Against the Donatists 1

One faith, dearly beloved brethren, commends us all as Christians to almighty God; and part of this faith is to believe that the Son of God, the Lord, is to come as judge of the world — He who has already come and, according to His humanity, was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered, died, was buried, and rose again; and before He ascended into heaven, whence He had descended, He left to us all Christians peace through the apostles. And lest He should seem to have left it to the apostles alone, He therefore said: 'What I say to one of you, I say to all.' Then He said: 'My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you.' Therefore peace was given to all Christians, and it is plain that this peace is the thing of God, since He says: 'My'; but when He says:

'I give to you,' He willed it to be not only His own but also that of all who believe in Him. And if this peace, as it had been given, had so remained whole and inviolate, and had not been disturbed by the authors of schism, there would today be no dissension between us and our brethren; nor would they cause God inconsolable tears, as the prophet Isaiah testifies; nor would they incur the name and deeds of false prophets; nor would they build up a ruinous and whitewashed wall; nor would they subvert minds the less cunning but only simple; nor, by laying their hand of subversion wickedly upon all heads, would they spread out the veils of overthrow; nor would they curse God; nor would they rebaptize the faithful; nor should we grieve over the subverted or slain souls of the innocent, over which God first grieved through the prophet Ezekiel, saying:

'Woe to those who put a veil upon every head and upon every age, to subvert souls. The souls of my people have been subverted, and they cursed me with my people, that they might slay souls which ought not to die, while they proclaim to my people vain seductions.' And yet these things have been committed by those who are our brethren. But lest anyone say that I call them brethren inconsiderately, who are such, we cannot stray from the words of the prophet Isaiah; for though they do not deny it, and it is known to all, that they hate and detest us and refuse to be called our brethren, yet we cannot withdraw from the fear of God, since the Holy Spirit exhorts us through the prophet Isaiah, saying:

'You who fear the word of the Lord, hear the word of the Lord: those who hate you and detest you and refuse to be called your brethren — yet you say to them: You are our brethren.' They are therefore without doubt brethren, although not good ones. Wherefore let no one wonder that I call them brethren who cannot but be brethren. For there is indeed one spiritual birth common to us and to them, but their deeds are diverse. For Ham too, who impiously laughed at the nakedness of his father, was the brother of the innocent, and for his deserving incurred the yoke of servitude, so that he was a brother bound over in bondage to his brethren.

Therefore this name of brotherhood is not laid aside even when sin intervenes; but concerning the offenses of these brethren I shall speak in another place — these who, sitting in judgment against us, disparage us and set stumbling-blocks against us, and run together with that thief who commits theft against God, and with adulterers, that is with heretics, place their portion, and praise their own sins, and devise reproaches against us catholics. All indeed, in every several place, clamor with slanderous voices, to which I shall reply on some occasion; but one alone we scarcely find with whom we may speak by letters or in this manner — namely Parmenian our brother, if indeed he permits himself to be named by us even by this name. And because they refuse to hold the episcopal college in common with us,

let them not be colleagues, if they refuse; yet, as we said above, they are brethren. My brother Parmenian, therefore, lest he speak windily and nakedly like the rest, not only said whatever he was able to think, but even set it down in writing. And since we are compelled, truth constraining us, to reply to his words, there will be between us, though absent, a conference of a kind. In the same way satisfaction will be made to the desires of certain persons; for it has often been desired by many that, for the unearthing of truth, a debate be held by certain defenders of the parties. And it could have been done.

But since they both forbid approach and bar the entrances and avoid sitting together and refuse conversation, let there at least be in this way a conference between you and me, brother Parmenian: that, since I have not spurned nor despised your treatises — which you wished to be in the hands and on the lips of many — but have patiently heard all that was said by you, you too may hear the replies of our humility. For I both understand, and you do not deny, and any wise man clearly perceives, that you have treated the matter at such length for no other reason than to assail unworthily the catholic Church with your treatises. But, as it is given to understand, your mind holds one thing and your speech sounds another. In short, I see that you have not said everything against the catholic Church:

nay rather, you have said much in favor of the catholic Church, although you are not a catholic — so that it would not even have been necessary for us to reply to your treatises, except that, since you are badly instructed, you spoke what you had not seen but had falsely heard (whereas we read in the epistle of the apostle Peter: 'Do not judge your brethren by hearsay') — so that, among some matters which do not concern us, as we shall prove, you said that a soldier had been demanded by us against you. For the rest, in other parts of your treatise some things have been said by you in our favor and against you, such as the comparison of the flood and of circumcision; and certain things both in our favor and in yours, such as those which you said in praise of baptism, except that you ill-treated the flesh of Christ; and therefore also in your favor.

For although you are outside, yet you came forth from us. For that too is in favor of us both, that you demonstrated heretics to be strangers to the catholic sacraments — if only you did not join to them your own selves, who are evidently schismatics. Some things are in favor of us alone, such as the commemoration of the one Church; some things against you through ignorance, because you are a foreigner — such as the accusation of the traditors and schismatics, and also that against you which you said about the oil and the sacrifice of the sinner. And by this, nothing has been said by you against us, except that you ignorantly said a soldier had been demanded by us — which we shall demonstrate by the truest proofs to have been said by you slanderously. Remove this slander, and you are ours.

For what now is more in our favor and ours than that you said, in your comparison concerning baptism, that the flood was made but once? And that the singular circumcision profited the Jewish people for their health — you spoke this rather in our favor, as though one of ours. For this is our utterance, who defend the unity of baptism in the Trinity — not in your favor, who boldly, and contrary to the laws, repeat baptism, of which those two are an image, although you yourselves also do not deny that what has been commanded to be done once ought not to be repeated. But while you subtly praised what is worthy of all the proclamation of praise, you craftily slipped in your own persons, so that, as it were, because it is permitted once, it should be permitted to you but denied to others.

