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behaviour disturb her peace and compromise her spiritual unanimity. His stance here, as it was in relation to our duty to obey the State, is more strictly religious than political. In the Bible, indeed, there are no instances of the apostles calling upon the State for help; but since the coming of Christ, the prophecy of the psalm has been fulfilled: 'Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the lord with fear.' Once again, then, we note that rulers are obliged to serve the Church not insofar as they are rulers per se, but insofar as they are rulers who also happen to be Christians [173; 177-178]. Their duty to do so is not an indicator of the subjection of temporal rulers to the Church. It is the particular form, appropriate to their station in life, of the duty that we all have to serve the Church according to our abilities and opportunities. 'For a man serves God in one way insofar as he is a man, and in another way insofar as he is also a king. Insofar as he is a man, he serves Him by living faithfully; but insofar as he is also a king, he serves Him by enforcing with suitable rigour laws which command what is righteous and punish the reverse' [178].
In sum: Augustine's thinking on the subject of Church and State, and hence his bequest to the papalist writers of the middle ages, centres upon three broad principles; although these principles are expressed ad hoc and sometimes loosely and inconsistently. They are:
1. That politics is essentially a base and sin-laden activity, made necessary by the fact that man has estranged himself from God;
2. That the temporal and spiritual powers are separate, but that spiritual matters are inherently superior to temporal ones and take precedence over them in the event of conflict;
3. That the Church may call upon the secular authorities of the Christian State to deploy material force on her behalf, and that those authorities have a corresponding duty to respond: a duty which is, however, more properly religious than political. This duty extends not merely to defending the Church against enemies and criminals, but to coercing the doctrinally unsound; al-
23 Psalm 2:10-11.
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though this latter stipulation is a feature of Augustine's later thought.
These principles are the building blocks of a great deal of papalist theorising. It must be understood, however, that Augustine does not say, nor does he to any plausible degree imply, that the secular power is formally subordinate or accountable to the Church or that it is in any sense derived from the Church. To find support in his writings for such doctrines required a formidable combination of exegetical ingenuity and wishful thinking.
TEXTS
(a) The Spiritual and Temporal Spheres
[161] Expositio quarumdam propositionum ex epistula ad Romanos 72: We are composed of body and soul, and for as long as we are in this temporal life we make use of temporal things for the support of this life. As regards that part of us which belongs to this life, it is fitting that we should be subject to the powers: that is, to those men who administer human affairs in some office of honour. But as regards that part of us by which we believe in God and are called to His kingdom, it is not fitting that we should be subject to any man who seeks to subvert in us that very gift which God has deigned to give us for the attainment of eternal life. If, therefore, anyone supposes that, because he is a Christian, he does not have a duty to pay taxes or tribute, or that he does not have to render due honour to the powers which deal with such things, he falls into a great error. But if anyone supposes that he should be subject to a man who is raised up to some high position in the administration of temporal affairs in such a way that that man is deemed to have power even over his faith, he falls into an even greater error. The proper manner of our service is that which the Lord Himself prescribed: 'Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.'4 Although we are called to that kingdom in which there will be no power of the former kind, nonetheless, while we are here in the 24 Matt. 22:21.
19]
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midst of our pilgrimage, and until we arrive at that age when every principality and power passes away, let us endure our condition for the sake of maintaining that very order of human affairs, doing nothing falsely, and by that fact in itself obeying not so much men as the God Who has commanded us.
[162] Enarrationes in psalmos 140:21: 'And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.' He raised up Peter from the mire, and Paul, even when they were fallen and despised; and now that the earth has been enriched by them, now that the cross of the Church has sprung up, behold, all that is noble and great in the world, even the emperor himself, comes to Rome. And to what place does he hasten? To the temple of the emperor, or the memorial of the fisherman?
[163] Epistulae 134:1-3: I do not doubt that when you exercise that power which God has given to you as a man over men,?"6 you keep in mind the divine judgment-seat before which even judges will have to stand and render an account of their judgments ... It is of you that the Apostle said, as we read, that you bear not the sword in vain and that you are 'a minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil'.?" But it is one thing to rule a province and another to rule the Church. The former must be administered by engendering fear; the latter must gently commend herself through mildness.
[164] De opere monachorum 29:37: I call upon our Lord Jesus, in Whose name I say these things without fear, as a witness to my soul, that, as far as my own convenience is concerned, I would much rather do some work with my hands every day at certain hours, as is prescribed by the rule in well-ordered monasteries, and then have the remaining hours free for study and prayer or for some work relating to sacred literature, than to have to deal with the most annoying complications which arise out of other
2 Gorok:28.
26 The letter, written ca. 412, is addressed to Apringius, proconsul of Africa, and asks mercy for 'certain circumcelliones and Donatists' who have confessed to serious crimes of violence against the Church.
27 Rom. 13:4.
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men's disputes over secular matters, which we must either bring to an end by giving judgment or cut short by intervening in them.
[165] Enarrationes in psalmos 118:24:3: For the wicked train us in performing the commandments, but they lead us away from searching into them: not only when they persecute us or wish to pursue lawsuits against us, but also when they flatter and honour us yet then expect us to occupy ourselves in helping them with their own vicious and mercantile desires and bestow our time upon them; and when they harass the weak and compel them to lay their causes before us. We do not venture to say to such people, 'Man, who made me a judge and a divider over you?'8 - for the Apostle has laid it down that members of the Church should be judges in such cases, forbidding Christians to squabble with one another in the marketplace" ... But as to those people who obstinately carry on disputes with one another and, when they harass the good, hold our judgment in contempt and make us waste the time that should be spent on things divine: as to those people, I say, surely we also may exclaim, in the words of the body of Christ: 'Away from me ye wicked, and I will search the commandments of my God."20 (b) The Christian Ruler
[166] Epistulae 155:3:10-13: Therefore if all the prudence by which you?! endeavour to provide for human affairs; if all the fortitude by virtue of which you are not afraid of any iniquity directed against you; if all the temperance by which, even in the midst of the most vile habits of mankind, you keep yourself free from corruption; if all the justice by which you judge rightly as you give to each his due: if in all these things you labour and strive to ensure only that those to whom you wish well may be safe in body and preserved in peace from anyone's dishonesty ... then neither your virtues nor their happiness are truly such ... If any part of
28 Luke 12:14.
29 cf. I Cor. 6:1-6.
