Against the Donatists — Book 2

Against the Donatists · Optatus of Milevis · the golden age of the Fathers · part 5 of 10

Against the Donatists — Book 2

I. Which and where is the Catholic Church? It is spread all over the world. II. He proves from the Cathedra Petri that the Cathedra which is the first endowment of the Church belongs to Catholics, not to Donatists. III. The Succession of Bishops of Rome. IV. The Donatist Bishops and their meetinghouses in Rome. V. The Donatist Authors of Schism, Foes of Peace. VI. The second Endowment of the Church, 'The Angelus,' or Bishop, is not with the Donatists. VII. The third Endowment, Spiritus, the Holy Spirit, is in the Church, not with the Donatists. VIII. Concerning the Fons, the Sigillum and the Umbilicus. IX. The Endowments of the Church are with Catholics; not with Donatists. X. Catholics possess the Sacraments. XI. The Church is rightly called Paradise, but it belongs to the wide world. XII. From the prayer of Oblation we gather that the One Church is Everywhere. XIII. The praise bestowed upon the Church by Parmenian belongs to Catholics. XIV. The Catholics have done nothing with cruelty. XV. The Peace and Happiness of the Church before it was disturbed by the Donatists. XVI. The Edict of Julian. XVII. The madness and cruelty of the Donatists. XVIII. The Donatists' murderous deeds. XIX. The Eucharist was given by the Donatists to dogs. An Ampulla of Chrism was thrown away. Their other sacrileges. XX. It is proved against the Donatists, who call themselves saints, that no man can be free from sin.

XXI. The sin of the Donatists in stripping Bishops of their dignity and submitting them to Penance. XXII. The Impiety of the Donatists, who were accustomed to swear by their Bishops. XXIII. The wickedness of the Donatists in scraping the heads of anointed priests. XXIV. The wrong done by the Donatists to men of every degree and age by laying hands upon them in Penance. [No chapter 25 is marked in the text or margin] XXVI. Matrons, boys and virgins were compelled by the Donatists to do Penance. Which is the One True Catholic Church and Where is it to be found? The Five Endowments of the Church belong to Catholicism, not to the schism. The donatists have been guilty of shamelessly scraping the heads of Priests, and of Murders, of giving the Eucharist to Dogs, and of casting away the Holy Chrism. I. Which and where is the Catholic Church? It is spread all over the world. We have shown who were the Betrayers, and have pointed out the origin of the Schism in such a manner that we have almost seen it take place before our eyes. The difference between heresy and schism has also been explained. It is now our business to show (as we promised that we would do in the second place) which is the One Church, called by Christ His Dove and His Bride.

The Church, then, is One, and her holiness is not measured by the pride of individuals, but is derived from the Sacraments. It is for this reason that she alone is called by Christ His Dove and His own beloved Bride. The Church cannot be amongst all the heretics and schismatics. It follows that [according to you] she must be in one place only. You, my brother Parmenian, have said that she is with you alone. This, I suppose, can only be because, in your pride, you strive to claim some special holiness for yourselves, so that the Church may be where it pleases you, and may not be where it pleases you not. And so, in order that she may be with you in a little piece of Africa, in a corner of one small region, is she not to be with us in another part of Africa? Is she not to be in Spain, in Gaul, in Italy, where you are not? If you maintain that she is with you only, is she not to be in Pannonia, in Dacia, Moesia, Thrace, Achaia, Macedonia and in all Greece, where you are not? In order that you may be able to argue that she is with you, is she not to be in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Pamphylia, Phrygia, Cilicia and in the three Syrias, and in the two Armenias, and in all Egypt and in Mesopotamia, where you are not?

And is she not to be throughout innumerable islands and so many other provinces which can hardly be counted, where you are not? Where in that case will be the application of the Catholic Name, since on this very account was the Church called Catholic, because she is in accordance with reason, and is scattered all over the world? For if you limit the Church just as it may please you, into a narrow corner, if you withdraw whole peoples from her communion, where will that be which the Son of God has merited, where will that be which the Father has freely granted Him, saying, in the second Psalm: 'I will give to Thee the nations for Thine inheritance; and the ends of the earth for Thy possession'? To what purpose do you break so mighty a promise, so that the breadth of all the kingdoms is compressed by you into a sort of narrow prison? Why do you strive to stand in the way of so great a largesse? Why do you fight against the Saviour's Merits? Permit the Son to possess that which has been granted to Him; permit the Father to fulfil that which He has promised. Why do you put bounds, why set limits? There is nothing in any part of the earth which has been withheld from His dominion, since the whole earth has been promised by God the Father to the Saviour.

The whole earth has been granted to Him together with its nations. The whole world is Christ's as His undivided possession. God proves this when he says: 'I will give unto Thee the nations for Thine inheritance, and for Thy possession the bounds of the earth.' And in the seventy-first Psalm, it has been written of the Saviour Himself, 'He shall reign from sea to sea, and from the waters to the bounds of the world.' When the Father gives, He makes no exception; you, that you may give Him one fraction, endeavour to take away the whole measure. And, still, you endeavour to persuade men that the Church is amongst you alone, taking away from Christ that which He has won----denying that God has performed His promises. What ingratitude! What folly! What presumption is yours! Christ invites you, with all others, into the company of the Heavenly Kingdom and exhorts you to be co-heirs with Him; and you strive to rob Him of the inheritance given Him by the Father, allowing Him a part of Africa and refusing Him the whole world, which the Father has bestowed upon Him. Why do you desire to make the Holy Ghost appear a liar, who in the forty-ninth Psalm tells of the goodness of Almighty God, saying: 'The Lord, the God of Gods has spoken and has called the earth from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof'?

Therefore the earth has been called to become flesh. earth owes praises to its Creator. And, as it has been written, so has it been done, and the Once more this is mentioned, where the Holy Spirit exhorts us in the hundred and twelfth Psalm with the words: 'The Name of the Lord must be praised from the rising of the sun even to its going down.' And again, in the ninety-fifth Psalm: 'Sing ye to the Lord a new song.' If this were the only verse, you might say that the Holy Ghost had exhorted you alone. But that He might show that this has been said not to you alone, but to the Church which is everywhere, He continued: 'Sing to the Lord, all the earth; declare amongst the nations His glory, His wonderful works amongst all peoples.' He said: 'Declare amongst the nations.' He did not say, 'in a small part of Africa, where you are'; He did say 'Declare amongst all peoples.' He who said 'all peoples' excepted no man. Yet you are proud to be alone and separated from 'all peoples,' though to them this command was given; and you maintain that you, who are not in any part of the whole, are yet yourselves alone the whole. He has said: 'The name of the Lord must be praised,' and 'by all the earth from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof.'

