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DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

GIFT OF
WILLISTON WALKER

EARLY CHRISTIAN LIT
ERATURE PRIMERS,
edited by Professor GEORGE P. FiSHER,
D. D., LL. D.

THE EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE PRIMERS.

I. The Apostolic Fathers and the Apologists op
the Second Century, a. d. 95-180.
II. The Fathers of the Third Century, a. d. 180-325.
III. The Post-Nicene Greek Fathers, a. d. 325-750.
IV. The Post-Nicene Latin Fathers, a. d. 325-590.

(&uth ۤxwtmn ^ihtatian ffoimens.
Edited by Prof. George P. Fisher, D.D., LL.D.

THE

POST-NICENE
LATIN FATHERS.

BY
REV. Ge^£E77^4CKSON.

NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
I, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.
1884.

COPYRIGHT BY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
1883.

PREFACE.

The essay on "The Influence of the Roman
Jurisprudence upon the Latin Christian Writers,"
proposed as an introduction to this volume, is
omitted, on account of the large space which it
has seemed best to give to the works of Augustine.
For the understanding of the writings of the
Latin Fathers in this period, it is only needful to
keep in mind the practical mission of the Western
Church. To it was given, not the resolution of
subtile questions as to the mode of the divine ex
istence, but the determining of the practical rela
tions of God and man. Only Hilary and Ambrose,
therefore, of the great Latin writers gave much
energy to the Trinitarian controversy, and the la
bors of the latter in this direction were rather those
of a bishop than of a writer. The subsequent Nes-
torian and Monophysite controversies hardly so
much as touched the Latin world. Pope Leo the
Great did take part, and that effectually, in the
settlement of the Eutychian question at the Coun
cil of Chalcedon, but the body of the Western
Church knew little of it. Leaving the Christianity
of the East to develop and harden into a formal

6 PREFACE.
orthodoxy, the peculiar work of Latin Christianity
advanced in two lines :
i. Besides establishing a powerful ecclesiastical
fabric, fitted to stand amid the shocks of political
revolutions, it developed a monastic life, unlike the
pitiful spectacle of the same name in the East,
which, amid the social chaos of a falling civiliza
tion, became the refuge of the elements of order,
and the repository of the germs of a better life.
2. It formulated so clearly and emphasized so
strongly the distinctive doctrine of the redemption
of a lost world by Christ, that no subsequent cor
ruption of the Church could rob mankind of a
Saviour. To these tasks, consciously or unconsciously,
the Latin Fathers devoted themselves. The mo
nastic life had been made known in the West by
Athanasius, and Ambrose had helped not a little to
give it favor ; but the real founder of Western mo-
nasticism was Jerome. This father also, be it said
here, contributed to the exact and powerful system
of truth which obtained in the fifth century, by
giving to all Latin readers an approximately cor
rect version of the Scriptures. After Jerome, mo-
nasticism had such scholarly supporters as Augus
tine, in Africa ; and John Cassian, Vincent of Lerins,
and Faustus of Rhegium, in Gaul. For the perfect
organizing of the system, however, was needed the
Rule of St. Benedict — the work not of an idle re
cluse, but of an earnest soul intent upon preserving
for men, amid the wrecks of the world, a healthy as
well as a devout spiritual life. The monks having
been thus brought under regular discipline, it was

PREFACE. 7
not difficult for men like Cassiodorus to enlist them
in labors with the pen, and thus to make the monas
teries the preservers of much that was most valuable
in the ancient world.
The scholars who contributed most to the build
ing of the ecclesiastical fabric were Popes Leo and
Gregory, neither of whom, however, was as great in
letters as in statesmanship.
The foundations of the great doctrinal work
above mentioned were laid in a preceding age. Ter
tullian long before had pondered questions con
cerning the origin of the soul and its relations to
God ; and the spirit of Tertullian was distinctively
the spirit of the West. Still not very much was
written upon these themes until the latter part of
the fourth century, when a great genius developed
at a stroke a system of anthropology which has in
fluenced, and still influences, the world more pro
foundly than any other human system of thought.
The work of Augustine was only begun when he
swept his own century before him, carrying down
truth as well as error under his inexorable doctrines
of utter helplessness and irresistible grace.
To overthrow the ill-founded doctrines of Pe
lagius was a small work — hardly more than com
pensating for the good men who went down in
Pelagius's wake — when compared with the great
regulating power which this system has ever since
exercised upon Christianity. Not itself the truth,
but, if we may so speak, an exaggeration of the
truth, Augustinianism has ever hovered as a threat
ening angel over the Church, ready, whenever false
notions of human desert begin to corrupt, to de-

8 PREFACE.
scend and possess earnest souls with his own high-
wrought conceptions, and furnish them with an ir
resistible logic by which they may smite the recreant
multitudes. Once in the history of the Church that angel
has descended. He intrusted his weapon to John
Calvin, and, if its edge was keen, and the traces of
its strokes were dark, they yet were healing blows.
And if an increasing sense of self-sufficiency shall
ever again overpower the Church, we may look
with expectancy for a fresh descent of that re
nowned steel, and a passing revival of the stricter
Augustinian and Calvinistic faith.
As said, Augustine's doctrines displaced for a
time some teachings which were sound and true.
In North Africa and Italy they met with little op
position. But in Southern Gaul had risen a school
of monks, among whom were John Cassian and Vin
cent of Lerins, and, a few decades later, Faustus of
Rhegium, who held, equally with Augustine, to the
profound verities of a fallen race, and redemption
through Christ, but yet believed in a true freedom
of the will, in divine grace that might be appro
priated or resisted, and in predestination turning
upon the fitness of the subject. First by Augustine
himself, afterward by Prosper of Aquitaine, and
later by Caesar of Aries and Fulgentius of Ruspe,
this school was attacked as vigorously as the Pela
gians themselves, and for a time their moderate
views were obliged to give way. Still, the extreme
North African views of predestination were in
time somewhat modified, so that, when the coun
cils at the beginning of the sixth century formally

PREFACE. g
ratified Augustinianism, they failed to approve of
predestination to evil. An important help toward
settling the controversy, on this basis of a slightly
modified Augustinianism, was given by an anony
mous book, " De Vocatione Gentium," which ap
peared after the middle of the fifth century.
English readers are to be congratulated upon
having at last, among A. & A. Clark's Edinburgh
publications, a translation of all of Augustine's
works. The extracts on pages 131 to 133 and
148 to 153 have been taken from this translation,
and it is to be hoped that they may lead many
fo the perusal of the complete works. Acknowl
edgment should also be made to Dr. Shedd's " Con
fessions " of Augustine for extracts on pages 90
to 96. The volumes upon the Patristic Literature pro
posed by the author are complete with this book.
He has in preparation, however, two similar books
on the writings of the Mediaeval Doctors and the
Mediaeval School-men. At no distant day, also, he
hopes to present to the public a new series upon
Modern Ecclesiastical Literature, so covering the
field of Christian Literature.
George A. Jackson.
Musterfield Farm,
August 1. 1883.

CONTENTS.

PAGB
Chronological Table  14
The Post-Nicene Latin Fathers:
Hilary  17
Twelve Books of the Trinity  20
On the Synods ; and the Faith ofthe Orientals . 26
Commentaries ....... 29
Matthew  29
Psalms  30
List of Works  3°
Ambrose  31
Moral and Dogmatic Works .... 34
De Officiis Ministrorum  34
On the Mysteries  4Z
Five Books of Faith  45
On the Holy Spirit  45
On the Incarnation  4°
Three Books of Virgins  4°
Two Books of Penitence ..... 47
Letters  48
To the Emperor Theodosius . . . • 49
Works upon the Scriptures .... 50
Hymns ......••• 51
Vem Redemptor Gentium . . . . 52
List of Works  53
Jerome  < 54
De Viris /Uus.rfiuS  56
The Vulgate  59

CONTENTS.
PAGE
Scripture Commentaries  61
Letters ......... 62
To Paulinus, On the Study "of- the Scriptures . 62
To Heliodorus, On returning to the Monastic
Life  67
To Eustochium, On the Celibate Life . . 68
Controversial Works  72
Miscellaneous Works  77
List of Works  78
Rufinus ....... -79
Exposition of the Creed  81
Augustine  84
Confessions  87
Extracts : On his Perplexities and Vacillations,
his Conversion, his Love and Knowledge of God,
and on God revealing Himself.
Retractions  97
The City of God  97
Extracts on Eternal Punishment, and on Prayers
for the Dead.
Literary and Philosophical Works . . . 133
Moral and Practical Writings ..... 135
Dogmatic Works  136
Polemical Works  137
Against the Manichseans . . . 138
Against the Donatists  141
Against the Pelagians  142
Letters  147
Extracts on the Delay of his Ordination, On the
Lord's Prayer, on the Spirits in Prison, and con
taining Twelve Articles concerning Grace.
Works on Scriptures, and Sermons . . . 155
Pelagius  . . . 157
Ccelestius ........ 161
Julianus ......... 163
Marius Mercator . , . . . . . 164
John Cassian ........ 165
Book of Conferences ...... 166

CONTENTS. 13

PAGE

Vincent of Lerins  168
Prosper of Aquitaine  174
Poem, De Ingratis  17C
Author of " De Vocatione Gentium" . . . 177
Salvian . . . . . , . , .178
Of the Providence of God  179
Hilary of Aries  185
Other Writers before Leo  187
Leo the Great  192
Letters ........ 195
To Flavian on the Incarnation .... 198
Sermons  202
On the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul . . 202
Faustus ......... 204
Casar of Aries  205
Fulgentius ........ 207
Boethius  209
Consolations of Philosophy . . . . 2ri
Dionysius Exiguus  211
Cassiodorus . . . . . . . .212
Other Writers after Leo  214
The Latin Church Historians and Chroniclers . 219
Rufinus, Sulpicius Severus, Paul Orosius, Cassio
dorus, Victor Vitensis, Gregory of Tours, Jerome,
Hilarion, Idacius, Prosper, Marcellinus, Victor,
John of Biclarum.
The Early Latin Christian Poets .... 222
Commodianus, Juvencus, Hilary of Poictiers, Am
brose, Prudentius, Paulinus of Nola, Sedulius,
Dracontius, Aritus, Ennodius, Arator, Apollina
ris Sidonius, Damasus, Prosper, Hilary of Aries,
Paulinus of Pe'rigueux, Claudianus Mamertiu,
Proba Falconia, Orentius, Fortunatus,

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

A. P,

Emperors.

A. D.

Bishops of Rome.

A. D.

Christian Writers.

306-337

Constantine.

3^4

Sylvester.

33°

Juvencus.

337-34°

Constantino II.

336

Marcus.

334

Hilary of Poictiers.

337-350

Constans.

337

Julius I.

354

Eusebius of Verceilles.

337-3*5i

Constantius.

352

LIberius

368

Zeno of Verona.

361-363

Julian.

(Felix II. Antipope).

374

Ambrose,

363-364

Jovian.

366

Damasus I.

378

Jerome.

(Ursicinus, Antipope).
387
Gaudentius.
384
Siricius.
393
Paulinus of Nola.
398
Anastasius I.
395
Augustine.
364-476
Emperors ofthe West.
401
Innocent I.
405
Prudentius.
4^7
Zosimus.
410 ob.
Rufinus.
3^4-375
Valentin ian.
418
Boniface I.
410
Nonnus.
375-383
G rati. in.
422
Celestinus.
416
Paul Orosius.
375-392
Valentinian II.
432
Sixtus III.
418
Pelagius.
393-395
Eugenius.
440
Leo I.
Coelestius.
395
Theodosius, sole emperor.
461
Hilarius.
Julian of Eclanum.
395-423
Honorius.
467
Simplicius.
418
Marius Mercator,
423-425
John the Usurper.
483
Felix III.
420
Sulpicius Severus.
4^5-455
Valentinian III.
493
Gelasius.
424
John Cassian.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.— (Continued.)

A. D.

Emperors.

A. D.

Bishops op Rome.

A. D.

Christian Writers.

f

Maximus, Avitus, Majo-

496

Anastasius II.

430

Sedulius.

455-476 -1

rian, Severus, Anthemi-

499

Symmachus.

Vincent of Lerins.

us, Olybrius, Glycerius,

5H

Hormisdas.

440

Salvian.

I

Nepos, Augustulus.

5*22

John I.

444

Prosper of Aquitaine.

526

Felix IV.

45o

Hilary of Aries.

53°
Boniface II.
. 461 ob.
Leo the Great.
476-553
Kings of Italy,
53=
John II.
462
Faustus.
476-493
Odoacer.
535
Agapetus.
475
Dracontius.
493-526
Theodoric.
536
Sylverius.
495
Gennadius.
5=6-534
Athalaric.
540
Vigilius.
502
Caesar of Aries.
534-536
Theodotus.
555
Pelagius I.
507
Fulgentius.
536-540
Vitiges.
560
John III.
5io
Boethius.
541-552
Totila,
574
Benedict I.
5H
Avitus.
553
Teias, last Gothic King.
578
Pelagius II.
523 ob.
Cassiodorus.
59o
Gregory I.
533
Dionysius Exiguus.
553-8oo
Exarchate of Ravenna.
544573
Arator.Gregory of Tours.
568-774
Kingdom of the Lom
bards.
590
Gregory the Great.
THE POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.

HILARY,
The Athanasius of the West. He was born at
Poictiers, near the beginning of the fourth century,
of a family of some distinction, but not yet Chris
tian. His education was more than usually com
plete, embracing some knowledge of Greek, then
falling into disuse at the West. We know but little
of his earlier manhood beyond the bare facts that
he was married and had a daughter. He was ac
customed to read for instruction the writings "of the
philosophers, and with the same purpose took up
the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. Reading the
Pentateuch, as he tells us in his book on the Trin
ity, he was deeply impressed with the idea there
given of God ; and later, studying the Gospel of
John, he was astounded to find that this God had
become incarnate for the redemption of men. The
truth led to his conversion, and he was baptized at
the same time with his wife and daughter*. His ex
tensive learning and the excellence of his life led
the people of Poictiers to desire him for their bishop,

iS POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
to which office he was appointed about A. d. 353.
When after this the Arian opinions began to spread
in France, they found in Hilary their most zealous
opponent. He induced the orthodox bishop to
excommunicate Saturninus, bishop of Aries, the
champion of the new doctrine, together with the
noted Arians, Ursacius and Valens. It is claimed
by some that his great work upon the Trinity was
written at this time, as well as his first address to
Constantius ; but, whatever his efforts, the enemy
was too strong for him, and in 356 secured his ban
ishment into the East. From Phrygia he continued
to govern his church by letter, and also to urge upon
his fellow-bishops the true faith. In this interest
he in 358 addressed to his brethren the book "On
the Synods." In this book, rather than in his
greater treatise, we see the character of Hilary's
faith, and the bent of his mind. He was beyond all
reasonable cavil a true adherent to the Nicene faith.
He was not, however, a Greek, and cared little for
the hair-splitting distinctions over which Orientals
of the same substantial opinions would haggle until
they became bitter enemies. During the formative
period he found but few Eastern bishops who were
willing to state their belief in the precise terms upon
which the Church finally settled ; but there were
not a few belonging nominally to the semi-Arian
party, who were practically very near to if not act
ually at one with him at heart. Instead, therefore,
of separating himself from such, and writing home
— as the zealots who had criticised his book would
have written — that Christianity had died out from
the East, he writes a discriminating account of the

HILARY. i9
faith of these bishops as set forth by the several
councils. While every palpable and intentional
thrust at the divinity of the Son, on the part of the
Arians, is earnestly combated, he will wage no war
of words with good men who state their faith in the
Eternal Word, with an ot instead of an o, and there
fore he commends utterances which stricter Atha
nasius would by no means have received. Perhaps
the weightier opinion assigns the work on the Trin
ity to the latter part of his stay in the East. It was
the first serious attempt to compass this grand theme
in the Latin tongue, and so complete was its treat
ment that the book has always remained side by side
with Athanasius's Orations, one of the classic utter
ances of the Church upon this mystery. Hilary
attended the Council of Seleucia, a. d. 359, when
he sided with the Homoiousians as against the
Arians. Going thence to Constantinople, he pre
sented his second address to Constantius in person,
and seems to have made his influence felt against
the Arian champions. Possibly on this account he
was soon sent back to his diocese. Experience had
now fitted him for earnest and effective work, and
it was due to his influence alone, says Sulpicius
Severus, that France was happily delivered from
the Arian heresy. Without tracing his labors, we
note several books now written. His " Book against
Auxentius," a. d. 366, was called out by what he
terms a hypocritical acceptance by this bishop of
the orthodox symbols, at the recent Council of Mi
lan. The date of the intemperate " Address against
Constantius " is in doubt, but it belongs most prob
ably to this period, as does also a book upon the

20 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia, from which most
of his " Fragments " have been compiled.
We can only allude to opinions of Jerome and
Rufinus concerning Hilary. The former called him
" The Rh6ne of Latin eloquence," on account of
his impetuous speech, which carried all before it ;
and the latter says that he labored with great suc
cess because he was of a sweet and mild disposition,
and withal of great learning, and every way quali
fied for persuading.
He died in January, a. d. 368.
TWELVE BOOKS OF THE TRINITY.
In Book I, Hilary, after giving the views of phi
losophy concerning happiness and God, shows how
the Christian is sustained by the accurate and sub
lime knowledge of God and immortality obtained
from the Scriptures, especially from the Gospel of
John. Yet, even with this knowledge, God's highest
majesty surpassed the comprehension of the human
spirit, and is only reached by faith. Heresies arise
through that human pride which would narrow all
belief to the limits of the human understanding,
instead of submitting to the authority of the Divine
Oracles. He will oppose two heresies in particular,
namely, the Arian and the SabelHan.
Book II treats generally of the truth of the
Trinity, and particularly of the office and dignity of
each person. This mystery, Hilary declares, is suf
ficiently taught in the office of baptism. After refer
ring to the origin of heresies, he says that he enters
upon the discussion of such mysterious things with
great fear, since they can not be adequately set
forth in words. He also ridicules those who will
not receive the mystery of Christ's birth, when
there are so many mysteries connected with their

HILAR Y. 21
own lives. The Scripture is a medicine which
serves for the healing of all diseases, as witness
these passages [here cited] against Ebion and Arius.
The Holy Spirit, divine in nature and office, exists
separately from the Son. The gift of this spirit is
needed for men's salvation.
In Book III is advocated the truth of the eter
nal generation as against all human reasoning: The
words of Christ, " I am in the Father, and the Fa
ther in me," though incomprehensible by the rea
son alone, are made clear by the teaching of the
Scriptures. The miracles of Christ can not be
comprehended, yet are received ; why not, then,
the doctrine of the eternal generation ? After cit
ing various passages proving the equality of the Son
and the Father, the author shows how much better
it is humbly to receive the truth than to depend
upon the wisdom of the wise, which God will bring
to naught. Book IV begins the formal refutation of the
Arians, defending the truth that the Son is and
always was of like nature with the Father. Here
Hilary cites various passages used by the Arians in
defense of their position, and gives the confession
of faith presented by Arius to the Alexandrian
bishop. The passage " Hear, O Israel, the Lord
our God is one Lord," does not deny a plurality
of persons, for Moses himself in other scriptures,
as, for example, in " Let us make man in our image,"
teaches such plurality. By many passages this plu
rality of persons, as well as the unity of the divine
nature, is proved.
Book V continues the argument of Book IV,
proving substantially (i) that the Logos is God,
and (2) that this does not derogate from the unity
of the Divine Substance. Thus far, only Old Tes
tament proofs are given.
Book VI. The Arian poison is so widely spread

22 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
through the Roman Empire that it will be very dif
ficult to resist ; nevertheless, duty requires this at
tempt, and many may be gained to the truth.
The Arian creed is again cited and examined,
and the doctrine of the heretics, according to which
they exhibit Christ as a Son by adoption, as God in
name, as Only-Begotten through pre-eminence, and
as First-Born according to his rank in creation.
Making use now of the gospels, he shows that
Christ is the true and natural Son of God, adducing
the testimony of the Father, of the Son himself, of
Peter, Paul, John, Martha, the man born blind, the
demons, and the Jews, as well as the confessions of
heathen. In Book VII is shown the craftiness of the va
rious heretics, who severally use the arguments
which the Church adduces against their extreme
opponents, to substantiate their own equally erro
neous opinions. Still, the truth is so powerful that
she stands against them all.
" For great is the power of the truth, which
when it can not be apprehended by itself is yet
made clear even by that which opposes it ; so that
it remains in its nature immovable, and, though daily
assailed, it acquires firmness of nature.
" For this is peculiar to the Church, that when she
is wounded she triumphs, when she is criticised she
passes judgment, when she is abandoned she is the
gainer. She wishes that all might continue in her
bosom, but when heretics go out or are cast out
from her, while she loses the occasion of giving
them salvation, she yet gains in seeing the happiness
of such as remain."
Pursuing the argument, Hilary seeks to prove
that Jesus is the true Son of God according to na
ture, using for this purpose passages from the four
gospels. Book VIII sets forth the natural unity of the

HILARY. 23
Son and the Father. " I and my Father are one,"
the Lord's own words, are not to be wrested to de
note simple oneness of will. Among many other
proofs of this oneness of nature is this : that be
cause in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and, as he is thus in possession of what God
is, he must be one with God. With the unity of
nature the difference of person is also here main
tained. At the beginning of the book Hilary had
spoken of the qualifications of a bishop. Neither
purity of conduct without knowledge, nor knowl
edge without purity, is enough, " for, if he be pious
and illiterate, he can only profit himself ; if he be
learned and without piety, his work will be un
fruitful." Book IX continues the argument of the previous
book, and defends the doctrine against the objec
tions of the heretics. Among the passages cited by
the Arians are the following : " Why callest thou
me good ? There is none good but one, that is
God." " This is Hfe eternal to know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent." " The Son can do nothing of himself."
" My Father is greater than I."
The last he answers thus : This is rightly said,
because he is the Father of the Son, who, however,
can not be declared according to his appearance
the slave of the Father. But the Father is greater
than the Son, because he gives to him what he
himself is : the Son is thus not less than the Father,
because he possesses all that the Father is. In this
book the heretics are charged with an unfair use of
Scripture, by quoting passages out of their connec
tion :
" But while they neither understand these things
aright, nor distinguish as to occasions, nor receive
in accordance with the mystery of the gospel, nor
judge according to the sense of the words, they

24 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
speak against the divine nature with a foolish and
ignorant rage, and rehearse, for the filling of the
ears of the unlearned, only the passage, and that
out of its connection, with omission of its full
meaning and its motive ; notwithstanding that one
must ascertain the sense of words, either by what
precedes or what follows." — Chap. ii.
Book X takes up various objections made by
individuals — not in common by all Arians — and re
futes them. For example, fear is attributed to our
Lord. This is to be understood of him in his hu
man nature, which was complete.
In like manner, as man, he suffered hunger, fa
tigue, etc., though not liable to them by any natural
necessity, since he had never sinned.
Book XI is devoted mainly to an exposition of
two passages claimed by the Arians.
The first of these, I ascend to my Father, and
your Father, and to my God, and your God " (John
xx, 17), he proves to have been spoken by the Lord
as a man, for he had just said, " Go to my brethren
and say unto them."
The other passage, " Then cometh the end
when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to
God, even the Father, . . . then shall the Son also
be subject unto him who put all things under him,
that God may be all in all " (1 Cor. xv, 24, 28), the
Arians use to prove the inferiority of Christ's na
ture — that he must be deprived of his dignity, and,
even as a creature, cease to be. To this Hilary
answers that the word end does not refer to any
cessation of being, but to a certain fixedness of
condition ; and that the giving up of the kingdom to
the Father will not involve a deprivation of the Son,
any more than when the Father delivered the king
dom to the Son, he himself was deprived of it.
Further, the surrender of the kingdom is a myste
rious dispensation of God, and does not involve

HILARY. 25
servitude as a consequence. Finally, showing the
nature and ground of this giving up, Hilary proves
that it does not serve for the behoof of God, to
whom nothing is wanting, nor of the only-begotten
Son, who is alike unchangeable, but of us alone.
This exposition was so satisfactory to Jerome,
that once, upon being asked for an exposition of
the passage, he expressed surprise, since the bishop
of Poictiers had here left nothing to be said.
Book XII. Here is maintained the eternal and
divine generation of Christ, as against the asser
tions of the Arians that " he was not before he was
born," and that " he was made out of nothing." In
spite, also, of the words of wisdom, in Proverbs viii,
25, which the Septuagint erroneously renders, ''The
Lord created me the beginning of his ways." Hil
ary, without denying the correctness of this transla
tion, argues that Christ can not be a creature : 1.
Because he is worshiped, although the worship of
a creature is forbidden. 2. Because all things were
made by him, and the name creator is applied to
him. 3. Because he can not be subject to those
affections which belong to the creature. 4. Because,
having the form, he has the nature of God ; for, if
Christ, having the form of God, is a creature, the
Father also may be a creature. 5. Because like
honor must be paid to the Father and the Son. 6.
Because, by the word bosom, the Father indicates
that he had begotten Christ out of his own being.
7. Because the Father always calls 'him his own Son,
and Christ calls God his own Father, while, when
other sons are spoken of, they are created, not born.
After other similar reasoning, Hilary goes on to
prove the eternity of the Son out of the writings of
Solomon, David, and Paul, and by the testimonies
of Wisdom, to refute the irreligious expositions of
the heretics, drawn from this same Wisdom. He
closes with a prayer to be preserved in the faith im
3

26 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which he had re
ceived at baptism.
BOOK OF SYNODS : THE FAITH OF THE ORIENTALS.
This next most important work of Hilary was
written during his banishment in the East (cir. a. d.
359), and was addressed to the bishops of Gaul,
Germany, and Britain. It contains ninety-two
chapters. After commending the bishops for their
constancy in opposing Saturninus, and their zeal
in maintaining the true faith against the Arians, he
undertakes to explain the creeds made by the East
ern bishops after the Council of Nice and down to
the Council of Ancyra. His immediate object is to
interest the bishops in anticipation of the approach
ing Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia. If, he says,
there was error in some of those creeds, it should
not be attributed to him, since he only relates what
others have said. Nor should the praise be his for
what accords with the doctrine of the apostles, but
should be given to the Oriental bishops.
The first important utterance of a council which
is given is the Arian creed, known as the Sirmian.
This Hilary repudiates and anathematizes in twelve
particulars. Then follow the opinions set forth by
the Council of Antioch (a. d. 341), convened at
the dedication of the grand church, described by
Eusebius. Though these opinions are semi-Arian,
Hilary speaks of the council as an assembly of
saints, and would not repudiate their work. As a
moderate statement, approved by candid men of
both of the great parties in the Church, it is worthy
of our reading. It is as follows :
Formulary of the Dedication.
" We believe, conformably to the evangelical and apos
tolical tradition, in one God, the Father Almighty, the

HILARY. 27
Framer, and Maker, and Preserver of the Universe, from
whom are all things.
"And in One Lord Jesus Christ, his Only-Begotten
Son, God, by whom are all things, who was begotten be
fore all ages from the Father, God from God, whole from
whole, sole from sole, perfect from perfect, King from
King, Lord from Lord, Living Word, Living Wisdom,
true Light, Way, Truth, Resurrection, Shepherd, Door,
both unalterable and unchangeable; unvarying image of
the Godhead, Substance, Will, Power, and Glory of the
Father ; the first-born of every creature, who was in the
beginning with God, God the Word, as it is written in the
Gospel, ' and the Word was God ' ; by whom all things
were made, and in whom all things consist ; who in the
last days descended from above, and was born of a Virgin
according to the Scriptures, and was made Man, Me
diator between God and man, and Apostle of our faith,
and Prince of life, as He says, ' I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent
me ' ; who suffered for us and rose again on the third day,
and ascended into heaven, and sat down on the right hand
of the Father, and is coming again with glory and power,
to judge quick and dead.
" And in the Holy Ghost, who is given to those who
believe for comfort, and sanctification, and initiation, as
also our Lord Jesus Christ enjoined His disciples, saying,
' Go ye, teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost ' ; that of
Father being truly Father, and of Son being truly Son,
and of Holy Ghost being truly Holy Ghost, the names not
being given without meaning or effect, but denoting accu
rately the peculiar subsistence, rank, and glory of each
that is named, so that they are three in subsistence, and
in agreement one.
" Holding then this faith, and holding it in the presence
of God and Christ, from beginning to end, we anathema
tize every heretical heterodoxy. And if any teaches, be
side the sound and right faith of the Scriptures, that time,
or season, or age, either is or has been before the genera
tion of the Son, be he anathema. Or if any one says, that
the Son is a creature as one of the creatures, or an off
spring as one of the offsprings, or a work as one of the
works, and not the aforesaid articles one after another,

28 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
as the divine Scriptures have delivered, or if he teaches or
preaches beside what we received, be he anathema. For
all that has been delivered in the divine Scriptures, whether
by Prophets or Apostles, do we truly and conscientiously
believe and follow."
Next is given the confession drawn up by the
Eastern section of the Council of Sardica, which
withdrew to Philippopolis. It speaks of the Son of
God as " begotten of the Father before all worlds,
God of God, who created all things," and anathe
matizes those who say that " there are three Gods,
or that Jesus Christ is not God, or that there is not
one Christ only, the Son of God, or that he is the
same person with the Father and the Holy Ghost."
Again, the first creed of the Council at Sirmium
is given. This was drawn up for the purpose of
combating the Sabellian writings of Photinus. Its
concluding article is as follows : " And in accurate
delineation of the idea of Christianity we say this
again : Whosoever shall not say that Christ is God,
Son of God, as being before ages, and having sub
served the Father in the framing of the universe,
but that from .the time that he was born of Mary,
from thence he was called Christ and Son, and took
an origin of being God, be he anathema." This
creed also, as well as the preceding, Hilary accepts,
and he apologizes for the multitude of utterances
by the Eastern bishop, on the ground of the persist
ent utterances of the hfcretics. In the provinces to
which he was banished there were only a few bish
ops who acknowledged the divinity of the Word.
They, the Western bishops, are congratulated on
having the apostolical faith engraved on their
hearts, though they are ignorant of confessions
written by men's hands. For Hilary declares that
he himself, though regenerated long since, and for
a time a bishop, had never'heard the Nicene creed
until his exile.

HILARY. 29
COMMENTARIES.
Jerome speaks of these as being taken largely
from Origen, whose commentaries Hilary had had
expounded to him by Heliodorus. We have an
exposition of the Gospel by Matthew and of the
Psalms. Matthew.
The principal verses of the several chapters are
expounded historically and spiritually. The com
ments are short but full of substance, and concisely
expressed. The following brief extracts may sug
gest the tone of the work :
" The rising of the star, which was discovered
by the wise men, indicated that soon the heathen
would believe in Christ, and that men whose faith
was far removed from the knowledge of the divine
truth would know of the. light which shone imme
diately upon his advent. Further, the offering of
the gifts expressed a knowledge of his whole nature.
In them he was recognized by the gold as king, by
the frankincense as God, by the myrrh as man.
Consequently their homage gave proclamation of
all the mysteries : in the man, that of death ; in God,
that of the resurrection ; in the king, that of judg
ment." — Chap, ii, sec. 5.
" And truly the confession of Peter received a
worthy praise, because he had seen the Son of God in
the man. Blessed is he to whom falls the praise that
he has grasped and seen more than mortal eyes ;
while he did not direct his sight upon what was flesh
and blood, but through the revelation of the heaven
ly Father looked upon the Son of God, and held that
which was in Christ from God, worthy of the first
attention. . . . O blessed door-keeper of heaven, to
whose judgment are committed the keys to eternal
life, whose sentence upon earth has beforehand pow
er in heaven ! so that upon that which is bound or

30 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
loosed upon earth a decision of the same kind will
be pronounced in heaven." — Chap, xvi, sec. 7.
A curious opinion is expressed in chapter xxv,
that the last judgment will take place upon the spot
where Christ suffered. Psalms.
The comments are discriminating and sugges
tive, and many of them of great value.
Speaking of an unworthy fear, the writer says :
" It is not so with the fear of the Lord, of which it
is written : ' Come, ye children, hearken unto me : I
will teach you the fear of the Lord' (Ps. xxxiv, n).
Here is no strong, impetuous commotion, by which
the soul is consumed, but a reason enlightened by
the divine teachings. It is acquired by an observ
ance of the commandments, by the acts of a pure
and innocent life, by the knowledge of the truth.
For one ought not to fear God because many have
been destroyed by thunder-bolts, because others have
perished by earthquakes, and others have been
buried under ruins, since faith merits nothing in
any fear which a thousand accidents can excite in
us. The fear of the Lord in the faithful soul con
sists wholly in love ; that is the direction in which
the fear of the Lord in us becomes supreme. Now,
the principal duty of our love toward him is to obey
his precepts, to live according to his maxims, to
believe his promises." List of Hilary's Works.
1. On the Synods, and an apology for the same. 2.
The Twelve Books on the Trinity. 3. Two Addresses
to the Emperor Constantius. 4. An Address against the
Emperor Constantius. 5. A Book against the Arians, or
against Auxentius. 6. Certain "Fragments" compiled
chiefly from a book upon the Councils of Seleucia and
Ariminum. 7. Commentaries upon the Psalms and upon
Matthew.

AMBROSE. 3I

AMBROSE,

The knightly bishop. That chivalrous spirit,
forgetful of self in the glory of serving the cause
in distress, which culminated in the Crusades to
rescue the tomb of Christ, was by those Crusades
simply testifying of its origin. For it was a flower
of Christianity. The old paganism knew nothing
of it. True, there were Roman knights ; but their
plumes never bowed with the grace of humility,
and their strength never gloried in being spent
for the weak. Such a knight our- Ambrose might
have been had he lived in the days of the republic.
For he was of noble birth, was cradled in the pal
ace of a praetorian prefect, and was educated at
Rome in such a manner as to fit him for the highest
offices of state. Arriving at manhood, he at first
practiced as an advocate in the court of the prae
torian prefect of Italy, by whom in the year 374 he
was appointed governor of Liguria and Emilia, with
the rank of senator. He was now thirty-four years
of age, a man of brilliant parts, and of such princi
ples that, when leaving for Milan, which was to be
his seat of government, the prefect is said to have
dismissed him with the words, " Go and conduct
yourself not as a. judge, but as a bishop." The
words had a meaning beyond the speaker's thought ;
for within a year Ambrose, layman as he now was,
and unbaptized, was chosen by the suffrage of the
people bishop of Milan. A few months after Am
brose's arrival in the city, Auxentius, then bishop,
had died, and, owing to the feeling between the

32 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
Arian and Orthodox parties, the appointment of
his successor threatened to be a serious matter. To
preserve peace, Ambrose entered the church where
the synod was assembled, and exhorted the people
who had thronged thither to concord and quietness.
Suddenly, no one knew whence — some said it was
the voice of a child — rose the cry, "Ambrose is
bishop ! " This proved the desired solution. Both
parties took up the cry, and Ambrose, shrinking
from the office, flying and hiding from the impor
tunities of the city, was yet at last induced to sub
mit, and after baptism changed the consular for
the episcopal robes. The change to be noted was
not so much a change in actual power ; for no less
real than the power of the sword was the power
which the dignitaries of the church were then com
ing to exercise. It was rather in the spirit in which
the new bishop accepted his power, not as his own,
but as a sacred trust, to be exercised for the poor,
the oppressed, the sorrowing, the sinful of earth.
And never Knight of the Round Table used his
sword more chivalrously than Ambrose used his
episcopal staff. Never knight of the Cross battled
more boldly with Saracen for the Holy Sepulchre
than he battled with Arians for the possession of
the Church. Before the death of the orthodox Em
peror Valentinian, and by his aid, Ambrose had
begun to undo the work of his Arian predecessor
Auxentius. The next emperor, Gratian, was also
favorable to the Nicene doctrine ; but after his
death the Empress Justina espoused the Arian
cause with much earnestness. She requested the
use of one of the churches in Milan for Arian wor-

AMBROSE. 33
ship, but Ambrose refused it ; and when violence
was threatened, the people flocked to the churches
and filled them day and night, relieving one another
by turns, and so secured their possession. Later,
efforts were made to seize the church where Am
brose himself officiated and even to arrest him, but
in the crisis he was true to his people and they to
him. He had been ordered by the emperor either
to meet the Arian Auxentius in a conference before
secular authorities or to leave the city. Declining
the conference, some of the people were for a mo
ment fearful lest he should desert them ; but as
they thronged his church he assured them of his
fidelity and his purpose to hold what had been in
trusted to him. " Come what may," he said, in his
address, " our answer to the demand of Auxentius
will be that of Naboth in our lesson to-day, ' The
Lord forbid it me that I should give up the inher
itance of my fathers unto thee,' the inheritance of
Dionysius, Eustorgius, Myrocles, and all the con
fessors and martyrs who have preceded me here."
It was probably at this time of protracted occu
pation of the churches that, to relieve the tedium
of the people, the Eastern practice of antiphonal
chanting was introduced, and the new hymnology
of the West had its birth.
But Ambrose had need of courage in the meet
ing of friends as well as in the repelling of enemies.
Theodosius the Great was a firm supporter of Or
thodoxy and of Ambrose ; but this did not prevent
his perpetrating in a rage the terrible massacre at
Thessalonica. In the churches of the East this
might have been no bar to the communion of an

34 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
emperor ; but Ambrose did not so conceive of the
rites of the Church or of the rights of rulers.
Meeting the emperor, who had come to his church
for worship, at the church-door, he turned him
back, and, if the words put into the prelate's mouth
by Theodoret and the " judicious " Hooker are
somewhat overwrought, we may believe that Theo
dosius was made to feel the supremacy of Heaven
over earth. Leastwise Ambrose did not admit him
to communion until he had done penance for his sin.
We can not trace the events of this noble life.
Suffice it that the bishop who had laid aside the
offices of state was more even to the state than pre
fects and armies ; while to the Church, and to the
" little ones " of the kingdom to which he had given
himself — to the poor and the captive and the dis
tressed — he was a man with few peers in the Chris
tian ministry.
Ambrose was a constant writer, and his extant
works are somewhat numerous. His theological
writings are mainly upon subjects connected with the
Trinity. He wrote also in favor of the ascetical life ;
but his most important book is that upon the duties
of ministers. His power as a preacher and influence
as a pastor are abundantly testified by the "Confes
sions" of Augustine, who was converted under his
ministrations. He died the day before Easter, a. d.
397- MORAL AND DOGMATIC WORKS.
De Officiis Ministrorum.
This work, written about a. d. 391, somewhat
resembles in form Cicero's treatise " De Officiis," by
which it was doubtless suggested to Ambrose. But,

AMBROSE. 35
while less eloquent than' the classic work, the Chris
tian treatise moves upon a higher plane, aiming not
only to train man for earth, but also to fit him for
heaven. It treats more particularly of the obliga
tions of clergymen, but also embraces the duties of
all Christians. Two classes of obligations are recognized : (i)
those enjoined alike upon all, and (2) those com
mended to such as would be spiritually advanced,
or those pertaining to the less perfect and the more
perfect. ¦Book I. The first six chapters are a preface upon
speaking and keeping silence, in which it is shown
that the proper office of a bishop is to teach ; yet
speech has dangers which are to be avoided by a
judicious refuge in silence. The Christian law,
however, does not enjoin absolute silence, but rather
the proper care of the tongue. Entering upon his
theme, Ambrose says that the word officium (va
riously translated " service," " duty," " obligation ")
was not peculiar to the philosopher, but was used
in Scripture (Luke i, 23) of the ministry (Xeirovp-
yiaq) of Zacharias. Obligations were known to the
philosophers as (1) of fitness, (2) of -profit, (3) of
pleasure. He will trust only to the first, since they
only have reference to the future life. The idea of
fitness was taught by the Scriptures earlier than by
the philosophers, as in Psalm lxv, 2. The com
mon obligations are such as are enjoined in the
commandments, of which the Lord reminded the
young man who would be perfect. The higher ob
ligations are such as the selling of all we have, to
give to the poor. Let none be remiss as to these
obligations, from the idea that God is oblivious to
men's works, and that the wicked are prospered
equally with the just. The real rewards are in the
future. Among general rules of conduct here considered,

36 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
a modest behavior is specially commended to young
men. For the preserving of this virtue, associa
tion with the intemperate, feasts, and conversation
with women, are to be shunned. Leisure hours
should be spent at home in pious and befitting
studies. Joking, though it be sometimes harmless,
should, nevertheless, be wholly proscribed among
ecclesiastics. Three things should be observed :
The appetite should be subjected to the reason ;
moderation should be observed ; and everything
should be done in its own time and place.
Treating of specific virtues, justice is said to be
a piety which is exercised, first, toward God ; sec
ondly, toward country ; thirdly, toward parents — in
like manner, toward all. If at an early age, when
first the sense of sharing begins, we love life as the
gift of God, we esteem country and parents, after
ward we desire the companionship of our equals.
Hence is born charity, which prefers others to self,
seeking not her own ; whence is the pre-eminence
of justice. But ideas of justice held by the philosophers are
excluded by the gospel. For injuries may not be
requited, hence we should have the spirit of the Son
of man, who came to confer blessings, not to inflict
injuries. This justice has no private interest, but
extends even to our enemies.
Beneficence, the next virtue treated, is made up
of benevolence and liberality. It involves right
motives as well as correct conduct. Liberality is
not to be exercised for the reward. That is true
liberality which is concealed by our silence — when
the lips of the pauper, not our own tongues, praise
us. The strength (foriitudo) in which Christians
chiefly glory is not physical, but is a virtue of the
soul, and is exercised, not in inflicting, but in
guarding against, injuries.

