書信與論戰集（CSEL） 第 11 章

Augustine the bishop, to the most beloved brethren belonging to the care of our stewardship: May the salvation which is in Christ, and the peace of His unity and love, be with you; and may your spirit be preserved whole, and soul and body, unto the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. You remember, brethren, that a very small part of the letter of Petilian, the Donatist bishop of Constantina, once came into our hands, and that I wrote to your love what I had answered to that portion.

But when afterward the whole and complete letter was sent to us by the brethren who are there, it pleased me to reply from the very beginning, as though we were conducting the matter in person — in the manner in which you always know that we have wished to deal with them: so that, without any zeal for contention, whatever is said either by them or by us might, by a comparison of the disputation, appear to all. For we have learned that that letter is in the hands of many, who even hold much of it by memory, supposing that he has said something true against us. But now, if they should be willing to read what we have answered, they will assuredly understand what is to be cast away by them and what is to be held. For those things are not ours, as they themselves can consider, if they are willing to judge without partisan zeal;

for from the holy Scriptures all things are so brought forth and proved that no one can deny them except one who professes himself to be an enemy of those Scriptures. But concerning that work of ours, I see what the most obstinate defenders of so bad a cause can say: namely, that I have replied to the letter of an absent man, where he could not hear my words to which he might reply on the spot. Let him therefore defend the words of his letter, and, if he can, let him show that they have not been refuted and convicted by my replies; or, if he does not wish this, let him himself do to this letter of mine what I did to his, to which I have already replied. For he indeed wrote it to his people, just as I wrote this to you. If he wishes, let him himself even reply to it.

Certainly the question is turned between us as to where the Church is — whether with us or with them. And this Church is assuredly one, which our forefathers named 'catholic,' in order to show from the very name that it is throughout the whole; for 'catholic' is said in Greek 'kath' holon,' that is, 'according to the whole.' And this Church is the body of Christ, as the Apostle says: 'for His body, which is the Church.' Whence it is assuredly manifest that he who is not among the members of Christ cannot have Christian salvation. But the members of Christ are joined to one another through the love of unity, and through the same they cohere with their Head, which is Christ Jesus. The whole, therefore, which is announced concerning Christ, is Head and body.

The Head is the only-begotten Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of the living God, the very Saviour of the body, who died on account of our sins and rose again on account of our justification; His body is the Church, of which it is said: 'that He might present to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.' But between us and the Donatists the question is where this body is, that is, where the Church is. What then shall we do? Shall we seek it in our own words, or in the words of its own Head, our Lord Jesus Christ? I think that we ought rather to seek it in His words, who is the Truth and knows His body best; for the Lord knows those who are His.

But what our words are, in which it ought not to be sought, take heed and see even there what difference there is between our words and theirs; and yet in our words we do not wish the Church to be sought. Whatever we object to one another concerning the handing over of the divine codices, concerning incense-offering, concerning persecutions — these are our words. And in such matters we indeed hold to this measure: that either both may be reckoned true, whether the things said by us or those said by them, or both false, or ours true and theirs false, or ours false and theirs true — and in all these we show that there is no crime of the Christian world, with which we commune.

For if the crimes are true, both those said by us against them and those said by them against us, let us do what the Apostle says: 'forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven us,' so that evil men — neither those who perhaps were or are among us, nor those who were or are among them — may hinder our concord and the bond of peace, when their one wickedness has been corrected: namely, that they have separated themselves in vain from the unity of the whole world, though they had such men among them. But if both are false — whether the things we object to them or they to us, whether concerning the handing over or concerning the persecution of the innocent — I see no cause for the dispute, except that there is cause for them to correct themselves, who have separated themselves without cause.

But if we speak the truth—since we confirm the records which we bring forward both by the letters of the emperor, to whom at that time they first wrote and afterwards appealed, and by the communion of the whole world; whereas the things they allege are shown to be false for this very reason, that at the very time when this same question was being examined they were quite unable to win their case—then there appears in them a greater madness of sacrilegious animosity, and a persecution of innocent souls, than if they were held guilty of the crime of schism alone. And let them charge those things not upon all, but upon whichever of their own party they wish; schism, nevertheless, is the crime of them all.

Furthermore, if they wish the crimes of betrayal and persecution which they cast at us to be true, and those which are cast by us at them to be false, not even so are they cleared of the crime of schism; for those charges could pertain to certain persons, not to the whole Christian world. And if they think it has perished by contagion—I forbear to say how many evils, even known evils, the saints have tolerated within the assembly of men for the good of peace—this I do say: let these men show how they themselves did not perish by the contagion of those whom they either now do not know, or once did not know, to be lurking among them, sacrilegious violators of the consecrated chastity of women. Assuredly they will say that on this very ground they are not contaminated, because they did not know.

How then has the world been contaminated, which still does not know whether these things they say are true? Let us suppose them now proved to us, now demonstrated: what do we do about so many nations? They are abandoned in ignorance; therefore innocent people are abandoned, and while that is no crime of theirs, this begins to be our most wicked crime. Or ought we to run and teach them what we know? To what purpose this? If, in order that they may be innocent, they are innocent even while they are ignorant—for we preserve innocence not by knowing men's evil deeds but, when they are known, by not consenting to them, and, concerning things unknown, by not judging rashly. And through this, as I have said, the world is innocent, which is ignorant of the crimes that are alleged by these men against certain persons, even if they are alleged truly.

