A Treatise — Concerning — The Correction of the Donatists; Forming Epistle 185 in Migne’s Edition of Augustine’s Works
A LETTER OF AUGUSTINE1173 TO BONIFACE, WHO, AS WE LEARN FROM EPISTLE 220, WAS TRIBUNE, AND AFTERWARDS COUNT IN AFRICA. IN IT AUGUSTINE 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.
CHAP. I.—1. I must express my satisfaction, and congratulations, and admiration, my son Boniface, 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 is actually a part of your military valour to serve in truth the faith which is in Christ. To place, therefore, briefly before your Grace the difference between the errors of the Arians and the Donatists, the Arians say that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are different in substance; whereas the Donatists do not say this, but acknowledge the unity of substance in the Trinity. And if some even of them have said that the Son was inferior to the Father, yet they have not denied that He is of the same substance; whilst the greater part of them declare that they hold entirely the same belief regarding the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost as is held by the Catholic Church. Nor is this the actual question in dispute with them; but they carry on their unhappy strife solely on the question of communion, and in the perversity of their error maintain rebellious hostility against the unity of Christ. But sometimes, as we have heard, some of them, wishing to conciliate the Goths, since they see that they are not without a certain amount of power, profess to entertain the same belief as they. But they are refuted by the authority of their own leaders; for Donatus himself, of whose party they boast themselves to be, is never said to have held this belief.
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, whilst 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 recognise Christ together with us in that which is written, “They pierced my hands and my feet. I may 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 recognise 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.”1174 They recognise 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 recognise 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.”1175 They recognise 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 recognise 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.”1176 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;”1177 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,1178 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.1179 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.”1180 The Lord said by the mouth of 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.”1181 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.”1182 The Lord said by His apostle, “The gospel is come unto you, as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit.”1183 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 unto the uttermost part of the earth.”1184 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.
Chap. ii.—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,1185 finding that they could not crush Cæcilianus, they brought him in person before the above-named emperor for trial, in the most determined spirit of persecution. And so they were themselves the first to do what they censure in us, in order that they may deceive the unlearned, saying that Christians ought not to demand any assistance from Christian emperors against the enemies of Christ. And this, too, they did not dare to deny in the conference which we held at the same time in Carthage: nay, they even venture to make it a matter of boasting that their fathers had laid a criminal indictment against Cæcilianus before the emperor; adding furthermore a lie, to the effect that they had there worsted him, and procured his condemnation. How then can they be otherwise than persecutors, seeing that when they persecuted Cæcilianus by their accusations, and were overcome by him, they sought to claim false glory for themselves by a most shameless lie; not only considering it no reproach, but glorying in it as conducive to their praise, if they could prove that Cæcilianus had been condemned on the accusation of their fathers? But in regard to the manner in which they were overcome at every turn in the conference itself, seeing that the records are exceedingly voluminous, and it would be a serious matter to have them read to you while you are occupied in other matters that are essential to the peace of Rome, perhaps it may be possible to have a digest1186 of them read to you, which I believe to be in the possession of my brother and fellow-bishop Optatus; or if he has not a copy, he might easily procure one from the church at Sitifa; for I can well believe that even that volume will prove wearisome enough to you from its lengthiness, amid the burden of your many cares.
7. For the Donatists met with the same fate as the accusers of the holy Daniel.1187 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,”1188 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.1189 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.”1190 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;1191 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?1192 Surely there is an essential difference, not in respect of his suffering, but because he suffered for righteousness’ sake. And the Lord Himself was crucified with two thieves;1193 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 distinguish1194 my cause from an ungodly nation.”1195 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;”1196 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 handmaid. 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 handmaid.1197 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.”1198 If, therefore, we wish either to declare or to recognise 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, endeavour 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 endeavours to deliver them from that destruction, so that none of them should die, so their madness endeavours 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.
Chap. iii.—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 preservation of unity. But those who know what they were accustomed to do before the passing of the laws, do not wonder at their deaths, but call to mind their character; and especially how vast crowds of them used to come in procession to the most frequented ceremonies of the pagans, while the worship of idols still continued,—not with the view of breaking the idols, but that they might be put to death by those who worshipped them. For if they had sought to break the idols under the sanction of legitimate authority, they might, in case of anything happening to them, have had some shadow of a claim to be considered martyrs; but their only object in coming was, that while the idols remained uninjured, they themselves might meet with death. For it was the general custom of the strongest youths among the worshippers of idols, for each of them to offer in sacrifice to the idols themselves any victims that he might have slain. Some went so far as to offer themselves for slaughter to any travellers whom they met with arms, using violent threats that they would murder them if they failed to meet with death at their hands. Sometimes, too, they extorted with violence from any passing judge that they should be put to death by the executioners, or by the officer of his court. And hence we have a story, that a certain judge played a trick upon them, by ordering them to be bound and led away, as though for execution, and so escaped their violence, without injury to himself or them. Again, it was their daily sport to kill themselves, by throwing themselves over precipices, or into the water, or into the fire. For the devil taught them these three modes of suicide, so that, when they wished to die, and could not find any one whom they could terrify into slaying them with his sword, they threw themselves over the rocks, or committed themselves to the fire or the eddying pool. But who can be thought to have taught them this, having gained possession of their hearts, but he who actually suggested to our Saviour Himself, as a duty sanctioned by the law, that He should throw Himself down from a pinnacle of the temple?1199 And his suggestion they would surely have thrust far from them, had they carried Christ, as their Master, in their hearts. But since they have rather given place within them to the devil, they either perish like the herd of swine, whom the legion of devils drove down from the hill-side into the sea,1200 or, being rescued from that destruction, and gathered together in the loving bosom of our Catholic mother Church, they are delivered, brought to be healed of the devil, saying that ofttimes he was wont to fall into the fire, and oft into the water.1201
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 fervour 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 favour 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 neighbours, 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 labours 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.
Chap. iv.—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 proportion as each learned more, and became more willing, and more master of his own actions; although, at the same time, among the Donatists herds of abandoned men were disturbing the peace of the innocent for one reason or another in the spirit of the most reckless madness. What master was there who was not compelled to live in dread of his own servant, if he had put himself under the guardianship of the Donatists? Who dared even threaten one who sought his ruin with punishment? Who dared to exact payment of a debt from one who consumed his stores, or from any debtor whatsoever, that sought their assistance or protection? Under the threat of beating, and burning, and immediate death, all documents compromising the worst of slaves were destroyed, that they might depart in freedom. Notes of hand that had been extracted from debtors were returned to them. Any one who had shown a contempt for their hard words were compelled by harder blows to do what they desired. The houses of innocent persons who had offended them were either razed to the ground or burned. Certain heads of families of honourable parentage, and brought up with a good education, were carried away half dead after their deeds of violence, or bound to the mill, and compelled by blows to turn it round, after the fashion of the meanest beasts of burden. For what assistance from the laws rendered by the civil powers was ever of any avail against them? What official ever ventured so much as to breathe in their presence? What agents ever exacted payment of a debt which they had been unwilling to discharge? Who ever endeavoured to avenge those who were put to death in their massacres? Except, indeed, that their own madness took revenge on them, when some, by provoking against themselves the swords of men, whom they obliged to kill them under fear of instant death, others by throwing themselves over sundry precipices, others by water, others by fire, gave themselves over on the several occasions to a voluntary death, and gave up their lives as offerings to the dead by punishments inflicted with their own hands upon themselves.
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 sins 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?1202 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 Maximianus, 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 on the side 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.
Chap. v.—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 different character of that age, and that everything comes in its own season. For what emperor had as yet believed in Christ, so as to serve Him in the cause of piety by enacting laws against impiety, when as yet the declaration of the prophet was only in the course of its fulfilment, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and their rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed;” and there was as yet no sign of that which is spoken a little later in the same psalm: “Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.”1203 How then are kings to serve the Lord with fear, except by preventing and chastising with religious severity all those acts which are done in opposition to the commandments of the Lord? For a man serves God in one way in that he is man, in another way in that he is also king. In that he is man, he serves Him by living faithfully, but in that he is also king, he serves Him by enforcing with suitable rigour such laws as ordain what is righteous, and punish what is the reverse. Even as Hezekiah served Him, by destroying the groves and the temples of the idols, and the high places which had been built in violation of the commandments of God;1204 or even as Josiah served Him, by doing the same things in his turn;1205 or as the king of the Ninevites served Him, by compelling all the men of his city to make satisfaction to the Lord;1206 or as Darius served Him, by giving the idol into the power of Daniel to be broken, and by casting his enemies into the den of lions;1207 or as Nebuchadnezzar served Him, of whom I have spoken before, by issuing a terrible law to prevent any of his subjects from blaspheming God.1208 In this way, therefore, kings can serve the Lord, even in so far as they are kings, when they do in His service what they could not do were they not kings.
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,1209 and the heathen were raging against the Christians, and the patience of the martyrs was overcoming them all. But so soon as the fulfilment began of what is written in a later psalm, “All kings shall fall down before Him; all nations shall serve Him,”1210 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?
Chap. vi.—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, therefore those who do not yield to it should be neglected. For many have found advantage (as we have proved, and are daily proving by actual experiment), in being first compelled by fear or pain, so that they might afterwards be influenced by teaching, or might follow out in act what they had already learned in word. Some, indeed, set before us the sentiments of a certain secular author, who said,
“’Tis well, I ween, by shame the young to train,
And dread of meanness, rather than by pain.”1211
This is unquestionably true. But whilst 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.”1212
But, moreover, holy Scripture has both said concerning the former better class, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear;”1213 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.”1214 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 undisciplined son, must be corrected with stripes, and that with great fruits as the result; for he says, “Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell;”1215 and elsewhere he says, “He that spareth the rod hateth his son.”1216 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?”1217 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,”1218 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?1219 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.1220 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 recognise 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 laboured more in the gospel than all they who were called by word only;1221 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 recognised 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,1222 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 recognised in both of them, and approved with the honour 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 avenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.”1223 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.”1224 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;”1225 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.
Chap. vii.—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 should not ask of the emperors to ordain that heresy should absolutely cease to be, by sanctioning a punishment to be inflicted on all who wished to live in it; but that they should rather content themselves with ordaining that those who either preached the Catholic truth with their voice, or established it by their study, should no longer be exposed to the furious violence of the heretics. And this they thought might in some measure be effected, if they would take the law which Theodosius, of pious memory, enacted generally against heretics of all kinds, to the effect that any heretical bishop or clergyman, being found in any place, should be fined ten pounds of gold, and confirm it in more express terms against the Donatists, who denied that they were heretics; but with such reservations, that the fine should not be inflicted upon all of them, but only in those districts where the Catholic Church suffered any violence from their clergy, or from the Circumcelliones, or at the hands of any of their people; so that, after a formal complaint had been made by the Catholics who had suffered the violence, the bishops or other ministers should forthwith be obliged, under the commission given to the officers, to pay the fine. For we thought that in this way, if they were terrified, and no longer dared do anything of the sort, the Catholic truth might be freely taught and held under such conditions, that while no one was compelled to it, any one might follow it who was anxious to do so without intimidation, so that we might not have false and pretended Catholics. And although a different view was held by other brethren, who either were more advanced in years, or had experience of many states and places where we saw the true Catholic Church firmly established, which had, however, been planted and confirmed by God’s great goodness at a time when men were compelled to come in to the Catholic communion by the laws of previous emperors, yet we carried our point, to the effect that the measure which I have described above should be sought in preference from the emperors: it was decreed in our council,1226 and envoys were sent to the court of the count.
