in preparing for death. He,
therefore, would not allow his friends to see him, except at the hours
when he took food or medicine. He desired that the penitential
psalms--(the seven psalms which are read in church on Ash-Wednesday, and
which especially express sorrow for sin)--should be hung up within his
sight; and he read them over and over, shedding floods of tears as he
read. On the 28th of August, 430, he was taken to his rest, and in the
following year Hippo fell into the hands of the Vandals, who thus became
masters of the whole of northern Africa.

CHAPTER XXII.

COUNCILS OF EPHESUS AND CHALCEDON.

A.D. 431-451.

Augustine died just as a great council was about to be held in the East.
In preparing for this council, a compliment was paid to him which was
not paid to any other person; for, whereas it was usual to invite the
chief bishop only of each province to such meetings, and to leave him
to choose which of his brethren should accompany him, a special
invitation was sent to Augustine, although he was not even a
metropolitan,[39] but only bishop of a small town. This shows what fame
he had gained, and in what respect his name was held, even in the
Eastern church.

[39] See page 82.

The object of calling the council was to inquire into the opinions of
Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople. It would have been well for it if
it had enjoyed the benefit of the great and good Augustine's presence;
for its proceedings were carried on in such a way that it is not
pleasant to read of them. But, whatever may have been the faults of
those who were active in the council, it laid down clearly the truth
which Nestorius was charged with denying--that (as is said in the
Athanasian creed) our blessed Lord, "although He be God and man, yet is
He not two, but one Christ;" and this council, which was held at Ephesus
in the year 431, is reckoned as the third general council.

Some years after it, a disturbance arose about a monk of Constantinople,
named Eutyches, who had been very zealous against Nestorius, and now ran
into errors of an opposite kind. Another council was held at Ephesus in
449; but Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria, and a number of disorderly
monks who were favourable to Eutyches, behaved in such a furious manner
at this assembly, that, instead of being considered as a general
council, it is known by a name which means a _meeting of robbers_. But
two years later, when a new emperor had succeeded to th