Augustine, Saint, of Canterbury

AUGUSTINE (AUSTIN), SAINT, OF CANTERBURY: The apostle to the English and first archbishop of Canterbury; d. at Canterbury May 26, 604 or 605. When first heard of he was praepositus (prior) of the monastery of St. Andrew, founded by Gregory the Great in Rome, and was sent by Gregory in 596 at the head of a mission of forty monks to preach to the Anglo-Saxons. They lost heart on the way and Augustine went back to Rome from Provence and asked that the mission be given up. The pope, however, commanded and encouraged them to proceed, and they landed on the Island of Thanet in the spring of 597. They found the way not unprepared as Bertha, daughter of Charibert of Paris and wife of Ethelbert, king of Kent, was a Christian and was allowed to worship God in her own way. Ethelbert permitted the missionaries to settle and preach in his town of Canterbury and before the end of the year he was converted and Augustine was consecrated bishop at Arles. At Christmas 10,000 of the king's subjects were baptized. Augustine sent a report of his success to Gregory with certain rather petty questions concerning his work, which do not indicate a great mind. In 601 Mellitus (q.v.) and others brought the pope's replies, with the pallium for Augustine and a present of sacred vessels, vestments, relics, books, and the like. Gregory directed the new archbishop to ordain as soon as possible twelve suffragan bishops and to send a bishop to York, who should also have twelve suffragans,- a plan which was not carried out, nor was the primatial see established at London as Gregory intended. More practicable were the pope's mandates concerning heathen temples and usages; the former were to be consecrated to Christian service and the latter, so far as possible, to be transformed into dedication ceremonies or feasts of martyrs, since "he who would climb to a lofty height must go up by steps, not leaps" (letter of Gregory to Mellitus, in Bede, i, 30). Augustine reconsecrated and rebuilt an old church at Canterbury as his cathedral and founded a monastery in connection with it. He also restored a church and founded the monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul outside the walls. His attempts to effect a union with the old British Church in Wales failed. See ANGLOSAXONS, CONVERSION OF THE; CELTIC CHURCH IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: The important sources are Bede, Hist. eccl., i, 23-ii, 3 and the letters of Gregory the Great (in Haddan and Stubbs. Councils, iii, 5-38). The thirteenth oentenary of Augustine's mission in 1897 called forth a number of publications, including an edition of the chapters of Bede, with introduction, by A. Snow, O. S. B., London, 1897. and The Mission of St. Augustine to England according to the Original Documents ed. A. J. Mason, Cambridge, 1897, which gives everything of importance in Latin and English (cf. also Haddan and Stubbs, ut sup., iii, 3-60). Monographs of a more popular character were issued by G. F. Browne Augustine and his Companions, London, 1895; E. L. Cutts, Augustine o/ Canterbury, ib. 1895; Brou, S. J., St. Augustin de Canterbury et see compagnons, Paris, 1897, Eng transl. London 1897 F. A. Gasquet, The Mission of St. Augustine, ib. 1897; W. E. Collins, Beginnings of English Christianity: Coming of St. Aupustine, ib. 1898 (brief but scholarly); mention may be made also of DNB 1885 ii, 255-257; W. Hook, Lives of as Archbishops of Canterbury. Vol. i, London, 1860; E. Bassenge, Dis Sendunp Augustine sur Bekehrunp der Angel.. , Leipsic, 1890; A- P. Stanley, Historical Memorials of Canterbury, pp. 19-55, London, 1883- G. F. Maclear. Apostles of Medieval Europe, pp. 87-98, London, 1888; W. Bright, Early English Church History, pp 40-109, Oxford. 1897. The life of Augustine is included in Cardinal Newman 's Lives of the English Saints, London, 1845.

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AUGUSTINE, SAINT, OF HIPPO.
I. Life.
    1. Formative Period.
        Sources for a Biography (§1).
        Boyhood. Parental Influences (§2).
        Schooling and Early Marriage (§3).
        Comes Under Manichean Influences (§4).
        Teaches at Thagaste (§5).
        Rejection of Manicheanism. Removal to Rome (§6).
        Life Under Ambrose at Milan (§7).
        Attracted to Neoplatonism (§8).
        Conversion to Christianity (§9).
        Baptism. Ordination in Africa (§10).
        Presbyterate at Hippo ( §11).
        Beginnings of Polemic Activity (§12).
    2. Work as Bishop.
        Election to the Bishopric (§1).
        Possidius's View of Augustine's Services (§2).
        Doctrinal Importance of Augustine (§3).
        Events of His Episcopate (§4).
II. Theology and Writings.
        His Anti-Manicheanism (§1).
        His Anti-Pelagianism (§2).
        Anti-Pelagian Writings(§3).
        Activity Against Donatism (§4).
        Development of His Views (§5).
        Additional Writings (§6).
        Miscellaneous Works (§7).

I. Life:
1. Formative Period:
1. Sources for a Biography. Augustine, bishop of Hippo (Lat. Augustinus; the praenomen Aurelius given by Orosius, Prosper, and others, has no evidence in his own writings, or in letters addressed to him), is not only the most important of the Fathers of the early Church, but at the same time the one best known through a variety of specially full and useful sources. He was one of the most fertile writers of the early period, and the multiplication of his manuscripts has allowed his works to come down relatively complete in number. Among these, the Confessiones and the Retractationes have a unique value for the history of primitive church life, while others are full of biographical details. Moreover, a countryman of his, Possidius, Bishop of Calama, who was in close relations with him for forty years and present at his death, has given us a life which deserves a place of honor in early hagiography. We have thus remarkably satisfactory sources both as to Augustine's life and as to his literary work. He himself, in his Confessiones (written between 397 and 400), has described the events of his first thirty-three years; and for the rest of his life we have both the treatises and letters, which begin about the time when the Confessiones stop, as well as the biography by Possidius. For the historical understanding of his works, as well as for their dates and criticism, Augustine himself has left in the Retractationes (completed at the end of 427) a unique guide. In this review he has taken up each one of his writings, except the letters and sermons, in chronological order, with the purpose of explaining things which might be misconstrued or of restating them in a better way; and Possidius has given us also a comprehensive and systematic list of all the writings, as an appendix to his biography.

2. Boyhood. Parental Influences. Augustine is the first ecclesiastical author the whole course of whose development can be clearly traced, as well as the first in whose case we are able to determine the exact period covered by his career, to the very day. He informs us himself that he was born at Thagaste (Tagaste; now Suk Arras), in proconsular Numidia, Nov. 13, 354; he died at Hippo Regius (just south of the modern Bona) Aug. 28, 430. [Both Suk Arms and Bona are in the present Algeria, the first 60 m. w. by s. and the second 65 m. w. of Tunis, the ancient Carthage.] His father Patricius, as a member of the council, belonged to the influential classes of the place; he was, however, in straitened circumstances, and seems to have had nothing remarkable either in mental equipment or in character, but to have been a lively, sensual, hot-tempered person, entirely taken up with his worldly concerns, and unfriendly to Christianity until the close of his life; he became a catechumen shortly before Augustine reached his sixteenth year (369-370). To his mother Monnica (so the manuscripts write her name, not Monica; b. 331, d. 387) Augustine later believed that he owed what he became. But though she was evidently an honorable, loving, self-sacrificing, and able woman, she was not always the ideal of a Christian mother that tradition has made her appear. Her religion in earlier life has traces of formality and worldliness about it; her ambition for her son seems at first to have had little moral earnestness and she regretted his Manicheanism more than she did his early sensuality. It seems to have been through Ambrose and Augustine that she attained the mature personal piety with which she left the world. Of Augustine as a boy his parents were intensely proud. He received his first education at Thagaste, learning to read and write, as well as the rudiments of Greek and Latin literature, from teachers who followed the old traditional pagan methods. He seems to have had no systematic instruction in the Christian faith at this period, and though enrolled among the catechumens, apparently was near baptism only when an illness and his own boyish desire made it temporarily probable.