Can then the Pagans, who are outside the covenant of Christ, either sing to God or praise the name of the Lord? Is it not His Church alone, which is within the covenant, that may praise Him? Therefore, if you say that the Church is with you only, you are defrauding God's ear of its due. If you alone are praising Him, 'the whole world,' which is from the rising of the sun to its going down, will be keeping silence. You have shut the mouths of all the Christian nations. You have imposed silence on all the peoples who desire to praise God from moment to moment. If then God waits for the praise which is His due, and if the Holy Spirit exhorts men to sound His praises, if 'the whole world' is prepared to render to God His due, lest God be robbed----then should you also praise Him, together with all, or, (since you have refused to be with all,) in your isolation, hold your tongues. II. He proves from the Cathedra Petri that the Cathedra which is the first endowment of the Church belongs to Catholics, not to Donatists. So we have proved that the Catholic Church is the Church which is spread throughout the world. We must now mention its Adornments, and see where are its five Endowments (which you have said to be six ), amongst which the CATHEDRA is the first; and, since the second Endowment, which is the 'Angelus,' cannot be added unless a Bishop has sat on the Cathedra, we must see who was the first to sit on the Cathedra, and where he sat.

If you do not know this, learn. If you do know, blush. Ignorance cannot be attributed to you----it follows that you know. For one who knows, to err is sin. Those who do not know may sometimes be pardoned. You cannot then deny that you do know that upon Peter first in the City of Rome was bestowed the Episcopal Cathedra, on which sat Peter, the Head of all the Apostles (for which reason he was called Cephas 37 38 ), that, in this one Cathedra, unity should be preserved by all, lest the other Apostles might claim----each for himself----separate Cathedras, so that he who should set up a second Cathedra against the unique Cathedra would already be a schismatic and a sinner. 40 Well then, on the one Cathedra, which is the first of the Endowments, Peter was the first to sit. III. The Succession of Bishops of Rome. To Peter succeeded Linus, to Linus succeeded Clement, to Clement Anacletus, to Anacletus Evaristus, to Evaristus Sixtus, to Sixtus Telesphorus, to Telesphorus Hyginus, to Hyginus Anacetus, to Anacetus Pius, to Pius Soter, to Soter Alexander, to Alexander Victor, to Victor Zephyrinus, to Zephyrinus Calixtus, to Calixtus Urban, to Urban Pontianus, to Pontianus Anterus, to Anterus Fabian, to Fabian Cornelius, to Cornelius Lucius, to Lucius Stephen, to Stephen Sixtus, to Sixtus Dionysius, to Dionysius Felix, to Felix Marcellinus, to Marcellinus Eusebius, to Eusebius Miltiades, to Miltiades Silvester, to Silvester Marcus, to Marcus Julius, to Julius Liberius, to Liberius Damasus, to Damasus Siricius, who to-day is our colleague, with whom 'the whole world,' through the intercourse of letters of peace, agrees with us in one bond of communion.

Now do you show the origin of your Cathedra, you who wish to claim the Holy Church for yourselves! IV. The Donatist Bishops and their meetinghouses in Rome. But you allege that you too have some sort of a party in the City of Rome. 48 49 It is a branch of your error growing out of a lie, not from the root of truth. In a word, were Macrobius to be asked where he sits in the City, will he be able to say on Peter's Cathedra? I doubt whether he has even set eyes upon it, and schismatic that he is, he has not drawn nigh to Peter's 'Shrine,' against the precept of the Apostle who writes: 'Communicating with the "Shrines" of the Saints.' Behold, in Rome are the 'Shrines' of the two Apostles. Will you tell me whether he has been able to approach them, or has offered Sacrifice in those places, where----as is certain----are these 'Shrines' of the Saints. So it follows that your colleague Macrobius must confess that he sits where once sat Encolpius; and if Encolpius himself could be questioned, he would say that he sat where before him sat Bonifacius of Balla; and if Bonifacius could be asked, he would in his turn reply that he sat where Victor of Garba sat, whom some time ago your people sent from Africa to a few wanderers.

How do you explain that your party has not been able to possess a Roman citizen as Bishop in Rome? How is it that in that City they were all Africans and strangers who are known to have succeeded one another? Is not craft here manifest? Is this not the spirit of faction----the mother of schism? This Victor of Garba was sent first, I will not say as a stone into a fountain (for he could not ruffle the pure waters of the Catholic people), but because some Africans who belonged to your party, having gone to Rome, and wishing to live there, begged that someone should be sent from Africa to preside over their public worship. So Victor was sent to them. He was there as a son without a father, as a beginner without a master, as a disciple without a teacher, as a follower without a predecessor, as a lodger without a home, as a guest without a guest-house, as a shepherd without a flock, as a Bishop without a people. For neither flock nor people can that handful be termed, who amongst the forty and more Basilicas in Rome, had not one place in which to assemble. Accordingly they closed up a cave outside the City with trellis-work, house at once, and on account of this were called Mountaineers. where they might have a meeting- Since then, Claudian has succeeded to Lucian, Lucian to Macrobius, Macrobius to Encolpius, Encolpius to Boniface, Boniface to Victor.

Victor would not have been able, had he been asked where he sat, to show that anyone had been there before him, nor could he have pointed out that he possessed any Cathedra save the Cathedra of pestilence ; for pestilence sends down its victims, destroyed by diseases, to the regions of Hell which are known to have their gates----gates against which we read that Peter received the saving Keys----Peter, that is to say, the first of our line, to whom it was said by Christ: 'To thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven,' and these keys 'the gates of Hell shall not overcome.' How is it, then, that you strive to usurp for yourselves the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, you who, with your 64 arguments, and audacious sacrilege, war against the Chair of Peter? V. The Donatist Authors of Schism, Foes of Peace. Thus do you repudiate the blessedness deserved by him who walked not in the counsel of the wicked, and did not stand in the way of sinners, and sat not on the Chair of Pestilence. Your fathers walked in the counsel of the ungodly, to divide the Church. They also walked in the way of sinners, when they strove to divide Christ, whose garments not even the Jews would rend, though the Apostle Paul cries out and says: 'Is then Christ divided?'

