he must shew, not +only that Grace is necessary for salvation and that little children ought +to be baptized, but that they are capable of sinning. Yes, the children sin +even at nurse. And Augustin relates this story of a baby that he had seen: +"I know, because I have seen, jealousy in a babe. It could not speak, yet +it eyed its foster-brother _with pale cheeks and looks of hate_." Children +are already men. The egoism and greediness of the grown man may be already +descried in the newly born. + +However, the theologian of Grace was not able to drive from his mind +this verse of the Gospel: _Sinite ad me parvulos venire_--"Suffer little +children to come unto Me." But he interprets this in a very narrow sense, +luring it into an argument which furthers his case. For him, the small +height of children is a symbol of the humility without which no one can +enter God's kingdom. The Master, according to him, never intended us to +take children as an example. They are but flesh of sin. He only drew from +their littleness one of those similitudes which He, with His fondness for +symbols, favoured. + +Well, let us dare to say it: Augustin goes wrong here. Such is the penalty +of human thought, which in its justest statements always wounds some +truth less clear or mutilates some tender sentiment. Radically, Augustin +is right. The child is wicked as man is. We know it. But against the +relentlessness of the theologian we place the divine gentleness of Christ: +"Suffer little children to come unto Me, for of such is the Kingdom of +God." + + + + +IV + +THE FIRST GAMES + + +"I loved to play," Augustin says, in telling us of those far-off years. + +Is it surprising if this quick and supple intelligence, who mastered +without effort, and as if by instinct, the encyclopaedic knowledge of his +age, who found himself at his ease amidst the deepest abstractions, did, at +the beginning, take life as a game? + +The amusements of the little Africans of to-day are not very many, nor very +various either. They have no inventive imagination. In this matter their +French playfellows have taught them a good deal. If they play marbles, or +hopscotch, or rounders, it is in imitation of the _Roumis_. And yet they +are great little players. Games of chance attract them above all. At these +they spend hour after hour, stretched out flat on their stomachs in some +shady corner, and they play with an astonishing intensity of passion. All +their attention is absorbed in what they are about; they employ on the game +all the cunning of their wits, precociously developed, and so soon stuck +fast in material things. + +When Augustin recalls the games of his childhood, he only mentions "nuts," +handball, and birds. To capture a bird, that winged, light, and brilliant +thing, is what all children long to do in every country on earth. But in +Africa, where there are plenty of birds, big people as well as little +love them. In the Moorish cafes, in the wretchedest _gourbis_, cages made +of reeds are hung on the walls, all rustling with trills and fluttering +of wings. Quail, thrushes, nightingales are imprisoned in them. The +nightingale, the singing-bird beyond all others, so difficult to tame, is +the honoured guest, the privileged dweller in these rustic cages. With +the rose, he is an essential part of Arab poetry. The woods round about +Thagaste were full of nightingales. Not the least doubt that the child +Augustin had felt the little musical throats of these singing-birds throb +between his hands. His sermons, his heaviest treatises, have a recollection +of them. He draws from them an evidence in favour of the creating Word who +has put beauty and harmony everywhere. In the song of the nightingale he +finds, as it were, an echo of the music of the spheres. + +If he loved birds, as a poet who knows not that he is a poet, did he love +as well to play at "nuts"? "Nuts," or thimble-rigging, is only a graceful +and crafty game, too crafty for a dreaming and careless little boy. It +calls for watchfulness and presence of mind. Grown men play at it as well +as children. A step of a staircase is used as a table by the players, or +the pavement of a courtyard. Three shells are laid on the stone and a +dried pea. Then, with rapid baffling movements, hands brown and alert fly +from one shell to another, shuffle them, mix them up, juggle the dried +pea sometimes under this shell, sometimes under that,--and the point is +to guess which shell the pea has got under. By means of certain astute +methods, an artful player can make the pea stick to his fingers, or to the +inside of the shell, and the opponent loses every time. They cheat with a +calm shamelessness. Augustin cheated too--which did not prevent him from +bitterly denouncing the cheating of his fellow-players. + +The truth is, that he would not have quite belonged to his country if he +had not lied and stolen now and then. He lied to his tutor and to his +schoolmasters. He stole at his parents' table, in the kitchen, and in the +cellar. But he stole like a man of quality, to make presents and to win +over his playfellows: he ruled the other boys by his presents--a noteworthy +characteristic in this future ruler of souls. Morals like these, a little +rough, shape free and bold natures. Those African children were much less +coddled, much less scolded, than to-day. Monnica had something else to do +than to look after the boys. So for them it was a continual life in the +open air, which makes the body strong and hard. Augustin and his companions +should be pictured as young wild-cats. + +This roughness came out strong at games of ball, and generally at all +the games in which there are two sides, conquerors and prisoners, or +fights with sticks and stones. Stone-throwing is an incurable habit +among the little Africans. Even now in the towns our police are obliged +to take measures against these ferocious children. In Augustin's time, +at Cherchell, which is the ancient _Caesarea Mauretaniae_, the childish +population was split into two hostile camps which stoned each other. On +certain holidays the fathers and big brothers joined the children; blood +flowed, and there were deaths. + +The bishop Augustin recalls with severity the "superb victories" he won in +jousts of this kind. But I find it hard to believe that such a delicate +child (he was sickly almost all his life) could have got much pleasure out +of these brutal sports. If he was drawn into them by the example of others, +it must have been through the imagination they appealed to him. In these +battles, wherein sides took the field as Romans against Carthaginians, +Greeks against Trojans, he believed himself Scipio or Hannibal, Achilles +or Hector. He experienced beforehand, as a rhetorician, the intoxication +of a triumph which playfellows who were stronger and better provided with +muscles gave him a hard fight for. He did not always get the upper hand, +except perhaps when he bribed the enemy. But an eager young soul, such +as he was, can hardly be content with half-victories; he wants to excel. +Accordingly, he sought his revenge in those games wherein the mind has the +chief part. He listened to stories with delight, and in his turn repeated +them to his little friends, thus trying upon an audience of boys that charm +of speech by which later he was to subdue crowds. They also played at +acting, at gladiators, at drivers and horses. Some of Augustin's companions +were sons of wealthy citizens who gave splendid entertainments to their +fellow-countrymen. As these dramatic representations, or games of the +arena or circus, drew near, the little child-world was overcome by a +fever of imitation. All the children of Thagaste imitated the actors, the +_mirmillones_, or the horsemen in the amphitheatre, just as the young +Spaniards of to-day imitate the _toreros_. + +In the midst of these amusements Augustin fell ill; he had fever and +violent pains in the stomach. They thought he was going to die. It appears +that it was himself who in this extreme situation asked for baptism. +Monnica was making all haste to have the sacrament administered, when +suddenly, against all expectation, the child recovered. Again was baptism +postponed, and from the same reason: to lessen the gravity of the sins +which young Augustin was bound to commit. His mother, who no doubt foresaw +some of them, again fell in with the custom. + +It is possible that Patricius interfered this time in a more decided way. +Just at this period Catholicism was in an unfavourable situation. The +short reign of Julian had started a violent pagan reaction. Everywhere +the temples were reopening, the sacrifices beginning again. Moreover, +the Donatists secretly aided the pagans. Their _Seids_, more or less +acknowledged, the Circoncelliones, bands of fanatical peasants, scoured +through the Numidian country, attacking the Catholics, ravaging and +pillaging, and burning their farms and villas. Was this a good time to +make a noisy profession of faith, to be enrolled among the ranks of the +conquered party? + +Little Augustin knew nothing of all these calculations of motherly prudence +and fatherly diplomacy: he begged for baptism, so he tells us. This seems +very remarkable in so young a child. But he lived in a house where all the +service was done by Christians. He heard the talk of Monnica's friends; +perhaps, too, of his grandparents, who were Catholics faithful and austere. +And then, his soul was naturally religious. That explains everything: +he asked for baptism to be like grown-up people, and because he was +predestined. Among children, the chosen have these sudden flashes of light. +At certain moments they feel what one day they shall be. Anyhow, Monnica +must have seen this sign with joy. + +He got well, and took up again his little boy's life, divided between play, +and dawdling, and school. + +School! painful memory for Augustin! They sent him to the _primus +magister_, the elementary teacher, a real terror, armed with a long switch +which came down without pity on idle boys. Seated on benches around him, or +crouched on mats, the boys sang out all together: "One and one are two, two +and two are four"--horrible refrain which deafened the whole neighbourhood. +The school was often a mere shed, or a _pergola_ in the fields which was +protected fairly well from sun and rain by cloths stretched overhead--a hut +rented for a trifle, wide open to the winds, with a mosquito-net stretched +out before the entrance. All who were there must have frozen in winter +and broiled in summer. Augustin remembered it as a slaves' chain-prison +(_ergastulum_) of boyhood. + +He hated school and what they taught there--the alphabet, counting, and +the rudiments of Latin and Greek grammar. He had a perfect horror of +lessons--of Greek above all. This schoolboy, who became, when his turn +came, a master, objected to the methods of school. His mind, which grasped +things instinctively at a single bound, could not stand the gradual +procedure of the teaching faculty. He either mastered difficulties at +once, or gave them up. Augustin was one of the numerous victims of the +everlasting mistake of schoolmasters, who do not know how to arrange +their lessons to accord with various kinds of mind. Like most of those +who eventually become great men, he was no good as a pupil. He was often +punished, thrashed--and cruelly thrashed. The master's scourge filled +him with an unspeakable terror. When he was smarting all over from cuts +and came to complain to his parents, they laughed at him or made fun of +him--yes, even the pious Monnica. Then the poor lad, not knowing whom to +turn to, remembered hearing his mother and the servants talk of a Being, +very powerful and very good, who defends the orphan and the oppressed. And +he said from the depths of his heart: + +"O my God, please grant that I am not whipped at school." + +But God did not hear his prayer because he was not a good boy. Augustin was +in despair. + +It is evident that these punishments were cruel, because forty years +afterwards he denounces them with horror. In his mind, they are tortures +comparable to the wooden horse or the iron pincers. Nothing is small +for children, especially for a sensitive child like Augustin. Their +sensitiveness and their imagination exaggerate all things out of due +measure. In this matter, also, schoolmasters often go wrong. They do not +know how to handle delicate organizations. They strike fiercely, when a +few words said at the right moment would have much more effect on the +culprit.... Monnica's son suffered as much from the rod as he took pride +in his successes at games. If, as Scipio, he was filled with a sensation +of glory in his battles against other boys, no doubt he pictured himself +a martyr, a St. Laurence or St. Sebastian, when he was swished. He never +pardoned--save as a Christian--his schoolmasters for having brutalized him. + +Nevertheless, despite his hatred for ill-ordered lessons, his precocious +intelligence was remarked by everybody. It was clear that such lucky gifts +should not be neglected. Monnica, no doubt, was the first to get this into +her head, and she advised Patricius to make Augustin read for a learned +profession. + +The business of the _curia_ was not exactly brilliant, and so he may have +perceived that his son might raise their fortunes if he had definite +employment. Augustin, a professor of eloquence or a celebrated pleader, +might be the saviour and the benefactor of his family. The town councils, +and even the Imperial treasury, paid large salaries to rhetoricians. In +those days, rhetoric led to everything. Some of the professors who went +from town to town giving lectures made considerable fortunes. At Thagaste +they pointed with admiration to the example of the rhetorician Victorinus, +an African, a fellow-countryman, who had made a big reputation over-seas, +and had his statue in the Roman Forum. And many years before, had not M. +Cornelius Fronto, of Cirta, another African, become the tutor of Marcus +Aurelius, who covered him with honours and wealth and finally raised him to +the Consulship? Pertinax himself, did he not begin as a simple teacher of +grammar, and become Proconsul of Africa and then Emperor of Rome? How many +stimulants for provincial ambition!... + +Augustin's parents reasoned as the middle-class parents of to-day. They +discounted the future, and however hard up they were, they resolved to +make sacrifices for his education. And as the schools of Thagaste were +inadequate, it was decided to send this very promising boy to Madaura. + + + + +V + +THE SCHOOLBOY OF MADAURA + + +A new world opened before Augustin. It was perhaps the first time he had +ever gone away from Thagaste. + +Of course, Madaura is not very far off; there are about thirty miles at +most between the two towns. But there are no short journeys for children. +This one lay along the military road which ran from Hippo to Theveste--a +great Roman causeway paved with large flags on the outskirts of towns, and +carefully pebbled over all the rest of the distance. Erect upon the high +saddle of his horse, Augustin, who was to become a tireless traveller +and move about ceaselessly over African roads during all his episcopal +life--Augustin got his first glimpse of the poetry of the open road, a +poetry which we have lost for ever. + +How amusing they were, the African roads of those days, how full of sights! +Pauses were made at inns with walls thick as the ramparts of citadels, +their interiors bordered by stables built in arcades, heaped up with +travellers' packs and harness. In the centre were the trough and cistern; +and to the little rooms opening in a circle on to the balcony, drifted up +a smell of oil and fodder, and the noise of men and of beasts of burthen, +and of the camels as they entered majestically, curving their long necks +under the lintel of the door. Then there was talk with the merchants, just +arrived from the south, who brought news of the nomad countries, and had +stories to tell. And then, without hurrying, a start was made again for the +next stage. Long files of chariots were encountered carrying provisions to +soldiers garrisoned on the frontier, or the State-distributed corn of the +Roman people to the sea-ports; or again, from time to time, the _lectica_, +brought along by slaves or mules, of a bishop on a visitation; and then the +litter, with close-drawn curtains, of a matron or some great personage. Of +a sudden all pulled sharp to one side; the vehicles lined up on the edge of +the road; and there passed at full speed, in a cloud of dust, a messenger +of the Imperial Post.... + +Certainly this road from Hippo to Theveste was one of the busiest and most +picturesque in the province: it was one of its main arteries. + +At first the look of the country is rather like the neighbourhood of +Thagaste. The wooded and mountainous landscape still spreads out its +little breast-shaped hills and its sheets of verdure. Here and there the +road skirts the deeply-ravined valley of the Medjerda. At the foot of the +precipitous slopes, the river can be heard brawling in a torrent over its +stony bed, and there are sharp descents among thickets of juniper and the +fringed roots of the dwarf-pines. Then, as the descent continues, the land +becomes thinner and spaces bare of vegetation appear oftener. At last, upon +a piece of tableland, Madaura comes into view, all white in the midst of +the vast tawny plain, where to-day nothing is to be seen but a mausoleum +in ruins, the remains of a Byzantine fortress, and vague traces vanishing +away. + +This is the first rise of the great plain which declines towards Theveste +and the group of the Aures Mountains. Coming from the woodland country of +Thagaste, the nakedness of it is startling. Here and there, thin cows crop +starveling shrubs which have grown on the bank of some _oued_ run dry. +Little asses, turned loose, save themselves at a gallop towards the tents +of the nomads, spread out, black and hairy, like immense bats on the +whiteness of the land. Nearer, a woman's red _haick_ interposes, the single +stain of bright colour breaking the indefinite brown and grey of the plain. +Here is felt the harshness of Numidia; it is almost the stark spaces of +the desert world. But on the side towards the east, the architecture of +mountains, wildly sculptured, stands against the level reaches of the +horizon. Upon the clear background of the sky, shew, distinctly, lateral +spurs and a cone like to the mystic representation of Tanit. Towards the +south, crumbling isolated crags appear, scattered about like gigantic +pedestals uncrowned of their statues, or like the pipes of an organ raised +there to capture and attune the cry of the great winds of the _steppe_. + +This country is characterized by a different kind of energy from Thagaste. +There is more air and light and space. If the plantation is sparse, the +beautiful shape of the land may be observed all the better. Nothing breaks +or lessens the grand effects of the light.... And let no one say that +Augustin's eyes cared not for all that, he who wrote after his conversion, +and in all the austerity of his repentance: "If sentient things had not a +soul, we should not love them so much." + +It is here, between Madaura and Thagaste, during the eager years of youth, +that he gathered together the seeds of sensations and images which, +later on, were to burst forth into fiery and boiling metaphors in the +_Confessions_, and in his homilies and paraphrases of Holy Scripture. Later +on, he will not have the time to observe, or he will have lost the power. +Rhetoric will stretch its commonplace veil between him and the unceasing +springtide of the earth. Ambition will turn him away from those sights +which reveal themselves only to hearts unselfish and indifferent. Then, +later on, Faith will seize hold of him to the exclusion of all else. He +will no longer perceive the creation save at odd moments in a kind of +metaphysical dream, and, so to speak, across the glory of the Creator. +But in these youthful years all things burst upon him with extraordinary +violence and ecstasy. His undulled senses swallowed greedily the whole +banquet offered by this wide world to his hunger for pleasure. The fugitive +beauty of things and beings, with all their charms, revealed itself to +him in its newness: _novissimarum rerum fugaces pulchritudines, earumque +suavitates_. This craving for sensation will still exist in the great +Christian teacher, and betray itself in the warm and coloured figures +of his style. Of course, he was not as a worldly describer, who studies +to produce phrases which present an image, or arranges glittering +pictures--all such endeavours he knew nothing about. But by instinct, and +thanks to his warm African temperament, he was a kind of impressionist and +metaphysical poet. + +If the rural landscape of Thagaste is reflected in certain passages--the +pleasantest and most well known--of the _Confessions_, all the intellectual +part of Augustin's work finds its symbolical commentary here in this arid +and light-splashed plain of Madaura. Like it, the thought of Augustin has +no shadows. Like it too, it is lightened by strange and splendid tints +which seem to come from far off, from a focal fire invisible to human eyes. +No modern writer has better praised the light--not only the immortal light +of the blessed, but that light which rests on the African fields, and +is on land and sea; and nobody has spoken of it with more amplitude and +wonder. The truth is, that in no country in the world, not even in Egypt, +in the rose-coloured lands of Karnak and Luxor, is the light more pure and +admirable than in these great bare plains of Numidia and the region of the +Sahara. Is there not enchantment for the eyes of the metaphysician in this +play of light, these nameless interfulgent colours which appear flimsy as +the play of thought? For the glowing floating haze is made of nothing--of +lines, of gleam, of unregulated splendour. And all this triumph of +fluctuating light and elusive colour is quenched with the sun, smoulders +into darkness, even as ideas in the obscure depths of the intelligence +which reposes.... + +Not less than this land, stern even to sadness, but hot and sumptuous, the +town of Madaura must have impressed Augustin. + +It was an old Numidian city, proud of its antiquity. Long before the Roman +conquest, it had been a fortress of King Syphax. Afterwards, the conquerors +settled there, and in the second century of our era, Apuleius, the most +famous of its children, could state before a proconsul, not without pride, +that Madaura was a very prosperous colony. It is probable that this old +town was not so much Romanized as its neighbours, Thimgad and Lambesa, +which were of recent foundation and had been built all at once by decree of +the Government. But it may well have been as Roman as Theveste, a no less +ancient city, where the population was probably just as mixed. Madaura, +like Theveste, had its temples with pillars and Corinthian porticoes, its +triumphal arches (these were run up everywhere), its forum surrounded by a +covered gallery and peopled with statues. Statues also were very liberally +distributed in those days. We know of at least three at Madaura which +Augustin mentions in one of his letters: A god Mars in his heroic +nakedness, and another Mars armed from head to foot; opposite, the statue +of a man, in realistic style, stretching out three fingers to neutralize +the evil eye. These familiar figures remained very clear in the +recollection of Augustin. In the evening, or at the hour of the siesta, he +had stretched himself under their pedestals and played at dice or bones in +the cool shade of the god Mars, or of the Man with outstretched fingers. +The slabs of marble of the portico made a good place to play or sleep. + +Among these statues, there was one perhaps which interested the lad and +stimulated all his early ambitions--that of Apuleius, the great man of +Madaura, the orator, philosopher, sorcerer, who was spoken of from one end +to the other of Africa. By dint of gazing at this, and listening to the +praises of the great local author, did the young scholar become aware of +his vocation? Did he have from this time a confused sort of wish to become +one day another Apuleius, a Christian Apuleius--to surpass the reputation +of this celebrated pagan? These impressions and admirations of youth have +always a more or less direct influence upon what use a boy makes of his +talents. + +Be that as it will, Augustin could not take a step in Madaura without +running against the legend of Apuleius, who was become almost a divinity +for his fellow-countrymen. He was looked upon not only as a sage, but as +a most wily nigromancer. The pagans compared him to Christ--nay, put him +higher than Christ. In their view he had worked much more astonishing +miracles than those of Jesus or of Apollonius of Tyana. And people told the +extravagant stories out of his _Metamorphoses_ as real, as having actually +happened. Nothing was seen on all sides but wizards, men changed into +animals, animals, or men and women, under some spell. In the inns, a man +watched with a suspicious look the ways of the maidservant who poured out +his drink or handed him a dish. Perhaps some magic potion was mingled with +the cheese or bread that she was laying on the table. It was an atmosphere +of feverish and delirious credulity. The pagan madness got the better of +the Christians themselves. Augustin, who had lived in this atmosphere, will +later find considerable trouble in maintaining his strong common sense amid +such an overflow of marvels. + +For the moment, the fantasy of tales filled him with at least as much +enthusiasm as the supernatural. At Madaura he lived in a miraculous world, +where everything charmed his senses and his mind, and everything stimulated +his precocious instinct for Beauty. + +More than Thagaste, no doubt, Madaura bore the marks of the building +genius of the Romans. Even to-day their descendants, the Italians, are the +masons of the world, after having been the architects. The Romans were the +building nation above all others. They it was who raised and established +towns upon the same model and according to the same ideal as an oration +or a poem. They really invented the house, _mansio_, not only the shelter +where one lives, but the building which itself lives, which triumphs over +years and centuries, a huge construction ornamental and sightly, existing +as much--and perhaps more--for the delight of the eyes as for usefulness. +The house, the _Town-with-deep-streets_, perfectly ordered, were a great +matter of amazement for the African nomad--he who passes and never settles +down anywhere. He hated them, doubtless, as the haunts of the soldier and +the publican, his oppressors, but he also regarded them with admiration +mixed with jealousy as the true expression of a race which, when it entered +a country, planted itself for eternity, and claimed to join magnificence +and beauty to the manifestation of its strength. The Roman ruins which +are scattered over modern Algeria humiliate ourselves by their pomp--us +who flatter ourselves that we are resuming the work of the Empire and +continuing its tradition. They are a permanent reproach to our mediocrity, +a continual incitement to grandeur and beauty. Of course, the Roman +architecture could not have had on Augustin, this still unformed young +African, the same effect as it has to-day on a Frenchman or a man from +Northern Europe. But it is certain that it formed, without his knowledge, +his thought and his power of sensation, and extended for him the lessons of +the Latin rhetoricians and grammarians. + +All that was not exactly very Christian. But from these early school years +Augustin got further and further away from Christianity, and the examples +he had under his eyes, at Madaura were hardly likely to strengthen him +in his faith. It was hardly an edifying atmosphere there for a Catholic +youth who had a lively imagination, a pleasure-loving temperament, and who +liked pagan literature. The greatest part of the population were pagans, +especially among the aristocrats. The Decurions continued to preside at +festivals in honour of the old idols. + +These festivals were frequent. The least excuse was taken to engarland +piously the doors of houses with branches, to bleed the sacrificial pig, +or slaughter the lamb. In the evening, squares and street corners were +illuminated. Little candles burned on all the thresholds. During the +mysteries of Bacchus, the town councillors themselves headed the popular +rejoicings. It was an African carnival, brutal and full of colour. People +got tipsy, pretended they were mad. For the sport of the thing, they +assaulted the passers and robbed them. The dull blows on tambourines, the +hysterical and nasal preludes of the flutes, excited an immense elation, at +once sensual and mystic. And all quieted down among the cups and leather +flagons of wine, the grease and meats of banquets in the open air. Even in +a country as sober as Africa, the pagan feasts were never much else than +excuses for gorging and orgies. Augustin, who after his conversion had only +sarcasms for the carnival of Madaura, doubtless went with the crowd, like +many other Christians. Rich and influential people gave the example. There +was danger of annoying them by making a group apart. And then, there was no +resisting the agreeableness of such festivals. + +Perhaps he was even brought to these love-feasts by those in whose charge +he was. For, in fact, to whom had he been entrusted? Doubtless to some +host of Patricius, a pagan like himself. Or did he lodge with his master, +a grammarian, who kept a boarding-house for the boys? Almost all these +schoolmasters were pagan too. Is it wonderful that the Christian lessons +of Monnica and the nurses at Thagaste became more and more blurred in +Augustin's mind? Many years after, an old Madaura grammarian, called +Maximus, wrote to him in a tone of loving reproach: "Thou hast drawn away +from us"--_a secta nostra deviasti_. Did he wish to hint that at this time +Augustin had glided into paganism? Nothing is more unlikely. He himself +assures us that the name of Christ remained always "graven on his heart." +But while he was at Madaura he lived indifferently with pagans and +Christians. + +Besides that, the teaching he got was altogether pagan in tone. No doubt he +picked out, as he always did, the subjects which suited him. Minds such as +his fling themselves upon that which is likely to nourish them: they throw +aside all the rest, or suffer it very unwillingly. Thus Augustin never +wavered in his dislike for Greek: he was a poor Greek scholar. He detested +the Greeks by instinct. According to Western prejudice, these men of +the East were all rascals or amusers. Augustin, as a practical African, +always regarded the Greeks as vain, discoursing wits. In a word, they +were not sincere people whom it would be safe to trust. The entirely +local patriotism of the classical Greek authors further annoyed this Roman +citizen who was used to regard the world as his country: he thought them +very narrow-minded to take so much interest in the history of some little +town. As for him, he looked higher and farther. It must be remembered that +in the second half of the fourth century the Greek attitude, broadened and +fully conscious of itself, set itself more and more against Latinism, above +all, politically. There it lay, a hostile and impenetrable block before the +Western peoples. And here was a stronger reason for a Romanized African to +dislike the Greeks. + +So he painfully construed the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_, very cross at the +difficulties of a foreign language which prevented him from grasping the +plots of the fine, fabulous narratives. There were, however, abridgments +used in the schools, a kind of summaries of the Trojan War, written by +Latin grammarians under the odd pseudonyms of Dares the Phrygian and Dictys +of Crete. But these abridgments were very dry for an imagination like +Augustin's. He much preferred the _AEneid_, the poem admired above all +by the Africans, on account of the episode devoted to the foundation of +Carthage. Virgil was his passion. He read and re-read him continually; +he knew him by heart. To the end of his life, in his severest writings, +he quoted verses or whole passages out of his much-loved poet. Dido's +adventure moved him to tears. They had to pluck the book out of his hands. + +Now the reason is that there was a secret harmony between Virgil's soul and +the soul of Augustin. Both were gracious and serious. One, the great poet, +and one, the humble schoolboy, they both had pity on the Queen of Carthage, +they would have liked to save her, or at any rate to mitigate her sadness, +to alter a little the callousness of AEneas and the harshness of the Fates. +But think of it! Love is a divine sickness, a chastisement sent by the +gods. It is just, when all's said, that the guilty one should endure her +agony to the very end. And then, such very great things are going to arise +out of this poor love! Upon it depends the lot of two Empires. What counts +a woman before Rome and Carthage? Besides, she was bound to perish: the +gods had decreed it.... There was in all that a concentrated emotion, a +depth of sentiment, a religious appeal which stirred Augustin's heart, +still unaware of itself. This obedience of the Virgilian hero to the +heavenly will, was already an adumbration of the humility of the future +Christian. + +Certainly, Augustin did not perceive very plainly in these turbid years +of his youth the full religious significance of Virgil's poem. Carried +away by his headstrong nature, he yielded to the heart-rending charm of +the romantic story: he lived it, literally, with the heroine. When his +schoolmasters desired him to elaborate the lament of the dying Queen Dido +in Latin prose, what he wrote had a veritable quiver of anguish. Without +the least defence against lust and the delusions of the heart, he spent +intellectually and in a single outburst all the strength of passion. + +He absorbed every love-poem with the eagerness of a participating soul. If +he took pleasure in the licentiousness of Plautus and Terence, if he read +delightfully those comedies wherein the worst weaknesses are excused and +glorified, I believe that he took still more pleasure in the Latin Elegiacs +who present without any shame the romantic madness of Alexandrine love. +For what sing these poets even to weariness, unless it be that no one can +resist the Cyprian goddess, that life has no other end but love? Love for +itself, to love for the sake of loving--there is the constant subject of +these sensualists, of Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, Ovid. After the story +of Dido, the youthful reader was ravished by the story of Ariadne, even +more disturbing, because no remorse modifies the frenzy of it. He read: + + _Now while the careless hero flees, beating the wave with his + and casting to the gales of the open sea his idle promises,--there, + standing among the shingle of the beach, the daughter of Minos follows + him, alas! with her beautiful sad eyes: she stares, astonied, like to a + Bacchante changed into a statue. She looks forth, and her heart floats + upon the great waves of her grief. She lets slip from her head her + fine-spun coif, she tears away the thin veils which cover her bosom, + and the smooth cincture which supports her quivering breasts. All that + slips from her body into the salt foam which ripples round her feet. + But little she cares for her coif or for her apparel carried away by + the tide! Lost, bewildered, with all her heart and all her soul, she is + clinging to thee, O Theseus._ + +And if Augustin, when he had read these burning verses of Catullus, looked +through the Anthologies which were popular in the African schools, he +would come upon "The Vigil of Venus," that eclogue which ends with such a +passionate cry: + + _O my springtime, when wilt thou come? When shall I be as the swallow? + When shall I cease to be silent?... May he love to-morrow, he + has not loved yet. And he who has already loved, may he love again + to-morrow._ + +Imagine the effect of such exhortations on a youth of fifteen! Truly, this +springtide of love, which the poet cries for in his distress, the son +of Monnica knew well was come for him. How he must have listened to the +musical and melancholy counsellor who told his pain to the leaves of the +book! What stimulant and what food for his boyish longings and dreams! And +what a divine chorus of beauties the great love-heroines of ancient epic +and elegy, Helen, Medea, Ariadne, Phaedra, formed and re-formed continually +in his dazzled memory! When we of to-day read such verses at Augustin's +age, some bitterness is mixed with our delight. These heroes and heroines +are too far from us. These almost chimerical beings withdraw from us into +outlying lands, to a vanished world which will never come again. But for +Augustin, this was the world he was born into--it was his pagan Africa +where pleasure was the whole of life, and one lived only for the lusts of +the flesh. And the race of fabulous princesses--they were not dead, those +ladies: they were ever waiting for the well-beloved in the palaces at +Carthage. Yes, the scholar of Madaura lived wonderful hours, dreaming thus +of love between the pages of the poets. These young dreams before love +comes are more bewitching than love itself: a whole unknown world suddenly +discovered and entered with a quivering joy of discovery at each step. The +unused strength of illusion appears inexhaustible, space becomes deeper and +the heart more strong.... + +A long time afterwards, when, recovered from all that, Augustin speaks to +us of the Divine love, he will know fully the infinite value of it from +having gone through all the painful entrancements of the other. And he will +say to us, with the sureness of experience: "The pleasure of the human +heart in the light of truth and the abundance of wisdom--yea, the pleasure +of the human heart, of the faithful heart, and of the heart which is +holy, stands alone. You will find nothing in any voluptuousness fit to be +compared to it. I say not that this other pleasure is less, for that which +is called less hath only to increase to become equal. No, I shall not say +that all other pleasure is less. No comparison can be made. It is another +kind, it is another reality." + + + + +VI + +THE HOLIDAYS AT THAGASTE + + +In the city of Apuleius, the Christian Monnica's son became simply a pagan. +He was near his sixteenth year: the awkward time of early virility was +beginning for him. Prepared at Madaura, it suddenly burst out at Thagaste. + +Augustin came back to his parents, no doubt during the vacation. But +this vacation lasted perhaps a whole year. He had come to the end of his +juvenile studies. The grammarians at Madaura could teach him nothing more. +To round off his acquirements, it would be necessary to attend the lectures +of some well-known rhetorician. Now there were very good rhetoricians only +at Carthage. Besides, it was a fashion, and point of honour, for Numidian +families to send their sons to finish their education in the provincial +capital. Patricius was most eager to do this for his son, who at Madaura +had shewn himself a very brilliant pupil and ought not therefore to be +pulled up half-way down the course. But the life of a student cost a good +deal, and Patricius had no money. His affairs were always muddled. He was +obliged to wait for the rents from his farms, to grind down his tenants, +and, ultimately, despairing of any other way out of it, to ask for an +advance of money from a rich patron. That needed time and diplomacy. + +Days and months went by, and Augustin, with nothing to do, joined in with +easily-made friends and gave himself up to the pleasures of his time of +life, like all the young townsmen of Thagaste--pleasures rather rough and +little various, such as were to be got in a little free-town of those days, +and as they have remained for the natives of to-day, whether they live +a town or country life. To hunt, to ride horseback, to play at games of +chance, to drink, eat, and make love--they wanted nothing beyond that. When +Augustin in his _Confessions_ accuses himself of his youthful escapades he +uses the most scathing language. He speaks of them with horror and disgust. +Once more we are tempted to believe that he exaggerates through an excess +of Christian remorse. There are even some who, put on their guard by this +vehement tone, have questioned the historical value of the _Confessions_. +They argue that when the Bishop of Hippo wrote these things his views and +feelings had altered. He could no longer judge with the same eye and in +the same spirit the happenings of his youth. All this is only too certain: +when he wrote, it was as a Christian he judged himself, and not as a cold +historian who refuses to go beyond the brutal fact. He tried to unravel +the origin and to trace the consequences of the humblest of his actions, +because this is of the highest importance for salvation. But however severe +his judgment may be, it does not impair the reality of the fact itself. +Moreover, in natures like his, acts which others would hardly think of +have a vibration out of all proportion with the act itself. The evil of sin +depends upon the consciousness of the sin and the pleasure taken in it. +Augustin was very intelligent and very sensual. + +In any case, young Africans develop early, and the lechery of the race +is proverbial. It must have been a good deal stronger at a time when +Christianity still had to fight against pagan slackness in these matters, +ere Islam had imposed its hypocritical austerity upon the general conduct. +There is even room for wonder that in Augustin's case this crisis of +development did not happen earlier than his sixteenth year. It seems that +it was only more violent. In what language he describes it! "I dared to +roam the woods and pursue my vagrant loves beneath the shade." But he +was not yet in love--this he points out himself. In his case then it was +simple lust. "From the quagmire of concupiscence, from the well of puberty, +exhaled a mist which clouded and befogged my heart, so that I could not +distinguish between the clear shining of affection and the darkness of +lust.... I could not keep within the kingdom of light, where friendship +binds soul to soul.... And so I polluted the brook of friendship with the +sewage of lust." Let us not try to make it clearer than he has left it +himself. When one thinks of all the African vices, one dare not dwell upon +such avowals. "Lord," he says, "I was loathsome in Thy sight." And with +pitiless justice he analyses the effect of the evil: "It stormed confusedly +within me, whirling my thoughtless youth over the precipices of desire. And +I wandered still further from Thee, and Thou didst leave me to myself; the +torrent of my fornications tossed and swelled and boiled and ran over." And +during this time: "Thou saidst nothing, O my God!" This silence of God is +the terrible sign of hardened sin, of hopeless damnation. It meant utter +depravity of the will; he did not even feel remorse any more. + +Here he is, then, as if unfastened from his child's soul--separated from +himself. The object of his youthful faith has no more meaning for him. He +understands no longer, and it is all one to him that he does not. Thus, +told by himself, does this first crisis of Augustin's life emerge from the +autobiography; and it takes on a general significance. Once for all, under +a definite form, and to a certain degree classic, he has diagnosed with +his subtle experience of doctor of souls the pubescent crisis in all young +men of his age, in all the young Christians who are to come after him. For +the story of Augustin is the story of each of us. The loss of faith always +occurs when the senses first awaken. At this critical moment, when nature +claims us for her service, the consciousness of spiritual things is, in +most cases, either eclipsed or totally destroyed. The gradual usage to the +brutalities of the instinct ends by killing the sensitiveness of the inward +feelings. It is not reason which turns the young man from God; it is the +flesh. Scepticism but provides him with excuses for the new life he is +leading. + +Thus started, Augustin was not able to pull up half-way on the road of +pleasure; he never did anything by halves. In these vulgar revels of the +ordinary wild youth, he wanted again to be best, he wanted to be first as +he was at school. He stirred up his companions and drew them after him. +They in their turn drew him. Among them was found that Alypius, who was the +friend of all his life, who shared his faults and mistakes, who followed +him even in his conversion, and became Bishop of Thagaste. These two future +shepherds of Christ roamed the streets with the lost sheep. They spent +the nights in the open spaces of the town, playing, or wantonly dreaming +before cups of cool drinks. They lounged there, stretched out on mats, with +a crown of leaves on the head, a jasmine garland round the neck, a rose +or marigold thrust above the ear. They never knew what to do next to kill +time. So one fine evening the reckless crew took it into their heads to +rifle a pear tree of one of Patricius's neighbours. This pear tree was just +beyond the vineyard belonging to Augustin's father. The rascals shook down +the pears. They took a few bites to find out the taste, and having decided +this to be rather disappointing, they chucked all the rest to the hogs. + +In this theft, done merely for the pleasure of the thing, Augustin sees +an evidence of diabolical mischief. Doubtless he committed many another +misdeed where, like this, the whole attraction lay in the Satanic joy +of breaking the law. His fury for dissolute courses knew no rest. Did +Monnica observe anything of this change in Augustin? The boy, grown big, +had escaped from the supervision of the women's apartments. If the mother +guessed anything, she did not guess all. It fell to her husband to open her +eyes. With the freedom of manners among the ancients, Augustin relates the +fact quite plainly.... That took place in the bath-buildings at Thagaste. +He was bathing with his father, probably in the _piscina_ of cold baths. +The bathers who came out of the water with dripping limbs were printing +wet marks of their feet upon the mosaic flooring, when Patricius, who was +watching them, suddenly perceived that his son had about him the signs +of manhood, that he was already bearing--as Augustin says himself in his +picturesque language--the first signs of turbulent youth, like another +_toga praetexta_. Patricius, as a good pagan, welcomed with jubilation this +promise of grand-children, and rushed off joyously to brag of his discovery +to Monnica. She took the news in quite another way. Frightened at the idea +of the dangers to which her son's virtue was exposed, she lectured him +in private. But Augustin, from the height of his sixteen years, laughed +at her. "A lot of old-women's gossip! Why does she want to talk about +things she can't understand!..." Tired out at last, Monnica tried to get +a promise from her son that he would at least have some restraint in his +dissipation--that he would avoid women of the town, and above all, that he +would have nothing to do with married women. For the rest, she put him in +God's hands. + +It may be wondered--Augustin himself wonders--that she did not think of +finding him a wife. They marry early in Africa. Even now any Arab labourer +buys a wife for his son, hardly turned sixteen, so that the fires of a too +warm youth may be quenched in marriage. But Monnica, who was not yet a +saint, acted in this matter like a foreseeing and practical woman of the +prosperous class. A wife would be a drag for a young man like Augustin, who +seemed likely to have such a brilliant career. A too early marriage would +jeopardize his future. Before all things, it was important that he should +become an illustrious rhetorician, and raise the fortunes of the family. +For her, all else yielded to this consideration. But she hoped at least +that the headstrong student might consent to be good into the bargain. + +This was also Patricius's way of looking at the matter. And so, says +Augustin, "My father gave himself no concern how I grew towards Thee, or +how chaste I was, provided only that I became a man of culture--however +destitute of Thy culture, O God.... My mother and he slackened the curb +without regard to due severity, and I was suffered to enjoy myself +according to my dissolute fancy." Meanwhile, Patricius was now become +(very tardily) a catechumen. The entreaties of his wife had won him to the +Catholic faith. But his sentiments were not much more Christian--"He hardly +thought of Thee, my God," acknowledges his son, who nevertheless was +pleased at this conversion. If Patricius decided to get converted, it was +probably from political reasons. Since the death of Julian the Apostate, +paganism appeared finally conquered. The Emperor Valentinianus had just +proclaimed heavy penalties against night-sacrifices. In Africa, the +Count Romanus persecuted the Donatists. All the Christians in Thagaste +were Catholic. What was the good of keeping up a useless and dangerous +resistance? Perhaps the end of Patricius--which was near--was as edifying +as Monnica could wish. But at all events, at the present moment, he was +not the man to interfere with Augustin's pleasures: he only thought of +the eventual fortune of the young man. Alone, Monnica might have had some +influence on him, and she herself was fascinated by his future career in +the world. Perhaps, to quiet her conscience, she said to herself that this +frivolous education would be more or less of a help to her son towards +bringing him back to God, that a day would come when the famous rhetorician +would plead the cause of Christ?... + +Scandalized though she might be at his conduct, it is however apparent that +it was about this time she began to get fonder of him, to worry over him as +her favourite child. But it was not till much later that the union between +mother and son became quite complete. Too many old customs still remained +preventing close intercourse between the men and women of a family. And it +will hardly do to picture such intimacy from the intimacy which may exist +between a mother and son of our own time. There was none of the spoiling, +or indulgence, or culpable weakness which enervates maternal tenderness and +makes it injurious to the energy of a manly character. Monnica was severe +and a little rough. If she let her feelings be seen, it was solely before +God. And yet it is most certain that in the depth of her heart she loved +Augustin, not only as a future member of Christ, but humanly, as a woman +frustrated of love in a badly assorted marriage may spend her love on her +child. The brutality of pagan ways revolted her, and she poured on this +young head all her stored-up affection. In Augustin she loved the being she +wished she could love in her husband. + +A number of personal considerations were no doubt involved in the deep and +unselfish attachment she had for her son: instinctively, she looked for him +to protect her against the father's violence. She felt that he would be the +support of her old age, and also, she foresaw dimly what one day he would +be. All this aided to bring about the tie, the understanding, which grew +more and more close between Augustin and Monnica. And so from this time +they both appear to us as they were to appear to all posterity--the pattern +of the Christian Mother and Son. Thanks to them, the hard law of the +ancients has been abrogated. There shall be no more barriers between the +mother and her child. No longer shall it be vain exterior rites which draw +together the members of the same family: they shall communicate in spirit +and truth. Heart speaketh to heart. The fellowship of souls is founded, +and the ties of the domestic hearth are drawn close, as they never were in +antiquity. No more shall they work in concert only for material things; +they will join together to love--and to love each other more. The son will +belong more to his mother. + +At the time we have now come to, Monnica was already undertaking the +conquest of Augustin's soul. She prayed for him fervently. The young man +cared very little: gratitude came to him only after his conversion. At this +time he was thinking of nothing but amusement. For this he even forgot his +career. But Monnica and Patricius thought of it constantly--especially +Patricius, who gave himself enormous trouble to enable this student on a +holiday to finish his studies. Eventually he got together the necessary +money, possibly borrowed enough to make up the sum from some rich landowner +who was the patron of the people of small means in Thagaste--say, that +gorgeous Romanianus, to whom Augustin, in acknowledgment, dedicated one of +his first books. The young man could now take the road for Carthage. + +He left by himself, craving for knowledge and glory and pleasure, his heart +full of longing for what he knew not, and melancholy without cause. What +was going to become of him in the great, unknown city? + + + + +THE SECOND PART + +THE ENCHANTMENT OF CARTHAGE + + + Amare et amari. + "To love and to be loved." + +_Confessions_, III, i. + + + + +I + +CARTHAGO VENERIS + + +"I went to Carthage, where shameful loves bubbled round me like boiling +oil." + +This cry of repentance, uttered by the converted Augustin twenty-five +years later, does not altogether stifle his words of admiration for the +old capital of his country. One can see this patriotic admiration stirring +between the lines. Carthage made a very strong impression on him. He gave +it his heart and remained faithful to the end. His enemies, the Donatists, +called him "the Carthaginian arguer." After he became Bishop of Hippo, he +was continually going to Carthage to preach, or dispute, or consult his +colleagues, or to ask something from men in office. When he is not there, +he is ever speaking of it in his treatises and plain sermons. He takes +comparisons from it: "You who have been to Carthage--" he often says to +his listeners. For the boy from little Thagaste to go to Carthage, was +about the same as for our youths from the provinces to go to Paris. _Veni +Carthaginem_--in these simple words there is a touch of naive emphasis +which reveals the bewilderment of the Numidian student just landed in the +great city. + +And, in fact, it was one of the five great capitals of the Empire: there +were Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria--Carthage. Carthage was the +sea-port capital of the whole western Mediterranean. With its large new +streets, its villas, its temples, its palaces, its docks, its variously +dressed cosmopolitan population, it astonished and delighted the schoolboy +from Madaura. Whatever local marks were left about him, or signs of the +rustic simpleton, it brushed off. At first, Augustin must have felt himself +as good as lost there. + +There he was, his own master, with nobody to counsel and direct him. He +does indeed mention his fellow-countryman, that Romanianus, the patron of +his father and of other people in Thagaste, as a high and generous friend +who invited him to his house when he, a poor youth, came to finish his +studies in a strange city, and helped him, not only with his purse, but +with his friendship. Unfortunately the allusion is not very clear. Still, +it does seem to shew that Augustin, in the first days after his arrival at +Carthage, stayed with Romanianus. It is not in the least improbable that +Romanianus had a house at Carthage and spent the winter there: during the +rest of the year he would be in his country houses round about Thagaste. +This opulent benefactor might not have been satisfied with giving Augustin +a good "tip" for his journey when he was leaving his native town, but may +also have put him up in his own house at Carthage. Such was the atonement +for those enormous fortunes of antiquity: the rich had to give freely and +constantly. With the parcelling out of wealth we have become much more +egoistical. + +In any case, Romanianus, taken up with his pleasures and business, could +not have been much of a guide for Monnica's son. Augustin was therefore +without control, or very nearly. No doubt he came to Carthage with a strong +desire to increase his knowledge and get renown, but still more athirst +for love and the emotions of sentiment. The love-prelude was deliriously +prolonged for him. He was at that time so overwhelmed by it, that it is the +first thing he thinks of when he relates his years at Carthage. "To love +and be loved" seems to him, as to his dear Alexandrine poets, the single +object of life. Yet he was not in love, "but he loved the idea of love." +_Nondum amabam, et amare amabam ... amare amans...._ + +Truly, never a pagan poet had hitherto found such language to speak +of love. These subtle phrases are not only the work of a marvellous +word-smith: through their almost imperceptible shades of meaning may be +descried an entirely new soul, the pleasure-loving soul of the old world +awakening to spiritual life. Modern people have repeated the words more +than enough, but by translating them too literally--"I loved to love"--they +have perhaps distorted the sense. They have made Augustin a kind of +Romantic like Alfred de Musset, a dilettante in love. Augustin is not so +modern, although he often seems one of ourselves. When he wrote those words +he was a bishop and a penitent. What strikes him above all in looking back +upon his uneasy and feverish life as a youth and young man, is the great +onrush of all his being which swept him towards love. Plainly, man is made +for love, since he loves without object and without cause, since in itself +alone the idea of love is already for him a beginning of love. Only he +falls into error in giving to creatures a heart that the Creator alone can +fill and satisfy. In this love for love's sake, Augustin discerned the sign +of the predestined soul whose tenderness will find no rest but in God. That +is why he repeats this word "Love" with a kind of intoxication. He knows +that those who love like him cannot love long with a human love. Nor does +he blush to acknowledge it:--he loved--he loved with all his soul--he +loved to the point of loving the coming of love. Happy intimation for the +Christian! A heart so afire is pledged to the eternal marriage. + +With this heat of passion, this lively sensibility, Augustin was a prey for +Carthage. The voluptuous city took complete hold on him by its charm and +its beauty, by all the seductions of mind and sense, by its promises of +easy enjoyment. + +First of all, it softened this young provincial, used to the harder country +life of his home; it relaxed the Numidian contracted by the roughness of +his climate; it cooled his eyes burned by the sun in the full-flowing of +its waters and the suavity of its horizons. It was a city of laziness, and +above all, of pleasure, as well for those plunged in business as for the +idlers. They called it _Carthago Veneris_--Carthage of Venus. And certainly +the old Phoenician Tanit always reigned there. Since the rebuilding of her +temple by the Romans, she had transformed herself into _Virgo Coelestis_. +This Virgin of Heaven was the great Our Lady of unchastity, towards whom +still mounted the adoration of the African land four hundred years after +the birth of Christ. "Strange Virgin," Augustin was to say later, "who can +only be honoured by the loss of virginity." Her dissolving influence seemed +to overcome the whole region. There is no more feminine country than this +Carthaginian peninsula, ravished on all sides by the caress of the waters. +Stretched out between her lakes on the edge of the sea, Carthage lounged in +the humid warmth of her mists, as if in the suffocating atmosphere of her +vapour-baths. + +She stole away the energies, but she was an enchantment for the eyes. +From the top of the impressive flight of steps which led up to the temple +of AEsculapius on the summit of the Acropolis, Augustin could see at his +feet the huge, even-planned city, with its citadel walls which spread out +indefinitely, its gardens, blue waters, flaxen plains, and the mountains. +Did he pause on the steps at sunset, the two harbours, rounded cup-shape, +shone, rimmed by the quays, like lenses of ruby. To the left, the Lake of +Tunis, stirless, without a ripple, as rich in ethereal lights as a Venetian +lagoon, radiated in ever-altering sheens, delicate and splendid. In front, +across the bay, dotted with the sails of ships close-hauled to the wind, +beyond the wind-swept and shimmering intervals, the mountains of Rhodes +raised their aerial summit-lines against the sky. What an outlook on the +world for a young man dreaming of fame! And what more exhilarating spot +than this Mount Byrsa, where, in deep layers, so many heroic memories were +gathered and superimposed. The great dusty plains which bury themselves +far off in the sands of the desert, the mountains--yes, and isles and +headlands, all bowed before the Hill that Virgil sang and seemed to do +her reverence. She held in awe the innumerable tribes of the barbaric +continent; she was mistress of the sea. Rome herself, from the height of +her Palatine, surged less imperial. + +More than any other of the young men seated with him on the benches of the +school of rhetoric, Augustin hearkened to the dumb appeals which came +from the ancient ruins and new palaces of Carthage. But the supple and +treacherous city knew the secret of enchaining the will. She tempted him by +the open display of her amusements. Under this sun which touches to beauty +the plaster of a hut, the grossest pleasures have an attraction which men +of the North cannot understand. The overflowing of lust surrounds you. +This prolific swarming, all these bodies, close-pressed and soft with +sweat, give forth as it were a breath of fornication which melts the will. +Augustin breathed in with delight the heavy burning air, loaded with human +odours, which filled the streets and squares of Carthage. To all the bold +soliciting, to all the hands stretched out to detain him as he walked, he +yielded. + +But for a mind like his Carthage had more subtle allurements in reserve. +He was taken by her theatres, by the verses of her poets and the melodies +of her musicians. He shed tears at the plays of Menander and Terence; +he lamented upon the misfortunes of separated lovers; he shared their +quarrels, rejoiced and despaired with them. And still he awaited the +epiphany of Love--that Love which the performance of the actors shewed him +to be so touching and fine. + +Such then was Augustin, given over to the irresponsibility of his eighteen +years--a heart spoiled by romantic literature, a mind impatient to try +every sort of intellectual adventure in the most corrupting and bewitching +city known to the pagan centuries, set amidst one of the most entrancing +landscapes in the world. + + + + +II + +THE AFRICAN ROME + + +Carthage did not offer only pleasures to Augustin; it was besides an +extraordinary subject to think about for an understanding so alert and +all-embracing as his. + +At Carthage he understood the Roman grandeur as he could not at Madaura +and the Numidian towns. Here, as elsewhere, the Romans made a point of +impressing the minds of conquered races by the display of their strength +and magnificence. Above all, they aimed at the immense. The towns built +by them offered the same decorative and monumental character of the +Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, which the Romans had further +exaggerated--a character not without emphasis and over-elaboration, but +which was bound to astonish, and that was the main thing in their view. In +short, their ideal was not perceptibly different from that of our modern +town councillors. To lay out streets which intersected at right angles; to +create towns cut into even blocks like chessboards; to multiply prospects +and huge architectural masses--all the Roman cities of this period revealed +such an aim, with an almost identical plan. + +Erected after this type, the new Carthage caused the old to be forgotten. +Everybody agreed that it was second only to Rome. The African writers +squandered the most hyperbolical praises upon it. For them it is "The +splendid, the august, the sublime Carthage." Although there may well be a +certain amount of triviality or of patriotic exaggeration in these praises, +it is certain that the Roman capital of the Province of Africa was no less +considerable than the old metropolis of the Hanno and Barcine factions. +With a population almost as large as that of Rome, it had almost as great +a circumference. It must further be recalled that as it had no ramparts +till the Vandal invasion, the city overflowed into the country. With its +gardens, villas, and burial-places of the dead, it covered nearly the +entire peninsula, to-day depopulated. + +Carthage, as well as Rome, had her Capitol and Palatine upon Mount Byrsa, +where rose no doubt a temple consecrated to the Capitolean triune deities, +Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, not far from the great temple of AEsculapius, a +modern transformation of the old Punic Eschmoum. Hard by these sanctuaries, +the Proconsul's palace dominated Carthage from the height of the acclivity +of the Acropolis. The Forum was at the foot of the hill, probably in the +neighbourhood of the ports--a Forum built and arranged in the Roman way, +with its shops of bankers and money-changers placed under the circular +galleries, with the traditional image of Marsyas, and a number of statues +of local celebrities. Apuleius no doubt had his there. Further off was the +Harbour Square, where gathered foreigners recently landed and the idlers of +the city in search of news, and where the booksellers offered the new books +and pamphlets. There was to be seen one of the curiosities of Carthage--a +mosaic representing fabulous monsters, men without heads, and men with only +one leg and one foot--a huge foot under which, lying upon their backs, they +sheltered from the sun, as under a parasol. On account of this feature they +were called the _sciapodes_. Augustin, who like everybody else had paused +before these grotesque figures, recalls them somewhere to his readers.... +Beside the sea, in the lower town and upon the two near hills of the +Acropolis, were a number of detached buildings that the old authors have +preserved the names of and briefly described. Thanks to the zeal of +archaeologists, it is now become impossible to tell where they stood. + +The pagan sanctuaries were numerous. That of the goddess Coelestis, the +great patroness of Carthage, occupied a space of five thousand feet. It +comprised, besides the actual [Greek: hieron], where stood the image of the +goddess, gardens, sacred groves, and courts surrounded with columns. The +ancient Phoenician Moloch had also his temple under the name of Saturn. +They called him _The Old One_, so Augustin tells us, and his worshippers +were falling away. On the other hand, Carthage had another sanctuary which +was very fashionable, a _Serapeum_ as at Alexandria, where were manifested +the pomps of the Egyptian ritual, celebrated by Apuleius. Neighbouring +the holy places, came the places of amusement: the theatre, the Odeum, +circus, stadium, and amphitheatre--this last, of equal dimensions with +the Colosseum at Rome, its gallery rising upon gallery, and its realistic +sculptures of animals and artisans. Then there were the buildings for the +public service: the immense cisterns of the East and the Malga, the great +aqueduct, which, after being carried along a distance of fifty-five miles, +emptied the water of the Zaghouan into the reservoirs at Carthage. Finally, +there were the Baths, some of which we know--those of Antoninus and of +Maximianus, and those of Gargilius, where one of the most important +Councils known to the history of the African Church assembled. There were +likewise many Christian basilicas at the time of Augustin. The authors +mention seventeen: it is likely there were more. That of Damous-el-Karita, +the only one of which considerable traces have been found, was vast and +richly decorated, and was perhaps the cathedral of Carthage. + +What other buildings there were are utterly lost to history. It +may be conjectured, however, that Carthage, as well as Rome, had a +_septizonium_--a decorative building with peristyles one above the other +which surrounded a reservoir. In fact, it is claimed that the one at +Rome was copied from Carthage. Straight streets paved with large flags +intersected around these buildings, forming a network of long avenues, very +bright and ventilated. Some of them were celebrated in the ancient world +either for their beauty or the animation of their trade: the street of the +Jewellers, the street of Health, of Saturn, of Coelestis, too, or of Juno. +The fig and vegetable markets and the public granaries were also some of +the main centres of Carthaginian life. + +It is unquestionable that Carthage, with its buildings and statues, its +squares, avenues and public gardens, looked like a large capital, and was +a perfect example of that ideal of rather brutal magnificence and strength +which the Romans obtruded everywhere. + +And even while it dazzled the young provincial from Thagaste, the African +Rome shewed him the virtue of order--social and political order. Carthage, +the metropolis of Western Africa, maintained an army of officials who +handled the government in its smallest details. First of all, there +were the representatives of the central power, the imperial rulers--the +Proconsul, a sort of vice-emperor, who was surrounded by a full court, a +civil and military staff, a privy council, an _officium_ which included a +crowd of dignitaries and subaltern clerks. Then there was the Propraetor +of Africa who, being in control of the government of the whole African +province, had an _officium_ still larger perhaps than the Proconsul's. +After them came the city magistrates, who were aided in their functions by +the Council of the Decurions--the Senate of Carthage. These Carthaginian +senators cut a considerable figure: for them their colleagues at Rome +were full of airs and graces, and the Emperors endeavoured to keep them +in a good-humour. All the details of city government came under their +supervision: the slaughter-houses, buildings, the gathering of municipal +taxes, and the police, which comprised even the guardians of the Forum. +Then there were the army and navy. The home port of a grain-carrying fleet +which conveyed the African cereals to Ostia, Carthage could starve Rome +if she liked. The grain and oil of all countries lay in her docks--the +storehouses of the state provisions, which were in charge of a special +prefect who had under his orders a whole corporation of overseers and +clerks. + +Augustin must have heard a good deal of grumbling at Carthage against this +excess of officialism. But, all the same, so well-governed a city was a +very good school for a young man who was to combine later the duties of +bishop, judge, and governor. The blessings of order, of what was called +"the Roman peace" no doubt impressed him the more, as he himself came from +a turbulent district often turned upside down by the quarrels of religious +sects and by the depredations of the nomads--a boundary-land of the Sahara +regions where it was much harder to bring the central government into +play than in Carthage and the coast-towns. To appreciate the beauty of +government, there is nothing like living in a country where all is at the +mercy of force or the first-comer's will. Such of the Barbarians who came +in contact with Roman civilization were overcome with admiration for the +good order that it established. But what astonished them more than anything +else was that the Empire was everywhere. + +No man, whatever his race or country, could help feeling proud to belong to +the Roman city. He was at home in all the countries in the world subject +to Rome. Our Europe, split into nationalities, can hardly understand now +this feeling of pride, so different from our narrow patriotisms. The way to +feel something of it is to go to the colonies: out there the least of us +may believe himself a sovereign, simply from the fact that he is a subject +of the governing country. This feeling was very strong in the old world. +Carthage, where the striking effect of the Empire appeared in all its +brilliancy, would increase it in Augustin. He had only to look around him +to value the extent of the privilege conferred by Rome on her citizens. Men +coming from all countries, without exception of race, were, so to speak, +made partners of the Empire and collaborated in the grandeur of the Roman +scheme. If the Proconsul who then occupied the Byrsa palace, the celebrated +Symmachus, belonged to an old Italian family, he whom he represented, +the Emperor Valentinian, was the son of a Pannonian soldier. The Count +Theodosius, the general who suppressed the insurrection of Firmus in +Mauretania, was a Spaniard, and the army he led into Africa was made up, +for the most part, of Gauls. Later on, under Arcadius, another Gaul, +Rufinus, shall be master of the whole of the East. + +An active mind like Augustin's could not remain indifferent before this +spectacle of the world thrown open by Rome to all men of talent. He had the +soul of a poet, quick to enthusiasm; the sight of the Eagles planted on +the Acropolis at Carthage moved him in a way he never forgot. He acquired +the habit of seeing big, and began to cast off race prejudices and all the +petty narrowness of a local spirit. When he became a Christian he did not +close himself up, like the Donatists, within the African Church. His dream +was that Christ's Empire upon earth should equal the Empire of the Caesars. + +Still, it is desirable not to fall into error upon this Roman unity. +Behind the imposing front it shewed from one end to the other of the +Mediterranean, the variety of peoples, with their manners, traditions, +special religions, was always there, and in Africa more than elsewhere. +The population of Carthage was astonishingly mixed. The hybrid character +of this country without unity was illustrated by the streaks found in the +Carthaginian crowds. All the specimens of African races elbowed one another +in the streets, from the nigger, brought from his native Soudan by the +slave-merchant, to the Romanized Numidian. The inflow, continually renewed, +of traffickers and cosmopolitan adventurers increased this confusion. +And so Carthage was a Babel of races, of costumes, of beliefs and ideas. +Augustin, who was at heart a mystic, but also a dialectician extremely fond +of showy discussions, found in Carthage a lively summary of the religions +and philosophies of his day. During these years of study and reflection he +captured booty of knowledge and observation which he would know how to make +use of in the future. + +In the Carthage sanctuaries and schools, in the squares and the streets, +he could see pass the disciples of all the systems, the props of all the +superstitions, the devotees of all the religions. He heard the shrill +clamour of disputes, the tumult of fights and riots. When a man was at the +end of his arguments, he knocked down his opponent. The authorities had a +good deal of trouble to keep order. Augustin, who was an intrepid logician, +must have longed to take his share in these rows. But one cannot exactly +improvise a faith between to-day and to-morrow. While he awaited the +enlightenment of the truth, he studied the Carthaginian Babel. + +First of all, there was the official religion, the most obvious and perhaps +the most brilliant, that of the Divinity of the Emperors, which was still +kept up even under the Christian Caesars. Each year, at the end of October, +the elected delegates of the entire province, having at their head the +_Sacerdos province_, the provincial priest, arrived at Carthage. Their +leader, clad in a robe broidered with palms, gold crown on head, made his +solemn entry into the city. It was a perfect invasion, each member dragging +in his wake a mob of clients and servants. The Africans, with their +taste for pomp and colour, seized the chance to give themselves over to a +display of ruinous sumptuosities: rich dresses, expensive horses splendidly +caparisoned, processions, sacrifices, public banquets, games at the circus +and amphitheatre. These strangers so overcrowded the city that the imperial +Government had to forbid them, under severe penalties, to stay longer +than five days. A very prudent measure! At these times, collisions were +inevitable between pagans and Christians. It was desirable to scatter such +crowds as soon as possible, for riots were always smouldering in their +midst. + +No less thronged were the festivals of the Virgin of Heaven. A survival +of the national religion, these feasts were dear to the hearts of the +Carthaginians. Augustin went to them with his fellow-students. "We trooped +there from every quarter," he says. There was a great gathering of people +in the interior court which led up to the temple. The statue, taken from +its sanctuary, was placed before the peristyle upon a kind of repository. +Wantons, arrayed with barbarous lavishness, danced around the holy +image; actors performed and sang hymns. "Our eager eyes," Augustin adds +maliciously, "rested in turn on the goddess, and on the girls, her +adorers." The Great Mother of the Gods, the Goddess of Mount Berecyntus, +was worshipped with similar license. Every year the people of Carthage went +to wash her solemnly in the sea. Her statue, carried in a splendid litter, +robed with precious stuffs, curled and farded, passed through the streets +of the city, with its guard of mummers and Corybants. These last, "with +hair greasy from pomade, pale faces, and a loose and effeminate walk, held +out bowls for alms to the onlookers." + +The devotion to Isis was yet another excuse for processions: the _Serapeum_ +was a rival attraction to the temple of the Heavenly Maiden. If we may +trust Tertullian, the Africans swore only by Serapis. Possibly Mithras +had also worshippers in Carthage. Anyhow, the occult religions were fully +represented there. Miracle-working was becoming more and more the basis +even of paganism. Never had the soothsayers been more flourishing. +Everybody, in secret, pried into the entrails of the sacrificial victims, +or used magic spells. As to the wizards and astrologists, they did business +openly. Augustin himself consulted them, like all the Carthaginians. The +public credulity had no limits. + +On the opposite side from the pagan worship, the sects which had sprung +from Christianity sprouted. True, Africa has given birth to but a small +number of heresies: the Africans had not the subtle mind of the Orientals +and they were not given to theorizing. But a good many of the Eastern +heresies had got into Carthage. Augustin must have still met Arians there, +although at this period Arianism was dying out in Africa. What is certain +is that orthodox Catholicism was in a very critical state. The Donatists +captured its congregations and churches; they were unquestionably in the +majority. They raised altar against altar. If Genethlius was the Catholic +bishop, the Donatist bishop was Parmenianus. And they claimed to be more +Catholic than their opponents. They boasted that they were the Church, the +single, the unique Church, the Church of Christ. But these schismatics +themselves were already splitting up into many sects. At the time Augustin +was studying at Carthage, Rogatus, Bishop of Tenes, had just broken +publicly with Parmenian's party. Another Donatist, Tyconius, published +books wherein he traversed many principles dear to his fellow-religionists. +Doubt darkened consciences. Amid these controversies, where was the truth? +Among whom did the Apostolic tradition dwell? + +To put the finishing touch on this anarchy, a sect which likewise derived +from Christianity--Manicheeism--began to have numerous adepts in Africa. +Watched with suspicion by the Government, it concealed part of its +doctrine, the most scandalous and subversive. But the very mystery which +enveloped it, helped it to get adherents. + +Among all these apostles preaching their gospel, these devotees beating +the drum before their god, these theologians reciprocally insulting and +excommunicating one another, Augustin brought the superficial scepticism of +his eighteenth year. He wanted no more of the religion in which his mother +had brought him up. He was a good talker, a clever dialectician; he was in +a hurry to emancipate himself, to win freedom for his way of thinking as +for his way of life; and he meant to enjoy his youth. With such gifts, and +with such dispositions, he could only choose among all these doctrines that +which would help most the qualities of his mind, at once flattering his +intellectual pretensions, and leaving his pleasure-loving instincts a loose +rein. + + + + +III + +THE CARTHAGE STUDENT + + +However strong were the attractions of the great city, Augustin well knew +that he had not been sent there to amuse himself, or to trifle as an +amateur with philosophy. He was poor, and he had to secure his future--make +his fortune. His family counted on him. Neither was he ignorant of the +difficult position of his parents and by what sacrifices they had supplied +him with the means to finish his studies. Necessarily he was obliged to be +a student who worked. + +With his extraordinary facility, he stood out at once among his +fellow-students. In the rhetoric school, where he attended lectures, +he was, he tells us, not only at the top, but he was the leader of his +companions. He led in everything. At that time, rhetoric was extremely +far-reaching: it had come to take in all the divisions of education, +including science and philosophy. Augustin claims to have learned all that +the masters of his time had to teach: rhetoric, dialectic, geometry, music, +mathematics. Having gone through the whole scholastic system, he thought of +studying law, and aided by his gift of words, to become a barrister. For a +gifted young man it was the shortest and surest road to money and honours. + +Unhappily for him, hardly was he settled down at Carthage than his father +died. This made his future again problematical. How was he to keep up his +studies without the sums coming from his father? The affairs of Patricius +must have been left in the most parlous condition. But Monnica, clinging to +her ambitious plans for her son, knew how to triumph over all difficulties, +and she continued to send Augustin money. Romanianus, the Maecenas of +Thagaste, who was doubtless applied to by her, came once more to the rescue +of the hard-up student. The young man, set at ease about his expenses, +resumed light-heartedly his studious and dissipated life. + +As a matter of fact, this family bereavement does not seem to have caused +him much grief. In the _Confessions_ he mentions the death of his father in +a few words, and, so to speak, in parenthesis, as an event long foreseen +without much importance. And yet he owed him a great deal. Patricius was +hard pressed, and he took immense trouble to provide the means for his +son's education. But with the fine egotism of youth, Augustin perhaps +thought it enough to have profited by his father's sacrifices, and +dispensed himself from gratitude. In any case, his affection for his father +must have been rather lukewarm; the natural differences between them ran +too deep. In these years, Monnica filled all the heart of Augustin. + +But the influence of Monnica herself was very slight upon this grown-up +youth, eighteen years old. He had forgotten her lessons, and it did not +trouble him much if his conduct added to the worries of the widow, who was +now struggling with her husband's creditors. At heart he was a good son and +he deeply loved his mother, but inevitably the pressure of the life around +him swept him along. + +He has pictured his companions for us, after his conversion, as terrible +blackguards. No doubt he is too severe. Those young men were neither better +nor worse than elsewhere. They were rowdy, as they were in the other cities +of the Empire, and as one always is at that age. Imperial regulations +enjoined the police to have an eye on the students, to note their conduct +and what company they kept. They were not to become members of prohibited +societies, not to go too often to the theatre, nor to waste their time in +raking and feastings. If their conduct became too outrageous, they were to +be beaten with rods and sent back to their parents. At Carthage there was +a hard-living set of men who called themselves "The Wreckers." Their great +pleasure was to go and make a row at a professor's lecture; they would +burst noisily into the classroom and smash up anything they could lay hold +of. They amused themselves also by "ragging" the freshmen, jeering at their +simplicity, and playing them a thousand tricks. Things haven't much changed +since then. The fellow-students of Augustin were so like students of +to-day that the most modern terms suggest themselves to describe their +performances. + +Augustin, who was on the whole well conducted, and, as behoved a future +professor, had a respect for discipline, disapproved of "The Wreckers" and +their violence. This did not prevent him from enjoying himself in their +society. He was overcome with shame because he could not keep pace with +them--we must believe it at least, since he tells us so himself. With a +certain lack of assurance, blended however with much juvenile vanity, he +joined the band. He listened to that counsel of vulgar wisdom which is +disastrous to souls like his: "Do as others do." He accordingly did do +as the others; he knew all their debauchery, or he imagined he did, for +however low he went, he was never able to do anything mean. He was then so +far from the faith that he arranged love-trysts in the churches. "I was not +afraid to think of my lust, and plan a scheme for securing the deadly fruit +of sin, even within the walls of Thy church during the celebration of Thy +mysteries." We might be reading the confession of a sensualist of to-day. +One grows astonished at these morals, at once so old and so modern. What, +already! These young Christian basilicas, but newly sprung out of the +earth, where the men were strictly separated from the women--were they +already become places of assignation, where love-letters were slipped into +hands, and procuresses sold their furtive services!... + +At length the great happiness for which Augustin had so long been sighing +was granted him: he loved and he was loved. + +He loved as he indeed was able to love, with all the impetuosity of his +nature and all the fire of his temperament, with all his heart and all his +senses. "I plunged headlong into love, whose fetters I longed to wear." But +as he went at once to extremes, as he meant to give himself altogether, +and expected all in return, he grew irritated at not receiving this same +kind of love. It was never enough love for him. Yet he was loved, and the +very certainty of this love, always too poor to his mind, exasperated the +violence and pertinacity of his desire. "Because I was loved, I proudly +riveted round myself the chain of woe, to be soon scourged with the red-hot +iron rods of jealousy, torn by suspicions, fears, anger, and quarrels." +This was passion with chorus and orchestra, a little theatrical, with its +violences, its alternations between fury and ecstasy, such as an African, +steeped in romantic literature, would conceive it. Deceived, he flung +himself in desperate pursuit of the ever-flitting love. He had certainly +more than one passion. Each one left him more hungry than the last. + +He was sensual, and he felt each time how brief is pleasure, in what a +limited circle all enjoyment turns. He was tender, eager to give himself; +and he saw plainly that one never gives oneself quite altogether, that even +in the maddest hours of surrender one always reserves oneself in secret, +keeping for oneself something of oneself; and he felt that most of the time +his tenderness got no answer. When the joyous heart brings the offering of +its love, the heart of her he loves is absent. And when it is there, on the +edge of the lips, decked and smiling to meet the loved one, it is the other +who is absent. Almost never do they join together, and they never join +together altogether. And so this Love, which claims to be constant and even +eternal, ought to be, if it would prolong itself, a continual act of faith, +and hope, and charity. To believe in it in spite of its darkening and +falling away; to hope its return, often against all evidence; to pardon its +injustices and sometimes its foul actions--how many are capable of such +abnegation? Augustin went through all that. He was in despair about it. +And then, the nostalgia of predestined souls took hold of him. He had an +indistinct feeling that these human loves were unworthy of him, and that +if he must have a master, he was born to serve another Master. He had a +desire to shake off the platitude of here below, the melancholy fen where +stagnated what he calls "the marsh of the flesh"; to escape, in a word, +from the wretched huts wherein for a little he had sheltered his heart; to +burn all behind him, and so prevent the weakness of a return; and to go and +pitch his tent further, higher, he knew not where--upon some unapproachable +mountain where the air is icy, but before the eyes, the vasty stretches of +light and space.... + +These first loves of Augustin were really too fierce to last. They +burned up themselves. Augustin did not keep them up long. There was in +him, besides, an instinct which counteracted his exuberant, amorous +sentimentality--the sense of beauty. That in itself was enough to make him +pause on the downhill of riot. The anarchy and commotion of passion was +repellent to a mind devoted to clearness and order. But there was still +another thing--the son of the Thagaste freeholder had any amount of common +sense. That at least was left to him of the paternal heritage. A youth of +what we call the lower middle class, strictly brought up in the hard and +frugal discipline of the provinces, he felt the effects of his training. +The bohemianism in which his friends revelled could not hold him +indefinitely. Besides this, the career he desired, that of a barrister +or professor, had a preliminary obligation to maintain a certain outward +decorum. He himself tells us so; in the midst of his most disreputable +performances he aspired to be known for his fashion and wit--_elegans atque +urbanus_. Politeness of speech and manners, the courteous mutual deference +of the best society--such, was the ideal of this budding professor of +rhetoric. + +Anxiety about his future, joined to his rapid disenchantments, ere long +sobered the student: he just took his fling and then settled down. Love +turned for him into sensual habit. His head became clear for study and +meditation. The apprentice to rhetoric liked his business. Up to his +last breath, despite his efforts to change, he continued, like all his +contemporaries, to love rhetoric. He handled words like a worker in verbals +who is aware of their price and knows all their resources. Even after his +conversion, if he condemns profane literature as a poisoner of souls, he +absolves the beauty of language. "I accuse not words," he says. "Words +are choice and precious vessels. I accuse the wine of error that drunken +doctors pour out for us into these fair goblets." At the Rhetoric School he +took extreme pleasure in declaiming. He was applauded; the professor gave +him as an example to the others. These scholastic triumphs foretold others +more celebrated and reverberating. And so, in his heart, literary vanity +and ambition disputed the ever-lively illusions of love. And then, above +all! he had to live; Monnica's remittances were necessarily small; the +generosity of Romanianus had its limit. So he beat about to enlarge his +small student's purse. He wrote verses for poetic competitions. Perhaps +already he was able to act as tutor to certain of his fellow-students, less +advanced. + +If the need of loving tormented his sentimental heart, he tried to assuage +it in friendship. He loved friendship as he loved love. He was a passionate +and faithful friend up to his death. At this time of his life, he was +riveting friendships which were never to be broken. He had beside him his +fellow-countryman, Alypius, the future Bishop of Thagaste, who had followed +him to Carthage and would, later on, follow him to Milan; Nebridius, a not +less dear companion, fated to die early; Honoratus, whom he drew into his +errors and later did his best to enlighten; and, finally, that mysterious +young man, whose name he does not tell us, and whose loss he mourned as +never any one has mourned the death of a friend. + +They lived in daily and hourly intimacy, in continual fervour and +enthusiasm. They were great theatre-goers, where Augustin was able to +satisfy his desire for tender emotions and romantic adventures. They had +musical parties; they tried over again the popular airs heard at the +Odeum or some other of the innumerable theatres at Carthage. All the +Carthaginians, even the populace, were mad about music. The Bishop of +Hippo, in his sermons, recalls a mason upon his scaffolding, or a shoemaker +in his stall, singing away the tunes of well-known musicians. Then our +students strolled on the quays or in the Harbour Square, contemplating +the many-coloured sea, this splendour of waters at the setting sun, which +Augustin will extol one day with an inspiration unknown to the ancient +poets. Above all, they fell into discussions, commented what they had +lately read, or built up astonishing plans for the future. So flowed by a +happy and charming life, abruptly interpolated with superb anticipations. +With what a full heart the Christian penitent calls it back for us!--"What +delighted me in the intercourse of my friends, was the talk, the laughter, +the good turns we did each other, the common study of the masters of +eloquence, the comradeship, now grave now gay, the differences that left +no sting, as of a man differing with himself, the spice of disagreement +which seasoned the monotony of consent. Each by turns would instruct or +listen; impatiently we missed the absent friend, and savoured the joy of +his return. We loved each other with all our hearts, and such tokens of +friendship springing from the heart and displayed by a word, a glance, an +expression, by a thousand pretty complaisances, supply the heat which welds +souls together, and of many make one." + +It is easily understood that such ties as these had given Augustin a +permanent disgust for his rowdy comrades of a former time: he went no more +with "The Wreckers." The small circle he took pleasure in was quiet and +cheerful. Its merriment was controlled by the African gravity. He and his +friends come before my eyes, a little like those students of theology, or +those cultivated young Arabs, who discuss poetry, lolling indolently upon +the cushions of a divan, while they roll between their fingers the amber +beads of their rosary, or walking slowly under the arcades of a mosque, +draped in their white-silk simars, with a serious and meditative air, +gestures elegant and measured, courteous and harmonious speech, and +something discreet, polite, and already clerical in their tone and manners. + +In fact, the life which Augustin was at that time relishing was the pagan +life on its best and gentlest side. The subtle network of habits and daily +occupations enveloped him little by little. There was some risk of his +growing torpid in this soft kind of life, when suddenly a rude shock roused +him.... It was a chance, but in his eyes a providential chance, which put +the _Hortensius_ of Cicero between his hands. Augustin was about nineteen, +still a student; according to the order which prevailed in the schools, +the time had come for him to read and explain this philosophical dialogue. +He had no curiosity about the book. He took it from his sense of duty as +a student, because it figured on the schedule. He unrolled the book, and +began it, doubtless with calm indifference. All of a sudden, a great +unexpected light shone between the lines. His heart throbbed. His whole +soul sprang towards these phrases, so dazzling and revealing. He awoke +from his long drowsiness. Before him shone a marvellous vision.... As this +dialogue is lost, we can hardly to-day account for such enthusiasm, and +we hold that the Roman orator was a very middling philosopher. We know, +however, through Augustin himself, that the book contained an eloquent +praise of wisdom. And then, words are naught without the soul of the +reader; all this, falling into Augustin's soul, rendered a prolonged and +magnificent sound. It is evident, too, that just at the moment when he +unrolled the book he was in a condition to receive this uplifting summons. +In such minutes, when the heart, ignorant of itself, swells like the sea +before a storm, when all the inner riches of the being overflow, the +slightest glimmer is enough to reveal all these imprisoned forces, and the +least shock to set them free. + +He has at least preserved for us, in pious and faithful gratitude, some +phrases of this dialogue which moved him so deeply. Especially does he +admire this passage, wherein the author, after a long discussion, ends in +these terms: "If, as pretend the philosophers of old time, who are also +the greatest and most illustrious, we have a soul immortal and divine, it +behoves us to think, that the more it has persevered in its way, that is to +say, in reason, love, and the pursuit of truth, and the less it has been +intermingled and stained in human error and passion, the easier will it be +for it to raise itself and soar again to the skies." + +Such phrases, read in a certain state of mind, might well overwhelm this +young man, who was ere long to yearn for the cloister and was destined to +be the founder of African monasticism. To give his whole life to the study +of wisdom, to compel himself towards the contemplation of God, to live +here below an almost divine life--this ideal, impossible to pagan wisdom, +Augustin was called to realize in the name of Christ. That had dawned on +him, all at once, while he was reading the _Hortensius_. And this ideal +appeared to him so beautiful, so well worth the sacrifice of all he had +hitherto loved, that nothing else counted for him any more. He despised +rhetoric, the vain studies it compelled him to pursue, the honour and glory +it promised him. What was all that to the prize of wisdom? For wisdom he +felt himself ready to give up the world.... But these heroic outbursts +do not, as a rule, keep up very long in natures so changeable and +impressionable as Augustin's. Yet they are not entirely thrown away. +Thus, in early youth, come dim revelations of the future. There comes a +presentiment of the port to which one will some day be sailing; a glimpse +of the task to fulfil, the work to build up; and all this rises before the +eyes in an entrancement of the whole being. Though the bright image be +eclipsed, perhaps for years, the remembrance of it persists amid the worst +degradations or the worst mediocrities. He who one single time has seen it +pass, can never afterwards live quite like other people. + +This fever calmed, Augustin set himself to reflect. The ancient +philosophers promised him wisdom. But Christ also promised it! Was it not +possible to reconcile them? And was not the Gospel ideal essentially more +human than that of the pagan philosophers? Suppose he tried to submit to +that, to bring the faith of his childhood into line with his ambitions as a +young man of intellect? To be good after the manner of his mother, of his +grandparents, of the good Thagaste servants, of all the humble Christian +souls whose virtues he had been taught to respect, and at the same time to +rival a Plato by the strength of thought--what a dream! Was it possible?... +He tells us himself that the illusion was brief, and that he grew cool +about the _Hortensius_ because he did not find the name of Christ in it. He +deceives himself, probably. At this time he was not so Christian. He yields +to the temptation of a fine phrase: when he wrote his _Confessions_ he had +not yet entirely lost this habit. + +But what remains true is, that feeling the inadequateness of pagan +philosophy, he returned for a moment towards Christianity. The Ciceronian +dialogue, by disappointing his thirst for the truth, gave him the idea of +knocking at the door of the Church and trying to find out if on that side +there might not be a practicable road for him. This is why the reading +of _Hortensius_ is in Augustin's eyes one of the great dates of his life. +Although he fell back in his errors, he takes credit for his effort. +He recognizes in it the first sign, and, as it were, a promise of his +conversion. "Thenceforth, my God, began my upward way, and my return +towards Thee." + +He began then to study the Holy Scriptures with a more or less serious +intention to instruct himself in them. But to go to the Bible by way of +Cicero was to take the worst road. Augustin got lost there. This direct +popular style, which only cares about saying things, and not about how they +are said, could only repel the pupil of Carthage rhetoricians, the imitator +of the harmonious Ciceronian sentences. Not only had he much too spoiled +a taste in literature, but there was also too much literature in this +pose of a young man who starts off one fine morning to conquer wisdom. He +was punished for his lack of sincerity, and especially of humility. He +understood nothing of the Scripture, and "I found it," he says, "a thing +not known to the proud, nor yet laid open to children, but poor in +appearance, lofty in operation, and veiled in mysteries. At that time, I +was not the man to bow my head so as to pass in at its door."... + +He grew tired very quickly. He turned his back on the Bible, as he +had thrown aside _Hortensius_, and he went to find pasture elsewhere. +Nevertheless, his mind had been set in motion. Nevermore was he to know +repose, till he had found truth. He demanded this truth from all the sects +and all the churches. So it was, that in despair he flung himself into +Manicheeism. + +Some have professed amazement that this honest and practical mind should +have stuck fast in a doctrine so tortuous, so equivocal, contaminated by +fancies so grossly absurd. But perhaps it is forgotten that there was +everything in Manicheeism. The leaders of the sect did not deliver the bulk +of the doctrine all at once to their catechumens; the entire initiation was +a matter of several degrees. Now Augustin never went higher than a simple +_auditor_ in the Manichean Church. What attracted specially fine minds to +the Manichees, was that they began by declaring themselves rationalists. +To reconcile faith with natural science and philosophy has been the fad +of heresiarchs and free-thinkers in all ages. The Manicheans bragged that +they had succeeded. They went everywhere, crying out: "Truth, Truth!" That +suited Augustin very well: it was just what he was looking for. He hastened +to the preachings of these humbugs, impatient to receive at last this +"truth," so noisily announced. From what they said, it was contained in +several large books written by their prophet under the guidance of the Holy +Ghost. There was quite a library of them. By way of bamboozling the crowd, +they produced some of them which looked very important, ponderous as +Tables of the Law, richly bound in vellum, and embellished with striking +illuminations. How was it possible to doubt that the entire revelation was +contained in such beautiful books? One felt at once full of respect for a +religion which was able to produce in its favour the testimony of such a +mass of writings. + +However, the priests did not open them. To allay the impatience of their +hearers, they amused them by criticizing the books and dogmas of the +Catholics. This preliminary criticism was the first lesson of their +instruction. They pointed out any number of incoherences, absurdities, +and interpolations in the Bible: according to them, a great part of the +Scriptures had been foisted on the world by the Jews. But they triumphed +especially in detecting the contradictions of the Gospel narratives. They +sapped them with syllogisms. It is easy to understand that these exercises +in logic should have at once attracted the youthful Augustin. With his +extraordinary dialectical subtilty, he soon became very good at it +himself--much better even than his masters. He made speeches in their +assemblies, fenced against a text, peremptorily refuted it, and reduced his +adversaries to silence. He was applauded, covered with praise. A religion +which brought him such successes must be the true one. + +After he became a bishop, he tried to explain to himself how it was that +he fell into Manicheeism, and could find only two reasons. "The first," +he says, "was a friendship which took hold of me under I know not what +appearance of kindness, and was like a cord about my neck.... The second +was those unhappy victories that I almost always won in our disputes." + +But there is still another which he mentions elsewhere, and it had +perhaps the most weight. This was the loose moral code which Manicheeism +authorized. This doctrine taught that we are not responsible for the evil +we do. Our sins and vices are the work of the evil Principle--the God of +Darkness, enemy of the God of Light. Now at the moment when Augustin was +received as _auditor_ by the Manichees, he had a special need of excusing +his conduct by a moral system so convenient and indulgent. He had just +formed his connection with her who was to become the mother of his child. + + + + +IV + +THE SWEETNESS OF TEARS + + +Augustin was nearly twenty. He had finished his studies in rhetoric within +the required time. According to the notions of that age, a young man +ought to have concluded his course by his twentieth year. If not, he was +considered past mending and sent back there and then to his family. + +It may appear surprising that a gifted student like Augustin did not finish +his rhetoric course sooner. But after his terms at Madaura, he had lost +nearly a year at Thagaste. Besides, the life of Carthage had so many charms +for him that doubtless he was in no hurry to leave. However that may be, +the moment was now come for him to make up his mind about his career. +The wishes of his parents, the advice of his masters, as well as his own +ambitions and qualities, urged him, as we know, to become a barrister. But +now, suddenly, all his projects for the future changed. Not only did he +give up the law, but at the very moment when all appeared to smile on him, +at the opening of his youth, he left Carthage to go and bury himself as a +teacher of grammar in the little free-town his birthplace. + +As he has neglected to give any explanation of this sudden determination, +we are reduced to conjectures. It is likely that his mother was bothered +about household expenses and could no longer afford to keep him at +Carthage. Besides, she had other children, a son and daughter, to start in +life. Augustin was on the point of being, if not poor, at least very hard +up. He must do something to earn his living, and as quickly as possible. +In these conditions, the quickest way out of the difficulty was to sell +to others what he had bought from his masters. To live, he would open a +word-shop, as he calls it disdainfully. But as he had only just ceased to +be a student, he could not dream of becoming a professor in a great city +such as Carthage, and setting himself up in rivalry to so many celebrated +masters. The best thing he could do, if he did not want to vegetate, was to +fall back on some more modest post. Now his protector, Romanianus, wanted +him to go to Thagaste. This rich man had a son almost grown up, whom it was +necessary to put as soon as possible in the hands of a tutor. Augustin, +so often helped by the father, was naturally thought of to look after the +youth. Furthermore, Romanianus, who appreciated Augustin's talent, must +have been anxious to attract him to Thagaste and keep him there. With an +eye to the interests of his free-town, he desired to have such a shining +light in the place. So he asked this young man, whom he patronized, to +return to his native district and open a grammar school. He promised +him pupils, and, above all, the support of his influence, which was +considerable, Monnica, as we may conjecture, added her entreaties to those +of the great head of the Thagaste municipality. Augustin yielded. + +Did it grieve him very much to make up his mind to this exile? It must have +been extremely hard for a young man of twenty to give up Carthage and its +pleasures. Moreover, it is pretty nearly certain that at this time he had +already started that connection which was to last so long. To leave a +mistress whom he loved, and that in all the freshness of a passion just +beginning--one wonders how he was able to make up his mind to it. And yet +he did leave, and spent nearly a year at Thagaste. + +One peculiar mark of the youth, and even of the whole life of Augustin, is +the ease with which he unlearns and breaks off his habits--the sentimental +as well as the intellectual. He used up a good many doctrines before +resting in the Catholic truth; and even afterwards, in the course of a +long life, he contradicted and corrected himself more than once in his +controversies and theological writings. His _Retractations_ prove this. One +might say that the accustomed weighs on him as a hindrance to his liberty; +that the look of the places where he lives becomes hateful to him as a +threat of servitude. He feels dimly that his true country is elsewhere, and +that if he must settle anywhere it is in the house of his Heavenly Father. +_Inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te...._ "Restless are our +hearts, O my God, until they rest in Thee." Long before St. Francis of +Assisi, he practised the mystic rule: "As a stranger and a pilgrim." It is +true that in his twentieth year he was very far from being a mystic. But he +already felt that restlessness which made him cross the sea and roam Italy +from Rome to Milan. He is an impulsive. He cannot resist the mirages of his +heart or his imagination. He is always ready to leave. The road and its +chances tempt him. He is eager for the unknown. He lets himself be carried +in delight by the blowing wind. God calls him; he obeys without knowing +where he goes. This unsettled young man, halting between contrary passions, +who feels at home nowhere, has already the soul of an apostle. + +This changeableness of mood was probably the true cause of his departure +for Thagaste. But other more apparent reasons, reasons more patent to a +juvenile consciousness, guided him also. No doubt he was not sorry to +reappear in his little town, although he was so young, with the importance +and authority of a master. His former companions were going to become his +pupils. And then the Manichees had fanaticized him. Carried away by the +neophyte's bubbling zeal, elevated by his triumphs at the public meetings +in Carthage, he meant to shine before his fellow-countrymen, and perhaps +convert them. He departed with his mind made up to proselytize. Let us +believe also, that in spite of his dissolute life, and the new passion that +filled his heart, he did not come back to Thagaste without an affectionate +thought at the back of his head for his mother. + +The reception that Monnica had in reserve for him was going to surprise him +considerably. Since her widowhood, the wife of Patricius had singularly +advanced in the way of Christian perfection. The early Church not only +offered widows the moral help of its sacraments and consolations, it also +granted a special dignity with certain privileges to those who made a vow +to refrain from sex-intercourse. They had in the basilicas, even as the +consecrated virgins, a place of honour, divided from that of the other +matrons by a balustrade. They wore a special dress. They were obliged to +a conduct which would shew them worthy of all the outer marks of respect +which surrounded them. The austerity of Monnica had increased with the zeal +of her faith. She set an example to the Church people at Thagaste. Docile +to the teachings of her priests, eager to serve her brethren, multiplying +alms as much as she could with her straitened means, she was unfailing at +the services of the Church. Twice daily, morning and evening, she might be +seen, exact to the hour of prayer and sermon. She did not go there, her son +assures us, to mingle in cabals and the gossip of pious females, but to +hear God's word in homily, and that God might hear her in prayer. + +The widow compelled all who were about her to the same severe rule which +she herself observed. In this rigid atmosphere of his home, the student +from Carthage, with his free, fashionable airs, must have caused a painful +astonishment. Monnica felt at once that she and her son understood each +other no longer. She began by remonstrating with him. Augustin rebelled. +Things got worse when, with his presumption of the young professor +new-enamelled by the schools, the harsh and aggressive assurance of the +heresiarch, he boasted as loud as he could of being a Manichee. Monnica, +deeply wounded in her piety and motherly tenderness, ordered him to give up +his errors. He refused, and only replied by sarcasms to the poor woman's +complaints. Then she must have believed that the separation was final, that +Augustin had committed an irreparable crime. Being an African Christian, +absolute in her faith and passionate for its defence, she regarded her +son as a public danger. She was filled with horror at his treason. It is +possible, too, that guided by the second-sight of her affection, she saw +clearer into Augustin's heart than he did himself. She was plunged in +sorrow that he mistook himself to this extent, and refused the Grace which +desired to win him to the Catholic unity. And as he was not content with +losing himself, but also drew others into peril--disputing, speech-making +before his friends, abusing his power of language to throw trouble into +consciences--Monnica finally made up her mind. She forbade her son to eat +at her table, or to sleep under her roof. She drove him from the house. + +This must have been a big scandal in Thagaste. It does not appear, however, +that Augustin cared much. In all the conceit of his false knowledge, he had +that kind of inhumanity which drives the intellectual to make litter of the +sweetest and deepest feelings as a sacrifice to his abstract idol. Not only +did he not mind very much if his apostasy made his mother weep, but he did +not trouble, either, to reconcile the chimeras of his brain with the living +reality of his soul and the things of life. Whatever he found inconvenient, +he tranquilly denied, content if he had talked well and entangled his +adversary in the net of his syllogisms. + +Put in interdict by Monnica, he simply went and quartered himself on +Romanianus. The sumptuous hospitality he received there very soon consoled +him for his exile from his home. And if his self-esteem had been affronted, +the pride of living familiarly with so important a personage was, for a +vain young man, a very full compensation. + +In fact, this Romanianus roused the admiration of the whole country by his +luxury and lavish expenditure. He was bound to ruin himself in the long +run, or, at any rate, to raise up envious people bent upon his ruin. Being +at the head of the Decurions, he was the protector, not only of Thagaste, +but of the neighbouring towns. He was the great patron, the influential +man, who had nearly the whole country for his dependents. The town council, +through gratitude and flattery, had had his name engraved upon tables of +brass, and had put up statues to him. It had even conferred powers on him +wider than municipal powers. The truth is that Romanianus did not dole +out his benefactions to his fellow-citizens. He gave them bear-fights and +other spectacles till then unknown at Thagaste. He did not grudge public +banquets, and every day a free meal was to be got at his house. The guests +were served plentifully. After having eaten his dinner, they dipped in +the purse of the host. Romanianus knew the art of doing an obliging thing +discreetly, and even how to anticipate requests which might be painful. So +he was proclaimed unanimously, "the most humane, the most liberal, the most +polite and happiest of men." + +Generous to his dependents, he did not forget himself. He built a villa +which, by the space it occupied, was a real palace, with _thermae_ walled +in precious marbles. He passed his time in the baths, or gaming, or +hunting--in short, he led the life of a great landed proprietor of those +days. + +No doubt these villas had neither the beauty nor the art-value of the great +Italian villas, which were a kind of museums in a pretty, or grand, natural +frame; but they did not lack charm. Some of them, like that of Romanianus, +were built and decorated at lavish expense. Immensely large, they took +in sometimes an entire village; and sometimes, also, the villa, properly +speaking, the part of the building where the master dwelt, was fortified, +closed in by walls and towers like a feudal castle. Upon the outer gates +and the entrance door might be read in big letters: "The Property of +So-and-so." Often, the inscription was repeated upon the walls of an +enclosure or of a farm, which really belonged to a dependent of the great +man. Under the shelter of the lord's name, these small-holders defended +themselves better against fiscal tyranny, or were included in the +immunities of their patrons. So was formed, under the cover of patronage, +a sort of African feudalism. Augustin's father, who owned vineyards, was +certainly a vassal of Romanianus. + +As the African villa was a centre of agricultural activity, it maintained +on the estate a whole population of slaves, workmen, and small-holders. +The chief herdsman's house neighboured that of the forester. Through +deer-parks, enclosed by latticed fences, wandered gazelles. Oil factories, +vats and cellars for wine, ran on from the bath-buildings and the offices. +Then there was the main building with its immense doorway, its belvedere of +many stories, as in the Roman villas, its interior galleries, and wings to +the right and left of the _atrium_. In front lay the terraces, the gardens +with straight walks formed by closely-clipped hedges of box which led to +pools and jets of water, to arbours covered with ivy, to nymph-fountains +ornamented with columns and statues. In these gardens was a particular +place called the "philosopher's corner." The mistress of the house used to +go there to read or dream. Her chair, or folding-seat, was placed under the +shade of a palm tree. Her "philosopher" followed her, holding her parasol +and leading her little favourite dog. + +It is easy to realize that Augustin managed to stand his mother's severity +without overmuch distress in one of these fine country houses. To be +comfortable there, he had only to follow his natural inclination, which +was, he tells us, epicureanism. It is most certain that at this period +the only thing he cared about and sought after was pleasure. Staying +with Romanianus, he took his share in all the pleasant things of life, +_suavitates illius vitae_--shared the amusements of his host, and only +bothered about his pupils when he had nothing better to do. He must have +been as little of a grammarian as possible--he hadn't the time. With +the tyrannical friendship of rich people, who are hard put to it to +find occupation, Romanianus doubtless monopolized him from morning till +night. They hunted together, or dined, or read poetry, or discussed in +the evergreen alleys of the garden or "the philosopher's corner." And +naturally, the recent convert to Manicheeism did his best to indoctrinate +and convert his patron--so far at least as a careless man like Romanianus +could be converted. Augustin accuses himself of having "flung" Romanianus +into his own errors. Augustin probably was not so guilty. His wealthy +friend does not seem to have had any very firm convictions. In all +likelihood, he was a pagan, a sceptical or hesitating pagan, such +as existed in numbers at that time. Led by Augustin, he drew near to +Manicheeism. Then, when Augustin gave up Manicheeism for Platonic +philosophy, we see Romanianus take the airs of a philosopher. Later, when +Augustin came back to Catholicism, he drew Romanianus in his wake towards +that religion. This man of fashion was one of those frivolous people who +never go deep into things, for whom ideas are only a pastime, and who +consider philosophers or men of letters as amusers. But it is certain +that he liked to listen to Augustin, and let himself be influenced. If he +trifled with Manicheeism, the reason was that Augustin dazzled him with his +arguments and fine phrases. This orator of twenty had already extraordinary +charm. + +So Augustin led a delightful life with Romanianus. Everything pleased +him--his talking triumphs, the admiration of his hearers, the flattery +and luxury which surrounded him. Meanwhile, Monnica was plunged in grief +at his conduct, and implored God to draw him from his errors. She began +to be sorry that she had sent him away, and with the clear-sightedness of +the Christian, she perceived that Romanianus' house was not good for the +prodigal. It would be better to have him back. Near her he would run less +risk of being corrupted. Through intense praying, came to her a dream +which quickened her determination. "She dreamed that she was weeping and +lamenting, with her feet planted on a wooden rule, when she saw coming +towards her a radiant youth who smiled upon her cheerfully. He asked the +reason of her sorrow and her daily tears ... and when she told him she was +bewailing my perdition, he bade her be of good comfort, look and see, for +where she was, there was I also. She looked, and saw me standing by her +side on the same rule." + +Filled with joy by this promise from on high, Monnica asked her son to +come home. He did come back, but with the quibbles of the Sophist, the +rhetorician cavilled against his mother. He tried to upset her happiness. +He said to her: + +"Since, according to your dream, we are to be both standing on the same +rule, that means that you are going to be a Manichean." + +"No," answered Monnica. "_He_ did not say, where he is you will be, but +where you are he will be." + +Augustin confesses that this strong good sense made a certain impression +on him. Nevertheless he did not change. For still nine years he remained a +Manichee. + +As a last resource, Monnica begged a bishop she knew, a man deeply read in +the Scriptures, to speak with her son and refute his errors. But so great +was the reputation of Augustin as an orator and dialectician that the holy +man dared not try a fall with such a vigorous jouster. He answered the +mother very wisely, that a mind so subtle and acute could not long continue +in such gross sophisms. And he offered his own example, for he, too, had +been a Manichee. But Monnica pressed him with entreaties and tears. At last +the bishop, annoyed by her persistence, but at the same time moved by her +tears, answered with a roughness mingled with kindness and compassion: + +"Go, go! Leave me alone. Live on as you are living. It cannot be that the +son of such tears should be lost." + +_Filius istarum lacrymarum_: the son of such tears!... Was it indeed the +country bishop, or rather the rhetorician Augustin who, in a burst of +gratitude, hit upon this sublime sentence? Certain it is that later on +Augustin saw in his mother's tears as it were a first baptism whence he +came forth regenerate. After having borne him according to the flesh, +Monnica, by her tears and moans, gave him birth into the spiritual life. +Monnica wept because of Augustin. Monnica wept for Augustin. This is rather +astonishing in the case of so severe a mother--this African a trifle +rough. The expressions--tears and moans and weeping--occur so often in +her son's writings, that we are at first tempted to take them for pious +metaphors--figures of a sacred rhetoric. We suspect that Monnica's tears +must come from the Bible, an imitation of King David's penitential tears. +But it would be quite an error to believe that. Monnica wept real tears. +In her whole-hearted prayers she bedewed the pavement of the basilica; she +moistened the balustrade against which she leant her forehead. This austere +woman, this widow whose face nobody saw any more, whose body was shapeless +by reason of the mass of stuffs, grey and black, which wrapped her from +head to foot--this rigid Christian concealed a heart full of love. Love +such as this was then a perfectly new thing. + +That an African woman should carry her piety to the point of fanaticism; +that she should work to conquer her son to her faith; that, if he strayed +from it, she should hate him and drive him out with curses--this has been +seen in Africa at all times. But that a mother should mourn at the thought +that her child is lost for another life; that she grows terror-stricken and +despairing when she thinks that she may possess a happiness in which he +will have no part, and walk in the gardens of Heaven while her child will +not be there--no, this had never been seen before. "Where I am you will +be," near me, against my heart, our two hearts meeting in the one same +love--in this union of souls, continued beyond the grave, lies all the +Christian sweetness and hope. + +Augustin was no longer, or not yet, a Christian. But in his tears he is +the true son of his mother. This gift of tears that Saint Lewis of France +begged God with so much earnestness and contrition to grant him, Monnica's +son had to the full. "For him to weep was a pleasure." [1] He inebriated +himself with his tears. Now, just while he was at Thagaste, he lost a +friend whom he loved intensely. This death set free the fountain of tears. +They are not yet the holy tears which he will shed later before God, but +only poor human tears, more pathetic perhaps to our own weakness. + +[Footnote 1: Sainte-Beuve.] + +Who was this friend? He tells us in very vague terms. We only know that +they had grown up as boys together and had gone to the same schools; that +they had just passed a year together, probably at Carthage; that this young +man, persuaded by him, was become a Manichee; and that, in a word, they +loved passionately. Augustin, while speaking of him, recalls in a deeper +sense what Horace said of his friend Virgil: _dimidium animae_--"O thou half +of my soul!" + +Well, this young man fell gravely sick of a fever. As all hope was at an +end, they baptized him, according to the custom. He grew better, was almost +cured, "As soon as I was able to talk to him," says Augustin--"and that was +as soon as he could bear it, for I never left his side, and we were bound +up in one another--I ventured a jest, thinking that he would jest too, +about the baptism which he had received, when he could neither think nor +feel. But by this time he had been told of his baptism. He shrank from +me as from an enemy, and with a wonderful new-found courage, warned me +never to speak so to him again, if I wished to remain his friend. I was +so astounded and confused that I said no more, resolving to wait till +he should regain his strength, _when I would tell him frankly what I +thought_." + +So, at this serious moment, he whom they called "the Carthaginian disputer" +was sorry not to be able to measure himself in a bout of dialectics with +his half-dead friend. The intellectual poison had so perverted his mind, +that it almost destroyed in him the feelings of common decency. But if his +head, as he acknowledges, was very much spoiled, his heart remained intact. +His friend died a few days after, and Augustin was not there. He was +stunned by it. + +His grief wrought itself up to wildness and despair. "This sorrow fell like +darkness on my heart, and wherever I looked I saw nothing but death. My +country became a torture, my father's house a misery. All the pleasures +that I had shared with him, turned into hideous anguish now that he was +gone. My eyes sought for him everywhere, and found him not. I hated the +familiar scenes because he was not there, and they could no more cry to +me, 'Lo! he will come.' as they used when he was absent but alive...." +Then Augustin began to weep louder, he prolonged his weeping, finding +consolation only in tears. Monnica's tenderness was restrained; in him it +was given full vent and exaggerated. At that time, the Christian moderation +was unknown to him, as well as the measure which the good taste of the +ancients prompted. He has often been compared to the most touching +geniuses, to Virgil, to Racine, who had also the gift of tears. But +Augustin's tenderness is more abandoned, and, so to speak, more romantic. +It even works up, sometimes, into an unhealthy excitement. + +To be full of feeling, as Augustin was then, is not only to feel with +excessive sensitiveness the least wounds, the slightest touches of love or +hate, nor is it only to give oneself with transport; but it is especially +to take delight in the gift of oneself, to feel at the moment of full +abandonment that one is communicating with something infinitely sweet, +which already has ceased to be the creature loved. It is love for love, it +is to weep for the pleasure of tears, it is to mix with tenderness a kind +of egoism avid of experiences. Having lost his friend, Augustin loathes all +the world. He repeats: "Tears were my only comfort. I was wretched, and +my wretchedness was dear to me." And accordingly, he did not want to be +consoled. But as, little by little, the terrors of that parting subsided, +he perceived himself that he played with grief and made a joy of his +tears. "My tears," he says, "were dearer to me than my friend had been." +By degrees the friend is almost forgotten. Though Augustin may hate life +because his friend has gone, he confesses naively that he would not have +sacrificed his existence for the sake of the dead. He surmises that what +is told of Orestes and Pylades contending to die for each other is but a +fable. Ultimately, he comes to write: "Perhaps I feared to die, _lest the +other half of him whom I had loved so dearly, should perish_." He himself, +in his _Retractations_, condemns this phrase as pure rhetoric. It remains +true that what was perhaps the deepest sorrow of his life--this sorrow so +sincere and painful which had "rent and bloodied his soul"--ended with a +striking phrase. + +It should be added, that in a stormy nature like his, grief, like love, +wears itself out quickly. It burns up passion and sentiment as it does +ideas. When at length he regained his calm, everything appeared drab. +Thagaste became intolerable. With his impulsive temperament, his changeable +humour, he all at once hit upon a plan: To go back to Carthage and open a +rhetoric school. Perhaps, too, the woman he loved and had abandoned there +was pressing him to return. Perhaps she told him that she was about to +become a mother. Always ready to go away, Augustin scarcely hesitated. +It is more than likely that he did not consult Monnica. He only told +Romanianus, who, as he had all kinds of reasons for wanting to keep +Augustin at Thagaste, at first strongly objected. But the young man pointed +to his future, his ambition to win fame. Was he going to bury all that in a +little town? + +Romanianus yielded, and with a generosity that is no longer seen, he paid +the expenses this time too. + + + + +V + +THE SILENCE OF GOD + + +Augustin was going to live nine years at Carthage--nine years that he +squandered in obscure tasks, in disputes sterile or unfortunate for himself +and others--briefly, in an utter forgetfulness of his true vocation. "And +during this time Thou wert silent, O my God!" he cries, in recalling only +the faults of his early youth. Now, the silence of God lay heavy. And yet +even in those years his tormented soul had not ceased to appeal. "Where +wert Thou then, O my God, while I looked for Thee? Thou wert before me. But +I had drawn away from myself and I could not find myself. How much less, +then, could I find Thee." + +This was certainly the most uneasy, and, at moments, the most painful time +of his life. Hardly was he got back to Carthage than he had to struggle +against ever-increasing money difficulties. Not only had he to get his +own living, but the living of others--possibly his mother's and that of +his brother and sister--at all events, he had to support his mistress and +the child. It is possible that the infant was born before its father left +Thagaste; if not, the birth must have occurred shortly after. + +The child was called Adeodatus. There is a kind of irony in this name, +which was then usual, of Adeodatus--"Gift of God." This son of his sin, as +Augustin calls him, this son whom he did not want, and the news of whose +birth must have been a painful shock--this poor child was a gift of Heaven +which the father could have well done without. And then, when he saw him, +he was filled with joy, and he cherished him as a real gift from God. + +He accepted his fatherhood courageously, and, as it happens in such +cases, he was drawn closer to his mistress, their association taking on +something of conjugal dignity. Did the mother of Adeodatus justify such +attachment--an attachment which was to last more than ten years? The +mystery in which Augustin intended that the woman he had loved the most +should remain enveloped for all time, is nearly impenetrable to us. No +doubt she was of a very humble, not to say low class, since Monnica judged +it impossible to bring about a marriage between the ill-assorted pair. +There must have been an extreme inequality between the birth and education +of the lovers. This did not prevent Augustin from loving his mistress +passionately, for her beauty perhaps, or perhaps for her goodness of heart, +or both. Nevertheless, it is surprising, that in view of his changing +humour, and his prompt and impressionable soul, he remained faithful to +her so long. What was to prevent his taking his son and going off? Ancient +custom authorized such an act. But Augustin was tender-hearted. He was +afraid to cause pain; he dreaded for others the wounds that caused him so +much suffering himself. So he stayed on from kindness, from pity, habit +too, and also because, in spite of everything, he loved the mother of his +child. Up to the time of his conversion, they lived like husband and wife. + +So now, to keep his family, he really turns "a dealer in words." In spite +of his youth (he was barely twenty) the terms he had kept at Thagaste as +a teacher of grammar allowed him to take his place among the rhetoricians +at Carthage. Thanks to Romanianus, he got pupils at once. His protector at +Thagaste sent his son, that young Licentius whose education Augustin had +already begun, with one of his brothers, doubtless younger. It seems likely +that the two youths lived in Augustin's house. A small fact which their +master has preserved, looks like a proof of this. A spoon having been lost +in the house, Augustin, to find out where it was, told Licentius to go +and consult a wizard, one Albicerius, who had, just then, a great name in +Carthage. This message is scarcely to be explained unless we suppose the +lad was lodging in his professor's house. Another of the pupils is known to +us. This is Eulogius, who was later on a rhetorician at Carthage, and of +whom Augustin relates an extraordinary dream. Finally, there was Alypius, +a little younger than himself, his friend--"the brother of his heart," as +he calls him. Alypius had been attending his lessons at Thagaste. When the +schoolmaster abruptly threw up his employment, the father of the pupil +was angry, and in sending his son to Carthage, he forbade him to go near +Augustin's class. But it was difficult to keep such eager friends apart. +Little by little, Alypius overcame his father's objections, and became a +pupil of his friend. + +Augustin's knowledge, when he began to lecture, could not have been very +deep, for he had only lately quitted the student's bench himself. His +duties forced him to learn what he did not know. In teaching he taught +himself. It was at this time that he did most of the reading which +afterwards added substance to his polemics and treatises. He tells us +himself that he read in those days all that he could lay hands on. He is +very proud of having read by himself and understood without any assistance +from a master, the _Ten Categories_ of Aristotle, which was considered one +of the most abstruse works of the Stagirite. In an age when instruction was +principally by word of mouth, and books comparatively rare, it is obvious +that Augustin was not what we call an "all-devouring reader." We do not +know if Carthage had many libraries, or what the libraries were worth. It +is no less true that the author of _The City of God_ is the last of the +Latin writers who had a really all-round knowledge. It is he who is the +link between modern times and pagan antiquity. The Middle Age hardly knew +classical literature, save by the allusions and quotations of Augustin. + +So in spite of family and professional cares, he did not lose his +intellectual proclivities. The conquest of truth remained always his great +ambition. He still hoped to find it in Manicheeism, but he began to think +that it was a long time coming. The leaders of the sect could not have +trusted him thoroughly. They feared his acute and subtle mind, so quick +to detect the flaw in a thesis or argument. That is why they postponed +his initiation into their secret doctrines. Augustin remained a simple +_auditor_ in their Church. By way of appeasing the enormous activity of +his intelligence, they turned him on to controversy, and the critical +discussion of the Scriptures. Giving themselves out for Christians, they +adopted a part of them, and flung aside as interpolated or forged all that +was not in tune with their theology. Augustin, as we know, triumphed in +disputes of this kind, and was vain because he excelled in them. + +And when he grew tired of this negative criticism and asked his evangelists +to give him more substantial food, they put him on some exoteric doctrine +calculated to appeal to a young imagination by its poetic or philosophical +colouring. The catechumen was not satisfied, but he put up with it for +lack of anything better. Very prettily he compares these enemies of the +Scriptures to the snarers of birds, who defile or fill with earth all the +water-places where the birds use to drink, save one mere; and about this +they set their snares. The birds all fly there, not because the water +is better, but because there is no other water, and they know not where +else to go and drink. So Augustin, not knowing where to quench his thirst +for truth, was fain to make the best of the confused pantheism of the +Manichees. + +What remains noteworthy is, that however unstable his own convictions were, +he yet converted everybody about him. It was through him that his friends +became Manichees: Alypius one of the first; then Nebridius, the son of a +great landowner near Carthage; Honoratius, Marcianus; perhaps, too, the +youngest of his pupils, Licentius and his brother--all victims of his +persuasive tongue, which he exerted later on to draw them back from their +errors. So great was his charm--so deep, especially, was public credulity! + +This fourth century was no longer a century of strong Christian faith. On +the other hand, the last agony of paganism was marked by a new attack of +the lowest credulity and superstition. As the Church energetically combated +both one and the other, it is not surprising that it was chiefly the +pagans who were contaminated. The old religion was to end by foundering in +magic. The greatest minds of the period, the neo-Platonists, the Emperor +Julian himself, were miracle-workers, or at any rate, adepts in the occult +sciences. Augustin, who was then separated from Christianity, followed the +general impulse, together with the young men he knew. Just now we saw him +sending to consult the soothsayer, Albicerius, about the loss of a spoon. +And this man of intellect believed also in astrologers and nigromancers. + +Strips of lead have been found at Carthage upon which are written magic +spells against horses entered for races in the circus. Just like the +Carthaginian jockeys, Augustin had recourse to these hidden and fraudulent +practices, to make sure of success. On the eve of a verse competition in +the theatre, he fell in with a wizard who offered, if they could agree +about the price, to sacrifice a certain number of animals to buy the +victory. Upon this, Augustin, very much annoyed, declared that if the prize +were a crown of immortal gold, not a fly should be sacrificed to help him +win it. Really, magic was repellent to the honesty of his mind, as well +as to his nerves, by reason of the suspicious and brutal part of its +operations. As a rule, it was involved with haruspicy, and had a side of +sacred anatomy and the kitchen which revolted the sensitive--dissection +of flesh, inspection of entrails, not to mention the slaughtering and +strangling of victims. Fanatics, such as Julian, gave themselves up with +delight to these disgusting manipulations. What we know of Augustin's soul +makes it quite clear why he recoiled with horror. + +Astrology, on the contrary, attracted him by its apparent science. Its +adepts called themselves "mathematicians," and thus seemed to borrow from +the exact sciences something of their solidity. Augustin often discussed +astrology with a Carthage physician, Vindicianus, a man of great sense +and wide learning, who even reached Proconsular honours. In vain did he +point out to the young rhetorician that the pretended prophecies of the +mathematicians were the effect of chance; in vain did Nebridius, less +credulous than his friend, join his arguments to those of the crafty +physician; Augustin clung obstinately to his chimera. His dialectical mind +discovered ingenious justifications for what the astrologers claimed. + +Thus, dazzled by all the intellectual phantasms, he strayed from one +science to another, repeating meanwhile in his heart the motto of his +Manichean masters: "The Truth, the Truth!". But whatever might be the +attractions of the speculative life, he had first to face the needs of +actual life. The sight of his child called him back to a sense of his +position. To get money, and for that purpose to push himself forward, put +himself in evidence, increase his reputation--Augustin worked at that as +hard as he could. It led him to enter for the prize of dramatic poetry. +He was declared the winner. His old friend, the physician Vindicianus, who +was then Proconsul, placed the crown, as he says, upon his "disordered +head." The future Father of the Church writing for the theatre--and what a +theatre it was then!