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Risen to Judgment: What Augustine Saw

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The End of the World in Medieval Thought and Spirituality

Part of the book series: The New Middle Ages ((TNMA))

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Abstract

In his sermones ad populum, Augustine preached from two basic perspectives on poverty, charity, and future judgment. The first emphasizes the perils of riches and the transitory nature of earthly treasures, in place of which Augustine urges storing up treasure in heaven by giving to the poor (1 Timothy 6). The second focuses on the separation of the sheep and the goats in the parable of the last judgment in Matthew 25:31–46, which hinges on showing mercy to the poor who are Christ in the world. Additional scriptural texts, some common to both, support each view. Although the two perspectives and their signifying texts persist throughout Augustine’s preaching, at times even appearing in the same sermon, there is a discernible trend in what Augustine saw in these two visions of judgment. Banking metaphors and accruing heavenly interest on one’s investment in the poor tend to recede in the eschatological light of the Son of Man descending on the clouds to welcome into his kingdom those who mercifully welcomed him in this world.

This essay reflects and is meant to honor a nexus of interests in Ann Matter’s scholarship on apocalypse, exegesis, and Augustine, and is indebted to decades of our conversations on ancient and medieval Christianity. From early on I imbibed from her an appreciation for the history of biblical exegesis and what it teaches us not only about the development of theology but, importantly, about the practice of quotidian Christianity in late antiquity.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Preaching both as presbyter and bishop, Augustine delivered, mostly at Hippo and Carthage, approximately 559 sermons that have come down to us as sermones ad populum . They are only a small fraction of the estimated 8000 sermons he preached over the course of his ministry from 391 until his death in 430. See Hubertus R. Drobner, “The Transmission of Augustine’s Sermons: A Critical Assessment,” in Tractatio Scripturarum: Philological, Exegetical, Rhetorical and Theological Studies on Augustine’s Sermons: Ministerium Sermonis II, ed. Anthony Dupont, Gert Partoens, and Mathijs Lamberigts (Turnhout: Brepols, 2012), 97–116, at 98, citing Pierre-Patrick Verbraken, “Saint Augustine’s Sermons: Why and How to Read Them Today,” Augustinian Heritage 33 (1987): 105–16, at 106.

  2. 2.

    When possible, reliable or likely dates for individual sermons will be footnoted. See Table of Sermon Dates for dating from scholarly studies and indices. Bibliographical references for those works are found there.

  3. 3.

    See G. G. Willis, St. Augustine’s Lectionary (London: S.P.C.K., 1962), and Michele Pellegrino’s general introduction in Works of St. Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century. Part III: Sermons, trans. Edmund Hill, ed. John E. Rotelle (Brooklyn, NY: New City Press, 1990), 1: 32–36, “Criterion on the Choice of Readings.” Also see Martijn Schrama, “Prima Lectio Quae Recitata Est: The Liturgical Pericope in Light of Augustine’s Sermons,” Augustiniana 45 (1995): 141–75.

  4. 4.

    S. 114 B, one of the earliest sermons, uses the camel imagery, as does s. 85.2, which is one of the latest. See the section “Mercy at the End,” for analysis of these two sermons and references to their dating. English translations of sermons 1–400 and of newly discovered sermons are found in The Works of Saint Augustine, A Translation for the 21st Century, Part III: Sermons, trans. Edmund Hill (11 volumes), the English counterpart of the original Italian project, Nuova Biblioteca Agostiniana (Roma: Città Nuova Editrice, 1979–1989). Hill’s translation is available in an electronic edition: The Works of Saint Augustine (4th Release): Part III, vols. 1–11, ed. Boniface Ramsey (Charlottesville, VA: InteLex Corporation, 2014). Here and throughout this essay I have depended on the Corpus Augustinianum Gissense, ed. Cornelius Mayer (Basel: Schwab, 1995), available in an electronic edition, Saint Augustine: Opera Omnia CAG, 4th ed. (Charlotteswille, VA: InteLex Corporation, 2000).

  5. 5.

    S. 14.2. Trans. Hill, Works 3.1: 317; ed. Cyrille Lambot, Augustinus: Sermones de Vetere Testamento (1-50), Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 41 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1961), 186, ll. 32–33. Cf. s. 36.7, “If a proud rich person is hard to put up with, who can bear a proud poor person?” Trans. Hill, Works 3.2: 189; ed. Lambot, Sermones de Vetere Testamento, 439, ll. 149–51.

  6. 6.

