Christian History Home > Issue 67 > The Bishop at Work
The Bishop at Work
Augustine saw himself not as a saint, but as a pastor with a job to do.
Bruce L. Shelley | posted 7/01/2000 12:00AM
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Augustine's reputation for fairness brought many litigants—pagans, heretics, and Christians. On occasion he would skip all his meals in order to settle the cases before him that day.
Some situations pitted the principles of justice and mercy against each other. In 408 at Calama, where Augustine's friend Possidius was bishop, local pagans staged two riots. They raided the deacon's lodgings, killed a monk in the street, and went looking for Possidius, who heard from his hiding place, "Where's the bishop? If we don't get him, we'll have wasted our time!"
Peace officers did nothing to stop the violence and looting. But when the rebels came to their senses, they realized how serious their acts were. So when Augustine came to Calama a bit later to visit Possidius, a group approached him, begging him to intercede for them.
Nectarius, a respectable pagan in the group, wrote to Augustine urging him to use his influence so that extreme penalties (torture and execution) could be avoided. Nectarius admitted that the rioters should be punished, but it is not for a bishop, he argued, to seek anything but the welfare of individuals and to obtain pardon from omnipotent God for the offenses of others.
Augustine replied that, while he had no desire to see anyone tortured or executed, he did wish to see justice served. Also, as similar acts of terrorism (perpetrated by both pagans and heretics) were on the rise throughout the empire, he hoped the Calama case would serve as an example to other would-be rioters.
After eight months of inaction, the government imposed heavy penalties on the pagans, though not the death penalty.
Nectarius again appealed to Augustine, asking for a general pardon because "as the Stoics were in the habit of saying, all sins were equally great," and no one deserved special censure. This Augustine would not endorse, and he removed himself from the matter.
Two-way communicator
With his training in rhetoric, Augustine was not entirely out of place in a court of law. But he felt most at home in the pulpit.
His relationship with his congregation was remarkable. His conversational style was laced with questions tossed to his listeners, and he frequently elicited applause or some vocal response from them. Sensitivity trumped classical structure: Augustine, who always used "we" when addressing his listeners, said, "It is better that we should … be understood by you than be artists in speech and talk past you."
Though many of Augustine's sermons were preserved, they were transcribed from his speaking, not written beforehand. He spoke from rough notes at most, and sometimes not even those; if the lector accidentally read the wrong Scripture, Augustine was known to ignore his prepared message and speak ex tempore instead.
"In these circumstances I prefer to conform to the error of the lector and the will of God rather than to follow my own," he said.
He always watched for tangible evidence of the power of the living Word in his audience. He knew he had touched hearts when he saw tears. If they seemed bored, he might quickly change subjects or stop speaking altogether.
The preacher tested
Augustine's most challenging preaching came during the fall of Rome, as fear and despair descended on the people of Hippo.
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