Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| To Vincentius
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Letter XCIII.
(a.d. 408.)
To Vincentius, My Brother Dearly
Beloved, Augustin Sends Greeting.
Chap. I.
1. I have received a letter which I believe to
be from you to me: at least I have not thought this incredible, for
the person who brought it is one whom I know to be a Catholic
Christian, and who, I think, would not dare to impose upon me. But
even though the letter may perchance not be from you, I have
considered it necessary to write a reply to the author, whoever he
may be. You know me now to be more desirous of rest, and earnest in
seeking it, than when you knew me in my earlier years at Carthage,
in the lifetime of your immediate predecessor Rogatus. But we are
precluded from this rest by the Donatists, the repression and
correction of whom, by the powers which are ordained of God,
appears to me to be labour not in vain. For we already rejoice in
the correction of many who hold and defend the Catholic unity with
such sincerity, and are so glad to have been delivered from their
former error, that we admire them with great thankfulness and
pleasure. Yet these same persons, under some indescribable bondage
of custom, would in no way have thought of being changed to a
better condition, had they not, under the shock of this alarm,
directed their minds earnestly to the study of the truth; fearing
lest, if without profit, and in vain, they suffered hard things at
the hands of men, for the sake not of righteousness, but of their
own obstinacy and presumption, they should afterwards receive
nothing else at the hand of God than the punishment due to wicked
men who despised the admonition which He so gently gave and His
paternal correction; and being by such reflection made teachable,
they found not in mischievous or frivolous human fables, but in the
promises of the divine books, that universal Church which they saw
extending according to the promise throughout all nations: just as,
on the testimony of prophecy in the same Scriptures, they believed
without hesitation that Christ is exalted above the heavens, though
He is not seen by them in His glory. Was it my duty to be
displeased at the salvation of these men, and to call back my
colleagues from a fatherly diligence of this kind, the result of
which has been, that we see many blaming their former blindness?
For they see that they were blind who believed Christ to have been
exalted above the heavens although they saw Him not, and yet denied
that His glory is spread over all the earth although they saw it;
whereas the prophet has with so great plainness included both in
one sentence, “Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Thy
glory above all the earth.”2141
2. Wherefore, if we were so to overlook and forbear
with those cruel enemies who seriously disturb our peace and
quietness by manifold and grievous forms of violence and treachery,
as that nothing at all should be contrived and done by us with a
view to alarm and correct them, truly we would be rendering evil
for evil. For if any one saw his enemy running headlong to destroy
himself when he had become delirious through a dangerous fever,
would he not in that case be much more truly rendering evil for
evil if he permitted him to run on thus, than if he took measures
to have him seized and bound? And yet he would at that moment
appear to the other to be most vexatious, and most like an enemy,
when, in truth, he had proved himself most useful and most
compassionate; although, doubtless, when health was recovered,
would he express to him his gratitude with a warmth proportioned to
the measure in which he had felt his refusal to indulge him in his
time of phrenzy. Oh, if I could but show you how many we have even
from the Circumcelliones, who are now approved Catholics, and
condemn their former life, and the wretched delusion under which
they believed that they were doing in behalf of the Church of God
whatever they did under the promptings of a restless temerity, who
nevertheless would not have been brought to this soundness of
judgment had they not been, as persons beside themselves, bound
with the cords of those laws which are distasteful to you! As to
another form of most serious distemper,—that, namely, of those
who had not, indeed, a boldness leading to acts of violence, but
were pressed down by a kind of inveterate sluggishness of mind, and
would say to us: “What you affirm is true, nothing can be said
against it; but it is hard for us to leave off what we have
received, by tradition from our fathers,”—why should not such
persons be shaken up in a beneficial way by a law bringing upon
them inconvenience in worldly things, in order that they might rise
from their lethargic sleep, and awake to the salvation which is to be found in
the unity of the Church? How many of them, now rejoicing with us,
speak bitterly of the weight with which their ruinous course
formerly oppressed them, and confess that it was our duty to
inflict annoyance upon them, in order to prevent them from
perishing under the disease of lethargic habit, as under a fatal
sleep!
3. You will say that to some these remedies
are of no service. Is the art of healing, therefore, to be
abandoned, because the malady of some is incurable? You look only
to the case of those who are so obdurate that they refuse even such
correction. Of such it is written, “In vain have I smitten your
children: they received no correction:”2142
and yet I suppose that those of
whom the prophet speaks were smitten in love, not from hatred. But
you ought to consider also the very large number over whose
salvation we rejoice. For if they were only made afraid, and not
instructed, this might appear to be a kind of inexcusable tyranny.
Again, if they were instructed only, and not made afraid, they
would be with more difficulty persuaded to embrace the way of
salvation, having become hardened through the inveteracy of custom:
whereas many whom we know well, when arguments had been brought
before them, and the truth made apparent by testimonies from the
word of God, answered us that they desired to pass into the
communion of the Catholic Church, but were in fear of the violence
of worthless men, whose enmity they would incur; which violence
they ought indeed by all means to despise when it was to be borne
for righteousness’ sake, and for the sake of eternal life.
Nevertheless the weakness of such men ought not to be regarded as
hopeless, but to be supported until they gain more strength. Nor
may we forget what the Lord Himself said to Peter when he was yet
weak: “Thou canst not follow Me now, but thou shall follow Me
afterwards.”2143
When,
however, wholesome instruction is added to means of inspiring
salutary fear, so that not only the light of truth may dispel the
darkness of error, but the force of fear may at the same time break
the bonds of evil custom, we are made glad, as I have said, by the
salvation of many, who with us bless God, and render thanks to Him,
because by the fulfilment of His covenant, in which He promised
that the kings of the earth should serve Christ, He has thus cured
the diseased and restored health to the weak.
Chap. II.
4. Not every one who is indulgent is a friend;
nor is every one an enemy who smites. Better are the wounds of a
friend than the proffered kisses of an enemy.2144
It is better with severity to
love, than with gentleness to deceive. More good is done by taking
away food from one who is hungry, if, through freedom from care as
to his food, he is forgetful of righteousness, than by providing
bread for one who is hungry, in order that, being thereby bribed,
he may consent to unrighteousness. He who binds the man who is in a
phrenzy, and he who stirs up the man who is in a lethargy, are
alike vexatious to both, and are in both cases alike prompted by
love for the patient. Who can love us more than God does? And yet
He not only give us sweet instruction, but also quickens us by
salutary fear, and this unceasingly. Often adding to the soothing
remedies by which He comforts men the sharp medicine of
tribulation, He afflicts with famine even the pious and devout
patriarchs,2145
| 2145 Gen.
xii., xxvi., xlii., and xliii. | disquiets
a rebellious people by more severe chastisements, and refuses,
though thrice besought, to take away the thorn in the flesh of the
apostle, that He may make His strength perfect in weakness.2146
Let us by
all means love even our enemies, for this is right, and God
commands us so to do, in order that we may be the children of our
Father who is in heaven, “who maketh His sun to rise on the evil
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the
unjust.”2147
But as we
praise these His gifts, lets us in like manner ponder His
correction of those whom He loves.
5. You are of opinion that no one should be
compelled to follow righteousness; and yet you read that the
householder said to his servants, “Whomsoever ye shall find,
compel them to come in.”2148
You also read how he who was at
first Saul, and afterwards Paul, was compelled, by the great
violence with which Christ coerced him, to know and to embrace the
truth; for you cannot but think that the light which your eyes
enjoy is more precious to men than money or any other possession.
This light, lost suddenly by him when he was cast to the ground by
the heavenly voice, he did not recover until he became a member of
the Holy Church. You are also of opinion that no coercion is to be
used with any man in order to his deliverance from the fatal
consequences of error; and yet you see that, in examples which
cannot be disputed, this is done by God, who loves us with more
real regard for our profit than any other can; and you hear Christ
saying, “No man can come to me except the Father draw him,”2149
which is
done in the hearts of all those who, through fear of the wrath of
God, betake themselves to Him. You know also that sometimes the
thief scatters food before the flock that he may lead them
astray, and sometimes
the shepherd brings wandering sheep back to the flock with his
rod.
6. Did not Sarah, when she had the power,
choose rather to afflict the insolent bondwoman? And truly she did
not cruelly hate her whom she had formerly by an act of her own
kindness made a mother; but she put a wholesome restraint upon her
pride.2150
Moreover,
as you well know, these two women, Sarah and Hagar, and their two
sons Isaac and Ishmael, are figures representing spiritual and
carnal persons. And although we read that the bondwoman and her son
suffered great hardships from Sarah, nevertheless the Apostle Paul
says that Isaac suffered persecution from Ishmael: “But as then
he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after
the Spirit, even so it is now;”2151
whence those who have
understanding may perceive that it is rather the Catholic Church
which suffers persecution through the pride and impiety of those
carnal men whom it endeavours to correct by afflictions and terrors
of a temporal kind. Whatever therefore the true and rightful Mother
does, even when something severe and bitter is felt by her children
at her hands, she is not rendering evil for evil, but is applying
the benefit of discipline to counteract the evil of sin, not with
the hatred which seeks to harm, but with the love which seeks to
heal. When good and bad do the same actions and suffer the same
afflictions, they are to be distinguished not by what they do or
suffer, but by the causes of each: e.g. Pharaoh oppressed
the people of God by hard bondage; Moses afflicted the same people
by severe correction when they were guilty of impiety:2152
| 2152 Ex. v. 9 and xxxii. 27. | their
actions were alike; but they were not alike in the motive of regard
to the people’s welfare,—the one being inflated by the lust of
power, the other inflamed by love. Jezebel slew prophets, Elijah
slew false prophets;2153
I suppose that the desert of the
actors and of the sufferers respectively in the two cases was
wholly diverse.