AMBROSE. 37
Examples of these virtues are given in Job and
other Scripture characters ; also in the holy Ag
nes and the holy Lawrence. Agnes, being put in
peril of her chastity and her life, preserved her
chastity, and bartered her life for immortality.
Lawrence, a holy deacon, seeing his bishop led
away to martyrdom, complained that he was being
deserted, whereupon the bishop responded that he
was only reserved for a fiercer combat, and would
in three days be where he was. After this time,
when he was roasted upon a gridiron, he mocked
his torturer, saying, " I am roasted enough, turn me
and eat me " ; so overcoming the violence of fire by
the strength of his courage.
Temperance, a fourth virtue, is said to consist
in tranquillity of soul, in the moderating of the pas
sions, in discretion, and in a certain reserve. Let
one seek to know himself, and not be above or be
low any obligation.
At the close of the book some of the more spe
cific obligations of clergymen are treated. They
are to be of good report, not only among the faith
ful, but also with those without.
Second marriages unfit for the sacred office, in
which widows are to be exhorted to remain in
widowhood. Those who have received the gift of
the holy ministry must keep it immaculate, unvio-
lated by any conjugal union.
Book If. The first chapters treat of true happi
ness, which is shown to consist in the knowledge of
God and in innocency of life. Other things do not
even add to our happiness, much less make us su
premely happy ; and, on the contrary, the miseries
of life can not make us unhappy. The good things
of this world are evils in hindering men from work
ing out their salvation ; and the evil things are good.
in leading us to the exercise of virtue.
As to the obligations of utility, we understand
4

38 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
that usefulness is not to be reckoned by a money
estimate, but by the acquisition of piety.
That only is useful which is fitting, which is just.
Friendship, fidelity, liberality, civility, the protection
of the poor, etc., are necessary for the maintenance
of society. Speaking of some of these, it is said
that nothing is more profitable than to be loved.
Mildness and civility cause us to be loved by
all, which virtues also maintain peace and charity.
Again, our liberality to the poor should be exercised
with prudence, lest it become useless ; and this dis
cretion should be especially observed by priests,
that they may dispense, not according to vanity, but
according to justice. For often there is great avid
ity on the part of the petitioners. Strong and vig
orous men come, vagabonds who solicit aid to which
only the truly indigent have a claim — they are con
tentious, exacting, imperious. There is need of
reserve in our liberality to such. There are those
who pretend to be in debt ; let the truth be found
out. They tell us of robberies suffered ; let this be
verified. With such discretion we shall not be
avaricious toward any, but liberal to all ; for we
should have not only ears for hearing the demands,
but also eyes for beholding the necessities, of those
who call upon us. There is in the feebleness and
abasement of the pauper a voice far more eloquent
than words. We must not give way before impu
dence. We must see him who does not see us ;
seek him out who blushes to be seen ; the prisoner
and the sick, let us seek them. The more we be
stow judiciously, the more we shall have to bestow.
As to the further duties of clergymen, chapter
xxiv says : We must not carry ourselves proudly in
our offices, nor estrange ourselves from them by
negligence ; we must equally shun ambition and
affectation. Simplicity and uprightness compre
hend all, and these are indeed commendable. In

AMBROSE.

39

his ministry, one must not be too severe nor too
remiss. The wicked must not be defended, nor
holy things given to the unworthy ; neither are we
to reprove and condemn any one until he is con
victed of fault. In the church, above all places,
impartiality should be observed. The rich and the
powerful should have no more authority than the
poor, for in Christ they are one. The most holy
should attribute nothing more to others than to
himself, for, the more holy he is, the more humble
he should be. That we may not make enemies, we
should not meddle with judging or opposing. When
a matter of interest is under debate, nothing can be
said ; but when the cause of God is at stake, or it
is to be feared that the impious will be admitted to
the communion of the church, then it becomes a
heinous sin for a clergyman to use dissimulation.
As to the regard of ministers for riches, Ambrose
says that he had broken the sacred vessels of the
church and used them to redeem captives, and he
deems that the proper use of the consecrated wealth.
The Church was founded without gold : if she has
it now, it is to give it, not to keep it ; it is to give
to the poor in their necessities. What would be
said of a bishop who, to preserve the lifeless vessels,
should suffer the living member of Christ to perish ?
It is not necessary that the sacraments of the altar
be administered in gold and silver. The redemp
tion of captives is an ornament much more pleasing
in the sight of God. The true treasure of the Lord
is that which has the same effect with his blood.
This true estimate of the wealth of the Church was
shown by the holy Lawrence. The treasures of his
church being demanded of him, he promised to
show them, and the next day brought his poor.
When asked where the treasures were, he pointed to
these paupers, saying, " These are the treasures of
the Church." And truly they are treasures in whom

40 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
is Christ, in whom is the faith. It was of such that
He said, "I was an hungered, and ye gave me
meat," etc.
Funds that are deposited with the church by
widows are to be kept with faithfulness and courage.
Book III. Scipio's maxim, that he was never
more busy nor less alone than when he was by him
self, was verified in a more illustrious manner in
Moses, and the prophets, and the apostles.
A just man is never alone, because he is always
with God ; he is never idle, because he is always
meditating. When he is thought to be dead he then
enjoys a happy life ; he is never more joyful than
when others think him to be under affliction ; he is
never richer than when he is poor, because he places1
all his happiness in what is just and honest. Instead
of distinguishing, with the philosophers, between
the good of honesty and the good of profit, Chris
tians distinguish between that good or duty which
is more perfect and that which is less perfect. The
just man ought never to seek his own profit by
doing injury to others ; on the contrary, he should
seek the good of others above his own. As an ap
plication of this principle, a Christian in a shipwreck
ought not to snatch from his brother a plank which
he has seized to save himself. Nor ought one, even
in case of being attacked by robbers, to save his
own life by putting another to death. The philoso
phers were right in saying that the wise man should
do nothing against duty, even though he were se
cure from discovery, but they were unable to cite
any examples of such action, like David or John
the Baptist, and had to resort to the fable of Gyges'
ring. The unselfish principle forbids one who has
gathered much corn to keep it in his store-house
until a time of famine, and then extort great prices.
This practice is a kind of usury or robbery. One

AMBROSE. 41
may urge the example of Joseph : but he made
granaries to open them to all, not to keep them
closed ; not to gain in the price of the wheat, but to
make of it a real resource for the future ; not for his
own personal advantage, but by the wisdom of his
precautions to prevent the return of like calamities.
Nor, again, ought strangers to be shut out of cit
ies in times of famine, as had recently been done at
Rome, whence the aged had actually been expelled,
on the ground that they were useless mouths to
feed. Those who are so intent upon sordid gains
as to defraud their neighbors of their goods are to
be blamed severely ; but, above all, is such covet
ousness insupportable in clergymen. They ought
never to interfere with the liberty of dying men to
keep them from making their wills with discretion,
or to divert their estates from the rightful inherit
ors to their own uses.
In the matter of vows, chapter xii declares that
one should promise nothing which is not legitimate,
nor should one deem himself bound by an unjust
oath. In such a case there is less of evil in break
ing one's word than in keeping it at the expense of
honor. Numerous Scripture examples illustrate these
teachings. The last chapter discourses of Christian friend
ship. Friendship, it is said, should give place to
honesty. No man ought to favor his friend when he
is in the wrong, nor to deal unjustly with him when
he is in the right. As we ought to vindicate a friend
who is innocent, we ought to reprove one who is
guilty : we should speak to him with sincerity, suf
fer for him when it is necessary, and relieve him in
want. The foundation of friendship is faith in God,
and no man can be a true friend to another who is
an infidel toward God. Piety preserves friendship
and makes friends equal. There can be no friend
ship between those of different principles. Friend-

42 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
ships should not be founded upon interest, for friend
ship is a virtue, and not a matter of traffic.
On the Mysteries.
A Protestant writer has lately expressed satis
faction that this work treats of but two sacraments,
instead of the seven recognized by the Roman
Church. While it is true that no reference is made
to seven sacraments, it must yet be confessed that a
rite closely akin to confirmation is placed between
baptism and the receiving the eucharist, and that
it is designated by the word sacramentum, the same
that is used of baptism and the eucharist. Indeed,
Catholic writers rejoice in this work as a most pre
cious treasure of antiquity, chiefly because it seems
to them to confirm the Catholic as opposed to the
Protestant doctrine of the sacraments. It is a book
of instruction to the newly baptized, as to the cere
monies of induction into the church. The exposi
tion of these mysteries, before the candidates had
been initiated, would have been a profanation, and
they could not have been understood. Therefore
open now your ears, and receive the good odor of
eternal life, inhaled by you in the gift of the sacra
ments, which we signified to you in celebrating the
mystery by saying " Ephatha," that all who had
come might know what was asked of them, and
what they should respond. After this you are in
troduced into the holy place of regeneration [the
baptistry], where you renounce the devil and his
works, the world and its pomp and pleasures.
Here you see waters, and ministering Levites, and
the priest questioning and consecrating. The body
is submerged in the water, that all carnal sin may be
washed away ; upon the water the Spirit descends.
Do not you, therefore, look to the visible water for
cleansing. Know, rather, that not the water but
the Spirit cleanses. Then you have learned that in

AMBROSE. 43
baptism these things are one, the Spirit, the water,
and the blood ; because, if one of these be wanting,
the sacrament of baptism is not complete. For
what is water without the cross of Christ ? A com
mon element, without any power of a sacrament.
Neither, again, without water is there the mystery of
regeneration. The candidate, however, believes in
the cross of Jesus Christ, by which also he is signed.
Yet, unless he is baptized in the name of the Father
and Son and Holy Ghost, he can not receive the
remission of sins, nor partake of the spiritual grace.
Being so baptized, you are dead to sin, and alive
unto eternal life. Believe, therefore, that the waters
are not void, but the Spirit has descended to sanc
tify thee. You consider not the merit of the per
sons, but rather the office of the priests, and that,
invoked by his prayer, the Lord Jesus is present.
Having professed a like faith in the Father, the
Son, and the Spirit, save that you recognized the
cross of the Lord Jesus, you ascended from the
font, and in the anointing were inducted by spir
itual grace into the kingdom of God, and into the
priesthood. Then, by the washing of your feet, your
hereditary sins were blotted out, as your own sins
were purged in baptism. After this you received
white garments, to signify that you were stripped of
sin and clothed with innocence. Here Ambrose
introduces the figurative representation of the book
of Canticles. The Lord converses with his love the
Church, and finally says to her, " Set me as a seal
upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm " (chap.
viii, 6) ; that is to say, nothing is wanting to thee.
This " set me as a seal upon thy heart " recalls the
seal [of confirmation, most interpreters would say]
by which the faith of the candidate is now made to
shine.* This is the seal of the Spirit, the Spirit of
* " Pone me ut signaculum in cortuum ; quo fides tua pleno
fulgeat sacramento''.

44 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel
and might, the Spirit of knowledge and piety, the
Spirit of holy fear.
Then you ran to the altar of Christ, and saw the
altar prepared. More ancient and more excellent
than the manna of the Jews is this living bread which
came down from heaven, whereof if one eats he
shall not die eternally, which is the body of Christ.
You say, perhaps, " I see something else ; how do
you assure me that I receive the body of Christ ? "
We must prove that this is not what nature found,
but what the benediction consecrated ; and that the
power of the benediction is greater than that of na
ture, since nature itself is changed by the benedic
tion. Numerous miracles wrought by Hosea and
Elisha are then adduced to show that the grace
even of a prophet's benediction was more powerful
than nature. What, then, shall we say of the divine
consecration itself, in which the very words of the
Lord our Saviour operate ! For this sacrament
which you receive is made by the word of Jesus
Christ. If the word of Elias was of such power as to
bring down fire from heaven, shall not the word of
Christ be able to change the nature of the elements ?
But why do we argue ? The order of nature
was not followed when the Lord Jesus was born of
Mary. And he himself said, " This is my body." Be
fore the consecration is made in the celestial words,
we do call it something else ; after the consecration,
it is called the body. He himself said that it was
his blood. Before the consecration it is called
otherwise ; after the consecration it is pronounced
blood, and you respond, " Amen." Christ is in the
sacrament, because it is the body of Christ. It is
not, therefore, a physical, but a spiritual food ; for
the body of God is spiritual. This heavenly meat
gives us strength, this divine drink rejoices our
heart. Having thus received, let us know ourselves

AMBROSE. 45
to be regenerated ; and not say, " How can we be
regenerated ? " It is not of nature, but of grace.
Five Books of Faith.
The Emperor Gratian, preparing to march into
the East, asked of Ambrose a treatise upon the
divinity of Jesus Christ, as a safeguard against the
Oriental- Arianism. The bishop sent to him the first
two books of this treatise.
In these he confutes, in a summary manner, the
errors of Sabellius, Photinus, and Arius. Subse
quently, the reasoning of these books having been
criticised as dealing too cursorily with the Arian
arguments, three more books were added. The line
of thought was very like that pursued by the earlier
champions of the Nicene faith. All that the Scrip
tures say of the Son as inferior to the Father is ex
plained, emphasizing the distinction between the two
natures in Jesus Christ. As man, he doubts and is
troubled ; as man, he weeps and is crucified. The
flesh then suffered, but the divinity was free from
death. The body yielded by the law of human
nature to suffering ; but could the divinity be sub
ject to death, when the soul can not die ? When
he prayed, it was as a man ; when he would have
his divinity recognized, he spoke with command.
A prayer in the last chapter of the work recognizes
Father, Son, and Spirit as alike illimitable, incom
prehensible, and ineffable. In this prayer there
is reference to Arius as, like his father the devil,
illicitly usurping place by arrogating to himself
knowledge. Even Paul, who was caught up to the
third heaven, said of divine things, " God knows."
Arius said, " I know." On the Holy Spirit.
This work, in three books, was made up chiefly
from the treatise of Didymus of Alexandria, and

46 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
contains little that is noteworthy. One passage in
it has been made a subject of considerable discus
sion between those who assert and those who deny
the primacy of the Apostle Peter :
" Paul is not inferior to Peter. If the latter was
the foundation of the church, the former was the
wise architect, knowing how to make firm the steps
of the believing people. Nor was Paul, I -say, un
worthy of the college of the apostles, since he was
easily comparable with the first, and was second
to none. " He who admits no inferiority declares that he
is in the same rank." — Book II, chap. xiii.
On the Incarnation.
This book traverses much the same ground with
that of the treatise on faith.
A single brief extract from the body of the work
must suffice : " He was, then, immortal even in
death, impassible even in suffering. For, as the
calamity of death had not seized upon God, the in
fernal regions beheld him as man. For ' he gave
up the ghost,' but, as the arbiter of death and life
to the body, he thus gave up the spirit, he did not
lose it. He was suspended on the cross, and he
moved the world. Made sin for all, he purged the
sins of the human race. At last he is dead ; and
again and again, with joy and triumph, I cry, ' He
is dead,' that his death may become the life of the
dead."— Chap. v.Three Books of Virgins.
Ambrose wrote six treatises relating to the celi
bate life. One of these is an exhortation to vir
ginity, and one maintains the perpetual virginity of
Mary. The most noteworthy, however, was this
work, in three books, addressed to his sister Mar-
cellina.

AMBROSE. 47
/It relates at the outset the example of St. Ag
nes, and then points out the advantages of virginity
over the married life.
It is indeed the angelic life. The people of
Milan, he complains, discourage their daughters
from thus consecrating themselves, while the faith
ful come from other cities in great numbers, and
even from Mauritania, to make the profession.
Many examples of holy virgins are adduced,
first among them the Virgin Mary. There is given
an address, said to have been made by Pope Libe-
rius to Marcellina, upon the occasion of her making
profession of virginity. Ambrose praises the virtues
of his sister, dissuades her from too rigid fastings,
and exhorts her to prayer. She should avoid mirth
and dancing. In answer to an inquiry which Mar
cellina had made, he says that the zeal of those who
destroy themselves, rather than fall into the hands of
those who would dishonor them, is not forbidden.
Two Books of Penitence.
The first of these is mainly devoted to opposing
the alleged errors of the Novatians or Puritans of
that day, who denied the power of the Church to
grant absolution, and refused communion to those
who had sinned after baptism. Against their harsh
ness Ambrose points to the mildness of Christ.
They by their course frighten sinners away from
a penitent return. What confidence will one have
in a physician who, instead of compassion for his
patient, exercises only contempt and harshness
toward him ? "I would have the guilty," says
Ambrose, " hope for the pardon of his sin, yet he
should beg it with tears ; he should beg it with
sighs, he should beg it with the lamentation of all
the people. I would have him pray for absolution,
and when he is twice or thrice delayed as to his re-
admission into the communion of the Church, let

48 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
him believe that his delay proceeds from the want
of importunity in his prayers ; let him redouble his
weeping, let him render himself more worthy of
pity, and then let him return, throw himself at the
feet of the faithful, embrace them, kiss them, bathe
them with his tears, and forsake them not, that so
our Lord may say of him, " His many sins are for
given, because he loved much."
In the second book reference is made to Heb.
vi, 6, and to the objections of the Novatians founded
upon the passage, it is replied that the teaching here
is that there is no second baptism for those who
have sinned, but their hope for pardon must rest
alone in penance. The only sin that can not be for
given is the sin against the Holy Ghost, which Am
brose makes to consist in heresy and schism, and
persisting impenitence. Even Judas would not have
been rejected, if instead of declaring his sin to the
Jews, he had confessed it to Christ. The faithful
are then exhorted to penitence, and the conditions
and methods of true penance are pointed out. As
to money payments it is said (Book II, chap, ix) ;
" God does not seek your money, but your faith.
I will not deny that your sin may be diminished by
benefactions to the poor, but it is when faith com
mends the giving. For what can the distribution
of your goods avail without the grace of charity ?"
LETTERS.
Ninety-one letters of Ambrose are preserved,
many of them devoted to such matters of doctrine
and ecclesiastical discipline as make them of lasting
interest. No better specimen could be chosen than
the letter to the Emperor Theodosius, after the
massacre at Thessalonica.
If not quite so incisive as the speech which
Theodoret puts into Ambrose's mouth when he
turned Theodosius away from the door of the

AMBROSE. 49
church, it must yet have been wholesome reading
for the emperor of the Roman world.
To the August Emperor Theodosius, Ambrose the Bishop.
"... If the priest shall not speak to the erring, he
who has sinned shall die in his sin, and the priest
shall be a party to his crime, because he has not
admonished him. Hear, then, august emperor. That
thou hast a great zeal for the faith, I may not deny,
nor dispute thy fear of God. But thine is an im
petuous nature which if one will soothe thou dost
quickly incline to pity ; if one rouse it, thou art so
enkindled that thou canst scarcely restrain it. If
there is no one to soothe, would that there might be
none to arouse ! I would freely commit it to thee ;
return to thine own self, and by thy zeal for piety
thou wilt overcome this natural impetuosity. ... A
deed has been done in Thessalonica such as the
memory of man does not recall, which I have not
been able to prevent ; which, however, I have before
declared atrocious, whenever such things were in
question, and which thou thyself, too late for it to
be revoked, dost deem grave. This act I am not to
extenuate. . . . Should it shame thee, O Emperor,
to do what David did, the prophet-king, the founder
of the family of Christ according to the flesh ?
" It was told him that a rich man who had great
flocks, on account of the visit of a stranger, seized
and killed the one lamb of a poor man ; and he,
knowing that he himself was meant, for he had so
done, cried, ' I have sinned against the Lord.'
Bear it not impatiently, therefore, O Emperor, if I
say to thee what was said to King David by the
prophet, ' Thou hast done this.' For, if thou shalt
hearken diligently and shalt say, 'I have sinned
against the Lord,' if thou shalt utter the royal
prophecy, ' O come let us worship and bow down ;
let us lament before the Lord our Maker,' it shall
5

50 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
be said to thee also : ' Because thou art penitent,
the Lord hath put away thy sin ; thou shalt not
die.' I have written these things not that I might
humble thee, but that the example of kings might
provoke thee to remove this sin from thy kingdom
and in humility to lift up thy soul unto God.
" Thou art a man, and temptation hath befallen
thee ; overcome it. Sin is not put away except by
tears and penitence. Neither angel nor archangel,
nor even the Lord himself, who alone can say, ' I
am with you,' may forgive those who are not peni
tent. I counsel, I implore, I exhort, I admonish
you. For I am afflicted that thou, who hast been a
model of unusual piety, who hast held the highest
distinction for clemency, who hast not allowed some
who were guilty to be put in peril, dost not grieve
that so many innocent ones have perished. Al
though thou hadst distinguished thyself in battles,
although in other things also thou wast worthy of
praise, yet the crown of thy works was always thy
piety. The devil envied thee that which most dis
tinguished thee. Conquer thou him, while thou art
yet able. ... I have no reason for contumacy against
thee, but I am afraid. I should fear to offer the
sacrifice, should you desire to be present.
" What may not be on account of the blood of
one who is innocent, shall it be after the death of
many ? I can not think so. . . . But thanks be to
the Lord who is willing to chastise his servants, lest
he may lose them. This happens to me in com
mon with the prophets : let it happen to you in
common with the saints."
WORKS UPON THE SCRIPTURES.
Ambrose's scriptural writings are numerous,
treating chiefly of the Old Testament. There is a
work upon the " Six Days of Creation," in which
he borrowed largely from Basil. Instead of formal

AMBROSE. 51
commentaries, most of these Old Testament works
are treatises upon various topics in which the re
marks are founded upon particular portions of Scrip
ture. The topics so discussed are " Paradise,"
" Cain and Abel," " Life of Abraham," " Noah and
the Ark," " Isaac and the Soul " (a book founded
upon the Canticles, and explaining the union of the
soul with the Word), " Jacob and the Happy Life,"
the " Life of Joseph," the " Benediction of the Pa
triarchs," an " Apology for David," " Of Elias and
Fasting," " Naboth and the Poor," "The Inter
cessions of Job and David," " Of Forsaking the
World," and " Of the Advantages of Death." This
last was based in part upon the second book of
Esdras, which was regarded by Ambrose as canon
ical. Discoursing of the state of departed souls, the
author supposes that until the judgment-day they
will be in places where they expect eternal glory or
damnation, though they enjoy meantime some hap
piness or misery. Seven degrees of blessedness are
spoken of, the highest of which is joy in the assur
ance of seeing God face to face.
We have also a treatise upon Tobit, and there
are extant expositions of the Psalms, among them a
collection of sermons, one to each Hebrew letter on
Psalm cxix.
The only New Testament commentary is upon
the Gospel of Luke. In this he devotes himself for
the most part to the letter and history of the text.
HYMNS.
No small part of Ambrose's episcopal power was
due to his use of Christian song as an element of
worship. The most illustrious convert which the
church at Milan ever received, reverting in his
" Confessions " to the holy influences which there
won upon him, speaks thus : " How did I weep, O
Lord ! through thy hymns and canticles, touched to

52 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
the quick by the voices of thy sweet attuned Church !
The voices sank into my ears, and the truths dis
tilled into my heart, whence the affections of my
devotions overflowed ; tears ran down, and I re
joiced in them." Reading these lines we are half
disposed to quarrel with an unscrupulously exact
scholarship which no longer allows to us one of the
most pleasing legends of the Church. For tradi
tion says that Ambrose and his music-moved cate
chumen, on the occasion of Augustine's reception
into the Church, broke out spontaneously in the
antiphonal chanting of the grand " Te Deum Lau-
damus," each composing and responding to the
other without any preconcerted plan. But, while
the story must be given up, it remains true that
Ambrose was the author of a number of extant
hymns, and that he was so well known in connec
tion with the hymns of the Church, that in the fol
lowing centuries they came to speak of a hymn as
an Ambrosian. Formerly a large number of hymns
found in Latin breviaries were assigned to him,
but critical studies now reduce the number extant
to twelve, or even seven. Of these, critics unite in
giving the foremost place to the
Veni Redemptor Gentium.
Of the various renderings of this hymn, we
choose the following, by Dr. Ray Palmer :
O thou Redeemer of our race !
Come show the Virgin's Son to earth ;
Let every age admire the grace ;
Worthy a God thy human birth !
'Twas by no mortal will or aid,
But by the Holy Spirit's might,
That flesh the Word of God was made,
A babe yet waiting for the light.

AMBROSE. 53
Spotless remains the Virgin's name,
Although the Holy Child she bears ;
And virtue's banners round her flame,
While God a temple so prepares.
As if from honor's royal hall,
Comes forth at length the Mighty One,
Whom Son of God and man they call,
Eager his destined course to run.
Forth from the Father's bosom sent,
To him returned he claimed his own ;
Down to the realms of death he went,
Then rose to share the eternal throne.
An equal at the Father's side,
Thou wear'st the trophy of thy flesh ;
In thee our nature shall abide,
In strength complete, in beauty fresh.
With light divine thy manger streams,
That kindles darkness into day ;
Dimmed by no night, henceforth its beams
Shine through all time with changeless ray.
List of Works.
Dogmatic and Moral : " Three Books of Offices " ;
"Of Mysteries"; "Three Books of the Holy Spirit";
" On the Incarnation " ; " Five Books concerning the
Faith " ; " Two Books on Penitence " ; " Three Books of
Virgins " ; " An Exhortation to Virginity, originally a Ser
mon preached at Bologna " ; " On Virginity," a work
partly apologetic, Ambrose's zeal for the celibate life hav
ing been criticised ; " Instructions for a Virgin," devoting
much space to maintaining the perpetual virginity of Mary ;
" A Treatise of Widows." Letters : Ninety-one now
extant. Exegetical Works : The titles are all given
in the text. FUNERAL Discourses : Orations com
memorating Valentinian and Theodosius ; and two books
upon the " Decease of Satyrus," his brother. HYMNS :
Twelve now extant.

54 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.

JEROME,
The author of the Vulgate. Eusebius Hierony-
mius Sophronius, commonly known as Jerome, was
born at Strido, not far from Aquileia, about a. d.
345, and was probably a Dalmatian by race. His
family was Christian and orthodox, and of such
wealth and position as secured to Jerome liberal
study and refined associations. His early life was
a period of great agitation in the religious world.
The Emperor Constantius long sought to force the
Church into Arianism, and through the action of the
Council of Rimini, as Jerome afterward said, " the
whole world groaned and was astonished to find
itself Arian." Julian the Apostate next tried to re
vive the worship of the ancient gods. Valentinian,
though himself an orthodox believer, yet ruled an
empire sharply divided between the Arian and Ni-
cene confessions. In the midst of such contentions,
a mind like Jerome's must even in boyhood have
been interested in religious thought. He was not,
however, baptized, nor actively devoted to the re
ligious life until he reached manhood. He had
been sent to Rome to complete his education, and
there was trained in classics and philosophy.
Upon the completion of his studies at Rome he
traveled and studied for some time in Gaul, when,
at Treves, he first came to think seriously upon di
vine things. Returning to Strido and Aquileia, he
begins literary work, having gathered for that pur
pose a valuable library ; but, soon conceiving the
idea of retirement from the world, he sets out, in

JEROME. 55
company with several of his friends for the East.
After various travels, Jerome finds himself in soli
tude in the deserts of Syria, having with him, how
ever, his beloved library. Here he spends four
years in pious exercises and in study. A noteworthy
incident of this period was his remarkable vision, in
which he was scourged before the throne of divine
judgment, for being a Ciceronian rather than a
Christian. Sickness at length compels his return to
civilization, and we find him in turn at Antioch,
where he was ordained a priest, though on condition
that he should not perform the priestly function ;
at Bethlehem ; at Constantinople, where he met with
Gregory Nazianzen, whom he calls his master ; and
then at Rome. Here he was made secretary to
Pope Damasus, and at his request undertook his
first work of translating and revising the Scriptures.
Besides these literary labors he was active in pro
moting the ascetic life and the study of the Scrip
tures among the higher classes of society, particularly
among the Roman ladies of most distinguished rank.
This effort aroused much opposition to him,
not only from friends of his devotees, but from the
Roman clergy, whose follies and vices he denounced ¦
with scathing ridicule. Upon the death of Dama
sus, whose successor he did not become, Jerome set
out for the East, and was followed by Paula, a noble
and wealthy Roman lady, and her daughter Eusto-
chium, who proposed founding in the East a mo
nastic establishment for themselves and the friends
who accompanied them. After making the tour of
Palestine, and visiting Egypt, where Jerome met with
Didymus, the three friends came to Bethlehem, and

56 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
there established four monasteries, three for women
and one for men. Here was performed Jerome's
great work upon the Scriptures, of which we shall
speak hereafter.
This retreat became an establishment of great
renown, to which visitors gathered from all parts of
the world, and whither, in the troublous times at
tending the fall of Rome, refugees flocked in great
numbers and were received with bountiful hospital
ity. Unhappily, the peace of the retreat was much
disturbed by Jerome's propensity to quarrels. The
part which he took in the bitter controversies over
Origen, and his attacks upon the supporters of Pe
lagius, so embroiled him with his old friends, and
especially with his neighbors at Jerusalem, that the
monastery at Bethlehem was once attacked and
partially destroyed by an armed mob. These con
troversies, which somehow extended to nearly every
one with whom he had to do, lasted to the closing
years of Jerome's life, which ended, after a linger
ing illness, on September 30, 420.
de viris illustribus.
In this celebrated treatise, undertaken at the
request of Dexter, after the manner of the Greek
and Latin biographical writers, Jerome announces
his purpose to speak briefly of all who have written
anything concerning the sacred Scriptures, from the
death of Christ to the fourteenth year of the reign
of the Emperor Theodore. He acknowledges his in
debtedness to Eusebius, and forestalls the criticism of
any contemporary writers whom he may overlook, by
saying that, if they distinguish themselves by their
writings, his omissions will be of no consequence.

JEROME.

57

Let Celsus, Porphyry, Julian, and such rabid op
ponents of Christ, with their followers, who imagine
that the Church has had no philosophers and ora
tors and savants, learn what and how great men
have founded, built, and advanced it. Let them
cease to accuse our faith of a rustic simplicity, and
recognize rather their own ignorance.
The number of writers named is one hundred
and thirty-five, all briefly treated. Even with our re
stricted limits, this list may well claim transcription :
22. Hegesippus the historian.
23. Justin, philosopher and
martyr.
24. Melito of Sardis.
25. Theophilus of Antioch.
26. Apollinaris of Hierapolis.
27. Dionysius of Corinth.
28. Pinytus the Cretan.
29. Tatian the heretic.
30. Philip of Crete.
31. Musanus.
32. Modestus.
33. Bardesanes the heresiarch.
34. Victor of Rome.
35. Irenaeus of Lyons.
36. Pantaenus the philosopher.
37. Rhodon, a disciple of Ta
tian.
38. Clement of Alexandria.
39. Miltiades.
40. ApoUonius.
41. Serapion of Antioch.
42. ApoUonius, a Roman sen
ator.
43. Theophilus of Csesarea.
44. Bacchylus of Corinth.
45. Polycrates of Ephesus.
46. Heraclitus.
47. Maximus.

I. Simon Peter.
2. James, the brother of the
Lord.
3. Matthew, also called Levi.
4. Jude, the brother of James.
5. Paul, also called Saul.
6. Barnabas, also called Jo
seph.
7. Luke the Evangelist.
8. Mark the Evangelist.
9. John the Apostle.
ro. Hermas, author of " The
Shepherd."
ri. Philo Judzeus.
12. Senaca * the Stoic philos
opher.
13. Josephus the historian.
14. Justus of Tiberias.
15. Clement of Rome (Philip
iv, 3).
16. Ignatius of Antioch.
r7. Polycarp of Smyrna. Or
dained by John the Apos
tle bishop of Smyrna.
18. Papias of Hierapolis.
19. Quadratus of Athens.
20. Aristides the Athenian
Apologist.
21. Agrippa Castor.

* Named by Jerome on account of certain letters said to
have passed between Senaca and St. Paul, in which the for
mer expressed the wish that he were to his own people what
Paul was to the Christians.

58

POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.

48. Candidus.

87.

49. Appion.

8S.

50. Sextus.

89.

51. Arabianus.

90.

52. Judas.

91.

53. Tertullian.

92.

54. Origen.

55. Ammonius.

93-

56. Ambraius.

94.

57. Trypho.

58. Minucius Felix.

95-

59. Gaius.

96.

60. Beryllus of Bostra.

97-

61. Hippolytus.

98.

62. Alexander of Jerusalem.

99.

63. Julius Africanus.

IOO.

64. Geminus, a presbyter of

IOI.

Antioch.

102.

65. Theodore or Gregory

103.

(Thaumaturgus).

104.

66. Cornelius of Rome.

105.

67. Cyprian.

106.

68. Pontius, Cyprian's biogra

107.

pher.

108.

69. Dionysius of Alexandria.

log.

70. Novatian the heretic.

no.

71. Malchion, a presbyter of

in.

Antioch.

112.

72. Archelaus, opponent of

"3-

Manichaeus.

114.

73. Anatolius of Laodieea.

115.

74. Victor of Petavia.

116.

75. Pamphilus.

117.

76. Pierius, a presbyter of Al

118.

exandria.

119.

77. Lucian, presbyter of Anti

120.

och.

121.

78. Phileas of Thmuis.

122.

79. Arnobius the rhetorician.

80. Firmianus, or Lactantius.

123.

81. Eusebius of Caesarea.

82. Rheticius.
124.
83. Methodius of Tyre.
125.
84. Juvencus, a Spanish pres
126.
byter.
127.
85. Eustathius of Antioch.
86. Marcellus of Ancyra.
128.
Athanasius.
, Anthony the monk.
, Basil of Ancyra.
Theodore of Heraclea.
Eusebius of Emisa.
, Tryphyllus, a Cypriot
bishop.
Donatus the heretic.
, Asterius, an Arian philos
opher.
Lucifer of Caralis.
Eusebius of Vercellae.
Fortunatianus of Aquileia.
Acacius of Caesarea.
Serapion of Thmuis.
Hilary of Poictiers.
, Victor, a rhetorician.
Titus of Bostra.
Damasus of Rome.
Apollinaris of Laodieea.
Gregory of Boetica.
Pacianus of Barcelona.
Photinus the heretic.
Phcebadius of Agen.
Didymus the Blind.
Optatus of Milevis.
. Aquilius Severus.
Cyril of Jerusalem.
Euzoi'us of Caesarea.
Epiphanius of Salamis.
. Ephraem the Syrian.
Basil of Caesarea Cap.
Gregory Nazianzen.
Lucius, an Arian bishop.
Diodorus of Tarsus.
Eunomius the heretic.
Priscillian of Avila.
Latronianus, a Priscillian-
ist.
Tiberianus, a. Priscillian-
ist.
, Ambrose of Milan.
Evagrius of Antioch.
Ambrose.an Alexandrian.
Maximus of Constantino
ple.
Gregory Nyssa.
JEROME. 59

129. John, a presbyter of An
tioch, afterward bish
op of Constantinople,
known as Chrysostom.
130. Gelasius of Caesarea.
131. Theotimus, a Scythian
bishop.