Would that your fathers, after having already walked in the evil way, had recognised their sin, and turned back upon themselves; would that they had set right their wicked deeds; would that they had recalled the Peace which they had put to flight. That would have been to turn back on their way, for on the way we have to walk, not stand still. But, since your fathers would not come back, it is certain that they stood in the way of sinners. They, whose steps had been impelled by mad wickedness, were held back, bound and benumbed by the spirit of strife; and, that they might not be able to return to better things, themselves placed the shackles of schism upon themselves, so that with obstinacy they stood in their error, and were not able to come back to the Peace which they had deserted. Nor did they listen to the Holy Spirit speaking in the thirty-third Psalm: 'Turn away from evil and do good; seek Peace and pursue it' ; but they stood in the way of their sins. Your fathers also sat on the Chair of Pestilence, which, as we have said above, sends down to death those whom it has beguiled. But you, whilst by your zealous defence you pay homage to your fathers' error, have made yourselves the heirs of their wickedness, when you might have been, though late, the sons of Peace.

For it has been written in the Prophet Ezekiel: 'Raise thy voice over the son of the sinner, that he follow not in his father's footsteps, since the soul of the father is Mine and Mine is the soul of the son. The soul which sins, alone shall be punished.' If you would disown your fathers' sin, they alone would have to give an account of their own deed. By acting thus, even you might be blessed and receive praise from the mouth of the Prophet, who says in the first Psalm: 'Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly nor stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the Chair of Pestilence, but has his will in the Law of the Lord.' What does it mean to have the 'will in the Law,' unless both to learn the divine precepts with piety, and fulfil them with fear----to have the will set on that Law in which it has been written (in the Gospel): 'Peace on earth to men of good will,' and in another place (in Isaiah the Prophet ): 'I will lay the foundations of peace in Sion,' and in another (the eighty-fourth Psalm): 'Let us see what the Lord shall say, for He shall speak peace to His people,' and in yet another (the seventy-fifth Psalm): 'The Son of God has come, and His place has been set in peace,' and again (in the seventy-first Psalm): 'Let the mountains receive peace for the.

people, and the hills justice,' and in the Gospel: 'My peace I give to you, My peace I leave to you' ; and Paul says: 'He who sows peace, peace also shall he reap,' and in all his epistles : 'Let peace abound amongst you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost' ; and in the thirty-third Psalm: 'Seek peace and thou shalt obtain it.' Peace had been put to flight by your fathers and departed. You ought to seek it as God has commanded, though, until now, you have neither been willing to seek it yourselves, nor to accept it, when it was freely offered to you. For who is there in so many Provinces that has heard of whom you have been born, and (if there be anyone who had heard this) who is there that does not marvel at your error? Who is there that does not condemn your wickedness? Wherefore, since it is clear, yea, clearer than the light itself, that we are with so many peoples who cannot be numbered, and that so many countries are with us; whilst you see that you are to be found only in a portion of one country; and that you, by your errors, are separated from the Church; in vain do you claim for yourselves alone this name of the Church with her Endowments, which are rather with us than with you.

Now these Endowments are connected one with another, and are distinct, but in such a way, that it may be understood that one cannot be separated from another. For they are numerically distinct, but with one act of the mind we see them joined in their Body, as are the fingers on the hand----each of which we perceive to be removed by spaces from the others. Therefore he who possesses one, must possess them all, since not one of them can be apart from its fellows. We may add that we possess----and that in the strictest sense----not one Endowment alone, but all. VI. The second Endowment of the Church, 'The Angelus,' or Bishop, is not with the Donatists. So, of the above-mentioned Endowments, the Cathedra is, as we have said, the first, which we have proved to be ours, through Peter, and which draws to itself the ANGEL ----unless, perchance, you claim him for yourselves, and have him shut up somewhere or other. Send him out if you can, and let him exclude from his communion seven angels, our colleagues in Asia, to whose churches wrote the Apostle John----churches with which you cannot prove that you have any intercourse whatsoever. On what ground, then, can you maintain that you possess an Angel able to move the Fountain, as such, can be numbered among the other Endowments of the Church? or one who, Whatever is without the Seven Churches is alien.

Supposing then that you really had even one Angel who belongs to the Church, through that one Angel you would be in communion with other Angels too, and through them with the above-mentioned Churches, and through these Churches with us also. If these things be as I have stated them, you have lost your case. VII. The third Endowment, Spiritus, the Holy Spirit, is in the Church, not with the Donatists. Now perhaps you will see that the Endowments of the Church cannot be with you, for you cannot claim for yourselves alone the SPIRIT of God, nor can you shut up (in a small corner of Africa) Him whose Presence we recognise though we see it not. For so has it been written in the Gospel: 'God is a Spirit,' and 'breatheth where He willeth, but you hear not His voice, nor do you know whence He cometh and whither He goeth.' Permit God to come whence He willeth, and allow Him freedom to go where He pleaseth. He can be heard, but He cannot be seen. And yet, through your lust for calumny, you have been pleased to blaspheme and say: 'What Spirit can there be in that Church, excepting one which should give birth to sons of Thou hast vomited forth thine invective and hast thought that thou mightest thus be able to strengthen thyself by producing testimony from the Gospel, where we read: 'Woe to you, hypocrites, who compass seas and lands to make one proselyte, and when you have found him, make him a son of Hell twofold worse than yourselves.'

If this accusation----unjust and groundless though it be----had to be made at all, would that it had been made by any other of your party than yourself. Indeed I am lost in wonder that you, of all men, should have dared falsely to bring against another a charge, the very thought of which might well make you blush, were you but to consider your own Consecration. For you have reminded us that we read in the Gospel: 'Woe to you, hypocrites, who compass seas and lands to make one proselyte '---that is, to change his sect. As for you personally, I have no idea to what sect you previously belonged. But your quotation was unfortunate. I think that perhaps you are already sorry that you made it. Is it we who have travelled through any lands? Is it we who have compassed any seas? Is it we who have set sail to foreign ports? Is it we who have brought in a Spaniard or a Gaul? Have we consecrated a foreigner, not known to our people? VIII. Concerning the Fons, the Sigillum and the Umbilicus. It is certain that the FOUNTAIN also is one of the Endowments, from which heretics can neither drink themselves, nor give others to drink. For, as they alone do not possess the SEAL, that is to say the Catholic Creed, in its integrity, they cannot open the true Fountain.

