Introduction
Houses
burning, women screaming, these were the images that we ascribe when we think
of the sack of Rome in 410. It was as if all history was lost. The glory that
once stood as the caput mundi now
lost its splendor as German barbarians ransacked Rome and destroyed the once
glorious empire.
In this paper, the researcher shall
carry out the project of elucidating on the linear development from Augustine’s
critique of paganism, his outlook on the history of Rome and lastly, his
position on the relationship between the church and state. This way, one can
see that Augustine does not have a negative outlook on the state rather he saw
it as a redefinition of a classical definition by Cicero i.e. the necessity of
justice is insufficient under the context of pagan Rome.[1] The gods of Rome has cast
a favorable look into modern man. In an age where there is a seemingly revival
of paganism in the form of the “New Age Movement” and government turning more
secular and juxtaposing the need for religion, Augustine’s view on the
relationship between the church and the state points a necessary position that
stresses the state’s need for a light that will guide it. If the purpose of the
state is to provide the happiness of its constituents, it must lead it to the source
which is infinite that is God. But, now it leads into crazy often
out-of-this-world laws.
The history of the Roman Empire
still casts a magical aura among those who study it. The image of emperors and
the vast territories it held became the basis for the future conquests that
followed it. In this paper, the researcher shall elaborate on the development
of Augustine’s thought concerning the state and the church which during the
ancient times the cut was slowly being cut.
I. Varro
Classification of Theology
Varro’s
classification of theology into three distinct parts is the locus in which
Augustine starts his critique of paganism. Situated in Books IV-VII of De Civitate Dei, Augustine’s treatment
of Varro is one of the few argumentative situations where Augustine displays
his brilliant knowledge of pagan literature.
Varro’s taxonomy classifies theology
into three distinct types; first, mythical, second, natural, and third, civil
or political. Out of the three, the first and the third are the most important
points where Augustine puts forth a detailed examination, enumerating instances
in which he highlights the inconsistencies of the pagans.
1.1 Varro’s taxonomy
In the Antiquitates
Rerum Divinarum, Varro enumerates three types of theology which were practiced
both by the common people and philosophers. Augustine examines in Chapter 5 of
Book VI the three distinct types which Varro enumerated.
1.1.1 Mythical Theology
If
Latin usage is allowed, we should call the kind that he placed first “fabular.”
But, let us call it “fabulous,” for the term mythical is derived from fables,
since in Greek a fable is called mythos.[2]
This form of
theology is the theology of poets and actors. This type is enjoyed by the
masses and is best seen in poems, epics and stage plays that entertain pagan
audiences in the past. Poetry and plays gathers together both the divine and
the mortal. A best example is the Aeneid of
Virgil. We can see that in that epic, the interplay between the gods and men
virtually leaps out of the lines. In one of the scenes for example in Book IV,
Juno looks down on Dido as she contemplates suicide.
Juno
almighty pitied her difficult death with its painful/ anguish long drawn out
and dispatched to her, down from Olympus,/ Iris to unmoor her struggling soul from the limbs’ web of damage./ Dido was
dying a death that was neither deserved nor predestined,/ but, premature: a
poor woman swept by the quick fire of madness.[3]
In the
citation above alone, we can see that the characters were two deities and a mortal.
Dido was contemplating suicide because Aeneas did not recognize her love for
him. The goddesses on the other hand watched as she contemplated suicide. They
look at her with pity but saw that she has decided to die a premature death.
