Confess. 8. c. 1, 2. A. D. 386. yet comprehend the Incarnation, looking upon Christ only as a man of excellent wisdom; however he was already fond of the Holy Scripture, particularly of St. Paul. In this state he addressed himself to the Priest Simplicianus, who from his youth to a very advanced age had lived in a state of piety. He had instructed St. Ambrose, who loved him like a father. Augustine gave him an account of the whole course of his errors, and told him that he had read some of the books of the Platonists which the rhetorician Victorinus had translated into Latin. Simplicianus told him, that it was well that he had not met with the writings of other philosophers which were very seducing, whereas these every where give intimations of God and His Word. He gave him an account of the conversion of Victorinus, to which he had himself greatly contributed. Augustine was sensibly touched with it, and earnestly desired to imitate him, not only by receiving Baptism, but by renouncing, like him, his office of Professor of Rhetoric. Fleury, Book 15. ch. 6. LII. Conversion of St. Augustine. One day being at his lodging with Alypius, an African named Pontinianus, who held a considerable place at court, came to them. When they sat down to discourse together, Pontinianus perceived a book upon the table which stood before them; he opened it, and found it to be St. Paul. He was astonished to find that book there alone, instead of books of literature; he looked at Augustine with a smile mixed with surprise and joy; for he was a Christian, and offered frequent and continued prayers, prostrating himself before God, in the church. Augustine having told him that he bestowed very great pains on the Scriptures, the conversation fell upon St. Anthony, whose life Pontinianus related, as being very well known amongst the faithful. Augustine and Alypius had never heard of him; they were surprised to hear such wonders, and of so late a date; and Pontinianus was no less astonished that they had till then been ignorant of it. He told them of the great number of Monasteries which filled the deserts, and of which they had not the least knowledge. Y C. Marius Victorinus was an African professor of Rhetoric at Rome. He made public profession of Christianity in his old age (Hieron Chron. an. 355.) and when Julian forbade (conf. ch. 32. See Confess. 8. c. 5.) the Christians' acting as instructors of any kind, gave up his school of Oratory. He defended the Faith against Arianism in a dry, logical form (Hier. de Scr. Ecc. c. 101.) and wrote on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. Ejusd. Præf. in Gal. Tom. iv. They did not so much as know that there was one under the A. D. 386. direction of St. Ambrose, without the walls of the city of Milan where they lived. At length Pontinianus gave them an account of the conversion of two of the Emperor's officers, who as they were walking with him at Treves, found the life of St. Anthony amongst certain Monks, and were so affected with it, that they immediately embraced a monastic life. Augustine was deeply affected by this discourse. It was c. 7. twelve years since the reading of Cicero's Hortensius had excited him to the study of wisdom. He had sought for the truth, and he had found it; he only wanted to come to a determination, and he had no longer any excuse. Ponti- c. 8. nianus being gone, Augustine rose up, and addressing himself to Alypius, he said to him very earnestly, with his countenance entirely altered, and with an extraordinary tone of voice: "What ails us? What is this? The unlearned start up "and take Heaven by force, and we with our learning, and "without heart, lo, where we wallow in flesh and blood! "Are we ashamed to follow? Is it not more shameful to be "unable even to follow?" Alypius gazed upon him in silence, astonished at the change, and followed him step by step into the garden, whither the emotion under which he lay carried him. They sat down at as great a distance as they could from the house. Augustine groaned with indignation that he could not resolve upon what seemed only to depend upon his will; he tore his hair, he beat his forehead, and he clasped his knee with his hands clasped together. Alypius did not leave him, but waited in silence the event of this extraordinary agitation. Augustine, constrained to give vent c. 12. to his grief by cries and tears, rose up to seek retirement, and leaving Alypius in the place where they had sat, he lay down under a fig-tree, where, unable to contain himself any longer, he shed torrents of tears, and cried out: "When, O "Lord, when will Thine anger cease? Why to-morrow? "why not now?" Then he heard from a neighbouring house as it were the voice of a child, which, singing, often repeated these words in Latin: "Take up and read; take up "and read'." His countenance then changed, and he considered very attentively whether children used to sing thus in any kind of play, but he did not remember ever having '[Tolle lege, Tolle lege.] S. Athan. A. D. 386. heard the like. Upon this he refrained his tears, and thought that God had admonished him to open the book, and to read the first passage he should find, recollecting that St. Anthony had been converted during the reading of the [Sc.S.Mat. Gospel'. He returned therefore with all speed to the place 19. 21. where Alypius was sitting; he took up the volume of St. Paul Vit. 2.] which he had left there; he opened it, and read in silence the Rom.13. 13, first passage on which his eyes fell. It was this: 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 to fulfil the lusts thereof. He read no farther; for immediately all his doubts vanished. 14. He shut the book after marking the place, and with a calmed countenance told the matter to Alypius. He desired to see the passage, and made Augustine take notice of what Rom. 14. 1. followed: "Him that is weak in the faith receive;" applying the words to himself. They then came in and told this good news to St. Monnica, who was transported with joy. Augustine resolved at the same time to renounce marriage and all worldly expectations, and first of all to quit his school where he taught rhetoric. But he desired to do it without being taken notice of, and as there wanted but about three weeks to the vacation which was allowed for the vintage, he deferred declaring his intention until that time. He had also a plausible pretext to the world, for he had felt a pain in his chest that very summer, so that he would have been forced to quit his profession, or at least to leave it off for a time. LIII. The first 'Confess. 