--is not the least extraordinary thing in this life so +disturbed and, at first sight, so contradictory. + +It was also from literary ambition that about the same time he wrote a book +on aesthetics called _Upon the Beautiful and the Fit_, which he dedicated to +a famous colleague, the Syrian Hierius, "orator to the City of Rome," one +of the professors of the official education appointed either by the Roman +municipality or the Imperial treasury. This Levantine rhetorician had an +immense success in the capital of the Empire. His renown had got beyond +academical and fashionable circles and crossed the sea. Augustin admired +him on trust, like everybody else. It is clear that, at this time he could +not imagine a more glorious fortune for himself than to become, like +Hierius, orator to the City of Rome. Later in life, the Bishop of Hippo, +while condemning the vanity of his youthful ambitions, must have made some +extremely ironical reflections as to their modesty. How mistaken he was +about himself! An Augustin had dreamed of equalling one day this obscure +pedagogue, of whom nobody, save for him, would ever have spoken again. Men +of instinct, like Augustin, continually go wrong in this way about their +object and the means to employ. But their mistakes are only in appearance. +A will stronger than their own leads them, by mysterious ways, whither they +ought to go. + +This first book of Augustin's is lost, and we are unable to say whether +there be any reason to regret it. He himself recalls it to us in a very +indifferent tone and rather vague terms. It would seem, however, that his +aesthetic had a basis of Manichean metaphysics. But what is significant for +us, in this youthful essay, is that the first time Augustin wrote as an +author it was to define and to praise Beauty. He did not yet know, at least +not directly from the text, the dialogues of Plato, and he is already +inclined to Platonism. He was this by nature. His Christianity will be a +religion all of light and beauty. For him, the supreme Beauty is identical +with the supreme Love. "Do we love anything," he used to say to his +friends, "except what is beautiful?" _Num amamus aliquid, nisi pulchrum?_ +Again, at the end of his life, when he strives in _The City of God_ to +make clear for us the dogma of the resurrection of the body, he thinks our +bodies shall rise free from all earthly flaws, in all the splendour of the +perfect human type. Nothing of the body will be lost. It will keep all its +limbs and all its organs _because they are beautiful_. One recognizes in +this passage, not only the Platonist, but the traveller and art-lover, who +had gazed upon some of the finest specimens of ancient statuary. + +This first book had hardly any success. Augustin does not even say whether +the celebrated Hierius paid him a compliment about it, and he has an air +of giving us to understand that he had no other admirer but himself. New +disappointments, more serious mortifications, changed little by little his +state of mind and his plans for the future. He was obliged to acknowledge +that after years of effort he was scarcely more advanced than at the start. +There was no chance to delude himself with vain pretences: it was quite +plain to everybody that the rhetorician Augustin was not a success. Now, +why was this? Was it that he lacked the gift of teaching? Perhaps he had +not the knack of keeping order, which is the most indispensable of all +for a schoolmaster. What suited him best no doubt was a small and select +audience which he charmed rather than ruled. Large and noisy classes he +could not manage. At Carthage, these rhetoric classes were particularly +difficult to keep in order, because the students were more rowdy than +elsewhere. At any moment "The Wreckers" might burst in and make a row. +Augustin, who had not joined in these "rags" when he was a student, saw +himself obliged to endure them as a professor. He had nothing worse to +complain of than his fellow-professors, in whose classes the same kind of +disturbance took place. That was the custom and, in a manner of speaking, +the rule in the Carthage schools. For all that, a little more authoritative +bearing would not have harmed him in the eyes of these disorderly boys. But +he had still graver defects for a professor who wants to get on: he was not +a schemer, and he could not make the most of himself. + +It is quite possible that he did not possess the qualities which just then +pleased the pagan public in a rhetorician. The importance that the ancients +attached to physical advantages in an orator is well known. Now, according +to an old tradition, Augustin was a little man and not strong: till the end +of his life he complained of his health. He had a weak voice, a delicate +chest, and was often hoarse. Surely this injured him before audiences used +to all the outward emphasis and all the studied graces of Roman eloquence. +Finally, his written and spoken language had none of those brilliant and +ingenious curiosities of phrase which pleased in literary and fashionable +circles. This inexhaustibly prolific writer is not in the least a stylist. +In this respect he is inferior to Apuleius, or Tertullian, though he leaves +them far behind in the qualities of sincere and deep sentiment, poetic +flow, colour, the vividness of metaphor, and, besides, the emotion, the +suavity of the tone. With all that, no matter how hard he tried, he could +never grasp what the rhetoricians of his time understood by style. This is +why his writings, as well as his addresses, were not very much liked. + +Nevertheless, good judges recognized his value, and guessed the powers, +lying still unformed within him, which he was misusing ere they were +mature. He was received at the house of the Proconsul Vindicianus, who +liked to talk with him, and treated him with quite fatherly kindness. +Augustin knew people in the best society. He did all his life. His charm +and captivating manners made him welcome in the most exclusive circles. +But just because he was valued by fashionable society, it came home to him +more painfully that he had not the position he deserved with the public +at large. Little by little his humour grew bitter. In this angry state of +mind he was no longer able to consider things with the same confidence and +serenity. His mental disquietudes took hold of him again. + +His ideas were affected, first of all. He began to have doubts, more +and more definite, about Manicheeism. He began by suspecting the rather +theatrical austerity which the initiated of the sect made such a great +parade of. Among other turpitudes, he saw one day in one of the busiest +parts of Carthage "three of the Elect whinny after some women or other who +were passing, and begin making such obscene signs that they surpassed the +coarsest people for impudence and shamelessness." He was scandalized at +that; but, after all, it was a small thing. He himself was not so very +virtuous then. Generally your intellectual worries very little about +squaring his conduct with his principles, and does not bother about the +practical part. No; what was much worse in his eyes is that the Manichean +physical science, a congeries of fables more or less symbolical, suddenly +struck him as ruinous. He had just been studying astronomy, and he found +that the cosmology of the Manichees--of these men who called themselves +materialists--did not agree with scientific facts. Therefore Manicheeism +must be wrong universally, since it ran counter to reason confirmed by +experience. + +Augustin spoke about his doubts, not only to his friends, but to the +priests of his sect. These got out of the difficulty by evasions and the +most dazzling promises. A Manichee bishop, a certain Faustus, was coming +to Carthage. He was a man of immense learning. Most certainly he would +refute every objection without the least trouble. He would confirm the +young _auditors_ in their faith.... So Augustin and his friends waited for +Faustus as for a Messiah. Their disappointment was immense. The supposed +doctor turned out to be an ignorant man, who possessed no tincture of +science or philosophy, and whose intellectual baggage consisted of nothing +but a little grammar. A delightful talker and a wit, the most he could do +was to discourse pleasantly on literature. + +This disappointment, joined to the set-backs in his profession, brought +about a crisis of soul and conscience in Augustin. So this Truth which he +had sighed after so long, which had been so much promised to him, was only +a decoy! One must be content not to know!... Then what was left to do since +truth was unapproachable? Possibly fortune and honours would console him +for it. But he was far enough from them too. He felt that he was on the +wrong road, that he was getting into a rut at Carthage, as he had got into +a rut at Thagaste. He must succeed, whatever the cost!... And then he gave +way to one of those moments of weariness, when a man has no further hope of +saving himself save by some desperate step. He was sick of where he was and +of those about him. His friends, whom he knew too well, had nothing more +to teach him, and could not help him in the only search which passionately +interested him. And his entanglement became irksome. Here was nine years +that this sharing of bed and board had lasted. His son was at that +unattractive age which rather bores a young father than it revives an +affection already old. No doubt he did not want to abandon him. He did not +intend to break altogether with his mistress. But he felt the need of a +change of air, to take himself off somewhere else, where he could breathe +more freely and get fresh courage for his task. + +Then it dawned on him to try his fortune at Rome. It was there that +literary reputations were made. He would find there, no doubt, better +judges than at Carthage. He would very likely end by getting a post in the +public instruction, with a steady salary--this would relieve him of present +worries, at all events. Probably he had already this plan in his head when +he sent his treatise _On the Beautiful_ to Hierius, orator to the City of +Rome; he thought that by this politeness he might depend, later, on the +backing of the well-known rhetorician. Lastly, his friends, Honoratius, +Marcianus, and the others, earnestly persuaded him to go and find a stage +worthy of him at Rome. Alypius, who was at this time finishing his law +studies there, and must have felt their separation, pressed him to come to +Rome and promised him success. + +Once more, Augustin was ready to go away. He was not long in making up his +mind. He was going to leave all belonging to him, his mistress, his child, +till the time when his new position would enable him to send for them. He +himself tells us that the chief motive which led him to decide on this +journey was that the Roman students were said to be better disciplined +and less noisy than the students at Carthage. Evidently, that is a reason +which would weigh with a professor who objected to act the policeman in his +class. But besides the reasons we have given, there were others which must +have influenced his decision. Theodosius had lately ordered very heavy +penalties against the Manichees. Not only did he condemn them to death, but +he had instituted a perfect Inquisition, with the special duty of spying +upon and prosecuting these heretics. Did it occur to Augustin that he might +hide better in Rome, where he was unknown, than in a city where he was a +marked man on account of his proselytizing zeal? In any case, his departure +gave rise to calumnies which his adversaries, the Donatists, did not +fail many years later to bring up again and make worse. They accused him +of having run away from prosecution; he fled the country, so they said, +on account of a judgment which was out against him, pronounced by the +Proconsul Messianus. Augustin had no trouble in refuting these false +insinuations. But all these facts seem to prove that the most ordinary +prudence warned him to cross the sea as soon as possible. + +Accordingly, he prepared to set sail. Let us hope that in spite of his +lofty indifference to material things, he made some provision for the +existence of the woman and child he left behind. As for her, she appeared +to agree without over-many violent scenes to this parting, which, he said, +was temporary. It was not the same with his mother. The very idea of Rome, +which seemed to her another Babylon, terrified this austere African woman. +What spiritual dangers lay in wait for her son there! She wanted to keep +him near her, both to bring him to the faith and also to love him--this +Augustin who had been her only human love. And then he was doubtless the +chief support of the widow. Without him, what was going to become of her? + +The fugitive was forced to put a trick on Monnica so as to carry out his +plan. She would not leave him a moment, folded him in her arms, implored +him with tears not to go. The night he was to sail she followed him down to +the dock, although Augustin, to allay her suspicions, had told her a lie. +He pretended that he was only going down to the ship with a friend to see +him off. But Monnica, only half believing, followed. Night fell. Meanwhile, +the ship, anchored in a little bay to the north of the city, did not move. +The sailors were waiting till a wind rose to slip their moorings. The +weather was moist and oppressive, as it usually is in the Mediterranean in +August and September. There was not a breath of air. The hours passed on. +Monnica, overcome by heat and fatigue, could hardly stand. Then Augustin +cunningly persuaded her to go and pass the night in a chapel hard by, since +it was plain that the ship would not weigh anchor till dawn. After many +remonstrances, she at length agreed to rest in this chapel--a _memoria_ +consecrated to St. Cyprian, the great martyr and patron of Carthage. + +Like most of the African sanctuaries of those days, and the _marabouts_ +of to-day, this one must have been either surrounded, or approached, by a +court with a portico in arcades, where it was possible to sleep. Monnica +sat down on the ground under her heap of veils among other poor people and +travellers, who were come like her to try to find a little cool air on this +stifling night near the relics of the blessed Cyprian. She prayed for her +child, offering to God "the blood of her heart," begging God not to let +him go, "for she loved to keep me with her" says Augustin, "as mothers are +wont, yes, far more than most mothers." And like a true daughter of Eve, +"weeping and crying, she sought again with groans the son she had brought +forth with groans." She prayed for a long time; then, worn out with sorrow, +she slept. The porter of the chapel, without knowing it, watched that +night not only the mother of the rhetorician Augustin, but the ancestor +of an innumerable line of souls; this humble woman, who slept there on +the ground, on the flags of the courtyard, carried in her heart all the +yearning of all the mothers of the future. + +While she slept, Augustin went stealthily on board. The silence and the +tempered splendour of the night weighed him down. Sometimes the cry of the +sailors on watch took a strange note in the lustrous vaporous spaces. The +Gulf of Carthage gleamed far off under the scintillation of the stars, +under the palpitating of a milky way all white like the flowers of the +garden of Heaven. But Augustin's heart was heavy, heavier than the air +weighted by the heat and sea-damp--heavy from the lie and the cruelty he +had just committed. He saw already the awakening and sorrow of his mother. +His conscience was troubled, overcome by remorse and forebodings.... +Meanwhile, his friends tried to cheer him, and urged him to have courage +and hope. Marcianus, while embracing him, reminded him of the verses of +Terence: + + "This day which brings to thee another life + Demands that thou another man shalt be." + +Augustin smiled sadly. At last the ship began to move. The wind had risen, +the wind of the grand voyage which was bearing him to the unknown.... +Suddenly, at the keen freshness of the open sea, he thrilled. His strength +and confidence rushed back. To go away! What enchantment for all those who +cannot fasten themselves to a corner of the earth, who know by instinct +that they belong _elsewhere_, who always pass "as strangers and as +pilgrims," and who go away with relief, as if they cast a burthen behind +them. Augustin was of those people--of those who, among the fairest +attractions of the Road, never cease to think of the Return. But he knew +not where God was leading him. Marcianus was right: a new life was really +beginning for him; only it was not the life that either of them hoped for. + +He who departed as a rhetorician, to sell words, was to come back as an +apostle, to conquer souls. + + + + +THE THIRD PART + +THE RETURN + + + Et ecce ibi es in corde eorum, in corde confitentium tibi, et + projicientium se in te, et plorantium in sinu tuo, post vias suas + difficiles. + + "And behold! Thou art there in their hearts, in the hearts of + that confess to Thee, and cast themselves upon Thee, and sob upon Thy + breast, after their weary ways." + + _Confessions_, V, 2. + + + + +I + +THE CITY OF GOLD + + +Augustin fell ill just after he got to Rome. It would seem that he arrived +there towards the end of August or beginning of September, before the +students reassembled, just at the time of heat and fevers, when all Romans +who could leave the city fled to the summer resorts on the coast. + +Like all the great cosmopolitan centres at that time, Rome was unhealthy. +The diseases of the whole earth, brought by the continual inflow of +foreigners, flourished there. Accordingly, the inhabitants had a panic fear +of infection, like our own contemporaries. People withdrew prudently from +those suffering from infectious disorders, who were left to their unhappy +fate. If, from a sense of shame, they sent a slave to the patient's +bedside, he was ordered to the sweating-rooms, and there disinfected from +head to foot, before he could enter the house again. + +Augustin must have had at least the good luck to be well looked after, +since he recovered. He had gone to the dwelling of one of his Manichee +brethren, an _auditor_ like himself, and an excellent kind of man, whom he +stayed with all the time he was in Rome. Still, he had such a bad attack of +fever that he very nearly died. "I was perishing," he says; "and I was all +but lost." He is frightened at the idea of having seen death so near, at a +moment when he was so far from God--so far, in fact, that it never occurred +to him to ask for baptism, as he had done, in like case, when he was +little. What a desperate blow would that have been for Monnica! He still +shudders when he recalls the danger: "Had my mother's heart been smitten +with that wound, it never could have been healed. _For I cannot express +her tender love towards me_, or with how far greater anguish she travailed +of me now in the spirit, than when she bore me in the flesh." But Monnica +prayed. Augustin was saved. He ascribes his recovery to the fervent prayers +of his mother, who, in begging of God the welfare of his soul, obtained, +without knowing it, the welfare of his body. + +As soon as he was convalescent, he had to set to work to get pupils. He was +obliged to ask the favours of many an important personage, to knock at many +an inhospitable door. This unfortunate beginning, the almost mortal illness +which he was only just recovering from, this forced drudgery--all that did +not make him very fond of Rome. It seems quite plain that he never liked +it, and till the end of his life he kept a grudge against it for the sorry +reception it gave him. In the whole body of his writings it is impossible +to find a word of praise for the beauty of the Eternal City, while, on +the contrary, one can make out through his invectives against the vices +of Carthage, his secret partiality for the African Rome. The old rivalry +between the two cities was not yet dead after so many centuries. In +his heart, Augustin, like a good Carthaginian--and because he was a +Carthaginian--did not like Rome. + +The most annoying things joined together as if on purpose to disgust him +with it. The bad season of the year was nigh when he began to reside there. +Autumn rains had started, and the mornings and evenings were cold. What +with his delicate chest, and his African constitution sensitive to cold, +he must have suffered from this damp cold climate. Rome seemed to him a +northern city. With his eyes still full of the warm light of his country, +and the joyous whiteness of the Carthage streets, he wandered as one exiled +between the gloomy Roman palaces, saddened by the grey walls and muddy +pavements. Comparisons, involuntary and continual, between Carthage and +Rome, made him unjust to Rome. In his eyes it had a hard, self-conscious, +declamatory look, and gazing at the barren Roman _campagna_, he remembered +the laughing Carthage suburbs, with gardens, villas, vineyards, olivets, +circled everywhere by the brilliance of the sea and the lagoons. + +And then, besides, Rome could not be a very delightful place to live in for +a poor rhetoric master come there to better his fortune. Other strangers +before him had complained of it. Always to be going up and down the flights +of steps and the ascents, often very steep, of the city of the Seven Hills; +to be rushing between the Aventine and Sallust's garden, and thence to +the Esquiline and Janiculum! To bruise the feet on the pointed cobbles of +sloping alley-ways! These walks were exhausting, and there seemed to be no +end to this city. Carthage was also large--as large almost as Rome. But +there Augustin was not seeking employment. When he went for a walk there, +he strolled. Here, the bustle of the crowds, and the number of equipages, +disturbed and exasperated the southerner with his lounging habits. Any +moment there was a risk of being run over by cars tearing at full gallop +through the narrow streets: men of fashion just then had a craze for +driving fast. Or again, the passenger was obliged to step aside so +that some lady might go by in her litter, escorted by her household, +from the handicraft slaves and the kitchen staff, to the eunuchs and +house-servants--all this army manoeuvring under the orders of a leader who +held a rod in his hand, the sign of his office. When the street became +clear once more, and at last the palace of the influential personage +to whom a visit had to be paid was reached, there was no admittance +without greasing the knocker. In order to be presented to the master, +it was necessary to buy the good graces of the slave who took the name +(_nomenclator_), and who not only introduced the suppliant, but might, with +a word, recommend or injure. Even after all these precautions, one was not +yet sure of the goodwill of the patron. Some of these great lords, who were +not always themselves sprung from old Roman families, prided themselves +upon their uncompromising nationalism, and made a point of treating +foreigners with considerable haughtiness. The Africans were regarded +unfavourably in Rome, especially in Catholic circles. Augustin must have +had an unpleasant experience of this. + +Through the long streets, brilliantly lighted at evening (it would seem +that the artificial lighting of Rome almost equalled the daylight), he +would return tired out to the dwelling of his host, the Manichee. This +dwelling, according to an old tradition, was in the Velabrum district, in +a street which is still to-day called _Via Greca_, and skirts the very old +church of Santa Maria-in-Cosmedina--a poor quarter where swarmed a filthy +mass of Orientals, and where the immigrants from the Levantine countries, +Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, Egyptians, lodged. The warehouses on the Tiber +were not very far off, and no doubt there were numbers of labourers, +porters, and watermen living in this neighbourhood. What a place for +him who had been at Thagaste the guest of the magnificent Romanianus, +and intimate with the Proconsul at Carthage! When he had climbed up the +six flights of stairs to his lodging, and crouched shivering over the +ill-burning movable hearth, in the parsimonious light of a small bronze or +earthenware lamp, while the raw damp sweated through the walls, he felt +more and more his poverty and loneliness. He hated Rome and the stupid +ambition which had brought him there. And yet Rome should have made a vivid +appeal to this cultured man, this aesthete so alive to beauty. Although the +transfer of the Court to Milan had drawn away some of its liveliness and +glitter, it was still all illuminated by its grand memories, and never had +it been more beautiful. It seems impossible that Augustin should not have +been struck by it, despite his African prejudices. However well built the +new Carthage might be, it could not pretend to compare with a city more +than a thousand years old, which at all periods of its history had +maintained the princely taste for building, and which a long line of +emperors had never ceased to embellish. + +When Augustin landed at Ostia, he saw rise before him, closing the +perspective of the _Via Appia_, the Septizonium of Septimus Severus--an +imitation, doubtless, on a far larger scale, of the one at Carthage. This +huge construction, water-works probably of enormous size, with its ordered +columns placed line above line, was, so to speak, the portico whence opened +the most wonderful and colossal architectural mass known to the ancient +world. Modern Rome has nothing at all to shew which comes anywhere near it. +Dominating the Roman Forum, and the Fora of various Emperors--labyrinths of +temples, basilicas, porticoes, and libraries--the Capitol and the Palatine +rose up like two stone mountains, fashioned and sculptured, under the heap +of their palaces and sanctuaries. All these blocks rooted in the soil, +suspended, and towering up from the flanks of the hills, these interminable +regiments of columns and pilasters, this profusion of precious marbles, +metals, mosaics, statues, obelisks--in all that there was something +enormous, a lack of restraint which disturbed the taste and floored the +imagination. But it was, above all, the excessive use of gold and gilding +that astonished the visitor. Originally indigent, Rome became noted for +its greed of gold. When the gold of conquered nations began to come into +its hands, it spread it all over with the rather indiscreet display of +the upstart. When Nero built the Golden House he realized its dream. The +Capitol had golden doors. Statues, bronzes, the roofs of temples, were all +gilded. All this gold, spread over the brilliant surfaces and angles of +the architecture, dazzled and tired the eyes: _Acies stupet igne metalli_, +said Claudian. For the poets who have celebrated it, Rome is the city of +gold--_aurata Roma_. + +A Greek, such as Lucian, had perhaps a right to be shocked by this +architectural debauch, this beauty too crushing and too rich. A Carthage +rhetorician, like Augustin, could feel at the sight of it nothing but the +same irritated admiration and secret jealousy as the Emperor Constans felt +when he visited his capital for the first time. + +Even as the Byzantine Caesar, and all the provincials, Augustin, no doubt, +examined the curiosities and celebrated works which were pointed out to +strangers: the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus; the baths of Caracalla and +Diocletian; the Pantheon; the temple of Roma and of Venus; the Place of +Concord; the theatre of Pompey; the Odeum, and the Stadium. Though he might +be stupefied by all this, he would remember, too, all that the Republic +had taken from the provinces to construct these wonders, and would say to +himself: "'Tis we who have paid for them." In truth, all the world had +been ransacked to make Rome beautiful. For some time a muffled hostility +had been brewing in provincial hearts against the tyranny of the central +power, especially since it had shewn itself incapable of maintaining peace, +and the Barbarians were threatening the frontiers. Worn out by so many +insurrections, wars, massacres, and pillages, the provinces had come to ask +if the great complicated machine of the Empire was worth all the blood and +money that it cost. + +For Augustin, moreover, the crisis was drawing near which was to end in his +return to the Catholic faith. He had been a Christian, and as such brought +up in principles of humility. With these sentiments, he would perhaps +decide that the pride and vanity of the creature at Rome claimed far too +much attention, and was even sacrilegious. It was not only the emperors who +disputed the privileges of immortality with the gods, but anybody who took +it into his head, provided that he was rich or had any kind of notoriety. +Amid the harsh and blinding gilt of palaces and temples, how many statues, +how many inscriptions endeavoured to keep an obscure memory green, or the +features of some unknown man! Of course, at Carthage too, where they copied +Rome, as in all the big cities, there were statues and inscriptions in +abundance upon the Forum, the squares, and in the public baths. But what +had not shocked Augustin in his native land, did shock him in a strange +city. His home-sick eyes opened to faults which till then had been veiled +by usage. In any case, this craze for statues and inscriptions prevailed at +Rome more than anywhere else. The number of statues on the Forum became so +inconvenient, that on many occasions certain ones were marked for felling, +and the more insignificant shifted. The men of stone drove out the living +men, and forced the gods into their temples. And the inscriptions on the +walls bewildered the mind with such a noise of human praise, that ambition +could dream of nothing beyond. It was all a kind of idolatry which revolted +the strict Christians; and in Augustin, even at this time, it must have +offended the candour of a soul which detested exaggeration and bombast. + +The vices of the Roman people, with whom he was obliged to live cheek by +jowl, galled him still more painfully. And to begin with, the natives hated +strangers. At the theatres they used to shout: "Down with the foreign +residents!" Acute attacks of xenophobia often caused riots in the city. +Some years before Augustin arrived, a panic about the food supply led to +the expulsion, as useless mouths, of all foreigners domiciled in Rome, +even the professors. Famine was an endemic disease there. And then, these +lazy people were always hungry. The gluttony and drunkenness of the Romans +roused the wonder and also the disgust of the sober races of the Empire--of +the Greeks as well as the Africans. They ate everywhere--in the streets, at +the theatre, at the circus, around the temples. The sight was so ignoble, +and the public intemperance so scandalous, that the Prefect, Ampelius, was +obliged to issue an order prohibiting people who had any self-respect from +eating in the street, the keepers of wine-shops from opening their places +before ten o'clock in the morning, and the hawkers from selling cooked meat +in the streets earlier than a certain hour of the day. But he might as well +have saved himself the trouble. Religion itself encouraged this greediness. +The pagan sacrifices were scarcely more than pretexts for stuffing. Under +Julian, who carried the great public sacrifices of oxen to an abusive +extent, the soldiers got drunk and gorged themselves with meat in the +temples, and came out staggering. Then they would seize hold of any +passers-by, whom they forced to carry them shoulder-high to their barracks. + +All this must be kept in mind so as to understand the strictness and +unyielding attitude of the Christian reaction. This Roman people, like the +pagans in general, was frightfully material and sensual. The difficulty of +shaking himself free from matter and the senses is going to be the great +obstacle which delays Augustin's conversion; and if it was so with him, a +fastidious and intellectual man, what about the crowd? Those people thought +of nothing but eating and drinking and lewdness. When they left the tavern +or their squalid rooms, they had only the obscenities of mimes, or the +tumbles of the drivers in the circus, or the butcheries in the amphitheatre +to elevate them. They passed the night there under the awnings provided by +the municipality. Their passion for horse-races and actors and actresses, +curbed though it was by the Christian emperors, continued even after +the sack of Rome by the Barbarians. At the time of the famine, when the +strangers were expelled, they excepted from this wholesale banishment three +thousand female dancers with the members of their choirs, and their leaders +of orchestra. + +The aristocracy did not manifest tastes much superior. Save a few +cultivated minds, sincerely fond of literature, the greatest number only +saw in the literary pose an easy way of being fashionable. These became +infatuated about an unknown author, or an ancient author whose books were +not to be had. They had these books sought for and beautifully copied. +They, "who hated study like poison," spoke only of their favourite author: +the others did not exist for them. As a matter of fact, music had ousted +literature: "the libraries were closed like sepulchres." But fashionable +people were interested in an hydraulic organ, and they ordered from the +lute-makers "lyres the size of chariots." Of course, this musical craze was +sheer affectation. Actually, they were only interested in sports: to race, +to arrange races, to breed horses, to train athletes and gladiators. As a +pastime, they collected Oriental stuffs. Silk was then fashionable, and so +were precious stones, enamels, heavy goldsmiths' work. Rows of rings were +worn on each finger. People took the air in silk robes, held together by +brooches carved in the figures of animals, a parasol in one hand, and a fan +with gold fringes in the other. The costumes and fashions of Constantinople +encroached upon the old Rome and the rest of the Western world. + +Immense fortunes, which had gathered in the hands of certain people, either +through inheritance or swindling, enabled them to keep up a senseless +expenditure. Like the American millionaires of to-day, who have their +houses and properties in both hemispheres, these great Roman lords +possessed them in every country in the Empire. Symmachus, who was Prefect +of the City when Augustin was in Rome, had considerable estates not only in +Italy and in Sicily, but even in Mauretania. And yet, in spite of all their +wealth and all the privileges they enjoyed, these rich people were neither +happy nor at ease. At the least suspicion of a despotic power, their lives +and property were threatened. Accusations of magic, of disrespect to +the Caesar, of plots against the Emperor--any pretext was good to plunder +them. During the preceding reign, that of the pitiless Valentinian, the +Roman nobility had been literally decimated by the executioner. A certain +vice-Prefect, Maximinus, had gained a sinister reputation for cleverness in +the art of manufacturing suspects. By his orders, a basket at the end of a +string was hung out from one of the windows of the Praetorium, into which +denunciations might be cast. The basket was in use day and night. + +It is clear that at the time that Augustin settled in Rome this abominable +system was a little moderated. But accusation by detectives was always in +the air. And living in this atmosphere of mistrust, hypocrisy, bribery, and +cruelty--small wonder if the Carthaginian fell into bitter reflections upon +Roman corruption. However impressive from the front, the Empire was not +nice to look at close at hand. + +But Augustin was, above all, home-sick. When he strolled tinder the shady +trees of the Janiculum or Sallust's gardens, he already said to himself +what he would repeat later to his listeners at Hippo: "Take an African, put +him in a place cool and green, and he won't stay there. He will feel he +must go away and come back to his blazing desert." As for himself, he had +something better to regret than a blazing desert. In front of the City of +Gold, stretched out at his feet, and the horizon of the Sabine Hills, he +remembered the feminine softness of the twilights upon the Lake of Tunis, +the enchantment of moonlit nights upon the Gulf of Carthage, and that +astonishing landscape to be discovered from the height of the terrace of +Byrsa, which all the grandeur of the Roman _campagna_ could not make him +forget. + + + + +II + +THE FINAL DISILLUSION + + +'The new professor had managed to secure a certain number of pupils whom +he gathered together in his rooms. He could make enough to live at Rome +by himself, if he could not support there the woman and child he had left +behind at Carthage. In this matter of finding work, his host and his +Manichee friends had done him some very good turns. Although forced to +conceal their beliefs since the edict of Theodosius, there were a good many +Manichees in the city. They formed an occult Church, strongly organized, +and its adepts had relations with all classes of Roman society. Possibly +Augustin presented himself as one driven out of Africa by the persecution. +Some compensation would be owing to this young man who had suffered for the +good cause. + +It was his friend Alypius, "the brother of his heart," who, having preceded +him to Rome to study law at his parents' wishes, now was the most useful in +helping Augustin to make himself known and find pupils. Himself a Manichee, +converted by Augustin, and a member of one of the leading families in +Thagaste, he had not long to wait for an important appointment in the +Imperial administration. He was assessor to the Treasurer-General, or +"Count of the Italian Bounty Office," and decided fiscal questions. Thanks +to his influence, as well as to his acquaintances among the Manichees, he +was a valuable friend for the new arrival, a friend who could aid him, not +only with his purse, but with advice. Without much capacity for theorizing, +this Alypius was a practical spirit, a straight and essentially honest +soul, whose influence was excellent for his impetuous friend. Of very +chaste habits, he urged Augustin to restraint. And even in abstract +studies, the religious controversies which Augustin dragged him into, his +strong good sense moderated the imaginative dashes, the overmuch subtilty +which sometimes led the other beyond healthy reason. + +Unhappily they were both very busy--the judge and the rhetorician--and +although their friendship became still greater during this stay in Rome, +they were not able to see each other as much as they desired. Their +pleasures, too, were perhaps not the same. Augustin did not in the least +care about being chaste, and Alypius had a passion for the amphitheatre--a +passion which his friend disapproved of. Some time earlier, at Carthage, +Augustin had filled him with disgust of the circus. But hardly was Alypius +arrived in Rome, than he became mad about the gladiatorial shows. Some +fellow-students took him to the amphitheatre, almost by force. Thereupon, +he said that he would stay, since they had dragged him there; but he bet +that he would keep his eyes shut all through the fight, and that nothing +could make him open them. He sat down on the benches with those who had +brought him, his eyelids pressed down, refusing to look. Suddenly there was +a roar of shouting, the shout of the crowd hailing the fall of the first +wounded. His lids parted of themselves; he saw the flow of blood. "At the +sight of the blood" says Augustin, "he drank in ruthlessness; no longer +did he turn away, but fixed his gaze, and he became mad--and he knew no +more.... He was fascinated by the criminal atrocity of this battle, and +drunk with the pleasure of blood." + +These breathless phrases of the _Confessions_ seem to throb still with the +wild frenzy of the crowd. They convey to us directly the kind of Sadic +excitement which people went to find about the arena. Really, a wholesome +sight for future Christians, for all the souls that the brutality of +pagan customs revolted! The very year that Augustin was at Rome, certain +prisoners of war, Sarmatian soldiers, condemned to kill each other in the +amphitheatre, chose suicide rather than this shameful death. There was in +this something to make him reflect--him and his friends. The fundamental +injustices whereon the ancient world rested--the crushing of the slave +and the conquered, the contempt for human life--these things they touched +with the finger when they looked on at the butcheries in the amphitheatre. +All those whose hearts sickened with disgust and horror before these +slaughter-house scenes, all those who longed for a little more mildness, a +little more justice, were all recruits marked out for the peaceful army of +the Christ. + +For Alypius, especially, it was not a bad thing to have known this +blood-drunkenness at first hand: he shall be only the more ashamed when +he falls at the feet of the merciful God. Equally useful was it for him +to have personal experience of the harshness of men's justice; and in the +fulfilment of his duties as a judge to observe its errors and flaws. While +he was a student at Carthage he just escaped being condemned to death upon +a false accusation of theft--the theft of a piece of lead! Already they +were dragging him, if not to the place of capital punishment, at least to +prison, when a chance meeting with a friend of his who was a senator saved +him from the threatening mob. At Rome, while Assessor to the Count of the +Italian Bounty Office, he had to resist an attempt to bribe him, and by +doing so risked losing his appointment, and, no doubt, something worse +too. Official venality and dishonesty were evils so deeply rooted, that +he himself nearly succumbed. He wanted some books copied, and he had the +temptation to get this done at the charge of the Treasury. This peculation +had, in his eyes, a good enough excuse, and it was certain to go +undetected. Nevertheless, when he thought it over he changed his mind, and +virtuously refrained from giving himself a library at the expense of the +State. + +Augustin, who relates these anecdotes, draws the same moral from them as +we do, to wit--that for a man who was going to be a bishop and, as such, +administrator and judge, this time spent in the Government service was a +good preparatory school. Most of the other great leaders of this generation +of Christians had also been officials; before ordination, they had been +mixed up in business and politics, and had lived freely the life of their +century. So it was with St. Ambrose, with St. Paulinus of Nola, with +Augustin himself, and Evodius and Alypius, his friends. + +And yet, however absorbed in their work the two Africans might be, it +is pretty near certain that intellectual questions took the lead of +all others. This is manifest in Augustin's case at least. He must have +astonished the good Alypius when he got to Rome by acknowledging that he +hardly believed in Manicheeism any longer. And he set forth his doubts +about their masters' cosmogony and physical science, his suspicions +touching the hidden immorality of the sect. As for himself, the +controversies, which were the Manichees' strong point, did not dazzle him +any longer. At Carthage, but lately, he had heard a Catholic, a certain +Helpidius, oppose to them arguments from Scripture, which they were unable +to refute. To make matters worse, the Manichee Bishop of Rome made a bad +impression on him from the very outset. This man, he tells us, was of rough +appearance, without culture or polite manners. Doubtless this unmannerly +peasant, in his reception of the young professor, had not shewn himself +sufficiently alive to his merits, and the professor felt aggrieved. + +From then, his keen dialectic and his satirical spirit (Augustin had +formidable powers of ridicule all through his life) were exercised upon +the backs of his fellow-religionists. Provisionally, he had admitted +as indisputable the basic principles of Manicheeism: first of all, the +primordial antagonism of the two substances, the God of Light and the God +of Darkness; then, this other dogma, that particles of that Divine Light, +which had been carried away in a temporary victory of the army of Darkness, +were immersed in certain plants and liquors. Hence, the distinction they +made between clean and unclean food. All those foods were pure which +contained some part of the Divine Light; impure, those which did not. The +purity of food became evident by certain qualities of taste, smell, and +appearance. But now Augustin found a good deal of arbitrariness in these +distinctions, and a good deal of simplicity in the belief that the Divine +Light dwelt in a vegetable. "Are they not ashamed," he said, "to search God +with their palates or with their nose? And if His presence is revealed by +a special brilliancy, by the goodness of the taste or the smell, why allow +that dish and condemn this, which is of equal savour, light, and perfume? + +"Yea, why do they look upon the golden melon as come out of God's +treasure-house, and yet will have none of the golden fat of the ham or the +yellow of an egg? Why does the whiteness of lettuce proclaim to them the +Divinity, and the whiteness of cream nothing at all? And why this horror +of meat? For, look you, roast sucking-pig offers us a brilliant colour, an +agreeable smell, and an appetizing taste--sure signs, according to them, of +the Divine Presence."... Once started on this topic, Augustin's vivacity +has no limits. He even drops into jokes which would offend modern +shamefacedness by their Aristophanic breadth. + +These arguments, to say the truth, did not shake the foundations of the +doctrine, and if a doctrine must be judged according to its works, the +Manichees might entrench themselves behind their rigid moral rules, and +their conduct. Contrary to the more accommodating Catholicism, they paraded +a puritan intolerance. But Augustin had found out at Carthage that this +austerity was for the most part hypocrisy. At Rome he was thoroughly +enlightened. + +The Elect of the religion made a great impression by their fasts and their +abstinence from meat. Now it became clear that these devout personages, +under pious pretexts, literally destroyed themselves by over-eating and +indigestion. They held, in fact, that the chief work of piety consisted in +setting free particles of the Divine Light, imprisoned in matter by the +wiles of the God of Darkness. They being the Pure, they purified matter by +absorbing it into their bodies. The faithful brought them stores of fruit +and vegetables, served them with real feasts, so that by eating these +things they might liberate a little of the Divine Substance. Of course, +they abstained from all flesh, flesh being the dwelling-place of the Dark +God, and also from fermented wine, which they called "the devil's gall." +But how they made up for it over the rest! Augustin makes great fun of +these people who would think it a sin if they took as a full meal a small +bit of bacon and cabbage, with two or three mouthfuls of undiluted wine, +and yet ordered to be served up, from three o'clock in the afternoon, all +kinds of fruit and vegetables, the most exquisite too, rendered piquant +by spices, the Manichees holding that spices were very full of fiery and +luminous principles. Then, their palates titillating from pepper, they +swallowed large draughts of mulled wine or wine and honey, and the juice +of oranges, lemons, and grapes. And these junketings began over again at +nightfall. They had a preference for certain cakes, and especially for +truffles and mushrooms--vegetables more particularly mystic. + +Such a diet put human gluttony to a heavy test. Many a scandal came to +light in the Roman community. The Elect made themselves sick by devouring +the prodigious quantity of good cheer brought to them with a view to +purification. As it was a sacrilege to let any be lost, the unhappy people +forced themselves to get down the lot. There were even victims: children, +gorged with delicacies, died of stuffing. For children, being innocent +things, were deemed to have quite special purifying virtues. + +Augustin was beginning to get indignant at all this nonsense. Still, except +for these extravagances, he continued to believe in the asceticism of the +Elect--asceticism of such severity that the main part of the faithful found +it impossible to practise. And see! just at this moment, whom should he +discover very strange things about but Bishop Faustus, that Faustus whom he +had looked for at Carthage as a Messiah. The holy man, while he preached +renunciation, granted himself a good many indulgences: he lay, for one +thing, on feathers, or upon soft goatskin rugs. And these puritans were not +even honest. The Manichee Bishop of Rome, that man of rough manners who had +so offended Augustin, was on the point of being convicted of stealing the +general cash-box. Lastly, there were rumours in the air, accusing the Elect +of giving themselves over to reprehensible practices in their private +meetings. They condemned marriage and child-bearing as works of the devil, +but they authorized fornication, and even, it is said, certain acts against +nature. That, for Augustin, was the final disillusion. + +In spite of it, he did not separate openly from the sect. He kept his +rank of _auditor_ in the Manichee Church. What held him to it, were some +plausible considerations on the intellectual side. Manicheeism, with its +distinction of two Principles, accounted conveniently for the problem of +evil and human responsibility. Neither God nor man was answerable for sin +and pain, since it was the other, the Dark Principle, who distributed +them through the world among men. Augustin, who continued to sin, +continued likewise to be very comfortable with such a system of morals and +metaphysics. Besides, he was not one of those convinced, downright minds +who feel the need to quarrel noisily with what they take to be error. +No one has opposed heresies more powerfully, and with a more tireless +patience, than he has. But he always put some consideration into the +business. He knew by experience how easy it is to fall into error, and he +said this charitably to those whom he wished to persuade. There was nothing +about him like St. Jerome. + +Personal reasons, moreover, obliged him not to break with his +fellow-religionists who had supported him, nursed him even, on his arrival +at Rome, and who, as we shall see in a moment, might still do him services. +Augustin was not, like his friend Alypius, a practical mind, but he had +tact, and in spite of all the impulsiveness and mettle of his nature, +a certain suppleness which enabled him to manoeuvre without too many +collisions in the midst of the most embarrassing conjunctures. Through +instinctive prudence he prolonged his indecision. Little by little, he who +had formerly flung himself so enthusiastically in pursuit of Truth, glided +into scepticism--the scepticism of the Academics in its usual form. + +And at the same time that he lost his taste for speculative thinking, new +annoyances in his profession put the finishing touch on his discouragement. +If the Roman students were less noisy than those of Carthage, they had a +deplorable habit of walking off and leaving their masters unpaid. Augustin +was ere long victimized in this way: he lost his time and his words. As at +Carthage, so at Rome, he had to face the fact that he could not live by his +profession. What was he to do? Would he have to go back home? He had fallen +into despair, when an unforeseen chance turned up for him. + +The town council of Milan threw open a professorship of Rhetoric to public +competition. It would be salvation for him if he could get appointed. For +a long time he had wanted a post in the State education. In receipt of a +fixed salary, he would no longer have to worry about beating up a class, +or to guard against the dishonesty of his pupils. He put his name down +immediately among the candidates. But no more in those days than in ours +was simple merit by itself enough. It was necessary to pull strings. His +friends the Manichees undertook to do this for him. They urged his claims +warmly on the Prefect Symmachus, who doubtless presided at the competitive +trials. By an amusing irony of fate, Augustin owed his place to people he +was getting ready to separate from, whom even he was soon going to attack, +and also to a man who was in a way the official enemy of Christianity. +The pagan Symmachus appointing to an important post a future Catholic +bishop--there is matter for surprise in that! But Symmachus, who had been +Proconsul at Carthage, protected the Africans in Rome. Furthermore, it +is likely that the Manichees represented their candidate to him as a man +hostile to Catholics. Now in this year, A.D. 384, the Prefect had just +begun an open struggle with the Catholics. He believed, therefore, that he +made a good choice in appointing Augustin. + +So a chain of events, with which his will had hardly anything to do, +was going to draw the young rhetorician to Milan--yes, and how much +farther!--to where he did not want to go, to where the prayers of Monnica +summoned him unceasingly: "Where I am, there shall you be also." When he +was leaving Rome, he did not much expect that. What he chiefly thought of +was that he had at last won an independent financial position, and that he +was become an official of some importance. He had a flattering evidence +of this at once: It was at the expense of the city of Milan and in the +Imperial carriages that he travelled through Italy to take up his new post. + + + + +III + +THE MEETING BETWEEN AMBROSE AND AUGUSTIN + + +Before he left Rome, and during his journey to Milan, Augustin must have +recalled more than once the verses of Terence which his friend Marcianus +had quoted by way of encouragement and advice the night he set sail for +Italy: + + "This day which brings to thee another life + Demands that thou another man shalt be." + +He was thirty years old. The time of youthful wilfulness was over. Age, +disappointments, the difficulties of life, had developed his character. +He was now become a man of position, an eminent official, in a very large +city which was the second capital of the Western Empire and the principal +residence of the Court. If he wished to avoid further set-backs in his +career, it behoved him to choose a line of conduct carefully thought out. + +And first of all, it was time to get rid of Manicheeism. A Manichee would +have made a scandal in a city where the greatest part of the population +was Christian, and the Court was Catholic, although it did not conceal +its sympathy with Arianism. It was a long time now since Augustin had +been a Manichee in his heart. Accordingly, he was not obliged to feign +in order to re-enter a Church which already included him formally among +its catechumens. Doubtless he was a very lukewarm catechumen, since at +intervals he inclined to scepticism. But he thought it decent to remain, +at least for the time being, in the Catholic body, in which his mother had +brought him up, until the day when some sure light should arise to direct +his path. Now St. Ambrose was at that time the Catholic Bishop of Milan. +Augustin was very eager to gain his goodwill. Ambrose was an undoubted +political power, an important personage, a celebrated orator whose renown +was shed all across the Roman world. He belonged to an illustrious family. +His father had been Praetorian prefect of Gaul. He himself, with the +title of Consul, was governing the provinces of Emilia and Liguria when +the Milanese forced him, much against his will, to become their bishop. +Baptized, ordained priest, and consecrated, one on top of the other, it +was only apparently that he gave up his civil functions. From the height +of his episcopal throne he always personified the highest authority in the +country. + +As soon as he arrived at Milan, Augustin hurried to call upon his bishop. +Knowing him as we do, he must have approached Ambrose in a great transport +of enthusiasm. His imagination, too, was kindled. In his thought this was +a man of letters, an orator, a famous writer, almost a fellow-worker, that +he was going to see. The young professor admired in Bishop Ambrose all the +glory that he was ambitious of, and all that he already believed himself +to be. He fancied, that however great might be the difference in their +positions, he would find himself at once on an equal footing with this high +personage, and would have a familiar talk with him, as he used to have at +Carthage with the Proconsul Vindicianus. He told himself also that Ambrose +was a priest, that is to say, a doctor of souls: he meant to open to him +all his spiritual wretchedness, the anguish of his mind and heart. He +expected consolation from him, if not cure. + +Well, he was mistaken. Although in all his writings he speaks of "the holy +Bishop of Milan" with feelings of sincere respect and admiration, he lets +it be understood that his expectations were not realized. If the Manichean +bishop of Rome had offended him by his rough manners, Ambrose disconcerted +him alike by his politeness, his kindliness, and by the reserve, +perhaps involuntarily haughty, of his reception. "He received me," says +Augustin, "like a father, and as a bishop he was pleased enough at my +coming:"--_peregrinationem meam satis episcopaliter dilexit_. This _satis +episcopaliter_ looks very like a sly banter at the expense of the saint. It +is infinitely probable that St. Ambrose received Augustin, not exactly as a +man of no account, but still, as a sheep of his flock, and not as a gifted +orator, and that, in short, he shewed him the same "episcopal" benevolence +as he had from a sense of duty for all his hearers. It is possible too +that Ambrose was on his guard from the outset with this African, appointed +a municipal professor through the good offices of the pagan Symmachus, +his personal enemy. In the opinion of the Italian Catholics, nothing +good came from Carthage: these Carthaginians were generally Manichees +or Donatists--sectaries the more dangerous because they claimed to be +orthodox, and, mingling with the faithful, hypocritically contaminated +them. And then Ambrose, the great lord, the former Governor of Liguria, the +counsellor of the Emperors, may not have quite concealed a certain ironic +commiseration for this "dealer in words," this young rhetorician who was +still puffed up with his own importance. + +Be this as it will, it was a lesson in humility that St. Ambrose, without +intending it, gave to Augustin. The lesson was not understood. The rhetoric +professor gathered only one thing from the visit, which was, that the +Bishop of Milan had received him well. And as human vanity immediately +lends vast significance to the least advances of distinguished or powerful +persons, Augustin felt thankful for it. He began to love Ambrose almost as +much as he admired him, and he admired him for reasons altogether worldly. +"Ambrose I counted one of the happy ones of this world, because he was held +in such honour by the great." The qualification which immediately follows +shews naively enough the sensual Augustin's state of mind at that time: +"Only it seemed to me that celibacy must be a heavy burthen upon him." + +In those years the Bishop of Milan might, indeed, pass for a happy man +in the eyes of the world. He was the friend of the very glorious and +very victorious Theodosius; he had been the adviser of the young Emperor +Gratian, but lately assassinated; and although the Empress Justina, devoted +to the Arians, plotted against him, he had still great influence in the +council of Valentinian II--a little Emperor thirteen years old, whom a +Court of pagans and Arians endeavoured to draw into an anti-Catholic +reaction. + +Almost as soon as Augustin arrived in Milan, he was able to see for himself +the great authority and esteem which Ambrose possessed, the occasion being +a dispute which made a great noise. + +Two years earlier, Gratian had had the statue and altar of _Victory_ +removed from the _Curia_, declaring that this pagan emblem and its +accompaniments no longer served any purpose in an assembly of which the +majority was Christian. By the same stroke, he suppressed the incomes of +the sacerdotal colleges with all their privileges, particularly those of +the Vestals; confiscated for the revenue the sums granted for the exercise +of religion; seized the property of the temples; and forbade the priests +to receive bequests of real estate. This meant the complete separation +of the State and the ancient religion. The pagan minority in the Senate, +with Symmachus, the Prefect, at its head, protested against this edict. +A deputation was sent to Milan to place the pagan grievances before +the Emperor. Gratian refused to receive them. It was thought that his +successor, Valentinian II, being feebler, would be more obliging. A new +senatorial committee presented themselves with a petition drawn up by +Symmachus--a genuine piece of oratory which Ambrose himself admired, or +pretended to admire. This speech made a deep impression when it was read +in the Imperial Council. But Ambrose intervened with all his eloquence. +He demanded that the common law should be applied equally to pagans as to +Christians, and it was he who won the day. _Victory_ was not replaced in +the Roman _Curia_, neither were the goods of the temples returned. + +Augustin must have been very much struck by this advantage which +Catholicism had gained. It became clear that henceforth this was to be +the State religion. And he who envied so much the fortunate of the world, +might take note, besides, that the new religion brought, along with the +faith, riches and honours to its adepts. At Rome he had listened to the +disparaging by pagans and his Manichee friends of the popes and their +clergy. They made fun of the fashionable clerics and legacy hunters. It was +related that the Roman Pontiff, servant of the God of the poor, maintained +a gorgeous establishment, and that his table rivalled the Imperial table in +luxury. The prefect Praetextatus, a resolute pagan, said scoffingly to Pope +Damasus: "Make me Bishop of Rome, and I'll become a Christian at once." + +Certainly, commonplace human reasons can neither bring about nor account +for a sincere conversion. Conversion is a divine work. But human reasons, +arranged by a mysterious Will with regard to this work, may at least +prepare a soul for it. Anyhow, it cannot be neglected that Augustin, coming +to Milan full of ambitious plans, there saw Catholicism treated with so +much importance in the person of Ambrose. This religion, which till then he +had despised, now appeared to him as a triumphant religion worth serving. + +But though such considerations might attract Augustin's attention, they +took no hold on his conscience. It was well enough for an intriguer about +the Court to get converted from self-interest. As for him, he wanted all or +nothing; the chief good in his eyes was certainty and truth. He scarcely +believed in this any longer, and surely had no hope of finding it among +the Catholics; but still he went to hear Ambrose's sermons. He went in the +first place as a critic of language, with the rather jealous curiosity of +the trained man who watches how another man does it. He wanted to judge +himself if the sacred orator was as good as his reputation. The firm and +substantial eloquence of this former official, this statesman who was more +than anything a man of action, immediately got control of the frivolous +rhetorician. To be sure, he did not find in Ambrose's sermons the +exhilaration or the verbal caress which had captivated him in those of +Faustus the Manichean; but yet they had a persuasive grace which held him. +Augustin heard the bishop with pleasure. Still, if he liked to hear him +talk, he remained contemptuous of the doctrine he preached. + +Then, little by little, this doctrine forced itself on his meditations: +he perceived that it was more serious than he had thought hitherto, or, +at least, that it could be defended. Ambrose had started in Italy the +exegetical methods of the Orientals. He discovered in Scripture allegorical +meanings, sometimes edifying, sometimes deep, always satisfying for a +reasonable mind. Augustin, who was inclined to subtilty, much relished +these explanations which, if ingenious, were often forced. The Bible +no longer seemed to him so absurd. Finally, the immoralities which the +Manichees made such a great point of against the Holy Writ, were justified, +according to Ambrose, by historical considerations: what God did not allow +to-day, He allowed formerly by reason of the conditions of existence. +However, though the Bible might be neither absurd nor contrary to morals, +this did not prove that it was true. Augustin found no outlet for his +doubts. + +He would have been glad to have Ambrose help him to get rid of them. Many a +time he tried to have a talk with him about these things. But the Bishop of +Milan was so very busy a personage! "I could not ask him," says Augustin, +"what I wanted as I wanted, because the shoals of busy people who consulted +him about their affairs, and to whose infirmities he ministered, came +between me and his ear and lips. And in the few moments when he was not +thus surrounded, he was refreshing either his body with needful food, or +his mind with reading. While he read his eye wandered along the page and +his heart searched out the meaning, but his voice and his tongue were at +rest. Often when we attended (for the door was open to all, and no one was +announced), we saw him reading silently, but never otherwise, and after +sitting for some time without speaking (_for who would presume to trouble +one so occupied?_) we went away again. We divined that, for the little +space of time which was all that he could secure for the refreshment of his +mind, he allowed himself a holiday from the distraction of other people's +business, and did not wish to be interrupted; _and perhaps he was afraid +lest eager listeners should invite him to explain the harder passages of +his author, or to enter upon the discussion of difficult topics_, and +hinder him from perusing as many volumes as he wished.... _Of course +the reason that guided a man of such remarkable virtue must have been +good...._" + +Nobody could comment more subtly--nor, be it said also, more +maliciously--the attitude of St. Ambrose towards Augustin, than Augustin +himself does it here. At the time he wrote this page, the events he was +relating had happened a long time ago. But he is a Christian, and, in his +turn, he is a bishop: he understands now what he could not understand +then. He feels thoroughly at heart that if Ambrose withdrew himself, it +was because the professor of rhetoric was not in a state of mind to have a +profitable discussion with a believer: he lacked the necessary humility of +heart and intellect. But at the moment, he must have taken things in quite +another way, and have felt rather hurt, not to say more, at the bishop's +apparent indifference. + +Just picture a young writer of to-day, pretty well convinced of his value, +but uneasy about his future, coming to ask advice of an older man already +famous--well, Augustin's advances to Ambrose were not unlike that, save +that they had a much more serious character, since it was not a question of +literature, but of the salvation of a soul. At this period, what Augustin +saw in Ambrose, even when he consulted him on sacred matters, was chiefly +the orator, that is to say, a rather older rival.... He enters. He is shewn +into the private room of the great man, without being announced, _like any +ordinary person_. The great man does not lay aside his book to greet him, +does not even speak a word to him.... What would the official professor of +Rhetoric to the City of Milan think of such a reception? One can make out +clearly enough through the lines of the _Confessions_. He said to himself +that Ambrose, being a bishop, had charge of souls, and he was surprised +that the bishop, no matter how great a lord he might be, made no attempt +whatever to offer him spiritual aid. And as he was still devoid of +Christian charity, no doubt he thought too that Ambrose was conscious +that he had not the ability to wrestle with a dialectician of Augustin's +strength, and that, into the bargain, the prelate was to seek in knowledge +of the Scriptures. And, in truth, Ambrose had been made a bishop so +suddenly that he must have found himself obliged to improvise a hasty +knowledge. Anyhow, Augustin concluded that if he refused to discuss, it was +because he was afraid of being at a disadvantage. + +Very surely St. Ambrose had no notion of what the catechumen was thinking. +He soared too high to trouble about miserable stings to self-respect. In +his ministry he was for all alike, and he would have thought it against +Christian equality to shew any special favour to Augustin. If, in the brief +talks he had with the young rhetorician, he was able to gather anything of +his character, he could not have formed a very favourable opinion of it. +The high-strung temperament of the African, these vague yearnings of the +spirit, these sterile melancholies, this continual temporizing before the +faith--all that could only displease Ambrose, the practical Roman, the +official used all his life to command. + +However that was, Augustin, in following years, never allowed himself the +least reproach towards Ambrose. On the contrary, everywhere he loads him +with praise, quotes him repeatedly in his treatises, and takes refuge on +his authority. He calls him his "father." But once, when he is speaking +of the spiritual desolation in which he was plunged at Milan, there does +escape him something like a veiled complaint which appears to be aimed at +Ambrose. After recalling the eagerness with which he sought truth in those +days, he adds: "If any one could have been found then to trouble about +instructing me, he would have had a most willing and docile pupil." + +This phrase, in such marked contrast with so many laudatory passages in +the _Confessions_ about St. Ambrose, seems to be indeed a statement of +the plain truth. If God made use of Ambrose to convert Augustin, it is +nevertheless likely that Ambrose personally did nothing, or very little, to +bring about this conversion. + + + + +IV + +PLANS OF MARRIAGE + + +But even as he draws nearer the goal, Augustin would appear, on the +contrary, to get farther away from it. Such are God's secret paces, Who +snatches souls like a thief: He drops on them without warning. Till the +very eve of the day when Christ shall come to take him, Augustin will be +all taken up with the world and the care of making a good figure in it. + +Although Ambrose's sermons stimulated him to reflect upon the great +historical reality which Christianity is, he had as yet but dim glimpses +of it. He had given up his superficial unbelief, and yet did not believe +in anything definite. He drifted into a sort of agnosticism compounded of +mental indolence and discouragement. When he scrutinized his conscience to +the depths, the most he could find was a belief in the existence of God and +His providence--quite abstract ideas which he was incapable of enlivening. +But whatever was the use of speculating upon Truth and the Sovereign Good! +The main thing to do was to live. + +Now that his future was certain, Augustin endeavoured to arrange his life +with a view to his tranquillity. He had no longer very large ambitions. +What he principally wanted to do was to create for himself a nice little +existence, peaceful and agreeable, one might almost say, middle-class. His +present fortune, although small, was still enough for that, and he was in a +hurry to enjoy it. + +Accordingly, he had not been long in Milan ere he sent for his mistress and +his son. He had rented an apartment in a house which gave on a garden. The +owner, who did not live there, allowed him the use of the whole house. A +house, the dream of the sage! And a garden in Virgil's country! Augustin, +the professor, should have been wonderfully happy. His mother soon joined +him. Gradually a whole tribe of Africans came down on him, and took +advantage of his hospitality. Here was his brother, Navigius, his two +cousins, Rusticus and Lastidianus, his friend Alypius, who could not make +up his mind to part from him, and probably Nebridius, another of his +Carthage friends. Nothing could be more in harmony with the customs of the +time. The Rhetorician to the City of Milan had a post which would pass +for superb in the eyes of his poor relations. He was acquainted with very +important people, and had access to the Imperial Court, whence favours and +bounties came. Immediately, the family ran to put themselves under his +protection and be enrolled beneficiaries, to get what they could out of +his new fortune and credit. And then these immigrations of Africans and +Orientals into the northern countries always come about in the same way. It +is enough if one of them gets on there: he becomes immediately the drop of +ink on the blotting-paper. + +The most important person in this little African phalanstery was +unquestionably Monnica, who had taken in hand the moral and material +control of the house. She was not very old--not quite fifty-four--but she +wanted to be in her own country. That she should have left it, and faced +the weariness of a long journey over sea and land, she must have had very +serious reasons. The poverty into which she had fallen since the death of +her husband would not be an adequate explanation of her departure from +her native land. She had still some small property at Thagaste; she could +have lived there. The true motives of her departure were of an altogether +different order. First of all, she passionately loved her son, to the point +that she was not able to live away from him. Let us recall Augustin's +touching words: "For she loved to keep me with her, as mothers are wont, +yes, far more than most mothers." Besides that, she wanted to save him. She +completely believed that this was her work in the world. + +Beginning from now, she is no longer the widow of Patricius: she is already +Saint Monnica. Living like a nun, she fasted, prayed, mortified her body. +By long meditating on the Scriptures, she had developed within her the +sense of spiritual realities, so that before long she astonished Augustin +himself. She had visions; perhaps she had trances. As she came over the sea +from Carthage to Ostia, the ship which carried her ran into a wild gale. +The danger became extreme, and the sailors themselves could no longer hide +their fear. But Monnica intrepidly encouraged them. "Never you fear, we +shall arrive in port safe and sound!" God, she declared, had promised her +this. + +If, in her Christian life, she knew other minutes more divine, that was +truly the most heroic. Across Augustin's calm narrative, we witness the +scene. This woman lying on the deck among passengers half dead from fatigue +and terror, suddenly flings back her veils, stands up before the maddened +sea, and with a sudden flame gleaming over her pale face, she cries to the +sailors: "What do you fear? We shall get to port. _I am sure of it!_" The +glorious act of faith! + +At this solemn moment, when she saw death so near, she had a clear +revelation of her destiny; she knew with absolute certainty that she was +entrusted with a message for her son, and that her son would receive this +message, in spite of all, in spite of the wildness of the sea--aye, in +spite of his own heart. + +When this sublime emotion had subsided, it left with her the conviction +that sooner or later Augustin would change his ways. He had lost himself, +he was mistaken about himself. This business of rhetorician was unworthy +of him. The Master of the field had chosen him to be one of the great +reapers in the time of harvest. For a long while Monnica had foreseen the +exceptional place that Augustin was to take in the Church. Why fritter +away his talent and intelligence in selling vain words, when there were +heresies to combat, the Truth to make shine forth, when the Donatists were +capturing the African basilicas from the Catholics? What, in fact, was the +most celebrated rhetorician compared to a bishop--protector of cities, +counsellor of emperors, representative of God on earth? All this might +Augustin be. And he remained stubborn in his error! Prayers and efforts +must be redoubled to draw him from that. It was also for herself that she +struggled, for the dearest of her hopes as a mother. To bear a soul to +Jesus Christ--and a chosen soul who would save in his turn souls without +number--for this only had she lived. And so it was that on the deck, tired +by the rolling of the ship, drenched by the seas that were breaking on +board, and hardly able to stand in the teeth of the wind, she cried out to +the sailors: "What do you fear? We shall get to port. I am sure of it...." + +At Milan she was regarded by Bishop Ambrose as a model parishioner. She +never missed his sermons and "hung upon his lips as a fountain of water +springing up to eternal life." And yet it does not appear that the great +bishop understood the mother any better than he did the son: he had not +the time. For him Monnica was a worthy African woman, perhaps a little odd +in her devotion, and given to many a superstitious practice. Thus, she +continued to carry baskets of bread and wine and pulse to the tombs of the +martyrs, according to the use at Carthage and Thagaste. When, carrying +her basket, she came to the door of one of the Milanese basilicas, the +doorkeeper forbade her to enter, saying that it was against the bishop's +orders, who had solemnly condemned such practices because they smacked +of idolatry. The moment she learned that this custom was prohibited by +Ambrose, Monnica, very much mortified, submitted to take away her basket, +for in her eyes Ambrose was the providential apostle who would lead her son +to salvation. And yet it must have grieved her to give up this old custom +of her country. Save for the fear of displeasing the bishop, she would +have kept it up. Ambrose was gratified by her obedience, her fervour and +charity. When by chance he met the son, he congratulated him on having such +a mother. Augustin, who did not yet despise human praise, no doubt expected +that Ambrose would in turn pay some compliments to himself. But Ambrose did +not praise him at all, and perhaps he felt rather vexed. + +He himself, however, was always very busy; he had hardly any time to profit +by the pious exhortations of the bishop. His day was filled by his work +and his social duties. In the morning he lectured. The afternoon went in +friendly visits, or in looking up men of position whom he applied to for +himself or his relations. In the evening, he prepared to-morrow's lecture. +In spite of this very full and stirring life, which would seem to satisfy +all his ambitions, he could not manage to stifle the cry of his heart in +distress. He did not feel really happy. In the first place, it is doubtful +whether he liked Milan any better than Rome. He felt the cold there very +much. The Milanese winters are very trying, especially for a southerner. +Thick fogs rise from the canals and the marsh lands which surround the +city. The Alpine snows are very near. This climate, damper and frostier +even than at Rome, did no good to his chest. He suffered continually from +hoarseness; he was obliged to interrupt his lectures--a most disastrous +necessity for a man whose business it is to talk. These attacks became so +frequent that he was forced to wonder if he could keep on long in this +state. Already he felt that he might be obliged to give up his profession. +Then, in those hours when he lost heart, he flung to the winds all his +youthful ambitions. As a last resort, the voiceless rhetorician would take +a post in one of the administrative departments of the Empire. The idea of +being one day a provincial governor did not rouse any special repugnance. +What a fall for him! "Yes, but it is the wisest, the wisest thing," +retorted the ill-advising voice, the one we are tempted to listen to when +we doubt ourselves. + +Friendship, as always with Augustin, consoled him for his hopeless +thoughts. Near him was "the brother of his heart," the faithful Alypius, +and also Nebridius, that young man so fond of metaphysical discussions. +Nebridius had left his rich estate in the Carthaginian suburbs, and a +mother who loved him, simply to live with Augustin in the pursuit of truth. +Romanianus was also there, but for a less disinterested reason. The Maecenas +of Thagaste, after his ostentatious expenditure, found that his fortune +was threatened. A powerful enemy, who had started a law-suit against him, +worked to bring about his downfall. Romanianus had come to Milan to +defend himself before the Emperor, and to win the support of influential +personages about the Court. And so it came about that he saw a great deal +of Augustin. + +Besides this little band of fellow-countrymen, the professor of rhetoric +had some very distinguished friends among the aristocracy. He was +especially intimate with that Manlius Theodorus whom the poet Claudian +celebrates, and to whom he himself later on was to dedicate one of his +books. This rich man, who had been Proconsul at Carthage, where no doubt he +had met Augustin, lived at this time retired in the country, dividing his +leisure hours between the study of the Greek philosophers, especially of +the Platonists, and the cultivation of his vineyards and olive trees. + +Here, as at Thagaste, in these beautiful villas on the shores of the +Italian lakes, the son of Monnica gave himself up once more to the +sweetness of life. "I liked an easy life," he avows in all simplicity. +He felt himself to be more Epicurean than ever. He might have chosen +Epicureanism altogether, if he had not always kept a fear of what is beyond +life. But when he was the guest of Manlius Theodoras, fronting the dim blue +mountains of lake Como, framed in the high windows of the _triclinium_, +he did not think much about what is beyond life. He said to himself: "Why +desire the impossible? So very little is needed to satisfy a human soul." +The enervating contact of luxury and comfort imperceptibly corrupted him. +He became like those fashionable people whom he knew so well how to charm +with his talk. Like the fashionable people of all times, these designated +victims of the Barbarians built, with their small daily pleasures, a +rampart against all offensive or saddening realities, leaving the important +questions without answer, no longer even asking them. And they said: +"I have beautiful books, a well-heated house, well-trained slaves, a +delightfully arranged bathroom, a comfortable vehicle: life is sweet. I +don't wish for a better. What's the use? This one is good enough for me." +At the moment when his tired intellect gave up everything, Augustin was +taken in the snare of easy enjoyment, and desired to resemble these people +at all points, to be one of them. But to be one of them he must have a +higher post than a rhetorician's, and chiefly it would be necessary to put +all the outside forms and exterior respectability into his life that the +world of fashion shews. Thus, little by little, he began to think seriously +of marriage. + +His mistress was the only obstacle in the way of this plan. He got rid of +her. + +That was a real domestic drama, which he has tried to hide; but it must +have been extremely painful for him, to judge by the laments which he gives +vent to, despite himself, in some phrases, very brief and, as it were, +ashamed. In this drama Monnica was certainly the leader, though it is +likely that Augustin's friends also played their parts. No doubt, they +objected to the professor of rhetoric, that he was injuring his reputation +as well as his future by living thus publicly with a concubine. But +Monnica's reasons were more forcible and of quite another value. + +To begin with, it is very natural that she should have suffered in her +maternal dignity, as well as in her conscience as a Christian, by having to +put up with the company of a stranger who was her son's mistress. However +large we may suppose the house where the African tribe dwelt, a certain +clashing between the guests was unavoidable. Generally, disputes as to +who shall direct the domestic arrangements divide mother-in-law and +daughter-in-law who live under one roof. What could be Monnica's feelings +towards a woman who was not even a daughter-in-law and was regarded by her +as an intruder? She did not consider it worth while to make any attempt at +regulating the entanglement of her son by marrying them: this person was +of far too low a class. It is all very well to be a saint, but one does +not forget that one is the widow of a man of curial rank, and that a +middle-class family with self-respect does not lower itself by admitting +the first-comer into its ranks by marriage. But these were secondary +considerations in her eyes. The only one which could have really preyed on +her mind is that this woman delayed Augustin's conversion. On account of +her, as Monnica saw plainly, he put off his baptism indefinitely. She was +the chain of sin, the unclean past under whose weight he stifled. He must +be freed from her as soon as possible. + +Convinced therefore that such was her bounden duty, she worked continually +to make him break off. By way of putting him in some sort face to face with +a deed impossible to undo, she searched to find him a wife, with the fine +eagerness that mothers usually put into this kind of hunt. She discovered +a girl who filled, as they say, all the requirements, and who realized all +the hopes of Augustin. She had a fortune considerable enough not to be a +burthen on her husband. Her money, added to the professor's salary, would +allow the pair to live in ease and comfort. So they were betrothed. In +the uncertainty about all things which was Augustin's state just then, he +allowed his mother to work at this marriage. No doubt he approved, and like +a good official he thought it was time for him to settle down. + +From that moment, the separation became inevitable. How did the poor +creature who had been faithful to him during so many years feel at this +ignominious dismissal? What must have been the parting between the child +Adeodatus and his mother? How, indeed, could Augustin consent to take him +from her? Here, again, he has decided to keep silent on this painful drama, +from a feeling of shame easy to understand. Of course, he was no longer +strongly in love with his mistress, but he was attached to her by some +remains of tenderness, and by that very strong tie of pleasure shared. He +has said it in words burning with regret. "When they took from my side, as +an obstacle to my marriage, her with whom I had been used for such a long +time to sleep, my heart was torn at the place where it was stuck to hers, +and the wound was bleeding." The phrase casts light while it burns. "At the +place where my heart stuck to hers"--_cor ubi adhaerebat_. He acknowledges +then that the union was no longer complete, since at many points he had +drawn apart. If the soul of his mistress had remained the same, his had +changed: however much he might still love her, he was already far from her. + +Be that as it will, she behaved splendidly in the affair--this forsaken +woman, this poor creature whom they deemed unworthy of Augustin. She was a +Christian; perhaps she perceived (for a loving woman might well have this +kind of second-sight) that it was a question not only of the salvation of +a loved being, but of a divine mission to which he was predestined. She +sacrificed herself that Augustin might be an apostle and a saint--a great +servant of God. So she went back to her Africa, and to shew that she +pardoned, if she could not forget, she vowed that she would never know any +other man. "She who had slept" with Augustin could never be the wife of any +one else. + +However low she may have been to begin with, the unhappy woman was great at +this crisis. Her nobility of soul humiliated Augustin, and Monnica herself, +and punishment was not slow in falling on them both--on him, for letting +himself be carried away by sordid plans for success in life, and upon her, +the saint, for having been too accommodating. As soon as his mistress was +gone, Augustin suffered from being alone. "I thought that I should be +miserable," says he, "without the embraces of a woman." Now his promised +bride was too young: two years must pass before he could marry her. How +could he control himself till then? Augustin did not hesitate: he found +another mistress. + +There was Monnica's punishment, cruelly deceived in her pious intentions. +In vain did she hope a great deal of good from this approaching marriage: +the silence of God shewed her that she was on the wrong track. She begged +for a vision, some sign which would reveal to her how this new-planned +marriage would turn out. Her prayer was not heard. + +"Meanwhile," says Augustin, "my sins were being multiplied." But he did +not limit himself to his own sins: he led others into temptation. Even in +matrimonial matters, he felt the need of making proselytes. So he fell upon +the worthy Alypius. He, to be sure, guarded himself chastely from women, +although in the outset of his youth, to be like everybody else, he had +tried pleasure with women; but he had found that it did not suit his taste. +However, Augustin put conjugal delights before him with so much heat, that +he too began to turn his thoughts that way, "not that he was overcome by +the desire of pleasure, _but out of curiosity_." For Alypius, marriage +would be a sort of philosophic and sentimental experience. + +Here are quite modern expressions to translate very old conditions of soul. +The fact is, that these young men, Augustin's friends and Augustin himself, +were startlingly like those of a generation already left behind, alas! who +will probably keep in history the presumptuous name they gave themselves: +_The Intellectuals_. + +Like us, these young Latins of Africa, pupils of the rhetoricians and the +pagan philosophers, believed in hardly anything but ideas. All but ready to +affirm that Truth is not to be come at, they thought, just the same, that +a vain hunt after it was a glorious risk to run, or, at the very least, an +exciting game. For them this game made the whole dignity and value of life. +Although they had spasms of worldly ambition, they really despised whatever +was not pure speculation. In their eyes, the world was ugly; action +degrading. They barred themselves within the ideal garden of the sage, "the +philosopher's corner," as they called it, and jealously they stopped up all +the holes through which the painful reality might have crept through to +them. But where they differed from us, is that they had much less dryness +of soul, with every bit as much pedantry--but such ingenuous pedantry! +That's what saved them--their generosity of soul, the youth of their +hearts. They loved each other, and they ended by growing fond of life and +getting in contact with it again. Nebridius journeyed from Carthage to +Milan, abandoning his mother and family, neglecting considerable interests, +not only to talk philosophy with Augustin, but to live with him as a +friend. From this moment they might have been putting in practice those +words of the Psalm, which Augustin ere long will be explaining to his monks +with such tender eloquence: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for +brethren to dwell together in unity!" + +This is not baseless hypothesis: they had really a plan for establishing a +kind of lay monastery, where the sole rule would be the search after Truth +and the happy life. There would be about a dozen solitaries. They would +make a common stock of what means they possessed. The richest, and among +these Romanianus, promised to devote their whole fortune to the community. +But the recollection of their wives brought this naive plan to nothing. +They had neglected to ask the opinions of their wives, and if these, as +was likely, should refuse to enter the convents with their husbands, the +married men could not face the scheme of living without them. Augustin +especially, who was on the point of starting a new connection, declared +that he would never find the courage for it. He had also forgotten that +he had many dependents: his whole family lived on him. Could he leave his +mother, his son, his brother, and his cousins? + +In company with Alypius and Nebridius, he sincerely lamented that this +fair dream of coenobite life was impracticable. "We were three famishing +mouths," he says, "complaining of our distress one to another, and waiting +upon Thee that Thou mightest give us our meat in due season. And in all +the bitterness that Thy mercy put into our worldly pursuits, we sought the +reason why we suffered; and all was darkness. Then we turned to each other +shuddering, and asked: 'How much longer can this last?'..." + +One day, a slight commonplace fact which they happened upon brought home +to them still more cruelly their intellectual poverty. Augustin, in his +official position as municipal orator, had just delivered the official +panegyric of the Emperor. The new year was opening: the whole city was +given over to mirth. And yet he was cast down, knowing well that he had +just uttered many an untruth, and chiefly because he despaired of ever +being happy. His friends were walking with him. Suddenly, as they crossed +the street, they came upon a beggar, quite drunk, who was indulging in the +jolliest pranks. So there was a happy man! A few pence had been enough +to give him perfect felicity, whereas they, the philosophers, despite +the greatest efforts and all their knowledge, could not manage to win +happiness. No doubt, as soon as the drunkard grew sober, he would be more +wretched than before. What matters that, if this poor joy--yes, though it +be an illusion--can so much cheer a poor creature, thus raise him so far +above himself! That minute, at least, he shall have lived in full bliss. +And to Augustin came the temptation to do as the beggar-man, to throw +overboard his philosophical lumber and set himself simply to live without +afterthoughts, since life is sometimes good. + +But an instinct, stronger than the instinct of pleasure, said to him: +"_There is something else!_--Suppose that were true?--Perhaps you might be +able to find out." This thought tormented him unceasingly. Now eager, now +disheartened, he set about trying to find the "something else." + + + + +V + +THE CHRIST IN THE GARDEN + + +"I was tired of devouring time and of being devoured by it." The whole +moral crisis that Augustin is about to undergo might be summed up in these +few words so concentrated and so strong. No more to scatter himself among +the multitude of vain things, no more to let himself flow along with the +minutes as they flowed; but to pull himself together, to escape from the +rout so as to establish himself upon the incorruptible and eternal, to +break the chains of the old slave he continues to be so as to blossom forth +in liberty, in thought, in love--that is the salvation he longs for. If it +be not yet the Christian salvation, he is on the road which leads to that. + +One might amuse oneself by drawing a kind of ideal map-route of his +conversion, and fastening into one solid chain the reasons which made him +emerge at the act of faith: he himself perhaps, in his _Confessions_, +has given way too much to this inclination. In reality, conversion is an +interior fact, and (let us repeat it) a divine fact, which is independent +of all control by the reason. Before it breaks into light, there is a long +preparation in that dark region of the soul which to-day is called the +subconscious. Now nobody has more _lived_ his ideas than did Augustin +at this time of his life. He took them, left them, took them up again, +persisted in his desperate effort. They reflect in their disorder his +variable soul, and the misgivings which troubled it to its depths. And yet +it cannot be that this interior fact should be in violent contradiction +with logic. The head ought not to hinder the heart. With the future +believer, a parallel work goes on in the feelings and in the thought. If we +are not able to reproduce the marches and counter-marches, or follow their +repeatedly broken line, we can at least shew the main halting-places. + +Let us recall Augustin's state of mind when he came to Milan. He was a +sceptic, the kind of sceptic who regards as useless all speculation upon +the origin of things, and for whom cognition is but an approximation of the +true. Vaguely deist, he saw in Jesus Christ only a wise man among the wise. +He believed in God and the providences of God, which amounts to this: That +although materialist by tendency, he admitted the divine interference in +human affairs--the miracle. This is an important point which differentiates +him from modern materialists. + +Next, he listened to the preaching of Ambrose. The Bible no longer seemed +to him absurd or at variance with a moral scheme. Ambrose's exegesis, +half allegorical, half historic, might be accepted, taken altogether, +by self-respecting minds. But what, above all, struck Augustin in the +Scriptures, was the wisdom, the practical efficiency. Those who lived by +the Christian rule were not only happy people, but, as Pascal would say, +good sons, good husbands, good fathers, good citizens. He began to suspect +that this life here below is bearable and has a meaning only when it is +fastened to the life on high. Even as for nations glory is daily bread, so +for the individual the sacrifice to something which is beyond the world is +the only way of living in the world. + +So, little by little, Augustin corrected the false notions that the +Manichees had filled him with about Catholicism. He acknowledged that in +attacking it he had "been barking against the vain imaginations of carnal +thoughts." Still, he found great difficulty in getting free of all his +Manichean prejudices. The problem of Evil remained inexplicable for him, +apart from Manichee teachings. God could not be the author of evil. This +truth admitted, he went on from it to think, against his former masters, +that nothing is bad in itself--bad because it has within it a corrupting +principle. On the contrary, all things are good, though in varying degrees. +The apparent defects of creation, perceived by our senses, blend into +the harmony of the whole. The toad and the viper have their place in the +operation of a perfectly arranged world. But physical ill is not the only +ill; there is also the evil that we do and the evil that others do us. +Crime and pain are terrible arguments against God. Now the Christians +hold that the first is the product solely of the human will, of liberty +corrupted by original sin, and that the other is permitted by God as a +means of purifying souls. Of course, this was a solution, but it implied a +belief in the dogmas of the Fall and of the Redemption. Augustin did not +accept them yet. He was too proud to recognize an impaired will and the +need of a Saviour. "My puffed-out face," he says, "closed up my eyes." + +Nevertheless he had taken a great step in rejecting the fundamental dogma +of Manicheeism--the double Principle of good and evil. Henceforth for +Augustin there exists only one Principle, unique and incorruptible--the +Good, which is God. But his view of this divine substance is still +quite materialistic, to such an extent is he governed by his senses. In +his thought, it is corporeal, spatial, and infinite. He pictures it as +a kind of limitless sea, wherein is a huge sponge bathing the world +that it pervades throughout.... He was at this point, when one of his +acquaintances, "a man puffed up with immense vanity," gave him some of +the Dialogues of Plato, translated into Latin by the famous rhetorician +Victorinus Afer. It is worth noting, as we pass, that Augustin, now +thirty-two years old, a rhetorician by profession and a philosopher by +taste, had not yet read Plato. This is yet another proof to what extent the +instruction of the ancients was oral, resembling in this the Mussulmans' +instruction of to-day. Up to now, he had only known Plato by hearsay. He +read him, and it was as a revelation. He learned that a reality could exist +without diffusion through space. He saw God as unextended and yet infinite. +The sense of the divine Soul was given to him. Then the primordial +necessity of the Mediator or Word was borne in upon his mind. It is the +Word which has created the world. It is through the Word that the world, +and God, and all things, including ourselves, become comprehensible to us. +What an astonishment! Plato corresponded with St. John! "In the beginning +was the Word"--_in principio erat verbum_--said the fourth Gospel. But +it was not only an Evangelist that Augustin discovered in the Platonist +dialogues, it was almost all the essential part of the doctrine of Christ. +He saw plainly the profound differences, but for the moment he was struck +by the resemblances, and they carried him away. What delighted him, first +of all, is the beauty of the world, constructed after His own likeness by +the Demiurgus. God is Beauty; the world is fair as He who made it. This +metaphysical vision entranced Augustin; his whole heart leaped towards +this ineffably beautiful Divinity. Carried away by enthusiasm he cries: "I +marvelled to find that now I loved Thee, O my God, and not a phantasm in +Thy stead. If I was not yet in a state to enjoy Thee, _I was swept up to +Thee by Thy beauty_." + +But such an abandonment could not endure: "I was not yet in a state to +enjoy Thee." There is Augustin's main objection to Platonism. He felt +that instead of touching God, of enjoying Him, he would be held by purely +mental conceptions, that he would be always losing his way among the +phantasmagoria of idealism. What was the use of giving up the illusory +realities of the senses, if it were not to get hold of more _solid_ +realities? Though his intelligence, his poet's imagination, might be +attracted by the glamour of Platonism, his heart was not satisfied. "It is +one thing," he says, "from some wooded height to behold the land of peace, +another thing to march thither along the high road." + +St. Paul it was who shewed him this road. He began to read the _Epistles_ +carefully, and the more he read of them the more he became aware of the +abyss which separates philosophy from wisdom--the one which marshals the +ideas of things, the other which, ignoring ideas, leads right up to the +divine realities whereon the others are suspended. The Apostle taught +Augustin that it was not enough to get a glimpse of God through the crystal +of concepts, but that it is necessary to be united to Him in spirit and in +truth--to possess and enjoy Him. And to unite itself to this Good, the soul +must get itself into a fit state for such a union, purify and cure itself +of all its fleshly maladies, descry its place in the world and hold to it. +Necessity of repentance, of humility, of the contrite and humble heart. +Only the contrite and humble heart shall see God. "The broken heart shall +be cured," says the Scripture, "but the heart of the proud man shall be +shattered." So Augustin, the intellectual, had to change his methods, +and he felt that this change was right. If the writer who wants to write +beautiful things ought to put himself beforehand into some sort of a state +of grace, wherein not only vile actions, but unworthy thoughts become +impossible, the Christian, in like manner, must cleanse and prepare +his inward eye to perceive the divine verities. Augustin grasped this +thought in reading St. Paul. But what, above all, appealed to him in the +_Epistles_, was their paternal voice, the mildness and graciousness hidden +beneath the uncultivated roughness of the phrases. He was charmed by this. +How different from the philosophers! "Those celebrated pages have no trace +of the pious soul, the tears of repentance, nor of Thy sacrifice, O my God, +nor of the troubled spirit.... No one there hearkened to the Christ that +calleth, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour!' They think it scorn to learn +from Him, because He is meek and lowly of heart. For Thou hast hidden these +things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." + +But it is not much to bend: what is, above all, requisite for him is to get +rid of his passions. Now Augustin's passions were old friends. How could +he part with them? He lacked courage for this heroic treatment. Just think +of what a young man of thirty-two is. He is always thinking of women. Lust +holds him by the entanglements of habit, and he takes pleasure in the +impurity of his heart. When, yielding to the exhortations of the Apostle, +he tried to shape his conduct to his new way of thinking, the old friends +trooped to beg of him not to do anything of the kind. "They pulled me," he +says, "by the coat of my flesh, and they murmured in my ear--What, are you +leaving us? Shall we be no more with you, for ever? _Non erimus tecum ultra +in aeternum?_... And from that instant, the thing you well know, and still +another thing, will be forbidden you for ever--for eternity...." + +Eternity! Dread word. Augustin shook with fear. Then, calming himself, he +said to them: "I know you; I know you too well! You are Desire without +hope, the Gulf without soundings that nothing can fill up. I have suffered +enough because of you." And the anguished dialogue continued: "What +matters that! If the only possible happiness for you is to suffer on our +account, to fling your body into the voracious gulf, without end, without +hope!"--"Let cowards act so!... For me there is another happiness than +yours. There is _something else_: I am certain." Then the friends, put +a little out of countenance by this convinced tone, muttered in a lower +voice: "Still, just suppose you are losing this wretched pleasure for +a phantasm still more empty.... Besides, you are mistaken about your +strength. You cannot--no, you never can exist without us." They had touched +the galling spot: Augustin knew his weakness only too well. And his burning +imagination presented to him with extraordinary lucidity these pleasures +which he could not do without. They were not only embracements, but also +those trifles, those superfluous nothings, "those light pleasantnesses +which make us fond of life." The perfidious old friends continued to +whisper: "Wait a bit yet! The things you despise have a charm of their +own; they bring even no small sweetness. You ought not to cut yourself off +light-heartedly, for it would be shameful to return to them afterwards." +He passed in review all the things he was going to give up; he saw them +shine before him tinted in the most alluring colours: gaming, elaborate +entertainments, music, song, perfumes, books, poetry, flowers, the coolness +of forests (he remembered the woods about Thagaste, and his hunting days +with Romanianus)--in a word, all that he had ever cared about, even to +"that freshness of the light, so kind to human eyes." + +Augustin was not able to decide in this conflict between temptation and the +decree of his conscience, and he became desperate. His will, enfeebled by +sin, was unable to struggle against itself. And so he continued to endure +life and to be "devoured by time." + +The life of that particular period, if it was endurable for quiet folk +who were careful to have nothing to do with politics--this life of the +Empire near its end, could be nothing but a scandalous spectacle for an +honest-minded and high-souled man such as Augustin. It ought to have +disgusted him at once with remaining in the world. At Milan, connected as +he was with the Court, he was in a good position to see how much baseness +and ferocity may spring from human avarice and ambition. If the present +was hideous, the future promised to be sinister. The Roman Empire no longer +existed save in name. Foreigners, come from all the countries of the +Mediterranean, plundered the provinces under its authority. The army was +almost altogether in the hands of the Barbarians. They were Gothic tribunes +who kept order outside the basilica where Ambrose had closed himself in +with his people to withstand the order of the Empress Justina, who wished +to hand over this church to the Arians. Levantine eunuchs domineered over +the exchequer-clerks in the palace, and officials of all ranks. All these +people plundered where they could. The Empire, even grown feeble, was +always an excellent machine to rule men and extract gold from nations. +Accordingly, ambitious men and adventurers, wherever they came from, tried +for the Purple: it was still worth risking one's skin for. Even more than +the patriots (and there were still some very energetic men of this sort +who were overcome with grief at the state of things), the men of rapine +and violence were interested in maintaining the Empire. The Barbarians +themselves desired to be included, so that they might pillage it with more +impunity. + +As for the emperors, even sincere Christians, they were obliged to become +abominable tyrants to defend their constantly threatened lives. Never were +executions more frequent or more cruel than at this time. At Milan they +might have shewn Augustin, hard by the Imperial sleeping apartments, the +cave where the preceding Emperor, choleric Valentinian, kept two bears, +"Bit of Gold" and "Innocence," who were his rapid executioners. He fed them +with the flesh of those condemned to die. Possibly "Bit of Gold" was still +living. "Innocence"--observe the atrocious irony of this name--had been +restored to the liberty of her native forests, as a reward for her good and +loyal services. + +Was Augustin, who still thought of becoming an official, going to mix in +with this lot of swindlers, assassins, and brute beasts? As he studied them +near at hand, he felt his goodwill grow weak. Like all those who belong +to worn-out generations, he must have been disgusted with action and the +villainies it involves. Just before great catastrophes, or just after, +there is an epidemic of black pessimism which freezes delicate souls. +Besides, he was ill--a favourable circumstance for a disappointed man if he +entertains thoughts of giving up the world. In the fogs of Milan his chest +and throat became worse and worse. And then it is likely enough that he was +not succeeding better as rhetorician than he had at Rome. It was a kind +of fatality for all Africans. However great their reputation in their own +country, that was the end of it as soon as they crossed the sea. Apuleius, +the great man of Carthage, had tried the experiment to his cost. They had +made fun of his guttural Carthaginian pronunciation. The same kind of thing +happened to Augustin. The Milanese turned his African accent into ridicule. +He even found among them certain purists who discovered solecisms in his +phrases. + +But these scratches at his self-respect, this increasing disgust of men +and things, were small matters compared to what was going on within him. +Augustin had a sick soul. The forebodings he had always been subject to +were now become the suffering of every moment. At certain times he was +assailed by those great waves of sadness which unfurl all of a sudden from +the depths of the unknown. In such minutes we believe that the whole world +is hurling itself against us. The great wave rolled him over; he got up +again all wounded. And he felt stretch forth in him a new will which was +not his own, under which the other, the will to sin, struggled. It was +like the approach of an invisible being whose contact overcame him with an +anguish which was full of pleasure. This being wanted to open out within +him, but the weight of his old sins prevented. Then his soul cried out in +pain. + +In those moments, what a relief it was to let himself float on the +canticles of the Church! The liturgical chants were then something new in +the West. It was in the very year we are dealing with that St. Ambrose +started the custom in the Milanese basilicas. + +The childhood of our hymns! One cannot think about that without being +moved. One envies Augustin for having heard them in their spring freshness. +These lovely musics, which were to sound during so many centuries, and +still soar against the vaults of cathedrals, were leaving the nest for the +first time. We cannot think that a day will come when they will fold their +wings and fall silent. Since human bodies, temples of the Holy Ghost, will +live again in glory, one would like to believe with Dante that the hymns, +temples of the Word, are likewise immortal, and that they will still be +heard in the everlasting. Doubtless in the twilight glens of Purgatory the +bewailing souls continue to sing the _Te lucis ante terminum_, even as in +the star-circles, where the Blessed move ever, will always leap up the +triumphant notes of the _Magnificat_.... + +Even on those who have lost the faith, the power of these hymns is +irresistible. "If you knew," said Renan, "the charm that the Barbarian +magicians knew how to put into their canticles. When I remember them, my +heart melts." The heart of Augustin, who had not yet the faith, melted too +in hearing them: "How I have cried, my God, over the hymns and canticles +when the sweet sound of the music of Thy Church thrilled my soul! As the +music flowed into my ears, and Thy truth trickled into my heart, the tide +of devotion swelled high within me, and the tears ran down, and there was +gladness in those tears." His heart cast off its heaviness, while his mind +was shaken by the heavenly music. Augustin loved music passionately. At +this time he conceived God as the Great Musician of the spheres; and soon +he will write that "we are a strophe in a poem." At the same time, the +vivid and lightning figures of the Psalms, sweeping over the insipid +metaphors of the rhetoric which encumbered his memory, awoke in the depths +of him his wild African imagination and sent him soaring. And then the +affectionate note, the plaint in those sacred songs: _Deus, Deus meus!_--"O +God! O _my_ God!" The Divinity was no longer a cold abstraction, a phantom +that withdrew into an unapproachable infinite; He became the actual +possession of the loving soul. He leant over His poor scarred creature, +took him in His arms, and comforted him like a kind father. + +Augustin wept with tenderness and ecstasy, but also with despair. He wept +upon himself. He saw that he had not the courage to be happy with the only +possible happiness. What, indeed, was he seeking, unless it were to capture +this "blessed life" which he had pursued so long? What he had tried to get +out of all his loves was the complete gift of his soul--to realize himself +completely. Now, this completeness of self is only in God--_in Deo salutari +meo_. The souls we have wounded are in unison with us, and with themselves, +only in God.... And the sweet Christian symbolism invited him with its +most enticing images: the Shades of Paradise; the Fountain of Living +Water; the Repose in the Lord God; the green Branch of the Dove, harbinger +of peace.... But the passions still resisted. "To-morrow! Wait a little +yet! Shall we be no more with you, for ever? _Non erimus tecum ultra in +aeternum?_..." What a dismal sound in these syllables, and how terrifying +for a timid soul! They fell, heavy as bronze, on the soul of Augustin. + +An end had to be put to it somehow. What was needed was some one who would +force him out of his indecision. Instinctively, led by that mysterious will +which he felt had arisen within him, he went to see, and consult in his +distress, an old priest named Simplicianus, who had converted or directed +Bishop Ambrose in his young days. No doubt Augustin spoke to him of what he +had lately been reading, and particularly of his Platonist studies, and of +all the efforts he made to enter the communion of Christ. He acknowledged +that he was convinced, but he could not bend to the practice of the +Christian life. Then, very skilfully, as one artful in differentiating +souls, perceiving that vanity was not yet dead in Augustin, Simplicianus +offered him as an example the very translator of those Platonic books which +he had just been reading so enthusiastically--that famous Victorinus Afer, +that orator so learned and admired, who had his statue in the Roman Forum. +Because of some remains of philosophical pride, and also from fear of +offending his friends among the Roman aristocracy, who were still almost +altogether pagan, Victorinus was a Christian only in his head. In vain +Simplicianus pointed out to him how illogical his conduct was. But suddenly +and unexpectedly he decided. The day of the baptism of the catechumens, +this celebrated man mounted the platform set up in the basilica for the +profession of faith of the newly converted, and there, like the meanest of +the faithful, he delivered his profession before all the assembled people. +That was a dramatic stroke. The crowd, jubilant over this fine performance, +cheered the neophyte. And on all sides they shouted: "Victorinus! +Victorinus!" + +Augustin listened to this little story, whereof all the details were so +happily chosen to act on an imagination like his:--the statue in the +Roman Forum; the platform from the height of which the orator had spoken +a language so new and unexpected; the exulting shouts of the crowd: +"Victorinus! Victorinus!" Already he saw himself in the same position. +There he was in the basilica, on the platform, in presence of Bishop +Ambrose; he too repeated his profession of faith, and the people of Milan +clapped their hands--"Augustin! Augustin!" But can a humble and contrite +heart thus take pleasure in human adulation? If Augustin did become a +convert, it would be entirely for God and before God. Very quickly he put +aside the temptation.... Nevertheless, this example, coming from so exalted +a man, made a very deep and beneficial impression. He looked upon it as a +providential sign, a lesson in courage which concerned him personally. + +Some time after that, he received a visit from a fellow-countryman, a +certain Pontitianus, who had a high position in the Imperial household. +Augustin happened to be alone in the house with his friend Alypius. They +sat down to talk, and by chance the visitor noticed the Epistles of St. +Paul lying on a table for playing games. This started the conversation. +Pontitianus, who was a Christian, praised the ascetic life, and especially +the wonders of holiness wrought by Antony and his companions in the +Egyptian deserts. This subject was in the air. In Catholic circles at +Rome, they spoke of little else than these Egyptian solitaries, and of +the number, growing larger and larger, of those who stripped themselves +of their worldly goods to live in utter renunciation. What was the good +of keeping these worldly goods, that the avarice of Government taxation +confiscated so easily, and that the Barbarians watched covetously from +afar! The brutes who came down from Germany would get hold of them sooner +or later. And even supposing one might save them, retain an ever-uncertain +enjoyment of them, was the life of the time really worth the trouble of +living? There was nothing more to hope for the Empire. The hour of the +great desolation was at hand.... + +Pontitianus, observing the effect of his words on his hearers, was led +to tell them a quite private adventure of his own. He was at Treves, in +attendance on the Court. Well, one afternoon while the Emperor was at +the circus, he and three of his friends, like himself attached to the +household, went for a stroll beyond the city walls. Two of them parted +from the others and went off into the country, and there they came upon +a hut where dwelt certain hermits. They went in, and found a book--_The +Life of St. Antony_. They read in it; and for them that was a conversion +thunder-striking, instantaneous. The two courtiers resolved to join the +solitaries there and then, and they never went back to the Palace. And they +were betrothed!... + +The tone of Pontitianus as he recalled this conscience-drama which he +had witnessed, betrayed a strange emotion which gradually took hold of +Augustin. His guest's words resounded in him like the blows of a clapper in +a bell. He saw himself in the two courtiers of Treves. He too was tired of +the world, he too was betrothed. Was he going to do as the Emperor--remain +in the circus taken up with idle pleasures, while others took the road to +the sole happiness? + +When Pontitianus was gone, Augustin was in a desperate state. The repentant +soul of the two courtiers had passed into his. His will uprose in grievous +conflict and tortured itself. He seized Alypius roughly by the arm and +cried out to him in extraordinary excitement: + +"What are we about? Yes, I say, what are we about? Did you not hear? Simple +men arise and take Heaven by violence, and we with all our heartless +learning--look how we are wallowing in flesh and blood!" + +Alypius stared at him, stupefied. "The truth is," adds Augustin, "that I +scarcely knew what I said. My face, my eyes, my colour, and the change in +my voice expressed my meaning much better than my words." If he guessed +from this upheaval of his whole frame how close at hand was the heavenly +visitation, all he felt at the moment was a great need to weep, and he +wanted solitude to weep freely. He went down into the garden. Alypius, +feeling uneasy, followed at a distance, and in silence sat down beside him +on the bench where he had paused. Augustin did not even notice that his +friend was there. His agony of spirit began again. All his faults, all his +old stains came once more to his mind, and he grew furious against his +cowardly feebleness as he felt how much he still clung to them. Oh, to tear +himself free from all these miseries--to finish with them once for all!... +Suddenly he sprang up. It was as if a gust of the tempest had struck him. +He rushed to the end of the garden, flung himself on his knees under a +fig-tree, and with his forehead pressed against the earth he burst into +tears. Even as the olive-tree at Jerusalem which sheltered the last watch +of the Divine Master, the fig-tree of Milan saw fall upon its roots a sweat +of blood. Augustin, breathless in the victorious embrace of Grace, panted: +"How long, how long?... To-morrow and to-morrow?... Why not now? Why not +this hour make an end of my vileness?..." + +Now, at this very moment a child's voice from the neighbouring house began +repeating in a kind of chant: "_Take and read, take and read_." Augustin +shuddered. What was this refrain? Was it a nursery-rhyme that the little +children of the countryside used to sing? He could not recollect it; he had +never heard it before.... Immediately, as upon a divine command, he rose to +his feet and ran back to the place where Alypius was sitting, for he had +left St. Paul's Epistles lying there. He opened the book, and the passage +on which his eyes first fell was this: _Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, +and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof_.... The +flesh!... The sacred text aimed at him directly--at him, Augustin, still so +full of lust! This command was the answer from on high.... + +He put his finger between the leaves, closed the volume. His frenzy had +passed away. A great peace was shed upon him--it was all over. With a calm +face he told Alypius what had happened, and without lingering he went into +Monnica's room to tell her also. The Saint was not surprised. It was long +now since she had been told, "Where I am, there shalt thou be also." But +she gave way to an outburst of joy. Her mission was done. Now she might +sing her canticle of thanksgiving and enter into God's peace. + +Meanwhile, the good Alypius, always circumspect and practical, had opened +the book again and shewn his friend what followed the verse, for Augustin, +in his excitement, had neglected to read further. The Apostle said, "_Him +that is weak in the faith receive ye_." This also applied to Augustin. +That was only too certain: his new faith was still very unsteady. Let not +presumption blind him! Yes, no doubt with all his soul he desired to be a +Christian. It now remained for him to become one. + + + + +THE FOURTH PART + +THE HIDDEN LIFE + + + Fac me, Pater, quaerere te. + "Cause me to seek Thee, O my Father." + + _Soliloquies_, I, i. + + + + +I + +THE LAST SMILE OF THE MUSE + + +Now that Augustin had been at last touched by grace, was he after all +going to make a sensational conversion like his professional brother, the +celebrated Victorinus? + +He knew well enough that there is a good example set by these noisy +conversions which works on a vast number of people. And however "contrite +and humble" his heart might be, he was quite aware that in Milan he +was an important personage. What excitement, if he were to resign his +professorship on the ground that he wished to spend the rest of his life in +the ascetic way of the Christians!... But he preferred to avoid the scandal +on one side, and the loud praise on the other. God alone and some very dear +friends should witness his repentance. + +There were now hardly twenty days before the vacation. He would be patient +till then. Thus, the parents of his pupils would not have any ground to +reproach him for leaving them before the end of term, and as his health +was getting worse, he would have a good excuse to give up his post. The +dampness of the climate had given him a sort of chronic bronchitis which +the summer had not cured. He had difficulty in breathing; his voice was +muffled and thin--so much so, that he began to think his lungs were +attacked. Augustin's health really needed care. This was a quite good +enough reason to interrupt his lectures. Having fulfilled his professional +duties to the very end--and he assures us that it took some courage--he +left the professorial chair with the declared intention of never occupying +it again. + +Here, then, he is free from all worldly ties. From now on he can prepare +himself for baptism in silence and retreat. But still he must live somehow! +Augustin had more souls depending on him than ever: his son, his mother, +his brother, his cousins--a heavy burthen which he had been struggling +under for a long time. It is probable that once more Romanianus, who was +still in Milan, came to his assistance. It will be remembered that the +Maecenas of Thagaste had taken up warmly the plan of a lay monastery which +Augustin and his friends had lost their heads over, and he had promised +to subscribe a large sum. Augustin's retreat was a first step towards +realizing this plan in a new shape. Romanianus, no doubt, approved of +it. In any case, he asked Augustin to keep on giving lessons to his son +Licentius. Another young man, Trygetius, begged for the same favour. +Augustin therefore did not intend to give up his employment altogether. He +had changed, for the present at least, from a Government professor into a +private one. + +This meant that he had a certain living. All he wanted now was a shelter. +A friend, a colleague, the grammarian Verecundus, graciously offered him +this. Verecundus thus repaid a favour which Augustin had quite recently +done him. It was at Augustin's request that Nebridius, who was a friend of +both, agreed to take over the classes of the grammarian, who was obliged +to go away. Although rich, full of talent, and very eager for peace and +solitude, Nebridius, simply out of good-nature, was willing to take the +place of Verecundus in his very modest employment. One cannot too much +admire the generosity and kindliness of these ancient and Christian +manners. In those days, friendship knew nothing of our narrow and shabby +egoisms. + +Now Verecundus owned a country house just outside Milan, at Cassicium. He +suggested to Augustin to spend the vacation there, and even to live there +permanently with all his people, on condition of looking after the property +and keeping it up. + +Attempts have been made to find traces of this hospitable dwelling where +the future monk of Thagaste and Hippo bade farewell to the world. Cassicium +has disappeared. The imagination is free to rebuild it fancifully in any +part of the rich country which lies about Milan. Still, if the youthful +Licentius has not yielded too much to metaphor in the verses wherein he +recalls to Augustin "Departed suns among Italian mountain-heights," it is +likely that the estate of Verecundus lay upon those first mountain-slopes +which roll into the Brianza range. Even to-day, the rich Milanese have +their country houses among those hills. + +To Augustin and his companions this flourishing Lombardy must have seemed +another promised land. The country, wonderfully fertile and cultivated, +is one orchard, where fruit trees cluster, and, in all ways, deep streams +wind, slow-flowing and stocked with fish. Everywhere is the tremor of +running water--inconceivably fresh music for African ears. A scent of mint +and aniseed; fields with grass growing high and straight in which you +plunge up to the knees. Here and there, deeply engulfed little valleys +with their bunches of green covert, slashed with the rose plumes of the +lime trees and the burnished leaves of the hazels, and where already the +northern firs lift their black needles. Far off, blended in one violet +mass, the Alps, peak upon peak, covered with snow; and nearer in view, +sheer cliffs, jutting fastnesses, ploughed through with black gorges which +make flare out plainer the bronze-gold of their slopes. Not far off, the +enchanted lakes slumber. It seems that an emblazonment fluctuates from +their waters, and writhing above the crags which imprison them drifts +athwart a sky sometimes a little chill--Leonardo's pensive sky of shadowed +amethyst--again of a flushed blue, whereupon float great clouds, silken +and ruddy, as in the backgrounds of Veronese's pictures. The beauty of the +light lightens and beautifies the over-heavy opulence of the land. + +And wherever the country house of Verecundus may be placed, some bit of +this triumphal landscape will be found. As for the house itself, Augustin +has said enough about it for us to see it fairly well. It was no doubt one +of those old rustic buildings, inhabited only some few months of the year, +in the warmest season, and for the rest of the time given over to the +frolics of mice and rats. Without any pretence to architectural form, it +had been enlarged and renovated simply for the greater convenience of those +who lived there. There was no attempt at symmetry; the main door was not in +the middle of the building, and there was another door on one of the sides. +The sole luxury of this country house was perhaps the bath-houses. These +baths, however simple they might be, nevertheless reminded Augustin of +the decoration of gymnasiums. Does this mean that he found there rich +pavements, mosaics, and statues? These were quite usual things in Roman +villas. The Italians have always had, at all periods, a great fondness +for statues and mosaics. Not very particular about the quality, they made +up for it by the quantity. And when they could not treat themselves to +the real thing, it was good enough to give themselves the make-believe in +painting. I can imagine easily enough Verecundus' house, painted in fresco +from top to bottom, inside and out, like those houses at Pompeii, or the +modern Milanese villas. + +There was no attempt at ornamental gardens at Cassicium. The surroundings +must have been kitchen-garden, grazing-land, or ploughed fields, as in +a farm. A meadow--not in the least the lawns found in front of a large +country house--lay before the dwelling, which was protected from sun and +wind by clumps of chestnut trees. There, stretched on the grass under the +shade of one of these spreading trees, they chatted gaily while listening +to the broken song of the brook, as it flowed under the windows of the +baths. They lived very close to nature, almost the life of field-tillers. +The whole charm of Cassicium consisted in its silence, its peace, and, +above all, its fresh air. Augustin's tired lungs breathed there a purer air +than in Milan, where the humid summer heat is crushing. His soul, yearning +for retirement, discovered a retreat here in harmony with his new desires, +a country solitude of which the Virgilian grace still appealed to his +literary imagination. The days he passed there were days of blessedness for +him. Long afterwards he was deeply moved when he recalled them, and in an +outburst of gratitude towards his host, he prayed God to pay him his debt. +"Thou wilt recompense him, O Lord, on the day of the resurrection of the +just.... For that country house at Cassicium where we found shelter in Thee +from the burning summer of our time, Thou wilt repay to Verecundus the +coolness and evergreen shade of Thy paradise...." + +That was an unequalled moment in Augustin's life. Following immediately +upon the mental crisis which had even worn out his body, he seems to be +experiencing the pleasure of convalescence. He slackens, and, as he says +himself, he rests. His excitement is quenched, but his faith remains +as firm as ever. With a cairn and supremely lucid mind he judges his +condition; he sees clearly all that he has still to do ere he becomes a +thorough Christian. First, he must grow familiar with the Scripture, solve +certain urgent questions--that of the soul, for example, its nature and +origin--which possessed him just then. Then he must change his conduct, +alter his ways of thought, and, if one may so speak, disinfect his mind +still all saturated with pagan influences: a delicate work--yes, and an +uneasy, at times even painful, which would take more than one day. + +After twenty centuries of Christianity, and in spite of our claim to +understand all things, we do not yet realize very well what an abyss +lies between us and paganism. When by chance we come upon pagan traces +in certain primitive regions of the South of Europe, we get muddled, and +attribute to Catholicism what is but a survival of old abolished customs, +so far from us that we cannot recognize them any more. Augustin, on the +contrary, was right next to them. When he strolled over the fields and +through the woods around Cassicium, the Fauns and woodland Nymphs of the +old mythology haunted his memory, and all but stood before his eyes. He +could not take a walk without coming upon one of their chapels, or striking +against a boundary-mark still all greasy from the oil with which the +superstitious peasants had drenched it. Like himself, the old pagan land +had not yet quite put on the Christ of the new era. He was like that Hermes +Criophorus, who awkwardly symbolized the Saviour on the walls of the +Catacombs. Even as the Bearer of Rams changed little by little into the +Good Shepherd, the Bishop of Hippo emerged slowly from the rhetorician +Augustin. + +He became aware of it during that languid autumn at Cassicium--that autumn +heavy with all the rotting of summer, but which already promised the +great winter peace. The yellow leaves of the chestnuts were heaped by the +roadside. They fell in the brook which flowed near the baths, and the +slowed water ceased to sing. Augustin strained his ears for it. His soul +also was blocked, choked up by all the deposit of his passions. But he knew +that soon the chant of his new life would begin in triumphal fashion, and +he said over to himself the words of the psalm: _Cantate mihi canticum +novum_--"Sing unto me a new song." + +Unfortunately for Augustin, his soul and its salvation was not his only +care at Cassicium: he had a thousand others. So it shall be with him +throughout his life. Till the very end he will long for solitude, for the +life in God, and till the end God will charge him with the care of his +brethren. This great spirit shall live above all by charity. + +At the house of Verecundus he was not only the head, but he had a complete +country estate to direct and supervise. Probably all the guests in the +house helped him. They divided the duties. The good Alypius, who was used +to business and versed in the twisted ways of the law, took over the +foreign affairs--the buying and selling, probably the accounts also. He was +continually on the road to Milan. Augustin attended to the correspondence, +and every morning appointed their work to the farm-labourers. Monnica +looked after the household, no easy work in a house where nine sat down to +table every day. But the Saint fulfilled her humble duties with touching +kindness and forgetfulness of self: "She took care of us," says Augustin, +"as if we had all been her children, and she served us as if each of us had +been her father." + +Let us look a little at these "children" of Monnica. Besides Alypius, whom +we know already, there was the young Adeodatus, the child of sin--"my son +Adeodatus, whose gifts gave promise of great things, unless my love for +him betrays me." Thus speaks his father. This little boy was, it seems, +a prodigy, as shall be the little Blaise Pascal later: "His intelligence +filled me with awe"--_horrori mihi erat illud ingenium_--says the father +again. What is certain is that he had a soul like an angel. Some sayings +of his have been preserved by Augustin. They are fragrant as a bunch of +lilies. + +The other members of the family are nearer the earth. Navigius, Augustin's +brother, an excellent man of whom we know nothing save that he had a bad +liver--the icterus of the African colonist--and that on this account he +abstained from sweetmeats. Rusticus and Lastidianus, the two cousins, +persons as shadowy as the "supers" in a tragedy. Finally, Augustin's +pupils, Trygetius and Licentius. The first, who had lately served some time +in the army, was passionately fond of history, "like a veteran." Although +his master in some of his Dialogues has made him his interlocutor, his +character remains for us undeveloped. With Licentius it is different. This +son of Romanianus, the Maecenas of Thagaste, was Augustin's beloved pupil. +It is easy to make that out. All the phrases he devotes to Licentius have a +warmth of tone, a colour and relief which thrill. + +This Licentius comes before us as the type of the spoiled child, the son of +a wealthy family, capricious, vain, presuming, unabashed, never hesitating +if he sees a chance to have a joke with his master. Forgetful, besides, +prone to sudden fancies, superficial, and rather blundering. With all +that, the best boy in the world--a bad head, but a good heart. He was a +frank pagan, and I believe remained a pagan all his life, in spite of the +remonstrances of Augustin and those of the gentle Paulinus of Nola, who +lectured him in prose and verse. A great eater and a fine drinker, he +found himself obliged to do penance at St. Monnica's rather frugal table. +But when the fever of inspiration took hold of him, he forgot eating and +drinking, and in his poetical thirst he would would have drained--so his +master says--all the fountains of Helicon. Licentius had a passion for +versifying: "He is an almost perfect poet," wrote Augustin to Romanianus. +The former rhetorician knew the world, and the way to talk to the father +of a wealthy pupil, especially if he is your benefactor. At Cassicium, +under Augustin's indulgent eyes, the pupil turned into verse the romantic +adventure of Pyramus and Thisbe. He declaimed bits of it to the guests +in the house, for he had a fine loud voice. Then he flung aside the +unfinished poem and suddenly fell in love with Greek tragedies of which, +as it happened, he understood nothing at all, though this did not prevent +him from boring everybody he met with them. Another day it was the Church +music, then quite new, which flung him into enthusiasm. That day they heard +Licentius singing canticles from morning till night. + +In connection with this, Augustin relates with candid freedom an anecdote +which to-day needs the indulgence of the reader to make it acceptable. As +it gives light upon that half-pagan, half-Christian way of life which was +still Augustin's, I will repeat it in all its plainness. + +It happened, then, one evening after dinner, that Licentius went out and +took his way to a certain mysterious retreat, and there he suddenly began +singing this verse of the Psalm: "Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause +Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved." As a matter of fact, he had +hardly sung anything else for a long time. He kept on repeating this verse +over and over again, as people do with a tune they have just picked up. But +the pious Monnica, who heard him, could not tolerate the singing of such +holy words in such a place. She spoke sharply to the offender. Upon this +the young scatter-brains answered rather flippantly: + +"Supposing, good mother, that an enemy had shut me up in that place--do you +mean to say that God wouldn't have heard me just the same?" + +The next day he thought no more about it, and when Augustin reminded him, +he declared that he felt no remorse. + +"As far as I am concerned," replied the excellent master, "I am not in the +least shocked by it.... The truth is, that neither that place, which has +so much scandalized my mother, nor the darkness of night, is altogether +inappropriate to this canticle. For whence, think you, do we implore God +to drag us, so that we may be converted and gaze upon His face? Is it not +from that jakes of the senses wherein our souls are plunged, and from that +darkness of which the error is around us?..." + +And as they were discussing that day the order established by Providence, +Augustin made it a pretext to give a little edifying lecture to his pupil. +Having heard the sermon to the end, the sharp Licentius put in with sly +maliciousness: + +"I say, what a splendid arrangement of events to shew me that nothing +happens except in the best way, and for our great good!" + +This reply gives us the tone of the conversation between Augustin and +his pupils. Nevertheless, however free and merry the talks might be, the +purpose was always instructive, and it was always substantial. Let us not +forget that the Milanese rhetorician is still a professor. The best part of +his days was devoted to these two youths who had been put under his charge. +As soon as he had settled the business of the farm, talked to the peasants, +and given his orders to the workmen, he fell back upon his business of +rhetorician. In the morning they went over Virgil's _Eclogues_ together. At +night they discussed philosophy. When the weather was fine they walked in +the fields, and the discussion continued under the shade of the chestnut +trees. If it rained, they took refuge in the withdrawing-room adjoining the +baths. Beds were there, cushions, soft chairs convenient for talking, and +the equal temperature from the vapour-baths close at hand was good for +Augustin's bronchial tubes. + +There is no stiffness in these dialogues, nothing which smacks of the +school. The discussion starts from things which they had under the eyes, +often from some slight accidental happening. One night when Augustin could +not sleep--he often suffered from insomnia--the dispute began in bed, for +the master and his pupils slept in the same room. Lying there in the dark, +he listened to the broken murmur of the stream. He was trying to think out +an explanation of the pauses in the sound, when Licentius shifted under the +bedclothes, and reaching out for a piece of stick lying on the floor, he +rapped with it on the foot of the bed to frighten the mice. So he was not +asleep either, nor Trygetius, who was stirring about in his bed. Augustin +was delighted: he had two listeners. Immediately he put this question: "Why +do those pauses come in the flow of the stream? Do they not follow some +secret law?..." They had hit upon a subject for debate. During many days +they discussed the order of the world. + +Another time, as they were going into the baths, they stopped to look +at two cocks fighting. Augustin called the attention of the youths "to +a certain order full of propriety in all the movements of these fowls +deprived of reason." + +"Look at the conqueror," said he. "He crows triumphantly. He struts and +plumes himself as a proud sign of victory. And now look at the beaten one, +without voice, his neck unfeathered, a look of shame. All that has I know +not what beauty, in harmony with the laws of nature...." + +New argument in favour of order: the debate of the night before is started +rolling again. + +For us, too, it is well worth while to pause on this little homely scene. +It reveals to us an Augustin not only very sensitive to beauty, but very +attentive to the sights of the world surrounding him. Cockfights were still +very popular in this Roman society at the ending of the Empire. For a long +time sculptors had found many gracious subjects in the sport. Reading this +passage of Augustin's, one recalls, among other similar designs, that +funeral urn at the Lateran upon which are represented two little boys, one +crying over his beaten cock, while the other holds his tenderly in his +arms and kisses it--the cock that won, identified by the crown held in its +spurs. + +Augustin is always very close to these humble realities. Every moment +outside things start up in the dialogues between the master and his +pupils.... They are in bed on a rainy night in November. Gradually, a vague +gleam rests on the windows. They ask each other if that can be the moon, or +the break of day.... Another time, the sun rises in all its splendour, and +they decide to go into the meadow and sit on the grass. Or else, the sky +darkens and lights are brought in. Or again, it is the appearance of +diligent Alyphis, just come back from Milan.... + +In the same way as he notes these light details in passing, Augustin +welcomes all his guests into his dialogues and admits them to the debate: +his mother, his brother, the cousins, Alypius between his business +journeys, down to the child Adeodatus. He knew the value of ordinary good +sense, the second-sight of a pure heart, or of a pious soul strengthened by +prayer. Monnica used often to come into the room when they were arguing, +to let them know that dinner was ready, or for something of the kind. Her +son asked her to remain. Modestly she shewed her astonishment at such an +honour. + +"Mother," said Augustin, "do you not love truth? Then why should I blush +to give you a place among us? Even if your love for truth were only +half-hearted, I ought still to receive you and listen to you. How much more +then, since you love it more than you love me, _and I know how much you +love me_.... Nothing can separate you from truth, neither fear, nor pain +of whatever kind it be--no, nor death itself. Do not all agree that this +is the highest stage of philosophy? How can I hesitate after that to call +myself your disciple?" + +And Monnica, utterly confused by such praise, answered with affectionate +gruffness: + +"Stop talking! You have never told bigger lies." + +Most of the time these conversations were simply dialectic games in the +taste of the period, games a little pedantic, and fatiguing from subtilty. +The boisterous Licentius did not always enjoy himself. He was often +inattentive; and his master scolded him. But all the same, the master +understood how to amuse his two foster-children while he exercised their +intelligence. At the end of one discussion he said to them laughing: + +"Just at this hour, the sun warns me to put the playthings I had brought +for the children back in the basket...." + +Let us remark in passing that this is the last time, before those +centuries which are coming of universal intellectual silence or arid +scholasticism--the last time that high questions will be discussed in this +graceful light way, and with the same freedom of mind. The tradition begun +by Socrates under the plane-trees on the banks of the Ilissus, is ending +with Augustin under the chestnuts of Cassicium. + +And yet, however gay and capricious the form, the substance of these +dialogues, "On the Academics," "On Order," and "On the Happy Life," is +serious, and even very serious. The best proof of their importance in +Augustin's eyes is, that after taking care to have them reported in +shorthand, he eventually published them. The _notarii_ attended these +discussions and let nothing be lost. The rise of the scrivener, of the +notary, dates from this period. The administration of the Lower-Empire was +frightfully given to scribbling. By contact with it, the Church became so +too. Let us not press our complaints about it, since this craze for writing +has procured for us, with a good deal of shot-rubbish, some precious +historical documents. In Augustin's case, these reports of his lectures at +Cassicium have at least the value of shewing us the state of soul of the +future Bishop of Hippo at a decisive moment of his life. + +For these _Dialogues_, although they look like school exercises, reveal the +intimate thoughts of Augustin on the morrow of his conversion. While he +seems to be refuting the Academics, he is fighting the errors from which +he, personally, had suffered so long. He clarified his new ideal. No; the +search for truth, without hope of ever reaching it, cannot give happiness. +And genuine happiness is only in God. And if a rhythm is to be found in +things, then it is necessary to make the soul rhythmic also and so enable +it to contemplate God. It is necessary to still within it the noise of the +passions. Hence, the need of inward reformation, and, at a final analysis, +of asceticism. + +But Augustin knew full well that these truths must be adapted to the +weakness of the two lads he was teaching, and also to the common run of +mankind. He has not yet in these years the uncompromising attitude which +ere long will give him a sterner virtue--an attitude, however, unceasingly +tempered by his charity and by the persistent recollections of his reading. +It was now that he shaped the rule of conduct in worldly morals and +education which the Christian experience of the future will adopt: "If you +have always order in your hearts," he said to his pupils, "you must return +to your verses. _For a knowledge of liberal sciences, but a controlled and +exact knowledge_, forms men who will love the truth.... But there are other +men, or, to put it better, other souls, who, although held in the body, are +sought for the eternal marriage by the best and fairest of spouses. For +these souls it is not enough to live; they wish to live happy.... But as +for you, go, _meanwhile_, and find your Muses!" + +"Go and find your Muses!" What a fine saying! How human and how wise! Here +is clearly indicated the double ideal of those who continue to live in the +world according to the Christian law of restraint and moderation, and of +those who yearn to live in God. With Augustin the choice is made. He will +never more look back. These Dialogues at Cassicium are his supreme farewell +to the pagan Muse. + + + + +II + +THE ECSTASY OF SAINT MONNICA + + +They stayed through the winter at Cassicium. However taken up he might be +by the work of the estate and the care of his pupils, Augustin devoted +himself chiefly to the great business of his salvation. + +The _Soliloquies_, which he wrote then, render even the passionate tone of +the meditations which he perpetually gave way to during his watches and +nights of insomnia. He searched for God, moaning: _Fac me, Pater, quaerere +te_--"Cause me to seek Thee, O my Father." But still, he sought Him more as +a philosopher than as a Christian. The old man in him was not dead. He had +not quite stripped off the rhetorician or the intellectual. The over-tender +heart remained, which had so much sacrificed to human love. In those ardent +dialogues between himself and his reason, it is plain to see that reason +is not quite the mistress. "I love only God and the soul," Augustin states +with a touch of presumption. And his reason, which knows him well, answers: +"Do you not then love your friends?"