AUGUSTINE
86
AUGUSTINE
were truth, certainty (Against the Academics), true
happiness in philosophy (On a Happy Life), the
Providential order of the world and the problem of
evil (On Order) and finally God and the soul (Solil-
oquies, On the Immortality of the Soul).
Here arises the curious question propounded by modern critics: Was Augustine a Christian when he WTote these "Dialogues" at Cassisiacum? — Until now no one had doubted it; historians, relying upon the "Confessions", had all believed that Augustine's retirement to the villa had for its twofold object the improvement of his health and his preparation for baptism. But certain critics nowadays claim to have discovered a radical opposition between the philosophical "Dialogues" composed in this retire- ment and the state of soul described in the "Con- fessions". According to Harnack, in writing the "Confessions" Augustine must have projected upon the recluse of 386 the sentiments of the bishop of 400. Others go farther and maintain that the recluse of the Milanese villa could not have been at heart a Christian, but a Platonist; and that the scene in the garden was a conversion not to Christianity, but to philosoph}', the genuinely Christian phase begin- ning only in 390. But tliis interpretation of the "Dialogues" cannot withstand the test of facts and texts. It is admitted that Augustine received bap- tism at Easter, 387; and who could suppose that it was for him a meaningless ceremony? So too, how- can it be admitted that the scene in the garden, the example of the recluses, the reading of St. Paul, the conversion of Victorinus, Augustine's ecstasies in reading the Psalms with Jlonica were all invented after the fact? Again, as it was in 388 that Augustine wrote his beautiful apology "On the Holiness of the Catholic Church", how is it conceivable that he was not yet a Christian at that date? To settle the argument, however, it is only necessary to read the "Dialogues" themselves. They are certainly a purely philosophical work — a work of youth, too, not without some pretension, as Augustine ingen- uously acknowledges (Confessions, IX, iv); never- theless, they contain the entire history of his Chris- tian formation. As early as 386, the first work WTitten at Cassisiacum reveals to us the great un- derlying motive of his researches. The object of his philosophy is to give authority the support of reason, and "for him the great authority, that which dominates all others and from which he never wished to deviate, is the authority of Christ"; and if he loves the Platonists it is because he counts on finding among them interpretations always in harmony with his faith (Against the Academics, III, c. x). To be sure such confidence was excessive, but it remains evident that in these "Dialogues" it is a Christian, and not a Platonist, that speaks. He reveals to us the intimate details of his conversion, the argument that convinced him (the life and conquests of the Apostles), his progress in the Faith at the school of St. Paul (ibid., II, ii), his delightful conferences with his friends on the Divinity of Jesus Christ, the wonderful transformations worked in his soul by faith, even to that victory of his over the intellectvial pride which liis Platonic studies had aroused in him (On The Happy Life, I, ii), and at last the gradual calming of his passions and the great resolution to choose wisdom for liis only spouse (Soliloquies, I, x).
It is now easy to appreciate at its true value the influence of neo-Platonism upon the mind of the great African Doctor. It would be impossible for anyone who has read the works of St. Augustine to deny the existence of this influence; to be convinced, it suffices to glance at the passages from Plotinus and from Augustine arranged in parallel columns by M. Grandgeorge (Saint Augustin et le N^oplatonisme, 1896, 117-147). However, it would be a great exaggeration of this influence to pretend that it
at any time sacrificed the Gospel to Plato. The
same learned critic thus wisely concludes his study:
"So long, therefore, as his philosophy agrees with
his religious doctrines, St. Augustine is frankly
neo-Platonist; as soon as a contradiction arises,
he never hesitates to subordinate his philosophy to
religion, reason to faith. He was, first of all, a Chris-
tian; the philosophical questions that occupied his
mind constantly found themselves more and more
relegated to the backgromid" (op. cit., 155). But
the method was a dangerous one; in thus seeking
harmony between the two doctrines he thought
too easily to find Christianity in Plato, or Platonism
in the Ciospel. More than once, in liis " Retractations "
and elsewhere, he acknowledges that he has not
always shunned tliis danger. Thus he had imagined
that in Platonism he discovered the entire doctrine
of the Word and the whole prologue of St. John.
He likewise disavowed a good number of neo-
Platonic theories which had at first misled him — the
cosmological thesis of the universal soul, which
makes the world one immense animal — the Platonic
doubts upon that grave question: Is there a single
soul for all or a distinct soul for each? But on the
other hand, he had always reproached the Platonists.
as SchafT very properly remarks (Saint Augustine,
New York, 18S6, p. 51), with being ignorant of,
or rejecting, the fundamental points of Christianity:
"first, the great mystery, the Word made flesh; and
then love, resting on the basis of humility". They
also ignore grace, he says, giving sublime precepts
of morality without any help towards realizing them.
It was this Divine grace that Augustine sought in Christian baptism. Towards the beginning of Lent, 387, he went to Milan and, with Adeodatus and Al'\'pius, took his place among the competcrUes, being baptized by Ambrose on Easter Day, or at least during Easter-tide. The tradition maintaining that the Te Deum was sung on that occasion by the bishop and the neophyte alternately is groundless. (See Te Deu.m, The.) Nevertheless this legend is certainly expressive of the joy of the Church upon receiving as her son him who was to be her most illustrious doctor. It w-as at this time that Augu.stine, Alj-pius, and Evodius resolved to retire into solitude in Africa. Augustine undoubtedly remained at Milan until towards autumn, continuing his works: "On the Immortality of the Soul" and "On Music". In the autumn of 387, he was about to embark at Ostia, when Monica was summoned from this life. In all literature there are no pages of more exquisite sentiment than the story of her saintly death and Augustine's grief (Confessions, IX). Augustine re- mained several months in Rome, chiefly engaged in refuting Manich^ism. He sailed for Africa after the death of the tjTant Maximus (August, 388) and after a short sojourn in Carthage, returned to his native Tagaste. Immediately upon arriving there, he wished to carry out his idea of a perfect life, and began by selling all liis goods and gi\'ing the pro- ceeds to the poor. Then he and his friends withdrew to his estate, which had already been alienated, there to lead a common life in poverty, prayer, and the study of sacred letters. .Book of the " LXXXIII Ques- tions" is the fruit of conferences held in this retire- ment, in which he also wTOte "De Genesi contra ManicliBDOs", "De Magistro", and, "De Vera Re- ligione".
Augustine did not think of entering the priesthood, and, tlirough fear of the episcopacy, he even fled from cities in which an election was necessarj-. One day, having been summoned to Hippo by a friend whose soul's salvation was at stake, he was praying in a church when the people suddenly gathered about him, cheered him, and begged Valerius, the bishop, to raise him to the priesthood. In spite of his tears Augustine was obliged to j-ield to their entreaties,