132. Dexter, the son of Paci-
an.
133. Amphilochius of Iconi
um.
134. Sophronius, translator of
Jerome.
135. Jerome.

THE VULGATE.
It is the judgment of a modern critical scholar
that during fifteen hundred years only one man ap
peared who possessed the requisite qualification
for producing an original version of the Scriptures
for the use of the Latin churches. That man was
Jerome, to whom greater praise could not be given
than to say that, in point of learning, he was the
Latin Origen. We have already noticed that the
Italian and Gallic churches, being of Greek origin,
retained the use of the Greek language to a com
paratively late period. Hence it was that the first
Latin revision of the Scriptures was made in North
Africa, where Christianity, introduced late, was Latin
from the beginning. This " Old Latin " version was
literal and rude ; and, though scrupulously retained
in Africa, came to be regarded in Italy as provin
cial and inadequate. Accordingly, in the fourth cen
tury a new version was made, known as the " Itala."
But, while this recension seems to have had an
ecclesiastical origin, the Scripture text had fallen
into a very corrupt condition. Indeed, there were
said to have been nearly as many versions as indi
vidual copies of the Scriptures. This led Pope Da
masus, while Jerome was his secretary (about 383),
to desire him to prepare a corrected version of the
New Testament. He did this, making use of the
Old Latin as a basis, and changing it only to remove
interpolations and to correct actual errors. This
Hieronymian version, though meeting at first with
much opposition, came in time to be generally re-

6o POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
ceived, and was the beginning of the " Latin Vul
gate," which is the parent of nearly all modern trans
lations. But this work at Rome was only the minor part
of Jerome's labors. Damasus had also asked him
to prepare a corrected version of the Psalms, which
he had done, producing what is known as the " Ro
man Psalter." This seems to have been a hasty
work, and in a few years Jerome prepared with
more care what is known as the " Gallican Psalter,"
now in general use in the Roman Church.
From this beginning he went on to prepare a
version of the entire Old Testament, translating it
from the text of the Septuagint and other Greek
versions, so as to represent as nearly as possible the
sense of the Hebrew. This version, however, did
not satisfy Jerome. A Hebrew scholar himself, and
having near him — he was now at Bethlehem — learned
rabbis, and Hebrew texts in use in the synagogues,
he undertook a new translation of the Old Testament
directly from the Hebrew. Begun about a. d. 390,
this work was completed a. d. 404. With the
exception of the Psalter, which never displaced the
" Gallican " version already made by Jerome, this
translation at last took its place as the standard Bi
ble of the Latin churches. Thus was completed a
book which for a thousand years stood alone as the
exponent of God's will to Western Europe, and then
gave way, so far as it has yet yielded, not to other
texts, but to vernacular renderings of itself. As the
author of this work, the modern world, which finds
in his life so little that is lovable and so much that
is positively repelling, yet thinks of Jerome with
abundant gratitude, and will never cease to name
him among the literary benefactors of the race. In
its simplicity and purity of style, the Vulgate was in
marked contrast with the works of most contem
porary Latin writers, showing its author to have

JEROME. 61
been as well trained in classic studies as he was
profoundly learned in biblical lore.
SCRIPTURE COMMENTARIES.
Speaking generally of Jerome's commentaries,
Dupin says : " First of all, he sets down the ancient
vulgar translation, and with it joins commonly his
new translation ; secondly, he inquires after the
sense of the Hebrew text exactly, and compares it
with the several Greek versions. He cites the other
places of Scripture which have any relation to that
which he is expounding. In making these observa
tions he clears the literal sense of the Scripture, and
discovers the prophecies by showing their accom
plishment. And in the last place he adds mystical
explanations and short allegories, which, most com
monly, are only etymologies and turns of wit about
words." These we see are the methods of a scholar.
We can imagine the precise language used to de
scribe a critical commentary issued in the present
decade upon the new English version. Yet, with all
their learning, the comments were often very clear
and simple, and of a deep spiritual meaning that
appealed profoundly to the heart. The portions of
Scripture treated by Jerome were, in the Old Testa
ment, Isaiah, upon which he wrote eighteen books ;
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, to which he devoted
respectively six books, fourteen books, and one book;
Ecclesiastes ; and the twelve minor prophets.
Upon the New Testament he made a " Harmony
of the Four Gospels," four books of notes upon Mat
thew, and commentaries upon the Epistles to the
Galatians, Ephesians, Titus, and Philemon.
Of considerable portions of these writings, how
ever, Jerome might better have been called the edi
tor than the author, for he cites opinions from all
sources, often giving those of a contrary bearing
upon the same subject, without taking the trouble
6

62 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
to explain or reconcile them. This, he says, should
not be urged against him, as he does not defend the
erroneous opinions, and in not combating them he
simply spares the reputations of the authors.
LETTERS.
No small part of Jerome's literary work is in the
form of letters, many of which are virtual treatises
upon topics of vital interest to the Church or the
world in his day. The number of these letters is
about one hundred and fifty, fifty of them having
reference to the study of the Scriptures, and the rest
taking so wide a range that they enable us not only
to construct an autobiography of the author, but also
to obtain vivid pictures of the ecclesiastical and so
cial life, with occasional glimpses at the political life
of the day.
Our extracts from this correspondence will have
reference to the two prominent elements of the
writer's life-work : (i), his critical study of the Scrip
tures, and (2) his efforts to promote the monastic
and ascetic life in the West. The distinctively
controversial letters are treated under the title of
" Controversial Works." EXTRACTS.
To Paulinus : Upon the Study of the Scriptures.
Jerome alludes to the distinguished men of an
tiquity, who made toilsome journeys to consult the
scholars of other lands, and then speaks of the zeal
of St. Paul in acquainting himself with the law of
God. This was Paul's title to be called a chosen
vessel of the Lord. St. John speaks in the Apoca
lypse of a book sealed with seven seals. The Scrip
tures are such a book to many to-day who boast of
being wise. I would have you realize that you have
need of a master for the study of the holy Scrip-

JEROME. ' 63
tures, and that you ought not to set out in so diffi
cult a way without a guide. All the higher arts and
the simple mechanical professions have masters,
methods, and long preliminary labors. Only Scrip
ture study is without these. Wise and ignorant,
the whole world engages in them. People speak of
them without having learned. Even women set
themselves up as doctors. The farce of one's
teaching what he does not know, being even igno
rant of his ignorance !
Is everything in Genesis, then, so easily under
stood ? — a book which embraces the history of the
creation of the world, of the beginning of human
life, of the division of the earth among its first in
habitants, of the confusion of tongues, of the dis
persion of the nations, of the going down of the
Hebrews into Egypt.
Are there no difficulties in the account, in the
book of Exodus, of the twelve plagues of Egypt,
and of the decalogue, with its mystical and divine
precepts ? Are there none in Leviticus, in which
the various sacrifices, the vestments of the high-
priest, and the whole Levitical order, in all their
particulars, tell of celestial sacrifice ? Does not
Numbers contain mysteries as to the numbering of
the people, the prophecies of Balaam, and the two-
and-forty encampments in the desert ? Deuteron
omy, also, the second law, and a prefiguring of the
evangelical law, does it not rehearse what precedes,
so that all seems to be new ? Job, that monument
of patience, what mysteries does not his speech in
volve ? The beginning and the end of this book
are in prose, and the rest is in verse. The author
observes with precision all the laws of dialectics as
to method of exposition, development, proof, and
conclusion. Every word is full of meaning. To
speak of nothing else, he prophesies of the resur
rection of the body with a clearness and precision

64 PO$T-NICENE latin fathers.
which no one else has shown. " I know," he says,
" that my Redeemer liveth," etc. — Job xix, 25, 26.
I come to Jesus, the son of Nun, who, a type
of the Lord as well in his acts as in his name,
crossed the Jordan, subdued the kingdom of the
enemy, divided the land among the conquerors, and
by the various cities, villages, mountains, rivers, tor
rents, and frontiers, indicated the spiritual realms of
the Church and the heavenly Jerusalem. The book
of Judges contains as many figures as princes of the
people. Ruth, the Moabitess, fulfills that prophecy
of Isaiah : " Send, O Lord, the lamb to the ruler of
the land, from the rocks of the desert, unto the
mount of the daughter of Zion." Samuel, in the
death of Eli and the slaying of Saul, shows the
abolition of the old law. Again, in Zadoc and Da
vid, he testifies to the establishment of a new priest
hood and a new empire.
The third and the fourth books of Kings con
tain the history of the kings of Judah and Israel,
from Solomon to Jeconiah, and from Jeroboam, the
son of Nebat, to Hosea, who was carried captive
to Babylon. Regarded only as history, all is writ
ten very simply ; but, if we penetrate the hidden
meaning, we shall find a prophetic account of the
faithful, and of the wars of the heretics against the
Church in these later days.
The twelve minor prophets, contained in one
small volume, prefigure many other things than
their accounts relate. [A summary is given of each
of the twelve.]
But who can rightly understand or explain
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, the first of
which seems to me to be not a prophecy, but a
gospel ? The second sees an almond rod, a seething
pot with its face to the north, a leopard despoiled
of its colors ; and with varied measure he binds a
fourfold alphabet [alluding to Lamentations]. The

JEROME. 65
third is obscure in its beginning and ending, so that
the Hebrews did not permit this part nor the be
ginning of the book of Genesis to be read by any
one under thirty years of age. The fourth and last
among the four prophets, mindful of times and of
unusual interests, speaks with a clear utterance of
the stone cut out of the mountain without hands
and overthrowing the kingdoms of the earth.
David, our Simonides, our Pindar and Alcseus,
our Horace, our Catullus and Severus, praises Christ
upon the lyre, and celebrates the resurrection from
the dead on the psaltery of ten strings.
Solomon, pacific, beloved of the Lord, teaches
conduct to rulers, unfolds the secrets of nature,
unites the Church with Jesus Christ, and celebrates
their alliance in a sweet epithalamium.
Esther, a type of the Church, delivers her people
from peril, and the slain Haman, which means ini
quity ; and establishes a day of festivity for posterity.
The book of Chronicles, which is an epitome of
the Old Testament, is of such importance that one
deceives himself who thinks to know the Scripture
without it. For even the names and the connections
of the words serve to explain matters of history
omitted in the book of Kings, and also to expound
innumerable- questions of the Gospels.
Ezra and Nehemiah, that is, the Helper and the
Consoler from the Lord, make but one volume.
They build the temple and restore the walls of the
city. The company of the people returning into
their own country, and the description of the priests
and Levites and the proselytes, and the works upon
the walls and towers assigned to the several fami
lies, all bear one meaning upon the surface, and re
tain another at the heart.
You see how my love for our divine Scriptures
has already carried me beyond the limits of a letter,
yet, without completing what I purposed, I have

66 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
only made apparent what we should desire, in order
that we also may say, " My soul breaketh for the long
ing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times."
Besides, that saying of Socrates is fulfilled in us,
" This much I know, that I know nothing."
I will speak to you summarily of the New Tes
tament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are the
chariot of the Lord, and the true cherubim, having
a fullness of knowledge. " All their body is full of
eyes," etc. (Ezek. i, 18 ff.).
Paul the Apostle wrote to seven churches (for
many do not deem the Epistle to the Hebrews his),
instructed Timothy and Titus, and entreated Phile
mon in behalf of a fugitive servant. But I deem it
better to be silent than to write cursorily concern
ing him.
The Acts of the Apostles seem to contain only
a simple history of the infancy of the growing
Church ; but, if we reflect that Luke was a physi
cian, whose praise is in the gospel, we shall find in
all his words a medicine for the languishing soul.
The Apostles James, Peter, John, and Jude
wrote seven letters, which contain in a few words
profound mysteries, at once short and long — short
in the number of their words, long as to sense ; so
that it is rare that one is not blind in their reading.
The Apocalypse has as many mysteries as words.
I have spoken sufficiently of it. All praise comes
short. Every word in it is susceptible of various
interpretations. Tell me, dear brother, does it not seem to you
that to consecrate one's life to these august medita
tions, to devote one's self wholly to them without
wishing to know or to seek anything else in the
world, is to taste in advance the delights of heaven ?
Do not be offended by the simplicity and base
ness of the language of the holy Scriptures, which is
due either to the ignorance of the interpreter or to

JEROME. b-j
their purpose of instructing more easily the rustic
mind, that both the simple and the learned may hear
in it the same sentiments. I am not so vain and
conceited as to flatter myself that I can pluck the
fruit of a tree whose roots are fixed in heaven, yet
I confess to a love for these things. I offer myself
not as your teacher, but as a companion of your
studies. To Heliodorus, on returning to the Monastic Life.
Thou dost mistake, brother, if thou thinkest a
Christian to be ever without persecution. He is
then most opposed when he does not know of the
attack. Our adversary goes about as a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour, and thinkest thou to
have peace ? Hoping to inherit things of this world,
thou canst not be co-heir with Jesus Christ. Think
what monk, thine own name, means. What hast thou,
a solitary, to do with the multitude ? But thou wilt
say, perhaps, Are not any who dwell in cities Chris
tians? Yet thou art not like others, thou who hast
heard the Lord saying, " If thou wilt be perfect, sell
that thou hast and give to the poor, . . . and come,
follow me." Be it far from me to speak aught
against those who, succeeding to the apostles' rank,
consecrate the body of Christ with their sacred
mouths, through whom we also are Christians ; who,
holding the keys of the kingdom of heaven, judge,
so to speak, before the day of judgment ; who pre
serve the purity of the bride of the Lord. But it is
not with members as with clergymen. The clergy
feed the flocks. I am fed. They live of the altar ;
but, as the axe is laid at the root of an unfruitful
tree, so is it to nie if I bring not my gift to the al
tar. ... If the pious blandishments of the brethren
solicit thee to the [priestly] order, I shall rejoice,
but I shall fear a fall. Not all bishops are bishops.
Behold Peter, but think also upon Judas. The ec-

68 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
clesiastical dignity will not make one a Christian.
Cornelius, the centurion, as yet a Gentile, was endued
with the gift of the Holy Spirit. If a monk fall, the
priest may pray for him, but who shall pray at the
fall of a priest? O wilderness, radiant with the
flowers of Jesus Christ ! O solitude, where are
found the stones for the building of the apocalyptic
city of the Great King ! O desert, delighting in
intimacy with God ! What doest thou in the world,
brother, who art not of the world ? How long wilt
thou dwell under the shade of roofs ? How long
shall the prison of smoking cities confine thee ? Be
lieve me, I am beholding I know not what new
light. I am free, the burden of the body cast off,
to soar to the pure brightness of the ether. Dost
thou fear poverty ? Christ called the poor blessed.
Art thou afraid of toil? No athlete is crowned
without weariness. Dost thou think of thy food ?
The faithful fear not hunger. Dost thou fear to
rest thy limbs, worn with fasting, upon the bare
earth ? The Lord rests with thee. . . . Come, oh
come, that day in which the corrupt and mortal
shall put on incorruption and immortality ! Then
blessed shall be that servant whom the Lord shall
find watching. Then thou, a rustic and a pauper,
shalt rejoice and say, Behold my crucified ! behold as
judge him who, wrapped in rags, wailed in a manger !
7!? Eustochium, on the Celibate Life.
"Hearken, O daughter, and consider and in
cline thine ear ; forget also thine own people, and
thy father's house." Thus God speaks to the soul
whom he calls, like Abraham, to leave his country
and kindred, and separate himself from the Chal
deans, that is to say, from demons, to establish him
self in the land of the living.
Beginning thus, Jerome goes on. to speak of
the weakness of the flesh and the need of strife

JEROME. 69
against the flesh and the devil. Do not give evil
thoughts time to fortify themselves in your mind ;
suppress all the seeds of Babylon, which bring
only confusion and disorder ; crush the monster in
his cradle ; cut at the root the strange: stalk which
mingles with the good grain ; bruise it against the
rock Christ Jesus. Oh, how often, since I fixed
my abode in this desert, have I in imagination
felt myself transported to the heart of Rome
and to its delights ! Plunged as I was in an
abyss of misfortune, I would cast myself on the
floor of my solitary cell : a rude garment covered
my frightful body ; my skin, blackened* and dried,
looked like that of men burned by the rays of the
Ethiopian sun, and gave me the livid appearance
of a corpse. The day would pass in tears and
groans, and, if perchance sleep oppressed me, un
willing, I had scarce strength to keep my bones
from falling upon the bare earth. I say nothing to
you of my food, since even sick monks use cold
water, and anything cooked is a luxury. I, then, a
companion of wild beasts and scorpions, who from
fear of hell had condemned myself to such a dun
geon, was often in the midst of a chorus of maidens.
My lips were pallid from fasting, and my mind raged
with' desire in a frigid body, and, in a flesh to ap
pearance already dead, surged the riotings of lust.
Then, destitute of all aid, I threw myself at the feet
of Jesus. I was bathed in tears, which I dried with
my hairs, and, eating nothing for seven days, I sub
jugated the unwilling flesh. I do not blush to con
fess the misery of my unhappiness, but I rather
deplore that I am not as I was then. I remember
often passing whole nights crying and smiting my
breast, until the Lord, dissipating the tempest, re
stored my tranquillity. Meanwhile, I approached
my very cell with fright, as if it knew my thoughts ;
and harsh and indignant I penetrated the deserts

70 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
alone. Wherever I found deep hollows in the val
leys, or rugged mountains, or broken rocks, there
was my place of prayer, there the penitentiary for
my most miserable flesh ; and, as the Lord himself
is my witness, after many tears, after my eyes had
been fixed upon the heavens, I sometimes seemed
to myself to be among the choirs of the angels, and
rejoicing with delight, I cried out, "Because of
the odor of these ointments we run after thee." If
such are the trials of one whose flesh is consumed
by the rigors of penitence, says Jerome, what will
not be those of a young person thrown in the midst
of the world and its pleasures ? He therefore goes
on to warn Eustochium, first of all, against intem
perance. She is not to mingle with people of the
world, and is rarely to be seen in public. She is to
rise in the night to pray* to read and learn much, to
fast habitually, and to avoid all society. He dis
claims any contempt for marriage, which is blessed
of God, preferring, as he does, the unmarried state.
Lend your ear, he adds, to no evil words. For
often such as are unfitting will be spoken in your
presence, to try the temper of your mind. If, a vir
gin, you willingly hear what is said, if you turn it
into a laugh, whatever you may say others will praise;
whatever you disclaim, they will disclaim. The
spouse of Christ should be as the ark of the cove
nant, in which was kept the law of the Lord, cov
ered with gold without and within. As in it there
was nothing except the tables of the law, so in thee
should there be no extrinsic thought. I urge upon
you not to glory in your riches or your birth, nor
to think yourself superior to others. Knowing your
modesty, I will not speak of pride, which has no
place in your heart. My only fear is,; that your
very contempt for the vanity. of this world may in
spire in you another vanity : that you may have a
secret complacency in the attention attracted by

JEROME. 71
your humility, that you may deem yourself obliged,
in the presence of your brothers and sisters, to take
the lowest place and speak in a feeble and languish
ing tone, to prove how fasting has wasted you.
Warning Eustochium against the songs of the po
ets, Jerome relates the following incident in his
own experience : When some years ago I left home,
father, mother, sister, kindred, and, what was most
difficult, the sharing of a bountiful table, with the
purpose of enrolling myself in the heavenly ranks,
and going to Jerusalem to do service, I was not
able to leave the books which I had collected at
Rome with great care and labor. So eager was I
to .read Cicero, that I was fasting. After frequent
vigils, after tears, which the memory of my\ former
faults drew from the depths of my heart, Plautus
fell into my hand ; and when, returning to myself,
I began to read the prophets, the uncultured speech
offended me, and, because I did not see the light of
the sun with blind eyes, I thought it to be the
fault not of the eyes but of the sun. While thus
the old serpent deluded me, I had toward mid-Lent
a fever which, penetrating my body, weakened by
continual austerities, even to the marrow of my
bones, and tormenting me day and night with an
incredible violence, emaciated me to the point of
having nothing else but bones. My feebleness made
me think that I was to die. My funeral was pre
pared ; my body was cold ; the principle of life was
made known only by the feeble beatings of the
heart. Suddenly in spirit I was borne before a tri
bunal of justice, where was such dazzling light and
pomp of circumstance that I, falling to the earth,
dared . not look up. Interrogated as to my pro
fession, I replied that I was a Christian. "Thou
liest," said he who presided, " thou art a Ciceronian,
not a Christian, for where thy treasure is there thy
heart is also." Instantly I was dumb, and amid the

72 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
blows — for he commanded me to be beaten — I suf
fered more from the fires of conscience, recalling
that verse, " Who shall give thee thanks in hell ? "
Yet I began to cry out, and to ejaculate, " Have
mercy upon me, O Lord, have mercy upon me ! "
This cry resounded among the blows. At length
my pardon was asked on the ground of my youth,
and it was promised, on my behalf, that I should no
more read profane authors, on pain of torture. I
myself ratified this, saying, " Lord, if ever I have in
my possession secular books, if I read them I deny
thee." Dismissed with this oath, I returned to earth,
my eyes bathed in tears, which flowed so abun
dantly that the attendants were astonished.
Nor was this simply a vision like those by which
we are so often deluded. I call to witness that tri
bunal before which I lay, that stern judgment which
affrighted me. I yet felt after my sleep the pain of
the blows inflicted on me, and by which my shoul
ders were black and blue. From that moment I de
voted myself to the study of the sacred books with
more ardor than I had given before to the profane.
A sin to be guarded against by you is avarice.
There are ladies whose books are enriched with
precious stones, and written in characters of gold
upon purple parchment, while Christ perishes in
nakedness before their doors. There are those
who give alms to the sound of a trumpet. The
root of these evils is avarice.
Let us attach ourselves to Jesus Christ. The
only worthy recompense which we can make him is
to pay blood for blood ; and, redeemed by the blood
of Christ, we willingly die for our Redeemer.
CONTROVERSIAL WORKS.
If there was any ecclesiastical controversy of
his day in which Jerome took no part, it must have
been carried on with great secrecy. Usually he

JEROME. 73
smelled the battle afar off, and began pawing in the
valley, and swallowing the ground with fierceness
and rage. Happily for biblical science, his most
active life, like Chrysostom's, was contemporary with
the lull between the first two great controversies
in the East, while the Pelagian discussion did not
arise till he was an old man, and his chief work
completed. Yet into this battle he went with all
the vigor of the younger Augustine, and with a vir
ulence to which that great father was a stranger.
But if grand subjects for controversy did not offer,
Jerome could fight over little subjects, and could be
rancorous and abusive of his opponent over mat
ters whose significance was contemptible. His bit
terest words, too, seemed reserved for persons with
whom he had been at one time close friends. Such
were the coarse and even brutal terms in which he
dealt with Rufinus, in the quarrel over the writings
of Origen. Down to the year 395, Jerome had
himself not only made use of Origen's Hexapla as
his standard text, but he had also translated many
of his homilies, made much use of his expositions
of Scripture — in fact, appropriated them as his own
— and given hearty expression to his admiration for
that father. In that year, an attack upon Origen's
writings, which had originated in Egypt, began to
be felt in Palestine. John, bishop of Jerusalem,
and Rufinus, equally with Jerome, had been ad
mirers of the great Alexandrian. When the charge
was made that the defenders of Origen must be
heterodox, Jerome, jealous ever for his own ortho
doxy, not only repudiated Origenistic leanings, but
became exceedingly bitter against John and Rufi
nus, who would not thus clear themselves. Though
for a time a truce was made between the parties,
Jerome and Rufinus dramatically taking each
other's hands over the Saviour's tomb, the quarrel.
soon became more fierce than ever. Rufinus, hav-
7

74 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
ing gone to Rome, translated Origen's book " On
Principles," toning down some of the more palpable
discrepancies from the received faith. In his pref
ace to this work, he praised Jerome's learning and
orthodoxy, and at the same time quoted his eulogy
of Origen in a preface which he had once written
to a translation of Origen's homilies on the Canti
cles. To meet this left-handed blow, Jerome pre
pared a literal translation of the " On Principles,"
and sent it to Rome with an indignant repudiation
of Rufinus's compliments. This led to the prepa
ration of an elaborate " Apology " by Rufinus, in
which he attacked Jerome with great severity, and a
counter " Apology against Rufinus," which in the
last of its three books sinks to those personal quar
rels and repetitions which in modern as well as in
ancient times commonly prove the end of all dis
putes that continue long between learned men. As
a part of this same controversy, Jerome wrote a let
ter, or treatise, " Against John of Jerusalem," in
which, besides dealing with the Origenistic question,
he enters largely into a personal quarrel between
John and Epiphanius over the ordination by the
latter of Jerome's brother Paulinianus within what
John claimed to^ be the limits of his own episcopal
jurisdiction. Jerome also translated into Latin a letter of
Epiphanius to John, in which the errors of Origen
were summed up under eight several heads.
Another dispute, which came to be somewhat in
volved with the preceding, was that with Vigilantius.
This man had visited Jerome, and on his return
home to Barcelona had written a book in which he
opposed the veneration of relics, and the worship
of saints, as well as Jerome's undue regard for celi
bacy. In his reply, Jerome, after defending the use
of holy relics, says of the retreat into a monastic
life : ' Yes, I do run away into, the desert to escape

JEROME. 75
temptations. I do not dissemble my weakness. In
flying, I escape resistance ; in remaining, I expose
myself to the alternative of conquering or being
conquered. Why give up a certainty for an uncer
tainty ? There is never any safety in sleeping near
to a serpent." But to deal with the questions in
hand was not enough. Jerome must indulge in
personalities, in which he taunts Vigilantius with
being the son of an innkeeper, and gives him this
brotherly (?) advice : "Asa Christian speaking with
a Christian, I entreat you, brother, not to aspire to
wisdom in this direction. You have been trained
to other work. It does not belong to the same man
to test the genuineness of coins and to weigh pas
sages of Scripture, to have a discriminating taste
for wines and to understand the prophets and apos
tles. Yet, if you will exercise your genius, do put
yourself in the hands of the grammarians and rhet
oricians, learn dialectics, become versed in the
opinions of philosophers ; and, when you have
learned all, then — make a beginning at holding your
tongue. . . . However, I am foolish to be seeking
masters for one who instructs everybody, and to
plan for one who knows not how to speak, and is
not able to be silent. The Greek proverb is worth
heeding : ' The lyre plays in vain for the ass.' "
Years before this, all the antagonism of this
combative saint had been called out by a treatise of
Helvidius against the ascetic movement, of which
Jerome was the champion at Rome. The key to the
monastic theory being the doctrine of the perpetual
virginity cf Mary, Helvidius made this doctrine his
point of attack. Jerome replied in his "Treatise
against Helvidius." The argument that followed
can be of little interest to-day. The following ex
tract will expose sufficiently the tone of the work :
" We do not deny that widows, we do not deny
that married persons, may be found who are holy

76 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
women, but it is such as cease to be wives, who
even under the bond of marriage imitate the chas
tity of virgins. That is what the apostle, Christ
speaking in him, briefly testifies, ' The unmarried
cares for the things of God, how she may please
God, but the married cares for the things of the
world, how she may please her husband.' Yet he
lays no necessity or bond upon any one, but exhorts
to what is honorable, wishing that all might be as
he himself was. And although he has no com
mandment from the Lord as to virginity — because
this is beyond men, and it were in a sense presum
ing to compel one against nature, and in any way
to say, I wish you to be as the angels are ; where
fore, also, the virgin has the greater reward for de
spising what might be done without sin — still he
declares in this connection : ' But I give you my
judgment as one who has obtained mercy from the
Lord, so that I am faithful. I suppose, therefore,
that this is good on account of the present neces
sity, because it is good for man to be so ! ' There
fore does the forest grow, that afterward it may be
cut down. For this purpose is the field sown, that
it may be mown. The world now is full ; the land
does not contain us. Daily do wars cut us down,
diseases carry us off, shipwrecks drown us, and still
we quarrel over boundaries. But you say some vir
gins are tavern-girls. I say more, some clerics are
tavern-keepers, and some monks are without shame.
But who will not understand at once that no tavern-
girl can be a virgin, and no adulterer a monk, and
no tavern-keeper a cleric ? Is it any reproach to
virginity that pretenders to virginity are wicked?"
To the same period, though of somewhat later
date, belong two books of Jerome " Against Jovin-
ian." This writer, who had himself been a monk,
published a discourse in which he claimed that
widows and married women were not to be less es-

JEROME. 77
teemed than virgins, if they had like virtues ; that
a Christian baptized could not fall from righteous
ness ; that abstinence from meats was unprofitable ;
and that the glorified saints are all equally happy.
In the first book of the treatise in reply, Jerome
affirms that the apostles left their wives after their
call to the apostleship, and that St. John always
lived in celibacy ; he also severely condemns second
marriages. In the second book he contends that the holiest
of men may fall from baptismal grace ; that, although
God has made all things for man's use, it is danger
ous for him to indulge his senses and to satisfy his
greediness ; and that, as there are here on earth vari
ous degrees of vice and virtue, there are hereafter
various degrees of pain and felicity.
To complete the list of controversies in which
Jerome had more or less part, it may be said that,
when he was first in the East, he became somewhat
interested in, and wrote several letters to Pope Da
masus upon, the long discussed and now subsiding
differences over the hypostases ; that in a letter to
Marcella he took up the cudgels against the Mon-
tanistic errors ; that he became involved in a dis
pute with Augustine over his (Jerome's) denial of
any difference of opinion between Peter and Paul,
and in his letters treated Augustine in a very cava
lier-like manner ; that he interested himself in the
war of Theophilus against Chrysostom enough to
translate a book of Theophilus defaming the great
preacher ; and that he wrote a dialogue between a
" Luciferian and an Orthodox Christian," in which
the tenets of the Luciferians were attacked.
MISCELLANEOUS WORKS.
Several biographical works remain to be noticed :
namely, " The Life of Paul," the first hermit, who,
says Jerome, withdrew to the desert at the age of

78 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
fifteen, and lived there to the age of one hundred
and thirteen years ; and the lives of the monks
Hilarion and Malchus. These books contain state
ments of fact which a writer who would gladly
credit all that Jerome wrote dryly says, " are very
hard to be believed." Less reverent readers pro
nounce them simply puerile, and, without wasting
any wonder over the pretended events, only wonder
that so much learning and so much credulity could
be found in the same man.
The biography of the lady Paula, who went with
Jerome to Bethlehem, and shared in the founding
of the monasteries there, is contained in a letter ad
dressed to her daughter Eustochium.
A letter from Jerome to Pamachius contains a
little treatise on the best method of translating.
This, it is claimed, is not to follow the words or
terms, but the sense and purpose, of the author.
Jerome's most important translation outside of the
Scriptures was that of Didymus's work upon the
Holy Ghost. He also translated Eusebius's " Chro
nicon," with additions, the " Rules " of the monk
Pachomius, and certain homilies of Origen. A book
on the " Names of Scriptural Countries and Cities,"
one on the " Proper Names of the Hebrews," and a
book of " Questions on Genesis," complete the list
of the more important works of this author.
List of Works.
Scripture Versions : A Latin version of the Old
Testament from the text of the LXX ; another from the
Hebrew text ; two versions of the Psalms, known as the
Roman and the Gallican " Psalters " ; a version of the New
Testament based upon the " Old Latin " version. Com
mentaries : Upon Isaiah, eighteen books ; Jeremiah, six
books ; Ezekiel, fourteen books ; Daniel, Ecclesiastes, the
Minor Prophets, each one book ; Matthew, four books ;
Galatians, Ephesians, Titus, Philemon, and a Harmony
of the Four Gospels. Letters: About fifty upon the

RUFINUS. 79
Scriptures ; a hundred others, including many treatises.
Controversial Treatises : Against Helvidius, Jovin-
ian, Vigilantius, Rufinus. Dialogues against the Pelagians
and against the Luciferians. Biographical : The Eccle
siastical Writers; and Lives of Paul, Hilarion, Malchus.
Translations : Didymus's Holy Ghost ; Eusebius's
Chronicon ; Pachomius's Rules ; various homilies of Ori
gen. Biblical Criticism : Prefaces to books in his
versions ; On the Names of Scripture Places from Euse
bius ; On the Hebrew Proper Names ; Questions on
Genesis.

RUFINUS,
The Latin translator. He is best known to us
as the friend and the enemy of Jerome. Born in
the territory of Aquileia, about the middle of the
fourth century, he was baptized in a monastery in
the year 370, or thereabout. Soon after he set out
from Rome for the East, in company with Melania,
a devout lady of noble rank, who founded a mon
astery at Jerusalem for men and women, herself
presiding over the nuns, and Rufinus over the
monks. They lived here twenty-five years, Rufinus
forming or renewing an intimate friendship with
Jerome. Upon the rise of the Origenistic contro
versy, Rufinus was a defender and Jerome an oppo
nent of Origen. The quarrel between them be
came bitter, but the breach was for a time nomi
nally healed. At last, however, Rufinus returned to
Italy, and there, besides a translation of Pamphi-
lus's " Apology for Origen," published a free trans
lation of Origen's " De Principia," in the introduc
tion to which he praised Jerome as one who had
also admired and translated Origen. To be deliv-

80 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
ered from his friends, who were thus endangering
his reputation for orthodoxy, Jerome immediately
wrote his "Apology agamst Rufinus," to which
Rufinus responded with two books of " Invectives."
So violent was this controversy that it became a
great scandal in the Church, leading Augustine to
write to the contestants, imploring them, by what
they owed to each other and to all the faithful,
particularly to the feeble ones for whom Christ
died, and before whom they were presenting such
a terrible spectacle, not to publish against each
other writings which they could never suppress, and
which must be a lasting barrier to their reconcilia
tion. So long as Pope Siricius lived, Rufinus, who
had returned to Aquileia, retained his dignity as a
presbyter of the Church, but, upon the accession of
Anastasius, he was summoned to Rome to answer
for his Origenistic and Pelagian sentiments. Not
going to Rome, but simply answering by an " Apol
ogy," in which he professed himself thoroughly or
thodox,, he was condemned. Leaving Aquileia upon
the invasion of the Visigoths, he died the next year
(a. d. 410) in Sicily. Besides the books above
mentioned, he was the author of translations of
Josephus's " Antiquities," " Jewish War," and books
" Against Appion " ; the " Sentences " of Sixtus the
Pythagorean, which he ascribed to Pope Sixtus II ;
the book of "Recognitions," ascribed to Clement ;
a hundred or more homilies of Origen, as well as
his commentary on Romans, and his letter com
plaining of the corrupting of his works ; Eusebius's
" Ecclesiastical History," in nine books, to which
Rufinus added two books of his own ; the asceti-

RUFINUS. 81
cal "Rules" of St. Basil; the "Orations of St.
Gregory Nazianzen," and the " Sentences of Evag-
rius Ponticus." All these translations are so free
as perhaps to merit the name of paraphrases, while
in Eusebius's " History " and Origen's " Principles "
there are many important changes in the sense.
Rufinus also wrote a discourse " On the Falsifica
tion of Origen's Works," "An Exposition of the
Creed," "An Exposition of the Benedictions of
Jacob," and commentaries on Hosea, Joel, and
Amos. These last are of considerable value.
The most important of the original works,
however, is the
exposition of the creed.
As to the origin of the creed, Rufinus declares
that, after the ascension, the apostles, before dis
persing on their several missions, arranged among
themselves a formula for the profession of the faith,
to be uniform in all the churches of the world, and
that they gave it the name of symbol, to express
either the result of their conference, or the sum
mary of the articles under a like conception of
faith, in opposition to the erroneous doctrines which
had already begun to spread in St. Paul's day, or,
finally, to distinguish the faithful, in allusion to the
military symbol or standard which served to distin
guish the soldiers of an army, and prevent them
from being confounded with the enemy. They did
not reduce it to writing, but were content to have
it impressed upon the hearts of the faithful, so
keeping it from the knowledge of the pagans. Tak
ing up each article separately, the author, after ex
plaining the slight variations of form in different
churches, remarks upon the first, "I believe in
God," that by the word God we understand a sub-

8a POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
sistence above all, a principle eternal, without be
ginning or end, simple, without mixture of any
kind, invisible, without body, infinite in his perfec
tions. He who has given being to all that is has
not received existence from any. " The Father."
Whoever speaks of a father supposes a son, as the
words master, lord, designate a servant, a some one
dependent. As to the mystery of the divine gen
eration, the secret is impenetrable. Curiosity here
would become temerity. If it is to be carried fur
ther, let one begin by giving a reason for the mys
teries that are around us on all sides in nature.
Let him explain, if he can, the union of the soul
and the body, the phenomena of the memory and
of light. If these things under our eyes are incom
prehensible, how much more what is so far beyond
the portals of our understanding ! We believe,
upon the faith of God's own word, that he is the
Father, because he has borne witness to his Son, in
these words : " This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased, hear ye him." " He that hath
seen me," said the divine Son, " hath seen the Father
also ; " "I and my Father are one." After a declara
tion thus formal, who would dare to raise doubts, to
separate what is united, to oppose what he who is
himself the truth affirms with his own lips? We
call him Father, not as begetting after the manner
of men, but as producing of his own substance a
Son who is all that he is himself, almighty like him
self. " And in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord."
"Jesus," that is to say, Saviour, prefigured by the
Hebrew leader who brought the people of God into
the land of promise, as our Saviour Jesus frees us
from the yoke of error, and opens to us the king
dom of heaven. " Christ," that is, anointed and
sacred, as being the eternal high-priest, whom God
his Father has anointed with the Holy Ghost sent
from heaven. " His son," by nature, not by adop-

RUFINUS. 83
tion. " Only," because he is the sole, is one with
God his Father, equal to him in all things, as mak
ing with him only one and the same substance.
" Who was born of the Virgin Mary by the opera
tion of the Holy Spirit." Jesus Christ passed
through the body of a virgin without blemish, as a
ray of the sun traverses objects the most gross
without contracting a stain from the touch. The
divinity is not subject to any impression from the
senses. " Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate."
A circumstance which the apostles marked with
care, to fix the epoch of his death, and to leave in
the minds of the faithful no doubt as to the truth of
his sufferings. The prophecies of the passion are
here traced in comparison with the events. " Who
rose from the dead." He was not held by the
bands of death, but, in rising, he burst the gates of
death, as a king, who enters a prison to open the
doors, breaks the bolts, and frees those who are there
detained. " Who ascended into heaven; from thence
he shall come to judge the quick and the dead."
The prophecies of these events as well as of the
resurrection are here examined. " And in the Holy
Spirit." By this confession of faith we recognize the
mystery of the most holy trinity. As we say Father,
Son, and there is no other Father or Son, so we say
Holy Spirit, and there is no other Holy Spirit. The
Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, are one in sub
stance, but are distinguished personally. We say
'' Father," as being the principle of all ; " Son," as
being born of his Father ; the " Holy Spirit," as
proceeding from the Father and the Son and sanc
tifying all ; the same Holy Spirit who inspired the
prophets of the Old Testament, the evangelists and
apostles of the New Testament. " In the Catholic
Church," holy, where there is only one faith and
one baptism. The author gives a list of the canon
ical books, and recalls the principal heresies, pro-

84 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
nouncing anathemas upon them, as being separate
from the true Church, and applying to them the
words of the prophet : " I hate the assembly of the
wicked, and I will not make my seat with the un
righteous." "In the resurrection of the body."
Here Rufinus enlarges, affirming that the soul will
be reunited to the same flesh which it had animated
in the world, however that flesh may have been
divided and dispersed. As to "the life everlast
ing," the author ends his exposition with a prayer
that God may give to all those who hear this sym
bol, and keep its faith inviolable, the crown of
righteousness ; that he may give them grace to be
among the number who shall awake unto eternal
life, and be delivered from the confusion and shame
which shall have no end.

AUGUSTINE.
For all the other great fathers we have found
some distinctive title. This man is simply Augus
tine — too large a figure in the ecclesiastical world
to need defining. He was born at Tagasta, a town
of Numidia, in North Africa, November 13, a. d.
354. His father, a man of moderate means, was yet
anxious for his son's advancement, and provided
for him a liberal education. His mother, Monica,
was a devout Christian, whose prayers and counsels,
unheeded by him in his boyhood, yet largely affected
his career. His first pursuit was the profession of
rhetoric at his native town, and then at Carthage.
In youth he had been dissipated, but, by reading
Cicero's " Hortensius," he was roused to a desire
for wisdom, by which, finding the Scriptures too

A UGUSTINE. 85
humble for his tastes, he was led to join the Mani-
chseans, who promised to unfold to him all knowl
edge. In vain his mother tried to disabuse him of
this error. He continued in it nine years, but was
at last delivered by discovering the hollowness of
the pretensions of one Faustus, whom the sect had
long been holding up before him as the embodiment
of wisdom. In his twenty-ninth year he went to
Rome, where he taught rhetoric for a time. Thence
he went to Milan, where he came under the influence
of Ambrose, and was converted and baptized. From
this period began his productive career as a writer.
Returning to Africa, he spent three years in retire
ment at Tagasta. In the year 391 he was ordained
a presbyter by Aurelius, bishop of Hippo-Regius,
who four years later made him co-bishop of that
church. Succeeding in time to the full charge, Au
gustine spent here his remaining life, and the bishop
of Hippo, above metropolitan and primate, became
the chief bishop of Africa.
Four features of his work may be noted : First,
though not especially prominent, his interest in the
monastic life, a modified form of which he instituted
at Hippo. Secondly, his opposition to the errors
of the Manichseans, against whom he wrote various
books, though traces of their early influence always
followed him, and, in the opinion of some, affected
not a little his theological system. Thirdly, his re
lations with the Donatists. If he at times allowed
himself to appeal to the support of the civil authori
ties against this dissenting body, and even justified
the use of harsh measures to reclaim recusants, his
influence was, on the whole, pacific. Still, in his
8

86 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
conference with the Donatist leaders, he left no un
certainty as to his idea of the Church as one great
organic body, spread throughout the world, from
which, if any isolated body chose to differ, they cut
themselves off from the true body of Christ. Last,
and chiefly, his anthropological system of doctrine.
The distinctive features of this system are traced in
our account of his writings. As will be seen by
Dupin's summary of them, they are not always logic
ally consistent, but they formed a definite and a
mighty body of doctrine, which has affected the en
tire thought of the Western world. It would be of
interest to trace, with Neander, the development of
this rigid system in Augustine's own mind ; but we
can only remark that, in the years immediately fol
lowing his conversion and escape from Manicha*;-
ism, he was far from the fatalistic opinion which he
afterward reached. Free-will, such as is recognized
by men generally, was then a real thing to him, and
his general grasp of truth did not differ materially
from that of the theologians of Southern Gaul, whom
he afterward opposed.
To the general influence of Augustinianism in
the history of the Church, we have alluded suffi
ciently in the preface to this volume.
The closing days of Augustine's life were dark
ened by the misfortune of his country. He died at
Hippo, August 28, 430, while the besieging Vandals
were before the walls of the town.
The large space given to his chief work, " The
City of God," is due to the fact that it is not only
the greatest book of the patristic literature, but also
one of the few great books of the world.

AUGUSTINE. 87
CONFESSIONS.
To tell the story of their own outward lives with
perfect candor, nothing extenuating, and setting
down naught in the malice of overwrought humility
—how few men or women have had the natural abil
ity or the grace ! But here a man has photographed
his spirit, has carried us down beneath the surface,
and lifted us up above the externals of his being,
has discovered his secret motives, has shown us the
working, of his mind, has carried us with him in the
out-rushings of his soul, until we know him as we do
not know ourselves. And while there are confes
sions and waillngs which from most men would
seem insincere, and avowals and protestations which
from most men would seem presumptuous, no dis
cerning reader ever questions the author's candor.
A book of the ages, our outline of it must yet
be brief, to admit some characteristic extracts. The
work is in thirteen books, the first ten giving an ac
count of Augustine's life to the time of his entering
the Church.
It begins thus : " Great art thou, O Lord, and
greatly to be praised ; great is thy power, and thy
wisdom infinite. And thee man would'praise ; man,
but a particle of thy creation ; man, that bears about
him his mortality, the witness of his sin, the witness
that thou, O God, resistest the proud ; yet would
man praise thee : he, but a particle of thy creation.
Thou awakest us to delight in thy praise ; for thou
madest us for thyself, and our heart is restless until
it repose in thee."
The first book describes the author's infancy,
and discovers sins of which to accuse himself while
at his mother's breast. His boyhood he charges
with an aversion to study, a love for play, and a
fear of punishment, and with loving the study of
fables and poetical fiction, and hating the principles

88. POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
of grammar, and especially the Greek language.
Falling sick at this time, he desired to be baptized,
but, improving, the rite was postponed from the fear
that he might defile himself with new sins, " be
cause," he says, " the defilement of sin would, after
that washing, bring greater and more perilous guilt."
Book second recalls the exercises of his life in
his sixteenth year, a period of idleness between his
earlier and more advanced studies. He especially
dwells upon a certain robbing of a pear-tree, in
which he says he engaged from the pure love of
wickedness. Book third bewails his career at Carthage, where
he entered a school of rhetoric ; how, while a leader
in his studies, he yet wallowed in sensual pleasures,
and was carried away with love for theatrical plays,
until he came to read Cicero's "Hortensius," by
which he was awakened to a desire for wisdom.
Not finding in the book the name of Jesus Christ,
which " name of my Saviour, thy Son," he says,
" had my tender heart, even with my mother's milk,
devoutly drunk in, and deeply treasured," he began
to study the Scriptures. But, offended at their low
liness as compared with the stateliness of Cicero,
and unable to penetrate their interior meaning, he
soon fell a victim to the errors of the Manichseans,
who promised to bring him to a knowledge of the
truth. These errors he refutes, and tells of the
prayers and tears of his mother, who ceased not to
plead for his deliverance from them.
He continued in this error, however, as book
four shows, for nine years. During a part of this
time, having finished his education, he taught rhet
oric at Tagasta. The death of an intimate friend
so affected him that he removed to Carthage. This
book contains reflections upon grief, true and false
friendships, and love of fame, and relates the ease
with which Augustine had mastered secular learning.

