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  WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY
  by St. Augustine
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Augustine's writings against the Donatist heresy, addressing fundamental
questions of baptism, church authority, and the nature of the true Church in
North African Christianity.

  Chapters: 436

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    0. Writings In Connection With The Donatist Controversy 
    1. writings in connection with the donatist controversy. 
    2. Introductory Essay. 
    3. Chapter I. --Bibliography. 
    4. Chapter II. --An Analysis of Augustin's Writings Against the Donatists. 
    5. Preface 
    6. the SEVEN BOOKS OF AUGUSTIN, BISHOP OF HIPPO, ON BAPTISM, AGAINST THE DONATISTS 
    7. The Seven Books of Augustin, Bishop of Hippo On Baptism, Against the Donatists 
    8. He proves that baptism can be conferred outside the Catholic communion by heretics or schismatics
    9. Chapter 1. -- 1. In the treatise which we wrote against the published epistle of Parmenianus to
   10. Chapter 2. -- 3. And so the Donatists in some matters are with us
   11. Chapter 3. -- 4. There are two propositions, moreover, which we affirm
   12. Chapter 4. -- 5. Further, if any one fails to understand how it can be that we
   13. Chapter 5. -- 6. I prefer, he says, to receive Christ's baptism where both parties agree that
   14. Chapter 6. -- 8. Between us, then, and what we may call the genuine Donatists
   15. Chapter 7. -- 9. For, in the next place, that I may not seem to rest on
   16. Chapter 8. -- 10. Nor indeed were the prayers of the Gentile Cornelius unheard
   17. Chapter 9. -- 12. Let them see how many things, and what important things
   18. Chapter 10. -- 13. But they think within themselves that they show very great subtlety in asking
   19. Chapter 11. -- 15. They ask also, |Whether sins are remitted in baptism in the party of
   20. Chapter 12. -- 18. What if he approached baptism itself in deceit? were his sins remitted
   21. Chapter 13. -- 21. For it often happens that a man has an enemy whom he hates
   22. Chapter 14. -- 22. It is to no purpose, then, that they say to us
   23. Chapter 15. -- 23. For it is the Church that gives birth to all
   24. Chapter 16. -- 25. But the same mother which brought forth Abel
   25. Chapter 17. -- 26. Therefore, whether they seem to abide within
   26. Chapter 18. -- 27. On the question of baptism, then, I think that I have argued at
   27. Chapter 19. -- 29. But that I may not seem to be uttering these praises of the
   28. In which Augustin proves that it is to no purpose that the Donatists bring forward
   29. Chapter 1. -- 1. How much the arguments make for us
   30. Chapter 2. -- 3. |When, on the calends of September, very many bishops from the provinces of
   31. Chapter 3. -- 4. Now let the proud and swelling necks of the heretics raise themselves
   32. Chapter 4. -- 5. Wherefore the holy Cyprian, whose dignity is only increased by his humility
   33. Chapter 5. -- 6. And so it is that often something is imperfectly revealed to the more
   34. Chapter 6. -- 7. What then, ye Donatists, what have ye to say to this? If our
   35. Chapter 7. -- 10. Wherefore, then, have ye severed yourselves? If there is any sense left in
   36. Chapter 8. -- 13. Nor do I think that the blessed Cyprian had any other motive in
   37. Chapter 9. -- 14. |This, moreover,| says he, |Agrippinus, a man of excellent memory
   38. Chapter 10. -- 15. But what attitude do they assume, when it is shown that the holy
   39. Chapter 11. -- 16. For this reason, then, we hold them to be enemies
   40. Chapter 12. -- 17. What answer they can give about the followers of Maximianus whom they have
   41. Chapter 13. -- 18. But who can fail to understand what they may be saying in their
   42. Chapter 14. -- 19. But which is the worse, not to be baptized at all
   43. Chapter 15. -- 20. Since the Catholic Church, both in the time of the blessed Cyprian and
   44. Augustin undertakes the refutation of the arguments which might be derived from the epistle of
   45. Chapter 1. -- 1. I think that it may now be considered clear to every one
   46. Chapter 2. -- 2. Nevertheless, I see what may still be required of me
   47. Chapter 3. -- 4. Let us therefore, seeing that we adhere to the example of Cyprian
   48. Chapter 4. -- 6. Next his colleagues proceed to deliver their several opinions.
   49. Chapter 5. -- 7. But if any one should ask what I hold in the meantime
   50. Chapter 6. -- 9. Libosus also of Vaga says: |The Lord says in the gospel
   51. Chapter 7. -- 10. Zosimus also of Tharassa said: |When a revelation of the truth has been
   52. Chapter 8. -- 11. Likewise Felix of Buslacene said: |In admitting heretics without the baptism of the
   53. Chapter 9. -- 12. Likewise Honoratus of Tucca said: |Since Christ is the Truth
   54. Chapter 10. -- 13. Therefore Cyprian writes to Jubaianus as follows
   55. Chapter 11. -- 16. But Cyprian was right in not being moved by what Jubaianus wrote
   56. Chapter 12. -- 17. But the blessed Cyprian shows that it was no new or sudden thing
   57. Chapter 13. -- 18. But as regards the remission of sins
   58. Chapter 14. -- 19. Nor is it material, when we are considering the question of the genuineness
   59. Chapter 15. -- 20. Accordingly, if Marcion consecrated the sacrament of baptism with the words of the
   60. Chapter 16. -- 21. But when it is said that |the Holy Spirit is given by the
   61. Chapter 17. -- 22. |For as regards the fact that to preserve the figure of unity the
   62. Chapter 18--23. |As my Father hath sent me,| says our Lord
   63. Chapter 19. -- 25. They indeed who say that baptism is not to be repeated
   64. In which he treats of what follows in the same epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus.
   65. Chapter 1. -- 1. The comparison of the Church with Paradise shows us that men may indeed
   66. Chapter 2. -- 2. All the more, then, because |we are fighting for the honor and unity|
   67. Chapter 3. -- 4. And if they would have obeyed him
   68. Chapter 4. -- 6. We do not, therefore, |acknowledge the baptism of heretics
   69. Chapter 5. -- 8. |Further,| Cyprian goes on to say, |in vain do some
   70. Chapter 6. -- 9. But as regards his saying, |Nor let any one affirm that what they
   71. Chapter 7. -- 11. For in fact, as to what some opposed to the reasoning of Cyprian
   72. Chapter 8. -- 12. In short, we may see how great an evil in itself is envy
   73. Chapter 9. -- 13. By this patience of Christian love he not only endured the difference of
   74. Chapter 10. -- 15. But some one may say that the tares within may more easily be
   75. Chapter 11. -- 18. What shall we say of what is also wonderful
   76. Chapter 12. -- 19. But he urges that |we find that the apostles
   77. Chapter 13. -- 20. There is therefore |no fellowship between righteousness and unrighteousness
   78. Chapter 14. -- 22. But we must not despair of the conversion of any man
   79. Chapter 15. -- 23. To go on to the point which he pursues at great length
   80. Chapter 16. -- 24. Some one says, Does it then make no difference
   81. Chapter 17. -- 25. |Can the power of baptism,| says Cyprian
   82. Chapter 18. -- 26. Nor indeed, is it of heresies alone that the apostle says |that they
   83. Chapter 19. -- 27. Let us therefore not flatter the Catholic who is hemmed in with all
   84. Chapter 20. -- 28. But on the question whether we ought to prefer a Catholic of the
   85. Chapter 21. -- 29. With regard to the objection brought against Cyprian
   86. Chapter 22. -- 30. That the place of baptism is sometimes supplied by martyrdom is supported by
   87. Chapter 23. -- 31. But what is the precise value of the sanctification of the sacrament which
   88. Chapter 24. -- 32. And if any one seek for divine authority in this matter
   89. Chapter 25. -- 33. By all these considerations it is proved that the sacrament of baptism is
   90. Chapter 26. -- 34. A few things still remain to be noticed in the epistle to Jubaianus
   91. He examines the last part of the epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus
   92. Chapter 1. -- 1. We have the testimony of the blessed Cyprian
   93. Chapter 2. -- 2. But now that we have begun a disputation with a man of peace
   94. Chapter. 3. -- 3. But in what Cyprian adds, saying, |Nor yet because men once have erred
   95. Chapter 4. -- 4. But since now, as I said before
   96. Chapter 5. -- 5. Wherefore, even if heretics should be truly anxious to correct their error and
   97. Chapter 6. -- 7. For when this is done occasionally in the case of individuals
   98. Chapter 7. -- 8. Truly, when I look at the actual words of Cyprian
   99. Chapter 8. -- 9. Wherefore, as the apostle said of the law
  100. Chapter 9. -- 10. Now we must see what is said of the baptism of John.
  101. Chapter 10. -- 12. I ask, therefore, if sins were remitted by the baptism of John
  102. Chapter 11. -- 13. For we must look at the point which especially concerns the matter before
  103. Chapter 12. -- 14. Accordingly, I too might use the words of the blessed Cyprian to turn
  104. Chapter 13. -- 15. For the Lord Jesus might, if He had so thought fit
  105. Chapter 14. -- 16. Accordingly we find the apostles using the expressions
  106. Chapter 15. -- 17. That therefore the baptism of John was not the same as the baptism
  107. Chapter 16. Wherefore, Since it is manifest that the baptism remains in the baptized person when he
  108. Chapter 17. -- 22. But, having considered and handled all these points
  109. Chapter 18. -- 24. Whence Cyprian himself again admonishes us with the greatest fullness
  110. Chapter 19. -- 25. Wherefore, as regards those who received the persons who came from heresy in
  111. Chapter 20.
  112. Chapter 21. -- 29. But as to what he says, that |he who comes to the Church
  113. Chapter 22. -- 30. Accordingly we agree with Cyprian that |heretics cannot give remission of sins
  114. Chapter 23. -- 31. Cyprian writes also to Pompeius about this selfsame matter
  115. Chapter 24. -- 34. I remember that I have already discussed at sufficient length the question of
  116. Chapter 25. -- 36. I am unwilling to go on to handle again what Cyprian poured forth
  117. Chapter 26. -- 37. To go on to what he says
  118. Chapter 27. -- 38. And in that the Church is thus described in the Song of Songs
  119. Chapter 28. -- 39. Hence, therefore, we have now set before us an easier and more simple
  120. In which is considered the Council of Carthage, held under the authority and presidency of
  121. Chapter 1. -- 1. It might perhaps have been sufficient, that after the reasons have been so
  122. Chapter 2. -- 3. Again, if any one not having charity
  123. Chapter 3. -- 5. But I think that we have sufficiently shown
  124. Chapter 4. -- 6. And so it is clear that no good ground is shown herein why
  125. Chapter 5. -- 7. Wherefore all bad men are separated in the spirit from the good
  126. Chapter 6. -- 9. First, then, let us record for further consideration the case proposed for decision
  127. Chapter 7. -- 10. I have already, I think, argued to the best of my power
  128. Chapter 8. -- 11. Cæcilius of Bilta said: |I know of one baptism in the one Church
  129. Chapter 9. -- 13. The elder Felix of Migirpa said: |I think that every one coming from
  130. Chapter 10. -- 15. To the declaration of Polycarp of Adrumetum
  131. Chapter 11. -- 16. Novatus of Thamugadis said: |Though we know that all Scripture gives its testimony
  132. Chapter 12. -- 18. Nemesianus of Tubunæ said: |That the baptism which is given by heretics and
  133. Chapter 13. -- 20. Januarius of Lambæse said: |Following the authority of the holy Scriptures
  134. Chapter 14. -- 22. Lucius of Castra Galbæ said: |Since the Lord hath said in His gospel
  135. Chapter 15. -- 24. Crescens of Cirta said: |The letters of our most beloved Cyprian to Jubaianus
  136. Chapter 16. -- 26. Nicomedes of Segermi said: |My judgment is that heretics coming to the Church
  137. Chapter 17. -- 28. Monnulus of Girba said: |The truth of our mother
  138. Chapter 18. -- 30. Secundinus of Cedias said: |Since our Lord Christ said
  139. Chapter 19. -- 32. Felix of Bagai said: |As when the blind leads the blind
  140. Chapter 20. -- 34. Polianus of Mileum said: |It is right that a heretic should be baptized
  141. Chapter 21. -- 36. Theogenes of Hippo Regius said: |According to the sacrament of the heavenly grace
  142. Chapter 22. -- 38. Dativus of Badiæ said |We, so far as lies within our power
  143. Chapter 23. -- 40. Successus of Abbir Germaniciana said: |Heretics may either do nothing or everything.
  144. Chapter 24. -- 42. Fortunatus of Thuccabori said: |Jesus Christ our Lord and God
  145. Chapter 25. -- 46. Sedatus of Tuburbo said: |Inasmuch as water
  146. Chapter 26. -- 49. Privatianus of Sufetula said: |He who says that heretics have the power of
  147. Chapter 27. -- 51. Privatus of Sufes said: |What can be said of the man who approves
  148. Chapter 28. -- 53. Hortensianus of Lares said: |How many baptisms there are
  149. Chapter 29. -- 55. Cassius of Macomades said: |Since there cannot be two baptisms
  150. Chapter 30. -- 57. Another Januarius of Vicus Cæsaris said: |If error does not obey truth
  151. Chapter 31. -- 59. Another Secundinus of Carpis said: |Are heretics Christians or not? If they are
  152. Chapter 32. -- 61. Victoricus of Thabraca said: |If heretics may baptize
  153. Chapter 33. -- 63. Another Felix of Uthina said: |No one can doubt
  154. Chapter 34. -- 65. Quietus of Burug said: |We who live by faith ought with believing observance
  155. Chapter 35. -- 67. Castus of Sicca said: He who presumes to follow custom in despite of
  156. Chapter 36. -- 69. Eucratius of Theni said: |Our God and Lord Jesus Christ
  157. Chapter 37. -- 71. Libosus of Vaga said: |The Lord says in the gospel
  158. Chapter 38. -- 73. Lucius of Thebaste said: |I declare my judgment that heretics
  159. Chapter 39. -- 75. Eugenius of Ammedera said: |I too pronounce this same judgment
  160. Chapter 40. -- 77. Also another Felix of Ammacura said: |I too
  161. Chapter 41. -- 79. Also another Januarius of Muzuli said: |I wonder that
  162. Chapter 42. -- 81. Adelphius of Thasbalte said: |It is surely without cause that they find fault
  163. Chapter 43. -- 83. Demetrius of the Lesser Leptis said: |We uphold one baptism
  164. Chapter 44. -- 85. Vincentius of Thibari said: |We know that heretics are worse than heathens.
  165. In which the remaining judgments of the Council of Carthage are examined.
  166. Chapter 1. -- 1. Let us not be considered troublesome to our readers
  167. Chapter 2. -- 2. Marcus of Mactaris said: |It is not to be wondered at if heretics
  168. Chapter 3. -- 4. Satius of Sicilibba said: |If heretics receive forgiveness of their sins in their
  169. Chapter 4. -- 6. Victor of Gor said: |Seeing that sins are forgiven only in the baptism
  170. Chapter 5. -- 8. Aurelius of Utica said: |Since the apostle says that we ought not to
  171. Chapter 6. -- 10. Iambus of Germaniciana said: |Those who approve the baptism of heretics disapprove ours
  172. Chapter 7. -- 12. Lucianus of Rucuma said: |It is written
  173. Chapter 8. -- 14. Pelagianus of Luperciana said: |It is written
  174. Chapter 9. -- 16. Jader of Midila said: |We know that there is but one baptism in
  175. Chapter 10. -- 18. Likewise another Felix of Marazana said: |There is one faith
  176. Chapter 11. -- 20. Paul of Bobba said: |I for my part am not moved if some
  177. Chapter 12. -- 22. Pomponius of Dionysiana said: |It is manifest that heretics cannot baptize and give
  178. Chapter 13. -- 24. Venantius of Tinisa said: |If a husband
  179. Chapter 14. -- 26. Aymnius of Ausuaga said: |We have received one baptism
  180. Chapter 15. -- 28. Saturninus of Victoriana said: |If heretics may baptize
  181. Chapter 16. -- 30. Another Saturninus of Tucca said: |The Gentiles
  182. Chapter 17. -- 32. Marcellus of Zama said: |Since sins are remitted only in the baptism of
  183. Chapter 18. -- 34. Irenæus of Ululi said: |If the Church does not baptize a heretic
  184. Chapter 19. -- 36. Donatus of Cibaliana said: |I acknowledge one Church
  185. Chapter 20. -- 38. Zozimus of Tharassa said: |When a revelation has been made of the truth
  186. Chapter 21. -- 40. Julianus of Telepte said: |It is written
  187. Chapter 22. -- 42. Faustus of Timida Regia said: |Let not these persons flatter themselves who favor
  188. Chapter 23. -- 44. Geminius of Furni said: |Certain of our colleagues may prefer heretics to themselves
  189. Chapter 24. -- 46. Rogatianus of Nova said: |Christ established the Church
  190. Chapter 25. -- 48. Therapius of Bulla said: |If a man gives up and betrays the baptism
  191. Chapter 26. -- 50. Also another Lucius of Membresa said: |It is written
  192. Chapter 27. -- 52. Also another Felix of Buslaceni said: |In admitting heretics to the Church without
  193. Chapter 28. -- 54. Another Saturninus of Abitini said: |If Antichrist can give to any one the
  194. Chapter 29. -- 56. Quintus of Aggya said: |He who has a thing can give it
  195. Chapter 30. -- 58. Another Julianus of Marcelliana said: |If a man can serve two masters
  196. Chapter 31. -- 60. Tenax of Horrea Celiæ said: |There is one baptism
  197. Chapter 32. -- 62. Another Victor of Assuras said: |It is written
  198. Chapter 33. -- 64. Donatulus of Capse said: |I also have always entertained this opinion
  199. Chapter 34. -- 66. Verulus of Rusiccade said: |A man that is a heretic cannot give that
  200. Chapter 35. -- 68. Pudentianus of Cuiculi said: |My recent ordination to the episcopate induced me
  201. Chapter 36. -- 70. Peter of Hippo Diarrhytus said: |Since there is one baptism in the Catholic
  202. Chapter 37. -- 72. Likewise another Lucius of Ausafa said: |According to the motion of my mind
  203. Chapter 38. -- 74. Felix of Gurgites said: |I give my judgment
  204. Chapter 39. -- 76. Pusillus of Lamasba said: |I believe that baptism is not unto salvation except
  205. Chapter 40. -- 78. Salvianus of Gazaufala said: |It is generally known that heretics have nothing
  206. Chapter 41. -- 80. Honoratus of Tucca said: |Since Christ is the truth
  207. Chapter 42. -- 82. Victor of Octavus said: |As ye yourselves also know
  208. Chapter 43. -- 84. Clarus of Mascula said: |The sentence of our Lord Jesus Christ is manifest
  209. Chapter 44. -- 86. Secundianus of Thambei said: |We ought not to deceive heretics by our too
  210. Chapter 45. -- 88. Also another Aurelius of Chullabi said: |The Apostle John has laid down in
  211. Chapter 46. -- 90. Litteus of Gemelli said: |If the blind lead the blind
  212. Chapter 47. -- 92. Natalis of Oëa said: |It is not only I myself who am present
  213. Chapter 48. -- 94. Junius of Neapolis said: |I do not depart from the judgment which we
  214. Chapter 49. -- 96. Cyprian of Carthage said: |My opinion has been set forth with the greatest
  215. Chapter 50. -- 98. It is indeed worth while to consider the whole of the passage in
  216. Chapter 51. -- 99. Taking all these things, therefore, into consideration
  217. Chapter 52. -- 100. Of all these several classes, then, no one doubts respecting those first
  218. Chapter 53. -- 101. The question is also commonly raised, whether baptism is to be held valid
  219. Chapter 54. -- 103. But now I think that it is fully time for me to bring
  220. the three BOOKS OF AUGUSTIN
  221. Written in the form of a letter addressed to the Catholics
  222. Chapter 1. -- 1. Ye know that we have often wished to bring forward into open notoriety
  223. Chapter 2. -- 3. Whence, then, is a man to be cleansed who receives baptism
  224. Chapter 3.
  225. Chapter 4. -- 5. Wherefore, if they were in error, and would have perished had they not
  226. Chapter 5. -- 6. We ask, therefore, since he says, |He who receives faith from the faithless
  227. Chapter 6. -- 7. Wherefore, whether a man receive the sacrament of baptism from a faithful or
  228. Chapter 7. -- 8. But if it is perfect madness to hold such a view for it
  229. Chapter 8. -- 9. When he hears, |Every good tree bringeth good fruit
  230. Chapter 9. -- 10. Again, when he hears, |He that is washed by one dead
  231. Chapter 10. -- 11. Lastly, if they are willing to give the name of dead neither to
  232. Chapter 11. -- 12. Of these I would ask, whether by coming to their sea they were
  233. Chapter 12. -- 13. But our brethren themselves, the sons of the aforesaid churches
  234. Chapter 13. -- 14. If, in the interests of the unity of the party of Donatus
  235. Chapter 14. -- 15. Therefore, brethren, let it suffice us that they should be admonished and corrected
  236. Chapter 15. -- 16. Look at the states of Musti and Assura
  237. Chapter 16. -- 17. As for the words which follow in his letter
  238. Chapter 17. -- 18. Then he further adds: |Both are without the life of baptism
  239. Chapter 18. -- 20. He says: |You who are a most abandoned traditor have come out in
  240. Chapter 19. -- 21. What, then, does he mean by quoting in his letter the words with
  241. Chapter 20. -- 22. Wherefore all this about the generation of vipers
  242. Chapter 21. -- 23. Lastly, it has been said, as he himself has also quoted
  243. Chapter 22. -- 24. What if the holy and TRUE Church of Christ were to convince and
  244. Chapter 23. -- 25. In conclusion, the Testament is said to have been given to the flames
  245. Chapter 24. -- 26. But let us turn to the consideration of your fruits.
  246. Chapter 25. -- 27. I think that I have left unanswered none of the statements in the
  247. Chapter 26. -- 28. But it is possible that you may expect of me that I should
  248. Chapter 27. -- 29. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, though that error is exposed and overcome in many
  249. Chapter 28. Finally, they think that the question of baptism is hidden
  250. Chapter 29. -- 31. These things, brethren, I would have you retain as the basis of your
  251. In which Augustin replies to all the several statements in the letter of Petilianus
  252. Chapter 1. -- 1. That we made a full and sufficient answer to the first part of
  253. Chapter 2. -- 4. Petilianus said: |Those who have polluted their souls with a guilty laver
  254. Chapter 3. -- 6. Petilianus said: |For what we look to is the conscience of the giver
  255. Chapter 4. -- 8. Petilianus said: |For he who receives faith from the faithless
  256. Chapter 5. -- 10. Petilianus said: |For everything consists of an origin and root
  257. Chapter 6. -- 12. Petilianus said: |This being the case, brethren
  258. Chapter 7. -- 14. Petilianus said: |And again, He who is baptized by one that is dead
  259. Chapter 8. -- 17. Petilianus said: |We must consider, I say
  260. Chapter 9. -- 21. Petilianus said: |Hemmed in, therefore, by these offenses
  261. Chapter 10. -- 23. Petilianus said: |Did the apostle persecute any one? or did Christ betray any
  262. Chapter 11. -- 25. Petilianus said: |Yet some will be found to say
  263. Chapter 12. -- 27. Petilianus said: |The Lord Jesus said to the Jews concerning Himself
  264. Chapter 13. -- 29. Petilianus said: Over and over again He reproaches the FALSE speakers and liars
  265. Chapter 14. -- 31. Petilianus said: |In the third place, also
  266. Chapter 15. -- 34. Petilianus said: |David also spoke of you as persecutors in the following terms
  267. Chapter 16. -- 36. Petilianus said: |The Lord Christ also warns us
  268. Chapter 17. -- 38. Petilianus said: |Thus, thus, thou wicked persecutor
  269. Chapter 18. -- 40. Petilianus said: |Nor is it, after all
  270. Chapter 19. -- 42. Petilianus said: |The Lord Jesus Christ commands us
  271. Chapter 20. -- 44. Petilianus said: |The Lord Christ cries again from heaven to Paul
  272. Chapter 21. -- 47. Petilianus said: |Accordingly, as we have said
  273. Chapter 22. -- 49. Petilianus said: |It may be urged that Christ said to His apostles
  274. Chapter 23. -- 51. Petilianus said: |But if you say that we give baptism twice over
  275. Chapter 24. -- 56. Petilianus said: |But you will answer that you abide by the same declaration
  276. Chapter 25. -- 58. Petilianus said: |For when you in your guilt perform what is false
  277. Chapter 26. -- 60. Petilianus said: |For if you mix what is FALSE with what is true
  278. Chapter 27. -- 62. Petilianus said: |It will be urged against us
  279. Chapter 28. -- 64. Petilianus said: |But yet, if I may be allowed the comparison
  280. Chapter 29. -- 66. Petilianus said: |But to pass rapidly through these minor points
  281. Chapter 30. -- 68. Petilianus said: |Or if any one chance to recollect the chants of a
  282. Chapter 31. -- 70. Petilianus said: |For there is no power but of God
  283. Chapter 32. -- 72. Petilianus said: |For although there is only one baptism
  284. Chapter 33. -- 77. Petilianus said: |But that I may thoroughly investigate the baptism in the name
  285. Chapter 34. -- 79. Petilianus said: |For if the apostles were allowed to baptize those whom John
  286. Chapter 35. -- 81. Petilianus said: |Nor indeed will it be possible that the Holy Spirit should
  287. Chapter 36. -- 83. Petilianus said: |Which Holy Spirit certainly cannot come on you
  288. Chapter 37. -- 85. Petilianus said: |But that the truth of this may be made manifest from
  289. Chapter 38. -- 90. Petilianus said: |If you declare that you hold the Catholic Church
  290. Chapter 39. -- 92. Petilianus said: |But there is no fellowship of darkness with light
  291. Chapter 40. -- 95. Petilianus said: |Paul the apostle also bids us
  292. Chapter 41. -- 97. Petilianus said: |And, again, he taught us that schisms should not arise
  293. Chapter 42. -- 99. Petilianus said: |If Paul uttered these words to the unlearned and to the
  294. Chapter 43. -- 101. Petilianus said: |Can it be that the traitor Judas hung himself for you
  295. Chapter 44. -- 103. Petilianus said: |For we, as it is written
  296. Chapter 45. -- 105. Petilianus said: |But if these are the parties
  297. Chapter 46. -- 107. Petilianus said: |In the first Psalm David separates the blessed from the impious
  298. Chapter 47. -- 109. Petilianus said: |But the same Psalmist has sung the praises of our baptism.
  299. Chapter 48. -- 111. Petilianus said: |Yet that you should not call yourselves holy
  300. Chapter 49. -- 113. Petilianus said: |For, granting that you faithless ones are acquainted with the law
  301. Chapter 50. -- 115. Petilianus said: |But that we may destroy your arguments one by one
  302. Chapter 51. -- 117. Petilianus said: |If you wretched men claim for yourselves a seat
  303. Chapter 52. -- 119. Petilianus said: |If you suppose that you can offer sacrifice
  304. Chapter 53. -- 121. Petilianus said: |If you make prayer to God
  305. Chapter 54. -- 123. Petilianus said: |But if it should so happen
  306. Chapter 55. -- 125. Petilianus said: |Even though you do very virtuous actions
  307. Chapter 56. -- 127. Petilianus said: |But even if, as you yourselves suppose
  308. Chapter 57. -- 129. Petilianus said: |It is written, Thou shalt not commit adultery.
  309. Chapter 58. -- 131. Petilianus said: |It is written, Thou shalt not bear FALSE witness against thy
  310. Chapter 59. -- 133. Petilianus said: |It is written, Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy
  311. Chapter 60. -- 135. Petilianus said: |Under what law, then, do you make out that you are
  312. Chapter 61. -- 137. Petilianus said: |But the Lord Christ says
  313. Chapter 62. -- 139. Petilianus said: |And again it is written
  314. Chapter 63. -- 141. Petilianus said: |But wherein do you fulfill the commandments of God? The Lord
  315. Chapter 64. -- 143. Petilianus said: |Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
  316. Chapter 65. -- 145. Petilianus said: |Blessed are they that mourn
  317. Chapter 66. -- 147. Petilianus said: |Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness
  318. Chapter 67. -- 149. Petilianus said: |Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
  319. Chapter 68. -- 151. Petilianus said: |Blessed are the pure in heart
  320. Chapter 69. -- 153. Petilianus said: |Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children
  321. Chapter 70. -- 155. Petilianus said: |Though the Apostle Paul says
  322. Chapter 71. -- 157. Petilianus said: |To you the prophet says
  323. Chapter 72. -- 159. Petilianus said: |Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake
  324. Chapter 73. -- 161. Petilianus said: |Since then you are not blessed by falsifying the commands of
  325. Chapter 74. -- 163. Petilianus said: |But these things do not alarm us Christians
  326. Chapter 75. -- 165. Petilianus said: |O wretched traditors! Thus indeed it was fitting that Scripture should
  327. Chapter 76. -- 167. Petilianus said: |But to us the Lord Christ
  328. Chapter 77. -- 169. Petilianus said: |Paul also, the apostle, whilst he was suffering fearful persecutions at
  329. Chapter 78. -- 171. Petilianus said: |For what kind of faith is that which is in you
  330. Chapter 79. -- 173. Petilianus said: |And again, Charity suffereth long
  331. Chapter 80. -- 175. Petilianus said: |Lastly, what is the justification of persecution? I ask you
  332. Chapter 81. -- 177. Petilianus said: |But I answer you, on the other hand
  333. Chapter 82. -- 179. Petilianus said: |But the holy apostle said this
  334. Chapter 83. -- 181. Petilianus said: |If then there are not some to whom all this power
  335. Chapter 84. -- 183. Petilianus said: |But if authority had been given by some law for persons
  336. Chapter 85. -- 185. Petilianus said: |For the Lord Christ says
  337. Chapter 86. -- 188. Petilianus said: |Is it then the case that God has ordered the massacre
  338. Chapter 87. -- 190. Petilianus said: |For neither has the Lord God at any time rejoiced in
  339. Chapter 88. -- 192. Petilianus said: |We advise you, therefore, if so be that you will hear
  340. Chapter 89. -- 194. Petilianus said: |Here you have the fullest possible proof that a Christian may
  341. Chapter 90. -- 196. Petilianus said: |Therefore I say, He ordained that we should undergo death for
  342. Chapter 91. -- 198. Petilianus said: |But you scatter thorns and tares
  343. Chapter 92. -- 200. Petilianus said: |Where is the saying of the Lord Christ
  344. Chapter 93. -- 202. Petilianus said: |But what have you to do with the kings of this
  345. Chapter 94. -- 214. Petilianus said: |Where is the law of God? where is your Christianity
  346. Chapter 95. -- 216. Petilianus said: |If you wish that we should be your friends
  347. Chapter 96. -- 218. Petilianus said: |But what reason is there
  348. Chapter 97. -- 220. Petilianus said: |Choose, in short, which of the two alternatives you prefer.
  349. Chapter 98. -- 223. Petilianus said: |Lastly, as we have often said before
  350. Chapter 99. -- 225. Petilianus said: |On you, yes you, you wretched men
  351. Chapter 100. -- 227. Petilianus said: |But we who are poor in spirit are not apprehensive for
  352. Chapter 101. -- 229. Petilianus said: |Inasmuch as we live in the fear of God
  353. Chapter 102. -- 231. Petilianus said: |You, therefore, who prefer rather to be washed with the most
  354. Chapter 103. -- 234. Petilianus said: |Imitate indeed the prophets, who feared to have their holy souls
  355. Chapter 104. -- 236. Petilianus said: |David also said, The oil of the sinner shall not anoint
  356. Chapter 105. -- 238. Petilianus said: |But he thus praises the ointment of concord among brethren
  357. Chapter 106. -- 240. Petilianus said: |Woe unto you, therefore, who
  358. Chapter 107. -- 242. Petilianus said: |And that none who is a layman may claim to be
  359. Chapter 108. -- 244. Petilianus said: |By this sentence, again, the apostle places in the same category
  360. Chapter 109. -- 246. Petilianus said: |Come therefore to the Church
  361. In this book Augustin refutes the second letter which Petilianus wrote to him after having
  362. Chapter 1. -- 1. Being able to read, Petilianus, I have read your letter
  363. Chapter 2. -- 3. Hear therefore, all ye who have read his revilings
  364. Chapter 3. -- 4. These comparisons of the gospel you doubtless recognize.
  365. Chapter 4. -- 5. Nor would I therefore be understood to urge that ecclesiastical discipline should be
  366. Chapter 5. -- 6. Do you, therefore, holy scions of our one Catholic mother
  367. Chapter 6. -- 7. Furthermore, whether concerning Christ, or concerning His Church
  368. Chapter 7. -- 8. Whilst we bear the testimony of God to this and the like effect
  369. Chapter 8. -- 9. Nor is it only you that are safe
  370. Chapter 9. -- 10. Therefore, as I have often said before
  371. Chapter 10. -- 11. Let these things suffice you, my beloved Christian brethren of the Catholic Church
  372. Chapter 11. -- 12. What wonder is it then, if, when I draw in the grain that
  373. Chapter 12. -- 13. For I am a man of the threshing-floor of Christ
  374. Chapter 13. -- 14. If, therefore, I am a servant of the Lord
  375. Chapter 14. -- 15. Furthermore, if I have obtained from you
  376. Chapter 15. -- 17. Read now the most profuse revilings which he has poured forth whilst puffed
  377. Chapter 16. -- 19. Let him go now, and with panting lungs and swollen throat find fault
  378. Chapter 17. -- 20. Let him further go on, in his discourse of many but manifestly empty
  379. Chapter 18. -- 21. Certainly in all these things, as you can learn or refresh your memory
  380. Chapter 19. -- 22. For perhaps some one of you will say to me
  381. Chapter 20. -- 23. All these statements in my letter Petilianus set before himself for refutation.
  382. Chapter 21. -- 24. But see, when he is reduced to straits in the argument
  383. Chapter 22. -- 26. Lastly, if these two or three words
  384. Chapter 23. -- 27. And, in the first place, with regard to that first expression
  385. Chapter 24. -- 28. Whatever, therefore, he finds in these two words
  386. Chapter 25. -- 29. And yet Petilianus, to avoid answering what I have said
  387. Chapter 26. -- 31. But why do we make inquiry into these points? Why do we both
  388. Chapter 27. -- 32. But this is not what we are now inquiring.
  389. Chapter 28. -- 33. This is what we look upon with horror in your party
  390. Chapter 29. -- 34. I entreat of you, pay attention to this
  391. Chapter 30. -- 35. Accordingly this precedent is wholly without bearing on the matter in hand.
  392. Chapter. 31. -- 36. |And where,| he says, |is the word that I added
  393. Chapter 32. -- 37. What shall we say of what he himself advanced in his epistle
  394. Chapter 33. -- 38. See now how Petilianus, to avoid answering this question
  395. Chapter 34. -- 39. Petilianus quotes also the warning of the Apostle John
  396. Chapter 35.
  397. Chapter 36. -- 42. But after this, when Petilianus came to that objection of ours
  398. Chapter 37. -- 43. Furthermore, according to our tenets, neither he of whom Petilianus said that he
  399. Chapter 38. -- 44. For, to pass over others dwelling in different quarters of the earth
  400. Chapter 39. -- 45. But as for you, when the case of the followers of Maximianus is
  401. Chapter 40. -- 46. For if the baptism which Prætextatus and Felicianus administered in the communion of
  402. Chapter 41. -- 49. Lastly, he has ended his epistle with an exhortation and warning to his
  403. Chapter 42. -- 51. For what I just now said is put with the greatest clearness in
  404. Chapter 43. -- 52. These things, I think, I put with clearness and truth in my former
  405. Chapter 44. -- 53. Then a little after, as he had said
  406. Chapter 45. -- 54. But that neither he nor any one of you might say that
  407. Chapter 46. -- 55. Now, seeing that when Petilianus attributes this to me as though it were
  408. Chapter 47. -- 57. Furthermore, in like manner as those who denied the resurrection of the dead
  409. Chapter 48. -- 58. When we ask, therefore, by what means the man is to be cleansed
  410. Chapter 49. -- 59. Do not therefore any longer say, |The conscience of one that gives in
  411. Chapter 50. -- 60. But if it is clear that Petilianus has made no answer to those
  412. Chapter 51. -- 63. Next, listen for a short time to the kind of way in which
  413. Chapter 52. -- 64. But if you wish to see that the object of Petilianus in his
  414. Chapter 53. -- 65. Then who is there that could fail to perceive from what a vein
  415. Chapter 54. -- 66. Finally, again, a little afterwards, when he resolved and was firmly purposed
  416. Chapter 55. -- 67. A minister, therefore, that is a dispenser of the word and sacrament of
  417. Chapter 56. -- 68. And if this is rightly said of the gospel
  418. Chapter 57. -- 69. Furthermore, if, while I have continued without intermission to prove how entirely the
  419. Chapter 58. -- 70. For when he quoted a passage from the gospel as making against us
  420. Chapter 59. But according to all these four hypotheses, the truth is on the side of the communion of the Catholic Church
  421. St. AUGUSTIN: 
  422. A Treatise 
  423. Chapter 1. -- 1. I must express my satisfaction, and congratulations
  424. Chapter 2. -- 6. I would add, moreover, that they themselves
  425. Chapter 3. -- 12. But those who are unacquainted with their habits think that they only kill
  426. Chapter 4. -- 15. And indeed, before those laws were put in force by the emperors of
  427. Chapter 5. -- 19. But as to the argument of those men who are unwilling that their
  428. Chapter 6. -- 21. It is indeed better as no one ever could deny that men should
  429. Chapter 7. -- 25. However, before those laws were sent into Africa by which men are compelled
  430. Chapter 8. -- 32. But they, as we have sometimes said before in other places
  431. Chapter 9. -- 35. As to the charge that they bring against us
  432. Chapter 10. -- 43. But this, they say, is the very thing which disquiets us
  433. Chapter 11. -- 48. But as to what they say, arguing as follows
  434. INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
  435. INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 

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  CHAPTER 0: WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY 
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========================================================================
  CHAPTER 1: WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY. 
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translated by the rev. j. r. king, m.a., vicar of st. peter's in the east,
oxford; and late fellow and tutor of merton college, oxford. revised, with
additional notes, by the rev. chester d. hartranft, d.d., professor of biblical
and ecclesiastical history, in the theological seminary at hartford, conn.


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  CHAPTER 2: INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
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By Rev. Chester D. Hartranft, D.D.


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  CHAPTER 3: CHAPTER I. --BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
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A. Sources. I. Of course all the Anti-Donatist writings of Augustin are found in
the general editions from Amerbach, 1506, to Migne, 1861. A few are also
collected in Du Pin's edd. of Optatus Mil. 1. In the Monumenta vetera ad
Donatistarum Historiam pertinentia. 2. In the Gesta Collationis Carthagini
habitae Honorii Caesaris iussu inter Catholicos et Donatistas. See also the
different Collections of Councils, Labbe, Baluze, Harduin, Mansi, etc. Since
these works are discussed in Chapter II. it is unnecessary to repeat the titles
here. Cp. titles in Retractationes: and Indiculus librorum, tractatuum et
epistolarum S. Augustini, ed. cura Possidii, cap. III. II. Separate editions of
Augustin's Anti-Donatist writings. (From Schönemann's Bibliotheca, and other
bibliographies.) 1. S. Augustini liber seu Epistola de unitate Ecclesiae contra
Petiliani Donat. Epistolam, Argumentis, Notis atque Analysi illustrata, studio
Justi Caluini. Moguntiae. 1602. 2. SS. Cypriani et Augustini de unitate
Ecclesiae tractatus. Accedit Georgii Calixti, S. Theo. Doct. et in Acad. Julia
Prof. primarii, in eorundem librorum lectionem Introductionis fragmentum edente
Frid. Ulrico Calixto. Georgii filio. Helmæstadii ex typogr. Calixt.1657. 8. 3.
Aurelii Augustini, Episcopi Hipponensis, Liber de Unitate Ecclesiae contra
Donatistas. Ext. cum Commentariis uberrimis et utillisimis in Melchioris
Lydeckeri Historia illustrata Ecclesiae Africanae, cujus totum pæne tomum
secundum constituit inscriptum: Tomus secundus ad Librum Augustini de Unitate
Ecclesiae contra Donatistas, de principiis Ecclesiae Africanae, illiusque fide
in Articulis de Capite Christo et Ecclesia, de Unitate et Schismate, plurimisque
Religionis Christianae capitibus agit. Ultrajecti apud viduam Guil. Clerck,
1690. 4. 4. D. Augustini liber de moderate coercendis haereticis ed Bonifacium
Comitem. Nic. Bergius Revalensis Holmiae, 1696, in 8. III. Translations. 1.
Epistre ou le Livre de St. Augustin de l'Unité de l'Eglise, contre Petilien,
Evesque Donatiste, avec certaines observations pour entendre les lieux plus
difficiles par Jac. Tigeou, imprimé à Reims par Jean de Foigny. 1567. 8. 2.
L'Epistre à Vincent, Evesque de l'heresie Rogatiane, traduict de latin par
Clément Vaillant. A Paris, Mathurin Prevost. 1573. 8.3. Traité du Baptême trad.
par l'abbé Dujat, chapelain d'Étampes. Paris. 1778. 12.4. Writings in connection
with the Donatist controversy, translated by the Rev. J. R. King, M.A. In the
Series of Translations of the Works of Augustin. Edinburgh. T. & T. Clark.
1872.5. Ausgewählte Schriften des heil. Aurelius Augustinus, Kirchenlehrers,
nach aem Urtexte ubersetzt. Mit einer kurzen Lebensbeschreibung des Heiligen von
J. Motzberger. 1871-1879. In the Bibliothek der Kirchenväter, Kempten, 1869
sqq.B. Literature.This is a selected literature of the Donatist controversy so
far as Augustin was connected with it.I. In the Benedictine editions occur:1.
Their Vita S. Aurelii Augustini. Tom. XI. Antw., pp.1-344. Tom. I. Migne,
pp.65-578.2. Praefatio of Tom. IX. Antw. s. p. Migne, pp.9-24.3. Index
opusculorum S. Augustini contra Donatistas. Tom. IX. Antw., pp.463, 4. Migne,
pp.757-760.4. Excerpta et scripta vetera ad Donatistarum historiam pertinentia.
Tom. IX. Antw., App. pp.7-50. Migne, pp.773-842.5. Epistolarum ordo
chronologicus. Tom. II. Antw., s. p. Migne, pp.13-48.II. Possidius: Vita S.
Aurelii Augustini. Reprinted in Migne Aug. Op. Tom. I., pp.33-66. Cp. Migne Pat.
Lat. L. p.407.III. Ecclesiastica Historia. By the Magdeburg Centuriators.
1559-1574. Tom. II. and III., Centuria, IV. and V., contain the Donatist
history.IV. Balduinius, Franc.1. Delibatio Africanae historiae ecclesticae, s.
Optati libri VII. de Schismate Donatistarum, etc. Paris, 1563. A second edition
with improved readings. Ib., 1569. In this the prefaces and annotations are of
value. Reprinted in Du Pin's ed. of Optatus Mil.2. Historia Carthaginensis
Collationis sive disputationis de ecclesia, olim habitae inter Catholicos et
Donatistas. Paris, 1566.8. Reprinted in Du Pin. ib.V. Baronius. Annales
Ecclesiatici. 1588-1607. Tom. III.-V., contain the Donatist history.VI.
Albaspinæus: Optati Mel. opera cum notis et observationibus Gabrielis
Albaspinæi. Paris, 1631. Valuable mainly for the observations; reprinted in Du
Pin's ed. of Optatus.VII. Casaubonus: Optati Mel. de schismate Donatistarum
libri VII. In eosd. notae et emendationes Merici Casauboni. Lond.1631. These
notes are of value and are reproduced with those of other editions in the
Annotationes Variorum of Du Pin's ed.VIII. Valesius Henricus: Eusebii Pamph.
Historia ecc., libri de Vita Constantini, Panegyricus, Const. Oratio ad
Sanctorum coetum, gr. et lat. cum annotatt. Paris, 1659 and often. In this is
his dissertation: De schismate Donatistarum.IX. Long, Thomas, B.D. History of
the Donatists. Lond.1677. 8.X. Du Pin: Nouvelle Bibliothéque des Auteurs
Ecclésiastiques.1. St. Augustin. Tom. III. première partie, pp.522-839, 1690.
Particularly the review of vol. IX. of Augustin's collected works, pp.792-811.2.
In Tom. II., Troisième partie, 1701, there are also many allusions to the
history and literature.3. In his ed. of Optatus Mel., Historia Donatistarum.XI.
Ittig, Thomas: de Haeresiarchis oevi apostolici at apostol. prox.
Lips.1690-1703. 4.XII. Leydecker Melchior; Historia Ecclesiastica Africana. 2
Tom.4, See above. Traj.1690. 4.XIII. Witsius, Hermann: Miscellaneorum Sacrorum
libri.2 vols. Amst.1692. 4. In vol. I. Dissertatio de schismate
Donatistarum.XIV. Bernino: Historia di tutte l'heresie descritta da Domenico
Bernino. Venezia 1711. Tom. I., contains hist. of Donatism.XV. Storren, J. Ph.:
ansführlicher und gründlicher Bericht von den Namen, Ursprung, v.s.w. der
Donatisten. Frankf.1723.8.XVI. Norisius, Henricus: Opera omnia nunc prim.
collecta et ordinata. Veronae, Tumermani, 1729-32, fol. 4vols. The fourth volume
contains his posthumous work on History of Donatism, as finished by
Ballerini.XVII. Tillemont: in his Memoires pour servir a l'histoire
Ecclésiastique:1. Tom. VI. Histoire du schisme des Donatistes, où l'on marque
aussi tout ce qui regardé l'Eglise d'Afrique depuis l'an 305, jusques en l'an
391que S. Augustin fut fait Prestre. 1732.2. Tom. XIII. La Vie de Saint
Augustin, dans laquelle on trouvera l'histoire des Donatistes de son temps, et
celle des Pelagiens. 1732.XVIII. Orsi: Della Istoria Ecclesiastica descritta da
F. Guiseppe Agostino Orsi. Tom. IV. (1741) and V. (1749) contain the history ot
the Donatists.XIX. Walch, Ch. Wilh. Fr.: Entwurf einer vollständigen Historie
der Ketzereien, Spaltungen und Religionsstreitigkeiten, bis auf die Zeiten der
Reformation. Leipzig, 1768. Vierter Theil: Von der Spaltung der Donatisten; with
its three sections:a. Von der historie der Donatisten.b. Von den zwischen den
Donatisten und ihren Gegnern geführten Religionsstreitigkeiten. c. Beurtheilung
der Donatistichen Streitigkeiten. This work was the beginning of a new critical
estimate of the documents.XX. Schröckh, Johann Mattheus: Christliche
Kirchengeschichte. Sechster Theil: 1784, but particularly Elfter Theil, 1786. A
juster estimate of Donatism.XXI. Morcellii, Steph. Ant.: Africa christiana in
tres partes distributa. 3 vols.4Brixiae, 1816-17. 4. P. II. for Donatism.XXII.
Bindemann, C.: Der heilige Augustinus, 1844-1869. Bdd. II. & III. contain
excellent analyses of the works on Donatism, as well as a history during
Augustin's life.XXIII. Roux, Adrianus: Dissertatio de Aurelio Augustino,
adversario Donatistarum. Lugduni Batavorum, 1838. A brief summary of the works
and doctrine.XXIV. Ribbeck: Donatus und Augustinus oder der erste entscheidende
Kampf zwischen Separatismus und Kirche. Ein Kirchenhistorischer Versuch von
Ferdinand Ribbeck. Elberfeld. 1857.8. An uncritical history; but a vigorous
analysis, apologetic and polemic.XXV. Deutsch: Drei Actenstücke zur Geschichte
Donatismus. Neu herausgegeben und erklärt von Martin Deutsch. Berlin, 1875. The
first work on the textual and historical criticism of the sources.XXVI. Voelter:
Der Ursprung des Donatismus, nach den Quellen untersucht und dargestellt von Lic
Dr. Daniel Voelter. Freiburg i. B. und Tübingen, 1883. This keen writer, at
present Prof. Ord. in Univ. of Amsterdam, has gone still further into textual
and historical criticism, and gives fair promise of a more impartial hearing for
Donatism. It is to be hoped that he will fulfill his qualified promise of
further research.Among the general church histories particular mention may be
made of Gieseler, Neander, Lindner, Niedner, Robertson, Ritter, Hergenröther,
Schaff. The articles on Augustin, Donatism and related persons and topics in
Ceillier, Ersch und Gruber, Herzog, Schaff-Herzog, Smith's Dictionary of
Christian Biography, Wetzer and Welte, Lichtenberger, are more or less
noteworthy. Mention must also be made of the Patrologies, the biographies,
Hefele's Conciliengeschichte, the Analyses Patrum, etc.


