T.kermit Scott-Augustine His Thought in Context

8/14/2019 T.kermit Scott-Augustine His Thought in Context

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AUGAUSTINEHis Thought in Context

T. KERMIT SCOTT

PAULIST PRESS New York/Mahwah, NJ

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Questia Media America, Inc. www.questia.com

Publication Information: Book Title: Augustine: His Thought in Context. Contributors: T. Kermit cott ! author. "ublisher:"aulist "ress. "lace o# "ublication: $e% &ork. "ublication &ear: '((). "age $umber: i.

ContentsPreface 1Citations of Augustine's Works 3

Introduction

PART NE AUGUSTINE'S WR!" 1!

I# The Pre$a%ence of &e%ief 1"

II# The ateria% Conditions of &e%ief #

III# The Ideo%ogica% !andsca(e $3

SUAR) !!

PART TW THE SEARCH *R G" !

I# The rigina% +th %#

II# The anichaean +th &

III# The P%otinian +th "!I,# *ro- the P%otinian +th to the I-(eria% +th 11!

,# The I-(eria% +th 1#'

SUAR) 13'

PART THREE AUGUSTINIANIS 1!1

I# *ree Choice of the Wi%% 1!'

II# The Pro.%e- of "i$ine *orekno/%edge 1%!

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III. The (o)*ri+e o Pree*i+a*io+ 1%"

A. The S)ri*0ra 2ai o Pree*i+a*io+ 1&

2. (eria*io+ o *he (o)*ri+e ro4 2ai) 2eie 13

C. Co+ir4a*io+ o *he (o)*ri+e 56 a+ A+a6i o Chooi+7 1'$
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1. So4e Prei4i+ar6 (i*i+)*io+ 1'!

#. A 8e+era (o)*ri+e o Pree*i+a*io+ 1"3

3. A070*i+e9 Se)ia (o)*ri+e o Pree*i+a*io+ 1"%

I:. The (o)*ri+e o Ori7i+a Si+ #1#

:. The ;a #1%

SUMMARY ##'

Co+)0i+7 Re4ark #3&

No*e or Par* O+e #3

No*e or Par* Two #$1

No*e or Par* Three #$

I+e< #!1

Preface

Augustine remains a figure of enduring fascination for many in themodern world. I am always somewhat surprised that students find him

still utterly absorbing, despite the chasm that separates his world fromtheirs. And theologians, philosophers, historians, psychologists andstudents of great literature are still drawn to him as they have beenfor over fifteen hundred years.

In this book, I have tried to introduce readers to Augustine by placinghis life and central teachings in the context of his place and time. Thefocus is only on those core doctrines that I regard as most distinctiveof Augustinianism, so that the book omits enormously more than itdiscusses. Still it is hoped that by placing a general overview of thosekey doctrines in the context of Augustines life and world, the reader

will be helped to a more balanced view of Augustines thought and to abetter understanding of his enormous influence.

!hile those already familiar with Augustine will hopefully find heresomething of interest, this is assuredly not a book for specialists.There is no attempt to survey or utili"e the great sweep of Augustinianscholarship, nor is there an attempt to carry through a complete or


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careful analysis of all his philosophical ideas. The attempt is rather tomake Augustine more accessible and intelligible to the non-specialistand to invite the reader to further study. If the #picture# here offeredstirs some thought and encourages some further exploration, it willhave served its purpose.

In line with this aim, I have tried to draw primarily on sourcesavailable in $nglish translation, and all %uotations are offered intranslation. !e are fortunate that so much of Augustines primarywriting has been translated, so that it is possible to construct anaccurate portrayal of his thought from such sources. In only a fewplaces was it necessary to

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make reference to untranslated material, and none of those referencesis crucial to the interpretation offered.

'n the other hand, I have tried to support and illustrate theinterpretation by use of rather extensive %uotations from Augustineswork. This is important because so little of Augustines philosophicaltheology is developed in formal treatises and so much of it emergesout of letters, sermons, scriptural commentaries, autobiographicalaccounts and epic history. (ut it is also important because only in thatway can the reader gain some sense of the combination of carefulanalysis and intense elo%uence that gives Augustines writing its

timeless appeal.

Augustine belongs to every one of us today. )e is our spiritual andintellectual father in more ways than many of us care to admit. A sternand demanding father he may be, and most of us are no doubtgrateful that we no longer have to live in his house. (ut even as wedistance ourselves from him, we are apt to find that he remains a partof what we are, embedded in our historical consciousness and stillshaping the ways we think and feel. )opefully, what follows will be afurther small contribution to our ongoing attempt to come to termswith his legacy.

In committing these ideas to paper, I am grateful to the manystudents who, through the years, have studied Augustine with me andwhose enthusiasm and curiosity have deepened my own. $specially Iwant to thank my friend and former student, *effrey (ulington, whosekeen insight and passion for making sense of Augustine have helpedme so often to improve my own understanding.


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+y colleague, arry +ay, offered a number of valuable comments on aportion of the manuscript. And it was my old friend, ae Spurlock, whofirst encouraged me to undertake the proect.

+y deepest gratitude is reserved for my life partner, Aadron Scott. She

has patiently listened to my musings about Augustine and mused withme, and she played a maor role in preparation of the manuscript. (utimmeasurably beyond that, her love and support have sustained mefor nearly forty years.

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Citations of Augustine's Worksor ease of reference, I have cited Augustines works by abbreviatedtitles in the body of the text, rather than using footnote citations.ollowing is a listing of those abbreviations, together with the atintitle of the work and a reference to the translation used. All the atinworks can be found in *. 0. +igne 1ed.2, Patrologiae cursus completus.//& vols. 0aris, &344-&354. In those few cases where no translation isavailable, the citation of the +igne edition is offered.

Adv. of Bel. (De utilitate credendi).The Advantage of Believing, *r. 56 L. Mea7her

=i+)0e i+ a o04e wi*h The Immortality of the Soul, The Magnitude of the Soul,

On Music and On aith in Things !nseen> New York, 1"$.Ag. "#. und. ($ontra e#istolam %uam vocant fundamenti).Against the "#istle of

Manichaeus $alled undamental, *r. 56 E. R. (o i+ The &or's of Aurelius

Augustinus. Ei+50r7h, 1'1-1'%.Ans. to S'e#. ($ontra Academicos).Anser to S'e#tics, *r. 56 (. J. Kaa+a07h=i+)0e i+ a o04e wi*h The a##y *ife, Divine +rovidence and the +rolem of

"vil, and Solilo%uies>. New York, 1"$'.

$ath. and Man. (De morius ecclesiae $atholicae et de morius Manichaeorum). The $atholic and Manichaean &ays of *ife, *r. 56 (. A. 8aa7her a+ I. J.

8aa7her. ?ahi+7*o+, 1"%%.

$ity. ($ivitas Dei).$oncerning the $ity of -od against the +agans, *r. 56 @.2e**e+o+, wi*h a+ i+*ro0)*io+ 56 J. J. O9Meara. Lo+o+/ New York, 1"'$.

$onf. ($onfessiones).The $onfessions of St. Augustine, e. a+ *r. 56 J. K. R6a+.

8are+ Ci*6, NY, 1"%&.

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$ontra ortunatum. (Acta seu dis#utatio contra ortunatum Manichaeum)i+Migne,

:o. $#, 11#-13&.

De Duaus Animaus. (De duaus animaus contra Manichaeos)i+Migne, :o. $#,"3-11#.

Div. +rov. (De ordine).Divine +rovidence and the +rolem of "vil, *r. 56 R. P.


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R0e =i+)0e i+ a o04e wi*h The a##y *ife, Anser to S'e#tics and

Solilo%uies>. New York, 1"$'.

ree $hoice. (De liero aritrio). On ree $hoice of the &ill, *r. 56 A. S. 2e+a4i+a+ L. @. @a)k*a. New York, 1"%$.

-ift of +ersev. (De dono #erseverantiae).The De Dono +erseverantiae of Saint

Augustine, *r. 56 M. A. Leo0k6. ?ahi+7*o+, 1"!%.a##y *ife. (De eata vita).The a##y *ife, *r. 56 L. S)ho =i+)0e i+ a o04e

wi*hAnser to S'e#tics, Divine +rovidence and the +rolem of "vil and

Solilo%uies>. New York, 1"$'.arm. of "van. (De consensu evangelistarum).The armony of the "vangelists, *r.

56 E. R. (o i+ The &or's of Aurelius Augustinus. Ei+50r7h, 1'1-1'%.

*etters. ("#istolae).*etters, :o. I =1-'#>, *r. 56 ?. Paro+. ?ahi+7*o+, 1"!1.