--"I love the soul; how therefore +should I not love them?" What does this phrase, of such exquisite +sensibility, and even already so aloof from worldly thoughts--what does +it lack to give forth a sound entirely Christian? Just a slight change of +accent. + +He himself began to see that he would do better not to philosophize so much +and to draw nearer the Scripture, in listening to the wisdom of that with +a contrite and humble heart. Upon the directions of Ambrose, whose advice +he had asked by letter, he tried to read the prophet Isaiah, because +Isaiah is the clearest foreteller of the Redemption. He found the book so +difficult that he lost heart, and he put it aside till later. Meanwhile, +he had forwarded his resignation as professor of Rhetoric to the Milan +municipality. Then, when the time was come, he sent to Bishop Ambrose +a written confession of his errors and faults, and represented to him +his very firm intention to be baptized. He was quietly baptized on the +twenty-fifth of April, during the Easter season of the year 387, together +with his son Adeodatus, and his friend Alypius. Alypius had prepared most +piously, disciplining himself with the harshest austerities, to the point +of walking barefoot on the frozen soil. + +So now the solitaries of Cassicium are back in Milan. Augustin's two pupils +were gone. Trygetius doubtless had rejoined the army. Licentius had gone +to live in Rome. But another fellow-countryman, an African from Thagaste, +Evodius, formerly a clerk in the Ministry of the Interior, came to join +the small group of new converts. Evodius, the future Bishop of Uzalis, in +Africa, and baptized before Augustin, was a man of scrupulous piety and +unquestioning faith. He talked of devout subjects with his friend, who, +just fresh from baptism, experienced all the quietude of grace. They spoke +of the community which St. Ambrose had either founded or organized at +the gates of Milan, and in comparison with a life so austere, Augustin +perceived that the life he had led at Cassicium was still stained with +paganism. He must carry out his conversion to the end and live as a hermit +after the manner of Antony and the solitaries of the Thebaid. Then it +occurred to him that he still owned a little property at Thagaste--a house +and fields. There they would settle and live in self-denial like the +monks. The purity of the young Adeodatus predestined him to this ascetic +existence. As for Monnica, who long since had taken the widow's veil, she +had to make no change in her ways to lead a saintly life in the company of +her son and grandson. It was agreed among them all to go back to Africa, +and to start as soon as possible. + +Thus, just after his baptism, Augustin shews but one desire: to bury +himself in a retreat, to lead a humble and hidden life, divided between the +study of the Scripture and the contemplation of God. Later on, his enemies +were to accuse him of having become a convert from ambition, in view of the +honours and riches of the episcopate. This is sheer calumny. His conversion +could not have been more sincere, more disinterested--nor more heroic +either: he was thirty-three years old. When we think of all he had loved +and all he gave up, we can only bow the head and bend the knee before the +lofty virtue of such an example. + +In the course of the summer the caravan started and crossed the Apennines +to set sail at Ostia. The date of this exodus has never been made quite +clear. Perhaps Augustin and his companions fled before the hordes of the +usurper Maximus, who, towards the end of August, crossed the Alps and +marched on Milan, while the young Valentinian with all his Court took +refuge at Aquileia. In any case, it was a trying journey, especially in the +hot weather. When Monnica arrived she was very enfeebled. At Ostia they had +to wait till a ship was sailing for Africa. Propitious conditions did not +offer every day. At this period, travellers were at the mercy of the sea, +of the wind, and of a thousand other circumstances. Time did not count; it +was wasted freely. The ship sailed short distances at a time, skirting the +coasts, where the length of the stay at every point touched depended on the +master. On board these ships--feluccas hardly decked over--if the crossing +was endless and unsafe, it was, above all, most uncomfortable. People were +in no hurry to undergo the tortures of it, and spaced them out as much +as possible by frequent stoppages. On account of all these reasons, our +Africans made a rather long stay at Ostia. They lodged, no doubt, with +Christian brethren, hosts of Augustin or Monnica, in a tranquil house far +out of earshot of the cosmopolitan crowd which overflowed in the hotels on +the quay. + +Ostia, situated at the mouth of the Tiber, was both the port and +bond-warehouse of Rome. The Government stores-ships landed the African oil +and corn there. It was a junction for commerce, the point where immigrants +from all parts of the Mediterranean disbarked. To-day there is only left +a wretched little village. But at some distance from this hamlet, the +excavations of archaeologists have lately brought to light the remains of +a large town. They have discovered at the entrance a place of burial with +arcosol-tombs; and here perhaps the body of St. Monnica was laid. In this +place of graves they came upon also a beautiful statue injured--a funeral +Genius, or a Victory, with large folded wings like those of the Christian +angels. Further on, the forum with its shops, the guard-house of the +night-cohort, baths, a theatre, many large temples, arcaded streets paved +with large flags, warehouses for merchandise. There may still be seen, +lining the walls, the holes in which the ends of the amphorae used to be +dropped to keep them upright. All this wreckage gives an idea of a populous +centre where the stir of traffic and shipping was intense. + +And yet in this noisy town, Augustin and his mother found means to withdraw +themselves and join together in meditation and prayer. Amid this rather +vulgar activity, in a noise of trade and seafaring, a mystic scene develops +where the purified love of mother and son gleams upon us as in a light of +apotheosis. They had at Ostia a foretaste, so to speak, of the eternal +union in God. This was in the house where they had come on arrival. They +talked softly, resting against a window which looked upon the garden.... +But the scene has been made popular by Ary Scheffer's too well-known +painting. You remember it: two faces, pale, bloodless, stripped of flesh, +in which live only the burning eyes cast upward to the sky--a dense sky, +baffling, heavy with all the secrets of eternity. No visible object, +nothing, absolutely nothing, distracts them from their contemplation. The +sea itself, although indicated by the painter, almost blends into the +blue line of the horizon. Two souls and the sky--there you have the whole +subject. + +It is living poetry congealed in abstract thought. The attitude of the +characters, majestically seated, instead of leaning on the window-ledge, +has, in Scheffer's picture, I know not what touch of stiffness, of slightly +theatrical. And the general impression is a cold dryness which contrasts +with the lyric warmth of the story in the _Confessions_. + +For my part, I always thought, perhaps on the testimony of the picture, +that the window of the house at Ostia opened above the garden in view of +the sea. The sea, symbol of the infinite, ought to be present--so it seemed +to me--at the final conversation between Monnica and Augustin. At Ostia +itself I was obliged to give up this too literary notion; the sea is not +visible there. No doubt at that time the channel was not so silted up as it +is to-day. But the coast lies so low, that just hard by the actual mouth of +the Tiber, the nearness of the sea can only be guessed by the reflection of +the waves in the atmosphere, a sort of pearly halo, trembling on the edge +of the sky. At present I am inclined to think that the window of the house +at Ostia was very likely turned towards the vast melancholy horizon of the +_Agro Romano_. "We passed through, one after another," says Augustin, "all +the things of a material order, unto heaven itself." Is it not natural to +suppose that these things of a material order--these shapes of the earth +with its plantations, its rivers, towns, and mountains--were under their +eyes? The bleak spectacle which unrolled before their gaze agreed, at all +events, with the disposition of their souls. + +This great desolate plain has nothing oppressive, nothing which retains +the eyes upon details too material. The colours about it are pale and +slight, as if on the point of swooning away. Immense sterile stretches, +fawn-coloured throughout, with here and there shining a little pink, a +little green; gorse, furze-bushes by the deep banks of the river, or a few +_boschetti_ with dusty leaves, which feebly stand out upon the blondness +of the soil. To the right, a pine forest. To the left, the undulations of +the Roman hills expire into an emptiness infinitely sad. Afar, the violet +scheme of the Alban mountains, with veiled and dream-like distances, shape +indefinitely against the pearl light, limpid and serene, of the sky. + +Augustin and Monnica, resting on the window-ledge, looked forth. Doubtless +it was towards evening, at the hour when southern windows are thrown open +to the cool after a burning day. They looked forth. "We marvelled," says +Augustin, "at the beauty of Thy works, O my God!..." Rome was back there +beyond the hills, with its palaces, its temples, the gleam of its gilding +and its marbles. But the far-off image of the imperial city could not +conquer the eternal sadness which rises from the _Agro_. An air of funeral +loneliness lay above this plain, ready to be engulfed by the creeping +shadows. How easy it was to break free of these vain corporeal appearances +which decomposed of themselves! "Then," Augustin resumes, "we soared with +glowing hearts still higher." (He speaks as if he and his mother were risen +with equal flight to the vision. It is more probable that he was drawn +up by Monnica, long since familiar with the ways of the spirit, used to +visions, and to mystic talks with God....) Where was this God? All the +creatures, questioned by their anguished entreaty, answered: _Quaere super +nos_--"Seek above us!" They sought; they mounted higher and higher: "And +so we came to our own minds, and passed beyond them into the region of +unfailing plenty, where Thou feedest Israel for ever with the food of +truth.... And as we talked, and we strove eagerly towards this divine +region, _by a leap with the whole force of our hearts, we touched it for +an instant_.... Then we sighed, we fell back, and left there fastened the +first fruits of the Spirit, and heard again the babble of our own tongues, +this mortal speech wherein each word has a beginning and an ending." + +"We fell back!" The marvellous vision had vanished. But a great silence was +about them, silence of things, silence of the soul. And they said to each +other: + +"If the tumult of the flesh were hushed; hushed these shadows of earth, +sea, sky; suppose this vision endured, and all other far inferior modes of +vision were taken away, and this alone were to ravish the beholder, and +absorb him, and plunge him in mystic joy, so that eternal life might be +like this moment of comprehension which has made us sigh with Love--might +not that be the fulfilment of 'Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord'? Ah, +when shall this be? Shall it not be, O my God, when we rise again among the +dead...?" + +Little by little they came down to earth. The dying colours of the +sunset-tide smouldered into the white mists of the _Agro_. The world +entered into night. Then Monnica, impelled by a certain presentiment, said +to Augustin: + +"My son, as for me, I find no further pleasure in life. What I am still to +do, or why I still linger here, I know not.... There was only one thing +made me want to tarry a little longer in this life, that I might see you a +Christian and a Catholic before I died. My God has granted me this boon far +beyond what I hoped for. So what am I doing here?" + +She felt it; her work was done. She had exhausted, as Augustin says, all +the hope of the century--_consumpta spe saeculi_. For her the parting was +near. This ecstasy was that of one dying, who has raised a corner of the +veil, and who no longer belongs to this world. + + * * * * * + +And, in fact, five or six days later she fell ill. She had fever. The +climate of Ostia bred fevers, as it does to-day, and it was always +unsanitary on account of all the foreigners who brought in every infection +of the Orient. Furthermore, the weariness of a long journey in summer had +worn out this woman, old before her time. She had to go to bed. Soon she +got worse, and then lost consciousness. They believed she was in the agony. +They all came round her bed--Augustin, his brother Navigius, Evodius, the +two cousins from Thagaste, Rusticus, and Lastidianus. But suddenly she +shuddered, raised herself, and asked in a bewildered way: + +"Where was I?" + +Then, seeing the grief on their faces, she knew that she was lost, and she +said in a steady voice: + +"You will bury your mother here." + +Navigius, frightened by this sight of death, protested with all his +affection for her: + +"No. You will get well, mother. You will come home again. You won't die in +a foreign land." + +She looked at him with sorrowful eyes, as if hurt that he spoke so little +like a Christian, and turning to Augustin: + +"See how he talks," she said. + +And after a silence, she went on in a firmer voice, as if to impress on her +sons her final wishes: + +"Lay this body where you will, and be not anxious about it. Only I beseech +you, remember me at the altar of God, wherever you are." + +That was the supreme renunciation. How could an African woman, so much +attached to her country, agree to be buried in a stranger soil? Pagan +notions were still very strong in this community, and the place of burial +was an important consideration. Monnica, like all other widows, had settled +upon hers. At Thagaste she had had her place prepared beside her husband +Patricius. And here now she appeared to give that up. Augustin's companions +were astonished at such abnegation. As for himself, he marvelled at the +completeness of the change worked in his mother's soul by Grace. And as he +thought over all the virtues of her life, the strength of her faith--from +that moment, he had no doubt that she was a saint. + +She still lingered for some time. Finally, on the ninth day of her illness, +she died at the age of fifty-six. + +Augustin closed her eyes. A great sorrow surged into his heart. And yet he +who was so quick to tears had the courage not to cry.... Suddenly a noise +of weeping rose in the room of death: it was the young Adeodatus, who +lamented at the sight of the corpse. He sobbed in such a heartbroken way +that those who were there, demoralized by the distress of it, were obliged +to rebuke him. This struck Augustin so deeply, that many years afterwards +the broken sound of this sobbing still haunted his ears. "Methought," he +says, "that it was my own childish soul which thus broke out in the weeping +of my son." As for him, with the whole effort of his reason struggling +against his heart, he only wanted to think of the glory which the saint +had just entered into. His companions felt likewise. Evodius caught up a +psalter, and before Monnica's body, not yet cold, he began to chant the +Psalm, "My song shall be of mercy and judgment; unto Thee, O Lord, will I +sing." All who were in the house took up the responses. + +In the meantime, while the layers-out were preparing the corpse for burial, +the brethren drew Augustin into another room. His friends and relations +stood round him. He consoled the others and himself. He spoke, as the +custom was, upon the deliverance of the faithful soul and the happiness +which is promised. They might have imagined that he had no sense of grief, +"But in Thy hearing, O my God, where none of them could hear, I was chiding +the softness of my heart, and holding back the tide of sorrow.... Alas! +well did I know what I was choking down in my heart." + +Not even at the church, where the sacrifice was offered for Monnica's +soul, nor at the cemetery before the coffin, did he weep. From a sense of +Christian seemliness, he feared to scandalize his brethren by imitating +the desolation of the pagans and of those who die without hope. But this +very effort that he made to keep back his tears became another cause of +suffering. The day ended in a black sadness, a sadness he could not shake +off. It stifled him. Then he remembered the Greek proverb--"The bath +drives away sorrow;" and he determined to go and bathe. He went into the +_tepidarium_ and stretched himself out on the hot slab. Useless remedy! +"The bitterness of my trouble was not carried from my heart with the sweat +that flowed from my limbs." The attendants rolled him in warm towels and +led him to the resting-couch. Worn out by tiredness and so many emotions, +he fell into a heavy sleep. The next day, upon awaking, a fresh briskness +was in all his being. Some verses came singing into his memory; they were +the first words of the confident and joyous hymn of St. Ambrose: + + "Creator of the earth and sky, + Ruling the firmament on high, + Clothing the day with robes of light, + Blessing with gracious sleep the night,-- + + That rest may comfort weary men + To face their usual toil again, + And soothe awhile the harassed mind, + And sorrow's heavy load unbind." + +Suddenly, at the word _sorrow_, the thought of his dead mother came back +to him, with the regret for that kind heart he had lost. A wave of despair +overwhelmed him. He flung himself sobbing on the bed, and at last wept all +the tears he had pent up so long. + + + + +III + +THE MONK OF THAGASTE + + +Almost a year went by before Augustin continued his journey. It is hard to +account for this delay. Why should he thus put off his return to Africa, he +who was so anxious to fly the world? + +It is likely that Monnica's illness, the arrangements about her funeral, +and other matters to settle, kept him at Ostia till the beginning of +winter. The weather became stormy, the sea dangerous. Navigation was +regularly interrupted from November--sometimes even earlier, from the +first days of October, if the tempests and the equinox were exceptionally +violent. It would then be necessary to wait till spring. Besides, word +came that the fleet of the usurper Maximus, then at war with Theodosius, +blockaded the African coast. Travellers ran the risk of being captured by +the enemy. From all these reasons, Augustin would be prevented from sailing +before the end of the following summer. In the meantime, he went to live in +Rome. He employed his leisure to work up a case against the Manichees, his +brethren of the day before. Once he had adopted Catholicism, he must have +expected passionate attacks from his former brothers in religion. To close +their mouths, he gathered against them an elaborate mass of documents, +bristling with the latest scandals. He busied himself also with a +thorough study of their doctrines, the better to refute them: in him the +dialectician never slept. Then, when he had an opportunity, he visited the +Roman monasteries, studying their rule and organization, so as to decide on +a model for the convent which he always intended to establish in his own +country. At last, he went back to Ostia some time in August or September, +388, where he found a ship bound for Carthage. + +Four years earlier, about the same time of year, he had made the same +voyage, coming the opposite way. He had a calm crossing; hardly could one +notice the movement of the ship. It is the season of smooth seas in the +Mediterranean. Never is it more etherial than in these summer months. The +vague blue sky is confused with the bleached sea, spread out in a large +sheet without creases--liquid and flexible silk, swept by quivering amber +glow and orange saffron when the sun falls. No distinct shape, only strange +suffusions of soft light, a pearl-like haze, the wistful blue reaching away +indefinably. + +At Carthage, Augustin had grown used to the magnificence of this pageantry +of the sea. Now, the sea had the same appeased and gleaming face he had +seen four years sooner. But how much his soul had since been changed! +Instead of the tumult and falsehood which rent his heart and filled it +with darkness, the serene light of Truth, and deeper than the sea's peace, +the great appeasement of Grace. Augustin dreamed. Far off the AEolian isles +were gloomed in the impending shadows, the smoky crater of Stromboli was +no more than a black point circled by the double blue of waves and sky. So +the remembrance of his passions, of all that earlier life, sank under the +triumphant uprising of heavenly peace. He believed that this blissful state +was going to continue and fill all the hours of his new life, and he knew +of nothing so sweet.... + +This time, again, he was mistaken about himself. Upon the thin plank of the +boat which carried him, he did not feel the force of the immense element, +asleep now under his feet, but quick to be unchained at the first gust of +wind; and he did not feel either the overflowing energy swelling his heart +renewed by Grace--an energy which was going to set in motion one of the +most complete and strenuous existences, one of the richest in thought, +charity, and works which have enlightened history. Thinking only of the +cloister, amidst the friends who surrounded him, no doubt he repeated the +words of the Psalm: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren +to dwell together in unity." He pressed the hands of Alypius and Evodius, +and tears came to his eyes. + +The sun was gone. All the cold waste of waters, forsaken by the gleam, +blurred gradually in vague anguish beneath the fall of night. + + * * * * * + +After skirting the Sicilian coasts, they arrived at last at Carthage. +Augustin did not linger there; he was eager to see Thagaste once more, and +to retire finally from the world. Favourable omens drew him to the place, +and seemed to hearten him in his resolution. A dream had foretold his +return to his former pupil, Elogius, the rhetorician. He was present, too, +at the miraculous cure of a Carthage lawyer, Innocentius, in whose house he +dwelt with his friends. + +Accordingly, he left for Thagaste as soon as he could. There he made +himself popular at once by giving to the poor, as the Gospel prescribed, +what little remained of his father's heritage. But he does not make clear +enough what this voluntary privation exactly meant. He speaks of a house +and some little meadows--_paucis agellulis_--that he sequestrated. Still, +he did not cease to live in the house all the time he was at Thagaste. The +probability is that he did sell the few acres of land he still owned and +bestowed the product of the sale on the poor. As to the house, he must have +made it over with the outbuildings to the Catholic body of his native town, +on condition of keeping the usufruct and of receiving for himself and his +brethren the necessities of life. At this period many pious persons acted +in this way when they gave their property to the Church. Church goods +being unseizable, and exempt from taxation, this was a roundabout way of +getting the better of fiscal extortion, whether in the shape of arbitrary +confiscations, or eviction by force of arms. In any case, such souls as +were tired of the world and longing for repose, found in these bequests an +heroic method of saving themselves the trouble of looking after a fortune +or a landed estate. When these fortunes and lands were extensive, the +generous donors felt, we are told, an actual relief in getting rid of them. + +This financial question settled, Augustin took up the task of turning the +house into a monastery, like those he had seen at Rome and Milan. His son +Adeodatus, his friends Alypius and Evodius, Severus, who became Bishop +of Milevia, shared his solitude. But it is certain that he had other +solitaries with him whom he alludes to in his letters. Their rule was as +yet a little easy, no doubt. The brothers of Thagaste were not confined +in a cloister. They were simply obliged to fasts, to a special diet, to +prayers and meditations in common. + +In this half-rustic retreat (the monastery was situated at the gates of +the town) Augustin was happy: he had at last realized the project he had +had so long at heart. To enter into himself, pray, above all, to study +the Scripture, to fathom even its most obscure places, to comment it with +the fervour and piety which the African of all times has brought to _what +is written down_--it seemed to him that he had enough there to fill all +the minutes of his life. But no man can teach, lecture, discuss, write, +during twenty years, in vain. However much Augustin might be converted, he +remembered the school at Thagaste, just as he did at Cassicium. Still, it +was necessary to finish with this sort of thing once for all. The new monk +made what may be called his will as a professor. + +He finished, at this time, or revised his school treatises, which he had +begun at Milan, comprising all the liberal arts--grammar, dialectic, +rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, philosophy, music. Of all these books he +only finished the first, the treatise on grammar. The others were only +summaries, and are now lost. On the other hand, we have still the six +books on music, likewise begun at Milan, which he finished, almost as an +amusement, at Thagaste. They are dialogues between himself and his pupil, +the poet Licentius, upon metre and scansion. But we know from himself that +he intended to make this book longer, and to write a second part upon +melody, that is to say, music, properly so called. He never found the time: +"Once," he says, "the burthen of ecclesiastical affairs was placed on my +shoulders, _all these pleasant things_ slipped from my hands." + +Thus, the monk Augustin only rests from prayer and meditation to study +music and poetry. He has thought it necessary to excuse himself. "In all +that," says he, "I had but one purpose. For, as I did not wish to pluck +away too suddenly either young men, or those of another age, on whom God +had bestowed good wits, from ideas of the senses and carnal literature, +_things it is very hard for them not to be attached to_, I have tried +by reasoning lessons to turn them little by little, and by the love of +unchanging truth, to attach them to God, sole master of all things.... He +who reads these books will see that if I have touched upon the poets and +grammarians, 'twas more by the exigency of the journey than by any desire +to settle among them.... Such is the life I have chosen to walk with the +feeble, not being very strong myself, rather than to hurl myself out on the +void with wings still half-fledged...." + +Here again, how human all that is, and wise--yes, and modest too. Augustin +has no whit of the fanatic about him. No straighter conscience than his, +or even more persistent in uprooting error. But he knows what man is, that +life here below is a voyage among other men weak as himself, and he fits in +with the needs of the voyage. Oh, yes, no doubt, for the Christian who has +arrived at supreme renunciation--what is poetry, what is knowledge, "what +is everything that is not eternal?" But this carnal literature and science +are so many steps of a height proportionate to our feebleness, to lead +us imperceptibly to the conceptual world. As a prudent guide of souls, +Augustin did not wish to make the ascent too rapidly. As for music, he has +still more indulgence for that than for any of the other arts, for "it +is by sounds that we best perceive the power of numbers in every variety +of movement, and their study thus leads us gradually to the closest and +highest secrets of truth, and discovers to those who love and seek it +the divine Wisdom and Providence in all things...." He is always coming +back to it--to this music he loves so much; he comes back to it in spite +of himself. Later, in great severity, he will reproach himself for the +pleasure he takes in the liturgical chants, but nevertheless the old +instinct will remain. He was born a musician. He will remain one to his +last gasp. + +If he did not break completely with profane art and letters at this present +moment of his life, his chief reasons were of a practical order. Still +another object may be discerned in these educational treatises--namely, to +prove to the pagans that one may be a Christian and yet not be a barbarian +and ignorant. Augustin's position in front of his adversaries is very +strong indeed. None of them can attempt to cope with him either in breadth +of knowledge, or in happy versatility, or in plenitude of intellectual +gifts. He had the entire heritage of the ancient world between his hands. +Well might he say to the pagans: "What you admire in your orators and +philosophers, I have made my own. Behold it! On my lips recognize the +accent of your orators.... Well, all that, which you deem so high, I +despise. The knowledge of this world is nothing without the wisdom of +Christ." + +Of course, Augustin has paid the price of this all-round knowledge--too +far-reaching, perhaps, at certain points. He has often too much paraded his +knowledge, his dialectic and oratorical talents. What matters that, if even +in this excess he aims solely at the welfare of souls--to edify them and +set them aglow with the fire of his charity? At Thagaste, he disputes with +his brethren, with his son Adeodatus. He is always the master--he knows it; +but what humility he puts into this dangerous part! The conclusion of his +book, _The Master_, which he wrote then, is that all the words of him who +teaches are useless, if the hidden Master reveal not the truth to him who +listens. + +So, under his ungainly monk's habit, he continues his profession of +rhetorician. He has come to Thagaste with the intention of retiring from +the world and living in God; and here he is disputing, lecturing, writing +more than ever. The world pursues him and occupies him even in his retreat. +He says to himself that down there at Rome, at Carthage, at Hippo, there +are men speaking in the forums or in the basilicas, whispering in secret +meetings, seducing poor souls defenceless against error. These impostors +must be immediately unmasked, confounded, reduced to silence. With all his +heart Augustin throws himself into this work at which he excels. Above all, +he attacks his old friends the Manichees.... He wrote many tracts against +them. From the animosity he put into these, may be judged to what extent +Manicheeism filled his thoughts, and also the progress of the sect in +Africa. + +This campaign was even the cause of a complete change in his way of +writing. With the object of reaching the plainest sort of people, he began +to employ the popular language, not recoiling before a solecism, when the +solecism appeared to him indispensable to explain his thought. This must +have been a cruel mortification for him. In his very latest writings he +made a point of shewing that no elegance of language was unknown to him. +But his real originality is not in that. When he writes the fine style, +his period is heavy, entangled, often obscure. On the other hand, nothing +is more lively, clear and coloured, and, as we say to-day, more direct, +than the familiar language of his sermons and certain of his treatises. +This language he has really created. He wanted to clarify, comment, give +details, and he felt how awkward classical Latin is to decompose ideas +and render shades. And so, in a popular Latin, already very close to the +Romance languages, he has thrown out the plan of analytical prose, the +instrument of thought of the modern West. + +Not only did he battle against the heretics, but his restless friendship +continually scaled the walls of his cell to fly to the absent ones dear +to his heart. He feels that he must expand to his friends, and make them +sharers in his meditations: this nervous man, in poor health, spends a part +of his nights meditating. The argument he has hit upon in last night's +insomnia--his friends must be told that! He heaps his letters on them. He +writes to Nebridius, to Romanianus, to Paulinus of Nola; to people unknown +and celebrated, in Africa, Italy, Spain, and Palestine. A time will come +when his letters will be real encyclicals, read throughout Christendom. He +writes so much that he is often short of paper. He has not tablets enough +to put down his notes. He asks Romanianus to give him some. His beautiful +tablets, the ivory ones, are used up; he has used the last one for a +ceremonial letter, and he asks his friend's pardon for writing to him on +a wretched bit of vellum. + +Besides all that, he interests himself in the affairs of his +fellow-townsmen. Augustin is a personage at Thagaste. The good folk of the +free-town are well aware that he is eloquent, that he has a far-reaching +acquaintance, and that he has great influence in high quarters. They +ask for his protection and his interference. It is even possible that +they obliged him to defend them in the courts. They were proud of their +Augustin. And as they were afraid that some neighbouring town might steal +away their great man, they kept a guard round his house. They prevented him +from shewing himself too much in the neighbourhood. Augustin himself agreed +with this, and lived retired as far as he could, for he was afraid they +would make him a bishop or priest in spite of himself. In those days that +was a danger incurred by all Christians who were rich or had talent. The +rich gave their goods to the poor when they took orders. The men of talent +defended the interests of the community, or attracted opulent benefactors. +And because of all these reasons, the needy or badly managed churches +stalked as a prey the celebrated Augustin. + +In spite of this supervision, this unremitting rush of business, the work +of all kinds which he undertook, he experienced at Thagaste a peace which +he was never to find again. One might say that he pauses and gathers +together all his strength before the great exhausting labour of his +apostolate. In this Numidian country, so verdant and cool, where a thousand +memories of childhood encompassed him, where he was not able to take a step +without encountering the ever-living image of his mother, he soared towards +God with more confidence. He who sought in the things of sense ladder-rungs +whereby to mount to spiritual realities, still turned kindly eyes on +the natural scene. From the windows of his room he saw the forest pines +rounding their heads, like little crystal goblets with stems slim and thin. +His scarred chest breathed in deliriously the resinous breath of the fine +trees. He listened like a musician to the orchestra of birds. The changing +scenes of country life always attracted him. It is now that he wrote: +"Tell me, does not the nightingale seem to you to modulate her voice +delightfully? Is not her song, so harmonious, so suave, so well attuned to +the season, the very voice of the spring?..." + + + + +IV + +AUGUSTIN A PRIEST + + +This halt did not last long. Soon was going to begin for Augustin the time +of tribulation, that of his struggles and apostolic journeys. + +And first, he must mourn his son Adeodatus, that young man who seemed +destined to such great things. It is indeed most probable that the young +monk died at Thagaste during the three years that his father spent there. +Augustin was deeply grieved; but, as in the case of his mother's death, he +mastered his sorrow by all the force of his Christian hope. No doubt he +loved his son as much as he was proud of him. It will be remembered what +words he used to speak of this youthful genius, whose precocity frightened +him. Little by little his grief quietened down, and in its place came a +mild resignation. Some years later he will write about Adeodatus: "Lord, +early didst Thou cut off his life from this earth, but I remember him +without a shadow of misgiving. My remembrance is not mixed with any fear +for his boyhood, or the youth he was, or the man he would have been." No +fear! What a difference between this and the habitual feelings of the +Jansenists, who believed themselves his disciples! While Augustin thinks of +his son's death with a calm and grave joy which he can scarce hide, those +of Port Royal could only think in trembling of the judgment of God. Their +faith did not much resemble the luminous and confident faith of Augustin. +For him, salvation is the conquest of joy. + +At Thagaste he lived in joy. Every morning in awaking before the forest +pines, glistening with the dews of the morning, he might well say with a +full heart: "My God, give me the grace to live here under the shades of Thy +peace, while awaiting that of Thy Paradise." But the Christians continued +to watch him. It was to the interest of a number of people that this light +should not be hid under a bushel. Perhaps a snare was deliberately laid for +him. At any rate, he was imprudent enough to come out of his retreat and +travel to Hippo. He thought he might be safe there, because, as the town +had a bishop already, they would not have any excuse to get him consecrated +in spite of himself. + +An inhabitant of Hippo, a clerk of the Imperial Ministry of the Interior, +begged his spiritual assistance. Doubts, he maintained, still delayed him +on the way to an entire conversion. Augustin alone could help him to get +clear of them. So Augustin, counting already on a new recruit for the +Thagaste monastery, went over there at the request of this official. + +Now, if there was a bishop at Hippo (a certain Valerius), priests were +lacking. Furthermore, Valerius was getting on in years. Originally Greek, +he knew Latin badly, and not a word of Punic--a great hindrance for him in +his duties of judge, administrator, and catechist. The knowledge of the two +languages was indispensable to an ecclesiastic in such a country, where the +majority of the rural population spoke only the old Carthaginian idiom. +All this proves to us that Catholicism was in bad shape in the diocese +of Hippo. Not only was there a lack of priests, but the bishop was a +foreigner, little familiar with African customs. There was a general +demand for a native to take his place--one young, active, and well enough +furnished with learning to hold his own against the heretics and the +schismatics of the party of Donatus, and also sufficiently able to watch +over the interests of the Church at Hippo, and above all, to make it +prosperous. Let us not forget that at this time, in the eyes of a crowd of +poor wretches, Christianity was first and foremost the religion which gave +out bread. Even in those early days, the Church did its best to solve the +eternal social question. + +While Augustin was at Hippo, Valerius preached a sermon in the basilica in +which, precisely, he deplored this lack of priests the community suffered +from. Mingled with the congregation, Augustin listened, sure that he would +be unrecognized. But the secret of his presence had leaked out. People +pointed to him while the bishop was preaching. The next thing was that some +furious enthusiasts seized hold of him and dragged him to the foot of the +episcopal chair, yelling: + +"Augustin a priest! Augustin a priest!" + +Such were the democratic ways of the Church in those days. The +inconveniences are plain enough. What is certain is, that if Augustin had +resisted, he might have lost his life, and that the bishop would have +provoked a riot in refusing him the priesthood. In Africa, religious +passions are not to be trifled with, especially when they are exasperated +by questions of profit or politics. In his heart, the bishop was delighted +with this brutal capture which gained him the distinction of such a +well-known fellow-worker. There and then he ordained the Thagaste monk. And +so, as Augustin's pupil, Possidius, the future Bishop of Guelma, puts it, +"This shining lamp, which sought the darkness of solitude, was placed upon +the lamp-stand..." Augustin, who saw the finger of God in this adventure, +submitted to the popular will. Nevertheless, he was in despair, and he +wept at the change they were forcing on him. Then, some of those present, +mistaking the significance of his tears, said to console him: + +"Yes, you are right. The priesthood is not good enough for your merits. But +you may be certain that you will be our bishop." + +Augustin well knew all that the crowd meant by that, and what it expected +of its bishop. He who only thought of leaving the world, grew frightened +at the practical cares he would have to take over. And the spiritual side +of his jurisdiction frightened him no less. To speak of God! Proclaim the +word of God! He deemed himself unworthy of so high a privilege. He was so +ill-prepared! To remedy this fault of preparation, as well as he could, he +desired that he might be given a little leisure till the following Easter. +In a letter addressed to Valerius, and no doubt intended to be made public, +he humbly set forth the reasons why he asked for delay. They were so +apposite and so creditable, that very likely the bishop yielded. The new +priest received permission to retire to a country house near Hippo. His +flock, who did not feel at all sure of their shepherd, would not have let +him go too far off. + +He took up his duties as soon as possible. Little by little he became, +to all intents, the coadjutor of the bishop, who charged him with the +preaching and the baptism of catechumens. These were the two most important +among the episcopal prerogatives. The bishops made a point of doing these +things themselves. Certain colleagues of Valerius even grew scandalized +that he should allow a simple priest to preach before him in his own +church. But soon other bishops, struck by the advantages of this +innovation, followed the example of Valerius, and allowed their clerks to +preach even in their presence. The priest of Hippo did not lose his head +among so many honours. He felt chiefly the perils of them, and he regarded +them as a trial sent by God. "I have been forced into this," he said, +"doubtless in punishment of my sins; for from what other motive can I think +that the second place at the helm should be given to me--to me who do not +even know how to hold an oar...." + +Meanwhile, he had not relinquished his purpose of monastic life. Though +a priest, he meant to remain a monk. It was heart-breaking for him to be +obliged to leave his monastery at Thagaste. He spoke of his regret to +Valerius, who, perceiving the usefulness of a convent as a seminary for +future priests, gave him an orchard belonging to the church of Hippo, that +he might found a new community there. So was established the monastery +which was going to supply a great number of clerks and bishops to all the +African provinces. + +Among the ruins of Hippo, that old Roman and Phoenician city, they search +for the place where Augustin's monastery stood, without much hope of ever +finding it. Some have thought to locate it upon that hill where the water +brought from the near mountains by an aqueduct used to pour into immense +reservoirs, and where to-day rises a new basilica which attracts all eyes +out at sea. Behind the basilica is a convent where the Little Sisters of +the Poor lodge about a hundred old people. So is maintained among the +African Mussulmans the remembrance of the grand Christian _marabout_. One +might possibly wish to see there a building more in the pure and quiet +taste of antiquity. But after all, the piety of the intention is enough. +This hospital serves admirably to call up the memory of the illustrious +bishop who was charity itself. As for the basilica, Africa has done all she +can to make it worthy of him. She has given her most precious marbles, and +one of her fairest landscapes as a frame. + +It is chiefly in the evening, in the closing dusk, that this landscape +reveals all its special charm and its finer values. The roseate glow of the +setting sun throws into sharp relief the black profile of the mountains, +which command the Seybouse valley. Under the mustering shadows, the pallid +river winds slowly to the sea. The gulf, stretching limitless, shines like +a slab of salt strangely bespangled. In this atmosphere without mists, the +sharp outlines of the coast, the dense movelessness of the aspect, has an +indescribable effect. It is like a hitherto unknown and virginal revelation +of the earth. Then the stars bloom out, with a flame, an hallucinating +palpability. Charles's Wain, burning low on the gorges of the Edough, seems +like a golden waggon rolling through the fields of Heaven. A deep peace +settles upon farmland and meadow country, only broken by a watch-dog's bark +now and then.... + +But it matters not which spot is chosen in the surroundings of Hippo to +place Augustin's monastery, the view will be equally beautiful. From all +parts of the plain, mounded by heaps of ruins, the sea can be seen--a wide +bay circled in soft bland curves, like at Naples. All around, an arena of +mountains--the green ravines of the Edough and its wooded slopes. Along the +surbased roads rise the great sonorous pines, and through them wanders the +aeolian complaint of the sea-winds. Blue of the sea, blue of the sky, noble +foliage of Italy's ancient groves--it is one of Lamartine's landscapes +under a more burning sun. The gaiety of the mornings there is a physical +luxury for heart and eyes, when the new-born light laughs upon the painted +cupolas of the houses, and dark blue veils float between the walls, glaring +white, of the steep streets. + +Among the olives and orange-trees of Hippo, Augustin must have seen happy +days pass by, as at Thagaste. The rule he had given the convent, which he +himself obeyed like any one else, was neither too slack nor too strict--in +a word, such as it should be for men who have lived in the culture of +letters and works of the mind. There was no affectation of excessive +austerity. Augustin and his monks wore very simple clothes and shoes, but +suitable for a bishop and his clerks. Like laymen, they wore the byrrhus, +a garment with a hood, which seems very like the ancestor of the Arab +burnous. To keep an even line between daintiness and negligence in costume, +to have no exaggeration in anything, is what Augustin aimed at. The poet +Rutilius Numatianus, who about that time was attacking the sordid and +culture-hating monks with sombre irony, would have had a chance to admire +a restraint and decorum in the Hippo monastery which recalled what was +best in the manners of the ancient world. At table, a like moderation. +Vegetables were generally provided, and sometimes meat when any one +was sick, or guests arrived. They drank a little wine, contrary to the +regulations of St. Jerome, who condemned wine as a drink for devils. When +a monk infringed the rule, his share of the wine was stopped. + +Through some remains of fastidious habits in Augustin, or perhaps because +he had nothing else, the table service he used himself was silver. On the +other hand, the pots and dishes were of earthenware, or wood, or common +alabaster. Augustin, who was very temperate in eating and drinking, seemed +at table to pay attention only to what was being read or talked about. +He cared very little what he ate, provided the food was not a stimulant +to lubricity. He used to say to those Christians who paraded a Pharisaic +severity: "It is the pure heart which makes pure food." Then, with his +constant desire for charity, he prohibited all spiteful gossip in the +conversation in the refectory. In those times of religious struggle, the +clerics ferociously blackened each other's characters. Augustin caused to +have written on the walls a distich, which ran thus: + + "He who takes pleasure in slandering the life of the absent, + Should know he is unworthy to sit at this table." + +"One day," says Possidius, "some of his intimate friends, even other +bishops, having forgotten this sentence, he reproached them warmly, and +very much perturbed, he cried out that he was going to remove those verses +from the refectory, or rise from table and withdraw to his cell. I was +present with many others when this happened." + +It was not only slanderous talk or interior dissensions which troubled +Augustin's peace of mind. He combined the duties of priest, of a head of +a convent, and of an apostle. He had to preach, instruct the catechumens, +battle against the disaffected. The town of Hippo was very unruly, full +of heretics, schismatics, pagans. Those of the party of Donatus were +triumphant, driving the Catholics from their churches and lands. When +Augustin came into the country, Catholicism was very low. And then the +ineradicable Manichees continued to recruit proselytes. He never stopped +writing tracts, disputing against them, overwhelming them under the close +logic of his arguments. At the request of the Donatists themselves, he had +an argument with one of their priests, a certain Fortunatus, in the baths +of Sossius at Hippo. He reduced this man to silence and to flight. Not in +the least discouraged were the Manichees: they sent another priest. + +If the enemies of the Church shewed themselves stubborn, Augustin's own +congregation were singularly turbulent, hard to manage. The weakness of old +Valerius must have allowed a good many abuses to creep into the community. +Ere long the priest of Hippo had a foretaste of the difficulties which +awaited him as bishop. + +Following the example of Ambrose, he undertook to abolish the custom +of feasts in the basilicas and on the tombs of the martyrs. This was a +survival of paganism, of which the festivals included gluttonous eating and +orgies. At every solemnity, and they were frequent, the pagans ate in the +courts and under the porticoes around the temples. In Africa, above all, +these public repasts gave an opportunity for repugnant scenes of stuffing +and drunkenness. As a rule, the African is very sober; but when he does let +himself go he is terrible. This is quite easily seen to-day, in the great +Muslem feasts, when the rich distribute broken bits of meat to the poor of +their district. As soon as these people, used to drink water and to eat a +little boiled rice, have tasted meat, or drunk only one cup of wine, there +is no holding them: there are fights, stabbing matches, a general brawl +in the hovels. Just picture this popular debauch in full blast in the +cemeteries and the courts of the basilicas, and it will be understood why +Augustin did his best to put an end to such scandals. + +For this purpose, he joined hands first of all with his bishop, Valerius, +and then with the Primate of Carthage, Aurelius, who shall be henceforth +his firmest support in his struggle against the schismatics. + +During Lent, the subject fitting in naturally with the season, he +spoke against these pagan orgies; and this gave rise to a good deal of +discontent, outside. Easter went by without trouble. But the day after the +Ascension, the people of Hippo were used to celebrate what they called "the +Joy-day," by a traditional good feed and drink. The day before, which was +the religious festival, Augustin intrepidly spoke against "the Joy-day." +They interrupted the preacher. Some of them shouted that as much was done +at Rome in St. Peter's basilica. At Carthage, they danced round the tomb of +St. Cyprian. To the shrilling of flutes, amid the dull blows of the gongs, +mimes gave themselves up to obscene contortions, while the spectators +sang to the clapping of their hands.... Augustin knew all about that. +He declared that these abominations might have been tolerated in former +times so as not to discourage the pagans from becoming converts; but that +henceforth the people, altogether Christian, should give them up. In the +end, he spoke with such touching eloquence that the audience burst into +tears. He believed he had won. + +The next day it was all to do over again. Agitators had worked among the +crowd to such an extent that a riot was feared. Nevertheless, Augustin, +preceded by his bishop, entered the basilica at the hour of service. At the +same moment the Donatists were banqueting in their church, which was quite +near. Through the walls of their own church the Catholics heard the noise +of this carouse. It required the coadjutor's most urgent remonstrances to +keep them from imitating their neighbours. The last murmurs died down, and +the ceremony ended with the singing of the sacred hymns. + +Augustin had carried the position. But the conflict had got to the point +that he had to threaten the people with his resignation, and, as he wrote +to Alypius, "to shake out on them the dust from his clothes." All this +promised very ill for the future. He who already considered the priesthood +as a trial, saw with terror the bishopric drawing near. + + + + +THE FIFTH PART + +THE APOSTLE OF PEACE AND OF CATHOLIC UNITY + + + Dic eis ista, ut plorent ... et sic eos rape tecum ad Deum: quia de + spiritu ejus haec dicis eis, si dicis ardens igne caritatis. + + "Tell them this, O my soul, that they may weep ... and thus carry them + up with thyself to God; because by His Spirit thou sayest these things, + if Thou speakest burning with the flame of charity." + + _Confessions_, IV, 12. + + + + +I + +THE BISHOP OF HIPPO + + +In his monastery, Augustin was still spied upon by the neighbouring +Churches, who wanted him for their bishop. They would capture him on the +first opportunity. The old Valerius, fearing his priest would be taken +unawares, urged him to hide himself. But he knew by the very case of +Augustin, forced into the priesthood in spite of himself, that the greatest +precautions are useless against those determined to gain their ends by any +means. It would be safest to anticipate the danger. + +He determined therefore to share the bishopric with Augustin, to have him +consecrated during his own lifetime, and to indicate him as his successor. +This was against the African usage, and what was more, against the Canons +of the Council of Nice--though it is true that Valerius, like Augustin +himself, was unaware of this latter point. But surely the rule could be +waived in view of the exceptional merits of the priest of Hippo. The old +bishop began by sounding Aurelius, the Primate of Carthage, and when he was +satisfied as to the agreement and support of this high personage, he took +the opportunity of a religious solemnity to make known his intentions to +the people. + +Some of the neighbouring bishops--Megalius, Bishop of Guelma and Primate of +Numidia, among them--being gathered at Hippo to consecrate a new bishop, +Valerius announced publicly in the basilica that he wished Augustin to be +consecrated at the same ceremony. This had been the wish of his people +for a long time. Really, in demanding this honour for his priest, the old +bishop did no more than follow the wish of the public. Immediately, his +words were received with cheers. The faithful with loud shouts demanded +Augustin's consecration. + +Megalius alone objected. He even made himself the voice of certain +calumnies, so as to have the candidate put aside as unworthy. There is +nothing astonishing in such an attitude. This Megalius was old (he died a +short time after), and, like all old men, he took the gloomiest view of +innovations. Already, in the face of settled custom, had Valerius granted +Augustin the right to preach in his presence. And see now, by a new +sinking, he was attempting to place two bishops at once in the see of +Hippo! Whatever this young priest's talents might be, enough, had been +done for him--a recent convert into the bargain, and, what was still more +serious, a refugee from the Manicheans. What was not related about the +abominations committed in the mysteries of those people? Just how far had +Augustin dipped into them? They snarled against him everywhere at Hippo, +and at Carthage too, where he had compromised himself by his excessive +zeal; Catholics and Donatists alike gossiped. Megalius, a punctilious +defender of discipline and the hierarchy, no doubt gathered up these +malevolent rumours with pleasure. He used them as an excuse for making +Augustin mark time, so to speak. Commonplace people always feel a secret +delight in humiliating to the common rule those whom they can feel are +beings of a different quality from themselves. + +One of the slanders set abroad about Valerius' priest, Megalius seems to +have believed. He allowed himself to be persuaded that Augustin had given +a philtre to a woman, one of his penitents, whom he wished to possess. It +was then the fashion among the pious to exchange _eulogies_, or bits of +holy bread, to signify a spiritual communion. Augustin was said to have +mixed certain magic potions with some of these breads and offered them +hypocritically to the woman he was in love with. This accusation started a +big scandal, and the remembrance of it persisted long, because five or six +years later the Donatist Petilian was still repeating it. + +Augustin cleared himself victoriously. Megalius avowed his mistake. He did +better: not only did he apologize to him he had slandered, but he solemnly +asked forgiveness from his fellow-bishops for having misled them upon false +rumours. It is probable that some time during the inquiry he had got to +know Valerius' coadjutor better. Augustin's charm, taken with the austerity +of his life, acted upon the vexed old man and altered his views. Be that +so or not, it was at any rate by Megalius, Bishop of Guelma and Primate of +Numidia, that Augustin was consecrated Bishop of Hippo. + +He was in consternation over his rise. He has said it again and again. We +may take his word for it. Yet the honours and advantages of the episcopate +were then so considerable that his enemies were able to describe him as an +ambitious man. Nothing could agree less with his character. In his heart, +Augustin only wished to live in quiet. Since his retreat at Cassicium, +fortune he had given up, as well as literary glory. His sole wish was to +live in pondering the divine truths, and to draw nearer to God. _Videte et +gustate quam mitis sit Dominus_--"O taste and see that the Lord is good." +This perhaps, of the whole Bible, is the verse he liked best, which +answered best to the close desire of his soul; and he quotes it oftenest +in his sermons. Then, to study the Holy Writings, scan the least syllables +of them, since all truth lies there--well, a whole life is not too much +for such labour as that! And to do it, one should sever all ties with the +world, take refuge forbiddingly in the cloister. + +But this sincere Christian analysed himself too skilfully not to perceive +that he had a dangerous tendency to isolation. He took too much pleasure +in cutting himself off from the society of mankind to enshroud himself +in study and meditation. He who acknowledged a secret tendency to the +Epicurean indolence--was he going to live a life of the dilettante and the +self-indulgent under cover of holiness? Alone could action save him from +selfishness. Others doubtless fulfilled the laws of charity in praying, +in mortifying themselves for their brethren. But when, like him, a man +has exceptional faculties of persuasion and eloquence, such vigour in +dialectics, such widespread culture, such power to bring to naught the +wrong--would it not be insulting to God to let such gifts lie idle, and a +serious failure in charity to deprive his brethren of the support of such +an engine? + +Besides that, he well knew that no man draws near to truth without a +purified heart. Might not his passions, which were so violent, begin to +torment him again after this respite with greater frenzy than before his +conversion? Against that, too, action was the main antidote. In the duties +of the bishopric he saw a means of asceticism--a kind of courageous +purification. He would load himself of his own will with so many anxieties +and so much work that he would have no time left to listen to the insidious +voice of his "old friends." Could he manage to silence them at once? +This unheard-of grace--would it be granted to him? Or would not rather +the struggle continue in the depths of his conscience? What comes out as +certain is that those terrible passions which turned his youth upside down, +nevermore play any part in his life. From the moment he fell on his knees +under the fig-tree at Milan, his sinful heart is a dead heart. He has been +freed from almost all the weaknesses of the old nature, not only from its +vices and carnal affections, but from its most pardonable lapses--save, +perhaps, some old sediment of intellectual and literary vanity. + +His books, at the first glance, shew us him no more save as the doctor, and +already the saint. What is seen at once is an entirely bare intelligence, +an entirely pure heart, fired only by the divine love. And yet the +affectionate and tender heart which his had been, always warms his +discussions and his most abstract exegesis. It does not take long to feel +the heat of them, the power of pouring forth emotion. Augustin takes no +heed of that. Of himself he no longer thinks; he no longer belongs to +himself. If he has accepted the episcopate, it is so as to give himself +altogether to the Church, to be all things to all men. He is the man-word, +the man-pen, the sounding-board of the truth. He becomes the man of the +miserable crowds which the Saviour covered with His pity. He is theirs, to +convince them and cure them of their errors. He is a machine which works +without ever stopping for the greater glory of Christ. Bishop, pastor, +leader of souls--he has no desire for anything else. + +But it was a heavy labour for this intellectual, who till then had lived +only among books and ideas. The day after his consecration, he must have +regarded it with more terror than ever. During his nights of insomnia, or +at the recreation hour in the monastery garden, he thought over it with +great distress. His eyes wide open in the darkness of his cell, he sought +to define a theory upon the nature and origin of the soul; or else, at the +fall of day, he saw between the olive branches "the sea put on fluctuating +shades like veils of a thousand colours, sometimes green, a green of +infinite tints; sometimes purple; blue sometimes...." And his soul, easily +stirred to poetry, at once arose from these material splendours to the +invisible region of ideas. Then, immediately, he caught himself up: it +was not a question of all that! He said to himself that he was henceforth +the bishop Augustin, that he had charge of souls, that he must work for +the needs of his flock. He would have to struggle in a combat without a +moment's respite. Thereupon he arranged his plans of attack and defence. +With a single glance he gauged the huge work before him. + +A crushing work, truly! He was Bishop of Hippo, but a bishop almost without +a flock, in comparison with the rival community of Donatists. The bishop of +the dissentients, Proculeianus, boasted that he was the true representative +of orthodoxy, and as he had on his side the advantage of numbers, he +certainly cut a much greater figure in the town than the successor of +Valerius, with all his knowledge and all his eloquence. The schismatics' +church, as we have seen, was quite near the Catholic church. Their noise +interfered with Augustin's sermons. Possibly the situation had become +slightly better in Hippo since the edict of Theodosius. But it was not so +long ago that those of the Donatist party had the upper hand. A little +before the arrival of the new bishop, the Donatist clergy forbade their +faithful to bake bread for Catholics. A fanatical baker had even refused a +Catholic deacon who was his landlord. These schismatics believed themselves +strong enough to put those who did not belong to them under interdict. + +The rout of Catholicism appeared to be an accomplished fact from one end to +the other of Africa. Quite recently a mere fraction of the Donatist party +had been able to send three hundred and ten bishops to the Council of +Bagai, who were to judge the recalcitrants of their own sect. Among these +bishops, the terrible Optatus of Thimgad became marked on account of his +bloody zeal, rambling round Numidia and even the Proconsulate at the head +of armed bands, burning farms and villas, rebaptizing the Catholics by main +force, spreading terror on all sides. + +Augustin knew all this, and when he sought help from the local authorities +he was obliged to acknowledge sadly that there was no support to be +expected from Count Gildo, who had tyrannized over Carthage and Africa for +nearly ten years. This Gildo was a native, a Moor, to whom the ministers of +the young Valentinian II had thought it a good stroke of policy to confide +the government of the province. Knowing the weakness of the Empire, the +Moor only thought of cutting out for himself an independent principality +in Africa. He openly favoured Donatism, which was the most numerous and +influential party. The Bishop of Thimgad, Optatus, swore only by him, +regarding him as his master and his "god." In consequence, he was called +"the Gildonian." + +Against such enemies, the Imperial authority could only act irregularly. +Augustin was well aware of it. He knew that the Western Empire was in a +critical position. Theodosius had just died, in the midst of war with the +usurper Eugenius. The Barbarians, who made up the greater part of the Roman +armies, shewed themselves more and more threatening. Alaric, entrenched +in the Peloponnesus, was getting ready to invade Italy. However, the +all-powerful minister of the young Honorius, the half-Barbarian Stilicho, +did his best to conciliate the Catholics, and assured them that he would +continue the protection they had had from Theodosius, Augustin therefore +turned to the central power. It alone could bring about a little order in +the provinces--and then, besides, the new emperors were firmly attached +to the defence of Catholicism. The Catholic Bishop of Hippo did his +best, accordingly, to keep on good terms with the representatives of the +Metropolitan Government--the proconsuls; the propraetors; the counts; +and the tribunes, or the secretaries, sent by the Emperor as Government +commissioners. + +There was no suspicion of flattery in his attitude, no idolatry of power. +At Milan, Augustin had been near enough to the Court to know what the +Imperial functionaries were worth. Now, he simply adapted himself as well +as he could to the needs of the moment. And with all that, he could have +wished in the depths of his heart that this power were stronger, so as to +give the Church more effective support. This cultured man, brought up in +the respect of the Roman majesty, was by instinct a faithful servant of +the Caesars. A man who held to authority and tradition, he maintained that +obedience is due to princes: "There is a general agreement," he said, +"of human society to obey its Kings." In one of his sermons he compares +thought, which commands the body, to the Emperor seated upon his throne, +and from the depths of his palace dictating orders which set the whole +Empire moving--a purely ideal image of the sovereign of that time, but one +which pleased his Latin imagination. Alas! Augustin had no illusions about +the effect of Imperial edicts; he knew too well how little they were +regarded, especially in Africa. + +So he could hardly count upon Government support for the defence of +Catholic unity and peace. He found he must trust to himself; and all +his strength was in his intelligence, in his charity, in his deeply +compassionate soul. Most earnestly did he wish that Catholicism might be a +religion of love, open to all the nations of the earth, even as its Divine +Founder Himself had wished. A glowing and dominating intelligence, charity +which never tired--those were Augustin's arms. And they were enough. These +qualities gave him an overwhelming superiority over all the men of his +time. Among them, pagans or Christians, he looks like a colossus. From what +a height he crushes, not only the professors who had been his colleagues, +such as Nectarius of Guelma or Maximus of Madaura, but the most celebrated +writers of his time--Symmachus, for instance, and Ammianus Marcellinus. +After reading a treatise of Augustin's, one is astounded by the +intellectual meagreness of these last pagans. The narrowness of their +mind and platitude of thought is a thing that leaves one aghast. Even the +illustrious Apuleius, who belonged to the golden age of African literature, +the author of _The Doctrine of Plato_, praises philosophy and the Supreme +Being in terms which recall the professions of faith of the chemist and +druggist, Homais, in _Madame Bovary_. + +Nor among those who surrounded Augustin, his fellow-bishops, was there one +fit to be compared with him, even at a distance. Except perhaps Nebridius, +his dearest friends, Alypius, Severus, or Evodius, are merely disciples, +not to say servants of his thought. Aurelius, Primate of Carthage, an +energetic administrator, a firm and upright character, if he is not on +Augustin's level, is at any rate capable of understanding and supporting +him. The others are decent men, like that Samsucius, Bishop of Tours, very +nearly illiterate, but full of good sense and experience, and on this +ground consulted respectfully by his colleague of Hippo. Or else they are +plotters, given to debauch, engaged in business, like Paulus, Bishop of +Cataqua, who became involved in risky speculations, swindled the revenue, +and by his expensive way of life ruined his diocese. Others, on the +Donatist side, are mere swashbucklers, half-brigands, half-fanatics, like +the Gildonian Optatus, Bishop of Thimgad, a manifestation in advance of +the Mussulman _marabout_ who preached the holy war against the Catholics, +raiding, killing, burning, converting by sabre blows and bludgeoning. + +Amid these insignificant or violent men, Augustin will endeavour to realize +to the full the admirable type of bishop, at once spiritual father, +protector, and support of his people. He had promised himself to sacrifice +no whit of his ideal of Christian perfection. As bishop, he will remain a +monk, as he did during his priesthood. Beside the monastery established in +Valerius' garden, where it is impossible to receive properly his guests and +visitors, he will start another in the episcopal residence. He will conform +to the monastic rule as far as his duties allow. He will pray, study the +Scriptures, define dogmas, refute heresies. At the same time, he means to +neglect nothing of his material work. He has mouths to feed, property to +look after, law-cases to examine. He will labour at all that. For this +mystic and theorist it means a never-ceasing immolation. + +First, to give the poor their daily bread. Like all the communities of that +time, Hippo maintained a population of beggars. Often enough, the diocesan +cash-box was empty. Augustin was obliged to hold out the hand, to deliver +from the height of his pulpit pathetic appeals for charity. Then, there are +hospitals to be built for the sick, a lodging-house for poor wanderers. +The bishop started these institutions in houses bequeathed to the church +of Hippo. For reasons of economy, he thought better not to build. That +would overload his budget. Next came the greatest of all his cares--the +administration of Church property. To increase this property, he stipulated +that his clergy should give up all they possessed in favour of the +community, thus giving the faithful an example of voluntary poverty. +He also accepted gifts from private persons. But he also often refused +these--for example, the bequest of a father or mother, who, in a moment of +anger, disinherited their children. He did not wish to profit by the bad +feelings of parents to plunder orphans. On another side, he objected to +engage the Church in suits at law with the exchequer upon receiving certain +heritages. When a business man at Hippo left to the diocese his share of +profits in the service of boats for carrying Government stores, Augustin +came to the conclusion that it would be better to refuse. In case of +shipwreck, they would be obliged to make good the lost corn to the +Treasury, or else to put the captain and surviving sailors to the torture +to prove that the crew was not responsible for the loss of the ship. +Augustin would not hear tell of it. + +"Is it fit," he said, "that a bishop should be a shipowner?... A bishop +a torturer? Oh, no; that does not agree at all with a servant of Jesus +Christ." + +The people of Hippo did not share his views. They blamed Augustin's +scruples. They accused him of compromising the interests of the Church. One +day he had to explain himself from the pulpit: + +"Well I know, my brothers, that you often say between yourselves: 'Why do +not people give anything to the Church of Hippo? Why do not the dying make +it their heir? The reason is that Bishop Augustin is too easy; he gives all +back to the children; he keeps nothing!' I acknowledge it, I only accept +gifts which are good and pious. Whoever disinherits his son to make the +Church his heir, let him find somebody willing to accept his gifts. It is +not I who will do it, and by God's grace, I hope it will not be anybody.... +Yes, I have refused many legacies, but I have also accepted many. Need I +name them to you? I will give only one instance. I accepted the heritage of +Julian. Why? Because he died without children...." + +The listeners thought that their bishop really put too fine a point on +things. + +They further reproached him with not knowing how to attract and flatter the +rich benefactors. Augustin would not allow, either, that they had any right +to force a passing stranger to receive the priesthood and consequently to +give up his goods to the poor. All this really was very wise, not only +according to the spirit of the Gospel, but according to human prudence. +If Augustin, for the sake of the good fame of his Church, did not wish to +incur the accusation of grasping and avarice, he dreaded nothing so much +as a law-case. To accept lightly the gifts and legacies offered was to lay +himself open to expensive pettifogging. Far better to refuse than to lose +both his money and reputation. So were reconciled, in this man of prayer +and meditation, practical good sense with the high disinterestedness of the +Christian teaching. + +The bishop was disinterested; his people were covetous. The people of those +times wished the Church to grow rich, because they were the first to profit +by its riches. Now these riches were principally in houses and land. The +diocese of Hippo had to deal with many houses and immense _fundi_, upon +which lived an entire population of artisans and freed-men, agricultural +labourers, and even art-workers--smelters, embroiderers, chisellers on +metals. Upon the Church lands, these small people were protected from taxes +and the extortions of the revenue officers, and no doubt they found the +episcopal government more fatherly and mild than the civil. + +Augustin, who had made a vow of poverty and given his heritage to the poor, +became by a cruel irony a great landowner as soon as he was elected Bishop +of Hippo. Doubtless he had stewards under him to look after the property +of the diocese. This did not save him from going into details of management +and supervising his agents. He heard the complaints, not only of his +own tenants, but also of those who belonged to other estates and were +victimized by dishonest bailiffs. Anyhow, we have a thousand signs to shew +that no detail of country life was unfamiliar to him. + +On horseback or muleback, he rode for miles through the country about +Hippo to visit his vineyards and olivets. He examined, found out things, +questioned the workmen, went into the presses and the mills. He knew the +grape good to eat, and the grape to make wine with. He pointed out where +the ensilage pits had been dug in too marshy land, which endangered the +young corn. As a capable landowner he was abreast of the law, careful +about the terms of contracts. He knew the formulas employed for sales or +benefactions. He saw to it that charcoal was buried around the landmarks in +the fields, so that if the post disappeared, its place could be found. And +as he was a poet, he gathered on his course a whole booty of rural images +which later on went to brighten his sermons. He made ingenious comparisons +with the citron-tree, "which is seen to give flowers and fruits all the +year if it be watered constantly," or else with the goat "who gets upon her +two hind legs to crop the bitter leaves of the wild olive." + +These journeys in the open air, however tiring they might be, were after +all a rest for his overworked brain. But there was one among his episcopal +duties which wearied him to disgust. Every day he had to listen to parties +in dispute and give judgment. Following recent Imperial legislation, the +bishop became judge in civil cases--a tiresome and endless work in a +country where tricky quibbling raged with obstinate fury. The litigants +pursued Augustin, overran his house, like those fellahs in dirty burnous +who block our law-courts with their rags. In the _secretarium_ of the +basilica, or under the portico of the court leading to the church, Augustin +sat like a Mussulman cadi in the court of the mosque. + +The emperors had only regulated an old custom of apostolic times in placing +the Christians under the jurisdiction of their bishop. In accordance with +St. Paul's advice, the priests did their utmost to settle differences among +the faithful. Later, when their number had considerably increased, the +Government adopted a system not unlike the "Capitulations" in countries +under the Ottoman suzerainty. Lawsuits between clerics and laymen could not +be equitably judged by civil servants, who were often pagans. Moreover, the +parties based their claims on theological principles or religious laws that +the arbitrator generally knew nothing about. In these conditions, it was +natural enough that the Imperial authority should say to the disputants, +"Fight it out among yourselves". + +And it happened, just at the moment when Augustin began to fill the see of +Hippo, that Theodosius broadened still more the judicial prerogatives of +the bishops. The unhappy judge was overwhelmed with law-cases. Every day he +sat till the hour of his meal, and sometimes the whole day when he fasted. +To those who accused him of laziness, he answered: + +"I can declare on my soul that if it were question of my own convenience, I +should like much better to work at some manual labour at certain hours of +the day, as the rule is in well-governed monasteries, and have the rest of +the time free to read or pray or meditate upon the Holy Scripture, instead +of being troubled with all the complications and dull talk of lawsuits." + +The rascality of the litigants made him indignant. From the pulpit he gave +them advice full of Christian wisdom, but which could not have been much +relished. A suit at law, according to him, was a loss of time and a cause +of sorrow. It would be better to let the opponent have the money, than to +lose time and be filled with uneasiness. Nor was this, added the preacher +in all good faith, to encourage injustice; for the robber would be robbed +in his turn by a greater robber than himself. + +These reasons seemed only moderately convincing. The pettifoggers did not +get discouraged. On the contrary, they infested the bishop with their +pleas. As soon as he appeared, they rushed up to him in a mob, surrounded +him, kissed his hand and his shoulder, protesting their respect and +obedience, urging him, constraining him to busy himself about their +affairs. Augustin yielded. But the next day in a vehement sermon he cried +out to them: + +_Discedite a me, maligni!_--"Go far from me, ye wicked ones, and let me +study in peace the commandments of my God!" + + + + +II + +WHAT WAS HEARD IN THE BASILICA OF PEACE + + +Let us try to see Augustin in his pulpit and in his episcopal city. + +We cannot do much more than reconstruct them by analogy. Royal Hippo is +utterly gone. Bona, which has taken its place, is about a mile and a half +away, and the fragments which have been dug out of the soil of the dead +city are very inadequate. But Africa is full of Christian ruins, and +chiefly of basilicas. Rome has nothing equal to offer. And that is easily +understood. The Roman basilicas, always living, have been changed in the +course of centuries, and have put on, time after time, the garb forced upon +them by the fashion. Those of Africa have remained just as they were--at +least in their principal lines--on the morrow of the Arab invasion, as +Augustin's eyes had seen them. They are ruins, no doubt, and some very +mutilated, but ruins of which no restoration has altered the plan or +changed the features. + +As the traces of Hippo and its church are swept away or deeply buried, we +are obliged, in order to get some approximate idea, to turn towards another +African town which has suffered less from time and devastation. Theveste +with its basilica, the best preserved, the finest and largest in all +Africa, can restore to us a little of the look and colour and atmosphere of +Hippo in those final years of the fourth century. + +Ancient Theveste was much larger than the present town, the French Tebessa. +This, even reduced to the perimeter of the Byzantine fortress built under +Justinian, still surprises the traveller by its singularly original aspect. +Amid the wide plains of alfa-grass which surround it, with its quadrangular +enclosure, its roads on the projection of the walls behind the battlements, +its squat turrets, it has a look as archaic, as strange, as our own +Aigues-Mortes amid its marshy fen. Nothing can be more rich and joyous to +the eye than the rust which covers its ruins--a complete gilding that one +would say had been laid on by the hand of man. + +It has a little temple which is a wonder and has been compared to the +ancient Roman temple--the _Maison Carree_--at Nimes. But how much warmer, +more living are the stones! The shafts of the columns, and the pilasters of +the peristyle, barked by time, seem as scaly and full of sap as the trunks +of palm-trees. The carved acanthus-leaves in the capitals of the pillars +droop like bunches of palms reddened by the summer. + +Quite near, at the end of a narrow street, lined with modern and squalid +hovels, the triumphal arch of Septimus Severus and of Caracalla extends its +luminous bow; and high above the heavy mass of architecture, resting upon +slim aerial little columns, a buoyant _aediculus_ shines like a coral +tabernacle or a coffer of yellow ivory. + +All about, forms in long draperies are huddled. The Numidian burnous has +the whiteness of the toga. It has also the same graceful folds. At the +sight of them you suddenly feel yourself to be in a strange land--carried +back very far across the centuries. No sooner is the vision of antiquity +outlined than it grows firm. Down below there, a horseman, clad in white, +is framed with his white horse in the moulded cincture of a door. He +passes, and upon the white wall of the near tower his shadow rests a +moment, like a bas-relief upon the marble of a frieze. + +Beyond the Byzantine enclosure, the basilica, with its minor buildings, +forms another town almost as large as the present Theveste, and also closed +in by a belt of towers and ramparts. One is immediately struck by the +opulent colour of the stones--rose, grown pale and thinner in the sun; and +next, by the solid workmanship and the structural finish. The stones, as +in the Greek temples, are placed on top of one another in regular layers: +the whole holds together by the weight of the blocks and the polish of the +surfaces. + +The proportions are on a large scale. There was no grudging for the +buildings, or the materials, or the land. In front of the basilica is a +wide rectangular court bordered with terraces; a portico at the far end; +and in the middle four large fountains to water the walk. A flagged avenue, +closed by two gateways, divides this court from the basilica, properly so +called, which is reached by a staircase between two columns. The staircase +leads to the _atrium_ decorated by a Corinthian portico. In the centre +is the font for purifications, a huge monolithic bason in the shape of a +four-leaved clover. Three doors give entrance from the _atrium_ to the +basilica, which is divided by rows of green marble columns into three +aisles. The galleries spread out along the side aisles. The floor was in +mosaic. In the apse, behind the altar, stood the bishop's throne. + +Around the main building clustered a great number of others: a baptistry; +many chapels (one vaulted in the shape of a three-leaved clover) dedicated, +probably, to local martyrs; a graveyard; a convent with its cells, and its +windows narrow as loop-holes; stables, sheds, and barns. Sheltered within +its walls and towers, amid its gardens and outbuildings, the basilica of +Theveste thus early resembled one of our great monasteries of the Middle +Age, and also in certain ways the great mosques of Islam--the one at +Cordova, or that at Damascus, with their vestibules surrounded by arcades, +their basons for purification, and their walks bordered with orange-trees. +The faithful and the pilgrims were at home there. They might spend the day +stretched upon the flags of the porticoes, in loafing or sleeping in the +blue shade of the columns and the cool of the fountains. In the full sense +of the word, the church was the House of God, open to all. + +Very likely the basilicas at Hippo had neither the size nor the splendour +of this one. Nor were there very many. At the time Augustin was ordained +priest, that is to say, when the Donatists had still a majority in the +town, it seems clear that the orthodox community owned but one single +church, the _Basilica major_, or Basilica of Peace. Its very name proves +this. With the schismatics, "Peace" was the official name for Catholicism. +"Basilica of Peace" meant simply "Catholic Basilica." Was not this as +much as to say that the others belonged to the dissenters? Doubtless they +restored later on, after the promulgations of Honorius, the Leontian +Basilica, founded by Leontius, Bishop of Hippo, and a martyr. A third was +built by Augustin during his episcopate--the Basilica of the Eight Martyrs +of the White Mace. + +It was in the Major, or Cathedral, that Augustin generally preached. To +preach was not only a duty, but one of the privileges of a bishop. As has +been said, the bishop alone had the right to preach in his church. This +arose from the fact that the African dioceses, although comparatively +widespread, had scarcely more people than one of our large parishes to-day. +The position of a bishop was like that of one of our parish priests. There +were almost as many as there were villages, and they were counted by +hundreds. + +However that may be, preaching, the real apostolic ministry, was an +exhausting task. Augustin preached almost every day, and often many times a +day--rough work for a man with such a fragile chest. Thus it often happened +that, to save his voice, he had to ask his audience to keep still. He spoke +without study, in a language very near the language of the common people. +Stenographers took down his sermons as he improvised them: hence those +repetitions and lengthinesses which astonish the reader who does not know +the reason for them. There is no plan evident in these addresses. Sometimes +the speaker has not enough time to develop his thought. Then he puts off +the continuation till the next day. Sometimes he comes with a subject all +prepared, and then treats of another, in obedience to a sudden inspiration +which has come to him with a verse of Scripture he has just read. Other +times, he comments many passages in succession, without the least care for +unity or composition. + +Let us listen to him in this Basilica of Peace, where during thirty-five +years he never failed to announce the Word of God.... The chant of the +Psalms has just died away. At the far end of the apse, Augustin rises from +his throne with its back to the wall, his pale face distinct against the +golden hue of the mosaic. From that place, as from the height of a pulpit, +he commands the congregation, looking at them above the altar, which is a +plain wooden table placed at the end of the great aisle. + +The congregation is standing, the men on one side, the women on the other. +On the other side of the balustrade which separates them from the crowd, +are the widows and consecrated virgins, wrapped in their veils black or +purple. Some matrons, rather overdressed, lean forward in the front rank +of the galleries. Their cheeks are painted, their eyelashes and eyebrows +blackened, their ears and necks overloaded with jewels. Augustin has +noticed them; after a while he will read them a lesson. This audience is +all alive with sympathy and curiosity before he begins. With all its faith +and all its passion it collaborates with the orator. It is turbulent also. +It expresses its opinions and emotions with perfect freedom. The democratic +customs of those African Churches surprise us to-day. People made a noise +as at the theatre or the circus. They applauded; they interrupted the +preacher. Certain among them disputed what was said, quoting passages from +the Bible. + +Augustin is thus in perpetual communication with his audience. Nobody has +done less soaring than he. He keeps his eye on the facial expressions +and the attitudes of his public. He talks to them familiarly. When his +sermon is a little lengthy, he wants to know if his listeners are getting +tired--he has kept them standing so long! The time of the morning meal +draws near. Bellies are fasting, stomachs wax impatient. Then says he to +them with loving good-fellowship: + +"Go, my very dear brothers and sisters, go and restore your strength--I do +not mean that of your minds, for I see well that they are tireless, but the +strength of your bodies which are the servants of your souls. Go then and +restore your bodies so that they may do their work well, and when they are +restored, come back here and take your spiritual food." + +Upon certain days, a blast of the sirocco has passed over the town. The +faithful, crowded in the aisles, are stifling, covered with sweat. The +preacher himself, who is very much worked up, has his face dripping, and +his clothes are all wet. By this he perceives that once more he has been +extremely long. He excuses himself modestly. Or again, he jokes like a +rough apostle who is not repelled by the odour of a lot of human-kind +gathered together. + +"Oh, what a smell!" says he. "I must have been speaking a long while +to-day." + +These good-natured ways won the hearts of the simple folk who listened to +him. He is aware of the charm he exerts on them, and of the sympathy they +give him back in gratitude for his charity. + +"You have loved to come and hear me, my brothers," he said to them. "But +whom have you loved? If it is me--ah, even that is good, my brothers, for +I want to be loved by you, if I do not want to be loved for myself. As for +me, I love you in Christ. And you too, do you love me in Him. Let our love +for one another moan together up to God--and that is the moaning of the +Dove spoken of in the Scripture...." + +Although he preaches from the height of his episcopal throne, he is anxious +that his hearers should regard him, Christianly, as their equal. So he +seems as little of the bishop as possible. + +"All Christians are servants of the same master.... I have been in the +place where you are--you, my brothers, who listen to me. And now, if I +give the spiritual bread from the height of this chair to the servants of +the Master of us all--well, it is but a few years since I received this +spiritual food with them in a lower place. A bishop, I speak to laymen, but +I know to how many future bishops I speak...." + +So he puts himself on an equal footing with his audience by the brotherly +accent in his words. It is not Christendom, the Universal Church, or I know +not what abstract listener he addresses, but the Africans, the people of +Hippo, the parishioners of the Basilica of Peace. He knows the allusions, +the comparisons drawn from local customs, which are likely to impress their +minds. The day of the festival of St. Crispina, a martyr of those parts, +after he had developed his subject at very great length, he asked pardon in +these terms: + +"Let us think, brothers, that I have invited you to celebrate the birthday +of the blessed Crispina, and that I have kept up the feast a little too +long. Well, might not the same thing happen if some soldier were to ask you +to dinner and obliged you to drink more than is wise? Let me do as much for +the Word of God, with which you should be drunk and surfeited." + +Marriages, as well as birthday feasts, supplied the orator with vivid +allegories. Thus he says that when a marriage feast is made in a house, +organs play upon the threshold, and musicians and dancers begin to sing and +to act their songs. And yet how poor are these earthly enjoyments which +pass away so soon!... "In the House of God, the feast has no end." + +Continually, through the commentaries on the Psalms, like comparisons rise +to the surface--parables suited to stir the imagination of Africans. A +thousand details borrowed from local habits and daily life enliven the +exegesis of the Bishop of Hippo. The mules and horses that buck when one +is trying to cure them, are his symbol for the recalcitrant Donatists. The +little donkeys, obstinate and cunning, that trot in the narrow lanes of +Algerian _casbahs_, appear here and there in his sermons. The gnats bite in +them. The unendurable flies plaster themselves in buzzing patches on the +tables and walls. Then there are the illnesses and drugs of that country: +the ophthalmias and collyrium. What else? The tarentulas that run along +the beams on the ceiling; the hares that scurry without warning between +the horses' feet on the great Numidian plains. Elsewhere, he reminds his +audience of those men who wear an earring as a talisman; of the dealings +between traders and sailors--a comparison which would go home to this +seafaring people. + +The events of the time, the little happenings of the moment, glide into +his sermons. At the same time as the service in church to-day, there is +going to be horse-racing at the circus, and fights of wild beasts or +gladiators at the arena. In consequence, there will not be many people +in the Basilica. "So much the better," says Augustin. "My lungs will get +some rest." Another time, it is advertised through the town that most +sensational attractions will be offered at the theatre--there will be a +scene representing the open sea. The preacher laughs at those who have +deserted the church to go and see this illusion: "They will have," says +he, "the sea on the stage; but we, brothers--ah, we shall have our port in +Jesus Christ." This Saturday, while he is preaching, some Jewish women set +themselves to dance and sing on the terraces of the near houses, by way of +celebrating the Sabbath. In the basilica, the bashing of the crotolos can +be heard, and the thuds of the tambourines. "They would do better," says +Augustin, "to work and spin their wool." + +He dwells upon the catastrophes which were then convulsing the Roman world. +The news of them spread with wonderful rapidity. Alaric's Barbarians +have taken Rome and put it to fire and sword. At Jerusalem has been an +earthquake, and the bishop John organizes a subscription for the sufferers +throughout Christendom. At Constantinople, globes of fire have been seen in +the sky. The _Serapeum_ of Alexandria has just been destroyed in a riot.... + +All these things follow each other in lively pictures, without any apparent +order, throughout Augustin's sermons. It is not he who divides his +discourse into three parts, and refrains from passing to the second till he +has learnedly expounded the first. Whether he comments upon the Psalms or +the Gospels, his sermons are no more than explanations of the Scriptures +which he interprets, sometimes in a literal sense, and sometimes in an +allegoric. Let us acknowledge it--his allegoric discourses repel us by +their extreme subtilty, sometimes by their bad taste; and when he confines +himself to the letter of the text, he stumbles among small points of +grammar which weary the attention. We follow him no longer. We think +his audience was very obliging to listen so long--and on their feet--to +these endless dissertations.... And then, suddenly, a great lyrical and +oratorical outburst which carries us away--a wind which blows from the +high mountains, and in the wink of an eye sweeps away like dust all those +fine-spun reasonings. + +He is fond of certain commonplaces, and also of certain books of the +Bible--for instance, _The Song of Songs_ and the Gospel of St. John, the +one satisfying in him the intellectual, and the other the mystic of love. +He confronts the verse of the Psalm: "Before the morning star have I +begotten thee," with the sublime opening of the Fourth Gospel: "In the +beginning was the Word." He lingers upon the beauty of Christ: _Speciosus +forma prae filiis hominum_, "Thou art fairer than the children of men." This +is why he is always repeating with the Psalmist: "Thy face, Lord, have I +sought"--_Quaesivi vultum tuum, Domine._ And the orator, carried away by +enthusiasm, adds: "Magnificent saying! Nothing more divine could be said. +Those feel it who truly love." Another of his favourite subjects is the +kindness of God: _Videte et gustate quam mitis sit Dominus_--"O taste +and see that the Lord is good." Naught can equal the pleasure of this +contemplation, of this life in God. Augustin conceives it as a musician +who has fathomed the secret of numbers. "Let your life," he said, "be one +prolonged song.... We do not sing only with the voice and lips when we +intone a canticle, but in us is an inward singing, because there is also in +us Some One who listens...." + +To live this rhythmic and divine life we must get free of ourselves, give +ourselves up utterly in a great outburst of charity. + +"Why," he cries--"Oh, why do you hesitate to give yourselves lest you +should lose yourselves? It is rather by not giving yourselves that you +lose yourselves. Charity herself speaks to you by the mouth of Wisdom and +upholds you against the terror which fills you at the sound of those words: +'Give yourself.' If some one wanted to sell you a piece of land, he would +say to you: 'Give me your gold.' And for something else, he would say: +'Give me your silver, give me your money.' Listen to what Charity says to +you by the mouth of Wisdom: 'My son, give me thy heart.' 'Give me,' quoth +she. Give what? 'My son, give me thy heart.'... Thy heart was not happy +when it was governed by thee, and was thine, for it turned this way and +that way after gawds, after impure and dangerous loves. 'Tis from there thy +heart must be drawn. Whither lift it up? Where to place it? 'Give me thy +heart,' says Wisdom, 'let it be mine, and it will belong to thee for +always.'" + +After the chant of love, the chant of the Resurrection. _Cantate mihi +canticum novum_--"Sing to me a new song!" Augustin repeats these words over +and over again. "We wish to rise from the dead," cry souls craving for +eternity. And the Church answers: "Verily, I say unto you, that you shall +rise from the dead. Resurrection of bodies, resurrection of souls, ye shall +be altogether reborn." Augustin has explained no dogma more passionately. +None was more pleasing to the faithful of those times. Ceaselessly they +begged to be strengthened in the conviction of immortality and of meeting +again brotherlike in God. + +With what intrepid delight it rose--this song of the Resurrection in +those clear African basilicas swimming in light, with all their brilliant +ornamentation of mosaics and marbles of a thousand colours! And what +artless and confident language those symbolic figures spoke which peopled +their walls--the lambs browsing among clusters of asphodels, the doves, the +green trees of Paradise. As in the Gospel parables, the birds of the field +and farmyard, the fruits of the earth, figured the Christian truths and +virtues. Their purified forms accompanied man in his ascension towards +God. Around the mystic chrisms, circled garlands of oranges and pears and +pomegranates. Cocks, ducks, partridges, flamingoes, sought their pasture in +the Paradisal fields painted upon the walls of churches and cemeteries. + +Those young basilicas were truly the temples of the Resurrection, where +all the creatures of the Ark saved from the waters had found their refuge. +Never more in the centuries to follow shall humanity know this frank joy at +having triumphed over death--this youth of hope. + + + + +III + +THE BISHOP'S BURTHEN + + +Augustin is not only the most human of all the saints, he is also one +of the most amiable in all the senses of that hackneyed word--amiable +according to the world, amiable according to Christ. + +To be convinced of this, he should be observed in his dealings with his +hearers, with his correspondents, even with those he attacks--with the +bitterest enemies of the faith. Preaching, the administration of property, +and sitting in judgment were but a part of that episcopal burthen, _Sarcina +episcopatus_, under which he so often groaned. He had furthermore to +catechize, baptize, direct consciences, guard the faithful against error, +and dispute with all those who threatened Catholicism. Augustin was a light +of the Church. He knew it. + +Doing his best, with admirable conscientiousness and charity he undertook +these tasks. God knows what it must have cost this Intellectual to fulfil +precisely all the duties of his ministry, down to the humblest. What +he would have liked, above all, was to pass his life in studying the +Scriptures and meditating on the dogmas--not from a love of trifling with +theories, but because he believed such knowledge necessary to whoever gave +forth the Word of God. Most of the priests of that age arrived at the +priesthood without any previous study. They had to improvise, as quick +as they could, a complete education in religious subjects. We are left +astounded before the huge labour which Augustin must have given to acquire +his. Before long he even dominated the whole exegetical and theological +knowledge of his time. In his zeal for divine letters, he knew sleep no +more. + +And yet he did not neglect any of his tasks. Like the least of our +parish priests, he prepared the neophytes for the Sacraments. He was +an incomparable catechist, so clear-sighted and scrupulous that his +instructions may still be taken as models by the catechists of to-day. +Neither did he, as an aristocrat of the intelligence, only trouble himself +with persons of culture, and leave to his deacons the care of God's common +people. All had a right to his lessons, the simple peasants as well as the +rich and scholarly. One day, a farmer he was teaching walked off and left +him there in the middle of his discourse. The poor man, who had fasted, and +now listened to his bishop standing, was faint from hunger and felt his +legs tremble under him. He thought it better to run away than to fall down +exhausted at the feet of the learned preacher. + +With his knowledge of men, Augustin carefully studied the kind of people +his catechumens were, and adapted his instructions to the character of +each. If they were city folk, Carthaginians, used to spending their time in +theatres and taverns, drunken and lazy, he took a different tone with them +from what he used with rustics who had never left their native _gourbi_. +If he were dealing with fashionable people who had a taste for literature, +he did not fail to exalt the beauties of the Scripture, although, he would +say, they had there a very trifling attraction compared to the truths +contained in it. Of all the catechumens, the hardest to deal with, the +most fearsome in his eyes, were the professors--the rhetoricians and the +grammarians. These men are bloated with vanity, puffed up with intellectual +pride. Augustin knew something about that. It will be necessary to rouse +them violently, and before anything else, to exhort them to humility of +mind. + +The good saint goes further. Not only is he anxious about the souls, but +also about the bodies of his listeners. Are they comfortable for listening? +As soon as they feel tired they must not hesitate to sit down, as is the +usage in the basilicas beyond seas. + +"Would not our arrogance be unbearable," he asked, "if we forbade men who +are our brothers to sit down in our presence, and, much more, men whom we +ought to try with all possible care to make our brothers?..." + +If they are seen to yawn, "then things ought to be said to them to awaken +their attention, or to scatter the sad thoughts which may have come into +their minds." The catechist should shew, now a serene joy--the joy of +certainty; now a gaiety which charms people into belief; "and always that +light-heartedness we should have in teaching." Even if we ourselves are sad +from this reason or that, let us remember that Jesus Christ died for those +who are listening to us. Is not the thought of bringing Him disciples +enough to make us joyful? + +Bishop Augustin set the example for his priests. It is not enough to +have prepared the conversion of his catechumens with the subtlety of the +psychologist, and such perfect Christian charity; but he accompanies them +to the very end, and charges them once more before the baptismal piscina. + +How he is changed! One thinks of the boon-fellow of Romanianus and of +Manlius Theodorus, of the young man who followed the hunts at Thagaste, +and who held forth on literature and philosophy in a select company before +the beautiful horizons of the lake of Como. Here he is now with peasants, +slaves, sailors, and traders. And he takes pleasure in their society. It is +his flock. He ought to love it with all his soul in Jesus Christ. What an +effort and what a victory upon himself an attitude so strange reveals to +us! For really this liking for mean people was not natural to him. He must +have put an heroic will-power into it, helped by Grace. + +A like sinking of his preferences is evident in the director of consciences +he became. Here he was obliged to give himself more thoroughly. He was +at the mercy of the souls who questioned him, who consulted him as +their physician. He spends his time in advising them, and exercises a +never-failing supervision of their morals. It is an almost discouraging +enterprise to bend these hardened pagans--above all, these Africans--to +Christian discipline. Augustin is continually reproaching their +drunkenness, gluttony, and lust. The populace were not the only ones to get +drunk and over-eat themselves. The rich at their feasts literally stuffed +till they choked. The Bishop of Hippo never lets a chance go by to recall +them to sobriety. + +Oftener still, he recalls them to chastity. He writes long letters on this +subject which are actual treatises. The morals of the age and country are +fully disclosed in them. Husbands are found loudly claiming a right to free +love for themselves, while they force their wives to conjugal fidelity. The +adultery they allow themselves, they punish with death in their wives. They +make an abusive practice of divorce. Upon the most futile reasons, they +send the wife the _libellus repudii_--the bill repudiating the marriage--as +the various peoples of Islam do still. This society in a state of +transition was always creating cases of conscience for strict Christians. +For example: If a man cast off his wife under pretext of adultery, might +he marry again? Augustin held that no marriage can be dissolved as long as +both parties are living. But may not this prohibition provoke husbands to +kill their adulterous wives, so as to be free to take a new wife? Another +problem: A catechumen divorced under the pagan law and since remarried, +presents himself for baptism. Is he not an adulterer in the eyes of the +Church? A man who lives with a woman and does not hide it, who even +declares his firm intention of continuing to live with his concubine--can +he be admitted to baptism? Augustin has to answer all these questions, and +go into the very smallest details of casuistry. + +Is it forbidden to eat the meats consecrated to idols, even when a man +or woman is dying of hunger? May one enter into agreements with native +camel-drivers and carriers who swear by their gods to keep the bargain? +May a lie be told in certain conditions?--say, so as to get among heretics +in pretending to be one of themselves, and thus be able to spy on them +and denounce them? May adultery be practised with a woman who promises in +exchange to point out heretics?... The Bishop of Hippo severely condemns +all these devious or shameful ways, all these compromises which are +contrary to the pure moral teaching of the Gospel. But he does this without +affecting intolerance and rigidity, and with a reminder that the evil of +sin lies altogether in the intention, and in the consent of the will. In a +word, one must tolerate and put up with what one is powerless to hinder. + +Other questions, which it is quite impossible to repeat here, give us a +strange idea of the corruption of pagan morals. Augustin had all he +could do to maintain the Christian rule in such surroundings, where the +Christians themselves were more or less tainted with paganism. But if this +troop of sinners and backsliders was hard to drive, the devout were perhaps +harder. There were the _continents_--the widowers and widows who had made a +vow of chastity and found this vow heavy; the consecrated virgins who lived +in too worldly a fashion; the nuns who rebelled against their spiritual +director or their superior; the monks, either former slaves who did not +want to do another stroke of work, or charlatans who played upon public +credulity in selling talismans and miraculous ointments. Then, the married +women who refused themselves to their husbands; and those who gave away +their goods to the poor without their husbands' consent; and also the proud +virgins and widows who despised and condemned marriage. + +Then came the crowd of pious souls who questioned Augustin on points of +dogma, who wanted to know all, to clear up everything; those who thought +they should be able here below to see God face to face, to know how we +shall arise, and who asked if the angels had bodies.... Augustin complains +that they are annoying, when he has so many other things to trouble him, +and that they take him from his studies. But he tries charitably to satisfy +them all. + +Besides all this, he was obliged to keep up a correspondence with a great +number of people. In addition to his friends and fellow-bishops, he wrote +to unknown people and foreigners; to men in high place and to lowly people; +to the proconsuls, the counts and the vicars of Africa; to the very mighty +Olympius, Master of the Household to the Emperor Honorius; or again, "to +the Right Honourable Lady Maxima," "to the Illustrious Ladies Proba and +Juliana," "to the Very Holy Lady Albina"--women who belonged either to the +provincial nobility, or to the highest aristocracy of Rome. To whom did he +not write?... + +And what is admirable in these letters is that he does not answer +negligently to get rid of a tiresome duty. Almost all of them are full +of substantial teaching, long thought over. Many were intended to be +published--they are practically charges. And yet, however grave the tone +of them may be, the cultivated man of the world he had been may be traced. +His correspondents, after the fashion of the time, overwhelm the bishop +with the most fulsome praises. These he accepts, with much ceremony +indeed, but he does accept them as evidence of the charity of his +brethren. Ingenuously, he does his best to return them. Let us not grow +over-scandalized because our men of letters of to-day have debased the +value of complimentary language by squandering and exaggerating it. The +most austere cotemporaries of Augustin, and Augustin himself, outdid them +by a long way in the art and in the abuse of compliments. + +Paulinus of Nola, always beflowered and elegant, wrote to Augustin: +"Your letters are a luminous collyrium spread over the eyes of my mind." +Augustin, who remonstrated with him upon the scarcity of his own letters, +replies in language which our own _Precieuses_ would not have disowned: +"What! You allow me to pass two summers--and two African summers!--in such +thirst?... Would to God that you would allow enter to the opulent banquet +of your book, the long fast from your writings which you have put me +upon during all a year! If this banquet be not ready, I shall not give +over my complaints, unless, indeed, that in the time between, you send me +something to keep up my strength." A certain Audax, who begged the honour +of a special letter from the great man, calls him "the oracle of the Law"; +protests that the whole world celebrates and admires him; and finally, at +the end of his arguments, conjures him in verse to "Let fall upon me the +dew of thy divine word." Augustin, with modesty and benignity, returns his +compliments, but not without slipping into his reply a touch of banter: +"Allow me to point out to you that your fifth line has seven feet. Has +your ear betrayed you, or did you want to find out if I was still capable +of judging these things?"... Truly, he is always capable of judging these +things, nor is he sorry to have it known. A young Greek named Dioscorus, +who is passing through Carthage, questions him upon the philosophy of +Cicero. Augustin exclaims at any one daring to interrupt a bishop about +such trifles. Then, little by little, he grows milder, and carried away by +his old passion, he ends by sending the young man quite a dissertation on +this good subject. + +Those are among his innocent whimsicalities. Then, alongside of letters +either too literary, or erudite, or profound, there are others which are +simply exquisite, such as the one he wrote to a young Carthage girl called +Sapida. She had embroidered a tunic for her brother. He was dead, and she +asked Augustin kindly to wear this tunic, telling him that if he would +do this, it would be a great comfort for her in her grief. The bishop +consented very willingly. "I accept this garment," he said to her, "and I +have begun to wear it before writing to you...." Then gently he pities her +sorrow, and persuades her to resignation and hope. + +"We should not rebuke people for weeping over the dead who are dear to +them.... When we think of them, and through habit we look for them still +around us, then the heart breaks, and the tears fall like the blood of our +broken heart...." + +At the end, in magnificent words, he chants the hymn of the Resurrection: + +"My daughter, your brother lives in his soul, if in his body he sleeps. +Does not the sleeper wake? God, who has received his soul, will put it +again in the body He has taken from him, not to destroy it--oh, no, but +some day to give it to him back." + + * * * * * + +This correspondence, voluminous as it is, is nothing beside his numberless +treatises in dogma and polemic. These were the work of his life, and it is +by these posterity has known him. The theologian and the disputer ended by +hiding the man in Augustin. To-day, the man perhaps interests us more. And +this is a mistake. He himself would not have allowed for a moment that his +_Confessions_ should be preferred to his treatises on Grace. To study, to +comment the Scriptures, to draw more exact definitions from the dogmas--he +saw no higher employment for his mind, or obligation more important for +a bishop. To believe so as to understand, to understand the better to +believe--it is a ceaseless movement of the intelligence which goes from +faith to God and from God to faith. He throws himself into this great +labour without a shade of any attempt to make literature, with a complete +sinking of his tastes and his personal opinions, and in it he entirely +forgets himself. + +One single time he has thought of himself, and it is precisely in the +_Confessions_, the spirit of which modern people understand so ill, and +where they try to find something quite different from what the author +intended. He composed them just after he was raised to the bishopric, to +defend himself against the calumnies spread about his conduct. It seems as +if he wanted to say to his detractors: "You believe me guilty. Well, I am +so, and more perhaps than you think, but not in the way you think." A great +religious idea alters this personal defence. It is less a confession, or an +excuse for his faults, in the present sense of the word, than a continual +glorification of the divine mercy. It is less the shame of his sins he +confesses, than the glory of God. + +After that, he never thought again of anything but Truth and the Church, +and the enemies of Truth and the Church: the Manichees, the Arians, the +Pelagians--the Donatists, above all. He lets no error go by without +refuting it, no libel without an answer. He is always on the breach. He +might well be compared, in much of his writings, to one of our fighting +journalists. He put into this generally thankless business a wonderful +vigour and dialectical subtlety. Always and everywhere he had to have the +last word. He brought eloquence to it, yet more charity--sometimes even +wit. And lastly, he had a patience which nothing could dishearten. He +repeats the same things a hundred times over. These tiresome repetitions, +into which he was driven by the obstinacy of his opponents, caused him +real pain. Every time it became necessary, he took up again the endless +demonstration without letting himself grow tired. The moment it became a +question of the Truth, Augustin could not see that he had any right to keep +quiet. + +In Africa and elsewhere they made fun of what they called his craze for +scribbling. He himself, in his _Retractations_, is startled by the number +of his works. He turns over the Scripture saying which the Donatists +amusingly opposed to him: _Vae mullum loquentibus_--"Woe unto them of many +words." But calling God to witness, he says to Him: _Vae tacentibus de +te_--"Woe unto those who keep silent upon Thee." In the eyes of Augustin, +the conditions were such that silence would have been cowardly. And +elsewhere he adds: "They may believe me or not as they will, but I like +much better to read than to write books...." + +In any case, his modesty was evident. "I am myself," he acknowledges, +"almost always dissatisfied with what I say." To the heretics he declares, +with a glance back at his own errors, "I know by experience how easy it +is to be wrong." When there is some doubt in questions of dogma, he does +not force his explanations, but suggests them to his readers. How much +intellectual humility is in that prayer which ends his great work on the +Trinity: "Lord my God, one Trinity, if in these books I have said anything +which comes from Thee, may Thou and Thy chosen receive it. But if it is +from me it comes, may Thou and Thine forgive me." + +And again, how much tolerance and charity in those counsels to the faithful +of his diocese who, having been formerly persecuted by the Donatists, now +burned to get their revenge: + +"It is the voice of your bishop, my brothers, sounding in your ears. He +implores you, all of you who are in this church, to keep yourselves from +insulting those who are outside, but rather to pray that they may enter +with you into communion." + +Elsewhere, he reminds his priests that they must preach at the Jews in a +spirit of friendliness and loving-kindness, without troubling to know if +they listen with gratitude or indignation. "We ought not," said he, "to +bear ourselves proudly against these broken branches of Christ's tree."... + +This charity and moderation took nothing from the firmness of his +character. This he proved in a startling way in the discussion he had with +St. Jerome over a passage In the Epistle to the Galatians, and upon the +new translation, of the Bible which Jerome had undertaken. The solitary of +Bethlehem saw a "feint" on the part of St. Paul in the disputed passage: +Augustin said, a "lie." What, then, would become of evangelic truth if +in such a place the Apostle had lied? And would not this be a means of +authorizing all the exegetical fantasies of heresiarchs, who already +rejected as altered or forged all verses of the holy books which conflicted +with their own doctrines?... + +As to the new translation of the Bible, it would bring about trouble in the +African churches, where they were accustomed to the ancient version of the +Septuagint. The mistranslations, pointed out by Jerome in the old version, +would upset the faithful and lead them to suspect that the entire Scripture +was false. In this double matter, Augustin defended at once orthodoxy and +tradition from very praiseworthy reasons of prudence. + +Jerome retorted in a most aggressive and offensive tone. He flatly accused +the Bishop of Hippo of being jealous of him and of wishing to cut out a +reputation for learning at his expense. In front of his younger and more +supple adversary, he took on the air of an old wrestler who was still +capable of knocking out any one who had the audacity to attack him. He +hurled at Augustin this phrase heavy with menaces: "The tired ox stands +firmer than ever on his four legs." + +For all that, Augustin stuck to his opinion, and he confined himself +to replying gently: "In anything I say, I am not only always ready to +receive your observations upon what you find wounding and contrary to your +feelings, but I even ask your advice as earnestly as I can."... + + + + +IV + +AGAINST "THE ROARING LIONS" + + +One day (this was soon after he became bishop) Augustin went to visit a +Catholic farmer in the suburbs of Hippo, whose daughter had been lessoned +by the Donatists, and had just enrolled herself among their consecrated +virgins. The father at first had shouted at the deserter, and flogged her +unmercifully by way of improving her state of mind. Augustin, when he heard +of the affair, condemned the farmer's brutality and declared that he would +never receive the girl back into the community unless she came of her own +free will. He then went out to the place to try and settle the matter. On +the way, as he was crossing an estate which belonged to a Catholic matron, +he fell in with a priest of the Donatist Church at Hippo. The priest at +once began to insult him and his companions, and yelled: + +"Down with the traitors! Down with the persecutors!" + +And he vomited out abominations against the matron herself who owned the +land. As much from prudence as from Christian charity, Augustin did not +answer. He even prevented those with him from falling upon the insulter. + +Incidents of this kind happened almost every day. About the same time, +the Donatists of Hippo made a great noise over the rebaptizing of another +apostate from the Catholic community. This was a good-for-nothing loafer +who beat his old mother, and the bishop severely rebuked his monstrous +conduct. + +"Well, as you talk in that tone of voice," said the loafer, "I'm going to +be a Donatist." + +Through bravado, he continued to ill-treat the poor old woman, and to make +the worst kind of threats. He roared in savage fury: + +"Yes, I'll become a Donatist, and I'll have your blood." + +And the young ruffian did really go over to the Donatist party. In +accordance with the custom among the heretics, he was solemnly rebaptized +in their basilica, and he exhibited himself on the platform clad in the +white robe of the purified. People in Hippo were much shocked. Augustin, +full of indignation, addressed his protests to Proculeianus, the Donatist +bishop. "What! is this man, all bloody with a murder in his conscience, +to walk about for eight days in white robes as a model of innocence and +purity?" But Proculeianus did not condescend to reply. + +These cynical proceedings were trifling compared to the vexations which the +Donatists daily inflicted on their opponents. Not only did they tamper with +Augustin's people, but the country dwellers of the Catholic Church were +continually interfered with on their lands, pillaged, ravaged, and burned +out by mobs of fanatical brigands who organized a rule of terror from one +end of Numidia to the other. Supported in secret by the Donatists, they +called themselves "the Athletes of Christ." The Catholics had given them +the contemptuous name of "Circoncelliones," or prowlers around cellars, +because they generally plundered cellars and grain-houses. Troops of +fanaticized and hysterical women rambled round with them, scouring the +country like your true bacchantes, clawing the unfortunate wretches who +fell into their hands, burning farms and harvests, broaching barrels of +wine and oil, and crowning these exploits by orgies with "the Athletes of +Christ." When they saw a haystack blazing in the fields, the country-folk +were panic-stricken--the "Circoncelliones" were not far off. Soon they +appeared, brandishing their clubs and bellowing their war cry: _Deo +laudes!