The Life of Augustine of

The seventeenth century was the century of Saint Augustine. In 1695, Loius Sebastiàn, le Nain de Tillemont, finished volume 13 of his Mémoire ecclésiastique, entitled La vie de saint Augustin. The volume consisted of approximately 1200 pages wherein Loius Sebastiàn gathered from the works of Augustine and elsewhere all extant passages relevant to the biography of Augustine of Hippo. Completed in 1695, the biography was published posthumously in 1700. The work lies in the tradition of Jansenism from Port-Royal and the Leuven. Though an ascetic recluse on the family estate for the last twenty years of his life, he was in touch with important scholars and the ecclesiastical movements of his time. Louis’ work is the first modern biography of Augustine and the most comprehensive of all Augustinian biographies, even unto today. Modern authors consult him and frequently adopt his theories without citation. His method exercises influence even unto this very day on Parisian scholarship on Augustine. This English translation has been arbitrarily divided into three periods and thus three volumes: volume 1: birth to episcopal consecraton (354?396); volume 2: the Donastist controversy (397?411); volume 3: the Pelagian controversy (412?430). This text is volume 1.