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the most learned from the time of St. Paul to the fifth century, and his writings were more numerous than those of any of his predecessors since St. Paul's had been; and they were sources of inspiration and imitation for later doctors, such as St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelic Doctor), and others.
Because the subject matter of St. Augustine's controversy with St. Jerome is not generally understood in its true light the following quotation is taken from the introduction to Butler's account of this incident: "We have a remarkable instance of St. Austin's meekness and humility in his controversy with St. Jerome. The later in his exposition of the epistle of St. Paul to the Galations, had explained the passage of his withstanding St. Peter for withdrawing himself from the table of the Gentiles upon the arrival of Jewish converts as if it had been a mere collusion between the Apostles to prevent scandal to either party, and as if St. Paul did not think St. Peter in any fault; because he allowed the observance of such legal ceremonies at that time no less than St. Peter did. St. Austin in 395, being only a priest, wrote to St. Jerome against this exposition, showing that though the Apostles agreed in doctrine, yet in this action of St. Peter there was certainly on indiscretion of inadvertence which gave the Gentile converts an occasion of scandal; and that if St. Paul did not blame him seriously he must have been guilty of an officious lie (which cannot be denied), and by admitting such a fallacy any passage in the scripture might be alluded to in a like manner.
`St. Jerome afterwards tacitly came over to St. Austin's opinion."
That there was no question of doctrine involved in this "withstanding of St. Peter to his face" by St. Paul is evident by another occurrence when St. Peter decided the question of the circumcision of converts. In this latter case, St. Peter acted in his prerogative of infallibility, and none of the Apostles even thought of opposing his decision, which conclusively shows that the prerogative of papel infallibility was in the infancy of Christianity, as it is now, by all Roman Catholics, believed and accepted by the Apostles.
The writings of St. Augustine are voluminous. His "Confessions" elaborately detail the unbounded mercy of
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