* For * * * * since it has been written in the Canticle of Canticles: 'Thy Navel is as a round goblet,' you have tried to say that the Navel is the Altar. If the Navel be a member of the body, from the fact that it is a member, it cannot be amongst the Endowments. To be an Ornament, it must not be part of the body. IX. The Endowments of the Church are with Catholics; not with Donatists. The Endowments then are seen to be Five. Since these Endowments belong to the Catholic Church (which is in so many countries already mentioned by us), they cannot be wanting to us here in Africa. Understand, however late, that you are disobedient sons, that you are boughs broken off from the tree, that you are branches cut off from the vine, that you are a river separated from its source. For that stream which is small and which is derived from another cannot be the source. Nor can the tree be cut off from the branch, since the tree, which has been planted and is alive, has its own roots; whereas the branch, which has been cut off, withers and dies. Now do you see, my brother Parmenian, now do you recognise, now do you understand, that by your arguments you have fought against yourself? For it has been proved that we are in the Holy Catholic Church, who have too the Creed of the Trinity ; and it has been shown that, through the Chair of Peter which is ours----through it ----the other Endowments also belong to us.

Again, ours is the Sacerdotium, which you have affected to regard as in our case of no account ----by way of some excuse for your error and hatred in re-baptising after us----though this you do not after your own people, even when they have been proved guilty of sin; for you have maintained that, if the priest be in sin, the Endowments are able to work alone. So----to answer you----we have shown what is heresy, and what is schism, and which is the Holy Church, and that of this Holy Church there has been constituted a Representative, and that the Catholic Church is the Church which is scattered over the whole world (of which we amongst others are members), and that her Endowments are with her everywhere. We have also shown in our first Book that we cannot justly be reproached with the crime of Betrayal, and that this crime has been condemned not only by you, but by us also. X. Catholics possess the Sacraments. Now I should like you to tell me this. Why have you thought well to speak only of the Endowments of the Church, and have said nothing about her holy members and her inward organs, which without doubt are in the Sacraments and in the Names of the Trinity ? These Names are met by Faith and its profession, recorded upon the Acts of the Angels ; here are sown heavenly and spiritual seeds, so that, for those who are born again, a new nature may be procreated from a holy germ, and he who had once been born to the world may, where the Trinity meets Faith, be spiritually new-born to God.

In this way does God become the Father of men, thus does the Holy Church become their Mother. I perceive that all these things have been left unmentioned by you, on purpose, lest in them all, the true principles of Baptism might be recognised, in which there is nothing that the human minister may, after your fashion, claim for himself. For this reason you determined to occupy yourself with the Endowments alone, which you have denied to Catholics, vainly striving to claim them for yourselves exclusively, having clutched them, as it were in your hand, or shut them up in a box. Although the question is about regeneration, and man's renovation, you have made no mention either of Faith or of its profession by the Faithful. You determined rather to speak of the Endowments alone, and have passed over in silence all these things without which spiritual faith and reparation cannot exist. And although the Endowments belong to the Spouse, not the Spouse to the Endowments, you dealt with the Endowments as if life were given by them, not by the inward organs, which we understand to be rather in the Sacraments than in the Ornaments. XI. The Church is rightly called Paradise, but it belongs to the wide world. Nor do I pass over the fact that you have said openly that the Church is (as we believe) a Paradise----a thing which without doubt is true----a garden in which God sets His little trees.

And yet you have denied to God His rich possessions by compressing His garden into a narrow corner, claiming without reason everything for yourselves alone. Surely the plantations of God, through different precepts, have different seeds. The just, the continent, the merciful, the virgins are spiritual seeds. Of these seeds God raises little plants in His Paradise. Grant to God that His garden be spread far and wide. Why do you deny to Him the Christian peoples of East and North, also those of all the provinces of the West and of innumerable islands ----with whom you share no fellowship of communion----against whom you----few in number and rebels----are ranged, in isolation? XII. From the prayer of Oblation we gather that the One Church is Everywhere. It is now time to condemn, as is only right, your falsehood, with which each day you season your Sacrifices. For who can doubt that you dare not pass over what is prescribed in the Mystery of the Sacraments? You say that you offer the Sacrifice to God on behalf of the Church, which is One. This in itself is part of your falsehood, to call that One, of which you have made Two. You proclaim that you sacrifice to God on behalf of the One Church, which has been spread throughout the whole world. But what reply would you make were God to say to any one of you: 'Why dost thou offer sacrifice for the Whole---thou who art not in the Whole?

' If we are displeasing to you, what wrong has the City of Antioch done you, or the Province of Arabia ? Yet we are able to prove that those who come from Antioch and Arabia have been rebaptised by you. XIII. The praise bestowed upon the Church by Parmenian belongs to Catholics. In one thing alone we cannot be ungrateful to you, my brother Parmenian. You have praised our Church (that is the Catholic, which is contained throughout the entire world)----although you do not belong to her ----by enumerating her Endowments (mistaken though you are as to their number) and by teaching that she is a garden 132 enclosed and a fountain sealed up, and the only Bride. This we say of that which is our own; you have said, it of that which does not belong to you. Whatever you have been able to say in praise of the Church, we, before you, have said the same. We too, with you, condemn the Betrayers----those men whom, if you remember, we have shown up in our first Book. And although we are in communion with the whole [Catholic] world, and all the Provinces are in communion with us, you for some time past have thought well to provide two churches, as if Africa alone had Christian people----that Africa in which, through your fault, two parties have been made! And you----not remembering Christ, who says that His Spouse is One----have said, not that there are two parties in Africa, but two Churches.