*etters, :o. II ='3-13&>, *r. 56 ?. Paro+. ?ahi+7*o+, 1"!3.*etters, :o. III =131-1%$>, *r. 56 ?. Paro+. ?ahi+7*o+, 1"!3.*etters, :o. I: =1%!-#&3>, *r. 56 ?.

Paro+. ?ahi+7*o+, 1"!!.*etters, :o. : =#&$-#&>, *r. 56 ?. Paro+.

?ahi+7*o+, 1"!%.

*it. -en. (De -enesi ad litteram).The *iteral Meaning of -enesis, *r. 56 J. @.Ta6or. # o. New York, 1"'#.

*ords Serm. (De sermone Domini in monte). The *ords Sermon on the Mount, *r. 56J. J. Jeo+. ?e*4i+*er, M(, 1"!%.

+ro#. on /om. ("0#ositio 12 #ro#ositionum "#istolae ad /omanos).Augustine on

/omans, *r. 56 P. ;. La+e =i+)0e ao a *ra+a*io+ o"#istolae ad /omanos

inchoata e0#ositio>. Chi)o, CA, 1"'#.

/e#. to austus. ($ontra austum Manichaeum liri triginta tres)./e#ly to austus

the Manichaean, *r. 56 E. R. (o, i+ The &or's of Aurelius Augustinus. Ei+50r7h,

1'1-1'%./etrac. (/etractiones).The /etractions, *r. 56 M. I. 2o7a+. ?ahi+7*o+, 1"%'.

Serm. (Sermones)i+Migne, :o. 3'-3".

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So. =SoioB0ia>. SoioB0ie, *r. 56 T. ;. 8ii7a+ =i+)0e i+ a o04e wi*h The@a6 Lie, A+wer *o Ske*i) a+ (ii+e Proie+)e a+ *he Pro5e4 o Ei>. New

York, 1"$'.

Siri* a+ Le**er. =(e iri*0 e* i**era>. O+ *he Siri* a+ *he Le**er, *r. 56 P.@o4e i+ 2ai) ?ri*i+7 o S*. A070*i+e, e. 56 ?. J. Oa*e . New York, 1"$'.

Tea)her. =(e 4a7i*ro>. The Tea)her. The ;ree Choi)e o *he ?i. 8ra)e a+

;ree ?i, *r. 56 R. P. R0e. ?ahi+7*o+, 1"%'.

To Si4. =A Si4i)ia+04 e ieri B0ae*io+i50>. To Si4i)ia+O+:ario0 D0e*io+, 2ook I, *r. 56 J. @. S. 20rei7h i+ A070*i+e Earier ?ri*i+7.

Phiaehia, 1"!3.

Tr0e Re. =(e era rei7io+e>. O Tr0e Rei7io+, *r. 56 J. @. S. 20rei7h i+A070*i+e Earier ?ri*i+7. Phiaehia, 1"!3.

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Introduction

As a teacher, I have worked with Augustine for nearly thirty years.Almost every year, his work has been included, to a greater or lesser

extent, in at least one course. There have been do"ens of graduateand undergraduate seminars and annual surveys of medievalphilosophy. )e has played his part in studies of social and politicalphilosophy, the philosophy of religion and ethics. )undreds of studentsand fellow teachers have shared him with me and helped me examineand re-examine the almost overpowering complexity of the evolutionof what seems to me clearly the most titanic intellect in westernhistory. And hundreds of publications from the seemingly bottomlesswell of Augustinian scholarship have shaped and directed myunderstanding. Today, as I near the end of my teaching career and ofour formal relationship, Augustine occupies a uni%ue place in my lifenot only as a mentor, but as an old and comfortable friend. )e is, tobe sure, a friend with whom I disagree about almost everything mostfundamental to him, but also one whose honesty, strength ofcommitment, spiritual depth and psychological insight have enrichedme enormously.

In working with students to explore Augustines thought and place inhistory, I have tried to avoid closure in interpretation, to leave%uestions open and to encourage each class to explore them with afresh eye. So I am somewhat surprised to find that at this point I

have, willynilly, evolved a fairly complete interpretation of Augustine.And because his thought and personality seem to remain of suchfascination to so many, it occurred to me that there might be someinterest in what my experience with him has taught me. This book isan effort to share that experience.

7nderstanding is always a communal endeavor, and that is especiallytrue of a world-historical figure such as Augustine. I have no

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sense that any aspect of my interpretation is mine alone or is entirelyoriginal. urthermore, I am certainly aware that any interpretation isin some way partial, falls short of the #whole truth# and reflects thevalues, priorities and interests of the interpreter. This interpretation isno exception, and the reader will certainly profit from comparing it toothers. (ut it is also true that this interpretation has emerged almostsolely out of prolonged and repeated wrestling with Augustines own


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texts, and the influence of other interpreters, both as challenging andas confirming my reading of the texts, has been indirect and oftenimpossible to specify. As a non-historian, my interpretation of thesocial and political context of Augustines thought is of necessity basedon what I take to be the most reliable and established original

scholarship, and I have tried to cite those sources to which I am mostindebted. (ut for the most part, the interpretation of Augustinesthought itself I have tried to ground in the texts out of which it arosefor me, without thereby diminishing in the least my gratitude to allthose who have gone before and helped to teach me. So far as I know,the interpretation presented here has not been offered in its entiretyelsewhere, and my aim is ust to make this #picture# of Augustineavailable. Those who wish to explore alternative interpretations willfind that there are resources aplenty easily accessible.

Augustine has been seen as a champion of freedom and as a crudeand unbending determinist9 as a :eoplatonic mystic, as a strict biblicalliteralist and as the most consistent and rational of ;hristiantheologians9 as the doctor of hope and grace and as a broodingpessimist9 as a celebrant of the depth and beauty of the human souland as implacable censor of the damned and putrid mass of fallenhumanity9 as giving un%ualified priority to the relationship of each soulto


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absorbed uncritically and almost unconsciously from that culture.Augustinianism was able to triumph and survive as the dominantideology of the western empire precisely because it was grounded inbeliefs that were accepted as simple #common sense# by mostmembers of society or, in some cases, at least by the ideological

vanguard of the dominant classes. In particular, he never doubted or%uestioned the almost universal perception that the world is an arenain which a host of #gods,# spirits and demons are constantly at work.(ut he also thought it would be utterly absurd for anyone living afterthe conversion of ;onstantine and the ;hristiani"ation of the empire todoubt that the ;hristian god was the supreme ruler of the universewho was establishing his church throughout the world. That greatimperial god had put to rout all the demonic pretenders to deity solong worshiped by the =omans and had established once for all boththe immeasurable rewards that attended un%uestioning devotion tohim and the unspeakable punishment that awaited those who failed tosurrender entirely to him.

At the same time, Augustine always identified completely with theruling class of =oman society, sought to associate himself with thatclass and adopted without %uestion the outlook and philosophical ideasof the leisured elite that constituted the intellectual vanguard of thatclass. As an ambitious young student and teacher from a marginalsmall-town family, he had little trouble abandoning the primitive;atholicism of his devout mother for the fashionable +anichaeism ofthe provincial ;arthaginian elite. And when he arrived in =ome and

then in +ilan and began to move in the company of the intellectuals ofthe senatorial aristocracy, he shifted easily to the 0latonismfashionable among those men and then 1not so easily, since it involvedeschewing some pleasures and ambitions2 to the ;atholic ;hristianitychampioned by such leading lights as the senator-turned-bishop,Ambrose of +ilan.

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rom a theological and philosophical point of view, his pilgrimage fromthe ;atholicism of his mother to the ;atholicism of Ambrose was in noway a ourney through unbelief to renewed faith. $ven his briefflirtation with academic skepticism involved not a loss of certaintyabout the existence of


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'n the one hand, he never completely lost the god of his mother andhis childhood, that awesome con%uerer of the pagan deities whopromised triumph and blessedness to those who bowed before himun%uestioningly, but who also visited the most terrible wrath on thosewhose allegiance wavered. This was the sort of god familiar to =omans

of all classes 1and, for that matter, to the (erber peasantry ofAugustines native Africa2, a god demanding that cult be paid, a god tobe appeased and petitioned. (ut more particularly, this was the god of;onstantine and the ;hristiani"ed military and administrative stratumthat actually ruled the empire, the god who had entered intopartnership with the emperors to unify the empire, tear down thepagan temples and establish his church universal.

