Page:Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature (1911).djvu/109

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AUGUSTINUS, AURELIUS
AUGUSTINUS, AURELIUS
91

God, it is really of the communio sanctorum that he is thinking. The logical incompatibility of the predestinarian and the Catholic view of the church is obvious, and Augustine never effected their reconciliation. The obvious reconciliation, upon which he often appears to fall back, is that although the church contains many who are not "elect," it yet contains all the elect. But this is to assume that the Divine election is absolutely bound to external means, which Augustine does not really hold. On the contrary, his conception of the universality of the One Religion of Christ (supra, a, sub fin.) brings in Job, the Sibyl, and doubtless many others "qui secundem Deum vixerunt eique placuerunt, pertinentes ad spiritalem Hierusalem" (de Civ. XVIII. xlvii.). Again, there are the unjustly excommunicated, who have nothing of the character of schismatics: "hos coronat in occulto Pater," etc. (de Vera Relig. ii. cf. de Bapt. I. 26, Epp. 78. 3, 250, fragm. ad. fin.). But practically Augustine passes to and fro between the thought of the numerus praedestinatorum and that of the visible church without being careful to distinguish them, and he freely applies to the latter the exalted and ideal prerogatives which are theoretically proper to the former.

To this side of Augustine's teaching applies the remark of Gibbon, that "the rigid system of Christianity which he framed or restored has been entertained with public applause and secret reluctance by the Latin church." In fact, as the ecclesiastical side of Augustine's thought supplied the inspiration for the medieval theocracy, so his predestinarian idea of the church furnished the theological foundation for most of the medieval counter-movements, especially those of Marsilius, of Wyclif, and of Hus; and the Zwinglian idea of an invisible church is little more than an isolation of this doctrine from the Catholic context which surrounded it in Augustine's own theology.

§ 17. Select Bibliography. (1) History of Publication.—Augustine's Retractationes, coupled with the Indiculus of Possidius, give a practically complete list of his authentic works and of the occasions of their composition and publication. During his lifetime they were widely multiplied in Latin Christendom (Possid. vii.); the Emendatiora Exempla, revised by himself, and bequeathed to the church of Hippo, were preserved through the disasters which overtook the town (ib. xviii.). The history of the study and literary influence of Augustine in after-times must be read in the histories of Christian doctrine. For the 11th cent. we have a useful investigation by Mirbt (pupil of Reuter), Die Stellung Augustins in der Publizistik des Gregorianischen Kirchenstreits (Leipz. 1888). The history of manuscript transmission may be read in the prefatory notes to the several treatises in the Benedictine ed., and in the Prolegomena to the instalments of Augustine's works that have so far been published in the Vienna Corpus Script. Eccles. Latinorum. The list of editions since the first by Amerbach (Basel, 1506) may be found in the article by Loofs (infra). The standard ed. is that by the Benedictines of St. Maur (see Kukula and Rottmanner in Hist.

Phil. Transactions of the Vienna Academy, 1890‒1892, and Tassin, Hist. lit. de la Congrég. de S. Maur., Brux. 1770), completed in 1690. The edition was by several hands, and was attacked fiercely by the opponents of Jansenism. This was perhaps inevitable in the attempt to make Augustine speak for himself. The principal points of attack were the Preface, by Mabillon, to the Tenth Volume, which its author revised under pressure, and the Index. The latter is a marvel of completeness, and many of its articles are in substance theological treatises. The Vita, mainly by Vaillant, is largely indebted to the contemporary work of Tillemont, the thirteenth vol. of whose Mémoires, a Life of St. Augustine, in 1075 pp., appeared after his death (1698). The Bened. ed. was reprinted at Venice, 1729‒1735. The eleven vols. in folio were replaced in the next reprints (Venice, 1756‒1769, Bassano, 1797‒1807) by eighteen in quarto. The Paris reprint of Gaume (1836‒1839) and that of Migne (in the Patr. Lat., vols. 32‒46) return to the arrangement of eleven vols.; but in Migne some of the vols. are subdivided, and a twelfth of supplementary matter (Patr. Lat. 47) is added. This edition is better printed than many of the series, and is the most convenient for reference. Its text should be superseded by that of the Vienna Corpus; but at present only a portion of Augustine's works have appeared in this series (Confessions, de Civ. Dei, Letters, 1‒133, Speculum, several exegetical works, anti-Manichean treatises, various anti-Pelagian works, and a vol. containing de Fid. et Symb., the Retractationes, and other works (1900); also the excerpts of Eugippius, an edition important for the light thrown by it on the text of Augustine).

(2) Editions of Separate Works.—We have a good edition of the de Civitate Dei, by Dombart (Trübner, 1863), and a more recent one of bks. xi. and xii., with intro., literal trans., and notes by Rev. H. Gee (Bell, 5s.), who has also ed. In Joannis Evang. Tract. xxiv.‒xxvii. and lxvii.-lxxix. (1s. 6d. each, Bell), with trans. by Canon H. Brown; a number of smaller tracts, and the de Trinitate in the SS. Patr. Opusc. Selecta, by H. Hurter, S.J. (Innsbruck, Wagner); Anti-Pelagian Treatises, with valuable Introduction by Dr. Bright (Clarendon Press, 1880); de Catechiz. Rud., by Krüger (in his Quellenschriften, 4, Frieburg, 1891); Confessions, by Pusey (Oxf. 1838), and Gaume (Paris, 1836, 12mo). The new ed. of Tract. in Joh. lxvii.-lxxix., by H. F. Stewart (Camb. 1900), has a translation and some admirably digested introductory matter.

(3) Translations.—The translations in the Oxford Library of the Fathers, and in Clark's series (Edin. 1866‒1872), are incorporated and supplied with useful introductory matter in the Post-Nicene Library (ser. 1), ed. by Dr. Philip Schaff (Buffalo, 1886‒8). Three Anti-Pelagian Treatises, by Woods and Johnston (D. Nutt, 1887). The Confessions, bks. i.‒ix., are translated by Dr. Charles Bigg (Methuen, 1897, with a most interesting Introduction). The extracts in this article follow this translation. Another ed. by Temple Scott, with intro. by Mrs. Meynell, is pub. by Mowbray (7s. 6d. net.), and follows Dr. Pusey's trans. Dr. Hutchings trans. and ed. the Con-