Opus imperfectum augustine and his readers, 426-435 a.D

Vigiliae Christianae

Volumn 52, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 264-285

  Vessey, Mark ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA   (Canada)

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EID: 77950001980     PISSN: 00426032     EISSN: 15700720     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/157007298X00164     Document Type: Review

References (126)

1. Prosper, Epitoma chronicon, a. 430 (ed. Mommsen, MGH, AA 9, 473).
2. E.g. Joseph McCabe, Saint Augustine and His Age (London 1902) 427: "Whilst the Vandals thundered at the walls Augusttne was absorbed in his great refutation of the Pelagian bishop of Eclanum, Julian." Other popular biographers prefer the penitential vision of Possidius, Vita Augustini 31,1-2. On the modern scholarly representation of Augustine's last days
3. see James J. O'Donnell, "The Next Life of Augustine," in The Limits of Ancient Christianity: Essays on Late Antique Thought and Culture, eds. William E. Klingshirn and Mark Vessey (forthcoming)
4. refcrring to the classic work of P.R.L. Brown, Augustine of Hippo: A Biography (London 1967).
5. Cf. R.A. Markus, "Chronicle and Theolog)': Prosper of Aquitaine," in The Inheritance of Historiography, eds. C. Holdsworth and T.P. Wiseman (Exeter 1986) 31-43
6. repr. in his Sacree and Secular: Studies on Augustine and Latin Christianity (Aldershot 1994) Prosper's Chronicle is remarkable for its incorporation of notices derived from Augustine's catalogue of heresies, the De haeresibus, the last chapter of which describes the crrors of the Pelagians. The next entry in the Chronicle after the record of Augustine's death refers to the Council of Ephesus at which "Nestorius with the heresy named after him, and many Pelagians, who were supporting a dogma related to their own, [were] condemned."
7. Augustine of Hippo: A Biography (London 1967) 408 ff.
8. The omission af Possidius I shall make good elsewhere; see, meanwhile, my "Conference and Confession: Literary Pragmatics in Augustine's 'Apologii contra Hieronymum'," Journal of Early Christian Studies 1 (1993) 175-213 at 175-179, where I suggest that "Possidius' simplified and systemattzed account of the principles of Augustinian doctrina can serve as a basis for theorizing Christian literary activity in late antiquity" (177).
9. Note especially Retr. 1, prol. 3 (CCSL 57,6): "quicumque ista lccturi sunt, non me imitentur errantem, sed in melius proficientem. Inveniet enim fortasse quomodo scribendo profecerim, quisquis opuscula mea ordine quo scripta sunt legerit. Quod ut possit, hoc operc quantum potero curabo, ut eundem ordinem noverit." Othmar Perler, Les aoyages de saint Augustin (Paris 1969) 361 ff., with the table, 472-477, provides a detailed chronology.
10. For the theological issues involved in this and subsequent phases of the so-called "semi-Pelagian" controversy, see now Rebecca Harden Weaver, Divine Grace and Human Agency: A Study of the Semi-Pelagiag Controversy, NAPS Patristic Monograph Series 15 (Macon [Georgial 1996)]
11. A summary account may also be found in Dunstan O'Keefe, "The Via Media of Monastic Thelogy," Downside Review 112 (1994) 264-283, 113 (1995)54-73, 157-174. My narrative for this section is based on Augustine, Epp. 214-216 (including 215A, printed as a prefatory addendum to Goldbacher's edition in CSEL 58). Ep. 217, to Vitalis, is further evidence of the author's concern for the proper reception of his works: "[R]ogavi deum et⋯ adhuc rogo," it begins, "ut litteras meas nec aspernanter sumas et salubriter lcgas" (CSEL 57,403).
12. Brown, Augustine, 399.
13. Brian Stock, Augustine the Reader: Meditation, Self-Knowledge and the Ethics of Interpretation (Cambridge [Mass.. 1996)] is now the fullest discussion
14. reviewed at length by James J. O'Donnell and the present'writer in Bryr Mawr Reviews (on-line) [1996.9.1-2.