'n the other hand, Augustines god needed to be something verymuch more and different. The road he followed in his struggle to ointhe ruling class of =oman society did not involve pursuing military,political or administrative advancement. )e became an intellectual andsought acceptance into those circles whose aristocratic patrons sawthemselves as the keepers of ancient culture and wisdom. !hile in;arthage, he made himself a leader among young scholars, many ofwhom were themselves from provincial senatorial families, who gloriedin pursuit of #wisdom,# were contemptuous of the #primitive# religionof their African home towns and sometimes returned home to flauntbefore their horrified elders the +anichaeism they had adopted as ahigher truth. Augustine himself was without the means to sustainhimself as part of this rarified culture, but he had no difficulty finding

provincial aristocrats happy to act as patrons and so gain at leastindirect recognition as #lovers of wisdom.# !hen he moved on to =omeand then to +ilan, Augustine found himself in the far more headycompany of gentlemen of the oldest aristocratic families, some of

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whom devoted their time to leisured contemplation, while othersdirected the spiritual life of the empire as ;hristian leaders of the newimperial church. And in this new context, Augustine had no trouble atall abandoning +anichaeism with the same disdain that he hadreected his childhood religion and identifying competely with the0latonism of his new mentors.

This intellectual elite, whether in the provinces or in the metropolitancenters, shared an outlook %uite different not only from that of themasses, but from that of the men of action who administered thestate-an outlook that Augustine %uickly absorbed and made his own.


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These men 1and, with the possible exception of Augustines mother,+onica, they were all males2 saw their noble souls as lost from a realmof perfect being, with which they were essentially identified. In periodsof leisured meditation, they enoyed moments of spiritual insight, inwhich they caught a glimpse of that eternal reality from which they

were lost and to which they yearned to return. They saw their souls astrapped in this physical world and in the prison of the fleshly body.!hile they often continued with cultic practice or ;hristian worship,their real aim was a spiritual transformation that would lift them fromthe degradation of this realm of suffering and ceaseless change backto that eternal source which was their true home. The provincialintellectuals of ;arthage found at least some of what they wereseeking in a +anichaean dualism that allowed them to identify theirtrue selves with a cosmic principle of light which was forever at warwith the principle of darkness that constituted the fleshly world ofsuffering and death. The old aristocracy of =ome and +ilan, on theother hand, scorned that 0ersian import and clung to the ancient0latonist wisdom which identified their souls with an ideal world ofunitary being in which this phenomenal world participates and finds itsmeaning.

Augustine moved from his original ;atholicism to +anichaeism andthen to 0latonism gradually but with relative ease, always searchingfor a cosmic myth that would allow him to combine his intuition of theomnipotent imperial deity with that of the enveloping source of beingfor which he had come to yearn. Among the ;hristian 0latonists of

+ilan, he thought he had found what he sought. )e converted again to;atholicism, and for a short time he seems to have believed that therewas an unbroken truth that found its first expression in 0lato and itsultimate reali"ation in ;hrist. )owever, once he returned to

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Africa and enlisted as a soldier of the church, it soon became apparentto him that while


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to Augustine superior to all other philosophies and closer to;hristianity than any other.

(ut although 0latonism helped him purge his idea of


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(ut while Augustine makes a titanic effort to preserve both humanfreedom and the goodness of


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#find# his


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and never old, yet renewing all things9 leading proud men into senility,although they know it not9 ever active, and ever at rest9 gathering in,yet needing nothing9 supporting, fulfilling and protecting things9creating, nourishing, and perfecting them9 searching them out,although nothing is lacking in you. Cou love, but are not inflamed with

passion9 you are ealous, yet free from care9 you repent, but do notsorrow9 you grow angry, but remain tran%uil. Cou change your works,but do not change your plan9 you take back what you find, althoughyou never lost it9 you are never in want, but you reoice in gain9 youare never covetous, yet you exact usury. $xcessive payments aremade to you, so that you may be our debtorDyet who has anythingthat is not yoursB Cou pay debts, although you owe no man anything9you cancel debts, and lose nothing. !hat have we said, my


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A philosopher approaching this issue will begin by looking to see whatargumentsAugustine develops for the claim that


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a i 4o* hi*ori)a *06, *i er6 40)h i+)o4e*e. 20* whie 40)h re4ai+ *o 5e

o+e, a 7oo ea o e+i work ha 5ee+ o+e, a+ i* i +ow oi5e *o or4 a

air6 )o4e*e i)*0re o a* ea* *he 4ai+ ea*0re o ie a+ rei7io0 a**i*0e 0ri+7

*he erio a* whi)h A070*i+ia+i4 eeoe. ?hie *here are )er*ai+6 i4or*a+*

ia7ree4e+*, i* oe ee4 *o 4e *ha*, a* ea* a4o+7 a +045er o eai+7 )hoar,*here i a air6 5roa )o+e+0 re7ari+7 o4e o *he 4o* 5ai) )o+i*io+ o5*ai+i+7

a* *he *i4e. 2ae o+ 46 reai+7 o o4e o *hoe )hoar, I wa+* *o 5e7i+ 56ree+*i+7 a Fa64a+9F i+*erre*a*io+ o o4e ae)* o a*e Ro4a+ o)ie*6, i+ orer *o

a)e A070*i+e9 *ho07h* a+ 5eie i+ )o+*e


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In fact, although it is impossible to trace the exact causes of most ofthe sporadic and locali"ed persecutions of ;hristians before the middleof the third century, many scholars agree that the ;hristian refusal toperform obligatory sacrifices often played a prominent role. 4 Ifsuffering or ill fortune befell a city, it was believed that it must be due

to divine anger, and it was only natural for attention to be focused onthose #atheists# who clung to their exclusive faith and reected themodest cult demands of the local gods. As ane ox remarks, #:orain, because of the ;hristians, had become proverbial by themidfourth century.# @

The historical record, too, or what served as such, contained a wealthof testimony to the existence and activity of the gods. rom the -

consorted with them, sired progeny, sat in the door of Abrahams tent,spoken to +oses from a burning bush and to *ohn the (aptist in theform of a dove.

:ot that the gods had, even at so late a date, ceased to put in anappearance from time to time. ;hristians and *ews report many fewerdirect manifestations than do pagans, and it appears that one reasonfor that may have been a long-time ban on paintings and statues oftheir god. Since *ews and ;hristians did not know what their godlooked like, the unseen god was more apt to be manifested throughvisible obects. And for that matter, pagans also often detected a godunder the disguise of an animal or an old man. (ut pagans alsoencountered their gods in the most direct way. There were statueseverywhere to let them know ust how the gods looked, so that theywere easy to recogni"e when they appeared. And such appearanceswere by no means rare. 5

The most likely context for a divine manifestation was a moment ofextreme crisis. It is true that 0an might be heard piping or a nymphmight be glimpsed by a special cave on a perfect spring day. (ut themore common case was the appearance of a god or goddess in asituation of extreme danger or stress. ane ox reports that soldiers
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attacking A%uileia in the third century were dismayed to see Apollostanding above the city and oining its defense. $ven as late as thefifth century, Alaric and his invaders are reported to have encountereda protecting Athena 0romachos striding atop the walls of her belovedAthens. 8

(ut even if the face of the god remained hidden, the manifestation wasno less obvious. The gods had their favorite places, and it was therethat they were most apt to present themselves, though often only byvoice or perhaps disguised as ordinary men. Cearly pilgrimages to thegreat shrines of ;laros, Eidyma and Eelphi brought at least the rulingclasses into close contact with the great god and provided typicallyenigmatic responses to the pressing %uestions of supplicants. 3

:or were ;hristians and *ews excluded from these more indirectmanifestations. Cahweh appears in a cloud or ball of fire above the arkof the covenant and holds back the sun in its course for *oshua and histroops. ;hrist speaks to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Eamascus anddisplays his cross to ;onstantine in the sky above the +ilvian (ridge.And of course, *esus himself is the invisible ;hrist made visible inhuman form.

Augustine seems never to have experienced personally divine mani-

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festations of this sort, and in fact he believed that


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And he is full of loathing for those filthy demons posing as gods whohave corrupted public morals by inducing their devotees to stageobscene plays and festivals in their honor and who are still worshipedsecretly even after being outlawed by ;hristian emperors.

I was therefore bound to prove that the false gods whom they used toworship openly and still worship secretly, are really unclean spirits9they are demons so malignant and deceitful that they delight in thewickedness imputed to them, whether truly or falsely, and havewished their crimes to be publicly represented at their festivals, so thatit may be impossible for human weakness to be recalled from theperpetration of such enormities, because a supposedly divine authorityis given for their imitation. 1;ity I. &2

Augustine was, however, prepared to testify directly to another sort ofdivine manifestation that was also common to most people of his timeDthe witnessing of miracles and wonders.

