Ambivalence Within a "TotalizingDiscourse": Augustine's Sermonson the Sack of Rome1

THEODORE S. DE BRUYN

Recent scholarship has explored the role of rhetoric in the Christianization ofthe ancient world. Particular attention has been given to "totalizing discourse"whereby Christian interpretations of events subsumed or excluded other in-terpretations. Augustine's sermons after the sack of Rome attest to competing in-terpretations of the sack and to tension between the attitude of Augustine andattitudes in his congregations. The paper explores the way in which Augustinedeals rhetorically with the views of others, noting in particular his orchestrationof biblical themes and divine sanctions to construct an identity for Christiansthat is antithetical to that of pagans. The persistence of dissent, even as it is rep-resented by Augustine, reveals the limits of rhetoric as a medium of Christian-ization.

The Christianization of the ancient world has been a matter of perennialinterest, and its many aspects have encouraged scholars to take an increas-ingly wide variety of approaches to the evidence.2 Recently, fresh attentionhas been given to the role of rhetoric. Rhetoric was, of course, a medium ofpublic life in the ancient world, and as such it was also a medium for thepresentation of Christian values and beliefs. But how did these values andbeliefs become prominent in public discourse in late antiquity, and what

1. Earlier drafts of this paper were read at a faculty seminar of the Atlantic School ofTheology, at the 1992 meeting of the Canadian Society of Patristic Studies, and to agraduate seminar of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa.My thanks to the participants for their comments, as well as to Robert Sweetman, LesleySmith, Calum Carmichael, and the readers of the journal for their criticism.

2. Danny Praet, "Explaining the Christianization of the Roman Empire: Older Theo-ries and Recent Developments," SEJG 33 (1992-3):5-119, provides a convenient in-troduction to the literature.

Journal of Early Christian Studies 1:4 405-421 © 1993 The Johns Hopkins University Press.

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effect did this have on public life? This question has elicited a number ofstimulating essays in recent years.3

In Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire, Averil Cameron exploresthe ways by which Christians developed what she calls a "totalizingdiscourse"—a comprehensive interpretation of reality which subsumed orexcluded other interpretations.4 She submits that the "figurai quality ofChristian expression, and the theory of reference on which it rested, weremajor enabling factors in its development toward a totalizing discourse."5This figurai quality derived in large part from the Scriptures, which pre-sented the Christian preacher and writer with stories, images, and meta-phors that were at once authoritative and mysterious. While the Scriptures,as the revelation of God, were the basis for the truths proclaimed by Chris-tians, they also required interpretation. But interpretation necessarilymeant a loss of ambiguity and an increase of definition, with a concomitanttransfer of authority from the Scriptures to their interpreters. Hence themovement toward a "totalizing discourse."

But how were such interpretations received by their intended audiences?This is a crucial question for those interested in the process of Christianiza-tion. The present paper takes one sounding. It examines sermons thatAugustine preached in response to the sack of Rome.6 In these sermons we

3. Robert A. Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1990); Averil Cameron, Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire: TheDevelopment of Christian Discourse (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of Califor-nia Press, 1991); Peter Brown, Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards aChristian Empire (Madison, Wis.: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1992).

4. Seeesp. pp. 2—3,57-8,217-20. On the contribution of Michel Foucault's studiesof discourse and power see further Averil Cameron, "Redrawing the Map: Early Chris-tian Territory After Foucault," JRS 76 (1986):266-71.

5. Cameron, Christianity, 58.6. Serm. 33k (= serm. Den. 23; CCSL 41.417-22); serm. 15A (= serm. Den. 21;

CCSL 41.202—11); serm. 113A (= serm. Den. 24; Miscellanea Agostiniana [Rome:Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1930-1], 1:141-55); semz. 81 (PL38.499-506); serm. 296(= serm. Casin. I, 133—138; Miscellanea Agostiniana, 1:401-12; cf. Otto Zwierlein,"Der Fall Roms im Spiegel der Kirchenväter," ZPE 32 (1978):48-80, esp. η. 63); serm.105 (PL 38.618-25); exc. urb. (CCSL 46.243-62); and serm. 25 (CCSL 41.334-9).For this system of reference, as well as literature pertaining to the dates and locations ofthese sermons, see Pierre-Patrick Verbrakken, Etudes critiques sur les sermons authen-tiques de saint Augustin (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff and Steenbruge: In Abbatia S.Petri, 1976). The dating of the sermons is controverted; the best case is made by OthmarPerler, with Jean-Louis Maier, Les Voyages de saint Augustin (Paris: Etudes Augusti-niennes, 1969), 397-405. Studies of the sermons are numerous. See esp. RudolphArbesmann, "The Idea of Rome in the Sermons of St. Augustine," Augustiniana 4(1954):305-24; Franz G. Maier, Augustin und das antike Rom (Tübingen: W. Kohl-hammer, 1955), 43-68; Jean Lamotte, "Le Mythe de Rome «ville éternelle» et SaintAugustin," Augustiniana 11 (1961):225-60; Pierre Courcelle, Histoire littéraire des

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find represented the distress and complaints of Christians, the accusationsof pagans, and the attitudes and arguments of Augustine—all part of arhetorical strategy meant to deal with the stresses that emerged in theaftermath to the sack. The representation of these various parties in therhetoric is, of course, not symmetrical. Only Augustine's attitudes areconveyed directly; the attitudes of others—the congregation, pagans—arerepresented indirectly, as Augustine construed them. This was the ac-knowledged power of any rhetor, including the preacher, in the ancientworld: to represent a situation to one's audience and, in the process, toshape the discourse whereby that situation is understood.7 However, itleaves us with the intriguing question as to how those who heard thesermons in fact responded to Augustine's representation of the situation—something which must be inferred, as best one can, from the representationitself.