15. Augustine, De dono perseverantiae 20, 53 (PL 45,1026)) referring to Conf. 10,29,40 f.
16. The point is fundamental to Augustine's sense of his oeuvre as a Christian writer. See already Ep. 27,4 (to Paulinus of Nola, 396 A.D.), appositely cited by James J. O'Donnell, Augustine: Confessions, 3 vols. (Oxford 1992) l.xxxi
17. and contextualized in my "Conference and Confession" (cited above. n. 5) 188-189.
18. Augustine, De gratia ae liberr arbitrio 24, 46 (PL 44,911).
19. Evodius, Ep. ad abbattm Valentinum (PLS 2,333): "Legant ergo sancti Dei maiorum dicta ⋯ et quando non intelleguntt non cito reprehendant, sed orent ut intellegantt petant ut accipiant, quaerant ut inveniant, pulsent ut aperiatur eis" (cf. Augustine, Conf. 13,38,53, with O'Donnell's commentary ad lec.). He adds that the will to understand ("velle bene intellegere") is itself God-given, and alludes to the key Augustinian proof-text, I Corinthians 4:7. Januarianus toes the same line (PLS 2,341).
20. Augustine, Ep. 215,2 (CSEL 57,389). For identificatton of the canonical documents, no longer all extant, see Otto Wermelinger, Rom und Pelagius: Die theologische Position der römischen Bischöfe im pelagianischen Slreii in den Jahren 411-32, Pdpste und Papsttum 7 (Stuttgart 1975) 147-148.
21. Augustine, De correptione et gratia 1,1 (PL 44,917): "Non itaque opus est omnia iden-tidem retractare, quae sufficienter vobis pleno libro disputata transmisimus [i.e., the De gratia et liberr arbitrio] qucm quomodo suseeperitis, rescripta indicant vestra [Ep. 216]. Verumtamcn semel lectum nullo modo arbitrcmini satis vohis innotescere potuisse. Si ergo fructuosissimum habere vultis, non vos pigeat relegendo habere notissimum, ut dili-gentissime sciatis quibus et qualibus quaestionibus solvendis atque sanandis, non ibi humana sed divina oexurrat auctoritas, a qua recedere non debemus, si volumus per-venire quo tendimus."
22. After Pierre Batiffoll Le catholicisme de saint Augustin, 5th edn. (Paris 1929)
23. and German Martíl, La tradición en san Agustin a través de la controversia pelagiana (Madrid 1943)
24. see Karl-Heinrich Lütcke, 'Auctoritasa bei Augustin (Stuttgart 1968) 142-46;
25. Wermelinger, Rom und Pelagius (cited above, n. 18) 264 ff.;
26. Hermann Josef Sieben, Die Konzilsidee der Alten Kïrch (Paderborn 1979) 68-102;
27. Giovanni Maschio, "L'argomentazione patristica di s. Agostino nella prima lase della controversia pelagiana," Augustinianum 26 (1986) 459-479;
28. Ernst Dassmann, '"Tarn Ambrosius quam Cyprianus' (c. Iul. imp. 4,112). Augustins Helfer im petagianischen Streit," in Oecumenica et Patristica: Festschrift für Wilhelm Schneemelcher zum 75. Geburtstag, eds. Damaskinos Papandreou, Wolfgang A. Bienert, and Knut Schäferdiek (Stuttgart 1989) 259-268. Augustine's textual conciliarism reaches its peak in the Contra lulianum of 422 A.D.
29. Vessey, "The Forging of Orthodoxy in Latin Christian Literature: A Case Study," Journal of Early Christian Studies 4 (1996) 495-496.