Among pagans, there was always a great love of wonders, and despiteits illegality during the earlier period of the empire, the effecting ofwonders through magic was always popular. or a long time,;hristians were suspicious of miracle claims and were hostile to thepractice of magic, since they saw these things as associated with thepagan gods. (ut as the ;hristians developed cults of their ownmartyrs,

-/&-

their miracle claims increased. And by the time of Augustine,;hristians were eager to compete with pagans in both numbers andimpressiveness of miracles. > In fact, +ac+ullen goes so far as to claimthat miracles were the greatest persuader convincing pagans toconvert to ;hristianity. &?


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absolutely no doubt that such wonders occurred and that they wereeffected both by his own god and by the demons whom the paganstook as their gods. 'f course, he regarded the pagan miracles as #notworthy of comparison# with ;hristian ones and as due to the arrogantpride of malicious demons, rather than to the providence of


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with constant violent trembling. After praying at the shrine of St.Stephen, first the brother and later the sister were cured. Augustinehimself saw the brother ust after the cure and saw the sister bothimmediately before and immediately after the cure. )e remarks thatthis miracle was #so widely famed that I should imagine no one from

)ippo failed to witness it or at least to hear about it, and no one couldhave forgotten it.#

!hat I would like to emphasi"e here is that there is no air of wonderor even naivetH or credulity surrounding Augustines discussion ofthese events. :ot only did he accept miracles matter of factly as anobvious feature of experience, but he took for granted that his readerswould have the same attitude toward them. )is purpose is merely tocollect and display samples, not to convince skeptics. There may havebeen doubts in the minds of some as to whether ;hristian miracleswere more spectacular than pagan miracles, and it is certainly usefulto keep a record to remind everyone of the power of ones own god1rather in the manner of comparing records of baseball stars todetermine who is #the greatest#2. (ut that many happenings are dueto the work of invisible beings is a part of a conceptual backgroundthat is not so much actively believed as merely taken for granted bothby Augustine and by his readers.

'ne or two additional examples may help reinforce this tone ofun%uestioning acceptance. Take first the case of )esperius, alandowner and former tribune near )ippo, whose livestock and slaves

were being infested with evil demons. 'ne of the elders of Augustines

-/6-

church went to )esperius estate and managed to exorcise thedemons. In gratitude, )esperius gave Augustine some holy earth hehad brought from a pilgrimage to *erusalem, and Augustine had ashrine established to house the earth. A young #rustic# who wasparaly"ed prayed at this shrine and regained the use of his legs.

A final example is centered at a house near )ippo which contained arelic of those same +ilanese martyrs, 0rotasius and


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ortunately, a relative was of sufficient faith to replace the eye in itssocket and to enter into prayer for a solid week, after which the eyewas fully restored to health.

So miracles were perfectly evident to Augustine, as they were to most

of his contemporaries. (ut as evident as they were, they were not themost common form of divine manifestation. It was in dreamsthatmost people encountered the gods, and while many might know ofmiracles only second-hand, almost everyone had first-hand experienceof the divine in dream life.

As mentioned above, pagans had no trouble recogni"ing their gods,and their appearance in dreams was a regular feature of life doubtedby no one. ane ox reects the hypothesis suggested by some thatpagans may have been drawn to ;hristianity because they longed forthe sort of direct vision of


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of a noblewoman of ;arthage named Innocentia who was instructed ina dream of the procedure to be followed in obtaining a miracle cure ofher cancer 1;ity GGII. 32. In the Confessions, he tells of a dream of hismother +onica, which assured her of his eventual conversion, andwhile he at first doubted her interpretation of the dream, he raises no

%uestions about the reality of the shining young man who brought themessage to her in sleep 1;onf. III. &&2. And at least one of Augustinesletters is a reply to a %uery from his friend :ebridius as to ust whatmethod is used by supernatural beings to set things before us indreams 1Letter>, replying to Letter3 from :ebridius2.

!hat all this tells us is that in his un%uestioning acceptance of theexistence of gods, Augustine reveals himself as no more than aperfectly normal person of his time. In 0art Two, I shall look briefly atthe %uestion of whether he was able to provide rational support for hisbelief. (ut however that turns out, it seems fair to conclude at thispoint that Augustines belief in


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*hoe a* *he 5o**o4. The rie a+ eri*e+* o4i+a*io+ o *he F7rea* a4iieF o Ro4e

+o* o+6 )ae or*h *heir 7ra*i*0e, 50* e *he4 *o 5e er6 oi)i*o0 o 4ai+*ai+i+7 *he

)o+i*io+ *ha* ha ere *he4 o we. Mo* ari*o)ra* were 0+o05*e6 B0i*e

i+)ere i+ eei+7 *heir o4i+a+* oi*io+ a eie+)e *ha* *he6 ha 5ee+ aore 56 *he

7o, a+ 4o* o *he4 wii+76 a))e*e *he reo+i5ii*ie *o *he 7o *ha* *heir*a*io+ e4a+e. 20* a* *he a4e *i4e, *hoe ari*o)ra* were ao o*e+ e. 20* ee+ *he hiooher who aw

*he 7o a 645o o or Fe4a+a*io+F ro4 *he *r0e 8o or A5o0*e 2ei+7 were o+6

reei+i+7 iri*0a reai*6, +o* ree)*i+7 i*. I+ o*her wor, wha* *here wa not,*o a+6i7+ii)a+* e


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II# The ateria% Conditions of &e%ief

I+ i)0i+7 o4e o *he 4a*eria )o+i*io+ i+ whi)h A070*i+ia+i4 wa eeoe

a+ ao*e, I o +o* a* a 4ea+ *o 077e* *ha* *here i a i4e )a0a rea*io+5e*wee+ 4a*eria )o+i*io+ a+ *he a))e*a+)e o )er*ai+ iea. The B0e*io+ o wha*

)a0e 5eie *o 5e a))e*e i ar *oo )o4e< *o 5e a+were here, a+ I a4 +o*

)er*ai+ *ha* i* )o0 5e a+were i+ a+6 )ae. Nor o I 4ea+ *o 077e* *ha* *he 4a*eria)o+i*io+ i+ whi)h 5eie are a))e*e hae a+6 5eari+7 wha*eer o+ *heir *r0*h or

ai*6. 8ie+ a e* o 4a*eria )o+i*io+, a 5eie 4a6 4ee* *he +ee or ere *he

i+*ere* o ir*0a6 eer6o+e i+ a o)ie*6 a+ 6e* 5e ae. A+ 56 *he a4e *oke+, a

5eie 4a6 4ee* +o +ee a+ ere +o i+*ere* a+ 6e* 5e *r0e.

S*i i* oe ee4 *ha* *here are a* ea* *wo reao+ or ooki+7 5rie6 a* o4e o *he

)o+i*io+ wi*hi+ whi)h A070*i+ia+i4 eeoe. ;ir*, *here i *he a)* *ha* whe*her

or +o* a 5eie i *r0e, a+

-#-

overview of those conditions may help explain why the belief isaccepted. A belief which meets the needs or serves the interests eitherof virtually all members of a society or of some particular groups orclasses may be either true or false, but the fact that it does meetthose needs or serve those interests may still help explain why thebelief is accepted by those who accept it. And if we are trying tounderstand why Augustinianism became a dominant ideology, that willbe an important consideration.

Second, it is worth looking at material conditions because it may be ahelp in making a udgment about thejustificationof beliefs. If a beliefis widely held and if it also meets basic needs or serves basic interests,it often seems to people so obvious as to be in no need of ustification.So, for example, in our society today, the belief that all persons havecertain inalienable rights may be accepted by almost everyone, and itmay be a belief that serves certain fundamental interests of many oreven most persons and groups. And under these circumstances, it mayseem silly or perverse to ask whether there is any ustification for such

a belief. )owever, it is worth noting that the mere fact that a beliefserves certain interests never establishes its truth and that if the beliefis to be ustified, one must point to something other than its servingthose interests. So a look at the material conditions of belief calls ourattention to the %uestion of the needs and interests served, and bydoing so it forces us to look at the %uestion of what, if any,ustification there is for the belief.


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The cultural diversity of the vast =oman empire produced a greatvariety of religious beliefs and practices. (ut whatever may have beenthe origins, reasons and grounds of these various systems, it is notdifficult, from our historical vantage point, to see that a generalreligious consciousness was supported and reinforced by the conditions

that were its medium.