    S. 14.3, Lazarus; 14.4, humble rich person. The sermon is extravagant in its array of ancillary texts and exempla. A likely date is 418; one scholar proposes the end of his ministry.

  7. 7.

    S. 177.5. Trans. Hill, Works 3.5: 182; ed. Cyrille Lambot, Sancti Aurelii Augustini Hipponensis Episcopi Sermones Selecti Duodeviginti, Stromata Patristica et Mediaevalia 1 (Utrecht: In aedibus Spectrum, 1950), 67, ll. 34–36. Cf. s. 61.10: “The worm in riches is pride.” Trans. Hill, Works 3.5: 282; ed. PL 38: 413, l. 1. S. 177 is likely from 412; s. 61 from 412–416/21.

  8. 8.

    S. 36.5.

  9. 9.

    S. 36.3. Trans. Hill, Works 3.2: 175; ed. Lambot, Sermones de Vetere Testamento, 435, ll. 46–47: “Puto quia paupertas Christi non nobis attulit pecuniam, sed iustitia.” 36.5. Trans. Hill, 177; ed. Lambot, 437, l. 111: “Non dico uobis ut perdatis, sed ut migretis.” 36.9. Trans. Hill, 180; ed. Lambot, 441, ll. 224–25: “Nesciebat pauperum uentres apothecis suis esse tutiores.” Dating for s. 36 ranges from before 410 to 413. Prov. 13:8 is quoted twice in Sect. 7 and again in Sect. 9.

  10. 10.

    S. 60.2. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 133; ed. Cyrille Lambot, “Les sermons LX et CCCLXXXIX de Saint Augustin sur l’aumône,” Revue bénédictine 58 (1948): 36–42, at 37, ll. 27–28, 32–33; and 38, l. 34 (Augustine breaks up the quotation to comment on each phrase): “quamquam in imagine ambulet homo; tamen uane conturbatur; thesaurizat et nescit cui congreget ea.” Ps. 39:6 in the Hebrew Bible is translated in this sermon from Augustine’s Old Latin version of the psalm (Ps. 38.7). Pierre-Marie Hombert, Nouvelles recherches de chronologie augustinienne (Paris: Institut d’études augustiniennes), 262, cogently proposes 412 as the date for s. 60, rather than an earlier consensus for 397, because of its close relationship to s. 81 (soon after Rome’s sacking in August 410) and its strong resemblance to De civitate Dei 1.10 about those who were tormented by the loss of their goods, because of their excessive attachment to them, and those who were not, because they had put them to good use (giving to the poor) and stored their treasure in heaven.

  11. 11.

    S. 60.6. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 136; ed. Lambot, “Les sermons,” 42, ll. 142–43. Ibid., 42.152–153: “Multos tibi laturarios fecit calamitas mundi.” See below for the textual complications of s. 60 and s. 389.

  12. 12.

    S. 38.9. Trans. Hill, Works 3.2: 214; ed. Lambot, Sermones de Vetere Testamento, 484, ll. 214–15: “qui te diuitem feci…laturarios tibi pauperes feci.” S. 38 is undated. See also s. 25A.4; s. 38.9; s. 53A.6; s. 389.4. Porters receive further attention in the following section of this essay.

  13. 13.

    S. 389.4. Before Lambot’s 1948 editions of s. 389 and s. 60 (Lambot, “Les sermons”), each sermon had the same text in its concluding section, due to accidents of manuscript deterioration and later copying. Lambot argues that the “shared” sections originally belonged to s. 389 and that s. 60 ends naturally (and typically for Augustine) without it. Hill’s translations of these two sermons generally follow Lambot’s texts, but at times he makes editorial emendations to each.

  14. 14.

    S. 389.2, my translation; ed. Lambot, “Les sermons,” 45, ll. 35–37: “petite et dabitur uobis, quaerite et inuenietis, pulsate et aperietur uobis. omnia dicta sunt: pete, quaere, pulsa. petis orando, quaeris pulsando, pulsas erogando. non ergo quiescat manus.” Hill (Works 3.10: 405) follows the Maurist text here: “ask by praying, seek by discussing, knock by giving a helping hand. So don’t let the hand be idle.” My emphasis. Not to help the poor is not to knock at all on the Lord’s door, because knocking requires using one’s hands to give.

  15. 15.

    S. 389.3. Trans. Hill, 3.10: 405, Dan. 4:27; ed. Lambot, “Les sermons,” 45, ll. 41–42: “consilium meum accipe, rex, et peccata tua elemosinis redime.”

  16. 16.

