A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

§ 82. Augustine's Life and Place in the Western Church 487(i) Augustine, Enchiridion, 109, 110. (MSL, 40:283.)[444]Augustine in his teaching combined a number of differenttheological tendencies, without working them into a consistentsystem. His doctrines of Original Sin, Predestination, Graceare by no means harmonized with his position regardingthe Church and the sacraments in which he builds upon thefoundation laid in the West, especially by Optatus. Seebelow, § 83. There is also a no small remnant of what mightbe called pre-Augustinian Western piety, which comes downfrom Tertullian and of which the following is an illustration,a passage which is of significance in the development of thedoctrine of purgatory. Cf. Tertullian, De Monogamia, ch. 10.See above, § 39.§ 109. The time, moreover, which intervenes between a man'sdeath and the final resurrection, keeps the soul in a hidden retreat,as each is deserving of rest or affliction, according to what its lotwas when it lived in the flesh.§ 110. Nor can it be denied that the souls of the dead arebenefited by the piety of their living friends, when the sacrificeof the Mediator is offered, or alms given in the Church in theirbehalf. But these services are of advantage only to those whoduring their lives merited that services of this kind could helpthem. For there is a manner of life which is neither so good asnot to require these services after death, nor so bad that theseservices are of no avail after death. There is, on the other hand,a kind of life so good as not to require them; and again one sobad that when they depart this life they render no help. Thereforeit is here that all the merit and demerit is acquired, by whichone can either be relieved or oppressed after death. No one,then, need hope that after he is dead he shall obtain the meritwith God which he had neglected here. And, accordingly, thoseservices which the Church celebrates for the commendation of