If it is not permitted to traditors, it ought not to have been permitted to you, whose leaders we prove to have been traditors. If it is not permitted to schismatics, equally it ought not to have been permitted to you, among whom the origin of schism is found. If it is not permitted to sinners, we also convict you by divine testimony to be sinners. And yet because it is permitted once — not through the chosen man, but through that which is permitted once — therefore after you we do not amend it, because both among us and among you there is one sacrament, the whole rationale of which sacrament will be shown in the fifth book. By you indeed, brother Parmenian, many things have been treated; but I see that I must not reply to you in the order in which the several things were said by you.

For in the first place you spoke the comparisons and praises of baptism, and except for the flesh of Christ which you ill-treated, you said the rest well — for it will be shown in its place that you said this rather in our favor. In the second place, having excluded heretics, you said the Church is one; but where it is, you refused to acknowledge. In the third place you accused traditors by no certain persons or names. In the fourth, the workers of unity were torn by you. In the fifth, to pass over trifles, you spoke of the oil and the sacrifice of the sinner. But it seems to me that in the first place the cities, persons, and names of the traditors and schismatics must be pointed out, so that what has been said by you concerning them may acknowledge their true authors and certain culprits.

Then I must say what or where the one Church is — which it is, because besides the one there is no other. Thirdly, that a soldier was not sought by us, and that it does not concern us what is said to have been committed by the workers of unity. In the fourth place, who is the sinner whose sacrifice God rejects, or whose oil is to be shunned. Fifthly, concerning baptism; sixthly, concerning your inconsiderate presumptions and errors. But before I say anything concerning the several matters, I shall briefly show that you ill-treated the flesh of Christ. For you said that that sinful flesh, plunged into the flood of the Jordan, was cleansed from all defilements by all. Rightly would you say this, if the flesh of Christ, baptized for all, sufficed so that no one need be baptized for himself.

If it were so, there the whole race of men would be. There would be everything that is born corporeally. There would be no difference between the faithful and any heathen, because in all there is flesh; and since there is no one who does not have flesh, if, as you said, the flesh of Christ was plunged into the flood of the Jordan, all flesh would obtain this benefit. For the flesh of Christ in Christ is one thing, the flesh of each person in himself another. What induced you to call the flesh of Christ sinful? Would that you had said: the flesh of men in the flesh of Christ — yet not even thus would you have spoken probably, because each one who believes is baptized in the name of Christ, not in the flesh of Christ, which was specially His own.

Add to this, that His flesh, conceived of the Holy Spirit, could not among others be dipped for the remission of sins, since it seemed to have admitted no sin. You also added that it was plunged into the flood of the Jordan. Quite inconsiderately did you use this word, a word due only to Pharaoh and his people, who were so plunged by the weight of their offenses, like lead, that they remained there. But the flesh of Christ, while it went down into the Jordan and came up, ought not to have been said by you to have been plunged; for His flesh is found holier than the Jordan itself, so that it rather cleansed the water by its own descent than was itself cleansed.

This too I cannot pass over, which I consider you to have done subtly: that, in order to lead astray or deceive the minds of your hearers, after the description of circumcision and of the flood and after the praise of baptism, you wished in a manner to resuscitate the heretics with their errors — heretics already dead and buried in oblivion, whose not only vices but even names seemed unknown throughout the African provinces. Marcion, Praxeas, Sabellius, Valentinus, and the rest down to the Cataphrygians, were in their own times overcome by Victorinus of Pettau and Zephyrinus of the City and by Tertullian of Carthage and by other champions of the catholic Church. Why do you wage war with the dead, who do not pertain to the business of our time?

But because you, being a schismatic, today have no sin which you can prove against the catholics, therefore, to swell the prolixity of your writing, you wished to commemorate so many heretics with their errors. Now it is another question, why those were mentioned by you among whom there are not the sacraments which seem to be common to us and to you. Health does not require medicine; virtue, secure in itself, does not seek aids from without; truth does not desire arguments. It belongs to the sick to seek remedies, to the feeble and weak to procure aids, to the liar to hunt for arguments. Meanwhile you said that among heretics there cannot be the dowries of the Church, and you said rightly;

for we know that the churches of the heretics, each of them, are prostituted, with no lawful sacraments and without the right of honorable matrimony — which churches, as unnecessary, Christ refuses, He who is the bridegroom of the one Church, as He Himself testifies in the Song of Songs; who, when He praises one, condemns the rest, because besides the one which is truly catholic, the rest are thought to exist among the heretics, but do not exist;

according to what He indicates, as we said above, in the Song of Songs: that His dove is one, the same His chosen bride, the same His enclosed garden and sealed fountain — so that all heretics neither have the keys, which Peter alone received, nor the ring, with which we read the fountain to be sealed, nor are any of those to whom that garden pertains, in which God plants His little trees. Concerning which heretics — although it does not pertain to the present cause — what you said at length both sufficed and overflowed. But I wonder what induced you to join even your own selves to them, who are evidently schismatics, while you denied the dowries of the Church both to the heretics themselves and to you schismatics.

For among other things you said that schismatics, like branches, are cut off from the vine, destined for punishments, reserved like dry wood for the fires of Gehenna. But I see that you are still ignorant that the schism at Carthage was made by your own leaders. Seek the origin of these matters, and you will find that you uttered this sentence against yourselves, when you associated heretics with schismatics. For Caecilian did not go forth from Majorinus your grandfather, but Majorinus from Caecilian; nor did Caecilian withdraw from the chair of Peter or of Cyprian, but Majorinus, whose chair you occupy — which before Majorinus himself had no origin.

And since it most manifestly stands that these things were so done, and it evidently appears that you are heirs of the traditors and schismatics, I greatly wonder at you, brother Parmenian, that, being a schismatic, you wished to join schismatics to heretics. Or if it so seems to you and so pleases you, heap up those things which were said by you a little before. For you said that it cannot be that one defiled in false baptism should wash, that one unclean should cleanse, that a supplanter should set upright, a lost man should free, a guilty man should grant pardon, a condemned man should absolve.