8. c. 3, 4. When he was at liberty he retired into the country, to a works of St. place called Cassiciacum, to the house of a friend whose name Augustine. was Verecundus', a citizen of Milan, and professor of grammar. c. 6. and 9. Augustine retired thither with his mother, his brother Navigius, his son Adeodatus, Alypius and Nebridius, and two young men his disciples, named Trygetius and Licentius, the latter of whom was the son of Romanianus. During this retreat he composed his first works, which are written in a very polished style, but they still savoured, as he himself owns, of the vanity of the school. The first is Against the Academics, who affirmed that every thing is obscure and [Cic. de doubtful, and that a wise man ought to affirm nothing as Nat. Deor. I. c. 5.] sure and certain; so that many being persuaded by their 2 Retract. lib. 1. c. 1. [to. 1. p. 3.] Acad.3.c.20. Vita § 6. C. 2. arguments, despaired of ever finding out the truth. St. Au- A. D. 386. gustine himself had been moved by them, and he composed Contra this treatise chiefly to fortify himself against this error. The [to.1.p.294.] second work is his treatise On a Happy Life, consisting of a conversation with which he entertained the company as with De Beata a spiritual feast on his birth-day, the 13th of November, [to.1.p.300.] and the two following days. The subject is to shew that a happy life is only to be found in the perfect knowledge of Retract. 1. God. The third work is his treatise On Order, in which he considers the grand question, whether the order of divine Providence comprehends all things both good and evil; but perceiving that what he treated of was too sublime for those to whom he spoke, he confined himself to discourse of the order of our studies. The fourth book is his Soliloquies, in 'DeOrdine, which St. Augustine converses with his reason as with second person. In the first book he enquires what sort of 1. c. 4. person he ought to be who desires to acquire wisdom; and proves in the conclusion that whatever things truly are, are im- [ea quæ mortal. In the second book he treats of the immortality of immortalia the soul, but this piece remained imperfect. These are the esse.] four treatises which St. Augustine composed at Cassiciacum during his retreat towards the end of the year 386. 2. c. 8. 3 Retract. verè sunt, Acad. I. c. The three first are the result of the learned conversations which he had with his friends, and which he caused to be Contra taken down in notes at the time they were spoken, that he î. § 4. might afterwards preserve what he thought proper. We here find a long account of the free and cheerful manner in which they lived together. Trygetius and Licentius, who were the youngest among them, continued their studies in literature, and St. Augustine explained to them every day after supper, half of a book of Virgil. Licentius followed his inclination De Ordine, I. c. 8. § 26. for poetry3, and made verses upon the story of Pyramus and Cont. Acad. Thisbe, while St. Augustine laboured to disengage him gently from these trifles. When it was fine weather they discoursed and III.c.1. as they sat in a meadow; when the weather was bad' they shut themselves up in the bathing-room. In these conversations they were not forward to answer, but they often considered a long time what answer to give, and when they thought they had gone too far they readily retracted. For these were not vain disputes in order to shew their wit, but II. c. 4. Ibid. c. 3, De Ord. 1. c. 3. § 8. 4 [Ibid. c. 8. $ 25.] c. 10. A. D. 387. enquiries into the truth. On one occasion Trygetius' being De Ord. 1. mistaken, would not have what he had said written down, but Licentius insisted upon its being written. St. Augustine earnestly reproved him for this childish emulation; and as Trygetius laughed in his turn at the confusion of the other, he gave them both a severe reprimand, and concluded by imploring them with tears to strive seriously after virtue in return for the care which he took in instructing them. St. Monnica was present at most of these conversations, for she easily comprehended whatever related to morality and religion, how sublime soever. St. Augustine spent near half De Ord. I. the night in meditating upon these important truths; and in c. 3. § 6. the morning prayed' long and earnestly with tears'; he was greatly affected with reading the Psalms". 3 Ibid. c. 8. $ 22. 4 c. 10. § 29. 5 Confess. 6 The vacation being over, he gave notice to the citizens of Milan to provide themselves with another Professor of Oratory. * c. 5. § 13. He wrote to St. Ambrose, giving him an account of his former 9. c. 4. nico elo quio.] irregularities and his present desires, entreating him to give him directions what part of the Scripture he should read, in order to prepare himself for Baptism. St. Ambrose recommended the Prophet Isaiah, but St. Augustine not being able to comprehend what he first met with, put off the reading it [in Domi- till he was more used to the style of the Scriptures. When the time came when he was to enter his name among the candidates for Baptism, in order to prepare himself, he left the country and came to Milan, about Lent in the year 387. It was there that he wrote his treatise on the Immortality of the [See to. 1. Soul, which was nothing but a book of memoranda for finishp. 387.] ing his Soliloquies. During this time he undertook to write [Disci- upon upon The Liberal Sciences, viz. grammar, music, logic, rhetoric, plinarum Libri.c.6. geometry, arithmetic, and philosophy. He finished his treatise upon Grammar, and afterwards lost it; he composed Sir [to. 1. p. Books upon Music, which he did not finish till two years after, 443.] c. 11. in Africa; he only began the rest, and of all these pieces Retract. 1. c. 5. only that upon music is extant. His design in all these works was to raise the thoughts of his friends who applied themselves to these studies to God, and to make them ascend by degrees from sensible to spiritual things, as is plain from the Confess, sixth book of his Music. For after his conversion he devoted 9. c. 4. § 7. all his studies to the service of God. Alypius' likewise pre c. 12. and c. 6. |