7. Look also to the New Testament times, in
which the essential gentleness of love was to be not only kept in
the heart, but also manifested openly: in these the sword of Peter
is called back into its sheath by Christ, and we are taught that it
ought not to be taken from its sheath even in Christ’s defence.2154
We read,
however, not only that the Jews beat the Apostle Paul, but also
that the Greeks beat Sosthenes, a Jew, on account of the Apostle
Paul.2155
Does not
the similarity of the events apparently join both; and, at the same
time, does not the dissimilarity of the causes make a real
difference? Again, God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him
up2156
for us
all.2157
Of the Son
also it is said, “who loved me, and gave Himself2158
for
me;”2159
and it is
also said of Judas that Satan entered into him that he might
betray2160
Christ.2161
Seeing,
therefore, that the Father delivered up His Son, and Christ
delivered up His own body, and Judas delivered up his Master,
wherefore is God holy and man guilty in this delivering up of
Christ, unless that in the one action which both did, the reason
for which they did it was not the same? Three crosses stood in one
place: on one was the thief who was to be saved; on the second, the
thief who was to be condemned; on the third, between them, was
Christ, who was about to save the one thief and condemn the other.
What could be more similar than these crosses? what more unlike
than the persons who were suspended on them? Paul was given up to
be imprisoned and bound,2162
but Satan is unquestionably worse
than any gaoler: yet to him Paul himself gave up one man for the
destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day
of the Lord Jesus.2163
And what say we to this? Behold,
both deliver a man to bondage; but he that is cruel consigns his
prisoner to one less severe, while he that is compassionate
consigns his to one who is more cruel. Let us learn, my brother, in
actions which are similar to distinguish the intentions of the
agents; and let us not, shutting our eyes, deal in groundless
reproaches, and accuse those who seek men’s welfare as if they
did them wrong. In like manner, when the same apostle says that he
had delivered certain persons unto Satan, that they might learn not
to blaspheme,2164
did he
render to these men evil for evil, or did he not rather esteem it a
good work to correct evil men by means of the evil one?
8. If to suffer persecution were in all cases
a praiseworthy thing, it would have sufficed for the Lord to say,
“Blessed are they which are persecuted,” without adding “for
righteousness’ sake.”2165
Moreover, if to inflict
persecution were in all cases blameworthy, it would not have been
written in the sacred books, “Whoso privily slandereth his
neighbour, him will I persecute [cut off, E.V.].”2166
In some
cases, therefore, both he that suffers persecution is in the wrong,
and he that inflicts it is in the right. But the truth is, that
always both the bad have persecuted the good, and the good have persecuted
the bad: the former doing harm by their unrighteousness, the latter
seeking to do good by the administration of discipline; the former
with cruelty, the latter with moderation; the former impelled by
lust, the latter under the constraint of love. For he whose aim is
to kill is not careful how he wounds, but he whose aim is to cure
is cautious with his lancet; for the one seeks to destroy what is
sound, the other that which is decaying. The wicked put prophets to
death; prophets also put the wicked to death. The Jews scourged
Christ; Christ also scourged the Jews. The apostles were given up
by men to the civil powers; the apostles themselves gave men up to
the power of Satan. In all these cases, what is important to attend
to but this: who were on the side of truth, and who on the side of
iniquity; who acted from a desire to injure, and who from a desire
to correct what was amiss?
Chap. III.
9. You say that no example is found in the
writings of evangelists and apostles, of any petition presented on
behalf of the Church to the kings of the earth against her enemies.
Who denies this? None such is found. But at that time the prophecy,
“Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of
the earth: serve the Lord with fear,” was not yet fulfilled. Up
to that time the words which we find at the beginning of the same
Psalm were receiving their fulfilment, “Why do the heathen rage,
and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set
themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord,
and against His Anointed.”2167
| 2167 Ps. ii. 10, 11, 1, 2. | Truly, if past events recorded in
the prophetic books were figures of the future, there was given
under King Nebuchadnezzar a figure both of the time which the
Church had under the apostles, and of that which she has now. In
the age of the apostles and martyrs, that was fulfilled which was
prefigured when the aforesaid king compelled pious and just men to
bow down to his image, and cast into the flames all who refused.
Now, however, is fulfilled that which was prefigured soon after in
the same king, when, being converted to the worship of the true
God, he made a decree throughout his empire, that whosoever should
speak against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, should
suffer the penalty which their crime deserved. The earlier time of
that king represented the former age of emperors who did not
believe in Christ, at whose hands the Christians suffered because
of the wicked; but the later time of that king represented the age
of the successors to the imperial throne, now believing in Christ,
at whose hands the wicked suffer because of the
Christians.
10. It is manifest, however, that moderate
severity, or rather clemency, is carefully observed towards those
who, under the Christian name, have been led astray by perverse
men, in the measures used to prevent them who are Christ’s sheep
from wandering, and to bring them back to the flock, when by
punishments, such as exile and fines, they are admonished to
consider what they suffer, and wherefore, and are taught to prefer
the Scriptures which they read to human legends and calumnies. For
which of us, yea, which of you, does not speak well of the laws
issued by the emperors against heathen sacrifices? In these,
assuredly, a penalty much more severe has been appointed, for the
punishment of that impiety is death. But in repressing and
restraining you, the thing aimed at has been rather that you should
be admonished to depart from evil, than that you should be punished
for a crime. For perhaps what the apostle said of the Jews may be
said of you: “bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge: for, being ignorant of the
righteousness of God, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, they have not submitted themselves to the
righteousness of God.”2168
For what else than your own
righteousness are you desiring to establish, when you say that none
are justified but those who may have had the opportunity of being
baptized by you? In regard to this statement made by the apostle
concerning the Jews, you differ from those to whom it originally
applied in this, that you have the Christian sacraments, of which
they are still destitute. But in regard to the words, “being
ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness,” and “they have a zeal of God, but not
according to knowledge,” you are exactly like them, excepting
only those among you who know what is the truth, and who in the
wilfulness of their perversity continue to fight against truth
which is perfectly well known to them. The impiety of these men is
perhaps even a greater sin than idolatry. Since, however, they
cannot be easily convicted of this (for it is a sin which lies
concealed in the mind), you are all alike restrained with a
comparatively gentle severity, as being not so far alienated from
us. And this I may say, both concerning all heretics without
distinction, who, while retaining the Christian sacraments, are
dissenters from the truth and unity of Christ, and concerning all
Donatists without exception.
11. But as for you, who are not only, in common with
these last, styled Donatists, from Donatus, but also specially
named Rogatists, from Rogatus, you indeed seem to be more gentle in
disposition,
because you do not rage up and down with bands of these savage
Circumcelliones: but no wild beast is said to be gentle if, because
of its not having teeth and claws, it wounds no one. You say that
you have no wish to be cruel: I think that power, not will is
wanting to you. For you are in number so few, that even if you
desire it, you dare not move against the multitudes which are
opposed to you. Let us suppose, however, that you do not wish to do
that which you have not strength to do; let us suppose that the
gospel rule, “If any man will sue thee at the law and take away
thy coat, let him have thy cloak also,”2169
is so understood and obeyed by you
that resistance to those who persecute you is unlawful, whether
they have right or wrong on their side. Rogatus, the founder of
your sect, either did not hold this view, or was guilty of
inconsistency; for he fought with the keenest determination in a
lawsuit about certain things which, according to your statement,
belonged to you. If to him it had been said, Which of the apostles
ever defended his property in a matter concerning faith by appeal
to the civil courts? as you have put the question in your letter,
“Which of the apostles ever invaded the property of other men in
a matter concerning faith?” he could not find any example of this
in the Divine writings; but he might perhaps have found some true
defence if he had not separated himself from the true Church, and
then audaciously claimed to hold in the name of the true Church the
disputed possession.
Chap. IV.
12. As to the obtaining or putting in force of
edicts of the powers of this world against schismatics and
heretics, those from whom you separated yourselves were very active
in this matter, both against you, so far as we have heard, and
against the followers of Maximianus, as we prove by the
indisputable evidence of their own Records; but you had not yet
separated yourselves from them at the time when in their petition
they said to the Emperor Julian that “nothing but righteousness
found a place with him,”—a man whom all the while they knew to
be an apostate, and whom they saw to be so given over to idolatry,
that they must either admit idolatry to be righteousness, or be
unable to deny that they had wickedly lied when they said that
nothing but righteousness had a place with him with whom they saw
that idolatry had so large a place. Grant, however, that that was a
mistake in the use of words, what say you as to the deed itself? If
not even that which is just is to be sought by appeal to an
emperor, why was that which was by you supposed to be just sought
from Julian?
13. Do you reply that it is lawful to petition
the Emperor in order to recover what is one’s own, but not lawful
to accuse another in order that he may be coerced by the Emperor? I
may remark, in passing, that in even petitioning for the recovery
of what is one’s own, the ground covered by apostolic example is
abandoned, because no apostle is found to have ever done this. But
apart from this, when your predecessors brought before the Emperor
Constantine, by means of the proconsul Anulinus, their accusations
against Cæcilianus, who was then bishop of Carthage, with whom as
a guilty person they refused to have communion, they were not
endeavouring to recover something of their own which they had lost,
but were by calumnies assailing one who was, as we think, and as
the issue of the judicial proceedings showed, an innocent man; and
what more heinous crime could have been perpetrated by them than
this? If, however, as you erroneously suppose, they did in his case
deliver up to the judgment of the civil powers a man who was indeed
guilty, why do you object to our doing that which your own party
first presumed to do, and for doing which we would not find fault
with them, if they had done it not with an envious desire to do
harm, but with the intention of reproving and correcting what was
wrong. But we have no hesitation in finding fault with you, who
think that we are criminal in bringing any complaint before a
Christian emperor against the enemies of our communion, seeing that
a document given by your predecessors to Anulinus the proconsul, to
be forwarded by him to the Emperor Constantine, bore this
superscription: “Libellus Ecclesiæ Catholicæ, criminum
Cæciliani, traditus a parte Majorini.”2170
| 2170 See Letter LXXXVIII. § 2. | We find fault, moreover, with them
more particularly, because when they had of their own accord gone
to the Emperor with accusations against Cæcilianus, which they
ought by all means to have in the first place proved before those
who were his colleagues beyond the sea, and when the Emperor,
acting in a much more orderly way than they had done, referred to
bishops the decision of this case pertaining to bishops which had
been brought before him, they, even when defeated by a decision
against them, would not come to peace with their brethren. Instead
of this, they next accused at the bar of the temporal sovereign,
not Cæcilianus only, but also the bishops who had been appointed
judges; and finally, from a second episcopal tribunal they appealed
to the Emperor again. Nor did they consider it their duty to yield
either to truth or to peace when he himself inquired into the case
and gave his decision.