3. Schooling and Early Marriage. His father, delighted with his son's progress in his studies, sent him first to the neighboring Madaura, and then to Carthage, some two days' journey away. A year's enforced idleness, while the means for this more expensive schooling were being accumulated, proved a time of moral deterioration; but we must be on our guard against forming our conception of Augustine's vicious living from the Confessiones alone. To speak, as Mommsen does, of "frantic dissipation" is to attach too much weight to his own penitent expressions of self-reproach. Looking back as a bishop, he naturally regarded his whole life up to the "conversion" which led to his baptism as a period of wandering from the right way; but not long after this conversion, he judged differently, and found, from one point of view, the turning point of his career in his taking up philosophy in his nineteenth year. This view of his early life, which may be traced also in the Confessiones, is probably nearer the truth than the popular conception of a youth sunk in all kinds of immorality. When he began the study of rhetoric at Carthage, it is true that (in company with com-

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rades whose ideas of pleasure were probably much more gross than his) he drank of the cup of sensual pleasure. But his ambition prevented him from allowing his dissipations to interfere with his studies. His son Adeodatus was born in the summer of 372, and it was probably the mother of this child whose charms enthralled him soon after his arrival at Carthage about the end of 370. But he remained faithful to her until about 385, and the grief which he felt at parting from her shows what the relation had been. In the view of the civilization of that period, such a monogamous union was distinguished from a formal marriage only by certain legal restrictions, in addition to the informality of its beginning and the possibility of a voluntary dissolution. Even the Church was slow to condemn such unions absolutely, and Monnica seems to have received the child and his mother publicly at Thagaste. In any case Augustine was known to Carthage not as a roysterer but as a quiet honorable student. He was, however, internally dissatisfied with his life. The Hortensius of Cicero, now lost with the exception of a few fragments, made a deep impression on him. To know the truth was henceforth his deepest wish. About the time when the contrast between his ideals and his actual life became intolerable, he learned to conceive of Christianity as the one religion which could lead him to the attainment of his ideal. But his pride of intellect held him back from embracing it earnestly; the Scriptures could not bear comparison with Cicero; he sought for wisdom, not for humble submission to authority.

4. Comes Under Manichean Influences. In this frame of mind he was ready to be affected by the Manichean propaganda which was then actively carried on in Africa, without apparently being much hindered by the imperial edict against assemblies of the sect. Two things especially attracted him to the Manicheans: they felt at liberty to criticize the Scriptures, particularly the Old Testament, with perfect freedom; and they held chastity and self denial in honor. The former fitted in with the impression which the Bible had made on Augustine himself; the latter corresponded closely to his mood at the time. The prayer which he tells us he had in his heart then, " Lord, give me chastity and temperance, but not now," may be taken as the formula which represents the attitude of many of the Manichean auditores. Among these Augustine was classed during his nineteenth year; but he went no further, though he held firmly to Manicheanism for nine years, during which he endeavored to convert all his friends, scorned the sacraments of the Church, and held frequent disputations with catholic believers.

5. Teaches at Thagaste. Having finished his studies, he returned to Thagaste and began to teach grammar, living in the house of Romanianus, a prominent citizen who had been of much service to him since his father's death, and whom he converted to Manicheanism. Monnica deeply grieved at her son's heresy, forbade him her house, until reassured by a vision that promised his restoration. She comforted herself also by the word of a certain bishop (probably of Thagaste) that "the child of so many tears could not be lost." He seems to have spent little more than a year in Thagaste, when the desire for a wider field, together with the death of a dear friend, moved him to return to Carthage as a teacher of rhetoric.

6. Rejection of Manicheanism. Removal to Rome. The next period was a time of diligent study, and produced (about the end of 380) the treatise, long since lost, De pulchro et apto. Meanwhile the hold of Manicheanism on him was loosening. Its feeble cosmology and metaphysics had long since failed to satisfy him, and theastrological superstitions springing from the credulity of its disciples offended his reason. The members of the sect, unwilling to lose him, had great hopes from a meeting with their leader Faustus of Mileve; but when he came to Carthage in the autumn of 382, he too proved disappointing, and Augustine ceased to be at heart a Manichean. He was not yet, however, prepared to put anything in the place of the doctrine he had held, and remained in outward communion with his former associates while he pursued his search for truth. Soon after his Manichean convictions had broken down, he left Carthage for Rome, partly, it would seem, to escape the preponderating influence of his mother on a mind which craved perfect freedom of investigation. Here he was brought more than ever, by obligations of friendship and gratitude, into close association with Manicheans, of whom there were many in Rome, not merely auditores but perfecti or fully initiated members. This did not last long, however, for the prefect Symmachus sent him to Milan, certainly before the beginning of 385, in answer to a request for a professor of rhetoric.

7. Life Under Ambrose at Milan. The change of residence completed Augustine's separation from Manicheanism. He listened to the preaching of Ambrose and by it was made acquainted with the allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures and the weakness of the Manichean Biblical criticism, but he was not yet ready to accept catholic Christianity. His mind was still under the influence of the skeptical philosophy of the later Academy. This was the least satisfactory stage in his mental development, though his external circumstances were increasingly favorable. He had his mother again with him now, and shared a house and garden with her and his devoted friends Alypius and Nebridius, who had followed him to Milan; his assured social position is shown also by the fact that, in deference to his mother's entreaties, he was formally betrothed to a woman of suitable station. As a catechumen of the Church, he listened regularly to the sermons of Ambrose. The bishop, though as yet he knew nothing of Augustine's internal struggles, had welcomed him in the friendliest manner both for his own and for Monnica's sake. Yet Augustine was attracted only by Ambrose's eloquence, not by his faith; now he agreed, and now he questioned. Morally his life was perhaps at its lowest point. On his betrothal, he had put

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away the mother of his son; but neither the grief which he felt at this parting nor regard for his future wife, who was as yet too young for marriage, prevented him from taking a new concubine for the two intervening years. Sensuality, however, began to pall upon him, little as he cared to struggle against it. His idealism was by no means dead; he told Romanian, who came to Milan at this time on business, that he wished he could live altogether in accordance with the dictates of philosophy; and a plan was even made for the foundation of a community retired from the world, which should live entirely for the pursuit of truth. With this project his intention of marriage and his ambition interfered, and Augustine was further off than ever from peace of mind.

8. Attracted to Neoplatonism. In his thirty-first year he was strongly attracted to Neoplatonism by the logic of his development. The idealistic character of this philosophy awoke unbounded enthusiasm, and he was attracted to it also by its exposition of pure intellectual being and of the origin of evil. These doctrines brought him closer to the Church,. though he did not yet grasp the full significance of its central doctrine of the personality of Jesus Christ. In his earlier writings he names this acquaintance with the Neoplatonic teaching and its relation to Christianity as the turning-point of his life, though in the Confessiones it appears only as a stage on the long road of error. The truth, as it may be established by a careful comparison of his earlier and later writings, is that his idealism had been distinctly strengthened by Neoplatonism, which had at the same time revealed his own will, and not a natura altera in him, as the subject of his baser desires. This made the conflict between ideal and actual in his life more unbearable than ever. Yet his sensual desires were still so strong that it seemed impossible for him to break away from them.

