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Peregrinatio’ and ‘Peregrini’ in Augustine's ‘City of God1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

M. A. Claussen*
Affiliation:
Charlottesville, Virginia

Extract

To most people inclined, in the late twentieth century, to think in such terms, the idea of pilgrimage as a metaphor for the Christian life seems natural and almost perfect — natural and perfect to the extent that it is often assumed to have been the metaphor for such a life from the beginnings of the religion. This is not the case. Although the image of pilgrimage — peregrinatio — can be found occasionally in earlier fathers, it did not receive a full theological exposition until Augustine's City of God in the early fifth century. There, peregrinatio is linked directly to the theme of the two cities, the essential and basic conceit of the book. Even in the very first sentence, Augustine says that he will seek to defend

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References

2 Hoffinger, J., ‘The Pilgrimage, Symbol of the Christian Life,' Lumen Vitae 13 (1958) 260–67.Google Scholar

3 Because English does not have a word capable of bearing the meanings Augustine has given peregrinatio-peregrini, I have decided to leave the noun in the Latin. For the verbal forms, I have opted for the rather awkward ‘peregrinate,’ since in English it is a neutral, and in fact unusual, word. Google Scholar

4 D[e] c[ivitate] D[ei] 1.Pref.1 (CCL 47.1).Google Scholar

5 Sister Catherine of Mahoney, Siena, The Rare and Late Latin Nouns, Adjectives, and Adverbs in St. Augustine's ‘De Civitate Dei': A Morphological and Semasiological Study (Catholic University of America Patristic Studies 44; Cleveland OH 1985), has placed peregrinatio with other words, the meanings of which she believes had been ‘restricted’ or limited from their earlier classical use. She argues that in City of God Augustine uses peregrinatio simply to mean ‘this life’ (144, 150).Google Scholar

6 The two best expositions of the role and meaning of peregrinatio in City of God are by Borgomeo, P., L'Église de ce temps dans la prédication de saint Augustin (Paris 1972) 117–85, especially 137–50, and Guy, J.-C., Unité et structure logique de la ‘Cité de Dieu’ de saint Augustin (Paris 1961) 112–14. Borgomeo argues that Augustine does not see the dichotomy in the church between the city of God in hoc temporum cursu, cum inter impios peregrinatur, and that part in illa stabilitate sedis aeternae (DcD 1.Pref.2–3). Rather it is all one church, the church on earth being an église du temps, heavenly while on earth, ‘the kingdom of heaven in the church’ (14). But he does not examine the implications of an ecclesia peregrina. Guy deals only in passing with what Augustine means by peregrinatio, since his concerns are with what the city of God might be in its relationship with the earthly city. Folgando Florez, S., ‘Sentido eclesial de la “Civitas Dei,”' Augustinianum 14 (1974) 91146, discusses the eschatological dimensions of peregrinatio; Ladner, G., The Idea of Reform: Its Impact on Christian Thought and Action in the Age of the Fathers (Cambridge MA 1959) 267–73 examines the relationship between Augustine's ecclesia peregrina and reform; Capánaga, V., ‘Agustín, guía de peregrinos: Hacia una teología agustiniana de la peregrinación,' Helmantica 26 (1975) 73–85, tries to show the relationship between the status Christians have as peregrini and the three theological virtues in Augustine's thought. Brown, P., Augustine of Hippo (Berkeley CA 1967), 323–24, and his essay, ‘Political Society,’ in Markus, R. A., Augustine: A Collection of Critical Essays (Garden City NY 1972) 311–35 (first printed as ‘St Augustine’ in Smalley, Beryl, Trends in Medieval Political Thought [Oxford 1965] 1–21), discusses among other things, the implication of peregrinatio on Augustine's ethics; Markus, R. A., Saeculum: History and Society in the Theology of St. Augustine (Cambridge MA 1970) passim, but especially 72–104, shows how peregrinatio is connected to Augustine's understanding of both history and politics. Werner Schultz, ‘Der Gedanke der Peregrinatio bei Augustin und das Motiv der Wanderschaft bei Goethe,’ Neue Zeitschrift für systematische Theologie 8 (1966) 79–110, examines the meaning peregrinatio had both for Augustine and for some of his Neoplatonic predecessors, such as Plotinus and Philo. Finally, O'Donnell, J. J., ‘The Inspiration for Augustine's De civitate Dei,’ Augustinian Studies 10 (1979) 75–79, argues that the appearance of the exiles fleeing the Visigoths in 410 struck Augustine as ‘precisely analogous in legal terms, to the kind of behavior he wanted to preach as suitable for Christians living in the earthly city… . Once this analogy had occurred to Augustine, the pretext for his great work … must have appeared to him all at once’ (78).Google Scholar

On the other hand, there is a vast literature dealing with the theme of peregrinatio and the general wandering motifs that play such a large role in Augustine's Confessions. Some of this has proven helpful in my attempt to understand peregrinatio in City of God, but because of the general shift in his later thought, much of it was inappropriate. I found most useful P.-P. Courcelle, Recherches sur les ‘Confessions’ de saint Augustin 2 (Paris 1968), and O'Connell's R. J. study, St Augustine's Confessions: The Odyssey of Soul (Cambridge MA 1969); also Knauer G. N., ‘Peregrinatio animae: Zur Frage der Einheit der augustinischen Konfessionen,' Hermes 85 (1957) 216–46, and Greer R. A., Broken Lights and Mended Lives: Theology and the Common Life in the Early Church (University Park PA 1986) 67–90.

7 A rare neologism is in DcD 14.9.93, when he coins impassibilitas for ἀπάθεια. More typical is his explanation of the classical meaning of symbolum in Serm[ones] 212 and 215 (PL 38.1058–60 and 1072), discussed by Busch, B., ‘De initiatione christiana secundum sanctum Augustinum,' Ephemerides liturgicae 52 (1938) 159–78.Google Scholar

8 Marrou, H.-I., Saint Augustin et la fin de la culture antique 4 (Paris 1983) 4783, 126–35, 417–19, and 460–67; and Brown, , Augustine of Hippo 21–23, 35–38, 65–72.Google Scholar

9 For the role of language in late antiquity, see, among others, Auerbach, E., Literary Language and Its Public in Late Latin Antiquity and in the Middle Ages (New York 1965) 2758, and Finaert, J., St Augustin Rhéteur (Paris 1939). Johnson, D. W., ‘Verbum in the Early Augustine,’ Recherches augustiniennes 8 (1972) 2553, and deVeer, A. C., ‘Revelare-revelatio: Éléments d'une étude sur l'emploi du mot et sur signification chez saint Augustin,’ Recherches augustiniennes 2 (1962) 331–57 provide models for this sort of study.Google Scholar