    S. 389.4, my translation. Ed. Lambot, “Les sermons,” 48, ll. 129–30 and 152–53: “leva, inquit, cor in caelum, ne purescat in terra”; and “quid sunt pauperes, nisi laturarii nostro, per quos in caelum de terra migremus?”

  17. 17.

    S. 389.5. Trans. Hill, Works 3.10: 409; ed. Lambot, “Les sermons,” 49, ll. 165–66, 186–87. Also ibid.: Trans. Hill, Works 3.10: 410; ed. Lambot, “Les sermons,” 50.201: “illis quos coronaturus est solas ipsas elemosinas imputabit.”

  18. 18.

    “Superexaltat misericordia iudicio” in many Vetus Latina citations; “superexultat autem misericordia iudicio” in the Vulgate. See the Vetus Latina Database by Brepols (http://apps.brepolis.net/vld/). The clause is included in Enarrationes in Psalmos 147.13: “Merciless judgment will be passed on anyone who has not shown mercy, but mercy reigns supreme over judgment.” Trans. Maria Boulding, Works of St. Augustine Part III: Expositions of the Psalms (Brooklyn, NY: New City Press, 2004), vol. 20, 453. Ed. E. Dekkers and J. Fraipont, Enarrationes in Psalmos , Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 39 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1956), 2: 2148, ll. 9–10: “iudicium enim sine misericordia illi qui non fecit misericordiam: superexaltat autem, inquit, misericordia iudicio.”

  19. 19.

    Many scholars propose 412–416 as a range of dates for s. 61. In addition to Table, see Luc De Coninck, et al., who propose between 412–421: “À propos de la datation des sermones ad populum : s. 51-70A,” in Ministerium Sermonis: Philological, Historical, and Theological Studies on Sermones ad Populum, ed. Gert Partoens, Anthony Dupont, and Mathijs Lamberigts (Turnhout: Brepols, 2009), 49–67, at 61 and 67.

  20. 20.

    S. 61.8. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 145 (both quotations).

  21. 21.

    S. 61.13. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 147; ed. PL 38: 414, ll. 26–35.

  22. 22.

    Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 149; ed. PL 38: 414, ll. 39–40, 41: “audistis, laudastis… accepistis, uerba reddidistis”; 414, ll. 43–44: “istae laudes uestrae folia sunt arborum: fructus quaeritur.”

  23. 23.

    S. 53 can be reliably dated to 413. See Table and De Coninck, et al., “À propos de la datation,” 63–64, 67. S. 53A cannot be dated by any fixed referents, but recent scholarship suggests between 412–416 (Frede), as also De Coninck, et al., 64, 67. S. 53A is useful for its treatment of passages from 1 Tim. 6 in comparison with s. 53.

  24. 24.

    S. 53A.6, 11. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 80 (“Look at the hungry…”), 82 (“Let the member of Christ…”). Ed. Miscellanea Agostiniana 1 (Rome: Tipografia poliglotta vaticana, 1930), 630, ll. 13–15, 27–28. S. 53A is also indexed as Morin 11.

  25. 25.

    S. 53A. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 81; ed. Miscellanea Agostiniana 1: 631, ll. 12–13.

  26. 26.

    S. 53A.1, 4, 5, 15; s. 53.11; see Gal 5:6.

  27. 27.

    S. 53.6, 7, 9, 10, 12–13; s. 53A.1, 2, 3–4, 5–6.

  28. 28.

    S. 53.5; s. 53A.10; cf. s. 61.8.

  29. 29.

    S. 53A.1; 53A.5.

  30. 30.

    S. 53.1; s. 53.8; s. 53.5. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 67–68; ed. Pierre-Patrick Verbraken, “Le Sermon 53 de saint Augustine sur les Béatitudes selon saint Matthieu,” Revue bénédictine 104 (1994): 21–33, at 23 l. 55: “fac, et fiet; fac cum altero, ut fiat tecum.”

  31. 31.

    S. 38.8, quoting Matt. 25:40; s. 39.6, quoting Prov. 22:2. Mention of the end of the world at the beginning of 38.11 might be an oblique reference to the sacking of Rome in 410 or simply a general expression of Augustine’s eschatological outlook. Regardless of when he preached them, the sermons suggest that he had found a useful way to associate the two visions of judgment.

  32. 32.

    The phrase reflects the recriminations of pagans directed at Christians for their abandonment of the gods, as well as Christians’ own fears that God’s providence had abandoned them. See s. 25.3; s. 113A.11, 13; s. 87.8; s. 105.8, 12; s. 296.1–9.

  33. 33.