30 Psalm 119:115.
31 The letter (ca. 414) is addressed to Macedonius, Vicar of Africa.
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your government, I say ... is limited to this intention and end, that men should suffer no distress according to the flesh; and if you think it no part of your business to ensure that they make a return for that peace which you secure for them ... by worshipping the true God in Whom is all the fruit of a peaceful life: then such labour on your part will not bring you the benefit of a truly happy life. [But] if you are mindful that you have received the virtues which you have, and if you give thanks to Him from Whom you have received them, devoting them to His service even in your secular office; if, whether you rule them by love or fear, you inspire and lead the men subject to your power to worship God both by the example of your own devout life and by your care in providing for them; if, in seeking their greater secu- | rity, you have no other wish than that they should draw near to Him in Whom they will live blessedly: then yours will be true virtues, and they will be increased by the help of Him Whose bounty lavished them on you, and they will be so perfected as to lead you without doubt to that truly blessed life which is no other than life eternal.
[167] De civitate Dei 5:24-26: We do not say that certain Christian emperors were therefore happy because they ruled a long time, or, dying a peaceful death, left their sons to succeed them in the empire, or subdued the enemies of the republic, or were able both to guard against and to suppress the attempt of hostile citizens rising against them. These and other gifts or comforts of this sorrowful life even certain worshippers of demons have merited to receive, who do not belong to the kingdom of God to which these belong; and this is to be traced to the mercy of God, Who would not have those who believe in Him desire such things as the highest good. But we say that they are happy if they rule justly; if they are not lifted up amid the praises of those who pay them sublime honours, and the obsequiousness of those who salute them with an excessive humility, but remember that they are men; if they make their power the handmaid of His majesty by using it for the greatest possible extension of His worship; if they fear, love, worship God; if more than their own they love that kingdom in which they are not afraid to have partners; if they are
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slow to punish, ready to pardon; if they apply that punishment as necessary to government and defence of the republic, and not in order to gratify their own enmity; if they grant pardon, not that iniquity may go unpunished, but with the hope that the transgressor may amend his ways; if they compensate with the lenity of mercy and the liberality of benevolence for whatever severity they may be compelled to decree; if their luxury is as much restrained as it might have been unrestrained; if they prefer to govern depraved desires rather than any nation whatever; and if they do all these things, not through ardent desire of empty glory, but through love of eternal felicity, not neglecting to offer to the true God, who is their God, for their sins, the sacrifices of humility, contrition, and prayer. Such Christian emper Ors, we Say, are happy in the present time by hope, and are destined to be so in the enjoyment of the reality itself, when that which we wait for shall have arrived ...
And what could be more admirable than the religious humility shown [by the Emperor Theodosius] when, compelled by the urgency of certain of his intimates, he avenged the grievous crime of the Thessalonians, which at the prayer of the bishops he had promised to pardon, and, being laid hold of by the discipline of the church, did penance in such a way that the sight of his imperial loftiness prostrated made the people who were interceding for him weep more than the consciousness of offence had made them fear it when enraged?
(c) Religious Persecution (i) Augustine 's Initial View
[168] Epistulae 23:7-8 (written in 392 to Maximinus, a Donatist bishop who later became Catholic bishop of Sinita*?): I do not propose that men should be compelled to embrace any communion whatsoever, but that the truth should be made known to men who are able to seek it without apprehension. For our part, there will be no appeal to men's fear of the temporal powers. For yours, let there be no terror produced by gangs of circumcelliones.
32 The Maximinus mentioned at De civitate Dei 22:8 is the same person.
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Let us attend to the real matter in hand, and let us proceed quietly and calmly, as far as we can, by means of reason and the authorities of the Divine Scriptures. Let us ask, seek and knock, that we may receive and find and that the door may be opened to us, and that thereby, with God's help granted to our united efforts, we may begin to abolish from our land this great deformity and impiety which afflicts the regions of Africa ... May the Lord God deign to breathe peace into your mind, my most beloved lord and brother.
[169] Epistulae 34:1 (written in 396, to Eusebius, a Donatist bishop): God, to Whom all the secrets of the human heart are open, knows that it is because of my love of Christian peace that I am so greatly disturbed by the sacrilege of those who so basely and impiously persevere in their dissent. He knows that the movement of my soul is towards peace, and that my desire is not that anyone should be compelled to embrace the Catholic communion against his will, but that the truth may be plainly declared to all those who err and, being with God's help clearly made manifest by our ministry, may effectively persuade them to embrace and follow it.
[170] Epistulae 35:4 (written in 396, to the same Eusebius): The daughter of a certain tenant farmer of the Church here had been one of our catechumens; but, against her parents' wishes, she had been seduced by [the Donatists] and, having been baptized among them, had embraced the religious life. Her father proposed to compel her by force to return to the Catholic communion; but I did not wish that this woman whose mind had been corrupted should be received by us other than by her own will, having chosen the better course by the free exercise of judgment. When the countryman began to try to coerce his daughter by blows to submit to him, therefore, I at once entirely forbade him to do such a thing. In spite of this, when I was passing through the Spanian district, a presbyter of [Proculianus, Donatist bishop of Hippo,] standing in the middle of a field belonging to a virtuous Catholic woman, shouted out after me in a most insulting
33 Matt. 7:7; Luke 11:9.
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fashion, calling me a traditor* and a persecutor and hurling the same accusation at the woman of our fellowship in the midst of whose field he was standing. But when I heard his words, I not only refrained from taking up the quarrel; I also restrained the multitude which surrounded me from doing so.