9. Conversion to Christianity. Help came in a curious way. A countryman of his, Pontitianus, visited him and told him things which he had never heard about the monastic life and the wonderful conquests over self which had been won under its inspiration. Augustine's pride was touched; that the unlearned should take the kingdom of heaven by violence, while he with all his learning, was still held captive by the flesh, seemed unworthy of him. When Pontitianus had gone, with a few vehement words to Alypius, he went hastily with him into the garden to fight out this new problem. Then followed the scene so often described. Overcome by his conflicting emotions he left Alypius and threw himself down under a fig-tree in tears. From a neighboring house came a child's voice repeating again and again the simple words Tolle, lege, " Take up and read." It seemed to him a heavenly indication; he picked up the copy of St. Paul's epistles which he had left where he and Alypius had been sitting, and opened at Romans xiii. When he came to the words, "Let us walk honestly as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness," it seemed to him that a decisive message had been sent to his own soul, and his resolve was taken. Alypius found a word for himself a few lines further, "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye;" and together they went into the house to bring the good news to Monnica. This was at the end of the summer of 386.

10. Baptism. Ordination in Africa. Augustine, intent on breaking wholly with his old life, gave up his position, and wrote to Ambrose to ask for baptism. The months which intervened between that summer and the Easter of the following year, at which, according to the early custom, he intended to receive the sacrament, were spent in delightful calm at a country-house, put at his disposal by one of his friends, at Cassisiacum (Casciago, 47 m. n. by w. of Milan). Here Monnica, Alypius, Adeodatus, and some of his pupils kept him company, and he still lectured on Vergil to them and held philosophic discussions. The whole party returned to Milan before Easter (387), and Augustine, with Alypius and Adeodatus, was baptized. Plans were then made for returning to Africa; but these were upset by the death of Monnica, which took place at Ostia as they were preparing to cross the sea, and has been described by her devoted son in one of the most tender and beautiful passages of the Confessiones. Augustine remained at least another year in Italy, apparently in Rome, living the same quiet life which he had led at Cassisiacum, studying and writing, in company with his countryman Evodius, later bishop of Uzalis. Here, where he had been most closely associated with the Manicheans, his literary warfare with them naturally began; and he was also writing on free will, though this book was only finished at Hippo in 391. In the autumn of 388, passing through Carthage, he returned to Thagaste, a far different man from the Augustine who had left it five years before. Alypius was still with him, and also Adeodatus, who died young, we do not know when or where. Here Augustine and his friends again took up a quiet, though not yet in any sense a monastic, life in common, and pursued their favorite studies. About the beginning of 391, having found a friend in Hippo to help in the foundation of what he calls a monastery, he sold his inheritance, and was ordained presbyter in response to a general demand, though not without misgivings on his own part.

11. Presbyterate at Hippo. The years which he spent in the presbyterate (391-395) are the last of his formative period. The very earliest works which fall within the time of his episcopate show us the fully developed theologian of whose special teaching we think when we speak of Augustinianism. There is little externally noteworthy in these four years. He took up active work not later than the Easter of 391, when we find him preaching to the candidates for baptism. The plans for a monastic community which had brought him to Hippo were now realized. In a garden given for the purpose by the bishop, Valerius, he founded his monastery, which seems to have been the first in Africa, and is of especial significance because it maintained a clerical school and thus

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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.

12. Beginnings of Polemic Activity. 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 credendi (391), De duabus animabus contra Manichaeos (first half of 392), and Contra Adimantum (394 or 395). His 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:
1. Election to the Bishopric. 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 people ardently concurred. Augustine was strongly opposed to the pro ject, though possibly neither he nor Valerius knew that it might be held to be a violation of the eighth canon of Nicaea, which forbade in its last clause "two bishops in one city" (Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, i, 407 sqq., Eng. transl., i, 409-410) ; 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.

2. Possidius's View of Augustine's Services. 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, NORTH AFRICAN CHURCH. The life of Augustine by his friend Possidius shows that its author was possessed by the desire to erect a suitable memorial to a man who was destined to have a lasting importance in the history of the 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 f'rom 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.

3. Doctrinal Importance of Augustine. 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. If we look to the posthumous effects they have had, we may agree with the verdict of Possidius, and carry it 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

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him. The great struggle between the rival chiefs of medieval Christendom, the pope and the emperor, is explicable in its deepest meaning, intelligible in its course, only from his De civitate Dei; when medieval theology was most active, then it was most under his influence, and the scholastic movement was determined, not only in its speculations but in its very method, by him. From him, again, medieval mysticism, in both its authorized and its heretical forms, received its most decisive impulse; Augustinian influences must be taken into account in the study of all the so-called precursors of the Reformation. When, however, we have called him the father of medieval Catholicism, we have not yet said all. The effect of his teaching in the East has been, to be sure, slight and indirect; but the Reformers made an ally of him. The characteristic notes of what are specifically called the Reformed Churches, in contradistinction to the Lutheran, are especially founded upon Augustinian tradition. In the history of philosophy, too, he has been a force far beyond the Middle Ages; in both Descartes and Spinoza his voice may be distinctly heard.

4. Events of His Episcopate. Space forbids any attempt to trace all the causes of these abiding effects; and in what remains to be said, biographical interest must be largely our guide. We know a considerable number of events in Augustine's episcopal life which can be surely placed -- the so-called third and eighth synods of Carthage in 397 and 403, at which, as at those still to be mentioned, he was certainly present; the disputation with the Manichean Felix at Hippo in 404; the eleventh synod of Carthage in 407; the conference with the Donatists in Carthage, 411; the synod of Mileve, 416; the African general council at Carthage, 418; the journey to Caesarea in Mauretania and the disputation with the Donatist bishop there, 418; another general council in Carthage, 419; and finally the consecration of Eraclius as his assistant in 426. None of these events, however, marks a decisive epoch in his life, which flowed on quietly and evenly during the whole time of his episcopate, except the last few months. Thus it will require careful study to determine the epochs in his intellectual development during this period.

II. Theology:
1. His Anti-Manicheanism. His special and direct opposition to Manicheanism did not last a great while after his consecration. About 397 he wrote a tractate Contra epistolam [Manichaei] quam vocant fundamenti; in the De agone christiano, written about the same time, and in the Confessiones, a little later, numerous anti-Manichean expressions occur. After this, however, he only attacked the Manicheans on some special occasion, as when, about 400, on the request of his "brethren," he wrote a detailed rejoinder to Faustus, a Manichean bishop, or made the treatise De natura boni out of his discussions with Felix; a little later, also, the letter of the Manichean Secundinus gave him occasion to write Contra Secundinum, which, in spite of its comparative brevity, he regarded as the best of his writings on this subject. In the succeeding period, he was much more occupied with anti-Donatist polemics, which in their turn were forced to take second place by the emergence of the Pelagian controversy.