We can cite many instances in this epic where the deities
intermingle with human affairs and emotions sometimes even altering them by
using different ways to change their mind like deaths, deals, threats etc. they
even help them win battles as we can see in Bk. XI.[4] The distinguishing mark
this type possessed is its anthropomorphic tendency.[5] The plurality of gods
signifies each human emotion and desire. In the Aeneid, we can see how motherly Venus becomes when it concerns her
son Aeneas. As Augustine viewed this stories in references to the Euhemerist
theory—positing that these epics were true and taken as historical—Augustine
says asking a question that maybe these deities are once men and have been
subject to mortal tendencies.[6]
Anthropomorphism is an excellent instrument in entertaining the
masses. Stories of deities in their lustful acts and vanities are good for the
eyes of the ordinary pagan. The heroes of Rome were inscribed in poetry and the
words of Virgil and the plays of various playwrights presented an image of
humans as divine. As Gibbon puts it
Pagan
mythology was interwoven with various but, not discordant materials. As soon as
it was allowed that sages and heroes, who had lived or who had died for the
benefit of their country, they were exalted to a state or power and
immortality, it was universally confessed, that they deserved if not the
adoration, at least the reverence of mankind.[7]
1.1.2 Civil Theology
But,
in any case let us scrutinize the civil theology too. “The third kind,” he
says, “is that which citizens in the states, and especially the priests, have
an obligation to learn and carry out. It tells us what gods to be worshiped by
the state and what rites and sacrifices individuals should perform.”[8]
In explaining this form of theology,
one has to look at the Roman attitudes towards religious matters. Charles King’s article, “On the Organization
of Roman Religious Beliefs” highlights a particular detail in Roman religion.
He calls it an orthopraxy and defines
it as “the correctness of ritual rather than orthodoxy, the correctness of
belief.”[9] What are we looking at
here then? King tells us that Roman authorities never had a problem concerning
the correctness of beliefs and teachings (orthodoxy) and disputing over the
nature of deities. The concern rather, was of putting correct rituals for a
particular deity.[10] In context, Roman
authorities do not focus on whether a particular deity teaches this particular
doctrine or concerning its nature on the contrary the authorities respect the
religious ceremonies of other nations. For that matter, the Romans are more
open to polymorphism. The various religious cults that existed in the Roman
Empire meant that there are various gods and goddesses to offer libations
to. There are However limitations. “The
tests applied to foreign cults, therefore, were three: (i) would they upset the
dominant position of the Roman cults? (ii)
Were they politically unsafe? (iii)
Were they morally undesirable? If these tests were satisfied, toleration
was complete.”[11]
As long as they complement to Roman cults they were allowed. Thus, out of the
polymorphic religions of its constituents, Roman state religion was made out of
the directives of the Roman authorities. Augustine views this form of theology
as belonging to the urbs. The term urbis refers to the authorities and to
the persons in charge of the government. Urbs
captures the image of the political sphere in this form of theology. Varro
however, looks only on this type of theology as useful in maintaining the order
within the city.[12]
1.1.3 Natural Theology
Founded on the speculations and not
on superstition, natural theology grounds itself on the observation of nature.
Varro subscribes this theology to philosophers and those inclined to the
natural sciences. This type is by natures cosmological and is related to the
speculation concerning the nature of things, first principles etc. Augustine
citing Varro says:
Now
let us see what he says of the second kind of theology. “The second kind of
theology that I have pointed out,” he says, “is the subject of many books that
philosophers have bequeathed to us in which they set forth what gods there are,
where they are, what their origin is and what their nature, that is whether
they were born at a certain time or have always existed whether they are of
fire as Heraclitus believes or numbers as Pythagoras thinks or of atoms as
Epicurus says.”[13]
From the
observations of natural phenomena, one proceeds to the nature of the divine
with the natural seemingly modeled with the divine. Going forwards to Bk. VII,
Augustine cited Varro’s notion of God as a world soul and enumerating other
views of Greek Philosophers.
Augustine says that “the same as Varro, then, still in his
introductory remarks about natural theology, says that he thinks that God is the
soul of the universe, which the Greeks call cosmos,
and that this universe itself is God.”[14]Although Pantheistic,
Augustine remarks that this Varronian remark on God is indeed monotheistic.
II.
The Augustinian Rejoinder
Now that
we have seen Varro’s three types of theology and have seen the historical
context regarding Varro’s Antiquitates. It
is now time to ask: why is Augustine attacking Varro? Bk. VI contains plenty of
citations from Seneca and other authors, but why put the spotlight on Varro? O’
Daly gives us a very simple answer:
One
reason why Varro is treated so seriously by Augustine is that he was read and
invoked by educated pagan contemporaries; another is that Augustine found in
his writings elements of a system of natural theology that could be pinpointed
and confronted.[15]
The pagans know
Varro. Educated men can cite from the Antiquitates
and utilize it for rhetorical purposes. Since De Civitate Dei was written as an attack against the pagans
concerning the sack of Rome in 410, it is essential that we look at the
rhetorical battle between Augustine and the pagans. Andrew Murphy calls it the
“decline rhetoric.” Murphy highlights the different arguments of the pagans and
summarizes their arguments into two distinct patterns.
