02Knights Templar - Julian Emperor

EARLY CHRISTIAN SAINTS AND MARTYRS
refused to make sacrifices to pagan gods and was ordered to
be beheaded for sheltering and impersonating the priest. Just
before he was executed he is said to have converted a Roman
soldier to Christianity. It is also claimed that, after St Alban
was beheaded, his executioner’s eyes fell out of his head.
St Augustine of Hippo
The influence of St Augustine of Hippo on the development of
Christianity has been dramatic and, at times, controversial.
He was born in 354 AD in Algeria. His mother, who was
named Monica, was a Christian, although his father was not.
As a young man he travelled to Carthage to train as a lawyer
but abandoned the law in favour of studying philosophy. A
major consequence of his studies was that initially he turned
his back on Christianity and embraced Manichaeism. He further
rejected Christian teachings by living with a mistress who
bore him a child, a boy called Adeodatus.
After moving to Italy to teach in Rome and Milan he was
drawn back towards Christianity and finally rejected
Manichaeism after much soul searching. He was baptised in
386 AD and returned to North Africa two years later. He then
embraced a monastic lifestyle and was ordained as a priest in
391 AD. In 394 AD he was appointed the coadjutor bishop of
Hippo and, within a few years, took over the role completely.
The most controversial and criticised aspect of St
Augustine’s teachings has been his belief in predestination.
According to St Augustine, those who had not been baptized
were doomed to spend eternity in hell and he even included
infants in that number.
He was also the first to suggest that sexual intercourse was
the means by which original sin was passed on and was only
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