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 basilica1227 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 recognised 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. Rumour, 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 rumour 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.1228 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;1229 and again, that he might not be delivered to the Jews who sought to kill him, he appealed to Cæsar,1230—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,1231 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.1232
Chap. viii.—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 that one of them should perish, but should even lose any of his possessions? But if the house of David could not earn peace on any other terms except that Absalom his son should have been slain in the war which he was waging against his father, although he had most carefully given strict injunctions to his followers that they should use their utmost endeavours to preserve him alive and safe, that his paternal affection might be able to pardon him on his repentance, what remained for him except to weep for the son that he had lost, and to console himself in his sorrow by reflecting on the acquisition of peace for his kingdom?1233 The same, then, is the case with the Catholic Church, our mother; for when war is waged against her by men who are certainly different from sons, since it must be acknowledged that from the great tree, which by the spreading of its branches is extended over all the world, this little branch in Africa is broken off, whilst she is willing in her love to give them birth, that they may return to the root, without which they cannot have the true life, at the same time if she collects the remainder in so large a number by the loss of some, she soothes and cures the sorrow of her maternal heart by the thoughts of the deliverance of such mighty nations; especially when she considers that those who are lost perish by a death which they brought upon themselves, and not, like Absalom, by the fortune of war. And if you were to see the joy of those who are delivered in the peace of Christ, their crowded assemblies, their eager zeal, the gladsomeness with which they flock together, both to hear and sing hymns, and to be instructed in the word of God; the great grief with which many of them recall to mind their former error, the joy with which they come to the consideration of the truth which they have learned, with the indignation and detestation which they feel towards their lying teachers, now that they have found out what falsehoods they disseminated concerning our sacraments; and how many of them, moreover, acknowledge that they long ago desired to be Catholics, but dared not take the step in the midst of men of such violence,—if, I say, you were to see the congregations of these nations delivered from such perdition, then you would say that it would have been the extreme of cruelty, if, in the fear that certain desperate men, in number not to be compared with the multitudes of those who were rescued, might be burned in fires which they voluntarily kindled for themselves, these others had been left to be lost for ever, and to be tortured in fires which shall not be quenched.
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 unwilling 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 decide 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 endeavoured 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?
Chap. ix.—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 they are so blinded with the desire of uttering calumnies, that they do not observe how inconsistent their statements are with one another. At any rate, they assert, and seem to make it a subject of most invidious complaint among themselves, that we constrain them to come in to our communion by the violent authority of the laws,—which we certainly should not do by any means, if we wished to gain possession of their property. What avaricious man ever wished for another to share his possessions? Who that was inflamed with the desire of empire, or elated by the pride of its possession, ever wished to have a partner? Let them at any rate look on those very men who once belonged to them, but now are our brethren joined to us by the bond of fraternal affection, and see how they hold not only what they used to have, but also what was ours, which they did not have before; which yet, if we are living as poor in fellowship with poor, belongs to us and them alike; whilst, if we possess of our private means enough for our wants, it is no longer ours, inasmuch as we do not commit so infamous an act of usurpation as to claim for our own the property of the poor, for whom we are in some sense the trustees.
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.1234 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.”1235 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 ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.”1236 Let us love what we sing: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”1237 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.”1238
37. But if we consider what is said in the Book of Wisdom, “Therefore the righteous spoiled the ungodly;”1239 and also what is said in the Proverbs, “The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just;”1240 then we shall see that the question is not, who are in possession of the property of 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?”1241 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.”1242
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?”1243 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,1244—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.”1245
39. But in this life, when the corruptible body presseth down the soul,1246 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 trespasses.”1247 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 right 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.”1248 On account of this hope, the universal Church utters the petition, “Forgive us our trespasses,” 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 trespasses.”
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.”1249 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,”1250 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.”1251 The Lord Jesus, therefore, is both righteous and able to justify; but we are justified freely by no other grace than His.1252 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 labours,”1253 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 labours of the Canaanite; but only as that Naboth shall stand before the face of Ahab, since Ahab made no account of the labours 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 labours, 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 labours, 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 labours, 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 labours, 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.”1254 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 labours, 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 labours we avail ourselves to enjoy with us, within the society of the Catholic Church, the fruits both of their labours and of our own.
Chap. x.—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 who are lost, that we may rejoice over you as soon as you are found, saying, This our brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.1255 Why, then, he says, do you not baptize me, that you might wash me from my sins? I reply: Because I do not do despite to the stamp of the monarch, when I correct the ill-doing of a deserter. Why, he says, do I not even do penance in your body? Nay truly, except you have done penance, you cannot be saved; for how shall you rejoice that you have been reformed, unless you first grieve that you had been astray? What, then, he says, do we receive with you, when we come over to your side? I answer, You do not indeed receive baptism, which was able to exist in you outside the framework of the body of Christ, although it could not profit you; but you receive the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,1256 without which no one can see God; and you receive charity, which, as it is written, “shall cover the multitude of sins.”1257 And in regard to this great blessing, without which we have the apostle’s testimony that neither the tongues of men or of angels, nor the understanding of all mysteries, nor the gift of prophecy, nor faith so great as to be able to remove mountains, nor the bestowal of all one’s goods to feed the poor, nor giving one’s body to be burned, can profit anything;1258 if, I say, you think this mighty blessing to be worthless or of trifling value, you are deservedly but miserably astray; and deservedly you must necessarily perish, unless you come over to Catholic unity.
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 vigour 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,1259 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 offence should be admitted into holy orders, or return to or continue in the body of the clergy,1260 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 shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”1261 But lest it should so happen that, after the detection of offences, 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 Saviour, 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.”1262 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; let 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,1263 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 recognised 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,1264 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 council1265 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.
Chap. xi.—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, “Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come?”1266—they do not perceive that according to their interpretation of the passage none can be delivered. For who is there that does not speak against the Holy Ghost and sin against Him, whether we take the case of one who is not yet a Christian, or of one who shares in the heresy of Arius, or of Eunomius, or of Macedonius, who all say that He is a creature; or of Photinus, who denies that He has any substance at all, saying that there is only one God, the Father; or of any of the other heretics, whom it would now take too long a time to mention in detail? Are none, therefore, of these to be delivered? Or if the Jews themselves, against whom the Lord directed His reproach, were to believe in Him, would they not be allowed to be baptized? for the Saviour does not say, Shall be forgiven in baptism; but “Shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.”
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,”1267 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,” He immediately added, “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.”1268 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,”1269 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.1270 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.”1271 Furthermore, the Catholic Church alone is the body of Christ, of which He is the Head and Saviour of His body.1272 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;”1273 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.”1274 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.”1275 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, 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.
Footnotes
1 Aug. De Hœr. c. 69; Enarr. in Ps. 132, secs. 3, 6; C. Cresc. iii. 46, 47; C. Gaudentium i. 32.
2 Epist. xlix. li.
3 Vol. ix p. 34, etc.
4 The other works bearing on this controversy are mentioned in the exhaustive volume of Ferd. Ribbeck, Donatus und Augustinus (Elberfeld, 1858).—Ed.
5 This treatise was written about 400 A.D.
6 Contra Epist. Parmen. ii. 14.
7 Comp. v. 23, and iii. 16, note.
8 Ps. lxi. 2, 3. Augustine translates from the Septuagint. The English version is: “From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. For Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.”
9 Eph. ii. 6.
10 Matt. vii. 15.
11 Matt. xxiv. 23.
12 Matt. xi. 24.
13 The Council of Donatist bishops, held at Bagai in Numidia, A.D. 394. Cp. Contr. Crescon. iii. 52, 53.
14 Quodam modo cardinales Donatistas.
15 See below, on ii. 9.
16 Matt. xii. 30.
17 Mark ix. 38, 39; Luke ix. 50.
18 Acts x.
19 Ex. xxxii.
20 Num. xvi.
21 1 Cor. xiii. 2.
22 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 2.
23 John xi. 51.
24 1 Sam. xviii. 10.
25 Acts viii. 13.
26 Mark i. 24.
27 Eph. iv. 2, 3.
28 Acts viii. 13, 21.
29 1 Cor. iii. 1-4.
30 1 Cor. i. 10-13.
31 1 Cor. x. 11. In figura; :τυπιχως; A. V., “for ensamples.”
32 Gen. xxi. 10.
33 Gen. xxx. 3.
34 Mal. i. 2, 3; Gen. xxv. 24.
35 Matt. xxviii. 19.
36 John xx. 23.
37 Song of Sol. vi. 9.
38 1 John ii. 11.
39 Gal. iii. 27.
40 Wisd. i. 5.
41 Debebat. It is necessary to depart from the A. V., “owed,” as Augustine founds an argument on the use of the imperfect tense. Gr. ωφειλεν.
42 Matt. xviii. 23-35.
43 1 Cor. xv. 46.
44 1 Cor. ii. 14.
45 Gal. iv.
46 Ps. cxxxix. 16.
47 So Augustine from the Septuagint: επι βιβλιο σου παντις γραφησονται. A.V., “In Thy book were all my members written.”
48 Non caste; ουχ αγνως. Phil. i. 16.
49 In the Retractations, ii. 18, Augustine notes on this passage, that wherever he uses this quotation from the Epistle to the Ephesians, he means it to be understood of the progress of the Church towards this condition, and not of her success in its attainment; for at present the infirmities and ignorance of her members give ground enough for the whole Church joining daily in the petition, “Forgive us our debts.”
50 Gen. xv. 10.
51 1 Pet. iv. 8.
52 See below, ii. 9.
53 Eph. iv. 2, 3.
54 Ps. lxxiii. 18.
55 1 Cor. xii. 31, xiii. 1.
56 John xv. 1, 2.
57 John xiii. 34.
58 Gal. v. 22, 23.
59 Botrum.
60 John xv. 2.
61 Rom. iii. 17; from which it has been introduced into the Alexandrine MS. of the Septuagint at Ps. xiv. 3, as it is quoted by Migne, and found in the English Prayer-book version of the Psalms.
62 Charitatis ubera.
63 Præfocantur.
64 The Council of Carthage, September 1, A.D. 256, in which eighty-seven African bishops declared in favour of rebaptizing heretics. The opinions of the bishops are quoted and answered by Augustine, one by one, in Books vi. and vii.
