Chapter 8.—17. Petilianus said: "We must consider, I say, and declare how far the treacherous traditor is to be accounted dead while yet in life. Judas was an apostle when he betrayed Christ; and the same man was already dead, having spiritually lost the office of an apostle, being destined afterwards to die by hanging himself, as it is written: ‘I have sinned,’ says he, ‘in that I have betrayed the
innocent blood; and he departed, and went and hanged himself.’1983
The
traitor perished by the
rope: he left the
rope for others like himself, of whom the
Lord Christ cried aloud to the
Father, ‘
Father, those that Thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of
perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled.’
1984
For
David of old had passed this sentence on him who was to
betray Christ to the
unbelievers: ‘Let another take his
office. Let his
children be
fatherless, and his
wife a
widow.’
1985
See how mighty is the spirit of the
prophets, that it was able to see all future things as though they were present, so that a
traitor who was to be
born hereafter should be
condemned many centuries before. Finally, that the said sentence should be completed, the holy
Matthias received the bishopric of that lost
apostle. Let no one be so dull, no one so faithless, as to dispute this:
Matthias won for himself a
victory, not a wrong, in that he carried off the
spoils of
the
traitor from the
victory of the
Lord Christ. Why then, after this, do you claim to yourself a bishopric as the heir of a worse
traitor?
Judas betrayed Christ in the
flesh to the
unbelievers; you in the spirit madly
betrayed the holy
gospel to the
flames of
sacrilege.
Judas betrayed the
Lawgiver to the
unbelievers; you, as it were, betraying all that he had left, gave up the
law of
God to be
destroyed by men. Whilst, had you
loved the
law, like the youthful Maccabees, you would have
welcomed
death for the sake of the
laws of
God (if indeed that can be said to be
death to men which makes them
immortal because they
died for the
Lord); for of those
brethren we
learn that one replied to the sacrilegious tyrant with these words of
faith: ‘Thou like a fury takest us out of this present
life; but the King of the
world (who
reigns for ever, and of His
kingdom there shall be no end) shall raise us up who have
died for His
laws, unto
everlasting life.’
1986
If you were to
burn with
fire the testament of a dead man, would you not be
punished as the falsifier of a will? What therefore is likely to become of you who have
burned the most holy
law of our
God and
Judge?
Judas repented of his
deed even in
death; you not only do not
repent, but stand forth as a persecutor and butcher of us who keep the
law, whilst you are the most
wicked of
traditors."
18. Augustin answered: See what a difference there is between your calumnious words and our truthful assertions. Listen for a little while. See how you have exaggerated the sin of delivering up the sacred books, comparing us in most odious terms, like some sophistical inventor of charges, with the traitor Judas. But when I shall have answered you on this point with the utmost brevity,—I did not do what you assert; I did not deliver
up the sacred books; your charge is false; you will never be able to prove it,—will not all that smoke of mighty words presently vanish away? Or will you perchance endeavor to prove the truth of what you say? This, then, you should do first; and then you might rise against us, as against men who were already convicted, with whatever mass of invective you might choose. Here is one absurdity: behold again a second.
19. You yourself, when speaking of the foretelling of the condemnation of Judas, used these expressions: "See how mighty is the spirit of the prophets, that it was able to see all future things as though they were present, so that a traitor who was to be born hereafter should be condemned many centuries before;" and yet you did not see that in the same sure prophecy, and certain and unshaken truth, in which it was foretold that one of the disciples should
hereafter betray the Christ; it was also foretold that the whole world should hereafter believe in Christ. Why did you pay attention in the prophecy to the man who betrayed Christ, and in the same place give no heed to the world for which Christ was betrayed? Who betrayed Christ? Judas. To whom did he betray Him? To the Jews. What did the Jews do to Him? "They pierced my hands and my feet," says the Psalmist. "I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments
among them, and cast lots upon my vesture."1987
Of what importance, then, that is which is
bought at such a
price, I would have you read a little later in the psalm itself: "All the ends of the
world shall remember and turn unto the
Lord; and all the kindreds of the
nations shall
worship before Thee. For the
kingdom is the
Lord’s; and He is the
governor among the
nations."