10 Scanlon, M. J., ‘Pilgrim and Polis,' in Papin, Joseph, ed., The Pilgrim People: A Vision with Hope (Villanova PA 1970) 113–22, does some of this.Google Scholar

11 Hagendahl, H., Augustine and the Latin Classics (Göteborg 1967) 910.Google Scholar

12 In this section, I am relying on the following works: Berger, A., An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 43/2; Philadelphia 1953) 626; Garnsey, P., Social Status and Legal Privilege in the Roman Empire (Oxford 1970); Jolowicz, H. F. and Nicholas, B., Historical Introduction to the Study of Roman Law 3 (Cambridge 1972); Levy, E., West Roman Vulgar Law (Philadelphia PA 1951); Kuebler, B., ‘Peregrinus,' in RE 19.1 (1937) 639–55; Sherwin-White, A. N., The Roman Citizenship 2 (Oxford 1973); and Thomas, J. A. C., Textbook of Roman Law (Amsterdam 1976).Google Scholar

13 Gaius, , Institutes 1.79 (edd. Seckel, E. and Kuebler, B. [7th ed., Stuttgart 1935/1969] 22), composed around A.D. 160–170.Google Scholar

14 See Modrzejewski, J., ‘La régle de Droit dans l 'Égypte romaine (L'État des questions et perspectives de recherches),’ in Samuel, D., ed., Proceedings of the Twelfth International Congress of Papyrology (American Studies in Papyrology 7; Toronto 1970) 317–77.Google Scholar

15 For instance, the Romans felt that patriapotestas was peculiar to themselves, and therefore the rights and prerogatives that would go to the male head of a Roman household were withheld from a peregrinus. So too in certain commercial pacts, peregrini could not use the verb spondeo in a stipulation; nor did they have the right to commercium. See Thomas, , Textbook 238 n. 7.Google Scholar

16 Augustine, in DcD 5.17.13 (CCL 47.150), however, seems to imply that in his time everyone in the Empire was a full citizen. See Jolowicz, and Nicholas, , Historical Introduction 346 n. 7, for a citation of other authors on this point.Google Scholar

17 Sherwin-White, , Roman Citizenship 2 388. He also notes the existence in North Africa of the dual community of citizens and peregrini known as the pagus et civitas, in which a group of Roman citizens would be attached, as a pagus, to the nearest Roman municipium, while the local population, who made up the civitas, would be left with their earlier status as peregrini (ibid. 270–71). Augustine may have been familiar with this sort of community.Google Scholar

18 Brown holds that Augustine was legally a peregrinus when he was living in Milan (Augustine of Hippo 323 [above, n. 6]), based upon his own testimony in Confessions 5.13: ‘Suscepit me paterne ille homo Dei [Ambrose], et peregrinationem meam satis episcopaliter dilexit.’ See also Contra litleras Petiliani 3.30 (CSEL 52.185). Google Scholar

19 Tusc. Disp. 5.37 .107; Pliny, , Nat. Hist. 10.33.64.Google Scholar

20 Plautus, , Mostellaria 4.21.41, and Pliny, , Nat. Hist. 35.12.43 § 151.Google Scholar

21 Hagendahl, , Augustine and the Latin Classics (above n. 11) 690–95.Google Scholar

22 O'Meara, J. J., ‘Augustine and Neo-Platonism,' Recherches augustiniennes 1 (1958) 91111, chronicles some of the history of the controversy regarding the source of Augustine's Neoplatonism. Since that article was published, the work of a number of scholars has made clear the impact of contemporary philosophy on Augustine. Among these must rank P.-P. Courcelle's three magisterial works, Les Lettres grecques en Occident de Macrobe à Cassiodore (Paris 1943), Recherches sur les ‘Confessions' (above, n. 6), and Les Confessions dans la tradition littéraire (Paris 1968). Equally important are the numerous articles and books by O'Connell, R. J., St. Augustine's Confessions (above, n. 6), St. Augustine's Early Theory of Man, A.D. 386–91 (Cambridge MA 1968), and The Origin of the Soul in St. Augustine's Later Works (New York 1987). Both authors have been criticized, especially O'Connell; see, for instance, O'Daly, G. J. P., ‘Augustine on the Origin of Souls,' in Platonismus und Christentum: Festschrift für Heinrich Dörrie (Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum: Ergänzungsband 10; Münster 1983) 184–91. But both have far advanced our understanding of the intellectual climate of the fourth and fifth century.Google Scholar

23 O'Connell, R. J., Imagination and Metaphysics in St. Augustine (Milwaukee WI 1986) 2633.Google Scholar

24 En 1.6 .8; MacKenna, S. T., Plotinus: The Enneads (London 1956) 63, quoting Iliad 2.140. Augustine, conflating En. 1.2.3 and 1.6.8, renders this, ‘Let us flee to our beloved patria, where the Father, and everything, is' (DcD 9.17.4 [CCL 47.265]).Google Scholar

25 Life of Plotinus 22 and 25.Google Scholar

26 Dodds, E. R., Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety (New York 1970).Google Scholar

27 Courcelle, P., Les Lettres grecques (above n. 22) 183–94.Google Scholar

28 See Clem., Clem. 1.1. (edd. Funk, F. X. and Bihlmeyer, K. [Tübingen 1956] 35). ‘II Clement’ uses ἐπιδημία: ‘Know, brothers, that our sojourn [ἐπιδημία] in this world of flesh is short and short-lived' (II Clem. 5.5, ibid. 73). The idea is the same, but παοικία seems to be the preferred Greek word to express this contrast.Google Scholar

29 The text of Ep. ad Diogn. 5.1–11 is worth noting, because Augustine seems to pick up so many of its themes and points later: ‘The distinction between Christians and other men is neither in country nor language nor customs. For they do not dwell in cities in some place of their own, nor do they use any strange variety of dialect, nor practice an extraordinary kind of life. This teaching of theirs has not been discovered by the intellect or thought of busy men, nor are they advocates of any human doctrine as some men are. Yet while living in Greek and barbarian cities, according as each obtained his lot, and following local customs, both in clothing and food and in the rest of life, they show forth the wonderful and confessedly strange character of the constitution of their own citizenship. They dwell in their own fatherlands, but as if sojourners in them; they share all things as citizens, and suffer all things as strangers. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is a foreign country. They marry as all men, yet they do not expose their offspring. They offer free hospitality, but guard their purity. Their lot is cast “in the flesh,” but they do not live “after the flesh.” They pass their time upon earth, but they have their citizenship in heaven. They obey the appointed laws, and they surpass the laws in their own lives. They love all men and are persecuted by all men.’ (Translated by Lake, K., The Apostolic Fathers II [New York 1924] 359–61). I am grateful to Leiva, Erasmo and Wilken, Wilken for recalling this reference to my mind. See also Greer, , Broken Lights (above n. 6) 141–42.Google Scholar