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  CHAPTER 4: CHAPTER II. --AN ANALYSIS OF AUGUSTIN'S WRITINGS AGAINST THE DONATISTS. 
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The object of this chapter is to present a rudimentary outline and summary of
all that Augustin penned or spoke against those traditional North African
Christians whom he was pleased to regard as schismatics. It will be arranged, so
far as may be, in chronological order, following the dates suggested by the
Benedictine edition. The necessary brevity precludes anything but a very meagre
treatment of so considerable a theme. The writer takes no responsibility for the
ecclesiological tenets of the great Father, nor will he enter here into any
criticism of the text and truth of the documents, upon which the historical
argument was so laboriously and peremptorily built, to the utter ignoring of the
Donatist archives, and the protests of their scholars against the validity and
integrity of their opponents' records. Both parties claimed to be the historic
Catholic church; both were little apart in doctrine, worship, and polity; both
tended toward externalism in piety; both accused one another of fraud in
inventing records. Later Romanism in its bright spirit of selection took much
spoil from either camp. The city of Augustin's birth, its neighborhood, indeed
the whole ecclesiastical province of Numidia, was a stronghold for this puristic
school. Is it not singular, then, that it seems to have made no impression upon
his early years? As a child he had witnessed its brief restoration under Julian,
and then the severe or lax efforts at suppression under succeeding emperors; the
Rogatian schism and the Tychonian reformation were quite familiar to him in his
Manichæan period; but the Confessions are silent as to any such stamp or hold
upon his mind. His activity begins with his ordination to the presbyterate, a
time marked in Donatist annals by the Maximianist separation, and increases as
he becomes bishop. From about 392 to near the close of his life, pen and voice
were seldom still. In all those years the outlinear thoughts grew in breadth and
depth; endless are the forms in which his few and radical conceptions manifest
themselves; never does he lose sight of the popular effect, so that he knows
when to relax his love of word-play and delight in mysterious inductions, in
order to make the chief themes plain to the dullest mind. How varied the
channels through which he struggled for the mastery of his idea of the Church!
In the pulpit he made Donatism the occasion of many a polemic, many an appeal;
in his correspondence it was an ever-recurrent topic; it was the staple of many
a tract and book; verse was not shunned to destroy its fashionableness and
popularity; commentaries and manuals for the meditative hour or for the training
of the theological student, abounded in warnings against its aggressiveness; no
opportunity for debate or conference or epistolary discussion was left
unimproved. And no wonder: it was a living thing, of the street, of the market,
of the social circle, of the home; it threatened at times to obliterate the
transmarine view of the church from North Africa; its spirit of political
independence and plea for religious liberty went to the hearts of a people, more
and more restive under the decline of the Empire. The literary creations of
Donatism had been somewhat more fertile than that of Cæcilianism. We must not
belittle Donatus the Great, Parmenian, Petilian, Gaudentius, and certainly the
eminence of Tychonius is confessed by Augustin himself. Up to this time Optatus
of Milevis had been the only forcible opponent. But against the great Augustin
whom could they bring into the field? And against the great Augustin, backed by
the energy of the State, there was little hope of fairness. Augustin found a new
and weighty school. Donatism, with its impossible ideal, already began to
despise the culture which seemed to help its defeat and withdrew into its
sensitive shell after the manner of all puristic tendencies under persecution.
The two prevalent lines of attack are the historical on the origin of the
schism, which involved the dissection of the documents, and the doctrinal, or
the discussion of the true notes of the Church from the basis of the Scriptures.
This latter Augustin preferred, because final; he bowed to no patristic. One or
the other or both may be traced in all his works, great or small, against them.
Out of so protracted a controversy there grew up a symmetrical and comprehensive
theory of the Church and the Sacraments on either side. Of three fundamental
points of Donatism, as perpetuated practices of North Africa, rebaptism and the
encouragement of a martyr spirit with its attendant feasts, the continuance of
the Seniores in the government of the Church, we find Augustin aiming mainly at
the overthrow of the first two. One of his earliest letters suggests to his
bishop some means for checking the drunkenness and great excess connected with
the Natalitia. Passing to the specific subject in view: In the early period of
his presbyterate, (possibly about 392, others place it later), Augustin
journeyed through Mutugenna, which apparently belonged to his bishop's see. He
learned how pacifically disposed Maximin, Donatist bishop of Sinaita, was. The
friendly feeling thus kindled toward him was shaken by the rumor that he had
rebaptized a defecting Catholic deacon of Mutugenna; not willing to credit the
story, he visited the deacon's home. His parents testified to their son's
reception into the same office by the Donatists. In the absence of Bishop
Valerius, he writes to Maximin with entreaty, refusing to credit the repetition
of the rite, and urging him to remain firm in the convictions which had been
imputed to him. He solicits a reply, that both letters may be read in the public
service, after the dismission of the military. The prominent points of the
letter are: while declining to recognize the validity of Maximin's orders, he
does not refuse to salute him as Dominus dulcissimus, and Pater venerabilis. His
solicitude as a shepherd to do his duty to all the sheep, constrains him to
force himself upon their attention, and to be eager for correspondence or
conference with a view to bringing them back to the fold. He is perfectly
assured of the absolute and final correctness of his idea of the Church, and of
the hopeless error of Donatism, an error so great as to merit eternal
destruction. He discriminates, however, between heresy and schism at this time.
Rebaptism in any case is a sin, but as applied to apostatizing Catholics, is an
immanissimum scelus. There is only one baptism; that of Christ; as there was no
double circumcision, so the sacrament of the New Testament should not be
repeated. The Church is the owner of the nations which are Christ's inheritance,
and of the ends of the earth, which are his possession; hence it is universal;
the seamless robe should not be rent. Moreover the Lord's threshing-floor has
chaff upon it along with the wheat, and therefore he urged the disuse of
imputations through unworthy members on either side, whether Macarius or
Circumcelliones. The schism made itself disastrously felt in all domestic and
social relations. He engages to avoid anything that would look like using the
power of the state for coercing conscience, and begs that on Maximin's side the
Circumcelliones may be restrained. [Ep. xxiii.] A Plenary council of all Africa
was convened in Hippo-Regius in 393, before which Augustin preached the sermon.
His subject was Faith and the Creed: his handling made such an impression that
he was induced to expand it into the treatise: De Fide et Symbolo. In explaining
the article credimus et sanctam ecclesiam, utique catholicam, he reflects on
heretics and schismatics as claiming the title of churches for their
congregations; and distinguishes between these two opponents of the Catholic
body, heretics erring in doctrine, schismatics, while similar to the Catholic
body in views of truth yet transgressing in the rupture of fraternal love.
Neither pertain to the true Church of God. (Cp. Retractt. I. xvii). Determined
if possible to win the ear of all classes, the presbyter next affected a poem,
"Psalmus contra Partem Donati," in the art of an Abecedarium, running the
letters to U. The line with which it began was to be chanted as a refrain after
each group of usually twelve lines connected with each letter, the whole closing
with an extended epilogue. A generally vulgar performance it is, and purposely
disclaimed all metrical dignity; and yet it contains the germs of his logical
and historical opinions on the controverted points. The Church is a net in the
sea of the world, enclosing the good and bad, which are not to be separated
until the net is drawn to the shore. Those who accuse the Catholics of
tradition, were themselves traditors and broke the net. The history is repeated,
and all proof of the Donatist charges declared to be wanting. Unity is a note of
the Church, and toleration within the net essential to its preservation. Over
against Macarius he puts the violent Circumcelliones. The wicked members of the
Church do not contaminate the good by a communion which is only outward and not
of the heart. The threshing-floor has chaff upon it; wheat and tares must grow
together. The Catholics rear the Elijah altar, the Donatist the Baal altar over
against it. Christ endured Judas. Why rebaptize us, he exclaims, when you do not
repeat the rite upon your once expelled but now restored Maximianists? Surely it
is better to draw life from the real root. The character of him who administers
the sacrament has nothing to do with its efficiency; and so he returns to the
necessity for toleration within the net, as Judas was forborne in the apostolic
company. The epilogue pictures the personified Church expostulating with the
Donatists for quarreling with their Mother, and presents a loose summary of the
previous arguments. It is doubtful whether, even in the fashion of the times, so
lengthy a poem could become a street theme, or find many repeaters in the
markets and inns of Hippo or Carthage, although the refrain for peace and
truthful judgment might catch the ear of the more zealous. [Cp. Retractt. I.
xx.]. The Bishop of Carthage, Donatus the Great, the sphinx of Donatism, had
written a book to vindicate the claim of his church to the only Christian
baptism. The work obtained considerable currency, and maintained its authority,
even in Augustin's day, so he answered it during the year 393, most probably, in
a treatise of one book now no longer extant, but which has been given the title:
"Contra Epistolam Donati hæretici," The Retractations (I. xxi.) correct some
points which had been held in this work. (1). According to the Ambrosian view,
Augustin here identified Peter with the rock, on which the Church was to be
built; but afterwards he regarded that rock as Christ, who was the subject of
the Petrine confession; on Christ was the Church to be built, and to the Church
as thus reared, were given the keys. (2). The Donatus present at the Roman
Synod, he had spoken of as the bishop of Carthage, the author of the book, which
error is corrected in the Retractations. (3). He had also charged the writer
with falsifying a favorite passage of their side, Ecclus. xxxiv.30, but
afterwards found that some codices read according to the Donatist quotation, and
apologizes for his assertions.Doubtless many of the sermons preached during his
presbyterate had reference to the schism, but the chronology of these is too
uncertain to allow of any definite arrangement.We pass to the period of his
co-bishopric with the aged Valerius, which dates from 395 A.D.Evodius, a brother
connected with the Church at Hippo Regius, had a chance meeting with
Proculeianus, bishop of the Donatist body in that diocese. The two fell into a
discussion of their mutual differences. Evodius spoke in rather a lofty and
censorious way, after the fashion of his side, and wounded the feelings of the
older disputant, for the Donatists, like all kindred bodies, cultivated an undue
sensitiveness and were altogether too ready to take offense. Proculeianus,
however, expressed a perfect readiness to have a friendly debate with Augustin
in the presence of competent men. In view of this suggestion, and in the absence
of Valerius, Augustin, always anxious to improve such an opening, addressed a
letter to Proculeianus (c.396), with courteous recognition, and no such sharp
denial of the episcopal function as in the case of Maximin. He apologizes for
the severe language of his friend, and in every way avoids any expression which
might cause the tendrils again to be drawn in. The methods suggested for
discussion show the anxiety of Augustin to beat out the fire of Donatism; there
is the debate before chosen hearers, all the statements to be written out for
use; or there is the private discussion through mutual discourse, to be read to
one another and corrected, and so given to the people; or the single
correspondence with a view to public lections, or any possible way that the aged
bishop himself might prefer. He urges that the dead bury their dead, and the
past history be left out of the debate; the present with its burning dissensions
affords sufficient topics. As the people seek the bishop to arbitrate in their
private litigations, let these worthies cultivate peace in this broader field;
to this end he invites to prayer and conference. (Ep. xxxiii.).Apparently the
letter led to nothing practical. A new turn was given to matters. A son had
beaten his mother, and threatened her life; to avoid Catholic discipline, he
joined the Donatists and was rebaptized by them: as Augustin says, he wounded
also his spiritual mother by contemning her sacrament. Public registration of
the facts were made by Augustin, all the more because the reported instructions,
given by bishop Proculeianus to his presbyter Victor concerning the affair, had
already been denied. The case presented an opportunity for getting at some rule
for the recognition of one another's discipline. Accordingly Augustin addresses
himself to Eusebius, a judicious Donatist of higher rank. He professes that his
aim is peace; he emphasizes with impatient vehemence his opposition to coercive
measures in matters of conscience: neque me id agere ut ad communionem
catholicam quisquam cogatur invitus. He asks Eusebius to find out whether
Proculeianus had given the order to his presbyter as recorded; whether the
bishop would consent to a collation between themselves and ten selected men on
each side, agreeably to the original suggestion so that the whole question might
be discussed from the Scriptural grounds, not the historical. Some proposals for
a meeting either at the Donatist region of Constantina, or at their projected
council at Milevis, he could not accept, because both lay outside of his
diocese. If Proculeianus objected to the dialectic and rhetorical skill of his
counter bishop, the latter would propose Samsucius, bishop of Turris, an earnest
but uncultivated man, as a substitute to lead the Catholic side. (Ep.
xxxiv.).Eusebius declined to interfere on the ground that he could not be a
judge, so Augustin replies (Ep. xxxv.) that he had only asked him to make some
inquiries, because the bishop refused to have any direct communication. The need
for some adjustment concerning discipline had become very pressing; a Catholic
subdeacon and some nuns under rebuke had been received into full standing by the
Donatists, yet their subsequent career had been even more scandalous. Augustin
claimed that the Catholics always respected the penal enactments of their
opponents. To show his own hostility to compulsory conversions, he cites the
case of a daughter, who against the paternal will had joined the Donatists, and
had professed among them; when the father was about to use violence for her
recall, he was dissuaded by Augustin, and when a presbyter of Proculeianus had
shouted abusive epithets at him, although upon the property of a Catholic woman,
he neither replied nor allowed others to resent the insult. A practical treatise
is ascribed by some to this time, called de Agone Christiano. In expounding the
faith he warns against different groups of heretics and schismatics. In Chap.
xxix.31, he cautions against listening to the Donatist party, who deny the one
holy Catholic church to be diffused throughout the whole world, and claim it to
be alone in Africa, and there among themselves, against the plain Scripture
teaching of its universality; they affirm that the prophecies of its extension
have already been fulfilled, after which the whole church perished outside of
their remnant. He alludes to the divisions which have befallen them as a
retribution for their separation. If the end shall come after the preaching of
the gospel to all nations, how can all nations have lapsed from the faith, when
there remain some who are yet to hear and believe? This system robs Christ of
His glory, and is to be avoided by all who love the Church. (Cp. Retractt. II.
iii.).In 397 A.D., at the death of Valerius, he became sole bishop. In this
year, while on a visit to Tibursi, he had met with Glorius and other Donatists,
with whom he held a friendly disputation on the origin and history of the
schism, during which some Donatist documents were produced which he declared to
be false, and from memory recapitulated the archives current on his side.
Augustin pursued his journey to Gelizi, where he attended to some episcopal
duties, and brought back with him a copy of the Catholic Gesta, and spent a day
with these friends in reading them, but could not quite finish. He subsequently
reproduces this story with the arguments in a letter. (Ep. xliii.). The chief
burden is a criticism of the Acts, highly important in its place, but it must be
passed by here save to remark that in speaking of Bishop Secundus, he suggests
that it would have been better to appeal to the principalities of Rome or of
some other apostolic church, than to have proceeded as he did; he should have
preserved the unity at all hazards; had the case been inexplicable, he should
have left it to God; if definable, he should have addressed the transmarine
bishops, after finding that his peers at home could not adjust the difficulty;
disobedience on the part of Cæcilian to such an order, would have made him the
author of the schism; but now the Donatist altar is set up against the Universal
Church. It may be well to note that throughout the survey of these acts, there
appears a manifest contradiction as to the beginning of the appellations. In the
next place, the Donatists are held guilty of schism, rebaptism, and resistance
to civil correction; of non-communion with those churches concerning whom they
read in their lections; and of the demand for purism against the Lord's parable.
The angels of the churches in the apocalypse are ecclesiastical powers, not
heavenly messengers. The Church cannot be charged with the crimes of the evil
men in it. Toleration is the only practice by which unity can be conserved;
Moses bore with murmurers, David with Saul, Samuel with the sons of Eli, Christ
with Judas. They themselves forbear with Circumcelliones, with Optatus bishop of
Thamugada. The emphasis, however, is not so much upon those matters as upon
schism. He would rather leave the archives and elucidate the doctrine, in which
he claims to have the book of the world; that the Catholics are the Lord's
inheritance; that they stand in fellowship with the churches of the New
Testament; they are the light of the world. A divine rebuke has befallen
Donatism in all the tenets of its particularity, by the schism and return of the
Maximianists.No open door was passed by. On a journey to Cirta, possibly about
the beginning of 398 A.D., he visited with clerical friends the aged Donatist,
bishop Fortunius, at Tibursi. A great company gathered who interrupted the
debate; all attempts at taking notes were finally given up. In a letter (Ep.
xliv.) to the Donatists, Eleusius, Glorius, and the two Felixes, who were of the
number of those addressed in the previous epistle, he speaks of their witness to
the conciliatory disposition of Fortunius, and recounts the substance of the
interview, with the desire that it may be submitted to that bishop for
correction. The discussion had opened with the question of the Church. Fortunius
regretted that Augustin was not in it; the latter reversed the wish. What is the
Church? Is it diffused throughout the whole world, or is it confined to Africa?
Can the Donatists send letters of communion to any of the apostolic churches?
Thence they dissected the Donatist claim to be the people of God, on account of
their subjection to persecution; in which it appears that they recorded the
schism of the whole world from themselves as the true Church as due to sympathy
with the Macarian persecution; up to that time they had held fellowship with the
whole world, and as proof thereof brought forward a letter of a council of
Sardica addressed to them. From the condemnation of Athanasius and Julius by
this document, Augustin, to whom it was new, concluded that this was an Arian
council, and was only the more damaging to their theory. The note of persecution
being resumed, he maintained that there was no approved suffering unless for a
just cause, and hence the justice of the cause must first be established. Though
Ambrose had endured violence at the hand of the soldiery, they would deny him to
be a Christian, for they would rebaptize even him. Maximianists on the other
hand were confessed to be just, although they had been dispossessed of their
basilicas by the Primianist appeal to the state. As an offset, Fortunius urged
the curious fact that before the election of Majorinus, an interventor had been
chosen, whom the Cæcilianists put out of the way. On the following day Augustin
had to confess that there was no example in the New Testament to justify
compulsion in matters of faith. The next topic was Discipline. Augustin pleaded
for toleration in order to keep unity. A point as to Johannic baptism sprang up,
but was not pressed. From this time the debate became miscellaneous and
repetitious; in its progress Fortunius confessed reluctantly that rebaptism was
a fixed practice among them, and that even a Catholic bishop so highly esteemed
among the Donatists for his non-persecuting spirit as was Genethlius, would have
to submit to the rite before he could be recognized by their body. Augustin
proposes a further examination of matters, with a view to peace, but the pacific
Fortunius doubts whether many of the so-called Catholics really desire concord,
to which Augustin replies that he can find ten men who would heartily enter into
such a conference. On the next day the venerable Donatist calls upon his
opponent to resume their talk, until an ordination called Augustin away; we also
obtain information of the Coelicolæ professing a new sort of baptism, with whose
leader he desired to confer. The letter closes with a proposition to meet in the
little village of Titia, near Tibursi, where there was no church, and the
population pretty equally divided, and where no crowd could disturb the progress
of the investigation; thither all documents should be brought and the whole
subject canvassed for as long a time as it might take to terminate the
discussion.During the year Augustin issued a weighty work, which stands closely
related to these visits to Fortunius. It was in two books named by himself:
Contra partem Donati. Unhappily it is lost, but in the Retractations (II. v.),
he says, that in the first book he had opposed the use of the secular power for
compelling the schismatics to return to the communion of the State Church, a
form of discipline which experience afterwards persuaded him was necessary and
wholesome.Possibly it was at the close of the year 398 that a hint from the
Donatist bishop Honoratus was brought by Herotes to Augustin, to the effect that
they carry on a correspondence on the questions in dispute between them, and
avoid the uproar of public debates. Augustin acquiesces heartily, and at once
plunges (Ep. xlix.) into the doctrinal aspect of the matter. He begins with the
note of Universality, the Church is diffused through the whole world, to
establish which he brings forward some of his key passages, Ps. ii.7, 8, Matt.
xxiv.14, Rom. i.5. With all the apostolic churches Catholics communicate,
Donatists do not. How then can this universality be limited? Why call the
Catholic church Macarian, when the name of Macarius or Donatus is not known in
any of these gospel regions? It rests with Donatists to prove how the Church is
lost from the whole world and is confined to them. Catholics can rely on the
Scriptures only for their theory. Correspondence seems to him also the better
plan for discussion. Whether this mutual approach went further is not known.It
may have been in 399 A.D. that the Donatist presbyter Crispinus had met Augustin
at Carthage; the two joined words, and both seem to have become heated; the
former made promise to resume the parley at a later date, to the fulfillment of
which the bishop had occasionally urged him. When Crispinus was elevated to the
see of Calama, c.400 A.D., and was not far from Augustin's diocese, the latter
addressed him a letter (Ep. li.) rehearsing these facts. A new rumor credited
Crispinus with being ready to enter the arena once more. All salutation is
avoided in Augustin's letter, because the Donatists had accused him of
servility. For the sake of accuracy and instruction he proposes simply to
correspond, whether by one interchange of letters or by many. He pleads that
present interests alone may be touched upon. Schism according to the Old
Testament was more severely punished than idolatry or the burning of the sacred
scroll. The charge of traditorship is set off by the acceptance of the
Maximianists, whom the council of Bagai had condemned in such severe terms. If a
mistake was made with regard to them why not in Cæcilian's case? If these were
really guilty, you consulted the wider duties of unity and toleration, and why
not carry these principles farther and apply them to communion with the
Catholics? As to the charge of persecution, Augustin will not enter into the
merits of the matter theoretically, nor stop to plead the mildness of the
measures used, but at once asks why the Donatists used the State to dislodge the
Maximianists, and to deny the Catholics the possession of genuine baptism is
made foolish by the recognition of the rite as existing among the Maximianists
who had been cut off, and were restored without a renewal of the ceremony. The
whole world had been condemned by the Donatists without an opportunity of being
heard, and yet they accept the sacrament of the condemned Felicianus and
Prætextatus. While they deny the validity of the symbol as administered by
apostolic communions, and by the missionary churches which brought the light to
Africa, they maintain that their little fraction alone is its possessor.
Summarizing these arguments as a weight for the bishop to stagger under, he
invokes the peace of Christ to conquer his heart.In this same year one of his
relatives, Severinus, who was a Donatist, sent a communication to him at Hippo
by a special messenger, with a view of reopening friendly intercourse with his
kinsman; and Augustin seizes it as a way to reestablish as well the higher
kinship in Christ (Ep. lii.). The Church is an unconcealable city set on a hill;
it is Catholic, being diffused throughout the whole world. The party of Donatus
is cut off from the historic root of the Oriental churches, and therefore cannot
bring forth the fruits of peace and love; indeed it suppresses Christ by its
rebaptism. Had their charges been genuine the transmarine bishops would have
supported them; at any rate they should not have withdrawn from the Unity, but
rather have practiced toleration. He hopes that the bonds of custom may be
broken by Severinus, and that both may find their truest relationship in Christ,
since the state of schism is a despising of the eternal heritage and of
perpetual salvation. Further along in the year, a Donatist presbyter had sent to
Generosus an ordo Christianitatis, or episcopal succession of Constantina, his
native city, asserting that it had been delivered by an angel from heaven. About
nothing were the church externalists of every camp so eager as the preservation
of the succession in proof of antiquity. Generosus had only laughed at the man's
stupidity, but nevertheless wrote to the bishop of Hippo about it. Fortunatus,
Alypius and Augustin combine in a reply, undeniably written by the latter,
commending him (Ep. liii.). The ordo Christianitatis of the whole world is
theirs, from which the Donatists do not hesitate to separate themselves. This
presbyter's fiction would have to be rejected at any rate, even had it come from
an angel, since all other gospels than that which teaches the universality of
the Church are anathema. That doctrine is in Matt. xxiv.14, Gen. xii.3, Gal.
iii.16. The true ordo is the Roman, which he gives from Peter to Anastasius, the
cotemporary pope; no Donatist is found in this list; yet as Montenses and
Cutzupitæ, they have intruded into Rome. Had there been an actual tradition, or
any wicked man in the Church, that would not have vitiated the ordo, or the
Church, for the law of Christ is plain, Matt. xxiii.3, a passage again and again
quoted by Augustin to substantiate this thought. They are separated from the
peace of these very churches, concerning which they read in their codices, and
sing pax tecum. There follows a very full and notable summary of the acts, as a
refutation of the schism. He prefers the Scriptural proofs, which certify to the
world-wide reach of Christ's inheritance, and its existence among all nations;
from this they are separated by a nefarious schism, and charge upon the
Catholics the crimes of the chaff on the threshing-floor, which must be mixed
with the grain until the winnowing; these accusations do not affect the wheat
which grows with the tares in the field until the end. Their divinely appointed
retribution is in the history of the Maximianists, with whom they now commune,
and affirm that they are not stained thereby; let them apply that lenity of
judgment to the inheritance of Christ. The angel then was either Satan, or the
man is Satanic, yet his salvation is desired; the sharp writing concerning him
is without odium, and seeks only his correction.Celer was a Donatist, a man of
middle age and of considerable estate and civil position. He afterwards rose to
the proconsulship. Augustin expresses (Ep. lvi.) a peculiar respect and
affection for him, as a man of integrity and seriousness. He had desired direct
instruction from the bishop, both in a matter of Christian culture and in the
controversies between the two parties. Weighed down with the cares of
visitation, Augustin had to delegate his presbyter Optatus to the reading and
explanations of the bishop's works and views in Celer's leisure hours. The
superior claims of the life beyond are set before him, together with the
overwhelming force of the proofs against the schism, so that the dullest with
patience and attention can get correction. The sundering of the bonds of custom
and of a perversity that has become familiar, is a matter requiring great
strength of character, for which step however, he, under God, would be readily
capable.But Celer was not persuaded to change his church connection by this
first endeavor. On the contrary, Augustin thought he saw a laxity in the
enforcement of the repressive measure ordered by the government, and so wrote a
second time (Ep. lvii.). He affirms that there is no just cause for separation
from that Catholic church which prophets and evangelist have declared should be
diffused through the whole world. A long retained codex of Augustin, which had
been loaned to Celer through Cæcilian, his own son, who seems to have been under
the special tutelage of the bishop, was designed to convince the state official
on this very point (we do not know which writing it may have been), should
inclination or leisure lead him to its perusal, and whatever difficulties might
occur, Augustin was ready to answer. He desires him also to stir up his
subordinates to greater care in restoring the Catholic unity in the region of
Hippo; indeed he cautions him to diligence on his own estates; a friend there,
who fears to be strict in the carrying out of the statutes, could have his
position alleviated by a word from Celer his patron. From this point we notice a
decided sympathy with the effort to break up Donatism by force.Parmenian, the
successor of Donatus the Great in the see of Carthage, was one of the brightest
disputants on their side. Against him Optatus of Milevis had directed his review
of the schism, full indeed of grave historical blunders, but not lacking in that
suavity which those who think they have the keys of heaven sometimes affect.
When Tychonius had exposed some of the inconsequences and weaknesses of the
Donatist theory of the Church, Parmenian undertook a reply, whose main object
was to fortify the propositions, (1) that the evil defile the good in the
Church, and must therefore be cut off; and (2) that puristic folly, that the
Donatist community was absolutely pure in its membership and priesthood. To this
much-esteemed work, Augustin replies (c.400 A.D.) in three books: Contra
Epistolam Parmeniani. In Book I. the main question is, who really incurred the
guilt of schism, and initiated the appeal to the State? He opens with the praise
of Tychonius as man and author, but misses the acute drift of that great man's
argument. He seeks to answer the data of the origin of the separation as given
by Parmenian, who attributes it to the joint movement of Gaul, Spain and Italy
in seeking to make their views universal, and to the influence of Hosius over
Constantine, in winning him to their opinion; nor does Parmenius cease to
deprecate the imperial intervention. Augustin defends this use of the secular
arm, but accuses the Donatists by their history of beginning it in the appeal to
Constantine, in the treatment of the Rogatists and Maximianists, in the abuses
of the Circumcelliones, in their petition to Julian.Book II. discusses the texts
alleged by the Donatists in support of the purity of the Church, the need of
discipline, the sole validity of their baptism and ordination, the blamelessness
of their members and clergy. While both fail in exegetical principles,
Parmenian, after the manner of his school, is aggravatingly guilty of using mere
catch-words, without regard to text or context. He quotes indiscriminately
whatever sounds favorable to his cause. Some of the passages are: Is. v.20,
Prov. xvii.15, Is. lix.1-8, Ecclus. x.2, Is. lxvi.3, Prov. xxi.27, and others.
Augustin gives his interpretations, and does not fail to prod his opponent with
barbs of Optatus, Maximianists, and Circumcelliones.Book III. handles further
the theory of purism in the light of Scriptural proofs. The first part is mainly
an endeavor to give the true significance of I Cor. v.12, 13. (Compare his
correction in the Retractt. II. xvii.). Augustin is constrained to confess the
need of some internal discipline, and then enforces with wider range the notes
of universality, unity and toleration, especially as illustrated by Cyprian.
[Cp. Retractt.. II. xvii.].In the work against Parmenian, he had promised to
write more fully on this subject of baptism, the frequent persuasions of the
brethren also moved him so that in this same year (400 A.D.) he issued the seven
books De Baptismo: Contra Donatistas. The double purpose is to define that
sacrament as the property of Christ, and to overthrow the Donatist appeal to the
authority of Cyprian and the famous council of Carthage, with its eighty-seven
deliverances in favor of the repetition of the rite. Since this is one of the
works translated in the accompanying volume any further analysis may be passed
by. [Cp. Retractt. II. xviii.].In this period of frequent and heated
controversy, a Donatist layman, Centurius by name, brought some of their
quotations and writings, and supported with Scriptural proofs to the Church in
Hippo. It seems to have begun with an exposition of Prov. ix.17. (N. Afr.
version and LXX). Augustin answered them briefly in a tractate, which he
entitles: Contra quod attulit Centurius a Donatistis. It is however not extant.
In the Retractations (II. xix.) it is placed immediately after the work on
Baptism.Meanwhile, and as the Retractations tell us, before he had finished his
work on the Trinity, and his literal commentary on Genesis, he found it
desirable to reply to the pastoral letter of Petilian, Donatist bishop of
Constantina; unfortunately only a part of the epistle came into his hand, so
strenuous and vigilant were the efforts to hide their literature from the eyes
of this ardent foe. He replied with one book to so much as he had received,
c.400 A.D. Some of his clergy subsequently obtained and wrote out a complete
copy, so that he composed the second book, c.401 A.D. Meanwhile Petilian
responded to the first issue, and this necessitated a third book, c.401 or 402
A.D. The three books were collected into one treatise, and are known under the
title Contra Litteras Petiliani. The main object of the series is the refutation
of Petilian's proposition: "Conscientia namque (sancte) dantis attenditur, quæ
(qui) abluat accipientis." "Nam qui fidem (sciens) a perfido sumpserit, non
fidem percipit, sed reatum." "What we look for is the conscience of the giver
(him who gives in holiness), to cleanse that of the recipient." "For he who
(wittingly) receives faith from the faithless receives not faith, but guilt."
Since the work is also a part of this volume, we need not dwell on it farther.
[Cp. Retractt. II. xxv.]The civil restraints were applied with vigor on the one
side and resented on the other by the retaliatory Circumcelliones. To
Pammachius, a man of senatorial rank, Augustin, in 401 A.D., sends a letter [Ep.
lviii.] of exuberant congratulations and flatteries, because he had compelled
some of his Numidian tenants to return to the mother Church; a converting agency
which he condemns unmercifully when practiced by the Donatists. The plan, he
says, would have been urged upon other landholders, had the clergy not been
afraid of the scornful finger of the Donatists, who were in such favor with the
proprietors, that an effort like this might have failed. He desires the senator
to circulate this letter wherever there was promise of effect. The bishop, now
thoroughly committed to these arbitrary procedures, was in some trepidation lest
the plausible arguments which the Donatists were urging, might shake the
resolution of Pammachius himself, and so he sends a secret commission of
instruction. The coercive measures yielded fruit, and the question about the
status of recedent Donatist clergy now became pressing. Augustin had already met
with a certain Theodore on this subject, and in a letter addressed to him [Ep.
lxi.] c.401, recapitulated the proposition then agreed upon, to be used as a
basis for treatment with all who wanted to come over. The Catholic church
opposed only the schism and the rebaptism among the Donatists; what was good she
was ready to acknowledge. Baptism itself, ordination, self-denial, celibacy,
doctrinal views, especially as to the Trinity, these were confessedly right,
only to reap the profit of them, it was essential for Donatists to be in the
unity and in the root.The Council of Carthage of September 13, 401, adopted this
view, Can.2. There had also been a remarkable scarcity of Catholic clergy, so
that application had been made to Rome and Milan for relief; probably this had
its influence upon so charitable a view of schismatic ordination.It was alleged
that Crispinus, the bishop of Calama, had bought a state farm at Mappalia, and
had rebaptized the tenants. Augustin was roused by this counter-irritant and
wrote him a letter, c.402 A.D. [Ep. lxvi.], wondering what he would do if the
authorities were to impose the fine for every offense. He pleads for an answer
to Christ, whose was all the world, because bought with his blood, while the
Donatist would affirm that Christ had lost all the world save Africa. He urges a
public discussion of the mooted points before these converts, which should be
reported and done into Punic as a test of their freedom in this conversion, and
frankly enough offers to do the same for any case of coercion on his side.
Unless Crispinus and his helpers acquiesce, he will hold them guilty.The
uppermost talk of those times was the extraordinary charity of the Donatists
toward the Maximianists. One form of apology for such a seeming vacation of all
their tenets was to say, e.g., of Felicianus of Musti, that he was ignorantly
condemned when innocent and absent, so in his absence, he was reinstated. This
statement was made by a Donatis bishop, Clarentius, in reply to the inquiries of
Naucelio. Alypius and Augustin, who were made aware of this defense, urged in
criticism [Ep. lxx.] that the Council of Bagai was therefore guilty in
condemning Felicianus unheard, and all the more in that they afterward found him
to be innocent. Either he ought not to have been condemned if he was innocent,
or if guilty, he ought not to have been received back. If the council erred, why
not apply such a liability to error to the origin of the schism; might not
Cæcilian, unheard, have been condemned although innocent? But, as a matter of
fact, Felicianus was found guilty while in thorough and declared sympathy with
Maximian, and the state was called upon to enforce his ejection. If he was
welcomed without rebaptism, why not treat the Church diffused through the whole
world with the same consideration?It was probably in the year 402 that he
addressed a general appeal to the Donatist [Ep. lxxvi.], not to endanger their
salvation by continuance in schism. If they counted the surrender of the sacred
books so great a sin, how much more grievous a transgression ought the refusal
to obey the plain commands of these books as to unity be considered. He brings
forward the usual array of passages to demonstrate the universality of the
Church, and that any limitation of this note, can only be at the end of the
world. The attempt to separate the wheat from the tares before the harvest, is
only a proof that they are of the tares. A rapid survey of the origin of the
schism follows, and all the archives are made to tell against them. He asks how
they can hold any theory of purism while they regard Optatus as a martyr and
welcome the excommunicated Maximianists? Schism in the Scriptures is punished
more severely than the burning of the books. Why complain about traditorship
when Maximianists are received? Why abuse the imperial laws directed against
them, when they had invoked the same against the Maximianists? If theirs is the
only baptism, what is the baptism of these Maximianists, which is without
question validated? He challenges the Donatist bishops to discuss these matters
with their laity, if they persist in declining to meet the Catholics, and bids
the sheep beware of the wolves and their den.The ad Catholicos Epistola,
popularly known as de Unitate Ecclesiæ, is pretty generally attributed to
Augustin, and is addressed to the brethren of his charge; it may be taken as a
contrast to the previous letter directed to the Donatists, and not unlikely saw
the light in 402 A.D. This book is designed as a continuance of the controversy
with Petilian, and indeed a further correspondence is proposed, so that the work
must have appeared before that bishop's death, which is generally placed in this
year. The chief question between the two parties is, Where is the Church? Is it
with Catholic or Donatist? The Church is one and Catholic: it is the body of
Christ, consisting of Him as its Head and those in Him as members. The
historical issue in any of four possibilities of truth or falsity does not
justify separation from this body. The point is, What does the Lord say? The
Donatist should believe in the books, which he says were delivered up, and put
aside all other documents except the divine canons. Do the Scriptures say that
the Church is in Africa only, and in the few Cutzupitanæ or Montenses at Rome,
and in the house or patrimony of one woman in Spain, or is it in the whole
world? A second time does he start out with a definition of the Church, as
having for its head the Only Begotten Son, and for its body the members in Him;
as bridegroom and bride, two in one flesh. Any divergence from the Head or the
body, whether caused by difference in doctrine or government, is per se outside
of the Church. He meets the two favorite Donatistic comparisons of the divine
institution with the ark and Gideon's fleece, and then enlarges upon the note of
universality, with included unity, by Scripture texts from the Law, the
Prophets, especially Isaiah, and the Psalms. From the Donatist position these
are not fulfilled, because, say they, men are unwilling. Men were created with
free will; they believe or disbelieve according to that. When the Church began
to increase in the world, men refused to persevere, and the Christian religion
was lost from all the nations with the exception of the Donatists. All this,
replies Augustin, as if the Spirit of God did not know the future volitions of
men. But Christ, after the resurrection, said that the Law, the Prophets and the
Psalms testified of Him, and that the fulfillment of his kingdom should begin
from Jerusalem. He then follows out the expansion of the Church as given in the
Acts, and the foundation of Christian communities as mentioned in the Epistles
and the Revelation. The Donatists reply to this theory of development that the
Church perished save among them in North Africa. It is among the few: for which
they cite a similar state of things under Enoch, Noah, Lot, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, and the Kingdom of Judah. The spread of the Church did indeed begin from
Jerusalem, but afterwards an apostasy befell it, in the progress of which the
communion of the Donatists alone remained faithful. Augustin says the fact that
there are evil persons in the Church is simply a proof of the fulfillment of
those parables of our Lord, which illustrate the mixed characters in his
kingdom. There is indeed a paucity of the good, but within that communion. Then
follows a discussion of the geographical limitation, the Donatists maintaining
that the Oriental churches and the rest mentioned in the sacred canon had
receded from the faith. Especially is their favorite paragraph, a passage from
Cant. i.7, commented upon. He presses the continuous preaching among all
nations, after which event the end is to come; there must be such a universal
growth to that end. Let us cease drawing from the acts and sayings of men about
this great matter, and take the simple testimony of the Scriptures. But the
Donatists object: If the Church be among you why do you compel us by force to
enter its peace? Or if we are evil why do you desire us? and if we are tares why
hinder us from growing until the harvest? Augustin then justifies the system of
correction adopted in loving care for their salvation, not failing to remind
them of the Circumcelliones and their own action with regard to the
Maximianists. Another inquiry of the Donatists was, How will you recognize us if
we come to you? Augustin says, as the universally founded Church is wont to
receive, put away all hatred and your sacraments are acknowledged. This leads to
the discussion of baptism and of that related topic, the effect, of the
celebrant's character, upon the recipient. He returns finally to the note of
universality as essential to the unity, with the one Head and the one body.
Somewhere about 404 A.D. two official cases of discipline had occurred in
Augustin's monasterium, which had grieved the pride of the clergy, because they
had boasted of their establishment as really purer than the puristic body
gathered about the Donatist bishop Proculeianus. They were more troubled about
this than about the sins of the suspected brethren, one of whom, however, seemed
to have considerable injustice done him. While discussing this matter [in Ep.
lxxviii.] he incidentally mentions the lapse of two Donatists, who had been
received into Augustin's communion, and whose conduct the clergy had regarded as
a proof of the laxity of discipline under Proculeianus.A sermon on the 95th Ps.
(96) may have been preached in the year 404 or thereabouts, in which he rebukes
the Donatists for their pride in claiming either that they, the few in Africa,
are the ones bought by Christ, or that they are so great because this large gift
was bestowed on them alone. And in commenting on v.10, dicite in nationibus,
Dominus regnavit a ligno, etc., he twits them with seeking this reign by the
wood through the cudgels of the Circumcelliones; and enlarges too upon the theme
of universality, against their undiscoverable here and there.Cæcilianus, whose
exact civil office, whether vicar or præfectus annonæ is yet undetermined,
Augustin addresses as præses in Ep. lxxxvi., which is ascribed to 405 A.D. The
severer edicts of Honorius had just been published. This official had carried
them out with telling earnestness. His administration in the greater part of
Africa is particularly commended; the bishop begs of him to restore the Catholic
unity also in Hippo and the frontiers of Numidia. The ill-success of his own
work is not due to lack of episcopal duty, and he asks Cæcilianus to inquire of
the clergy, or of the bearer, a commissioned presbyter, about the true state of
matters; he would have the State begin with monitions in the hope of preventing
a resort to severer remedies.Emeritus, the bishop of Julia Cæsarea, one of the
seven Donatist disputants at the later conference, did not shun correspondence
or association with his opponents. He is described as a man of parts and
character. Augustin had written a letter to him, which is not preserved, and it
had received no reply. He once more seeks to win him to a friendly discussion or
correspondence [Ep. lxxxvii.], in this time of general return to the mother
Church. He would have all men of culture come back to the true fellowship. What
Emeritus's particular ground for continuing in separation may be he does not
know. He proceeds to discuss universality, purism, the validity of the
documents, the heinousness of schism, the paucity of numbers, and the right of
coercion.The enforcement of the civil edicts was followed by violent outbreaks
of the Circumcelliones, especially in Augustin's diocese. The clergy united in a
protest [Ep. lxxxviii.] addressed to the venerable Bishop Januarius, a Donatist,
probably in 406 A.D. They claim (1) that they are receiving evil for good. (2)
The appeal to the state was begun by the Majorinists, and two full documents are
given in proof. (3) All decrees of the empire since, are the simple execution of
the edict of Constantine against the party of Donatus which these had wanted to
be issued against Cæcilian. (4) The acts of the Circumcelliones; were the real
occasion for sharper efforts at suppression; instances of their cruelty are
mentioned. (5) The Catholics have pursued a conciliatory policy by conferences
and by desiring a mitigation of the penalties, which were frustrated the one by
refusals, the other by a gross assault on the Catholic bishop of Bagai; all who
come into the hands of the state clergy, are treated with merciful persuasion.
(6) Various proposals for peace are suggested.Festus, a government official and
a landed proprietor apparently in Hippo, had written a letter urging a return of
the Donatists to the mother Church. It bore little fruit, and he asks Augustin
first to instruct him and also to give him a tractate for general use. Augustin,
c.406. [Ep. lxxxix.], enforces the duty of perseverance in the civil reclamation
of the Donatists; their claim of persecution as a note attesting them to be the
true people of God is folly, because it is not the mere suffering but the cause
for which one suffers that makes a martyr. He exhorts him to read the archives
and see how the schismatics initiated the appeal to the secular power, and how
all things that have befallen them through that arm would have been the just
fate of the Cæcilianists, had the Donatist course been approved. Besides, why
this unjust treatment of the Church universal in condemning it unheard, and
rebaptizing its members, who have done them no wrong? The theory that baptism
alone is valid when administered by the just, is putting a trust in man which
the Scriptures condemn; the sacrament is not man's but Christ's; further, one
would prefer to be baptized by a bad man, for then he would receive grace from
Christ directly, according to their subterfuge. He is vexed with their active
and passive opposition; the mother has to correct, although her obstinate child
may not like it. They aver that the Catholics accept them without requiring any
change in them, but the change required is great, no less a one than from error
to truth. The bishop proposes as a substitute for Festus's plan, the sending of
an authorized messenger secretly to himself, and they would devise together a
method for the correction of the Donatists. In the second sermon on Ps. cii.
(ci.) preached about this time, when enlarging upon the unity he ridicules the
Donatist assertion that the Church which was among all the nations had perished,
as the impudent voice of those who are not in it declares. So is their
affirmation that Scripture prophecies about the spread of the kingdom have been
fulfilled; all nations have believed, but this diffused communion apostatized
and perished. He rebukes the conceit that the Lord's saying, I am with you, even
to the end of the world, was designed for them alone, the Lord foreseeing that
the party of Donatus would be in the earth. If emperors have propounded laws
against heretics, it is a part of the predictions which foretold how kings would
serve the Lord. Thence he expands the notes of universality and
perpetuity.Cresconius, a layman and philologist, read Augustin's first book in
answer to Petilian, and wrote a reply, which, however, was circulated among the
Donatists only. Augustin at last secured a copy, and wrote (406 A.D., some say
as late as 409) Contra Cresconium Grammaticum Partis Donati, libri IV. Three of
these books controvert the arguments of Cresconius; part of the third and the
fourth entire is a detailed polemic history of the Maximian schism.In Book I. he
alludes to the occasion of the writing, and hesitates between being regarded as
contumelious if he declined an answer, and arrogant, should he reply. Cresconius
had attacked eloquence, which Augustin defends as simply the art of speaking,
and as not to be condemned because it has been abused. You do not condemn
military armament for your country because others have taken up arms against the
country; the physician does not refuse to use all drugs because some are
baneful; because there are sophists one is not to deny the value of eloquence.
Cresconius seemed to regard its cultivation as injurious to the simplicity of
Christian law and teaching. He also had accused Augustin of persistent arrogance
in his pertinacious pursuit of the Donatists. Augustin claims to do a good work
with good ends in view, and says its fruit has been a rich harvest for the
Church. So the discussion passes on to the use of dialectics, which Cresconius
assails, but Augustin defends as nothing else than a demonstration of results,
either the true from the true or the false from the false. He justifies not
disputatiousness, but the arguments by which truth is built up, for Christ
employed it, and St. Paul wielded its weapons not only with the Jews but with
Epicureans and Stoics. In all this we have an illustration of that unfortunate
tendency to undervalue culture whenever a puristic community passes into the
fires. Augustin applies the art to one of the points which Cresconius had
discussed, viz., rebaptism. He had endeavored to prove that it was solely among
them. Augustin concedes that the rite is there, but not its profit; in order to
enjoy its profit, it must be administered lawfully. The oneness of baptism as a
ceremony is not dependent on the oneness of the Church, whereas its profit is. A
reprobate society of heretics can have a good baptism, but it is not properly
and not profitably administered among them; the proper and profitable
administration is solely in the Church to salvation; the rite outside is to
judgment.In Book II. after a résumé of the previous book, he notices first the
criticism as to the true construction of the name Donatistoe; it should rather
be Donatiani as Cresconius claimed. He is ready to concede this, and in his
controversy with the philologist will use that form, but on all other occasion
he would prefer the more familiar termination. Cresconius also protests against
the term heretic as applied to them, which he regards as a divergence of views
from the Christian faith; while a schism has sprung up among those for whom the
same Christ was born, died and rose again, who have one religion, the same
sacraments, and no diversity in Christian observance. Augustin, however, while
not particularly dwelling on these agreements, presses upon him the articles of
divergence, and asks why they rebaptize? The recognition of Donatist ordination
concerning which Cresconius had asked, Augustin declares to be a matter of
charity. As to the question of Cresconius, Why, if the Donatists are such
heretics and so sacrilegious, if they are indeed guilty of a nefarious and
inexpiable crime, some purification is not adopted when they come over to the
Catholic church? Augustin answers: We do not regard it as inexpiable, and
baptism is not to be repeated, it is Christ's; on coming to us the Donatist
receives the Spirit signified by that rite; he begins to have healthfully what
he previously had hurtfully and unworthily. The relation of the celebrant to the
symbol as presented by Cresconius is a modification of Petilianism. "Regard is
had," says he, "to the conscience of the giver, not according to its actuality,
which cannot be perceived but according to his reputation, whether that be true
or false." Augustin does not fail to crowd him for the change of base. The
favorite passages of Ps. cxli.5, Jer. xv.18, and Ecclus. xxxiv.31, are gone
over. Then he answers the charge made by Cresconius, as to the right of any
sinner to baptize among the Catholics. Finally, he reviews Cyprian's relation to
rebaptism, who is not a canonical authority for him; the Scriptures alone are
such; but the Donatists ought to consider that decision of his to remain in
unity from the fact that the mixed nature of its membership requires toleration.
Book III. Augustin contends that the Donatists by their schism from especially
the Eastern churches had violated the principle of toleration, which their
boasted leader had so strenuously enforced. There follows then a seriatim
consideration of the points made by Cresconius, similar to those maintained by
Petilian, as to the importance of the origin and the head and root in baptism,
or the character of the celebrant, and the rebaptism by Paul of John's
disciples. The case of Optatus and the Maximianists next come under review, as
witnesses against their testimonies. Cresconius says he will neither absolve nor
condemn Optatus, and as to the Maximianists, he professes to have made special
inquiry into the whole history. The Synod had granted a season of delay during
which all who returned should be held innocent. Of this very many availed
themselves; the baptism of these was valid; those who remained outside lost both
baptism and the church. Augustin refutes the statement from its inherent
contradictions and from the language of the Synod against the Maximianists.
Cresconius also brings forward the Sardican council's letter to Donatus as a
proof of sustained fellowship. Augustin declares it to be an Arian council; and
he insists on paralleling all Cresconius would say about Cæcilianism with the
career of the Maximianists. With reference to persecution, he cites in extenso
their own persecutions, the case of Severus, bishop of Thubursicubur; the acts
of Optatus; his own treatment at a collation by the Circumcelliones; the case of
Crispinus, the Donatist bishop of Calama; their own invocation of the state
against the Maximianists. Thence he returns to the doctrine of the unity as
universal with many of the familiar Scripture texts, and asserts by the
documents that the Donatists were the occasion of the rupture.Book IV. is a
review of Cresconius's work by the light of the Maximianist records. Beginning
with a pleasantry as to their eloquence and dialectic spirit, he follows in
detail the points of Cresconius whether doctrinal or historical as to Cæcilian,
mainly with Maximianist data as offsets. Cresconius charges Augustin with having
called Petilian Satan, and so violating the peace he professes. Augustin claims
that he only compared the error not the person, to Satan. Nor had Cresconius
forgotten to bring out the Manichæism of his opponent. Augustin reminds him both
of what he had written against them and also of what sins were forgiven in the
return of Maximian, who was an old man when Augustin was but young; these were
the sins of his youth. The theories of fellowship, of persecution, of baptism,
are all considered in the light of their own council of Bagai and its sequences.
[Cp. Retractt. II. xxvi.].After concluding his work against Cresconius, he
issued, probably in this same year, a little treatise he had promised,
containing a collection of proofs both for Donatist and Catholic popular use. To
the pledge itself an unknown Donatist replied, which led to the production of a
second book, whose title Augustin designed to be: Contra nescio quem Donatistam.
The original promise was fulfilled in the publication of the Probationes et
Testimonia contra Donatistas, embracing all the ecclesiastical and public acts
and Scripture proofs bearing on the questions between them. It was designed
mainly for public reading in the basilicas. Both were joined in one book,
although apparently afterwards separated. In each he confesses to the error of
placing the purgation of Felix after instead of before the vindication of
Cæcilian. At this writing he still regarded the Donatists as psychics and babes,
but in his old age corrects his application of the words to them, since he came
to consider them rather as dead and lost. Unfortunately neither treatise has
been preserved. [Cp. Retractt. II. xxvii. and xxviii.].He also conceived the
plan of preparing a polemic for the people who had little time for extended
reading, by refuting the entire theory of the schism through the story of the
excision and restoration of the Maximianists. It appeared c.406 A.D. under the
name of Admonitio Donatistarum de Maximianistis: this too is lost. [Cp.
Retractt. II. xxix.].An acquaintance of earlier days in Carthage, Vincentius,
had become bishop of the little Rogatist fragment as the immediate successor of
Rogatus himself at Cartenna. He, or some one of that little band, had written a
letter to Augustin with a pretty strong plea against persecution. This was not
unlikely in c.408 A.D., and Augustin answers in one of his most weighty epistles
(Ep. xciii.), under the supposition that Vincentius was the author, and
vindicates the help of the State. Evidently a change had come over Numidia, for
he boasts of the multitudes who had been converted, and rejoices in the fruitful
use of the secular arm for their salvation. Even Circumcelliones had become
steadfast Catholics. Coercion stimulates the thoughtless and those bound by
custom, and delivers these held back by fear; it is like a wholesome medicine,
or the wounds inflicted by a friend. God chastens in order to better the life
and to bring men to repentance. The householder instructs us to compel them to
come in. Sarah and Hagar are types; so the mother Church corrects her children.
Everything depends on the aim in persecution, whether it be done for oppression
or for good; it is the difference between Pharaoh and Moses in their treatment
of Israel. The Father gave up the Son, and the Son gave Himself up; while Judas
betrayed Him. The righteousness of the end for which one suffers alone
constitutes martyrdom. The Rogatist is not suffering for righteousness but for
unrighteousness. Augustin is constrained to confess that there are no
persecutions recorded in the New Testament as inflicted by Christians, but
explains the omission as due to the fact that rulers were not yet members of the
Church. He thinks, too, that the moderate and discriminating form of the
correction employed, helps to justify a resort thereto. If the Rogatists have
nothing to do with the violence of the Circumcelliones, and use no force as the
rest of the Donatists do, it is because they are so few and feeble. The
Donatists, however, did use the secular arm against the Maximianists, and in the
appeal to Julian. He will not allow a distinction between resort to law for the
recovery of property and for the coercion of the conscience. He claims that to
regain one's own in this way has no apostolic warrant. The Donatists, too,
sought imperial aid to coerce Cæcilianus. Why shall not Catholics return in
kind? The very edict of confiscation which had hit them they had hoped might
fall on the head of Cæcilian and his followers. What Tychonius said describes
the very essence of Donatist arbitrariness: quod volumus sanctum est. The sin of
separation from the whole world followed; the universal church was condemned
unheard, and the toleration which Cyprian urged disregarded. He traces his own
change of views from the non-coercive to the coercive policy, the success of the
method in hastening conversions won him wholly as an enthusiastic and persistent
supporter. He bids Vincentius flee from the wrath to come. What is his little
handful compared with the universal Church? This note of universality he
develops in extenso against their limitation, and especially their new
definition of Catholic, as obedience to all the laws and the sacraments, and to
their childish allegory of Cant. i.7. He hints that in the ancient times there
might have been a little schism which anticipated the Rogatists, and which had
called itself exclusively the Church. He thinks it is also the duty of the State
to suppress idolatry. The passage quoted from Hilary by Vincentius, as to the
few who in Asia in his day were believers in spite of the spread of the Church,
Augustin softens into an excited picture of the dark times of persecution. Next,
he discusses the position of Cyprian. All patristic testimony, however, is of no
final value; the only authority is the Word of God. Moreover, if Cyprian be
quoted, why not on the side of his love for unity and toleration? The averment
that the Church, with the exception of the Rogatists, perished by fellowship
with the unbaptized, is met with the fact that in Cyprian's time men had been
received without rebaptism into the Church, and therefore the Church, according
to their theory, must have perished before their day; if it, however, survived
that condition, then there is no excuse left for a schism on that ground. One is
not of higher merit than Cyprian simply because he may abhor that father's
error, any more than they who did not fall into Peter's mistake are above him in
worth on that account. Indeed Cyprian may have rectified his fault before death;
and some say that those passages are interpolations. Augustin, however, concedes
their authenticity. Cyprian, in his Epistle to Antonianus, shows how the African
bishops maintained unity in spite of the corrupt lives of some colleagues;
variations of opinion were allowed; neither were they contaminated by such a
fellowship, nor was the Church destroyed. Tychonius states the result of a
Donatist council which granted fellowship to those in their own body who had
been guilty of tradition, and that without rebaptism, in case the restored
should oppose such a repetition of the rite. Deuterius, bishop of Macriana, had
admitted traditors to his communion without renewing the sacrament, and many
witnesses of both facts were living in Tychonius's own day. Parmenian had indeed
replied to the arguments, but could not gainsay the facts. Augustin professes in
all sincerity his anxiety for the salvation of the jeopardized Donatists; the
Church acknowledges the Sacrament which they have administered, and desires them
to have the profit thereof. In defence of rebaptism Vincentius had alleged the
case of Paul, repeating the ceremony after John. Augustin asks was John then a
heretic? If not, it is for you to say why the ordinance was iterated; Christ's
baptism is always the same and must not be iterated; it has nothing to do with
the merit or demerit of the individual, or else Paul would not have declined its
continuous administration. He begs him to put no confidence in the accident of
their being a little company, and not to arrogate to themselves the title of
Catholic, in the sense of being keepers of the entire law and all the
sacraments, nor to peculiar sanctity as the few who were to have faith at the
coming of the Son of Man. The Church does not take pleasure in correction, save
for conversion; she abhors those who seek Donatist property out of sheer
covetousness, yet all property does belong to the true Church. She has also no
delight in any who disregard Donatist discipline, by receiving members who have
been ejected from that body for sin. The Catholic Church sustains the unity, and
recognizes the mixture of chaff and wheat, good and bad fish, the goats and the
sheep. He bids him come to that Church into whose fellowship Vincentius had
described Augustin as entering. He closes with reflections on the aggravations
in the sin of schism and on the need of repentance. Olympius had recently been
elevated to the dignity of magister officiorum. He had written to Augustin
soliciting his advice on the best way for the civil authority to help the
Church. Augustin, c.408 [Ep. xcvii.], welcomes his elevation, commends his
devotion to the body of Christ, and is glad to have his own timidity relieved by
this invitation to lay before the highest official the exacting needs of the
hour. These had become grave; the very success of coercion had precipitated new
commotions among the Circumcelliones and their clerical abettors. A commission
had sailed in mid-winter to solicit imperial help against their fury. The first
point he would suggest, but without having had the opportunity of consultation,
save probably with bishop Severus, is to declare by proclamation that the
imperial edicts were not the invention of Stilicho, as the Donatists and heathen
boasted. As to further plans, the episcopal commission would doubtless consult
with him on their return from court. He invites Olympius to rejoice with him on
the practical benefits of coercion thus far.It may have been a little later
(c.408 or 409) that Augustin writes to Donatus the proconsul (Ep. c.) regretting
indeed that the Church must avail herself of the State, but he is gratified that
so devoted a son is wielding the sword for her. The crimes against the Church
are greater than all other crimes, but in her discipline he deprecates any
spirit of revenge, and pleads most beseechingly against the infliction of
capital punishment; that would be a deterrent to the bringing in of any charges
against the guilty. He asks for a republication of the repressive laws, since
the enemy is boasting of their repeal.Augustin wrote a general letter to the
Donatist people in c.409 [Ep. cv.], in which he declares that the Catholic
effort at their conversion is the work of peacemakers. Some Donatist presbyters
had ordered the Catholics to let their people alone, if they did not want to be
killed, but Augustin would all the rather ask the people to recede from the
schismatics because they were separated from that body for which Christ died.
Catholics must seek for the stolen sheep that had on them the mark of Christ.
The charge of being traditors, says he, we meet with a like accusation against
you, and then you bid us leave. You claim to be the Church on this unproved
charge, unmindful of what law, prophecy, Psalms, Apostles and Gospels say as to
its universality beginning at Jerusalem. You are not in communion with that
universal body, and you prevent the escape of others from a similar perdition.
The objection as to persecution he meets with an invitation to look at the deeds
of clergy and Circumcelliones, and cites instances of grievous ill-treatment
toward voluntary converts: Marcus, presbyter of Casphalia, Restitutus of
Victoria, Marcianus of Urga, Maximinus and Possidius, and then protests against
their general violence and robberies, and especially against attributing
martyrdom to those who had only been punished for their crimes. To all this
compulsion we oppose the State, he affirms, and many of your own people rejoice
in deliverance from your oppressions. You have filled Africa with false charges
as to Cæcilian, Felix, etc., and though we do not place our hope in man, yet we
do recognize the State as the servant of the Church. Nebuchadnezzar is an
example both of the persecutor and the correctionist. You despise the baptism of
Christ; ought this not to be punished? He then reviews the history of the case
in the light of the documents; commenting on them as forms of their own appeal
to the State. The liberty of error is most deadly to the soul. Christ and the
Apostles command unity, and this command the Emperors seek to enforce. Only
Julian and the heathen emperors were persecutors; the only martyrs are those who
suffer for Catholic truth. The whole imperial legislation against Donatism is
the outcome of the original statute of Constantine and sprang after all from
their appeal. He next discusses their view of baptism and insists that the rite
is independent of the character of the celebrant; were it dependent, then,
according to their notion, we should rather desire to be baptized by a bad man,
in order to receive the grace directly from Christ. The appeal to unity follows.
Make concord with us he urges; we love you and desire to serve you, even by the
aid of the temporal laws; we do not want you to perish as aliens from your
Catholic mother. Your charges you are unable to substantiate, and yet you avoid
all conference with us, as if to shun fellowship with sinners; a false pride,
which is rebuked by Paul's conduct, by the Lord's in his treatment of Judas; the
Lord held conference even with the devil. This he follows with extended
Scriptural proofs of the universality of the Church. He reminds them again of
the unproved charges which apply rather to themselves; but he has no desire for
the historical argument, rather for the doctrinal. The Catholic aim is their
conversion, whether by the persuasion of argument or the correction of laws.
They should remember the mixed nature of the Church, and that mere contact with
evil does not defile. If you hold to Christ, hold also to His Church; you kill
us who seek to tell you the truth, and do not want you to perish in evil. May
God vindicate us and his cause by slaying your errors and making you rejoice
with us in the truth. On the death of Proculeianus, Macrobius succeeded to the
see of Hippo Regius. Augustin hears that he is about to rebaptize a subdeacon
(Rusticianus) who under discipline left the Catholics. Augustin urges him [Ep.
cvi.], c.409, not to do this by his desire to have life in God, and to please
God by not making the sacraments vain, and by his hope of not being separated
from the body of Christ eternally. The Donatists have admitted the validity of
baptism as administered by Felicianus and Primianus, why then rebaptize others?
and begs him to search that case as a test of the whole matter.Maximus and
Theodore had been commissioned to deliver the previous letter to Bishop
Macrobius. He at first declined to listen to its reading, but was at last
persuaded to attend, and in reply said: It was his duty to receive all who came,
and to give faith to those who asked it. Into the question about Primian he
would not enter, because of his own recent ordination; he was not a judge of his
father, and he would remain in what his predecessors had accepted. These replies
were conveyed to Augustin in the letter cvii. (c.409) by the two
commissioners.In still further hope of reaching Bishop Macrobius, Augustin
addressed another epistle, (cviii. ) c.409, to him in answer to the objections
offered by him at the interview with the commissioners. 1. As to the point that
he must receive those who come and give them the faith they ask: Augustin
proposes the case of some one who has received the rite in their communion, but
had been separated from it for a time, and having returned, conscientiously
desires to be rebaptized; Macrobius, according to his objection, could not
repeat the rite, but would proceed to instruct him. Why repeat it when Augustin
administers it? May be you will quote, "keep thyself from strange water and do
not drink from a strange fountain." How then will you explain the reception of
Felicianus? 2. As to the second conclusion, that you would remain in the faith
of your predecessors: It is a pity for a young man of good parts to say so;
nothing compels you to remain in evil; you had better be in the Church which
began in Jerusalem and spread thence through the world. 3. And if you will not
judge your fathers why judge my fathers? If not Primian, why Cæcilian? Why deny
us to be brethren? why rend the body? why extinguish the baptism of Christ, who
baptizes with the Spirit, and who gave Himself for the Church? Yet your
colleagues in effect do yield to the truth in their recognition of the
Maximianists. Judge not the evil but do judge what was good in Primian. That act
of his, the reception of the Maximianists, absolves the nations who are ignorant
of what you accuse us. He then traces the whole development of that schism and
its overthrow, to show that those schismatics were not rebaptized at their
return. That history Augustin considers a divinely appointed refutation of all
the Donatist tenets. He proceeds to criticise their Scripture proofs, Prov.
ix.18, Jer. xv.18, Eccl. xxxiv.30, Ps. cxli.5, which he turns against them
through the story of the schism. He next addresses himself to their theory of
fellowship, and discusses their proof texts, I Tim. v.22, Is. lii.11, I Cor.
v.6; Ezekiel, Daniel, the Apostles, Christ and Paul all rebuke this purism.
Cyprian's authority for rebaptism is reviewed. Augustin repeats the doubts of
very many as to the authenticity of those parts of his works which favor this
view; but granted that they are valid, Cyprian, nevertheless, maintained unity
and toleration, and by martyrdom purged his mistake. There is, however, no
martyrdom outside of the unity, as that father also testified. Cyprian
acknowledged as well the presence of many evil persons in the ministry and in
the Church, but stood to it that unity must not be sacrificed on that account.
The Church is a mixed society; this is Christ's law. Had Macrobius's associates
remembered the parable of the wheat and tares they would not have separated.
This argument is concluded with a sort of summary of the points traversed
before. As to the note of persecution: that alone is a martyrdom which
surrenders the life for a good cause. The Donatists too used the State in the
case of the Maximianists, and to them belong the Circumcelliones. The matter of
unity and the connected points of toleration and fellowship are again enlarged
upon.A sermon attributed to Augustin, De Rusticiano subdiacono a Donatistis
rebaptizato et in diaconum ordinato, falls in the same year, 409, with the
letter to Bishop Macrobius. There is an outburst of deep grief over the act. It
would appear that Rusticianus had been a special favorite of Augustin, on whom
he had expended much care; but he had become involved in scurrilous deeds, in
feasting and intemperance, day and night, and was plunged in debt, and at last
was excommunicated by his presbyter, and so fled to the Donatists, by whom he
was rebaptized and made a deacon; this defection happened in the diocese of the
bishop Valerius (?); so Augustin interposed through Maximius and Theodorus with
Bishop Macrobius, but in vain. He deplores the disgrace done to the sacrament,
as dishonor done to the sign of the King. The repetition is contradicted by the
procedure with regard to the returning Maximianists. He corrects the
misinterpretation of Ecclus. xxxiv.30. He wishes for the Donatists the
experience of the prodigal, that they may be forgiven by return to the Church
and so attain to the profit of charity. Great calamities were befalling the
Church in all parts of the world. Victorianus, a presbyter, wrote to Augustin
for relief from doubts as to the office of such afflictions; in the bishop's
reply, [Ep. cxi.] possibly of Nov., 409, he mentions the cruelties of the
Donatists at Hippo exceeding those of the Barbarians, especially in the resort
to acidified lime, clubbing, robberies, and other destructive measures to compel
rebaptism; forty-eight in one place were thus forced to a repetition. The
coercion policy, in other words, had stimulated some of the Donatists to
retaliation.Donatus had resigned his proconsulship. Augustin writes [Ep. cxii.]
at the end of 409 or beginning of 410 A.D., to express his regrets at not
meeting him on his visit to Tibilis; his retirement would now give leisure for a
larger development in graces, and would lead him to esteem the superiority of
eternal things. He praises him for his official worth, which indeed was in
everybody's mouth, but he urges him not to defer to that popularity, but to seek
the higher approbation. After reminding him of the duty of Christian progress,
he asks for a reply and an exhortation to be addressed to all his dependents at
Sinitis and Hippo to return to the Church. Greetings are sent to his father,
whom the son had been instrumental in converting to the faith.Petilian of
Constantina had written a treatise, de unico baptismo, which Constantinus had
come into possession of through some Donatist presbyter, and then gave it to
Augustin while they were in the country, imploring him to answer it. He did so,
c.410, in the book bearing the same title. He scorns those who desire secrecy in
such matters; when the deeds are public let the discussion be. Petilian claims
that the only true baptism is theirs: and therefore it is not repeated by the
sacrilegious theorists. Yes, replies Augustin, baptism is indeed one, but it is
Christ's, not yours; yours is only a repetition of the rite. We correct what is
yours and recognize what is Christ's. Therefore we do not repeat it. So Christ
corrected what was evil and recognized what was good among the Jews. So Paul
exposed the sin of the heathen world but acknowledged what truth it had.
Moreover you perform the ceremony, but it is to destruction: there is no real
advantage in baptism outside of the Church. Petilian pleads for rebaptism
because Paul rebaptized John's disciples; but, says Augustin, that is to declare
John a heretic. These are two different things, as indeed Petilian himself
suggests, some might say, and then gives two irrelevant passages, Matt. xii.30,
and vii.21-23, as if the Catholics had no fellowship with Christ and were not
recognized by Him. Augustin, after considering the import of these passages,
avers the readiness of the Church to recognize the baptism of Christ as
administered by Donatists when they return to the Church; for to deny Christ's
baptism because it is administered by heretics, is to say Christ Himself should
be denied, when even demons confess Him. There is a belief in God outside of the
Church; the devils believe in Him outside of the Church. So there is one baptism
of Christ which may exist also outside of the Church. Petilian's declaration
that true baptism is where the true faith is, Augustin disproves by citing the
case of the unbelieving and schismatic, yet baptized Corinthians. So all the
ages of the kingdom bear witness to a like state of things. The action of
Agrippinus and Cyprian on the one side, and of Stephen on the other, as to
rebaptism is reviewed; differing in this, they yet maintained unity, especially
Cyprian. Further, if the contact of evil men within the fellowship really
defiles the good, then the Church perished in Cyprian's time; where could
Donatus then have been spiritually born? If there is no such pollution, then
there is no occasion to rage for separation. The origin of the schism is then
denied from documentary testimony, and the charges declared to be not sustained;
on the other hand, these archives prove the schismatics to have been traditors.
A summary of the main points concludes his plea for the sole baptism as that of
Christ. [Cp. Retractt. II. xxxiv.].After this book against Petilian just
mentioned had been finished, he wrote another work of larger proportions and
with more thoroughness, in refutation of their schism, by the data of the
Maximian schism, which he considered a full surrender of all their
particularism. This has been styled: De Maximianistis contra Donatistas. It is
lost, but noticed in the Retractations (II. xxxv.) immediately after de unico
Baptismo.At Carthage, about May 15, 411, he preached in praise of peace (Sermo
ccclvii.). After its eulogy, he summons his hearers to the love of that peace;
and recalls Donatists as alienated from the unity unto the concord which exists
in the Church only. Patience and prayer are better means to their conquest than
reproof. After the pentecostal fast he bade them exercise hospitality toward the
guests who should attend the Conference. The two edicts concerning the great
Conference had been issued by Marcellinus. The Donatists had sent in their
protest to the second, while the Catholic bishops sent in their acquiescence in
a letter [Ep. cxxviii.], which is ascribed to Augustin's hand. It was of course
written before June 1, 411, the day appointed for the opening. They agree to all
the provisions for maintaining an orderly discussion; to the time and place of
meeting; to the numbers to be present; to the requirement that all the delegated
disputants sign their deliverances; to the countersignatures; to the order
prohibiting the people from access to the Conference. If the Donatists prove the
Church universal to have been lost and to be solely with them, the Catholic
bishops will resign their sees; if, however, the collation prove the
universality of the Church, then they suggest the recognition of the ordination
and office of the Donatist clergy, and propose details for the succession in
case of any jointure. The conciliatory example of Christ persuades them to this
step; the peace of Christ in the Church is higher than the episcopate. The
Donatist use of the civil authority against the Maximianists, and their gladness
in receiving the returning schismatics without rebaptism, and without any
diminution of their honors, give hope of a return to the root.Before the meeting
of the Conference, Augustin preached a sermon (No. ccclviii.) in Carthage, on
peace and love, of which the main thoughts were the peace to which the Catholics
cling and which they love under the persuasion of the divine testimonies; the
victory of truth is love. He presents the Scripture proofs of charity and
universality; the inheritance should not be divided. Donatus and Cæcilian were
but men, but baptism is Christ's and not man's. The charity spread abroad in the
heart is a broad commandment. He invites the Donatists to share in the Church's
possessions, and to be bishops along with the Catholics, and pleads for a joint
fraternal recognition; the Catholics seek peace and want to build up the Church.
He finally requests the people to keep aloof from the place of dispute, but
invokes their prayers in its behalf.The objection to the second edict on the
part of the Donatists respecting the restriction upon the number to be present
at the collation, led the Catholics to write a second letter to Marcellinus,
which is most likely also from the pen of Augustin. [Ep. cxxix.]. Solicitude
over the opposition is expressed; some seem disposed to present a hindrance to
the peaceful progress of the Conference; and yet the writers hope that the
thought and suspicion may not prove true, but that the desire of the whole body
may after all be to press into the unity of the Catholic Church. Then they go
on, very wrongfully in such a document, to discuss their favorite note of the
universality of the Church, as the body of Christ was not stolen, so neither are
His members outside of the few in Africa, dead. From Jerusalem outward was to be
its progress and thence it filled the whole world. The fact that the Donatists
have the very same Scriptures as the Catholics which contain these proofs of
universality, fills the complainants with grief for them. The Jews who denied
the resurrection rejected also the New Testament; but the Donatists receive it,
and yet they deny the note of universality, and accuse the Catholics of being
traditors of the sacred books. Now at the collation probably they wish to be in
full numbers, in order to search completely the Scriptures; and through their
innumerable testimonies they long to come en masse, not to create a tumult, but
to put an end to the old discord. It is true that they have found fault with our
use of the State; and yet the Scriptures vindicate such a recourse, and the
Donatists themselves appealed to Constantine. The Scriptures too show the mixed
character of the Church, wheat and chaff, good and bad fish, to the final
harvest, the winnowing, and the further shore. Perhaps they see the wrong of
their opposition to the Church. The case of the Maximianists has shown their
willingness to use the power of the State and to ignore rebaptism; and probably
moved by these things, they want to come in such large numbers in the interest
not of tumult but of peace. They desire to show that they are not so few as
their enemies report them to be. The Catholic numbers exceed in proconsular
Africa, and, except in Numidia, are more numerous than in the rest of the
African provinces; and most of all when one comes to compare the whole world
with the few Donatists. Why, however, could not the number be just as well
certified by the subscription? Even though quiet be preserved, yet at such a
Conference the murmur of such a crowd will impede the progress of the work. If
they all are allowed to be present, the writers, nevertheless, will limit
themselves to the delegation suggested by the Judge, and then no blame for
disorder can attach to them. If, however, the protest has been made in behalf of
unity, they all will be present joyfully to welcome the Donatists as brethren.
The Mandatum Catholicorum, a sort of voucher and letter of instruction for the
disputants on the side of the State Church, was undoubtedly the product of
Augustin's pen. After a preamble which attests the sufficiency of the Church
through her divine proofs against all heretics and schismatics, and the desire
of Church and State to settle the long pending controversy in Africa, and the
duty to enlighten men as to the eternal salvation, which things had induced them
to convene and to select defenders, there follows the note of the universality,
which, as the great proposition, is expanded with many proof texts from the Old
and the New Testament. This truth is to be defended against the Donatist
assertion that the universal Church had perished through contamination with
Cæcilian; for the Church is a mixed society of good and evil, and not to be
condemned on this account, but its unity is to be preserved by toleration. If
they maintain this view, the documents concerning Cæcilian's character must be
examined. The contestants must prove that the Church was thus defiled, or else
the evil do not defile the good in this unity. The mandate then gives Scriptural
and also post-apostolic proofs on this point, especially from Cyprian, and
quotes the Donatist action concerning the Maximianists. The next topic is
baptism as a sacrament of Christ and not of man, and as independent of the
character of the celebrant: the Maximian schism again affords material for the
confutation of this Donatistic tenet. They are instructed also to use the
archives to show that their opponents initiated civil appellation.In the session
of the second day, Augustin is the speaker, mainly on the matter of delay and
adjournment.In the third session, he appears as the chief disputant on the
doctrinal and historical points, and also as answering the letter of the
Donatists in reply to the mandate.In a sermon preached after the close of the
Conference, (Sermo ccclix. on Ecclus. xxv.2), he exhorted all Christians to be
brethren; the Catholics desire to have the Donatists unite with them in worship
in the universal Church. The history of Cæcilian should not affect the doctrine
of the body. He claims a triumph indeed for his side and rejoices over the many
who are returning to the mother Church, but candidly confesses that many harden
themselves in their opposition. His exordium appeals for a restoration of
brotherly harmony.A little later in the year, probably, Augustin preached from
Gal. vi.2-5 (Sermo clxiv.), in which he rebukes those who say: "We are saints,
we do not carry your burdens, therefore we do not communicate with you;"and
says: "your ancestors carry burdens of separation, burdens of schism, burdens of
heresy, burdens of dissension, burdens of animosity, burdens of false proofs,
burdens of calumnious accusations." In your boast of non-participation in
other's sins, you desert the flock, the threshing-floor and the net. The
traditors who had condemned the absent Cæcilian dissolved connection with the
whole world. He reminds them of the Maximianists; he charges them with breaking
the parables, and yet inculcates patience. The whole sermon indicates that the
effect of the conference had been to embitter both sides.Another sermon (xcix.)
on Luke vii.36, 50, was also preached about this time, in which he conceives
that the Puristic noli me tangere may develop into a system for sin-pardoning,
and justification and sanctification; the men of the Gesta Collationis are
likely to bring about such a machine religion. Already do they say: if men do
not remit sins, then what Christ says is false as to loosing on earth and in
heaven. With this conception of the tendency of their tenets he further says
against them, that the cleansing in baptism does not depend on the man.In a
fragment of another sermon (ccclx.), preached on the vigils of Maximian, he
personates a Donatist, who has returned to the unity, thanking the Lord that the
lost is found, and expressing his joy in the vine, the unity, the baptism and
peace of Christ.The authorized acts of the council of 411 were too unwieldy for
either general or popular use, and a compendium framed from them was too
obscure; so Augustin, about the close of 411, determined to make a digest,
called the Breviculus collationis cum Donatistis. It gives the collations of the
three days, but it is thoroughly disconnected without the official account, for
too many links known to the actors alone are not apparent to the uninitiated;
too much of what would throw light on the animus of the parties in power is
passed over, and a considerable deal of the minor business necessary to the
understanding of the spirit of the debate does not appear. A reader would
certainly get a still more one-sided and intolerant idea of the Conference from
the digest than from the Gesta. The analysis of the order of business would
require a comparison with the Gesta Collationis, and that lies outside of our
present purpose. [Cp. Retractt. II. xxxix.].The decision of the Conference again
stirred up a counter movement by the Circumcelliones, especially in Augustin's
diocese, during which some terrible outrages were perpetrated; the presbyter
Restitutus was killed; the presbyter Innocentius was clubbed and mutilated. A
trial was instituted by Marcellinus and the crimes confessed. Augustin hastens
to write to him [Ep. cxxxiii.], somewhere about the opening of 412 A.D.,
imploring that the punishment be not capital or retaliatory; restraint and labor
would be just. He commends the tribune-notary's moderation in the examination,
in that he did not resort to torture for extorting evidence, but only to
whipping. He commands him, as bishop, not to proceed to extremity, which would
be an injury to the Church, or at least to the diocese of Hippo. Since the
pronouncing of the sentence presumably belonged to the proconsul, he had also
indicted a letter to him. Apringius, the proconsul, was a brother of
Marcellinus. To him Augustin addressed a letter in the same interest, and at the
same date. [Ep. cxxxiv.] For the use of his newly gained authority, he was
accountable to God; he was also a Christian, so that Augustin felt a greater
confidence in petitioning and in warning, and begs that he may regard his
interference as a part of a bishop's zeal for the welfare of the Church. He
repeats the story of the arrest of the Circumcelliones and Donatist clergy, the
trial by Apringius's own brother, the tribune-notary, Marcellinus, and the
gentleness of the hearing, in which the accused confessed their crime,
especially as to the copresbyters. He now begs for a mild punishment; in the one
case it cannot be strictly retaliatory; in that of the homicide he fears it may
be capital punishment. Apringius must not only consider the State, but the
Church, and respect her clemency. He is not only a ruler of exalted power but a
son of Christian piety. Our enemies boast of persecution; we must give them no
occasion for it. These acts should be read for the cure of the minds which have
been perverted. If the extreme penalty has to fall, spare at least the children.
He implores him to imitate the patience and mildness of the Church and of
Christ.Augustin, in 412, writes to Marcellinus [Ep. cxxxix.] expressing his
delight that the proceedings connected with the trial are in preparation, and
for the intention of having them read in the churches of the city, and, if
possible, in all the churches of his diocese. The crimes mentioned are the same
as before, with added confessions of many who were in some degree abettors.
These are the men who refuse to commune with the Catholic Church for fear of
pollution from wicked men, and yet refuse to leave a schism debased by such a
fellowship. It was a question in Marcellinus's mind whether the Gesta should be
read in the Donatist church of Theoprepia in Carthage. Augustin urges it, and if
it be too small then in some other quarter, in that region of the city. Augustin
pleads for a mild punishment in imitation of the clemency of the Church; however
weak it may seem at the outset, men will afterward regard it with favor, and the
reading of the Gesta will be more welcome and more effective by the contrast
between Donatist cruelty and Catholic moderation. He speaks of the commission of
the bishop Bonifacius and the bearer Peregrinus, who were empowered to treat
upon some new measures for the benefit of the Church. The Donatist Bishop
Macrobius was busy reopening the churches of his sect, followed by a band of
both sexes. In the absence of Celer, a Donatist, his procurator, Spondeus, a
Catholic, had broken their audacity. He is commended to the favorable notice of
Marcellinus. While Spondeus was on a visit to Carthage, Macrobius had actually
reopened the Donatist churches on the estates of Celer. He was assisted by
Donatus, a rebaptized deacon and a leader in the slaughter; from which fact
other outrages might be expected. Should the plea for mildness not be granted,
Augustin asks that his letters urging clemency [Epp. cxxxiii. and cxxxiv.] be
read along with the Gesta. At least let a remission be granted to give time for
an appeal to the Emperors, for no martyrs desire their blood to be avenged by
death. In apologizing for his inability to complete his work on the baptism of
infants, he urges the variety of his labors; among other things he had completed
the Breviculus Collationis, as a compend for those who had not the leisure to
read the entire proceedings of the Conference; also a letter addressed to the
Donatist laity.The Donatists were charged with circulating the story of the
bribery of the cognitor or judge of the Conference. The letter from the council
of Zerta, June 14, 412, in refutation of this was written by Augustin, [Ep.
cxli.] in which it is said that they had become acquainted with this rumor so
easily credited by the common people. The vote of the council was to authorize a
refutation of it as a falsehood. The Donatists had been convicted of mendacity
in the charge which they had made and signed against the Catholics as traditors;
they had also invented stories to account for the signature of an absent bishop.
How can they be believed in such a charge against the cognitor? Since the acts
of the Collation are so voluminous we present herewith a digest. The meeting,
the election of disputants and scribes, the matter of the subscriptions, are
then recapitulated. In the attempt at discussion, the whole aim of the Donatist
disputants was to avoid coming to the point to be debated, while the Catholic
representatives exerted themselves to reach just that goal and nothing else.
When at last the Donatists were forced to the issue, they were vanquished by the
clear testimony of the Scriptures to the universality of the Church. Any one
separated from this unity has not life; the wrath of God abides upon him. The
communion with the wicked does not defile any one by the mere participation in
the sacraments, but only by agreement with their deeds. All these truths they
had to acknowledge. The Catholics had prevented a confusion between the
doctrinal and historical sides of the question. In the discussion of the
documents, the chief offset to all the points was found in the case of the
Maximianists, although the Donatists plead that a case should not be prejudged
by a case, nor a person by a person. All the accusations which had been
concentrated against Cæcilian they were unable to meet with proofs. Defeated men
are wont to suggest such a defense as the corruption of the judge. Then says the
paper in effect: If you will believe us, let us hold fast to the unity which God
commands and loves. But if you are unwilling to believe us, read the proceedings
themselves, or allow them to be read to you, and do you yourselves test whether
what we have written to you be true. If you decline all these, and will still
cleave to the Donatists, we are clear from your judgment. If you will renounce
the schism, we will welcome you to the peace of Christ, and you will have the
profit of that sacrament which was administered among you to judgment. The
Donatist presbyters Saturninus and Eufrates had joined the Catholic Church and
maintained their rank. Augustin writes [Ep. cxlii.], c.412 A.D., to express his
joy at their arrival and bids them not to grieve at his absence, for they are
now in the one Church whose note of universality he expands as the one Body of
the one Head, and as the one house in all the earth; in the unity of this house
we rejoice as embracive of those transmarine churches, to whom the appeal had
vainly been made by the Donatists. He who lives evilly in this Church eats and
drinks condemnation to himself, but whoever lives correctly, another case and
another person cannot prejudge him. The Donatists had protested against the
parallel proofs drawn from the Maximianists, on the ground that a case should
not be prejudged by a case nor a person by a person. On the Lord's
threshing-floor the chaff must be tolerated. He exhorts them to a faithful
discharge of their clerical duties, especially in mercifulness and also in
prayer for the removal of the schism.The hostility of the Donatists was
increased by the Collation. Their clergy charged the judge with bribery, and
protested against the unfairness of the trial, the compulsion of the meeting,
the unjust decision. Augustin felt compelled to write, c.412 A.D., to the people
in order to stay the fury of their leaders. The treatise is known as Ad
Donatistas post Collationem. Why make such a charge? Why does Primian say, it is
unworthy for the sons of the martyrs to meet in the same place with the
offspring of traditors? Why did they come? Why were they unable to prove the old
accusations? And how are they the sons of martyrs? The universality of the
Church was demonstrated at the Conference. Donatists do not commune with the
churches addressed in those epistles which they read at their services, because
they say these perished by communion with the African Cæcilians, and yet they
put in the plea that a case should not be prejudged by a case nor a person by a
person. He meets the Cæcilian charge by the Maximianists in spite of this
caveat. He represents all the New Testament churches and the East as
expostulating on the basis of this very plea with the Donatists for separation
from them. So the case and the person of the bad does not prejudice the case and
the person of the good; they must abide together until the end. He condemns
their arrogant pretense to holiness. The wicked must be tolerated in the Church,
but their deeds are not to be participated in. Cyprian would not destroy the
unity because bad people were in it; frequent are the examples of such
forbearance in the Scriptures, and the principle was not changed after the
resurrection of Christ; it continued in force in the New Testament Church; the
winnowing and severance come at the end of the world. They would perhaps deny
their own words as uttered in the Conference were they not written; that was the
beauty of requiring subscription. They charge too that the sentence against them
was pronounced in the night. Augustin playfully speaks of many good things which
have been said and done in the night. He subsequently reminds them of the days
in which they tried to prove the origin of heresy, and their defeat at every
point of the Cæcilian history. It appears here again that the Donatists had a
considerable body of acts of their own. The plea of persecution as a note of the
Church and as an experience of the Donatists was one of the points urged at the
conference in the Donatist reply to the Catholic mandate, and by Primian, to
which we have the usual answer. Another complaint of the Donatists was that they
were tried by those who had been condemned by themselves, and were compelled to
unite with sinners; to which Augustin gives a little Maximianist parallel and
then considers the questions of purism, the paucity of believers, the need of
discipline, the fellowship of a mixed community which ought not to degenerate
into a participation in the deeds of the wicked therein. These are discussed
with considerable detail of quotations from the Old and New Testaments. Some who
thought Cæcilian guilty would not break the unity; they imitated Cyprian. He
charges their clergy with duplicity. He reminds them of the deception practiced
in presenting the signature of a Donatist, who was already dead; so with regard
to the show of numbers in attendance and the alleged multitude absent, and also
the means adopted for securing delay, the interruptions and turnings of the
debate from the true object in view. He vindicates the cognitor's method and
rulings. He then renews the discussion concerning the archival origin of the
schism. In conclusion he addresses them as brethren and exhorts them to love
peace and unity.The Donatists of Cirta, clergy and people, had returned to the
Catholic Church and had written a letter of thanks to Augustin for his
preaching, under which they had been persuaded to renounce the schism. Augustin
in reply [Ep. cxliv.], probably at end of 412 A.D., says that this is not man's
work, but God's. Their allusion to the conversion of the drunken and luxurious
Polemo by Xenocrates, draws from him the reflection, that such a change of
character, though not a Christian repentance, is, nevertheless, a work of God.
So he bids them not to give thanks to himself but to God, for their return to
the unity. Those who still are alienated, whether from love or fear, he charges
to remember the undeceived scrutiny of God; to weigh Scripture testimony as to
the universality of the Church; and the documents as to the origin of the
schism. The case has been tried or not been tried by the transmarine churches;
if not, then there is no existing ground for the separation; if it has, the
defeated ones are the separatists. But alas! the obstacles to their persuasion
are well-nigh insuperable. He hopes that the mutual desire for his visit to them
may be fulfilled. About the beginning of the year 413, appeared the book De Fide
et Operibus. In Chap. iv.6, he speaks of the need of coercion against the
Donatists as disturbers of the peace of the Church, as separaters of the tares
from the wheat before the time, as those who have blindly preferred to cut
themselves off from the unity; commixture of evil and good is a necessity, and
we ought to remain in that fellowship which is not at all destitute of
discipline. [Cp. Retractt. II. xxxviii.]Donatus, a Donatist presbyter, and
another person connected with that body, had been arrested by order of Augustin
about the beginning of 416 A.D. Mounted upon a beast against his will, he dashed
himself to the ground and so received injuries which his less obstinate
companion escaped. Augustin writes [Ep. clxxiii.] to vindicate himself as
concerned about the salvation of the recusants, and puts the blame of the wounds
upon the offender. Donatus urged in opposition to this style of conversion that
no one should be compelled to be good. Augustin claims on the other hand that
many are compelled to take the good office of a bishop against their will.
Donatus argues that God had given us free will, therefore a man should not be
compelled even to be good. Augustin replies that the effort of a good will is to
restrain and change the evil will, because of the awful results which follow a
vitiated will. Why were the Israelites compelled to go to the land of promise?
Why was Paul forced to turn from persecution to the embrace of the truth? Why do
parents correct children? Why are negligent shepherds blamed? You are an errant
sheep, with the Lord's mark upon you, and I as shepherd must save you from
perishing. Of your own will you threw yourself into a well, but it would have
been wicked to leave you there where you had cast yourself according to your
will, and hence the attendants took you out; how much more is it a duty to save
you from eternal death. Besides, it is unlawful to inflict death upon yourself.
He reminds him that the Scriptures do not allow suicide; and controverts his use
of I. Cor. xiii.3, "though I give my body to be burned." Severed from charity
and unity, nothing can profit, not even the surrender of the body to burning.
The points of the recent joint Conference are then dwelt upon. Donatus was
understood to have criticized the saying of his party as to the Maximianist
parallel: do not prejudge a case by a case or a person by a person. Augustin
twits him in this wise: If you object to this, then you are deceived concerning
it, because you oppose your authority to theirs, and if you say it is not true,
the hope of vindicating the great schism falls through entirely. He presses him
to weigh all the proceedings. But Donatus objects also that the Lord did not
cause the seventy to come back, and did not put a barrier in the way of the
twelve when he asked, "Will ye also go away?" Augustin says that was in the
beginning of Christianity; kings were not yet converted; now the State helps the
Church. Our Lord said prophetically, Compel them to come in. So we hunt you in
the hedges; the unwilling sheep is brought to the true pasture.The series of
Tractatus on the Gospel of John, which are ascribed to 416 A.D., contain many
reflections on Donatism. We can only notice the passages:Tractatus IV. in Jo.
i.19-33.Tractatus V. in Jo. i.33.Tractatus VI. in Jo. i.32, 33. Quite
fully.Tractatus IX. in Jo. ii.1-11.Tractatus X. in Jo. ii.12-21.Tractatus XI. in
Jo. ii.23-25, and iii.1-5.Tractatus XII. in Jo. iii.6-21.Tractatus XIII. in Jo.
iii.22-29.To the same year are ascribed the Tractatus on the I. Ep. of
John.Tractatus I. 1 Jo. i. and ii.1-11.Tractatus II. 1 Jo. ii.12-17.Tractatus
III. 1 Jo. ii.18-27.Tractatus IV. 1 Jo. iii.1-8.In the Retractations, II. xlvi.,
we read of a book addressed to Emeritus, the Donatist bishop of Cæsarea, in the
province of Mauritania Cæsariensis. [See Ep. lxxxvii.] He speaks of him as the
best of the seven Donatist disputants at the Conference. The work marked briefly
the lines on which the Donatists were defeated. Its title is: Ad Emeritum
Donatistarum Episcopum, post collationem, liber unus. Since the Retractations
place it before De Gestis Pelagii, and De Correctione Donatistarum, it was most
likely written in the beginning of 417 A.D.Boniface had requested from Augustin
a letter of instructions on the relation of the Donatists to the Arians. The
bishop replies, c.417 [Ep. clxxxv.], which he himself calls a book de
Correctione Donatistarum. [Cp. Retractt. II. xlviii.]. Since this is translated
in the present volume, we will omit any further notice.The above-mentioned
Emeritus was present at a Synod of the Catholics, near Deuterius, September 20,
418. At a service held two days after, Augustin preached the Sermo ad
Cæsariensis Ecclesiæ plebem. Emeritus was present. In the church during a
previous colloquy with Augustin he had said: I cannot will what you will, but I
can will what I will. Augustin in this sermon (and the writing has all the
abruptness and repetition of an extempore address) urges him to will what God
wills, viz., peace, and that now, in response to the cry of the people; and if
you ask why I, who call you schismatics and heretics, desire to receive you, it
is because you are brethren; because you have the baptism of Christ; because I
want you to have salvation: one can have everything outside the Church except
salvation; he can have honor, he can have the sacraments, he can sing Allelulia,
he can respond Amen, he can hold to the gospels, he can have faith in the name
of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and can preach. Persecution after
all is rather of you. The failure of the archival evidence as to Cæcilian is
alleged as usual, and hence no reason for separation exists. He recites too the
story of the seizure, escape, reseizure, compulsory baptism and ordination of
Petilian, while at the time a Catholic catechumen. This occurred at Constantina,
when that city and region were largely Donatist. He was seized unto death, do we
not draw him to salvation? Here or nowhere, says Augustin, repeating the voice
of the people, is the place for peace. There was a gathering of clergy (the
bishops Alypius, Augustinus, Possidius, Rusticus Palladius, etc., many
presbyters and deacons and a considerable number of people) in the exedra of the
larger church at Cæsarea, c.418 A.D. Emeritus, the Donatist bishop of the city,
was also present. Augustin addresses those devoted to the unity, and says that
when he came to the city on the day before yesterday he found Emeritus returned
from a journey. Augustin met him in the street and invited him to the Church,
and Emeritus consented without any demur. The sermon of Augustin is full of the
peace, love and related themes of the Church, in hope of winning Emeritus. He
alludes to the many conversions in the city and since the collation; if Emeritus
has anything new to say in defense of his side, he invites him to state it.
Emeritus had been reported as affirming that at the Conference the Donatists
were overcome by power rather than by truth. Augustin then addresses inquiries
to Emeritus directly: as to why he had come if he was defeated at the council;
or if he thought his party had triumphed, then to state the ground for such an
opinion. Emeritus said: The acts show whether I am defeated or not, whether I am
defeated by truth or oppressed by power. Augustin: Then why do you come?
Emeritus: That I might say this very thing which you ask, and so on. Under some
taunting and arrogant observations to the brethren, Emeritus keeps quiet. From
Augustin's statement it appears that the Acts were read during Lent, at
Thagaste, Constantina, Hippo, and all the faithful churches. Part of these Gesta
are then read by Alypius, viz, the imperial convocation of the Conference, and
comments are made by Augustin. Then follows his application of the lessons
afforded by the Maximianist schism, in which he says the Donatists make
shipwreck of all their tenets. Emeritus, however, remained a silent hearer. The
account of the above meeting is given in the treatise: De Gestis cum Emerito,
Cæsariensi Donatistarum Episcopo liber unus. [Cp. Retractt. II. li.]The book de
Patientia is assigned to 418 A.D. In Chapter xiii. he contrasts genuine and
false martyrdom.Dulcitius had been appointed Tribune-notary. The effect of his
carrying out of the renewed edicts against the Donatists was signalized by many
conversions, but also by many suicides. He had written to Augustin requesting
directions about how he ought to proceed against the heretics. Augustin replies
[Ep. cciv.], c.420 A.D., that his work had indeed persuaded many to return to
their salvation, but others were stirred either to kill the Catholics or
themselves. We indeed do desire the return of all to unity, yet some are
doubtless predestinated to perish by an occult yet just decree of God. They
perish not only in their own fires but in that of Gehenna. The Church grieves
over them as David over his son, although they have met the deserved punishment
of rebels. Augustin does not find fault with the notary's edict at Thamugada,
only with the phrase: You may know that you are to be given over to the death
which you deserve; for that is not contained in the rescripts. In the second
edict there is a clearer statement of the notary's aim. Augustin also criticizes
his courtesy toward Gaudentius, the Donatist bishop of Thamugada. As to a
special reply to that bishop Augustin urges a more diligent refutation of the
fallacious doctrines by which the Donatists are accustomed to be seduced. He had
already done this in very many works, but adds some points by way of suggestion.
He alone is a martyr who dies for a true cause. Man's will is free, but
nevertheless amenable to divine and human laws. The State can punish not only
adulteries and homicides, but also sacrileges. Many think it strange that we do
not rebaptize, but the sacrament once given ought not to be repeated. Suicides
are utterly prohibited by the Scriptures. The case of Razius gives the Donatist
no pretext, for the deed is simply mentioned but not commended. (II. Mac.
xiv.37-46). In conclusion he intimates that in answer to the united wish of the
people of Thamugada, of himself and of Eleusinus, the tribune of that place,
that Augustin should answer both epistles of Gaudentius, the Donatist bishop,
and especially the latter of the two, which contained Scriptural proofs, he will
write such a criticism.Dulcitius had written a pacific letter to Gaudentius, the
Donatist bishop of Thamugada, one of the quieter members of the seven Donatist
disputants, concerning the enforcement of the imperial edicts. Gaudentius
replied in two epistles, one short, the other longer and fortified by Scripture
proofs. Augustin was requested to answer these, which he does (c.420) in the
work Contra Gaudentium Donatistarum Episcopum, Libra duo. In Book I. he makes a
change of form from the Petilian cast of personal dialogue, because of the
captious fault found with that way as savoring of untruth, and takes a duller
formula, "Verba Epistolæ" and "ad hæc responsio," whose dryness and literality
the most sensitive Donatist could take no exception to. In the first epistle of
Gaudentius, the fairly courteous strain in which he had replied to the
tribune-notary, with titles and recognition of character, Augustin rather
resents by saying that the Catholic had treated the heretic too kindly and
incautiously, and bids Gaudentius consider what he had said at the Collation.
Gaudentius proposes to remain in the communion where the name of God and of his
Christ is and where the Sacraments are, and pleads for religious liberty against
compulsion as to matters of faith; and concludes, by another hand, with wishing
him well and desiring his recession from the disquieting of Christians. Augustin
objects that Gaudentius had not reproduced the language of Dulcitius correctly,
and accuses the Donatists of holding the truth of baptism in the iniquity of
human error; he comments on their false eagerness for death; he responds to all
the good wishes for the tribune, but not that he should cease from correcting
the heretics. The second epistle of Gaudentius is mainly a protest from
Scriptural grounds; against persecution he brings forward the case of Gabinus,
who, if bad, should not have been received without correction, that is, baptism;
but if innocent, why kill the innocent Donatists from whom he came to you? The
false rumor about Emeritus, as having turned Catholic, is another instance of
this persecution. The duty of a persecuted pastor is to be a doer of the law and
to lay down his life for the sheep; there is no place whither the persecuted may
now flee; the divine right of free will is restrained by the arbitrary laws of
the emperor; persecution is a note of the Church from the blessings attached to
it by Christ and the apostles. The peace of Christ invites the willing but does
not compel the unwilling; a thing very different from the war-bearing peace and
the bloody unity which their oppressors present. We rejoice in the hatred of the
world; there is a martyr host of the apocalypse; Christians may yield up their
souls in testimony against sacrilege, as Razius did. He begs Dulcitius to turn
to the few who have the solidity and not the semblance of truth. God gave
prophets not kings to teach the people: the Saviour sent fishermen not soldiers.
God never needs the aid of soldiers. Gaudentius charges the Catholics with
coveting the Donatist possessions. The farewell is in another handwriting, in
which he wishes Dulcitius well, and advises him to pursue a lenient and
temperate course.The points of Augustin's reply are in no way different save
form from those so constantly presented, unless there be an increase of
roughness and a more hardened idea of the Church's right to use coercion. As to
Gabinus, the Church's course with regard to him is a vindication of the right to
receive a convert without rebaptism: in communion with charity and unity he
received the profit of that rite which had been administered among the
Donatists. In the case of Emeritus, Augustin confesses that the rumor of his
having turned Catholic was false; but Emeritus came to Cæsarea of his own will;
he came to the Church where a multitude was present; he could say nothing for
his or his party's defense; he kept quiet. The argument against suicide from the
case of Razius is well made; he died rather in suffering for the state; and
besides the narrative does not commend the deed, but only states it; then too
the books have not the weight that the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms carry
with them. The plea for correction is precisely as usual. The doctrines of
universality and unity and charity are incidentally brought forward.
Circumcelliones, Secundus and Maximianists furnish the concluding parallels.Book
II. Gaudentius had written a reply to Augustin's first book. He had taken refuge
under the example of Cyprian; but Augustin now refers him to the writings of
Cyprian on De Simplicitate Prælatorum seu De Catholicæ Ecclesiæ unitate, showing
Cyprian's belief in the universality of the Church which Augustin expands by the
explanation of the term Catholic. Purgation of the Church is not by separation,
but by toleration, as Cyprian too held in his letter to Maximus and others. The
explanation of the field not as the Church, but rather as the world outside of
the Church, had been supported at the Conference and is repeated by Gaudentius;
and also its alternative, that were the field the Church then it must have
perished from the tares which were in it. If so, says Augustin, then the
ancestors of the Donatists would have perished. The period of separation is at
the end, when the Gospel shall have been preached in the whole world. As to
their theme of rebaptism, Augustin replies that he had already before referred
him to his Maximianist practice, so that the action of Agrippinus and Cyprian
are vain for him. And then too, according to Cyprian's own confession, and
Stephen's testimony, there were crimes in the Church in their day; did the
Church perish then? If so where was Donatus born? If not, then why did the party
of Donatus separate? They are guilty of the very schism which Cyprian
particularly deprecated as a cure, instead of toleration and discipline, for the
ills of the Church. As to baptism: The Catholics recognize the Donatist rite,
for the sacrament cannot be lost upon those who receive it among Catholics and
then pass over to heretics; they have the truth but in iniquity; the truth is
not the property of the Donatists. The apostle recognized such truth as he found
among the Gentiles. Gaudentius had vindicated his reference to the tribune's
letter, as to the Donatists having the names of God and of his Christ, and
quoted the passage in proof. Augustin acknowledges his mistake, which, however,
was not intentional, and he apologizes for the tribune's error as that of a
military man who was not familiar with theology. Since Gaudentius had called the
tribune religious in his first letter, Augustin accuses him of insincerity and
berates him as superstitious. He also corrects Gaudentius for saying that God
sent Jonah not to the king but only to the people of Nineveh, for the king
compelled the humiliation of his subjects. In conclusion he quotes from
Cyprian's letter to Maximus in behalf of universality and tolerant unity. His
exordium is an earnest appeal to the Catholics to maintain all the notes of the
Church. [Cp. Retractt. II. lix.]. Felicia had been a Donatist originally and was
converted by force. She had devoted herself to the virgin life and apparently
had become head of a religious house; but by reason of some wicked deeds of the
clergy, possibly the extortion and rapacity of Antonius at Fussala, she was much
disturbed and seemed inclined to relapse into her earlier puristic notions, if
not to return to the body that upheld them. To quiet her doubts Augustin writes
Ep. ccviii. c.423. The Lord had predicted offenses. There are two kinds of
shepherds over the flock, and will be to the end: the flock too has the good and
the bad in it. The gathering is the present duty, the separation will be the
future one; this latter is the Lord's prerogative. To abide in unity under such
circumstances is a duty until the winnowing, and one is to believe what these
shepherds teach, not what they do. Good and bad are therefore in the world under
the widely diffused Catholic Church; the Donatist has no such note of
universality. Love Christ and the Church, and then He will not permit you to
lose the fruit of your virginity and to perish with the lost. If you go out of
this life, separated from the unity of the body of Christ, this preserved
integrity of the body will not profit you. You were compelled to come in; be
thankful to those who compelled you. Show your devotion to the Lord, as your
only hope, by being unmoved with these offenses, and by cleaving to his body,
the Church.A letter addressed to Pope Coelestine is ascribed to Augustin [Ep.
ccix. c.423]; its authenticity has been disputed. The author, in giving an
account of the appointment of Antonius as bishop of Fussala, remarks that at
Fussala, a castellum about forty miles distant from Hippo, as in all the
adjoining region, there had been a Donatist population; in Fussala itself there
had not been a solitary Catholic; the Punic was the common language. The
coercive measures had converted the whole territory, but the process had also
aroused a violent opposition in the form of robbery, beating, blinding, murder.
After its conversion, the distance from Hippo and the great numbers to be
instructed, required a new bishopric, the history of which and the troubles
growing out of it, the author further relates.In that valuable book De doctrina
christiana, (begun in 397, but ended in 426, including the part having reference
to our subject III. xxx.42), Augustin quotes approvingly from the book of
Tychonius the De septem regulis, and prefaces a discussion of these rules by an
allusion to the treatise of Tychonius, which had refuted some of the narrow and
puristic doctrines of the Church, as held by his own party; this we have already
seen was answered by Parmenian, whose letter in turn was dissected by Augustin.
The first, second, fourth and seventh of these rules bear especially upon the
doctrinal points under discussion. [Cp. Retractt. II. iv. and Tychonius de
Septem Regulis is reprinted in Migne. Pat. Lat. xviii.]In his de Hoeresibus
[c.428 A.D.] Chapter lxix. gives a brief account of the Donatiani or Donatistæ:
(a) as to origin and progress; (b) Donatus's view of the Trinity; (c) the
Montenses at Rome; (d) the Circumcelliones; (e) the schism of Maximian.This was
his parting arrow after the thirty-six years of battle. Catholics and Donatists
passed under the persecutions of the Arian Vandals. Two years after this
treatise Augustin laid aside his weapons to enter the land of eternal peace and
unity.More or less extended allusions are made to Donatism in the following
sermons, arranged in the order of the Benedictine editions; for the years in
which they were delivered cannot be determined. Want of space prevents the
presentation of any analysis.Sermo X. 1 Kings iii.16-28.Sermo XLV. Is. lvii.13
and 2 Cor. vii.1.Sermo XLVI. Ez. xxxiv.1-16.Sermo XLVII. Ez. xxxiv.17-31.Sermo
LXXI. Matt. xii.32.Sermo LXXXVIII. Matt. xx.30-34.Sermo XC. Matt.
xxii.1-14.Sermo CVII. Luc. xii.13-21.Sermo CXXIX. Jo. v.39-47.Sermo CXXXVII. Jo.
x.1-16.Sermo CXXXVIII. Jo. x.11-16.Sermo CLXXXIII. 1 Jo. iv.2.Sermo CCXVIII.
Luc. xxiv.38-47.Sermo CCXLIX. Jo. xxi.1-14.Sermo CCLII. Jo. xxi.1-14.Sermo
CCLXV. The Ascension.Sermo CCLXVI. Ps. cxli. (cxl.) 5.Sermo CCLXVIII.
Pentecost.Sermo CCLXIX. Pentecost.Sermo CCLXXXV. Anniversary of the martyrs
Castus and Æmilus.Sermo CCXCII. John the Baptist.Sermo CCCXXV. Anniversary of
the Twenty Martyrs.Similar references are to be found in the expositions and
sermons based on the Psalms. The first column is the Hebrew and English order;
the second that of LXX. and Vulgate.Exposition of Psalms XI. (X.)Exposition of
Psalms XXVI. (XXV.) Sermon.Exposition of Psalms XXXI. (XXX.) Sermons I. and
II.Exposition of Psalms XXXIII. (XXXII.) Sermon II.Exposition of Psalms XXXIV.
(XXXIII.) Sermon II.Exposition of Psalms XXXVI. (XXXV.) Sermon.Exposition of
Psalms XXXVII. (XXXVI.) Sermons II. (archival) and III. Exposition of Psalms XL.
(XXXIX.) Sermon.Exposition of Psalms LV. (LIV.) Sermon.Exposition of Psalms
LVIII. (LVII.) Sermon.Exposition of Psalms LXXXVI. (LXXXV.) Sermon.Exposition of
Psalms XCIX. (XCVIII.) Sermon.Exposition of Psalms CXX. (CXIX.)
Sermon.Exposition of Psalms CXXV. (CXXIV.) Sermon.Exposition of Psalms CXXXIII.
(CXXXII.) Sermon.Exposition of Psalms CXLVI. (CXLV.) Sermon.Exposition of Psalms
CXLVII.12-20 (CXLVII.) Sermon.Exposition of Psalms CXLIX. Sermon.The time of
writing the de Utilitate Jejunii is unknown. Chapter V.9, contrasts pagan,
heretical and Catholic fasts; heretics claim indeed to fast in order to please
God; how can they, when they sever the unity? All heretics perish; they are the
dividers of the inheritance of Christ.In conclusion the reviser desires to
commend the fidelity and lucidity of the translation made by the Rev. J. R.
King, M.A.No changes made by the reviser have been indicated, since all could
not be without confusion. The translation had taken most of its notes and
references from the Benedictines. The citations of Cyprian are according to the
numerals in Hartel's edition.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 5: PREFACE 
========================================================================

The schism of the Donatists, with which the treatises in the present volume are
concerned, arose indirectly out of the persecution under Diocletian at the
beginning of the fourth century. At that time Mensurius, bishop of Carthage, and
his archdeacon Cæcilianus, had endeavored to check the fanatical spirit in which
many of the Christians courted martyrdom; and consequently, on the death of
Mensurius in 311, and the elevation of Cæcilianus to the see of Carthage in his
place, the opposing party, alleging that Felix, bishop of Aptunga, by whom
Cæcilianus had been consecrated, had been a traditor, and that therefore his
consecration was invalid, set up against him Majorinus, who was succeeded in 315
by Donatus. The party had by this time gained strength, through the professions
that they made of extreme purity in the discipline which they maintained, and
had gone so far, under the advice of another Donatus, bishop of Casæ Nigræ in
Numidia, as to accuse Cæcilianus before the Roman Emperor Constantine, -- thus
setting the first precedent for referring a spiritual cause to the decision of a
civil magistrate. Constantine accepted the appeal, and in 313 the matter was
laid for decision before Melchiades, bishop of Rome, and three bishops of the
province of Gaul. They decided in favor of the validity of the consecration of
Cæcilianus; and a similar verdict was given by a council held at Arles, by
direction of the Emperor, in the following year. The party of Majorinus then
appealed to the personal judgment of the Emperor, which was likewise given
against them, not without strong expressions of his anger at their pertinacity.
This was followed by severe laws directed against their schism; but so far from
crushing them, the attack seemed only to increase their enthusiasm and develope
their resources. And, under the leadership of Donatus, the successor of
Majorinus, their influence spread widely throughout Africa, and continued to
prevail, in spite of various efforts at their forcible suppression, during the
whole of the fourth century. They especially brought on themselves the vengeance
of the civil powers, by the turbulence of certain fanatical ascetics who
embraced their cause, and who, under the name of Circumcelliones, spread terror
through the country, seeking martydom for themselves, and offering violence to
every one who opposed them. Towards the close of the century, this schism
attracted the attention of Augustin, then a priest of Hippo Regius in Numidia.
The controversy seems to have had for him a special attraction, not merely
because of its intrinsic importance, but also because of the field which it
presented for his unrivalled powers as a dialectician. These the Donatists had
recently provoked, by inconsistently receiving back into their body a deacon of
Carthage named Maximianus who had separated himself from them, and by
recognizing as valid all baptism administered by his followers. Hence they
naturally shrank from engaging in a contest with an antagonist who was sure to
make the most of such a deviation from the very principles on which they based
their schism; and, on the other hand, Augustin was so firmly convinced that his
own position was impregnable, that he seems to have thought that if he could
only secure a thorough and dispassionate discussion of the matter, the Donatists
must necessarily be brought to acknowledge not only their theoretical errors,
but also the practical sinfulness of their separation from the Church.
Throughout the controversy, however, he appears to have put out of sight two
considerations: first, the influence of party spirit and prejudice in blinding
men to argument; and, secondly, the necessity of treating his opponents in a
logical discussion as on an equal footing with himself. The first was in some
degree an unavoidable element of disappointment; but Augustin made concession
yet more difficult on the part of his opponents, by expecting them to
acknowledge his superior position as a member of the Catholic Church, whose duty
it was to expose the error of their views. He practically begs the very point at
issue, by assuming that he, and not the Donatists, was in the Catholic
communion; and though his argument is conducted independently of this premise,
yet it naturally rendered them more unwilling to admit its force. This dogmatism
was of less consequence in the first pamphlet which Augustin published on the
subject, -- his Alphabetical Psalm, in which he set forth the history and errors
of the Donatists in a popular form, -- since it was not intended as a
controversial treatise, but only as a means of enlightening the less educated as
to the Catholic tenets on the question in dispute. His next work, written in
answer to a letter of Donatus of Carthage, in which the latter tried to prove
that the baptism of Christ existed only in his communion, is unfortunately lost;
and we can only gather hints as to the further part which he took in the
controversy during the next few years from certain of his letters, especially
those to the Donatist Bishops Honoratus and Crispinus. [1142] From the former he
claims the admission that the exclusiveness of the Donatists proves that they
are not the Church of Christ; and his letter to the latter contains an
invitation to discuss the leading points at issue, which Crispinus seems to have
declined. In the year 400 he wrote two books Against the Party of Donatus, which
are also lost; and about the same time he published his refutation of the letter
of Parmenianus in answer to Tichonius, in which he handles and solves the famous
question, whether, while abiding in unity in the communion of the same
sacraments, the wicked pollute the good by their society. [1143] Then followed
his seven books On Baptism, included in this volume, in which he shows the
emptiness of the arguments of the Donatists for the repetition of baptism; and
proves that so far was Cyprian from being on their side, that his letters and
conduct are of the highest value as overthrowing their position, and utterly
condemning their separation from the Church. Not long after this, Petilianus,
bishop of Cirta or Constantina, the most eminent theologian among the Donatist
divines, wrote a letter to his clergy against the Catholics, of which Augustin
managed to obtain a copy, though the Donatists used their utmost care to keep it
from him; and he replied to it in two books, written at different times, -- the
first in the year 400, before he was in possession of the whole letter, the
remainder in 402. To the first book Petilianus made an answer, of which we
gather the main tenor from a third book written by Augustin in reply to it. It
appears to have been full of vehement abuse, and to have assumed the question in
dispute, that the existence of the true Church, and the catholicity of any
branch of it, depended on the purity and orthodoxy of all its ministers; so that
the guilt or heresy of any minister would invalidate the whole of his
ministerial acts. Hence he argued that Cæcilianus being the spiritual father of
the so-called Catholics, and having been a traditor, none of them could possibly
have been lawfully baptized, much less rightfully ordained. Augustin admits
neither of his assumptions; but, leaving the guilt or innocence of Cæcilianus as
a point which was irrelevant (though practically the case against him utterly
broke down), he addresses himself to the other point, and argues most
conclusively that all the functions of the clergy in celebrating the rites of
the Church being purely ministerial, the efficacy of those rites could in no way
depend upon the excellence of the individual minister, but was derived entirely
from Christ. Hence there was a certainty of the grace bestowed through the
several ordinances, which otherwise there could not possibly have been, had
their virtue depended on the character of any man, in whom even an unblemished
reputation might have been the fruit of a skilled hypocrisy. The third treatise
in this volume belongs to a later period, being a letter written to Bonifacius,
the Roman Count of Africa under Valentinian the Third. He had written to
Augustin to consult him as to the best means of dealing with the Donatists; and
Augustin in his reply points out to him his mistake in supposing that the
Donatists shared in the errors of the Arians, whilst he urges him to use
moderation in his coercive measures; though both here and in his answer to
Petilianus we find him countenancing the theory that the State has a right to
interfere in constraining men to keep within the Church. Starting with a forced
interpretation of the words, "Compel them to come in," in Luke xiv.23, he
enunciates principles of coercion which, though in him they were subdued and
rendered practically of little moment by the spirit of love which formed so
large an element in his character, yet found their natural development in the
despotic intolerance of the Papacy, and the horrors of the Inquisition. It is
probable that he was himself in some degree misled by confounding the necessity
of repressing the violence of the Circumcelliones, which was a real offense
against the State, with the expediency of enforcing spiritual unity by temporal
authority. The Donatist treatises have met with little attention from individual
editors. There is a dissertation, De Aur. Augustino adversario Donatistarum, by
Adrien Roux, published at Louvain in 1838; [1144] but it is believed that no
treatises of this series have ever before been translated into English, nor are
they separately edited. They are in themselves a valuable authority for an
important scene in the history of the Church, and afford a good example both of
the strength and the weakness of Augustin's writing, -- its strength, in the
exhaustive way in which he tears to pieces his opponent's arguments, and the
clearness with which he exposes the fallacies of their reasoning; its weakness,
in the persistency with which he pursues a point long after its discussion might
fairly have been closed, as though he hardly knew when he had gained the
victory; and his tendency to claim, by right of his position, a vantage-ground
which did not in reality belong to him till the superiority of his cause was
proved. J. R. King Oxford, March, 1870.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 6: THE SEVEN BOOKS OF AUGUSTIN, BISHOP OF HIPPO, ON BAPTISM, AGAINST THE DONATISTS 
========================================================================

[DE BAPTISIMO CONTRA DONATISTAS.] CIRCA A.D.400. translated by the rev. j. r.
king, m.a., vicar of st. peter's in the east, oxford; and late fellow and tutor
of mERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 7: THE SEVEN BOOKS OF AUGUSTIN, BISHOP OF HIPPO ON BAPTISM, AGAINST THE DONATISTS 
========================================================================

________________ This treatise was written about 400 A.D. Concerning it Aug. in
Retract. Book II. c. xviii., says: I have written seven books on Baptism against
the Donatists, who strive to defend themselves by the authority of the most
blessed bishop and martyr Cyprian; in which I show that nothing is so effectual
for the refutation of the Donatists, and for shutting their mouths directly from
upholding their schism against the Catholic Church, as the letters and act of
Cyprian. ________________


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 8: HE PROVES THAT BAPTISM CAN BE CONFERRED OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC COMMUNION BY HERETICS OR SCHISMATICS
========================================================================

He proves that baptism can be conferred outside the Catholic communion by
heretics or schismatics, but that it ought not to be received from them; and
that it is of no avail to any while in a state of heresy or schism.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 9: CHAPTER 1. -- 1. IN THE TREATISE WHICH WE WROTE AGAINST THE PUBLISHED EPISTLE OF PARMENIANUS TO
========================================================================

-- 1. In the treatise which we wrote against the published epistle of
Parmenianus [1145] to Tichonius, [1146] we promised that at some future time we
would treat the question of baptism more thoroughly; [1147] and indeed, even if
we had not made this prom 2. In the treatise above mentioned, it has already
been said that the grace of baptism can be conferred outside the Catholic
communion, just as it can be also there retained. But no one of the Donatists
themselves denies that even apostates retain the grace of baptism; for when they
return within the pale of the Church, and are converted through repentance, it
is never given to them a second time, and so it is ruled that it never could
have been lost. So those, too, who in the sacrilege of schism depart from the
communion of the Church, certainly retain the grace of baptism, which they
received before their departure, seeing that, in case of their return, it is not
again conferred on them whence it is proved, that what they had received while
within the unity of the Church, they could not have lost in their separation.
But if it can be retained outside, why may it not also be given there? If you
say, "It is not rightly given without the pale;" we answer, "As it is not
rightly retained, and yet is in some sense retained, so it is not indeed rightly
given, but yet it is given." But as, by reconciliation to unity, that begins to
be profitably possessed which was possessed to no profit in exclusion from
unity, so, by the same reconciliation, that begins to be profitable which
without it was given to no profit. Yet it cannot be allowed that it should be
said that that was not given which was given, nor that any one should reproach a
man with not having given this, while confessing that he had given what he had
himself received. For the sacrament of baptism is what the person possesses who
is baptized; and the sacrament of conferring baptism is what he possesses who is
ordained. And as the baptized person, if he depart from the unity of the Church,
does not thereby lose the sacrament of baptism, so also he who is ordained, if
he depart from the unity of the Church, does not lose the sacrament of
conferring baptism. For neither sacrament may be wronged. If a sacrament
necessarily becomes void in the case of the wicked, both must become void; if it
remain valid with the wicked, this must be so with both. If, therefore, the
baptism be acknowledged which he could not lose who severed himself from the
unity of the Church, that baptism must also be acknowledged which was
administered by one who by his secession had not lost the sacrament of
conferring baptism. For as those who return to the Church, if they had been
baptized before their secession, are not rebaptized, so those who return, having
been ordained before their secession, are certainly not ordained again; but
either they again exercise their former ministry, if the interests of the Church
require it, or if they do not exercise it, at any rate they retain the sacrament
of their ordination; and hence it is, that when hands are laid on them, [1149]
to mark their reconciliation, they are not ranked with the laity. For
Felicianus, [1150] when he separated himself from them with Maximianus, was not
held by the Donatists themselves to have lost either the sacrament of baptism or
the sacrament of conferring baptism. For now he is a recognized member of their
own body, in company with those very men whom he baptized while he was separated
from them in the schism of Maximianus. And so others could receive from them,
whilst they still had not joined our society, what they themselves had not lost
by severance from our society. And hence it is clear that they are guilty of
impiety who endeavor to rebaptize those who are in Catholic unity; and we act
rightly who do not dare to repudiate God's sacraments, even when administered in
schism. For in all points in which they think with us, they also are in
communion with us, and only are severed from us in those points in which they
dissent from us. For contact and disunion are not to be measured by different
laws in the case of material or spiritual affinities. For as union of bodies
arises from continuity of position, so in the agreement of wills there is a kind
of contact between souls. If, therefore, a man who has severed himself from
unity wishes to do anything different from that which had been impressed on him
while in the state of unity, in this point he does sever himself, and is no
longer a part of the united whole; but wherever he desires to conduct himself as
is customary in the state of unity, in which he himself learned and received the
lessons which he seeks to follow, in these points he remains a member, and is
united to the corporate whole.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 10: CHAPTER 2. -- 3. AND SO THE DONATISTS IN SOME MATTERS ARE WITH US
========================================================================

-- 3. And so the Donatists in some matters are with us; in some matters have
gone out from us. Accordingly, those things wherein they agree with us we do not
forbid them to do; but in those things in which they differ from us, we
earnestly encourage them


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 11: CHAPTER 3. -- 4. THERE ARE TWO PROPOSITIONS, MOREOVER, WHICH WE AFFIRM
========================================================================

-- 4. There are two propositions, moreover, which we affirm, -- that baptism
exists in the Catholic Church, and that in it alone can it be rightly received,
-- both of which the Donatists deny. Likewise there are two other propositions
which we affirm, -- that


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 12: CHAPTER 4. -- 5. FURTHER, IF ANY ONE FAILS TO UNDERSTAND HOW IT CAN BE THAT WE
========================================================================

-- 5. Further, if any one fails to understand how it can be that we assert that
the sacrament is not rightly conferred among the Donatists, while we confess
that it exists among them, let him observe that we also deny that it exists
rightly among them, ju


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 13: CHAPTER 5. -- 6. I PREFER, HE SAYS, TO RECEIVE CHRIST'S BAPTISM WHERE BOTH PARTIES AGREE THAT
========================================================================

-- 6. I prefer, he says, to receive Christ's baptism where both parties agree
that it exists. But those whom you intend to join say that it cannot be received
there rightly; and those who say that it can be received there rightly are the
party whom you m 7. And yet this point had once, perhaps, been involved in
obscurity and doubt. But that which is a source of health to those who give heed
and receive correction, is but an aggravation of the sin of those who, when they
are no longer suffered to be ignorant, persist in their madness to their own
destruction. For the condemnation of the party of Maximianus, and their
restoration after they had been condemned, together with those whom they had
sacrilegiously, to use the language of their own Council, [1157] baptized in
schism, settles the whole question in dispute, and removes all controversy.
There is no point at issue between ourselves and those Donatists who hold
communion with Primianus, which could give rise to any doubt that the baptism of
Christ may not only be retained, but even conferred by those who are severed
from the Church. For as they themselves are obliged to confess that those whom
Felicianus baptized in schism received true baptism, inasmuch as they now
acknowledge them as members of their own body, with no other baptism than that
which they received in schism; so we say that that is Christ's baptism, even
without the pale of Catholic communion, which they confer who are cut off from
that communion, inasmuch as they had not lost it when they were cut off. And
what they themselves think that they conferred on those persons whom Felicianus
baptized in schism, when they admitted them to reconcilation with themselves,
viz., not that they should receive that which they did not as yet possess, but
that what they had received to no advantage in schism, and were already in
possession of, should be of profit to them, this God really confers and bestows
through the Catholic communion on those who come from any heresy or schism in
which they received the baptism of Christ; viz., not that they should begin to
receive the sacrament of baptism as not possessing it before, but that what they
already possessed should now begin to profit them.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 14: CHAPTER 6. -- 8. BETWEEN US, THEN, AND WHAT WE MAY CALL THE GENUINE DONATISTS
========================================================================

-- 8. Between us, then, and what we may call the genuine [1158] Donatists, whose
bishop is Primianus at Carthage, there is now no controversy on this point. For
God willed that it should be ended by means of the followers of Maximianus, that
they should


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 15: CHAPTER 7. -- 9. FOR, IN THE NEXT PLACE, THAT I MAY NOT SEEM TO REST ON
========================================================================

-- 9. For, in the next place, that I may not seem to rest on mere human
arguments, -- since there is so much obscurity in this question, that in earlier
ages of the Church, before the schism of Donatus, it has caused men of great
weight, and even our father


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 16: CHAPTER 8. -- 10. NOR INDEED WERE THE PRAYERS OF THE GENTILE CORNELIUS UNHEARD
========================================================================

-- 10. Nor indeed were the prayers of the Gentile Cornelius unheard, nor did his
alms lack acceptance; nay, he was found worthy that an angel should be sent to
him, and that he should behold the messenger, through whom he might assuredly
have learned ever 11. If any one is brought to the surgeon, afflicted with a
grievous wound in some vital part of the body, and the surgeon says that unless
it is cured it must cause death, the friends who brought him do not, I presume,
act so foolishly as to count over to the surgeon all his sound limbs, and,
drawing his attention to them, make answer to him, "Can it be that all these
sound limbs are of no avail to save his life, and that one wounded limb is
enough to cause his death?" They certainly do not say this, but they entrust him
to the surgeon to be cured. Nor, again, because they so entrust him, do they ask
the surgeon to cure the limbs that are sound as well; but they desire him to
apply drugs with all care to the one part from which death is threatening the
other sound parts too, with the certainty that it must come, unless the wound be
healed. What will it then profit a man that he has sound faith, or perhaps only
soundness in the sacrament of faith, when the soundness of his charity is done
away with by the fatal wound of schism, so that by the overthrow of it the other
points, which were in themselves sound, are brought into the infection of death?
To prevent which, the mercy of God, through the unity of His holy Church, does
not cease striving that they may come and be healed by the medicine of
reconciliation, through the bond of peace. And let them not think that they are
sound because we admit that they have something sound in them; nor let them
think, on the other hand, that what is sound must needs be healed, because we
show that in some parts there is a wound. So that in the soundness of the
sacrament, because they are not against us, they are for us; but in the wound of
schism, because they gather not with Christ, they scatter abroad. Let them not
be exalted by what they have. Why do they pass the eyes of pride over those
parts only which are sound? Let them condescend also to look humbly on their
wound, and give heed not only to what they have, but also to what is wanting in
them.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 17: CHAPTER 9. -- 12. LET THEM SEE HOW MANY THINGS, AND WHAT IMPORTANT THINGS
========================================================================

-- 12. Let them see how many things, and what important things, are of no avail,
if a certain single thing be wanting, and let them see what that one thing is.
And herein let them hear not my words, but those of the apostle: "Though I speak
with the ton


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 18: CHAPTER 10. -- 13. BUT THEY THINK WITHIN THEMSELVES THAT THEY SHOW VERY GREAT SUBTLETY IN ASKING
========================================================================

-- 13. But they think within themselves that they show very great subtlety in
asking whether the baptism of Christ in the party of Donatus makes men sons or
not; so that, if we allow that it does make them sons, they may assert that
theirs is the Church, 14. Just as though their party gained the power of
generation in virtue of what constitutes its division, and not from what causes
its union with the Church. For it is severed from the bond of peace and charity,
but it is joined in one baptism. And so there is one Church which alone is
called Catholic; and whenever it has anything of its own in these communions of
different bodies which are separate from itself, it is most certainly in virtue
of this which is its own in each of them that it, not they, has the power of
generation. For neither is it their separation that generates, but what they
have retained of the essence of the Church; and if they were to go on to abandon
this, they would lose the power of generation. The generation, then, in each
case proceeds from the Church, whose sacraments are retained, from which any
such birth can alone in any case proceed, -- although not all who receive its
birth belong to its unity, which shall save those who persevere even to the end.
Nor is it those only that do not belong to it who are openly guilty of the
manifest sacrilege of schism, but also those who, being outwardly joined to its
unity, are yet separated by a life of sin. For the Church had herself given
birth to Simon Magus through the sacrament of baptism; and yet it was declared
to him that he had no part in the inheritance of Christ. [1172] Did he lack
anything in respect of baptism, of the gospel, of the sacraments? But in that he
wanted charity, he was born in vain; and perhaps it had been well for him that
he had never been born at all. Was anything wanting to their birth to whom the
apostle says, "I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, even as babes in
Christ"? Yet he recalls them from the sacrilege of schism, into which they were
rushing, because they were carnal: "I have fed you," he says, "with milk, and
not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye
able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying and strife,
are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and
another, I am of Apollos; are ye not men?" [1173] For of these he says above:
"Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all
speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be
perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment. For it
hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house
of Chlöe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one
of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ.
Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name
of Paul?" [1174] These, therefore, if they continued in the same perverse
obstinacy, were doubtless indeed born, but yet would not belong by the bond of
peace and unity to the very Church in respect of which they were born. Therefore
she herself bears them in her own womb and in the womb of her handmaids, by
virtue of the same sacraments, as though by virtue of the seed of her husband.
For it is not without meaning that the apostle says that all these things were
done by way of figure. [1175] But those who are too proud, and are not joined to
their lawful mother, are like Ishmael, of whom it is said, "Cast out this
bond-woman and her Son: for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with my
son, even with Isaac." [1176] But those who peacefully love the lawful wife of
their father, whose sons they are by lawful descent, are like the sons of Jacob,
born indeed of handmaids, but yet receiving the same inheritance. [1177] But
those who are born within the family, of the womb of the mother herself, and
then neglect the grace they have received, are like Isaac's son Esau, who was
rejected, God Himself bearing witness to it, and saying, "I loved Jacob, and I
hated Esau;" [1178] and that though they were twin-brethren, the offspring of
the same womb.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 19: CHAPTER 11. -- 15. THEY ASK ALSO, |WHETHER SINS ARE REMITTED IN BAPTISM IN THE PARTY OF
========================================================================

-- 15. They ask also, "Whether sins are remitted in baptism in the party of
Donatus:" so that, if we say that they are remitted, they may answer, then the
Holy Spirit is there; for when by the breathing of our Lord the Holy Spirit was
given to the discip 16. To these we reply, following the Scriptures, by asking
them to answer themselves what they ask of us. For I beg them to tell us whether
there is any remission of sins where there is not charity; for sins are the
darkness of the soul. For we find St. John saying, "He that hateth his brother
is still in darkness." [1182] But none would create schisms, if they were not
blinded by hatred of their brethren. If, therefore, we say that sins are not
remitted there, how is he regenerate who is baptized among them? And what is
regeneration in baptism, except the being renovated from the corruption of the
old man? And how can he be so renovated whose past sins are not remitted? But if
he be not regenerate, neither does he put on Christ; from which it seems to
follow that he ought to be baptized again. For the apostle says, "For as many of
you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ;" [1183] and if he has
not so put on Christ, neither should he be considered to have been baptized in
Christ. Further, since we say that he has been baptized in Christ, we confess
that he has put on Christ; and if we confess this, we confess that he is
regenerate. And if this be so, how does St. John say, "He that hateth his
brother remaineth still in darkness," if remission of his sins has already taken
place? Can it be that schism does not involve hatred of one's brethren? Who will
maintain this, when both the origin of, and perseverance in schism consists in
nothing else save hatred of the brethren? 17. They think that they solve this
question when they say: "There is then no remission of sins in schism, and
therefore no creation of the new man by regeneration, and accordingly neither is
there the baptism of Christ." But since we confess that the baptism of Christ
exists in schism, we propose this question to them for solution: Was Simon Magus
endued with the true baptism of Christ? They will answer, Yes; being compelled
to do so by the authority of holy Scripture. I ask them whether they confess
that he received remission of his sins. They will certainly acknowledge it. So I
ask why Peter said to him that he had no part in the lot of the saints. Because,
they say, he sinned afterwards, wishing to buy with money the gift of God, which
he believed the apostles were able to sell.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 20: CHAPTER 12. -- 18. WHAT IF HE APPROACHED BAPTISM ITSELF IN DECEIT? WERE HIS SINS REMITTED
========================================================================

-- 18. What if he approached baptism itself in deceit? were his sins remitted,
or were they not? Let them choose which they will. Whichever they choose will
answer our purpose. If they say they were remitted, how then shall "the Holy
Spirit of disciplin 19. But if they should say that in the man who has
approached the sacrament in deceit, his sins are indeed removed by the holy
power of so great a sacrament at the moment when he received it, but return
immediately in consequence of his deceit: so that the Holy Spirit has both been
present with him at his baptism for the removal of his sins, and has also fled
before his perseverance in deceit so that they should return: so that both
declarations prove true, -- both, "As many of you as have been baptized into
Christ have put on Christ;" and also, "The holy spirit of discipline will flee
deceit;" -- that is to say, that both the holiness of baptism clothes him with
Christ, and the sinfulness of deceit strips him of Christ; like the case of a
man who passes from darkness through light into darkness again, his eyes being
always directed towards darkness, though the light cannot but penetrate them as
he passes; -- if they should say this, let them understand that this is also the
case with those who are baptized without the pale of the Church, but yet with
the baptism of the Church, which is holy in itself, wherever it may be; and
which therefore belongs not to those who separate themselves, but to the body
from which they are separated; while yet it avails even among them so far, that
they pass through its light back to their own darkness, their sins, which in
that moment had been dispelled by the holiness of baptism, returning immediately
upon them, as though it were the darkness returning which the light had
dispelled while they were passing through it. 20. For that sins which have been
remitted do return upon a man, where there is no brotherly love, is most clearly
taught by our Lord, in the case of the servant whom He found owing Him ten
thousand talents, and to whom He yet forgave all at his entreaty. But when he
refused to have pity on his fellow-servant who owed him a hundred pence, the
Lord commanded him to pay what He had forgiven him. The time, then, at which
pardon is received through baptism is as it were the time for rendering
accounts, so that all the debts which are found to be due may be remitted. Yet
it was not afterwards that the servant lent his fellow-servant the money, which
he had so pitilessly exacted when the other was unable to pay it; but his
fellow-servant already owed him the debt, when he himself, on rendering his
accounts to his master, was excused a debt of so vast an amount. He had not
first excused his fellow-servant, and so come to receive forgiveness from his
Lord. This is proved by the words of the fellow-servant: "Have patience with me,
and I will pay thee all." Otherwise he would have said, "You forgave me it
before; why do you again demand it?" This is made more clear by the words of the
Lord Himself. For He says, "But the same servant went out, and found one of his
fellow-servants which was owing [1185] him a hundred pence." [1186] He does not
say, "To whom he had already forgiven a debt of a hundred pence." Since then He
says, "was owing him," it is clear that he had not forgiven him the debt. And
indeed it would have been better, and more in accordance with the position of a
man who was going to render an account of so great a debt, and expected
forbearance from his lord, that he should first have forgiven his fellow-servant
what was due to him, and so have come to render the account when there was such
need for imploring the compassion of his lord. Yet the fact that he had not yet
forgiven his fellow-servant, did not prevent his lord from forgiving him all his
debts on the occasion of receiving his accounts. But what advantage was it to
him, since they all immediately returned with redoubled force upon his head, in
consequence of his persistent want of charity? So the grace of baptism is not
prevented from giving remission of all sins, even if he to whom they are
forgiven continues to cherish hatred towards his brother in his heart. For the
guilt of yesterday is remitted, and all that was before it, nay, even the guilt
of the very hour and moment previous to baptism, and during baptism itself. But
then he immediately begins again to be responsible, not only for the days,
hours, moments which ensue, but also for the past, -- the guilt of all the sins
which were remitted returning on him, as happens only too frequently in the
Church.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 21: CHAPTER 13. -- 21. FOR IT OFTEN HAPPENS THAT A MAN HAS AN ENEMY WHOM HE HATES
========================================================================

-- 21. For it often happens that a man has an enemy whom he hates most unjustly;
although we are commanded to love even our unjust enemies, and to pray for them.
But in some sudden danger of death he begins to be uneasy, and desires baptism,
which he rec


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 22: CHAPTER 14. -- 22. IT IS TO NO PURPOSE, THEN, THAT THEY SAY TO US
========================================================================

-- 22. It is to no purpose, then, that they say to us, "If you acknowledge our
baptism, what do we lack that should make you suppose that we ought to think
seriously of joining your communion?" For we reply, We do not acknowledge any
baptism of yours; for


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 23: CHAPTER 15. -- 23. FOR IT IS THE CHURCH THAT GIVES BIRTH TO ALL
========================================================================

-- 23. For it is the Church that gives birth to all, either within her pale, of
her own womb; or beyond it, of the seed of her bridegroom, -- (either of
herself, or of her handmaid. [1187] ) But Esau, even though born of the lawful
wife, was separated from 24. At whatever time, therefore, men have begun to be
of such a nature in this life, that, although they have partaken of such divine
sacraments as were appointed for the dispensation under which they lived, they
yet savor of carnal things, and hope for and desire carnal things from God,
whether in this life or afterwards, they are yet carnal. But the Church, which
is the people of God, is an ancient institution even in the pilgrimage of this
life, having a carnal interest in some men, a spiritual interest in others. To
the carnal belongs the old covenant, to the spiritual the new. But in the first
days both were hidden, from Adam even to Moses. But by Moses the old covenant
was made manifest, and in it was hidden the new covenant, because after a secret
fashion it was typified. But so soon as the Lord came in the flesh, the new
covenant was revealed; yet, though the sacraments of the old covenant passed
away; the dispositions peculiar to it did not pass away. For they still exist in
those whom the apostle declares to be already born indeed by the sacrament of
the new covenant, but yet capable, as being natural, of receiving the things of
the Spirit of God. For, as in the sacraments of the old covenant some persons
were already spiritual, belonging secretly to the new covenant, which was then
concealed, so now also in the sacrament of the new covenant, which has been by
this time revealed, many live who are natural. And if they will not advance to
receive the things of the Spirit of God, to which the discourse of the apostle
urges them, they will still belong to the old covenant. But if they advance,
even before they receive them, yet by their very advance and approach they
belong to the new covenant; and if, before becoming spiritual, they are snatched
away from this life, yet through the protection of the holiness of the sacrament
they are reckoned in the land of the living, where the Lord is our hope and our
portion. Nor can I find any truer interpretation of the scripture, "Thine eyes
did see my substance, yet being imperfect" [1192] considering what follows, "And
in Thy book shall all be written." [1193]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 24: CHAPTER 16. -- 25. BUT THE SAME MOTHER WHICH BROUGHT FORTH ABEL
========================================================================

-- 25. But the same mother which brought forth Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and
Abraham, brought forth also Moses and the prophets who succeeded him till the
coming of our Lord; and the mother which gave birth to them gave birth also to
our apostles and mar


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 25: CHAPTER 17. -- 26. THEREFORE, WHETHER THEY SEEM TO ABIDE WITHIN
========================================================================

-- 26. Therefore, whether they seem to abide within, or are openly outside,
whatsoever is flesh is flesh, and what is chaff is chaff, whether they persevere
in remaining in their barrenness on the threshing-floor, or, when temptation
befalls them, are car


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 26: CHAPTER 18. -- 27. ON THE QUESTION OF BAPTISM, THEN, I THINK THAT I HAVE ARGUED AT
========================================================================

-- 27. On the question of baptism, then, I think that I have argued at
sufficient length; and since this is a most manifest schism which is called by
the name of the Donatists, it only remains that on the subject of baptism we
should believe with pious fa 28. There are great proofs of this existing on the
part of the blessed martyr Cyprian, in his letters, -- to come at last to him of
whose authority they carnally flatter themselves they are possessed, whilst by
his love they are spiritually overthrown. For at that time, before the consent
of the whole Church had declared authoritatively, by the decree of a plenary
Council, [1198] what practice should be followed in this matter, it seemed to
him, in common with about eighty of his fellow bishops of the African churches,
that every man who had been baptized outside the communion of the Catholic
Church should, on joining the Church, be baptized anew. And I take it, that the
reason why the Lord did not reveal the error in this to a man of such eminence,
was, that his pious humility and charity in guarding the peace and health of the
Church might be made manifest, and might be noticed, so as to serve as an
example of healing power, so to speak, not only to Christians of that age, but
also to those who should come after. For when a bishop of so important a Church,
himself a man of so great merit and virtue, endowed with such excellence of
heart and power of eloquence, entertained an opinion about baptism different
from that which was to be confirmed by a more diligent searching into the truth;
though many of his colleagues held what was not yet made manifest by authority,
but was sanctioned by the past custom of the Church, and afterwards embraced by
the whole Catholic world; yet under these circumstances he did not sever
himself, by refusal of communion, from the others who thought differently, and
indeed never ceased to urge on the others that they should "forbear one another
in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
[1199] For so, while the framework of the body remained whole, if any infirmity
occurred in certain of its members, it might rather regain its health from their
general soundness, than be deprived of the chance of any healing care by their
death in severance from the body. And if he had severed himself, how many were
there to follow! what a name was he likely to make for himself among men! how
much more widely would the name of Cyprianist have spread than that of Donatist!
But he was not a son of perdition, one of those of whom it is said, "Thou
castedst them down while they were elevated;" [1200] but he was the son of the
peace of the Church, who in the clear illumination of his mind failed to see one
thing, only that through him another thing might be more excellently seen. "And
yet," says the apostle, "show I unto you a more excellent way: though I speak
with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as
sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." [1201] He had therefore imperfect insight
into the hidden mystery of the sacrament. But if he had known the mysteries of
all sacraments, without having charity, it would have been nothing. But as he,
with imperfect insight into the mystery, was careful to preserve charity with
all courage and humility and faith, he deserved to come to the crown of
martyrdom; so that, if any cloud had crept over the clearness of his intellect
from his infirmity as man, it might be dispelled by the glorious brightness of
his blood. For it was not in vain that our Lord Jesus Christ, when He declared
Himself to be the vine, and His disciples, as it were, the branches in the vine,
gave command that those which bare no fruit should be cut off, and removed from
the vine as useless branches. [1202] But what is really fruit, save that new
offspring, of which He further says, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye
love one another?" [1203] This is that very charity, without which the rest
profiteth nothing. The apostle also says: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance;"
[1204] which all begin with charity, and with the rest of the combination forms
one unity in a kind of wondrous cluster. [1205] Nor is it again in vain that our
Lord added, "And every branch that beareth fruit, my Father purgeth it, that it
may bring forth more fruit," [1206] but because those who are strong in the
fruit of charity may yet have something which requires purging, which the
Husbandman will not leave untended. Whilst then, that holy man entertained on
the subject of baptism an opinion at variance with the true view, which was
afterwards thoroughly examined and confirmed after most diligent consideration,
his error was compensated by his remaining in catholic unity, and by the
abundance of his charity; and finally it was cleared away by the pruning-hook of
martyrdom.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 27: CHAPTER 19. -- 29. BUT THAT I MAY NOT SEEM TO BE UTTERING THESE PRAISES OF THE
========================================================================

-- 29. But that I may not seem to be uttering these praises of the blessed
martyr (which, indeed, are not his, but rather those of Him by whose grace he
showed himself what he was), in order to escape the burden of proof, let us now
bring forward from his


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 28: IN WHICH AUGUSTIN PROVES THAT IT IS TO NO PURPOSE THAT THE DONATISTS BRING FORWARD
========================================================================

In which Augustin proves that it is to no purpose that the Donatists bring
forward the authority of Cyprian, bishop and martyr, since it is really more
opposed to them than to the Catholics. For that he held that the view of his
predecessor Agrippinus, on the subject of baptizing heretics in the Catholic
Church when they join its communion, should only be received on condition that
peace should be maintained with those who entertained the opposite view, and
that the unity of the Church should never be broken by any kind of schism.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 29: CHAPTER 1. -- 1. HOW MUCH THE ARGUMENTS MAKE FOR US
========================================================================

-- 1. How much the arguments make for us, that is, for catholic peace, which the
party of Donatus profess to bring forward against us from the authority of the
blessed Cyprian, and how much they prove against those who bring them forward,
it is my intenti 2. What, then, do they venture to say, when their mouth is
closed [1209] by the force of truth, with which they will not agree? "Cyprian,"
say they, "whose great merits and vast learning we all know, decreed in a
Council, [1210] with many of his fellow-bishops contributing their several
opinions, that all heretics and schismatics, that is, all who are severed from
the communion of the one Church, are without baptism; and therefore, whosoever
has joined the communion of the Church after being baptized by them must be
baptized in the Church." The authority of Cyprian does not alarm me, because I
am reassured by his humility. We know, indeed, the great merit of the bishop and
martyr Cyprian; but is it in any way greater than that of the apostle and martyr
Peter, of whom the said Cyprian speaks as follows in his epistle to Quintus?
"For neither did Peter, whom the Lord chose first, and on whom He built His
Church, [1211] when Paul afterwards disputed with him about circumcision, claim
or assume anything insolently and arrogantly to himself, so as to say that he
held the primacy, and should rather be obeyed of those who were late and newly
come. Nor did he despise Paul because he had before been a persecutor of the
Church, but he admitted the counsel of truth, and readily assented to the
legitimate grounds which Paul maintained; giving us thereby a pattern of concord
and patience, that we should not pertinaciously love our own opinions, but
should rather account as our own any true and rightful suggestions of our
brethren and colleagues for the common health and weal." [1212] Here is a
passage in which Cyprian records what we also learn in holy Scripture, that the
Apostle Peter, in whom the primacy of the apostles shines with such exceeding
grace, was corrected by the later Apostle Paul, when he adopted a custom in the
matter of circumcision at variance with the demands of truth. If it was
therefore possible for Peter in some point to walk not uprightly according to
the truth of the gospel, so as to compel the Gentiles to judaize, as Paul writes
in that epistle in which he calls God to witness that he does not lie; for he
says, "Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not;"
[1213] and, after this sacred and awful calling of God to witness, he told the
whole tale, saying in the course of it, "But when I saw that they walked not
uprightly, according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them
all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of the Gentiles, and not as
do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?" [1214] --
if Peter, I say, could compel the Gentiles to live after the manner of the Jews,
contrary to the rule of truth which the Church afterwards held, why might not
Cyprian, in opposition to the rule of faith which the whole Church afterwards
held, compel heretics and schismatics to be baptized afresh? I suppose that
there is no slight to Cyprian in comparing him with Peter in respect to his
crown of martyrdom; rather I ought to be afraid lest I am showing disrespect
towards Peter. For who can be ignorant that the primacy of his apostleship is to
be preferred to any episcopate whatever? But, granting the difference in the
dignity of their sees, yet they have the same glory in their martyrdom. And
whether it may be the case that the hearts of those who confess and die for the
true faith in the unity of charity take precedence of each other in different
points, the Lord Himself will know, by the hidden and wondrous dispensation of
whose grace the thief hanging on the cross once for all confesses Him, and is
sent on the selfsame day to paradise, [1215] while Peter, the follower of our
Lord, denies Him thrice, and has his crown postponed: [1216] for us it were rash
to form a judgment from the evidence. But if any one were now found compelling a
man to be circumcised after the Jewish fashion, as a necessary preliminary for
baptism, this would meet with much more general repudiation by mankind, than if
a man should be compelled to be baptized again. Wherefore, if Peter, on doing
this, is corrected by his later colleague Paul, and is yet preserved by the bond
of peace and unity till he is promoted to martyrdom, how much more readily and
constantly should we prefer, either to the authority of a single bishop, or to
the Council of a single province, the rule that has been established by the
statutes of the universal Church? For this same Cyprian, in urging his view of
the question, was still anxious to remain in the unity of peace even with those
who differed from him on this point, as is shown by his own opening address at
the beginning of the very Council which is quoted by the Donatists. For it is as
follows:


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 30: CHAPTER 2. -- 3. |WHEN, ON THE CALENDS OF SEPTEMBER, VERY MANY BISHOPS FROM THE PROVINCES OF
========================================================================

-- 3. "When, on the calends of September, very many bishops from the provinces
of Africa, [1217] Numidia, and Mauritania, with their presbyters and deacons,
had met together at Carthage, a great part of the laity also being present; and
when the letter ad


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 31: CHAPTER 3. -- 4. NOW LET THE PROUD AND SWELLING NECKS OF THE HERETICS RAISE THEMSELVES
========================================================================

-- 4. Now let the proud and swelling necks of the heretics raise themselves, if
they dare, against the holy humility of this address. Ye mad Donatists, whom we
desire earnestly to return to the peace and unity of the holy Church, that ye
may receive heal


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 32: CHAPTER 4. -- 5. WHEREFORE THE HOLY CYPRIAN, WHOSE DIGNITY IS ONLY INCREASED BY HIS HUMILITY
========================================================================

-- 5. Wherefore the holy Cyprian, whose dignity is only increased by his
humility, who so loved the pattern set by Peter as to use the words, "Giving us
thereby a pattern of concord and patience, that we should not pertinaciously
love our own opinions, bu


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 33: CHAPTER 5. -- 6. AND SO IT IS THAT OFTEN SOMETHING IS IMPERFECTLY REVEALED TO THE MORE
========================================================================

-- 6. And so it is that often something is imperfectly revealed to the more
learned, that their patient and humble charity, from which proceeds the greater
fruit, may be proved, either in the way in which they preserve unity, when they
hold different opin


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 34: CHAPTER 6. -- 7. WHAT THEN, YE DONATISTS, WHAT HAVE YE TO SAY TO THIS? IF OUR
========================================================================

-- 7. What then, ye Donatists, what have ye to say to this? If our opinion about
baptism is true, yet all who thought differently in the time of Cyprian were not
cut off from the unity of the Church, till God revealed to them the truth of the
point on whi 8. If, therefore, by such communion with the wicked the just cannot
but perish, the Church had already perished in the time of Cyprian. Whence then
sprang the origin of Donatus? where was he taught, where was he baptized, where
was he ordained, since the Church had been already destroyed by the contagion of
communion with the wicked? But if the Church still existed, the wicked could do
no harm to the good in one communion with them. Wherefore did ye separate
yourselves? Behold, I see in unity Cyprian and others, his colleagues, who, on
holding a council, decided that those who have been baptized without the
communion of the Church have no true baptism, and that therefore it must be
given them when they join the Church. But again, behold I see in the same unity
that certain men think differently in this matter, and that, recognizing in
those who come from heretics and schismatics the baptism of Christ, they do not
venture to baptize them afresh. All of these catholic unity embraces in her
motherly breast, bearing each other's burdens by turns, and endeavoring to keep
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, [1228] till God should reveal to
one or other of them any error in their views. If the one party held the truth,
were they infected by the others, or no? If the others held the truth, were they
infected by the first, or no? Choose which ye will. If there was contamination,
the Church even then ceased to exist; answer me, therefore, whence came ye forth
hither? But if the Church remained, the good are in no wise contaminated by the
bad in such communion; answer me, therefore, why did ye break the bond? 9. Or is
it perhaps that schismatics, when received without baptism, bring no infection,
but that it is brought by those who deliver up the sacred books? [1229] For that
there were traditors of your number is proved by the clearest testimony of
history. And if you had then brought true evidence against those whom you were
accusing, you would have proved your cause before the unity of the whole world,
so that you would have been retained whilst they were shut out. And if you
endeavored to do this, and did not succeed, the world is not to blame, which
trusted the judges of the Church rather than the beaten parties in the suit;
whilst, if you would not urge your suit, the world again is not to blame, which
could not condemn men without their cause being heard. Why, then, did you
separate yourselves from the innocent? You cannot defend the sacrilege of your
schism. But this I pass over. But so much I say, that if the traditors could
have defiled you, who were not convicted by you, and by whom, on the contrary,
you were beaten, much more could the sacrilege of schismatics and heretics,
received into the Church, as you maintain, without baptism, have defiled
Cyprian. Yet he did not separate himself. And inasmuch as the Church continued
to exist, it is clear that it could not be defiled. Wherefore, then, did you
separate yourselves, I do not say from the innocent, as the facts proved them,
but from the traditors, as they were never proved to be? Are the sins of
traditors, as I began to say, heavier than those of schismatics? Let us not
bring in deceitful balances, to which we may hang what weights we will and how
we will, saying to suit ourselves, "This is heavy and this is light;" but let us
bring forward the sacred balance out of holy Scripture, as out of the Lord's
treasure-house, and let us weigh them by it, to see which is the heavier; or
rather, let us not weigh them for ourselves, but read the weights as declared by
the Lord. At the time when the Lord showed, by the example of recent punishment,
that there was need to guard against the sins of olden days, and an idol was
made and worshipped, and the prophetic book was burned by the wrath of a
scoffing king, and schism was attempted, the idolatry was punished with the
sword, [1230] the burning of the book by slaughter in war and captivity in a
foreign land, [1231] schism by the earth opening, and swallowing up alive the
leaders of the schism while the rest were consumed with fire from heaven. [1232]
Who will now doubt that that was the worse crime which received the heavier
punishment? If men coming from such sacrilegious company, without baptism, as
you maintain, could not defile Cyprian, how could those defile you who were not
convicted but supposed betrayers of the sacred books? [1233] For if they had not
only given up the books to be burned, but had actually burned them with their
own hands, they would have been guilty of a less sin than if they had committed
schism; for schism is visited with the heavier, the other with the lighter
punishment, not at man's discretion, but by the judgment of God.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 35: CHAPTER 7. -- 10. WHEREFORE, THEN, HAVE YE SEVERED YOURSELVES? IF THERE IS ANY SENSE LEFT IN
========================================================================