2. His Anti-Pelagianism. It has been thought that Augustine's anti-Pelagian teaching grew out of his conception of the Church and its sacraments as a means of salvation; and attention was called to the fact that before the Pelagian controversy this aspect of the Church had, through the struggle with the Donatists, assumed special importance in his mind. But this conception should be denied. It is quite true that in 395 Augustine's views on sin and grace, freedom and predestination, were not what they afterward came to be. But the new trend was given to them before the time of his anti-Donatist activity, and so before he could have heard anything of Pelagius. What we call Augustinianism was not a reaction against Pelagianism; it would be much truer to say that the latter was a reaction against Augustine's views. He himself names the beginning of his episcopate as the turning-point. Accordingly, in the first thing which he wrote after his consecration, the De diversis quaestianibus ad Simplicianum (396 or 397), we come already upon the new conception. In no other of his writings do we see as plainly the gradual attainment of conviction on any point; as he himself says in the Retractiones, he was laboring for the free choice of the will of man, but the grace of God won the day. So completely was it won, that we might set forth the specifically Augustinian teaching on grace, as against the Pelagians and the Massilians, by a series of quotations taken wholly from this treatise. It is true that much of his later teaching is still undeveloped here; the question of Predestination (though the word is used) does not really come up; he is not clear as to the term "election"; and nothing is said of the "gift of perseverance." But what we get on these points later is nothing but the logical consequence of that which is expressed here, and so we have the actual genesis of Augustine's predestinarian teaching under our eyes. It is determined by no reference to the question of infant baptism -- still less by any considerations connected with the conception of the Church. The impulse comes directly from Scripture, with the help, it is true, of those exegetical thoughts which he mentioned earlier as those of others and not his own. To be sure, Paul alone can not explain this doctrine of grace; this is evident from the fact that the very definition of grace is non-Pauline. Grace is for Augustine, both now and later,not the misericordia peccata condonans of the Reformers, as justification is not the alteration of the relation to God accomplished by means of the accipere remissionem. Grace is rather the misericordia which displays itself in the divine inspiratio, and justification is justum or pium fieri as a result of this. We may even say that this grace is an interna illuminatio such as a study of Augustine's Neoplatonism enables us easily to understand, which restores the connection with the divine bonum ease. He had long been convinced

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that "not only the greatest but also the smallest good things can not be, except from him from whom are all good things, that is, from God;" and it might well seem to him to follow from this that faith, which is certainly a good thing, could proceed from the operation of God alone. This explains the idea that grace works like a law of nature, drawing the human will to God with a divine omnipotence. Of course this Neoplatonic coloring must not be exaggerated; it is more consistent with itself in his earlier writings than in the later, and he would never have arrived at his predestinarian teaching without the New Testament. With this knowledge, we are in a position to estimate the force of a difficulty which now confronted Augustine for the first time, but never afterward left him, and which has been present in the Roman Catholic teaching even down to the Councils of Trent and the Vatican. If faith depends upon an action of our own, solicited but not caused by vocation, it can only save a man when, per fidem gratiam accipiens, he becomes one who not merely believes in God but loves him also. But if faith has been already inspired by grace, and if, while the Scripture speaks of justification by faith, it is held (in accordance with the definition of grace) that justification follows upon the infusio caritatis, --then either the conception of the faith which is God-inspired must pass its fluctuating boundaries and approach nearer to that of caritas, or the conception of faith which is unconnected with caritas will render the fact of its inspiration unintelligible and justification by faith impossible. Augustine's anti-Pelagian writings set forth this doctrine of grace more clearly in some points, such as the terms "election," "predestination," "the gift of perseverance," and also more logically; but space forbids us to show this here, as the part taken in this controversy by Augustine is so fully detailed elsewhere (see PELAGIUS; SEMIPELAGIANISM). An enumeration of his contributions to this subject must suffice.

3. Anti-Pelagian Writings. They are as follows: De peccatorum meritis et remissione (412); De spiritu et litera (412); De natura et gratia contra Pelagium (415); De perfectione justitie hominis (about 415); De gestis Pelagii (417); De gratia Christi et de peccato originali (418) ; De nuptiis et concupiscentia (419 and 420); De anima et ejus origine (about 419), which does not bear directly on Pelagianism, but answers a Pelagianizing critic of Augustine's reserve on the question of traducianism and creationism; Contra duas epistulas Pelagianorum ad Bonifatium, romanos ecclesios episcopum (about 420); Contra Julianum (about 421); De gratia et libero arbitrio (426 or 427); De correptione et gratia (426 or 427); De praedestinatione sanctorum (428 or 429); De dono perseverantiae (428 or 429); and the opus imperfectum written in the last years of his life, Contra secundam Juliani responsionem.

4. Activity Against Donatism. In order to arrive at a decision as to what influence the Donatist controversy had upon Augustine's intellectual development, it is necessary to see how long and how intensely he was concerned with it. We have seen that even before he was a bishop he was defending the catholic Church against the Donatists; and after his consecration he took part directly or indirectly in all the important discussions of the matter, some of which have been already mentioned, and defended the cause of the Church in letters and sermons as well as in his more formal polemical writings. The first of these which belongs to the period of his episcopate, Contra partem Donati, has been lost; about 400 he wrote the two cognate treatises Contra epistulam Parmeniani (the Donatist bishop of Carthage) and De baptismo contra Donatistas. He was considered by the schismatics as their chief antagonist, and was obliged to defend himself against a libelous attack on their part in a rejoinder now lost. From the years 401 and 402 we have the reply to the Donatist bishop of Cirta, Contra epistulam Petiliani, and also the Epistula ad catholicos de unitate ecclesiae. The conflict was now reaching its most acute stage. After the Carthaginian synod of 403 had made preparations for a decisive debate with the Donatists, and the latter had declined to fall in with the plan, the bitterness on both sides increased. Another synod at Carthage the following year decided that the emperor should be asked for penal laws against the Donatists. Honorius granted the request; but the employment of force in matters of belief brought up a new point of discord between the two sides. When these laws were abrogated (409), the plan of a joint conference was tried once more in June, 411, under imperial authority, nearly 300 bishops being present from each side, with Augustine and Aurelius of Carthage as the chief representatives of the catholic cause. In the following year, the Donatists proving insubordinate, Honorius issued a new and severer edict against them, which proved the beginning of the end for the schism. For these years from 405 to 412 we have twenty-one extant letters of Augustine's bearing on the controversy, and there were eight formal treatises, but four of these are lost. Those which we still have are: Contra Cresconium grammaticum (about 406); De unico baptismo (about 410 or 411), in answer to a work of the same name by Petilian; the brief report of the conference (end of 411); and the Liber contra Donatistas post collationem (probably 412). After this date, though he occasionally touched on the question in letters and sermons, he produced practically no more literary polemics in regard to it; we know of one lost anti-Donatist treatise of about 416, and still possess one written for a special occasion Contra Gaudentium, Donatistarum episcopum, about 420; but these are all.

