They demand that their blood be avenged upon those, surely, by whom it was shed — is it perhaps upon others? And by this, yours shall be avenged upon you. But what is more foolish than that you suppose this prophecy concerning the martyrs, who were foretold as about to come, was fulfilled only in the Donatists — as if, after blessed John wrote this, no martyrs were slain, up until the party of Donatus should arise, who, if ever they cannot slay others, slay themselves, who do the works of robbers and demons and claim for themselves the glory of martyrs?
But if, over so great an interval of time — that is, from John down to these men — no true martyrs had been slain, so that, to say nothing else, we would say they were to come in the times of Antichrist, in whom that number of martyrs would be completed, yet not even so would we believe that these men, guilty of blood whether another's or their own, are added to the number of true martyrs, to whom it was said that they should rest a little while until the number of their brethren should be fulfilled who were to begin to be killed even as they — by others, surely, not by themselves as these men are, and therefore these men are not as they. We can also most truly say that even the Catholics whom the Donatists slay in these their own times pertain to the completion of that number.
But since, after the apostle John, who wrote down those future things, so great a slaughter of martyrs has been made by the impious slaying them everywhere among so many nations, what do they mean, these extorters of their own souls and torturers of others', in boasting that what they read was foretold concerning the holy martyrs was fulfilled in themselves? Prepare yourselves rather, that your blood be avenged not upon those who desire either to seize you or to have you flee, that you may live, but rather upon yourselves. Or is it perhaps for this reason, lest this come to pass, that you do not shed it, but either dash it out by a precipice, or choke it by the wave, or turn it into ashes? But you err. It shall be avenged upon you, in whatever manner it be destroyed by you;
for it would be avenged upon you even if it were shed by others not in the Church of Christ but in the party of Donatus. Will you then so cry out to God, that he avenge your blood, and will he hear you unless he condemns you? For how shall it be avenged, unless he who dared to slaughter it be condemned? In this cry, therefore, you are nothing but your own accusers, because you are guilty of your own blood; nor will God do anything but condemn you, when he avenges your blood — dashed out by you, or choked, or burned up, or by whatever means slaughtered, or, if you should choose this, poured out. The words of the letter: 'Is not this persecution,' he says, 'which has driven so many thousands of innocent martyrs to death?'
'For the Christians, according to the Gospel, willing in spirit but weak in flesh, having found a short cut, snatched away their own souls from the sacrilegious defilement of the furnaces, imitating the example of the priest Razias in the books of the Maccabees, and not fearing in vain. For whoever fell into their hands did not escape. But let them do as much as they will: this is certain, that they cannot be of God who act against God.' To this the answer: Most openly and most truly you confess what kind of persecution you suffer; for it is that of which I have already spoken, which is expressed clearly enough in the holy Scriptures concerning certain impious men, of whom it is said that they suffer persecution from their very own deeds.
This indeed can most fittingly be said of you, even if the hands of others were slaughtering you on account of your sacrileges. For robbers too, and any men guilty of capital crimes, when they are punished by just laws, are not to be said to suffer persecution except from their very own deeds. But now clearly, when — while Christian meekness spares you — your own madness so rages against you that, as you say, having found a short cut of the furnaces, you snatch away your own souls, it is excessive shamelessness if you deny that you suffer persecution in every way from your very own selves, since you fulfill both — both that whereby you justly perish, and that whereby you perish.
But you speak of so many thousands of men who do this, as though this too were no small reason why Africa should be freed from such teaching of yours. For it is a kind of men to whom you could persuade this evil, who were wont to do these things even before, especially when the license of idolatry was seething everywhere, when they used to rush in among the arms of the pagans thronging to their festivals. For the pagan youths used to vow to their idols how many each would slay. But these men, flocking together in troops from here and there, hurled themselves as if in an amphitheatre against the hunting-spears set before them by the hunters, after the manner of monstrous beasts: raging, they died; rotting, they were buried; deceiving, they were venerated.