Well could all these things pertain to heretics alone, because they falsified the creed: while one said there were two gods, though God is one; another wished the Father to be recognized in the person of the Son; another, withdrawing the flesh from the Son of God, through which the world was reconciled to God; and the rest of this sort, who are known to be alien from the catholic sacraments. Wherefore let it repent you to have joined schismatics also to such men; for you turned the sword of your sentence against yourself, while you suppose — because you were attacking others and did not notice how great is the distance between schismatics and heretics. Hence it is that you are ignorant even of what the holy Church is; and so you have mixed up everything.

A simple and true understanding makes one understand the catholic Church, the singular and most true sacrament, and the unity of souls. But schism is generated when the coagulum of peace has been scattered and the senses dissipated; it is nourished by envy, strengthened by emulation and strifes — so that, the catholic mother being deserted, impious sons, while they go forth and separate themselves, as you have done, cut off by the sickles of envy from the root of mother Church, depart as rebels by wandering astray; nor can they do anything new or other than what they had long since learned from their own mother.

But heretics, exiles of truth, deserters of the sound and most true creed, depraved with impious senses from the bosom of holy Church, despising that they had been well born, in order to deceive the ignorant and unlearned, willed to be born of themselves; and those who had long since been fed with vital foods, by the corruption of bad digestion vomited forth deadly poisons in impious disputations, to the destruction of the wretched. You see therefore, brother Parmenian, that heretics, being far banished from the house of truth, alone have varied and false baptisms, by which the defiled cannot wash, the unclean cannot cleanse, the supplanter cannot set upright, the lost cannot free, the guilty cannot grant pardon, the condemned cannot absolve.

Well did you close the garden to the heretics, well did you recall the keys to Peter, well did you take away the power of cultivating, lest those should cultivate the little trees who are plainly aliens from the little garden and from the paradise of God; well did you withdraw the ring from those to whom it is not permitted to open to the fountain. But to you schismatics, although you are not in the catholic Church, these things cannot be denied, because you carried over with us the true and common sacraments. Wherefore, since all these things are rightly denied to heretics, what induced you to wish to deny them also to you, who are manifestly schismatics? For you went forth outside. As far as it is in us, we wished that the heretics alone should be condemned; as far as it is in you, you wished to strike even your own selves together with them by one sentence.

But now, that we may return to the proposed order of the several matters, in the first place hear who were the traditors, and learn more fully the authors of the schism. In Africa it stands that two evils, and most wicked ones, were committed: one in the betrayal, the other in the schism; but both evils seem to have been committed both at one time and by the same authors. You ought therefore, brother Parmenian, to learn what you shall understand that you are ignorant of. For nearly sixty years ago and somewhat more, the storm of persecution roamed throughout all Africa, which made some martyrs, some confessors, laid some low in deadly death, and dismissed those lying hidden unharmed. Why should I commemorate the laymen, who then were supported by no dignity in the Church? Why the many ministers?

Why the deacons set in the third, the presbyters in the second order of priesthood? The very heads and chiefs of all, certain bishops of that time, in order to purchase the briefest delays of this uncertain light at the cost of the loss of eternal life, impiously handed over the instruments of the divine law. Among whom were Donatus of Masculula, Victor of Rusicade, Marinus from the Waters of Tibilis, Donatus of Calama, and the murderer Purpurius of Limata — who, being questioned about the sons of his sister, because it was said that he had slain them in the prison of Mileum, confessed, saying: 'I both killed and I kill, not them alone but whoever shall act against me.' And Menalius, who, lest he be proved by his fellow citizens to have offered incense,

feigning a pain of the eyes, was afraid to proceed to the assembly of his colleagues. These and others, whom we shall presently teach to have been your leaders, after the persecution, at the city of Cirta — because the basilicas had not yet been restored — sat together in the house of Urbanus Carisius on the third day before the Ides of May, as the writings of Nundinarius, then a deacon, testify, and the antiquity of the parchments bears witness, which we shall be able to bring forth for those who doubt. For the fullness of these matters we have appended in the last part of these little books, to fulfill the proof. These bishops, when Secundus of Tigisis questioned them, confessed that they had handed over.

And when Secundus himself was rebuked by Purpurius, because he too had long been among the police-officers and had not fled but had been let go — that he had not been let go without cause, except that he had handed over — already all, roused up, had begun to murmur. Fearing their spirit, Secundus received counsel from his brother's son, the younger Secundus, that he should reserve such a cause to God. Those who remained were consulted, that is, Victor of Garba, Felix of Rotarium, and Nabor of Centurio. These said that such a cause ought to be reserved to God. And Secundus said: 'Sit, all of you'; then it was said by all: 'Thanks be to God.' And they sat. You have therefore, brother Parmenian, who manifestly were the traditors.

Then, not long after, these very same — so many and such traditors, perjurers, murderers, having set out to Carthage — ordained Majorinus, whose chair you occupy, after the ordination of Caecilian, thus making a schism. And since it has been shown that your leaders were guilty of betrayal, it will follow that the same were the authors of the schism. And that this matter may be clear and manifest to all, it must be shown from what root the branches of error stretched themselves out even to the present day, and from what fountain that rivulet of malignant liquor, creeping secretly, flowed down even into our times. It must be told whence and where and by whom this second evil is established to have arisen, what causes came together, what persons were at work.

who were the authors of this evil, who its fosterers, by whom the judgments between the parties were requested from the emperor, who sat as judges, where the council was held, what sentences were pronounced. The matter is one of division: and in Africa, as in the other provinces, there was one Church, before it was divided by the ordainers of Majorinus, whose hereditary chair you occupy. It must be seen who remained in the root with the whole world, who went forth outside, who sat in another chair, which had not existed before, who erected altar against altar, who made an ordination while the other was ordained intact, who lies under the sentence of John the apostle, who said that many antichrists would go forth outside:

'because,' he says, 'they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us.' Therefore he who would not remain in unity with the brethren, having followed the heretics, went forth outside like an antichrist. That this was done at Carthage after the ordination of Caecilian, there is no one who is ignorant — namely through Lucilla, I know not what factious woman, who, before the peace was shaken by the whirlwinds of persecution, while the Church was yet in tranquility, when she could not bear the rebuke of Caecilian the archdeacon;

She, who before the spiritual food and drink was said to kiss the bone of some martyr or other—if indeed it was a martyr's—and who, setting the bone of some dead man (and even if a martyr's, yet one not yet vindicated by the Church) before the cup of salvation, was rebuked and, in confusion and anger, departed. As she raged and grieved, lest she might submit to discipline, suddenly the inborn storm of persecution fell upon her. At those same times a certain deacon named Felix, who was named as defendant on account of some notorious letter then composed against the tyrant-emperor, is said, fearing danger, to have hidden himself with bishop Mensurius. And when Mensurius publicly denied that Felix, who was demanded, was with him, a report was sent. A rescript came that, if Mensurius did not hand over the deacon Felix, he should be summoned to the palace.

