A HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Vol.I by Johann Eduard Erdmann 1890

§ 143.] ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE CHURCH FATHERS. 269
three Africans, and of Lactantius who was influenced by
them. They have already been mentioned in connection
with the apologists (§ 135, 4). It is yet truer of the two
men whom their contemporaries, and still more subsequent
ages, have rewarded with the greatest honour, St. Ambrose
(340-397, Apr. 4) and St. Jerome, who died at a great
age on Sept. 30, 420. The former was above all a priestly
statesman and an ecclesiastical prince. He knew how to
join to the nobility of high birth the nobility of a lofty
mind, and to immovable strength the greatest mildness of
character. His chief effort was to advance religious life
and worship in the congregation (particularly in that of
Milan); and he is especially distinguished for his directions
for the clergy and his lyric performances. His works were
published by the Benedictines, Paris, 1686, in 2 vols., and
are contained, of course, in Migne’s Pair. lat. Jerome, the
most learned man of his age and a pioneer in widely
various directions, lent his favour especially to asceticism.
He has besides exerted a tremendous influence by his critical
work and his activity in translation, above all by his Latin
translation of the Bible (the Vulgate). He was a man of
great talent and a distinguished master of style. Speculation
was more foreign to him. His works were published in
Venice in 1766, in ii vols., and are contained in Migne’s
Pair. Lat. A fine characterization of the two men is given
by Ebert in the work cited in § 135, 4. The man who was
to be the organ of the Western Church, when she finally
came to take part in the establishment of dogma, owes very
much to both of them. The Western Church, in accordance
with Occidental subjectivity, takes a part in this labour,
when the relation of the individual to the Deity which works
in him, therefore the relation of freedorci to grace, is to be
formulated. Looked at in a purely theoretical manner, this
problem is the most difficult, and its solution is impossible
where there is lacking a clear insight into the nature of Deity
and into its union with humanity. It was necessary that
Athanasius and Theodore of Mopsuestia should have accomplished
that in which their service lies before he could
arise who, in formulating the A nthi'op0logy of the Church,
brings its theology and its christology at once to their conclusion.
Augustine is the greatest and the last of the Church
Fathers. In him are found at the same time the beginnings
270 FIRST PERIOD OF MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY. [§ 144, L
of an activity which goes beyond that of the Church Fathers
and forms the vocation of the next period.
S 144*
Augustine.
C. Bindemann: Der heilige Augustinus. Vol. i, Berlin, 1844; vol. 2,
Leipzig 1855; vol. 3, Leipz., 1862.
I. Aurelius Augustine, born in Tagaste in Numidia, on
the thirteenth of November, 353, received from his mother
Monica a religious education. Nevertheless evil tendencies
showed themselves very early. Brought back by earnest
study, especially of Cicero, from moral delinquencies, into
which he was betrayed while in Carthage, he fell into religious
doubt which threw him into the arms of the Manichaean sect
(§ 124). He belonged to this sect at the time when he began
work as a teacher of rhetoric at Tagaste, a calling which he
afterward followed in Carthage. He first became dissatisfied
with the physics of the Manichaeans, because they busied themselves
with astrology, and was still more weaned from the
sect when their celebrated bishop Faustinas was unable to
solve his difficulties. In the year 383 he went to Rome, where
he gradually fell completely into the scepticism of the new
Academy. In the following year, he obtained a position as
teacher of rhetoric in Milan, and here the sermons of Ambrose,
particularly his interpretation of the Old Testament, which
was rejected by the Manichaeans, completed his estrangement
from the lattfer. He entered again the ranks, of the catechumens
which he had l«ft to join the heretics. The study of
Latin translations of Platonic and Neo- Platonic works was
the means of convincing him that theoretically the teaching
of ^Scripture was the most satisfying. He made the blessed
experience of its practical power when it led him to put on
Christ. Aftdr he had given up his position as teacher, he lived
for a time in and abqut IVJjlan, ..To this period belong the
works : Contra Academicos, 'Devita beata^ De ordine, Soliloquia,
De immortalitate animce. Others were commenced at
the same time. He then spent a year in Rome, where he
wrote De moribus ecclesicE, De moribtis Manichceorttm, De quantitate
animcB and the first book of De libero arbitrio (the second
and third books were written in Hippo). In the year 388 he