[171] Epistulae 44:5:11 (written in 398, reporting a debate with Fortunius, Donatist bishop of Tubursi): Among other things, it was said that our party was still intending to persecute [the Donatists] and he [Fortunius] said that he would like to see how I would behave if such persecution were to take place: whether I would consent to such cruelty or entirely withold my consent from it. I said that God saw my heart, which they could not see, and that they had not so far had any reason to fear such persecution, which, if it did occur, would be the work of bad men, even though their own people were worse.
(ii) Augustine 's justifications
[172] Contra litteras Petiliani 2:83:184 (written ca. 400, in lengthy response to a pastoral letter of Petilian, Donatist bishop of Cirta): No one, indeed, is to be compelled to embrace the faith against his will; but it is customary for treachery to be chastised with the scourge of tribulation ... [It was the ceaseless acts of violence perpetrated by the Donatists themselves which] first made it necessary to urge before the vicar Seranus that the law which imposes a fine of ten pounds in gold should be put in force against you; although none of you has yet paid it! And you charge us with cruelty! Where, then, could you find a milder course of proceeding than that crimes of such magnitude as yours should be punished by the imposition of a monetary fine? ... But what was it, if not such deeds as these of yours, that made it necessary for those laws of which you complain to be passed at all? The laws are, indeed, very far from being equal in severity to the gravity of your crimes; but, such as they are, you have only yourselves to thank for the fact that they exist.
34 See p. 185.
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[173] Epistulae 100:1-2 (written in 409 to Donatus, Proconsul of Africa): I wish indeed that the African Church were not placed under such afflictions as to need the aid of any earthly power. But since, as the Apostle says, 'there is no power but of God',® it is beyond doubt that when help is given to her by you, the most sincere son of your Catholic Mother, 'Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth'... There is only one thing that we fear greatly in your justice: that when you see that every evil deed committed by ungodly and ungrateful men against the Christian fellowship is far worse and more atrocious than if it had been committed against others, you will consider that it should be punished with the severity appropriate to great wickedness rather than with the leniency associated with Christian forebearance. We beseech you in the name of Jesus Christ not to do this. For we do require vengeance for ourselves upon our enemies on this earth; nor ought the things which we suffer give us such anguish of mind that we forget the commandments which we have received from Him for Whose truth and in Whose name we suffer: to love our enemies and pray for them." Accordingly, we desire that the terror of judges and laws shall be an opportunity not to slay them but to correct them, lest they fall under the penalty of eternal judgment. We do not wish either to see the exercise of discipline towards them neglected, or, on the other hand, to see them subjected to the punishments which they deserve. Pray, therefore, punish their sins in such a way that the sinners may be spared to repent of them.
We beseech you, therefore, when you hear cases affecting the Church, no matter how wicked may be the injuries which you shall discover to have been attempted against the Church or inflicted on her, to forget that you have the power to slay, and not to forget our petition.
[174] Epistulae 88:6-8 (written in 406 to Januarius, Donatist Bishop of Casae Nigrae): You therefore have no reason to complain against us. On the contrary, the mildness of the Catholic
35 Rom. 13:1.
36 Psalm 124:8
37 cf. Matt. 5:44.
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Church would have abstained from taking advantage of even these decrees of the emperors, had not your clergy and circumcelliones, disturbing our peace and devastating us by their most appalling crimes and mad acts of violence, compelled us to have them revived and enforced again.** For before these more recent laws of which you complain had come into Africa, those brigands lay in wait for our bishops on their journeys, abused our clergy with the most savage blows, and inflicted the same most cruel injuries upon our laypeople and set fire to their houses ... But they are not content with beating us with cudgels and slaying some of us with the sword. With a wicked forethought which passes belief they even throw quicklime mixed with acid into our eyes, to blind them ... You say that you suffer persecution while we are being killed with the clubs and swords of your armed men! You say that you suffer persecution while our houses are being laid waste by your armed bands! You say that you suffer persecution while our eyes are being destroyed by the quicklime and acid of your men!... They do not blame themselves for what they do to us, and they lay upon us the blame for what they bring upon. themselves. They live as robbers; they die as circumcelliones; they are honoured as martyrs! Indeed I never heard of even robbers blinding those whom they had robbed. They take away those whom they kill from the light; but they do not take away the light from those whom they allow to remain alive.
[175] Epistulae 89:1-2 (written in 406 to Festus, a layman): [I]s it not all the more just and reasonable for those who maintain the truth of Christian peace and unity to labour constantly and with energy not only in the defence of those who are already Catholics, but also for the correction of those who are not yet within the Church?... What could be more unhappy and perverse than for men not only to refuse to be humbled by the correction of their wickedness, but even to claim praise for their conduct, as the Donatists do when they boast that they are the victims of persecution? They do this either because, thanks to an amazing blind-
38 The reference here is evidently to the Edict of Unity of February 405, which revived the laws enacted against the Donatists between 392 and 395 by Theodosius and his sons.
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ness, they do not know or, because of a damnable animosity, they pretend not to know, that men are made martyrs not by the fact of their suffering, but by the cause in which they suffer. I would say this even if I were opposing men who were only involved in the darkness of error and who had not dared to assault anyone with insane violence.