30 See Greer, , Broken Lights 145–49; Markus, , Saeculum 22–44; and Ladner, , Idea of Reform (both cited above n. 6) 107–132. One obvious exception to this generalization is Chrysostom., Chrysostom. For Orosius' misunderstanding of Augustine — a misunderstanding that has had an exceptionally long life in the history of Western thought — see Mommsen, T. E., ‘Orosius and Augustine,' Medieval and Renaissance Studies (Ithaca NY 1959) 325–48.Google Scholar

31 Greer, , Broken Lights 142-44.Google Scholar

32 De carne Christi 7.7 (CSEL 70.210).Google Scholar

33 Apologeticum 1.2 (CCL 1.85).Google Scholar

34 For Augustine's use of the Bible, see the collection of essays edited by la Bonnardière, A.-M., Saint Augustin et la Bible (Paris 1986) especially 27–47 and 303–12. Bonner, G., ‘Augustine as Biblical Scholar,' in The Cambridge History of the Bible I (Cambridge 1970) 541–63, provides a more general introduction.Google Scholar

35 In this examination of the biblical use of peregrinatio, I have relied, except when noted, on Vulgate, Jerome's, contrasting it, where possible, with the peculiar version of the Vetus Latina which Augustine used. Jerome, a contemporary of Augustine's, and from a similar culture and background, used peregrinatio to translate a number of Greek and Hebrew words from the Bible; that he considered this one Latin term, taken from the rich Roman legal vocabulary for non-citizens, their equivalent points perhaps better than anything else to the suggestiveness of peregrinatio-terms at the time.Google Scholar

36 See, for instance, Augustine's use of this word in Quaest in Hept 3.1418 (CCL 33.214). Occasionally however, a more interesting word is used. For instance, in Deut 5.14, ποσἡλυτος is once again rendered peregrinus in the Vulgate, and by the quite telling word colonus in Augustine's Bible. See Bonnardière, La, Biblia augustiniana AT 4: Le Deutéronome (Paris 1967) 40.Google Scholar

37 Eph 2.19. Google Scholar

38 Quoted from En[arrationes] in ps[almos] 86.2.38 (CCL 39.1199). Google Scholar

39 So Ruth wanders, clearly not intending to stay, in various regions (Ruth 1.1). See also for example Ps 119.5. Google Scholar

40 4 Kings 8.1; see also Ps 118.54 and Jdgs 17.8. Google Scholar

41 Job 19.15 and Ps 68.9. The psalm reads in LXX ἀπηλλοτιωμένος ἐγενἡθην το ς ἀδελφος μου, καὶ ξένος τος ὑιοίς τς μητός μου, which Augustine's version more correctly translates as ‘Alienatus factus sum fratribus meis, et hospes filiis matris meae,’ (En in ps 68 s.1 13.1–2 [CCL 39.913]). In the Liber qui appellatur Speculum 6, however, he knows this last clause as ‘… et peregrinus filiis matris meae’ (CSEL 12.35). Jerome substitutes extraneus for alienatus and peregrinus for hospes. Google Scholar

42 En in ps 45.7.10 (CCL 38.522).Google Scholar

43 See the parable of the Prodigal Son: ‘non post multos dies dixit factum, ut congregatis omnibus peregre proficisceretur in regionem longinquam …’ (Luke 5.13, cited in Quaest Evang 2.33.15 [CCL 44B.74]). See also Mt 21.33, 25.14; Mk 12.1, 13.34). Google Scholar

44 2 Cor 5.6–8. Google Scholar

45 Heb 11.13. Google Scholar

46 See Kötting, B., Peregrinatio religiosa: Wallfahrten in der Antike und das Pilgerwesen in der alten Kirche (Münster 1980 ); Brown, P., The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity (Chicago 1981) 86 ff.; Hunt, E. D., Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later Roman Empire: A.D. 312–460 (Oxford 1982); and Maraval, P., ‘Les temps du pélerin (IVe–VIIe siècles' Les temps chrétien de la fin de l'Antiquité au Moyen Ǎge: IIIe-XIIIe siècles (Paris 1984) 479–88.Google Scholar

47 In one instance, he contrasts the healing of a peregrinus with that of two cives of Hippo. All three were healed, though the peregrinus had to travel to the relics of St. Stephen to be cured. Here I think Augustine is using peregrinus in a conventional sense, meaning simply non-resident; thus the contrast, duo cives, peregrinus unus (DcD 22.8.306–307 [CCL 48.822]). Google Scholar

48 See Serm. 81 (PL 38.504). Google Scholar

49 See Congar, Y. M.-J., ‘“Civitas Dei” et “Ecclesia” chez saint Augustin,' Revue des études augustiniennes 3 (1957) 114; Lauras, A. and Rondet, H., ‘La thème des deux cités dans l'œuvre de saint Augustin,’ Études augustiniennes (1951) 99–160.Google Scholar

50 Ladner, , among others, discusses this in The Idea of Reform (above, n. 6) 273–75.Google Scholar

51 Turner, V., ‘Pilgrimages as Social Processes,' in Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society (Ithaca NY 1974) 166230, holds that by their very nature, pilgrimages are social events, calling forth a structure that he calls ‘normative communitas.’ See also Gilson, E., The Christian Philosophy of Saint Augustine (New York 1983) 171–74.Google Scholar

52 Dougherty, J., in ‘The Sacred City and the City of God,’ Augustinian Studies 10 (1979) 8190, has argued that Augustine's use of irony to describe the ancient city ‘reduces the deeds of Rome to a provisional reality of figures written by God in secular history, the “shadows” of a true, heavenly, reality’ (85), and yet in the end the image and idea of the city remains.Google Scholar

53 ‘It is a remarkable feature of St. Augustine's doctrine that it always considers the moral life as something interwoven with the social life. In his eyes, the individual is never separated from the city.’ ( Gilson, , Christian Philosophy of St. Augustine 171).Google Scholar

54 ‘Nam unde ista Dei civitas … vel inchoaretur exortu vel progrederetur excursu vel adprehenderet debitos fines, si non esset socialis vita sanctorum?’(DcD 19.5.2 [CCL 48.669]). Google Scholar

55 This again touches on the unity which binds the civitas Dei together. Borgomeo, L'Église de ce temps (above, n. 6), in his Introduction, discusses the dynamics that are involved in this ‘disparate unity.’ See also Florez, Folgando, ‘Sentido eclesial' (above, n. 6) 110–111.Google Scholar

