Augustine in His Own Words (continued)
The Preacher 133 sed omnis uerax a ueritate but every truthful person is truthful uerax est; from the Truth, si ergo uerax est Iohannes, If, therefore, John is truthful, et uerax esse homo non potest, and a person cannot be truthful nisi a ueritate; except from the Truth, a quo erat uerax, from whom was he truthful nisi ab eo qui dixit: except from the one who said, "Ego sum ueritas"? "I am the Truth" (Jn 14:6)? Non ergo possit dicere Thus neither could aut ueritas contra ueracem, the Truth speak against the truthful, aut uerax contra ueritatem. . . . nor the truthful against the Truth. . . . Si ueritas Iohannem miserat, If the Truth had sent John, Christus eum miserat. Christ had sent him.21
A Noisy Audience
Augustine's audiences were noisy. They routinely applauded. On occasion, they might even boo him or shout in protest.22 Augustine always kept a close eye on his hearers, extending things if they were silent, breaking things off if they applauded. Here the audience reacts to the elegance of Augustine's parallel phrases with applause. Their applause catches him off-guard. From Sermon 96:
(4) Loved is the world, but let your love prefer the One by whom the world was made. Vast is the world, but more vast is the One by whom the world was made. Beautiful is the world, but more beautiful is the One by whom the world was made. Alluring is the world, but more alluring is the One by whom the world was made. [The congregation here begins cheering.] What did I say? What is there to start cheering about? Look, the problem [in the biblical text] has only just been laid out, and you've already started cheering.23
Being Attuned to the Audience
Augustine valued spontaneity. He was critical of preachers who wrote sermons out in advance and then read them or performed them from memory. He thought this ignored
21. Jo. ev. tr. 5.1 (BA 71:292); trans. Rettig, FOTC 78:108–9. 22. In one of the recently discovered Dolbeau sermons, Augustine was actually jeered out of the pulpit. Augustine details the events in s. 359B (= Dolbeau 2) (Dolbeau, VSS, 328–44). See S. A. H. Kennell, "Vt adhuc habeat fides nostra reprobatores: Augustine's Hostile Hearers," in Madec, Augustin Prédicateur, 343–52.
23. S. 96.4 (PL 38:586–87); my trans.