5. Development of His Views. The earliest of the extant works against the Donatists present the same views of the Church and its sacraments which Augustine developed later. The principles which he represented in this conflict are merely those which, in a simpler form, had either appeared in the anti-Donatist polemics before his time or had been part of his own earlier belief. What he did was to formulate them with more dogmatic precision, and to permeate the ordinary controversial theses with his own deep

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thoughts on unitas, caritas, and inspiratio gratiae in the Church, thoughts which again trace their origin back to his Neoplatonic foundations. In the course of the conflict he changed his opinion about the methods to be employed; he had at first been opposed to the employment of force, but later came to the "Compel them to come in" point of view. It may well be doubted, however, if the practical struggle with the schismatics had as much to do with Augustine's development as has been supposed. Far more weight must be attached to the fact that Augustine had become a presbyter and a bishop of the catholic Church, and as such worked continually deeper into the ecclesiastical habit of thought. This was not hard for the son of Monnica and the reverent admirer of Ambrose. His position as a bishop may fairly be said to be the only determining factor in his later views besides his Neoplatonist foundation, his earnest study of the Scripture, and the predestinarian conception of grace which he got from this. Everything else is merely secondary. Thus we find Augustine practically complete by the beginning of his episcopate -- about the time when he wrote the Confessiones. It would be too much to say that his development stood still after that; the Biblical and ecclesiastical coloring of his thoughts becomes more and more visible and even vivid; but such development as this is no more significant than the effect of the years seen upon a strong face; in fact, it is even less observable here -- for while the characteristic features of his spiritual mind stand out more sharply as time goes on with Augustine, his mental force shows scarcely a sign of age at seventy. His health was uncertain after 386, and his body aged before the time; on Sept. 26, 426, he solemnly designated Eraclius (or Heraclius) as his successor, though without consecrating him bishop, and transferred to him such a portion of his duties as was possible. But his intellectual vigor remained unabated to the end. We see him, as Prosper depicts him in his chronicle, "answering the books of Julian in the very end of his days, while the on-rushing Vandals were at the gates, and gloriously persevering in the defense of Christian grace." In the third month of the siege of Hippo by the barbarian invaders, he fell ill of a fever, and, after lingering more than ten days, died Aug. 28, 430. He was able to read on his sick-bed; he had the Penitential Psalms placed upon the wall of his room where he could see them. Meditating upon them, he fulfilled what he had often said before, that even Christians revered for the sanctity of their lives, even presbyters, ought not to leave the world without fitting thoughts of penitence.

6. Additional Writings. He left no property behind him but the books which he had procured for the library of the church, among which, according to Possidius, corrected copies of his own works were some of the most valuable. They constitute, in fact, Augustine's legacy to the Church at large. Certain parts of it which have not been enumerated above may be mentioned here. He himself divided his writings into three classes: the 232 treatises (libri) discussed in the Retractiones; the letters; and the "popular tractates, which the Greeks call homilies" (he calls them sermones ad populum in another place). He had intended to review the two latter classes as he did with the libri in the Retractiones, but death prevented him. In so far, therefore, as the index of Possidius fails us --- and this is often the case, owing to the uncertainty of titles and the great number of letters and sermons -- a critical study of these classes of writings is much more difficult to make than of the libri. The edition published by the Benedictines of St. Maur (Paris, 1679-1700) in eleven folio volumes affords a useful working basis; it includes 217 1etters, though the classification is not always justified, and a few more have come to light since. The sermons comprise a much larger number. Augustine must be considered, although his preaching did not please himself, as the greatest Western preacher of the early Church. He did not memorize his sermons, but after saturating himself with his subject, spoke from the inspiration of the moment; some of them he himself dictated for preservation after preaching them, while others were taken down by his hearers. Among those for which he is responsible are the series on the Gospel of John, dogmatically among his most interesting works (about 416), and the comments on the Psalms, partly preached (between 410 and 420).

7. Miscellaneous Works. Of works not yet mentioned, those written after 395 and named in the Retractiones, may be classified under three heads -- exegetical works; minor dogmatic, polemical, and practical treatises; and a separate class containing four more extensive works of special importance. The earliest of the minor treatises is De catechizandis rudibus (about 400), interesting for its connection with the history of catechetical instruction and for many other reasons. A brief enumeration of the others will suffice; they are: De opera Monachorum (about 400); De bono conjugali and De sancta virginitate (about 401), both directed against Jovinian's depreciation of virginity; De divinatione daemonum (between 406 and 411); De fide et operibus (413), a completion of the argument in the De spiritu et litera, useful for a study of the difference between the Augustinian and the Lutheran doctrines of grace; De cura pro mortuis, interesting as showing his attitude toward superstition within the Church; and a few others of less interest. We come now to the four works which have deserved placing in a special category. One is the De doctrina christiana (begun about 397, finished 426), important as giving his theory of scriptural interpretation and homiletics; another is the Enchiridion de fide, spe, et caritate (about 421), noteworthy as an attempt at a systematic collocation of his thoughts. There remain the two doctrinal masterpieces, the De trinitate (probably begun about 400 and finished about 416) and the De civitate Dei (begun about 413, finished about 426). The last-named, beginning with an apologetic purpose, takes on later the form of a history of the City of God from its beginnings,