[176] Epistulae 87:7-9 (written ca. 405-411% to Emeritus, Donatist bishop of Caesarea): When the earthly powers persecute schismatics they defend what they do by the rule which the Apostle established when he said: 'Whoso resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Wilt thou not then be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil'4° ... You will say that Christians ought not to persecute even wicked men. So be it, then: they ought not. But does this objection have any force against those powers which are ordained for this very purpose? ... Again, you will say that the Roman emperors have been provoked against you by us, whereas in fact you have provoked them against yourselves. For they are now members of the Church, as was foretold long ago when it was said concerning Christ: 'Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him';*! and you have dared to injure the Church by schism, and you still obstinately persist in rebaptizing her members. Moreover, when our people seek help from the powers which are ordained, they do so not to persecute you, but to protect themselves from the lawless acts of violence perpetrated by your people: acts which you yourself, who do not do such things, bewail and deplore. In the same way, before the Roman empire became Christian, the *° It is not possible to date this letter precisely: see Willis, Saint Augustine and the Donatist Controversy, p. 64, Hugh Pope, Saint Augustine f Hippo (London, 1937), p. 264.
40 Rom. 13:2-4.
41 Psalm 72:11.
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Apostle Paul took steps to ensure that the protection of armed men should be given to him against the Jews who were conspiring to kill him.? But these emperors, whatever the occasion of their becoming aquainted with the wickedness of your schism may be, frame against you such decrees as their zeal and power demand. For they bear not the sword in vain: they are ministers of God to execute wrath upon those who do evil.
[177] Epistulae 93:5-19 (written in 408 to Vincentius, Rogatist bishop of Cartenna): You believe that no one should be compelled to follow righteousness; yet you read that the master of the house said to his servants, 'Whomsoever ye shall find, compel them to come in'" ... Whatever, therefore, the true and rightful Mother [i.e. the Catholic Church] does, even when something harsh and bitter is felt as a result of it, she is not rendering evil for evil;* rather, she is employing the good of discipline to expel the evil of sin, not with a hatred which seeks to harm, but with a love which seeks to heal. When good and bad men do the same things and suffer in the same way, they are to be distinguished not by what they do or suffer, but by the causes of each. Thus, Pharaoh oppressed the people of God with harsh labour; Moses afflicted the same people with harsh correction when they acted impiously.* They both did similar things, but they did not both desire the people's welfare; for the one was inflamed by lust for power, and the other was inflamed by love ...
If it were always praiseworthy to suffer persecution, it would have been enough for the Lord to say, "Blessed are they which are persecuted', without adding 'for righteousness' sake'. Again, if it were always blameworthy to inflict persecution, it would not have been written in the sacred books, 'Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off [percutere].'4* Sometimes, therefore, he who suffers persecution is unrighteous and 42 Acts 23:12-31.
43 The Rogatists were a small Donatist faction.
4 Luke 14:23.
45 cf. Rom. 12:17.
46 cf. Exodus 5:9; 22:27.
47 Matt. 5:10.
48 Psalm 101:5.
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he who inflicts it is righteous ... Wicked men slew the prophets; but the prophets also slew wicked men. The Jews scourged Christ; but Christ also scourged the Jews. The apostles were handed over by men to human powers; but the apostles themselves handed men over to the power of Satan. In all these cases, only this is to be considered: who were on the side of truth, and who on the side of iniquity? Who acted from a desire to harm, and who froma desire to correct?... [You say that] no example is found in the writings of the evangelists and apostles of any petition presented to the kings of the earth by the Church against her enemies. Who denies that no such thing is found? But at that time the prophecy was not yet fulfilled: 'Be wise now, therefore, ye kings of the earth; be instructed, ye judges of the earth: serve the Lord with fear.' At that time, the words which we find at the beginning of the same psalm were still being fulfilled: 'Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel against the Lord, and against His Anointed.'49 Truly, if things done in the past which are recorded in the prophetic books prefigure things to come, then the king called Nebuchadnezzar foreshadows both the condition of the Church at the time of the apostles and her condition now. In the age of the apostles and martyrs, that was fulfilled which was prefigured when that king compelled pious and just men to bow down to his image, and cast those who refused into the fire. Now, however, is fulfilled that which was prefigured soon afterwards in the same king, when, having been converted to the worship of the true God, he decreed that whoever in his kingdom should blaspheme against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego should be subject to due punishment. The earlier time of that king signified the former age of unbelieving emperors, under whom the Christians suffered because of the wicked; but the later time of that king signified the age of the faithful emperors who rule now, under whom the wicked suffer because of the Christians.
49 Psalm 2:1-2; 10-11.
50 Dan. 3:29.
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What deserves to be considered here is not the mere fact that someone is coerced, but the nature of that for which he is coerced, whether it be good or bad. It is not that anyone can be made good against his will, but that, through fear of suffering what he does not wish to suffer, he either renounces his hostile prejudices, or is compelled to examine a truth of which he had been ignorant; and under the influence of this fear repudiates the falsehood for which he once contended, or seeks the truth of which he formerly knew nothing, and now willingly holds what he previously rejected. No doubt it would be useless to assert this in any words whatsoever, if it were not shown to be true by so many examples. We see, not a few men here and there, but many cities, once Donatist, now Catholic, vehemently detesting the devilish schism and ardently loving unity; but these cities became Catholic under the influence of that very fear which so displeases you, by virtue of the laws of emperors from Constantine (before whom your own people willingly accused Caecilianus) down to the emperors of the present day ...
