Christian Instruction; Admonition and Grace; The Christian Combat; Faith, Hope and Charity

Introduction

INTRODUCTION DHE PRESENT work belongs to the period in which St. Augustine was Bishop of Hippo. In date it cannot be later than the treatise On the Eight Questions of Dulcitius, where it is quoted,1 which belongs to the third decade of the fifth century and may be as early as A.D. 422.~ On the other hand it cannot have been completed prior to the death of St. Jerome (which occurred on 30 September in either 419 or 420), since it mentions him as already dead.3 In view of these facts the Enchiridion is commonly dated ca. 421.4 As is made clear from the text itself,5 the Enchiridion was composed in answer to a group of questions on Christian doctrine communicated in a letter to St. Augustine by a certain Lawrence. The latter is elsewhere called a brother of 1 De octo Dulcitii quaestionibus, ad quaest. 1.10.13 (PL 40 154-156: sects. 67-69 of the Enchiridion are quoted), ad quaest. 11.4 (I'L 40 15H: sects. 109, 110 are quoted) . 2 See, e. g., Pope, St. Augustine of Hippo 381. - For bibliographical particulars of works incompletely referred to in this introduction and in the notes to the translation, see the bibliography. 3 Ench. sect. 87 ('Jerome the priest, of holy memory') . 4 E.g., by Pope, op. cit. 381,387. Such a dating is favored by the position assigned to the Ellchiridioll in St. Augustine's Retractatiolles. 5 ,Elich. sects, 3, 4. The circumstances under which the book was composed are also set out in the Retractationes 2.89 (63) (ed. 1'. Kni)II, CSEL 36 202: I'L 32 655): 'J also wrote a book on faith, hope, and charity, having been asked by the addressee of the book for some small work of mine that he might always have at hand, the type called bv the Greeks a handbook (enchiridion) .•• ' 357 358 SAINT AUGUSTINE the tribune Dulcitius,6 to whom the treatise On the Eight Questions above cited was addressed, and Lawrence may have come to North Africa in the company of that official. Nothing in the form in which St. Augustine addresses Lawrence suggests that he was in Holy Orders,7 and it is more likely that he was a layman.8 Indications of doubtful authenticity derived from the manuscripts of the Enchiridion would assign to Lawrence a high station at Rome,9 while a remark of the author himself,IO coupled with the elevated doctrine and good style of the treatise/1 lead to the belief that the addressee of the work was a person of exceptional training in letters. Lawrence had asked the Bishop of Hippo that his questions should be answered in a small volume (enchiridion) which he might always have at hand.12 ,St. Augustine, though he was amusingly aware that he had been somewhat lengthy in meeting Lawrence's request13 and indeed elsewhere calls the work a 'big book' (grandis liber),14 uses the word enchiridion several times in his reply to Lawrence,15 and it is by this name that the work is most commonly known. However, the words 6 De octo Dulcitii quaestionibus, ad quaest. 1.10. Dulcitius, the addressee of St. Augustine's Epist. 204, had been sent to Africa to execute the Imperial orders against the Donatists (Retract. 2,85; ct. Pope, op. cit. 360) . • 7 St. Augustine calls Lawrence 'most beloved son' (Ench. sect. I), 'my son' (Hetraet. 2.89[63]), and says that he loved him greatly among the members of Christ's body (Ench. sect. 122). 8 So Scheel in the introduction to his edition, p. V; Mitterer in the introduction of his translation, p. 390. 9 See the 'Admonitio' to the Maurist edition (VI 193-194; PL 40 229 f.) . 10 Ench. sect. l' (Lawrence's, eruditio) . 11 See F. di Capua, in Misc. Agost. II 748 f., on the excellence of the prose rhythm in the Enchiridion. 12 Elich. sect. 6; ct. Retract. quoted ahove, p. 357 n. 5. 13 Ellch. sect. 122. I4 Epistula 231.7 (ed. A. Goldbacher, CSEL 57 510; PL 33 1026). 15 Ench. sect. 4,6 (twice), 122. FAITH, HOPE AND CHARITY 359 on Faith, Hope, and Charity' are frequently added to the title in view of the fact that St. Augustine organized his treatise as a discussion of these three virtues,16 being followed in this...