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Les confessions de Saint Augustin
CHAPITRE VI. IL REÇOIT LE BAPTÊME AVEC ALYPIUS SON AMI, ET ADÉODATUS SON FILS. — GÉNIE DE CET ENFANT. — SA MORT.
14. Le temps étant venu de m’enrôler sous vos enseignes, nous revînmes de la campagne à Milan. Alypius voulut renaître en vous avec moi; il avait déjà revêtu l’humilité nécessaire à la communion de vos sacrements; intrépide dompteur de son corps, jusqu’à fouler pieds nus ce sol couvert de glaces; prodige d’austérité. Nous nous associâmes l’enfant Adéodatus, ce fils charnel de mon péché, nature que vous aviez comblée. A peine âgé de quinze ans, il surpassait en génie des hommes avancés dans la vie et dans la science.
Ce sont vos dons que je publie, Seigneur mon Dieu, Créateur de toutes choses. et puissant Réformateur de nos difformités. Car il n’y avait en cet enfant de moi que le péché; et s’il était élevé dans votre crainte, c’est vous qui me l’aviez inspiré, nul autre. Oui, ce sont vos dons que je publie. Il est un livre écrit par moi, intitulé Le Maître; mon interlocuteur, c’est cet enfant; et les réponses faites sous son nom sont, vous le savez, mon Dieu, ses pensées de seize ans. Il s’est révélé à moi par des signes plus admirables encore. Ce génie-là m’effrayait. Et quel autre que vous pourrait accomplir de tels chefs-d’oeuvre?
Vous avez bientôt, de cette terre, fait disparaître sa vie; et je me souviens de lui avec sécurité; son enfance, sa première jeunesse, rien de cet être ne me laissant à craindre pour lui. Nous nous l’associâmes comme un frère dans votre grâce, à élever sous vos yeux; et nous reçûmes le baptême, et le remords inquiet de notre vie passée prit congé de nous. Et je ne me rassasiais pas en ces premiers jours de la contemplation si douce des profondeurs de votre conseil pour le salut du genre humain. A ces hymnes, à ces cantiques célestes, quel torrent de pleurs faisaient jaillir de mon âme violemment remuée les suaves accents de votre Eglise! Ils coulaient dans mon oreille, et versaient votre vérité dans mon coeur; ils soulevaient en moi les plus vifs élans d’amour; et mes larmes roulaient, larmes délicieuses!
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The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books
Chapter VI.--He is Baptized at Milan with Alypius and His Son Adeodatus. The Book "De Magistro."
14. Thence, when the time had arrived at which I was to give in my name, 1 having left the country, we returned to Milan. Alypius also was pleased to be born again with me in Thee, being now clothed with the humility appropriate to Thy sacraments, and being so brave a tamer of the body, as with unusual fortitude to tread the frozen soil of Italy with his naked feet. We took into our company the boy Adeodatus, born of me carnally, of my sin. Well hadst Thou made him. He was barely fifteen years, yet in wit excelled many grave and learned men. 2 I confess unto Thee Thy gifts, O Lord my God, Creator of all, and of exceeding power to reform our deformities; for of me was there naught in that boy but the sin. For that we fostered him in Thy discipline, Thou inspiredst us, none other,--Thy gifts I confess unto Thee. There is a book of ours, which is entitled The Master. 3 It is a dialogue between him and me. Thou knowest that all things there put into the mouth of the person in argument with me were his thoughts in his sixteenth year. Many others more wonderful did I find in him. That talent was a source of awe to me. And who but Thou could be the worker of such marvels? Quickly didst Thou remove his life from the earth; and now I recall him to mind with a sense of security, in that I fear nothing for his childhood or youth, or for his whole self. We took him coeval with us in Thy grace, to be educated in Thy discipline; and we were baptized, 4 and solicitude about our past life left us. Nor was I satiated in those days with the wondrous sweetness of considering the depth of Thy counsels concerning the salvation of the human race. How greatly did I weep in Thy hymns and canticles, deeply moved by the voices of Thy sweet-speaking Church! The voices flowed into mine ears, and the truth was poured forth into my heart, whence the agitation of my piety overflowed, and my tears ran over, and blessed was I therein.
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"They were baptized at Easter, and gave up their names before the second Sunday in Lent, the rest of which they were to spend in fasting, humility, prayer, and being examined in the scrutinies (Tertull. Lib. de Bapt. c. 20). Therefore went they to Milan, that the bishop might see their preparation. Adjoining to the cathedrals were there certain lower houses for them to lodge and be exercised in, till the day of baptism" (Euseb. x. 4).--W. W. See also Bingham, x. 2, sec. 6; and above, note 4, p. 89; note 4, p. 118, and note 8, p. 118. ↩
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In his De Vita Beata, sec. 6, he makes a similar illusion to the genius of Adeodatus. ↩
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This book, in which he and his son are the interlocutors, will be found in vol. i. of the Benedictine edition, and is by the editors assumed to be written about A.D. 389. Augustin briefly gives its argument in his Retractations, i. 12. He says: "There it is disputed, sought, and discovered that there is no master who teaches man knowledge save God, as it is written in the gospel (Matt. xxiii. 10), One is your Master, even Christ.'" ↩
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He was baptized by Ambrose, and tradition says, as he came out of the water, they sang alternate verses of the Te Deum (ascribed by some to Ambrose), which, in the old offices of the English Church is called "The Song of Ambrose and Augustin." In his Con. Julian. Pelag. i. 10, he speaks of Ambrose as being one whose devoted labours and perils were known throughout the whole Roman world, and says: "In Christo enim Jesu per evangelium ipse me genuit, et eo Christi ministro lavacrum regenerationis accepti." See also the last sec. of his De Nupt. et Concup., and Ep. cxlvii. 23. In notes 3, p. 50, and 4, p. 89, will be found references to the usages of the early Church as to baptism. ↩