In the face of such examples set before me by my colleagues, I have, therefore, yielded to their view. For my opinion at first was that no one should be coerced into the unity of Christ: that we must act only by words, fight only by arguments, and overcome by reason alone, lest we should have those whom we knew to be true heretics becoming false Catholics. But this opinion of mine was overcome not by the words of those who opposed it, but by the examples to which they could point by way of demonstration. For, in the first place, my own city stood in opposition to my view. Once wholly on the side of Donatus, it was converted to Catholic unity by fear of the imperial laws, and we now see it so greatly detesting your ruinous animosity that one is hardly able to believe that it was ever involved in it. So many other instances were mentioned to me by name, that, simply on the strength of the facts, I came to acknowledge that the words of scripture might rightly be understood as applying to this case: "Give opportunity to a wise man and he will be yet wiser.'>! For, as we know with certainty, how many were already willing to become
51 Prov. 9:9,
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Catholics because moved by the most manifest plainness of the truth, who nonetheless put off doing so day after day because they were afraid of offending their own people! How many were bound not by the truth ... but by the heavy chains of obdurate custom, so that in them was fulfilled the divine saying: 'A servant will not be corrected by words; for though he understand, he will not answer'!52 How many believed the party of Donatus to be the true Church merely because ease had made them too torpid or conceited or idle to examine Catholic truth! How many would have entered earlier had not the rumours put about by slanderers, who declared that we offer something other than we do upon the altar of God, shut them out! How many, believing that it does not matter to which party a Christian belongs, remained in the party of Donatus only because they had been born into it and no one was compelling them to leave it and pass over into the Catholic Church!
To all these people the fear of those laws in the promulgation of which kings 'serve the Lord with fear' has been so beneficial that some now say: 'We have wished to do this for a long time; but thanks be to God, Who has given us occasion to do it at once, and has cut short the hesitancy of our delays!' Others say: 'We already knew this to be true, but we were held by the bonds of custom. Thanks be to the Lord, who has burst these bonds and brought us over into the bond of peace!' Others say: 'We did not know that the truth was here, nor had we the will to learn it; but fear made us keen to examine it, when we became afraid that we might suffer the loss of temporal things without any gain in eternal things. Thanks be to the Lord, Who by the goad of fear has jolted us from our negligence, so that, now, being alarmed, we might seek out those things which, while we were at ease, we had no desire to know.' Others say: 'We were afraid to enter the Church because of false rumours which we could not know to be false unless we did enter; and we would not enter until we were compelled. Thanks be to the Lord, Who took away our trepidation with His scourge and taught us to understand what vain and foolish things lying rumour has spread abroad against His 52 Prov. 29:19.
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Church ...' Others say: 'We believed that it really did not matter where we held the faith of Christ; but thanks be to the Lord, Who has gathered us in from a state of schism and shown us that it is fitting that the one God should be worshipped in unity.'
Could, I then, continue to oppose my colleagues, and, by speaking against their opinion, hinder such conquests of the Lord and prevent the sheep of Christ who were wandering on your mountains and hills - that is, on the swellings of your pride - from being gathered into the fold of peace, in which there is one flock and one Shepherd?3 ... Clearly not. Let the kings of the earth serve Christ by making laws for Christ. Your own predecessors sought to have Caecilianus and his companions punished by the kings of the earth when you charged them with false crimes. Let the lions now be turned against the slanderers to break their bones in pieces, and let no intercession be made on their behalf by Daniel when he has been proved innocent and released from the den in which they perish. For 'whoso diggeth a pit for his neighbour shall most justly fall therein'.
[178] Epistulae 185:19-36 (written ca. 417 to Boniface, tribune and later count of Africa):56 Those who do not wish to have just laws enacted against their impieties say that the apostles never sought such measures from the kings of the earth; but they do not consider the fact that times were different then, and that everything comes about in its due season. For what emperor had as yet believed in Christ and begun to serve Him in the cause of godliness by enacting laws against ungodliness? At that time, these words of the prophet were still being fulfilled: 'Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and their rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against His Anointed.' That which is spoken a little later in the same psalm was not yet being acted out: 'Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth:
53 John 11:16.
54 cf. Dan. 6:23-24.
55 cf. Prov. 26:27.
56 Editors have also treated this long letter as a separate treatise, called De correctione Donatistarum.
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serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.'5" But how are kings now to 'serve the Lord with fear' if not by forbidding and chastising with religious severity whatever acts are done in opposition to the Lord's commandments? For a man serves God in one way insofar as he is a man, and in another way insofar as he is also a king. Insofar as he is a man, he serves Him by living faithfully; but insofar as he is also a king, he serves Him by enforcing with suitable rigour laws which command what is righteous and punish what is the reverse. Hezekiah served Him in this way, by destroying the groves and temples of the idols and the high places which had been set up in defiance of God's commandments.°8 Josiah served Him in this way, by doing the same thing in his turn.5? The king of the Ninevites served Him in this way, by compelling all the men of his city to make satisfaction to the Lord.© Darius served Him in this way, by giving the idol into the power of Daniel to be broken, and by throwing his enemies to the lions.*1 Nebuchadnezzar ... served Him in this way, by issuing a terrible law forbidding any of his subjects to blaspheme against God.® In this way, therefore, kings serve the Lord insofar as they are kings, when they do in His service what they would not be able to do if they were not kings ...
It is indeed better - who will deny it? - that men should be led to worship God by teaching than that they should be compelled to do so by the fear or pain of punishment. But although men of the first kind are better, those who are not of such a kind should not be neglected. For - as we have proved, and will continue to prove - many have found profit in being first coerced by fear or pain, so that they might subsequently be influenced by teaching, and might proceed to do in act what they had already learned in word ...