30. Prosper, Ep. ad Augustinum (= Augustine)) Ep. 225,2 (CSEL 57,456): "insperata opportunity."
31. For the date, see Owen Chadwick, "Euladius of Arles," Journal of Theological Studies 46 (1945) 200-205.
32. As noted by R.A. Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge 1990) 178, Prosper's letter indicates "that some anxiety-, perhaps controversy had preceded the arrival of [Augusttne' treatise] in Gaul."
33. This section and the next are designed to complement R.A. Markus, "The Legacy of Pelagius: Orthodoxy, Heresy and Conciliation," in The Making of Orthodoxy: Essays in Honour of Henry Chadwick, ed. Rowan Williams (Cambridge 1989) 214-234, esp. 217-220.
34. See now also Éric Rebillard, "Quasi funambuli: Cassien et la controverse pélagienne sur la perfection," Revue des Études Augustinienien 40 (1994) 197-210.
35. Although it is impossible to say how much of Prosper's vast oeuvrc as an epito-mator of Augusttne dates from before 427, we should not assume that he awaited either the author's death or the outbreak of controversy to begin exccrpting and adapting his writings. On his Augustinian Sententiaet see Rudolf Lorenz, "Der Augustinismus Prospers von Aquitanien," Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 73 (1962) 217-252
36. and Vittorino Crossi, "La recezione 'scntcnzialee di Agostino in Prospcro di Aquitania: Alle origini delle frasi sentenziall attribuite ad Agostino," in Traditio Augustiniana: Studien über Augustinus und seine Rezeption, Festgabe W. Eckermann (Würzburg 1994) 123-40. Further references and discussion in Weaver, Divine Grace (above, n. 9) 1 1 7-54. For a preliminary treatment of the literarr method of Prosper's " Augustinianism" in these and other works such as the Epigrammata and Expositit Psalmorum
37. see Vessey, "Ideas of Christian Writing in Late Roman Gaul" (unpublished Oxford D.Phil. thesis 1988) 152-219, partly resumed here.
38. Ep. ad Augustinum 1 (CSEL 57,455).
39. Ep. ad Rufinum 4, 5 (PL 51,80A) with a slap at those who covertly opposed his teaching "inter multas collationes," probably an allusion to Cassian and his party.
40. Confirmation of the early date of the Epistula ad Rufinum is offered by Française Vinci, "Une etape vers I'affirmatton du salut universel: Prosper d'Aquitainc: Lettre à Rufin," Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique 90 (1995) 367-395, who finds in it no trace of the De correptione et gratia.
41. Prosper, Ep. ad Augustinum 3 (CSEL 57,459): "Et cum contra eos scripta beatitu-dinis tuae validissimis et innumeris testimoniii divinarum scripturarum instructa proferimus ac secundum formam disputationum tuarum aliquid etiam ipsi, quo concludantur, adstruimus. . . ."
42. Prosper, Ep. ad Augustinum 9 (CSEL 57,468).
43. Augustine, De praedestinatione sanctorum 1,1 (PL 44,959).
44. Augustine, De praedestinatione sanctorum 1,2 (PL 44,961).
45. Prosper, Epigramma in oblreclalorem Auguslini 1-2 (PL 51,149A) Cf. the plea in an another such poem, "Quae concepta fovct promat, quae parturit edat" (PL 51,151A)) repeated complaints of secret dissent in the Ep, ad Rufinum, and thc triumphant words of the Contra collatorem, 2,1 (PL 51,218A)) "Scripta. . . sunt, et auctoris sui editione publicata," refernng to Cassian's Conferences.
46. Prosper, Ep. ad Rufinum 18,19 (CSEL 51,88B)) "proferendo atque explicando libros."
47. I use this as a blanket term for the Gallic critics of Augustinian predestination, the opinions of whom are said to have been in the air "Massillae vel etiam aliquibus locis in Gallia" (Hilary, Ep. ad Augustinum 2 [CSEL 57,469])) Prosopographical precision is difficull in this matter: for a recent attempt, see Ralph W. Mathisen, Ecclesimtial Factionalism and Religious Controversy in Fifth-Century Gaul (Washington [D.C.] 1989) 122-40
48. amplified in his "For Specialists Only: The Reception of Augustine and His Teachings in Fifth-Century Gaul," in Collectanea Augustiniana: Augustine, Presbyter Factus Sum, eds. Joseph T. Lienhard, Earl C. Muller, and Roland J. Teske (New York 1993)) 29-41.