56 Augustine remained firmly convinced that despite occasional allures this life was basically penal. He devotes a large part of Book 13 to showing that even while in the midst of life, we are in death. Likewise, parts of Book 9 are concerned with the proposition that ‘as long as they are mortal, [humanity] must needs be wretched’ (DcD 9.15.1 [CCL 47.262]). See O'Connell, , Metaphysics and Imagination (above, n. 23) 12.Google Scholar

57 DcD 17.13.27 (CCL 48.578).Google Scholar

58 Ambulare itself can also have a spiritual meaning. In De peccatorum meritis, from 412, describing spiritual advance, Augustine writes, ‘ambulatio ista non corporis pedibus, sed mentis affectibus et vitae moribus geritur …’ (De pec mer 2.13.20 [CSEL 60.93]). See also Serm. 169.18 [PL 38.926]).Google Scholar

59 Capánaga, ‘Agustín, guía de peregrinos’ (above, n. 6) 75. Google Scholar

60 His lukewarm encomiums of Constantine and Theodosius, in DcD 5.25 and 5.26, are usually read in this fashion. Much of Markus's Saeculum is concerned with showing how Augustine sought to limit the theoretical and theological, though not necessarily the practical, connection between the church and the Empire. Google Scholar

61 Markus, , Saeculum (above, n. 6) 55. Brown, , ‘Political Society’ (above, n. 6) 324–35, discusses the functions secular society could play for Augustine.Google Scholar

62 Mommsen, T. E., ‘St. Augustine and the Christian Idea of Progress: The Background of The City of God,’ Medieval and Renaissance Studies (Ithaca NY 1959) 286.Google Scholar

63 Most of the first half of DcD 18.51 is devoted to showing how fleeting are the current good times for the church. Augustine writes: ‘Nam et id, quod ait idem doctor: Quicumque volunt in Christo pie vivere, persecutionem patiuntur [2 Tim 3.12], nullis putandum est deesse posse temporibus. Quia et cum ab eis, qui foris sunt, non saevientibus videtur esse tranquillitas et re vera est plurimumque consolationis adfert, maxime infirmis: non tamen desunt, immo multi sunt intus, qui corda pie viventium suis perditis moribus cruciant …’ (CCL 48.649). See also Ladner, , The Idea of Reform (above, n. 6) 267.Google Scholar

64 ‘Sicut autem unius hominis, ita humani generis, quod ad Dei populum pertinet, recta eruditio per quosdam articulos temporum tamquam aetatum profecit accessibus’(DcD 10.14.1 [CCL 47.288]). Google Scholar

65 Anthropologists have noted that in most pilgrimages, those involved enter a liminal state with respect to society. See Bunnag, J., ‘The Way of the Monk and the Way of the World: Buddhism in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia,' in Bechert, H. and Gombrich, R., The World of Buddhism (New York 1984) 159170; and Turner, Victor, ‘Pilgrimages' (above, n. 51).Google Scholar

66 See Ladner, , Idea of Reform (above, n. 6) 277. Much subsequent scholarship, especially Borgomeo's L'Église de ce temps and Folgando Florez's ‘Sentido eclesial’ (above, n. 6) has made us more sensitive to the dynamic relationship, not the dichotomy, inherent in the bipartite civitas Dei of Augustine.Google Scholar

67 DcD 15.1.39 (CCL 48.454).Google Scholar

68 Callahan, J. F., Augustine and the Greek Philosophers (St. Augustine Lecture 1964: Villanova PA 1967) 39–40, has pointed out the growing concern with ethics and the moral problems humanity faces among the patristic writers of this period.Google Scholar

69 DcD 2.18.70 (CCL 47.50).Google Scholar

70 Ladner, G. B., ‘St. Augustine 's Conception of the Reformation of Man to the Image of God,’ Augustinus Magister I (Paris 1954) 872–73.Google Scholar

71 For a similar reliance by Augustine on older classical and pagan Roman legal concepts, see Russell, F. H., The Just War in the Middle Ages (Cambridge 1975) 1639.Google Scholar

72 Momigliano, A., ‘Christianity and the Decline of the Roman Empire,' in The Conflict Between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century (Oxford 1963) 116; Simon, M., Verus Israel 2 (Paris 1964) 87162, and especially 135–39; and Markus, R. A., Christianity in the Roman World (New York 1975) 24–47.Google Scholar

73 Gal 3.28. Google Scholar

74 Probably the first expression of this idea was in Aristides' Apology 2 ( Rendell Harris, J., The Apology of Aristides [Text and Studies 1.1; Cambridge 1893]), where he says that Christians are one of four races, the others being Greeks, Jews, and barbarians.Google Scholar

75 DcD 5.17.14 (CCL 47.150).Google Scholar

76 DcD 18.47.15 (CCL 48.645); here Augustine asks whether the Jews can deny people other than themselves have belonged to the heavenly city of the true Israel — that is, to the country which is above.Google Scholar

77 DcD 19.17.47 (CCL 48.685).Google Scholar

78 Congar, Y. M.-J., ‘Ecclesia ab Abel,' in Reding, M., ed., Abhandlungen über Theologie und Kirche: Festschrift für Karl Adam (Düsseldorf 1952) 79108.Google Scholar

79 DcD 18.51.64 (CCL 48.650).Google Scholar

80 Like so many other aspects of Augustinian thought, the utor/fruor distinction is the subject of a massive amount of scholarship. See O'Donovan, O., The Problem of Self-Love in St. Augustine (New Haven CT 1980 ); and Brown, P., Augustine of Hippo (above, n. 6) 320–24. See also Gilson, , Christian Philosophy of St Augustine (above, n. 51) 165–68; Markus, , Saeculum (above, n. 6) 67–71; and O'Connor, W. R., ‘The Uti/Frui Distinction in Augustine's Ethics,’ Augustinian Studies 14 (1983) 45–62.Google Scholar

81 The Stoics elaborated a difference between a res which was honesta — that is, good in itself and therefore worthy to be enjoyed — and a res utilis, a res which can only be used for the sake of obtaining some bonum honestum. Google Scholar

82 O'Donovan, , The Problem of Self-Love, argues for the ‘experimental character’ of this work.Google Scholar

83 This mirrors the general shift in Augustine's mature thought from the ontological to the psychological. See O'Donovan, , passim, and Dihle, A., The Theory of the Will in Classical Antiquity (Berkeley 1982) 128–32.Google Scholar

84 De doc christ 1.4.4 (CCL 32.8).Google Scholar

85 See Justinian, , Digest 8.1.1.1.Google Scholar

86 Institutes, 2.4 pr, following Digest 7.1.1.Google Scholar

87 Usus seems to have been a late development, probably introduced by the jurist Labeo, a contemporary of Augustus.Google Scholar