!e may begin with the most obvious fact, that the lives of most werefilled with difficulty and that most faced a combination of radicaluncertainty and helplessness. (rown reminds us that #the classical+editerranean had always been a world on the edge of starvation.# &@$conomic and social life was based on the most direct oppression andcompulsion, and most lived lives of abect dependency. So, as (rownfurther notes, for the vast maority who supported the society by their

-/3-

labor, the demands and compulsions that filled their days wereimmemorialD#In places, they were as old as civili"ation itself# &5

irtually no one in =oman society could fail to be aware of a totaldependence on a variety of forces that were both immensely powerfuland apparently capricious. To begin with, since land was the principalmeans of production and since the surplus produced by agriculturallabor was marginal at best, all were at the mercy of natural forces,though townspeople may have felt this somewhat less directly than the

actual producers. In light of this, it is no surprise to find that many ofthe early gods were closely associated with natural forces of all kinds.The level of technology was and remained very low throughout theperiod, so that there was never any method of controlling conditions ofproduction that offered any more hope than did the propitiation oflocal and cosmic deities. In the face of such harsh conditions, the mainattitude toward the gods was fear, and most religious practice wasaimed at avoiding or tempering the angerof the gods. &8

Euring the period when =ome was extending its sway over the worldand up to at least the beginning of the third century A.E., plunder wasa second significant source of wealth. (ut as a means of appropriation,plunder is itself filled with uncertainty and insecurity. It goes withoutsaying that the victims of this activityDthose being plunderedDfoundtheir lives filled with insecurity. (ut even for the plunderers, existencewas precarious. A life of plunder is a life of war, and the insecurities ofa warriors life led to a constant preoccupation with searching for signsof divine favor. There were no #atheists in the foxholes,# and army life


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was filled with a round of sacrifice and cult that was only slowlydisplaced by ;hristian prayer and ritual. &3

So life was, by any standard, difficult even in purely natural terms.(est estimates place life expectancy at birth at less than thirty years,

with infant mortality above two hundred per one thousand live birthsand perhaps half the people dying by the age of eight years. &> Thedepth of want often drove poor parents to infanticide, and the sellingof children was extremely common. /? ;old facts such as these helpexplain the preoccupation of ;hristians with the souls of infants whodie prior to baptism and Augustines attention to this issue throughouthis life.

In addition to natural hardships, however, there were social conditionsthat added to the difficulty. The social order and the economic systemimposed on virtually everyone a host of dependencies, compul-

-/>-

sions and exactions. To be sure, these burdens were not distributedevenly, and the poor bore by far the heavier share. (ut even many ofthe well-to-do felt victimi"ed by an onerous system that only grewmore onerous as the centuries went by.

!e begin by looking at those on the bottom of the social pyramid,those on whose backs the system directly rested. And here the

fundamental fact is, in +arxs words, that #direct forced labor is thefoundation of the ancient world.# /& And forced labor existed not only inthe most obvious form of chattel slavery, but also in the unfree laborof peasants and others.

Ste. ;roix argues persuasively that the society of the =oman empire isbest defined as a #slave society,# rather than as a #peasant society.# //

)is reason for this is not that slaves formed an actual maority oflaborers, because in fact they were outnumbered by peasantproducers who were technically free persons. =ather, he points outthat given the low level of productivity, peasants were often hard-pressed to meet their own needs, much less to produce a surplus thatwould support the military adventures and lavish lifestyles of the rulingclasses. Therefore, the system depended heavily on slave labor tosecure an ade%uate surplus to allow the system to function. Ste. ;roixcompares it to the south of the 7nited States during the eighteenthand nineteenth centuries, where slaves made up less than a third ofthe population, where fewer than a %uarter of families owned slaves,
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and where only about three percent of slaveholders 1or about six-tenths of one percent of all families2 owned fifty or more slaves. Cetmost historians agree in calling the American south a #slave society,#since only slavery permitted the production of a surplus that couldsupport the system. /6

The institution of slavery was accepted universally and un%uestioninglythroughout the period we are reviewing, although it was ustified in avariety of ways. It is fre%uently pointed out not only that ;hristianitydid not eliminate slavery, but that ;hristians were at one with pagansin endorsing the institution. /4 This is true, but I am not sure thatmuch should be made of it. The only reason to take special note of theperpetuation of slavery by ;hristians would be that one views;hristians as somehow #special,# so that they could be expected totranscend their time and place in a way others could not. There seemsto be no basis for any such view, and ane ox shows in some detailthat there were no important differences between pagans and

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;hristians in their attitudes toward slavery or their treatment ofslaves. /@ So I shall say no more about specifically ;hristian attitudesto slavery or treatment of slaves by ;hristians in particular. As forAugustine himself, he not only did not oppose slavery, but saw it asdivinely ordained and even as potentially beneficial for the slave 1;ityGIG. &@-&52.

Slaves were used in agriculture, mining, crafts and virtually all otheremployments. And while some slaves received relatively #humane#treatment 1occasionally an imperial slave might even rise to highposition in the later empire2, there is no %uestion that the lot of almostall slaves was that of the most oppressed and brutali"ed victims of aneconomic system that was throughout founded on force andcompulsion. /5 $ach senator had an army of slaves to supply his wants,and the problem faced by the ruling class was always to find a supplyof human bodies to meet their needs. The slave was a dispensableproperty who often paid with his or her life if the other property of themaster should be disturbed or stolen. /8 And, if anything, slaves weretreated with increasing brutality from the middle of the secondcentury. There were few, if any, slave revolts during this period, sothat the lot of slaves seems to have been one of helpless dependencyand hopeless exploitation. /3
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Alongside slaves, there had always been the small freeholder and freepeasantry, some of whom were themselves small slaveholders 1oftenworking alongside their slaves2, while others were landless peasantson larger estates or occasional agricultural wage laborers. In getting apicture of life at this period, it is extremely important to remember

that this agricultural laboring population constituted fully ninetypercent of the total population. This was overwhelmingly a society ofrural laborers. />

;orresponding to this rural working class, there were in the cities smallartisans, traders, shopkeepers and, perhaps most despised of all,those who hired out their labor-power for wages. 6? The lot of most ofthese people, both the peasantry and the urban lower classes,deteriorated steadily through the three centuries leading up toAugustines time.

The abstract ideal of the =oman republic had at its heart thefreeholding citi"en farmer, and indeed there was never a time whenthe #free# peasantry was not the vast maority of the population. (ut

-6&-

area6 0ri+7 *he a* )e+*0r6 o *he re05i) =*he e+ o whi)h i )o+e+*io+a6 a*ewi*h *he e*a5ih4e+* o *he ri+)ia*e 56 A070*0 Caear i+ # 2.C.> *he reai*6 o

*he reehoi+7 F)i*iGe+F wa ar re4oe ro4 *he Fe4o)ra*i)F re05i)a+ iea.Area6 56 *ha* *i4e, *he Ro4a+ r0i+7 )a ha a4ae ria*e or*0+e o *a77eri+7

roor*io+, 56 4ea+ o e a+

ee+ 4ore e)*a)0ar6 56 *he 6*e4a*i) 0+er o *heir e


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I+ *hee )ir)04*a+)e, ero+a ower a+ oi*io+ )a4e *o ee+ a4o* e


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their legal and uridical status as citi"ens was progressively whittledaway as well.

A number of factors conspired against the peasants. or one thing, theestablishment of the Augustan principate in /8 (.;. brought with it a

period of relative peace which, ironically, accelerated a weakening ofthe position of the peasantry. 0eace meant also a decline in plunderand its spoils, and in particular it meant that fewer slaves wereimported from outside the empire. This in tum meant that the rulingclass had to tum to breeding to replenish their supply of slaves. (utthe breeding of slaves turned out to be a %uite expensive business. Itmeant that female slaves were unavailable for work for extendedperiods, and it meant that many slave children had to be supporteduntil they could be exploited. To this must be added the additionalcalculation that many women died in childbirth, and children often hadthe inconsideration to die in infancy before maturing to yield a returnon investment.

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Along with difficulties in maintaining a supply of slaves, there werealso logistical problems associated with the sheer si"e of holdings. Asland came to be concentrated in fewer and fewer hands and holdingsbecame both hugely extensive and widely scattered 1and theconcentration of land was even greater in the western empire than inthe east 66 2, problems of management and overseeing became

greater. (ut if slave labor is the whole basis of production, a great dealof oversight is necessary, since slaves must be watched and driven ifthey are to be exploited satisfactorily. 'n the other hand, if a systemof leasehold tenancy 1a sort of #sharecropping#2 can be developed,then even if the profits are not %uite as great, poor #free# people canbe used to work the land almost without outside supervision. Andincreasingly throughout the succeeding centuries, such a system wasin fact put in place. 0easants rented or leased bits of land fromabsentee landlords, usually at wildly exorbitant rates. They thenproduced a crop, from which the landlord received his share.