-- 10. Wherefore, then, have ye severed yourselves? If there is any sense left
in you, you must surely see that you can find no possible answer to these
arguments. "We are not left," they say, "so utterly without resource, but that
we can still answer, 11. Answer me this, ye ravening wolves, who, seeking to be
clad in sheep's clothing, [1237] think that the letters of the blessed Cyprian
are in your favor. Did the sacrilege of schismatics defile Cyprian, or did it
not? If it did, the Church perished from that instant, and there remained no
source from which ye might spring. If it did not, then by what offense on the
part of others can the guiltless possibly be defiled, if the sacrilege of schism
cannot defile them? Wherefore, then, have ye severed yourselves? Wherefore,
while shunning the lighter offenses, which are inventions of your own, have ye
committed the heaviest offense of all, the sacrilege of schism? Will ye now
perchance confess that those men were no longer schismatics or heretics who had
been baptized without the communion of the Church, or in some heresy or schism,
because by coming over to the Church, and renouncing their former errors, they
had ceased to be what formerly they were? How then was it, that though they were
not baptized, their sins remained not on their heads? Was it that the baptism
was Christ's, but that it could not profit them without the communion of the
Church; yet when they came over, and, renouncing their past error, were received
into the communion of the Church by the laying on of hands, then, being now
rooted and founded in charity, without which all other things are profitless,
they began to receive profit for the remission of sins and the sanctification of
their lives from that sacrament, which, while without the pale of the Church,
they possessed in vain? 12. Cease, then, to bring forward against us the
authority of Cyprian in favor of repeating baptism, but cling with us to the
example of Cyprian for the preservation of unity. For this question of baptism
had not been as yet completely worked out, but yet the Church observed the most
wholesome custom of correcting what was wrong, not repeating what was already
given, even in the case of schismatics and heretics: she healed the wounded
part, but did not meddle with what was whole. And this custom, coming, I
suppose, from apostolical tradition (like many other things which are held to
have been handed down under their actual sanction, because they are preserved
throughout the whole Church, though they are not found either in their letters,
or in the Councils of their successors), -- this most wholesome custom, I say,
according to the holy Cyprian, began to be what is called amended by his
predecessor Agrippinus. [1238] But, according to the teaching which springs from
a more careful investigation into the truth, which, after great doubt and
fluctuation, was brought at last to the decision of a plenary Council, we ought
to believe that it rather began to be corrupted than to receive correction at
the hands of Agrippinus. Accordingly, when so great a question forced itself
upon him, and it was difficult to decide the point, whether remission of sins
and man's spiritual regeneration could take place among heretics or schismatics,
and the authority of Agrippinus was there to guide him, with that of some few
men who shared in his misapprehension of this question, having preferred
attempting something new to maintaining a custom which they did not understand
how to defend; under these circumstances considerations of probability forced
themselves into the eyes of his soul, and barred the way to the thorough
investigation of the truth.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 36: CHAPTER 8. -- 13. NOR DO I THINK THAT THE BLESSED CYPRIAN HAD ANY OTHER MOTIVE IN
========================================================================

-- 13. Nor do I think that the blessed Cyprian had any other motive in the free
expression and earlier utterance of what he thought in opposition to the custom
of the Church, save that he should thankfully receive any one that could be
found with a fuller


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 37: CHAPTER 9. -- 14. |THIS, MOREOVER,| SAYS HE, |AGRIPPINUS, A MAN OF EXCELLENT MEMORY
========================================================================

-- 14. "This, moreover," says he, "Agrippinus, a man of excellent memory, with
the rest, bishops with him, who at that time governed the Church of the Lord in
the province of Africa and Numidia, did establish and, after the investigation
of a mutual Counc


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 38: CHAPTER 10. -- 15. BUT WHAT ATTITUDE DO THEY ASSUME, WHEN IT IS SHOWN THAT THE HOLY
========================================================================

-- 15. But what attitude do they assume, when it is shown that the holy Cyprian,
though he did not himself admit as members of the Church those who had been
baptized in heresy or schism, yet held communion with those who did admit them,
according to his e


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 39: CHAPTER 11. -- 16. FOR THIS REASON, THEN, WE HOLD THEM TO BE ENEMIES
========================================================================

-- 16. For this reason, then, we hold them to be enemies, because we speak the
truth, because we are afraid to be silent, because we fear to shrink from
pressing our point with all the force that lies within our power, because we
obey the apostle when he


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 40: CHAPTER 12. -- 17. WHAT ANSWER THEY CAN GIVE ABOUT THE FOLLOWERS OF MAXIMIANUS WHOM THEY HAVE
========================================================================

-- 17. What answer they can give about the followers of Maximianus whom they
have received, they cannot divine. If they say, "Those we received were
innocent," the answer is obvious, "Then you had condemned the innocent." If they
say, "We did it in igno


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 41: CHAPTER 13. -- 18. BUT WHO CAN FAIL TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY MAY BE SAYING IN THEIR
========================================================================

-- 18. But who can fail to understand what they may be saying in their hearts?
"What then are we to do," say they, "with those whom we have already
rebaptized?" Return with them to the Church. Bring those whom you have wounded
to be healed by the medic


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 42: CHAPTER 14. -- 19. BUT WHICH IS THE WORSE, NOT TO BE BAPTIZED AT ALL
========================================================================

-- 19. But which is the worse, not to be baptized at all, or to be twice
baptized, it is difficult to decide. I see, indeed, which is more repugnant and
abhorrent to men's feelings; but when I have recourse to that divine balance, in
which the weight of


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 43: CHAPTER 15. -- 20. SINCE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, BOTH IN THE TIME OF THE BLESSED CYPRIAN AND
========================================================================

-- 20. Since the Catholic Church, both in the time of the blessed Cyprian and in
the older time before him, contained within her bosom either some that were
rebaptized or some that were unbaptized, either the one section or the other
must have won their s


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 44: AUGUSTIN UNDERTAKES THE REFUTATION OF THE ARGUMENTS WHICH MIGHT BE DERIVED FROM THE EPISTLE OF
========================================================================

Augustin undertakes the refutation of the arguments which might be derived from
the epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus, to give color to the view that the baptism
of Christ could not be conferred by heretics.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 45: CHAPTER 1. -- 1. I THINK THAT IT MAY NOW BE CONSIDERED CLEAR TO EVERY ONE
========================================================================

-- 1. I think that it may now be considered clear to every one, that the
authority of the blessed Cyprian for the maintenance of the bond of peace, and
the avoiding of any violation of that most wholesome charity which preserves
unity in the Church, may b


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 46: CHAPTER 2. -- 2. NEVERTHELESS, I SEE WHAT MAY STILL BE REQUIRED OF ME
========================================================================

-- 2. Nevertheless, I see what may still be required of me, viz., that I should
answer those plausible arguments, by which, in even earlier times, Agrippinus,
or Cyprian himself, or those in Africa who agreed with them, or any others in
far distant lands 3. But if they say that the Catholic Church existed then,
because there were a few, or, if they prefer it, even a considerable number, who
denied the validity of any baptism conferred in an heretical body, and baptized
all who came from thence, what then? Did the Church not exist at all before
Agrippinus, with whom that new kind of system began, at variance with all
previous custom? Or how, again after the time of Agrippinus, when, unless there
had been a return to the primitive custom, there would have been no need for
Cyprian to set on foot another Council? Was there no Church then, because such a
custom as this prevailed everywhere, that the baptism of Christ should be
considered nothing but the baptism of Christ, even though it were proved to have
been conferred in a body of heretics or schismatics? But if the Church existed
even then, and had not perished through a breach of its continuity, but was, on
the contrary, holding its ground, and receiving increase in every nation, surely
it is the safest plan to abide by this same custom, which then embraced good and
bad alike in unity. But if there was then no Church in existence, because
sacrilegious heretics were received without baptism, and this prevailed by
universal custom, whence has Donatus made his appearance? From what land did he
spring? or from what sea did he emerge? or from what sky did he fall? And so we,
as I had begun to say, are safe in the communion of that Church, throughout the
whole extent of which the custom now prevails, which prevailed in like manner
through its whole extent before the time of Agrippinus, and in the interval
between Agrippinus and Cyprian, and whose unity neither Agrippinus nor Cyprian
ever deserted, nor those who agreed with them, although they entertained
different views from the rest of their brethren -- all of them remaining in the
same communion of unity with the very men from whom they differed in opinion.
But let the Donatists themselves consider what their true position is, if they
neither can say whence they derived their origin, if the Church had already been
destroyed by the plague-spot of communion with heretics and schismatics received
into her bosom without baptism; nor again agree with Cyprian himself, for he
declared that he remained in communion with those who received heretics and
schismatics, and so also with those who were received as well: while they have
separated themselves from the communion of the whole world, on account of the
charge of having delivered up the sacred books, which they brought against the
men whom they maligned in Africa, but failed to convict when brought to trial
beyond the sea; although, even had the crimes which they alleged been true, they
were much less heinous than the sins of heresy and schism; and yet these could
not defile Cyprian in the persons of those who came from them without baptism,
as he conceived, and were admitted without baptism into the Catholic communion.
Nor, in the very point in which they say that they imitate Cyprian, can they
find any answer to make about acknowledging the baptism of the followers of
Maximianus, together with those whom, though they belonged to the party that
they had first condemned in their own plenary Council, and then gone on to
prosecute even at the tribunal of the secular power, they yet received back into
their communion, in the episcopate of the very same bishop under whom they had
been condemned. Wherefore, if the communion of wicked men destroyed the Church
in the time of Cyprian, they have no source from which they can derive their own
communion; and if the Church was not destroyed, they have no excuse for their
separation from it. Moreover, they are neither following the example of Cyprian,
since they have burst the bond of unity, nor abiding by their own Council, since
they have recognized the baptism of the followers of Maximianus.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 47: CHAPTER 3. -- 4. LET US THEREFORE, SEEING THAT WE ADHERE TO THE EXAMPLE OF CYPRIAN
========================================================================

-- 4. Let us therefore, seeing that we adhere to the example of Cyprian, go on
now to consider Cyprian's Council. What says Cyprian? "Ye have heard," he says,
"most beloved colleagues, what Jubaianus our fellow-bishop has written to me,
consulting my mo 5. For he goes on to say: "It remains that we severally declare
our opinion on this same subject, judging no one, nor depriving any one of the
right of communion if he differ from us." [1266] He allows me, therefore,
without losing the right of communion, not only to continue inquiring into the
truth, but even to hold opinions differing from his own. "For no one of us," he
says, "setteth himself up as a bishop of bishops, or by tyrannical terror forces
his colleagues to a necessity of obeying." What could be more kind? what more
humble? Surely there is here no authority restraining us from inquiry into what
is truth. "Inasmuch as every bishop," he says, "in the free use of his liberty
and power, has the right of forming his own judgment, and can no more be judged
by another than he can himself judge another," -- that is, I suppose, in those
questions which have not yet been brought to perfect clearness of solution; for
he knew what a deep question about the sacrament was then occupying the whole
Church with every kind of disputation, and gave free liberty of inquiry to every
man, that the truth might be made known by investigation. For he was surely not
uttering what was false, and trying to catch his simpler colleagues in their
speech, so that, when they should have betrayed that they held opinions at
variance with his, he might then propose, in violation of his promise, that they
should be excommunicated. Far be it from a soul so holy to entertain such
accursed treachery; indeed, they who hold such a view about such a man, thinking
that it conduces to his praise, do but show that it would be in accordance with
their own nature. I for my part will in no wise believe that Cyprian, a Catholic
bishop, a Catholic martyr, whose greatness only made him proportionately humble
in all things, so as to find favor before the Lord, [1267] should ever,
especially in the sacred Council of his colleagues, have uttered with his mouth
what was not echoed in his heart, especially as he further adds, "But we must
all await the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ, who alone has the power both of
setting us in the government of His Church, and of judging of our acts therein."
[1268] When, then, he called to their remembrance so solemn a judgment, hoping
to hear the truth from his colleagues, would he first set them the example of
lying? May God avert such madness from every Christian man, and how much more
from Cyprian! We have therefore the free liberty of inquiry granted to us by the
most moderate and most truthful speech of Cyprian.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 48: CHAPTER 4. -- 6. NEXT HIS COLLEAGUES PROCEED TO DELIVER THEIR SEVERAL OPINIONS.
========================================================================

-- 6. Next his colleagues proceed to deliver their several opinions. But first
they listened to the letter written to Jubaianus; for it was read, as was
mentioned in the preamble. Let it therefore be read among ourselves also, that
we too, with the help


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 49: CHAPTER 5. -- 7. BUT IF ANY ONE SHOULD ASK WHAT I HOLD IN THE MEANTIME
========================================================================

-- 7. But if any one should ask what I hold in the meantime, while discussing
this question, I answer that, in the first place, the letter of Cyprian
suggested to me what I should hold till I should see clearly the nature of the
question which next begins 8. For in the Council itself Castus of Sicca says:
"He who, despising truth, presumes to follow custom, is either envious or
evil-disposed towards the brethren to whom the truth is revealed, or is
ungrateful towards God, by whose inspiration His Church is instructed." [1272]
Whether the truth had been revealed, we shall investigate hereafter; at any
rate, he acknowledges that the custom of the Church was different.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 50: CHAPTER 6. -- 9. LIBOSUS ALSO OF VAGA SAYS: |THE LORD SAYS IN THE GOSPEL
========================================================================

-- 9. Libosus also of Vaga says: "The Lord says in the gospel, I am the Truth.'
[1273] He does not say, I am custom.' Therefore, when the truth is made
manifest, custom must give way to truth." [1274] Clearly, no one could doubt
that custom must give


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 51: CHAPTER 7. -- 10. ZOSIMUS ALSO OF THARASSA SAID: |WHEN A REVELATION OF THE TRUTH HAS BEEN
========================================================================

-- 10. Zosimus also of Tharassa said: "When a revelation of the truth has been
made, error must give way to truth; for even Peter, who at the first
circumcised, afterwards gave way to Paul when he declared the truth." [1275] He
indeed chose to say erro


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 52: CHAPTER 8. -- 11. LIKEWISE FELIX OF BUSLACENE SAID: |IN ADMITTING HERETICS WITHOUT THE BAPTISM OF THE
========================================================================

-- 11. Likewise Felix of Buslacene said: "In admitting heretics without the
baptism of the Church, let no one prefer custom to reason and truth; because
reason and truth always prevail to the exclusion of custom." [1277] Nothing
could be better, if it


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 53: CHAPTER 9. -- 12. LIKEWISE HONORATUS OF TUCCA SAID: |SINCE CHRIST IS THE TRUTH
========================================================================

-- 12. Likewise Honoratus of Tucca [1278] said: "Since Christ is the Truth, we
ought to follow truth rather than custom." [1279] By all these declarations it
is proved that we are not excluded from the communion of the Church, till it
shall have been c


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 54: CHAPTER 10. -- 13. THEREFORE CYPRIAN WRITES TO JUBAIANUS AS FOLLOWS
========================================================================

-- 13. Therefore Cyprian writes to Jubaianus as follows, "concerning the baptism
of heretics, who, being placed without, and set down out of the Church," seem to
him to "claim to themselves a matter over which they have neither right nor
power. Which we, 14. Cyprian, indeed, says that on this subject not one, but two
or more Councils were held; always, however, in Africa. For indeed in one he
mentions that seventy-one bishops had been assembled, [1281] -- to all whose
authority we do not hesitate, with all due deference to Cyprian, to prefer the
authority, supported by many more bishops, of the whole Church spread throughout
the whole world, of which Cyprian himself rejoiced that he was an inseparable
member. 15. Nor is the water "profane and adulterous" [1282] over which the name
of God is invoked, even though it be invoked by profane and adulterous persons;
because neither the creature itself of water, nor the name invoked, is
adulterous. But the baptism of Christ, consecrated by the words of the gospel,
is necessarily holy, however polluted and unclean its ministers may be; because
its inherent sanctity cannot be polluted, and the divine excellence abides in
its sacrament, whether to the salvation of those who use it aright, or to the
destruction of those who use it wrong. Would you indeed maintain that, while the
light of the sun or of a candle, diffused through unclean places, contracts no
foulness in itself therefrom, yet the baptism of Christ can be defiled by the
sins of any man, whatsoever he may be? For if we turn our thoughts to the
visible materials themselves, which are to us the medium of the sacraments,
every one must know that they admit of corruption. But if we think on that which
they convey to us, who can fail to see that it is incorruptible, however much
the men through whose ministry it is conveyed are either being rewarded or
punished for the character of their lives?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 55: CHAPTER 11. -- 16. BUT CYPRIAN WAS RIGHT IN NOT BEING MOVED BY WHAT JUBAIANUS WROTE
========================================================================

-- 16. But Cyprian was right in not being moved by what Jubaianus wrote, that
"the followers of Novatian [1283] rebaptize those who come to them from the
Catholic Church." [1284] For, in the first place, it does not follow that
whatever heretics have do


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 56: CHAPTER 12. -- 17. BUT THE BLESSED CYPRIAN SHOWS THAT IT WAS NO NEW OR SUDDEN THING
========================================================================

-- 17. But the blessed Cyprian shows that it was no new or sudden thing that he
decided, because the practice had already begun under Agrippinus. "Many years,"
he says, "and much time has passed away since, under Agrippinus of honored
memory, a large ass


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 57: CHAPTER 13. -- 18. BUT AS REGARDS THE REMISSION OF SINS
========================================================================

-- 18. But as regards the remission of sins, whether it is granted through
baptism at the hands of the heretics, I have already expressed my opinion on
this point in a former book; [1286] but I will shortly recapitulate it here. If
remission of sins is t


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 58: CHAPTER 14. -- 19. NOR IS IT MATERIAL, WHEN WE ARE CONSIDERING THE QUESTION OF THE GENUINENESS
========================================================================

-- 19. Nor is it material, when we are considering the question of the
genuineness and holiness of the sacrament, "what the recipient of the sacrament
believes, and with what faith he is imbued." It is of the very highest
consequence as regards the entra


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 59: CHAPTER 15. -- 20. ACCORDINGLY, IF MARCION CONSECRATED THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM WITH THE WORDS OF THE
========================================================================

-- 20. Accordingly, if Marcion consecrated the sacrament of baptism with the
words of the gospel, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost," [1294] the sacrament was complete, although his faith expressed under
the same words, see


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 60: CHAPTER 16. -- 21. BUT WHEN IT IS SAID THAT |THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GIVEN BY THE
========================================================================

-- 21. But when it is said that "the Holy Spirit is given by the imposition of
hands in the Catholic Church only, I suppose that our ancestors meant that we
should understand thereby what the apostle says, "Because the love of God is
shed abroad in our he


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 61: CHAPTER 17. -- 22. |FOR AS REGARDS THE FACT THAT TO PRESERVE THE FIGURE OF UNITY THE
========================================================================

-- 22. "For as regards the fact that to preserve the figure of unity the Lord
gave the power to Peter that whatsoever he should loose on earth should be
loosed," [1306] it is clear that that unity is also described as one dove
without fault. [1307] Can


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 62: CHAPTER 18--23. |AS MY FATHER HATH SENT ME,| SAYS OUR LORD
========================================================================

"As my Father hath sent me," says our Lord, "even so send I you. And what He had
said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins
ye retain, they are retained." [1309] Therefore, if they represented the Church,
and this was said to them as to the Church herself, it follows that the peace of
the Church looses sins, and estrangement from the Church retains them, not
according to the will of men, but according to the will of God and the prayers
of the saints who are spiritual, who "judge all things, but themselves are
judged of no man." [1310] For the rock retains, the rock remits; the dove
retains, the dove remits; unity retains, unity remits. But the peace of this
unity exists only in the good, in those who are either already spiritual, or are
advancing by the obedience of concord to spiritual things; it exists not in the
bad, whether they make disturbances abroad, or are endured within the Church
with lamentations, baptizing and being baptized. But just as those who are
tolerated with groanings within the Church, although they do not belong to the
same unity of the dove, and to that "glorious Church, not having spot or
wrinkle, or any such thing," [1311] yet if they are corrected, and confess that
they approached to baptism most unworthily, are not baptized again, but begin to
belong to the dove, through whose groans those sins are remitted which were
retained in them who were estranged from her peace; so those also who are more
openly without the Church, if they have received the same sacraments, are not
freed from their sins on coming, after correction, to the unity of the Church,
by a repetition of baptism, but by the same law of charity and bond of unity.
For if "those only may baptize who are set over the Church, and established by
the law of the gospel and ordination as appointed by the Lord," were they in any
wise of this kind who seized on estates by treacherous frauds, and increased
their gains by compound interest? I trow not, since those are established by
ordination as appointed of the Lord, of whom the apostle, in giving them a
standard, says, "Not greedy, not given to filthy lucre." [1312] Yet men of this
kind used to baptize in the time of Cyprian himself; and he confesses with many
lamentations that they were his fellow-bishops, and endures them with the great
reward of tolerance. Yet did they not confer remission of sins, which is granted
through the prayers of the saints, that is, the groans of the dove, whoever it
be that baptizes, if those to whom it is given belong to her peace. For the Lord
would not say to robbers and usurers, "Whose soever sins ye remit, they shall be
remitted to him; and whose soever sins ye retain, they shall be retained."
"Outside the Church, indeed, nothing can be either bound or loosed, since there
there is no one who can either bind or loose;" but he is loosed who has made
peace with the dove, and he is bound who is not at peace with the dove, whether
he is openly without, or appears to be within. 24. But we know that Dathan,
Korah, and Abiram, [1313] who tried to usurp to themselves the right of
sacrificing, contrary to the unity of the people of God, and also the sons of
Aaron who offered strange fire upon the altar, [1314] did not escape punishment.
Nor do we say that such offenses remain unpunished, unless those guilty of them
correct themselves, if the patience of God leading them to repentance [1315]
give them time for correction.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 63: CHAPTER 19. -- 25. THEY INDEED WHO SAY THAT BAPTISM IS NOT TO BE REPEATED
========================================================================

-- 25. They indeed who say that baptism is not to be repeated, because only
hands were laid on those whom Philip the deacon had baptized, [1316] are saying
what is quite beside the point; and far be it from us, in seeking the truth, to
use such arguments 26. Who is that adulterous woman whom the prophet Hosea
points out, who said, "I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my
water, my wool and my flax, and everything that befits me?" [1319] Let us grant
that we may understand this also of the people of the Jews that went astray; yet
whom else are the false Christians (such as are all heretics and schismatics)
wont to imitate, except false Israelites? For there were also true Israelites,
as the Lord Himself bears witness to Nathanael, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in
whom is no guile." [1320] But who are true Christians, save those of whom the
same Lord said, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that
loveth me?" [1321] But what is it to keep His commandments, except to abide in
love? Whence also He says, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one
another;" and again, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye
have love one to another." [1322] But who can doubt that this was spoken not
only to those who heard His words with their fleshly ears when He was present
with them, but also to those who learn His words through the gospel, when He is
sitting on His throne in heaven? For He came not to destroy the law, but to
fulfill. [1323] But the fulfilling of the law is love. [1324] And in this
Cyprian abounded greatly, insomuch that though he held a different view
concerning baptism, he yet did not forsake the unity of the Church, and was in
the Lord's vine a branch firmly rooted, bearing fruit, which the heavenly
Husbandman purged with the knife of suffering, that it should bear more fruit.
[1325] But the enemies of this brotherly love, whether they are openly without,
or appear to be within, are false Christians, and antichrists. For when they
have found an opportunity, they go out, as it is written: "A man wishing to
separate himself from his friends, seeketh opportunities." [1326] But even if
occasions are wanting, while they seem to be within, they are severed from that
invisible bond of love. Whence St. John says, "They went out from us, but they
were not of us; for had they been of us, they would no doubt have continued with
us." [1327] He does not say that they ceased to be of us by going out, but that
they went out because they were not of us. The Apostle Paul also speaks of
certain men who had erred concerning the truth, and were overthrowing the faith
of some; whose word was eating as a canker. Yet in saying that they should be
avoided, he nevertheless intimates that they were all in one great house, but as
vessels to dishonor, -- I suppose because they had not as yet gone out. Or if
they had already gone out, how can he say that they were in the same great house
with the honorable vessels, unless it was in virtue of the sacraments
themselves, which even in the severed meetings of heretics are not changed, that
he speaks of all as belonging to the same great house, though in different
degrees of esteem, some to honor and some to dishonor? For thus he speaks in his
Epistle to Timothy: "But shun profane and vain babblings; for they will increase
unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker; of whom is
Hymenæus and Philetus; who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the
resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some. Nevertheless the
foundation of God standeth firm, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that
are His. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also
of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man
therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified,
and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work." [1328] But
what is it to purge oneself from such as these, except what he said just before,
"Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." And lest
any one should think that, as being in one great house with them, he might
perish with such as these, he has most carefully forewarned them, "The Lord
knoweth them that are His," -- those, namely, who, by departing from iniquity,
purge themselves from the vessels made to dishonor, lest they should perish with
them whom they are compelled to tolerate in the great house. 27. They,
therefore, who are wicked, evildoers, carnal, fleshly, devilish, think that they
receive at the hands of their seducers what are the gifts of God alone, whether
sacraments, or any spiritual workings about present salvation. But these men
have not love towards God, but are busied about those by whose pride they are
led astray, and are compared to the adulterous woman, whom the prophet
introduces as saying, "I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my
water, my wool and my flax, and my oil, and everything that befits me." For thus
arise heresies and schisms, when the fleshly people which is not founded on the
love of God says, "I will go after my lovers," with whom, either by corruption
of her faith, or by the puffing up of her pride, she shamefully commits
adultery. But for the sake of those who, having undergone the difficulties, and
straits, and barriers of the empty reasoning of those by whom they are led
astray, afterwards feel the prickings of fear, and return to the way of peace,
to seeking God in all sincerity, -- for their sake He goes on to say,
"Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that
she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she
shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, but she shall not find them:
then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it
better with me than now." Then, that they may not attribute to their seducers
what they have that is sound, and derived from the doctrine of truth, by which
they lead them astray to the falseness of their own dogmas and dissensions; that
they may not think that what is sound in them belongs to them, he immediately
added, "And she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and
multiplied her money; but she made vessels of gold and silver for Baal." [1329]
For she had said above, "I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread,"
etc., not at all understanding that all this, which was held soundly and
lawfully by her seducers, was of God, and not of men. Nor would even they
themselves claim these things for themselves, and as it were assert a right in
them, had not they in turn been led astray by a people which had gone astray,
when faith is reposed in them, and such honors are paid to them, that they
should be enabled thereby to say such things, and claim such things for
themselves, that their error should be called truth, and their iniquity be
thought righteousness, in virtue of the sacraments and Scriptures, which they
hold, not for salvation, but only in appearance. Accordingly, the same
adulterous woman is addressed by the mouth of Ezekiel: "Thou hast also taken thy
fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to
thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them; and tookest my
[1330] broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and
mine incense before them. My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil,
and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before thine idols for a
sweet savor: and this thou hast done." [1331] For she turns all the sacraments,
and the words of the sacred books, to the images of her own idols, with which
her carnal mind delights to wallow. Nor yet, because those images are false, and
the doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, [1332] are those sacraments
and divine utterances therefore so to lose their due honor, as to be thought to
belong to such as these; seeing that the Lord says," Of my gold, and my silver,
and my broidered garments, and mine oil, and mine incense, and my meat," and so
forth. Ought we, because those erring ones think that these things belong to
their seducers, therefore not to recognize whose they really are, when He
Himself says, "And she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and
multiplied her money"? For He did not say that she did not have these things
because she was an adulteress; but she is said to have had them, and that not as
belonging to herself or her lovers, but to God, whose alone they are. Although,
therefore, she had her fornication, yet those things wherewith she adorned it,
whether as seduced or in her turn seducing, belonged not to her, but to God. If
these things were spoken in a figure of the Jewish nation, when the scribes and
Pharisees were rejecting the commandment of God in order to set up their own
traditions, so that they were in a manner committing whoredom with a people
which was abandoning their God; and yet for all that, whoredom at that time
among the people, such as the Lord brought to light by convicting it, did not
cause that the mysteries should belong to them, which were not theirs but God's,
who, in speaking to the adulteress, says that all these things were His; whence
the Lord Himself also sent those whom He cleansed from leprosy to the same
mysteries, that they should offer sacrifice for themselves before the priests,
because that sacrifice had not become efficacious for them, which He Himself
afterwards wished to be commemorated in the Church for all of them, because He
Himself proclaimed the tidings to them all; -- if this be so, how much the more
ought we, when we find the sacraments of the New Testament among certain
heretics or schismatics, not to attribute them to these men, nor to condemn
them, as though we could not recognize them? We ought to recognize the gifts of
the true husband, though in the possession of an adulteress, and to amend, by
the word of truth, that whoredom which is the true possession of the unchaste
woman, instead of finding fault with the gifts, which belong entirely to the
pitying Lord. 28. From these considerations, and such as these, our forefathers,
not only before the time of Cyprian and Agrippinus, but even afterwards,
maintained a most wholesome custom, that whenever they found anything divine and
lawful remaining in its integrity even in the midst of any heresy or schism,
they approved rather than repudiated it; but whatever they found that was alien,
and peculiar to that false doctrine or division, this they convicted in the
light of the truth, and healed. The points, however, which remain to be
considered in the letter written by Jubaianus, must, I think, when looking at
the size of this book, be taken in hand and treated with a fresh beginning.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 64: IN WHICH HE TREATS OF WHAT FOLLOWS IN THE SAME EPISTLE OF CYPRIAN TO JUBAIANUS.
========================================================================

In which he treats of what follows in the same epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 65: CHAPTER 1. -- 1. THE COMPARISON OF THE CHURCH WITH PARADISE SHOWS US THAT MEN MAY INDEED
========================================================================

-- 1. The comparison of the Church with Paradise [1333] shows us that men may
indeed receive her baptism outside her pale, but that no one outside can either
receive or retain the salvation of eternal happiness. For, as the words of
Scripture testify, th


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 66: CHAPTER 2. -- 2. ALL THE MORE, THEN, BECAUSE |WE ARE FIGHTING FOR THE HONOR AND UNITY|
========================================================================

-- 2. All the more, then, because "we are fighting [1337] for the honor and
unity" of the Church, let us beware of giving to heretics the credit of whatever
we acknowledged among them as belonging to the Church; but let us teach them by
argument, that wha 3. For this, too, he says, in one of his epistles [1340] to
the clergy on the subject of prayer toGod, in which, after the fashion of the
holy Daniel, he represents the sins of his people as falling upon himself. For
among many other evils of which he makes mention, he speaks of them also as
"renouncing the world in words only and not in deeds;" as the apostle says of
certain men, "They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him."
[1341] These, therefore, the blessed Cyprian shows to be contained within the
Church herself, who are baptized without their hearts being changed for the
better, seeing that they renounce the world in words and not in deeds, as the
Apostle Peter says, "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save
us, (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good
conscience)," [1342] which certainly they had not of whom it is said that they
"renounced the world in words only, and not in deeds;" and yet he does his
utmost, by chiding and convincing them, to make them at length walk in the way
of Christ, and be His friends rather than friends of the world.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 67: CHAPTER 3. -- 4. AND IF THEY WOULD HAVE OBEYED HIM
========================================================================

-- 4. And if they would have obeyed him, and begun to live rightly, not as false
but as true Christians, would he have ordered them to be baptized anew? Surely
not; but their true conversion would have gained this for them, that the
sacrament which avail 5. For neither are they "devoted to the Church" [1343] who
seem to be within and live contrary to Christ, that is, act against His
commandments; nor can they be considered in any way to belong to that Church,
which He so purifies by the washing of water, "that He may present to Himself a
glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." [1344] But if
they are not in that Church to whose members they do not belong, they are not in
the Church of which it is said, "My dove is but one; she is the only one of her
mother;" [1345] for she herself is without spot or wrinkle. Or else let him who
can assert that those are members of this dove who renounce the world in words
but not in deeds. Meantime there is one thing which we see, from which I think
it was said, "He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord," [1346] for
God judgeth every day. For, according to His foreknowledge, who knows whom He
has foreordained before the foundation of the world to be made like to the image
of His Son, many who are even openly outside, and are called heretics, are
better than many good Catholics. For we see what they are to-day, what they
shall be to-morrow we know not. And with God, with whom the future is already
present, they already are what they shall hereafter be. But we, according to
what each man is at present, inquire whether they are to be to-day reckoned
among the members of the Church which is called the one dove, and the Bride of
Christ without a spot or wrinkle, [1347] of whom Cyprian says in the letter
which I have quoted above, that "they did not keep in the way of the Lord, nor
observe the commandments given unto them for their salvation; that they did not
fulfill the will of their Lord, being eager about their property and gains,
following the dictates of pride, giving way to envy and dissension, careless
about single-mindedness and faith, renouncing the world in words only and not in
deeds, pleasing each himself, and displeasing all men." [1348] But if the dove
does not acknowledge them among her members, and if the Lord shall say to them,
supposing that they continue in the same perversity, "I never knew you: depart
from me, ye that work iniquity;" [1349] then they seem indeed to be in the
Church, but are not; "nay, they even act against the Church. How then can they
baptize with the baptism of the Church," [1350] which is of avail neither to
themselves, nor to those who receive it from them, unless they are changed in
heart with a true conversion, so that the sacrament itself, which did not avail
them when they received it whilst they were renouncing the world in words and
not in deeds, may begin to profit them when they shall begin to renounce it in
deeds also? And so too in the case of those whose separation from the Church is
open; for neither these nor those are as yet among the members of the dove, but
some of them perhaps will be at some future time.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 68: CHAPTER 4. -- 6. WE DO NOT, THEREFORE, |ACKNOWLEDGE THE BAPTISM OF HERETICS
========================================================================

-- 6. We do not, therefore, "acknowledge the baptism of heretics," [1351] when
we refuse to baptize after them; but because we acknowledge the ordinance to be
of Christ even among evil men, whether openly separated from us, or secretly
severed whilst with 7. "He therefore that is baptized in heresy does not become
the temple of God; [1352] but does it therefore follow that he is not to be
considered as baptized? For neither does the avaricious man, baptized within the
Church, become the temple of God unless he depart from his avarice; for they who
become the temple of God certainly inherit the kingdom of God. But the apostle
says, among many other things, "Neither the covetous, nor extortioners, shall
inherit the kingdom of God." [1353] For in another place the same apostle
compares covetousness to the worship of idols: "Nor covetous man," he says, "who
is an idolater;" [1354] which meaning the same Cyprian has so far extended in a
letter to Antonianus, that he did not hesitate to compare the sin of
covetousness with that of men who in time of persecution had declared in writing
that they would offer incense. [1355] The man, then, who is baptized in heresy
in the name of the Holy Trinity, yet does not become the temple of God unless he
abandons his heresy, just as the covetous man who has been baptized in the same
name does not become the temple of God unless he abandons his covetousness,
which is idolatry. For this, too, the same apostle says: "What agreement hath
the temple of God with idols?" [1356] Let it not, then, be asked of us "of what
God he is made the temple" [1357] when we say that he is not made the temple of
God at all. Yet he is not therefore unbaptized, nor does his foul error cause
that what he has received, consecrated in the words of the gospel, should not be
the holy sacrament; just as the other man's covetousness (which is idolatry) and
great uncleanness cannot prevent what he receives from being holy baptism, even
though he be baptized with the same words of the gospel by another man covetous
like himself.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 69: CHAPTER 5. -- 8. |FURTHER,| CYPRIAN GOES ON TO SAY, |IN VAIN DO SOME
========================================================================

-- 8. "Further," Cyprian goes on to say, "in vain do some, who are overcome by
reason, oppose to us custom, as though custom were superior to truth, or that
were not to be followed in spiritual things which has been revealed by the Holy
Spirit, as the bet


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 70: CHAPTER 6. -- 9. BUT AS REGARDS HIS SAYING, |NOR LET ANY ONE AFFIRM THAT WHAT THEY
========================================================================

-- 9. But as regards his saying, "Nor let any one affirm that what they have
received from the apostles, that they follow; for the apostles handed down only
one Church and one baptism, and that appointed only in the same Church:" [1366]
this does not so 10. We do not then "find that any one, after being baptized
among heretics, was afterwards admitted by the apostles with the same baptism,
and communicated;" [1368] but neither do we find this, that any one coming from
the society of heretics, who had been baptized among them, was baptized anew by
the apostles. But this custom, which even then those who looked back to past
ages could not find to have been invented by men of a later time, is rightly
believed to have been handed down from the apostles. And there are many other
things of the same kind, which it would be tedious to recount. Wherefore, if
they had something to say for themselves to whom Cyprian, wishing to persuade
them of the truth of his own view, says, "Let no one say, What we have received
from the apostles, that we follow," with how much more force we now say, What
the custom of the Church has always held, what this argument has failed to prove
false, and what a plenary Council has confirmed, this we follow! To this we may
add that it may also be said, after a careful inquiry into the reasoning on both
sides of the discussion, and into the evidence of Scripture, What truth has
declared, that we follow.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 71: CHAPTER 7. -- 11. FOR IN FACT, AS TO WHAT SOME OPPOSED TO THE REASONING OF CYPRIAN
========================================================================

-- 11. For in fact, as to what some opposed to the reasoning of Cyprian, that
the apostle says, "Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretence or in truth,
let Christ be preached;" [1369] Cyprian rightly exposed their error, showing
that it has nothing t


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 72: CHAPTER 8. -- 12. IN SHORT, WE MAY SEE HOW GREAT AN EVIL IN ITSELF IS ENVY
========================================================================

-- 12. In short, we may see how great an evil in itself is envy, which cannot be
other than malicious. Let us not look for other testimony. Cyprian himself is
sufficient for us, through whose mouth the Lord poured forth so many thunders in
most perfect


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 73: CHAPTER 9. -- 13. BY THIS PATIENCE OF CHRISTIAN LOVE HE NOT ONLY ENDURED THE DIFFERENCE OF
========================================================================

-- 13. By this patience of Christian love he not only endured the difference of
opinion manifested in all kindliness by his good colleagues on an obscure point,
as he also himself received toleration, till, in process of time, when it so
pleased God, what 14. But yet because "by the envy of the devil death entered
into the world, and they that do hold of his side do find it," [1386] not
because they are created by God, but because they go astray of themselves, as
Cyprian also says himself, seeing that the devil, before he was a devil, was an
angel, and good, how can it be that they who are of the devil's side are in the
unity of Christ? Beyond all doubt, as the Lord Himself says, "an enemy hath done
this," who "sowed tares among the wheat." [1387] As therefore what is of the
devil within the fold must be convicted, so what is of Christ without must be
recognized. Has the devil what is his within the unity of the Church, and shall
Christ not have what is His without? This, perhaps, might be said of individual
men, that as the devil has none that are his among the holy angels, so God has
none that are His outside the communion of the Church. But though it may be
allowed to the devil to mingle tares, that is, wicked men, with this Church
which still wears the mortal nature of flesh, so long as it is wandering far
from God, he being allowed this just because of the pilgrimage of the Church
herself, that men may desire more ardently the rest of that country which the
angels enjoy, yet this cannot be said of the sacraments. For, as the tares
within the Church can have and handle them, though not for salvation, but for
the destruction to which they are destined in the fire, so also can the tares
without, which received them from seceders from within; for they did not lose
them by seceding. This, indeed, is made plain from the fact that baptism is not
conferred again on their return, when any of the very men who seceded happen to
come back again. And let not any one say, Why, what fruit hath the tares? For if
this be so, their condition is the same, so far as this goes, both inside and
without. For it surely cannot be that grains of corn are found in the tares
inside, and not in those without. But when the question is of the sacrament, we
do not consider whether the tares bear any fruit, but whether they have any
share of heaven; for the tares, both within and without, share the rain with the
wheat itself, which rain is in itself heavenly and sweet, even though under its
influence the tares grow up in barrenness. And so the sacrament, according to
the gospel of Christ, is divine and pleasant; nor is it to be esteemed as naught
because of the barrenness of those on whom its dew falls even without.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 74: CHAPTER 10. -- 15. BUT SOME ONE MAY SAY THAT THE TARES WITHIN MAY MORE EASILY BE
========================================================================

-- 15. But some one may say that the tares within may more easily be converted
into wheat. I grant that it is so; but what has this to do with the question of
repeating baptism? You surely do not maintain that if a man converted from
heresy, through the 16. But it will be urged that the bad outside are worse than
those within. It is indeed a weighty question, whether Nicolaus, being already
severed from the Church, [1389] or Simon, who was still within it, [1390] was
the worse, -- the one being a heretic, the other a sorcerer. But if the mere
fact of division, as being the clearest token of violated charity, is held to be
the worse evil, I grant that it is so. Yet many, though they have lost all
feelings of charity, yet do not secede from considerations of worldly profit;
and as they seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's, [1391] what
they are unwilling to secede from is not the unity of Christ, but their own
temporal advantage. Whence it is said in praise of charity, that she "seeketh
not her own." [1392] 17. Now, therefore, the question is, how could men of the
party of the devil belong to the Church, which has no spot, or wrinkle, or any
such thing, [1393] of which also it is said, "My dove is one?" [1394] But if
they cannot, it is clear that she groans among those who are not of her, some
treacherously laying wait within, some barking at her gate without. Such men,
however, even within, both receive baptism, and possess it, and transmit it holy
in itself; nor is it in any way defiled by their wickedness, in which they
persevere even to the end. Wherefore the same blessed Cyprian teaches us that
baptism is to be considered as consecrated in itself by the words of the gospel,
as the Church has received, without joining to it or mingling with it any
consideration of waywardness and wickedness on the part of either minister or
recipients; since he himself points out to us both truths, -- both that there
have been some within the Church who did not cherish kindly Christian love, but
practised envy and unkind dissension, of whom the Apostle Paul spoke; and also
that the envious belong to the devil's party, as he testifies in the most open
way in the epistle which he wrote about envy and malignity. Wherefore, since it
is clearly possible that in those who belong to the devil's party, Christ's
sacrament may yet be holy, -- not, indeed, to their salvation, but to their
condemnation, and that not only if they are led astray after they have been
baptized, but even if they were such in heart when they received the sacrament,
renouncing the world (as the same Cyprian shows) in words only and not in deeds;
[1395] and since even if afterwards they be brought into the right way, the
sacrament is not to be again administered which they received when they were
astray; so far as I can see, the case is already clear and evident, that in the
question of baptism we have to consider, not who gives, but what he gives; not
who receives, but what he receives; not who has, but what he has. For if men of
the party of the devil, and therefore in no way belonging to the one dove, can
yet receive, and have, and give baptism in all its holiness, in no way defiled
by their waywardness, as we are taught by the letters of Cyprian himself, how
are we ascribing to heretics what does not belong to them? how are we saying
that what is really Christ's is theirs, and not rather recognizing in them the
signs of our Sovereign, and correcting the deeds of deserters from Him?
Wherefore it is one thing, as the holy Cyprian says, "for those within in the
Church, to speak in the name of Christ, another thing for those without, who are
acting against the Church, to baptize in His name." [1396] But both many who are
within act against the Church by evil living, and by enticing weak souls to copy
their lives; and some who are without speak in Christ's name, and are not
forbidden to work the works of Christ, but only to be without, since for the
healing of their souls we grasp at them, or reason with them, or exhort them.
For he, too, was without who did not follow Christ with His disciples, and yet
in Christ's name was casting out devils, which the Lord enjoined that he should
not be prevented from doing; [1397] although, certainly, in the point where he
was imperfect he was to be made whole, in accordance with the words of the Lord,
in which He says, "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth
not with me scattereth abroad." [1398] Therefore both some things are done
outside in the name of Christ not against the Church, and some things are done
inside on the devil's part which are against the Church.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 75: CHAPTER 11. -- 18. WHAT SHALL WE SAY OF WHAT IS ALSO WONDERFUL
========================================================================

-- 18. What shall we say of what is also wonderful, that he who carefully
observes may find that it is possible that certain persons, without violating
Christian charity, may yet teach what is useless, as Peter wished to compel the
Gentiles to observe Jew


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 76: CHAPTER 12. -- 19. BUT HE URGES THAT |WE FIND THAT THE APOSTLES
========================================================================

-- 19. But he urges that "we find that the apostles, in all their epistles,
execrated and abhorred the sacrilegious wickedness of heretics, so as to say
that their word does spread as a canker.'" [1404] What then? Does not Paul also
show that those who


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 77: CHAPTER 13. -- 20. THERE IS THEREFORE |NO FELLOWSHIP BETWEEN RIGHTEOUSNESS AND UNRIGHTEOUSNESS
========================================================================

-- 20. There is therefore "no fellowship between righteousness and
unrighteousness," [1413] not only without, but also within the Church; for "the
Lord knoweth them that are His," and "Let every one that nameth the name of
Christ depart from iniquity." 21. There are therefore also within the Church
"enemies of God, whose hearts the spirit of Antichrist has possessed;" and yet
they, "deal with spiritual and divine things," [1419] which cannot profit for
their salvation so long as they remain such as they are; and yet neither can
they pollute them by their own uncleanness. With regard to what he says,
therefore, "that they have no part given them in the saving grace of the Church,
who, scattering and fighting against the Church of Christ, are called
adversaries by Christ Himself, and antichrists by His apostles, [1420] this must
be received under the consideration that there are men of this kind both within
and without. But the separation of those that are within from the perfection and
unity of the dove is not only known in the case of some men to God, but even in
the case of some to their fellow-men; for, by regarding their openly abandoned
life and confirmed wickedness, and comparing it with the rules of God's
commandments, they understand to what a multitude of tares and chaff, situated
now some within and some without, but destined to be most manifestly separated
at the last day, the Lord will then say, "Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity," [1421] and "Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and
his angels." [1422]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 78: CHAPTER 14. -- 22. BUT WE MUST NOT DESPAIR OF THE CONVERSION OF ANY MAN
========================================================================

-- 22. But we must not despair of the conversion of any man, whether situated
within or without, so long as "the goodness of God leadeth him to repentance,"
[1423] and "visits their transgressions with the rod, and their inquiry with
stripes." For in thi


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 79: CHAPTER 15. -- 23. TO GO ON TO THE POINT WHICH HE PURSUES AT GREAT LENGTH
========================================================================

-- 23. To go on to the point which he pursues at great length, that "they who
blaspheme the Father of Christ cannot be baptized in Christ," [1435] since it is
clear that they blaspheme through error (for he who comes to the baptism of
Christ will not open


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 80: CHAPTER 16. -- 24. SOME ONE SAYS, DOES IT THEN MAKE NO DIFFERENCE
========================================================================

-- 24. Some one says, Does it then make no difference, if two men, rooted in
like error and wickedness, be baptized without change of life or heart, one
without, the other within the Church? I acknowledge that there is a difference.
For he is worse who


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 81: CHAPTER 17. -- 25. |CAN THE POWER OF BAPTISM,| SAYS CYPRIAN
========================================================================

-- 25. "Can the power of baptism," says Cyprian, "be greater or better than
confession? than martyrdom? that a man should confess Christ before men, and be
baptized in his own blood? And yet," he goes on to say, "neither does this
baptism profit the here


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 82: CHAPTER 18. -- 26. NOR INDEED, IS IT OF HERESIES ALONE THAT THE APOSTLE SAYS |THAT THEY
========================================================================

-- 26. Nor indeed, is it of heresies alone that the apostle says "that they
which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." But it may be worth
while to look for a moment at the things which he groups together. "The works of
the flesh," he s


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 83: CHAPTER 19. -- 27. LET US THEREFORE NOT FLATTER THE CATHOLIC WHO IS HEMMED IN WITH ALL
========================================================================

-- 27. Let us therefore not flatter the Catholic who is hemmed in with all these
vices, nor venture, merely because he is a Catholic Christian, to promise him
the impunity which holy Scripture does not promise him; nor, if he has any one
of the faults abo


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 84: CHAPTER 20. -- 28. BUT ON THE QUESTION WHETHER WE OUGHT TO PREFER A CATHOLIC OF THE
========================================================================

-- 28. But on the question whether we ought to prefer a Catholic of the most
abandoned character to a heretic in whose life, except that he is a heretic, men
can find nothing to blame, I do not venture to give a hasty judgment. But if any
one says, becau


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 85: CHAPTER 21. -- 29. WITH REGARD TO THE OBJECTION BROUGHT AGAINST CYPRIAN
========================================================================

-- 29. With regard to the objection brought against Cyprian, that the
catechumens who were seized in martyrdom, and slain for Christ's name's sake,
received a crown even without baptism, I do not quite see what it has to do with
the matter, unless, indeed


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 86: CHAPTER 22. -- 30. THAT THE PLACE OF BAPTISM IS SOMETIMES SUPPLIED BY MARTYRDOM IS SUPPORTED BY
========================================================================

-- 30. That the place of baptism is sometimes supplied by martyrdom is supported
by an argument by no means trivial, which the blessed Cyprian adduces [1459]
from the thief, to whom, though he was not baptized, it was yet said, "To-day
shall thou be with


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 87: CHAPTER 23. -- 31. BUT WHAT IS THE PRECISE VALUE OF THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE SACRAMENT WHICH
========================================================================

-- 31. But what is the precise value of the sanctification of the sacrament
(which that thief did not receive, not from any want of will on his part, but
because it was unavoidably omitted) and what is the effect on a man of its
material application, it i


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 88: CHAPTER 24. -- 32. AND IF ANY ONE SEEK FOR DIVINE AUTHORITY IN THIS MATTER
========================================================================

-- 32. And if any one seek for divine authority in this matter, though what is
held by the whole Church, and that not as instituted by Councils, but as a
matter of invariable custom, is rightly held to have been handed down by
apostolical authority, still


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 89: CHAPTER 25. -- 33. BY ALL THESE CONSIDERATIONS IT IS PROVED THAT THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM IS
========================================================================

-- 33. By all these considerations it is proved that the sacrament of baptism is
one thing, the conversion of the heart another; but that man's salvation is made
complete through the two together. Nor are we to suppose that, if one of these
be wanting, it


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 90: CHAPTER 26. -- 34. A FEW THINGS STILL REMAIN TO BE NOTICED IN THE EPISTLE TO JUBAIANUS
========================================================================

-- 34. A few things still remain to be noticed in the epistle to Jubaianus; but
since these will raise the question both of the past custom of the Church and of
the baptism of John, which is wont to excite no small doubt in those who pay
slight attention


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 91: HE EXAMINES THE LAST PART OF THE EPISTLE OF CYPRIAN TO JUBAIANUS
========================================================================

He examines the last part of the epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus, together with
his epistle to Quintus, the letter of the African synod to the Numidian bishops,
and Cyprian's epistle to Pompeius.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 92: CHAPTER 1. -- 1. WE HAVE THE TESTIMONY OF THE BLESSED CYPRIAN
========================================================================

-- 1. We have the testimony of the blessed Cyprian, that the custom of the
Catholic Church is at present retained, when men coming from the side of
heretics or schismatics, if they have received baptism as consecrated in the
words of the gospel, are not b


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 93: CHAPTER 2. -- 2. BUT NOW THAT WE HAVE BEGUN A DISPUTATION WITH A MAN OF PEACE
========================================================================

-- 2. But now that we have begun a disputation with a man of peace like Cyprian,
let us go on. For when he had brought an objection against himself, which he
knew was urged by his brethren, "What then will become of those who in times
past, coming to the


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 94: CHAPTER. 3. -- 3. BUT IN WHAT CYPRIAN ADDS, SAYING, |NOR YET BECAUSE MEN ONCE HAVE ERRED
========================================================================

-- 3. But in what Cyprian adds, saying, "Nor yet because men once have erred
must there be always error, since it rather befits wise and God-fearing men
gladly and unhesitatingly to follow truth, when it is clearly laid before their
eyes, than obstinately


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 95: CHAPTER 4. -- 4. BUT SINCE NOW, AS I SAID BEFORE
========================================================================

-- 4. But since now, as I said before, we have begun a disputation with the
epistles of Cyprian, I think that I should not seem even to him, if he were
present, "to be contending obstinately and persistently in defense of heretics
against my brethren and


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 96: CHAPTER 5. -- 5. WHEREFORE, EVEN IF HERETICS SHOULD BE TRULY ANXIOUS TO CORRECT THEIR ERROR AND
========================================================================

-- 5. Wherefore, even if heretics should be truly anxious to correct their error
and come to the Church, for the very reason that they believed that they had no
baptism unless they received it in the Church, even under these circumstances we
should not be 6. To this we may add a further reason, that men, by a sort of
hidden inspiration from heaven, shrink from any one who for the second time
receives baptism which he had already received in any quarter whatsoever,
insomuch that the very heretics themselves, when their arguments start with that
subject, rub their forehead in perplexity, and almost all their laity, even
those who have grown old in their body, and have conceived an obstinate
animosity against the Catholic Church, confess that this one point in their
system displeases them; and many who, for the sake of gaining some secular
advantage, or avoiding some disadvantage, wish to secede to them, strive with
many secret efforts that they may have granted to them, as a peculiar and
individual privilege, that they should not be rebaptized; and some, who are led
to place credence in their other vain delusions and false accusations against
the Catholic Church, are recalled to unity by this one consideration, that they
are unwilling to associate with them lest they should be compelled to be
rebaptized. And the Donatists, through fear of this feeling, which has so
thorough possession of all men's hearts, have consented to acknowledge the
baptism which was conferred among the followers of Maximianus, whom they had
condemned, and so to cut short their own tongues and close their mouths, in
preference to baptizing again so many men of the people of Musti, and Assuræ,
and other districts, whom they received with Felicianus and Prætextatus, and the
others who had been condemned by them and afterwards returned to them.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 97: CHAPTER 6. -- 7. FOR WHEN THIS IS DONE OCCASIONALLY IN THE CASE OF INDIVIDUALS
========================================================================

-- 7. For when this is done occasionally in the case of individuals, at great
intervals of time and space, the enormity of the deed is not equally felt; but
if all were suddenly to be brought together who had been baptized in course of
time by the aforesa


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 98: CHAPTER 7. -- 8. TRULY, WHEN I LOOK AT THE ACTUAL WORDS OF CYPRIAN
========================================================================

-- 8. Truly, when I look at the actual words of Cyprian, I am warned to say some
things which are very necessary for the solution of this question. "For if they
were to see," he says, "that it was settled and established by our formal
decision and vote,


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 99: CHAPTER 8. -- 9. WHEREFORE, AS THE APOSTLE SAID OF THE LAW
========================================================================

-- 9. Wherefore, as the apostle said of the law, "The law is good, if a man use
it lawfully," [1476] so we may fairly say of baptism, Baptism is good, if a man
use it lawfully. And as they who used the law unlawfully could not in that case
cause that it


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 100: CHAPTER 9. -- 10. NOW WE MUST SEE WHAT IS SAID OF THE BAPTISM OF JOHN.
========================================================================

-- 10. Now we must see what is said of the baptism of John. For "we read in the
Acts of the Apostles, that those who had already been baptized with the baptism
of John were yet baptized by Paul," [1480] simply because the baptism of John
was not the bapti 11. For to none of the prophets, to no one at all in holy
Scripture, do we read that it was granted to baptize in the water of repentance
for the remission of sins, as it was granted to John; that, causing the hearts
of the people to hang upon him through this marvellous grace, he might prepare
in them the way for Him whom he declared to be so infinitely greater than
himself. But the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses His Church by such a baptism that on
receiving it no other is required; while John gave a first washing with such a
baptism that on receiving it there was further need of the baptism of the Lord,
-- not that the first baptism should be repeated, but that the baptism of
Christ, for whom he was preparing the way, might be further bestowed on those
who had received the baptism of John. For if Christ's humility were not to be
commended to our notice, neither would there be any need of the baptism of John;
again, if the end were in John, after his baptism there would be no need of the
baptism of Christ. But because "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to every one that believeth," [1487] it was shown by John to whom men should go,
and in whom, when they had reached Him, they should rest. The same, John,
therefore, set forth both the exalted nature of the Lord, when he placed Him far
before himself, and His humility, when he baptized Him as the lowest of the
people. But if John had baptized Christ alone, he would be thought to have been
the dispenser of a better baptism, in that with which Christ alone was baptized,
than the baptism of Christ with which Christians are baptized; and again, if all
ought to be baptized first with the baptism of John, and then with that of
Christ, the baptism of Christ would deservedly seem to be lacking in fullness
and perfection, as not sufficing for salvation. Wherefore the Lord was baptized
with the baptism of John, that He might bend the proud necks of men to His own
health-giving baptism; and He was not alone baptized with it, lest He should
show His own to be inferior to this, with which none but He Himself had deserved
to be baptized; and He did not allow it to continue longer, lest the one baptism
with which He baptizes might seem to need the other to precede it.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 101: CHAPTER 10. -- 12. I ASK, THEREFORE, IF SINS WERE REMITTED BY THE BAPTISM OF JOHN
========================================================================

-- 12. I ask, therefore, if sins were remitted by the baptism of John, what more
could the baptism of Christ confer on those whom the Apostle Paul desired to be
baptized with the baptism of Christ after they had received the baptism of John?
But if sins


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 102: CHAPTER 11. -- 13. FOR WE MUST LOOK AT THE POINT WHICH ESPECIALLY CONCERNS THE MATTER BEFORE
========================================================================

-- 13. For we must look at the point which especially concerns the matter before
us (whatever be the nature of the baptism of John, since it is clear that he
belongs to the unity of Christ), viz., what is the reason for which it was right
that men should


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 103: CHAPTER 12. -- 14. ACCORDINGLY, I TOO MIGHT USE THE WORDS OF THE BLESSED CYPRIAN TO TURN
========================================================================

-- 14. Accordingly, I too might use the words of the blessed Cyprian to turn the
hearts of those that hear me to the consideration of something truly marvellous,
if I were to say "that John, who was accounted greater among the prophets, -- he
who was filled


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 104: CHAPTER 13. -- 15. FOR THE LORD JESUS MIGHT, IF HE HAD SO THOUGHT FIT
========================================================================

-- 15. For the Lord Jesus might, if He had so thought fit, have given the power
of His baptism to some one or more of His chief servants, whom He had already
made His friends, such as those to whom He says, "Henceforth I call you not
servants, but friends


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 105: CHAPTER 14. -- 16. ACCORDINGLY WE FIND THE APOSTLES USING THE EXPRESSIONS
========================================================================

-- 16. Accordingly we find the apostles using the expressions, "My glorying,"
[1502] though it was certainly in the Lord; and "Mine office," [1503] and "My
knowledge," [1504] and "My gospel," [1505] although it was confessedly bestowed
and given by the


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 106: CHAPTER 15. -- 17. THAT THEREFORE THE BAPTISM OF JOHN WAS NOT THE SAME AS THE BAPTISM
========================================================================

-- 17. That therefore the baptism of John was not the same as the baptism of
Christ, has, I think, been shown with sufficient clearness; and therefore no
argument can be drawn from it that baptism should be repeated after heretics
because it was repeated 18. But it will be urged that baptism after a heretic is
much more required, because John was not a heretic, and yet baptism was repeated
after him. On this principle, a man may say, much more must we rebaptize after a
drunkard, because John was sober, and yet baptism was repeated after him. And we
shall have no answer to make to such a man, save that the baptism of Christ was
given to those who were baptized by John, because they had it not; but where men
have the baptism of Christ, no iniquity on their part can possibly effect that
the baptism of Christ should fail to be in them. 19. It is not therefore true
that "by baptizing first, the heretic obtains the right of baptism;" [1507] but
because he did not baptize with his own baptism, and though he did not possess
the right of baptizing, yet that which he gave is Christ's, and he who received
it is Christ's. For many things are given wrongfully and yet they are not
therefore said to be non-existent or not given at all. For neither does he who
renounces the world in word only and not in deed receive baptism lawfully, and
yet he does receive it. For both Cyprian records that there were such men in the
Church in his day, and we ourselves experience and lament the fact. 20. But it
is strange in what sense it can be said that "baptism and the Church cannot in
any way be separated and detached from one another." [1508] For if baptism
remains inseparably in him who is baptized, how can it be that he can be
separated from the Church, and baptism cannot? But it is clear that baptism does
remain inseparably in the baptized person; because into whatever depth of evil,
and into whatever fearful whirlpool of sin the baptized person may fall, even to
the ruin of apostasy, he yet is not bereft of his baptism. And therefore, if
through repentance he returns, it is not given again, because it is judged that
he could not have been bereft of it. But who can ever doubt that a baptized
person can be separated from the Church? For hence all the heresies have
proceeded which deceive by the use of Christian terms.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 107: CHAPTER 16. WHEREFORE, SINCE IT IS MANIFEST THAT THE BAPTISM REMAINS IN THE BAPTIZED PERSON WHEN HE
========================================================================

#NAME? 21. Therefore the heretic is not "the first to seize baptism," since he
has received it from the Church. Nor, though he seceded, could baptism have been
lost by him whom we assert no longer to retain the Church, and yet allow to
retain baptism. Nor does any one "yield his birthright, and give it to a
heretic," [1509] because he says that he took away with him what he could not
give lawfully, but what would yet be according to law when given; or that he no
longer has lawfully what yet is in accordance with law in his possession. But
the birthright rests only in a holy conversation and good life, to which all
belong of whom that bride consists as her members which has no spot or wrinkle,
[1510] or that dove that groans amid the wickedness of the many crows, -- unless
it be that, while Esau lost his birthright from his lust after a mess of
pottage, [1511] we are yet to hold that it is retained by defrauders, robbers,
usurers, envious persons, drunkards and the like, over whose existence in the
Church of his time Cyprian groaned in his epistles. Wherefore, either it is not
the same thing to retain the Church and to retain the birthright in divine
things, or, if every one who retains the Church also retains the birthright,
then all those wicked ones do not retain the Church who yet both seem and are
allowed by every one of us to give baptism within the Church; for no one, save
the man who is wholly ignorant of sacred things, would say that they retain the
birthright in sacred things.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 108: CHAPTER 17. -- 22. BUT, HAVING CONSIDERED AND HANDLED ALL THESE POINTS
========================================================================

-- 22. But, having considered and handled all these points, we have now come to
that peaceful utterance of Cyprian at the end of the epistle, with which I am
never sated, though I read and re-read it again and again, -- so great is the
pleasantness of broth 23. There are many things to be considered in these words,
wherein the brightness of Christian charity shines forth in this man, who "loved
the beauty of the Lord's house, and the place of the tabernacle of His
habitation." [1514] First, that he did not conceal what he felt; then, that he
set it forth so gently and peacefully, in that he maintained the peace of the
Church with those who thought otherwise, because he understood how great
healthfulness was bound up in the bond of peace, loving it so much, and
maintaining it with sobriety, seeing and feeling that even men who think
differently may entertain their several sentiments with saving charity. For he
would not say that he could maintain divine concord or the peace of the Lord
with evil men; for the good man can observe peace towards wicked men, but he
cannot be united with them in the peace which they have not. Lastly, that
prescribing to no one, and prejudging no one, lest each bishop should not do
what he thinks right in the free exercise of his own will, he has left for us
also, whatsoever we may be, a place for treating peacefully of those things with
him. For he is present, not only in his letters, but by that very charity which
existed in so extraordinary a degree in him, and which can never die. Longing,
therefore, with the aid of his prayers, to cling to and be in union with him, if
I be not hindered by the unmeetness of my sins, I will learn if I can through
his letters with how great peace and comfort the Lord administered His Church
through him; and, putting on the bowels of humility through the moving influence
of his discourse, if, in common with the Church at large, I entertain any
doctrine more true than his, I will not prefer my heart to his, even in the
point in which he, though holding different views, was yet not severed from the
Church throughout the world. For in that, when that question was yet undecided
for want of full discussion, though his sentiments differed from those of many
of his colleagues, yet he observed so great moderation, that he would not
mutilate the sacred fellowship of the Church of God by any stain of schism, a
greater strength of excellence appeared in him than would have been shown if,
without that virtue, he had held views on every point not only true, but
coinciding with their own. Nor should I be acting as he would wish, if I were to
pretend to prefer his talent and his fluency of discourse and copiousness of
learning to the holy Council of all nations, whereat he was assuredly present
through the unity of his spirit, especially as he is now placed in such full
light of truth as to see with perfect certainty what he was here seeking in the
spirit of perfect peace. For out of that rich abundance he smiles at all that
here seems eloquence in us, as though it were the first essay of infancy; there
he sees by what rule of piety he acted here, that nothing should be dearer in
the Church to him than unity. There, too, with unspeakable delight he beholds
with what prescient and most merciful providence the Lord, that He might heal
our swellings, "chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise,"
[1515] and, in the ordering of the members of His Church, placed all things in
such a healthful way, that men should not say that they were chosen to the help
of the gospel for their own talent or learning, of whose source they yet were
ignorant, and so be puffed up with deadly pride. Oh, how Cyprian rejoices! With
how much more perfect calmness does he behold how greatly it conduces to the
health of the human race, that in the writings even of Christian and pious
orators there should be found what merits blame, and in the writings of the
fishermen there should nothing of the sort be found! And so I, being fully
assured of this joy of that holy soul, neither in any way venture to think or
say that my writings are free from every kind of error, nor, in opposing that
opinion of his, wherein it seemed to him that those who came from among heretics
were to be received otherwise than either they had been in former days, as he
himself bears witness, or are now received, as is the reasonable custom,
confirmed by a plenary Council of the whole Christian world, do I set against
him my own view, but that of the holy Catholic Church, which he so loved and
loves, in which he brought forth such abundant fruit with tolerance, whose
entirety he himself was not, but in whose entirety he remained; whose root he
never left, but, though he already brought forth fruit from its root, he was
purged by the heavenly Husbandman that he should bring forth more fruit; [1516]
for whose peace and safety, that the wheat might not be rooted out together with
the tares, he both reproved with the freedom of truth, and endured with the
grace of charity, so many evils on the part of men who were placed in unity with
himself.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 109: CHAPTER 18. -- 24. WHENCE CYPRIAN HIMSELF AGAIN ADMONISHES US WITH THE GREATEST FULLNESS
========================================================================

-- 24. Whence Cyprian himself [1517] again admonishes us with the greatest
fullness, that many who were dead in their trespasses and sins, although they
did not belong to the body of Christ, and the members of that innocent and
guileless dove (so that if


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 110: CHAPTER 19. -- 25. WHEREFORE, AS REGARDS THOSE WHO RECEIVED THE PERSONS WHO CAME FROM HERESY IN
========================================================================

-- 25. Wherefore, as regards those who received the persons who came from heresy
in the same baptism of Christ with which they had been baptized outside the
Church, and said "that they followed ancient custom," as indeed the Church now
receives such, it i 26. But I cannot see what show of reason there is in this,
that the name of "erring sheep" [1519] should be denied to one whose lot it has
been that, while seeking the salvation which is in Christ, he has fallen into
the error of heretics, and been baptized in their body; while he is held to have
become a sheep already within the body of the Catholic Church herself, who has
renounced the world in words and not in deeds, and has received baptism in such
falseness of heart as this. Or if such an one also does not become a sheep
unless after turning to God with a true heart, then, as he is not baptized at
the time when he becomes a sheep, if he had been already baptized, but was not
yet a sheep; so he too, who comes from the heretics that he may become a sheep,
is not then to be baptized if he had been already baptized with the same
baptism, though he was not yet a sheep. Wherefore, since even all the bad that
are within -- the covetous, the envious, the drunkards, and those that live
contrary to the discipline of Christ -- may be deservedly called liars, and in
darkness, and dead, and antichrists, do they yet therefore not baptize, on the
ground that "there can be nothing common between truth and falsehood, between
light and darkness, between death and immortality, between Antichrist and
Christ?" [1520] 27. He makes an assumption, then, not "of mere custom," but "of
the reason of truth itself," [1521] when he says that the sacrament of God
cannot be turned to error by the error of any men, since it is declared to exist
even in those who have erred. Assuredly the Apostle John says most plainly, "He
that hateth his brother is in darkness even until now;" [1522] and again,
"Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer;" [1523] and why, therefore, do they
baptize those within the Church whom Cyprian himself declares to be in the envy
of malice? [1524]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 111: CHAPTER 20.
========================================================================

-- How does a murderer cleanse and sanctify the water? [1525] How can darkness
bless the oil? But if God is present in His sacraments to confirm His words by
whomsoever the sacraments may be administered, then both the sacraments of God
are everywhere val 28. But what kind of argument is this, that "a heretic must
be considered not to have baptism, because he has not the Church?" And it must
be acknowledged that "when he is baptized, he is questioned about the Church."
[1526] Just as though the same question about the Church were not put in baptism
to him who within the Church renounces the world in word and not in deed. As
therefore his false answer does not prevent what he receives from being baptism,
so also the false reply of the other about the holy Church does not prevent what
he receives from being baptism; and as the former, if he afterwards fulfill with
truth what he promised in falsehood, does not receive a second baptism, but only
an amended life, so also in the case of the latter, if he come afterwards to the
Church about which he gave a false answer to the question put to him, thinking
that he had it when he had it not, the Church herself which he did not possess
is given him, but what he had received is not repeated. But I cannot tell why it
should be, that while God can "sanctify the oil" in answer to the words which
proceed out of the mouth of a murderer, "He yet cannot sanctify it on the altar
reared by a heretic," unless it be that He who is not hindered by the false
conversion of the heart of man within the Church is hindered by the false
erection of some wood without from deigning to be present in His sacraments,
though no falseness on the part of men can hinder Him. If, therefore, what is
said in the gospel, that "God heareth not sinners," [1527] extends so far that
the sacraments cannot be celebrated by a sinner, how then does He hear a
murderer praying, either over the water of baptism, or over the oil, or over the
eucharist, or over the heads of those on whom his hand is laid? All which things
are nevertheless done, and are valid, even at the hands of murderers, that is,
at the hands of those who hate their brethren, even within, in the Church
itself. Since "no one can give what he does not possess himself," [1528] how
does a murderer give the Holy Spirit? And yet such an one even baptizeth within
the Church. It is God, therefore, that gives the Holy Spirit even when a man of
this kind is baptizing.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 112: CHAPTER 21. -- 29. BUT AS TO WHAT HE SAYS, THAT |HE WHO COMES TO THE CHURCH
========================================================================

-- 29. But as to what he says, that "he who comes to the Church is to be
baptized and renewed, that within he may be hallowed through the holy," [1529]
what will he do, if within also he meets with those who are not holy? Or can it
be that the murderer i


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 113: CHAPTER 22. -- 30. ACCORDINGLY WE AGREE WITH CYPRIAN THAT |HERETICS CANNOT GIVE REMISSION OF SINS
========================================================================

-- 30. Accordingly we agree with Cyprian that "heretics cannot give remission of
sins;" [1540] but we maintain that they can give baptism, -- which indeed in
them, both when they give and when they receive it, is profitable only to their
destruction, as mis


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 114: CHAPTER 23. -- 31. CYPRIAN WRITES ALSO TO POMPEIUS ABOUT THIS SELFSAME MATTER
========================================================================

-- 31. Cyprian writes also to Pompeius [1542] about this selfsame matter, and
clearly shows in that letter that Stephen, who, as we learn, was then bishop of
the Roman Church, not only did not agree with him upon the points before us, but
even wrote and t 32. But it will be urged that it is written of heretics that
"they are condemned of themselves." [1545] What then? are they not also
condemned of themselves to whom it was said, "For wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself?" [1546] But to these the apostle says, "Thou that
preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?" [1547] and so forth. And
such truly were they who, being bishops and established in Catholic unity with
Cyprian himself, used to plunder estates by treacherous frauds, preaching all
the time to the people the words of the apostle, who says, "Nor shall
extortioners inherit the kingdom of God." [1548] 33. Wherefore I will do no more
than run shortly through the other sentiments founded on the same rules, which
are in the aforesaid letter written to Pompeius. By what authority of holy
Scripture is it shown that "it is against the commandment of God that persons
coming from the society of heretics, if they have already there received the
baptism of Christ, are not baptized again?" [1549] But it is clearly shown that
many pretended Christians, though they are not joined in the same bond of
charity with the saints, without which anything holy that they may have been
able to possess is of no profit to them, yet have baptism in common with the
saints, as has been already sufficiently proved with the greatest fullness. He
says "that the Church, and the Spirit, and baptism, are mutually incapable of
separation from each other, and therefore" he wishes that "those who are
separated from the Church and the Holy Spirit should be understood to be
separated also from baptism." [1550] But if this is the case, then when any one
has received baptism in the Catholic Church, it remains so long in him as he
himself remains in the Church, which is not so. For it is not restored to him
when he returns, just because he did not lose it when he seceded. But as the
disaffected sons have not the Holy Spirit in the same manner as the beloved
sons, and yet they have baptism; so heretics also have not the Church as
Catholics have, and yet they have baptism. "For the Holy Spirit of discipline
will flee deceit," [1551] and yet baptism will not flee from it. And so, as
baptism can continue in one from whom the Holy Spirit withdraws Himself, so can
baptism continue where the Church is not. But if "the laying on of hands" were
not "applied to one coming from heresy," [1552] he would be as it were judged to
be wholly blameless; but for the uniting of love, which is the greatest gift of
the Holy Spirit, without which any other holy thing that there may be in a man
is profitless to his salvation, hands are laid on heretics when they are brought
to a knowledge of the truth. [1553]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 115: CHAPTER 24. -- 34. I REMEMBER THAT I HAVE ALREADY DISCUSSED AT SUFFICIENT LENGTH THE QUESTION OF
========================================================================

-- 34. I remember that I have already discussed at sufficient length the
question of "the temple of God," and how this saying is to be taken, "As many of
you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." [1554] For neither
are the covetous the 35. If therefore heresy is rendered "unable to engender
sons to God through Christ, because it is not the bride of Christ," [1558]
neither can that crowd of evil men established within the Church, since it is
also not the bride of Christ; for the bride of Christ is described as being
without spot or wrinkle. [1559] Therefore either not all baptized persons are
the sons of God, or even that which is not the bride can engender the sons of
God. But as it is asked whether "he is spiritually born who has received the
baptism of Christ in the midst of heretics," [1560] so it may be asked whether
he is spiritually born who has received the baptism of Christ in the Catholic
Church, without being turned to God in a true heart, of whom it cannot be said
that he has not received baptism.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 116: CHAPTER 25. -- 36. I AM UNWILLING TO GO ON TO HANDLE AGAIN WHAT CYPRIAN POURED FORTH
========================================================================

-- 36. I am unwilling to go on to handle again what Cyprian poured forth with
signs of irritation against Stephen, as it is, moreover, quite unnecessary. For
they are but the selfsame arguments which have already been sufficiently
discussed; and it is be


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 117: CHAPTER 26. -- 37. TO GO ON TO WHAT HE SAYS
========================================================================

-- 37. To go on to what he says, "that a bishop should be teachable,'" [1562]
adding, "But he is teachable who is gentle and meek to learn; for a bishop ought
not only to teach, but to learn as well, since he is indeed the better teacher
who daily grows a


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 118: CHAPTER 27. -- 38. AND IN THAT THE CHURCH IS THUS DESCRIBED IN THE SONG OF SONGS
========================================================================

-- 38. And in that the Church is thus described in the Song of Songs, "A garden
enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed, a well of
living water; thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits;"
[1569] I dare


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 119: CHAPTER 28. -- 39. HENCE, THEREFORE, WE HAVE NOW SET BEFORE US AN EASIER AND MORE SIMPLE
========================================================================

-- 39. Hence, therefore, we have now set before us an easier and more simple
consideration of that ark of which Noah was the builder and pilot. For Peter
says that in the ark of Noah, "few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water.
The like figure wher


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 120: IN WHICH IS CONSIDERED THE COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE, HELD UNDER THE AUTHORITY AND PRESIDENCY OF
========================================================================

In which is considered the Council of Carthage, held under the authority and
presidency of Cyprian, to determine the question of the baptism of heretics.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 121: CHAPTER 1. -- 1. IT MIGHT PERHAPS HAVE BEEN SUFFICIENT, THAT AFTER THE REASONS HAVE BEEN SO
========================================================================

-- 1. It might perhaps have been sufficient, that after the reasons have been so
often repeated, and considered, and discussed with such variety of treatment,
supplemented too, with the addition of proofs from holy Scripture, and the
concurrent testimony 2. For as the spiritual man, keeping "the end of the
commandment," that is, "charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience,
and of faith unfeigned," [1584] can see some things less clearly out of a body
which is yet "corruptible and presseth down the soul," [1585] and is liable to
be otherwise minded in some things which God will reveal [1586] to him in His
own good time if he abide in the same charity, so in a carnal and perverse man
something good and useful may be found, which has its origin not in the man
himself, but in some other source. For as in the fruitful branch there is found
something which must be purged that it may bring forth more fruit, so also a
grape is often found to hang on a cane that is barren and dry or fettered. And
so, as it is foolish to love the portions which require purging in the fruitful
branch, while he acts wisely who does not reject the sweet fruit wherever it may
hang, so, if any one cuts himself off from unity by rebaptizing, simply because
it seemed to Cyprian that one ought to baptize again those who came from the
heretics, such a man turns aside from what merits praise in that great man, and
follows what requires correction, and does not even attain to the very thing he
follows after. For Cyprian, while grievously abhorring, in his zeal for God, all
those who severed themselves from unity, thought that thereby they were
separated from baptism itself; while these men, thinking it at most a slight
offense that they themselves are severed from the unity of Christ, even maintain
that His baptism is not in that unity, but issued forth with them. Therefore
they are so far from the fruitfulness of Cyprian, as not even to be equal to the
parts in him which needed purging.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 122: CHAPTER 2. -- 3. AGAIN, IF ANY ONE NOT HAVING CHARITY
========================================================================

-- 3. Again, if any one not having charity, and walking in the abandoned paths
of a most wicked life, seems to be within while he really is without, and at the
same time does not seek for the repetition of baptism even in the case of
heretics, it in no wi 4. Therefore, in discussing the opinion of Cyprian, though
myself of far inferior merit to Cyprian, I say that good and bad alike can have,
can give, can receive the sacrament of baptism, -- the good, indeed, to their
health and profit; the bad to their destruction and ruin, -- while the sacrament
itself is of equal perfectness in both of them; and that it is of no consequence
to its equal perfectness in all, how much worse the man may be that has it among
the bad, just as it makes no difference how much better he may be that has it
among the good. And accordingly it makes no difference either how much worse he
may be that confers it, as it makes no difference how much better he may be; and
so it makes no difference how much worse he may be that receives it, as it makes
no difference how much better he may be. For the sacrament is equally holy, in
virtue of its own excellence, both in those who are unequally just, and in those
who are unequally unjust.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 123: CHAPTER 3. -- 5. BUT I THINK THAT WE HAVE SUFFICIENTLY SHOWN
========================================================================

-- 5. But I think that we have sufficiently shown, both from the canon of
Scripture, and from the letters of Cyprian himself, that bad men, while by no
means converted to a better mind, can have, and confer, and receive baptism, of
whom it is most clear t


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 124: CHAPTER 4. -- 6. AND SO IT IS CLEAR THAT NO GOOD GROUND IS SHOWN HEREIN WHY
========================================================================

-- 6. And so it is clear that no good ground is shown herein why the bad man,
who has baptism, may not also confer it; and as he has it to destruction, so he
may also confer it to destruction, -- not because this is the character of the
thing conferred, nor


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 125: CHAPTER 5. -- 7. WHEREFORE ALL BAD MEN ARE SEPARATED IN THE SPIRIT FROM THE GOOD
========================================================================

-- 7. Wherefore all bad men are separated in the spirit from the good; but if
they are separated in the body also by a manifest dissension, they are made yet
worse. But, as it has been said, it makes no difference to the holiness of
baptism how much wors 8. This being the case, what bearing has it on so clear a
truth, that many of his fellow-bishops agreed with Cyprian in that opinion, and
advanced their own several opinions on the same side, except that his charity
towards the unity of Christ might become more and more conspicuous? For if he
had been the only one to hold that opinion, with no one to agree with him, he
might have been thought, in remaining, to have shrunk from the sin of schism,
because he found no companions in his error; but when so many agreed with him,
he showed, by remaining in unity with the rest who thought differently from him,
that he preserved the most sacred bond of universal catholicity, not from any
fear of isolation, but from the love of peace. Wherefore it might indeed seem
now to be superfluous to consider the several opinions of the other bishops also
in that Council; but since those who are slow in heart think that no answer has
been made at all, if to any passage in any discourse the answer which might be
brought to bear on the spot be given not there but somewhere else, it is better
that by reading much they should be polished into sharpness, than that by
understanding little they should have room left for complaining that the
argument has not been fairly conducted.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 126: CHAPTER 6. -- 9. FIRST, THEN, LET US RECORD FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION THE CASE PROPOSED FOR DECISION
========================================================================

-- 9. First, then, let us record for further consideration the case proposed for
decision by Cyprian himself, with which he initiates the proceedings of the
Council, and by which he shows a peaceful spirit, abounding in the fruitfulness
of Christian chari


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 127: CHAPTER 7. -- 10. I HAVE ALREADY, I THINK, ARGUED TO THE BEST OF MY POWER
========================================================================

-- 10. I have already, I think, argued to the best of my power, in the preceding
books, in the interests of Catholic unanimity and counsel, in whose unity these
continued as pious members, in reply not only to the letter which Cyprian wrote
to Jubaianus,


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 128: CHAPTER 8. -- 11. CÆCILIUS OF BILTA SAID: |I KNOW OF ONE BAPTISM IN THE ONE CHURCH
========================================================================

-- 11. Cæcilius of Bilta [1601] said: "I know of one baptism in the one Church
and of none outside the Church. The one will be where there is true hope and
sure faith. For so it is written, One faith, one hope, one baptism.' [1602] Not
among heretics 12. To this I answer, that all who even within the Church profess
that they know God, but deny Him in their deeds, such as are the covetous and
envious, and those who, because they hate their brethren, are pronounced to be
murderers, not on my testimony, but on that of the holy Apostle John, [1604] --
all these are both devoid of hope, because they have a bad conscience; and are
faithless, because they do not do what they have vowed to God; and liars,
because they make false professions; and possessed of devils, because they give
place in their heart to the devil and his angels; and their words work
corruption, since they corrupt good manners by evil communications; and they are
infidels, because they laugh at the threats which God utters against such men;
and accursed, because they live wickedly; and antichrists, because their lives
are opposed to Christ; and cursed of God, since holy Scripture everywhere calls
down curses on such men; and dead, because they are without the life of
righteousness; and unpeaceful, because by their contrary deeds they are at
variance with God's behests; and blasphemous, because by their abandoned acts
despite is done to the name of Christian; and profane, because they are
spiritually shut out from that inner sanctuary of God; and sacrilegious, because
by their evil life they defile the temple of God within themselves; and servants
of the devil, because they do service to fraud and covetousness, which is
idolatry. That of such a kind are some, nay very many, even within the Church,
is testified both by Paul the apostle and by Cyprian the bishop. Why, then, do
they baptize? Why also are some, who "renounce the world in words and not in
deeds," baptized without being converted from a life like this, and not
rebaptized when they are converted? And as to what he says with such
indignation, "See the kind of things to which the Church is compelled to assent,
being forced to communicate without baptism or the remission of sins," he could
never have used such expressions had there not been the other bishops who
elsewhere forced men to such things. Whence also it is shown that at that time
those men held the truer views who did not depart from the primitive custom,
which is since confirmed by the consent of a general Council. [1605] But what
does he mean by adding, "This, brethren, we ought to shun and avoid, separating
ourselves from so great a sin?" For if he means that he is not to do nor to
approve of this, that is another matter; but if he means to condemn and sever
from him those that hold the contrary opinion, he is setting himself against the
earlier words of Cyprian, "Judging no man, nor depriving any of the right of
communion if he differ from us."


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 129: CHAPTER 9. -- 13. THE ELDER FELIX OF MIGIRPA SAID: |I THINK THAT EVERY ONE COMING FROM
========================================================================

-- 13. The elder Felix [1606] of Migirpa said: "I think that every one coming
from heresy should be baptized. For in vain does any one suppose that he has
been baptized there, seeing that there is no baptism save the one true baptism
in the Church; for 14. To what Felix of Migirpa said we answer as follows. If
the one true baptism did not exist except in the Church, it surely would not
exist in those who depart from unity. But it does exist in them, since they do
not receive it when they return, simply because they had not lost it when they
departed. But as regards his statement, that "the things that are practised
without have no power to work salvation," I agree with him, and think that it is
quite true; for it is one thing that baptism should not be there, and another
that it should have no power to work salvation. For when men come to the peace
of the Catholic Church, then what was in them before they joined it, but did not
profit them, begins at once to profit them.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 130: CHAPTER 10. -- 15. TO THE DECLARATION OF POLYCARP OF ADRUMETUM
========================================================================

-- 15. To the declaration of Polycarp of Adrumetum, [1607] that "those who
declare the baptism of heretics to be valid, make ours of none effect," we
answer, if that is the baptism of heretics which is given by heretics, then that
is the baptism of the co


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 131: CHAPTER 11. -- 16. NOVATUS OF THAMUGADIS SAID: |THOUGH WE KNOW THAT ALL SCRIPTURE GIVES ITS TESTIMONY
========================================================================

-- 16. Novatus of Thamugadis [1608] said: "Though we know that all Scripture
gives its testimony respecting saving baptism, yet we ought to express our
belief that heretics and schismatics, coming to the Church with the semblance of
having been baptized, 17. Novatus of Thamugadis has stated what he has done, but
he has brought forward no proofs by which to show that he ought to have acted as
he did. For he has made mention of the testimony of the Scriptures, and the
decree of his colleagues, but he has not adduced out of them anything which we
could consider.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 132: CHAPTER 12. -- 18. NEMESIANUS OF TUBUNÆ SAID: |THAT THE BAPTISM WHICH IS GIVEN BY HERETICS AND
========================================================================

-- 18. Nemesianus of Tubunæ [1610] said: "That the baptism which is given by
heretics and schismatics is not true is everywhere declared in the holy
Scriptures, inasmuch as their very prelates are false Christs and false
prophets, as the Lord declares by 19. Nemesianus of Tubunæ has advanced many
passages of Scripture to prove his point; but he has in fact said much on behalf
of the view of the Catholic Church, which we have undertaken to set forth and
maintain. Unless, indeed, we must suppose that he does not "trust in what is
false" who trusts in the hope of things temporal, as do all covetous men and
robbers, and those "who renounce the world in words but not in deeds," of whom
Cyprian yet bears witness that such men not only baptize, but even are baptized
within the Church. [1618] For they themselves also "follow flying birds," [1619]
since they do not attain to what they desire. But not only the heretic, but
everyone who leads an evil life "deserteth the ways of his own vineyard, and
hath strayed from the paths of his own field. And he walketh through pathless
and dry places, and a land destined to thirst; and he gathereth fruitless weeds
in his hands;" because all justice is fruitful, and all iniquity is barren.
Those, again, who "drink strange water out of a strange fountain," are found not
only among heretics, but among all who do not live according to the teaching of
God, and do live according to the teaching of the devil. For if he were speaking
of baptism, he would not say, "Do not drink of a strange fountain," but, do not
wash thyself in a strange fountain. Again, I do not see at all what aid he gets
towards proving his point from the words of our Lord, "Except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." [1620] For it
is one thing to say that every one who shall enter into the kingdom of heaven is
first born again of water and the Spirit, because except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven, which is the
Lord's saying, and is true; another thing to say that every one who is born of
water and the Spirit shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, which is assuredly
false. For Simon Magus also was born of water and of the Spirit, [1621] and yet
he did not enter into the kingdom of heaven; and this may possibly be the case
with heretics as well. Or if only those are born of the Spirit who are changed
with a true conversion, all "who renounce the world in word and not in deed" are
assuredly not born of the Spirit, but of water only, and yet they are within the
Church, according to the testimony of Cyprian. For we must perforce grant one of
two things, -- either those who renounce the world deceitfully are born of the
Spirit, though it is to their destruction, not to salvation, and therefore
heretics may be so born; or if what is written, that "the Holy Spirit of
discipline will flee deceit," [1622] extends to proving as much as this, that
those who renounce the world deceitfully are not born of the Spirit, then a man
may be baptized with water, and not born of the Spirit, and Nemesianus says in
vain that neither the Spirit can work without the water, nor the water without
the Spirit. Indeed it has been already often shown how it is possible that men
should have one baptism in common who have not one Church, as it is possible
that in the body of the Church herself those who are sanctified by their
righteousness, and those who are polluted through their covetousness, may not
have the same one Spirit, and yet have the same one baptism. For it is said "one
body," that is, the Church, just as it is said "one Spirit" and "one baptism."
The other arguments which he has adduced rather favor our position. For he has
brought forward a proof from the gospel, in the words, "That which is born of
the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit; for the
Spirit is God, and born of God;" [1623] and he has advanced the argument that
therefore all things that are done by any heretic or schismatic are carnal, as
the apostle says, "The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these:
fornication, uncleanness;" and so he goes through the list which the apostle
there enumerates, amongst which he has reckoned heresies, since "they who do
such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." [1624] Then he goes on to
add, that "therefore the apostle condemns with all wicked men those also who
cause division, that is, schismatics and heretics." And in this he does well,
that when he enumerates the works of the flesh, among which are also heresies,
he found and declared that the apostle condemns them all alike. Let him
therefore question the holy Cyprian himself, and learn from him how many even
within the Church live according to the evil works of the flesh, which the
apostle condemns in common with the heresies, and yet these both baptize and are
baptized. Why then are heretics alone said to be incapable of possessing
baptism, which is possessed by the very partners in their condemnation?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 133: CHAPTER 13. -- 20. JANUARIUS OF LAMBÆSE SAID: |FOLLOWING THE AUTHORITY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
========================================================================

-- 20. Januarius of Lambæse [1625] said: "Following the authority of the holy
Scriptures, I pronounce that all heretics should be baptized, and so admitted
into the holy Church." [1626] 21. To him we answer, that, following the
authority of the holy Scriptures, a universal Council of the whole world decreed
that the baptism of Christ was not to be disavowed even when found among
heretics. But if he had brought forward any proof from the Scriptures, we should
have shown either that they were not against us, or even that they were for us,
as we proceed to do with him who follows.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 134: CHAPTER 14. -- 22. LUCIUS OF CASTRA GALBÆ SAID: |SINCE THE LORD HATH SAID IN HIS GOSPEL
========================================================================

-- 22. Lucius of Castra Galbæ [1627] said: "Since the Lord hath said in His
gospel, Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, that
which is salted from it shall be thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast
out, and to be trod 23. Lucius of Castra Galbæ has brought forward a proof from
the gospel, in the words of the Lord, "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the
salt have lost his savor, that which is salted from it shall be good for
nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men;" just as
though we maintained that men when cast out were of any profit for the salvation
either of themselves or of any one else. But those also who, though seeming to
be within, are yet of such a kind, not only are without spiritually, but will in
the end be separated in the body also. For all such are for nothing. But it does
not therefore follow that the sacrament of baptism which is in them is nothing.
For even in the very men who are cast out, if they return to their senses and
come back, the salvation which had departed from them returns; but the baptism
does not return, because it never had departed. And in what the Lord says, "Go
therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," He did not permit any to baptize except the
good, inasmuch as He did not say to the bad, "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they
are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained."
[1633] How then do the wicked baptize within, who cannot remit sins? How also is
it that they baptize the wicked whose hearts are not changed, whose sins are yet
upon them, as John says, "He that hateth his brother is in darkness even until
now?" [1634] But if the sins of these men are remitted when they join themselves
in the close bonds of love to the good and just, through whom sins are remitted
in the Church, though they have been baptized by the wicked, so the sins of
those also are remitted who come from without and join themselves by the inner
bond of peace to the same framework of the body of Christ. Yet the baptism of
Christ should be acknowledged in both, and held invalid in none, whether before
they are converted, though then it profit them nothing, or after they are
converted, that so it may profit them, as he says, "Since they themselves, by
withdrawing when they have lost their savor from the Church, which is one, have
become contrary to it, let that be done which is written, The houses of those
that are opposed to the law must need be cleansed.' And it therefore follows,"
he goes on to say, "that those who have been polluted by being baptized by men
opposed to Christ should first be cleansed, and only then baptized." What then?
Are thieves and murderers not contrary to the law, which says, "Thou shalt not
kill; thou shalt not steal?" [1635] "They must therefore needs be cleansed." Who
will deny it? And yet not only those who are baptized by such within the Church,
but also those who, being such themselves, are baptized without being changed in
heart, are nevertheless exempt from further baptism when they are so changed. So
great is the force of the sacrament of mere baptism, that though we allow that a
man who has been baptized and continues to lead an evil life requires to be
cleansed, we yet forbid him to be any more baptized.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 135: CHAPTER 15. -- 24. CRESCENS OF CIRTA SAID: |THE LETTERS OF OUR MOST BELOVED CYPRIAN TO JUBAIANUS
========================================================================

-- 24. Crescens of Cirta [1636] said: "The letters of our most beloved Cyprian
to Jubaianus, and also to Stephen, [1637] having been read in so large an
assembly of our most holy brethren in the priesthood, containing as they do so
large a body of sacred 25. Here we are warned once more to inquire why he says,
"Except, of course, those who have been originally baptized in the Catholic
Church." Is it because they had not lost what they had before received? Why then
could they not also transmit outside the Church what they were able to possess
outside? Is it that outside it is unlawfully transmitted? But neither is it
lawfully possessed outside, and yet it is possessed; so it is unlawfully given
outside, but yet it is given. But what is given to the person returning from
heresy who had been baptized inside, is given to the person coming to the Church
who had been baptized outside, -- that is, that he may have lawfully inside what
before he had unlawfully outside. But perhaps some one may ask what was said on
this point in the letter of the blessed Cyprian to Stephen, which is mentioned
in this judgment, though not in the opening address to the Council, -- I suppose
because it was not considered necessary. For Crescens stated that the letter
itself had been read in the assembly, which I have no doubt was done, if I am
not mistaken, as is customary, in order that the bishops, being already
assembled, might receive some information at the same time on the subject
contained in that letter. For it certainly has no bearing on the present
subject; and I am more surprised at Crescens having thought fit to mention it at
all, than at its having been passed over in the opening address. But if any one
thinks that I have shrunk from bringing forward something which has been urged
in it that is essential to the present point, let him read it and see that what
I say is true; or if he finds it otherwise, let him convict me of falsehood. For
that letter contains nothing whatsoever about baptism administered among
heretics or schismatics, which is the subject of our present argument. [1640]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 136: CHAPTER 16. -- 26. NICOMEDES OF SEGERMI SAID: |MY JUDGMENT IS THAT HERETICS COMING TO THE CHURCH
========================================================================

-- 26. Nicomedes of Segermi [1641] said: "My judgment is that heretics coming to
the Church should be baptized, because they can obtain no remission of sins
among sinners outside." [1642] 27. The answer to which is: The judgment of the
whole Catholic Church is that heretics, being already baptized with the baptism
of Christ, although in heresy, should not be rebaptized on coming to the Church.
For if there is no remission of sins among sinners, neither can sinners within
the Church remit sins; and yet those who have been baptized by them are not
rebaptized.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 137: CHAPTER 17. -- 28. MONNULUS OF GIRBA SAID: |THE TRUTH OF OUR MOTHER
========================================================================

-- 28. Monnulus of Girba [1643] said: "The truth of our mother, the Catholic
Church, hath continued, and still continues among us, brethren, especially in
the threefold nature [1644] of baptism, as our Lord says, Go, baptize all
nations in the name of th 29. To this we answer, That all who are baptized with
the baptism that is consecrated in the words of the gospel have the Father, and
the Son, and the Holy Ghost in the sacrament alone; but that in heart and in
life neither do those have them who live an abandoned and accursed life within.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 138: CHAPTER 18. -- 30. SECUNDINUS OF CEDIAS SAID: |SINCE OUR LORD CHRIST SAID
========================================================================

-- 30. Secundinus of Cedias [1648] said: "Since our Lord Christ said, He that is
not with me is against me,' [1649] and the Apostle John declares those who go
out from the Church to be antichrists, [1650] without all doubt the enemies of
Christ, and thos 31. The answer to which is, That all are the opponents of
Christ, to whom, on their saying, "Lord, have we not in Thy name done many
wonderful things?" with all the rest that is there recorded, He shall at the
last day answer, "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity,"
[1652] -- all which kind of chaff is destined for the fire, if it persevere to
the last in its wickedness, whether any part of it fly outside before its
winnowing, or whether it seem to be within. If, therefore, those heretics who
come to the Church are to be again baptized, that they may be baptized by the
friends of God, are those covetous men, those robbers, murderers, the friends of
God, or must those whom they have baptized be baptized afresh?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 139: CHAPTER 19. -- 32. FELIX OF BAGAI SAID: |AS WHEN THE BLIND LEADS THE BLIND
========================================================================

-- 32. Felix of Bagai [1653] said: "As when the blind leads the blind, both fall
into the ditch, [1654] so when a heretic baptizes a heretic, both fall together
into death." 33. This is true, but it does not follow that what he adds is true.
"And therefore," he says, "the heretic must be baptized and brought to life,
lest we who are alive should hold communion with the dead." [1655] Were they not
dead who said, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die?" [1656] for they did
not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Those then who were corrupted by
their evil communications, and followed them, were not they likewise falling
with them into the pit? And yet among them there were men to whom the apostle
was writing as being already baptized; nor would they, therefore, if they were
corrected, be baptized afresh. Does not the same apostle say, "To be
carnally-minded is death?" [1657] and certainly the covetous, the deceivers, the
robbers, in the midst of whom Cyprian himself was groaning, were
carnally-minded. What then? Did the dead hurt him who was living in unity? Or
who would say, that because such men had or gave the baptism of Christ, that it
was therefore violated by their iniquities?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 140: CHAPTER 20. -- 34. POLIANUS OF MILEUM SAID: |IT IS RIGHT THAT A HERETIC SHOULD BE BAPTIZED
========================================================================

-- 34. Polianus of Mileum [1658] said: "It is right that a heretic should be
baptized in the holy Church." [1659] 35. Nothing, indeed, could be expressed
more shortly. But I think this too is short: It is right that the baptism of
Christ should not be depreciated in the Church of Christ.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 141: CHAPTER 21. -- 36. THEOGENES OF HIPPO REGIUS SAID: |ACCORDING TO THE SACRAMENT OF THE HEAVENLY GRACE
========================================================================

-- 36. Theogenes of Hippo Regius [1660] said: "According to the sacrament of the
heavenly grace of God which we have received, we believe in the one only baptism
which is in the holy Church." [1661] 37. This may be my own judgment also. For
it is so balanced, that it contains nothing contrary to the truth. For we also
believe in the one only baptism which is in the holy Church. Had he said,
indeed, We believe in that which is in the holy Church alone, the same answer
must have been made to him as to the rest. But as it is, since he has expressed
himself in this wise, "We believe in the one only baptism which is in the holy
Church," so that it is asserted that it exists in the holy Church, but not
denied that it may be elsewhere as well, whatever his meaning may have been,
there is no need to argue against these words. For if I were questioned on the
several points, first, whether there was one baptism, I should answer that there
was one. Then if I were asked, whether this was in the holy Church, I should
answer that it was. In the third place, if it were asked whether I believed in
this baptism, I should answer that I did so believe; and consequently I should
answer that I believed in the one baptism which is in the holy Church. But if it
were asked whether it was found in the holy Church alone, and not among heretics
and schismatics, I should answer that, in common with the whole Church, I
believed the contrary. But since he did not insert this in his judgment, I
should consider that it was mere wantonness if I added words which I did not
find there, for the sake of arguing against them. For if he were to say, There
is one water of the river Euphrates, which is in Paradise, no one could gainsay
the truth of what he said. But if he were asked whether that water were in
Paradise and nowhere else, and were to say that this was so, he would be saying
what was false. For, besides Paradise, it is also in those lands into which it
flows from that source. But who is rash enough to say that he would have been
likely to assert what is false, when it is quite possible that he was asserting
what is true? Wherefore the words of this judgment require no contradiction,
because they in no wise run counter to the truth.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 142: CHAPTER 22. -- 38. DATIVUS OF BADIÆ SAID |WE, SO FAR AS LIES WITHIN OUR POWER
========================================================================

-- 38. Dativus of Badiæ [1662] said "We, so far as lies within our power, refuse
to communicate with a heretic, unless he has been baptized in the Church, and
received remission of his sins." [1663] 39. The answer to this is: If your
reason for wishing him to be baptized is that he has not received remission of
sins, supposing you find a man within the Church who has been baptized, though
entertaining hatred towards his brother, since the Lord cannot lie, who says,
"If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your
trespasses," [1664] will you bid such an one, when corrected, to be baptized
afresh? Assuredly not; so neither should you bid the heretic. It is clear that
we must not pass unnoticed why he did not briefly say, "We do not communicate
with a heretic," but added, "so far as lies within our power." For he saw that a
greater number agreed with this view, from whose communion, however, he and his
friends could not separate themselves, lest unity should be impaired, and so he
added, "so far as lies within our power," -- showing beyond all doubt that he
did not willingly communicate with those whom he held to be without baptism, but
that yet all things were to be endured for the sake of peace and unity; just as
was done also by those who thought that Dativus and his party were in the wrong,
and who held what afterwards was taught by a fuller declaration of the truth,
and urged by ancient custom, which received the stronger confirmation of a later
Council; yet in turn, with anxious piety, they showed toleration towards each
other, though without violation of Christian charity they entertained different
opinions, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,
[1665] till God should reveal to one of them, were he otherwise minded, even
this error of his ways. [1666] And to this I would have those give heed, by whom
unity is attacked on the authority of this very Council by which it is declared
how much unity should be loved.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 143: CHAPTER 23. -- 40. SUCCESSUS OF ABBIR GERMANICIANA SAID: |HERETICS MAY EITHER DO NOTHING OR EVERYTHING.
========================================================================

-- 40. Successus of Abbir Germaniciana [1667] said: "Heretics may either do
nothing or everything. If they can baptize, they can also give the Holy Spirit;
but if they cannot give the Holy Spirit, because they do not possess the Holy
Spirit, then can the 41. To this we may answer almost word for word: Murderers
may either do nothing or everything. If they can baptize, they can also give the
Holy Spirit; but if they cannot give the Holy Spirit, because they do not
possess the Holy Spirit, then can they not either spiritually baptize. Therefore
we give our judgment that persons baptized by murderers, or murderers themselves
who have been baptized without being converted, should, when they have corrected
themselves, be baptized. Yet this is not true. For "whosoever hateth his brother
is a murderer;" [1669] and Cyprian knew such men within the Church, who
certainly baptized. Therefore it is to no purpose that words of this sort are
used concerning heretics.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 144: CHAPTER 24. -- 42. FORTUNATUS OF THUCCABORI SAID: |JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD AND GOD
========================================================================

