Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Such is the account given by Augustine himself<a id=\"FNanchor_2_2\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_2_2\">[2]</a> of the\r\noccasion and plan of this his greatest work. But in addition\r\nto this explicit information, we learn from the correspondence<a id=\"FNanchor_3_3\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_3_3\">[3]</a>\r\nof Augustine, that it was due to the importunity of his friend\r\nMarcellinus that this defence of Christianity extended beyond\r\nthe limits of a few letters. Shortly before the fall of Rome,\r\nMarcellinus had been sent to Africa by the Emperor Honorius\r\nto arrange a settlement of the differences between the Donatists\r\nand the Catholics. This brought him into contact not\r\nonly with Augustine, but with Volusian, the proconsul of\r\nAfrica, and a man of rare intelligence and candour. Finding\r\nthat Volusian, though as yet a pagan, took an interest in the\r\nChristian religion, Marcellinus set his heart on converting\r\nhim to the true faith. The details of the subsequent significant\r\nintercourse between the learned and courtly bishop and\r\nthe two imperial statesmen, are unfortunately almost entirely\r\nlost to us; but the impression conveyed by the extant correspondence\r\nis, that Marcellinus was the means of bringing his\r\ntwo friends into communication with one another. The first\r\noverture was on Augustine's part, in the shape of a simple\r\nand manly request that Volusian would carefully peruse the\r\nScriptures, accompanied by a frank offer to do his best to\r\nsolve any difficulties that might arise in such a course of\r\ninquiry. Volusian accordingly enters into correspondence\r\nwith Augustine; and in order to illustrate the kind of difficulties\r\nexperienced by men in his position, he gives some\r\ngraphic notes of a conversation in which he had recently<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_ix\">[Pg ix]</a></span>\r\ntaken part at a gathering of some of his friends. The difficulty\r\nto which most weight is attached in this letter, is the\r\napparent impossibility of believing in the Incarnation. But\r\na letter which Marcellinus immediately despatched to Augustine,\r\nurging him to reply to Volusian at large, brought the\r\nintelligence that the difficulties and objections to Christianity\r\nwere thus limited merely out of a courteous regard to the\r\npreciousness of the bishop's time, and the vast number of his\r\nengagements. This letter, in short, brought out the important\r\nfact, that a removal of speculative doubts would not suffice\r\nfor the conversion of such men as Volusian, whose life was\r\none with the life of the empire. Their difficulties were rather\r\npolitical, historical, and social. They could not see how the\r\nreception of the Christian rule of life was compatible with\r\nthe interests of Rome as the mistress of the world.<a id=\"FNanchor_4_4\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_4_4\">[4]</a> And\r\nthus Augustine was led to take a more distinct and wider\r\nview of the whole relation which Christianity bore to the old\r\nstate of things,—moral, political, philosophical, and religious,—and\r\nwas gradually drawn on to undertake the elaborate\r\nwork now presented to the English reader, and which may\r\nmore appropriately than any other of his writings be called\r\nhis masterpiece<a id=\"FNanchor_5_5\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_5_5\">[5]</a> or life-work. It was begun the very year of\r\nMarcellinus' death, <span class=\"smcap\">a.d.</span> 413, and was issued in detached\r\nportions from time to time, until its completion in the year\r\n426. It thus occupied the maturest years of Augustine's\r\nlife—from his fifty-ninth to his seventy-second year.<a id=\"FNanchor_6_6\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_6_6\">[6]</a></p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","EDITOR'S PREFACE."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-4"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"b95f9eadb66701ac8393eebc68e25b0417d741dff463654c49f9ebcd90de7a43","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_6_6","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_6_6","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_6_6\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_6_6\"><span class=\"label\">[6]</span></a> For proof, see the Benedictine Preface.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_6_6","text_sha256":"5611da6f233252d9c58bd508cf45e8cb496af82d765968bc8261efd472d89c45","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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