part on the orthodox side. It is from his writings against Pelagius that we obtain the fullest view of his theological system. Of this the following synopsis is given by Gieseler (Church Hist. vol. i. p. 380):—"By the sin of Adam human nature became physically and morally corrupt. From it evil lust has come, which, while it has become the inheritance of all men by generation, has risen to original sin, in itself damnatory, and prevails so much over the will of the natural man, that he can no longer will what is good, as he should do, out of love to God, but sins continually, as his actions may also externally show. From this corrupt mass of humanity, God resolved from eternity to save some through Christ, and consign the rest to deserved perdition. Though baptism procures forgiveness of sin, even of original sin, it does not remove the moral corruption of man. Therefore, divine grace, alone and irresistibly, works faith in the elect, as well as love and power to do good. Those to whom the grace of God is not imparted, have no advantage from Christ, and fall into condemnation, even an eternal one." In maintaining these dogmas, Augustine displays great vigour and acuteness, immense resources, and a fearless resolution to follow out his conclusions to their legitimate dialectical issue. His naturally ardent temperament made him a severe and unsparing controversialist; but he seems to have nobly kept himself from confounding the persons of his antagonists with their opinions. Whilst he treated the latter with the utmost rigour, he was respectful and even kind towards the former. Thus he speaks of Pelagius, the man of all others whom he most vehemently opposed, "as a man to be proclaimed good, an illustrious Christian" (De peccat. meritis et remissione, lib. iii. c. 3), and he says of him—"I not only have loved him, but I love him still" (Ep. 186). He speaks in the kindest and most indulgent spirit to the Manicheans, even whilst writing earnestly against their doctrines, and Locke has thought his tolerant words to them so excellent, that he has inserted them among the choice specimens in his "New Method of a Commonplace Book" (Works, vol. iii. p. 491, fol.). The only exception to this prevailing gentleness towards his antagonists, is furnished by his acquiescence in the persecution of the Donatists.
Augustine held his place as bishop of Hippo till the year 430, when he died in the 76th year of his age. His end was peaceable, though amid scenes of violence and suffering. The Vandals, under Genseric, had laid siege to Hippo, and for many weeks had exposed its inhabitants to peril and straits. The aged bishop, pained by the scenes which constantly met his eye, and anticipating still greater disasters, earnestly besought of God deliverance for the people from their enemies, and for himself a speedy emancipation from all earthly burdens and cares. His prayer for himself was heard; in the third month of the siege, on the 28th of August, he was, to use the words of Gibbon, "gently released."
Augustine was a man of a powerful, capacious, and acute intellect, which he had cultivated by the diligent study of the best authors, whose works he could procure in the Latin language. Beyond this his reading does not seem to have extended; of Greek he knew little, and of Hebrew nothing. As an author, his style is somewhat rugged, but full of force and fire; and in many of his works there is an undercurrent of sentiment and tenderness which lends an indescribable charm to the whole. His conduct, after he became a Christian, was marked by scrupulous integrity and purity, and impressed all who beheld it with a conviction of the sincerity of his profession. As a bishop he was conscientious and diligent; unmoved by worldly ambition, he remained "faithful to his first bride, his earliest though humble see" (Milman, Hist. of Christianity, iii. 282); and when dangers surrounded his flock, he refused to desert them, but, like a true pastor, remained to share with them in their privations, and to lend them what aid and encouragement his presence could supply. He was mercifully spared the agony of witnessing the ravaging of his fold. By his death, "he escaped the horrors of the capture, the cruelties of the conqueror, and the desolation of his church" (Milman, iii. 284).