57 Psalm 2:1-2; 10-11.
58 II Kings 18:4.
59 II Kings 23:4-5.
60 Jonah 3:6-9.
61 Bel and the Dragon 22; 42.
62 Dan. 3:29,
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For who can love us more than Christ, Who laid down His life for His sheep? He called Peter and the other apostles by word alone, but then He called Paul, formerly named Saul: subsequently the great builder of His Church, but at first her cruel despoiler; and when He did this, He not only constrained him with His voice, but laid him low with His power. In order to drive one who was raging in the darkness of unbelief to desire the light of the heart, He first struck him blind. If there had not been that pain, Paul would not afterwards have been healed by it; and since he had seen nothing when his eyes were open, if they had remained unhurt, Scripture would not tell us that, when Ananias laid his hands on them that they might be opened, there fell from them as it were scales, by which they had been closed.*4 So where does this leave the usual cries of the Donatists: 'Man is free to believe or not believe. Against whom did Christ ever use force? Whom did He compel?' Behold, they have the Apostle Paul. Let them acknowledge in him Christ first compelling, and afterwards teaching; first smiting, and afterwards comforting. For it is marvellous how he who entered the service of the gospel under the compulsion of bodily pain laboured more abundantly for the sake of the gospel than all those who were called by word alone:® that he who was compelled to love by the greater force of fear then displayed that perfect love which casteth out fear.®
Why, therefore, should the Church not compel her lost sons to return, if the lost sons compel others to their destruction?... Is it not part of the love of a shepherd, when any sheep have strayed from the flock - even if not violently forced away, but seduced by soft words and coaxing blandishments - to bring them back into the fold of his master when he has found them, by the fear or even the pain of the rod if they wish to resist? ... We have shown that Paul was coerced by Christ. The Church, therefore, when she compels the Donatists, is only following the example of her Lord... So too, the Lord Himself commands that the guests are at first
63 John 10:15.
64 Acts 9:1-18.
65 cf, | Cor. 15:10.
66 cf. | John 4:15.
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to be invited to His great supper, and then compelled. For when His servants made answer to Him, 'Lord, it is done as Thou hast commanded, and yet there is room', He said to them: 'Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in.'®"
[179] Tractatus in Ioannis epistolam 10:7 (ca. 417): Love, and you can only do well. Do you perhaps rebuke? It is love that will do this, not harshness. Do you perhaps strike? You will do so for the sake of discipline only; for the love of love itself will not permit you to neglect another's indiscipline. The fruit of hatred and love is sometimes diverse and contradictory. The former may speak soothingly, and the latter harshly ... Pay no attention to either soft speeches or harsh rebukes. Look to the inwardness: seek the root from which these things come forth. The fair words of the one are intended to deceive; the harshness of the other is meant to correct.
[180] De civitate Dei 18:50 (ca. 420): First of all, the Church spread herself abroad from Jerusalem; and when very many in Judea and Samaria had believed, she also went into other nations by those who announced the gospel, whom, as lights, He Himself had both prepared by His word and kindled by His Holy Spirit. For He had said to them, 'Fear ye not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.'® And that they might not be frozen with fear, they burned with the fire of charity. Finally, the gospel of Christ was preached in the whole world, not only by those who had seen and heard Him both before His passion and after His resurrection, but also after their death by their successors, amid the horrible persecutions, diverse torments and deaths of the martyrs, God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, that the people of the nations, believing in Him Who was crucified for their redemption, might venerate with Christian love the blood of the martyrs which they had poured forth with devilish fury, and the very kings by whose laws the Church had been laid waste might become profitably subject to that name they had 67 Luke 14:22-23.
68 Matt. 10:28.
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cruelly striven to take away from the earth, and might begin to persecute the false gods for whose sake the worshippers of the true God had formerly been persecuted.
SUMMARY
Can we summarise Augustine's political thought in a few paragraphs? At the risk of labouring a point, we must say that, at least insofar as it suggests system and organisation, the expression 'political thought' is a misnomer. Augustine's social and political remarks invariably take their impetus from some other concern. His medieval admirers found in his writings a good deal of material for their cause. What they inferred and extrapolated from that material may intelligibly be called an Augustinian political theory. But Augustine's own political reflections do not form a deliberate, or even an entirely coherent, pattern. What he has to say arises contingently out of his critique of pagan Rome; out of his theological reflections, especially on grace and the nature of the Church; out of sermons and pastoral writings; and out of the voluminous correspondence produced by controversial encounters with the Manichaeans, Donatists and Pelagians. The historian who undertakes to present Augustine's political ideas in the form of a connected narrative therefore has to admit, as we said at the beginning, to having 'reconstructed' something that was never constructed in the first place. Moreover, it is not surprising that there should be inconsistencies and ambiguities in Augustine's remarks about politics, the State and the moral condition of mankind; nor does he always follow up the implications of what he says. What is surprising is that blemishes and incoherences are so few and, on the whole, so minor.
Students of the history of political thought are inevitably struck by the divergence of Augustine's thought from the mainstream of classical political writing. In obvious senses, he is heir to a rich and intricate tradition of ancient philosophy. He is a Christian neoplatonist par excellence; he considers the Platonists to be the only philoso-
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phers worth arguing with:1 yet the contrast between his and Plato's estimate of the value and ends of political life could hardly be sharper. The term 'political theology' would not be inappropriate as a way of designating this contrast. At the centre of Augustine's conception of political life lie two key ideas: the impairment of our relationship with God by sin, and the conviction that this fact has consequences for every aspect of man's individual and collective life. It is in the light of this conviction that Augustine so largely abandons the kind of political morality associated with Plato and Aristotle. It is also in the light of it that he comprehensively dismisses the traditional moral and political claims of Rome. Man's nature has become so disordered by the sin of his first parents that he is born both guilty and incapable of not living a sinful and destructive life. The only thing that can rescue him from this moral helplessness is the grace of God, given undeservedly. He cannot achieve any moral good whatsoever without this grace: not by political participation, not through education, not through military achievement. All achievement, all courage, all fortitude are mere expressions of egoism and self-love without the grace of God to transvalue them.
