Life of Possidius.
In reviewing the life of Possidius, the first fact to be noted is that, apart from his relations with Augustine, he is practically unknown. He first appears as one of the group of intimate friends whom Augustine gathered around him in the monastery at Hippo and is mentioned only once after |12 Augustine's death. Possidius himself states at the very close of the Vita that he had lived with Augustine on terms of intimate friendship for "almost forty years." Augustine was made Presbyter at Hippo in 391 and "soon after" established his monastery. As this was thirty-nine years before Augustine's death, Possidius must have become connected with the monastery at the very beginning or soon after. Where he came from and how he came to enter the monastery must remain matters of conjecture, but it seems fair to suppose that he came from Hippo or the immediate neighborhood.
The date of Possidius's birth, also, may be arrived at only approximately. As he was still living and performing his episcopal duties seven years after the death of Augustine, who lived to be seventy-six, he was in all likelihood younger than his teacher and friend. When he entered the monastery, therefore, he was probably not over thirty, as Augustine was then thirty-five. Moreover he was probably at least twenty, in view of the fact that he soon became Augustine's intimate friend. This would accordingly fix the date of his birth somewhere between the years 360 and 370.
In 397, probably within a short time after the death of Megalius, Bishop of Calama and Primate of Numidia, Possidius succeeded to this episcopate, though not to the primacy, as that was an office of seniority, not of locality, in the African Church. From this time till his activities were temporarily checked by the invasion of the Vandals, he seems to have led a not unusual life for a North African bishop of the fifth century, journeying to the various parts of his diocese, attending councils and defending the Church against the attacks of heretics. About the year 403 Possidius made two attempts to arrange |13 a public discussion with Crispinus, the Donatist bishop of Calama, which the latter each time avoided. A few days after the second refusal, while Possidius was travelling through his diocese, another Crispinus, a Donatist presbyter and perhaps a relative of the bishop Crispinus, attacked him, setting fire to the house in which he took refuge. As the bishop Crispinus did not even reprove his presbyter for this unprovoked attack, the Catholics took the matter into court and Crispinus, the bishop, was fined. Through the intervention of Possidius this fine was not exacted. Nevertheless Crispinus was not satisfied and carried his appeal to the Emperor Honorius. Thereupon, as Augustine had likewise narrowly escaped an ambuscade laid for him by the Donatists not long before, a council which met at Carthage in 404 decided to appeal to the Emperor for protection. In 405, accordingly, Honorius issued an edict renewing the laws of Theodosius against heretics, directing furthermore that Crispinus should be fined ten pounds of gold and that the judge and court should suffer the same penalty for not having collected the fine before. This fine, however, through the intercession of Possidius, was likewise remitted.
In 407 Possidius and Augustine, with five other bishops, were appointed as a committee to decide some ecclesiastical question, but no further record has been preserved. In the following year, during a riot brought about by the celebrations of the pagans, Possidius narrowly escaped with his life. On November 15, 407, Honorius had made the public celebration of heathen rites and festivals illegal. On June 1, 408, however, which was the pagan feast-day, as Augustine relates, in violation of this law the pagans of Calama performed their rites and marched past the Christian church. As no one |14 interfered and as the insult could not be tolerated, the clergy attempted to stop the celebration, but were driven back into the church and assailed with stones. Possidius did not allow this to pass unnoticed and carried the case before the proper authorities who promised to exact the penalty imposed by the law. About June 9, however, before anything had been done, the pagans again attacked the church with stones. On the following day, accordingly, Possidius and his people took the matter to court but were refused admittance. A few hours later the church was a third time besieged, and not being satisfied with the damage they could do with stones, the pagans tried to burn the buildings together with the people in them. One man was killed and Possidius escaped only by hiding in a narrow crevice while the pagans roamed about in search of him. According to Augustine they were much disappointed, since their chief desire was to do away with the bishop. The uproar was finally quieted by a stranger who seemed to have gained some influence with them. Through his efforts the captives were set free and much plunder returned. Augustine himself journeyed to Calama to comfort the people and to admonish and, if possible, convert the pagans, but evidently without much success. An edict issued by Honorius in November of the same year, directing that the images and altars of the pagans be destroyed and their temples be confiscated for public use, was no doubt provoked by this disturbance.
