Chapter 98.—223. Petilianus said: "Lastly, as we have often said before, how great is your presumption, that you should speak as you presume to do of kings, when David says, ‘It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man: it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes?’"2264
224. Augustin answered: We put no confidence in man, but, so far as we can, we warn men to place their trust in the Lord; nor do we put confidence in princes, but, so far as we can, we warn princes to put confidence in the Lord. And though we may seek aid from princes to promote the advantage of the Church, yet do we not put confidence in them. For neither did the apostle himself put confidence in that tribune, in the sense in which
the Psalmist talks of putting confidence in princes, from whom he obtained for himself that an escort of armed men should be assigned to him; nor did he put confidence in the armed men, by whose protection he escaped the snares of the wicked ones, in any such sense as that of the Psalmist where he speaks of putting confidence in men.2265
But neither do we find fault with you yourselves, because you sought from the
emperor that the basilicas should be restored to you, as though you had put your
trust in Julian the
prince; but we find fault with you, that you have despaired of the witness of
Christ, from whose
unity you have separated the basilicas themselves. For you received them at the bidding of an
enemy of
Christ, that in them you should
despise the commands of
Christ, whilst you find force and
truth
in what Julian
ordained, saying, "This, moreover, on the petition of Rogatianus,
Pontius, Cassianus, and other
bishops, not without an intermixture of clergy, is added to complete the whole, that those proceedings which were taken to their prejudice wrongly and without
authority being all annulled, everything should be restored to its former position;" and yet you find nothing that has either force or
truth in what
Christ ordained, saying, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in
Jerusalem, and
in all Judea, and in
Samaria, and even in the whole
earth."
2266
We entreat you, let yourselves be reformed. Return to this most manifest
unity of the whole
world; and let all things be restored to their former position, not in accordance with the words of the apostate Julian, but in accordance with the words of our Saviour
Christ. Have pity on your own
soul. We are not now comparing Constantine and Julian in order to show how different they are. We are not saying, If you have not placed
confidence in a man and
in a
prince, when you said to a pagan and apostate
emperor, that "in him
justice only found a place," seeing that the party of Donatus has universally employed the prayers and the rescript in which those words occur, as is
proved by the records of the audience; much less ought we to be
accused by you, as though we put our
confidence in any man or
prince, if without any blasphemous
flattery we obtained any request from Constantine or from the other
Christian emperors; or if they themselves,
without our asking for it, but remembering the account which they shall render to the
Lord, under whose words they tremble when they hear what you yourself have quoted, "Be
wise now therefore, O ye kings," etc., and many other sayings of the sort, make any
ordinance of their own
accord in support of the
unity of the Catholic
Church. But I say nothing about Constantine. It is
Christ and Julian that we contrast before you; nay, more than this, it is
God and man, the Son of
God and the son of
hell, the Saviour of our
souls and the destroyer of his own. Why do you maintain the rescript of Julian in the
occupation of the basilicas, and yet not maintain the
gospel of
Christ in embracing the
peace of the
Church? We too
cry out, "Let all things that have been done
amiss be restored to their ancient condition." The
gospel of
Christ is of greater
antiquity than the rescript of Julian; the
unity of
Christ is of greater
antiquity than the party of Donatus; the prayers of the
Church to the
Lord on behalf of the
unity of the
Church are of greater
antiquity than the prayers of Rogatianus, and
Pontius, and Cassianus, to Julian on behalf of the party of Donatus. Are proceedings wrongly taken when kings forbid
division? and are they not wrongly taken when
bishops divide
unity? Is that wrong action when kings
minister to the witness of
Christ in defence of the
Church? and is it not wrong action when
bishops contradict the witness of
Christ in order to deny the
Church? We entreat
you, therefore, that the words of Julian himself, to whom you thus made supplication, may be listened to, not in opposition to the gospel, but in accordance with the gospel, and that "all things which have been done amiss may be restored to their former condition."
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