Chapter 14.—31. Petilianus said: "In the third place, also, He calls the madness of persecutors in like manner by this name, ‘Ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon
you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.’2000
Are they then really the sons of
vipers according to the
flesh, and not rather
serpents in
mind, and three-tongued
malice, and deadliness of touch, and burning with the spirit of
poison? They have truly become
vipers, who by their bites have vomited forth
death against the
innocent people."
32. Augustin answered: If I were to say that this is said of men of character like unto yourselves, you would reply, "Prove it." What then, have you proved it? Or if you think that it is proved by the mere fact of its being uttered, there is no need to repeat the same words. Pronounce the same judgment against yourselves as coming from us to you. See you not that I too have proved it, if this amounts to proof? And yet I would have
you learn what is really meant by proof. For indeed I do not even seek for evidence from without to enable me to prove you vipers. For be well assured that this very fact marks in you the nature of vipers, that you have not in your mouth the foundation of truth, but the poison of slanderous abuse, as it is written, "The poison of asps is under their lips."2001
And because this might be said indiscriminately by any one against any one, as though it were asked, Under whose
lips? he immediately adds, "Their mouth is full of cursing and
bitterness."
2002
When, therefore, you say such things as this against men
dispersed throughout the whole
world, of whom you know nothing whatsoever, and many of whom have never heard the name either of Cæcilianus or of Donatus, and when you do not hear them answering amid
silence, Nothing of what you say has reference to us; we never saw it; we never did it; we are totally at a loss to understand what you are saying,—seeing that you desire nothing else than to say what you are entirely
powerless to
prove, how can you help allowing that your mouth is full of cursing and
bitterness? See, therefore, whether you can possibly show that you are not
vipers,
2003
| 2003 A suggested reading is, "nos esse viperas."
|
unless you show that all
Christians throughout all
nations of the
world are
traditors, and murderers, and anything but
Christians. Nay, in very
truth, even though you should be able to know and set before us the lives and
deeds of every individual man throughout the
world, yet before you can do that, seeing that you act as you do without any consideration, your mouth is that of a
viper, your mouth is full of cursing and
bitterness. Show to us now, if you can, what
prophet, what
wise man, what
scribe we have slain, or crucified, or
scourged in our synagogues. Look how much
labor you have expended without in any way being able to
prove that Donatus and Marculus
2004
| 2004 These both with others are celebrated in the martyrology of the Donatists, see IIII. Idas Martii Sermo de Passione SS. Donati et Advocati, c. 340; Passio Marculi sacerdotis Donatistæ qui sub Macario interfectus a Donatistis pro Martyre habebatur (Dec. 25, a. 348), and others. See Du Pin Monumenta vetera ad Donatistarum Historiam pertinentia, in his edition of Optatus.
|
were
prophets, or
wise men, or
scribes, because, in fact, they were nothing of the sort. But even if you could
prove as much as this, what progress would you have made towards proving that they had been
killed by us, when even we ourselves did not so much as know them? and how much less the whole
world, whom you calumniate with poisonous mouth?
2005
| 2005 See below, c. 20, 46: and Contra Crescon. III. 49, 54.
|
Or whence will you be able to
prove that we have a spirit like that of those who
murdered them, when you actually cannot show that they were
murdered by any one at all? Look carefully to all these points, see whether you can
prove any single one of them either about the whole
world, or to the satisfaction of the whole
world,—in your persevering calumnies against which you show that the charges are true in you, which you falsely propagate against the
world.
33. Further, even if we should desire to prove you to be slayers of the prophets, it would be too long a task to collect the evidence through all the several instances of the slaughter which your infuriated leaders of the Circumcelliones, and the actual crowd of men inflamed by wine and madness, not only have committed since the beginning of your schism, but even continue to commit at the present time. To take the case nearest at hand. Let the divine
utterances be produced, which are commonly in the hands of both of us. Let us consider those to be murderers of the prophets whom we find contradicting the words of the prophets. What more learned definition could be given? What could admit of speedier proof? You would be acting less cruelly in piercing the bodies of the prophets with a sword, than in endeavoring to destroy the words of the prophets with your tongue. The prophet says, "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto
the Lord."2006
Behold and see how this is being done, how it is being fulfilled. But you not only close your
ears in
disbelief against what is said, but you even thrust out your
tongues in madness to speak against what is already being done.
Abraham heard the
promise, "In thy
seed shall all the
nations of the
earth be
blessed,"
2007
and "he believed, and it was
counted unto him for
righteousness."
2008
You see the fact accomplished, and you
cry out against it; and you will not that it should be
counted unto you for
unrighteousness, as it fairly would be
counted, even if your refusal to believe was not on the accomplishment, but only on the utterance of the
prophecy. Nay, not only are you not willing that it should be
counted unto you for
unrighteousness, but even what you
suffer as the
punishment of this impiety you would fain have
counted unto you for
righteousness.
Or if your
conduct is not a persecution of the
prophets, because your
instrument is not the
sword but the
tongue, what was the reason of its being said under
divine inspiration, "The sons of men, whose teeth are
spears and arrows, and their
tongue a sharp
sword"?
2009
But what time would suffice me to collect from all the
prophets all the
testimonies to the
Church dispersed throughout the
world, all of which you endeavor to
destroy and render nought by contradicting them? But you are caught; for "their sound is gone out into all
lands, and their words to the end of the
world."
2010
I will, however, advance this one saying from the mouth of the
Lord, who is the Witness of witnesses. "All things must be fulfilled," He says, "which were written in the
law of
Moses, and in the
prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me." And what these were let us hear from Himself: "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."
2011
See what it is that is written in the
law of
Moses, and in the
prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning the
Lord. See what the
Lord Himself
revealed about Himself and about the
Church, making Himself manifest, uttering
promises about the
Church. But for you, see that you
resist such manifest
proofs as these, and as you cannot
destroy them, endeavor to pervert them, what would you do, if you were to come across the bodies of the
prophets, when you
rage so madly against
the utterances of the
prophets, as not even to hearken to the
Lord when He is fulfilling, and making manifest, and expounding the
prophets? For do you not, to the utmost of`your power, strive to slay the Lord Himself, since even to Himself you will not yield?
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