Without doubt that Church is One, to which it has been granted to be pointed out by the Word of Christ, who says: 'One is My dove; My spouse is One.' XIV. The Catholics have done nothing with cruelty. But you, having forgotten this, have used these words in order to stir up hatred against Catholics: 'That,' you have said, 'cannot rightly be called a Church which battens on bloody morsels, and is fattened on the blood and the flesh of the Saints.' The Church has her own determinate members----Bishops, priests, deacons, clerics, and the mass of the faithful. Tell us against which class of men in our Church the charge that you have thought well to bring can be proved. Name some cleric individually, point out some deacon by his name; show that this evil thing has been done by some priest; prove the guilt of Bishops. Make us see that any one of our people has plotted against any man. Who of us has persecuted any one? Who is there on your side, of whom you can either say or prove that he has been persecuted by us? Unity displeases you. So----if you deem it to be a crime, convict us of being in communion with Thessalonians, Corinthians, Galatians and the Seven Churches which are in Asia. If it seems to you wicked or a proof of guilt to communicate with the 'shrines' Saints, far from denying this, we make it our boast.

of the Apostles and of all the XV. The Peace and Happiness of the Church before it was disturbed by the Donatists. But that I may show that----to quote your words ----it was your party which 'has battened on bloody morsels, and has been fattened on the blood and flesh of Christians,' your rabid madness must now be described from its beginning; now the story of your wickedness must be related anew; now your folly must be proved. First we have to show that the cause of your gladness ought to be your shame, and how wicked is your joy at having received liberty to return to your original wrongdoing. Go over again the times that are past, enter into the sequence of events, persons concerned, and how different were their aims. consider how different were the Recall Constantine the Christian Emperor to your memory. Think of the service which he rendered to God, and remember his ardent desire that schism should be removed, and all dissension die away, so that Holy Mother Church might see, rejoicing, her children throughout the world living in unity. He restored the unity of communion; he gave back wives to husbands, children to parents, brothers to brothers. These are the things concerning which God bears witness that He is well pleased, when He says in the hundred and thirty-second Psalm: 'Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.'

For Peace in unity joined together the peoples of Africa and of the East, and the rest beyond the sea, and this unity itself, through the representation of all its members, made the Body of the Church solid. And then over this the Devil, whom it always tortures to see brethren living in peace, was sorely vexed. At that time, under a Christian Emperor, Satan, as if shut up in the idols, lay abandoned in his temples. Your leaders too and first fathers had been sent, as they deserved; into banishment. In the Church there were no schisms. Pagans were not allowed their sacrilegious rites. Peace, beloved by God, dwelt amongst all Christian peoples. The devil mourned in his temples; you mourned in foreign lands. XVI. The Edict of Julian. Next, as is known to all men, there followed another Emperor, who, in conjunction with you, devised evil plans, and from the servant of God became the tool of God's enemy. His edicts bore him witness that he was an apostate. Yet this was the man whom you entreated to be allowed to return. If you deny that you sent such entreaties, we reply that we have read them. Nor did he whom you entreated make difficulties. He commanded you to come back, as you asked. For he knew well that you would come, with fierceness, to break up If you have any shame, blush.

The same decree, which gave freedom to you, ordered the temples to be opened to their idols. XVII. The madness and cruelty of the Donatists. You returned, in your madness, to Africa almost at the moment when the devil was loosed from his dungeons. Still you do not blush----you who, at the same time as the Enemy, have reasons for rejoicing, which you share with him. You came raging; you came full of wrath, rending the members of the Church; subtle in your deceits; savage in your slaughters, provoking the children of Peace to war. A large number you banished from their homes. Approaching with a hired band, you rushed upon the Basilicas. Many of your party throughout numerous districts (which it would be too long to mention by their names) worked massacres so bloody, that the judges of the time sent a report to the Emperor concerning deeds of such atrocity. But the Judgement of God intervened and came to our aid, so that the Emperor who had already long ago ordered you to come back, and who, at your instigation, had arranged, or was even then arranging, for our persecution, died in the midst of his profanity and sacrileges. XVIII. The Donatists' murderous deeds. Catholics were slaughtered in the above-mentioned districts. You remember how your people ran to and fro from place to place. Were not Felix of Zaba and Januarius of Flumenpiscinum of your party, and the others who 155 rushed all together as swiftly as they could, to a fortified place called Lemella ?

So soon as they saw that the Basilica, notwithstanding their clamours, was closed against them, they commanded their followers to climb to the top, strip the roof, and throw down the tiles. These orders were executed without delay. In the defence of the altar, a number of Catholic deacons were wounded with tiles----of whom two were killed----Primus the son of Januarius, and Donatus the son of Ninus. Your fellow-Bishops, whose names I have just given, were present and urged them on, so that, without doubt, of your party has it been said: 'Their feet are swift to shed blood.' Primosus, the Catholic Bishop of the place, complained of all this----whilst you listened disingenuously to his complaints----at your Council held in the City of Theneste. See then how you did the things, of which you have said: 'That is not the Church which battens on bloody morsels'; and again you have said: 'Soldiers sent to war are one thing, consecrated Bishops are another.' What in your hatred you bring as a charge against us was done by others, not by us; that which you say ought not to have been done, has been done by you. 157 You have recalled how the most blessed Apostle Paul has said that the Church ought to be without wrinkle and without stain. In the presence, and at the order, of your Bishops, Catholic deacons were slain over the altar.

The same things happened also at Carpi. Do not such deeds appear to you indelible stains? When you came into the cities of Mauritania, the people were overwhelmed with dread, so that children who were near to birth died in their mothers' wombs. Does not this seem to you to be a 'wrinkle' such as cannot be stretched or made smooth by any reparation whatsoever? What have we done of such a character as this? We wait for the vengeance of God. And yet you create a prejudice against Macarius, although anything that he may have done with harshness on behalf of unity may well be regarded as of light account, when compared with these monstrous, bitter, bloodstained acts of war done by you on behalf of dissension. Why should I mention Tipasa, a city of Mauritania Caesariensis, whither rushed from Numidia Urban of Forma and Felix of Idicra, two burning torches, set on fire by hatred ? These men upset the minds of quiet people, who were established in unity, and, aided by the favour and fury of certain officials, in the very presence of Athenias the magistrate, with colours flying, broke up the Catholic assemblies, with bloodshed. Catholics were driven out from their homes. Their men were wounded. Their women were dragged into captivity. Their infants were slain. Mothers miscarried. Look now at your church. Under the guidance of its Bishops it 'battened on bloody morsels.'

After all this, you have gone on to say: 'Let the greed of vultures consume whatever it will; still the number of doves is greater.' What, then, has happened to the common saying that a liar should have his memory in due keeping? Have you forgotten what you said a moment before, that in the Canticle of Canticles 'The Church is Christ's one Dove' ? If yours is the One Church, the Dove is One. What then did you mean by saying that 'the number of doves is greater'? XIX. The Eucharist was given by the Donatists to dogs. An Ampulla of Chrism was thrown away. Their other sacrileges. Moreover, a hideous crime (which seems to you something of little importance) was committed, in such a fashion that your above-mentioned fellow-Bishops profaned everything which is most holy. They commanded the Eucharist to be cast to the dogs. This did not pass without evidence of the Divine Judgement, for these same dogs were inflamed with madness, and tore their own masters in pieces as though they had been murderers, and attacked with avenging teeth those guilty of the Holy Body, as if they had been strangers and enemies. They also threw a phial of chrism out of a window, in order to break it, and although its fall was precipitated by violence, an angel's hand was there to bring it down gently to earth, with the support that is from heaven.

Though thrown away, it was not allowed to feel its fall, but, by the protection of God, found its home unbroken amongst the rocks. You never could have done such things as these, if you had borne in mind the Commands of Christ, who has said: 'Give not that which is holy to dogs, and cast not your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turning rend you.' Could the makers of Unity have done anything of a like nature, out of which you might labour to create a baseless prejudice against us Catholics? Urban of Forma and Felix of Idicra, when they came back, found that nuns whom they had seduced from their state of chastity had become mothers. Such, my brother Parmenian, is the character of the Bishops, whose deeds you cover up; and, when you ought to be blushing for your own sins, you bring charges against innocent At this time the above-mentioned Bishop Felix, amongst his other crimes and horrible misdeeds, seized a young maiden to whom he himself had given the veil ----by whom he had a short time before been called by the name of Father----and did not hesitate in the least to be guilty of shameless incest. And, as if, through his sin, he had been made holy, he went with haste to Tysedis! There he ventured to rob of the episcopal name and office and honour Donatus, a Bishop seventy years of age, against whom no charge could be brought.

The Catholic Bishop was approached by the schismatic, the innocent by the guilty, the priest of God by one steeped in sacrilege, the chaste by the incestuous. The Bishop was attacked by one no longer a Bishop, who, relying upon the decrees and conspiracy of your party, and armed by your laws and your commands, cast those hands which a short time before had been made heavy by sins, upon the head of the innocent, and dared to let judgement fall from that tongue of his, which was not now worthy even to be allowed to do penance. See, my brother Parmenian, the sort of persons whom you defend; see the kind of men they are, on whose behalf you have, this long while, maintained that the Endowments of the Church are working. XX. It is proved against the Donatists, who call themselves saints, that no man can be free from sin. Will you then----you who wish men to think you holy and innocent----tell me this----whence comes this sanctity of yours, which you too freely claim for yourselves----a sanctity which the Apostle John does not dare to profess, when he writes: 'If we shall say that we are without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.' He who spoke thus kept himself, with wisdom, prepared for the grace of God. For it belongs to a Christian man to will what is good, and to run the course which he has rightly willed.

But it is not given to man to bring to perfection; so that after the stages, which a man can go, there remains something for God with which He may meet man's deficiency. For He alone is perfection; and perfect alone is Christ, the Son of God. We, the others, are all half-perfect ; for it is ours to will, it is ours to run, but it is God's to make perfect. So the most blessed Apostle Paul has written: 'It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of him that reacheth to the grace of For perfect sanctity has not been given, but promised, by Christ our Saviour. Thus He says: 'You shall be holy, because I am holy.' So that He alone is perfect and holy. He did not say 'You are holy' but He did say 'You shall be holy.' With what reason then do you, in your pride, claim for yourselves perfect holiness, except it be to make it clear that you deceive yourselves, and that the truth is not in you? You have been unwilling to live in the school of John, for, when you lead some astray, you promise them that you will grant them forgiveness of their sins; and, when you are pleased to forgive sins, you profess your own innocence and bestow forgiveness of sins, in such a manner as though you had no sin yourselves.

This in you is not presumption [merely]; it is deception. This is not truth; it is a falsehood. For it is only a moment after you have laid your hands upon the heads of others and pardoned their crimes, that you turn to the altar, and are unable to pass over the Lord's Prayer. Then no doubt you say: 'Our Father who art in Heaven, forgive us our debts and sins.' What ought you to be called when you confess your own sins, if you are holy when you forgive the sins of others? In this way do you deceive yourselves, and the truth is not in you. But it is clear that this is dictated to you by your nursing mother Pride, as Christ bears witness in the Gospel. Although He did not mention your names, still He pointed out your character by a parable. For thus has it been written: 'Jesus spoke this parable on account of those who consider themselves holy and despise others.' The evidence itself clearly shows that, when you puff yourselves up as holy, and plainly and openly despise us, this has been said of you. Two men, He said, went up into the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a Publican. The Pharisee swollen out, proud, puffed up, such as we see you too to be, his body not humbled, his neck not bent, but with raised countenance and swelling breast----cried aloud: 'I give Thee thanks, my God, because in nothing have I sinned.'

This is to say to God: 'I have nothing for Thee to pardon.' O wildness of a madman! O pride that must be punished and condemned! God is prepared to pardon and the guilty one hastens to reject forgiveness. The Publican in his humility, recognising that he was a man, besought in this manner: 'Have mercy, O Lord, on me a sinner.' Thus did he your teacher. deserve to be justified; thus did pride go down from the Temple, condemned in the Pharisee ---- More tolerable is it to find sins where there is humility, than innocence where there is pride. But you, though you are burdened with the heavy sins of Betrayal and Schism, take credit to yourselves that you are proud as well! XXI. The sin of the Donatists in stripping Bishops of their dignity and submitting them to Now that we have proved that you ought to blush with shame for those things at which you rejoice, and have shown with what mad rage you conducted yourselves in so many places, something should be said about the depth of your impiety. For who ever will be able to explain the crimes that have been done, or those that are being actually done, by you? It is clear that, with a certain wicked ingenuity, you arranged all your plans in such a way as by one bad action to accomplish different results.

For example, when a priest or a Bishop was removed by you from his post, you saw to it that you might capture all his flock. How could a mass of men stand firm when they saw you tear their ruler from them? In this manner is it always that, after the shepherd has by some misfortune been killed, wolves set upon the sheep. You exorcised the Faithful, and without reason washed the walls of the churches, that by wickedness of this kind you might undermine the minds of very simple people. By such evil designs as these you throttled the intelligence of not a few, and having disguised the light of your cunning by covering it all under a cloud of feigned simplicity, you shot arrows from your quiver, to lay low the miserable by the seductions that your hearts contrived. Even as the Holy Ghost foretold of you, through David the Prophet, in the Psalm: 'For lo the wicked have bent their bow, they have prepared the arrows in their quiver to shoot the upright of heart when the moon is dark.' In what way have your deeds fallen short of your plans? You have shot the innocent, you have disarmed the faithful. Bishops have been stripped of the office belonging to their title. O unheard-of impiety, upon whom have you laid your cut-throat hands, to keep them amongst the torments of Penance ?

The savagery of highway robbers is seen to be a thing of less account, when compared with the deeds that you have done. The robber gives those whom he murders a quick death; you slay your victim, yet leave him amongst the living. Those whom you have succeeded in deceiving have been entrapped through the weakness of their understanding, for they who had been ordained in the Name of God had, by God's own work, been made perfect [in their office]. And you fight fiercely against the work of God, destroying His work by the engines of your wickedness. It is clear, therefore, that of you it has been written in the tenth Psalm: 'That which Thou hast made perfect they have destroyed.' Your impiety has filled you with pride, but 'Justice looking down from heaven' accuses you; whilst on earth men praise you with mistaken praise for doing wickedness, so that of you the Holy Ghost has said in the ninth Psalm: 'Whilst the wicked man is proud, the poor man is set on fire; they are caught in the counsels which they devise. The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul and he who does iniquity shall be blessed.' What greater iniquity than yours can there be found to be praised? What is there more iniquitous than to exorcise the Holy Ghost, to break down altars, to cast the Eucharist to animals?

Yet your people praise you and----thus do they plunge you into folly----call you fortunate, and name you for good luck, so are seen already to treat your persons as though you were God. and swear by your name, and XXII. The Impiety of the Donatists, who were accustomed to swear by their Bishops. Men are accustomed to use the Name of God when they swear, as a pledge of their truthfulness, but your party, when they swear by you, keep silence about God and Christ. If the worship due to God has passed from Heaven to you (as would seem from the fact that men swear by you), then let none of you or your party fall sick! Then refuse to die; give orders to the clouds: draw down the rain, if you can, that they may swear even more freely in your name, and may keep silence about God. For what could the Devil effect more by the hands of your people, than he did in the ages that are past, when he caused his temples to be built and his idols to be fashioned---excepting this, that silence should be kept about God, whilst men in their foolishness speak of him alone. XXIII. The wickedness of the Donatists in scraping the heads of anointed priests. O sacrilege heaped upon impiety! You gladly listen to men swearing by you, but refuse your ears to the voice of God in the hundred and fourth Psalm, when He says: 'Touch not Mine Anointed and cast not your hands on My prophets.'

That both kings and priests are God's Anointed is shown by the books of Kings and also by David, saying in the hundred and thirty-second Psalm: 'As the precious ointment on the head, that ran down unto the beard of Aaron.' You, on the contrary, have striven against God to despise His precepts, as earnestly as they who fear God strive to keep His Commandments. Tell us, where is your authority for scraping the heads of priests, when there are so many examples to the contrary, showing that this may not be done? Saul, before he sinned, received the grace of being anointed. After his anointing, he sinned grievously. God, when He saw this, wishing to give us an example not to touch the Oil, professed His repentance. For we read that the Lord spoke thus: 'It repenteth Me to have anointed Saul to be a king.' Yet surely God might have taken away the Oil which He had bestowed; but, since He wished to teach that the Oil should not be touched even in a sinner, He who had given it, declared that it repented Him. If then God, in order to teach you, could not (because He would not) take away that which He had given, who are you to take away what you did not give? And when you ought to have opened your ears to listen, you prepared your razor for sin.

When you ought to have been the sons of God, you preferred to be the sons of men, and, in order to bite into other men's offices, turned your teeth into arrows and arms. You sharpened your tongues into swords; you fulfilled that which was written of you in the fifty-sixth Psalm: 'Sons of men----their teeth are arms and arrows; their tongue is a sharp sword.' XXIV. The wrong done by the Donatists to men of every degree and age by laying hands upon them in Penance. So you have sharpened your tongues into swords with which you slew not the bodies of men, but their dignities; you have destroyed not their members, but their titles. What boots it for those to live, who have been slain by you in their office? Their members are indeed whole and sound, but they carry about the corpse of the dignity which you have scratched away. For you stretched forth your hand and placed the death-bearing Veils upon every head; so that whilst there are (as I have said above) four kinds of heads in the Church----Bishops, priests, deacons, and the Faithful, yon have not spared one. You have overturned the souls of men. Prophet, when He says: God holds these actions of yours up to detestation in Ezekiel the 'Woe to you who make a Veil,' that is, who place your hands 'upon every head overturn souls.'

and upon every age, to You have found boys, you have wounded them with Penance, so that none of them might be ordained. Recognise that you have 'overturned souls.' You have found old men amongst the Faithful, you have made them do Penance. Recognise that you have 'overturned souls.' You have found deacons, priests, Bishops, you have made them as laymen. Recognise that you have 'overturned souls.' He, upon whose head thou hast now endeavoured to lay thine hands, had, for a long time, been thy fellow and companion. You were once wont to run together. Guilty he was not----but let us assume his guilt. In that case, as thou thinkest, he has fallen. See then (if thou hast read the Apostle) to Whom thou dost stand, and let him see, to Whom he has fallen. If thou art a servant, recognise thy Lord, and understand that he who, a short time ago, ran together with thee, to thee has not fallen. Why dost thou invade Another's power, why dost thou in thy rashness ascend the tribunal of God? And though thyself art guilty, darest to pass judgement upon another? Yet thou hast read: 'He who stands, stands to his own Lord, and who falls, to his own Lord he falls. But his Lord is powerful to raise him up.' Who then art thou to judge Another's servant? That you have no right to touch the Oil bestowed by God upon a Bishop, you ought to have learnt from David the servant of God, who was anointed by Samuel, with the condition that what had already been given to Saul, should by no means be taken away.

