Chapter 19.—42. Petilianus said: "The Lord Jesus Christ commands us, saying, ‘When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another; and if they persecute you in that, flee yet into a third; for verily I say unto you, ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.’2029
If He gives us this warning in the case of
Jews and pagans, you who call yourself a
Christian ought not to
imitate the dreadful
deeds of the Gentiles. Or do you serve
God in such
wise that we should be
murdered at your
hands? You do err, you do err, if you are
wretched enough to
entertain such a belief as this. For
God does not have butchers for His
priests."
43. Augustin answered: To flee from one state to another from the face of persecution has not been enjoined as precept or permission on heretics or schismatics, such as you are; but it was enjoined on the preachers of the gospel, whom you resist. And this we may easily prove in this wise: you are now in your own cities, and no man persecutes you. You must therefore come forth, and give an account of your separation. For it cannot
be maintained that, as the weakness of the flesh is excused when it yields before the violence of persecution, so truth also ought to yield to falsehood. Furthermore, if you are suffering persecution, why do you not retire from the cities in which you are, that you may fulfill the instructions which you quote out of the gospel? But if you are not suffering persecution, why are you unwilling to reply to us? Or if the fact be that you are afraid lest, when you should
have made reply, you then should suffer persecution, in that case how are you following the example of those preachers to whom it was said, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves?" To whom it was also further said "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul."2030
And how do you
escape the charge of acting contrary to the injunction of the
Apostle Peter, who says, "Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the
faith and
hope that is in you?"
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And, lastly, wherefore are you ever eager to annoy the Catholic
Churches by the most violent disturbances, whenever it is in your
power, as is
proved by
innumerable instances of simple fact? But you say that you must
defend your places, and that you
resist with cudgels and massacres and with whatever else you can. Wherefore in such a case did you not hearken to the voice of the
Lord, when He says, "But I say unto you, that ye
resist not
evil"?
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Or, allowing that it is possible that in some cases it should be right for violent men to be
resisted by bodily force, and that it does not violate the
precept which we receive from the
Lord, "But I say unto you, that ye
resist not
evil," why may it not also be that a pious man should eject an impious man, or a just man him that is
unjust, in the
exercise of duly and lawfully constituted
authority, from seats which are unlawfully usurped, or retained to the despite of
God? For you would not say that the false
prophets suffered persecution at the
hands of
Elijah, in the same sense that
Elijah suffered persecution from the wickedest of kings?
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Or that because the
Lord was
scourged by His persecutors, therefore those whom He Himself drove out of the
temple with
scourges are to be put in comparison with His sufferings? It remains, therefore, that we should acknowledge that there is no other
question requiring solution, except whether you have been pious or impious in separating yourselves from the
communion of the whole
world. For if it shall be found that you have acted impiously, you would not be surprised if
there should be no lack of
ministers of God by whom you might be scourged, seeing that you suffer persecution not from us, but as it is written, from their own abominations.
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