65 Matt. xvi. 18.
66 Cypr. Ep. lxxi.
67 Gal. i. 20.
68 Gal. ii. 14.
69 Luke xxiii. 40-43.
70 Matt. xxvi. 69-75.
71 That is, the proconsular province of Africa, or Africa Zeugitana, answering to the northern part of the territory of Tunis.
72 See above, c. i. 2.
73 Bede asserts that this was the case, Book viii. qu. 5.
74 See above, c. ii. 3.
75 Matt. xxii. 30.
76 1 Cor. x. 13.
77 Phil. iii. 15.
78 Rom. iii. 17; see on i. 19, 29.
79 Phil. iii. 16.
80 1 Cor. xiii. 3.
81 Eph. iv. 3.
82 Traditores sanctorum librorum.
83 Ex. xxxii.
84 Jer. xxxvi.
85 Num. xvi.
86 Non convicti sed conficti traditores.
87 Rom. xiv. 4.
88 Ps. lviii. 1; though slightly varied from the LXX.: si vere justitiam diligitis; for ει αληθως αρα δικαιοσυνην λαλειτε
89 John vii. 24.
90 Matt. vii. 15.
91 1 Cor. xiv. 29, 30.
92 Cypr. Ep. lxxi.
93 The former Council of Carthage was held by Agrippinus early in the third century, the ordinary date given being 215 A.D.
94 Tanquam lectulo auctoritatis.
95 Cypr. Ep. lxxi.
96 The general Council, on whose authority Augustine relies in many places in this work, was either that of Arles, in 314 A.D., or of Nicæa, in 325 A.D., both of them being before his birth, in 354 A.D. He quotes the decision of the same council, contra Parmenianum, ii. 13, 30; de Hœresibus, 69; Ep. xliii. 7, 19. Migne brings forward the following passages in favour of its being the Council of Arles to which Augustine refers, since in them he ascribes the decision of the controversy to “the authority of the whole world.” Contra Parmenianum, iii. 4, 21: “They condemned,” he says, “some few in Africa, by whom they were in turn vanquished by the judgment of the whole world;” and he adds, that “the Catholics trusted ecclesiastical judges like these in preference to the defeated parties in the suit.” Ib. 6, 30: He says that the Donatists, “having made a schism in the unity of the Church, were refuted, not by the authority of 310 African bishops, but by that of the whole world.” And in the sixth chapter of the first book of the same treatise, he says that the Donatists, after the decision at Arles, came again to Constantine, and there were defeated “by a final decision,” i.e. at Milan, as is seen from Ep. xliii. 7, 20, in the year 316 A.D.
97 See above, ch. ii. 3.
98 See above, ch. ii. 3.
99 Rom. xiv. 4.
100 Wisd. xii. 10.
101 Ps. ciii. 8. “And truth” is not found in the A. V., nor in the Roman version of the LXX. The Alexandrian MS. adds και αληθεινος.
102 Ezek. xxiii. 11.
103 2 Tim. iv. 2.
104 John xii. 43.
105 He is alluding to that chief schism among the Donatists, which occurred when Maximianus was consecrated bishop of Carthage, in opposition to Primianus, 394 A.D.
106 Optatus, a Donatist bishop of Thaumugade in Numidia, was called Gildonianus from his adherence to Gildo, Count of Africa, and generalissimo of the province under the elder Theodosius. On his death, in 395 A.D., Gildo usurped supreme authority, and by his aid Optatus was enabled to oppress the Catholics in the province, till, in 398 A.D., Gildo was defeated by his brother Maxezel, and destroyed himself, and Optatus was put in prison, where he died soon afterwards. He is not to be confounded with Optatus, Bishop of Milevis, the strenuous opponent of the Donatists.
107 The Council of Bagai. See above, I. v. 7.
108 Matt. xviii. 19.
109 1 Pet. iv. 8.
110 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. to Jubaianus.
111 John xiii. 10. “Qui lotus est, non habet necessitatem iterum lavandi.” The Latin, with the A.V., loses the distinction between ο λελουμινος, “he that has bathed,” and νιπτειν, to wash; and further introduces the idea of repetition.
112 John iii. 5.
113 See above, c. ii. 3.
114 See above, ii. ii. 3.
115 See above, II. ii. 3.
116 Ecclus. iii. 18.
117 See above, II. ii. 3.
118 John i. 33.
119 The Council of Carthage.
120 Epist. lxxiii. sec. 20, to Jubaianus.
121 Conc. Carth. sec. 28.
122 John xiv. 6.
123 Conc. Carth. sec. 30.
124 Ib. sec. 56.
125 Gal. ii. 11-14.
126 Conc. Carth. sec. 63.
127 Ib. sec. 77.
128 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 1.
129 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 2.
130 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 3.
131 Above, Book i. c. xi. foll.
132 Non ut jam vere dimissa non retineantur. One of the negatives here appears to be superfluous, and the former is omitted in Amerbach’s edition, and in many of the MSS., which continue the sentence, “non ut ille baptismus,” instead of “neque ut ille,” etc. If the latter negative were omitted, the sense would be improved, and “neque” would appropriately remain.
133 2 Cor. ii. 15, 16.
134 Phantasmata.
135 1 Cor. ii. 14.
136 1 Cor. i. 13.
137 1 Cor. iii. 1-3.
138 Eph. iv. 14.
139 Matt. xxviii. 19.
140 Cp. Concilium Arelatense, can. 8. “De Afris, quod propria lege utuntur ut rebaptizent; placuit ut si ad ecclesiam aliquis de hæresi venerit, interrogent eum symbolum; et si perviderint eum in Patre, et Filio, et Spiritu sancto esse baptizatum, manus ei tantum imponatur, ut accipiat Spiritum sanctum. Quod si interrogatus non responderit hanc Trinitatem, baptizetur.”
141 Phil. iii. 15.
142 Jer. xv. 18, quoted from the LXX.
143 Rev. xvii. 15.
144 Rom. v. 5.
145 1 Cor. xiii. 1-3.
146 1 Cor. xii. 11.
147 Acts viii. 13.
148 1 Sam. x. 6, 10.
149 1 Tim. i. 5.
150 He refers to laying on of hands such as he mentions below, Book v. c. xxiii.: “If hands were not laid on one who returned from heresy, he would be judged to be free from all fault.”
151 Matt. xvi. 19.
152 Song of Sol. vi. 9.
153 Cypr. de Lapsis, c. 4.
154 John xx. 21-23.
155 1 Cor. ii. 15.
156 Eph. v. 27. Cp. Retract. ii. 18, quoted above on I. xvii.
157 Tit. i. 7.
158 Num. xvi.
159 Lev. x. 1, 2.
160 Rom. ii. 4.
161 Acts viii. 5-17.
162 Because Cyprian, in his letter to Jubaianus (Ep. lxxiii. sec. 8), had urged as following from this, that “there is no reason, dearest brother, why we should think it right to yield to heretics that baptism which was granted to the one and only Church.”
163 Deut. iv. 24.
164 Hos. ii. 5, from the LXX.
165 John i. 47.
166 John xiv. 21.
167 John xiii. 34, 35.
168 Matt. v. 17.
169 Rom. xiii. 10.
170 John xv. 1-5.
171 Prov. xviii. 1, from the LXX.
172 1 John ii. 19.
173 2 Tim. ii. 16-21.
174 Hos. ii. 5-8, from the LXX.
175 In the LXX., as well as in the English version, this is in the second person: τον ιματισμον τον ποικιλον σου.
176 Ezek. xvi. 17-19.
177 1 Tim. iv. 1, 2.
178 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. ad Jubaian. sec. 10.
179 Gen. ii. 8-14.
180 Matt. xvi. 18, 19.
181 Cypr. Ep. xi. sec. 1.
182 Tit. i. 16.
183 1 Pet. iii. 21.
184 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 9.
185 Eph. v. 26, 27.
186 Song of Sol. vi. 9.
187 Rom. xiv. 6.
188 Retract. ii. 18, quoted on I. xvii.
189 Cypr. Ep. xi. sec. 1.
190 Matt. vii. 23.
191 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 9.
192 Ib. lxxvii. sec. 10.
193 Cypr. Ep. lxxvii. sec. 10.
194 1 Cor. vi. 10.
195 Eph. v. 5.
196 Cypr. Ep. lv. sec. 23.
197 2 Cor. vi. 16.
198 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 11.
199 1 Tim. i. 13.
200 2 Tim. ii. 24.
201 Cypr. Ep. lxxiv. sec. 12.
202 Eph. v. 5.
203 Col. iii. 5. Cypr. Ep. lv. sec. 23.
204 1 Tim. i. 13.
205 Eph. v. 5.
206 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 11.
207 Gal. ii. 14.
208 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 11.
209 Phil. i. 18. Cyprian, like the Vulgate, reads “annuntietur.”
210 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 12.
211 Luke ii. 14. “Hominibus bonæ voluntatis;” and so the Vulgate, following the reading εν ανθρωποις ευδοκιας.
212 Cypr. de Zel. et Liv. c. 1.
213 Ib. c. 3.
214 Wisd. ii. 24, 25.
215 Conc. Carth. sub in.
216 1 Cor. xi. 16.
217 This treatise is still extant. See Clark’s Trans.
218 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 22.
219 Rom. ii. 21.
220 Cypr. de Lapsis. c. iv.
221 1 Cor. vi. 10.
222 Ps. xv. 5.
223 Eph. v. 5.
224 Matt. xiii. 29.
225 Phil. i. 15-18.
226 Wisd. ii. 24, 25.
227 Matt. xiii. 28, 25.
228 Matt. xiii. 23; Luke viii. 15.
229 Rev. ii. 6.
230 Acts viii. 9-24.
231 Phil. ii. 21.
232 1 Cor. xiii. 5.
233 Eph. v. 27; Retract. ii. 18.
234 Song of Sol. vi. 8.
235 Cypr. Ep. xi. sec. 1.
236 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 12.
237 Luke ix. 49, 50.
238 Matt. xii. 30.
239 Gal. ii. 14.
240 Phil. iii. 15.
241 Matt. xxiii. 2, 3.
242 Phil. i. 18; see on ch. vii. 10.
243 John i. 33.
244 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 13; 2 Tim. ii. 17.
245 1 Cor. xv. 32, 33, 12.
246 Eph. v. 5.
247 2 Tim. ii. 20.
248 Ps. ii. 9.
249 Cypr. Ep. lv. sec. 21.
250 2 Tim. ii. 17-20.
251 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 13.
252 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 13; 2 Cor. vi. 14.
253 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 13; 2 Cor. vi. 14.
254 1 John ii. 9.
255 Phil. i. 15, 16.
256 Cypr. l.c.
257 Cypr. Ep. xi. sec. 1.
258 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 13.
259 Matt. vii. 23.
260 Matt. xxv. 41.
261 Rom. ii. 4.
262 Ps. lxxxix. 32, 33.
263 Ecclus. xxx. 23. The words “placentes Deo” are derived from the Latin version only.
264 Matt. xxiv. 13.
265 From a letter of Pope Stephen’s, quoted Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 14.
266 Matt. xiii. 21.
267 2 Tim. ii. 21.
