[71] It is well known that Luther, as late as 1526, in his work, De servo arbitrio, against Erasmus, which he never retracted, proceeded upon the most rigorous notion of the divine omnipotence, wholly denied the freedom of will, declared it a mere lie (merum mendacium), pronounced the calls of the Scriptures to repentance a divine irony, and based eternal salvation and eternal perdition upon the secret will of God; in all this he almost exceeded Calvin. See particulars in the books on doctrine-history; the inaugural dissertation of Jul. Müller: Lutheri de prædestinatione et libero arbitrio doctrina, Gött. 1832; and a historical treatise on predestination by Carl Beck in the "Studien und Kritiken" for 1847. We add, as a curiosity, the opinion of Gibbon (ch. xxxiii.), who, however, had a very limited and superficial knowledge of Augustin: "The rigid system of Christianity which he framed or restored, has been entertained, with public applause, and secret reluctance, by the Latin church. The church of Rome has canonized Augustin, and reprobated Calvin. Yet as the real difference between them is invisible even to a theological microscope, the Molinists are oppressed by the authority of the saint, and the Jansenists are disgraced by their resemblance to the heretic. In the mean while the Protestant Arminians stand aloof, and deride the mutual perplexity of the disputants. Perhaps a reasoner, still more independent, may smile in his turn when he peruses an Arminian commentary on the Epistle to the Romans." Nourrisson (ii. 179), from his Roman stand-point, likewise makes Lutheranism to consist "essentiellement dans la question du libre arbitre." But the principle of Lutheranism, and of Protestantism generally, is the supremacy of the Holy Scriptures as a rule of faith, and salvation by free grace through faith in Christ.
[72] On the mighty influence of Augustin in the seventeenth century in France, especially on the noble Jansenists, see the works on Jansenism, and also Nourrisson, l. c. tom. ii. pp. 186-276.
[73] Guizot, the Protestant historian and statesman, very correctly says in his Histoire générale de la civilisation en Europe (Deuxième lecon, p. 45 sq. ed. Bruxelles, 1850): "S'il n'eût pas été une église, je ne sais ce qui en serait avenu au milieu de la chute de l'empire romain....Si le christianisme n'eût été comme dans les premiers temps, qu'une croyance, un sentiment, une conviction individuelle, on peut croire qu'il aurait succombé au milieu de la dissolution de l'empire et de l'invasion des barbares. Il a succombé plus tard, en Asie et dans tous le nord de l'Afrique, sous une invasion de même nature, sous l'invasion des barbares musulmans; il a succombé alors, quoiqu'il fût à l'êtat d'institution, d'église constituée. A bien plus forte raison le même fait aurait pu arriver au moment de la chute de l'empire romain. Il n'y avait alors aucun des moyens par lesquels aujourd'hui les influences morales s'établissent ou résistent indépendamment des institutions, aucun des moyens par lesquels une pure vérité, une pure idée acquiert un grand empire sur les esprits, gouverne les actions, dêtermine des événemens. Rien de semblable n'existait au IV^e siècle, pour donner aux idées, aux sentiments personels, une pareille autorité. Il est clair qu'il fallait une société fortement organisée, fortement gouvernée, pour lutter contre un pareil désastre, pour sortir victorieuse d'un tel ouragan. Je ne crois pas trop dire en affirmant qu'à la fin du IV^e et au commencement du V^e siècle, c'est l'église chrétienne qui a sauvé le christianisme; c'est l'église avec ses institutions, ses magistrats, son pouvoir, qui s'est défendue vigoureusement contre la dissolution intérieure de l'empire, contre la barbarie, qui a conquis les barbares, qui est devenue le lien, le moyen, le principe dé civilisation entre le monde romain et le monde barbare."
Chief Events in the Life of St. Augustin.
(as Given, Nearly, in the Benedictine Edition).
354. Augustin born at Tagaste, Nov. 13; his parents, Patricius and Monnica; shortly afterwards enrolled among the Catechumens.