The congregation was suffering no light straits; for the church had very many ornaments of gold and silver, which he could neither bury in the earth nor carry away with him. These he entrusted, as it were, to faithful elders, after a memorandum had been drawn up; this he is said to have given to a certain old woman, on these terms: that if he himself should not return, then, when peace had been restored to the Christians, that old woman should hand them over to whomever she should find seated in the episcopal chair. Having set out, he pleaded his cause; he was ordered to return, but could not reach Carthage. The storm of persecution was completed and brought to an end. By God's command, and Maxentius sending forth his clemency, liberty was restored to the Christians.

Botrus and Celestius, as it is said, desiring to be ordained at Carthage, took pains that, while the Numidians were absent, only the neighbouring bishops should be summoned to celebrate the ordination at Carthage. Then by the vote of the whole people Caecilian is chosen, and by the laying on of the hand of Felix of Autumna he is ordained bishop. Botrus and Celestius were cast down from their hope. The brief account of the gold and silver, just as it had been entrusted by Mensurius, is handed over to Caecilian, now seated, with witnesses present. The aforementioned elders are summoned, who in the jaws of greed had drunk down the spoil committed to them. When they were compelled to return it, they withdrew their foot from communion—and so likewise did the ambitious men, to whom it had not fallen to be ordained, and Lucilla as well.

She, who long since could not endure discipline, being a powerful and factious woman, was unwilling, with all her household, to be joined to communion. Thus, with three causes and persons coming together, it came about that malice took effect. Therefore at that time the schism was begotten by the anger of a confused woman, nourished by ambition, and strengthened by greed. By these three persons charges were fabricated against Caecilian, that his ordination might be called faulty. Word was sent to Secundus of Tigisis, that they should come to Carthage. All the aforementioned traditors set out, received in lodging by the greedy, by the ambitious, by the angry—not by the catholics, at whose request Caecilian had been ordained.

Meanwhile, to the basilica where the whole assembly of citizens had been with Caecilian, none of the aforesaid drew near. Then word went forth from Caecilian: 'If there is anything that can be proved against me, let the accuser come forth and prove it.' At that time nothing could be fabricated against him by so many enemies; but as regards his ordainer—that he was falsely called a traditor by these men—he came to be defamed. Again word was sent by Caecilian that, if Felix had conferred nothing on him (as they supposed), they themselves might ordain Caecilian, as though still a deacon. Then Purpurius, relying on his accustomed malice, as if Caecilian were also his sister's son, spoke thus: 'Let him come out here'—as though a hand were to be laid upon him in the episcopate and his head be shaken by way of penance.

When these things were discovered, the whole church held back Caecilian, lest he should hand himself over to robbers. At that time either the accused ought to have been expelled from the see, or communion ought to have been given to the innocent man. The church was thronged with people, the episcopal chair was full, the altar was in its place, on which peaceful bishops of earlier times had offered—Cyprian, Carpophorius, Lucian, and the rest. So they went out, and an altar was set up against the altar, and an ordination was unlawfully celebrated, and Majorinus, who had been a reader in Caecilian's diaconate, a member of Lucilla's household, was ordained bishop with her sponsoring it, by traditors who, in the council of Numidia, as we said above, confessed their crimes to themselves and granted one another pardon.

It is therefore manifest that both the ordainers, who handed over the Scriptures, and Majorinus, who was ordained, went out of the church. Meanwhile, from the fountain of their own crimes, which in them overflowed with veins of many disgraces, they thought that one reproach of betrayal should be diverted onto Caecilian's ordainer, foreseeing that rumour could not speak of two similar matters at one and the same time. So that they might consign their own crimes to silence, they endeavoured to defame another's life; and though they themselves could be convicted by the innocent, they were eager to convict the innocent, sending everywhere letters drawn up at the dictation of envy, which, among their other acts, we hold for the future. While still stationed at Carthage, they went ahead of themselves by their letters, so as to plant false reports in everyone's ears.

Rumour scattered the lie among the peoples, and while falsehoods were spread abroad about one man, the most true crimes of the aforesaid lay hidden in silence. One is often wont to blush for a crime, but at that time there was no one for whom one might blush, because, except for a few catholics, all had sinned, and the wickedness committed among the many was, as it were, an image of innocence. Too small was the crime of betrayal, which was established as committed through Donatus of Mascula and the other aforesaid; they even joined to that betrayal the enormous outrage of schism. You see therefore, brother Parmenian, that these two crimes, so evil, so grave, of betrayal and of schism, belong to your leaders. Acknowledge, even though late, that you have run into your own people while you assail strangers;

and since it is established that your predecessors committed this second wickedness, you too strive to follow them with criminal footsteps, so that what those predecessors had done in the matter of schism, you also are seen both long since to have done and now to do. They broke the peace in their times; you destroy unity. Of your forefathers and of you it can deservedly be said: if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit. Raging envy had blinded the eyes of your fathers; rivalry has deprived you of yours. That schism is the greatest evil you too will be utterly unable to deny.

And yet you have, without trembling, imitated Dathan and Abiram and Korah, your ruined masters, and you have refused to set before your eyes this evil, both forbidden by the words of God and, when committed, grievously punished. Furthermore, either remission or punishment attests that there is a difference among offences. Finally, among the other precepts, the divine command forbade these three in particular: 'You shall not kill'; 'You shall not go after strange gods'; and, at the head of the commandments: 'You shall not make a schism.' Let us see, concerning these three, what ought to have been punished and what deserved to be relaxed. Parricide is a principal offence; and yet Cain is neither struck as guilty by God, but, when slain afterward, his death is moreover avenged.

