Augustine in His Own Words
ly the Catholics, who already knew about the life and teaching of holy Augustine, laid hands on him. He was standing among the crowd, in security and ignorant of what was about to happen, for it was his custom as a layman, he has told us, to withhold his presence only from those churches which had no bishops. Therefore, they seized him and, as is customary in such cases, brought him to the bishop for ordination, since this was what all wished. Augustine wept freely as they eagerly presented their request with loud shouting. The cause of his tears, as he himself told us later, was interpreted by some of the people to be the result of wounded pride, and therefore by way of consolation they told him that, though he was worthy of a greater honor, the office of presbyter was close to the bishopric in rank. The man of God, however, as his own words affirm, had a greater understanding of the matter. He grieved because he anticipated the many imminent dangers that would threaten his life in the rule and government of the Church. This was the cause of his tears. Everything, however, was accomplished in accordance with the will of the people.10
Augustine on Augustine's Ordination
In a sermon delivered at the end of his career, Augustine recounts these same events. He recalls them within an embarrassing context, namely, that a presbyter of his had not distributed his holdings upon ordination and, in the end, died leaving a will that was bitterly contested between two surviving children. Augustine used this opportunity to set out his personal ideal of a community of shared goods. From Sermon 355:
(2) You all know, or almost all of you do, that we live in a house, known as the bishop's house, living in such a way that we might imitate, as best we can, the holy ones about whom the book of the Acts of the Apostles speaks: "No one claimed anything as their own, but everything of theirs was held in common" (Acts 4:32). . . . I, whom by God's grace you see as your bishop, came to this city as a young man. Many of you know that. I was searching for somewhere to set up a monastery, and there to live with my brethren. I had left behind all hopes of this world. What I could have been, I did not wish to be; nor did I seek to be what I am now. "I chose to be lowly in the house of my God rather than live in tents of sinners" (Ps 83:11). I separated myself from those who love the world, but I did not put myself on equal standing with those who preside over the people [of God]. Nor at the Lord's banquet did I pick a higher place, but rather a lower, lowly one. And it pleased the Lord to say to
10. Vita 4 (Geerlings, 32–34); trans. Muller and Deferrari, FOTC 15:77–78. On such forced ordinations, see Yves Congar, "Ordinations invictus, coactus, de l'église antique au canon 214," Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques 50 (1966): 169–97; reprinted in Droit ancien et structures ecclésiales (London: Variorum, 1982).