First
they identify a phenomenon or group of phenomena as illustrative of the
seriousness of contemporary decline. Such claims are always put forward as empirical ones, with vivid examples or
statistics presented to back them up. Secondly, in addition to explaining what
is wrong, decline narratives also identify an agent or entity responsible for
initiating the process of decline, assign this agent a causal role in spurring on the observed decay.[16]
If we
follow this scheme, we can see that the pagan attack would be simple. Rome fell
because of the Christians. The pagans used their history as a weapon and
Augustine turned their own weapons against them. Thus, we can see why in the
first seven books of De Civitate Dei bolsters
countless of citations from different pagan writers. This way Augustine
demonstrates his versatility in the use of both pagan and Christian sources and
possessing the logic to be able to make use of them in his polemics.
In context, the exchange of
arguments between the pagans and Augustine utilized various devices of
rhetoric. Rome’s past was the collage of internal events that led to its rise.
The armies of Rome marched with the standard of pagan gods and wars were fought
calling the blessing of pagan gods. Having an extensive knowledge of Roman history,
Augustine’s knowledge of Varro came from his liberal education. Moreover,
almost everyone knew about Varro and his “catalogue of gods.”
Augustine’s rejoinder can be
classified using the same scheme of Murphy but Augustine’s rebuttal goes beyond
the classic pagan “decline rhetoric.” Murphy highlighted Augustine’s attempt to
go beyond the limited scope of empirical claims.[17]His rebuttal can be
divided into three parts. First, the inconsistency of the pagan religion,
Augustine explains that Rome was not protected by the pagan gods rather they
did not guard Rome at all. Second, Rome’s rise is not the product of the pagan
gods rather it was God’s providence at work who chose Rome as the locus of
Christianity’s synthesis with society. Third, this last item connects with the
seconds and stems from it; this is regarding the relation of the church with
the state. The church works with the state and the latter with its civil
authority should uphold the true religion upon its citizens because only
through the following of Christ’s precepts can justice be achieved and a res publica to be an authentic one.
2.1. The Failure of Paganism: Varro’s Demons
Since we
have already enumerated the following classifications of theology, let us
proceed into the matter of civil and mythical theology’s relationship. The two
are distinct types of theologies in respect to the object and nature. Since
both subscribe into theological opinion, Augustine says
The
former [mythical theology] plants the seed by inventing vile stories about the
gods, and the latter [civil theology] reaps the harvest by giving its approval;
the one sows falsehoods, the other garners them; the other includes divinity
among fictitious crimes, the other includes among religious rites the shows
that portray the crimes….[18]
Civil
theology is sponsored by the state. Myth gives us the anthropomorphic images of
the gods. Civil powers impose decrees of worship to a particular deity through
state sponsored temples and state regulated ceremonies.
Without mythical theology however, state religion will not take
shape.[19] Varro affixes to these
gods a divine nature yet, they exist in plurality. For example in Bk. VII,
Augustine mentions the dei selecti of
Varro. The dei selecti are the main
gods and goddesses that are more powerful than the inferior gods and goddesses.
The members of the dei selecti are
composed of different gods and goddesses that most people have already heard
like Janus, Jupiter, Saturn, Genius, Mercury, Apollo, Mars, Vulcan, Neptune,
Sol, etc.[20]
These deities are created or mentioned from myths and superstitions of common
people or by the works of the poets and the playwrights. Focusing on the
exposition above, Varro highlights two distinct theologies yet, the two are
seemingly together. We must not forget that Varro was a thinker before the
foundation of the Roman Empire. At that time, Rome existed not as an empire but
as a republic. Thus, Varro’s work occupies a context where the work is situated
for a city state whose power is on the rise and whose authorities were men well
versed in philosophy, rhetoric and history. Varro’s Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum was an exposition of all mythical
personas existing within Rome. As Rome’s power and influence rose and its
territories expanded, so was its contact with other cultures and theologies.