14. Now what else could Constantine have
decreed against Cæcilianus and his friends, if they had been
defeated when your predecessors accused them, than the things
decreed against the very men who, having of their own accord
brought the accusations, and having failed to prove what they
alleged, refused even when defeated to acquiesce in the truth? The
Emperor, as you know, in that case decreed for the first time that
the property of those who were convicted of schism and obstinately
resisted the unity of the Church should be confiscated. If,
however, the issue had been that your predecessors who brought the
accusations had gained their case, and the Emperor had made some
such decree against the communion to which Cæcilianus belonged,
you would have wished the emperors to be called the friends of the
Church’s interests, and the guardians of her peace and unity. But
when such things are decreed by emperors against the parties who,
having of their own accord brought forward accusations, were unable
to substantiate them, and who, when a welcome back to the bosom of
peace was offered to them on condition of their amendment, refused
the terms, an outcry is raised that this is an unworthy wrong, and
it is maintained that no one ought to be coerced to unity, and that
evil should not be requited for evil to any one. What else is this
than what one of yourselves wrote: “What we wish is holy”?2171
| 2171 “Quod volumus sanctum est.”—Tychonius. | And in
view of these things, it was not a great or difficult thing for you
to reflect and discover how the decree and sentence of Constantine,
which was published against you on the occasion of your
predecessors so frequently bringing before the Emperor charges
which they could not make good, should be in force against you; and
how all succeeding emperors, especially those who are Catholic
Christians, necessarily act according to it as often as the
exigencies of your obstinacy make it necessary for them to take any
measures in regard to you.
15. It was an easy thing for you to have
reflected on these things, and perhaps some time to have said to
yourselves: Seeing that Cæcilianus either was innocent, or at
least could not be proved guilty, what sin has the Christian Church
spread so far and wide through the world committed in this matter?
On what ground could it be unlawful for the Christian world to
remain ignorant of that which even those who made it matter of
accusation against others could not prove? Why should those whom
Christ has sown in His field, that is, in this world, and has
commanded to grow alongside of the tares until the harvest,2172
—those
many thousands of believers in all nations, whose multitude the
Lord compared to the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea, to
whom He promised of old, and has now given, the blessing in the
seed of Abraham,—why, I ask, should the name of Christians be
denied to all these, because, forsooth, in regard to this case, in
the discussion of which they took no part, they preferred to
believe the judges, who under grave responsibility gave their
decision, rather than the plaintiffs, against whom the decision was
given? Surely no man’s crime can stain with guilt another who
does not know of its commission. How could the faithful, scattered
throughout the world, be cognisant of the crime of surrendering the
sacred books as committed by men, whose guilt their accusers, even
if they knew it, were at least unable to prove? Unquestionably this
one fact of ignorance on their part most easily demonstrates that
they had no share in the guilt of this crime. Why then should the
innocent be charged with crimes which they never committed, because
of their being ignorant of crimes which, justly or unjustly, are
laid to the charge of others? What room is left for innocence, if
it is criminal for one to be ignorant of the crimes of others?
Moreover, if the mere fact of their ignorance proves, as has been
said, the innocence of the people in so many nations, how great is
the crime of separation from the communion of these innocent
people! For the deeds of guilty parties which either cannot be
proved to those who are innocent, or cannot be believed by them,
bring no stain upon any one, since, even when known, they are borne
with in order to preserve fellowship with those who are innocent.
For the good are not to be deserted for the sake of the wicked, but
the wicked are to be borne with for the sake of the good; as the
prophets bore with those against whom they delivered such
testimonies, and did not cease to take part in the sacraments of
the Jewish people; as also our Lord bore with guilty Judas, even
until he met the end which he deserved, and permitted him to take
part in the sacred supper along with the innocent disciples; as the
apostles bore with those who preached Christ through envy,—a sin
peculiarly satanic;2173
as Cyprian bore with colleagues
guilty of avarice, which, after the example of the apostle,2174
he calls
idolatry. In fine, whatever was done at that time among these
bishops, although perhaps it was known by some of them, is, unless
there be respect of persons in judgment, unknown to all: why, then,
is not peace loved by all? These thoughts might easily occur to
you; perhaps you already entertain them. But it would be better for
you to be devoted to earthly possessions, through fear of losing
which you might be proved to consent to
known truth, than to be devoted to that
worthless vainglory which you think you will by such consent
forfeit in the estimation of men.
Chap. V.
16. You now see therefore, I suppose, that the thing
to be considered when any one is coerced, is not the mere fact of
the coercion, but the nature of that to which he is coerced,
whether it be good or bad: not that any one can be good in spite of
his own will, but that, through fear of suffering what he does not
desire, he either renounces his hostile prejudices, or is compelled
to examine truth of which he had been contentedly ignorant; and
under the influence of this fear repudiates the error which he was
wont to defend, or seeks the truth of which he formerly knew
nothing, and now willingly holds what he formerly rejected. Perhaps
it would be utterly useless to assert this in words, if it were not
demonstrated by so many examples. We see not a few men here and
there, but many cities, once Donatist, now Catholic, vehemently
detesting the diabolical schism, and ardently loving the unity of
the Church; and these became Catholic under the influence of that
fear which is to you so offensive by the laws of emperors, from
Constantine, before whom your party of their own accord impeached
Cæcilianus, down to the emperors of our own time, who most justly
decree that the decision of the judge whom your own party chose,
and whom they preferred to a tribunal of bishops, should be
maintained in force against you.
17. I have therefore yielded to the evidence
afforded by these instances which my colleagues have laid before
me. For originally my opinion was, that no one should be coerced
into the unity of Christ, that we must act only by words, fight
only by arguments, and prevail by force of reason, lest we should
have those whom we knew as avowed heretics feigning themselves to
be Catholics. But this opinion of mine was overcome not by the
words of those who controverted it, but by the conclusive instances
to which they could point. For, in the first place, there was set
over against my opinion my own town, which, although it was once
wholly on the side of Donatus, was brought over to the Catholic
unity by fear of the imperial edicts, but which we now see filled
with such detestation of your ruinous perversity, that it would
scarcely be believed that it had ever been involved in your error.
There were so many others which were mentioned to me by name, that,
from facts themselves, I was made to own that to this matter the
word of Scripture might be understood as applying: “Give
opportunity to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser.”2175
For how
many were already, as we assuredly know, willing to be Catholics,
being moved by the indisputable plainness of truth, but daily
putting off their avowal of this through fear of offending their
own party! How many were bound, not by truth—for you never
pretended to that as yours—but by the heavy chains of inveterate
custom, so that in them was fulfilled the divine saying: “A
servant (who is hardened) will not be corrected by words; for
though he understand, he will not answer”!2176
How many supposed the sect of
Donatus to be the true Church, merely because ease had made them
too listless, or conceited, or sluggish, to take pains to examine
Catholic truth! How many would have entered earlier had not the
calumnies of slanderers, who declared that we offered something
else than we do upon the altar of God, shut them out! How many,
believing that it mattered not to which party a Christian might
belong, remained in the schism of Donatus only because they had
been born in it, and no one was compelling them to forsake it and
pass over into the Catholic Church!
18. To all these classes of persons the dread of
those laws in the promulgation of which kings serve the Lord in
fear has been so useful, that now some say we were willing for this
some time ago; but thanks be to God, who has given us occasion for
doing it at once, and has cut off the hesitancy of procrastination!
Others say: We already knew this to be true, but we were held
prisoners by the force of old custom: thanks be to the Lord, who
has broken these bonds asunder, and has brought us into the bond of
peace! Others say: We knew not that the truth was here, and we had
no wish to learn it; but fear made us become earnest to examine it
when we became alarmed, lest, without any gain in things eternal,
we should be smitten with loss in temporal things: thanks be to the
Lord, who has by the stimulus of fear startled us from our
negligence, that now being disquieted we might inquire into those
things which, when at ease, we did not care to know! Others say: We
were prevented from entering the Church by false reports, which we
could not know to be false unless we entered it; and we would not
enter unless we were compelled: thanks be to the Lord, who by His
scourge took away our timid hesitation, and taught us to find out
for ourselves how vain and absurd were the lies which rumour had
spread abroad against His Church: by this we are persuaded that
there is no truth in the accusations made by the authors of this
heresy, since the more serious charges which their followers have
invented are without foundation. Others say: We thought, indeed,
that it mattered not in what communion we held the faith of Christ;
but thanks to the Lord, who has gathered us in from a state of schism, and has
taught us that it is fitting that the one God be worshipped in
unity.
19. Could I therefore maintain opposition to
my colleagues, and by resisting them stand in the way of such
conquests of the Lord, and prevent the sheep of Christ which were
wandering on your mountains and hills—that is, on the swellings
of your pride—from being gathered into the fold of peace, in
which there is one flock and one Shepherd?2177
Was it my duty to obstruct these
measures, in order, forsooth, that you might not lose what you call
your own, and might without fear rob Christ of what is His: that
you might frame your testaments according to Roman law, and might
by calumnious accusations break the Testament made with the
sanction of Divine law to the fathers, in which it was written,
“In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed”:2178
that you
might have freedom in your transactions in the way of buying and
selling, and might be emboldened to divide and claim as your own
that which Christ bought by giving Himself as its price: that any
gift made over by one of you to another might remain unchallenged,
and that the gift which the God of gods has bestowed upon His
children, called from the rising of the sun to the going down
thereof,2179
might
become invalid: that you might not be sent into exile from the land
of your natural birth, and that you might labour to banish Christ
from the kingdom bought with His blood, which extends from sea to
sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth?2180
Nay
verily; let the kings of the earth serve Christ by making laws for
Him and for His cause. Your predecessors exposed Cæcilianus and
his companions to be punished by the kings of the earth for crimes
with which they were falsely charged: let the lions now be turned
to break in pieces the bones of the calumniators, and let no
intercession for them be made by Daniel when he has been proved
innocent, and set free from the den in which they meet their
doom;2181
for he
that prepareth a pit for his neighbour shall himself most justly
fall into it.2182
Chap. VI.
20. Save yourself therefore, my brother, while
you have this present life, from the wrath which is to come on the
obstinate and the proud. The formidable power of the authorities of
this world, when it assails the truth, gives glorious opportunity
of probation to the strong, but puts dangerous temptation before
the weak who are righteous; but when it assists the proclamation of
the truth, it is the means of profitable admonition to the wise,
and of unprofitable vexation to the foolish among those who have
gone astray. “For there is no power but of God: whosoever
therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; for
rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou
then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou
shalt have praise of the same.”2183
For if the power be on the side of
the truth, and correct any one who was in error, he that is put
right by the correction has praise from the power. If, on the other
hand, the power be unfriendly to the truth, and cruelly persecute
any one, he who is crowned victor in this contest receives praise
from the power which he resists. But you do not that which is good,
so as to avoid being afraid of the power; unless perchance this is
good, to sit and speak against not one brother,2184
but against all your brethren that
are found among all nations, to whom the prophets, and Christ, and
the apostles bear witness in the words of Scripture, “In thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;” and again,
“From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same,
a pure offering shall be offered unto My name; for My name shall be
great among the heathen, saith the Lord.”2185
Mark this: “saith the Lord;”
not saith Donatus, or Rogatus, or Vincentius, or Ambrose, or
Augustin, but “saith the Lord;” and again, “All tribes of the
earth shall be blessed in Him, and all nations shall call Him
blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth
wondrous things; and blessed be His glorious name for ever, and the
whole earth shall be filled with His glory: so let it be, so let it
be.”2186
And you
sit at Cartennæ, and with a remnant of half a score of Rogatists
you say, “Let it not be! Let it not be!”
21. You hear Christ speaking thus in the
Gospel: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the
law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning
Me. Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand
the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it
behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day;
and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His
name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”2187
You read
also in the Acts of the Apostles how this gospel began at
Jerusalem, where the Holy Spirit first filled those hundred and
twenty persons, and went forth thence into Judæa and Samaria, and
to all nations, as He had said unto them when He was about to
ascend into heaven, “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of
the earth;”2188
| 2188 Acts i. 15, 8, and ii. | for
“their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the
ends of the world.”2189
And you contradict the Divine
testimonies so firmly established and so clearly revealed, and
attempt to bring about such an absolute confiscation of Christ’s
heritage, that although repentance is preached, as He said, in His
name to all nations, whosoever may be in any part of the earth
moved by that preaching, there is for him no possibility of
remission of sins, unless he seek and discover Vincentius of
Cartennæ, or some one of his nine or ten associates, in their
obscurity in the imperial colony of Mauritania. What will the
arrogance of insignificant mortals2190
| 2190 Typhus morticinæ pelliculæ. | not dare to do? To what
extremities will the presumption of flesh and blood not hurry men?
Is this your well-doing, on account of which you are not afraid of
the power? You place this grievous stumbling-block in the way of
your own mother’s son,2191
for whom Christ died,2192
and who is
yet in feeble infancy, not ready to use strong meat, but requiring
to be nursed on a mother’s milk;2193
and you quote against me the works
of Hilary, in order that you may deny the fact of the Church’s
increase among all nations; even unto the end of the world,
according to the promise which God, in order to subdue your
unbelief, confirmed with an oath! And although you would by all
means be most miserable if you stood against this when it was
promised, you even now contradict it when the promise is
fulfilled.
Chap. VII.
22. You, however, through your profound
erudition, have discovered something which you think worthy to be
alleged as a great objection against the Divine testimonies. For
you say, “If we consider the parts comprehended in the whole
world, it is a comparatively small portion in which the Christian
faith is known:” either refusing to see, or pretending not to
know, to how many barbarous nations the gospel has already
penetrated, within a space of time so short, that not even
Christ’s enemies can doubt that in a little while that shall be
accomplished which our Lord foretold, when, answering the question
of His disciples concerning the end of the world, He said, “This
gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a
witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.”2194
Meanwhile
do all you can to proclaim and to maintain, that even though the
gospel be published in Persia and India, as indeed it has been for
a long time, no one who hears it can be in any degree cleansed from
his sins, unless he come to Cartennæ, or to the neighbourhood of
Cartennæ! If you have not expressly said this, it is evidently
through fear lest men should laugh at you; and yet when you do say
this, do you refuse that men should weep for you?
23. You think that you make a very acute
remark when you affirm the name Catholic to mean universal, not in
respect to the communion as embracing the whole world, but in
respect to the observance of all Divine precepts and of all the
sacraments, as if we (even accepting the position that the Church
is called Catholic because it honestly holds the whole truth, of
which fragments here and there are found in some heresies) rested
upon the testimony of this word’s signification, and not upon the
promises of God, and so many indisputable testimonies of the truth
itself, our demonstration of the existence of the Church of God in
all nations. In fact, however, this is the whole which you attempt
to make us believe, that the Rogatists alone remain worthy of the
name Catholics, on the ground of their observing all the Divine
precepts and all the sacraments; and that you are the only persons
in whom the Son of man when He cometh shall find faith.2195
You must
excuse me for saying we do not believe a word of this. For
although, in order to make it possible for that faith to be found
in you which the Lord said that He would not find on the earth, you
may perhaps presume even to say that you are to be regarded as in
heaven, not on earth, we at least have profited by the apostle’s
warning, wherein he has taught us that even an angel from heaven
must be regarded as accursed if he were to preach to us any other
gospel than that which we have received.2196
But how can we be sure that we
have indisputable testimony to Christ in the Divine Word, if we do
not accept as indisputable the testimony of the same Word to the
Church? For as, however ingenious the complex subtleties which one
may contrive against the simple truth, and however great the mist
of artful fallacies with which he may obscure it, any one who shall
proclaim that Christ has not suffered, and has not risen from the
dead on the third day, must be accursed—because we have learned
in the truth of the gospel, “that it behoved Christ to suffer,
and to rise from the dead on the third day;”2197
—on the very same grounds must
that man be accursed who shall proclaim that the Church is outside
of2198
the
communion which embraces all nations: for in the next words of the same
passage we learn also that repentance and remission of sins should
be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at
Jerusalem;2199
and we are
bound to hold firmly this rule, “If any preach any other gospel
unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”2200
Chap. VIII.
24. If, moreover, we do not listen to the
claims of the entire sect of Donatists when they pretend to be the
Church of Christ, seeing that they do not allege in proof of this
anything from the Divine Books, how much less, I ask, are we called
upon to listen to the Rogatists, who will not attempt to interpret;
in the interest of their party the words of Scripture: “Where
Thou feedest, where Thou dost rest in the south”!2201
For if by
this the southern part of Africa is to be understood,—the
district, namely, which is occupied by Donatists, because it is
under a more burning portion of the heavens,—the Maximianists
must excel all the rest of your party, as the flame of their schism
broke forth in Byzantium2202
and in Tripoli. Let the Arzuges,
if they please, dispute this point with them, and contest that to
them more properly this text applies; but how shall the imperial
province of Mauritania, lying rather to the west than to the south,
since it refuses to be called Africa,—how shall it, I say, find
in the word “the south”2203
a ground for boasting, I do not
say against the world, but against even that sect of Donatus from
which the sect of Rogatus, a very small fragment of that other and
larger fragment, has been broken off? For what else is it than
superlative impudence for one to interpret in his own favour any
allegorical statements, unless he has also plain testimonies, by
the light of which the obscure meaning of the former may be made
manifest.
25. With how much greater force, moreover, may
we say to you what we are accustomed to say to all the Donatists:
If any can have good grounds (which indeed none can have) for
separating themselves from the communion of the whole world, and
calling their communion the Church of Christ, because of their
having withdrawn warrantably from the communion of all
nations,—how do you know that in the Christian society, which is
spread so far and wide, there may not have been some in a very
remote place, from which the fame of their righteousness could not
reach you, who had already, before the date of your separation,
separated themselves for some just cause from the communion of the
whole world? How could the Church in that case be found in your
sect, rather than in those who were separated before you? Thus it
comes to pass, that so long as you are ignorant of this, you cannot
make with certainty any claim: which is necessarily the portion of
all who, in defending the cause of their party, appeal to their own
testimony instead of the testimony of God. For you cannot say, If
this had happened, it could not have escaped our knowledge; for,
not going beyond Africa itself, you cannot tell, when the question
is put to you, how many subdivisions of the party of Donatus have
occurred: in connection with which we must especially bear in mind
that in your view the smaller the number of those who separate
themselves, the greater is the justice of their cause, and this
paucity of numbers makes them undoubtedly more likely to remain
unnoticed. Hence, also, you are by no means sure that there may not
be some righteous persons, few in number, and therefore unknown,
dwelling in some place far remote from the south of Africa, who,
long before the party of Donatus had withdrawn their righteousness
from fellowship with the unrighteousness of all other men, had, in
their remote northern region, separated themselves in the same way
for some most satisfactory reason, and now are, by a claim superior
to yours, the Church of God, as the spiritual Zion which preceded
all your sects in the matter of warrantable secession, and who
interpret in their favour the words of the Psalm, “Mount Zion, on
the sides of the north, the city of the Great King,”2204
with much
more reason than the party of Donatus interpret in their favour the
words, “Where Thou feedest, where Thou dost rest in the
south.”2205
26. You profess, nevertheless, to be afraid
lest, when you are compelled by imperial edicts to consent to
unity, the name of God be for a longer time blasphemed by the Jews
and the heathen: as if the Jews were not aware how their own nation
Israel, in the beginning of its history, wished to exterminate by
war the two tribes and a half which had received possessions beyond
Jordan, when they thought that these had separated themselves from
the unity of their nation.2206
As to the Pagans, they may indeed
with greater reason reproach us for the laws which Christian
emperors have enacted against idolaters; and yet many of these have
thereby been, and are now daily, turned from idols to the living
and true God. In fact, however, both Jews and Pagans, if they
thought the Christians to be as insignificant in number as you
are,—who maintain, forsooth, that you alone are
Christians,—would not condescend to say anything against us, but
would never cease to treat us with ridicule and contempt. Are you
not afraid lest the Jews should say to you, “If
your handful of men be the Church of Christ, what becomes of the
statement of your Apostle Paul, that your Church is described in
the words, ‘Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; breakforth and
cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more
children than she which hath an husband;’2207
in which he plainly declares the
multitude of Christians to surpass that of the Jewish Church?”
Will you say to them, “We are the more righteous because our
number is not large;” and do you expect them not to reply,
“Whoever2208
| 2208 Quoslibet is obviously the true
reading. | you claim
to be, you are not those of whom it is said, ‘She that was
desolate hath many children,’ if you are reduced to so
small a number”?
27. Perhaps you will quote against this the example
of that righteous man, who along with his family was alone found
worthy of deliverance when the flood came. Do you see then how far
you still are from being righteous? Most assuredly we do not affirm
you to be righteous on the ground of this instance until your
associates be reduced to seven, yourself being the eighth person:
provided always, however, that no other has, as I was saying,
anticipated the party of Donatus in snatching up that
righteousness, by having, in some far distant spot, withdrawn
himself along with seven more, under pressure of some good reason,
from communion with the whole world, and so saved himself from the
flood by which it is overwhelmed. Seeing, therefore, that you do
not know whether this may not have been done, and been as entirely
unheard of by you as the name of Donatus is unheard of by many
nations of Christians in remote countries,you are unable to say
with certainty where the Church is to be found. For it must be in
that place in which what you have now done may happen to have been
at an earlier date done by others, if there could possibly be any
just reason for your separating yourselves from the communion of
the whole world.
Chap. IX.
28. We, however, are certain that no one could
ever have been warranted in separating himself from the communion
of all nations, because every one of us looks for the marks of the
Church not in his own righteousness, but in the Divine Scriptures,
and beholds it actually in existence, according to the promises.
For it is of the Church that it is said,“As the lily among
thorns, so is my love among the daughters;”2209
which could be called on the one
hand “thorns” only by reason of the wickedness of their
manners, and on the other hand “daughters” by reason of their
participation in the same sacraments. Again, it is the Church which
saith, “From the end of the earth have I cried unto Thee when my
heart was overwhelmed;”2210
and in another Psalm, “Horror
hath kept me back from2211
| 2211 In this and the other passages quoted, Augustin
translates from the LXX. | the wicked that forsake Thy
law;” and, “I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved.”2212
| 2212 Ps. cxix. 53 and 158. | It is the
same which says to her Spouse: “Tell me where Thou feedest, where
Thou dost rest at noon: for why should I be as one veiled beside
the flocks of Thy companions?”2213
This is the same as is said in
another place: “Make known to me Thy right hand, and those who
are in heart taught in wisdom;”2214
in whom, as they shine with light
and glow with love, Thou dost rest as in noontide; lest perchance,
like one veiled, that is, hidden and unknown, I should run, not to
Thy flock, but to the flocks of Thy companions, i.e. of
heretics, whom the bride here calls companions, just as He called
the thorns2215
“daughters,” because of common participation in the sacraments:
of which persons it is elsewhere said: “Thou wast a man, mine
equal, my guide, my acquaintance, who didst take sweet food
together with me; we walked unto the house of God in company. Let
death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell,”2216
like
Dathan and Abiram, the authors of an impious schism.
29. It is to the Church also that the answer
is given immediately after in the passage quoted above: “If thou
know not thyself,2217
| 2217 Nisi cognoveris temetipsam. | O thou fairest among women, go thy
way forth by the footsteps of the flocks,2218
and feed thy kids beside the
shepherds’ tents.”2219
Oh, matchless sweetness of the
Bridegroom, who thus replied to her question: “If thou knowest
not thyself,” He says; as if He said, “Surely the city which is
set upon a mountain cannot be hid;2220
and therefore, ‘Thou art not as
one veiled, that thou shouldst run to the flocks of my
companions.’ For I am the mountain established upon the top of
the mountains, unto which all nations shall come.2221
‘If thou
knowest not thyself,’ by the knowledge which thou mayest gain,
not in the words of false witnesses, but in the testimonies of My
book; ‘if thou knowest not thyself,’ from such testimony as
this concerning thee: ‘Lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy
stakes: for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the
left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the
desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not, for thou shall not be ashamed;
neither be thou confounded, for thou shall not be put to shame: for
thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shall not remember
the reproach of thy widowhood any more: for thy Maker is thine
husband, the Lord of hosts is His name, and thy Redeemer the Holy
One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall He be called.’
‘If thou knowest not thyself,’ O thou fairest among women, from
this which hath been said of thee, ‘The King hath greatly desired
thy beauty,’ and ‘instead of thy fathers shall be thy children,
whom thou mayest make princes upon the earth:’2222
if, therefore, ‘thou know not
thyself,’ go thy way forth: I do not cast thee forth, but ‘go
thy way forth,’ that of thee it may be said, ‘They went out
from us, but they were not of us.’2223
‘Go thy way forth’ by the
footsteps of the flocks, not in My footsteps, but in the footsteps
of the flocks; and not of the one flock, but of flocks divided and
going astray. ‘And feed thy kids,’ not as Peter, to whom it is
said, ‘Feed My sheep;’2224
but, ‘Feed thy kids beside the
shepherds’ tents,’ not beside the tent of the Shepherd, where
there is ‘one fold and one Shepherd.’”2225
But the church knows herself, and
thereby escapes from that lot which has befallen those who did not
know themselves to be in her.
30. The same [Church] is spoken of, when, in
regard to the fewness of her numbers as compared with the multitude
of the wicked, it is said: “Strait is the gate and narrow is the
way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”2226
And again,
it is of the same Church that it is said with respect to the
multitude of her members: “I will multiply thy seed as the stars
of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore.”2227
For the
same Church of holy and good believers is both small if compared
with the number of the wicked, which is greater, and large if
considered by itself; “for the desolate hath more sons than she
which hath an husband,” and “many shall come from the east and
from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob, in the kingdom of God.”2228
God, moreover, presents unto
Himself a “numerous people, zealous of good works.”2229
| 2229 Tit. ii. 14;
περιούσιος being translated by Augustin
“abundans,” where our version has “peculiar.” | And in the
Apocalypse, many thousands “which no man can number,” from
every tribe and tongue, are seen clothed in white robes, and with
palms of victory.2230
It is the same Church which is
occasionally obscured, and, as it were, beclouded by the multitude
of offences, when sinners bend the bow that they may shoot under
the darkened moon2231
at the upright in heart.2232
But even
at such a time the Church shines in those who are most firm in
their attachment to her. And if, in the Divine promise above
quoted, any distinct application of its two clauses should be made,
it is perhaps not without reason that the seed of Abraham was
compared both to the “stars of heaven,” and to “the sand
which is by the sea-shore:” that by “the stars” may be
understood those who, in number fewer, are more fixed and more
brilliant; and that by “the sand on the sea-shore” may be
understood that great multitude of weak and carnal persons within
the Church, who at one time are seen at rest and free while the
weather is calm, but are at another time covered and troubled under
the waves of tribulation and temptation.
31. Now, such a troublous time was the time at
which Hilary wrote in the passage which you have thought fit
artfully to adduce against so many Divine testimonies, as if by it
you could prove that the Church has perished from the earth.2233
| 2233 Vincentius had quoted from Hilary’s work, De
Synodis adversum Arianos, a sentence to the effect that, with
the exception of a very small remnant, the ten provinces of Asia in
which he was settled were truly ignorant of God. | You may
just as well say that the numerous churches of Galatia had no
existence at the time when the apostle wrote to them: “O foolish
Galatians, who hath bewitched you,” that, “having begun in the
Spirit, ye are now made perfect in the flesh?”2234
For thus you would misrepresent
that learned man, who (like the apostle) was sternly rebuking the
slow of heart and the timid, for whom he was travailing in birth a
second time, until Christ should be formed in them.2235
For who
does not know that many persons of weak judgment were at that time
deluded by ambiguous phrases, so that they thought that the Arians
believed the same doctrines as they themselves held; and that
others, through fear, had yielded and feigned consent, not walking
uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, to whom you would
have denied that forgiveness which, when they had been turned from
their error, was extended to them? But in refusing such pardon, you
prove yourselves wholly ignorant of the word of God. For read what
Paul has recorded concerning Peter,2236
and what Cyprian has expressed as
his view on the ground of that statement, and do not blame the
compassion of the Church, which does not scatter the members of
Christ when they are gathered together, but labours to gather His
scattered members into one. It is true that those who then stood
most resolute, and were able to understand the treacherous phrases
used by the heretics, were few in number when compared
with the rest; but some of them it is to be remembered were then
bravely enduring sentence of banishment, and others were hiding
themselves for safety in all parts of the world. And thus the
Church, which is increasing throughout all nations, has been
preserved as the Lord’s wheat, and shall be preserved unto the
end, yea, until all nations, even the barbarous tribes, are within
its embrace. For it is the Church which the Son of man has sown as
good seed, and of which He has foretold that it should grow among
the tares until the harvest. For the field is the world, and the
harvest is the end of time.2237
32. Hilary, therefore, either was rebuking not
the wheat, but the tares, in those ten provinces of Asia, or was
addressing himself to the wheat, because it was endangered through
some unfaithfulness, and spoke as one who thought that the rebuke
would be useful in proportion to the vehemence with which it was
given. For the canonical Scriptures contain examples of the same
manner of rebuke in which what is intended for some is spoken as if
it applied to all. Thus the apostle, when he says to the
Corinthians, “How say some among you, that there is no
resurrection of the dead?”2238
proves clearly that all of them
were not such; but he bears witness that those who were such were
not outside of their communion, but among them. And shortly after,
lest those who were of a different opinion should be led astray by
them, he gave this warning: “Be not deceived: evil communications
corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some
have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.”2239
But when
he says, “Whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and
divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”2240
he speaks
as if it applied to all, and you see how grave a charge he makes.
Wherefore, if it were not that we read in the same epistle, “I
thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is
given you by Jesus Christ; that in everything ye are enriched by
Him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; even as the testimony
of Christ was confirmed in you: so that ye come behind in no
gift,”2241
we would
think that all the Corinthians had been carnal and natural, not
perceiving the things of the spirit of God,2242
fond of strife, and full of envy,
and “walking as men.” In like manner it is said, on the one
hand, “the whole world lieth in wickedness,”2243
because of the tares which are
throughout the whole world; and, on the other hand, Christ “is
the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for
the sins of the whole world,”2244
because of the wheat which is
throughout the whole world.
33. The love of many, however, waxes cold
because of offences, which abound increasingly the more that,
within the communion of the sacraments of Christ, there are
gathered to the glory of His name even those who are wicked, and
who persist in the obstinacy of error; whose separation, however,
as chaff from the wheat, is to be effected only in the final
purging of the Lord’s threshing-floor.2245
These do not destroy those who are
the Lord’s wheat—few, indeed, when compared with the others,
but in themselves a great multitude; they do not destroy the elect
of God, who are to be gathered at the end of the world from the
four winds, from the one end of heaven to the other.2246
For it is
from the elect that the cry comes, “Help, Lord! for the godly man
ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men;”2247
and it is
of them that the Lord saith, “He that shall endure to the end
(when iniquity shall abound), the same shall be saved.”2248
Moreover,
that the psalm quoted is the language not of one man, but of many,
is shown by the following context: “Thou shalt keep us, O Lord;
Thou shalt preserve us from this generation for ever.”2249
On account
of this abounding iniquity which the Lord foretold, it is said in
another place: “When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith
on the earth?” This doubt expressed by Him who knoweth all things
prefigured the doubts which in Him we entertain, when the Church,
being often disappointed in many from whom much was expected, but
who have proved very different from what they were supposed to be,
is so alarmed in regard to her own members, that she is slow to
believe good of any one. Nevertheless it would be wrong to cherish
doubt that those whose faith He shall find on the earth are growing
along with the tares throughout the whole field.
34. Therefore it is the same Church also which
within the Lord’s net is swimming along with the bad fishes, but
is in heart and in life separated from them, and departs from them,
that she may be presented to her Lord a “glorious Church, not
having spot or wrinkle.”2250
But the actual visible separation
she looks for only on the sea-shore, i.e. at the end of the
world,—meanwhile correcting as many as she can, and bearing with
those whom she cannot correct; but she does not abandon the unity
of the good because of the wickedness of those whom she finds
incorrigible.
Chap. X.
35. Wherefore, my brother, refrain from
gathering together against divine testimonies so many, so
perspicuous, and so unchallenged, the calumnies which may be found
in the writings of bishops either of our communion, as Hilary, or
of the undivided Church itself in the age preceding the schism of
Donatus, as Cyprian or Agrippinus;2251
| 2251 Agrippinus, successor of Cyprian in the see of
Carthage. | because, in the first place, this
class of writings must be, so far as authority is concerned,
distinguished from the canon of Scripture. For they are not read by
us as if a testimony brought forward from them was such that it
would be unlawful to hold any different opinion, for it may be that
the opinions which they held were different from those to which
truth demands our assent. For we are amongst those who do not
reject what has been taught us even by an apostle: “If in
anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto
you; nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by
the same rule,”2252
—in that way, namely, which
Christ is; of which way the Psalmist thus speaks: “God be
merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon
us: that Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among
all nations.”2253
36. In the next place, if you are charmed by
the authority of that bishop and illustrious martyr St. Cyprian,
which we indeed regard, as I have said, as quite distinct from the
authority of canonical Scripture, why are you not charmed by such
things in him as these: that he maintained with loyalty, and
defended in debate, the unity of the Church in the world and in all
nations; that he censured, as full of self-sufficiency and pride,
those who wished to separate themselves as righteous from the
Church, holding them up to ridicule for assuming to themselves that
which the Lord did not concede even to apostles,—namely, the
gathering of the tares before the harvest,—and for attempting to
separate the chaff from the wheat, as if to them had been assigned
the charge of removing the chaff and cleansing the threshing-floor;
that he proved that no man can be stained with guilt by the sins of
others, thus sweeping away the only ground alleged by the authors
of schism for their separation; that in the very matter in regard
to which he was of a different opinion from his colleagues, he did
not decree that those who thought otherwise than he did should be
condemned or excommunicated; that even in his letter to Jubaianus2254
| 2254 See Ante-Nicene Fathers, Am. ed. vol. v. p.
379. | (which was
read for the first time in the Council,2255
| 2255 Held at Carthage, A.D.
256. | the authority of which you are
wont to plead in defence of the practice of rebaptizing), although
he admits that in time past persons who had been baptized in other
communions had been received into the Church without being a second
time baptized, on which ground they were regarded by him as having
had no baptism, nevertheless he considers the use and benefit of
peace within the Church to be so great, that for its sake he holds
that these persons (though in his judgment unbaptized) should not
be excluded from office in the Church?
37. And by this you will very readily perceive
(for I know the acuteness of your mind) that your cause is
completely subverted and annihilated. For if, as you suppose, the
Church which had been spread abroad throughout the world perished
through her admitting sinners to partake in her sacraments (and
this is the ground alleged for your separation), it had wholly
perished long before,—at the time, namely, when, as Cyprian says,
men were admitted into it without baptism,—and thus Cyprian
himself had no Church within which to be born; and if so, how much
more must this have been the case with one who, like Donatus, the
author of your schism, and the father of your sect, belonged to a
later age! But if at that time, although persons were being
admitted into the Church without baptism, the Church nevertheless
remained in being, so as to give birth to Cyprian and afterwards to
Donatus, it is manifest that the righteous are not defiled by the
sins of other men when they participate with them in the
sacraments. And thus you have no excuse by which you can wash away
the guilt of the schism whereby you have gone forth from the unity
of the Church; and in you is fulfilled that saying of Holy Writ:
“There is a generation that esteem themselves right, and have not
cleansed themselves from the guilt of their going forth.”2256
| 2256 Prov. xxx. 12, ἔκγονον κακὸν δίκαιον
ἐαυτὸν κρίνει, τὴν δ’ ἔξοδον αὐτοῦ οὐκ
ἀπένιψεν. |
38. The man who, out of regard to the sameness of
the sacraments, does not presume to insist on the second
administration of baptism even to heretics, is not, by thus
avoiding Cyprian’s error, placed on a level with Cyprian in
merit, any more than the man who does not insist upon the Gentiles
conforming to Jewish ceremonies is thereby placed on a level in
merit with the Apostle Peter. In Peter’s case, however, the
record not only of his halting, but also of his correction, is
contained in the canonical Scriptures; whereas the statement that
Cyprian entertained opinions at variance with those approved by the
constitution and practice of the Church is found, not in canonical
Scripture, but in his own writings, and in those of a Council; and
although it is not found in the same records that he corrected that
opinion, it is nevertheless by no means an unreasonable supposition
that he did correct it, and that this fact may perhaps have been suppressed by those
who were too much pleased with the error into which he fell, and
were unwilling to lose the patronage of so great a name. At the
same time, there are not wanting some who maintain that Cyprian
never held the view ascribed to him, but that this was an
unwarrantable forgery passed off by liars under his name. For it
was impossible for the integrity and authenticity of the writings
of any one bishop, however illustrious, to be secured and preserved
as the canonical Scriptures are through translation into so many
languages, and through the regular and continuous manner in which
the Church has used them in public worship. Even in the face of
this, some have been found forging many things under the names of
the apostles. It is true, indeed, that they made such attempts in
vain, because the text of canonical Scripture was so well attested,
and so generally used and known; but this effort of an unholy
boldness, which has not forborne to assail writings which are
defended by the strength of such notoriety, has proved what it is
capable of essaying against writings which are not established upon
canonical authority.
39. We, however, do not deny that Cyprian held the
views ascribed to him: first, because his style has a certain
peculiarity of expression by which it may be recognised; and
secondly, because in this case our cause rather than yours is
proved victorious, and the pretext alleged for your
schism—namely, that you might not be defiled by the sins of other
men—is in the most simple manner exploded; since it is manifest
from the letters of Cyprian that participation in the sacraments
was allowed to sinful men, when those who, in your judgment (and as
you will have it, in his judgment also), were unbaptized were as
such admitted to the Church, and that nevertheless the Church did
not perish, but remained in the dignity belonging to her nature as
the Lord’s wheat scattered throughout the world. And, therefore,
if in your consternation you thus betake yourselves to Cyprian’s
authority as to a harbour of refuge, you see the rock against which
your error dashes itself in this course; if, on the other hand, you
do not venture to flee thither, you are wrecked without any
struggle for escape.
40. Moreover, Cyprian either did not hold at
all the opinions which you ascribe to him, or did subsequently
correct his mistake by the rule of truth, or covered this blemish,
as we may call it, upon his otherwise spotless mind by the
abundance of his love, in his most amply defending the unity of the
Church growing throughout the whole world, and in his most
stedfastly holding the bond of peace; for it is written, “Charity
[love] covereth a multitude of sins.”2257
To this was also added, that in
him, as a most fruitful branch, the Father removed by the
pruning-knife of suffering whatever may have remained in him
requiring correction: “For every branch in me,” saith the Lord,
“that beareth fruit He purgeth, that it may bring forth more
fruit.”2258
And whence
this care of him, if not because, continuing as a branch in the
far-spreading vine, he did not forsake the root of unity? “For
though he gave his body to be burned, if he had not charity, it
would profit him nothing.”2259
41. Attend now a little while to the letters
of Cyprian, that you may see how he proves the man to be
inexcusable who desires ostensibly on the ground of his own
righteousness to withdraw himself from the unity of the Church
(which God promised and has fulfilled in all nations), and that you
may more clearly apprehend the truth of the text quoted by me
shortly before: “There is a generation that esteem themselves
righteous, and have not cleansed themselves from the guilt of their
going forth.” In a letter which he wrote to Antonianus2260
| 2260 Letter LI. 21. Ante-Nicene Fathers, Am. ed.
vol. v. p. 332. | he
discusses a matter very closely akin to that which we are now
debating; but it is better for us to give his very words: “Some
of our predecessors,” he says, “in the episcopal office in this
province were of opinion that the peace of the Church should not be
given to fornicators, and finally closed the door of repentance
against those who had been guilty of adultery. They did not,
however, withdraw themselves from fellowship with their colleagues
in the episcopate; nor did they rend asunder the unity of the
Catholic Church, by such harshness and obstinate perseverance in
their censure as to separate themselves from the Church because
others granted while they themselves refused to adulterers the
peace of the Church. The bond of concord remaining unbroken, and
the sacrament of the Church continuing undivided, each bishop
arranges and orders his own conduct as one who shall give account
of his procedure to his Lord.” What say you to that, brother
Vincentius? Surely you must see that this great man, this
peace-loving bishop and dauntless martyr, made nothing more
earnestly his care than to prevent the sundering of the bond of
unity. You see him travailing in birth for the souls of men, not
only that they might, when conceived, be born in Christ, but also
that, when born, they might not perish through their being shaken
out of their mother’s bosom.
42. Now give attention, I pray you, further to this
thing which he has mentioned in protesting against impious
schismatics. If those who granted peace to adulterers, who repented
of their sin, shared
the guilt of adulterers, were those who did not so act defiled by
fellowship with them as colleagues in office? If, again, it was a
right thing, as truth asserts and the Church maintains, that peace
should be given to adulterers who repented of their sin, those who
utterly closed against adulterers the door of reconciliation
through repentance were unquestionably guilty of impiety in
refusing healing to the members of Christ, in taking away the keys
of the Church from those who knocked for admission, and in opposing
with heartless cruelty God’s most compassionate forbearance,
which permitted them to live in order that, repenting, they might
be healed by the sacrifice of a contrite spirit and broken heart.
Nevertheless this their heartless error and impiety did not defile
the others, compassionate and peace-loving men, when these shared
with them in the Christian sacraments, and tolerated them within
the net of unity, until the time when, brought to the shore, they
should be separated from each other; or if this error and impiety
of others did defile them, then the Church was already at that time
destroyed, and there was no Church to give Cyprian birth. But if,
as is beyond question, the Church continued in existence, it is
also beyond question that no man in the unity of Christ can be
stained by the guilt of the sins of other men if he be not
consenting to the deeds of the wicked, and thus defiled by actual
participation in their crimes, but only, for the sake of the
fellowship of the good, tolerating the wicked, as the chaff which
lies until the final purging of the Lord’s threshing-floor. These
things being so, where is the pretext for your schism? Are ye not
an “evil generation, esteeming yourselves righteous, yet not
washed from the guilt of your going forth” [from the Church]?
43. If, now, I were disposed to quote anything
against you from the writings of Tychonius, a man of your
communion, who has written rather in defence of the Church and
against you than the reverse, in vain disowning the communion of
African Christians as traditors (by which one thing Parmenianus
silences him), what else can you say in reply than what Tychonius
himself said of you as I have shortly before reminded you: “That
which is according to our will is holy”?2261
For this Tychonius—a man, as I
have said, of your communion—writes that a Council was held at
Carthage2262
| 2262 This Council at Carthage is not elsewhere
mentioned. | by two
hundred and seventy of your bishops; in which Council, after
seventy-five days of deliberation, all past decisions on the matter
being set aside, a carefully revised resolution was published, to
the effect that to those who were guilty of a heinous crime as
traditors, the privilege of communion should be granted as to
blameless persons, if they refused to be baptized. He says further,
that Deuterius of Macriana, a bishop of your party, added to the
Church a whole crowd of traditors, without making any distinction
between them and others, making the unity of the Church open to
these traditors, in accordance with the decree of the Council held
by these two hundred and seventy of your bishops, and that after
that transaction Donatus continued unbroken his communion with the
said Deuterius, and not only with him, but also with all the
Mauritanian bishops for forty years, who, according to the
statement of Tychonius, admitted the traditors to communion without
insisting on their being rebaptized, up to the time of the
persecution made by Macarius.
44. You will say, “What has that Tychonius to do
with me?” It is true that Tychonius is the man whom Parmenianus
checked by his reply, and effectually warned not to write such
things; but he did not refute the statements themselves, but, as I
have said above, silenced him by this one thing, that while saying
such things concerning the Church which is diffused throughout the
world, and while admitting that the faults of other men within its
unity cannot defile one who is innocent, he nevertheless withdrew
himself from the contagion of communion with African Christians
because of their being traditors, and was an adherent of the party
of Donatus. Parmenianus, indeed, might have said that Tychonius had
in all these things spoken falsely; but, as Tychonius himself
observes, many were still living at that time by whom these things
might be proved to be most unquestionably true and generally
known.
45. Of these things, however, I say no more:
maintain, if you choose, that Tychonius spoke falsely; I bring you
back to Cyprian, the authority which you yourself have quoted. If,
according to his writings, every one in the unity of the Church is
defiled by the sins of other members, then the Church had utterly
perished before Cyprian’s time, and all possibility of
Cyprian’s own existence (as a member of the Church) is taken
away. If, however, the very thought of this is impiety, and it be
beyond question that the Church continued in being, it follows that
no one is defiled by the guilt of the sins of other men within the
Catholic unity; and in vain do you, “an evil generation,”
maintain that you are righteous, when you are “not washed from
the guilt of your going forth.”
Chap. XI.
46. You will say, “Why then do you seek us? Why do
you receive those whom you call heretics?” Mark how simple and
short is my reply. We seek you because you are lost, that we may
rejoice over you when found, as over you while lost we grieved. Again we
call you heretics; but the name applies to you only up to the time
of your being turned to the peace of the Catholic Church, and
extricated from the errors by which you have been ensnared. For
when you pass over to us, you entirely abandon the position you
formerly occupied, so that, as heretics no longer, you pass over to
us. You will say, “Then baptize me.” I would, if you were not
already baptized, or if you had received the baptism of Donatus, or
of Rogatus only, and not of Christ. It is not the Christian
sacraments, but the crime of schism, which makes you a heretic. The
evil which has proceeded from yourself is not a reason for our
denying the good that is permanent in you, but which you possess to
your own harm if you have it not in that Church from which proceeds
its power to do good. For from the Catholic Church are all the
sacraments of the Lord, which you hold and administer in the same
way as they were held and administered even before you went forth
from her. The fact, however, that you are no longer in that Church
from which proceeded the sacraments which you have, does not make
it the less true that you still have them. We therefore do not
change in you that wherein you are at one with ourselves, for in
many things you are at one with us; and of such it is said, “For
in many things they were with me:”2263
| 2263 Ps. lv. 18, Septuagint. | but we correct those things in
which you are not with us, and we wish you to receive those things
which you have not where you now are. You are at one with us in
baptism, in creed, and in the other sacraments of the Lord. But in
the spirit of unity and bond of peace, in a word, in the Catholic
Church itself, you are not with us. If you receive these things,
the others which you already have will then not begin to be yours,
but begin to be of use to you. We do not therefore, as you think,
receive your men of your party as still belonging to you, but in
the act of receiving them we incorporate with ourselves those who
forsake you that they may be received by us; and in order that they
may belong to us, their first step is to renounce their connection
with you. Nor do we compel into union with us those who
industriously serve an error which we abhor; but our reason for
wishing those men to be united to us is, that they may no longer be
worthy of our abhorrence.
47. But you will say, “The Apostle Paul
baptized after John.”2264
Did he then baptize after a
heretic? If you do presume to call that friend of the Bridegroom a
heretic, and to say that he was not in the unity of the Church, I
beg that you will put this in writing. But if you believe that it
would be the height of folly to think or to say so, it remains for
your own wisdom to resolve the question why the Apostle Paul
baptized after John. For if he baptized after one who was his
equal, you ought all to baptize after one another. If after one who
was greater than himself, you ought to baptize after Rogatus; if
after one who was less than himself, Rogatus ought to have baptized
after you those whom you, as a presbyter, had baptized. If,
however, the baptism which is now administered is in all cases of
equal value to those who receive it, however unequal in merit the
persons may be by whom it is administered, because it is the
baptism of Christ, not of those who administer the right, I think
you must already perceive that Paul administered the baptism of
Christ to certain persons because they had received the baptism of
John only, and not of Christ; for it is expressly called the
baptism of John, as the Divine Scripture bears witness in many
passages, and as the Lord Himself calls it, saying: “The baptism
of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men?”2265
But the
baptism which Peter administered was the baptism, not of Peter, but
of Christ; that which Paul administered was the baptism, not of
Paul, but of Christ; that which was administered by those who, in
the apostle’s time, preached Christ not sincerely, but of
contention,2266
was not
their own, but the baptism of Christ; and that which was
administered by those who, in Cyprian’s time, either by artful
dishonesty obtained their possessions, or by usury, at exorbitant
interest, increased them, was not their own baptism, but the
baptism of Christ. And because it was of Christ, therefore,
although there was very great disparity in the persons by whom it
was administered, it was equally useful to those by whom it was
received. For if the excellency of baptism in each case is
according to the excellency of the person by whom one is baptized,
it was wrong in the apostle to give thanks that he had baptized
none of the Corinthians, but Crispus, and Gaius, and the house of
Stephanas;2267
for the
baptism of the converts in Corinth, if administered by himself,
would have been so much more excellent as Paul himself was more
excellent than other men. Lastly, when he says, “I have planted,
and Apollos watered,”2268
he seems to intimate that he had
preached the gospel, and that Apollos had baptized. Is Apollos
better than John? Why then did he, who baptized after John, not
baptize after Apollos? Surely because, in the one case, the
baptism, by whomsoever administered, was the baptism of Christ; and
in the other case, by whomsoever administered, it was, although
preparing the way for Christ, only the baptism of John.
48. It seems to you an odious thing to say
that baptism was given to some after John had baptized them, and
yet that baptism is not to be given to men after heretics have
baptized them; but it may be said with equal justice to be an
odious thing that baptism was given to some after John had baptized
them, and yet that baptism is not to be given to men after
intemperate persons have baptized them. I name this sin of
intemperance rather than others, because those in whom it reigns
are not able to hide it: and yet what man, even though he be blind,
does not know how many addicted to this vice are to be found
everywhere? And yet among the works of the flesh, of which it is
said that they who do them shall not inherit the kingdom of God,
the apostle places this in an enumeration in which heresies also
are specified: “Now the works of the flesh,” he says, “are
manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,
revellings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I
have also told you in time past, that they who do such things shall
not inherit the kingdom of God.”2269
Baptism, therefore, although it
was administered after John, is not administered after a heretic,
on the very same principle according to which, though administered
after John; it is not administered after an intemperate man: for
both heresies and drunkenness are among the works which exclude
those who do them from inheriting the kingdom of God. Does it not
seem to you as if it were a thing intolerably unseemly, that
although baptism was repeated after it had been administered by him
who, not even moderately drinking wine, but wholly refraining from
its use, prepared the way for the kingdom of God, and yet that it
should not be repeated after being administered by an intemperate
man, who shall not inherit the kingdom of God? What can be said in
answer to this, but that the one was the baptism of John, after
which the apostle administered the baptism of Christ; and that the
other, administered by an intemperate man, was the baptism of
Christ? Between John Baptist and an intemperate man there is a
great difference, as of opposites; between the baptism of Christ
and the baptism of John there is no contrariety, but a great
difference. Between the apostle and an intemperate man there is a
great difference; but there is none between the baptism of Christ
administered by an apostle, and the baptism of Christ administered
by an intemperate man. In like manner, between John and a heretic
there is a great difference, as of opposites; and between the
baptism of John and the baptism of Christ which a heretic
administers there is no contrariety, but there is a great
difference. But between the baptism of Christ which an apostle
administers, and the baptism of Christ which a heretic administers,
there is no difference. For the form of the sacrament is
acknowledged to be the same even when there is a great difference
in point of worth between the men by whom it is
administered.
49. But pardon me, for I have made a mistake
in wishing to convince you by arguing from the case of an
intemperate man administering baptism; for I had forgotten that I
am dealing with a Rogatist, not with one bearing the wider name of
Donatist. For among your colleagues who are so few, and in the
whole number of your clergy, perhaps you cannot find one addicted
to this vice. For you are persons who hold that the name Catholic
is given to the faith not because communion of those who hold it
embraces the whole world, but because they observe the whole of the
Divine precepts and the whole of the sacraments; you are the
persons in whom alone the Son of man when He cometh shall find
faith, when on the earth He shall find no faith, forasmuch as you
are not earth and on the earth, but heavenly and dwelling in
heaven! Do you not fear, or do you not observe that “God
resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble”?2270
Does not
that very passage in the Gospel startle you, in which the Lord
saith, “When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith in the
earth?”2271
Immediately thereafter, as if foreseeing that some would proudly
arrogate to themselves the possession of this faith, He spake to
some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and
despised others, the parable of the two men who went up to the
temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The
words which follow I leave for yourself to consider and to answer.
Nevertheless examine more minutely your small sect, to see whether
not so much as one who administers baptism is an intemperate man.
For so widespread is the havoc wrought among souls by this plague,
that I am greatly surprised if it has not reached even your
infinitesimal flock, although it is your boast that already, before
the coming of Christ, the one good Shepherd, you have separated
between the sheep and the goats.
Chap. XII.
50. Listen to the testimony which through me
is addressed to you by those who are the Lord’s wheat, suffering
meanwhile until the final winnowing,2272
among the chaff in the Lord’s
threshing-floor, i.e. throughout the whole world, because
“God hath called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the
going down thereof,”2273
and throughout the same wide field
the “children praise Him.”2274
We disapprove of every one who,
taking advantage of this imperial edict, persecutes you, not with
loving concern for your correction, but with the malice of an
enemy. Moreover, although, since every earthly possession can be
rightly retained only on the ground either of divine right,
according to which all things belong to the righteous, or of human
right, which is in the jurisdiction of the kings of the earth, you
are mistaken in calling those things yours which you do not possess
as righteous persons, and which you have forfeited by the laws of
earthly sovereigns, and plead in vain, “We have laboured to
gather them,” seeing that you may read what is written, “The
wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just;”2275
nevertheless we disapprove of any
one who, availing himself of this law which the kings of the earth,
doing homage to Christ, have published in order to correct your
impiety, covetously seeks to possess himself of your property. Also
we disapprove of any one who, on the ground not of justice, but of
avarice, seizes and retains the provision pertaining to the poor,
or the chapels2276
in which
you meet for worship, which you once occupied in the name of the
Church, and which are by all means the rightful property only of
that Church which is the true Church of Christ. We disapprove of
any one who receives a person that has been expelled by you for
some disgraceful action or crime, on the same terms on which those
are received who have lived among you chargeable with no other
crime beyond the error through which you are separated from us. But
these are things which you cannot easily prove; and although you
can prove them, we bear with some whom we are unable to correct or
even to punish; and we do not quit the Lord’s threshing-floor
because of the chaff which is there, nor break the Lord’s net
because of bad fishes enclosed therein, nor desert the Lord’s
flock because of goats which are to be in the end separated from
it, nor go forth from the Lord’s house because in it there are
vessels destined to dishonour.
Chap. XIII.
51. But, my brother, if you forbear seeking
the empty honour which comes from men, and despise the reproach of
fools, who will be ready to say, “Why do you now destroy what you
once laboured to build up?” it seems to me to be beyond doubt
that you will now pass over to the Church which I perceive that you
acknowledge to be the true Church: the proofs of which sentiment on
your part I find at hand. For in the beginning of your letter which
I am now answering you have these words: “I knew you, my
excellent friend, as a man devoted to peace and uprightness, when
you were still far removed from the Christian faith, and were in
these earlier days occupied with literary pursuits; but since your
conversion at a more recent time to the Christian faith, you give
your time and labour, as I am informed by the statements of many
persons, to theological controversies.”2277
| 2277 Disputationibus legalibus. | These words are undoubtedly your
own, if you were the person who sent me that letter. Seeing,
therefore, that you confess that I have been converted to the
Christian faith, although I have not been converted to the sect of
the Donatists or of the Rogatists, you unquestionably uphold the
truth that beyond the pale of Rogatists and Donatists the Christian
faith exists. This faith therefore is, as we say, spread abroad
throughout all nations, which are according to God’s testimony
blessed in the seed of Abraham.2278
Why therefore do you still
hesitate to adopt what you perceive to be true, unless it be that
you are humbled because at some former time you did not perceive
what you now see, or maintained some different view, and so, while
ashamed to correct an error, are not ashamed (where shame would be
much more reasonable) of remaining wilfully in error?
52. Such conduct the Scripture has not passed
over in silence; for we read, “There is a shame which bringeth
sin, and there is a shame which is graceful and glorious.”2279
Shame
brings sin, when through its influence any one forbears from
changing a wicked opinion, lest he be supposed to be fickle, or be
held as by his own judgment convicted of having been long in error:
such persons descend into the pit alive, that is, conscious of
their perdition; whose future doom the death of Dathan and Abiram
and Korah, swallowed up by the opening earth, long ago
prefigured.2280
But shame
is graceful and glorious when one blushes for his own sin, and by
repentance is changed to something better, which you are reluctant
to do because overpowered by that false and fatal shame, fearing
lest by men who know not whereof they affirm, that sentence of the
apostle may be quoted against you: “If I build again the things
which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.”2281
If,
however, this sentence admitted of application to those who, after
being corrected, preach the truth which in their perversity they
opposed, it might have been said at first against Paul himself, in
regard to whom the churches of Christ glorified God when
they heard that he now “preached the faith which once he
destroyed.”2282
53. Do not, however, imagine that one can pass from
error to truth, or from any sin, be it great or small, to the
correction of his sin, without giving some proof of his repentance.
It is, however, an error of intolerable impertinence for men to
blame the Church, which is proved by so many Divine testimonies to
be the Church of Christ, for dealing in one way with those who
forsake her, receiving them back on condition of correcting this
fault by some acknowledgment of their repentance, and in another
way with those who never were within her pale, and are receiving
welcome to her peace for the first time; her method being to humble
the former more fully, and to receive the latter upon easier terms,
cherishing affection for both, and ministering with a mother’s
love to the health of both.
You have here perhaps a longer letter than you
desired. It would have been much shorter if in my reply I had been
thinking of you alone; but as it is, even though it should be of no
use to yourself, I do not think that it can fail to be of use to
those who shall take pains to read it in the fear of God, and
without respect of persons. Amen.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