But by these very innocent people, who separated themselves, they lost their innocence through that very crime of separation and schism. And now they teach us that they speak the truth against certain persons, so that they may separate us from those against whom they have nothing true to say. For this is what the whole world says to them—a saying most brief in words, but most robust in truth: the African bishops, forsooth, were contending among themselves.

If they could not settle the dissension that had arisen among themselves—so that, whether by concord being restored or by the degradation of those who contended wrongly, those who had the good cause might remain in the communion of the whole world through the bond of unity—then it certainly remained that the bishops beyond the sea, in which region the greatest part of the Catholic Church was spread, should judge concerning the dissensions of their African colleagues, at the instance, that is, of those who charged the others with the crime of an unlawful ordination. If this was not done, the fault is theirs by whom it ought to have been done, not the world's, which was ignorant of what had not been brought to its notice.

But if it was done, wherein did those ecclesiastical judges sin, who by no means ought to condemn crimes which, even if true and brought before them, were nevertheless not proved to them? Could the wicked pollute those men to whom they could not be made manifest? But if they were made manifest to them, and by some sluggishness or connivance they were unwilling to remove such men from communion, and by a perverse judgment even pronounced sentences in their favor—wherein did the world sin, which did not know that that case had wicked judges, and believed that they had judged well, concerning whom it could not itself judge?

For just as the crime of the accused, if it was hidden from the judges, certainly did not contaminate them, so also the crime of the judges, if there was any, since it was hidden from the world, certainly could not contaminate it. With these innocent people, therefore, we innocently hold communion even to this day—not knowing what was then done. Wherefore, even if today we should learn that the things they say against certain persons are true, there is no reason why we should withdraw from the innocent who do not know these things, and cross over to those who for this very reason are all entangled in the crime of schism, namely because they did what they urge us to do: that not by the example of the apostles we should tolerate the evil, but by the example of the heretics we should forsake the good.

But let us grant to the world—what cannot happen—that today it could clearly discern, together with us, that the crimes of certain persons whom these men accuse are true: could it thereby become more innocent than it was before it knew? For just as unknown evildoers could not stain it, even if they were still in this life, so those who have already departed from this life cannot stain it even when they are known.

If, then, our case is such—in our words concerning the crimes of certain persons which we mutually cast at one another—that it remains unconquered even if today we should learn that the things we say against some of them are false and the things they say against some of us are true, what have they to answer? Whether the things we say be rather the true ones and those they say be false, or both be false, or both be true—since even there they are defeated in the very point which alone, with all their vows, they long to have believed of them. But, as I had begun to say, let us not listen to 'you say this, I say that,' but let us listen to 'thus says the Lord.' There are surely the Lord's books, to whose authority we both consent, to which we both yield, which we both serve:

there let us seek the Church, there let us examine our case. Here perhaps they will say: 'Why do you seek in the books which you delivered up to the flames?' To this I reply: Why do you fear that these books be read, if you have preserved them from the flames? Let him assuredly be believed to have delivered them up who, when they are read, is convicted of not consenting to them. Or if perchance these books point out their betrayer, just as the Lord pointed out Judas, let them read in them, by name and expressly, that either Caecilian or his ordainers were to be betrayers of these very books; and if I do not anathematize them, let me myself be judged along with them to have betrayed. But neither do we find in those books the ordainers of Majorinus designated as betrayers, although we recite these things from elsewhere.

Let those things, therefore, be removed from the midst which we recite against one another not from the divine canonical books, but from elsewhere.

But if they are unwilling that they be removed, let them see that, even if both sets of charges are true, there was no cause for their separation, that they should flee those whom they possessed; and if both are false, there was no cause for their separation, that they should flee those in whom they found no crime; and if ours are true but theirs are false, there was no cause for their separation, because they ought rather to correct themselves and remain in unity; and if ours are false and theirs are true, there was no cause for their separation, because they ought not to forsake the innocent world, to which they either were unwilling or were unable to demonstrate these things. Perhaps someone will ask and say to me:

'Why then do you want these things removed from the midst, when your communion, even if they be brought forward, is unconquered?' Because I do not wish the holy Church to be demonstrated by human documents, but by divine oracles. For if the holy Scriptures designated the Church in Africa alone, and among a few 'Cutzupitani' or 'Montenses' at Rome, and in the house or estate of a single Spanish woman, then whatever else is brought forward from other papers, none hold the Church except the Donatists. If holy Scripture defines it among a few Moors of the Caesarean province, one must cross over to those few. If among a few Tripolitans and Byzacenes and provincials, then the Maximianists have attained to it.

If it is to be sought among the Orientals alone, then it must be sought among the Arians and Eunomians and Macedonians and whatever others are there. But who could enumerate the several heresies of the several nations? If, however, the Church of Christ has been designated by the divine and most certain testimonies of the canonical Scriptures among all nations, then whatever these men bring forward and from whatever source they recite it, who say 'Behold, here is Christ, behold, there'—let us rather listen, if we are His sheep, to the voice of our Shepherd who says: 'Do not believe.' For those particular churches are not found in the many nations where this one is; but this one, which is everywhere, is found even where those are. Therefore let us seek it in the holy canonical Scriptures.

The whole Christ is head and body: the head is the only-begotten Son of God, and His body is the Church, bridegroom and bride, two in one flesh. Whoever dissent from the Scriptures concerning that very head, even if they are found in all the places in which the Church has been designated, are not in the Church. And again, whoever agree with the holy Scriptures concerning that very head, yet do not hold communion with the unity of the Church, are not in the Church, because they dissent, contrary to the very testimony of Christ, concerning the body of Christ, which is the Church.