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before the world was, to the time when it looks upward, beyond the world, to its heavenly goal. The closing years of his life, after the completion of the Retractationes in 426-427, were busy ones. Besides works already named, he wrote four others in these years: three against heresies, and the Speculum de scriptura sacra, a collection of the ethical teaching of the Scripture for popular use. We can not now tell whether the last paragraph of the Opus imperfectum or the latest of the letters were the last words he wrote; but the close of the letter is eminently characteristic of him: "That we may have a quiet and tranquil life in all piety and love, let this be your prayer for us (as it is ours for you), wherever you are; for, wherever we are, there is no place where he is not whose we are." -- F. LOOFS.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: The earliest printed ed. of the collected works was by Amerbach, 9 vols., Basel, 1506, reprinted Paris, 1515, lacking, however, the Epistolae, Sermones, and Enarrationes in Psalmos, of the original edition; an ed. by Erasmus was published in 10 vols., Basel, 1529, often reprinted there, at Venice, and at Lyons; the next ed. by the theologians of the University of Louvain was in 10 vols., Antwerp, 1577, often reproduced (a great advance on both the others); the Benedictine ed., still the best, came next, 11 vols., Paris, 1679-1700 (the article Augustine in DCB, i , 222-224 gives the contents of this ed., volume by volume); other editions are by Leclerc, 12 vols., Antwerp [Amsterdam], 1700-03, Gaume, 11 vols., Paris, 1836-39, Antonelli, 14 vols., Venice, 1858-60, MPL, xxxii-xlvii; in CSEL fifteen volumes have appeared, 1887-1905 (this will be the definitive edition). An Eng. transl. of the most important works is in NPNF, 1st series, vols. i-viii (vol. i contains St. Augustine's Life and Work by P. Schaff. This edition reproduces in revised form the fifteen volumes of the Edinburgh edition, Marcus Dods editor, and the three volumes on the New Testament and the six on the Psalms in the Oxford Library of the Fathers, with treatises not previously translated, making it superior to all previous translations). Of individual works editions that are noteworthy or convenient are the following: Civitas Dei, Opuscula selecta de ecclesia, De gratia et libero arbitrio, De praedestinatione, De dono perseverantiae, De trinitate, In Joannem, and Confessiones are all in the Teubner series; Civitas Dei, Lat. text and Eng. transl., by H. Gee, 2 vols., London, 1893-94, and Lat. text with Fr. transl., 3 vols., Paris, 1846; Select Anti-Pelagian Treatises, Lat. text with introduction by W. Bright, Oxford, 1880. Translations of separate treatises worthy of mention are, in English: Confessions, by W. Watts, London, 1631, republished by W.G.T. Shedd, Andover, 1860, by W. H. Hutchings, London, 1883, by A. Smellie, ib. 1897, and by C. Bigg, ib. 1898; Letters, selected and translated by Mary H. Allies, ib. 1890; Homilies on John, by H. F. Stewart, ib. 1902; City of God, by J. Healey, 3 vols., ib. 1903; in German: Confessiones by A. Rapp, Bremen, 1889, by W. Bornemann, Goths, 1889, and by E. Pfleiderer, Gottingen, 1902; Meditationes, by A. Dreier, Steyl, 1886; in French: La Cite de Dieu, by E. Saisset, 4 vols., Paris, 1855; Meditations, by Pelissier, ib. 1853; Lettres, by J. J. F. Poujoulat, 4 vols., ib. 1858; Les Confessions, byP. Janet ib. 1857, and by C. Douais, ib.1893. For the life of Augustine the chief sources are his Confessiones, Retractationes, and Epistola, and the Vita Augustini by his pupil Possidius, the latter ed. A. G. Cramer, Kiel, 1832, from which are culled the accounts in L. S. Tillemont, Memoires . . ecclesiastiques, vol. xi, Paris (1706 (Eng. transl., 2 vols., London, 1733-35), and in ASB, Aug. vi, pp xxviii, 213-286. Modern accounts to be mentioned are: F. A. G. Kloth, Der heilige Kirchenlehrer Augustin, 3 vols., Aachen, 1839-40; J. J. F. Poujoulat, Histoire de St. Augustin, 3 vols., Paris, 1843; C. Bindemann Der heilige Augustinus, 2 vols., Leipsic 1844-55 (a standard work); F. Bohringer, Aurelius Augustinus, Bischof von Hippo, Stuttgart, 1878; U. J. C. Bourke, Life and Labours of St. Augustine, Dublin, 1880; R. W. Bush, St. Augustine, his Life and Times, London, 1883; C. H. Collette, St. Augustine; . . . his Life and Writings as affecting his Controversy with Rome, ib. 1883; Histoire de St. Augustin, 2 vols., Paris, 1886 (by a member of the Augustine Order); P. Schaff, Studies in Christian Biography, St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine, New York, 1891; C. Wolfsgruber, Augustinus, Auf Grund des kirchengeschichtlichen Nachlasses von Kardinal Rausahen, Paderborn, 1898; A. Hatzfeld, St. Augustin, Paris, 1902 (Eng. transl. of earlier ed., London, 1898); J. Hudson, St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, ib. 1899; J. McCabe, St. Augustine and his Age, New York, 1903 (a brilliant book); G. W. Osmun, Augustine, the Thinker, Cincinnati, 1906. For discussions of various phases of his activities and influence consult: J. C. F. Bahr, Geschichte der rumischen Literatur, supplement volume, part 2, 3 parts, Carlsruhe, 1836-40; G. F. Wiggers, Versuch einer pragmatischen Daratellung des Augustinismus und Pelagianismus nach ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung, Hamburg, 2 vols., 1821-33, Eng. transl., An Historical Presentation of Augustinism and Pelagianism from the Original Sources, Andover, 1840 (a standard work); J. B. M. Flottes, Etudes sur St. Augustin, son genie, son ame, sa. philosophie, Montpellier, 1861; Nourisson, La Philosophie de St. Augustin, 2 vols., Paris, 1866; Ferraz, De la psychologie de St. Augustin, ib. 1869; A. Naville, Etude sur Ie developpement de sa. pensbe jusqu'a l'epoque de son ordination, Geneva, 1872; A. Dorner, Augustinus, sein theologisches System und seine religionsphilosophische Anschauung, Berlin, 1873; J. H. Newman, Augustine and the Vandals, and Conversion of Augustine, in vol. iii of Historical Sketches, London, 1873; J. B. Mozley, The Augustinian Doctrine of Predestination, London, 1878; A. F. Thery, Le Genie philosophique et litteraire de St. Augustin, Amiens, 1878; J. Storz, Die Philosophie des heiligen Augustine, Freiburg, 1882, K. Werner, Die augustinische Theologie, Vienna, 1882; S. Angus, Sources of the First Ten Books of Augustine's De civitate Dei, Princeton, N. J., 1906; H. Reuter, Augustinische Studien, Gotha, 1887; G. J. Seyrich, Die Geschichtsphilosophie Augustine nach seiner Schrift De civitate Dei, Leipsic, 1891; J. Specht, Die Lehre von der Kirche nach dem heiligen Augustinus, Paderborn, 1891; W. Heinzelmann, Augustine Ansichten vom Wesen der menschlichen Seele, Erfurt, 1894; O. Scheel, Die Anschauung Augustine uber Christi Person and Werk, Tilbingen, 1901. Besides the foregoing the various histories of the church and of Christian doctrine may be consulted with profit.

AUGUSTINIANS : The general name for a number of orders and congregations of both men and women living according to the so-called Augustinian rule. It is true that St. Augustine composed no monastic rule, for the hortatory letter to the nuns at Hippo Regius (Epist., ccxi, Benedictine ed.) can not properly be considered such; nevertheless three sets have been attributed to him (texts in Holstenius-Brockie, Codex regularum monasticarum, ii, Augsburg, 1759, 121-127), the longest of which, a medieval compilation from certain pseudo-Augustinian sermons in 45 chapters, is the one commonly known as the regula Augustini, and served as the constitution of the Regular Canons of St. Augustine and many societies imitating them, as, for example, the Dominicans (see CHAPTER; DOMINIC, SAINT, AND THE DOMINICAN ORDER).

The Hermits of St. Augustine (who are generally meant by the name "Augustinians; " known also as "Austin Friars; " the order to which Martin Luther belonged) were the last of the four great mendicant orders which originated in the thirteenth century. They owed their existence to no great personality as founder, but to the policy of Popes Innocent IV (1241-54) and Alexander IV (1254-61), who wished to antagonize the too powerful Franciscans and Dominicans by means of a similar order under direct papal authority and

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devoted to papal interests. Innocent IV by a bull issued Dec. 16, 1243, united certain small hermit societies with Augustinian rule, especially the Williamites, the John-Bonites, and the Brictinans (qq.v.). Alexander IV (admonished, it was said, by an appearance of St. Augustine) called a general assembly of the members of the new order under the presidency of Cardinal Richard of St. Angeli at the monastery of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome in Mar., 1256, when the head of the John-Bonites, Lanfranc Septala, of Milan, was chosen general prior of the united orders. Alexander's bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae of Apr. 13, 1256, confirmed this choice. The same pope afterward allowed the Williamites, who were dissatisfied with the new arrangement, to withdraw, and they adopted the Benedictine rule. The new order was thus finally constituted. Several general chapters in the thirteenth century (1287 and 1290) and toward the end of the sixteenth (1575 and 1580), after the severe crisis occasioned by Luther's reformation, developed the statutes to their present form (text in Holstenius-Brockie, ut sup., iv, 227-357; cf. Kolde, 17-38), which was confirmed by Gregory XIII. A bull of Pius V in 1567 had already assigned to the Hermits of St. Augustine the place next to the last (between Carmelites and Servites) among the five chief mendicant orders. In its most flourishing state the order had forty-two provinces (besides the two vicariates of India and Moravia) with 2,000 monasteries and about 30,000 members. The German branch, which until 1299 was counted as one province, was divided in that year into four provinces: a Rheno-Swabian, Bavarian, Cologne-Flemish, and Thuringo-Saxon. To the last belonged the most famous German Augustinian theologians before Luther: Andreas Proles (d. 1503), the founder of the Union or Congregation of the Observant Augustinian Hermits, organized after strict principles; Johann von Paltz, the famous Erfurt professor and pulpit-orator (d. 1511); Johann Staupitz, Luther's monastic superior and Wittenberg colleague (d. 1524).