Every city-state has its own myth and its own identity and Rome tolerated their
myths moreover, its identity was complemented with Rome’s gods. Zeus was
equalized was with Jupiter, Juno with Hera. Myths from the Greek world were
discovered by the Romans. Virgil’s Aeneid
was a continuation of Homer’s Iliad.
As Rome expanded, it utilized myths as tools of pacifying the locals.[21]
The Romans do not need to impose a new religion they would just look
after it and make sure it will not defy Roman authority.[22]
2.2 Augustine and Roman
History
The
connection between the history of Rome and Augustine is a centuries old
development of historiography and the Christian assimilation of pagan
historiographical methodology of the 4th and 5th centuries.
The importance of this part in our exploration is the connection of the events
in Roman history and its respective relationship with historiography. In an
article by Momigliano, he explains the development of Christian historiography
from its assimilation of pagan techniques to its relating of history with the
history of the covenant. He says:
Therefore,
St Augustine who knew where to look for the real enemy was not worried by
contemporary pagan historian in the Latin tongue such as Ammianus Marcellinus….But,
he was disturbed by the idealization of the Roman past which he found in the
fourth century Latin antiquarians poets and commentators of poets….He went back
to the sources of their antiquarianism and primarily Varro in order to
undermine the foundations of their work.[23]
The
development then, from this form of argumentation sprung from variegated
sources. It was a time when Christian writers were springing out of
persecution. The 4th century writers on history were now drawing out
the relationship between secular history and salvation history. They were
connecting the history of Jews with Roman history and gave them a Christian
twist. Book XVIII of De Civitate Dei deals
with the same pattern of putting the history of salvation to the incarnation
with secular history of Rome and her neighbors, Augustine sketches the extent
of parallelism between Rome and the unfolding of the covenant in Christ. The
attempt to place side by side secular history and sacred history was a project
of the Christian historian after the persecution. Augustine’s idea here is not
new rather it was developed from a century of refining Christian
Historiography.
It is evident that from the time of
Augustine at least during the ancient times, History is a work of rhetoric and
a showmanship in oration.[24] In order for a critique
to be fully effective, one has to be adept at the use of historical facts. In
Book XVIII, this parallel historical recreation of secular and salvation
history was evident as Augustine ends his Book XVIII.
But
let us now at last bring to a close this book, in which we have discoursed
thus, far and shown sufficiently as it seemed what is the mortal course of the
two cities, the heavenly and the earthly, which are intermingled from beginning
to end. One of them, the earthly has crafted for herself from any source she
pleased, even out of men, false gods to worship and sacrifice; the other a
heavenly pilgrim on earth does not create false gods, but is herself created by
the true God whose, sacrifice she is herself.[25]
As
Augustine had said it, he was able to place into two parallel lines the secular
and the sacred. Although both happened simultaneously, Augustine was able to
demonstrate the unfolding of the two cities. As salvation history unfolds in
Palestine, secular history also unfolds. This duality in the development of the
two cities emerged and Augustine maintains this duality until book XIV when he
dabbles into politics.
III. The Coexistence of the Church with the State
The
history of the unfolding of history both sacred and secular culminates in
Christianity’s coexistence with the Roman Empire. Augustine’s discussion on
book XIV centers on the concept of the heavenly city’s participation with the
earthly city. The saeculum in which
both these two entities, is the course of temporal reality that would soon
unfold in the future.[26] At present, the two representatives of the
earthly and heavenly city travel in a pilgrimage and as they travel along the saeculum, they become responsible of the
people’s journey towards the eschatological end. In its present state, the
heavenly and earthly city participate with the concepts of the church and
state.
It is important that the context
between Church and State with its connection with the discussion on history
takes a more careful look. Augustine does not treat politics in a systematic
treatise rather one has to look seriously on his other works besides De Civitate Dei especially the anti
Donatist works and letters. De Civitate
Dei on the other hand gives us only a little of that “political philosophy”
and one would find it a very theological rather than philosophical treatment a la Cicero.
