Many Protestants will claim that Augustine of Hippo was some sort of proto-Protestant. Of course, such ignores his entire writings (few if any will agree with him on Mariology; baptismal regeneration; infant baptism; purgatory; etc). Consider what he also wrote about justification which Protestants could condemn has blasphemous and anathema:
21. Let us now consider the question of
faith. In the first place, we feel that we should advise the faithful that they
would endanger the salvation of their souls if they acted on the false
assurance that faith alone is sufficient for salvation or that they need not
perform good works in order to be saved. This, in fact, is what some had
thought even in the time of the apostles. For at that time there were some who
did not understand certain rather obscure passages of St. Paul, and who thought
therefore that he had said: Let us do
evil that there may come good. They thought that this was what St. Paul
meant when he said: The law entered in
that sin might abound. And where sin abounded, grace did more abound. But
what St. Paul means here is this: when man received the law, he presumed too
much on his own strength. He was too proud to ask God’s help, as he should have
done, that he might overcome his evil desires. The result was that his sins
were now more and greater because of the law which he did not observe. When he
realized his guilt, he turned to the faith for pardon and for help from the Lord, who made heaven and
earth. Thus it was necessary that the Holy Spirit fill his heart with love,
in order that he might overcome his evil desires and perform out of love for
God whatever God commanded him. This is what St. Paul means, and this too is
what the Psalmist means when he says: Their
infirmities were multiplied; afterwards they made haste.
When St. Paul says, therefore, that man is
justified by faith and not by the observance of the law, he does not mean that
good works are not necessary or that it is enough to receive and to profess the
faith and no more. What he means rather and what he wants us to understand is
that man can be justified by faith, even though he has not previously performed
any works of the law. For the works of the law are meritorious not before but
after justification. But there is no need to discuss this matter any further,
especially since I have treated of it at length in another book entitled On the Letter and the Spirit.
As we said above, this opinion originated in
the time of the apostles, and that is why we find some of them, for example,
Peter, John, James, and Jude, writing against it in their epistles and
asserting very strongly that faith is no good without works. And as regards
Paul himself, he does not say that any faith in God is good, but he says
clearly that that faith is good and in conformity with the teaching of the
gospel which results in works of love: and
faith, he says, that worketh by
charity. As for that faith which some think is sufficient for salvation, he
says that it profits nothing: If I should
have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am
nothing. On the other hand, where faith is joined to charity, there without
doubt you will find a good life, for charity
is the fulfilment of the law. (St. Augustine on Faith and Works
[trans. Gregory J. Lombardo; Ancient Christian Writers volume 48; Mahwah, N.J.:
The Newman Press, 1988], 28-29)
