A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

476 A Source Book for Ancient Church Historyand Milan. From 374 to 383, he was a Manichæan catechumen,for although his mother, Monnica, was a Christian, his religiouseducation had been very meagre, and he was repelled by theliterary character of the Scriptures as commonly interpreted. In387, after a long struggle, and passing through various schoolsof thought, he, with his son Adeodatus, were baptized at Milanby Ambrose. In 391 he became a presbyter, and in 394 bishopof Hippo Regius, a small town in North Africa. He died 430,during the Vandal invasion. Of his works, the Confessions arethe most widely known, as they have become a Christian classicof edification of the first rank. They give an account of his earlylife and conversion, but are more useful as showing his typeof piety than as a biography. From them is learned the secretof his influence upon the Western world. The literary activityof Augustine was especially developed in connection with theprolonged controversies, in which he was engaged throughouthis episcopate (see §§ 83, 84), but he wrote much in additionto controversial treatises. The group of characteristic doctrinesknown as “Augustinianism,” viz.: Original Sin, Predestination,and Grace and the doctrines connected with them, were, to alarge extent, the outcome of his own religious experience. Hehad known the power and depth of sin. He had discovered thehand of God leading him in spite of himself. He knew that hisconversion was due, not to his own effort or merit, but to God'sgrace.The works of Augustine have been translated in part in PNF,ser. I, vols. I-VIII. There are many translations of the Confessions;among others, one by E. B. Pusey, in “Library of theFathers of the Holy Catholic Church,” reprinted in “Everyman'sLibrary.”(a) Augustine, Confessiones, VIII, 12. (MSL, 32:761.)The conversion of Augustine.