_--"Praise be to God." "Your shout," said Augustin to them, "is more +dreaded by our people than the roaring of lions." + +Something had to be done to quell these furious monsters, and to resist +the encroachments and forcible acts of the heretics. These, by way of +frightening the Catholic bishops, told them roundly: + +"We don't want any of your disputes, and we are going to rebaptize just as +it suits us. We are going to lay snares for your sheep and to rend them +like wolves. As for you, if you are good shepherds, keep quiet!" + +Augustin was not a man to keep quiet, nor yet to spend his strength in +small local quarrels. He saw big; he did not imprison himself within the +limits of his diocese. He knew that Numidia and a good part of Africa +were in the hands of the Donatists; that they had a rival primate to the +Catholic primate at Carthage; that they had even sent a Pope of their +community to Rome. In a word, they were in the majority. Everywhere a +dissenting Church rose above the orthodox Church, when it did not succeed +in stifling it altogether. At all costs the progress of this sect must be +stopped. In Augustin's eyes there was no more urgent work. For him and his +flock it was a question of insuring their lives, since they were attacked +even in their fields and houses. From the moment he first came to Hippo, +as a simple priest, he had thrown himself intrepidly into this struggle. +He never ceased till Donatism was conquered and trampled underfoot. To +establish peace and Catholic unity everywhere was the great labour of his +episcopate. + +Who, then, were these terrible Donatists whom we have been continually +striking against since the beginning of this history? + +It would soon be a century since they had been disturbing and desolating +Africa. Just after the great persecution of Diocletian, the sect was born, +and it increased with amazing rapidity. During this persecution, evidence +had not been wanting of the moral slackness in the African Church. A large +number of lay people apostatized, and a good number of bishops and priests +handed over to the pagan authorities, besides the devotional objects, +the Scriptures and the muniments of their communities. In Numidia, and +especially at Constantine, scandalous scenes took place. The cowardice +of the clergy was lamentable. Public opinion branded with the names of +_traditors_, or traitors, those who had weakened and given over the sacred +books to the pagans. + +The danger once over, the Numidians, whose behaviour had been so little +brilliant, determined to redeem themselves by audacity, and to prove +with superb impudence that they had been braver than the others. So they +set themselves to shout _traditor_ against whoever displeased them, and +particularly against those of Carthage and the Proconsulate. At bottom it +was the old rivalry between the two Africas, East and West. + +Under the reign of Constantine a peace had been patched up, when it fell +out that a new Bishop of Carthage had to be elected, and the Archdeacon +Caecilianus, whose name was put forward, was accused of preventing the +faithful from visiting the martyrs in their prisons. The zealots contended +that in collusion with his bishop, Mensurius, he had given up the Holy +Scriptures to the Roman authorities to be burned. The election promised to +be stormy. The supporters of the Archdeacon, who feared the hostility of +the Numidian bishops, did not wait for their arrival. They hurried things +over. Caecilianus was elected and consecrated by three bishops of the +district, of whom one was a certain Felix of Abthugni. + +At once the opposite clan, backed up by the Numidians, objected. At their +head was a wealthy Spanish woman named Lucilla, an unbalanced devotee, +who, it seemed, always carried about her person a bone of a martyr, and +a doubtful one at that. She would ostentatiously kiss her relic before +receiving the Eucharist. The Archdeacon Caecilianus forbade this devotion as +superstitious, and thus made a relentless enemy of the fanatical Spaniard. +All the former accusations were renewed against him, and it was added +that Felix of Abthugni, who had consecrated him, was a _traditor_. Hence +the election was void, by the single fact of the unworthiness of the +consecrating bishops. Lucilla, having bribed a section of the bishops +assembled in council, Caecilianus was deposed, and the deacon Majorinus +elected in his room. He himself was soon after succeeded by Donatus, an +active, clever, and energetic man, who organized resistance so ably, and +who represented so well the spirit of the sect, that he left it his name. +Henceforth, Donatism enters into history. + +But Caecilianus had on his side the bishops overseas and the Imperial +Government. The Pope of Rome and the Emperor recognized him as legitimately +elected. Besides that, he cleared himself of all the grievances urged +against him. Finally, an inquiry, conducted by laymen, proved that Felix of +Abthugni was not a _traditor_. The Donatists appealed to Constantine, then +to two Councils convoked successively at Rome and Arles. Everywhere they +were condemned. Moreover, the Council of Arles declared that the character +of him who confers the Sacraments has no influence whatever on their +validity. Thus, baptism and ordination, even conferred by a _traditor_, +were canonically sound. + +This decision was regarded as an abominable heresy by the Donatists. As a +matter of fact, there was an old African tradition, accepted by St. Cyprian +himself, that an unworthy priest could not administer the Sacraments. The +local prejudice would not yield: all were rebaptized who had been baptized +by the Catholics--that is to say, by the supporters of the _traditors_. + +The theological question was complicated with a question of property which +was all but insoluble. Since the Donatist bishops were resolved to separate +from the Catholic communion, did they mean to give up, with their title, +their basilicas and the property belonging to their churches? Supposing +that they themselves were disinterested, they had behind them the crowd of +clients and land-tillers who got their living out of the Church, and dwelt +on Church property. Never would these people allow a rival party to alter +the direction of the charities, to plant themselves in their fields and +their _gourbis_, to expel them from their cemeteries and basilicas. Other +reasons, still deeper perhaps, induced the Donatists to persevere in the +schism. These religious dissensions were agreeable to that old spirit +of division which at all times has been the evil genius of Africa. The +Africans have always felt the need of segregating themselves from one +another in hostile _cofs_. They hate each other from one village to +another--for nothing, just, for the pleasure of hating and felling each +other to the ground. + +At bottom, here is what Donatism really was: It was an extra sharp attack +of African individualism. These rebels brought in nothing new in dogma. +They would not even have been heretics without their claim to rebaptize. +They limited themselves to retain a position gained long ago; to keep +their churches and properties, or to seize those of the Catholics upon the +pretence that they were themselves the legitimate owners. With that, they +affected a respect for tradition, an austerity in morals and discipline, +which made them perfect puritans. Yes, they were the pure, the +irreconcilables, who alone had not bent before the Roman officials. All +this was very pleasing to the discontented and quarrelsome, and caressed +the popular instinct in its tendency to particularism. + +That is why the sect became, little by little, mistress of almost the +whole country. Then it subdivided, crumbled up into little churches which +excommunicated each other. In Southern Numidia, the citadels of orthodox +Donatism, so to speak, were Thimgad and Bagai. Carthage, with its primate, +was the official centre. But in the Byzacena and Tripolitana Regio, +there were the Maximianists, and the Rogatists in Mauretania, who had +cut themselves off from the Great Church. These divisions of the schism +corresponded closely enough to the natural compartments of North Africa. +There must be some incompatibility of temper between these various regions. +To this day, Algiers prides itself on not thinking like Constantine, which +does not think like Bona or like Tunis. + +Are we to see in Donatism a nationalist or separatist movement directed +against the Roman occupation? That would be to transport quite modern ideas +into antiquity. No more in Augustin's time than in our own was there such a +thing as African nationality. But if the sectaries had no least thought of +separating from Rome, it is none the less true that they were in rebellion +against her representatives, temporal as well as spiritual. Supposing that +Rome had yielded to them--an impossible event, of course--that would have +meant a surrender to the claims of Africans who wished to be masters of +their property as well as of their religious beliefs in their own country. +What more could they have wanted? It little mattered to them who was the +nominal master, provided that they had the realities of government in their +hands. Altogether, Donatism is a regionalist revindication, very strongly +characterized. It is a remarkable fact that it was among the indigenous +population, ignorant of Latin, that the most of its adherents were +recruited. + + * * * * * + +Such was the position of the Church in Africa when Augustin was named +Bishop of Hippo. He judged it at once, with his clear-sightedness, his +strong good sense, his broad outlook of a Roman citizen freed from the +smallnesses of a local spirit, his Christian idealism which took no heed +of the accidents or considerations of worldly prosperity. What! was +Catholicism to become an African religion, a restricted sect, wretchedly +tied to the letter of tradition, to the exterior practices of worship? To +reign in a little corner of the world--did Christ die for that? Never! +Christ died for the wide world. The only limits of His Church are the +limits of the universe. And besides, in this resolution to exclude, what +becomes of the great principle of Charity? It is by charity, above all, +that we are Christians. Faith without love is a faith stagnant and dead.... + +Augustin also foresaw the consequences of spiritual separation; he had them +already under his eyes. The Church is the great spring, not only of love, +but of intelligence. Once cut away from this reviving spring, Donatism +would become dry and stunted like a branch stripped from a tree. The +deep sense of its dogmas would become impoverished as its works emptied +themselves of the spirit of charity. Obstinacy, narrowness, lack of +understanding, fanaticism, and cruelty--there you had the inevitable fruits +of schism. Augustin knew the rudeness and ignorance of his opponents, even +of the most cultivated among them: he might well ask himself in anguish +what would become of the African Church deprived of the benefit of Roman +culture, isolated from the great intellectual current which united all the +churches beyond seas. Finally, he knew his fellow-countrymen; he knew that +the Donatists, even victorious, even sole masters of the land, would turn +against themselves the fury they now satisfied against the Catholics, and +never stop tearing each other in pieces. Here was now nearly a hundred +years that they had kept Africa in fire and blood. This meant before very +long a return to barbarism. Separated from Catholicism, they would really +separate from the Empire and even from civilization. And so it was that +in fighting for Catholic unity, Augustin fought for the Empire and for +civilization. + +Confronted with these barbarians and sectaries, his attitude could not be +doubtful for a single moment. He must do his best to bring them back to the +Church. It was only a matter of hitting upon the most effectual means. + +Preaching, for an orator such as he was, should be an excellent weapon. +His eloquence, his dialectic, his profane and sacred learning, gave him an +immense superiority over the defenders of the opposite side. He certainly +kept in the Church many Catholics who were ready to apostatize. But before +the crowd of schismatics, all these high gifts were as good as lost. +The people were in no wise anxious to know upon which side truth was to +be found. They were Donatists, as they were Numidians or Carthaginians, +without knowing why--because everybody about them was. Many might have +answered like that grammarian of Constantine, who told the Inquisitors with +astute simplicity: + +"I am a professor of Roman literature, a teacher of Latin grammar. My +father was a decurion at Constantine; my grandfather was a soldier and +had served in the guard. Our family is of Moorish blood.... As for me, I +am quite ignorant about the origin of the schism: I am just one of the +ordinary faithful of the people called Christians. When I was at Carthage, +Bishop Secundus came there one day. I heard tell that they found out that +Bishop Caecilianus had been ordained irregularly by I don't know who, and +they elected another bishop against him. That's how the schism began at +Carthage. I have no means of knowing much about the origin of the schism, +because there has never been more than one church in our city. If there has +been a schism here, we know nothing about it." + +When a grammarian talked thus, what could have been the thoughts of +agricultural labourers, city workmen, and slaves? They belonged to an +estate, or a quarter of a town, where no other faith than theirs had ever +been professed. They were Donatists like their employers, like their +neighbours, like the other people of the _cof_ to which they had belonged +from father to son. The theological side of the question left them +absolutely indifferent. If Augustin tried to debate with them, they refused +to listen and referred him to their bishops. That was the word of command. + +The bishops, on their side, avoided all discussion. Augustin tried in vain +to arrange an argument with Proculeianus, his Donatist colleague at Hippo. +And if some of them shewed themselves more obliging, the evasions and +reticences of the antagonist, and sometimes outside circumstances, made the +debate utterly futile. At Thubursicum the audience raised such a noise in +the place where Augustin was debating with the bishop Fortunius, that they +were no longer able to hear each other. At other times, the meeting sank to +an oratorical joust, wherein they tired themselves out passading against +words, instead of attacking the matters at issue. Augustin felt that he was +losing his time. Besides, the Donatist bishops presented an obstinate front +against which everything smashed. + +"Leave us in our errors," they said ironically. "If we are lost in your +eyes, why follow us about? We don't want to be saved." + +And they prohibited their flocks from saluting Catholics, from speaking to +them, from going into their churches or into their houses, from sitting +down in the midst of them. They laid an interdict on their adversaries. +Primanius, the Donatist Primate of Carthage, upon being invited to a +conference, answered proudly: + +"The sons of the martyrs can have nothing to do with the race of traitors." + +This being the state of the case, no method of pacification was left but +written controversy. Augustin shewed himself tireless at it. It was chiefly +in these letters and treatises against the Donatists that he was not afraid +to repeat himself. He knew that he was dealing with the deaf, and with +the deaf who did not want to hear: he was obliged to raise his voice. +With admirable self-denial he reiterated the same arguments a hundred +times over, a hundred times took up the history of the quarrel from the +beginning, spreading such a light over the quibbles and refinings of his +contradictors, that it should have brought conviction to the bluntest +minds. "No," he repeated, "Caecilianus was not a _traditor_, nor Felix of +Abthugni either who consecrated him bishop. The documents are there to +prove this. And even supposing they were, can the fault of a single man +be charged to the whole Church?... Then why do you baptize the Catholics +under the pretence that their priests are _traditors_ and as such unworthy +to administer the Sacraments? It is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and not +the virtue of the priest which renders baptism efficacious. If it were +otherwise, what was the good of the Redemption? It is the fact that by the +voluntary death of Christ, all men have been called to salvation. Salvation +is not the privilege of Africans only. Being Catholic, the Church should +take in the whole world...." + +In the long run, these continual repetitions end by seeming wearisome to +modern readers: for us there arises out of all these discussions a dense +and intolerable boredom. But let us remember that all this was singularly +living for Augustin's cotemporaries, that these thankless developments were +read with passion. And then, too, it was a question of the unity of the +Church which involved, as we cannot too often repeat, the interest of the +Empire and civilization. + +Against so persuasive a power the Donatists opposed a conspiracy of +silence. Their bishops forbade the people to read what Augustin wrote. They +did more--they concealed their own libels so that it was impossible to +reply to them. But Augustin used all his skill to unearth them. He refuted +them, and had his refutations recopied and posted on the walls of the +basilicas. The copies circulated through the province and the whole Roman +world. + +This would have had an excellent result if the quarrel had been entirely +over questions of theory. But immense property interests came into it, +and rancours and terrible hates. Augustin was forced to pass from verbal +polemics to direct action--defensive action, at first, and then attack. + +While he and his fellow-bishops did their utmost to preach peace, the +Donatist bishops urged their followers to the holy war. Augustin even +received threats on his life. During one of his visitations, he was nearly +assassinated. Men in ambush lay in wait for him. By a providential chance, +he took the wrong road, and owed his life to this mistake. His pupil +Possidius, who was then Bishop of Guelma, was not so lucky. Brought to +bay in a house by the Donatist bishop Crispinus, he defended himself +desperately. They set fire to the house to turn him out. When there was +nothing else left but to be burned alive, he did come out. The band of +Donatists seized him, and would have beaten his brains out, if Crispinus +himself, fearing a prosecution for murder, had not interfered. But the +assailants sacked the property and slaughtered all the horses and mules +in the stables. At Bagai, Bishop Maximianus was stabbed in his basilica. +A furious mob smashed the altar and began to strike the victim with the +fragments, and left him for dead on the flags. The Catholics lifted up his +body, but the Donatists plucked him out of their hands and flung him from +the top of a tower, and he fell on a dunghill which broke the fall. The +unhappy man still breathed, and by a miracle he recovered. + +Meanwhile, the Circoncelliones, armed with their bludgeons, continued to +pillage and burn the farms. They tortured the owners to extract their money +from them. They made them toil round the mill-path like beasts of burthen, +while they lashed at them with whips. At their back, the Donatist priests +invaded the Catholic churches and lands. There and then they rebaptized +the labourers. These doings were, indeed, very like the practices of the +African Mussulmans to-day, who, in like circumstances, always begin by +converting the Christian farm-hands by main force. Then they purified +the basilicas by scraping down the walls and washing the floors with big +douches of water; and after demolishing the altar, they scattered salt +where it had stood. It was a perfect disinfection. The Donatists treated +the Catholics like the plague-stricken. + +Such acts cried out for vengeance. Augustin, who up till this time had +recoiled from asking the public authorities to prosecute, who, as an +observer of the apostolic tradition, did not recognize the interference +of the civil power in Church matters--well, Augustin had to give way to +circumstances, and also to the pressure brought to bear on him by his +colleagues. Councils assembled at Carthage petitioned the Emperor to take +exceptional measures against the Donatists, who laughed at all the laws +directed against heretics. When they were summoned before the courts they +demonstrated to the judges, who were often pagans incompetent to decide in +these questions, that it was they who really belonged to the only orthodox +Church. Something must be done to end this equivocal position, and to bring +about once for all a categorical condemnation of the schism. Augustin, +acting in concert with the primate Aurelius, was the ruling spirit of these +meetings. + +Let us not judge his conduct by modern ideas, or be in a hurry to exclaim +against his intolerance. He and the Catholic bishops, in acting thus, +were complying with the old tradition which had influenced all the pagan +governments. Rome, particularly, though it recognized all the local sects, +all the foreign religions, never allowed any of its subjects to refuse to +fall in with the official religion. The persecutions of the Christians and +the Jews had no other motive. Now that it was become the State religion, +Christianity, willingly or unwillingly, had to summon people to the same +obedience. The Emperors made a special point of this from political reasons +easy to understand--to prevent riots and maintain public order. Even if the +bishops had refrained from all complaint, the Imperial Government would +have acted without them and suppressed the disturbances caused by the +heretics. + +Just look at the situation and the men as they were at that moment in +Africa. It was the Catholics who were persecuted, and that with revolting +fury and cruelty. They were obliged to defend themselves. In the next +place, the distribution of property in those countries made conversions +in batches singularly easy. Multitudes of farm tenants, workmen, and +agricultural slaves, lived upon the immense estates of one owner. Without +any interest in dogmatic questions, they were Donatists simply because +their master was. To change these devouring wolves into tranquil sheep, it +was often quite enough if the master got converted. The great blessing of +peace depended upon pressure being brought to bear on certain persons. When +all day and every day there was a risk of being murdered or burned out by +irresponsible ruffians, the temptation was very strong to fall back on such +a prompt and simple remedy. Augustin and his colleagues ended by making up +their minds to do so. For that matter, they had no choice. They were bound +to strike, or be themselves suppressed by their enemies. + +However, before resorting to rigorous measures, they resolved to send forth +a supreme appeal for reconciliation. The Catholics proposed a meeting to +the Donatists in which they would loyally examine one another's grievances. +As personal or material questions made the great bar to an understanding, +they promised that every Donatist bishop who turned convert should keep +his see. In places where a schismatic and an orthodox bishop were found +together, they would come to a friendly agreement to govern the diocese by +turns. Where it was impossible for this to be done, it was proposed that +the Catholic should resign in favour of the other. Augustin lent all his +eloquence to carry this motion, which was sufficiently heroic for a good +number of bishops who were not so detached as he from the goods of this +world. And one must allow that it was difficult to go much further in the +way of self-denial. + +After a good deal of skirmishing and hesitation on the side of the +schismatics, the Conference met at Carthage in June of the year 411, under +the presidency of an Imperial commissioner, the tribune Marcellinus. Once +again, the Donatists saw themselves condemned. Upon the report of the +commissioner, a decree of Honorius classed them definitely among heretics. +They were forbidden to rebaptize or to assemble together, under penalties +of fine and confiscation. Refractory countrymen and slaves would be liable +to corporal punishment, and as for the clerics, they would be banished. + +The effect of these new laws was not long in appearing, and it fully +answered the wishes of the orthodox bishops. Many populations returned, or +pretended to return, to the Catholic communion. This result was largely +the work of Augustin, who for twenty years had worked to bring it about by +preaching and controversy. But, as might be expected, he did not overdo +his triumph. Without delay, he set himself to preach moderation to the +conquerors. Nor had he waited till the enemy was defeated to do that. Ten +years before, while the Donatists were besetting the Catholics everywhere, +he said to the priests of his communion: + +"Remember this, my brothers, so as to practise and preach it with +never-varying gentleness. Love the men; kill the lie! Lean on truth without +pride; fight for it without cruelty. Pray for those whom you chide, and for +those to whom you shew their error." + +However, the victory of the party of peace was not so thorough as it had +seemed at first. A good many fanatics here and there grew obstinate in +their resistance. The Circoncelliones, maddened, distinguished themselves +by a new outbreak of ravages and cruelties. They tortured and mutilated all +the Catholics who fell into their hands. They had invented an unheard-of +refinement of torture, which was to cover with lime diluted with vinegar +the eyes of their victims. The priest Restitutus was assassinated in the +suburbs of Hippo. A bishop had his tongue and his hand cut off. If the +towns were pretty quiet, terror began to reign once more in the country +places. + +The Roman authorities exerted themselves to put an end to these bloody +scenes. They heavily chastised the offenders whenever they could catch +them. In his charity, Augustin interceded for them with the judges. He +wrote to the tribune Marcellinus: + +"We would not that the servants of God should be revenged by hurts like to +those they suffered. Surely, we are not against depriving the guilty of the +means to do harm, but we consider it will be enough, without taking their +lives or wrenching any limb from them, to turn them from their senseless +tumult by the restraining power of the laws, in bringing them back to calm +and reason; or, in a last resort, to take away the opportunity for criminal +actions by employing them in some useful work.... Christian judge, in this +matter fulfil the duty of a father, and while repressing injustice, do not +forget humanity." + +This compassion of Augustin was shewn particularly in his meeting with +Emeritus, the Donatist Bishop of Cherchell (or as it was then called, +Mauretanian Caesarea), one of the most stubborn among the irreconcilables. +His attitude in dealing with this uncompromising enemy was not only humane, +but courteous, full of graciousness, and of the most sensitive charity. + +This fell out in the autumn of the year 418, seven years after the great +Conference at Carthage. Augustin was sixty-four years old. How was it +that he who had always had such feeble health undertook at this age the +long journey from Hippo to Caesarea? We know that the Pope, Zozimus, had +entrusted him with a mission to the Church of that town. With his tireless +zeal, always ready to march for the glory of Christ, the old bishop +doubtless saw in this journey a fresh opportunity for an apostle. So +he started off, in spite of the roads, which were very unsafe in those +troublous times, in spite of the crushing heat of the season--the end of +September. He travelled six hundred miles across the endless Numidian +plain and the mountainous regions of the Atlas, preaching in the churches, +halting in the towns and the hamlets to decide questions of private +interest, ever pursued by a thousand business worries and by the squabbles +of litigants and the discontented. At last, after many weeks of fatigue and +tribulation, he reached Cherchell, where he was the guest of Deuterius, the +metropolitan Bishop of Mauretania. + +Now Emeritus, the deposed bishop, lived mysteriously in the suburbs, in +constant fear of some forcible action on the part of the authorities. +When he learned the friendly intentions of Augustin, he came out of his +hiding-place and shewed himself in the town. In one of the squares of +Caesarea the two prelates met. Augustin, who had formerly seen Emeritus at +Carthage, recognized him, hurried over to him, saluted him, and at once +suggested a friendly talk. + +"Let us go into the church," he said. "This square is hardly suitable for a +talk between two bishops." + +Emeritus, flattered, agreed. The conversation continued in such a cordial +tone that Augustin was already rejoicing upon having won back the +schismatic. Deuterius, following the line of conduct which the Catholic +bishops had adopted, spoke of resigning and handing over the see to the +other. It was agreed that within two days Emeritus should come to the +cathedral for a public discussion with his colleague of Hippo. At the +appointed hour he appeared. A great crowd of people gathered to hear +the two orators. The basilica was full. Then Augustin, turning to the +impenitent Donatist, said to him mildly: + +"Emeritus, my brother, you are here. You were also at our Conference at +Carthage. If you were beaten there, why do you come here now? If, on the +other hand, you think that you were not beaten, tell us what leads you to +believe that you had the advantage...." + +What change had Emeritus undergone in two days? Whatever it was, he +disappointed the hopes of Augustin and the people of Caesarea. He returned +only ambiguous phrases to the most pressing and brotherly urging. Finally, +he took refuge in an angry silence from which it was found impossible to +draw him. + +Augustin went home without having converted the heretic. No doubt he was +sorely disappointed. Nevertheless, he shewed no resentment; he even took +measures to ensure the safety of the recalcitrant, in a charitable fear +less the roused people might do him a bad turn. With all that, when he +looked back at the results of nearly thirty years of struggle against +schism, he might well say to himself that he had done good work for the +Church. Donatism, in fact, was conquered, and conquered by him. Was he +at last to have a chance to rest himself, with the only rest suitable +to a soul like his, in a steady meditation and study of the Scriptures? +Henceforth, would he be allowed to live a little less as a bishop and a +little more as a monk? This was always the strong desire of his heart.... + +But new and worse trials awaited him at Hippo. + + + + +THE SIXTH PART + +FACE TO FACE WITH THE BARBARIANS + + + Et nunc veniant omnes quicumque amant Paradisum, locum quietis, locum + securitatis, locum perpetuae felicitatis, locum in quo non pertimescas + Barbarum. + + "And now let all those come who love Paradise, the place of quiet, the + place of safety, the place of eternal happiness, the place where the + Barbarian need be feared no more." + + _Sermon upon the Barbarian Persecution_, vii, 9. + + + + +I + +THE SACK OF ROME + + +During June of the year 403, an astonishing event convulsed the former +capital of the Empire. The youthful Honorius, attended by the regent +Stilicho, came there to celebrate his triumph over Alaric and the Gothic +army, defeated at Pollentia. + +The pageantry of a triumph was indeed a very astonishing sight for +the Romans of that period. They had got so unused to them! And no +less wonderful was the presence of the Emperor at the Palatine. Since +Constantine's reign, the Imperial palaces had been deserted. They had +hardly been visited four times in a century by their master. + +Rome had never got reconciled to the desertion of her princes. When the +Court was moved to Milan, and then to Ravenna, she felt she had been +uncrowned. Time after time the Senate appealed to Honorius to shew himself, +at least, to his Roman subjects, since political reasons were against his +dwelling among them. This journey was always put off. The truth is, the +Christian Caesars did not like Rome, and mistrusted her still half-pagan +Senate and people. It needed this unhoped-for victory to bring Honorius +and his councillors to make up their minds. The feeling of a common danger +had for the moment drawn the two opposing religions together, and here +they were apparently making friends in the same patriotic delight. Old +hates were forgotten. In fact, the pagan aristocracy had hopes of better +treatment from Stilicho. On account of all these reasons, the triumphant +Caesar was received at Rome with delirious joy. + +The Court, upon leaving Ravenna, had crossed the Apennines. A halt was +called on the banks of the Clitumnus, where in ancient times the great +white herds were found which were sacrificed at the Capitol during a +triumph. But the gods of the land had fallen; there would be no opiman bull +this time on their altars. The pagans felt bitter about it. + +Thence, by Narnia and the Tiber valley, they made their way down into the +plain. The measured step of the legions rang upon the large flags of the +Flaminian way. They crossed the Mulvius bridge--and old Rome rose like a +new city. In anticipation of a siege, the regent had repaired the Aurelian +wall. The red bricks of the enclosure and the fresh mason-work of the +towers gleamed in the sun. Finally, striking into the _Via lata_, the +procession marched to the Palatine. + +The crowd was packed in this long, narrow street, and overflowed into the +nearest alleys. Women, elaborately dressed, thronged the balconies, and +even the terraces of the palace. All at once the people remarked that the +Senate was not walking before the Imperial chariot. Stilicho, who wished to +conciliate their good graces, had, contrary to custom, dispensed them from +marching on foot before the conqueror. People talked with approval of this +wily measure in which they saw a promise of new liberties. But applause and +enthusiastic cheers greeted the young Honorius as he passed by, sharing +with Stilicho the honour of the triumphal car. + +The unequalled splendour of his _trabea_, of which the embroideries +disappeared under the number and flash of colour of the jewels, left the +populace gaping. The diadem, a masterpiece of goldsmith's work, pressed +heavily on his temples. Emerald pendants twinkled on each side of his neck, +which, as it was rather fat, with almost feminine curves, suggested at once +to the onlookers a comparison with Bacchus. They found he had an agreeable +face, and even a soldierly air with his square shoulders and stocky neck. +Matrons gazed with tender eyes on this Caesar of nineteen, who had, at that +time, a certain beauty, and the brilliance, so to speak, of youth. This +degenerate Spaniard, who was really a crowned eunuch, and was to spend his +life in the society of the palace eunuchs and die of dropsy--this son of +Theodosius was just then fond of violent exercise, of hunting and horses. +But he was even now becoming ponderous with unhealthy fat. His build and +bloated flesh gave those who saw him at a distance a false notion of his +strength. The Romans were most favourably impressed by him, especially the +young men. + +But the army, the safeguard of the country, was perhaps even more admired +than the Emperor. The legions, following the ruler, had almost deserted +the capital. The flower of the troops were almost unknown there. In +consequence, the march past of the cavalry was quite a new sight for the +people. A great murmur of admiration sounded as the _cataphracti_ appeared, +gleaming in the coats of mail which covered them from head to foot. Upon +their horses, caparisoned in defensive armour, they looked like equestrian, +statues--like silver horsemen on bronze horses. Childish cries greeted each +_draconarius_ as he marched by carrying his ensign--a dragon embroidered on +a long piece of cloth which flapped in the wind. And the crowd pointed at +the crests of the helmets plumed with peacock feathers, and the scarfs of +scarlet silk flowing over the camber of the gilded cuirasses.... + +The military show poured into the Forum, swept up the _Via Sacra_, and when +it had passed under the triumphal arches of the old emperors, halted at the +Palace of Septimus Severus. In the Stadium, the crowd awaited Honorius. +When he appeared on the balcony of the Imperial box, wild cheering burst +out on all the rows of seats. The Emperor, diadem on head, bowed to the +people. Upon that the cheers became a tempest. Rome did not know how to +express her happiness at having at last got her master back. + +On the eve of the worst catastrophes she had this supreme day of glory, of +desperate pride, of unconquerable faith in her destiny. The public frenzy +encouraged them in the maddest hopes. The poet Claudian, who had followed +the Court, became the mouthpiece of these perilous illusions. "Arise!" he +cried to Rome, "I prithee arise, O venerable queen! Trust in the goodwill +of the gods. O city, fling away the mean fears of age, _thou who art +immortal as the heavens_!..." + +For all that, the Barbarian danger continued to threaten. The victory +of Pollentia, which, moreover, was not a complete victory, had settled +nothing. Alaric was in flight in the Alps, but he kept his eye open for a +favourable chance to fall back upon Italy and wrench concessions of money +and honours from the Court of Ravenna. Supported by his army of mercenaries +and adventurers in the pay of the Empire like himself, his dealings with +Honorius were a kind of continual blackmail. If the Imperial Government +refused to pay the sums which he protested it owed him for the maintenance +of his troops, he would pay himself by force. Rome, where fabulous riches +had accumulated for so many centuries, was an obvious prey for him and his +men. He had coveted it for a long time; and to get up his courage for this +daring exploit, as well as to work upon his soldiers, he pretended that he +had a mission from Heaven to chastise and destroy the new Babylon. In his +Pannonian forests it would seem he had heard mysterious voices which said +to him: "Advance, and thou shalt destroy the city!" + +This leader of clans had nothing of the conqueror about him. He understood +that he was in no wise cut out to wear the purple; he himself felt the +Barbarian's cureless inferiority. But he also felt that neither was he +born to obey. If he asked for the title of Prefect of the City, and if he +persisted in offering his services to the Empire, it was as a means to get +the upper hand of it more surely. Repulsed, disdained by the Court, he +tried to raise himself in his own eyes and in the eyes of the common people +by giving himself the airs of an instrument of justice, a man designed by +fate, who marches blindly to a terrible purpose indicated by the divine +wrath. It often happened that he was duped by his own mummery. This turbid +Barbarian soul was prone to the most superstitious terrors. + +Notwithstanding his rodomontades, it is certain that in his heart he was +scared by Rome. He hardly dared to attack it. In the first place, it was +not at all a convenient operation for him. His army of mercenaries had no +proper implements to undertake the siege of this huge city, of which the +defence lines were thrown out in so wide a perimeter. He had to come back +to it twice, before he could make up his mind to invest it seriously. The +first time, in 408, he was satisfied with starving the Romans by cutting +off the food supply. He had pitched his camp on the banks of the Tiber in +such a way as to capture the shipping between the capital and the great +store-houses built near the mouth of the river. From the ramparts, the +Romans could see the Barbarian soldiers moving about, with their sheepskin +coats dyed to a crude red. Panic-stricken, the aristocracy fled to its +villas in Campania, or Sicily, or Africa. They took with them whatever +they were able to carry. They sought refuge in the nearest islands, even +in Sardinia and Corsica, despite their reputation for unhealthiness. They +even hid among the rocks of the seashore. The terror was so great that the +Senate agreed to everything demanded by Alaric. He was paid an enormous +indemnity which he claimed as a condition of his withdrawal. + +The following year he used the same method of intimidation to force on the +people an emperor he had chosen, and to get conferred on him the title of +Prefect of the City which he had desired so long. Finally, in the year 410, +he struck the supreme blow. + +The Barbarian knew what he was about, and that he did not risk much in +blockading Rome. Famine would open the gates to him sooner or later. All +who were able had left the city, especially the rich. There was no garrison +to defend it. Only a lazy populace remained behind the walls, unused to +arms, and still more enfeebled by long starvation. And yet this wretched +and decimated population, in an outburst of patriotism, resisted with +desperate energy. The siege was long. Doubtless it began before the spring; +it ended only at the end of the summer. In the night of the twenty-fourth +of August, 410, amid the glare of lightning and crashes of thunder, Alaric +entered Rome by the Salarian gate. It is certain that he only managed it +even then by treachery. The prey was handed to him. + +The sack of Rome seems to have lasted for three days and three nights. Part +of the town was burned. The conquered people underwent all the horrors +which accompany such events--violent and stupid destruction, rapes, murders +of individuals, wholesale slaughter, torture, and mutilation. But in +reality the Barbarians only wanted the Roman gold. They acted like perfect +highway robbers. If they tortured their victims without distinction of age +or sex, it was to pluck the secret of their treasure-houses out of them. +It is even said that in these conditions the Roman avarice produced some +admirable examples of firmness. Some let themselves be tortured to their +last gasp rather than reveal where their treasures were hid. At last, when +Alaric decided that his army was gorged enough with spoil, he gave the +order to evacuate the city, and took to the roads with his baggage-waggons +full. + +Let us be careful not to judge these doings after our modern notions. The +capture of Rome by Alaric was not a national disaster. It was plundering on +a huge scale. The Goth had no thought at all of destroying the Empire. He +was only a mercenary in rebellion--an ambitious mercenary, no doubt--but, +above all, a looter. + +As a consequence of this attack on the Eternal City, one after another +caught the disease of plunder, which contaminated even the functionaries +and the subjects of Rome. Amid the general anarchy, where impunity seemed +certain, nobody restrained himself any longer. In Africa especially, where +the old instinct of piracy is always half-awake, they applied themselves to +ransack the fugitive Romans and Italians. Many rich people were come there, +seeking a place of safety in the belief that they would be more secure when +they had put the sea between themselves and the Barbarians. The report of +their riches had preceded them, exaggerated out of all measure by popular +rumour. Among them were mentioned patricians such as the Anicii, whose +property was so immense and their palaces so splendid that they could not +find purchasers. These multi-millionaires in flight were a miraculous +windfall for the country. They were bled without mercy. + +Quicker than any one else, the military governor of Africa, Count +Heraclianus, was on the spot to pick the pockets of the Italian immigrants. +No sooner were they off the boat than he had very distinguished ladies +seized, and only released them when he had extorted a large ransom. He sold +those unable to pay to the Greek and Syrian slave-merchants who provided +human flesh for the Oriental harems. When the example came from such a +height, the subordinates doubtless said to themselves that they would +be very wrong to have the least shame. From one end of the province to +the other, everybody struggled to extract as much as possible from the +unfortunate fugitives. Augustin's own parishioners at Hippo undertook to +tear a donation from one of those gorgeous Anicii, whose lands stretched +further than a kite could fly--from Pinian, the husband of St. Melania +the younger. They wanted to force him to be ordained priest in spite of +himself, which, as has been explained, involved the handing over of his +goods to the Catholic community. Augustin, who opposed this, had to give in +to the crowd. There was almost a riot in the basilica. + +Such were the far-off reverberations of the capture of Rome by Alaric. +Carthaginians and Numidians pillaged the Romans just like the Barbarians. + +Now, how did it come about that this monstrous loot took on before the eyes +of contemporaries the magnitude of a world-catastrophe? For really nothing +was utterly lost. The Empire remained standing. After Alaric's retreat, +the Romans had come back to their city and they worked to build up the +ruins. Ere long, the populace were crying out loud that if the circus +and amphitheatre games were given back to them, they would look upon the +descent of the Goths as a bad dream. + +It is no less certain that this sensational occurrence had struck the whole +Mediterranean world into a perfect stupor. It seized upon the imaginations +of all. The idea that Rome could not be taken, that it was integral and +almost sacred, had such a hold on people's minds, that they refused to +credit the sinister news. Nobody reflected that the sack of Rome by the +Barbarians should have been long ago foreseen--that Rome, deprived of +a garrison, abandoned by the Imperial army, was bound to attract the +covetousness of the Goths, and that the pillage of a place without defence, +already enfeebled by famine, was not a very glorious feat, very difficult, +or very extraordinary. People only saw the brutal fact: the Eternal City +had been captured and burned by the mercenaries. All were under the +influence of the shock caused by the narratives of the refugees. In one of +his sermons, Augustin has transmitted to us an echo of the general panic: + +"Horrible things," said he, "have been told us. There have been ruins, and +fires, and rapine, and murder, and torture. That is true; we have heard it +many times; we have shuddered at all this disaster; we have often wept, and +we have hardly been able to console ourselves." + +This capture of Rome was plainly a terrible warning for the future. But +party spirit strangely exaggerated the importance and meaning of the +calamity. For pagans and Christians alike it became a subject for speeches, +a commonplace of religious polemic. Both saw the event as a manifestation +of the wrath of Heaven. + +"While we sacrificed to our gods," the pagan said, "Rome was standing, Rome +was happy. Now that our sacrifices are forbidden, you see what has become +of Rome...." + +And they went about repeating that Christianism was responsible for the +ruin of the Empire. On their side, the Christians answered: In the first +place, Rome has not fallen: it is always standing. It has been only +chastised, and this happened because it is still half pagan. By this +frightful punishment (and they heightened the description of the horrors +committed), God has given it a warning. Let it be converted, let it return +to the virtues of its ancestors, and it will become again the mistress of +nations. + +There is what Augustin and the bishops said. Still, the flock of the +faithful were only half convinced. It was all well enough to remonstrate +to them that the Christians of Rome, and even a good number of pagans, +had been spared at the name of Christ, and that the Barbarian leader had +bestowed a quite special protection and respect upon the basilicas of +the holy apostles; it was impossible to prevent their thinking that many +Christians had perished in the sack of the city, that consecrated virgins +had experienced the last outrages, and that, as a matter of fact, all the +inhabitants had been robbed of their property.... Was it thus that God +protected His chosen? What advantage was there in being Christian if they +had the same treatment as the idolaters? + +This state of mind became extremely favourable for paganism to come back +again on the offensive. Since the very hard laws of Theodosius, which +forbade the worship of the ancient gods, even within the house, the pagans +had not overlooked any chance to protest against the Imperial severity. +At Carthage there were always fights in the streets between pagans and +Christians, not to say riots. In the colony of Suffetula, sixty Christians +had been massacred. The year before the capture of Rome, there had been +trouble with the pagans at Guelma. Houses belonging to the Church were +burned, a monk killed in a brawl. Whenever the Government inspection +relaxed, or the political situation appeared favourable, the pagans hurried +to proclaim their belief. Only just lately, in Rome beleaguered by Alaric, +the new consul, Tertullus, had thought fit to revive the old customs. +Before assuming office, he studied gravely the sacred fowls in their cages, +traced circles in the sky with the augur's wand, and marked the flight of +birds. Besides, a pagan oracle circulated persistently among the people, +promising that after a reign of three hundred and sixty-five years +Christianity would be conquered. The centuries of the great desolation were +fulfilled; the era of revenge was about to begin for the outcast gods. + +These warlike symptoms did not escape Augustin's vigilance. His indignation +no longer arose only from the fact that paganism was so slow in dying; he +was now afraid that the feebleness of the Empire might allow it to take on +an appearance of life. It must be ended, as Donatism had been ended. The +old apostle was summoned to a new campaign, and in it he would spend the +best of his strength to the eve of his death. + + + + +II + +THE CITY OF GOD + + +For thirteen or fourteen years, through a thousand employments and a +thousand cares, amid the panics and continual alarums which kept the +Africans on the alert in those times, Augustin worked at his _City of God_, +the most formidable machine of war ever directed against paganism, and also +the arsenal fullest of proofs and refutations which the disputants and +defenders of Catholicism have ever had at their disposal. + +It is not for us to examine the details of this immense work, for our sole +aim is to study Augustin's soul, and we quote scarcely anything from his +books save those parts wherein a little of this ardent soul pulsates--those +which are still living for us of the twentieth century, which contain +teachings and ways of feeling still likely to move us. Now, Augustin's +attitude towards paganism is one of those which throw the greatest light on +his nature and character. And it may even yet come to be our own attitude +when we find opposed to us a conception of life and the world which +may indeed be ruined for a time, but is reborn as soon as the sense of +spirituality disappears or grows feeble. + + "Immortal Paganism, art thou dead? So they say. + But Pan scoffs under his breath, and the Chimaera laughs." [1] + +[Footnote 1: Sainte-Beuve.] + +Like ourselves, Augustin, brought up by a Christian mother, knew it only +through literature, and, so to speak, aesthetically. Recollections of +school, the emotions and admirations of a cultivated man--there is what the +old religion meant for him. Nevertheless, he had one great advantage over +us for knowing it well: the sight of the pagan customs and superstitions +was still under his eyes. + +That the lascivious, romantic, and poetic adventures of the ancient gods, +their statues, their temples, and all the arts arising from their religion, +had beguiled him and filled him with enthusiasm before his conversion, is +only too certain. But all this mythology and plastic art were looked upon +as secondary things then, even by pagans. The serious, the essential part +of the religion was not in that. Paganism, a religion of Beauty, is an +invention of our modern aesthetes; it was hardly thought of in that way in +Augustin's time. + +Long before this, the Roman Varro, the great compiler of the religious +antiquities of paganism, made a threefold distinction of the doctrine +concerning the gods. The first--that of the theatre, as he calls it, or +fabulous mythology, adapted to poets, dramatists, sculptors, and jesters. +Invented by these, it is only a fantasy, a play of imagination, an ornament +of life. The third is civil theology, serious and solid, which claims the +respect and piety of all. "It is that which men in cities, and chiefly the +priests, _ought to be_ cunning in. It teaches which gods to worship in +public, and with what ceremonies and sacrifices each one must be served." +Finally, the second, physical or metaphysical theology, is reserved for +philosophers and exceptional minds; it is altogether theoretical. The +only important and truly religious one, which puts an obligation on the +believer, is the third--the civil theology. + +Now, we never take account of this. What we persist in regarding as +paganism is what Varro himself called "a religion for the theatre"--matter +of opera, pretext for ballets, for scenery, and for dance postures. +Transposed into another key by our poets, this mythology is inflated now +and then by mysticism, or by a vague symbolism. Playthings of our pretty +wits! The living paganism, which Augustin struggled against, which crowds +defended at the price of their blood, in which the poor believed and the +wisest statesmen deemed indispensable as a safeguard of cities--that +paganism is quite another matter. Like all religions which are possible, +it implied and it _enforced_ not only beliefs, but ritual, sacrifices, +festivals. And this is what Augustin, with the other Christians of that +time, spurned with disgust and declared to be unbearable. + +He saw, or he had seen with his own eyes, the reality of the pagan worship, +and the most repellent of all to our modern delicacy--the sacrifices. At +the period when he wrote _The City of God_, private sacrifices, as well as +public, were forbidden. This did not prevent the devout from breaking the +law whenever a chance offered. They hid themselves more or less when they +sacrificed before a temple, a chapel, or on some private estate. The rites +could not be carried out according to all the minute instructions of the +pontifical books. It was no more than a shadow of the ceremonies of former +times. But in his childhood, in the reign of Julian, for instance, Augustin +could have attended sacrifices which were celebrated with full pomp and +according to all the ritual forms. They were veritable scenes of butchery. +For Heaven's sake let us forget the frieze of the Parthenon, and its +sacrificers with their graceful lines! If we want to have a literal +translation of this sculpture, and find the modern representation of a +hecatomb, we must go to the slaughter-houses at La Villette. + +Among the heaps of broken flesh, the puddles of blood, the mystic Julian +was attacked by a kind of drunkenness. There were never enough beasts +strangled or slaughtered to suit him. Nothing satisfied his fury for sacred +carnage. The pagans themselves made fun of this craze for sacrificing. +During the three years his reign lasted the altars streamed with blood. +Oxen by hundreds were slain upon the floors of the temples, and the +butchers throttled so many sheep and other domestic animals that they gave +up keeping count of them. Thousands of white birds, pigeons or sea-gulls, +were destroyed day by day by the piety of the prince. He was called the +_Victimarius_, and when he started upon his campaign against the Persians, +an epigram was circulated once more which had been formerly composed +against Marcus Aurelius (the philosophic emperor!) who was equally generous +of hecatombs: "To Marcus Caesar from the white oxen. It will be all over +with us if you come back a conqueror." People said that Julian, on his +return, would depopulate stables and pasture-lands. + +The populace, who gathered their very considerable profit from these +butcheries, naturally encouraged such an excess of devotion. At Rome, under +Caligula, more than a hundred and sixty thousand victims were immolated in +three months--nearly two thousand a day. And these massacres took place +upon the approaches of the temples; in the middle of the city; on the +forums; in narrow squares crowded with public buildings and statues. Just +try to call up the scene in summer, between walls at a white heat, with the +smells and the flies. Spectators and victims rubbed against one another, +pressed close in the restricted space. One day, Caligula, while he was +attending a sacrifice, was splashed all over by the blood of a flamingo as +they cut its neck. But the august Caesar was not so fastidious; he himself +operated in these ceremonies armed with a mallet and clad in the short +shirt of the killers. The ignominy of all this revolted the Christians, +and whoever had nerves at all sensitive. The bloody mud in which passers +slipped, the hissing of the fat, the heavy odour of flesh, were sickening. +Tertullian held his nose before the "stinking fires" on which the victims +were roasting. And St. Ambrose complained that in the Roman Curia the +senators who were Christians were obliged to breathe in the smoke and +receive full in the face the ashes of the altar raised before the statue of +Victory. + +The manipulations of the _haruspicina_ seemed an even worse abomination in +the eyes of the Christians. Dissection of bowels, examination of entrails, +were practices very much in fashion in all classes of society. The +pagans generally took more or less interest in magic. One was scarcely +a philosopher without being a miracle-worker. In this there was a kind +of perfidious rivalry to the Christian miracles. The ambitious or the +discontented opened the bellies of animals to learn when the Emperor was +going to die, and who would succeed him. But although it did not pretend to +magic, the _haruspicina_ made an essential part of the sacrifices. As soon +as the dismemberment was done, the diviners examined the appearance of +the entrails. Consulting together, they turned them over frequently with +anxious attention. This business might continue for a long time. Plutarch +relates that Philip, King of Macedonia, when sacrificing an ox on the +Ithomaea, with Aratus of Sicyon and Demetrius of Pharos, wished to inquire +out from the entrails of the victim concerning the wisdom of a piece of +strategy. The _haruspex_ put the smoking mass in his hands. The King shewed +it to his companions, who derived contradictory presages from it. He +listened to one side and the other, holding meanwhile the ox's entrails +in his hands. Eventually, he decided for the opinion of Aratus, and then +tranquilly gave the handful back to the sacrificer.... + +No doubt in Augustin's time these rites were no longer practised openly. +For all that, they were of the first importance in the ancient religion, +which desired nothing better than to restore them. It is easy to understand +the repulsion they caused in the author of _The City of God_. He who would +not have a fly killed to make sure of the gold crown in the contest of +poets, looked with horror on these sacred butchers, and manglers, and +cooks. He flung the garbage of the sacrifices into the sewer, and shewed +proudly to the pagans the pure oblation of the eucharistic Bread and Wine. + +But what, above all, he attacked, because it was a present and permanent +scandal, was the gluttony, the drunkenness, and lust of the pagans. Let us +not exaggerate these vices--not the two first, at least. Augustin could not +judge them as we can. It is certain that the Africans of his time--and for +that matter, those of to-day--would have struck us modern people as very +sober. The outbursts of intemperance which he accuses them of only happened +at intervals, at times of public festivity or some family celebration. But +as soon as they did begin they were terrible. When one thinks of the orgies +of our Arabs behind locked doors! + +But it is no less true that the pagan vices spread themselves out +cynically under the protecting shadow of religion. Popular souses of +eating and drinking were the obligatory accompaniments of the festivals +and sacrifices. A religious festival meant a carouse, loads of victuals, +barrels of wine broached in the street. These were called the Dishes, +_Fercula_, or else, the Rejoicing, _Laetitia_. The poor people, who knew +meat only by sight, ate it on these days, and they drank wine. The effect +of this unaccustomed plenty was felt at once. The whole populace were +drunk. The rich in their houses possibly did it with more ceremony, but it +was really the same brutishness. The elegant Ovid, who in the _Art of Love_ +teaches fine manners to the beginners in love, advises them not to vomit at +table, and to avoid getting drunk like the husbands of their mistresses. + +Plainly, religion was only an excuse for these excesses. Augustin goes too +far when he makes the gods responsible for this riot of sensuality. What is +true is that they did nothing to hinder it. And it is also true that the +lechery, which he flings so acridly in the face of the pagans, the gross +stage-plays, the songs, dances, and even prostitution, were all more or +less included in the essence of paganism. The theatre, like the games of +the arena and circus, was a divine institution. At certain feasts, and in +certain temples, fornication became sacred. All the world knew what took +place at Carthage in the courts and under the porticoes of the Celestial +Virgin, and what the ears of the most chaste matrons were obliged to hear, +and also what the use was of the castrated priests of the Great Mother +of the gods. Augustin, who declaims against these filthy sports, has not +forced the note of his denunciation to make out a good case. If anybody +wants to know in more detail the sights enjoyed at the theatre, or what +were the habits of certain pious confraternities, he has only to read what +is told by Apuleius, the most devout of pagans. He takes evident pleasure +in these stories, or, if he sometimes waxes indignant, it is the depravity +of men he accuses. The gods soar at a great height above these wretched +trifles. To Augustin, on the contrary, the gods are unclean devils who fill +their bellies with lust and obscenities, as if they were hankering for the +blood and grease of sacrifices. + +And so he puts his finger on the open wound of paganism--its basic +immorality, or, if you like, its unmorality. Like our scientism of to-day, +it was unable to lay down a system of morals. It did not even try to. What +Augustin has written on this subject in _The City of God_, is perhaps the +strongest argument ever objected to polytheism. Anyhow, pages like this are +very timely indeed to consider: + +"But such friends and such worshippers of those gods, whom they rejoice +to follow and imitate in all villainies and mischiefs--do they trouble +themselves about the corruption and great decay of the Republic? Not so. +Let it but stand, say they; let it but prosper by the number of its troops +and be glorious by its victories; or, _which is best of all, let it but +enjoy security and peace_, and what care we? Yes, what we care for above +all is that every one may have the means to increase his wealth, to pay the +expenses of his usual luxury, and that the powerful may still keep under +the weak. Let the poor crouch to the rich to be fed, or to live at ease +under their protection; let the rich abuse the poor as things at their +service, and to shew how many they have soliciting them. Let the people +applaud such as provide them with pleasures, not such as have a care for +their interests. _Let naught that is hard be enjoined, nothing impure +be prohibited_.... Let not subdued provinces obey their governors as +supervisors of their morality, but as masters of their fortune and the +procurers of their pleasures. What matters it if this submission has no +sincerity, but rests upon a bad and servile fear! _Let the law protect +estates rather than fair justice_. Let there be a good number of public +harlots, either for all that please to enjoy themselves in their company, +or for those that cannot keep private ones. Let stately and sumptuous +houses be erected, so that night and day each one according to his liking +or his means may gamble and drink and revel and vomit. Let the rhythmed +tinkling of dances be ordinary, the cries, the uncontrolled delights, +the uproar of all pleasures, even the bloodiest and most shameful in the +theatres. He who shall assay to dissuade from these pleasures, let him +be condemned as a public enemy. And if any one try to alter or suppress +them--let the people stifle his voice, let them banish him, let them +kill him. On the other hand, those that shall procure the people these +pleasures, and authorize their enjoyment, let them be eternized for the +true gods."... + +However, Augustin acknowledges a number of praiseworthy minds among +pagans--those philosophers, with Plato in the first rank, who have done +their best to put morality into the religion. The Christian teacher renders +a magnificent tribute to Platonism. But these high doctrines have scarcely +got beyond the portals of the schools, and this moral teaching which +paganism vaunts of, is practically limited to the sanctuaries. "Let them +not talk," says he, "of some closely muttered instructions, taught in +secret, and whispered in the ear of a few adepts, which hold I know not +what lessons of uprightness and virtue. But let them shew the temples +ordained for such pious meetings, wherein were no sports with lascivious +gestures and loose songs.... Let them shew us the places where the gods' +doctrine was heard against covetousness, the suppression of ambition, the +bridling of luxury, and where wretches might learn what the poet Persius +thunders unto them, saying: + + 'Learn, wretches, and conceive the course of things, + What man is, and why nature forth him brings;... + How to use money; how to help a friend; + What we on earth, and God in us, intend.' + +Let them shew where their instructing gods were used to give such lessons; +and where their worshippers used to go _often_ to hear these matters. +As for us, we can point to our churches, built for this sole purpose, +wheresoever the religion of Christ is diffused." + +Can it surprise, then, if men so ignorant of high morality, and so deeply +embedded in matter, were also plunged in the grossest superstitions? +Materialism in morals always ends by producing a low credulity. Here +Augustin triumphs. He sends marching under our eyes, in a burlesque array, +the innumerable army of gods whom the Romans believed in. There are so many +that he compares them to swarms of gnats. Although he explains that he is +not able to mention them all, he amuses himself by stupefying us with the +prodigious number of those he discovers. Dragged into open day by him, a +whole divine population is brought out of the darkness and forgetfulness +where it had been sleeping perhaps for centuries: the little gods who work +in the fields, who make the corn grow and keep off the blight, those who +watch over children, who aid women in labour, who protect the hearth, who +guard the house. It was impossible to take a step among the pagans, to make +a movement, without the help of a god or goddess. Men and things were as if +fettered and imprisoned by the gods. + +"In a house," says Augustin scoffingly, "there is but one porter. He is but +a mere man, yet he is sufficient for that office. But it takes three gods, +Forculus for the door, Cardea for the hinge, Limentinus for the threshold. +Doubtless, Forculus all alone could not possibly look after threshold, door +and hinges." And if it is a case of a man and woman retiring to the bridal +chamber after the wedding, a whole squadron of divinities are set in motion +for an act so simple and natural. "I beseech you," cries Augustin, "leave +something for the husband to do!" + +This African, who had such a strong sense of the unity and fathomless +infinity of God, waxed indignant at this sacrilegious parcelling of the +divine substance. But the pagans, following Varro, would answer that it was +necessary to distinguish, among all these gods, those who were just the +imagination of poets, and those who were real beings--between the gods of +fable and the gods of religion. "Then," as Tertullian had said already, +"if the gods be chosen as onions are roped, it is obvious that what is not +chosen is condemned." "Tertullian carries his fancy too far," comments +Augustin. The gods refused as fabulous are not held reprobate on that +account. The truth is, they are a cut of the same piece as the admitted +gods. "Have not the pontiffs, like the poets, a bearded Jupiter and a +Mercury without beard?... Are the old Saturn and the young Apollo so much +the property of the poets that we do not see their statues too in the +temples?..." + +And the philosophers, in their turn, however much they may protest against +the heap of fabulous gods and, like Plato and Porphyry, declare that there +exists but one God, soul of the universe, yet they no less accepted the +minor gods, and intermediaries or messengers betwixt gods and men, whom +they called demons. These hybrid beings, who pertained to humanity by their +passions, and to the divinity by the privilege of immortality, had to be +appeased by sacrifices, questioned and gratified by magic spells. And there +is what the highest pagan wisdom ended in--yes, in calling up spirits, and +the shady operations of wizards and wonder-smiths. That is what the pagans +defended, and demanded the continuation of with so much obstinacy and +fanaticism. + +By no means, replied Augustin. It does not deserve to survive. It is not +the forsaking of these beliefs and superstitious practices which has +brought about the decay of the Empire. If you are asking for the temples +of your gods to be opened, it is because they are easy to your passions. +At heart, you scoff at them and the Empire; all you want is freedom and +impunity for your vices. There we have the real cause of the decadence! +Little matter the idle grimaces before altars and statues. Become chaste, +sober, brave, and poor, as your ancestors were. Have children, agree to +compulsory military service, and you will conquer as they did. Now, all +these virtues are enjoined and encouraged by Christianity. Whatever certain +heretics may say, the religion of Christ is not contrary to marriage or the +soldier's profession. The Patriarchs of the old law were blest in marriage, +and there are just and holy wars. + +And even supposing, that in spite of all efforts to save it, the Empire is +condemned, must we therefore despair? We should be prepared for the end +of the Roman city. Like all the things of this world, it is liable to old +age and death. It will die then, one day. Far from being cast down, let +us strengthen ourselves against this disaster by the realization of the +eternal. Let us strengthen our hold upon that which passes not. Above the +earthly city, rises the City of God, which is the communion of holy souls, +the only one which gives complete and never-failing joy. Let us try to be +the citizens of that city, and to live the only life worth calling life. +For the life here below is but the shadow of a shadow.... + +The people of those times were wonderfully prepared to hearken to such +exhortations. On the eve of the Barbarian invasions, these Christians, for +whom the dogma of the Resurrection was perhaps the chief reason of their +faith, these people, sick at heart, who looked on in torture at the ending +of a world, must have considered this present life as a bad dream, from +which there should be no delay in escaping. + +At the very moment even that Augustin began to write _The City of God_, his +friend Evodius, Bishop of Uzalis, told him this story. + +He had as secretary a very young man, the son of a priest in the +neighbourhood. This young man had begun by obtaining a post as stenographer +in the office of the Proconsul of Africa. Evodius, who was alarmed at what +might happen to his virtue in such surroundings, having first made certain +of his absolute chastity, offered to take him into his service. In the +bishop's house, where he had scarcely anything to do but read the Holy +Scripture, his faith became so enthusiastic that he longed for nothing now +but death. To go out of this life, "to be with Christ," was his eager wish. +It was heard. After sixteen days of illness he died in the house of his +parents. + +"Now, two days after his funeral, a virtuous woman of Figes, a servant of +God, a widow for twelve years, had a dream, and in her dream she saw a +deacon who had been dead some four years, together with men, and women too, +virgins and widows--she saw these servants of God getting ready a palace. +This dwelling was so rich that it shone with light, and you would have +believed it was all made of silver. And when the widow asked whom these +preparations were for, the deacon replied that they were for a young man, +dead the evening before, the son of a priest. In the same palace, she saw +an old man, all robed in white, and he told two other persons, also robed +in white, to go to the tomb of this young man, and lift out the body, and +carry it to Heaven. When the body had been drawn from the tomb and carried +to Heaven, there arose (said she) out of the tomb a bush of virgin-roses, +which are thus named because they never open...." + +So the son of the priest had chosen the better part. What was the good of +remaining in this abominable world, where there was always a risk of being +burned or murdered by Goths and Vandals, when, in the other world, angels +were preparing for you palaces of light? + + + + +III + +THE BARBARIAN DESOLATION + + +Augustin was seventy-two years old when he finished the _City of God_. This +was in 426. That year, an event of much importance occurred at Hippo, and +the report of it was inserted in the public acts of the community. + +"The sixth of the calends of October," _The Acts_ set forth, "the very +glorious Theodosius being consul for the twelfth time, and Valentinian +Augustus for the second, Augustin the bishop, accompanied by Religianus +and Martinianus, his fellow-bishops, having taken his place in the +Basilica of Peace at Hippo, and the priests Saturnius, Leporius, Barnaby, +Fortunatianus, Lazarus, and Heraclius, being present, with all the clergy +and a vast crowd of people--Augustin the bishop said: + +"'Let us without delay look to the business which I declared yesterday to +your charity, and for which I desired you to gather here in large numbers, +as I see you have done. If I were to talk to you of anything else, you +might be less attentive, seeing the expectation you are in. + +"'My brothers, we are all mortal in this life, and no man knows his last +day. God willed that I should come to dwell in this town in the force of my +age. But, as I was a young man then--see, I am old now, and as I know that +at the death of bishops, peace is troubled by rivalry or ambition (this +have I often seen and bewailed it)--I ought, so far as it rests with me, to +turn away so great a mischief from your city.... I am going then to tell +you that my will, which I believe also to be the will of God, is that I +have as successor the priest Heraclius.' + +"At these words all the people cried out: + +"'Thanks be to God! Praise be to Christ!' + +"And this cry they repeated three-and-twenty times. + +"'Christ, hear us! Preserve us Augustin!' + +"This cry they repeated sixteen times. + +"'Be our father! Be our bishop!' + +"This cry they repeated eight times. + +"When the people became silent, the bishop Augustin spoke again in these +words: + +"'There is no need for me to praise Heraclius. As much as I do justice +to his wisdom, in equal measure should I spare his modesty.... As you +perceive, the secretaries of the church gather up what we say and what you +say. My words and your shouts do not fall to the ground. To put it briefly, +these are ecclesiastical decrees that we are now drawing up, and I desire +by these means, as far as it is in the power of man, to confirm what I have +declared to you.' + +"Here the people cried out: + +"'Thanks be to God! Praise be to Christ!' + + * * * * * + +"'Be our father, and let Heraclius be our bishop!' + +"When silence was made again, Augustin the bishop thus spoke: + +"'I understand what you would say. But I do not wish that it happen to him +as it happened to me. Many of you know what was done at that time.... I was +consecrated bishop during the lifetime of my father and bishop, the aged +Valerius, of blessed memory, and with him I shared the see. I was ignorant, +as he was, that this was forbidden by the Council of Nice. I would not +therefore that men should blame in Heraclius, my son, what they blamed in +me.' + +"With that the people cried out thirteen times: + +"'Thanks be to God! Praise be to Christ!' + +"After a little silence, Augustin the bishop said again: + +"'So he will remain a priest till it shall please God for him to be a +bishop. But with the aid and mercy of Christ, I shall do in future what up +to now I have not been able to do.... You will remember what I wanted to +do some years ago, and you have not allowed me. For a work upon the Holy +Scriptures, with which my brothers and my fathers the bishops had deigned +to charge me in the two Councils of Numidia and Carthage, _I was not to be +disturbed by anybody during five days of the week_. That was a thing agreed +upon between you and me. The act was drawn up, and you all approved of +it after hearing it read. But your promise did not last long. I was soon +encroached upon and overrun by you all. I am no longer free to study as I +desire. Morning and afternoon, I am entangled in your worldly affairs. I +beg of you and supplicate you in Christ's name to suffer me to shift the +burthen of all these cares upon this young man, the priest Heraclius, whom +I signal, in His name, as my successor in the bishopric.' + +"Upon this the people cried out six-and-twenty times: + +"'We thank thee for thy choice!' + +"And the people having become silent, Augustin the bishop said: + +"'I thank you for your charity and goodwill, or rather, I thank God for +them. So, my brothers, you will address yourselves to Heraclius upon all +the points you are used to submit to me. Whenever he needs counsel, my care +and my help will not be wanting.... In this way, without any loss to you, +I shall be able to devote the remainder of life which it may please God +still to leave me, not to laziness and rest, but to the study of the Holy +Scriptures. This work will be useful to Heraclius, and hence to yourselves. +Let nobody then envy my leisure, for this leisure will be very busy.... + +"'It only remains for me to ask you, at least those who can, to sign these +acts. Your agreement I cannot do without; so kindly let me learn it by your +voices.' + +"At these words the people shouted: + +"'Let it be so! Let it be so!' + + * * * * * + +"When all there became silent, Augustin the bishop made an end, saying: + +"'It is well. Now let us fulfil our duty to God. While we offer Him the +Sacrifice, and during this hour of supplication, I would urge of your +charity to lay aside all business and personal cares, and to pray the Lord +God for this church, for me, and for the priest Heraclius.'" + +The dryness and official wording of the document do not succeed in stifling +the vividness and colour of this crowded scene. Through the piety of the +formal cries, it is easy to see that Augustin's hearers were hard to +manage. This flock, which he loved and scolded so much, was no easier to +lead now than when he first became bishop. Truly it was no sinecure to rule +and administrate the diocese of Hippo! The bishop was literally the servant +of the faithful. Not only had he to feed and clothe them, to spend his time +over their business and quarrels and lawsuits, but he belonged to them body +and soul. They kept a jealous eye on the employment of his time; if he +went away, they asked for an explanation. Whenever Augustin went to preach +at Carthage or Utica, he apologized to his own people. And before he can +undertake a commentary on the Scriptures, a commentary, moreover, which he +has been asked by two Councils to prepare, he must get their permission, +or, at any rate, their agreement. + +At last, at seventy-two years old, after he had been a bishop for +thirty-one years, he got their leave to take a little rest. But what a +rest! He himself said: "This leisure will be very busy"--this leisure which +is going to fill the five holidays in the week. He intends to study and +fathom the Scripture, and this, besides, to the profit of his people and +clergy and the whole Church. It is the fondest dream of his life--the +plan he was never able to realize. All that, at first sight, astonishes +us. We ask ourselves, "What else had he been doing up to this time in his +treatises and letters and sermons, in all that sea of words and writings +which his enemies threw up at him, if he was not studying and explaining +the Holy Scriptures?" The fact is, that in most of these writings and +sermons he elucidates the truth only in part, or else he is confuting +heresiarchs. What he wanted to do was to study the truth for its own sake, +without having to think of and be hindered by the exposure of errors; and +above all, to seize it in all its breadth and all its depths, to have +done with this blighting and irritating eristic, and to reflect in a vast +_Mirror_ the whole and purest light of the sacred dogmas. + +He never found the time for it. He had to limit himself to a handbook +of practical morals, published under this title before his death, and +now lost. Once more the heresiarchs prevented him from leading a life of +speculation. During his last years, amid the cruellest anxieties, he had +to battle with the enemies of Grace and the enemies of the Trinity, with +Arius and Pelagius. Pelagius had found an able disciple in a young Italian +bishop, Julian of Eclanum, who was a formidable opponent to the aged +Augustin. As for Arianism, which had seemed extinguished in the West, here +it was given a new life by the Barbarian invasion. + +It was a grave moment for Catholicism, as it was for the Empire. The Goths, +the Alani, and the Vandals, after having laid waste Gaul and Spain, were +taking measures to pass over into Africa. Should they renew the attempts +of Alaric and Radagaisus against Italy, they would soon be masters of the +entire Occident. Now these Barbarians were Arians. Supposing (and it seemed +more and more likely) that Africa and Italy were vanquished after Gaul and +Spain, then it was all over with Western Catholicism. For the invaders +carried their religion in their baggage, and forced it on the conquered. +Augustin, who had cherished the hope of equalling the earthly kingdom +of Christ to that of the Caesars, was going to see the ruin of both. +His terrified imagination exaggerated still more the only too real and +threatening peril. He must have lived hours of agony, expecting a disaster. + +If only the truth might be saved, might swim in this sea of errors which +spread like a flood in the wake of the Barbarian onflow! It was from this +wish, no doubt, that sprang the tireless persistence which the old bishop +put into a last battle with heresy. If he selected Pelagius specially to +fall upon with fury, if he forced his principles to their last consequences +in his theory of Grace, the dread of the Barbarian peril had perhaps +something to do with it. This soul, so mild, so moderate, so tenderly +human, promulgated a pitiless doctrine which does not agree with his +character. But he reasoned, no doubt, that it was impossible to drive +home too hard the need of the Redemption and the divinity of the Redeemer +in front of these Arians, these Pelagians, these enemies of Christ, who +to-morrow perhaps would be masters of the Empire. + +Therefore, Augustin continued to write, and discuss, and disprove. There +came a time when he had to think of fighting otherwise than with the pen. +His life, the lives of his flock, were threatened. He had to see to the +bodily defence of his country and city. The fact was, that some time +before the great drive of the Vandals, forerunners of them, in the shape +of hordes of African Barbarians, had begun to lay waste the provinces. The +Circoncelliones were not dead, nor their good friends the Donatists either. +These sectaries, encouraged by the widespread anarchy, came out of their +hiding-places and shewed themselves more insolent and aggressive than ever. +Possibly they hoped for some effective support against the Roman Church +from the Arian Vandals who were drawing near, or at least a recognition of +what they believed to be their rights. Day after day, bands of Barbarians +were landing from Spain. In the rear of these wandering troops of brigands +or irregular soldiers, the old enemies of the Roman peace and civilization, +the Nomads of the South, the Moors of the Atlas, the Kabylian mountaineers, +flung themselves upon country and town, pillaging, killing, and burning +everything that got in their way. All was laid desolate. "Countries but +lately prosperous and populated have been changed into solitudes," said +Augustin. + +At last, in the spring of the year 429, the Vandals and the Alani, having +joined forces on the Spanish coast under their King, Genseric, crossed +the Straits of Gibraltar. It was devastation on a large scale this time. +An army of eighty thousand men set themselves methodically to plunder the +African provinces. Cherchell, which had already been sorely tried during +the revolt of Firmus the Moor, was captured again and burned. All the towns +and fortified places on the coast fell, one after another. Constantine +alone, from the height of its rock, kept the invaders at bay. To starve out +those who fled from towns and farms and took refuge in the fastnesses of +the Atlas, the Barbarians destroyed the harvest, burned the grain-houses, +and cut down the vines and fruit trees. And they set fire to the forests +which covered the slopes of the mountains, to force the refugees out of +their hiding-places. + +This stupid ravaging was against the interest of the Vandals themselves, +because they were injuring the natural riches of Africa, the report of +which had brought them there. Africa was for them the land of plenty, where +people could drink more wine than they wanted and eat wheaten bread. It was +the country where life was comfortable, easy, and happy. It was the granary +of the Mediterranean, the great supply-store of Rome. But their senseless +craving for gold led them to ruin provinces, in which, nevertheless, they +counted upon settling. They behaved in Africa as they had behaved in Rome +under Alaric. By way of tearing gold out of the inhabitants, they tortured +them as they had tortured the wealthy Romans. They invented worse ones. +Children, before their parents' eyes, were sliced in two like animals in a +slaughterhouse. Or else their skulls were smashed against the pavements and +walls of houses. + +The Church was believed to be very rich; and perhaps, as it had managed +to comprise in its domains the greatest part of the landed estates, it +was upon it chiefly that the Barbarians flung themselves. The priests and +bishops were tortured with unheard-of improvements of cruelty. They were +dragged in the rear of the army like slaves, so that heavy ransoms might +be extracted from the faithful in exchange for their pastors. They were +obliged to carry the baggage like the camels and mules, and when they gave +out the Barbarians prodded them with lances. Many sank down beside the +road and never rose more. But it is certain that fanaticism added to the +covetousness and ferocity of the Vandals. These Arians bore a special +grudge against Catholicism, which was, besides, in their eyes, the religion +of the Roman domination. This is why they made their chief attacks on +basilicas, convents, hospitals, and all the property of the Church. And +throughout the country public worship was stopped. + +In Hippo, these atrocities were known before the Barbarians arrived. The +people must have awaited them and prepared to receive them with gloomy +resignation. Africa had not been tranquil for a century. After the risings +of Firmus and Gildo, came the lootings of the southern Nomads and the +Berber mountaineers. And it was not so long since the Circoncelliones were +keeping people constantly on the alert. But this time everybody felt that +the great ruin was at hand. They were stunned by the news that some town +or fortified place had been captured by the Vandals, or that some farm or +villa in the neighbourhood was on fire. + +Amid the general dismay, Augustin did his best to keep calm. He, indeed, +saw beyond the material destruction, and at every new rumour of massacre +or burning he would repeat to his clerics and people the words of the Wise +Man: + +"Doth the firm of heart grieve to see fall the stones and beams, and death +seize the children of men?" + +They accused him of being callous. They did not understand him. While all +about him mourned the present misfortunes, he was already lamenting over +the evil to come, and this clear-sightedness pained him more than the shock +of the daily horrors committed by the Barbarians. His disciple Possidius, +the Bishop of Guelma, who was with him in these sad days, naively applied +to him the saying out of _Ecclesiastes_: "In much wisdom is much grief." +Augustin did really suffer more than others, because he thought more +profoundly on the disaster. He foresaw that Africa was going to be lost to +the Empire, and consequently to the Church. They were bound together in his +mind. What was there to do against brutal strength? All the eloquence and +all the charity in the world would be as nothing against that unchained +elemental mass of Vandals. It was as impossible to convert the Barbarians +as it had been to convert the Donatists. Force was the only resource +against force. + +Then in despair the man of God turned once more to Caesar. The monk appealed +to the soldier. He charged Boniface, Count of Africa, to save Rome and the +Church. + +This Boniface, a rather ambiguous personage, was a fine type of the +swashbuckler and official of the Lower-Empire. Thracian by origin, he +joined the trickery of the Oriental to all the vices of the Barbarian. He +was strong, clever in all bodily exercises like the soldiers of those days, +overflowing with vigour and health, and even brave at times. In addition, +he was fond of wine and women, and ate and drank like a true pagan. He +was married twice, and after his second marriage he kept in the sight and +knowledge of everybody a harem of concubines. He was sent, first of all, +to Africa as a Tribune--that is to say, as Commissioner of the Imperial +Government, probably to carry out the decrees of Honorius against the +Donatists; and ere long he was made commander of the military forces of the +province, with the title of Count. + +In reality, while seeming to protect the country, he set himself to plunder +it, as the tradition was among the Roman officials. His _officium_, still +more grasping than himself, persuaded him to deeds which the Bishop of +Hippo, who was, however, anxious to remain on the right side of him, +protested against by hints. Boniface was obliged to overlook much robbery +and pillage on the part of his subordinates so as to keep them faithful. +Moreover, he himself stole. He was bound to close his eyes to the +depredations of others, that his own might be winked at. Once become the +accomplice of this band of robbers, he had no longer the authority to +control them. + +How did Augustin ever believe in the goodwill and good faith of this +adventurer full of coarse passions, so far as to put his final hopes in +him? Augustin knew men very well; he could detect low and hypocritical +natures at a distance. How came it that he was taken in by Boniface? + +Well, Augustin wanted his support, first of all, when he came as Imperial +Commissioner to Carthage to bring the Donatists into line. Generally, we +see only the good points of people who do us good turns. Besides, in order +to propitiate the bishop, and the devout Court at Ravenna, the Tribune +advertised his great zeal in favour of Catholicism. His first wife, a very +pious woman whom he seems to have loved much, encouraged him in this. +When she died, he was so overcome by despair that he took refuge in the +extremest practices of religion--and in this, perhaps, he was quite +sincere. It is also possible that he was becoming discredited at Ravenna, +where they must have known about his oppressions and suspected his +ambitious intrigues. Anyhow, whether he was really disgusted with the +world, or whether he deemed it prudent to throw a little oblivion over +himself just then, he spoke on all hands of resigning his post and living +in retreat like a monk. It was just at this moment that Augustin and +Alypius begged him not to desert the African army. + +They met the Commander-in-Chief at Thubunae, in Southern Numidia, where, +no doubt, he was reducing the Nomads. We must remark once more Augustin's +energy in travelling, to the very eve of his death. It was a long and +dangerous road from Hippo to Thubunae. Before making up his mind to so much +fatigue, the old bishop must have judged the situation to be very serious. +At Thubunae, was Boniface playing a game, or was he, indeed, so crushed by +his grief that the world had become unbearable and he pondered genuine +thoughts of changing his way of life? What is sure is, that he gave the +two prelates the most edifying talk. When they heard the Count of Africa +speaking with unction of the cloister and of his desire to retire there, +they were a little astonished at so much piety in a soldier. Besides, +these excellent resolutions were most inconvenient for their plans. They +remonstrated with him that it was quite possible to save one's soul in +the army, and quoted the example of David, the warrior king. They ended +by telling him all the expectations they founded upon his resource and +firmness. They begged him to protect the churches and convents against +fresh attacks of the Donatists, and especially against the Barbarians of +Africa. These were at this moment breaking down all the old defence lines +and laying waste the territories of the Empire. + +Boniface allowed himself to be easily convinced--promised whatever he was +asked. But he never budged. From now on, his conduct becomes most singular. +He is in command of all the military strength of the province, and he takes +no steps to suppress the African looters. It would seem as if he only +thought of filling the coffers of himself and his friends. The country was +so systematically scoured by them that, as Augustin said, there was nothing +more left to take. + +This inactivity lent colour to the rumours of treason. Nor is it impossible +that he had cherished a plan from the beginning of his command to cut out +an independent principality for himself in Africa. Was this the reason that +he dealt softly with the native tribes, so as to make certain of their help +in case of a conflict with the Imperial army? However that may be, his +behaviour was not frank. Some years later, he landed on the Spanish coast +to war against the Vandals under the command of the Prefect Castinus, and +there he married a Barbarian princess who was by religion an Arian. It +is true that the new Countess of Africa became a convert to Catholicism. +But her first child was baptized by Arian priests, who rebaptized, at the +same time, the Catholic slaves of Boniface's household. This marriage +with a Vandal, these concessions to Arianism, gave immense scandal to the +orthodox. Rumours of treason began to float about again. + +No doubt Boniface took great advantage of his fidelity to the Empress +Placidia. But he was standing between the all-powerful Barbarians and the +undermined Empire. He wanted to remain on good terms with both, and then, +when the hour came, to go over to the stronger. This double-faced diplomacy +caused his downfall. His rival Aetius accused him of high treason before +Placidia. The Court of Ravenna declared him an enemy of the Empire, and an +army was sent against him. Boniface did not hesitate; he went into open +rebellion against Rome. + +Augustin was thunderstruck by his desertion. But what way was there to make +this violent man listen to reason, who had at least the appearances of +right on his side, since there was a chance they had slandered him to the +Empress, and who thought it quite natural to take vengeance on his enemies? +His recent successes had still more intoxicated him. He had just defeated +the two generals who had been sent to reduce him, and he was accordingly +master of the situation in Africa. What was he going to do? The worst +resolutions were to be feared from this conqueror, all smarting, and hungry +for revenge.... Nevertheless, Augustin resolved to write to him. His letter +is a masterpiece of tact, of prudence, and also of Christian and episcopal +firmness. + +It would have been dangerous to declare to this triumphant rebel: "You are +in the wrong. Your duty is to submit to the Emperor, your master." Boniface +was quite capable of answering: "What are you interfering for? Politics are +no business of yours. Look after your Church!" This is why Augustin very +cleverly speaks to him from beginning to end of his letter simply as a +bishop, eager for the salvation of a very dear son in Jesus Christ. And so, +by keeping strictly to his office of spiritual director, he gained his end +more surely and entirely; and, as a doctor of souls, he ventured to remind +Boniface of certain truths which he would never have dared to mention as +counsellor. + +According to Augustin, the disgrace of the Count, and the evils which +this event had brought on Africa, came principally from his attachment to +worldly benefits. It was the ambition and covetousness of himself and his +followers which had done all the harm. Let him free himself from perishable +things, let him prevent the thefts and plundering of those under him. +Let him, who some time ago wished to live in perfect celibacy, now keep +at least to his wife and no other. Finally, let him remember his sworn +allegiance. Augustin did not mean to go into the quarrel between Boniface +and Placidia, and he gave no opinion as to the grievances of either. He +confined himself to saying to the general in rebellion: "If you have +received so many benefits from the Roman Empire, do not render evil for +good. If, on the other hand, you have received evil, do not render evil for +evil." + +It is clear that the Bishop of Hippo could scarcely have given any other +advice to the Count of Africa. To play the part of political counsellor +in the very entangled state of affairs was extremely risky. How was it +possible to exhort a victorious general to lay down his arms before +the conquered? And yet, in estimating the situation from the Christian +standpoint alone, Augustin had found a way to say everything essential, all +that could profitably be said at the moment. + +How did Boniface take a letter which was, in the circumstances, so +courageous? What we know is that he did not alter his plans. It would +indeed have been very difficult for him to withdraw and yield; and more +than ever since a new army under Sigisvultus had been sent against him in +all haste. A real fatality compelled him to remain in revolt against Rome. +Did he believe he was ruined, as has been stated, or else, through his +family connections--let us remember that his wife was a Barbarian--had he +been for a long time plotting with Genseric to divide Africa? He has been +accused of that. What comes out is, that as soon as he heard of the arrival +of Sigisvultus and the new expeditionary force, he called in the Vandals to +his aid. This was the great invasion of 429. + +Ere long, the Barbarians entered Numidia. The borderlands about Hippo were +threatened. Stricken with terror, the inhabitants in a mass fled before the +enemy, leaving the towns empty. Those who were caught in them rushed into +the churches, imploring the bishops and priests to help them. Or else, +giving up all hope of life, they cried out to be baptized, confessed, +did penance in public. The Vandals, as we have seen, aimed specially at +the clergy; they believed that the Catholic priests were the soul of the +resistance. Should not these priests, then, in the very interest of the +Church, save themselves for quieter times, and escape the persecution by +flight? Many sheltered themselves behind the words of Christ: "When they +persecute you in this city, flee ye into another." + +But Augustin strongly condemned the cowardliness of the deserters. In a +letter addressed to his fellow-bishop, Honoratus, and intended to be read +by all the clergy in Africa, he declares that bishops and priests should +not abandon their churches and dioceses, but stay at their post till the +end--till death and till martyrdom--to fulfil the duties of their ministry. +If the faithful were able to withdraw into a safe place, their pastors +might accompany them; if not, they should die in the midst of them. Thus +they would have at least the consolation of lending aid to the dying in +their last moments, and especially of preventing the apostasies which +readily took place under the shock of the terror. For Augustin, who foresaw +the future, the essential thing was that later, when the Vandal wave had +swept away, Catholicism might flourish again in Africa. To this end, the +Catholics must be made to remain in the country, and the greatest possible +number be strengthened in their faith. Otherwise, the work of three +centuries would have to be done all over again. + +We must admire this courage and clear-mindedness in an old man of +seventy-five, who was being continually harassed by the complaints and +lamentations of a crowd of demoralized fugitives. The position became more +and more critical. The siege lines were drawing closer. But in the midst of +all this dread, Augustin was given a gleam of hope: Boniface made his peace +with the Empire. Henceforward, his army, turning against the Barbarians, +might protect Hippo and perhaps save Africa. + +Had Augustin a hand in this reconciliation? There is not the least doubt +that he desired it most earnestly. In a letter to Count Darius, the +special envoy sent from Ravenna to treat with the rebel general, he warmly +congratulates the Imperial plenipotentiary on his mission of peace. "You +are sent," he said to him, "to stop the shedding of blood. Therefore +rejoice, illustrious and very dear son in Jesus Christ, rejoice in this +great and real blessing, and rejoice upon it in the Lord, Who has made you +what you are, and entrusted to you a task so beautiful and important. May +God seal the good work He has done for us through you!" ... And Darius +answered: "May you be spared to pray such prayers for the Empire and the +Roman State a long time yet, my Father." + +But the Empire was lost in Africa. If the reconciliation of the rebellious +Count had given some illusions to Augustin, they did not last long. +Boniface, having failed in his endeavours to negotiate the retreat of the +Vandals, was defeated by Genseric, and obliged to fall back into Hippo with +an army of mercenary Goths. Thus it came about that Barbarians held against +other Barbarians one of the last Roman citadels in Africa. From the end of +May, 430, Hippo was blockaded on the land side and on the side of the sea. + +In great tribulation, Augustin resigned himself to this supreme +humiliation, and to all the horrors which would have to be endured if the +city were captured. As a Christian, he left all to the will of God, and +he would repeat to those about him the words of the Psalm: "Righteous art +Thou, O Lord, and upright are Thy judgments." A number of fugitive priests, +and among them Possidius, Bishop of Guelma, had taken refuge in the +episcopal residence. One day, when he lost heart, Augustin, who was at +table with them, said: + +"In front of all these disasters, I ask God to deliver this city from the +siege, or, if that be not His decree, to give His servants the necessary +strength to do His will, or at least to take me from this world and receive +me into His bosom." + +But it is more than probable that discouragement of that kind was +only momentary with him, and that in his sermons, as well as in his +conversations with Boniface, he did his utmost to stimulate the courage of +the people and the general. His correspondence includes a series of letters +written about this time to the Count of Africa, which manifest here and +there a very warlike spirit. These letters are most certainly apocryphal. +Yet they do reveal something of what must have been the sentiments just +then of the people of Hippo and of Augustin himself. One of these letters +emphatically congratulates Boniface upon an advantage gained over the +Barbarians. + +"Your Excellency knows, I believe, that I am stretched upon my bed, and +that I long for my last day to come. I am overjoyed at your victory. I urge +you to save the Roman city. Rule your soldiers like a good Count. Do not +trust too much to your own strength. Put your glory in Him Who gives +courage, and you will never fear any enemy. Farewell!" + +The words do not matter much. Whatever may have been Augustin's last +farewell to the defender of Hippo, it was no doubt couched in language not +unlike this. In any case, posterity has wished to believe that the dying +bishop maintained to the end his unyielding demeanour face to face with the +Barbarians. It would be a misuse of words to represent him as a patriot +in the present sense of the term. It is no less true that this African, +this Christian, was an admirable servant of Rome. Until his death he kept +his respect for it, because in his eyes the Empire meant order, peace, +civilization, the unity of faith in the unity of rule. + + + + +IV + +SAINT AUGUSTIN + + +In the third month of the siege, he fell ill. He had a fever--no doubt an +infectious fever. The country people, the wounded soldiers who had taken +refuge in Hippo after the rout of Boniface, must have brought in the germs +of disease. It was, moreover, the end of August, the season of epidemics, +of damp heats and oppressive evenings, the time of the year most dangerous +and trying for sick people. + +All at once, Augustin took to his bed. But even there, upon the bed in +which he was going to die, he was not left in quiet. People came to ask his +prayers for some possessed by devils. The old bishop was touched; he wept +and asked God to give him this grace, and the devils went out of those poor +crazy men. This cure, as may well be thought, made a great noise in the +city. A man brought him another one sick to be healed. Augustin, being most +weary, said to the man: + +"My son, you see the state I am in. If I had any power over illnesses, I +should begin by curing myself." + +But the man had no idea of being put off: he had had a dream. A mysterious +voice had said to him, "Go and see Augustin: he will put his hands on the +sick person, who will rise up cured." And, in fact, he did. I think these +are the only miracles the saint made in his life. But what matters that, +when the continual miracle of his charity and his apostolate is considered? + +Soon the bishop's illness grew worse. Eventually, he succeeded in +persuading them not to disturb him any more, and that they would let him +prepare for death in silence and recollection. During the ten days that +he still lingered, nobody entered his cell save the physicians, and the +servants who brought him a little food. He availed himself of the quiet to +repent of his faults. For he was used to say to his clergy that "even after +baptism, Christians--nay, priests, however holy they might be, ought never +go out of life without having made a general confession." And the better +to rouse his contrition, he had desired them to copy out on leaves the +Penitential Psalms, and to put these leaves on the wall of his room. He +read them continually from his pillow. + +Here, then, he is alone with himself and God. A solemn moment for the great +old man! + +He called up his past life, and what struck him most, and saddened him, was +the foundering of all his human hopes. The enemies of the Church, whom he +had battled with almost without ceasing for forty years, and had reason to +believe conquered--all these enemies were raising their heads: Donatists, +Arians, Barbarians. With the Barbarians' help, the Arians were going to be +the masters of Africa. The churches, reformed at the price of such long +efforts, would be once more destroyed. And see now! the authority which +might have supported them, which he had perhaps too much relied upon--well, +the Empire was sinking too. It was the end of order, of substantial peace, +of that minimum of safety which is indispensable for all spiritual effort. +From one end to the other of the Western world, Barbarism triumphed. + +Sometimes, amid these sad thoughts of the dying man, the clangour of +clarions blared out--there was a call to arms on the ramparts. And these +musics came to him in his half-delirious state very mournfully, like the +trumpets proclaiming the Judgment Day. Yes, it might well be feared that +the Day of Wrath was here! Was it really the end of the world, or only the +end of a world?... Truly, there were then enough horrors and calamities to +make people think of the morrow with dismay. Many of the signs predicted +by Scripture dazed the imagination: desolations, wars, persecutions of the +Church, increased with terrific steadiness and cruelty. Yet all the signs +foretold were not there. How many times already had humanity been deceived +in its fear and its hope! In reality, though all seemed to shew that the +end of time was drawing nigh, no one could tell the day nor the hour of +the Judgment. Hence, men should watch always, according to the words of +Christ.... But if this trial of Barbarian war was to pass like the others, +how woeful it was while it endured! How hard for Augustin, above all, who +saw nearly the whole of his work thrown down. + +One thought at least consoled him, that since his conversion, for forty +years and more, he had done all he was able--he had worked for Christ +even beyond his strength. He said to himself that he left behind him the +fruit of a huge labour, a whole body of doctrine and apology which would +safeguard against error whatever was left of his flock and of the African +Church. He himself had founded a Church which might serve as an example, +his dear Church of Hippo, that he had done his best to fashion after the +divine plan. And he had also founded convents, and a library full of books, +which had become still larger recently through the generosity of Count +Darius. He had lessoned his clergy who, once the disasters were past, would +scatter the good seed of Truth. Books, monasteries, priests, a sure and +solid nourishment for the mind, shelters and guides for souls--there is +what he bequeathed to the workers of the future. And with a little joy +mingling with his sorrow, he read on the corner of the wall where his bed +was, this verse of the Psalm: _Exibit homo ad opus suum et operationem suam +usque ad vesperum_--"Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until +the evening." He, too, had worked until evening. + +If the earthly reward seemed to slip from him now, if all was sinking +around him, if his episcopal city was beleaguered, if he himself, although +still a strong man--"he had the use of all his limbs," says Possidius; +"a keen ear and perfect sight"--if he himself was dying too soon, it was +doubtless in expiation for the sins of his youth. At this remembrance of +his disorders, the tears fell over his face.... And yet, however wild had +been his conduct at that time, he could descry in it the sure marks of his +vocation. He recalled the despair and tears of his mother, but also his +enthusiasm when he read the _Hortensius_; his disgust for the world and +all things when he lost his friend. In the old man he recognized the new. +And he said to himself: "Nay! but that was myself. I have not changed. I +have only found myself. I have only changed my ways. In my youth, in the +strongest time of my mistakes, I had already risen to turn to Thee, my +God!" + +His worst foolishness had been the desire to understand all things. He had +failed in humility of mind. Then God had given him the grace to submit his +intelligence to the faith. He had believed, and then he had understood, as +well as he could, as much as he could. In the beginning, he acknowledged +very plainly that he did not understand. And then faith had thrown open +the roads of understanding. He had splendidly employed his reason, within +the limits laid down against mortal weakness. Had that not been the proud +desire of his youth? To understand! What greater destiny? + +To love also. After he had freed himself from carnal passions, he had much +employed his heart. He thought of all the charity he had poured out upon +his people and the Church, upon all he had loved in God--upon all he had +done, upon all the consequence of his labour, inspired and strengthened by +the divine love.... Yes, to love--all was in that! Let the Barbarians come! +Had not Christ said: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the +world"? So long as there shall be two men gathered together for love of +Him, the world will not be entirely lost, the Church and civilization will +be saved. The religion of Christ is a leaven of action, understanding, +sacrifice, and charity. If the world be not at this hour already condemned, +if the Day of Judgment be still far off, it is from this religion that +shall arise the new influences of the future.... + +And so Augustin forgot his sufferings and his human disappointments in +the thought that, in spite of all, the Church is eternal. The City of God +gathered in the wreckage of the earthly city: "The Goth cannot capture what +Christ protects"--_Non tollit Gothus quod custodit Christus_. And as his +sufferings increased, he turned all his thoughts on this unending City, +"where we rest, where we see, where we love," where we find again all the +beloved ones who have gone away. All--he called them all in this supreme +moment: Monnica, Adeodatus, and her who had nearly lost herself for him, +and all those he had held dear.... + +On the fifth day of the calends of September, Augustin, the bishop, +was very low. They were praying for him in the churches at Hippo, and +especially in the Basilica of Peace, where he had preached and worked for +others so long. Possidius of Guelma was in the bishop's room, and the +priests and monks. They sent up their prayers with those of the dying man. +And no doubt they sang for the last time before him one of those liturgical +chants which long ago at Milan had touched him even to tears, and now, +since the siege, in the panic caused by the Barbarians, they dared not sing +any more. Augustin, guarding himself even now against the too poignant +sweetness of the melody, attended only to the sense of the words. And he +said: + +"My soul thirsts after the living God. When shall I appear before His +face?" + +Or again: + +"He Who is Life has come down into this world. He has suffered our death, +and He has caused it to die by the fullness of His life.... Life has come +down to you--and will you not ascend towards Him and live?..." + +He was passing into Life and into Glory. He was going very quietly, amid +the chanting of hymns and the murmur of prayers.... Little by little his +eyes were veiled, the lines of his face became rigid. His lips moved no +more. Possidius, the faithful disciple, bent over him. Like a patriarch of +the Scriptures, Augustin of Thagaste "slept with his fathers."... + + * * * * * + +And now, whatever may be the worth of this book, which has been planned +and carried out in a spirit of veneration and love for the saint, for the +great heart and the great intellect that Augustin was, for this unique type +of the Christian, the most perfect and the most admirable perhaps that +has ever been seen--the author can only repeat in all humility what was +said fifteen hundred years ago by the Bishop of Guelma, Augustin's first +biographer: + +"I do desire of the charity of those into whose hands this work shall fall, +to join with me in thanksgiving and blessing to Our Lord, Who has inspired +me to make known this life to those present and those absent, and has given +me the strength to do it. Pray for me and with me, that I may try here +below to follow in the steps of this peerless man, whom, by God's goodness, +I have had the happiness of living with for such a long time...." + + +THE END + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Saint Augustin, by Louis Bertrand + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAINT AUGUSTIN *** + +This file should be named 7agst10.txt or 7agst10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7agst11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7agst10a.txt + +Produced by Charles Aldorondo, Tiffany Vergon, William Flis, +and Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Saint Augustin + +Author: Louis Bertrand + +Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9069] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on September 2, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAINT AUGUSTIN *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldorondo, Tiffany Vergon, William Flis, +and Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +SAINT AUGUSTIN + +BY + +LOUIS BERTRAND + + +TRANSLATED BY VINCENT O'SULLIVAN + + + + +TRANSLATOR'S NOTE + + +The quotations from Saint Augustin's _Confessions_ are taken from Canon +Bigg's scholarly version, which seems to me the best in English. But there +are places where M. Bertrand's reading of the original text differs from +Dr. Bigg's, and in such cases I have felt myself obliged to follow the +author of this book. These differences never seriously affect the meaning +of a passage; sometimes it is a mere matter of choice, as with the word +_collactaneum_ (i, 7) which Dr. Bigg translates "twin," and M. Bertrand, +like Pusey, _frère de lait_, or "foster-brother." As a rule, Dr. Bigg +chooses the quietest terms, and M. Bertrand the most forcible. Those +curious in such matters may like to see an instance. + +The original text runs:-- + + Avulsa a latere meo tanquam impedimento conjugii, cum quâ cubare + solitus eram, cor ubi adhaerebat, concisum et vulneratum mihi erat, et + trahebat sanguinem. + + (_Confessiones_, vi, 15.) + +M. Bertrand translates:-- + + Quand on arracha de mes flancs, sous prétexte qu'elle empêchait mon + mariage, celle avec qui j'avais coutume de dormir, depuis si longtemps, + là où mon coeur était attaché au sien, il se déchira, et je traînais + mon sang avec ma blessure. + +Canon Bigg's version is:-- + + My mistress was torn from my side as an obstacle to my marriage, and my + heart, which clung to her, was torn and wounded till it bled. + +In this place, it will be observed that Dr. Bigg does not emphasize the +word _ubi_ which, as the reader will find on turning to page 185 of this +volume, M. Bertrand thinks so significant. + +The remaining English versions of the writings of Saint Augustin and of the +other Latin authors quoted are my own, except the passages from _The City +of God_, including the verse translation of Persius, which are taken, +with some necessary alterations, from the Seventeenth century translation +ascribed to John Healey. + +V. O'S. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + PROLOGUE + + + THE FIRST PART + + DAYS OF CHILDHOOD + + I. AN AFRICAN FREE-TOWN SUBJECT TO ROME + + II. THE FAMILY OF A SAINT + + III. THE COMFORT OF THE MILK + + IV. THE FIRST GAMES + + V. THE SCHOOLBOY OF MADAURA + + VI. THE HOLIDAYS AT THAGASTE + + + THE SECOND PART + + THE ENCHANTMENT OF CARTHAGE + + I. CARTHAGO VENERIS + + II. THE AFRICAN ROME + + III. THE CARTHAGE STUDENT + + IV. THE SWEETNESS OF TEARS + + V. THE SILENCE OF GOD + + + THE THIRD PART + + THE RETURN + + I. THE CITY OF GOLD + + II. THE FINAL DISILLUSION + + III. THE MEETING BETWEEN AMBROSE AND AUGUSTIN + + IV. PLANS OF MARRIAGE + + V. THE CHRIST IN THE GARDEN + + + THE FOURTH PART + + THE HIDDEN LIFE + + I. THE LAST SMILE OF THE MUSE + + II. THE ECSTASY OF SAINT MONNICA + + III. THE MONK OF THAGASTE + + IV. AUGUSTIN A PRIEST + + + THE FIFTH PART + + THE APOSTLE OF PEACE AND OF CATHOLIC UNITY + + I. THE BISHOP OF HIPPO + + II. WHAT WAS HEARD IN THE BASILICA OF PEACE + + III. THE BISHOP'S BURTHEN + + IV. AGAINST "THE ROARING LIONS" + + + THE SIXTH PART + + FACE TO FACE WITH THE BARBARIANS + + I. THE SACK OF ROME + + II. THE CITY OF GOD + + III. THE BARBARIAN DESOLATION + + IV. SAINT AUGUSTIN + + + INDEX + + + + +SAINT AUGUSTIN + + + + +PROLOGUE + + + Inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in te. + "Our heart finds no rest until it rests in Thee." + + _Confessions_, I, i. + + +Saint Augustin is now little more than a celebrated name. Outside of +learned or theological circles people no longer read him. Such is true +renown: we admire the saints, as we do great men, on trust. Even his +_Confessions_ are generally spoken of only from hearsay. By this neglect, +is he atoning for the renewal of glory in which he shone during the +seventeenth century, when the Jansenists, in their inveterate obstinacy, +identified him with the defence of their cause? The reputation of sour +austerity and of argumentative and tiresome prolixity which attaches to +the remembrance of all the writers of Port-Royal, save Pascal--has that +affected too the work of Augustin, enlisted in spite of himself in the +ranks of these pious schismatics? And yet, if there have ever been any +beings who do not resemble Augustin, and whom probably he would have +attacked with all his eloquence and all the force of his dialectic, they +are the Jansenists. Doubtless he would have said with contempt: "The party +of Jansen," even as in his own day, with his devotion to Catholic unity, he +said: "The party of Donatus." + +It must be acknowledged also that the very sight of his works is +terrifying, whether we take the enormous folios in two columns of the +Benedictine edition, or the volumes, almost as compact, and much more +numerous, of recent editions. Behind such a rampart of printed matter he is +well defended against profane curiosity. It needs courage and perseverance +to penetrate into this labyrinth of text, all bristling with theology and +exegesis and metaphysics. But only cross the threshold of the repellent +enclosure, grow used to the order and shape of the building, and it will +not be long ere you are overcome by a warm sympathy, and then by a steadily +increasing admiration for the host who dwells there. The hieratic face +of the old bishop lights up, becomes strangely living, almost modern, in +expression. You discover under the text one of the most passionate lives, +most busy and richest in instruction, that history has to shew. What it +teaches is applicable to ourselves, answers to our interests of yesterday +and to-day. This existence, and the century in which it was passed, recall +our own century and ourselves. The return of similar circumstances has +brought similar situations and characters; it is almost our portrait. And +we feel half ready to conclude that at the present moment there is no +subject more actual than St. Augustin. + +At least he is one of the most interesting. What, indeed, is more romantic +than this wandering life of rhetorician and student that the youthful +Augustin led, from Thagaste to Carthage, from Carthage to Milan and to +Rome--begun in the pleasures and tumult of great cities, and ending in the +penitence, the silence, and recollection of a monastery? And again, what +drama is more full of colour and more profitable to consider than that last +agony of the Empire, of which Augustin was a spectator, and, with all his +heart faithful to Rome, would have prevented if he could? And then, what +tragedy more stirring and painful than the crisis of soul and conscience +which tore his life? Well may it be said that, regarded as a whole, the +life of Augustin was but a continual spiritual struggle, a battle of the +soul. It is the battle of every moment, the never-ceasing combat of body +and spirit, which the poets of that time dramatized, and which is the +history of the Christian of all times. The stake of the battle is a soul. +The upshot is the final triumph, the redemption of a soul. + +What makes the life of Augustin so complete and so truly typical is that +he fought the good fight, not only against himself, but against all the +enemies of the Church and the Empire. If he was a doctor and a saint, so +was he too the type of the man of action in one of the most disheartened +periods. That he triumphed over his passions--this, in truth, concerns only +God and himself. That he preached, wrote, shook crowds, disturbed minds, +may seem without importance to those who reject his doctrine. But that +across the centuries his soul, afire with charity, continues to warm our +own; that without our knowledge he still shapes us; and that, in a way +more or less remote, he is still the master of our hearts, and, in certain +aspects, of our minds--there is what touches each and all of us, without +distinction. Not only has Augustin always his great place in the living +communion of all christened people, but the Western soul is marked with the +stamp of his soul. + +First of all, his fate is confused with that of the dying Empire. He +witnessed, if not the utter disappearance, at least the gradual swooning +away of that admirable thing called the Roman Empire, image of Catholic +unity. Well, we are the wreckage of the Empire. Usually, we turn away with +contempt from those wretched centuries which underwent the descents of the +Barbarians. For us, that is the Lower-Empire, a time of shameful decadence +which deserves nothing but our scorn. However, it is out of this chaos +and this degradation that we have arisen. The wars of the Roman republic +concern us less than the outlawry of the Barbarian chiefs who separated our +Gaul from the Empire, and without knowing it, prepared the dawn of France. +After all, what are the rivalries of Marius and Sylla to us? The victory of +Aëtius over the Huns in the plains of Chalons concerns us a good deal more. +Further, it is unfair to the Lower-Empire to view it only as a time of +feebleness and cowardice and corruption. It was also an epoch of immense +activity, prolific of daring and high-flying adventurers, some of them +heroic. Even the most degenerate of the last Emperors never lost the +conviction of Roman majesty and grandeur. Unto the very end, they employed +all the ruses of their diplomacy to prevent the Barbarian chiefs from +imagining themselves anything else but vassals of the Empire. Honorius, at +bay in Ravenna, persisted in refusing Alaric the title of commander of the +_Cohortes Urbanæ_, even though his refusal were to lead to the sack of Rome +and imperil his own life. + +Simply by his fidelity to the Empire, Augustin shews himself one like +ourselves--a Latin of Occitania. But still closer resemblances draw him +near to us. His time was very like our own time. Upon even a slight +familiarity with his books we recognize in him a brother-soul who has +suffered, felt, thought, pretty nearly like us. He came into an ending +world, on the eve of the great cataclysm which was going to carry away an +entire civilization--a tragic turning-point of history, a time troubled and +often very grievous, which was hard to live in for all, and to even the +most determined minds must have appeared desperate. The peace of the Church +was not yet settled; consciences were divided. People hesitated between the +belief of yesterday and the belief of to-morrow. Augustin was among those +who had the courage to choose, and who, having once chosen their faith, +proclaimed it without weakening. The belief of a thousand years was dying +out, quenched by a young belief to which was promised an eternal duration. +How many delicate souls must have suffered from this division, which cut +them off from their traditions and obliged them, as they thought, to be +false to their dead along with the religion of their ancestors! All the +irritations which the fanatics of to-day inflict upon believing souls, many +must have had to suffer then. The sceptics were infused by the intolerance +of the others. But the worst (even as it is to-day) was to watch the +torrent of foolishness which, under cover of religion, philosophy, or +miracle-working, pretended to the conquest of mind and will. Amid this mass +of wildest doctrines and heresies, in this orgy of vapid intellectualism, +they had indeed solid heads who were able to resist the general +intoxication. And among all these people talking nonsense, Augustin appears +admirable with his good sense. + +This "intellectual," this mystic, was not only a man of prayer and +meditation. The prudence of the man of action and the administrator +balanced his outbursts of dialectical subtility, often carried too far. He +had that sense of realities such as we flatter ourselves that we have; he +had a knowledge of life and passion. Compared to the experience of, say, +Bossuet, how much wider was Augustin's! And with all that, a quivering +sensitiveness which is again like our own--the sensitiveness of times of +intense culture, wherein the abuse of thought has multiplied the ways of +suffering in exasperating the desire for pleasure. "The soul of antiquity +was rude and vain." It was, above all, limited. The soul of Augustin is +tender and serious, eager for certainties and those enjoyments which do +not betray. It is vast and sonorous; let it be stirred ever so little, and +from it go forth deep vibrations which render the sound of the infinite. +Augustin, before his conversion, had the apprehensions of our Romantics, +the causeless melancholy and sadness, the immense yearnings for "anywhere +but here," which overwhelmed our fathers. He is really very close to us. + +He has broadened our Latin souls by reconciling us with the Barbarian. The +Latin, like the Greek, only understood himself. The Barbarian had not the +right to express himself in the language of the Empire. The world was split +into two parts which endeavoured to ignore each other, Augustin has made us +conscious of the nameless regions, the vague countries of the soul, which +hitherto had lain shrouded in the darkness of barbarism. By him the union +of the Semitic and the Occidental genius is consummated. He has acted as +our interpreter for the Bible. The harsh Hebraic words become soft to our +ears by their passage through the cultivated mouth of the rhetorician. He +has subjugated us with the word of God. He is a Latin who speaks to us of +Jehovah. + +Others, no doubt, had done it before him. But none had found a similar +emotion, a note of tenderness so moving. The gentle violence of his charity +wins the adherence of hearts. He breathes only charity. After St. John, it +is he who is the Apostle of Love. + +His tireless voice dominated the whole of the West. The Middle Ages still +heard it. For centuries his sermons and treatises were copied over and +over again; they were repeated in cathedrals, commented in abstracts of +theology. People came to accept even his theory of the fine arts. All that +we have inherited from the ancients reaches us through Augustin. He is the +great teacher. In his hands the doctrinal demonstration of the Catholic +religion takes firm shape. To indicate the three great stages of the onward +march of the truth, one may say: Jesus Christ, St. Paul, St. Augustin. +Nearest to our weakness is the last. He is truly our spiritual father. He +has taught us the language of prayer. The words of Augustin's prayers are +still upon the lips of the devout. + +This universal genius, who during forty years was the speaking-trumpet of +Christendom, was also the man of one special century and country. Augustin +of Thagaste is the great African. + +Well may we be proud of him and adopt him as one of our glories--we who +have kept up, for now almost a century, a struggle like to that which +he maintained for the unity of the Roman Empire, we who consider Africa +as an extension of France. More than any other writer, he has expressed +the temperament and the genius of his country. This motley Africa, with +its eternal mixture of races at odds with one another, its jealous +sectarianism, the variety of its scenery and climate, the violence +of its sensations and passions, its seriousness of character and its +quick-changing humour, its mind at once practical and frivolous, its +materialism and its mysticism, its austerity and its luxury, its +resignation to servitude and its instincts of independence, its hunger +to rule--all that comes out with singularly vivid touches in the work of +Augustin. Not only was he his country's voice, but, as far as he could, he +realized its old dream of dominion. The supremacy in spiritual matters that +Carthage disputed so long and bitterly with Rome, it ended by obtaining, +thanks to Augustin. As long as he lived, the African Church was the +mistress of the Churches of the West. + +As for me--if I may venture to refer to myself in such a matter--I have had +the joy to recognize in him, besides the Saint and Teacher whom I revere, +the ideal type of the Latin of Africa. The image of which I descried the +outline long ago through the mirages of the South in following the waggons +of my rugged heroes, I have seen at last become definite, grow clear, wax +noble and increase to the very heaven, in following the traces of Augustin. + +And even supposing that the life of this child of Thagaste, the son of +Monnica, were not intermingled so deeply with ours, though he were for us +only a foreigner born in a far-off land, nevertheless he would still remain +one of the most fascinating and luminous souls who have shone amid our +darkness and warmed our sadness--one of the most human and most divine +creatures who have trod our highways. + + + + +THE FIRST PART + +DAYS OF CHILDHOOD + + Sed delectabat ludere. + "Only, I liked to play." + + _Confessions_, I, 9. + + + + +I + +AN AFRICAN FREE-TOWN SUBJECT TO ROME + + +Little streets, quite white, which climb up to clay-formed hills deeply +furrowed by the heavy winter rains; between the double row of houses, +brilliant in the morning sun, glimpses of sky of a very tender blue; here +and there, in the strip of deep shade which lies along the thresholds, +white figures crouched upon rush-mats--indolent outlines, draped with +bright colours, or muffled in rough and sombre wool-stuffs; a horseman who +passes, bent almost in two in his saddle, the big hat of the South flung +back over his shoulders, and encouraging with his heel the graceful trot of +his horse--such is Thagaste as we see it to-day, and such undoubtedly it +appeared to the traveller in the days of Augustin. + +Like the French town built upon its ruins, the African free-city lay in a +sort of plain taken between three round hills. One of them, the highest +one, which is now protected by a _bordj_, must have been defended in old +days by a _castellum_. Full-flowing waters moisten the land. To those +coming from the stony regions about Constantine and Setif, or the vast bare +plain of the Medjerda, Thagaste gives an impression of freshness and cool. +It is a laughing place, full of greenery and running water. To the Africans +it offers a picture of those northern countries which they have never seen, +with its wooded mountains covered by pines and cork trees and ilex. It +presents itself as a land of mountain and forest--especially forest. It is +a hunter's country. Game is plentiful there--boar, hare, redwing, quail, +partridge. In Augustin's time, wild beasts were apparently more numerous in +the district than they are to-day. When he compares his adversaries, the +Donatists, to roaring lions, he speaks like a man who knows what a lion is. + +To the east and west, wide stretches of woodland, rounded hill-summits, +streams and torrents which pour through the valleys and glens--there +you have Thagaste and the country round about--the world, in fact, as +it revealed itself to the eyes of the child Augustin. But towards the +south the verdure grows sparse; arid mountain-tops appear, crushed down +as blunted cones, or jutted in slim Tables of the Law; the sterility +of the desert becomes perceptible amid the wealth of vegetation. This +full-foliaged land has its harsh and stern localities. The African light, +however, softens all that. The deep green of the oaks and pines runs into +waves of warm and ever-altering tints which are a caress and a delight for +the eye. A man has it thoroughly brought home to him that he is in a land +of the sun. + +To say the least, it is a country of strongly marked features which affords +the strangest contrast with the surrounding districts. This wooded Numidia, +with its flowing brooks, its fields where the cattle graze, differs in the +highest degree from the Numidia towards Setif--a wide, desolate plain, +where the stubble of the wheat-fields, the sandy _steppes_, roll away in +monotonous undulations to the cloudy barrier of Mount Atlas which closes +the horizon. And this rough and melancholy plain in its turn offers a +striking contrast with the coast region of Boujeiah and Hippo, which is not +unlike the Italian Campania in its mellowness and gaiety. Such clear-cut +differences between the various parts of the same province doubtless +explain the essential peculiarities of the Numidian character. The bishop +Augustin, who carried his pastoral cross from one end to the other of this +country, and was its acting and thinking soul, may perhaps have owed to it +the contrasts and many-sidedness of his own rich nature. + +Of course, Thagaste did not pretend to be a capital. It was a free-town of +the second or third order; but its distance from the great centres gave it +a certain importance. The neighbouring free-towns, Thubursicum, Thagura, +were small. Madaura and Theveste, rather larger, had not perhaps the same +commercial importance. Thagaste was placed at the junction of many Roman +roads. There the little Augustin, with other children of his age, would +have a chance to admire the out-riders and equipages of the Imperial +Mail, halted before the inns of the town. What we can be sure of is that +Thagaste, then as now, was a town of passage and of traffic, a half-way +stopping-place for the southern and coast towns, as well as for those of +the Proconsulate and Numidia. And like the present Souk-Ahras, Thagaste +must have been above all a market. Bread-stuffs and Numidian wines were +bartered for the flocks of the Aures, leather, dates, and the esparto +basket-work of the regions of Sahara. The marbles of Simitthu, the +citron-wood of which they made precious tables, were doubtless handled +there. The neighbouring forests could furnish building materials to the +whole country. Thagaste was the great mart of woodland Numidia, the +warehouse and the bazaar, where to this day the nomad comes to lay in a +stock of provisions, and stares with childish delight at the fine things +produced by the inventive talent of the workers who live in towns. + +Thus images of plenty and joy surrounded the cradle of Augustin. The smile +of Latin beauty welcomed him also from his earliest steps. It is true that +Thagaste was not what is called a fine city. The fragments of antiquity +which have been unearthed there are of rather inferior workmanship. But how +little is needed to give wings to the imagination of an intelligent child! +At all events, Thagaste had a bathing-hall paved with mosaics and perhaps +ornamented with statues; Augustin used to bathe there with his father. +And again, it is probable that, like the neighbouring Thubursicum and +other free-cities of the same level, it had its theatre, its forum, its +nymph-fountains, perhaps even its amphitheatre. Of all that nothing +has been found. Certain inscribed stone tablets, capitals and shafts +of columns, a stone with an inscription which belonged to a Catholic +church--that is all which has been discovered up to this present time. + +Let us not ask for the impossible. Thagaste had columns--nay, perhaps a +whole street between a double range of columns, as at Thimgad. That would +be quite enough to delight the eyes of a little wondering boy. A column, +even injured, or scarcely cleansed from wrack and rubbish, has about it +something impressive. It is like a free melody singing among the heavy +masses of the building. To this hour, in our Algerian villages, the mere +sight of a broken column entrances and cheers us--a white ghost of beauty +streaming up from the ruins among the modern hovels. + +There were columns at Thagaste. + + + + +II + +THE FAMILY OF A SAINT + + +It was in this pleasant little town, shaded and beautified for many years +now by the arts of Rome, that the parents of Augustin lived. + +His father, Patricius, affords us a good enough type of the Romanized +African. He belonged to the order of _Decuriones_, to the "very brilliant +urban council of Thagaste" (_splendidissimus ordo Thagastensis_), as an +inscription at Souk-Ahras puts it. Although these strong epithets may be +said to be part of the ordinary official phraseology, they indicate, just +the same, the importance which went with such a position. In his township, +Patricius was a kind of personage. His son assures us that he was poor, but +we may suspect the holy bishop of exaggerating through Christian humility. +Patricius must certainly have owned more than twenty-five acres of land, +for this was made a condition of being elected to the _curia_. He had +vineyards and orchards, of which Augustin later on recalled the plentiful +and sweet-tasting fruits. In short, he lived in considerable style. It +is true that in Africa household expenses have never at any time been a +great extravagance. Still, the sons of Patricius had a pedagogue, a slave +specially engaged to keep them under his eye, like all the children of +families comfortably off. + +It has been said that as Augustin's father was a member of the _curia_, +he must have been a ruined man. The Decurions, who levied taxes and made +themselves responsible for their collection, were obliged to supply any +deficiency in the revenue out of their own money. Patricius, it is thought, +must have been one of the numerous victims of this disastrous system. But +no doubt there were a good many exceptions. Besides, there is nothing in +Augustin's reminiscences which authorizes us to believe that his father +ever knew embarrassment, to say nothing of actual poverty. What seems by +far the most probable is that he lived as well as he could upon the income +of his estate as a small country landowner. In Africa people are satisfied +with very little. Save for an unusually bad year following a time of long +drought, or a descent of locusts, the land always gives forth enough to +feed its master. + +To hunt, to ride horseback, now and then to go on parade, to look after +his small-holders and agricultural slaves, to drive one of those bargains +in which African cunning triumphs--such were the employments of Patricius. +In short, he drifted through life on his little demesne. Sometimes this +indolent man was overcome by a sudden passion for work; or again he was +seized by furious rages. He was violent and brutal. At such moments he +struck out right and left. He would even have hit his wife or flogged the +skin off her back if the quietude of this woman, her dignity and Christian +mildness, had not overawed him. Let us not judge this kind of conduct by +our own; we shall never understand it. The ancient customs, especially the +African customs, were a disconcerting mixture of intense refinement and +heedless brutality. + +That is why it will not do to exaggerate the outbursts of Patricius, which +his son mentions discreetly. Although he may not have been very faithful to +his wife, that was in those days, more than in ours, a venial sin in the +eyes of the world. At heart the African has always longed for a harem in +his house; he inclines naturally to the polygamy of Muslemism. In Carthage, +and elsewhere, public opinion was