A UG US TINE. 89
In his twenty-ninth year, says the fifth book, a
certain Faustus, a great light among the Manichseans,
came to Carthage. Expecting wonderful things from
him, Augustine was so disappointed that from that
time his faith in Manichseism was shaken. Soon
after, he removed to Rome, whence after a short
time he went to Milan as a professor of rhetoric.
Here, under the ministration of Ambrose, he wholly
renounced his Manichseism, and was enrolled as a
catechumen in the Catholic Church.
Book six relates the. progress of his conversion,
which was furthered by the influence of his mother,
Monica, who had now followed him to Milan. The
conflict of his mind in deciding whether to devote
himself to attaining the good of his soul or to go on
in his present life and seek worldly promotion is
described ; ' as also his bondage to his physical pas
sions, which made him cling to the concubine to
which he had long been faithful, and on her return
to Africa led him to procure for himself another.
In book seven, we have told us the exercises of
Augustine's mind over the nature of God and the
origin of evil, and how he is assisted to the truth
by Platonic writings, so far as to come to the knowl
edge of God, and, afterward, by the Scriptures is
led to a knowledge of Christ as the Mediator.
Book eight relates how Augustine, now convinced
of the truth, was moved to embrace the Christian
life, by the story of Victorinus's conversion and pro
fession, and still further moved by a story of Ponti-
tianus. By, the last he is made to face his own heart.
" Thou again," he says, " didst set me over against
myself, that I might find out mine iniquity and hate
it." The struggle which then ensues is the crisis of
his life, and ends in his choice of God."
Giving up his profession, as we learn from book
nine, Augustine retired into the country for the vin
tage vacation, where, besides preparing himself for.

go POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
baptism, he composed several books. He was bap
tized by Ambrose, in company with his friend Aly-
pius and his natural son Adeodatus. After an ac
count of the origin of the singing of the church of
Milan, the book relates the death of Monica, at
Ostia, as the family were returning to Africa, and
closes with Augustine's prayer in her behalf, and
his commendation of her to the prayers of all who
shall read his confessions.
Having shown in the former books what he had
been, the author in book ten shows what he now is.
He loves God ; of this he is conscious ; but who is
God, and whence comes our knowledge of him ? "
This leads to a remarkable disquisition on the
memory, after which he shows that his knowledge
of God was established in his memory by God him
self.4 He discourses of the three main passions of
men, the love of pleasures, of knowledge, and of
glory, showing his own attitude toward them. Last
ly, he speaks of Christ the only mediator, who will
heal all infirmities.
Books eleven to thirteen digress to the discus
sion of recondite themes connected with the first
part of the book of Genesis.
extracts.
Perplexities and Vacillations.
i. "I said to myself, ' O you great men, ye
Academicians, it is true, then, that no certainty can
be attained for the ordering of life ! Nay, let me
search the more diligently, and despair not. Lo !
¦ things in the ecclesiastical books are not absurd to
me now, which sometimes seemed absurd, and may
be otherwise taken, and in a good sense. I will
take my stand where, as a child, my parents placed
me, until the clear truth be found out. And where
shall it be sought, or when ? Ambrose has no lei-

A UGUSTINE. 91
sure ; I have no leisure to read : where shall I find
even the books ? whence or when procure them ?
from whom borrow them ? Let set times be ap
pointed, and certain hours ordered for the health of
my soul. Great hope has dawned ; the Catholic
faith teaches not what I thought and vainly accused
it of ; her instructed members hold it profane to be
lieve God to be bounded by the figure of a human
body ; and shall I hesitate to " knock " that the rest
" may be opened " ? The forenoons my scholars
take up : what do I during the rest of the day ?
Why not examine this subject t But when shall I
pay court to my great friends, whose favor I need ?
When compose what I may sell to my scholars ?
When refresh myself, unbending my mind from this
intenseness of care ?
" ' Perish everything ; dismiss these empty vani
ties, and betake myself to the one search for truth !
Life is vain, death uncertain ; if it steals upon me
on a sudden, in what state shall I depart hence ?
and where shall I learn what here I have neglected ?
and shall I not rather suffer the punishment of this
negligence ? What if death itself cut-off and end
all care and feeling ? Then must this be ascertained.
But God forbid this ! It is no vain and empty thing,
but the excellent dignity of the authority of the
Christian faith hath overspread the whole world.
Never would such and so great things be wrought
for us by God, if with the death of the body the
life of the soul came to an end. Wherefore do I
delay, then, to abandon worldly hopes, and give
myself wholly to seek after God and the blessed
life ? But wait ! Worldly things are pleasant ; they
have no small sweetness. I must not lightly aban
don them, for it were a shame to return again to
them. See, it is no difficult matter now to obtain
some station, and then what more should I wish
for ? I have store of powerful friends ; if nothing

92 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
else offer, and I in much haste, at least a president
ship may be given me ; and a wife with some money,
that she increase not my charges ; and this shall be
the bound of my desire. Many great men, and most
worthy of imitation, have given themselves to the
study of wisdom in the state of marriage.'
' While I went over these things, and these winds
shifted and drove my heart this way and that, time
passed on, but I delayed to turn to the Lord, and
from day to day deferred to live to thee, and so
died in myself. Loving a happy life, I feared to
seek it in its own true abode, and sought it by flee
ing from it." — Book VI, sec. xi.
Conversion.
2. Deeply moved by the story of Pontitianus,
Augustine had hurried out into the garden attached
to his house, followed by his friend Alypius. A
violent mental struggle had occurred before the
events which he relates in the following words :
" This controversy in my heart was self against
self only. But Alypius, sitting close by my side, in
silence waited the issue of my unwonted emotion.
And when a deep consideration had, from the se
cret bottom of my soul, drawn together and heaped
up all my misery in the sight of my heart, there
arose a mighty storm, bringing a mighty shower of
tears, which, that I might pour forth wholly in its
natural expression, I rose from Alypius : solitude
seemed to me fitter for the business of weeping; so
I retired so far that even his presence could not
be a burden to me. Thus was it with me, and he
perceived something of it ; for I suppose I had
spoken something wherein the tones of my voice
appeared choked with weeping as I had risen up.
He remained where we were sitting, most extremely
astonished. I cast myself down, I know not how,
tinder a certain fig-tree, giving full vent to my tears ;

A UGUSTINE.

93

and the floods of mine eyes gushed out an accept
able sacrifice to thee. And not, indeed, in these
words, yet to this purpose, spoke I much unto thee :
and ' Thou, O Lord, how long ? how long, Lord,
wilt thou be angry forever ? Remember not our
former iniquities,' for I felt that I was held by them.
I sent up these sorrowful words : How long ? how
long ? ' to-morrow and to-morrow ' ? Why not now ?
why, this hour, is there not an end to my unelean
ness ?
" So was I speaking and weeping in the most bit
ter contrition of my heart, when lo ! I heard from
a neighboring house a voice as of boy or girl, I
know not, chanting and oft repeating, 'Tolle lege —
tolle lege ' (' Take up and read — take up and read ').
Instantly my countenance altered ; I began to think
most intently, whether children were wont in any
kind of play to sing such words ; nor could I re
member ever to have heard the like. So checking
the torrent of my tears I arose ; interpreting it to be
no other than a command from God to open the
book and read the first chapter I should find ; for
I had heard of Antony, that coming in during the
reading of the gospel, he received the admonition,
as if what was being read was spoken to him : ' Go,
sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and
follow me,' and by such oracle he was forthwith
converted to thee. Eagerly, then, I returned to
the place where Alypius was sitting, for there had I
laid the volume of the apostle when I arose thence.
I seized, opened, and in silence read that passage
on which my eyes first fell : ' Not in rioting and
drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness,
not in strife and envying ; but put ye on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh,'
in concupiscence. No further would I read ; nor
needed I ; for instantly, at the end of this sentence,

94 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
by a light as it were of serenity infused into my
heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.
" Then putting my finger between, or some other
mark, I shut the volume, and with a calmed coun
tenance made it known to Alypius, and what was
wrought in him, which I knew not, he thus showed
me. He asked to see what I had read ; I showed
him ; and he looked even further than I had read,
and I knew not what followed. This followed :
' Him that is weak in the faith, receive,' which he
applied to himself, and disclosed to me. And by
this admonition was he strengthened ; and by a
good resolution and purpose, and according to his
natural character, in which he was far different from
me, and far better, without any turbulent delay he
joined me. Thence we go in to my mother ; we
tell her ; she rejoices ; we relate in order how it
took place ; she leaps for joy, and triumphs, and
blesses thee, ' who art able to do above that which
we ask or think,' for she perceived that thou hadst
given her more for me than she was wont to beg by
her pitiful and most sorrowful groanings ; for thou
convertedst me unto thyself so that I sought neither
wife, nor any hope of this world, standing in that rule
of faith where thou hadst showed me unto her in a
vision, so many years before." — Book VIII, sec. xii.
Love and Knowledge of God.
3. " Not with doubting, but with assured con
sciousness, do I love thee, Lord. Thou hast smit
ten my heart with thy word, and I love thee. Yea,
also, ' heaven and earth, and all that therein is,' be
hold on every side they bid me love thee; nor
cease to say so unto all ' that they may be without
excuse.' But more deeply 'wilt thou have mercy
on whom thou wilt have mercy, and wilt have
compassion on whom thou hast had compassion ' ;
else in deaf ears do the heaven and the earth speak

A UG US TINE. 95
thy praises. But what do I love when I love
thee ? not the beauty of bodies, nor the fair har
mony of time, nor the brightness of the light so
gladsome to our eyes, nor sweet melodies of varied
songs, nor the fragrant smell of flowers and oint
ments and spices, nor manna and honey, nor limbs
acceptable to the embracements of flesh. None of
these do I love when I love my God ; and yet I
love a kind of light, a kind of melody, a kind of
fragrance, a kind of meat, a kind of embracement,
when I love my God — the light, the melody, the
fragrance, the meat, the embracement of the inner
man, where there shineth unto my soul what space
can not contain, and there soundeth what time bear-
eth not away, and there smelleth what breathing dis
persed! not, and there tasteth what eating diminish-
eth not, and there clingeth what satiety divorceth
not. This is it which I love when I love my God.
" And what is this ? I asked the earth, and it
answered me, ' I am not he,' and whatsoever are in
it confessed the same. I asked the sea and the
deeps, and the living creeping things, and they an
swered, ' We are not thy God, seek above us.' I
asked the morning air ; and the whole air with its
inhabitants answered, ' Anaximenes was deceived, I
am not God.' I asked the heavens, sun, moon, and
stars, ' Nor (say they) are we the God whom thou
seekest.' And I replied unto all things which en
compass the door of my flesh : ' Ye have told me
of my God, that ye are not he ; tell me something
of him.' And they cried out with a loud voice,
' He made us.' My questioning them was my
thoughts on them ; and their form of beauty gave
the answer. And I turned myself unto myself, and
said to myself, ' Who art thou ? ' And I answered,
' A man.' And behold in me there present them
selves to me soul and body, one without, the other
within. By which of these ought I to seek my

96 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
God ? I had sought him in the body from earth
to heaven, so far as I could send messengers, the
beams of mine eyes. But the better is the inner,
for to it, as presiding and judging, all the bodily
messengers reported the answers of heaven and
earth, and all things therein, who said, ' We are not
God, but he made us.' These things did my inner
man know by the ministry of the outer : I, the in
ner, knew them ; I, the mind, through the senses of
my body. I asked the whole frame of the world
about my God ; and it answered me, ' I am not he,
but he made me.' " — Book X, sec. vi.
God revealing, Himself.
4. " Where, then, did I find thee, that I might
learn thee ? For in my memory thou wert not, be
fore I learned thee. Where did I find thee, that
I might learn thee, but in thyself above me ? Place
there is none : ' We go backward and forward,'
and there is no place. Everywhere, O Truth, dost
thou give audience to all who ask counsel of thee,
and at once answereth all, though on manifold
matters they ask thy counsel.
" Clearly dost thou answer, though all do not
clearly hear. All consult thee on what they wish,
though they hear not always what they wish. He is
thy best servant who looks not so much to hear
that from thee which himself wills, as rather to will
that which from thee he hears.
" Too late I loved thee, O thou Beauty of ancient
days, yet ever new ! too late I loved thee ! And
behold thou wert within, and I abroad, and there I
searched for thee ; deformed I, plunging amid
those fair forms which thou hadst made.
" Thou wert with me, but I was not with thee.
Things held me far from thee, which, unless they
were in thee, were not at all. Thou didst call, and
shout, and burst my deafness. Thou didst flash,

AUGUSTINE. 97
shine, and scatter my blindness. Thou didst breathe
odors, and ' I drew in breath ' and ' panted for
thee.' I tasted, and 'hunger and thirst' Thou
touchedst me, and I burned for thy peace."— Book
X, sees, xxvi, xxvii. RETRACTIONS.
Three years before his death Augustine wrote a
critical review of all his writings, the " Retractions,"
in which he points out the design of each work,
and the circumstances of its composition, and also
explains and amends certain passages. The work
is of great value for authenticating the author's
numerous productions. augustine's city of god.
Part First : Books I-X. Against the Pagan Religion.
Book I. This work is undertaken as a defense
against those who attribute the present calamities
to the religion of Christ, and prefer their own false
gods to the founder of the city of which we speak.
Many of these were saved at the sack of Rome by
appealing to the Christian compassion of the enemy.
For them the churches became asylums in which
refugees found safety. This was a new thing in
war, for the pagan temples had been rather deposi
tories of spoils than places of refuge. The tempo
ral evils which came upon the good in this great
calamity, came because of even their — lighter —
sins ; because they had not faithfully rebuked wick
edness, and had loved the world. Those who had
then laid up treasures by distribution to the poor
did not lose them. Yet the sufferings and even the
deaths which came upon the Christians were no real
evils, for by them they were not separated from
God. The example of Regulus proves that virtue
does not avert sufferings. Why should men dread

98 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
to have a whole city full like him ? Even the viola
tion of virgins when not consented to by them was
no contamination to their souls, and the Christians
who so suffered did better than Lucretia in not tak
ing their own lives. For suicide is not magnani
mous. Cato must be blamed when compared with
Regulus. Even when dishonor threatens, we should
not seek to obviate an uncertain sin by a certain
one. God may have permitted this calamity to
Christians to keep them humble. Leastwise he had
some good and wise purpose therein.
Even the Pontiff Scipio Nasica sought to repress
the luxury of Rome, and discouraged the scenic en
tertainments commanded by the gods. Many now,
however, whom God has spared that they may be
admonished are rushing blindly to the shows. But
let it be remembered that at present the temporal
and eternal cities are closely intertwined.
Book II. I would instruct the ignorant, and re
mind those not ignorant of the former calamities of
the city. The gods, remember, did not even give
you pure laws. On the contrary, the rights of tlieir
worship were promotive of corruption. Such scan
dalous representations as were given of their gods
in the theatre, were not permitted by the Romans
of their own public men ; and they would not admit
actors to any place of honor in society. Greeks,
on the contrary, honored players who simply carried
out the commands of the gods. Hence the follow
ing syllogism : " The Greeks give us the major prem
ise : If such gods are to be worshiped, then, cer
tainly, such men may be honored. The Romans
add the minor : But such men must by no means
be honored. The Christians draw the conclusion :
Therefore such gods must by no means be wor
shiped." The morality of Plato was far superior
to that of the gods, as indeed was that ofthe Romans
themselves, whose laws came from other sources

AUGUSTINE.

99

than the gods. Yet even in the purest days of the
republic, Sallust says, it was only fear that kept the
Romans in restraint. With the fall of Carthage
they lost this fear, and disorders came. If these
disorders are not imputed to the gods, why impute
the present calamities to Christianity ? Cicero, be
fore the birth of Christ, confessed that the republic
had ceased to be, through the loss of the old moral
ity. On the contrary, they made of the worst men,
like Sylla, their favorites, and their own examples
incited men to war and license. If it is said that
they taught morality to the few, the more is the
shame that they debauched the state. Christianity
does, however, teach righteousness. " Awake, then,
Romans ; be sure God can not be propitiated by
what defiles man."
Book III. In this book are enumerated the nu
merous external disasters, civil wars, etc., which,
like the spiritual evils already spoken of, afflicted
Rome before the coming of Christ.
Book IV. The multitude of the Roman gods
is here pointed out, and the unreasonableness of
the position assigned to various of the deities, for
example, Felicity. If, as some pagans say, the
names of the gods are but names, yet are attached
to real gods who are unknown, then this unknown
is not Jupiter, but is God. Scaevola, the learned
Roman pontiff, distinguished three kinds of gods :
i. Of the poets ; these he pronounces trifling.
2. Of the philosophers ; these were not to be made
known to the people from motives of policy. 3.
Of the statesmen ; these are false representations,
which are given to the people for expediency's sake.
" Excellent religion ! which, when the weak flies to
it for succor, can only deceive." Varro, though he
would from policy teach the people of the multitude
of gods, yet says that they only know of God who
believe him to be the soul of the world.

ioo POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
The Romans, he says, worshiped one hundred
and seventy years without images, and their wor
ship would have been purer if, like the Jews, they
had continued without images. Varro, indeed,
needed but little more light to see the truth. King
doms are the gift, not of the gods, but of God.
Book V. The preface of this book says that the
purpose is to inquire why the Roman Empire had
been so prolonged. The answer is, substantially,
because God would give temporal rewards for the
virtue of a few Roman citizens.
The book opens with a remarkable discussion
upon free-will and the foreknowledge of God. It
closes with an allusion to the prosperity of the
Christian emperors.
Book VI. The ensuing books are to treat of
the power of the gods to confer eternal life. Since
they are not able, as already shown, to confer tem
poral gifts, it were absurd to look to them for what
is eternal. This is not even claimed by those who have
distributed to the gods their several occupations.
Varro, most learned concerning the gods, wrote of
things which are unfit to be read, being overpowered
by the custom of his times. In his forty-one books
of antiquities, he treats first of human affairs, and
afterward, as being instituted by states, and so com
ing later, of divine things. He makes three kinds of
theology — mythical, physical, and civil. The first,
taught by the poets, contains many fictions ; the
second, also called natural theology, is taught by
the philosophers, but not in the forum ; the third is
what citizens and priests should understand and
administer. No one would be so absurd as to hope
for eternal life from the mythical or civil gods. For
these, indeed, are the same, the teachings of the tem
ples being the same as those of the stage. Seneca
openly condems the civil theology, setting forth its

A UGUSTINE. ioi
scandals as plainly as Varro reveals those of the
mythical. Nevertheless, being prescribed by the
laws, Seneca followed these civil customs while de
spising them. He condemned the Jewish Sabbath
as useless and wasteful, yet did allow that the Jews
knew the origin of their rites, while the Roman
people did not.
Book VII. Chapters .one to twenty-eight show
that the so-called select gods, Jove, Janus, Juno,
etc., have no more power than the lesser gods to
confer eternal life. What the physical theorists say
of parts of the world should be said of God. We
worship the one God, who has created all things
attributed to the care of the many gods. Though
lavishing his bounty on good and bad alike, he es
pecially manifests his love, and bestows eternal rest
on the good. In all the past there has been a fore
shadowing of this eternal life among the Hebrew
people. The Christian religion alone has made
known the deceit of demons. The books of Numa
Pompilius, detailing the causes of the rites of wor
ship, which, discovered after his death, were burned
by order of the Senate, were written by the king
through the aid of demons.
Book VIII. Coming now to natural theology,
which alone is worthy our serious discussion, we
shall deal only with those philosophers who believe
in the divine as concerned with human affairs, yet
deny that the worship of God is sufficient.
There were two schools of the Greek philosophy :
the Italic, founded by Pythagoras ; and the Ionic,
founded by Thales. The first to direct philosophy
to the regulation of morals was Socrates. Of his
many disciples Plato was the chief. Pythagoras
having excelled in the contemplative, Socrates in
the active, Plato combines both these elements,
dividing philosophy into (i) moral, occupied with
action ; (2) natural, devoted to contemplation ; (3)

102 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
rational, discriminating between the true and the
false. He entertained such an idea of God as to
admit that in him are to be found the cause of ex
istence, the ultimate reason for the understanding,
and the end in reference to which the whole life is
to be regulated. Since, then, the Platonists are near
er to us than all others, we discourse only with them.
In natural philosophy, the Platonic is above every
other form in seeking the Supreme ; teaching that he
only absolutely is, and through him all else comes to
be. So, also, in rational and in moral philosophy
the Platonic is first ; teaching as to morals that the
chief end or good is found, not in man, but in God
— in living according to virtue, which can only be
done by imitating God. Those philosophers are
preferred by us who approach the above concep
tions, whatever their name. or school. Christians,
though they may not even know of the above phil
osophical divisions, do know of God better than
the philosophers. There is evidence in Plato's
writings that he had heard of the Hebrew Scrip
tures, for example, in his teaching that God is he
who is. We take issue with the Platonists in that
they worship many gods — gods even which require
scenic displays, which Plato banishes from his ideal
state. But the Platonists reply that in forbidding
plays they offend not the gods, but only the demons,
who hold a middle place between God and men.
Apulius makes the demon who attended Socrates
a good demon. We contend that demons are not
to be placed above men on account of their more
ethereal bodies ; for many animals surpass man in
certain bodily features. We are better than the
demons in having virtue, and in having hope in
place of the despair of demons. Should we indeed
worship these beings, whose acts true religion for
bids to us ? And how can they urge that these un
clean demons can mediate between men and gods ?

A UGUSTINE. 103
As to demons carrying reports of men's actions to
the gods, are the gods dependent on them ? And
will they rightly report men's virtues, as, for exam
ple, Plato's opposition to scenic displays ?
Rejecting this idea of their being such messen
gers, we rather believe them to be alien spirits.
Yet they have gained such power over many as
even to make some Christians believe them divine.
Hermes Trismegistus said to ^Esculapius that, as
God made the celestial gods, so men had made
certain gods, those, namely, who dwell in the im
ages. These Hermes thought were to be over
thrown. We have a certain connection with the
good angels, not through the interposition of de
mons, but by the possession of a good-will. We
honor our martyred dead, but we by no means ac
cord to them divine honors.
Book IX. As to the character of demons, they
are a prey to their passions, being, as it were, sus
pended head downward in the air, their inferior
parts in common with the gods, their superior parts
in common with men. Men, being mortal, are less
-wretched than they. How can they be mediators ?
Not even the good angels can so mediate. The
only true Mediator is Christ, who, having eternal
blessedness, chose mortality, thus having somewhat
in common with God and with man. Practically
the word demon is applied only in a bad sense. If
the Platonists chose to call the good angels " gods,"
it is but a matter of words. Indeed, the Scriptures
say " God of gods," " King above all gods," etc.
Nevertheless, the saying of the apostle is that there
is one God the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ.
Yet we differ from the Platonists in saying that
these blessed ones, not the demons, are God's mes
sengers. Book X. The angels, we hold, do not desire
men's worship, but rather to have them find bless-

104 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
edness as they themselves find it in the worship of
God only. Surely, sacrifice should be given only to
him. He does not, indeed, need such sacrifice, but
would have it as an expression of the love of his
worshipers. The true sacrifice to God is the work
which is done that we may be united to God in holy
fellowship. The miracles of our religion were not
wrought by magic, which we utterly repudiate, but
by the true God, with a loving purpose.
The greatest miracle is man himself. They who
would deny the credibility of our sacred books,
might as well say that there is no God, but we are
not now arguing against such. As to the offering
of visible sacrifice to God, we say it is permissible
as an expression of the invisible. Christ, as a man,
declined to receive sacrifice, and chose rather him
self to be a sacrifice. Of this supreme sacrifice, to
which all others now give place, we make a daily
sign in the churches. The power granted to de
mons has proved harmless to the city of God, rather
proving useful, by giving martyrs to the Church.
Porphyry admits that purification is not by sacri
fice, but through what he calls " Principles." We
acknowledge one " principle," that is one God, the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Christ, the Word, is
such principle, though this was denied by Porphyry,
on account of the incarnation. The saints, even
those before Christ, have obtained purification
through faith in this mystery, and by godliness of
life. Porphyry's blindness to Christ as the mind of
the Father — TraTptK.bg vovg — was due to his aversion
to Christ's humility, not to any speculative difficulty.
Would, indeed, that he might have known him !
Porphyry modified in some points the teachings of
Plato, denying for example that souls of men come
back into the bodies of animals, though allowing
that they come back into the bodies of men. He
denied, too, that purified souls returned to earth af-

A UGUSTINE. 105
ter certain cycles. We differ from the Platonists in
holding that souls are not co-eternal with God, but
were created, and once were not. Christianity is that
"universal way" of deliverance for souls, which
Porphyry confessed that none had found, though
he did not deny its existence. That Porphyry did
not see this royal way in Christianity, was perhaps
.due to the fierce persecution of his day which made
him think that Christians were utterly to perish from
the earth. Of the prophecies of this Christian way,
so many have already been fulfilled, that we confi
dently expect the fulfillment of all the rest.
Part Second: Books XI-XXII ; Establishing the Chris
tian Faith — treating of the Origin, Progress, and
Destiny of the Earthly and the Heavenly Cities.
Book XI. Speculations upon the Creation of the
World. — The city of God, of which we now speak,
is testified of in Scripture. " Glorious things are
spoken of* thee, O city of God." We shall consider
the origin, progress, and destiny of this city, and of
the earthly city. God speaks to man not by vibra
tions of the air, and not by visions, but by the truth.
But, since man's mind is disabled from receiving his
light until it is renewed, it must be impregnated
with faith, and so purified. " And that in this faith
it might advance the more confidently toward the
truth, the truth itself, God, God's Son, assuming
humanity, without destroying his divinity, estab
lished and founded this faith, that there might be
a way for man to man's God through a God-man.
For this is the Mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus. . . . Now the only way that
is infallibly secured against all mistakes is when
the very same person is at once God and man, God
our end, man our way." This Mediator "has pro
duced the Scripture, which is called canonical,
which has paramount authority, and to which we

io6 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
yield assent in all matters of which we ought not
to be ignorant, and yet can not know of ourselves."
" Of all visible things, the world is the greatest ; of
all invisible, the greatest is God. But that the world
is, we see ; that God is, we believe. That God
made the world, we can believe from no one more
safely than from God himself. But when have we
heard him ? Nowhere more distinctly than in the
Holy Scriptures." The knowledge of the writers
thereof was imparted to them by wisdom, as also
by the angels of God. In making the world God
had no new purpose. The world and time began
simultaneously. The " days " of creation, and those
first mornings and evenings before the creation of
the sun, must be figurative terms, and the light may
have meant the knowledge of the city of God.
The rest of the seventh day was not a literal rest,
but a something which prophesied of the rest re
maining to the people of God. As to the angels
they were created before the six days, of perhaps
as a part of the " light " of the first day. Those
angels who fell did not share to the full the blessings
of those who did not fall, else they too would have
been steadfast. Possibly the eternity of the bliss
of the good angels was assured after the fall of the
others ; for they shall not fall, neither shall the
devil return to blessedness. The devil was not by
nature evil, as say the Manicha*:ans, but " did not
abide in the truth." He was indeed created by
God, but not the evil of his nature. Though in the
order of nature the angelic is above the human, yet
by the scale of justice a good man is of greater
value than a bad angel. As the beauty of creation
is heightened by contrasts, we may reason that God
would not have created angels or men who should
fall, unless, by contraposition with the good, he
could make some good use of them. The dividing
of the light from the darkness may have included

A UGUSTINE. 107
the fall of the angels. God knows, not as man
knows, but eternally. He knew that what he made
was good, when he knew that it was good to be
made. The good, we must consider to be the final
cause of creation. This as against the Manichaeans
who call fire, storms, etc., evils, and claim that the
creation was but a device of God for . restraining
evil. The formula of creation, " Let there be light,"
etc., hints at the divine Trinity. So do the three
divisions of philosophy, which does not invent but
only discovers truth. Man also is a certain image
of the Trinity in that he (1) is, and (2) knows that
he is, and (3) delights in this knowledge. This love
of being, and of the knowledge thereof, is to be com
mended ; for we are " created in the image of our
Creator, whose eternity is true and whose truth is
eternal, whose love is eternal and true." The holy
angels know God and the truth as to things created,
not by words, but by the presence of the Word,
who is the truth.
Book XII. Of the Creation of Angels and Men,
and of the Origin of Evil.— Owe two cities origi
nated among the angels. For, although the na
ture of all angels was originally the same, some be
came eternally blessed in choosing God, and some
eternally miserable in turning from God ; since
there is no other good for rational and intelligent
creatures save God only, a creature " can not be
blessed of itself, since it is created out of noth
ing, but only by him by whom it has been created.
For it is blessed by the possession of that whose
loss makes it miserable. He, then, who is blessed,
not in another, but in himself, can not be miser
able, because he can not lose himself. So there is
no unchangeable good, but the one true, blessed
God." Only he is blessed who is in sympathy with
him. That it is a fault of any creature not to
cleave to God, shows that it is its nature so to

108 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
cleave to him. Thereby do we show that the apos
tate angels have not a foreign nature derived from
some other being than God. No being or entity
(essentia), but only nonentity, can by nature be
contrary to that which supremely is. So no being
is by nature contrary to God, the Supreme Being,
and author of all being. All enemies of God are
therefore such, not by nature, but by will. Since
vice injures them, they must have had good natures,
since the evil can not be injured.
Vice can not be in the highest good, and can
not be but in some good. Things solely good,
therefore, can in some circumstances exist ; things
solely evil, never ; for even those natures which are
vitiated by an evil will, so far indeed as they are
vitiated, are evil, but, in so far as they are natures,
they are good. And when a vitiated nature is pun
ished, besides the good it has in being a nature, it
has this also, that it is not unpunished. For this is
just, and certainly everything just is a good. For
no one is punished for natural but for voluntary
vices. For even the vice, which by force of habit
and long continuance has become a second nature,
had its origin in the will.
We are not to look for an efficient cause of this
evil will ; it has none. For defection from that
which supremely is to that which has less of being
— this is to begin to have an evil will. To seek to
discover the cause of such defections is to seek to
see darkness, to hear silence. The nature of God
can never, nowhere, nowise be defective ; natures
made of nothing can. The will could not become
evil were it unwilling to become so. Its defection
is not toward things naturally evil, but is an evil in
clination toward what is' itself good. The good
will of angels was created in them by God. Those
angels tjiat fell either needed less of grace at the
first or were less assisted afterward.

AUGUSTINE. 109
Turning now to the other people of the city of
God, we say that there is no truth in the assertion
that the human race has existed many thousands of
years, the documents claimed to prove it being
baseless. To those who object that man should
have been created so late as within the six thousand
years of the Scripture record, we reply that there is
no early or late in eternity. Nor is there need to
resort to the doctrine of cycles.
Far be it from the Christian to believe in them :
for once Christ died for our sins ; and rising from
the dead he dieth no more. " Death hath no more
dominion over him ; and we ourselves shall be
' ever with the Lord.' " The creation of man in
time was in accord with God's eternal plan. God
has always been Lord, and so in all time there has
been a creation, yet it was not co-eternal with God.
The fact of the eternal life of the saints explodes
the doctrine of cycles, and of the periodic return
of souls to labor and misery.
The human race was created in one man, a
mean between bestial and angelic natures, and of
such sort that, if he remained in subjection to his
Creator, he should pass into the company of angels
and obtain a blessed immortality without the inter
vention of death. God foreknew man's sin, but
also that a great multitude would be redeemed to
do his will. He made man in his own image, a soul
endowed with reason and intelligence. The creative
work of God was not with hands, but by God's in
visible power. The angels were not creators, what
ever part they may have been given by God in his
work. In this one man created in the beginning
was laid the foundation of our two cities so far as
regards the human race.
Book XIII. Death the Penalty of Adam's Sin. —
Man was so created that, if he had continued obe
dient, he would have had an angelic immortality-

iio POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
without an intervening death. The soul is called
immortal because in a sense it does not cease to live
and to feel,, yet it has a certain death of its own.
This death takes place when God forsakes it, as the
death of the body takes place when the soul forsakes
it. The whole man dies when the soul forsaken by
God forsakes the body. This death is to be fol
lowed by the second death when the soul and body
are rejoined indissolubly and the body experiences
the torments of retribution. As to death happen
ing to the good, though it was a punishment of sin,
we must say that men, having become sinners, were
so punished with death that whatsoever sprang
from their stock should also be punished with the
same death. Their nature was so deteriorated that
what existed as punishment in those who first sinned
became a natural consequence in their children.
For as man the parent is, such is man the offspring.
In the first man there existed the whole human na
ture, which was to be transmitted by the woman to
posterity when that conjugal union received the di
vine sentence of its own condemnation ; and what
man was made, not when created, but when he
sinned and was punished, this he propagated so far
as the origin of sin and death is concerned. The
canceling of sin by grace does not abrogate the death
of the body, lest thereby faith should be enervated.
And by the conflict of faith, fear of this death is
overcome ; indeed, the good make good use of death,
though it be in itself an evil. Martyrs, by endur
ing the first death, faithfully escape the second
death. *" Regarding what happens after death, it is
no absurdity to say that death is good to the good,
and evil to the evil ; for the disembodied spirits
of the just are at rest, but those of the wicked
suffer till their bodies rise again — those of the just
to life everlasting, and of the others to death eter
nal, which ds called the second death."

AUGUSTINE. in
The death threatened as the penalty for sin in
cluded all death, the first and the second. The
first punishment of this transgression was the loss
of divine grace and of mastery over flesh. "All
men were in that one man who sinned, since we all
were that one man. For though the particular form
in which we as individuals were to live was not
created and distributed to us, yet the seminal nature
was there from which we were to be propagated ;
and this being vitiated by sin, and bound by the
chain of death, and justly condemned, man could
not be born of man in any other state. And thus
from the bad use of free-will there originated the
whole train of evil, which, with its concatenation of
miseries, convoys the whole human race from its
depraved origin, as from a corrupt root, on to the
destruction of the second death, which has no end,
those only being excepted who are freed by the
grace of God." God did not desert man till man
had deserted him, and the death of the body which
followed was an infliction on account of sin, not
merely a result of the law of nature. Against the
philosophers who contend that terrestrial bodies
can not be eternal, we bring their own doctrines
that the gods have eternal bodies, and that the body
of Jove or the world of which he is the soul is
eternal. To the objection that the weight of bodies
must draw them to the eai-th, we reply that spirit is
mightier than earthly weights. The whole earth is
suspended on nothing, keeping its central place
perhaps by the same law that attracts to its center
all heavy bodies.
Shall we then limit God's power as to bodies ?
Our renewed bodies, however, will be far better than
our present bodies, better even than those of our
first parents in paradise, all reluctance, all corrup
tion, and all slowness being removed.
Though they are spiritual, the saints, while not

H2 POST-NICENE LA~TIN FATHERS.
in need of food, will have power to eat and drink.
Spiritual bodies will yet be bodies, not spirits, hav
ing the substance but not the unwieldiness and cor
ruption of the flesh, being animated not by the liv
ing soul but by the quickening spirit. This body
is now worn by Christ in anticipation of what we
shall wear.
Book XIV. Of the Results of Sin, and as to the
Propagation of the Race if Man had not sinned. —
Among all the different peoples of earth there are
only two kinds of society belonging to our two cit
ies, and corresponding respectively to those who live
after the flesh and after the spirit. To live after
the flesh is not simply to indulge in sensual vices,
but also to allow the soul in evil. Sin is not caused
by the flesh, rather the sinful soul made the flesh
corruptible. The devil sins without flesh. Man,
living according to man and not according to God,
is like the devil. All sin is a lie, in that it is com
mitted to secure happiness, and it brings misery.
The flesh must not be accused to the injury of the
Creator, when it is the will which is at fault. The
right, will is well-directed love, and is toward the
good ; the wrong will is ill-directed love, that is,
toward evil. Many emotions and passions, whose
exercise the Stoics deny to the wise man, we say may
be exercised by the good, only these emotions must
be exercised toward suitable objects. Yet even
well-regulated passions are confined to this life.
The first pair were free from perturbations, and had
they not sinned we too should have been free as the
angels. The serpent, as the agent of the tempter,
first solicited the weaker of the pair, the woman,
to this sin. The man was led into it by human
sympathy ; still it was no less culpable. The evil
act was preceded by an evil will, and the beginning
of the wickedness was pride. " There is something
in humility which strangely enough exalts the heart,

AUGUSTINE.

"3

and something in pride which debases it. Pious
humility enables us to submit to what is above us,
and nothing is more exalted above us than God ;
and therefore humility, by making us subject to
God, exalts us. But pride, being a defect of nature,
by the very act of refusing subjection, and revolting
from him who is supreme, falls to a low condition,
and then comes to pass what is written, ' Thou
castedst them down when they lifted up them
selves.' "
Therefore it is that humility is specially recom
mended to the city of God as it sojourns in this
world, and is specially exhibited in the city of God
and in the person of Christ its King ; while the con
trary vice of pride, according to the testimony of
the sacred writings, specially rules his adversary,
the devil. The devil could not have ensnared man
had he not first begun to live for himself. His fall
into open transgression was useful to him, for then
he became dissatisfied with himself. He had sought
to be his own satisfaction, and God left him to him
self, not in absolute independence, but to live dis
satisfied with himself, and in hard bondage to him
to whom he had yielded. He was condemned to
eternal death because he had forsaken eternal life.
The punishment of disobedience was disobedience,
so that, in consequence of his not being willing to
do what he could do, man now wills to do what he
can not do. Our flesh is insubordinate to us. Lust,
with its attendant shame, followed upon sin. Had
man remained innocent, the race would have in
creased without passions, and the whole of the body
would have remained under the control of the will,
no part being as now under the domination of the
passions. Such actually was the condition of things
in paradise. But the sins of men and of angels do
not thwart the great work of God. No future event
ever escaped his foreknowledge ; nor did his fore-

H4 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
knowledge compel any one to sin. He permitted
sin when he might have prevented it, to show what
evil could be wrought by pride, and what good ac
complished by divine grace. Of our two cities, the
one glories in itself, the other in the Lord.
Books X V-X VIII. The History of the Two Cities.
Book XV. From Adam to Noak. — Of the two
cities, one was predestined to reign eternally, the
other to suffer eternal punishment with the devil.
Cain belonged to the latter, Abel to the former,
city. Cain was wicked in that, while he gave
something to God, he withheld himself. The good
make use of the world, that they may enjoy God ;
but the bad would use God, that they may enjoy
the world. Cain building a city set his affections
upon the earth. Many people were doubtless there
in the earth, and side by side with this earthly
city was also the heavenly city ; the two lines
running respectively from Cain and from Seth. We
are not to discredit the great size and the very
great age of men in those days. Where the two
lines mingled, it was " the sons of God taking the
daughters of men," the sons of God being not an
gels, but the sons of Seth. The one hundred and
twenty years fixed by God as the limit of man's
days refer to the time then to elapse before the
flood. The anger which God is then said to have
felt was not a disturbing emotion, like the anger of
men. The ark was a figure of the Church. Those
who see only an historical statement in these ac
counts of the ark are in error, and so also are those
who see in it only a figurative meaning.
Book XVI. From Noah to the Kings of Israel. —
Whether there were godly worshipers between Noah
and Abraham is left uncertain by Scripture. In
the account, the descendants of Noah's sons are so
many nations, not simply individuals. At Babylon

A UGUSTINE. 115
the tongues of men were confounded. When the
Lord is said to have "come down to see the city
and tower," it does not mean that he moved lo
cally, but that he then made his presence felt in the
earth. As to God's speaking to angels — as when
he said, " Come, and let us go down and confound
their speech " — it is in some ineffable manner, and
not as man speaks with man. Notwithstanding
some monstrous births, we must believe that all who
are human have descended from Adam. As to the
fable of the antipodes, that is, that on the other
side of the earth there are men who walk with their
feet opposite to ours, this is not credible. Whether
after the flood, and before the confounding of the
tongues, there were one or two cities, we can not
say. The language used before this confusion was
used in the family of Heber, the father of the He
brews. From the time of Abraham the city of God
becomes more conspicuous. The three most fa
mous nations at that time were those of Assyria, Sic-
yon, and Egypt. God gave to Abraham his prom
ise that his seed should possess the land of Canaan
forever, that in him all the nations of the earth
should be blessed, and that his seed should be as
the stars for number. Believing these promises, he
was justified. The promise of an " everlasting "
possession of the land is expressed by the Greek
word alebviov. What is so termed " either has no
end, or lasts to the very end of the-world." By the
rite of circumcision Abraham sealed his faith in
this promise. If any are troubled that infants not
receiving this rite were cut off, when it was no fault
of theirs that they were not circumcised, he must
remember that even infants, not personally in their
own life, but according to the common origin of the
human race, have all broken God's covenant, in
that one in whom all have sinned, being thus born
in sin, not actual but original. In the offering of

116 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
Isaac we have a type of the offering of Jesus. The
saying concerning Isaac's sons, "The elder shall
serve the younger," was a prophecy that the Jews
should serve the Christians. We are not to think
the guile of Jacob in obtaining his father's blessing
fraudulent, but to seek in it a mystery wrought by in
spiration from above. The wrestling of Jacob with
the angel signified Christ's passion. And yet Jacob
besought a blessing from the angel whom he over
came, and received as such blessing the name Israel,
which means seeing God. He was also made lame ;
so that the blessing may be taken of those of the
chosen people who believed, and the lameness of
those who disbelieved.
The succession of the city of God was carried
on from Jacob through his sons who went into
Egypt, and were led out finally by Moses, and led
into the land of promise by Joshua, the son of Nun.
In the times of the Judges, which then succeeded,
prosperity alternated with adversity in war, accord
ing as the sins of the people and the mercy of God
were displayed.
Book XVII. From the Times of the Prophets to
Christ. — The prophetic age extends from the time
of Samuel to the restoration from the captivity.
The Scriptures covering this period, even where
seeming to be occupied with the history of events
pertaining to the Kings, are more intent on foretell
ing things to come than in rehearsing the past.
The promise of the possession of the land was now
fulfilled under David and Solomon. Prophecies
have a threefold meaning, referring to things earth
ly, to things heavenly, and to both combined.
Thus the prophecy of Hannah was indeed a song of
praise, but it was also a prophecy of the kingdom
and of the judgment of Christ.
The prophecy of the transfer of the kingdom
from the house of Saul was typical of the transfer

A UGUSTINE.

