Possidius Of Calama. A Study Of The North African Episcopate In The Age Of Augustine

Transcript

This book is about Possidius of Calama, an episcopal colleague and friend of Augustine’s, who wrote the only contemporary biography about the bishop of Hippo. The Vita Augustini depicts Augustine as the single, dominant religious force in North Africa. The other bishops, whom Possidius never even identifi es by name, comprise an amorphous crowd of grateful supporters, and this is because his portrait of Augustine engages in a great deal of wishful thinking, informed more by the fear that Augustine’s reputation was waning in the years after his death than by a strict adherence to events. The fact is that Augustine’s episcopal colleagues, Possidius included, had their disagreements with the great man, and they prevailed more often than Possidius liked to admit.