    For analysis of these sermons, see Theodore S. De Bruyn, “Ambivalence Within a ‘Totalizing Discourse’: Augustine’s Sermon on the Sack of Rome,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 1.4 (1993): 405–21; Jean-Claude Fredouille, “Les Sermons d’Augustin sur la chute de Rome,” in Augustin Prédicateur (395–411): Actes de Colloque International de Chantilly (5 septembre 1996), ed. Goulven Madec (Paris: Institut d’études augustiniennes, 1998), 439–48.

  34. 34.

    S. 397, the Sermo de excidio urbis Romae, trans. Hill, Works 3.10: 436; ed. M. V. O’Reilly, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 46 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1969), 250, ll. 36–39: “Et mirantur homines…quando corripit Deus genus humanum et flagellis piae castigationis exagitat, excercens ante iudicium disciplinam….” Augustine’s reference to common practice is also an allusion to Prov. 3:12; see also s. 15A.3. Prov. 3:12 (LXX): “If the Lord loves someone he corrects him; he lashes every son whom he receives” (also quoted in Heb.12:6), is an important scriptural warrant for Augustine cites often in regard to correcting sin and error.

  35. 35.

    S. 296.11. Trans. Hill, Works 3.8: 210.

  36. 36.

    S. 397.4. See the example of Lazarus in other sermons on Rome’s fall: s. 15A.2; s. 33A.4; s. 113A.3; and Job, s. 15A.5–7.

  37. 37.

    S. 81.7. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 363; ed. PL 38: 503, ll. 42–43: “uastatur mundus, calcatur torcular”; and 503, ll. 51–52: “iusti estote, et exercitationes erunt. tribulatio uenit: quod uolueris erit, aut exercitatio, aut damnatio.” Cf. 379.9. See also s. 105.13, “being schooled in tribulation” (trans. Hill, Works 3.4: 96; ed. PL 38: 625, ll. 13–14); s. 113A.11, “we know you as a Father when you make promises, we know you as a Father when you wield the rod; train us well, and give us the inheritance you have promised at the end” (trans. Hill, Works 3.4: 179; ed. Miscellanea Agostiniana 1: 151, ll. 22–24: “te nouimus patrem promittentem, te nouimus patrem flagellantem.”).

  38. 38.

    S. 25.3, evil days; s. 113A.11, 13; s. 81.7, 8, 9; s. 105.8, 12, Christ has ruined Rome; s. 296.9.

  39. 39.

    S. 105.7. Trans. Hill, Works 3.4: 91; ed. PL 38: 621, ll. 21–22, slipping by; 105.11 (trans. Hill, Works 3.4: 94; ed. PL 38: 623, ll. 24–29), end times; 105.12 (trans. Hill, Works 3.4: 95; ed. PL 38, 624, ll. 11–12), “portio peregrinantis Ierusalem ciuitatis non ibi magna degit?”

  40. 40.

    S. 296.10. Trans. Hill, Works 3.8: 209; ed. Miscellanea Agostiniana 1: 407, ll. 28–29.

  41. 41.

    Only a month after the event.

  42. 42.

    S. 113A.4. Trans. Hill, Works 3.4: 173; ed. Miscellanea Agostiniana 1: 144, ll. 26–28, “ueniet cum retributionibus fidelium et infidelium: fidelibus praemia daturus, infideles in ignem aeternum missurus uos, et in aeternum pereatissee.” S. 113A.14 (trans. Hill, Works 3.4: 181; ed. Miscellanea Agostiniana 1: 154, ll. 4–5), chastisements.

  43. 43.

    S. 81.9. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 366; ed. PL 38: 506, ll. 9–13.

  44. 44.

    S. 25.8, referring to Matt. 25:40. Trans. Hill, Works 3.2: 86; ed. Lambot, Sermones de Vetere Testamento, 339, ll. 149–50 and 161–62.

  45. 45.

    S. 296.13, feeding sheep. 296.11. Trans. Hill, Works 3.8: 210; ed. Miscellanea Agostiniana 1: 409, l. 7, “quod custodit Christus, numquid tollit Gothus.”

  46. 46.

    S. 265.3. See also s. 277.16 (in 413), both the just and the wicked will see him in his real body; s. 127.10, the Lord coming as judge in the same form of his humanity.

  47. 47.

    S. 277.16; 362.9 (in 411).

  48. 48.

    S. 362.19, 23, 26. Augustine’s text of 1 Cor. 15:51, “we will not all be changed,” is from the Vetus Latina and is a variant of the Greek text, which reads “we will all be changed” (my emphasis). Trans. Hill, Works 3.10: 255; ed. PL 39: 1624, ll. 28–29: “omnes resurgemus, non tamen omnes immutabimur.”