What this paper explores, then, is the way in which Augustine representsthe sack to his audience (giving particular attention to how Augustineinterprets the Scriptures) and, by inference, the way in which those whoheard the sermons responded to the sack. The dynamic between these twoaspects of the sermons offers some indications of the process we call"Christianization."

The first intimations we have of the impact of the sack are in two sermonsAugustine preached in Hippo Diarrhytus in September 410 c.e., when,after his customary summer's stay in Carthage, he was returning to HippoRegius.8 In Sermo 15A, preached on September 22,9 Augustine takes upthe experience of adversity in a general way, echoing the views of hispredecessors in the Latin Christian tradition.10 His point of departure is averse of the psalm that has just been chanted: " 'Rejoice in the Lord, o you

grandes invasions germaniques, 3rd ed. (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1964), 67—77;François Paschoud, Roma aeterna: Etudes sur le patriotisme romain dans l'occidentlatin à l'époque des grandes invasions (Rome: Institut suisse de Rome, 1967), 239—45;Giuseppe Cannone, "Il «Sermo de excidio urbis Romae» di S. Agostino," VetChr 12(1975):325—46; Zwierlein, "Der Fall Roms"; Jean Doignon, "Oracles, prophéties,«on-dit» sur la chute de Rome (395-410). Les réactions de Jérôme et d'Augustin,"REAug 36 (1990):120-46.

7. See Gerald A. Press, "The Subject and Structure of Augustine's De DoctrinaChristiana," AugStud 11 (1980):118-22. The term "audience" is used in the sensediscussed by Chaim Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, The New Rhetoric: A Trea-tise on Argumentation, trans. John Wilkinson and Purcell Weaver (Notre Dame andLondon: University of Notre Dame Press, 1969), 13-62.

8. Perler, Les Voyages, 278-80.9. Perler, Les Voyages, 398.10. See nn. 12-14 below.

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righteous; praise befits the upright'"(15A.1, citing Ps 32.1).11 Buta prob-lem soon emerges, expressed in the words of Psalm 72.1—3: the righteousdoubt that God is indeed good to them, since the wicked appear to flourishin spite of their misdeeds (15A.2). However, a solution lies close at hand inverses 16—17 of the psalm, when the psalmist sees that in the end thewicked will suffer unending torment while the righteous will enjoy eternalhappiness (15A.2). The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is adduced asan example of this truth (15A.2;cf. Luke 16.19—25).12 Augustine reprovesthose who are as likely to curse God in bad times as to praise God in goodtimes (15A.3). He compares God to a teacher who alternatively encouragesor cuffs his pupil for his own good, or to a father who disciplines his son sothat he will be a worthy heir: "'the child he accepts as his own hescourges' " (15A.3, citing Heb 12.6).13 It would be better to submit to sucha father than to run away and fall prey to a slave trader, whose flattery isintended to entrap one in servitude (15A.4). Augustine turns to Job, theparadigm for those who suffer, and, interpolating narrative with exhorta-tion, retells at length how Job kept his faith in all his adversities (15A.5-7;cf. Job 1—2). The story culminates in the crisis between Job and his wife(Job 2.9—10). In Augustine's words, just as Eve was the medium wherebythe devil tempted Adam, so Job's wife is the medium whereby the devilcoaxes Job to curse God and die.14 But "Job among his ashes was betterthan Adam in paradise" (15A.7). Augustine cites his rebuke (Job 2.10):" 'You have spoken as one of the foolish women. If we have received goodfrom the hand of the Lord, shall we not also endure evil?' " (15A.7).15 Like

11. The enumeration of the Psalms is that used by Augustine (i.e., the numbering ofthe Septuagint and the Vulgate); for most of the Psalms it is one behind that of modernEnglish translations.

12. Cf. Ambrose, lob. 3.3.5-9 (CSEL 32/2.251-4); Luc. 4.38 (CCSL 14.119). Au-gustine refers to the parable not only in this sermon, but also in the sermon preachedthree days later in Hippo Diarrhytus (serm. 113A.2), as well as the sermon preached inUtica on September 11 (serm. 33A.4); cf. η. 42 below.

13. Cf. Tertullian, pat. 11.4 (CCSL 1.311; citing Rev 3.19); Cyprian, ep. 11.2, 5(CSEL 3/2.496-7, 498-500); Ambrose, lob. 2.4.15, 3.3.9 (CSEL 32/2.241, 253-4),Luc. 4.38 (CCSL 14.119). Augustine often cites this verse to explain why the just suffertribulation. About a third of the thirty-six citations occur in the years 410 to 412; seeAnne-Marie la Bonnardiére, Biblia Augustiniana: Le livre des Proverbes (Paris: ÉtudesAugustiniennes, 1975), 101-23, 199-200. On Augustine's use of the image of paternaldiscipline see Suzanne Poque, Le Langage symbolique dans la prédication d'Augustind'Hippone: Images héroïques, 2 vols. (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1984), 1:193-224.

