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| To the Donatists
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Letter LXXVI.
(a.d. 402.)
1. Hear, O Donatists, what the Catholic Church
says to you: “O ye sons of men, how long will ye be slow of
heart? why will ye love vanity, and follow after lies?”1954
Why have
you severed yourselves, by the heinous impiety of schism, from the
unity of the whole world? You give heed to the falsehoods
concerning the surrendering of the divine books to persecutors,
which men who are either deceiving you, or are themselves deceived,
utter in order that you may die in a state of heretical separation:
and you do not give heed to what these divine books themselves
proclaim, in order that you may live in the peace of the Catholic
Church. Wherefore do you lend an open ear to the words of men who
tell you things which they have never been able to prove, and are
deaf to the voice of God speaking thus: “The Lord hath said unto
me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and
I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the
uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession”?1955
“To
Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, ‘And
to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘And to thy seed,’
which is Christ.”1956
And the promise to which the
apostle refers is this: “In thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed.”1957
Therefore lift up the eyes of your
souls, and see how in the whole world all nations are blessed in
Abraham’s seed. Abraham, in his day, believed what was not yet
seen; but you who see it refuse to believe what has been
fulfilled.1958
| 1958 The original here is antithetical: “jam vos
videtis, et adhuc invidetis.” | The
Lord’s death was the ransom of the world; He paid the price for
the whole world; and you do not dwell in concord with the whole
world, as would be for your advantage, but stand apart and strive
contentiously to destroy the whole world, to your own loss. Hear
now what is said in the Psalm concerning this ransom: “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.”1959
Wherefore will you be guilty of
dividing the garments of the Lord, and not hold in common with the
whole world that coat of charity, woven from above throughout,
which even His executioners did not rend? In the same Psalm we read
that the whole world holds this, for he says: “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.”1960
Open the
ears of your soul, and hear: “The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth, from the
rising of the sun unto the going down thereof; out of Zion, the
perfection of beauty.”1961
If you do not wish to understand
this, hear the gospel from the Lord’s own lips, how He said:
“All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of
Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Him; and
that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His
name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”1962
The words
in the Psalm, “the earth from the rising of the sun unto the
going down thereof,” correspond to these in the Gospel, “among
all nations;” and as He said in the Psalm, “from Zion, the
perfection of beauty,” He has said in the Gospel, “beginning at
Jerusalem.”
2. Your imagination that you are separating
yourselves, before the time of the harvest, from the tares which
are mixed with the wheat, proves that you are only tares. For if
you were wheat, you would bear with the tares, and not separate
yourselves from that which is growing in Christ’s field. Of the
tares, indeed, it has been said, “Because iniquity shall abound,
the love of many shall wax cold;” but of the wheat it is said,
“He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”1963
What
grounds have you for believing that the tares have increased and
filled the world, and that the wheat has decreased, and is found
now in Africa alone? You claim to be Christians, and you disclaim
the authority of Christ. He said, “Let both grow together till
the harvest;” He said not, “Let the wheat decrease, and let the
tares multiply.” He said, “The field is the world;” He said
not, “The field is Africa.” He said, “The harvest is the end
of the world;” He said not, “The harvest is the time of
Donatus.” He said, “The reapers are the angels;” He said not,
“The reapers are the captains of the Circumcelliones.”1964
But you,
by charging the good wheat with being tares, have proved yourselves
to be tares; and what is worse, you have prematurely
separated yourselves from the wheat. For some of your predecessors,
in whose impious schism you obstinately remain, delivered up to
persecutors the sacred Mss. and the vessels
of the Church (as may be seen in municipal records1965
| 1965 Proceedings before Munatius Felix, Letter LIII.
sec. 4, p. 299. | ); others
of them passed over the fault which these men confessed, and
remained in communion with them; and both parties having come
together to Carthage as an infatuated faction, condemned others
without a hearing, on the charge of that fault which they had
agreed, so far as they themselves were concerned, to forgive, and
then set up a bishop against the ordained bishop, and erected an
altar against the altar already recognised. Afterwards they sent to
the Emperor Constantine a letter begging that bishops of churches
beyond the sea should be appointed to arbitrate between the bishops
of Africa. When the judges whom they sought were granted, and at
Rome had given their decision, they refused to submit to it, and
complained to the Emperor or against the bishops as having judged
unrighteously. From the sentence of another bench of bishops sent
to Arles to try the case, they appealed to the Emperor himself.
When he had heard them, and they had been proved guilty of calumny,
they still persisted in their wickedness. Awake to the interest of
your salvation! love peace, and return to unity! Whensoever you
desire it, we are ready to recite in detail the events to which we
have referred.
3. He is the associate of wicked men who
consents to the deeds of wicked men; not he who suffers the tares
to grow in the Lord’s field unto the harvest, or the chaff to
remain until the final winnowing time. If you hate those who do
evil, shake yourselves free from the crime of schism. If you really
feared to associate with the wicked, you would not for so many
years have permitted Optatus1966
| 1966 Optatus, Donatist bishop of Thamugada, was cast
into prison A.D. 397, and died there. He
was a partisan of Gildo in his rebellion against Honorius, and
shared the misfortunes, as he had participated in the crimes, of
his chief. | to remain among you when he was
living in the most flagrant sin. And as you now give him the name
of martyr, you must, if you are consistent, give him for whom he
died the name of Christ. Finally, wherein has the Christian world
offended you, from which you have insanely and wickedly cut
yourselves off? and what claim upon your esteem have those
followers of Maximianus, whom you have received back with honour
after they had been condemned by you, and violently cast forth by
warrant of the civil authorities from their churches? Wherein has
the peace of Christ offended you, that you resist it by separating
yourselves from those whom you calumniate? and wherein has the
peace of Donatus earned your favour, that to promote it you receive
back those whom you condemned? Felicianus of Musti is now one of
you. We have read concerning him, that he was formerly condemned by
your council, and afterwards accused by you at the bar of the
proconsul, and in the town of Musti was attacked as is stated in
the municipal records.
4. If the surrendering of the sacred books to
destruction is a crime which, in the case of the king who burned
the book of Jeremiah, God punished with death as a prisoner of
war,1967
how much
greater is the guilt of schism! For those authors of schism to whom
you have compared the followers of Maximianus, the earth opening,
swallowed up alive.1968
Why, then, do you object against
us the charge of surrendering the sacred books which you do not
prove, and at the same time both condemn and welcome back those
among yourselves who are schismatics? If you are proved to be in
the right by the fact that you have suffered persecution from the
Emperor, a still stronger claim than yours must be that of the
followers of Maximianus, whom you have yourselves persecuted by the
help of judges sent to you by Catholic emperors. If you alone have
baptism, what weight do you attach to the baptism administered by
followers of Maximianus in the case of those whom Felicianus
baptized while he was under your sentence of condemnation, who came
along with him when he was afterwards restored by you? Let your
bishops answer these questions to your laity at least, if they will
not debate with us; and do you, as you value your salvation,
consider what kind of doctrine that must be about which they refuse
to enter into discussion with us. If the wolves have prudence
enough to keep out of the way of the shepherds, why have the flock
so lost their prudence, that they go into the dens of the
wolves?
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