For example, those who do not believe that Christ came in the flesh from the Virgin Mary, of the seed of David—which the Scripture of God most plainly declares—or that He rose again in that same body in which He was crucified and buried, even if they are found throughout all the lands through which the Church extends, are assuredly not in the Church, because they do not hold the very head of the Church, which is Christ Jesus; nor are they deceived by any obscurity of the divine Scriptures, but they contradict the most well-known and most plain testimonies of them.

Likewise, whoever indeed believe that Jesus Christ, just as it has been said, came in the flesh, and rose again in that same flesh in which He was born and suffered, and that He is Himself the Son of God, God with God, and one with the Father, and the unchangeable Word of the Father, through whom all things were made—yet nevertheless so dissent from His body, which is the Church, that their communion is not with the whole wherever it is diffused, but is found separated in some part—it is manifest that they are not in the Catholic Church.

Wherefore, since with the Donatists our question is not about the head, but about the body—that is, not about the Savior Jesus Christ Himself, but about His Church—let the very head, concerning whom we agree, show us His body, concerning which we disagree, so that through His words we may now cease to disagree. Now He is the only-begotten Son and the Word of God; and therefore not even the holy prophets could have spoken the truth, unless it had been made manifest to them, by that very Truth which is the Word of God, what they should say, and unless they had been commanded to say it. Accordingly, in former times the Word of God sounded forth through the prophets, then through Himself, when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, then through the apostles whom He sent to preach Him, that there might be salvation unto the ends of the earth.

In all these, therefore, the Church is to be sought. But since men who are given to slander very often turn to whatever objects and to whatever purpose they wish many things spoken against others or for another reason; and since many things also, set down figuratively and obscurely for the sake of exercising rational minds, are sometimes believed—through the image of an enigma or the double sense of an ambiguity—to accord and agree with a deceptive interpretation, I also proclaim and propose this: that we select whatever things are open and manifest; and if these were not found in the holy Scriptures, there would be no source at all from which the closed might be opened and the obscure illumined. For example, see how easy it is either for us to say against them, or for them against us, what the Lord said to the Pharisees:

'You are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful to men, but within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly indeed appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.' Whether these things be said by us against them or by them against us, unless it first be proved by the most manifest documents who they are that, being unjust, feign themselves to be just—who of even moderate sanity does not know that such things are spoken with railing rather smooth than with truth convincing? For the Lord spoke those things against the Pharisees in a different manner, as being the Lord, that is, the discerner of the heart and of all human secrets, and both witness and judge;

but we must first find and show what we allege, lest we ourselves rather be convicted of the most grievous crime of insane rashness. Indeed, if they should first teach that we are such, we ought by no means to refuse to be reproved and crushed by such words of the holy Scriptures; likewise, if we should teach that they are such, it will similarly be in our power with what divine rebukes to strike those already demonstrated and convicted. So also, meanwhile, those things are to be set aside which, being obscurely placed and wrapped in the veils of figures, can be interpreted both according to us and according to them.

It belongs indeed to acute men to distinguish and discern who interprets these more probably; but we do not wish to commit our disputation, in a case which concerns whole peoples, to these contests of ingenuity. It is doubtful to none of us that, with the fidelity of the historical events preserved—namely, that with the sinners destroyed, the house of the just man might be delivered from the flood—the Church too was figured by the ark of Noah; which might perhaps seem a conjecture of human ingenuity, were it not that the apostle Peter says this in his epistle. But that which he did not there say—if one of us should say that all the kinds of animals were there for this reason, because the Church was foretold as destined to be in all nations—perhaps it might seem otherwise to the Donatists, and they might wish to interpret this differently.

Similarly, if they too should interpret something obscurely or ambiguously set down in favor of their own opinion, and if it is open to us to say something else from it which sounds in our favor, what will be the end? For a certain bishop of theirs, when he was making a discourse to the people here at Hippo, as we heard, said that Noah's ark was for this reason coated with pitch on the inside, that it might not let out its own water, and for this reason also on the outside, that it might not let in that of another. By this interpretation he certainly wished it to have this force: that baptism should not be believed able either to go forth outside the Church, or, if given outside, to be accepted.

He seemed to say something, and there was acclamation from those who listened gladly but did not diligently ponder what they had heard, so as to notice—what was easy—that it could not come about that the framing of the timbers should let in water from outside if it did not let it out from within; but if it lets it out from that part which is inside, it follows that it also admits it from that part which is outside. But even if what he said about the joined timber were true, who would prevent me from saying, if I could, something else about the ark coated with pitch on both sides, so that it might be uncertain which of these—or perhaps some third thing—that matter signified?

For it is not absurdly said—indeed, even much more probably—that by the pitch charity is signified, since it is a violent glue and a most fervent thing. For whence is it said in the psalm, 'My soul has cleaved fast after you,' but by most burning charity? And since it has been commanded that this be in us toward one another and toward all, therefore the ark was coated with pitch both within and without. Or certainly, because it is written, 'Charity endures all things,' the very tenacious force of endurance, holding to unity, is signified by the pitch, with which the ark was smeared both within and without for this reason: because both within and without the evil are to be endured, lest the framing of peace be dissolved.

