Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 5 part 86/118

Since therefore the congregations of those same churches are with us, and with us are the poor who were nourished by those little holdings, let those who are placed outside rather cease to covet what belongs to others, but let them enter into the fellowship of unity, that we may govern together not only those things which they call their own but also those which are called ours too. For it is written: 'All things are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' Under that Head, in His one body, let us be one, and concerning such things as these let us do what is written in the Acts of the Apostles: 'They were of one soul and one heart, and no one said that anything was his own, but they had all things in common.' Let us love what we sing:

'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity' — that so they may prove and know how truly the Catholic mother cries out to them what the blessed apostle writes to the Corinthians: 'I seek not what is yours, but you.' And if we consider what is written in the book of Wisdom, 'Therefore the righteous took the spoils of the ungodly,' likewise what is read in Proverbs, 'The riches of the ungodly are laid up as treasure for the righteous,' then we shall see that we must not ask who may hold the goods of heretics, but who may be in the society of the righteous. We know indeed that they arrogate to themselves so great a righteousness that they boast they not only have it but also give it to other men; for they say that he whom they have baptized is justified by them.

Whereupon nothing remains for them but to tell him who is baptized by them to believe in the one who baptizes him. For why should he not do so, when the apostle says: 'To him who believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned unto righteousness'? Let him therefore believe in him, if he himself justifies him, that his faith may be reckoned unto righteousness. But I think that even they themselves shudder at their own selves, if indeed they deign so much as to consider these things. For none is righteous and justifying save God. And of these too may be said what the apostle said of the Jews: that, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and wishing to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

But far be it that any of us should so call himself righteous as either to wish to establish his own righteousness — that is, as though given to himself by himself, when it is said to him, 'For what do you have that you did not receive?' — or dare to boast that he is without sin in this life, as they themselves said in our conference that they were in that Church which already has neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing; not knowing that this is fulfilled in them only who, either immediately after baptism or once their debts are forgiven — those debts which we ask to be forgiven in prayer — depart from this body; but that in the whole Church it will come to pass only then, when she will be altogether one having neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing, when it shall be said: 'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?'

For the sting of death is sin. But in this life, where the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, if their Church is already such, then let them not say to God what the Lord taught us to pray: 'Forgive us our debts.' For if in baptism all things have been forgiven, why does the Church ask this, if already even in this life she has neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing? Let them despise even the apostle John crying out in his epistle: 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us; but if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity.' Because of this hope the whole Church says:

'Forgive us our debts' — not that it should remain in condemnation, but that, as we confess, He may cleanse us from all iniquity, and so may the Lord Christ present to Himself in that Day a glorious Church, having neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing, which He now cleanses by the washing of water in the word. For nothing remains in baptism that is not forgiven of all past sins — provided, however, that baptism itself is not received to no purpose outside, but is either given within, or, if it has already been given outside, one does not remain outside with it. And whatever is contracted by those who live here after receiving baptism, of whatever faults, through human infirmity, is forgiven for the sake of that very washing. For it profits nothing to say to one who is not baptized, 'Forgive us our debts.'

Thus He now cleanses His Church by the washing of water in the word, that He may then present her to Himself having neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing — wholly beautiful and perfect, that is — when death shall be swallowed up in victory. Now therefore, insofar as there flourishes in us the fact that we are born of God, living by faith, we are righteous; but insofar as we draw the remnants of mortality from Adam, we are not without sin. For both this is true: 'Whoever is born of God does not sin,' and this is true: 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.' The Lord Christ therefore is both righteous and justifying; but we are justified freely by His grace. Yet He justifies none but His own body,

which is the Church; and therefore, if the body of Christ takes the spoils of the ungodly, and to the body of Christ the riches of the ungodly are laid up as treasure, the ungodly ought not to remain outside so as to bring slander, but rather to enter in so as to be justified. Whence also that which is written concerning the day of judgment: 'Then shall the righteous stand in great constancy against those who oppressed them and took away their labors' — this is by no means to be understood as though the Canaanite shall stand against Israel because Israel took away the Canaanite's labors; but Naboth shall stand against Ahab, because Ahab took away Naboth's labors; for the Canaanite is ungodly, but Naboth righteous. In the same way, the pagan shall not stand against the Christian who took away his labors,