We now come near to the end of the
linear development from critique, relation with history and now towards church
and state. The state and the church personify the penetration of the two cities
but not absolutely. We cannot say that the church is the Civitas Dei and the state the Civitas
Terrena, a conclusion like that would cause a pessimist outlook with the
state. To avoid this let us look into what Augustine says in book XIX:
This
accordingly is the place for me to fulfill as briefly and as clearly as I can
the promise that I gave in the second book of this work, that I would show that
there was never a Roman state such as defined by Scipio in Cicero’s Republic; for he briefly defines a state
as a people’s estate.[27]
There Augustine
cites from Cicero’s De Res Publica and
proves that there was never a res publica
in the past. Does this mean that Augustine accepts a very pessimistic view
of the past Roman government? Cicero was not totally wrong but, he lacked the
fundamental source of justice. For Augustine, there can be no justice with
ancient Rome for it has subscribed itself to false gods.[28] However, Augustine
employs this Ciceronian definition of the state as a “point of departure for
constructing his Christian alternative.”[29] Thus Augustine says
I
think that what we have said concerning a common sense of right is enough to
demonstrate that in terms of this definition a people in whom there is no
justice cannot be described as having a state.[30]
What lacked in the
past was justice for it did not subscribe itself to the true God rather it
offered libations to demons. Thus, in order to be a state in its full sense,
the state and the church must constitute a Res
Publica Christiana which echoes the Civitas
Dei but not synonymous with it.[31] The latter is an
eschatological reality.[32] The church and the state
constitute a balance that counteracts the state’s inclination to cupidatas gloriae (desire for glory) and
provides civil humility among its authorities.[33]
Therefore
so long as it leads its life in captivity as it were being a stranger in the
earthly city, although it has already receive promise of redemption, and the
gift of the spirit as a pledge of it, it does not hesitate to obey the laws of
the earthly city whereby matters that minister to the support of mortal life is
common to both, a harmony may be preserved between both cities with regard to
the things that belong to it.[34]
The
Romans lacked the conception of true justice for they were busy in exemplifying
heroes praising them and deceived by demons they were brought to the
inconsistencies of mythical religion that enjoys deification and rejoices over
the vices of the deities. The Empire did not have the right religion to which
it can be more of itself fulfill its true essence and administer justly the
goods of the earth.[35] The church then is a
vital synthesis with the Roman Empire it is when the cupidity of the Pagan
empire meets with the sacred message of the Church. With Christianity, the
empire with its vast territory will be able to envelop its people under the
faith. Learning true justice with the Church, the state evolves into its very
essence that Cicero has envisioned hundred years ago. Only with the Church’s
light can the state manage to achieve it.
Conclusion
The
Romans created their religion out of
the stories of poets and playwrights. They possessed the civil authority to
acknowledge them and decree the worship of one deity after another. As its
influence spread and other deities were encountered, she took them under her
wings and tolerated their practice creating a mosaic of various divinities that
often overlap each other. Civil religion created orthopraxy. One can offer
libations for an intention x to a deity “a” or “b,” it depends on the
individual to decide. This was the picture of pagan religion under the
pre-Christian Rome.
Augustine aimed his rhetorical guns
against the pagans by enumerating one by one the inconsistency of their
religion moreover, he wrecked one of their chief sources; Varro. Varro for a
pagan is the one who described Roman religion. He supported civil and mythical
religion because of its utility. It kept peace and order among the constituents
of the republic and later the empire. The conquered were subdued by thinking
that they were complementing Roman deities with their own deities. As Zeus was
enveloped by Jupiter and Mithras became the god of Roman legions aside from
Mars, Roman religion possessed this inconsistency that Augustine highlights
strongly in books VI and VII.