"7

of the kingdom from Israel to Christ, and the di
vision of the kingdom was a foreshadowing of the
separation when part of the nation became follow
ers of Christ. The promises made to David about
his house were fulfilled, not in Solomon, but in
Christ. David was probably the author of all the
psalms, notwithstanding that the names of some
prophets who lived after David are found in certain
inscriptions. The death and resurrection of Christ are proph
esied in the 3d, 41st, 15th, and 68th psalms. The
divided people, after varying experiences, were car
ried captive, Judah being restored and continuing
until the Roman conquest. From Ezra down to
Christ there were no prophets, save Zechariah and
Elizabeth. After his birth, Simeon, Anna, and John
prophesied. Book XVIII. Contemporary Events in the History
of the Two Cities. — Reverting now to the history of
the earthly city, this book points out certain con
temporary events in the two opposing parts of so
ciety. Assyria, the great earthly city of early times,
was contemporary with Abraham. The Egyptian
worship of Serapis, who in his lifetime was Apis,
King of Argos, arose in the times of Joseph. The
exodus from Egypt occurred when Cecrops was
King of Athens. As yet but few heroes had been
deified by the Greeks, among these Mercury and
Hercules, and much earlier Minerva. According
to Varro, Deucalion's flood occurred in the reign of
Cranaos, Cecrops's successor. It was at this period
that the rituals of the false gods and the Delphic
games were instituted. Fables were invented during
the period of the Judges, at which time the theo
logical poets flourished. The first King of Lauren-
tium, Picus, the son of Saturn, was contemporary
with Deborah. In the days of his grandson Lati-
nus, Troy fell. iEneas came into Italy in the times

118 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
of Abdon the Judge. Kings began to reign in
Israel in the times of the Silvian kings of Latium.
In the age of Solomon lived Codrus, the last King
of. Athens. When Rome was founded Israel had been in
the promised land 718 years, Hezekiah being King
of Judah. The captivity occurred in the days of
Tarquinius Priscus. During the period of the cap
tivity flourished five of the seven sages ; also, Anaxi-
mander, Anaximenes, Xenophanes, and Pythagoras.
The close of the captivity was contemporary with
the expulsion of the kings from Rome. The re
markable burst of prophecy from Isaiah, Hosea,
Joel, Amos, Jonah, and Micah, was at the period
of the downfall of the Assyrian and the establish
ment of the Roman Empire. Haggai, Zechariah,
and Malachi, prophesied at the close of the cap
tivity. The history of this period is given by Es-
dras. The record of the succeeding years down to
the time of Aristobulus is not given in the Holy
Scriptures, called by the Jews canonical, but in
other books, among them the books of Maccabees,
which the Church receives as Scripture. Thus our
prophets precede the philosophers — Thales, the first
of the sages, being but contemporary with the
great burst of prophecy. Only the theological
poets Orpheus, Linus, and Musaeus, were older than
the great prophets, and these were preceded by
Moses. Even the learning of the Egyptians was
antedated by Abraham.
The Scriptures were translated into Greek by
seventy-two wise men, sent from Jerusalem by
Eleazer the high-priest, to Ptolemy Philadelphus.
Though each of these made a separate translation,
they all agreed, to a word. This Septuagint ver
sion is to be preferred to those of Aquila, Symma
chus and Theodotion ; also to that of Jerome,
though the last is acknowledged to be more true

A UGUSTINE. 119
to the Hebrew text. The seventy-two translators
may be regarded as inspired to communicate truth,
and they may have added some things not in the
Hebrew text. Yet what is in the Hebrew, and not
in the Greek, is also to be received.
It is not incongruous to believe that some out
side of Israel proclaimed the coming of Christ,
whether taught by grace or by bad angels.
Not even the Jews would contend that none
have belonged to God but Israelites. Such men as
Job, for example, doubtless had Christ revealed to
them. In the preaching of the gospel we are now
seeing the fulfillment of the prophecy that the law
should go forth out of Zion, for now the Church
spreads through the world. Reckoning the perse
cutions of the Church, ending with that by Diocle
tian and Maximian, ten in number, some are now
claiming that only the Antichrist remains to come
before the end of the world ; but this is a theme
upon which it is not safe to conjecture. The time
of the end is hidden from man.
Book XIX. On the End of the Two Cities, includ
ing a Review of Philosophic Opinions as to the Supreme
Good. — In the opinions of the philosophers as to
the supreme good, Varro discovers 288 varieties.
These, however, he reduces to three primary sects :
(1) those who desire the primary objects of nature
for virtue's sake ; (2) those who desire virtue for
the sake of these objects ; and (3) those who de
sire each for its own sake. Man, Varro says, is both
soul and body, and thus the highest good involves
both the bodily and the spiritual. Consequently
the primary objects of nature are to be sought for
their own sake ; and virtue, which is the art of
living, and can be communicated by instruction, is
to be deemed the most excellent spiritual good.
Now, virtue, this art of regulating life, seeks all
other things, and itself also for its own sake, and

120 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
uses all, that from them it may derive profit and
enjoyment. When virtue is absent, no matter how
many good things a man has, they are not for his
good, and consequently should not be called good
things while they belong to one who makes them
useless by using them badly. The life of man, then,
is called happy when it enjoys virtue, and these
other spiritual and bodily good things, without
which virtue is impossible. The happy life also is
social, loving the advantages of friends as well as
one's own. As to these things Varro entertains no
doubt, and so agrees not with the New but with the
Old Academy.
Christians now believe that the supreme good is
life eternal, and the supreme evil eternal death ;
and that, to obtain one and avoid the other, one
must live rightly, which can only be ' done by the
help of God. All who have sought other ends,
either in pleasure or in virtue, have with a marvel
ous shallowness sought an end in this life and in
themselves, and the thoughts of such are vain. For
what flood of eloquence can detail the miseries of
this life ? And even virtue is but a perpetual war
fare against vice. The solace of friendships also,
and even the friendships of angels, affords no true
joy ; since friends are separated by misunderstand
ings, and angels may be personated by demons.
Our final reward is both spiritual and bodily, and
is without infelicity. Of this eternal life an essen
tial part is eternal peace. God has granted to men
good things adapted to this life under the most
equitable condition, that every man that makes
good use of these shall receive the peace of immor
tality, accompanied by glory and honor in an end
less life, made fit for the enjoyment of God, and of
one another in God ; but that he who uses the
present blessings badly, should both lose them and
should not receive the others. Thus the citizen of

A UGUSTINE. 121
the heavenly city uses the earthly peace and good,
temporarily obeying the laws of the earthly city, as
a captive in a strange land. In matters of religion,
however, the heavenly city can not have laws in
common with the earthly city. It calls men out of
the earthly city into itself. In the earthly pil
grimage the believer, having perfect peace through
faith, is not left to the wretched uncertainty of those
of the New Academy. Yet even people alienated
from God have a certain peace which is not to be
lightly esteemed, though they shall not enjoy it for
ever ; and we are admonished to pray for the peace
of such. The end of the wicked is to inherit eter
nal misery. The war opposed to the peace of the
blessed will be the eternal hostility between the will
and the passions.
Book XX. Of the Last Judgment. — We speak of
a last judgment, because God is even now and al
ways has been judging. His judgments are un
searchable ; we see the wicked prospering and the
good troubled, and learn to hold cheap whatever
attaches alike to good and bad.
But at the last judgment we shall see what is
now hidden. We prove this judgment both from
the New Testament and the Old. Christ teaches it
in his words about Bethsaida and Chorazin, in the
parable of the wheat and tares, in his promises to
the disciples that they should sit on thrones of
judgment, and in the last part of the twenty-fifth
chapter of Matthew. The first resurrection is that
of the soul from sin, the second is that of the body.
In the second both good and bad have part. After
this those not risen in the first resurrection shall be
hurled into damnation, which is the second death.
As opposed to the millennarians, who believe in
an earthly reign of Christ, we hold that the thou
sand years in which Satan is bound are the years
now passing, he being now under such restraint that

122 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
he can not seduce to eternal damnation those na
tions which belong to Christ. He will be unloosed
for a brief time at the end of this age, but the
Church will then have gained such power that they
can resist.
The thousand years' reign of the saints with
Christ is now passing ; also the souls of the blessed
dead are reigning with him, though not yet united
with their bodies. Those are in error who think
the first resurrection to be bodily, or that there can
be no resurrection of souls. After a final outburst
of rage and persecution, the devil will be cast into
the lake of fire. One sitting upon the throne shall
judge, and the dead, great and small, shall appear
before him. By the books of judgment, then to be
opened, we are to understand the books of Scrip
ture containing the law ; and by " the book of the
life of each man," a mental record out of which
the conscience of each man shall pass judgment
upon him. After death and hell, that is all the
evil, are cast into the lake of fire — of whose nature
no one knows — this world shall pass away. That
there shall be " no more sea," means, perhaps, no
more turbulence and restlessness. Then shall
come down out of heaven the holy city, where are
no tears and no sorrow.
Peter predicts the final judgment, when the
heavens and the earth shall be destroyed. Paul,
also, in the passage in Thessalonians about Anti
christ (2 Thess. ii, i-ii), and in 1 Thess. iv, 13-
16, speaks of the same consummation. In the Old
Testament, Isaiah, Daniel, Malachi, and the Psalms
testify of the resurrection and of the judgment. In
this judgment the Sun of Righteousness shall distin
guish the righteous from the wicked as they were
never before separated. Before this judgment Elias
shall come to convert the Jews to Christ by his
preaching and explanation of the Scriptures. At,

AUGUSTINE. 123
or in connection with the judgment, then, Elias
shall come, the Jews shall believe, Antichrist shall
persecute, Christ shall judge, the dead shall rise,
the good and the wicked shall be separated, the
world shall be burned and renewed ; but how or in
what order these events shall occur, the human un
derstanding can not perfectly teach. My opinion
is, however, that the above-named order is cor
rect. Book XXI. Of Eternal Punishment. — To speak
now of the nature of the punishment of the devil
and all his retainers, we say against objectors that
it will be possible for bodies to survive amid the
torments of everlasting fires. There are animals
like the salamander, which live in the midst of
flames. We must remember the curious properties
of natural objects, for example, of the loadstone and
of charcoal, before we say what must be the effects
of fire. Indeed, there are human contrivances so
marvelous that the uninitiated think they must be
divine. How much more able, then, is God to do
those things which to skeptics are incredible, but to
his power easy, since it is he who has given to stones
and all other things their virtue, and to men their
skill to use them in wonderful ways ; he who has
given to the angels a nature more mighty than that
of all that lives on earth ; he whose power sur
passes all marvels, and whose wisdom in working,
ordaining, and permitting, is no less marvelous in
its government of all things than in its creation of
all ! The reason, therefore, which we adduce that
bodies may burn everlastingly, is God's unlimited
power. Moreover, it is not contrary to nature that
the nature of a body should be changed ; for na
ture is the work of God, and he who has made may
change. Our Lord himself, three times over, spoke
of the worm as undying, and of hell-fire as un
quenchable. Who is not terrified by this repetition ?

124 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
Some hold that fire is to torment the bodies, and
the worm of anguish the souls, " yet for my part,"
says Augustine, I think that Scripture is silent re
garding the spiritual pain of the damned, because,
though not expressed, it is necessarily understood
that in a body thus tormented the soul also is tor
tured with a fruitless repentance. But as to all
this the future will reveal." As to devils, who are
spirits, being burned with a material fire, we say
that this can and will be effected in some wonder
ful and ineffable way. For the lake of fire and brim
stone assuredly will be material fire. As to the jus
tice of an eternal penalty for a temporal wrong, we
reply that human courts account it just, for they in
flict the penalty of death, that is eternal banishment
from the society of the living, for the crime of a
moment. That it seems to any unjust is because
they do not rightly appreciate the greatness of the
sin of departing from God. The Platonists deem
all punishment remedial ; but we, while we consider
certain punishments after death to be purgatorial,
limit such punishments to the period before the
judgment. God's mercy is such as to extend to all
ages of human life, those in infancy and boyhood
being saved by the sacraments alone ; those of ma
ture age by the added struggle, with the help of
God, against vices. So, subduing the soul to God,
one must, to escape eternal punishment, be not only
baptized but justified in Christ. No pains after the
final judgment will be purgatorial ; yet even these
eternal torments will be graduated to men's deserts.
To consider the various errors of belief on this sub
ject, Origen believed in the restoration and subse
quent relapses of even the devils ; but the Church
condemned this doctrine, for by it is destroyed our
fearless assurance of eternal blessedness. " Very
different, however, is the error dictated by the ten
derness of those Christians who suppose that the

AUGUSTINE. 125
sufferings of those who are condemned in the judg
ment will be temporary, while the blessedness of
all who are sooner or later set free will be eternal :
which opinion, if it be good and true because it is
merciful, will be so much the better and truer in
proportion as it becomes more merciful. Let, then,
this fountain of mercy be extended, and flow forth
even to the lost angels, and let them also be set free,
at least, after as many and as long ages as seem fit !
Why does this stream of mercy flow to all the hu
man race, and dry up as soon as it reaches the
angelic ? And yet they dare not extend their pity
further, and propose the deliverance of the devil
himself. Or, if any one is bold enough to do so, he
does indeed put to shame their charity, but is him
self convicted of error that is more unsightly, and a
wresting of God's truth that is more perverse, in pro
portion as his clemency of sentiment seems to be
greater." Some, again, whose lives are not good,
attribute to God a still greater compassion toward
men, for, while acknowledging that the wicked are
worthy of punishment, they say that God's mercy
will give them up to the prayers of the saints.
True, this conjecture is not hinted at in Scripture,
but this is for the sake of stimulating many to refor
mation of life through fear of very protracted or
eternal sufferings, and of stimulating others to pray
for those who have not reformed. There are others,
again, who promise deliverance, not indeed to all
men, but only to those who have been washed in
Christian baptism, and who become partakers of
the body of Christ, no matter how they have lived,
or what heresy or impiety they have fallen into.
Still others assert that not all the baptized, but yet
all Catholics, will ultimately be saved, no matter how
they have lived. And then some are of the opinion
that such only as neglect to cover their sins with
alms-deeds shall be punished everlastingly. To an-

126 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
swer now those who hold that the devil and wick
ed men will be saved, the words of Scripture ex
pressly declare that their punishment will be for
ever, equally with the blessedness of the saints.1 As
to those who hold to the deliverance of all men in
answer to the prayers of the saints, we reply that, if
this were possible, there is no reason why the Church
should not even now pray for the devil and his an
gels, since God, her master, has ordered her to pray
for her enemies. But now she prays only for un
believing and godless men, who are still alive, be
cause only of them can she have hope that they will
be moved to repentance. And her prayers are not
answered for all of these. Could she, therefore,
know now who among men are predestined to be of
the devil's following, she would not now pray for
them, but only for those who through her interces
sion are predestined to become her sons. For some
of the dead, indeed, the Church prays, but it is only
for those who have been regenerated in Christ.2
As to God's mercy enduring forever, God may
exercise it by tempering the punishment of the lost
beyond what they deserve. His " hidden sweet
ness " is not to be thought to extend to the wicked,
but to those that hope in Christ.
As to salvation through heretical baptism, the
apostle has said, referring to the works of the flesh,
including heresies, " They who do such things shall
not inherit the kingdom of God." Therefore, those
who lead an abandoned life ought not to be confi
dent of salvation, even though of the Catholic com
munion. To those who speak of some being saved be
cause they have built upon the true foundation, even
though their wood, hay, and stubble are burned
away, we say that those only have the sure founda
tion who have Christ in their hearts, not the exter
nals of the Catholic faith. As for alms-deeds as a

AUGUSTINE. 127
ground of salvation, we say that, if for one crime a
man has distributed all his goods to the poor, it can
avail him nothing unless he desists from all similar
actions, and attains unto that charity which work
eth no evil. For, while alms may be availing for the
deletion of past sins, they do not warrant impunity
in their perpetual commission.
Thus, as to men being forgiven their sins be
cause they have forgiven others according to the
Lord's prayer, this refers not to the sins which
damn eternally, but to the small and passing sins of
those who have turned to the Lord. Lastly, while
we allow that the deliverance of some may be ef
fected through their own prayers, or by the inter
cession of holy men — though for my part I have
been unable to discover what sins those are which
prevent a man from winning the kingdom of God
by himself, but permit him to avail himself of the
merits of the saints — this can not secure that, once
a man is cast into hell, he should after a time be
rescued from it.
Book XXII. Eternal Blessedness, the Resurrec
tion Body, and the Employment of the Saints. — The
eternal life is not merely long enduring, but is with
out end. Its author is God, who created all intelli
gent beings, giving them free-will. He permitted
the recreant angels to choose themselves, deeming
it better to bring good out of evil than forcibly to
prevent evil. That the creatures were originally
good and made to enjoy God is shown in that now,
not having God, they are miserable. God made
man, notwithstanding that he foresaw his sin ; for
he purposed to redeem a great multitude, replacing
the fallen angels. The wise men of earth have rea
soned that bodies can exist nowhere but upon the
earth, but is it more wonderful that bodies ascend
to heaven than that souls be bound down to earth ?
In fact, this truth of the resurrection of the flesh,

128 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
though once deemed incredible, has now come to
be almost universally believed.
If to any this seems now incredible, let them
reflect that this universal belief on the testimony of
a few fishermen is also incredible. Now both of
these incredible things were foretold by the same
God before they came to pass ; and, since one has
already come about, why not the other also ? Again,
miracles were wrought to attest the resurrection.
If skeptics do not believe in these miracles for this
purpose, then this one grand miracle suffices us,
that the world has come to believe without a mira
cle. In an age so enlightened as that of Cicero
and of the Emperors Augustus and Tiberius, the
human mind would have refused to listen to the
resurrection of Christ's body and its ascension into
heaven, and have scouted it as an impossibility, had
not the divinity of the truth itself or the truth of
the divinity, and corroborating miraculous signs,
proved that it could happen and had happened.
If it is asked why miracles, which we claim led
men to believe in Christ, are not wrought to-day,
we reply that they are wrought, though they are less
numerous and brilliant than formerly. For exam
ple, at Hippo-Regius, nearly seventy have been
wrought within the past two years in connection
with the relics of the martyr Stephen. Two simi
lar cures also, Augustine relates, had recently taken
place in his own church.
Many vain and foolish questions are asked in
connection with the resurrection body, yet we may
entertain some thoughts thereupon. Infants, we
may believe, will rise with the mature stature which
they had potentially, and the aged and decrepit will
be restored to the body of their prime. All parts
of the body will also be restored in full integrity,
all blemishes being removed. Women as well as
men will rise, and will be women, although there

A UGUSTINE. 129
shall be no marrying nor giving in marriage. The
substance of our bodies will by divine power be
reunited, however disintegrated, and will be restored
to its original possessors. But what this spiritual
body shall be, and how great its grace, I fear it
were but rash to pronounce, seeing that we have as
yet no expression of it.
This life of earth, if life it may be called, is a
state of condemnation, as is proved by its host of
ills. Amid all these the grace of Christ sustains us,
but chiefly preserves us from passing into an even
worse state which is eternal. The goodness of God
has indeed vouchsafed to us countless blessings,
vitiated though our natures be. He has not with
drawn from the race its power of propagation.
And then consider the wonderful powers of
mind which he has bestowed upon us, and which
are displayed in our attainments of wisdom and in
the countless astonishing arts which man has in
vented. What beauty, too, has the human body,
only comparable with its utility ! And then the
loveliness, manifold and various, of sky and earth !
Who can enumerate all the blessings we enjoy ?
And all these are but the solace of the wretched
arid condemned, not the reward of the blessed.
What, then, shall these rewards be, if such be the
blessings of a condemned state ? In what condition
shall the spirit of man be when it has no longer any
vice at all ; when it neither yields to any, nor is in
bondage to any, nor has to make war against any,
but is perfected, and enjoys undisturbed peace with
itself ? What shall the body be when it is in every
respect subject to the spirit, from which it shall
draw a life so sufficient as to stand in need of no
nutriment ?
The nature of the employment of the saints when
so clothed in their immortal bodies (or shall I say
their repose and ease ?), passeth all understanding

130 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
but God's. We shall, however, see the face of God,
by which we are to understand his manifestations.
Not as we here see the sun, but in the spirit, so as
not perhaps to be dependent upon the bodily eye.
Wherever we may direct our spiritual eyes, we may
be able to see God in all things. In that state of
felicity the body shall be wherever the spirit wills,
and the spirit shall will nothing unbecoming the
spirit or body. True peace shall be there, where
no one shall suffer opposition either from himself
or any other. God himself, who is the author of
virtue, shall then be its reward. He shall be the
end of our desires, who shall be seen without end,
loved without cloy, praised without weariness.
There shall be, too, degrees of merit and of re
ward, and yet no envy. Free-will, which we shall
there retain, will be more truly free because free
from any inclination toward sin. Our first freedom
was freedom to sin or not sin ; there we shall be free
not to sin. The former condition was adapted to
acquiring merit ; the latter to enjoying reward.
The soul shall then have an intellectual remem
brance of past ills, and also a knowledge of the woe
of the lost, and shall so be kept mindful of the
mercies of God. That shall be the great Sabbath,
which has no evening. Then we shall rest and see,
see and love, love and praise. This is what shall
be in the end without end.
extracts.
i. On Eternal Punishment.
" First of all, it behooves us to inquire and to
recognize why the Church has not been able to tol
erate the idea that promises cleansing or indulgence
to the devil even after the most severe and pro
tracted punishment. For so many holy men, im
bued with the spirit of the Old and New Testa-

A UGUSTINE.

131

ments, did not grudge to angels of any rank or char
acter that they should enjoy the blessedness of the
heavenly kingdom after being cleansed by suffering,
but rather they perceived that they could not inval
idate nor evacuate the divine sentence which the
Lord predicted that he would pronounce in the
judgment, saying, ' Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his an
gels.' For here it is evident that the devil and his
angels shall burn in everlasting fire. And there is
also that declaration in the Apocalypse, ' The devil,
their deceiver, was cast into the lake of fire and
brimstone, where also are the beast and the false
prophet, and they shall be tormented day and night
forever.' In the former passage 'everlasting' is
used, in the latter ' forever ' ; and by these words
Scripture is wont to mean nothing else than endless
duration. And therefore no other reason, no reason
more obvious and just, can be found for holding it
as the fixed and immovable belief of the truest piety,
that the devil and his angels shall never return to
the justice and life of the saints, than that Scrip
ture, which deceives no man, says that God spared
them not, and that they were condemned before
hand by him, and cast into prisons of darkness in
hell, being reserved to the judgment of the last day,
when eternal fire shall receive them, in which they
shall be tormented world without end. And, if this
be so, how can it be believed that all men, or even
some, shall be withdrawn from the endurance of
punishment after some time has been spent in it ?
how can this be believed without enervating our
faith in the eternal punishment of the devils ? For,
if all or some of those to whom it shall be said,
' Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels,' are not to
be always in that fire, then what reason is there for
believing that the devil and his angels shall always

132 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
be there ? Or is, perhaps, the sentence of God,
which is to be pronounced on wicked men and an
gels alike, to be true in the case of the angels, false
in that of men ? Plainly it will be so if the conjec
tures of men are to weigh more than the word of
God. But, because this is absurd, they who desire
to be rid of eternal punishment ought to abstain
from arguing against God, and rather, while yet
there is opportunity, obey the divine commands.
Then what a fond fancy is it to suppose that eter
nal punishment means long-continued punishment,
while eternal life means life without end, since Christ
in the very same passage spoke of both in similar
terms in one and the same sentence, ' These shall
go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous
into life eternal ' !
" If both destinies are ' eternal,' then we must
either understand both as long continued, but at
last terminating, or both endless. For they are
correlative — on the one hand, punishment eternal ;
on the other hand, life eternal.
" And to say in one and the same sense, life eter
nal shall be endless, punishment eternal shall come
to an end, is the height of absurdity. Wherefore,
as the eternal life of the saints shall be endless, so,
too, the eternal punishment of those who are doomed
to it shall have no end." — Book XXI, chap. 23.
2. On Prayers for the Dead.
" It is, then, I say, the same reason which pre
vents the Church at any time from praying for the
wicked angels, which prevents her from praying
hereafter for those men who are to be punished in
eternal fire ; and this also is the reason why, though
she prays even for the wicked so long as they live,
she yet does not even in this world pray for the un
believing and godless who are dead. For some of
the dead, indeed, the prayer of the Church or of

AUGUSTINE.

133

pious individuals is heard ; but it is for those who,
having been regenerated in Christ, did not spend
their lives so wickedly that they can be judged un
worthy of such compassion, nor so well that they
can be considered to have no need of it. As, also,
after the resurrection, there will be some of the
dead to whom, after they have endured the pains
proper to the spirits of the dead, mercy will be
accorded, and acquittal from the punishment of
eternal fire. For were there not some whose sins,
though not remitted in this life, shall be remitted
in that which is to come, it could not be truly said,
' They shall not be forgiven, neither in this world,
neither in that which is to come.' But when the
Judge of quick and dead has said, ' Come, ye blessed
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world,' and to those on
the other side, ' Depart from me, ye cursed, into the
eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his
angels,' and ' These shall go away into eternal pun
ishment, but the righteous into eternal life,' it were
excessively presumptuous to say that the punish
ment of any of those whom God has said shall go
away into eternal punishment shall not be eternal,
and so bring either despair or doubt upon the cor
responding promise of life eternal." — Book xxi,
chap. 24. LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS.
These were mostly written before Augustine
entered the priesthood. One, on the " Fair and
Fit," written before his conversion, is not now ex
tant. In the period of retirement between his con
version and his baptism he wrote several works,
viz.: 1. In four books, "Against the Academics."
These are in the form of dialogues, directed to a
friend, whom he advises to the study of philosophy.
Dupin says of them that " they are not much in-

134 POST-NICENE LATIN- FATHERS.
ferior to Tully's for style, but much above them for
the exactness and solidity of the arguments and
notions." In his "Retractions," Augustine criti
cises them as not savoring enough of Christianity.
2. " Of Felicity " is a dialogue, in which his mother
takes part with others. In the course of it, Augus
tine, having asked whether one is happy if he have
what he desires, Monica answers, " He is happy if
that which he desires is good " ; whereupon Augus
tine at once replies, " Thou hast taken, O mother, the
very citadel of philosophy ! " Following out this
principle, it is shown that true felicity consists in
the knowledge of God, who alone can fill the soul
and impart wisdom. In the " Retractions " the au
thor observes that one can not be perfectly happy
in this life, since we can know God perfectly only
in the other world. 3. Two books, "Of Order,"
which, after speaking of the providence of God,
which allows and makes use of evil, give precepts
for the manners and studies of youth. A catalogue
of all the sciences is given, together with a short ac
count of the same. All learning, it is declared, is
nothing but reason occupied in the consideration of
different objects. 4. Two bpoks of " Soliloquies."
The first of these books treats of the dispositions of
the soul necessary in order to acquire a knowledge of
God ; and the second, of the immortality of the soul.
Before leaving Milan, Augustine wrote a sepa
rate book on the " Immortality of the Soul," and
began treatises upon most of the sciences, finishing
only that upon grammar. He also began his six
books "Of Music," which he finished in Africa.
At Rome was written a treatise " Of the Quantity
of the Soul," designed to show that the soul is not
extended after the manner of bodies, and that of
all creatures the soul of man comes nearest to the
nature of God.
At a much later period were written four books

AUGUSTINE. 135
"Of the Origin of the Soul," in response to the
claims of one Vincentius that the soul of every man
is certainly an individual creation.
MORAL AND PRACTICAL WORKS.
A treatise " On the Manner of instructing Cat
echumens," addressed to a deacon of Carthage, ad
vises that one shall teach cheerfully, adapting his
instruction to the characters and capacities of his
scholars. The method should be historical, as cal
culated to awaken interest, the lessons presenting a
summary of the principal events in the history of
religion, giving preference to the more marvelous.
Care must be taken that the hearer may believe
what is spoken, hope for what he believes, and love
what he hopes for. They should be inspired with
a wholesome fear of God's judgments, and kept
from all prospect of merely temporal interests in
becoming a Christian. " On Belief in Things not
seen " shows that many things are believed of which
no sense gives testimony. Without such faith human
society would be overthrown. True, to believe in
a thing we ought to have some evidence of its being,
and Christians do not believe in Jesus Christ with
out sufficient proofs of his authority. The Church
alone is proof of the truth of his doctrines ; for in
it we see the fulfillment of what Christ and the
prophets foretold. " Of Faith and Good Works "
refutes several practical errors. Not all men are to
be admitted to the rite of baptism, but only such as
repent and renounce their sins. Nor will all the
baptized necessarily be saved, but such as die in
mortal sin without repentance will be eternally
damned. The discourse " Of a Master " is a dia
logue between Augustine and Adeodatus, in which
it is maintained that instruction comes to us, not
by men's words, but from Jesus Christ the Eternal
Truth. " The Combat of the Christian " is a book

136 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
of instruction for the unlearned in the precepts and
doctrines of Christianity. " Of the Care to be had
for the Dead" discusses among others a question
which had been addressed to Augustine about
prayers for the dead, viz., Why pray, when all shall
be judged according to the deeds done in the body ?
Good actions done in this life, it is answered, make
efficacious the aid which may rightfully be expected
from the saints, bad actions make such assistance
useless. The custom of praying for the dead, more
over, is established by the book of Maccabees, and
is now sufficiently authorized by the practice of the
Church in the administration of the eucharist. By
burying our dead near the tombs of martyrs we
may commend them to their care and intercession.
Though prayers are availing only for such as during
their lifetime deserved them, they are, in our ignor
ance, offered for all Christians : it is better to offer
some superfluous prayers than to be negligent of
any in need. "Of the Business of Monks" is a
satirical discourse against certain monks who ex
empt themselves from working, because Christ bade
us to take no thought for the morrow. These hypo
crites in the monastic habit travel from province to
province, preying upon society, until the devil has
overspread the world with them. Against all their
pious pretenses he urges that " whosoever will not
work, neither shall he eat." Besides two small trea
tises, " On Patience " and " On the Predictions of
Demons," there are also some practical treatises on
marriage and on virginity, and two upon lying, in
which the author maintains that no lie is ever to be
told, upon any pretense. We are not to do evil,
that good may come. DOGMATIC WORKS.
Of the city of God we have spoken. We have
also two lesser treatises : First, one " Of the Trinity,"

A UGUSTINE. 137
in fifteen books. The first seven books prove from
Scripture that three divine persons make one and
the same essence. The eighth book shows that the
three persons together are not greater than any one
alone. The ninth and tenth books point out a
trinity in man, who was made in God's image. In
him is a spirit, a knowledge of himself, and a love
with which he loves himself. These are equal
among themselves and make but one essence.
Memory, understanding, and will in man, furnish
another image of the Trinity. Further resem
blances are pointed out in the following books to
the fourteenth. The fifteenth book shows that,
notwithstanding all these representations, our no
tions of the Trinity must always remain imperfect
in this life. It is a great mystery.
Secondly, the " Enchiridion," or " Treatise of
Faith, Hope, and Charity." This is a manual pre
pared for one Laurentius, a Roman, in which all
religion is reduced to these three virtues and all re
ligious instruction is comprehended under these
three heads. Under the heading of faith, Augus
tine dwells upon original sin ; the fall of man and
of angels ; the necessity of a mediator, baptism,
and grace ; the distinction of venial and mortal
sins ; the eternity and the inequality of the future
punishment ; the extent of the will of God to save
men ; free-will ; and the state of souls until the day
of judgment.
To these two works should be added a collection
of questions and answers upon various points of
doctrine and morals. POLEMICAL WORKS.
This class embraces a large part of Augustine's
writings. They are chiefly directed against the
Manicha-jans, the Donatists, and the Pelagians, the
only others being a sermon " Against the Jews," a

138 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
book "Against the Priscillianists and Origenists,"
and two small works against the Arians.
A suitable introduction to these writings is the
author's treatise " Of Heresies," addressed to the
deacon Quodvultdeus. This work is unsatisfactory,
in that it promises to define, in a second part, what
makes a man a heretic, but after giving a catalogue
of eighty-eight heresies from the Simonians to the
Pelagians — taken chiefly out of Epiphanius — ends
without even attempting such a statement.
Works against the Manichceans.
Manichseism, which had arisen in the third cen
tury, was not so much a heresy as a distinct religion
in conflict with Christianity. It had exercised a
peculiar power over Augustine, by its flattering
promise of a solution of all spiritual difficulties by
means of a lofty wisdom which it would unfold,
instead of claiming the blind belief which it con
demned in the Catholic Church.
Its principles were embodied in a certain " Fun
damental Epistle " ascribed to its founder Mani-
chasus, who claimed to be the Paraclete. It was
fundamentally a system of dualism. The Old Tes
tament was wholly rejected, the New Testament was
received only in part.
In its worship the sun and moon were revered
as the visible representation of the ideal Good or
Supreme. It had neither altar nor sacrifice, and
was content with humble places of assembly. Its
believers were divided into the Auditors and the
Elect, the latter of whom took singularly stringent
vows of abstinence. The highest earthly aim of
the Auditors was to be admitted to this favored
class. Augustine's first work in opposition to this sys
tem was " On the Usefulness of Belief," written to
reclaim a friend who had shared with him in his

A UGUSTINE. 139
former errors. After defending the Old Testament
as in full accord with the New, he attacks the great
principle by which he had himself been ensnared,
proving that we must believe before we know, must
believe in order to seek after religion. Since now
we must repose this preliminary faith somewhere,
and since it is the distinction between a wise and a
credulous person, that the former must be persuaded
that he in whom he believes is worthy of credit, it is
right to throw ourselves into the arms of the Cath
olic Church, which can show its authority to be
that of Jesus Christ himself. " Of the Two Souls "
was written against the doctrine that there are two
souls in man, one naturally good and one evil.
Augustine proves that there is no naturally evil
substance, and that evil consists only in the abuse
of liberty. This book attributed so much to free
will, that the " Retractions " needed to revise it, in
order to make it accord with Augustine's doctrines
of grace and of original sin. A " Conference with
Fortunatus " turns upon the nature of evil, and a
treatise "Against Adamantus " upon the concord of
the Old and New Testaments. A work "Against the
Epistle of Foundation " lays down at first Augus
tine's reasons for adhering to the Catholic Church.
" Among you Manichees," he says, " I hear none
but vain promises to make me understand the truth
clearly. I confess that, did you perform it, I ought
to prefer an evident truth which none can doubt
of, before all the motives that make me keep to the
Catholic Church. But, so long as you do only
promise, and not give this knowledge, you shall not
shake that trust in the Catholic Church which is
grounded upon such powerful reasons and motives."
Afterward the book examines the principles laid
down in the Manichaean letter. The most extended
work against this error is the treatise "Against
Faustus," which is divided into thirty-three dis-

140 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
putes or arguments, in which are given the texts of
Faustus's books. A " Conference with Felix " is
the record of a dispute which had the happy result
of bringing Felix to the Catholic faith. Of Free-
Will " contains the following : Supposing an object
or to the doctrine of original sin to say, " Though
Adam and Eve did sin, what have we done to be
abandoned to lust and ignorance ? " Augustine re
plies : " This complaint were just if men were under
an impossibility of overcoming their ignorance and
lust. But God being present everywhere to call
his creature to his service, to teach him what he
ought to believe, to comfort him in his hopes, to
confirm him in his love, to help his endeavors, and
to hear his prayers, man can not complain that he
has imputed to him what he is unavoidably igno
rant of, but he must rather blame himself if he
neglects to seek after that which he knows not. It
is not his fault if he can not use his broken mem
bers ; but he is guilty if he despises the Physician
that proffers to cure him. For no one can be ig-
norant'that man may profitably seek for the knowl
edge of what he knows not, and which he thinks
to be necessary ; and it is well enough known that
men ought humbly to acknowledge their weakness
to obtain help. In a word if men do that which is
evil out of ignorance, or if it so happens that they
can not do the good which they would, there is sin
in that ; because it is in consequence of the first
man's sin, committed with full liberty. This first
sin deserved the following."
Other books against the Manichseans are " Upon
Genesis against the Manichseans," " Of the Man
ners of the Church and of the Manichaians," " Of
True Religion," all written before Augustine's ordi
nation ; " Of Faith and the Creed," an address be
fore a council of bishops ; " Of the Nature of
Good," and " Against Secundinus."

AUGUSTINE.

141

Works against the Donatists.
The Donatists were only schismatics, not here
tics, and, except upon one or two points, the writ
ings against them are of but little interest to modern
readers. The separation of this party from the
Catholic Church was effected by Donatus and cer
tain other Numidian bishops who were opposed to
Csecilian, Bishop of Carthage (a. d. 311), on the
ground that he was ordained by a traditor of the
late persecution. In Augustine's day they had be
come nearly as numerous in North Africa as the
Catholics/ notwithstanding that Csecilian had been
exonerated by the Church, and they themselves
had been condemned by the Councils of Rome and
of Aries, and by a decree of the Emperor Constan-
tine. They held that the whole Catholic Church,
by defending Csecilian, had become accessory to
crime, and so had ceased to be the true Church.
They also charged it upon the Church as a crime,
that it had applied to the imperial power to perse
cute their party. Their main principle was that
the essence of the true Church consisted in the
purity of all its individual members, rather than in
its apostolical foundation and doctrine. This led
them to reject as null all baptisms administered
outside of their own communion. Besides a pop
ular hymn, composed to teach the unlearned the
questions between the Catholics and the Donatists,
we have ten more or less considerable works of
Augustine against this body. He shows that they
are wrong as to the question of facts, Csecilian hav
ing been guiltless of those crimes which had been
charged upon him. Chiefly, however, he disputes
their right, even if Caecilian had been guilty, to se
cede from the apostolic Church. The Church
here below is made up of good and bad men, and
will be until the day of judgment ; sometimes, in
deed, the bad will outnumber the good, and it may

142 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
be impossible to drive them out. It is, therefore,
great rashness to condemn all the churches of the
world for the crimes of a few. As to the persecu
tions, Augustine defends the Church in some cases
by disproving the violence charged, and in some by
justifying the appeal to the imperial law, and even
the use of severity to bring the Donatists back to
the faith. He also charges violence and murder
upon the Donatist party of Circumcellians. Con
cerning rebaptism, Augustine shows that, although
it was advocated by Cyprian, it was afterward con
demned by a council of the whole Church. Bap
tism, he says, is of two sorts — that administered in
the name of the Trinity, and that performed with
out naming the three persons. The latter, it is
true, should be deemed null, but not the former. A
conclusive argument against the Donatist position
was found in the fact that, schism having occurred
within their own body, appeal had been made by
them to the emperor, and when they received back
any of the schismatics to communion they did it
without rebaptism. Works against the Pelagians.
Among these, . " Of Merits and the Remission of
Sins " was the first written. It maintains the ne
cessity of infant baptism for the remission of origi
nal sin, and the necessity of grace to justify or to
make righteous. It also refutes Pelagius's expla
nation of certain passages of St. Paul concerning
original sin. " Of the Spirit and of the Letter "
opposes the idea that man may fulfill all the com
mandments without grace. " Of Nature and Grace "
was written against a book of Pelagius maintaining
the strength of human nature. ' Of the Acts of
Pelagius " was written to show that Pelagius had
imposed upon the council at Diospolis by profess
ing a doctrine which he had opposed in his writings.