full of indulgence for the husband who +allowed himself liberties with the serving-women. People laughed at it, and +excused the man. It is true they were rather harder on the matron who took +the same kind of liberty with her men-slaves. However, that went on too. +The Bishop of Hippo, in his sermons, strongly rebuked the Christian married +couples for these frequent adulteries which were scarcely regarded as +errors. + +Patricius was a pagan, and this partly explains his laxity. It would +doubtless be going too far to say that he remained faithful to paganism +all his life. It is not likely that this urban councillor of Thagaste was +a particularly assured pagan. Speculative and intellectual considerations +made a very moderate appeal to him. He was not an arguer like his son. He +was pagan from habit, from that instinctive conservatism of the citizen +and landowner who sticks obstinately to his class and family traditions. +Prudence and diplomacy had also something to do with it. Many great +landlords continued to defend and practise paganism, probably from motives +similar to those of Patricius himself. As for him, he had no desire to get +wrong with the important and influential people of the country; he might +have need of their protection to save his small property from the ravenous +public treasury. Moreover, the best-paid posts were still controlled by the +pagan priesthood. And so Augustin's father thought himself very wise in +dealing cautiously with a religion which was always so powerful, and +rewarded its adherents so well. + +But for all that, it is undeniable that paganism about this time was in an +awkward position from a political point of view. The Government eyed it +with disapproval. Since the death of Constantine, the "accursed emperors" +had waged against it a furious war. In 353, just before the birth of +Augustin, Constantius promulgated an edict renewing the order for the +closing of the temples and the abolition of sacrifices--and that too under +pain of death and confiscation. But in distant provinces, such as Numidia, +the action of the central power was slow and irregular. It was often +represented by officials who were hostile or indifferent to Christianity. +The local aristocracy and their following scoffed at it more or less +openly. In their immense villas, behind the walls of their parks, the rich +landowners offered sacrifices and organized processions and feasts as +if there were no law at all. Patricius knew all that. And, on the other +side, he could take note of the encroachments of the new religion. During +the first half of the fourth century Thagaste had been conquered by the +Donatists. Since the edict of Constans against these schismatics, the +inhabitants of the little city had come back to Catholicism out of fear of +the severity of the imperial government. But the settlement was far from +being complete and final. As a consequence of the edict, the whole region +of the Aures had been in revolution. The Bishop of Bagai, fortified in +his episcopal city and basilica, had stood an actual siege from the Roman +troops. Almost everywhere the struggle between Donatists and Catholics +still went on below the surface. There cannot be the least doubt that +Thagaste took its share in these quarrels. To those who urged him to be +baptized, the father of Augustin might well answer with ironic politeness: +"I am only waiting till you agree among yourselves, to see where the truth +lies." In his heart this rather lukewarm pagan had no inveterate dislike to +Christianity. + +What proves it at once is that he married a Christian. + +How did Monnica become the wife of Patricius? How did these two beings, so +little alike, between whom there was such a great difference of age, not to +mention all the rest, come to join their fate? Those are questions which +it would never have occurred to the people of Thagaste to ask. Patricius +married to be like everybody else--and also because he was well over forty, +and his mother an old woman who would soon be no longer able to run his +house. + +Monnica also had her mother. The two old women had a meeting, with many +politenesses and ceremonious bowings, and because the thing appeared to +them reasonable and most suitable, they settled the marriage. Had Patricius +ever seen the girl that he was going to take, according to custom, so as to +have a child-bearer and housewife? It is quite likely he had not. Was she +pretty, rich, or poor? He considered such matters as secondary, since the +marriage was not a love-match but a traditional duty to fulfil. If the +union was respectable, that was quite enough. But however the matter fell +out, what is certain is that Monnica was very young. She was twenty-two +when Augustin was born, and he was probably not her first child. We know +that she was hardly marriageable when she was handed over, as Arab parents +do to-day with their adolescent or little girls, to the man who was going +to marry her. Now in Africa girls become marriageable at a very early age. +They are married at fourteen, sometimes even at twelve. Perhaps she was +seventeen or eighteen at most when she married Patricius. She must have had +first a son, Navigius, whom we shall meet later on at Milan, and also a +daughter, of whom we do not even know the name, but who became a nun, and +superior of a convent in the diocese of Hippo. For us the features of these +two other children of Monnica and Patricius are obliterated. They are +concealed by the radiance of their illustrious great brother. + +Monnica was fond of telling stories of her girlhood to her son. He has +handed down some of them to us. + +She was brought up strictly, according to the system of that time. Both her +parents came of families which had been Christian, and Catholic-Christian, +for many generations. They had never been carried away by the Donatist +schism; they were people very obstinate in their convictions--a character +quite as frequent in Africa as its opposite, the kind of Numidian or Moor, +who is versatile and flighty. It is not unimportant that Augustin came from +this hard-headed race, for this it was, with the aid of God's grace, that +saved him--the energetic temper of his will. + +Still, if the faith of the young Monnica was confirmed from her earliest +years, it is not so much to the lessons of her mother that she owed it, +as to the training of an old woman-servant of whom she always spoke with +gratitude. In the family of her master, this old woman had a place like the +one which to-day in a Turkish family is held by the nurse, the _dada_, who +is respected by all the harem and all the household. Doubtless she herself +was born in the house and had seen all the children born. She had carried +Monnica's father on her back when he was little, just as the Kabylian +women or the Bedouin nomads carry their babies still. She was a devoted +slave, just a bit unreasonable--a veritable housedog who in the zeal of +guardianship barks more than is necessary at the stranger who passes. She +was like the negress in the Arab houses to-day, who is often a better +Muslem, more hostile to the Christian, than her employers. The old woman +in Monnica's family had witnessed the last persecutions; she had perhaps +visited the confessors in prison; perhaps she had seen flow the blood of +the martyrs. These exciting and terrible scenes would have been graven on +her memory. What inflamed stories the old servant must have told her young +mistresses, what vital lessons of constancy and heroism! Monnica listened +to them eagerly. + +Because of her great faith, this simple slave was revered as a saint by +her owners, who entrusted her with the supervision of their daughters. She +proved a stern governess, who would stand no trifling with her rules. She +prevented these girls from drinking even water except at meals. Cruel +suffering for little Africans! Thagaste is not far from the country of +thirst. But the old woman said to them: + +"You drink water now because you can't get at the wine. In time to come, +when you are married and have bins and cellars of your own, you'll turn up +your nose at water, and your habit of drinking will be too much for you." + +Monnica came near fulfilling the prophecy of the honest woman. It was +before she was married. As she was very well-behaved and very temperate, +she used to be sent to the cellar to draw the wine from the cask. Before +pouring it into the flagon she would sip just a little. Being unaccustomed +to wine, she was not able to drink more; it was too strong for her gullet. +She did this, not because she liked the wine, but from naughtiness, to play +a trick on her parents who trusted her, and also, of course, because it was +prohibited. Each time she swallowed a little more, and so it went on till +she ended by finding it rather nice, and came to drinking greedily one +cup after another. One day a slave-girl, who went with her to the cellar, +began to grumble. Monnica gave her a sharp answer. Upon this the girl +called Monnica a drunkard.... Drunkard! This bitter taunt so humiliated the +self-respect of the future saint, that she got the better of her taste for +drink. Augustin does not say it was through piety she did this, but because +she felt the ugliness of such a vice. + +There is a certain roughness in this story of childhood, the roughness of +ancient customs, with which is always mingled some decency or dignity. +Christianity did the work of polishing the soul of Monnica. At the time we +are dealing with, if she was already a very devout young girl, she was far +as yet from being the grand Christian that she became afterwards. + +When she married Patricius she was a girl very reserved and cold to all +appearances (in reality, she was very passionate), precise in attending to +her religious duties, even a little strict, with her exaggeration of the +Christian austerity in her hate of all the brutalities and all the careless +morals that paganism condoned. Nevertheless, this rigid soul knew how to +bend when it was necessary. Monnica had tact, suppleness, and, when it +was needed, a very acute and very reasonable practical sense of which she +gave many a proof in the bringing up and management of her son Augustin. +This soul, hard for herself, veiled her uncompromising religion under an +unchangeable sweetness which was in her rather the work of grace than a +natural gift. + +There can be little doubt that her behaviour and character greatly +disturbed Patricius at the beginning of their married life. Perhaps he +regretted the marriage. What use had he for this nun alongside of him! +Both of them must have suffered the usual annoyances which always appeared +before long in unions of this kind between pagan and Christian. True, it +was no longer the time of Tertullian, the heroic century of persecutions, +when the Christian women glided into the prisons to kiss the shackles of +the martyrs. (What a revenge did woman take then for her long and enforced +confinement to the women's apartments! And how outrageous such conduct must +have seemed to a husband brought up in the Roman way!) But the practices +of the Christian life established a kind of intermittent divorce between +husbands and wives of different religion. Monnica often went out, either +alone, or accompanied by a faithful bondwoman. She had to attend the +services of the Church, to go about the town visiting the poor and giving +alms. And there were the fast-days which occurred two or three times a +week, and especially the long fast of Lent--a grievous nuisance when the +husband wanted to give a dinner-party just on those particular days! On +the vigil of festivals, Monnica would spend a good part of the night in +the Basilica. Regularly, doubtless on Sundays, she betook herself to the +cemetery, or to some chapel raised to the memory of a martyr who was often +buried there--in fact, they called these chapels "Memorials" (_memoriæ_). + +There were many of these chapels--even too many in the opinion of austere +Christians. Monnica went from one to another carrying in a large basket +made of willow branches some pieces of minced meat, bread, and wine mixed +with water. She met her friends in these places. They would sit down around +the tombs, of which some were shaped like tables, unpack the provisions, +and eat and drink piously in honour of the martyr. This was a residue +of pagan superstition among the Christians. These pious _agapæ_, or +love-feasts, often turned into disgusting orgies. When Augustin became +Bishop of Hippo he had considerable trouble to get his people out of the +habit of them. Notwithstanding his efforts, the tradition still lasts. +Every Friday the Muslem women keep up the custom of visiting the cemeteries +and the marabouts. Just as in the time of St. Monnica, they sit around the +tombs, so cool with their casing of painted tiles, in the shade of the +cypress and eucalyptus. They gobble sweetmeats, they gossip, they laugh, +they enjoy themselves--the husbands are not there. + +Monnica made these visits in a really pious state of mind, and was far +from trying to find in them opportunities for lewdness or carouse. She was +content to drink a little wine very carefully--she always bore in mind her +youthful sin. Besides, this wine weakened with water that she brought from +the house, was tepid by the time she reached the cemetery; it would be a +drink of very moderate relish, little likely to stimulate the senses. She +distributed what was left of it among the needy, together with the contents +of her basket, and came back modestly to her house. + +But however staid and reserved she might be, still these outings gave rise +to scandalous talk. They annoyed a suspicious husband. All the Africans are +that. Marital jealousy was not invented by Islam. Moreover, in Monnica's +time men and women took part in these funeral love-feasts and mingled +together disturbingly. Patricius got cross about it, and about a good many +other things too. His old mother chafed his suspicions by carrying to +him the ugly gossip and even the lies of the servants about his wife. By +dint of patience and mildness and attentions, Monnica ended by disarming +her mother-in-law and making it clear that her conduct was perfect. The +old woman flew into a rage with the servants who had lied to her, and +denounced them to her son. Patricius, like a good head of a household, had +them whipped to teach them not to lie any more. Thanks to this exemplary +punishment, and the good sense of the young wife, peace reigned once more +in the family. + +Women, friends of Monnica, were amazed that the good understanding was +not oftener upset, at least in an open manner, between husband and wife. +Everybody in Thagaste knew the quick-tempered and violent character of +Patricius. And yet there were no signs that he beat his wife. Nor did +any one say he did. Other women who had less passionate husbands were +nevertheless beaten by them. When they came to Monnica's house they shewed +her the marks of the whacks they had got, their faces swollen from blows, +and they burst out in abuse of men, clamouring against their lechery, +which, said these matrons, was the cause of the ill-treatment they had to +endure. + +"Blame your own tongue," retorted Monnica. + +According to her, women should close their eyes to the infidelities of +their husbands and avoid arguing with them when they were angry. Silence, +submissiveness, were the all-powerful arms. And since, as a young woman, +she had a certain natural merriment, she added, laughing: + +"Remember what was read to you on your wedding-day. You were told that you +are the handmaids of your husbands. Don't rebel against your masters!..." + +Possibly this was a keen criticism of the pagan code, so hard in its rules. +Still, in this matter, the Roman law was in agreement with the Gospel. +Sincere Christian as she was, the wife of Patricius never had any quarrel +with him on account of his infidelities. So much kindness and resignation +touched the dissolute and brutal husband, who besides was an excellent +man and warm-hearted. The modesty of his wife, after a while, made her +attractive in his eyes. He loved her, so to speak, on the strength of +his respect and admiration for her. He would indeed have been a churl to +find fault with a wife who interfered with him so little and who was a +perfect housekeeper, as we shall see later on when we come to her life at +Cassicium. In one point, where even she did not intend it, she forwarded +the interests of her husband by gaining him the good-will of the Christians +in Thagaste; while he, on his side, could say to the pagans who looked +askance at his marriage: "Am I not one of yourselves?" + +In spite of all the differences between him and Monnica, Patricius was a +contented husband. + + + + +III + +THE COMFORT OF THE MILK + + +Augustin came into this world the thirteenth of November of the year of +Christ 354. + +It was just one little child more in this sensual and pleasure-loving +Africa, land of sin and of carnal productiveness, where children are +born and die like the leaves. But the son of Monnica and Patricius was +predestined: he was not to die in the cradle like so many other tiny +Africans. + +Even if he had not been intended for great things, if he had been only a +head in the crowd, the arrival of this baby ought, all the same, to affect +us, for to the Christian, the destiny of the obscurest and humblest of +souls is a matter of importance. Forty years afterwards, Augustin, in his +_Confessions_, pondered this slight ordinary fact of his birth, which +happened almost unnoticed by the inhabitants of Thagaste, and in truth it +seems to him a great event, not because it concerns himself, bishop and +Father of the Church, but because it is a soul which at this imperceptible +point of time comes into the world. + +Let us clearly understand Augustin's thought. Souls have been ransomed by a +Victim of infinite value. They have themselves an infinite value. Nothing +which goes on in them can be ignored. Their most trifling sins, their +feeblest stirrings towards virtue, are vital for the eternity of their lot. +All shall be attributed to them by the just Judge. The theft of an apple +will weigh perhaps as heavily in the scales as the seizure of a province +or a kingdom. The evil of sin is in the evil intention. Now the fate +of a soul, created by God, on Him depends. Hence everything in a human +life assumes an extreme seriousness and importance. In the history of a +creature, all is worthy of being examined, weighed, studied, and perhaps +also, for the edification of others, told. + +Here is an altogether new way of regarding life, and, proceeding from that, +of understanding art. Even as the slaves, thanks to Christianity, came into +the spiritual city, so the most minute realities by this outlook are to be +included in literature. The _Confessions_ will be the first model of the +art of the new era. A deep and magnificent realism, because it goes even +to the very depths of the divine--utterly distinct, at any rate, from +our surface realism of mere amusement--is about to arise from this new +conception. Without doubt, in Augustin's eyes, beauty dwells in all things, +in so far forth as beauty is a reflection of the order and the thought +of the Word. But it has also a more essential character--it has a moral +signification and value. Everything, in a word, can be the instrument of +the loss or the redemption of a soul. The most insignificant of our actions +reverberates to infinitude on our fate. Regarded from this point, both +things and beings commence to live a life more closely leagued together and +at the same time more private; more individual and more general. All is in +the lump, and nevertheless all is separate. Our salvation concerns only +ourselves, and yet through charity it becomes involved with the salvation +of our fellows. + +In this spirit let us look at the cradle of Augustin. Let us look at it +with the eyes of Augustin himself, and also, perchance, of Monnica. Bending +over the frail body of the little child he once was, he puts to himself +all the great desperate questions which have shaken humanity for thousands +of years. The mystery of life and death rises before him, formidable. It +tortures him to the point of anguish, of confusion: "Yet suffer me to speak +before Thy mercy, me who am but dust and ashes. Yea, suffer me to speak, +for, behold, I speak not to man who scorns me, but to Thy mercy. Even Thou +perhaps dost scorn me, but Thou wilt turn and have pity. For what is it +that I would say, O Lord my God, save that I know not whence I came hither +into this dying life, shall I call it, or living death?... And, lo, my +infancy has long been dead, and I live. But Thou, O Lord, who ever livest +and in whom nothing ever dies--tell me, I beseech Thee, O God, and have +mercy on my misery, tell me whether another life of mine died before my +infancy began." + +One is reminded here of Pascal's famous prosopopoeia: "I know not who +has put me into the world, nor what the world is, nor myself. I am in a +terrible ignorance about everything.... All I know is that I must soon die, +but what I know least of all is this very death which I cannot escape." + +The phrases of the _Pensées_ are only the echo of the phrases of the +_Confessions_. But how different is the tone! Pascal's charge against human +ignorance is merciless. The God of Port-Royal has the hard and motionless +face of the ancient Destiny: He withdraws into the clouds, and only shews +Himself at the end to raise up His poor creature. In Augustin the accent +is tender, trusting, really like a son, and though he be harassed, one can +discern the thrill of an unconquerable hope. Instead of crushing man under +the iron hand of the Justice-dealer, he makes him feel the kindness of the +Father who has got all ready, long before its birth, for the feeble little +child: "The comforts of Thy pity received me, as I have heard from the +father and mother of my flesh.... And so the comfort of woman's milk was +ready for me. For my mother and my nurses did not fill their own bosoms, +but Thou, O Lord, by their means gavest me the food of infancy, according +to Thy ordinance...." + +And see! his heart overflows at this remembrance of his mother's milk. The +great doctor humbles his style, makes it simple and familiar, to tell us of +his first mewlings, and of his baby angers and joys. He too was a father; +he knew what is a new-born child, and a young mother who gives it suck, +because he had seen that with his own eyes close beside him. All the small +bothers which mingle with the pleasures of fatherhood he had experienced +himself. In his own son he studied himself. + + * * * * * + +This child, born of a Christian mother, and who was to become the great +defender of the faith, was not christened at his birth. In the early +Church, and especially in the African Church, it was not usual to do so. +The baptismal day was put as far off as possible, from the conviction that +the sins committed after the sacrament were much more serious than those +which went before. The Africans, very practical folk, clearly foresaw that +they would sin again even after baptism, but they wanted to sin at a better +rate, and lessen the inflictions of penance. This penance in Augustin's +time was far from being as hard as in the century before. Nevertheless, the +remembrance of the old severity always remained, and the habit was taken to +put off baptism so as not to discourage sinners overmuch. + +Monnica, always sedulous to conform with the customs of her country and +the traditions of her Church, fell in with this practice. Perhaps she may +have had also the opposition of her husband to face, for he being a pagan +would not have cared to give too many pledges to the Christians, nor to +compromise himself in the eyes of his fellow-pagans by shewing that he +was so far under the control of Christian zealots as to have his child +baptized out of the ordinary way. There was a middle course, and this was +to inscribe the child among the catechumens. According to the rite of the +first admission to the lowest order of catechumens, the sign of the cross +was made on Augustin's forehead, and the symbolic salt placed between his +lips. And so they did not baptize him. Possibly this affected his whole +life. He lacked the baptismal modesty. Even when he was become a bishop, he +never quite cast off the old man that had splashed through all the pagan +uncleannesses. Some of his words are painfully broad for chaste ears. The +influence of African conditions does not altogether account for this. It is +only too plain that the son of Patricius had never known entire virginity +of soul. + +They named him Aurelius Augustinus. Was Aurelius his family name? We cannot +tell. The Africans always applied very fantastically the rules of Roman +nomenclature. Anyhow, this name was common enough in Africa. The Bishop of +Carthage, primate of the province and a friend of Augustin, was also called +Aurelius. Pious commentators have sought to find in this name an omen of +Augustin's future renown as an orator. They have remarked that the word +_aurum_, gold, is contained in Aurelius--a prophetic indication of the +golden mouth of the great preacher of Hippo. + +Meanwhile, he was a baby like any other baby, who only knew, as he tells +us, how to take his mother's breast. However, he speaks of nurses who +suckled him; no doubt these were servants or slaves of the household. +They gave him their milk, like those Algerian women who, to-day, if their +neighbour is called away, take her child and feed it. Besides, with them +children are weaned much later than with us. You can see mothers sitting at +their doors put down their work and call to a child of two or three playing +in the street for him to come and take the breast. Did Augustin remember +these things? At least he recalled his nurses' games, and the efforts they +made to appease him, and the childish words they taught him to stammer. +The first Latin words he repeated, he picked up from his mother and the +servants, who must also have spoken Punic, the ordinary tongue of the +populace and small trader class. He learned Punic without thinking about +it, in playing with other children of Thagaste, just as the sons of our +colonists learn Arab in playing with little boys who wear chechias on their +heads. + +He is a Christian, a bishop, already a venerated Father, consulted by the +whole Catholic world, and he tells us all that. He tells it in a serious +and contrite way, with a manifest anxiety to attribute to God, as the sole +cause, all the benefits which embellished his childhood, as well as to +deplore his faults and wretchedness, fatal consequence of the original +Fall. And still, we can make out clearly that these suave and far-off +memories have a charm for him which he cannot quite guard himself against. +The attitude of the author of the _Confessions_ is ambiguous and a little +constrained. The father who has loved his child, who has joined in his +games, struggles in him against the theologian who later on was to uphold +the doctrine of Grace against the heretics. He feels that he must shew, not +only that Grace is necessary for salvation and that little children ought +to be baptized, but that they are capable of sinning. Yes, the children sin +even at nurse. And Augustin relates this story of a baby that he had seen: +"I know, because I have seen, jealousy in a babe. It could not speak, yet +it eyed its foster-brother _with pale cheeks and looks of hate_." Children +are already men. The egoism and greediness of the grown man may be already +descried in the newly born. + +However, the theologian of Grace was not able to drive from his mind +this verse of the Gospel: _Sinite ad me parvulos venire_--"Suffer little +children to come unto Me." But he interprets this in a very narrow sense, +luring it into an argument which furthers his case. For him, the small +height of children is a symbol of the humility without which no one can +enter God's kingdom. The Master, according to him, never intended us to +take children as an example. They are but flesh of sin. He only drew from +their littleness one of those similitudes which He, with His fondness for +symbols, favoured. + +Well, let us dare to say it: Augustin goes wrong here. Such is the penalty +of human thought, which in its justest statements always wounds some +truth less clear or mutilates some tender sentiment. Radically, Augustin +is right. The child is wicked as man is. We know it. But against the +relentlessness of the theologian we place the divine gentleness of Christ: +"Suffer little children to come unto Me, for of such is the Kingdom of +God." + + + + +IV + +THE FIRST GAMES + + +"I loved to play," Augustin says, in telling us of those far-off years. + +Is it surprising if this quick and supple intelligence, who mastered +without effort, and as if by instinct, the encyclopædic knowledge of his +age, who found himself at his ease amidst the deepest abstractions, did, at +the beginning, take life as a game? + +The amusements of the little Africans of to-day are not very many, nor very +various either. They have no inventive imagination. In this matter their +French playfellows have taught them a good deal. If they play marbles, or +hopscotch, or rounders, it is in imitation of the _Roumis_. And yet they +are great little players. Games of chance attract them above all. At these +they spend hour after hour, stretched out flat on their stomachs in some +shady corner, and they play with an astonishing intensity of passion. All +their attention is absorbed in what they are about; they employ on the game +all the cunning of their wits, precociously developed, and so soon stuck +fast in material things. + +When Augustin recalls the games of his childhood, he only mentions "nuts," +handball, and birds. To capture a bird, that winged, light, and brilliant +thing, is what all children long to do in every country on earth. But in +Africa, where there are plenty of birds, big people as well as little +love them. In the Moorish cafés, in the wretchedest _gourbis_, cages made +of reeds are hung on the walls, all rustling with trills and fluttering +of wings. Quail, thrushes, nightingales are imprisoned in them. The +nightingale, the singing-bird beyond all others, so difficult to tame, is +the honoured guest, the privileged dweller in these rustic cages. With +the rose, he is an essential part of Arab poetry. The woods round about +Thagaste were full of nightingales. Not the least doubt that the child +Augustin had felt the little musical throats of these singing-birds throb +between his hands. His sermons, his heaviest treatises, have a recollection +of them. He draws from them an evidence in favour of the creating Word who +has put beauty and harmony everywhere. In the song of the nightingale he +finds, as it were, an echo of the music of the spheres. + +If he loved birds, as a poet who knows not that he is a poet, did he love +as well to play at "nuts"? "Nuts," or thimble-rigging, is only a graceful +and crafty game, too crafty for a dreaming and careless little boy. It +calls for watchfulness and presence of mind. Grown men play at it as well +as children. A step of a staircase is used as a table by the players, or +the pavement of a courtyard. Three shells are laid on the stone and a +dried pea. Then, with rapid baffling movements, hands brown and alert fly +from one shell to another, shuffle them, mix them up, juggle the dried +pea sometimes under this shell, sometimes under that,--and the point is +to guess which shell the pea has got under. By means of certain astute +methods, an artful player can make the pea stick to his fingers, or to the +inside of the shell, and the opponent loses every time. They cheat with a +calm shamelessness. Augustin cheated too--which did not prevent him from +bitterly denouncing the cheating of his fellow-players. + +The truth is, that he would not have quite belonged to his country if he +had not lied and stolen now and then. He lied to his tutor and to his +schoolmasters. He stole at his parents' table, in the kitchen, and in the +cellar. But he stole like a man of quality, to make presents and to win +over his playfellows: he ruled the other boys by his presents--a noteworthy +characteristic in this future ruler of souls. Morals like these, a little +rough, shape free and bold natures. Those African children were much less +coddled, much less scolded, than to-day. Monnica had something else to do +than to look after the boys. So for them it was a continual life in the +open air, which makes the body strong and hard. Augustin and his companions +should be pictured as young wild-cats. + +This roughness came out strong at games of ball, and generally at all +the games in which there are two sides, conquerors and prisoners, or +fights with sticks and stones. Stone-throwing is an incurable habit +among the little Africans. Even now in the towns our police are obliged +to take measures against these ferocious children. In Augustin's time, +at Cherchell, which is the ancient _Cæsarea Mauretaniæ_, the childish +population was split into two hostile camps which stoned each other. On +certain holidays the fathers and big brothers joined the children; blood +flowed, and there were deaths. + +The bishop Augustin recalls with severity the "superb victories" he won in +jousts of this kind. But I find it hard to believe that such a delicate +child (he was sickly almost all his life) could have got much pleasure out +of these brutal sports. If he was drawn into them by the example of others, +it must have been through the imagination they appealed to him. In these +battles, wherein sides took the field as Romans against Carthaginians, +Greeks against Trojans, he believed himself Scipio or Hannibal, Achilles +or Hector. He experienced beforehand, as a rhetorician, the intoxication +of a triumph which playfellows who were stronger and better provided with +muscles gave him a hard fight for. He did not always get the upper hand, +except perhaps when he bribed the enemy. But an eager young soul, such +as he was, can hardly be content with half-victories; he wants to excel. +Accordingly, he sought his revenge in those games wherein the mind has the +chief part. He listened to stories with delight, and in his turn repeated +them to his little friends, thus trying upon an audience of boys that charm +of speech by which later he was to subdue crowds. They also played at +acting, at gladiators, at drivers and horses. Some of Augustin's companions +were sons of wealthy citizens who gave splendid entertainments to their +fellow-countrymen. As these dramatic representations, or games of the +arena or circus, drew near, the little child-world was overcome by a +fever of imitation. All the children of Thagaste imitated the actors, the +_mirmillones_, or the horsemen in the amphitheatre, just as the young +Spaniards of to-day imitate the _toreros_. + +In the midst of these amusements Augustin fell ill; he had fever and +violent pains in the stomach. They thought he was going to die. It appears +that it was himself who in this extreme situation asked for baptism. +Monnica was making all haste to have the sacrament administered, when +suddenly, against all expectation, the child recovered. Again was baptism +postponed, and from the same reason: to lessen the gravity of the sins +which young Augustin was bound to commit. His mother, who no doubt foresaw +some of them, again fell in with the custom. + +It is possible that Patricius interfered this time in a more decided way. +Just at this period Catholicism was in an unfavourable situation. The +short reign of Julian had started a violent pagan reaction. Everywhere +the temples were reopening, the sacrifices beginning again. Moreover, +the Donatists secretly aided the pagans. Their _Seids_, more or less +acknowledged, the Circoncelliones, bands of fanatical peasants, scoured +through the Numidian country, attacking the Catholics, ravaging and +pillaging, and burning their farms and villas. Was this a good time to +make a noisy profession of faith, to be enrolled among the ranks of the +conquered party? + +Little Augustin knew nothing of all these calculations of motherly prudence +and fatherly diplomacy: he begged for baptism, so he tells us. This seems +very remarkable in so young a child. But he lived in a house where all the +service was done by Christians. He heard the talk of Monnica's friends; +perhaps, too, of his grandparents, who were Catholics faithful and austere. +And then, his soul was naturally religious. That explains everything: +he asked for baptism to be like grown-up people, and because he was +predestined. Among children, the chosen have these sudden flashes of light. +At certain moments they feel what one day they shall be. Anyhow, Monnica +must have seen this sign with joy. + +He got well, and took up again his little boy's life, divided between play, +and dawdling, and school. + +School! painful memory for Augustin! They sent him to the _primus +magister_, the elementary teacher, a real terror, armed with a long switch +which came down without pity on idle boys. Seated on benches around him, or +crouched on mats, the boys sang out all together: "One and one are two, two +and two are four"--horrible refrain which deafened the whole neighbourhood. +The school was often a mere shed, or a _pergola_ in the fields which was +protected fairly well from sun and rain by cloths stretched overhead--a hut +rented for a trifle, wide open to the winds, with a mosquito-net stretched +out before the entrance. All who were there must have frozen in winter +and broiled in summer. Augustin remembered it as a slaves' chain-prison +(_ergastulum_) of boyhood. + +He hated school and what they taught there--the alphabet, counting, and +the rudiments of Latin and Greek grammar. He had a perfect horror of +lessons--of Greek above all. This schoolboy, who became, when his turn +came, a master, objected to the methods of school. His mind, which grasped +things instinctively at a single bound, could not stand the gradual +procedure of the teaching faculty. He either mastered difficulties at +once, or gave them up. Augustin was one of the numerous victims of the +everlasting mistake of schoolmasters, who do not know how to arrange +their lessons to accord with various kinds of mind. Like most of those +who eventually become great men, he was no good as a pupil. He was often +punished, thrashed--and cruelly thrashed. The master's scourge filled +him with an unspeakable terror. When he was smarting all over from cuts +and came to complain to his parents, they laughed at him or made fun of +him--yes, even the pious Monnica. Then the poor lad, not knowing whom to +turn to, remembered hearing his mother and the servants talk of a Being, +very powerful and very good, who defends the orphan and the oppressed. And +he said from the depths of his heart: + +"O my God, please grant that I am not whipped at school." + +But God did not hear his prayer because he was not a good boy. Augustin was +in despair. + +It is evident that these punishments were cruel, because forty years +afterwards he denounces them with horror. In his mind, they are tortures +comparable to the wooden horse or the iron pincers. Nothing is small +for children, especially for a sensitive child like Augustin. Their +sensitiveness and their imagination exaggerate all things out of due +measure. In this matter, also, schoolmasters often go wrong. They do not +know how to handle delicate organizations. They strike fiercely, when a +few words said at the right moment would have much more effect on the +culprit.... Monnica's son suffered as much from the rod as he took pride +in his successes at games. If, as Scipio, he was filled with a sensation +of glory in his battles against other boys, no doubt he pictured himself +a martyr, a St. Laurence or St. Sebastian, when he was swished. He never +pardoned--save as a Christian--his schoolmasters for having brutalized him. + +Nevertheless, despite his hatred for ill-ordered lessons, his precocious +intelligence was remarked by everybody. It was clear that such lucky gifts +should not be neglected. Monnica, no doubt, was the first to get this into +her head, and she advised Patricius to make Augustin read for a learned +profession. + +The business of the _curia_ was not exactly brilliant, and so he may have +perceived that his son might raise their fortunes if he had definite +employment. Augustin, a professor of eloquence or a celebrated pleader, +might be the saviour and the benefactor of his family. The town councils, +and even the Imperial treasury, paid large salaries to rhetoricians. In +those days, rhetoric led to everything. Some of the professors who went +from town to town giving lectures made considerable fortunes. At Thagaste +they pointed with admiration to the example of the rhetorician Victorinus, +an African, a fellow-countryman, who had made a big reputation over-seas, +and had his statue in the Roman Forum. And many years before, had not M. +Cornelius Fronto, of Cirta, another African, become the tutor of Marcus +Aurelius, who covered him with honours and wealth and finally raised him to +the Consulship? Pertinax himself, did he not begin as a simple teacher of +grammar, and become Proconsul of Africa and then Emperor of Rome? How many +stimulants for provincial ambition!... + +Augustin's parents reasoned as the middle-class parents of to-day. They +discounted the future, and however hard up they were, they resolved to +make sacrifices for his education. And as the schools of Thagaste were +inadequate, it was decided to send this very promising boy to Madaura. + + + + +V + +THE SCHOOLBOY OF MADAURA + + +A new world opened before Augustin. It was perhaps the first time he had +ever gone away from Thagaste. + +Of course, Madaura is not very far off; there are about thirty miles at +most between the two towns. But there are no short journeys for children. +This one lay along the military road which ran from Hippo to Theveste--a +great Roman causeway paved with large flags on the outskirts of towns, and +carefully pebbled over all the rest of the distance. Erect upon the high +saddle of his horse, Augustin, who was to become a tireless traveller +and move about ceaselessly over African roads during all his episcopal +life--Augustin got his first glimpse of the poetry of the open road, a +poetry which we have lost for ever. + +How amusing they were, the African roads of those days, how full of sights! +Pauses were made at inns with walls thick as the ramparts of citadels, +their interiors bordered by stables built in arcades, heaped up with +travellers' packs and harness. In the centre were the trough and cistern; +and to the little rooms opening in a circle on to the balcony, drifted up +a smell of oil and fodder, and the noise of men and of beasts of burthen, +and of the camels as they entered majestically, curving their long necks +under the lintel of the door. Then there was talk with the merchants, just +arrived from the south, who brought news of the nomad countries, and had +stories to tell. And then, without hurrying, a start was made again for the +next stage. Long files of chariots were encountered carrying provisions to +soldiers garrisoned on the frontier, or the State-distributed corn of the +Roman people to the sea-ports; or again, from time to time, the _lectica_, +brought along by slaves or mules, of a bishop on a visitation; and then the +litter, with close-drawn curtains, of a matron or some great personage. Of +a sudden all pulled sharp to one side; the vehicles lined up on the edge of +the road; and there passed at full speed, in a cloud of dust, a messenger +of the Imperial Post.... + +Certainly this road from Hippo to Theveste was one of the busiest and most +picturesque in the province: it was one of its main arteries. + +At first the look of the country is rather like the neighbourhood of +Thagaste. The wooded and mountainous landscape still spreads out its +little breast-shaped hills and its sheets of verdure. Here and there the +road skirts the deeply-ravined valley of the Medjerda. At the foot of the +precipitous slopes, the river can be heard brawling in a torrent over its +stony bed, and there are sharp descents among thickets of juniper and the +fringed roots of the dwarf-pines. Then, as the descent continues, the land +becomes thinner and spaces bare of vegetation appear oftener. At last, upon +a piece of tableland, Madaura comes into view, all white in the midst of +the vast tawny plain, where to-day nothing is to be seen but a mausoleum +in ruins, the remains of a Byzantine fortress, and vague traces vanishing +away. + +This is the first rise of the great plain which declines towards Theveste +and the group of the Aures Mountains. Coming from the woodland country of +Thagaste, the nakedness of it is startling. Here and there, thin cows crop +starveling shrubs which have grown on the bank of some _oued_ run dry. +Little asses, turned loose, save themselves at a gallop towards the tents +of the nomads, spread out, black and hairy, like immense bats on the +whiteness of the land. Nearer, a woman's red _haick_ interposes, the single +stain of bright colour breaking the indefinite brown and grey of the plain. +Here is felt the harshness of Numidia; it is almost the stark spaces of +the desert world. But on the side towards the east, the architecture of +mountains, wildly sculptured, stands against the level reaches of the +horizon. Upon the clear background of the sky, shew, distinctly, lateral +spurs and a cone like to the mystic representation of Tanit. Towards the +south, crumbling isolated crags appear, scattered about like gigantic +pedestals uncrowned of their statues, or like the pipes of an organ raised +there to capture and attune the cry of the great winds of the _steppe_. + +This country is characterized by a different kind of energy from Thagaste. +There is more air and light and space. If the plantation is sparse, the +beautiful shape of the land may be observed all the better. Nothing breaks +or lessens the grand effects of the light.... And let no one say that +Augustin's eyes cared not for all that, he who wrote after his conversion, +and in all the austerity of his repentance: "If sentient things had not a +soul, we should not love them so much." + +It is here, between Madaura and Thagaste, during the eager years of youth, +that he gathered together the seeds of sensations and images which, +later on, were to burst forth into fiery and boiling metaphors in the +_Confessions_, and in his homilies and paraphrases of Holy Scripture. Later +on, he will not have the time to observe, or he will have lost the power. +Rhetoric will stretch its commonplace veil between him and the unceasing +springtide of the earth. Ambition will turn him away from those sights +which reveal themselves only to hearts unselfish and indifferent. Then, +later on, Faith will seize hold of him to the exclusion of all else. He +will no longer perceive the creation save at odd moments in a kind of +metaphysical dream, and, so to speak, across the glory of the Creator. +But in these youthful years all things burst upon him with extraordinary +violence and ecstasy. His undulled senses swallowed greedily the whole +banquet offered by this wide world to his hunger for pleasure. The fugitive +beauty of things and beings, with all their charms, revealed itself to +him in its newness: _novissimarum rerum fugaces pulchritudines, earumque +suavitates_. This craving for sensation will still exist in the great +Christian teacher, and betray itself in the warm and coloured figures +of his style. Of course, he was not as a worldly describer, who studies +to produce phrases which present an image, or arranges glittering +pictures--all such endeavours he knew nothing about. But by instinct, and +thanks to his warm African temperament, he was a kind of impressionist and +metaphysical poet. + +If the rural landscape of Thagaste is reflected in certain passages--the +pleasantest and most well known--of the _Confessions_, all the intellectual +part of Augustin's work finds its symbolical commentary here in this arid +and light-splashed plain of Madaura. Like it, the thought of Augustin has +no shadows. Like it too, it is lightened by strange and splendid tints +which seem to come from far off, from a focal fire invisible to human eyes. +No modern writer has better praised the light--not only the immortal light +of the blessed, but that light which rests on the African fields, and +is on land and sea; and nobody has spoken of it with more amplitude and +wonder. The truth is, that in no country in the world, not even in Egypt, +in the rose-coloured lands of Karnak and Luxor, is the light more pure and +admirable than in these great bare plains of Numidia and the region of the +Sahara. Is there not enchantment for the eyes of the metaphysician in this +play of light, these nameless interfulgent colours which appear flimsy as +the play of thought? For the glowing floating haze is made of nothing--of +lines, of gleam, of unregulated splendour. And all this triumph of +fluctuating light and elusive colour is quenched with the sun, smoulders +into darkness, even as ideas in the obscure depths of the intelligence +which reposes.... + +Not less than this land, stern even to sadness, but hot and sumptuous, the +town of Madaura must have impressed Augustin. + +It was an old Numidian city, proud of its antiquity. Long before the Roman +conquest, it had been a fortress of King Syphax. Afterwards, the conquerors +settled there, and in the second century of our era, Apuleius, the most +famous of its children, could state before a proconsul, not without pride, +that Madaura was a very prosperous colony. It is probable that this old +town was not so much Romanized as its neighbours, Thimgad and Lambesa, +which were of recent foundation and had been built all at once by decree of +the Government. But it may well have been as Roman as Theveste, a no less +ancient city, where the population was probably just as mixed. Madaura, +like Theveste, had its temples with pillars and Corinthian porticoes, its +triumphal arches (these were run up everywhere), its forum surrounded by a +covered gallery and peopled with statues. Statues also were very liberally +distributed in those days. We know of at least three at Madaura which +Augustin mentions in one of his letters: A god Mars in his heroic +nakedness, and another Mars armed from head to foot; opposite, the statue +of a man, in realistic style, stretching out three fingers to neutralize +the evil eye. These familiar figures remained very clear in the +recollection of Augustin. In the evening, or at the hour of the siesta, he +had stretched himself under their pedestals and played at dice or bones in +the cool shade of the god Mars, or of the Man with outstretched fingers. +The slabs of marble of the portico made a good place to play or sleep. + +Among these statues, there was one perhaps which interested the lad and +stimulated all his early ambitions--that of Apuleius, the great man of +Madaura, the orator, philosopher, sorcerer, who was spoken of from one end +to the other of Africa. By dint of gazing at this, and listening to the +praises of the great local author, did the young scholar become aware of +his vocation? Did he have from this time a confused sort of wish to become +one day another Apuleius, a Christian Apuleius--to surpass the reputation +of this celebrated pagan? These impressions and admirations of youth have +always a more or less direct influence upon what use a boy makes of his +talents. + +Be that as it will, Augustin could not take a step in Madaura without +running against the legend of Apuleius, who was become almost a divinity +for his fellow-countrymen. He was looked upon not only as a sage, but as +a most wily nigromancer. The pagans compared him to Christ--nay, put him +higher than Christ. In their view he had worked much more astonishing +miracles than those of Jesus or of Apollonius of Tyana. And people told the +extravagant stories out of his _Metamorphoses_ as real, as having actually +happened. Nothing was seen on all sides but wizards, men changed into +animals, animals, or men and women, under some spell. In the inns, a man +watched with a suspicious look the ways of the maidservant who poured out +his drink or handed him a dish. Perhaps some magic potion was mingled with +the cheese or bread that she was laying on the table. It was an atmosphere +of feverish and delirious credulity. The pagan madness got the better of +the Christians themselves. Augustin, who had lived in this atmosphere, will +later find considerable trouble in maintaining his strong common sense amid +such an overflow of marvels. + +For the moment, the fantasy of tales filled him with at least as much +enthusiasm as the supernatural. At Madaura he lived in a miraculous world, +where everything charmed his senses and his mind, and everything stimulated +his precocious instinct for Beauty. + +More than Thagaste, no doubt, Madaura bore the marks of the building +genius of the Romans. Even to-day their descendants, the Italians, are the +masons of the world, after having been the architects. The Romans were the +building nation above all others. They it was who raised and established +towns upon the same model and according to the same ideal as an oration +or a poem. They really invented the house, _mansio_, not only the shelter +where one lives, but the building which itself lives, which triumphs over +years and centuries, a huge construction ornamental and sightly, existing +as much--and perhaps more--for the delight of the eyes as for usefulness. +The house, the _Town-with-deep-streets_, perfectly ordered, were a great +matter of amazement for the African nomad--he who passes and never settles +down anywhere. He hated them, doubtless, as the haunts of the soldier and +the publican, his oppressors, but he also regarded them with admiration +mixed with jealousy as the true expression of a race which, when it entered +a country, planted itself for eternity, and claimed to join magnificence +and beauty to the manifestation of its strength. The Roman ruins which +are scattered over modern Algeria humiliate ourselves by their pomp--us +who flatter ourselves that we are resuming the work of the Empire and +continuing its tradition. They are a permanent reproach to our mediocrity, +a continual incitement to grandeur and beauty. Of course, the Roman +architecture could not have had on Augustin, this still unformed young +African, the same effect as it has to-day on a Frenchman or a man from +Northern Europe. But it is certain that it formed, without his knowledge, +his thought and his power of sensation, and extended for him the lessons of +the Latin rhetoricians and grammarians. + +All that was not exactly very Christian. But from these early school years +Augustin got further and further away from Christianity, and the examples +he had under his eyes, at Madaura were hardly likely to strengthen him +in his faith. It was hardly an edifying atmosphere there for a Catholic +youth who had a lively imagination, a pleasure-loving temperament, and who +liked pagan literature. The greatest part of the population were pagans, +especially among the aristocrats. The Decurions continued to preside at +festivals in honour of the old idols. + +These festivals were frequent. The least excuse was taken to engarland +piously the doors of houses with branches, to bleed the sacrificial pig, +or slaughter the lamb. In the evening, squares and street corners were +illuminated. Little candles burned on all the thresholds. During the +mysteries of Bacchus, the town councillors themselves headed the popular +rejoicings. It was an African carnival, brutal and full of colour. People +got tipsy, pretended they were mad. For the sport of the thing, they +assaulted the passers and robbed them. The dull blows on tambourines, the +hysterical and nasal preludes of the flutes, excited an immense elation, at +once sensual and mystic. And all quieted down among the cups and leather +flagons of wine, the grease and meats of banquets in the open air. Even in +a country as sober as Africa, the pagan feasts were never much else than +excuses for gorging and orgies. Augustin, who after his conversion had only +sarcasms for the carnival of Madaura, doubtless went with the crowd, like +many other Christians. Rich and influential people gave the example. There +was danger of annoying them by making a group apart. And then, there was no +resisting the agreeableness of such festivals. + +Perhaps he was even brought to these love-feasts by those in whose charge +he was. For, in fact, to whom had he been entrusted? Doubtless to some +host of Patricius, a pagan like himself. Or did he lodge with his master, +a grammarian, who kept a boarding-house for the boys? Almost all these +schoolmasters were pagan too. Is it wonderful that the Christian lessons +of Monnica and the nurses at Thagaste became more and more blurred in +Augustin's mind? Many years after, an old Madaura grammarian, called +Maximus, wrote to him in a tone of loving reproach: "Thou hast drawn away +from us"--_a secta nostra deviasti_. Did he wish to hint that at this time +Augustin had glided into paganism? Nothing is more unlikely. He himself +assures us that the name of Christ remained always "graven on his heart." +But while he was at Madaura he lived indifferently with pagans and +Christians. + +Besides that, the teaching he got was altogether pagan in tone. No doubt he +picked out, as he always did, the subjects which suited him. Minds such as +his fling themselves upon that which is likely to nourish them: they throw +aside all the rest, or suffer it very unwillingly. Thus Augustin never +wavered in his dislike for Greek: he was a poor Greek scholar. He detested +the Greeks by instinct. According to Western prejudice, these men of +the East were all rascals or amusers. Augustin, as a practical African, +always regarded the Greeks as vain, discoursing wits. In a word, they +were not sincere people whom it would be safe to trust. The entirely +local patriotism of the classical Greek authors further annoyed this Roman +citizen who was used to regard the world as his country: he thought them +very narrow-minded to take so much interest in the history of some little +town. As for him, he looked higher and farther. It must be remembered that +in the second half of the fourth century the Greek attitude, broadened and +fully conscious of itself, set itself more and more against Latinism, above +all, politically. There it lay, a hostile and impenetrable block before the +Western peoples. And here was a stronger reason for a Romanized African to +dislike the Greeks. + +So he painfully construed the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_, very cross at the +difficulties of a foreign language which prevented him from grasping the +plots of the fine, fabulous narratives. There were, however, abridgments +used in the schools, a kind of summaries of the Trojan War, written by +Latin grammarians under the odd pseudonyms of Dares the Phrygian and Dictys +of Crete. But these abridgments were very dry for an imagination like +Augustin's. He much preferred the _Æneid_, the poem admired above all +by the Africans, on account of the episode devoted to the foundation of +Carthage. Virgil was his passion. He read and re-read him continually; +he knew him by heart. To the end of his life, in his severest writings, +he quoted verses or whole passages out of his much-loved poet. Dido's +adventure moved him to tears. They had to pluck the book out of his hands. + +Now the reason is that there was a secret harmony between Virgil's soul and +the soul of Augustin. Both were gracious and serious. One, the great poet, +and one, the humble schoolboy, they both had pity on the Queen of Carthage, +they would have liked to save her, or at any rate to mitigate her sadness, +to alter a little the callousness of Æneas and the harshness of the Fates. +But think of it! Love is a divine sickness, a chastisement sent by the +gods. It is just, when all's said, that the guilty one should endure her +agony to the very end. And then, such very great things are going to arise +out of this poor love! Upon it depends the lot of two Empires. What counts +a woman before Rome and Carthage? Besides, she was bound to perish: the +gods had decreed it.... There was in all that a concentrated emotion, a +depth of sentiment, a religious appeal which stirred Augustin's heart, +still unaware of itself. This obedience of the Virgilian hero to the +heavenly will, was already an adumbration of the humility of the future +Christian. + +Certainly, Augustin did not perceive very plainly in these turbid years +of his youth the full religious significance of Virgil's poem. Carried +away by his headstrong nature, he yielded to the heart-rending charm of +the romantic story: he lived it, literally, with the heroine. When his +schoolmasters desired him to elaborate the lament of the dying Queen Dido +in Latin prose, what he wrote had a veritable quiver of anguish. Without +the least defence against lust and the delusions of the heart, he spent +intellectually and in a single outburst all the strength of passion. + +He absorbed every love-poem with the eagerness of a participating soul. If +he took pleasure in the licentiousness of Plautus and Terence, if he read +delightfully those comedies wherein the worst weaknesses are excused and +glorified, I believe that he took still more pleasure in the Latin Elegiacs +who present without any shame the romantic madness of Alexandrine love. +For what sing these poets even to weariness, unless it be that no one can +resist the Cyprian goddess, that life has no other end but love? Love for +itself, to love for the sake of loving--there is the constant subject of +these sensualists, of Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, Ovid. After the story +of Dido, the youthful reader was ravished by the story of Ariadne, even +more disturbing, because no remorse modifies the frenzy of it. He read: + + _Now while the careless hero flees, beating the wave with his + and casting to the gales of the open sea his idle promises,--there, + standing among the shingle of the beach, the daughter of Minos follows + him, alas! with her beautiful sad eyes: she stares, astonied, like to a + Bacchante changed into a statue. She looks forth, and her heart floats + upon the great waves of her grief. She lets slip from her head her + fine-spun coif, she tears away the thin veils which cover her bosom, + and the smooth cincture which supports her quivering breasts. All that + slips from her body into the salt foam which ripples round her feet. + But little she cares for her coif or for her apparel carried away by + the tide! Lost, bewildered, with all her heart and all her soul, she is + clinging to thee, O Theseus._ + +And if Augustin, when he had read these burning verses of Catullus, looked +through the Anthologies which were popular in the African schools, he +would come upon "The Vigil of Venus," that eclogue which ends with such a +passionate cry: + + _O my springtime, when wilt thou come? When shall I be as the swallow? + When shall I cease to be silent?... May he love to-morrow, he + has not loved yet. And he who has already loved, may he love again + to-morrow._ + +Imagine the effect of such exhortations on a youth of fifteen! Truly, this +springtide of love, which the poet cries for in his distress, the son +of Monnica knew well was come for him. How he must have listened to the +musical and melancholy counsellor who told his pain to the leaves of the +book! What stimulant and what food for his boyish longings and dreams! And +what a divine chorus of beauties the great love-heroines of ancient epic +and elegy, Helen, Medea, Ariadne, Phædra, formed and re-formed continually +in his dazzled memory! When we of to-day read such verses at Augustin's +age, some bitterness is mixed with our delight. These heroes and heroines +are too far from us. These almost chimerical beings withdraw from us into +outlying lands, to a vanished world which will never come again. But for +Augustin, this was the world he was born into--it was his pagan Africa +where pleasure was the whole of life, and one lived only for the lusts of +the flesh. And the race of fabulous princesses--they were not dead, those +ladies: they were ever waiting for the well-beloved in the palaces at +Carthage. Yes, the scholar of Madaura lived wonderful hours, dreaming thus +of love between the pages of the poets. These young dreams before love +comes are more bewitching than love itself: a whole unknown world suddenly +discovered and entered with a quivering joy of discovery at each step. The +unused strength of illusion appears inexhaustible, space becomes deeper and +the heart more strong.... + +A long time afterwards, when, recovered from all that, Augustin speaks to +us of the Divine love, he will know fully the infinite value of it from +having gone through all the painful entrancements of the other. And he will +say to us, with the sureness of experience: "The pleasure of the human +heart in the light of truth and the abundance of wisdom--yea, the pleasure +of the human heart, of the faithful heart, and of the heart which is +holy, stands alone. You will find nothing in any voluptuousness fit to be +compared to it. I say not that this other pleasure is less, for that which +is called less hath only to increase to become equal. No, I shall not say +that all other pleasure is less. No comparison can be made. It is another +kind, it is another reality." + + + + +VI + +THE HOLIDAYS AT THAGASTE + + +In the city of Apuleius, the Christian Monnica's son became simply a pagan. +He was near his sixteenth year: the awkward time of early virility was +beginning for him. Prepared at Madaura, it suddenly burst out at Thagaste. + +Augustin came back to his parents, no doubt during the vacation. But +this vacation lasted perhaps a whole year. He had come to the end of his +juvenile studies. The grammarians at Madaura could teach him nothing more. +To round off his acquirements, it would be necessary to attend the lectures +of some well-known rhetorician. Now there were very good rhetoricians only +at Carthage. Besides, it was a fashion, and point of honour, for Numidian +families to send their sons to finish their education in the provincial +capital. Patricius was most eager to do this for his son, who at Madaura +had shewn himself a very brilliant pupil and ought not therefore to be +pulled up half-way down the course. But the life of a student cost a good +deal, and Patricius had no money. His affairs were always muddled. He was +obliged to wait for the rents from his farms, to grind down his tenants, +and, ultimately, despairing of any other way out of it, to ask for an +advance of money from a rich patron. That needed time and diplomacy. + +Days and months went by, and Augustin, with nothing to do, joined in with +easily-made friends and gave himself up to the pleasures of his time of +life, like all the young townsmen of Thagaste--pleasures rather rough and +little various, such as were to be got in a little free-town of those days, +and as they have remained for the natives of to-day, whether they live +a town or country life. To hunt, to ride horseback, to play at games of +chance, to drink, eat, and make love--they wanted nothing beyond that. When +Augustin in his _Confessions_ accuses himself of his youthful escapades he +uses the most scathing language. He speaks of them with horror and disgust. +Once more we are tempted to believe that he exaggerates through an excess +of Christian remorse. There are even some who, put on their guard by this +vehement tone, have questioned the historical value of the _Confessions_. +They argue that when the Bishop of Hippo wrote these things his views and +feelings had altered. He could no longer judge with the same eye and in +the same spirit the happenings of his youth. All this is only too certain: +when he wrote, it was as a Christian he judged himself, and not as a cold +historian who refuses to go beyond the brutal fact. He tried to unravel +the origin and to trace the consequences of the humblest of his actions, +because this is of the highest importance for salvation. But however severe +his judgment may be, it does not impair the reality of the fact itself. +Moreover, in natures like his, acts which others would hardly think of +have a vibration out of all proportion with the act itself. The evil of sin +depends upon the consciousness of the sin and the pleasure taken in it. +Augustin was very intelligent and very sensual. + +In any case, young Africans develop early, and the lechery of the race +is proverbial. It must have been a good deal stronger at a time when +Christianity still had to fight against pagan slackness in these matters, +ere Islam had imposed its hypocritical austerity upon the general conduct. +There is even room for wonder that in Augustin's case this crisis of +development did not happen earlier than his sixteenth year. It seems that +it was only more violent. In what language he describes it! "I dared to +roam the woods and pursue my vagrant loves beneath the shade." But he +was not yet in love--this he points out himself. In his case then it was +simple lust. "From the quagmire of concupiscence, from the well of puberty, +exhaled a mist which clouded and befogged my heart, so that I could not +distinguish between the clear shining of affection and the darkness of +lust.... I could not keep within the kingdom of light, where friendship +binds soul to soul.... And so I polluted the brook of friendship with the +sewage of lust." Let us not try to make it clearer than he has left it +himself. When one thinks of all the African vices, one dare not dwell upon +such avowals. "Lord," he says, "I was loathsome in Thy sight." And with +pitiless justice he analyses the effect of the evil: "It stormed confusedly +within me, whirling my thoughtless youth over the precipices of desire. And +I wandered still further from Thee, and Thou didst leave me to myself; the +torrent of my fornications tossed and swelled and boiled and ran over." And +during this time: "Thou saidst nothing, O my God!" This silence of God is +the terrible sign of hardened sin, of hopeless damnation. It meant utter +depravity of the will; he did not even feel remorse any more. + +Here he is, then, as if unfastened from his child's soul--separated from +himself. The object of his youthful faith has no more meaning for him. He +understands no longer, and it is all one to him that he does not. Thus, +told by himself, does this first crisis of Augustin's life emerge from the +autobiography; and it takes on a general significance. Once for all, under +a definite form, and to a certain degree classic, he has diagnosed with +his subtle experience of doctor of souls the pubescent crisis in all young +men of his age, in all the young Christians who are to come after him. For +the story of Augustin is the story of each of us. The loss of faith always +occurs when the senses first awaken. At this critical moment, when nature +claims us for her service, the consciousness of spiritual things is, in +most cases, either eclipsed or totally destroyed. The gradual usage to the +brutalities of the instinct ends by killing the sensitiveness of the inward +feelings. It is not reason which turns the young man from God; it is the +flesh. Scepticism but provides him with excuses for the new life he is +leading. + +Thus started, Augustin was not able to pull up half-way on the road of +pleasure; he never did anything by halves. In these vulgar revels of the +ordinary wild youth, he wanted again to be best, he wanted to be first as +he was at school. He stirred up his companions and drew them after him. +They in their turn drew him. Among them was found that Alypius, who was the +friend of all his life, who shared his faults and mistakes, who followed +him even in his conversion, and became Bishop of Thagaste. These two future +shepherds of Christ roamed the streets with the lost sheep. They spent +the nights in the open spaces of the town, playing, or wantonly dreaming +before cups of cool drinks. They lounged there, stretched out on mats, with +a crown of leaves on the head, a jasmine garland round the neck, a rose +or marigold thrust above the ear. They never knew what to do next to kill +time. So one fine evening the reckless crew took it into their heads to +rifle a pear tree of one of Patricius's neighbours. This pear tree was just +beyond the vineyard belonging to Augustin's father. The rascals shook down +the pears. They took a few bites to find out the taste, and having decided +this to be rather disappointing, they chucked all the rest to the hogs. + +In this theft, done merely for the pleasure of the thing, Augustin sees +an evidence of diabolical mischief. Doubtless he committed many another +misdeed where, like this, the whole attraction lay in the Satanic joy +of breaking the law. His fury for dissolute courses knew no rest. Did +Monnica observe anything of this change in Augustin? The boy, grown big, +had escaped from the supervision of the women's apartments. If the mother +guessed anything, she did not guess all. It fell to her husband to open her +eyes. With the freedom of manners among the ancients, Augustin relates the +fact quite plainly.... That took place in the bath-buildings at Thagaste. +He was bathing with his father, probably in the _piscina_ of cold baths. +The bathers who came out of the water with dripping limbs were printing +wet marks of their feet upon the mosaic flooring, when Patricius, who was +watching them, suddenly perceived that his son had about him the signs +of manhood, that he was already bearing--as Augustin says himself in his +picturesque language--the first signs of turbulent youth, like another +_toga praetexta_. Patricius, as a good pagan, welcomed with jubilation this +promise of grand-children, and rushed off joyously to brag of his discovery +to Monnica. She took the news in quite another way. Frightened at the idea +of the dangers to which her son's virtue was exposed, she lectured him +in private. But Augustin, from the height of his sixteen years, laughed +at her. "A lot of old-women's gossip! Why does she want to talk about +things she can't understand!..." Tired out at last, Monnica tried to get +a promise from her son that he would at least have some restraint in his +dissipation--that he would avoid women of the town, and above all, that he +would have nothing to do with married women. For the rest, she put him in +God's hands. + +It may be wondered--Augustin himself wonders--that she did not think of +finding him a wife. They marry early in Africa. Even now any Arab labourer +buys a wife for his son, hardly turned sixteen, so that the fires of a too +warm youth may be quenched in marriage. But Monnica, who was not yet a +saint, acted in this matter like a foreseeing and practical woman of the +prosperous class. A wife would be a drag for a young man like Augustin, who +seemed likely to have such a brilliant career. A too early marriage would +jeopardize his future. Before all things, it was important that he should +become an illustrious rhetorician, and raise the fortunes of the family. +For her, all else yielded to this consideration. But she hoped at least +that the headstrong student might consent to be good into the bargain. + +This was also Patricius's way of looking at the matter. And so, says +Augustin, "My father gave himself no concern how I grew towards Thee, or +how chaste I was, provided only that I became a man of culture--however +destitute of Thy culture, O God.... My mother and he slackened the curb +without regard to due severity, and I was suffered to enjoy myself +according to my dissolute fancy." Meanwhile, Patricius was now become +(very tardily) a catechumen. The entreaties of his wife had won him to the +Catholic faith. But his sentiments were not much more Christian--"He hardly +thought of Thee, my God," acknowledges his son, who nevertheless was +pleased at this conversion. If Patricius decided to get converted, it was +probably from political reasons. Since the death of Julian the Apostate, +paganism appeared finally conquered. The Emperor Valentinianus had just +proclaimed heavy penalties against night-sacrifices. In Africa, the +Count Romanus persecuted the Donatists. All the Christians in Thagaste +were Catholic. What was the good of keeping up a useless and dangerous +resistance? Perhaps the end of Patricius--which was near--was as edifying +as Monnica could wish. But at all events, at the present moment, he was +not the man to interfere with Augustin's pleasures: he only thought of +the eventual fortune of the young man. Alone, Monnica might have had some +influence on him, and she herself was fascinated by his future career in +the world. Perhaps, to quiet her conscience, she said to herself that this +frivolous education would be more or less of a help to her son towards +bringing him back to God, that a day would come when the famous rhetorician +would plead the cause of Christ?... + +Scandalized though she might be at his conduct, it is however apparent that +it was about this time she began to get fonder of him, to worry over him as +her favourite child. But it was not till much later that the union between +mother and son became quite complete. Too many old customs still remained +preventing close intercourse between the men and women of a family. And it +will hardly do to picture such intimacy from the intimacy which may exist +between a mother and son of our own time. There was none of the spoiling, +or indulgence, or culpable weakness which enervates maternal tenderness and +makes it injurious to the energy of a manly character. Monnica was severe +and a little rough. If she let her feelings be seen, it was solely before +God. And yet it is most certain that in the depth of her heart she loved +Augustin, not only as a future member of Christ, but humanly, as a woman +frustrated of love in a badly assorted marriage may spend her love on her +child. The brutality of pagan ways revolted her, and she poured on this +young head all her stored-up affection. In Augustin she loved the being she +wished she could love in her husband. + +A number of personal considerations were no doubt involved in the deep and +unselfish attachment she had for her son: instinctively, she looked for him +to protect her against the father's violence. She felt that he would be the +support of her old age, and also, she foresaw dimly what one day he would +be. All this aided to bring about the tie, the understanding, which grew +more and more close between Augustin and Monnica. And so from this time +they both appear to us as they were to appear to all posterity--the pattern +of the Christian Mother and Son. Thanks to them, the hard law of the +ancients has been abrogated. There shall be no more barriers between the +mother and her child. No longer shall it be vain exterior rites which draw +together the members of the same family: they shall communicate in spirit +and truth. Heart speaketh to heart. The fellowship of souls is founded, +and the ties of the domestic hearth are drawn close, as they never were in +antiquity. No more shall they work in concert only for material things; +they will join together to love--and to love each other more. The son will +belong more to his mother. + +At the time we have now come to, Monnica was already undertaking the +conquest of Augustin's soul. She prayed for him fervently. The young man +cared very little: gratitude came to him only after his conversion. At this +time he was thinking of nothing but amusement. For this he even forgot his +career. But Monnica and Patricius thought of it constantly--especially +Patricius, who gave himself enormous trouble to enable this student on a +holiday to finish his studies. Eventually he got together the necessary +money, possibly borrowed enough to make up the sum from some rich landowner +who was the patron of the people of small means in Thagaste--say, that +gorgeous Romanianus, to whom Augustin, in acknowledgment, dedicated one of +his first books. The young man could now take the road for Carthage. + +He left by himself, craving for knowledge and glory and pleasure, his heart +full of longing for what he knew not, and melancholy without cause. What +was going to become of him in the great, unknown city? + + + + +THE SECOND PART + +THE ENCHANTMENT OF CARTHAGE + + + Amare et amari. + "To love and to be loved." + +_Confessions_, III, i. + + + + +I + +CARTHAGO VENERIS + + +"I went to Carthage, where shameful loves bubbled round me like boiling +oil." + +This cry of repentance, uttered by the converted Augustin twenty-five +years later, does not altogether stifle his words of admiration for the +old capital of his country. One can see this patriotic admiration stirring +between the lines. Carthage made a very strong impression on him. He gave +it his heart and remained faithful to the end. His enemies, the Donatists, +called him "the Carthaginian arguer." After he became Bishop of Hippo, he +was continually going to Carthage to preach, or dispute, or consult his +colleagues, or to ask something from men in office. When he is not there, +he is ever speaking of it in his treatises and plain sermons. He takes +comparisons from it: "You who have been to Carthage--" he often says to +his listeners. For the boy from little Thagaste to go to Carthage, was +about the same as for our youths from the provinces to go to Paris. _Veni +Carthaginem_--in these simple words there is a touch of naive emphasis +which reveals the bewilderment of the Numidian student just landed in the +great city. + +And, in fact, it was one of the five great capitals of the Empire: there +were Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria--Carthage. Carthage was the +sea-port capital of the whole western Mediterranean. With its large new +streets, its villas, its temples, its palaces, its docks, its variously +dressed cosmopolitan population, it astonished and delighted the schoolboy +from Madaura. Whatever local marks were left about him, or signs of the +rustic simpleton, it brushed off. At first, Augustin must have felt himself +as good as lost there. + +There he was, his own master, with nobody to counsel and direct him. He +does indeed mention his fellow-countryman, that Romanianus, the patron of +his father and of other people in Thagaste, as a high and generous friend +who invited him to his house when he, a poor youth, came to finish his +studies in a strange city, and helped him, not only with his purse, but +with his friendship. Unfortunately the allusion is not very clear. Still, +it does seem to shew that Augustin, in the first days after his arrival at +Carthage, stayed with Romanianus. It is not in the least improbable that +Romanianus had a house at Carthage and spent the winter there: during the +rest of the year he would be in his country houses round about Thagaste. +This opulent benefactor might not have been satisfied with giving Augustin +a good "tip" for his journey when he was leaving his native town, but may +also have put him up in his own house at Carthage. Such was the atonement +for those enormous fortunes of antiquity: the rich had to give freely and +constantly. With the parcelling out of wealth we have become much more +egoistical. + +In any case, Romanianus, taken up with his pleasures and business, could +not have been much of a guide for Monnica's son. Augustin was therefore +without control, or very nearly. No doubt he came to Carthage with a strong +desire to increase his knowledge and get renown, but still more athirst +for love and the emotions of sentiment. The love-prelude was deliriously +prolonged for him. He was at that time so overwhelmed by it, that it is the +first thing he thinks of when he relates his years at Carthage. "To love +and be loved" seems to him, as to his dear Alexandrine poets, the single +object of life. Yet he was not in love, "but he loved the idea of love." +_Nondum amabam, et amare amabam ... amare amans...._ + +Truly, never a pagan poet had hitherto found such language to speak +of love. These subtle phrases are not only the work of a marvellous +word-smith: through their almost imperceptible shades of meaning may be +descried an entirely new soul, the pleasure-loving soul of the old world +awakening to spiritual life. Modern people have repeated the words more +than enough, but by translating them too literally--"I loved to love"--they +have perhaps distorted the sense. They have made Augustin a kind of +Romantic like Alfred de Musset, a dilettante in love. Augustin is not so +modern, although he often seems one of ourselves. When he wrote those words +he was a bishop and a penitent. What strikes him above all in looking back +upon his uneasy and feverish life as a youth and young man, is the great +onrush of all his being which swept him towards love. Plainly, man is made +for love, since he loves without object and without cause, since in itself +alone the idea of love is already for him a beginning of love. Only he +falls into error in giving to creatures a heart that the Creator alone can +fill and satisfy. In this love for love's sake, Augustin discerned the sign +of the predestined soul whose tenderness will find no rest but in God. That +is why he repeats this word "Love" with a kind of intoxication. He knows +that those who love like him cannot love long with a human love. Nor does +he blush to acknowledge it:--he loved--he loved with all his soul--he +loved to the point of loving the coming of love. Happy intimation for the +Christian! A heart so afire is pledged to the eternal marriage. + +With this heat of passion, this lively sensibility, Augustin was a prey for +Carthage. The voluptuous city took complete hold on him by its charm and +its beauty, by all the seductions of mind and sense, by its promises of +easy enjoyment. + +First of all, it softened this young provincial, used to the harder country +life of his home; it relaxed the Numidian contracted by the roughness of +his climate; it cooled his eyes burned by the sun in the full-flowing of +its waters and the suavity of its horizons. It was a city of laziness, and +above all, of pleasure, as well for those plunged in business as for the +idlers. They called it _Carthago Veneris_--Carthage of Venus. And certainly +the old Phoenician Tanit always reigned there. Since the rebuilding of her +temple by the Romans, she had transformed herself into _Virgo Coelestis_. +This Virgin of Heaven was the great Our Lady of unchastity, towards whom +still mounted the adoration of the African land four hundred years after +the birth of Christ. "Strange Virgin," Augustin was to say later, "who can +only be honoured by the loss of virginity." Her dissolving influence seemed +to overcome the whole region. There is no more feminine country than this +Carthaginian peninsula, ravished on all sides by the caress of the waters. +Stretched out between her lakes on the edge of the sea, Carthage lounged in +the humid warmth of her mists, as if in the suffocating atmosphere of her +vapour-baths. + +She stole away the energies, but she was an enchantment for the eyes. +From the top of the impressive flight of steps which led up to the temple +of Æsculapius on the summit of the Acropolis, Augustin could see at his +feet the huge, even-planned city, with its citadel walls which spread out +indefinitely, its gardens, blue waters, flaxen plains, and the mountains. +Did he pause on the steps at sunset, the two harbours, rounded cup-shape, +shone, rimmed by the quays, like lenses of ruby. To the left, the Lake of +Tunis, stirless, without a ripple, as rich in ethereal lights as a Venetian +lagoon, radiated in ever-altering sheens, delicate and splendid. In front, +across the bay, dotted with the sails of ships close-hauled to the wind, +beyond the wind-swept and shimmering intervals, the mountains of Rhodes +raised their aerial summit-lines against the sky. What an outlook on the +world for a young man dreaming of fame! And what more exhilarating spot +than this Mount Byrsa, where, in deep layers, so many heroic memories were +gathered and superimposed. The great dusty plains which bury themselves +far off in the sands of the desert, the mountains--yes, and isles and +headlands, all bowed before the Hill that Virgil sang and seemed to do +her reverence. She held in awe the innumerable tribes of the barbaric +continent; she was mistress of the sea. Rome herself, from the height of +her Palatine, surged less imperial. + +More than any other of the young men seated with him on the benches of the +school of rhetoric, Augustin hearkened to the dumb appeals which came +from the ancient ruins and new palaces of Carthage. But the supple and +treacherous city knew the secret of enchaining the will. She tempted him by +the open display of her amusements. Under this sun which touches to beauty +the plaster of a hut, the grossest pleasures have an attraction which men +of the North cannot understand. The overflowing of lust surrounds you. +This prolific swarming, all these bodies, close-pressed and soft with +sweat, give forth as it were a breath of fornication which melts the will. +Augustin breathed in with delight the heavy burning air, loaded with human +odours, which filled the streets and squares of Carthage. To all the bold +soliciting, to all the hands stretched out to detain him as he walked, he +yielded. + +But for a mind like his Carthage had more subtle allurements in reserve. +He was taken by her theatres, by the verses of her poets and the melodies +of her musicians. He shed tears at the plays of Menander and Terence; +he lamented upon the misfortunes of separated lovers; he shared their +quarrels, rejoiced and despaired with them. And still he awaited the +epiphany of Love--that Love which the performance of the actors shewed him +to be so touching and fine. + +Such then was Augustin, given over to the irresponsibility of his eighteen +years--a heart spoiled by romantic literature, a mind impatient to try +every sort of intellectual adventure in the most corrupting and bewitching +city known to the pagan centuries, set amidst one of the most entrancing +landscapes in the world. + + + + +II + +THE AFRICAN ROME + + +Carthage did not offer only pleasures to Augustin; it was besides an +extraordinary subject to think about for an understanding so alert and +all-embracing as his. + +At Carthage he understood the Roman grandeur as he could not at Madaura +and the Numidian towns. Here, as elsewhere, the Romans made a point of +impressing the minds of conquered races by the display of their strength +and magnificence. Above all, they aimed at the immense. The towns built +by them offered the same decorative and monumental character of the +Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, which the Romans had further +exaggerated--a character not without emphasis and over-elaboration, but +which was bound to astonish, and that was the main thing in their view. In +short, their ideal was not perceptibly different from that of our modern +town councillors. To lay out streets which intersected at right angles; to +create towns cut into even blocks like chessboards; to multiply prospects +and huge architectural masses--all the Roman cities of this period revealed +such an aim, with an almost identical plan. + +Erected after this type, the new Carthage caused the old to be forgotten. +Everybody agreed that it was second only to Rome. The African writers +squandered the most hyperbolical praises upon it. For them it is "The +splendid, the august, the sublime Carthage." Although there may well be a +certain amount of triviality or of patriotic exaggeration in these praises, +it is certain that the Roman capital of the Province of Africa was no less +considerable than the old metropolis of the Hanno and Barcine factions. +With a population almost as large as that of Rome, it had almost as great +a circumference. It must further be recalled that as it had no ramparts +till the Vandal invasion, the city overflowed into the country. With its +gardens, villas, and burial-places of the dead, it covered nearly the +entire peninsula, to-day depopulated. + +Carthage, as well as Rome, had her Capitol and Palatine upon Mount Byrsa, +where rose no doubt a temple consecrated to the Capitolean triune deities, +Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, not far from the great temple of Æsculapius, a +modern transformation of the old Punic Eschmoum. Hard by these sanctuaries, +the Proconsul's palace dominated Carthage from the height of the acclivity +of the Acropolis. The Forum was at the foot of the hill, probably in the +neighbourhood of the ports--a Forum built and arranged in the Roman way, +with its shops of bankers and money-changers placed under the circular +galleries, with the traditional image of Marsyas, and a number of statues +of local celebrities. Apuleius no doubt had his there. Further off was the +Harbour Square, where gathered foreigners recently landed and the idlers of +the city in search of news, and where the booksellers offered the new books +and pamphlets. There was to be seen one of the curiosities of Carthage--a +mosaic representing fabulous monsters, men without heads, and men with only +one leg and one foot--a huge foot under which, lying upon their backs, they +sheltered from the sun, as under a parasol. On account of this feature they +were called the _sciapodes_. Augustin, who like everybody else had paused +before these grotesque figures, recalls them somewhere to his readers.... +Beside the sea, in the lower town and upon the two near hills of the +Acropolis, were a number of detached buildings that the old authors have +preserved the names of and briefly described. Thanks to the zeal of +archæologists, it is now become impossible to tell where they stood. + +The pagan sanctuaries were numerous. That of the goddess Coelestis, the +great patroness of Carthage, occupied a space of five thousand feet. It +comprised, besides the actual [Greek: hieron], where stood the image of the +goddess, gardens, sacred groves, and courts surrounded with columns. The +ancient Phoenician Moloch had also his temple under the name of Saturn. +They called him _The Old One_, so Augustin tells us, and his worshippers +were falling away. On the other hand, Carthage had another sanctuary which +was very fashionable, a _Serapeum_ as at Alexandria, where were manifested +the pomps of the Egyptian ritual, celebrated by Apuleius. Neighbouring +the holy places, came the places of amusement: the theatre, the Odeum, +circus, stadium, and amphitheatre--this last, of equal dimensions with +the Colosseum at Rome, its gallery rising upon gallery, and its realistic +sculptures of animals and artisans. Then there were the buildings for the +public service: the immense cisterns of the East and the Malga, the great +aqueduct, which, after being carried along a distance of fifty-five miles, +emptied the water of the Zaghouan into the reservoirs at Carthage. Finally, +there were the Baths, some of which we know--those of Antoninus and of +Maximianus, and those of Gargilius, where one of the most important +Councils known to the history of the African Church assembled. There were +likewise many Christian basilicas at the time of Augustin. The authors +mention seventeen: it is likely there were more. That of Damous-el-Karita, +the only one of which considerable traces have been found, was vast and +richly decorated, and was perhaps the cathedral of Carthage. + +What other buildings there were are utterly lost to history. It +may be conjectured, however, that Carthage, as well as Rome, had a +_septizonium_--a decorative building with peristyles one above the other +which surrounded a reservoir. In fact, it is claimed that the one at +Rome was copied from Carthage. Straight streets paved with large flags +intersected around these buildings, forming a network of long avenues, very +bright and ventilated. Some of them were celebrated in the ancient world +either for their beauty or the animation of their trade: the street of the +Jewellers, the street of Health, of Saturn, of Coelestis, too, or of Juno. +The fig and vegetable markets and the public granaries were also some of +the main centres of Carthaginian life. + +It is unquestionable that Carthage, with its buildings and statues, its +squares, avenues and public gardens, looked like a large capital, and was +a perfect example of that ideal of rather brutal magnificence and strength +which the Romans obtruded everywhere. + +And even while it dazzled the young provincial from Thagaste, the African +Rome shewed him the virtue of order--social and political order. Carthage, +the metropolis of Western Africa, maintained an army of officials who +handled the government in its smallest details. First of all, there +were the representatives of the central power, the imperial rulers--the +Proconsul, a sort of vice-emperor, who was surrounded by a full court, a +civil and military staff, a privy council, an _officium_ which included a +crowd of dignitaries and subaltern clerks. Then there was the Proprætor +of Africa who, being in control of the government of the whole African +province, had an _officium_ still larger perhaps than the Proconsul's. +After them came the city magistrates, who were aided in their functions by +the Council of the Decurions--the Senate of Carthage. These Carthaginian +senators cut a considerable figure: for them their colleagues at Rome +were full of airs and graces, and the Emperors endeavoured to keep them +in a good-humour. All the details of city government came under their +supervision: the slaughter-houses, buildings, the gathering of municipal +taxes, and the police, which comprised even the guardians of the Forum. +Then there were the army and navy. The home port of a grain-carrying fleet +which conveyed the African cereals to Ostia, Carthage could starve Rome +if she liked. The grain and oil of all countries lay in her docks--the +storehouses of the state provisions, which were in charge of a special +prefect who had under his orders a whole corporation of overseers and +clerks. + +Augustin must have heard a good deal of grumbling at Carthage against this +excess of officialism. But, all the same, so well-governed a city was a +very good school for a young man who was to combine later the duties of +bishop, judge, and governor. The blessings of order, of what was called +"the Roman peace" no doubt impressed him the more, as he himself came from +a turbulent district often turned upside down by the quarrels of religious +sects and by the depredations of the nomads--a boundary-land of the Sahara +regions where it was much harder to bring the central government into +play than in Carthage and the coast-towns. To appreciate the beauty of +government, there is nothing like living in a country where all is at the +mercy of force or the first-comer's will. Such of the Barbarians who came +in contact with Roman civilization were overcome with admiration for the +good order that it established. But what astonished them more than anything +else was that the Empire was everywhere. + +No man, whatever his race or country, could help feeling proud to belong to +the Roman city. He was at home in all the countries in the world subject +to Rome. Our Europe, split into nationalities, can hardly understand now +this feeling of pride, so different from our narrow patriotisms. The way to +feel something of it is to go to the colonies: out there the least of us +may believe himself a sovereign, simply from the fact that he is a subject +of the governing country. This feeling was very strong in the old world. +Carthage, where the striking effect of the Empire appeared in all its +brilliancy, would increase it in Augustin. He had only to look around him +to value the extent of the privilege conferred by Rome on her citizens. Men +coming from all countries, without exception of race, were, so to speak, +made partners of the Empire and collaborated in the grandeur of the Roman +scheme. If the Proconsul who then occupied the Byrsa palace, the celebrated +Symmachus, belonged to an old Italian family, he whom he represented, +the Emperor Valentinian, was the son of a Pannonian soldier. The Count +Theodosius, the general who suppressed the insurrection of Firmus in +Mauretania, was a Spaniard, and the army he led into Africa was made up, +for the most part, of Gauls. Later on, under Arcadius, another Gaul, +Rufinus, shall be master of the whole of the East. + +An active mind like Augustin's could not remain indifferent before this +spectacle of the world thrown open by Rome to all men of talent. He had the +soul of a poet, quick to enthusiasm; the sight of the Eagles planted on +the Acropolis at Carthage moved him in a way he never forgot. He acquired +the habit of seeing big, and began to cast off race prejudices and all the +petty narrowness of a local spirit. When he became a Christian he did not +close himself up, like the Donatists, within the African Church. His dream +was that Christ's Empire upon earth should equal the Empire of the Cæsars. + +Still, it is desirable not to fall into error upon this Roman unity. +Behind the imposing front it shewed from one end to the other of the +Mediterranean, the variety of peoples, with their manners, traditions, +special religions, was always there, and in Africa more than elsewhere. +The population of Carthage was astonishingly mixed. The hybrid character +of this country without unity was illustrated by the streaks found in the +Carthaginian crowds. All the specimens of African races elbowed one another +in the streets, from the nigger, brought from his native Soudan by the +slave-merchant, to the Romanized Numidian. The inflow, continually renewed, +of traffickers and cosmopolitan adventurers increased this confusion. +And so Carthage was a Babel of races, of costumes, of beliefs and ideas. +Augustin, who was at heart a mystic, but also a dialectician extremely fond +of showy discussions, found in Carthage a lively summary of the religions +and philosophies of his day. During these years of study and reflection he +captured booty of knowledge and observation which he would know how to make +use of in the future. + +In the Carthage sanctuaries and schools, in the squares and the streets, +he could see pass the disciples of all the systems, the props of all the +superstitions, the devotees of all the religions. He heard the shrill +clamour of disputes, the tumult of fights and riots. When a man was at the +end of his arguments, he knocked down his opponent. The authorities had a +good deal of trouble to keep order. Augustin, who was an intrepid logician, +must have longed to take his share in these rows. But one cannot exactly +improvise a faith between to-day and to-morrow. While he awaited the +enlightenment of the truth, he studied the Carthaginian Babel. + +First of all, there was the official religion, the most obvious and perhaps +the most brilliant, that of the Divinity of the Emperors, which was still +kept up even under the Christian Cæsars. Each year, at the end of October, +the elected delegates of the entire province, having at their head the +_Sacerdos province_, the provincial priest, arrived at Carthage. Their +leader, clad in a robe broidered with palms, gold crown on head, made his +solemn entry into the city. It was a perfect invasion, each member dragging +in his wake a mob of clients and servants. The Africans, with their +taste for pomp and colour, seized the chance to give themselves over to a +display of ruinous sumptuosities: rich dresses, expensive horses splendidly +caparisoned, processions, sacrifices, public banquets, games at the circus +and amphitheatre. These strangers so overcrowded the city that the imperial +Government had to forbid them, under severe penalties, to stay longer +than five days. A very prudent measure! At these times, collisions were +inevitable between pagans and Christians. It was desirable to scatter such +crowds as soon as possible, for riots were always smouldering in their +midst. + +No less thronged were the festivals of the Virgin of Heaven. A survival +of the national religion, these feasts were dear to the hearts of the +Carthaginians. Augustin went to them with his fellow-students. "We trooped +there from every quarter," he says. There was a great gathering of people +in the interior court which led up to the temple. The statue, taken from +its sanctuary, was placed before the peristyle upon a kind of repository. +Wantons, arrayed with barbarous lavishness, danced around the holy +image; actors performed and sang hymns. "Our eager eyes," Augustin adds +maliciously, "rested in turn on the goddess, and on the girls, her +adorers." The Great Mother of the Gods, the Goddess of Mount Berecyntus, +was worshipped with similar license. Every year the people of Carthage went +to wash her solemnly in the sea. Her statue, carried in a splendid litter, +robed with precious stuffs, curled and farded, passed through the streets +of the city, with its guard of mummers and Corybants. These last, "with +hair greasy from pomade, pale faces, and a loose and effeminate walk, held +out bowls for alms to the onlookers." + +The devotion to Isis was yet another excuse for processions: the _Serapeum_ +was a rival attraction to the temple of the Heavenly Maiden. If we may +trust Tertullian, the Africans swore only by Serapis. Possibly Mithras +had also worshippers in Carthage. Anyhow, the occult religions were fully +represented there. Miracle-working was becoming more and more the basis +even of paganism. Never had the soothsayers been more flourishing. +Everybody, in secret, pried into the entrails of the sacrificial victims, +or used magic spells. As to the wizards and astrologists, they did business +openly. Augustin himself consulted them, like all the Carthaginians. The +public credulity had no limits. + +On the opposite side from the pagan worship, the sects which had sprung +from Christianity sprouted. True, Africa has given birth to but a small +number of heresies: the Africans had not the subtle mind of the Orientals +and they were not given to theorizing. But a good many of the Eastern +heresies had got into Carthage. Augustin must have still met Arians there, +although at this period Arianism was dying out in Africa. What is certain +is that orthodox Catholicism was in a very critical state. The Donatists +captured its congregations and churches; they were unquestionably in the +majority. They raised altar against altar. If Genethlius was the Catholic +bishop, the Donatist bishop was Parmenianus. And they claimed to be more +Catholic than their opponents. They boasted that they were the Church, the +single, the unique Church, the Church of Christ. But these schismatics +themselves were already splitting up into many sects. At the time Augustin +was studying at Carthage, Rogatus, Bishop of Tenes, had just broken +publicly with Parmenian's party. Another Donatist, Tyconius, published +books wherein he traversed many principles dear to his fellow-religionists. +Doubt darkened consciences. Amid these controversies, where was the truth? +Among whom did the Apostolic tradition dwell? + +To put the finishing touch on this anarchy, a sect which likewise derived +from Christianity--Manicheeism--began to have numerous adepts in Africa. +Watched with suspicion by the Government, it concealed part of its +doctrine, the most scandalous and subversive. But the very mystery which +enveloped it, helped it to get adherents. + +Among all these apostles preaching their gospel, these devotees beating +the drum before their god, these theologians reciprocally insulting and +excommunicating one another, Augustin brought the superficial scepticism of +his eighteenth year. He wanted no more of the religion in which his mother +had brought him up. He was a good talker, a clever dialectician; he was in +a hurry to emancipate himself, to win freedom for his way of thinking as +for his way of life; and he meant to enjoy his youth. With such gifts, and +with such dispositions, he could only choose among all these doctrines that +which would help most the qualities of his mind, at once flattering his +intellectual pretensions, and leaving his pleasure-loving instincts a loose +rein. + + + + +III + +THE CARTHAGE STUDENT + + +However strong were the attractions of the great city, Augustin well knew +that he had not been sent there to amuse himself, or to trifle as an +amateur with philosophy. He was poor, and he had to secure his future--make +his fortune. His family counted on him. Neither was he ignorant of the +difficult position of his parents and by what sacrifices they had supplied +him with the means to finish his studies. Necessarily he was obliged to be +a student who worked. + +With his extraordinary facility, he stood out at once among his +fellow-students. In the rhetoric school, where he attended lectures, +he was, he tells us, not only at the top, but he was the leader of his +companions. He led in everything. At that time, rhetoric was extremely +far-reaching: it had come to take in all the divisions of education, +including science and philosophy. Augustin claims to have learned all that +the masters of his time had to teach: rhetoric, dialectic, geometry, music, +mathematics. Having gone through the whole scholastic system, he thought of +studying law, and aided by his gift of words, to become a barrister. For a +gifted young man it was the shortest and surest road to money and honours. + +Unhappily for him, hardly was he settled down at Carthage than his father +died. This made his future again problematical. How was he to keep up his +studies without the sums coming from his father? The affairs of Patricius +must have been left in the most parlous condition. But Monnica, clinging to +her ambitious plans for her son, knew how to triumph over all difficulties, +and she continued to send Augustin money. Romanianus, the Mæcenas of +Thagaste, who was doubtless applied to by her, came once more to the rescue +of the hard-up student. The young man, set at ease about his expenses, +resumed light-heartedly his studious and dissipated life. + +As a matter of fact, this family bereavement does not seem to have caused +him much grief. In the _Confessions_ he mentions the death of his father in +a few words, and, so to speak, in parenthesis, as an event long foreseen +without much importance. And yet he owed him a great deal. Patricius was +hard pressed, and he took immense trouble to provide the means for his +son's education. But with the fine egotism of youth, Augustin perhaps +thought it enough to have profited by his father's sacrifices, and +dispensed himself from gratitude. In any case, his affection for his father +must have been rather lukewarm; the natural differences between them ran +too deep. In these years, Monnica filled all the heart of Augustin. + +But the influence of Monnica herself was very slight upon this grown-up +youth, eighteen years old. He had forgotten her lessons, and it did not +trouble him much if his conduct added to the worries of the widow, who was +now struggling with her husband's creditors. At heart he was a good son and +he deeply loved his mother, but inevitably the pressure of the life around +him swept him along. + +He has pictured his companions for us, after his conversion, as terrible +blackguards. No doubt he is too severe. Those young men were neither better +nor worse than elsewhere. They were rowdy, as they were in the other cities +of the Empire, and as one always is at that age. Imperial regulations +enjoined the police to have an eye on the students, to note their conduct +and what company they kept. They were not to become members of prohibited +societies, not to go too often to the theatre, nor to waste their time in +raking and feastings. If their conduct became too outrageous, they were to +be beaten with rods and sent back to their parents. At Carthage there was +a hard-living set of men who called themselves "The Wreckers." Their great +pleasure was to go and make a row at a professor's lecture; they would +burst noisily into the classroom and smash up anything they could lay hold +of. They amused themselves also by "ragging" the freshmen, jeering at their +simplicity, and playing them a thousand tricks. Things haven't much changed +since then. The fellow-students of Augustin were so like students of +to-day that the most modern terms suggest themselves to describe their +performances. + +Augustin, who was on the whole well conducted, and, as behoved a future +professor, had a respect for discipline, disapproved of "The Wreckers" and +their violence. This did not prevent him from enjoying himself in their +society. He was overcome with shame because he could not keep pace with +them--we must believe it at least, since he tells us so himself. With a +certain lack of assurance, blended however with much juvenile vanity, he +joined the band. He listened to that counsel of vulgar wisdom which is +disastrous to souls like his: "Do as others do." He accordingly did do +as the others; he knew all their debauchery, or he imagined he did, for +however low he went, he was never able to do anything mean. He was then so +far from the faith that he arranged love-trysts in the churches. "I was not +afraid to think of my lust, and plan a scheme for securing the deadly fruit +of sin, even within the walls of Thy church during the celebration of Thy +mysteries." We might be reading the confession of a sensualist of to-day. +One grows astonished at these morals, at once so old and so modern. What, +already! These young Christian basilicas, but newly sprung out of the +earth, where the men were strictly separated from the women--were they +already become places of assignation, where love-letters were slipped into +hands, and procuresses sold their furtive services!... + +At length the great happiness for which Augustin had so long been sighing +was granted him: he loved and he was loved. + +He loved as he indeed was able to love, with all the impetuosity of his +nature and all the fire of his temperament, with all his heart and all his +senses. "I plunged headlong into love, whose fetters I longed to wear." But +as he went at once to extremes, as he meant to give himself altogether, +and expected all in return, he grew irritated at not receiving this same +kind of love. It was never enough love for him. Yet he was loved, and the +very certainty of this love, always too poor to his mind, exasperated the +violence and pertinacity of his desire. "Because I was loved, I proudly +riveted round myself the chain of woe, to be soon scourged with the red-hot +iron rods of jealousy, torn by suspicions, fears, anger, and quarrels." +This was passion with chorus and orchestra, a little theatrical, with its +violences, its alternations between fury and ecstasy, such as an African, +steeped in romantic literature, would conceive it. Deceived, he flung +himself in desperate pursuit of the ever-flitting love. He had certainly +more than one passion. Each one left him more hungry than the last. + +He was sensual, and he felt each time how brief is pleasure, in what a +limited circle all enjoyment turns. He was tender, eager to give himself; +and he saw plainly that one never gives oneself quite altogether, that even +in the maddest hours of surrender one always reserves oneself in secret, +keeping for oneself something of oneself; and he felt that most of the time +his tenderness got no answer. When the joyous heart brings the offering of +its love, the heart of her he loves is absent. And when it is there, on the +edge of the lips, decked and smiling to meet the loved one, it is the other +who is absent. Almost never do they join together, and they never join +together altogether. And so this Love, which claims to be constant and even +eternal, ought to be, if it would prolong itself, a continual act of faith, +and hope, and charity. To believe in it in spite of its darkening and +falling away; to hope its return, often against all evidence; to pardon its +injustices and sometimes its foul actions--how many are capable of such +abnegation? Augustin went through all that. He was in despair about it. +And then, the nostalgia of predestined souls took hold of him. He had an +indistinct feeling that these human loves were unworthy of him, and that +if he must have a master, he was born to serve another Master. He had a +desire to shake off the platitude of here below, the melancholy fen where +stagnated what he calls "the marsh of the flesh"; to escape, in a word, +from the wretched huts wherein for a little he had sheltered his heart; to +burn all behind him, and so prevent the weakness of a return; and to go and +pitch his tent further, higher, he knew not where--upon some unapproachable +mountain where the air is icy, but before the eyes, the vasty stretches of +light and space.... + +These first loves of Augustin were really too fierce to last. They +burned up themselves. Augustin did not keep them up long. There was in +him, besides, an instinct which counteracted his exuberant, amorous +sentimentality--the sense of beauty. That in itself was enough to make him +pause on the downhill of riot. The anarchy and commotion of passion was +repellent to a mind devoted to clearness and order. But there was still +another thing--the son of the Thagaste freeholder had any amount of common +sense. That at least was left to him of the paternal heritage. A youth of +what we call the lower middle class, strictly brought up in the hard and +frugal discipline of the provinces, he felt the effects of his training. +The bohemianism in which his friends revelled could not hold him +indefinitely. Besides this, the career he desired, that of a barrister +or professor, had a preliminary obligation to maintain a certain outward +decorum. He himself tells us so; in the midst of his most disreputable +performances he aspired to be known for his fashion and wit--_elegans atque +urbanus_. Politeness of speech and manners, the courteous mutual deference +of the best society--such, was the ideal of this budding professor of +rhetoric. + +Anxiety about his future, joined to his rapid disenchantments, ere long +sobered the student: he just took his fling and then settled down. Love +turned for him into sensual habit. His head became clear for study and +meditation. The apprentice to rhetoric liked his business. Up to his +last breath, despite his efforts to change, he continued, like all his +contemporaries, to love rhetoric. He handled words like a worker in verbals +who is aware of their price and knows all their resources. Even after his +conversion, if he condemns profane literature as a poisoner of souls, he +absolves the beauty of language. "I accuse not words," he says. "Words +are choice and precious vessels. I accuse the wine of error that drunken +doctors pour out for us into these fair goblets." At the Rhetoric School he +took extreme pleasure in declaiming. He was applauded; the professor gave +him as an example to the others. These scholastic triumphs foretold others +more celebrated and reverberating. And so, in his heart, literary vanity +and ambition disputed the ever-lively illusions of love. And then, above +all! he had to live; Monnica's remittances were necessarily small; the +generosity of Romanianus had its limit. So he beat about to enlarge his +small student's purse. He wrote verses for poetic competitions. Perhaps +already he was able to act as tutor to certain of his fellow-students, less +advanced. + +If the need of loving tormented his sentimental heart, he tried to assuage +it in friendship. He loved friendship as he loved love. He was a passionate +and faithful friend up to his death. At this time of his life, he was +riveting friendships which were never to be broken. He had beside him his +fellow-countryman, Alypius, the future Bishop of Thagaste, who had followed +him to Carthage and would, later on, follow him to Milan; Nebridius, a not +less dear companion, fated to die early; Honoratus, whom he drew into his +errors and later did his best to enlighten; and, finally, that mysterious +young man, whose name he does not tell us, and whose loss he mourned as +never any one has mourned the death of a friend. + +They lived in daily and hourly intimacy, in continual fervour and +enthusiasm. They were great theatre-goers, where Augustin was able to +satisfy his desire for tender emotions and romantic adventures. They had +musical parties; they tried over again the popular airs heard at the +Odeum or some other of the innumerable theatres at Carthage. All the +Carthaginians, even the populace, were mad about music. The Bishop of +Hippo, in his sermons, recalls a mason upon his scaffolding, or a shoemaker +in his stall, singing away the tunes of well-known musicians. Then our +students strolled on the quays or in the Harbour Square, contemplating +the many-coloured sea, this splendour of waters at the setting sun, which +Augustin will extol one day with an inspiration unknown to the ancient +poets. Above all, they fell into discussions, commented what they had +lately read, or built up astonishing plans for the future. So flowed by a +happy and charming life, abruptly interpolated with superb anticipations. +With what a full heart the Christian penitent calls it back for us!--"What +delighted me in the intercourse of my friends, was the talk, the laughter, +the good turns we did each other, the common study of the masters of +eloquence, the comradeship, now grave now gay, the differences that left +no sting, as of a man differing with himself, the spice of disagreement +which seasoned the monotony of consent. Each by turns would instruct or +listen; impatiently we missed the absent friend, and savoured the joy of +his return. We loved each other with all our hearts, and such tokens of +friendship springing from the heart and displayed by a word, a glance, an +expression, by a thousand pretty complaisances, supply the heat which welds +souls together, and of many make one." + +It is easily understood that such ties as these had given Augustin a +permanent disgust for his rowdy comrades of a former time: he went no more +with "The Wreckers." The small circle he took pleasure in was quiet and +cheerful. Its merriment was controlled by the African gravity. He and his +friends come before my eyes, a little like those students of theology, or +those cultivated young Arabs, who discuss poetry, lolling indolently upon +the cushions of a divan, while they roll between their fingers the amber +beads of their rosary, or walking slowly under the arcades of a mosque, +draped in their white-silk simars, with a serious and meditative air, +gestures elegant and measured, courteous and harmonious speech, and +something discreet, polite, and already clerical in their tone and manners. + +In fact, the life which Augustin was at that time relishing was the pagan +life on its best and gentlest side. The subtle network of habits and daily +occupations enveloped him little by little. There was some risk of his +growing torpid in this soft kind of life, when suddenly a rude shock roused +him.... It was a chance, but in his eyes a providential chance, which put +the _Hortensius_ of Cicero between his hands. Augustin was about nineteen, +still a student; according to the order which prevailed in the schools, +the time had come for him to read and explain this philosophical dialogue. +He had no curiosity about the book. He took it from his sense of duty as +a student, because it figured on the schedule. He unrolled the book, and +began it, doubtless with calm indifference. All of a sudden, a great +unexpected light shone between the lines. His heart throbbed. His whole +soul sprang towards these phrases, so dazzling and revealing. He awoke +from his long drowsiness. Before him shone a marvellous vision.... As this +dialogue is lost, we can hardly to-day account for such enthusiasm, and +we hold that the Roman orator was a very middling philosopher. We know, +however, through Augustin himself, that the book contained an eloquent +praise of wisdom. And then, words are naught without the soul of the +reader; all this, falling into Augustin's soul, rendered a prolonged and +magnificent sound. It is evident, too, that just at the moment when he +unrolled the book he was in a condition to receive this uplifting summons. +In such minutes, when the heart, ignorant of itself, swells like the sea +before a storm, when all the inner riches of the being overflow, the +slightest glimmer is enough to reveal all these imprisoned forces, and the +least shock to set them free. + +He has at least preserved for us, in pious and faithful gratitude, some +phrases of this dialogue which moved him so deeply. Especially does he +admire this passage, wherein the author, after a long discussion, ends in +these terms: "If, as pretend the philosophers of old time, who are also +the greatest and most illustrious, we have a soul immortal and divine, it +behoves us to think, that the more it has persevered in its way, that is to +say, in reason, love, and the pursuit of truth, and the less it has been +intermingled and stained in human error and passion, the easier will it be +for it to raise itself and soar again to the skies." + +Such phrases, read in a certain state of mind, might well overwhelm this +young man, who was ere long to yearn for the cloister and was destined to +be the founder of African monasticism. To give his whole life to the study +of wisdom, to compel himself towards the contemplation of God, to live +here below an almost divine life--this ideal, impossible to pagan wisdom, +Augustin was called to realize in the name of Christ. That had dawned on +him, all at once, while he was reading the _Hortensius_. And this ideal +appeared to him so beautiful, so well worth the sacrifice of all he had +hitherto loved, that nothing else counted for him any more. He despised +rhetoric, the vain studies it compelled him to pursue, the honour and glory +it promised him. What was all that to the prize of wisdom? For wisdom he +felt himself ready to give up the world.... But these heroic outbursts +do not, as a rule, keep up very long in natures so changeable and +impressionable as Augustin's. Yet they are not entirely thrown away. +Thus, in early youth, come dim revelations of the future. There comes a +presentiment of the port to which one will some day be sailing; a glimpse +of the task to fulfil, the work to build up; and all this rises before the +eyes in an entrancement of the whole being. Though the bright image be +eclipsed, perhaps for years, the remembrance of it persists amid the worst +degradations or the worst mediocrities. He who one single time has seen it +pass, can never afterwards live quite like other people. + +This fever calmed, Augustin set himself to reflect. The ancient +philosophers promised him wisdom. But Christ also promised it! Was it not +possible to reconcile them? And was not the Gospel ideal essentially more +human than that of the pagan philosophers? Suppose he tried to submit to +that, to bring the faith of his childhood into line with his ambitions as a +young man of intellect? To be good after the manner of his mother, of his +grandparents, of the good Thagaste servants, of all the humble Christian +souls whose virtues he had been taught to respect, and at the same time to +rival a Plato by the strength of thought--what a dream! Was it possible?... +He tells us himself that the illusion was brief, and that he grew cool +about the _Hortensius_ because he did not find the name of Christ in it. He +deceives himself, probably. At this time he was not so Christian. He yields +to the temptation of a fine phrase: when he wrote his _Confessions_ he had +not yet entirely lost this habit. + +But what remains true is, that feeling the inadequateness of pagan +philosophy, he returned for a moment towards Christianity. The Ciceronian +dialogue, by disappointing his thirst for the truth, gave him the idea of +knocking at the door of the Church and trying to find out if on that side +there might not be a practicable road for him. This is why the reading +of _Hortensius_ is in Augustin's eyes one of the great dates of his life. +Although he fell back in his errors, he takes credit for his effort. +He recognizes in it the first sign, and, as it were, a promise of his +conversion. "Thenceforth, my God, began my upward way, and my return +towards Thee." + +He began then to study the Holy Scriptures with a more or less serious +intention to instruct himself in them. But to go to the Bible by way of +Cicero was to take the worst road. Augustin got lost there. This direct +popular style, which only cares about saying things, and not about how they +are said, could only repel the pupil of Carthage rhetoricians, the imitator +of the harmonious Ciceronian sentences. Not only had he much too spoiled +a taste in literature, but there was also too much literature in this +pose of a young man who starts off one fine morning to conquer wisdom. He +was punished for his lack of sincerity, and especially of humility. He +understood nothing of the Scripture, and "I found it," he says, "a thing +not known to the proud, nor yet laid open to children, but poor in +appearance, lofty in operation, and veiled in mysteries. At that time, I +was not the man to bow my head so as to pass in at its door."