To this period belong Possidius's two journeys to Italy. Though only one is generally mentioned, there were evidently two. The first was occasioned by the recent pagan uprising and took place after July 408 and before March 27, 409. This date is made clear by a letter of Augustine in which he says that on March 27 he received an answer to a letter he had written about eight months before, when Possidius had |15 not yet embarked on his voyage. From this letter it would also appear that Possidius was expected to return shortly, for Augustine suggests that possibly the citizens of Calama had heard a rumor that Possidius had obtained authority to punish them more severely ( severius ) , though no such report had as yet reached him.
The other visit to the imperial court was on an embassy appointed by a council which met at Carthage on July 1, 410. The purpose of this embassy was to secure the renewal of the laws against the Donatists which had been temporarily suspended. Possidius and his colleagues seem to have accomplished their purpose, for in August 410 Honorius issued a decree warning heretics and pagans not to hold public meetings and declaring confiscation of property or even death as the penalty for violation of the law.
At the great Collatio of 411 between the Catholics and Donatists assembled at Carthage by order of the Emperor, Possidius played a rather prominent part. Two hundred and eighty-six Catholic bishops were present. From this number seven were chosen to carry on the discussion, among whom were Augustine, Possidius and Alypius, although the debate was carried on almost entirely by Augustine. Possidius |16 appears at two other councils. At that of Milevum in 416 he joined with other bishops in signing a letter, written probably by Augustine, to Innocent I, calling attention to the newborn Pelagian heresy and requesting that it be suppressed. Shortly afterwards, together with his old friends of the monastery at Hippo, Augustine, Alypius, Evodius and one outsider, Aurelius, Bishop of Carthage, he signed another letter to Innocent, urging that this same heresy be formally denounced. The other council, though it is scarcely to be dignified by so important a name, was that held at Caesarea in 418, to which the Donatist bishop Emeritus was invited.
When the Vandals invaded Africa in 428, Calama was one of the many towns which fell into their hands. Possidius took refuge with Augustine at Hippo, one of the three cities which still maintained their independence. There he witnessed the death of Augustine in 430 and remained till the siege of Hippo was abandoned by the Vandals in 431. By or before the time an agreement was reached in 435 between the Roman Emperor and the Arian Geiseric, Possidius no doubt returned to his former charge, where he probably remained unmolested as long as he performed his duties quietly and did not attract the attention of the Arian authorities. In 437, however, when Geiseric endeavored to substitute Arianism for the Catholic faith, Possidius and several other bishops were driven from their sees because they refused to yield to the demands of the Vandal ruler. This is the last we hear of Possidius. He may have gone to Italy, but there is no evidence to that effect. He is honored by the Catholic Church on May 17.
His intimacy with Augustine.
Were it not for Possidius's own statement in the last paragraph of the Vita, we should probably not recognize so readily |17 the intimacy which existed between the two bishops. Among Augustine's letters there is only one addressed to Possidius and that is merely an answer to a question on discipline, such as might have been written to any stranger who had asked for advice. It was written in great haste and there is nothing in it to indicate any particular friendship. However, he spent much time in company with Augustine. For the first five or six years of their acquaintance he lived in that intimacy of daily companionship which makes or breaks a friendship as nothing else can, dwelling in the same house, eating at the same table, sharing in the same duties and experiencing the same trials and temptations. On one occasion he tells of a conversation at the table, then of a convert who came to see Augustine and, nobis coram, declared his former guilt and asked for their prayers. Again, we hear of Augustine's righteous indignation when some friends who were visiting disregarded his prohibition of gossip. There are many instances of this intimate nature.
After Possidius left the monastery at Hippo to take up his duties as bishop of Calama he was by no means separated from his friend. Calama was only about forty miles distant from Hippo and the two bishops found many opportunities of seeing each other. Now they are attending the same council, or are together on a special committee, or are side by side in a debate with the heretics, or Possidius is visiting Augustine. Finally, when Calama was taken by the Vandals, Possidius withdrew to Hippo and was with Augustine all through his last illness and at the time of his death. None of the other members of that monastery, save Alypius only, is associated with Augustine as frequently as is Possidius.
Augustine's references to Possidius.