Man's ethical good is therefore related not to any earthly citizenship or engagement, but to his membership of the company of the elect: the City of God. This membership, this citizenship, is conferred on him from a source lying outside this world. The political and social arrangements which originate in this word do so not because they are the natural milieu for man; not because they are the matrix through which men are made good: but because they are the outcome of sin. This is so in three distinguishable but closely-related senses. They institutionalise or exemplify sin; they are permitted to exist by God in order to provide a remedy of sorts for sin's material effects; and they operate as one of the ways in which man is punished and tested during this life. Similar remarks apply to the institutions which the State upholds - slavery; private property - and to the wars which States wage. These things are products and features of our fallen condition. The Christian's duty is to live in the midst of them with fortitude and hope. Until the world ends, the two Cities are mixed indistinguishably together in every earthly State. They
1 See e.g. De civitate Det 8:5.
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are mixed indistinguishably together even in the earthly Church. Membership of the institutional Church is no guarantee of salvation. Many have been drawn to the Church by sordid motives, and we cannot by outward appearance tell who is truly a Christian and who is not. The just man on earth is a member of the pilgrim City of God. His life is a weary journey through a world of trial and uncertainty and false values: a world in which he is ultimately a stranger.
Augustine's response to traditional political assumptions and claims therefore transcends what we might call normal radicalism. As Professor Markus puts it, 'The complexity and poise of his final estimate of politics stems from his conviction that the quest for perfection and happiness through politics is doomed. The archetypal society, where alone true human fulfilment can be found, is the society of the angels and saints in heaven: not a polis.'2 Augustine's critique goes beyond any historical possibility. His project is not that of drawing attention to weaknesses and inadequacies in our political arrangements with a view to recommending their improvement; nor is it his intention to delineate an ideal State, or a best possible State. To his mind, all States are imperfect. They cannot be anything else. They cannot be anything else because they are the mechanisms whereby an imperfect world is regulated. They can provide justice of a kind; they can produce peace of a kind; States governed by Christian rulers can do these things better than any other States, largely by placing their resources at the disposal of the Church. But even the best earthly versions of justice and peace are not true justice and peace, and even tyrannies, from which justice is absent by definition, have their part to play in God's plan. If true justice existed on earth, there would be no need for the State. The State would, if we may so express it, wither away. It is precisely the impossibility of true justice on earth that makes the State necessary. True justice and peace exist only in heaven. They will be fully realised only when this world's history is at an end. Members of the Pilgrim City cannot know them until their pilgrimage is over.
2 R.A. Markus, Saeculum, p. 103.
2i2
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
The standard English translations of Augustine's works are still those which appear in The Works of Aurelius Augustinus, edited by Marcus Dods (Edinburgh, 1871-1876) and A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers edited by Philip Schaff (New York, 1887-1902). These collections are slowly being superseded by more recent translations. Mention may be made particularly of Augustine: The City of God against the Pagans, edited and translated by R.W. Dyson (Cambridge, 1998). Full chronological and bibliographical details of Augustine's works appear in Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo. The secondary literature on Augustine is, of course, enormous. The following selection will be of use to those interested in Augustine's political thought and its cultural and historical setting.
Augustine's life is known to us chiefly from his own Confessions and Retractationes, the latter being a review and summary of his literary works, written three years before his death. The earliest biography of Augustine was produced, probably two or three years after his death, by St Possidius, Bishop of Calama. This work has been edited, with introduction, notes and an English translation, as Sancti Augustini Vita Scripta a Possidio Episcopo by Herbert T. Weiskotten (Princeton, 1919). There is another translation by F.R. Hoare in his The Western Fathers (London, 1954). There are comprehensive modern biographies by Gerald Bonner, St Augustine of Hippo; Life and Controversies (Oxford, 1986) and Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo: A Biography (London 1967). See also J. Burnaby, Amor Dei (London, 1938) and J.J. O'Meara, The Young Augustine (London, 1980).
For matters of general, philosophical and literary background, see especially A.H. Armstrong, An Introduction to Ancient
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Philosophy (London, 1965); P. Brown, Religion and Society in the Age of Saint Augustine (London, 1972), C.N. Cochrane, Christianity and Classical Culture (Oxford, 1940); E.R. Dodds, Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety (Oxford, 1965); D. Earl, The Moral and Political
Tradition of Rome (London, 1967); W.H.C. Frend, The Donatist Church (Oxford, 1952); A. Momigliano (ed.), The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century (London, 1963); J.J. O'Meara, Porphyry's Philosophy from Oracles in Augustine (Paris, 1959); H.H. Scullard, A History of the Roman World from 753 to 146BC (London, 1935); and From the Gracchi to Nero (London, 1959). For a scholarly and sympathetic survey of Augustine's thought and intellectual development, see Eugene Te Selle, Augustine the Theologian (London, 1970); see also E. Gilson, The Christian Philosophy of Saint Augustine (New York, 1960).
The standard work on Augustine's political thought has long been H. A. Deane's The Political and Social Ideas of St Augustine (London, 1963). For different approaches see P.D. Bathory, Political Theory as Public Confession: The Social and Political Thought of St Augustine of Hippo (New Brunswick, N.J., 1981) and W.E. Connolly, The Augustan Imperative: A Reflection on the Politics of Morality (Newbury Park, California, 1993). See also GJ. Lavere, 'The Political Realism of Saint Augustine', Augustinian Studies 11 (1980); 'The Influence of Saint Augustine on Early Medieval Political Theory', Augustinian Studies 12 (1981); R.A. Markus, Saeculum: History and Society in the Theology of St. Augustine (London, 1970). On the City of God specifically, see N.H. Baynes, The Political Ideas of St. Augustine's 'De Civitate Dei' (Historical Association Pamphlet, London, 1936); J.N. Figgis, The Political Aspects of S. Augustine's 'City of God' (London, 1921); E.L. Fortin, 'Augustine's City of God and the Modern Historical Consciousness', Review of Politics, 41 (1979); R. Martin, 'The Two Cities in Augustine's Political Philosophy', Journal of the History of Ideas, 33 (1972); T.E. Mommsen, 'St. Augustine and the Christian Idea of Progress: The Background of the City of God', Journal of the History of Ideas, 12 (1951). H.-X. Arquilliére, L'Augustinisme politique (Paris, rev. ed., 1972), may be recommended to those who wish to see something of how Augustine's political ideas were adapted to the political controversies of the Middle Ages.