14. Cf. Tertullian, pat. 14.4 (CCSL 1.315); Cyprian, mort. 10 (CCSL 3A.21), bonopat. 18 (CCSL 3A.128-9); Ambrose, lob. 1.2.4 (CSEL 32/2.212), Luc. 4.39 (CCSL14.120).

15. The passage is among the five that Augustine cites most frequently from the

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the psalmist, Job blessed the Lord at all times; praise was always in hismouth (15A.7; cf. Ps 33.2). Augustine concludes by exhorting his congre-gation to submit to the counsel of God, whose purpose may often behidden but must nevertheless be trusted (15A.8): "Therefore, brothers, beupright of heart, that is, in nothing let God be displeasing to you" (15A.9).

There is no direct reference to the sack of Rome in this sermon, and, ashas been noted, much of its substance was common to the Christian tradi-tion of theodicy (most proximately, Ambrose). But it sets out the terms bywhich Augustine expects his congregation to respond to adversity. At nopoint are they to doubt the goodness of God or question the purpose ofGod. Instead they are to assess the events of the present, which seem tofavour "the wicked," in light of the expectations for the future, when thewicked shall be judged. They are to range themselves on the side of La-zarus, the poor man who comes to rest in the bosom of Abraham, and onthe side of Job, who bears his adversities with unwavering faith in God. Thelatter, as Augustine represents him, is an especially compelling model forthe audience Augustine had in mind: an audience of men accustomed todomestic authority, with the right to discipline and the power to disin-herit.16 In one image Augustine presents the virtuous man and the obe-dient son—values it would be difficult for Augustine's congregation togainsay; to complain of misfortune would be to capitulate to womanlyweakness.17

When he begins Sermo 113A, three days later, Augustine reiterates thiseschatological point of view: "The faith of the Christians, which is ridi-culed by the impious and the faithless, is this: that we say that there isanother life after this life, and that there is a resurrection of the dead, andthat in the end after the passing of this age there is judgement" (113A.1).But this faith is evidently under some pressure; it is "ridiculed by theimpious and the faithless." Augustine tries to secure it by using the Jews asa foil (113A.1). Turning again to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus,Augustine compares the unwillingness of the Jews to believe in Christdespite the testimony of their Scriptures with the intransigence of the rich

book—twenty-four citations in all, seven falling in the years 410 to 412; see Anne-Mariela Bonnardière, Biblia Augustiniana: Livres historiques (Paris: Études Augustiniennes,1960), 110, 129-30.

16. See in general Thomas Wiedemann, Adults and Children in the Roman Empire(New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1989), 25-39. For Augustine's repre-sentation of the patria potestas see Poque, Le Langage symbolique, 1:205—10.

17. On the use of such rhetoric in constructing Christian identity, see Kate Cooper,"Insinuations of Womanly Influence: An Aspect of the Christianization of the RomanAristocracy," JRS 82 (1992):150-64.

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man and his brothers (113A.2).18 He urges his congregation not to respondas they did, but rather to accept the gospel that defines them as Christians:

Look, you have just heard from the gospel that there are two lives, one pres-ent, the other to come. . . . Do we believe what is read, or do we not believe?Far be it from me to suggest of your charity that you do not believe. You areChristians, and you would not be Christians if you did not believe the gospelof God. Therefore, because you are Christians, it is clear that you believe thegospel. We have heard what was just read out, "There was a rich man ..."(113A.3).

Augustine then expands on the parable to explain that it is better, asbelievers, to accept the scourge of misfortune whereby God chastises hischildren, rather than, as unbelievers, to endure the torments of hell(113A.3-4). Once again Augustine cites Hebrews 12.6 (113A.4).

In what follows Augustine exhorts his congregation at length to trust inthe prophecies and promises of God (113A.5—10). But a complaint in-trudes: "'See how many misfortunes there are in Christian times! Therewas such an abundance of good things before Christian times! There werenot so many misfortunes' " (113A.11).19 Augustine represents these com-plainers as the dregs from the olive press, drained off into the gutter, blackand bitter and useless; or as the dross burnt to ashes in the blast furnace(113A.11).20 Augustine challenges his congregation to choose what theywould be, gold or dross (113A.11). Nevertheless, he must deal with thecomplaint, suggesting that it carried weight with his congregation; liketheir pagan neighbours, Christians expected material benefits from reli-gious observances, and grumbled when their God seemed oblivious to theprosperity of their enemies (113A.12).

To underscore the difference between pagan and Christian piety, Au-

18. On this representation of the Jews, and its function in early Christianity, see nowGavin I. Langmuir, History, Religion, and Antisemitism (Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oxford:University of California Press, 1990), 275-87.

19. The phrase "Christian times" first surfaces as a term of reproach in Augustine'swriting in cons, euang. 1.33.51 (CSEL 43.55-6). On its various connotations in Au-gustine's writings, see Goulven Madec, " 'Tempora Christiana.' Expression du tri-omphalisme chrétien ou récrimination païenne?" in Scientia Augustinana: Studien überAugustinus, der Augustinismus und den Augustinerorden, ed. Cornelius P. Mayer andWilligis Eckermann (Würzburg: Augustinus-Verlag, 1975), 112-36. Cf. also serm. 80.8(PL 38.498), and serm. 346C.1 (= serm. Call. 11.96; Miscellanea Agostiniana, 1:272-3), preached around the time of the sack, but of uncertain date (Adalbert Kunzelmann,"Die Chronologie der Sermones des hl. Augustinus," in Miscellanea Agostiniana,2:500).