When, through the command, or the providence, of God, they were shut up together in one cave, Saul, who had sinned, came into the power of the youth David. Saul, although he sees not, is seen, because (as usually happens to one that passes from the light of day) he was not able, in the darkness of the shut-in-air, to see the other who was near him. A great army followed the old king. Still he had fallen into the power of another. David had the chance of victory in his hands. Without effort he might have slain his incautious adversary who was wrapt in security. Without bloodshed, and the clash of arms, he might have summarily changed war into slaughter. The opportunity was there. His soldiers were in favour of this course. The situation urged him on to snatch a victory. Already he commenced to draw his sword. His armed hand was now reaching for his enemy's throat. But the remembrance of the divine commands completely blocked the way. He fought against the persuasion of his soldiers, and resisted the fitness of the circumstances, as if he had said: 'To no purpose, O Victory, dost thou tempt me; in vain, O opportunity, dost thou lure me on to triumphs!' He wished to conquer his foe, but desired even more to keep the commands of the Lord. 'I will not,' he said, 'lay my hands upon the Lord's anointed.'

He checked his hand and his sword----he feared to violate the Oil; he saved his enemy; and, that he might accomplish his duty towards his King to the end, after his death took up his defence. You neither fear God, nor regard those who are your brethren. You have sharpened the razors of your tongue upon the whetstone of your malice, and, trampling underfoot the precepts of Heaven, have rushed upon the heads of miserable men, that, after you had slain their leaders, you might drag them in their blindness and ignorance into bondage. You hunger after the dignities of innocent priests, with a hunger so furious that you have made open sepulchres of your throats. For each separate sepulchre one funeral is enough, and then it is closed. For your throats many funerals of many dignities have not by any means been enough. They still remain open, seeking whom they may devour. So that with reason was it said of you: 'Their throat is an open sepulchre'; for with cursing you are beforehand, though it has been written: 'Bless ye and curse not.' If any man has done anything against your will, you threaten him with horrors and foul menaces; and then, since some there are who deserve more evil than good, you attribute to your bitter curses whatever has befallen them from the Judgement of God, or is the just result of their sins.

With reason was it said of you in the thirteenth Psalm: 'Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.' You boast that some men have been known to die after you have cursed them. It is certain that it is not lawful to kill. On this account do you hold yourselves innocent, merely because you have not used cold steel? If there be no murder without steel, the poisoner, also, may judge himself to be innocent; and a man need not deem himself guilty who has killed another by withdrawing his food; he also, then, may claim to be guiltless who smothers his victim----still clinging to life----by stifling his breath. Of murders there are many kinds, but the name of Death is one. Thou dost declare with confidence that a man has died through thy curses. What difference does it make whether thou smitest him with the sword, or dost strike him with the tongue? Beyond doubt thou art a murderer, if a man, who was alive, has met his death through thee. Whoever of thy party has thus acted professes in vain that he is a Christian, or a priest of God, for he takes no care to imitate the Mildness of God, though it is written in Solomon : 'God hath not made death, nor doth He rejoice in the destruction of the living.' I do not believe that you are able to forget the crimes that you have committed throughout several districts, where you set to work to slay those who were preaching the Law of God, that is to say, His Prophets, contrary to His command, who says: 'Lay not your hands upon My Prophets.'

Deuterius, Partenius, Donatus and Getulicus, Bishops of God, you slew with the sword of your tongue. You shed the blood, not of their body, but of their dignity. Afterwards they still lived, but were slain by you in their dignities----they who were Priests of God. It is known to many (and has been proved) that in the time of persecution some Bishops fell away through cowardice from the confession of the Name of God, and offered incense to idols. But never did any one of those who remained faithful either place his hand [in Penance] upon the fallen, or command them to bend their knees [as penitents]. Yet you to-day do to those who preserved Unity that which was never done by any man to those who offered incense to idols. For it has been written; 'Touch not Mine Anointed, and lay not your hand upon My prophets.' God avenges the Oil which is His own, for the sin belongs to man, but the unction to God. 'Touch not,' He says, 'Mine Anointed,' in order that when the sin of man is punished, the Oil, which is God's, be subjected to no indignity. God has reserved to His own Judgement that which is His own, but you everywhere rush upon that which is Another's, and destroy the happiness of all. For, what greater unhappiness, than for priests of God to live, and not be what they once had been?

XXVI. Matrons, boys and virgins were compelled by the Donatists to do Penance. Matrons, together with boys and virgins, although they had committed no sin, were compelled by you to learn to do Penance, with you for their instructors, whilst they still remained in possession of their innocence and modesty. Is this a small unhappiness? You have destroyed both sexes; you have harassed all ages. Truly of you has it been said in the thirteenth Psalm: 'Destruction and unhappiness are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known, the fear of God is not before their eyes.' You have prescribed Penance for the people. It was not performed voluntarily by any man, but it was enforced by you, nor did you inflict it equally, for the same periods of time, but arranged everything with respect of persons. By your command one person did Penance for a whole year, another for a month, yet another for hardly a day. If to consent to unity is (as you will have it) a sin, if it is the same fault in all, why is there not the same Penance for the same guilt? There is no doubt that the people who believe have been called Israel, and that the Faithful, one by one, are the daughters of Israel, that is, those who see God with their mind, and have faith in God.

Yet you have compelled these people to bend and incline their necks, have joined their heads in a row, and made of them a crowd of penitents. These are the Faithful over whom God grieves, saying, by the mouth of Ezekiel the Prophet: 'Woe to you, daughters of Israel who mend pillows,' appurtenances of the neck, to place them under the elbow and under the hand----that is, under your elbows and under your hands, when you stretch the veils of Penance over the heads of these men and women. The extent of your wickedness and rage I have now set forth, and I have pointed out your pride. It remains to make clear your folly also, but this I will do in my Sixth Book.