In this our disputation, therefore, let us spare such interpretations, and let us seek something open, by which the Church may be made manifest. Indeed it is written in the book of Judges: 'And Gideon said to the Lord: Since you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken, behold, I place a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor; and if there be dew on the fleece, but on all the ground drought, I shall know that you save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken. And it was so. And Gideon rose early on the next day and wrung out the fleece, and the dew ran down from the fleece, a basin full of water. And Gideon said to the Lord: Let not your anger be kindled against me, Lord, and I will speak yet once more, and I will make trial yet once more with the fleece:

let there be drought on the fleece alone, but on all the ground let there be dew. And God did so in that night, and there was drought on the fleece alone, but on all the ground dew.' I do not see what is here figured and foretold, save that we should understand the threshing-floor as the world, and the place of the fleece as the people of Israel. For we know that that nation of old was, as it were, drenched with heavenly dew by the grace of the divine sacrament, while, of this gift, there was as it were drought among all the nations round about, since they lacked it. But this gift was among that people in the fleece, that is, in a covering and as it were a cloud of secrecy, because it had not yet been revealed.

But now we see the world already fed, the dew being revealed, through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was then figured in that covering; while that nation, having lost the priesthood which it possessed—because it does not understand Christ in the Scriptures—has remained, as it were, in the dry fleece. And yet even in such figures of things, although I do not see what else can here be understood, I do not wish us to seek the Church.

Let us for the moment set aside altogether those things which need some interpretation, or such an interpretation—not because the things are false which are unravelled in this manner by interpreting such things as coverings, but because they require an interpreter. I do not wish our talents to be matched in them, but let the open truth cry out and shine, let it burst into stopped-up ears, let it strike the eyes of those who feign not to see—let no one in its recesses seek a place for his own false opinion—let it confound every attempt at contradiction, let it dash down every brow of impudence. O Donatists, read Genesis:

'By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not spared your most beloved son for my sake, in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is by the shore of the sea, and your seed shall possess by inheritance the cities of its adversaries, and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.' What do you say to this? Do you contend with us in the perversity of the Jews, so as to say that the seed of Abraham is to be understood only in the people born of Abraham's flesh? But the Jews do not read in their synagogues the apostle Paul, whom you read in your conventicles.

Let us therefore hear what the apostle says—for we are now seeking how the seed of Abraham is to be understood: 'Brethren,' he says, 'I speak after the manner of men. Yet a man's confirmed testament no one annuls or adds to. To Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He does not say, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to your seed, which is Christ.' Behold, in what seed all the nations are blessed; behold the testament of God; open your ears: 'A man's confirmed testament,' he says, 'no one annuls or adds to.' Why do you annul the testament of God, by saying that it has not been fulfilled in all nations, and that they have already perished from among the nations in which was the seed of Abraham?

Why do you add to it, by saying that Christ remains heir in no lands, save where He could have Donatus as co-heir? We do not begrudge anyone. Read this to us from the Law, from the Prophets, from the Psalms, from the Gospel itself, from the apostolic writings. Read it, and we believe—just as we read to you both from Genesis and from the apostle, that in the seed of Abraham, which is Christ, all the nations are blessed. Hear this same testament made also to Isaac, Abraham's son: 'Now there was a famine over the land, besides the famine which had been before in the time of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar. And the Lord appeared to him and said:

Do not go down into Egypt, but dwell in the land which I shall tell you, and dwell in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and to your seed I will give all this land, and I will establish my oath which I swore to Abraham your father, and I will enlarge your seed as the stars of heaven, and I will give to you and to your seed all this land, and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because Abraham your father obeyed my voice and kept my precepts and my ordinances and my statutes.' Answer to these things. For the seed of Abraham is this same seed of Isaac also, which is Christ. For how Christ came from the tribe of Judah in the flesh through a virgin—what Christian in any way is ignorant of it?

Hear this same testament made to Jacob: 'And Jacob went out from the well of the oath and set out for Haran. And he came to a place and slept in that place, since the sun had set. And he took a stone from the stones of the place and put it under his head and slept in that place. And he saw a vision; and behold, a ladder set firm upon the earth, whose top reached to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending upon it. And the Lord leaned upon it and said: I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; do not fear; the land in which you sleep, I will give it to you and to your seed. And your seed shall be as the sand of the earth, and it shall be multiplied toward the sea and toward the south and toward the north and toward the east;

and in you and in your seed shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed; and behold, I am with you, keeping you in every way wherever you go, and I will bring you back into this land, for I will not forsake you until I have done all that I have spoken with you.' Behold the promise which you resist; behold how firm a testament you annul! The Lord says: 'I will not forsake you until I have done all that I have spoken with you,' and you contradict Him, saying that we should rather believe you as to whatever crime you allege against the unknown and unknowing world, but should not believe God, who says: 'I will not forsake until I have done.' Read to us from the canonical Scriptures that those men delivered up the divine codices whom you accuse by name.

Read things as open as these which we have read to you from Genesis. We do not ask of you what that stone signifies which Jacob put under his head when he slept, what the ladder set firm upon the earth whose top reached to heaven, what the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. Let the more prudent and more learned inquire into these things and expound them among a peaceable people, where no wicked contradiction clamors against them, arming its own impudence out of the obscurity of the sacrament and the enigma of the reading. There are not lacking hearts of the faithful whom the Lord may call to mind from the Gospel, where He says, when He had seen an Israelite in whom there was no guile—for Jacob, who saw these ladders, was himself called Israel;

there are not lacking, therefore, those whom the Lord Himself may thence call to mind. For there He says: 'You shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man'—that is, upon the seed of Abraham, in whom all the nations are blessed. But these things I do not press upon those who refuse them. Behold what you should hear: 'Your seed shall be as the sand of the earth, and it shall be multiplied toward the sea and toward the south and toward the north and toward the east; and in all the tribes of the earth and in your seed shall they be blessed.' Give me this Church, if it is among you. Show that you hold communion with all the nations which we already see blessed in this seed. Give it, or, laying aside your fury, receive it—not from me, but from Him Himself in whom all the nations are blessed.