370. Returns home from studying Rhetoric at Madaura, after an idle childhood, and from idleness falls into dissipation and sin.
371. Patricius dies; Augustin supported at Carthage by his mother, and his friend Romanianus; forms an illicit connection.
372. Birth of his son Adeodatus.
373. Cicero's Hortensius awakens in him a strong desire for true wisdom.
374. He falls into the Manichæan heresy, and seduces several of his acquaintances into it. His mother's earnest prayers for him; she is assured of his recovery.
376. Teaches Grammar at Tagaste; but soon returns to Carthage to teach Rhetoric--gains a prize.
379. Is recovered from study of Astrology--writes his books De pulchro et apto.
382. Discovers the Manichæans to be in error, but falls into scepticism. Goes to Rome to teach Rhetoric.
385. Removes to Milan; his errors gradually removed through the teaching of Ambrose, but he is held back by the flesh; becomes again a Catechumen.
386. Studies St. Paul; converted through a voice from heaven; gives up his profession; writes against the Academics; prepares for Baptism.
387. Is baptized by Bishop Ambrose, with his son Adeodatus. Death of his mother, Monnica, in her fifty-sixth year, at Ostia.
388. Aug. revisits Rome, and then returns to Africa. Adeodatus, full of promise, dies.
389. Aug. against his will ordained Presbyter at Hippo by Valerius, its Bishop.
392. Writes against the Manichæans.
394. Writes against the Donatists.
395. Ordained Assistant Bishop to Valerius, toward the end of the year.
396. Death of Bishop Valerius. Augustin elected his successor.
397. Aug. writes the Confessions, and the De Tinitate against the Arians.
398. Is present at the fourth Council of Carthage.
402. Refutes the Epistle of Petilianus, a Donatist.
404. Applies to Cæcilianus for protection against the savageness of the Donatists.
408. Writes De urbis Romæ obsidione.
411. Takes a prominent part in a conference between the Catholic Bishops and the Donatists.
413. Begins the composition of his great work De Civitate Dei, completed in 426.
417. Writes De gestis Palæstinæ synodi circa Pelagium.
420. Writes against the Priscillianists.
424. Writes against the Semipelagians.
426. Appoints Heraclius his successor.
428. Writes the Retractations.
429. Answers the Epistles of Prosper and Hilary.
430. Dies Aug. 28, in the third month of the siege of Hippo by the Vandals.
St. Aurelius Augustin
Bishop of Hippo
The Confessions of St. Augustin
In Thirteen Books
Translated and Annotated by
J.G. Pilkington, M.A.,
Vicar of St. Mark's, West Hackney; And Sometime Clerical Secretary of theBishop of London's Fund.
"Thou has formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee."--Confessions, i. 1.
"The joy of the solemn service of Thy house constraineth to tears, when it is read of Thy younger son [Luke xv. 24] that he was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.'"--Ibid. viii. 6.
Translator's Preface
------------------------
"If St. Augustin," says Nourrisson [74] , "had left nothing but his Confessions and the City of God, one could readily understand the respectful sympathy that surrounds his memory. How, indeed, could one fail to admire in the City of God the flight of genius, and in the Confessions, what is better still, the effusions of a great soul?" It may be safely predicted, that while the mind of man yearns for knowledge, and his heart seeks rest, the Confessions will retain that foremost place in the world's literature which it has secured by its sublime outpourings of devotion and profound philosophical spirit. There is in the book a wonderful combination of childlike piety and intellectual power. Desjardins' idea, [75] that, while in Augustin's other works we see the philosopher or the controversialist, here we see the man, is only to be accepted as a comparative statement of Augustin's attitude in the Confessions; for philosophy and piety are in many of his reflections as it were molten into one homogeneous whole. In his highest intellectual flights we find the breathings of faith and love, and, amid the profoundest expressions of penitential sorrow, gleams of his metaphysical genius appear.
