Latin original · 41 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 5:2309–5:2349 (4615 verses in all)
And yet, by the very fact that we approve with unerring judgment one who admonishes us well from without, what else do we testify than that we have the inner light as our teacher? CXLI. Silvanus the elder, Valentinus, Aurelius, Innocentius, Maximinus, Optatus, Augustine, Donatus, and the rest of the bishops from the Council of Zerta, to the Donatists.
When the report grew frequent in our ears that your bishops were telling you this — that the arbitrator had been corrupted by a bribe, so that sentence might be pronounced against them, and that you easily believed these things, and therefore that many of you were still unwilling to yield to the truth — it pleased us, at the urging of the Lord's love, to send you these writings from our council, by which you might first be admonished that they, defeated and convicted, are boasting these falsehoods.
For even in their own mandate, which they made for the conference itself and confirmed with their own names and subscriptions, calling us there traitors and their persecutors, they were detected and convicted in most manifest falsehood and lying; so much so that, wishing to boast of the multitude of their fellow-bishops, among the names of certain absent ones they even inserted the name of a dead man; and when it was asked where he was, blinded by sudden confusion, they themselves confessed that he had died on the journey. And when they were asked how he could have subscribed at Carthage, if he had already died on the journey, being more vehemently confounded they bound themselves by another lie, answering that he had died while returning from Carthage;
and from this lie they were utterly unable to extricate themselves. Behold what manner of men you believe, whether concerning the ancient betrayal or concerning the corruption of the arbitrator — men who could not draw up their own mandate, wherein they charged us with the crime of betrayal, without the crime of falsehood. Accordingly, the things we believed most necessary we have inserted in this letter, collected as it were into a summary, lest perhaps you either cannot easily gain access to the great volumes of the proceedings, or think it laborious to read them. We came to Carthage, both we and your bishops; and — what previously they were unwilling to do and declared to be unworthy — we assembled together. There were chosen from us and from them seven on this side and seven on that, who should speak on behalf of the cause of all.
There were chosen another seven on this side and seven on that, with whom, when there was need, they might deliberate in counsel. There were chosen four on this side and four on that, who should be guardians of the writing down of the proceedings, lest anything falsified should be alleged by anyone. There were also appointed, both by us and by them, four notaries on this side and four on that, so that pairs should take turns with the recorders of the judge, lest any of us should plead that he had said something which had not been taken down. To such great diligence this too was added: that both we and they, in the same manner as the judge himself, should subscribe with our own words, lest anyone should say that anything in those proceedings had afterward been corrupted.
For since, while those who subscribed are still living, these same proceedings have become known in all the places where it is fitting that they should be known, thus also the truth, confirmed, will endure to posterity. Do not therefore be ungrateful for so great a mercy of God, which has been ministered to you through this diligence; no excuse now remains. Too hard, too diabolical are the hearts of men who still resist so great a manifestation of the truth. Behold, the bishops of your party, whom you all chose to speak on behalf of all, tried, as far as they could, that the case itself should not be pleaded at all — the case on account of which so great a number of bishops of both parties, from all Africa and from such distant places, had come to Carthage.
And when every soul in suspense awaited what would be done in so great a gathering, they vehemently insisted that nothing be done. Why this, unless because they knew their cause to be bad and could not doubt that they could most easily be defeated if it were pleaded? Their very mind, therefore, by which they feared lest the cause should be pleaded, showed that they were already defeated. For if they had wrung out what they wanted — that the conference itself should not now take place, and that the truth should not appear through our disputations — what would they have answered you on returning from Carthage? What would they have shown? I believe they would have produced the proceedings and said to you: 'We were insisting that the case should not be pleaded; they were insisting that it should. You are waiting to see what we accomplished;
behold, read where we defeated them, so that nothing should be done.' Perhaps you too would have answered, if you had any heart: 'Then, if you were going to do nothing, why did you go to them? Or rather, you who did nothing, why did you return?' Finally, after they were unable to accomplish what they attempted — that is, that the case should not be pleaded — the pleading itself showed what they had feared, when in all things they were defeated.
For they confessed that against the Catholic Church, which is spread throughout the whole world, they had nothing to say, because they were overwhelmed by the divine testimonies of the holy Scriptures, by which the Church is designated as beginning from Jerusalem to have grown through the places in which the apostles preached, and whose names they wrote in their epistles and acts, and from there to be spread through the remaining nations. Against this Church they professed with a plain voice that they had no cause — wherein is our most evident victory in the name of God.
For when they affirm the Church — with which it is manifest that we are in communion, but they themselves are not in communion — they testify that they were long ago defeated, and they most plainly indicate to you, if you are wise, what you ought to forsake and what you ought to hold: not in that falsehood by which they do not cease even until now to lie to you, but in that truth which, being defeated, they were compelled to confess. Whoever, therefore, has been separated from this Catholic Church, however praiseworthily he may think he lives, by this one crime alone, that he is disjoined from the unity of Christ, he shall not have life, but the wrath of God abides upon him. But whoever has lived well in this Church, the sins of others in no way prejudge him, because each one in it shall bear his own burden, as the Apostle says.
And whoever in it eats the body of Christ unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself; for this too the same Apostle wrote. But when he says 'eats judgment to himself,' he shows sufficiently that he eats judgment not to another but to himself. This we pleaded, and showed, and obtained: that the communion of the wicked does not defile anyone by participation in the sacraments, but by consent to their deeds. For if in evil deeds one does not consent to them, the evil man bears his own cause and his own person, and does not prejudge another, whom he does not have as an associate in the crime by consent to the evil work. This too they themselves were compelled to confess with a most open voice — not then, when we were saying these things, but afterward, when another matter was being dealt with.
For when the discussion had come also to the case of Caecilian — which we kept distinct from the case of the Church, so that if by chance he were found wicked we would anathematize him personally, yet not on his account forsake the Church of Christ, against which he could not prejudge through his own bad case — when therefore the discussion had come also to Caecilian's very case, and they had read out the Council of Carthage, where they recited the sentences of about seventy bishops delivered against the absent Caecilian, we answered them thus: that that council of bishops was no impediment to the absent Caecilian, just as the council of the many bishops of Donatus's party was no impediment to the absent Primian, when about a hundred bishops condemned him in the case of Maximian.
Then, when the case of Maximian had been named — whereby they know that they themselves received back in full honour even those whom they had condemned, and that they confirmed and did not annul the baptism given in the sacrilegious schism of Maximian, and that in their own sentence of Bagai, by which they condemned them, they granted a delay to certain men who had been in that very schism, and declared that the sacrilegious slips of Maximian's seedlings had not defiled them — when therefore this case struck their ears, terrified and thrown into confusion and forgetting on what ground they had earlier contended against us, they at once said: 'Neither case prejudges case nor person prejudges person,' and they confirmed it in their own words.
By their own words they confirmed what we had earlier been saying about the Church: that the case and person of Caecilian, whatever it might have been, could not prejudge — not only the Catholic Church overseas, against which they confessed they had nothing to say, but also the African Catholic Church, which is joined to it in the communion of unity — if Maximian, who together with his other associates condemned Primian, and if likewise Felician,
who at the same time condemned Primian and afterwards, in the case of Primian, was himself condemned by Donatus's party, does not prejudge Donatus's party, to which he is now joined, received back as a bishop just as he had been before — if likewise Maximian does not prejudge his own associates, to whom these men granted a delay, saying that they had not been defiled by him with whom they had been, because neither does case prejudge case nor person prejudge person: what more, then, do you seek? Indeed with many words they burdened the record with their own acts, and because they could not bring it about that the case should not be tried, they achieved this by much talking — that what was done should be read only with difficulty.
But even these few words of theirs ought to suffice you, lest on account of I know not what crimes of I know not what men you should hate the unity of the Catholic Church, since, as they themselves said, read over, and subscribed: neither does case prejudge case nor person prejudge person. For even in the very case of Caecilian, which, though not pertaining to the case of the Church, we nevertheless undertook to defend, so that there too their calumnies might be exposed, they were most openly vanquished; they could prove nothing of the things they charged against Caecilian. Moreover, concerning the crimes of surrender, we ourselves produced episcopal records.
From these we recited that some of the very bishops who had pronounced sentences against the absent Caecilian had been most manifestly traitors. Against these records, because they had nothing to say, they declared them false, but could in no way prove it. Furthermore they even confessed — or rather professed as a great glory — that Caecilian had been accused before the Emperor Constantine by their own predecessors, and they added the lie that, upon their accusation, he had been condemned by the emperor. Behold, here too they were vanquished, in the very point by which they are wont to spread over you the mists of error, stirring up ill-will against us and drawing us into your hatred because we plead the case of the Church before emperors.
Behold, their forefathers, of whose names they boast, pleaded the case of the Church before the emperor; they persecuted Caecilian by accusing him before the emperor; they declared him condemned. Let them no longer lead you astray with most empty and most lying words; return to your heart, fear the Lord, ponder the truth, forsake falsehood. For whatever you have now suffered under the imperial laws — which you suffer not for righteousness but for iniquity — you will not be able to say that we are therefore unjust because you ought not to have been dealt with in this way, so that the emperor should restrain you from this iniquity. For your own bishops have confessed that their forefathers dealt with Caecilian in the very way you do not wish to be dealt with.
And yet that they persecuted Caecilian before the emperor was sufficiently established, even by their own confession and profession; but that Caecilian had been condemned by the emperor was by no means established. On the contrary, it was even established that, while their forefathers accused and persecuted him, he was acquitted twice over — first by the bishops and afterwards by the emperor himself. This too they themselves confirmed by afterwards producing such things as though for their own case, so that they were found rather to be against themselves, and even the things they produced were recited in favour of Caecilian's case. Whomever, therefore, they wished to accuse, they could prove nothing by any sure documents;
but whatever we said, both for the case of the Church and for the case of Caecilian, they themselves confirmed both by their own words and by the readings they produced. For first they brought forward the codex of Optatus, whereby they meant, as it were, to prove that Caecilian had been condemned by the emperor. But when that codex was read against them and rather showed that Caecilian had been acquitted, they were laughed at by everyone. Yet because the laughter itself could not be taken down by the recorders, they testified in the record, by their own words, that they had been laughed at.
Again they produced and recited the petition given by their forefathers to the Emperor Constantine, in which they complained that the said emperor was grievously persecuting them; and thus by that very petition they made manifest that they had been overcome before the emperor by Caecilian, and that what they had said — that he had been condemned by the emperor — was false.
Thirdly they produced letters of the same Constantine sent to the vicar Verinus, in which he grievously detests them and for that reason says they are to be released from exile and left to their own fury, because God had already begun to take vengeance on them. And thus by these imperial letters too they confirmed that they had spoken falsely in saying that Caecilian was condemned by the emperor, since rather the emperor showed that they themselves had been vanquished by Caecilian, when, having vehemently execrated them, he commanded that they be released from exile precisely so that, as they had indeed begun, they might be punished with God as judge.
Afterwards they brought into the midst the case of Felix of Aptunga, the ordainer of Caecilian, saying that this Felix, by whom Caecilian had been ordained, had been a traitor; and they produced letters of the same Emperor Constantine, in Caecilian's favour and against themselves, in which he wrote to the proconsul that Ingentius should be sent to his court. Now this Ingentius had confessed, in the hearing before the proconsul Aelianus, that he had committed forgery against Felix, Caecilian's ordainer.
後來他們把阿普通迦的費理克斯（Felix of Aptunga，凱其連的授職者）的案件提到眾人面前，說這位授職給凱其連的費理克斯曾是背教交書者；他們並拿出這同一位君士坦丁皇帝有利於凱其連、卻不利於他們自己的書信，皇帝在信中吩咐總督把殷根提烏斯（Ingentius）送到他的朝廷。而這殷根提烏斯曾在總督埃里安努斯（Aelianus）的審訊中承認，自己曾偽造文件陷害凱其連的授職者費理克斯。
These men, then, kept saying that the emperor had wished Ingentius to be sent to him not without reason, but only because Caecilian's case was still pending; and they tried to insinuate a most empty suspicion, namely that, after Ingentius had been directed to the court, the emperor then preferred to judge against Caecilian and to rescind by a later sentence that judgment of his own, which we had recited, in which he had taken cognizance between the parties and acquitted Caecilian. But they were told rather to read this out, and they produced nothing at all.
But those letters of the emperor, by which he ordered Ingentius to be sent to him, and which they recited against themselves in favour of Caecilian, contain this: that Aelianus the proconsul had granted a fitting hearing in the case of Felix, and that it had been established that this same Felix was innocent of the crime of surrender; but that he ordered Ingentius to be transmitted to his court for this reason — so that to those who were there and did not cease to importune him day after day, it might be made evident and clear that they had wished, to no purpose, to procure ill-will against Caecilian and to rise up violently against him.
Who would believe that they recited these things against themselves and in our favour, had it not come about by the will of Almighty God, so that not only were their words held fast in the records, but even the hands of the subscribers were read? For if anyone now carefully attends to the order of the consuls and days, which is set out in the records, he will find that first Caecilian was acquitted by episcopal judgment; then, not long after, the case of Felix of Aptunga was examined by the proconsul Aelianus, where it was established that he was innocent. In which case Ingentius was ordered to be sent to the court, and long afterwards the emperor himself took cognizance of the case between the parties and concluded it; in which cognizance he judged Caecilian innocent, but them most calumnious.
In this order of consuls and days it is sufficiently shown that they spoke deceitfully and calumniously in saying that the emperor, when Ingentius had been sent to the court, changed his judgment and afterwards condemned Caecilian, whom he had earlier acquitted. Not only, however, could they read nothing on this matter, and read so much against themselves, but by the order of the consuls they are even more evidently convicted: that after the case of Felix was terminated by the proconsular judgment — in which it was ordered that Ingentius be sent to the court — Caecilian was acquitted, not after a small interval but long afterwards, in a judgment held between the parties by the said emperor. Let them not, therefore, say to you that we corrupted the judge with a bribe. For what else are conquered men wont to say?
Or if we gave the judge something so that he should pronounce against them in our favour, what did we give them, that they should not only speak but even recite so much against themselves in our favour? Or perhaps they wish us to give them thanks before you, since, though they say the judge was corrupted by us with a bribe, they themselves nevertheless bestowed on us gratis all the many things which they spoke and recited against themselves in our favour? Or surely, if they say they conquered us on this ground — that they pleaded Caecilian's case better than we did — then plainly believe them in this: for we had thought two readings sufficient for him, but they produced four. But why should we burden the letter with more words?
If you are willing to believe us, believe, and let us together hold fast the unity which God commands and loves. But if you are unwilling to believe us, read the records themselves, or permit them to be read to you, and prove for yourselves whether what we have written is true. But if you are willing to do none of these things and still desire to follow the falsehood of Donatus's party, convicted by the most manifest truth, we are clean of your punishment, when you will too late afterwards repent. But if you do not despise what God has bestowed on you, and, after a case so carefully tried and so carefully made manifest, forsaking your perverse custom you consent to the peace of Christ and to unity, we shall rejoice at your correction,
and the sacraments of Christ, which you now hold unto judgment in the sacrilege of schism, will be useful and health-giving to us — I mean, to you — when in the Catholic peace you shall have Christ as your Head, where charity covers the multitude of sins. These things we wrote to you on the eighteenth day before the Kalends of July, in the ninth consulship of the most pious Honorius Augustus, so that, whenever they can, these letters might reach each one of you. 142. TO HIS MOST BELOVED LORDS AND BROTHERS, THE PRESBYTERS SATURNINUS AND EUPHRATES, AND TO THE CLERGY WHO WITH YOU HAVE TURNED TO THE UNITY AND PEACE OF CHRIST, AUGUSTINE THE BISHOP, GREETING IN THE LORD. Your coming gladdened us; but let not our absence sadden you.
For we are in that Church which, by God's favour, though extended everywhere and diffused throughout the whole world, is nevertheless one great body of one great Head, whose Head is the Saviour Himself, as the Apostle says. And concerning the glorification of this Head, which was to be after His resurrection, the prophet foretold so long before: 'Be Thou exalted above the heavens, O God'; and because, when He was exalted above the heavens, His Church was to fill the whole earth with abundant fruitfulness, the same psalm consequently added: 'And Thy glory above all the earth.' Therefore, most beloved, let us persist with steadfast mind and most firm heart under so lofty a Head, in so glorious a Body, in which we are members one of another.
Wherefore, even if my far-off absence were in the most remote lands, we would nonetheless be together in Him from the unity of whose Body we ought not to withdraw. For if one house held us, we would surely be said to be together; how much more are we together, when we are together in one Body! Although Truth itself testifies that we are even in one house, since Holy Scripture, which says that the Church is the Body of Christ, likewise says that this same Church is the house of God. But this house is not built in one corner of the world but throughout the whole earth. Hence that psalm, in whose title is read, 'When the house was built after the captivity,' begins thus: 'Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.'
For in the oldness of the old man the devil had taken the world captive; after this captivity, when the house is built, the renewal of the faithful in the new man is signified. Hence the Apostle says: 'Put off from yourselves the old man and put on the new, who is created according to God.' And because this comes to pass throughout the whole earth in Catholic unity — as it was said in another psalm, 'And Thy glory above all the earth' — so in this psalm, when it had been said, 'Sing to the Lord a new song,' in order to show, when the house is built in this new song, at once was added, 'Sing to the Lord, all the earth.' And the workmen, through whom this so great a house is built, the same psalm exhorts, when it consequently says:
'Proclaim well His salvation from day to day; declare His glory among the nations, His wondrous works among all peoples.' And a little after it says: 'Bring to the Lord, O families of the nations, bring to the Lord glory and honour.' By these and testimonies of this kind concerning so great a house, which are found so numerous throughout all Scripture, its enemies so far yielded that they confessed against the Church overseas — which nevertheless they confessed to be Catholic — that the case ... with this Church we hold communion ...
may we be counted worthy of the members of Christ, and may we embrace the framework of His Body with the affection of most faithful charity, since in the unity of this Church whoever lives wickedly eats and drinks judgment to himself, as the Apostle says; but whoever lives well, another's case and another's person does not prejudge him — just as they too, when they were pressed concerning the case of Maximian, were compelled by their own mouth to confess that neither does case prejudge case nor person prejudge person. Yet we are anxious for one another on our own behalf, as members of one body, so that whoever of us, with the Lord's help, belong to the future granary, meanwhile on the threshing-floor may endure the chaff together, and not on account of that chaff, destined for the future fire, desert the Lord's threshing-floor.
Perform faithfully and cheerfully the ecclesiastical offices which pertain to you according to your grades, and fulfil your ministry sincerely for the sake of that God under whom we are fellow-servants and to whom we consider that we shall render an account of our deeds. Wherefore the bowels of mercy ought to abound in us, because judgment without mercy shall be to him who has not shown mercy. And through this, pray with us also for those who are still grieved ... the weakness of the carnal mind, gathered and contracted as it is by long-standing custom, has ...
For who does not understand how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, if this pleasantness touches healthy throats, whereby the mind that loves the sweetness of charity spews out the bitterness of division? But God, whom we entreat for them, is powerful and merciful, that by whatever occasions He may draw even those men to salvation. May the Lord preserve you in peace. 143. TO HIS EXCELLENT LORD, DISTINGUISHED BY MERIT AND MOST DEARLY BELOVED SON MARCELLINUS, AUGUSTINE, GREETING IN THE LORD. Your letter, which I received through the holy brother and my fellow-bishop Bonifatius, I looked for when I was writing back, and did not find.
Yet I recalled that in it you had asked how the magicians of Pharaoh found water, when all the water of Egypt had been turned into blood, whereby they might do something similar. This question is wont to be solved in two ways: either because sea-water could have been offered, or — what is more credible — because in that region in which the children of Israel were, these plagues did not occur. For in certain places of that Scripture this is most plainly expressed, warning us so even where it is not stated what ought to be understood. But that letter of yours which the presbyter Urbanus brought contains a question proposed to me from books not divine but my own, which I wrote On Free Will.
But in such questions I do not labour much, because, even if my opinion cannot be defended by clear reasoning, it is mine, not that of an author whose meaning it is not lawful to disapprove, even when, though it is not understood, that is felt to follow from it which is to be disapproved. I accordingly confess that I try to be of the number of those who write by advancing and advance by writing. Hence if something has been set down by me either too incautiously or too unlearnedly, which is deservedly reprehended not only by others who can see it but even by myself — since I too ought at least afterwards to see it, if I make progress — it is neither to be wondered at nor grieved over, but rather to be pardoned and congratulated, not because there was error, but because it was disapproved.
For he loves himself all too perversely who wishes others also to err, that his own error may lie hidden. For how much better and more useful it is that, where one has himself erred, others should not err, by whose admonition he may be freed from error! But if he is unwilling for this, let him at least not have companions in error. For if God shall grant me what I desire — that whatever in all my books rightly displeases me I may gather together and demonstrate in some work established for this very purpose — then men will see how far I am not one who respects my own person. But you, who love me much, if you assert me to be such against those by whose malice or inexperience or intelligence
reprehend me, assert me to be such that you say I have nowhere erred in my writings, you labour in vain; you have undertaken no good cause; you are easily overcome in it, with me myself as judge, since it does not please me when I am esteemed by my dearest friends to be such as I am not. For assuredly they love not me but, in my stead, another under my name, if they love not what I am but what I am not. For inasmuch as they know me, or believe what is true of me, by them I am loved; but inasmuch as they attribute to me what they neither recognize in me nor is true, it is not I who am loved by them but some other person, I know not who. And through this, if you now at least know that of mine, when I say something humbly about myself, that I do not say it falsely: I am not such as they extol.