88 Augustine was fully aware of such legal distinctions, and City of God is peppered with offhand allusions to the technicalities of Roman law. For instance, in DcD 17.10.31 (CCL 48.574), he says that peregrini ‘held by temporary lease [tenentes in dispensatione temporaria]' the earthly kingdom of Israel, but they ‘have by true faith [in vera fide habentes]' the kingdom of God. Google Scholar

89 For instance, DcD 1.9.40 (CCL 47.9), when Augustine contrasts ‘things which may be rightly and innocently used [utuntur] by good men, but which they [those desirous of earthly praise] desire more than is right for one who peregrinates in the world.’ See also 14.28, and, regarding the uses of earthly peace, 19.17 to 19.26. Google Scholar

90 Borgomeo, , L'Église de ce temps (see above, n. 6) 14-16; Brown, , Augustine of Hippo (see above, n. 6) 244–58. Here again we see the influence of Hebrews 11 on Augustine's thought.Google Scholar

91 DcD 1.29.1 (CCL 47.30).Google Scholar

92 DcD 19.17.3 (CCL 48.684).Google Scholar

93 O'Donovan, , Problem of Self-Love (above, n. 80) 150.Google Scholar

94 DcD 15.4.27 (CCL 48.457).Google Scholar

95 DcD 14.9.4 (CCL 48.426). See also 14.26.Google Scholar

96 He contrasts his with the Stoic position on the emotions in DcD 9.4–5. Google Scholar

97 O'Donovan, , Problem of Self-Love (above, n. 80) 10–29, argues that Augustine throughout his life vacillated between an objective and a positive ethics. This certainly is the case in the earlier works, but it seems to me that in City of God, Augustine has solidly taken a positivist position.Google Scholar

98 DcD 19.17.15 (CCL 48.684). This is one of many similar injunctions in Book 19.Google Scholar

99 DcD 19.26.7 (CCL 48.696–97).Google Scholar

100 Garnsey, , Social Status and Legal Privilege (above, n. 12) passim especially 221–233.Google Scholar

101 Cf. 2 Cor 5.6; and above, pp. 41–42. Google Scholar

102 DcD 15.20.13 (CCL 48.482).Google Scholar

103 DcD 15.26.2 (CCL 48.493).Google Scholar

104 For this exposition of the non-mystical qualities of peregrinatio, I follow Brown, Augustine of Hippo (above, n. 6) 324. Google Scholar

105 See above, p. 46. Google Scholar

106 DcD 19.17.15-25 (CCL 48.684).Google Scholar

107 DcD 19.26.Brev (CCL 47.xxxix).Google Scholar

108 In fact, Augustine says Abraham made a peregrinatio fidelissima in Sermon 350.3 (PL 39.1534), preached during the last few years of his life. Google Scholar

109 DcD 16.13 (CCL 48.517), quoting from Judith 5.5.Google Scholar

110 DcD 15.1.55 (CCL 48.454).Google Scholar

111 DcD 18.32.94 (CCL 48.625-26).Google Scholar

112 DcD 15.2.41 (CCL 48.455).Google Scholar

113 Green, W. M., ‘Initium Omnis Peccati Superbia : Augustine on Pride as the First Sin,’ University of California Publications in Classical Philology 13 (1949) 407–31. See also MacQueen, D. J., ‘Contemptus Dei : St. Augustine on the Disorder of Pride in Society, and Its Remedies,’ Recherches augustiniennes 9 (1973) 227–93; and Dihle, A., The Theory of the Will (above, n. 83) 127–31.Google Scholar

114 DcD 1.Pref.8 (CCL 47.1).Google Scholar

115 While Augustine remains sure that pride is the basic sin, its various manifestations move about in order of importance. City of God, written partially as an apologetic work against the charges of religiously traditional Romans, usually gives the primacy to libido dominandi. Thus Augustine is able to invert Vergil's famous verse on the mission of Rome: parcere subiectis et debellare superbos. Google Scholar

116 O'Donovan, , The Problem of Self-Love (above, n. 80) 93–98. See also Swift, L., ‘Pagan and Christian Heroes in Augustine 's City of God,’ Augustinianum 27 (1987) 509–22.Google Scholar

117 DcD 14.13.45 (CCL 48.435).Google Scholar

118 DcD 19.14.51 (CCL 48.681-82).Google Scholar

119 Augustine discusses persecution of the church by the state as a natural and not unexpected phenomenon in the following places in Book 18 of DcD: 32.92, 49.1, 51.20, 51.64 (see also 20.8.6 and 20.11). Google Scholar

120 ‘In hoc ergo saeculo maligno, in his diebus malis, ubi per humilitatem praesentem futuram comparat ecclesia celsitudinem et timorum stimulis, dolorum tormentis, laborum molestiis, temptationum periculis eruditur …’ (DcD 18.49.1 [CCL 48.647]). Google Scholar

121 DcD 20.8.6 (CCL 48.712); DcD 18.51.64 (CCL 48.650).Google Scholar

122 One might note the similarity of Augustine's description of the relations between the city of God and the earthly city, and Donatist polemics describing the relationship of the pars Donati and the Catholic church; the sense of being a ‘persecuted church’ was a hallmark of Donatist literature. Google Scholar

123 DcD 5.15.19 (CCL 47.149). Here Augustine quotes the Gospel in describing the effect of virtue on some famous Romans.Google Scholar

124 DcD 15.18.3 (CCL 48.480).Google Scholar

125 DcD 21.15.9 (CCL 48.781).Google Scholar

126 ‘Hoc [Enoch's calling upon God] est quippe in hoc mundo peregrinantis civitatis Dei totum atque summum in hac mortalitate negotium …’ (DcD 15.21.21 [CCL 48.486]). Google Scholar

127 Augustine took the ecclesia permixta, with modifications, from the Donatist Tyconius (see De doc christ, 3.42), and found it especially useful in combating the Donatists. See Escobar, N., ‘Iglesia, donatismo, y santidad en la polémica agustiniana,' Augustinus 27 (1982) 5577; Marcus, , Saeculum (see above, n. 6) 117–25. Brockwell, C., ‘Augustine's Ideal of Monastic Community: A Paradigm for his Doctrine of the Church,’ Augustinian Studies 8 (1977) 91–109, argues that Augustine believed the monastery itself was ‘a morally mixed community.’Google Scholar

128 See for instance DcD 1.35.6, 19.26.6, 20.7.93, 20.9.32. Google Scholar

129 DcD 1.35.5 (CCL 47.33).Google Scholar

130 DcD 1.35.11 (CCL 47.33).Google Scholar

131 DcD 1.35.12 (CCL 47.33).Google Scholar

132 DcD 1.35.15 (CCL 47.34). See also 20.25.46 (CCL 48.748) where the church will be purified by the last judgment ‘velut area per ventilationem, ita per iudicium purgata novissimum, eis quoque igne mundatis, quibus talis mundatio necessaria est, ita ut nullus omnino sit, qui offerat sacrificium pro peccatis suis.’Google Scholar