268 2 Tim. ii. 19.
269 Matt. vii. 23.
270 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 14.
271 Ib. de Laps. sec. 4.
272 Ib. Ep. xi. sec. 1.
273 Ib. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 14.
274 1 Cor. ii. 14.
275 1 Cor. iii. 3.
276 2 Cor. iv. 16.
277 Photinus, bishop of Sirmium, was condemned and deposed by a synod held in his own city, in 351, for teaching that there was no distinction of persons in the Godhead.
278 Hos. ii. 5-7.
279 Cypr. Ep. lxxxiii. sec. 18.
280 1 Cor. xiii. 3.
281 Cypr. l.c.
282 Matt. xii. 30.
283 1 Cor. vi. 10.
284 Gal. v. 19-21.
285 Eph. v. 5, 6.
286 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.
287 Matt. xi. 24.
288 Matt. xxv. 41.
289 John iii. 5.
290 Another reading, of less authority, is, “Aut catechumeno sacramentum baptismi præferendum putamus.” This does not suit the sense of the passage, and probably sprung from want of knowledge of the meaning of the “catechumen’s sacrament.” It is mentioned in the third Council of Carthage as “the sacrament of salt” (Conc. Carth. 3, can. 5). Augustine (de Peccat. Meritis, ii. c. 26) says that “what the catechumens receive, though it be not the body of Christ, yet is holy, more holy than the food whereby our bodies are sustained, because it is a sacrament.”—Cp. de Catech. Rudibus, c. 26. It appears to have been only a taste of salt, given them as the emblem of purity and incorruption. See Bingham, Orig. Eccles. Book x. c. ii. 16.
291 Acts x. 44.
292 Acts viii. 13, 18, 19.
293 Matt. v. 20.
294 Acts x. 4, 5.
295 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 19.
296 Luke xxiii. 43.
297 In Retract. ii. 18, Augustine expresses a doubt whether the thief may not have been baptized.
298 Rom. x. 10.
299 Matt. iii 6, 13.
300 Rom. iv. 11, 3.
301 Gen. xvii. 9-14.
302 Ex. iv. 24.
303 John ix. 21.
304 Acts xix. 3-5.
305 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. ad Jubaian. sec. 20.
306 See below, Book VII. c. ii.
307 Phil. iii. 15.
308 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 21.
309 1 Tim. i. 8.
310 John xiii. 27.
311 1 Cor. xi. 29.
312 1 Tim. i. 5.
313 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 21; Acts xix. 3-5.
314 John iii. 27.
315 John i. 16.
316 John xiii. 4, 5.
317 Matt. iii. 13.
318 Matt. xi. 11.
319 John i. 27.
320 Rom. x. 4.
321 Cypr. Serm. de Lapsis, c. iv.
322 Eph. ii. 6.
323 Rom. viii. 24.
324 Matt. iii. 11.
325 John i. 29.
326 Acts xix. 3-5.
327 Matt. iii. 16; John i. 33.
328 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 22.
329 John i. 33.
330 John xv. 15.
331 Num. xvii. 8.
332 1 Cor. i. 12-15.
333 Matt. iii. 14.
334 John i. 32, 33.
335 1 Cor. ix. 15.
336 Rom. xi. 13.
337 Eph. iii. 4.
338 2 Tim. ii. 8.
339 Gal. v. 19-21.
340 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 22.
341 Eph. v. 27. Cp. Aug. Retract. ii. 18, quoted above, I. xvii. 26.
342 Gen. xxv. 29-34.
343 1 Cor. xi. 16.
344 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 22.
345 Ps. xxvi. 8.
346 1 Cor. i. 27.
347 John xv. 2.
348 In this and the following chapter Augustine is examining the seventieth epistle of Cyprian to his brother Quintus, bishop in Mauritania.
349 Apud veteres hæreses et schismata prima adhuc fuisse initia. Migne suggests, “hæresis et schismatum”—“there was as yet only the first beginning of heresy and schisms.”
350 1 John ii. 9.
351 1 John iii. 15.
352 Cypr. lxxiii. sec. 12.
353 In this and the next two chapters Augustine is examining the seventieth epistle of Cyprian, from himself and thirty-one other bishops, to Januarius, Saturninus, Maximus, and fifteen others.
354 In the question, “Dost thou believe in eternal life and remission of sins through the holy Church?” Cypr. l.c.
355 John ix. 31.
356 Acts ix. 4.
357 Matt. xxv. 45.
358 1 John ii. 19.
359 John xx. 23.
360 Matt. vi. 15.
361 Cypr. Ep. lxxi., which is examined by Augustine in the remaining chapters of this book.
362 Tit. iii. 11.
363 Rom. ii. 1.
364 Rom. ii. 21.
365 1 Cor. vi. 10.
366 Wisd. i. 5.
367 Cyprian, in the laying on of hands, appears to refer to confirmation, but Augustine interprets it of the restoration of penitents. Cp. III. xvi. 21.
368 Gal. iii. 27.
369 2 Cor. vi. 16.
370 1 Sam. xix. 23.
371 Mark ix. 38.
372 Eph. v. 27. Cp. Aug. Retract. ii. 18, quoted above, I. xvii. 26.
373 “Docibilis;” and so the passage (2 Tim. ii. 24) is quoted frequently by Augustine. The English version, “apt to teach,” is more true to the original, διδακτικος.
374 See Eph. iv. 4-6.
375 1 Cor. xv. 32.
376 1 Cor. i. 13.
377 1 Cor. xv. 12.
378 Cant. iv. 12, 13.
379 Eph. v. 27.
380 Cant. ii. 2.
381 Rom. ii. 29.
382 Ps. xlv. 14.
383 Ps. xl. 5.
384 Rom. viii. 28.
385 2 Tim. ii. 19.
386 See Gal. vi. 1.
387 Ps. cxix. 28.
388 See Phil. iii. 15.
389 Pet. iii. 20, 21.
390 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 20.
391 John xx. 23.
392 Matt. xxiii. 3.
393 1 Tim. i. 5.
394 Wisd. ix. 15.
395 See Phil. iii. 15.
396 Gal. ii. 14.
397 Cant. vi. 8.
398 Eph. v. 27; cp. Aug. Retract. ii. 18.
399 Cant. iv. 12, 13.
400 John xx. 23.
401 Conc. Carth., introduction.
402 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 22.
403 Cypr. Ep. lxix. sec. 11.
404 De baptismi simplicitate ubique agnoscendam consuetudinem. Migne approves of the reading of some MSS., “De baptismi simplicitate ubique agnoscenda,” etc., “maintaining the custom of the universal Church to acknowledge everywhere the identity of baptism.”
405 Eph. iv. 2, 3.
406 Phil. iii. 15.
407 Bilta was in Mauritania.
408 Eph. iv. 4, 5.
409 Conc. Carth. sec. 1.
410 1 John iii. 15.
411 This section is wanting in the MSS. and in the edition of Amerbach, so that it has been supposed to have been added by Erasmus from Cyprian (Conc. Carth. sec. 2),—the name Felix, which is not found in Cyprian, being derived from the following section of Augustine. Migirpa, or Misgirpa, was in Zeugitana.
412 Adrumetum was an ancient Phœnician settlement, made a Roman colony by Trajan, on the coast of the Sinus Neapolitanus, some ninety miles south-east of Carthage.
413 Thamugadis, a town in Numidia, on the east side of Mount Aurasius. The whole opinion of Novatus (Conc. Carth. sec. iv.) is omitted in the MSS.
414 The words in Cyprian are, “sanctissimæ memoriæ virorum.” The decree referred to is one of the Council held by Agrippinus.
415 Tubunæ, a town in Mauritania Cæsariensis.
416 Prov. ix. 12, according to the LXX. version, the passage being altogether absent in the Hebrew, and consequently in the English version. The whole opinion of Nemesianus is wanting in the MSS. and in the edition of Amerbach; and in that of Erasmus it is somewhat different, having been subsequently revised by the Louvain editors to bring it into harmony with the answer of Augustine and the text of Cyprian (Conc. Carth. sec. 5).
417 Prov. ix. 18, according to the LXX. version only.
418 John iii. 5.
419 Gen. i. 2.
420 Viz. baptism and the laying on of hands; the latter sacramental ordinance being similarly spoken of by Aug. Ep. lxxii. sec. 1, as efficacious only when preceded by Catholic baptism.
421 Eph. iv. 3-6.
422 Quoniam Spiritus Deus est, et de Deo natus est. These words are found at the end of John iii. 6 in the oldest Latin MS. (in the Bodleian Library), and their meaning appears to be, as given in the text, that whatsoever is born of the Spirit is spirit, since the Holy Ghost, being God, and born of, or proceeding from God, in virtue of His supreme power makes those to be spirits whom He regenerates. If the meaning had been (as Bishop Fell takes it), that “he who is born of the Spirit is born of God,” the neuter “de Deo natum est” would have been required. To refer “Spiritus Deus est,” with Migne, to John iv. 24, “God is a Spirit,” reverses the grammar and destroys the sense of the passage. The above explanation is taken from the preface to Cyprian by the monk of St. Maur (Maranus), p. xxxvi., quoted by Routh, Rel. Sac. iii. 193.
423 Gal. v. 19-21.
424 Cypr. Ep. xi. sec. 1.
425 Prov. ix. 12, according to the LXX. version.
426 John iii. 5.
427 Acts viii. 13.
428 Wisd. i. 5.
429 John iii. 6.
430 Gal. v. 19-21.
431 Lambæse was one of the chief cities in the interior of Numidia, on the confines of Mauritania.
432 Conc. Carth. sec. vi.
433 Castrum Galbæ was also in Numidia.
434 Matt. v. 13. “Id quod salietur ex eo, ad nihilum valebit.”
435 Matt. xxviii. 18, 19.
436 Recedendo infatuati contrarii facti sunt. Dr. Routh, from a Ms. in his own possession, inserts “et” after “infatuati,”—“have lost their savour and become contrary to the Church.”
437 Prov. xiv. 9, from the LXX.
438 John xx. 23.
439 1 John ii. 9.
440 Ex. xx. 13, 15.
441 Cirta, an inland city of the Massyli in Numidia, was rebuilt by Constantine, and called Constantina.
442 See below, on sec. 25.
443 Ex Scripturis deificis.
444 There are two letters extant from Cyprian to Stephen, No. 68, respecting Marcianus of Arles, who had joined Novatian, and No. 72, on a Council concerning heretical baptism. It is clear, however, from Ep. lxxiii. sec. 1, that this Council, and consequently the letter to Stephen, was subsequent to the Council under consideration; and consequently Augustine is right in ignoring it, and referring solely to the former. Dr. Routh thinks the words an interpolation, of course before Augustine’s time; and they may perhaps have been inserted by some one who had Cyprian’s later letter to Stephen before his mind.