In the city of Nineveh there were a hundred and twenty thousand sacrilegious men, who seemed to follow strange gods. After the wrath of God and the message of the prophet Jonah, a fast of brief duration and prayer earned pardon. Let us see whether those obtained anything of the sort who first dared to rend the people of God. Over so many thousands of the children of Israel, from whose necks divine providence had cast off the yoke of slavery, He had set the one holy priest Aaron. But when his ministers, coveting a priesthood not owed to them, having seduced a part of the people, unlawfully invaded it, imitating the rite of the sacred offices, they placed two hundred and more ministers, doomed to perish with them, with censers, before the face of the seduced people.

God, to whom schism is displeasing, could not gladly look upon this. In a manner they had declared war on God, as though there were another god who would receive a rival sacrifice. Therefore God, on account of the schism committed, was angry with great anger; and what He had not done against the sacrilegious and the parricide, He did against the schismatics. There stood the battle-line of the ministers and the sacrilegious multitude, about to perish on the spot with their forbidden sacrifices; the time of repentance was denied and withdrawn, because the fault was not such as might merit pardon. A famine was commanded for the earth: at once it opened its jaws against the dividers of the people, and with greedy gape it swallowed up the despisers of God's commands. Within the space of a moment the earth opened to gulp down the aforesaid, snatched them, and was closed.

And lest they should seem to gain a benefit from the shortening of death, since they were not worthy to live, neither was it granted them to die: shut up suddenly in a hell-like prison, they were buried before they were dead. And do you marvel that anything of the sort has been harshly done against you, who either make or cultivate schism, when you see what the masters of the first schism deserved to suffer? Or is it because such vengeance is now suspended that you claim innocence for yourself and your people? God has set in each matter a pattern of examples, that there might be something to charge against those who imitate. Present punishment repressed the first sins for an example; the second sins He will reserve for judgment. What will you say to these things, you who, having usurped the name of the church, both secretly nourish and shamelessly defend schism?

But since I hear that certain men of your fellowship, out of a passion for litigation, hold I know not what documents, it must be asked to which faith ought to be accorded—those that agree with reason, those that consort with truth. If there are any of yours, they may perhaps seem sprinkled with falsehoods. As for our documents, the conflicts of the cases prove them, and the contentions of the parties, and the outcomes of the judgments, and the letters of Constantine. For as to what you say of us, 'What have Christians to do with kings? or what have bishops to do with the palace?'—if it is a mark to know kings, then envy floods you completely. For your forefathers were Lucian, Dignus, Nasutius, Capito,

Fidentius, and the rest, who entreated the emperor Constantine, as yet ignorant of these matters, with these petitions, a copy of which is written below: 'We beg you, Constantine, best of emperors—since you are of righteous lineage, whose father, among the other emperors, did not carry out persecution, and Gaul is free from this crime; for in Africa there are contentions between us and the other bishops—we ask that your piety command judges to be given to us from Gaul.' Given by Lucian, Dignus, Nasutius, Capito, Fidentius, and the other bishops of Donatus's party. When these had been read, Constantine answered, full of indignation. In which response he also betrayed their prayers, saying:

'You ask of me a judgment in this world, while I myself await the judgment of Christ.' And yet judges were given: Maternus from the city of Cologne, Reticius from the city of Autun, Marinus of Arles. They came to the city of Rome, these three Gauls together with fifteen other Italians. They assembled in the house of Fausta in the Lateran, in the consulship of Constantine for the fourth time and Licinius for the third time, on the sixth day before the Nones of October, on the sixth day of the week, when there had sat together Miltiades bishop of the city of Rome, and Reticius and Maternus and Marinus the Gallic bishops, and Merocles of Milan, Florianus of Siena, Zoticus of Quintianum, Stennius of Rimini, Felix of Florence in Tuscany, Gaudentius of Pisa, Constantius of Faventia,

Proterius of Capua, Theophilus of Benevento, Sabinus of Terracina, Secundus of Praeneste, Felix of Tres Tabernae, Maximus of Ostia, Evander of Ursinum, Donatianus of Forum Claudii. With these nineteen bishops sitting together, the case of Donatus and Caecilian was brought into the midst. By each one these sentences were pronounced against Donatus: that he confessed he had rebaptized and had laid hands upon lapsed bishops, which is foreign to the Church. The witnesses brought forward by Donatus confessed that they had nothing to say against Caecilian. Caecilian was pronounced innocent by the sentences of all the aforementioned, even by the sentence of Miltiades, by which the judgment was closed in these words:

'Since it has been established that Caecilian, according to their own profession, is not accused by those who came with Donatus, nor has it been established that he was convicted by Donatus on any point, I rightly judge that he ought to be retained in his ecclesiastical communion with his standing intact.' It is therefore sufficient that Donatus was struck down by so many sentences and that Caecilian was cleared by so great a judgment. And yet Donatus believed he ought to appeal. To which appeal the emperor Constantine responded thus: 'O the rabid audacity of frenzy! Just as is wont to happen in the cases of the heathen, a bishop has believed he ought to appeal'—and the rest. At the same time this same Donatus petitioned that it might be permitted him to return * * that he might go to Carthage.

Then by Filuminus, his advocate, it was suggested to the emperor that, for the good of peace, Caecilian should be detained at Brixia; and it was done. Then two bishops were sent to Africa, Eunomius and Olympius, to ordain one bishop after the two had been removed. They came and were at Carthage for forty days, in order to pronounce where the Catholic Church was. The seditious party of Donatus did not allow this to be done; out of partisan zeal there were daily uproars. The final sentence of these same bishops, Eunomius and Olympius, is read as follows: that they declared that to be the Catholic Church which was spread throughout the whole world, and that the sentence of the nineteen bishops, given long since, could not be annulled. So they communicated with the clergy of Caecilian and returned.