133 DcD 15.22.7 (CCL 48.487).Google Scholar

134 See for instance DcD 1.15.67 (CCL 47.17), when discussing the saints, he says, ‘qui supernam patriam veraci fide expectantes etiam in suis sedibus peregrinos se esse noverunt.’ Google Scholar

135 Augustine spends a good deal of time in Book 12 arguing for the permanence of eternal blessedness, against both Christians who followed Origen's reputed cyclicism and Neoplatonic theories of eternal return. See, for instance, DcD 12.14 (CCL 48.368). Google Scholar

136 Figgis, J. N., The Political Aspects of St Augustine's ‘City of God' (London 1921) 73, says that Augustine, following Tyconius, believed that the ‘Second Coming is the Church.’ See also Florez, Folgando, ‘Sentido eclesial' (above, n. 6) 102–103, and Black, J., ‘De Civitate Dei and the Commentaries of Gregory the Great, Bede, and Hrabanus Maurus on the Book of Samuel,’ Augustinian Studies 15 (1984) 114–27.Google Scholar

137 DcD 7.32.17 (CCL 47.213).Google Scholar

138 DcD 21.24.145 (CCL 48.792).Google Scholar

139 DcD 17.3.8 (CCL 48.553).Google Scholar

140 The interpretation of these passages is rather controversial. Cranz, F. E., ‘“De Civitate Dei,” XV.2, and Augustine 's Idea of the Christian Society,’ Speculum 45 (1970) 215225, has tried to show that there are, in fact, only two cities mentioned in City of God. Guy, L'unité et structure (above, n. 6), maintains this same position. But a strong case for the existence of some third group has been made by Marrou, H. I., ‘Civitas Dei, civitas terrena: num tertium quid?' (Studia patristica 2; Texte und Untersuchungen 64 [Berlin 1957]) 342–50; and, on a more complex level, by Hawkins, P., ‘Polemical Counterpoint in De civitate Dei,’ Augustinian Studies 6 (1975) 97–106. Augustine himself seems unclear about how many ‘things’ there were, at least in his earlier writings. In the second chapter of De utilitate ieiunii, which is dated to 408/412, he writes that the faithful ‘aliam spem gerentes, et scientes se peregrinari in hoc mundo, medium quemdam locum tenent; nec illis comparandi sunt qui nihil aliud putant bonum quam deliciis terrenis perfrui, nec illis adhuc supernis habitatoribus caeli, quibus solae deliciae sunt panis ipse a quo creati sunt’ (CCL 46.232).Google Scholar

141 DcD 15.21.25 (CCL 48.486).Google Scholar

142 Of these 800 or so citations, over 300 appear in Enarrationes in psalmos, and 100 in City of God. The rest are scattered fairly equally throughout his works, though there may be a perhaps slightly greater density in the sermons and in Tractatus in Iohannis evangelium. Google Scholar

143 Hagendahl, , Augustine and the Latin Classics (above, n. 11) 697–705.Google Scholar

144 ‘… peregrinus, et prorsus incognitus’(Contra Faustum 22.79 [CSEL 25.681]), from around 398. For the dating of Augustine's works, I have generally followed their editor in the Bibliothèque augustinienne series, or, if that is not stated, Zarb's, Zarb's standard work, Chronologia operum sancti Augustini (Rome 1934 ). For the sermons, I have relied on the dates given in Verbraken, P.-P., Études critiques sur les sermons authentiques de saint Augustin (Instrumenta patristica 12; The Hague 1976). For the parts of De Trinitate, Tractatus in Iohannis evangelium, and the Enarrationes with which she deals, I have usually relied on La Bonnardière, A.-M., Recherches de chronologie augustinienne (Paris 1965). For the rest of the Enarrationes, I have used Zarb, S., Chronologia enarrationum s. Augustini in Psalmos (Malta 1948).Google Scholar

145 For instance, Ench. 72 (CCL 46.88), from around 421 or Serrn. 236.3 (PL 38.1121), from 410/412. Google Scholar

146 Serm. 210.10 (PL 38.1052). Google Scholar

147 Gesta cum Emerito 9 (CSEL 53.191), from 418.Google Scholar

148 Courcelle, , Lettres grecques (above, n. 22) 148–153.Google Scholar

149 Ep. 55.10 (CSEL 342.181), from 400; Serm. 51.32 (PL 38.352) from 410/412, or perhaps 419/420. Google Scholar

150 Serm. 75.2 (PL 38.475), from before 400; Quaest evang 2.33 (CCL 44B.74), from 399/400; Serm. 362.4 (PL 39.1613), from winter, 410/411. Once, but only once, is it a tempus brevissimum in Serm. Denis 20.1. Google Scholar

151 En in ps 64.8 (CCL 39.831), from Advent 412. This is a very frequent use in the Enarrationes, and occurs, for example, in 41.5, from 410/411, and in 87.15 and 89.15, dated slightly before 420.Google Scholar

152 En in ps 38.8 (CCL 38.409), from 412.Google Scholar

153 De div quaest 83 61.2 (CCL 44A.122), from 394/395; Tract in Ioh Evang 28.9 (CCL 36.282), traditionally from 413, but La Bonnardière puts it around 418.Google Scholar

154 En in ps 145.1 (CCL 40.2105), from Easter, 393; Contra Maximinum Arianum 2.19 (PL 42.788), from ca. 411; De Genesi ad litteram 4.30 (PL 34.31b).Google Scholar

155 En in ps 131.10 (CCL 40.1916), from 406/409; Serm de vet test 31.5 (CCL 41.394), from before 405.Google Scholar

156 En in ps 83.8 (CCL 39.1152), from 414/415.Google Scholar

157 En in ps 49.22 (CCL 38.592), from 412. Tribulation and captivity make up almost one-fifth of the ways in which peregrinatio is described in the Enarrationes. Google Scholar

158 De Trin 8.3 (CCL 50.271): for this motif in other works, see Courcelle, P., ‘Tradition Néo-Platonicienne et tradition chrétienne des ailes de l 'ame,’ in Plotino e il neoplatonismo in Oriente e in Occidente (Rome 1974) 308–18.Google Scholar

159 En in ps 83.8 (CCL 39.1152), from 414/415.Google Scholar

160 En in ps 102.17 (CCL 40.1467-68), preached in late 412.Google Scholar

161 Ep. 92A (CSEL 34.444), dated sometime after 408. Google Scholar

162 De div quaest 83 61.2 (CCL 44A.122), from 394/95. See also En in ps 64.2 (CCL 39.824), from December of 412.Google Scholar