49. Hilary, Ep. ad Augustinum 3 (CSEL 57,471): "hoc non solum aliorum catholicorum testimoniis sed etiam sanctitatis tuae disputatione antiquiore se probare testantur." The works cited for this purpose included Augustine's Ep. 102 (ca. 409), the Expositio quarun-dam propositionum ex epistula ad Romanos (394) and the De liberr arbitrio (388-394/5).
50. Augustine, De dono perseverantiae 11,26 (PL 45,1008) "agebam in libris de libero arbitrio, unde isti nobis praescribendum putant."
51. Regarded by the original addressee, and presumably by the author, as a single work De praedestinatone sanctorum: Prosper, Responsiones ad excerpta Genuensium praef. (PL 51,187A).
52. See especially De praedestinatione sanctorum 3,7-4,8; 9,17;
53. De dono perseverantiae 9,23; 11,26-12,30; 20,52-21,555
54. Hilary, Ep, ad Augustinum 10 (CSEL 57,479).
55. Cf. De dono perseverantiae 11,27.
56. Augustine, De praestinatione sanctorum 4,8;
57. De dono perseverantiae 21, 55.
58. In his Responsiones ad excerpta Genuensium (PL 51,191B) complaining of those "qui curaverunt omnes sensus ipsius [sc. Augustini] indagare, [sed] noluerunt cum eius eruditione proficere."
59. Wermclinger, Rom und Pelagius (above, n. 18) 246-249.
60. Celestinc, Ep. ad episopop Galliarum ("Apostolici verba") 2,3 (PL 50,530A).
61. Prosper, Contra collatorem 21,3 (PL 51,272B) his adversaries consider the pope's approval to apply only to Augustine's earlier writings.
62. Prosper, Contra collatorem 21,3 (PL 51,273A) rejecting the distinctton between antiquitas and novitas in Augustine's own teaching: "idem doctrinae spiritus⋯ eadem praedicationis forma." Cf. Georges de Plinval, "Prosper d'Aquitaine interprete de saint Augustin," Recherches Augustiniennen 1 (s158) 347: "Il prociame avec force I'unité qui inspire toute l'oeuvre augustinienne." Prosper builds on Augustine's self-defence at De dono perseverantiae 21,55.
63. Prosper, Contra collatorem 5,3.
64. Wermelinger, Rom und Pelagius 149 reviews the documentation.
65. Prosper, Ep. ad Rujinum 3,4 (PL 51,79B) "novi censores." Cf. Augustine, Retr. I, prol. I (CCSL 57,5): "ut . . . quod me offendii velut censorio stilo denotem." Jerome had already adapted the language of textual criticism to the orthography of Christian doctrine: Vessey, "Forging of Orthodoxy" (above, n. 23).
66. Prosper, De ingratis 33-71, the latter two names designating places from which Pelagian heretics had been expelled.
67. Prosper, De ingratis 84 (PL 51,101 A), referring to the acts of an African council.
68. This compilation of papal texts, associated in the manuscript tradition with the letter of Celestine to the Gallic bishops (above, n. 45), was convincingly attributed to Prosper by D.M. Cappuyns, Revuu Béné dictine 41 (1929) 156-170.
69. According to the preface to the ps.-Celestinian capitula, these critics professed to accept only doctrines "quae sacratissima beati apostoli Petri sedes . .. sanxit et docuit" (PL 51,205A) Cf. Vincent of Lérins, Commonitorium 32.
70. Prosper, Ep. ad Augustinum 2 (CSEL 57,455): Augustine's teaching alleged to bc "contrarium ⋯ patrum opinioni et ecclesiastico sensui."
71. Hilary, Ep. ad Augustinum 8 (CSEL 57,477): the Massilians resort to "libri ⋯ [eorum] quorum est in ecclesia auctoritas";
72. Prosper, Ep, ad Augustinum 8 (CSEL 57, 467): "retractatis priorum de hac rc opinionibuss paene omnium par invenitur et una sententia."
73. Augustine, Depraedestinatione sanctorum 14, 27-28;
74. De dono perseverantiae 19, 48-50.
75. Prosper's Appeal to the "sensus omnium tractatorum" at Contra collalorem 9, 5 (PL 51,238C) is justified by a single quotation from Ambrose.
76. Prosper, Pro Augustino responsiones ad capitula obiectionum Vincentianarum cap. 3 (PL 51.179C).
77. Pace William O'Connor, "St. Vincent of Lerins and St. Augustine," Doctor Communis 16 (1963) 123-157
78. who disputes the identificatton made by Hugo Koch, "Vincenz von Lerin und Gennadius," in Textt und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 31.2 (Leipzig 1907) 43-47. The Augustinian Excerptl were first edited by Jasé Madoz in 1940. Vincent's texts are cited here in the edition of R. Demeulenaere (CCSL 64).
79. Sieben, Die Konzilsidee (above, n. 20) 149-170 ("Der Konzilsbegriff des Vinzenz von Lerin"), esp. 164 ff.;
80. Agostino Pastorino, "Il concetto di 'tradizione' in Giovanni Cassiano e in Vincenzo di Lerino," Sileno 1 (1975) 37-46. The authors independently conclude that Vincent's concepts of tradition and unity in doctrine are analogous to those expounded by Cassian in his monastic treatises and the Contra Neslorium.
81. See further Vessey, "Ideas of Christian Writing" (above, n. 26) 223-237.
82. Cassian, Conlationes 13, 18 (CSEL 57,467): "Per quod evidenti ratione colligitur ab his qui non loquacibus verbis, sed experientia duce vel magnitudinem gratiae vel modulum humani metiuntur arbitrii. ⋯ Et idcirco hoc AB OMNIBUS CATHOLICIS PATRIBUS definitur, qui perfectionem cordis non inani disputatione verborum, sed re atque opere didicerunt⋯. Si quid sane versutius humana argumentatione ac ratione collectum huic sensui vidctur obsistere, vitandum magis est quam ad destructionem fidei provocan-dum." These two conferences belong to a set dedicated to the abbot of Lérins and a monk associated with that community.
83. See also Conrad Leyser, '"Lectio Divina, Oratio Pura': Rhetoric and the Techniques of Asceticiim in the Conferencen of John Cassian," in Modelli di santità, modelli di comportamento, eds. G. Barone et al. (Rome 1994) 79-105.
84. Cassian, De incarnatione: Domini contra Nestorium 7, 24-31 at 27.
85. Marie-Anne Vannier "Jean Cassien a-t-il fait oeuvre dc thcologien dans le De incamalione Domini?" Revue des Sciences Religieuses 66 (1992) 119-11 observes the congruence with Vincent's methods in the Commonitorium.
86. Prosper, Pro Augustino responsiones ad capitula obieclionum Gallorum calumniantium praef. (PL 51,156A).
87. Although now in need of modificatton in places, José Madoz, El concepto de la tradición en san Vicente de Urins: Estudii historico-critico del Conmonitorio, Analccta Gregoriana 5 (Rome 1933)
88. and Excerpta Vincentii Lirinensis, Estudios Onienses 1.1 (Madrid 1940) are still the best guides.
89. Sieben, Die Konziliidee 155: "Die Eigenart der Anwendung [of the principle of referring to 'tradition' as a guarantee of orthodoxy] besteht, kurz gesagt, darin, daß Vinzenz eine schriftliche Quelle neben, um nicht zu sagen, über der Schrift postuliert."
