Who was Arnobius the Younger? Dissimulation, Deception and Disguise by a Fifth-Century Opponent of Augustine

This article is a revised version of a study presented to Henry Mayr-Harting, Emeritus Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Oxford, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday.

Much attention has been given over the last half century to the war of attrition waged against Augustine's distinctive doctrines of original sin and predestination by Julian of Eclanum, notably in studies by Peter Brown and Josef Lössl.¹That controversy can be seen at its deepest level as a struggle between an older and a newer understanding of man's place in the Christian scheme of salvation in which Augustine challenged an earlier, more conservative, view of the freedom of the human will and man's ability to respond to God's grace. It is not surprising therefore, that the oscillation of Pope Zosimus, first overturning the condemnation of Pelagius and then endorsing it, led to Julian's rebellion, backed by eighteen other Italian bishops. They refused to accept what they saw as a coup by the African Churches supported by the imperial court. Nor is it surprising that even those who accepted Rome's ruling continued to show sympathy for those conservative Italian Christians who contested Augustine's darker view of man. Among such sympathisers were Paulinus of Nola²and others who spoke up for the returning exiles of Julian's party in the Rome of Leo i,³against whom the author of the Epistola ad Demetriadem wrote during the same pontificate.⁴

The continuing attempt to limit the influence of Augustine's teachings on these issues after his death in 430 by opponents from within Italy has attracted less attention.⁵Instead, research has focussed on the Gallic monastic opponents of predestination, led initially by Cassian, and their anti-predestinarian but unimpeachably orthodox critique of extreme Augustinian teaching in this field which the popes of the fifth century from Celestine onwards resolutely refused to condemn. Only in the sixth century did Caesarius of Arles, with papal backing, overrule the alternative understanding of grace and free will which the monks of southern Gaul held in opposition to that of Augustine.⁶

The anti-predestinarian opposition kept up by Julian's party and the mysterious figure known as Arnobius the Younger, all apparently operating in Italy after Julian's abortive attempt at restoration...