Let it suffice to have recalled these things from the first book of the Law; more will become known to those who read without impious contention and with pious love. What of the Prophets? How many and how manifest are the testimonies of the Church spread through all nations over the whole world! Whence I shall recall a few, leaving more to the leisure of those who read with diligence and with the fear of God. Let us receive the divine responses through the mouth of holy Isaiah, and let us inquire of his lips as of the oracles of God. Let the spirited and pernicious contests of human quarrels be silent. Let us incline our ear to the word of God; let Isaiah tell where he foresaw the holy Church by God's revelation, that in the words of one telling of the future we may now see present things:

'The whole earth,' he says, 'has been filled, that they may know the Lord, as many waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be the root of Jesse, and He who shall rise to hold the rule over the nations; in Him shall the nations hope.' That the root of Jesse is Christ, born of the seed of David according to the flesh, no Christian in any way is ignorant; and if anyone is contentious, let him contend with the apostle, who uses this testimony in his writings. Likewise he says: 'Israel shall bud and blossom, and the world shall be filled with his fruit.' Israel, forsooth, was the son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham, to whom it was promised that in his seed all the nations should be blessed, which seed the apostle interprets as Christ.

Now Christ came from the seed of Abraham through Isaac and through Israel and so on, just as the evangelist weaves together the generations pertaining to the birth of Christ. Whoever therefore wishes to dispute against this, let him contradict the Gospel, let him deny that Christ came from the seed of Israel, that he may be able to deny what Isaiah says: 'Israel shall bud and blossom, and the world shall be filled with his fruit.' Likewise he says: 'I am God, the first, and in the things that shall come I am. The nations have seen and the ends of the earth have feared.' This is what the Scripture says elsewhere: 'the first and the last,' so that it is Alpha and Omega, which are the letters in the sign of Christ known to all. For in place of what is there 'the last,' here is set: 'and in the things that shall come I am.'

To this manifestation, then, they speak in contradiction who refuse to believe — nay rather, who refuse now to see fulfilled that which follows: 'The nations saw and the ends of the earth were afraid.' Again, a little later: 'Jacob my servant, I will uphold him; Israel my chosen, my soul has received him. I have put my Spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the nations. He shall not cry out, nor cease, nor shall his voice be heard abroad. A bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax he shall not quench, but he shall bring forth judgment in truth. He shall shine and shall not be broken, until he set judgment in the earth, and in his name shall the nations hope.' This testimony is to be understood of Christ, and it is set down also in the Gospel.

Let him who dares speak in contradiction; but let him who dares not hope in him together with the nations, and not withdraw from the unity of the nations that hope in him — or if he has withdrawn, let him return, lest he perish. Isaiah likewise says: 'And now thus says the Lord, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, that I should gather Jacob and Israel unto him. I will draw near to him and be glorified before the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he said to me: It is a great thing for you to be called my servant, that you should establish the tribes of Jacob and turn again the offspring of Israel. And I have set you for a covenant of the race, for a light of the nations, that you may be salvation unto the ends of the earth.' And a little later: 'Thus says,' he says, 'the Lord of Israel: In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.'

Certainly, when the apostle Paul had cited these words, he showed them to be fulfilled in none but Christians. For he joined them with the words: 'Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.' Let us hear, then, what Isaiah adds: 'I have given you,' he says, 'for a covenant of the nations, that you may inhabit the earth and possess the heritage of the desert.' And then, after some things interposed, he joins on and says: 'Behold, these shall come from afar, and these from the north and the sea, and others from the land of the Persians. Rejoice, O heaven, and be glad, O earth. Let the mountains send forth gladness, for God has had mercy on his people, and has consoled the humble of his people. But Zion said: The Lord has forsaken me, and God has forgotten me.'

'Can forgetfulness overtake a woman regarding the child of her womb, or can it come to pass that she should not have compassion on the fruit of her womb? Now behold, even though she should forget, yet by no means shall forgetfulness overtake you of yourself, says the Lord. Behold, upon my hands I have inscribed your walls; you are also in my sight forever, and in a short time you shall be built up by those by whom you were overthrown.' Since, therefore, we are not permitted by the apostolic voice to understand this of the people of the Jews, but of Christians, what are we to understand in that which Isaiah says in this place: 'And in a short time you shall be built up by those by whom you were overthrown,' except the kings of the earth, who at first persecuted the Church, but afterward were foretold, so long before, to become her helpers?

But because many of them were to die in their iniquities, he adds and says: 'And those who made you desolate shall depart from you.' Then, because all the nations were to be joined to the Church, there follows and he says: 'Look about you on every side with your eyes and behold them all. As I live, says the Lord, with all these you shall clothe yourself, and shall array them as the ornament of a new bride, since the places in you that were deserted and corrupted and ruined shall now be in greatest straitness because of those who dwell there; far off shall those be driven who devoured you. For your children whom you had lost shall say in your ears: This place is too narrow for us; make us therefore even now a place in which we may dwell. But you shall say in your heart:'

'Who has begotten me these, since I know myself to be without children and a widow? Who, then, has reared these for me? For I was left alone, forsaken; but these — where were they?' Thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I will lift up my hands to the nations, and to the islands my sign, and I will bring your sons in my bosom; your daughters also they shall carry upon their shoulders, and kings shall be your foster-fathers, and their princesses your nurses; bowing their faces down to the ground they shall entreat you, and shall lick the dust of your feet, and you shall know that I am the Lord, and you shall not be put to shame.' And a little later he adds and says: 'Hear me, hear, O my people, and you kings give heed to me, for a law shall go forth from me, and my judgment for a light to the nations.'