90. Cf. Vessey, "Pcregrinus against the Heretics: Classicism, Provinciality and the Place of the Alien Writer in Late Roman Gaul," in Studii Ephemeridis Augustinianumu 46 (Rome 1994) 530-565, esp. 553-5. Note the citation of Deut. 32:7 ("Interroga patres tuos ⋯") at Commonitorium 1,1, quickly assimilated to a literate context. For an earlier application of the same verse, see n. 21 above.
91. On the paradigmatic importance of the Nicene Creed for Vincent, see Sieben, Die Konzilsidee 157 f. This text is central to his discussion of the criterion of antiquity.
92. Vincent, Commonitorium 3,4 (CCSL 64,150): operam dabit, ut conlatas inter se maiorum consulat interrogetque sententias.
93. Vincent, Commonitorium 29-30, citing a set of patristic testimonia read out by Cyril during the first session.
94. Sieben, Die Konzilsidee 159, notes that Vincent gives this document a prominence it did not have at the council, at the expense of the Nicene Creed. See also n. 76 below.
95. Vincent, Commonitorium 32, 4-7 (CCSL 64:193)
96. concluding: "Ergo haec fuit beati Caelestini beata sententia, ut non vetustas cessaret obruere novitatem, sed potius novitas desineret incessere vetustatem"; Madoz, El concepto 79-83.
97. Madoz goes too far, however, in reducing the Commonitoriun as a whole to "un panfleto contra San Agustin" (89). The opposite error - that is, to deny that the work is marked in any way by opposition to Augustine's teaching on predestination - is represented by O'Connor (above, n. 59) 194 ff. and Elie Griffe, "Pro Vincentio Lerinensi," Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique 62 (1961) 26-32.
98. Vincent, Excerpta 1 (CCSL 64,202): "ipsum beatae memoriae sanctum Augustinum, immo per eum Christi potius et ecclesiae antiquam et universalem fidem audiamus loquentem"; 10 (231)) "licet unius sacerdotis verbis omnium sanctorum patrum sensu locuti esse videamur."
99. Vincent, Commonitorium 3,4 (CCSL 64,150): "non unus aut duo tantum"; 27,4 (186)) "multorum ⋯ magistrorum"; 28,7 (187)) "velut quodam ⋯ magistrorum concilio." Vincent, Excerpta 1 (CCSL 64,202): "Ait namque: Omnes quos legere potui qui ante me scripserunt de Trinitate quae Deus est, divinorum librorum ⋯ catholici tractatores hoc intenderunt secundum scripturas docere ⋯ [= De Trinitate 1.4.7]."
100. For an instance of post-Nicene credal drafting from Vincent's own milieu, known to both Augustine and Cassian, see the Libellus emendationio of Leporius (CCSL 64,111-23), Crcdal summaries are particularly favoured by Gennadius of Marseille in his De virii illustribus.
101. Aloys Grillmeier, Christ in Christian Tradition, Vol. 1: From the. Apostolic Age to Chalcedan (451), trans. John Bowden, 2nd edn. (London 1975) 486: "for the Fathers of 431 Nicaea provided the really authoritative christological formula, the simple wording of which was once again no more than a re-presentation of the apostolic faith and the tradition of the primitive church."
102. Cf. Sieben, Die Konzilsidee 244. In fact, the council explicitly forbade the drafting of new credal formulae.
103. After explaining the errors of Nestorius, Photinus and Apollinaris, Vincent embarks at Commonitorium 13,5 on an essay in trinitarian-christological definition: "Sed operae pretium est, ut id ipsum [i.e.. the orthodox dogma] etiam atque etiam distinctius et expressius cnuclcemus" (CCSL 64,164). Note also Commonitorium 23,1-13, where the development (projectus) of religious doctrine is successively compared to the growth of a living body, the fruition of plants, and the finishing of a work of art. It is the last analogy ("ut prisca illa ⋯ dogmata processu temporis excurentur, limentur, poliantur" [CCSL 64,179]) that most clearly implies a role for human tractatores and collatores working in a literary medium; cf Madoz, El concepto 129-130; Marc Lods, "Le progres dans le temps de l'Eglise selon Vincent de Lérins," Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses 55 (1975) 384-385. The miniaturism of Vincent's verbal aesthetic accords with his insistence on concise forms of dogmatic expression, e.g., at Commonilonum 23,19 (CCSL 64,180): "magnam rerum summam paucis litteris comprehendendo."
