1026 THraD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
In this process of training, next to tlie Holy Scriptures the scholarship of Jerome and the theology and fertile ideas of Augustine were the most important intellectual agent.
Augustine was held in so universal esteem that he could exert influence iu all directions, and even in his excesses gave no ofl'ence. He was sufficiently catholic for the principle of church authority, and yet at the same time so free and evauffelical that he modified its hierarchical and sacramental character, reacted against its tendencies to outward, mechanical ritualism, and kept alive a deep consciousness of sin and grace, and a spirit of fervent and truly Christian piety, until that spirit grew strong enough to break the shell of hierarchica]. tutelage, and enter a new stage of its development. No other father could have acted more beneficently on the Catholicism of the middle age, and more successfully provided for the evangelical Reformation tlian St. Augustine, the worthy successor of Paul, and the precursor of Luther and Calvin.
Had he lived at the time of the Reformation, he would in all probability have taken the lead of the evangelical movement against the prevailing Pelagianism of the Roman church. For we must not forget that, notwithstanding their strong affinity, there is an important diflference between Catholicism and Romanism or Popery. They sustain a similar relation to each other as the Judaism of the Old Testament dispensation, which looked to, and prepared the way for, Christianity, and
barbares musulmans ; il a succombe alors, quoiqu'il fiit k I'dtat d'institution, d'eglise constituee. A bien plus forte raisou le meme fait aurait pu arriver au moment de la cliute de I'empire romain. II n'y avait alors aucuu des moyens par lesqnela aujoiird'hui los influences morales s'ctablisscnt ou resistant independarament des institutions, ancun des raoyens par lesquels une pure verite, une pure idee acquiert un grand empire sur les esprits, gouveriic les actions, determine des 6v6nemcns. Rien de semblable n'existait au IV'- siicle, pour donnor aux idces, aux sentiments personels, une pareille autorite. II est clair qu'il fallait une soeiotij fortcment orga. aisf^e, fortement gouvernee, pour lutter centre uu pared d^sastrc, pour sortir victo« rieuse d'un tel ouragan. Je ne crois pas trop dire en affirmant qu',\ la fin du IV" et au commencement du V" siecle, c'est I'eglise chretienne qui a sauvi le cbria. tianisme ; c'est Teglise avec sea institutions, sea magistrals, son pouvoir, qui s'est defondue vigourcusement contre la dissolution interieure de Tcmpire, contre la bar barie, qui a conquis les barbares, qui est devenuu Ic lien, le moyen, le principe d« eivilisatioQ enlre le monde romain et Ic monde barbare."
§ 180. AUGUSTIIJE's relation to CATHOLICISM, ETC. 1021
the Judaism after the crucifixion and after the destruction of Jerusalem, which is antagonistic to Christianity. Catliolicism .covers the entire ancient and mediaeval history of the cliurch, and includes the Pauline, Augustinian, or evangelical tendencies which increased with the corruptions of the papacy and the growing sense of the necessity of a " reformatio in capite et membris." Romanism proper dates from the council of Trent. which gave it symbolical expression and anathematized the doctrines of the Reformation. Catholicism is the strength of Romanism, Romanism is the weakness of Catholicism. Catholicism produced Jansenism, Popery condemned it. Popery never forgets and never learns anything, and can allow no change in doctrine (except by way of addition), without sacrificing its fundamental principle of infallibility, and thus committing suicide. But Catholicism may ultimately burst the chains of Popery which have so long kept it confined, and may assume new life and vigor.
Such a personage as Augustine, still holding a mediating place between tlie two great divisions of Christendom, revered alike by both, and of equal influence with both, is furthermore a welcome pledge of the elevating prospect of a future recon- ^siliation of Catholicism and Protestantism in a higher unity, conserving all the truths, losing all the errors, forgiving all the sins, forgetting all the enmities of both. After all, tho contradiction between authority and freedom, the objective and the subjective, the churchly and the personal, the organic and the individual, the sacramental and the experimental in religion, is not absolute, but relative and temporary, and arises not so much from the nature of things, as from the deficiencies of man's knowledge and piety in this world. These elements admit of an ultimate harmony in the perfect state of the church, corresponding to the union of the divine and human natures, which transcends the limits of finite thought and logical comprehension, and is yet completely realized in the person of Christ. They are in fact united in the theological system of St. Paul, who had the highest view of the church, as the mystical " body of Christ," and " the pillar and ground of the truth," and who was at the same time the great cham