-- 42. Fortunatus of Thuccabori [1670] said: "Jesus Christ our Lord and God, the
Son of God the Father and Creator, built His Church upon a rock, not upon
heresy, and gave the power of baptizing to bishops, not to heretics. Wherefore
those who are outsi 43. He added the word "outside" in order that he might not
be answered with a like brevity to Successus. For otherwise he might also have
been answered word for word: Jesus Christ our Lord and God, the Son of God the
Father and Creator, built His Church upon a rock, not upon iniquity, and gave
the power of baptizing to bishops, not to the unrighteous. Wherefore those who
do not belong to the rock on which they build, who hear the word of God and do
it, [1672] but, living contrary to Christ in hearing the word and not doing it,
and hereby building on the sand, in this way scatter His sheep and flock by the
example of an abandoned character, cannot baptize. Might not this be said with
all the semblance of truth? and yet it is false. For the unrighteous do baptize,
since those robbers are unrighteous whom Cyprian maintained to be at unity with
himself. [1673] But for this reason, says the Donatist, he adds "outside." Why
therefore can they not baptize outside? Is it because they are worse from the
very fact that they are outside? But it makes no difference, in respect of the
validity of baptism, how much worse the minister may be. For there is not so
much difference between bad and worse as between good and bad; and yet, when the
bad baptizes, he gives the selfsame sacrament as the good. Therefore, also, when
the worse baptizes, he gives the selfsame sacrament as the less bad. Or is it
that it is not in respect of man's merit, but of the sacrament of baptism
itself, that it cannot be given outside? If this were so, neither could it be
possessed outside, and it would be necessary that a man should be baptized again
so often as he left the Church and again returned to it. 44. Further, if we
inquire more carefully what is meant by "outside," especially as he himself
makes mention of the rock on which the Church is built, are not they in the
Church who are on the rock, and they who are not on the rock, not in the Church
either? Now, therefore, let us see whether they build their house upon a rock
who hear the words of Christ and do them not. The Lord Himself declares the
contrary, saying, "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I
will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock;" and a little
later, "Every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall
be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand." [1674] If,
therefore, the Church is on a rock, those who are on the sand, because they are
outside the rock, are necessarily outside the Church. Let us recollect,
therefore, how many Cyprian mentions as placed within who build upon the sand,
that is, who hear the words of Christ and do them not. And therefore, because
they are on the sand, they are proved to be outside the rock, that is, outside
the Church; yet even while they are so situated, and are either not yet or never
changed for the better, not only do they baptize and are baptized, but the
baptism which they have remains valid in them though they are destined to
damnation. 45. Neither can it be said in this place, [1675] Yet who is there
that doeth all the words of the Lord which are written in the evangelic sermon
itself, [1676] at the end of which He says, that he who heard the said words and
did them built upon a rock, and he who heard them and did them not built upon
the sand? For, granting that by certain persons all the words are not
accomplished, yet in the same sermon He has appointed the remedy, saying,
"Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven." [1677] And after the Lord's prayer had been
recorded in detail in the same sermon, He says, "For I say unto you, if ye
forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if
ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your
trespasses." [1678] Hence also Peter says, "For charity shall cover the
multitude of sins;" [1679] which charity they certainly did not have, and on
this account they built upon the sand, of whom the same Cyprian says, that
within the Church they held conversation, even in the time of the apostles, in
unkindly hatred alien from Christian charity; [1680] and therefore they seemed
indeed to be within, but really were without, because they were not on that rock
by which the Church is signified.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 145: CHAPTER 25. -- 46. SEDATUS OF TUBURBO SAID: |INASMUCH AS WATER
========================================================================

-- 46. Sedatus of Tuburbo [1681] said: "Inasmuch as water, sanctified by the
prayer of the priest in the Church, washes away sins, just so much does it
multiply sins when infected, as by a cancer, with the words of heretics.
Wherefore one must strive, w 47. To this we answer, that if the water is not
sanctified, when through want of skill the priest who prays utters some words of
error, many, not only of the bad, but of the good brethren in the Church itself,
fail to sanctify the water. For the prayers of many are corrected every day on
being recited to men of greater learning, and many things are found in them
contrary to the Catholic faith. Supposing, then, that it were shown that some
persons were baptized when these prayers had been uttered over the water, will
they be bidden to be baptized afresh? Why not? Because generally the fault in
the prayer is more than counterbalanced by the intent of him who offers it; and
those fixed words of the gospel, without which baptism cannot be consecrated,
are of such efficacy, that, by their virtue, anything faulty that is uttered in
the prayer contrary to the rule of faith is made of no effect, just as the devil
is excluded by the name of Christ. For it is clear that if a heretic utters a
faulty prayer, he has no good intent of love whereby that want of skill may be
compensated, and therefore he is like any envious or spiteful person in the
Catholic Church itself, such as Cyprian proves to exist within the Church. Or
one might offer some prayer, as not unfrequently happens, in which he should
speak against the rule of faith, since many rush into the use of prayers which
are composed not only by unskillful men who love to talk, but even by heretics,
and in the simplicity of ignorance, not being able to discern their true
character, use them, thinking they are good; and yet what is erroneous in them
does not vitiate what is right, but rather it is rendered null thereby, just as
in the man of good hope and approved faith, who yet is but a man, if in anything
he be otherwise minded, what he holds aright is not thereby vitiated until God
reveal to him also that in which he is otherwise minded. [1683] But supposing
that the man himself is wicked and perverse, then, if he should offer an upright
prayer, in no part contrary to the Catholic faith, it does not follow that
because the prayer is right the man himself is also right; and if over some he
offer an erroneous prayer, God is present to uphold the words of His gospel,
without which the baptism of Christ cannot be consecrated, and He Himself
consecrates His sacrament, that in the recipient, either before he is baptized,
or when he is baptized, or at some future time when he turns in truth to God,
that very sacrament may be profitable to salvation, which, were he not to be
converted, would be powerful to his destruction. But who is there who does not
know that there is no baptism of Christ, if the words of the gospel in which
consists the outward visible sign be not forthcoming? But you will more easily
find heretics who do not baptize at all, than any who baptize without those
words. And therefore we say, not that every baptism (for in many of the
blasphemous rites of idols men are said to be baptized), but that the baptism of
Christ, that is, every baptism consecrated in the words of the gospel, is
everywhere the same, and cannot be vitiated by any perversity on the part of any
men. [1684] 48. We must certainly not lightly pass over in this judgment that he
here inserted a clause, and says, "Wherefore we must strive, with all such
efforts as conduce to peace, that no one who has been infected," etc. For he had
regard to those words of the blessed Cyprian in his opening speech, "Judging no
man, nor depriving any of the right of communion if he entertain a different
view." See of what power is the love of unity and peace in the good sons of the
Church, that they should choose rather to show tolerance towards those whom they
called sacrilegious and profane, being admitted, as they thought, without the
sacrament of baptism, if they could not correct them as they thought was right,
than on their account to break that holy bond, lest on account of the tares the
wheat also should be rooted out, [1685] -- permitting, so far as rested with
them, as in that noblest judgment of Solomon, that the infant body should rather
be nourished by the false mother than be cut in pieces. [1686] But this was the
opinion both of those who held the truer view about the sacrament of baptism,
and of those to whom God, in consideration of their great love, was purposing to
reveal any point in which they were otherwise minded.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 146: CHAPTER 26. -- 49. PRIVATIANUS OF SUFETULA SAID: |HE WHO SAYS THAT HERETICS HAVE THE POWER OF
========================================================================

-- 49. Privatianus of Sufetula [1687] said: "He who says that heretics have the
power of baptizing should first say who it was that founded heresy. For if
heresy is of God, it may have the divine favor; but if it be not of God, how can
it either have or 50. This man may thus be answered word for word: He who says
that malicious and envious persons have the power of baptizing, should first say
who was the founder of malice and envy. For if malice and envy are of God, they
may have the divine favor; but if they are not of God, how can they either have
or confer on any one the grace of God? But as these words are in the same way
most manifestly false, so are also those which these were uttered to confute.
For the malicious and envious baptize, as even Cyprian himself allows, because
he bears testimony that they also are within. So therefore even heretics may
baptize, because baptism is the sacrament of Christ; but envy and heresy are the
works of the devil. Yet though a man possesses them, he does not thereby cause
that if he have the sacrament of Christ, it also should itself be reckoned in
the number of the devil's works.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 147: CHAPTER 27. -- 51. PRIVATUS OF SUFES SAID: |WHAT CAN BE SAID OF THE MAN WHO APPROVES
========================================================================

-- 51. Privatus of Sufes [1689] said: "What can be said of the man who approves
the baptism of heretics, save that he communicates with heretics?" [1690] 52. To
this we answer: It is not the baptism of heretics which we approve in heretics,
as it is not the baptism of the covetous, or the treacherous, or deceitful, or
of robbers, or of envious men which we approve in them; for all of these are
unjust, but Christ is just, whose sacrament existing in them, they do not in its
essence violate. Otherwise another man might say: What can be said of the man
who approves the baptism of the unjust, save that he communicates with the
unjust. And if this objection were brought against the Catholic Church herself,
it would be answered just as I have answered the above.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 148: CHAPTER 28. -- 53. HORTENSIANUS OF LARES SAID: |HOW MANY BAPTISMS THERE ARE
========================================================================

-- 53. Hortensianus of Lares [1691] said: "How many baptisms there are, let
those who uphold or favor heretics determine. We assert one baptism of the
Church, which we only know in the Church. Or how can those baptize any one in
the name of Christ whom C 54. Giving answer to this man in a like tenor of
words, we say: Let those who uphold or favor the unrighteous see to it: we
recall to the Church when we can the one baptism which we know to be of the
Church alone, wherever it be found. Or how can they baptize any one in the name
of Christ whom Christ Himself declares to be His enemies? For He says to all the
unrighteous, "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity;" [1693]
and yet, when they baptize, it is not themselves that baptize, but He of whom
John says, "The same is He which baptizeth." [1694]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 149: CHAPTER 29. -- 55. CASSIUS OF MACOMADES SAID: |SINCE THERE CANNOT BE TWO BAPTISMS
========================================================================

-- 55. Cassius of Macomades [1695] said: "Since there cannot be two baptisms, he
who grants baptism unto heretics takes it away from himself. I therefore declare
my judgment that heretics, those objects for our tears, those masses of
corruption, [1696] s 56. Another might say: Since there cannot be two baptisms,
he who grants baptism to the unrighteous takes it away from himself. But even
our opponents would join us in resisting such a man when he says that we grant
baptism to the unrighteous, which is not of the unrighteous, like their
unrighteousness, but of Christ, of whom is righteousness, and whose sacrament,
even among the unrighteous, is not unrighteous. What, therefore, they would join
us in saying of the unrighteous, that let them say to themselves of heretics.
And therefore he should rather have said as follows: I therefore give my
judgment that heretics, those objects for our tears, those masses of corruption,
should not be baptized when they begin to come to the Church, if they already
have the baptism of Christ, but should be corrected from their error. For we may
similarly say of the unrighteous, of whom the heretics are a part: I therefore
give my judgment that the unrighteous, those objects for our tears, and masses
of corruption, if they have been already baptized, should not be baptized again
when they begin to come to the Church, that is, to that rock outside which are
all who hear the words of Christ and do them not; but being already washed with
the sacred and divine laver, and now further enlightened with the light of
truth, should be received into the Church no longer as enemies but as peaceful,
for the unrighteous have no peace; no longer as strangers, but of the household
of the faith of the Lord, for to the unrighteous it is said, "How then art thou
turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?" [1699] no longer as
bastards, but the sons of God, for the unrighteous are the sons of the devil,
partaking not of error but of salvation, for un-righteousness cannot save. And
by the Church I mean that rock, that dove, that garden enclosed and fountain
sealed, which is recognized only in the wheat, not in the chaff, whether that be
scattered far apart by the wind, or appear to be mingled with the corn even till
the last winnowing. In vain, therefore, did Cassius add, "With the exception of
those who, being believers transplanted from the Church, had gone over to
heresy." For if even they themselves had lost baptism by seceding, to themselves
also let it be restored; but if they had not lost it, let what was given by them
receive due recognition.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 150: CHAPTER 30. -- 57. ANOTHER JANUARIUS OF VICUS CÆSARIS SAID: |IF ERROR DOES NOT OBEY TRUTH
========================================================================

-- 57. Another Januarius of Vicus Cæsaris [1700] said: "If error does not obey
truth, much more does truth refuse assent to error; and therefore we stand by
the Church in which we preside, so that, claiming her baptism for herself alone,
we baptize those 58. We answer: Whom the Church baptizes, those that rock
baptizes outside which are all they who hear the words of Christ and do them
not. Let all, therefore, be baptized again who have been baptized by such. But
if this is not done, then, as we recognize the baptism of Christ in these, so
should we recognize it in heretics, though we either condemn or correct their
unrighteousness and error.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 151: CHAPTER 31. -- 59. ANOTHER SECUNDINUS OF CARPIS SAID: |ARE HERETICS CHRISTIANS OR NOT? IF THEY ARE
========================================================================

-- 59. Another Secundinus of Carpis [1702] said: "Are heretics Christians or
not? If they are Christians, why are they not in the Church of God? If they are
not Christians, let them be made so. [1703] Else what will be the reference in
the discourse 60. To this we answer: Are the unrighteous Christians or not? If
they are Christians, why are they not on that rock on which the Church is built?
for they hear the words of Christ and do them not. If they are not Christians,
let them be made so. Else what will be the reference in the discourse of our
Lord, in which He says, "He that is not with me is against me; and he that
gathereth not with me scattereth abroad?" For they scatter His sheep who lead
them to the ruin of their lives by a false imitation of the Lord. Whence it is
clear that upon strange children (as all the unrighteous are called), and upon
the offspring of Antichrist (which all are who oppose themselves to Christ), the
Holy Spirit cannot descend by the laying on of hands alone, if there be not
added a true conversion of the heart; since it is clear that the unrighteous, so
long as they are unrighteous, may indeed have baptism, but cannot have the
salvation of which baptism is the sacrament. For let us see whether heretics are
described in that psalm where the following words are used of strange children:
"Deliver me, O Lord, from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh
vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood: whose sons are like
young shoots well established, and their daughters polished after the similitude
of the temple. Their garners are full, affording all manner of store; their
sheep are fruitful, bringing forth plenteously in their streets; their oxen are
strong: there is no breaking down of their fence, no opening of a passage out,
no complaining in their streets. Men deemed happy the people that is in such a
case; rather blessed is the people whose God is the Lord." [1706] If, therefore,
those are strange children who place their happiness in temporal things, and in
the abundance of earthly prosperity, and despise the commandments of the Lord,
let us see whether these are not the very same of whom Cyprian so speaks,
transforming them also into himself, that he may show that he is speaking of men
with whom he held communion in the sacraments: "In not keeping," he says, "the
way of the Lord, nor observing the heavenly commandments given us for our
salvation. Our Lord did the will of His Father, and we do not do the will of the
Lord, being eager about our patrimony or our gains, following after pride, and
so forth." [1707] But if these could both have and transmit baptism, why is it
denied that it may exist among strange children, whom he yet exhorts, that, by
keeping the heavenly commandments conveyed to them through the only-begotten
Son, they should deserve to be His brethren and the sons of God?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 152: CHAPTER 32. -- 61. VICTORICUS OF THABRACA SAID: |IF HERETICS MAY BAPTIZE
========================================================================

-- 61. Victoricus of Thabraca [1708] said: "If heretics may baptize, and give
remission of sins, why do we destroy their credit, and call them heretics?"
[1709] 62. What if another were to say: If the unrighteous may baptize, and give
remission of sins, why do we destroy their credit, and call them unrighteous?
The answer which we should give to such an one concerning the unrighteous may
also be given to the other concerning heretics, -- that is, in the first place,
that the baptism with which they baptize is not theirs; and secondly, that it
does not follow that whosoever has the baptism of Christ is also certain of the
remission of his sins if he has this only in the outward sign, and is not
converted with a true conversion of the heart, so that he who gives remission
should himself have remission of his sins.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 153: CHAPTER 33. -- 63. ANOTHER FELIX OF UTHINA SAID: |NO ONE CAN DOUBT
========================================================================

-- 63. Another Felix of Uthina [1710] said: "No one can doubt, most holy
brethren in the priesthood, that human presumption has not so much power as the
adorable and venerable majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remembering then the
danger, we ought not o 64. Perhaps the man who has placed the strength of his
case for the baptizing of heretics in the cleansing away of the long-continued
corruption, would spare those who, having fallen headlong into some heresy, had
remained in it a brief space, and presently being corrected, had passed from
thence to the Catholic Church. Furthermore, he has himself failed to observe
that it might be said that all unrighteous persons who come to that rock, in
which is understood the Church, should be baptized, so that the unrighteous
mind, which was building outside the rock upon the sand by hearing the words of
Christ and not doing them, might be reformed when cleansed by the sanctification
of the laver; and yet this is not done if they have been baptized already, even
if it be proved that such was their character when they were baptized, that is,
that they "renounced the world in words and not in deeds."


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 154: CHAPTER 34. -- 65. QUIETUS OF BURUG SAID: |WE WHO LIVE BY FAITH OUGHT WITH BELIEVING OBSERVANCE
========================================================================

-- 65. Quietus of Burug [1712] said: "We who live by faith ought with believing
observance to obey what has been before foretold for our instruction. For it is
written in Solomon, He that is washed by one dead, what availeth his washing?'
[1713] Which 66. What it is to be baptized by the dead, we have already, without
prejudice to the more careful consideration of the same scripture, sufficiently
declared before. [1715] But I would ask why it is that they wish heretics alone
to be considered dead, when Paul the apostle has said generally of sin, "The
wages of sin is death;" [1716] and again, "To be carnally minded is death."
[1717] And when he says that a widow that liveth in pleasure is dead, [1718] how
are they not dead "who renounce the world in words and not in deeds"? What,
therefore, is the profit of washing in him who is baptized by them, except,
indeed, that if he himself also is of the same character, he has the laver
indeed, but it does not profit him to salvation? But if he by whom he is
baptized is such, but the man who is baptized is turned to the Lord with no
false heart, he is not baptized by that dead person, but by that living One of
whom it is said, "The same is He which baptizeth." [1719] But to what he says of
heretics, that if they who are baptized among them receive eternal life through
the remission of their sins, why do they come to the Church? we answer: They
come for this reason, that although they have received the baptism of Christ up
to the point of the celebration of the sacrament, yet they cannot attain to life
eternal save through the charity of unity; just as neither would those envious
and malicious ones attain to life eternal, who would not have their sins
forgiven them, even if they entertained hatred only against those from whom they
suffered wrong; since the Truth said, "If ye forgive not men their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses," [1720] how much less when
they were hating those towards whom they were rewarding evil for good? [1721]
And yet these men, though "renouncing the world in words and not in deeds,"
would not be baptized again, if they should afterwards be corrected, but they
would be made holy by the one living baptism. And this is indeed in the Catholic
Church, but not in it alone, as neither is it in the saints alone who are built
upon the rock, and of whom that one dove is composed. [1722]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 155: CHAPTER 35. -- 67. CASTUS OF SICCA SAID: HE WHO PRESUMES TO FOLLOW CUSTOM IN DESPITE OF
========================================================================

-- 67. Castus of Sicca [1723] said: He who presumes to follow custom in despite
of truth is either envious and evilly disposed towards the brethren to whom the
truth is revealed, or else he is ungrateful towards God, by whose inspiration
His Church is in 68. If this man proved that those who differed from him, and
held the view that has since been held by the whole world under the sanction of
a Christian Council, were following custom so as to despise truth, we should
have reason for fearing these words; but seeing that this custom is found both
to have had its origin in truth and to have been confirmed by truth, we have
nothing to fear in this judgment. And yet, if they were envious or evilly
disposed towards the brethren, or ungrateful towards God, see with what kind of
men they were willing to hold communion; see what kind of men, holding different
opinions from their own, they treated as Cyprian enjoined them at the first, not
removing them from the right of communion; see by what kind of men they were not
polluted in the preservation of unity; see how greatly the bond of peace was to
be loved; see what views they hold who bring charges against us, founded on the
Council of bishops, their predecessors, whose example they do not imitate, and
by whose example, when the rights of the case are considered, they are
condemned. If it was the custom, as this judgment bears witness, that heretics
coming to the Church should be received with the baptism which they already had,
either this was done rightly, or the evil do not pollute the good in unity. If
it was rightly done, why do they accuse the world because they are so received?
But if the evil do not pollute the good in unity, how do they defend themselves
against the charge of sacrilegious separation?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 156: CHAPTER 36. -- 69. EUCRATIUS OF THENI SAID: |OUR GOD AND LORD JESUS CHRIST
========================================================================

-- 69. Eucratius of Theni [1725] said: "Our God and Lord Jesus Christ, teaching
the apostles with His own mouth, fully laid down our faith, and the grace of
baptism, and the rule of the law of the Church, saying, Go ye, and teach all
nations, baptizing t 70. Clearly, if the baptism is not consecrated in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, it should be considered to
be of the heretics, and repudiated as unrighteous by us with all solemnity of
witness; but if we discern this name in it, we do better to distinguish the
words of the gospel from heretical error, and approve what is sound in them,
correcting what is faulty.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 157: CHAPTER 37. -- 71. LIBOSUS OF VAGA SAID: |THE LORD SAYS IN THE GOSPEL
========================================================================

-- 71. Libosus of Vaga [1728] said: "The Lord says in the gospel, I am the
truth;' [1729] He did not say, I am custom. Therefore, when the truth is made
manifest, let custom yield to truth; so that, if even in time past any one did
not baptize heretics in 72. Here he has in no way tried to show how that is the
truth to which he says that custom ought to yield. But it is of more importance
that he helps us against those who have separated themselves from unity, by
confessing that the custom existed, than that he thinks it ought to yield to a
truth which he does not show. For the custom is of such a nature, that if it
admitted sacrilegious men to the altar of Christ without the cleansing of
baptism, and polluted none of the good men who remained in unity, then all who
have cut themselves off from the same unity, in which they could not be polluted
by the contagion of any evil persons whatsoever, have separated themselves
without reason, and have committed the manifest sacrilege of schism. But if all
perished in pollution through that custom, from what cavern do they issue
without the original truth, and with all the cunning of calumny? If, however,
the custom was a right one by which heretics were thus received, let them
abandon their madness, let them confess their error; let them come to the
Catholic Church, not that they may be bathed again with the sacrament of
baptism, but that they may be cured from the wound of severance.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 158: CHAPTER 38. -- 73. LUCIUS OF THEBASTE SAID: |I DECLARE MY JUDGMENT THAT HERETICS
========================================================================

-- 73. Lucius of Thebaste [1731] said: "I declare my judgment that heretics, and
blasphemers, and unrighteous men, who with various words pluck away the sacred
and adorable words of the Scriptures, should be held accursed, and therefore
exorcised and bap 74. I too think that they should be held accursed, but not
that therefore they should be exorcised and baptized; for it is their own
falsehood which I hold accursed, but Christ's sacrament which I venerate.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 159: CHAPTER 39. -- 75. EUGENIUS OF AMMEDERA SAID: |I TOO PRONOUNCE THIS SAME JUDGMENT
========================================================================

-- 75. Eugenius of Ammedera [1733] said: "I too pronounce this same judgment,
that heretics should be baptized." [1734] 76. To him we answer: But this is not
the judgment which the Church pronounces, to which also God has now revealed in
a plenary Council the point in which ye were then still otherwise minded, [1735]
but because saving charity was in you, ye remained in unity.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 160: CHAPTER 40. -- 77. ALSO ANOTHER FELIX OF AMMACURA SAID: |I TOO
========================================================================

-- 77. Also another Felix of Ammacura [1736] said: "I too, following the
authority of the holy Scriptures, give my judgment that heretics should be
baptized, and with them those also who maintain that they have been baptized
among schismatics. For if, a 78. To him we answer, that the holy Scriptures
nowhere have enjoined that heretics baptized among heretics should be baptized
afresh, but that they have shown in many places that all are aliens from the
Church who are not on the rock, nor belong to the members of the dove, and yet
that they baptize and are baptized and have the sacrament of salvation without
salvation. But how our fountain is like the fountain of Paradise, in that, like
it, it flows forth even beyond the bounds of Paradise, has been sufficiently set
forth above; [1739] and that "He who is the Shepherd of our flock cannot give
the water unto salvation to two different peoples," that is, to one that is His
own, and to another that is alien, I fully agree in admitting. But does it
follow that because the water is not unto salvation it is not the identical
water? For the water of the deluge was for salvation unto those who were placed
within the ark, but it brought death to those without, and yet it was the same
water. And many aliens, that is to say, envious persons, whom Cyprian declares
and proves from Scripture to be of the party of the devil, seem as it were to be
within, and yet, if they were not without the ark, they would not perish by
water. For such men are slain by baptism, as the sweet savor of Christ was unto
death to those of whom the apostle speaks. [1740] Why then do not either
heretics or schismatics receive anything heavenly, just as thorns or tares, like
those who were without the ark received indeed the rain from the floods of
heaven, but to destruction, not to salvation? And so I do not take the pains to
refute what he said in conclusion: "When the giver has no ground to stand upon,
surely neither can the receiver derive any profit," since we also say that it
does not profit the receivers while they receive it in heresy, consenting with
the heretics; and therefore they come to Catholic peace and unity, not that they
may receive baptism, but that what they had received may begin to profit them.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 161: CHAPTER 41. -- 79. ALSO ANOTHER JANUARIUS OF MUZULI SAID: |I WONDER THAT
========================================================================

-- 79. Also another Januarius of Muzuli [1741] said: "I wonder that, while all
acknowledge that there is one baptism, all do not understand the unity of the
same baptism. For the Church and heresy are two distinct things. If heretics
have baptism we ha 80. Another might equally say, and say with equal want of
truth: I wonder that, while all confess there is one baptism, all do not
understand the unity of baptism. For righteousness and unrighteousness are two
distinct things. If the unrighteous have baptism, the righteous have it not; but
if the righteous have it, the unrighteous cannot have it. But there is no doubt
that the righteous alone possess the baptism of Christ, since they alone possess
both the favor and the truth of Christ. This is certainly false, as they confess
themselves. For those envious ones also who are of the party of the devil,
though placed within the Church, as Cyprian tells us, and who were well known to
the Apostle Paul, had baptism, but did not belong to the members of that dove
which is safely sheltered on the rock.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 162: CHAPTER 42. -- 81. ADELPHIUS OF THASBALTE SAID: |IT IS SURELY WITHOUT CAUSE THAT THEY FIND FAULT
========================================================================

-- 81. Adelphius of Thasbalte [1743] said: "It is surely without cause that they
find fault with the truth in false and invidious terms, saying that we
rebaptize, since the Church does not rebaptize heretics, but baptizes them."
[1744] 82. Truly enough it does not rebaptize them, because it only baptizes
those who were not baptized before; and this earlier custom has only been
confirmed in a later Council by a more careful perfecting of the truth.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 163: CHAPTER 43. -- 83. DEMETRIUS OF THE LESSER LEPTIS SAID: |WE UPHOLD ONE BAPTISM
========================================================================

-- 83. Demetrius of the Lesser Leptis [1745] said: "We uphold one baptism,
because we claim for the Catholic Church alone what is her own. But those who
say that heretics baptize truly and lawfully are themselves the men who make,
not two, but many bapt 84. To him we answer: If this were so, then would as many
baptisms be reckoned as there are works of the flesh, of which the apostle says
"that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God;" [1747]
among which are reckoned also heresies; and so many of those very works are
tolerated within the Church as though in the chaff, and yet there is one baptism
for them all, which is not vitiated by any work of unrighteousness.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 164: CHAPTER 44. -- 85. VINCENTIUS OF THIBARI SAID: |WE KNOW THAT HERETICS ARE WORSE THAN HEATHENS.
========================================================================

-- 85. Vincentius of Thibari [1748] said: "We know that heretics are worse than
heathens. If they, being converted, wish to come to God, they have assuredly a
rule of truth, which the Lord by His divine precept committed to the apostles,
saying, Go ye, 86. By what rule he asserts that heretics are worse than heathens
I do not know, seeing that the Lord says, "If he neglect to hear the Church, let
him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican." [1752] Is a heretic worse
even than such? I do not gainsay it. I do not, however, allow that because the
man himself is worse than a heathen, that is, than a Gentile and pagan,
therefore whatever the sacrament contains that is Christ's is mingled with his
vices and character, and perishes through the corruption of such admixture. For
if even those who depart from the Church, and become not the followers but the
founders of heresies, have been baptized before their secession, they continue
to have baptism, although, according to the above rule, they are worse than
heathens; for if on correction they return, they do not receive it, as they
certainly would do if they had lost it. It is therefore possible that a man may
be worse than a heathen, and yet that the sacrament of Christ may not only be in
him, but be not a whit inferior to what it is in a holy and righteous man. For
although to the extent of his powers he has not preserved the sacrament, but
done it violence in heart and will, yet so far as the sacrament's own nature is
concerned, it has remained unhurt in its integrity even in the man who despised
and rejected it. Were not the people of Sodom heathens, that is to say,
Gentiles? The Jews therefore were worse, to whom the Lord says, "It shall be
more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee;"
[1753] and to whom the prophet says, "Thou hast justified Sodom," [1754] that is
to say, in comparison with thee Sodom is righteous. Shall we, however, maintain
that on this account the holy sacraments which existed among the Jews partook of
the nature of the Jews themselves, -- those sacraments which the Lord Himself
also accepted, and sent the lepers whom He had cleansed to fulfill them, [1755]
of which when Zacharias was administering them, the angel stood by him, and
declared that his prayer had been heard while he was sacrificing in the temple?
[1756] These same sacraments were both in the good men of that time, and in
those bad men who were worse than are the heathens, seeing that they were ranked
before the Sodomites for wickedness, and yet those sacraments were perfect and
holy in both. 87. For even if the Gentiles themselves could have anything holy
and right in their doctrines, our saints did not condemn it, however much the
Gentiles themselves were to be detested for their superstitions and idolatry and
pride, and the rest of their corruptions, and to be punished with judgment from
heaven unless they submitted to correction. For when Paul the apostle also was
saying something concerning God before the Athenians, he adduced as a proof of
what he said, that certain of them had said something to the same effect, [1757]
which certainly would not be condemned but recognized in them if they should
come to Christ. And the holy Cyprian uses similar evidence against the same
heathens; for, speaking of the magi, he says, "The chief of them, however,
Hostanes, asserts both that the form of the true God cannot be seen, and also
that true angels stand beside His seat. In which Plato also agrees in like
manner, and, maintaining the existence of one God, he calls the others angels or
demons. Hermes Trismegistus also speaks of one God, and confesses that He is
incomprehensible, and past our powers of estimation." [1758] If, therefore, they
were to come to the perception of salvation in Christ, it surely would not be
said to them, This that ye have is bad, or false; but clearly it would
deservedly be said, Though this in you is perfect and true, yet it would profit
nothing unless ye came to the grace of Christ. If, therefore, anything that is
holy can be found and rightly approved in the very heathens, although the
salvation which is of Christ is not yet to be granted to them, we ought not,
even though heretics are worse than they, to be moved to the desire of
correcting what is bad in them belonging to themselves, without being willing to
acknowledge what is good in them of Christ. But we will set forth from a fresh
preface to consider the remaining judgments of this Council.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 165: IN WHICH THE REMAINING JUDGMENTS OF THE COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE ARE EXAMINED.
========================================================================

In which the remaining judgments of the Council of Carthage are examined.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 166: CHAPTER 1. -- 1. LET US NOT BE CONSIDERED TROUBLESOME TO OUR READERS
========================================================================

-- 1. Let us not be considered troublesome to our readers, if we discuss the
same question often and from different points of view. For although the Holy
Catholic Church throughout all nations be fortified by the authority of
primitive custom and of a ple


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 167: CHAPTER 2. -- 2. MARCUS OF MACTARIS SAID: |IT IS NOT TO BE WONDERED AT IF HERETICS
========================================================================

-- 2. Marcus of Mactaris [1761] said: "It is not to be wondered at if heretics,
being enemies and opponents of the truth, claim to themselves what has been
entrusted and vouchsafed to other men. What is marvellous is that some of us,
traitors to the trut 3. To him we answer: It is indeed much more to be wondered
at, and deserving of expressions of great praise, that Cyprian and his
colleagues had such love for unity that they continued in unity with those whom
they considered to be traitors to the truth, without any apprehension of being
polluted by them. For when Marcus said, "It is marvellous that some of us,
traitors to the truth, uphold heretics and oppose Christians," it seemed natural
that he should add, Therefore we decree that communion should not be held with
them. This he did not say; but what he does say is, "Therefore we decree that
heretics should be baptized," adhering to what the peaceful Cyprian had enjoined
in the first instance, saying, "Judging no man, nor removing any from the right
of communion if he entertain a different opinion." While, therefore, the
Donatists calumniate us and call us traditors, I should be glad to know,
supposing that any Jew or pagan were found, who, after reading the records of
that Council should call both us and them, according to their own rules,
traitors to the truth, how we should be able to make our joint defense so as to
refute and wash away so grave a charge. They give the name of traditors to men
whom they were never able in times past to convict of the offense, and whom they
cannot now show to be involved in it, being themselves rather shown to be liable
to the same charge. But what has this to do with us? What shall we say of them
who, by their own showing, are unquestionably traitors? For if we, however
falsely, are called traditors, because, as they allege, we took part in the same
communion with traditors, we have all taken part with the traditors in question,
seeing that in the time of the blessed Cyprian the party of Donatus had not yet
separated itself from unity. For the delivery of the sacred books, from which
they began to be called traditors, occurred somewhat more than forty years after
his martyrdom. If, therefore, we are traditors, because we sprang from
traditors, as they believe or pretend, we both of us derive our origin from
those other traitors. For there is no room for saying that they did not
communicate with these traitors, since they call them men of their own party. In
the words of the Council which they are most forward to quote, "Some of us," it
declares, "traitors to the truth, uphold heretics." To this is added the
testimony of Cyprian, showing clearly that he remained in communion with them,
when he says, "Judging no man, nor removing any from the right of communion if
he entertain a different opinion." For those who entertained a different opinion
were the very persons whom Marcus calls traitors to the truth because they
upheld heretics, as he maintains, by receiving them into the Church without
baptism. That it was, moreover, the custom that they should be so received, is
testified both by Cyprian himself in many passages, and by some bishops in this
Council. Whence it is evident that, if heretics have not baptism, the Church of
Christ of those days was full of traitors, who upheld them by receiving them in
this way. I would urge, therefore, that we plead our cause in common against the
charge of treason which they cannot disavow, and therein our special case will
be argued against the charge of delivering the books, which they could not prove
against us. But let us argue the point as though they had convicted us; and what
we shall answer jointly to those who urge against both of us the general treason
of our forefathers, that we will answer to these men who urge against us that
our forefathers gave up the sacred books. For as we were dead because our
forefathers delivered up the books, which caused them to divide themselves from
us, so both we and they themselves are dead through the treason of our
forefathers, from whom both we and they are sprung. But since they say they
live, they hold that that treason does not in any way affect them, therefore
neither are we affected by the delivery of the books. And it should be observed
that, according to them, the treason is indisputable: while, according to us,
there is no truth either in the former charge of treason, because we say that
heretics also may have the baptism of Christ; nor in the latter charge of
delivering the books, because in that they were themselves beaten. They have
therefore no reason for separating themselves by the wicked sin of schism,
because, if our forefathers were not guilty of delivering up the books, as we
say, there is no charge which can affect us at all; but if they were guilty of
the sin, as these men say, then it is just as far from affecting us as the sin
of those other traitors is from affecting either us or them. And hence, since
there is no charge that can implicate us from the unrighteousness of our
forefathers, the charge arising against them from their own schism is manifestly
proved.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 168: CHAPTER 3. -- 4. SATIUS OF SICILIBBA SAID: |IF HERETICS RECEIVE FORGIVENESS OF THEIR SINS IN THEIR
========================================================================

-- 4. Satius of Sicilibba [1763] said: "If heretics receive forgiveness of their
sins in their own baptism, it is without reason that they come to the Church.
For since it is for sins that men are punished in the day of judgment, heretics
have nothing t 5. This too might also have been our own judgment; but let its
author beware in what spirit it was said. For it is expressed in terms of such
import, that I should feel no compunction in consenting and subscribing to it in
the same spirit in which I too believe that heretics may indeed have the baptism
of Christ, but cannot have the remission of their sins. But he does not say, If
heretics baptize or are baptized, but "If heretics," he says, "receive
forgiveness of their sins in their own baptism, it is without reason that they
come to the Church." For if we were to set in the place of heretics those whom
Cyprian knew within the Church as "renouncing the world in words alone and not
in deeds," we also might express this same judgment, in just so many words, with
the most perfect truth. If those who only seem to be converted receive
forgiveness of their sins in their own baptism, it is without reason that they
are afterwards led on to a true conversion. For since it is for sins that men
are punished in the day of judgment, "those who renounce the world in words and
not in deeds" have nothing to fear in the judgment of Christ if they have
obtained remission of their sins. But this reasoning is only made perfect by
some such context as is formed by the addition of the words. But they ought to
fear the judgment of Christ, and to lose no time in being converted in the truth
of their hearts; and, when they have done this, it is certainly not necessary
that they should be baptized a second time. It was possible, therefore, for them
to receive baptism, and either not to receive remission of their sins, or to be
burdened again at once with the load of sins which were forgiven them; and so
the same is the case also with the heretics.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 169: CHAPTER 4. -- 6. VICTOR OF GOR SAID: |SEEING THAT SINS ARE FORGIVEN ONLY IN THE BAPTISM
========================================================================

-- 6. Victor of Gor [1765] said: "Seeing that sins are forgiven only in the
baptism of the Church, he who admits heretics to communion without baptism is
guilty of two errors contrary to reason; for, on the one hand, he does not
cleanse the heretics, and 7. To this we answer that the baptism of the Church
exists even among heretics, though they themselves are not within the Church;
just as the water of Paradise was found in the land of Egypt, though that land
was not itself in Paradise. We do not therefore admit heretics to communion
without baptism; and since they come with their waywardness corrected, we
receive not their sins, but the sacraments of Christ. And, in respect of the
remission of their sins, we say again here exactly what we said above. And
certainly, in regard of what he says at the end of his judgment, declaring that
he "is guilty of two errors contrary to reason, seeing that on the one hand he
does not cleanse the heretics, and on the other he defiles the Christians,"
Cyprian himself is the first and the most earnest in repudiating this with the
colleagues who agreed with him. For neither did he think that he was defiled,
when, on account of the bond of peace, he decreed that it was right to hold
communion with such men, when he used the words, "Judging no one, nor removing
any from the right of communion if he entertain a different opinion." Or, if
heretics defile the Church by being admitted to communion without being
baptized, then the whole Church has been defiled in virtue of that custom which
has been so often recorded here. And just as those men call us traditors because
of our forefathers, in whom they were able to prove nothing of the sort when
they laid the charge against them, so, if every man partakes of the character of
those with whom he may have held communion, all were then made heretics. And if
every one who asserts this is mad, it must be false that Victor says, when he
declares that "he who admits heretics to communion without baptism, not only
fails to cleanse the heretics, but pollutes the Christians as well." Or if this
be true, they were then not admitted without baptism, but those men had the
baptism of Christ, although it was given and received among heretics, who were
so admitted in accordance with that custom which these very men acknowledged to
exist; and on the same grounds they are even now rightly admitted in the same
manner.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 170: CHAPTER 5. -- 8. AURELIUS OF UTICA SAID: |SINCE THE APOSTLE SAYS THAT WE OUGHT NOT TO
========================================================================

-- 8. Aurelius of Utica [1767] said: "Since the apostle says that we ought not
to be partakers with the sins of other men, [1768] what else does he do but make
himself partaker with the sins of other men, who holds communion with heretics
without the bapt 9. The answer is: Therefore Cyprian and all those bishops were
partakers in the sins of other men, inasmuch as they remained in communion with
such men, when they removed no one from the right of communion who entertained a
different opinion. Where, then, is the Church? Then, to say nothing for the
moment of heretics, -- since the words of this judgment are applicable also to
other sinners, such as Cyprian saw with lamentation to be in the Church with
him, whom, while he confuted them, he yet tolerated, -- where is the Church,
which, according to these words must be held to have perished from that very
moment by the contagion of their sins? But if, as is the most firmly established
truth, the Church both has remained and does remain, the partaking of the sins
of others, which is forbidden by the apostle, must be considered only to consist
in consenting to them. But let heretics be baptized again, that they may receive
remission of their sins, if the wayward and the envious are baptized again, who,
seeing that "they renounced the world in words and not in deeds," were indeed
able to receive baptism, but did not obtain remission of their sins, as the Lord
says, "If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive
your trespasses." [1770]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 171: CHAPTER 6. -- 10. IAMBUS OF GERMANICIANA SAID: |THOSE WHO APPROVE THE BAPTISM OF HERETICS DISAPPROVE OURS
========================================================================

-- 10. Iambus of Germaniciana [1771] said: "Those who approve the baptism of
heretics disapprove ours, so as to deny that such as are, I will not say washed,
but defiled outside the Church, ought to be baptized within the Church." [1772]
11. To him we answer, that none of our party approves the baptism of heretics,
but all the baptism of Christ, even though it be found in heretics who are as it
were chaff outside the Church, as it may be found in other unrighteous men who
are as chaff within the Church. For if those who are baptized without the Church
are not washed, but defiled, assuredly those who are baptized outside the rock
on which the Church is built are not washed, but defiled. But all are without
the said rock who hear the words of Christ and do them not. Or if it be the case
that they are washed indeed in baptism, but yet continue in the defilement of
their unrighteousness, from which they were unwilling to be changed for the
better, the same is true also of the heretics.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 172: CHAPTER 7. -- 12. LUCIANUS OF RUCUMA SAID: |IT IS WRITTEN
========================================================================

-- 12. Lucianus of Rucuma [1773] said: "It is written, And God saw the light
that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.' [1774] If light
and darkness can agree, then can there be something in common between us and
heretics. Therefo 13. To him the answer is: If light and darkness can agree,
then can there be something common between the righteous and unrighteous. Let
him therefore declare his judgment that those unrighteous should be baptized
afresh whom Cyprian confuted within the Church itself; or let him who can say if
those are not unrighteous "who renounce the world in words and not in deeds."


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  CHAPTER 173: CHAPTER 8. -- 14. PELAGIANUS OF LUPERCIANA SAID: |IT IS WRITTEN
========================================================================

-- 14. Pelagianus of Luperciana [1776] said: "It is written, Either the Lord is
God, or Baal is God.' [1777] So now either the Church is the Church, or heresy
is the Church. Further, if heresy be not the Church, how can the baptism of the
Church exist 15. To him we may answer as follows: Either Paradise is Paradise,
or Egypt is Paradise. Further, if Egypt be not Paradise, how can the water of
Paradise be in Egypt? But it will be said to us that it extends even thither by
flowing forth from Paradise. In like manner, therefore, baptism extends to
heretics. Also we say: Either the rock is the Church, or the sand is the Church.
Further, since the sand is not the Church, how can baptism exist with those who
build upon the sand by hearing the words of Christ and doing them not? [1779]
And yet it does exist with them; and in like manner also it exists among the
heretics.


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  CHAPTER 174: CHAPTER 9. -- 16. JADER OF MIDILA SAID: |WE KNOW THAT THERE IS BUT ONE BAPTISM IN
========================================================================

-- 16. Jader of Midila [1780] said: "We know that there is but one baptism in
the Catholic Church, and therefore we ought not to admit a heretic unless he has
been baptized in our body, lest he should think that he has been baptized
outside the Catholic 17. To him our answer is, that if this were said of those
unrighteous men who are outside the rock, it certainly would be falsely said.
And so it is therefore also in the case of heretics.


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  CHAPTER 175: CHAPTER 10. -- 18. LIKEWISE ANOTHER FELIX OF MARAZANA SAID: |THERE IS ONE FAITH
========================================================================

-- 18. Likewise another Felix of Marazana [1782] said: "There is one faith, one
baptism, [1783] but of the Catholic Church, to which alone is given authority to
baptize." [1784] 19. What if another were to say as follows: One faith, one
baptism, but of the righteous only, to whom alone authority is given to baptize?
As these words might be refuted, so also may the judgment of Felix be refuted.
Do even the unrighteous who are not [1785] changed in heart in baptism, while
"they renounce the world in words and not in deeds" yet belong to the members of
the Church? Let them consider whether such a Church is the actual rock, the very
dove, the bride herself without spot or wrinkle. [1786]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 176: CHAPTER 11. -- 20. PAUL OF BOBBA SAID: |I FOR MY PART AM NOT MOVED IF SOME
========================================================================

-- 20. Paul of Bobba [1787] said: "I for my part am not moved if some fail to
uphold the faith and truth of the Church, seeing that the apostle says For what
if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without
effect? God forbid: 21. To him we answer: What is God among the covetous? And
yet baptism exists among them; and so also it exists among heretics. For they
among whom God is, are the temple of God. "But what agreement hath the temple of
God with idols?" [1790] Further, Paul considers, and Cyprian agrees with him,
that covetousness is idolatry; and Cyprian himself again associates with his
colleagues, who were robbers, but yet baptized, with great reward of toleration.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 177: CHAPTER 12. -- 22. POMPONIUS OF DIONYSIANA SAID: |IT IS MANIFEST THAT HERETICS CANNOT BAPTIZE AND GIVE
========================================================================

-- 22. Pomponius of Dionysiana [1791] said: "It is manifest that heretics cannot
baptize and give remission of sins, seeing that no power is given to them that
they should be able either to loose or bind anything on earth." [1792] 23. The
answer is: This power is not given to murderers either, that is, to those who
hate their brothers. For it was not said to such as these, "whosesoever sins ye
remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are
retained." [1793] And yet they baptize, and both Paul tolerates them in the same
communion of baptism, and Cyprian acknowledges them.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 178: CHAPTER 13. -- 24. VENANTIUS OF TINISA SAID: |IF A HUSBAND
========================================================================

-- 24. Venantius of Tinisa [1794] said: "If a husband, going on a journey into
foreign countries, had entrusted the guardianship of his wife to a friend, he
would surely keep her that was entrusted to his care with the utmost diligence,
that her chastity 25. We answer: What of those who, when they are baptized, turn
themselves to the Lord with their lips and not with their heart? do not they
possess an adulterous mind? Are not they themselves lovers of the world, which
they renounce in words and not in deeds; and they corrupt good manners through
evil communications, saying, "Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die?"
[1796] Did not the discourse of the apostle take heed even against such as
these, when he says, "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve
through his subtilty, so your minds [also] should be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ?" [1797] When, therefore, Cyprian held the baptism
of Christ to be in common with such men, did he therefore betray the bride of
Christ into the hands of adulterers, or did he not rather recognize the necklace
of the Bridegroom even on an adulteress?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 179: CHAPTER 14. -- 26. AYMNIUS OF AUSUAGA SAID: |WE HAVE RECEIVED ONE BAPTISM
========================================================================

-- 26. Aymnius [1798] of Ausuaga [1799] said: "We have received one baptism,
which same also we administer; but he who says that authority is given to
heretics also to baptize, the same makes two baptisms." [1800] 27. To him we
answer: Why does not he also make two baptisms who maintains that the
unrighteous also can baptize? For although the righteous and unrighteous are in
themselves opposed to one another, yet the baptism which the righteous give,
such as was Paul, or such as was also Cyprian, is not contrary to the baptism
which those unrighteous men were wont to give who hated Paul, whom Cyprian
understands to have been not heretics, but bad Catholics; and although the
moderation which was found in Cyprian, and the covetousness which was found in
his colleagues, are in themselves opposed to one another, yet the baptism which
Cyprian used to give was not contrary to the baptism which his colleagues who
opposed him used to give, but one and the same with it, because in both cases it
is He that baptizes of whom it is said, "The same is He which baptizeth." [1801]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 180: CHAPTER 15. -- 28. SATURNINUS OF VICTORIANA SAID: |IF HERETICS MAY BAPTIZE
========================================================================

-- 28. Saturninus of Victoriana [1802] said: "If heretics may baptize, they are
excused and defended in doing unlawful things; nor do I see why either Christ
called them His adversaries, or the apostle called them antichrists." [1803] 29.
To him we answer: We say that heretics have no authority to baptize in the same
sense in which we say that defrauders have no authority to baptize. For not only
to the heretic, but to the sinner, God says, "What hast thou to do to declare my
statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?" To the same
person He assuredly says, "When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with
him." [1804] How much worse, therefore, are those who did not consent with
thieves, but themselves were wont to plunder farms with treacherous deceits? Yet
Cyprian did not consent with them, though he did tolerate them in the corn-field
of the Catholic Church, lest the wheat should be rooted out together with it.
And yet at the same time the baptism which they themselves conferred was the
very selfsame baptism, because it was not of them, but of Christ. As therefore
they, although the baptism of Christ be recognized in them, were yet not excused
and defended in doing unlawful things, and Christ rightly called those His
adversaries who were destined, by persevering in such things, to hear the doom,
"Depart from me, ye that work iniquity," [1805] whence also they are called
antichrists, because they are contrary to Christ while they live in opposition
to His words, so likewise is it the case with heretics.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 181: CHAPTER 16. -- 30. ANOTHER SATURNINUS OF TUCCA SAID: |THE GENTILES
========================================================================

-- 30. Another Saturninus of Tucca [1806] said: "The Gentiles, although they
worship idols, yet acknowledge and confess the supreme God, the Father and
Creator. Against Him Marcion blasphemes, and some men do not blush to approve
the baptism of Marcion. 31. The answer is this: Truly when such terms as this
are used, all moderation is passed; nor do they take into consideration that
even they themselves hold communion with such men, "judging no one, nor removing
any from the right of communion if he entertain a contrary opinion." But
Saturninus has used an argument in this very judgment of his, which might
furnish materials for his admonition (if he would pay attention to it), that in
each man what is wrong should be corrected, and what is right should be
approved, since he says, "The Gentiles, although they worship idols, yet
acknowledge and confess the supreme God, the Father and Creator." If, then, any
Gentile of such a kind should come to God, would he wish to correct and change
this point in him, that he acknowledged and confessed God the Father and
Creator? I trow not. But he would amend in him his idolatry, which was an evil
in him; and he would give to him the sacraments of Christ, which he did not
possess; and anything that was wayward which he found in him he would correct;
and anything which had been wanting he would supply. So also in the Marcionist
heretic he would acknowledge the perfectness of baptism, he would correct his
waywardness, he would teach him Catholic truth.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 182: CHAPTER 17. -- 32. MARCELLUS OF ZAMA SAID: |SINCE SINS ARE REMITTED ONLY IN THE BAPTISM OF
========================================================================

-- 32. Marcellus of Zama [1809] said: "Since sins are remitted only in the
baptism of the Church, he who does not baptize a heretic holds communion with a
sinner." [1810] 33. What, does he who holds communion with one who does this not
hold communion with a sinner? But what else did all of them do, "in judging no
one, or removing from the right of communion any one who entertained a different
opinion"? Where, then, is the Church? Are those things not an obstacle to those
who are patient, and tolerate the tares lest the wheat should be rooted out
together with them? I would have them therefore say, who have committed the
sacrilege of schism by separating themselves from the whole world, how it comes
that they have in their mouths the judgment of Cyprian, while they do not have
in their hearts the patience of Cyprian. But to this Marcellus we have an answer
in what has been said above concerning baptism and the remission of sins,
explaining how there can be baptism in a man although there be in him no
remission of his sins.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 183: CHAPTER 18. -- 34. IRENÆUS OF ULULI SAID: |IF THE CHURCH DOES NOT BAPTIZE A HERETIC
========================================================================

-- 34. Irenæus of Ululi [1811] said: "If the Church does not baptize a heretic,
because it is said that he has been baptized already, then heresy is the
greater." [1812] 35. The answer is: On the same principle it might be said, If
therefore the Church does not baptize the covetous man, because it is said that
he has been baptized already, then covetousness is the greater. But this is
false, therefore the other is also false.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 184: CHAPTER 19. -- 36. DONATUS OF CIBALIANA SAID: |I ACKNOWLEDGE ONE CHURCH
========================================================================

-- 36. Donatus of Cibaliana [1813] said: "I acknowledge one Church, and one
baptism that appertains thereto. If there is any one who says that the grace of
baptism exists among heretics, he must first show and prove that the Church
exists with them." [1 37. To him we answer: If you say that the grace of baptism
is identical with baptism, then it exists among heretics; but if baptism is the
sacrament or outward sign of grace, while the grace itself is the abolition of
sins, then the grace of baptism does not exist with heretics. But so there is
one baptism and one Church, just as there is one faith. As therefore the good
and bad, not having one hope, can yet have one baptism, so those who have not
one common Church can have one common baptism.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 185: CHAPTER 20. -- 38. ZOZIMUS OF THARASSA SAID: |WHEN A REVELATION HAS BEEN MADE OF THE TRUTH
========================================================================

-- 38. Zozimus of Tharassa [1815] said: "When a revelation has been made of the
truth, error must give way to truth; inasmuch as Peter also, who before was wont
to circumcise, gave way to Paul when he declared the truth." [1816] 39. The
answer is: This may also be considered as the expression of our judgment too,
and this is just what has been done in respect of this question of baptism. For
after that the truth had been more clearly revealed, error gave way to truth,
when that most wholesome custom was further confirmed by the authority of a
plenary Council. It is well, however, that they so constantly bear in mind that
it was possible even for Peter, the chief of the apostles, to have been at one
time minded otherwise than the truth required; which we believe, without any
disrespect to Cyprian, to have been the case with him, and that with all our
love for Cyprian, for it is not right that he should be loved with greater love
than Peter.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 186: CHAPTER 21. -- 40. JULIANUS OF TELEPTE SAID: |IT IS WRITTEN
========================================================================

-- 40. Julianus of Telepte [1817] said: "It is written, A man can receive
nothing, except it be given him from heaven;' [1818] if heresy is from heaven,
it can give baptism." [1819] 41. Let him hear another also saying: If
covetousness is from heaven, it can give baptism. And yet the covetous do confer
it; so therefore also may the heretics.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 187: CHAPTER 22. -- 42. FAUSTUS OF TIMIDA REGIA SAID: |LET NOT THESE PERSONS FLATTER THEMSELVES WHO FAVOR
========================================================================

-- 42. Faustus of Timida Regia [1820] said: "Let not these persons flatter
themselves who favor heretics. He who interferes with the baptism of the Church
on behalf of heretics makes them Christians, and us heretics." [1821] 43. To him
we answer: If any one were to say that a man who, when he received baptism had
not received remission of his sins, because he entertained hatred towards his
brother in his heart, was nevertheless not to be baptized again when he
dismissed that hatred from his heart, does such a man interfere with the baptism
of the Church on behalf of murderers, or does he make them righteous and us
murderers? Let him therefore understand the same also in the case of heretics.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 188: CHAPTER 23. -- 44. GEMINIUS OF FURNI SAID: |CERTAIN OF OUR COLLEAGUES MAY PREFER HERETICS TO THEMSELVES
========================================================================

-- 44. Geminius of Furni [1822] said: "Certain of our colleagues may prefer
heretics to themselves, they cannot prefer them to us: and therefore what we
have once decreed we hold, that we should baptize those who come to us from
heretics." [1823] 45. This man also acknowledges most openly that certain of his
colleagues entertained opinions contrary to his own: whence again and again the
love of unity is confirmed, because they were separated from one another by no
schism, till God should reveal to one or other of them anything wherein they
were otherwise minded. [1824] But to him our answer is, that his colleagues did
not prefer heretics to themselves, but that, as the baptism of Christ is
acknowledged in the covetous, in the fraudulent, in robbers, in murderers, so
also they acknowledged it in heretics.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 189: CHAPTER 24. -- 46. ROGATIANUS OF NOVA SAID: |CHRIST ESTABLISHED THE CHURCH
========================================================================

-- 46. Rogatianus of Nova [1825] said: "Christ established the Church, the devil
heresy: how can the synagogue of Satan have the baptism of Christ?" [1826] 47.
To him our answer is: Is it true that because Christ established the
well-affectioned, and the devil the envious, therefore the party of the devil,
which is proved to be among the envious, cannot have the baptism of Christ?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 190: CHAPTER 25. -- 48. THERAPIUS OF BULLA SAID: |IF A MAN GIVES UP AND BETRAYS THE BAPTISM
========================================================================

-- 48. Therapius of Bulla [1827] said: "If a man gives up and betrays the
baptism of Christ to heretics, what else can he be said to be but a Judas to the
Bride of Christ?" [1828] 49. How great a condemnation have we here of all
schismatics, who have separated themselves by wicked sacrilege from the
inheritance of Christ dispersed throughout the whole world, if Cyprian held
communion with such as was the traitor Judas, and yet was not defiled by them;
or if he was defiled, then were all made such as Judas; or if they were not,
then the evil deeds of those who went before do not belong to those who came
after even though they were the offspring of the same communion. Why, therefore,
do they cast in our teeth the traditores, against whom they did not prove their
charge, and do not cast in their own teeth Judas, with whom Cyprian and his
colleagues held communion? Behold the Council in which these men are wont to
boast! We indeed say, that he who approves the baptism of Christ even in
heretics, does not betray to heretics the baptism of Christ; just in the same
way as he does not betray to murderers the baptism of Christ who approves the
baptism of Christ even in murderers: but inasmuch as they profess to prescribe
to us from the decrees of this Council what opinions we ought to hold, let them
first assent to it themselves. See how therein were compared to the traitor
Judas, all who said that heretics, although baptized in heresy, should not be
baptized again. Yet with such Cyprian was willing to hold communion, when he
said, "Judging no man, nor depriving any of the right of communion if he
entertain a contrary opinion." But that there had been men of such a sort in
former times within the Church, is made clear by the sentence in which he says:
"But some one will say, What, then, shall be done with these men who in times
past were admitted into the Church without baptism?" [1829] That such had been
the custom of the Church, is testified again and again by the very men who
compose this Council. If, therefore, any one who does this "can be said to be
nothing else but a Judas to the Bride of Christ," according to the terms in
which the judgment of Therapius is couched; but Judas, according to the teaching
of the gospel, was a traitor; then all those men held communion with traitors
who at that time uttered those very judgments, and before they uttered them they
all had become traitors through that custom which at that time was retained by
the Church. All, therefore -- that is to say, both we and they themselves who
were the offspring of that unity -- are traitors. But we defend ourselves in two
ways: first, because without prejudice to the right of unity, as Cyprian himself
declared in his opening speech, we do not assent to the decrees of this Council
in which this judgment was pronounced; and secondly, because we hold that the
wicked in no way hurt the good in Catholic unity, until at the last the chaff be
separated from the wheat. But our opponents, inasmuch as they both shelter
themselves as it were under the decrees of this Council, and maintain that the
good perish as by a kind of infection from communion with the wicked, have no
resource to save them from allowing both that the earlier Christians, whose
offspring they are, were traitors, inasmuch as they are convicted by their own
Council; and that the deeds of those who went before them do reflect on them,
since they throw in our teeth the deeds of our ancestors.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 191: CHAPTER 26. -- 50. ALSO ANOTHER LUCIUS OF MEMBRESA SAID: |IT IS WRITTEN
========================================================================

-- 50. Also another Lucius of Membresa [1830] said: "It is written, God heareth
not sinners.' [1831] How can he who is a sinner be heard in baptism?" [1832] 51.
We answer: How is the covetous man heard, or the robber, and usurer, and
murderer? Are they not sinners? And yet Cyprian, while he finds fault with them
in the Catholic Church, yet tolerates them.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 192: CHAPTER 27. -- 52. ALSO ANOTHER FELIX OF BUSLACENI SAID: |IN ADMITTING HERETICS TO THE CHURCH WITHOUT
========================================================================

-- 52. Also another Felix of Buslaceni [1833] said: "In admitting heretics to
the Church without baptism, let no one place custom before reason and truth; for
reason and truth always exclude custom." [1834] 53. To him our answer is: You do
not show the truth; you confess the existence of the custom. We should therefore
do right in maintaining the custom which has since been confirmed by a plenary
Council, even if the truth were still concealed, which we believe to have been
already made manifest.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 193: CHAPTER 28. -- 54. ANOTHER SATURNINUS OF ABITINI SAID: |IF ANTICHRIST CAN GIVE TO ANY ONE THE
========================================================================

-- 54. Another Saturninus of Abitini [1835] said: "If Antichrist can give to any
one the grace of Christ, then can heretics also baptize, who are called
Antichrists." [1836] 55. What if another were to say, If a murderer can give the
grace of Christ, then can they also baptize that hate their brethren who are
called murderers? For certainly he would seem in a way to speak the truth, and
yet they can baptize; in like manner, therefore, can the heretics as well.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 194: CHAPTER 29. -- 56. QUINTUS OF AGGYA SAID: |HE WHO HAS A THING CAN GIVE IT
========================================================================

-- 56. Quintus of Aggya [1837] said: "He who has a thing can give it; but what
can the heretics give, who are well known to have nothing?" [1838] 57. To him
our answer is: If, then, any man can give a thing who has it, it is clear that
heretics can give baptism: for when they separate from the Church, they have
still the sacrament of washing which they had received while in the Church; for
when they return they do not again receive it, because they had not lost it when
they withdrew from the Church.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 195: CHAPTER 30. -- 58. ANOTHER JULIANUS OF MARCELLIANA SAID: |IF A MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS
========================================================================

-- 58. Another Julianus of Marcelliana [1839] said: "If a man can serve two
masters, God and mammon, [1840] then baptism also can serve two, the Christian
and the heretic." [1841] 59. Truly, if it can serve the self-restrained and the
covetous man, the sober and the drunken, the well-affectioned and the murderer,
why should it not also serve the Christian and the heretic? -- whom, indeed, it
does not really serve; but it ministers to them, and is administered by them,
for salvation to those who use it right, and for judgment to such as use it
wrong.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 196: CHAPTER 31. -- 60. TENAX OF HORREA CELIÆ SAID: |THERE IS ONE BAPTISM
========================================================================

-- 60. Tenax of Horrea Celiæ [1842] said: "There is one baptism, but of the
Church; and where the Church is not, there baptism also cannot be." [1843] 61.
To him we answer: How then comes it that it may be where the rock is not, but
only sand; seeing that the Church is on the rock, and not on sand?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 197: CHAPTER 32. -- 62. ANOTHER VICTOR OF ASSURAS SAID: |IT IS WRITTEN
========================================================================

-- 62. Another Victor of Assuras [1844] said: "It is written, that there is one
God and one Christ, one Church and one baptism.' [1845] How then can any one
baptize in a place where there is not either God, or Christ, or the Church?"
[1846] 63. How can any one baptize either in that sand, where the Church is not,
seeing that it is on the rock; nor God and Christ, seeing that there is not
there the temple of God and Christ?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 198: CHAPTER 33. -- 64. DONATULUS OF CAPSE SAID: |I ALSO HAVE ALWAYS ENTERTAINED THIS OPINION
========================================================================

-- 64. Donatulus of Capse [1847] said: "I also have always entertained this
opinion, that heretics, who have gained nothing outside the Church, should be
baptized when they are converted to the Church." [1848] 65. To this the answer
is: They have, indeed, gained nothing outside the Church, but that is nothing
towards salvation, not nothing towards the sacrament. For salvation is peculiar
to the good; but the sacraments are common to the good and bad alike.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 199: CHAPTER 34. -- 66. VERULUS OF RUSICCADE SAID: |A MAN THAT IS A HERETIC CANNOT GIVE THAT
========================================================================

-- 66. Verulus of Rusiccade [1849] said: "A man that is a heretic cannot give
that which he has not; much more is this the case with a schismatic, who has
lost what he had." [1850] 67. We have already shown that they still have it,
because they do not lose it when they separate themselves. For they do not
receive it again when they return: wherefore, if it was thought that they could
not give it because they were supposed not to have it, let it now be understood
that they can give it, because it is understood that they also have it.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 200: CHAPTER 35. -- 68. PUDENTIANUS OF CUICULI SAID: |MY RECENT ORDINATION TO THE EPISCOPATE INDUCED ME
========================================================================

-- 68. Pudentianus of Cuiculi [1851] said: "My recent ordination to the
episcopate induced me, brethren, to wait and hear what my elders would decide.
For it is plain that heresies have and can have nothing; and so, if any come
from them, it is determine 69. As, therefore, we have already answered those who
went before, for whose judgment this man was waiting, so be it understood that
we have answered himself.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 201: CHAPTER 36. -- 70. PETER OF HIPPO DIARRHYTUS SAID: |SINCE THERE IS ONE BAPTISM IN THE CATHOLIC
========================================================================

-- 70. Peter of Hippo Diarrhytus [1853] said: "Since there is one baptism in the
Catholic Church, it is clear that a man cannot be baptized outside the Church;
and therefore I give my judgment, that those who have been bathed in heresy or
in schism ought 71. There is one baptism in the Catholic Church, in such a sense
that, when any have gone out from it, it does not become two in those who go
out, but remains one and the same. What, therefore, is recognized in those who
return, should also be recognized in those who received it from men who have
separated themselves, since they did not lose it when they went apart into
heresy.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 202: CHAPTER 37. -- 72. LIKEWISE ANOTHER LUCIUS OF AUSAFA SAID: |ACCORDING TO THE MOTION OF MY MIND
========================================================================

-- 72. Likewise another Lucius of Ausafa [1855] said: "According to the motion
of my mind and of the Holy Spirit, since there is one God, the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and one Christ, and one hope, one Spirit, one Church, there
ought also to be onl 73. Let it therefore be pronounced of no effect that they
baptize, who hear the words of God and do them not, when they shall begin to
pass from unrighteousness to righteousness, that is, from the sand to the rock.
And if this is not done, because what there was in them of Christ was not
violated by their unrighteousness, then let this also be understood in the case
of heretics: for neither is there the same hope in the unrighteous, so long as
they are on the sand, as there is in those who are upon the rock; and yet there
is in both the same baptism, although as it is said that there is one hope, so
also is it said that there is one baptism.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 203: CHAPTER 38. -- 74. FELIX OF GURGITES SAID: |I GIVE MY JUDGMENT
========================================================================

-- 74. Felix of Gurgites [1857] said: "I give my judgment, that, according to
the precepts of the holy Scriptures, those who have been unlawfully baptized
outside the Church by heretics, if they wish to flee to the Church, should
obtain the grace of bapt 75. Our answer is: Let them indeed begin to have in a
lawful manner to salvation what they before had unlawfully to destruction;
because each man is justified under the same baptism, when he has turned himself
to God with a true heart, as that under which he was condemned, when on
receiving it he "renounced the world in words alone, and not in deeds."


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 204: CHAPTER 39. -- 76. PUSILLUS OF LAMASBA SAID: |I BELIEVE THAT BAPTISM IS NOT UNTO SALVATION EXCEPT
========================================================================

-- 76. Pusillus of Lamasba [1859] said: "I believe that baptism is not unto
salvation except within the Catholic Church. Whatsoever is without the Catholic
Church is mere pretense." [1860] 77. This indeed is true, that "baptism is not
unto salvation except within the Catholic Church." For in itself it can indeed
exist outside the Catholic Church as well; but there it is not unto salvation,
because there it does not work salvation; just as that sweet savor of Christ is
certainly not unto salvation in them that perish, [1861] though from a fault not
in itself, but in them. But "whatsoever is without the Catholic Church is mere
pretense," yet only in so far as it is not Catholic. But there may be something
Catholic outside the Catholic Church, just as the name of Christ could exist
outside the congregation of Christ, in which name he who did not follow with the
disciples was casting out devils. [1862] For there may be pretense also within
the Catholic Church, as is unquestionable in the case of those "who renounce the
world in words and not in deeds," and yet the pretense is not Catholic. As,
therefore, there is in the Catholic Church something which is not Catholic, so
there may be something which is Catholic outside the Catholic Church.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 205: CHAPTER 40. -- 78. SALVIANUS OF GAZAUFALA SAID: |IT IS GENERALLY KNOWN THAT HERETICS HAVE NOTHING
========================================================================

-- 78. Salvianus of Gazaufala [1863] said: "It is generally known that heretics
have nothing; and therefore they come to us, that they may receive what
previously they did not have." [1864] 79. Our answer is: On this theory, the
very men who founded heresies are not heretics themselves, because they
separated themselves from the Church, and certainly they previously had what
they received there. But if it is absurd to say that those are not heretics
through whom the rest became heretics, it is therefore possible that a heretic
should have what turns to his destruction through his evil use of it.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 206: CHAPTER 41. -- 80. HONORATUS OF TUCCA SAID: |SINCE CHRIST IS THE TRUTH
========================================================================

-- 80. Honoratus of Tucca [1865] said: "Since Christ is the truth, we ought to
follow the truth rather than custom; that we may sanctify by the baptism of the
Church the heretics who come to us, simply because they could receive nothing
outside." [1866]< 81. This man, too, is a witness to the custom, in which he
gives us the greatest assistance, whatever else he may appear to say against us.
But this is not the reason why heretics come over to us, because they have
received nothing outside, but that what they did receive may begin to be of use
to them: for this it could not be outside in any wise.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 207: CHAPTER 42. -- 82. VICTOR OF OCTAVUS SAID: |AS YE YOURSELVES ALSO KNOW
========================================================================

-- 82. Victor of Octavus [1867] said: "As ye yourselves also know, I have not
been long appointed a bishop, and therefore I waited for the counsel of my
seniors. This therefore I express as my opinion, that whosoever comes from
heresy should undoubtedly 83. What, therefore, has been answered to those for
whom he waited, may be taken as the answer also to himself.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 208: CHAPTER 43. -- 84. CLARUS OF MASCULA SAID: |THE SENTENCE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS MANIFEST
========================================================================

-- 84. Clarus of Mascula [1869] said: "The sentence of our Lord Jesus Christ is
manifest, when He sent forth His apostles, and gave the power which had been
given Him of His Father to them alone, whose successors we are, governing the
Church of the Lord 85. Are, then, ill-affectioned murderers successors of the
apostles? Why, then, do they baptize? Is it because they are not outside? But
they are outside the rock, to which the Lord gave the keys, and on which He said
that He would build His Church. [1871]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 209: CHAPTER 44. -- 86. SECUNDIANUS OF THAMBEI SAID: |WE OUGHT NOT TO DECEIVE HERETICS BY OUR TOO
========================================================================

-- 86. Secundianus of Thambei [1872] said: "We ought not to deceive heretics by
our too great forwardness, that not having been baptized in the Church of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and having therefore not received remission of their sins,
they may not imput 87. Nay, when they are transferred to the rock, and joined to
the society of the Dove, let them receive the remission of their sins, which
they could not have outside the rock and outside the Dove, whether they were
openly without, like the heretics, or apparently within, like the abandoned
Catholics; of whom, however, it is clear that they both have and confer baptism
without remission of sins, when even from themselves it is received by men, who,
being not changed for the better, honor God with their lips, while their heart
is far from Him. [1874] Yet it is true that there is one baptism, just as there
is one Dove, though those who are not in the one communion of the Dove may yet
have baptism in common.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 210: CHAPTER 45. -- 88. ALSO ANOTHER AURELIUS OF CHULLABI SAID: |THE APOSTLE JOHN HAS LAID DOWN IN
========================================================================

-- 88. Also another Aurelius of Chullabi [1875] said: "The Apostle John has laid
down in his epistle the following precept: If there come any unto you, and bring
not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
for he that 89. In respect of this testimony of John there is no need of further
disputation, since it has no reference at all to the question of baptism, which
we are at present discussing. For he says, "If any come unto you, and bring not
the doctrine of Christ." But heretics leaving the doctrine of their error are
converted to the doctrine of Christ, that they may be incorporated with the
Church, and may begin to belong to the members of that Dove whose sacrament they
previously had; and therefore what previously they lacked belonging to it is
given to them, that is to say, peace and charity out of a pure heart, and of a
good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. [1878] But what they previously had
belonging to the Dove is acknowledged, and received without any depreciation;
just as in the adulteress God recognises His gifts, even when she is following
her lovers; because when after her fornication is corrected she is turned again
to chastity, those gifts are not laid to her charge, but she herself is
corrected. [1879] But just as Cyprian might have defended himself if this
testimony of John had been cast in his teeth whilst he was holding communion
with men like these, so let those against whom it is spoken make their own
defense. For to the question before us, as I said before, it has no reference at
all. For John says that we are not to bid God speed to men of strange doctrine;
but Paul the apostle says, with even greater vehemence, "If any man that is
called a brother be covetous, or a drunkard," or anything of the sort, with such
an one no not to eat; [1880] and yet Cyprian used to admit to fellowship, not
with his private table, but with the altar of God, his colleagues who were
usurers, and treacherous, and fraudulent, and robbers. But in what manner this
may be defended has been sufficiently set forth in other books already.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 211: CHAPTER 46. -- 90. LITTEUS OF GEMELLI SAID: |IF THE BLIND LEAD THE BLIND
========================================================================

-- 90. Litteus [1881] of Gemelli [1882] said: "If the blind lead the blind, both
shall fall into the ditch.' [1883] Since, therefore, it is clear that heretics
can give no light [1884] to any one, as being blind themselves, therefore their
baptism is i 91. Neither do we say that it is valid for salvation so long as
they are heretics, just as it is of no value to those murderers of whom we
spoke, so long as they hate their brethren: for they also themselves are in
darkness, and if any one follows them they fall together into the ditch; and yet
it does not follow that they either have not baptism or are unable to confer it.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 212: CHAPTER 47. -- 92. NATALIS OF O&EUML;A SAID: |IT IS NOT ONLY I MYSELF WHO AM PRESENT
========================================================================

-- 92. Natalis of Oëa [1886] said: "It is not only I myself who am present, but
also Pompeius of Sabrati, [1887] and Dioga of Leptis Magna, [1888] who
commissioned me to represent their views, being absent indeed in body, but
present in spirit, who deliv 93. He means, I suppose, that communion which
belongs to the society of the Dove; for in the partaking of the sacraments they
doubtless held communion with them, judging no man, nor removing any from the
right of communion if he held a different opinion. But with whatever reference
he spoke, there is no great need for these words being refuted. For certainly a
heretic would not be admitted to communion, unless he had been baptized with the
baptism of the Church. But it is clear that the baptism of the Church exists
even among heretics if it be consecrated with the words of the gospel; just as
the gospel itself belongs to the Church, and has nothing to do with their
waywardness, but certainly retains its own holiness.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 213: CHAPTER 48. -- 94. JUNIUS OF NEAPOLIS SAID: |I DO NOT DEPART FROM THE JUDGMENT WHICH WE
========================================================================

-- 94. Junius of Neapolis [1890] said: "I do not depart from the judgment which
we once pronounced, that we should baptize heretics on their coming to the
Church." [1891] 95. Since this man has adduced no argument nor proof from the
Scriptures, he need not detain us long.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 214: CHAPTER 49. -- 96. CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE SAID: |MY OPINION HAS BEEN SET FORTH WITH THE GREATEST
========================================================================

-- 96. Cyprian of Carthage said: "My opinion has been set forth with the
greatest fullness in the letter which has been written to our colleague
Jubaianus, [1892] that heretics being called enemies of Christ and antichrists
according to the testimony of 97. What need is there of further disputation
here, seeing that we have already handled with the utmost care that very epistle
to Jubaianus of which he has made mention? And as to what he has said here, let
us not forget that it might be said of all unrighteous men who, as he himself
bears witness, are in the Catholic Church, and whose power of possessing and of
conferring baptism is not questioned by any of us. For they come to the Church,
who pass to Christ from the party of the devil, and build upon the rock, and are
incorporated with the Dove, and are placed in security in the garden enclosed
and fountain sealed; where none of those are found who live contrary to the
precepts of Christ, wherever they may seem to be. For in the epistle which he
wrote to Magnus, while discussing this very question, he himself warned us at
sufficient length, and in no ambiguous terms, of what kind of society we should
understand that the Church consists. For he says, in speaking of a certain man,
"Let him become an alien and profane, an enemy to the peace and unity of the
Lord, not dwelling in the house of God, that is to say, in the Church of Christ,
in which none dwell save those who are of one heart and of one mind." [1894] Let
those, therefore, who would lay injunctions on us on the authority of Cyprian,
pay attention for a time to what we here say. For if only those who are of one
heart and of one mind dwell in the Church of Christ, beyond all question those
were not dwelling in the Church of Christ, however much they might appear to be
within, who of envy and contention were announcing Christ without charity; by
whom he understands, not the heretics and schismatics who are mentioned by the
Apostle Paul, [1895] but false brethren holding conversation with him within,
who certainly ought not to have baptized, because they were not dwelling in the
Church, in which he himself says that none dwell save those who are of one heart
and of one mind: unless, indeed, any one be so far removed from the truth as to
say that those were of one heart and of one mind who were envious and
malevolent, and contentious without charity; and yet they used to baptize: nor
did the detestable waywardness which they displayed in any degree violate or
diminish from the sacrament of Christ, which was handled and dispensed by them.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 215: CHAPTER 50. -- 98. IT IS INDEED WORTH WHILE TO CONSIDER THE WHOLE OF THE PASSAGE IN
========================================================================

-- 98. It is indeed worth while to consider the whole of the passage in the
aforesaid letter to Magnus, which he has put together as follows: "Not
dwelling," he says, "in the house of God -- that is to say, in the Church of
Christ -- in which none dwell save


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 216: CHAPTER 51. -- 99. TAKING ALL THESE THINGS, THEREFORE, INTO CONSIDERATION
========================================================================

-- 99. Taking all these things, therefore, into consideration, I think that I am
not rash in saying that there are some in the house of God after such a fashion
as not to be themselves the very house of God, which is said to be built upon a
rock, [1900


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 217: CHAPTER 52. -- 100. OF ALL THESE SEVERAL CLASSES, THEN, NO ONE DOUBTS RESPECTING THOSE FIRST
========================================================================

-- 100. Of all these several classes, then, no one doubts respecting those
first, who are in the house of God in such a sense as themselves to be the house
of God, whether they be already spiritual, or as yet only babes nurtured with
milk, but still makin


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 218: CHAPTER 53. -- 101. THE QUESTION IS ALSO COMMONLY RAISED, WHETHER BAPTISM IS TO BE HELD VALID
========================================================================

-- 101. The question is also commonly raised, whether baptism is to be held
valid which is received from one who had not himself received it, if, from some
promptings of curiosity, he had chanced to learn how it ought to be conferred;
and whether it makes 102. But the safe course for us is, not to advance with any
rashness of judgment in setting forth a view which has neither been started in
any regionary Council of the Catholic Church nor established in a plenary one;
but to assert, with all the confidence of a voice that cannot be gainsaid, what
has been confirmed by the consent of the universal Church, under the direction
of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, if any one were to press
me -- supposing I were duly seated in a Council in which a question were raised
on points like these -- to declare what my own opinion was, without reference to
the previously expressed views of others, whose judgment I would rather follow,
if I were under the influence of the same feelings as led me to assert what I
have said before, I should have no hesitation in saying that all men possess
baptism who have received it in any place, from any sort of men, provided that
it were consecrated in the words of the gospel, and received without deceit on
their part with some degree of faith; although it would be of no profit to them
for the salvation of their souls if they were without charity, by which they
might be grafted into the Catholic Church. For "though I have faith," says the
apostle, "so that I could remove mountains, but have not charity, I am nothing."
[1916] Just as already, from the established decrees of our predecessors, I have
no hesitation in saying that all those have baptism who, though they receive it
deceitfully, yet receive it in the Church, or where the Church is thought to be
by those in whose society it is received, of whom it was said, "They went out
from us." [1917] But when there was no society of those who so believed, and
when the man who received it did not himself hold such belief, but the whole
thing was done as a farce, or a comedy, or a jest, -- if I were asked whether
the baptism which was thus conferred should be approved, I should declare my
opinion that we ought to pray for the declaration of God's judgment through the
medium of some revelation seeking it with united prayer and earnest groanings of
suppliant devotion, humbly deferring all the time to the decision of those who
were to give their judgment after me, in case they should set forth anything as
already known and determined. And, therefore, how much the more must I be
considered to have given my opinion now without prejudice to the utterance of
more diligent research or authority higher than my own!


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 219: CHAPTER 54. -- 103. BUT NOW I THINK THAT IT IS FULLY TIME FOR ME TO BRING
========================================================================

-- 103. But now I think that it is fully time for me to bring to their due
termination these books also on the subject of baptism, in which our Lord God
has shown to us, through the words of the peaceful Bishop Cyprian and his
brethren who agreed with him


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 220: THE THREE BOOKS OF AUGUSTIN
========================================================================

, BISHOP OF HIPPO, in answer to the letters of petilian, the donatist [contra
litteras petiliani donatistÆ cortensis, episcopi.] CIRCA A.D.400. translated by
the rev. j. r. king, m.a., vicar of st. peter's in the east, oxford; and late
fellow and tutor of mERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD Three Books of Augustin, Bishop of
Hippo in answer to The Letters of Petilian, the Donatist, Bishop of cirta.
________________ Written c.400 A.D., some say 398 A.D., but Augustin places it
some time after the treatise on Baptism: Retractt. Bk. ii. xxv. From the same,
we gather the following points as to the origin of this treatise: Before A. had
finished his books on the Trinity and his word-for-word commentary on Genesis, a
reply to a letter which Petilian had addressed to his followers, only a small
part of which however had come into A.'s hands, demanded immediate preparation.
This constitutes Book First. Subsequently the whole document was obtained, and
he was engaged in preparing the second Book, c.401; but even before the full
treatise of Petilian had been secured, the latter had obtained A.'s first book,
and afterwards put an epistle abusive of A. in circulation. The answer to this
latter is Book Third, c.402. Petilian was originally an advocate. The opponents
charged him with having become a Donatist by compulsion, with assuming the title
of Paraclete, and with endeavoring to prevent all access on their part to his
writings. ________________


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 221: WRITTEN IN THE FORM OF A LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE CATHOLICS
========================================================================

Written in the form of a letter addressed to the Catholics, in which the first
portion of the letter which Petilian had written to his adherents is examined
and refuted. Augustin, to the well-beloved brethren that belong to the care of
our charge, greeting in the Lord:


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 222: CHAPTER 1. -- 1. YE KNOW THAT WE HAVE OFTEN WISHED TO BRING FORWARD INTO OPEN NOTORIETY
========================================================================

-- 1. Ye know that we have often wished to bring forward into open notoriety,
and to confute, not so much from our own arguments as from theirs, the
sacrilegious error of the Donatist heretics; whence it came to pass that we
wrote letters even to some of 2. The first point, then, that he lays down in his
letter is the statement, "that we find fault with them for the repetition of
baptism, while we ourselves pollute our souls with a laver stained with guilt."
But to what profit is it that I should reproduce all his insulting terms? For,
since it is one thing to strengthen proofs, another thing to meddle with abusive
words by way of refutation, let us rather turn our attention to the mode in
which he has sought to prove that we do not possess baptism, and that therefore
they do not require the repetition of what was already present, but confer what
hitherto was wanting. For he says: "What we look for is the conscience of the
giver to cleanse that of the recipient." But supposing the conscience of the
giver is concealed from view, and perhaps defiled with sin, how will it be able
to cleanse the conscience of the recipient, if, as he says, "what we look for is
the conscience of the giver to cleanse that of the recipient?" For if he should
say that it makes no matter to the recipient what amount of evil may lie
concealed from view in the conscience of the giver, perhaps that ignorance may
have such a degree of efficacy as this, that a man cannot be defiled by the
guilt of the conscience of him from whom he receives baptism, so long as he is
unaware of it. Let it then be granted that the guilty conscience of his neighbor
cannot defile a man so long as he is unaware of it, but is it therefore clear
that it can further cleanse him from his own guilt?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 223: CHAPTER 2. -- 3. WHENCE, THEN, IS A MAN TO BE CLEANSED WHO RECEIVES BAPTISM
========================================================================

-- 3. Whence, then, is a man to be cleansed who receives baptism, when the
conscience of the giver is polluted without the knowledge of him who is to
receive it? Especially when he goes on to say, "For he who receives faith from
the faithless receives no


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 224: CHAPTER 3.
========================================================================

-- For, so long as they escaped detection, they could not bestow faith on any
whom they baptized, but only guilt, if it be true that whosoever receives faith
from one that is faithless receives not faith, but guilt. Let them therefore be
baptized by the g 4. But how, again, shall they have any certainty about the
good who are to give them faith, if what we look to is the conscience of the
giver, which is unseen by the eyes of the proposed recipient? Therefore,
according to their judgment, the salvation of the spirit is made uncertain, so
long as in opposition to the holy Scriptures, which say, "It is better to trust
in the Lord than to put confidence in man," [1922] and, "Cursed be the man that
trusteth in man," [1923] they remove the hope of those who are to be baptized
from the Lord their God, and persuade them that it should be placed in man; the
practical result of which is, that their salvation becomes not merely uncertain,
but actually null and void. For "salvation belongeth unto the Lord," [1924] and
"vain is the help of man." [1925] Therefore, whosoever places his trust in man,
even in one whom he knows to be just and innocent, is accursed. Whence also the
Apostle Paul finds fault with those who said they were of Paul saying, "Was Paul
crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?" [1926]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 225: CHAPTER 4. -- 5. WHEREFORE, IF THEY WERE IN ERROR, AND WOULD HAVE PERISHED HAD THEY NOT
========================================================================

-- 5. Wherefore, if they were in error, and would have perished had they not
been corrected, who wished to be of Paul, what must we suppose to be the hope of
those who wished to be of Donatus? For they use their utmost endeavors to prove
that the origin,


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 226: CHAPTER 5. -- 6. WE ASK, THEREFORE, SINCE HE SAYS, |HE WHO RECEIVES FAITH FROM THE FAITHLESS
========================================================================

-- 6. We ask, therefore, since he says, "He who receives faith from the
faithless receives not faith, but guilt," and immediately adds to this the
further statement, that "everything consists of an origin and root; and if it
have not something for a head,


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 227: CHAPTER 6. -- 7. WHEREFORE, WHETHER A MAN RECEIVE THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM FROM A FAITHFUL OR
========================================================================

-- 7. Wherefore, whether a man receive the sacrament of baptism from a faithful
or a faithless minister, his whole hope is in Christ, that he fall not under the
condemnation that "cursed is he that placeth his hope in man." Otherwise, if
each man is born


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 228: CHAPTER 7. -- 8. BUT IF IT IS PERFECT MADNESS TO HOLD SUCH A VIEW FOR IT
========================================================================

-- 8. But if it is perfect madness to hold such a view (for it is Christ always
that justifieth the ungodly, by changing his ungodliness into Christianity; it
is from Christ always that faith is received, Christ is always the origin of the
regenerate and


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 229: CHAPTER 8. -- 9. WHEN HE HEARS, |EVERY GOOD TREE BRINGETH GOOD FRUIT
========================================================================

-- 9. When he hears, "Every good tree bringeth good fruit, but a corrupt tree
bringeth forth evil fruit: do men gather grapes of thorns?" [1933] and, "A good
man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things, and an
evil man out of the


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 230: CHAPTER 9. -- 10. AGAIN, WHEN HE HEARS, |HE THAT IS WASHED BY ONE DEAD
========================================================================

-- 10. Again, when he hears, "He that is washed by one dead, his washing
profiteth him nought," [1936] he will answer, "Christ, being raised from the
dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him:" [1937] of whom it is
said, "The same is He


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 231: CHAPTER 10. -- 11. LASTLY, IF THEY ARE WILLING TO GIVE THE NAME OF DEAD NEITHER TO
========================================================================

-- 11. Lastly, if they are willing to give the name of dead neither to the
wicked man whose sin is hidden, nor to him whose sin is manifest, but who has
yet not been condemned by them, but only to him whose sin is manifest and
condemned, so that whosoever


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 232: CHAPTER 11. -- 12. OF THESE I WOULD ASK, WHETHER BY COMING TO THEIR SEA THEY WERE
========================================================================

-- 12. Of these I would ask, whether by coming to their sea they were restored
to life, or whether they are still dead there? For if still they are none the
less corpses, then the laver cannot in any way profit those who are baptized by
such dead men. B


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 233: CHAPTER 12. -- 13. BUT OUR BRETHREN THEMSELVES, THE SONS OF THE AFORESAID CHURCHES
========================================================================

-- 13. But our brethren themselves, the sons of the aforesaid churches, were
both ignorant at the time, and still are ignorant, of what has been done so many
years ago in Africa: wherefore they at any rate cannot be defiled by the charges
which have been


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 234: CHAPTER 13. -- 14. IF, IN THE INTERESTS OF THE UNITY OF THE PARTY OF DONATUS
========================================================================

-- 14. If, in the interests of the unity of the party of Donatus, no one
rebaptizes those who were baptized in a wicked schism, and men, who are guilty
of a crime of such enormity as to be compared by them in their Council to those
ancient authors of schi


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 235: CHAPTER 14. -- 15. THEREFORE, BRETHREN, LET IT SUFFICE US THAT THEY SHOULD BE ADMONISHED AND CORRECTED
========================================================================

-- 15. Therefore, brethren, let it suffice us that they should be admonished and
corrected on the one point of their conduct in the matter of the followers of
Maximianus. We do not ransack ancient archives, we do not bring to light the
contents of time h


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 236: CHAPTER 15. -- 16. LOOK AT THE STATES OF MUSTI AND ASSURA
========================================================================

-- 16. Look at the states of Musti [1947] and Assura: [1948] there are many
still remaining in this life and in this province who have severed themselves,
and many from whom they have severed themselves; many who have erected an altar,
and many against wh


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 237: CHAPTER 16. -- 17. AS FOR THE WORDS WHICH FOLLOW IN HIS LETTER
========================================================================

-- 17. As for the words which follow in his letter, the writer himself could
scarcely fail to laugh at them, when, having made an unlearned and lying use of
the proof in which he quotes the words of Scripture, "He who is washed by the
dead, what profiteth


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 238: CHAPTER 17. -- 18. THEN HE FURTHER ADDS: |BOTH ARE WITHOUT THE LIFE OF BAPTISM
========================================================================

-- 18. Then he further adds: "Both are without the life of baptism, both he who
never had it at all, and he who had it but has lost it." He therefore never had
it, whom Felicianus, the follower of Maximianus or Prætextatus, baptized
outside; and these m 19. But whatever he seemed to himself to say by way of
accusation about the traitor Judas, I see not how it can concern us, who are not
proved by them to have betrayed our trust; nor, indeed, if such treason were
proved on the part of any who before our time have died in our communion, would
that treason in any way defile us by whom it was disavowed, and to whom it was
displeasing. For if they themselves are not defiled by offenses condemned by
themselves, and afterwards condoned, how much less can we be defiled by what we
have disavowed so soon as we have heard of them! However weighty, therefore, his
invective against traditors, let him be assured that they are condemned by me in
precisely the same terms. But yet I make a distinction; for he accuses one on my
side who has long been dead without having been condemned in any investigation
made by me. I point to a man adhering closely to his side, who had been
condemned by him, or at least had been separated by a sacrilegious schism, and
whom he received again with undiminished honor.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 239: CHAPTER 18. -- 20. HE SAYS: |YOU WHO ARE A MOST ABANDONED TRADITOR HAVE COME OUT IN
========================================================================

-- 20. He says: "You who are a most abandoned traditor have come out in the
character of a persecutor and murderer of us who keep the law." If the followers
of Maximianus kept the law when they separated from you, then we may acknowledge
you as a keeper


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 240: CHAPTER 19. -- 21. WHAT, THEN, DOES HE MEAN BY QUOTING IN HIS LETTER THE WORDS WITH
========================================================================

-- 21. What, then, does he mean by quoting in his letter the words with which
our Lord addressed the Jews: "Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and
wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of
them shall ye scou


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 241: CHAPTER 20. -- 22. WHEREFORE ALL THIS ABOUT THE GENERATION OF VIPERS
========================================================================

-- 22. Wherefore all this about the generation of vipers, and the poison of asps
under their lips, and all the other things which they have said against those
which have not known the way of peace, are really, if they would but speak the
truth, more stric


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 242: CHAPTER 21. -- 23. LASTLY, IT HAS BEEN SAID, AS HE HIMSELF HAS ALSO QUOTED
========================================================================

-- 23. Lastly, it has been said, as he himself has also quoted, "Ye shall know
them by their fruits:" [1956] let us therefore examine into their fruits. You
bring up against our predecessors their delivery of the sacred books. This very
charge we urge


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 243: CHAPTER 22. -- 24. WHAT IF THE HOLY AND TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST WERE TO CONVINCE AND
========================================================================

-- 24. What if the holy and true Church of Christ were to convince and overcome
you, even if we held no documents in support of our cause, or only such as were
false, while you had possession of some genuine proofs of delivery of the sacred
books? what wo


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 244: CHAPTER 23. -- 25. IN CONCLUSION, THE TESTAMENT IS SAID TO HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO THE FLAMES
========================================================================

-- 25. In conclusion, the Testament is said to have been given to the flames by
certain men in the time of persecution. Now let its lessons be read, from
whatever source it has been brought to light. Certainly in the beginning of the
promises of the Tes


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 245: CHAPTER 24. -- 26. BUT LET US TURN TO THE CONSIDERATION OF YOUR FRUITS.
========================================================================

-- 26. But let us turn to the consideration of your fruits. I pass over the
tyrannous exercise of authority in the cities, and especially in the estates of
other men; I pass over the madness of the Circumcelliones, and the sacrilegious
and profane adorati


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 246: CHAPTER 25. -- 27. I THINK THAT I HAVE LEFT UNANSWERED NONE OF THE STATEMENTS IN THE
========================================================================

-- 27. I think that I have left unanswered none of the statements in the letter
of Donatus, so far at least as relates to what I have been able to find in that
part of which we are in possession. I should be glad if they would produce the
other part as w


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 247: CHAPTER 26. -- 28. BUT IT IS POSSIBLE THAT YOU MAY EXPECT OF ME THAT I SHOULD
========================================================================

-- 28. But it is possible that you may expect of me that I should go on to
refute what he has introduced about Manichæus. Now, in respect of this, the only
thing that offends me is that he has censured a most pestilent and pernicious
error -- I mean the he


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 248: CHAPTER 27. -- 29. WHEREFORE, MY BELOVED BRETHREN, THOUGH THAT ERROR IS EXPOSED AND OVERCOME IN MANY
========================================================================

-- 29. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, though that error is exposed and overcome
in many ways, and dare not oppose the truth on any show of reason whatsoever,
but only with the unblushing obstinacy of impudence; yet, not to load your
memory with a multitu


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 249: CHAPTER 28. FINALLY, THEY THINK THAT THE QUESTION OF BAPTISM IS HIDDEN
========================================================================

#NAME? 30. "But these things," they say, "bring no pollution in the cause of
peace; and it is well to bend to mercy the rigor of extreme severity, that
broken branches may be grafted in anew." Accordingly, in this way the whole
question is settled, by defeat in them, by the impossibility of defeat for us;
for if the name of peace be assumed for even the faintest shadow of defense to
justify the bearing with wicked men in schism, then beyond all doubt the
violation of true peace itself involves detestable guilt, with nothing to be
said in its defence throughout the unity of the world.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 250: CHAPTER 29. -- 31. THESE THINGS, BRETHREN, I WOULD HAVE YOU RETAIN AS THE BASIS OF YOUR
========================================================================

-- 31. These things, brethren, I would have you retain as the basis of your
action and preaching with untiring gentleness: love men, while you destroy
errors; take of the truth without pride; strive for the truth without cruelty.
Pray for those whom you


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 251: IN WHICH AUGUSTIN REPLIES TO ALL THE SEVERAL STATEMENTS IN THE LETTER OF PETILIANUS
========================================================================

In which Augustin replies to all the several statements in the letter of
Petilianus, as though disputing with an adversary face to face.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 252: CHAPTER 1. -- 1. THAT WE MADE A FULL AND SUFFICIENT ANSWER TO THE FIRST PART OF
========================================================================

-- 1. That we made a full and sufficient answer to the first part of the letter
of Petilianus, which was all that we had been able to find, will be remembered
by all who were able to read or hear what we replied. But since the whole of it
was afterwards 2. In the very beginning of the letter Petilianus said:
"Petilianus, a bishop, to his well-beloved brethren, fellow-priests, and
deacons, appointed ministers with us throughout our diocese in the gospel, grace
be to you and peace, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ." 3.
Augustin answered: I acknowledge the apostolic greeting. You see who you are
that employ it, but see from what source you have learned what you say. For in
these terms Paul salutes the Romans, and in the same terms the Corinthians, the
Galatians, the Ephesians, the Colossians, the Philippians, the Thessalonians.
What madness is it, therefore, to be unwilling to share the salvation of peace
with those very Churches in whose epistles you learned its form of salutation?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 253: CHAPTER 2. -- 4. PETILIANUS SAID: |THOSE WHO HAVE POLLUTED THEIR SOULS WITH A GUILTY LAVER
========================================================================

-- 4. Petilianus said: "Those who have polluted their souls with a guilty laver,
under the name of baptism, reproach us with baptizing twice, -- than whose
obscenity, indeed, any kind of filth is more cleanly, seeing that through a
perversion of cleanlines 5. Augustin answered: We are neither made fouler by our
washing, nor cleaner by yours. But when the water of baptism is given to any one
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, it is neither
ours nor yours, but His of whom it was said to John, "Upon whom thou shalt see
the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with
the Holy Ghost." [1968]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 254: CHAPTER 3. -- 6. PETILIANUS SAID: |FOR WHAT WE LOOK TO IS THE CONSCIENCE OF THE GIVER
========================================================================

-- 6. Petilianus said: "For what we look to is the conscience of the giver, to
cleanse that of the recipient." 7. Augustin answered: We therefore need have no
anxiety about the conscience of Christ. But if you assert any man to be the
giver, be he who he may, there will be no certainty about the cleansing of the
recipient, because there is no certainty about the conscience of the giver.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 255: CHAPTER 4. -- 8. PETILIANUS SAID: |FOR HE WHO RECEIVES FAITH FROM THE FAITHLESS
========================================================================

-- 8. Petilianus said: "For he who receives faith from the faithless, receives
not faith but guilt." 9. Augustin answered: Christ is not faithless, from whom
the faithful man receives not guilt but faith. For he believeth on Him that
justifieth the ungodly, that his faith may be counted for righteousness. [1969]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 256: CHAPTER 5. -- 10. PETILIANUS SAID: |FOR EVERYTHING CONSISTS OF AN ORIGIN AND ROOT
========================================================================

-- 10. Petilianus said: "For everything consists of an origin and root; and if
it have not something for a head, it is nothing: nor does anything well receive
second birth, unless it be born again of good seed." 11. Augustin answered: Why
will you put yourself forward in the room of Christ, when you will not place
yourself under Him? He is the origin, and root, and head of him who is being
born, and in Him we feel no fear, as we must in any man, whoever he may be, lest
he should prove to be false and of abandoned character, and we should be found
to be sprung from an abandoned source, growing from an abandoned root, united to
an abandoned head. For what man can feel secure about a man, when it is written,
"Cursed be the man that trusteth in man?" [1970] But the seed of which we are
born again is the word of God, that is, the gospel. Whence the apostle says,
"For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel." [1971] And yet he
allows even those to preach the gospel who were preaching it not in purity, and
rejoices in their preaching; [1972] because, although they were preaching it not
in purity, but seeking their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's,
[1973] yet the gospel which they preached was pure. And the Lord had said of
certain of like character, "Whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and
do; but do not yet after their works: for they say, and do not." [1974] If,
therefore, what is in itself pure is preached in purity, then the preacher
himself also, in that he is a partner with the word, has his share in begetting
the believer; but if he himself be not regenerate, and yet what he preaches be
pure, then the believer is born not from the barrenness of the minister but from
the fruitfulness of the word.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 257: CHAPTER 6. -- 12. PETILIANUS SAID: |THIS BEING THE CASE, BRETHREN
========================================================================

-- 12. Petilianus said: "This being the case, brethren, what perversity must it
be, that he who is guilty through his own sins should make another free from
guilt, when the Lord Jesus Christ says, Every good tree bringeth forth good
fruit, but a corrupt 13. Augustin answered: No man, even though he be not guilty
through his own sins, can make his neighbor free from sin, because he is not
God. Otherwise, if we were to expect that out of the innocence of the baptizer
should be produced the innocence of the baptized, then each will be the more
innocent in proportion as he may have found a more innocent person by whom to be
baptized; and will himself be the less innocent in proportion as he by whom he
is baptized is less innocent. And if the man who baptizes happens to entertain
hatred against another man, this will also be imputed to him who is baptized.
Why, therefore, does the wretched man hasten to be baptized, -- that his own
sins may be forgiven him, or that those of others may be reckoned against him?
Is he like a merchant ship, to discharge one burden, and to take on him another?
But by the good tree and its good fruit, and the corrupt tree and its evil
fruit, we are wont to understand men and their works, as is consequently shown
in those other words which you also quoted: "A good man, out of the good
treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things: and an evil man, out of the
evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things." But when a man preaches the word of
God, or administers the sacraments of God, he does not, if he is a bad man,
preach or minister out of his own treasure; but he will be counted among those
of whom it is said, "Whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but
do not ye after their works:" for they bid you observe what is God's, but their
works are their own. For if it is as you say, that is, if the fruit of those who
baptize consist in the baptized persons themselves, you declare a great woe
against Africa, if a young Optatus has sprung up for every one that Optatus
baptized.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 258: CHAPTER 7. -- 14. PETILIANUS SAID: |AND AGAIN, HE WHO IS BAPTIZED BY ONE THAT IS DEAD
========================================================================

-- 14. Petilianus said: "And again, He who is baptized by one that is dead, his
washing profiteth him nothing.' [1977] He did not mean that the baptizer was a
corpse, a lifeless body, the remains of a man ready for burial, but one lacking
the Spirit of 15. Augustin answered: Seek with greater care to know in what
sense the words which you have quoted from Scripture in proof of your position
were really uttered, and how they should be understood. For that all unrighteous
persons are wont to be called dead in a mystical sense is clear enough; but
Christ, to whom true baptism belongs, which you say is false because of the
faults of men, is alive, sitting at the right hand of the Father, and He will
not die any more through any infirmity of the flesh: death will no more have
dominion over Him. [1980] And they who are baptized with His baptism are not
baptized by one who is dead. And if it so happen that certain ministers, being
deceitful workers, seeking their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's,
proclaiming the gospel not in purity, and preaching Christ of contention and
envy, are to be called dead because of their unrighteousness, yet the sacrament
of the living God does not die even in one that is dead. For that Simon was dead
who was baptized by Philip in Samaria, who wished to purchase the gift of God
for money; but the baptism which he had lived in him still to work his
punishment. [1981] 16. But how false the statement is which you make, that "both
are wanting in the life of baptism, both he who never had it at all, and he who
had it and has lost it," you may see from this, that in the case of those who
apostatize after having been baptized, and who return through penitence, baptism
is not restored to them, as it would be restored if it were lost. In what
manner, indeed, do your dead men baptize according to your interpretation? Must
we not reckon the drunken among the dead (to say nothing of the rest, and to
mention only what is well known and of daily experience among all), seeing that
the apostle says of the widow, "But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while
she liveth?" [1982] In the next place, in that Council of yours, in which you
condemned Maximianus with his advisers or his ministers, have you forgotten with
what eloquence you said, "Even after the manner of the Egyptians, the shores are
full of the bodies of the dying, on whom the weightier punishment falls in death
itself, in that, after their life has been wrung from them by the avenging
waters, they have not found so much as burial?" And yet you yourselves may see
whether or no one of them, Felicianus, has been brought to life again; yet he
has with him within the communion of your body those whom he baptized outside.
As therefore he is baptized by One that is alive, who is clothed with the
baptism of the living Christ, so he is baptized by the dead who is wrapped in
the baptism of the dead Saturn, or any one like him; that we may set forth in
the meanwhile, with what brevity we may, in what sense the words which you have
quoted may be understood without any cavilling on the part of any one of us.
For, in the sense in which they are received by you, you make no effort to
explain them, but only strive to entangle us together with yourselves.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 259: CHAPTER 8. -- 17. PETILIANUS SAID: |WE MUST CONSIDER, I SAY
========================================================================