These are the voiceless toilers, the great maorityDlet us not forget itD of the population of the


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(eginning in the first century A.E. and with explicit legal formulation inthe second and third centuries, the legal rights of the poorer classeswere gradually eliminated. (y the time of the Severan emperors 1 &>6-/6@ A.E.2, those rights had vanished altogether. !hen ;aracalla, inthe Constitutio Antoninianaof the early third century, extended

citi"enship to virtually all free inhabitants of the empire, his principalintent was probably to broaden the tax base. (ut he was, at the sametime, tacitly acknowledging that citi"enship had come to mean so littlethat the old distinction between citi"ens 1cives2 and foreigners1peregrini2 was irrelevant. (oth


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of =ome and later to large numbers in ;onstantinople, Antioch,Alexandria and perhaps ;arthage. 63

or the rural poor, this meant increasing coercion and devastatingusurpations. (rown %uotes


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Socially, such a model is bleak, with little to span the gap between therich few and the dependent, or servicing, manyF lower still lay the baseof slave labour, in the household, the farms 1here and there2 and thehumble trades. This bleakness, I believe, is true to life. The socialpyramid tapered much more steeply than we might now imagine when

first surveying the monuments and extent of the maor survivingcities. 44

This would seem the very least that could be said.

The fourth century saw the destruction of whatever could possiblyremain of the #republican# illusions of the laboring classes and thebeginning of an effort to set the #tapering pyramid# in stone.(eginning with the tax reform of Eiocletian 1/34-6?@2 and continuingthrough the fourth century, the entire agricultural working populationwas legally tied to the land on a hereditary basis, and there were effortto bind similarly other types of workers as well. 4@

It is not clear to what extent the legal restrictions that were

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introduced constituted changes in the actual status of the laboringpopulation. As *ones points out, =oman society had been largely staticfor several centuries, with sons generally following their fathers wayof life. The efforts of emperors beginning with Eiocletian to tie certain

classes to their hereditary functions may have been less a matter ofimposing new limits than of trying to prevent the erosion of traditionalones. A labor shortage throughout the empire encouraged people todesert their old responsibilities and go in search of greener pastureselsewhere, and the ruling class was apparently more concerned topreserve a static system than to impose a new one. 45

A number of factors seem to have interacted to bring about thesituation. 0erhaps the best place to begin is with the increasinglyheavy burden of taxation that was imposed to maintain the empire,support the imperial bureaucracy and supply a large standing army.'ne conse%uence of the higher taxes was that it became impossible tomake a profit on marginal land, and as soils were exhausted, moreand more land was abandoned for this reason. 48 (ut the burden oftaxation also directly increased the suffering of the agriculturalpopulation. +ost taxes were passed on to the peasantry either directlyor indirectly in the form of increasingly outrageous rents from thelandowners. As a result, by the time peasants paid their rent and
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taxes, they did not have enough left to feed enough children to offsetthe increasingly high death rate. arge numbers of children were leftto die of exposure or sold as slaves, and men married late, furtherreducing the number of children. 43

In the cities, the condition of the urban poor who were needed in avariety of occupations was no better, and, in fact, the evidence seemsto suggest that their mortality rate may have been even higher. 4> Theresulting labor shortage, while perhaps not catastrophic by itself, didcombine with other factors such as the breakdown of local traditions toencourage a good deal of mobility in search of better conditions. And itwas this instability that the emperors seem to have been concerned toreduce through the imposition of legal bondage.

The binding of the poor was gradual and uneven, but the tendencywas inexorably toward establishing an unfree laboring population.Eiocletian initially tied all of the agricultural population to the land, butsubse%uent experience showed that many peasant proprietors had lessincentive to move, so that the restriction came to be applied only tothe descendants of tenants who were originally registered on a given

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estate. It was not until the end of the fifth century that deteriorationreached the point of re%uiring that all free tenants be bound to theirplots for thirty years. In the cities, the pace was slowerDurban

craftsmen were not bound to their trades until the end of the fourthcentury in the western empire and were never so bound in the east.7ntil early in the fifth century, serfs could escape bondage by oiningthe army. And throughout these centuries, the actual enforcement ofthe laws was uneven and sporadic. @?

(ut even with these %ualifications, it seems clear that the direction of=oman society, especially in the west, was toward the increasingbondage and immiseration of the vast maority who formed thelaboring population. And it seems e%ually clear that despite occasionaland scattered minor revolts, the condition of that maority was one ofhelpless dependency and accommodation to a system that appearedforever set in concrete.

!hen we turn to look at the other classes of =oman society at thisperiod, the situation is more complex and fluid, so I shall attempt tosketch only its broad outlines and most basic tendencies.


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or centuries, the unit of social and political life had been the city andits immediate environs. In each city, a hereditary ruling elite hadenoyed un%uestioned control. In addition to sheer wealth, which wasthe real basis of their power, they largely controlled the scattered ruralpopulation as well as the urban poor. 'nly members of this class could

conduct sacrifices or participate in public cult, while those of the lowerclasses, whether rural or urban, were reduced to the role of onlookersin dealings with the principal gods. The #leading families# of the towns1never more than five percent of the population2 vied with each otherin constructing temples and public buildings, erecting statues andfunding festivals, games, human #hunts# in the arena and gladiatorialcombats. :ot only were the poor completely dependent upon them forcharity, but their assured position in local life provided a structure ofseemingly immemorial solidity. @&

In the third and succeeding centuries, this picture changed markedly.The very small aristocracy comprising the senate 1always less than sixhundred families before the fourth century @/ 2 managed to comer alarger and larger share of social wealth, and they eventually formed astratum of enormous wealth that set them %uite apart from all others.The leading families of the cities continued to enoy wealth and privi-

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lege, but the gap between them and the senatorial aristocracy grewever greater, and, correspondingly, the large cities where senators

lived grew in opulence, while smaller cities and towns shrank inimportance. To give some idea of the disparity, (rown estimates thatthe income of a =oman senator could be one hundred and twentytimes that of a courtier, six hundred times that of a merchant andtwenty four thousand times that of a peasant. @6

Above even the senate, there was the figure of the emperor who,despite retaining the old title of #leading citi"en# 1princeps2, was in factalways an absolute monarch whose directives had the force of law. @4And in the third and fourth centuries, the center of political life shiftedmore and more away from the cities and toward the imperial court.!ith its standing army to ward off barbarian incursions, its growingbureaucracy, its need for heavier and heavier taxes, the empireneeded a leader of maximum prestige and authority. And while thecentrali"ation of power served the interests of the great senators withtheir huge scattered estates, it undermined even further the role of thelocal #leading families# in the many cities of the empire. !ith theirrelative share of wealth decreasing and their power and prestige


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undermined, the local aristocrats lost both the means and theincentive to continue their tradition of civic munificence. @@Increasingly, they found themselves in a #no-win# situation. 'n theone hand, the senators who controlled most of the wealth were nolonger tied to a #home town# and were able to avoid most of the

responsibilities of local citi"enship, such as provisioning the passingarmy, maintaining the corn supply, supporting the local cults, etc. 'nthe other hand, the provincial governor appointed by the emperor hada firm grip on power and was in a position to gain most of theeconomic benefits that came with the exercise and corruption ofpower. In this situation, the local leading families were increasinglypressed by the central authorities to carry out services and to assumeresponsibility for everything from tax collection to the corn supply,while most of the prestige and power that had formerly accompaniedthose duties was siphoned away, along with the greatest share ofwealth. @5 This situation in turn drove many of this local #curial# classto ruin and contributed to an even greater concentration of wealth infewer hands. @8

The crisis in the empire which led to strengthening the position of theemperor also had other effects that shifted the balance of forces

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once again. Already in the first %uarter of the third century, the0ersians consolidated an empire that posed a constant threat in the

east. (arbarians probed along the Eanube and the =hine and launchedraids from (ritain to the Aegean. In /@? the emperor Eecius was lostwith his entire army. In /5? Antioch was captured and the emperoralerian taken prisoner by the 0ersians. $phesus, +iletus, Athens andAlexandria were all threatened. 'f the great cities, only =ome and;arthage survived without attack, and by /8&, Aurelian found itnecessary to surround =ome itself with a wall. @3