A UGUSTINE. 143
" Of Christ's Grace " and " Of Original Sin " were
directed against Ccelestius, who, Augustine claimed,
had deceived Pope Zosimus by a fraudulent con
fession. " Of the Perfection of Righteousness "
opposes Ccelestius's teaching that men may by the
strength of their own wills live a perfect life. This
is not vouchsafed even to the saints by the aid of
divine grace ; much less can the unaided will give
perfection. Of two books " Of Marriage and Con
cupiscence," the first shows, in answer to certain
Pelagian objections, that, though concupiscence is
an evil and an effect of sin, the Bible rightly ap
proves marriage, for it makes good use of an evil
thing ; the second answers certain books of Julian
in reply to the first. " Six Books against Julian " is
a more elaborate reply to Julian, written after Au
gustine had seen the full text of his work. The
first two books adduce the opinion of the fathers to
prove that man is born in sin. The next four books
are employed in " defending the faith of these great
men, as the gospel itself is defended, against ungodly
men and the enemies of religion." The topics par
ticularly treated are original sin, concupiscence, the
falsehood as to the virtues of the heathens, and the
necessity of baptism and of grace. " Four Books to
Boniface " were addressed to this Pope in answer
to two Pelagian letters. " Of Grace and Free- Will,"
written for the monks of Adrumetum, maintains that
the beginning, both of faith and of good resolutions
is an effect of grace. " Of Correction and Grace "
maintains that sinners have no ground of complaint
that saving grace is not granted to them, since grace
is a free gift. " Of the Predestination of the Saints "
and " Of the Gift of Perseverance " were written in
answer to letters of Hilary and Prosper, and to aid
them in refuting the semi-Pelagian opinions which
they were combating. The last work against the
Pelagians was a " Second Treatise against Julian."

144 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
The doctrines maintained by Augustine in these
books are thus summarized by Dupin : " God cre
ated the first man in a state of innocence, holiness,
and grace. He was subject neither to the neces
sity of dying, nor to sickness, nor pain, nor the
motions of lust, nor ignorance, nor any of the in
conveniences of life or the imperfections of nature,
which are the consequences and effect of his sin.
His free-will was entire, and weakened with noth
ing. It was perfectly indifferent to do either good
or evil, though it could not do good without the
help of grace ; but this grace which God afforded
him was entirely subjected to his free-will ; it was
a help without which he could not do good, but it
did not make him do good. Such was the condi
tion of the first man, like that of the angels before
their sin. Such would have been the condition of
his posterity had he continued in that happy state.
But, having offended God by his disobedience, he
and all his posterity are become subject unto death,
pain, sickness, punishment, and, what is worse, to
ignorance and lust — that is to say, to extravagant
motions which are within us whether we will or no.
Moreover, all his descendants are born in sin ; they
all contract the sin which we call original, which
makes children the objects of God's wrath, and in
fallibly damns them, except they are regenerated
by baptism. Baptism does, indeed, take away the
stain of sin, but it does not remove the punishment
and the consequences of sin. Concupiscence, ig
norance, inclination to sin, weaknesses, and other
punishments, abide still during the whole course of
this mortal life. Free-will is not extinguished, but
it has not so much strength, and stands in need of
powerful assistance to do good. The grace which
it needs to act is not only that help without which
it could neither will nor do what is good, but also
such an assistance as makes it both will and do it

A UGUSTINE. 145
infallibly. This grace is necessary, not barely to
accomplish entirely what is good and to continue
therein, but it is even necessary to begin faith, for
prayer, and for the first motions of conversion. Yet
it does not wrest from us our liberty, because we do
not keep the commandments, but as far as we are
willing. It works this will in us without violence or
compulsion ; for God constrains no man to do either
good or evil ; but to do good the will must be suc
cored by grace which does not deprive it of its lib
erty ; and this grace is not granted to merit, but is
absolutely free. Since the first man's sin the whole
mass of mankind has been corrupt, condemned, and
subject to death. God by free grace and mercy
takes out of this mass of corruption whom he
pleases, leaving the rest in that condition, in accord
ance with that justice, with which none can find
fault — for what is man that he should dispute with
God ? However, it may be truly said that all men
may be saved if they will ; if they be not, they can
only accuse their own perverse will whereby they
resist the call of God. There are some graces
which he does not refuse to reprobates, wherewith
they might do good if they would. To some he
gives the knowledge of his law, and they despise
it ; others he inspires with a desire of being con
verted, and they reject it ; some he excites to
prayer, but they neglect it ; he speaks to the hearts
of some, who harden themselves that they may not
listen to his voice ; he overcomes the hardness of
some for a time, converting them by an effectual
grace, who, however, plunge again into vice. In a
word, however strong the grace which he gives, yet
it may be said in some sense that man may always
resist it, though he does not actually resist. God
does not grant this grace to all men, not only be
cause he owes it to none, but also because some
make themselves unworthy of it. For, to say noth-
13

146 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
ing of children who die before the use of reason,
who are either damned by original sin or saved by
the grace of baptism, the adults who have not the
gift of perseverance have made themselves unwor
thy of it, either through their own sins, or by the
contempt which they have cast upon God's voca
tion, or by the opposition they have made to inward
grace, or, lastly, by falling again into the state of
sin from which God delivered them in his mercy.
And so no man can either excuse himself or accuse
the justice of God, because every one receives what
he deserved ; every one is rewarded or punished
according to the good or the evil which he has
done by his will, which co-operates with the most
effectual grace.
"The effect of this grace is to make us love
what is good ; it is a pleasure which draws our
heart toward good things, and enables us to keep
the commandments. . . . Yet it never did and never
shall happen that a mere man passed through this
life without sin. For this reason the most righteous
say daily, ' Lord, forgive us our debts,' that is, our
sins. But these are not mortal sins which bereave
the soul of righteousness and holiness ; they are
venial and daily sins which are indeed against God's
law, but do not utterly destroy charity.
" St. Augustine's principles concerning predesti
nation and reprobation agree exactly with his opin
ions touching grace. Both those decrees, according
to him, suppose the foreknowledge of original sin,
and of the corruption of the whole mass of man
kind. Should God suffer all men to remain thus,
none could complain of that severity, seeing they
are all guilty and doomed to damnation because of
the sin of the first man. But God resolved from
all eternity to deliver some whom he had chosen
out of pure mercy, without any regard to their fu
ture merits ; and from all eternity he prepared for

AUGUSTINE. 147
them that were thus chosen those gifts and graces
which are necessary to save them infallibly, and
these he bestows upon them in time. All those,
therefore, that are of the number of the elect hear
the gospel and believe, and persevere in the faith,
working by love to the end of their lives. If they
chance to wander from the right way, they return
and repent of their sins ; and it is certain that they
shall all die in the grace of Jesus Christ.
" Reprobation is not like predestination. God
does not positively cast away any man ; he predes
tinates none to damnation ; he only knows those
that are left in that mass of perdition, and are not
of the happy number of those whom he will deliver
through mercy. These wretched ones are at last
condemned either because of original sin, which is
not remitted to them — such are the children that die
without receiving baptism — or for the sins which
by their free-will they have added to their first sin,
or because they wanted faith and righteousness, or,
lastly, because they did not persevere unto the end."
LETTERS.
" If," says a French writer, " in the great ship
wreck of time, by some misfortune which Provi
dence has prevented, the works of Augustine prop
erly so called had perished, and only his letters had
remained, we should still have possessed all of his
doctrines, all his genius : the letters of St. Augus
tine, these are St. Augustine ! "
Two hundred and seventy-two in number, their
topics range from profound philosophy and abstruse
theology to the kindly expression of fraternal es
teem. We have said of the letters of certain of the
Greek fathers that from them might be compiled
the history of their age. The letters of Augus
tine constituted no mean part of the history of his
time ; for by them more than by his elaborate

148 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
treatises he laid that molding hand upon the
thought of the Church which has affected its life
and the life of the world to this day. The four
brief extracts here given hint at much that he wrote
of his own spiritual struggles and aspirations, as
the spiritual adviser of others, as a scriptural exe-
gete, and as a theologian.
From Letter to Valerius, asking Delay of Ordination.
"Perhaps your Holiness replies, 'I wish to
know what is lacking to fit you for your office.' The
things which I lack are so many that I could more
easily enumerate the things which I have than those
which I desire to have. I may venture to say that
I know and unreservedly believe the doctrines per
taining to our salvation. But my difficulty is in the
question how I am to use this truth in ministering
to the salvation of others, seeking what is profit
able not for myself alone, but for many that they
may be saved. And perhaps there may be, nay,
beyond all question there are, written in the sacred
books, counsels, by the knowledge and acceptance
of which the man of God may so discharge his
duties to the Church in the things of God, or at
least so keep a conscience void of offense in the
midst of ungodly men, whether living or dying,
as to secure that that life, for which alone humble
and meek Christian hearts sigh, is not lost. But
how can this be done except, as the Lord him
self tells us, by asking, seeking, knocking, that is,
by praying, reading, and weeping ? For this I have
by the brethren made request, which in this peti
tion I now renew, that a short time, say till Easter,
be granted me by your unfeigned and venerable
charity. " For what shall I answer to the Lord my judge ?
Shall I say, ' I was not able to acquire the things of
which I stood in need, because I was engrossed

A UGUSTINE. 149
wholly with the affairs of the Church ' ? What if
he thus reply : ' Thou wicked servant, if property
belonging to the Church (in the collection of the
fruits of which great labor is expended) were suf
fering loss under some oppressor, and it was in thy
power to do something in defense of her rights at
the bar of an earthly judge, wouldst thou not, leav
ing the field which I have watered with my blood,
go to plead the cause with the consent of all, and
even with the urgent commands of some ? And if
the decision given were against the Church, wouldst
thou not, in prosecuting an appeal, go across the
sea ? And no complaint would be heard summoning
thee home from an absence of a year or more, be
cause thy object was to prevent another from taking
possession of land required not for the souls but
for the bodies of the poor, whose hunger might
nevertheless be satisfied in a way much easier and
more acceptable to me by my living trees, if these
were cultivated with care ? Wherefore, then, dost
thou allege that thou hadst not time to learn how
to cultivate my field?' Tell me, I beseech you,
what could I reply ? Are you perchance willing
that I should say : ' The aged Valerius is to blame ;
for, believing me to be instructed in all things ne
cessary, he declined, with a determination propor
tioned to his love for me, to give me permission to
learn what I had not acquired ' ?
" Consider all these things, aged Valerius ; con
sider them, I beseech you, by the goodness and se
verity of Christ, by his mercy and judgment, by
him who has inspired you with such love for me
that I dare not displease you even when the advan
tage of my soul is at stake." — Letter xxi.
From Letter to Proba : On the Lord's Prayer.
" To us, therefore, words are necessary, that by
them we may be assisted in considering and ob-

150 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
serving what we ask, not as means by which we ex
pect that God is to be either informed or moved to
compliance. When, therefore, we say, 'Hallowed
be thy name,' we admonish ourselves to desire that
his name, which is always holy, may be also among
men esteemed holy, that is to say, not despised,
which is an advantage, not to God, but to men.
When we say, ' Thy kingdom come,' which shall
certainly come whether we wish it or not, we do by
these words stir up our own desire for that king-*
dom, that it may come to us, and that we may be
found worthy to reign in it.- When we say, ' Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven,' we pray
for ourselves that he would give us the grace of
obedience, that his will may be done by us in the
same way as it is done in heavenly places by his
angels. When we say, ' Give us this day our daily
bread,' the word 'this day' signifies for the pres
ent time, in which we ask either for that compe
tency of temporal blessings which I have spoken of
before (' bread ' being used to designate the whole
of those blessings, because of its constituting so im
portant a part of them), or the sacrament of believ
ers which is in this present time necessary, but neces
sary in order to obtain the felicity, not of the pres
ent time, but of eternity. When we say, ' Forgive
us our debts as we forgive our debtors,' we remind
ourselves both what we should ask and what we
should do in order that we may be worthy to re
ceive what we ask. When we say, ' Lead us not into
temptation,' we admonish ourselves to seek, that we
may not, through being deprived of God's help, be
either ensnared to consent or compelled to yield to
temptation. When we say, ' Deliver us from evil,' we
admonish ourselves to consider that we are not yet
enjoying that good estate in which we shall experi
ence no evil. And this petition, which stands last
in the Lord's Prayer, is so comprehensive that a

AUGUSTINE. 151
Christian, in whatsoever affliction he be placed,
may in using it give utterance to his groans and
find vent for his tears — may begin with this peti
tion, go on with it, and with it conclude his prayer.
For it was necessary that by the use of these words
the things which they signify should be kept before
our memory.
"For whatever other words we may say —
whether the desire of the person praying go be
fore the words and employ them in order to
give definite form to its requests, or come after
them and concentrate attention upon them, that
it may increase in fervor — if we pray rightly, and
as becomes our wants, we say nothing but what
is already contained in the Lord's Prayer." — Let
ter cxxx.
From Letter to Evodius: On the Spirits in Prison.
" I find, moreover, a difficulty in the reason al
leged by those who attempt to give an explanation
of this matter. They say that all those who were
found in hell when Christ descended thither had
never heard the gospel, and that that place of pun
ishment or imprisonment was emptied of all these,
because the gospel was not published to the whole
world in their lifetime, and they had sufficient ex
cuse for not believing that which had never been
proclaimed to them ; but that thenceforth men de
spising the gospel, when it was in all nations fully
published and spread abroad, would be inexcusable,
and, therefore, after the prison was then emptied,
there still remains a just judgment, in which those
who are contumacious and unbelieving shall be
punished even with eternal fire. Those who hold
this opinion do not consider that the same excuse
is available for all those who have, even after
Christ's resurrection, departed this life before the
gospel came to them. For, even after the Lord

152 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
came back from hell, it was not the case that no
one was from that time forward permitted to go to
hell without having heard the gospel, seeing that
multitudes throughout the world died before the
proclamation of its tidings came to them, all of
whom are .entitled to plead the excuse which is al
leged to have been taken away from those of whom
it is said that, because they had not before heard
the gospel, the Lord when he descended into hell
proclaimed it to them.
" This objection may, perhaps, be met by saying
that those also who, since the Lord's resurrection,
had died or are now dying without the gospel having
been proclaimed to them, may have heard it or may
now hear it where they are, in hell, so that there
they may believe what ought to be believed concern
ing the truth of Christ, and may also have that
pardon and salvation which those to whom Christ
preached obtained ; for the fact that Christ ascended
again from hell is no reason why the report concern
ing him should have perished from recollection
there, for from this earth also he has gone, ascending
into heaven, and yet by the publication of his gospel
those who believe in him shall be saved ; moreover,
he was exalted, and received a name that is above
every name, for this end, that in his name every
knee should bow, not only of things in heaven and
on earth, but also of things under the earth. But,
if we accept this opinion, according to which we are
warranted in supposing that men who did not be
lieve while they were in life can in hell believe in
Christ, who can bear the contradictions both of
reason and faith which must follow ? In the first
place, if this were true, we should seem to have no
reason for mourning over those who have departed
from the body without that grace, and there would
be no ground for being solicitous and using urgent
exhortation that men would accept the grace of

AUGUSTINE. 153
God before they die, lest they should be punished
with eternal death. If, again, it be alleged that in
hell those only believe to no purpose and in vain
who refused to accept here on earth the gospel
preached to them, but that believing will profit
those who never despised a gospel which they never
had it in their power to hear, another still more
absurd consequence is involved, namely, that foras
much as all men shall certainly die, and ought to
come to hell wholly free from the guilt of having
despised the gospel, since otherwise it can be of no
use to them to believe it when they come there, the
gospel ought not to be preached on earth — a senti
ment not less foolish than profane.
" Wherefore let us most firmly hold that which
faith, resting on authority established beyond all
question, maintains, that 'Christ died according
to the Scriptures,' and that ' he was buried,' and
that ' he rose again the third day, according to the
Scriptures,' and all other things which have been
written concerning him in records fully demon
strated to be true. Among these doctrines we in
clude the doctrine that he was in hell, and having
loosed the pains of hell, in which it was impossible
for him to be holden, from which also he is, with
good ground, believed to have loosed and delivered
whom he would, he took again to himself that body
which he had left on the cross, and which had been
laid in the tomb. These things, I say, let us firmly
hold ; but, as to the question propounded by you
from the words of the apostle Peter, since you now
perceive the difficulties which I find in it, and since
other difficulties may possibly be found if the sub
ject be more carefully studied, let us continue to
investigate it, whether by applying our own thoughts
to the subject, or by asking the opinion of any one
whom it may be becoming and possible to consult."
— Letter clxiv.

154 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
From Letter to Vitalis: Twelve Articles concerning
Grace.
This letter refutes the opinion that the beginning
of faith is simply the product of man's will, and ex
plains the difference between law and grace, prov
ing that the grace of Jesus Christ does not consist
in natural helps or in external graces. It propounds
the following twelve articles, as embodying what is
to be believed concerning grace :
i. "We know that before men were born into
this world they had no other wherein they did
either good or evil. But, descending from Adam
according to the flesh, they partake, by their birth,
of the poison of that ancient death which he be
came subject to by his sin ; and that they are not
delivered from eternal death except they are regen
erated in Jesus Christ through his grace.
2. " We know that the grace of God is not given
upon the account of any merit, either to infants or
to men that are come to the age of reason.
3. " We know that grace is an assistance af
forded for every action to those that have attained
to the age of reason.
4. " We know that it is not given to all men,
and that those to whom it is given receive it with
out having deserved it by their works or by their
will ; which appears particularly in infants.
5. "We know that it is out of God's mere mercy
that it is given to those to whom it is given.
6. " We know that it is by a just judgment of
God that it is not given to those to whom it is not
given. 7. "We know that we shall all appear before
the judgment-seat of Jesus Christ, that every one
may receive either reward or punishment, accord
ing to what he shall have done in the body ; and.
not according to what we should have done had we
lived longer.

A UGUSTINE. 155
8. " We know that infants shall not receive rec
ompense or punishment, but according to what they
shall have done in the body — that is, while they
were in the body — that is, according as some have
become regenerate, and others not.
9. " We know that eternal happiness is insured
to all those that die in Jesus Christ, and that nothing
is imputed to them of what they might have done
had they been alive.
10. " We know that as many as believe in God
believe willingly and by an action of their free-will.
n. "We know that we ought to pray unto God
for those that believe not, that they may believe.
12. "We know that, whensoever any of these
embrace the faith, we are to give God thanks sin
cerely and from the bottom of our hearts, as being
an^ffect of his mercy ; and that, when we do it, as
we are wont to do, we perform a duty incumbent
upon us." — Letter ccxvii.
WORKS UPON SCRIPTURES, AND SERMONS.
Introductory.
" Of Christian Doctrine " is a work on intro
duction. The first three books treat of the under
standing of the Scriptures, the fourth of expound
ing them to others. To their right understanding
we have need of a pure heart, a good conscience,
and faith unfeigned ; of knowledge of the original
language of the books, and of the various transla
tions, and of information concerning the various
objects, such as animals, plants, etc., which are
used by Scripture as figures or in the way of com
parison. The knowledge of music and numbers,
history, mechanics, logic, rhetoric, and other sci
ences, is thus of great service, provided a right use
be made of them. The third book distinguishes
and shows how to determine the different senses of

156 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
the passage. The homiletical teachings of book
four conclude by addressing the preacher, above
all, to prepare himself by prayer, and to be sure
that his life corresponds with his sermons.
Critical.
The title "Ways of Speaking of the First Seven
Books of the Bible," sufficiently indicates the na
ture of the book of that name.
Commentaries.
Besides an incomplete work upon the first part
of Genesis, begun before he was a bishop, and aban
doned because he felt incompetent to the task, Au
gustine wrote twelve books upon Genesis. " Seven
Books of Questions " resolve certain difficult in
quiries connected with the Pentateuch and the
books of Joshua and Judges. " Annotations upon
Job " is an incomplete work compiled from notes
made by the author upon the margin of a copy of
that book.
The chief work of Augustine in this department
is his commentary upon the Psalms. A small part
of the expositions are in the form of a regular com
mentary, but most of them are discourses to the
people. They are allegorical in character, and
the allusions to modern and passing events, as to
heresies and schisms, are often far-fetched. " The
work," says Dupin, " can not pass for a good com
mentary upon the Psalms, yet it may be looked
upon as a curious collection of Christian and moral
notions ; and if it be of no great use for those that
inquire after the literal sense of the Scriptures, yet
it will prove very profitable to preachers who desire
to fit their minds with necessary thoughts and rules
to help them to discharge well that part of their
ministry." "A Harmony of the Four Gospels"
contains four books. The first points out the spe-

PELAGIUS. 157
cial characteristics of each gospel, and answers
those who make it a reproach to Christianity that
Christ himself, wrote nothing. Books two and three
follow the text of Matthew, and compare the other
gospels with that. The fourth book examines what
is peculiar to those three. A commentary upon
the " Sermon on the Mount " contained some pas
sages which the author canceled in his book of
"Retractions." Two books of "Questions upon
the Gospels of Matthew and Luke " were hasty
works, containing some faults of inadvertency.
The commentaries upon the Epistles are " An Ex
position of several Passages in Romans," written
before the author's system was complete ; " The
Beginning of an Exposition of Romans," a work
undertaken on so exhaustive a scale that it could
not be completed ; and a commentary upon Gala
tians. To these should be added one hundred and
twenty-four homilies upon the gospel of John, and
ten homilies upon his first epistle.
Sermons.
Of these we have one hundred and eighty-three
upon various passages of Scripture, eighty-eight
upon the Church festivals, sixty-nine upon the an
niversaries of the saints, and twenty-three upon
miscellaneous themes.

PELAGIUS.
This bite noir of Western orthodoxy seems to
have been an amiable and estimable man, a scholar
of considerable learning, and a practical and zeal
ous worker for the promoting of purity of Christian
life. He was a British monk, born about the mid-
14

158 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
die of the fourth century, and passing the greater
part of his life in monastic retirement, perhaps at
Bangor. He is first known to the world about the
beginning of the fifth century, when he appears at
Rome as the writer of a commentary upon the
epistles of St. Paul, in which he attacks received
notions concerning human corruption, grace, and
free-will, as hurtful to Christian morals. Trained
in the ascetic manner, he is pained with the world
liness which is corroding the Church, and seeks to
defend human nature, in order to convince men of
their responsibility for godly lives. He asserts a
genuine freedom of the will, claims that children
bring with them into the world no such moral in
cubus as prevents their choosing God and living
holily, and holds that divine grace is needed rather
as a coagent with the human will than as the sole
originator. He would seem to have antagonized
the current doctrines of graces only as he conceived
that. they destroyed men's sense of responsibility.
The ultimate logical consequences of his doctrines,
particularly of his denial of innate depravity, he
does not appear ever to have followed, for he ac
cepted the common Western doctrine as to the
redemptive work of Christ, though adding a belief
in the necessity of good works. He had not, like
Augustine, a system of truth, but propounded here
and there an individual doctrine, which seemed to
him necessary to the maintenance of practical piety,
regardless of logical inferences.
Upon the fall of Rome (a. d. 410), Pelagius,
accompanied by Ccelestius, a follower whom he
had now attached to himself, went to North Africa,

PELAGIUS. 159
where he tried, but unsuccessfully, to meet with
Augustine. Thence he went to Palestine, where
he was kindly received by the Eastern churches,
with whose general doctrinal views he was in close
accord. It is said that even Jerome was at first
friendly to him. In 415, however, Paul Orosius,
coming from North Africa, where, as an admirer of
Augustine, he had been interested in the late con
demnation of Ccelestius, accused Pelagius of heresy.
The first hearing on this charge was before a synod,
presided over by John, bishop of Jerusalem, by
which body he was acquitted. When Orosius had
cited against the accused the authority of the great
Augustine, John had replied, " What matters it to
me what Augustine says?" A little after he was
examined again before a synod at Diospolis, where,
by accepting the decrees of the synod at Carthage
which had condemned Ccelestius, he was not only
acquitted, but received a formal indorsement of
his orthodoxy. To counterbalance these decisions,
Augustine wrote his "Acts of Pelagius," and the
North African bishops addressed three several let
ters to Pope Innocent, in which they accused Pela
gius and Ccelestius of maintaining free-will in such
a way as to exclude grace, and of denying the ex
istence of grace as an inward impulse and com
munication of the Divine Spirit. They were also
charged with denying the necessity of baptism in
order to the salvation of infants.
In response to these messages, Innocent assured
his correspondents of his full acquiescence in their
condemnation of the accused. Meantime, Pelagius
had himself written to the Pope, claiming that his

160 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
opponents were tainted with Manichaean errors;
but, before this letter reached him, Innocent was
dead. His successor, Zosimus, receiving the letter,
accompanied with a confession of faith by Pelagius,
and being also influenced by Ccelestius, who was
now at Rome, took an opposite position, and wrote
to the North African bishops, reproaching them for
having given too hasty credit to the charges of mis
chievous men against Pelagius and Ccelestius. They
are, he says, "thoroughly orthodox," and he en
treats the bishops, by the authority of his office, to
submit their reason to the Bible, as it has been ex
plained by the traditions of the fathers. But the
complainants were not to be so easily put down. A
council assembled at Carthage addressed a letter
to Zosimus, in which he is assured that he has been
deceived by the fair words of Ccelestius. Without
waiting for the ultimate decision of the matter at
Rome, the Africans (a. d. 418) convene at Carthage
a council of two hundred and fourteen bishops, in
which they adopt nine canons formally condemn
ing the doctrine of Pelagius, which decision they
send to the Pope. They also enlist the imperial
authorities in the matter, and obtain several edicts
against Pelagius and Ccelestius and their adherents.
Zosimus also reopens the case, and ultimately con
demns the whole movement. Pelagius is banished
from Rome, and disappears from public view. It
is uncertain whether his last days were spent in
Britain or in Palestine.
The extant works of Pelagius are the " Com
mentary on the Pauline Epistles " ; a " Letter to
Demetrias," a nun ; the " Confession of Faith," sent

CCELESTIUS. 161
to Innocent; and fragments of a treatise on the
"Power of Nature and Free-Will." Pelagius was
a monk, and believed fully in the superior attain
ments of those who devoted themselves wholly to
the religious life ; but he could distinguish clearly
between true and false appearances of piety. Writ
ing to Demetrias of real and of mock humility, he
says : " Many pursue the shadow of this virtue, few
its real substance. It is very easy to wear misera
ble clothing ; to salute one's acquaintance in a low
ly manner; to put on the show of humility and
meekness by a drooping head and downcast eyes ;
to speak in a low and feeble voice, so that one's
words can scarcely be heard ; to sigh frequently, and
with every breath call one's self a sinner and a mis
erable wretch, and, if offended but by a trifling word,
suddenly to lift one's brow, throw back the neck, and
change those submissive tones into a frantic shout.
Flying this feigned humility, do thou seek after that
which is true, in which lies hidden no pride."
If his views of truth were less profound than
those of his great opponent, and his influence upon
the world has been correspondingly smaller, we dis
cern as real aspirations after the welfare of men in
Pelagius as in Augustine.

CCELESTIUS.
More actively than Pelagius himself, Ccelestius
was the champion of Pelagianism. He was an ad
vocate at Rome, when won to the opinions of his

162 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS,
master, a man of good family, well learned, and not
wanting in talents. Carrying his new principles to
a greater extent than Pelagius, he threw into their
defense and propagation all his zeal and ability as
an advocate. When at Carthage, soon after the fall
of Rome, he applied for ordination as a presbyter ;
but Paulinus, a deacon of Milan, appeared as a re
monstrant, and before a synod, held'in 412, charged
him with holding to six heretical propositions, de
duced from the opinion that the sin of Adam had
injured only himself, not the whole human family.
Ccelestius tried to break the force of the charges, by
resolving the whole matter into a simple question
concerning the propagation of a sinful nature or ulti
mately of the propagation of souls ; but men associ
ating with Augustine were not to be so easily satis
fied, and he was therefore excluded from church-fel
lowship. Going to the East, he obtained ordination at
Ephesus, and afterward he made a vain appeal to At-
ticus, bishop of Constantinople. Later we find him
at Rome, appealing to Pope Zosimus, to whom he pre
sents a confession of faith, which sounds to that pon
tiff so orthodox that he receives him to his commun
ion. Still later, however, this favor was withdrawn,
and Ccelestius was condemned with his master.
Some years afterward we learn of him at Con
stantinople, whence Nestorious wrote letters in his
behalf to Pope Ccelestine. Upon a memorial from
Marius Mercator, however, he was banished from
that city, and was afterward condemned by the
Council of Ephesus. His writings were meager, and
call for mention only from the passing prominence
into which he was raised by this famous controversy.

JULIANUS. 163

JULIA NUS,
A deposed Pelagian bishop. When the press
ure from North Africa and the example of the im
perial government led Zosimus to condemn Pela
gius and Ccelestius, he addressed a circular letter
to all the bishops, requiring them to subscribe to
the condemnation under pain of deposition. We
have a letter from eighteen bishops who were thus
displaced, and who complain to the bishop of
Thessalonica of the unjust demand made upon
them, to condemn men whom they had not heard
in their own defense. This letter was written by
Julianus, the deposed bishop of Eclanum. He was
a man of scientific knowledge, who unfolded the
Pelagian doctrine in systematic form, and, regard
less of authorities, and reckless of personal con
sequences, stoutly maintained his principles. He
urged the injustice of the dominant party in the
Church, in calling in the secular power, contend
ing, as against Augustine, that the only appeal in
such a controversy should be to reason. Being
banished from Italy, he went to the East, where
he visited Theodore of Mopsuestia. Later he was
at Constantinople, where, upon the accession of
Nestorius, he found a momentary favor. But he
soon shared the fate of Ccelestius, both there and
at the Council of Ephesus.
Of his later movements we know nothing certain,
save that he was never received into the Church.
He is said to have spent his last years in Sicily,
and, as a poor compensation for his years of ostra-

164 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
cism, to have obtained the following inscription
upon his tombstone :
'''-Here lies in Peace Julian, an Orthodox Bishop."
His extant works are two " Confessions of
Faith " ; portions of his " Four Books to Turban-
tius," against the first of Augustine's books on
" Marriage and Concupiscence " ; and a consider
able part of his " Eight Books against Augustine's
Second Book on Marriage and Concupiscence."

MARIUS MERCATOR,
The doughty adversary of the above-described
heretics. He was a layman, and most likely from
North Africa. Already, in 418, he had attracted
the notice of Augustine by a treatise against the
" new heretics," and his efforts were not relaxed
until every Pelagian was under the ban, both in. the
West and in the East. Still, he was not partial in
his attentions to this form of heresy. Nestorius,
also, as well as Theodore and Theodoret, received
his notice ; and at the Council of Ephesus he was
gladdened by anathemas against all whom he had
opposed. His extant writings are the " Memorial against
the Pelagians," already alluded to as presented to
the authorities at Constantinople ; a second " Me
morial against the Pelagians," in which he traces
the origin of this heresy to Syrians, and principally
to Theodore of Mopsuestia, from whom he says it
wa.s carried to Pelagius by Rufinus ; a book of.

JOHN CAS SIA N. 165
" Observations on the Writings of Julian " ; a book
"Against Nestorius," which seeks to prove this
bishop's agreement with Paul of Samosata ; and a
treatise "Against Nestorius's Twelve Chapters."

JOHN CASSIAN,
A leader of the so-called semi-Pelagians. A
native of Scythia, he found his way while still young
to the monastery at Bethlehem, where he devoted
himself to a spiritual life. Desiring to perfect him
self in this way, he traveled, in company with his
friend Germanus, to Egypt, where he spent seven
years. Returning, according to promise, to Beth
lehem, they afterward set out for Scythia, with the
intention probably of teaching the people of those
parts ; but somehow they soon find themselves at
Constantinople, where Cassian becomes a deacon
of Chrysostom. Upon the banishment of this prel
ate, Germanus and Cassian are sent by his friends
to Pope Innocent with letters in his favor. Cassian
does not return to the East, but goes into Gaul,
where, at Marseilles, he becomes the founder of
two monasteries, one for monks and one for nuns,
similar to the institutions in Bethlehem, where he
had been trained. Here he spent his remaining
years, becoming not only a promoter of the monas-
ticism of Southern Gaul, but also a central figure
in that school of Gallic theologians who dissented
from the stricter Augustinian views of grace and
predestination.

166 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
Besides his most famous work, of which we speak
more fully, he wrote his " Institutions of Monks," in
twelve books; in the first four of which he described
the manners of the Egyptian monks, and in the other
eight treated of the eight principal vices which tempt
men, and how to resist them. Also, at the request
of Leo, then Archdeacon of Rome, he wrote in 430
a treatise "Upon the Incarnation, against Nesto
rius." He died about the year 444.
The Book of Conferences.
This book gives an account of twenty-four con
ferences of Germanus and Cassian with the most
illustrious monks whom they visited in the East,
upon various topics of interest. In an interview
with the Abbot Isaac, for example, he had told them
of an old monk named Serapion, who had always
been accustomed, when he prayed, to represent
God to himself as having the form of a man.
Having at last been convinced of his error by the
Abbot Paphnutius, he was on his way to prayers,
when, not representing Gpd to himself in bodily
shape as before, he suddenly fell to weeping and
crying, " O miserable man that I am, they have
taken away my God, and now I know not how to
pray to him any more! " In another conference
with Thomas, the question turns upon the keeping
of Lent, and Thomas says that the thirty-six days,
not including the Sundays, of. the six weeks of
Lent, represent the tenth part of the whole year,
which is thus tithed unto the Lord. The observ
ance of this season, he said, was not binding upon
the perfect, for Lent was known to the primitive
Church, but was ordained for those who spend their
lives in pleasure, that, being forced by law, they
may spend at least a part of their time in the service

JOHN CASSIAN. 167
of God. But the conference which made fhe book
famous, and gave Cassian his position as leader of
the theologians of Southern Gaul, was the thir
teenth, containing the discourses of the Abbot
Cha-jremon. Cassian puts into his mouth the fol
lowing sentiments concerning grace and free-will :
" Grace is the source not only of our good ac
tions, but also of our good thoughts. This grace is
always present with us, sometimes going before the
beginning of our good desires, and always following
them. Free-will is much impaired by the sin of the
first man, but is not wholly extinguished. There
remain in us still some knowledge of goodness and
some seeds of virtue. Grace is given to perfect
this knowledge and strengthen these beginnings.
Although man can naturally choose good, yet he
has need of grace to accomplish it. This grace
sometimes goes before the first motions of the will,
but most commonly follows them. These two being
so closely associated, it is hard for us to know
whether God shows us mercy because we have good
inclinations in our hearts, or his mercy precedes these
motions. It is safest, therefore, to say that some
times grace inclines the will to good, as it did in the
conversion of St. Paul and St. Matthew ; but that
there are some occasions when it follows it, as hap
pened in the conversion of Zaccheus and the thief
on the cross. Man may of himself have a desire to
be converted, and so the beginnings of repentance
and faith. He may pray, seek a cure, send for the
physician, resist temptation ; but he can not be cured,
can not be just or perfect, can not be a complete
conqueror, without grace. This grace, moreover, is
a free gift, although God never denies it to those
that are laborious themselves. We ought not to
think that no good proceeds from man : the good
that we do depends partly on grace and partly on
free-will."

i68 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
These principles called out a sharp response
from the Augustinians, notably from Prosper of
Aquitaine.

VINCENT OF LERINS,
A renowned champion of the Catholic faith, as
against individual teachers. He was a monk, and
probably a presbyter belonging to the monastery of
the Isle of Lerins, one who after years of stormy
life in the world had, as he said, found rest in the
Church and in the placid life of that now famous
retreat. He belonged to the Gallic, as distin
guished from the African, school of theologians, and
both directly and indirectly opposed, in their ex
treme form, the fast predominating doctrines of
Augustine. He is generally supposed to have been the au
thor of certain " Questions concerning the Doc
trines of Augustine," which were answered by Pros
per. The work which has given him a lasting fame
in the Church, however, is his " Commonitorium,"
or, " Memoir against Heretics." It was published
a. d. 434, in the thick of the semi-Pelagian contro
versy, under the pseudonym of Peregrinus. Its
ostensible and probably in large part its real object
was to point out the distinctive marks of the true
faith, as opposed to every form of heresy ; but in
reading it one is repeatedly made to feel that the
" individual doctrine," the influence of "some one
great mind," which Vincent so much decries, is
neither some supposititious teaching, nor simply the
open heresies of men like Pelagius and Nestorius,

VINCENT OF LERINS. 169
whom the author names, but the personal influence
of Augustine. At all events, the book has been re
garded as a masterly use against Augustine of one
of his own principles, namely, that one test of Chris
tian truth is immemorial reception by the Church.
Commonitorium against Heresies.
The author says that he has consulted wise and
pious men to find out some certain rule for distin
guishing the truth from heresies, and has been
pointed to two infallible tests : Truth is always
grounded (1) upon the authority of Holy Scripture,
and (2) upon the traditions of the Catholic Church.
But some one will ask, he says, " Why join the au
thority of the Church when the Holy Scripture is of
itself sufficient ? " It is because Scripture has a cer
tain sublime sense, and is variously explained by dif
ferent persons. Is it not from Scripture that heretics
have professed to draw their proofs ? This diver
sity it is which makes necessary a rule of interpre
tation established by the Church. This rule, which
is to be scrupulously followed, is, that we are to
believe what has been held everywhere, always, and
by every one among the faithful. To speak pre
cisely, that alone is catholic which is generally re
ceived. Thus, to be catholic, it is necessary to
allow only what can claim antiquity, universality,
and unanimity of consent. We shall follow uni
versality if we receive only what the Church ap
proves in all parts of the world. We shall follow
antiquity if we do not forsake the opinions of our
ancestors. We shall follow unanimous consent if
we agree with all or nearly all who have been in
the Church. But what shall a Christian do when
some part of the Church separates from the com
munion of the whole body ? He must prefer the
teachings of the whole Church to those of any sin-
15

170 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
gie member. Should such divergence extend to
any considerable part of the Church, then we must
turn to antiquity, which can not be corrupted by
novelty. If among the ancients we find isolated
opinions, we must prefer above them the teachings
of" the ancient and universal Church.
If some new doctrine arises, to which we find
no parallel in history, then we must compare it with
the expressed opinions of all the accepted teachers
of the Church. These principles were followed by
the Church in the times of Donatus and Arius.
They had the approval of the holy Ambrose. They
were applied by Pope Stephen at the time when
Cyprian was astray in the matter of the rebaptism
of heretics. But what is thus enforced by the
Church is also enjoined by the Scriptures, as wit
ness the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians. And
what he said to the Galatians he says to the whole
Church — he spake for all ages. It never has been,
it never will be, permitted to teach anything to
Christians which they have not received from the
beginning. How, then, one may ask, if God some
times permits men of great authority in the Church
to announce new dogmas? On this point hearken
to Moses. "If," he says, "there rise up among
you a prophet, who claims to have had a vision."
He means by this, a doctor established in dignity
in the Church, to whom his disciples defer as if
he had a divine revelation — a man of such vast
knowledge that his votaries think him possessed,
not only of the ordinary human intelligence, but of
something infinitely beyond. Such masters urge to
follow other gods, and men follow blindly. " But,"
says Moses, " thou shalt not hearken to the words
of that prophet, or that dreamer." Such a teacher
was Nestorius. In former days greater danger
threatened the Church through Origen and Tertul
lian. Origen was a man not only of wonderful

VINCENT OF LERINS. 171
learning, but also of remarkable piety, such that
one might have been tempted to say, " I prefer to
be in error with Origen rather than to find the truth
under other masters." Nevertheless, he fell away
from the, simplicity of the faith, and his books are
to be accounted dangerous.
Tertullian was to the Latins what Origen was
to the Greeks, having transcendent powers for com
bating errors; yet this did not keep him to the
truth, simply because he did not sufficiently regard
the Catholic dogma. . His last books, therefore, as
Hilary has remarked, discredit his earlier ones.
Whence I must conclude that he only is truly cath
olic who loves the truth because it is none other
than God's, who loves the Church, who loves the
mystic body of Jesus Christ, . who puts before all
things else religion and the Catholic faith. We
should not let the authority of any one man, the at
tachment we may have for him, beauty, genius, elo
quence, science — nothing, in fact, should be allowed
to make our hearts waver. God permits these here
sies in order to test, the faithful. Yet, how unhappy
the lot of those in error ! It is an ever-fresh source
of surprise to me that there are men so given over
to perversity that they do not hold to the rules of
belief which have been stamped with the seal of
antiquity, but, urged by a criminal restlessness,
seek to add, to change, to retrench something in
religion. As if the dogmas of the faith were not a
revelation from Heaven which suffices for salvation !
As if these dogmas resembled human institutions,
which come to perfection only through continual
changes and daily improvements ! This, while the
voice of St. Paul echoes through the ages, crying,
" O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy
trust, turning away from profane babblings, and op
position of science, falsely so called." In contrast
with this, these men say to us : " O you, who vul-

172 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
garly call yourselves Catholics, come learn from us
the true faith. We are its sole depositaries; no
one has comprehended it before us; it has been
concealed, wrapped up through several centuries,
and by a special privilege it has very recently been
revealed to us. But it is necessary to learn it in
secret, in the dark, and when you have learned it
thus clandestinely, you must teach it with the same
precaution, from fear lest the world may hear it,
and the Church may come to discover itself; for the
favor of knowing such lofty mysteries is reserved
to veiy few persons."
Having examined more closely the above words
spoken to Timothy, Vincent concludes by urging
that we teach only what has been transmitted to us.
Teach with a new light ; do not teach what is new ;
Cum dicas nove, non dicas nova. What, then, is it not
permitted to make advances in the study of reli
gion ? Yes, truly, and the greatest possible. Any
one must be the enemy of God and man to deny
that this may be, or to call it hurtful. But to ad
vance in the faith, is not to change it ; for, that a
thing may become perfect, it is necessary that, re
maining of the same nature, it receive some increase.
On the contrary, that is not so much progress as
change, when a thing ceases to be what it was to
become something else. Let a holy emulation in
fluence as well the parts as the entire body of the
Church ; let each age surpass the preceding in its
advancement in knowledge, in intelligence, in taste
for divine things, without ever swerving from the
same sense, the same faith, the same dogmas, with
no alteration. We know that our ancestors sowed
in the field of the Church the pure wheat of faith.
Let us cultivate it ; let us preserve in their purity
the salutary germs which such a blessed sowing has
produced. Let it be permitted to every one to
innovate, and religion would fall into utter ruin.