  49. 49.

    S. 361.19 (in 411). See also s. 114B.1–2 (a sermon given in the winter of 403–404) and En. Ps. 147.1 (trans. Boulding, Works 3.20: 441) for comparison of the Son of Man’s coming with “the cataclysm in Noah’s day.”

  50. 50.

    Sheep and goats run through the sermons discussed here, as do images of threshing and threshing floors, wheat and chaff, e.g., s. 111.3; s. 113A.11; s. 223.2 (at the Easter vigil!). Related images include grains, good grains, s. 2.25.4; s. 111.2; s. 361.10; weeds, s. 47.6; oil and dregs, s. 113A.11.

  51. 51.

    S. 125.7–8, quotation at 8. Trans. Hill, Works 3.4: 259; ed. PL 38: 695, l. 23. Hombert (Nouvelles recherches, 52) argues for 400–405, during the Donatist controversy; other scholars propose 416/17, during the Pelagian controversy.

  52. 52.

    S. 299.4. Trans. Hill, Works 3.8: 231; ed. PL 38, 1370, ll. 4–5.

  53. 53.

    S. 47.1. Trans. Hill, Works 3.2: 298; ed. Lambot, Sermones de Vetere Testamento, 572, ll. 19–20; also 47.6, 7, 11, 13, 25.

  54. 54.

    S. 125.7. Trans. Hill, Works 3.4: 258; ed. PL 38: 694, ll. 13–15, “ipsa est exercitatiom iustitiae, ferre tempus hoc, et ab hoc saeculo quodam modo ieiunare.” In the same passage Augustine suggests they “think of human love, think of it as the hand of the soul. If it’s holding one thing, it can’t hold another.” Ed. PL 38: 694, ll. 20–21: “intendite amorem hominis: sic putate quasi manum animae. si aliquid tenet, tenere aliud non potest.”

  55. 55.

    S. 113A.4. Trans. Hill, Works 3.2: 173; ed. Miscellanea Agostiniana 1: 145, ll. 3–4. Augustine makes a similar point at the beginning of his sermon on Ps. 147: God warns about judgment and the last day out of desire to help us, “he does not want to condemn us when he comes to judge.” Trans. Boulding, Works 3.20: 441; ed. Dekkers and Fraipont, Enarratio 147, 2138, ll. 6–8.

  56. 56.

    For a study of Augustine’s preaching during the Donatist controversy, see Anthony Dupont, Preacher of Grace: A Critical Reappraisal of Augustine’s Doctrine of Grace in His Sermones ad Populum on Liturgical Feasts and During the Donatist Controversy (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 160–98. For Donatism in general, W. H. C. Frend’s classic study is foundational: The Donatist Church: A Movement of Protest in Roman North Africa (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971). Among more recent studies see The Donatist Schism: Controversy and Contexts, ed. Richard Miles (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2016); The Uniquely African Controversy: Studies on Donatist Christianity, ed. Anthony Dupont, Matthew Alan Gaumer, and M. Lamberigts (Leuven: Peeters, 2015); and Maureen Tilley, The Bible in Christian North Africa: The Donatist World (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997).

  57. 57.

    For grace and free will in the Pelagian controversy see Lenka Karfíková, Grace and the Will According to Augustine, trans. Markéta Janebová, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 115 (Leiden: Brill, 2012); Gerald Bonner, Freedom and Necessity: St. Augustine’s Teaching on Divine Power and Human Freedom (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2007). For a contextual study of Augustine’s theology, see Carol Harrison, Augustine: Christian Truth and Fractured Humanity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000); for his theology of grace, see J. Patout Burns, The Development of Augustine’s Doctrine of Operative Grace (Paris: Institut d’études augustiniennes, 1980).

  58. 58.

    S. 47.15. Trans. Hill, Works 3.2: 30; ed. Lambot, Sermones de Vetere Testamento, 585, ll. 398–400. Cf. s. 81.6, “If you are Sons of God, if redeemed by the grace of the Savior, if bought by his precious blood, if born again by water and the Spirit, if predestined to the heavenly inheritance, then of course you are sons of God.” Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 363 (my emphasis); ed. PL 38: 503, ll. 25–28. S. 47 is most likely from 407–408 or 410–411; s. 81 from c. 410.

  59. 59.