445 Segermæ in Numidia.
446 Girba, formerly Meninx, an island to the south-east of the Lesser Syrtis.
447 In baptismi trinitate. “Quia trina immersione expediebatur, in nomine Patris, Filii, et S. Spiritus.”—Bishop Fell.
448 Matt. xxviii. 19.
449 Erroris offectura. Other readings are “offensa” and “effectura.”
450 Cediæ has been identified, but perhaps without sufficient reason, with Quidias, or Quiza, in Mauritania Cæsariensis.
451 Matt. xii. 30.
452 1 John ii. 18.
453 Matt. vii. 22, 23.
454 Bagai, or Vacca, in the interior of Numidia. See on i. v. 7.
455 Matt. xv. 14.
456 1 Cor. xv. 32.
457 Rom. viii. 6.
458 Mileum, or Mireum, a Roman colony in Numidia, noted as the seat of two Councils.
459 Hippo Regius, the see of Augustine himself, was on the coast of Numidia.
460 Badis in Numidia.
461 Matt. vi. 15.
462 Eph. iv. 3.
463 Phil. iii. 15.
464 Abbir Germaniciana was in Zeugitana.
465 1 John iii. 15.
466 Thuccabori was perhaps the same as Tucca in Byzacene.
467 Matt. vii. 24.
468 Cypr. Serm. de Laps.
469 Matt. vii. 24, 26.
470 It is pointed out by the Louvain editors that this passage shows that Augustine considered our Lord’s precept to comprehend everything contained in the Sermon on the Mount.
471 Luke vi. 37.
472 Matt. vi. 14, 15.
473 1 Pet. iv. 8.
474 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 12.
475 Tuburbo was in Zeugitana.
476 Phil. iii. 15.
477 See above, III. cc. xiv. xv.
478 Matt. xiii. 29.
479 1 Kings iii. 26.
480 Sufetula was a town of Byzacene, twenty-five miles from Sufes, of which the name is a diminutive.
481 Lares was a town of importance in Byzacene.
482 Matt. vii. 23.
483 John i. 33.
484 Macomades was in Numidia.
485 Flebiles et tabidos. This is otherwise taken of the repentant heretics, “Melting with the grief and wretchedness of penitence;” but Bishop Fell points out that the interpretation in the text is supported by an expression in c. xxxiii. 63: Mens hæretica, quæ diuturna tabe polluta est.
486 Adulteros. So all the MSS. of Augustine, though in Cyprian is sometimes found “adulterinos.” In classical Latin, however, “adulter” is sometimes used in the sense of “adulterinus.” Cassius seems to have had in mind Heb. xii. 8, “Then are ye bastards, and not sons.”
487 Jer. ii. 21.
488 Vicus Cæsaris is unknown, unless it be the same as Nova Cæsaris in Numidia.
489 Carpis was in Zeugitana, on the borders of Tunis.
490 Fiant. Another reading in some MSS. of Cyprian (not found in those of Augustine) is, “quomodo Christianos faciunt,” which is less in harmony with the context.
491 Matt. xii. 30.
492 Ps. cxliv. 11-15, from the LXX.
493 Cypr. Ep. xi. ad Clericos, sec. 1.
494 Thabraca was on the coast of Numidia, the frontier town towards Zeugitana, at the mouth of the Tucca.
495 Uthina was in Zeugitana.
496 Burug or Burca was in Mauritania Cæsariensis.
497 In the Eng. version this is, “He that washeth himself after touching a dead body, if he touch it again, what availeth his washing?”—Ecclus. xxxiv. 25.
498 Contra Parmenianum, II. x. 22.
499 Rom. vi. 23.
500 Rom. viii. 6.
501 1 Tim. v. 6.
502 John i. 33.
503 Matt. vi. 15.
504 Ps. xxxv. 12.
505 Cant. vi. 9.
506 Sicca was in Zeugitana.
507 Thenæ was in Byzacene.
508 Matt. xxviii. 19.
509 Vaga was in Numidia.
510 John xiv. 6.
511 Thebaste was in Numidia.
512 Ammedera and Ammacura were in Numidia.
513 Phil. iii. 15.
514 See Cant. iv. 12.
515 Ch. xxi. 37.
516 2 Cor. ii. 15.
517 Muzuli is perhaps the same as Mazula in Numidia.
518 Thasbalte was in Byzacene.
519 Leptis the Lesser was in Byzacene, the Greater being in Tripoli.
520 Gal. v. 21.
521 Thibaris, perhaps the same as Tabora in Mauritania Cæsariensis.
522 Mark xvi. 15-18.
523 Matt. xxviii. 19.
524 Matt. xviii. 17.
525 Matt. xi. 24.
526 Ezek. xvi. 51.
527 Luke xvii. 14.
528 Luke i. 11, 13.
529 Acts xvii. 28.
530 Cypr. de Idol. Vanitate.
531 Wisd. ix. 15.
532 Gal. ii. 11.
533 Mactaris was in Byzacene.
534 Siccilibba was in Zeugitana.
535 Gor is variously supposed to be Garra in Mauritania, or Garriana in Byzacene.
536 Utica, the well-known city in Zeugitana, where Cato died.
537 1 Tim. v. 22.
538 Matt. vi. 15.
539 Germaniciana Nova was in Byzacene.
540 Rucuma was in Zeugitana.
541 Gen. i. 4.
542 The position of Luperciana is unknown.
543 See 1 Kings xviii. 21.
544 Matt. vii. 24-27.
545 Midila was in Numidia.
546 Marazana was in Byzacene.
547 Eph. iv. 5.
548 Nec... mutati. “Nec” is restored by Migne from the MSS.
549 Eph. v. 27. See Retract. ii. 18, quoted on i. xvii. 26.
550 Bobba was in Mauritania Tingitana.
551 Rom. iii. 3, 4.
552 2 Cor. vi. 16.
553 Dionysiana was in Byzacene.
554 John xx. 23.
555 Tinisa was in Zeugitana.
556 1 Cor. xv. 33, 32.
557 2 Cor. xi. 3.
558 Ausnaga was in Zeugitana.
559 John i. 33.
560 Victoriana was in Byzacene.
561 Ps. l. 16, 18.
562 Matt. vii. 23.
563 Tucca was in Numidia.
564 He is alluding to Stephen, bishop of Rome, of whom Cyprian says in his seventy-fourth epistle (to Pompeius): “Why has the perverse obstinacy of our brother Stephen burst out to such a point, that he should even contend that sons of God are born of the baptism of Marcion, and others who blaspheme against God the Father?”
565 Zama was in Numidia, famous for Hannibal’s defeat by Scipio.
566 Ululi and Cibaliana were both in Byzacene.
567 Tharassa was in Numidia.
568 Gal. ii. 11.
569 Telepte, or Thala, was in Byzacene.
570 John iii. 27.
571 Timida Regia was in Zeugitana.
572 Furni was in Zeugitana.
573 Phil. iii. 15.
574 Nova was in Zeugitana.
575 Bulla Regia was an inland town of Numidia.
576 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 20.
577 Membresa was in Zeugitana.
578 John ix. 31.
579 Buslaceni is probably Byzacium, the capital of Byzacene, since we know that it was also called Bizica Lucana.
580 Abitini was in Byzacene.
581 Aggya, probably the same as Aggiva.
582 The position of Marcelliana is unknown.
583 Matt. vi. 24.
584 Horrea Celiae was a village of Byzacene, ten miles north of Hadrumetum.
585 Assura was in Zeugitana.
586 See Eph. iv. 4-6.
587 Capsa was in Byzacene.
588 Rusiccada was at the mouth of the Thapsus, in Numidia.
589 Cuiculi was in Numidia Cæsariensis.
590 Hippo Diarrhytus was on the coast of Zeugitana.
591 Ausafa was in Zeugitana.
592 Gurgites was in Byzacene.
593 Lamasba was in Numidia.
594 2 Cor. ii. 15.
595 Mark ix. 38.
596 Gazaufala was in Numidia.
597 Tucca was in Mauritania Cæsariensis.
598 Octavus and Mascula were in Numidia.
599 Matt. xvi. 18, 19.
600 Thambei was in Byzacene.
601 Isa. xxix. 13.
602 Chullabi, or Cululi, was in Byzacene.
603 2 John 10, 11.
604 1 Tim. i. 5.
605 Hos. ii.
606 1 Cor. v. 11.
607 Gemelli was a Roman colony in Numidia.
608 Matt. xv. 14.
609 Illuminare; baptism being often called φωτισμος.
610 Sabrata, Oea, and Leptis Magna, were the three cities whose combination gave its name to Tripolis. The privilege of bishops to give their votes by proxy in a Council appears to have existed in very early times, and is perhaps referable to the example of St. Paul’s interference in the Council of Achæan Bishops, though absent in body, 1 Cor. v. 4.
611 Neapolis was in Zeugitana.
612 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii.
613 Cypr. Ep. lxix. sec. 4.
614 Phil. i. 15, 17.
615 Ps. lxviii. 6, from the LXX.
616 John vi. 51.
617 Matt. xxvi. 26-29.
618 Phil. i. 18.
619 Matt. xvi. 18.
620 Cant. vi. 9.
621 Eph. v. 27; cp. Retract. ii. 18.
622 Cant. iv. 12, 13.
623 Matt. xvi. 19.
624 Matt. xviii. 17.
625 Ps. xxvi. 8.
626 Ps. lxviii. 6, from the LXX.
627 Ps. cxxii. 1.
628 Ps. lxxxiv. 4.
629 Matt. xiii. 23; Luke viii. 15.
630 2 Tim. ii. 20.
631 Eph. iv. 2, 3.
632 1 Cor. iii. 17.
633 2 Tim. ii. 20. In Retract. ii. 18, Augustine says that he thinks the meaning of this last passage to be, not as Cyprian took it, Ep. liv. sec. 2, that the vessels of gold and silver are the good, which are to honour; the vessels of wood and earth the wicked, which are to dishonour: but that the material of the vessels refers to the outward appearance of the several members of the Church, and that in each class some will be found to honour, and some to dishonour. This interpretation he derives from Tychonius.
634 1 John ii. 19.
635 1 Cor. xiii. 2.
636 1 John ii. 19.
637 Phil. iii. 15.
638 Gal. v. 19-21.
639 Ps. cxx. 7.
640 Ps. cxviii. 8.
641 Jer. xvii. 5.
642 Ps. iii. 8.
643 Ps. lx. 11.
644 1 Cor. i. 13.
645 Rom. iv. 5.
646 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7.
647 John xv. 5.
648 Rom. xii. 5.
649 Matt. xxiii. 3.
650 Rom. iv. 25, 5.
651 Matt. vii. 17, 16.
652 Matt. xii. 35.
653 See below, Book II. vi. 12.
654 So the Donatists commonly quoted Ecclus. xxxiv. 25, which is more correctly rendered in our version, “He that washeth himself after the touching of a dead body, if he touch it again, what availeth his washing?” Augustine (Retract. i. 21, sec. 3) says that the misapplication was rendered possible by the omission in many African Mss. of the second clause, “and touches it again.”