-- 17. Petilianus said: "We must consider, I say, and declare how far the
treacherous traditor is to be accounted dead while yet in life. Judas was an
apostle when he betrayed Christ; and the same man was already dead, having
spiritually lost the office 18. Augustin answered: See what a difference there
is between your calumnious words and our truthful assertions. Listen for a
little while. See how you have exaggerated the sin of delivering up the sacred
books, comparing us in most odious terms, like some sophistical inventor of
charges, with the traitor Judas. But when I shall have answered you on this
point with the utmost brevity, -- I did not do what you assert; I did not
deliver up the sacred books; your charge is false; you will never be able to
prove it, -- will not all that smoke of mighty words presently vanish away? Or
will you perchance endeavor to prove the truth of what you say? This, then, you
should do first; and then you might rise against us, as against men who were
already convicted, with whatever mass of invective you might choose. Here is one
absurdity: behold again a second. 19. You yourself, when speaking of the
foretelling of the condemnation of Judas, used these expressions: "See how
mighty is the spirit of the prophets, that it was able to see all future things
as though they were present, so that a traitor who was to be born hereafter
should be condemned many centuries before;" and yet you did not see that in the
same sure prophecy, and certain and unshaken truth, in which it was foretold
that one of the disciples should hereafter betray the Christ; it was also
foretold that the whole world should hereafter believe in Christ. Why did you
pay attention in the prophecy to the man who betrayed Christ, and in the same
place give no heed to the world for which Christ was betrayed? Who betrayed
Christ? Judas. To whom did he betray Him? To the Jews. What did the Jews do to
Him? "They pierced my hands and my feet," says the Psalmist. "I may tell all my
bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast
lots upon my vesture." [1987] Of what importance, then, that is which is bought
at such a price, I would have you read a little later in the psalm itself: "All
the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all the
kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. For the kingdom is the
Lord's; and He is the governor among the nations." [1988] But who is able to
suffice for the quotation of all the other innumerable prophetic passages which
bear witness to the world that is destined to believe? Yet you quote a prophecy
because you see in it the man who sold Christ: you do not see in it the
possession which Christ bought by being sold. Here is the second absurdity:
behold again the third. 20. Among the many other expressions in your invective,
you said: "If you were to burn with fire the testament of a dead man, would you
not be punished as the falsifier of a will? What therefore is likely to become
of you who have burned the most holy law of our God and Judge?" In these words
you have paid no attention to what certainly ought to have moved you, to the
question of how it might be that we should burn the testament, and yet stand
fast in the inheritance which was described in that testament; but it is
marvellous that you have preserved the testament and lost the inheritance. Is it
not written in that testament, "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for
thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession"?
[1989] Take part in this inheritance, and you may bring what charges you will
against me about the testament. For what madness is it, that while you shrank
from committing the testament to the flames, you should yet strive against the
words of the testator! We, on the other hand, though we hold in our hands the
records of the Church and of the State, in which we read that those who ordained
a rival bishop [1990] in opposition to Cæcilianus were rather the betrayers of
the sacred books, yet do not on this account insult you, or pursue you with
invectives, or mourn over the ashes of the sacred pages in your hands, or
contrast the burning torments of the Maccabees with the sacrilege of your fear,
saying, "You should deliver your own limbs to the flames rather than the
utterances of God." For we are unwilling to be so absurd as to excite an empty
uproar against you on account of the deeds of others, which you either know
nothing of, or else repudiate. But in that we see you separated from the
communion of the whole world (a sin both of the greatest magnitude, and manifest
to all mankind, and common to you all), if I were desirous of exaggerating, I
should find time failing me sooner than words. And if you should seek to defend
yourself on this charge, it could only be by bringing accusations against the
whole world, of such a kind that, if they could be maintained, you would simply
be furnishing matter for further accusation against yourself; if they could not
be maintained, there is in them no defence for you. Why therefore do you puff
yourself up against me about the betrayal of the sacred books, which concerns
neither you nor me if we abide by the agreement not to charge each other with
the sins of other men: and which, if that agreement does not stand, affects you
rather than me? And, yet, even without any violation of that agreement, I think
I may say with perfect justice that he should be deemed a partner with him who
delivered up Christ who has not delivered himself up to Christ in company with
the whole world. "Then," says the apostle, "then are ye Abraham's seed, and
heirs according to the promise." [1991] And again he says, "Heirs of God, and
joint-heirs with Christ." [1992] And the same apostle shows that the seed of
Abraham belongs to all nations from the promise which was given to Abraham, "In
thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." [1993] Wherefore I
consider that I am only making a fair demand in asking that we should for a
moment consider the testament of God, which has already long been opened, and
that we should consider every one to be himself an heir of the traitor whom we
do not find to be a joint-heir with Him whom he betrayed; that every one should
belong to him who sold Christ who denies that Christ has bought the whole world.
For when He showed Himself after His resurrection to His disciples, and gave His
limbs to those who doubted, that they should handle them, He says this to them,
"For thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again
from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." [1994] See from
what an inheritance you estrange yourselves! see what an Heir you resist! Can it
really be that a man would spare Christ if He were walking here on earth who
speaks against Him while He sits in heaven? Do you not yet understand that
whatever you allege against us you allege against His words? A Christian world
is promised and believed in: the promise is fulfilled, and it is denied.
Consider, I entreat of you, what you ought to suffer for such impiety. And yet,
if I know not what you have suffered, -- if I have not seen it, have not wrought
it, -- then do you to-day, who do not suffer the violence of my persecution,
render to me an account of your separation. But you are likely to say over and
over again what, unless you prove it, can affect no one, and if you prove it,
has no bearing upon me.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 260: CHAPTER 9. -- 21. PETILIANUS SAID: |HEMMED IN, THEREFORE, BY THESE OFFENSES
========================================================================

-- 21. Petilianus said: "Hemmed in, therefore, by these offenses, you cannot be
a true bishop." 22. Augustin answered: By what offenses? What have you shown?
What have you proved? And if you have proved charges on the part of I know not
whom, what has that to do with the seed of Abraham, in which all the nations of
the earth are blessed?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 261: CHAPTER 10. -- 23. PETILIANUS SAID: |DID THE APOSTLE PERSECUTE ANY ONE? OR DID CHRIST BETRAY ANY
========================================================================

-- 23. Petilianus said: "Did the apostle persecute any one? or did Christ betray
any one?" 24. Augustin answered: I might indeed say that Satan himself was worse
than all wicked men; and yet the apostle delivered a man over to him for the
destruction of the flesh, that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord
Jesus. [1995] And in the same way he delivered over others, of whom he says,
"Whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme." [1996]
And the Lord Christ drove out the impious merchants from the temple with
scourges; in which connection we also find advanced the testimony of Scripture,
where it says, "The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up." [1997] So that we do
find the apostle delivering over to condemnation, and Christ a persecutor. All
this I might say, and put you into no small heat and perturbation, so that you
would be compelled to inquire, not into the complaints of those who suffer, but
into the intention of those who cause the suffering. But do not trouble yourself
about this; I do not say this. But I do say that it has nothing to do with the
seed of Abraham, which is in all nations, if anything has been done to you which
ought not to have been done, perhaps by the chaff among the harvest of the Lord,
which in spite of this is found among all nations. Do you therefore render an
account of your separation. But first, consider what kind of men you have among
you, with whom you would not wish to be reproached; and see how unjustly you
act, when you cast in our teeth the acts of other men, even if you proved what
you assert. Therefore it will be found that there is no ground for your
separation.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 262: CHAPTER 11. -- 25. PETILIANUS SAID: |YET SOME WILL BE FOUND TO SAY
========================================================================

-- 25. Petilianus said: "Yet some will be found to say, We are not the sons of a
traditor. Any one is the son of that man whose deeds he imitates. For those are
most assuredly sons, and at the same time bear a strong resemblance to their
parents, who a 26. Augustin answered: A little while ago you were saying nothing
contrary to us, now you even begin to say something in our favor. For this
proposition of yours binds you to as much as this, that if you shall fail to-day
to convict us, with whom you are arguing, of being traditors and murderers, and
anything else with which you charge us, you will then be wholly powerless to
hurt us by any charge of the kind which you may prove against those who have
gone before us. For we cannot be the sons of those to whose deeds our actions
bear no resemblance. And see to what you have committed yourself. If you should
be so successful as to convict some man, even of our own times, and living with
us, of any guilt of the kind, that is in no way to the prejudice of all the
nations of the earth who are blessed in the seed of Abraham, by separating
yourself from whom you are found to be guilty of sacrilege. Accordingly, unless
(as is altogether impossible) you are acquainted with all men that exist
throughout the world, and have not only made yourself familiar with all their
characters and deeds, but have also proved that they are as bad as you describe,
you have no ground for reproaching all the world, which is among the saints,
with parentage of I know not what description, to whom you prove that they are
like. Nor will it help you at all, even if you are able to show that those who
are not of the same character take the holy sacraments in common with those who
are. In the first place, because you ought yourselves to look at those with whom
you celebrate those sacraments, to whom you give them, from whom you receive
them, and whom you would be unwilling to have cast up against you as a reproach.
And again, if all those are the sons of Judas, who was the devil among the
apostles, who imitate his deeds, why do we not call those of the sons of the
apostles who make such men partakers, not in their own deeds, but in the
sacraments of the Lord, as the apostles partook of the supper of the Lord in
company with that traitor? and in this way they are very different from you, who
cast in the teeth of men who are striving for the preservation of unity the very
thing that you do to the rending asunder of unity.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 263: CHAPTER 12. -- 27. PETILIANUS SAID: |THE LORD JESUS SAID TO THE JEWS CONCERNING HIMSELF
========================================================================

-- 27. Petilianus said: "The Lord Jesus said to the Jews concerning Himself, If
I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.'" [1998] 28. Augustin answered:
I have already answered above, This is both true, and makes for us against you.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 264: CHAPTER 13. -- 29. PETILIANUS SAID: OVER AND OVER AGAIN HE REPROACHES THE FALSE SPEAKERS AND LIARS
========================================================================

-- 29. Petilianus said: Over and over again He reproaches the false speakers and
liars in such terms as these: Ye are the children of the devil, for he also was
a slanderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth.'" 30. Augustin
answered: We are not wont to say, "He was a slanderer," but "He was a murderer."
[1999] But we ask how it was that the devil was a murderer from the beginning;
and we find that he slew the first man, not by drawing a sword, nor by applying
to him any bodily violence, but by persuading him to sin, and thus driving him
from the happiness of Paradise. What, then, was Paradise is now represented by
the Church. Therefore those are the sons of the devil who slay men by
withdrawing them from the Church. But as by the words of God we know what was
the situation of Paradise, so now by the words of Christ we have learned where
the Church is to be found: "Throughout all nations," He says, "beginning at
Jerusalem." Whosoever, therefore, separates a man from that complete whole to
place him in any single part, is proved to be a son of the devil and a murderer.
But see, further, what is the application of the expression which you yourself
employed in saying of the devil, "He was a slanderer, and abode not in the
truth." For you bring an accusation against the whole world on account of the
sins of others, though even those others themselves you were more able to accuse
than to convict; and you abode not in the truth of Christ. For He says that the
Church is "throughout all nations, beginning at Jerusalem;" but ye say that it
is in the party of Donatus.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 265: CHAPTER 14. -- 31. PETILIANUS SAID: |IN THE THIRD PLACE, ALSO
========================================================================

-- 31. Petilianus said: "In the third place, also, He calls the madness of
persecutors in like manner by this name, Ye generation of vipers, how can ye
escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and
wise men, and scribes; 32. Augustin answered: If I were to say that this is said
of men of character like unto yourselves, you would reply, "Prove it." What
then, have you proved it? Or if you think that it is proved by the mere fact of
its being uttered, there is no need to repeat the same words. Pronounce the same
judgment against yourselves as coming from us to you. See you not that I too
have proved it, if this amounts to proof? And yet I would have you learn what is
really meant by proof. For indeed I do not even seek for evidence from without
to enable me to prove you vipers. For be well assured that this very fact marks
in you the nature of vipers, that you have not in your mouth the foundation of
truth, but the poison of slanderous abuse, as it is written, "The poison of asps
is under their lips." [2001] And because this might be said indiscriminately by
any one against any one, as though it were asked, Under whose lips? he
immediately adds, "Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." [2002] When,
therefore, you say such things as this against men dispersed throughout the
whole world, of whom you know nothing whatsoever, and many of whom have never
heard the name either of Cæcilianus or of Donatus, and when you do not hear them
answering amid silence, Nothing of what you say has reference to us; we never
saw it; we never did it; we are totally at a loss to understand what you are
saying, -- seeing that you desire nothing else than to say what you are entirely
powerless to prove, how can you help allowing that your mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness? See, therefore, whether you can possibly show that you are not
vipers, [2003] unless you show that all Christians throughout all nations of the
world are traditors, and murderers, and anything but Christians. Nay, in very
truth, even though you should be able to know and set before us the lives and
deeds of every individual man throughout the world, yet before you can do that,
seeing that you act as you do without any consideration, your mouth is that of a
viper, your mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Show to us now, if you can,
what prophet, what wise man, what scribe we have slain, or crucified, or
scourged in our synagogues. Look how much labor you have expended without in any
way being able to prove that Donatus and Marculus [2004] were prophets, or wise
men, or scribes, because, in fact, they were nothing of the sort. But even if
you could prove as much as this, what progress would you have made towards
proving that they had been killed by us, when even we ourselves did not so much
as know them? and how much less the whole world, whom you calumniate with
poisonous mouth? [2005] Or whence will you be able to prove that we have a
spirit like that of those who murdered them, when you actually cannot show that
they were murdered by any one at all? Look carefully to all these points, see
whether you can prove any single one of them either about the whole world, or to
the satisfaction of the whole world, -- in your persevering calumnies against
which you show that the charges are true in you, which you falsely propagate
against the world. 33. Further, even if we should desire to prove you to be
slayers of the prophets, it would be too long a task to collect the evidence
through all the several instances of the slaughter which your infuriated leaders
of the Circumcelliones, and the actual crowd of men inflamed by wine and
madness, not only have committed since the beginning of your schism, but even
continue to commit at the present time. To take the case nearest at hand. Let
the divine utterances be produced, which are commonly in the hands of both of
us. Let us consider those to be murderers of the prophets whom we find
contradicting the words of the prophets. What more learned definition could be
given? What could admit of speedier proof? You would be acting less cruelly in
piercing the bodies of the prophets with a sword, than in endeavoring to destroy
the words of the prophets with your tongue. The prophet says, "All the ends of
the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord." [2006] Behold and see how this
is being done, how it is being fulfilled. But you not only close your ears in
disbelief against what is said, but you even thrust out your tongues in madness
to speak against what is already being done. Abraham heard the promise, "In thy
seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," [2007] and "he believed,
and it was counted unto him for righteousness." [2008] You see the fact
accomplished, and you cry out against it; and you will not that it should be
counted unto you for unrighteousness, as it fairly would be counted, even if
your refusal to believe was not on the accomplishment, but only on the utterance
of the prophecy. Nay, not only are you not willing that it should be counted
unto you for unrighteousness, but even what you suffer as the punishment of this
impiety you would fain have counted unto you for righteousness. Or if your
conduct is not a persecution of the prophets, because your instrument is not the
sword but the tongue, what was the reason of its being said under divine
inspiration, "The sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their
tongue a sharp sword"? [2009] But what time would suffice me to collect from all
the prophets all the testimonies to the Church dispersed throughout the world,
all of which you endeavor to destroy and render nought by contradicting them?
But you are caught; for "their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words
to the end of the world." [2010] I will, however, advance this one saying from
the mouth of the Lord, who is the Witness of witnesses. "All things must be
fulfilled," He says, "which were written in the law of Moses, and in the
prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me." And what these were let us hear
from Himself: "Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand
the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved
Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem." [2011] See what it is that is written in the law of
Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning the Lord. See what the
Lord Himself revealed about Himself and about the Church, making Himself
manifest, uttering promises about the Church. But for you, see that you resist
such manifest proofs as these, and as you cannot destroy them, endeavor to
pervert them, what would you do, if you were to come across the bodies of the
prophets, when you rage so madly against the utterances of the prophets, as not
even to hearken to the Lord when He is fulfilling, and making manifest, and
expounding the prophets? For do you not, to the utmost of`your power, strive to
slay the Lord Himself, since even to Himself you will not yield?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 266: CHAPTER 15. -- 34. PETILIANUS SAID: |DAVID ALSO SPOKE OF YOU AS PERSECUTORS IN THE FOLLOWING TERMS
========================================================================

-- 34. Petilianus said: "David also spoke of you as persecutors in the following
terms: Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues have they deceived;
the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and
bitterness; the 35. Augustin answered: Their throat is an open sepulchre, whence
they breathe out death by lies. For "the mouth that belieth slayeth the soul."
[2013] But if nothing is more true than that which Christ said, that His Church
should be throughout all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, then there is nothing
more false than that which you say, that it is in the party of Donatus. But the
tongues which have deceived are the tongues of those who, whilst they are
acquainted with their own deeds, not only say that they are just men, but that
they are justifiers of men, which is said of One only "that justifieth the
ungodly," [2014] and that because "He is just and the justifier." [2015] As
regards the poison of asps, and the mouth full of cursing and bitterness, we
have said enough already. But you have yourselves said that the followers of
Maximianus had feet swift to shed blood, as is testified by the sentence of your
plenary Council, so often quoted in the records of the proconsular province and
of the state. But they, so far as we hear, never killed any one in the body. You
evidently, therefore, understood that the blood of the soul was shed in
spiritual murder by the sword of schism, which you condemned in Maximianus. See
then if your feet are not swift to shed blood, when you cut off men from the
unity of the whole world, if you were right in saying it of the followers of
Maximianus, because they cut off some from the party of Donatus. Are we again
without the knowledge of the way of peace, who study to preserve the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace? and yet do you possess that knowledge, who
resist the discourse which Christ held with His disciples after His
resurrection, of so peaceful a nature that He began it with the greeting, "Peace
be unto you;" [2016] and that so strenuously that you are proved to be saying
nothing less to Him than this, "What Thou saidst of the unity of all nations is
false; what we say of the offense of all nations is true"? Who would say such
things as this if they had the fear of God before their eyes? See, therefore, if
in daily saying things like this you are not trying to destroy the people of God
dispersed throughout the world, eating them up as it were bread.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 267: CHAPTER 16. -- 36. PETILIANUS SAID: |THE LORD CHRIST ALSO WARNS US
========================================================================

-- 36. Petilianus said: "The Lord Christ also warns us, saying, Beware of false
prophets, which come unto you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are
ravening wolves; and ye shall not know them by their fruits.'" [2017] 37.
Augustin answered: If I were to inquire of you by what fruits you know us to be
ravening wolves, you are sure to answer by charging us with the sins of other
men, and these such as were never proved against those who are said to have been
guilty of them. But if you should ask of me by what fruits we know you rather to
be ravening wolves, I bring against you the charge of schism, which you will
deny, but which I will straightway go on to prove; for, as a matter of fact, you
do not communicate with all the nations of the earth, nor with those Churches
which were founded by the labor of the apostles. Hereupon you will say, "I do
not communicate with traditors and murderers." The seed of Abraham answers you,
"These are those charges which you made, which are either not true, or have no
reference to me." But these I set aside for the present; do you meanwhile show
me the Church. Now that voice will sound in my ears which the Lord showed was to
be avoided in the false prophets who made a show of their several parties, and
strove to estrange men from the Catholic Church, "Lo, here is Christ, or there."
But do you think that the true sheep of Christ are so utterly destitute of
sense, who are told, "Believe it not," [2018] that they will hearken to the wolf
when he says, "Lo, here is Christ," and will not hearken to the Shepherd when He
says, "Throughout all nations, beginning at Jerusalem?"


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 268: CHAPTER 17. -- 38. PETILIANUS SAID: |THUS, THUS, THOU WICKED PERSECUTOR
========================================================================

-- 38. Petilianus said: "Thus, thus, thou wicked persecutor, under whatsoever
cloak of righteousness thou hast concealed thyself, under whatsoever name of
peace thou wagest war with kisses, under whatsoever title of unity thou
endeavorest to ensnare t 39. Augustin answered: Consider in reply that these
things have been said by us against you; and that you may know to which of us
they are more appropriate, call to mind what I have said before.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 269: CHAPTER 18. -- 40. PETILIANUS SAID: |NOR IS IT, AFTER ALL
========================================================================

-- 40. Petilianus said: "Nor is it, after all, so strange that you assume to
yourself the name of bishop without authority. This is the true custom of the
devil, to choose in preference a mode of deceiving by which he usurps to himself
a word of holy me 41. Augustin answered: See how you have quoted the testimony
of holy Scripture, or how you have understood it, when it has no bearing at all
upon the present point at issue. For all that you have brought forward was
simply said to prove that there are false bishops, just as there are false
angels and false apostles. Now we too know quite well that there are false
angels and false apostles, and false bishops, and, as the true apostle says,
false brethren also; [2026] but, seeing that charges such as yours may be
brought by either side against the other, what is required is a certain degree
of proof, and not mere empty words. But if you would see to which of us the
charge of falseness more truly applies, recall to mind what we have said before,
and you will see it there set forth, that we may not become tedious to our
readers by repeating the same thing over and over again. And yet how is the
Church dispersed throughout the world affected either by what you may have found
to say about its chaff, which is mixed with it throughout the whole world; or by
what you said of Manichæus and the other devilish sects? For if the wheat is not
affected by anything which is said even about the chaff which is still mingled
with it, how much less are the members of Christ dispersed throughout the whole
world affected by monstrosities [2027] which have been so long and so openly
separated from it? [2028]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 270: CHAPTER 19. -- 42. PETILIANUS SAID: |THE LORD JESUS CHRIST COMMANDS US
========================================================================

-- 42. Petilianus said: "The Lord Jesus Christ commands us, saying, When they
persecute you in this city, flee ye into another; and if they persecute you in
that, flee yet into a third; for verily I say unto you, ye shall not have gone
over the cities of 43. Augustin answered: To flee from one state to another from
the face of persecution has not been enjoined as precept or permission on
heretics or schismatics, such as you are; but it was enjoined on the preachers
of the gospel, whom you resist. And this we may easily prove in this wise: you
are now in your own cities, and no man persecutes you. You must therefore come
forth, and give an account of your separation. For it cannot be maintained that,
as the weakness of the flesh is excused when it yields before the violence of
persecution, so truth also ought to yield to falsehood. Furthermore, if you are
suffering persecution, why do you not retire from the cities in which you are,
that you may fulfill the instructions which you quote out of the gospel? But if
you are not suffering persecution, why are you unwilling to reply to us? Or if
the fact be that you are afraid lest, when you should have made reply, you then
should suffer persecution, in that case how are you following the example of
those preachers to whom it was said, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the
midst of wolves?" To whom it was also further said "Fear not them which kill the
body, but are not able to kill the soul." [2030] And how do you escape the
charge of acting contrary to the injunction of the Apostle Peter, who says, "Be
ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the
faith and hope that is in you?" [2031] And, lastly, wherefore are you ever eager
to annoy the Catholic Churches by the most violent disturbances, whenever it is
in your power, as is proved by innumerable instances of simple fact? But you say
that you must defend your places, and that you resist with cudgels and massacres
and with whatever else you can. Wherefore in such a case did you not hearken to
the voice of the Lord, when He says, "But I say unto you, that ye resist not
evil"? [2032] Or, allowing that it is possible that in some cases it should be
right for violent men to be resisted by bodily force, and that it does not
violate the precept which we receive from the Lord, "But I say unto you, that ye
resist not evil," why may it not also be that a pious man should eject an
impious man, or a just man him that is unjust, in the exercise of duly and
lawfully constituted authority, from seats which are unlawfully usurped, or
retained to the despite of God? For you would not say that the false prophets
suffered persecution at the hands of Elijah, in the same sense that Elijah
suffered persecution from the wickedest of kings? [2033] Or that because the
Lord was scourged by His persecutors, therefore those whom He Himself drove out
of the temple with scourges are to be put in comparison with His sufferings? It
remains, therefore, that we should acknowledge that there is no other question
requiring solution, except whether you have been pious or impious in separating
yourselves from the communion of the whole world. For if it shall be found that
you have acted impiously, you would not be surprised if there should be no lack
of ministers of God by whom you might be scourged, seeing that you suffer
persecution not from us, but as it is written, from their own abominations.
[2034]


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  CHAPTER 271: CHAPTER 20. -- 44. PETILIANUS SAID: |THE LORD CHRIST CRIES AGAIN FROM HEAVEN TO PAUL
========================================================================

-- 44. Petilianus said: "The Lord Christ cries again from heaven to Paul, Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.'
[2035] He was then called Saul, that he might afterwards receive his true name
in baptism. 45. Augustin answered: Defend yourselves from the charge of the
persecution which those men suffered at the hands of your party who separated
themselves from you with the followers of Maximianus, and therein you will find
our defence. For if you say that you committed no such deeds, we simply read to
you the records of the pro-consular province and the state. If you say that you
were right in persecuting them, why are you unwilling to suffer the like
yourselves? If you say, "But we caused no schism," then let this be inquired
into, and, till it is decided whether it be so or not, let no one make
accusation against persecutors. If you say that even schismatics ought not to
have suffered persecution, I ask whether it is also the case that they ought not
to have been driven out of the basilicas, in which they lay snares for the
leading astray of the weak, even though it were done by duly constituted
authorities? If you say that this also should not have been done, first restore
the basilicas to the followers of Maximianus, and then discuss the point with
us. If you say that it was right, then see what they ought to suffer at the
hands of duly constituted authority, who, in resisting it, "resist the ordinance
of God." Wherefore the apostle expressly says, "For he beareth not the sword in
vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath on him that
doeth evil." [2038] But even if this had been discovered after the truth had
been searched out with all diligence, that not even after public trial ought
schismatics to undergo any punishment, or be driven from the positions which
they have occupied, for their treachery and deceit; and if you should say that
you are vexed that the followers of Maximianus should have suffered such conduct
at the hands of some of you, -- why does not the wheat of the Lord cry out with
the more freedom from the whole field of the Lord, that is, from the world, and
say, Neither are we at all affected by what the tares and the chaff amongst us
do, seeing that it is contrary to our wish? If you confess that it is sufficient
to clear you of responsibility, that all the evil that is done by men of your
party is done in opposition to your wishes, why then have you separated
yourselves? For if your reason for not separating from the unrighteous among the
party of Donatus is that each man bears his own burden, why have you separated
yourselves from those throughout the world whom you think, or profess to think,
to be unrighteous? Is it that you might all share equally in bearing the burden
of schism? 46. And when we ask of you which of your party you can prove to have
been slain by us, I indeed can remember no law issued by the emperors to the
effect that you should be put to death. Those indeed whose deaths you quote most
frequently to bring us into odium, Marculus and Donatus, present a great
question, -- whether they threw themselves down a precipice, as your teaching
does not hesitate to encourage by examples of daily occurrence, or whether they
were thrown down by the true command of some authority. For if it is a thing
incredible that the leaders of the Circumcelliones should have wrought upon
themselves a death in accordance with their custom, how much more incredible it
is that the Roman authorities should have been able to condemn them to a
punishment at variance with custom! Accordingly, in considering this matter,
which you think excessive in its hatefulness, supposing what you say is true,
what is there in it which bears upon the Lord's wheat? Let the chaff which flew
away outside accuse the chaff which yet remained within for it is not possible
that it should all be separated till the winnowing at the last day. But if what
you say is false, what wonder is it if, when the chaff is carried away as it
were by a light blast of dissension, it even attacks the wheat of the Lord with
false accusations? Wherefore, on the consideration of all such odious
accusations, the wheat of Christ, which is ordered to grow together with the
tares throughout the field, that is, throughout the whole world, makes this
answer to you with a free and fearless voice: If you cannot prove what you say,
it has no application to any one; and if you prove it, it yet does not apply to
me. The result of which is, that whosoever has separated himself from the unity
of the wheat on account of the offenses chargeable against the tares, or against
the chaff, is unable to defend himself from the charge of murder which is
involved in the mere offense of dissension and schism, as the Scripture says,
"Whoso hateth his brother is a murderer." [2039]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 272: CHAPTER 21. -- 47. PETILIANUS SAID: |ACCORDINGLY, AS WE HAVE SAID
========================================================================

-- 47. Petilianus said: "Accordingly, as we have said, the Lord Christ cried,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the
pricks. And he said, Who art Thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Christ of
Nazareth, whom thou p 48. Augustin answered: You do not prove that I, whom you
wish to baptize afresh, am either a persecutor or a traditor. And if you prove
this charge against any one, yet the persecutor and traditor is not to be
baptized afresh, if he had been baptized already with the baptism of Christ. For
the reason why it was necessary that Paul should be baptized was that he had
never been washed in any baptism of the kind. Therefore what you have chosen to
insert about Paul has no point of resemblance with the case which you are
arguing with us. But if you had not inserted this, you would have found no place
for your childish declamation, "See how blindness comes in punishment of
madness, not to be again expelled except by baptism!" For with how much more
force might one exclaim against you, See how blindness comes in punishment of
madness, which, finding its similitude in Simon, not in Paul, is not expelled
from you even when you have received baptism? For if persecutors ought to be
baptized by those whom they persecute, then let Primianus be baptized by the
followers of Maximianus, whom he persecuted with the utmost eagerness.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 273: CHAPTER 22. -- 49. PETILIANUS SAID: |IT MAY BE URGED THAT CHRIST SAID TO HIS APOSTLES
========================================================================

-- 49. Petilianus said: "It may be urged that Christ said to His apostles, as
you are constantly quoting against us, He that is washed needeth not save to
wash his feet, but is clean every whit.' Now if you discuss those words in all
their fullness, you 50. Augustin answered: If therefore every traditor has
forfeited his baptism, it will follow that every one who, having been baptized
by you, has afterwards become a traditor, ought to be baptized afresh. And if
you do not do this, you yourselves sufficiently prove the falseness of the
saying, "Whosoever therefore has incurred the guilt of treason, has forfeited,
like you, his baptism." For if he has forfeited it, let him return and receive
it again; but if he returns and does not receive it, it is clear that he had not
forfeited it. Again, if the reason why it was said to the apostles, "Now are ye
clean," and "My peace I give unto you," was that the traitor had already left
the room, then was not that supper of so great a sacrament clean and able to
give peace, which He distributed to all before his going out? And if you venture
to say this with your eyes closed against the truth, what can we do save exclaim
the more, See how blindness comes in punishment of the madness of those who wish
to be, as the apostle says, "teachers of the law, understanding neither what
they say, nor whereof they affirm?" [2044] And yet, unless blindness came in the
way of their pertinacity, it was not a very difficult matter that you should
understand and see that the Lord did not say in the presence of Judas, Ye are
not yet clean, but "Now are ye clean." He added, however, "But not all," because
there was one there who was not clean; yet if he had been polluting the others
by his presence, it would not have been declared to them, "Now are ye clean,"
but, as I said before, Ye are not yet clean. But, after Judas had gone out, He
said to them, "Now are ye clean," and did not add the words, But not all,
because he had now departed in whose presence indeed, as had been said to them,
they were already clean, but not all, because there was one there unclean.
Wherefore in these words the Lord rather declared that in the one company of men
receiving the same sacraments, the uncleanness of some members cannot hurt the
clean. Certainly, if you think that there are among us men like Judas, you might
apply to us the words, "Ye are clean, but not all." But this is not what you
say; but you say that because of the presence of some who are unclean, therefore
we are all unclean. This the Lord did not say to the disciples in the presence
of Judas, and therefore whoever says this has not learned from the good Master
what He says.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 274: CHAPTER 23. -- 51. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT IF YOU SAY THAT WE GIVE BAPTISM TWICE OVER
========================================================================

-- 51. Petilianus said: "But if you say that we give baptism twice over, truly
it is rather you who do this, who slay men who have been baptized; and this we
do not say because you baptize them, but because you cause each one of them, by
the act of slayi 52. Augustin answered: In the first place, we reply without
delay that we do not kill you, but you kill yourselves by a true death, when you
cut yourselves off from the living root of unity. In the next place, if all who
are killed are baptized in their own blood, then all robbers, all unrighteous,
impious, accursed men, who are put to death by the sentence of the law, are to
be considered martyrs, because they are baptized in their own blood. But if only
those are baptized in their own blood who are put to death for righteousness'
sake, since theirs is the kingdom of heaven, [2046] you have already seen that
the first question is why you suffer, and only afterwards should we ask what you
suffer. Why therefore do you puff out your cheeks before you have shown the
righteousness of your deeds? Why, does your tongue resound before your character
is approved? If you have made a schism, you are impious; if you are impious, you
die as one guilty of sacrilege, when you are punished for impiety; if you die as
one guilty of sacrilege, how are you baptized in your blood? Or do you say, I
have not made a schism? Let us then inquire into this. Why do you make an outcry
before you prove your case? 53. Or do you say, Even if I am guilty of sacrilege,
I ought not to be slain by you? It is one question as to the enormity of my
action, which you never prove with any truth, another as to the baptism of your
blood, from whence you derive your boast. For I never killed you, nor do you
prove that you are killed by any one. Nor even if you were to prove it would it
in any way affect me, whoever it was that killed you, whether he did it justly
in virtue of power lawfully given by the Lord, or committed the crime of murder,
like the chaff of the Lord's harvest, through some evil desire; just as you are
in no way concerned with him who in recent times, with an intolerable tyranny,
attended even by a company of soldiers, not because he feared any one, but that
he might be feared by all, oppressed widows, destroyed pupils, betrayed the
patrimonies of other men, annulled the marriages of other men, contrived the
sale of the property of the innocent, divided the price of the property when
sold with its mourning owners. I should seem to be saying all this out of the
invention of my own head, if it were not sufficiently obvious of whom I speak
without the mention of his name. [2047] And if all this is undoubtedly true,
then just as you are not concerned with this, so neither are we concerned with
anything you say, even though it were true. But if that colleague of yours,
being really a just and innocent man, is maligned by a lying tale, then should
we also learn in no way to give credit to reports, which have been spread abroad
of innocent men, as though they had delivered up the sacred books, or murdered
any of their fellow-men. To this we may add, that I refer to a man who lived
with you, whose birthday you were wont to celebrate with such large assemblies,
with whom you joined in the kiss of peace in the sacraments, in whose hands you
placed the Eucharist, to whom in turn you extended your hands to receive it from
his ministering, whose ears, when they were deaf amid the groanings of all
Africa, you durst not offend by free speech; for paying to whom, even
indirectly, a most witty compliment, by saying that in the Count [2048] he had a
god for his companion, some one of your party was extolled to the skies. But you
reproach us with the deeds of men with whom we never lived, whose faces we never
saw, in whose lifetime we were either boys, or perhaps as yet not even born.
What is the meaning, then, of your great unfairness and perversity, that you
should wish to impose on us the burdens of those whom we never knew, whilst you
will not bear the burdens of your friends? The divine Scriptures exclaim: "When
thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him." [2049] If he whom you saw
did not pollute you, why do you reproach me with one whom I could not have seen?
Or do you say, I did not consent with him, because his deeds were displeasing to
me? But, at any rate, you went up to the altar of God with him. Come now, if you
would defend yourself, make a distinction between your two positions, and say
that it is one thing to consent together for sin, as the two elders consented
together when they laid a plot against the chastity of Susannah, and another
thing to receive the sacrament of the Lord in company with a thief, as the
apostles received even that first supper in company with Judas. I am all in
favor of your defense. But why do you not consider how much more easily, in the
course of your defense, you have acquitted all the nations and boundaries of the
earth, throughout which the inheritance of Christ is dispersed? For if it was
possible for you to see a thief, and to share the sacraments with the thief whom
you saw, and yet not to share his sin, how much less was it possible for the
remotest nations of the earth to have anything in common with the sins of
African traditors and persecutors, supposing your charges and assertions to be
true, even though they held the sacraments in common with them? Or do you say, I
saw in him the bishop, I did not see in him the thief? Say what you will. I
allow this defense also, and in this the world is acquitted of the charges which
you brought against it. For if it was permitted you to ignore the character of a
man whom you knew, why is the whole world not allowed to be ignorant of those it
never knew, unless, indeed, the Donatists are allowed to be ignorant of what
they do not wish to know, while the nations of the earth may not be ignorant of
what they cannot know? 54. Or do you say, Theft is one thing, delivery of the
sacred books or persecution is another? I grant there is a difference, nor is it
worth while now to show wherein that difference consists. But listen to the
summary of the argument. If he could not make you a thief, because his thieving
was displeasing in your sight, who can make men traditors or murderers to whom
such treachery or murder is abhorrent? First, then, confess that you share in
all the evil of Optatus, whom you knew, and even so reproach me with any evil
which was found in those whom I knew not. And do not say to me, But my charges
are serious, yours but trifling. You must first acknowledge them, however
trifling they may be in your case, not before I on my side confess the charges
against me, but before I can allow you to say these serious things about me at
all. Did Optatus, whom you knew make you a thief by being your colleague, or
not? Answer me one or the other. If you say he did not, I ask why he did not, --
because he was not a thief himself? or because you do not know it? or because
you disapprove of it? If you say, Because he himself was not a thief, much more
ought we not to believe that those with whom you reproach us were of such a
character as you assert. For if we must not believe of Optatus what both
Christians and pagans and Jews, ay, and what both our party and yours assert,
how much less should we believe what you assert of any one? But if you say,
Because you do not know it, all the nations of the earth answer you, Much more
do we not know of all that you reproach us with in these men. But if you say,
Because you disapproved of it, they answer you with the same voice, Although you
have never proved the truth of what you say, yet acts like these are viewed by
us with disapproval. But if you say, Lo, Optatus, whom I knew, made me a thief
because he was my colleague, and I was in the habit of going to the altar with
him when he committed those deeds; but I do not greatly heed it, because the
fault was trivial, but your party made you a traditor and a murderer, -- I
answer that I do not allow that I too am made a traditor and a murderer by the
sins of other men, just because you confess that you are made a thief by the sin
of another man; for it must be remembered that you are proved a thief, not by
our judgment, but by your own confession. For we say that every man must bear
his own burden, as the apostle is our witness. [2050] But you, of your own
accord, have taken the burden of Optatus on your own shoulders, not because you
committed the theft, or consented to it, but because you declared your
conviction that what another did applied to you. For, as the apostle says, when
speaking of food, "I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is
nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to
him it is unclean;" [2051] by the same rule, it may be said that the sins of
others cannot implicate those who disapprove of them; but if any one thinks that
they affect him, then he is affected by them. Wherefore you do not convict us of
being traditors or murderers, even though you were to prove something of the
sort against those who share the sacraments with us; but the guilt of theft is
fastened on you, even if you disapprove of everything that Optatus did, not in
virtue of our accusation, but by your own decision. And that you may not think
this a trivial fault, read what the apostle says, "Nor shall thieves inherit the
kingdom of God." [2052] But those who shall not inherit the kingdom of God will
certainly not be on His right hand among those whom it shall be said, "Come, ye
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world." If they are not there, where will they be except on the left
hand? Therefore among those to whom it shall be said, "Depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." [2053] In
vain, therefore, do you indulge in your security, thinking it a trivial fault
which separates you from the kingdom of God, and sends you into everlasting
fire. How much better will you do to betake yourself to true confusion, saying,
Every one of us shall bear his own burden, and the winnowing fan at the last day
shall separate the chaff from the wheat! 55. But it is evident that you are
afraid of its being forthwith said to you, "Why then, whilst you attempt to
place on some men's backs the burdens of their neighbors, have you dared to
separate yourselves from the Lord's corn, dispersed throughout the world, before
the winnowing at the last day?" Accordingly, you who disapprove of the deeds of
your party, whilst you are taking precautions against being charged with the
schism which you all have made, are involving yourselves also in their sins
which you did not commit; and while the shrewd Petilianus is afraid of my being
able to say that am I not such as he thinks Cæcilianus was, he is obliged to
confess that he himself is such as he knows Optatus to have been. Or are you not
such as the common voice of Africa proclaims him to have been? Then neither are
we such as those with whom you reproach us are either suspected to have been by
your mistake, or calumniously asserted to have been by your madness, or proved
to have been by the truth. Much less is the wheat of the Lord in all the nations
of the earth of such a character, seeing that it never heard the names of those
of whom you speak. There is therefore no reason why you should perish in such
sin of separation and such sacrilege of schism. And yet, if you are made to
suffer for this great impiety by the judgment of God, you say that you are even
baptized in your blood; so that you are not content with feeling no remorse for
your division, but you must even glory in your punishment.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 275: CHAPTER 24. -- 56. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT YOU WILL ANSWER THAT YOU ABIDE BY THE SAME DECLARATION
========================================================================

-- 56. Petilianus said: "But you will answer that you abide by the same
declaration, He that is once washed needeth not save to wash his feet.' [2054]
Now the once' is once that has authority, once that is confirmed by the truth."
57. Augustin answered: Baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Ghost [2055] has Christ for its authority, not any man, whoever he may
be; and Christ is the truth, not any man.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 276: CHAPTER 25. -- 58. PETILIANUS SAID: |FOR WHEN YOU IN YOUR GUILT PERFORM WHAT IS FALSE
========================================================================

-- 58. Petilianus said: "For when you in your guilt perform what is false, I do
not celebrate baptism twice, which you have never celebrated once." 59. Augustin
answered: In the first place, you do not convict us of guilt. And if a guilty
man baptizes with a false baptism, then none of those have true baptism who are
baptized by men in your party, that are, I do not say openly, but even secretly
guilty. For if he who gives baptism gives something that is God's, if he is
already guilty in the sight of God, how can he be giving something that is God's
if a guilty man cannot give true baptism? But in reality you wait till he is
guilty in your sight as well, as though what he proposes to confer were
something that belonged to you.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 277: CHAPTER 26. -- 60. PETILIANUS SAID: |FOR IF YOU MIX WHAT IS FALSE WITH WHAT IS TRUE
========================================================================

-- 60. Petilianus said: "For if you mix what is false with what is true,
falsehood often imitates the truth by treading in its steps. Just in the same
way a picture imitates the true man of nature, depicting with its colors the
false resemblance of trut 61. Augustin answered: Are you then really not ashamed
to call the baptism of Christ a lie, even when it is found in the most false of
men? Far be it from any one to suppose that the wheat of the Lord, which has
been commanded to grow among the tares throughout the whole field, that is,
throughout the whole of this world, until the harvest, that is, until the end of
the world, [2056] can have perished in consequence of your evil words. Nay, even
among the very tares themselves, which are commanded not to be gathered, but to
be tolerated even to the end, and among the very chaff, which shall only be
separated from the wheat by the winnowing at the last day, [2057] does any one
dare to say that any baptism is false which is given and received in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost? Would you say that those whom
you depose from their office, whether as your colleagues or your fellow-priests,
on the testimony of women whom they have seduced (since examples of this kind
are not wanting anywhere), were false or true before their crime was proved
against them? You will certainly answer, False. Why then were they able both to
have and to give true baptism? Why did not their falseness as men corrupt in
them the truth of God? Is it not most truly written, "For the Holy Spirit of
discipline will flee deceit?" [2058] Seeing then that the Holy Spirit fled from
them, how came it that the truth of baptism was in them, except because what the
Holy Spirit fled from was the falseness of man, not the truth of the sacrament?
Further, if even the deceitful have the true baptism, how do they have it who
possess it in truthfulness? Whence you ought to observe that it is rather your
conversation which is colored with childish pigments; and accordingly, he who
neglects the living Word to take pleasure in such coloring is himself loving the
picture in the place of the reality.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 278: CHAPTER 27. -- 62. PETILIANUS SAID: |IT WILL BE URGED AGAINST US
========================================================================

-- 62. Petilianus said: "It will be urged against us, that the Apostle Paul
said, One Lord, one faith, one baptism.' [2059] We profess that there is only
one; for it is certain that those who declare that there are two are mad." 63.
Augustin replied: These words of yours are arguments against yourselves; but in
your madness you are not aware of it. For the men who say there are two baptisms
are those who declare their opinion that the just and the unjust have different
baptisms; whereas it belongs neither to one party nor the other, but in both of
them is one, being Christ's, although they themselves are not one: and yet the
baptism, which is one, the just have to salvation, the unjust to their
destruction.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 279: CHAPTER 28. -- 64. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT YET, IF I MAY BE ALLOWED THE COMPARISON
========================================================================

-- 64. Petilianus said: "But yet, if I may be allowed the comparison, it is
certain that the sun appears double to the insane, although it only be that a
dark blue cloud often meets it, and its discolored surface, being struck by the
brightness, while th 65. Augustin answered: What are you saying, if I may ask?
When a dark blue cloud reflects the rays of the sun with which it is struck, is
it only to the insane, and not to all who look on it, that there appear to be
two suns? But when it appears so to the insane as such, it appears to them
alone. But if I may say so without being troublesome, I would have you take care
lest saying such things and talking in such a way should be itself a sign of
madness. I suppose, however, that what you meant to say was this, -- that the
just had the truth of baptism, the unjust only its reflection. And if this be
so, I venture to say that the reflection was found in that man of our party,
[2060] to whom not God, but a certain Count, [2061] was God; but that the truth
was either in you or in him who uttered the witty saying against Optatus, when
he said that "in the Count he had a god for his companion." [2062] And
distinguish between those who were baptized by either of these, and in the one
party approve the true baptism, in the others exclude the reflection, and
introduce the truth.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 280: CHAPTER 29. -- 66. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT TO PASS RAPIDLY THROUGH THESE MINOR POINTS
========================================================================

-- 66. Petilianus said: "But to pass rapidly through these minor points: can he
be said to lay down the law who is not a magistrate of the court? or is what he
lays down to be considered law, when in the character of a private person he
disturbs public 67. Augustin answered: What if your private person, whom you
deem a forger, were to set forth to any one the law of the emperor? Would not
the man, when he had compared it with the law of those who have the genuine law,
and found it to be identically the same, lay aside all care about the source
from which he had obtained it, and consider only what he had obtained? For what
the forger gives is false when he gives it of his own falseness; but when
something true is given by any person, even though he be a forger, yet, although
the giver be not truthful, the gift is notwithstanding true.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 281: CHAPTER 30. -- 68. PETILIANUS SAID: |OR IF ANY ONE CHANCE TO RECOLLECT THE CHANTS OF A
========================================================================

-- 68. Petilianus said: "Or if any one chance to recollect the chants of a
priest, is he therefore to be deemed a priest, because with sacrilegious mouth
he publishes the strain of a priest?" 69. Augustin answered: In this question
you are speaking just as though we were at present inquiring what constituted a
true priest, not what constituted true baptism. For that a man should be a true
priest, it is requisite that he should be clothed not with the sacrament alone,
but with righteousness, as it is written, "Let thy priests be clothed with
righteousness." [2063] But if a man be a priest in virtue of the sacrament
alone, as was the high priest Caiaphas, the persecutor of the one most true
Priest, then even though he himself be not truthful, yet what he gives is true,
if he gives not what is his own but what is God's; as it is said of Caiaphas
himself, "This spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he
prophesied." [2064] And yet, to use the same simile which you employed yourself:
if you were to hear even from any one that was profane the prayer of the priest
couched in the words suitable to the mysteries of the gospel, can you possibly
say to him, Your prayer is not true, though he himself may be not only no true
priest, but not a priest at all? seeing that the Apostle Paul said that certain
testimony of I know not what Cretan prophet was true, though he was not reckoned
among the prophets of God for he says, "One of themselves, even a prophet of
their own, said the Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies: this
witness is true." [2065] If, therefore, the apostle even himself bore witness to
the testimony of some obscure prophet of a foreign race, because he found it to
be true, why do not we, when we find in any one what belongs to Christ, and is
true even though the man with whom it may be found be deceitful and perverse,
why do not we in such a case make a distinction between the fault which is found
in the man, and the truth which he has not of his own but of God's? and why do
we not say, This sacrament is true, as Paul said, "This witness is true"? Does
it at all follow that we say, The man himself also is truthful, because we say,
This sacrament is true? Just as I would ask whether the apostle counted that
prophet among the prophets of the Lord, because he confirmed the truth of what
he found to be true in him. Likewise the same apostle, when he was at Athens,
perceived a certain altar among the altars of the false gods, on which was this
inscription, "To the unknown God." And this testimony he made use of to build
them up in Christ, to the extent of quoting the inscription in his sermon, and
adding, "Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you." Did
he, because he found that altar among the altars of idols, or set up by
sacrilegious hands, therefore condemn or reject what he found in it that was
true? or did he, because of the truth which he found upon it, therefore persuade
them that they ought also to follow the sacrilegious practices of the pagans?
Surely he did neither of the two; but presently, when, as he judged fitting, he
wished to introduce to their knowledge the Lord Himself unknown to them, but
known to him, he says among other things, that "He is not far from every one of
us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your
own poets have said." [2066] Can it be said that here also, because he found
among the sacrilegious, the evidence of truth, he either approved their
wickedness because of the evidence, or condemned the evidence because of their
wickedness? But it is unavoidable that you should be always in the wrong, so
long as you do despite to the sacraments of God because of the faults of men, or
think that we take upon ourselves the sacrilege even of your schism, for the
sake of the sacraments of God, to which we are unwilling to do despite in you.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 282: CHAPTER 31. -- 70. PETILIANUS SAID: |FOR THERE IS NO POWER BUT OF GOD
========================================================================

-- 70. Petilianus said: "For there is no power but of God," [2067] none in any
man of power; as the Lord Jesus Christ answered Pontius Pilate, Thou couldest
have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.' [2068]
And again, in th 71. Augustin answered: Tell us rather thyself when the power of
baptizing was lost by the whole world through which is dispersed the inheritance
of Christ, and by all that multitude of nations in which the apostles founded
the Churches. You will never be able to tell us, -- not only because you have
calumniated them, and do not prove them to be traditors, but because, even if
you did prove this, yet no guilt on the part of any evil-doers, whether they be
unsuspected, or deceitful, or be tolerated as the tares or as the chaff, can
possibly overthrow the promises, so that all the nations of the earth should not
be blessed in the seed of Abraham; in which promises you deprive them of their
share when you will not have the communion of unity with all nations of the
earth.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 283: CHAPTER 32. -- 72. PETILIANUS SAID: |FOR ALTHOUGH THERE IS ONLY ONE BAPTISM
========================================================================

-- 72. Petilianus said: "For although there is only one baptism, yet it is
consecrated in three several grades. John gave water without the name of the
Trinity, as he declared himself, saying, I indeed baptize you with water unto
repentance: but He tha 73. Augustin answered: You are the calumnious slanderer,
not the truthful arguer. Will you not at length cease to make assertions of a
kind which, if you do not prove them, can apply to nobody; and even if you prove
them, certainly cannot apply to the unity of the whole world, which is in the
saints as in the wheat of God? If we too were pleased to return calumnies for
calumnies, we too might possibly be able to give vent to eloquent slanderers. We
too might use the expression, "With rustling flames;" but to me an expression
never sounds in any way eloquent which is inappropriate in its use. We too might
say, "Surging with hungry tongues of flame;" but we do not wish that the tongues
of flame in our writings, when they are read by any one in his senses, should be
judged hungry for want of the sap of weightiness, or that the reader himself,
while he finds in them no food of useful sentiments, should be left to suffer
from the hunger of excessive emptiness. See, I declare that your Circumcelliones
are burning, not with rustling but with headlong flames. If you answer, What is
that to us? why do not you, when you reproach with any one whom you will, not
listen in turn to our answer, We too know nothing of it? If you answer, You do
not prove the fact, why may not the whole world answer you in turn, Neither do
you prove it? Let us agree, therefore, if you please, that you should not charge
us with the guilt of the wicked men whom you consider to belong to us, and that
we should abstain from similar charges against you. So you will see, by this
just agreement, confirmed and ratified, that you have no charge which you can
bring against the seed of Abraham, as found in all the nations of the earth. But
I find without difficulty a grievous charge to bring against you: Why have you
impiously separated yourselves from the seed of Abraham, which is in all nations
of the earth? Against this charge you certainly have no means whereby you may
defend yourselves. For we each of us clear ourselves of the sins of other men;
but this, that you do not hold communion with all the nations of the earth,
which are blessed in the seed of Abraham, is a very grievous crime, of which not
some but all of you are guilty. 74. And yet you know, as you prove by your
quotation, that the Holy Spirit descended in such wise, that those who were then
filled with it spake with divers tongues: what was the meaning of that sign and
prodigy? Why then is the Holy Spirit given now in such wise, that no one to whom
it is given speaks with divers tongues, except because that miracle then
prefigured that all nations of the earth should believe, and that thus the
gospel should be found to be in every tongue? Just as it was foretold in the
psalm so long before: "There is no speech nor language where their voice is not
heard." This was said with reference to those men who were destined, after
receiving the Holy Spirit, to speak with every kind of tongue. But because this
passage itself signified that the gospel should be found hereafter in all
nations and languages, and that the body of Christ should sound forth throughout
all the world in every tongue, therefore he goes on to say, "Their sound is gone
out throughout all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." Hence
it is that the true Church is hidden from no one. And hence comes that which the
Lord Himself says in the gospel, "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid."
[2074] And therefore David continues in the same psalm, "In the sun hath He
placed His tabernacle," that is, in the open light of day; as we read in the
Book of Kings, "For thou didst it secretly; but I will do this thing before all
Israel, and before the sun." [2075] And He Himself is "as a bridegroom coming
out of His chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to run His race. His going forth is
from the end of heaven:" here you have the coming of the Lord in the flesh. "And
His circuit unto the ends of it:" here you have His resurrection and ascension.
"And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof:" [2076] here you have the
coming of the Holy Spirit, whom He sent in tongues of fire, that He might make
manifest the glowing heat of charity, which he certainly cannot have who does
not keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace with the Church, which is
throughout all languages. 75. Next, however, with regard to your statement that
there is indeed one baptism, [2077] but that it is consecrated in three several
grades, and to your having distributed the three forms of it to three persons
after such fashion, that you ascribe the water to John, the Holy Spirit to the
Lord Jesus Christ, and, in the third place, the fire to the Comforter sent down
from above, -- consider for a moment in how great an error you are involved. For
you were brought to entertain such an opinion simply from the words of John: "I
indeed baptize you with water: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I:
He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." [2078] Nor were you
willing to take into consideration that the three things are not attributed to
three persons taken one by one, -- water to John, the Holy Spirit to Christ,
fire to the Comforter, -- but that the three should rather be referred to two
persons -- one of them to John, the other two to our Lord. For neither is it
said, I indeed baptize you with water: but He that cometh after me is mightier
than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost: and the Comforter, who is to come after Him, He shall baptize you with
fire; but "I indeed," He says, "with water: but He that cometh after me with the
Holy Ghost, and with fire." One he attributes to himself, two to Him that cometh
after him. You see, therefore, how you have been deceived in the number. Listen
further. You said that there was one baptism consecrated in three stages --
water, the Holy Spirit, and fire; and you assigned three persons to the three
stages severally -- John to the water, Christ to the Spirit, the Comforter to
the fire. If, therefore, the water of John bears reference to the same baptism
which is commended as being one, it was not right that those should have been
baptized a second time by the command of the Apostle Paul whom he found to have
been baptized by John. For they already had water, belonging, as you say, to the
same baptism; so that it remained that they should receive the Holy Spirit and
fire, because these were wanting in the baptism of John, that their baptism
might be completed, being consecrated, as you assert, in three stages. But since
they were ordered to be baptized by the authority of an apostle, it is
sufficiently made manifest that that water with which John baptized had no
reference to the baptism of Christ, but belonged to another dispensation suited
to the exigencies of the times. 76. Lastly, when you wished to prove that the
Holy Spirit was given by Christ, and had brought forward as a proof from the
gospel, that Jesus on rising from the dead breathed into the face of His
disciples, saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost;" [2079] and when you wished to
prove that that last fire which was named in connection with baptism was found
in the tongues of fire which were displayed on the coming of the Holy Ghost, how
came it into your head to say, "And the Comforter Himself came upon the apostles
as a fire burning with rustling flames," as though there were one Holy Spirit
whom He gave by breathing on the face of His disciples, and another who, after
His ascension, came on the apostles? Are we to suppose, therefore, that there
are two Holy Spirits? Who will be found so utterly mad as to assert this? Christ
therefore Himself gave the same Holy Spirit, whether by breathing on the face of
the disciples, or by sending Him down from heaven on the day of Pentecost, with
undoubted commendation of His holy sacrament. Accordingly it was not that Christ
gave the Holy Spirit, and the Comforter gave the fire, that the saying might be
fulfilled, "With the Holy Spirit, and with fire;" but the same Christ Himself
gave the Holy Spirit in both cases, making it manifest while He was yet on earth
by His breathing, and when He was ascended into heaven by the tongues of flame.
For that you may know that the words of John, "He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost," were not fulfilled at the time when He breathed on His disciples
face, so that they should require to be baptized, when the Comforter should
come, not with the Spirit any longer, but with fire, I would have you remember
the most outspoken words of Scripture, and see what the Lord Himself said to
them when He ascended into heaven: "John truly baptized you with water; but ye
shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, whom ye shall receive not many days hence
at Pentecost." [2080] What could be plainer than this testimony? But according
to your interpretation, what He should have said was this: John verily baptized
you with water; but ye were baptized with the Holy Spirit when I breathed on
your faces; and next in due order shall ye be baptized with fire, which ye shall
receive not many days hence; -- in order that by this means the three stages
should be completed, in which you say that the one baptism was consecrated. And
so it proves to be the case that you are still ignorant of the meaning of the
words, "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire;" and you are
rash enough to be williing to teach what you do not know yourselves.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 284: CHAPTER 33. -- 77. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT THAT I MAY THOROUGHLY INVESTIGATE THE BAPTISM IN THE NAME
========================================================================

-- 77. Petilianus said: "But that I may thoroughly investigate the baptism in
the name of the Trinity, the Lord Christ said to His apostles: Go ye, and
baptize the nations, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost; teaching them 78. Augustin answered: certainly you had proposed
thoroughly to investigate the baptism in the name of the Trinity, and you had
set us to listen with much attention; but following, as it would seem, what is
the easiest course to you, how soon have you returned to your customary abuse!
This you carry out with genuine fluency. For you set before yourself what
victims you please, against whom to inveigh with whatsoever bitterness you
please: in the midst of which last latitude of discourse you are driven into the
greatest straits if any one does but use the little word, Prove it. For this is
what is said to you by the seed of Abraham; and since in him all nations of the
earth are blessed, they care but little when they are cursed by you. But yet,
since you are treating of baptism, which you consider to be true when it is
found in a just man, but false when it is found in the unjust, see how I too, if
I were to investigate baptism in the name of the Trinity, according to your
rule, might say, with great fullness, as it seems to me, that he has not God for
his father who in a Count has God for his companion, [2083] nor believes that
any is his Christ, save him for whose sake he has endured suffering; and that he
has not the Holy Ghost who burned the wretched Africa in so very different a
fashion with tongues of fire. How then can they have baptism, or how can they
administer it in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost?
Surely you must now perceive that baptism can exist in an unrighteous man, and
be administered by an unrighteous man, and that no unrighteous baptism, but such
as is just and true, -- not because it belongs to the unrighteous man, but
because it is of God. And herein I am uttering no calumny against you, as you
never cease to do, on some pretense or other, against the whole world; and, what
is even more intolerable, you do not even bring any proof about the very points
on which you found your calumnies. But I know not how this can possibly be
endured, because you not only bring calumnies against holy men about unrighteous
men, but you even bring a charge against the holy baptism itself, which must
needs be holy in any man, however unrighteous he may be, from a comparison with
the infection arising from the sins of wicked men, so that you say that baptism
partakes of the character of him by whom it is possessed, or administered, or
received. Furthermore, if a man partakes of the character of him in whose
company he approaches sacred mysteries, and if the sacraments themselves partake
of the character of the men in whom they are, holy men may well be satisfied to
find consolation in the thought that they only fare like holy baptism itself in
hearing false accusations from your lips. But it would be well for you to see
how you are condemned out of your own mouths, if both the sober among you are
counted as drunken from the infection of the drunken in your ranks, and the
merciful among you become robbers from the infection of the robbers, and
whatever evil is found among you in the persons of wicked men is perforce shared
by those who are not wicked; and if baptism itself is unclean in all of you who
are unclean, and if it is of different kinds according to the varying character
of uncleanness itself, as it must be if it is perforce of the same character as
the man by whom it is possessed or administered. These suppositions most
undoubtedly are false, and accordingly they in no wise injure us, when you bring
them forward against us without looking back upon yourselves. But they do injure
you, because, when you bring them forward falsely, they do not fall on us; but
since you imagine them to be true, they recoil upon yourselves.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 285: CHAPTER 34. -- 79. PETILIANUS SAID: |FOR IF THE APOSTLES WERE ALLOWED TO BAPTIZE THOSE WHOM JOHN
========================================================================

-- 79. Petilianus said: "For if the apostles were allowed to baptize those whom
John had washed with the baptism of repentance, shall it not likewise be allowed
to me to baptize men guilty of sacrilege like yourselves?" 80. Augustin
answered: Where then is what you said above, that there was not one baptism of
John and another of Christ, but that there was one baptism, consecrated in three
stages, of which three stages John gave the water, Christ the Spirit, and the
Comforter the fire? Why then did the apostles repeat the water in the case of
those to whom John had already administered water belonging to the one baptism
which is consecrated in three stages? Surely you must see how necessary it is
that every one should understand the meaning of what he is discussing.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 286: CHAPTER 35. -- 81. PETILIANUS SAID: |NOR INDEED WILL IT BE POSSIBLE THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT SHOULD
========================================================================

-- 81. Petilianus said: "Nor indeed will it be possible that the Holy Spirit
should be implanted in the heart of any one by the laying on of the hands of the
priest, unless the water of a pure conscience has gone before to give him
birth." 82. Augustin answered: In these few words of yours two errors are
involved; and one of them, indeed, has no great bearing on the question which is
being discussed between us, but yet it helps to convict you of want of skill.
For the Holy Spirit came upon a hundred and twenty men, without the laying on of
any person's hands, and again upon Cornelius the centurion and those who were
with him, even before they were baptized. [2084] But the second error in these
words of yours entirely overthrows your whole case. For you say that the water
of a pure conscience must necessarily precede to give new birth, before the Holy
Spirit can follow on it. Accordingly, either all the water consecrated in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is water of a pure
conscience, not for the merits of those by whom it is administered, or by whom
it is received, but in virtue of the stainless merits of Him who instituted this
baptism; or else if only a pure conscience on the part both of the ministrant
and the recipient can produce the water of a pure conscience, what do you make
of those whom you find to have been baptized by men who bore a conscience
stained with as yet undiscovered guilt, especially if there exist among the said
baptized persons any one that should confess that he at the time when he was
baptized had a bad conscience, in that he might possbily have desired to use
that opportunity for the accomplishment of some sinful act? When, therefore, it
shall be made clear to you that neither the man who administered baptism, nor
the man who received it, had a pure conscience, will you give your judgment that
he ought to be baptized afresh? You will assuredly neither say nor do anything
of the sort. The purity therefore of baptism is entirely unconnected with the
purity or impurity of the conscience either of the giver or the recipient. Will
you therefore dare to say that the deceiver, or the robber, or the oppressor of
the fatherless and widows, or the sunderer of marriages, or the betrayer, the
seller, the divider of the patrimony of other men, [2085] was a man of pure
conscience? Or will you further dare to say that those were men of pure
conscience, whom it is hard to imagine wanting in such times, men who made
interest with the man I have described, that they might be baptized, not for the
sake of Christ, nor for the sake of eternal life, but to conciliate earthly
friendships, and to satisfy earthly desires? Further, if you do not venture to
say that these were men of pure conscience, then if you find any of their number
who have been baptized, give to them the water of a pure conscience, which they
as yet have not received; and if you will not do this, then leave off casting in
our teeth a matter which you do not understand, lest you should be forced to
answer in reply to us about a matter which you know full well.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 287: CHAPTER 36. -- 83. PETILIANUS SAID: |WHICH HOLY SPIRIT CERTAINLY CANNOT COME ON YOU
========================================================================

-- 83. Petilianus said: "Which Holy Spirit certainly cannot come on you, who
have not been washed even with the baptism of repentance; but the water of the
traditor, which most truly needs to be repented of, does but work pollution."
84. Augustin answered: As a matter of fact, not only do you not prove us to be
traditors, but neither did your fathers prove that our fathers were guilty of
that sin; though, even if that had been proved, the consequence would have been
that they would not be our fathers, according to your earlier assertion, seeing
that we had not followed their deeds: yet neither should we on their account be
severed from the companionship of unity, and from the seed of Abraham, in which
all nations of the earth are blessed. [2086] However, if the water of Christ be
one thing, and the water of the traditor another, because Christ was not a
traditor, why should not the water of Christ be one thing, and the water of a
robber another, since certainly Christ was not a robber? Do you therefore
baptize again after baptism by your robber, and I will baptize again after the
traditor, who is neither mine nor yours; or, if one must believe the documents
which are produced, who is both mine and yours; or, if we are to believe the
communion of the whole world rather than the party of Donatus, who is not mine,
but yours. But, by a better and a sounder judgment, because it is according to
the words of the apostle, every one of us shall bear his own burden; [2087] nor
is either that robber yours, if you are not yourselves robbers; nor does any
traditor belong to any one either of us or you, who is not himself a traditor.
And yet we are Catholics, who, following the spirit of that judgment, do not
desert the unity of the Church; but you are heretics, who, on account of
charges, whether true or false, which you have brought against certain men, are
unwilling to maintain Christian charity with the seed of Abraham.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 288: CHAPTER 37. -- 85. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT THAT THE TRUTH OF THIS MAY BE MADE MANIFEST FROM
========================================================================

-- 85. Petilianus said: "But that the truth of this may be made manifest from
the apostles, we are taught by their actions, as it is written: It came to pass
that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coasts,
came to Ephesu 86. Augustin answered: "We bring no accusation against Paul, who
gave to men the baptism of Christ because they had not the baptism of Christ,
but the baptism of John, according to their own reply; for, being asked, Unto
what were ye baptized? they answered, Unto John's baptism; which has nothing to
do with the baptism of Christ, and is neither a part of it nor a step towards
it. Otherwise, either at that time the water of the baptism of Christ was
renewed a second time, or if the baptism of Christ was then made perfect by the
two waters, the baptism is less perfect which is given now, because it is not
given with the water which was given at the hands of John. But either one of
these opinions it is impious and sacrilegious to entertain. Therefore Paul gave
the baptism of Christ to those who had not the baptism of Christ, but only the
baptism of John. 87. But why the baptism of John, which is not necessary now,
was necessary at that time, I have explained elsewhere; and the question has no
bearing on the point at issue between us at the present time, except so far as
that it may appear that the baptism of John was one thing, the baptism of Christ
another, -- just as that baptism was a different thing with which the apostle
says that our fathers were baptized in the cloud and in the sea, when they
passed through the Red Sea under the guidance of Moses. [2089] For the law and
the prophets up to the time of John the Baptist had sacraments which
foreshadowed things to come; but the sacraments of our time bear testimony that
that has come already which the former sacraments foretold should come. John
therefore was a foreteller of Christ nearer to Him in time than all who went
before him. And because all the righteous men and prophets of former times
desired to see the fulfillment of what, through the revelation of the Spirit,
they foresaw would come to pass, -- whence also the Lord Himself says, "That
many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see,
and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not
heard them," [2090] -- therefore it was said of John that he was more than a
prophet, and that among all that were born of women there was none greater than
he; [2091] because to the righteous men who went before him it was only granted
to foretell the coming of Christ, but to John it was given both to foretell Him
in His absence and to behold His presence, so that it should be found that to
him was made manifest what the others had desired. And therefore the sacrament
of his baptism is still connected with the foretelling of Christ's coming,
though as of something very soon to be fulfilled, seeing that up to his time
there were still foretellings of the first coming of our Lord, of which coming
we have now announcements, but no longer predictions. But the Lord, teaching the
way of humility, condescended to make use of the sacraments which He found here
in reference to the foretelling of His coming, not in order to assist the
operation of His cleansing, but as an example for our piety, that so He might
show to us with what reverence we ought to receive those sacraments which bear
witness that He is already come, when He did not disdain to make use of those
which foreshadowed His coming in the future. And John, therefore, though the
nearest to Christ in point of time, and within one year of the same age with
Him, yet, while he was baptizing, went before the way of Christ who was still to
come; for which reason it was said of him, "Behold, I send my messenger before
Thy face, which shall prepare Thy way before Thee." [2092] And he himself
preached, saying, "There cometh one mightier than I after me." [2093] In like
manner, therefore, the circumcision on the eighth day, which was given to the
patriarchs, foretold our justification, to the putting away of carnal lusts
through the resurrection of our Lord, which took place after the seventh day,
which is the Sabbath-day, on the eighth, that is, the Lord's day, which fell on
the third day after His burial; yet the infant Christ received the same
circumcision of the flesh, with its prophetic signification. And as the
Passover, which was celebrated by the Jews with the slaying of a lamb,
prefigured the passion of our Lord and His departure from this world to the
Father, yet the same Lord celebrated the same Passover with His disciples, when
they reminded Him of it, saying, Where wilt Thou that we prepare for Thee to eat
the Passover? [2094] so too He Himself also received the baptism of John, which
formed a part of the latest foretelling of His coming. But as the Jews'
circumcision of the flesh is one thing, and the ceremony which we observe on the
eighth day after persons are baptized is another; [2095] and the Passover which
the Jews still celebrate with the slaying of a lamb is one thing, [2096] and
that which we receive in the body and blood of our Lord is another, -- so the
baptism of John was one thing, the baptism of Christ is another. For by the
former series of rites the latter were foretold as destined to arrive; by these
latter the others are declared to be fulfilled. And even though Christ received
the others, yet are they not necessary for us, who have received the Lord
Himself who was foretold in them. But when the coming of our Lord was as yet
recent, it was necessary for any one who had received the former that he should
be imbued with the latter also; but it was wholly needless that any one who had
been so imbued should be compelled to go back to the former rites. 88. Wherefore
do not seek to raise confusion out of the baptism of John, the source and
intention of which was either such as I have here set forth; or if any other
better explanation of it can be given, this much still is clear, that the
baptism of John and the baptism of Christ are two distinct and separate things,
and that the former was expressly called the baptism of John, as is clear both
from the answer of those men whose case you quoted, and from the words of our
Lord Himself, when he says, "The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or
of men?" [2097] But the latter is never called the baptism of Cæcilianus, or of
Donatus, or of Augustin, or of Petilianus, but the baptism of Christ. For if you
think that we are shameless, because we will not allow that any one should be
baptized after baptism from us, although we see that men were baptized again who
had received the baptism of John, who certainly is incomparably greater than
ourselves, will you maintain that John and Optatus were of equal dignity? The
thing appears ridiculous. And yet I fancy that you do not hold them to be
equals, but consider Optatus the greater of the two. For the apostle baptized
after baptism by John: you venture to baptize no one after baptism by Optatus.
Was it because Optatus was in unity with you? I know not with what heart a
theory like this can be maintained, if the friend of the Count, [2098] who had
in the Count a god for his companion, is said to have been in unity, and the
friend of the Bridegroom to have been excluded from it. But if John was
preeminently in unity, and far more excellent and greater than all of us and all
of you, and yet the Apostle Paul baptized after him, why do you then not baptize
after Optatus? Unless indeed it be that your blindness brings you into such a
strait that you should say that Optatus had the power of giving the Holy Spirit,
and that John had not! And if you do not say this, for fear of being ridiculed
for your madness even by the insane themselves, what answer will you be able to
make when you are asked why men should have required to be baptized after
receiving baptism from John, while no one needs to be baptized after receiving
it from Optatus, unless it be that the former were baptized with the baptism of
John, while, whenever any one is baptized with the baptism of Christ, whether he
be baptized by Paul or by Optatus, there is no difference in the nature of his
baptism, though there is so great a difference between Paul and Optatus? Return
then, O ye transgressors, to a right mind, [2099] and do not seek to weigh the
sacraments of God by considerations of the characters and deeds of men. For the
sacraments are holy through Him to whom they belong; but when taken in hand
worthily, they bring reward, when unworthily, judgment. And although the men are
not one who take in hand the sacrament of God worthily or unworthily, yet that
which is taken in hand, whether worthily or unworthily, is the same; so that it
does not become better or worse in itself, but only turns to the life or death
of those who handle it in either case. And in respect of what you said, that "in
those whom Paul baptized after they had received the baptism of John, he washed
off what had already existed," you certainly would not have said it had you
taken a moment to consider what you were saying. For if the baptism of John
required washing off, it must, beyond all doubt, have had some foulness in it.
Why then should I press you further? Recollect or read, and see whence John
received it, so shall you see against whom you have uttered that blasphemy; and
when you have discovered this, your heart will surely be beaten, if a rein be
not set on your tongue. 89. To come next to what you think you say against us
with so much point: "If we do ill in urging this, why do you seek after us?"
cannot you even yet call to mind that only those are sought after who have
perished? Or is the incapacity for seeing this an element in your ruin? For the
sheep might say to the shepherd with equal absurdity, If I do wrong in straying
from the flock, why do you search after me? not understanding that the very
reason why it is being sought is because it thinks there is no need for seeking
it. But who is there that seeks for you, either through His Scriptures, or by
catholic and conciliatory voices, or by the scourgings of temporal afflictions,
save only Him who dispenses that mercy to you in all things? We therefore seek
you that we may find you; for we love you that you should have life, with the
same intensity with which we hate your error, that it might be destroyed which
seeks to ruin you, so long as it is not itself involved in your destruction. And
would to God that we might seek you in such a manner as even to find, and be
able to say with rejoicing of each one of you, "He was dead, and is alive again;
he was lost, and is found!" [2100]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 289: CHAPTER 38. -- 90. PETILIANUS SAID: |IF YOU DECLARE THAT YOU HOLD THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
========================================================================

-- 90. Petilianus said: "If you declare that you hold the Catholic Church, the
word catholic' is merely the Greek equivalent for entire or whole. But it is
clear that you are not in the whole, because you have gone aside into the part."
91. Augustin answered: I too indeed have attained to a very slight knowledge of
the Greek language, scarcely to be called knowledge at all, yet I am not
shameless in saying that I know that holon means not "one," but "the whole;" and
that kath' holon means "according to the whole:" whence the Catholic Church
received its name, according to the saying of the Lord, "It is not for you to
know the times, which the Father hath put in His own power. But ye shall receive
power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses
unto me both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and even in the whole
earth." [2101] Here you have the origin of the name "Catholic." But you are so
bent upon running with your eyes shut against the mountain which grew out of a
small stone, according to the prophecy of Daniel, and filled the whole earth,
[2102] that you actually tell us that we have gone aside into a part, and are
not in the whole among those whose communion is spread throughout the whole
earth. But just in the same way as, supposing you were to say that I was
Petilianus, I should not be able to find any method of refuting you unless I
were to laugh at you as being in jest, or mourn over you as being mad, so in the
present case I see that I have no other choice but this; and since I do not
believe that you are in jest, you see what alternative remains.


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  CHAPTER 290: CHAPTER 39. -- 92. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT THERE IS NO FELLOWSHIP OF DARKNESS WITH LIGHT
========================================================================

-- 92. Petilianus said: "But there is no fellowship of darkness with light, nor
any fellowship of bitterness with the sweet of honey; there is no fellowship of
life with death, of innocence with guilt, of water with blood; the lees have no
fellowship wit 93. Augustin answered: What is it but sheer madness to utter
these taunts without proving anything? You look at the tares throughout the
world, and pay no heed to the wheat, although both have been bidden to grow
together throughout the whole of it. You look at the seed sown by the wicked
one, which shall be separated in the time of harvest, [2107] and you pay no heed
to the seed of Abraham, in which all nations of the earth shall be blessed.
[2108] Just as though you were already a purged mass, and virgin honey, and
refined oil, and pure gold, or rather the very similitude of a whited wall. For,
to say nothing of your other faults, do the drunken form a portion of the sober,
or are the covetous reckoned among the portion of the wise? If men of gentle
temper appropriate the term of light, where shall the madness of the
Circumcelliones be esteemed to be, excepting in the darkness? Why then is
baptism, given by men like these, held valid among you, and the same baptism of
Christ not held valid, by whatsoever men it may be administered throughout the
world? You see, in fact, that you are separated from the communion of the whole
world in so far as this, that you are not indeed all drunk, nor all of you
covetous, nor all men of violence, but that you are all heretics, and, in virtue
of this, are all impious and all sacrilegious. 94. But as to your saying that
the whole world that rejoices in Christian communion is the party of Macarius,
who with any remnant of sanity in his brain could make such a statement? But
because we say that you are of the party of Donatus, you therefore seek for a
man of whose party you may say we are; and, being in a great strait, you mention
the name of some obscure person, who, if he is known in Africa, is certainly
unknown in any other quarter of the globe. And therefore hearken to the answer
made to you by all the seed of Abraham from every corner of the earth: Of that
Macarius, to whose party you assert us to belong, we know absolutely nothing.
Can you reply in turn that you know nothing of Donatus? But even if we were to
say that you are the party of Optatus, which of you can say that he is
unacquainted with Optatus, unless in the sense that he does not know him
personally, as perhaps he does not know Donatus either? But you acknowledge that
you rejoice in the name of Donatus, do you also take any pleasure in the name of
Optatus? What then can the name of Donatus profit you, when all of you alike are
polluted by Optatus? What advantage can you derive from the sobriety of Donatus,
when you are defiled by the drunkenness of the Circumcelliones? What, according
to your views, are you profited by the innocence of Donatus, when you are
stained by the rapacity of Optatus? For this is your mistake, that you think
that the unrighteousness of a man has more power in infecting his neighbor than
the righteousness of a man has in purifying those around him. Therefore, if two
share in common the sacraments of God, the one a just man, the other an
unrighteous one, but so that neither the former should imitate the
unrighteousness of the latter, nor the latter the righteousness of the former,
you say that the result is not that both are made just, but that both are made
unrighteous; so that also that holy thing, which both receive in common, becomes
unclean and loses its original holiness. When does unrighteousness find for
herself such advocates as these, through whose madness she is esteemed
victorious? How comes it then that, in the midst of such mistaken perversity,
you congratulate yourselves upon the name of Donatus, when it shows not that
Petilianus deserves to be what Donatus is, but that Donatus is compelled to be
what Optatus is? But let the house of Israel say, "God is my portion for ever;"
[2109] let the seed of Abraham say in all nations "The Lord is the portion of
mine inheritance." [2110] For they know how to speak through the gospel of the
glory of the blessed God. For you, too, through the sacrament which is in you,
like Caiaphas the persecutor of the Lord, prophesy without being aware of it.
[2111] For what in Greek is expressed by the word Macharios is in our language
simply "Blessed;" and in this way certainly we are of the party of Macarius, the
Blessed One. For what is more blessed than Christ, of whose party we are, after
whom all the ends of the earth are called, and to whom they all are turned, and
in whose sight all the countries of the nations worship? Therefore the party of
this Macarius, that is to say, of this Blessed One, feels no apprehension at
your last curse, distorted from the words of Solomon, lest it should perish from
the earth. For what is said by him of the impious you endeavor to apply to the
inheritance of Christ, and you strive to prove that this has been achieved with
inexpressible impiety; for when he was speaking of the impious, he says, "Let
their portion perish from off the earth." [2112] But when you say, with
reference to the words of Scripture, "I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine
inheritance," [2113] and "all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto
the Lord," [2114] that the promise contained in them has already perished from
the earth, you are seeking to turn against the inheritance of Christ what was
foretold about the lot of the impious; but so long as the inheritance of Christ
endures and increases, you are perishing in saying such things. For you are not
in every case prophesying through the sacrament of God, since in this case you
are merely uttering evil wishes through your own madness. But the prophecy of
the true prophets is more powerful than the evil speaking of the false prophets.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 291: CHAPTER 40. -- 95. PETILIANUS SAID: |PAUL THE APOSTLE ALSO BIDS US
========================================================================

-- 95. Petilianus said: "Paul the apostle also bids us, Be ye not unequally
yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord
hath Christ with Belial? or wh 96. Augustin answered: I recognize the words of
the apostle; but how they can help you I cannot see at all. For which of us says
that there is any fellowship between righteousness and unrighteousness, even
though the righteous and the unrighteous, as in the case of Judas and Peter,
should be alike partakers of the sacraments? For from one and the same holy
thing Judas received judgment to himself and Peter salvation, just as you
received the sacrament with Optatus, and, if you were unlike him, were not
therefore partakers in his robberies. Or is robbery not unrighteousness? Who
would be mad enough to assert that? What fellowship was there, then, on the part
of your righteousness with his unrighteousness, when you approached together to
the same altar?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 292: CHAPTER 41. -- 97. PETILIANUS SAID: |AND, AGAIN, HE TAUGHT US THAT SCHISMS SHOULD NOT ARISE
========================================================================

-- 97. Petilianus said: "And, again, he taught us that schisms should not arise,
in the following terms: Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of
Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was
Paul crucifie 98. Augustin answered: Remember all of you who read this, it was
Petilianus who quoted these words from the apostle. For who could have believed
that he would have brought forward words which tell so much for us against
himself?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 293: CHAPTER 42. -- 99. PETILIANUS SAID: |IF PAUL UTTERED THESE WORDS TO THE UNLEARNED AND TO THE
========================================================================

-- 99. Petilianus said: "If Paul uttered these words to the unlearned and to the
righteous, I say this to you who are unrighteous, Is Christ divided, that you
should separate yourselves from the Church?" 100. Augustin answered: I am afraid
lest any one should think that in this work of mine the writer has made a
mistake, and has written the heading Petilianus said, when he ought to have
written Augustin answered. But I see what your object is: you wished, as it
were, to preoccupy the ground, lest we should bring those words in testimony
against you. But what have you really done, except to cause them to be quoted
twice? If, therefore, you are so much pleased with hearing the words which make
against you, as to render it necessary that they should be repeated, hear, I
pray you, these words as coming from me, Petilianus: Is Christ divided, that you
should separate yourselves from the Church?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 294: CHAPTER 43. -- 101. PETILIANUS SAID: |CAN IT BE THAT THE TRAITOR JUDAS HUNG HIMSELF FOR YOU
========================================================================

-- 101. Petilianus said: "Can it be that the traitor Judas hung himself for you,
or did he imbue you with his character, that, following his deeds, you should
seize on the treasures of the Church, and sell for money to the powers of this
world us who are 102. Augustin answered: Judas did not die for us, but Christ,
to whom the Church dispersed throughout the world says, "So shall I have
wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in Thy word." [2117]
When, therefore, I hear the words of the Lord, saying, "Ye shall be witnesses
unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and even in the
whole earth," [2118] and through the voice of His prophet, "Their sound is gone
out through all the earth, and their words into the ends of the world," [2119]
no bodily admixture of evil ever is able to disturb me, if I know how to say,
"Be surety for Thy servant for good: let not the proud oppress me." [2120] I do
not, therefore, concern myself about a vain calumniation when I have a
substantial promise. But if you complain about matters or places appertaining to
the Church, which you used once to hold, and hold no longer, then the Jews also
may say that they are righteous, and reproach us with unrighteousness, because
the Christians now occupy the place in which of old they impiously reigned. What
then is there unfitting, if, according to a similar will of the Lord, the
Catholics now hold the things which formerly the heretics used to have? For
against all such men as this, that is to say, against all impious and
unrighteous men, those words of the Lord have force, "The kingdom of God shall
be taken from you, and be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof;"
[2121] or is it written in vain, "The righteous shall eat of the labors of the
impious"? [2122] Wherefore you ought rather to be amazed that you still possess
something, than that there is something which you have lost. But neither need
you wonder even at this, for it is by degrees that the whitened wall falls down.
Yet look back at the followers of Maximianus, see what places they possessed,
and by whose agency and under whose attacks they were driven from them, and do
you venture, if you can, to say that to suffer things like these is
righteousness, while to do them is unrighteousness. In the first place, because
you did the deed, and they suffered them; and secondly, because, according to
the rule of this righteousness, you are found to be inferior. For they were
driven from the ancient palaces by Catholic emperors acting through judges,
while you are not even driven forth by the mandates of the emperors themselves
from the basilicas of unity. For what reason is this, save that you are of less
merit, not only than the rest of your colleagues, but even than those very men
whom you assuredly condemned as guilty of sacrilege by the mouth of your plenary
Council?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 295: CHAPTER 44. -- 103. PETILIANUS SAID: |FOR WE, AS IT IS WRITTEN
========================================================================

-- 103. Petilianus said: "For we, as it is written, when we are baptized, put on
Christ who was betrayed; [2123] you, when you are infected, put on Judas the
betrayer." 104. Augustin answered: I also might say, You when you are infected
put on Optatus the betrayer, the robber, the oppressor, the separater of husband
and wife; but far be it from me that the desire of returning an evil word should
provoke me into any falsehood: for neither do you put on Optatus, nor we Judas.
Therefore, if each one who comes to us shall answer to our questions that he has
been baptized in the name of Optatus, he shall be baptized in the name of
Christ; and if you baptized any that came from us and said that they had been
baptized in the name of the traitor Judas, in that case we have no fault to find
with what you have done. But if they had been baptized in the name of Christ, do
you not see what an error you commit in thinking that the sacraments of God can
undergo change through any changeableness of human sins, or be polluted by
defilement in the life of any man?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 296: CHAPTER 45. -- 105. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT IF THESE ARE THE PARTIES
========================================================================

-- 105. Petilianus said: "But if these are the parties, the name of member of a
party is no prejudice against us. For there are two ways, the one narrow, in
which we walk; the other is for the impious, wherein they shall perish. And yet,
though the des 106. Augustin answered: You have been afraid of the comparison of
your numbers with the multitude throughout the world; and therefore, in order to
win praise for the scantiness of your party, you have sought to bring in the
comparison of yourself walking in the narrow path. Would to God that you had
betaken yourself not to its praise, but to the path itself! Truly you would have
seen that there was the same scantiness in the Church of all nations; but that
the righteous are said to be few in comparison with the multitude of the
unrighteous, just as, in comparison with the chaff, there may be said to be few
grains of corn in the most abundant crop, and yet these very grains of
themselves, when brought into a heap, fill the barn. For the followers of
Maximianus themselves will surpass you in this scantiness of number, if you
think that righteousness consists in this, as well as in the persecution
involved in the loss of places which they held.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 297: CHAPTER 46. -- 107. PETILIANUS SAID: |IN THE FIRST PSALM DAVID SEPARATES THE BLESSED FROM THE IMPIOUS
========================================================================

-- 107. Petilianus said: "In the first Psalm David separates the blessed from
the impious, not indeed making them into parties, but excluding all the impious
from holiness. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the
ungodly, nor standeth 108. Augustin answered: Who is there in the Scriptures
that would not distinguish between these two classes of men? But you
slanderously charge the corn with the offenses of the chaff; and being
yourselves mere chaff, you boast yourselves to be the only corn. But the true
prophets declare that both these classes have been mingled together throughout
the whole world, that is, throughout the whole corn-field of the Lord, until the
winnowing which is to take place on the day of judgment. But I advise you to
read that first Psalm in the Greek version, and then you will not venture to
reproach the whole world with being of the party of Macarius; because you will
perhaps come to understand of what Macarius there is a party among all the
saints, who throughout all nations are blessed in the seed of Abraham. For what
stands in our language as "Blessed is the man," is in Greek Macharios aner. But
that Macarius who offends you, if he is a bad man, neither belongs to this
division, nor is to its prejudice. But if he is a good man, let him prove his
own work, that he may have glory in himself alone, and not in another. [2126]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 298: CHAPTER 47. -- 109. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT THE SAME PSALMIST HAS SUNG THE PRAISES OF OUR BAPTISM.
========================================================================

-- 109. Petilianus said: "But the same Psalmist has sung the praises of our
baptism. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in
the green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth m 110. Augustin answered: This psalm speaks of those who receive
baptism aright, and use as holy what is so holy. For those words have no
reference even to Simon Magus, who yet received the same holy baptism; and
because he would not use it in a holy way, he did not therefore pollute it, or
show that in such cases it should be repeated. But since you have made mention
of Goliath, listen to the psalm which treats of Goliath himself, and see that he
is portrayed in a new song; for there it is said, "I will sing a new song unto
Thee, O God: upon a psaltery, and an instrument of ten strings, will I sing
praise unto Thee." [2128] And see whether he belongs to this song who refuses to
communicate with the whole earth. For elsewhere it is said, "O sing unto the
Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord, all the earth." [2129] Therefore the whole
earth, with whom you are not in unity, sings the new song. And these too are the
words of the whole earth, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want," etc.
These are not the words of the tares, though they be endured until the harvest
in the same crop. They are not the words of the chaff, but of the wheat,
although they are nourished by one and the same rain, and are threshed out on
the same threshing-floor at the same time, till they shall be separated the one
from the other by the winnowing at the last day. And yet these both assuredly
have the same baptism, though they are not the same themselves. But if your
party also were the Church of God, you would certainly confess that this psalm
has no application to the infuriated bands of the Circumcelliones. Or if they
too themselves are led through the paths of righteousness, why do you deny that
they are your associates, when you are reproached with them, although, for the
most part, you console yourselves for the scantiness of your section, not by the
rod and staff of the Lord, but by the cudgels of the Circumcelliones, with which
you think that you are safe even against the Roman laws, -- to bring oneself
into collision with which is surely nothing less than to walk through the valley
of the shadow of death? But he with whom the Lord is, fears no evils. Surely,
however, you will not venture to say that the words which are sung in this song
belong even to those infuriated men, and yet you not only acknowledge, but
ostentatiously set forth the fact that they have baptism. These words,
therefore, are not used by any who are not refreshed by the holy water, as are
all the righteous men of God; not by those who are brought to destruction by
using it, as was that magician when baptized by Philip: and yet the water itself
in both kinds of men is the same, and of the same degree of sanctity. These
words are not used except by those who will belong to the right hand; but yet
both sheep and goats feed in the same pasture under one Shepherd, until they
shall be separated, that they may receive their due reward. These words are not
used except by those who, like Peter, receive life from the table of the Lord,
not judgment, as did Judas; and yet the supper was itself the same to both, but
it was not of the same profit to both, because they were not one. These words
are not used except by those who, by being anointed with the sacred oil, are
blessed in spirit also, as was David; not merely consecrated in the body only,
as was Saul: and yet, as they had both received the same outward sign, it was
not the sacrament, but the personal merit that was different in the two cases.
These words are not used except by those who, with converted heart, receive the
cup of the Lord unto eternal life; not by those who eat and drink damnation to
themselves, as the apostle says: [2130] and yet, though they are not one, the
cup which they receive is one, exerting its power on the martyrs that they
should obtain a heavenly reward, not on the Circumcelliones, that they should
mark precipices with death. Remember, therefore, that the characters of bad men
in no wise interfere with the virtue of the sacraments, so that their holiness
should either be destroyed, or even diminished; but that they injure the
unrighteous men themselves, that they should have them as witnesses of their
damnation, not as aids to health. For beyond all doubt you should have taken
into consideration the actual concluding words of this psalm, and have
understood that, on account of those who forsake the faith after they have been
baptized, it cannot be said by all who receive holy baptism that "I will dwell
in the house of the Lord for ever:" and yet, whether they abide in the faith, or
whether they have fallen away, though they themselves are not one, their baptism
is one, and though they themselves are not both holy, yet the baptism in both is
holy; because even apostates, if they return, are not baptized as though they
had lost the sacrament, but undergo humiliation, because they have done a
despite to it which remains in them.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 299: CHAPTER 48. -- 111. PETILIANUS SAID: |YET THAT YOU SHOULD NOT CALL YOURSELVES HOLY
========================================================================

-- 111. Petilianus said: "Yet that you should not call yourselves holy, in the
first place, I declare that no one has holiness who has not led a life of
innocence." 112. Augustin answered: Show us the tribunal where you have been
enthroned as judge, that the whole world should stand for trial before you, and
with what eyes you have inspected and discussed, I do not say the consciences,
but even the acts of all men, that you should say that the whole world has lost
its innocence. He who was carried up as far as the third heaven says, "Yea, I
judge not mine own self;" [2131] and do you venture to pronounce sentence on the
whole world, throughout which the inheritance of Christ is spread abroad? In the
next place, if what you have said appears to you to be sufficiently certain,
that "no one has holiness who has not led a life of innocence," I would ask you,
if Saul had not the holiness of the sacrament, what was in him that David
reverenced? But if he had innocence, why did he persecute the innocent? For it
was on account of the sanctity of his anointing that David honored him while
alive, and avenged him after he was dead; and because he cut off so much as a
scrap from his garment, he trembled with a panic-stricken heart. Here you see
that Saul had not innocence, and yet he had holiness, -- not the personal
holiness of a holy life (for that no one can have without innocence), but the
holiness of the sacrament of God, which is holy even in unrighteous men.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 300: CHAPTER 49. -- 113. PETILIANUS SAID: |FOR, GRANTING THAT YOU FAITHLESS ONES ARE ACQUAINTED WITH THE LAW
========================================================================

-- 113. Petilianus said: "For, granting that you faithless ones are acquainted
with the law, without any prejudice to the law itself, I may say so much as
this, the devil knows it too. For in the case of righteous Job he answered the
Lord God concerning 114. Augustin answered: I might indeed ask of you in what
law the words are written which the devil used when he was uttering calumnies
against the holy man Job, if the position which I am set to prove were this,
that you yourself are unacquainted with the law which you assert the devil to
have known, but as this is not the question at issue between us, I pass it by.
But you have endeavored in such sort to prove that the devil is skilled in the
law, as though we maintained that all who know the law are just. Accordingly, I
do not see in what manner you are assisted by what you have chosen to quote
concerning the devil, -- unless, indeed, it may be that we should be thereby
reminded how you imitate the devil himself. For as he brought forward the words
of the law against the Author of the law, so you also out of the words of the
law bring accusation against men whom you do not know, that you may resist the
promises of God which are made in that very self-same law. Then I should be glad
if you would tell me in whose honor do those confessors of yours achieve their
martyrdom, when they throw themselves over precipices, -- in honor of Christ,
who thrust the devil from Him when he made a like suggestion, or rather in honor
of the devil himself, who suggested such a deed to Christ? There are two
especially vile and customary deaths resorted to by those who kill themselves,
-- hanging and the precipice. You assuredly said in the earlier part of this
epistle, "The traitor hung himself: he left this death to all who are like him."
This has no application whatever to us; for we refuse to reverence with the name
of martyr any who have strangled themselves. With how much greater show of
reason might we say against you, That master of all traitors, the devil, wished
to persuade Christ to throw Himself headlong down, and was repulsed! What,
therefore, must we say of those whom he persuaded with success? What, indeed,
except that they are the enemies of Christ, the friends of the devil, the
disciples of the seducer, the fellow-disciples of the traitor? For both have
learned to kill themselves from the same master, -- Judas by hanging himself,
the others by throwing themselves over precipices.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 301: CHAPTER 50. -- 115. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT THAT WE MAY DESTROY YOUR ARGUMENTS ONE BY ONE
========================================================================

-- 115. Petilianus said: "But that we may destroy your arguments one by one, if
you call yourselves by the name of priests, it was said by the Lord God, through
the mouth of His prophet, The vengeance of the Lord is upon the false priests.'"
116. Augustin answered: Seek rather what you may say with truth, not whence you
may derive abusive words; and what you may teach, not what reproaches you may
cast in our teeth.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 302: CHAPTER 51. -- 117. PETILIANUS SAID: |IF YOU WRETCHED MEN CLAIM FOR YOURSELVES A SEAT
========================================================================

-- 117. Petilianus said: "If you wretched men claim for yourselves a seat, as we
said before, you assuredly have that one of which the prophet and psalmist David
speaks as being the seat of the scornful. [2134] For to you it is rightly left,
seeing tha 118. Augustin answered: Here again you do not see that this is no
kind of argument, but empty abuse. For this is what I said a little while ago,
You utter the words of the law, but take no heed against whom you utter them;
just as the devil uttered the words of the law, but failed to perceive to whom
he uttered them. He wished to thrust down our Head, who was presently to ascend
on high; but you wish to reduce to a small fraction the body of that same Head
which is dispersed throughout the entire world. Certainly you yourself said a
little time before that we know the law, and speak in legal terms, but blush in
our deeds. Thus much indeed you say without a proof of anything; but even though
you were to prove it of some men, you would not be entitled to assert it of
these others. However, if all men throughout all the world were of the character
which you most vainly charge them with, what has the chair done to you of the
Roman Church, in which Peter sat, and which Anastasius fills to-day; or the
chair of the Church of Jerusalem, in which James once sat, and in which John
sits today, with which we are united in catholic unity, and from which you have
severed yourselves by your mad fury? Why do you call the apostolic chair a seat
of the scornful? If it is on account of the men whom you believe to use the
words of the law without performing it, do you find that our Lord Jesus Christ
was moved by the Pharisees, of whom He says, "They say, and do not," to do any
despite to the seat in which they sat? Did He not commend the seat of Moses, and
maintain the honor of the seat, while He convicted those that sat in it? For He
says, "They sit in Moses' seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe,
that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not."
[2135] If you were to think of these things, you would not, on account of men
whom you calumniate, do despite to the apostolic seat, in which you have no
share. But what else is conduct like yours but ignorance of what to say,
combined with want of power to abstain from evil-speaking?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 303: CHAPTER 52. -- 119. PETILIANUS SAID: |IF YOU SUPPOSE THAT YOU CAN OFFER SACRIFICE
========================================================================

-- 119. Petilianus said: "If you suppose that you can offer sacrifice, God
Himself thus speaks of you as most abandoned sinners: The wicked man,' He says,
that sacrificeth a calf is as if he cut off a dog's neck; and he that offereth
an oblation, as if h 120. Augustin answered: We say that in the case of every
man the sacrifice that is offered partakes of the character of him who
approaches to offer it, or approaches to partake of it; and that those eat of
the sacrifices of such men, who in approaching to them partake of the character
of those who offer them. Therefore, if a bad man offer sacrifice to God, and a
good man receive it at his hands, the sacrifice is to each man of such character
as he himself has shown himself to be, since we find it also written that "unto
the pure all things are pure." [2138] In accordance with this true and catholic
judgment, you too are free from pollution by the sacrifice of Optatus, if you
disapproved of his deeds. For certainly his bread was the bread of mourners,
seeing that all Africa was mourning under his iniquities. But the evil involved
in the schism of all your party makes this bread of mourners common to you all.
For, according to the judgment of your Council, Felicianus of Musti was a
shedder of man's blood. For you said, in condemning them, [2139] "Their feet are
swift to shed blood." [2140] See therefore what kind of sacrifice he offers whom
you hold to be a priest, when you have yourselves convicted him of sacrilege.
And if you think that this is in no way to your prejudice, I would ask you how
the emptiness of your calumnies can be to the prejudice of the whole world?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 304: CHAPTER 53. -- 121. PETILIANUS SAID: |IF YOU MAKE PRAYER TO GOD
========================================================================

-- 121. Petilianus said: "If you make prayer to God, or utter supplication, it
profits you absolutely nothing whatsoever. For your blood-stained conscience
makes your feeble prayers of no effect; because the Lord God regards purity of
conscience more th 122. Augustin answered: If we on our side were to utter
against you all that you assert against us, would not any one who heard us
consider that we were rather insane litigants than Christian disputants, if he
himself were in his senses? We do not, therefore, render for railing. For it is
not fitting that the servant of the Lord should strive; but he should be gentle
unto all men, willing to learn, in meekness instructing those that oppose
themselves. [2143] If, therefore, we reproach you with those who daily do what
is evil among you, we are guilty of striving unbefittingly, accusing one for the
sins of another. But if we admonish you, that as you are unwilling that these
things should be brought against yourselves, so you should abstain from bringing
against us the sins of other men, we then in meekness are instructing you,
solely in the hope that some time you will return to a better mind.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 305: CHAPTER 54. -- 123. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT IF IT SHOULD SO HAPPEN
========================================================================

-- 123. Petilianus said: "But if it should so happen, though whether it be so I
cannot say, that you cast out devils, neither will this in you do any good;
because the devils themselves yield neither to your faith nor to your merits,
but are driven out i 124. Augustin answered: God be thanked that you have at
length confessed that the invocation of the name of Christ may be of profit for
the salvation of others, even though it be invoked by sinners! Hence, therefore,
you may understand that when the name of Christ is invoked, the sins of one man
do not stand in the way of the salvation of another. But to determine in what
manner we invoke the name of Christ, we require not your judgment, but the
judgment of Christ Himself who is invoked by us; for He alone can know in what
spirit He is invoked. Yet from His own words we are assured that He is invoked
to their salvation by all nations, who are blessed in the seed of Abraham.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 306: CHAPTER 55. -- 125. PETILIANUS SAID: |EVEN THOUGH YOU DO VERY VIRTUOUS ACTIONS
========================================================================