when the temples of idols were despoiled or given away; but the Christian shall stand against the pagan who took away his labors, when the bodies of the martyrs were laid low. So then the heretic shall not stand against the Catholic who received his labors, when the laws of the Catholic emperors prevailed; but the Catholic shall stand against the heretic who took away his labors, when the frenzies of the ungodly Circumcellions were prevailing. For Scripture itself resolves the question, since it does not say, 'Then shall men stand,' but 'Then shall the righteous stand,' and therefore 'in great constancy,' because in a good conscience. But here no one is righteous by his own righteousness,

that is, as though made by himself for himself, but, as the apostle says, 'as God has apportioned to each the measure of faith.' And he goes on and adds: 'For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same functions, so we, being many, are one body in Christ.' And by this no one can be righteous so long as he is separated from the unity of this body. For just as a member, if it be cut off from the body of a living man, cannot retain the spirit of life, so a man who is cut off from the body of the righteous Christ can in no way retain the spirit of righteousness, even if he retains the figure of the member which he took on in the body.

Let them therefore come into the framework of this body, and let them possess their labors not with the lust of dominion but with the piety of good use. As for us, we cleanse our will, as has already been said, from the filth of this lust — let any enemy be the judge — since we seek out those very men whose labors are spoken of, that they, together with us, may use both their own and ours in Catholic fellowship, so far as we are able. 'But this is what troubles us,' they say: 'if we are unrighteous, why do you seek us?' To whom we reply: We seek you as unrighteous, that you may not remain unrighteous; we seek the lost, that we may be able to rejoice over those found, saying: 'My brother was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found.' 'Why then,' he says, 'do you not baptize me, to wash me from my sins?'

I answer: Because I do no injury to the emperor's mark when I correct the error of a deserter. 'Why,' he says, 'do I not even do penance in your presence?' Nay, unless you do so, you cannot be saved; for how will you rejoice that you have been corrected, unless you grieve that you were perverse? 'What then,' he says, 'do we receive in your presence, when we come over to you?' I answer: You do not indeed receive baptism, which was able to be in you outside the framework of the body of Christ, though it could not profit you; but you receive the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, without which no one will be able to see God, and love, which, as it is written, 'covers a multitude of sins.'

And of this good, so great — without which neither the tongues of men and of angels, nor the knowledge of all mysteries, nor prophecy, nor so great a faith that mountains be removed, nor all that a man possesses distributed to the poor, nor the suffering of the body in flames profits anything, as the apostle testifies — of this good, then, so great, if you think it little or nothing, you deservedly err unhappily; deservedly, if you do not cross over into Catholic unity, you perish. 'If then,' they say, 'it behooves that we repent of having been outside the Church and against the Church, in order that we may be saved, how is it that after such penance we remain among you as clergy or even as bishops?'

This would not be done — since in truth, as must be confessed, it ought not to be done — were it not healed by the compensation of peace itself. But let them say this to themselves, and much more humbly grieve, who lie in so great a death of severance, that by this wound, as it were, of the Catholic mother they may live again. For when a cut-off branch is grafted in, another wound is made in the tree by which it may be received, so that it may live which was perishing apart from the life of the root; but when the received branch has knit with that which receives it, both vigor and fruit will follow; whereas if it does not knit, the branch indeed withers, but the life of the tree will remain. For there is also this kind of grafting, in which, with no branch cut off, that which is within is joined to that which is outside — yet not with no wound to the tree, but with even the very slightest.