104. Vincent, Excerpta 10 (CCSL 64,231): "Haec sunt quae de libris sancti Augustini in unum velut opusculum sparsim collecta digessimuss Quas ego non tarn capitula quam gemmas potius et margaritas quasdam appellaverim.
105. Cf. Commonitorium 22,6 (CCSL 64,177): "pretiosas divini dogmatis gemmas exsculpe, fideliter coapta, adorna sapientcr, adice splendorem gratiam venustatem."
106. For discussion of his role in the preparation of the so-called Athanasian Creed, see Madoz, Excerpta 65-90;
107. J.N.D. Kelly, The Athanasian Creee (London 1964) 116-119. "The conclusion is inescapable," writes Kelly, "that Lerins was the cradle of the creed" (119).
108. Wermelinger, Rom und Pelagius 137-141.
109. Adolf von Harnack, Historr of Dogma, trans. from the 3rd German edn. by J. Millar (London 1898) 5. 222-240.
110. Markus, "The Legacy of Pelagius" (above, n. 25) 220. Commonitorium 28, 16 (CCSL 64,189): the purpose of the Council of Ephesus was "to fix the rule of faith," supposedly by recourse to patristic texts. Cf. ibid. 29,9-10; 30,6.
111. Vincent, Commonitorium 10;
112. cf. Tertullian, De praescriplione haereticorum 4.
113. Vincent, Commonitorium 11; 17-19.
114. Vincent, Commonitorium 17, 1 (CCSL 64,170): "ad extremum."
115. Vessey, "The Forging of Orthodoxy" (above, n. 23).
116. Vincent, Commomtorium 18, 5 (CCSL 64,173), quoting Hilary of Poitiers.
117. *, 11-2 (ed. Divjak)) with Norbert Brox, "Consentius über Origenes," Vigilme Christiana 36 (1982) 141-144
118. and Carol Quillen, "Consenttiu as a Reader of Augustine's Confessions" Revue des Étudee Augustiniennen 37 (1991) 100-1011
119. James J. O'Donnell, "The Authority of Augustine," Auguslinian Studies 22 (1991) 7-35 at 16, a lecture to which this article owes more than can be conveyed by citation.
120. From a different perspective, Stock, Augustine the Reader (above, n. 13) offers a masterly account of this process.
121. On the difficulty, if not impossibility, of reading all that Augustine had written, see already Possidius, Vita Augustini 18, 19;
122. Uennadius, De iuris illuslribus 39;
123. Eugippius, Ep. ad Probam 2, 19; Isidore of Seville (PL 83, 1109)) The thought perhaps owes something to Jerome, Ep. 33.5 (on Origen)
124. echoed by Vincent, Commomtorium 17, 7.
125. Augustine, De dornoerseverantiae 24, 68 (PL 45,1034), "Qui legunt haec, si intelliguntt agant Dco gratias: qui autem non intelliguntt orent ut eorum ille sit doctor interior, a cuius facie est scientia ct intellectus. Qui vero errare me existimant, etiam atque etiam diligenter quae sunt dicta considerent, ne fortassis ipsi errent. Ego autem, cum per eos qui meos labores legunt non solum doctior verum etiam emendatior fio, propitium mihi Deum agnosco; et hoc per ecclesiac doctores maxime exspecto, si et in ipsorum manus venit, dignanturque nosse quod scribo."
126. Vincent, Commonilorium 1,7 is careful not to be taken for one of the doctores ecclesiae of whom Augustine expected most.