CHAPTER XXII. Augustine's use of food and clothing
His garments and foot-wear and even his bedclothing were modest yet sufficient—neither too fine nor yet too mean; for in such things men are wont either to display themselves proudly or else to degrade themselves, in either case seeking not the things which are of Jesus Christ, but their own. But Augustine, as I have said, held a middle course, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left. His table was frugal and sparing, though indeed with the herbs and lentils he also had meats at times for the sake of his guests or for some of the weaker brethren; but he always had wine because he knew and taught, as the Apostle says, that "every creature of God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified through the Word of God and prayer." And as Augustine himself has set down in his books of the Confessions, saying: "I fear not the uncleanness of meat, but the uncleanness of lust. I know that Noah was permitted to eat every kind of flesh which was useful for food; that Elijah was refreshed by eating flesh; that John, who was gifted with marvelous abstinence, was not defiled by the creatures, that is the locusts, which became his food. I know also that Esau was ensnared by his desire for a pottage of lentils, and that David rebuked himself for his longing after water, and that our King was tempted not with meat, but with bread. And so likewise the people in the desert deserved to be condemned not because they desired meat, but because in their desire for food they murmured against God." As regards the use of wine there is the injunction of the Apostle who wrote to Timothy, saying: "Be no longer a drinker of water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities." |95
His spoons only were silver, but the vessels in which food was served were earthen, wooden or marble; yet this was not from the compulsion of necessity, but from the choice of his own will. He always showed hospitality. At the table he loved reading and discussion rather than eating and drinking, and against that pest of human custom he had this inscription on his table:
Who injures the name of an absent friend
May not at this table as guest attend.
Thus he warned every guest to refrain from unnecessary and harmful tales. And when some of his most intimate fellow-bishops forgot that inscription and spoke without heeding it, Augustine on one occasion became exasperated and so sternly rebuked them as to declare that either those verses would have to be removed from the table or he would leave in the midst of the meal and retire to his chamber. Both I and the others who were at the table experienced this.