The Presbyters Project

Book 1

69. Neque tamen ita sese anguste habent ecclesiae catholicae mores optimi, ut eorum tantum uita, quos commemoraui,

arbitrer esse laudandos. Quam enim multos episcopos optimos uiros sanctissimosque cognoui, quam multos presbyteros,

quam multos diaconos et cuiuscemodi ministros diuinorum sacramentorum, quorum uirtus eo mihi mirabilior et maiore praedicatione dignior uidetur, quo difficilius est eam in multiplici hominum genere et in ista uita turbulentiore seruare. Non enim sanatis magis quam sanandis hominibus praesunt.

70. [...] Vidi ego sanctorum diuersorium Mediolani non paucorum hominum, quibus unus presbyter praeerat uir optimus et doctissimus. [...]

(ed. Bauer 1992: 73-74)

Book 1

69. In any case the noblest ways of life in the Catholic Church are not so narrowly confined that I think that only the life of those whom I mentioned is praiseworthy. After all, how many bishops, excellent and very holy men, have I known, how many presbyters, how many deacons and ministers of every sort of the divine sacraments, whose virtue seems to me more admirable and worthy of greater praise the more difficult it is to preserve it amid many different kinds of human beings and in this more turbulent life. For they do not preside over persons who have been healed but over those in need of healing. [...]

70. [...] I saw at Milan a house of holy men, not few in number, over whom one presbyter, an excellent and most learned man, presided. [...]

(trans. R. Teske, slighlty altered)

Place of event:

Region

Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia

City

Milan

About the source:

Author: Augustine of Hippo
Title: De moribus ecclesiae Catholicae et de moribus Manichaeorum, The Catholic Way of Life and the Manichean Way of Life
Origin: Thagaste (Latin North Africa)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

The book was written after the return of Augustine to Africa (to Thagaste), but before his ordination as presbyter in Hippo. Augustine, fresh from his experience as the Manichean hearer, defends in it the Old Testament from the Manichean charges, and presents the superiority of Catholic ascetics.

Edition:

J.B. Bauer, De moribus ecclesiae Catholicae et de moribus Manichaeorum, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 90, Vienna 1992.

Translation:

Saint Augustine, The Catholic Way of Life and the Manichean Way of Life, in The Manichean Debate, introduction and notes R. Teske, editor B. Ramsey, New York 2006, 31-103.

Categories:

Functions within the Church - Monastic presbyter

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Monastic or common life - Monastic superior (abbot/prior)

Theoretical considerations - On priesthood

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER805, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=805