So then these men too, when they come to the Catholic root, and the honor of the clerical or episcopal office is not taken from them even after the penance for their error, something indeed is done as it were in the bark of the mother tree, contrary to the integrity of strictness; nevertheless, because 'neither he who plants is anything nor he who waters,' by prayers poured out to the mercy of God, when the peace of the grafted branches knits together, love covers a multitude of sins. For that it was established in the Church that no one after penance for some crime should receive the clerical office, or return to it, or remain in it, was done not out of despair of pardon but out of the rigor of discipline;

otherwise, one would be disputing against the keys given to the Church, of which it was said: 'Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven.' But lest perhaps, even when crimes are uncovered, the mind, swelling with the hope of ecclesiastical honor, should proudly perform penance, it was most severely resolved that after penance done for a damnable crime no one should be a cleric, so that by despair of temporal elevation the medicine of humility might be greater and truer. For the holy David too did penance for deadly crimes, and yet continued in his honor; and the blessed Peter, when he shed most bitter tears, surely repented of having denied the Lord, and yet remained an apostle.

But not for that reason should the diligence of those who came later be thought superfluous, who, where nothing was taken away from salvation, added something to humility, whereby salvation might be more safely fortified — having experienced, I believe, the feigned penances of some through affected cravings for honors. For the trials of many diseases compel one to devise many medicines. But in causes of this kind, where through grave rents of dissensions there is danger not of this or that man but the slaughters of whole peoples lie strewn, something must be subtracted from strictness, that sincere love may come to the aid of healing greater evils.

Let these men therefore have, over their past detestable error, a bitter grief such as Peter had over his lying fear, and let them come to the true Church of Christ, that is, to the Catholic mother; let them be clergy in her, let them profitably be bishops who were against her in hostility; we do not begrudge it, nay rather we embrace, desire, and exhort it; and those whom we find in the highways and hedges, we compel to enter in. And yet to some we do not yet persuade that it is not their property but themselves that we seek. When the apostle Peter denied the Savior and wept and remained an apostle, he had not yet received the promised Holy Spirit; but much more have these men not received Him,

seeing that, divided from the framework of the body which alone the Holy Spirit quickens, outside the Church and against the Church they held the sacraments of the Church, and, as in civil war, with their standards and arms raised against us, they fought against their own. Let them come; let peace be made in the strength of Jerusalem, which strength is love, to which holy city it was said: 'Let peace be in your strength, and abundance in your towers.' Let them not exalt themselves against the maternal solicitude which she has had and has for the gathering of them and of so many peoples whom they deceive or were deceiving; let them not be proud, because thus she receives them; let them not impute to the evil of their own elation what she does for the good of peace.

Thus she has been accustomed to come to the aid of multitudes perishing through schisms and heresies. This displeased Lucifer, because it was done in receiving and healing those who had perished by the Arian poison; and, being displeased, he fell into the darkness of schism with the light of love lost. This the African Catholic Church observed toward these men from the beginning, by the sentence of the bishops who judged in the Roman Church between Caecilian and the party of Donatus; and, one certain Donatus being condemned — he who was shown to have been the author of the schism — they decreed that the rest, once corrected, even if they had been ordained outside the Church, should be received in their honors, not that even outside the unity of the body of Christ they could have the Holy Spirit, but chiefly for the sake of those

whom those placed outside might deceive and hinder from receiving that gift; and further, that even their own infirmity, being more gently received, might become curable within, no obstinacy any longer closing the eyes of the heart against the evidence of truth. But what else did these very men themselves consider, when the Maximianists — whom, in a sacrilegious schism, as their own council indicates, they had condemned, and in whose place they had already ordained others — after they saw that the peoples would not depart from them, lest they should lose all, they received back in their honors, and raised no contradiction or question against the baptism which those condemned by them outside had given?

Why then do they marvel or complain or slander that we have thus received them for the sake of the true peace of Christ, and do not recall what they themselves did for the vain peace of Donatus, which is against Christ? And if this deed of theirs be held against them and intelligently asserted, they will have nothing whatever to answer. But as to what they say — 'If we have sinned against the Holy Spirit, because we blew away your baptism, why do you seek us, since this sin can in no wise be remitted to us, the Lord saying: Whoever sins against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come?' — they do not consider that, according to that sense, no one is to be delivered.

