AUGUSTINS, or AUGUSTINIAN, an order of religious; thus called from St. Augustine, whose rule they observe. The Augustins, popularly also called Austin friars, were originally hermits, whom Pope Alexander IV. first congregated into one body, under their general Lanfranc, in 1256. Soon after their institution, this order was brought into England, where they had about thirty-two houses at the time of their suppression.
The Augustins are clothed in black, and make one of the four orders of mendicants. From these arose a reform, under the denomination of bare foot Augustins, or Minorites, or Friars minor.
There are also canons regular of St. Augustine, who are clothed in white, excepting their cope, which is black. At Paris they were known under the denomination of religieux of Genevieve; that abbey was the chief of
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Augustin. of the order. There are also nuns and canonesses, who observe the rules of St. Augustine.
AUGUSTINIANS are also those divines who maintain, on the authority of St. Augustine, that GRACE is effectual from its nature, absolutely and morally, and not relatively and gradually. They are divided into rigid and relaxed.