VINCENT OF LERINS. 173
Once one has cut away the Catholic dogma, every
one would think himself free to cut away to-day
one, to-morrow another. In thus detaching succes
sive portions; the whole edifice must soon crumble.
Nothing would be sacred or inviolable in the Church,
and the august sanctuary of truth would be only a
profane rendezvous, open to every caprice of hu
man passion.
Such is not the Church, the spouse of Jesus
Christ. It guards with fidelity the trust which has
been confided to it. It neither changes it nor adds
to it, nor takes away from. it. Watchful to maintain
the purity of the. faith, it rejects, nothing which is
essential, introduces nothing which is superfluous,
preserves what belongs to it, and admits nothing
foreign. Its care is limited to suffering nothing to
be lost which it received at its beginning. When
the Church has come together in councils, its aim
has been to prepare decrees, and to make them of
such sort that they may cause that to be believed
more strongly which has already been believed, but
with greater simplicity ; to publish with increased
solemnity what was already preached, but with a
confidence which had not resulted from examina
tion. From the moment in which heresy discov
ered itself by impious novelties, the Church has con
voked its councils. With what purpose ? To clothe
anew with a more authentic sanction the truths of
the faith which it had received by tradition, and in
this way to spread them into all parts of the world,
by reducing to short expressions the points of the
belief which it explains through the use of new
terms which express its substance, but never by
introducing new dogmas. Let it be permitted to
introduce new dogmas, and what must follow ?
That all the saints of former ages who were igno
rant of them were in error. Could that be — that so
many thousands of pontiffs, of confessors, and mar-

174 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
tyrs should have been delivered over to error through
so many ages ?
Heresiarchs have, as a rule, loved novelty. They
have, however, masked their errors under a respect
able veil of Scripture. But Satan himself dared to
make use of Scripture language when hs tempted
the Lord in the wilderness. Hence we see the
need of expounding the doctrines of the canonical
books according to the traditions of the Church
universal, and according to the rules of the Catholic
and apostolic doctrine.
We should thus regard the authority of the an
cient fathers. The unanimity of their argument
forms a sort of a general council, by which means
all that they have decided upon matters of faith
becomes the infallible rule, from which it is not
permitted to swerve.
Whoever despises those whom God has thus
established in his Church as dispensers of the Di
vine Word, despises not men, but God himself.

PROSPER OF AQUITAINE,
Augustine's lieutenant. No small element of
Augustine's power was in the personal sway which
he established over certain loyal souls like this Pros
per, who literally found his life by losing it in devo
tion to his great master. We know little of his life.
He was a layman of Aquitaine, who, having taken
up his residence in Narbonne, became deeply exer
cised over the exceptions which the Gallic theologi
ans were taking to Augustine's doctrines of grace.
He and his friend Hilary wrote to Augustine, tell
ing him of these criticisms, and asking for further

PROSPER OF AQUITAINE. 175
elucidation of the points in question. In response,
he wrote and sent to them his books on " The Pre
destination of the Saints " and " The Gift of Perse
verance." Shortly after this, the great champion
of grace died, and his books not having had their
desired effect upon his critics, his loyal followers
appealed to Pope Ccelestine. The response was
unsatisfactory, and Prosper girded himself to the
task of combating the presumptuous opposition to
his oracle. And right valiantly did he defend his
cause. Not so great a man as Cassian, his chief
opponent, he made up any personal lack by his
implicit identification of himself with Augustine.
Yet he was himself no mean champion of the doc
trines of grace. Never flinching from any posi
tion which his leader had taken, he yet had skill to
divert the blows of opponents from the most vul
nerable points of the Augustinian doctrine. To him
and to one uncertain writer must be attributed the
success with which this system weathered the semi-
Pelagian storm in the decades immediately follow
ing Augustine's death.
It has been claimed for Prosper that, as secre
tary of Pope Leo, he was the author of that prel
ate's theological letters ; but it is not at all certain
that he ever resided at Rome, much less that he
was the soul of Leo's Eutychian decrees. His
death occurred about the year 456.
The works in which he carried on the Augus
tinian controversy may be noticed the more hastily,
from the large space already given to the doctrines
•which he maintained. One writing, a " Letter to
Rufinus," antedates Augustine's death. An impor-

176 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
tant work was the book "Against the Collator," as
Prosper termed his answer to Cassian's thirteenth
conference. Next in prominence among his oppo
nents was Vincent of Lerins, whose " Questions "
he answers in categorical form. He wrote also
"Answers "to fifteen other objections, whose au
thor is unknown, and to certain criticisms of two
monks of Geneva upon the books of " Predestina
tion" and "Perseverance." Besides some minor
writings taken from Augustine, or tributary to him,
we have a commentary on the last fifty Psalms,
which was only an abridgment and paraphrase of
the work of the great bishop. A " Chronicon "
completes the list of our author's extant works,
with the exception of the following, reserved for
special notice :
The Poem, " Of the Ungrateful."
It was in this hexameter of four books that
Prosper made his chief defense of the doctrines of
grace. It is a theological treatise, pure and sim
ple, taking metrical form only the better to impress
its tenets upon an age fast degenerating in learning
and taste.
A French critic, in a somewhat non-committal
mood, has said of it : " We are surprised that this
saint has been able to unite the beauty of versifica
tion with the thorns of his subject, and that exact
ness of dogma is so uniformly maintained in spite
of the constraint of verse and the freedom of the
poetic spirit. The truths are here portrayed with
the ornaments natural to poetry — that is to say,
with a boldness equally agreeable and ingenious."
A more frank writer says that " neither the convic
tion of truth nor the enthusiasm which pervades
them can overcome the irredeemable dullness of

PROSPER OF AQUITAINE. 177
these four books." Yet the work is not destitute
of traces of beauty, as witness the following tribute
to Augustine. Speaking of a church council in
Africa, Prosper says :
"What other end could such a holy council
contemplate, having Aurelius for its president, and
for its soul Augustine, whom the grace of Christ,
overflowing from abundant horn, has given to be
the light of our age, sprung from the true light ?
For to him God is food and life and blessedness,
and his whole and sole joy is the love of Christ ;
only in honor to Christ is he honored. Yea, when
no good falls to him, he finds all things in God, and
knowledge becomes regnant in his holy temple."
The Author of " De Vocatione Gentium."
This book, in the mystery of its authorship, the
" Letters of Junius " of the patristic literature, was
in its spirit and its influence the converse of those
famous epistles. Put forth in the midst of the semi-
Pelagian discussion, and in the interest of the Au-
gustinian doctrines, it yet met the opposite party in
such a conciliatory spirit, or, rather, so avoided
anything like partisan views, while at the same time
reasoning with clearness and force, that it did much
toward tempering the controversy. The two prin
cipal authors to which it has been assigned are
Prosper and Pope Leo, but the claims of neither
of these have been established. A pleasant guess
is that it was written by that little-known Hilary,
friend of Prosper, who joined with him in writing
to Augustine, but it is only a conjecture.
The author begins by saying that there is a
great and difficult question, now for a long time
agitated between the patrons of free-will and the
preachers of grace, viz., Whether God wills that all
men should be saved ? And because that can not
be denied, he says, it is further demanded, Why the

178 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
will of the Almighty is not always accomplished ?
If it be said that it depends upon the will of man,
this seems to exclude grace, which is no more a free
gift but a debt, being bestowed according to merit.
It is also asked, Why that gift, without which no
man can be saved, is not given to all by him who
desires the salvation of all men? The object of
this book is so to discuss these questions as to show
that there is entire harmony between the doctrines
of free-will and of. grace. While no really new ele
ment was introduced into the discussion, the author
brought out with greater clearness the distinction
between the two kinds of grace — general, given to
all men to lead them to a knowledge of God ; and
special, given only to the elect.

SALVIAN,
The Jeremiah of the fall of the Western Em
pire. He was a priest of Marseilles, and was styled
" Master of Bishops " by his contemporaries. We
know little of his life, but have reason to think that
he died at an advanced age, near the close of the
fifth century. Enthusiastic critics have ranked him
for the beauty of his style almost equal to the writ
ers of the Augustan age, and even sober judges
greatly admire the force and beauty of many of his
pages. We have from his pen eight letters, one of
them addressed to his father-in-law at the time of
the consecration of himself and his wife to a reli
gious life. Of his two important extant works, one
is entitled " Four Books to the Catholic Church."
It contains a satire against rich and covetous men,
and precepts upon the duty of alms-giving. It be-

SALVIAN. 179
wails the general corruption of Christians in con
trast with the blessed times of the primitive Church.
His counsels as to alms-giving and the use of
money remind us much of the writings of Basil.
But the work by which he should be known to all
who would understand the ecclesiastical life of the
fifth century is his " Eight Books of the Providence
of God," written about a. d. 440. The manner in
which it bewails the sins of the Roman world, and
shows that all the calamities then befalling it were
the just' and inevitable penalty of this corruption,
reminds one of nothing so much as of the wailings
and denunciations of the weeping prophet. The
following is an abstract of its six-score pages :
Of the Providence of God.
Book I. God is now accused of indifference to
the affairs of men. He oame not, men say, to pro
tect virtue, not to punish vice. To disprove this, I
might well cite Scripture to Christians, but, since
some even of these are incredulous, I may cite the
pagan sages. They held that God did preside over
and direct all things. Only the Epicureans denied
this. But now, before answering these complain
ants, let me ask if they speak in the name of true
Christians, or of those who wear the mask of faith ?
True Christians do not need to be commiserated
over their adversities. They are content to suffer ;
it is the wicked only whose sole content is in cul
pable joys. The ancient Romans were indeed
poor, but they were rich in that they enriched the
republic. If pagans had thus a contempt for riches,
and regarded miseries as no real evil, much more
should Christians who have given them the sustain
ing grace of God. A libertine not long since based
his charge of God's indifference upon the fact that-

180 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
a certain Christian who had professed his belief in
such providence, was very infirm. But Christians
despise the body, and to them bodily infirmity is a
token of God's love. For as the body languishes
the soul is made strong. Greater miseries, indeed,
are said to be borne by good people. Yes, but
God is none the less caring for them. God, the
judge of all, is also the present governor over all.
The impious will admit that God originally created
all things, but say that he has now given over care
for them. Such an admission would destroy all
religion. Why, if that were so, are we bidden of
the apostle to pray for things which make for a
quiet life here, and not solely for future blessings ?
Rather did the whole course of history, from Adam
to Moses, prove the contrary.
Book II. God, they say, may once have exer
cised such providential care, but he does not now.
Nay, he is the giver of every good gift to us to-day,
as much of our harvests as of the manna of old.
He is everywhere present to hear and answer our
prayers. He sees both the good to bless them, and
the bad to destroy them. Doubt not, then, ye who
have the light of faith. Scripture proves to us a
particular providence and a universal care of God.
Would he, indeed, urge his constant presence with
men if he were indifferent to our affairs ? Remem
ber his dealings with David, how strictly the sin
ning monarch was held accountable ! Thus we
have set forth that God cares for men, governs
them, and judges them.
Book III. But why, says the objector, are these
barbarians happier than we ? God wills it so. I
simply submit, for it were sacrilege to question fur
ther. Yet I may answer the question of some, Why
God sends upon them who have faith greater mis
fortunes than upon those who do not believe ? Let
us grant for the present the assertion that the reli-

SALVIAN. 181
gious ought to be especially blessed. But, I ask,
what is true faith? Is it anything else than a
faithful observance of the commands of God ?
Great lords who have entrusted their treasure to
servants, consider them faithless if they have wasted
their goods. And we ought to be considered faith
less when we make ill use of the blessings which
God has bestowed upon us. Such blessings are
the fundamentals of our faith. Such are the voca
tion to Christianity, the law, the prophets, the gos
pel, the apostolic writings, the gift of regeneration,
baptism, the holy sanction of chrism. Such are the
treasures of which we are the depositaries. Who
now is faithful to the trust thus committed to us?
The very Church which should be the body to ap
pease the anger of God, alas ! what reigns there
but disorders calculated to incense the Most High ?
It is more common to meet with Christians who are
guilty of the greatest abominations than with those
who are wholly exempt from crime. So that to
day it is a sort of sanctity among us to be less
vicious than the generality of Christians. We in
sult the majesty of the Most High at the foot of
his altars. Men the most steeped in crime enter
the holy places without respect for them. True,
all men ought to pay their vows to God, but why
should they seek his temples to propitiate him, only
to go forth and provoke him? Why enter the
church to deplore their former sins, and upon go
ing forth — what do I say? — in those very courts
they commit fresh sins, their mouths and their
hearts contradicting one another. Their prayers
are criminal meditations rather than vows of ex
piation. Scarcely is the service ended before each
returns to his old practices. Some go to their
wine, others to their impurities, still others to rob
bery and brigandage, so that we can not doubt that
these things had been- occupying them while they

182 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
were in church. Nor is it the lowest of people
who are thus guilty. There is no rank whatever
in the Church which- does not commit all^ sorts of
crimes. Book IV. Let us not, then, be astonished that
God smites us. He is rather merciful in not de
stroying us. He has permitted us to suffer because
we have deserved to suffer, and to deny his provi
dence is to be as the fool who denies his existence.
It may be urged that we are at heart better than
th.e barbarians who oppose us. Suppose this to be
granted ; we ought to be better than they. But, as
a matter of fact, they are more virtuous than we.
The mass of Christians are below the barbarians in
probity. True, all kinds of sins are found among
them ; but what qne is not found among us ? The
several nations have their peculiar sins : the Saxons
are cruel; the Franks perfidious; the Gepidae in
human ; the Huns lewd. But we, having the law
of God to restrain us, are given over to all these
offenses. Then, to confine ourselves to the single
sin of swearing, can many be found among the
faithful who have not the name of Jesus Christ con
stantly upon their lips in support of their perjuries?
This practice, coming down from the higher to the
lower classes, has so prevailed, that Christians
might be deemed pagans. This, although the law
of God expressly forbids to take his name in vain.
We read this law, but we do not practice it ; as a
consequence, the pagans taunt us that we boast
ourselves the sole possessors of God's law, and of
the rules of truth and of science, but yet act wholly
contrary to what that law enjoins. " Christians,.
indeed, to the shame of Jesus Christ," they say.
Book V.. It is urged that the heretical barbarians
(Arian Christians) have the same law and gospel
with ourselves, and their sin is therefore greater
than ours. We must remember, I reply, that they

SALVIAN. 183
have been falsely instructed as to the interpretation
of the truth. They act in good faith according to
their ideas of what is true and right. We, on the
contrary, depart from known truth, and so merit
our punishments. God could not leave us unpun
ished without injustice. Nor must all these re
proaches be brought against people of the world
alone. Clergymen here share in the passions and
faults of seculars, and the practices of the age are
seen to predominate equally among the religious.
Book VI. This book charges upon the Chris
tians of the empire the sins of the amphitheatres,
which are unknown to the barbarians, and, indulg
ing in which, Christians apostatize. We rush from
the churches to the theatres, even in the midst of
our perils. In Carthage the theatres were thronged
while the enemy were before the walls, and the
cries of those perishing outside under the sword
mingled with the shouts of the spectators in the
circus. Nor are we better here in Gaul. Treves
has been taken four times, and has only increased
in wickedness under her misfortunes. The same
state of things exists in Cologne — deplorable wick
edness among young and old, low and high. The
smaller cities have been blind and insensible to the
dangers threatening, until they have overwhelmed
them. It seems to be the destiny of the Roman
Empire to perish, rather than reform ; they must
cease to be, in order to cease to be vicious. A part
of the inhabitants of Treves, having escaped from
the ruins, petitions the emperor for — what? A
theatre, spectacles, public shows! A city, which
thrice overthrown could not correct itself, well de
served to suffer a fourth destruction.
Book VII. The whole empire is in trouble, and
the only stable thing among us is our vices. A
fatal enchantment seems to have blinded us. The
Gallic provinces are corrupt and suffering. Spain

184 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
shares the same evils. It seems a special provi
dence that God has delivered that impure country
over to the hands of the chaste Vandals, though
they were a far less powerful people than many
others. He would thereby teach us that it is not
human forces which' are triumphing over us, but his
invisible hand.
Yet upon some passing success we boast our
selves of our own strength, instead of attributing it
to God. In this, the Goths and Vandals should be
examples to us. They trust in God; we in our
selves. They conquer; we are overthrown. If
reports are true, the Gothic king, clothed in hair
cloth, spent several days in prayer before beginning
the war. The Vandals, too, showed a like depend
ence upon the Lord when they overcame the Ro
mans in Spain.
The advance of the enemy from province to
province was slow, as if to warn those beyond to
repent; but this goodness of God was useless —
there was no improvement. Hence the wrath of
God, after making itself felt upon Europe, has
brought a people from the most distant provinces
to ravage Africa. The Vandals are not forced to
this invasion by any outward circumstances, but
were led forward, as they themselves confessed, by
some invisible impulse. The crimes of the Afri
cans had compelled this visitation at the hands of
the Lord. Carthage, the Rome of Africa, abound
ing in dignitaries, having officers and judges in
every quarter and on every street, was yet given
over to unspeakable corruptions.
The vice was open and was tolerated by all,
even if all did not actually share in it. In the
other cities of Africa, too, only debauchery and im
purity were seen. The Vandals who were brought
against them were a chaste people, and they have
labored to purge Africa of its debaucheries, to this

HILARY OF ARLES. 185
end making rigorous laws, conformable to the laws
of God. Would that I might make my voice heard by all
Romans ! I would cry, Let us all blush that to-day
the only cities where impurity does not reign are
those which have submitted to the barbarians.
Think not, then, that they conquer and we yield by
the simple force of nature. Rather let us admit
that we succumb through the dissoluteness of our
morals, of which our calamities are the just punish
ment. Book VIII. This last book combats a supersti
tion peculiar to the African people in their adora
tion of a celestial goddess, for whom they had a
reverence equal to that given to Jesus Christ.

HILARY OF ARLES.
Though not distinguished for his writings, this
man obtains remembrance for his holy and useful
life, and for his assertion of his metropolitan rights
as against Pope Leo. Of noble family, he gave his
wealth to the poor, and retired to the Isle of Lerins.
Succeeding to the bishopric of Aries, which claimed
to be not only the metropolitan see of the province
of Vienne, but also an exarchate over the seven
provinces of Narbonhe, he discharged the duties of
his office with great zeal and piety, preaching the
gospel, caring for the poor, and reforming abuses
among the clergy. Speaking of his discourses, a
poet of his time said that they were of such a char
acter that, if Augustine had lived after Hilary, he
would have been accounted inferior to him. His

186 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
hearers were moved to tears — confounded by the
judgments of God, or melted by the promises of
the gospel, the church being filled with sobs and
cries. "Who ever," says a biographer, "better
displayed the rigor of God's judgments? Who
ever made sinners more sensible of the enormities
of their crimes ? After his exhortation was ended,
he received the first supplication with tears, and
confirmed by prayer the fruit of repentance stirred
up by his exhortations. He cast out devils from
the bodies of such as were possessed, by making
them renounce their sins in public. When he saw
his people go out of the church after the gospel
was read, he kept them back by saying to them,
' You may easily go out from hence, but you can
not go out from hell.' " A peculiarity of his preach
ing should be noted, which will hardly be approved
by modern church-goers : he was accustomed al
ways to preach until some sign was made to him by
his attendants to stop.
In the course of his visitations he found it ne
cessary to depose a certain bishop, who immedi
ately carried his complaint to Rome. Hilary at
once followed, and represented the case aright to
the Pope; but, finding Leo in a critical attitude
toward him, he returned to Gaul. In spite of his
conciliatory efforts, Leo decreed his deposition from
the primacy in Gaul, and from metropolitan rank,
forbade him to ordain, and even declared him fallen
away from the communion of Rome. Notwith
standing this pronouncement, and an imperial edict
in favor of Leo, Hilary seems to have continued
quietly in his episcopal work until his death, which

OTHER WRITERS BEFORE LEO. 187
occurred a. d. 454. In the course of this contro
versy, a noteworthy sentence was written to Hilary
by the prefect of Rome, whom he had induced to
see Leo in his behalf. " I have spoken of your
business," he says, " to Pope Leo. I do not believe
but that you may think some part of the world to
be governed by pride, but men do not easily endure
that others should speak their opinions of them
freely. Besides, Roman ears are very sensitive, and
will not suffer what does not please them."
Hilary's extant writings are, a life of Honoratus,
his predecessor in the bishopric, a poem on Geneva,
and a letter. In doctrine he was a semi-Pelagian.
His life was written by Honoratus, bishop of Mar
seilles.

OTHER WRITERS BEFORE LEO.
Following are noticed all of the other prose
writers, down to the time of Leo, who are worthy
of mention :
Hosius, bishop of Cordova, is chiefly remem
bered as the president of the Council of Nice. He
had been a personal friend of Constantius in the
West, and accompanied him to the East. He was
a friend and for a long time a defender of Athana
sius, in whose interest he wrote to Constantius a
notable letter, now extant. Later the old man was
induced by persecutions to sign an Arian creed,
though he would not approve the condemnation of
Athanasius. Whatever induced him to yield to a
teaching which he had always opposed, we may be

188 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
certain that it was no cowardly personal fear when
we read this extract from his letter : " Change your
course, I conjure you," he says to the emperor.
"Remember that Nature has made you a mortal
man. Fear the day of judgment ; do not risk com
ing to that terrible day with a sullied conscience.
... It is written, ' Render to Csesar that which is
Caesar's, and to God that which is God's.' The
same law which interdicts to us an earthly domina
tion does not permit you to usurp the rights of the
priesthood." Julius Firmicus Maternus, of whose life we know
nothing, wrote an apologetical book " Of the Errors
of Profane Religions," which he addressed to the
Emperors Constantius and Constans.
Lucifer, bishop of Calcaris, in Sardinia, was a
stanch defender of the cause of Athanasius against
the Arians, and in this interest wrote five books
against Constantius, which are now extant. His
zeal against the Arians, strengthened, doubtless, by
the severe persecutions which he suffered at their
hands, made him unwilling to commune with those
who had any complicity with their heresy* and led
him into a schism from the Church. His followers
are known as Luciferians.
Pacian, bishop of Barcelona, died about a. d.
380. His extant works consist of three letters
against the Novatians, an " Exhortation to Repent
ance," and a " Treatise of Baptism." They are
prized for the explicitness with which they speak
of the efficacy of the sacraments, and for their loy
alty to the Catholic Church, as against all sects.
Phatadius, bishop of Agen, in Aquitaine, wrote

OTHER WRITERS BEFORE LEO. 189
a treatise "Against the Second Creed of Sirmi-
um." Optatus, bishop of Milevis, in Numidia, wrote,
about a. d. 370, six books " Against the Donatists,"
which are still greatly prized by all who regard
separation from the established Church as a sin
equal to a departure from the true faith.
Eusebius, of Verceille, was one of the Western
bishops who suffered exile for his defense of Atha
nasius and his cause. We have from his pen several
letters relating to the persecution.
Faustinus, a Luciferian priest, wrote seven books
" Against the Arians and the Macedonians," and
also a petition to the Emperor Theodosius in be
half of his sect, which, he alleged, was being un
justly persecuted.
Philastrius, bishop of Brescia, who died about
a. d. 387, wrote a " Treatise of Heresies," the only
noteworthy feature of which was the great number
of heresies — about one hundred and fifty — which it
recorded. Zeno, bishop of Verona, who flourished about
a. d. 362, was the author of above a hundred homi
lies, now extant, in which are found some excellent
passages. Vigillius, bishop of Trent, left a letter, or small
book, in commendation of the martyrs who suffered
in his time at the hands of the barbarians. He
himself became a martyr about a. d. 400.
Diadochus, a bishop of Epirus, wrote a book of
one hundred chapters " On the Spiritual Life."
They have reference chiefly to ascetical exercises.
Chromaiius, bishop of Aquileia, one of the three

190 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
Western bishops to whom Chrysostom sent a letter
asking for help in his adversities, and whom Jerome
called the most holy and learned bishop of his time,
has given us a discourse upon parts of the Sermon
on the Mount, probably the fragments of a com
mentary upon the Gospel of Matthew.
Gaudentius, bishop of Brescia, was the author
of a number of extant sermdns and of a " Life of
Philastrius," his predecessor. Ten of the sermons
were preached at the Easter season, and for the in
struction of the newly baptized.
Bachiarius, a Christian philosopher, who lived a
wandering life, wrote an extant letter upon the pen
ance of a monk.
Tichonius, a Donatist, made a book upon the
" Seven Rules for expounding Scripture." We
have it entire, and also an abridgment of it by St.
Augustine. Leporius was a monk, who, having been con
vinced of Pelagian and Nestorian errors, wrote a
book in retraction of the same.
Possidius and Uranius have obtained mention
among ecclesiastical writers as authors respectively
of lives of St. Augustine and St. Paulinus.
Anianus, a Pelagian, is known as the translator
of a number of Chrysostom's homilies.
Capreolus, bishop of Carthage, has given us a
small treatise " On the Incarnation."
Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, was the author of
two little treatises, "In Praise of Solitude" and
" On Contempt of the World," which have been
highly commended for their style. Erasmus calls
the second one of the most elegant pieces of an-

OTHER WRITERS BEFORE LEO. 191
tiquity. He wrote also a treatise " Of Spiritual
Forms " and two " Books of Instruction," one of
which is suggestive of our modern works on bibli
cal cyclopaedia.
Peter, bishop of Ravenna, surnamed Chrysolo-
gus for his reputed eloquence, Maximus, bishop
of Turin, and Valerian, bishop of Cemele, may be
grouped together as authors of sermons which have
reached us.
To Victor, bishop of Cartenna, are ascribed two
treatises, " On Repentance " and " Of Comfort in
Adversity." Fastidius Priscus, a British author, wrote a book,.
" Of the Christian Life," which is described as hav
ing " more piety and plainness than elegance and
loftiness." Constantius, a priest of Lyons, wrote the life of
St. Germanus.
Paul, a priest of Pannonia, was the author of
certain works of an ascetic nature.
An author, known as Arnobius Junior, to distin
guish him from the apologist, but of whom we know
nothing save that he was in accord with the Gallic
theologians as opposed to the followers of Augus
tine, has left us a brief commentary on the Psalms,
in which it is said that grace does not expel free
dom, but that we may request, pray, knock at the
gate for it, and God will not deny his grace to those
who do this.
We have also letters, one or more, from each of
the Popes of this period, hom Innocent and Zosimus
a considerable number.

192 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.

LEO THE GREAT.
No one disputes this title, for he was not only
the greatest man of his day, but also one of the
greatest in the patristic Church. Born in the last
decade of the fourth century, probably at Rome, he
witnessed the downfall of the imperial power in the
West, and its real, though not yet nominal, transfer
to barbarian and ecclesiastical hands. Our first
glimpse of him is as an acolyte, sent with a papal
message into Africa. From 422 to 432 he was
archdeacon at Rome, under Pope Ccelestius. In
the last days of Pope Sixtus, he was sent into Gaul
on an embassy for reconciling two imperial gener
als, and from there he was recalled, in the year
440, to take the vacant papal chair Seldom has
papal or imperial throne been in greater need of a
man than was now the episcopal chair of Rome.
For a generation longer the empire was to endure ;
but it was already powerless to protect its subjects,
and the only barrier against barbarian ravages in
Italy was the slight reverence of the barbarians for
religion. In the chief representative of this august
power, therefore, there was wanted that old Roman
spirit of patriotism, as well as the Christian spirit
of self-denial. The man for the crisis was Leo.
History presents no nobler picture than that of his
meeting with Attila the Hun. The "Scourge of
God " had swept across Europe ; repulsed but not
destroyed at Chalons, he had turned to Italy, and
was now descending upon Rome. The Goths were
Romans when compared with these dreaded pa-

LEO THE GREAT. 193
gans ; and the sack of the city by Alaric was likely
to be remembered with pleasure, compared with
the utter and awful destruction which now threat
ened. The senate in its extremity deputes Leo to
visit and if possible turn back the conqueror. How,
we know not, but whether, as tradition says, he was
so wonderfully impressed with the majestic appear
ance of the pontiff, or whether, the sickness of his
soldiers warned him of disaster, Attila was induced
to turn back, and the success of his mission con
firmed to Leo his rising power. Again, when Gen-
seric was approaching Rome, Leo went out to
meet him, and, though he could not avert the fall
of the city, he is said to have secured important
immunities for the citizens. To these public acts,
it may be said, there is no word of reference in
Leo's many letters, which confine themselves strict
ly to the affairs of the Church. In our account of
these letters, we have alluded to many of the im
portant events of his career. We may refer, how
ever, to his zeal against the Manichseans, many of
whom, upon the conquest of Africa, had fled from
Carthage to Rome. Leo had them searched out
from their hiding-places, examined into their be
liefs and their alleged nefarious practices, and used
all his power for their suppression. Besides his
voluminous correspondence upon the Eutychian
matter, he convened a council at Rome after the
" robber council " at Ephesus, which declared that
the emperor's council had depraved the purity of
the faith and the discipline of the Church, and that
all its acts were void. The action of Leo which
has received the most serious and probably the best-
'7 1

194 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
merited criticism was that in connection with Hilary
of Aries. Important interests of the whole Church
were at stake, when the narrow-minded Eastern
monks were endeavoring to pervert the ancient faith,
and, remembering this fact, no one deprecates the
self-assertion of the bishop of Rome toward the em
peror and the Eastern Church in order to obtain
the utterance of Chalcedon. No one can justly con
demn his firm government of the churches of Italy,
which were immediately responsible to him. But
when he not only excommunicated the holy Hilary,
exarch of a distant province, for a seemingly slight
cause, but even used his power over a weak sover
eign to obtain an imperial rescript declaring him
sovereign in ecclesiastical matters, and enforcing
obedience to his decisions by the secular power,
then he seems to have abused the high station and
the great influence with which he had been in
trusted. But even this action will be approved by those
who admit Leo's theories as ¦ to the papal power.
For he held that Peter was not simply primus inter
pares among the apostles, but that, instead, he held
a kind of mediatorial position between them and
Christ. Since, as the bishop of Rome, he was
Peter's successor, he deemed himself the channel
of grace not merely to his own diocese, but to the
whole Church. Whoever, therefore, withdrew, or
was cut off from him, was estranged from the true
Church. The extant works of Leo are a large collection
of letters and of sermons. His death occurred
a. d. 461.

LEO THE GREAT. 195

LETTERS.

Leo's letters, one hundred and seventy in num
ber, may be grouped into four classes : 1. Doctri
nal. 2. Concerning the papal prerogative. 3. Dis
ciplinary. 4. Miscellaneous. The doctrinal letters.
relate chiefly to the Eutychian controversy, though
one, the fifteenth, is devoted to the Priscillianists.
The end of all the Eutychian correspondence is to
secure the adoption by the Council of Chalcedon
and throughout the East of the doctrine of the in
carnation set forth in his famous twenty-fourth let
ter ! The correspondence in regard to the papal
prerogative grew out of the twenty-eighth canon of
the Council of Chalcedon, which granted to the
church of the city of Constantinople, which is
called New Rome, the same privilege with that
of old Rome (which was, however, to retain the
primacy), because the former city is the second city
in the world j and also gave to the Church juris
diction over Pontus, Asia, and Thrace, and over
the churches outside of the empire — that is, over all
the world not included within the patriarchates of
Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and the newly consti
tuted patriarchate of Jerusalem. The wide jurisdic
tion thus given the patriarch of New Rome was far
less objectionable to Leo than the reason upon which
it was based. The second city of the world, New
Rome might be ; but there was but one Peter, and
the Church which derived its supremacy from him
could not, upon claims of imperial rank, share its
dignity. The papal delegates had refused assent to
this act, and Leo, upon hearing of it, at once wrote
in remonstrance to the Emperor Marcian, the Em
press Pulcheria, and Anatolius, bishop of Constan
tinople. He tells Marcian that he is willing that
the city of Constantinople should be equal to
Rome, but it must not be so, he says, with churches.

196 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
There is no solid foundation for the Church but
that rock which Jesus Christ has laid. Anatolius
can not prove that his church is an apostolic see.
The privileges of churches can not be overthrown,
being established by the canons of the fathers, and
fixed by the decrees of the Council of Nice. He
is obliged by his office to see these canons exe
cuted, and would be blameworthy should he suffer
them to be broken. He exhorts Marcian to use
his counsels, and, if need be, his authority, to pre
vent Anatolius from encroaching upon the rights of
other bishops. He informs the empress that he
cancels and makes void, by the authority of St.
Peter, all the constitutions which are contrary to
the laws established by the Council of Nice. He
commends Anatolius for his faith, but condemns
him for his ambition. He has broken, he says, the
decrees of the Council of Nice in presuming to or
dain the bishop of Antioch ; for he had thereby
robbed the churches of Alexandria and Antioch of
the second and third places respectively accorded
to them by that council. He must not think to
elevate himself on the authority of any pretended
constitutions of the bishops made sixty years ago
[at the Council of Constantinople], but never sent
to the Holy See, and never yet executed. Finally,
Leo forbids Anatolius to disturb the metropolitans
in their ancient rights, and declares his intention
that the churches of Alexandria and Antioch shall
remain in possession of their ancient order. Many
letters passed upon this theme, and with the result
that Anatolius at last waived the rights accorded
to his see at Chalcedon, and submitted himself to
the commanding Leo. But, while having thus to
assert his claims in the East, in the West he always
and everywhere assumed his supremacy. The let
ters here called disciplinary were written to various
churches and bishops, directing, forbidding, com-

LEO THE GREAT. 197
mending, rebuking, with greater than imperial au
thority. Among them is one to the bishop of Aqui
leia, enjoining upon him to call a synod for the
condemnation of Pelagian heresies, which are creep
ing into that church, and to compel all the clergy
to make a new confession in writing. Another re
proves the churches of Sicily for administering bap
tism upon the feast of Epiphany, and directs them
instead to follow the custom of the church of Rome,
and baptize only at Easter and Pentecost. He
also commands them to send these bishops every
year to the synod which he held at Rome. A let
ter to the bishops of Mauritania contains directions
for reforming the great disorders into which the
churches of that region had fallen in the matter of
ordaining bishops. The letter to the French bish
ops with reference to the claims of Hilary has
already been referred to. Hardly less noteworthy
were his communications to the bishops of Illyria.
The province of Eastern Illyricum had formerly
been a part of the Western Empire, and under the
jurisdiction of the Roman patriarchate. Under
Theodosius II it was transferred to the Eastern
Empire, and by imperial decree its ecclesiastical
direction was given to the church of Constanti
nople. Pope Boniface secured the revocation of
this decree, but still the papal authority over the
province was not so unquestioned as that over the
Western dioceses. Leo then showed wisdom as
well as vigor in its administration. Appointing
Anastasius, bishop of Thessalonica, his vicar, he
insisted rigidly upon his own appellate jurisdiction,
but carefully secured to the metropolitans all their
canonical privileges. He enjoined upon Anastasius
to act with gentleness and charity, principally in
reproving bishops, and to seek to amend delin
quents by kindness. Upon one occasion he blamed
him sharply for the severity which he had shown

198 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
toward the metropolitan of Epirus, because he had
not appeared at a synod, telling him that he had
been appointed deputy of the Pope, not to exercise
the same authority, but to share in his care. Of
the miscellaneous letters reference may be made to
a number written to the emperor and to others,
with the purpose of correcting the date which the
bishop of Alexandria had assigned for the observ
ance of Easter in the year 455. In this attempted
assumption of a prerogative given by the Council
of Nice to the Alexandrian church, he was acting
against his own boasted principles, and, it may be
added, he did not succeed. A more marked affront
to the dignity of the second patriarchate was a
letter written to Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria,
urging upon him to adopt new customs, such as
were followed at Rome, in regard to ordination.
Letter (XXIV) to Flavian, on the Incarnation.
" Is there anything more unreasonable than to
be unwilling to submit to the authority of the most
wise and learned ? But this is what one does
when, in contempt of- the oracles of the prophets, of
the apostles, and of the gospel, he listens only to
himself, he becomes a teacher of error because he
has not been willing to be only a disciple of the
truth. What knowledge of the Scripture can be
believed of this strange doctor (Eutyches), who
appears to be ignorant of the first articles of the
creed ? What all who are regenerated in baptism
have to confess has not yet been learned by this
indiscreet old man, who knows not how to conceive
thoughts worthy of our august mysteries, nor to
listen to those who are more wise and learned than
himself. Is it not of such obstinacy that the
psalmist says, that it has left off to be wise and to
do good ? What else needed he to hear ? Noth
ing beyond the ordinary formula by which the

LEO THE GREAT. igg
faithful profess their belief in God the Father Al
mighty, and in Jesus Christ his only Son, born of
the Virgin Mary by the operation of the Holy
Spirit. To confess that the Almighty is Father is
to say that his Son is consubstantial with him, this
very Son who was born of the Virgin. The gen
eration in time has added nothing, and has taken
away nothing from the eternal generation. But the
Son, begotten from all eternity, has none the less in
time taken our nature, which he has thus made his
own by making himself consubstantial with us.
Without which neither the dominion of death and
sin, nor the power of Satan, could have been de
stroyed — that is to say, the divine and human na
tures were united in the person of Jesus Christ, in
order that the Mediator might be able to make sat
isfaction by suffering and death, and might hence
forth remain impassible and immortal.
" Our Divine Mediator has in his person all that
is naturally in us, all that was put there at the cre
ation, and which he wishes to restore in redeeming
us. Yet he has not what the tempter has superadded.
He took the form of the servant or of the sinner,
but not the pollution of sin. He has lifted again
the baseness of humanity without degrading the di
vinity. The humiliation by which the Master and
Creator of immortals was willing to become a man,
subject to death, is not a defect of power, but an
effort of mercy all-powerful, such that in taking all
the properties of our nature he did not lose anything
of his own. The divine nature was not altered by
the grace which it bestowed upon us ; the human
nature was not absorbed by the dignity which it
received. He became as truly man as he remains
immutably God. He is God, since before all be
ginning the Word was, and the Word was God,
since the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
men. He is man, born of a woman, and subject to

200 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
our infirmities with the exception of sin ; but all
things were made by him, and without him was not
anything made. His temporal indicates his human
nature ; that birth received from a virgin denotes
his divine power. He is an infant in the lowliness
of a cradle; he is the Eternal celebrated in the
highest heavens. Herod seeks him to put him to
death ; but the wise men came from the east to
adore him. Like a sinner he receives the baptism
of John, and in the same moment the thrice holy
God declares him his well-beloved Son. As man
he is tempted by Satan ; as God he is served by the
angels. It belongs evidently to man to feel hunger,
thirst, weariness, the need of clothing and sleep;
but it assuredly belongs to God to satisfy five thou
sand men with five loaves ; to give the drink that
forever assuages thirst ; to walk upon the waves and
to command the tempests. It belongs not to the
same nature to weep over the death of a friend and
to raise him from. the dead; to die upon a cross
and to put all nature in mourning ; to obscure the
sun ; to cause the earth to tremble ; to break the
rocks and hearts hardened in crimes ; and to open
to the penitent thief the door of heaven. Since the
Son-begotten before all time has received in time a
new birth, there exists a new order of things. He
who in his own nature is invisible has made himself
visible to ours ; the incomprehensible has put him
self within reach of our conception ; the source of
all beings has begun to be ; the Master of things
which are, and of things which yet are not, has
taken the form of a servant; the Infinite has in
closed himself in the heart of a babe ; the Impassi
ble has clothed himself with members which suffer;
and the Author of life has made himself subject to
death. Thus things opposite were found united ;
and although in Jesus Christ there is but one per
son, these remain constantly and without any mix-

LEO THE GREAT. 201
ture two different natures. That is another which
makes him say, ' The Father and I are one,' from
that which leads him with like truth to say, ' The
Father is greater than I.' It is by reason of this
unity of persons that it is indicated, as well in the
Scriptures as in the creeds, that the Son of man de
scended from heaven, and that the Son of God took
flesh from the virgin; that he was crucified and
slain, although only as to his human nature. When
he conversed with his disciples upon earth, he asked
of his apostles whom they believed the Son of man
to be, that is to say, himself, whom they saw clothed
in mortal flesh. Peter, answering, says to him that
he is the Christ, the Son of the living God, recog
nizing him at once as God and man. After his
resurrection he caused it to be observed by the
marks of his wounds that his body was real, sensi
ble, palpable ; and at the same time he entered the
room where his disciples were concealed, the doors
being shut, and gave to them the Holy Spirit, the
knowledge of Scriptures, the gift of miracles ; and
thus he showed in his person the two natures united,
yet distinct. Upon what, then, does he rest who is
not willing to accord to Jesus Christ one veritable
nature ? Let the rash Eutyches tremble at these
words of John : ' Every spirit which confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God ;
and every spirit which divideth Jesus Christ is not
of Christ, but an Antichrist' Now, what is that
which divides Jesus Christ if not the cutting off of
his human nature ? This ruinous error destroys
the Saviour's passion and the virtue of his blood."
The letter closed with a reference to the error of
Eutyches, in saying that Christ before his incarna
tion had twohatures. Leo wouldhave Eutyches dealt
with tenderly, however, so only as he turns to the
truth. The faith, he thinks, is never better avenged
than when it is condemned by its own authors.