For who does not speak against the Holy Spirit and sin against Him — whether one who is not yet a Christian, or one who is a heretic, an Arian or a Eunomian or a Macedonian (who say that He is a creature), or a Photinian (who denies that He has any substance at all, but that God the Father alone exists), or other heretics whom it were long to recall? Are none then of these to be delivered? Or were the Jews themselves, against whom the Lord urged this, not to be baptized if they believed in Him? For the Savior did not say, 'It shall not be remitted in baptism,' but 'It shall not be remitted,' He says, 'neither in this world nor in the world to come.'

Let them therefore understand that not every sin, but some particular sin against the Holy Spirit is signified, which will by no means be remitted. For just as, when He had said, 'If I had not come, they would not have sin,' He certainly did not wish every sin to be understood — since indeed they were full of great and many sins — but some particular sin, which if they did not have, all that they had might be forgiven them; that is, that they did not believe in Him who came (for this sin they would not have had, if He had not come) — so also, when He said, 'Whoever sins against the Holy Spirit, or whoever speaks a word against the Holy Spirit,' He surely did not wish every sin that is sinned against the Holy Spirit by deed or word to be understood, but some certain and particular one.

And this is hardness of heart even to the end of this life, whereby a man refuses to receive the remission of sins in the unity of the body of Christ, which the Holy Spirit quickens. For when He had said to the disciples, 'Receive the Holy Spirit,' He immediately added, 'If you forgive anyone's sins, they shall be forgiven him; if you retain anyone's, they shall be retained.' Whoever therefore resists and fights against this gift of the grace of God, or is in any manner alien from it, even to the end of this temporal life, it shall not be remitted to him, neither in this world nor in the world to come — namely this so great a sin, whereby all sins are retained; a sin which is not proved to have been committed by anyone except when he has departed from the body.

But so long as one lives here, the patience of God, as the apostle says, leads him to repentance; but if he himself, by most persevering iniquity, as the apostle consequently adds, according to the hardness of his heart and his impenitent heart, treasures up to himself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, it shall not be remitted to him, neither in this world nor in the world to come. But these men, with whom or concerning whom we deal, are not to be despaired of; for they are still in the body. Only let them not seek the Holy Spirit except in the body of Christ, whose sacrament they have outside, but the thing itself, of which that is the sacrament, they do not hold within; and therefore they eat and drink judgment to themselves.

For the one bread is the sacrament of unity, since, as the apostle says, 'we, being many, are one bread, one body.' Therefore the Catholic Church alone is the body of Christ, of which He, the Savior of His body, is the Head. Outside this body the Holy Spirit quickens no one, because, as the apostle himself says, 'the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us.' But he is not a partaker of the divine love who is an enemy of unity. Therefore they do not have the Holy Spirit who are outside the Church; for concerning them it is written: 'They who separate themselves, sensual, not having the Spirit.' But neither does he receive Him who is feigned within the Church, since concerning that too it is written:

'For the holy spirit of discipline will flee the deceitful.' Whoever therefore wishes to have the Holy Spirit, let him beware of remaining outside the Church, let him beware of entering into her in pretense; or, if such a one has already entered, let him beware of persisting in that same dissimulation, that so he may truly knit together with the tree of life. I have directed to you a lengthy book, and one perhaps burdensome to your occupations. If therefore it can be read to you even in parts, the Lord will give you understanding, that you may have what to answer to those to be corrected and healed, whom mother Church commends to you yourself, as to a faithful son, to be corrected and healed, wherever you can and however you can, whether by speaking and answering yourself or by bringing them to the teachers of the Church, with the help of the Lord. CLXXXV A.

It is very pleasing to me that, amid the cares of your estate, you do not neglect to have concern also for religion, and that you desire that men set in dispersion and division be recalled to the way of salvation and peace. CLXXXVI. To the most blessed lord, to be embraced with a brotherly affection in the bowels of Christ, to a brother and fellow-bishop more desirable than can be told, Paulinus, from Alypius and Augustine. At length, at last, God has provided for us a most faithful bearer of letters, our brother Januarius, deservedly most dear to us all; through whom, even if we did not write, your Sincerity would be able to know all that concerns us, as though by a living and understanding letter.

