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Home , Augustinians, Canons regular, Giles of Rome, James of Viterbo

Three

Origins of the Augustinian Order, its Portuguese Province, and the Congregation of the East Indies

Origins of the Augustinian

The Eremitical Order of St. Augustine1 has no direct connection to the monastic foundations of Augustine (354–430),2 the great and whose thought continues to exercise considerable influ- ence within Christianity. Ordained as of Hippo (modern Annaba, Algeria)3 in 395, and having previously spent several years living in a quasi- monastic community, Augustine is, rather, the spiritual father of the Order, one of a number which based their way of life on the instructions on the religious life contained in his writings.4 These provided a framework for the Rule adopted by canons wishing to lead an apostolic life in common, hence the ‘ of St. Augustine’,5 and a number of monastic

1 Balbino Rano OSA, Augustinian Origins, Charism and Spirituality (Villanova PA, 1994), notes (15) that the designation ‘Hermits’ was finally eliminated, with the approval of the , on 12 February 1969. In fact the Order was never in any practical sense ‘eremiti- cal’, and the use of the term effectively served simply to maintain the fiction of a direct link to Augustine. 2 The connections of Augustine with Western , and the origin and devel- opment of his Rule are the subjects of lively scholarly debate. For the origins and founda- tion of the Order see Angel Martínez Cuesta, Historia de los agustinos recoletos. Vol. I, Desde los origenes hasta el siglo XIX (Madrid, 1995), 35–101; Balbino Rano (tr. Arthur Ennis), The Order of St. Augustine (, 1975), 1–29; id., Augustinian Origins, especially 11–53. A recent study, Frances Andrews, The Other : The Carmelite, Augustinian, Sack and Pied Friars in the Middle Ages (Woodbridge, 2006), provides a wealth of information about the origins, history and practices of the Order. For the Rule see George Lawless, and his monastic Rule (, 1987), 127–135 and 155–161, Angel Custodio Vega OSA, Notas historico-criticas en torno a los origenes de la Regla de San Agustin (Madrid, 1963), and the magisterial work of Luc Verheijen, La Règle de saint Augustin 2 vols. (Paris, 1967). 3 Increased interest in the figure of Augustine within Algeria is signalled by the publi- cation of Pierre-Yves Fux, Jean-Michel Roessli, Otto Wermelinger (eds.), Augustinus Afer: saint Augustin, africanité et universalité: actes du colloque international, Alger-Annaba, 1–7 avril 2001; colloque organisé par le Haut Conseil Islamique Algérie et l’Université de Suisse (Fribourg, 2003). See also Sabah Ferdi, Augustin de retour en Afrique (388–430) (Repères archéologiques dans le patrimonie algérien) Musée de Tipasa (Algérie) (Fribourg, 2001), reviewed by Maurice Borrmans in Islamochristiana 27 (2001), 278. 4 Art. ‘Ermites de Saint Augustin’ in DSp, IV, I, 984–1018, see 983–986. 5 Although, as Lawless (127) points out this was by no means the first time that the text of the Rule was attributed to him. 40 chapter three and , particularly in Italy, would later adopt ver- sions of the Augustinian Rule.6 Several of these groups were organised by Innocent IV, by the Incumbit Nobis of 1243, into the ‘Tuscan Order of Hermits of St. Augustine’. Alexander VI united the members of this ‘little union’ with various other groups in a ‘Grand Union’ ratified by the Bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae of May 4 1256, the foundational charter of the Ordo Eremitarum Sancti Augustini.7 The spread of the re-organised Order was rapid, radiating as it did from numerous bases rather than a single motherhouse, and by the beginning of the fourteenth century it had expanded throughout Europe.8

Our Father Saint Augustine: The Creation of the Augustinian Myth

If the Augustinian Hermits were a creation of the papacy, then the papacy of the late Middle Ages can be seen as to some extent an Augustinian creation. Notions of papal monarchy were already well-established, under the reigns of from Gregory VII (c. 1020–1085) to Innocent III (c. 1160–1215), but with the very existence of the Augustinian Order depending upon the legitimisation of papal authority, Augustinian writ- ers such as (c. 1243–1316), (c. 1255–1308)9 and Augustinus of (1270–1328) made major contributions to late medieval as proponents of papal hierocratic theory. As Saak puts it: The may not have been the creators of the pope or the papacy, but they were the creators of the late medieval papal political theory that provided the legitimization and justification of the Augustinian identity . . .10

6 A version of the Rule was, for example, adopted around the beginning of the twelfth century, by the military Order of Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem. 7 See A. de Meijer OESA, ‘Licet ecclesiae catholicae I. Text’ and R. Kuiters OESA ‘Licet ecclesiae catholicae II. Commentary’ in Francis Roth OESA and Norbert Teeuwen OESA (eds.), Augustiniana: Septimo exacto saeculo a magna unione MCCLVI–MCMLVI (New York, 1956), 9–13 and 14–36 respectively. 8 The modern study by Gutierrez, Historia de la Orden de San Agustín 3 vols. (Rome, 1971–1980), covers the period 1256–1648. 9 See Francis X. Martin OSA, , Reformer and Renaissance Scholar: Life and Works of Giles of Viterbo, 1469–1532 (Villanova PA, 1992); id., ‘The Problem of Giles of Viterbo: A Historiographical Study’, Augustiniana 9 (1959), 357–379. 10 Eric Leland Saak, High Way to Heaven: the Augustinian platform between reform and , 1292–1524 (Leiden, 2002), see esp. 160–234.