20. On the image of the olive press and the blast furnace see Poque, Le Langagesymbolique, 1:157—75.

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gustine adverts to the amphitheatre in Hippo Diarrhytus and redefines theperspective from which it should be viewed: "Stop a moment, brothers,and look at that amphitheatre, how it is going to ruin! Extravagance builtit. You think that piety built it? It was built by none other than the extrava-gance of godless men. Don't you wish that what extravagance built willsometime fall down, and that what piety builds will rise ?" ( 113 A. 13 ). Thisrhetorical counterpoint to the complaints about Christian times can beread as much as evidence of the significance of these monuments in civic lifeas of their dilapidation. Archaeological remains indicate that public worksdeclined somewhat in the first decades of the fifth century, probably be-cause of the pressures of financing campaigns against barbarians—but thisafter a century of general prosperity.21 Local notables in Carthage andother towns continued to offer entertainments, and Christians continuedto enjoy them, despite the reproach they drew on such occasions fromAugustine.22 Hence the insistence that Christians disassociate themselvesfrom their neighbours—"Choose for yourself what you would be!"(113A.11)—and the transposition of piety from a classical virtue ex-pressed in evergetism—"extravagance"—to a Christian virtue expressedin charity.23

Augustine concludes the sermon by urging his congregation not to wea-ry of the blows of God, lest they perish for eternity; instead, they shouldpray that God might temper his discipline so that they do not collapsebeneath it ( 113 A. 14). He evokes Christ as the supreme example of one whosuffered patiently and who thereby opened the way to heaven: his way is theonly way (113A.14).

Thus far Augustine has not referred directly to the sack of Rome. Thischanges with Sermo 81, preached in Hippo Regius in October or November.24

21. See Claude Lepelley, Les Cités de ¡Afrique romaine au bas-empire, 2 vols. (Paris:Études Augustiniennes, 1979-1981), 1:108-11.

22. See Lepelley, Les Cités, 1:316-18, 2:44-7.23. This, however, was less radical in fact than in rhetoric; see Lepelley, Les Cités,

1:376—88; cf. Rita Lizzi, "Ambrose's Contemporaries and the Christianization ofNorthern Italy," JRS 80 (1990):164-5.

24. Perler, Les Voyages, 400-1. Though the debate about the sack of Rome appearsto have been more heated in Carthage than elsewhere, one should not overstate thecontrast. The pagan character of Hippo Regius was much in evidence (Peter Brown,Augustine of Hippo [Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967],189-90), and, as the second port of Africa, the city also received refugees from Rome(Perler, Les Voyages, 280-1). Moreover, a common aristocratic culture is indicated byMarcellinus's notice of a landowner from Hippo who reported to his circle in Carthage,of which the pagan Volusianus was a member, that he had not been satisfied by Au-gustine's replies to his questions, though he had apparently acquired an ironic regard forAugustine's abilities (Augustine, ep. 136.3 [CSEL 44.96]).

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Again Augustine deals with the complaint, already noted in Sermo 113A,about "Christian times" (81.7—9). But now the complaint, as representedby Augustine, seems closer at hand. It comes from a friend or a confidant,from a servant or a fellow-servant, from one's patron (81.7). Furthermore,the line between pagan and Christian begins to blur; "bad Christians"complain as well as pagans (81.8). Augustine is facing a community di-vided in its sense of the what the sack portends, with Christians sympathet-ic to, as well as troubled by, views usually attributed to pagans. Thoughthere is evidence of apocalyptic expectations in Christian writings of thefourth and fifth centuries,25 Augustine's congregation seems to have diffi-culty defending the notion not only that the world might come to an end inChristian times, but that it might come to an end at all.26

In the face of this common feeling, Augustine alters his response. Afterreminding his congregation that they should not be surprised by the end ofthe world—it had, after all, been foretold by Christ (81.8)—he takes upthe question of the fate of the city of Rome. "Perhaps," he suggests, "Romehas not perished; perhaps it has been scourged, but not destroyed; perhapsit has been chastised, but not demolished" (81.9). This is a concession tothe value which all—pagan and Christian alike—invested in the city. ButAugustine immediately veers away from too literal a view of the eternity ofthe city. He takes up topoi oí Stoic consolation long familiar to Christianapologists·.27 Rome is not merely a city of wood and stone; it is a city ofpeople, and they will not perish if they praise God. Moreover, to say thatRome will come to an end does no injustice either to the city or to itsfounder: the world was designed by God to come to an end, just as human-kind was created mortal. And as for the accusation that catastrophe hasbefallen Rome in an era of Christian worship, Augustine, citing Sallust andVirgil, replies by querying the claims pagans make for their own gods:"And when their conquered gods were carried to Italy, was it a protectingpresence or an ominous portent?" (81.9). The argument progresses frommodest consolation for those who are anxious about the fate of Rome, totheological assertions about the transitory character of the world, to anironic refutation of pagan assumptions. The aim, it appears, would be

25. See Henry Chadwick, "Oracles of the End in the Conflict of Paganism andChristianity in the Fourth Century," in Mémorial André-Jean Festugière: Antiquitépaïenne et chrétienne, éd. Enzo Lucchesi and Henri D. Saffrey, Cahiers d'orientalisme,10 (Geneva: Patrick Cramer, 1984):125-9; Doignon, "Oracles," 123-34.

26. See the summary remarks of Paschoud, Roma aeterna, 326-30, on the tenacity ofthe myth of eternal Rome.

27. See Doignon, "Oracles," 139-40.

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gradually to break the sympathy that some Christians might have with theattitudes of their pagan neighbours or critics.

