1014 THERD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590,
status of tnc officiating priest ; Ad Catholicos EpistoL. ( o.itra Doiiatistas, vulgo De unitate ecclesise (402) ; Contra Cresco- Qiuna grammaticiim Donatistam (406) ; Breviculus collationiu cum Doiiatistis, a slioit account of the tlirce-days' religious conference with tlie Donatists (411) ; De correctione Donatistaruni (417) ; Contra Gaudentium, Donat. Episcopum, the last anti-Donatistic work (420).'
4. The anti-Aeian works have to do with the deity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost, and with the Holy Trinity. By far the most important of these are the tifteen books De Trinitate (400-416) ; — the most profound and discriminating production of the ancient church on the Trinity, in no respect inferior to the kindred works of At.hanasius and the two Gregories, and for centuries final to the dogma.* This may also be counted among the positive didactic works, for it is not directly controversial. Tlie CoUatio cum Maximino Ariano, an obscure babbler, belongs to the year 428.
5. The numerous anti-Pelagian works of Augustine arc liis most influential and most valuable. They were written Itetween the years 412 and 429. In them Augustine, in his intellectual and spiritual prime, developes his system of anthropology and soteriology, and most nearly approaches the position of evangelical Protestantism : On the Guilt and the Remission of Sins, and Infant Baptism (412) ; On tlie Spirit and the Letter (413); On Nature and Grace (415); On the Acts of Pelagius (417) ; On the Grace of Christ, and Original Sin (418) ; On Marriage and Concupiscence (419) ; On Grace and Free Will (42(3) ; On Discipline and Grace (427) ; Against Julian of Eclanum (two large works, written between 421 and 429, the second unfinished, and hence called Opus impcrfectum) ; On the Predestination of the Saints (428) ; On the Gift of Perseverance (429) ; &c.'
' All these in torn. ix. Coinp. above, §§ 69 and 70.
' Tom. viii. ed. Bened. p. 749 sqq. Comp. § 131, above. The work was stolt-fl from him by some impatient friends before revision, and before the completion of the twelfth book, so that he became much discouraged, and coi'ld only be moved tc finish it by urgent entreaties.
* Opera, torn, x., in two parts, with an Appendix. The same in Migue. Comp SJ IIC-ICO, above.
§ 179, THE WORKS OF AUGUSTmE. 101£
YI. ExEGETicAL works. The best of these are : De Genesi ad literani (The Genesis word for word), in twelve books, an extended exposition of the fii-st three chapters of Genesis, particularly the history of the creation literally interpreted, though with many mystical and allegorical interpretations also (written between 401 and 415) ; ' Enarrationes in Psalmoa (mostly sermons) ; '' the hundred and twenty-four Homilies on the Gospel of John (416 and 417) ; ' the ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John (417) ; the Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount (393) ; the Harmony of the Gospels (De consensu evangclistarum, 400); the Epistle to the Galatians (394) ; and the unfinished commentary on the Epistle to the Ilomans.*
Augustine deals more in lively, profound, and edifying thoughts on the Scriptures than in proper grammatical and historical exposition, for which neither he nor his readers had the necessary linguistic knowledge, disposition, or taste. He grounded his theology less upon exegesis than upon his Christian and churchly mmd, saturated with Scriptural truths.
YIL Ethical or Pkacticai. and Ascetic works. Among tliese belong three hundred and ninety-six Sermones (mostly very short) de Scripturis (on texts of Scripture), de tempore (festival sermons), de Sanctis (in memory of apostles, martyi'S, and saints), and de diversis (on various occasions), some of them dictated by Augustine, some taken down by hearers/ Also various moral treatises : De continentia (395) ; De men-
■ Tom. iii. 117-324. Not to be confounded with two other books on Genesis, in which he defends the biblical doctrine of creation against the Manichaeans. In this exegetical work he aimed, as he says, Retract, ii. c. 24, to interpret Genesia " non secundum allegoricas significationes, sed secundum rerum gestarum proprietatem." The work is more original and spirited than the Hexaemeron of Basil or of Ambrose.
^ Tom. iv,, the whole volume.
^ Tom. iii., 289-824.
' All in tom. iii.
* Tom. v., which contains besides these a multitude (31*7) of doubtful and spur! ous sermons, likewise divided into four classes. To these must be added recentlj discovered sermons, edited from manuscripts in Florence, Monte Cassino, etc., bj M. Denis (1792), 0. F. Frangipane (1820), A. L. Caillah (Paris, 1836), and AaoELf Mai (in the Nova Bibliotheca Patrum).