655 Rom. vi. 9.
656 John i. 33.
657 Cp. Contra Cresconium, Book II. xxv. 30: “Ita mortui sunt, ut neque super terras, neque in requie sanctorum sint.”
658 Migne suggests as an emendation, “quod Deus illi comes erat,” as in II. xxiii. 53, xxxvii. 87, etc.
659 1 Sam. xvii. 51.
660 That of Bagai. See on de Bapt. I. v. 7.
661 Ore latissimo acclamaverunt. The Louvain edition has “lætissimo,” both here and Contra Crescon. IV. xli. 48.
662 Num. xvi. 31-35.
663 Ps. lxxii. 8.
664 Ps. ii. 8.
665 Qui talia facientes quamvis improbent. A comparison of the explanation of this passage in Contra Crescon. III. xli. 45, shows the probability of Migne’s conjecture, “quamvis improbe,” “who endure the men that act in such a way, however monstrous their conduct may be.”
666 Nec in se agnoscunt. The reading of the Louvain edition gives better sense, “Et in se agnoscunt,” “and discover in themselves.”
667 Matt. xxiii. 34.
668 Isa. lviii. 1.
669 Ps. lxiii. 11.
670 Ps. xiv. 5-7, from the LXX. only.
671 Matt. vii. 15.
672 Matt. vii. 16.
673 “Obmutescatis” is the most probable conjecture of Migne for “obtumescatis,” which could only mean, “you should swell with confusion.”
674 See below, II. xvi. 36, III. lvii. 69, lviii. 70; and Contra Cresconium, III. xxix. 33, IV. lvi. 66.
675 Gen. xxii. 18.
676 Gal. iii. 16.
677 That of Bagai.
678 Veritatis fortissimis documentis Catholica expugnat; and so the MSS. The earlier editors, apparently not understanding the omission of “ecclesia,” read “veritas.”
679 Mark iii. 23.
680 See II. xviii. 40, 41.
681 Ps. xiv. 6, from the LXX. only.
682 Ps. lxxxiii. 16.
683 Written about the beginning of 402 A.D.
684 John i. 33.
685 Rom. iv. 5.
686 Jer. xvii. 5.
687 I Cor. iv. 15.
688 Phil. i. 17, 18.
689 Phil. ii. 21.
690 Matt. xxiii. 3.
691 Matt. vii. 17, 16.
692 Matt. xii. 35.
693 Ecclus. xxxiv. 25; see on I. ix. 10.
694 Matt. viii. 21, 22.
695 See Matt. xii. 45.
696 Rom. vi. 9.
697 Acts viii. 13, 18, 19.
698 1 Tim. v. 6.
699 Matt. xxvii. 4, 5.
700 John xvii. 12.
701 Ps. cix. 8, 9.
702 2 Macc. vii. 9. The words in brackets are not in the original Greek.
703 Ps. xxii. 16-18.
704 Ps. xxii. 27, 28.
705 Ps. ii. 8.
706 Majorinus, ordained by the Numidian bishops in 311 A.D.
707 Gal. iii. 29.
708 Rom. viii. 17.
709 Gen. xxii. 18.
710 Luke xxiv. 46, 47.
711 1 Cor. v. 5.
712 1 Tim. i. 20.
713 John ii. 15-17.
714 John x. 37.
715 John viii. 44.
716 Matt. xxiii. 33-35.
717 Ps. xiv. 5, from the LXX. only.
718 Ps. xiv. 6.
719 Another reading is, “nos esse viperas.”
720 See below, c. xx. 46; and Contra Crescon. III. xlix. 54.
721 Ps. xxii. 27.
722 Gen. xxii. 18.
723 Rom. iv. 3.
724 Ps. lvii. 5.
725 Ps. xix. 5.
726 Luke xxiv. 44-47.
727 Ps. xiv. 5-8, from the LXX., the last verse only being in the Hebrew.
728 Wisd. i. 11.
729 Rom. iv. 5.
730 Rom. iii. 26.
731 John xx. 19, 21.
732 Matt. vii. 15, 16.
733 Matt. xxiv. 23.
734 2 Cor. xi. 14, 15.
735 Gen. vi. 3.
736 Matt. xxv. 41.
737 1 Cor. vi. 3.
738 “Perdiderunt,” which Migne thinks may be a confusion for “perierunt.”
739 Novissimus.
740 1 Cor. xv. 9.
741 2 Cor. xi. 26.
742 Portenta.
743 Down to this point Augustine had already answered Petilianus in the First Book, as he says himself below, III. 1. 61.
744 Matt. x. 23.
745 Matt. x. 16, 28.
746 1 Pet. iii. 15.
747 Matt. v. 39.
748 1 Kings xviii.
749 Wisd. xii. 23.
750 Acts ix. 4, 5.
751 Ps. cv. 15.
752 Vivacem Christum.
753 Rom. xiii. 2, 4.
754 1 John iii. 15.
755 Acts ix. 4-18.
756 John xiii. 10, 11.
757 John xv. 3, 4.
758 John xiv. 27.
759 1 Tim. i. 7.
760 Mark x. 35-39.
761 Matt. v. 10.
762 Optatus Gildonianus is the person to whom he refers.
763 Gildo, from subservience to whom Optatus received the name Gildonianus, was “Comes Africæ.” The play on the meanings of “Comes,” in the expression “quod Comitem haberet Deum,” is incapable of direct translation. Cp. xxxvii. 88; ciii. 237.
764 Ps. l. 18.
765 Gal. vi. 5.
766 Rom. xiv. 14.
767 1 Cor. vi. 10.
768 Matt. xxv. 34, 41.
769 John xiii. 10.
770 Matt. xxviii. 19.
771 Matt. xiii. 24-30, 36-43.
772 Matt. iii. 12.
773 Wisd. i. 5.
774 Eph. iv. 5.
775 Optatus.
776 Gildo.
777 See above, on xxiii. 53.
778 Ps. cxxxii. 9.
779 John xi. 51.
780 Tit. i. 12, 13.
781 Acts xvii. 23, 27, 28.
782 Rom. xiii. 1.
783 John xix. 11.
784 John iii. 27.
785 Matt. iii. 11.
786 John xx. 22.
787 Acts ii. 2-4.
788 Isa. lxvi. 24.
789 Matt. v. 14.
790 2 Sam. xii. 12.
791 Ps. xix. 3-6, from the LXX.
792 Eph. iv. 5.
793 Matt. iii. 11.
794 John xx. 22.
795 Acts i. 5.
796 Matt. xxviii. 19, 20.
797 Matt. v. 9.
798 See above, xxiii. 53.
799 Acts i. 15, ii. 4, x. 44.
800 Optatus Gildonianus.
801 Gen. xxii. 18.
802 Gal. vi. 5.
803 Acts xix. 1-7.
804 1 Cor. x. 1, 2.
805 Matt. xiii. 17.
806 Matt. xi. 9, 11.
807 Mark i. 2; cp. Mal. iii. 1.
808 Mark i. 7.
809 Matt. xxvi. 17.
810 In his treatise on the Sermon on the Mount, Book II. iv. 12, Augustine again compares the “celebratio octavarum dierum, quas in regeneratione novi hominis celebramus” with the circumcision on the eighth day; and in Serm. 376 he says that the heads of the rebaptized were uncovered on the eighth day, as a token of liberty. Cp. Epist. II. xvii. 32, and Bingham, Orig. Sacr. XII. iv. 3.
811 Augustine apparently supposed that the sacrifice of the paschal lamb was still observed among the Jews of the dispersion; cp. Retract. I. x. 2. It was, however, forbidden them to sacrifice the Passover except in the place which the Lord should choose to place His name there; and hence the Jews, though they observe the other paschal solemnities, abstain from the sacrifice of the lamb.
812 Matt. xxi. 25.
813 Gildo; see above, xxiii. 53.
814 See Isa. xlvi. 8.
815 Luke xv. 32.
816 Acts i. 7, 8.
817 Dan. ii. 35.
818 1 John ii. 19.
819 Apparently from Wisd. iii. 6.
820 Prov. ii. 22.
821 Matt. xiii. 24-30.
822 Gen. xxii. 18.
823 Ps. lxxiii. 26.
824 Ps. xvi. 5.
825 John xi. 51.
826 Prov. ii. 22.
827 Ps. ii. 8.
828 Ps. xxii. 27.
829 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15.
830 1 Cor. i. 12, 13.
831 Ps. cxix. 42.
832 Acts i. 8.
833 Ps. xix. 4.
834 Ps. cxix. 122.
835 Matt. xxi. 43.
836 See Ps. cv. 44.
837 Gal. iii. 27.
838 Gal. vi. 4.
839 Ps. xxiii.
840 Ps. cxliv. 9.
841 Ps. xcvi. 1.
842 1 Cor. xi. 29.
843 1 Cor. iv. 3.
844 Job ii. 3, 4.
845 Matt. v. 5-7.
846 Ps. i. 1.
847 Matt. xxiii. 2, 3.
848 Isa. lxvi. 3.
849 Hos. ix. 4.
850 Tit. i. 15.
851 In the Council of Bagai.
852 Ps. xiv. 3, from the LXX.
853 Matt. vii. 21.
854 Matt. vi. 10.
855 2 Tim. ii. 24, 25.
856 Matt. vii. 22, 23.
857 1 Cor. xiii. 2.
858 Luke x. 20.
859 Acts i. 8.
860 Matt. vii. 22.
861 1 Tim. i. 8.
862 Ps. lxxii. 8.
863 Acts xxii. 25.
864 Ex. xx. 13-17.
865 Matt. xxi. 43.
866 Matt. v. 19, 20.
867 Matt. xxiii. 2, 3.
868 1 Cor. vi. 18.
869 Matt. xii. 31, 32.
870 Acts. i. 8.
871 The older editions have, “Quam multum et quantum luctum dederint Deo (Erasmus alone ideo) laudes amatorum vestrorum:” “How much and how great grief have the praises of your lovers caused to God?” Migne restored the reading translated above (“Quam multis... Deo laudes armatorum vestrorum”), Deo laudes being the cry of the Circumcelliones. Cp. Aug. in Ps. cxxxii. 6: “A quibus plus timetur Deo laudes quam fremitus leonis;” and ib.: “Deo laudes vestrum plorant homines.”
872 Gen. xxii. 18.
873 Ps. cxli. 5, from the LXX.
874 Matt. v. 3-9.
875 Luke xxiv. 36, 45-47.
876 Matt. xxii. 39.
877 Eph. v. 29.
878 Gal. v. 17.
879 2 Tim. iv. 2.
880 Eph. iv. 1-3.
881 See Jer. viii. 11.
882 Ps. xlvi. 9.
883 Dan. ii. 35.
884 Eph. ii. 14.
885 Matt. v. 10.
886 Matt. xxiii. 13, 15, 23, 24, 27, 28.
887 Matt. x. 16.
888 John x. 27.
889 Luke xxiv. 39, 46, 47.
890 Matt. vii. 15, 16.
891 1 Cor. xi. 19.