At his death, Augustine left a vast mass of writings, a large proportion of which still remain. Besides those already mentioned, the most important are his "Confessiones;" his "Retractationes;" his treatise "De Civitate Dei;" and his homilies and comments on portions of Scripture. His Confessions contain a history of the earlier period of his life, interspersed with reflections and addresses to God, which, if they somewhat interrupt the course of the narrative, more than compensate for this by the insight they give us into the heart and soul of the man. His Retractations was the work of his old age, and contains a sort of review of all his previous writings and opinions, in which, with characteristic candour, he retracts and condemns what his maturer judgment led him to deem erroneous or imperfect. His work "On the City of God" is, perhaps, as a whole, his greatest production; it is an elaborate defence of Christianity, and a refutation of pagan mythology and philosophy, undertaken in consequence of an attempt on the part of the heathen to cast the odium of the sacking of Rome by the Goths on Christianity. On this work Augustine spent thirteen years, from a.d. 413 to a.d. 426, and it remains a monument of his knowledge, eloquence, and mental strength. "The 'City of God,' "says Milman, "is at once the funeral oration of the ancient society, and the gratulatory panegyric on the birth of the new. It acknowledged, it triumphed in, the irrevocable fall of the Babylon of the West, the shrine of idolatry; it hailed, at the same time, the universal dominion which awaited the new theocratic polity. The earthly city had undergone its predestined fate; it had passed away, with all its vices and superstitions—with all its virtues and its glories (for the soul of Augustine was not dead to the noble reminiscences of Roman greatness)—with its false gods and its heathen sacrifices: its doom was sealed, and for ever. But in its place had arisen the city of God, the church of Christ; a new social system had emerged from the ashes of the old: that system was founded by God, was ruled by divine laws, and had the divine promise of perpetuity." (Hist. of Christianity, vol. iii. p. 280.)
As an interpreter of scripture, Augustine does not rank very high; he lays down excellent rules of exegesis, but does not himself adhere to them, and consequently it is rather for their homiletical and spiritual merits than for their exegetical worth, that his commentaries are in repute. It is in the department of ethical and polemical theology that his merit lies. He was the father alike of the mediaeval scholasticism and of the theology of the Reformation, and to his writings also may be traced the germ of the theology of the mystics. The light that was in him was not extinguished by his death, but only ascended to a higher place, and has been shining through the centuries ever since.
The best edition of Augustine's works is the Benedictine, in 11 vols. fol. Paris, 1679, 1700; it has been reprinted recently in 11 thick imperial 8vo vols. Next in value to this is the Plantine edition, published at Antwerp in 1577, in 10 vols. fol., and often since reprinted. His life has been written by Tillemont, in the 13th volume of his "Memoires," by Kloth, (Aachen, 1840); and by Bindemann, Berl., 1844. For his opinions, see Ritter's Gesch. d. Christ. Phil., vol. i. p. 153; and Neander's Church History, vol. iv. p. 14-23, 303-387.—W. L. A.
AUGUSTINE or AUSTIN, Saint, and first archbishop of Canterbury, was a Benedictine monk of the convent of St. Andrew at Rome, when Pope Gregory I. chose him to carry out his long-cherished design of converting England to the Christian faith. Augustine and his companions set out, but were so terrified by the accounts they heard of the inhabitants of Britain, that Augustine returned to Rome to obtain the pope's permission to abandon their mission. Gregory, however, encouraged them; and having interested the king and queen of the Franks, and the archbishop of Arles in their behalf, persuaded Augustine and his companions to go on with the work which they had undertaken. Ethelbert, at this time king of Kent, and the third Bretwalda, had married Bertha, the daughter of Charibert, a Frank chieftain, and had granted her the free exercise of her religion, allowing her chaplain, Lindhard, bishop of Senlis, to celebrate divine service in the old Roman church of St. Martin at Canterbury. Already not hostile to Christianity, Ethelbert kindly received the missionaries, and permitted them to fix their abode in the isle of Thanet, and eventually in his capital, Canterbury. He shortly afterwards was baptized, and his example was followed by many of his subjects. Augustine's success was now rapid, and the king gave him full license to preach through all his dominions, declaring, however, that no compulsion should be used to effect a change of religion. Pope Gregory watched carefully over the rising church, and ordered Augustine to repair to Arles, to be there consecrated bishop of the English. Augustine obeyed, and shortly after his return, received his pall from Rome, whither he had sent Laurence and Peter, his companions, to report the condition of his church to