Reforms were also introduced into the extra-German branches of the order, but a long time after Proles's reform and in connection with the Counter-reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The most important of these later observant congregations are the Spanish Augustinian tertiary nuns, founded in 1545 by Archbishop Thomas of Villanova at Valencia; the "reformed" Augustinian nuns who originated under the influence of St. Theresa after the end of the sixteenth century at Madrid, Alcoy, and in Portugal; and the barefooted Augustinians (Augustinian Recollects; in France Augustins dechausses) founded about 1560 by Thomas a Jesu (d. 1582). --O. ZOCKLER.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Helyot, Ordres monastiques, iii, 1-72; T. Kolde, Die deutsche Augustinerkongregation und Johann Von Staupits, Goths, 1879; Heimbucher, Orders und Kongregationen, ii, 388, 443 eqq.; Currier, Religious Orders, pp. 310-315, 669-772.

AURELIAN: Roman emperor 270-275. He was of humble origin but through his talents as a soldier rose to a high position under the emperors Valerian and Claudius and by the latter was nominated Caesar at the wish of the army. Upon the death of Claudius (270), Aurelian succeeded to the principate at a time when the integrity of the empire was threatened by the barbarians and the appearance of numerous pretenders within its bounds. His talent and energy in restoring order and repelling invasion won him the title of Restorer of the Commonwealth. He was victorious on the Danube and in Italy, but is best known in connection with the overthrow of the Syrian kingdom of Palmyra and its celebrated queen Zenobia. He was assassinated in Thrace by one of his own officers while preparing to set out on an expedition against the Persians.

Aurelian, according to an old tradition in the Church, originated the ninth of the ten great persecutions of the Christians spoken of by the early writers; but this tradition seems to rest on a misunderstanding of the texts. Orosius (vii, 23) speaks of Aurelian as a persecutor of the Christians, but attributes to him only the inception of a plan of persecution without stating that it was put into effect. The author of the De mortibus persecutorum (vi) is authority for the statement that an edict hostile to the Christians was promulgated, but that before it could reach the border provinces the death of the emperor intervened. Eusebius (Hist. eccl., vii, 30), to whom all other accounts may be referred as the source, says that toward the end of his reign Aurelian experienced a change of view with regard to the Christians and for the worse, but that before he could proceed to the execution of his hostile designs he was overtaken by the divine vengeance. Eusebius speaks neither of the actual issue of an edict nor of its execution, and this accords with the known character of the emperor and the conditions prevailing in the empire. Aurelian was first of all a soldier and was occupied almost entirely with military affairs during his reign. It is highly improbable that in a time of foreign danger and internal unrest he would risk further disturbances by organizing a general persecution of the Christians; and, though he was devoted to the pagan faith and even to its superstitions, he would recognize that Christianity had held, since the time of Gallienus, a publicly guaranteed position in the State. --AUGUST KLOSTERMANN.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. xi; T. Mommsen, Provinces of the Roman Empire, i, 180, 268-269; ii, 117-120, New York, 1887; V. Duruy, History of Rome, vii, 283-323, Boston, 1890; and other histories of the period.

AURICULAR CONFESSION (From Lat. auricula, "the external ear"): Confession into the ear of a priest in private, enjoined by Leo the Great (440-461) as a substitute for public confession. The twenty-first canon of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), under Innocent III, makes it obligatory every year upon all Catholics, on pain of excommunication, and consequently the loss of Christian burial. See CONFESSION OF SINS.

AURIFABER, au-ri-fa'ber (GOLDSCHMID), ANDREAS: German physician and theologian, best known in connection with the Osiandrian controversy in Prussia; b. at Breslau 1514; d. at Konigsberg Dec. 12, 1559. He began his studies at

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Wittenberg in 1527 and there gained the friendship of Melanchthon. In 1529 he became rector of the Latin school at Danzig and two years later accepted a similar post at Elbing. The bounty of Duke Albert of Prussia enabled him to pursue the study of medicine at Wittenberg and in Italy, and after 1545 he was physician to the Duke and professor of physics and medicine in the newly established university at Konigsberg, issuing, in the performance of his duties, a number of treatises on physics and physiology. In 1550 he married a daughter of Osiander and thus became involved in the bitter controversy aroused by the latter's views on justification and grace (see OSIANDER, ANDREAS). After Osiander's death in 1552, Aurifaber, who in the preceding year had been made rector of the university, became the leader of the Osiandrian party and made use of his office and his influence over the duke to crush the rival faction in Prussia, driving its adherents from the university in 1554. In pursuance of the same object he traveled extensively throughout Germany and by his activity aroused the bitter hatred of the conservatives, who assailed him with extreme virulence. Aurifaber, however, retained his influence till his death, which occurred suddenly, in the antechamber of the duke. --G. KAWERAU.

AURIFABER, JOHANNES, OF BRESLAU (Vratislaviensis): German reformer and church administrator, younger brother of Andreas Aurifaber; b. at Breslau Jan. 30, 1517; d. there Oct. 19, 1568. He began the study of languages and philosophy at Wittenberg in 1534, and later turned to theology, forming an intimate friendship with Melanchthon, whose lifelong friend and adviser he remained. He became a member of the philosophical faculty in 1540, and in 1545 was dean. In 1547 he became rector of a school at Breslau but returned in the following year to Wittenberg, leaving again in 1550 to assume the position of professor of theology at the University of Rostock, secured for him through Melanchthon's intercession. In 1551-52 he took a leading part in the drafting and promulgation of the Mecklenburg church order. Through the influence of his brother Andreas he was summoned to Konigsberg in 1554 as professor of theology and inspector of the churches within the see of Samland, where it was hoped that his reputation for mildness and the conciliatory character of his theology would be instrumental in allaying the bitter dissensions aroused by the teachings of Osiander. Aurifaber devoted himself to the task of pacification and in September, 1554, presided over a general synod called for the purpose of arriving at a compromise between the factions. The parochial clergy, however, regarded with mistrust the advent of an outsider who was not wholly free from suspicion of the Osiandrian taint and the synod failed to effect a compromise. Aurifaber was nevertheless appointed president of the see of Samland. Persisting in his efforts at conciliation he summoned a second synod at Riesenburg in 1556 and succeeded in obtaining from the Osiandrian faction a recantation of their extreme doctrines, without, however, satisfying either party. His unpopularity increased as a result of the publication, in 1558, of the new Prussian church order, with the preparation and editing of which Aurifaber was closely concerned and in which his opposition to the practise or exorcism in baptism found expression. Many of the clergy refused to subscribe to the new ordinances and recourse was had to imprisonment and expulsion, measures which were repugnant to Aurifaber and made his office irksome. In 1565 he resigned and returned to Breslau, where he became two years later pastor and inspector of schools and churches. -G. KAWERAU.