Of these matters we hold a volume of records, which, if anyone shall wish, let him read in the last sections. While these things were happening, Donatus of his own accord returned first to Carthage. When this was heard, Caecilian hastened to his own people. In this way the parties were renewed again. Yet it stands established that Donatus was struck down by so many sentences and that Caecilian was pronounced innocent by as many sentences. But since in that very case the persons of the two—both the ordained and the ordainer—seemed long since to labour in the Catholic Church, after the ordained man had been cleared in the city, the ordainer still remained to be cleared. Then Constantine wrote to the proconsul Aelianus that, with public necessities set aside, inquiry should be made publicly into the life of Felix of Autumna. He sat in court,

to whom it had been enjoined. There were brought forward Claudius Saturianus, curator of the commonwealth, who had been in the city of Felix at the time of the persecution, and the curator of the then-present time, when the case was being pressed, Callidius Gratianus, and the magistrate Alfius Caecilianus; and also Superius the stationary officer was led in, and Ingentius the public scribe trembled under the dread of impending tortures. From the answers of all, nothing of the sort was found that could have sullied the life of bishop Felix. There is held a volume of records, in which are contained the names of those present, who had taken part in the case of Claudius Saturianus the curator, and of the magistrate Caecilianus, and of Superius the stationary officer, and of the scribe Ingentius, and of Solon the public official of that time.

After their answers, this part of the sentence was pronounced by the aforementioned proconsul: 'It is manifest that Felix, the religious bishop, is free from the burning of the divine instruments, since no one could prove anything against him to the effect that he betrayed or burned the most sacred Scriptures. For the interrogation of all those above named makes it manifest that no divine Scriptures were either found, or corrupted, or burned. This is contained in the records: that bishop Felix, a religious man, was at those times neither present, nor lent his conscience to it, nor commanded any such thing to be done.' Whence, his infamy repulsed and wiped away, he departed from that judgment with great praise.

Long since, the truth seemed to lie hidden amid an uncertain reputation and amid the mists which envy and ill-will had exhaled. But all the recorded writing has also been revealed, both by the volumes of the records and by the letters mentioned, whether read or recalled. You see, brother Parmenian, that you have railed in vain against the catholics with the false charge of betrayal cast at them, changing the persons, of course, and transferring the merits. You closed your eyes, lest you should recognize your own as guilty; you opened them, that you might criminously assail the innocent and undeserving. Everything according to the occasion, nothing according to the truth—so that the most blessed apostle Paul might have said even of you: 'Certain men have turned aside to empty talking, wishing to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things concerning which they affirm.'

A little before, we taught that your forefathers were traditors and schismatics; and you, their heir, were unwilling to spare either the schismatics or the traditors. Now therefore, by the documents mentioned above, all the weapons which you wished to hurl falsely against strangers, repulsed by the shield of truth, are turned back upon your own forefathers with a reciprocal blow. Everything therefore that could have been said by you against traditors and schismatics is yours; for it is not ours, who both remain in the root and are with all throughout the whole world. Since it has been shown who were the traditors, and the origin of the schism has been so demonstrated that it seems perceived almost with the eyes, we have also shown what distinguishes heresy from schism:

It is now next to demonstrate—what we promised to speak of in the second place—what the one Church is, which Christ calls His dove and His spouse. The Church, therefore, is one, whose holiness is gathered from the sacraments, and is not weighed by the pride of persons; therefore Christ calls this one His dove and His beloved spouse. This cannot exist among all the heretics and schismatics; it remains that it be in one place. You, brother Parmenian, have said that it is among you alone—unless perhaps because you contend to claim a special holiness from pride, so that where you wish, there the Church may be, and where you do not wish, it may not be.

So then, that it may exist among you in a little portion of Africa, in a corner of a small region, will it not exist among us in another part of Africa? In the Spains, in Gaul, in Italy, where you are not, will it not be? If you wish it to be only among you, will it not be in the three Pannonias, in Dacia, Moesia, Thrace, Achaia, Macedonia, and in all Greece, where you are not? So that it may exist among you, will it not 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 throughout so many countless islands and the other provinces, which can scarcely be numbered, where you are not, will it not be?

Where then will be the property of the catholic name, since it is called 'catholic' from this, that it is reasonable and everywhere diffused? For if you thus, according to your own will, confine the Church into a narrow space, if you withdraw whole nations from it, where will be that which the Son of God deserved? Where will be that which the Father gladly bestowed upon Him, saying in the second Psalm: 'I will give You the nations as Your inheritance and the ends of the earth as Your possession'? Why do you break such a promise, so that the breadth of kingdoms is sent by you, as it were, into a kind of prison? Why do you strive to stand in the way of so great a love? Why do you war against the Saviour's merits? Permit the Son to possess what has been granted, permit the Father to fulfil His promises. Why do you set bounds? Why do you fix limits?

Since the whole earth has been promised by God the Father to the Saviour, there is nothing in any part of the lands that seems excepted from His possession. The whole earth, together with the nations, has been given; the whole world is one possession to Christ. This God proves, who says: 'I will give You the nations as Your inheritance and the ends of the earth as Your possession.' And in the 71st Psalm it is thus written concerning the Saviour Himself: 'He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the orb of the earth.' The Father, while He gives, excepts nothing; you, that you may concede an ounce, strive to carry off the whole pound.

And still you strive to persuade men that the Church is among you alone, taking away the merit from Christ, denying what was appointed by God. O your ungrateful and foolish presumption! Christ invites you, along with others, into the fellowship of the heavenly kingdom, and exhorts that you be co-heirs; and you labour to defraud Him of the inheritance granted Him by the Father, while you concede a part of Africa and deny the whole orb of the earth, which has been given Him by the Father. Why do you wish the Holy Spirit to seem a liar, who in the 49th Psalm narrates the benevolence of almighty God, saying: 'The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken, and has called the earth from the rising of the sun unto its setting'?

The earth, therefore, was called, that it might become flesh; and, as it is read, it was made so, and it ought to render praises to God its Creator. Finally, it is brought to mind by the Holy Spirit, who exhorts and says in the 112th Psalm: 'The name of the Lord is to be praised from the rising of the sun unto its setting'; and again in the 95th Psalm: 'Sing to the Lord a new song.' If He said this verse alone, you might say that the Holy Spirit exhorted you alone. But to show that it was said not to you alone but to the Church, which is everywhere, He went on, saying: 'Sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim among the nations His glory, His wonders among all peoples.'