INDEX OF QUOTED PASSAGES
(Page numbers are printed in italics)
Ad Simplicianum de_ diversis quaestiones 1:2:7 [21] - 29; 1:2:21 [26] - 30.
- 35; 15:1-6 [63] - 68; 15:4 [65] - 70; 15:4 [139] - 142; 17:12-13 [135] - 141; 18:2 [66]
De bono coniugali 1 [52] - 62.
De catechizandis rudibus 19:31 [33] - 34; 22:39 [49] - 43.
De civitate Dei 1:1-8 [147] - 161; 1:21 [156] - 176; 1:26 [157]
- 176; 2:2-18 [85] - 79; 2:19 [80] - 77; 2:21 [86] - 84; 3:10 [154] - 175; 3:14 [142] - 144; 3:18-22 [145] - 151; 3:23-31 [146] - 156; 4:3 [81] - 78; 4:3 [107] - 115; 4:4 [67] - 71; 4:6 [132] - 137; 4:15 [151] - 172; 5:9-10 [13] - 24; 5:12 [143] - 147; 5:13 [83] - 78; 5:16 [84] - 79; 5:17 [98] - 103; 5:17 [144] - 150; 5:18 [88] - 91; 5:19 [75] - 74; 5:21 [73] - 73; 5:24-26 [167]
Contra duas epistulas Pelagianorum 2:5:9 [25] - 30.
Contra Faustum 13:16 [44] - 39; 22:74-78 [148] - 170; 22:75 [160] - 177; 22:78 [18] - 27.
Contra litteras Petiliani 2:83:184 [172] - 197.
- 194; 10:7 [31] - 32; 12:1 [4] - 14; 12:7-8 [5] - 14; 12:13-14; 20 [48] - 41; 12:22-23 [54] - 62; 13:3 [10] - 21; 13:23 [17] - 27; 14:1 [8] - 15; 14:1 [30] - 32; 14:10-14 [9] - 15; 14:28 [36] - 36; 14:28 [64] - 69; 15:1-6 [35]
De diversis quaestionibus octoginta tribus 6 [1] - 13; 21 [2] -
1S:
De doctrina christiana 1:23 [60]
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[69] - 71; 153:6:26 [112] - 117; 155:3:10-13 [166] - 193; 157:4:32-35 [119] - 121; 185:2:8 [96] - 102; 185:19-36 [178] -
De dono perseverantiae 13:33
Enarrationes in psalmos 36:3:5 [122] - 125; 37:23 [40] - 38; 38:11 [121] - 121; 39:7 [103] - 113; 39:10 [43] - 39; 45:13 [138]
205; 189:4 [155] - 175; 189:6 [140] - 143; 190:3:12 [19] - 28; 208:2 [45] - 39; 229:2 [141] - 143.
- 142; 48:2:6 [136] - 142; 51:6 [92] - 99; 51:10 [115] - 118; 57:1 [56] - 64; 61:6-8 [37] - 36; 64:9 [99] - 111; 65:16 [76] - 74; 69:7 [127] - 129; 83:3 [108] - 115; 84:10 [137] - 142; 85:3 [117] - 119; 90[2]:1 [41] - 38; 100:4 [59] - 66; 118:24:3 [165] - 193; 118:[31]:1 [95] - 101; 124:7 [94] - 101; 124:7-8 [82] - 78; 124:7-8 [126] - 128; 128:6 [123]
Expositio quarumdam propositionum ex epistula ad Romanos 72 [161] - 191.
De Genesi ad litteram 9:9 [68] -
De libero arbitrio 1:15:31 [89] - 97; 1:15:32-33 [70] - 72; 3:7 [14] - 26.
De natura boni 32 [74] - 73.
- 125; 131:18 [105] - 114; 131:19 [116] - 119; 136:1 [34] - 34; 140:21 [162] - 192.
De opere monachorum 29:37 [164] - 192.
De ordine 2:4:12 [72] - 73.
Enchiridion 12 [3] - 14; 23-27 [11] - 22; 27 [6] - 15; 28-29 [32]
De peccatorum meritis et remissione 2:17:27 [15] - 26.
Quaestiones in heptateuchum 4:44-6:10 [149] - 171.
Epistulae 23:7-8 [168] - 195; 34:1 [169] - 196; 35:4 [170] -
Retractationes 1:9:4-6 [23] - 29.
196; 44:5:11 [171] - 197; 47:5 [158] - 176; 87:7-9 [176] - 200; 88:6-8 [174] - 198; 89:1-2 [175]
Sermo 113:4 [109] - 115; 125:5
[71] - 72; 125:11 [100] - 112; 50:2-7 [120] - 122; 50:4 [113] - 118; 58:2 [130] - 130; 62:5:810:15 [93] - 99; 81:8 [50] - 44; 85:4-7 [118] - 120; 86:3 [124] - 125; 326:2 [97] - 102.
- 199; 93:5-19 [177] - 201; 93:12:50 [111] - 116; 95:3 [79] - 77; 100:1-2 [173] - 198; 122:2
[51] - 44; 130:2:3 [106] - 114; 130:6:13 [53] - 62; 134:1-3 [163] - 192; 138:2:10-15 [91] - 98; 138:2:13-15 [159] - 151; 138:2:14 [150] - 172; 153:6:16
De sermone Domini 1:19:59 [129] - 129; 2:4:16 [131] - 130.
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Tractatus in Ioannis epistulam 8:6-8 [62] - 67; 8:14 [128] - 129; 10:7 [179] - 208.
De Trinitate 14:15:21 [58] - 65.
De vera religione 21:41 [102] - 113; 38:69 [101] - 112; 47:92 [104] - 114.
Tractatus in Ioannis evangelium 6:25-26 [110] - 116; 19:18 [39]
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