892 John xiii. 34, 35.
893 2 Cor. xi. 26.
894 1 Cor. xi. 1.
895 Phil. ii. 20, 21.
896 2 Cor. vii. 5.
897 1 Cor. xiii. 1-8.
898 Eph. iv. 2, 3.
899 Matt. xiii. 38, 39, 30.
900 Gal. i. 8.
901 Ps. ci. 5.
902 Luke ix. 49, 50.
903 Phil. i. 15-18.
904 1 Cor. xiii. 6.
905 See below, xciv. 217, and c. Gaudentium, I. xxv. 28 sqq.
906 Rom. xiii. 4.
907 Augustine speaks of the Moor Rogatus, bishop of Cartenna in Mauritania Cæsariensis, in his ninety-third epistle, to Vincentius, c. iii. 11. We learn from the eighty-seventh epistle, to Emeritus, sec. 10, that the followers of Rogatus called the other Donatists Firmiani, because they had been subjected to much cruelty at their hands under the authority of Firmus.
908 Optatus of Thaumugade, the friend of Gildo.
909 Augustine mentions again in his thirty-fifth epistle, to Eusebius, sec. 3, that Hippo had received the Roman citizenship. His argument is that, even if not a native of the place, the deacon should have been safe from molestation wherever Roman laws prevailed.
910 Emphyteuticam. The land, therefore, was held under the emperors, and less absolutely in the power of the owner than if it had been freehold.
911 Augustine remonstrates with Crispinus on the point, Epist. lxvi.
912 John vi. 44.
913 See Ecclus. xv. 16, 17.
914 Matt. v. 10; 1 Pet. ii. 20.
915 Acts v. 29.
916 Prov. xiv. 28.
917 Luke xxiv. 46, 47.
918 Acts i. 8.
919 Ex. xxxii. 28, 31.
920 Mal. i. 11.
921 Ps. cxiii. 3.
922 Ps. l. 14.
923 1 John iii. 15.
924 Matt. iv. 6, 7.
925 John xviii. 10, 11; Matt. xxvi. 52.
926 Ps. cxx. 6, 7.
927 See Contr. Cresc. l. III. c. lxvii., l. IV. cc. lx. lxi.
928 John xii. 24.
929 Veracissime. Another reading is “feracissime,” “most abundantly.”
930 Matt. v. 39.
931 2 Cor. xi. 20, 23.
932 Deut. xix. 21.
933 2 Mac. vii.
934 Dan. iii.
935 Matt. ii. 16.
936 Dan. vi.
937 Matt. xxvii. 26.
938 1 Cor. ii. 6-8.
939 John xvi. 2.
940 1 Kings xxi.
941 Matt. xiv. 8, 9.
942 Matt. xxvii. 24-26.
943 Ps. ii.
944 Matt. xxvii. 24.
945 Some editions have Varius in the place of Geta, referring to Aurelius Antoninus Heliogabalus, of whom Lampridius asserts that he derived the name of Varius from the doubtfulness of his parentage. The MSS. agree, however, in the reading “Getano,” which was a name of the second son of Severus, the brother of Caracalla.
946 Optatus defends the cause of Macarius at great length in his third book against Parmenianus. Of Ursacius he says in the same place: “You are offended at the times of a certain Leontius, of Ursacius, Macarius, and others.” And Augustine, in his third book against Cresconius, c. xx., introduces an objection of the Donatists against himself: “But so soon as Silvanus, bishop of Cirta, had refused to communicate with Ursacius and Zenophilus the persecutors, he was driven into exile,” Usuardus, deceived by a false story made up by the Donatists, enters in his Martyrology that a pseudo-martyr Donatus suffered on the 1st of March, under Ursacius and Marcellinus, to this effect: “On the same day of the holy martyr Donatus, who suffered under Ursacius the judge and the tribune Marcellinus.”
947 1 Kings xxi.
948 Prov. xviii. 21.
949 Constitutio quam impetraverunt. Some editions have “quam dederunt Constantio;” but there is no place for Constantius in this history of the Donatists, nor was any boon either sought or obtained from him in their name. The Louvain editors therefore restored “constitutio,” which is the common reading of the MSS.
950 Matt. vii. 3.
951 Gen. xx.
952 Gen. xxvi. 11.
953 Gen. xlvii.
954 Gen. xxxix., xli.
955 Gen. xlii. 15.
956 Ex. ii. 10.
957 1 Sam. xxvii.
958 1 Kings xviii. 44-46.
959 2 Kings iv. 13.
960 Dan. iii.-vi.
961 John xvi. 2.
962 Phil. iii. 5, 6.
963 Acts xxiii. 12-33.
964 The reign of Constantine lasted about thirty-two years, from 306 to 337 A.D. Julian died, after an independent reign, subsequent to the death of Constantius, of only one year and seven months, at the age of thirty, in a war against the Persians, in 363 A.D.
965 Gen. ix. 5.
966 Ps. ii. 10-12.
967 Ps. ii. 7, 8.
968 Isa. ii. 18; Zech. xiii. 2.
969 Simulacri; and so the MSS. The older editions have “adorandi simulacra;” but the singular is more forcible in its special reference to the image on the plain of Dura. Dan. iii.
970 Dan. ii.-vi.
971 This is illustrated by the words of Augustine, Epist. 105, ad Donatistas, sec. 7: “Do ye not know that the words of the king were, ‘I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me. How great are His signs! and how mighty are His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion from generation to generation’ (Dan. iv. 2, 3)? Do you not, when you hear this, answer Amen, and by saying this in a loud voice, place your seal on the king’s decree by a holy and solemn act?” In the Gothic liturgy this declaration was made on Easter Eve (when the third chapter of Daniel is still read in the Roman Church), and the people answered “Amen.”
972 Nam nemo vivit invitus; et tamen puer ut hoc volens discat, invitus vapulat. Perhaps a better reading is, “Nam nemo vult invitus; et tamen puer ut volens discat,” etc., leaving out “hoc,” which is wanting in the Fleury MSS.: “No one wishes against his will; and yet a boy, wishing to learn, is beaten against his will.”
973 Gal. vi. 5.
974 Luke xxiv. 47.
975 Ps. cxviii. 8, 9.
976 Acts xxiii. 12-33.
977 Acts i. 8.
978 Matt. xvi. 26.
979 1 Pet. ii. 20.
980 Matt. v. 3.
981 2 Cor. vi. 10.
982 Matt. xvi. 25.
983 Matt. xix. 29.
984 1 Cor. xiii. 3.
985 Acts i. 8.
986 See above, c. lxxxiii.
987 Matt. x. 28.
988 Ps. lvii. 4.
989 Job xiv., according to the LXX.
990 Ps. li. 7.
991 Ps. cxviii. 8, 9.
992 Jer. xvii. 5.
993 Matt. xxiii. 25.
994 Jer. xv. 15-18, according to the LXX.
995 2 Cor. vii. 5.
996 2 Cor. xi. 29.
997 Rev. xvii. 15.
998 Acts viii. 13.
999 Col. i. 23.
1000 Ps. xciii. 1.
1001 Gildo.
1002 Ps. cxli. 5, from the LXX.
1003 Prov. xxvii. 6, from the LXX.
1004 Ps. cxxxiii.
1005 Compare Tract. 15 in Joannem, n. 27: “Messiah was anointed. The Greek for ‘anointed’ is ‘Christ,’ the Hebrew, Messiah; whence also in Phœnician we have ‘Messe’ for ‘anoint.’ For these languages, the Hebrew, Phœnician, and Syrian, are closely cognate, as well as geographically bordering on each other.” See also Max Müller’s Lectures on the Science of Language, series I. p. 267: “The ancient language of Phœnicia, to judge from inscriptions, was most closely allied to Hebrew.”
1006 Col. i. 18.
1007 Matt. xix. 21.
1008 Acts iv. 32-35.
1009 Luke xxiv. 47.
1010 Gal. v. 19-21.
1011 Apparently misquoted from 1 Sam. ii. 25.
1012 Col. iv. 2-4.
1013 1 John i. 8.
1014 Dan. vi. 16.
1015 Ezek. xiv. 14.
1016 Dan. ix. 20.
1017 Lev. xvi.; Heb. ix. 7.
1018 Acts xiv. 22.
1019 1 John ii. 1, 2.
1020 1 Tim. iv. 14.
1021 1 Tim. v. 22.
1022 See Rom. i. 32.
1023 Gal. v. 19-21.
1024 Matt. xvi. 18.
1025 Matt. vii. 26.
1026 Ps. lxi. 2, 3.
1027 That the Donatists were called at Rome Montenses, is observed by Augustine, de Hœresibus, c. xxix., and Epist. liii. 2; and before him by Optatus, Book II. That they were also called Cutzupitani, or Cutzupitæ, we learn from the same epistle, and from his treatise de Unitate Ecclesæ, c. iii.
1028 Lucilla.
1029 Possidius, in the third chapter of his Indiculus, designates this third book as “One book against the second letter of the same.”
1030 Ps. lii. 3.
1031 Ps. lxxxiv. 10.
1032 Nihil enim mihi conscius sum.
1033 1 Cor. iv. 1-6.
1034 1 Cor. iii. 21, 23.
1035 Jas. i. 17.
1036 1 Cor. iv. 7.
1037 1 Cor. iv. 16.
1038 Matt. xxiii. 3.
1039 Jer. xvii. 5.
1040 Matt. iii. 12.
1041 2 Tim. ii. 20.
1042 Matt. xiii. 47, 48.
1043 Matt. xxv. 32, 33.
1044 Matt. xiii. 24-40.
1045 1 Cor. i. 12, 13.
1046 2 Tim. ii. 19.
1047 Ps. xxvii. 14.
1048 1 Thess. v. 14, 15.
1049 2 Cor. xi. 2, 3.
1050 1 Cor. viii. 11.
1051 1 Cor. iii. 7.
1052 1 John iv. 16.
1053 Gal. vi. 4, 5.
1054 Rom. xiv. 12, 13.
1055 Gal. vi. 2, 3.
1056 Eph. iv. 2, 3.
1057 Matt. xii. 30.
1058 Gal. i. 8.
1059 Matt. v. 12.
1060 Cant. i. 3.
1061 Ps. lvii. 11.
1062 1 Cor. i. 30, 31.
1063 Matt. v. 10-12.
1064 Matt. x. 25.
1065 Ps. xxvi. 1.
1066 Ps. lvi. 11.
1067 Ps. xi. 1.
1068 1 Pet. iii. 21.
1069 Matt. xxiii. 2, 3.
1070 Some editors have “unitate,” but Amerbach and the MSS., “veritate;” and this is supported by sec. 28 below: “De ecclesiæ vel baptismi veritate;” and sec. 22 of the treatise de Unico Baptismo: “Ambulantibus in ecclesiæ veritate.”