This is certainly the aim of the sermon as a whole. From the gospel forthe day Augustine focuses on the warning against succumbing to the pres-sures of one's neighbours—"'Woe to the world for stumbling blocks!'"(81.1, citing Matt 18.7). The admonition is severe: "'If your eye causes youto stumble, if your hand causes you to stumble, if your foot causes you tostumble, ... cut it off, cast it from you'" (81.4, citing Matt 18.8). Theexample of Job and his wife has already been evoked (81.2); Augustinereinforces it with the example of Peter (81.4). As Jesus turned againstPeter—" 'Get behind me, Satan; you are a stumbling block to me' " (Matt16.21—3)—so should the Christian paterfamilias turn against those whowith good but misguided intentions—friend, father, son, wife—wouldpersuade him to cave in to a more powerful man (81.4—6). In short,through the language of the Scriptures Augustine presses his congregationto disassociate themselves from the values of their neighbours. Only thendoes he recall comparable themes of pagan consolation, thereby, finally, toundermine the terms of the complaint about the sacking of Rome.

This concern to differentiate Christian from pagan is even more pressingin Sermo 296, preached on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul in Carthage thenext summer.28 The disillusionment of Christians who had fled Rome ispalpable in the sermon. These refugees had lost property and kin in thesack (296.8). They are inclined to agree when people ask why the memo-riae oí the apostles and other martyrs did not save the city (296.6), anattitude reminiscent of pagans expectations of protecting deities.29 Au-gustine reproves them for their misconception of the efficacy of the memo-riae. They associate the power of the martyrs too closely with their shrines,and err in expecting local temporal protection. If they rightly rememberedthe witness of the apostles, they would know that the apostles now dwell inheaven—and that only after suffering martyrdom (296.6—7). The suffer-ings which befell Rome should likewise direct believers heavenward. Yetthis reorientation of memoria30—this shift from the physical to the spiritu-al, the temporal to the eternal—fails to satisfy: "'But still,' you say, Ί

28. Perler, Les Voyages, 287.29. See Paschoud, Roma aeterna, 330—1; cf. Ramsay MacMullen, Christianizing the

Roman Empire (A.D. 100-400) (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1984),59-60, 174 n. 41.

30. See Victor Saxer, Moris, martyrs, reliques en Afrique chrétienne aux premierssiècles. Les témoignages de Tertullien, Cyprien et Augustin à la lumière de l'archéologieafricaine (Paris: Beauchesne, 1980), 128-9.

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wished it were otherwise.' What do you wish otherwise? Ί wished thatRome had not suffered so much' " (296.7).

Augustine both acknowledges this feeling and combats it. One by one hetakes up questions he imagines his audience to harbour in their hearts,questions reputed to come from pagans but equally compelling for Chris-tians. "And yet I see what you say in your heart: 'See, Rome is ruined, orhas been ruined and burned in Christian times. Why in Christian times?' "(296.9). "'But in the attack on Rome,' they say, 'so many Christians suf-fered so many evils' " (296.10). " 'But now,' they say, 'the human race hasbeen devastated more than ever before'" (296.11). Augustine does notallow such confusion of feeling to continue. His diatribe is meant to differ-entiate pagan from Christian in the minds of Christians. He reminds themof what the Scriptures, the primary referent for Christians, say, and chidesthem for forgetting its prophecies in the face of popular opinion: "I wonderwhether you who are upset by this talk remember [what you have heard].Have you not heard the prophets, have you not heard the apostles, have younot heard the Lord Jesus Christ himself predicting evils to come? . . . Whydo we contradict ourselves, that when these prophecies are read we believe,but when they are fulfilled we complain?" (296.10).

Eventually Augustine appeals to the closed space of the basilica to sepa-rate Christian from pagan: "Now, my brothers, let us leave the pagansoutside for a while. Let us turn our attention to ourselves" (296.11). Thisappeal anticipates the profound change the African town would undergoin the fifth century. Gradually the centre of gravity would shift from theforum to the basilica.31 But at the moment the basilica is vulnerable to thepressure of the forum, and those who gather in it must be reminded of theiridentity: "Set aside the world, slave that it is, and listen to the gospel"(296.11). Augustine then develops the parable of the two slaves—the oneknowing the will of his master, the other not knowing it, both disobedient(Luke 12.47—8)—with reference to the world, which was ignorant ofGod's will before the gospel was proclaimed, but is aware of God's willnow. Both "worlds" are "beaten," but those who know God's will arebeaten more because they know better. Augustine brings his argumenthome: "Look, you know the will of your Lord, who wishes you to serve inheaven. But you are slaves of the earth, and deserve to be beaten. And whenyou are cudgelled, you blaspheme, you complain, and you declare that yourLord should not do what he does to you" (296.11). Once again Augustineinvokes the unrelenting mercy of the divine father, exhorting the congrega-

31. See Yvon Thebert, "L'Évolution urbaine dans les provinces orientales del'Afrique romaine tardive," Opus 2 (1983):107-11.

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tion to praise him who does not spare them the discipline they wouldforego (296.11-12): "Better to be flogged than to be damned" (296.12).