1988
But who is able to suffice for the quotation of all the other
innumerable prophetic passages which bear witness to the
world that is destined to believe? Yet you quote a
prophecy because you see in it the man who sold
Christ: you do not see in it the possession which
Christ bought by being sold. Here is the second absurdity: behold again the third.
20. Among the many other expressions in your invective, you said: "If you were to burn with fire the testament of a dead man, would you not be punished as the falsifier of a will? What therefore is likely to become of you who have burned the most holy law of our God and Judge?" In these words you have paid no attention to what certainly ought to have moved you, to the question of how it might be that we should burn the testament, and yet stand fast in the
inheritance which was described in that testament; but it is marvellous that you have preserved the testament and lost the inheritance. Is it not written in that testament, "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession"?1989
Take part in this inheritance, and you may bring what charges you will against me about the testament. For what madness is it, that while you shrank from committing the testament to the
flames, you should yet
strive against the words of the
testator! We, on the other
hand, though we hold in our
hands the records of the
Church and of the
State, in which we read that those who
ordained a rival
bishop1990
in opposition to Cæcilianus were rather the betrayers of the
sacred books, yet do not on this account insult you, or
pursue you with invectives, or
mourn over the
ashes of the
sacred pages in your
hands, or contrast the burning
torments of the Maccabees with the
sacrilege of your
fear, saying, "You should
deliver your own limbs to the
flames rather than the utterances of
God." For we are
unwilling to be so absurd as to excite an empty
uproar against you on account of the
deeds of others, which you either know nothing of, or else repudiate. But in that we see you separated from the
communion of the whole
world (a
sin both of the greatest magnitude, and manifest to all
mankind, and common to you all), if I were desirous of exaggerating, I should find time failing me sooner than words. And if you should
seek to
defend yourself on this charge, it could only be by bringing
accusations against the whole
world, of such a
kind that, if they could be maintained, you
would simply be furnishing matter for further
accusation against yourself; if they could not be maintained, there is in them no defence for you. Why therefore do you puff yourself up against me about the betrayal of the
sacred books, which concerns neither you nor me if we
abide by the
agreement not to charge each other with the
sins of other men: and which, if that
agreement does not stand, affects you rather than me? And, yet, even without any violation of that
agreement, I think I may say
with
perfect justice that he should be deemed a partner with him who
delivered up
Christ who has not
delivered himself up to
Christ in
company with the whole
world. "Then," says the
apostle, "then are ye
Abraham’s
seed, and heirs according to the
promise."
1991
And again he says, "Heirs of
God, and joint-heirs with
Christ."
1992
And the same
apostle shows that the
seed of
Abraham belongs to all
nations from the
promise which was given to
Abraham, "In thy
seed shall all the
nations of the
earth be
blessed."
1993
Wherefore I consider that I am only making a fair demand in asking that we should for a moment consider the testament of
God, which has already long been opened, and that we should consider every one to be himself an heir of the
traitor whom we do not find to be a joint-heir with Him whom he
betrayed; that every one should
belong to him who sold
Christ who denies that
Christ has
bought the whole
world. For when He showed Himself after His resurrection to His
disciples,
and gave His limbs to those who doubted, that they should handle them, He says this to them, "For thus it is written, and thus it behoved
Christ to
suffer, and to rise again 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."
1994
See from what an inheritance you estrange yourselves! see what an Heir you
resist! Can it really be that a man would spare
Christ if He were walking here on
earth who speaks against Him while He sits in
heaven? Do you not yet understand that whatever you allege against us you allege against His words? A
Christian world is
promised and believed in: the
promise is fulfilled, and it is denied. Consider, I entreat of you, what you ought to
suffer for such impiety. And
yet, if I know not what you have
suffered,—if I have not seen it, have not
wrought it,—then do you to-day, who do not suffer the violence of my persecution, render to me an account of your separation. But you are likely to say over and over again what, unless you prove it, can affect no one, and if you prove it, has no bearing upon me.
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