-- 125. Petilianus said: "Even though you do very virtuous actions, and perform
miraculous works, yet on account of your wickedness the Lord does not know you;
even so, according to the words of the Lord Himself, Many will say to me in that
day, Lord, Lo 126. Augustin answered: We acknowledge the word of the Lord. Hence
also the apostle says, "Though I have all faith, so that I could remove
mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." [2145] Here therefore we must
inquire who it is that has charity: you will find that it is no one else but
those who are lovers of unity. For as to the driving out of devils, and as to
the working of miracles, seeing that very many do not do such things who yet
belong to the kingdom of God, and very many do them who do not belong to it,
neither our party nor your party have any cause for boasting, if any of them
chance to have this power, since the Lord did not think it right that even the
apostles, who could truly do such things both to profit and salvation, should
boast in things like this, when He says to them, "In this rejoice not, that the
spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written
in heaven." [2146] Wherefore all those things which you have advanced from the
writings of the gospel I also might repeat to you, if I saw you working the
powerful acts of signs and miracles; and so might you repeat them to me, if you
saw me doing things of a like sort. Let us not, therefore, say one to another
what may equally be said on the other side as well; and, putting aside all
quibbles, since we are inquiring where the Church of Christ is to be found, let
us listen to the words of Christ Himself, who redeemed it with His own blood:
"Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in
Samaria, and even in the whole earth." [2147] You see then who it is with whom a
man refuses to communicate who will not communicate with this Church, which is
spread throughout all the world, if at least you hear whose words these are. For
what is a greater proof of madness than to hold communion with the sacraments of
the Lord, and to refuse to hold communion with the words of the Lord? Such men
at any rate are likely to say, In Thy name have we eaten and drunken, and to
hear the words, "I never knew you," [2148] seeing that they eat His body and
drink His blood in the sacrament, and do not recognize in the gospel His members
which are spread abroad throughout the earth, and therefore are not themselves
counted among them in the judgment.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 307: CHAPTER 56. -- 127. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT EVEN IF, AS YOU YOURSELVES SUPPOSE
========================================================================

-- 127. Petilianus said: "But even if, as you yourselves suppose, you are
following the law of the Lord in purity, let us nevertheless consider the
question of the most holy law itself in a legal form. The Apostle Paul says, The
law is good, if a man us 128. Augustin answered: We do not wish to be like you:
for there are not wanting words which might be uttered, as you too utter these;
and known also, for you do not know these; and set forth in the conduct of a
life, as these are not set forth by you.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 308: CHAPTER 57. -- 129. PETILIANUS SAID: |IT IS WRITTEN, THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.
========================================================================

-- 129. Petilianus said: "It is written, Thou shalt not commit adultery.' Each
one of you, even though he be chaste in his body, yet in spirit is an adulterer,
because he pollutes his holiness." 130. Augustin answered: These words also
might be spoken with truth against certain both of our number and of yours; but
if their deeds are condemned by us and you alike, they belong to neither us nor
you. But you wish that what you say against certain men, without proving it even
in their especial case, should be taken just as if you had established it, --
not in the case of some who have fallen away from the seed of Abraham, but in
reference to all the nations of the earth who are blessed in the seed of
Abraham.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 309: CHAPTER 58. -- 131. PETILIANUS SAID: |IT IS WRITTEN, THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY
========================================================================

-- 131. Petilianus said: "It is written, Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbor.' When you falsely declare to the kings of this world that
we hold your opinions, do you not make up a falsehood?" 132. Augustin answered:
If those are not our opinions which you hold, neither were they your opinions
which you received from the followers of Maximianus. But if they were therefore
yours, because they were guilty of a sacrilegious schism in not communicating
with the party of Donatus, take heed what ground you occupy, and with whose
inheritance you refuse communion, and consider what answer you can make, not to
the kings of this world, but to Christ your King. Of Him it is said, "He shall
have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the
earth." [2150] From what river does it mean, save that where He was baptized,
and where the dove descended on Him, that mighty token of charity and unity? But
you refuse communion with this unity, and occupy as yet the place of unity; and
you bring us into disfavor with the kings of this world in making use of the
edicts of the proconsul to expel your schismatics from the place of the party of
Donatus. These are not mere words flying at random through the empty void: the
men are still alive, the states bear witness to the fact, the archives of the
proconsuls and of the several towns are quoted in evidence of it. Let then the
voice of calumny be at length silent, which would bring up against the whole
earth the kings of this world, through whose proconsuls you, yourselves a
fragment, would not spare the fragment which was separated from you. When then
we say that you hold our opinions, we are not shown to be bearing false witness,
unless you can show that we are not in the Church of Christ, which indeed you
never cease alleging, but never will be able to establish; nay, in real truth,
when you say this, you are bringing a charge of false witness no longer against
us, but against the Lord Himself. For we are in the Church which was foretold by
His own testimony, and where He bore witness to His witnesses, saying, "Ye shall
be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and
even in the whole earth." But you show yourselves to be false witnesses not only
from this, that you resist this truth, but also in the very trial in which you
joined issue with the schism of Maximianus. For if you were acting according to
the law of Christ, how much more consistently do certain Christian emperors
frame ordinances in accordance with it, if even pagan proconsuls can follow its
behests in passing judgment? But if you thought that even the laws of an earthly
empire were to be summoned to your aid, we do not blame you for this. It is what
Paul did when he bore witness before his adversaries that he was a Roman
citizen. [2151] But I would ask by what earthly laws it is ordained that the
followers of Maximianus should be driven from their place? You will find no law
whatever to this effect. But, in point of fact, you have chosen to expel them
under laws which have been passed against heretics, and against yourselves among
their number. You, as though by superior strength, have prevailed against the
weak. Whence they, being wholly powerless, say that they are innocent, like the
wolf in the power of the lion. Yet surely you could not use laws which were
passed against yourselves as instruments against others, except by the aid of
false witness. For if those laws are founded on truth, then do you come down
from the position which you occupy; but if on falsehood, why did you use them to
drive others from the Church? But how if they both are founded on truth, and
could not be used by you for the expulsion of others except with the aid of
falsehood? For that the judges might submit to their authority, they were
willing to expel heretics from the Church, from which they ought first to have
expelled yourselves; but you declared yourselves to be Catholics, that you might
escape the severity of the laws which you employed to oppress others. It is for
you to determine what you appear to yourselves among yourselves; at any rate,
under those laws you are not Catholics. Why then have you either made them
false, if they are true, by your false witness, or made use of them, if they are
false, for the oppression of others?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 310: CHAPTER 59. -- 133. PETILIANUS SAID: |IT IS WRITTEN, THOU SHALT NOT COVET ANYTHING THAT IS THY
========================================================================

-- 133. Petilianus said: "It is written, Thou shalt not covet anything that is
thy neighbor's.' [2152] You plunder what is ours, that you may have it for your
own." 134. Augustin answered: All things of which unity was in possession belong
to none other than ourselves, who remain in unity, not in accordance with the
calumnies of men, but with the words of Christ, in whom all the nations of the
whole earth are blessed. Nor do we separate ourselves from the society of the
wheat, on account of the unrighteous men whom we cannot separate from the wheat
of the Lord before the winnowing at the judgment; and if there are any things
which you who are cut off begin already to possess, we do not, because the Lord
has given to us what has been taken away from you, therefore covet our
neighbors' goods, seeing that they have been made ours by the authority of Him
to whom all things belong; and they are rightly ours, for you were wont to use
them for purposes of schism, but we use them for the promotion of unity.
Otherwise your party might reproach even the first people of God with coveting
their neighbors' goods, seeing that they were driven forth before their face by
the power of God, because they used the land amiss; and the Jews in turn
themselves, from whom the kingdom was taken away, according to the words of the
Lord, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof, [2153] may bring
a charge against that nation, of coveting their neighbors' goods, because the
Church of Christ is in possession where the persecutors of Christ were wont to
reign. And, after all, when it has been said to yourselves, You are coveting the
goods of other men, because you have driven out from the basilicas the followers
of Maximianus, you are at a loss to find any answer that you can make.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 311: CHAPTER 60. -- 135. PETILIANUS SAID: |UNDER WHAT LAW, THEN, DO YOU MAKE OUT THAT YOU ARE
========================================================================

-- 135. Petilianus said: "Under what law, then, do you make out that you are
Christians, seeing that you do what is contrary to the law?" 136. Augustin
answered: You are anxious for strife, and not for argument.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 312: CHAPTER 61. -- 137. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT THE LORD CHRIST SAYS
========================================================================

-- 137. Petilianus said: "But the Lord Christ says, Whosoever shall do and teach
them, the same shall be called the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.' But He
condemns you wretched men as follows: Whosoever shall break one of these
commandments, he sha 138. Augustin answered: When you happen to quote the
testimony of Scripture as other than it really is, and it does not bear on the
question which is at issue between us, I am not greatly concerned; but when it
interferes with the matter on hand, unless it is quoted truly, then I think that
you have no right to find fault if I remind you how the passage really stands.
For you must be aware that the verse which you quoted is not as you quoted it,
but rather thus: "Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and
shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but
whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven." And immediately He continues, "For I say unto you, That except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye
shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." [2154] For elsewhere He
shows and proves of the Pharisees that they say and do not. It is these,
therefore, to whom He is referring also here, when He said, "Whosoever shall
break one of these commandments, and shall teach men so," -- that is, shall
teach in words what he has violated in deeds; whose righteousness He says that
our righteousness must excel, in that we must both keep the commandments and
teach men so. And yet not even on account of those Pharisees, with whom you
compare us, -- not from any motives of prudence, but from malice, -- did our
Lord enjoin that the seat of Moses should be deserted, which seat He doubtless
meant to be a figure of His own; for He said indeed that they who sat in Moses'
seat were ever saying and not doing, but warns the people to do what they say,
and not to do what they do, [2155] lest the chair, with all its holiness, should
be deserted, and the unity of the flock divided through the faithlessness of the
shepherds.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 313: CHAPTER 62. -- 139. PETILIANUS SAID: |AND AGAIN IT IS WRITTEN
========================================================================

-- 139. Petilianus said: "And again it is written, Every sin which a man shall
sin is without the body; but he that sinneth in the Holy Spirit, it shall not be
forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.'" 140.
Augustin answered: This too is not written as you have quoted it, and see how
far it has led you astray. The apostle, writing to the Corinthians, says, "Every
sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication
sinneth against his own body." [2156] But this is one thing, and that is another
which the Lord said in the gospel: "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be
forgiven unto men: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not
be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." [2157]
But you have begun a sentence from the writing of the apostle, and ended it as
though it were one from the gospel, which I fancy you have done not with any
intention to deceive, but through mistake; for neither passage has any bearing
on the matter in hand. And why you have said this, and in what sense you have
said it, I am wholly unable to perceive, unless it be that, whereas you had said
above that all were condemned by the Lord who had broken any one of His
commandments, you have considered since how many there are in your party who
break not one but many of them; and lest an objection should be brought against
you on that score, you have sought, by way of surpassing the difficulty, to
bring in a distinction of sins, whereby it might be seen that it is one thing to
break a commandment in respect of which pardon may easily be obtained, another
thing to sin against the Holy Ghost, which shall receive no forgiveness, either
in this world or in the world to come. In your dread, therefore, of infection
from sin, you were unwilling to pass this over in silence; and again, in your
dread of a question too deep for your powers, you wish to touch cursorily on it
in passing, in such a state of agitation, that, just as men who are setting
about a task in haste, and consequent confusion, are wont to fasten their dress
or shoes awry, so you have not thought fit either to see what belongs to what,
or in what context or what sense the passage which you quote occurs. But what is
the nature of that sin which shall not be forgiven, either in this world or in
the world to come, you are so far from knowing, that, though you believe that we
are actually living in it, you yet promise us forgiveness of it through your
baptism. And yet how could this be possible, if the sin be of such a nature that
it cannot be forgiven, either in this world or in the world to come?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 314: CHAPTER 63. -- 141. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT WHEREIN DO YOU FULFILL THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD? THE LORD
========================================================================

-- 141. Petilianus said: "But wherein do you fulfill the commandments of God?
The Lord Christ said, Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven.' But you by your malice in persecution breathe forth the riches of
madness." 142. Augustin answered: Address that rather to your own
Circumcelliones.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 315: CHAPTER 64. -- 143. PETILIANUS SAID: |BLESSED ARE THE MEEK: FOR THEY SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH.
========================================================================

-- 143. Petilianus said: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the
earth.' You therefore, not being meek, have lost both heaven and earth alike."
144. Augustin answered: Again and again you may hear the Lord saying, "Ye shall
be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and
even in the whole earth." [2158] How is it, then, that those men have not lost
heaven and earth, who, in order to avoid communicating with all the nations of
the earth, despise the words of Him that sitteth in heaven? For, in proof of
your meekness, it is not your words but the cudgels of the Circumcelliones which
should be examined. You will say, What has that to do with us? Just as though we
were making the remark with any other object except to extract that answer from
you. For the reason that your schism is a valid charge against you is that you
do not allow that you are chargeable with another's sin, whereas you have
separated from us for no other reason but that you charge us with the sins of
other men.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 316: CHAPTER 65. -- 145. PETILIANUS SAID: |BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN
========================================================================

-- 145. Petilianus said: "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be
comforted.' You, our butchers, are the cause of mourning in others: you do not
mourn yourselves." 146. Augustin answered: Consider for a short space to how
many, and with what intensity, the cry of "Praises be to God," proceeding from
your armed men, has caused others to mourn. [2159] Do you say again, What is
that to us? Then I too will rejoin again your own words, What is that to us?
What is it to all the nations of the earth? What is it to those who praise the
name of the Lord from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same? What is
it to all the earth, which sings a new song? What is it to the seed of Abraham,
in which all the nations of the earth are blessed? [2160] And so the sacrilege
of your schism is chargeable on you, just because the evil deeds of your
companions are not chargeable on you; and because you are from this that the
deeds of those on whose account you separated from the world, even if you proved
your charges to be true, do not involve the world in sin.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 317: CHAPTER 66. -- 147. PETILIANUS SAID: |BLESSED ARE THEY WHICH DO HUNGER AND THIRST AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS
========================================================================

-- 147. Petilianus said: "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filled.' To you it seems to be righteousness
that you thirst after our blood." 148. Augustin answered: What shall I say unto
thee, O man, except that thou art calumnious? The unity of Christ, indeed, is
hungering and thirsting after all of you; and I would that it might swallow you
up, for then would you be no longer heretics.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 318: CHAPTER 67. -- 149. PETILIANUS SAID: |BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL: FOR THEY SHALL OBTAIN MERCY.
========================================================================

-- 149. Petilianus said: "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain
mercy.' But how shall I call you merciful when you inflict punishment on the
righteous? Shall I not rather call you a most unrighteous communion, so long as
you pollute souls?"< 150. Augustin answered: You have proved neither point, --
neither that you yourselves are righteous, nor that we inflict punishment on
even the unrighteous; and yet, even as false flattery is generally cruel, so
just correction is ever merciful. For whence is that which you do not
understand: "Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; and let him
reprove me"? For while he says this of the severity of merciful correction, the
Psalmist immediately went on to say of the gentleness of destructive flattery,
"But the oil of sinners shall not break my head." [2161] Do you therefore
consider whither you are called, and from what you are summoned away. For how do
you know what feelings he entertains towards you whom you suppose to be cruel?
But whatever be his feelings, every one must bear his own burden both with us
and with you. But I would have you cast away the burden of schism which you all
of you are bearing, that you may bear your good burdens in unity; and I would
bid you mercifully correct, if you should have the power, all those who are
bearing evil burdens; and, if this be beyond your power, I would bid you bear
with them in peace.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 319: CHAPTER 68. -- 151. PETILIANUS SAID: |BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART
========================================================================

-- 151. Petilianus said: "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see
God.' When will you see God, who are possessed with blindness in the impure
malice of your hearts?" 152. Augustin answered: Wherefore say you this? Can it
be that we reproach all nations with the dark and hidden things which are
declared by men, and do not choose to understand the manifest sayings which God
spake in olden time of all the nations of the earth? This is indeed great
blindness of heart; and if you do not recognize it in yourselves, that is even
greater blindness.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 320: CHAPTER 69. -- 153. PETILIANUS SAID: |BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS; FOR THEY SHALL BE CALLED THE CHILDREN
========================================================================

-- 153. Petilianus said: "Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called
the children of God.' [2162] You make a pretence of peace by your wickedness,
and seek unity by war." 154. Augustin answered: We do not make a pretense of
peace by wickedness, but we preach peace out of the gospel; and if you were at
peace with it, you would be at peace also with us. The risen Lord, when
presenting Himself to the disciples, not only that they should gaze on Him with
their eyes, but also that they should handle Him with their hands, began His
discourse to them with the words, "Peace be unto you." And how this peace itself
was to be maintained, He disclosed to them in the words which followed. For
"then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures,
and said unto them, Thus is it written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer,
and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of
sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."
[2163] If you will keep peace with these words, you will not be at variance with
us. For if we seek unity by war, our war could not be praised in more glorious
terms, seeing that it is written, "Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself."
[2164] And again it is written, "No man ever yet hated his own flesh." [2165]
And yet the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.
[2166] But if no man ever yet hated his own flesh, and yet a man lusteth against
his own flesh, here you have unity sought by war, that the body, being subject
to correction, may be brought under submission. But what the spirit does against
the flesh, waging war with it, not in hatred but in love, this those who are
spiritual do against those who are carnal, that they may do towards them what
they do towards themselves, because they love their neighbors as neighbors
indeed. But the war which the spiritual wage is that correction which is in
love: their sword is the word of God. To such a war they are aroused by the
trumpet of the apostle sounding with a mighty force: "Preach the word; be
instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all
long-suffering and doctrine." [2167] See then that we act not with the sword,
but with the word. But you answer what is not true, while you accuse us falsely.
You do not correct your own faults, and you bring against us those of other men.
Christ bears true witness concerning the nations of the earth; you, in
opposition to Christ, bear false witness against the nations of the earth. If we
were to believe you rather than Christ, you would call us peacemakers; because
we believe Christ rather than you, we are said to make a pretense of peace by
our wickedness. And while you say and do such things as this, you have the
further impudence to quote the words, "Blessed are the peacemakers; for they
shall be called the children of God."


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 321: CHAPTER 70. -- 155. PETILIANUS SAID: |THOUGH THE APOSTLE PAUL SAYS
========================================================================

-- 155. Petilianus said: "Though the Apostle Paul says, I therefore, the
prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, brethren, that ye walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering,
forbearing one anothe 156. Augustin answered: If you would not only say these
words, but hearken to them as well, you would put up even with known evils for
the sake of peace, instead of inventing new ones for the sake of quarreling, if
it were only because you subsequently learned, for the sake of the peace of
Donatus, to put up with the most flagrant and notorious wickedness of Optatus.
What madness is this that you display? Those who are known are borne with, that
a fragment may not be further split up; those of whom nothing is known are
defamed, that they themselves may not remain in the undivided whole.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 322: CHAPTER 71. -- 157. PETILIANUS SAID: |TO YOU THE PROPHET SAYS
========================================================================

-- 157. Petilianus said: "To you the prophet says, Peace, peace; and where is
there peace?'" [2169] 158. Augustin answered: It is you that say this to us, not
the prophet. We therefore answer you: If you ask where peace is to be found,
open your eyes, and see of whom it is said, "He maketh wars to cease in all the
world." [2170] If you ask where peace is to be found, open your eyes to see that
city which cannot be hidden, because it is built upon a hill; open your eyes to
see the mountain itself, and let Daniel show it to you, growing out of a small
stone, and filling the whole earth. [2171] But when the prophet says to you,
"Peace, peace; and where is there peace?" what will you show? Will you show the
party of Donatus, unknown to the countless nations to whom Christ is known? It
is surely not the city which cannot be hid; and whence is this, except that it
is not founded on the mountain? "For He is our peace, who hath made both one,"
[2172] -- not Donatus, who has made one into two.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 323: CHAPTER 72. -- 159. PETILIANUS SAID: |BLESSED ARE THEY WHICH ARE PERSECUTED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS' SAKE
========================================================================

-- 159. Petilianus said: "Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' [2173] You are not
blessed; but you make martyrs to be blessed, with whose souls the heavens are
filled, and the earth has fl 160. Augustin answered: The plain fact is, that if
it had not been said, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake," but had been said instead, Blessed are they who throw themselves over
precipices, then heaven would have been filled with your martyrs. Of a truth we
see many flowers on the earth blooming from their bodies; but, as the saying
goes, the flower is dust and ashes.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 324: CHAPTER 73. -- 161. PETILIANUS SAID: |SINCE THEN YOU ARE NOT BLESSED BY FALSIFYING THE COMMANDS OF
========================================================================

-- 161. Petilianus said: "Since then you are not blessed by falsifying the
commands of God, the Lord Christ condemns you by His divine decrees: Woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven
against men: for ye ne 162. Augustin answered: Tell me whether you have said
anything which may not equally be said against you in turn by any slanderous and
evil-speaking tongue. But from what has been said by me before, any one who
wishes may find out that these things may be said against you, not by way of
empty abuse, but with the support of truthful testimony. As, however, the
opportunity is presented to us we must not pass this by. There is no doubt that
to the ancient people of God circumcision stood in the place of baptism. I ask,
therefore, putting the case that the Pharisees against whom those words you
quote are spoken, had made some proselyte, who, if he were to imitate them,
would, as it is said, become twofold more the child of hell than themselves,
supposing that he were to be converted, and desire to imitate Simeon, or
Zacharias, or Nathanael, would it be necessary that he should be circumcised
again by them? And if it is absurd to put this case why, although in empty
fashion and with empty sounds you compare us to men like this, do you
nevertheless baptize after us? But if you are really men like this, how much
better and how much more in accordance with truth do we act in not baptizing
after you, as neither was it right that those whom I have mentioned should be
circumcised after the worst of Pharisees! Furthermore, when such men sit in the
seat of Moses, for which the Lord preserved its due honor, why do you blaspheme
the apostolic chair on account of men whom, justly or unjustly, you compare with
these?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 325: CHAPTER 74. -- 163. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT THESE THINGS DO NOT ALARM US CHRISTIANS
========================================================================

-- 163. Petilianus said: "But these things do not alarm us Christians; for of
the evil deeds which you are destined to commit we have before a warning given
us by the Lord Christ. Behold,' He says, I send you forth as sheep in the midst
of wolves.' [217 164. Augustin answered: I should be glad to utter the same
sentiment against you, but not in the words which you have used: they are too
inappropriate, or rather mad. But what was required was, that you should show
that we were wolves and that you were sheep, not by the emptiest of
evil-speaking, but by some distinct proofs. For when I too have said, We are
sheep, and you are wolves, do you think that there is any difference caused by
the fact that you express the idea in swelling words? But listen whilst I prove
what I assert. For the Lord says in the gospel, as you know full well, whether
you please it or not, "My sheep hear my voice, and follow me." [2176] There are
many sayings of the Lord on different subjects; but supposing, for example, that
any one were in doubt whether the same Lord had risen in the body, and His words
were to be quoted where He says, "Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not
flesh and bones, as ye see me have;" -- if even after this he should be
unwilling to acquiesce in the belief that His body had risen from the dead,
surely such a man could not be reckoned among the sheep of the Lord, because he
would not hear His voice. And so too now, when the question between us is, Where
is the Church? whilst we quote the words that follow in the same passage of the
gospel, where, after His resurrection, He gave His body even to be handled by
those who were in doubt, in which He showed the future wide extent of the
Church, saying, "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and
to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins
should be preached in His name throughout all nations, beginning at Jerusalem;"
[2177] whereas you will not communicate with all nations, in whom these words
have been fulfilled, how are you the sheep of this Shepherd, whose words you not
only do not obey when you have heard them, but even fight against them? And so
we show to you from this that you are not sheep. But listen further whence we
show you that, on the contrary, you are wolves. For necessarily, when it is
shown by His own words where the Church is to be found, it is also clear where
we must look for the fold of Christ. Whenever, therefore, any sheep separate
themselves from this fold, which is expressly pointed out and shown to us by the
unmistakeable declaration of the Lord, -- and that, I will not say because of
charges falsely brought, but on account of charges brought, as no one can deny,
with great uncertainty against their fellow-men, and consequently slay those
sheep which they have torn and alienated from the life of unity and Christian
love -- is it not evident that they are ravening wolves? But it will be said
that these very men themselves praise and preach the Lord Christ. They are
therefore those of whom He says Himself, "They come unto you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know
them." [2178] The sheep's clothing is seen in the praises of Christ; the fruits
of their wolfish nature in their slanderous teeth.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 326: CHAPTER 75. -- 165. PETILIANUS SAID: |O WRETCHED TRADITORS! THUS INDEED IT WAS FITTING THAT SCRIPTURE SHOULD
========================================================================

-- 165. Petilianus said: "O wretched traditors! Thus indeed it was fitting that
Scripture should be fulfilled. But in you I grieve for this, that you have shown
yourselves worthy to fulfill the part of wickedness." 166. Augustin answered: I
might rather say, O wretched traditors! if I were minded, or rather if justice
urged me to cast up against all of you the deeds of some among your number. But
as regards what bears on all of you, O wretched heretics, I on my part will
quote the remainder of your words; for it is written, "There must be also
heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among
you." [2179] Therefore "it was fitting thus that Scripture should be fulfilled.
But in you I grieve for this, that you have shown yourselves worthy to fulfill
the part of wickedness."


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  CHAPTER 327: CHAPTER 76. -- 167. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT TO US THE LORD CHRIST
========================================================================

-- 167. Petilianus said: "But to us the Lord Christ, in opposition to your
deadly commands, commanded simple patience and harmlessness. For what says He? A
new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you,
that ye also lov 168. Augustin answered: If you did not transfer these words, so
widely differing from your character, to the surface of your talk, how could you
be covering yourselves with sheep's clothing?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 328: CHAPTER 77. -- 169. PETILIANUS SAID: |PAUL ALSO, THE APOSTLE, WHILST HE WAS SUFFERING FEARFUL PERSECUTIONS AT
========================================================================

-- 169. Petilianus said: "Paul also, the apostle, whilst he was suffering
fearful persecutions at the hands of all nations, endured even more grievous
troubles at the hands of false brethren, as he bears witness of himself, being
oftentimes afflicted: I 170. Augustin answered: Certainly those of whom you
speak are false brethren, of whom the apostle thus complains in another place,
where he is extolling the natural sincerity of Timothy: "I have no man," he
says, "like-minded, who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their
own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's." [2183] Undoubtedly he was
speaking of those who were with him at the time when he was writing that
epistle; for it could not be that all Christians in every quarter of the earth
were seeking their own, and not the things which were Jesus Christ's. It was of
those, therefore, as I said, who were with him at the time when he was writing
the words which you have quoted, that he uttered this lamentation. For who else
was it to whom he referred, when he says in another place, "Without were
fightings, within were fears," [2184] except those whom he feared all the more
intensely because they were within? If, therefore, you would imitate Paul, you
would be tolerant of false brethren within, not a slanderer of the innocent
without.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 329: CHAPTER 78. -- 171. PETILIANUS SAID: |FOR WHAT KIND OF FAITH IS THAT WHICH IS IN YOU
========================================================================

-- 171. Petilianus said: "For what kind of faith is that which is in you which
is devoid of charity? when Paul himself says, Though I speak with the tongues of
men, and have the knowledge of angels, and have not charity, I am become as
sounding brass, or 172. Augustin answered: This is what I said just now, that
you were desirous to be clad in sheep's clothing, that, if possible, the sheep
might feel your bite before it had any consciousness of your approach. Is it not
that praise of charity in which you indulge that commonly proves your calumny in
the clearest light of truth? Will you bring it about that those arms shall be no
longer ours, because you endeavor to appropriate them first? Furthermore, these
arms are endowed with life: from whatever quarter they are launched, they
recognize whom they should destroy. If they have been sent forth from our hands,
they will fix themselves in you; if they are aimed by you, they recoil upon
yourselves. For in these apostolic words, which commend the excellence of
charity, we are wont to show to you how profitless it is to man that he should
be in possession of faith or of the sacraments, when he has not charity, that,
when you come to Catholic unity, you may understand what it is that is conferred
on you, and how great a thing it is of which you were at least to some extent in
want; for Christian charity cannot be preserved except in the unity of the
Church: and that so you may see that without it you are nothing, even though you
may be in possession of baptism and faith, and through this latter may be able
even to remove mountains. But if this is your opinion as well, let us not
repudiate and reject in you either the sacraments of God which we know, or faith
itself, but let us hold fast charity, without which we are nothing even with the
sacraments and with faith. But we hold fast charity if we cling to unity; while
we cling to unity, if we do not make a fictitious unity in a party by our own
words, but recognize it in a united whole through the words of Christ.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 330: CHAPTER 79. -- 173. PETILIANUS SAID: |AND AGAIN, CHARITY SUFFERETH LONG
========================================================================

-- 173. Petilianus said: "And again, Charity suffereth long, and is kind;
charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not
behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own.' But you seek what belongs to other
men. Is not easily pr 174. Augustin answered: How often must I tell you the same
thing? If you do not prove these charges, they tell against no one in the world;
and if you prove them, they have no bearing upon us; just as those things have
no bearing upon you which are daily done by the furious deeds of the insane, by
the luxury of the drunken, by the blindness of the suicides, by the tyranny of
robbers. For who can fail to see that what I say is true? But now if charity
were in you, it would rejoice in the truth. For how neatly it is said under
covering of the sheep's clothing, "Charity beareth all things, endureth all
things!" but when you come to the test, the wolf's teeth cannot be concealed.
For when, in obedience to the words of Scripture, "forbearing one another in
love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," [2186]
charity would compel you, even if you knew of any evils within the Church, I do
not say to consent to them, but yet to tolerate them if you could not prevent
them, lest, on account of the wicked who are to be separated by the
winnowing-fan at the last day, you should at the present time sever the bond of
peace by breaking off from the society of good men, you, resisting her
influence, and being cast out by the wind of levity, charge the wheat with being
chaff, and declare that what you invent of the wicked holds good through the
force of contagion even in the righteous. And when the Lord has said, "The field
is the world, the harvest is the end of the world," though He said of the wheat
and of the tares, "Let both grow together until the harvest," [2187] you
endeavor by your words to bring about a belief that the wheat has perished
throughout the main portion of the field, and only continued to exist in your
little corner, -- being desirous that Christ should be proved a liar, but you
the man of truth. And you speak, indeed, against your own conscience; for no one
who in any way looks truly at the gospel will venture in his heart to say that
in all the many nations throughout which is heard the response of Amen, and
among whom Alleluia is sung almost with one single voice, no Christians are to
be found. And yet, that it may not appear that the party of Donatus, which does
not communicate with the several nations of the world, is involved in error, if
any angel from heaven, who could see the whole world, were to declare that
outside your communion good and innocent men were nowhere to be found, there is
little doubt that you would rejoice over the iniquity of the human race, and
boast of having told the truth before you had received assurance of it. How then
is there in you that charity which rejoices not in iniquity? But be not
deceived. Throughout the field, that is, throughout the world, there will be
found the wheat of the Lord growing till the end of the world. Christ has said
this: Christ is truth. Let charity be in you, and let it rejoice in the truth.
Though an angel from heaven preach unto you another gospel contrary to His
gospel, let him be accursed. [2188]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 331: CHAPTER 80. -- 175. PETILIANUS SAID: |LASTLY, WHAT IS THE JUSTIFICATION OF PERSECUTION? I ASK YOU
========================================================================

-- 175. Petilianus said: "Lastly, what is the justification of persecution? I
ask you, you wretched men, if it so be that you think that your sin rests on any
authority of law." 176. Augustin answered: He who sins, sins not on the
authority of the law, but against the authority of the law. But since you ask
what is the justification of persecution, I ask you in turn whose voice it is
that says in the psalm, "Whoso privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I cut
off." [2189] Seek therefore the reason or the measure of the persecution, and do
not display your gross ignorance by finding fault in general terms with those
who persecute the unrighteous.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 332: CHAPTER 81. -- 177. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT I ANSWER YOU, ON THE OTHER HAND
========================================================================

-- 177. Petilianus said: "But I answer you, on the other hand, that Jesus Christ
never persecuted any one. And when the apostle found fault with certain parties,
and suggested that He should have recourse to persecution (He Himself having
come to create 178. Augustin answered: You say truly that you will bring forth
out of your store with greater abundance things which are not written in the
Scriptures. For if you wish to bring forth proofs from holy Scripture, will you
bring forth even those which you cannot find therein? But it is in your own
power to multiply your lies according to your will. For where is what you quoted
written? or when was that either suggested to our Lord, or answered by our Lord?
"Many lay on hands in Thy name, and are not with us," are words that no one of
the disciples ever uttered to the Son of God; and therefore neither could the
answer have been made by Him, "Let them alone: if they are not against you, they
are on your side." But there is something somewhat like it which we really do
read in the gospel, -- that a suggestion was made to the Lord about a certain
man who was casting out devils in His name, but did not follow Him with His
disciples; and in that case the Lord does say, "Forbid him not: for he that is
not against us is for us." [2190] But this has nothing to do with pointing out
parties whom the Lord is supposed to have spared. And if you have been deceived
by an apparent resemblance of sentiment, this is not a lie, but merely human
infirmity. But if you wished to cast a mist of falsehood over those who are
unskilled in holy Scripture, then may you be pricked to the heart, and covered
with confusion and corrected. Yet there is a point which we would urge in
respect of this very man of whom the suggestion was made to our Lord. For even
as at that time, beyond the communion of the disciples, the holiness of Christ
was yet of the greatest efficacy, even so now, beyond the communion of the
Church, the holiness of the sacraments is of avail. For neither is baptism
consecrated save in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost. But who will be so utterly insane as to declare that the name of the Son
may be of avail even beyond the communion of the Church, but that this is not
possible with the names of the Father and of the Holy Ghost? or that it may be
of avail in healing a man, but not in consecrating baptism? But it is manifest
that outside the communion of the Church, and the most holy bond of unity, and
the most excellent gift of charity, neither he by whom the devil is cast out nor
he who is baptized obtains eternal life; just as those do not obtain it, who
through communion in the sacraments seem indeed to be within, and through the
depravity of their character are understood to be without. But that Christ
persecuted even with bodily chastisement those whom He drove with scourges from
the temple, we have already said above.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 333: CHAPTER 82. -- 179. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT THE HOLY APOSTLE SAID THIS
========================================================================

-- 179. Petilianus said: "But the holy apostle said this: In any way, whatsoever
it may be,' he says, let Christ be preached.'" 180. Augustin answered: You speak
against yourself; but yet, since you speak on the side of truth, if you love it,
let what you say be counted for you. For I ask of you of whom it was that the
Apostle Paul said this? Let us, if you please, trace this a little further back.
"Some," he says, "preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good
will, some of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. But
some indeed preach Christ even of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add
affliction to my bonds. What then? notwithstanding every way, whether in
pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and
will rejoice." [2191] We see that they preached what was in itself holy, and
pure, and true, but yet not in a pure manner, but of envy and contention,
without charity, without purity. Certainty a short time ago you appeared to be
urging the praises of charity as against us, according to the witness of the
apostle, that where there is no charity, whatever there is is of no avail; and
yet you see that in those there is no charity, and there was with them the
preaching of Christ, of which the apostle says here that he rejoices. For it is
not that he rejoices in what is evil in them, but in what is good in the name of
Jesus Christ. In him assuredly there was the charity which "rejoiceth not in
iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." [2192] The envy, moreover, which was in
them is an evil proceeding from the devil, for by this he has both killed and
cast down. Where then were these wicked men whom the apostle thus condemns, and
in whom there was so much that was good to cause him to rejoice? Were they
within, or without? Choose which you will. If they were within, then Paul knew
them, and yet they did not pollute him. And so you would not be polluted in the
unity of the whole world by those of whom you make certain charges, whether
these be true, or falsehoods invented by yourselves. Wherefore do you separate
yourself? Why do you destroy yourself by the criminal sacrilege of schism? But
if they were without, then you see that even in those who were without, and who
certainly cannot belong to everlasting life, since they have not charity, and do
not abide in unity, there is yet found the holiness of the name of Christ, so
that the apostle joyfully confirms their teaching, on account of the intrinsic
holiness of the name, although he repudiates them. We are right, therefore, in
not doing wrong to the actual name, when those come to us who were without; but
we correct the individuals, while we do honor to the name. Do you therefore take
heed, and see how wickedly you act in the case of those whose acts as it seems
you condemn, by treating as naught the sacrament of the name of Christ, which is
holy in them. And you, indeed, as is shown by your words, think that those men
of whom the apostle spoke were outside the limits of the Church. Therefore, when
you fear persecution from the Catholics, of which you speak in order to create
odium against us, you have confirmed in heretics the name of Christ to which you
do despite by rebaptizing.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 334: CHAPTER 83. -- 181. PETILIANUS SAID: |IF THEN THERE ARE NOT SOME TO WHOM ALL THIS POWER
========================================================================

-- 181. Petilianus said: "If then there are not some to whom all this power of
faith is found to be in opposition, on what principle do you persecute, so as to
compel men to defile themselves:?" 182. Augustin answered: We neither persecute
you, except so far as truth persecutes falsehood; nor has it anything to do with
us if any one has persecuted you in other ways, just as it has nothing to do
with you if any of your party do likewise; nor do we compel you to defile
yourselves, but we persuade you to be cured.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 335: CHAPTER 84. -- 183. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT IF AUTHORITY HAD BEEN GIVEN BY SOME LAW FOR PERSONS
========================================================================

-- 183. Petilianus said: "But if authority had been given by some law for
persons to be compelled to what is good, you yourselves, unhappy men, ought to
have been compelled by us to embrace the purest faith. But far be it, far be it
from our conscience 184. Augustin answered: No one is indeed to be compelled to
embrace the faith against his will; but by the severity, or one might rather
say, by the mercy of God, it is common for treachery to be chastised with the
scourge of tribulation. Is it the case, because the best morals are chosen by
freedom of will, that therefore the worst morals are not punished by integrity
of law? But yet discipline to punish an evil manner of living is out of the
question, except where principles of good living which had been learned have
come to be despised. If any laws, therefore, have been enacted against you, you
are not thereby forced to do well, but are only prevented from doing ill. [2193]
For no one can do well unless he has deliberately chosen, and unless he has
loved what is in free will; but the fear of punishment, even if it does not
share in the pleasures of a good conscience, at any rate keeps the evil desire
from escaping beyond the bounds of thought. Who are they, however, that have
enacted adverse laws by which your audacity could be repressed? Are they not
those of whom the apostle says that "they bear not the sword in vain; for they
are the ministers of God, revengers to execute wrath upon them that do evil?"
[2194] The whole question therefore is, whether you are not doing ill, who are
charged by the whole world with the sacrilege of so great a schism. And yet,
neglecting the discussion of this question, you talk on irrelevant matters; and
while you live as robbers, you boast that you die as martyrs. [2195] And,
through fear either of the laws themselves, or of the odium which you might
incur, or else because you are unequal to the task of resisting, I do not say so
many men, but so many Catholic nations, you even glory in your gentleness, that
you do not compel any to join your party. According to your way of talking, the
hawk, when he has been prevented by flight from carrying off the fowls, might
call himself a dove. For when have you ever had the power without using it? And
hence you show how you would do more if you only could. When Julian, envying the
peace of Christ, restored to you the churches which belonged to unity, who could
tell of all the massacres which were committed by you, when the very devils
rejoiced with you at the opening of their temples? In the war with Firmus and
his party, let Mauritania Cæsariensis itself be asked to tell us what the Moor
Rogatus [2196] suffered at your hands. In the time of Gildo, because one of your
colleagues [2197] was his intimate friend, let the followers of Maximianus be
our witnesses to their sufferings. For if one might appeal to Felicianus
himself, who is now with you, on his oath, whether Optatus did not compel him
against his will to return to your communion, he would not dare to open his
lips, especially if the people of Musti could behold his face, who were
witnesses to everything that was done. But let them, as I have said, be
witnesses to what they have suffered at the hands of those with whom they acted
in such wise towards Rogatus. The Catholic Church herself, though strengthened
by the assistance of Catholic princes ruling by land and sea, was savagely
attacked by hostile troops in arms under Optatus. It was this that first made it
necessary to urge before the vicar Seranus that the law should be put in force
against you which imposes a fine of ten pounds of gold, which none of you have
ever paid to this very day, and yet you charge us with cruelty. But where could
you find a milder course of proceeding, than that crimes of such magnitude on
your part should be punished by the imposition of a pecuniary fine? Or who could
enumerate all the deeds which you commit in the places which you hold, of your
own sovereign will and pleasure, each one as he can, without any friendship on
the part of judges or any others in authority? Who is there of our party, among
the inhabitants of our towns, who has not either learned something of this sort
from those who came before him, or experienced it for himself? Is it not the
case that at Hippo, where I am, there are not wanting some who remember that
your leader Faustinus gave orders, in the time of his supreme power, in
consequence of the scanty numbers of the Catholics in the place, that no one
should bake their bread for them, insomuch that a baker, who was the tenant of
one of our deacons, threw away the bread of his landlord unbaked, and though he
was not sentenced to exile under any law, he cut him off from all share in the
necessaries of life not only in a Roman state, [2198] but even in his own
country, and not only in his own country, but in his own house? Why, even
lately, as I myself recall with mourning to this day, did not Crispinus of
Calama, one of your party, having bought a property, and that only copy-hold,
[2199] boldly and unhesitatingly immerse in the waters of a second baptism no
less than eighty souls, murmuring with miserable groans under the sole influence
of terror; and this in a farm belonging to the Catholic emperors, by whose laws
you were forbidden even to be in any Roman city? [2200] But what else was it,
save such deeds as these of yours, that made it necessary for the very laws to
be passed of which you complain? The laws, indeed, are very far from being
proportionate to your offenses; but, such as they are, you may thank yourselves
for their existence. Indeed, should we not certainly be driven on all sides from
the country by the furious attacks of your Circumcelliones, who fight under your
command in furious troops, unless we held you as hostages in the towns, who
might well be unwilling to endure under any circumstances the mere gaze of the
people, and the censure of all honorable men. from very shame, if not from fear?
Do not therefore say, "Far be it, far be it from our conscience, to force any
one to embrace our faith." For you do it when you can; and when you do not do
it, it is because you are unable, either from fear of the laws or the odium
which would accompany it, or because of the numbers of those who would resist.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 336: CHAPTER 85. -- 185. PETILIANUS SAID: |FOR THE LORD CHRIST SAYS
========================================================================

-- 185. Petilianus said: "For the Lord Christ says, No man can come to me,
except the Father which hath sent me draw him.' [2201] But why do we not permit
each several person to follow his free will, since the Lord God Himself has
given free will to men, 186. Augustin answered: If I were to propose to you the
question how God the Father draws men to the Son, when He has left them to
themselves in freedom of action, you would perhaps find it difficult of
solution. For how does He draw them to Him if He leaves them to themselves, so
that each should choose what he pleases? And yet both these facts are true; but
this is a truth which few have intellect enough to penetrate. As therefore it is
possible that, after leaving men to themselves in free will, the Father should
yet draw them to the Son, so is it also possible that those warnings which are
given by the correction of the laws do not take away free will. For whenever a
man suffers anything that is harsh and unpleasing, he is warned to consider why
it is that he is suffering, so that, if he shall discover that he is suffering
in the cause of justice, he may choose the good that consists in the very act of
suffering as he does in the cause of justice; but if he sees that it is
unrighteousness for which he suffers, he may be induced, from the consideration
that he is suffering and being tormented most fruitlessly, to change his purpose
for the better, and may at the same time escape both the fruitless annoyance and
the unrighteousness itself, which is likely to prove yet more hurtful and
pernicious in the mischief it produces. And so you, when kings make any
enactments against you, should consider that you are receiving a warning to
consider why this is being done to you. For if it is for righteousness' sake,
then are they truly your persecutors; but you are the blessed ones, who, being
persecuted for righteousness' sake, shall inherit the kingdom of heaven: [2203]
but if it is because of the iniquity of your schism, what are they more than
your correctors; while you, like all the others who are guilty of various
crimes, and pay the penalty appointed by the law, are undoubtedly unhappy both
in this world and in that which is to come? No one, therefore, takes away from
you your free will. But I would urge you diligently to consider which you would
rather choose, -- whether to live corrected in peace, or, by persevering in
malice, to undergo real punishment under the false name of martyrdom. But I am
addressing you just as though you were suffering something proportionate to your
sin, whereas you are committing sins of such enormity and reigning in such
impunity. You are so furious, that you cause more terror than a war trumpet with
your cry of "Praise to God;" so full of calumny, that even when you throw
yourselves over precipices without any provocation, you impute it to our
persecutions. 187. He says also, like the kindest of teachers, "You who will not
choose the good, have, by your own sentence, declared that you do not wish to
live." According to this, if we were to believe your accusations, we should live
in kindness; but because we believe the promises of God, we declare by our own
sentence that we do not wish to live. You remember well, it seems to me, what
the apostles answered to the Jews when they were desired to abstain from
preaching Christ. This therefore we also say, that you should answer us whether
we ought rather to obey God or man. [2204] Traditors, offerers of incense,
persecutors: these are the words of men against men. Christ remained only in the
love of Donatus: these are the words of men extolling the glory of a man under
the name of Christ, that the glory of Christ Himself may be diminished. For it
is written, "In the multitude of people is the king's honor: but in the want of
people is the destruction of the prince:" [2205] these, therefore, are the words
of men. But those words in the gospel, "It behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise
from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem," [2206] are the
words of Christ, showing forth the glory which He received from His Father in
the wideness of His kingdom. When we have heard them both, we choose in
preference the communion of the Church, and prefer the words of Christ to the
words of men. I ask, who is there that can say that we have chosen what is evil,
except one who shall say that Christ taught what was evil?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 337: CHAPTER 86. -- 188. PETILIANUS SAID: |IS IT THEN THE CASE THAT GOD HAS ORDERED THE MASSACRE
========================================================================

-- 188. Petilianus said: "Is it then the case that God has ordered the massacre
even of schismatics? and if He were to issue such an order at all, you ought to
be slain by some barbarians and Scythians, not by Christians." 189. Augustin
answered: Let your Circumcelliones remain quiet, and let me entreat you not to
terrify us about barbarians. But as to whether we or you are schismatics, let
the question be put neither to you nor to me, but to Christ, that He may show
where His Church is to be found. Read the gospel then, and there you find the
answer, "In Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria and even in the whole
earth." [2207] If any one, therefore, is not found within the Church, let not
any further question be put to him, but let him either be corrected or
converted, or else, being detected, let him not complain.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 338: CHAPTER 87. -- 190. PETILIANUS SAID: |FOR NEITHER HAS THE LORD GOD AT ANY TIME REJOICED IN
========================================================================

-- 190. Petilianus said: "For neither has the Lord God at any time rejoiced in
human blood, seeing that He was even willing that Cain, the murderer of his
brother, should continue to exist in his murderer's life." 191. Augustin
answered: If God was unwilling that death should be inflicted on him who slew
his brother, preferring that he should continue to exist in his murderer's life,
see whether this be not the cause why, seeing that the heart of the king is in
the hand of God, whereby he has himself enacted many laws for your correction
and reproof, yet no law of the king has commanded that you should be put to
death, perhaps with this very object, that any one of you who persists in the
obstinate self-will of his sacrilegious madness should be tortured with the
punishment of the fratricide Cain, that is to say, with the life of a murderer.
For we read that many were slain in mercy by Moses the servant of the Lord; for
in that he prayed thus in intercession to the Lord for their wicked sacrilege,
saying, "O Lord, if Thou wilt forgive their sin -- ; and if not, blot me, I pray
thee, out of the book which Thou hast written," [2208] his unspeakable charity
and mercy are plainly shown. Could it be, then, that he was suddenly changed to
cruelty, when, on descending from the mount, he ordered so many thousands to be
slain? Consider, therefore, whether it may not be a sign of greater anger on the
part of God, that, whilst so many laws have been enacted against you, you have
not been ordered by any emperor to be put to death. Or do you think that you are
not to be compared to that fratricide? Hearken to the Lord speaking through His
prophet: "From the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my
name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be
offered unto my name, and a pure offering; for my name shall be great among the
heathen, saith the Lord of hosts." [2209] On this brother's sacrifice you show
that you look with malignant eyes, over and above the respect which God pays to
it; and if ye have ever heard that "from the rising of the sun, unto the going
down of the same, the Lord's name is to be praised," [2210] which is that living
sacrifice of which it is said, "Offer unto God thanksgiving," [2211] then will
your countenance fall like that of yonder murderer. But inasmuch as you cannot
kill the whole world, you are involved in the same guilt by your mere hatred,
according to the words of John, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer."
[2212] And I would that any innocent brother might rather fall into the hands of
your Circumcelliones, to be murdered by their weapons, than be subjected to the
poison of your tongue and rebaptized.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 339: CHAPTER 88. -- 192. PETILIANUS SAID: |WE ADVISE YOU, THEREFORE, IF SO BE THAT YOU WILL HEAR
========================================================================

-- 192. Petilianus said: "We advise you, therefore, if so be that you will hear
it willingly, and even though you do not willingly receive it, yet we warn you
that the Lord Christ instituted for Christians, not any form of slaying, but one
of dying only. 193. Augustin answered: Would that your martyrs would follow the
form that He prescribed! they would not throw themselves over precipices, which
He refused to do at the bidding of the devil. [2213] But when you persecute our
ancestors with false witness even now that they are dead, whence have you
received this form? In that you endeavor to stain us with the crimes of men we
never knew, while you are unwilling that the most notorious misdeeds of your own
party should be reckoned against you, whence have you received this form? But we
are too much yielding to our own conceit if we find fault about ourselves, when
we see that you utter false testimony against the Lord Himself, since He Himself
both promised and made manifest that His Church should extend throughout all
nations, and you maintain the contrary. This form, therefore, you did not
receive even from the Jewish persecutors themselves, for they persecuted His
body while He was walking on the earth: you persecute His gospel as He is seated
in heaven. Which gospel endured more meekly the flames of furious kings than it
can possibly endure your tongues; for while they blazed, unity remained, and
this it cannot do amid your words. They who desired that the word of God should
perish in the flames did not believe that it could be despised if read. They
would not, therefore, set their flames to work upon the gospel, if you would let
them use your tongues against the gospel. In the earlier persecution the gospel
of Christ was sought by some in their rage, it was betrayed by others in their
fear; it was burned by some in their rage, it was hidden by others in their
love; it was attacked, but none were found to speak against its truth. The more
accursed share of persecution was reserved for you when the persecution of the
heathen was exhausted. Those who persecuted the name of Christ believed in
Christ: now those who are honored for the name of Christ are found to speak
against His truth.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 340: CHAPTER 89. -- 194. PETILIANUS SAID: |HERE YOU HAVE THE FULLEST POSSIBLE PROOF THAT A CHRISTIAN MAY
========================================================================

-- 194. Petilianus said: "Here you have the fullest possible proof that a
Christian may take no part in the destruction of another. But the first
establishing of this principle was in the case of Peter, as it is written, Simon
Peter having a sword, drew 195. Augustin answered: Why then do you not restrain
the weapons of the Circumcelliones with such words as these? Should you think
that you were going beyond the words of the gospel if you should say, All they
that take the cudgel shall perish with the cudgel? Withhold not then your
pardon, if our ancestors were unable to restrain the men by whom you complain
that Marculus was thrown down a precipice; for neither is it written in the
gospel, He that useth to throw men down a precipice shall be cast therefrom. And
would that, as your charges are either false or out of date, so the cudgels of
those friends of yours would cease! And yet, perhaps, you take it ill that, if
not by force of law, at any rate in words, we take away their armor from your
legions in saying that they manifest their rage with sticks alone. For that was
the ancient fashion of their wickedness, but now they have advanced too far. For
amid their drunken revellings, and amid the free license of assembling together,
wandering in the streets, jesting, drinking, passing the whole night in company
with women who have no husbands, they have learned not only to brandish cudgels,
but to wield swords and whirl slings. But why should I not say to them (God
knows with what feelings I say it and with what feelings they receive it!),
Madmen, the sword of Peter, though drawn from motives not yet free from fleshly
impurity, was yet drawn in defence of the body of Christ against the body of His
persecutor, but your arms are portioned out against the cause of Christ; but the
body of which He is the head, that is, His Church, extends throughout all
nations. He Himself has said this, and has ascended into heaven, whither the
fury of the Jews could not follow Him; and it is your fury which attacks His
members in the body, which on His ascension He commended to our care. In defense
of those members all men rage against you, all men resist you, as many as being
in the Catholic Church, and possessing as yet but little faith, are influenced
by the same motives as Peter was when he drew his sword in the name of Christ.
But there is a great difference between your persecution and theirs. You are
like the servant of the Jews' high priest; for in the service of your princes
you arm yourselves against the Catholic Church, that is, against the body of
Christ. But they are such as Peter then was, fighting even with the strength of
their bodies for the body of Christ, that is, the Church. But if they are bidden
to be still, as Peter then was bidden, how much more should you be warned that,
laying aside the madness of heresy, you should join the unity of those members
for which they so fight? But, being wounded by such men as these, you hate us
also; and, as though you had lost your right ears, you do not hear the voice of
Christ as He sits at the right hand of the Father. But to whom shall I address
myself, or how shall I address myself to them, seeing that in them I find no
time wherein to speak? for even early in the morning they are reeking with wine,
drunk, it may be already in the day, it may be still from overnight. Moreover,
they utter threats, and not they only, but their own bishops utter threats
concerning them, being ready to deny that what they have done has any bearing on
them. May the Lord grant to us a song of degrees, in which we may say, "When I
am with those who hate peace, I am peaceful. When I would speak with them, they
are wont to fight me without cause." [2215] For thus says the body of Christ,
which throughout the whole world is assailed by heretics, by some here, by
others there, and by all alike wherever they may be. [2216]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 341: CHAPTER 90. -- 196. PETILIANUS SAID: |THEREFORE I SAY, HE ORDAINED THAT WE SHOULD UNDERGO DEATH FOR
========================================================================

-- 196. Petilianus said: "Therefore I say, He ordained that we should undergo
death for the faith, which each man should do for the communion of the Church.
For Christianity makes progress by the deaths of its followers. For if death
were feared by the 197. Augustin answered: I should be glad to know which of
your party it was who first threw himself over a precipice. For truly that grain
of corn was fruitful from which so great a crop of similar suicides has sprung.
Tell me, when you make mention of the words of the Lord, that He says a grain of
wheat shall die and bring forth much fruit, why do you envy the real fruit,
which has most truly [2218] sprung up throughout the whole world, and bring up
against it all the charges of the tares or chaff which you have ever either
heard of or invented?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 342: CHAPTER 91. -- 198. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT YOU SCATTER THORNS AND TARES
========================================================================

-- 198. Petilianus said: "But you scatter thorns and tares, not seeds of corn so
that you ought to be burned together with them at the last judgment. We do not
utter curses; but every thorny conscience is bound under this penalty by the
sentence which G 199. Augustin answered: Surely, when you mention tares, it
might bring to your minds the thought of wheat as well; for both have been
commanded to grow together in the field until the harvest. But you fix the eye
of malice fiercely on the tares, and maintain, in opposition to the express
declaration of Christ, that they alone have grown throughout the earth, with the
exception of Africa alone.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 343: CHAPTER 92. -- 200. PETILIANUS SAID: |WHERE IS THE SAYING OF THE LORD CHRIST
========================================================================

-- 200. Petilianus said: "Where is the saying of the Lord Christ, Whosoever
shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also'? [2219] Where
is the patience which He displayed when they spat upon His face, who Himself
with His most holy s 201. Augustin answered: Is it then really so, that when men
smite you on the one cheek, you turn to them the other? This is not the report
that your furious bands won for you by wandering everywhere throughout the whole
of Africa with dreadful wickedness. I would fain have it that men should make a
bargain with you, that, in accordance with the old law, you should seek but "an
eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," [2221] instead of bringing out cudgels in
return for the words which greet your ears.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 344: CHAPTER 93. -- 202. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT WHAT HAVE YOU TO DO WITH THE KINGS OF THIS
========================================================================

-- 202. Petilianus said: "But what have you to do with the kings of this world,
in whom Christianity has never found anything save envy towards her? And to
teach you shortly the truth of what I say, A king persecuted the brethren of the
Maccabees. [2222 203. Augustin answered: If I were to answer adequately, and as
I ought, to this passage, which has been exaggerated and arranged at such length
by you, where you speak in invidious terms against us concerning the kings of
this world, I am much afraid that you would accuse me too of having wished to
excite the anger of kings against you. And yet, whilst you are borne after your
own fashion by the violence of this invective against all Catholics, you
certainly do not pass me by. I will endeavor, however, to show, if I can, that
it is rather you who have been guilty of this offense by speaking as you have
done, than myself by answering as I shall do. And first of all, see how you
yourself oppose your self; for certainly you prefaced the passage which you
quoted with the words, "What have you to do with the kings of this world, in
whom Christianity has never found anything save envy towards her?" In these
words you certainly cut off from us all access to the kings of this world. And a
little later you say, "And he warned the kings themselves in the following
precepts, that they should not, like ignorant men devoid of understanding, seek
to persecute the Christians, lest they should be themselves destroyed, -- which
precepts I would that we could teach them, seeing that they are ignorant of
them; or, at least, that you would show them to them, as doubtless you would do
if you desired that they should live." In what way then do you wish us to be the
instructors of kings? And indeed those of our body who have any friendship with
Christian kings commit no sin if they make a right use of that friendship; but
if any are elated by it, they yet sin far less grievously than you. For what had
you, who thus reproach us, -- what had you to do with a heathen king, and what
is worse, with Julian, the apostate and enemy of the name of Christ, to whom,
when you were begging that the basilicas should be restored to you as though
they were your own, you ascribed this meed of praise, "that in him justice alone
was found to have a place"? -- in which words (for I believe that you understand
the Latin tongue) both the idolatry and the apostasy of Julian are styled
justice. I hold in my hands the petition which your ancestors presented; the
memorial [2238] which embodied their request; the chronicles, where they made
their representation. Watch and attend. To the enemy of Christ, to the apostate,
the antagonist of Christians, the servant of the devil, that friend, that
representative, that Pontius of yours, made supplication in such words as these:
"Go to then, and say to us, What have you to do with the kings of this world?"
that as deaf men you may read to the deaf nations what you as well as they
refuse to hear;" Thou beholdest the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but
considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye." [2239] 204. "What," say you,
"have you to do with the kings of this world, in whom Christianity has never
found anything save envy towards her?" Having said this, you endeavored to
reckon up what kings the righteous had found to be their enemies, and did not
consider how many more might be enumerated who have proved their friends. The
patriarch Abraham was both most friendly treated, and presented with a token of
friendship, by a king who had been warned from heaven not to defile his wife.
[2240] Isaac his son likewise found a king most friendly to him. [2241] Jacob,
being received with honor by a king in Egypt, went so far as to bless him.
[2242] What shall I say of his son Joseph, who, after the tribulation of a
prison, in which his chastity was tried as gold is tried in the fire, being
raised by Pharaoh to great honors, [2243] even swore by the life of Pharaoh,
[2244] -- not as though puffed up with vain conceit, but being not unmindful of
his kindness. The daughter of a king adopted Moses. [2245] David took refuge
with a king of another race, compelled thereto by the unrighteousness of the
king of Israel. [2246] Elijah ran before the chariot of a most wicked king, --
not by the king's command, but from his own loyalty. [2247] Elisha thought it
good to offer of his own accord to the woman who had sheltered him anything that
she might wish to have obtained from the king through his intercession. [2248]
But I will come to the actual times when the people of God were in captivity, in
which, to use a mild expression, a strange forgetfulness came over you. For,
wishing to prove that Christianity has never found anything in kings saving envy
towards her, you made mention of the three children and Daniel, who suffered at
the hands of persecuting kings, and you could not derive instruction from
circumstances not occurring near, but in the very same passages, viz., from the
conduct of the king himself after the miracle of the flames which did no hurt,
whether as shown in praising and setting forth the name of God, or in honoring
the three children themselves, or from the esteem in which the king held Daniel,
and the gifts with which he honored him, nothing loth to receive them, when he,
rendering the honor that was due to the king's power, as sufficiently appears
from his own words, did not hesitate to use the gift with which he was endowed
by God, in interpreting the king's dream. And when, in consequence, the king was
compelled by the men who envied the holy prophet, and heaped calumnies upon him
with sacrilegious madness, most unwillingly to cast him into the den of lions,
sadly though he did it, yet he had the conviction that he would be safe through
the help and protection of his God. Accordingly, when Daniel, by the miraculous
repression of the lions' rage, had been preserved unhurt, when the friendly
voice of the king spoke first to him, in accents of anxiety, he himself replied
with benediction from the den, "O king, live for ever!" [2249] How came it that,
when your argument was turning on the very same subject, when you were yourself
quoting the examples of the servants of God in whose case these things were
done, you either failed to see, or were unwilling to see, or seeing and knowing,
were silent, in a manner which I know not how you will defend, about those
instances of friendship felt by kings for the saints? But if it were not that,
as a defender of the basest cause, you are hindered by the desire of building up
falsehood, and thereby turned away either as unwilling or as ignorant from the
light of truth, there can be no doubt that you could, without any difficulty,
recall some good kings as well as some bad ones, and some friendly to the saints
as well as some unfriendly. And we cannot but wonder that your Circumcelliones
thus throw themselves from precipices. Who was running after you, I pray? What
Macarius, what soldier was pursuing you? Certainly none of our party thrust you
into this abyss of falsehood. Why then did you thus run headlong with your eyes
shut, so that when you said, "What have you to do with the kings of this world?"
you did not add, In whom Christianity has often found envy towards herself,
instead of boldly venturing to say, "In whom Christianity has never found
anything save envy towards her?" Was it really true that you neither thought
yourself, nor considered that those who read your writings would think, how many
instances of kings there were that went against your views? Does he not know
what he says? 205. Or do you think that, because those whom I have mentioned
belonged to olden times, therefore they form no argument against you, because
you did not say, In whom righteousness has never found anything save envy
towards her, but "In whom Christianity has never found anything saving envy
towards her," -- meaning, perhaps, that it should be understood that they began
to show envy towards the righteous from the time when they began to bear the
name of Christians? What then is the meaning of those examples from olden times,
by which you even more imprudently wished to prove what you had so imprudently
ventured to assert? For was it not before Christ was born in the world that the
Maccabees, and the three children, and Daniel, did and suffered what you told of
them? And again, why was it, as I asked just now, that you offered a petition to
Julian, the undoubted foe of Christianity? Why did you seek to recover the
basilicas from him? Why did you declare that only righteousness found a place
with him? If it is the foe of Christianity that hears such things as these, what
then are they from whom he hears them? But it should be observed that
Constantine, who was certainly no foe to the name of Christian, but rather
rendered glorious by it, being mindful of the hope which he maintained in
Christ, and deciding most justly on behalf of His unity, was not worthy to be
acknowledged by you, even when you yourselves appealed to him. Both these were
emperors in Christian times, but yet not both of them were Christians. But if
both of them were foes of Christianity, why did you thus appeal to one of them?
why did you thus present a petition to the other? For on your ancestors making
their petition, Constantine had given an episcopal judgment both at Rome and at
Arles; and yet the first of them you accused before him, from the other you
appealed to him. But if, as is the case, one of them had believed in Christ, the
other had apostatized from Christ, why is the Christian despised while
furthering the interests of unity, the apostate praised while favoring deceit?
Constantine ordered that the basilicas should be taken from you, Julian that
they should be restored. Do you wish to know which of these actions is conducive
to Christian peace? The one was done by a man who had believed in Christ, the
other by one who had abandoned Christ. O how you would wish that you could say,
It was indeed ill done that supplication should so be made to Julian, but what
has that to do with us? But if you were to say this, the Catholic Church would
also conquer in these same words, whose saints dispersed throughout the world
are much less concerned with what you say of those towards whom you feel as you
may be disposed to feel. But it is beyond your power to say, It was ill done
that supplication should so be made to Julian. Your throat is closed; your
tongue is checked by an authority close at home. It was Pontius that did it.
Pontius presented the petition; Pontius declared that the apostate was most
righteous; Pontius set forth that only righteousness found a place with the
apostate. That Pontius made a petition to him in these words, we have the
express evidence of Julian himself, mentioning him by name, without any
disguise. Your representations still exist. It is no uncertain rumor, but public
documents that bear witness to the fact. Can it be, that because the apostate
made some concession to your prayer, to the detriment of the unity of Christ,
you therefore find truth in what was said, that only righteousness found a place
with him? but because Christian emperors decide against your wishes, since this
appears to them most likely to contribute to the unity of Christ, therefore they
are called the foes of Christianity? Such folly may all heretics display; and
may they regain wisdom, so that they should be no longer heretics. 206. And when
is that fulfilled, you will say, which the Lord declares, "The time cometh, that
whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service"? [2250] At any rate
neither can this be said of the heathen, who persecuted Christians, not for the
sake of God, but for the sake of their idols. You do not see that if this had
been said of these emperors who rejoice in the name of Christian, their chief
command would certainly have been this, that you should have been put to death;
and this command they never gave at all. But the men of your party, by opposing
the laws in hostile fashion, bring deserved punishment on themselves; and their
own voluntary deaths, so long as they think that they bring odium on us, they
consider in no wise ruinous to themselves. But if they think that that saying of
Christ refers to kings who honor the name of Christ, let them ask what the
Catholic Church suffered in the East, when, Valens the Arian was emperor. There
indeed I might find what I should understand to be sufficient fulfillment of the
saying of the Lord, "The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that
he doeth God service," that heretics should not claim, as conducing to their
especial glory, the injunctions issued against their errors by Catholic
emperors. But we remember that that time was fulfilled after the ascension of
our Lord, of which holy Scripture is known by all to be a witness. The Jews
thought that they were doing a service to God when they put the apostles to
death. Among those who thought that they were showing service to God was even
our Saul, though not ours as yet; so that among his causes for confidence which
were past and to be forgotten, he enumerates the following: "An Hebrew," he
says, "of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal,
persecuting the Church." [2251] Here was one who thought that he did God service
when he did what presently he suffered himself. For forty Jews bound themselves
by an oath that they would slay him, when he caused that this should be made
known to the tribune, so that under the protection of a guard of armed men he
escaped their snares. [2252] But there was no one yet to say to him, What have
you to do (not with kings, but) with tribunes and the arms of kings? There was
no one to say to him, Dare you seek protection at the hand of soldiers, when
your Lord was dragged by them to undergo His sufferings? There were as yet no
instances of madness such as yours; but there were already examples being
prepared, which should be sufficient for their refutation. 207. Moreover, with
what terrible force did you venture to set forth and utter the following: "But
to say nothing of ancient examples, observe, from instances taken from your own
party, how very many of your emperors and judges have perished in persecuting
us." When I read this in your letter, I waited with the most earnest expectation
to see what you were going to say, and whom you were going to enumerate, when,
lo and behold! as though passing them over; you began to quote to me Nero,
Domitian, Trajan, Geta, Decius, Valerian, Diocletian, Maximian. I acknowledge
that there were more; but you have altogether forgotten against whom you are
arguing. Were not all of these pagans, persecuting generally the Christian name
on behalf of their idols? Be vigilant, then; for the men whom you mention were
not of our communion. They were persecuting the whole aggregate of unity itself,
from which we as you think, or you, as Christ teaches, have gone forth. But you
had proposed to show that our emperors and judges had perished in consequence of
persecuting you. Or is it that you yourself do not require that we should reckon
these, because, in mentioning them, you passed them over, saying, "To pass over
Nero;" and with this reservation did you mean to run through all the rest? What
then was the use of their being quoted, if they had nothing to do with the
matter? But what has it to do with me? I now join with you in leaving these.
Next, let that larger number which you promised to us be produced, unless,
indeed, it may be that they cannot be found, inasmuch as you said that they had
perished. 208. For now you go on to make mention of the bishops whom you are
wont to accuse of having delivered up the sacred books, concerning whom we on
our part are wont to answer: Either you fail in your proof, and so it concerns
no one at all; or you succeed and then it still has no concern with us. For they
have borne their own burden, whether it be good or bad; and we indeed believe
that it was good. But of whatever character it was, yet it was their own; just
as your bad men have borne their own burden, and neither you theirs nor they
yours. But the common and most evil burden of you all is schism. This we have
already often said before. Show us, therefore, not the names of bishops, but the
names of our emperors and judges, who have perished in persecuting you. For
this, is what you had proposed, this is what you had promised, this is what you
had caused us most eagerly to expect. "Hear," he says, "Macarius perished,
Ursacius perished, and all your counts perished in like manner, by the vengeance
of God." You have mentioned only two by name, and neither of them was emperor.
Who would be satisfied with this, I ask? Are you not utterly dissatisfied with
yourself? You promise that you will mention a vast number of emperors and judges
of our party who perished in persecuting you; and then, without a word of
emperors, you mention two who were either judges or counts. For as to what you
add, "And all your counts perished in like manner by the vengeance of God," it
has nothing to do with the matter. For on this principle you might some time ago
have closed your argument, without mentioning the name of any one at all. Why
then have you not made mention of our emperors, that is to say, of emperors of
our communion? Were you afraid that you should be indicted for high treason?
Where is the fortitude that marks the Circumcelliones? And further, what do you
mean by introducing those whom you mentioned above in such numbers? They might
with more right say to you, Why did you seek us out? For they did nothing to
assist your cause, and yet you mentioned them by name. What kind of man, then,
must you be, who fear to mention those by name, who, as you say, have perished?
At any rate, you might mention more of the judges and counts, of whom you seem
to feel no fear. But yet you stopped at Macarius and Ursacius. Are these two
whom you mention the vast number of whom you spoke? Are you thinking of the
lesson which we learned as boys? For if you were to ask of me what number two
is, singular or plural, what could I answer, except that it was plural? But even
so I am still not without the means of reply. I take away Macarius from your
list; for you certainly have not told us how he perished. Or do you maintain
that any one who persecutes you, unless he be immortal on the face of this
earth, is to be deemed when he dies to have died because of you? What if
Constantine had not lived to enjoy so long a reign, and such prolonged
prosperity, who was the first to pass many decrees against your errors? And what
if Julian, who gave you back the basilicas, had not been so speedily snatched
away from life? [2253] In that case, when would you make an end of talking such
nonsense as you do, seeing that even now you are unwilling to hold your tongues?
And yet neither do we say that Julian died so soon because he gave back the
basilicas to you. For we might be equally prolix with you in this, but we are
unwilling to be equally foolish. Well, then, as I had begun to say, from these
two we will take away Macarius. For when you had mentioned the names of two,
Macarius and Ursacius, you repeated the name of Ursacius with the view of
showing us how he deserved his death; and you said, "For Ursacius was slain in a
battle with the barbarians, after which birds of prey with their savage talons,
and the greedy teeth of dogs with their biting, tore him limb from limb." Whence
it is quite clear, since it is your custom to excite greater odium against us on
account of Macarius, insomuch that you call us not Ursacians but Macarians, that
you would have been sure to say by far the most concerning him, had you been
able to say anything of the sort about his death. Of these two, therefore, when
you used the plural number, if you take away Macarius, there remains Ursacius
alone, a proper name of the singular number. Where is therefore the fulfillment
of your threatening and tremendous promise of so many who should support your
argument? 209. By this time all men who are in any degree acquainted with the
meaning of words must understand, it seems to me, how ridiculous it is that,
when you had said, "Macarius perished, Ursacius perished, and all your counts
perished in like manner, by the vengeance of God," as though men were calling
upon you to prove the fact, whereas, in reality, neither hearer nor reader was
calling on you for anything further whatsoever, you immediately strung together
a long argument in order to prove that all our counts perished in like manner by
the vengeance of God. "For Ursacius," you say, "was slain in a battle with the
barbarians, after which birds of prey with their savage talons, and the greedy
teeth of dogs with their biting, tore him limb from limb." In the same way, any
one else, who was similarly ignorant of the meaning of what he says, might
assert that all your bishops perished in prison by the vengeance of God; and
when asked how he could prove this fact, he might at once add, For Optatus,
having been accused of belonging to the company of Gildo, was put to death in a
similar way. Frivolous charges such as these we are compelled to listen to, to
consider, to refute; only we are apprehensive for the weak, lest, from the
greater slowness of their intellect, they should fall speedily into your toils.
But Ursacius, of whom you speak, if it be the case that he lived a good life,
and really died as you assert, will receive consolation from the promise of God,
who says, "Surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every
beast will I require it." [2254] 210. But as to the calumnious charges which you
bring against us, saying that by us the wrath of the kings of the world is
excited against you, so long as we do not teach them the lesson of holy
Scripture, but rather suggest our own desire of war, I do not imagine that you
are so absolutely deaf to the eloquence of the sacred books themselves as that
you should not rather fear that they should be acquainted with it. But whether
you so will or no, they gain entrance to the Church; and even if we hold our
tongues, they give heed to the readers; and, to say nothing of the rest, they
especially listen with the most marked attention to that very psalm which you
quoted. For you said that we do not teach them, nor, so far as we can help it,
allow them to become acquainted with the words of Scripture: "Be wise now
therefore, O ye kings; be instructed ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with
fear and rejoice with trembling. Take hold of instruction lest the Lord be
angry, [2255] etc. Believe that even this is sung, and that they hear it. But,
at any rate, they hear what is written above in the same psalm, which you,
unless I am mistaken, were only unwilling to pass over, for fear you should be
understood to be afraid. They hear therefore this as well "The Lord hath said
unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of me, and I shall
give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for Thy possession." [2256] On hearing which, they cannot but marvel that
some should be found to speak against this inheritance of Christ, endeavoring to
reduce it to a little corner of the earth; and in their marvel they perhaps ask,
on account of what they hear in what follows, "Serve the Lord with fear,"
wherein they can serve Him, in so far as they are kings. For all men ought to
serve God, -- in one sense, in virtue of the condition common to them all, in
that they are men; in another sense, in virtue of their several gifts, whereby
this man has one function on the earth, and that man has another. For no man, as
a private individual, could command that idols should be taken from the earth,
which it was so long ago foretold should come to pass. [2257] Accordingly, when
we take into consideration the social condition of the human race, we find that
kings, in the very fact that they are kings, have a service which they can
render to the Lord in a manner which is impossible for any who have not the
power of kings. 211. When, therefore, they think over what you quote, they hear
also what you yourself quoted concerning the three children, and hear it with
circumstances of marvellous solemnity. For that same Scripture is most of all
sung in the Church at a time when the very festal nature of the season excites
additional fervor even in those who, during the rest of the year, are more given
to be sluggish. What then do you think must be the feelings of Christian
emperors, when they hear of the three children being cast into the burning fiery
furnace because they were unwilling to consent to the wickedness of worshipping
the image of the king, [2258] unless you suppose that they consider that the
pious liberty of the saints cannot be overcome either by the power of kings, or
by any enormity of punishment, and that they rejoice that they are not of the
number of those kings who used to punish men that despised idols as though they
were guilty of sacrilege? But, further, when they hear in what follows that the
same king, terrified by the marvellous sight of, not only the three children,
but the very flames performing service unto God, himself too began to serve God
in fear, and to rejoice with reverence, and to lay hold of instruction, do they
not understand that the reason that this was recorded, and set forth with such
publicity, was that an example might be set both before the servants of God, to
prevent them from committing sacrilege in obedience to kings, and before kings
themselves, that they should show themselves religious by belief in God? Being
willing, therefore, on their part, from the admonition of the very psalm which
you yourself inserted in your writings, both to be wise, and to receive
instruction, and to serve God with fear and to rejoice unto Him with reverence,
and to lay hold of instruction, with what attention do they listen to what that
king said afterwards! For he said that he would make a decree for all the people
over whom he ruled, that whosoever should speak blasphemy against the God of
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego should perish, and their house be utterly
destroyed. And if they know that he made this decree that blasphemy should not
be uttered against the God who tempered the force of the fire, and liberated the
three children, they surely go on to consider what decrees they ought to make in
their kingdom, that the same God who has granted remission of sins, and given
freedom to the whole earth, should not be treated with scorn among the faithful
in their realm. 212. See therefore, when Christian kings make any decree against
you in defence of Catholic unity, that it be not the case that with your lips
you are accusing them of being unlearned, as it were, in holy Scripture, while
in your hearts you are grieving that they are so well acquainted with its
teaching. For who could put up with the sacrilegious and hateful fallacy which
you advance in the case of one and the same Daniel, to find fault with kings
because he was cast into the den of lions, and to refuse praise to kings in that
he was raised to exalted honor, seeing that, even when he was cast into the den
of lions, the king himself was more inclined to believe that he would be safe
than that he would be destroyed, and, in anxiety for him, refused to eat his
food? And then do you dare to say to Christians, "What have you to do with the
kings of the world?" because Daniel suffered persecution at a king's hands, and
yet not look back upon the same Daniel faithfully interpreting dreams to kings,
calling a king lord, receiving gifts and honors from a king? And so again do you
dare, in the case of the aforesaid three children, to excite the flames of odium
against kings, because, when they refused to worship the statue, they were cast
into the flames, while at the same time you hold your tongue, and say nothing
about their being thus extolled and honored by the king? Granted that the king
was a persecutor when he cast Daniel into the lions' den; but when, on receiving
him safely out again, in his joy and congratulations he cast in his enemies to
be torn in pieces and devoured by the same lions, what was he then, -- a
persecutor, or not? [2259] I call on you to answer me. For if he was, why did
not Daniel himself resist him, as he might so easily have done in virtue of his
great friendship for him, while yet you bid us restrain kings from persecuting
men? But if he was not a persecutor, because he avenged with prompt justice the
outrage committed against a holy man, what kind of vengeance, I would ask, must
be exacted from kings for indignities offered to the sacraments of Christ, if
the limbs of the prophet required such a vengeance because they were exposed to
danger? Again, I acknowledge that the king, as indeed is manifest, was a
persecutor when he cast the three children into the furnace because they refused
to worship his image; but I ask whether he was still a persecutor when he set
forth the decree that all who should blaspheme against the one true God should
be destroyed, and their whole house laid waste? For if he was a persecutor, why
do you answer Amen to the words of a persecutor? [2260] But if he was not a
persecutor, why do you call those persecutors who deter you from the madness of
blasphemy? For if they compel you to worship an idol, then they are like the
impious king, and you are like the three children; but if they are preventing
you from fighting against Christ, it is you who are impious if you attempt to do
this. But what they may be if they forbid this with terrible threats, I do not
presume to say. Do you find some other name for them, if you will not call them
pious emperors. 213. If I had been the person to bring forward these examples of
Daniel and the three children, you would perhaps resist, and declare that they
ought not to have been brought from those times in illustration of our days; but
God be thanked that you yourself brought them forward, to prove the point, it is
true, which you desired to establish, but you see that their force was rather in
favor of what you least would wish to prove. Perhaps you will say that this
proceeds from no deceit of yours, but from the fallibility of human nature.
Would that this were true! Amend it, then You will not lose in reputation nay,
it marks unquestionably the higher mind to extinguish the fire of animosity by a
frank confession, than merely to escape the mist of falsehood by acuteness of
the understanding.


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  CHAPTER 345: CHAPTER 94. -- 214. PETILIANUS SAID: |WHERE IS THE LAW OF GOD? WHERE IS YOUR CHRISTIANITY
========================================================================

-- 214. Petilianus said: "Where is the law of God? where is your Christianity,
if you not only commit murders and put men to death, but also order such things
to be done?" 215. Augustin answered: In reply to this, see what the fellow-heirs
of Christ say throughout the world. We neither commit murders, and put men to
death, nor order such things to be done; and you are raging much more madly than
those who do such things, in that you put such things into the minds of men in
opposition to the hopes of everlasting life.


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  CHAPTER 346: CHAPTER 95. -- 216. PETILIANUS SAID: |IF YOU WISH THAT WE SHOULD BE YOUR FRIENDS
========================================================================

-- 216. Petilianus said: "If you wish that we should be your friends, why do you
drag us to you against our will? But if you wish that we should be your foes,
why do you kill your foes?" 217. Augustin answered: We neither drag you to us
against your will, nor do we kill our foes; but whatever we do in our dealings
with you, though we may do it contrary to your inclination, yet we do it from
our love to you, that you may voluntarily correct yourselves, and live an
amended life. For no one lives against his will; and yet a boy, in order to
learn this lesson of his own free will, [2261] is beaten contrary to his
inclination, and that often by the very man that is most dear to him. And this,
indeed, is what the kings would desire to say to you if they were to strike you,
for to this end their power has been ordained of God. But you cry out even when
they are not striking you.


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  CHAPTER 347: CHAPTER 96. -- 218. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT WHAT REASON IS THERE
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-- 218. Petilianus said: "But what reason is there, or what inconsistency of
emptiness, in desiring communion with us so eagerly, when all the time you call
us by the false title of heretics?" 219. Augustin answered: If we so eagerly
desired communion with heretics, we should not be anxious that you should be
converted from the error of heresy; but when the very object of our negotiations
with you is that you should cease to be heretics, how are we eagerly desiring
communion with heretics? For, in fact, it is dissension and division that make
you heretics; but peace and unity make men Catholics. When, then, you come over
from your heresy to us, you cease to be what we hate, and begin to be what we
love.


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  CHAPTER 348: CHAPTER 97. -- 220. PETILIANUS SAID: |CHOOSE, IN SHORT, WHICH OF THE TWO ALTERNATIVES YOU PREFER.
========================================================================

-- 220. Petilianus said: "Choose, in short, which of the two alternatives you
prefer. If innocence is on your side, why do you persecute us with the sword? Or
if you call us guilty, why do you, who are yourselves innocent, seek for our
company?" 221. Augustin answered: O most ingenious dilemma, or rather most
foolish verbosity! Is it not usual for the choice of two alternatives to be
offered to an antagonist, when it is impossible that he should adopt both? For
if you should offer me the choice of the two propositions, that I should say
either that we were innocent, or that we were guilty; or, again, of the other
pair of propositions, viz., those concerning you, I could not escape choosing
either one or the other. But as it is, you offer me the choice of these two,
whether we are innocent or you are guilty, and wish me to say which of these two
I choose for my reply. But I refuse to make a choice; for I assert them both,
that we are innocent, and that you are guilty. I say that we are innocent of the
false and calumnious accusations which you bring against us, so far as any of
us, being in the Catholic Church, can say with a safe conscience that we have
neither given up the sacred books, nor taken part in the worship of idols, nor
murdered any man, nor been guilty of any of the other crimes which you allege
against us; and that any who may have committed any such offenses, which,
however, you have not proved in any case, have thereby shut the doors of the
kingdom of heaven, not against us, but against themselves; "for every man shall
bear his own burden." [2262] Here you have your answer on the first head. And I
further say that you are all guilty and accursed, -- not some of you owing to
the sins of others, which are wrought among you by certain of your number, and
are censured by certain others, but all of you by the sin of schism; from which
most heinous sacrilege no one of you can say that he is free, so long as he
refuses to hold communion with the unity of all nations, unless, indeed, he be
compelled to say that Christ has told a lie concerning the Church which is
spread abroad among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. [2263] And so you have
my second answer. See how I have made you two replies, of which you were
desirous that we should be reduced to choose the one. At any rate, you should
have taken notice that both assertions might be made by us; and certainly, if
this was what you wished, you should have asked it as a favor of us that we
should choose one or the other, when you saw that it was in our power to choose
both. 222. But "if innocence is on your side, why do you persecute us with the
sword?" Look back for a moment on your troops, which are not now armed after the
ancient fashion of their fathers only with cudgels, but have further added to
their equipment axes and lances and swords, and determine for yourselves to
which of us the question best belongs, "Why do you persecute us with the sword?"
"Or if you call us guilty," say you, "why do you, who are yourselves innocent,
seek for our company?" Here I answer very briefly. The reason why you, being
guilty, are sought after by the innocent, is that you may cease to be guilty,
and begin to be innocent. Here then I have chosen both of the alternatives
concerning us, and answered both of those concerning you, only do you in turn
choose one of the two. Are you innocent or guilty? Here you cannot choose to
make the two assertions, and yet choose both, if so it pleases you. For at any
rate you cannot be innocent in reference to the same circumstances in respect of
which you are guilty. If therefore you are innocent do not be surprised that you
are invited to be at peace with your brethren; but if you are guilty, do not be
surprised that you are sought for punishment by kings. But since of these two
alternatives you assume one for yourselves, and the other is alleged of you by
us, -- for you assume to yourselves innocence and it is alleged of you by us
that you are living impiously, -- hear again once more what I shall say on
either head. If you are innocent, why do you speak against the testimony of
Christ? But if you are guilty, why do you not fly for refuge to His mercy? For
His testimony, on the one hand, is to the unity of the world, and His mercy, on
the other, is in brotherly love.


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  CHAPTER 349: CHAPTER 98. -- 223. PETILIANUS SAID: |LASTLY, AS WE HAVE OFTEN SAID BEFORE
========================================================================

-- 223. Petilianus said: "Lastly, as we have often said before, how great is
your presumption, that you should speak as you presume to do of kings, when
David says, It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man: it
is better to trust i 224. Augustin answered: We put no confidence in man, but,
so far as we can, we warn men to place their trust in the Lord; nor do we put
confidence in princes, but, so far as we can, we warn princes to put confidence
in the Lord. And though we may seek aid from princes to promote the advantage of
the Church, yet do we not put confidence in them. For neither did the apostle
himself put confidence in that tribune, in the sense in which the Psalmist talks
of putting confidence in princes, from whom he obtained for himself that an
escort of armed men should be assigned to him; nor did he put confidence in the
armed men, by whose protection he escaped the snares of the wicked ones, in any
such sense as that of the Psalmist where he speaks of putting confidence in men.
[2265] But neither do we find fault with you yourselves, because you sought from
the emperor that the basilicas should be restored to you, as though you had put
your trust in Julian the prince; but we find fault with you, that you have
despaired of the witness of Christ, from whose unity you have separated the
basilicas themselves. For you received them at the bidding of an enemy of
Christ, that in them you should despise the commands of Christ, whilst you find
force and truth in what Julian ordained, saying, "This, moreover, on the
petition of Rogatianus, Pontius, Cassianus, and other bishops, not without an
intermixture of clergy, is added to complete the whole, that those proceedings
which were taken to their prejudice wrongly and without authority being all
annulled, everything should be restored to its former position;" and yet you
find nothing that has either force or truth in what Christ ordained, saying, "Ye
shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria,
and even in the whole earth." [2266] We entreat you, let yourselves be reformed.
Return to this most manifest unity of the whole world; and let all things be
restored to their former position, not in accordance with the words of the
apostate Julian, but in accordance with the words of our Saviour Christ. Have
pity on your own soul. We are not now comparing Constantine and Julian in order
to show how different they are. We are not saying, If you have not placed
confidence in a man and in a prince, when you said to a pagan and apostate
emperor, that "in him justice only found a place," seeing that the party of
Donatus has universally employed the prayers and the rescript in which those
words occur, as is proved by the records of the audience; much less ought we to
be accused by you, as though we put our confidence in any man or prince, if
without any blasphemous flattery we obtained any request from Constantine or
from the other Christian emperors; or if they themselves, without our asking for
it, but remembering the account which they shall render to the Lord, under whose
words they tremble when they hear what you yourself have quoted, "Be wise now
therefore, O ye kings," etc., and many other sayings of the sort, make any
ordinance of their own accord in support of the unity of the Catholic Church.
But I say nothing about Constantine. It is Christ and Julian that we contrast
before you; nay, more than this, it is God and man, the Son of God and the son
of hell, the Saviour of our souls and the destroyer of his own. Why do you
maintain the rescript of Julian in the occupation of the basilicas, and yet not
maintain the gospel of Christ in embracing the peace of the Church? We too cry
out, "Let all things that have been done amiss be restored to their ancient
condition." The gospel of Christ is of greater antiquity than the rescript of
Julian; the unity of Christ is of greater antiquity than the party of Donatus;
the prayers of the Church to the Lord on behalf of the unity of the Church are
of greater antiquity than the prayers of Rogatianus, and Pontius, and Cassianus,
to Julian on behalf of the party of Donatus. Are proceedings wrongly taken when
kings forbid division? and are they not wrongly taken when bishops divide unity?
Is that wrong action when kings minister to the witness of Christ in defence of
the Church? and is it not wrong action when bishops contradict the witness of
Christ in order to deny the Church? We entreat you, therefore, that the words of
Julian himself, to whom you thus made supplication, may be listened to, not in
opposition to the gospel, but in accordance with the gospel, and that "all
things which have been done amiss may be restored to their former condition."


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 350: CHAPTER 99. -- 225. PETILIANUS SAID: |ON YOU, YES YOU, YOU WRETCHED MEN
========================================================================

-- 225. Petilianus said: "On you, yes you, you wretched men, I call, who, being
dismayed with the fear of persecution, whilst you seek to save your riches, not
your souls, love not so much the faithless faith of the traitors, as the
wickedness of the ver 226. Augustin answered: That exhortation of yours would be
useful, I cannot but acknowledge, if any one were to employ it in a good cause.
It is undoubtedly well that you have tried to deter men from preferring their
riches to their souls. But I would have you, who have heard these words, listen
also for a time to us; for we also say this, but listen in what sense. If kings
threaten to take away your riches, because you are not Jews according to the
flesh, or because you do not worship idols or devils, or because you are not
carried about into any heresies, but abide in Catholic unity, then choose rather
that your riches should perish, that you perish not yourselves; but be careful
to prefer neither anything else, nor the life of this world itself, to eternal
salvation, which is in Christ. But if kings threaten you with loss or
condemnation, simply on the ground that you are heretics, such things are
terrifying you not in cruelty, but in mercy; and your determination not to fear
is a sign not of bravery, but of obstinacy. Hear then the words of Peter, where
he says, "What glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye take it
patiently?" [2268] so that herein you have neither consolation upon earth, nor
in the world to come life everlasting; but you have here the miseries of the
unfortunate, and there the hell of heretics. Do you see, therefore, my brother,
with whom I am now arguing, that you ought first to show whether you hold the
truth, and then to exhort men that in upholding it they should be ready to give
up all the blessings which they possess in this present world? And so, when you
do not show this, because you cannot, -- not that the talent is wanting, but
because the cause is bad, -- why do you hasten by your exhortations to make men
both beggars and ignorant, both in want and wandering from the truth, in rags
and contentions, household drudges and heretics, both losing their temporal
goods in this world, and finding eternal evils in the judgment of Christ? But
the cautious son, who, while he stands in dread of his father's rod, keeps away
from the lair of the serpent, escapes both blows and destruction; whereas he who
despises the pains of discipline, when set in rivalry with his own pernicious
will, is both beaten and destroyed. Do you not now understand, O learned man,
that he who has resigned all earthly goods in order to maintain the peace of
Christ, possesses God; whereas he who has lost even a very few coins in behalf
of the party of Donatus is devoid of heart?