In Sermo 105 there are signs that people in Carthage are beginning to tireof Augustine's interpretation of the sack.32 Augustine reports that somecomplain of his (apparently incessant) preaching on the subject: "If only hewould shut up about Rome!" (105.12).33 It seems Augustine has certain"learned" disputants—docti homines—in view (105.12),34 pagans likethe one who, in the verbal picture Augustine draws earlier in the sermon,confounds his Christian friend when he asks him to explain his faith(105.2). In the gospel for the day, Luke 11.5-13, Augustine finds a fittingimage for his rhetorical contest with these pagans. The gospel asks thequestion, " 'Who among you, if your child asks for an egg, will hand him ascorpion?' " (Luke 11.12, cited at serm. 105.6). Expanding the image withreference to biblical and natural observations of the care a hen takes for itsyoung, Augustine sees himself as representing the view of the hen (Christ;cf. Matt 23.37) that protects her egg (the hope of the Christians) from thescorpion's sting (those who blame Christ for the sack) by attacking andkilling the scorpion (105.11-12). "Let them not become vexed," he says ofhis opponents;35 of himself he says, "We seem agitated, but we do notreturn curses with curses" (105.12). His views on the sack, he continues,do not issue from a lack of feeling for those who suffered from it: "Did wenot have many brothers there? Do we not have them there still?" (105.12).Rather, he speaks out against pagan accusations that "our Christ" is re-sponsible for the sack of Rome (105.12).

But, though Augustine's interlocutors in the debate over the reason forthe sack are pagans, the audience immediately before him in the sermon areChristians susceptible to pagan arguments. These Christians he admon-ishes to place their hope in " 'the Lord who builds Jerusalem' " rather thanin Jove who falsely promised that there would be no end to Roman rule(105.9—10, citing Ps 146.2). The way in which their attitude is representedby Augustine is at times hardly different from the attitude of pagans whoare said to influence them: "You grumble about these bitter sorrows, about

32. Perler, Les Voyages, 403—4, argues that serm. 105 follows shortly after serm.296. Augustine refers to Carthage at serm. 105.12.

33. Scholars are divided as to whether to attribute this protest to pagans (Arbes-mann, "The Idea of Rome," 317; Cannone, "Il «Sermo de excidio», 342) or Christians( Paschoud, Roma aeterna, 241—2; Zwierlein, " Der Fall Roms, " 63 ; Poque, Le Langagesymbolique, 1:163). After some ambivalence I favour the former view; see n. 35 below.

34. On their culture see Brown, Augustine, 300-3.35. "Non irascantur": this exhortation offers the clearest indication, to my mind,

that those who say, "O si taceat de Roma," are those who "propter istas adversitatesblasphémant Christum nostrum" (serm. 105.11-12), that is, pagan critics.

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these afflictions, and you say: 'See how everything perishes in Christiantimes'" (105.8). Accordingly, the authorities Augustine cites to convincethese Christians that eventually there would be an end to Roman ruleinclude Virgil, whose integrity he rehabilitates even as he contrasts theveracity of God with the fraudulence of Jove (105.1O).36 But finally, as inprevious sermons, Augustine must remind his congregation of their identi-ty: "You are Christians, brothers, we are Christians. . . . Let no one bygrumbling turn you from the hope of the future" (105.11).

Thus far this "grumbling," as represented by Augustine, has consisted incharges (from pagans) that the evils that have befallen the empire resultedfrom disregard for the gods, in questions (from Christians as well as pa-gans) about the power of the God of the Christians in the face of suchdisaster, and in competing interpretations (again, Christian and pagan) ofpagan oracles and poetry. In the sermon On the Destruction of the City ofRome there is, however, a vivid example of an unusual contest over themeaning of the Christian Scriptures.37 The passage in question is the storyof Abraham's intercession with God on behalf of Sodom (Gen 18.16-33).Augustine remarks on how attentive the congregation was when the storywas read as one of the lections (exc. urb. 2).38 As he continues, the reasonfor this attention emerges. A "vehement and formidable question" hasarisen, based on the assumption that God would have saved Rome, just ashe would have saved Sodom, for the sake of at least ten righteous individu-als: " 'In such a great number of the faithful, in such a great number ofchaste men and women dedicated to God, in such a great number ofservants and handmaids of God, was it impossible to find fifty just people,or forty, or thirty, or twenty, or even ten?' " (2).39

36. On Augustine's use of Vergil here, see Carl P. E. Springer, "Augustine on Vergil:The Poet as Mendax Vates," SP 22 (1989):337-43; Doignon, "Oracles," 141-3.

37. The sermon is now generally accepted as authentic; see Marie V O'Reilly, SanctiAurelii Augustini De Excidio Urbis Romae Sermo: A Critical Text and Translation withIntroduction and Commentary (Washington, D.C: The Catholic University of AmericaPress, 1955), 4—6. The date and place of the sermon are, however, more problematic.Perler, Les Voyages, 399-401 and 456-7, argues for the latter half of 411 and suggestsCarthage. Augustine's parenthetical remark at exc. urb. 7 that there are perhaps somepresent in the congregation who witnessed the earthquake in Constantinople in 395/6(on which see Alan Cameron, "Earthquake 400," Chiron 17 [1987]:351-4) may beevidence that he is speaking to a congregation less familiar to him, and perhaps morecosmopolitan (but cf. η. 24 above), than the one in Hippo Regius.

38. The best manuscript indicates that the lesson had been read that day; othermanuscripts suggest that Augustine is returning to the lesson of a previous day; see exc.urb. 2 (CCSL 46.250).