1071 Ubi vobis faventibus loquatur, et victus verum simulans statum, talia vel etiam sceleratiora dicat in me. Mihi sat est ad rem, etc. Morel (Elem. Crit. pp. 326-328) suggests as an improvement, “Ubi vobis faventibus loquatur et victus. Verum si millies tantum talia vel etiam sceleratiora dicat in me, mihi sat est,” etc.,—“on which he may speak amidst applause from you, even when beaten. But if he were to make a thousand times as many statements concerning me,” etc.
1072 Eph. vi. 12.
1073 Eph. v. 8.
1074 2 Cor. vi. 7, 8.
1075 Luke vi. 35.
1076 Luke xxiii. 34.
1077 See above, Book I. c. i. sec. 2.
1078 Acts xxiv. 1.
1079 Paracleti.
1080 “Favente,” which is wanting in the mss., was inserted in the margin by Erasmus, as being needed to complete the sense.
1081 Megalius, bishop of Calama, primate of Numidia, was the bishop who ordained Augustine, as we find in c. viii. of his life by Possidius. Augustine makes further reply to the same calumny, which was gathered from a letter of Megalius, in Contra Cresconium, Book III. c. lxxx. sec. 92, and Book IV. c. lxiv. secs. 78, 79.
1082 Lente, ut dicitur, et bene. Morel (Element. Crit. pp. 140, 141) suggests as an amendment, “lene,” as suiting better with “lente.”
1083 See Book I. c. i. secs. 2, 3.
1084 Lactantius, Book V. c. xiv., tells us of the talents of Carneades, recording that when he was sent on an embassy to Rome by the Athenians, he spoke there first in defence of justice, and then on the following day in opposition to it; and that he was in the habit of speaking with such force on either side, as to be able to refute any arguments advanced by anybody else.
1085 Ter. Heaut. IV. iii. 41.
1086 In de Civ. Dei, Book II. c. xxi., Augustine mentions L. Furius Philus, one of the interlocutors in Cicero’s Laelus, as maintaining this same view. From the similarity of the name, it has been thought that here Furius and Pilus are only one man.
1087 The MSS. here and below have Protagoras. Both were atheists, according to Cicero, Nat. Deor. I. i. 2, and Lactantius, Book I. c. i.
1088 Ps. xiv. 1.
1089 See Book I. c. ii. sec. 3.
1090 See Book I. c. ii. sec. 3.
1091 Jer. xvii. 5.
1092 1 Cor. iii. 21.
1093 Ps. lxii. 1, 2.
1094 John i. 22.
1095 Matt. iii. 7.
1096 Wisd. i. 5.
1097 1 Tim. iii. 10.
1098 Book I. c. ii. sec. 2.
1099 Wisd. i. 5.
1100 The Council of Carthage, held on 13th September 401, passed a decree in favour of receiving the clergy of the Donatists with full recognition of their orders.
1101 Acts viii. 36.
1102 Jer. xv. 18. See Book II. c. cii. sec. 234, 235.
1103 Rev. xvii. 15.
1104 Ps. cxli. 5. See Book II. c. ciii. sec. 236, 237.
1105 1 John iv. 1.
1106 Matt. xvi. 16.
1107 Matt. viii. 29; Mark i. 24; Luke viii. 28.
1108 Wisd. i. 5.
1109 See Book I. c. x. sec. 11, 12.
1110 1 Cor. iii. 21, and i. 31.
1111 Rom. iv. 5.
1112 That of Bagai.
1113 Gal. vi. 5.
1114 See Possidius’ Life of St. Augustine, cc. v.-xi.
1115 See c. xlv. sec. 54.
1116 Rom. iv. 5.
1117 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7.
1118 John xv. 5.
1119 Rom. xii. 5.
1120 Book I. c. v. secs. 6, 7.
1121 Book I. c. vi. secs. 6, 7.
1122 Matt. vii. 17, 16.
1123 Matt. xii. 35.
1124 See Book I. cc. vii. viii. secs. 8, 9.
1125 1 Cor. xv. 13-15.
1126 See Book I. c. vi. sec. 7.
1127 See Book I. c. viii. sec. 9.
1128 Rom. ix. 5.
1129 Acts v. 3, 4.
1130 Matt. xxii. 30.
1131 Rom. iv. 5.
1132 John i. 33.
1133 Eph. v. 25, 26.
1134 Jer. xvii. 5.
1135 Ps. xl. 4.
1136 Matt. xxiii. 3.
1137 Matt. x. 23.
1138 Matt. vii. 17, 16.
1139 Matt. xii. 35.
1140 Ecclus. xxxiv. 25. See Book I. c. ix. sec. 10.
1141 Ps. cxviii. 8.
1142 Jer. xvii. 5.
1143 Ps. iii. 8.
1144 Ps. lx. 11.
1145 1 Cor. iii. 7.
1146 Rom. iv. 5.
1147 Ps. lxxii. 8.
1148 Ps. ii. 8.
1149 Gen. xxii. 18.
1150 Gal. iii. 16.
1151 Matt. xxiii. 3.
1152 1 Cor. i. 13.
1153 See Book I. cc. iii. iv. secs. 4, 5.
1154 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7.
1155 Gal. vi. 3.
1156 Ministri ejus cui credidistis. See 1 Cor. iii. 4, 5.
1157 Acts xv. 9.
1158 Rom. iv. 5.
1159 1 Cor. ix. 17.
1160 John iv. 2.
1161 John xii. 6.
1162 1 Cor. i. 17.
1163 1 Cor. iv. 15.
1164 1 Cor. i. 14.
1165 John iii. 5.
1166 Matt. v. 20.
1167 2 Tim. ii. 8.
1168 Acts xix. 3.
1169 Eph. v. 25, 26.
1170 See Book III. c. Cresconium, cc. xxvii. xxviii. secs. 30, 32.
1171 Matt. vii. 15, 16.
1172 See Book I. cc. xxi. xxii. secs. 23, 24.
1173 In Book II. c. xlviii. of his Retractations, Augustine says: “About the same time” (as that at which he wrote his treatise De Gestis Pelagii, i.e. about the year 417), “I wrote also a treatise De Correctione Donatistarum, for the sake of those who were not willing that the Donatists should be subjected to the correction of the imperial laws. This treatise begins with the words “Laudo, et gratulor, et admiror.” This letter in the old editions was No. 50,—the letter which is now No. 4 in the appendix being formerly No. 185.”
1174 Ps. xxii. 16-18, 27, 28.
1175 Ps. ii. 7, 8.
1176 Luke xxiv. 46, 47.
1177 John i. 1, 2.
1178 This epistle was produced in the fifth conference of the fifth Synod, when the point was under debate whether Theodorus of Mopsuesta could be condemned after his death.
1179 Ps. cxviii. 8.
1180 Gen. xxvi. 4.
1181 Mal. i. 11.
1182 Ps. lxxii. 8.
1183 Col. i. 6.
1184 Acts i. 8.
1185 In the Councils at Rome and Arles.
1186 This digest will be found in the 9th volume of Migne’s edition of Augustine’s Works, p. 613, etc.
1187 Dan. vi. 24.
1188 See Gal. vi. 9, 10.
1189 Dan. iii. 5, 29.
1190 Matt. v. 10.
1191 Gen. xvi. 6.
1192 1 Sam. xviii., xix., etc.
1193 Luke xxiii. 33.
1194 Discerne causam meam. The Eng. Vers. has “plead my cause against an ungodly nation.”
1195 Ps. xliii. 1.
1196 Ps. cxix. 86.
1197 Gal. iv. 22-31.
1198 Ps. xviii. 37.
1199 Luke iv. 9.
1200 Mark v. 13.
1201 Matt. xvii. 14.
1202 Matt. iii. 12.
1203 Ps. ii. 1, 2, 10, 11.
1204 2 Kings xviii. 4.
1205 2 Kings xxiii. 4, 5.
1206 Jonah iii. 6-9.
1207 Bel and Drag. vv. 22, 42.
1208 Dan. iii. 29.
1209 John xvi. 2.
1210 Ps. lxxii. 11.
1211 Ter. Adelph. I. i. 32, 33.
1212 This is not found in the extant plays of Terence.
1213 1 John iv. 18.
1214 Prov. xxix. 19.
1215 Prov. xxiii. 14.
1216 Prov. xiii. 24.
1217 Ps. xlii. 2.
1218 Phil. i. 23.
1219 John x. 15.
1220 Acts ix. 1-18.
1221 1 Cor. xv. 10.
1222 Accipiant: sc. the baptizer and the baptized; and so the MSS. The common reading is ‘accipiat.’
1223 2 Cor. x. 6.
1224 Luke xiv. 22, 23.
1225 1 Cor. i. 22.
1226 That of Carthage, held June 26, 401.
1227 The basilica of Fundus Calvianensis. See C. Crescon. iii. c. 43.
1228 Acts xxiii. 17-32.
1229 Acts xxii. 25.
1230 Acts xxv. 11.
1231 2 Tim. ii. 26.
1232 Ezek. xxxiv. 4.
1233 2 Sam. xviii. xxii.
1234 Cod. Theod. i. 52, de Hæreticis.
1235 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23.
1236 Acts iv. 32.
1237 Ps. cxxxiii. 1.
1238 2 Cor. xii. 14.
1239 Wisd. x. 20.
1240 Prov. xiii. 22.
1241 Rom. iv. 5.
1242 Rom. x. 3.
1243 1 Cor. iv. 7.
1244 Eph. v. 27.
1245 1 Cor. xv. 55, 56.
1246 Wisd. ix. 15.
1247 Matt. vi. 12.
1248 1 John i. 8, 9.
1249 1 Cor. xv. 54.
1250 1 John iii. 9.
1251 1 John i. 8.
1252 Rom. iii. 24.
1253 Wisd. v. 1.
1254 Rom. xii. 3-5.
1255 Luke xv. 32.
1256 Eph. iv. 3.
1257 1 Pet. iv. 8.
1258 1 Cor. xiii. 1-3.
1259 1 Cor. iii. 7.
1260 Pope Innocent I., in his 6th Epistle to Agapitus, Macedonius, and certain other bishops of Apulia, writes to the effect that “canons had been passed at Nicæa, excluding penitents from even the lowest orders of the ministry.”
1261 Matt. xvi. 19.
1262 Ps. cxxii. 6: Fiat pax in virtute tua. The English version is, “Peace be within thy walls.”
1263 Bishop of Calarita. Comp. De Agone Christiano, c. 30.
1264 The Bishop of Casæ Nigræ.
1265 The Council of Bagai.
1266 Matt. xii. 32.
1267 John xv. 22.
1268 John. xx. 22, 23.
1269 Rom. ii. 4, 5.
1270 1 Cor. xi. 29.
1271 1 Cor. x. 17.
1272 Eph. v. 23.
1273 Rom. v. 5.
1274 Jude 19.
1275 Wisd. i. 5.
The repetition of the title THE THREE BOOKS OF AUGUSTINE,etc. was removed on p230.