'My righteousness draws near speedily, and my salvation shall go forth, and in my arm shall the nations be saved.' Concerning this arm let us consult the apostolic Scriptures. For when the apostle Paul had cited the testimony of this same prophet concerning the unbelief of the Jews, that Christ had not been revealed to them, he set down this: 'Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' Then in what follows Isaiah adds and says: 'Let the desert places of Jerusalem break forth together with joy, for he has had mercy upon her and has delivered Jerusalem; and the Lord shall lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the nations shall see, even to the ends of the earth, the salvation which is from God.'

Who is so deaf, who so mad, who so blind in mind as to speak against testimonies so evident, unless it be one who knows not what he says? But let us come to still plainer things. Certainly we know in the Scriptures that most sacred marriage: the Bridegroom is Christ, and the Bride the Church. Isaiah writes of both, lest perchance we err in either of them — an error which, whoever falls into it, loses both, since concerning this wedlock it is said in a mystery, as the apostle testifies: 'They shall be two in one flesh.' Thus, then, is the Bridegroom himself first described. After the many things that Isaiah so says of him that even the Jews themselves are struck dumb — lest it be tedious to rehearse them all — mark this little: 'Their sins,' he says, 'he shall bear;'

'therefore he shall possess many by inheritance and shall divide the spoils of the strong. For this cause his soul was delivered up to death, and he was reckoned among the wicked, and he himself bore the sins of many, and for our iniquities he was delivered up.' You confess that these things were foretold and prophesied so long beforehand concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. This Bridegroom, then — for what purpose was he delivered up to death, for what purpose was he reckoned among the wicked? With such humility of his loftiness, what did he accomplish, what did he acquire? Who is so deaf as not to hear these things, who so dull as not to understand, who so blind as not to see? 'Therefore,' he says, 'he shall possess many by inheritance and shall divide the spoils of the strong.'

'For this cause his soul was delivered up to death, and he was reckoned among the wicked.' What is this, you heretics, that you glory in your fewness, if for this cause our Lord Jesus Christ was delivered up to death — that he might possess many by inheritance? And who are these many, or how widely do they occupy the earth? Let us hear what follows. The Bridegroom having been proclaimed and set forth, let the Bride also come forward in the words of Isaiah. Let us read her in the truth of the holy pages, and recognize her in the whole world. This testimony concerning the holy Church the apostle Paul also set down, so that there is nowhere for the contentious evasion of heretics to flee:

'Rejoice, O barren one,' he says, 'who did not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who did not travail, for many are the children of the deserted one, more than of her who has a husband.' Where is that, I ask, in which you glory concerning fewness? Are not these the many, of whom it was said a little before: 'Therefore he shall possess many by inheritance'? For what is his inheritance if not his Church? 'Many,' he says, 'are the children of the deserted one, more than of her who has a husband' — meaning by 'her who has a husband' the synagogue of the Jews, since she had received the Law. From this now can be judged what we say. Let them set forth their multitude —

their multitude established in the Africans, or in Africa, alongside the multitude of the Jews scattered throughout all lands wherever they are dispersed, and let them see how very few they are in comparison with those. How, then, will they assign to themselves what was said: 'Many are the children of the deserted one, more than of her who has a husband'? Again, let them set the multitude of Christians throughout all the nations with whom they hold no communion against the Jews, and let them see how few all the Jews are in comparison, and let them at last some day understand that in the Catholic Church, spread throughout the whole world, this prophecy has been fulfilled: 'Many are the children of the deserted one, more than of her who has a husband.' But who this deserted one is who has been preferred over her who has a husband in multitude of children — let it be obscure, let it be in a riddle;

nevertheless, that this is the Church of Christ, concerning which it was said, 'Many are the children of the deserted one, more than of her who has a husband' — whoever speaks against it speaks not against me, but against the apostle. But from where she was to have so many children, he consequently adds and says: 'For the Lord said: Enlarge the place of your tent and of your courts, fix the stakes — do not spare — lengthen your cords and make firm your pegs. Stretch out still to the right and to the left. And your seed shall possess the nations, and you shall inhabit the desolate cities. Fear not, for you shall prevail, neither be afraid because you were held in contempt. You shall forget the everlasting confusion, you shall not remember the disgrace of your widowhood.'

'For I am the Lord who made you — the Lord is his name — and he who delivered you, the God of Israel, shall be called the God of the whole earth.' Behold how far she was bidden to stretch her cords: until her God, the God of Israel, be called the God of the whole earth. For concerning her, and to her, it is said in another place through the same prophet: 'For Zion's sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until my righteousness go forth as light. And my salvation shall burn as a torch, and all the nations shall see your righteousness and kings your honor. And he shall call you by your new name, which the Lord shall name, and you shall be a crown of beauty in the sight of the Lord and a diadem of kingship in the hand of your God, and no longer shall you be called forsaken, and your land shall not be called desolate.'

'For you shall be called My Delight, and your land the whole round world.' What plainer utterance can yet be demanded? Behold, out of one prophet, how many and how clear are the sayings! And yet resistance and contradiction are offered — not to any man, but to the Spirit of God and to the most evident truth; and yet by those who wish to glory in the Christian name, the glory of Christ himself is begrudged, lest these things, which were foretold of him so long beforehand, be believed to be fulfilled, when now they are no longer foretold, but are shown, are seen, are held.