'Proclaim,' He says, 'among the nations'—He did not say 'in a little portion of Africa, where you are.' 'Proclaim,' He says, 'among all peoples'; He who said 'all peoples' excepted no one, and do you congratulate yourselves on being separated, you alone, from all the peoples concerning whom this command was given, and do you wish to be alone the whole, you who are not in the whole entire? 'The name of the Lord,' He says, 'is to be praised'—both by the whole earth and from the rising of the sun unto its setting. Can the lawless pagans either sing to God or praise the name of the Lord, and not the Church alone, which is in the law? If you say that it is among you only, you defraud the ears of God. If you alone praise, the whole world will fall silent, which is from the rising of the sun unto its setting.

You have shut the mouths of all Christian nations; you have imposed silence upon all peoples who desire to praise God at every moment. Therefore, if God awaits the praises due to Him, and the Holy Spirit exhorts that they should resound, and the whole world is ready to render to God what it owes—then, lest God be defrauded, do you also yourselves praise together with all; or, since you were unwilling to be with all, be silent alone. Therefore, since we have proved that to be the Catholic Church which is diffused throughout the whole orb of the earth, its ornaments are now to be mentioned, and it is to be seen where are the five endowments, which you said were six, among which the chair is first, where, unless a bishop has sat, the second endowment cannot be joined—which is the angel.

It is to be seen who first sat upon the chair, and where. If you do not know, learn; if you know, blush: ignorance cannot be ascribed to you, so it remains that you must know. For one who knows to err is a sin; but to the ignorant it is sometimes wont to be pardoned. Therefore you cannot deny that you know that in the city of Rome the episcopal chair was first conferred upon Peter, in which sat Peter, the head of all the apostles, whence too he was called Cephas; in which one chair unity might be preserved by all, lest the other apostles should each claim separate chairs for themselves, so that he was now a schismatic and a sinner who should set up another chair against that single chair.

Therefore the unique chair, which is the first of the endowments, Peter sat upon first; to him succeeded Linus, to Linus succeeded Clement, to Clement Anacletus, to Anacletus Evaristus, to Evaristus Alexander, to Alexander Sixtus, to Sixtus Telesphorus, to Telesphorus Hyginus, to Hyginus Anicetus, to Anicetus Pius, to Pius Soter, to Soter Eleutherius, to Eleutherius Victor, to Victor Zephyrinus, to Zephyrinus Callixtus, to Callixtus 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 Eutychianus, to Eutychianus Gaius, to Gaius Marcellinus, to Marcellinus Marcellus, to Marcellus Eusebius, to Eusebius Miltiades, to Miltiades Silvester, to Silvester Marcus, to Marcus Julius, to Julius Liberius, to Liberius Damasus, to Damasus Siricius, who today is our colleague:

with whom the whole world agrees with us in one fellowship of communion through the interchange of letters of commendation. Render the origin of your chair, you who wish to claim the holy Church for yourselves. But you also say that you have some portion in the city of Rome: it is a branch of your error, stretched out from a lie, not from the root of truth. In short, if it should be said to Macrobius where he sits there, can he by any means say, 'In the chair of Peter'?—which I doubt that he knows even by sight; and to whose memorial he does not approach, like a schismatic acting against the apostle who says: 'communicating with the memorials of the saints.' Behold, present there are the memorials of two apostles. Say whether he was able to enter to these, or offered there, where it is established that the memorials of the saints are.

It remains, therefore, that your colleague Macrobius confess that he sits there where Encolpius once sat; and if Encolpius himself could be questioned, he would say that he sits where Bonifatius Ballitanus sat before; and then if he himself could be questioned, he would say where Victor of Garba sat, sent long since from Africa by your people to a few wandering men. What is this, that your party could not have a bishop who was a citizen in the city of Rome? What is this, that men wholly African and foreigners are known to have succeeded one another in that city? Does not the deceit appear, the faction, which is the mother of schism?

Meanwhile, so that Victor of Garba should be sent here as the first—I do not say a stone into the fountain, since he could not even disturb the purity of the catholic multitude; but because to certain Africans a sojourn in the city had been pleasing, and they seemed to have set out hither from you—these very men petitioned that someone be sent hence who might gather them. Victor therefore was sent: there was a son without a father, a recruit without a commander, a disciple without a master, a follower without one going before, a lodger without a house, a guest without a lodging, a shepherd without a flock, a bishop without a people. For they were not to be called a flock or a people, those few who, among forty and more basilicas, had no place where they might gather.

So they fenced off with hurdles a certain cave outside the city, where at that very time they could hold their conventicle; whence they were called 'Montenses' (mountain-men). Therefore, since Claudian is seen to have succeeded Lucian, Lucian Macrobius, Macrobius Encolpius, Encolpius Bonifatius, Bonifatius Victor: if it were said to Victor where he sat, he could neither show that anyone had been there before him, nor show any chair except that of pestilence. For pestilence sends men extinguished by diseases down to the lower regions, which lower regions are known to have their gates; against which gates we read that Peter, our chief of course, received the saving keys, to whom it was said by Christ: 'To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them.'

Whence is it, then, that you strive to usurp for yourselves the keys of the kingdom of heaven, you who war against the chair of Peter with your presumptions and bold sacrilege, repudiating the blessedness whereby he deserved to be praised, who 'walked not in the counsel of the ungodly, and stood not in the way of sinners, and sat not in the chair of pestilence'? In the counsel of impiety your forefathers walked, that the Church might be divided. They entered also the way of sinners, while they tried to divide Christ, whose garments not even the Jews wished to rend, when the apostle Paul cries out and says: 'Is Christ divided?'