39. This translation and those which follow are by O'Reilly, Sancti Aurelii Augustini,slightly revised.

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This is the first indication in the sermons that in the debate over the sackof Rome the Scriptures were read in a way other than Augustine's. Formany of these sermons he may well have selected the readings. Our knowl-edge of the North African lectionary in Augustine's day is fragmentary,more complete for feast days than for other services.40 We can be sure thatthe gospel for Sermo 296, John 21.15-19 (296.1, 3), was that appointedfor the day.41 On the other hand, the gospel for Sermo 113 A, the parable ofthe rich man and Lazarus at Luke 16.19—31 (113A.2), was probably se-lected by Augustine. He had already spoken of it in two previous sermonsthat month42—too close a cluster to be set by the lectionary—and it was afamiliar point of reference for Christian theodicy, offering an obvious op-portunity to contrast temporal and eternal values in the midst of adversity.For the remaining sermons it is difficult to be certain whether the readingwas appointed or selected, though the gospel for Sermo 81, Matthew81.7—9 (81.1), has an evident bearing on the sack, whereas the gospel forSermo 105, Luke 11.5—13 (105.1), is more remote. Nevertheless, in allthese sermons Augustine works passages from the readings and from else-where in the Scriptures into an exposition of what he believes to be thetruth of the Scriptures. In this sense he "controls" the narrative of theScriptures and the construction of values that it sustains.43

With the story of the destruction of Sodom, Augustine faces competition.From the mocking way in which the question is put, derisive as it is of theascetic exemplars of the Christian faith, it would appear that the competi-tion comes from pagans. Augustine discredits them as "people who impi-ously attack our Scriptures, not those who search them with reverence"(exc. urb. 2). (Eight years later, when Augustine again mentions the ques-tion, his language is more neutral.)44 At the same time he is aware, asalready noted, that these "impious" people have the attention of his con-gregation. His response is, by now, familiar. He distinguishes, first of all,between Sodom and Rome: Sodom was destroyed and all the inhabitants of

40. See Geoffrey G. Willis, Sf. Augustine's Lectionary, Alcuin Club Collections, 44(London: SPCK, 1962); Guy Lapointe, La célébration des martyrs en Afrique d'aprèsles sermons de saint Augustin (Montreal: n.p., 1972); Saxer, Moris, 208-27, 315—21.

41. See Saxer, Morts, 209-10.42. See n. 12 above. The way in which Augustine turns to the parable at serm.

33A.4—"Attende euangelium"—may indicate that it had been read to the congrega-tion, though the customary phrases that normally indicate a reading are absent; seeSaxer, Morts, 224-5. The parable is introduced at serm. 15A.2 without any formula;the only reading of which we can be certain is Ps 32 (serm. 15A.1).

43. See Press, "Subject and Structure," 112-18.44. Hept. 1.40 (CCSL 33.16). This is the only other time Augustine treats the ques-

tion; he is silent about it, curiously, in the City of God.

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the city perished, whereas many of the inhabitants of Rome escaped (2). Heacknowledges that what was reported by those who escaped was frighten-ing (3), but nevertheless directs the congregation to the paradigm of Job,who presents a "great spectacle, and in that foul putrefaction, magnificentbeauty of virtue" (3). Unlike the old Adam, he did not succumb to thecounsel of the new Eve, who became the helpmate of the devil rather thanher husband. Job saw that his present torment was nothing compared tothe torment of hell. He saw that it is the same father who soothes andreproves, who promises life and inflicts punishment. He did not ask whythis suffering befell him; on the contrary, he acknowledged his sin (4), asdid Daniel, with whom Augustine began the sermon (1). None shouldpresume to be wiser than Daniel, failing to acknowledge sin or the work ofGod in healing from sin (5). Augustine then turns to the question about theso-called "righteous" in Rome. Though by commonly accepted standardsone may say that there were many righteous people in Rome, by the stan-dards of perfection one cannot say that they were wholly righteous. Nev-ertheless, God spared Rome on their account. In addition, the righteouswho died were also spared, for, like the poor man Lazarus, they have beenreceived into divine peace in the bosom of Abraham (5). If only one couldsee them now, one would see how God had saved Rome, for a city is not itshouses, but rather its inhabitants (6). The recent miraculous events atConstantinople, which some in the congregation are said to have wit-nessed, likewise manifests the judgement and the mercy of God—judgement in threatening the city, mercy in sparing it when it repented(7).45 No one should doubt that God saved Rome. Many fled before theattack, others departed the body, others hid where they could, many wereprotected by the holy places. The city was chastised rather than lost (8). Itsexample should inspire a healthy fear that curbs insatiable desire for pass-ing pleasures, rather than prompt one to complain against the Lord for theblows one deserves. Are Christians so weak as to be affronted by thesufferings of one city, when in Christ they witness the sufferings of onegreater than the whole of creation? Are they afraid of the care of thisphysician (9)?