It may, indeed, be from the man's showing himself so little, as distinguished from the philosopher, that some readers are a little disappointed in the book. They have expected to meet with a copiousness of biographic details, and have found, commingled with such as are given, long disquisitions on Manichæanism, Time, Creation, and Memory. To avoid such disappointment we must ascertain the author's design. The book is emphatically not an autobiography. There is in it an outline of the author's life up to his mother's death; but only so much of detail is given as may subserve his main purpose. That purpose is clearly explained in the fourth section of his Tenth Book. It was that the impenitent on reading it might not say, "I cannot," and "sleep in despair," but rather that, looking to that God who had raised the writer from his low estate of pride and sin to be a pillar of the Church, he might take courage, and "awake in the sweetness of His grace, by which he that is weak is made strong;" and that those no longer in sin might rejoice and praise God as they heard of the past lusts of him who was now freed from them. [76] This, his design of encouraging penitence and stimulating praise, is referred to in his Retractations, [77] and in his Letter to Darius. [78]
These two main ideas are embodied in the very meaning of the title of the book, the word confession having, as Augustin constantly urges, two meanings. In his exposition of the Psalms we read: "Confession is understood in two senses, of our sins, and of God's praise. Confession of our sins is well known, so well known to all the people, that whenever they hear the name of confession in the lessons, whether it is said in praise or of sin, they beat their breasts." [79] Again: "Confession of sin all know, but confession of praise few attend to." [80] "The former but showeth the wound to the physician, the latter giveth thanks for health." [81] He would therefore have his hearers make the sacrifice of praise their ideal, since, in the City of God, even in the New Jerusalem, there will be no longer confession of sin, but there will be confession of praise. [82] It is not surprising, that with this view of confession he should hinge on the incidents of his life such considerations as tend to elevate the mind and heart of the reader. When, for example, he speaks of his youthful sins, [83] he diverges into a disquisition on the motives to sin; when his friend dies, [84] he moralizes on death; and--to give one example of a reverse process--his profound psychological review of memory [85] recalls his former sin (which at times haunts him in his dreams), and leads up to devout reflections on God's power to cleanse from sin. This undertone of penitence and praise which pervades the Confessions in all its episodes, like the golden threads which run through the texture of an Eastern garment, presents one of its peculiar charms.
It would not be right to overlook a charge that has been brought against the book by Lord Byron. He says, "Augustin in his fine Confessions makes the reader envy his transgressions." Nothing could be more reckless or further from the truth than this charge. There is here no dwelling on his sin, or painting it so as to satisfy a prurient imagination. As we have already remarked, Augustin's manner is not to go into detail further than to find a position from which to "edify" the reader, and he treats this episode in his life with his characteristic delicacy and reticence. His sin was dead; and he had carried it to its burial with tears of repentance. And when, ten years after his baptism, he sets himself, at the request of some, to a consideration of what he then was at the moment of making his confessions, [86] he refers hardly at all to this sin of his youth; and such allusions as he does make are of the most casual kind. Instead of enlarging upon it, he treats it as past, and only speaks of temptation and sin as they are common to all men. Many of the French writers on the Confessions [87] institute a comparison in this matter between the confessions of Augustin and those of Rousseau. Pressensé [88] draws attention to the delicacy and reserve which characterise the one, and the arrogant defiance of God and man manifested in the other. The confessions of the one he speaks of as "un grand acte de repentir et d'amour;" and eloquently says, "In it he seems, like the Magdalen, to have spread his box of perfumes at the foot of the Saviour; from his stricken heart there exhales the incense most agreeable to God--the homage of true penitence." The other he truly describes as uttering "a cry of triumph in the very midst of his sin, and robing his shame in a royal purple." Well may Desjardins [89] express surprise at a book of such foulness coming from a genius so great; and perhaps his solution of the enigma is not far from the truth, when he attributes it to an overweening vanity and egotism. [90]