And would that, if they had now entered the evil way, they had, upon recognizing their sin, turned back upon themselves—that is, amended what they had gone astray in, and recalled the peace which they had put to flight. This was to return from the way: for on a way one walks, one does not stand. But because your forefathers were unwilling to return, it is established that they stood in the way of sinners; whose steps fury had impelled, and sluggish discord bound them fast when held. And lest they might be able to go back to better things, they themselves set upon themselves the fetters of schism, that they might stand obstinately in their error, that they might not be able to return to the peace which they had deserted. Nor did they hear the Holy Spirit saying in the 33rd Psalm: 'Turn aside from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it'—but they stood in the way of their sins.

They have also sat in the seat of pestilence, which, as we said above, sends those who are seduced to their death. But while you, cultivating the error of your forefathers, zealously defend it, you have chosen to be heirs of their wickedness, when you could have been sons of peace, even if belatedly. Since it is written in the prophet Ezekiel: 'Lift up your voice over the son of a sinner, that he may not follow the footsteps of his father, for the soul of the father is mine and the soul of the son is mine. The soul that sins, that alone shall be punished.' If it displeased you that your forefathers sinned, they alone would render account of their own offense; in this way you too might be able to be blessed and to receive praise from the mouth of the prophet, who says in the first psalm:

'Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of pestilence; but his delight is in the law of the Lord.' What else is it to have one's delight in the law, than both to learn the divine precepts reverently and to fulfill them with fear? In which law it is written: 'Peace to men on earth of good will,' and in another place, in the prophet Isaiah: 'I will lay the foundations of peace in Sion,' and in another place: 'Let us see what the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace unto his people,' and in another place: 'The Son of God has come, and his place has been established in peace,' and in another place: 'Let the mountains receive peace for the people, and the hills justice,' and in the Gospel: 'My peace I give unto you, my peace I leave unto you,' and Paul says:

'He who sows peace shall also reap peace,' and in all his epistles: 'May peace abound to you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,' and in psalm 33: 'Seek peace and you shall obtain it.' Peace had been put to flight and had departed from your forefathers; you ought to have sought it, as God has commanded, but you neither were willing of your own accord to seek it nor to receive it gladly when it was offered. For who among so many provinces in which you were born has heard of this? And if anyone has heard, who among you does not marvel at your error, who among you does not condemn your crime?

Therefore, since it is manifest and clearer than light itself that we are together with so many innumerable peoples and so many provinces are with us, you now see that you, set in a portion of a single region and separated by your errors from the Church, claim in vain for yourselves alone this name of the Church with her endowments, which are with us rather than with you. These endowments are so joined and inseparable from one another that it is understood that one cannot be separated from another. For they are counted by name, yet by a single conception they are joined in one body, as the fingers in the hand, which we see distinguished singly by intervals. Hence whoever holds one must of necessity hold them all, since each one cannot be separated from its fellows.

Add to this that we possess not one only but all of them as our own. Therefore, of the aforesaid endowments the chair (cathedra) is, as we said, the first, which we have proved through Peter to be ours; it draws to itself the angel — unless perhaps, claiming him for yourselves, you keep him shut up in a casket. Send him forth, if you can, to shut out the seven angels who are among our associates in Asia, to whose churches the apostle John writes — with which churches you are proven to have no fellowship of communion. Whence have you an angel who among you can stir the fountain or be numbered among the other endowments of the Church? Outside the seven churches, whatever is without is alien.

Or if you have some one from there, then through that one you communicate also with the other angels, and through the angels with the aforementioned churches, and through those churches with us. If this is so, you have lost the dispute. Behold, all the endowments cannot now be among you; for you cannot claim or shut up the Spirit of God for yourselves alone, who is understood and not seen. For thus it is written in the Gospel: 'For God is Spirit, and he breathes where he wills, and you hear his voice but you know not whence he comes or whither he goes.' Permit God to go whence he wills and to have liberty to approach whither he wills, who can be heard but cannot be seen. And yet, in your zeal for accusing, you were willing freely to blaspheme, saying:

'For in that church, what spirit can there be except one that begets sons of Gehenna?' You vomited an insult from your own breast and thought a testimony from the Gospel should be added, where it is read: 'Woe to you, hypocrites! who go about the seas and lands to make one proselyte, and when you have found him, you make him twofold more a son of Gehenna than yourselves.' If this insult had to be made — which is not lawful, even though it be made without cause — would that some other one of your number had done it! Yet I marvel enough that you said this; that you should falsely say it against another, from which, if you considered your own ordination, you might even blush. For you recalled that it is read in the Gospel:

'Woe to us, hypocrites, who go about the seas and lands to make one proselyte' — that is, to change someone's sect. Indeed, of what sect you were I do not know, yet I judge that this was said by you out of place, so that perhaps you now repent of having said it. Have we crossed any lands? Have we sailed around any seas? Have we approached any foreign harbors? Have we brought over any Spaniard or Gaul, or ordained for the ignorant some foreigner? For it is established that the fountain too is one of the endowments, from which heretics can neither themselves drink nor give others to drink, because they alone, not having the unbroken seal — that is, the catholic creed — cannot open the way to the true fountain.

* * For since it is written in the Song of Songs: 'Your navel is like a rounded bowl,' you tried to assert that the navel is the altar. If the navel is a member in the body, it cannot be among the endowments, since it is a member; if it is an ornament, it is not a part of the body. It now remains that the endowments be seen to be five, which endowments, since they belong to the catholic Church, which is in so many provinces aforementioned, cannot be lacking even among us here in Africa. Understand, even belatedly, that you are impious sons, that you are branches broken off the tree, that you are shoots cut off from the vine, that you are a stream severed from the fountain.

For a stream cannot be the source, since it is small and is not born of itself, nor can a tree be cut off from a branch, since a tree, founded on its own roots, rejoices, while a branch, if it is cut off, withers. Do you now see, brother Parmenian, do you now perceive, do you now understand that you have warred with your own arguments against yourself, since it has been proved that we are in the holy catholic Church, among whom is both the symbol of the Trinity, and through the chair of Peter, which is ours, through that chair the other endowments are also among us? Even the priesthood, which you seemed to annul in us, in excuse of your error and your envy, while after us you rebaptize and yet do not do this after your own associates detected in sin.