'ne conse%uence of this threat was that the old senatorial aristocracy,while it retained its wealth and a good deal of prestige, lost its hold onthe political and military reins of the empire. Euring the period /6@-/34, there were twenty-five emperors, almost all created by the army,and when the dust had settled in /34, Eiocletian, the son of aEalmatian peasant, was emperor. About /5?, the senatorialaristocracy was excluded from military commands, replaced usually byprofessional soldiers who had risen from the ranks. The army doubledin si"e to about 5??,??? men, and a new bureaucracy grew to serveits needs. $mperors were usually strong military men, often from the


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lower or middle classes, and they appointed their own people toadminister the empire and to direct affairs of state. Thus theredeveloped, alongside the old senatorial aristocracy, a new #aristocracyof service,# paid in both gold and land, at the top of =oman society.Some of these were appointed by the emperor to the senate, but

many others oined what was still called the e%uestrian order 1i.e.order of knights2, but which was in fact a wealthy and privileged sectorof the ruling class, still inferior to the senate in wealth, but notnecessarily in power. As (rown puts it,

The son of a pork butcher, of a small-town notary, of a cloakroomattendant in the public baths, became the praetorian prefects onwhom the prosperity and stability of the eastern parts of the empiredepended under ;onstantine and ;onstantius II. @>

It is both important and difficult to keep a proper perspective on thesechanges. It is true that at the imperial court, this new aristocracyexercised power that displaced much of the influence of the senate.(ut at the same time, the great landowners went right on amassingever larger estates and controlling the rural population. 5? Someimperial appointments, especially that of provincial governor, providedboth

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considerable power and great opportunities to gain a fortune through

both legal and corrupt means, and some of these offices came to besold by the emperor at ever rising prices. 5& (ut as mentioned above,many of the new aristocrats were integrated into the senate, andsenators, some of whom now never even visited =ome, stillcommanded the highest prestige. 5/ In fact, by the time of TheodosiusI 168>-6>@2, senators 1along with ;hristian bishops2 were replacingthe army and regaining their position as the dominant influence atcourt. 56 And finally, it should be noted that this aristocracy of servicewas never a significant percentage of the total population and probablynever numbered more than thirty thousand. 54

Still, remembering that the senate numbered only about six hundredor so, the growth of a new sector of civil servants and professionalstotaling thirty thousand was important. In many ways, members ofthis new elite were eager not to remake =ome in their image, butrather to integrate themselves among the gentlemen of #eternal=ome.# So, for example, the ideals of classical education and culturewere warmly embraced by the new administrative elite. 5@ (ut at the
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same time, they were a dynamic sector, not attached to ancient hometowns and not linked in the same way with the old religious cults thatwere controlled by the senate. They were more rootless than the oldaristocrats, and the new order brought both real opportunities foradvancement and a simultaneous loss of traditional #place# in a society

founded on tradition. 55 It is against this background that we canunderstand Augustine as a more typical and less anomalous figureDson of a provincial family of modest means who was nonetheless aleading professor in =ome and +ilan by the time he was thirty yearsold, already considering an aristocratic marriage and a provincialgovernorship as his next career move. And it may make it also lessastonishing that he abandoned those plans in favor of oining whatwas, by his day, the most influential sector of the new aristocracy ofservice, the ;hristian priesthood.

This then is a sketch of later =oman society that seems to me to besupported by some of the best historical scholarship. It was, above all,a society sustained by the absolute dependency and economicexploitation of the vast maority by a very small minority. !hilenature, warfare and technological primitiveness imposed burdens onall, the almost incredible disparities of wealth and income meant thatthose burdens

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were distributed very unevenly. Almost no one conceived the

possibility of alternative forms of social or economic life, so that itremained also an essentially static society in which ancient relations ofproduction were taken for granted by most and enforced in the mostdirect way when even mildly challenged. (ut while it was, in theseways, a static society, it was also a society experiencing significantstrains. The huge sprawling empire was increasingly and almostconstantly threatened by barbarian incursions, a situation thatreinforced the concentration of power in the hands of the emperor andthe decline of local authority. The needs of this empire encouragedgreater migration and mobility and opened up new possibilities fortraders and professionals. The decline of local culture and a chroniclabor shortage combined with new economic opportunities toencourage more mobility among even the lower classes, a threat tostability that had to be countered by intensified legal bondage. Andfinally, the imperial system created a new stratum of aristocrats whosestatus was tied more to office than to ancient title and who wereclearly the most dynamic stratum of the society. And when, in theearly fourth century, the emperor ;onstantine set in motion the
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process by which the small ;hristian sect was transformed into the#official# religion of the empire, ;hristian priests and bishops becameat once key members of this dynamic stratum and also guardians ofthe stability of the social order.

It was in these conditions that the religious consciousness discussed inSection I above took its various forms. And there were, in fact, a greatmany religious forms. The empire incorporated many ancient culturesand was in contact with many more. $astern religious forms wereimported, adapted and often combined with traditional cult into a hostof hybrids. ;ompeting philosophical schools developed competingforms of spiritual life. And new cults developed as one or another ofthe traditional gods was elevated to the status of Supreme


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;hristianity was prior to ;onstantine, and some scholars believe that itwas already a powerful force, at least in some parts of the empire. 58(ut others are convinced that the empire remained overwhelminglypagan at the beginning of the fourth century. ane ox, estimates, forexample, that as late as /@? A.E., ;hristians comprised no more than

two percent of the population and that as late as 6?? A.E., they wereprobably no more than five percent. 53 And *ones argues that whilethere were ;hristians in most cities and many smaller towns, it wasonly in $gypt and Africa that significant inroads had been made amongthe rural maority. 5> urthermore, it seems clear that in the so-calledgreat persecution under Eiocletian at the turn of the fourth century,many, and perhaps most, ;hristians had lapsed and taken #loyaltyoaths# to the pagan gods. 8? :or does there seem to be much evidenceof avid ;hristian missionary "eal. 8& Cet by 64&, the emperor ;onstanshad issued an initial decree abolishing pagan sacrifices. 8/ (y the latefourth century, ;hristianity was the maority religion, and ;hristianbishops had become dominant figures in most cities and many towns.86 Symbolic of the change is certainly the fact that by 6>?, the bishopAmbrose was able to demand and obtain public penance from theemperor Theodosius after a massacre in Thessalonica. 84

rom the time of ;onstantine, imperial policy, which in the past had

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always more or less actively supported traditional pagan practice, now

more or less actively supported ;hristianity. The only significantexception would be the brief reign of *ulian 165&-6562, which might infact have been crucial had it not been cut short. :ot only did;onstantine and his successors endorse and practice the new faith, butthey acted to support it in the most concrete ways. ;hristians, ofteneven from the lower classes, were given preference in imperialappointments, and it soon became obvious that ones ambitions weremore apt to be reali"ed if one were of the emperors faith. 8@ In thetwenty-five years between his conversion and his death, ;onstantinebuilt huge churches from =ome to the holy land, and many of hissuccessors followed suit. 85 Also under ;onstantine, there began thegranting of large subsidies to the ;hristian churches, a practice thatcontinued at some level 1except during *ulians tenure2 until at leastthe end of the sixth century. 88 (oth because of these subsidies andbecause of gifts and endowments of land from the faithful, the churchbecame immensely wealthy, and bishops received incomes matchingor even exceeding those of provincial governors. 83 !hereas paganpriesthoods had been part-time offices, usually handled on a voluntary
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rotating basis by notables, the salary bill of the ;hristian church wasfar heavier than that of the empire itself. 8> And, finally, it might bementioned that from the time of ;onstantine, the emperors saw theneed for a united ;hristian church and did all they could to promoteand even enforce doctrinal unity and to punish heresy and schism. 3?

The emperors took an active role early on in attacking the Arianheresy, and in the fifth century, imperial power was brought to bear inforcibly suppressing the Eonatist schism in Africa and in driving0elagianism out of =ome. 3&

At the same time, paganism fell on increasingly hard times.;onstantine himself was tolerant of paganism and harmed it mainly bywithdrawing support, which, however, did make it harder and harderfor pagan cults to obtain needed resources. 3/ Still there were somelaws restricting paganism even under ;onstantine, and restrictionsslowly increased until in 6>&, the emperor Theodosius issued lawsbanning all pagan sacrifice and ceremony. 36 (y 4?8, non-;hristianswere clearly outlaws, and +ac+ullen %uotes a decree of that year,stating that

If any images stand even now in temples and shrines . . . they shall betorn from their foundations.... The buildings themselves of the templeswhich

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are situated in cities or towns shall be vindicated to public use. Altarsshall be destroyed in all places. 34

In the last years of the fourth century, there was a wave of violentpersecution against both pagans and *ews, with destruction of templesand synagogues. 3@ Augustine himself preached a sermon 1!erm"/42in the year 6>> calling for the annihilation of everything pagan, aspeech which likely provoked riots in at least one African city. 35 As(rown remarks,

The ;hristian congregations of the 63?s wanted a #;hristian# empire,purged of the heavy legacy of the gods, and ruled by an emperor whoshared their preudices against *ews, heretics and pagans. 38

)owever, while ;hristianity fairly %uickly gained the upper hand, itwould be a mistake to see the victory as complete or easy. orexample, in the mid-sixth century, *ustinian 1@/8-@5@2 enactedlegislation prohibiting pagans from holding chairs as professors and
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denying them the capacity to make wills, receive inheritances or testifyin court. And in @/>, he found it necessary to order all pagans toaccept baptism on pain of confiscation and exile. 33 Such activity wouldsuggest that there must still have been pagans aplenty to beconcerned about. And we know that among intellectuals in particular,

;hristianity was slow to convince, and many of them clung to theirpagan philosophicalreligious systems for a very long time. 3>

!hat this tells us is that while ;hristians did, in the fourth century,succeed, by #flattery and battery alike,# >? in driving paganismunderground and in ;hristiani"ing the empire, the course by no meansran smooth, and there were strong competing forces at work. I think itwill be a help both in understanding those forces and in understandingthe proect of Augustinianism to take a brief look at the struggle ofreligious ideologies against the background of some of the conditionsdiscussed in Section II. In particular, I would like to look at the appealof paganism and of ;hristianity to the various sectors of the populationthat were identified above.

et me begin by discussing those at the extremes of the classspectrum, the rural poor, on the one hand, and the senatorialaristocracy, on the other. In doing so, what we find is that amongthose groups, the oldest and most traditional forms of religiousconsciousness remained most powerful, though for different reasons.

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The rural poor, both free and unfree, remained loyal to their old godsand were only weaned from them slowly and painfully over longcenturies. And even when they came to ;hristianity, they broughtmany of their customs and practices with them, simply adapting themto a ;hristian framework and interpretation. As noted above, it seemsthat at the beginning of the fourth century, ;hristianity had made fewinroads in the countryside, and the peasantry was always slow to shiftits allegiance. Tied to the land, victimi"ed by forces natural and humanand seldom traveling more than thirty miles from home, that vastmaority whose labor moved the imperial machine remainedsteadfastly with the tried and true protectors of hearth and homeDthegods of wind, sun and rain, of fertility and renewal. >& or all itsignorance and backwardness, the peasantry remained rooted in a kindof commonsense religious #realism# that saw the gods, instraightforward terms, as unpredictable and wrathful powers to bepropitiated, implored or 1if one could find others yet more powerful2defeated. As also noted above, Augustines Africa would be the


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(y the same token, the cultural leaders of the empire, thephilosophers and other intellectuals who depended on senatorialpatronage, were also slow to adopt ;hristianity. In 0art Two we shallhave more to say about 0latonist and other philosophers. or themoment, suffice it to say that the philosophical systems which sought

the ultimate good and contact with the #divine# had no difficulty at allin accommodating themselves to traditional cult and in viewing thegods in symbolic or representational terms. (ut the exclusive ;hristiansect, with its crude scriptures and its denigration of human wisdom,was abhorrent to many of them. >5

As with all things, these generali"ations must be %ualified. There werea few ;hristian senators even as early as /@?, and once the emperorwas ;hristian, those senators who lived outside =ome itself were muchmore apt to be ;hristian. >8 In the fourth century, there wereprominent aristocrats such as Augustines mentor Ambrose, who notonly oined the ;hristians, but became leading officers of the church.And in 0art Two, we shall have a look at some intellectuals who wereattempting to adapt the 0latonist philosophy to ;hristianity and whoformed Augustines immediate circle of friends. (ut even with all theseexceptions, it still seems fair to say that in the ideology of the western.aristocracy, the gods were only slowly displaced by the

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;hristian god as the bulwark of =oman culture and the support of

#eternal =ome.#

(ut what can be said of the religious consciousness of other sectors ofsocietyB !hat of slaves, both urban and ruralB !hat of the urban poorliving on the dole 1in those few cities where there was such2, privatecharity and occasional wage laborB !hat of the craftsmen,shopkeepers and service providers of the citiesB !hat of the traders inslaves and other merchandiseB !hat of the old curial order of thecities, still well-to-do but dwarfed by the obscene wealth of the greatlandowners and increasingly imposed upon by a host of official dutiesand exactionsB And, from the middle of the third century, what of thatnew aristocracy of service attached to the emperorB )ere the picture isboth more obscure and more complex.

To begin once more from the #bottom,# it must be said thatinformation on the beliefs and practices of the most oppressedmembers of society is extremely scanty. ;ertainly after 6&/, there wasa great deal of pressure on both slaves and free tenants of landowners
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to convert to ;hristianity when their masters converted. >3 And nodoubt most slaves, those most vulnerable to such pressure, did in factfollow, more or less passively, the religious practices of their masters.!here there are known exceptions, it is much more common to find;hristian masters with pagan slaves than to find pagan masters with

;hristian slaves. >> As a general rule, conversion to ;hristianity offeredno advantages whatever to slaves. ;hristianity never challengedslavery or made any significant effort to free slaves. ;hristians seemusually to have assumed 1and here Augustine is typical2 that socialstatus is irrelevant to spiritual worth, so that believers were urged toremain in the station in which they found themselves.

ike the Stoics, these ;hristian leaders began from a principle of thee%uality of man, yet argued that worldly differences of status shouldcontinue undisturbed. The greater slavery was mans slavery to hispassions. &??

;hristians, even bishops, continued to have slaves and usually tooppose emancipation. 'ften church rules forbade baptism to slavesunless they had their masters permission, and slaves of pagans whosought ;hristian teaching were urged not to offend their masters.+onks were cautioned against giving refuge to runaway slaves. And

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while it is true that runaway slaves could sometimes gain sanctuary in

a church, it is also true that in the pagan empire, a runaway could takerefuge at any statue of the emperor or within certain temples. &?& Somost slaves, to the extent that they participated in any religiouspractice at all, likely followed the practice of their masters.

The #humbler# free persons of the cities present a somewhat differentpicture. As with all sectors of the population, the vast maority of thesepeople also remained loyal to the traditional gods until well into thefourth century. (ut here we do find a really significant ;hristianpresence fairly early on.

!hen we speak of the #humble# urban population, we are includingboth those mired in the deepest poverty and others whose skills oroccupation left them still dependent but of at least some modestmeans. And when it comes to religious practice, these groups, to someextent, shared a common situation. +ost town dwellers had long sincebeen reduced to mere spectators in relation to public cult. And as themeaning of citi"enship was undermined and the autonomy of individual


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cities waned, attachment to the traditional gods of ones city wasfurther loosened. urthermore, the continual hardening of class linesmade it increasingly obvious that traditional cult belonged to thewellto-do and served their interests. &?/

If we focus on the very poorest members of the urban population,there do seem to have been some factors that attracted some of theirnumber to ;hristianity. There is, for example, the sheer physical factthat the urban poor lived crowded in on each other, a setting thatprovided many opportunities to hear about the new ;hristian sect andto interact with ;hristians in a more immediate way that helpedundermine pre-conceptions about them as dangerous atheists. &?6Secondly, it cannot be unimportant that the poor were at least notexcluded from the ;hristian community and that they were evenreceived, at least in theory, as e%ual souls in need of salvation. Andthen also there must be added the fact that ;hristians did make avirtue of charity and fre%uently were a source of real charitable benefitto those of their members who were poor. &?4

'n the other hand, the appeal of ;hristianity to the urban poor shouldbe kept in perspective. or one thing, ;hristian churches, with theirobligation to charity, were often rather closed and exclusive groupswho were very leery of taking on too many empty bellies to

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be filled.&?@

Secondly, while ;hristianity did emphasi"e the e%uality ofall souls in the eyes of


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It seems more likely that ;hristianity had its greatest appeal notamong the very poorest =omans, but among those still #humble#people whose status was perhaps most ambivalent. Since traditionalreligion had been overwhelmingly centered in the various cities andwas such a #hometown# affair, the increase in migration in the third

and fourth centuries tore many people loose from their roots and leftthem essentially godless, even as it destroyed the enveloping supportof traditional communities. &?8 (rown finds in this situation an #anxiety#that may have been relieved by

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T.kermit Scott-Augustine His Thought in Context