He flung himself under a fig tree, burst into a passion
of weeping, and poured out his heart to God. Suddenly he seemed to hear
a voice bidding him consult the divine oracle: "Take up and read, take
up and read." He left off weeping, rose up, sought the volume where
Alypius was sitting, and opening it read in silence the following
passage from the Epistle to the Romans (xiii. 13, 14): "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 adds: "I had neither
desire nor need to read further. As I finished the sentence, as though
the light of peace had been poured into the heart, all the shadows of
doubt dispersed. Thus hast Thou converted me to Thee, so as no longer to
seek either for wife or other hope of the world, standing fast in that
rule of faith in which Thou so many years before hadst revealed me to my
mother"
(in qua me
ante tot annos ei revelaveras: Confess.
VIII. xii. § 30).
1 The conversion of Augustine, as we have been
accustomed to call this event, took place in the late summer of 386, a
few weeks before the beginning of the vacation. The determination to
give up his post was rendered easier by a chest-trouble which was not
without danger, and which for months made him incapable of work. He
withdrew with several companions to the country estate of Cassisiacum
near Milan, which had been lent him by a friend, and announced himself
to the bishop as a candidate for baptism. His religious opinions were
still to some extent unformed, and even his habits by no means
altogether such as his great change demanded. He mentions, for example,
that during this time he broke himself of a habit of profane swearing,
and in other ways sought to discipline his character and conduct for the
reception of the sacred rite. He received baptism the Easter following,
in his thirty-third year, and along with him his son Adeodatus and his
friend Alypius were admitted to the Church. Monica, his mother, had
rejoined him, and at length rejoiced in the fulfilment of her prayers.
She died at Ostia, just as they were about to embark for Africa, her
last hours being gladdened by his Christian sympathy. In the account of
the conversation which he had with his mother before her end, in the
narrative of her death and burial
(Confess. IX. x.-xi.,
§§ 23-28), Augustine's literary power is displayed at its
highest.
The plan of returning home remained for the present unaccomplished.
Augustine stayed for a year in Rome, occupied in literary work,
particularly in controversy with Manichaeism. It was not until the
autumn of 388 that he returned to Tagaste, probably still accompanied by
his son, who, however, must have died shortly afterwards. With some
friends, who joined him in devotion, he formed a small religious
community, which looked to him as its head. Their mode of life was not
formally monastic according to any special rule, but the experience of
this time of seclusion was, no doubt, the basis of that monastic system
which Augustine afterwards sketched and which derived its name from him
(see Augustinians). As may be imagined, the fame of such a convert in
such a position soon spread, and invitations to a more active
ecclesiastical life came to him from many quarters. He shrank from the responsibility, but his destiny was not to be
avoided. After two and a half years spent in retirement he went to
Hippo, to see a Christian friend, who desired to converse with him as to
his design of quitting the world and devoting himself to a religious
life. The Christian community there being in want of a presbyter and
Augustine being present at the meeting, the people unanimously chose him
and he was ordained to the presbyterate. A few years afterwards, 395 or
396, he was made coadjutor to the bishop, and finally became bishop of
the see.
Henceforth Augustine's life is filled up with his ecclesiastical
labours, and is more marked by the series of his numerous writings and
the great controversies in which they engaged him than by anything else.
His life was spent in a perpetual strife. During the first half this had
been against himself; but even when others stepped into his place, it
always seems as though a part of Augustine himself were incarnate in
them.
Note
1 The reference is to the vision described above.
Continued on page four.
This article is from the 1911 edition of an encyclopedia,
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