11 - Augustine and minor western authors

Summary

Augustine, the most renowned of all church fathers, east and west, makes an appropriately significant contribution to our subject, matched only by Ambrose, John Chrysostom and perhaps Basil. An appreciable number of his contemporaries, on the other hand, provide but a single passage for this volume. They are characterized here as minor authors because of their modest musical involvement, not necessarily because of their stature more generally considered. Among their isolated references are some of crucial importance. Gennadius for example, has left us the earliest expression of the notion that psalms ought to be thematically related to the readings they accompany, and Paulinus has complicated our understanding of Ambrose's famous musical vigil at Milan by using the term antiphon when describing it.

Augustine (354–43)

Perhaps the most important figure in the history of Christian thought, Augustine is rivalled only by Thomas Aquinas and perhaps Origen. We are well informed about his life due to the autobiographical Confessions (397–401) and Retractatiorus (427). He was born at Thagaste in North Africa to a pagan father and Christian mother, the sainted Monica. In 371 he was sent to Carthage to study rhetoric; here he lost what Christian faith he possessed and began the relationship with a mistress to whom he remained faithful until his conversion. In 373 his reading of Cicero's Hortensius inspired him to pursue the philosophical life which he experienced first as a devotee of Manicheism.