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  CHAPTER 351: CHAPTER 100. -- 227. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT WE WHO ARE POOR IN SPIRIT ARE NOT APPREHENSIVE FOR
========================================================================

-- 227. Petilianus said: "But we who are poor in spirit [2269] are not
apprehensive for our wealth, but rather feel a dread of wealth. We, as having
nothing, and yet possessing all things,' [2270] look on our soul as our wealth,
and by our punishments a 228. Augustin answered: It is not beside the purpose to
inquire into the true meaning of this passage also. For where my purpose is not
interfered with by any mistake which you make, or any false impression which you
convey in quoting from the Scriptures, I do not concern myself about the matter.
It is not then written, "Whosoever shall lose his substance," but "Whosoever
shall lose his life for my sake." [2271] And the passage about substance is not,
"Whosoever shall lose," but "Every one that hath forsaken;" [2272] and that not
only with reference to substance of money, but many other things besides. But
you meanwhile have not lost your substance; but whether you have forsaken it, in
that you so boast of poverty, I cannot say. And if by any chance my colleague
Fortunatus may know this, being in the same city with you, he never told me,
because I had never asked him. However, even if you had done this, you have yet
yourself quoted the testimony of the apostle against yourself in this very
epistle which you have written: "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,
and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me
nothing." [2273] For if you had charity, you would not bring charges against the
whole world, which knows nothing of you, and of which you know no more, -- no,
not even such charges as are founded on the proved offenses of the Africans. If
you had charity, you would not picture to yourself a false unity in your
calumnies, but you would learn to recognize the unity that is most clearly set
forth in the words of the Lord: "even in the whole earth." [2274] But if you did
not do this, why do you boast as though you had done it? Are you really so
filled with fear of riches, that, having nothing, you possess all things? Tell
that to your colleague Crispinus, who lately bought a farm near our city of
Hippo, that he might there plunge men into the lowest abyss. [2275] Whence I too
know this all too well. You perhaps are not aware of it, and therefore shout out
in security, "We stand in fear of riches." And hence I am surprised that that
cry of yours has been allowed to pass Crispinus, so as to reach us. For between
Constantina, where you are, and Hippo, where I am, lies Calama, where he is,
nearer indeed to our side, but still between us. I wonder, therefore, how it was
that he did not first intercept this cry, and strike it back so that it should
not reach to our ears; and that he did not, in opposition to you, recite in much
more copious phrase a eulogy on riches. For he not only stands in no fear of
riches, but he actually loves them. And certainly, before you utter anything
about the rest, you should rehearse such views to him. If he makes no
corrections, then we have our answer ready. But for yourself, if it be true that
you are poor, you have with you my brother Fortunatus. You will be more likely
with such sentiments to please him, who is my colleague, than Crispinus, who is
your own.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 352: CHAPTER 101. -- 229. PETILIANUS SAID: |INASMUCH AS WE LIVE IN THE FEAR OF GOD
========================================================================

-- 229. Petilianus said: "Inasmuch as we live in the fear of God, we have no
fear of the punishments and executions which you wreak with the sword; but the
only thing which we avoid is that by your most wicked communion you destroy
men's souls, according 230. Augustin answered: You do the destruction which you
speak of, not with a visible sword, but with that of which it is said, "The sons
of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword."
[2277] For with this sword of accusation and calumny against the world of which
you are wholly ignorant, you destroy the souls of those who lack experience. But
if you find fault with a most wicked communion, as you term it, I would bid you
presently, not with my words, but with your own, to ascend, descend, enter, turn
yourself about, change sides, be such as was Optatus. But if you return to your
senses, and shall find that you are not such as he, not because he refused to
partake of the sacraments with you, but because you took offense at what he did,
then you will acquit the world of crimes which do not belong to it, and you will
find yourself involved in the sin of schism.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 353: CHAPTER 102. -- 231. PETILIANUS SAID: |YOU, THEREFORE, WHO PREFER RATHER TO BE WASHED WITH THE MOST
========================================================================

-- 231. Petilianus said: "You, therefore, who prefer rather to be washed with
the most false of baptisms than to be regenerate, not only do not lay aside your
sins, but also load your souls with the offenses of criminals. For as the water
of the guilty 232. Augustin answered: I should like to come to argument with
those who shouted assent when they either heard or read those words of yours.
For such men have not ears in their hearts, but their heart in their ears. Yet
let them read again and again, and consider, and find out for themselves, not
what the sound of those words is, but what they mean. First of all, to sift the
meaning of the last clause, "So it comes to pass," you say, "that you who had
come to baptism free from sin, return from baptism guilty of the sin of murder:"
tell me, to begin with, who there is that comes to baptism free from sin, with
the single exception of Him who came to be baptized, not that His iniquity
should be purged away, but that an example of humility might be given us? For
what shall be forgiven to one free from sin? Or are you indeed endowed with such
an eloquence, that you can show to us some innocence which yet committeth sin?
Do you not hear the words of Scripture saying, "No one is clean from sin in Thy
sight, not even the infant whose life is but of a single day upon the earth?"
[2278] For whence else is it that one hastens even with infants to seek
remission of their sins? Do you not hear the words of another Scripture, "In sin
did my mother conceive me?" [2279] In the next place, if a man returns a
murderer, who had come without the guilt of murder, merely because he receives
baptism at a murderer's hands, then all they who returned from receiving baptism
at the hands of Optatus were made partakers with Optatus. Go now, and see with
what face you cast in our teeth that we excite the wrath of kings against you.
Are you not afraid that as many satellites of Gildo will be sought for among
you, as there are men who may have been baptized by Optatus? Do you see at
length how that sentence of yours, like an empty bladder, has rattled not only
with a meaningless sound, but on your own head? 233. To go on to the other
earlier arguments which you have set before us to be refuted, they are of such a
nature that we must needs allow that every one returns from baptism endued with
the character of him by whom he is baptized; but God forbid that those whom you
baptize should return from you infected with the same madness as possesses you
when you make such a statement! And what a dainty sound there was in your words,
"You are drenched with deceit, you are drenched with wickedness, you are
drenched also with madness!" Surely you would never pour forth words like this
unless you were, not drenched, but filled even to repletion with madness. Is it
then true, to say nothing of the rest, that all who come untainted with
covetousness to receive baptism at the hands of your covetous colleagues, or the
priests of your party, return guilty of covetousness, and that those who run in
soberness to the whirlpool of intoxication to be baptized return in drunkenness?
If you entertain and teach such views as this, you will have the effrontery even
to quote, as making against us, the passage which you advanced some little time
ago: "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is
better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes." [2280] What is
the meaning of your teaching, I would ask, save only this, that we should put
our confidence not in the Lord, but in man, when you say that the baptized
person is made to resemble him who has baptized him? And since you assume this
as the fundamental principle of your baptism, are men to place their trust in
you? and are those to place their trust in princes who were disposed to place it
in the Lord? Truly I would bid them hearken not to you, but rather to those
proofs which you have urged against ourselves, ay, and to words more awful yet;
for not only is it written, "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put
confidence in man," but also, "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man." [2281]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 354: CHAPTER 103. -- 234. PETILIANUS SAID: |IMITATE INDEED THE PROPHETS, WHO FEARED TO HAVE THEIR HOLY SOULS
========================================================================

-- 234. Petilianus said: "Imitate indeed the prophets, who feared to have their
holy souls deceived with false baptism. For Jeremiah says of old that among
impious men water is as one that lies. Water,' he says, that lies has not
faith.'" 235. Augustin answered: Any one that hears these words, without being
acquainted with the Scriptures, and who does not believe that you are either so
far astray as not to know what you are saying, or deceiving in such wise that he
whom you have deceived should not know what he says, would believe that the
prophet Jeremiah, wishing to be baptized, had taken precautions not to be
baptized by impious men, and had used these words with this intent. For what was
your object in saying, previous to your quotation of this passage, "Imitate
indeed the prophets, who feared to have their holy souls deceived with false
baptism?" Just as though, in the days of Jeremiah, any one were washed with the
sacrament of baptism, except so far as the Pharisees almost every moment bathed
themselves, and their couches and cups and platters, with the washings which the
Lord condemned, as we read in the gospel. [2282] How then could Jeremiah have
said this, as though he desired to be baptized, and sought to avoid being
baptized by impious men? He said it, then, when he was complaining of a
faithless people, by the corruption of whose morals he was vexed, not wishing to
associate with their deeds; and yet he did not separate himself bodily from
their congregation, nor seek other sacraments than those which the people
received as suitable to that time, according to the law of Moses. To this
people, therefore, in their evil mode of life, he gave the name of "a wound,"
with which the heart of the righteous man was grievously smitten, whether
speaking thus of himself, or foreshadowing in himself what he foresaw would come
to pass. For he speaks as follows: "O Lord, remember me, and visit me; make
clear my innocence before those who persecute me in no spirit of long-suffering:
know that for Thy sake I have suffered rebuke from those that scorn Thy words.
Make their portion complete; and Thy word shall be unto me the joy and rejoicing
of mine heart: for I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts. I sat not in
the assembly of the mockers, but was afraid of the presence of Thy hand; I sat
alone, because I was filled with bitterness. Why do those who make me sad
prevail against me? My wound is grievous; whence shall I be healed? It is become
unto me as lying water, that has no faith." [2283] In all this it is manifest
what the prophet wished to be understood, but manifest only to those who do not
wish to distort to their own perverse cause the meaning of what they read. For
Jeremiah says that his wound has become unto him as lying water, which cannot
inspire faith; but he wished that by his wound those should be understood who
made him sad by the evil conduct of their lives. Whence also the apostle says,
"Without were fightings, within were fears;" [2284] and again, "Who is weak, and
I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?" [2285] And because he had no
hopes that they could be reformed, therefore he said, "Whence shall I be
healed?" as though his own pain must needs continue so long as those among whom
he was compelled to live continued what they were. But that a people is commonly
understood under the appellation of water is shown in the Apocalypse, where we
understand "many waters" to mean "many peoples," not by any conjecture of our
own, but by an express explanation in the place itself. [2286] Abstain then from
blaspheming the sacrament of baptism from any misunderstanding, or rather error,
even when found in a man of most abandoned character; for not even in the lying
Simon was the baptism which he received a lying water, [2287] nor do all the
liars of your party administer a lying water when they baptize in the name of
the Trinity. For neither do they begin to be liars only when they are betrayed
and convicted, and so forced to acknowledge their misdeeds; but rather they were
already liars, when, being adulterers and accursed, they pretended to be chaste
and innocent.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 355: CHAPTER 104. -- 236. PETILIANUS SAID: |DAVID ALSO SAID, THE OIL OF THE SINNER SHALL NOT ANOINT
========================================================================

-- 236. Petilianus said: "David also said, The oil of the sinner shall not
anoint my head.' Who is it, therefore, that he calls a sinner? Is it I who
suffer your violence, or you who persecute the innocent?" 237. Augustin
answered: As representing the body of Christ, which is the Church of the living
God, the pillar and mainstay of the truth, dispersed throughout the world, on
account of the gospel which was preached, according to the words of the apostle,
"to every creature which is under heaven:" [2288] as representing the whole
world, of which David, whose words you cannot understand, has said, "The world
also is stablished, that it cannot be moved;" [2289] whereas you contend that it
not only has been moved, but has been utterly destroyed: as representing this, I
answer, I do not persecute the innocent. But David said, "The oil of the
sinner," not of the traditor; not of him who offers incense, not of the
persecutor, but "of the sinner." What then will you make of your interpretation?
See first whether you are not yourself a sinner. It is nothing to the point if
you should say, I am not a traditor, I am not an offerer of incense, I am not a
persecutor. I myself, by the grace of God, am none of these, nor is the world,
which cannot be moved. But say, if you dare, I am not a sinner. For David says,
"The oil of the sinner." For so long as any sin, however light, be found in you,
what ground have you for maintaining that you are not concerned in the
expression that is used, "The oil of the sinner"? For I would ask whether you
use the Lord's prayer in your devotions? For if you do not use that prayer,
which our Lord taught His disciples for their use, where have you learned
another, proportioned to your merits, as exceeding the merits of the apostles?
But if you pray, as our great Master deigned to teach us, how do you say,
"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us?" For in
this petition we are not referring to those sins which have already been
forgiven us in baptism. Therefore these words in the prayer either exclude you
from being a petitioner to God, or else they make it manifest that you too are a
sinner. Let those then come and kiss your head who have been baptized by you,
whose heads have perished through your oil. But see to yourself, both what you
are and what you think about yourself. Is it really true that Optatus, whom
pagans, Jews, Christians, men of our party, men of your party, all proclaim
throughout the whole of Africa to have been a thief, a traitor, an oppressor, a
contriver of schism; not a friend, not a client, but a tool of him [2290] whom
one of your party declared to have been his count, companion, and god, -- is it
true that he was not a sinner in any conceivable interpretation of the term?
What then will they do whose heads were anointed by one guilty of a capital
offense? Do not those very men kiss your heads, on whose heads you pass so
serious a judgment by this interpretation which you place upon the passage?
Truly I would bid you bring them forth, and admonish them to heal themselves. Or
is it rather your heads which should be healed, who run so grievously astray?
What then, you will ask, did David really say: Why do you ask me: rather ask
himself. He answers you in the verse above: "The righteous shall smite me in
kindness, and shall reprove me; but let not the oil of the sinner anoint my
head." [2291] What could be plainer? what more manifest? I had rather, he says,
be healed by a rebuke administered in kindness, than be deceived and led astray
by smooth flattery, coming on me as an ointment on my head. The self-same
sentiment is found elsewhere in Scripture under other words: "Better are the
wounds of a friend than the proffered kisses of an enemy." [2292]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 356: CHAPTER 105. -- 238. PETILIANUS SAID: |BUT HE THUS PRAISES THE OINTMENT OF CONCORD AMONG BRETHREN
========================================================================

-- 238. Petilianus said: "But he thus praises the ointment of concord among
brethren: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the
beard, even Aar 239. Augustin answered: What you say is true. For that
priesthood in the body of Christ had an anointing, and its salvation is secured
by the bond of unity. For indeed Christ Himself derives His name from chrism,
that is, from anointing. Him the Hebrews call the Messiah, which word is closely
akin to the Phoenician language, as is the case with very many other Hebrew
words, if not with almost all. [2294] What then is meant by the head in that
priesthood, what by the beard, what by the skirts of the garments? So far as the
Lord enables me to understand, the head is none other than the Saviour of the
body, of whom the apostle says, "And He is the head of the body, the Church."
[2295] By the beard is not unsuitably understood fortitude. Therefore, on those
who show themselves to be brave in His Church, and cling to the light of His
countenance, to preach the truth without fear, there descends from Christ
Himself, as from the head, a sacred ointment, that is to say, the sanctification
of the Spirit. By the skirts of the garments we are here given to understand
that which is at the top of the garments, through which the head of Him who
gives the clothing enters. By this are signified those who are perfected in
faith within the Church. For in the skirts is perfection. And I presume you must
remember what was said to a certain rich man: "If thou wilt be perfect, go and
sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shall have treasure in
heaven; and come and follow me." [2296] He indeed went away sorrowful, slighting
what was perfect, choosing what was imperfect. But does it follow that there
were wanting those who were so made perfect by such a surrender of earthly
things, that the ointment of unity descended upon them, as from the head upon
the skirts of the garments? For, putting aside the apostles, and those who were
immediately associated with those leaders and teachers of the Church, whom we
understand to be represented with greater dignity and more conspicuous fortitude
in the beard, read in the Acts of the Apostles, and see those who "brought the
prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet.
Neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his
own: but they had all things common: and distribution was made unto every man
according as he had need. And the multitude of them that believed were of one
heart and of one soul." [2297] I doubt not that you are aware that it is so
written. Recognize, therefore, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to
dwell together in unity. Recognize the beard of Aaron; recognize the skirts of
the spiritual garments. Search the Scriptures themselves, and see where those
things began to be done; you will find that it was in Jerusalem. From this skirt
of the garment is woven together the whole fabric of unity throughout all
nations. By this the Head entered into the garment, that Christ should be
clothed with all the variety of the several nations of the earth, because in
this skirt of the garment appeared the actual variety of tongues. Why,
therefore, is the Head itself, whence that ointment of unity descended, that is,
the spiritual fragrance of brotherly love, -- why, I say, is the Head itself
exposed to your resistance, while it testifies and declares that "repentance and
remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at
Jerusalem"? [2298] And by this ointment you wish the sacrament of chrism to be
understood, which is indeed holy as among the class of visible signs, like
baptism itself, but yet can exist even among the worst of men, wasting their
life in the works of the flesh, and never destined to possess the kingdom of
heaven, and having therefore nothing to do either with the beard of Aaron, or
with the skirts of his garments, or with any fabric of priestly clothing. For
where do you intend to place what the apostle enumerates as "the manifest works
of the flesh, which," he says, "are these: fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, poisonings, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which
I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God?" [2299] I put aside fornications,
which are committed in secret; interpret uncleanness as you please, I am willing
to put it aside as well. Let us put on one side also poisons, since no one is
openly a compounder or giver of poisons. I put aside also heresies, since you
will have it so. I am in doubt whether I ought to put aside idolatry, since the
apostle classes with it covetousness, which is openly rife among you. However,
setting aside all these, are there none among you lascivious, none covetous,
none open in their indulgence of enmities, none fond of strife, or fond of
emulation, wrathful, given to seditions, envious, drunken, wasting their time in
revellings? Are none of such a character anointed among you? Do none die well
known among you to be given to such things, or openly indulging in them? If you
say there are none, I would have you consider whether you do not come under the
description yourself, since you are manifestly telling lies in the desire for
strife. But if you are yourself severed from men of this sort, not by bodily
separation, but by dissimilarity of life, and if you behold with lamentation
crowds like these around your altars, what shall we say, since they are anointed
with holy oil, and yet, as the apostle assures us with the clearness of truth,
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Must we do such impious despite to the
beard of Aaron and to the skirts of his garments, as to suppose that they are to
be placed there? Far be that from us. Separate therefore the visible holy
sacrament, which can exist both in the good and in the bad, -- in the former for
their reward, in the latter for judgment; separate it from the invisible unction
of charity, which is the peculiar property of the good. Separate them, separate
them, ay, and may God separate you from the party of Donatus, and call you back
again into the Catholic Church, whence you were torn by them while yet a
catechumen, to be bound by them in the bond of a deadly distinction. Now are ye
not in the mountains of Zion, the dew of Hermon on the mountains of Zion, in
whatever sense that be received by you; for you are not in the city upon a hill,
which has this as its sure sign, that it cannot be hid. It is known therefore
unto all nations. But the party of Donatus is unknown to the majority of
nations, therefore is it not the true city.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 357: CHAPTER 106. -- 240. PETILIANUS SAID: |WOE UNTO YOU, THEREFORE, WHO
========================================================================

-- 240. Petilianus said: "Woe unto you, therefore, who, by doing violence to
what is holy, cut away the bond of unity; whereas the prophet says, If the
people shall sin, the priest shall pray for them: but if the priest shall sin,
who will pray for him?' 241. Augustin answered: I seemed too a little while ago,
when we were disputing about the oil of the sinner, to anoint your forehead, in
order that you might say, if you dared, whether you yourself were not a sinner.
You have had the hardihood to say as much. What a portentous sin! For in that
you assert yourself to be a priest, what else have you maintained by quoting
this testimony of the prophet, save that you are wholly without sin? For if you
have sin, who is there that shall pray for you, according to your understanding
of the words? For thus you blazon yourselves among the wretched people, quoting
from the prophet: "If the people shall sin, the priest shall pray for them: but
if the priest shall sin, who will pray for him? [2300] to the intent that they
may believe you to be without sin, and entrust the wiping away their sins to
your prayers. Truly ye are great men, exalted above your fellows, heavenly,
godlike, angels indeed rather than men, who pray for the people, and will not
have the people pray for you! Are you more righteous than Paul, more perfect
than that great apostle, who was wont to commend himself to the prayers of those
whom he taught? "Continue," he says, "in prayer, and watch in the same with
thanksgiving; withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of
utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds; that I
may make it manifest, as I ought to speak." [2301] See how prayer is made for an
apostle, which you would have not made for a bishop. Do you perceive of how
devilish a nature your pride is? Prayer is made for an apostle, that he may make
manifest the mystery of Christ as he ought to speak. Accordingly, if you had a
pious people under you, you ought to have exhorted them to pray for you, that
you might not give utterance as you ought not. Are you more righteous than the
evangelist John, who says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us?" [2302] Finally, are you more righteous than Daniel,
whom you yourself quoted in this very epistle, going so far as to say, "The most
righteous king cast forth Daniel, as he supposed, to be devoured by wild
beasts?" -- a thing which he never did suppose, since he said to Daniel himself,
in the most friendly spirit, as the context of the lesson shows, "Thy God, whom
thou servest continually, He will deliver thee." [2303] But on this subject we
have already said much. With regard to the question now before us, viz., that
Daniel was most righteous, it is proved not by your testimony, though that might
be sufficient for me in the argument which I hold with you, but by the testimony
of the Spirit of God, speaking also by the mouth of Ezekiel, where he named
three men of most eminent righteousness, Noah, Daniel, and Job, who, he said,
were the only men that could be saved from a certain excessive wrath of God,
which was hanging over all the rest. [2304] A man, therefore, of the highest
righteousness, one of three conspicuous for righteousness, prays, and says,
"While I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin, and the sin of my
people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God." [2305]
And you say that you are without sin, because forsooth you are a priest; and if
the people sin, you pray for them: but if you sin, who shall pray for you? For
clearly by the impiety of such arrogance you show yourself to be unworthy of the
mediation of that Priest whom the prophet would have to be understood in these
words, which you do not understand. For now that no one may ask why this was
said, I will explain it so far as by God's grace I shall be able. God was
preparing the minds of men, by His prophet, to desire a Priest of such a sort
that none should pray for Him. He was Himself prefigured in the times of the
first people and the first temple, in which all things were figures for our
ensample. Therefore the high priest used to enter alone into the holy of holies,
that he might make supplication for the people, which did not enter with the
priest into that inner sanctuary; [2306] just as our High Priest is entered into
the secret places of the heavens, into that truer holy of holies, whilst we for
whom He prays are still placed here. [2307] It is with this reference that the
prophet says, "If the people shall sin, the priest shall pray for them: but if
the priest shall sin, who will pray for him?" Seek therefore a priest of such a
kind that he cannot sin, nor need that one should pray for him. And for this
reason prayer is made for the apostles by the people; [2308] but for that Priest
who is the Master and Lord of the apostles is prayer not made. Hear John
confessing this, and saying, "My little children, these things write I unto you,
that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins." [2309] "We
have," he says; and "for our sins." I pray you, learn humility, that you may not
fall, or rather, that in time you may arise again. For had you not already
fallen, you never would have used such words.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 358: CHAPTER 107. -- 242. PETILIANUS SAID: |AND THAT NONE WHO IS A LAYMAN MAY CLAIM TO BE
========================================================================

-- 242. Petilianus said: "And that none who is a layman may claim to be free
from sin, they are all bound by this prohibition: Be not partakers of other
men's sins.'" 243. Augustin answered: You are mistaken toto cælo, as the saying
is, by reason of your pride, whilst, by reason of your humility, you are
unwilling to communicate with the whole world. For, in the first place, this was
not spoken to a layman; and, in the second place, you are wholly ignorant in
what sense it was spoken. The apostle, writing to Timothy, gives this warning to
none other than Timothy himself, to whom he says in another place, "Neglect not
the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on
of the hands of the presbytery." [2310] And by many other proofs it is made
clear that he was not a layman. But in that he says, "Be not partaker of other
men's sins," [2311] he means, Be not partaker voluntarily, or with consent. And
hence he immediately subjoins directions how he shall obey the injunction,
saying, "Keep thyself pure." For neither was Paul himself partaker of other
men's sins, because he endured false brethren, over whom he groans, in bodily
unity; nor did the apostles who preceded him partake of the thievery and crime
of Judas, because they partook of the holy supper with him when he had already
sold his Lord, and been pointed out as the traitor by that Lord.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 359: CHAPTER 108. -- 244. PETILIANUS SAID: |BY THIS SENTENCE, AGAIN, THE APOSTLE PLACES IN THE SAME CATEGORY
========================================================================

-- 244. Petilianus said: "By this sentence, again, the apostle places in the
same category those who have fellowship in the consciousness of evil. Worthy of
death,' he says, are both those who do such things, and those who consent with
those that do the 245. Augustin answered: I care not in what manner you have
used these words, they are true. And this is the substance of the teaching of
the Catholic Church, that there is a great difference between those who consent
because they take pleasure in such things, and those who tolerate while they
dislike them. The former make themselves chaff, while they follow the barrenness
of the chaff; the latter are the grain. Let them wait for Christ, who bears the
winnowing-fan, that they may be separated from the chaff.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 360: CHAPTER 109. -- 246. PETILIANUS SAID: |COME THEREFORE TO THE CHURCH
========================================================================

-- 246. Petilianus said: "Come therefore to the Church, all ye people, and flee
the company of traditors, if you would not also perish with them. For that you
may the more readily know that, while they are themselves guilty, they yet
entertain an excell 247. Augustin answered: Against this error I have said much
already, both in this work and elsewhere. But since you think that in this
sentence you have so strong a confirmation of your vain opinions, that you
deemed it right to end your epistle with these words, that they might remain as
it were the fresher in the minds of your readers, I think it well to make a
short reply. We recognize in heretics that baptism, which belongs not to the
heretics but to Christ, in such sort as in fornicators, in unclean persons or
effeminate, in idolaters, in poisoners, in those who retain enmity, in those who
are fond of contention, in the credulous, in the proud, given to seditions, in
the envious, in drunkards, in revellers; and in men like these we hold valid the
baptism which is not theirs but Christ's. For of men like these, and among them
are included heretics also, none, as the apostle says, shall inherit the kingdom
of heaven. [2313] Nor are they to be considered as being in the body of Christ,
which is the Church, simply because they are materially partakers of the
sacraments. For the sacraments indeed are holy, even in such men as these, and
shall be of force in them to greater condemnation, because they handle and
partake of them unworthily. But the men themselves are not within the
constitution of the Church, which increases in the increase of God in its
members through connection and contact with Christ. For that Church is founded
on a rock, as the Lord says, "Upon this rock I will build my Church." [2314] But
they build on the sand, as the same Lord says, "Every one that heareth these
sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which
built his house upon the sand." [2315] But that you may not suppose that the
Church which is upon a rock is in one part only of the earth, and does not
extend even to its furthest boundaries, hear her voice groaning from the psalm,
amid the evils of her pilgrimage. For she says, "From the end of the earth have
I cried unto Thee; when my heart was distressed Thou didst lift me up upon the
rock; Thou hast led me, Thou, my hope, hast become a tower of courage from the
face of the enemy." [2316] See how she cries from the end of the earth. She is
not therefore in Africa alone, nor only among the Africans, who send a bishop
from Africa to Rome to a few Montenses, [2317] and into Spain to the house of
one lady. [2318] See how she is exalted on a rock. All, therefore, are not to be
deemed to be in her which build upon the sand, that is, which hear the words of
Christ and do them not, even though both among us and among you they have and
transmit the sacrament of baptism. See how her hope is in God the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, -- not in Peter or in Paul, still less in Donatus or
Petilianus. What we fear, therefore, to destroy, is not yours, but Christ's; and
it is holy of itself, even in sacrilegious hands. For we cannot receive those
who come from you, unless we destroy in them whatsoever appertains to you. For
we destroy the treachery of the deserter, not the stamp of the sovereign.
Accordingly, do you yourself consider and annul what you said: "I," say you,
"baptize their polluted ones; they, though may God never grant them such an
opportunity, receive those who are made mine by baptism." For you do not baptize
men who are infected, but you rebaptize them, so as to infect them with the
fraud of your error. But we do not receive men who are made yours by baptism;
but we destroy that error of yours whereby they are made yours, and we receive
the baptism of Christ, by which they are baptized. Therefore it is not without
significance that you introduce the words, "Though may God never grant them such
an opportunity." For you said, "They, though may God never grant them such an
opportunity, receive those who are made mine by baptism." For while you in your
fear that we may receive your followers desire to be understood, "may God never
give them the opportunity of receiving such as are mine," I suppose that,
without knowing what it meant, you said, "May God never make them mine that you
should receive them." For we pray that those may not be really yours who come
over at the present moment to the Catholic Church. Nor do they come over so as
to be ours by right of baptism, but by fellowship with us, and that with us they
may belong to Christ, in virtue of their baptism.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 361: IN THIS BOOK AUGUSTIN REFUTES THE SECOND LETTER WHICH PETILIANUS WROTE TO HIM AFTER HAVING
========================================================================

In this book Augustin refutes the second letter [2319] which Petilianus wrote to
him after having seen the first of Augustin's earlier books. This letter had
been full of violent language; and Augustin rather shows that the arguments of
Petilianus had been deficient and irrelevant, than brings forward arguments in
support of his own statements.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 362: CHAPTER 1. -- 1. BEING ABLE TO READ, PETILIANUS, I HAVE READ YOUR LETTER
========================================================================

-- 1. Being able to read, Petilianus, I have read your letter, in which you have
shown with sufficient clearness that, in supporting the party of Donatus against
the Catholic Church, you have neither been able to say anything to the purpose,
nor been allo 2. For if those who take into consideration what you have written
have any feelings whatsoever, how did it serve you in the cause which is at
issue between us respecting the Catholic communion and the party of Donatus,
that, leaving a matter which was in a certain sense of public interest, you
should have been led by private animosity to attack the life of an individual
with malicious revilings, just as though that individual were the question in
debate? Did you think so badly, I do not say of Christians, but of the whole
human race, as not to suppose that your writings might come into the hands of
some prudent men, who would lay aside all thoughts of individuals like us, and
inquire rather into the question which was at issue between us, and pay heed,
not to who and what we were, but to what we might be able to advance in defense
of the truth or against error? You should have paid respect to these men's
judgment, you should have guarded yourself against their censure, lest they
should think that you could find nothing to say, unless you set before yourself
some one whom you might abuse by any means within your power. But one may see by
the thoughtlessness and foolishness of some men, who listen eagerly to the
quarrels of any learned disputants, that while they take notice of the eloquence
wherewith you lavish your abuse, they do not perceive with what truth you are
refuted. At the same time, I think your object partly was that I might be
driven, by the necessity of defending myself, to desert the very cause which I
had undertaken; and that so, while men's attention was turned to the words of
opponents who were engaged not in disputation, but in quarrelling, the truth
might be obscured, which you are so afraid should come to light and be well
known among men. What therefore was I to do in opposing such a design as this,
except to keep strictly to my subject, neglecting rather my own defense, praying
withal that no personal calumny may lead me to withdraw from it? I will exalt
the house of my God, whose honor I have loved, with the tribute of a faithful
servant's voice, but myself I will humiliate and hold of no account. "I had
rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of
heretics." [2321] I will therefore turn my discourse from you, Petilianus, for a
time, and direct it rather to those whom you have endeavored to turn away from
me by your revilings, as though my endeavor rather were that men should be
converted unto me, and not rather with me unto God.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 363: CHAPTER 2. -- 3. HEAR THEREFORE, ALL YE WHO HAVE READ HIS REVILINGS
========================================================================

-- 3. Hear therefore, all ye who have read his revilings, what Petilianus has
vented against me with more anger than consideration. To begin with, I will
address you in the words of the apostle, which certainly are true, whatever I
myself may be: "Let a


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 364: CHAPTER 3. -- 4. THESE COMPARISONS OF THE GOSPEL YOU DOUBTLESS RECOGNIZE.
========================================================================

-- 4. These comparisons of the gospel you doubtless recognize. Nor can we
suppose them given for any other purpose, except that no one should make his
boast in man, and that no one should be puffed up for one against another, or
divided one against anoth


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 365: CHAPTER 4. -- 5. NOR WOULD I THEREFORE BE UNDERSTOOD TO URGE THAT ECCLESIASTICAL DISCIPLINE SHOULD BE
========================================================================

-- 5. Nor would I therefore be understood to urge that ecclesiastical discipline
should be set at naught, and that every one should be allowed to do exactly as
he pleased, without any check, without a kind of healing chastisement, a lenity
which should in


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 366: CHAPTER 5. -- 6. DO YOU, THEREFORE, HOLY SCIONS OF OUR ONE CATHOLIC MOTHER
========================================================================

-- 6. Do you, therefore, holy scions of our one Catholic mother, beware with all
the watchfulness of which you are capable, in due submission to the Lord, of the
example of crime and error such as this. With however great light of learning
and of reputat


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 367: CHAPTER 6. -- 7. FURTHERMORE, WHETHER CONCERNING CHRIST, OR CONCERNING HIS CHURCH
========================================================================

-- 7. Furthermore, whether concerning Christ, or concerning His Church, or any
other matter whatsoever which is connected with your faith and life, to say
nothing of ourselves, who are by no means to be compared with him who said,
"Though we," at any rate


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 368: CHAPTER 7. -- 8. WHILST WE BEAR THE TESTIMONY OF GOD TO THIS AND THE LIKE EFFECT
========================================================================

-- 8. Whilst we bear the testimony of God to this and the like effect against
the vain speaking of men, we are forced to undergo bitter insults from the
enemies of the glory of Christ. Let them say what they will, whilst He exhorts
us, saying, "Blessed a


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 369: CHAPTER 8. -- 9. NOR IS IT ONLY YOU THAT ARE SAFE
========================================================================

-- 9. Nor is it only you that are safe, whatever we may be, because you are
satisfied with the very truth of Christ which is in us, in so far as it is
preached through us, and everywhere throughout the world, and because, listening
to it willingly, so far


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 370: CHAPTER 9. -- 10. THEREFORE, AS I HAVE OFTEN SAID BEFORE
========================================================================

-- 10. Therefore, as I have often said before, and am desirous to bring home to
you, whatsoever we may be, you are safe, who have God for your Father and His
Church for your mother. For although the goats may feed in company with the
sheep, yet they shal


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 371: CHAPTER 10. -- 11. LET THESE THINGS SUFFICE YOU, MY BELOVED CHRISTIAN BRETHREN OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
========================================================================

-- 11. Let these things suffice you, my beloved Christian brethren of the
Catholic Church, so far as the present business is concerned; and if you hold
fast to this in Catholic affection, so long as you are one sure flock of the one
Shepherd, I am not too


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 372: CHAPTER 11. -- 12. WHAT WONDER IS IT THEN, IF, WHEN I DRAW IN THE GRAIN THAT
========================================================================

-- 12. What wonder is it then, if, when I draw in the grain that has been shaken
forth from the threshing-floor of the Lord, together with the soil and chaff, I
suffer injury from the dust that rebounds against me; or that, when I am
diligently seeking af


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 373: CHAPTER 12. -- 13. FOR I AM A MAN OF THE THRESHING-FLOOR OF CHRIST
========================================================================

-- 13. For I am a man of the threshing-floor of Christ: if a bad man, then part
of the chaff; if good, then of the grain. The winnowing-fan of this
threshing-floor is not the tongue of Petilianus; and hereby, whatever evil he
may have uttered, even with


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 374: CHAPTER 13. -- 14. IF, THEREFORE, I AM A SERVANT OF THE LORD
========================================================================

-- 14. If, therefore, I am a servant of the Lord, and a soldier that is not
reprobate, with whatever eloquence Petilianus stands forth reviling me, ought I
in any way to be annoyed that he has been appointed for me as a most
accomplished craftsman of the


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 375: CHAPTER 14. -- 15. FURTHERMORE, IF I HAVE OBTAINED FROM YOU
========================================================================

-- 15. Furthermore, if I have obtained from you, in accordance with my earnest
endeavors, that, laying aside from your minds all prejudice of party, you should
be impartial judges between Petilianus and myself, I will show to you that he
has not replied t 16. For, in replying to the former part of his writings, which
then alone had come into my hands, without taking any notice of his wordy and
sacrilegious revilings, where he says, "Let those men cast in our teeth our
twice-repeated baptism, who, under the name of baptism, have polluted their
souls with a guilty washing; whom I hold to be so obscene that no manner of
filth is less clean than they; whose lot it has been, by a perversion of
cleanliness, to be defiled by the water wherein they washed;" I thought that
what follows was worthy of discussion and refutation, where he says, "For what
we look for is the conscience of the giver, that the conscience of the recipient
may thereby be cleansed;" and I asked what means were to be found for cleansing
one who receives baptism when the conscience of the giver is polluted, without
the knowledge of him who is to receive the sacrament at his hands. [2367]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 376: CHAPTER 15. -- 17. READ NOW THE MOST PROFUSE REVILINGS WHICH HE HAS POURED FORTH WHILST PUFFED
========================================================================

-- 17. Read now the most profuse revilings which he has poured forth whilst
puffed up with indignation against me, and see whether he has given me any
answer, when I ask what means are to be found for cleansing one who receives
baptism when the conscience 18. For how did it bear upon the point that he added
a phrase which he said was suppressed by me, maintaining that he had written in
the following terms: "The conscience of him who gives in holiness is what we
look for to cleanse the conscience of the recipient?" For to prove to you that
it was not suppressed by me, its addition in no way hinders my inquiry, or makes
up the deficiency which was found in him. For in the face of those very words I
ask again, and I beg of you to see whether he has given any answer, If "the
conscience of him who gives in holiness is what we look for to cleanse the
conscience of the recipient," what means are to be found for cleansing the
conscience of the recipient when the conscience of the giver is stained with
guilt, without the knowledge of him who is to receive the sacrament at his
hands? I insist upon an answer being given to this. Do not allow that any one
should be prejudiced by revilings irrelevant to the matter in hand. If the
conscience of him who gives in holiness is what we look for, -- observe that I
do not say "the conscience of him who gives," but that I added the words, "of
him who gives in holiness," -- if the conscience, then, of him who gives in
holiness is what we look for, what means are to be found for cleansing one who
receives baptism when the conscience of the giver is polluted, without the
knowledge of him who is to receive the sacrament at his hands?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 377: CHAPTER 16. -- 19. LET HIM GO NOW, AND WITH PANTING LUNGS AND SWOLLEN THROAT FIND FAULT
========================================================================

-- 19. Let him go now, and with panting lungs and swollen throat find fault with
me as a mere dialectician. Nay, let him summon, not me, but the science of
dialectics itself, to the bar of popular opinion as a forger of lies, and let
him open his mouth t


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 378: CHAPTER 17. -- 20. LET HIM FURTHER GO ON, IN HIS DISCOURSE OF MANY BUT MANIFESTLY EMPTY
========================================================================

-- 20. Let him further go on, in his discourse of many but manifestly empty
words, to matters of which he is wholly ignorant, or in which rather he abuses
the ignorance of the mass of those who hear him, and from the confession of a
certain woman, that sh


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 379: CHAPTER 18. -- 21. CERTAINLY IN ALL THESE THINGS, AS YOU CAN LEARN OR REFRESH YOUR MEMORY
========================================================================

-- 21. Certainly in all these things, as you can learn or refresh your memory by
reading his letter, he has given free scope to the impulse of his tongue, with
all the license of boasting which he chose to use, but nowhere has he told us
where means are t


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 380: CHAPTER 19. -- 22. FOR PERHAPS SOME ONE OF YOU WILL SAY TO ME
========================================================================

-- 22. For perhaps some one of you will say to me, All these things which he
said against you he wished to have force for this purpose, that he might take
away your character, and through you the character of those with whom you hold
communion, that neith


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 381: CHAPTER 20. -- 23. ALL THESE STATEMENTS IN MY LETTER PETILIANUS SET BEFORE HIMSELF FOR REFUTATION.
========================================================================

-- 23. All these statements in my letter Petilianus set before himself for
refutation. Let us see, therefore, whether he has refuted them; whether he has
made any answer to them at all. For I add the words which he calumniously
accuses me of having supp


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 382: CHAPTER 21. -- 24. BUT SEE, WHEN HE IS REDUCED TO STRAITS IN THE ARGUMENT
========================================================================

-- 24. But see, when he is reduced to straits in the argument, he again makes an
attack on me full of mist and wind, that the calm clearness of the truth may be
obscured; and through the extremity of his want he becomes full of resources,
shown not in say 25. Then he continues in the same strain, and cries out: "What
is that what if? what is that possibly? except the uncertain and wavering
hesitation of one who doubts, of whom your poet says' -- What if I now return to
those who say, What if the sky should fall?'" [2376] Does he mean that when I
said, What if the conscience of the giver be hidden from sight, and possibly be
stained with guilt? that it is much the same as if I had said, What if the sky
should fall? There certainly is the phrase What if, because it is possible that
it may be hidden from view, and it is possible that it may not. For when it is
not known what the giver is thinking of, or what crime he has committed, then
his conscience is certainly hidden from the view of the recipient; but when his
sin is plainly manifest, then it is not hidden. I used the expression, And
possibly may be stained with guilt, because it is possible that it may be hidden
from view and yet be pure; and again, it is possible that it may be hidden from
view and be stained with guilt. This is the meaning of the What if; this the
meaning of the Possibly. Is this at all like "What if the sky should fall?" O
how often have men been convicted, how often have they confessed themselves that
they had consciences stained with guilt and adultery, whilst men were
unwittingly baptized by them after they were degraded by the sin subsequently
brought to light, and yet the sky did not fall! What have we here to do with
Pilus and Furius, [2377] who defended the cause of injustice against justice?
What have we here to do with the atheist Diagoras, [2378] who denied that there
was any God, so that he would seem to be the man of whom the prophet spoke
beforehand, "The fool hath said in his heart there is no God?" [2379] What have
we here to do with these? Why were their names brought in, except that they
might make a diversion in favor of a man who had nothing to say? that while he
is at any rate saying something, though needlessly, about these, the matter in
hand may seem to be progressing, and an answer may be supposed to be made to a
question which remains without an answer?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 383: CHAPTER 22. -- 26. LASTLY, IF THESE TWO OR THREE WORDS
========================================================================

-- 26. Lastly, if these two or three words, What if, and Possibly, are so
absolutely intolerable, that on their account we should have aroused from their
long sleep the Academics, and Carneades, and Pilus, and Furius, and Diagoras,
and black snow, and the


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 384: CHAPTER 23. -- 27. AND, IN THE FIRST PLACE, WITH REGARD TO THAT FIRST EXPRESSION
========================================================================

-- 27. And, in the first place, with regard to that first expression, "Of him
who gives in holiness," it does not interfere in the least with my inquiry, by
which he is so much distressed, whether I use the expression, "If the conscience
of him that gives


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 385: CHAPTER 24. -- 28. WHATEVER, THEREFORE, HE FINDS IN THESE TWO WORDS
========================================================================

-- 28. Whatever, therefore, he finds in these two words, -- whether he brings
calumnious accusations about their suppression, or boasts of their being added,
-- you perceive that it in no way hinders my question, to which he can find no
answer that he can


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 386: CHAPTER 25. -- 29. AND YET PETILIANUS, TO AVOID ANSWERING WHAT I HAVE SAID
========================================================================

-- 29. And yet Petilianus, to avoid answering what I have said, sets before
himself what I have not, and draws men's attention away from the consideration
of his debt, lest they should exact the answer which he ought to make. He
constantly introduces the 30. Among many other things which are wholly
irrevelant, he says that "I was so hard hit by the decision of the proconsul
Messianus, that I was forced to fly from Africa." And in consequence of this
falsehood (to which, if he was not the author of it, he certainly lent malicious
ears when others maliciously invented it), how many other falsehoods had he the
hardihood not only to utter, but actually to write with wondrous rashness,
seeing that I went to Milan before the consulship of Banto, and that, in
pursuance of the profession of rhetorician which I then followed, I recited a
panegyric in his honor as consul on the first of January, in the presence of a
vast assembly of men; and after that journey I only returned to Africa after the
death of the tyrant Maximus: whereas the proconsul Messianus heard the case of
the Manichæans after the consulship of Banto, as the day of the chronicles
inserted by Petilianus himself sufficiently shows. And if it were necessary to
prove this for the satisfaction of those who are in doubt, or believe the
contrary, I could produce many men, illustrious in their generation, as most
sufficient witnesses to all that period of my life.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 387: CHAPTER 26. -- 31. BUT WHY DO WE MAKE INQUIRY INTO THESE POINTS? WHY DO WE BOTH
========================================================================

-- 31. But why do we make inquiry into these points? Why do we both suffer and
cause unnecessary delay? Are we likely to find out by such a course as this what
means we are to use for cleansing the conscience of the recipient, who does not
know that the


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 388: CHAPTER 27. -- 32. BUT THIS IS NOT WHAT WE ARE NOW INQUIRING.
========================================================================

-- 32. But this is not what we are now inquiring. Let him rather answer (what he
wanders off into the most irrelevant matters in order to avoid answering) by
what means the conscience of the recipient is cleansed who is unacquainted with
the stain on the


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 389: CHAPTER 28. -- 33. THIS IS WHAT WE LOOK UPON WITH HORROR IN YOUR PARTY
========================================================================

-- 33. This is what we look upon with horror in your party; this is what the
sentence of God condemns, crying out with the utmost truth and the utmost
clearness, "Cursed is every one that trusteth in man." [2382] This is what is
most openly forbidden by


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 390: CHAPTER 29. -- 34. I ENTREAT OF YOU, PAY ATTENTION TO THIS
========================================================================

-- 34. I entreat of you, pay attention to this: I ask where the means shall be
found for cleansing the conscience of the recipient, when he is not acquainted
with the stain upon the conscience of him that gives but not in holiness, if the
conscience of h


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 391: CHAPTER 30. -- 35. ACCORDINGLY THIS PRECEDENT IS WHOLLY WITHOUT BEARING ON THE MATTER IN HAND.
========================================================================

-- 35. Accordingly this precedent is wholly without bearing on the matter in
hand. We might rather say that the declaration of the apostle sufficiently
inculcates this care, when he says, "Let these also first be proved; then let
them use the office of a


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 392: CHAPTER. 31. -- 36. |AND WHERE,| HE SAYS, |IS THE WORD THAT I ADDED
========================================================================

-- 36. "And where," he says, "is the word that I added, wittingly?so that I did
not say, He that has received his faith from one that is faithless; but, He that
has received his faith wittingly from one that is faithless, receives not faith
but guilt." H


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 393: CHAPTER 32. -- 37. WHAT SHALL WE SAY OF WHAT HE HIMSELF ADVANCED IN HIS EPISTLE
========================================================================

-- 37. What shall we say of what he himself advanced in his epistle, that
"Quodvultdeus, having been convicted of two adulteries, and cast out from among
you, was received by those of our party?" [2391] What then (I would speak
without prejudice to this


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 394: CHAPTER 33. -- 38. SEE NOW HOW PETILIANUS, TO AVOID ANSWERING THIS QUESTION
========================================================================

-- 38. See now how Petilianus, to avoid answering this question, or to avoid
being proved to be incapable of answering it, wanders off vainly into irrelevant
matter in abuse of us, accusing us and proving nothing; and when he chances to
make an endeavor t


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 395: CHAPTER 34. -- 39. PETILIANUS QUOTES ALSO THE WARNING OF THE APOSTLE JOHN
========================================================================

-- 39. Petilianus quotes also the warning of the Apostle John, that we should
not believe every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, [2396] as
though this care should be bestowed in order that the wheat should be separated
from the chaff i 40. Assuredly in all these things Petilianus gives no answer to
the question, If the conscience of one that gives in holiness is what we look
for to cleanse the conscience of the recipient, by what means is he to be
cleansed who receives baptism, when the conscience of the giver is polluted
without the knowledge of the proposed recipient? A certain Cyprian, a colleague
of his from Thubursicubur, was caught in a brothel with a woman of most
abandoned character, and was brought before Primianus of Carthage, and
condemned. Now, when this man baptized before he was detected and condemned, it
is manifest that he had not the conscience of one that gives in holiness, so as
to cleanse the conscience of the recipient. By what means then have they been
cleansed who at this day, after he has been condemned, are certainly not washed
again? It was not necessary to name the man save only to prevent Petilianus from
repeating, "Who is the man, and from what corner has he started up, that you
propose to us?" Why did not your party examine that baptizer, as John, in the
opinion of Petilianus, was examined? Or was the real fact this, that they
examined him so far as man can examine man, but were unable to find him out, as
he long lay hid with cunning falseness?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 396: CHAPTER 35.
========================================================================

-- Was the water administered by this man not lying? or is the oil of the
fornicator not the oil of the sinner? or must we hold what the Catholic Church
says, and what is true, that that water and that oil are not his by whom they
were administered, but Hi 41. Making then, no answer to this which is so
urgently asked of him, and, in the next place, even seeking for himself a
latitude of speech, he says, "since both prophets and apostles have been
cautious enough to fear these things, with what face do you say that the baptism
of the sinner is holy to those who believe with a good conscience?" Just as
though I or any Catholic maintained that that baptism was of the sinner which is
administered or received with a sinner to officiate, instead of being His in
virtue of belief in whose name the candidate is baptized! Then he goes off to an
invective against the traitor Judas, saying against him whatever he can, quoting
the testimony of the prophets uttered concerning him so long a time before, as
though he would steep the Church of Christ dispersed throughout the world, whose
cause is involved in this discussion, in the impiety of the traitor Judas, --
not considering what this very thing should have recalled to his mind, that we
ought no more to doubt that that is the Church of Christ which is spread abroad
throughout the world, since this was prophesied with truth so many years before,
than we ought to doubt that it was necessary that Christ should be betrayed by
one of His disciples, because this was prophesied in like manner.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 397: CHAPTER 36. -- 42. BUT AFTER THIS, WHEN PETILIANUS CAME TO THAT OBJECTION OF OURS
========================================================================

-- 42. But after this, when Petilianus came to that objection of ours, that they
allowed the baptism of the followers of Maximianus, whom they had condemned,
[2400] -- although in the statement of this question he thought it right to use
his own words rath


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 398: CHAPTER 37. -- 43. FURTHERMORE, ACCORDING TO OUR TENETS, NEITHER HE OF WHOM PETILIANUS SAID THAT HE
========================================================================

-- 43. Furthermore, according to our tenets, neither he of whom Petilianus said
that he was cast forth by us for the sin of the men of Sodom, another being
appointed in his place, and that afterwards he was actually restored to our
college, -- talking all t


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 399: CHAPTER 38. -- 44. FOR, TO PASS OVER OTHERS DWELLING IN DIFFERENT QUARTERS OF THE EARTH
========================================================================

-- 44. For, to pass over others dwelling in different quarters of the earth, --
for you will scarcely find any place in which this kind of men is not
represented, from whom it may appear that overseers and ministers are wont to be
condemned even in the Cath


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 400: CHAPTER 39. -- 45. BUT AS FOR YOU, WHEN THE CASE OF THE FOLLOWERS OF MAXIMIANUS IS
========================================================================

-- 45. But as for you, when the case of the followers of Maximianus is brought
up against you, who, after being condemned by the sentence of a Council of 310
bishops; [2404] after being utterly defeated in the same Council, quoted in the
records of so man


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 401: CHAPTER 40. -- 46. FOR IF THE BAPTISM WHICH PR&AELIG;TEXTATUS AND FELICIANUS ADMINISTERED IN THE COMMUNION OF
========================================================================

-- 46. For if the baptism which Prætextatus and Felicianus administered in the
communion of Maximianus was their own, why was it received by you in those whom
they baptized as though it were the baptism of Christ? But if it is truly the
baptism of Christ 47. See therefore, and remember with the most watchful care,
how Petilianus has made no answer to that very question, which he proposes to
himself in such terms as to seem to make it a starting-point from which to say
something. For the former question he has dismissed altogether, and has not
wished to speak of it to us, because I suppose it was beyond his power; nor is
he at any time, up to the very end of his volume, going to say anything about
it, though he quoted it from the first part of my epistle as though it were a
matter calling for refutation. For even though he has added the two words which
he accused me of having suppressed, as though they were the strongest bulwarks
of his position, he yet lies wholly defenseless, unable to find any answer to
make when he is asked, If the conscience of one that gives in holiness is what
we look for to cleanse the conscience of the recipient, where are we to find
means for cleansing the conscience of the man who is unacquainted with the
conscience of him gives, but not in holiness? and if it be the case that any one
who has received his faith from one that is faithless, receives not faith but
guilt, from what source is he to receive not guilt but faith, who is unwittingly
baptized by one that is faithless? To this question it has long been manifest
from what he says that he has made no answer. 48. In the next place, he has gone
on, with calumnious mouth, to abuse monasteries and monks, finding fault also
with me, as having been the founder of this kind of life. [2406] And what this
kind of life really is he does not know at all, or rather, though it is
perfectly well known throughout all the world, he pretends that he is
unacquainted with it. Then, asserting that I had said that Christ was the
baptizer, he has also added certain words from my epistle as though I had set
this forth as my own sentiment, when I had really quoted it as his and yours,
and it was inveighed against with most copious harshness, as if it were I who
had said these things against myself, when what he reprehended was not mine, but
his and your sentiment, as I will presently show clearly to the best of my
ability. [2407] Then he has endeavored to show us, in many unnecessary words,
that Christ does not baptize, but that baptism is administered in His name, at
once in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; of which
Trinity itself he has said, either because it was what he wished, or because it
was all that he could say, that "Christ is the centre of the Trinity." In the
next place, he has taken occasion of the names of the sorcerers Simon and
Barjesus to vent against us what insults he thought fit. Then he goes on,
keeping in guarded suspense the case of Optatus of Thamugas, that he might not
be steeped in the odium that arose from it, denying that neither he or his party
could have passed judgment upon him, and actually intimating in respect of him,
that he was crushed in consequence of suggestions from myself.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 402: CHAPTER 41. -- 49. LASTLY, HE HAS ENDED HIS EPISTLE WITH AN EXHORTATION AND WARNING TO HIS
========================================================================

-- 49. Lastly, he has ended his epistle with an exhortation and warning to his
own party, that they should not be deceived by us, and with a lamentation over
those of our party, that we had made them worse than they had been before.
Having therefore care 50. And now I would beg of you to pay especial attention
to the next few words, that I may show you clearly what he has been afraid of in
not answering this, and that I may bring into the light what he has endeavored
to shroud in obscurity. It certainly was in his power, when we asked by what
means he is to be cleansed, who receives baptism when the conscience of the
giver is polluted without the knowledge of the proposed recipient, to answer
with the greatest ease, From our Lord God; and at any rate to say with the
utmost confidence, God wholly cleanses the conscience of the recipient, when he
is unacquainted with the stain upon the conscience of him that gives but not in
holiness. But when a man had already been compelled by the tenets of your sect
to rest the cleansing of the recipient on the conscience of the giver, in that
he had said, "For the conscience of him that gives," or "of him that gives in
holiness, is looked for to cleanse the conscience of the recipient," he was
naturally afraid lest any one should seem to be better baptized by a wicked man
who concealed his wickedness, than by one that was genuinely and manifestly
good; for in the former case his cleansing would depend not on the conscience of
one that gave in holiness, but on the most excellent holiness of God Himself.
With this apprehension, therefore, that he might not be involved in so great an
absurdity, or rather madness, as not to know where he could make his escape, he
was unwilling to say by what means the conscience of the recipient should be
cleansed, when he does not know of the stain upon the conscience of him that
gives but not in holiness; and he thought it better, by making a general
confusion with his quarrelsome uproar, to conceal what was asked of him, than to
give a reply to his question, which should at once discomfit him; never,
however, thinking that our letter could be read by men of such good
understanding, or that his would be read by those who had read ours as well, to
which he has professed to make an answer.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 403: CHAPTER 42. -- 51. FOR WHAT I JUST NOW SAID IS PUT WITH THE GREATEST CLEARNESS IN
========================================================================

-- 51. For what I just now said is put with the greatest clearness in that very
epistle of mine, in answering which he has said nothing; and I would beg of you
to listen for a few moments to what he there has done. And although you are
partisans of his,


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 404: CHAPTER 43. -- 52. THESE THINGS, I THINK, I PUT WITH CLEARNESS AND TRUTH IN MY FORMER
========================================================================

-- 52. These things, I think, I put with clearness and truth in my former
epistle, when I made answer to Petilianus. These things I have also now quoted,
intimating and commending to you the truth that our faith rests on something
else altogether than ma


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 405: CHAPTER 44. -- 53. THEN A LITTLE AFTER, AS HE HAD SAID
========================================================================

-- 53. Then a little after, as he had said, "This being so, brethren, what
perversity must that be, that he who is guilty by reason of his own faults
should make another free from guilt, whereas the Lord Jesus Christ says, Every
good tree bringeth forth g


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 406: CHAPTER 45. -- 54. BUT THAT NEITHER HE NOR ANY ONE OF YOU MIGHT SAY THAT
========================================================================

-- 54. But that neither he nor any one of you might say that, when any one of
concealed bad character is the baptizer, then he whom he baptizes is not his
fruit, but the fruit of Christ, I went on immediately to point out what a
foolish error is consequen


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 407: CHAPTER 46. -- 55. NOW, SEEING THAT WHEN PETILIANUS ATTRIBUTES THIS TO ME AS THOUGH IT WERE
========================================================================

-- 55. Now, seeing that when Petilianus attributes this to me as though it were
my opinion, he makes it an occasion for a serious and vehement invective against
me, he at any rate shows, by the very force of his indignation, how great a sin
it is in his o 56. For the apostle, in confuting those who denied that there was
any resurrection of the dead, corrects their view by showing the absurdity which
follows those who entertain this view, however loth they may be to admit the
consequence, in order that, while they shrink in abhorrence from what is impious
to say, they may correct what they have ventured to believe. His argument
continues thus: "But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not
risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is
also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God: because we have
testified of God that He raised up Christ; whom He raised not up, if so be that
the dead rise not." [2417] In order that, while they fear to say that Christ had
not risen, with the other wicked and accursed conclusions which follow from such
a statement, they may correct what they said in a spirit of folly and
infidelity, that there is no resurrection of the dead. If, therefore, you take
away what stands at the head of this argument, "If there be no resurrection of
the dead," the rest is spoken amiss, and yet must be ascribed to the apostle.
But if you restore the supposition on which the rest depends, and place as the
hypothesis from which you start, "There is no resurrection of the dead," then
the conclusion will follow rightly, "Then is Christ not risen, and our preaching
is vain, and your faith is also vain," with all the rest that is appended to it.
And all these statements of the apostle are wise and good, since whatever evil
they have in them is to be imputed to those who denied the resurrection of the
dead. In the same manner also, in my epistle, take away my supposition, If every
one is born again in spiritual grace of the same character as he by whom he is
baptized, and if, when the man who baptizes is genuinely and manifestly good, he
does of himself give faith, he is the origin and root and head of him who is
being born again; but when the baptizer is a wicked man, and undetected in his
wickedness, then each man who is baptized receives his faith from Christ,
derives his origin from Christ, is rooted in Christ, makes his boast in Christ
as his Head: -- take away, I say, this hypothesis, on which all that follows
depends, and there remains a saying of the worst description which must fairly
be ascribed to me, viz., that all who are baptized should desire that they
should have faithless men to baptize them, and be ignorant of their
faithlessness. For however good men they may have to baptize them, Christ is
incomparably better who will then be the Head of the baptized, if the baptizer
be a faithless man, but undetected. [2418] But let the statements that you make
be restored, and then it will forthwith be found that this which depends upon it
and follows in close connection from it is not my sentiment, and that any evil
which it contains is retorted on the opinion which you maintain. In like manner,
take away the supposition, If the good baptizer is the good tree, so that he
whom he has baptized is his good fruit, and if, when the character of an evil
tree is concealed, then any one that has been baptized by it is born, not of it,
but of Christ, -- take away this hypothesis, which you were compelled to confess
had its origin in your sect and in the letter of Petilianus, and the mad
conclusion which follows from it will be mine, to be ascribed to me alone, then
they are justified with greater holiness who are baptized by undetected evil
men, than they who are baptized by men that are genuinely and manifestly good.
[2419] But restore the hypothesis on which this depends, and you will at once
see both that I have been right in making this statement for your correction,
and that all that with good reason displeases you in this opinion has recoiled
upon your own head.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 408: CHAPTER 47. -- 57. FURTHERMORE, IN LIKE MANNER AS THOSE WHO DENIED THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
========================================================================

-- 57. Furthermore, in like manner as those who denied the resurrection of the
dead could in no way defend themselves from the evil consequences which the
apostle proved to follow from their premises, in order to refute their error,
saying, "Then is not C


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 409: CHAPTER 48. -- 58. WHEN WE ASK, THEREFORE, BY WHAT MEANS THE MAN IS TO BE CLEANSED
========================================================================

-- 58. When we ask, therefore, by what means the man is to be cleansed whom you
do not baptize again in your communion, even when it has been made clear that he
has been baptized by some one who, on account of some concealed iniquity, did
not at the time


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 410: CHAPTER 49. -- 59. DO NOT THEREFORE ANY LONGER SAY, |THE CONSCIENCE OF ONE THAT GIVES IN
========================================================================

-- 59. Do not therefore any longer say, "The conscience of one that gives in
holiness is what we look for to cleanse the conscience of the recipient," lest
you be asked, When a stain on the conscience of the giver is concealed, who
cleanses the conscience


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 411: CHAPTER 50. -- 60. BUT IF IT IS CLEAR THAT PETILIANUS HAS MADE NO ANSWER TO THOSE
========================================================================

-- 60. But if it is clear that Petilianus has made no answer to those first
words of my epistle, and that, when he has endeavored to make an answer, he has
shown all the more clearly how incapable he was of answering, what shall I say
in respect of those 61. For the portion of this epistle which he wrote to his
adherents -- from the beginning down to the passage in which he says, "This is
the commandment of the Lord to us, When they persecute you in this city, flee ye
into another;' [2429] and if they persecute you in that also, flee ye to a
third" -- came first into my hands, and to it I made a reply; and when this
reply of ours had fallen, in turn, into his hands, he wrote in answer to it this
which I am now refuting, showing that he has made no reply to mine. In that
first portion, therefore, of his writings to which I first replied, these are
the passages of Scripture which he conceives to be opposed to us: "Every good
tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Do
men gather grapes of thorns?" [2430] And again: "A good man, out of the good
treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things: and an evil man, out of the
evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things." [2431] And again: "When a man is
baptized by one that is dead, his washing profiteth him nothing." [2432] From
these passages he is anxious to show that the man who is baptized is made to
partake of the character of him by whom he is baptized; I on the other hand,
have shown in what sense these passages should be received, and that they could
in no wise aid his view. But as for the other expressions which he has used
against evil and accursed men, I have sufficiently shown that they are
applicable to the Lord's wheat, dispersed, as was foretold and promised,
throughout the world, and that they might rather be used by us against you.
Examine them again, and you will find it so. 62. But the passages which I have
advanced to assert the truth of the Catholic Church, are the following: As
regards the question of baptism, that our being born again, cleansed, justified
by the grace of God, should not be ascribed to the man who administered the
sacrament, I quoted these: "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put
confidence in man:" [2433] and "Cursed be every one that trusteth in man;"
[2434] and that, "Salvation belongeth unto the Lord;" [2435] and that, "Vain is
the help of man;" [2436] and that, "Neither is he that planteth anything,
neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase;" [2437] and that He
in whom men believe justifieth the ungodly, that his faith may be counted to him
for righteousness. [2438] But in behalf of the unity of the Church itself, which
is spread abroad throughout all the world, with which you do not hold communion,
I urged that the following passages were prophesied of Christ: that "He shall
have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the
earth;" [2439] and, "I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and
the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession;" [2440] and that the
covenant of God made with Abraham may be quoted in behalf of our, that is, of
the Catholic communion, in which it is written, "In thy seed shall all nations
of the earth be blessed;" [2441] which seed the apostle interprets, saying, "And
to thy seed, which is Christ." [2442] Whence it is evident that in Christ not
only Africans or Africa, but all the nations through which the Catholic Church
is spread abroad, should receive the blessing which was promised so long before.
And that the chaff is to be with the wheat even to the time of the last
winnowing, that no one may excuse the sacrilege of his own separation from the
Church by calumnious accusations of other men's offenses, if he shall have left
or deserted the communion of all nations; and to show that the society of
Christians may not be divided on account of evil ministers, that is, evil rulers
in the Church, I further quoted the passage, "All whatsoever they bid you
observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works; for they say and
do not." [2443] With regard to these passages of holy Scripture which I advanced
to prove my points, he neither showed how they ought to be otherwise
interpreted, so as to prove that they neither made for us nor against you, nor
was he willing to touch them in any way. Nay, his whole object was could it have
been achieved, that by the tumultuous outpouring of his abuse, it might never
occur to any one at all, who after reading my epistle might have been willing to
read his as well, that these things had been said by me.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 412: CHAPTER 51. -- 63. NEXT, LISTEN FOR A SHORT TIME TO THE KIND OF WAY IN WHICH
========================================================================

-- 63. Next, listen for a short time to the kind of way in which he has tried to
use, in his own behalf, the passages which I had advanced from the writings of
the Apostle Paul. "For you asserted," he says, "that the Apostle Paul finds
fault with those w


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 413: CHAPTER 52. -- 64. BUT IF YOU WISH TO SEE THAT THE OBJECT OF PETILIANUS IN HIS
========================================================================

-- 64. But if you wish to see that the object of Petilianus in his writings
really was to prove "that the origin, and root, and head of him that is baptized
is none other than he by whom he is baptized," and that this has not been
asserted by me without m


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 414: CHAPTER 53. -- 65. THEN WHO IS THERE THAT COULD FAIL TO PERCEIVE FROM WHAT A VEIN
========================================================================

-- 65. Then who is there that could fail to perceive from what a vein of conceit
it proceeds, that in explaining as it were the declaration of the apostle, he
says, "He who said, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase,'
surely meant nothing


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 415: CHAPTER 54. -- 66. FINALLY, AGAIN, A LITTLE AFTERWARDS, WHEN HE RESOLVED AND WAS FIRMLY PURPOSED
========================================================================

-- 66. Finally, again, a little afterwards, when he resolved and was firmly
purposed, as it were, to reconsider once more the words of the apostle which he
had brought up against him, he was unwilling to set down this that I had said,
preferring something


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 416: CHAPTER 55. -- 67. A MINISTER, THEREFORE, THAT IS A DISPENSER OF THE WORD AND SACRAMENT OF
========================================================================

-- 67. A minister, therefore, that is a dispenser of the word and sacrament of
the gospel, if he is a good man, becomes a fellow-partner in the working of the
gospel; but if he is a bad man, he does not therefore cease to be a dispenser of
the gospel. Fo


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 417: CHAPTER 56. -- 68. AND IF THIS IS RIGHTLY SAID OF THE GOSPEL
========================================================================

-- 68. And if this is rightly said of the gospel, with how much greater
certainty should it be said of baptism, which belongs to the gospel in such
wise, that without it no one can reach the kingdom of heaven, and with it only
if to the sacrament be added


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 418: CHAPTER 57. -- 69. FURTHERMORE, IF, WHILE I HAVE CONTINUED WITHOUT INTERMISSION TO PROVE HOW ENTIRELY THE
========================================================================

-- 69. Furthermore, if, while I have continued without intermission to prove how
entirely the passages of Scripture which Petilianus has quoted against us have
failed to hurt our cause, he himself has in some cases not touched at all what I
have quoted, a


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 419: CHAPTER 58. -- 70. FOR WHEN HE QUOTED A PASSAGE FROM THE GOSPEL AS MAKING AGAINST US
========================================================================

-- 70. For when he quoted a passage from the gospel as making against us, where
our Lord says, "They will come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are
ravening wolves; ye shall know them by their fruits," [2463] -- I answered and
said, "Then let 71. For when documents are brought forward relating to the
traditors, both by us against the men of your party, and by you against the men
of our party, (if indeed any really are brought forward on your side, for to
this very day we are left in total ignorance of them; nor indeed can we believe
that Petilianus would have omitted to insert them in his letter, seeing that he
has taken so much pain to secure the quotation and insertion of those portions
of the Chronicles which bear on the matter in opposition to me), -- but still,
as I began to say, if such documents are brought forward both by us and by you,
documents of whose existence we are wholly ignorant to this very day, -- surely
you must acknowledge that either both are true, or both false, or ours true and
yours false, or yours true and ours false; for there is no further alternative
that can be suggested.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 420: CHAPTER 59. BUT ACCORDING TO ALL THESE FOUR HYPOTHESES, THE TRUTH IS ON THE SIDE OF THE COMMUNION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
========================================================================

-- But according to all these four hypotheses, the truth is on the side of the
communion of the Catholic Church. For if both are true, then you certainly
should not have deserted the communion of the whole world on account of men such
as you too had among


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 421: ST. AUGUSTIN: 
========================================================================

a treatise concerning the correction of the donatists [de correctione
donatistarum, liber seu epistola clxxxv.] circa A.D.417. translated by rev. j.
r. king, m.a., vicar of st. peter's in the east, oxford; and late fellow and
tutor of merton college, oxford.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 422: A TREATISE 
========================================================================

Concerning the Correction of the Donatists; Or Epistle CLXXXV. [2465] A Letter
of Augustin [2466] to Boniface, who, as we learn from Epistle 220, was Tribune,
and afterwards Count in Africa. In it Augustin shows that the heresy of the
Donatists has nothing in common with that of Arius; and points out the
moderation with which it was possible to recall the heretics to the communion of
the Church through awe of the imperial laws. He adds remarks concerning the
savage conduct of the Donatists and Circumcelliones, concluding with a
discussion of the unpardonable nature of the sin against the Holy Ghost. [2467]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 423: CHAPTER 1. -- 1. I MUST EXPRESS MY SATISFACTION, AND CONGRATULATIONS
========================================================================

-- 1. I must express my satisfaction, and congratulations, and admiration, my
son Boniface, [2468] in that, amid all the cares of wars and arms, you are
eagerly anxious to know concerning the things that are of God. From hence it is
clear that in you it 2. Let not, however, things like these disturb thee, my
beloved son. For it is foretold to us that there must needs be heresies and
stumbling-blocks, that we may be instructed among our enemies; and that so both
our faith and our love may be the more approved, -- our faith, namely, that we
should not be deceived by them; and our love, that we should take the utmost
pains we can to correct the erring ones themselves; not only watching that they
should do no injury to the weak, and that they should be delivered from their
wicked error, but also praying for them, that God would open their
understanding, and that they might comprehend the Scriptures. For in the sacred
books, where the Lord Christ is made manifest, there is also His Church
declared; but they, with wondrous blindness, while they would know nothing of
Christ Himself save what is revealed in the Scriptures, yet form their notion of
His Church from the vanity of human falsehood, instead of learning what it is on
the authority of the sacred books. 3. They recognize Christ together with us in
that which is written, "They pierced my hands and my feet. They can tell all my
bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast
lots upon my vesture;" and yet they refuse to recognize the Church in that which
follows shortly after: "All the ends of the world shall remember, and turn unto
the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. For the
kingdom is the Lord's; and He is the Governor among the nations." [2469] They
recognize Christ together with us in that which is written, "The Lord hath said
unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee;" and they will not
recognize the Church in that which follows: "Ask of me, and I shall give Thee
the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy
possession." [2470] They recognize Christ together with us in that which the
Lord Himself says in the gospel, "Thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise
from the dead the third day;" and they will not recognize the Church in that
which follows: "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in
His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." [2471] And the testimonies
in the sacred books are without number, all of which it has not been necessary
for me to crowd together into this book. And in all of them, as the Lord Christ
is made manifest, whether in accordance with His Godhead, in which He is equal
to the Father, so that, "In the beginning was the Word, and; the Word was with
God, and the Word was God;" or according to the humility of the flesh which He
took upon Him, whereby "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us;" [2472] so
is His Church made manifest, not in Africa alone, as they most impudently
venture in the madness of their vanity to assert, but spread abroad throughout
the world. 4. For they prefer to the testimonies of Holy Writ their own
contentions, because, in the case of Cæcilianus, formerly a bishop of the Church
of Carthage, against whom they brought charges which they were and are unable to
substantiate, they separated themselves from the Catholic Church, -- that is,
from the unity of all nations. Although, even if the charges had been true which
were brought by them against Cæcilianus, and could at length be proved to us,
yet, though we might pronounce an anathema upon him even in the grave, [2473] we
are still bound not for the sake of any man to leave the Church, which rests for
its foundation on divine witness, and is not the figment of litigious opinions,
seeing that it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.
[2474] For we cannot allow that if Cæcilianus had erred, -- a supposition which
I make without prejudice to his integrity, -- Christ should therefore have
forfeited His inheritance. It is easy for a man to believe of his fellow-men
either what is true or what is false; but it marks abandoned impudence to desire
to condemn the communion of the whole world on account of charges alleged
against a man, of which you cannot establish the truth in the face of the world.
5. Whether Cæcilianus was ordained by men who had delivered up the sacred books,
I do not know. I did not see it, I heard it only from his enemies. It is not
declared to me in the law of God, or in the utterances of the prophets, or in
the holy poetry of the Psalms, or in the writings of any one of Christ's
apostles, or in the eloquence of Christ Himself. But the evidence of all the
several scriptures with one accord proclaims the Church spread abroad throughout
the world, with which the faction of Donatus does not hold communion. The law of
God declared, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."
[2475] The Lord said by the mouth of His prophet, "From the rising of the sun,
even unto the going down of the same, a pure sacrifice shall be offered unto my
name: for my name shall be great among the heathen." [2476] The Lord said
through the Psalmist, "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the
river unto the ends of the earth." [2477] The Lord said by His apostle, "The
gospel is come unto you, as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit."
[2478] The Son of God said with His own mouth, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me,
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and even unto the uttermost
part of the earth." [2479] Cæcilianus, the bishop of the Church of Carthage, is
accused with the contentiousness of men; the Church of Christ, established among
all nations, is recommended by the voice of God. Mere piety, truth, and love
forbid us to receive against Cæcilianus the testimony of men whom we do not find
in the Church, which has the testimony of God; for those who do not follow the
testimony of God have forfeited the weight which otherwise would attach to their
testimony as men.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 424: CHAPTER 2. -- 6. I WOULD ADD, MOREOVER, THAT THEY THEMSELVES
========================================================================

-- 6. I would add, moreover, that they themselves, by making it the subject of
an accusation, referred the case of Cæcilianus to the decision of the Emperor
Constantine; and that, even after the bishops had pronounced their judgment,
[2480] finding that t 7. For the Donatists met with the same fate as the
accusers of the holy Daniel. [2482] For as the lions were turned against them,
so the laws by which they had proposed to crush an innocent victim were turned
against the Donatists; save that, through the mercy of Christ, the laws which
seemed to be opposed to them are in reality their truest friends; for through
their operation many of them have been, and are daily being reformed, and return
God thanks that they are reformed, and delivered from their ruinous madness. And
those who used to hate are now filled with love; and now that they have
recovered their right minds, they congratulate themselves that these most
wholesome laws were brought to bear against them, with as much fervency as in
their madness they detested them; and are filled with the same spirit of ardent
love towards those who yet remain as ourselves, desiring that we should strive
in like manner that those with whom they had been like to perish might be saved.
For both the physician is irksome to the raging madman, and a father to his
undisciplined son, -- the former because of the restraint, the latter because of
the chastisement which he inflicts; yet both are acting in love. But if they
were to neglect their charge, and allow them to perish, this mistaken kindness
would more truly be accounted cruelty. For if the horse and mule, which have no
understanding, resist with all the force of bites and kicks the efforts of the
men who treat their wounds in order to cure them; and yet the men, though they
are often exposed to danger from their teeth and heels, and sometimes meet with
actual hurt, nevertheless do not desert them till they restore them to health
through the pain and annoyance which the healing process gives, -- how much more
should man refuse to desert his fellow-man, or brother to desert his brother,
lest he should perish everlastingly, being himself now able to comprehend the
vastness of the boon accorded to himself in his reformation, at the very time
that he complained of suffering persecution? 8. As then the apostle says, "As we
have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, not being weary in
well-doing," [2483] so let all be called to salvation, let all be recalled from
the path of destruction, -- those who may, by the sermons of Catholic preachers;
those who may, by the edicts of Catholic princes; some through those who obey
the warnings of God, some through those who obey the emperor's commands. For,
moreover, when emperors enact bad laws on the side of falsehood, as against the
truth, those who hold a right faith are approved, and, if they persevere, are
crowned; but when the emperors enact good laws on behalf of the truth against
falsehood, then those who rage against them are put in fear, and those who
understand are reformed. Whosoever, therefore, refuses to obey the laws of the
emperors which are enacted against the truth of God, wins for himself a great
reward; but whosoever refuses to obey the laws of the emperors which are enacted
in behalf of truth, wins for himself great condemnation. For in the times, too,
of the prophets, the kings who, in dealing with the people of God, did not
prohibit nor annul the ordinances which were issued contrary to God's commands,
are all of them censured; and those who did prohibit and annul them are praised
as deserving more than other men. And king Nebuchadnezzar, when he was a servant
of idols, enacted an impious law that a certain idol should be worshipped; but
those who refused to obey his impious command acted piously and faithfully. And
the very same king, when converted by a miracle from God, enacted a pious and
praiseworthy law on behalf of the truth, that every one who should speak
anything amiss against the true God, the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
should perish utterly, with all his house. [2484] If any persons disobeyed this
law, and justly suffered the penalty imposed, they might have said what these
men say, that they were righteous because they suffered persecution through the
law enacted by the king: and this they certainly would have said, had they been
as mad as these who make divisions between the members of Christ, and spurn the
sacraments of Christ, and take credit for being persecuted, because they are
prevented from doing such things by the laws which the emperors have passed to
preserve the unity of Christ and boast falsely of their innocence, and seek from
men the glory of martyrdom, which they cannot receive from our Lord. 9. But true
martyrs are such as those of whom the Lord says, "Blessed are they which are
persecuted for righteousness' sake." [2485] It is not, therefore, those who
suffer persecution for their unrighteousness, and for the divisions which they
impiously introduce into Christian unity, but those who suffer for
righteousness' sake, that are truly martyrs. For Hagar also suffered persecution
at the hands of Sarah; [2486] and in that case she who persecuted was righteous,
and she unrighteous who suffered persecution. Are we to compare with this
persecution which Hagar suffered the case of holy David, who was persecuted by
unrighteous Saul? [2487] Surely there is in essential difference, not in respect
of his suffering, but because he suffered for righteousness' sake. And the Lord
Himself was crucified with two thieves; [2488] but those who were joined in
their suffering were separated by the difference of its cause. Accordingly, in
the psalm, we must interpret of the true martyrs, who wish to be distinguished
from false martyrs, the verse in which it is said, "Judge me, O Lord, and
distinguish [2489] my cause from an ungodly nation." [2490] He does not say,
Distinguish my punishment, but "Distinguish my cause." For the punishment of the
impious may be the same; but the cause of the martyrs is always different. To
whose mouth also the words are suitable, "They persecute me wrongfully; help
Thou me;" [2491] in which the Psalmist claimed to have a right to be helped in
righteousness, because his adversaries persecuted him wrongfully; for if they
had been right in persecuting him, he would have deserved not help, but
correction. 10. But if they think that no one can be justified in using
violence, -- as they said in the course of the conference that the true Church
must necessarily be the one which suffers persecution, not the one inflicting
it, -- in that case I no longer urge what I observed above; because, if the
matter stand as they maintain that it does, then Cæcilianus must have belonged
to the true Church, seeing that their fathers persecuted him, by pressing his
accusation even to the tribunal of the emperor himself. For we maintain that he
belonged to the true Church, not merely because he suffered persecution, but
because he suffered it for righteousness' sake; but that they were alienated
from the Church, not merely because they persecuted, but because they did so in
unrighteousness. This, then, is our position. But if they make no inquiry into
the causes for which each person inflicts persecution, or for which he suffers
it, but think that it is a sufficient sign of a true Christian that he does not
inflict persecution, but suffers it, then beyond all question they include
Cæcilianus in that definition, who did not inflict, but suffered persecution;
and they equally exclude their own fathers from the definition, for they
inflicted, but did not suffer it. 11. But this, I say, I forbear to urge. Yet
one point I must press: If the true Church is the one which actually suffers
persecution, not the one which inflicts it, let them ask the apostle of what
Church Sarah was a type, when she inflicted persecution on her hand-maid. For he
declares that the free mother of us all, the heavenly Jerusalem, that is to say,
the true Church of God, was prefigured in that woman who cruelly entreated her
hand-maid. [2492] But if we investigate the story further, we shall find that
the handmaid rather persecuted Sarah by her haughtiness, than Sarah the handmaid
by her severity: for the handmaid was doing wrong to her mistress; the mistress
only imposed on her a proper discipline in her haughtiness. Again I ask, if good
and holy men never inflict persecution upon any one, but only suffer it, whose
words they think that those are in the psalm where we read, "I have pursued mine
enemies, and overtaken them; neither did I turn again till they were consumed?"
[2493] If, therefore, we wish either to declare or to recognize the truth, there
is a persecution of unrighteousness, which the impious inflict upon the Church
of Christ; and there is a righteous persecution, which the Church of Christ
inflicts upon the impious. She therefore is blessed in suffering persecution for
righteousness' sake; but they are miserable, suffering persecution for
unrighteousness. Moreover, she persecutes in the spirit of love, they in the
spirit of wrath; she that she may correct, they that they may overthrow: she
that she may recall from error, they that they may drive headlong into error.
Finally, she persecutes her enemies and arrests them, until they become weary in
their vain opinions, so that they should make advance in the truth; but they,
returning evil for good, because we take measures for their good, to secure
their eternal salvation, endeavor even to strip us of our temporal safety, being
so in love with murder, that they commit it on their own persons, when they
cannot find victims in any others. For in proportion as the Christian charity of
the Church endeavors to deliver them from that destruction, so that none of them
should die, so their madness endeavors either to slay us, that they may feed the
lust of their own cruelty, or even to kill themselves, that they may not seem to
have lost the power of putting men to death.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 425: CHAPTER 3. -- 12. BUT THOSE WHO ARE UNACQUAINTED WITH THEIR HABITS THINK THAT THEY ONLY KILL
========================================================================

-- 12. But those who are unacquainted with their habits think that they only
kill themselves now that all the mass of the people are freed from the fearful
madness of their usurped dominion, in virtue of the laws which have been passed
for the preservatio 13. Whence it appears that great mercy is shown towards
them, when by the force of those very imperial laws they are in the first
instance rescued against their will from that sect in which, through the
teaching of lying devils, they learned those evil doctrines, so that afterwards
they might be made whole in the Catholic Church, becoming accustomed to the good
teaching and example which they find in it. For many of the men whom we now
admire in the unity of Christ, for the pious fervor of their faith, and for
their charity, give thanks to God with great joy that they are no longer in that
error which led them to mistake those evil things for good, -- which thanks they
would not now be offering willingly, had they not first, even against their
will, been severed from that impious association. And what are we to say of
those who confess to us, as some do every day, that even in the olden days they
had long been wishing to be Catholics; but they were living among men among whom
those who wished to be Catholics could not be so through the infirmity of fear,
seeing that if any one there said a single word in favor of the Catholic Church,
he and his house were utterly destroyed at once? Who is mad enough to deny that
it was right that assistance should have been given through the imperial
decrees, that they might be delivered from so great an evil, whilst those whom
they used to fear are compelled in turn to fear, and are either themselves
corrected through the same terror, or, at any rate, whilst they pretend to be
corrected, they abstain from further persecution of those who really are, to
whom they formerly were objects of continual dread? 14. But if they have chosen
to destroy themselves, in order to prevent the deliverance of those who had a
right to be delivered, and have sought in this way to alarm the pious hearts of
the deliverers, so that in their apprehension that some few abandoned men might
perish, they should allow others to lose the opportunity of deliverance from
destruction, who were either already unwilling to perish, or might have been
saved from it by the employment of compulsion; what is in this case the function
of Christian charity, especially when we consider that those who utter threats
of their own violent and voluntary deaths are very few in number in comparison
with the nations that are to be delivered? What then is the function of
brotherly love? Does it, because it fears the shortlived fires of the furnace
for a few, therefore abandon all to the eternal fires of hell? and does it leave
so many, who are either already desirous, or hereafter are not strong enough to
pass to life eternal, to perish everlastingly, while taking precautions that
some few should not perish by their own hand, who are only living to be a
hindrance in the way of the salvation of others, whom they will not permit to
live in accordance with the doctrines of Christ, in the hopes that some day or
other they may teach them too to hasten their death by their own hand, in the
manner which now causes them themselves to be a terror to their neighbors, in
accordance with the custom inculcated by their devilish tenets? or does it
rather save all whom it can, even though those whom it cannot save should perish
in their own infatuation? For it ardently desires that all should live, but it
more especially labors that not all should die. But thanks be to the Lord, that
both amongst us -- not indeed everywhere, but in the great majority of places --
and also in the other parts of Africa, the peace of the Catholic Church both has
gained and is gaining ground, without any of these madmen being killed. But
those deplorable deeds are done in places where there is an utterly furious and
useless set of men, who were given to such deeds even in the days of old.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 426: CHAPTER 4. -- 15. AND INDEED, BEFORE THOSE LAWS WERE PUT IN FORCE BY THE EMPERORS OF
========================================================================

-- 15. And indeed, before those laws were put in force by the emperors of the
Catholic faith, the doctrine of the peace and unity of Christ was beginning by
degrees to gain ground, and men were coming over to it even from the faction of
Donatus, in propor 16. These deeds were looked upon with horror by many who were
firmly rooted in the same superstitious heresy; and accordingly, when they
supposed that it was sufficient to establish their innocence that they were ill
contented with such conduct, it was urged against them by the Catholics: If
these evil deeds do not pollute your innocence, how then do you maintain that
the whole Christian world has been polluted by the alleged sin of Cæcilianus,
which are either altogether calumnies, or at least not proved against him? How
come you, by a deed of gross impiety, to separate yourselves from the unity of
the Catholic Church, as from the threshing-floor of the Lord, which must needs
contain, up to the time of the final winnowing, both corn which is to be stored
in the garner, and chaff that is to be burned up with fire? [2497] And thus some
were so convinced by argument as to come over to the unity of the Catholic
Church, being prepared even to meet the hostility of abandoned men; whilst the
greater number, though equally convinced, and though desirous to do the same,
yet dared not make enemies of these men, who were so unbridled in their
violence, seeing that some who had come over to us experienced the greatest
cruelty at their hands. 17. To this we may add, that in Carthage itself some of
the bishops of the same party, making a schism among themselves, and dividing
the party of Donatus among the lower orders of the Carthaginian people, ordained
as bishop against bishop a certain deacon named Maximianus, who could not brook
the control of his own diocesan. And as this displeased the greater part of
them, they condemned the aforesaid Maximinus, with twelve others who had been
present at his ordination, but gave the rest that were associated in the same
schism a chance of returning to their communion on an appointed day. But
afterwards some of these twelve, and certain others of those who had had the
time of grace allowed to them, but had only returned after the day appointed,
were received by them without degradation from their orders; and they did not
venture to baptize a second time those whom the condemned ministers had baptized
outside the pale of their communion. This action of theirs at once made strongly
against them in favor of the Catholic party, so that their mouths were wholly
closed. And on the matter being diligently spread abroad, as was only right, in
order to cure men's souls of the evils of schism, and when it was shown in every
possible direction by the sermons and discussions of the Catholic divines, that
to maintain the peace of Donatus they had not only received back those whom they
had condemned, with full recognition of their orders, but had even been afraid
to declare that baptism to be void which had been administered outside their
Church by men whom they had condemned or even suspended; whilst, in violation of
the peace of Christ, they cast in the teeth of all the world the stain conveyed
by contact with some sinners, it matters little with whom, and declared baptism
to be consequently void which had been administered even in the very Churches
whence the gospel itself had come to Africa; -- seeing all this, very many began
to be confounded, and blushing before what they saw to be mostly manifest truth,
they submitted to correction in greater numbers than was their wont; and men
began to breathe with a somewhat freer sense of liberty from their cruelty, and
that to a considerably greater extent in every direction. 18. Then indeed they
blazed forth with such fury, and were so excited by the goadings of hatred, that
scarcely any churches of our communion could be safe against their treachery and
violence and most undisguised robberies; scarcely any road secure by which men
could travel to preach the peace of the Catholic Church in opposition to their
madness, and convict the rashness of their folly by the clear enunciation of the
truth. They went so far, besides, in proposing hard terms of reconciliation, not
only to the laity or to any of the clergy, but even in a measure to certain of
the Catholic bishops. For the only alternative offered was to hold their tongues
about the truth, or to endure their savage fury. But if they did not speak about
the truth, not only was it impossible for any one to be delivered by their
silence, but many were even sure to be destroyed by their submitting to be led
astray; while if, by their preaching the truth, the rage of the Donatists was
again provoked to vent its madness, though some would be delivered, and those
who were already on our side would be strengthened, yet the weak would again be
deterred by fear from following the truth. When the Church, therefore, was
reduced to these straits in its affliction, any one who thinks that anything was
to be endured, rather than that the assistance of God, to be rendered through
the agency of Christian emperors, should be sought, does not sufficiently
observe that no good account could possibly be rendered for neglect of this
precaution.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 427: CHAPTER 5. -- 19. BUT AS TO THE ARGUMENT OF THOSE MEN WHO ARE UNWILLING THAT THEIR
========================================================================

-- 19. But as to the argument of those men who are unwilling that their impious
deeds should be checked by the enactment of righteous laws, when they say that
the apostles never sought such measures from the kings of the earth, they do not
consider the di 20. Seeing, then, that the kings of the earth were not yet
serving the Lord in the time of the apostles, but were still imagining vain
things against the Lord and against His Anointed, that all might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophets, it must be granted that at that time acts of
impiety could not possibly be prevented by the laws, but were rather performed
under their sanction. For the order of events was then so rolling on, that even
the Jews were killing those who preached Christ, thinking that they did God
service in so doing, just as Christ had foretold, [2504] and the heathen were
raging against the Christians, and the patience of the martyrs was overcoming
them all. But so soon as the fulfillment began of what is written in a later
psalm, "All kings shall fall down before Him; all nations shall serve Him,"
[2505] what sober-minded man could say to the kings, "Let not any thought
trouble you within your kingdom as to who restrains or attacks the Church of
your Lord; deem it not a matter in which you should be concerned, which of your
subjects may choose to be religious or sacrilegious," seeing that you cannot say
to them, "Deem it no concern of yours which of your subjects may choose to be
chaste, or which unchaste?" For why, when free-will is given by God to man,
should adulteries be punished by the laws, and sacrilege allowed? Is it a
lighter matter that a soul should not keep faith with God, than that a woman
should be faithless to her husband? Or if those faults which are committed not
in contempt but in ignorance of religious truth are to be visited with lighter
punishment, are they therefore to be neglected altogether?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 428: CHAPTER 6. -- 21. IT IS INDEED BETTER AS NO ONE EVER COULD DENY THAT MEN SHOULD
========================================================================

-- 21. It is indeed better (as no one ever could deny) that men should be led to
worship God by teaching, than that they should be driven to it by fear of
punishment or pain; but it does not follow that because the former course
produces the better men, t "'Tis well, I ween, by shame the young to train, And
dread of meanness, rather than by pain." [2506] This is unquestionably true. But
while those are better who are guided aright by love, those are certainly more
numerous who are corrected by fear. For, to answer these persons out of their
own author, we find him saying in another place, "Unless by pain and suffering
thou art taught, Thou canst not guide thyself aright in aught." [2507] But,
moreover, holy Scripture has both said concerning the former better class,
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear;" [2508] and also
concerning the latter lower class, which furnishes the majority, "A servant will
not be corrected by words; for though he understand, he will not answer." [2509]
In saying, "He will not be corrected by words," he did not order him to be left
to himself, but implied an admonition as to the means whereby he ought to be
corrected; otherwise he would not have said, "He will not be corrected by
words," but without any qualification, "He will not be corrected." For in
another place he says that not only the servant, but also the undisdained son,
must be corrected with stripes, and that with great fruits as the result; for he
says, "Thou shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from hell;"
[2510] and elsewhere he says, "He that spareth the rod hateth his son." [2511]
For, give us a man who with right faith and true understanding can say with all
the energy of his heart, "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when
shall I come and appear before God?" [2512] and for such an one there is no need
of the terror of hell, to say nothing of temporal punishments or imperial laws,
seeing that with him it is so indispensable a blessing to cleave unto the Lord,
that he not only dreads being parted from that happiness as a heavy punishment,
but can scarcely even bear delay in its attainment. But yet, before the good
sons can say they have "a desire to depart, and to be with Christ," [2513] many
must first be recalled to their Lord by the stripes of temporal scourging, like
evil slaves, and in some degree like good-for-nothing fugitives. 22. For who can
possibly love us more than Christ, who laid down His life for His sheep? [2514]
And yet, after calling Peter and the other apostles by His words alone, when He
came to summon Paul, who was before called Saul, subsequently the powerful
builder of His Church, but originally its cruel persecutor, He not only
constrained him with His voice, but even dashed him to the earth with His power;
and that He might forcibly bring one who was raging amid the darkness of
infidelity to desire the light of the heart, He first struck him with physical
blindness of the eyes. If that punishment had not been inflicted, he would not
afterwards have been healed by it; and since he had been wont to see nothing
with his eyes open, if they had remained unharmed, the Scripture would not tell
us that at the imposition of Ananias' hands, in order that their sight might be
restored, there fell from them as it had been scales, by which the sight had
been obscured. [2515] Where is what the Donatists were wont to cry: Man is at
liberty to believe or not believe? Towards whom did Christ use violence? Whom
did He compel? Here they have the Apostle Paul. Let them recognize in his case
Christ first compelling, and afterwards teaching; first striking, and afterwards
consoling. For it is wonderful how he who entered the service of the gospel in
the first instance under the compulsion of bodily punishment, afterwards labored
more in the gospel than all they who were called by word only; [2516] and he who
was compelled by the greater influence of fear to love, displayed that perfect
love which casts out fear. 23. Why, therefore, should not the Church use force
in compelling her lost sons to return, if the lost sons compelled others to
their destruction? Although even men who have not been compelled, but only led
astray, are received by their loving mother with more affection if they are
recalled to her bosom through the enforcement of terrible but salutary laws, and
are the objects of far more deep congratulation than those whom she had never
lost. Is it not a part of the care of the shepherd, when any sheep have left the
flock, even though not violently forced away, but led astray by tender words and
coaxing blandishments, to bring them back to the fold of his master when he has
found them, by the fear or even the pain of the whip, if they show symptoms of
resistance; especially since, if they multiply with growing abundance among the
fugitive slaves and robbers, he has the more right in that the mark of the
master is recognized on them, which is not outraged in those whom we receive but
do not rebaptize? For the wandering of the sheep is to be corrected in such wise
that the mark of the Redeemer should not be destroyed on it. For even if any one
is marked with the royal stamp by a deserter who is marked with it himself, and
the two receive forgiveness, [2517] and the one returns to his service, and the
other begins to be in the service in which he had no part before, that mark is
not effaced in either of the two, but rather it is recognized in both of them,
and approved with the honor which is due to it because it is the king's. Since
then they cannot show that the destination is bad to which they are compelled,
they maintain that they ought to be compelled by force even to what is good. But
we have shown that Paul was compelled by Christ; therefore the Church, in trying
to compel the Donatists, is following the example of her Lord, though in the
first instance she waited in the hopes of needing to compel no one, that the
prediction of the prophet might be fulfilled concerning the faith of kings and
peoples. 24. For in this sense also we may interpret without absurdity the
declaration of the blessed Apostle Paul, when he says, "Having in a readiness to
revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled." [2518] Whence also
the Lord Himself bids the guests in the first instance to be invited to His
great supper, and afterwards compelled; for on His servants making answer to
Him, "Lord, it is done as Thou hast commanded, and yet there is room," He said
to them, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in."
[2519] In those, therefore, who were first brought in with gentleness, the
former obedience is fulfilled; but in those who were compelled, the disobedience
is avenged. For what else is the meaning of "Compel them to come in," after it
had previously said, "Bring in," and the answer had been made, "Lord, it is done
as Thou commanded, and yet there is room"? If He had wished it to be understood
that they were to be compelled by the terrifying force of miracles, many divine
miracles were rather wrought in the sight of those who were first called,
especially in the sight of the Jews, of whom it was said, "The Jews require a
sign;" [2520] and, moreover, among the Gentiles themselves the gospel was so
commended by miracles in the time of the apostles, that had these been the means
by which they were ordered to be compelled, we might rather have had good
grounds for supposing, as I said before, that it was the earlier guests who were
compelled. Wherefore, if the power which the Church has received by divine
appointment in its due season, through the religious character and the faith of
kings, be the instrument by which those who are found in the highways and hedges
-- that is, in heresies and schisms -- are compelled to come in, then let them
not find fault with being compelled, but consider whether they be so compelled.
The supper of the Lord is the unity of the body of Christ, not only in the
sacrament of the altar, but also in the bond of peace. Of the Donatists
themselves, indeed, we can say that they compel no man to any good thing; for
whomsoever they compel, they compel to nothing else but evil.


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  CHAPTER 429: CHAPTER 7. -- 25. HOWEVER, BEFORE THOSE LAWS WERE SENT INTO AFRICA BY WHICH MEN ARE COMPELLED
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-- 25. However, before those laws were sent into Africa by which men are
compelled to come in to the sacred Supper, it seemed to certain of the brethren,
of whom I was one, that although the madness of the Donatists was raging in
every direction, yet we s 26. But God in His great mercy, knowing how necessary
was the terror inspired by these laws, and a kind of medicinal inconvenience for
the cold and wicked hearts of many men, and for that hardness of heart which
cannot be softened by words, but yet admits of softening through the agency of
some little severity of discipline, brought it about that our envoys could not
obtain what they had undertaken to ask. For our arrival had already been
anticipated by the serious complaints of certain bishops from other districts,
who had suffered much ill-treatment at the hands of the Donatists themselves,
and had been thrust out from their sees; and, in particular, the attempt to
murder Maximianus, the Catholic bishop of the Church of Bagai, under
circumstances of incredible atrocity, had caused measures to be taken which left
our deputation nothing to do. For a law had already been published, that the
heresy of the Donatists, being of so savage a description that mercy towards it
really involved greater cruelty than its very madness wrought, should for the
future be prevented not only from being violent, but from existing with impunity
at all; but yet no capital punishment was imposed upon it, that even in dealing
with those who were unworthy, Christian gentleness might be observed, but a
pecuniary fine was ordained, and sentence of exile was pronounced against their
bishops or ministers. 27. With regard to the aforesaid bishop of Bagai, in
consequence of his claim being allowed in the ordinary courts, after each party
had been heard in turn, in a basilica [2522] of which the Donatists had taken
possession, as being the property of the Catholics, they rushed upon him as he
was standing at the altar, with fearful violence and cruel fury, beat him
savagely with cudgels and weapons of every kind, and at last with the very
boards of the broken altar. They also wounded him with a dagger in the groin so
severely, that the effusion of blood would have soon put an end to his life, had
not their further cruelty proved of service for its preservation; for, as they
were dragging him along the ground thus severely wounded, the dust forced into
the spouting vein stanched the blood, whose effusion was rapidly on the way to
cause his death. Then, when they had at length abandoned him, some of our party
tried to carry him off with psalms; but his enemies, inflamed with even greater
rage, tore him from the hands of those who were carrying him, inflicting
grievous punishment on the Catholics, whom they put to flight, being far
superior to them in numbers, and easily inspiring terror by their violence.
Finally, they threw him into a certain elevated tower, thinking that he was by
this time dead, though in fact he still breathed. Lighting then on a soft heap
of earth, and being espied by the light of a lamp by some men who were passing
by at night, he was recognized and picked up, and being carried to a religious
house, by dint of great care, was restored in a few days from his state of
almost hopeless danger. Rumor, however, had carried the tidings even across the
sea that he had been killed by the violence of the Donatists; and when
afterwards he himself went abroad, and was most unexpectedly seen to be alive,
he showed, by the number, the severity, and the freshness of his wounds, how
fully rumor had been justified in bringing tidings of his death. 28. He sought
assistance, therefore, from the Christian emperor, not so much with any desire
of revenging himself, as with the view of defending the Church entrusted to his
charge. And if he had omitted to do this, he would have deserved not to be
praised for his forbearance, but to be blamed for negligence. For neither was
the Apostle Paul taking precautions on behalf of his own transitory life, but
for the Church of God when he caused the plot of those who had conspired to slay
him to be made known to the Roman captain, the effect of which was that he was
conducted by an escort of armed soldiers to the place where they proposed to
send him, that he might escape the ambush of his foes. [2523] Nor did he for a
moment hesitate to invoke the protection of the Roman laws, proclaiming that he
was a Roman citizen, who at that time could not be scourged; [2524] and again,
that he might not be delivered to the Jews who sought to kill him, he appealed
to Cæsar, [2525] -- a Roman emperor, indeed, but not a Christian. And by this he
showed sufficiently plainly what was afterwards to be the duty of the ministers
of Christ, when in the midst of the dangers of the Church they found the
emperors Christians. And hence therefore, it came about that a religious and
pious emperor, when such matters were brought to his knowledge, thought it well,
by the enactment of most pious laws, entirely to correct the error of this great
impiety, and to bring those who bore the standards of Christ against the cause
of Christ into the unity of the Catholic Church, even by terror and compulsion,
rather than merely to take away their power of doing violence, and to leave them
the freedom of going astray, and perishing in their error. 29. Presently, when
the laws themselves arrived in Africa, in the first place those who were already
seeking an opportunity for doing so, or were afraid of the raging madness of the
Donatists, or were previously deterred by a feeling of unwillingness to offend
their friends, at once came over to the Church. Many, too, who were only
restrained by the force of custom handed down in their homes from their parents,
but had never before considered what was the groundwork of the heresy itself, --
had never, indeed, wished to investigate and contemplate its nature, --
beginning now to use their observation, and finding nothing in it that could
compensate for such serious loss as they were called upon to suffer, became
Catholics without any difficulty; for, having been made careless by security,
they were now instructed by anxiety. But when all these had set the example, it
was followed by many who were less qualified of themselves to understand what
was the difference between the error of the Donatists and Catholic truth. 30.
Accordingly, when the great masses of the people had been received by the true
mother with rejoicing into her bosom, there remained outside cruel crowds,
persevering with unhappy animosity in that madness. Even of these the greater
number communicated in feigned reconciliation, and others escaped notice from
the scantiness of their numbers. But those who feigned conformity, becoming by
degrees accustomed to our communion, and hearing the preaching of the truth,
especially after the conference and disputation which took place between us and
their bishops at Carthage, were to a great extent brought to a right belief. Yet
in certain places, where a more obstinate and implacable body prevailed, whom
the smaller number that entertained better views about communion with us could
not resist, or where the masses were under the influence of a few more powerful
leaders, whom they followed in a wrong direction, our difficulties continued
somewhat longer. Of these places there are a few in which trouble still exists,
in the course of which the Catholics, and especially the bishops and clergy,
have suffered many terrible hardships, which it would take too long to go
through in detail, seeing that some of them had their eyes put out, and one
bishop his hands and tongue cut off, while some were actually murdered. I say
nothing of massacres of the most cruel description, and robberies of houses,
committed in nocturnal burglaries, with the burning not only of private houses,
but even of churches, -- some being found abandoned enough to cast the sacred
books into the flames. 31. But we were consoled for the suffering inflicted on
us by these evils, by the fruit which resulted from them. For wherever such
deeds were committed by unbelievers, there Christian unity has advanced with
greater fervency and perfection, and the Lord is praised with greater
earnestness for having deigned to grant that His servants might win their
brethren by their sufferings, and might gather together into the peace of
eternal salvation through His blood His sheep who were dispersed abroad in
deadly error. The Lord is powerful and full of compassion, to whom we daily pray
that He will give repentance to the rest as well, that they may recover
themselves out of the snare of the devil, by whom they are taken captive at his
will, [2526] though now they only seek materials for calumniating us, and
returning to us evil for good; because they have not the knowledge to make them
understand what feelings and love we continue to have towards them, and how we
are anxious, in accordance with the injunction of the Lord, given to His pastors
by the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, to bring again that which was driven away,
and to seek that which was lost. [2527]


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 430: CHAPTER 8. -- 32. BUT THEY, AS WE HAVE SOMETIMES SAID BEFORE IN OTHER PLACES
========================================================================

-- 32. But they, as we have sometimes said before in other places, do not charge
themselves with what they do to us; while, on the other hand, they charge us
with what they do to themselves. For which of our party is there who would
desire, I do not say 33. For if two men were dwelling together in one house,
which we knew with absolute certainty to be upon the point of falling down, and
they were unwillingly to believe us when we warned them of the danger, and
persisted in remaining in the house; if it were in our power to rescue them,
even against their will, and we were afterwards to show them the ruin
threatening their house, so that they should not dare to return again within its
reach, I think that if we abstained from doing it, we should well deserve the
charge of cruelty. And further, if one of them should say to us, Since you have
entered the house to save our lives, I shall forthwith kill myself; while the
other was not indeed willing to come forth from the house, nor to be rescued,
but yet had not the hardihood to kill himself: which alternative should we
choose, -- to leave both of them to be overwhelmed in the ruin, or that, while
one at any rate was delivered by our merciful efforts, the other should perish
by no fault of ours, but rather by his own? No one is so unhappy as not to find
it easy enough to deride what should be done in such a case. And I have proposed
the question of two individuals, -- one, that is to say, who is lost, and one
who is delivered; what then must we think of the case where some few are lost,
and an innumerable multitude of nations are delivered? For there are actually
not so many persons who thus perish of their own free will, as there are
estates, villages, streets, fortresses, municipal towns, cities, that are
delivered by the laws under consideration from that fatal and eternal
destruction. 34. But if we were to consider the matter under discussion with yet
greater care, I think that if there were a large number of persons in the house
which was going to fall, and any single one of them could be saved, and when we
endeavored to effect his rescue, the others were to kill themselves by jumping
out of the windows, we should console ourselves in our grief for the loss of the
rest by the thoughts of the safety of the one; and we should not allow all to
perish without a single rescue, in the fear lest the remainder should destroy
themselves. What then should we think of the work of mercy to which we ought to
apply ourselves, in order that men may attain eternal life and escape eternal
punishment, if true reason and benevolence compel us to give such aid to men, in
order to secure for them a safety which is not only temporal, but very short, --
for the brief space of their life on earth?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 431: CHAPTER 9. -- 35. AS TO THE CHARGE THAT THEY BRING AGAINST US
========================================================================

-- 35. As to the charge that they bring against us, that we covet and plunder
their possessions, I would that they would become Catholics, and possess in
peace and love with us, not only what they call theirs, but also what
confessedly belongs to us. But 36. Everything, therefore, that was held in the
name of the churches of the party of Donatus, was ordered by the Christian
emperors, in their pious laws, to pass to the Catholic Church, with the
possession of the buildings themselves. [2529] Seeing, then, that there are with
us poor members of those said churches who used to be maintained by these same
paltry possessions, let them rather cease themselves to covet what belongs to
others whilst they remain outside, and so let them enter within the bond of
unity, that we may all alike administer, not only the property which they call
their own, but also with it what is asserted to be ours. For it is written "All
are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's." [2530] Under Him as our
Head, let us all be one in His one body; and in all such matters as you speak
of, let us follow the example which is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles:
"They were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that aught of
the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common."
[2531] Let us love what we sing: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity!" [2532] that so they may know, by their own
experience, with what perfect truth their mother, the Catholic Church, calls out
to them what the blessed apostle writes to the Corinthians: "I seek not yours,
but you." [2533] 37. But if we consider what is said in the Book of Wisdom,
"Therefore the righteous spoiled the ungodly;" [2534] and also what is said in
the Proverbs, "The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just;" [2535] then we
shall see that the question is not, who are in possession of the property of the
heretics? but who are in the society of the just? We know, indeed, that the
Donatists arrogate to themselves such a store of justice, that they boast not
only that they possess it, but that they also bestow it upon other men. For they
say that any one whom they have baptized is justified by them, after which there
is nothing left for them but to say to the person who is baptized by them that
he must needs believe on him who has administered the sacrament; for why should
he not do so, when the apostle says, "To him that believeth on Him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness?" [2536] Let him
believe, therefore, upon the man by whom he is baptized, if it be none else that
justifies him, that his faith may be counted for righteousness. But I think that
even they themselves would look with horror on themselves, if they ventured for
a moment to entertain such thoughts as these. For there is none that is just and
able to justify, save God alone. But the same might be said of them that the
apostle says of the Jews, that "being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God." [2537] 38. But far be it from us that any one of
our number should call himself in such wise just, that he should either go about
to establish his own righteousness, as though it were conferred upon him by
himself, whereas it is said to him, "For what hast thou that thou didst not
receive?" [2538] or venture to boast himself as being without sin in this world,
as the Donatists themselves declared in our conference that they were members of
a Church which has already neither spot nor wrinkle, nor any such thing, [2539]
-- not knowing that this is only fulfilled in those individuals who depart out
of this body immediately after baptism, or after the forgiveness of sins, for
which we make petition in our prayers; but that for the Church, as a whole, the
time will not come when it shall be altogether without spot or wrinkle, or any
such thing, till the day when we shall hear the words, "O death, where is thy
sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin." [2540] 39. But
in this life, when the corruptible body presseth down the soul, [2541] if their
Church is already of such a character as they maintain, they would not utter
unto God the prayer which our Lord has taught us to employ: "Forgive us our
debts." [2542] For since all sins have been remitted in baptism, why does the
Church make this petition, if already, even in this life, it has neither spot
nor wrinkle, nor any such thing? They would also have a fight to despise the
warning of the Apostle John, when he cries out in his epistle, "If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness." [2543] On account of this hope, the universal
Church utters the petition, "Forgive us our debts," that when He sees that we
are not vainglorious, but ready to confess our sins, He may cleanse us from all
unrighteousness, and that so the Lord Jesus Christ may show to Himself in that
day a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, which now
He cleanses with the washing of water in the word: because, on the one hand,
there is nothing that remains behind in baptism to hinder the forgiveness of
every bygone sin (so long, that is, as baptism is not received to no effect
without the Church, but is either administered within the Church, or, at least,
if it has been already administered without, the recipient does not remain
outside with it); and, on the other hand, whatever pollution of sin, of
whatsoever kind, is contracted through the weakness of human nature by those who
live here after baptism, is cleansed away in virtue of the same laver's
efficacy. For neither is it of any avail for one who has not been baptized to
say, "Forgive us our debts." 40. Accordingly, He so now cleanses His Church by
the washing of water in the word, that He may hereafter show it to Himself as
not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, -- altogether beautiful, that is
to say, and in absolute perfection, when death shall be "swallowed up in
victory." [2544] Now, therefore, in so far as the life is flourishing within us
that proceeds from our being born of God, living by faith, so far we are
righteous; but in so far as we drag along with us the traces of our mortal
nature as derived from Adam, so far we cannot be free from sin. For there is
truth both in the statement that "whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin,"
[2545] and also in the former statement, that "if we say that we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." [2546] The Lord Jesus,
therefore, is both righteous and able to justify; but we are justified freely by
no other grace than His. [2547] For there is nothing that justifieth save His
body, which is the Church; and therefore, if the body of Christ bears off the
spoils of the unrighteous, and the riches of the unrighteous are laid up in
store as treasures for the body of Christ, the unrighteous ought not therefore
to remain outside, but rather to enter within, that so they may be justified.
41. Whence also we may be sure that what is written concerning the day of
judgment, "Then shall the righteous man stand in great boldness before the face
of such as have afflicted him, and made no account of his labors," [2548] is not
to be taken in such a sense as that the Canaanite shall stand before the face of
Israel, though Israel made no account of the labors of the Canaanite; but only
as that Naboth shall stand before the face of Ahab, since Ahab made no account
of the labors of Naboth, since the Canaanite was unrighteous, while Naboth was a
righteous man. In the same way the heathen shall not stand before the face of
the Christian, who made no account of his labors, when the temples of the idols
were plundered and destroyed; but the Christian shall stand before the face of
the heathen, who made no account of his labors, when the bodies of the martyrs
were laid low in death. In the same way, therefore, the heretic shall not stand
in the face of the Catholic, who made no account of his labors, when the laws of
the Catholic emperors were put in force; but the Catholic shall stand in the
face of the heretic, who made no account of his labors when the madness of the
ungodly Circumcelliones was allowed to have its way. For the passage of
Scripture decides the question in itself, seeing that it does not say, Then
shall men stand, but "Then shall the righteous stand;" and they shall stand "in
great boldness" because they stand in the power of a good conscience. 42. But in
this world no one is righteous by his own righteousness, -- that is, as though
it were wrought by himself and for himself; but as the apostle says, "According
as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." But then he goes on to add
the following: "For as we have many members in one body, and all members have
not the same office; so we, being many, are one body in Christ." [2549] And
according to this doctrine, no one can be righteous so long as he is separated
from the unity of this body. For in the same manner as if a limb be cut off from
the body of a living man, it cannot any longer retain the spirit of life; so the
man who is cut off from the body of Christ, who is righteous, can in no wise
retain the spirit of righteousness, even if he retain the form of membership
which he received when in the body. Let them therefore come into the framework
of this body, and so possess their own labors, not through the lust of lordship,
but through the godliness of using them aright. But we, as has been said before,
cleanse our wills from the pollution of this concupiscence, even in the judgment
of any enemy you please to name as judge, seeing that we use our utmost efforts
in entreating the very men of whose labors we avail ourselves to enjoy with us,
within the society of the Catholic Church, the fruits both of their labors and
of our own.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 432: CHAPTER 10. -- 43. BUT THIS, THEY SAY, IS THE VERY THING WHICH DISQUIETS US
========================================================================