AURIFABER, JOHANNES, OF WEIMAR (Vinariensis): German Lutheran divine, best known as a collector and editor of the writings of Luther; b. probably in the county of Mansfeld in 1519; d. at Erfurt Nov. 18, 1575. He began his studies at the University of Wittenberg in 1537, where he attached himself closely to Luther. From 1540 to 1544 he acted as tutor to the young count of Mansfeld and in the following year made the campaign against the French as field chaplain. In 1545 he went to live with Luther as his famulus and remained with him till the great reformer's death in the following year. In 1550 he became court preacher at Weimar and for the next ten years took a very prominent part in the internal quarrels of the followers of Luther, distinguishing himself as a zealous adherent of the so-called Gnesio-Lutheran faction. His extreme views caused his dismissal from the court of Weimar in 1561 and he removed to Eisleben where he began his series of Luther publications. In 1566 he became pastor at Erfurt, where he passed the rest of his life engaged in almost incessant strife with his colleagues. Aurifaber began collecting Lutherans, as early as 1540 and by 1553 he claimed to be in possession of 2,000 letters of the master. From 1553 to 1556 he was coeditor on the Jena edition of the works of Luther. In the latter year he published a volume of Latin letters by Luther and followed this with a second volume in 1565. In 1566 appeared his celebrated Tischreden und Colloquia D. M. Luthers, of which part only, that dealing with the last days cf the reformer, was based on notes taken by Aurifaber. The great mass of the work followed closely a collection of Luther's Table Talk prepared by Lauterbach as early as 1538 and subsequently revised by him. With Lauterbach's material Aurifaber incorporated much from other sources, displaying, however, little care in the collation of his texts or even in the logical arrangement of the sources. His compilation, therefore, has the value only of a secondary authority except for the memoranda of his own preservation. Without attempting deliberate falsification of his texts Aurifaber showed little hesitation in modifying the tone of Luther's discourse, so that his work should not be read without caution. It is more than probable that in many places he has sought to intensify Luther's characteristic homeliness of expression, with the result of lending to the book a spirit of gratuitous coarseness. Aurifaber derived great profit from the sale of collections of Luther's writings to the Protestant princes of Germany. --G. KAWEREU.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY: On the Table Talk consult W. Meyer, Ueber Lauterbachs and Aurifabers Sammlungen der Tischreden Luthere, Gottingen,1896. Consult further Von Popowsky, Kritik deer handschiriftlichen Sammlung des Johann Aurifaber, Konigsberg, 1880.

AUSO'NIUS, DECIMUS MAGNUS: Latin poet and rhetor; b. at Burdigalia (Bordeaux) about 310; d. there about 393. His family was of Celtic origin and the poet numbered among his near ancestors members of the Druid class. He received his education at Tolosa and, returning to his native city about 327, established himself as a teacher of grammar and rhetoric, attaining in a career of more than thirty years the reputation of one of the greatest professors of his time. About the year 364 Ausonius probably declared himself formally a Christian, for in the following year he was summoned to Treves as tutor of the young Gratian, eldest son of the Emperor Valentinian I, a post which would have scarcely have been open to him if he had continued to profess the pagan faith. The sincerity of his conversion or rather the depth of his new belief has been made the subject of a long controversy, his writings offering evidence in support of different views. Thus his Versus paschales pro Augusto, falling between the years 367 and 371, express an undoubted adherence to the formulas of the Nicene Creed, while about the year 378 in the Precatio consulis designati he turns once more to the heathen gods, invoking Janus among them. Over Gratian, Ausonius exercised unbounded influence and when the former ascended the throne of the Western Empire in 375 his tutor attained an important position in state affairs and was powerful enough to bestow the highest offices on members of his own family. He made use of his influence to further the cause of education in Gaul by instituting schools of rhetoric in the principal cities and he was active in saving the monuments of the ancient civilization from the iconoclastic fury of the early Christians. In 378 he was made prefect of Gaul and in the following year became consul. This was the climax of his career and was followed by the speedy disappearance of his influence over the emperor, who was now completely under the sway of the great Ambrose. Ausonius felt deeply the loss of power and it has been conjectured that his animosity against Ambrose finds expression in his Mixobarbaron, which some would have to be a travesty in form and matter upon the hymns of the bishop of Milan. Whether his views upon Christianity also underwent an unfavorable change with the decline of his fortunes is uncertain. A poem of the year 379 in which Ausonius commends himself to the aid of Christ as his master, would be decisive on this point were it not for the fact that in the first collection of his poems which he prepared in 383 the Christian element appears as unimportant, while verses quite in the nature of the old pagan hedonism find a very conspicuous place. After the death of Gratian, Ausonius gave himself up to literary work, leading a life of luxurious ease in his native city or on his estates in Aquitania. From this period date the family poems, Parentalia, and the biographic Commemoratio professorum Burdigalensium, which, though far inferior in literary value to his exquisite masterpiece, the Mosella, are of value as sources for the life and thought of his times. It is in this period, too, that Ausonius appears in his most interesting aspect as the representative of the classic spirit and culture battling in vain against the rising spirit of asceticism, which under the inspiration of men like Martin of Tours was rapidly transforming the character of West European civilization. Among the most devoted followers of St. Martin was Paulinus of Nola, a former pupil of Ausonius, and in the letters which passed between the two men this conflict between the old and new finds eloquent expression. Possibly the nearest approximation to the poet's real views on Christianity may be obtained by considering him solely in the character of a literary craftsman, to whom, by temperament, religion was a more remote influence than art, and who, while lending adherence to the formulas of the Christian faith, continued to find in the old beliefs inspiration and grateful material for the use of his poetic gifts. --F. ARNOLD.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: The opuscula of Ausonius have been edited by C. Schenkl, MGH, Auct. ant., v, 2, 1883, and by R. Peiper, in Bibliotecha Teubnariana. Leipsic, 1886; they are also in MPL, xix. An excellent edition of the Mosella, with French translation, is that of H. de la Ville de Mirmont, Bordeaux, 1889; consult also idem, De Ausonii Mosellla, Paris, 1892; A. Ebert, Geschichte der Liitteratur des Mittelalters, i, 294 sqq., Leipsic, 1889; M. Manitius, Geschichte der christlichen lateinischen Poesic, pp. 105 sqq., Stuttgart, 1891; C. Jullian, Ausone et Bordeaux, Bordeaux, 1893; J. W. Mackail, Latin Literature, pp. 265-267, New York, 1895; S. Dill, Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire, especially pp. 141-156, London, 1898.

AUSTIN: A syncopated form of Augustine, used especially for St. Augustine of Canterbury (q.v.); also used for the adjective Augustinian; as, an Austin friar.

AUSTIN, JOHN: English Roman Catholic; b. at Walpole (65 m. n. of London), Norfolk, 1613; d. in London 1669. He studied at St. John's, Cambridge, and remained there until about 1640, when, having embraced the Roman Catholic religion, he found it necessary to leave the university; he studied law and lived in London, and for some time during the civil war was a private tutor in Staffordshire. Under the pseudonym of William Birchley he published The Christian Moderator; or persecution for religion condemned by the light of nature, law of God, evidence of our own principles (part i, London, 1651; parts ii-iv, 1652-61), aiming to vindicate the Roman Catholic beliefs against popular misconceptions and pleading for the rights and privileges accorded to other religious bodies. He also wrote Devotions; First Part, in the Ancient Way of Offices, with psalms, hymns, and prayers for every day in the week and every holy day in the year (2d ed., Rouen, 1672; place and date of 1st ed. not known), a work which in various forms has passed through many editions (4th ed., 1685; "reformed" by T. Dorrington,1687, 9th ed., 1727; by Mrs. Susanna Hopton, with preface by Dr. George Hickes, commonly known as "Hickes's Devotions," 1701, 5th ed., 1717, reprinted, 1846). The Harmony of the Holy Gospels Digested into one History, reformed and

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improved by J. Bonnel (London, 1705) is thought to have been originally published as the second part of the Devotions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. a Wood, Athens Oxonienses, iii, 149, 150, 1226, 1227, Oxford, 1692; C. Butler, Historical Memoirs, of English . . Catholics, iv, 459, London, 1822; DNB, ii, 263-264; J. Gillow, Biographical Dictionary of English Catholics, i, 87-90, London, 1885.