Besides the above-mentioned letter addressed to Possidius and those cited in this account of Possidius's life, there are several other references to him in Augustine's writings. |18 Probably the most significant of these is found in Ep, CI, addressed to a certain Bishop Memor, in which Augustine discloses his affection for Possidius by calling him "no small image of my own self": Nimis autem ingratum ac ferreum fuit, ut te qui nos sic amas, hic sanctus frater et collega noster Possidius, in quo nostram non parvam praesentiam reperies, vet non disceret, vel sine litteris nostris disceret. Est enim per nostrum ministerium non litteris illis, quas variaram servi libidinum liberales vacant, sed dominico pane nutritus, quantus ei potuit per nostras angustias dispensari. This is Augustine's fullest reference to Possidius and as it agrees so well with Possidius's own statements it serves to confirm our faith in him. Another letter written about this same time, while not so pertinent, still deserves notice. It begins in this manner: Cum vos fratres nostri comiunctissimi nobis, quos nobiscum desiderati desiderare et salutati resalutare consuestis, assidue vident, non tam augentur bona nostra, quam consolantur mala. Though Augustine may here be speaking in general terms, yet he means Possidius in particular, for he at once proceeds to name him as the person he has in mind. The other references to Possidius are of less importance and need only to be indicated. He concludes Ep. CXXXVII to Volusianus with a greeting from Possidius who is evidently visiting him, and in the De Civitate Dei XXII viii he speaks of a cure supposed to have been effected by a relic which the bishop of Calama had brought to that city.
His peculiar fitness for his task.
Because of this prolonged and intimate friendship. Possidius was peculiarly fitted for the task he undertook. He had observed Augustine's daily life continuously for at least five years. He had seen him in the various phases of his work as teacher and administrator: instructing the people or the clergy or managing the funds of the church, or caring for the poor and the widows or judging the disputes of his parishioners. |19
He had seen him faithful in his secular responsibilities, yet escaping them whenever possible and eagerly turning his attention to spiritual matters. He knew his habits of dress and food and had shared in his strict monastic asceticism. Later, himself a bishop, Possidius had seen Augustine as a leader among his fellow-bishops at the councils and as the Church's ablest defender against heresies. He was constantly in touch with his great master and friend and at no time throughout the thirty-eight or thirty-nine years of their acquaintance did anything occur to weaken their attachment. With the exception of the first four chapters of the Vita, which deal briefly with the period before their acquaintance, the account he gives is based entirely on his own observation—things he had himself witnessed and experienced.
His reliability.
As a result we have a plain biography of fact, not of fiction. Possidius does not recount mere gossip or hearsay. Nowhere throughout the Vita do phrases occur indicating second-hand information. One thing that must immediately commend it as worthy of belief is the absence of such miraculous tales as abound in Paulinus's Vita Ambrosii. Even Augustine was not free from this credulity, as may be seen in the list of remarkable cures related toward the end of the De Civitate Dei. Possidius, however, was not given to recounting marvelous stories. Apart from a somewhat general reference to "certain energumens" from whom "demons departed by reason of Augustine's intercession in prayer," he relates, without affectation or extravagance, only one specific miracle performed by Augustine—the cure of a sick man by the laying on of hands. Moreover, wherever Possidius's statements can be checked by the writings of Augustine or the Acts of Councils, they are always fully corroborated. To this there is no exception. Yet in one respect he is careless: he does not |20 always mention the sources of his few non-biblical quotations, but is apt to refer to the writers as cuiusdam sapientis or quidam poeta.
His appreciation of Augustine.
Though he only partly realized Augustine's true greatness and his increasing importance to the Church, he did recognize in him a devout Christian, a profound and eager student, a devoted and watchful shepherd, a mighty opponent of heretics and a daily example in his domestic life. He sees the present and local greatness, but has less conception of the lasting and widening influence which a mind and personality like Augustine's were destined to exert for ages to come. He sees that Augustine's arguments and reasoning have established the faith and brought peace to the Church, but that centuries later theologians and philosophers should still base many of their doctrines upon the writings of his friend is far outside the range of his imagination; for his nature, like his style, was essentially prosaic. Yet he did believe that posterity ought not to forget Augustine, and therefore wrote the Vita and compiled the Indiculus , a catalogue of Augustine's works, to help those who would keep his memory alive.
The Vita, though not a regular chronological narrative, falls naturally into four parts:
I-V Introductory
VI-XVIII Activities against heresies
XIX-XXVII Daily life at home and in the church