Chapter 6.—7. What then, ye Donatists, what have ye to say to this? If our opinion about baptism is true, yet all who thought differently in the time of Cyprian were not cut off from the unity of the Church, till God revealed to them the truth of the point on which they were in error, why then have ye by your sacrilegious separation broken the bond of peace? But if yours is the true opinion about baptism, Cyprian and the others, in
conjunction with whom ye set forth that he held such a Council, remained in unity with those who thought otherwise; why, therefore, have ye broken the bond of peace? Choose which alternative ye will, ye are compelled to pronounce an opinion against your schism. Answer me, wherefore have ye separated yourselves? Wherefore have ye erected an altar in opposition to the whole world? Wherefore do ye not communicate with the Churches to which apostolic epistles have been sent, which you
yourselves read and acknowledge, in accordance with whose tenor you say that you order your lives? Answer me, wherefore have ye separated yourselves? I suppose in order that ye might not perish by communion with wicked men. How then was it that Cyprian, and so many of his colleagues, did not perish? For though they believed that heretics and schismatics did not possess baptism, yet they chose rather to hold communion with them when they had been received into the Church without baptism,
although they believed that their flagrant and sacrilegious sins were yet upon their heads, than to be separated from the unity of the Church, according to the words of Cyprian, "Judging no one, nor depriving any one of the right of communion if he differ from us."
8. If, therefore, by such communion with the wicked the just cannot but perish, the Church had already perished in the time of Cyprian. Whence then sprang the origin of Donatus? where was he taught, where was he baptized, where was he ordained, since the Church had been already destroyed by the contagion of communion with the wicked? But if the Church still existed, the wicked could do no harm to the good in one communion with them. Wherefore
did ye separate yourselves? Behold, I see in unity Cyprian and others, his colleagues, who, on holding a council, decided that those who have been baptized without the communion of the Church have no true baptism, and that therefore it must be given them when they join the Church. But again, behold I see in the same unity that certain men think differently in this matter, and that, recognizing in those who come from heretics and schismatics the baptism of Christ, they do not venture to
baptize them afresh. All of these catholic unity embraces in her motherly breast, bearing each other’s burdens by turns, and endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,1228
till
God should
reveal to one or other of them any error in their views. If the one party held the
truth, were they infected by the others, or no? If the others held the
truth, were they infected by the first, or no? Choose which ye will. If there was contamination, the
Church even then ceased to exist; answer me, therefore, whence came ye forth hither? But if the
Church remained, the good are in no
wise contaminated by the bad in such
communion; answer me, therefore,
why did ye
break the
bond?
9. Or is it perhaps that schismatics, when received without baptism, bring no infection, but that it is brought by those who deliver up the sacred books?1229
| 1229 Traditores sanctorum librorum.
|
For that there were traditors of your number is
proved by the clearest
testimony of history. And if you had then brought true evidence against those whom you were accusing, you would have
proved your cause before the
unity of the whole
world, so that you would have been retained whilst they were shut out. And if you endeavored to do this, and did not succeed, the
world is not to
blame, which trusted the judges of the
Church rather than the beaten parties in the suit;
whilst, if you would not urge your suit, the
world again is not to
blame, which could not
condemn men without their cause being heard. Why, then, did you separate yourselves from the
innocent? You cannot
defend the
sacrilege of your
schism. But this I pass over. But so much I say, that if the traditors could have
defiled you, who were not
convicted by you, and by whom, on the contrary, you were beaten, much more could the
sacrilege of schismatics and
heretics, received into the
Church, as
you maintain, without
baptism, have
defiled Cyprian. Yet he did not separate himself. And inasmuch as the
Church continued to exist, it is clear that it could not be
defiled. Wherefore, then, did you separate yourselves, I do not say from the
innocent, as the facts
proved them, but from the traditors, as they were never
proved to be? Are the
sins of traditors, as I began to say, heavier than those of schismatics? Let us not bring in
deceitful balances, to which we may hang what weights we
will and how we will, saying to suit ourselves, "This is heavy and this is
light;" but let us bring forward the
sacred balance out of holy Scripture, as out of the
Lord’s
treasure-
house, and let us weigh them by it, to see which is the heavier; or rather, let us not weigh them for ourselves, but read the weights as declared by the
Lord. At the time when the
Lord showed, by the example of recent
punishment, that there was need to
guard against the
sins of olden days, and an
idol was made and
worshipped, and the prophetic book was
burned by the
wrath of a scoffing king, and
schism was attempted, the
idolatry was
punished with the
sword,
1230
the burning of the book by
slaughter in
war and
captivity in a
foreign land,
1231
schism by the
earth opening, and swallowing up alive the
leaders of the
schism while the
rest were consumed with
fire from
heaven.
1232
Who will now doubt that that was the worse
crime which received the heavier
punishment? If men coming from such sacrilegious
company, without
baptism, as you maintain, could not
defile Cyprian, how could those
defile you who were not
convicted but supposed betrayers of the
sacred books?
1233
| 1233 Non convicti sed conficti traditores.
|
For if they had not only given up the books to be
burned, but had actually
burned them with their own
hands, they would have been
guilty of a less
sin than if they had
committed schism; for schism is visited with the heavier, the other with the lighter punishment, not at man’s discretion, but by the judgment of God.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