But now, if I should wish to gather into this one letter the testimonies from all the prophets concerning the Church foreshown — which, as we read, so we behold — I fear I might myself seem to judge those things few which are so many that, if I wished to collect them all out of this one Isaiah, I should exceed the measure of a fitting discourse. Now let us hear a few things from the Psalms, sung so long before, and now let us see them fulfilled with great joy. And first that very passage which Petilianus set down in his letter — with what countenance I know not — let them hear and declare: 'The Lord said to me: You are my Son, this day have I begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession.'

For what Christian has ever doubted that this was foretold concerning Christ, or has understood this inheritance to be anything other than the Church? And because she was to have both good and evil within the same nets of the sacraments, 'You shall rule them,' he says, 'with a rod of iron; like a potter's vessel you shall shatter them.' For by the same firm and inflexible justice the good are ruled and the evil are shattered. Who is so devious and so at odds with the divine oracles as not to recognize the Gospel itself, when that psalm is sung wherein it is written: 'They have pierced my hands and feet, they have numbered all my bones.'

'But they themselves looked and gazed upon me, they divided my garments among them and cast lots upon my clothing.' When even the evangelist narrated that this deed was done, was he not mindful of this testimony? But what has been purchased at the price of this cross, what by such humility of such loftiness, what by that most innocent and divine blood, except what is said there in the following words: 'All the ends of the earth shall be remembered and shall turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship in his sight, for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he himself shall have dominion over the nations'? Did not the apostle expound as spoken concerning the preachers of the New Testament that which is written:

'Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world'? Of whom else than of Christ is it understood: 'The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken, and has called the earth from the rising of the sun even to its setting. Out of Zion is the form of his beauty'? Whose voice is it but Christ's: 'I slept troubled'? And whence troubled? It follows and he says: 'The sons of men, their teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.' Whose but theirs who cried out: 'Crucify, crucify'? To what end is all this? For whose good, for whose gain? Hear what follows: 'Be exalted above the heavens, O God, and above all the earth your glory.' Behold, you have Christ having slept in his Passion and having ascended above the heavens in his Resurrection.

And whence is his glory above all the earth, except because his Church is throughout all the earth? In these two most brief sentences, O heretics, I question you as to the whole matter that is in dispute between us. 'Be exalted,' he says, 'above the heavens, O God, and above all the earth your glory.' Why do you preach the Lord Christ exalted above the heavens, yet not hold communion in his glory that is above all the earth? The seventy-first psalm is entitled 'For Solomon.' But because such things are said in it as cannot fit that temporal king who afterward sinned grievously, they are most invincibly defended as foretold, even against the Jews themselves, concerning Christ. No Christian, however, denies this;

for such things are said as cannot be doubted to pertain to Christ. There too these things are said, wherein is recognized the Church spread throughout the whole world, with all kings likewise subjected to Christ: 'And he shall have dominion,' he says, 'from sea to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the round world' — from the river, indeed, where the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and a voice from heaven made him manifest. Then it follows: 'Before him the Ethiopians shall fall down, and his enemies shall lick the earth. The kings of Tarshish and the islands shall offer gifts, the kings of the Arabians and of Sheba shall bring presents. And all the kings of the earth shall worship him, all nations shall serve him.' And a little later: 'And in him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed, all nations shall magnify him.'

'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who alone does wonders, and blessed be the name of his glory forever and unto the age of ages, and the whole earth shall be filled with his glory. Amen, amen.' Go now, Donatists, and cry out: 'Let it not be, let it not be.' The word of God has conquered you, saying: 'Amen, amen.' Behold, in the Psalms is made manifest the Church spread throughout the whole world, upon which rests the glory of her King. Hence she herself is queen, his bride, of whom it is said to him in the forty-fourth psalm: 'The queen stood at your right hand in gilded raiment, clothed about with variety'; and to exhort this very one the divine discourse is straightway directed:

'Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house, for the king has greatly desired your beauty, for he himself is your God.' Attend to the point from which the divine prophecy has begun to address the Bride of Christ: 'Hear,' he says, 'O daughter, and see.' But you neither will to hear these things foretold nor to see them fulfilled — and yet you both hear and see them against your will. Hear, then, what is said to her a little later; hear this from the divine page, how it is foretold, and see in all the earth how it is fulfilled: 'In place of your fathers,' he says, 'sons are born to you: you shall establish them as princes over all the earth.' How many testimonies of the Scriptures on this matter I pass over, those who read know, and I too know;

but I do not wish to burden with them the letter to which I demand a reply. What will they say to these things which we have recalled from the Law and the prophets and the Psalms concerning the Church of Christ, which is diffused throughout the whole world — to which the perverse choose to be hostile rather than, being corrected, to hold communion? What, I say, will they say? Whether that these things are false, or that they are obscure? But they dare not say that they are false; for they are pressed by the mass of so great an authority. Since, then, they confess these things to be true, they contend that they cannot be fulfilled — as though it were something else to accuse a prophecy of the crime of falsehood than to say that what it foretold cannot be fulfilled; for this is to say that it is no prophecy, but rather a false prophecy. And when you ask them why these things cannot be fulfilled, they answer: 'Because men are unwilling.'