163 Tract in Ioh Evang 34.10 and 5.1 (CCL 36.316 and 36.40); Serm. 53.3 and 158.8 (PL 38.365 and 38.866).Google Scholar

164 See Serm. 194.4 (PL 38.1017), from before 411; and Serm. 255.1 (PL 38.1186), from Easter of 418. Google Scholar

165 Tract in Ioh Evang 32.5 (CCL 36.302), from 418.Google Scholar

166 Cont litt Petiliani 2.247 (CSEL 52.159), from 400–403.Google Scholar

167 Ep. 55.10 (CSEL 34 2.180), from ca. 400.Google Scholar

168 ‘… stabulum est ecclesia ubi reficiuntur viatores de peregrinatione in aeternam patriam redeuntes.’ Quaest evang 2.19 (CCL 44B.63), from 399/400. See also Tract in Ioh Evang 41.13, from about 20 years later: ‘Ergo, fratres, et ecclesia hoc tempore in qua saucius sanatur, stabulum est viatoris’ (CCL 36.365). The stabulum motif appears most often when Augustine is using the viator metaphor. Google Scholar

169 De Bapt 1.25 (CSEL 51.169); see above, 48.Google Scholar

170 Jerusalem, , he says, signifies ‘tota ecclesia aeterna in caelis et ex parte in terris peregrina …’ (Ep. ad Catholicos de secta Donatistarum 26 [CSEL 52.260-61]). The rest of this passage has one of the earlier examples of his Jerusalem/heaven theology.Google Scholar

171 Serm. 105.9 (PL 38.622), from 410/411. Google Scholar

172 Ep. 187.16 (CSEL 57.94). A year or so later, Augustine says — in language a little more ambiguous than one would wish — that ‘adiungitur ista Ecclesia, quae nunc peregrina est, illi coelesti Ecclesiae, ubi Angelos cives habemus … et fit una Ecclesia, civitas Regis magni …’ (Serm. 341.11 [PL 39.1500]). Unless he has reversed his usual position, or simply slipped up, he must mean, by ‘ista ecclesia … illi coelesti ecclesiae’ not two separate churches, but one. This seems likely, since he has used the present tense in adiungitur, habemus, and fit. Google Scholar

173 Ench. 56 (CCL 46.79).Google Scholar

174 Serm. 80.7 (PL 38.497), from ca. 410. See also Serm. 157.5 (PL 38.861, undated), where Augustine says ‘utimur eis et nos secundum peregrinationis nostrae necessitatem: sed non in eis gaudia nostra figimus, ne illis labentibus subruamur.’ Google Scholar

175 Serm. 61.11 (PL 38.413). Google Scholar

176 Tract in Ioh Evang 40.10 (CCL 36.356), from sometime before 420. He occasionally contrasts perfect viatores and perfect possessores: the former advance along the road toward their ultimate perfection, and when they do so well, they are ‘perfect travelers'; the latter are those who have achieved the goal for which they strive. See De peccatorum meritis 2.20 (CSEL 60.93), from 412; De nat et grat 13 (CSEL 60.241), from around 415; and Serm. 169.18 (PL 38.926), from 416.Google Scholar

177 Nec parva res est, quod nos docet Spiritus sanctus gemere: insinuat enim nobis quia peregrinamur, et docet nos in patriam suspirare, et ipso desiderio gemimus,’ Tract in Ioh Evang 6.2 (CCL 36.53), which La Bonnardière dates to 407, although it is traditionally thought to be from 413. See also Contra Max Arian 2.19 (PL 42.788) from 428.Google Scholar

178 En in ps 148.4 (CCL 40.2168).Google Scholar

179 Serm de vet test 31.5 (CCL 41.394).Google Scholar

180 En in ps 93.6 (CCL 39.1306).Google Scholar

181 Ep. 140.82 (CSEL 44.231), from 412. Google Scholar

182 See Serm. 124.4 (PL 38.688), from before 410, and Ep. 199.1 (CSEL 57.244), from ca. 419. Google Scholar

183 In epistulam Ioannis ad Parthos 7.8 (PL 35.2033).Google Scholar

184 Spera in domino et fac bonum, peregrinare in terra et pascere fide,’ Speculum 6 (CSEL 12.32).Google Scholar

185 A quick check of the other words he uses — advena, adventicius, incola, inquilinus, and viator — which appear regularly as synonyms or near-synonyms of peregrinus in other works (for example, they are used thus over 50 times in the Enarrationes) reveals that they occur only nine times in City of God. Of these, three are used in other texts from which Augustine is quoting. Of the remaining six, five are used in a sense which is strictly classical — viator, for instance, is used as ‘tourist’ in DcD 18.18.16 (CCL 48.608). The final occurrence is when he defines the transliterated Greek word proselytus as an advena [DcD 18.47.20 (CCL 48.645)]. Google Scholar

186 See, for instance, En in ps 100.3 (CCL 39.1408), from 395; Serm. 239.2 (PL 38.1127), from 405/410; En in ps 85.24 (CCL 39.1196), from late 412. Google Scholar

187 En in ps 119.6 (CCL 40.1782).Google Scholar

188 En in ps 93.10 (CCL 39.1313).Google Scholar

189 En in ps 118 s.8.1 (CCL 40.1684). Zarb has dated this to 418, but Kannengiesser, C., ‘Enarratio in psalmum CXVIII: Science de la révélation et progrès spirituel,' Recherches augustiniennes 2 (1962) 359–81, puts it somewhere between 420 and 422. La Bonnardière holds for 422.Google Scholar

190 City of God was published beginning in 412: Book 1 was out by autumn of that year, Books 2 and 3 by September of 413, books 4 and 5 two years later, in September of 415, and Books 6 through 10 were published by 417. In letter 184A, dated 417/418, he tells us Books 11 to 13 are written, and Book 14 is in manibus. The work as a whole traditionally has been thought published in the early or mid 420s, but recent work on Augustinian chronology points to revisions made after this date by Augustine himself: O'Connell argues that at least parts of the later books were still being edited or revised as late as 429 (Origin of the Soul [above, n. 22] 283). See also Barnes, T. D., ‘Aspects of the Background of City of God,’ in Wells, C. M., L'Afrique romaine: Les conferences Vanier 1980 (Ottawa 1982) 69-85.Google Scholar

191 En in Ps 118 s.8.1 (CCL 40.1685).Google Scholar

192 En in Ps 118 s.8.1 (CCL 40.1685).Google Scholar

193 See also De div quaest 83 61.2 (CCL 44A.122), from 394/395; De doc christ 2.11 (CCL 32.28), ca. 397; De util ieiun 2 (CCL 46.232), from 408/412; De Gen ad lit 12.28 (PL 34.478), from sometime between 401 and 416; Serm. 127.5 (PL 38.708), from 410/420; etc.Google Scholar