202 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
The epistle is said to have been listened to in
the Council of Chalcedon with the most enthusiastic
approval, and it was inserted entire in the acts of
the council, and considered as a rule of faith.
SERMONS.
Of these there are nearly a hundred extant.
Preaching was comparatively a new practice in the
Roman Church, and these discourses have nothing
of the elaborateness of Greek sermons. Short and
practical, they are thus characterized by Milman :
" They are singularly Christian : Christian in dwell
ing almost exclusively on Christ, his birth, his pas
sion, his resurrection.
" They contrast with the florid, desultory, and
often imaginative and impassioned style of the
Greek preachers. They are brief, simple, severe ;
without fancy, without metaphoric subtilties, with
out passion ; it is the Roman censor animadverting
with nervous majesty on the vices of the people;
the Roman praetor dictating the law, and delivering
with authority the doctrines of the faith." Above
a third of the sermons have reference to fasting ;
six are upon alms-giving ; forty or more are upon
the nativity, epiphany, passion, resurrection, and
ascension of our Lord, and four have reference to
the honors of the see of St. Peter, Leo being accus
tomed to preach annually upon this theme, on the
anniversaries of his promotion to the see. Of the
few miscellaneous discourses the following is the
most noteworthy :
Sermon upon, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.
When the twelve apostles, after having been
endowed by the Holy Spirit with the gift of tongues,
shared the world among themselves, that they might
go everywhere preaching the gospel, St. Peter, as
chief of the apostolic college, was assigned to the

LEO THE GREAT. 203
capital of the Roman Empire, in order that the light
of the truth, which had begun to shine for the sal
vation of all peoples, might spread the more easily
from the capital into all parts of the world. Was
there then a nation under heaven which had not a
citizen in Rome ?a and what people could remain
ignorant of what Rome had learned ? There, above
all, it was necessary to confound the pride of the
philosophers ; there must be demonstrated the van
ity of human wisdom ; there it was necessary to
destroy the sacrilegious worship of demons, to put
an end to their impious sacrifices, and to overthrow
idolatry in the very place where superstition had
brought together the errors of the entire world.
Thou didst not then fear, O great Apostle, to enter
this formidable city ; and while Paul, thy glorious
colleague, was still occupied with the care of other
churches, thou didst come into this forest, filled
with all manner of ferocious beasts; thou didst
face this deep ocean with more of courage than
thou didst once display in walking upon the waters.
Already hadst thou given to the faithful Jews the
knowledge of the gospel; already established the
church at Antioch ; already had Pontus, Galatia,
Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia found themselves
subjected by thy labors to the laws of the gospel.
And now, without having the least doubt of suc
cess, and not being stopped by the little time re
maining to thee to live, thou dost bear the trophy
of the cross of Jesus Christ upon the capital, where
divine Providence, in its eternal counsels, has
placed the scene of thy martyrdom and the seat of
thy dignity.
Paul comes to associate himself with thy gener-
erous confession, that chosen vessel, the special
teacher of the Gentiles ; he joins himself with thine
apostolate at a time in which the principles of jus
tice, of virtue, and of liberty were oppressed by the

204 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
tyranny of Nero. The thirst for blood with which
he burned, inflaming itself by his brutal voluptu
ousness, drove him to give the signal for the per
secution which, like a torrent which no dam can
restrain, bursts through and precipitates itself upon
all of the Christian name. As if the grace of God
could be destroyed by the death of his servants !
He did not know that death is for them the great
est benefaction, since by contempt for this passing
life they purchase immortal felicity. No, the san
guinary furies of tyrants have no power against a
religion to which the cross of Jesus Christ has given
an imperishable foundation. Far from enfeebling
the Church, persecutions only strengthen it. The
discourse goes on to say that Paul and Peter were
equal in desert, being as the two eyes of the body
of the Church, of which Jesus Christ is the head.
It concludes by saying that without doubt these
two glorious apostles do endeavor by their prayers
to move our Lord to mercy.

FAUSTUS.

A Briton by birth, he became a monk of Lerins,
where he was made abbot. Later he was chosen
bishop of Rhegium. His distinction is due to his
leadership of the Gallic bishops in their opposition
to the extreme predestinarian views of Augustine.
He belonged to the generation following that of
Cassian and Prosper. So fully had the more mod
erate views upon grace and free-will now come to
obtain, that in 475 a council of thirty bishops was
held at Aries to oppose what has since been called
the predestinarian party, though it is doubtful

CMSAR OF ARLES. 205
whether there was any such party, as distinct from
the Augustinian. This council appointed Faustus
to write upon the subject of its deliberations, and
we have his book " Of Grace and Free-Will," dedi
cated to the bishop of Aries. It is characterized by
its moderation. Faustus rejects the errors of Pela
gius ; acknowledges original sin, and the necessity
of grace to obtain salvation ; and owns that the
free-will of men is much weakened since the sin of
Adam. But he maintains that there remain to men
some knowledge of good and some seeds of virtue ;
that we can know and desire to do good with the
assistance of grace, and can not do good without it,
but that God denies this grace to no man ; {hat the
labor of man accompanies this grace, and that he
must obey its motions; that God knows from all
eternity the good and evil that all men will do ; that
he foresees all their actions and the end they will
have ; but that he predestines no man to salvation
or damnation. Other works of Faustus's are nine letters, sev
eral discourses, and a small treatise concerning the
generation of the Son, the incarnation, and the na
ture of the soul. He explains here his belief that
God did not suffer by the senses, but only by a kind
of compassion, and also maintains that the soul is
corporeal.

CAESAR OF ARLES.
Lerins, the home of semi-Pelagianism, was also
to train a man who should contribute largely to
iS

206 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
the overthrow of that system by the establishment
of a modified Augustinianism. Caesar, bishop of
Aries from 501 to 543, and one of the most influen
tial of the early French bishops, was a monk and
abbot of that monastery. He was a man of pious
zeal and self-sacrificing labors, who, says Neander,
had been drawn to embrace the Augustinian doc
trines by that tendency of Christian feeling which
led him to refer everything to God, and to acknowl
edge his kindness in every blessing ; and, in hold
ing fast only to this interest of practical Christian
ity, he carefully avoided all the excesses which
might do violence to any Christian feeling. As the
principal bishop of Gaul, he was the inspirer of the
action of a synod held at Orange, a. d. 529, which
adopted eight Augustinian articles, of which the
following are specimens : the seventh, which was
against those who believe that man may have some
saving thought for his own salvation, or make some
good choice without the aid of the Spirit ; and the
eighth, which was against those who say that some
come to the grace of baptism by their own free-will
and others by grace. Yet these views were tem
pered by two propositions put forth by. the council,
to the effect, first, that all who are baptized may
and ought, if they will, to labor for their own salva
tion ; and, secondly, that the council do not believe
that God has predestined men to damnation — nay,
they pronounce an anathema against those who
shall be of tbat opinion.
Caesar's literary productions were chiefly homi
lies, of which he composed a great number, not
only to preach himself, but also for the supply of

FULGENTIUS. 207
other clergymen. He made the account even, how
ever, by transcribing and using, sometimes almost.
entire, the sermons of others.

FULGENTIUS.
Living a century after Augustine, Fulgentius
was the foremost theologian of his day, and the
only approach to a successor to Augustine in Afri
ca. Born of a distinguished family and given a
thorough education, he renounced the public em
ployment upon which he at first entered, and be-,
came a monk. After some years of experience and
travel, he founded a monastery of his own, from
which, about a. d. 504, he was ordained bishop of
Ruspe. When King Thrasimond banished sixty of
the leading Catholic bishops to Sardinia, Fulgen
tius, although younger than others, was recognized
as their head. When the bishops, constituting as
they did in their exile a kind of permanent council,
were consulted upon matters of doctrine, it was
Fulgentius who formulated their replies. So great
was his fame that Thrasimond summoned him to
Carthage, and propounded to him certain difficult
questions concerning the Trinity, which he is said
to have answered to the satisfaction of the king.
The Arian bishop of Carthage, however, was not so
well pleased, and procured his return to Sardinia.
Recalled with his brethren in 522, he governed his
church in peace until his death, in 532. His writ
ings are mostly upon the Trinity and the person of

208 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
Christ, and upon the doctrine of predestination.
To the first class of works, not common in the
West, he was impelled by the Arian domination in
Africa ; to the second class, by the broader de
mands of his age, and by the Augustinian spirit
which he had inherited. We have nine of the Trini
tarian writings, but they contain nothing to demand
our notice. His views upon predestination and
grace were set forth in seven books, now lost,
against Faustus, whom we have noticed as the last
champion of the doctrine of Southern Gaul. They
were also given in the following works, now extant:
" Three Books of Answers to Monimus " ; a " Let
ter to the Scythian Monks," written in the name of
fifteen African bishops ; a " Treatise on Predestina
tion and Grace " ; and in " Letters to John and
Venerius," written in the name of the bishops. It
is sufficient to say of these views that they were
thoroughly Augustinian, and had a decided influ
ence in securing the triumph of (modified) Augus
tinianism at the Synod of Orange. The other ex
tant works of Fulgentius are several letters ; a
"Treatise of Faith," to Peter; "Answers to Ques
tions of Ferrandus " about baptism, in which he
says that baptism without faith avails nothing to an
adult, and that children receiving the sacraments
receive the grace of faith ; and two books " Of the
Remission of Sins." In the last work he says that
rione can obtain remission of sins and be saved
outside of the Church, and that none of those who
are in the Church can obtain pardon without being
truly converted and ceasing to commit sin, and to
love the creature so as to set the heart upon it.

BOETHIUS. 209
Also he says that there is no remission of sins to be
obtained but in this life, and that all those who die
in a bad estate shall be damned without mercy.
Upon these opinions a Catholic writer says : " Ful
gentius could not have said that every one who
dies in this state shall be damned without mercy
had he believed in a purgatory into which many
are thrown, who die in a bad estate, for their un
pardoned venial sins. And this sense of the words
is confirmed by what he says in his treatise of faith
addressed to Peter, that those who die in a good
estate shall be happy forever, and others (that is,
those who die in a bad estate) shall be condemned
to eternal punishment, where he plainly asserts two
different states only after this life, without any men
tion of a third."

BOETHIUS.
Flavius Anicius Manlius Torquatus Sev-
erinus Boethius. Such was the patrician name
of this distinguished writer. Born at Rome about
a. d. 470, of a family allied to emperors, his educa
tion gave him command of all the learning, Greek
as well as Latin, of his age. So complete was his
classical knowledge, and so approaching to that of
the classic authors was his style, that it has been
claimed that he spent eighteen years at Athens in
literary study. This claim is now deemed un
founded, but it only increases our wonder that
amid the fast-thickening barbarism there should
arise a Roman whom, as Gibbon says, Cato or
Cicero might have owned as a fellow-citizen, and a

210 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
writer whose masterpiece might not unworthily
have engaged the pen of Plato or of Tully. At an
early age he received from King Theodoric distin
guished marks of honor, and was soon promoted
to the highest offices of state. The authority there
given him he used as a patriot and a philosopher,
and by it was able to temper the harshness of the
Gothic domination. He was able also to secure
rank and honors for his own family, his two sons
being made consuls in the year 522. It is of this
period in his life that Gibbon speaks when he says,
" Prosperous in his fame and fortunes, in his public
honors and private alliances, in the cultivation of
science and the consciousness of virtue, Boethius
might have been styled happy, if that precarious
epithet could be safely applied before the last term
of the life of man." But two years only elapsed
when he found himself in prison awaiting a cruel
death at the hands of the same Theodoric who had
delighted to honor him. Yet but for this caprice
of a barbarian tyrant, the man apparently so happy
would to-day be forgotten. For it was in that
prison that he wrote his famous " Consolations of
Philosophy," a work which the world will not let
die. His death occurred a. d. 524.
It is only by favor that Boethius can be" claimed
as a church father ; for not only is the genuineness
of the theological works ascribed to him ques
tioned, but it is even said that we have no certain
evidence that he was a Christian. Still, the piously
theistic character of the " Consolations," together
with the fact that the Church has so long claimed
him, is sufficient warrant for this notice.

DIONYSIUS EXIGUUS. 211
The Consolations of Philosophy.
This book was made accessible to the ancestors
of English readers just a thousand years ago by the
translation of King Alfred ; and long before the art
of printing it existed in many manuscripts and va
rious languages. It has the form of a dialogue be
tween the author and Philosophy, and is written in
both prose and verse. Of its five books, the first
is given to Boethius's complaints at the sad mis
fortunes which have befallen him. To these Phi
losophy at first replies by reminding him of the long
course of prosperity which he has enjoyed, and that
his sorrows are only very recent. It is then shown
that the supreme happiness does not consist in the
possession of those things of which he has now
been deprived, but that God only is the sovereign
good. The fourth book sets forth that none but
the good are happy, and that the wicked are always
miserable, and then, discoursing of providence and
destiny, inquires why God permits the wicked to
enjoy a seeming happiness, and the good to suffer
pain. The last book treats of chance and free
will, and of the manner of reconciling free-will with
God's foreknowledge. Boethius makes Philosophy
to say that foreknowledge is not at all destroyed by-
free-will, because, although everything that God
foresees necessarily comes to pass, yet it would not
have been foreseen if it were not come to pass by a
perfectly free choice. '

DIONYSIUS EXIGUUS.
This writer would not obtain special mention
simply for the merit or extent of his writings. A
Scythian by birth, he was a good Greek and Latin

212 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
scholar, and especially apt at translating these two
tongues. Besides writing a number of translations
of Greek letters and treatises, he made a collection
of the general canons of the Church, and of the
decretals of certain of the popes, from Siricius to
Anastasius II. But, while this work would never
have given his name to posterity, Dionysius Exigu-
us is still remembered as the first writer to make
use of the Christian era for the fixing of dates.

CASSIODORUS.
If to Boethius we owe one masterpiece of an
tiquity, to Cassiodorus we doubtless owe many, not
indeed as their author, but as their preserver. Cas
siodorus was one of the few men who are privileged
to live two lives upon earth. He was born in Cala
bria, of an illustrious Roman family, and for above
forty years was an honored and trusted official of
the foremost rank in the courts of the Gothic kings
Odoacer, Theodoric, Athalaric, Theodatus, and Viti-
ges. When upward of sixty years of age, he with
drew from public life to a monastery which he had)
founded at his native city of Scyllacium. Entering
here upon a new career, he pursued it for almost
the common working period of man's life, and made
posterity his debtor by employing his monks to copy
in large numbers the most valuable writings of an
tiquity. He also contributed much to the wants of
the day by his own writings. Besides preparing a
" History of the Goths," now lost, and " Twelve

CASSIODORUS. 213
Books of Letters," consisting of the letters written
in his public life, a " Chronicon," and some trea
tises upon grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, he
wrote the following theological works : The " Trip
artite History," which was a compilation of the com
plementary parts of the Greek historians — Socrates,
Sozomen, and Theodoret; an extended "Com
mentary on the Psalms," preceded by a learned pro
legomenon ; commentaries on various parts of the
New Testament, now lost ; a work " On the Powers
of the Soul," which closes with a prayer expressive
of deep feeling and piety ; and the " Institution to
Divine Learning." His style, while not equal to
that of Boethius, is above that of his age, being, as
an old writer has quaintly said," of a middle size."
The Institution to Divine Learning.
In the preface to this work, Cassiodorus says
that he has been greatly troubled, that while there
are schools and masters for human learning, there
are none for instruction in divine learning. He
had made strenuous efforts, in company with Pope
Agapetus, for the establishment of such a school
at Rome, similar to the schools at Alexandria and
Nisibis. As the troublous times had made these
efforts unsuccessful, he now prepares this book as
an introduction to the study of theology, that he
may in some measure supply the want. He then
recommends students first of all to commit to mem
ory the Holy Scriptures, beginning with the Psalms,
and afterward to study the fathers of the Church.
Of those who are the safest interpreters, he men
tions particularly Gregory Nazianzen, Basil, and
Chrysostom, among the Greeks, and Ambrose and
Augustine of the Latins. He would also have the

214 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
history of the general councils of the Church under
stood, that the true faith may be distinguished from
all heresies. Afterward he gives an account of the
different divisions of the books of Scripture, and
speaks of the Hebrew text and the various versions,
whence he passes to an account of the ecclesiastical
historians and Latin fathers. To these studies he
would have added a knowledge of cosmography
and other sciences, and a sufficient acquaintance
with profane writers to facilitate the study of the
sacred books.
To the religious who have no aptitude for let
ters, he recommends the cultivation of the soil and
various rural occupations.
He would also have the leisure of the monastic
brethren employed in the transcription of books,
and so in the spreading of their treasures. Such
copyists, he says, are in a sense imitators of God,
who wrote his law with his own hand.

OTHER WRITERS AFTER LEO.
Salonius and Veranius, sons of Bishop Euche-
rius, were both bishops in France. We have from
their hands two letters to Pope Leo ; and from the
pen of Salonius, expositions of the proverbs of Solo
mon and of the book of Ecclesiastes.
Eustathius translated nine homilies of Basil, and
Cassiodorus said of his work that it equaled the ori
ginal. Eugenius, bishop of Carthage, who was banished
on account of his faith, wrote a " Treatise on the
Faith," and a petition, both of which he presented
to King Hunneric.

OTHER WRITERS AFTER LEO. 215
Cerealis, an African bishop, has sent down to us
a " Confession of Faith " in answer to Arius.
Victorius, of Aquitaine, was the maker of a pas
chal cycle from a. d. 73 to a. d. 559.
A collection of letters by Rurieius and Deside-
rius, two French bishops, has been preserved ; but
they contain nothing of value.
Vigilius, bishop of Thapsus, in Africa, was among
the bishops banished by Hunneric. He wrote a
number of works on the Trinity and on the Incar
nation, of which the best known are " Twelve Books
on the Trinity," which he put forth in the name of
Athanasius, and " Five Books against Eutyches."
Pope Gelasius wrote, besides a number of letters,
the following small treatises : " Upon the Binding
Power of an Anathema," a " Discourse about the
Lupercalia," a treatise " Against the Pelagians," and
a treatise " Against Eutyches and Nestorius."
Paschasius, a deacon of the Roman church,
wrote three books " Of the Godhead of the Holy
Spirit." Gennadius, a priest of Marseilles, wrote a " Book
of Ecclesiastical Writers," and a " Treatise of Doc
trine." The former, which may be called a con
tinuation of Jerome's " De Viris Illustribus " down
to a. d. 405, is of considerable value for the liter
ary history of this period.
Eunodius, bishop of Pavia, would have deserved
a separate article, if quantity of writings alone were
our standard, for he has given us about three hun
dred letters : a " Panegyric of King Theodoric " ; a
" Defense of the Council which acquitted Pope
Symmachus"; the lives of Epiphanius of Pavia, and

216 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
Anthony, a monk of Lerins " ; a " Eucharistie upon
his own Life " ; a treatise " Against the Heretics
of the East " ; six rhetorical pieces upon sacred
themes ; and some minor works* in prose and in
verse. None of them, however, were great works,
and, though a prominent man in his day, Eunodius
does not rank as a great eccleisastical writer.
More deserving of our attention than all these
works of Eunodius is the single extant writing of
Julian Pomerius. A native of Mauritania, he was
made a priest in France, and flourished toward the
close of the fifth century. His three books " Of
the Contemplative Life " are of genuine worth. Af
ter showing that the contemplative life, whose chief
joy is in the vision of God, is not possible to those
on earth, he depicts the future felicity in which it
will be possible to the deserving. The books con
tain a striking portraiture of the lives of worthy and
unworthy priests, and show in what the true riches
of a priest consist — in purity, justice, piety, pru
dence, temperance, and the want of attachment for
this world's goods. They describe vividly the arro
gant and presumptuous man, and trace all sins ulti
mately to pride. Describing the " outer darkness,"
they say, What is it but the eternal privation of
God, who is the light of our souls ?
Eugippius, an abbot, wrote the life of St. Severi-
nus, and also a collection of passages out of the
works of St. Augustine, which was highly recom
mended by Cassiodorus in his book of " Divine
Learning." Ferrandus, a deacon of the church at Carthage,
made a collection of canons for the use of the AfrL-

OTHER WRITERS AFTER LEO. 217
can churches, wrote a " Life of Fulgentius," and a
number of letters, and made the first written re
monstrance against the condemnation of the Three
Chapters, alleging that, if the Council of Chalcedon
might be impeached, so also might the Council of
Nice ; whereas general councils, and especially such
as the Roman Church had approved, had an author
ity second only to that of the canonical books.
Trifolius, a priest, has left a letter on the ex
pression, "One ofthe Trinity suffered."
Laurentius, bishop of Novara, was the author of
a treatise upon penance, entitled a " Book of Two
Times," and of several sermons.
Giles, a Gallic abbot, wrote a letter and a con
fession of faith.
Epiphanius Scholasticus translated Socrates, So-
zomen, and Theodoret, for Cassiodorus.
The bishops Portianus, Leo, and Trojanus, have
left each a letter, the last one on the subject of
baptism. Nicetius, bishop of Treves, wrote two tracts on
" The Watchings of God's Servants," and on the
" Usefulness of Singing Psalms," also two letters.
We have monastic rules of this period ascribed
to the pens of Aurelianus, Tenadius, and Ferreolus j
also letters written by Agnellus concerning the
faith, by Germanus of Pavia, to Brunhilda, and by
Evantius, against such as think the blood of animals
impure. Justus, a Spanish bishop, has left us a commen
tary on the Canticles ; Aretas, a commentary on the
Revelation ; Primasius, commentaries on the Reve
lation and the Pauline Epistles ; and Victor, bishop

218 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
of Capua, a " Harmony of the Gospels," believed
to have been copied from Tatian.
It is a relief to place in this somewhat barren
list the name of Facundus, bishop of Hermiana, in
Africa. He was at Constantinople when Justinian
endeavored to. extort from the bishops their con
demnation of the Three Chapters, and stoutly, op
posed the effort, writing for this purpose his twelve
books in " Defense of the Three Chapters." In
these he defended the memory of Ibas, Theodore
of Mopsuestia, and Theodoret, and urged the wrong
of condemning those who had died in the commun
ion of the Church. He remonstrates that it is the
part of princes to submit, not to dictate, in spirit
ual matters, and holds up to the emperor the ex
amples of Marcian, Leo, and the great Theodosius.
When Pope Vigilius changed his position and yielded
to Justinian, Facundus remained firm, and withdrew
from the communion of those who indorsed the
condemnation. We have two writings of his in de
fense of this course. In the " Defense of the Three
Chapters " is a passage which has been cited in the
controversies over the nature of the Eucharist.
The faithful, in receiving the sacrament of the body
and blood of Jesus Christ, he says, receive his body
and blood ; not that the bread is properly his body
and the cup his blood, but because they contain in
them the mystery of the body and blood of Jesus
Christ. Two other defenders of the Three Chapters
were Rusticus, a deacon of the Roman church, and
Liberatus, a deacon of the church at Carthage. We
have from the former a " Dialogue against the Ace-

THE LATIN CHURCH HISTORIANS. 219
phali," and from the latter an historical review of
the Nestorian and Eutychian contest to a. d. 553.
Junilius, an African bishop, wrote a book on
biblical introduction, entitled a "Treatise of the
Parts of the Divine Law." The author says that
he obtained the work from a student of the biblical
school at Nisibis. It is a treatise of real value,
and would take no mean rank by the side of mod
ern works.
Martin, bishop of Bracara, made a collection of
Greek canons, which he translated. He is also
known as the author of a treatise on " The Four
Cardinal Virtues."
Gildas, a British monk, born a. d. 520, has left
an historical writing upon his native land, in which
he deplores the sad state of morals among the
clergy. Sedatus and Chrysippius were each the author of
an extant homily, that of the latter being in praise
of the Virgin Mary.
Nearly all the popes of this period have left let
ters or decretals.

THE LATIN CHURCH HISTORIANS.
The early Western Church can boast of but lit
tle original work in the department of history, being
for the most part content with translations of the
Greek writers. The principal names to be remem
bered are Rufinus, Sulpicius Severus, Paul Oro
sius, Cassiodorus, Victor Vitensis, and Gregory of
Tours, the last two on account of local histories.

220 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
Of Rufinus we have already spoken.
Sulpicius Severus, a contemporary of Jerome,
was a priest of Aquitaine, and a friend of the poet
Paulinus. He was of a distinguished family, and
was educated for the bar, where he acquired some
fame before his conversion. Paulinus says of him
that " he despised wealth and glory, to follow Jesus
Christ, and preferred the preaching of fishermen
before all the pieces of Ciceronian eloquence and
all the books of fine learning ; however, he showed
his eloquence in the writings which he composed
after his conversion." The most important of these
was his work upon sacred history, in two books.
It contained a summary account of the events
which happened in the history of the Church, pa
triarchal, Jewish, and Christian, from the creation
to a. d. 400. His other writings were a " Life of
St. Martin," three dialogues, the first of which is
about the miracles of the Eastern monks ; and ten
letters. Three of the letters and two of the dia
logues are about St. Martin of Tours, Severus hav
ing been an eye-witness of many of the events which
he relates concerning this saint.
Paul Orosius lived at the same period. He
was a Spanish priest, who visited Augustine in
Africa, and by him was sent to Jerome in Palestine.
His history in seven books entitled " Hormesta,"
was undertaken at the request of Augustine, who
wished by it to meet the charges made by the
pagans, after the fall of Rome,' that the misfortunes
of the empire were due to the adoption of Chris
tianity in place of the old religion. It related the
principal events of history from the birth of Christ

THE LATIN CHURCH HISTORIANS. 221
to the time of writing. It was not exact, the author
being credulous and having never read the Greek
historians. Orosius had more of the spirit of Je
rome than of Augustine. He wrote a small treatise
upon free-will against Pelagius, entitled an " Apol
ogy," in which he calls upon Jesus Christ to witness
that he hates, not the heresy, but the heretic.
Cassiodorus's historical works have already
been described. It may be added here that his
" Tripartite History " was the standard work upon
Church history during the middle ages.
Victor Vitensis, a North African bishop, pub
lished in five books a " History of Vandal Perse
cutions " in that province in the fifth century, under
Genseric and Hunneric. The Vandals were Arians,
and visited upon the orthodox, perhaps with inter
est, the persecutions which they had themselves
formerly bestowed upon the Arians. Among other
things, Hunneric banished a great number of the
orthodox bishops to Corsica. Victor himself shared
in this persecution. •
Gregory of Tours, who died near the close of
the sixth century, wrote, in ten books, a history of
France, in which, after an outline of ecclesiastical
history from the beginning of the world, he gives
an account of the introduction of Christianity into
Gaul. He continues the history of that country,
secular as well as ecclesiastical, down to his own
times. It contains the famous tradition of the
seven bishops who were sent into Gaul in the time
of the Emperor Decius, and founded the churches
of Toulouse, Tours, Aries, Narbonne, Paris, Cler
mont, and Lemovicum. Gregory was simple and

222 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
credulous, and little weight can be attached to any
of the many marvels which he relates, unless they
are confirmed from other sources. Still, his work
covers in its way an important period, which but
for it would be left unchronicled.
To these works should be added a number of
"Chronicons," or outline chronicles. We have one
of them by Jerome, which was a translation of that
of Eusebius, continued down to a. d. 378, and
which was itself continued by Prosper to a. d. 405,
by Idacius to a. d. 467, and by Marcellinus to a. d.
535. Another, by Quintus Julius Hilarion, extended
from the beginning of the world to a. d. 397. A
very succinct chronicon by Cassiodorus contains
only the names of the consuls and the principal
events. Victor, an African bishop, continued Pros
pers work down to a. d. 565, and his own was con
tinued to A. d. 590 by John of Biclarum.

THE EARLY LATIN CHRISTIAN POETS.
An acute logician, with no knowledge of Chris
tianity, might almost reason out its genius and tend
ency from the history of Latin poetry during this
period. The poetry of the Augustan age, like the
Ciceronian eloquence, was now a thing of the past.
Still, as in the schools of Alexandria after the
Greek Muse had been long dead, so there yet sur
vived among cultured and polite Latins a perfect
knowledge of all the rules of the poetic art. In
the reign of Constantine, the very forms in which

THE EARL Y LA TIN CHRISTIAN POETS. 223
Virgil and Horace had written were doubtless fol
lowed daily in the exercises of Roman school-boys.
What, then, was needed but lofty conceptions and
motives to produce a new poetry ? But grand con
ceptions had come, nobler, more inspiring, than any
known to the Augustan Muse ; motives to expres
sion, too, there were, higher than any that prompted
the pagan poets ; yet generations passed with very
little of noble poetry. Christianity had come, un
folding the infinite ; Christianity, calling for worship
ful expression. Why were not Christian thought
and aspiration yoked to the old metrical chariot,
that it might course again among the clouds ? The
study of the poets of the age shows us why. The
metrical system of the classical poetry was artificial
and restrictive. With writers of anything less than
consummate genius, thought must be sacrificed to
beauty of form; whereas the Christian spirit de
manded freedom and the fullest unfolding of thought,
to it the expression of beauty was more than beauty
of expression. Hence it was that Christian writers,
aspiring to utter their new thoughts and longings in
verse, felt themselves cramped by their vehicle. To
speak freely, they must break over its bounds ; yet
quite to disregard its rules would be, they felt, to
give up poetry. So, as Archbishop Trench sug
gests, there were doubt and hesitation. Now, as in
the " Instructions " of Commodian — our first long
Christian work in verse — there was a complete aban
donment of the rules of quantity, and the substitu
tion of accent; now, as in Juvencus, we find a ren
dering of the gospel history in tolerably pure hex
ameter verse ; and again, as in Hilary and others,

224 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
there was a following of classical forms, but with
considerable liberty as to quantity.
All kinds of poetry were attempted, as well the
epic as the ode. But Christian heroics which should
be immortal were of the far-off future, and of other
tongues. The future of Latin poetry was to be
found alone in its hymns. In these, after classical
trammels should have been wholly ignored, Chris
tian devotion was to find its amplest expression.
Even in this age of imperfect release, there was
something more than the mere promise of good
things. Hilary first suggested what might be, in
his hymn "Lucis largitor splendide." Ambrose, in
what he himself sang, and still more by the " Am-
brosians " which he caused to be written and sung,
made it certain that there were richer things in
store. Prudentius fairly established the claims of
the new poetry to a distinct and respectful recogni
tion. Sedulius, while turning back, more than his
greater predecessor, to classical forms, yet sent down
hymns still chanted from the Roman Breviary.
Lastly, Fortunatus, in the midst of whose career
our period closes, wrote the " Vexilla Regis prode-
unt " and " Pange lingua gloriosi," two of the noblest
hymns of the Church.
It should be observed that, side by side with the
rejection of the classical rules of quantity and the
new dependence upon accent, there was gradually
introduced a hew help to melody in the use of
rhyme. Dr. Neale points to Hilary as the first who
has left us distinct traces of this use, in the hymn —
"Jesus refulsit omnium
Pius redemptor gentium ";

THE EARL Y LA TIN CHRISTIAN POETS. 225
but other authorities upon this subject hold that
this hymn can not be Hilary's. In the later devel
opment of the Latin hymnology, as is well known,
rhyme had an important place. Dr. Trench (see
the introduction to his " Sacred Latin Poetry ")
contends, as do other scholars, that both in their
dependence upon accent instead of quantity, and
in their use of rhyme, the Christian poets return to
the old ante-classical and native Latin poetry ; and
in this appeal to the native sense, he thinks, lay one
reason of their success in establishing the new poetry.
We glance now at the several writers :
Commodianus belonged to the preceding period.
His " Instructions," a Christian apology in hexame
ters, to be read accentually, a work of no poetic
merit, is referred to in Book II of this series.
Juvencus, a Spanish presbyter, flourished under
Constantine. His only extant work which is with
certainty ascribed to him is his " Life of Christ,"
or "Evangelical History," in four books, of 3,276
lines. In his exordium he speaks of his expecta
tion of being made immortal by his work, on ac
count of the divineness of his theme. The Muse
whom he invokes is the Holy Spirit. " The air of
the poem," says a kindly critic, " is very poetical,
the cadence of the verse is fine and soft ; but the
words are not always poetical, and sometimes they
are not good Latin." As to this last charge, it
should be no discredit to the author. How could
he use from the Latin what was not yet in the Latin,
and would not be until the new faith had incorpo
rated it ? His model for form seems to have been
Virgil.

226 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
Hilary, of Poictiers. - Of this father we have
already spoken. Our only poem which is his be
yond dispute is the hymn referred to as giving prom
ise of the future, the first stanza of which is thus
rendered by Dr. Neale :
" O glorious Father of the light,
From whose effulgence, calm and bright,
Soon as the hours of night are fled,
The brilliance of the dawn is shed ! "
Ambrose. (See article on Ambrose.)
Prudentius. " The prince of primitive Chris
tian poets " is the title which has been given to him.
He was born (at Saragossa?) in Spain, a. d. 348.
Educated for the law, he held office as a magistrate,
and was afterward appointed to an honorable place
under the Emperor Honorius. As late as his fifty-
seventh year he turned from worldly pursuits to de
vote himself to sacred poetry. One of his prefaces
tells us that he resolved to compose a hymn of
praise every day of his life. That he kept to this
purpose we do not know, but, if so, his repeated in
vocations of the sacred Muse did not preclude ex
cellence of attainment. He wrote heroic and lyri
cal poems. The former, which have never received
great praise, are the "Apotheosis," a defense of the
divinity of Christ against heretics; the "Hamar-
tigeneia," on original sin ; the " Psychomachia," an
allegory on the contest of Faith with her enemies ;
the "Dittochseum," treating of Old Testament his
tories ; and " Two Books against Symmachus." His
distinction was gained by his two lyrical works,
known as the " Cathemerinon " and the " Peristepha-
non." The former is a collection of poems, twelve

THE EARL Y LA TIN CHRISTIAN POETS. 227
in all, for the various hours and occupations of the
Christian, and it is from these that most of the
hymns by Prudentius, now in use by the Latin
Church, have been taken. The shortest of the po
ems contains 80 and the longest 220 lines, so that
it is only by selections that they have been adapted
to liturgical use. The hymn which is perhaps best
known by translation is one from the poem " For
Christmas-Day," beginning —
"Of the Father's love begotten."
Dr. Neale pronounces the poem " For Funerals "
to be the noblest of them all, and has translated
portions of it, from which rendering we take the
following :
" The ages are hastening onward,
When the frame vital heat shall revisit,
And, animate then and forever,
Shall assume its first-loved habitation.
" Hence tombs have their holy attendance,
Hence the forms that have seen dissolution
Receive the last honors of nature,
And are decked with the pomp of the burial.
" For what mean the tombs that we quarry,
What the art that our monuments boast in,
But that this which we trust to their keeping
Is not dead, but reposing in slumber ? "
The " Peristephanon " is a collection of fourteen
poems concerning the crowns of martyrs, ranging in
length from 18 to 1,140 lines. One of the best is
upon " The Eighteen Martyrs of Saragossa." One,
which refers to the infant martyrs of Bethlehem,

228 POST-NICENE LATIN FATHERS.
contains the following, taken from a translation used
in Schaff's " Christ in Song " :
" The Lord's first votive offerings of blood,
. First tender lambs upon the altar laid,
Around in fearless innocence they stood,
And sported gayly with the murderous blade."
Paulinus of Nola. Born of a noble family at
Bordeaux, he resided for a time in Spain, and went
thence into Italy, where he was made bishop, hav
ing previously given up much of his property to the
Church. He had been a pupil and friend of the
poet Ausonius, was a man of fine literary culture,
intimate with the distinguished churchmen of his
day, and had a high reputation among his contem
poraries. He wrote a panegyric of Theodosius, and
various extant letters. Of his poems, Augustine
said that they were sweet as milk and honey, and
that by them the faithful were transported. They
have not, however, gained much recognition in mod
ern times.
Sedulius. Flourishing under Theodosius II
and Valentinian III, this author, who became a
bishop, wrote the " Carmen Paschale," a hymn, an
elegy, and an " Opus Paschale," a prose rendering
of the " Carmen." The latter is in five books, the
first of which contrasts paganism with Christianity.
The other four are like the work of Juvencus in
giving the life of our Lord in verse. Contrasting
the two works, Dr. Neale says : " The lines of Ju
vencus read like the imposed task of a school-boy;
those of Sedulius like the composition of a poet
and a divine." The hymn is an acrostic, contain
ing the whole life of Christ, and parts of it have

THE EARL Y LA TIN CHRISTIAN POE TS. 229
always been in use in the Church. The second
stanza has been rendered as follows :
" Blest Author of this earthly frame,
To take a servant's form he came,
That, liberating flesh by flesh,
Whom he had made might live afresh."
Dracontius. He was a Spaniard by birth, and
an advocate at Carthage under the Vandal king
Gunthamund. His chief work was an heroic poem
in three books, known as the " Carmen de Deo."
The first book treats of the creation of the world,
the fall of man, the sentence of death upon our
first parents, and of the resurrection. The other
two, which are inferior, cover a variety of topics.
He wrote also an elegy called " Satisfactio," ad
dressed to King Gunthamund, whom he had of
fended. Aritus was a contemporary of Dracontius, and
wrote an heroic in five books, in the first three of
which he treats the themes of Milton in " Paradise
Lost." The fourth is upon the Deluge, and the
fifth upon the Red Sea, in both of which he treats
of the mystery of baptism.
Ennodius has received notice heretofore. His
poems have no present interest.
Arator was a state official of respectable posi
tion, and afterward a sub-deacon of the Church of
Rome. He wrote a paraphrase of the Acts of the
Apostles in heroic verse, which was publicly read
at Rome and elicited great applause. The poem is
noteworthy for its correct classical versification.
Apollinaris Sidonius. This author was born
in Lyons, a. d. 430, his father and grandfather hav-

230 POST-NICENE LA TIN FA THERS.
ing been prefects. He himself married a daughter
of Aritus, for a short time emperor in Gaul. He
was highly honored by succeeding emperors, by
one of whom he was made governor of Rome.
Though a layman, he was chosen for bishop of
Clermont, and was consecrated A. d. 472. His
style was correct and even elegant. He made a
collection of nine books of his own letters. His
poems consist of three panegyrics in verse, and a
collection of poems addressed to his friends.
Other names may be mentioned to complete our
list: Pope Damasus and Prosper of Aquitaine
both wrote verses, which are now little known.
Hilary of Aries wrote a poem on the beginning
of Genesis. The work of Paulinus of P£rigueux
consisted of six books of pitiful verse upon the life
of St. Martin. Claudianus Mamertus, a priest
of Vienne, who wrote against Faustus of Ries, was
extravagantly praised by Sidonius. The "Pange lin
gua " of Fortunatus was once assigned to him. Proba
Falconia framed a life of our Lord out of frag
ments from Virgil. Orentius of Elvira is also
known as having written an " Admonition to Chris
tians " in verse.
Fortunatus belongs more strictly to the suc
ceeding age, and will be mentioned among the me
diaeval Latin poets; but his grandest hymn, the
" Vexilla Regis prodeunt," was written before a. d.
590, on the occasion of the reception of a piece of
the true cross, which was borne in procession at the
dedication of a new church at Poictiers. Following
is Neale's rendering, with one verse added, as given
in Schaff's " Christ in Song" :

THE EARL Y LA TIN CHRISTIAN POETS. 231
The Royal Banners forward go,
The Cross shines forth in mystic glow ;
Where He in flesh, our flesh who made,
Our sentence bore, our ransom paid.
There while He hung, His sacred side
By soldier's spear was opened wide,
To cleanse us in the precious flood
Of water mingled with His blood.
Fulfilled in all that David told
In true prophetic song of old,
How God the nation's King should be; ,
For God is reigning from the tree.
O Tree of Glory, Tree most fair !
Ordained those Holy Limbs to bear ;
How bright in purple robe it stood,
The purple of a Saviour's blood !
Upon its arms so widely flung,
The weight of this world's ransom hung:
The ransom He alone could pay,
Despoiling Satan of his prey.
To Thee, Eternal Three in One,
Let homage meet by all be done :
As by the cross Thou dost restore,
So rule and guide us evermore 1

THE END.

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