    S. 111.4. Trans. Hill, Works 3.4: 144 (my emphasis); ed. Cyrille Lambot, “Le sermon CXI de saint Augustin,” Revue bénédictine 57 (1947), 112–16 at 116, ll. 107–108. See also 111.1, where Augustine refers to Eph. 1:4, 5, being chosen and predestined in Christ. The sermon may be from c. 417.

  60. 60.

    Peter Brown, The Ransom of the Soul: Afterlife and Wealth in Early Western Christianity (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015), 96. For the larger context of this argument and the sermones, see his massive work, Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome , and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350–550 AD (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012), Part III, An Age of Crisis, particularly Chapters 21–23, on the sermons, Pelagianism, and wealth.

  61. 61.

    S. 358A.1. Trans. Hill, Works 3.10: 196. Although its brevity makes dating the fragment impossible, scholars consider it authentic.

  62. 62.

    S. 358A.2. Trans. Hill, Works 3.10: 196.

  63. 63.

    S. 390.2. Trans. Hill, Works 3.10: 424; ed. PL 90: 1706, ll. 19–20, 34–35. Recent scholarship (see the concluding table) considers the second part of this sermon to be authentic.

  64. 64.

    S. 42.1: “ego, fratres, uires paruas habeo, sed uerbum dei magnas habet. ualeat in cordibus uestris. ergo et quod lente dicimus ualde auditis, si obedieritis.” Ed. Lambot, Sermones de Vetere Testamento, 504, ll. 5–6. Also 42.3, ed. Lambot, 506, ll. 81–82). Hubertus R. Drobner, Augustinus von Hippo: Predigten su den Alttestamentlichen Propheten (Sermones 42–50), Einleitung, Text, Übersetzung und Amerkungen (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013), 46–47, allows that the sermon may be from the end of Augustine’s life because of his references to himself as weak or frail.

  65. 65.

    S. 42.2. Trans. Hill, Works 3.2: 235; ed. Lambot, Sermones de Vetere Testamento, 505, ll. 39–40: “inuenimus quem feneremus. demus in usuram, sed deo, non homini.”

  66. 66.

    S. 42.3. Trans. Hill, Works 3.2: 236; ed. Lambot, Sermones de Vetere Testamento, 506, ll. 84–85.

  67. 67.

    See Andy Merrills, “Kingdoms of North Africa,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila, ed. Michael Maas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 265–74 for the Vandals and related groups crossing into Mauretania Tingitania from Spain in 422 and later making their way eastward, eventually reaching into Roman Africa. Carthage would be taken in 439.

  68. 68.

    S. 86 is not dated, except for Christine Mohrmann’s reasonable assessment, based on its content, that it is from the end of his ministry; Othmar Perler identifies the season as winter.

  69. 69.

    S. 86.1. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 396; ed. PL 38: 524, 19–20: “domus terrena ruinosa est: domus caelestis aeterna est.” 86.3 (trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 397; ed. PL 38: 524, l. 52, fear of giving to the poor. Matt. 25:34–37, 40 are cited again in 86.4 and Matt. 25:35 in 86.5.

  70. 70.

    In 86.6 (trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 399; ed. PL 38: 526, ll. 14–16), Augustine introduces two “mistresses” (hoard/spend). They recur in several variations throughout the block, from sections 6 through 14.

  71. 71.

    S. 86.7 (trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 399), be his slaves. Ed. PL 38: 525, ll. 35–37, “agnosce redemptorem tuum, manumissorem tuum. illi serui: faciliora iubet contraria non iubet.” 86.5 (trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 399; ed. PL 38: 526, ll. 5–6), holier avarice: “sic ergo compescatur auaritia nostra, fratres, ut alia quae sancta est, inflammetur.”

  72. 72.

    S. 86.17. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 404; ed. PL 38: 530, ll. 18–21: “de faciendis ergo eleemosynis, et comparanda animae requie in posterum, ut faciamus bene cum anima nostra, quod peruerse dixit luxuria, dixit et Moyses, dixerunt et prophetae.”

  73. 73.

    S. 86.1. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 396; ed. PL 38: 524, ll. 13, 15–17.

  74. 74.

    S. 86.17. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 402; ed. PL 38: 530, ll. 31–34 (applause): “habetis in nomine Christi, quantum arbitror, sermonem de faciendis eleemosynis uox ista uestra laudantium, tunc accepta est domino, si uideat et manus operantium.”

  75. 75.

    S. 85.1. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 391; ed. PL 38: 520, ll. 37–38, hearers and doers; 520, l. 51, “os Christi evangelium est”; 521, ll. 5–7, plundering. The sermon was given sometime between 426 and 430. Cf. s. 61.13, chastising his hearers for failing to give to the poor, and begging them to do so.