In book XVIII however, Augustine
expounds on a duality. This duality is the unfolding of sacred and secular
history. He puts into parallel lines the unfolding of salvation history in
Israel and the development of secular history of her neighbors. Israel’s
neighbors soon started to fall. Empires fall and rise but, they followed that
circular pattern. As Jesus was crucified on the cross, it was as if he was
hanged by the greatest empire that surfaced after Alexander the Great. Years
after Christ’s death and resurrection and the apostles have already started and
made countless churches, have endured persecution and went into hiding, the
empire started to fall. Emperors were losing their integrity. After the edict
of Milan, the empire was going down and decays slowly. As it goes down the
church goes up, sacred and secular history has met. The once persecuted became
the light of the state. Augustine from that point emphasizes the need for the
church and the state to work with each other as he says in a letter “that the
happiness of the state has no other source as the happiness of man.”[36] We cannot deny that we
are with each other in a state but since “Happiness in life is not to be
attributed to the possession of those things [earthly good fortune]….”[37]We have to look further,
the state posses the authority but it can fall into what Dodaro calls cupiditas gloriae, but, Augustine
emphasized the need for a “Christian civitas
armed with the conviction of its collective auctoritas so that it can withstand the threat of the civitas terrena.”[38] A union with the church
fulfills this idea. Working together, the state fulfills its essence and leads
men to true happiness and not to the temptations of cupiditas gloriae and other worldly ambitions
[2] De Civ. Dei, VI.5 (2, 309)
[3] Aen, IV.695-705 (p. 99)
[4] “Dawn
passed duly rose and left Ocean. Aeneas/ up before her with the morning star,
thanks the gods for his conquests. See Aen.
XI.1-2
[5]
Gerard O’Daly, Augustine’s City of God: A
Reader’s Guide (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), p. 103.
[6]“Did
they not give evidence in support of Euhemerus who wrote not as a garroulous
story teller but, as a careful historian that all such gods had once been men,
and subject to death?” see De civ. Dei. VI.7
[7] Edward
Gibbon, The History of the Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1, ed. David Womersley (London: Penguin
Books, 2005), p. 57.
[8]De civ. Dei, VI. 5. Here
Augustine cites Varro.
[9]Charles
King, “Organization of Roman Religious Beliefs,” Classical Antiquity, vol. 22 no. 2 (October 20003), p. 298
[11]R.H
Barrow, The Romans (London: Penguin
Books, 1995), p. 147
[13] De civ. Dei, VI. 5 (2, 309-311).
[14]De civ. Dei, VII. 6 (2, 397).
[15]O’Daly.,
236-237.
[16]Andrew
Murphy, “Augustine and the Rhetoric of Roman Decline,” in Augustine and History, ed. Christopher Daly, John Doody, and Kim
Paffenroth (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2008) p. 54.
[17]Ibid.,
67.
[18]De civ. Dei, VI. 6 (2,
319).
[19]O’Daly.,
105.
[20]For a
complete list of the dei selecti, see.
De civ. Dei., VII. 2. (2, 375)
[21]Joseph
Kelly, The World of the Early Christians,
Message of the Fathers of the Church, ed. Thomas Malton (Collegeville: The
Liturgical Press, 1997), p.95
[22]
Ibid., 80.
[23]Arnaldo
Momigliano, “Pagan and Christian Historiography in the Fourth Century A.D.,” http://www.mountainman.com.au/essenes/Arnaldo%20Momigliano%20post.htm
accessed on Feb 13, 2012.
[24]Momigliano,
10
[25] De civ. Dei, XVIII. 54 (6, 91-93)
[26]Robert
Markus, Saeculum: History and Society in
the Theology of St. Augustine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970),
p. 133.
[27]De civ. Dei, XIX. 21 (6,
207)
[28]De civ. Dei, XIX. 21 (6,
209)
[29]Robert
Dodaro, OSA, “Church and State” in Augustine
through the Ages, ed. Allan Fitzgerald, OSA (Grand Rapids, MI: William
Erdmanns Publishing Company, 1990), 182.
[30]De civ. Dei, XIX. 21 (6,
211)
[31]Dodaro,
182
[32]Ibid.
[33]Ibid.,
183.
[34]De civ Dei, XIX. 17 (6,
195)
[35]
Ernest Fortin, “St Augustine,” in History
of Political Philosophy, ed. Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1987), p. 196.
[36]Ep.
155. 7
[37]Ep.
155. 8
[38]Robert
J. Forman, Augustine and the making of a
Christian Literature: Classical and Augustinian Aesthetics (Lewiston, NY:
The Edwin Hellen Press, 1995), p. 168
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