'For man,' they say, 'was created with free will, and if he wishes he believes in Christ, if he does not wish he does not believe; if he wishes he perseveres in what he believes, if he does not wish he does not persevere. And therefore, when the Church had begun to grow throughout the round world, men were unwilling to persevere, and the Christian religion failed out of all the nations, except the party of Donatus.' As though, forsooth, the Spirit of God did not know the future wills of men — who would say such a most insane thing? Why, then, did he not rather foretell this, which he knew would come to pass concerning the wills of men? For in this way, in which these people suppose these things to have been foretold, whoever wishes can be a prophet, so that, when the things he foretold have not been fulfilled, he may answer: 'Men were unwilling;'

'for by free will they are Christians.' In this way someone could prophesy that Christ would suffer not on the cross but would die by the sword, so that, when it was done otherwise, he might answer: 'What have I done? Men, being set in free will, were unwilling to do to him what I had foretold, and did this which they themselves willed.' Now to whom does it not occur how many things could be prophesied, or even can be, in this way by any men whatever? For who would doubt that Judas, if he had not wished, would certainly not have betrayed Christ, and that Peter, if he had not wished, would not have denied the Lord thrice? But for this reason there was a sure prediction concerning these men, because God foresees even future wills.

Nevertheless, although these things are plain even to slow hearts, let us hear also from here the voice of the Word himself, uttered by the mouth of his own flesh. Certainly, when after the resurrection he offered himself to be handled and touched by the hands of the doubting disciples, and when he had taken and eaten before them what they had offered him, he said to them: 'These are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me.' But of whom are those things written, which we too have recalled from the Law and the prophets and the Psalms, if not of him, as I have shown one by one? When, therefore, he himself, who is the Truth, says:

'all things must be fulfilled,' how do these people deny it, except because they are enemies of the truth? But if they say that these things are still obscure, let us hear from here also the Head himself, the most truthful demonstrator of his own Body. For when he had said, 'that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me,' as though we might ask whether in that which he said, 'concerning me,' the Church was there to be understood, on account of that which is written, 'They shall be two in one flesh' — so that we might hold sure divine oracles not only concerning the Head, but also concerning the Body — the evangelist follows and says: 'Then he opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and he said to them: For thus it is written

'and so it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.' Here the Head himself is shown, who also offered himself to be handled by the hands of the disciples. See how he adds concerning the Body, which is the Church, so that he permits us to err neither in the Bridegroom nor in the Bride: 'And that repentance and the remission of sins should be preached,' he says, 'in his name throughout all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.' What is more truthful than this utterance, what more divine, what more manifest? It shames me to commend her with my own words, and are the heretics not ashamed to assail her with theirs?

Let them say that those testimonies which I have set down from the Law and the prophets and the Psalms are obscure and spoken figuratively, and can also be understood otherwise — although even in them I have labored, as far as I could, so that they may not dare to say even this — but behold, let them say: Was this too spoken obscurely, or shadowed under the veil of a riddle, which Christ himself said: 'For thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise the third day, and that repentance and the remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem'? If 'I slept troubled' is obscure, is 'that Christ must suffer' obscure? If 'Be exalted above the heavens, O God' is obscure, is 'and rise the third day' obscure?

Likewise, if 'above all the earth your glory' is obscure, is 'and that repentance and the remission of sins should be preached in his name throughout all the nations' obscure? If 'The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken, and has called the earth from the rising of the sun even to its setting' is obscure, is 'that repentance and the remission of sins should be preached in his name throughout all the nations' obscure? For thus the earth was called from the rising of the sun even to its setting, just as he himself says: 'I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.' If 'Out of Zion is the form of his beauty' is obscure, is 'beginning at Jerusalem' obscure? For that same Zion is Jerusalem. But what is that to me?

Let them say that those things which I have set down from the Law and the prophets and the Psalms do not pertain to these words of the Lord which are read in the Gospel: I do not care, I do not resist. Yet certainly, unless this had been foretold in the Law and the prophets and the Psalms — whether in those testimonies which I myself have adduced, or in others — by no means would the Lord have said: 'All things must be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me,' and then, their understanding having been opened so that they might understand the Scriptures, would he have taught those very things which are written of him in the Law and the prophets and the Psalms, in such a way as to say:

'For thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise the third day, and that repentance and the remission of sins should be preached in his name throughout all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.' I for my part might not have been able to recognize these things as written in the Law and the prophets and the Psalms; nevertheless, that this is written there, he declares who is the Truth. But even if he did not say that these things were written there, without doubt it would suffice for Christians that Christ himself had said that repentance and the remission of sins must be preached in his name throughout all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

But his doubting disciples, although his body had been seen and handled, he willed to confirm by the greater evidence of the Scriptures, rather than by that whereby he presented himself, visible and palpable, to the senses of mortals. Let us hold, then, the Church designated from the mouth of the Lord — whence she was to begin and how far she was to reach: beginning, namely, from Jerusalem, and reaching unto all the nations. Here now, whoever shall say that Jerusalem is to be understood not as that visible city, but as placed figuratively, so that it be taken spiritually of the whole Church — eternal in the heavens and in part a pilgrim on earth — can say that this too was said figuratively:

'that it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise the third day' — which whoever should say is by no means to be held a Christian. As, therefore, that was set down in its proper sense, so also is that which was joined to it concerning the Church of all nations beginning at Jerusalem. For the Lord expounded that these things were said of himself in the Law and the prophets and the Psalms, and surely that very exposition could not be figurative; otherwise it would not be an exposition. Moreover, if Jerusalem, placed figuratively and understood spiritually, signifies the universal Church, how does the universal Church begin from the universal Church, as though Jerusalem should begin from Jerusalem?