We know that you have loved as a servant of God Pelagius — who, as we believe, that he might be distinguished from another who is called Pelagius Terentii, was surnamed the Briton; but now in what manner you love him, we do not know. For we too not only have loved him, but even do love him; yet now we love him in one way, and once we loved him in another: for then it was because he seemed to us of right faith, but now, that he may by God's mercy be delivered from those things which he is said to hold as hostile and adverse to the grace of God.

For when rumor for some time bruited this about concerning him, it was certainly not easily to be believed — for rumor is wont to lie — but it came nearer, so that we believed it, when we read a certain book of his, striving in every way to persuade those things which would blot out from the hearts of the faithful the grace of God imparted to the human race through the one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, and believed by them; a book handed to us by the servants of Christ who had most eagerly heard him teaching such things and had followed him. To which book, at the request of these same men, since we also saw that it ought to be done, reply was made by a disputation of one of us, the author's name being kept silent, lest, being offended, he should be rendered more incurable. In which book that is contained and manifoldly and abundantly asserted

that which he also treats in certain letters given to your Reverence, where he says that he ought not to be thought to defend free will without the grace of God, since he says that the possibility of willing and of working — without which we could will and do nothing good — was naturally implanted in us by the Creator; so that, namely, this may be understood as the grace of God, with that very teaching — which is common to pagans and Christians, to the impious and the pious, to the unbelieving and the believing. These are the evils by which the coming of the Savior would be made void. Here we can say what the apostle says concerning the law:

If righteousness comes by nature, then Christ died in vain; and so, to the best of our ability, we refuted these notions in the hearts of those who held them, hoping that, once these things were made known, even the author of them, if it were possible, might correct them unprovoked, so that both the deadly power of the error might be destroyed and the man's honor spared. But after letters came to us from the East, ventilating this same matter most openly, we could in no way any longer fail the Church in whatever measure of episcopal authority we possess.

And so, from two councils, that of Carthage and that of Milevis, reports were sent concerning this matter to the Apostolic See, before the ecclesiastical proceedings by which Pelagius is said to have been cleared before the bishops of the province of Palestine had reached either our hands or Africa. We also wrote to Pope Innocent of most blessed memory, besides the reports of the councils, a familiar letter in which we treated of this very cause somewhat more at length. To all of these he replied to us in the manner that was right and befitting for the head of the Apostolic See. All of which you may now read, if perchance none or not all of them had reached you. There you will see that toward these men he observed the moderation which was due, that they should not be condemned—

provided they condemned their perverse views. Yet that novel and pernicious error was so repressed by ecclesiastical authority that we greatly marvel there are still some who by any error whatever attempt to resist the grace of God—if indeed they have learned that these things have been transacted—that grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord which the true and catholic faith, held ever by the Church, teaches: that it carries over the little ones together with the great from the death of the first man to the life of the second man, not only by blotting out sins but also by so assisting those who can now use the choice of the will to refrain from sinning and to live rightly, that unless He assists we can have no piety or righteousness at all, whether in deed or even in the will itself:

for it is God who works in us both to will and to work according to His good will. For who distinguishes us from that lump and mass of perdition, except He who came to seek and to save that which was lost? Whence the Apostle asks, saying: For who distinguishes you? And if a man should here say, 'My faith, my good will, my good work,' the answer is given him: For what have you that you did not receive? But if you also received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it? All this, indeed, is so ordered—not that man should not glory, but that he who glories should glory in the Lord, not of works, lest perchance anyone should be exalted;

not as though these good works are frustrated by pious thinking, since God will render to each according to his works, and there shall be glory and honor and peace to everyone that works good. But because works come from grace, not grace from works; for the faith which works through love would work nothing, unless the love of God itself were poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. Nor would faith itself be in us, unless God apportioned to each a measure of faith. It is good therefore for a man that with all the strength of his free will he should truthfully say:

I will keep my strength unto You. For he who thought that without His aid he could keep what He had given, went off into a far country and, living prodigally, consumed everything, and being worn down by the misery of hard servitude, returned to himself and said: I will arise and go to my father. But when would he have had that good thought, unless the most merciful Father had Himself secretly inspired it in him? And understanding this, that minister of the New Testament says: Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. Whence he too, when he had said: