Chapter 1.—1. How much the arguments make for us, that is, for catholic peace, which the party of Donatus profess to bring forward against us from the authority of the blessed Cyprian, and how much they prove against those who bring them forward, it is my intention, with the help of God, to show in the ensuing book. If, therefore, in the course of my argument, I am obliged to repeat what I have already said in
other treatises (although I will do so as little as I can,) yet this ought not to be objected to by those who have already read them and agree with them; since it is not only right that those things which are necessary for instruction should be frequently instilled into men of dull intelligence, but even in the case of those who are endowed with larger understanding, it contributes very much both to make their learning easier and their powers of teaching readier, where the same points are
handled and discussed in many various ways. For I know how much it discourages a reader, when he comes upon any knotty question in the book which he has in hand, to find himself presently referred for its solution to another which he happens not to have. Wherefore, if I am compelled, by the urgency of the present questions, to repeat what I have already said in other books, I would seek forgiveness from those who know those books already, that those who are ignorant may have their
difficulties removed; for it is better to give to one who has already, than to abstain from satisfying any one who is in want.
2. What, then, do they venture to say, when their mouth is closed1209
by the force of
truth, with which they will not agree? "Cyprian," say they, "whose great merits and vast learning we all know,
decreed in a
Council,
1210
| 1210 The Council of Carthage, A.D. 256, in which eighty-seven African bishops declared in favor of rebaptizing heretics. The opinions of the bishops are quoted and answered by Augustin, one by one, in Books vi and vii.
|
with many of his fellow-
bishops contributing their several opinions, that all
heretics and schismatics, that is, all who are severed from the
communion of the one
Church, are without
baptism; and therefore, whosoever has joined the
communion of the
Church after being
baptized by them must be
baptized in the
Church." The
authority of Cyprian does not alarm me, because I am reassured by his
humility. We know, indeed, the great merit of the
bishop and martyr Cyprian; but is
it in any way greater than that of the
apostle and martyr Peter, of whom the said Cyprian speaks as follows in his
epistle to Quintus? "For neither did Peter, whom the
Lord chose first, and on whom He built His
Church,
1211
when
Paul afterwards disputed with him about
circumcision, claim or assume anything insolently and arrogantly to himself, so as to say that he held the primacy, and should rather be obeyed of those who were late and newly come. Nor did he
despise Paul because he had before been a persecutor of the
Church, but he admitted the
counsel of
truth, and readily assented to the legitimate grounds which
Paul maintained; giving us thereby a pattern of
concord and
patience,
that we should not pertinaciously
love our own opinions, but should rather account as our own any true and rightful suggestions of our
brethren and colleagues for the common
health and weal."
1212
Here is a passage in which Cyprian records what we also
learn in holy Scripture, that the
Apostle Peter, in whom the primacy of the
apostles shines with such exceeding
grace, was corrected by the later
Apostle Paul, when he
adopted a
custom in the matter of
circumcision at variance with the demands of
truth. If it was therefore possible for Peter in some point to
walk not uprightly according to the
truth of the
gospel, so as to compel the Gentiles to judaize, as
Paul
writes in that
epistle in which he calls
God to witness that he does not
lie; for he says, "Now the things which I
write unto you, behold, before
God, I
lie not;"
1213
and, after this
sacred and awful calling of
God to witness, he told the whole tale, saying in the course of it, "But when I saw that they walked not uprightly, according to the
truth of the
gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a
Jew, livest after the manner of the Gentiles, and not as do the
Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to
live as do the
Jews?"
1214
—if Peter, I say, could compel the Gentiles to
live after the manner of the
Jews, contrary to the rule of
truth which the
Church afterwards held, why might not Cyprian, in opposition to the rule of
faith which the whole
Church afterwards held, compel
heretics and schismatics to be
baptized afresh? I suppose that there is no slight to Cyprian in comparing him with Peter in respect to his
crown of martyrdom; rather I ought to be afraid lest I am showing disrespect towards
Peter. For who can be ignorant that the primacy of his apostleship is to be preferred to any episcopate whatever? But, granting the difference in the
dignity of their sees, yet they have the same
glory in their martyrdom. And whether it may be the case that the
hearts of those who confess and
die for the true
faith in the
unity of
charity take precedence of each other in different points, the
Lord Himself will know, by the hidden and wondrous dispensation of whose
grace the
thief hanging on
the
cross once for all confesses Him, and is sent on the selfsame day to
paradise,
1215
while Peter, the follower of our
Lord, denies Him thrice, and has his
crown postponed:
1216
for us it were rash to form a
judgment from the evidence. But if any one were now found compelling a man to be circumcised after the
Jewish fashion, as a necessary preliminary for
baptism, this would meet with much more general repudiation by
mankind, than if a man should be compelled to be
baptized again. Wherefore, if Peter, on doing this, is corrected by his later colleague
Paul, and is yet
preserved by the
bond of
peace and
unity till he is promoted to martyrdom,
how much more readily and constantly should we prefer, either to the
authority of a single
bishop, or to the
Council of a single
province, the rule that has been established by the statutes of the universal
Church? For this same Cyprian, in urging his view of the question, was still anxious to remain in the unity of peace even with those who differed from him on this point, as is shown by his own opening address at the beginning of the very Council which is quoted by the Donatists. For it is
as follows:
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