... + +He grew tired very quickly. He turned his back on the Bible, as he +had thrown aside _Hortensius_, and he went to find pasture elsewhere. +Nevertheless, his mind had been set in motion. Nevermore was he to know +repose, till he had found truth. He demanded this truth from all the sects +and all the churches. So it was, that in despair he flung himself into +Manicheeism. + +Some have professed amazement that this honest and practical mind should +have stuck fast in a doctrine so tortuous, so equivocal, contaminated by +fancies so grossly absurd. But perhaps it is forgotten that there was +everything in Manicheeism. The leaders of the sect did not deliver the bulk +of the doctrine all at once to their catechumens; the entire initiation was +a matter of several degrees. Now Augustin never went higher than a simple +_auditor_ in the Manichean Church. What attracted specially fine minds to +the Manichees, was that they began by declaring themselves rationalists. +To reconcile faith with natural science and philosophy has been the fad +of heresiarchs and free-thinkers in all ages. The Manicheans bragged that +they had succeeded. They went everywhere, crying out: "Truth, Truth!" That +suited Augustin very well: it was just what he was looking for. He hastened +to the preachings of these humbugs, impatient to receive at last this +"truth," so noisily announced. From what they said, it was contained in +several large books written by their prophet under the guidance of the Holy +Ghost. There was quite a library of them. By way of bamboozling the crowd, +they produced some of them which looked very important, ponderous as +Tables of the Law, richly bound in vellum, and embellished with striking +illuminations. How was it possible to doubt that the entire revelation was +contained in such beautiful books? One felt at once full of respect for a +religion which was able to produce in its favour the testimony of such a +mass of writings. + +However, the priests did not open them. To allay the impatience of their +hearers, they amused them by criticizing the books and dogmas of the +Catholics. This preliminary criticism was the first lesson of their +instruction. They pointed out any number of incoherences, absurdities, +and interpolations in the Bible: according to them, a great part of the +Scriptures had been foisted on the world by the Jews. But they triumphed +especially in detecting the contradictions of the Gospel narratives. They +sapped them with syllogisms. It is easy to understand that these exercises +in logic should have at once attracted the youthful Augustin. With his +extraordinary dialectical subtilty, he soon became very good at it +himself--much better even than his masters. He made speeches in their +assemblies, fenced against a text, peremptorily refuted it, and reduced his +adversaries to silence. He was applauded, covered with praise. A religion +which brought him such successes must be the true one. + +After he became a bishop, he tried to explain to himself how it was that +he fell into Manicheeism, and could find only two reasons. "The first," +he says, "was a friendship which took hold of me under I know not what +appearance of kindness, and was like a cord about my neck.... The second +was those unhappy victories that I almost always won in our disputes." + +But there is still another which he mentions elsewhere, and it had +perhaps the most weight. This was the loose moral code which Manicheeism +authorized. This doctrine taught that we are not responsible for the evil +we do. Our sins and vices are the work of the evil Principle--the God of +Darkness, enemy of the God of Light. Now at the moment when Augustin was +received as _auditor_ by the Manichees, he had a special need of excusing +his conduct by a moral system so convenient and indulgent. He had just +formed his connection with her who was to become the mother of his child. + + + + +IV + +THE SWEETNESS OF TEARS + + +Augustin was nearly twenty. He had finished his studies in rhetoric within +the required time. According to the notions of that age, a young man +ought to have concluded his course by his twentieth year. If not, he was +considered past mending and sent back there and then to his family. + +It may appear surprising that a gifted student like Augustin did not finish +his rhetoric course sooner. But after his terms at Madaura, he had lost +nearly a year at Thagaste. Besides, the life of Carthage had so many charms +for him that doubtless he was in no hurry to leave. However that may be, +the moment was now come for him to make up his mind about his career. +The wishes of his parents, the advice of his masters, as well as his own +ambitions and qualities, urged him, as we know, to become a barrister. But +now, suddenly, all his projects for the future changed. Not only did he +give up the law, but at the very moment when all appeared to smile on him, +at the opening of his youth, he left Carthage to go and bury himself as a +teacher of grammar in the little free-town his birthplace. + +As he has neglected to give any explanation of this sudden determination, +we are reduced to conjectures. It is likely that his mother was bothered +about household expenses and could no longer afford to keep him at +Carthage. Besides, she had other children, a son and daughter, to start in +life. Augustin was on the point of being, if not poor, at least very hard +up. He must do something to earn his living, and as quickly as possible. +In these conditions, the quickest way out of the difficulty was to sell +to others what he had bought from his masters. To live, he would open a +word-shop, as he calls it disdainfully. But as he had only just ceased to +be a student, he could not dream of becoming a professor in a great city +such as Carthage, and setting himself up in rivalry to so many celebrated +masters. The best thing he could do, if he did not want to vegetate, was to +fall back on some more modest post. Now his protector, Romanianus, wanted +him to go to Thagaste. This rich man had a son almost grown up, whom it was +necessary to put as soon as possible in the hands of a tutor. Augustin, +so often helped by the father, was naturally thought of to look after the +youth. Furthermore, Romanianus, who appreciated Augustin's talent, must +have been anxious to attract him to Thagaste and keep him there. With an +eye to the interests of his free-town, he desired to have such a shining +light in the place. So he asked this young man, whom he patronized, to +return to his native district and open a grammar school. He promised +him pupils, and, above all, the support of his influence, which was +considerable, Monnica, as we may conjecture, added her entreaties to those +of the great head of the Thagaste municipality. Augustin yielded. + +Did it grieve him very much to make up his mind to this exile? It must have +been extremely hard for a young man of twenty to give up Carthage and its +pleasures. Moreover, it is pretty nearly certain that at this time he had +already started that connection which was to last so long. To leave a +mistress whom he loved, and that in all the freshness of a passion just +beginning--one wonders how he was able to make up his mind to it. And yet +he did leave, and spent nearly a year at Thagaste. + +One peculiar mark of the youth, and even of the whole life of Augustin, is +the ease with which he unlearns and breaks off his habits--the sentimental +as well as the intellectual. He used up a good many doctrines before +resting in the Catholic truth; and even afterwards, in the course of a +long life, he contradicted and corrected himself more than once in his +controversies and theological writings. His _Retractations_ prove this. One +might say that the accustomed weighs on him as a hindrance to his liberty; +that the look of the places where he lives becomes hateful to him as a +threat of servitude. He feels dimly that his true country is elsewhere, and +that if he must settle anywhere it is in the house of his Heavenly Father. +_Inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te...._ "Restless are our +hearts, O my God, until they rest in Thee." Long before St. Francis of +Assisi, he practised the mystic rule: "As a stranger and a pilgrim." It is +true that in his twentieth year he was very far from being a mystic. But he +already felt that restlessness which made him cross the sea and roam Italy +from Rome to Milan. He is an impulsive. He cannot resist the mirages of his +heart or his imagination. He is always ready to leave. The road and its +chances tempt him. He is eager for the unknown. He lets himself be carried +in delight by the blowing wind. God calls him; he obeys without knowing +where he goes. This unsettled young man, halting between contrary passions, +who feels at home nowhere, has already the soul of an apostle. + +This changeableness of mood was probably the true cause of his departure +for Thagaste. But other more apparent reasons, reasons more patent to a +juvenile consciousness, guided him also. No doubt he was not sorry to +reappear in his little town, although he was so young, with the importance +and authority of a master. His former companions were going to become his +pupils. And then the Manichees had fanaticized him. Carried away by the +neophyte's bubbling zeal, elevated by his triumphs at the public meetings +in Carthage, he meant to shine before his fellow-countrymen, and perhaps +convert them. He departed with his mind made up to proselytize. Let us +believe also, that in spite of his dissolute life, and the new passion that +filled his heart, he did not come back to Thagaste without an affectionate +thought at the back of his head for his mother. + +The reception that Monnica had in reserve for him was going to surprise him +considerably. Since her widowhood, the wife of Patricius had singularly +advanced in the way of Christian perfection. The early Church not only +offered widows the moral help of its sacraments and consolations, it also +granted a special dignity with certain privileges to those who made a vow +to refrain from sex-intercourse. They had in the basilicas, even as the +consecrated virgins, a place of honour, divided from that of the other +matrons by a balustrade. They wore a special dress. They were obliged to +a conduct which would shew them worthy of all the outer marks of respect +which surrounded them. The austerity of Monnica had increased with the zeal +of her faith. She set an example to the Church people at Thagaste. Docile +to the teachings of her priests, eager to serve her brethren, multiplying +alms as much as she could with her straitened means, she was unfailing at +the services of the Church. Twice daily, morning and evening, she might be +seen, exact to the hour of prayer and sermon. She did not go there, her son +assures us, to mingle in cabals and the gossip of pious females, but to +hear God's word in homily, and that God might hear her in prayer. + +The widow compelled all who were about her to the same severe rule which +she herself observed. In this rigid atmosphere of his home, the student +from Carthage, with his free, fashionable airs, must have caused a painful +astonishment. Monnica felt at once that she and her son understood each +other no longer. She began by remonstrating with him. Augustin rebelled. +Things got worse when, with his presumption of the young professor +new-enamelled by the schools, the harsh and aggressive assurance of the +heresiarch, he boasted as loud as he could of being a Manichee. Monnica, +deeply wounded in her piety and motherly tenderness, ordered him to give up +his errors. He refused, and only replied by sarcasms to the poor woman's +complaints. Then she must have believed that the separation was final, that +Augustin had committed an irreparable crime. Being an African Christian, +absolute in her faith and passionate for its defence, she regarded her +son as a public danger. She was filled with horror at his treason. It is +possible, too, that guided by the second-sight of her affection, she saw +clearer into Augustin's heart than he did himself. She was plunged in +sorrow that he mistook himself to this extent, and refused the Grace which +desired to win him to the Catholic unity. And as he was not content with +losing himself, but also drew others into peril--disputing, speech-making +before his friends, abusing his power of language to throw trouble into +consciences--Monnica finally made up her mind. She forbade her son to eat +at her table, or to sleep under her roof. She drove him from the house. + +This must have been a big scandal in Thagaste. It does not appear, however, +that Augustin cared much. In all the conceit of his false knowledge, he had +that kind of inhumanity which drives the intellectual to make litter of the +sweetest and deepest feelings as a sacrifice to his abstract idol. Not only +did he not mind very much if his apostasy made his mother weep, but he did +not trouble, either, to reconcile the chimeras of his brain with the living +reality of his soul and the things of life. Whatever he found inconvenient, +he tranquilly denied, content if he had talked well and entangled his +adversary in the net of his syllogisms. + +Put in interdict by Monnica, he simply went and quartered himself on +Romanianus. The sumptuous hospitality he received there very soon consoled +him for his exile from his home. And if his self-esteem had been affronted, +the pride of living familiarly with so important a personage was, for a +vain young man, a very full compensation. + +In fact, this Romanianus roused the admiration of the whole country by his +luxury and lavish expenditure. He was bound to ruin himself in the long +run, or, at any rate, to raise up envious people bent upon his ruin. Being +at the head of the Decurions, he was the protector, not only of Thagaste, +but of the neighbouring towns. He was the great patron, the influential +man, who had nearly the whole country for his dependents. The town council, +through gratitude and flattery, had had his name engraved upon tables of +brass, and had put up statues to him. It had even conferred powers on him +wider than municipal powers. The truth is that Romanianus did not dole +out his benefactions to his fellow-citizens. He gave them bear-fights and +other spectacles till then unknown at Thagaste. He did not grudge public +banquets, and every day a free meal was to be got at his house. The guests +were served plentifully. After having eaten his dinner, they dipped in +the purse of the host. Romanianus knew the art of doing an obliging thing +discreetly, and even how to anticipate requests which might be painful. So +he was proclaimed unanimously, "the most humane, the most liberal, the most +polite and happiest of men." + +Generous to his dependents, he did not forget himself. He built a villa +which, by the space it occupied, was a real palace, with _thermæ_ walled +in precious marbles. He passed his time in the baths, or gaming, or +hunting--in short, he led the life of a great landed proprietor of those +days. + +No doubt these villas had neither the beauty nor the art-value of the great +Italian villas, which were a kind of museums in a pretty, or grand, natural +frame; but they did not lack charm. Some of them, like that of Romanianus, +were built and decorated at lavish expense. Immensely large, they took +in sometimes an entire village; and sometimes, also, the villa, properly +speaking, the part of the building where the master dwelt, was fortified, +closed in by walls and towers like a feudal castle. Upon the outer gates +and the entrance door might be read in big letters: "The Property of +So-and-so." Often, the inscription was repeated upon the walls of an +enclosure or of a farm, which really belonged to a dependent of the great +man. Under the shelter of the lord's name, these small-holders defended +themselves better against fiscal tyranny, or were included in the +immunities of their patrons. So was formed, under the cover of patronage, +a sort of African feudalism. Augustin's father, who owned vineyards, was +certainly a vassal of Romanianus. + +As the African villa was a centre of agricultural activity, it maintained +on the estate a whole population of slaves, workmen, and small-holders. +The chief herdsman's house neighboured that of the forester. Through +deer-parks, enclosed by latticed fences, wandered gazelles. Oil factories, +vats and cellars for wine, ran on from the bath-buildings and the offices. +Then there was the main building with its immense doorway, its belvedere of +many stories, as in the Roman villas, its interior galleries, and wings to +the right and left of the _atrium_. In front lay the terraces, the gardens +with straight walks formed by closely-clipped hedges of box which led to +pools and jets of water, to arbours covered with ivy, to nymph-fountains +ornamented with columns and statues. In these gardens was a particular +place called the "philosopher's corner." The mistress of the house used to +go there to read or dream. Her chair, or folding-seat, was placed under the +shade of a palm tree. Her "philosopher" followed her, holding her parasol +and leading her little favourite dog. + +It is easy to realize that Augustin managed to stand his mother's severity +without overmuch distress in one of these fine country houses. To be +comfortable there, he had only to follow his natural inclination, which +was, he tells us, epicureanism. It is most certain that at this period +the only thing he cared about and sought after was pleasure. Staying +with Romanianus, he took his share in all the pleasant things of life, +_suavitates illius vitæ_--shared the amusements of his host, and only +bothered about his pupils when he had nothing better to do. He must have +been as little of a grammarian as possible--he hadn't the time. With +the tyrannical friendship of rich people, who are hard put to it to +find occupation, Romanianus doubtless monopolized him from morning till +night. They hunted together, or dined, or read poetry, or discussed in +the evergreen alleys of the garden or "the philosopher's corner." And +naturally, the recent convert to Manicheeism did his best to indoctrinate +and convert his patron--so far at least as a careless man like Romanianus +could be converted. Augustin accuses himself of having "flung" Romanianus +into his own errors. Augustin probably was not so guilty. His wealthy +friend does not seem to have had any very firm convictions. In all +likelihood, he was a pagan, a sceptical or hesitating pagan, such +as existed in numbers at that time. Led by Augustin, he drew near to +Manicheeism. Then, when Augustin gave up Manicheeism for Platonic +philosophy, we see Romanianus take the airs of a philosopher. Later, when +Augustin came back to Catholicism, he drew Romanianus in his wake towards +that religion. This man of fashion was one of those frivolous people who +never go deep into things, for whom ideas are only a pastime, and who +consider philosophers or men of letters as amusers. But it is certain +that he liked to listen to Augustin, and let himself be influenced. If he +trifled with Manicheeism, the reason was that Augustin dazzled him with his +arguments and fine phrases. This orator of twenty had already extraordinary +charm. + +So Augustin led a delightful life with Romanianus. Everything pleased +him--his talking triumphs, the admiration of his hearers, the flattery +and luxury which surrounded him. Meanwhile, Monnica was plunged in grief +at his conduct, and implored God to draw him from his errors. She began +to be sorry that she had sent him away, and with the clear-sightedness of +the Christian, she perceived that Romanianus' house was not good for the +prodigal. It would be better to have him back. Near her he would run less +risk of being corrupted. Through intense praying, came to her a dream +which quickened her determination. "She dreamed that she was weeping and +lamenting, with her feet planted on a wooden rule, when she saw coming +towards her a radiant youth who smiled upon her cheerfully. He asked the +reason of her sorrow and her daily tears ... and when she told him she was +bewailing my perdition, he bade her be of good comfort, look and see, for +where she was, there was I also. She looked, and saw me standing by her +side on the same rule." + +Filled with joy by this promise from on high, Monnica asked her son to +come home. He did come back, but with the quibbles of the Sophist, the +rhetorician cavilled against his mother. He tried to upset her happiness. +He said to her: + +"Since, according to your dream, we are to be both standing on the same +rule, that means that you are going to be a Manichean." + +"No," answered Monnica. "_He_ did not say, where he is you will be, but +where you are he will be." + +Augustin confesses that this strong good sense made a certain impression +on him. Nevertheless he did not change. For still nine years he remained a +Manichee. + +As a last resource, Monnica begged a bishop she knew, a man deeply read in +the Scriptures, to speak with her son and refute his errors. But so great +was the reputation of Augustin as an orator and dialectician that the holy +man dared not try a fall with such a vigorous jouster. He answered the +mother very wisely, that a mind so subtle and acute could not long continue +in such gross sophisms. And he offered his own example, for he, too, had +been a Manichee. But Monnica pressed him with entreaties and tears. At last +the bishop, annoyed by her persistence, but at the same time moved by her +tears, answered with a roughness mingled with kindness and compassion: + +"Go, go! Leave me alone. Live on as you are living. It cannot be that the +son of such tears should be lost." + +_Filius istarum lacrymarum_: the son of such tears!... Was it indeed the +country bishop, or rather the rhetorician Augustin who, in a burst of +gratitude, hit upon this sublime sentence? Certain it is that later on +Augustin saw in his mother's tears as it were a first baptism whence he +came forth regenerate. After having borne him according to the flesh, +Monnica, by her tears and moans, gave him birth into the spiritual life. +Monnica wept because of Augustin. Monnica wept for Augustin. This is rather +astonishing in the case of so severe a mother--this African a trifle +rough. The expressions--tears and moans and weeping--occur so often in +her son's writings, that we are at first tempted to take them for pious +metaphors--figures of a sacred rhetoric. We suspect that Monnica's tears +must come from the Bible, an imitation of King David's penitential tears. +But it would be quite an error to believe that. Monnica wept real tears. +In her whole-hearted prayers she bedewed the pavement of the basilica; she +moistened the balustrade against which she leant her forehead. This austere +woman, this widow whose face nobody saw any more, whose body was shapeless +by reason of the mass of stuffs, grey and black, which wrapped her from +head to foot--this rigid Christian concealed a heart full of love. Love +such as this was then a perfectly new thing. + +That an African woman should carry her piety to the point of fanaticism; +that she should work to conquer her son to her faith; that, if he strayed +from it, she should hate him and drive him out with curses--this has been +seen in Africa at all times. But that a mother should mourn at the thought +that her child is lost for another life; that she grows terror-stricken and +despairing when she thinks that she may possess a happiness in which he +will have no part, and walk in the gardens of Heaven while her child will +not be there--no, this had never been seen before. "Where I am you will +be," near me, against my heart, our two hearts meeting in the one same +love--in this union of souls, continued beyond the grave, lies all the +Christian sweetness and hope. + +Augustin was no longer, or not yet, a Christian. But in his tears he is +the true son of his mother. This gift of tears that Saint Lewis of France +begged God with so much earnestness and contrition to grant him, Monnica's +son had to the full. "For him to weep was a pleasure." [1] He inebriated +himself with his tears. Now, just while he was at Thagaste, he lost a +friend whom he loved intensely. This death set free the fountain of tears. +They are not yet the holy tears which he will shed later before God, but +only poor human tears, more pathetic perhaps to our own weakness. + +[Footnote 1: Sainte-Beuve.] + +Who was this friend? He tells us in very vague terms. We only know that +they had grown up as boys together and had gone to the same schools; that +they had just passed a year together, probably at Carthage; that this young +man, persuaded by him, was become a Manichee; and that, in a word, they +loved passionately. Augustin, while speaking of him, recalls in a deeper +sense what Horace said of his friend Virgil: _dimidium animæ_--"O thou half +of my soul!" + +Well, this young man fell gravely sick of a fever. As all hope was at an +end, they baptized him, according to the custom. He grew better, was almost +cured, "As soon as I was able to talk to him," says Augustin--"and that was +as soon as he could bear it, for I never left his side, and we were bound +up in one another--I ventured a jest, thinking that he would jest too, +about the baptism which he had received, when he could neither think nor +feel. But by this time he had been told of his baptism. He shrank from +me as from an enemy, and with a wonderful new-found courage, warned me +never to speak so to him again, if I wished to remain his friend. I was +so astounded and confused that I said no more, resolving to wait till +he should regain his strength, _when I would tell him frankly what I +thought_." + +So, at this serious moment, he whom they called "the Carthaginian disputer" +was sorry not to be able to measure himself in a bout of dialectics with +his half-dead friend. The intellectual poison had so perverted his mind, +that it almost destroyed in him the feelings of common decency. But if his +head, as he acknowledges, was very much spoiled, his heart remained intact. +His friend died a few days after, and Augustin was not there. He was +stunned by it. + +His grief wrought itself up to wildness and despair. "This sorrow fell like +darkness on my heart, and wherever I looked I saw nothing but death. My +country became a torture, my father's house a misery. All the pleasures +that I had shared with him, turned into hideous anguish now that he was +gone. My eyes sought for him everywhere, and found him not. I hated the +familiar scenes because he was not there, and they could no more cry to +me, 'Lo! he will come.' as they used when he was absent but alive...." +Then Augustin began to weep louder, he prolonged his weeping, finding +consolation only in tears. Monnica's tenderness was restrained; in him it +was given full vent and exaggerated. At that time, the Christian moderation +was unknown to him, as well as the measure which the good taste of the +ancients prompted. He has often been compared to the most touching +geniuses, to Virgil, to Racine, who had also the gift of tears. But +Augustin's tenderness is more abandoned, and, so to speak, more romantic. +It even works up, sometimes, into an unhealthy excitement. + +To be full of feeling, as Augustin was then, is not only to feel with +excessive sensitiveness the least wounds, the slightest touches of love or +hate, nor is it only to give oneself with transport; but it is especially +to take delight in the gift of oneself, to feel at the moment of full +abandonment that one is communicating with something infinitely sweet, +which already has ceased to be the creature loved. It is love for love, it +is to weep for the pleasure of tears, it is to mix with tenderness a kind +of egoism avid of experiences. Having lost his friend, Augustin loathes all +the world. He repeats: "Tears were my only comfort. I was wretched, and +my wretchedness was dear to me." And accordingly, he did not want to be +consoled. But as, little by little, the terrors of that parting subsided, +he perceived himself that he played with grief and made a joy of his +tears. "My tears," he says, "were dearer to me than my friend had been." +By degrees the friend is almost forgotten. Though Augustin may hate life +because his friend has gone, he confesses naively that he would not have +sacrificed his existence for the sake of the dead. He surmises that what +is told of Orestes and Pylades contending to die for each other is but a +fable. Ultimately, he comes to write: "Perhaps I feared to die, _lest the +other half of him whom I had loved so dearly, should perish_." He himself, +in his _Retractations_, condemns this phrase as pure rhetoric. It remains +true that what was perhaps the deepest sorrow of his life--this sorrow so +sincere and painful which had "rent and bloodied his soul"--ended with a +striking phrase. + +It should be added, that in a stormy nature like his, grief, like love, +wears itself out quickly. It burns up passion and sentiment as it does +ideas. When at length he regained his calm, everything appeared drab. +Thagaste became intolerable. With his impulsive temperament, his changeable +humour, he all at once hit upon a plan: To go back to Carthage and open a +rhetoric school. Perhaps, too, the woman he loved and had abandoned there +was pressing him to return. Perhaps she told him that she was about to +become a mother. Always ready to go away, Augustin scarcely hesitated. +It is more than likely that he did not consult Monnica. He only told +Romanianus, who, as he had all kinds of reasons for wanting to keep +Augustin at Thagaste, at first strongly objected. But the young man pointed +to his future, his ambition to win fame. Was he going to bury all that in a +little town? + +Romanianus yielded, and with a generosity that is no longer seen, he paid +the expenses this time too. + + + + +V + +THE SILENCE OF GOD + + +Augustin was going to live nine years at Carthage--nine years that he +squandered in obscure tasks, in disputes sterile or unfortunate for himself +and others--briefly, in an utter forgetfulness of his true vocation. "And +during this time Thou wert silent, O my God!" he cries, in recalling only +the faults of his early youth. Now, the silence of God lay heavy. And yet +even in those years his tormented soul had not ceased to appeal. "Where +wert Thou then, O my God, while I looked for Thee? Thou wert before me. But +I had drawn away from myself and I could not find myself. How much less, +then, could I find Thee." + +This was certainly the most uneasy, and, at moments, the most painful time +of his life. Hardly was he got back to Carthage than he had to struggle +against ever-increasing money difficulties. Not only had he to get his +own living, but the living of others--possibly his mother's and that of +his brother and sister--at all events, he had to support his mistress and +the child. It is possible that the infant was born before its father left +Thagaste; if not, the birth must have occurred shortly after. + +The child was called Adeodatus. There is a kind of irony in this name, +which was then usual, of Adeodatus--"Gift of God." This son of his sin, as +Augustin calls him, this son whom he did not want, and the news of whose +birth must have been a painful shock--this poor child was a gift of Heaven +which the father could have well done without. And then, when he saw him, +he was filled with joy, and he cherished him as a real gift from God. + +He accepted his fatherhood courageously, and, as it happens in such +cases, he was drawn closer to his mistress, their association taking on +something of conjugal dignity. Did the mother of Adeodatus justify such +attachment--an attachment which was to last more than ten years? The +mystery in which Augustin intended that the woman he had loved the most +should remain enveloped for all time, is nearly impenetrable to us. No +doubt she was of a very humble, not to say low class, since Monnica judged +it impossible to bring about a marriage between the ill-assorted pair. +There must have been an extreme inequality between the birth and education +of the lovers. This did not prevent Augustin from loving his mistress +passionately, for her beauty perhaps, or perhaps for her goodness of heart, +or both. Nevertheless, it is surprising, that in view of his changing +humour, and his prompt and impressionable soul, he remained faithful to +her so long. What was to prevent his taking his son and going off? Ancient +custom authorized such an act. But Augustin was tender-hearted. He was +afraid to cause pain; he dreaded for others the wounds that caused him so +much suffering himself. So he stayed on from kindness, from pity, habit +too, and also because, in spite of everything, he loved the mother of his +child. Up to the time of his conversion, they lived like husband and wife. + +So now, to keep his family, he really turns "a dealer in words." In spite +of his youth (he was barely twenty) the terms he had kept at Thagaste as +a teacher of grammar allowed him to take his place among the rhetoricians +at Carthage. Thanks to Romanianus, he got pupils at once. His protector at +Thagaste sent his son, that young Licentius whose education Augustin had +already begun, with one of his brothers, doubtless younger. It seems likely +that the two youths lived in Augustin's house. A small fact which their +master has preserved, looks like a proof of this. A spoon having been lost +in the house, Augustin, to find out where it was, told Licentius to go +and consult a wizard, one Albicerius, who had, just then, a great name in +Carthage. This message is scarcely to be explained unless we suppose the +lad was lodging in his professor's house. Another of the pupils is known to +us. This is Eulogius, who was later on a rhetorician at Carthage, and of +whom Augustin relates an extraordinary dream. Finally, there was Alypius, +a little younger than himself, his friend--"the brother of his heart," as +he calls him. Alypius had been attending his lessons at Thagaste. When the +schoolmaster abruptly threw up his employment, the father of the pupil +was angry, and in sending his son to Carthage, he forbade him to go near +Augustin's class. But it was difficult to keep such eager friends apart. +Little by little, Alypius overcame his father's objections, and became a +pupil of his friend. + +Augustin's knowledge, when he began to lecture, could not have been very +deep, for he had only lately quitted the student's bench himself. His +duties forced him to learn what he did not know. In teaching he taught +himself. It was at this time that he did most of the reading which +afterwards added substance to his polemics and treatises. He tells us +himself that he read in those days all that he could lay hands on. He is +very proud of having read by himself and understood without any assistance +from a master, the _Ten Categories_ of Aristotle, which was considered one +of the most abstruse works of the Stagirite. In an age when instruction was +principally by word of mouth, and books comparatively rare, it is obvious +that Augustin was not what we call an "all-devouring reader." We do not +know if Carthage had many libraries, or what the libraries were worth. It +is no less true that the author of _The City of God_ is the last of the +Latin writers who had a really all-round knowledge. It is he who is the +link between modern times and pagan antiquity. The Middle Age hardly knew +classical literature, save by the allusions and quotations of Augustin. + +So in spite of family and professional cares, he did not lose his +intellectual proclivities. The conquest of truth remained always his great +ambition. He still hoped to find it in Manicheeism, but he began to think +that it was a long time coming. The leaders of the sect could not have +trusted him thoroughly. They feared his acute and subtle mind, so quick +to detect the flaw in a thesis or argument. That is why they postponed +his initiation into their secret doctrines. Augustin remained a simple +_auditor_ in their Church. By way of appeasing the enormous activity of +his intelligence, they turned him on to controversy, and the critical +discussion of the Scriptures. Giving themselves out for Christians, they +adopted a part of them, and flung aside as interpolated or forged all that +was not in tune with their theology. Augustin, as we know, triumphed in +disputes of this kind, and was vain because he excelled in them. + +And when he grew tired of this negative criticism and asked his evangelists +to give him more substantial food, they put him on some exoteric doctrine +calculated to appeal to a young imagination by its poetic or philosophical +colouring. The catechumen was not satisfied, but he put up with it for +lack of anything better. Very prettily he compares these enemies of the +Scriptures to the snarers of birds, who defile or fill with earth all the +water-places where the birds use to drink, save one mere; and about this +they set their snares. The birds all fly there, not because the water +is better, but because there is no other water, and they know not where +else to go and drink. So Augustin, not knowing where to quench his thirst +for truth, was fain to make the best of the confused pantheism of the +Manichees. + +What remains noteworthy is, that however unstable his own convictions were, +he yet converted everybody about him. It was through him that his friends +became Manichees: Alypius one of the first; then Nebridius, the son of a +great landowner near Carthage; Honoratius, Marcianus; perhaps, too, the +youngest of his pupils, Licentius and his brother--all victims of his +persuasive tongue, which he exerted later on to draw them back from their +errors. So great was his charm--so deep, especially, was public credulity! + +This fourth century was no longer a century of strong Christian faith. On +the other hand, the last agony of paganism was marked by a new attack of +the lowest credulity and superstition. As the Church energetically combated +both one and the other, it is not surprising that it was chiefly the +pagans who were contaminated. The old religion was to end by foundering in +magic. The greatest minds of the period, the neo-Platonists, the Emperor +Julian himself, were miracle-workers, or at any rate, adepts in the occult +sciences. Augustin, who was then separated from Christianity, followed the +general impulse, together with the young men he knew. Just now we saw him +sending to consult the soothsayer, Albicerius, about the loss of a spoon. +And this man of intellect believed also in astrologers and nigromancers. + +Strips of lead have been found at Carthage upon which are written magic +spells against horses entered for races in the circus. Just like the +Carthaginian jockeys, Augustin had recourse to these hidden and fraudulent +practices, to make sure of success. On the eve of a verse competition in +the theatre, he fell in with a wizard who offered, if they could agree +about the price, to sacrifice a certain number of animals to buy the +victory. Upon this, Augustin, very much annoyed, declared that if the prize +were a crown of immortal gold, not a fly should be sacrificed to help him +win it. Really, magic was repellent to the honesty of his mind, as well +as to his nerves, by reason of the suspicious and brutal part of its +operations. As a rule, it was involved with haruspicy, and had a side of +sacred anatomy and the kitchen which revolted the sensitive--dissection +of flesh, inspection of entrails, not to mention the slaughtering and +strangling of victims. Fanatics, such as Julian, gave themselves up with +delight to these disgusting manipulations. What we know of Augustin's soul +makes it quite clear why he recoiled with horror. + +Astrology, on the contrary, attracted him by its apparent science. Its +adepts called themselves "mathematicians," and thus seemed to borrow from +the exact sciences something of their solidity. Augustin often discussed +astrology with a Carthage physician, Vindicianus, a man of great sense +and wide learning, who even reached Proconsular honours. In vain did he +point out to the young rhetorician that the pretended prophecies of the +mathematicians were the effect of chance; in vain did Nebridius, less +credulous than his friend, join his arguments to those of the crafty +physician; Augustin clung obstinately to his chimera. His dialectical mind +discovered ingenious justifications for what the astrologers claimed. + +Thus, dazzled by all the intellectual phantasms, he strayed from one +science to another, repeating meanwhile in his heart the motto of his +Manichean masters: "The Truth, the Truth!". But whatever might be the +attractions of the speculative life, he had first to face the needs of +actual life. The sight of his child called him back to a sense of his +position. To get money, and for that purpose to push himself forward, put +himself in evidence, increase his reputation--Augustin worked at that as +hard as he could. It led him to enter for the prize of dramatic poetry. +He was declared the winner. His old friend, the physician Vindicianus, who +was then Proconsul, placed the crown, as he says, upon his "disordered +head." The future Father of the Church writing for the theatre--and what a +theatre it was then!--is not the least extraordinary thing in this life so +disturbed and, at first sight, so contradictory. + +It was also from literary ambition that about the same time he wrote a book +on æsthetics called _Upon the Beautiful and the Fit_, which he dedicated to +a famous colleague, the Syrian Hierius, "orator to the City of Rome," one +of the professors of the official education appointed either by the Roman +municipality or the Imperial treasury. This Levantine rhetorician had an +immense success in the capital of the Empire. His renown had got beyond +academical and fashionable circles and crossed the sea. Augustin admired +him on trust, like everybody else. It is clear that, at this time he could +not imagine a more glorious fortune for himself than to become, like +Hierius, orator to the City of Rome. Later in life, the Bishop of Hippo, +while condemning the vanity of his youthful ambitions, must have made some +extremely ironical reflections as to their modesty. How mistaken he was +about himself! An Augustin had dreamed of equalling one day this obscure +pedagogue, of whom nobody, save for him, would ever have spoken again. Men +of instinct, like Augustin, continually go wrong in this way about their +object and the means to employ. But their mistakes are only in appearance. +A will stronger than their own leads them, by mysterious ways, whither they +ought to go. + +This first book of Augustin's is lost, and we are unable to say whether +there be any reason to regret it. He himself recalls it to us in a very +indifferent tone and rather vague terms. It would seem, however, that his +æsthetic had a basis of Manichean metaphysics. But what is significant for +us, in this youthful essay, is that the first time Augustin wrote as an +author it was to define and to praise Beauty. He did not yet know, at least +not directly from the text, the dialogues of Plato, and he is already +inclined to Platonism. He was this by nature. His Christianity will be a +religion all of light and beauty. For him, the supreme Beauty is identical +with the supreme Love. "Do we love anything," he used to say to his +friends, "except what is beautiful?" _Num amamus aliquid, nisi pulchrum?_ +Again, at the end of his life, when he strives in _The City of God_ to +make clear for us the dogma of the resurrection of the body, he thinks our +bodies shall rise free from all earthly flaws, in all the splendour of the +perfect human type. Nothing of the body will be lost. It will keep all its +limbs and all its organs _because they are beautiful_. One recognizes in +this passage, not only the Platonist, but the traveller and art-lover, who +had gazed upon some of the finest specimens of ancient statuary. + +This first book had hardly any success. Augustin does not even say whether +the celebrated Hierius paid him a compliment about it, and he has an air +of giving us to understand that he had no other admirer but himself. New +disappointments, more serious mortifications, changed little by little his +state of mind and his plans for the future. He was obliged to acknowledge +that after years of effort he was scarcely more advanced than at the start. +There was no chance to delude himself with vain pretences: it was quite +plain to everybody that the rhetorician Augustin was not a success. Now, +why was this? Was it that he lacked the gift of teaching? Perhaps he had +not the knack of keeping order, which is the most indispensable of all +for a schoolmaster. What suited him best no doubt was a small and select +audience which he charmed rather than ruled. Large and noisy classes he +could not manage. At Carthage, these rhetoric classes were particularly +difficult to keep in order, because the students were more rowdy than +elsewhere. At any moment "The Wreckers" might burst in and make a row. +Augustin, who had not joined in these "rags" when he was a student, saw +himself obliged to endure them as a professor. He had nothing worse to +complain of than his fellow-professors, in whose classes the same kind of +disturbance took place. That was the custom and, in a manner of speaking, +the rule in the Carthage schools. For all that, a little more authoritative +bearing would not have harmed him in the eyes of these disorderly boys. But +he had still graver defects for a professor who wants to get on: he was not +a schemer, and he could not make the most of himself. + +It is quite possible that he did not possess the qualities which just then +pleased the pagan public in a rhetorician. The importance that the ancients +attached to physical advantages in an orator is well known. Now, according +to an old tradition, Augustin was a little man and not strong: till the end +of his life he complained of his health. He had a weak voice, a delicate +chest, and was often hoarse. Surely this injured him before audiences used +to all the outward emphasis and all the studied graces of Roman eloquence. +Finally, his written and spoken language had none of those brilliant and +ingenious curiosities of phrase which pleased in literary and fashionable +circles. This inexhaustibly prolific writer is not in the least a stylist. +In this respect he is inferior to Apuleius, or Tertullian, though he leaves +them far behind in the qualities of sincere and deep sentiment, poetic +flow, colour, the vividness of metaphor, and, besides, the emotion, the +suavity of the tone. With all that, no matter how hard he tried, he could +never grasp what the rhetoricians of his time understood by style. This is +why his writings, as well as his addresses, were not very much liked. + +Nevertheless, good judges recognized his value, and guessed the powers, +lying still unformed within him, which he was misusing ere they were +mature. He was received at the house of the Proconsul Vindicianus, who +liked to talk with him, and treated him with quite fatherly kindness. +Augustin knew people in the best society. He did all his life. His charm +and captivating manners made him welcome in the most exclusive circles. +But just because he was valued by fashionable society, it came home to him +more painfully that he had not the position he deserved with the public +at large. Little by little his humour grew bitter. In this angry state of +mind he was no longer able to consider things with the same confidence and +serenity. His mental disquietudes took hold of him again. + +His ideas were affected, first of all. He began to have doubts, more +and more definite, about Manicheeism. He began by suspecting the rather +theatrical austerity which the initiated of the sect made such a great +parade of. Among other turpitudes, he saw one day in one of the busiest +parts of Carthage "three of the Elect whinny after some women or other who +were passing, and begin making such obscene signs that they surpassed the +coarsest people for impudence and shamelessness." He was scandalized at +that; but, after all, it was a small thing. He himself was not so very +virtuous then. Generally your intellectual worries very little about +squaring his conduct with his principles, and does not bother about the +practical part. No; what was much worse in his eyes is that the Manichean +physical science, a congeries of fables more or less symbolical, suddenly +struck him as ruinous. He had just been studying astronomy, and he found +that the cosmology of the Manichees--of these men who called themselves +materialists--did not agree with scientific facts. Therefore Manicheeism +must be wrong universally, since it ran counter to reason confirmed by +experience. + +Augustin spoke about his doubts, not only to his friends, but to the +priests of his sect. These got out of the difficulty by evasions and the +most dazzling promises. A Manichee bishop, a certain Faustus, was coming +to Carthage. He was a man of immense learning. Most certainly he would +refute every objection without the least trouble. He would confirm the +young _auditors_ in their faith.... So Augustin and his friends waited for +Faustus as for a Messiah. Their disappointment was immense. The supposed +doctor turned out to be an ignorant man, who possessed no tincture of +science or philosophy, and whose intellectual baggage consisted of nothing +but a little grammar. A delightful talker and a wit, the most he could do +was to discourse pleasantly on literature. + +This disappointment, joined to the set-backs in his profession, brought +about a crisis of soul and conscience in Augustin. So this Truth which he +had sighed after so long, which had been so much promised to him, was only +a decoy! One must be content not to know!... Then what was left to do since +truth was unapproachable? Possibly fortune and honours would console him +for it. But he was far enough from them too. He felt that he was on the +wrong road, that he was getting into a rut at Carthage, as he had got into +a rut at Thagaste. He must succeed, whatever the cost!... And then he gave +way to one of those moments of weariness, when a man has no further hope of +saving himself save by some desperate step. He was sick of where he was and +of those about him. His friends, whom he knew too well, had nothing more +to teach him, and could not help him in the only search which passionately +interested him. And his entanglement became irksome. Here was nine years +that this sharing of bed and board had lasted. His son was at that +unattractive age which rather bores a young father than it revives an +affection already old. No doubt he did not want to abandon him. He did not +intend to break altogether with his mistress. But he felt the need of a +change of air, to take himself off somewhere else, where he could breathe +more freely and get fresh courage for his task. + +Then it dawned on him to try his fortune at Rome. It was there that +literary reputations were made. He would find there, no doubt, better +judges than at Carthage. He would very likely end by getting a post in the +public instruction, with a steady salary--this would relieve him of present +worries, at all events. Probably he had already this plan in his head when +he sent his treatise _On the Beautiful_ to Hierius, orator to the City of +Rome; he thought that by this politeness he might depend, later, on the +backing of the well-known rhetorician. Lastly, his friends, Honoratius, +Marcianus, and the others, earnestly persuaded him to go and find a stage +worthy of him at Rome. Alypius, who was at this time finishing his law +studies there, and must have felt their separation, pressed him to come to +Rome and promised him success. + +Once more, Augustin was ready to go away. He was not long in making up his +mind. He was going to leave all belonging to him, his mistress, his child, +till the time when his new position would enable him to send for them. He +himself tells us that the chief motive which led him to decide on this +journey was that the Roman students were said to be better disciplined +and less noisy than the students at Carthage. Evidently, that is a reason +which would weigh with a professor who objected to act the policeman in his +class. But besides the reasons we have given, there were others which must +have influenced his decision. Theodosius had lately ordered very heavy +penalties against the Manichees. Not only did he condemn them to death, but +he had instituted a perfect Inquisition, with the special duty of spying +upon and prosecuting these heretics. Did it occur to Augustin that he might +hide better in Rome, where he was unknown, than in a city where he was a +marked man on account of his proselytizing zeal? In any case, his departure +gave rise to calumnies which his adversaries, the Donatists, did not +fail many years later to bring up again and make worse. They accused him +of having run away from prosecution; he fled the country, so they said, +on account of a judgment which was out against him, pronounced by the +Proconsul Messianus. Augustin had no trouble in refuting these false +insinuations. But all these facts seem to prove that the most ordinary +prudence warned him to cross the sea as soon as possible. + +Accordingly, he prepared to set sail. Let us hope that in spite of his +lofty indifference to material things, he made some provision for the +existence of the woman and child he left behind. As for her, she appeared +to agree without over-many violent scenes to this parting, which, he said, +was temporary. It was not the same with his mother. The very idea of Rome, +which seemed to her another Babylon, terrified this austere African woman. +What spiritual dangers lay in wait for her son there! She wanted to keep +him near her, both to bring him to the faith and also to love him--this +Augustin who had been her only human love. And then he was doubtless the +chief support of the widow. Without him, what was going to become of her? + +The fugitive was forced to put a trick on Monnica so as to carry out his +plan. She would not leave him a moment, folded him in her arms, implored +him with tears not to go. The night he was to sail she followed him down to +the dock, although Augustin, to allay her suspicions, had told her a lie. +He pretended that he was only going down to the ship with a friend to see +him off. But Monnica, only half believing, followed. Night fell. Meanwhile, +the ship, anchored in a little bay to the north of the city, did not move. +The sailors were waiting till a wind rose to slip their moorings. The +weather was moist and oppressive, as it usually is in the Mediterranean in +August and September. There was not a breath of air. The hours passed on. +Monnica, overcome by heat and fatigue, could hardly stand. Then Augustin +cunningly persuaded her to go and pass the night in a chapel hard by, since +it was plain that the ship would not weigh anchor till dawn. After many +remonstrances, she at length agreed to rest in this chapel--a _memoria_ +consecrated to St. Cyprian, the great martyr and patron of Carthage. + +Like most of the African sanctuaries of those days, and the _marabouts_ +of to-day, this one must have been either surrounded, or approached, by a +court with a portico in arcades, where it was possible to sleep. Monnica +sat down on the ground under her heap of veils among other poor people and +travellers, who were come like her to try to find a little cool air on this +stifling night near the relics of the blessed Cyprian. She prayed for her +child, offering to God "the blood of her heart," begging God not to let +him go, "for she loved to keep me with her" says Augustin, "as mothers are +wont, yes, far more than most mothers." And like a true daughter of Eve, +"weeping and crying, she sought again with groans the son she had brought +forth with groans." She prayed for a long time; then, worn out with sorrow, +she slept. The porter of the chapel, without knowing it, watched that +night not only the mother of the rhetorician Augustin, but the ancestor +of an innumerable line of souls; this humble woman, who slept there on +the ground, on the flags of the courtyard, carried in her heart all the +yearning of all the mothers of the future. + +While she slept, Augustin went stealthily on board. The silence and the +tempered splendour of the night weighed him down. Sometimes the cry of the +sailors on watch took a strange note in the lustrous vaporous spaces. The +Gulf of Carthage gleamed far off under the scintillation of the stars, +under the palpitating of a milky way all white like the flowers of the +garden of Heaven. But Augustin's heart was heavy, heavier than the air +weighted by the heat and sea-damp--heavy from the lie and the cruelty he +had just committed. He saw already the awakening and sorrow of his mother. +His conscience was troubled, overcome by remorse and forebodings.... +Meanwhile, his friends tried to cheer him, and urged him to have courage +and hope. Marcianus, while embracing him, reminded him of the verses of +Terence: + + "This day which brings to thee another life + Demands that thou another man shalt be." + +Augustin smiled sadly. At last the ship began to move. The wind had risen, +the wind of the grand voyage which was bearing him to the unknown.... +Suddenly, at the keen freshness of the open sea, he thrilled. His strength +and confidence rushed back. To go away! What enchantment for all those who +cannot fasten themselves to a corner of the earth, who know by instinct +that they belong _elsewhere_, who always pass "as strangers and as +pilgrims," and who go away with relief, as if they cast a burthen behind +them. Augustin was of those people--of those who, among the fairest +attractions of the Road, never cease to think of the Return. But he knew +not where God was leading him. Marcianus was right: a new life was really +beginning for him; only it was not the life that either of them hoped for. + +He who departed as a rhetorician, to sell words, was to come back as an +apostle, to conquer souls. + + + + +THE THIRD PART + +THE RETURN + + + Et ecce ibi es in corde eorum, in corde confitentium tibi, et + projicientium se in te, et plorantium in sinu tuo, post vias suas + difficiles. + + "And behold! Thou art there in their hearts, in the hearts of + that confess to Thee, and cast themselves upon Thee, and sob upon Thy + breast, after their weary ways." + + _Confessions_, V, 2. + + + + +I + +THE CITY OF GOLD + + +Augustin fell ill just after he got to Rome. It would seem that he arrived +there towards the end of August or beginning of September, before the +students reassembled, just at the time of heat and fevers, when all Romans +who could leave the city fled to the summer resorts on the coast. + +Like all the great cosmopolitan centres at that time, Rome was unhealthy. +The diseases of the whole earth, brought by the continual inflow of +foreigners, flourished there. Accordingly, the inhabitants had a panic fear +of infection, like our own contemporaries. People withdrew prudently from +those suffering from infectious disorders, who were left to their unhappy +fate. If, from a sense of shame, they sent a slave to the patient's +bedside, he was ordered to the sweating-rooms, and there disinfected from +head to foot, before he could enter the house again. + +Augustin must have had at least the good luck to be well looked after, +since he recovered. He had gone to the dwelling of one of his Manichee +brethren, an _auditor_ like himself, and an excellent kind of man, whom he +stayed with all the time he was in Rome. Still, he had such a bad attack of +fever that he very nearly died. "I was perishing," he says; "and I was all +but lost." He is frightened at the idea of having seen death so near, at a +moment when he was so far from God--so far, in fact, that it never occurred +to him to ask for baptism, as he had done, in like case, when he was +little. What a desperate blow would that have been for Monnica! He still +shudders when he recalls the danger: "Had my mother's heart been smitten +with that wound, it never could have been healed. _For I cannot express +her tender love towards me_, or with how far greater anguish she travailed +of me now in the spirit, than when she bore me in the flesh." But Monnica +prayed. Augustin was saved. He ascribes his recovery to the fervent prayers +of his mother, who, in begging of God the welfare of his soul, obtained, +without knowing it, the welfare of his body. + +As soon as he was convalescent, he had to set to work to get pupils. He was +obliged to ask the favours of many an important personage, to knock at many +an inhospitable door. This unfortunate beginning, the almost mortal illness +which he was only just recovering from, this forced drudgery--all that did +not make him very fond of Rome. It seems quite plain that he never liked +it, and till the end of his life he kept a grudge against it for the sorry +reception it gave him. In the whole body of his writings it is impossible +to find a word of praise for the beauty of the Eternal City, while, on +the contrary, one can make out through his invectives against the vices +of Carthage, his secret partiality for the African Rome. The old rivalry +between the two cities was not yet dead after so many centuries. In +his heart, Augustin, like a good Carthaginian--and because he was a +Carthaginian--did not like Rome. + +The most annoying things joined together as if on purpose to disgust him +with it. The bad season of the year was nigh when he began to reside there. +Autumn rains had started, and the mornings and evenings were cold. What +with his delicate chest, and his African constitution sensitive to cold, +he must have suffered from this damp cold climate. Rome seemed to him a +northern city. With his eyes still full of the warm light of his country, +and the joyous whiteness of the Carthage streets, he wandered as one exiled +between the gloomy Roman palaces, saddened by the grey walls and muddy +pavements. Comparisons, involuntary and continual, between Carthage and +Rome, made him unjust to Rome. In his eyes it had a hard, self-conscious, +declamatory look, and gazing at the barren Roman _campagna_, he remembered +the laughing Carthage suburbs, with gardens, villas, vineyards, olivets, +circled everywhere by the brilliance of the sea and the lagoons. + +And then, besides, Rome could not be a very delightful place to live in for +a poor rhetoric master come there to better his fortune. Other strangers +before him had complained of it. Always to be going up and down the flights +of steps and the ascents, often very steep, of the city of the Seven Hills; +to be rushing between the Aventine and Sallust's garden, and thence to +the Esquiline and Janiculum! To bruise the feet on the pointed cobbles of +sloping alley-ways! These walks were exhausting, and there seemed to be no +end to this city. Carthage was also large--as large almost as Rome. But +there Augustin was not seeking employment. When he went for a walk there, +he strolled. Here, the bustle of the crowds, and the number of equipages, +disturbed and exasperated the southerner with his lounging habits. Any +moment there was a risk of being run over by cars tearing at full gallop +through the narrow streets: men of fashion just then had a craze for +driving fast. Or again, the passenger was obliged to step aside so +that some lady might go by in her litter, escorted by her household, +from the handicraft slaves and the kitchen staff, to the eunuchs and +house-servants--all this army manoeuvring under the orders of a leader who +held a rod in his hand, the sign of his office. When the street became +clear once more, and at last the palace of the influential personage +to whom a visit had to be paid was reached, there was no admittance +without greasing the knocker. In order to be presented to the master, +it was necessary to buy the good graces of the slave who took the name +(_nomenclator_), and who not only introduced the suppliant, but might, with +a word, recommend or injure. Even after all these precautions, one was not +yet sure of the goodwill of the patron. Some of these great lords, who were +not always themselves sprung from old Roman families, prided themselves +upon their uncompromising nationalism, and made a point of treating +foreigners with considerable haughtiness. The Africans were regarded +unfavourably in Rome, especially in Catholic circles. Augustin must have +had an unpleasant experience of this. + +Through the long streets, brilliantly lighted at evening (it would seem +that the artificial lighting of Rome almost equalled the daylight), he +would return tired out to the dwelling of his host, the Manichee. This +dwelling, according to an old tradition, was in the Velabrum district, in +a street which is still to-day called _Via Greca_, and skirts the very old +church of Santa Maria-in-Cosmedina--a poor quarter where swarmed a filthy +mass of Orientals, and where the immigrants from the Levantine countries, +Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, Egyptians, lodged. The warehouses on the Tiber +were not very far off, and no doubt there were numbers of labourers, +porters, and watermen living in this neighbourhood. What a place for +him who had been at Thagaste the guest of the magnificent Romanianus, +and intimate with the Proconsul at Carthage! When he had climbed up the +six flights of stairs to his lodging, and crouched shivering over the +ill-burning movable hearth, in the parsimonious light of a small bronze or +earthenware lamp, while the raw damp sweated through the walls, he felt +more and more his poverty and loneliness. He hated Rome and the stupid +ambition which had brought him there. And yet Rome should have made a vivid +appeal to this cultured man, this æsthete so alive to beauty. Although the +transfer of the Court to Milan had drawn away some of its liveliness and +glitter, it was still all illuminated by its grand memories, and never had +it been more beautiful. It seems impossible that Augustin should not have +been struck by it, despite his African prejudices. However well built the +new Carthage might be, it could not pretend to compare with a city more +than a thousand years old, which at all periods of its history had +maintained the princely taste for building, and which a long line of +emperors had never ceased to embellish. + +When Augustin landed at Ostia, he saw rise before him, closing the +perspective of the _Via Appia_, the Septizonium of Septimus Severus--an +imitation, doubtless, on a far larger scale, of the one at Carthage. This +huge construction, water-works probably of enormous size, with its ordered +columns placed line above line, was, so to speak, the portico whence opened +the most wonderful and colossal architectural mass known to the ancient +world. Modern Rome has nothing at all to shew which comes anywhere near it. +Dominating the Roman Forum, and the Fora of various Emperors--labyrinths of +temples, basilicas, porticoes, and libraries--the Capitol and the Palatine +rose up like two stone mountains, fashioned and sculptured, under the heap +of their palaces and sanctuaries. All these blocks rooted in the soil, +suspended, and towering up from the flanks of the hills, these interminable +regiments of columns and pilasters, this profusion of precious marbles, +metals, mosaics, statues, obelisks--in all that there was something +enormous, a lack of restraint which disturbed the taste and floored the +imagination. But it was, above all, the excessive use of gold and gilding +that astonished the visitor. Originally indigent, Rome became noted for +its greed of gold. When the gold of conquered nations began to come into +its hands, it spread it all over with the rather indiscreet display of +the upstart. When Nero built the Golden House he realized its dream. The +Capitol had golden doors. Statues, bronzes, the roofs of temples, were all +gilded. All this gold, spread over the brilliant surfaces and angles of +the architecture, dazzled and tired the eyes: _Acies stupet igne metalli_, +said Claudian. For the poets who have celebrated it, Rome is the city of +gold--_aurata Roma_. + +A Greek, such as Lucian, had perhaps a right to be shocked by this +architectural debauch, this beauty too crushing and too rich. A Carthage +rhetorician, like Augustin, could feel at the sight of it nothing but the +same irritated admiration and secret jealousy as the Emperor Constans felt +when he visited his capital for the first time. + +Even as the Byzantine Cæsar, and all the provincials, Augustin, no doubt, +examined the curiosities and celebrated works which were pointed out to +strangers: the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus; the baths of Caracalla and +Diocletian; the Pantheon; the temple of Roma and of Venus; the Place of +Concord; the theatre of Pompey; the Odeum, and the Stadium. Though he might +be stupefied by all this, he would remember, too, all that the Republic +had taken from the provinces to construct these wonders, and would say to +himself: "'Tis we who have paid for them." In truth, all the world had +been ransacked to make Rome beautiful. For some time a muffled hostility +had been brewing in provincial hearts against the tyranny of the central +power, especially since it had shewn itself incapable of maintaining peace, +and the Barbarians were threatening the frontiers. Worn out by so many +insurrections, wars, massacres, and pillages, the provinces had come to ask +if the great complicated machine of the Empire was worth all the blood and +money that it cost. + +For Augustin, moreover, the crisis was drawing near which was to end in his +return to the Catholic faith. He had been a Christian, and as such brought +up in principles of humility. With these sentiments, he would perhaps +decide that the pride and vanity of the creature at Rome claimed far too +much attention, and was even sacrilegious. It was not only the emperors who +disputed the privileges of immortality with the gods, but anybody who took +it into his head, provided that he was rich or had any kind of notoriety. +Amid the harsh and blinding gilt of palaces and temples, how many statues, +how many inscriptions endeavoured to keep an obscure memory green, or the +features of some unknown man! Of course, at Carthage too, where they copied +Rome, as in all the big cities, there were statues and inscriptions in +abundance upon the Forum, the squares, and in the public baths. But what +had not shocked Augustin in his native land, did shock him in a strange +city. His home-sick eyes opened to faults which till then had been veiled +by usage. In any case, this craze for statues and inscriptions prevailed at +Rome more than anywhere else. The number of statues on the Forum became so +inconvenient, that on many occasions certain ones were marked for felling, +and the more insignificant shifted. The men of stone drove out the living +men, and forced the gods into their temples. And the inscriptions on the +walls bewildered the mind with such a noise of human praise, that ambition +could dream of nothing beyond. It was all a kind of idolatry which revolted +the strict Christians; and in Augustin, even at this time, it must have +offended the candour of a soul which detested exaggeration and bombast. + +The vices of the Roman people, with whom he was obliged to live cheek by +jowl, galled him still more painfully. And to begin with, the natives hated +strangers. At the theatres they used to shout: "Down with the foreign +residents!" Acute attacks of xenophobia often caused riots in the city. +Some years before Augustin arrived, a panic about the food supply led to +the expulsion, as useless mouths, of all foreigners domiciled in Rome, +even the professors. Famine was an endemic disease there. And then, these +lazy people were always hungry. The gluttony and drunkenness of the Romans +roused the wonder and also the disgust of the sober races of the Empire--of +the Greeks as well as the Africans. They ate everywhere--in the streets, at +the theatre, at the circus, around the temples. The sight was so ignoble, +and the public intemperance so scandalous, that the Prefect, Ampelius, was +obliged to issue an order prohibiting people who had any self-respect from +eating in the street, the keepers of wine-shops from opening their places +before ten o'clock in the morning, and the hawkers from selling cooked meat +in the streets earlier than a certain hour of the day. But he might as well +have saved himself the trouble. Religion itself encouraged this greediness. +The pagan sacrifices were scarcely more than pretexts for stuffing. Under +Julian, who carried the great public sacrifices of oxen to an abusive +extent, the soldiers got drunk and gorged themselves with meat in the +temples, and came out staggering. Then they would seize hold of any +passers-by, whom they forced to carry them shoulder-high to their barracks. + +All this must be kept in mind so as to understand the strictness and +unyielding attitude of the Christian reaction. This Roman people, like the +pagans in general, was frightfully material and sensual. The difficulty of +shaking himself free from matter and the senses is going to be the great +obstacle which delays Augustin's conversion; and if it was so with him, a +fastidious and intellectual man, what about the crowd? Those people thought +of nothing but eating and drinking and lewdness. When they left the tavern +or their squalid rooms, they had only the obscenities of mimes, or the +tumbles of the drivers in the circus, or the butcheries in the amphitheatre +to elevate them. They passed the night there under the awnings provided by +the municipality. Their passion for horse-races and actors and actresses, +curbed though it was by the Christian emperors, continued even after +the sack of Rome by the Barbarians. At the time of the famine, when the +strangers were expelled, they excepted from this wholesale banishment three +thousand female dancers with the members of their choirs, and their leaders +of orchestra. + +The aristocracy did not manifest tastes much superior. Save a few +cultivated minds, sincerely fond of literature, the greatest number only +saw in the literary pose an easy way of being fashionable. These became +infatuated about an unknown author, or an ancient author whose books were +not to be had. They had these books sought for and beautifully copied. +They, "who hated study like poison," spoke only of their favourite author: +the others did not exist for them. As a matter of fact, music had ousted +literature: "the libraries were closed like sepulchres." But fashionable +people were interested in an hydraulic organ, and they ordered from the +lute-makers "lyres the size of chariots." Of course, this musical craze was +sheer affectation. Actually, they were only interested in sports: to race, +to arrange races, to breed horses, to train athletes and gladiators. As a +pastime, they collected Oriental stuffs. Silk was then fashionable, and so +were precious stones, enamels, heavy goldsmiths' work. Rows of rings were +worn on each finger. People took the air in silk robes, held together by +brooches carved in the figures of animals, a parasol in one hand, and a fan +with gold fringes in the other. The costumes and fashions of Constantinople +encroached upon the old Rome and the rest of the Western world. + +Immense fortunes, which had gathered in the hands of certain people, either +through inheritance or swindling, enabled them to keep up a senseless +expenditure. Like the American millionaires of to-day, who have their +houses and properties in both hemispheres, these great Roman lords +possessed them in every country in the Empire. Symmachus, who was Prefect +of the City when Augustin was in Rome, had considerable estates not only in +Italy and in Sicily, but even in Mauretania. And yet, in spite of all their +wealth and all the privileges they enjoyed, these rich people were neither +happy nor at ease. At the least suspicion of a despotic power, their lives +and property were threatened. Accusations of magic, of disrespect to +the Cæsar, of plots against the Emperor--any pretext was good to plunder +them. During the preceding reign, that of the pitiless Valentinian, the +Roman nobility had been literally decimated by the executioner. A certain +vice-Prefect, Maximinus, had gained a sinister reputation for cleverness in +the art of manufacturing suspects. By his orders, a basket at the end of a +string was hung out from one of the windows of the Prætorium, into which +denunciations might be cast. The basket was in use day and night. + +It is clear that at the time that Augustin settled in Rome this abominable +system was a little moderated. But accusation by detectives was always in +the air. And living in this atmosphere of mistrust, hypocrisy, bribery, and +cruelty--small wonder if the Carthaginian fell into bitter reflections upon +Roman corruption. However impressive from the front, the Empire was not +nice to look at close at hand. + +But Augustin was, above all, home-sick. When he strolled tinder the shady +trees of the Janiculum or Sallust's gardens, he already said to himself +what he would repeat later to his listeners at Hippo: "Take an African, put +him in a place cool and green, and he won't stay there. He will feel he +must go away and come back to his blazing desert." As for himself, he had +something better to regret than a blazing desert. In front of the City of +Gold, stretched out at his feet, and the horizon of the Sabine Hills, he +remembered the feminine softness of the twilights upon the Lake of Tunis, +the enchantment of moonlit nights upon the Gulf of Carthage, and that +astonishing landscape to be discovered from the height of the terrace of +Byrsa, which all the grandeur of the Roman _campagna_ could not make him +forget. + + + + +II + +THE FINAL DISILLUSION + + +'The new professor had managed to secure a certain number of pupils whom +he gathered together in his rooms. He could make enough to live at Rome +by himself, if he could not support there the woman and child he had left +behind at Carthage. In this matter of finding work, his host and his +Manichee friends had done him some very good turns. Although forced to +conceal their beliefs since the edict of Theodosius, there were a good many +Manichees in the city. They formed an occult Church, strongly organized, +and its adepts had relations with all classes of Roman society. Possibly +Augustin presented himself as one driven out of Africa by the persecution. +Some compensation would be owing to this young man who had suffered for the +good cause. + +It was his friend Alypius, "the brother of his heart," who, having preceded +him to Rome to study law at his parents' wishes, now was the most useful in +helping Augustin to make himself known and find pupils. Himself a Manichee, +converted by Augustin, and a member of one of the leading families in +Thagaste, he had not long to wait for an important appointment in the +Imperial administration. He was assessor to the Treasurer-General, or +"Count of the Italian Bounty Office," and decided fiscal questions. Thanks +to his influence, as well as to his acquaintances among the Manichees, he +was a valuable friend for the new arrival, a friend who could aid him, not +only with his purse, but with advice. Without much capacity for theorizing, +this Alypius was a practical spirit, a straight and essentially honest +soul, whose influence was excellent for his impetuous friend. Of very +chaste habits, he urged Augustin to restraint. And even in abstract +studies, the religious controversies which Augustin dragged him into, his +strong good sense moderated the imaginative dashes, the overmuch subtilty +which sometimes led the other beyond healthy reason. + +Unhappily they were both very busy--the judge and the rhetorician--and +although their friendship became still greater during this stay in Rome, +they were not able to see each other as much as they desired. Their +pleasures, too, were perhaps not the same. Augustin did not in the least +care about being chaste, and Alypius had a passion for the amphitheatre--a +passion which his friend disapproved of. Some time earlier, at Carthage, +Augustin had filled him with disgust of the circus. But hardly was Alypius +arrived in Rome, than he became mad about the gladiatorial shows. Some +fellow-students took him to the amphitheatre, almost by force. Thereupon, +he said that he would stay, since they had dragged him there; but he bet +that he would keep his eyes shut all through the fight, and that nothing +could make him open them. He sat down on the benches with those who had +brought him, his eyelids pressed down, refusing to look. Suddenly there was +a roar of shouting, the shout of the crowd hailing the fall of the first +wounded. His lids parted of themselves; he saw the flow of blood. "At the +sight of the blood" says Augustin, "he drank in ruthlessness; no longer +did he turn away, but fixed his gaze, and he became mad--and he knew no +more.... He was fascinated by the criminal atrocity of this battle, and +drunk with the pleasure of blood." + +These breathless phrases of the _Confessions_ seem to throb still with the +wild frenzy of the crowd. They convey to us directly the kind of Sadic +excitement which people went to find about the arena. Really, a wholesome +sight for future Christians, for all the souls that the brutality of +pagan customs revolted! The very year that Augustin was at Rome, certain +prisoners of war, Sarmatian soldiers, condemned to kill each other in the +amphitheatre, chose suicide rather than this shameful death. There was in +this something to make him reflect--him and his friends. The fundamental +injustices whereon the ancient world rested--the crushing of the slave +and the conquered, the contempt for human life--these things they touched +with the finger when they looked on at the butcheries in the amphitheatre. +All those whose hearts sickened with disgust and horror before these +slaughter-house scenes, all those who longed for a little more mildness, a +little more justice, were all recruits marked out for the peaceful army of +the Christ. + +For Alypius, especially, it was not a bad thing to have known this +blood-drunkenness at first hand: he shall be only the more ashamed when +he falls at the feet of the merciful God. Equally useful was it for him +to have personal experience of the harshness of men's justice; and in the +fulfilment of his duties as a judge to observe its errors and flaws. While +he was a student at Carthage he just escaped being condemned to death upon +a false accusation of theft--the theft of a piece of lead! Already they +were dragging him, if not to the place of capital punishment, at least to +prison, when a chance meeting with a friend of his who was a senator saved +him from the threatening mob. At Rome, while Assessor to the Count of the +Italian Bounty Office, he had to resist an attempt to bribe him, and by +doing so risked losing his appointment, and, no doubt, something worse +too. Official venality and dishonesty were evils so deeply rooted, that +he himself nearly succumbed. He wanted some books copied, and he had the +temptation to get this done at the charge of the Treasury. This peculation +had, in his eyes, a good enough excuse, and it was certain to go +undetected. Nevertheless, when he thought it over he changed his mind, and +virtuously refrained from giving himself a library at the expense of the +State. + +Augustin, who relates these anecdotes, draws the same moral from them as +we do, to wit--that for a man who was going to be a bishop and, as such, +administrator and judge, this time spent in the Government service was a +good preparatory school. Most of the other great leaders of this generation +of Christians had also been officials; before ordination, they had been +mixed up in business and politics, and had lived freely the life of their +century. So it was with St. Ambrose, with St. Paulinus of Nola, with +Augustin himself, and Evodius and Alypius, his friends. + +And yet, however absorbed in their work the two Africans might be, it +is pretty near certain that intellectual questions took the lead of +all others. This is manifest in Augustin's case at least. He must have +astonished the good Alypius when he got to Rome by acknowledging that he +hardly believed in Manicheeism any longer. And he set forth his doubts +about their masters' cosmogony and physical science, his suspicions +touching the hidden immorality of the sect. As for himself, the +controversies, which were the Manichees' strong point, did not dazzle him +any longer. At Carthage, but lately, he had heard a Catholic, a certain +Helpidius, oppose to them arguments from Scripture, which they were unable +to refute. To make matters worse, the Manichee Bishop of Rome made a bad +impression on him from the very outset. This man, he tells us, was of rough +appearance, without culture or polite manners. Doubtless this unmannerly +peasant, in his reception of the young professor, had not shewn himself +sufficiently alive to his merits, and the professor felt aggrieved. + +From then, his keen dialectic and his satirical spirit (Augustin had +formidable powers of ridicule all through his life) were exercised upon +the backs of his fellow-religionists. Provisionally, he had admitted +as indisputable the basic principles of Manicheeism: first of all, the +primordial antagonism of the two substances, the God of Light and the God +of Darkness; then, this other dogma, that particles of that Divine Light, +which had been carried away in a temporary victory of the army of Darkness, +were immersed in certain plants and liquors. Hence, the distinction they +made between clean and unclean food. All those foods were pure which +contained some part of the Divine Light; impure, those which did not. The +purity of food became evident by certain qualities of taste, smell, and +appearance. But now Augustin found a good deal of arbitrariness in these +distinctions, and a good deal of simplicity in the belief that the Divine +Light dwelt in a vegetable. "Are they not ashamed," he said, "to search God +with their palates or with their nose? And if His presence is revealed by +a special brilliancy, by the goodness of the taste or the smell, why allow +that dish and condemn this, which is of equal savour, light, and perfume? + +"Yea, why do they look upon the golden melon as come out of God's +treasure-house, and yet will have none of the golden fat of the ham or the +yellow of an egg? Why does the whiteness of lettuce proclaim to them the +Divinity, and the whiteness of cream nothing at all? And why this horror +of meat? For, look you, roast sucking-pig offers us a brilliant colour, an +agreeable smell, and an appetizing taste--sure signs, according to them, of +the Divine Presence."... Once started on this topic, Augustin's vivacity +has no limits. He even drops into jokes which would offend modern +shamefacedness by their Aristophanic breadth. + +These arguments, to say the truth, did not shake the foundations of the +doctrine, and if a doctrine must be judged according to its works, the +Manichees might entrench themselves behind their rigid moral rules, and +their conduct. Contrary to the more accommodating Catholicism, they paraded +a puritan intolerance. But Augustin had found out at Carthage that this +austerity was for the most part hypocrisy. At Rome he was thoroughly +enlightened. + +The Elect of the religion made a great impression by their fasts and their +abstinence from meat. Now it became clear that these devout personages, +under pious pretexts, literally destroyed themselves by over-eating and +indigestion. They held, in fact, that the chief work of piety consisted in +setting free particles of the Divine Light, imprisoned in matter by the +wiles of the God of Darkness. They being the Pure, they purified matter by +absorbing it into their bodies. The faithful brought them stores of fruit +and vegetables, served them with real feasts, so that by eating these +things they might liberate a little of the Divine Substance. Of course, +they abstained from all flesh, flesh being the dwelling-place of the Dark +God, and also from fermented wine, which they called "the devil's gall." +But how they made up for it over the rest! Augustin makes great fun of +these people who would think it a sin if they took as a full meal a small +bit of bacon and cabbage, with two or three mouthfuls of undiluted wine, +and yet ordered to be served up, from three o'clock in the afternoon, all +kinds of fruit and vegetables, the most exquisite too, rendered piquant +by spices, the Manichees holding that spices were very full of fiery and +luminous principles. Then, their palates titillating from pepper, they +swallowed large draughts of mulled wine or wine and honey, and the juice +of oranges, lemons, and grapes. And these junketings began over again at +nightfall. They had a preference for certain cakes, and especially for +truffles and mushrooms--vegetables more particularly mystic. + +Such a diet put human gluttony to a heavy test. Many a scandal came to +light in the Roman community. The Elect made themselves sick by devouring +the prodigious quantity of good cheer brought to them with a view to +purification. As it was a sacrilege to let any be lost, the unhappy people +forced themselves to get down the lot. There were even victims: children, +gorged with delicacies, died of stuffing. For children, being innocent +things, were deemed to have quite special purifying virtues. + +Augustin was beginning to get indignant at all this nonsense. Still, except +for these extravagances, he continued to believe in the asceticism of the +Elect--asceticism of such severity that the main part of the faithful found +it impossible to practise. And see! just at this moment, whom should he +discover very strange things about but Bishop Faustus, that Faustus whom he +had looked for at Carthage as a Messiah. The holy man, while he preached +renunciation, granted himself a good many indulgences: he lay, for one +thing, on feathers, or upon soft goatskin rugs. And these puritans were not +even honest. The Manichee Bishop of Rome, that man of rough manners who had +so offended Augustin, was on the point of being convicted of stealing the +general cash-box. Lastly, there were rumours in the air, accusing the Elect +of giving themselves over to reprehensible practices in their private +meetings. They condemned marriage and child-bearing as works of the devil, +but they authorized fornication, and even, it is said, certain acts against +nature. That, for Augustin, was the final disillusion. + +In spite of it, he did not separate openly from the sect. He kept his +rank of _auditor_ in the Manichee Church. What held him to it, were some +plausible considerations on the intellectual side. Manicheeism, with its +distinction of two Principles, accounted conveniently for the problem of +evil and human responsibility. Neither God nor man was answerable for sin +and pain, since it was the other, the Dark Principle, who distributed +them through the world among men. Augustin, who continued to sin, +continued likewise to be very comfortable with such a system of morals and +metaphysics. Besides, he was not one of those convinced, downright minds +who feel the need to quarrel noisily with what they take to be error. +No one has opposed heresies more powerfully, and with a more tireless +patience, than he has. But he always put some consideration into the +business. He knew by experience how easy it is to fall into error, and he +said this charitably to those whom he wished to persuade. There was nothing +about him like St. Jerome. + +Personal reasons, moreover, obliged him not to break with his +fellow-religionists who had supported him, nursed him even, on his arrival +at Rome, and who, as we shall see in a moment, might still do him services. +Augustin was not, like his friend Alypius, a practical mind, but he had +tact, and in spite of all the impulsiveness and mettle of his nature, +a certain suppleness which enabled him to manoeuvre without too many +collisions in the midst of the most embarrassing conjunctures. Through +instinctive prudence he prolonged his indecision. Little by little, he who +had formerly flung himself so enthusiastically in pursuit of Truth, glided +into scepticism--the scepticism of the Academics in its usual form. + +And at the same time that he lost his taste for speculative thinking, new +annoyances in his profession put the finishing touch on his discouragement. +If the Roman students were less noisy than those of Carthage, they had a +deplorable habit of walking off and leaving their masters unpaid. Augustin +was ere long victimized in this way: he lost his time and his words. As at +Carthage, so at Rome, he had to face the fact that he could not live by his +profession. What was he to do? Would he have to go back home? He had fallen +into despair, when an unforeseen chance turned up for him. + +The town council of Milan threw open a professorship of Rhetoric to public +competition. It would be salvation for him if he could get appointed. For +a long time he had wanted a post in the State education. In receipt of a +fixed salary, he would no longer have to worry about beating up a class, +or to guard against the dishonesty of his pupils. He put his name down +immediately among the candidates. But no more in those days than in ours +was simple merit by itself enough. It was necessary to pull strings. His +friends the Manichees undertook to do this for him. They urged his claims +warmly on the Prefect Symmachus, who doubtless presided at the competitive +trials. By an amusing irony of fate, Augustin owed his place to people he +was getting ready to separate from, whom even he was soon going to attack, +and also to a man who was in a way the official enemy of Christianity. +The pagan Symmachus appointing to an important post a future Catholic +bishop--there is matter for surprise in that! But Symmachus, who had been +Proconsul at Carthage, protected the Africans in Rome. Furthermore, it +is likely that the Manichees represented their candidate to him as a man +hostile to Catholics. Now in this year, A.D. 384, the Prefect had just +begun an open struggle with the Catholics. He believed, therefore, that he +made a good choice in appointing Augustin. + +So a chain of events, with which his will had hardly anything to do, +was going to draw the young rhetorician to Milan--yes, and how much +farther!--to where he did not want to go, to where the prayers of Monnica +summoned him unceasingly: "Where I am, there shall you be also." When he +was leaving Rome, he did not much expect that. What he chiefly thought of +was that he had at last won an independent financial position, and that he +was become an official of some importance. He had a flattering evidence +of this at once: It was at the expense of the city of Milan and in the +Imperial carriages that he travelled through Italy to take up his new post. + + + + +III + +THE MEETING BETWEEN AMBROSE AND AUGUSTIN + + +Before he left Rome, and during his journey to Milan, Augustin must have +recalled more than once the verses of Terence which his friend Marcianus +had quoted by way of encouragement and advice the night he set sail for +Italy: + + "This day which brings to thee another life + Demands that thou another man shalt be." + +He was thirty years old. The time of youthful wilfulness was over. Age, +disappointments, the difficulties of life, had developed his character. +He was now become a man of position, an eminent official, in a very large +city which was the second capital of the Western Empire and the principal +residence of the Court. If he wished to avoid further set-backs in his +career, it behoved him to choose a line of conduct carefully thought out. + +And first of all, it was time to get rid of Manicheeism. A Manichee would +have made a scandal in a city where the greatest part of the population +was Christian, and the Court was Catholic, although it did not conceal +its sympathy with Arianism. It was a long time now since Augustin had +been a Manichee in his heart. Accordingly, he was not obliged to feign +in order to re-enter a Church which already included him formally among +its catechumens. Doubtless he was a very lukewarm catechumen, since at +intervals he inclined to scepticism. But he thought it decent to remain, +at least for the time being, in the Catholic body, in which his mother had +brought him up, until the day when some sure light should arise to direct +his path. Now St. Ambrose was at that time the Catholic Bishop of Milan. +Augustin was very eager to gain his goodwill. Ambrose was an undoubted +political power, an important personage, a celebrated orator whose renown +was shed all across the Roman world. He belonged to an illustrious family. +His father had been Prætorian prefect of Gaul. He himself, with the +title of Consul, was governing the provinces of Emilia and Liguria when +the Milanese forced him, much against his will, to become their bishop. +Baptized, ordained priest, and consecrated, one on top of the other, it +was only apparently that he gave up his civil functions. From the height +of his episcopal throne he always personified the highest authority in the +country. + +As soon as he arrived at Milan, Augustin hurried to call upon his bishop. +Knowing him as we do, he must have approached Ambrose in a great transport +of enthusiasm. His imagination, too, was kindled. In his thought this was +a man of letters, an orator, a famous writer, almost a fellow-worker, that +he was going to see. The young professor admired in Bishop Ambrose all the +glory that he was ambitious of, and all that he already believed himself +to be. He fancied, that however great might be the difference in their +positions, he would find himself at once on an equal footing with this high +personage, and would have a familiar talk with him, as he used to have at +Carthage with the Proconsul Vindicianus. He told himself also that Ambrose +was a priest, that is to say, a doctor of souls: he meant to open to him +all his spiritual wretchedness, the anguish of his mind and heart. He +expected consolation from him, if not cure. + +Well, he was mistaken. Although in all his writings he speaks of "the holy +Bishop of Milan" with feelings of sincere respect and admiration, he lets +it be understood that his expectations were not realized. If the Manichean +bishop of Rome had offended him by his rough manners, Ambrose disconcerted +him alike by his politeness, his kindliness, and by the reserve, +perhaps involuntarily haughty, of his reception. "He received me," says +Augustin, "like a father, and as a bishop he was pleased enough at my +coming:"--_peregrinationem meam satis episcopaliter dilexit_. This _satis +episcopaliter_ looks very like a sly banter at the expense of the saint. It +is infinitely probable that St. Ambrose received Augustin, not exactly as a +man of no account, but still, as a sheep of his flock, and not as a gifted +orator, and that, in short, he shewed him the same "episcopal" benevolence +as he had from a sense of duty for all his hearers. It is possible too +that Ambrose was on his guard from the outset with this African, appointed +a municipal professor through the good offices of the pagan Symmachus, +his personal enemy. In the opinion of the Italian Catholics, nothing +good came from Carthage: these Carthaginians were generally Manichees +or Donatists--sectaries the more dangerous because they claimed to be +orthodox, and, mingling with the faithful, hypocritically contaminated +them. And then Ambrose, the great lord, the former Governor of Liguria, the +counsellor of the Emperors, may not have quite concealed a certain ironic +commiseration for this "dealer in words," this young rhetorician who was +still puffed up with his own importance. + +Be this as it will, it was a lesson in humility that St. Ambrose, without +intending it, gave to Augustin. The lesson was not understood. The rhetoric +professor gathered only one thing from the visit, which was, that the +Bishop of Milan had received him well. And as human vanity immediately +lends vast significance to the least advances of distinguished or powerful +persons, Augustin felt thankful for it. He began to love Ambrose almost as +much as he admired him, and he admired him for reasons altogether worldly. +"Ambrose I counted one of the happy ones of this world, because he was held +in such honour by the great." The qualification which immediately follows +shews naively enough the sensual Augustin's state of mind at that time: +"Only it seemed to me that celibacy must be a heavy burthen upon him." + +In those years the Bishop of Milan might, indeed, pass for a happy man +in the eyes of the world. He was the friend of the very glorious and +very victorious Theodosius; he had been the adviser of the young Emperor +Gratian, but lately assassinated; and although the Empress Justina, devoted +to the Arians, plotted against him, he had still great influence in the +council of Valentinian II--a little Emperor thirteen years old, whom a +Court of pagans and Arians endeavoured to draw into an anti-Catholic +reaction. + +Almost as soon as Augustin arrived in Milan, he was able to see for himself +the great authority and esteem which Ambrose possessed, the occasion being +a dispute which made a great noise. + +Two years earlier, Gratian had had the statue and altar of _Victory_ +removed from the _Curia_, declaring that this pagan emblem and its +accompaniments no longer served any purpose in an assembly of which the +majority was Christian. By the same stroke, he suppressed the incomes of +the sacerdotal colleges with all their privileges, particularly those of +the Vestals; confiscated for the revenue the sums granted for the exercise +of religion; seized the property of the temples; and forbade the priests +to receive bequests of real estate. This meant the complete separation +of the State and the ancient religion. The pagan minority in the Senate, +with Symmachus, the Prefect, at its head, protested against this edict. +A deputation was sent to Milan to place the pagan grievances before +the Emperor. Gratian refused to receive them. It was thought that his +successor, Valentinian II, being feebler, would be more obliging. A new +senatorial committee presented themselves with a petition drawn up by +Symmachus--a genuine piece of oratory which Ambrose himself admired, or +pretended to admire. This speech made a deep impression when it was read +in the Imperial Council. But Ambrose intervened with all his eloquence. +He demanded that the common law should be applied equally to pagans as to +Christians, and it was he who won the day. _Victory_ was not replaced in +the Roman _Curia_, neither were the goods of the temples returned. + +Augustin must have been very much struck by this advantage which +Catholicism had gained. It became clear that henceforth this was to be +the State religion. And he who envied so much the fortunate of the world, +might take note, besides, that the new religion brought, along with the +faith, riches and honours to its adepts. At Rome he had listened to the +disparaging by pagans and his Manichee friends of the popes and their +clergy. They made fun of the fashionable clerics and legacy hunters. It was +related that the Roman Pontiff, servant of the God of the poor, maintained +a gorgeous establishment, and that his table rivalled the Imperial table in +luxury. The prefect Prætextatus, a resolute pagan, said scoffingly to Pope +Damasus: "Make me Bishop of Rome, and I'll become a Christian at once." + +Certainly, commonplace human reasons can neither bring about nor account +for a sincere conversion. Conversion is a divine work. But human reasons, +arranged by a mysterious Will with regard to this work, may at least +prepare a soul for it. Anyhow, it cannot be neglected that Augustin, coming +to Milan full of ambitious plans, there saw Catholicism treated with so +much importance in the person of Ambrose. This religion, which till then he +had despised, now appeared to him as a triumphant religion worth serving. + +But though such considerations might attract Augustin's attention, they +took no hold on his conscience. It was well enough for an intriguer about +the Court to get converted from self-interest. As for him, he wanted all or +nothing; the chief good in his eyes was certainty and truth. He scarcely +believed in this any longer, and surely had no hope of finding it among +the Catholics; but still he went to hear Ambrose's sermons. He went in the +first place as a critic of language, with the rather jealous curiosity of +the trained man who watches how another man does it. He wanted to judge +himself if the sacred orator was as good as his reputation. The firm and +substantial eloquence of this former official, this statesman who was more +than anything a man of action, immediately got control of the frivolous +rhetorician. To be sure, he did not find in Ambrose's sermons the +exhilaration or the verbal caress which had captivated him in those of +Faustus the Manichean; but yet they had a persuasive grace which held him. +Augustin heard the bishop with pleasure. Still, if he liked to hear him +talk, he remained contemptuous of the doctrine he preached. + +Then, little by little, this doctrine forced itself on his meditations: +he perceived that it was more serious than he had thought hitherto, or, +at least, that it could be defended. Ambrose had started in Italy the +exegetical methods of the Orientals. He discovered in Scripture allegorical +meanings, sometimes edifying, sometimes deep, always satisfying for a +reasonable mind. Augustin, who was inclined to subtilty, much relished +these explanations which, if ingenious, were often forced. The Bible +no longer seemed to him so absurd. Finally, the immoralities which the +Manichees made such a great point of against the Holy Writ, were justified, +according to Ambrose, by historical considerations: what God did not allow +to-day, He allowed formerly by reason of the conditions of existence. +However, though the Bible might be neither absurd nor contrary to morals, +this did not prove that it was true. Augustin found no outlet for his +doubts. + +He would have been glad to have Ambrose help him to get rid of them. Many a +time he tried to have a talk with him about these things. But the Bishop of +Milan was so very busy a personage! "I could not ask him," says Augustin, +"what I wanted as I wanted, because the shoals of busy people who consulted +him about their affairs, and to whose infirmities he ministered, came +between me and his ear and lips. And in the few moments when he was not +thus surrounded, he was refreshing either his body with needful food, or +his mind with reading. While he read his eye wandered along the page and +his heart searched out the meaning, but his voice and his tongue were at +rest. Often when we attended (for the door was open to all, and no one was +announced), we saw him reading silently, but never otherwise, and after +sitting for some time without speaking (_for who would presume to trouble +one so occupied?_) we went away again. We divined that, for the little +space of time which was all that he could secure for the refreshment of his +mind, he allowed himself a holiday from the distraction of other people's +business, and did not wish to be interrupted; _and perhaps he was afraid +lest eager listeners should invite him to explain the harder passages of +his author, or to enter upon the discussion of difficult topics_, and +hinder him from perusing as many volumes as he wished.... _Of course +the reason that guided a man of such remarkable virtue must have been +good...._" + +Nobody could comment more subtly--nor, be it said also, more +maliciously--the attitude of St. Ambrose towards Augustin, than Augustin +himself does it here. At the time he wrote this page, the events he was +relating had happened a long time ago. But he is a Christian, and, in his +turn, he is a bishop: he understands now what he could not understand +then. He feels thoroughly at heart that if Ambrose withdrew himself, it +was because the professor of rhetoric was not in a state of mind to have a +profitable discussion with a believer: he lacked the necessary humility of +heart and intellect. But at the moment, he must have taken things in quite +another way, and have felt rather hurt, not to say more, at the bishop's +apparent indifference. + +Just picture a young writer of to-day, pretty well convinced of his value, +but uneasy about his future, coming to ask advice of an older man already +famous--well, Augustin's advances to Ambrose were not unlike that, save +that they had a much more serious character, since it was not a question of +literature, but of the salvation of a soul. At this period, what Augustin +saw in Ambrose, even when he consulted him on sacred matters, was chiefly +the orator, that is to say, a rather older rival.... He enters. He is shewn +into the private room of the great man, without being announced, _like any +ordinary person_. The great man does not lay aside his book to greet him, +does not even speak a word to him.... What would the official professor of +Rhetoric to the City of Milan think of such a reception? One can make out +clearly enough through the lines of the _Confessions_. He said to himself +that Ambrose, being a bishop, had charge of souls, and he was surprised +that the bishop, no matter how great a lord he might be, made no attempt +whatever to offer him spiritual aid. And as he was still devoid of +Christian charity, no doubt he thought too that Ambrose was conscious +that he had not the ability to wrestle with a dialectician of Augustin's +strength, and that, into the bargain, the prelate was to seek in knowledge +of the Scriptures. And, in truth, Ambrose had been made a bishop so +suddenly that he must have found himself obliged to improvise a hasty +knowledge. Anyhow, Augustin concluded that if he refused to discuss, it was +because he was afraid of being at a disadvantage. + +Very surely St. Ambrose had no notion of what the catechumen was thinking. +He soared too high to trouble about miserable stings to self-respect. In +his ministry he was for all alike, and he would have thought it against +Christian equality to shew any special favour to Augustin. If, in the brief +talks he had with the young rhetorician, he was able to gather anything of +his character, he could not have formed a very favourable opinion of it. +The high-strung temperament of the African, these vague yearnings of the +spirit, these sterile melancholies, this continual temporizing before the +faith--all that could only displease Ambrose, the practical Roman, the +official used all his life to command. + +However that was, Augustin, in following years, never allowed himself the +least reproach towards Ambrose. On the contrary, everywhere he loads him +with praise, quotes him repeatedly in his treatises, and takes refuge on +his authority. He calls him his "father." But once, when he is speaking +of the spiritual desolation in which he was plunged at Milan, there does +escape him something like a veiled complaint which appears to be aimed at +Ambrose. After recalling the eagerness with which he sought truth in those +days, he adds: "If any one could have been found then to trouble about +instructing me, he would have had a most willing and docile pupil." + +This phrase, in such marked contrast with so many laudatory passages in +the _Confessions_ about St. Ambrose, seems to be indeed a statement of +the plain truth. If God made use of Ambrose to convert Augustin, it is +nevertheless likely that Ambrose personally did nothing, or very little, to +bring about this conversion. + + + + +IV + +PLANS OF MARRIAGE + + +But even as he draws nearer the goal, Augustin would appear, on the +contrary, to get farther away from it. Such are God's secret paces, Who +snatches souls like a thief: He drops on them without warning. Till the +very eve of the day when Christ shall come to take him, Augustin will be +all taken up with the world and the care of making a good figure in it. + +Although Ambrose's sermons stimulated him to reflect upon the great +historical reality which Christianity is, he had as yet but dim glimpses +of it. He had given up his superficial unbelief, and yet did not believe +in anything definite. He drifted into a sort of agnosticism compounded of +mental indolence and discouragement. When he scrutinized his conscience to +the depths, the most he could find was a belief in the existence of God and +His providence--quite abstract ideas which he was incapable of enlivening. +But whatever was the use of speculating upon Truth and the Sovereign Good! +The main thing to do was to live. + +Now that his future was certain, Augustin endeavoured to arrange his life +with a view to his tranquillity. He had no longer very large ambitions. +What he principally wanted to do was to create for himself a nice little +existence, peaceful and agreeable, one might almost say, middle-class. His +present fortune, although small, was still enough for that, and he was in a +hurry to enjoy it. + +Accordingly, he had not been long in Milan ere he sent for his mistress and +his son. He had rented an apartment in a house which gave on a garden. The +owner, who did not live there, allowed him the use of the whole house. A +house, the dream of the sage! And a garden in Virgil's country! Augustin, +the professor, should have been wonderfully happy. His mother soon joined +him. Gradually a whole tribe of Africans came down on him, and took +advantage of his hospitality. Here was his brother, Navigius, his two +cousins, Rusticus and Lastidianus, his friend Alypius, who could not make +up his mind to part from him, and probably Nebridius, another of his +Carthage friends. Nothing could be more in harmony with the customs of the +time. The Rhetorician to the City of Milan had a post which would pass +for superb in the eyes of his poor relations. He was acquainted with very +important people, and had access to the Imperial Court, whence favours and +bounties came. Immediately, the family ran to put themselves under his +protection and be enrolled beneficiaries, to get what they could out of +his new fortune and credit. And then these immigrations of Africans and +Orientals into the northern countries always come about in the same way. It +is enough if one of them gets on there: he becomes immediately the drop of +ink on the blotting-paper. + +The most important person in this little African phalanstery was +unquestionably Monnica, who had taken in hand the moral and material +control of the house. She was not very old--not quite fifty-four--but she +wanted to be in her own country. That she should have left it, and faced +the weariness of a long journey over sea and land, she must have had very +serious reasons. The poverty into which she had fallen since the death of +her husband would not be an adequate explanation of her departure from +her native land. She had still some small property at Thagaste; she could +have lived there. The true motives of her departure were of an altogether +different order. First of all, she passionately loved her son, to the point +that she was not able to live away from him. Let us recall Augustin's +touching words: "For she loved to keep me with her, as mothers are wont, +yes, far more than most mothers." Besides that, she wanted to save him. She +completely believed that this was her work in the world. + +Beginning from now, she is no longer the widow of Patricius: she is already +Saint Monnica. Living like a nun, she fasted, prayed, mortified her body. +By long meditating on the Scriptures, she had developed within her the +sense of spiritual realities, so that before long she astonished Augustin +himself. She had visions; perhaps she had trances. As she came over the sea +from Carthage to Ostia, the ship which carried her ran into a wild gale. +The danger became extreme, and the sailors themselves could no longer hide +their fear. But Monnica intrepidly encouraged them. "Never you fear, we +shall arrive in port safe and sound!" God, she declared, had promised her +this. + +If, in her Christian life, she knew other minutes more divine, that was +truly the most heroic. Across Augustin's calm narrative, we witness the +scene. This woman lying on the deck among passengers half dead from fatigue +and terror, suddenly flings back her veils, stands up before the maddened +sea, and with a sudden flame gleaming over her pale face, she cries to the +sailors: "What do you fear? We shall get to port. _I am sure of it!_" The +glorious act of faith! + +At this solemn moment, when she saw death so near, she had a clear +revelation of her destiny; she knew with absolute certainty that she was +entrusted with a message for her son, and that her son would receive this +message, in spite of all, in spite of the wildness of the sea--aye, in +spite of his own heart. + +When this sublime emotion had subsided, it left with her the conviction +that sooner or later Augustin would change his ways. He had lost himself, +he was mistaken about himself. This business of rhetorician was unworthy +of him. The Master of the field had chosen him to be one of the great +reapers in the time of harvest. For a long while Monnica had foreseen the +exceptional place that Augustin was to take in the Church. Why fritter +away his talent and intelligence in selling vain words, when there were +heresies to combat, the Truth to make shine forth, when the Donatists were +capturing the African basilicas from the Catholics? What, in fact, was the +most celebrated rhetorician compared to a bishop--protector of cities, +counsellor of emperors, representative of God on earth? All this might +Augustin be. And he remained stubborn in his error! Prayers and efforts +must be redoubled to draw him from that. It was also for herself that she +struggled, for the dearest of her hopes as a mother. To bear a soul to +Jesus Christ--and a chosen soul who would save in his turn souls without +number--for this only had she lived. And so it was that on the deck, tired +by the rolling of the ship, drenched by the seas that were breaking on +board, and hardly able to stand in the teeth of the wind, she cried out to +the sailors: "What do you fear? We shall get to port. I am sure of it...." + +At Milan she was regarded by Bishop Ambrose as a model parishioner. She +never missed his sermons and "hung upon his lips as a fountain of water +springing up to eternal life." And yet it does not appear that the great +bishop understood the mother any better than he did the son: he had not +the time. For him Monnica was a worthy African woman, perhaps a little odd +in her devotion, and given to many a superstitious practice. Thus, she +continued to carry baskets of bread and wine and pulse to the tombs of the +martyrs, according to the use at Carthage and Thagaste. When, carrying +her basket, she came to the door of one of the Milanese basilicas, the +doorkeeper forbade her to enter, saying that it was against the bishop's +orders, who had solemnly condemned such practices because they smacked +of idolatry. The moment she learned that this custom was prohibited by +Ambrose, Monnica, very much mortified, submitted to take away her basket, +for in her eyes Ambrose was the providential apostle who would lead her son +to salvation. And yet it must have grieved her to give up this old custom +of her country. Save for the fear of displeasing the bishop, she would +have kept it up. Ambrose was gratified by her obedience, her fervour and +charity. When by chance he met the son, he congratulated him on having such +a mother. Augustin, who did not yet despise human praise, no doubt expected +that Ambrose would in turn pay some compliments to himself. But Ambrose did +not praise him at all, and perhaps he felt rather vexed. + +He himself, however, was always very busy; he had hardly any time to profit +by the pious exhortations of the bishop. His day was filled by his work +and his social duties. In the morning he lectured. The afternoon went in +friendly visits, or in looking up men of position whom he applied to for +himself or his relations. In the evening, he prepared to-morrow's lecture. +In spite of this very full and stirring life, which would seem to satisfy +all his ambitions, he could not manage to stifle the cry of his heart in +distress. He did not feel really happy. In the first place, it is doubtful +whether he liked Milan any better than Rome. He felt the cold there very +much. The Milanese winters are very trying, especially for a southerner. +Thick fogs rise from the canals and the marsh lands which surround the +city. The Alpine snows are very near. This climate, damper and frostier +even than at Rome, did no good to his chest. He suffered continually from +hoarseness; he was obliged to interrupt his lectures--a most disastrous +necessity for a man whose business it is to talk. These attacks became so +frequent that he was forced to wonder if he could keep on long in this +state. Already he felt that he might be obliged to give up his profession. +Then, in those hours when he lost heart, he flung to the winds all his +youthful ambitions. As a last resort, the voiceless rhetorician would take +a post in one of the administrative departments of the Empire. The idea of +being one day a provincial governor did not rouse any special repugnance. +What a fall for him! "Yes, but it is the wisest, the wisest thing," +retorted the ill-advising voice, the one we are tempted to listen to when +we doubt ourselves. + +Friendship, as always with Augustin, consoled him for his hopeless +thoughts. Near him was "the brother of his heart," the faithful Alypius, +and also Nebridius, that young man so fond of metaphysical discussions. +Nebridius had left his rich estate in the Carthaginian suburbs, and a +mother who loved him, simply to live with Augustin in the pursuit of truth. +Romanianus was also there, but for a less disinterested reason. The Mæcenas +of Thagaste, after his ostentatious expenditure, found that his fortune +was threatened. A powerful enemy, who had started a law-suit against him, +worked to bring about his downfall. Romanianus had come to Milan to +defend himself before the Emperor, and to win the support of influential +personages about the Court. And so it came about that he saw a great deal +of Augustin. + +Besides this little band of fellow-countrymen, the professor of rhetoric +had some very distinguished friends among the aristocracy. He was +especially intimate with that Manlius Theodorus whom the poet Claudian +celebrates, and to whom he himself later on was to dedicate one of his +books. This rich man, who had been Proconsul at Carthage, where no doubt he +had met Augustin, lived at this time retired in the country, dividing his +leisure hours between the study of the Greek philosophers, especially of +the Platonists, and the cultivation of his vineyards and olive trees. + +Here, as at Thagaste, in these beautiful villas on the shores of the +Italian lakes, the son of Monnica gave himself up once more to the +sweetness of life. "I liked an easy life," he avows in all simplicity. +He felt himself to be more Epicurean than ever. He might have chosen +Epicureanism altogether, if he had not always kept a fear of what is beyond +life. But when he was the guest of Manlius Theodoras, fronting the dim blue +mountains of lake Como, framed in the high windows of the _triclinium_, +he did not think much about what is beyond life. He said to himself: "Why +desire the impossible? So very little is needed to satisfy a human soul." +The enervating contact of luxury and comfort imperceptibly corrupted him. +He became like those fashionable people whom he knew so well how to charm +with his talk. Like the fashionable people of all times, these designated +victims of the Barbarians built, with their small daily pleasures, a +rampart against all offensive or saddening realities, leaving the important +questions without answer, no longer even asking them. And they said: +"I have beautiful books, a well-heated house, well-trained slaves, a +delightfully arranged bathroom, a comfortable vehicle: life is sweet. I +don't wish for a better. What's the use? This one is good enough for me." +At the moment when his tired intellect gave up everything, Augustin was +taken in the snare of easy enjoyment, and desired to resemble these people +at all points, to be one of them. But to be one of them he must have a +higher post than a rhetorician's, and chiefly it would be necessary to put +all the outside forms and exterior respectability into his life that the +world of fashion shews. Thus, little by little, he began to think seriously +of marriage. + +His mistress was the only obstacle in the way of this plan. He got rid of +her. + +That was a real domestic drama, which he has tried to hide; but it must +have been extremely painful for him, to judge by the laments which he gives +vent to, despite himself, in some phrases, very brief and, as it were, +ashamed. In this drama Monnica was certainly the leader, though it is +likely that Augustin's friends also played their parts. No doubt, they +objected to the professor of rhetoric, that he was injuring his reputation +as well as his future by living thus publicly with a concubine. But +Monnica's reasons were more forcible and of quite another value. + +To begin with, it is very natural that she should have suffered in her +maternal dignity, as well as in her conscience as a Christian, by having to +put up with the company of a stranger who was her son's mistress. However +large we may suppose the house where the African tribe dwelt, a certain +clashing between the guests was unavoidable. Generally, disputes as to +who shall direct the domestic arrangements divide mother-in-law and +daughter-in-law who live under one roof. What could be Monnica's feelings +towards a woman who was not even a daughter-in-law and was regarded by her +as an intruder? She did not consider it worth while to make any attempt at +regulating the entanglement of her son by marrying them: this person was +of far too low a class. It is all very well to be a saint, but one does +not forget that one is the widow of a man of curial rank, and that a +middle-class family with self-respect does not lower itself by admitting +the first-comer into its ranks by marriage. But these were secondary +considerations in her eyes. The only one which could have really preyed on +her mind is that this woman delayed Augustin's conversion. On account of +her, as Monnica saw plainly, he put off his baptism indefinitely. She was +the chain of sin, the unclean past under whose weight he stifled. He must +be freed from her as soon as possible. + +Convinced therefore that such was her bounden duty, she worked continually +to make him break off. By way of putting him in some sort face to face with +a deed impossible to undo, she searched to find him a wife, with the fine +eagerness that mothers usually put into this kind of hunt. She discovered +a girl who filled, as they say, all the requirements, and who realized all +the hopes of Augustin. She had a fortune considerable enough not to be a +burthen on her husband. Her money, added to the professor's salary, would +allow the pair to live in ease and comfort. So they were betrothed. In +the uncertainty about all things which was Augustin's state just then, he +allowed his mother to work at this marriage. No doubt he approved, and like +a good official he thought it was time for him to settle down. + +From that moment, the separation became inevitable. How did the poor +creature who had been faithful to him during so many years feel at this +ignominious dismissal? What must have been the parting between the child +Adeodatus and his mother? How, indeed, could Augustin consent to take him +from her? Here, again, he has decided to keep silent on this painful drama, +from a feeling of shame easy to understand. Of course, he was no longer +strongly in love with his mistress, but he was attached to her by some +remains of tenderness, and by that very strong tie of pleasure shared. He +has said it in words burning with regret. "When they took from my side, as +an obstacle to my marriage, her with whom I had been used for such a long +time to sleep, my heart was torn at the place where it was stuck to hers, +and the wound was bleeding." The phrase casts light while it burns. "At the +place where my heart stuck to hers"--_cor ubi adhærebat_. He acknowledges +then that the union was no longer complete, since at many points he had +drawn apart. If the soul of his mistress had remained the same, his had +changed: however much he might still love her, he was already far from her. + +Be that as it will, she behaved splendidly in the affair--this forsaken +woman, this poor creature whom they deemed unworthy of Augustin. She was a +Christian; perhaps she perceived (for a loving woman might well have this +kind of second-sight) that it was a question not only of the salvation of +a loved being, but of a divine mission to which he was predestined. She +sacrificed herself that Augustin might be an apostle and a saint--a great +servant of God. So she went back to her Africa, and to shew that she +pardoned, if she could not forget, she vowed that she would never know any +other man. "She who had slept" with Augustin could never be the wife of any +one else. + +However low she may have been to begin with, the unhappy woman was great at +this crisis. Her nobility of soul humiliated Augustin, and Monnica herself, +and punishment was not slow in falling on them both--on him, for letting +himself be carried away by sordid plans for success in life, and upon her, +the saint, for having been too accommodating. As soon as his mistress was +gone, Augustin suffered from being alone. "I thought that I should be +miserable," says he, "without the embraces of a woman." Now his promised +bride was too young: two years must pass before he could marry her. How +could he control himself till then? Augustin did not hesitate: he found +another mistress. + +There was Monnica's punishment, cruelly deceived in her pious intentions. +In vain did she hope a great deal of good from this approaching marriage: +the silence of God shewed her that she was on the wrong track. She begged +for a vision, some sign which would reveal to her how this new-planned +marriage would turn out. Her prayer was not heard. + +"Meanwhile," says Augustin, "my sins were being multiplied." But he did +not limit himself to his own sins: he led others into temptation. Even in +matrimonial matters, he felt the need of making proselytes. So he fell upon +the worthy Alypius. He, to be sure, guarded himself chastely from women, +although in the outset of his youth, to be like everybody else, he had +tried pleasure with women; but he had found that it did not suit his taste. +However, Augustin put conjugal delights before him with so much heat, that +he too began to turn his thoughts that way, "not that he was overcome by +the desire of pleasure, _but out of curiosity_." For Alypius, marriage +would be a sort of philosophic and sentimental experience. + +Here are quite modern expressions to translate very old conditions of soul. +The fact is, that these young men, Augustin's friends and Augustin himself, +were startlingly like those of a generation already left behind, alas! who +will probably keep in history the presumptuous name they gave themselves: +_The Intellectuals_. + +Like us, these young Latins of Africa, pupils of the rhetoricians and the +pagan philosophers, believed in hardly anything but ideas. All but ready to +affirm that Truth is not to be come at, they thought, just the same, that +a vain hunt after it was a glorious risk to run, or, at the very least, an +exciting game. For them this game made the whole dignity and value of life. +Although they had spasms of worldly ambition, they really despised whatever +was not pure speculation. In their eyes, the world was ugly; action +degrading. They barred themselves within the ideal garden of the sage, "the +philosopher's corner," as they called it, and jealously they stopped up all +the holes through which the painful reality might have crept through to +them. But where they differed from us, is that they had much less dryness +of soul, with every bit as much pedantry--but such ingenuous pedantry! +That's what saved them--their generosity of soul, the youth of their +hearts. They loved each other, and they ended by growing fond of life and +getting in contact with it again. Nebridius journeyed from Carthage to +Milan, abandoning his mother and family, neglecting considerable interests, +not only to talk philosophy with Augustin, but to live with him as a +friend. From this moment they might have been putting in practice those +words of the Psalm, which Augustin ere long will be explaining to his monks +with such tender eloquence: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for +brethren to dwell together in unity!" + +This is not baseless hypothesis: they had really a plan for establishing a +kind of lay monastery, where the sole rule would be the search after Truth +and the happy life. There would be about a dozen solitaries. They would +make a common stock of what means they possessed. The richest, and among +these Romanianus, promised to devote their whole fortune to the community. +But the recollection of their wives brought this naive plan to nothing. +They had neglected to ask the opinions of their wives, and if these, as +was likely, should refuse to enter the convents with their husbands, the +married men could not face the scheme of living without them. Augustin +especially, who was on the point of starting a new connection, declared +that he would never find the courage for it. He had also forgotten that +he had many dependents: his whole family lived on him. Could he leave his +mother, his son, his brother, and his cousins? + +In company with Alypius and Nebridius, he sincerely lamented that this +fair dream of coenobite life was impracticable. "We were three famishing +mouths," he says, "complaining of our distress one to another, and waiting +upon Thee that Thou mightest give us our meat in due season. And in all +the bitterness that Thy mercy put into our worldly pursuits, we sought the +reason why we suffered; and all was darkness. Then we turned to each other +shuddering, and asked: 'How much longer can this last?'..." + +One day, a slight commonplace fact which they happened upon brought home +to them still more cruelly their intellectual poverty. Augustin, in his +official position as municipal orator, had just delivered the official +panegyric of the Emperor. The new year was opening: the whole city was +given over to mirth. And yet he was cast down, knowing well that he had +just uttered many an untruth, and chiefly because he despaired of ever +being happy. His friends were walking with him. Suddenly, as they crossed +the street, they came upon a beggar, quite drunk, who was indulging in the +jolliest pranks. So there was a happy man! A few pence had been enough +to give him perfect felicity, whereas they, the philosophers, despite +the greatest efforts and all their knowledge, could not manage to win +happiness. No doubt, as soon as the drunkard grew sober, he would be more +wretched than before. What matters that, if this poor joy--yes, though it +be an illusion--can so much cheer a poor creature, thus raise him so far +above himself! That minute, at least, he shall have lived in full bliss. +And to Augustin came the temptation to do as the beggar-man, to throw +overboard his philosophical lumber and set himself simply to live without +afterthoughts, since life is sometimes good. + +But an instinct, stronger than the instinct of pleasure, said to him: +"_There is something else!_--Suppose that were true?--Perhaps you might be +able to find out." This thought tormented him unceasingly. Now eager, now +disheartened, he set about trying to find the "something else." + + + + +V + +THE CHRIST IN THE GARDEN + + +"I was tired of devouring time and of being devoured by it." The whole +moral crisis that Augustin is about to undergo might be summed up in these +few words so concentrated and so strong. No more to scatter himself among +the multitude of vain things, no more to let himself flow along with the +minutes as they flowed; but to pull himself together, to escape from the +rout so as to establish himself upon the incorruptible and eternal, to +break the chains of the old slave he continues to be so as to blossom forth +in liberty, in thought, in love--that is the salvation he longs for. If it +be not yet the Christian salvation, he is on the road which leads to that. + +One might amuse oneself by drawing a kind of ideal map-route of his +conversion, and fastening into one solid chain the reasons which made him +emerge at the act of faith: he himself perhaps, in his _Confessions_, +has given way too much to this inclination. In reality, conversion is an +interior fact, and (let us repeat it) a divine fact, which is independent +of all control by the reason. Before it breaks into light, there is a long +preparation in that dark region of the soul which to-day is called the +subconscious. Now nobody has more _lived_ his ideas than did Augustin +at this time of his life. He took them, left them, took them up again, +persisted in his desperate effort. They reflect in their disorder his +variable soul, and the misgivings which troubled it to its depths. And yet +it cannot be that this interior fact should be in violent contradiction +with logic. The head ought not to hinder the heart. With the future +believer, a parallel work goes on in the feelings and in the thought. If we +are not able to reproduce the marches and counter-marches, or follow their +repeatedly broken line, we can at least shew the main halting-places. + +Let us recall Augustin's state of mind when he came to Milan. He was a +sceptic, the kind of sceptic who regards as useless all speculation upon +the origin of things, and for whom cognition is but an approximation of the +true. Vaguely deist, he saw in Jesus Christ only a wise man among the wise. +He believed in God and the providences of God, which amounts to this: That +although materialist by tendency, he admitted the divine interference in +human affairs--the miracle. This is an important point which differentiates +him from modern materialists. + +Next, he listened to the preaching of Ambrose. The Bible no longer seemed +to him absurd or at variance with a moral scheme. Ambrose's exegesis, +half allegorical, half historic, might be accepted, taken altogether, +by self-respecting minds. But what, above all, struck Augustin in the +Scriptures, was the wisdom, the practical efficiency. Those who lived by +the Christian rule were not only happy people, but, as Pascal would say, +good sons, good husbands, good fathers, good citizens. He began to suspect +that this life here below is bearable and has a meaning only when it is +fastened to the life on high. Even as for nations glory is daily bread, so +for the individual the sacrifice to something which is beyond the world is +the only way of living in the world. + +So, little by little, Augustin corrected the false notions that the +Manichees had filled him with about Catholicism. He acknowledged that in +attacking it he had "been barking against the vain imaginations of carnal +thoughts." Still, he found great difficulty in getting free of all his +Manichean prejudices. The problem of Evil remained inexplicable for him, +apart from Manichee teachings. God could not be the author of evil. This +truth admitted, he went on from it to think, against his former masters, +that nothing is bad in itself--bad because it has within it a corrupting +principle. On the contrary, all things are good, though in varying degrees. +The apparent defects of creation, perceived by our senses, blend into +the harmony of the whole. The toad and the viper have their place in the +operation of a perfectly arranged world. But physical ill is not the only +ill; there is also the evil that we do and the evil that others do us. +Crime and pain are terrible arguments against God. Now the Christians +hold that the first is the product solely of the human will, of liberty +corrupted by original sin, and that the other is permitted by God as a +means of purifying souls. Of course, this was a solution, but it implied a +belief in the dogmas of the Fall and of the Redemption. Augustin did not +accept them yet. He was too proud to recognize an impaired will and the +need of a Saviour. "My puffed-out face," he says, "closed up my eyes." + +Nevertheless he had taken a great step in rejecting the fundamental dogma +of Manicheeism--the double Principle of good and evil. Henceforth for +Augustin there exists only one Principle, unique and incorruptible--the +Good, which is God. But his view of this divine substance is still +quite materialistic, to such an extent is he governed by his senses. In +his thought, it is corporeal, spatial, and infinite. He pictures it as +a kind of limitless sea, wherein is a huge sponge bathing the world +that it pervades throughout.... He was at this point, when one of his +acquaintances, "a man puffed up with immense vanity," gave him some of +the Dialogues of Plato, translated into Latin by the famous rhetorician +Victorinus Afer. It is worth noting, as we pass, that Augustin, now +thirty-two years old, a rhetorician by profession and a philosopher by +taste, had not yet read Plato. This is yet another proof to what extent the +instruction of the ancients was oral, resembling in this the Mussulmans' +instruction of to-day. Up to now, he had only known Plato by hearsay. He +read him, and it was as a revelation. He learned that a reality could exist +without diffusion through space. He saw God as unextended and yet infinite. +The sense of the divine Soul was given to him. Then the primordial +necessity of the Mediator or Word was borne in upon his mind. It is the +Word which has created the world. It is through the Word that the world, +and God, and all things, including ourselves, become comprehensible to us. +What an astonishment! Plato corresponded with St. John! "In the beginning +was the Word"--_in principio erat verbum_--said the fourth Gospel. But +it was not only an Evangelist that Augustin discovered in the Platonist +dialogues, it was almost all the essential part of the doctrine of Christ. +He saw plainly the profound differences, but for the moment he was struck +by the resemblances, and they carried him away. What delighted him, first +of all, is the beauty of the world, constructed after His own likeness by +the Demiurgus. God is Beauty; the world is fair as He who made it. This +metaphysical vision entranced Augustin; his whole heart leaped towards +this ineffably beautiful Divinity. Carried away by enthusiasm he cries: "I +marvelled to find that now I loved Thee, O my God, and not a phantasm in +Thy stead. If I was not yet in a state to enjoy Thee, _I was swept up to +Thee by Thy beauty_." + +But such an abandonment could not endure: "I was not yet in a state to +enjoy Thee." There is Augustin's main objection to Platonism. He felt +that instead of touching God, of enjoying Him, he would be held by purely +mental conceptions, that he would be always losing his way among the +phantasmagoria of idealism. What was the use of giving up the illusory +realities of the senses, if it were not to get hold of more _solid_ +realities? Though his intelligence, his poet's imagination, might be +attracted by the glamour of Platonism, his heart was not satisfied. "It is +one thing," he says, "from some wooded height to behold the land of peace, +another thing to march thither along the high road." + +St. Paul it was who shewed him this road. He began to read the _Epistles_ +carefully, and the more he read of them the more he became aware of the +abyss which separates philosophy from wisdom--the one which marshals the +ideas of things, the other which, ignoring ideas, leads right up to the +divine realities whereon the others are suspended. The Apostle taught +Augustin that it was not enough to get a glimpse of God through the crystal +of concepts, but that it is necessary to be united to Him in spirit and in +truth--to possess and enjoy Him. And to unite itself to this Good, the soul +must get itself into a fit state for such a union, purify and cure itself +of all its fleshly maladies, descry its place in the world and hold to it. +Necessity of repentance, of humility, of the contrite and humble heart. +Only the contrite and humble heart shall see God. "The broken heart shall +be cured," says the Scripture, "but the heart of the proud man shall be +shattered." So Augustin, the intellectual, had to change his methods, +and he felt that this change was right. If the writer who wants to write +beautiful things ought to put himself beforehand into some sort of a state +of grace, wherein not only vile actions, but unworthy thoughts become +impossible, the Christian, in like manner, must cleanse and prepare +his inward eye to perceive the divine verities. Augustin grasped this +thought in reading St. Paul. But what, above all, appealed to him in the +_Epistles_, was their paternal voice, the mildness and graciousness hidden +beneath the uncultivated roughness of the phrases. He was charmed by this. +How different from the philosophers! "Those celebrated pages have no trace +of the pious soul, the tears of repentance, nor of Thy sacrifice, O my God, +nor of the troubled spirit.... No one there hearkened to the Christ that +calleth, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour!' They think it scorn to learn +from Him, because He is meek and lowly of heart. For Thou hast hidden these +things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." + +But it is not much to bend: what is, above all, requisite for him is to get +rid of his passions. Now Augustin's passions were old friends. How could +he part with them? He lacked courage for this heroic treatment. Just think +of what a young man of thirty-two is. He is always thinking of women. Lust +holds him by the entanglements of habit, and he takes pleasure in the +impurity of his heart. When, yielding to the exhortations of the Apostle, +he tried to shape his conduct to his new way of thinking, the old friends +trooped to beg of him not to do anything of the kind. "They pulled me," he +says, "by the coat of my flesh, and they murmured in my ear--What, are you +leaving us? Shall we be no more with you, for ever? _Non erimus tecum ultra +in aeternum?_... And from that instant, the thing you well know, and still +another thing, will be forbidden you for ever--for eternity...." + +Eternity! Dread word. Augustin shook with fear. Then, calming himself, he +said to them: "I know you; I know you too well! You are Desire without +hope, the Gulf without soundings that nothing can fill up. I have suffered +enough because of you." And the anguished dialogue continued: "What +matters that! If the only possible happiness for you is to suffer on our +account, to fling your body into the voracious gulf, without end, without +hope!"--"Let cowards act so!... For me there is another happiness than +yours. There is _something else_: I am certain." Then the friends, put +a little out of countenance by this convinced tone, muttered in a lower +voice: "Still, just suppose you are losing this wretched pleasure for +a phantasm still more empty.... Besides, you are mistaken about your +strength. You cannot--no, you never can exist without us." They had touched +the galling spot: Augustin knew his weakness only too well. And his burning +imagination presented to him with extraordinary lucidity these pleasures +which he could not do without. They were not only embracements, but also +those trifles, those superfluous nothings, "those light pleasantnesses +which make us fond of life." The perfidious old friends continued to +whisper: "Wait a bit yet! The things you despise have a charm of their +own; they bring even no small sweetness. You ought not to cut yourself off +light-heartedly, for it would be shameful to return to them afterwards." +He passed in review all the things he was going to give up; he saw them +shine before him tinted in the most alluring colours: gaming, elaborate +entertainments, music, song, perfumes, books, poetry, flowers, the coolness +of forests (he remembered the woods about Thagaste, and his hunting days +with Romanianus)--in a word, all that he had ever cared about, even to +"that freshness of the light, so kind to human eyes." + +Augustin was not able to decide in this conflict between temptation and the +decree of his conscience, and he became desperate. His will, enfeebled by +sin, was unable to struggle against itself. And so he continued to endure +life and to be "devoured by time." + +The life of that particular period, if it was endurable for quiet folk +who were careful to have nothing to do with politics--this life of the +Empire near its end, could be nothing but a scandalous spectacle for an +honest-minded and high-souled man such as Augustin. It ought to have +disgusted him at once with remaining in the world. At Milan, connected as +he was with the Court, he was in a good position to see how much baseness +and ferocity may spring from human avarice and ambition. If the present +was hideous, the future promised to be sinister. The Roman Empire no longer +existed save in name. Foreigners, come from all the countries of the +Mediterranean, plundered the provinces under its authority. The army was +almost altogether in the hands of the Barbarians. They were Gothic tribunes +who kept order outside the basilica where Ambrose had closed himself in +with his people to withstand the order of the Empress Justina, who wished +to hand over this church to the Arians. Levantine eunuchs domineered over +the exchequer-clerks in the palace, and officials of all ranks. All these +people plundered where they could. The Empire, even grown feeble, was +always an excellent machine to rule men and extract gold from nations. +Accordingly, ambitious men and adventurers, wherever they came from, tried +for the Purple: it was still worth risking one's skin for. Even more than +the patriots (and there were still some very energetic men of this sort +who were overcome with grief at the state of things), the men of rapine +and violence were interested in maintaining the Empire. The Barbarians +themselves desired to be included, so that they might pillage it with more +impunity. + +As for the emperors, even sincere Christians, they were obliged to become +abominable tyrants to defend their constantly threatened lives. Never were +executions more frequent or more cruel than at this time. At Milan they +might have shewn Augustin, hard by the Imperial sleeping apartments, the +cave where the preceding Emperor, choleric Valentinian, kept two bears, +"Bit of Gold" and "Innocence," who were his rapid executioners. He fed them +with the flesh of those condemned to die. Possibly "Bit of Gold" was still +living. "Innocence"--observe the atrocious irony of this name--had been +restored to the liberty of her native forests, as a reward for her good and +loyal services. + +Was Augustin, who still thought of becoming an official, going to mix in +with this lot of swindlers, assassins, and brute beasts? As he studied them +near at hand, he felt his goodwill grow weak. Like all those who belong +to worn-out generations, he must have been disgusted with action and the +villainies it involves. Just before great catastrophes, or just after, +there is an epidemic of black pessimism which freezes delicate souls. +Besides, he was ill--a favourable circumstance for a disappointed man if he +entertains thoughts of giving up the world. In the fogs of Milan his chest +and throat became worse and worse. And then it is likely enough that he was +not succeeding better as rhetorician than he had at Rome. It was a kind +of fatality for all Africans. However great their reputation in their own +country, that was the end of it as soon as they crossed the sea. Apuleius, +the great man of Carthage, had tried the experiment to his cost. They had +made fun of his guttural Carthaginian pronunciation. The same kind of thing +happened to Augustin. The Milanese turned his African accent into ridicule. +He even found among them certain purists who discovered solecisms in his +phrases. + +But these scratches at his self-respect, this increasing disgust of men +and things, were small matters compared to what was going on within him. +Augustin had a sick soul. The forebodings he had always been subject to +were now become the suffering of every moment. At certain times he was +assailed by those great waves of sadness which unfurl all of a sudden from +the depths of the unknown. In such minutes we believe that the whole world +is hurling itself against us. The great wave rolled him over; he got up +again all wounded. And he felt stretch forth in him a new will which was +not his own, under which the other, the will to sin, struggled. It was +like the approach of an invisible being whose contact overcame him with an +anguish which was full of pleasure. This being wanted to open out within +him, but the weight of his old sins prevented. Then his soul cried out in +pain. + +In those moments, what a relief it was to let himself float on the +canticles of the Church! The liturgical chants were then something new in +the West. It was in the very year we are dealing with that St. Ambrose +started the custom in the Milanese basilicas. + +The childhood of our hymns! One cannot think about that without being +moved. One envies Augustin for having heard them in their spring freshness. +These lovely musics, which were to sound during so many centuries, and +still soar against the vaults of cathedrals, were leaving the nest for the +first time. We cannot think that a day will come when they will fold their +wings and fall silent. Since human bodies, temples of the Holy Ghost, will +live again in glory, one would like to believe with Dante that the hymns, +temples of the Word, are likewise immortal, and that they will still be +heard in the everlasting. Doubtless in the twilight glens of Purgatory the +bewailing souls continue to sing the _Te lucis ante terminum_, even as in +the star-circles, where the Blessed move ever, will always leap up the +triumphant notes of the _Magnificat_.... + +Even on those who have lost the faith, the power of these hymns is +irresistible. "If you knew," said Renan, "the charm that the Barbarian +magicians knew how to put into their canticles. When I remember them, my +heart melts." The heart of Augustin, who had not yet the faith, melted too +in hearing them: "How I have cried, my God, over the hymns and canticles +when the sweet sound of the music of Thy Church thrilled my soul! As the +music flowed into my ears, and Thy truth trickled into my heart, the tide +of devotion swelled high within me, and the tears ran down, and there was +gladness in those tears." His heart cast off its heaviness, while his mind +was shaken by the heavenly music. Augustin loved music passionately. At +this time he conceived God as the Great Musician of the spheres; and soon +he will write that "we are a strophe in a poem." At the same time, the +vivid and lightning figures of the Psalms, sweeping over the insipid +metaphors of the rhetoric which encumbered his memory, awoke in the depths +of him his wild African imagination and sent him soaring. And then the +affectionate note, the plaint in those sacred songs: _Deus, Deus meus!