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he became the successor of S. Ambrose, as Bishop of Milan in 397.

92.

28. Pontitianus was a distinguished soldier of African birth.

29. Anthony. See extracts from his life in this volume.

The high ideals, devotion and asceticism of the eremitical or monastic life appealed to Augustine. Anthony and his fellow-hermits, the "children and maidens" who served God perpetually in the churches, their bodily self-denial, their voluntary poverty, their obedience, stimulated to a complete triumph over sensuality one not born for half measures. At his death he left to his diocese, according to his biographer Possidius, "monasteries of men and women well supphed with superiors and subjects," to keep alive this sacred fire which had warmed himself.

93.

32. The complete text which was the turning-point of his conversion is given by Augustine as follows: Non in comessationibus et ebrietatibus, non in cubilibus et impudicitiis, non in contentione et æmulatione: sed induimini Dominum Jesum Christum, et carnis curam ne feceritis in desideriis: "Not in revellings and drunkenness, not in forbidden and impure indulgences, not in contention and jealousy: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and provide not for the flesh to excite its desires" (S. Paul, Rom. xii. 13 and 14).

94.

25. "Isaiah . . . he deferred to read." Ego primam hujus lectionem non intelligens, totumque talem arbitrans, distuli repetendum exercitatior in dominico eloquio (Confess, ix. 5).

(The construction of exercitatior is curious.) In the fifth and sixth books of his Confessions Augustine had already told of his endeavours to arrive with the help of S. Ambrose and others at a right understanding of the Holy Scriptures. Of the difficulties of such an endeavour he retained a humble conviction to the end of his life. "Great is the depth of thy words," he exclaims (Conf xiii. ch. 14), "their surface lies before us, tempting little ones; but great is their depth, O my God, and to gaze deep into them fills the soul with awe, with a trembling veneration, with a loving fear." In harmony with this feeling were the anxious desires he constantly manifested for a correct canon of the sacred books and for interpretations in accordance with the mind of the Church.

95.

8. "Te Deum Laudamus." The traditional story here given is of very questionable historical value. The hymn, which is largely a mosaic, is now very plausibly