-- 43. But this, they say, is the very thing which disquiets us, -- If we are
unrighteous, wherefore do you seek our company? To which question we answer, We
seek the company of you who are unrighteous, that you may not remain
unrighteous; we seek for you 44. If, then, they say, it is necessary that we
should repent of having been outside, and hostile to the Church, if we would
gain salvation, how comes it that after the repentance which you exact from us
we still continue to be clergy, or it may be even bishops in your body? This
would not be the case, as indeed, in simple truth, we must confess it should not
be the case, were it not that the evil is cured by the compensating power of
peace itself. But let them give themselves this lesson, and most especially let
those feel sorrow in their hearts, who are lying in this deep death of severance
from the Church, that they may recover their life even by this sort of wound
inflicted on our Catholic mother Church. For when the bough that has been cut
off is grafted in, a new wound is made in the tree, to admit of its reception,
that life may be given to the branch which was perishing for lack of the life
that is furnished by the root. But when the newly-received branch has become
identified with the stock in which it is received, the result is both vigor and
fruit; but if they do not become identified, the engrafted bough withers, but
the life of the tree continues unimpaired. For there is further a mode of
grafting of such a kind, that without cutting away any branch that is within,
the branch that is foreign to the tree is inserted, not indeed without a wound,
but with the slightest possible wound inflicted on the tree. In like manner,
then, when they come to the root which exists in the Catholic Church, without
being deprived of any position which belongs to them as clergy or bishops after
ever so deep repentance of their error, there is a kind of wound inflicted as it
were upon the bark of the mother tree, breaking in upon the strictness of her
discipline; but since neither he that planteth is anything, neither he that
watereth, [2554] so soon as by prayers poured forth to the mercy of God peace is
secured through the union of the engrafted boughs with the parent stock, charity
then covers the multitude of sins. 45. For although it was made an ordinance in
the Church, that no one who had been called upon to do penance for any offense
should be admired into holy orders, or return to or continue in the body of the
clergy, [2555] this was done not to cause despair of any indulgence being
granted, but merely to maintain a rigorous discipline; otherwise an argument
will be raised against the keys that were given to the Church, of which we have
the testimony of Scripture: "Whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven." [2556] But lest it should so happen that, after the detection
of offenses, a heart swelling with the hope of ecclesiastical preferment might
do penance in a spirit of pride, it was determined, with great severity, that
after doing penance for any mortal sin, no one should be admitted to the number
of the clergy, in order that, when all hope of temporal preferment was done
away, the medicine of humility might be endowed with greater strength and truth.
For even the holy David did penance for deadly sin, and yet was not degraded
from his office. And we know that the blessed Peter, after shedding the
bitterest of tears, repented that he had denied his Lord, and yet remained an
apostle. But we must not therefore be induced to think that the care of those in
later times was in any way superfluous, who, when there was no risk of
endangering salvation, added something to humiliation, in order that the
salvation might be more thoroughly protected, -- having, I suppose, experienced
a feigned repentance on the part of some who were influenced by the desire of
the power attaching to office. For experience in many diseases necessarily
brings in the invention of many remedies. But in cases of this kind, when, owing
to the serious ruptures of dissensions in the Church, it is no longer a question
of danger to this or that particular individual, but whole nations are lying in
ruin, it is right to yield a little from our severity, that true charity may
give her aid in healing the more serious evils. 46. Let them therefore feel
bitter grief for their detestable error of the past, as Peter did for his fear
that led him into falsehood, and let them come to the true Church of Christ,
that is, to the Catholic Church our mother; let them be in it clergy, let them
be bishops unto its profit, as they have been hitherto in enmity against it. We
feel no jealousy towards them, nay, we embrace them; we wish, we advise, we even
compel those to come in whom we find in the highways and hedges, although we
fail as yet in persuading some of them that we are seeking not their property,
but themselves. The Apostle Peter, when he denied his Savior, and wept, and did
not cease to be an apostle, had not as yet received the Holy Spirit that was
promised; but much more have these men not received Him, when, being severed
from the framework of the body, which is alone enlivened by the Holy Spirit,
they have usurped the sacraments of the Church outside the Church and in
hostility to the Church, and have fought against us in a kind of civil war, with
our own arms and our own standards raised in opposition to us. Let them come;
let peace be concluded in the virtue of Jerusalem, which virtue is Christian
charity, -- to which holy city it is said, "Peace be in thy virtue, and
plenteousness within thy palaces." [2557] Let them not exalt themselves against
the solicitude of their mother, which she both has entertained and does
entertain with the object of gathering within her bosom themselves, and all the
mighty nations whom they are, or recently were, deceiving; at them not be puffed
up with pride, that she receives them in such wise; let them not attribute to
the evil of their own exaltation the good which she on her part does in order to
make peace. 47. So it has been her wont to come to the aid of multitudes who
were perishing through schisms and heresies. This displeased Lucifer, [2558]
when it was carried out in receiving and healing those who had perished beneath
the poison of the Arian heresy; and, being displeased at it, he fell into the
darkness of schism, losing the light of Christian charity. In accordance with
this principle the Church of Africa has recognized the Donatists from the very
beginning, obeying herein the decree of the bishops who gave sentence in the
Church at Rome between Cæcilianus and the party of Donatus; and having condemned
one bishop named Donatus, [2559] who was proved to have been the author of the
schism, they determined that the others should be received, after correction,
with full recognition of their orders even if they had been ordained outside the
Church, -- not that they could have the Holy Spirit even outside the unity of
the body of Christ, but, in the first place, for the sake of those whom it was
possible they might deceive while they remained outside, and prevent from
obtaining that gift; and, secondly, that their own weakness also being
mercifully received within, might thus be rendered capable of cure, no obstinacy
any longer standing in the way to close their eyes against the evidence of
truth. For what other intention could have given rise to their own conduct, when
they received with full recognition of their orders the followers of Maximianus,
whom they had condemned as guilty of sacrilegious schism, as their council
[2560] shows, and to fill whose places they had already ordained other men, when
they saw that the people did not depart from their company, that all might not
be involved in ruin? And on what other ground did they neither speak against nor
question the validity of the baptism which had been administered outside by men
whom they had condemned? Why, then, do they wonder, why do they complain, and
make it the subject of their calumnies, that we receive them in such wise to
promote the true peace of Christ, while yet they do not remember what they
themselves have done to promote the false peace of Donatus, which is opposed to
Christ? For if this act of theirs be borne in mind, and intelligently used in
argument against them, they will have no answer whatsoever that they can make.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 433: CHAPTER 11. -- 48. BUT AS TO WHAT THEY SAY, ARGUING AS FOLLOWS
========================================================================

-- 48. But as to what they say, arguing as follows: If we have sinned against
the Holy Ghost, in that we have treated your baptism with contempt, why is it
that you seek us, seeing that we cannot possibly receive remission of this sin,
as the Lord says, 49. Let them understand, therefore, that it is not every sin,
but only some sin, against the Holy Ghost which is incapable of forgiveness. For
just as when our Lord said, "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had
not had sin," [2562] it is clear that He did not wish it to be understood that
they would have been free from all sin, since they were filled with many
grievous sins, but that they would have been free from some special sin, the
absence of which would have left them in a position to receive remission of all
the sins which yet remained in them, viz., the sin of not believing in Him when
He came to them; for they could not have had this sin, had He not come. In like
manner, also, when He said, "Whosoever sinneth against the Holy Ghost,"or,
"Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost;" it is clear that He does not refer
to every sin of whatsoever kind against the Holy Ghost, in word or deed, but
would have us understand some special and peculiar sin. But this is the hardness
of heart even to the end of this life, which leads a man to refuse to accept
remission of his sins in the unity of the body of Christ, to which life is given
by the Holy Ghost. For when He had said to His disciples "Receive the Holy
Ghost," immediately added, Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto
them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." [2563] Whosoever
therefore has resisted or fought against this gift of the grace of God, or has
been estranged from it in any way whatever to the end of this mortal life, shall
not receive the remission of that sin, either in this world, or in the world to
come, seeing that it is so great a sin that in it is included every sin; but it
cannot be proved to have been committed by any one, till he has passed away from
life. But so long as he lives here, "the goodness of God," as the apostle says,
"is leading him to repentance;" but if he deliberately, with the utmost
perseverance in iniquity, as the apostle adds in the succeeding verse, "after
his hardness and impenitent heart, treasures up unto himself wrath against the
day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God," [2564] he shall
not receive forgiveness, neither in this world, neither in that which is to
come. 50. But those with whom we are arguing, or about whom we are arguing, are
not to be despaired of, for they are yet in the body; but they cannot seek the
Holy Spirit, except in the body of Christ, of which they possess the outward
sign outside the Church, but they do not possess the actual reality itself
within the Church of which that is the outward sign, and therefore they eat and
drink damnation to themselves. [2565] For there is but one bread which is the
sacrament of unity, seeing that, as the apostle says, "We, being many, are one
bread, and one body." [2566] Furthermore, the Catholic Church alone is the body
of Christ, of which He is the Head and Saviour of His body. [2567] Outside this
body the Holy Spirit giveth life to no one seeing that, as the apostle says
himself, "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which
is given unto us;" [2568] but he is not a partaker of the divine love who is the
enemy of unity. Therefore they have not the Holy Ghost who are outside the
Church; for it is written of them, "They separate themselves being sensual,
having not the Spirit." [2569] But neither does he receive it who is insincerely
in the Church, since this is also the intent of what is written: "For the Holy
Spirit of discipline will flee deceit." [2570] If any one, therefore, wishes to
receive the Holy Spirit, let him beware of continuing in alienation from the
Church, let him beware of entering it in the spirit of dissimulation; or if he
has already entered it in such wise, let him beware of persisting in such
dissimulation, in order that he may truly and indeed become united with the tree
of life. 51. I have despatched to you a somewhat lengthy epistle, which may
prove burdensome among your many occupations. If, therefore, it may be read to
you even in portions, the Lord will grant you understanding, that you may have
some answer which you can make for the correction and healing of those men who
are commended to you as to a faithful son by our mother the Church, that you may
correct and heal them, by the aid of the Lord wherever you can, and howsoever
you can, either by speaking and replying to them in your own person, or by
bringing them into communication with the doctors of the Church.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 434: INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
========================================================================

INDEX OF SUBJECTS. Abominations alleged to have been practised by the
Manichæans, the legitimate result of Mani's own writings, [1]363 sq. Abraham
defended against Faustus, [2]284 etc.; and Hagar, [3]284; his denial of his
wife, [4]285; the prophetic and typical character of, [5]287. Abraham and Isaac,
types, [6]191. Abstemiousness on the part of Catholic ascetics, motives of,
[7]61. Abstinence from meats and drinks, [8]60 etc.; of the Manichæans, [9]76
etc.; reasons for, [10]77 etc., [11]78 etc.; view of Faustus respecting, [12]328
etc.; refutation of Faustus on the question of, [13]330 etc. Actions, how to be
judged, [14]76. Adam and Eve, Mani's account of, [15]134 sq.; types, [16]186.
Adam fell, not because the tree was evil, but because obedience to God was
something better than the fruit, [17]358 sq. Adas, a Manichæan writer, [18]33.
Adimantus and his doctrine referred to, [19]170, [20]232, [21]233. Adoneus,
[22]218.Adoption, symbolism of, and its application to the genealogy of Christ,
[23]159, [24]160.Agapius, a Manichæan writer, [25]33.Albiruni's Chronology of
Ancient Nations, referred to, 3, 9.Alexander of Lycopolis, treatise of, on the
Tenets of the Manichæans, referred to, 3.Al-Sharastani's History of Religious
Parties, referred to, 3.Anathemas more suitable than arguments for Manichæan
contradictions, [26]268.Anchorites and Coenobites, the -- the continence of, set
off against the continence of the Manichæans, [27]59 etc.Angel, the, wrestling
with Jacob, [28]191 sq.Animal food, inconsistency of the Manichæans in
abstaining from, [29]82.Animal sacrifices, why no longer binding on Christians,
[30]169 sq.Animals, the power ascribed to, by the Manichæans,
[31]268.Anthropology of the Manichæans, [32]12.Anthropomorphisms of the Old
Testament, ridiculed by Faustus and explained by Augustin, [33]319
sq.Anthropomorphites, the, not so bad as the Manichæans, [34]139.Aphthonius, a
Manichæan writer, [35]33.Apocryphal books quoted by Augustin as if canonical,
[36]49; Augustin's predilection for, [37]250.Appetites, legitimate use of,
[38]284.Arcadius Augustus, Consol, [39]113.Archelaus, Acta Disputationis,
referred to, 4, 7, 8, [40]22.Aristocritus, Theosophy of, [41]33.Ark, the, of
Noah, its typical signification, [42]188 sq.; the raven and dove sent out of,
[43]189 sq.; how Noah and his family entered and left, [44]191; and baptism,
[45]243 sq.Asceticism, Catholic, [46]59 sq.Ascetics, Catholic, [47]166.Athenian
female criminals, [48]72 sq.Atlas, [49]255.Augustin, how he was ensnared by the
Manichæans, [50]24 sq.; how he escaped through Greek philosophy, [51]25; how he
found in Neo-Platonism the solution of the great problems that had hitherto
baffled him, [52]25 sq.; how he used Neo-Platonism against Manichæism, [53]26
sq.; his perverse hermeneutical methods, [54]28; confirmed in Manichæism by his
easy victories over ignorant Christians, [55]101; recounts his experience in
Manichæan error, and expresses his sympathy with the deluded Manichæans, [56]129
sq.; dissatisfaction of, with his anti-Manichæan statements about free will,
sin, etc., [57]96, [58]102, et passim.Authority, ecclesiastical, position
assigned to by Augustin, [59]130, [60]131.Authority, the, of Scripture,
[61]339.Authorship of books, how ascertained, [62]343.Babylon, the captivity in,
and return from, [63]194.Babylonian religion, ancient, dualistic elements in, 6
sq.; relation of, to Manichæism, [64]19 sq.Bahraim, king of Persia, slays Mani,
8.Baptism and the ark, [65]243 sq.Barhebraeus' Historia Dynastiarum, referred
to, 3.Baur on the relation of Buddhism to Manichæism, [66]20, [67]21.Baur's
treatise on Manichæism, referred to, 4, [68]16, [69]20, [70]158,
[71]253.Beausobre's work on Manichæism referred to, 4, [72]31, [73]32, [74]33,
[75]34.Beauty, the, of the universe, a result of the corruption and destruction
of inferior things, [76]352 sq.Bema, the, of Mamchæus, [77]132 sq.Bersabee,
Uriah's wife, a type, [78]307 sq.Bilhah and Zilpah [79]293.Bindemann's treatise
on Augustin, referred to [80]29, [81]35.Biological blunders, [82]172.Birth of
Jesus, the, the absurd statement of Faustus respecting, [83]257 sq.Blasphemies,
Manichæan, concerning the nature of God, [84]360 sq.Blood, abstinence from,
[85]336.Blunders of school-boys illustrative of Manichæan errors about God,
[86]282 sq.Bodies of saints, nothing disgraceful in, [87]327.Body, of our
neighbor, duty of doing good to the, [88]55; the human, man's heaviest bond,
[89]53; God's handiwork, [90]267 sq.; and soul, the, [91]43.Böhringer quoted,
[92]32. [93]36.Breast, the, Manichæan symbol of, [94]86, etc.Broadus on Matthew,
referred to, [95]161.Buddhism, relation of to Manichæism, [96]20 sq.Buddhist
monks and the Elect of the Manichæans, [97]21.Burton on the Heresies of the
Apostolic Age referred to, [98]31.Caiaphas, his prophecy, [99]228.Cain, Abel's
offering preferred to the offering of, [100]185, [101]186; counselled by God,
[102]186; questioned by God respecting Abel, [103]135; cursed, [104]135,
[105]136; a mourner and an abject, [106]187; the mark set on,
[107]187.Calderwood's Mind and Brain, referred to, [108]137.Calf, the golden --
significance of the grinding to powder, and burning of, [109]310.Captivity, the,
of the Jews, [110]194, [111]195.Carpenter's Mental Physiology, referred to,
[112]137.Cataphrygians, [113]338.Cave, on the writing of Faustus criticized by
Augustin, [114]34.Chambers on Hermes Trismegistus, cited, [115]200.Christ, the
birth of, denied by the Manichæans, -- but defended, [116]177, [117]178,
[118]179, [119]180, [120]181-[121]183; knowing, after the flesh, what it means,
ibid.; types of, [122]186 etc., [123]190 etc.; prophecies of, [124]196 etc.;
plain prophecies of, [125]197; the death of, real, [126]209; did Moses write of?
[127]220 etc., [128]221 etc.; what Moses wrote of, [129]222 etc.; the Prophet
like to Moses, [130]225; never sought to turn Israel from their God, [131]229;
broke no command, [132]229; Manichæan notions of, [133]253 sq.; the power and
wisdom of, [134]255; curious statement of Faustus respecting, [135]257 etc.; why
descended from Zara of Tamar, [136]296; Son of David and Son of God, [137]314
sq.; son of Mary -- Faustus' objections refuted, [138]316 etc. [See Jesus.]
Christians, the Church not to be blamed for bad, [139]60 sq.; semi and pseudo,
[140]156; why Jewish laws are not observed by, [141]242 etc.; Jewish and
Gentile, their relation respectively to the law, [142]244 sq.; observe the moral
precepts of the law, [143]246; the morals of, [144]263 sq.Christianity,
Manichæan objections to, [145]22 sq.; relation of Manichæism to, [146]22
sq.Church, the Catholic, the perfect truth is to be found only in, [147]50; the
teacher of wisdom, [148]58; conspicuously visible, [149]204; the, identified by
Augustin with Christianity, and apostrophised, [150]58, [151]62.Chwolson on the
Sabeans and Sabeanism, referred to, 5.Cicero quoted, [152]271.Circumcision, a
prophecy of Christ, [153]134; why Christians do not practice, [154]242.Clean and
unclean food, [155]170, [156]172.Clement of Alexandria mentioned,
[157]69.Clergy, praise of the, [158]60.Cloud and pillar of fire, types,
[159]193.Coenobites and Anchorites, their abstinence as compared with that of
the Manichæans, [160]59 etc., [161]60 etc.Common report, [162]201.Compassionate,
[163]55.Compassion regarded by fools as degrading, [164]56.Constantius, a
reformed Manichæan, [165]165.Contrary nature urged by Fortunatus as the source
of sin, [166]120 sq.Corporeal natures all from God, [167]96.Corruption, [168]71;
counteracted by God, [169]71; evil is, [170]147; the source of, [171]147; comes
from nothing, [172]149; what it tends to, [173]149; is by God's permission, and
comes from us, [174]150; voluntary and penal, [175]352.Cosmogony of the
Manichæans, [176]11.Covetousness the root of all evils, [177]51.Cow dung used as
fuel, [178]81.Creating and forming, difference between, [179]71.Creature of God,
none evil, but to abuse a creature of God is evil, [180]359.Creatures made of
nothing, [181]356 sq.Criticism, biblical, the true, [182]178; unfair, of
Faustus, [183]314; subjective, of the Manichæans, [184]57 sq.Critics, childish,
severely censured, [185]282.Cruelty imputed by the Manichæans to the God of the
Old Testament, [186]276sq.; of the Manichæans in refusing to give food to others
than the Elect, and in compelling children belonging to their own sect to eat
immoderately, [187]83.Cultus of the Manichæans, [188]14.Cunningham's Hulsean
Lectures, referred to, 5, [189]29, [190]58.Cunningham on the relation of
Buddhism to Manichæism, [191]21."Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree,"
[192]207 sq.Curses, prophetic, [193]228.Cyprian referred to, [194]165.Cyril of
Jerusalem on the Manichæans, referred to, 4.Daniel's representation of the Son
of Man, [195]197.Darkness, the Manichæan kingdom of, [196]136; five natures in
the, [197]142; refutation of the theory of, [198]142, [199]143; the Manichæan
race of, [200]171.Darmstetter's Introduction to the Zend-Avesta, and article in
the Contemporary Review, referred to, [201]17, [202]18.David, his virtues and
his faults, [203]297 sq.; and Saul, [204]298; prophetic significance of the sin
of,. [205]307.Death, the effect of sin, [206]208; of Christ, the, a real death,
[207]209; without birth a possibility on the part of Christ, [208]320
sq.Decalogue, the, against the Manichæans, [209]215 etc.Deities, false,
[210]215.Demons have no power apart from God, yet they have been made evil, not
by God, but by sinning, [211]358.Diligence and piety both necessary for finding
the truth, [212]41.Discipline, [213]56; what it implies, [214]56.Disputations of
Augustin with the Manichæans, [215]34.Divorce, a bill of, [216]249 sq.; the law
of Christ respecting, [217]251.Docetism, [218]326 sq.; the, of Faustus,
[219]323, [220]326 sq.Dorner, A., his work on Augustin referred to,
[221]26.Dualism, [222]264 sq.; in the ancient Babylonian religion, 6 sq.Eating,
on the part of the Elect, a means of liberating the divine substance imprisoned
in vegetables and fruits, [223]85.Eclecticism with reference to the Old
Testament, attributed by Faustus to the Catholics, [224]332 sq.Edessa, Chronicle
of, referred to, [225]31.Egyptian, Moses killing the, [226]309.Egyptians,
spoiling the, [227]299 sq., [228]309.Elect, secrecy of the rites of the,
[229]114; Augustin's suggestion of shameful practices on the part of,
[230]114.Elijah, fed by ravens, etc., [231]194; the translation of -- Faustus'
objection to, answered, [232]320 sq., [233]322.Elisha, the miracles of,
[234]194.Enoch, [235]188.Ephraem Syrus, writings of, referred to, 3.Epiphanius
on the Manichæans, referred to, 4, [236]31.Er and Onan, sons of Tamar, types,
[237]306.Eschatology of the Manichæans, [238]15.Esnig, against Marcion and Mani,
referred to, 3.Esoteric doctrines among the Manichæans, [239]33.Ethics of the
Manichæans, [240]16.Eusebius on the Manichæans, referred to, 4, 8,
[241]31.Eutychius' Annales, referred to, 3.Evangelists, the authority of the,
[242]174.Everlasting punishment inconsistent with Augustin's view of evil,
[243]70.Evidence, the use of, [244]198.Evil beings may entice to sin without
themselves sinning, [245]106.Evil, corruption of measure, form, and order,
[246]352; did God institute it? [247]119 sq.; negativity of, [248]70 etc.;
simply defect of good, and so not of God, [249]100 sq.; what? first answer,
[250]69; second answer, [251]70; third answer, [252]71; not a substance but a
disagreement hostile to substance, [253]72 etc.; Manichæan fictions about,
[254]73, etc.; is corruption, [255]147; the source of, [256]147; origin of,
[257]281 sq. Evil and good, [258]270 sq.Evils attributed by the Manichæans to
the nature of God, before the supposed commingling with evil, [259]361 sq.; in
what sense from God, [260]149.Existence, true, belongs to God alone, [261]354
sq.Exodus, the, of Israel from Egypt, a type, [262]192."Eye for an Eye," etc.,
[263]248 sq.Fabricius' Bibliotheca Græca, referred to, [264]33.Faith, confounded
with orthodox doctrine by Augustin, [265]164; the Catholic proofs of,
[266]130.Fallaciousness of Mani's pretensions, [267]135 sq.Faustus the
Manichæan, who, [268]155; his praise of himself, [269]159; the hypocrisy of,
[270]165; would fail to satisfy an inquirer, [271]205, [272]206; his logic,
[273]230; his Docetism, [274]323, [275]326 sq.Fihrist, Kitab al, referred to, 3,
7, 8; et passim, cited, 9 sq., [276]21.Firdausi's Shahnameh, referred to,
3.First man, the, of the Manichæans, [277]157; different from Paul's, [278]157,
[279]178, [280]179.Flesh, knowing Christ after the -- refutation of Faustus
respecting the question, [281]177 sq., [282]180, [283]181, [284]182.Flood, the,
its symbolic import, [285]189.Fluegel on Mani, referred to, 5.Fly, the soul of
a, more excellent than light, [286]97.Food, distinction in, why Christians do
not practice, [287]242; reasons for abstaining from certain kinds of, [288]77;
clean and unclean, [289]170; various kinds of, prohibited in the Old Testament,
[290]335 sq.; the laws of Moses and of Christ respecting, [291]232.Forgiveness,
taught in the Old Testament, [292]250 sq.Form, an element of the good, [293]352
sq.Fortitude, [294]53; Scripture precepts respecting, and examples of,
[295]53.Fortunatus, the Manichæan, disputation against, [296]109 sq.;
confounded, [297]123.Free choice belonging to man before the fall,
[298]122.Fulfilling the law, what is means, [299]236 etc., [300]241
etc.Fulfillment of prophecy by Christ, [301]239 sq.Fundamental Epistle of Mani
quoted, [302]22; criticised by Augustin, [303]125 sq.; quoted, [304]361
sq.Gataker on the significance of Mani's name, [305]31.Genealogy of Christ,
objections of Faustus the Manichæan to, and reply, [306]159 sq., [307]173
etc.Gentiles, the, never under the Jewish law, [308]245 etc.; Christians accused
of retaining the manners of, [309]263.Genuineness of the New Testament writings,
how ascertained, [310]343.Gifts, spiritual, [311]267.Glorification of Christ,
the, [312]134.God, following, [313]44; the knowledge of, whence obtained,
[314]44; the chief good, [315]44; what the Church teaches about, [316]45,
[317]46; the one object of love, [318]46, [319]51; nothing better than, [320]46;
nothing can separate us from, [321]47; we are invited to, by love, [322]47; we
are joined inseparably to, by Christ and His Spirit, [323]47; we cleave to, by
love, [324]48; absurd Manichæan notions about, [325]79 etc., [326]139; has no
extension, [327]138; alone perfectly good, [328]147; nature made by, [329]149;
in what sense evils are from, [330]149; the belief in one, part of the original
truth, [331]261; the same who punishes and blesses, [332]174; the works of,
[333]266 etc.; the eternal light, and the source of light, [334]274 etc.;
astonished, [335]275; Old Testament representations of, vindicated, [336]275
sq.; jealous, [337]277 sq.; the omnipotence of, [338]322; the, of the Jews, how
Faustus speaks of, [339]237, [340]273; and Hyle, of the Manichæans, [341]264
sq., [342]272, [343]279 sq., [344]311 sq.; of this world, the, [345]264,
[346]268; declared by Augustin to be incorruptible, impenetrable and
incontaminable, against the Manichæans, [347]113 sq.; the author of whatever is,
[348]99; cannot suffer harm, [349]353, [350]359; if He could suffer no injury,
why did He send us hither? [351]122; is He pressed by necessity? [352]123;
Manichæan view of the mingling of the substance of with evil expounded by
Fortunatus and refuted by Augustin, [353]116 sq.; not defiled by our sins,
[354]357; unchangeable, [355]356.Godliness, form of without the power, [356]243
sq.Good, the chief, two conditions of, [357]42, [358]43; God the, [359]46,
[360]69; a two-fold, [361]70; exhortation to seek the, [362]150; and evil,
[363]270 sq.; doing, to our neighbor, [364]55, [365]56; nature of, [366]351 sq.;
present even in bodies that in comparison with better things are popularly
accounted evil, [367]353 sq.; the highest, God, [368]351 sq.; things from God
alone, [369]353, [370]357; things put by the Manichæans in the nature of evil,
[371]143 sq., [372]359 sq.Gospel, the, on what authority Augustin received
[373]131; what -- refutations of Manichæism respecting, [374]156,
[375]157.Gospels, the harmony of, [376]343 sq.Habit, the pernicious power of,
[377]121.Hagar and Sarah, [378]284.Hand, the, as a Manichæan symbol, [379]83
etc.Happiness, true, [380]42 etc.Hardouin's Councils, referred to, 4.Harmony,
the, of the Old and New Testaments, [381]44, [382]49, [383]55, [384]56; of the
Gospels, [385]343 sq.Harnack on the Acta Disputationis, referred to, 4; Art. on
Manichæism, referred to, 5, [386]17; quoted, [387]24; on the relation of
Buddhism to Manichæism, [388]21. Hebrew prophecy, [389]201.Hebrews and Pagans,
the difference between the worship of, [390]263.Hefele's Councils, referred to,
4.Heraclides, a Manichæan writer, [391]33.Heretics, better to restore than to
destroy, [392]129.Hermes Trismegistus, [393]200, [394]205.Hervey's work on
Genealogies referred to, [395]161.Hidden meanings the sweetest, [396]188.Hierax,
Commentary of mentioned, [397]33.Holy Spirit, Manichæan view of criticised by
Augustin, [398]257 sq.; the, when sent, [399]133; twice given,
[400]134.Hormizdas, king of Persia, [401]32.Hosea, commanded to take to him a
"wife of whoredoms," [402]304, [403]308.Hyde on the significance of Mani's name,
[404]31.Hyle, [405]253, [406]259; and God, [407]264 sq., [408]271 sq.; Faustus'
view of, [409]253; not evil, [410]354.Idolatry, the result of apostacy,
[411]261; did the Jews practice it? [412]263.Immoral practices of the
Manichæans, [413]87 sq., [414]362 sq.Incarnation, the Apostle Paul on, [415]177
sq.; of Christ, the, objection of Faustus to, [416]159, [417]316.Indirect
construction, instances of, [418]235.Indulgences, Manichæan, [419]166 sq.,
[420]330.Infants, sinfulness of, thought to be inconsistent with Augustin's
definition of sin, [421]104.Infinity of God, the, questions about,
[422]320.Inquirer, the heathen, how answered and instructed, [423]201-[424]203;
a difficulty of, met, [425]203; satisfied, [426]205.Inquisitiveness condemned in
Scripture, [427]52.Iras, [428]293.Isaac and Rebecca, [429]289.Jacob, sets up a
stone for a memorial pillar, [430]191; his vision of the ladder, [431]192; his
polygamy, [432]289 sq.; his wives, and the typical or symbolical meaning of,
[433]290 sq.Jericho the capture of, [434]193.Jesus, hanging from every tree,
[435]257; was He born of Mary? -- cavils of Faustus, [436]312 etc.; both Son of
David and Son of God -- Faustus refuted, [437]314 etc.; did He die? --
objections of Faustus refuted, [438]320 sq.; was He born? -- reply to Faustus,
[439]324; both the birth and death of, real, not illusory, [440]326 sq. [See
Christ.]Jesus patabilis, [441]158, [442]253.Jewish books, learning the Christian
faith from, [443]227; laws and observances -- why Christians do not observe,
[444]242 etc.; observed by Jewish, but not by Gentile Christians, [445]244
sq.Jews, the, typified by Cain, [446]186-[447]188; their unbelief foretold,
[448]203, [449]204.Joachim, a priest, alleged by Faustus to be the father of the
Virgin Mary, [450]313 sq., [451]315 sq.John of Damascus on the Manichæans,
referred to, 4.John the Baptist, [452]307.Joseph, a type, [453]192.Joshua and
Jesus, [454]226.Journal of the Asiatic Society, referred to, 3.Judah, the
blessing of, its prophetic import, [455]196; the incest of, with Tamar,
[456]295; and Judas, [457]296; the prophetic significance of his incest with
Tamar, [458]305 etc.Judaism, relation of Manichæism to, [459]21 sq.Judges, types
in the book of, [460]194.Justice towards God, [461]54.Kessler's list of Mani's
writings, referred to, [462]32; on the relation of Buddhism to Manichæism,
[463]21; works of, on Manichæism, referred to, 5."Kingdom of Heaven,"
[464]252.Kingdom of light, the Manichæan, [465]135 etc., [466]138.Ladder,
Jacob's vision of the, [467]192.Lardner referred to, [468]33, [469]34, [470]35,
[471]36.Latria, [472]262.Law, the,. not for Gentiles, [473]175 sq.; always good,
[474]218; the, and grace, [475]217; and the prophets, Jesus came not to destroy,
but to fulfill -- genuineness of the words, [476]234 etc.; why Christians do not
keep the, [477]192; Faustus' explanation of the words, [478]239 etc.; reply to
Faustus respecting, [479]241 etc., [480]242 etc.; and Judaism, distinguished
between by Faustus, [481]272 etc.; the eternal, [482]284.Leah and Rachel,
[483]290 sq.Lenormant's Ancient History, quoted, [484]17; Chaldean Magic,
referred to, 6.Lex talionis, the, [485]248 sq."Life, thy, thou shalt see
hanging," etc., [486]227.Light, God is, and the source of, [487]274 sq.; the
Manichæan kingdom of, [488]135 etc., [489]138.Loesche on Augustin's indebtedness
to Plotinus referred to, [490]26.Logic, the, of Faustus, [491]229,
[492]230.Lord's day, the, and Sunday, [493]238.Lot, and his daughters, [494]287
sq.; not equal to Abraham, Isaac or Jacob, [495]294 sq.Love, to God, [496]44; we
are united to God by, [497]47, [498]48; the fourfold division of, [499]48; the
guiding influence of, [500]50; of ourselves and of our neighbor, [501]55; the
teaching of the Old Testament as well as of the New, [502]56 sq.; to enemies,
[503]248 sq.Love-feasts, [504]261.Loving and hating, [505]248.Maccabees, heroism
of, to be imitated by Christians, [506]244.Man, what? [507]42; the chief good
of, [508]43; wholly created by God -- refutation of Faustus respecting, [509]316
sq.; fleshly and spiritual, [510]316 sq.Mandæism, relation of to Manichæism, and
to the old Babylonian religious system, [511]19 sq.Mandrakes, description of,
and the supposed virtues and typical import of; explained, [512]293 sq.Mani,
sketch of, 8 sq.; theology of, 9 sq.; cosmogony of, [513]10 sq,; anthropology
of, [514]12 sq.; soteriology of, [515]13 sq.; cultus of, [516]14 sq.;
eschatology of, [517]15 sq.; ethics of, [518]16; the exaltation of, by his
followers above Christ, shown by the attention which they bestow upon the
anniversary of his martyrdom, and their neglect of the anniversary of Christ's
death and resurrection, [519]132 sq.; name of, etymology of, [520]247; claims to
be an apostle -- the claim refuted, [521]130, [522]131 etc., [523]200; why he
called himself an apostle, [524]131; in what sense his followers believed him to
be the Holy Spirit, [525]132; the festival of the birthday of, [526]132;
promises truth but fails to fulfill his word, [527]134; wild fancies of,
[528]134, [529]135; the two substances of his kingdom of light, [530]135;
promises knowledge, [531]135, [532]136; his absurd fancy of a land and race of
darkness, [533]136; refutation of his absurd ideas of two territories, [534]138,
etc.; the number of natures in the system of, [535]140 etc.; his five natures in
the region of darkness -- refutation of the fiction, [536]142, [537]143; sworn
by, [538]247; derivation of the name, [539]247; which is, he or Matthew to be
believed? [540]325; versus the apostles, [541]331. Manichæan god, the, weak or
cruel, [542]159.Manichæism, how it attracted Christians, [543]23 sq.; later,
sketch of, [544]29; explained by Faustus, [545]252 etc.; exposed, [546]254
etc.Manichæans, and not Catholics, obedient to the precepts of the gospel,
maintained by Faustus and denied by Augustin, [547]162 sq.; the, two tricks of,
for catching the unwary, [548]41; the two gods of, [549]45; fictions of, about
things good and evil, [550]63 etc.; three moral symbols devised by, [551]74
etc., [552]83 etc., [553]86 etc.; fables of, about God, [554]75; the abstinence
of, [555]76; why they prohibit the use of flesh, [556]79 etc.; absurd tenets of,
relating to God, [557]79 etc.; views of, relating to souls, [558]82; notions of,
respecting marriage, [559]86; serious charges of immorality brought against,
[560]86-[561]89; to be gently dealt with, [562]129; their kingdom of darkness,
[563]136, [564]142, [565]143; worse than the Anthropomorphists, [566]139; the
first man of, [567]157; their perverse method of dealing with Scripture,
evidence in controversy, [568]178; the idolatry of, [569]210; impeached of great
errors and sins, [570]214 etc.; the Decalogue against, [571]216 etc.; beguiled
by the serpent, [572]218, [573]219; are tares, [574]238; the oath used by,
[575]247; the worship of, [576]255 sq., [577]260; the trinity of, [578]252,
[579]258; the two principles of, [580]270 etc.; the God of, [581]279 sq.,
[582]311 sq.; apocryphal gospels of, [583]303 sq.Mansi's Councils referred to,
4.Marcel, Mani's letter to, [584]33.Mark, the, set on Cain, [585]187.Marriage
allowed to the baptized by the apostles, [586]62, [587]63; among the Manichæans,
[588]86, [589]87; with sisters, [590]286.Married life, continence in,
[591]58.Marry, forbidding to, [592]328 etc., [593]330 etc.Martyrs, honors paid
to, [594]261 sq.; the numbers of, [595]301 sq.Mary, the Virgin, did she belong
to the tribe of Judah? -- assertion of Faustus, and refutation of the same,
[596]313 sq.Material substances not evil, but only seemingly so from their lack
of adaptation to certain constitutions and circumstances, [597]72 sq.Mattarians,
a Manichæan sect, [598]165.Matthew, the call of, [599]234 sq.; the genuineness
of the Gospel of, [600]325; or Manichæus which to be believed, [601]325
sq.Means, the use of, [602]286 sq.Meats and drinks, abstinence from, or the
reverse, [603]60, [604]61, [605]330.Measure, an element of the good, [606]352
sq.; belongs to things regarded as immoderately small or great, [607]355; in a
sense, suitable to God himself, [608]355.Menoch, Mani's letter to,
[609]33.Memory, [610]137.Milman's History of Christianity, referred to,
[611]31.Mind, is it diffused throughout the entire nervous system? [612]137; has
no material extension, [613]138; the, degraded by departing from God,
[614]47.Miracle and nature, [615]321 sq.Moral precepts of the Old Testament
observed by Christians, symbolical precepts, not, [616]177.Morality of the law
and the prophets, [617]272 sq.Months, origin of the names of, [618]238.Morals,
the, of the Christians, [619]263.Moses, the rod of, a type, [620]192; censured
by Faustus for using the word "cursed," and defended, [621]207, [622]208 etc.;
did he write of Christ? [623]219 etc., [624]221 etc.; is his law pure paganism?
[625]222 etc.; what he wrote of Christ, [626]222, [627]224 etc., [628]225 etc.;
like to Christ, [629]225; defended against Faustus, [630]225, [631]232; his
virtues; [632]298; slays the Egyptian, [633]299, [634]309; spoils the Egyptians,
[635]300, [636]309; slaughters the idolatrous Israelites, [637]304, [638]310;
burns and grinds to powder the golden calf, [639]310.Mouth, the, the value of
the Manichæan symbol of, [640]74, etc.Mozley's Ruling Ideas in Early Ages,
referred to, 5, [641]51, [642]107; quoted, [643]28.Mugtasila, a Babylonian sect
with which Mani was connected, 8.Muller, Max, his Sacred Books of the East,
referred to, [644]20.Murder, the Manichæans guilty of, in cutting plants,
[645]169.Mythology of the Pagans compared with that of the Manichæans, [646]55
sq.Nature, so far as it is nature, not evil, [647]354; every, as such, good,
[648]136; cannot be without good, [649]146; corruption is not, [650]147; made by
God, [651]148; and miracle, [652]321 sq.Natures corruptible, because made of
nothing, [653]353.Nazareans, [654]240, [655]246.Neander on the relation of
Buddhism to Manichæism, referred to, [656]20.Negativity of evil,
[657]150.Neighbor, the love of, [658]54 sq.; doing good to, [659]55
sq.Neo-Platonism, dependence of Augustin on, [660]25 sq., [661]48, [662]150.New
Testament, the Manichæan treatment of the, [663]332, [664]335.Nirvana, [665]20,
[666]21.Noah, and the ark, [667]188 sq.; age of, at the flood, [668]189; God's
covenant with, [669]190; his drunkenness, [670]190; conduct of the sons of,
[671]190.Non-resistance, [672]249.Obedience to the gospel, the Manichæan
representation of, [673]162 etc.; reply to Faustus' statement respecting,
[674]163 etc.; unavailing without faith, [675]164.Oblasinski on the
Acta-Disputationis, referred to, 4. Old man, the, and the news [676]51.Old
Testament, the, and the New, the harmony of, [677]45 etc., [678]49 etc.,
[679]56, [680]57, [681]301 sq.; Faustus' objections to, and charges against
answered, [682]161 etc., [683]167 etc., [684]175, [685]176 etc., [686]211 etc.,
[687]212 etc., [688]273 sq., [689]277 etc., [690]332 etc., [691]334 etc.; the
functions of, [692]335; the typical nature of, [693]335.Olive tree, the good,
[694]176.Omnipotence of God, the, [695]322.Only-begotten, the, of God,
[696]148.Ophitic Gnosticism, relation of to the old Babylonian religion and its
later sects, [697]19.Order an element of the good, [698]352 sq.Origin of evil,
the, [699]281 sq.Orpheus, [700]200, [701]205.Paganism, imputed to the Catholics
by Faustus, [702]253; the charge of, retorted, [703]254 etc.; Christians
vindicated from the charge of, [704]261, [705]263.Pain only in good natures,
[706]355.Paraclete, the claim of Mani, born of ordinary generation, to be the,
inconsistent with the Manichæan objection to the birth of Christ from the
Virgin, [707]132; Manichæus not the apostle of the, [708]131; when sent forth,
[709]133; the mission of the, [710]337; the promise of refers not to Manichæus,
[711]338; sent immediately after the resurrection of Jesus, [712]338.Partridge,
the, a type of heretics, [713]204.Passover, the, [714]193."Patience of Israel,
the," [715]205.Patriarchs, the, with all their faults, superior to the Manichæan
Elect, and even the Manichæan god, [716]282; Faustus' opinion of, [717]340;
defended against the attacks of Faustus, [718]342.Paul and Circumcision,
[719]245; did he change his opinions respecting Christ? [720]177 sq.; harmony of
his teaching, [721]180 sq.; the natural fierce energy of, made use of by God,
[722]299.Paul and Thecla, the apocryphal book of, referred to, [723]329.Paulinus
of Nola mentioned, [724]62.Pelagian controversy more congenial to Augustin's
mind than the Manichæan, [725]35.Pelagians use Augustin's anti-Manichæan
utterances against him, [726]102, [727]103 et passim.Pentecost,
[728]307.Perfection not attainable in this life, [729]58.Periods of the world,
six, [730]185 sq.Peter, [731]299.Petrus Siculus on the Manichæans, referred to,
4.Philo, his interpretation of Scripture, [732]195.Photius on the Manichæans,
referred to, 4.Plants, Manichæan view of the sacredness of the life of,
[733]84.Poets, pagan, fictions of, more respectable than those of the
Manichæans, [734]214 sq.Polygamy, [735]289, [736]290.Possidius' Life of
Augustin, referred to, [737]34.Power to do harm from God alone, [738]358.Prayer
of Augustin for the conversion of the Manichæans, [739]107.Pride the cause of
Manichæan error, [740]281.Principles, the two, of Manichæanism,
[741]270.Procreation of children regarded as one of the greatest of evils by the
Manichæans, [742]86 sq.Property allowed to believers by the apostles,
[743]62.Prophecies of Christ, [744]183, [745]196, [746]197; the fulfillment of,
its evidential power, [747]201.Prophecy, Hebrew, [748]199, [749]200.Prophecy,
relation of Christ to, [750]235 sq.Prophet, the, like unto Moses, [751]224
sq.Prophets, the Hebrew, and their prophecies respecting Christ, defended
against the assaults of Faustus, [752]183 etc.; [753]198, [754]199.Prostitution
condemned by divine and eternal law, [755]295.Prudence, [756]54.Punishment and
forgiveness of sins prerogatives of God, [757]357 sq.Punishment constituted for
the sinning nature that it may be rightly ordered, [758]353."Pure, all things
pure to the," [759]330 sq.Pusey's statements about Mani referred to,
[760]31.Rachel and Leah, [761]290-[762]295.Rationalism of the Manichæans,
[763]134.Raven and the dove, the, sent forth from the ark, [764]189.Reason, the
weakness of, in relation to God, [765]44.Record of faith, the,
[766]206.Religious life of the Manichæans described by Faustus,
[767]163.Repentance, the utility of, proves that the souls are not by nature
evil, [768]106.Report, common, [769]201.Resurrection of the dead, the,
[770]179.Rod of Moses, the, a type, [771]192.Rufinus, Consol, [772]113.Sabbath,
the Jewish, [773]168, [774]169, [775]230, [776]231; why not binding on
Christians, [777]243.Sabeanism, relation of to Manichæism and to the old
Babylonian religion, [778]19.Sacraments, the, of the Old Testament, [779]544; of
the Old Testament and the New, [780]244 sq.; relation of Gentile and Jewish
Christians to the Old, [781]245 sq.Sacrifice, the true one, and imitations of,
[782]260.Sacrifices of the Old Testament, [783]169, [784]170; typical, [785]238,
[786]277.Sadder, the book, cited, [787]16.Sallust, referred to, [788]76.Samson
and the lion, [789]193 sq.Sapor, King of Persia, [790]32.Sarah, her conduct
towards Hagar, [791]284; Abraham's denial of, as his wife, [792]285; and
Abraham, types, [793]286, etc.Sassanian inscriptions, 9.Saturn, the fetters of,
[794]238.Saul, [795]296 sq.Schaff's History referred to, 3.Schism, as explained
by Faustus, [796]235, [797]253.Schneckenburger's criticism of Baur, 5.Scriptural
authority, [798]180.Scriptures, the, authority of, [799]57, [800]239; Manichæan
mode of dealing with, in controversy, [801]178; and other good books, [802]180;
the record of faith, [803]206; how the record of the deeds of evil men in, is to
be regarded, [804]295 sq.; the principle of interpretation to be applied to,
[805]310 sq.; all, profitable, [806]311; Faustus would subject the, to himself,
not be subject to, [807]339;the genuineness of, [808]342 sq. Sect and schism,
[809]253.Secundinus, Augustin's estimate of his reply to the letter of,
[810]35.Seed, vegetable and animal, the nature of God in, liberated by being
eaten by the Elect, [811]363 sq.Shew-bread, [812]194.Self-denial, Catholic,
[813]165, [814]166.Semi-Christians and pseudo-Christians, [815]156.Sensible
objects, not to beloved, [816]51, [817]52.Serpent, the brazen,
[818]193.Sibylline books; [819]200, [820]205.Signacula, the three, [821]16,
[822]74 sq.Simon Magus, [823]243, [824]290.Sin only from the will, [825]101 sq.;
definition of, [826]103; not apart from free will, [827]120 sq.; the relation of
Adam's posterity to, [828]121; what is it? [829]283; not from God, but from the
will of those sinning, [830]357; not the striving for an evil nature, but the
desertion of a better, [831]358.Socrates' History referred to, [832]31.Solomon,
[833]304.Son of God begotten, not made [834]356; of David and Son of God, Christ
the, denied by Faustus, [835]313, etc.; proved against Faustus, [836]314,
etc.Soteriology of the Manichæans, [837]13.Soul, the chief good of man, [838]43;
obtains virtue by following after God, [839]44; of our neighbor, duty of doing
good to the, [840]56; sinned and therefore is miserable, [841]122; the, nature
of the rational, [842]148; has no material form, and is present in every part of
the body, [843]136, [844]137; has no material extension, [845]138; and body,
[846]43; virtue gives perfection to, [847]43.Souls, absurd Manichæan notions
respecting, [848]82 etc., [849]83 etc.; two, treatise on, [850]95 sq.; can have
their existence from God alone, [851]95 sq.; that are called evil by the
Manichæans, being capable of intellectual perception, are better than any object
of perception, [852]96 sq.; supposed complaint of against the Manichæan God for
involving them in endless misery, without necessity, and apart from their own
will, [853]117 sq., [854]120.Spontaneous generation, supposed cases of,
[855]85.Star of the Magi, the; [856]157, [857]158.Stars, Manichæan superstition
regarding the, [858]158.Stercutio, a Roman demi-god, [859]72.Stokes' art, Manes
and Manichæans, referred to, 5, [860]29.Subjective method of dealing with
Scripture practiced by the Manichæans, [861]178.Sulpicius Severus mentioned,
[862]62.Sun worship on the part of the Manichæans, denied by Faustus, [863]252
sq.; the, Manichæan worship of, explained by Faustus, [864]252 etc.; absurd
statements of Faustus exposed, [865]254.Sunday, and the Lord's day,
[866]238.Swearing, [867]247 sq.Symbolical nature of the Old Testament, [868]167
sq.Symbolic precepts of the Old Testament, [869]167, [870]168.Symbols, three
moral, devised by the Manichæans, [871]74 etc., [872]83 etc., [873]86 etc.;
material, visible speech, [874]244.Tables of stone, the, [875]213,
[876]214.Tamar and Judah, [877]295 sq.; a type, [878]306 sq.Teacher, the Great,
[879]147.Temperance, the duties of, [880]51.Thecla, Paul and, [881]329.Theodicy
of Augustin incomplete, [882]282.Theology of the Manichæans, [883]10."Thieves
and Robbers," all who came before me are -- who? [884]223.Thomas, how taught by
Jesus, [885]234; apocryphal story of, [886]304.Tiele's Outlines of the History
of Religion, quoted, [887]17.Titus of Bostra on the Manichæans, referred to,
4.Trechsel on the Canon, Criticism, and Exegesis of the Manichæans, referred to,
5.Trinity, the, [888]49; absurd views of Faustus respecting, [889]252, [890]258;
Fortunatus' profession of belief in, [891]114.Truth, how to be sought,
[892]130.Turanian dualism, 6.Turkestan, the refuge of Mani, [893]32.Turpitudes
in God imagined by the Manichæans, [894]362 sq.Two men, the witness of,
[895]223.Two territories, Manichæan theory of, refuted, [896]138.Type and
testimony, [897]173.Types, Adam and Eve, [898]186; Cain and Abel, [899]186; the
ark, [900]188; the flood, [901]189; the raven and dove, [902]190; Noah's
drunkenness, [903]190; Noah's sons, [904]190; Abraham and Isaac, [905]191; the
angel wrestling with Jacob, [906]191; Jacob's stone, [907]191; Jacob's ladder,
[908]192; Joseph, [909]192; the rod of Moses, [910]192; the Exodus, [911]192; in
the wilderness, [912]193; the conquest of Jericho, [913]193; events during the
time of the Judges, [914]193; events in the time of the Kings, [915]194; the
Church, in captivity, and the return from captivity, [916]194, [917]195; must be
acknowledged, [918]195; sacrifices, [919]236; other observances besides
sacrifices, [920]242; fulfilled in Christ, [921]242 etc.; actions and persons,
[922]305; Judah's incest, [923]305 etc.; Tamar, Er, and Onan, [924]306 sq.;
David's crime, [925]307; Solomon, [926]308; various, [927]335 sq.Typical
actions, it is of no consequence whether they are good or bad, [928]305.Unclean
and clean food, [929]170, [930]172.Uriah the Hittite, [931]308.Vanity of the
world, the, [932]52Varanes, king of Persia, [933]32.Vices, as objects of
intellectual apprehension, better than light which is perceived by sense,
[934]97 sq.Virginity, Pagan and Christian, [935]262.Virtue, Augustin's use of
the word, [936]46; gives perfection to the soul, [937]44; the fourfold division,
[938]48, [939]54. Wars, the real evils of, [940]301 sq.; ordered by God,
[941]301 sq.Wegnern on Manichæan Indulgences, referred to, 5.Wilderness, the,
typical occurrences in, [942]193.Wilson, of Bombay, on the Parsis, referred to,
[943]36.Williams, Monier, Indian Wisdom, quoted, 5.Wine, the old and the new,
[944]81; the Manichæan and the Catholic views of, [945]258.Wisdom, [946]50;
identified with Christ, [947]50 etc.Witness, the, of two men, [948]223.Words, on
what the value of depends, [949]306.Works of God, the, [950]266.World, the, to
be despised, [951]51, [952]52; the vanity of, [953]52.World-bearer of the
Manichæans, [954]255.Youths and maidens sent by God to entice the female and
male princes of darkness -- immoral tendency of such fables, [955]254, [956]362
sq.Zacagni's Collectanea, referred to, [957]34.Zend-Avesta, quoted,
[958]18.Zilpah and Bilhah, [959]293.Zittwitz on the Acta Disputationis, referred
to, 4.Zodiac, connection of the Manichæan worship with, [960]14.Zoroastrianism,
relation of to Manichæism, [961]16 sq.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 435: INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
========================================================================

INDEX OF SUBJECTS. Aaron, [962]469, [963]591-[964]593. Aaron's sons, [965]444.
Abel, [966]422. Abiram, [967]444, [968]528. Abitini (Avitini), [969]507.
Abraham, [970]422, [971]461, [972]527, [973]534, [974]537, [975]552, [976]563,
[977]579, [978]622, [979]628. Abraham's seed, [980]534, [981]535, [982]538,
[983]547, [984]548, [985]550. Absalom, [986]645. Absentius, [987]520. Academics,
[988]606, [989]607. Acesius, [990]440.Adam, [991]421, [992]647.Adelphius, bp. of
Thasbalte, [993]497.Adrumetum (Hadrumetum), [994]484.Africa, [995]426, [996]431,
[997]433, [998]436, [999]437, [1000]450, [1001]483, [1002]496, [1003]526,
[1004]527, [1005]528, [1006]531, [1007]543, [1008]545, [1009]550, [1010]555,
[1011]577, [1012]591, [1013]595, [1014]598, [1015]600, [1016]608, [1017]622,
[1018]627, [1019]638, [1020]642, [1021]644, [1022]645, [1023]650.African,
[1024]524, [1025]544, [1026]588, [1027]595, [1028]608, [1029]609, [1030]615,
[1031]622, [1032]628.Africa Proconsularis, [1033]505, [1034]506, [1035]507.Aggya
(Aggiva, Aga), [1036]507.Agrippinus, bp. of Carthage, [1037]425, [1038]430,
[1039]431, [1040]432, [1041]436, [1042]437, [1043]440, [1044]446,
[1045]450.Ahab, [1046]578, [1047]647.Alleluia (Liturgical), [1048]570.Amen
(Liturgical), [1049]570.Ammacura (Bamacorra), [1050]496.Anastasius, bp. of Rome,
[1051]561.Ammedera, [1052]496.Antichrist, [1053]445, [1054]456, [1055]485,
[1056]488, [1057]493, [1058]504, [1059]507, [1060]510.Antonianus,
[1061]449.Apollos, [1062]521, [1063]552, [1064]617, [1065]624,
[1066]625.Archives, [1067]524, [1068]527, [1069]538, [1070]579, [1071]581,
[1072]608, [1073]615, [1074]626, [1075]627.Arianism, [1076]581,
[1077]649.Arians, [1078]633.Arius, [1079]442, [1080]633, [1081]650.Arles,
[1082]487.Asher, [1083]421.Assuras (Assavæ), [1084]433, [1085]507, [1086]523,
[1087]524.Augustin, [1088]411, [1089]425, [1090]438, [1091]460, [1092]472,
[1093]473, [1094]475, [1095]476, [1096]487, [1097]490, [1098]492, [1099]493,
[1100]519, [1101]522, [1102]530, [1103]539, [1104]584, [1105]596, [1106]600,
[1107]601, [1108]603, [1109]604, [1110]608, [1111]616, [1112]619, [1113]621,
[1114]651.Aurasius, Mt., [1115]484.Aurelius, bp. of Chullabi, [1116]501,
[1117]509.Aurelius, bp. of Utica, [1118]501.Ausafa, [1119]508.Ausuaga,
[1120]503.Aymnius, bp. of Ausuaga, [1121]503.Badiæ, [1122]489.Bagai (see Council
of), [1123]643.Banto, [1124]608.Baptism:can be given outside, [1125]411,
[1126]412, [1127]424.apostates retain, [1128]411, [1129]412.retained by
schismatics and. heretics, [1130]412, [1131]446, [1132]489, [1133]502,
[1134]512.profit of, only in the Church, [1135]413, [1136]441, [1137]447.
[1138]509, [1139]514, [1140]527.rightly received only in Catholic Church,
[1141]413, [1142]483, [1143]484, [1144]488, [1145]489, [1146]505,
[1147]647.exists, but not rightly received among Donatists, [1148]413.sin of
receiving it outside, [1149]414.each Donatist sect claims the true,
[1150]415.relation to sonship, [1151]417.relation to remission of sins,
[1152]419, [1153]440, [1154]441, [1155]450.grace of may continue with constant
sin, [1156]420.temporary experience of grace by wicked, [1157]420.in view of
death, [1158]420.not property of man, but Christ, [1159]424, [1160]438,
[1161]440, [1162]454, [1163]484, [1164]501, [1165]502, [1166]545, [1167]550,
[1168]554, [1169]613, [1170]615.universal administration and reception,
[1171]430.required by the Church for admission to her altar,
[1172]434.unbaptized left to the mercy of God, [1173]434.water of, not polluted
by man, [1174]439, [1175]440, [1176]473.relation of doctrinal belief to,
[1177]441, [1178]442, [1179]457, [1180]458.made valid by the formula, [1181]442,
[1182]495, [1183]530.not corruptible by men, [1184]447.as administered by the
evil within and without, [1185]448, [1186]483, [1187]485.distinction between
rite and grace of, [1188]448, [1189]449-[1190]462, [1191]472, [1192]474,
[1193]475, [1194]476, [1195]505, [1196]507, [1197]510, [1198]532.relation of the
bad within and the bad without, to, [1199]451-[1200]460.relation of character of
ministrant and recipient to, [1201]453, [1202]456, [1203]457, [1204]474,
[1205]481, [1206]490, [1207]506, [1208]520, [1209]521, [1210]522, [1211]531,
[1212]551, [1213]554, [1214]590, [1215]595, [1216]601, [1217]602,
[1218]622.formula of, [1219]449, [1220]456, [1221]487, [1222]495, [1223]545,
[1224]550, [1225]591, [1226]616, [1227]620, [1228]623.for salvation within the
Church, for judgment without, [1229]453, [1230]454, [1231]480, [1232]507.martyr,
[1233]458, [1234]542, [1235]543.water of, not adulterous among heretics,
[1236]458.penitent thief not baptized with water, [1237]460, [1238]461,
[1239]462.infant, [1240]461, [1241]462, [1242]589.exists outside of unity,
[1243]464.not invalidated by heretics, [1244]464.not justly or lawfully
possessed by heretics, [1245]466, [1246]504.equality of, [1247]469.not to be
repeated, [1248]469.the same everywhere, [1249]470.Noachic, [1250]477,
[1251]478.untruth of among heretics, [1252]484, [1253]485, [1254]503.rite not
lost by sin, [1255]486.threefold nature of, [1256]487, [1257]488.unsanctified
water of, [1258]491.by the dead, [1259]494, [1260]523.water of compared with
rivers of Paradise, [1261]501.as one, not two, [1262]503, [1263]508, [1264]545,
[1265]546.necklace of the Bridegroom, [1266]503.Marcion s, [1267]504.lawfully
given only in the Church, [1268]503, [1269]508.validity of mock, [1270]512,
[1271]513.validity of all, [1272]513. as to way of cleansing one ignorantly
polluted, [1273]520.by wicked ministrant most desirable according to Donatists,
[1274]522, [1275]523, [1276]619, [1277]620, [1278]621.Christ alone given of
grace, [1279]531.relation to origin, head and root, [1280]531, [1281]617,
[1282]622, [1283]623, [1284]624.truth or falsity of Catholic, [1285]545,
[1286]546, [1287]547.meaning of formula, [1288]550, [1289]551.three grades of
consecration, [1290]547-[1291]550.water of guilty, abandoned by the Holy Spirit,
[1292]589.recognition of Donatist, [1293]595.how cleanse one baptized by a
defiled but unknown conscience? [1294]604 sqq.ministrant to be examined,
[1295]609.if dependent on man, is a glorying in man, [1296]609,
[1297]610.perished from the world through the traditors, [1298]616.requires both
the rite and the gospel, [1299]626.man not the justifier, but God
[1300]646.Barjesus, [1301]616.Basilica, [1302]433, [1303]525, [1304]540,
[1305]564, [1306]579, [1307]582, [1308]615, [1309]643.Beatitudes,
[1310]565-[1311]567.Bede, [1312]427.Bilta, [1313]483.Bingham, [1314]460.Bizica
Lucana (see Buslaceni).Bobba (Obba), [1315]503.Boniface, [1316]633, [1317]635,
[1318]651.Bulla (Vulla), [1319]506.Burug (Buruc, Borca), [1320]494.Buslacene
(Cussaceni, Bizica Lucana, Byzacium), [1321]439, [1322]507.Byzacium (Byzacene)
the ecclesiastical province, [1323]487, [1324]493, [1325]495, [1326]497,
[1327]499. [1328]501, [1329]502, [1330]503, [1331]504, [1332]505, [1333]507,
[1334]508, [1335]509.Byzacium, the capital (see Buslacene).Cabarsussum,
[1336]433.Cæcilian, [1337]534, [1338]536, [1339]545, [1340]578, [1341]598,
[1342]608, [1343]623, [1344]634, [1345]635, [1346]636, [1347]637,
[1348]639.Cæcilius, bp. of Bilta, [1349]483.Caiaphas, [1350]547.Cain,
[1351]422.Calama, [1352]588, [1353]626.Caldonius, [1354]473.Canaanite,
[1355]647.Canon, as to holy orders of penitents, [1356]649.Capse,
[1357]507.Caracalla, [1358]578.Carneades, [1359]606.Cartenna,
[1360]572.Carthage, [1361]412, [1362]426, [1363]433, [1364]510, [1365]578,
[1366]634, [1367]635, [1368]639.Cassianus, [1369]586, [1370]587.Cassius, bp. of
Macomades, [1371]492, [1372]493.Castus, by of Sicca, [1373]438.Castra Galbæ,
[1374]486.Catechumen, [1375]441, [1376]459, [1377]460, [1378]624.Catholic:he is,
who intended to be though baptized outside, [1379]413.denial of remission to
Donatist baptism, [1380]19.some things not Catholic within the Church,
[1381]508.traditors, [1382]500, [1383]506, [1384]527, [1385]532, [1386]535,
[1387]538, [1388]541, [1389]542, [1390]547, [1391]548, [1392]552, [1393]563,
[1394]569, [1395]574, [1396]589, [1397]591, [1398]594, [1399]599,
[1400]626.persecutors, [1401]527, [1402]534, [1403]535, [1404]536, [1405]537,
[1406]539, [1407]541, [1408]566, [1409]568, [1410]570, [1411]571,
[1412]587.ordination denied by Donatists, [1413]538.meaning of, [1414]554,
[1415]555.spiritual adultery of, [1416]563.covetousness, [1417]564, [1418]587,
[1419]588, [1420]646.recognition of Donatist ordination, [1421]648.relation to
Cyprian, [1422]411, [1423]436.commendation of good in all outside and correction
of differences, [1424]420.denial of baptism as Donatist property,
[1425]421.Donatists deny to have baptism, [1426]465, [1427]525,
[1428]527.restoration of errant by imposition of hands, [1429]492.prays for
Donatist, [1430]519.dead through traditors, [1431]525, [1432]532,
[1433]533.charges Donatist with schism only, [1434]528.is a betrayer and
deceiver, [1435]538.is apostate and rejected, [1436]539.should imitate Saul, the
persecutor, [1437]541.is without peace, [1438]542.is defiled through traditors,
[1439]544, [1440]589.gives martyr baptism to the Donatists, [1441]542.baptism
only an imitation, [1442]547.seeks conversion of Donatists, [1443]554.accused of
falsehood, [1444]563.is a violator of God's laws, [1445]564, [1446]565.uses only
the sword of the Spirit, [1447]566, [1448]567.accused of Phariseeism,
[1449]567.is without charity, [1450]569.denies being traditor, [1451]585.does
not order the use of civil power, [1452]585.receives Donatists by fellowship,
[1453]595.recognized Donatists from outset, [1454]650.Cedias, [1455]488.Charity,
as note of the Church, [1456]417, [1457]423, [1458]424, [1459]425, [1460]426,
[1461]443, [1462]444, [1463]445, [1464]452, [1465]458, [1466]481, [1467]482,
[1468]499, [1469]500, [1470]511, [1471]562, [1472]569, [1473]570.Chrism,
sacrament of, [1474]592.Christ:as baptizing with the Spirit,
[1475]504.significance of His life, [1476]553.sole object of faith,
[1477]617.(see under Baptism, Church, etc.)Christian, regenerate yet sinful,
[1478]647.Chullabi (Cululi), [1479]509.Church:the fruitful root,
[1480]405.recognizes what is good outside, [1481]416, [1482]446, [1483]498,
[1484]504, [1485]547.the healer, [1486]416.one only and Catholic,
[1487]417.alone possesses effects of baptism, [1488]419, [1489]420.characters
illustrating it, [1490]421.antiquity of, [1491]421.historical struggle between
carnal and spiritual, [1492]421.mother of the good, [1493]422.African,
[1494]423, [1495]650. statutes of universal, [1496]426.purism, [1497]429,
[1498]476, [1499]502, [1500]542.admits rebaptized after penance,
[1501]434.perpetuity, [1502]436.alone binds and looses, [1503]443.no gifts
outside of, [1504]444.commixture, [1505]417, [1506]448, [1507]452, [1508]455,
[1509]456, [1510]477, [1511]485, [1512]490, [1513]492, [1514]511, [1515]546,
[1516]555, [1517]570, [1518]598, [1519]627.compared with Paradise, [1520]447.bad
outside of, and bad inside distinguished, [1521]451-[1522]455, [1523]460.the
great house, [1524]455, [1525]511, [1526]512.wicked, although members, have no
part in, [1527]458.Roman, [1528]475, [1529]561.true membership figuratively set
forth, [1530]477, [1531]490, [1532]493, [1533]502, [1534]503, [1535]509,
[1536]511.true purgation of, [1537]479, [1538]480.holy, [1539]480.contamination
theory, [1540]500, [1541]501, [1542]506, [1543]513, [1544]514, [1545]543,
[1546]544, [1547]550, [1548]551, [1549]555, [1550]556, [1551]614,
[1552]615.Bride of Christ, [1553]506.built on the rock, [1554]507, [1555]508,
[1556]595:the body of Christ, [1557]511.not hidden, [1558]548,
[1559]549.Ephesian, [1560]561.Jerusalem, [1561]561.where to be found,
[1562]562.owner of all property, [1563]564, [1564]644.the Head of,
[1565]617.purification of, gradual, [1566]647.dispenser of justification by
Christ, [1567]647.(See under Baptism, Catholic Charity, Peace, Toleration,
Unity, Universality.)Cibaliana (Cybaliana), [1568]505.Cicero,
[1569]606.Circumcelliones, [1570]528, [1571]537, [1572]540, [1573]541,
[1574]555, [1575]559, [1576]565, [1577]570, [1578]573, [1579]574, [1580]575,
[1581]576, [1582]580, [1583]582, [1584]586, [1585]633, [1586]637, [1587]638,
[1588]639, [1589]640, [1590]643, [1591]648.Cirta (see Constantina), [1592]519,
[1593]626.Clarus, bp. of Mascula, [1594]509.Clergy:many reprobate, [1595]510,
[1596]511.orders among, [1597]614.corrupt morals among, [1598]615.relation to
sacraments, [1599]625, [1600]626.Commixture (see Church).Conference, of
Carthage, [1601]488, [1602]635, [1603]644, [1604]647.Confessions of Augustin,
[1605]604.of Milan, [1606]432.Conscience, freedom of, [1607]572, [1608]573,
[1609]574.Constantina (see Cirta), [1610]487, [1611]520, [1612]527, [1613]588,
[1614]615, [1615]627.Constantine, emperor, [1616]440, [1617]487, [1618]580,
[1619]581, [1620]582, [1621]587, [1622]608, [1623]635.Constantius, emperor,
[1624]579, [1625]582.Contamination (see Church).Conversions,
[1626]645.Cornelius, the centurion, [1627]416, [1628]460, [1629]484,
[1630]541.Correction:vindicated, [1631]526, [1632]571-[1633]575, [1634]583,
[1635]584, [1636]635 sqq., [1637]639, [1638]640.merciful intent of, [1639]587,
[1640]588.Scripture proofs, [1641]636, [1642]637, [1643]642.difference of view
among Catholics at first, [1644]642, [1645]643.intended to restrain violent
Donatists, [1646]643.without capital punishment, [1647]643.many conversions,
[1648]644.duty of, for salvation, [1649]645, [1650]646.seeks to bring back those
who have stamp of King, [1651]648.aims to impart life, [1652]648.the treatise
on, [1653]651.(see Persecution.)Council:African, [1654]416, [1655]439,
[1656]450.Arles, [1657]431, [1658]432, [1659]442, [1660]580, [1661]636.authority
of, [1662]427.of Bagai, [1663]412, [1664]415, [1665]430, [1666]432, [1667]433,
[1668]437, [1669]523, [1670]524, [1671]525, [1672]526, [1673]532, [1674]538,
[1675]557, [1676]561, [1677]613, [1678]615, [1679]650.Cabarsussis, [1680]412.of
Carthage, Agrippinus, Cyprian, etc., [1681]425, [1682]426, [1683]427, [1684]429,
[1685]431, [1686]432, [1687]436, [1688]437, [1689]438, [1690]450, [1691]460,
[1692]478, [1693]479, [1694]481, [1695]499, [1696]506, [1697]612,
[1698]643.Cirta, [1699]487.Constantinople, 5th oecum., [1700]634.Donatist
traditor, [1701]500.Hippo, [1702]604.Milevis, [1703]486.Nice, [1704]423,
[1705]427, [1706]430, [1707]431, [1708]432, [1709]436, [1710]439, [1711]440,
[1712]449, [1713]450, [1714]465, [1715]471, [1716]472, [1717]474, [1718]479,
[1719]480, [1720]483, [1721]496, [1722]505, [1723]507, [1724]513.Plenary, of
whole world, [1725]416.Rome, [1726]580, [1727]635, [1728]650.Sirmium,
[1729]457.Covenant:old and new, [1730]421, [1731]422.Cresceas, bp. of Cirta,
[1732]487.Cretan prophet, [1733]547.Crispinus, bp. of Calama, [1734]573,
[1735]588.Cuiculi, [1736]508.Cussaceni (see Buslacene).Custom, [1737]430,
[1738]507, [1739]509.(see Rebaptism.)Cutzupitani (Cutzupitæ), [1740]595.Cyprian,
bp. of Carthage, [1741]411, [1742]423, [1743]424, [1744]425, [1745]426,
[1746]427, [1747]428, [1748]429, [1749]430, [1750]431, [1751]432, [1752]434,
[1753]436, [1754]437, [1755]438, [1756]439, [1757]440, [1758]443, [1759]444,
[1760]445, [1761]446, [1762]447, [1763]448, [1764]449, [1765]450, [1766]451,
[1767]452, [1768]454, [1769]455, [1770]456, [1771]458, [1772]459, [1773]463,
[1774]464, [1775]465, [1776]468, [1777]471, [1778]472, [1779]473, [1780]474,
[1781]475, [1782]476, [1783]477, [1784]478, [1785]479, [1786]480, [1787]481,
[1788]483, [1789]484, [1790]485, [1791]487, [1792]489, [1793]491, [1794]492,
[1795]495, [1796]496, [1797]497, [1798]498, [1799]499, [1800]500, [1801]501,
[1802]502, [1803]503, [1804]504, [1805]505, [1806]506, [1807]507, [1808]508,
[1809]511, [1810]512, [1811]513, [1812]514. Cyprian, bp. of Chubursicubur,
[1813]613.Daniel, [1814]447, [1815]555, [1816]577, [1817]584, [1818]585,
[1819]593, [1820]635, [1821]640.Darius, [1822]640.Dathan, [1823]422, [1824]444,
[1825]528.Dativus, bp. of Badiæ, [1826]489.David, [1827]548, [1828]558,
[1829]560, [1830]591, [1831]612, [1832]645, [1833]649.Decius, emperor,
[1834]578, [1835]581.Demetrius, bp. of Lesser Leptis, [1836]497.Diagoras,
[1837]606.Digest of acts of the conference, [1838]635.Diocletian, emperor,
[1839]578, [1840]581.Dionysiana, [1841]503.Discipline, necessity of, [1842]598,
[1843]599.Domitian, emperor, [1844]578, [1845]581.Donatists:appeal to Cyprian,
[1846]411, [1847]427, [1848]428, [1849]432.points of agreement and disagreement
with Catholics, [1850]412.guilty of schism and separation, [1851]413, [1852]414,
[1853]500, [1854]520, [1855]527, [1856]534, [1857]538, [1858]545, [1859]548,
[1860]568, [1861]583, [1862]586, [1863]588, [1864]628.can confer baptism but not
rightly, [1865]414.internal schisms, [1866]415, [1867]433.the genuine,
[1868]415.refuted by receiving Maximianists, [1869]415, [1870]433, [1871]437,
[1872]529, [1873]615, [1874]650.claims to be the Catholic Church, [1875]418,
[1876]556, [1877]557, [1878]563, [1879]564.claim power of remission,
[1880]418.wrong to condemn unknown sins, [1881]421.lack charity,
[1882]421.theory of the perishing of the church, [1883]428, [1884]429,
[1885]430, [1886]463.no communion with apostolic churches, [1887]428, [1888]530,
[1889]561.traditors, [1890]429, [1891]626, [1892]627.no ground for separation,
[1893]429.their self-will, [1894]429, [1895]430, [1896]432.rebaptism refuted by
recognizing Maximianist baptism, [1897]430, [1898]465, [1899]466, [1900]523,
[1901]524.contamination theory refuted, [1902]432, [1903]437, [1904]513,
[1905]514.exhorted to return, [1906]433-[1907]435.theory of purism, [1908]437,
[1909]524, [1910]527, [1911]530, [1912]531, [1913]538, [1914]555, [1915]556,
[1916]558, [1917]559, [1918]589, [1919]592, [1920]593, [1921]594,
[1922]647.appeal to the state, [1923]437, [1924]563, [1925]573, [1926]579,
[1927]643.traditor charge unproved, [1928]437, [1929]524, [1930]534,
[1931]535.cause vacated by non-rebaptism of returning heretics,
[1932]463.leaders written to by Augustin, [1933]519.are persecutors, [1934]523,
[1935]525, [1936]528, [1937]537, [1938]538, [1939]540, [1940]541, [1941]562,
[1942]563, [1943]575, [1944]576, [1945]635, [1946]640, [1947]642, [1948]643,
[1949]644.charge that Catholics are dead refuted by Maximianist return,
[1950]525, [1951]532.not in communion with universal church, [1952]526,
[1953]562.conceal their books from Catholics, [1954]526.are slanderers,
[1955]527, [1956]536, [1957]548, [1958]589, [1959]635.shun debate,
[1960]530.deny the Scriptures, [1961]533.as martyrs, [1962]533, [1963]534,
[1964]543, [1965]560, [1966]567, [1967]575, [1968]576, [1969]577, [1970]637,
[1971]638, [1972]645.affect prophecy, [1973]536.deny Catholic ordination,
[1974]538.are limited in numbers and place, [1975]538, [1976]555, [1977]557,
[1978]558.recognize baptism as given by Optatus, [1979]546.require absolute
purity of priesthood, [1980]547, [1981]593, [1982]594.protest against Catholic
seeking, [1983]554.contemn Catholic baptism as Judas's baptism, [1984]557.views
of Catholic priesthood, [1985]560.condemn all nations unjustly,
[1986]566.profess to love the Catholics, [1987]569.claim to be followers of the
persecuted Apostle, [1988]569.violate parables, [1989]570, [1990]597,
[1991]598.are heretics, [1992]569, [1993]585.accuse world of being the tares,
[1994]577.complain falsely about persecution, [1995]585.appeal to Julian,
[1996]586, [1997]587.charged with covetousness, [1998]588.in Rome, [1999]595.in
Spain, [2000]595.ready to listen to slanders, [2001]602.use regular formula,
[2002]623.as to belief in the Trinity, [2003]633.history of their schism,
[2004]634, [2005]635.reject the baptism of apostolic churches, [2006]639.receive
wholesome compulsion, [2007]642.deny their own acts, [2008]645.Donatulus, bp. of
Capse, [2009]507.Donatus, bp. of Carthage, [2010]411, [2011]413, [2012]414,
[2013]415, [2014]416, [2015]417, [2016]425, [2017]428, [2018]432, [2019]433,
[2020]436, [2021]500, [2022]521, [2023]524, [2024]526, [2025]528, [2026]536,
[2027]537, [2028]538, [2029]541, [2030]555, [2031]563, [2032]567, [2033]570,
[2034]574, [2035]587, [2036]588, [2037]595, [2038]596, [2039]598, [2040]600,
[2041]602, [2042]608, [2043]622, [2044]623, [2045]625, [2046]633, [2047]634,
[2048]638, [2049]639, [2050]646, [2051]650.Donatus, bp. of Casæ Nigræ,
[2052]650.bp. of Cibaliana, [2053]505.the martyr, [2054]578.Egypt, [2055]447,
[2056]501, [2057]502, [2058]604.Elijah, [2059]468, [2060]540,
[2061]579.Emeritus, [2062]572.Enoch, [2063]422.Envy, Cyprian's treatise,
[2064]451, [2065]452.Esau, [2066]418, [2067]421, [2068]422, [2069]470.Eucharist,
[2070]483, [2071]543.Eucratius, bp. of Theni, [2072]495.Eugenius, bp. of
Ammedera, [2073]496.Eunomius, [2074]442, [2075]650.Euphrates,
[2076]490.Eusebius, [2077]573.Exorcism, [2078]483, [2079]496, [2080]497,
[2081]562. Ezekiel, [2082]446, [2083]593.Faustinus, [2084]573.Faustus, bp. of
Timida Regia, [2085]505.Felicianus, bp. of Musti, [2086]412, [2087]415,
[2088]433, [2089]466, [2090]523, [2091]525, [2092]532, [2093]561, [2094]573,
[2095]615.Felix, bp. of Ammacura, [2096]496.bp. of Bagai, [2097]488.bp. of
Buslacene, [2098]439, [2099]507.bp. of Gurgites, [2100]508.bp. of Maruzana,
[2101]503.bp. of Migirpa, [2102]485.bp. of Uthina, [2103]494.Firmiani,
[2104]572, [2105]573.Firmus, [2106]574.Foreknowledge, [2107]448,
[2108]478.Foreordination, [2109]448.Forgiveness, [2110]501.(See Remission of
Sins under Baptism.)Fortunatus, [2111]588, [2112]615.Fortunatus, Catholic bp. of
Constantina, [2113]520.bp. of Thuccabori, [2114]489.Furius, [2115]606.Furni,
[2116]505.Garra (see Gor).Garriana, [2117]501.Gaul, [2118]615.Gazaufala
(Gazophyla), [2119]509.Gemelli, [2120]510.Geminius, bp. of Furni,
[2121]505.Gerba, [2122]487.Germaniciana nova, [2123]502.Geta, [2124]578,
[2125]581.Gildo, [2126]433, [2127]523, [2128]543, [2129]546, [2130]550,
[2131]554, [2132]573, [2133]583, [2134]589.Gor (Gorduba), Garra,
[2135]501.Gorduba (see Gor).Gurgites, [2136]508.Gyrnmarcelli (see
Marcellianus).Hadrumetum, [2137]507.Hagar, [2138]422, [2139]636, [2140]637.Ham,
[2141]422.Hearers (among Manichæans), [2142]604.Heathen, [2143]648.Heliogabalus,
[2144]578.Heresy:has none of the notes of the Church, [2145]493.in relation to
forgiveness, [2146]501.no power to loose or bind, [2147]503.adultery,
[2148]503.synagogue of Satan, [2149]506.of the Devil, [2150]506.Antichrist,
[2151]507.has baptism but to destruction, [2152]509.necessary, [2153]633,
[2154]634.Hermes Trismegistus, [2155]498.Hezekiah, [2156]640.Hippo, [2157]519,
[2158]573, [2159]588.Hippo Diarrhytus (Hippozaritus), [2160]508.Hippo Regius,
[2161]488.Hippozaritus (see Hippo Diarrhytus)Holiness, relation to innocence,
[2162]559, [2163]560.Holy Spirit:of discipline, [2164]419.received only in the
Church, [2165]442, [2166]443, [2167]475, [2168]548, [2169]650.flees deceit,
[2170]475, [2171]546, [2172]610, [2173]611, [2174]613.sin against, [2175]564,
[2176]565, [2177]633, [2178]650, [2179]651.abandons water of the guilty,
[2180]589.sign but not reality outside of the Church, [2181]651.Honoratus, bp.
of Tucca, [2182]439, [2183]509.Honorius, bp. of Milevis, [2184]615.Horreæ Celiæ
(Cæliæ), [2185]507.Hortensianus, bp. of Lares, [2186]492.Hostanes,
[2187]498.Iambus, bp. of Germaniciana, [2188]502.Imposition of hands, Holy
Spirit given by, [2189]442.Irenæus, bp. of Ululi, [2190]505.Isaac, [2191]421,
[2192]422, [2193]461.Isaiah, [2194]612.Ishmael, [2195]418, [2196]421,
[2197]422.Israel, [2198]647.Jacob, [2199]421, [2200]422.Jacob's sons,
[2201]418.Jader, bp. of Midila, [2202]502.James, head of the church at
Jerusalem, [2203]561.Januarius, [2204]573, [2205]625.bp. of Lambæse, [2206]486,
[2207]493.bp. of Muzuli, [2208]497.bp. of Vicus Cæsaris, [2209]493.Jeremiah,
[2210]442, [2211]590, [2212]612.Jezebel, [2213]577.Job, [2214]560,
[2215]593.John, [2216]419, [2217]473, [2218]483, [2219]488, [2220]509,
[2221]510, [2222]547, [2223]593, [2224]594, [2225]612.as head of the church at
Ephesus, [2226]561.the Baptist, [2227]461, [2228]469, [2229]470, [2230]530,
[2231]542, [2232]549, [2233]550, [2234]553, [2235]578, [2236]610, [2237]612,
[2238]613, [2239]626.John's baptism, [2240]461, [2241]462, [2242]463, [2243]468,
[2244]469, [2245]470, [2246]626.Christ's submission to, [2247]467.repeated by
Apostles, [2248]551, [2249]552.different from Christ's, [2250]553,
[2251]554.Josiah, [2252]640.Jubaianus, [2253]426, [2254]432, [2255]434,
[2256]436, [2257]437, [2258]438, [2259]439, [2260]440, [2261]444, [2262]446,
[2263]447, [2264]462, [2265]463, [2266]481, [2267]482, [2268]487, [2269]510,
[2270]511.Judas, the betrayer, [2271]422, [2272]466, [2273]506, [2274]533,
[2275]535, [2276]539, [2277]542, [2278]543, [2279]556, [2280]557, [2281]559,
[2282]560, [2283]593, [2284]613.Julian, emperor, [2285]573, [2286]580,
[2287]581, [2288]582, [2289]587.Julianus, bp. of Telepte, [2290]505.bp. of
Marcelliana, [2291]507.Junius, [2292]474.Junius, bp. of Neapolis,
[2293]510.Justification, obtained only in the church, [2294]647.King, defender
of the faith, [2295]578.helper of church, [2296]579, [2297]580.as persecutor and
corrector, [2298]584, [2299]585.coerces as part of loyalty to Christ,
[2300]640.of Nineveh, [2301]640.Korah, [2302]444, [2303]528.Lactantius,
[2304]606.Lamasba, [2305]508.Lambæse, [2306]486, [2307]493.Lares, [2308]492.Law,
of God as known by Satan, [2309]560.Laws, imperial, [2310]526, [2311]559;
[2312]642, [2313]646.new, [2314]644.proconsular, [2315]525.of Theodosius,
[2316]643.Leah, [2317]422.Leptis, lesser, [2318]497.magna, [2319]510.Liberalis,
[2320]474.Libosus, bp, of Vaga, [2321]439, [2322]495.Litteus, bp. of Gemelli,
[2323]510.Liturgy, Alleluia, q. v.amen, q. v.consecration of water, [2324]547,
[2325]548.chant, [2326]546.Gothic, [2327]584.Lord's prayer, [2328]422,
[2329]561, [2330]591, [2331]647.Lotophagitis, [2332]487.Lucianus, bp. of Rucuma,
[2333]502. Lucifer, bp. of Calaris, [2334]649.Lucilla, [2335]595.Lucius, bp. of
Ausafa, [2336]508.bp. of Castra Galbae, [2337]486.bp. of Membresa, [2338]506.bp.
of Thebaste, [2339]496.Macarians, [2340]555, [2341]556, [2342]558.Macarius,
[2343]536, [2344]555, [2345]556, [2346]558, [2347]578, [2348]580, [2349]582,
[2350]583, [2351]608.Maccabees, [2352]533, [2353]534, [2354]577,
[2355]580.Macedonius, [2356]650.Macomades, [2357]492.Mactaris (Macthari),
[2358]499.Magnus, [2359]482, [2360]510.Manichæans, [2361]528, [2362]601,
[2363]604, [2364]608.Manichæus, [2365]528, [2366]539.Maranus,
[2367]484.Marazana, [2368]503.Marcelliana (Gyrnmarcelli), [2369]507.Marcellinus,
[2370]578.Marcellus, bp. of Zama, [2371]504, [2372]505.Marcianus, bp. of Arles,
[2373]487.Marcion, [2374]442, [2375]504.Marcionist, [2376]504.Marculus,
[2377]536, [2378]541, [2379]576.Marcus, bp. of Mactaris, [2380]499,
[2381]500.Martyrdom, [2382]458, [2383]460, [2384]543. (See under Baptism and
Donatists.)Mascezel, [2385]433.Mascula, [2386]509.Massylii, [2387]487.Matthias,
[2388]533, [2389]539.Mauritania Cæsariensis, [2390]426, [2391]472, [2392]484,
[2393]488, [2394]497, [2395]501, [2396]503, [2397]506, [2398]507, [2399]572,
[2400]573.Maximian, emperor, [2401]578, [2402]581.Maximianists, [2403]412,
[2404]415, [2405]430, [2406]432, [2407]433, [2408]437, [2409]465, [2410]513,
[2411]523, [2412]524, [2413]525, [2414]526, [2415]528, [2416]529, [2417]532,
[2418]538, [2419]540, [2420]542, [2421]557, [2422]558, [2423]563, [2424]564,
[2425]573, [2426]613, [2427]615, [2428]639, [2429]650.Maximianus, [2430]412,
[2431]415, [2432]430, [2433]432, [2434]433, [2435]523, [2436]525, [2437]532,
[2438]538, [2439]557, [2440]558, [2441]563, [2442]564, [2443]573, [2444]613,
[2445]615, [2446]639, [2447]650.Catholic bp. of Bagai, [2448]643.Maximus,
[2449]473, [2450]474.emperor, [2451]608.Megalius, bp. of Calama,
[2452]604.Membresa, [2453]506.Meninx, [2454]487.Mensurius, [2455]578,
[2456]608.Mesopotamia, [2457]447.Messianus, [2458]608.Midila (Midili),
[2459]502.Migirpa (Misgirpa), [2460]483.Milan, [2461]432 [2462]608.Mileum
(Milevis, Mileve), [2463]488.Miracles, [2464]443, [2465]562.Monasticism,
[2466]616.Monnulus, bp. of Girba, [2467]487.Montenses, [2468]595.Mopsuesta,
[2469]634.Moses, [2470]421, [2471]552, [2472]590.Moses's son, [2473]461.Musti,
[2474]433, [2475]466, [2476]523, [2477]524, [2478]525.Muzuli (Muzuca),
[2479]497.Naboth, [2480]647.Natalis, bp. of Oëa, [2481]510.Natalitia,
[2482]543.Nathanael, [2483]444.Nazarenes, [2484]499.Neapolis,
[2485]510.Neapolitanus, sinus, [2486]484.Nebuchadnezzar, [2487]583, [2488]584,
[2489]636, [2490]640.Nemesianus, bp. of Tubunæ, [2491]484, [2492]485.Nero,
emperor, [2493]578, [2494]581.Nicodemus, [2495]434.Nicolaus,
[2496]453.Nicomedes, bp. of Segermi, [2497]487.Noah, [2498]422, [2499]477,
[2500]593.Nova, [2501]506.Novatian, [2502]440, [2503]487.Novatus, bp. of
Thamugadis, [2504]484.Numidia, [2505]426, [2506]431, [2507]433, [2508]484,
[2509]486, [2510]487, [2511]488, [2512]489, [2513]492, [2514]494, [2515]496,
[2516]502, [2517]504, [2518]505, [2519]507, [2520]508, [2521]509, [2522]510,
[2523]524.Obba (see Bobba).Octavos, [2524]509.Optatus, a bishop of Augustin's
day, [2525]635.bp. of Milevis, [2526]433, [2527]578.bp. of Thamugadis
(Gildonianus), [2528]433, [2529]523, [2530]524, [2531]525, [2532]528, [2533]531,
[2534]543, [2535]544, [2536]545, [2537]546, [2538]550, [2539]551, [2540]554,
[2541]555, [2542]557, [2543]567, [2544]573, [2545]583, [2546]589, [2547]591,
[2548]616.Paraclete (Petilian), [2549]519.Paradise, [2550]447, [2551]490,
[2552]496, [2553]501, [2554]502, [2555]536.Parmenian, [2556]411.Passover,
[2557]553.Paul, [2558]418, [2559]425, [2560]426, [2561]439, [2562]441,
[2563]445, [2564]450, [2565]451, [2566]452, [2567]454, [2568]455, [2569]458,
[2570]459, [2571]467, [2572]469, [2573]480, [2574]483, [2575]484, [2576]497,
[2577]499, [2578]503, [2579]504, [2580]505, [2581]511, [2582]521, [2583]529,
[2584]530, [2585]541, [2586]547, [2587]552, [2588]554, [2589]562, [2590]563,
[2591]569, [2592]581, [2593]593, [2594]598, [2595]604, [2596]609, [2597]617,
[2598]619, [2599]622, [2600]623, [2601]624, [2602]625, [2603]626, [2604]641,
[2605]642, [2606]644.Paul, bp. of Bobba, [2607]503.Peace as note of the church,
[2608]426, [2609]444, [2610]491, [2611]538, [2612]638.Pelagianus, bp. of
Luperciana, [2613]502.Persecution, suffering of, as note of the church:what
constitutes, [2614]540.done by the chaff in the church, [2615]541.God opposed
to, [2616]571, [2617]575.kings as inflicting, [2618]577.a putting confidence is
man, [2619]586.church should suffer not inflict, [2620]636.apostles did not
inflict, [2621]640.opposed to liberty of belief, [2622]641.(See under Catholic
Church, Correction, Donatist.)Persians, [2623]582.Peter, [2624]425, [2625]426,
[2626]427, [2627]434, [2628]439, [2629]443, [2630]447, [2631]450, [2632]454,
[2633]460, [2634]480, [2635]499, [2636]505, [2637]540, [2638]556, [2639]576,
[2640]587, [2641]613, [2642]641, [2643]649.Peter, bp. of Diarrhytus,
[2644]508.Petilian, bp. of Cirta, [2645]519, [2646]520, [2647]530, [2648]539,
[2649]545, [2650]556, [2651]593, [2652]595, [2653]596, [2654]604, [2655]614,
[2656]621. Pharaoh, [2657]579.Pharisees, [2658]454, [2659]561, [2660]563,
[2661]568.Philip, [2662]434, [2663]532, [2664]559, [2665]612.Philus, L. Furius,
[2666]606.Photinus, [2667]457, [2668]650.Pilate, [2669]547, [2670]578.Pilus,
[2671]606.Plato, [2672]498.Polianus, bp. of Mileum, [2673]488.Polycarp, bp. of
Adrumetum, [2674]484.Pompeius, [2675]463, [2676]474. [2677]475, [2678]482,
[2679]504.Pomponius, bp. of Dionysiana, [2680]503.Pontius, [2681]580, [2682]586,
[2683]587.Possidius, [2684]596, [2685]604.Praetextatus, bp. of Musti, [2686]412,
[2687]433, [2688]466, [2689]523, [2690]525, [2691]615.Priesthood:righteousness
as well as office necessary, [2692]547.Donatist, [2693]593.Primacy:apostolic
superior to episcopal, [2694]426.in Peter, [2695]426, [2696]480, [2697]499,
[2698]561.Primian, [2699]412, [2700]416, [2701]433, [2702]466, [2703]523,
[2704]524, [2705]525, [2706]541, [2707]613.Privatianus, bp. of Sufetula,
[2708]491, [2709]492.Protagoras, [2710]606.Pudentianus, bp. of Cuiculi,
[2711]508.Punic, [2712]502.Pusillus, bp. of Lamasba, [2713]508.Quidias (Quiza),
[2714]488.Quietus, bp. of Burug, [2715]494.Quintus, [2716]425, [2717]463,
[2718]472, [2719]474, [2720]482.bp. of Aggya, [2721]507.Quodvultdeus,
[2722]611.Rachel, [2723]422.Rebaptism:impious to rebaptize those in unity,
[2724]412, [2725]464.catholics oppose in every case, [2726]412, [2727]413,
[2728]419.esblishediAfrica by councils and by influence of Agrippinus and
Cyprian, [2729]423, [2730]425, [2731]426, [2732]429, [2733]431, [2734]440,
[2735]450, [2736]466, [2737]479, [2738]483 sqq.plenary council (Nice) opposes,
[2739]427, [2740]430, [2741]431, [2742]449, [2743]465, [2744]479, [2745]480,
[2746]483, [2747]497, [2748]505, [2749]507.Maximianists received without,
[2750]430, [2751]433, [2752]526, [2753]613, [2754]615.Cyprian's mistake (see
Cyprian), [2755]430, [2756]431.opposed by custom and tradition, [2757]431,
[2758]436, [2759]438 sqq., [2760]449, [2761]450, [2762]465, [2763]472,
[2764]475, [2765]479, [2766]483, [2767]495, [2768]500, [2769]506.fate of those
who returned to the church but were not rebaptized, [2770]438,
[2771]464.catholics, falling into heresy, and returning, were not rebaptized,
[2772]440, [2773]487, [2774]507.Novatian rebaptized Catholics,
[2775]440.relation to imposition of hands, [2776]444.as to the bad within and
the bad without, [2777]449, [2778]450, [2779]473, [2780]488, [2781]489;
[2782]493, [2783]494, [2784]502-[2785]510, [2786]513.disliked, by schismatics
themselves, [2787]465.natural shrinking from, [2788]465.to be denied even to
those deserving it, [2789]465.argument for, from rebaptism of John's disciples,
[2790]468, [2791]470.opposed by Stephen, [2792]476.only for heretics outside who
return, [2793]487.relation to purism, [2794]489, [2795]502.necessary, because
heretics do not possess and cannot give the Holy Ghost, [2796]489.based on
commixture, [2797]492.question between truth and custom, [2798]495, [2799]496,
[2800]509.based on character of ministrant, [2801]494, [2802]531.on the ground
of the one water, [2803]496, [2804]497.on bases of unity of God and the Church,
[2805]497, [2806]502, [2807]503, [2808]507, [2809]508.necessary, because
heretics are worse than heathen, [2810]497, [2811]498.relation to forgiveness,
[2812]501.relation to non-fellowship, [2813]502, [2814]504, [2815]509,
[2816]510.necessary, that heretics may not do unlawful things,
[2817]504.relation to doctrine, [2818]504, [2819]507.rite and grace to be
distinguished [2820]508.necessary, that heretics may not condemn the church at
the judgment, [2821]509.the way to true communion, [2822]510.relation to origin,
root and head, [2823]521, [2824]531.is sin against baptism as Christ's,
[2825]546, [2826]595.Circumcelliones are not subjected to, [2827]568.Rebecca,
[2828]422.Remission of sins, (see under Baptism, and Rebaptism).Resurrection,
[2829]619.Rogatianus, [2830]586, [2831]587.bp. of Nova, [2832]506.Rogatus, bp.
of Cartenna, [2833]572.Romanus, [2834]608.Rome, [2835]595, [2836]635.Rucuma,
[2837]502.Rusiccade (Rusicadia), [2838]507, [2839]626.Sabrati,
[2840]510.Sacraments:not man's but Christ's, [2841]439, [2842]454.fruit of, not
outside of the Church, [2843]443, [2844]615, [2845]616.not polluted,
[2846]455.celebrant does not affect recipient of, [2847]455.as rite and as
grace, [2848]479.of Old and New Testament, [2849]552, [2850]553.Salvianus, bp.
of Gazaufala, [2851]509.Sarah, [2852]422, [2853]636, [2854]637.Satambei (see
Thambei).Satan, [2855]534, [2856]535, [2857]536, [2858]538.Satius (Sattius) bp,
of Sicilibba, [2859]501.Saturn, [2860]532.Saturninus, [2861]473, [2862]474.bp.
of Abitini, [2863]507.bp. of Tucca, [2864]504.bp. of Victoriana, [2865]504.Saul
(see Paul).Schism:Scripture warnings against, [2866]418.Scripture persons
illustrating, [2867]418.is hatred of the brethren, [2868]419.the evil in the
Church, belongs to, [2869]422.the mother of the bad, [2870]422.severe punishment
of, [2871]417, [2872]429, [2873]444.compared to adultery, [2874]445,
[2875]446.no salvation for, [2876]465, [2877]545. sacrilege, [2878]505.warnings
against, [2879]599.Scripture, misquoted by Donatists, [2880]564,
[2881]565.Secundianus, bp. of Thambei, [2882]509.Secundinus, bp. of Carpis,
[2883]493.bp. of Cedias, [2884]488.Sedatus, bp. of Turburbo, [2885]490.Segermi,
[2886]487.Separation (see Schism).Seranus, [2887]573.Severus, emperor,
[2888]578.Sicca, [2889]438, [2890]495.Siciliba, [2891]501.Silvanus, [2892]527,
[2893]578, [2894]626, [2895]627.Simeon, [2896]568.Simon Magus, baptism of,
[2897]417, [2898]418, [2899]419, [2900]422, [2901]443, [2902]453, [2903]460,
[2904]485, [2905]527, [2906]532, [2907]541, [2908]558, [2909]590, [2910]612,
[2911]616.Sirmium, [2912]457.Sitifa, [2913]635.Sodom, [2914]415.Sodomities,
[2915]498.Solomon, [2916]484, [2917]494.Spain, [2918]595.Splendonius,
[2919]615.Stephen, bp. of Rome, [2920]411, [2921]474, [2922]475, [2923]476,
[2924]487, [2925]504.Successus, bp. of Abbir Germaniciana, [2926]489,
[2927]490.Sufes, [2928]491, [2929]492.Sufetula, [2930]491.Susannah,
[2931]543.Synod, African, [2932]563.Cabarsussum, [2933]433.Syrtis, Lesser,
[2934]487.Taurinus, [2935]608.Telepte (Thelepte), [2936]505.Tenax, bp. of Horrea
Celiæ, [2937]507.Terrence, [2938]606, [2939]641.Tertullus, [2940]604.Thabaca,
[2941]494.Thamogade (Thamugadis), [2942]433, [2943]484.Thambei (Thambi,
Satambei), [2944]509.Thapsus, [2945]507.Tharassa, [2946]439, [2947]505.Thasbalte
(Thasvalthe), [2948]497.Thebaste (Thebeste), [2949]496.Theni,
[2950]495.Theogenes, bp, of Hippo Regius, [2951]488.Therapius, bp. of Bulla,
[2952]506.The Three Children, [2953]584, [2954]585, [2955]636.Theodorus of
Mopsuesta, [2956]634.Theodosius, [2957]433. [2958]642.Thibari (Tabora),
[2959]497.Thubursicubur, [2960]613.Thuccabori (Tucca Terebrinthina),
[2961]489.Tichonius (Tychonius), [2962]411.Timida Regia, [2963]505.Timothy,
[2964]569, [2965]593.Tingitana, [2966]503.Tinisa (Thinisa),
[2967]503.Toleration, as a note of the Church, [2968]426, [2969]428, [2970]432,
[2971]437, [2972]471, [2973]482, [2974]489, [2975]502, [2976]503, [2977]504,
[2978]505, [2979]507, [2980]510, [2981]513, [2982]525, [2983]569,
[2984]598.Tradition, value of apostolic, [2985]430.Traditor (see under Catholic
and Donatists), [2986]500, [2987]501, [2988]506, [2989]599.Trajan, emperor,
[2990]484, [2991]578, [2992]581.Trinity (see formula of, under Baptism),
[2993]495, [2994]550.Tripolis, [2995]487, [2996]497, [2997]510.Tubunæ,
[2998]484, [2999]485.Tucca (Thucca), [3000]439, [3001]502, [3002]509.Ululi
(Ullita, Vallita), [3003]515.Unity as a note of the Church:doctrine of,
[3004]416, [3005]528, [3006]627, [3007]646.exemplified by Cyprian, [3008]423,
[3009]424, [3010]426, [3011]428, [3012]434, [3013]436, [3014]474, [3015]480,
[3016]506.exemplified by Peter, [3017]426.the one Dove, [3018]443.exemplified by
Stephen, bp. of Rome, [3019]475.not to be broken, [3020]552.would embrace the
Donatists, [3021]566.no righteousness outside of, [3022]648.Universality as a
note of the Church, [3023]414, [3024]506, [3025]524, [3026]527, [3027]533,
[3028]534, [3029]537, [3030]538, [3031]547, [3032]548, [3033]554, [3034]555,
[3035]556, [3036]557, [3037]568, [3038]574, [3039]575, [3040]583, [3041]598,
[3042]599, [3043]600, [3044]622, [3045]627, [3046]628, [3047]634,
[3048]635.Ursacius, [3049]578, [3050]582, [3051]583.Urthina, [3052]494.Vaga,
[3053]439, [3054]495.Valens, emperor, [3055]581.Valentinus, [3056]442,
[3057]504.Valerian, emperor, [3058]578, [3059]581.Vallita (see Ululi).Varius
(Heliogabalus), [3060]578.Venantius, bp. of Tinisa, [3061]503.Verulus, bp. of
Rusiccade, [3062]507.Veterans, German, [3063]502.Victor, bp. of Assuras,
[3064]507.bp. of Gor, [3065]501.bp. of Octavus, [3066]509.Victoriana,
[3067]504.Victoricus, bp. of Thabraca, [3068]494.Vicus Cæsaris,
[3069]493.Vincentius, bp. of Cartenna, [3070]572.bp. of Thibari, [3071]497.Vulla
(see Bulla).Worship, is as character of worshipper, [3072]561.Zacharias,
[3073]498, [3074]536.Zenophilus, [3075]578, [3076]627.Zeugitana, [3077]426,
[3078]483, [3079]489, [3080]490, [3081]493, [3082]494, [3083]495, [3084]502,
[3085]505, [3086]506, [3087]507, [3088]508, [3089]524.Zosimus, bp. of Tharassa,
[3090]439, [3091]505.


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/writings-in-connection-with-the-donatist-controversy/
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