_--"O +God! O _my_ God!" The Divinity was no longer a cold abstraction, a phantom +that withdrew into an unapproachable infinite; He became the actual +possession of the loving soul. He leant over His poor scarred creature, +took him in His arms, and comforted him like a kind father. + +Augustin wept with tenderness and ecstasy, but also with despair. He wept +upon himself. He saw that he had not the courage to be happy with the only +possible happiness. What, indeed, was he seeking, unless it were to capture +this "blessed life" which he had pursued so long? What he had tried to get +out of all his loves was the complete gift of his soul--to realize himself +completely. Now, this completeness of self is only in God--_in Deo salutari +meo_. The souls we have wounded are in unison with us, and with themselves, +only in God.... And the sweet Christian symbolism invited him with its +most enticing images: the Shades of Paradise; the Fountain of Living +Water; the Repose in the Lord God; the green Branch of the Dove, harbinger +of peace.... But the passions still resisted. "To-morrow! Wait a little +yet! Shall we be no more with you, for ever? _Non erimus tecum ultra in +aeternum?_..." What a dismal sound in these syllables, and how terrifying +for a timid soul! They fell, heavy as bronze, on the soul of Augustin. + +An end had to be put to it somehow. What was needed was some one who would +force him out of his indecision. Instinctively, led by that mysterious will +which he felt had arisen within him, he went to see, and consult in his +distress, an old priest named Simplicianus, who had converted or directed +Bishop Ambrose in his young days. No doubt Augustin spoke to him of what he +had lately been reading, and particularly of his Platonist studies, and of +all the efforts he made to enter the communion of Christ. He acknowledged +that he was convinced, but he could not bend to the practice of the +Christian life. Then, very skilfully, as one artful in differentiating +souls, perceiving that vanity was not yet dead in Augustin, Simplicianus +offered him as an example the very translator of those Platonic books which +he had just been reading so enthusiastically--that famous Victorinus Afer, +that orator so learned and admired, who had his statue in the Roman Forum. +Because of some remains of philosophical pride, and also from fear of +offending his friends among the Roman aristocracy, who were still almost +altogether pagan, Victorinus was a Christian only in his head. In vain +Simplicianus pointed out to him how illogical his conduct was. But suddenly +and unexpectedly he decided. The day of the baptism of the catechumens, +this celebrated man mounted the platform set up in the basilica for the +profession of faith of the newly converted, and there, like the meanest of +the faithful, he delivered his profession before all the assembled people. +That was a dramatic stroke. The crowd, jubilant over this fine performance, +cheered the neophyte. And on all sides they shouted: "Victorinus! +Victorinus!" + +Augustin listened to this little story, whereof all the details were so +happily chosen to act on an imagination like his:--the statue in the +Roman Forum; the platform from the height of which the orator had spoken +a language so new and unexpected; the exulting shouts of the crowd: +"Victorinus! Victorinus!" Already he saw himself in the same position. +There he was in the basilica, on the platform, in presence of Bishop +Ambrose; he too repeated his profession of faith, and the people of Milan +clapped their hands--"Augustin! Augustin!" But can a humble and contrite +heart thus take pleasure in human adulation? If Augustin did become a +convert, it would be entirely for God and before God. Very quickly he put +aside the temptation.... Nevertheless, this example, coming from so exalted +a man, made a very deep and beneficial impression. He looked upon it as a +providential sign, a lesson in courage which concerned him personally. + +Some time after that, he received a visit from a fellow-countryman, a +certain Pontitianus, who had a high position in the Imperial household. +Augustin happened to be alone in the house with his friend Alypius. They +sat down to talk, and by chance the visitor noticed the Epistles of St. +Paul lying on a table for playing games. This started the conversation. +Pontitianus, who was a Christian, praised the ascetic life, and especially +the wonders of holiness wrought by Antony and his companions in the +Egyptian deserts. This subject was in the air. In Catholic circles at +Rome, they spoke of little else than these Egyptian solitaries, and of +the number, growing larger and larger, of those who stripped themselves +of their worldly goods to live in utter renunciation. What was the good +of keeping these worldly goods, that the avarice of Government taxation +confiscated so easily, and that the Barbarians watched covetously from +afar! The brutes who came down from Germany would get hold of them sooner +or later. And even supposing one might save them, retain an ever-uncertain +enjoyment of them, was the life of the time really worth the trouble of +living? There was nothing more to hope for the Empire. The hour of the +great desolation was at hand.... + +Pontitianus, observing the effect of his words on his hearers, was led +to tell them a quite private adventure of his own. He was at Trèves, in +attendance on the Court. Well, one afternoon while the Emperor was at +the circus, he and three of his friends, like himself attached to the +household, went for a stroll beyond the city walls. Two of them parted +from the others and went off into the country, and there they came upon +a hut where dwelt certain hermits. They went in, and found a book--_The +Life of St. Antony_. They read in it; and for them that was a conversion +thunder-striking, instantaneous. The two courtiers resolved to join the +solitaries there and then, and they never went back to the Palace. And they +were betrothed!... + +The tone of Pontitianus as he recalled this conscience-drama which he +had witnessed, betrayed a strange emotion which gradually took hold of +Augustin. His guest's words resounded in him like the blows of a clapper in +a bell. He saw himself in the two courtiers of Trèves. He too was tired of +the world, he too was betrothed. Was he going to do as the Emperor--remain +in the circus taken up with idle pleasures, while others took the road to +the sole happiness? + +When Pontitianus was gone, Augustin was in a desperate state. The repentant +soul of the two courtiers had passed into his. His will uprose in grievous +conflict and tortured itself. He seized Alypius roughly by the arm and +cried out to him in extraordinary excitement: + +"What are we about? Yes, I say, what are we about? Did you not hear? Simple +men arise and take Heaven by violence, and we with all our heartless +learning--look how we are wallowing in flesh and blood!" + +Alypius stared at him, stupefied. "The truth is," adds Augustin, "that I +scarcely knew what I said. My face, my eyes, my colour, and the change in +my voice expressed my meaning much better than my words." If he guessed +from this upheaval of his whole frame how close at hand was the heavenly +visitation, all he felt at the moment was a great need to weep, and he +wanted solitude to weep freely. He went down into the garden. Alypius, +feeling uneasy, followed at a distance, and in silence sat down beside him +on the bench where he had paused. Augustin did not even notice that his +friend was there. His agony of spirit began again. All his faults, all his +old stains came once more to his mind, and he grew furious against his +cowardly feebleness as he felt how much he still clung to them. Oh, to tear +himself free from all these miseries--to finish with them once for all!... +Suddenly he sprang up. It was as if a gust of the tempest had struck him. +He rushed to the end of the garden, flung himself on his knees under a +fig-tree, and with his forehead pressed against the earth he burst into +tears. Even as the olive-tree at Jerusalem which sheltered the last watch +of the Divine Master, the fig-tree of Milan saw fall upon its roots a sweat +of blood. Augustin, breathless in the victorious embrace of Grace, panted: +"How long, how long?... To-morrow and to-morrow?... Why not now? Why not +this hour make an end of my vileness?..." + +Now, at this very moment a child's voice from the neighbouring house began +repeating in a kind of chant: "_Take and read, take and read_." Augustin +shuddered. What was this refrain? Was it a nursery-rhyme that the little +children of the countryside used to sing? He could not recollect it; he had +never heard it before.... Immediately, as upon a divine command, he rose to +his feet and ran back to the place where Alypius was sitting, for he had +left St. Paul's Epistles lying there. He opened the book, and the passage +on which his eyes first fell was this: _Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, +and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof_.... The +flesh!... The sacred text aimed at him directly--at him, Augustin, still so +full of lust! This command was the answer from on high.... + +He put his finger between the leaves, closed the volume. His frenzy had +passed away. A great peace was shed upon him--it was all over. With a calm +face he told Alypius what had happened, and without lingering he went into +Monnica's room to tell her also. The Saint was not surprised. It was long +now since she had been told, "Where I am, there shalt thou be also." But +she gave way to an outburst of joy. Her mission was done. Now she might +sing her canticle of thanksgiving and enter into God's peace. + +Meanwhile, the good Alypius, always circumspect and practical, had opened +the book again and shewn his friend what followed the verse, for Augustin, +in his excitement, had neglected to read further. The Apostle said, "_Him +that is weak in the faith receive ye_." This also applied to Augustin. +That was only too certain: his new faith was still very unsteady. Let not +presumption blind him! Yes, no doubt with all his soul he desired to be a +Christian. It now remained for him to become one. + + + + +THE FOURTH PART + +THE HIDDEN LIFE + + + Fac me, Pater, quaerere te. + "Cause me to seek Thee, O my Father." + + _Soliloquies_, I, i. + + + + +I + +THE LAST SMILE OF THE MUSE + + +Now that Augustin had been at last touched by grace, was he after all +going to make a sensational conversion like his professional brother, the +celebrated Victorinus? + +He knew well enough that there is a good example set by these noisy +conversions which works on a vast number of people. And however "contrite +and humble" his heart might be, he was quite aware that in Milan he +was an important personage. What excitement, if he were to resign his +professorship on the ground that he wished to spend the rest of his life in +the ascetic way of the Christians!... But he preferred to avoid the scandal +on one side, and the loud praise on the other. God alone and some very dear +friends should witness his repentance. + +There were now hardly twenty days before the vacation. He would be patient +till then. Thus, the parents of his pupils would not have any ground to +reproach him for leaving them before the end of term, and as his health +was getting worse, he would have a good excuse to give up his post. The +dampness of the climate had given him a sort of chronic bronchitis which +the summer had not cured. He had difficulty in breathing; his voice was +muffled and thin--so much so, that he began to think his lungs were +attacked. Augustin's health really needed care. This was a quite good +enough reason to interrupt his lectures. Having fulfilled his professional +duties to the very end--and he assures us that it took some courage--he +left the professorial chair with the declared intention of never occupying +it again. + +Here, then, he is free from all worldly ties. From now on he can prepare +himself for baptism in silence and retreat. But still he must live somehow! +Augustin had more souls depending on him than ever: his son, his mother, +his brother, his cousins--a heavy burthen which he had been struggling +under for a long time. It is probable that once more Romanianus, who was +still in Milan, came to his assistance. It will be remembered that the +Mæcenas of Thagaste had taken up warmly the plan of a lay monastery which +Augustin and his friends had lost their heads over, and he had promised +to subscribe a large sum. Augustin's retreat was a first step towards +realizing this plan in a new shape. Romanianus, no doubt, approved of +it. In any case, he asked Augustin to keep on giving lessons to his son +Licentius. Another young man, Trygetius, begged for the same favour. +Augustin therefore did not intend to give up his employment altogether. He +had changed, for the present at least, from a Government professor into a +private one. + +This meant that he had a certain living. All he wanted now was a shelter. +A friend, a colleague, the grammarian Verecundus, graciously offered him +this. Verecundus thus repaid a favour which Augustin had quite recently +done him. It was at Augustin's request that Nebridius, who was a friend of +both, agreed to take over the classes of the grammarian, who was obliged +to go away. Although rich, full of talent, and very eager for peace and +solitude, Nebridius, simply out of good-nature, was willing to take the +place of Verecundus in his very modest employment. One cannot too much +admire the generosity and kindliness of these ancient and Christian +manners. In those days, friendship knew nothing of our narrow and shabby +egoisms. + +Now Verecundus owned a country house just outside Milan, at Cassicium. He +suggested to Augustin to spend the vacation there, and even to live there +permanently with all his people, on condition of looking after the property +and keeping it up. + +Attempts have been made to find traces of this hospitable dwelling where +the future monk of Thagaste and Hippo bade farewell to the world. Cassicium +has disappeared. The imagination is free to rebuild it fancifully in any +part of the rich country which lies about Milan. Still, if the youthful +Licentius has not yielded too much to metaphor in the verses wherein he +recalls to Augustin "Departed suns among Italian mountain-heights," it is +likely that the estate of Verecundus lay upon those first mountain-slopes +which roll into the Brianza range. Even to-day, the rich Milanese have +their country houses among those hills. + +To Augustin and his companions this flourishing Lombardy must have seemed +another promised land. The country, wonderfully fertile and cultivated, +is one orchard, where fruit trees cluster, and, in all ways, deep streams +wind, slow-flowing and stocked with fish. Everywhere is the tremor of +running water--inconceivably fresh music for African ears. A scent of mint +and aniseed; fields with grass growing high and straight in which you +plunge up to the knees. Here and there, deeply engulfed little valleys +with their bunches of green covert, slashed with the rose plumes of the +lime trees and the burnished leaves of the hazels, and where already the +northern firs lift their black needles. Far off, blended in one violet +mass, the Alps, peak upon peak, covered with snow; and nearer in view, +sheer cliffs, jutting fastnesses, ploughed through with black gorges which +make flare out plainer the bronze-gold of their slopes. Not far off, the +enchanted lakes slumber. It seems that an emblazonment fluctuates from +their waters, and writhing above the crags which imprison them drifts +athwart a sky sometimes a little chill--Leonardo's pensive sky of shadowed +amethyst--again of a flushed blue, whereupon float great clouds, silken +and ruddy, as in the backgrounds of Veronese's pictures. The beauty of the +light lightens and beautifies the over-heavy opulence of the land. + +And wherever the country house of Verecundus may be placed, some bit of +this triumphal landscape will be found. As for the house itself, Augustin +has said enough about it for us to see it fairly well. It was no doubt one +of those old rustic buildings, inhabited only some few months of the year, +in the warmest season, and for the rest of the time given over to the +frolics of mice and rats. Without any pretence to architectural form, it +had been enlarged and renovated simply for the greater convenience of those +who lived there. There was no attempt at symmetry; the main door was not in +the middle of the building, and there was another door on one of the sides. +The sole luxury of this country house was perhaps the bath-houses. These +baths, however simple they might be, nevertheless reminded Augustin of +the decoration of gymnasiums. Does this mean that he found there rich +pavements, mosaics, and statues? These were quite usual things in Roman +villas. The Italians have always had, at all periods, a great fondness +for statues and mosaics. Not very particular about the quality, they made +up for it by the quantity. And when they could not treat themselves to +the real thing, it was good enough to give themselves the make-believe in +painting. I can imagine easily enough Verecundus' house, painted in fresco +from top to bottom, inside and out, like those houses at Pompeii, or the +modern Milanese villas. + +There was no attempt at ornamental gardens at Cassicium. The surroundings +must have been kitchen-garden, grazing-land, or ploughed fields, as in +a farm. A meadow--not in the least the lawns found in front of a large +country house--lay before the dwelling, which was protected from sun and +wind by clumps of chestnut trees. There, stretched on the grass under the +shade of one of these spreading trees, they chatted gaily while listening +to the broken song of the brook, as it flowed under the windows of the +baths. They lived very close to nature, almost the life of field-tillers. +The whole charm of Cassicium consisted in its silence, its peace, and, +above all, its fresh air. Augustin's tired lungs breathed there a purer air +than in Milan, where the humid summer heat is crushing. His soul, yearning +for retirement, discovered a retreat here in harmony with his new desires, +a country solitude of which the Virgilian grace still appealed to his +literary imagination. The days he passed there were days of blessedness for +him. Long afterwards he was deeply moved when he recalled them, and in an +outburst of gratitude towards his host, he prayed God to pay him his debt. +"Thou wilt recompense him, O Lord, on the day of the resurrection of the +just.... For that country house at Cassicium where we found shelter in Thee +from the burning summer of our time, Thou wilt repay to Verecundus the +coolness and evergreen shade of Thy paradise...." + +That was an unequalled moment in Augustin's life. Following immediately +upon the mental crisis which had even worn out his body, he seems to be +experiencing the pleasure of convalescence. He slackens, and, as he says +himself, he rests. His excitement is quenched, but his faith remains +as firm as ever. With a cairn and supremely lucid mind he judges his +condition; he sees clearly all that he has still to do ere he becomes a +thorough Christian. First, he must grow familiar with the Scripture, solve +certain urgent questions--that of the soul, for example, its nature and +origin--which possessed him just then. Then he must change his conduct, +alter his ways of thought, and, if one may so speak, disinfect his mind +still all saturated with pagan influences: a delicate work--yes, and an +uneasy, at times even painful, which would take more than one day. + +After twenty centuries of Christianity, and in spite of our claim to +understand all things, we do not yet realize very well what an abyss +lies between us and paganism. When by chance we come upon pagan traces +in certain primitive regions of the South of Europe, we get muddled, and +attribute to Catholicism what is but a survival of old abolished customs, +so far from us that we cannot recognize them any more. Augustin, on the +contrary, was right next to them. When he strolled over the fields and +through the woods around Cassicium, the Fauns and woodland Nymphs of the +old mythology haunted his memory, and all but stood before his eyes. He +could not take a walk without coming upon one of their chapels, or striking +against a boundary-mark still all greasy from the oil with which the +superstitious peasants had drenched it. Like himself, the old pagan land +had not yet quite put on the Christ of the new era. He was like that Hermes +Criophorus, who awkwardly symbolized the Saviour on the walls of the +Catacombs. Even as the Bearer of Rams changed little by little into the +Good Shepherd, the Bishop of Hippo emerged slowly from the rhetorician +Augustin. + +He became aware of it during that languid autumn at Cassicium--that autumn +heavy with all the rotting of summer, but which already promised the +great winter peace. The yellow leaves of the chestnuts were heaped by the +roadside. They fell in the brook which flowed near the baths, and the +slowed water ceased to sing. Augustin strained his ears for it. His soul +also was blocked, choked up by all the deposit of his passions. But he knew +that soon the chant of his new life would begin in triumphal fashion, and +he said over to himself the words of the psalm: _Cantate mihi canticum +novum_--"Sing unto me a new song." + +Unfortunately for Augustin, his soul and its salvation was not his only +care at Cassicium: he had a thousand others. So it shall be with him +throughout his life. Till the very end he will long for solitude, for the +life in God, and till the end God will charge him with the care of his +brethren. This great spirit shall live above all by charity. + +At the house of Verecundus he was not only the head, but he had a complete +country estate to direct and supervise. Probably all the guests in the +house helped him. They divided the duties. The good Alypius, who was used +to business and versed in the twisted ways of the law, took over the +foreign affairs--the buying and selling, probably the accounts also. He was +continually on the road to Milan. Augustin attended to the correspondence, +and every morning appointed their work to the farm-labourers. Monnica +looked after the household, no easy work in a house where nine sat down to +table every day. But the Saint fulfilled her humble duties with touching +kindness and forgetfulness of self: "She took care of us," says Augustin, +"as if we had all been her children, and she served us as if each of us had +been her father." + +Let us look a little at these "children" of Monnica. Besides Alypius, whom +we know already, there was the young Adeodatus, the child of sin--"my son +Adeodatus, whose gifts gave promise of great things, unless my love for +him betrays me." Thus speaks his father. This little boy was, it seems, +a prodigy, as shall be the little Blaise Pascal later: "His intelligence +filled me with awe"--_horrori mihi erat illud ingenium_--says the father +again. What is certain is that he had a soul like an angel. Some sayings +of his have been preserved by Augustin. They are fragrant as a bunch of +lilies. + +The other members of the family are nearer the earth. Navigius, Augustin's +brother, an excellent man of whom we know nothing save that he had a bad +liver--the icterus of the African colonist--and that on this account he +abstained from sweetmeats. Rusticus and Lastidianus, the two cousins, +persons as shadowy as the "supers" in a tragedy. Finally, Augustin's +pupils, Trygetius and Licentius. The first, who had lately served some time +in the army, was passionately fond of history, "like a veteran." Although +his master in some of his Dialogues has made him his interlocutor, his +character remains for us undeveloped. With Licentius it is different. This +son of Romanianus, the Mæcenas of Thagaste, was Augustin's beloved pupil. +It is easy to make that out. All the phrases he devotes to Licentius have a +warmth of tone, a colour and relief which thrill. + +This Licentius comes before us as the type of the spoiled child, the son of +a wealthy family, capricious, vain, presuming, unabashed, never hesitating +if he sees a chance to have a joke with his master. Forgetful, besides, +prone to sudden fancies, superficial, and rather blundering. With all +that, the best boy in the world--a bad head, but a good heart. He was a +frank pagan, and I believe remained a pagan all his life, in spite of the +remonstrances of Augustin and those of the gentle Paulinus of Nola, who +lectured him in prose and verse. A great eater and a fine drinker, he +found himself obliged to do penance at St. Monnica's rather frugal table. +But when the fever of inspiration took hold of him, he forgot eating and +drinking, and in his poetical thirst he would would have drained--so his +master says--all the fountains of Helicon. Licentius had a passion for +versifying: "He is an almost perfect poet," wrote Augustin to Romanianus. +The former rhetorician knew the world, and the way to talk to the father +of a wealthy pupil, especially if he is your benefactor. At Cassicium, +under Augustin's indulgent eyes, the pupil turned into verse the romantic +adventure of Pyramus and Thisbe. He declaimed bits of it to the guests +in the house, for he had a fine loud voice. Then he flung aside the +unfinished poem and suddenly fell in love with Greek tragedies of which, +as it happened, he understood nothing at all, though this did not prevent +him from boring everybody he met with them. Another day it was the Church +music, then quite new, which flung him into enthusiasm. That day they heard +Licentius singing canticles from morning till night. + +In connection with this, Augustin relates with candid freedom an anecdote +which to-day needs the indulgence of the reader to make it acceptable. As +it gives light upon that half-pagan, half-Christian way of life which was +still Augustin's, I will repeat it in all its plainness. + +It happened, then, one evening after dinner, that Licentius went out and +took his way to a certain mysterious retreat, and there he suddenly began +singing this verse of the Psalm: "Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause +Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved." As a matter of fact, he had +hardly sung anything else for a long time. He kept on repeating this verse +over and over again, as people do with a tune they have just picked up. But +the pious Monnica, who heard him, could not tolerate the singing of such +holy words in such a place. She spoke sharply to the offender. Upon this +the young scatter-brains answered rather flippantly: + +"Supposing, good mother, that an enemy had shut me up in that place--do you +mean to say that God wouldn't have heard me just the same?" + +The next day he thought no more about it, and when Augustin reminded him, +he declared that he felt no remorse. + +"As far as I am concerned," replied the excellent master, "I am not in the +least shocked by it.... The truth is, that neither that place, which has +so much scandalized my mother, nor the darkness of night, is altogether +inappropriate to this canticle. For whence, think you, do we implore God +to drag us, so that we may be converted and gaze upon His face? Is it not +from that jakes of the senses wherein our souls are plunged, and from that +darkness of which the error is around us?..." + +And as they were discussing that day the order established by Providence, +Augustin made it a pretext to give a little edifying lecture to his pupil. +Having heard the sermon to the end, the sharp Licentius put in with sly +maliciousness: + +"I say, what a splendid arrangement of events to shew me that nothing +happens except in the best way, and for our great good!" + +This reply gives us the tone of the conversation between Augustin and +his pupils. Nevertheless, however free and merry the talks might be, the +purpose was always instructive, and it was always substantial. Let us not +forget that the Milanese rhetorician is still a professor. The best part of +his days was devoted to these two youths who had been put under his charge. +As soon as he had settled the business of the farm, talked to the peasants, +and given his orders to the workmen, he fell back upon his business of +rhetorician. In the morning they went over Virgil's _Eclogues_ together. At +night they discussed philosophy. When the weather was fine they walked in +the fields, and the discussion continued under the shade of the chestnut +trees. If it rained, they took refuge in the withdrawing-room adjoining the +baths. Beds were there, cushions, soft chairs convenient for talking, and +the equal temperature from the vapour-baths close at hand was good for +Augustin's bronchial tubes. + +There is no stiffness in these dialogues, nothing which smacks of the +school. The discussion starts from things which they had under the eyes, +often from some slight accidental happening. One night when Augustin could +not sleep--he often suffered from insomnia--the dispute began in bed, for +the master and his pupils slept in the same room. Lying there in the dark, +he listened to the broken murmur of the stream. He was trying to think out +an explanation of the pauses in the sound, when Licentius shifted under the +bedclothes, and reaching out for a piece of stick lying on the floor, he +rapped with it on the foot of the bed to frighten the mice. So he was not +asleep either, nor Trygetius, who was stirring about in his bed. Augustin +was delighted: he had two listeners. Immediately he put this question: "Why +do those pauses come in the flow of the stream? Do they not follow some +secret law?..." They had hit upon a subject for debate. During many days +they discussed the order of the world. + +Another time, as they were going into the baths, they stopped to look +at two cocks fighting. Augustin called the attention of the youths "to +a certain order full of propriety in all the movements of these fowls +deprived of reason." + +"Look at the conqueror," said he. "He crows triumphantly. He struts and +plumes himself as a proud sign of victory. And now look at the beaten one, +without voice, his neck unfeathered, a look of shame. All that has I know +not what beauty, in harmony with the laws of nature...." + +New argument in favour of order: the debate of the night before is started +rolling again. + +For us, too, it is well worth while to pause on this little homely scene. +It reveals to us an Augustin not only very sensitive to beauty, but very +attentive to the sights of the world surrounding him. Cockfights were still +very popular in this Roman society at the ending of the Empire. For a long +time sculptors had found many gracious subjects in the sport. Reading this +passage of Augustin's, one recalls, among other similar designs, that +funeral urn at the Lateran upon which are represented two little boys, one +crying over his beaten cock, while the other holds his tenderly in his +arms and kisses it--the cock that won, identified by the crown held in its +spurs. + +Augustin is always very close to these humble realities. Every moment +outside things start up in the dialogues between the master and his +pupils.... They are in bed on a rainy night in November. Gradually, a vague +gleam rests on the windows. They ask each other if that can be the moon, or +the break of day.... Another time, the sun rises in all its splendour, and +they decide to go into the meadow and sit on the grass. Or else, the sky +darkens and lights are brought in. Or again, it is the appearance of +diligent Alyphis, just come back from Milan.... + +In the same way as he notes these light details in passing, Augustin +welcomes all his guests into his dialogues and admits them to the debate: +his mother, his brother, the cousins, Alypius between his business +journeys, down to the child Adeodatus. He knew the value of ordinary good +sense, the second-sight of a pure heart, or of a pious soul strengthened by +prayer. Monnica used often to come into the room when they were arguing, +to let them know that dinner was ready, or for something of the kind. Her +son asked her to remain. Modestly she shewed her astonishment at such an +honour. + +"Mother," said Augustin, "do you not love truth? Then why should I blush +to give you a place among us? Even if your love for truth were only +half-hearted, I ought still to receive you and listen to you. How much more +then, since you love it more than you love me, _and I know how much you +love me_.... Nothing can separate you from truth, neither fear, nor pain +of whatever kind it be--no, nor death itself. Do not all agree that this +is the highest stage of philosophy? How can I hesitate after that to call +myself your disciple?" + +And Monnica, utterly confused by such praise, answered with affectionate +gruffness: + +"Stop talking! You have never told bigger lies." + +Most of the time these conversations were simply dialectic games in the +taste of the period, games a little pedantic, and fatiguing from subtilty. +The boisterous Licentius did not always enjoy himself. He was often +inattentive; and his master scolded him. But all the same, the master +understood how to amuse his two foster-children while he exercised their +intelligence. At the end of one discussion he said to them laughing: + +"Just at this hour, the sun warns me to put the playthings I had brought +for the children back in the basket...." + +Let us remark in passing that this is the last time, before those +centuries which are coming of universal intellectual silence or arid +scholasticism--the last time that high questions will be discussed in this +graceful light way, and with the same freedom of mind. The tradition begun +by Socrates under the plane-trees on the banks of the Ilissus, is ending +with Augustin under the chestnuts of Cassicium. + +And yet, however gay and capricious the form, the substance of these +dialogues, "On the Academics," "On Order," and "On the Happy Life," is +serious, and even very serious. The best proof of their importance in +Augustin's eyes is, that after taking care to have them reported in +shorthand, he eventually published them. The _notarii_ attended these +discussions and let nothing be lost. The rise of the scrivener, of the +notary, dates from this period. The administration of the Lower-Empire was +frightfully given to scribbling. By contact with it, the Church became so +too. Let us not press our complaints about it, since this craze for writing +has procured for us, with a good deal of shot-rubbish, some precious +historical documents. In Augustin's case, these reports of his lectures at +Cassicium have at least the value of shewing us the state of soul of the +future Bishop of Hippo at a decisive moment of his life. + +For these _Dialogues_, although they look like school exercises, reveal the +intimate thoughts of Augustin on the morrow of his conversion. While he +seems to be refuting the Academics, he is fighting the errors from which +he, personally, had suffered so long. He clarified his new ideal. No; the +search for truth, without hope of ever reaching it, cannot give happiness. +And genuine happiness is only in God. And if a rhythm is to be found in +things, then it is necessary to make the soul rhythmic also and so enable +it to contemplate God. It is necessary to still within it the noise of the +passions. Hence, the need of inward reformation, and, at a final analysis, +of asceticism. + +But Augustin knew full well that these truths must be adapted to the +weakness of the two lads he was teaching, and also to the common run of +mankind. He has not yet in these years the uncompromising attitude which +ere long will give him a sterner virtue--an attitude, however, unceasingly +tempered by his charity and by the persistent recollections of his reading. +It was now that he shaped the rule of conduct in worldly morals and +education which the Christian experience of the future will adopt: "If you +have always order in your hearts," he said to his pupils, "you must return +to your verses. _For a knowledge of liberal sciences, but a controlled and +exact knowledge_, forms men who will love the truth.... But there are other +men, or, to put it better, other souls, who, although held in the body, are +sought for the eternal marriage by the best and fairest of spouses. For +these souls it is not enough to live; they wish to live happy.... But as +for you, go, _meanwhile_, and find your Muses!" + +"Go and find your Muses!" What a fine saying! How human and how wise! Here +is clearly indicated the double ideal of those who continue to live in the +world according to the Christian law of restraint and moderation, and of +those who yearn to live in God. With Augustin the choice is made. He will +never more look back. These Dialogues at Cassicium are his supreme farewell +to the pagan Muse. + + + + +II + +THE ECSTASY OF SAINT MONNICA + + +They stayed through the winter at Cassicium. However taken up he might be +by the work of the estate and the care of his pupils, Augustin devoted +himself chiefly to the great business of his salvation. + +The _Soliloquies_, which he wrote then, render even the passionate tone of +the meditations which he perpetually gave way to during his watches and +nights of insomnia. He searched for God, moaning: _Fac me, Pater, quærere +te_--"Cause me to seek Thee, O my Father." But still, he sought Him more as +a philosopher than as a Christian. The old man in him was not dead. He had +not quite stripped off the rhetorician or the intellectual. The over-tender +heart remained, which had so much sacrificed to human love. In those ardent +dialogues between himself and his reason, it is plain to see that reason +is not quite the mistress. "I love only God and the soul," Augustin states +with a touch of presumption. And his reason, which knows him well, answers: +"Do you not then love your friends?"--"I love the soul; how therefore +should I not love them?" What does this phrase, of such exquisite +sensibility, and even already so aloof from worldly thoughts--what does +it lack to give forth a sound entirely Christian? Just a slight change of +accent. + +He himself began to see that he would do better not to philosophize so much +and to draw nearer the Scripture, in listening to the wisdom of that with +a contrite and humble heart. Upon the directions of Ambrose, whose advice +he had asked by letter, he tried to read the prophet Isaiah, because +Isaiah is the clearest foreteller of the Redemption. He found the book so +difficult that he lost heart, and he put it aside till later. Meanwhile, +he had forwarded his resignation as professor of Rhetoric to the Milan +municipality. Then, when the time was come, he sent to Bishop Ambrose +a written confession of his errors and faults, and represented to him +his very firm intention to be baptized. He was quietly baptized on the +twenty-fifth of April, during the Easter season of the year 387, together +with his son Adeodatus, and his friend Alypius. Alypius had prepared most +piously, disciplining himself with the harshest austerities, to the point +of walking barefoot on the frozen soil. + +So now the solitaries of Cassicium are back in Milan. Augustin's two pupils +were gone. Trygetius doubtless had rejoined the army. Licentius had gone +to live in Rome. But another fellow-countryman, an African from Thagaste, +Evodius, formerly a clerk in the Ministry of the Interior, came to join +the small group of new converts. Evodius, the future Bishop of Uzalis, in +Africa, and baptized before Augustin, was a man of scrupulous piety and +unquestioning faith. He talked of devout subjects with his friend, who, +just fresh from baptism, experienced all the quietude of grace. They spoke +of the community which St. Ambrose had either founded or organized at +the gates of Milan, and in comparison with a life so austere, Augustin +perceived that the life he had led at Cassicium was still stained with +paganism. He must carry out his conversion to the end and live as a hermit +after the manner of Antony and the solitaries of the Thebaid. Then it +occurred to him that he still owned a little property at Thagaste--a house +and fields. There they would settle and live in self-denial like the +monks. The purity of the young Adeodatus predestined him to this ascetic +existence. As for Monnica, who long since had taken the widow's veil, she +had to make no change in her ways to lead a saintly life in the company of +her son and grandson. It was agreed among them all to go back to Africa, +and to start as soon as possible. + +Thus, just after his baptism, Augustin shews but one desire: to bury +himself in a retreat, to lead a humble and hidden life, divided between the +study of the Scripture and the contemplation of God. Later on, his enemies +were to accuse him of having become a convert from ambition, in view of the +honours and riches of the episcopate. This is sheer calumny. His conversion +could not have been more sincere, more disinterested--nor more heroic +either: he was thirty-three years old. When we think of all he had loved +and all he gave up, we can only bow the head and bend the knee before the +lofty virtue of such an example. + +In the course of the summer the caravan started and crossed the Apennines +to set sail at Ostia. The date of this exodus has never been made quite +clear. Perhaps Augustin and his companions fled before the hordes of the +usurper Maximus, who, towards the end of August, crossed the Alps and +marched on Milan, while the young Valentinian with all his Court took +refuge at Aquileia. In any case, it was a trying journey, especially in the +hot weather. When Monnica arrived she was very enfeebled. At Ostia they had +to wait till a ship was sailing for Africa. Propitious conditions did not +offer every day. At this period, travellers were at the mercy of the sea, +of the wind, and of a thousand other circumstances. Time did not count; it +was wasted freely. The ship sailed short distances at a time, skirting the +coasts, where the length of the stay at every point touched depended on the +master. On board these ships--feluccas hardly decked over--if the crossing +was endless and unsafe, it was, above all, most uncomfortable. People were +in no hurry to undergo the tortures of it, and spaced them out as much +as possible by frequent stoppages. On account of all these reasons, our +Africans made a rather long stay at Ostia. They lodged, no doubt, with +Christian brethren, hosts of Augustin or Monnica, in a tranquil house far +out of earshot of the cosmopolitan crowd which overflowed in the hotels on +the quay. + +Ostia, situated at the mouth of the Tiber, was both the port and +bond-warehouse of Rome. The Government stores-ships landed the African oil +and corn there. It was a junction for commerce, the point where immigrants +from all parts of the Mediterranean disbarked. To-day there is only left +a wretched little village. But at some distance from this hamlet, the +excavations of archæologists have lately brought to light the remains of +a large town. They have discovered at the entrance a place of burial with +arcosol-tombs; and here perhaps the body of St. Monnica was laid. In this +place of graves they came upon also a beautiful statue injured--a funeral +Genius, or a Victory, with large folded wings like those of the Christian +angels. Further on, the forum with its shops, the guard-house of the +night-cohort, baths, a theatre, many large temples, arcaded streets paved +with large flags, warehouses for merchandise. There may still be seen, +lining the walls, the holes in which the ends of the amphoræ used to be +dropped to keep them upright. All this wreckage gives an idea of a populous +centre where the stir of traffic and shipping was intense. + +And yet in this noisy town, Augustin and his mother found means to withdraw +themselves and join together in meditation and prayer. Amid this rather +vulgar activity, in a noise of trade and seafaring, a mystic scene develops +where the purified love of mother and son gleams upon us as in a light of +apotheosis. They had at Ostia a foretaste, so to speak, of the eternal +union in God. This was in the house where they had come on arrival. They +talked softly, resting against a window which looked upon the garden.... +But the scene has been made popular by Ary Scheffer's too well-known +painting. You remember it: two faces, pale, bloodless, stripped of flesh, +in which live only the burning eyes cast upward to the sky--a dense sky, +baffling, heavy with all the secrets of eternity. No visible object, +nothing, absolutely nothing, distracts them from their contemplation. The +sea itself, although indicated by the painter, almost blends into the +blue line of the horizon. Two souls and the sky--there you have the whole +subject. + +It is living poetry congealed in abstract thought. The attitude of the +characters, majestically seated, instead of leaning on the window-ledge, +has, in Scheffer's picture, I know not what touch of stiffness, of slightly +theatrical. And the general impression is a cold dryness which contrasts +with the lyric warmth of the story in the _Confessions_. + +For my part, I always thought, perhaps on the testimony of the picture, +that the window of the house at Ostia opened above the garden in view of +the sea. The sea, symbol of the infinite, ought to be present--so it seemed +to me--at the final conversation between Monnica and Augustin. At Ostia +itself I was obliged to give up this too literary notion; the sea is not +visible there. No doubt at that time the channel was not so silted up as it +is to-day. But the coast lies so low, that just hard by the actual mouth of +the Tiber, the nearness of the sea can only be guessed by the reflection of +the waves in the atmosphere, a sort of pearly halo, trembling on the edge +of the sky. At present I am inclined to think that the window of the house +at Ostia was very likely turned towards the vast melancholy horizon of the +_Agro Romano_. "We passed through, one after another," says Augustin, "all +the things of a material order, unto heaven itself." Is it not natural to +suppose that these things of a material order--these shapes of the earth +with its plantations, its rivers, towns, and mountains--were under their +eyes? The bleak spectacle which unrolled before their gaze agreed, at all +events, with the disposition of their souls. + +This great desolate plain has nothing oppressive, nothing which retains +the eyes upon details too material. The colours about it are pale and +slight, as if on the point of swooning away. Immense sterile stretches, +fawn-coloured throughout, with here and there shining a little pink, a +little green; gorse, furze-bushes by the deep banks of the river, or a few +_boschetti_ with dusty leaves, which feebly stand out upon the blondness +of the soil. To the right, a pine forest. To the left, the undulations of +the Roman hills expire into an emptiness infinitely sad. Afar, the violet +scheme of the Alban mountains, with veiled and dream-like distances, shape +indefinitely against the pearl light, limpid and serene, of the sky. + +Augustin and Monnica, resting on the window-ledge, looked forth. Doubtless +it was towards evening, at the hour when southern windows are thrown open +to the cool after a burning day. They looked forth. "We marvelled," says +Augustin, "at the beauty of Thy works, O my God!..." Rome was back there +beyond the hills, with its palaces, its temples, the gleam of its gilding +and its marbles. But the far-off image of the imperial city could not +conquer the eternal sadness which rises from the _Agro_. An air of funeral +loneliness lay above this plain, ready to be engulfed by the creeping +shadows. How easy it was to break free of these vain corporeal appearances +which decomposed of themselves! "Then," Augustin resumes, "we soared with +glowing hearts still higher." (He speaks as if he and his mother were risen +with equal flight to the vision. It is more probable that he was drawn +up by Monnica, long since familiar with the ways of the spirit, used to +visions, and to mystic talks with God....) Where was this God? All the +creatures, questioned by their anguished entreaty, answered: _Quære super +nos_--"Seek above us!" They sought; they mounted higher and higher: "And +so we came to our own minds, and passed beyond them into the region of +unfailing plenty, where Thou feedest Israel for ever with the food of +truth.... And as we talked, and we strove eagerly towards this divine +region, _by a leap with the whole force of our hearts, we touched it for +an instant_.... Then we sighed, we fell back, and left there fastened the +first fruits of the Spirit, and heard again the babble of our own tongues, +this mortal speech wherein each word has a beginning and an ending." + +"We fell back!" The marvellous vision had vanished. But a great silence was +about them, silence of things, silence of the soul. And they said to each +other: + +"If the tumult of the flesh were hushed; hushed these shadows of earth, +sea, sky; suppose this vision endured, and all other far inferior modes of +vision were taken away, and this alone were to ravish the beholder, and +absorb him, and plunge him in mystic joy, so that eternal life might be +like this moment of comprehension which has made us sigh with Love--might +not that be the fulfilment of 'Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord'? Ah, +when shall this be? Shall it not be, O my God, when we rise again among the +dead...?" + +Little by little they came down to earth. The dying colours of the +sunset-tide smouldered into the white mists of the _Agro_. The world +entered into night. Then Monnica, impelled by a certain presentiment, said +to Augustin: + +"My son, as for me, I find no further pleasure in life. What I am still to +do, or why I still linger here, I know not.... There was only one thing +made me want to tarry a little longer in this life, that I might see you a +Christian and a Catholic before I died. My God has granted me this boon far +beyond what I hoped for. So what am I doing here?" + +She felt it; her work was done. She had exhausted, as Augustin says, all +the hope of the century--_consumpta spe sæculi_. For her the parting was +near. This ecstasy was that of one dying, who has raised a corner of the +veil, and who no longer belongs to this world. + + * * * * * + +And, in fact, five or six days later she fell ill. She had fever. The +climate of Ostia bred fevers, as it does to-day, and it was always +unsanitary on account of all the foreigners who brought in every infection +of the Orient. Furthermore, the weariness of a long journey in summer had +worn out this woman, old before her time. She had to go to bed. Soon she +got worse, and then lost consciousness. They believed she was in the agony. +They all came round her bed--Augustin, his brother Navigius, Evodius, the +two cousins from Thagaste, Rusticus, and Lastidianus. But suddenly she +shuddered, raised herself, and asked in a bewildered way: + +"Where was I?" + +Then, seeing the grief on their faces, she knew that she was lost, and she +said in a steady voice: + +"You will bury your mother here." + +Navigius, frightened by this sight of death, protested with all his +affection for her: + +"No. You will get well, mother. You will come home again. You won't die in +a foreign land." + +She looked at him with sorrowful eyes, as if hurt that he spoke so little +like a Christian, and turning to Augustin: + +"See how he talks," she said. + +And after a silence, she went on in a firmer voice, as if to impress on her +sons her final wishes: + +"Lay this body where you will, and be not anxious about it. Only I beseech +you, remember me at the altar of God, wherever you are." + +That was the supreme renunciation. How could an African woman, so much +attached to her country, agree to be buried in a stranger soil? Pagan +notions were still very strong in this community, and the place of burial +was an important consideration. Monnica, like all other widows, had settled +upon hers. At Thagaste she had had her place prepared beside her husband +Patricius. And here now she appeared to give that up. Augustin's companions +were astonished at such abnegation. As for himself, he marvelled at the +completeness of the change worked in his mother's soul by Grace. And as he +thought over all the virtues of her life, the strength of her faith--from +that moment, he had no doubt that she was a saint. + +She still lingered for some time. Finally, on the ninth day of her illness, +she died at the age of fifty-six. + +Augustin closed her eyes. A great sorrow surged into his heart. And yet he +who was so quick to tears had the courage not to cry.... Suddenly a noise +of weeping rose in the room of death: it was the young Adeodatus, who +lamented at the sight of the corpse. He sobbed in such a heartbroken way +that those who were there, demoralized by the distress of it, were obliged +to rebuke him. This struck Augustin so deeply, that many years afterwards +the broken sound of this sobbing still haunted his ears. "Methought," he +says, "that it was my own childish soul which thus broke out in the weeping +of my son." As for him, with the whole effort of his reason struggling +against his heart, he only wanted to think of the glory which the saint +had just entered into. His companions felt likewise. Evodius caught up a +psalter, and before Monnica's body, not yet cold, he began to chant the +Psalm, "My song shall be of mercy and judgment; unto Thee, O Lord, will I +sing." All who were in the house took up the responses. + +In the meantime, while the layers-out were preparing the corpse for burial, +the brethren drew Augustin into another room. His friends and relations +stood round him. He consoled the others and himself. He spoke, as the +custom was, upon the deliverance of the faithful soul and the happiness +which is promised. They might have imagined that he had no sense of grief, +"But in Thy hearing, O my God, where none of them could hear, I was chiding +the softness of my heart, and holding back the tide of sorrow.... Alas! +well did I know what I was choking down in my heart." + +Not even at the church, where the sacrifice was offered for Monnica's +soul, nor at the cemetery before the coffin, did he weep. From a sense of +Christian seemliness, he feared to scandalize his brethren by imitating +the desolation of the pagans and of those who die without hope. But this +very effort that he made to keep back his tears became another cause of +suffering. The day ended in a black sadness, a sadness he could not shake +off. It stifled him. Then he remembered the Greek proverb--"The bath +drives away sorrow;" and he determined to go and bathe. He went into the +_tepidarium_ and stretched himself out on the hot slab. Useless remedy! +"The bitterness of my trouble was not carried from my heart with the sweat +that flowed from my limbs." The attendants rolled him in warm towels and +led him to the resting-couch. Worn out by tiredness and so many emotions, +he fell into a heavy sleep. The next day, upon awaking, a fresh briskness +was in all his being. Some verses came singing into his memory; they were +the first words of the confident and joyous hymn of St. Ambrose: + + "Creator of the earth and sky, + Ruling the firmament on high, + Clothing the day with robes of light, + Blessing with gracious sleep the night,-- + + That rest may comfort weary men + To face their usual toil again, + And soothe awhile the harassed mind, + And sorrow's heavy load unbind." + +Suddenly, at the word _sorrow_, the thought of his dead mother came back +to him, with the regret for that kind heart he had lost. A wave of despair +overwhelmed him. He flung himself sobbing on the bed, and at last wept all +the tears he had pent up so long. + + + + +III + +THE MONK OF THAGASTE + + +Almost a year went by before Augustin continued his journey. It is hard to +account for this delay. Why should he thus put off his return to Africa, he +who was so anxious to fly the world? + +It is likely that Monnica's illness, the arrangements about her funeral, +and other matters to settle, kept him at Ostia till the beginning of +winter. The weather became stormy, the sea dangerous. Navigation was +regularly interrupted from November--sometimes even earlier, from the +first days of October, if the tempests and the equinox were exceptionally +violent. It would then be necessary to wait till spring. Besides, word +came that the fleet of the usurper Maximus, then at war with Theodosius, +blockaded the African coast. Travellers ran the risk of being captured by +the enemy. From all these reasons, Augustin would be prevented from sailing +before the end of the following summer. In the meantime, he went to live in +Rome. He employed his leisure to work up a case against the Manichees, his +brethren of the day before. Once he had adopted Catholicism, he must have +expected passionate attacks from his former brothers in religion. To close +their mouths, he gathered against them an elaborate mass of documents, +bristling with the latest scandals. He busied himself also with a +thorough study of their doctrines, the better to refute them: in him the +dialectician never slept. Then, when he had an opportunity, he visited the +Roman monasteries, studying their rule and organization, so as to decide on +a model for the convent which he always intended to establish in his own +country. At last, he went back to Ostia some time in August or September, +388, where he found a ship bound for Carthage. + +Four years earlier, about the same time of year, he had made the same +voyage, coming the opposite way. He had a calm crossing; hardly could one +notice the movement of the ship. It is the season of smooth seas in the +Mediterranean. Never is it more etherial than in these summer months. The +vague blue sky is confused with the bleached sea, spread out in a large +sheet without creases--liquid and flexible silk, swept by quivering amber +glow and orange saffron when the sun falls. No distinct shape, only strange +suffusions of soft light, a pearl-like haze, the wistful blue reaching away +indefinably. + +At Carthage, Augustin had grown used to the magnificence of this pageantry +of the sea. Now, the sea had the same appeased and gleaming face he had +seen four years sooner. But how much his soul had since been changed! +Instead of the tumult and falsehood which rent his heart and filled it +with darkness, the serene light of Truth, and deeper than the sea's peace, +the great appeasement of Grace. Augustin dreamed. Far off the Æolian isles +were gloomed in the impending shadows, the smoky crater of Stromboli was +no more than a black point circled by the double blue of waves and sky. So +the remembrance of his passions, of all that earlier life, sank under the +triumphant uprising of heavenly peace. He believed that this blissful state +was going to continue and fill all the hours of his new life, and he knew +of nothing so sweet.... + +This time, again, he was mistaken about himself. Upon the thin plank of the +boat which carried him, he did not feel the force of the immense element, +asleep now under his feet, but quick to be unchained at the first gust of +wind; and he did not feel either the overflowing energy swelling his heart +renewed by Grace--an energy which was going to set in motion one of the +most complete and strenuous existences, one of the richest in thought, +charity, and works which have enlightened history. Thinking only of the +cloister, amidst the friends who surrounded him, no doubt he repeated the +words of the Psalm: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren +to dwell together in unity." He pressed the hands of Alypius and Evodius, +and tears came to his eyes. + +The sun was gone. All the cold waste of waters, forsaken by the gleam, +blurred gradually in vague anguish beneath the fall of night. + + * * * * * + +After skirting the Sicilian coasts, they arrived at last at Carthage. +Augustin did not linger there; he was eager to see Thagaste once more, and +to retire finally from the world. Favourable omens drew him to the place, +and seemed to hearten him in his resolution. A dream had foretold his +return to his former pupil, Elogius, the rhetorician. He was present, too, +at the miraculous cure of a Carthage lawyer, Innocentius, in whose house he +dwelt with his friends. + +Accordingly, he left for Thagaste as soon as he could. There he made +himself popular at once by giving to the poor, as the Gospel prescribed, +what little remained of his father's heritage. But he does not make clear +enough what this voluntary privation exactly meant. He speaks of a house +and some little meadows--_paucis agellulis_--that he sequestrated. Still, +he did not cease to live in the house all the time he was at Thagaste. The +probability is that he did sell the few acres of land he still owned and +bestowed the product of the sale on the poor. As to the house, he must have +made it over with the outbuildings to the Catholic body of his native town, +on condition of keeping the usufruct and of receiving for himself and his +brethren the necessities of life. At this period many pious persons acted +in this way when they gave their property to the Church. Church goods +being unseizable, and exempt from taxation, this was a roundabout way of +getting the better of fiscal extortion, whether in the shape of arbitrary +confiscations, or eviction by force of arms. In any case, such souls as +were tired of the world and longing for repose, found in these bequests an +heroic method of saving themselves the trouble of looking after a fortune +or a landed estate. When these fortunes and lands were extensive, the +generous donors felt, we are told, an actual relief in getting rid of them. + +This financial question settled, Augustin took up the task of turning the +house into a monastery, like those he had seen at Rome and Milan. His son +Adeodatus, his friends Alypius and Evodius, Severus, who became Bishop +of Milevia, shared his solitude. But it is certain that he had other +solitaries with him whom he alludes to in his letters. Their rule was as +yet a little easy, no doubt. The brothers of Thagaste were not confined +in a cloister. They were simply obliged to fasts, to a special diet, to +prayers and meditations in common. + +In this half-rustic retreat (the monastery was situated at the gates of +the town) Augustin was happy: he had at last realized the project he had +had so long at heart. To enter into himself, pray, above all, to study +the Scripture, to fathom even its most obscure places, to comment it with +the fervour and piety which the African of all times has brought to _what +is written down_--it seemed to him that he had enough there to fill all +the minutes of his life. But no man can teach, lecture, discuss, write, +during twenty years, in vain. However much Augustin might be converted, he +remembered the school at Thagaste, just as he did at Cassicium. Still, it +was necessary to finish with this sort of thing once for all. The new monk +made what may be called his will as a professor. + +He finished, at this time, or revised his school treatises, which he had +begun at Milan, comprising all the liberal arts--grammar, dialectic, +rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, philosophy, music. Of all these books he +only finished the first, the treatise on grammar. The others were only +summaries, and are now lost. On the other hand, we have still the six +books on music, likewise begun at Milan, which he finished, almost as an +amusement, at Thagaste. They are dialogues between himself and his pupil, +the poet Licentius, upon metre and scansion. But we know from himself that +he intended to make this book longer, and to write a second part upon +melody, that is to say, music, properly so called. He never found the time: +"Once," he says, "the burthen of ecclesiastical affairs was placed on my +shoulders, _all these pleasant things_ slipped from my hands." + +Thus, the monk Augustin only rests from prayer and meditation to study +music and poetry. He has thought it necessary to excuse himself. "In all +that," says he, "I had but one purpose. For, as I did not wish to pluck +away too suddenly either young men, or those of another age, on whom God +had bestowed good wits, from ideas of the senses and carnal literature, +_things it is very hard for them not to be attached to_, I have tried +by reasoning lessons to turn them little by little, and by the love of +unchanging truth, to attach them to God, sole master of all things.... He +who reads these books will see that if I have touched upon the poets and +grammarians, 'twas more by the exigency of the journey than by any desire +to settle among them.... Such is the life I have chosen to walk with the +feeble, not being very strong myself, rather than to hurl myself out on the +void with wings still half-fledged...." + +Here again, how human all that is, and wise--yes, and modest too. Augustin +has no whit of the fanatic about him. No straighter conscience than his, +or even more persistent in uprooting error. But he knows what man is, that +life here below is a voyage among other men weak as himself, and he fits in +with the needs of the voyage. Oh, yes, no doubt, for the Christian who has +arrived at supreme renunciation--what is poetry, what is knowledge, "what +is everything that is not eternal?" But this carnal literature and science +are so many steps of a height proportionate to our feebleness, to lead +us imperceptibly to the conceptual world. As a prudent guide of souls, +Augustin did not wish to make the ascent too rapidly. As for music, he has +still more indulgence for that than for any of the other arts, for "it +is by sounds that we best perceive the power of numbers in every variety +of movement, and their study thus leads us gradually to the closest and +highest secrets of truth, and discovers to those who love and seek it +the divine Wisdom and Providence in all things...." He is always coming +back to it--to this music he loves so much; he comes back to it in spite +of himself. Later, in great severity, he will reproach himself for the +pleasure he takes in the liturgical chants, but nevertheless the old +instinct will remain. He was born a musician. He will remain one to his +last gasp. + +If he did not break completely with profane art and letters at this present +moment of his life, his chief reasons were of a practical order. Still +another object may be discerned in these educational treatises--namely, to +prove to the pagans that one may be a Christian and yet not be a barbarian +and ignorant. Augustin's position in front of his adversaries is very +strong indeed. None of them can attempt to cope with him either in breadth +of knowledge, or in happy versatility, or in plenitude of intellectual +gifts. He had the entire heritage of the ancient world between his hands. +Well might he say to the pagans: "What you admire in your orators and +philosophers, I have made my own. Behold it! On my lips recognize the +accent of your orators.... Well, all that, which you deem so high, I +despise. The knowledge of this world is nothing without the wisdom of +Christ." + +Of course, Augustin has paid the price of this all-round knowledge--too +far-reaching, perhaps, at certain points. He has often too much paraded his +knowledge, his dialectic and oratorical talents. What matters that, if even +in this excess he aims solely at the welfare of souls--to edify them and +set them aglow with the fire of his charity? At Thagaste, he disputes with +his brethren, with his son Adeodatus. He is always the master--he knows it; +but what humility he puts into this dangerous part! The conclusion of his +book, _The Master_, which he wrote then, is that all the words of him who +teaches are useless, if the hidden Master reveal not the truth to him who +listens. + +So, under his ungainly monk's habit, he continues his profession of +rhetorician. He has come to Thagaste with the intention of retiring from +the world and living in God; and here he is disputing, lecturing, writing +more than ever. The world pursues him and occupies him even in his retreat. +He says to himself that down there at Rome, at Carthage, at Hippo, there +are men speaking in the forums or in the basilicas, whispering in secret +meetings, seducing poor souls defenceless against error. These impostors +must be immediately unmasked, confounded, reduced to silence. With all his +heart Augustin throws himself into this work at which he excels. Above all, +he attacks his old friends the Manichees.... He wrote many tracts against +them. From the animosity he put into these, may be judged to what extent +Manicheeism filled his thoughts, and also the progress of the sect in +Africa. + +This campaign was even the cause of a complete change in his way of +writing. With the object of reaching the plainest sort of people, he began +to employ the popular language, not recoiling before a solecism, when the +solecism appeared to him indispensable to explain his thought. This must +have been a cruel mortification for him. In his very latest writings he +made a point of shewing that no elegance of language was unknown to him. +But his real originality is not in that. When he writes the fine style, +his period is heavy, entangled, often obscure. On the other hand, nothing +is more lively, clear and coloured, and, as we say to-day, more direct, +than the familiar language of his sermons and certain of his treatises. +This language he has really created. He wanted to clarify, comment, give +details, and he felt how awkward classical Latin is to decompose ideas +and render shades. And so, in a popular Latin, already very close to the +Romance languages, he has thrown out the plan of analytical prose, the +instrument of thought of the modern West. + +Not only did he battle against the heretics, but his restless friendship +continually scaled the walls of his cell to fly to the absent ones dear +to his heart. He feels that he must expand to his friends, and make them +sharers in his meditations: this nervous man, in poor health, spends a part +of his nights meditating. The argument he has hit upon in last night's +insomnia--his friends must be told that! He heaps his letters on them. He +writes to Nebridius, to Romanianus, to Paulinus of Nola; to people unknown +and celebrated, in Africa, Italy, Spain, and Palestine. A time will come +when his letters will be real encyclicals, read throughout Christendom. He +writes so much that he is often short of paper. He has not tablets enough +to put down his notes. He asks Romanianus to give him some. His beautiful +tablets, the ivory ones, are used up; he has used the last one for a +ceremonial letter, and he asks his friend's pardon for writing to him on +a wretched bit of vellum. + +Besides all that, he interests himself in the affairs of his +fellow-townsmen. Augustin is a personage at Thagaste. The good folk of the +free-town are well aware that he is eloquent, that he has a far-reaching +acquaintance, and that he has great influence in high quarters. They +ask for his protection and his interference. It is even possible that +they obliged him to defend them in the courts. They were proud of their +Augustin. And as they were afraid that some neighbouring town might steal +away their great man, they kept a guard round his house. They prevented him +from shewing himself too much in the neighbourhood. Augustin himself agreed +with this, and lived retired as far as he could, for he was afraid they +would make him a bishop or priest in spite of himself. In those days that +was a danger incurred by all Christians who were rich or had talent. The +rich gave their goods to the poor when they took orders. The men of talent +defended the interests of the community, or attracted opulent benefactors. +And because of all these reasons, the needy or badly managed churches +stalked as a prey the celebrated Augustin. + +In spite of this supervision, this unremitting rush of business, the work +of all kinds which he undertook, he experienced at Thagaste a peace which +he was never to find again. One might say that he pauses and gathers +together all his strength before the great exhausting labour of his +apostolate. In this Numidian country, so verdant and cool, where a thousand +memories of childhood encompassed him, where he was not able to take a step +without encountering the ever-living image of his mother, he soared towards +God with more confidence. He who sought in the things of sense ladder-rungs +whereby to mount to spiritual realities, still turned kindly eyes on +the natural scene. From the windows of his room he saw the forest pines +rounding their heads, like little crystal goblets with stems slim and thin. +His scarred chest breathed in deliriously the resinous breath of the fine +trees. He listened like a musician to the orchestra of birds. The changing +scenes of country life always attracted him. It is now that he wrote: +"Tell me, does not the nightingale seem to you to modulate her voice +delightfully? Is not her song, so harmonious, so suave, so well attuned to +the season, the very voice of the spring?..." + + + + +IV + +AUGUSTIN A PRIEST + + +This halt did not last long. Soon was going to begin for Augustin the time +of tribulation, that of his struggles and apostolic journeys. + +And first, he must mourn his son Adeodatus, that young man who seemed +destined to such great things. It is indeed most probable that the young +monk died at Thagaste during the three years that his father spent there. +Augustin was deeply grieved; but, as in the case of his mother's death, he +mastered his sorrow by all the force of his Christian hope. No doubt he +loved his son as much as he was proud of him. It will be remembered what +words he used to speak of this youthful genius, whose precocity frightened +him. Little by little his grief quietened down, and in its place came a +mild resignation. Some years later he will write about Adeodatus: "Lord, +early didst Thou cut off his life from this earth, but I remember him +without a shadow of misgiving. My remembrance is not mixed with any fear +for his boyhood, or the youth he was, or the man he would have been." No +fear! What a difference between this and the habitual feelings of the +Jansenists, who believed themselves his disciples! While Augustin thinks of +his son's death with a calm and grave joy which he can scarce hide, those +of Port Royal could only think in trembling of the judgment of God. Their +faith did not much resemble the luminous and confident faith of Augustin. +For him, salvation is the conquest of joy. + +At Thagaste he lived in joy. Every morning in awaking before the forest +pines, glistening with the dews of the morning, he might well say with a +full heart: "My God, give me the grace to live here under the shades of Thy +peace, while awaiting that of Thy Paradise." But the Christians continued +to watch him. It was to the interest of a number of people that this light +should not be hid under a bushel. Perhaps a snare was deliberately laid for +him. At any rate, he was imprudent enough to come out of his retreat and +travel to Hippo. He thought he might be safe there, because, as the town +had a bishop already, they would not have any excuse to get him consecrated +in spite of himself. + +An inhabitant of Hippo, a clerk of the Imperial Ministry of the Interior, +begged his spiritual assistance. Doubts, he maintained, still delayed him +on the way to an entire conversion. Augustin alone could help him to get +clear of them. So Augustin, counting already on a new recruit for the +Thagaste monastery, went over there at the request of this official. + +Now, if there was a bishop at Hippo (a certain Valerius), priests were +lacking. Furthermore, Valerius was getting on in years. Originally Greek, +he knew Latin badly, and not a word of Punic--a great hindrance for him in +his duties of judge, administrator, and catechist. The knowledge of the two +languages was indispensable to an ecclesiastic in such a country, where the +majority of the rural population spoke only the old Carthaginian idiom. +All this proves to us that Catholicism was in bad shape in the diocese +of Hippo. Not only was there a lack of priests, but the bishop was a +foreigner, little familiar with African customs. There was a general +demand for a native to take his place--one young, active, and well enough +furnished with learning to hold his own against the heretics and the +schismatics of the party of Donatus, and also sufficiently able to watch +over the interests of the Church at Hippo, and above all, to make it +prosperous. Let us not forget that at this time, in the eyes of a crowd of +poor wretches, Christianity was first and foremost the religion which gave +out bread. Even in those early days, the Church did its best to solve the +eternal social question. + +While Augustin was at Hippo, Valerius preached a sermon in the basilica in +which, precisely, he deplored this lack of priests the community suffered +from. Mingled with the congregation, Augustin listened, sure that he would +be unrecognized. But the secret of his presence had leaked out. People +pointed to him while the bishop was preaching. The next thing was that some +furious enthusiasts seized hold of him and dragged him to the foot of the +episcopal chair, yelling: + +"Augustin a priest! Augustin a priest!" + +Such were the democratic ways of the Church in those days. The +inconveniences are plain enough. What is certain is, that if Augustin had +resisted, he might have lost his life, and that the bishop would have +provoked a riot in refusing him the priesthood. In Africa, religious +passions are not to be trifled with, especially when they are exasperated +by questions of profit or politics. In his heart, the bishop was delighted +with this brutal capture which gained him the distinction of such a +well-known fellow-worker. There and then he ordained the Thagaste monk. And +so, as Augustin's pupil, Possidius, the future Bishop of Guelma, puts it, +"This shining lamp, which sought the darkness of solitude, was placed upon +the lamp-stand..." Augustin, who saw the finger of God in this adventure, +submitted to the popular will. Nevertheless, he was in despair, and he +wept at the change they were forcing on him. Then, some of those present, +mistaking the significance of his tears, said to console him: + +"Yes, you are right. The priesthood is not good enough for your merits. But +you may be certain that you will be our bishop." + +Augustin well knew all that the crowd meant by that, and what it expected +of its bishop. He who only thought of leaving the world, grew frightened +at the practical cares he would have to take over. And the spiritual side +of his jurisdiction frightened him no less. To speak of God! Proclaim the +word of God! He deemed himself unworthy of so high a privilege. He was so +ill-prepared! To remedy this fault of preparation, as well as he could, he +desired that he might be given a little leisure till the following Easter. +In a letter addressed to Valerius, and no doubt intended to be made public, +he humbly set forth the reasons why he asked for delay. They were so +apposite and so creditable, that very likely the bishop yielded. The new +priest received permission to retire to a country house near Hippo. His +flock, who did not feel at all sure of their shepherd, would not have let +him go too far off. + +He took up his duties as soon as possible. Little by little he became, +to all intents, the coadjutor of the bishop, who charged him with the +preaching and the baptism of catechumens. These were the two most important +among the episcopal prerogatives. The bishops made a point of doing these +things themselves. Certain colleagues of Valerius even grew scandalized +that he should allow a simple priest to preach before him in his own +church. But soon other bishops, struck by the advantages of this +innovation, followed the example of Valerius, and allowed their clerks to +preach even in their presence. The priest of Hippo did not lose his head +among so many honours. He felt chiefly the perils of them, and he regarded +them as a trial sent by God. "I have been forced into this," he said, +"doubtless in punishment of my sins; for from what other motive can I think +that the second place at the helm should be given to me--to me who do not +even know how to hold an oar...." + +Meanwhile, he had not relinquished his purpose of monastic life. Though +a priest, he meant to remain a monk. It was heart-breaking for him to be +obliged to leave his monastery at Thagaste. He spoke of his regret to +Valerius, who, perceiving the usefulness of a convent as a seminary for +future priests, gave him an orchard belonging to the church of Hippo, that +he might found a new community there. So was established the monastery +which was going to supply a great number of clerks and bishops to all the +African provinces. + +Among the ruins of Hippo, that old Roman and Phoenician city, they search +for the place where Augustin's monastery stood, without much hope of ever +finding it. Some have thought to locate it upon that hill where the water +brought from the near mountains by an aqueduct used to pour into immense +reservoirs, and where to-day rises a new basilica which attracts all eyes +out at sea. Behind the basilica is a convent where the Little Sisters of +the Poor lodge about a hundred old people. So is maintained among the +African Mussulmans the remembrance of the grand Christian _marabout_. One +might possibly wish to see there a building more in the pure and quiet +taste of antiquity. But after all, the piety of the intention is enough. +This hospital serves admirably to call up the memory of the illustrious +bishop who was charity itself. As for the basilica, Africa has done all she +can to make it worthy of him. She has given her most precious marbles, and +one of her fairest landscapes as a frame. + +It is chiefly in the evening, in the closing dusk, that this landscape +reveals all its special charm and its finer values. The roseate glow of the +setting sun throws into sharp relief the black profile of the mountains, +which command the Seybouse valley. Under the mustering shadows, the pallid +river winds slowly to the sea. The gulf, stretching limitless, shines like +a slab of salt strangely bespangled. In this atmosphere without mists, the +sharp outlines of the coast, the dense movelessness of the aspect, has an +indescribable effect. It is like a hitherto unknown and virginal revelation +of the earth. Then the stars bloom out, with a flame, an hallucinating +palpability. Charles's Wain, burning low on the gorges of the Edough, seems +like a golden waggon rolling through the fields of Heaven. A deep peace +settles upon farmland and meadow country, only broken by a watch-dog's bark +now and then.... + +But it matters not which spot is chosen in the surroundings of Hippo to +place Augustin's monastery, the view will be equally beautiful. From all +parts of the plain, mounded by heaps of ruins, the sea can be seen--a wide +bay circled in soft bland curves, like at Naples. All around, an arena of +mountains--the green ravines of the Edough and its wooded slopes. Along the +surbased roads rise the great sonorous pines, and through them wanders the +æolian complaint of the sea-winds. Blue of the sea, blue of the sky, noble +foliage of Italy's ancient groves--it is one of Lamartine's landscapes +under a more burning sun. The gaiety of the mornings there is a physical +luxury for heart and eyes, when the new-born light laughs upon the painted +cupolas of the houses, and dark blue veils float between the walls, glaring +white, of the steep streets. + +Among the olives and orange-trees of Hippo, Augustin must have seen happy +days pass by, as at Thagaste. The rule he had given the convent, which he +himself obeyed like any one else, was neither too slack nor too strict--in +a word, such as it should be for men who have lived in the culture of +letters and works of the mind. There was no affectation of excessive +austerity. Augustin and his monks wore very simple clothes and shoes, but +suitable for a bishop and his clerks. Like laymen, they wore the byrrhus, +a garment with a hood, which seems very like the ancestor of the Arab +burnous. To keep an even line between daintiness and negligence in costume, +to have no exaggeration in anything, is what Augustin aimed at. The poet +Rutilius Numatianus, who about that time was attacking the sordid and +culture-hating monks with sombre irony, would have had a chance to admire +a restraint and decorum in the Hippo monastery which recalled what was +best in the manners of the ancient world. At table, a like moderation. +Vegetables were generally provided, and sometimes meat when any one +was sick, or guests arrived. They drank a little wine, contrary to the +regulations of St. Jerome, who condemned wine as a drink for devils. When +a monk infringed the rule, his share of the wine was stopped. + +Through some remains of fastidious habits in Augustin, or perhaps because +he had nothing else, the table service he used himself was silver. On the +other hand, the pots and dishes were of earthenware, or wood, or common +alabaster. Augustin, who was very temperate in eating and drinking, seemed +at table to pay attention only to what was being read or talked about. +He cared very little what he ate, provided the food was not a stimulant +to lubricity. He used to say to those Christians who paraded a Pharisaic +severity: "It is the pure heart which makes pure food." Then, with his +constant desire for charity, he prohibited all spiteful gossip in the +conversation in the refectory. In those times of religious struggle, the +clerics ferociously blackened each other's characters. Augustin caused to +have written on the walls a distich, which ran thus: + + "He who takes pleasure in slandering the life of the absent, + Should know he is unworthy to sit at this table." + +"One day," says Possidius, "some of his intimate friends, even other +bishops, having forgotten this sentence, he reproached them warmly, and +very much perturbed, he cried out that he was going to remove those verses +from the refectory, or rise from table and withdraw to his cell. I was +present with many others when this happened." + +It was not only slanderous talk or interior dissensions which troubled +Augustin's peace of mind. He combined the duties of priest, of a head of +a convent, and of an apostle. He had to preach, instruct the catechumens, +battle against the disaffected. The town of Hippo was very unruly, full +of heretics, schismatics, pagans. Those of the party of Donatus were +triumphant, driving the Catholics from their churches and lands. When +Augustin came into the country, Catholicism was very low. And then the +ineradicable Manichees continued to recruit proselytes. He never stopped +writing tracts, disputing against them, overwhelming them under the close +logic of his arguments. At the request of the Donatists themselves, he had +an argument with one of their priests, a certain Fortunatus, in the baths +of Sossius at Hippo. He reduced this man to silence and to flight. Not in +the least discouraged were the Manichees: they sent another priest. + +If the enemies of the Church shewed themselves stubborn, Augustin's own +congregation were singularly turbulent, hard to manage. The weakness of old +Valerius must have allowed a good many abuses to creep into the community. +Ere long the priest of Hippo had a foretaste of the difficulties which +awaited him as bishop. + +Following the example of Ambrose, he undertook to abolish the custom +of feasts in the basilicas and on the tombs of the martyrs. This was a +survival of paganism, of which the festivals included gluttonous eating and +orgies. At every solemnity, and they were frequent, the pagans ate in the +courts and under the porticoes around the temples. In Africa, above all, +these public repasts gave an opportunity for repugnant scenes of stuffing +and drunkenness. As a rule, the African is very sober; but when he does let +himself go he is terrible. This is quite easily seen to-day, in the great +Muslem feasts, when the rich distribute broken bits of meat to the poor of +their district. As soon as these people, used to drink water and to eat a +little boiled rice, have tasted meat, or drunk only one cup of wine, there +is no holding them: there are fights, stabbing matches, a general brawl +in the hovels. Just picture this popular debauch in full blast in the +cemeteries and the courts of the basilicas, and it will be understood why +Augustin did his best to put an end to such scandals. + +For this purpose, he joined hands first of all with his bishop, Valerius, +and then with the Primate of Carthage, Aurelius, who shall be henceforth +his firmest support in his struggle against the schismatics. + +During Lent, the subject fitting in naturally with the season, he +spoke against these pagan orgies; and this gave rise to a good deal of +discontent, outside. Easter went by without trouble. But the day after the +Ascension, the people of Hippo were used to celebrate what they called "the +Joy-day," by a traditional good feed and drink. The day before, which was +the religious festival, Augustin intrepidly spoke against "the Joy-day." +They interrupted the preacher. Some of them shouted that as much was done +at Rome in St. Peter's basilica. At Carthage, they danced round the tomb of +St. Cyprian. To the shrilling of flutes, amid the dull blows of the gongs, +mimes gave themselves up to obscene contortions, while the spectators +sang to the clapping of their hands.... Augustin knew all about that. +He declared that these abominations might have been tolerated in former +times so as not to discourage the pagans from becoming converts; but that +henceforth the people, altogether Christian, should give them up. In the +end, he spoke with such touching eloquence that the audience burst into +tears. He believed he had won. + +The next day it was all to do over again. Agitators had worked among the +crowd to such an extent that a riot was feared. Nevertheless, Augustin, +preceded by his bishop, entered the basilica at the hour of service. At the +same moment the Donatists were banqueting in their church, which was quite +near. Through the walls of their own church the Catholics heard the noise +of this carouse. It required the coadjutor's most urgent remonstrances to +keep them from imitating their neighbours. The last murmurs died down, and +the ceremony ended with the singing of the sacred hymns. + +Augustin had carried the position. But the conflict had got to the point +that he had to threaten the people with his resignation, and, as he wrote +to Alypius, "to shake out on them the dust from his clothes." All this +promised very ill for the future. He who already considered the priesthood +as a trial, saw with terror the bishopric drawing near. + + + + +THE FIFTH PART + +THE APOSTLE OF PEACE AND OF CATHOLIC UNITY + + + Dic eis ista, ut plorent ... et sic eos rape tecum ad Deum: quia de + spiritu ejus haec dicis eis, si dicis ardens igne caritatis. + + "Tell them this, O my soul, that they may weep ... and thus carry them + up with thyself to God; because by His Spirit thou sayest these things, + if Thou speakest burning with the flame of charity." + + _Confessions_, IV, 12. + + + + +I + +THE BISHOP OF HIPPO + + +In his monastery, Augustin was still spied upon by the neighbouring +Churches, who wanted him for their bishop. They would capture him on the +first opportunity. The old Valerius, fearing his priest would be taken +unawares, urged him to hide himself. But he knew by the very case of +Augustin, forced into the priesthood in spite of himself, that the greatest +precautions are useless against those determined to gain their ends by any +means. It would be safest to anticipate the danger. + +He determined therefore to share the bishopric with Augustin, to have him +consecrated during his own lifetime, and to indicate him as his successor. +This was against the African usage, and what was more, against the Canons +of the Council of Nice--though it is true that Valerius, like Augustin +himself, was unaware of this latter point. But surely the rule could be +waived in view of the exceptional merits of the priest of Hippo. The old +bishop began by sounding Aurelius, the Primate of Carthage, and when he was +satisfied as to the agreement and support of this high personage, he took +the opportunity of a religious solemnity to make known his intentions to +the people. + +Some of the neighbouring bishops--Megalius, Bishop of Guelma and Primate of +Numidia, among them--being gathered at Hippo to consecrate a new bishop, +Valerius announced publicly in the basilica that he wished Augustin to be +consecrated at the same ceremony. This had been the wish of his people +for a long time. Really, in demanding this honour for his priest, the old +bishop did no more than follow the wish of the public. Immediately, his +words were received with cheers. The faithful with loud shouts demanded +Augustin's consecration. + +Megalius alone objected. He even made himself the voice of certain +calumnies, so as to have the candidate put aside as unworthy. There is +nothing astonishing in such an attitude. This Megalius was old (he died a +short time after), and, like all old men, he took the gloomiest view of +innovations. Already, in the face of settled custom, had Valerius granted +Augustin the right to preach in his presence. And see now, by a new +sinking, he was attempting to place two bishops at once in the see of +Hippo! Whatever this young priest's talents might be, enough, had been +done for him--a recent convert into the bargain, and, what was still more +serious, a refugee from the Manicheans. What was not related about the +abominations committed in the mysteries of those people? Just how far had +Augustin dipped into them? They snarled against him everywhere at Hippo, +and at Carthage too, where he had compromised himself by his excessive +zeal; Catholics and Donatists alike gossiped. Megalius, a punctilious +defender of discipline and the hierarchy, no doubt gathered up these +malevolent rumours with pleasure. He used them as an excuse for making +Augustin mark time, so to speak. Commonplace people always feel a secret +delight in humiliating to the common rule those whom they can feel are +beings of a different quality from themselves. + +One of the slanders set abroad about Valerius' priest, Megalius seems to +have believed. He allowed himself to be persuaded that Augustin had given +a philtre to a woman, one of his penitents, whom he wished to possess. It +was then the fashion among the pious to exchange _eulogies_, or bits of +holy bread, to signify a spiritual communion. Augustin was said to have +mixed certain magic potions with some of these breads and offered them +hypocritically to the woman he was in love with. This accusation started a +big scandal, and the remembrance of it persisted long, because five or six +years later the Donatist Petilian was still repeating it. + +Augustin cleared himself victoriously. Megalius avowed his mistake. He did +better: not only did he apologize to him he had slandered, but he solemnly +asked forgiveness from his fellow-bishops for having misled them upon false +rumours. It is probable that some time during the inquiry he had got to +know Valerius' coadjutor better. Augustin's charm, taken with the austerity +of his life, acted upon the vexed old man and altered his views. Be that +so or not, it was at any rate by Megalius, Bishop of Guelma and Primate of +Numidia, that Augustin was consecrated Bishop of Hippo. + +He was in consternation over his rise. He has said it again and again. We +may take his word for it. Yet the honours and advantages of the episcopate +were then so considerable that his enemies were able to describe him as an +ambitious man. Nothing could agree less with his character. In his heart, +Augustin only wished to live in quiet. Since his retreat at Cassicium, +fortune he had given up, as well as literary glory. His sole wish was to +live in pondering the divine truths, and to draw nearer to God. _Videte et +gustate quam mitis sit Dominus_--"O taste and see that the Lord is good." +This perhaps, of the whole Bible, is the verse he liked best, which +answered best to the close desire of his soul; and he quotes it oftenest +in his sermons. Then, to study the Holy Writings, scan the least syllables +of them, since all truth lies there--well, a whole life is not too much +for such labour as that! And to do it, one should sever all ties with the +world, take refuge forbiddingly in the cloister. + +But this sincere Christian analysed himself too skilfully not to perceive +that he had a dangerous tendency to isolation. He took too much pleasure +in cutting himself off from the society of mankind to enshroud himself +in study and meditation. He who acknowledged a secret tendency to the +Epicurean indolence--was he going to live a life of the dilettante and the +self-indulgent under cover of holiness? Alone could action save him from +selfishness. Others doubtless fulfilled the laws of charity in praying, +in mortifying themselves for their brethren. But when, like him, a man +has exceptional faculties of persuasion and eloquence, such vigour in +dialectics, such widespread culture, such power to bring to naught the +wrong--would it not be insulting to God to let such gifts lie idle, and a +serious failure in charity to deprive his brethren of the support of such +an engine? + +Besides that, he well knew that no man draws near to truth without a +purified heart. Might not his passions, which were so violent, begin to +torment him again after this respite with greater frenzy than before his +conversion? Against that, too, action was the main antidote. In the duties +of the bishopric he saw a means of asceticism--a kind of courageous +purification. He would load himself of his own will with so many anxieties +and so much work that he would have no time left to listen to the insidious +voice of his "old friends." Could he manage to silence them at once? +This unheard-of grace--would it be granted to him? Or would not rather +the struggle continue in the depths of his conscience? What comes out as +certain is that those terrible passions which turned his youth upside down, +nevermore play any part in his life. From the moment he fell on his knees +under the fig-tree at Milan, his sinful heart is a dead heart. He has been +freed from almost all the weaknesses of the old nature, not only from its +vices and carnal affections, but from its most pardonable lapses--save, +perhaps, some old sediment of intellectual and literary vanity. + +His books, at the first glance, shew us him no more save as the doctor, and +already the saint. What is seen at once is an entirely bare intelligence, +an entirely pure heart, fired only by the divine love. And yet the +affectionate and tender heart which his had been, always warms his +discussions and his most abstract exegesis. It does not take long to feel +the heat of them, the power of pouring forth emotion. Augustin takes no +heed of that. Of himself he no longer thinks; he no longer belongs to +himself. If he has accepted the episcopate, it is so as to give himself +altogether to the Church, to be all things to all men. He is the man-word, +the man-pen, the sounding-board of the truth. He becomes the man of the +miserable crowds which the Saviour covered with His pity. He is theirs, to +convince them and cure them of their errors. He is a machine which works +without ever stopping for the greater glory of Christ. Bishop, pastor, +leader of souls--he has no desire for anything else. + +But it was a heavy labour for this intellectual, who till then had lived +only among books and ideas. The day after his consecration, he must have +regarded it with more terror than ever. During his nights of insomnia, or +at the recreation hour in the monastery garden, he thought over it with +great distress. His eyes wide open in the darkness of his cell, he sought +to define a theory upon the nature and origin of the soul; or else, at the +fall of day, he saw between the olive branches "the sea put on fluctuating +shades like veils of a thousand colours, sometimes green, a green of +infinite tints; sometimes purple; blue sometimes...." And his soul, easily +stirred to poetry, at once arose from these material splendours to the +invisible region of ideas. Then, immediately, he caught himself up: it +was not a question of all that! He said to himself that he was henceforth +the bishop Augustin, that he had charge of souls, that he must work for +the needs of his flock. He would have to struggle in a combat without a +moment's respite. Thereupon he arranged his plans of attack and defence. +With a single glance he gauged the huge work before him. + +A crushing work, truly! He was Bishop of Hippo, but a bishop almost without +a flock, in comparison with the rival community of Donatists. The bishop of +the dissentients, Proculeianus, boasted that he was the true representative +of orthodoxy, and as he had on his side the advantage of numbers, he +certainly cut a much greater figure in the town than the successor of +Valerius, with all his knowledge and all his eloquence. The schismatics' +church, as we have seen, was quite near the Catholic church. Their noise +interfered with Augustin's sermons. Possibly the situation had become +slightly better in Hippo since the edict of Theodosius. But it was not so +long ago that those of the Donatist party had the upper hand. A little +before the arrival of the new bishop, the Donatist clergy forbade their +faithful to bake bread for Catholics. A fanatical baker had even refused a +Catholic deacon who was his landlord. These schismatics believed themselves +strong enough to put those who did not belong to them under interdict. + +The rout of Catholicism appeared to be an accomplished fact from one end to +the other of Africa. Quite recently a mere fraction of the Donatist party +had been able to send three hundred and ten bishops to the Council of +Bagai, who were to judge the recalcitrants of their own sect. Among these +bishops, the terrible Optatus of Thimgad became marked on account of his +bloody zeal, rambling round Numidia and even the Proconsulate at the head +of armed bands, burning farms and villas, rebaptizing the Catholics by main +force, spreading terror on all sides. + +Augustin knew all this, and when he sought help from the local authorities +he was obliged to acknowledge sadly that there was no support to be +expected from Count Gildo, who had tyrannized over Carthage and Africa for +nearly ten years. This Gildo was a native, a Moor, to whom the ministers of +the young Valentinian II had thought it a good stroke of policy to confide +the government of the province. Knowing the weakness of the Empire, the +Moor only thought of cutting out for himself an independent principality +in Africa. He openly favoured Donatism, which was the most numerous and +influential party. The Bishop of Thimgad, Optatus, swore only by him, +regarding him as his master and his "god." In consequence, he was called +"the Gildonian." + +Against such enemies, the Imperial authority could only act irregularly. +Augustin was well aware of it. He knew that the Western Empire was in a +critical position. Theodosius had just died, in the midst of war with the +usurper Eugenius. The Barbarians, who made up the greater part of the Roman +armies, shewed themselves more and more threatening. Alaric, entrenched +in the Peloponnesus, was getting ready to invade Italy. However, the +all-powerful minister of the young Honorius, the half-Barbarian Stilicho, +did his best to conciliate the Catholics, and assured them that he would +continue the protection they had had from Theodosius, Augustin therefore +turned to the central power. It alone could bring about a little order in +the provinces--and then, besides, the new emperors were firmly attached +to the defence of Catholicism. The Catholic Bishop of Hippo did his +best, accordingly, to keep on good terms with the representatives of the +Metropolitan Government--the proconsuls; the proprætors; the counts; +and the tribunes, or the secretaries, sent by the Emperor as Government +commissioners. + +There was no suspicion of flattery in his attitude, no idolatry of power. +At Milan, Augustin had been near enough to the Court to know what the +Imperial functionaries were worth. Now, he simply adapted himself as well +as he could to the needs of the moment. And with all that, he could have +wished in the depths of his heart that this power were stronger, so as to +give the Church more effective support. This cultured man, brought up in +the respect of the Roman majesty, was by instinct a faithful servant of +the Cæsars. A man who held to authority and tradition, he maintained that +obedience is due to princes: "There is a general agreement," he said, +"of human society to obey its Kings." In one of his sermons he compares +thought, which commands the body, to the Emperor seated upon his throne, +and from the depths of his palace dictating orders which set the whole +Empire moving--a purely ideal image of the sovereign of that time, but one +which pleased his Latin imagination. Alas! Augustin had no illusions about +the effect of Imperial edicts; he knew too well how little they were +regarded, especially in Africa. + +So he could hardly count upon Government support for the defence of +Catholic unity and peace. He found he must trust to himself; and all +his strength was in his intelligence, in his charity, in his deeply +compassionate soul. Most earnestly did he wish that Catholicism might be a +religion of love, open to all the nations of the earth, even as its Divine +Founder Himself had wished. A glowing and dominating intelligence, charity +which never tired--those were Augustin's arms. And they were enough. These +qualities gave him an overwhelming superiority over all the men of his +time. Among them, pagans or Christians, he looks like a colossus. From what +a height he crushes, not only the professors who had been his colleagues, +such as Nectarius of Guelma or Maximus of Madaura, but the most celebrated +writers of his time--Symmachus, for instance, and Ammianus Marcellinus. +After reading a treatise of Augustin's, one is astounded by the +intellectual meagreness of these last pagans. The narrowness of their +mind and platitude of thought is a thing that leaves one aghast. Even the +illustrious Apuleius, who belonged to the golden age of African literature, +the author of _The Doctrine of Plato_, praises philosophy and the Supreme +Being in terms which recall the professions of faith of the chemist and +druggist, Homais, in _Madame Bovary_. + +Nor among those who surrounded Augustin, his fellow-bishops, was there one +fit to be compared with him, even at a distance. Except perhaps Nebridius, +his dearest friends, Alypius, Severus, or Evodius, are merely disciples, +not to say servants of his thought. Aurelius, Primate of Carthage, an +energetic administrator, a firm and upright character, if he is not on +Augustin's level, is at any rate capable of understanding and supporting +him. The others are decent men, like that Samsucius, Bishop of Tours, very +nearly illiterate, but full of good sense and experience, and on this +ground consulted respectfully by his colleague of Hippo. Or else they are +plotters, given to debauch, engaged in business, like Paulus, Bishop of +Cataqua, who became involved in risky speculations, swindled the revenue, +and by his expensive way of life ruined his diocese. Others, on the +Donatist side, are mere swashbucklers, half-brigands, half-fanatics, like +the Gildonian Optatus, Bishop of Thimgad, a manifestation in advance of +the Mussulman _marabout_ who preached the holy war against the Catholics, +raiding, killing, burning, converting by sabre blows and bludgeoning. + +Amid these insignificant or violent men, Augustin will endeavour to realize +to the full the admirable type of bishop, at once spiritual father, +protector, and support of his people. He had promised himself to sacrifice +no whit of his ideal of Christian perfection. As bishop, he will remain a +monk, as he did during his priesthood. Beside the monastery established in +Valerius' garden, where it is impossible to receive properly his guests and +visitors, he will start another in the episcopal residence. He will conform +to the monastic rule as far as his duties allow. He will pray, study the +Scriptures, define dogmas, refute heresies. At the same time, he means to +neglect nothing of his material work. He has mouths to feed, property to +look after, law-cases to examine. He will labour at all that. For this +mystic and theorist it means a never-ceasing immolation. + +First, to give the poor their daily bread. Like all the communities of that +time, Hippo maintained a population of beggars. Often enough, the diocesan +cash-box was empty. Augustin was obliged to hold out the hand, to deliver +from the height of his pulpit pathetic appeals for charity. Then, there are +hospitals to be built for the sick, a lodging-house for poor wanderers. +The bishop started these institutions in houses bequeathed to the church +of Hippo. For reasons of economy, he thought better not to build. That +would overload his budget. Next came the greatest of all his cares--the +administration of Church property. To increase this property, he stipulated +that his clergy should give up all they possessed in favour of the +community, thus giving the faithful an example of voluntary poverty. +He also accepted gifts from private persons. But he also often refused +these--for example, the bequest of a father or mother, who, in a moment of +anger, disinherited their children. He did not wish to profit by the bad +feelings of parents to plunder orphans. On another side, he objected to +engage the Church in suits at law with the exchequer upon receiving certain +heritages. When a business man at Hippo left to the diocese his share of +profits in the service of boats for carrying Government stores, Augustin +came to the conclusion that it would be better to refuse. In case of +shipwreck, they would be obliged to make good the lost corn to the +Treasury, or else to put the captain and surviving sailors to the torture +to prove that the crew was not responsible for the loss of the ship. +Augustin would not hear tell of it. + +"Is it fit," he said, "that a bishop should be a shipowner?... A bishop +a torturer? Oh, no; that does not agree at all with a servant of Jesus +Christ." + +The people of Hippo did not share his views. They blamed Augustin's +scruples. They accused him of compromising the interests of the Church. One +day he had to explain himself from the pulpit: + +"Well I know, my brothers, that you often say between yourselves: 'Why do +not people give anything to the Church of Hippo? Why do not the dying make +it their heir? The reason is that Bishop Augustin is too easy; he gives all +back to the children; he keeps nothing!' I acknowledge it, I only accept +gifts which are good and pious. Whoever disinherits his son to make the +Church his heir, let him find somebody willing to accept his gifts. It is +not I who will do it, and by God's grace, I hope it will not be anybody.... +Yes, I have refused many legacies, but I have also accepted many. Need I +name them to you? I will give only one instance. I accepted the heritage of +Julian. Why? Because he died without children...." + +The listeners thought that their bishop really put too fine a point on +things. + +They further reproached him with not knowing how to attract and flatter the +rich benefactors. Augustin would not allow, either, that they had any right +to force a passing stranger to receive the priesthood and consequently to +give up his goods to the poor. All this really was very wise, not only +according to the spirit of the Gospel, but according to human prudence. +If Augustin, for the sake of the good fame of his Church, did not wish to +incur the accusation of grasping and avarice, he dreaded nothing so much +as a law-case. To accept lightly the gifts and legacies offered was to lay +himself open to expensive pettifogging. Far better to refuse than to lose +both his money and reputation. So were reconciled, in this man of prayer +and meditation, practical good sense with the high disinterestedness of the +Christian teaching. + +The bishop was disinterested; his people were covetous. The people of those +times wished the Church to grow rich, because they were the first to profit +by its riches. Now these riches were principally in houses and land. The +diocese of Hippo had to deal with many houses and immense _fundi_, upon +which lived an entire population of artisans and freed-men, agricultural +labourers, and even art-workers--smelters, embroiderers, chisellers on +metals. Upon the Church lands, these small people were protected from taxes +and the extortions of the revenue officers, and no doubt they found the +episcopal government more fatherly and mild than the civil. + +Augustin, who had made a vow of poverty and given his heritage to the poor, +became by a cruel irony a great landowner as soon as he was elected Bishop +of Hippo. Doubtless he had stewards under him to look after the property +of the diocese. This did not save him from going into details of management +and supervising his agents. He heard the complaints, not only of his +own tenants, but also of those who belonged to other estates and were +victimized by dishonest bailiffs. Anyhow, we have a thousand signs to shew +that no detail of country life was unfamiliar to him. + +On horseback or muleback, he rode for miles through the country about +Hippo to visit his vineyards and olivets. He examined, found out things, +questioned the workmen, went into the presses and the mills. He knew the +grape good to eat, and the grape to make wine with. He pointed out where +the ensilage pits had been dug in too marshy land, which endangered the +young corn. As a capable landowner he was abreast of the law, careful +about the terms of contracts. He knew the formulas employed for sales or +benefactions. He saw to it that charcoal was buried around the landmarks in +the fields, so that if the post disappeared, its place could be found. And +as he was a poet, he gathered on his course a whole booty of rural images +which later on went to brighten his sermons. He made ingenious comparisons +with the citron-tree, "which is seen to give flowers and fruits all the +year if it be watered constantly," or else with the goat "who gets upon her +two hind legs to crop the bitter leaves of the wild olive." + +These journeys in the open air, however tiring they might be, were after +all a rest for his overworked brain. But there was one among his episcopal +duties which wearied him to disgust. Every day he had to listen to parties +in dispute and give judgment. Following recent Imperial legislation, the +bishop became judge in civil cases--a tiresome and endless work in a +country where tricky quibbling raged with obstinate fury. The litigants +pursued Augustin, overran his house, like those fellahs in dirty burnous +who block our law-courts with their rags. In the _secretarium_ of the +basilica, or under the portico of the court leading to the church, Augustin +sat like a Mussulman cadi in the court of the mosque. + +The emperors had only regulated an old custom of apostolic times in placing +the Christians under the jurisdiction of their bishop. In accordance with +St. Paul's advice, the priests did their utmost to settle differences among +the faithful. Later, when their number had considerably increased, the +Government adopted a system not unlike the "Capitulations" in countries +under the Ottoman suzerainty. Lawsuits between clerics and laymen could not +be equitably judged by civil servants, who were often pagans. Moreover, the +parties based their claims on theological principles or religious laws that +the arbitrator generally knew nothing about. In these conditions, it was +natural enough that the Imperial authority should say to the disputants, +"Fight it out among yourselves". + +And it happened, just at the moment when Augustin began to fill the see of +Hippo, that Theodosius broadened still more the judicial prerogatives of +the bishops. The unhappy judge was overwhelmed with law-cases. Every day he +sat till the hour of his meal, and sometimes the whole day when he fasted. +To those who accused him of laziness, he answered: + +"I can declare on my soul that if it were question of my own convenience, I +should like much better to work at some manual labour at certain hours of +the day, as the rule is in well-governed monasteries, and have the rest of +the time free to read or pray or meditate upon the Holy Scripture, instead +of being troubled with all the complications and dull talk of lawsuits." + +The rascality of the litigants made him indignant. From the pulpit he gave +them advice full of Christian wisdom, but which could not have been much +relished. A suit at law, according to him, was a loss of time and a cause +of sorrow. It would be better to let the opponent have the money, than to +lose time and be filled with uneasiness. Nor was this, added the preacher +in all good faith, to encourage injustice; for the robber would be robbed +in his turn by a greater robber than himself. + +These reasons seemed only moderately convincing. The pettifoggers did not +get discouraged. On the contrary, they infested the bishop with their +pleas. As soon as he appeared, they rushed up to him in a mob, surrounded +him, kissed his hand and his shoulder, protesting their respect and +obedience, urging him, constraining him to busy himself about their +affairs. Augustin yielded. But the next day in a vehement sermon he cried +out to them: + +_Discedite a me, maligni!_--"Go far from me, ye wicked ones, and let me +study in peace the commandments of my God!" + + + + +II + +WHAT WAS HEARD IN THE BASILICA OF PEACE + + +Let us try to see Augustin in his pulpit and in his episcopal city. + +We cannot do much more than reconstruct them by analogy. Royal Hippo is +utterly gone. Bona, which has taken its place, is about a mile and a half +away, and the fragments which have been dug out of the soil of the dead +city are very inadequate. But Africa is full of Christian ruins, and +chiefly of basilicas. Rome has nothing equal to offer. And that is easily +understood. The Roman basilicas, always living, have been changed in the +course of centuries, and have put on, time after time, the garb forced upon +them by the fashion. Those of Africa have remained just as they were--at +least in their principal lines--on the morrow of the Arab invasion, as +Augustin's eyes had seen them. They are ruins, no doubt, and some very +mutilated, but ruins of which no restoration has altered the plan or +changed the features. + +As the traces of Hippo and its church are swept away or deeply buried, we +are obliged, in order to get some approximate idea, to turn towards another +African town which has suffered less from time and devastation. Theveste +with its basilica, the best preserved, the finest and largest in all +Africa, can restore to us a little of the look and colour and atmosphere of +Hippo in those final years of the fourth century. + +Ancient Theveste was much larger than the present town, the French Tebessa. +This, even reduced to the perimeter of the Byzantine fortress built under +Justinian, still surprises the traveller by its singularly original aspect. +Amid the wide plains of alfa-grass which surround it, with its quadrangular +enclosure, its roads on the projection of the walls behind the battlements, +its squat turrets, it has a look as archaic, as strange, as our own +Aigues-Mortes amid its marshy fen. Nothing can be more rich and joyous to +the eye than the rust which covers its ruins--a complete gilding that one +would say had been laid on by the hand of man. + +It has a little temple which is a wonder and has been compared to the +ancient Roman temple--the _Maison Carrée_--at Nîmes. But how much warmer, +more living are the stones! The shafts of the columns, and the pilasters of +the peristyle, barked by time, seem as scaly and full of sap as the trunks +of palm-trees. The carved acanthus-leaves in the capitals of the pillars +droop like bunches of palms reddened by the summer. + +Quite near, at the end of a narrow street, lined with modern and squalid +hovels, the triumphal arch of Septimus Severus and of Caracalla extends its +luminous bow; and high above the heavy mass of architecture, resting upon +slim aerial little columns, a buoyant _ædiculus_ shines like a coral +tabernacle or a coffer of yellow ivory. + +All about, forms in long draperies are huddled. The Numidian burnous has +the whiteness of the toga. It has also the same graceful folds. At the +sight of them you suddenly feel yourself to be in a strange land--carried +back very far across the centuries. No sooner is the vision of antiquity +outlined than it grows firm. Down below there, a horseman, clad in white, +is framed with his white horse in the moulded cincture of a door. He +passes, and upon the white wall of the near tower his shadow rests a +moment, like a bas-relief upon the marble of a frieze. + +Beyond the Byzantine enclosure, the basilica, with its minor buildings, +forms another town almost as large as the present Theveste, and also closed +in by a belt of towers and ramparts. One is immediately struck by the +opulent colour of the stones--rose, grown pale and thinner in the sun; and +next, by the solid workmanship and the structural finish. The stones, as +in the Greek temples, are placed on top of one another in regular layers: +the whole holds together by the weight of the blocks and the polish of the +surfaces. + +The proportions are on a large scale. There was no grudging for the +buildings, or the materials, or the land. In front of the basilica is a +wide rectangular court bordered with terraces; a portico at the far end; +and in the middle four large fountains to water the walk. A flagged avenue, +closed by two gateways, divides this court from the basilica, properly so +called, which is reached by a staircase between two columns. The staircase +leads to the _atrium_ decorated by a Corinthian portico. In the centre +is the font for purifications, a huge monolithic bason in the shape of a +four-leaved clover. Three doors give entrance from the _atrium_ to the +basilica, which is divided by rows of green marble columns into three +aisles. The galleries spread out along the side aisles. The floor was in +mosaic. In the apse, behind the altar, stood the bishop's throne. + +Around the main building clustered a great number of others: a baptistry; +many chapels (one vaulted in the shape of a three-leaved clover) dedicated, +probably, to local martyrs; a graveyard; a convent with its cells, and its +windows narrow as loop-holes; stables, sheds, and barns. Sheltered within +its walls and towers, amid its gardens and outbuildings, the basilica of +Theveste thus early resembled one of our great monasteries of the Middle +Age, and also in certain ways the great mosques of Islam--the one at +Cordova, or that at Damascus, with their vestibules surrounded by arcades, +their basons for purification, and their walks bordered with orange-trees. +The faithful and the pilgrims were at home there. They might spend the day +stretched upon the flags of the porticoes, in loafing or sleeping in the +blue shade of the columns and the cool of the fountains. In the full sense +of the word, the church was the House of God, open to all. + +Very likely the basilicas at Hippo had neither the size nor the splendour +of this one. Nor were there very many. At the time Augustin was ordained +priest, that is to say, when the Donatists had still a majority in the +town, it seems clear that the orthodox community owned but one single +church, the _Basilica major_, or Basilica of Peace. Its very name proves +this. With the schismatics, "Peace" was the official name for Catholicism. +"Basilica of Peace" meant simply "Catholic Basilica." Was not this as +much as to say that the others belonged to the dissenters? Doubtless they +restored later on, after the promulgations of Honorius, the Leontian +Basilica, founded by Leontius, Bishop of Hippo, and a martyr. A third was +built by Augustin during his episcopate--the Basilica of the Eight Martyrs +of the White Mace. + +It was in the Major, or Cathedral, that Augustin generally preached. To +preach was not only a duty, but one of the privileges of a bishop. As has +been said, the bishop alone had the right to preach in his church. This +arose from the fact that the African dioceses, although comparatively +widespread, had scarcely more people than one of our large parishes to-day. +The position of a bishop was like that of one of our parish priests. There +were almost as many as there were villages, and they were counted by +hundreds. + +However that may be, preaching, the real apostolic ministry, was an +exhausting task. Augustin preached almost every day, and often many times a +day--rough work for a man with such a fragile chest. Thus it often happened +that, to save his voice, he had to ask his audience to keep still. He spoke +without study, in a language very near the language of the common people. +Stenographers took down his sermons as he improvised them: hence those +repetitions and lengthinesses which astonish the reader who does not know +the reason for them. There is no plan evident in these addresses. Sometimes +the speaker has not enough time to develop his thought. Then he puts off +the continuation till the next day. Sometimes he comes with a subject all +prepared, and then treats of another, in obedience to a sudden inspiration +which has come to him with a verse of Scripture he has just read. Other +times, he comments many passages in succession, without the least care for +unity or composition. + +Let us listen to him in this Basilica of Peace, where during thirty-five +years he never failed to announce the Word of God.... The chant of the +Psalms has just died away. At the far end of the apse, Augustin rises from +his throne with its back to the wall, his pale face distinct against the +golden hue of the mosaic. From that place, as from the height of a pulpit, +he commands the congregation, looking at them above the altar, which is a +plain wooden table placed at the end of the great aisle. + +The congregation is standing, the men on one side, the women on the other. +On the other side of the balustrade which separates them from the crowd, +are the widows and consecrated virgins, wrapped in their veils black or +purple. Some matrons, rather overdressed, lean forward in the front rank +of the galleries. Their cheeks are painted, their eyelashes and eyebrows +blackened, their ears and necks overloaded with jewels. Augustin has +noticed them; after a while he will read them a lesson. This audience is +all alive with sympathy and curiosity before he begins. With all its faith +and all its passion it collaborates with the orator. It is turbulent also. +It expresses its opinions and emotions with perfect freedom. The democratic +customs of those African Churches surprise us to-day. People made a noise +as at the theatre or the circus. They applauded; they interrupted the +preacher. Certain among them disputed what was said, quoting passages from +the Bible. + +Augustin is thus in perpetual communication with his audience. Nobody has +done less soaring than he. He keeps his eye on the facial expressions +and the attitudes of his public. He talks to them familiarly. When his +sermon is a little lengthy, he wants to know if his listeners are getting +tired--he has kept them standing so long! The time of the morning meal +draws near. Bellies are fasting, stomachs wax impatient. Then says he to +them with loving good-fellowship: + +"Go, my very dear brothers and sisters, go and restore your strength--I do +not mean that of your minds, for I see well that they are tireless, but the +strength of your bodies which are the servants of your souls. Go then and +restore your bodies so that they may do their work well, and when they are +restored, come back here and take your spiritual food." + +Upon certain days, a blast of the sirocco has passed over the town. The +faithful, crowded in the aisles, are stifling, covered with sweat. The +preacher himself, who is very much worked up, has his face dripping, and +his clothes are all wet. By this he perceives that once more he has been +extremely long. He excuses himself modestly. Or again, he jokes like a +rough apostle who is not repelled by the odour of a lot of human-kind +gathered together. + +"Oh, what a smell!" says he. "I must have been speaking a long while +to-day." + +These good-natured ways won the hearts of the simple folk who listened to +him. He is aware of the charm he exerts on them, and of the sympathy they +give him back in gratitude for his charity. + +"You have loved to come and hear me, my brothers," he said to them. "But +whom have you loved? If it is me--ah, even that is good, my brothers, for +I want to be loved by you, if I do not want to be loved for myself. As for +me, I love you in Christ. And you too, do you love me in Him. Let our love +for one another moan together up to God--and that is the moaning of the +Dove spoken of in the Scripture...." + +Although he preaches from the height of his episcopal throne, he is anxious +that his hearers should regard him, Christianly, as their equal. So he +seems as little of the bishop as possible. + +"All Christians are servants of the same master.... I have been in the +place where you are--you, my brothers, who listen to me. And now, if I +give the spiritual bread from the height of this chair to the servants of +the Master of us all--well, it is but a few years since I received this +spiritual food with them in a lower place. A bishop, I speak to laymen, but +I know to how many future bishops I speak...." + +So he puts himself on an equal footing with his audience by the brotherly +accent in his words. It is not Christendom, the Universal Church, or I know +not what abstract listener he addresses, but the Africans, the people of +Hippo, the parishioners of the Basilica of Peace. He knows the allusions, +the comparisons drawn from local customs, which are likely to impress their +minds. The day of the festival of St. Crispina, a martyr of those parts, +after he had developed his subject at very great length, he asked pardon in +these terms: + +"Let us think, brothers, that I have invited you to celebrate the birthday +of the blessed Crispina, and that I have kept up the feast a little too +long. Well, might not the same thing happen if some soldier were to ask you +to dinner and obliged you to drink more than is wise? Let me do as much for +the Word of God, with which you should be drunk and surfeited." + +Marriages, as well as birthday feasts, supplied the orator with vivid +allegories. Thus he says that when a marriage feast is made in a house, +organs play upon the threshold, and musicians and dancers begin to sing and +to act their songs. And yet how poor are these earthly enjoyments which +pass away so soon!... "In the House of God, the feast has no end." + +Continually, through the commentaries on the Psalms, like comparisons rise +to the surface--parables suited to stir the imagination of Africans. A +thousand details borrowed from local habits and daily life enliven the +exegesis of the Bishop of Hippo. The mules and horses that buck when one +is trying to cure them, are his symbol for the recalcitrant Donatists. The +little donkeys, obstinate and cunning, that trot in the narrow lanes of +Algerian _casbahs_, appear here and there in his sermons. The gnats bite in +them. The unendurable flies plaster themselves in buzzing patches on the +tables and walls. Then there are the illnesses and drugs of that country: +the ophthalmias and collyrium. What else? The tarentulas that run along +the beams on the ceiling; the hares that scurry without warning between +the horses' feet on the great Numidian plains. Elsewhere, he reminds his +audience of those men who wear an earring as a talisman; of the dealings +between traders and sailors--a comparison which would go home to this +seafaring people. + +The events of the time, the little happenings of the moment, glide into +his sermons. At the same time as the service in church to-day, there is +going to be horse-racing at the circus, and fights of wild beasts or +gladiators at the arena. In consequence, there will not be many people +in the Basilica. "So much the better," says Augustin. "My lungs will get +some rest." Another time, it is advertised through the town that most +sensational attractions will be offered at the theatre--there will be a +scene representing the open sea. The preacher laughs at those who have +deserted the church to go and see this illusion: "They will have," says +he, "the sea on the stage; but we, brothers--ah, we shall have our port in +Jesus Christ." This Saturday, while he is preaching, some Jewish women set +themselves to dance and sing on the terraces of the near houses, by way of +celebrating the Sabbath. In the basilica, the bashing of the crotolos can +be heard, and the thuds of the tambourines. "They would do better," says +Augustin, "to work and spin their wool." + +He dwells upon the catastrophes which were then convulsing the Roman world. +The news of them spread with wonderful rapidity. Alaric's Barbarians +have taken Rome and put it to fire and sword. At Jerusalem has been an +earthquake, and the bishop John organizes a subscription for the sufferers +throughout Christendom. At Constantinople, globes of fire have been seen in +the sky. The _Serapeum_ of Alexandria has just been destroyed in a riot.... + +All these things follow each other in lively pictures, without any apparent +order, throughout Augustin's sermons. It is not he who divides his +discourse into three parts, and refrains from passing to the second till he +has learnedly expounded the first. Whether he comments upon the Psalms or +the Gospels, his sermons are no more than explanations of the Scriptures +which he interprets, sometimes in a literal sense, and sometimes in an +allegoric. Let us acknowledge it--his allegoric discourses repel us by +their extreme subtilty, sometimes by their bad taste; and when he confines +himself to the letter of the text, he stumbles among small points of +grammar which weary the attention. We follow him no longer. We think +his audience was very obliging to listen so long--and on their feet--to +these endless dissertations.... And then, suddenly, a great lyrical and +oratorical outburst which carries us away--a wind which blows from the +high mountains, and in the wink of an eye sweeps away like dust all those +fine-spun reasonings. + +He is fond of certain commonplaces, and also of certain books of the +Bible--for instance, _The Song of Songs_ and the Gospel of St. John, the +one satisfying in him the intellectual, and the other the mystic of love. +He confronts the verse of the Psalm: "Before the morning star have I +begotten thee," with the sublime opening of the Fourth Gospel: "In the +beginning was the Word." He lingers upon the beauty of Christ: _Speciosus +forma præ filiis hominum_, "Thou art fairer than the children of men." This +is why he is always repeating with the Psalmist: "Thy face, Lord, have I +sought"--_Quæsivi vultum tuum, Domine._ And the orator, carried away by +enthusiasm, adds: "Magnificent saying! Nothing more divine could be said. +Those feel it who truly love." Another of his favourite subjects is the +kindness of God: _Videte et gustate quam mitis sit Dominus_--"O taste +and see that the Lord is good." Naught can equal the pleasure of this +contemplation, of this life in God. Augustin conceives it as a musician +who has fathomed the secret of numbers. "Let your life," he said, "be one +prolonged song.... We do not sing only with the voice and lips when we +intone a canticle, but in us is an inward singing, because there is also in +us Some One who listens...." + +To live this rhythmic and divine life we must get free of ourselves, give +ourselves up utterly in a great outburst of charity. + +"Why," he cries--"Oh, why do you hesitate to give yourselves lest you +should lose yourselves? It is rather by not giving yourselves that you +lose yourselves. Charity herself speaks to you by the mouth of Wisdom and +upholds you against the terror which fills you at the sound of those words: +'Give yourself.' If some one wanted to sell you a piece of land, he would +say to you: 'Give me your gold.' And for something else, he would say: +'Give me your silver, give me your money.' Listen to what Charity says to +you by the mouth of Wisdom: 'My son, give me thy heart.' 'Give me,' quoth +she. Give what? 'My son, give me thy heart.'... Thy heart was not happy +when it was governed by thee, and was thine, for it turned this way and +that way after gawds, after impure and dangerous loves. 'Tis from there thy +heart must be drawn. Whither lift it up? Where to place it? 