  76. 76.

    S. 85.2. Hill (Works 3.3: 392) notes that the scripture quotation is closer to Mark 10:23—than Matt. 19:23. I quote the whole of it here from Matthew, as that was the text for the day. In s. 114B.10 (= Dolbeau 5), an early sermon (403), Augustine sees the camel as a figure of Christ, who has already passed through the eye of the needle, thus opening the way for others, even a rich person.

  77. 77.

    S. 85.2. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 392; ed. PL 38: 521, l. 31, “plures estis pauperes.” 85.3 (ed. PL 38: 521.39–40): “audiant diuites, si tamen sunt.”

  78. 78.

    S. 85.7. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 395; ed. PL 38: 523, l. 38: “in qua uia, nisi in ista uita?” Ed. PL 38: 523, ll. 42–43: Lord helps, tests.

  79. 79.

    The date of the sermon is somewhat uncertain, although there are good reasons to think it is not before 428. Frangipane, the editor of the PL text in 1819, proposed 428. The July 30 commemoration of the Thuburbo martyrs fell on a Sunday in, among other years, in 411, 416, and 428. Fixing the year depends on identifying the sense of danger described in the sermon: Goths in Rome in 410 or Vandals in North Africa in the late 420s. Adalbert Kunzelmann, “Die Chronologie der Sermones des hl. Augustinus,” Miscellanea Agostiniana 2 (Roma: Tipografia poliglotta Vatican, 1931), 509–10, argues that s. 345 should be read together with s. 344, which is reliably dated to 428 by many scholars. Neither Drobner nor Hombert has yet considered s. 345 in their separate projects of redating the sermones ad populum . See Table for specifics. Overall, I find the cumulative support for 428 compelling and the treatment of Matt. 25:31–46 in s. 345 consistent with that date.

  80. 80.

    See Rose Lockwood, “Potens et Factiosa Femina: Women, Martyrs, and Schism in Roman North Africa,” Augustinian Studies 20 (1989): 165–82, at 171–72.

  81. 81.

    Augustine’s opening observations that “today is both a feast of the martyrs and the Lord’s day” and “today the Lord rose again” do not clarify whether it is simply Sunday or Easter. If the latter, it would seem odd for him not to mention it explicitly and make overt use of that fact in the sermon.

  82. 82.

    S. 345.2, my translation; ed. Miscellanea Agostiniana 1: 203, ll. 1–2, riches; 203.10–11, give to Christ: “Da Christo aliquid, ut vivas beatus, si totum das hosti, ut vivas mendicus”; 203.33–34, send them. Here I depart from Hill’s translation (Works 3.10: 59) in which he substitutes a dialogue from the 1689 Maurist text in place of Frangipane’s edition.

  83. 83.

    S. 345.3, my translation; ed. Miscellanea Agostiniana 1:204, ll. 26–27, why Christ came; s. 345.4, 205.18, 19: feed Christ on earth.

  84. 84.

    Cf. s. 389.5, about the significance of good lives in relation to acts of charity, feeding the hungry Christ or not, and leading good or sinful lives (above, 102).

  85. 85.

    S. 86. 1. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 396; ed. PL 38: 524, ll. 14–15. S. 345.5 (trans. Hill, Works 3.10: 62, following Frangipane); ed. Miscellanea Agostiniana 1: 205, l. 28, “sequere eas interim corde.” In s. 344, which scholars agree is not earlier than 428 (see Footnote 80 above), Augustine treats themes similar to those in s. 345, drawing on a scattering of scriptural texts without reference to particular readings for the day: loving God vs. loving the world; the martyrs’ love for God and eternal life; right ordering of loves; the relative worth of temporal life and eternal life, and what a person would give for each; ransoming one’s life from barbarians or brigands and Christ’s ransom of all through his blood; having justice in one’s heart; resurrection to judgment of eternal life or eternal death (citing Matt. 25:41).

  86. 86.

    S. 86.1. Trans. Hill, Works 3.3: 396; ed. PL 38: 524, l. 8, “sursum erit cor.” 524, ll. 11–12: “qui ergo vult cor sursum habere.”

  87. 87.

    S. 345.5, my translation; ed. Miscellanea Agostiniana 1: 207, ll. 4–5: “Habes plus, te ipsum: te habes plus, tu es de rebus tuis, tu addendus es.” See s. 177.5 (412), a sermon on avarice, based on 1 Tim. 6:7–19, in which a similar point is made about lying in response to the sursum corda. Cf. s. 105.11, be sure not to hear “lift up your hearts” to no purpose; differently, s. 25.3, lift up your hearts to the Lord, not against him; s. 25.7, how to follow peace into heaven by lifting up one’s heart; s. 296.3, lift up hearts that are mourning, rise with Christ.

  88. 88.

    S. 345.6, my translation; ed. Miscellanea Agostiniana 1: 207, ll. 14–15: “erubesce, barbate: feminae secutae sunt, quarum hodie natalicia celebramus”; ll. 26–27: “et non suas diuitias praemiserunt, sed eas potius in martyrio praecesserunt.” In his translation of the dialogue section, Hill chose to use the older, and in places significantly different, Maurist text of s. 345. Hence my use of the text first printed by Octavius Frangipani in 1819 (repr. PL 46: 971–80) from the Miscellanea Agostiniana, which is also the text presented in the CAG electronic edition of the Opera Omnia.

  89. 89.

    S. 345.7. Trans. Hill, Works 3.10: 65 (Hill has returned to the Frangipani text). Ed. Miscellanea Agostiniana 1: 208, ll. 5–6; 27.

  90. 90.

    See Kazuhiko Demura, “The Concept of Heart in Augustine of Hippo: Its Emergence and Development,” in Studia Patristica 70: Papers Presented at the Sixteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 2011, ed. Markus Vinzent (Leuven: Peeters, 2013), 3–16; Francine Cardman, “Discerning the Heart: Intention as Moral Norm in Augustine’s Homilies on 1 John,” Studia Patristica 70, ed. Vinzent, 195–202.

  91. 91.

    See s. 358A.1.

  92. 92.

    See Brown, Ransom of the Soul, 111–14, on the analogy with imperial amnesty and Augustine’s rejection of the concept. Brown cites De civitate Dei, 21.24, for Augustine’s rejection of the argument that punishment in eternal fire would or could be remitted through the prayers of the church and the saints, since that would void both God’s scriptural word and decree of predestination. The long final chapter, 21.27 should also be noted, in which Augustine rejects the view that only those who neglect worthy works of mercy will suffer eternal fire. He argues also against the notion that one may continue to sin with impunity and rely on works of mercy for forgiveness: ongoing fruits of repentance are also required.

  93. 93.

    See s. 53.5.

  94. 94.

    S. 390.2. Trans. Hill, Works 3.10: 414; ed. PL 39: 1706, ll. 34–35.

Table References

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  • Drobner, Hubertus R. Augustinus von Hippo: Sermones ad Populum. Ṻberlieferung und Bestand—Bibilographie—Indices. Leiden: Brill, 2000.

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  • Drobner, Hubertus R. Augustinus von Hippo: Predigten zum Buch der Sprüche und Jesus Sirach (Sermones 35–51). Einleitung, Text, Übersetzung und Anmerkungen. Patrologia: Beitrage zum Studium der Kirchenväter, XIII. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2004.

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  • Drobner, Hubertus R. Augustinus von Hippo: Sermones ad Populum: Supplement 2000–2010. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2010.

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  • Drobner. Augustinus von Hippo: Predigten zu den alttestamentlichen Propheten (Sermones 42–50). Einleitung, Text, Übersetzung und Anmerkungen. Patrologia: Beitrage zum Studium der Kirchenväter, XXIX. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2013.

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  • Frede, Hermann Josef. Kirchenschriftsteller: Verzeichnis und Sigel, AU s. 1–396, 221–57. Freiburg: Verlag Herder, 1995.

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  • Hombert, Pierre-Marie. Nouvelles recherches de chronologie augustinienne. Paris: Institut d’études augustiniennes, 2000.

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Two Important Studies on Context and Dating of the Sermons Are Also Helpful:

  • Kunzelmann, Adelbert. “Die Chronologie der Sermones des hl. Augustinus.” In Miscellanea Agostiniana 2, 417–520. Roma: Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana, 1931.

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  • Perler, Othmar. Les Voyages de Saint Augustin. Paris: Institut d’études augustiniennes, 1969.

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  1. Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

    Francine Cardman

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  1. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Munich, Germany

    Eric Knibbs

  2. University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Jessica A. Boon

  3. Wellesley, MA, USA

    Erica Gelser

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Cardman, F. (2019). Risen to Judgment: What Augustine Saw. In: Knibbs, E., Boon, J., Gelser, E. (eds) The End of the World in Medieval Thought and Spirituality. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14965-9_5

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