THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
made a connecting link between monasticism and the secular clergy. Other details of this period are that he appealed to Aurelius, bishop of Carthage, to suppress the custom of holding banquets and entertainments in the churches, and by 395 had succeeded, through his courageous eloquence, in abolishing it in Hippo; that in 392 a public disputation took place between him and a Manichean presbyter of Hippo, Fortunatus; that his treatise De fide et symbolo was prepared to be read before the council held at Hippo October 8, 393; and that after that he was in Carthage for a while, perhaps in connection with the synod held there in 394.
The intellectual interests of these four years are more easily determined, principally concerned as they are with the Manichean controversy, and producing the treatises De utilitate cre- 12. Begin- dendi (391), De duabus animabus connings of tra Manichceos (first half of 392), and Polemic Contra Adimantum (394 or 395). His Activity, activity against the Donatists also begins in this period, but he is still more occupied with the Manicheans, both from the recollections of his own past and from his increasing knowledge of Scripture, which appears, together with a stronger hold on the Church's teaching, in the works just named, and even more in others of this period, such as his expositions of the Sermon on the Mount and of the Epistles to the Romans and the Galatians. Full as the writings of this epoch are, however, of Biblical phrases and terms, — grace and the law, predestination, vocation, justification, regeneration — a reader who is thoroughly acquainted with Neoplatonism will detect Augustine's old love of it in a Christian dress in not a few places. He has entered so far into St. Paul's teaching that humanity as a whole appears to him a massa peccati or peccatorum, which, if left to itself, that is, without the grace of God, must inevitably perish. However much we are here reminded of the later Augustine, it is clear that he still held the belief that the free will of man could decide his own destiny. He knew some who saw in Romans ix an unconditional predestination which took away the freedom of the will; but he was still convinced that this was not the Church's teaching. His opinion on this point did not change till after he was a bishop.
2. Work as Bishop: The more widely known Augustine became, the more Valerius, the bishop of Hippo, was afraid of losing him on the first vacancy of some neighboring see, and desired to fix him permanently in Hippo by making him coadjutor-bishop,— a desire in which the i. Election people ardently concurred. Augusto the tine was strongly opposed to the pro- Bishopric, ject, though possibly neither he nor Valerius knew that it might be held to be a violation of the eighth canon of Nicsea, which forbade in its last clause " two bishops in one city " (Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, i,407 sqq., Eng. transl., i, 409-4 10); and the primate of Numidia, Megalius of Calama, seems to have raised difficulties which sprang at least partly from a personal lack of confidence. But Valerius carried his plan through, and not long
before Christmas, 395, Augustine was consecrated by Megalius. It is not known when Valerius died; but it makes little difference, since for the rest of his life he left the administration more and more in the hands of his assistant.
A complete narration of Augustine's doings during the thirty-five years in which he was the glory of the little diocese would require a history of the African, almost of the whole Western, Church. Here we can do no more than briefly discuss some things which constitute his importance to later Christianity, and mention a few important biographical facts. Further details will be found in the articles Donatism, Pelagius, Semipelagianism, Monasticism, Noeth African Church. The life of Augustine by his friend Possidius shows that its author was possessed by the de- 2. Possid- sire to erect a suitable memorial to a ius's View of man who was destined to have a last- Augustine's ing importance in the history of the Services. Church; it is much more than a mere product of hagiography. He considers Augustine first as an author who has left so many works in refutation of heresy and encouragement of piety that few even of diligent students can master them all; and he feels himself therefore bound to include a brief account of his subject's literary activity. Then he deals with the services which Augustine rendered to the peace and unity of the Church by his labors against the Donatists; and finally he attributes to Augustine's encouragement of monasticism much of its growth, together with an actual regeneration of the clerical life. His view on the two latter points, if colored a little by the local point of view, is still the respectable opinion of a contemporary; but it does not altogether agree with the deliberate historical judgment of posterity. The Vandal invasion, which came like a spring frost upon the young life of the African Church, and the Mohammedan conquests, both prevented Augustine's labors from having their full effect in Africa. Leaving aside for the moment the influence of his writings, one may really say that the condemnation of Pelagianism was the only permanant result of his work.
But his writings have continued to exert such an influence, by no means confined to the time of the early Church nor to African soil, as no other Father before or since has ever attained. 3. Doctrinal If we look to the posthumous effects Importance they have had, we may agree with the of Augus- verdict of Possidius, and carry it tine. further than was possible to a contemporary. Augustine is practically the father of all western Christianity after his time. It is true that Catholicism has never officially accepted his doctrine of grace in its entirety; but this fact is of relatively slight importance when we think of the colossal influence which his writings have had upon the gradual shaping of the Church's doctrine as a whole — there is scarcely a single Roman Catholic dogma which is historically intelligible without reference to his teaching. And it is not only the dogmas of the Western Church over which he has exerted an unparalleled influence; its hierarchical and its scientific development both derive from