In short, Augustine draws on his entire repertoire to respond to thosewho would use the story of Sodom to question the faithfulness of God. Bycontrast, in Sermo 25 the outcry over the sack begins to fade once moreinto general complaints about "bad times"—maligni dies, a recurringrefrain in the sermon (25.3—6). Again Augustine counsels the faithful notto envy the prosperity of pagans or grumble about the inequities of God's

45. See n. 37 above.

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providence (25.2) This life is a "land of the dying" (25.1); it passes like arushing stream (25.6). Peace is not to be found in it, but in the life to come,which is in Christ (25.7). Let those who hope to be welcomed by him carefor the poor and the hungry and the homeless who in the cold of winterhover around the doorway of the church (25.8)—a reference, perhaps, tothe lingering effects of the migration from Rome.46

These sermons are not, of course, Augustine's last word on the sack.Augustine went on to reflect on the significance of Rome in other sermonsand in the City of God, whose first three books, a reply to questionsoccasioned by the sack, are just the prelude to a vaster evaluation of Romanpolitical culture. Throughout these works, as in the sermons of 410—11,Augustine's rhetoric is characterized by a predilection for antithesis,47leading those who study his thought as a whole to search for nuances.48But in so doing one should not overlook the rhetorical moment of thesermons. When they were preached, they constructed a world for theirhearers in which the values of pagans and the values of Christians arestudiously contrasted.49

How accurately does this antithesis represent the Christianity of thecongregations to whom Augustine preached? The dominant impressionwith which one is left from the sermons considered above—perhaps moredramatically from those preached in Carthage than from those preached inHippo Diarrhytus and Hippo Regius—is of Christians situated somewherebetween the polar opposites drawn by Augustine, between the accusingpagan and the exemplary Job. These Christians distinguished themselvesfrom their pagan neighbours ritually by participating in the Christianliturgy, thereby giving Augustine grounds to appeal to the authority of theScriptures and to the boundaries of the community. More than that, someChristians distinguished themselves theologically and—to the extent that

46. Perler, Les Voyages, 404—5, argues that the sermon was preached in the winter of411-12, when Augustine was back in Hippo Regius.

47. See, in general, the observations of Henry Chadwick in the Introduction to histranslation of Augustine's Confessions (Oxford and New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1992), x. Augustine's inclination toward antithesis finds its leitmotif in the typol-ogy of Jerusalem and Babylon, long a feature of Augustine's preaching, but taken upwith vigour after the sack of Rome; see Antoine Lauras and Henri Rondet, "Le Thèmedes deux cités dans l'oeuvre de saint Augustin," in Etudes Augustiniennes, éd. HenriRondet et al. (Paris: Aubier, 1953), 108-12, 114-24. A comprehensive study of thistypology may now be found in Johannes van Ooit, Jerusalem and Babylon: A Study intoAugustine's "City of God" and the Sources of his Doctrine of the Two Cities (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991).

48. See Oort, Jerusalem and Babylon, 90.49. See Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity, 107-23.

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religion was significant in public life—politically by seeking answers to theaccusations pagans brought against their faith. Such Christians sought aspecifically Christian response, though not necessarily an antagonistic one,inasmuch as those for whom it was intended are often represented asassociates or friends. Not all, however, went even this far; rather, theyechoed the complaints attributed to pagans. In fact, the terms on whichChristians sought answers were similar to the terms of the questions put tothem by pagans. For Christians, as for pagans, adversity was a sign of thedispleasure of God. But such displeasure and such adversity did not corre-spond to the piety of those who honoured this God. Hence the expecta-tions voiced about the memoriae of the apostles in Rome, or the analogydrawn about the fate of Sodom.

The response Augustine offers is, however, less compromising than theone sought. Whereas his congregations appear to desire happiness in thehere and now, he directs them to happiness in the life to come. Whatadversity they suffer now is explained as the judicious and beneficent disci-pline of God, intended to save the wayward from their sinful neglect ofwhat is truly enduring. The prospect of eternal happiness is proffered in thestories of Job, Lazarus, and finally Christ. But the inducements presented inthose stories are accompanied by the threat of punishment from God,either as chastisement now or condemnation for eternity. Indeed, the sanc-tion of divine punishment is invariably a part of Augustine's eschatologicalvision, and is repeatedly invoked in the sermons on the sack. It does notseem to have convinced everyone, however. The experience of such "pun-ishment" was evidently felt to be less salutary than its rhetorical represen-tation;50 otherwise questions about the providence of God would not havearisen out of the experience of suffering. As the questions become morepointed, Augustine tempers his response to allow for fears for the welfareof Rome or anxieties about the end of the world. But he does not alter hisbasic eschatological perspective, with its polar outcomes for Christiansand pagans. It is, for him, the truth of the Scriptures.

The enigma of these sermons as evidence of the process of Christianiza-tion lies in the ambivalence of Augustine's representation of the attitudes ofhis audience. This ambivalence is especially noticeable in the questionswhich are said to have bothered Christians after the sack. On the one handthese questions are presented in a way that allows Augustine to construethe terms on which they should be understood and answered. The ques-tions, in other words, are subsumed by the "totalizing discourse" of the

50. On anger rendered salutary by way of rhetorical representation, see Brown,Power and Persuasion, 48—58.

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sermons. But on the other hand the questions attest to the presence of viewswhich diverge from the perspective that Augustine sets out in the sermons.Despite the way they are incorporated into the discourse of the sermons,the questions disclose the limits of that discourse. For the progress ofChristianization in the long run, it may be more important that Christiandiscourse purported to answer questions of the sort Augustine deals within these sermons; the discourse thereby framed the way in which the ques-tions were to be understood, and the discourse could be reiterated longafter the experience which prompted the questions had faded. Neverthe-less, the questions themselves point to the limits of rhetoric as a medium ofChristianization; rhetoric, to persuade, requires consent, and where thereis room for consent there is also room for dissent.5 l

Theodore S. de Bruyn is an independent scholar in Ottawa, Ontario.

51. See Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, The New Rhetoric, 55.