'Give me thy +heart,' says Wisdom, 'let it be mine, and it will belong to thee for +always.'" + +After the chant of love, the chant of the Resurrection. _Cantate mihi +canticum novum_--"Sing to me a new song!" Augustin repeats these words over +and over again. "We wish to rise from the dead," cry souls craving for +eternity. And the Church answers: "Verily, I say unto you, that you shall +rise from the dead. Resurrection of bodies, resurrection of souls, ye shall +be altogether reborn." Augustin has explained no dogma more passionately. +None was more pleasing to the faithful of those times. Ceaselessly they +begged to be strengthened in the conviction of immortality and of meeting +again brotherlike in God. + +With what intrepid delight it rose--this song of the Resurrection in +those clear African basilicas swimming in light, with all their brilliant +ornamentation of mosaics and marbles of a thousand colours! And what +artless and confident language those symbolic figures spoke which peopled +their walls--the lambs browsing among clusters of asphodels, the doves, the +green trees of Paradise. As in the Gospel parables, the birds of the field +and farmyard, the fruits of the earth, figured the Christian truths and +virtues. Their purified forms accompanied man in his ascension towards +God. Around the mystic chrisms, circled garlands of oranges and pears and +pomegranates. Cocks, ducks, partridges, flamingoes, sought their pasture in +the Paradisal fields painted upon the walls of churches and cemeteries. + +Those young basilicas were truly the temples of the Resurrection, where +all the creatures of the Ark saved from the waters had found their refuge. +Never more in the centuries to follow shall humanity know this frank joy at +having triumphed over death--this youth of hope. + + + + +III + +THE BISHOP'S BURTHEN + + +Augustin is not only the most human of all the saints, he is also one +of the most amiable in all the senses of that hackneyed word--amiable +according to the world, amiable according to Christ. + +To be convinced of this, he should be observed in his dealings with his +hearers, with his correspondents, even with those he attacks--with the +bitterest enemies of the faith. Preaching, the administration of property, +and sitting in judgment were but a part of that episcopal burthen, _Sarcina +episcopatus_, under which he so often groaned. He had furthermore to +catechize, baptize, direct consciences, guard the faithful against error, +and dispute with all those who threatened Catholicism. Augustin was a light +of the Church. He knew it. + +Doing his best, with admirable conscientiousness and charity he undertook +these tasks. God knows what it must have cost this Intellectual to fulfil +precisely all the duties of his ministry, down to the humblest. What +he would have liked, above all, was to pass his life in studying the +Scriptures and meditating on the dogmas--not from a love of trifling with +theories, but because he believed such knowledge necessary to whoever gave +forth the Word of God. Most of the priests of that age arrived at the +priesthood without any previous study. They had to improvise, as quick +as they could, a complete education in religious subjects. We are left +astounded before the huge labour which Augustin must have given to acquire +his. Before long he even dominated the whole exegetical and theological +knowledge of his time. In his zeal for divine letters, he knew sleep no +more. + +And yet he did not neglect any of his tasks. Like the least of our +parish priests, he prepared the neophytes for the Sacraments. He was +an incomparable catechist, so clear-sighted and scrupulous that his +instructions may still be taken as models by the catechists of to-day. +Neither did he, as an aristocrat of the intelligence, only trouble himself +with persons of culture, and leave to his deacons the care of God's common +people. All had a right to his lessons, the simple peasants as well as the +rich and scholarly. One day, a farmer he was teaching walked off and left +him there in the middle of his discourse. The poor man, who had fasted, and +now listened to his bishop standing, was faint from hunger and felt his +legs tremble under him. He thought it better to run away than to fall down +exhausted at the feet of the learned preacher. + +With his knowledge of men, Augustin carefully studied the kind of people +his catechumens were, and adapted his instructions to the character of +each. If they were city folk, Carthaginians, used to spending their time in +theatres and taverns, drunken and lazy, he took a different tone with them +from what he used with rustics who had never left their native _gourbi_. +If he were dealing with fashionable people who had a taste for literature, +he did not fail to exalt the beauties of the Scripture, although, he would +say, they had there a very trifling attraction compared to the truths +contained in it. Of all the catechumens, the hardest to deal with, the +most fearsome in his eyes, were the professors--the rhetoricians and the +grammarians. These men are bloated with vanity, puffed up with intellectual +pride. Augustin knew something about that. It will be necessary to rouse +them violently, and before anything else, to exhort them to humility of +mind. + +The good saint goes further. Not only is he anxious about the souls, but +also about the bodies of his listeners. Are they comfortable for listening? +As soon as they feel tired they must not hesitate to sit down, as is the +usage in the basilicas beyond seas. + +"Would not our arrogance be unbearable," he asked, "if we forbade men who +are our brothers to sit down in our presence, and, much more, men whom we +ought to try with all possible care to make our brothers?..." + +If they are seen to yawn, "then things ought to be said to them to awaken +their attention, or to scatter the sad thoughts which may have come into +their minds." The catechist should shew, now a serene joy--the joy of +certainty; now a gaiety which charms people into belief; "and always that +light-heartedness we should have in teaching." Even if we ourselves are sad +from this reason or that, let us remember that Jesus Christ died for those +who are listening to us. Is not the thought of bringing Him disciples +enough to make us joyful? + +Bishop Augustin set the example for his priests. It is not enough to +have prepared the conversion of his catechumens with the subtlety of the +psychologist, and such perfect Christian charity; but he accompanies them +to the very end, and charges them once more before the baptismal piscina. + +How he is changed! One thinks of the boon-fellow of Romanianus and of +Manlius Theodorus, of the young man who followed the hunts at Thagaste, +and who held forth on literature and philosophy in a select company before +the beautiful horizons of the lake of Como. Here he is now with peasants, +slaves, sailors, and traders. And he takes pleasure in their society. It is +his flock. He ought to love it with all his soul in Jesus Christ. What an +effort and what a victory upon himself an attitude so strange reveals to +us! For really this liking for mean people was not natural to him. He must +have put an heroic will-power into it, helped by Grace. + +A like sinking of his preferences is evident in the director of consciences +he became. Here he was obliged to give himself more thoroughly. He was +at the mercy of the souls who questioned him, who consulted him as +their physician. He spends his time in advising them, and exercises a +never-failing supervision of their morals. It is an almost discouraging +enterprise to bend these hardened pagans--above all, these Africans--to +Christian discipline. Augustin is continually reproaching their +drunkenness, gluttony, and lust. The populace were not the only ones to get +drunk and over-eat themselves. The rich at their feasts literally stuffed +till they choked. The Bishop of Hippo never lets a chance go by to recall +them to sobriety. + +Oftener still, he recalls them to chastity. He writes long letters on this +subject which are actual treatises. The morals of the age and country are +fully disclosed in them. Husbands are found loudly claiming a right to free +love for themselves, while they force their wives to conjugal fidelity. The +adultery they allow themselves, they punish with death in their wives. They +make an abusive practice of divorce. Upon the most futile reasons, they +send the wife the _libellus repudii_--the bill repudiating the marriage--as +the various peoples of Islam do still. This society in a state of +transition was always creating cases of conscience for strict Christians. +For example: If a man cast off his wife under pretext of adultery, might +he marry again? Augustin held that no marriage can be dissolved as long as +both parties are living. But may not this prohibition provoke husbands to +kill their adulterous wives, so as to be free to take a new wife? Another +problem: A catechumen divorced under the pagan law and since remarried, +presents himself for baptism. Is he not an adulterer in the eyes of the +Church? A man who lives with a woman and does not hide it, who even +declares his firm intention of continuing to live with his concubine--can +he be admitted to baptism? Augustin has to answer all these questions, and +go into the very smallest details of casuistry. + +Is it forbidden to eat the meats consecrated to idols, even when a man +or woman is dying of hunger? May one enter into agreements with native +camel-drivers and carriers who swear by their gods to keep the bargain? +May a lie be told in certain conditions?--say, so as to get among heretics +in pretending to be one of themselves, and thus be able to spy on them +and denounce them? May adultery be practised with a woman who promises in +exchange to point out heretics?... The Bishop of Hippo severely condemns +all these devious or shameful ways, all these compromises which are +contrary to the pure moral teaching of the Gospel. But he does this without +affecting intolerance and rigidity, and with a reminder that the evil of +sin lies altogether in the intention, and in the consent of the will. In a +word, one must tolerate and put up with what one is powerless to hinder. + +Other questions, which it is quite impossible to repeat here, give us a +strange idea of the corruption of pagan morals. Augustin had all he +could do to maintain the Christian rule in such surroundings, where the +Christians themselves were more or less tainted with paganism. But if this +troop of sinners and backsliders was hard to drive, the devout were perhaps +harder. There were the _continents_--the widowers and widows who had made a +vow of chastity and found this vow heavy; the consecrated virgins who lived +in too worldly a fashion; the nuns who rebelled against their spiritual +director or their superior; the monks, either former slaves who did not +want to do another stroke of work, or charlatans who played upon public +credulity in selling talismans and miraculous ointments. Then, the married +women who refused themselves to their husbands; and those who gave away +their goods to the poor without their husbands' consent; and also the proud +virgins and widows who despised and condemned marriage. + +Then came the crowd of pious souls who questioned Augustin on points of +dogma, who wanted to know all, to clear up everything; those who thought +they should be able here below to see God face to face, to know how we +shall arise, and who asked if the angels had bodies.... Augustin complains +that they are annoying, when he has so many other things to trouble him, +and that they take him from his studies. But he tries charitably to satisfy +them all. + +Besides all this, he was obliged to keep up a correspondence with a great +number of people. In addition to his friends and fellow-bishops, he wrote +to unknown people and foreigners; to men in high place and to lowly people; +to the proconsuls, the counts and the vicars of Africa; to the very mighty +Olympius, Master of the Household to the Emperor Honorius; or again, "to +the Right Honourable Lady Maxima," "to the Illustrious Ladies Proba and +Juliana," "to the Very Holy Lady Albina"--women who belonged either to the +provincial nobility, or to the highest aristocracy of Rome. To whom did he +not write?... + +And what is admirable in these letters is that he does not answer +negligently to get rid of a tiresome duty. Almost all of them are full +of substantial teaching, long thought over. Many were intended to be +published--they are practically charges. And yet, however grave the tone +of them may be, the cultivated man of the world he had been may be traced. +His correspondents, after the fashion of the time, overwhelm the bishop +with the most fulsome praises. These he accepts, with much ceremony +indeed, but he does accept them as evidence of the charity of his +brethren. Ingenuously, he does his best to return them. Let us not grow +over-scandalized because our men of letters of to-day have debased the +value of complimentary language by squandering and exaggerating it. The +most austere cotemporaries of Augustin, and Augustin himself, outdid them +by a long way in the art and in the abuse of compliments. + +Paulinus of Nola, always beflowered and elegant, wrote to Augustin: +"Your letters are a luminous collyrium spread over the eyes of my mind." +Augustin, who remonstrated with him upon the scarcity of his own letters, +replies in language which our own _Précieuses_ would not have disowned: +"What! You allow me to pass two summers--and two African summers!--in such +thirst?... Would to God that you would allow enter to the opulent banquet +of your book, the long fast from your writings which you have put me +upon during all a year! If this banquet be not ready, I shall not give +over my complaints, unless, indeed, that in the time between, you send me +something to keep up my strength." A certain Audax, who begged the honour +of a special letter from the great man, calls him "the oracle of the Law"; +protests that the whole world celebrates and admires him; and finally, at +the end of his arguments, conjures him in verse to "Let fall upon me the +dew of thy divine word." Augustin, with modesty and benignity, returns his +compliments, but not without slipping into his reply a touch of banter: +"Allow me to point out to you that your fifth line has seven feet. Has +your ear betrayed you, or did you want to find out if I was still capable +of judging these things?"... Truly, he is always capable of judging these +things, nor is he sorry to have it known. A young Greek named Dioscorus, +who is passing through Carthage, questions him upon the philosophy of +Cicero. Augustin exclaims at any one daring to interrupt a bishop about +such trifles. Then, little by little, he grows milder, and carried away by +his old passion, he ends by sending the young man quite a dissertation on +this good subject. + +Those are among his innocent whimsicalities. Then, alongside of letters +either too literary, or erudite, or profound, there are others which are +simply exquisite, such as the one he wrote to a young Carthage girl called +Sapida. She had embroidered a tunic for her brother. He was dead, and she +asked Augustin kindly to wear this tunic, telling him that if he would +do this, it would be a great comfort for her in her grief. The bishop +consented very willingly. "I accept this garment," he said to her, "and I +have begun to wear it before writing to you...." Then gently he pities her +sorrow, and persuades her to resignation and hope. + +"We should not rebuke people for weeping over the dead who are dear to +them.... When we think of them, and through habit we look for them still +around us, then the heart breaks, and the tears fall like the blood of our +broken heart...." + +At the end, in magnificent words, he chants the hymn of the Resurrection: + +"My daughter, your brother lives in his soul, if in his body he sleeps. +Does not the sleeper wake? God, who has received his soul, will put it +again in the body He has taken from him, not to destroy it--oh, no, but +some day to give it to him back." + + * * * * * + +This correspondence, voluminous as it is, is nothing beside his numberless +treatises in dogma and polemic. These were the work of his life, and it is +by these posterity has known him. The theologian and the disputer ended by +hiding the man in Augustin. To-day, the man perhaps interests us more. And +this is a mistake. He himself would not have allowed for a moment that his +_Confessions_ should be preferred to his treatises on Grace. To study, to +comment the Scriptures, to draw more exact definitions from the dogmas--he +saw no higher employment for his mind, or obligation more important for +a bishop. To believe so as to understand, to understand the better to +believe--it is a ceaseless movement of the intelligence which goes from +faith to God and from God to faith. He throws himself into this great +labour without a shade of any attempt to make literature, with a complete +sinking of his tastes and his personal opinions, and in it he entirely +forgets himself. + +One single time he has thought of himself, and it is precisely in the +_Confessions_, the spirit of which modern people understand so ill, and +where they try to find something quite different from what the author +intended. He composed them just after he was raised to the bishopric, to +defend himself against the calumnies spread about his conduct. It seems as +if he wanted to say to his detractors: "You believe me guilty. Well, I am +so, and more perhaps than you think, but not in the way you think." A great +religious idea alters this personal defence. It is less a confession, or an +excuse for his faults, in the present sense of the word, than a continual +glorification of the divine mercy. It is less the shame of his sins he +confesses, than the glory of God. + +After that, he never thought again of anything but Truth and the Church, +and the enemies of Truth and the Church: the Manichees, the Arians, the +Pelagians--the Donatists, above all. He lets no error go by without +refuting it, no libel without an answer. He is always on the breach. He +might well be compared, in much of his writings, to one of our fighting +journalists. He put into this generally thankless business a wonderful +vigour and dialectical subtlety. Always and everywhere he had to have the +last word. He brought eloquence to it, yet more charity--sometimes even +wit. And lastly, he had a patience which nothing could dishearten. He +repeats the same things a hundred times over. These tiresome repetitions, +into which he was driven by the obstinacy of his opponents, caused him +real pain. Every time it became necessary, he took up again the endless +demonstration without letting himself grow tired. The moment it became a +question of the Truth, Augustin could not see that he had any right to keep +quiet. + +In Africa and elsewhere they made fun of what they called his craze for +scribbling. He himself, in his _Retractations_, is startled by the number +of his works. He turns over the Scripture saying which the Donatists +amusingly opposed to him: _Væ mullum loquentibus_--"Woe unto them of many +words." But calling God to witness, he says to Him: _Væ tacentibus de +te_--"Woe unto those who keep silent upon Thee." In the eyes of Augustin, +the conditions were such that silence would have been cowardly. And +elsewhere he adds: "They may believe me or not as they will, but I like +much better to read than to write books...." + +In any case, his modesty was evident. "I am myself," he acknowledges, +"almost always dissatisfied with what I say." To the heretics he declares, +with a glance back at his own errors, "I know by experience how easy it +is to be wrong." When there is some doubt in questions of dogma, he does +not force his explanations, but suggests them to his readers. How much +intellectual humility is in that prayer which ends his great work on the +Trinity: "Lord my God, one Trinity, if in these books I have said anything +which comes from Thee, may Thou and Thy chosen receive it. But if it is +from me it comes, may Thou and Thine forgive me." + +And again, how much tolerance and charity in those counsels to the faithful +of his diocese who, having been formerly persecuted by the Donatists, now +burned to get their revenge: + +"It is the voice of your bishop, my brothers, sounding in your ears. He +implores you, all of you who are in this church, to keep yourselves from +insulting those who are outside, but rather to pray that they may enter +with you into communion." + +Elsewhere, he reminds his priests that they must preach at the Jews in a +spirit of friendliness and loving-kindness, without troubling to know if +they listen with gratitude or indignation. "We ought not," said he, "to +bear ourselves proudly against these broken branches of Christ's tree."... + +This charity and moderation took nothing from the firmness of his +character. This he proved in a startling way in the discussion he had with +St. Jerome over a passage In the Epistle to the Galatians, and upon the +new translation, of the Bible which Jerome had undertaken. The solitary of +Bethlehem saw a "feint" on the part of St. Paul in the disputed passage: +Augustin said, a "lie." What, then, would become of evangelic truth if +in such a place the Apostle had lied? And would not this be a means of +authorizing all the exegetical fantasies of heresiarchs, who already +rejected as altered or forged all verses of the holy books which conflicted +with their own doctrines?... + +As to the new translation of the Bible, it would bring about trouble in the +African churches, where they were accustomed to the ancient version of the +Septuagint. The mistranslations, pointed out by Jerome in the old version, +would upset the faithful and lead them to suspect that the entire Scripture +was false. In this double matter, Augustin defended at once orthodoxy and +tradition from very praiseworthy reasons of prudence. + +Jerome retorted in a most aggressive and offensive tone. He flatly accused +the Bishop of Hippo of being jealous of him and of wishing to cut out a +reputation for learning at his expense. In front of his younger and more +supple adversary, he took on the air of an old wrestler who was still +capable of knocking out any one who had the audacity to attack him. He +hurled at Augustin this phrase heavy with menaces: "The tired ox stands +firmer than ever on his four legs." + +For all that, Augustin stuck to his opinion, and he confined himself +to replying gently: "In anything I say, I am not only always ready to +receive your observations upon what you find wounding and contrary to your +feelings, but I even ask your advice as earnestly as I can."... + + + + +IV + +AGAINST "THE ROARING LIONS" + + +One day (this was soon after he became bishop) Augustin went to visit a +Catholic farmer in the suburbs of Hippo, whose daughter had been lessoned +by the Donatists, and had just enrolled herself among their consecrated +virgins. The father at first had shouted at the deserter, and flogged her +unmercifully by way of improving her state of mind. Augustin, when he heard +of the affair, condemned the farmer's brutality and declared that he would +never receive the girl back into the community unless she came of her own +free will. He then went out to the place to try and settle the matter. On +the way, as he was crossing an estate which belonged to a Catholic matron, +he fell in with a priest of the Donatist Church at Hippo. The priest at +once began to insult him and his companions, and yelled: + +"Down with the traitors! Down with the persecutors!" + +And he vomited out abominations against the matron herself who owned the +land. As much from prudence as from Christian charity, Augustin did not +answer. He even prevented those with him from falling upon the insulter. + +Incidents of this kind happened almost every day. About the same time, +the Donatists of Hippo made a great noise over the rebaptizing of another +apostate from the Catholic community. This was a good-for-nothing loafer +who beat his old mother, and the bishop severely rebuked his monstrous +conduct. + +"Well, as you talk in that tone of voice," said the loafer, "I'm going to +be a Donatist." + +Through bravado, he continued to ill-treat the poor old woman, and to make +the worst kind of threats. He roared in savage fury: + +"Yes, I'll become a Donatist, and I'll have your blood." + +And the young ruffian did really go over to the Donatist party. In +accordance with the custom among the heretics, he was solemnly rebaptized +in their basilica, and he exhibited himself on the platform clad in the +white robe of the purified. People in Hippo were much shocked. Augustin, +full of indignation, addressed his protests to Proculeianus, the Donatist +bishop. "What! is this man, all bloody with a murder in his conscience, +to walk about for eight days in white robes as a model of innocence and +purity?" But Proculeianus did not condescend to reply. + +These cynical proceedings were trifling compared to the vexations which the +Donatists daily inflicted on their opponents. Not only did they tamper with +Augustin's people, but the country dwellers of the Catholic Church were +continually interfered with on their lands, pillaged, ravaged, and burned +out by mobs of fanatical brigands who organized a rule of terror from one +end of Numidia to the other. Supported in secret by the Donatists, they +called themselves "the Athletes of Christ." The Catholics had given them +the contemptuous name of "Circoncelliones," or prowlers around cellars, +because they generally plundered cellars and grain-houses. Troops of +fanaticized and hysterical women rambled round with them, scouring the +country like your true bacchantes, clawing the unfortunate wretches who +fell into their hands, burning farms and harvests, broaching barrels of +wine and oil, and crowning these exploits by orgies with "the Athletes of +Christ." When they saw a haystack blazing in the fields, the country-folk +were panic-stricken--the "Circoncelliones" were not far off. Soon they +appeared, brandishing their clubs and bellowing their war cry: _Deo +laudes!_--"Praise be to God." "Your shout," said Augustin to them, "is more +dreaded by our people than the roaring of lions." + +Something had to be done to quell these furious monsters, and to resist +the encroachments and forcible acts of the heretics. These, by way of +frightening the Catholic bishops, told them roundly: + +"We don't want any of your disputes, and we are going to rebaptize just as +it suits us. We are going to lay snares for your sheep and to rend them +like wolves. As for you, if you are good shepherds, keep quiet!" + +Augustin was not a man to keep quiet, nor yet to spend his strength in +small local quarrels. He saw big; he did not imprison himself within the +limits of his diocese. He knew that Numidia and a good part of Africa +were in the hands of the Donatists; that they had a rival primate to the +Catholic primate at Carthage; that they had even sent a Pope of their +community to Rome. In a word, they were in the majority. Everywhere a +dissenting Church rose above the orthodox Church, when it did not succeed +in stifling it altogether. At all costs the progress of this sect must be +stopped. In Augustin's eyes there was no more urgent work. For him and his +flock it was a question of insuring their lives, since they were attacked +even in their fields and houses. From the moment he first came to Hippo, +as a simple priest, he had thrown himself intrepidly into this struggle. +He never ceased till Donatism was conquered and trampled underfoot. To +establish peace and Catholic unity everywhere was the great labour of his +episcopate. + +Who, then, were these terrible Donatists whom we have been continually +striking against since the beginning of this history? + +It would soon be a century since they had been disturbing and desolating +Africa. Just after the great persecution of Diocletian, the sect was born, +and it increased with amazing rapidity. During this persecution, evidence +had not been wanting of the moral slackness in the African Church. A large +number of lay people apostatized, and a good number of bishops and priests +handed over to the pagan authorities, besides the devotional objects, +the Scriptures and the muniments of their communities. In Numidia, and +especially at Constantine, scandalous scenes took place. The cowardice +of the clergy was lamentable. Public opinion branded with the names of +_traditors_, or traitors, those who had weakened and given over the sacred +books to the pagans. + +The danger once over, the Numidians, whose behaviour had been so little +brilliant, determined to redeem themselves by audacity, and to prove +with superb impudence that they had been braver than the others. So they +set themselves to shout _traditor_ against whoever displeased them, and +particularly against those of Carthage and the Proconsulate. At bottom it +was the old rivalry between the two Africas, East and West. + +Under the reign of Constantine a peace had been patched up, when it fell +out that a new Bishop of Carthage had to be elected, and the Archdeacon +Cæcilianus, whose name was put forward, was accused of preventing the +faithful from visiting the martyrs in their prisons. The zealots contended +that in collusion with his bishop, Mensurius, he had given up the Holy +Scriptures to the Roman authorities to be burned. The election promised to +be stormy. The supporters of the Archdeacon, who feared the hostility of +the Numidian bishops, did not wait for their arrival. They hurried things +over. Cæcilianus was elected and consecrated by three bishops of the +district, of whom one was a certain Felix of Abthugni. + +At once the opposite clan, backed up by the Numidians, objected. At their +head was a wealthy Spanish woman named Lucilla, an unbalanced devotee, +who, it seemed, always carried about her person a bone of a martyr, and +a doubtful one at that. She would ostentatiously kiss her relic before +receiving the Eucharist. The Archdeacon Cæcilianus forbade this devotion as +superstitious, and thus made a relentless enemy of the fanatical Spaniard. +All the former accusations were renewed against him, and it was added +that Felix of Abthugni, who had consecrated him, was a _traditor_. Hence +the election was void, by the single fact of the unworthiness of the +consecrating bishops. Lucilla, having bribed a section of the bishops +assembled in council, Cæcilianus was deposed, and the deacon Majorinus +elected in his room. He himself was soon after succeeded by Donatus, an +active, clever, and energetic man, who organized resistance so ably, and +who represented so well the spirit of the sect, that he left it his name. +Henceforth, Donatism enters into history. + +But Cæcilianus had on his side the bishops overseas and the Imperial +Government. The Pope of Rome and the Emperor recognized him as legitimately +elected. Besides that, he cleared himself of all the grievances urged +against him. Finally, an inquiry, conducted by laymen, proved that Felix of +Abthugni was not a _traditor_. The Donatists appealed to Constantine, then +to two Councils convoked successively at Rome and Arles. Everywhere they +were condemned. Moreover, the Council of Arles declared that the character +of him who confers the Sacraments has no influence whatever on their +validity. Thus, baptism and ordination, even conferred by a _traditor_, +were canonically sound. + +This decision was regarded as an abominable heresy by the Donatists. As a +matter of fact, there was an old African tradition, accepted by St. Cyprian +himself, that an unworthy priest could not administer the Sacraments. The +local prejudice would not yield: all were rebaptized who had been baptized +by the Catholics--that is to say, by the supporters of the _traditors_. + +The theological question was complicated with a question of property which +was all but insoluble. Since the Donatist bishops were resolved to separate +from the Catholic communion, did they mean to give up, with their title, +their basilicas and the property belonging to their churches? Supposing +that they themselves were disinterested, they had behind them the crowd of +clients and land-tillers who got their living out of the Church, and dwelt +on Church property. Never would these people allow a rival party to alter +the direction of the charities, to plant themselves in their fields and +their _gourbis_, to expel them from their cemeteries and basilicas. Other +reasons, still deeper perhaps, induced the Donatists to persevere in the +schism. These religious dissensions were agreeable to that old spirit +of division which at all times has been the evil genius of Africa. The +Africans have always felt the need of segregating themselves from one +another in hostile _cofs_. They hate each other from one village to +another--for nothing, just, for the pleasure of hating and felling each +other to the ground. + +At bottom, here is what Donatism really was: It was an extra sharp attack +of African individualism. These rebels brought in nothing new in dogma. +They would not even have been heretics without their claim to rebaptize. +They limited themselves to retain a position gained long ago; to keep +their churches and properties, or to seize those of the Catholics upon the +pretence that they were themselves the legitimate owners. With that, they +affected a respect for tradition, an austerity in morals and discipline, +which made them perfect puritans. Yes, they were the pure, the +irreconcilables, who alone had not bent before the Roman officials. All +this was very pleasing to the discontented and quarrelsome, and caressed +the popular instinct in its tendency to particularism. + +That is why the sect became, little by little, mistress of almost the +whole country. Then it subdivided, crumbled up into little churches which +excommunicated each other. In Southern Numidia, the citadels of orthodox +Donatism, so to speak, were Thimgad and Bagai. Carthage, with its primate, +was the official centre. But in the Byzacena and Tripolitana Regio, +there were the Maximianists, and the Rogatists in Mauretania, who had +cut themselves off from the Great Church. These divisions of the schism +corresponded closely enough to the natural compartments of North Africa. +There must be some incompatibility of temper between these various regions. +To this day, Algiers prides itself on not thinking like Constantine, which +does not think like Bona or like Tunis. + +Are we to see in Donatism a nationalist or separatist movement directed +against the Roman occupation? That would be to transport quite modern ideas +into antiquity. No more in Augustin's time than in our own was there such a +thing as African nationality. But if the sectaries had no least thought of +separating from Rome, it is none the less true that they were in rebellion +against her representatives, temporal as well as spiritual. Supposing that +Rome had yielded to them--an impossible event, of course--that would have +meant a surrender to the claims of Africans who wished to be masters of +their property as well as of their religious beliefs in their own country. +What more could they have wanted? It little mattered to them who was the +nominal master, provided that they had the realities of government in their +hands. Altogether, Donatism is a regionalist revindication, very strongly +characterized. It is a remarkable fact that it was among the indigenous +population, ignorant of Latin, that the most of its adherents were +recruited. + + * * * * * + +Such was the position of the Church in Africa when Augustin was named +Bishop of Hippo. He judged it at once, with his clear-sightedness, his +strong good sense, his broad outlook of a Roman citizen freed from the +smallnesses of a local spirit, his Christian idealism which took no heed +of the accidents or considerations of worldly prosperity. What! was +Catholicism to become an African religion, a restricted sect, wretchedly +tied to the letter of tradition, to the exterior practices of worship? To +reign in a little corner of the world--did Christ die for that? Never! +Christ died for the wide world. The only limits of His Church are the +limits of the universe. And besides, in this resolution to exclude, what +becomes of the great principle of Charity? It is by charity, above all, +that we are Christians. Faith without love is a faith stagnant and dead.... + +Augustin also foresaw the consequences of spiritual separation; he had them +already under his eyes. The Church is the great spring, not only of love, +but of intelligence. Once cut away from this reviving spring, Donatism +would become dry and stunted like a branch stripped from a tree. The +deep sense of its dogmas would become impoverished as its works emptied +themselves of the spirit of charity. Obstinacy, narrowness, lack of +understanding, fanaticism, and cruelty--there you had the inevitable fruits +of schism. Augustin knew the rudeness and ignorance of his opponents, even +of the most cultivated among them: he might well ask himself in anguish +what would become of the African Church deprived of the benefit of Roman +culture, isolated from the great intellectual current which united all the +churches beyond seas. Finally, he knew his fellow-countrymen; he knew that +the Donatists, even victorious, even sole masters of the land, would turn +against themselves the fury they now satisfied against the Catholics, and +never stop tearing each other in pieces. Here was now nearly a hundred +years that they had kept Africa in fire and blood. This meant before very +long a return to barbarism. Separated from Catholicism, they would really +separate from the Empire and even from civilization. And so it was that +in fighting for Catholic unity, Augustin fought for the Empire and for +civilization. + +Confronted with these barbarians and sectaries, his attitude could not be +doubtful for a single moment. He must do his best to bring them back to the +Church. It was only a matter of hitting upon the most effectual means. + +Preaching, for an orator such as he was, should be an excellent weapon. +His eloquence, his dialectic, his profane and sacred learning, gave him an +immense superiority over the defenders of the opposite side. He certainly +kept in the Church many Catholics who were ready to apostatize. But before +the crowd of schismatics, all these high gifts were as good as lost. +The people were in no wise anxious to know upon which side truth was to +be found. They were Donatists, as they were Numidians or Carthaginians, +without knowing why--because everybody about them was. Many might have +answered like that grammarian of Constantine, who told the Inquisitors with +astute simplicity: + +"I am a professor of Roman literature, a teacher of Latin grammar. My +father was a decurion at Constantine; my grandfather was a soldier and +had served in the guard. Our family is of Moorish blood.... As for me, I +am quite ignorant about the origin of the schism: I am just one of the +ordinary faithful of the people called Christians. When I was at Carthage, +Bishop Secundus came there one day. I heard tell that they found out that +Bishop Cæcilianus had been ordained irregularly by I don't know who, and +they elected another bishop against him. That's how the schism began at +Carthage. I have no means of knowing much about the origin of the schism, +because there has never been more than one church in our city. If there has +been a schism here, we know nothing about it." + +When a grammarian talked thus, what could have been the thoughts of +agricultural labourers, city workmen, and slaves? They belonged to an +estate, or a quarter of a town, where no other faith than theirs had ever +been professed. They were Donatists like their employers, like their +neighbours, like the other people of the _cof_ to which they had belonged +from father to son. The theological side of the question left them +absolutely indifferent. If Augustin tried to debate with them, they refused +to listen and referred him to their bishops. That was the word of command. + +The bishops, on their side, avoided all discussion. Augustin tried in vain +to arrange an argument with Proculeianus, his Donatist colleague at Hippo. +And if some of them shewed themselves more obliging, the evasions and +reticences of the antagonist, and sometimes outside circumstances, made the +debate utterly futile. At Thubursicum the audience raised such a noise in +the place where Augustin was debating with the bishop Fortunius, that they +were no longer able to hear each other. At other times, the meeting sank to +an oratorical joust, wherein they tired themselves out passading against +words, instead of attacking the matters at issue. Augustin felt that he was +losing his time. Besides, the Donatist bishops presented an obstinate front +against which everything smashed. + +"Leave us in our errors," they said ironically. "If we are lost in your +eyes, why follow us about? We don't want to be saved." + +And they prohibited their flocks from saluting Catholics, from speaking to +them, from going into their churches or into their houses, from sitting +down in the midst of them. They laid an interdict on their adversaries. +Primanius, the Donatist Primate of Carthage, upon being invited to a +conference, answered proudly: + +"The sons of the martyrs can have nothing to do with the race of traitors." + +This being the state of the case, no method of pacification was left but +written controversy. Augustin shewed himself tireless at it. It was chiefly +in these letters and treatises against the Donatists that he was not afraid +to repeat himself. He knew that he was dealing with the deaf, and with +the deaf who did not want to hear: he was obliged to raise his voice. +With admirable self-denial he reiterated the same arguments a hundred +times over, a hundred times took up the history of the quarrel from the +beginning, spreading such a light over the quibbles and refinings of his +contradictors, that it should have brought conviction to the bluntest +minds. "No," he repeated, "Cæcilianus was not a _traditor_, nor Felix of +Abthugni either who consecrated him bishop. The documents are there to +prove this. And even supposing they were, can the fault of a single man +be charged to the whole Church?... Then why do you baptize the Catholics +under the pretence that their priests are _traditors_ and as such unworthy +to administer the Sacraments? It is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and not +the virtue of the priest which renders baptism efficacious. If it were +otherwise, what was the good of the Redemption? It is the fact that by the +voluntary death of Christ, all men have been called to salvation. Salvation +is not the privilege of Africans only. Being Catholic, the Church should +take in the whole world...." + +In the long run, these continual repetitions end by seeming wearisome to +modern readers: for us there arises out of all these discussions a dense +and intolerable boredom. But let us remember that all this was singularly +living for Augustin's cotemporaries, that these thankless developments were +read with passion. And then, too, it was a question of the unity of the +Church which involved, as we cannot too often repeat, the interest of the +Empire and civilization. + +Against so persuasive a power the Donatists opposed a conspiracy of +silence. Their bishops forbade the people to read what Augustin wrote. They +did more--they concealed their own libels so that it was impossible to +reply to them. But Augustin used all his skill to unearth them. He refuted +them, and had his refutations recopied and posted on the walls of the +basilicas. The copies circulated through the province and the whole Roman +world. + +This would have had an excellent result if the quarrel had been entirely +over questions of theory. But immense property interests came into it, +and rancours and terrible hates. Augustin was forced to pass from verbal +polemics to direct action--defensive action, at first, and then attack. + +While he and his fellow-bishops did their utmost to preach peace, the +Donatist bishops urged their followers to the holy war. Augustin even +received threats on his life. During one of his visitations, he was nearly +assassinated. Men in ambush lay in wait for him. By a providential chance, +he took the wrong road, and owed his life to this mistake. His pupil +Possidius, who was then Bishop of Guelma, was not so lucky. Brought to +bay in a house by the Donatist bishop Crispinus, he defended himself +desperately. They set fire to the house to turn him out. When there was +nothing else left but to be burned alive, he did come out. The band of +Donatists seized him, and would have beaten his brains out, if Crispinus +himself, fearing a prosecution for murder, had not interfered. But the +assailants sacked the property and slaughtered all the horses and mules +in the stables. At Bagai, Bishop Maximianus was stabbed in his basilica. +A furious mob smashed the altar and began to strike the victim with the +fragments, and left him for dead on the flags. The Catholics lifted up his +body, but the Donatists plucked him out of their hands and flung him from +the top of a tower, and he fell on a dunghill which broke the fall. The +unhappy man still breathed, and by a miracle he recovered. + +Meanwhile, the Circoncelliones, armed with their bludgeons, continued to +pillage and burn the farms. They tortured the owners to extract their money +from them. They made them toil round the mill-path like beasts of burthen, +while they lashed at them with whips. At their back, the Donatist priests +invaded the Catholic churches and lands. There and then they rebaptized +the labourers. These doings were, indeed, very like the practices of the +African Mussulmans to-day, who, in like circumstances, always begin by +converting the Christian farm-hands by main force. Then they purified +the basilicas by scraping down the walls and washing the floors with big +douches of water; and after demolishing the altar, they scattered salt +where it had stood. It was a perfect disinfection. The Donatists treated +the Catholics like the plague-stricken. + +Such acts cried out for vengeance. Augustin, who up till this time had +recoiled from asking the public authorities to prosecute, who, as an +observer of the apostolic tradition, did not recognize the interference +of the civil power in Church matters--well, Augustin had to give way to +circumstances, and also to the pressure brought to bear on him by his +colleagues. Councils assembled at Carthage petitioned the Emperor to take +exceptional measures against the Donatists, who laughed at all the laws +directed against heretics. When they were summoned before the courts they +demonstrated to the judges, who were often pagans incompetent to decide in +these questions, that it was they who really belonged to the only orthodox +Church. Something must be done to end this equivocal position, and to bring +about once for all a categorical condemnation of the schism. Augustin, +acting in concert with the primate Aurelius, was the ruling spirit of these +meetings. + +Let us not judge his conduct by modern ideas, or be in a hurry to exclaim +against his intolerance. He and the Catholic bishops, in acting thus, +were complying with the old tradition which had influenced all the pagan +governments. Rome, particularly, though it recognized all the local sects, +all the foreign religions, never allowed any of its subjects to refuse to +fall in with the official religion. The persecutions of the Christians and +the Jews had no other motive. Now that it was become the State religion, +Christianity, willingly or unwillingly, had to summon people to the same +obedience. The Emperors made a special point of this from political reasons +easy to understand--to prevent riots and maintain public order. Even if the +bishops had refrained from all complaint, the Imperial Government would +have acted without them and suppressed the disturbances caused by the +heretics. + +Just look at the situation and the men as they were at that moment in +Africa. It was the Catholics who were persecuted, and that with revolting +fury and cruelty. They were obliged to defend themselves. In the next +place, the distribution of property in those countries made conversions +in batches singularly easy. Multitudes of farm tenants, workmen, and +agricultural slaves, lived upon the immense estates of one owner. Without +any interest in dogmatic questions, they were Donatists simply because +their master was. To change these devouring wolves into tranquil sheep, it +was often quite enough if the master got converted. The great blessing of +peace depended upon pressure being brought to bear on certain persons. When +all day and every day there was a risk of being murdered or burned out by +irresponsible ruffians, the temptation was very strong to fall back on such +a prompt and simple remedy. Augustin and his colleagues ended by making up +their minds to do so. For that matter, they had no choice. They were bound +to strike, or be themselves suppressed by their enemies. + +However, before resorting to rigorous measures, they resolved to send forth +a supreme appeal for reconciliation. The Catholics proposed a meeting to +the Donatists in which they would loyally examine one another's grievances. +As personal or material questions made the great bar to an understanding, +they promised that every Donatist bishop who turned convert should keep +his see. In places where a schismatic and an orthodox bishop were found +together, they would come to a friendly agreement to govern the diocese by +turns. Where it was impossible for this to be done, it was proposed that +the Catholic should resign in favour of the other. Augustin lent all his +eloquence to carry this motion, which was sufficiently heroic for a good +number of bishops who were not so detached as he from the goods of this +world. And one must allow that it was difficult to go much further in the +way of self-denial. + +After a good deal of skirmishing and hesitation on the side of the +schismatics, the Conference met at Carthage in June of the year 411, under +the presidency of an Imperial commissioner, the tribune Marcellinus. Once +again, the Donatists saw themselves condemned. Upon the report of the +commissioner, a decree of Honorius classed them definitely among heretics. +They were forbidden to rebaptize or to assemble together, under penalties +of fine and confiscation. Refractory countrymen and slaves would be liable +to corporal punishment, and as for the clerics, they would be banished. + +The effect of these new laws was not long in appearing, and it fully +answered the wishes of the orthodox bishops. Many populations returned, or +pretended to return, to the Catholic communion. This result was largely +the work of Augustin, who for twenty years had worked to bring it about by +preaching and controversy. But, as might be expected, he did not overdo +his triumph. Without delay, he set himself to preach moderation to the +conquerors. Nor had he waited till the enemy was defeated to do that. Ten +years before, while the Donatists were besetting the Catholics everywhere, +he said to the priests of his communion: + +"Remember this, my brothers, so as to practise and preach it with +never-varying gentleness. Love the men; kill the lie! Lean on truth without +pride; fight for it without cruelty. Pray for those whom you chide, and for +those to whom you shew their error." + +However, the victory of the party of peace was not so thorough as it had +seemed at first. A good many fanatics here and there grew obstinate in +their resistance. The Circoncelliones, maddened, distinguished themselves +by a new outbreak of ravages and cruelties. They tortured and mutilated all +the Catholics who fell into their hands. They had invented an unheard-of +refinement of torture, which was to cover with lime diluted with vinegar +the eyes of their victims. The priest Restitutus was assassinated in the +suburbs of Hippo. A bishop had his tongue and his hand cut off. If the +towns were pretty quiet, terror began to reign once more in the country +places. + +The Roman authorities exerted themselves to put an end to these bloody +scenes. They heavily chastised the offenders whenever they could catch +them. In his charity, Augustin interceded for them with the judges. He +wrote to the tribune Marcellinus: + +"We would not that the servants of God should be revenged by hurts like to +those they suffered. Surely, we are not against depriving the guilty of the +means to do harm, but we consider it will be enough, without taking their +lives or wrenching any limb from them, to turn them from their senseless +tumult by the restraining power of the laws, in bringing them back to calm +and reason; or, in a last resort, to take away the opportunity for criminal +actions by employing them in some useful work.... Christian judge, in this +matter fulfil the duty of a father, and while repressing injustice, do not +forget humanity." + +This compassion of Augustin was shewn particularly in his meeting with +Emeritus, the Donatist Bishop of Cherchell (or as it was then called, +Mauretanian Cæsarea), one of the most stubborn among the irreconcilables. +His attitude in dealing with this uncompromising enemy was not only humane, +but courteous, full of graciousness, and of the most sensitive charity. + +This fell out in the autumn of the year 418, seven years after the great +Conference at Carthage. Augustin was sixty-four years old. How was it +that he who had always had such feeble health undertook at this age the +long journey from Hippo to Cæsarea? We know that the Pope, Zozimus, had +entrusted him with a mission to the Church of that town. With his tireless +zeal, always ready to march for the glory of Christ, the old bishop +doubtless saw in this journey a fresh opportunity for an apostle. So +he started off, in spite of the roads, which were very unsafe in those +troublous times, in spite of the crushing heat of the season--the end of +September. He travelled six hundred miles across the endless Numidian +plain and the mountainous regions of the Atlas, preaching in the churches, +halting in the towns and the hamlets to decide questions of private +interest, ever pursued by a thousand business worries and by the squabbles +of litigants and the discontented. At last, after many weeks of fatigue and +tribulation, he reached Cherchell, where he was the guest of Deuterius, the +metropolitan Bishop of Mauretania. + +Now Emeritus, the deposed bishop, lived mysteriously in the suburbs, in +constant fear of some forcible action on the part of the authorities. +When he learned the friendly intentions of Augustin, he came out of his +hiding-place and shewed himself in the town. In one of the squares of +Cæsarea the two prelates met. Augustin, who had formerly seen Emeritus at +Carthage, recognized him, hurried over to him, saluted him, and at once +suggested a friendly talk. + +"Let us go into the church," he said. "This square is hardly suitable for a +talk between two bishops." + +Emeritus, flattered, agreed. The conversation continued in such a cordial +tone that Augustin was already rejoicing upon having won back the +schismatic. Deuterius, following the line of conduct which the Catholic +bishops had adopted, spoke of resigning and handing over the see to the +other. It was agreed that within two days Emeritus should come to the +cathedral for a public discussion with his colleague of Hippo. At the +appointed hour he appeared. A great crowd of people gathered to hear +the two orators. The basilica was full. Then Augustin, turning to the +impenitent Donatist, said to him mildly: + +"Emeritus, my brother, you are here. You were also at our Conference at +Carthage. If you were beaten there, why do you come here now? If, on the +other hand, you think that you were not beaten, tell us what leads you to +believe that you had the advantage...." + +What change had Emeritus undergone in two days? Whatever it was, he +disappointed the hopes of Augustin and the people of Cæsarea. He returned +only ambiguous phrases to the most pressing and brotherly urging. Finally, +he took refuge in an angry silence from which it was found impossible to +draw him. + +Augustin went home without having converted the heretic. No doubt he was +sorely disappointed. Nevertheless, he shewed no resentment; he even took +measures to ensure the safety of the recalcitrant, in a charitable fear +less the roused people might do him a bad turn. With all that, when he +looked back at the results of nearly thirty years of struggle against +schism, he might well say to himself that he had done good work for the +Church. Donatism, in fact, was conquered, and conquered by him. Was he +at last to have a chance to rest himself, with the only rest suitable +to a soul like his, in a steady meditation and study of the Scriptures? +Henceforth, would he be allowed to live a little less as a bishop and a +little more as a monk? This was always the strong desire of his heart.... + +But new and worse trials awaited him at Hippo. + + + + +THE SIXTH PART + +FACE TO FACE WITH THE BARBARIANS + + + Et nunc veniant omnes quicumque amant Paradisum, locum quietis, locum + securitatis, locum perpetuae felicitatis, locum in quo non pertimescas + Barbarum. + + "And now let all those come who love Paradise, the place of quiet, the + place of safety, the place of eternal happiness, the place where the + Barbarian need be feared no more." + + _Sermon upon the Barbarian Persecution_, vii, 9. + + + + +I + +THE SACK OF ROME + + +During June of the year 403, an astonishing event convulsed the former +capital of the Empire. The youthful Honorius, attended by the regent +Stilicho, came there to celebrate his triumph over Alaric and the Gothic +army, defeated at Pollentia. + +The pageantry of a triumph was indeed a very astonishing sight for +the Romans of that period. They had got so unused to them! And no +less wonderful was the presence of the Emperor at the Palatine. Since +Constantine's reign, the Imperial palaces had been deserted. They had +hardly been visited four times in a century by their master. + +Rome had never got reconciled to the desertion of her princes. When the +Court was moved to Milan, and then to Ravenna, she felt she had been +uncrowned. Time after time the Senate appealed to Honorius to shew himself, +at least, to his Roman subjects, since political reasons were against his +dwelling among them. This journey was always put off. The truth is, the +Christian Cæsars did not like Rome, and mistrusted her still half-pagan +Senate and people. It needed this unhoped-for victory to bring Honorius +and his councillors to make up their minds. The feeling of a common danger +had for the moment drawn the two opposing religions together, and here +they were apparently making friends in the same patriotic delight. Old +hates were forgotten. In fact, the pagan aristocracy had hopes of better +treatment from Stilicho. On account of all these reasons, the triumphant +Cæsar was received at Rome with delirious joy. + +The Court, upon leaving Ravenna, had crossed the Apennines. A halt was +called on the banks of the Clitumnus, where in ancient times the great +white herds were found which were sacrificed at the Capitol during a +triumph. But the gods of the land had fallen; there would be no opiman bull +this time on their altars. The pagans felt bitter about it. + +Thence, by Narnia and the Tiber valley, they made their way down into the +plain. The measured step of the legions rang upon the large flags of the +Flaminian way. They crossed the Mulvius bridge--and old Rome rose like a +new city. In anticipation of a siege, the regent had repaired the Aurelian +wall. The red bricks of the enclosure and the fresh mason-work of the +towers gleamed in the sun. Finally, striking into the _Via lata_, the +procession marched to the Palatine. + +The crowd was packed in this long, narrow street, and overflowed into the +nearest alleys. Women, elaborately dressed, thronged the balconies, and +even the terraces of the palace. All at once the people remarked that the +Senate was not walking before the Imperial chariot. Stilicho, who wished to +conciliate their good graces, had, contrary to custom, dispensed them from +marching on foot before the conqueror. People talked with approval of this +wily measure in which they saw a promise of new liberties. But applause and +enthusiastic cheers greeted the young Honorius as he passed by, sharing +with Stilicho the honour of the triumphal car. + +The unequalled splendour of his _trabea_, of which the embroideries +disappeared under the number and flash of colour of the jewels, left the +populace gaping. The diadem, a masterpiece of goldsmith's work, pressed +heavily on his temples. Emerald pendants twinkled on each side of his neck, +which, as it was rather fat, with almost feminine curves, suggested at once +to the onlookers a comparison with Bacchus. They found he had an agreeable +face, and even a soldierly air with his square shoulders and stocky neck. +Matrons gazed with tender eyes on this Cæsar of nineteen, who had, at that +time, a certain beauty, and the brilliance, so to speak, of youth. This +degenerate Spaniard, who was really a crowned eunuch, and was to spend his +life in the society of the palace eunuchs and die of dropsy--this son of +Theodosius was just then fond of violent exercise, of hunting and horses. +But he was even now becoming ponderous with unhealthy fat. His build and +bloated flesh gave those who saw him at a distance a false notion of his +strength. The Romans were most favourably impressed by him, especially the +young men. + +But the army, the safeguard of the country, was perhaps even more admired +than the Emperor. The legions, following the ruler, had almost deserted +the capital. The flower of the troops were almost unknown there. In +consequence, the march past of the cavalry was quite a new sight for the +people. A great murmur of admiration sounded as the _cataphracti_ appeared, +gleaming in the coats of mail which covered them from head to foot. Upon +their horses, caparisoned in defensive armour, they looked like equestrian, +statues--like silver horsemen on bronze horses. Childish cries greeted each +_draconarius_ as he marched by carrying his ensign--a dragon embroidered on +a long piece of cloth which flapped in the wind. And the crowd pointed at +the crests of the helmets plumed with peacock feathers, and the scarfs of +scarlet silk flowing over the camber of the gilded cuirasses.... + +The military show poured into the Forum, swept up the _Via Sacra_, and when +it had passed under the triumphal arches of the old emperors, halted at the +Palace of Septimus Severus. In the Stadium, the crowd awaited Honorius. +When he appeared on the balcony of the Imperial box, wild cheering burst +out on all the rows of seats. The Emperor, diadem on head, bowed to the +people. Upon that the cheers became a tempest. Rome did not know how to +express her happiness at having at last got her master back. + +On the eve of the worst catastrophes she had this supreme day of glory, of +desperate pride, of unconquerable faith in her destiny. The public frenzy +encouraged them in the maddest hopes. The poet Claudian, who had followed +the Court, became the mouthpiece of these perilous illusions. "Arise!" he +cried to Rome, "I prithee arise, O venerable queen! Trust in the goodwill +of the gods. O city, fling away the mean fears of age, _thou who art +immortal as the heavens_!..." + +For all that, the Barbarian danger continued to threaten. The victory +of Pollentia, which, moreover, was not a complete victory, had settled +nothing. Alaric was in flight in the Alps, but he kept his eye open for a +favourable chance to fall back upon Italy and wrench concessions of money +and honours from the Court of Ravenna. Supported by his army of mercenaries +and adventurers in the pay of the Empire like himself, his dealings with +Honorius were a kind of continual blackmail. If the Imperial Government +refused to pay the sums which he protested it owed him for the maintenance +of his troops, he would pay himself by force. Rome, where fabulous riches +had accumulated for so many centuries, was an obvious prey for him and his +men. He had coveted it for a long time; and to get up his courage for this +daring exploit, as well as to work upon his soldiers, he pretended that he +had a mission from Heaven to chastise and destroy the new Babylon. In his +Pannonian forests it would seem he had heard mysterious voices which said +to him: "Advance, and thou shalt destroy the city!" + +This leader of clans had nothing of the conqueror about him. He understood +that he was in no wise cut out to wear the purple; he himself felt the +Barbarian's cureless inferiority. But he also felt that neither was he +born to obey. If he asked for the title of Prefect of the City, and if he +persisted in offering his services to the Empire, it was as a means to get +the upper hand of it more surely. Repulsed, disdained by the Court, he +tried to raise himself in his own eyes and in the eyes of the common people +by giving himself the airs of an instrument of justice, a man designed by +fate, who marches blindly to a terrible purpose indicated by the divine +wrath. It often happened that he was duped by his own mummery. This turbid +Barbarian soul was prone to the most superstitious terrors. + +Notwithstanding his rodomontades, it is certain that in his heart he was +scared by Rome. He hardly dared to attack it. In the first place, it was +not at all a convenient operation for him. His army of mercenaries had no +proper implements to undertake the siege of this huge city, of which the +defence lines were thrown out in so wide a perimeter. He had to come back +to it twice, before he could make up his mind to invest it seriously. The +first time, in 408, he was satisfied with starving the Romans by cutting +off the food supply. He had pitched his camp on the banks of the Tiber in +such a way as to capture the shipping between the capital and the great +store-houses built near the mouth of the river. From the ramparts, the +Romans could see the Barbarian soldiers moving about, with their sheepskin +coats dyed to a crude red. Panic-stricken, the aristocracy fled to its +villas in Campania, or Sicily, or Africa. They took with them whatever +they were able to carry. They sought refuge in the nearest islands, even +in Sardinia and Corsica, despite their reputation for unhealthiness. They +even hid among the rocks of the seashore. The terror was so great that the +Senate agreed to everything demanded by Alaric. He was paid an enormous +indemnity which he claimed as a condition of his withdrawal. + +The following year he used the same method of intimidation to force on the +people an emperor he had chosen, and to get conferred on him the title of +Prefect of the City which he had desired so long. Finally, in the year 410, +he struck the supreme blow. + +The Barbarian knew what he was about, and that he did not risk much in +blockading Rome. Famine would open the gates to him sooner or later. All +who were able had left the city, especially the rich. There was no garrison +to defend it. Only a lazy populace remained behind the walls, unused to +arms, and still more enfeebled by long starvation. And yet this wretched +and decimated population, in an outburst of patriotism, resisted with +desperate energy. The siege was long. Doubtless it began before the spring; +it ended only at the end of the summer. In the night of the twenty-fourth +of August, 410, amid the glare of lightning and crashes of thunder, Alaric +entered Rome by the Salarian gate. It is certain that he only managed it +even then by treachery. The prey was handed to him. + +The sack of Rome seems to have lasted for three days and three nights. Part +of the town was burned. The conquered people underwent all the horrors +which accompany such events--violent and stupid destruction, rapes, murders +of individuals, wholesale slaughter, torture, and mutilation. But in +reality the Barbarians only wanted the Roman gold. They acted like perfect +highway robbers. If they tortured their victims without distinction of age +or sex, it was to pluck the secret of their treasure-houses out of them. +It is even said that in these conditions the Roman avarice produced some +admirable examples of firmness. Some let themselves be tortured to their +last gasp rather than reveal where their treasures were hid. At last, when +Alaric decided that his army was gorged enough with spoil, he gave the +order to evacuate the city, and took to the roads with his baggage-waggons +full. + +Let us be careful not to judge these doings after our modern notions. The +capture of Rome by Alaric was not a national disaster. It was plundering on +a huge scale. The Goth had no thought at all of destroying the Empire. He +was only a mercenary in rebellion--an ambitious mercenary, no doubt--but, +above all, a looter. + +As a consequence of this attack on the Eternal City, one after another +caught the disease of plunder, which contaminated even the functionaries +and the subjects of Rome. Amid the general anarchy, where impunity seemed +certain, nobody restrained himself any longer. In Africa especially, where +the old instinct of piracy is always half-awake, they applied themselves to +ransack the fugitive Romans and Italians. Many rich people were come there, +seeking a place of safety in the belief that they would be more secure when +they had put the sea between themselves and the Barbarians. The report of +their riches had preceded them, exaggerated out of all measure by popular +rumour. Among them were mentioned patricians such as the Anicii, whose +property was so immense and their palaces so splendid that they could not +find purchasers. These multi-millionaires in flight were a miraculous +windfall for the country. They were bled without mercy. + +Quicker than any one else, the military governor of Africa, Count +Heraclianus, was on the spot to pick the pockets of the Italian immigrants. +No sooner were they off the boat than he had very distinguished ladies +seized, and only released them when he had extorted a large ransom. He sold +those unable to pay to the Greek and Syrian slave-merchants who provided +human flesh for the Oriental harems. When the example came from such a +height, the subordinates doubtless said to themselves that they would +be very wrong to have the least shame. From one end of the province to +the other, everybody struggled to extract as much as possible from the +unfortunate fugitives. Augustin's own parishioners at Hippo undertook to +tear a donation from one of those gorgeous Anicii, whose lands stretched +further than a kite could fly--from Pinian, the husband of St. Melania +the younger. They wanted to force him to be ordained priest in spite of +himself, which, as has been explained, involved the handing over of his +goods to the Catholic community. Augustin, who opposed this, had to give in +to the crowd. There was almost a riot in the basilica. + +Such were the far-off reverberations of the capture of Rome by Alaric. +Carthaginians and Numidians pillaged the Romans just like the Barbarians. + +Now, how did it come about that this monstrous loot took on before the eyes +of contemporaries the magnitude of a world-catastrophe? For really nothing +was utterly lost. The Empire remained standing. After Alaric's retreat, +the Romans had come back to their city and they worked to build up the +ruins. Ere long, the populace were crying out loud that if the circus +and amphitheatre games were given back to them, they would look upon the +descent of the Goths as a bad dream. + +It is no less certain that this sensational occurrence had struck the whole +Mediterranean world into a perfect stupor. It seized upon the imaginations +of all. The idea that Rome could not be taken, that it was integral and +almost sacred, had such a hold on people's minds, that they refused to +credit the sinister news. Nobody reflected that the sack of Rome by the +Barbarians should have been long ago foreseen--that Rome, deprived of +a garrison, abandoned by the Imperial army, was bound to attract the +covetousness of the Goths, and that the pillage of a place without defence, +already enfeebled by famine, was not a very glorious feat, very difficult, +or very extraordinary. People only saw the brutal fact: the Eternal City +had been captured and burned by the mercenaries. All were under the +influence of the shock caused by the narratives of the refugees. In one of +his sermons, Augustin has transmitted to us an echo of the general panic: + +"Horrible things," said he, "have been told us. There have been ruins, and +fires, and rapine, and murder, and torture. That is true; we have heard it +many times; we have shuddered at all this disaster; we have often wept, and +we have hardly been able to console ourselves." + +This capture of Rome was plainly a terrible warning for the future. But +party spirit strangely exaggerated the importance and meaning of the +calamity. For pagans and Christians alike it became a subject for speeches, +a commonplace of religious polemic. Both saw the event as a manifestation +of the wrath of Heaven. + +"While we sacrificed to our gods," the pagan said, "Rome was standing, Rome +was happy. Now that our sacrifices are forbidden, you see what has become +of Rome...." + +And they went about repeating that Christianism was responsible for the +ruin of the Empire. On their side, the Christians answered: In the first +place, Rome has not fallen: it is always standing. It has been only +chastised, and this happened because it is still half pagan. By this +frightful punishment (and they heightened the description of the horrors +committed), God has given it a warning. Let it be converted, let it return +to the virtues of its ancestors, and it will become again the mistress of +nations. + +There is what Augustin and the bishops said. Still, the flock of the +faithful were only half convinced. It was all well enough to remonstrate +to them that the Christians of Rome, and even a good number of pagans, +had been spared at the name of Christ, and that the Barbarian leader had +bestowed a quite special protection and respect upon the basilicas of +the holy apostles; it was impossible to prevent their thinking that many +Christians had perished in the sack of the city, that consecrated virgins +had experienced the last outrages, and that, as a matter of fact, all the +inhabitants had been robbed of their property.... Was it thus that God +protected His chosen? What advantage was there in being Christian if they +had the same treatment as the idolaters? + +This state of mind became extremely favourable for paganism to come back +again on the offensive. Since the very hard laws of Theodosius, which +forbade the worship of the ancient gods, even within the house, the pagans +had not overlooked any chance to protest against the Imperial severity. +At Carthage there were always fights in the streets between pagans and +Christians, not to say riots. In the colony of Suffetula, sixty Christians +had been massacred. The year before the capture of Rome, there had been +trouble with the pagans at Guelma. Houses belonging to the Church were +burned, a monk killed in a brawl. Whenever the Government inspection +relaxed, or the political situation appeared favourable, the pagans hurried +to proclaim their belief. Only just lately, in Rome beleaguered by Alaric, +the new consul, Tertullus, had thought fit to revive the old customs. +Before assuming office, he studied gravely the sacred fowls in their cages, +traced circles in the sky with the augur's wand, and marked the flight of +birds. Besides, a pagan oracle circulated persistently among the people, +promising that after a reign of three hundred and sixty-five years +Christianity would be conquered. The centuries of the great desolation were +fulfilled; the era of revenge was about to begin for the outcast gods. + +These warlike symptoms did not escape Augustin's vigilance. His indignation +no longer arose only from the fact that paganism was so slow in dying; he +was now afraid that the feebleness of the Empire might allow it to take on +an appearance of life. It must be ended, as Donatism had been ended. The +old apostle was summoned to a new campaign, and in it he would spend the +best of his strength to the eve of his death. + + + + +II + +THE CITY OF GOD + + +For thirteen or fourteen years, through a thousand employments and a +thousand cares, amid the panics and continual alarums which kept the +Africans on the alert in those times, Augustin worked at his _City of God_, +the most formidable machine of war ever directed against paganism, and also +the arsenal fullest of proofs and refutations which the disputants and +defenders of Catholicism have ever had at their disposal. + +It is not for us to examine the details of this immense work, for our sole +aim is to study Augustin's soul, and we quote scarcely anything from his +books save those parts wherein a little of this ardent soul pulsates--those +which are still living for us of the twentieth century, which contain +teachings and ways of feeling still likely to move us. Now, Augustin's +attitude towards paganism is one of those which throw the greatest light on +his nature and character. And it may even yet come to be our own attitude +when we find opposed to us a conception of life and the world which +may indeed be ruined for a time, but is reborn as soon as the sense of +spirituality disappears or grows feeble. + + "Immortal Paganism, art thou dead? So they say. + But Pan scoffs under his breath, and the Chimæra laughs." [1] + +[Footnote 1: Sainte-Beuve.] + +Like ourselves, Augustin, brought up by a Christian mother, knew it only +through literature, and, so to speak, æsthetically. Recollections of +school, the emotions and admirations of a cultivated man--there is what the +old religion meant for him. Nevertheless, he had one great advantage over +us for knowing it well: the sight of the pagan customs and superstitions +was still under his eyes. + +That the lascivious, romantic, and poetic adventures of the ancient gods, +their statues, their temples, and all the arts arising from their religion, +had beguiled him and filled him with enthusiasm before his conversion, is +only too certain. But all this mythology and plastic art were looked upon +as secondary things then, even by pagans. The serious, the essential part +of the religion was not in that. Paganism, a religion of Beauty, is an +invention of our modern æsthetes; it was hardly thought of in that way in +Augustin's time. + +Long before this, the Roman Varro, the great compiler of the religious +antiquities of paganism, made a threefold distinction of the doctrine +concerning the gods. The first--that of the theatre, as he calls it, or +fabulous mythology, adapted to poets, dramatists, sculptors, and jesters. +Invented by these, it is only a fantasy, a play of imagination, an ornament +of life. The third is civil theology, serious and solid, which claims the +respect and piety of all. "It is that which men in cities, and chiefly the +priests, _ought to be_ cunning in. It teaches which gods to worship in +public, and with what ceremonies and sacrifices each one must be served." +Finally, the second, physical or metaphysical theology, is reserved for +philosophers and exceptional minds; it is altogether theoretical. The +only important and truly religious one, which puts an obligation on the +believer, is the third--the civil theology. + +Now, we never take account of this. What we persist in regarding as +paganism is what Varro himself called "a religion for the theatre"--matter +of opera, pretext for ballets, for scenery, and for dance postures. +Transposed into another key by our poets, this mythology is inflated now +and then by mysticism, or by a vague symbolism. Playthings of our pretty +wits! The living paganism, which Augustin struggled against, which crowds +defended at the price of their blood, in which the poor believed and the +wisest statesmen deemed indispensable as a safeguard of cities--that +paganism is quite another matter. Like all religions which are possible, +it implied and it _enforced_ not only beliefs, but ritual, sacrifices, +festivals. And this is what Augustin, with the other Christians of that +time, spurned with disgust and declared to be unbearable. + +He saw, or he had seen with his own eyes, the reality of the pagan worship, +and the most repellent of all to our modern delicacy--the sacrifices. At +the period when he wrote _The City of God_, private sacrifices, as well as +public, were forbidden. This did not prevent the devout from breaking the +law whenever a chance offered. They hid themselves more or less when they +sacrificed before a temple, a chapel, or on some private estate. The rites +could not be carried out according to all the minute instructions of the +pontifical books. It was no more than a shadow of the ceremonies of former +times. But in his childhood, in the reign of Julian, for instance, Augustin +could have attended sacrifices which were celebrated with full pomp and +according to all the ritual forms. They were veritable scenes of butchery. +For Heaven's sake let us forget the frieze of the Parthenon, and its +sacrificers with their graceful lines! If we want to have a literal +translation of this sculpture, and find the modern representation of a +hecatomb, we must go to the slaughter-houses at La Villette. + +Among the heaps of broken flesh, the puddles of blood, the mystic Julian +was attacked by a kind of drunkenness. There were never enough beasts +strangled or slaughtered to suit him. Nothing satisfied his fury for sacred +carnage. The pagans themselves made fun of this craze for sacrificing. +During the three years his reign lasted the altars streamed with blood. +Oxen by hundreds were slain upon the floors of the temples, and the +butchers throttled so many sheep and other domestic animals that they gave +up keeping count of them. Thousands of white birds, pigeons or sea-gulls, +were destroyed day by day by the piety of the prince. He was called the +_Victimarius_, and when he started upon his campaign against the Persians, +an epigram was circulated once more which had been formerly composed +against Marcus Aurelius (the philosophic emperor!) who was equally generous +of hecatombs: "To Marcus Cæsar from the white oxen. It will be all over +with us if you come back a conqueror." People said that Julian, on his +return, would depopulate stables and pasture-lands. + +The populace, who gathered their very considerable profit from these +butcheries, naturally encouraged such an excess of devotion. At Rome, under +Caligula, more than a hundred and sixty thousand victims were immolated in +three months--nearly two thousand a day. And these massacres took place +upon the approaches of the temples; in the middle of the city; on the +forums; in narrow squares crowded with public buildings and statues. Just +try to call up the scene in summer, between walls at a white heat, with the +smells and the flies. Spectators and victims rubbed against one another, +pressed close in the restricted space. One day, Caligula, while he was +attending a sacrifice, was splashed all over by the blood of a flamingo as +they cut its neck. But the august Cæsar was not so fastidious; he himself +operated in these ceremonies armed with a mallet and clad in the short +shirt of the killers. The ignominy of all this revolted the Christians, +and whoever had nerves at all sensitive. The bloody mud in which passers +slipped, the hissing of the fat, the heavy odour of flesh, were sickening. +Tertullian held his nose before the "stinking fires" on which the victims +were roasting. And St. Ambrose complained that in the Roman Curia the +senators who were Christians were obliged to breathe in the smoke and +receive full in the face the ashes of the altar raised before the statue of +Victory. + +The manipulations of the _haruspicina_ seemed an even worse abomination in +the eyes of the Christians. Dissection of bowels, examination of entrails, +were practices very much in fashion in all classes of society. The +pagans generally took more or less interest in magic. One was scarcely +a philosopher without being a miracle-worker. In this there was a kind +of perfidious rivalry to the Christian miracles. The ambitious or the +discontented opened the bellies of animals to learn when the Emperor was +going to die, and who would succeed him. But although it did not pretend to +magic, the _haruspicina_ made an essential part of the sacrifices. As soon +as the dismemberment was done, the diviners examined the appearance of +the entrails. Consulting together, they turned them over frequently with +anxious attention. This business might continue for a long time. Plutarch +relates that Philip, King of Macedonia, when sacrificing an ox on the +Ithomæa, with Aratus of Sicyon and Demetrius of Pharos, wished to inquire +out from the entrails of the victim concerning the wisdom of a piece of +strategy. The _haruspex_ put the smoking mass in his hands. The King shewed +it to his companions, who derived contradictory presages from it. He +listened to one side and the other, holding meanwhile the ox's entrails +in his hands. Eventually, he decided for the opinion of Aratus, and then +tranquilly gave the handful back to the sacrificer.... + +No doubt in Augustin's time these rites were no longer practised openly. +For all that, they were of the first importance in the ancient religion, +which desired nothing better than to restore them. It is easy to understand +the repulsion they caused in the author of _The City of God_. He who would +not have a fly killed to make sure of the gold crown in the contest of +poets, looked with horror on these sacred butchers, and manglers, and +cooks. He flung the garbage of the sacrifices into the sewer, and shewed +proudly to the pagans the pure oblation of the eucharistic Bread and Wine. + +But what, above all, he attacked, because it was a present and permanent +scandal, was the gluttony, the drunkenness, and lust of the pagans. Let us +not exaggerate these vices--not the two first, at least. Augustin could not +judge them as we can. It is certain that the Africans of his time--and for +that matter, those of to-day--would have struck us modern people as very +sober. The outbursts of intemperance which he accuses them of only happened +at intervals, at times of public festivity or some family celebration. But +as soon as they did begin they were terrible. When one thinks of the orgies +of our Arabs behind locked doors! + +But it is no less true that the pagan vices spread themselves out +cynically under the protecting shadow of religion. Popular souses of +eating and drinking were the obligatory accompaniments of the festivals +and sacrifices. A religious festival meant a carouse, loads of victuals, +barrels of wine broached in the street. These were called the Dishes, +_Fercula_, or else, the Rejoicing, _Lætitia_. The poor people, who knew +meat only by sight, ate it on these days, and they drank wine. The effect +of this unaccustomed plenty was felt at once. The whole populace were +drunk. The rich in their houses possibly did it with more ceremony, but it +was really the same brutishness. The elegant Ovid, who in the _Art of Love_ +teaches fine manners to the beginners in love, advises them not to vomit at +table, and to avoid getting drunk like the husbands of their mistresses. + +Plainly, religion was only an excuse for these excesses. Augustin goes too +far when he makes the gods responsible for this riot of sensuality. What is +true is that they did nothing to hinder it. And it is also true that the +lechery, which he flings so acridly in the face of the pagans, the gross +stage-plays, the songs, dances, and even prostitution, were all more or +less included in the essence of paganism. The theatre, like the games of +the arena and circus, was a divine institution. At certain feasts, and in +certain temples, fornication became sacred. All the world knew what took +place at Carthage in the courts and under the porticoes of the Celestial +Virgin, and what the ears of the most chaste matrons were obliged to hear, +and also what the use was of the castrated priests of the Great Mother +of the gods. Augustin, who declaims against these filthy sports, has not +forced the note of his denunciation to make out a good case. If anybody +wants to know in more detail the sights enjoyed at the theatre, or what +were the habits of certain pious confraternities, he has only to read what +is told by Apuleius, the most devout of pagans. He takes evident pleasure +in these stories, or, if he sometimes waxes indignant, it is the depravity +of men he accuses. The gods soar at a great height above these wretched +trifles. To Augustin, on the contrary, the gods are unclean devils who fill +their bellies with lust and obscenities, as if they were hankering for the +blood and grease of sacrifices. + +And so he puts his finger on the open wound of paganism--its basic +immorality, or, if you like, its unmorality. Like our scientism of to-day, +it was unable to lay down a system of morals. It did not even try to. What +Augustin has written on this subject in _The City of God_, is perhaps the +strongest argument ever objected to polytheism. Anyhow, pages like this are +very timely indeed to consider: + +"But such friends and such worshippers of those gods, whom they rejoice +to follow and imitate in all villainies and mischiefs--do they trouble +themselves about the corruption and great decay of the Republic? Not so. +Let it but stand, say they; let it but prosper by the number of its troops +and be glorious by its victories; or, _which is best of all, let it but +enjoy security and peace_, and what care we? Yes, what we care for above +all is that every one may have the means to increase his wealth, to pay the +expenses of his usual luxury, and that the powerful may still keep under +the weak. Let the poor crouch to the rich to be fed, or to live at ease +under their protection; let the rich abuse the poor as things at their +service, and to shew how many they have soliciting them. Let the people +applaud such as provide them with pleasures, not such as have a care for +their interests. _Let naught that is hard be enjoined, nothing impure +be prohibited_.... Let not subdued provinces obey their governors as +supervisors of their morality, but as masters of their fortune and the +procurers of their pleasures. What matters it if this submission has no +sincerity, but rests upon a bad and servile fear! _Let the law protect +estates rather than fair justice_. Let there be a good number of public +harlots, either for all that please to enjoy themselves in their company, +or for those that cannot keep private ones. Let stately and sumptuous +houses be erected, so that night and day each one according to his liking +or his means may gamble and drink and revel and vomit. Let the rhythmed +tinkling of dances be ordinary, the cries, the uncontrolled delights, +the uproar of all pleasures, even the bloodiest and most shameful in the +theatres. He who shall assay to dissuade from these pleasures, let him +be condemned as a public enemy. And if any one try to alter or suppress +them--let the people stifle his voice, let them banish him, let them +kill him. On the other hand, those that shall procure the people these +pleasures, and authorize their enjoyment, let them be eternized for the +true gods."... + +However, Augustin acknowledges a number of praiseworthy minds among +pagans--those philosophers, with Plato in the first rank, who have done +their best to put morality into the religion. The Christian teacher renders +a magnificent tribute to Platonism. But these high doctrines have scarcely +got beyond the portals of the schools, and this moral teaching which +paganism vaunts of, is practically limited to the sanctuaries. "Let them +not talk," says he, "of some closely muttered instructions, taught in +secret, and whispered in the ear of a few adepts, which hold I know not +what lessons of uprightness and virtue. But let them shew the temples +ordained for such pious meetings, wherein were no sports with lascivious +gestures and loose songs.... Let them shew us the places where the gods' +doctrine was heard against covetousness, the suppression of ambition, the +bridling of luxury, and where wretches might learn what the poet Persius +thunders unto them, saying: + + 'Learn, wretches, and conceive the course of things, + What man is, and why nature forth him brings;... + How to use money; how to help a friend; + What we on earth, and God in us, intend.' + +Let them shew where their instructing gods were used to give such lessons; +and where their worshippers used to go _often_ to hear these matters. +As for us, we can point to our churches, built for this sole purpose, +wheresoever the religion of Christ is diffused." + +Can it surprise, then, if men so ignorant of high morality, and so deeply +embedded in matter, were also plunged in the grossest superstitions? +Materialism in morals always ends by producing a low credulity. Here +Augustin triumphs. He sends marching under our eyes, in a burlesque array, +the innumerable army of gods whom the Romans believed in. There are so many +that he compares them to swarms of gnats. Although he explains that he is +not able to mention them all, he amuses himself by stupefying us with the +prodigious number of those he discovers. Dragged into open day by him, a +whole divine population is brought out of the darkness and forgetfulness +where it had been sleeping perhaps for centuries: the little gods who work +in the fields, who make the corn grow and keep off the blight, those who +watch over children, who aid women in labour, who protect the hearth, who +guard the house. It was impossible to take a step among the pagans, to make +a movement, without the help of a god or goddess. Men and things were as if +fettered and imprisoned by the gods. + +"In a house," says Augustin scoffingly, "there is but one porter. He is but +a mere man, yet he is sufficient for that office. But it takes three gods, +Forculus for the door, Cardea for the hinge, Limentinus for the threshold. +Doubtless, Forculus all alone could not possibly look after threshold, door +and hinges." And if it is a case of a man and woman retiring to the bridal +chamber after the wedding, a whole squadron of divinities are set in motion +for an act so simple and natural. "I beseech you," cries Augustin, "leave +something for the husband to do!" + +This African, who had such a strong sense of the unity and fathomless +infinity of God, waxed indignant at this sacrilegious parcelling of the +divine substance. But the pagans, following Varro, would answer that it was +necessary to distinguish, among all these gods, those who were just the +imagination of poets, and those who were real beings--between the gods of +fable and the gods of religion. "Then," as Tertullian had said already, +"if the gods be chosen as onions are roped, it is obvious that what is not +chosen is condemned." "Tertullian carries his fancy too far," comments +Augustin. The gods refused as fabulous are not held reprobate on that +account. The truth is, they are a cut of the same piece as the admitted +gods. "Have not the pontiffs, like the poets, a bearded Jupiter and a +Mercury without beard?... Are the old Saturn and the young Apollo so much +the property of the poets that we do not see their statues too in the +temples?..." + +And the philosophers, in their turn, however much they may protest against +the heap of fabulous gods and, like Plato and Porphyry, declare that there +exists but one God, soul of the universe, yet they no less accepted the +minor gods, and intermediaries or messengers betwixt gods and men, whom +they called demons. These hybrid beings, who pertained to humanity by their +passions, and to the divinity by the privilege of immortality, had to be +appeased by sacrifices, questioned and gratified by magic spells. And there +is what the highest pagan wisdom ended in--yes, in calling up spirits, and +the shady operations of wizards and wonder-smiths. That is what the pagans +defended, and demanded the continuation of with so much obstinacy and +fanaticism. + +By no means, replied Augustin. It does not deserve to survive. It is not +the forsaking of these beliefs and superstitious practices which has +brought about the decay of the Empire. If you are asking for the temples +of your gods to be opened, it is because they are easy to your passions. +At heart, you scoff at them and the Empire; all you want is freedom and +impunity for your vices. There we have the real cause of the decadence! +Little matter the idle grimaces before altars and statues. Become chaste, +sober, brave, and poor, as your ancestors were. Have children, agree to +compulsory military service, and you will conquer as they did. Now, all +these virtues are enjoined and encouraged by Christianity. Whatever certain +heretics may say, the religion of Christ is not contrary to marriage or the +soldier's profession. The Patriarchs of the old law were blest in marriage, +and there are just and holy wars. + +And even supposing, that in spite of all efforts to save it, the Empire is +condemned, must we therefore despair? We should be prepared for the end +of the Roman city. Like all the things of this world, it is liable to old +age and death. It will die then, one day. Far from being cast down, let +us strengthen ourselves against this disaster by the realization of the +eternal. Let us strengthen our hold upon that which passes not. Above the +earthly city, rises the City of God, which is the communion of holy souls, +the only one which gives complete and never-failing joy. Let us try to be +the citizens of that city, and to live the only life worth calling life. +For the life here below is but the shadow of a shadow.... + +The people of those times were wonderfully prepared to hearken to such +exhortations. On the eve of the Barbarian invasions, these Christians, for +whom the dogma of the Resurrection was perhaps the chief reason of their +faith, these people, sick at heart, who looked on in torture at the ending +of a world, must have considered this present life as a bad dream, from +which there should be no delay in escaping. + +At the very moment even that Augustin began to write _The City of God_, his +friend Evodius, Bishop of Uzalis, told him this story. + +He had as secretary a very young man, the son of a priest in the +neighbourhood. This young man had begun by obtaining a post as stenographer +in the office of the Proconsul of Africa. Evodius, who was alarmed at what +might happen to his virtue in such surroundings, having first made certain +of his absolute chastity, offered to take him into his service. In the +bishop's house, where he had scarcely anything to do but read the Holy +Scripture, his faith became so enthusiastic that he longed for nothing now +but death. To go out of this life, "to be with Christ," was his eager wish. +It was heard. After sixteen days of illness he died in the house of his +parents. + +"Now, two days after his funeral, a virtuous woman of Figes, a servant of +God, a widow for twelve years, had a dream, and in her dream she saw a +deacon who had been dead some four years, together with men, and women too, +virgins and widows--she saw these servants of God getting ready a palace. +This dwelling was so rich that it shone with light, and you would have +believed it was all made of silver. And when the widow asked whom these +preparations were for, the deacon replied that they were for a young man, +dead the evening before, the son of a priest. In the same palace, she saw +an old man, all robed in white, and he told two other persons, also robed +in white, to go to the tomb of this young man, and lift out the body, and +carry it to Heaven. When the body had been drawn from the tomb and carried +to Heaven, there arose (said she) out of the tomb a bush of virgin-roses, +which are thus named because they never open...." + +So the son of the priest had chosen the better part. What was the good of +remaining in this abominable world, where there was always a risk of being +burned or murdered by Goths and Vandals, when, in the other world, angels +were preparing for you palaces of light? + + + + +III + +THE BARBARIAN DESOLATION + + +Augustin was seventy-two years old when he finished the _City of God_. This +was in 426. That year, an event of much importance occurred at Hippo, and +the report of it was inserted in the public acts of the community. + +"The sixth of the calends of October," _The Acts_ set forth, "the very +glorious Theodosius being consul for the twelfth time, and Valentinian +Augustus for the second, Augustin the bishop, accompanied by Religianus +and Martinianus, his fellow-bishops, having taken his place in the +Basilica of Peace at Hippo, and the priests Saturnius, Leporius, Barnaby, +Fortunatianus, Lazarus, and Heraclius, being present, with all the clergy +and a vast crowd of people--Augustin the bishop said: + +"'Let us without delay look to the business which I declared yesterday to +your charity, and for which I desired you to gather here in large numbers, +as I see you have done. If I were to talk to you of anything else, you +might be less attentive, seeing the expectation you are in. + +"'My brothers, we are all mortal in this life, and no man knows his last +day. God willed that I should come to dwell in this town in the force of my +age. But, as I was a young man then--see, I am old now, and as I know that +at the death of bishops, peace is troubled by rivalry or ambition (this +have I often seen and bewailed it)--I ought, so far as it rests with me, to +turn away so great a mischief from your city.... I am going then to tell +you that my will, which I believe also to be the will of God, is that I +have as successor the priest Heraclius.' + +"At these words all the people cried out: + +"'Thanks be to God! Praise be to Christ!' + +"And this cry they repeated three-and-twenty times. + +"'Christ, hear us! Preserve us Augustin!' + +"This cry they repeated sixteen times. + +"'Be our father! Be our bishop!' + +"This cry they repeated eight times. + +"When the people became silent, the bishop Augustin spoke again in these +words: + +"'There is no need for me to praise Heraclius. As much as I do justice +to his wisdom, in equal measure should I spare his modesty.... As you +perceive, the secretaries of the church gather up what we say and what you +say. My words and your shouts do not fall to the ground. To put it briefly, +these are ecclesiastical decrees that we are now drawing up, and I desire +by these means, as far as it is in the power of man, to confirm what I have +declared to you.' + +"Here the people cried out: + +"'Thanks be to God! Praise be to Christ!' + + * * * * * + +"'Be our father, and let Heraclius be our bishop!' + +"When silence was made again, Augustin the bishop thus spoke: + +"'I understand what you would say. But I do not wish that it happen to him +as it happened to me. Many of you know what was done at that time.... I was +consecrated bishop during the lifetime of my father and bishop, the aged +Valerius, of blessed memory, and with him I shared the see. I was ignorant, +as he was, that this was forbidden by the Council of Nice. I would not +therefore that men should blame in Heraclius, my son, what they blamed in +me.' + +"With that the people cried out thirteen times: + +"'Thanks be to God! Praise be to Christ!' + +"After a little silence, Augustin the bishop said again: + +"'So he will remain a priest till it shall please God for him to be a +bishop. But with the aid and mercy of Christ, I shall do in future what up +to now I have not been able to do.... You will remember what I wanted to +do some years ago, and you have not allowed me. For a work upon the Holy +Scriptures, with which my brothers and my fathers the bishops had deigned +to charge me in the two Councils of Numidia and Carthage, _I was not to be +disturbed by anybody during five days of the week_. That was a thing agreed +upon between you and me. The act was drawn up, and you all approved of +it after hearing it read. But your promise did not last long. I was soon +encroached upon and overrun by you all. I am no longer free to study as I +desire. Morning and afternoon, I am entangled in your worldly affairs. I +beg of you and supplicate you in Christ's name to suffer me to shift the +burthen of all these cares upon this young man, the priest Heraclius, whom +I signal, in His name, as my successor in the bishopric.' + +"Upon this the people cried out six-and-twenty times: + +"'We thank thee for thy choice!' + +"And the people having become silent, Augustin the bishop said: + +"'I thank you for your charity and goodwill, or rather, I thank God for +them. So, my brothers, you will address yourselves to Heraclius upon all +the points you are used to submit to me. Whenever he needs counsel, my care +and my help will not be wanting.... In this way, without any loss to you, +I shall be able to devote the remainder of life which it may please God +still to leave me, not to laziness and rest, but to the study of the Holy +Scriptures. This work will be useful to Heraclius, and hence to yourselves. +Let nobody then envy my leisure, for this leisure will be very busy.... + +"'It only remains for me to ask you, at least those who can, to sign these +acts. Your agreement I cannot do without; so kindly let me learn it by your +voices.' + +"At these words the people shouted: + +"'Let it be so! Let it be so!' + + * * * * * + +"When all there became silent, Augustin the bishop made an end, saying: + +"'It is well. Now let us fulfil our duty to God. While we offer Him the +Sacrifice, and during this hour of supplication, I would urge of your +charity to lay aside all business and personal cares, and to pray the Lord +God for this church, for me, and for the priest Heraclius.'" + +The dryness and official wording of the document do not succeed in stifling +the vividness and colour of this crowded scene. Through the piety of the +formal cries, it is easy to see that Augustin's hearers were hard to +manage. This flock, which he loved and scolded so much, was no easier to +lead now than when he first became bishop. Truly it was no sinecure to rule +and administrate the diocese of Hippo! The bishop was literally the servant +of the faithful. Not only had he to feed and clothe them, to spend his time +over their business and quarrels and lawsuits, but he belonged to them body +and soul. They kept a jealous eye on the employment of his time; if he +went away, they asked for an explanation. Whenever Augustin went to preach +at Carthage or Utica, he apologized to his own people. And before he can +undertake a commentary on the Scriptures, a commentary, moreover, which he +has been asked by two Councils to prepare, he must get their permission, +or, at any rate, their agreement. + +At last, at seventy-two years old, after he had been a bishop for +thirty-one years, he got their leave to take a little rest. But what a +rest! He himself said: "This leisure will be very busy"--this leisure which +is going to fill the five holidays in the week. He intends to study and +fathom the Scripture, and this, besides, to the profit of his people and +clergy and the whole Church. It is the fondest dream of his life--the +plan he was never able to realize. All that, at first sight, astonishes +us. We ask ourselves, "What else had he been doing up to this time in his +treatises and letters and sermons, in all that sea of words and writings +which his enemies threw up at him, if he was not studying and explaining +the Holy Scriptures?" The fact is, that in most of these writings and +sermons he elucidates the truth only in part, or else he is confuting +heresiarchs. What he wanted to do was to study the truth for its own sake, +without having to think of and be hindered by the exposure of errors; and +above all, to seize it in all its breadth and all its depths, to have +done with this blighting and irritating eristic, and to reflect in a vast +_Mirror_ the whole and purest light of the sacred dogmas. + +He never found the time for it. He had to limit himself to a handbook +of practical morals, published under this title before his death, and +now lost. Once more the heresiarchs prevented him from leading a life of +speculation. During his last years, amid the cruellest anxieties, he had +to battle with the enemies of Grace and the enemies of the Trinity, with +Arius and Pelagius. Pelagius had found an able disciple in a young Italian +bishop, Julian of Eclanum, who was a formidable opponent to the aged +Augustin. As for Arianism, which had seemed extinguished in the West, here +it was given a new life by the Barbarian invasion. + +It was a grave moment for Catholicism, as it was for the Empire. The Goths, +the Alani, and the Vandals, after having laid waste Gaul and Spain, were +taking measures to pass over into Africa. Should they renew the attempts +of Alaric and Radagaisus against Italy, they would soon be masters of the +entire Occident. Now these Barbarians were Arians. Supposing (and it seemed +more and more likely) that Africa and Italy were vanquished after Gaul and +Spain, then it was all over with Western Catholicism. For the invaders +carried their religion in their baggage, and forced it on the conquered. +Augustin, who had cherished the hope of equalling the earthly kingdom +of Christ to that of the Cæsars, was going to see the ruin of both. +His terrified imagination exaggerated still more the only too real and +threatening peril. He must have lived hours of agony, expecting a disaster. + +If only the truth might be saved, might swim in this sea of errors which +spread like a flood in the wake of the Barbarian onflow! It was from this +wish, no doubt, that sprang the tireless persistence which the old bishop +put into a last battle with heresy. If he selected Pelagius specially to +fall upon with fury, if he forced his principles to their last consequences +in his theory of Grace, the dread of the Barbarian peril had perhaps +something to do with it. This soul, so mild, so moderate, so tenderly +human, promulgated a pitiless doctrine which does not agree with his +character. But he reasoned, no doubt, that it was impossible to drive +home too hard the need of the Redemption and the divinity of the Redeemer +in front of these Arians, these Pelagians, these enemies of Christ, who +to-morrow perhaps would be masters of the Empire. + +Therefore, Augustin continued to write, and discuss, and disprove. There +came a time when he had to think of fighting otherwise than with the pen. +His life, the lives of his flock, were threatened. He had to see to the +bodily defence of his country and city. The fact was, that some time +before the great drive of the Vandals, forerunners of them, in the shape +of hordes of African Barbarians, had begun to lay waste the provinces. The +Circoncelliones were not dead, nor their good friends the Donatists either. +These sectaries, encouraged by the widespread anarchy, came out of their +hiding-places and shewed themselves more insolent and aggressive than ever. +Possibly they hoped for some effective support against the Roman Church +from the Arian Vandals who were drawing near, or at least a recognition of +what they believed to be their rights. Day after day, bands of Barbarians +were landing from Spain. In the rear of these wandering troops of brigands +or irregular soldiers, the old enemies of the Roman peace and civilization, +the Nomads of the South, the Moors of the Atlas, the Kabylian mountaineers, +flung themselves upon country and town, pillaging, killing, and burning +everything that got in their way. All was laid desolate. "Countries but +lately prosperous and populated have been changed into solitudes," said +Augustin. + +At last, in the spring of the year 429, the Vandals and the Alani, having +joined forces on the Spanish coast under their King, Genseric, crossed +the Straits of Gibraltar. It was devastation on a large scale this time. +An army of eighty thousand men set themselves methodically to plunder the +African provinces. Cherchell, which had already been sorely tried during +the revolt of Firmus the Moor, was captured again and burned. All the towns +and fortified places on the coast fell, one after another. Constantine +alone, from the height of its rock, kept the invaders at bay. To starve out +those who fled from towns and farms and took refuge in the fastnesses of +the Atlas, the Barbarians destroyed the harvest, burned the grain-houses, +and cut down the vines and fruit trees. And they set fire to the forests +which covered the slopes of the mountains, to force the refugees out of +their hiding-places. + +This stupid ravaging was against the interest of the Vandals themselves, +because they were injuring the natural riches of Africa, the report of +which had brought them there. Africa was for them the land of plenty, where +people could drink more wine than they wanted and eat wheaten bread. It was +the country where life was comfortable, easy, and happy. It was the granary +of the Mediterranean, the great supply-store of Rome. But their senseless +craving for gold led them to ruin provinces, in which, nevertheless, they +counted upon settling. They behaved in Africa as they had behaved in Rome +under Alaric. By way of tearing gold out of the inhabitants, they tortured +them as they had tortured the wealthy Romans. They invented worse ones. +Children, before their parents' eyes, were sliced in two like animals in a +slaughterhouse. Or else their skulls were smashed against the pavements and +walls of houses. + +The Church was believed to be very rich; and perhaps, as it had managed +to comprise in its domains the greatest part of the landed estates, it +was upon it chiefly that the Barbarians flung themselves. The priests and +bishops were tortured with unheard-of improvements of cruelty. They were +dragged in the rear of the army like slaves, so that heavy ransoms might +be extracted from the faithful in exchange for their pastors. They were +obliged to carry the baggage like the camels and mules, and when they gave +out the Barbarians prodded them with lances. Many sank down beside the +road and never rose more. But it is certain that fanaticism added to the +covetousness and ferocity of the Vandals. These Arians bore a special +grudge against Catholicism, which was, besides, in their eyes, the religion +of the Roman domination. This is why they made their chief attacks on +basilicas, convents, hospitals, and all the property of the Church. And +throughout the country public worship was stopped. + +In Hippo, these atrocities were known before the Barbarians arrived. The +people must have awaited them and prepared to receive them with gloomy +resignation. Africa had not been tranquil for a century. After the risings +of Firmus and Gildo, came the lootings of the southern Nomads and the +Berber mountaineers. And it was not so long since the Circoncelliones were +keeping people constantly on the alert. But this time everybody felt that +the great ruin was at hand. They were stunned by the news that some town +or fortified place had been captured by the Vandals, or that some farm or +villa in the neighbourhood was on fire. + +Amid the general dismay, Augustin did his best to keep calm. He, indeed, +saw beyond the material destruction, and at every new rumour of massacre +or burning he would repeat to his clerics and people the words of the Wise +Man: + +"Doth the firm of heart grieve to see fall the stones and beams, and death +seize the children of men?" + +They accused him of being callous. They did not understand him. While all +about him mourned the present misfortunes, he was already lamenting over +the evil to come, and this clear-sightedness pained him more than the shock +of the daily horrors committed by the Barbarians. His disciple Possidius, +the Bishop of Guelma, who was with him in these sad days, naively applied +to him the saying out of _Ecclesiastes_: "In much wisdom is much grief." +Augustin did really suffer more than others, because he thought more +profoundly on the disaster. He foresaw that Africa was going to be lost to +the Empire, and consequently to the Church. They were bound together in his +mind. What was there to do against brutal strength? All the eloquence and +all the charity in the world would be as nothing against that unchained +elemental mass of Vandals. It was as impossible to convert the Barbarians +as it had been to convert the Donatists. Force was the only resource +against force. + +Then in despair the man of God turned once more to Cæsar. The monk appealed +to the soldier. He charged Boniface, Count of Africa, to save Rome and the +Church. + +This Boniface, a rather ambiguous personage, was a fine type of the +swashbuckler and official of the Lower-Empire. Thracian by origin, he +joined the trickery of the Oriental to all the vices of the Barbarian. He +was strong, clever in all bodily exercises like the soldiers of those days, +overflowing with vigour and health, and even brave at times. In addition, +he was fond of wine and women, and ate and drank like a true pagan. He +was married twice, and after his second marriage he kept in the sight and +knowledge of everybody a harem of concubines. He was sent, first of all, +to Africa as a Tribune--that is to say, as Commissioner of the Imperial +Government, probably to carry out the decrees of Honorius against the +Donatists; and ere long he was made commander of the military forces of the +province, with the title of Count. + +In reality, while seeming to protect the country, he set himself to plunder +it, as the tradition was among the Roman officials. His _officium_, still +more grasping than himself, persuaded him to deeds which the Bishop of +Hippo, who was, however, anxious to remain on the right side of him, +protested against by hints. Boniface was obliged to overlook much robbery +and pillage on the part of his subordinates so as to keep them faithful. +Moreover, he himself stole. He was bound to close his eyes to the +depredations of others, that his own might be winked at. Once become the +accomplice of this band of robbers, he had no longer the authority to +control them. + +How did Augustin ever believe in the goodwill and good faith of this +adventurer full of coarse passions, so far as to put his final hopes in +him? Augustin knew men very well; he could detect low and hypocritical +natures at a distance. How came it that he was taken in by Boniface? + +Well, Augustin wanted his support, first of all, when he came as Imperial +Commissioner to Carthage to bring the Donatists into line. Generally, we +see only the good points of people who do us good turns. Besides, in order +to propitiate the bishop, and the devout Court at Ravenna, the Tribune +advertised his great zeal in favour of Catholicism. His first wife, a very +pious woman whom he seems to have loved much, encouraged him in this. +When she died, he was so overcome by despair that he took refuge in the +extremest practices of religion--and in this, perhaps, he was quite +sincere. It is also possible that he was becoming discredited at Ravenna, +where they must have known about his oppressions and suspected his +ambitious intrigues. Anyhow, whether he was really disgusted with the +world, or whether he deemed it prudent to throw a little oblivion over +himself just then, he spoke on all hands of resigning his post and living +in retreat like a monk. It was just at this moment that Augustin and +Alypius begged him not to desert the African army. + +They met the Commander-in-Chief at Thubunæ, in Southern Numidia, where, +no doubt, he was reducing the Nomads. We must remark once more Augustin's +energy in travelling, to the very eve of his death. It was a long and +dangerous road from Hippo to Thubunæ. Before making up his mind to so much +fatigue, the old bishop must have judged the situation to be very serious. +At Thubunæ, was Boniface playing a game, or was he, indeed, so crushed by +his grief that the world had become unbearable and he pondered genuine +thoughts of changing his way of life? What is sure is, that he gave the +two prelates the most edifying talk. When they heard the Count of Africa +speaking with unction of the cloister and of his desire to retire there, +they were a little astonished at so much piety in a soldier. Besides, +these excellent resolutions were most inconvenient for their plans. They +remonstrated with him that it was quite possible to save one's soul in +the army, and quoted the example of David, the warrior king. They ended +by telling him all the expectations they founded upon his resource and +firmness. They begged him to protect the churches and convents against +fresh attacks of the Donatists, and especially against the Barbarians of +Africa. These were at this moment breaking down all the old defence lines +and laying waste the territories of the Empire. + +Boniface allowed himself to be easily convinced--promised whatever he was +asked. But he never budged. From now on, his conduct becomes most singular. +He is in command of all the military strength of the province, and he takes +no steps to suppress the African looters. It would seem as if he only +thought of filling the coffers of himself and his friends. The country was +so systematically scoured by them that, as Augustin said, there was nothing +more left to take. + +This inactivity lent colour to the rumours of treason. Nor is it impossible +that he had cherished a plan from the beginning of his command to cut out +an independent principality for himself in Africa. Was this the reason that +he dealt softly with the native tribes, so as to make certain of their help +in case of a conflict with the Imperial army? However that may be, his +behaviour was not frank. Some years later, he landed on the Spanish coast +to war against the Vandals under the command of the Prefect Castinus, and +there he married a Barbarian princess who was by religion an Arian. It +is true that the new Countess of Africa became a convert to Catholicism. +But her first child was baptized by Arian priests, who rebaptized, at the +same time, the Catholic slaves of Boniface's household. This marriage +with a Vandal, these concessions to Arianism, gave immense scandal to the +orthodox. Rumours of treason began to float about again. + +No doubt Boniface took great advantage of his fidelity to the Empress +Placidia. But he was standing between the all-powerful Barbarians and the +undermined Empire. He wanted to remain on good terms with both, and then, +when the hour came, to go over to the stronger. This double-faced diplomacy +caused his downfall. His rival Aëtius accused him of high treason before +Placidia. The Court of Ravenna declared him an enemy of the Empire, and an +army was sent against him. Boniface did not hesitate; he went into open +rebellion against Rome. + +Augustin was thunderstruck by his desertion. But what way was there to make +this violent man listen to reason, who had at least the appearances of +right on his side, since there was a chance they had slandered him to the +Empress, and who thought it quite natural to take vengeance on his enemies? +His recent successes had still more intoxicated him. He had just defeated +the two generals who had been sent to reduce him, and he was accordingly +master of the situation in Africa. What was he going to do? The worst +resolutions were to be feared from this conqueror, all smarting, and hungry +for revenge.... Nevertheless, Augustin resolved to write to him. His letter +is a masterpiece of tact, of prudence, and also of Christian and episcopal +firmness. + +It would have been dangerous to declare to this triumphant rebel: "You are +in the wrong. Your duty is to submit to the Emperor, your master." Boniface +was quite capable of answering: "What are you interfering for? Politics are +no business of yours. Look after your Church!" This is why Augustin very +cleverly speaks to him from beginning to end of his letter simply as a +bishop, eager for the salvation of a very dear son in Jesus Christ. And so, +by keeping strictly to his office of spiritual director, he gained his end +more surely and entirely; and, as a doctor of souls, he ventured to remind +Boniface of certain truths which he would never have dared to mention as +counsellor. + +According to Augustin, the disgrace of the Count, and the evils which +this event had brought on Africa, came principally from his attachment to +worldly benefits. It was the ambition and covetousness of himself and his +followers which had done all the harm. Let him free himself from perishable +things, let him prevent the thefts and plundering of those under him. +Let him, who some time ago wished to live in perfect celibacy, now keep +at least to his wife and no other. Finally, let him remember his sworn +allegiance. Augustin did not mean to go into the quarrel between Boniface +and Placidia, and he gave no opinion as to the grievances of either. He +confined himself to saying to the general in rebellion: "If you have +received so many benefits from the Roman Empire, do not render evil for +good. If, on the other hand, you have received evil, do not render evil for +evil." + +It is clear that the Bishop of Hippo could scarcely have given any other +advice to the Count of Africa. To play the part of political counsellor +in the very entangled state of affairs was extremely risky. How was it +possible to exhort a victorious general to lay down his arms before +the conquered? And yet, in estimating the situation from the Christian +standpoint alone, Augustin had found a way to say everything essential, all +that could profitably be said at the moment. + +How did Boniface take a letter which was, in the circumstances, so +courageous? What we know is that he did not alter his plans. It would +indeed have been very difficult for him to withdraw and yield; and more +than ever since a new army under Sigisvultus had been sent against him in +all haste. A real fatality compelled him to remain in revolt against Rome. +Did he believe he was ruined, as has been stated, or else, through his +family connections--let us remember that his wife was a Barbarian--had he +been for a long time plotting with Genseric to divide Africa? He has been +accused of that. What comes out is, that as soon as he heard of the arrival +of Sigisvultus and the new expeditionary force, he called in the Vandals to +his aid. This was the great invasion of 429. + +Ere long, the Barbarians entered Numidia. The borderlands about Hippo were +threatened. Stricken with terror, the inhabitants in a mass fled before the +enemy, leaving the towns empty. Those who were caught in them rushed into +the churches, imploring the bishops and priests to help them. Or else, +giving up all hope of life, they cried out to be baptized, confessed, +did penance in public. The Vandals, as we have seen, aimed specially at +the clergy; they believed that the Catholic priests were the soul of the +resistance. Should not these priests, then, in the very interest of the +Church, save themselves for quieter times, and escape the persecution by +flight? Many sheltered themselves behind the words of Christ: "When they +persecute you in this city, flee ye into another." + +But Augustin strongly condemned the cowardliness of the deserters. In a +letter addressed to his fellow-bishop, Honoratus, and intended to be read +by all the clergy in Africa, he declares that bishops and priests should +not abandon their churches and dioceses, but stay at their post till the +end--till death and till martyrdom--to fulfil the duties of their ministry. +If the faithful were able to withdraw into a safe place, their pastors +might accompany them; if not, they should die in the midst of them. Thus +they would have at least the consolation of lending aid to the dying in +their last moments, and especially of preventing the apostasies which +readily took place under the shock of the terror. For Augustin, who foresaw +the future, the essential thing was that later, when the Vandal wave had +swept away, Catholicism might flourish again in Africa. To this end, the +Catholics must be made to remain in the country, and the greatest possible +number be strengthened in their faith. Otherwise, the work of three +centuries would have to be done all over again. + +We must admire this courage and clear-mindedness in an old man of +seventy-five, who was being continually harassed by the complaints and +lamentations of a crowd of demoralized fugitives. The position became more +and more critical. The siege lines were drawing closer. But in the midst of +all this dread, Augustin was given a gleam of hope: Boniface made his peace +with the Empire. Henceforward, his army, turning against the Barbarians, +might protect Hippo and perhaps save Africa. + +Had Augustin a hand in this reconciliation? There is not the least doubt +that he desired it most earnestly. In a letter to Count Darius, the +special envoy sent from Ravenna to treat with the rebel general, he warmly +congratulates the Imperial plenipotentiary on his mission of peace. "You +are sent," he said to him, "to stop the shedding of blood. Therefore +rejoice, illustrious and very dear son in Jesus Christ, rejoice in this +great and real blessing, and rejoice upon it in the Lord, Who has made you +what you are, and entrusted to you a task so beautiful and important. May +God seal the good work He has done for us through you!" ... And Darius +answered: "May you be spared to pray such prayers for the Empire and the +Roman State a long time yet, my Father." + +But the Empire was lost in Africa. If the reconciliation of the rebellious +Count had given some illusions to Augustin, they did not last long. +Boniface, having failed in his endeavours to negotiate the retreat of the +Vandals, was defeated by Genseric, and obliged to fall back into Hippo with +an army of mercenary Goths. Thus it came about that Barbarians held against +other Barbarians one of the last Roman citadels in Africa. From the end of +May, 430, Hippo was blockaded on the land side and on the side of the sea. + +In great tribulation, Augustin resigned himself to this supreme +humiliation, and to all the horrors which would have to be endured if the +city were captured. As a Christian, he left all to the will of God, and +he would repeat to those about him the words of the Psalm: "Righteous art +Thou, O Lord, and upright are Thy judgments." A number of fugitive priests, +and among them Possidius, Bishop of Guelma, had taken refuge in the +episcopal residence. One day, when he lost heart, Augustin, who was at +table with them, said: + +"In front of all these disasters, I ask God to deliver this city from the +siege, or, if that be not His decree, to give His servants the necessary +strength to do His will, or at least to take me from this world and receive +me into His bosom." + +But it is more than probable that discouragement of that kind was +only momentary with him, and that in his sermons, as well as in his +conversations with Boniface, he did his utmost to stimulate the courage of +the people and the general. His correspondence includes a series of letters +written about this time to the Count of Africa, which manifest here and +there a very warlike spirit. These letters are most certainly apocryphal. +Yet they do reveal something of what must have been the sentiments just +then of the people of Hippo and of Augustin himself. One of these letters +emphatically congratulates Boniface upon an advantage gained over the +Barbarians. + +"Your Excellency knows, I believe, that I am stretched upon my bed, and +that I long for my last day to come. I am overjoyed at your victory. I urge +you to save the Roman city. Rule your soldiers like a good Count. Do not +trust too much to your own strength. Put your glory in Him Who gives +courage, and you will never fear any enemy. Farewell!" + +The words do not matter much. Whatever may have been Augustin's last +farewell to the defender of Hippo, it was no doubt couched in language not +unlike this. In any case, posterity has wished to believe that the dying +bishop maintained to the end his unyielding demeanour face to face with the +Barbarians. It would be a misuse of words to represent him as a patriot +in the present sense of the term. It is no less true that this African, +this Christian, was an admirable servant of Rome. Until his death he kept +his respect for it, because in his eyes the Empire meant order, peace, +civilization, the unity of faith in the unity of rule. + + + + +IV + +SAINT AUGUSTIN + + +In the third month of the siege, he fell ill. He had a fever--no doubt an +infectious fever. The country people, the wounded soldiers who had taken +refuge in Hippo after the rout of Boniface, must have brought in the germs +of disease. It was, moreover, the end of August, the season of epidemics, +of damp heats and oppressive evenings, the time of the year most dangerous +and trying for sick people. + +All at once, Augustin took to his bed. But even there, upon the bed in +which he was going to die, he was not left in quiet. People came to ask his +prayers for some possessed by devils. The old bishop was touched; he wept +and asked God to give him this grace, and the devils went out of those poor +crazy men. This cure, as may well be thought, made a great noise in the +city. A man brought him another one sick to be healed. Augustin, being most +weary, said to the man: + +"My son, you see the state I am in. If I had any power over illnesses, I +should begin by curing myself." + +But the man had no idea of being put off: he had had a dream. A mysterious +voice had said to him, "Go and see Augustin: he will put his hands on the +sick person, who will rise up cured." And, in fact, he did. I think these +are the only miracles the saint made in his life. But what matters that, +when the continual miracle of his charity and his apostolate is considered? + +Soon the bishop's illness grew worse. Eventually, he succeeded in +persuading them not to disturb him any more, and that they would let him +prepare for death in silence and recollection. During the ten days that +he still lingered, nobody entered his cell save the physicians, and the +servants who brought him a little food. He availed himself of the quiet to +repent of his faults. For he was used to say to his clergy that "even after +baptism, Christians--nay, priests, however holy they might be, ought never +go out of life without having made a general confession." And the better +to rouse his contrition, he had desired them to copy out on leaves the +Penitential Psalms, and to put these leaves on the wall of his room. He +read them continually from his pillow. + +Here, then, he is alone with himself and God. A solemn moment for the great +old man! + +He called up his past life, and what struck him most, and saddened him, was +the foundering of all his human hopes. The enemies of the Church, whom he +had battled with almost without ceasing for forty years, and had reason to +believe conquered--all these enemies were raising their heads: Donatists, +Arians, Barbarians. With the Barbarians' help, the Arians were going to be +the masters of Africa. The churches, reformed at the price of such long +efforts, would be once more destroyed. And see now! the authority which +might have supported them, which he had perhaps too much relied upon--well, +the Empire was sinking too. It was the end of order, of substantial peace, +of that minimum of safety which is indispensable for all spiritual effort. +From one end to the other of the Western world, Barbarism triumphed. + +Sometimes, amid these sad thoughts of the dying man, the clangour of +clarions blared out--there was a call to arms on the ramparts. And these +musics came to him in his half-delirious state very mournfully, like the +trumpets proclaiming the Judgment Day. Yes, it might well be feared that +the Day of Wrath was here! Was it really the end of the world, or only the +end of a world?... Truly, there were then enough horrors and calamities to +make people think of the morrow with dismay. Many of the signs predicted +by Scripture dazed the imagination: desolations, wars, persecutions of the +Church, increased with terrific steadiness and cruelty. Yet all the signs +foretold were not there. How many times already had humanity been deceived +in its fear and its hope! In reality, though all seemed to shew that the +end of time was drawing nigh, no one could tell the day nor the hour of +the Judgment. Hence, men should watch always, according to the words of +Christ.... But if this trial of Barbarian war was to pass like the others, +how woeful it was while it endured! How hard for Augustin, above all, who +saw nearly the whole of his work thrown down. + +One thought at least consoled him, that since his conversion, for forty +years and more, he had done all he was able--he had worked for Christ +even beyond his strength. He said to himself that he left behind him the +fruit of a huge labour, a whole body of doctrine and apology which would +safeguard against error whatever was left of his flock and of the African +Church. He himself had founded a Church which might serve as an example, +his dear Church of Hippo, that he had done his best to fashion after the +divine plan. And he had also founded convents, and a library full of books, +which had become still larger recently through the generosity of Count +Darius. He had lessoned his clergy who, once the disasters were past, would +scatter the good seed of Truth. Books, monasteries, priests, a sure and +solid nourishment for the mind, shelters and guides for souls--there is +what he bequeathed to the workers of the future. And with a little joy +mingling with his sorrow, he read on the corner of the wall where his bed +was, this verse of the Psalm: _Exibit homo ad opus suum et operationem suam +usque ad vesperum_--"Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until +the evening." He, too, had worked until evening. + +If the earthly reward seemed to slip from him now, if all was sinking +around him, if his episcopal city was beleaguered, if he himself, although +still a strong man--"he had the use of all his limbs," says Possidius; +"a keen ear and perfect sight"--if he himself was dying too soon, it was +doubtless in expiation for the sins of his youth. At this remembrance of +his disorders, the tears fell over his face.... And yet, however wild had +been his conduct at that time, he could descry in it the sure marks of his +vocation. He recalled the despair and tears of his mother, but also his +enthusiasm when he read the _Hortensius_; his disgust for the world and +all things when he lost his friend. In the old man he recognized the new. +And he said to himself: "Nay! but that was myself. I have not changed. I +have only found myself. I have only changed my ways. In my youth, in the +strongest time of my mistakes, I had already risen to turn to Thee, my +God!" + +His worst foolishness had been the desire to understand all things. He had +failed in humility of mind. Then God had given him the grace to submit his +intelligence to the faith. He had believed, and then he had understood, as +well as he could, as much as he could. In the beginning, he acknowledged +very plainly that he did not understand. And then faith had thrown open +the roads of understanding. He had splendidly employed his reason, within +the limits laid down against mortal weakness. Had that not been the proud +desire of his youth? To understand! What greater destiny? + +To love also. After he had freed himself from carnal passions, he had much +employed his heart. He thought of all the charity he had poured out upon +his people and the Church, upon all he had loved in God--upon all he had +done, upon all the consequence of his labour, inspired and strengthened by +the divine love.... Yes, to love--all was in that! Let the Barbarians come! +Had not Christ said: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the +world"? So long as there shall be two men gathered together for love of +Him, the world will not be entirely lost, the Church and civilization will +be saved. The religion of Christ is a leaven of action, understanding, +sacrifice, and charity. If the world be not at this hour already condemned, +if the Day of Judgment be still far off, it is from this religion that +shall arise the new influences of the future.... + +And so Augustin forgot his sufferings and his human disappointments in +the thought that, in spite of all, the Church is eternal. The City of God +gathered in the wreckage of the earthly city: "The Goth cannot capture what +Christ protects"--_Non tollit Gothus quod custodit Christus_. And as his +sufferings increased, he turned all his thoughts on this unending City, +"where we rest, where we see, where we love," where we find again all the +beloved ones who have gone away. All--he called them all in this supreme +moment: Monnica, Adeodatus, and her who had nearly lost herself for him, +and all those he had held dear.... + +On the fifth day of the calends of September, Augustin, the bishop, +was very low. They were praying for him in the churches at Hippo, and +especially in the Basilica of Peace, where he had preached and worked for +others so long. Possidius of Guelma was in the bishop's room, and the +priests and monks. They sent up their prayers with those of the dying man. +And no doubt they sang for the last time before him one of those liturgical +chants which long ago at Milan had touched him even to tears, and now, +since the siege, in the panic caused by the Barbarians, they dared not sing +any more. Augustin, guarding himself even now against the too poignant +sweetness of the melody, attended only to the sense of the words. And he +said: + +"My soul thirsts after the living God. When shall I appear before His +face?" + +Or again: + +"He Who is Life has come down into this world. He has suffered our death, +and He has caused it to die by the fullness of His life.... Life has come +down to you--and will you not ascend towards Him and live?..." + +He was passing into Life and into Glory. He was going very quietly, amid +the chanting of hymns and the murmur of prayers.... Little by little his +eyes were veiled, the lines of his face became rigid. His lips moved no +more. Possidius, the faithful disciple, bent over him. Like a patriarch of +the Scriptures, Augustin of Thagaste "slept with his fathers."... + + * * * * * + +And now, whatever may be the worth of this book, which has been planned +and carried out in a spirit of veneration and love for the saint, for the +great heart and the great intellect that Augustin was, for this unique type +of the Christian, the most perfect and the most admirable perhaps that +has ever been seen--the author can only repeat in all humility what was +said fifteen hundred years ago by the Bishop of Guelma, Augustin's first +biographer: + +"I do desire of the charity of those into whose hands this work shall fall, +to join with me in thanksgiving and blessing to Our Lord, Who has inspired +me to make known this life to those present and those absent, and has given +me the strength to do it. Pray for me and with me, that I may try here +below to follow in the steps of this peerless man, whom, by God's goodness, +I have had the happiness of living with for such a long time...." + + +THE END + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Saint Augustin, by Louis Bertrand + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAINT AUGUSTIN *** + +This file should be named 8agst10.txt or 8agst10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8agst11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8agst10a.txt + +Produced by Charles Aldorondo, Tiffany Vergon, William Flis, +and Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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