§ 178. AUGUSTINE. 989
oughly reliable critical edition of Augustine is still a desideratum. Oc the controversies relating to the merits of the Bened. edition, see tha supplementary volume of Migne, xii. p. 40 sqq., and Thtjilliee: His toire de la nouvelle ed. de S. Aug. par lea PP. Benedictins, Par. I73(i The first printed edition of Augustine appeared at Basle, 1489-'95 ; anotlier, a. 1509, in 11 vols. (I have a copy of this edition in black letter, but without a title page) ; then the edition of Erasmus published by Frobenius, Bas. 1528-'29, in 10 vols. fol. : the Editio Lovaniensis, or of the divines of Louvain, Antw. 1577, in 11 vols., and often. Several works of Augustine have been often separately edited, especially the Confessions and the City of God. Compare a full list of the editions down to 1794 in SonoNEMAXN's Bibliotheca, vol. ii. p. 73 sqq. II. PossiDius (Oalameusis episcopus, a pupil and friend of Aug.) : Vita Augustini (brief, but authentic, written 482, two years after his death, in torn. X. Append. 257-280, ed. Bened., and in nearly all other editions). Benediotini Editores: Vita Augustini ex ejus poti>simum scriptis concinnata, in 8 books (very elaborate and extensive), in torn. xi. 1-492, ed. Bened. (in Migne's reprint, toin. i. pp. 66-578). The biographies of Tillemont (Mem. torn, xiii.) ; Ellies Dupin (Nouvelle bibliotheque des auteurs ecclesiastiques, torn. ii. and iii.) ; P. Baylh (Dictionnaire liistorique et critique, art. Augustin); Remi Ceillier (Histoire generale des auteurs sacres et eccles., vol. xi. and xii.) ; Cave (Lives of the Fathers, vol. ii.); Kloth (Der heil. Aug., Aachen, 1840, 2 vols.) ; BoHRiNGER (Kirchengescliichte in Biographien, vol. i. P. iii. p. 99 ff.) ; Poujoulat (Histoire de S. Aug. Par. 1843 and 1852, 2 vols. ; the same in German by Fr. Eurter^ Schaff h. 1847, 2 vols.) ; EiSEJTBARTH (Stuttg. 1853); Pii. Schaff (St. Augustine, Berlin, 1854; English ed. New York and London, 1854); C. Bindemann (Der heil. Aug., vol. i. Berl. 1844; vol. ii. 1855, incom;)lete). BRAtnsTE: Monica und Augustin. Grirama, 1846. Comp. also the literature at § 146, p. 783.
The PMloso-phy of Augustine is discussed in the larger Histories of Philosophy by Bruoker, Tennemann, Rixner, H. Ritter (vol. vi, pp. 153—443), HuBER (Philosophie der Kirchenviiter), and in the following works: Theod. Gangauf: Metaphysische Psychologie des heil. Augustinus. Iste Abtheilung, Augsburg, 1852. T. Thert: Le genie philosophique et litteraire de saint Augustin. Par. 18G1. Abb6 Flottes: Etudes sur saint Aug., son genie, son ame, sa philosophie. Par. 1861. Nodrrisson: La philosophie de saint Augustin (ouvraga couronne par I'Institut de France), deuxi^me ed. Par. 1866, 2 vols.
It is a venturesome and delicate undertaking to write one's own life, even though that life be a masterpiece of nature or
990 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
of tLe grace of God, and therefore most worthy to be described Of all autobiograj^hies none has so happily avoided the reef of vanity and self-praise, and none has won so mnch esteem and love through its honesty and humility as that of St. Augustine.
The " Confessions," which he wrote in the forty-fourth year ol his life, still burning in the ardor of his first love, are full of the tire and unction of tlie Holy Gliost. They are a sublime effusion, in which Augustine, like David in the fifty-first Psalm, confesses to God, in view of his own and of succeeding generations, without reserve the sins of his youth ; and they are at tlie same time a hymn of praise to the grace of God, which led him out of darkness into light, and called him to service in the kingdom of Christ." Here we see the great church teacher of all times " prostrate in the dust, conversing with God, basking in his love ; his readers hovering before him only as a shadow." He puts away fi'om himself all honor, all greatness, all beauty, and lays thorn gratefully at the feet of the All-merciful. The reader feels on every hand that Christianity is no dream nor illusion, but truth and life, and he is carried along in adoration of the wonderful grace of God.
AuKKLiDS AuGUSTiNus, born on the 13th of November, 354,' At Tagaste, an unimportant village of the fertile province Xumidia in Xorth Africa, not far from Hippo Regius, inherited from his heathen father, Patricius,' a passionate sensibility, from his Christian mother, Monica (one of the noblest women in the history of Christianity, of a highly intellectual and spiritual cast, of fervent piety, most tender afiection, and all-conpicrijig love), the deep yearning towards God so grandly ex-
* Augiistinc liimself says of his Confessions : " Confcssionum meanim libri tredecim ct dc malis ct de bonis meis Dcum laudaiit jnstiini et l>onuni, attpie 'n e<ini lixcjtant humanum intellGCtiim et afFectuni." Retract. 1. ii. c. 0.
- He died, according to the Chronicle of his friend and pupil Prosper Aquitanue, the 28th of August, 430 (in the third month of the siege of Hippo by the Vandals) ; according to his biographer Possidius he lived seventy-six years. The day of his buth Augustine states himself, De vita beata, § 6 (torn. i. 300): " Idibus Novtjmbris Willi natalis dies erat."
' He received baptism shortly before liis death.