Capita
selecta
Chapter 9. Conversion of Augustine
6.
But to return to St. Augustine himself.
His conversion took place in the summer of 386 (as seems most probable), and
about three weeks after it, taking advantage of the vintage holidays, he gave
up his school, assigning as a reason a pulmonary attack which had given him
already much uneasiness. He retired to a friend's villa in the country for the
rest of the year, with a view of preparing himself for baptism at the Easter
following. His religious notions were still very imperfect and vague. He had no
settled notion concerning the nature of the soul, and was ignorant of the
mission of the Holy Ghost. And still more, as might be expected, he needed
correction and reformation in his conduct. During this time he broke himself of
a habit of profane swearing, and, in various ways, disciplined himself for the
sacred rite for which he was a candidate. It need scarcely be said that he was
constant in devotional and penitential exercises.
In due time the sacrament of baptism was
administered to him by St. Ambrose, who had been the principal instrument of
his conversion; and he resolved on ridding himself of his worldly possessions,
except what might be necessary for his bare subsistence, and retiring to
Africa, with the purpose of following the rule of life which it had cost him so
severe a struggle to adopt. Thagaste, his native place, was his first abode,
and he stationed himself in the suburbs, so as to be at once in retirement and
in the way for usefulness, if any opening should offer in the city. His
conversion had been followed by that of some of his friends, who, together with
certain of his fellow-citizens, whom he succeeded in persuading, joined him,
and who naturally looked up to him as the head of their religious community.
Their property was cast into a common stock, whence distribution was made
according to the need of each. Fasting and prayer, almsgiving and Scripture-reading,
were their stated occupations; and Augustine took upon himself the task of
instructing them and variously aiding them. The consequence naturally was, that
while he busied himself in assisting others in devotional habits, his own
leisure was taken from him. His fame spread, and serious engagements were
pressed upon him of a nature little congenial with the life to which he had
hoped to dedicate himself. Indeed, his talents were of too active and {160}
influential a character to allow of his secluding himself from the world,
however he might wish it.
Thus he passed the first three years of
his return to Africa, at the end of which time, A.D. 389, he was admitted into
holy orders. The circumstances under which this change of state took place are
curious, and, as in the instance of other Fathers, characteristic of the early
times. His reputation having become considerable, he was afraid to approach any
place where a bishop was wanted, lest he should be forcibly consecrated to the
see. He seems to have set his heart on remaining for a time a layman, from a
feeling of the responsibility of the ministerial commission. He considered he
had not yet mastered the nature and the duties of it. But it so happened, that
at the time in question, an imperial agent or commissioner, living at Hippo, a
Christian and a serious man, signified his desire to have some conversation
with him, as to a design he had of quitting secular pursuits and devoting
himself to a religious life. This brought Augustine to Hippo, whither he went
with the less anxiety, because that city had at that time a bishop in the
person of Valerius. However, it so happened that a presbyter was wanted there,
though a bishop was not; and Augustine, little suspicious of what was to
happen, joined the congregation in which the election was to take place. When
Valerius addressed the people and demanded whom they desired for their pastor,
they at once named the stranger, whose reputation had already spread among
them. Augustine burst into tears, and some of the people, mistaking the cause
of his agitation, observed to him that though the presbyterate was lower than
his desert, yet, notwithstanding, it stood next to the episcopate. His
ordination followed, as to which Valerius himself, being a Greek, and unable to
speak Latin fluently, was {161} chiefly influenced by a wish to secure an able
preacher in his own place. It may be remarked, as a singular custom in the
African Church hitherto, that presbyters either never preached, or never in the
presence of a bishop. Valerius was the first to break through the rule in
favour of Augustine.
On his coming to Hippo, Valerius gave him
a garden belonging to the Church to build a monastery upon; and shortly
afterwards we find him thanking Aurelius, bishop of Carthage, for bestowing an
estate either on the brotherhood of Hippo or of Thagaste. Soon after we hear of
monasteries at Carthage, and other places, besides two additional ones at
Hippo. Others branched off from his own community, which he took care to make
also a school or seminary of the Church. It became an object with the African
Churches to obtain clergy from him. Possidius, his pupil and friend, mentions
as many as ten bishops out of his own acquaintance, who had been supplied from
the school of Augustine.