194 Ep. 55.17 (CSEL 34.187). Google Scholar

195 Ep. 140.66 (CSEL 44.213). Google Scholar

196 The earliest use of peregrinatio in an eschatological context, and the only one not preached, is from De doc christ 2.11: ‘et ideo quamvis iam certior, et non solum tolerabilior, sed etiam iucundior species lucis illius incipiat apparere, in aenigmate adhuc tamen et per speculum videri dicitur, quia magis per fidem quam per speciem ambulatur, cum in hac vita peregrinamur, quamvis conversationem habeamus in caelis’ (CCL 32.38). Google Scholar

197 Sermones 194.4, from ca. 411; 27.6, from ca. 418; 154.6, from 418/419; 156.8, from 417/419; 158.7, from 417/418; and Tract in Ioh Evang 32.5, from 418. Google Scholar

198 If the undated Serm. 378 is authentic, there would be ten such examples. The Maurists rejected it, but it has been accepted by modern scholars. It is a wonderful sermon, one which synthesizes many of the themes touched on in this paper, on the consolations of peregrinatio. Toward the end, he writes ‘qui peregrinatur, et novit se peregrinari, desiderat patriam; quam dum desiderat, molesta est peregrinatio. Si amat peregrinationem, obliviscitur patriam, et non vult redire’ (PL 39.1674). If the sermon is authentic, I would argue it must date from the late 390s, despite its similarities with Sermons 23.8, from 413/415, and 156.15, of 417/419. Daley, Brian E. has pointed out to me the resemblance between passages from this sermon and De doc Christ 1.4.4 from 397. This would corroborate an early date.Google Scholar

199 Retract 1.1.3 (CCL 57.9).Google Scholar

200 See Penaskovic, R., ‘The Fall of the Soul in St Augustine: A Questio Disputata,’ Augustinian Studies 17 (1986) 135–45 for the history of this conflict.Google Scholar

201 En in ps 7.14 (CCL 38.45).Google Scholar

202 En in ps 30 en.1.14 (CCL 38.188).Google Scholar

203 These are De doc christ 1.4, from 396/397 (see above, p. 50); Contra Faustum 12.36, from 398: ‘etiam nobis id est, ecclesiae Dei, ad illam caelestam Hierusalem ex huius saeculi peregrinatione redeundum?’ (CSEL 25/1.363). From Serm. 75.2, delivered sometime before 400: ‘Nemo quippe in hoc saeculo non peregrinus est: quamvis non omnes ad patriam redire desiderent’ (PL 38.475). In Quaest evang 2.19, from the turn of the century: ‘stabulum est ecclesia, ubi reficiuntur viatores de peregrinatione in aeternam patriam redeuntes’ (CCL 44B.63). About the same time, in Ep. 55.17, he writes to Januarius: ‘illa autem prima vita, quae a peregrinatione redeuntibus et “primam stolam” accipientibus redditur, per unam sabbati, quem diem dominicam dicimus, figuratur’ (CSEL 34/2.188). Finally, in De Trin 4.2, he states: ‘missa sunt nobis divinitus visa congrua peregrinationi nostrae quibus admoneremur non hic esse quod quaeremus sed illuc ab ista esse redeundum …’ (CCL 50.161). Google Scholar

204 En in ps 85.11 (CCL 39.1185), from September, 412.Google Scholar

205 Allied to this theme of return is one of forgetfulness. Augustine mentions occasionally, as he does here, that the length of our peregrinatio has caused us to forget our patria. Unlike the ‘return’ motif however, this ‘forgetting’ — despite his disclaimer in Retract 1.4.4 and 1.8.2 — is capable of bearing a Christian interpretation, at least insofar as it relates to peregrinatio. Thus, while the examples of forgetfulness linked to peregrinatio all occur between 403 (En in ps 32 en.2.2) and 412 (En in ps 64.2) and point toward a Neoplatonic psychology and anthropology, Augustine seems to feel that they are not irreconcilable with Christianity. Google Scholar

206 En in ps 64.2 (CCL 39.824), from December, 412.Google Scholar

207 A passage composed a little earlier in the year uses both peregrinatio and reditus quite literally. In cataloging the tribulations quae abundant in genere humano, he lists the individual who ‘patria exsulatus maeret, et redire cupit, intolerabilem peregrinationem deputans,’ (En in ps 49.22 [CCL 38.591]). Google Scholar

208 O'Connell, , in ‘Augustine's Rejection of the Fall of the Soul,’ Augustinian Studies 4 (1973) 132, and in Origin of the Soul (above, n. 22), believes that this eventual disavowal of the Neoplatonic conception of the soul was brought about by a new understanding of Romans 9.11. I would argue that Augustine's recognition of the incompatibility of peregrinatio and reditus prepared him for this new understanding of the verse from Romans, much as Ambrose had prepared him for receiving Neoplatonic Christianity.Google Scholar

209 Serm. 52.32 (PL 38.352). Google Scholar

210 I remain unsure of how ‘historically important’ Augustine's peregrinatio has been. While I am certain that it plays an important role in the proper understanding of City of God, it seems that later generations took the word, and took it quite eagerly, but left most of the concept behind. Much of Markus' Saeculum is devoted to arguing that City of God has generally been misunderstood as a political work. The same misunderstanding has beset peregrinatio. I would argue that the transformation peregrinatio underwent in the Middle Ages is a particular example of that process described by Arquillière, H. X. in L'Augustinisme politique 2 (Paris 1955 ). For some of the details of such a change, see Angenendt, A., ‘Die irische Peregrinatio und ihre Auswirkungen auf dem Kontinent vor dem Jahre 800,' in Löwe, H., Die Iren und Europa im frühen Mittelalter (Stuttgart 1982) 5279, and more generally, by the same author, Monachi Peregrini: Studien zu Pirmin und den monastischen Vorstellungen des frühen Mittelalters (Munich 1972). See also Prinz, F., ‘Peregrinatio, Mönchtum und Mission,' in Schäferdiek, K., Kirchengeschichte als Missionsgeschichte. II. Die Kirche des frühen Mittelalters (Munich 1978) 445–65; and, still important, von Campenhausen, H., Die asketische Heimatlosigkeit im altkirchlichen und frühmittelalterlichen Mönchtum (Tübingen 1930).Google Scholar

211 Serm. 154.6 (PL 38.836). Google Scholar

212 De baptismo 4.13 (CSEL 51.237-38).Google Scholar

213 Perhaps the reason is that when Augustine finally read the epistle in Greek, he found that Paul, rather than making an important theological and spiritual statement, was using a rhetorical figure, constrasting ἐνδημοντες ἐν τ σώμτι with ἐκδημομεν ἀπὸ το κυίου. Google Scholar