Besides these there are the monstrous rocks and the dreadful crags of the mountains, made famous by the most frequent deaths of your voluntary victims. By waters and fires they did this more rarely; by precipices huge herds of them were consumed. I speak of things most well known to men of our own age. For who does not know this kind of men — restless in horrible crimes, idle from useful works, most cruel in the deaths of others, most cheap in their own, terrorizing especially in the fields, vacant from the fields, and for the sake of their sustenance going round the peasant huts, whence they received the name of Circumcellions — the reproach of the African error, almost the most notorious to the whole world?
From this kind of men, then, who does not know how many before went to their deaths and perished by diverse deaths, and how few now, in comparison with those, burn by their own fires? But if you think we ought to be moved because in this way so many thousands die, how much consolation do you suppose we have, that from so great a madness of the party of Donatus — where not only the error of wicked division, but even this frenzy has been made a law — far and incomparably more thousands are set free? For not even are these who perish equaled at least in number by those who, of that very kind, are now already held under the order of discipline and, in cultivating the fields, having lost both the work and the name of Circumcellions, they serve, they keep chastity, they hold unity:
how much less are these lost ones equaled in number by both sexes — not only boys and girls, young men and virgins, but also married folk and old people — of whom innumerable multitudes pass over, out of the wicked dissension of the Donatists, into the true and Catholic peace of Christ! For these men who burn themselves are not even so many as are the places filled with peoples who, from the deadly plague of that error and frenzy, are rescued through this insistence upon accomplishing unity. Can there be, I beseech you, any sound counsel of mercy, that all these should be kept together with those for the eternal punishments of Gehenna, lest those, very few in comparison with these, should be burned up by the fires of their own furnaces?
For that all may live with Christ, it must be striven for with great efforts and vows; but if, through the frenzy of certain men, this cannot come to pass, at least it must be labored for that not all perish with the devil. Indeed, searching most shrewdly out of the holy Scriptures whether you might bring forth anything for this insane opinion of voluntary death, you think you have found something, because it is written in the Gospel: 'The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak' — as though for that reason each man ought to kill himself, because he is weak for enduring sufferings amid the hands of persecutors. You could not more quickly declare your martyrs to be false ones, of the number of those of whom it is written:
Woe to those who have lost endurance, and it belongs in no way to those to whom the Lord says: 'In your patience you shall possess your souls.' But of those of whom it is read, 'The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,' they were oppressed by an involuntary sleep, not slain by a voluntary death. Read carefully and attend to what you say. Where is that saying of the Apostle: 'God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will make with the temptation also a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it'? Is this apostolic truth then not to be believed, and must we hold ourselves to be our own enemies because we cannot endure other enemies? Far be this from Christian hearts!
Let Catholics believe the faithful Apostle—nay, rather the faithful God Himself—who does not suffer His own to be tempted beyond what they can bear, but makes with the temptation also a way of escape, that they may be able to endure; let the Donatists not believe it, and, so that they may not forever fail to believe it, let them cease to be Donatists. For when men despair of obtaining patience from the Lord in any sufferings whatsoever, and therefore seek the short cut of the furnaces, where these men cast themselves not indeed to wild beasts, as the most blessed Cyprian says, but nonetheless into flames, though no one has condemned them—this is not counsel but frenzy, not wisdom but madness. Let those keep their own fires who do not say of the Lord's help: 'For from Him is my patience.'
Certainly holy Job, when from head to foot he was rotting with an unbearable sore and was tormented with monstrous pains, had this short cut of yours ready to hand, by which he might have snatched himself away from a life so full of dreadful calamities, in which he beyond all doubt remained; yet he would not. The power indeed was at hand, but justice did not permit it. For in accordance with this he says: 'And would that I could kill myself, or ask another to do this for me.' The just man denied that he could do what through justice could not be done. In this same manner of speaking the Apostle also says to the Galatians: 'I bear you witness that, if it could be done, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.' For why could even this not be done, except because it could in no way be done justly?
So too the Lord, when through His angels He was urging the just Lot as he went out of Sodom to hasten to Zoar, said: 'For I shall not be able to do the thing until you enter there.' He said He could not do what without doubt He could through power, but could not through justice. For the most patient Job could, if nothing else, at least take no food or drink and thus consume that wretched and dreadful life; but he could not do this justly, since it is lawful for no one to kill himself, especially when, in order that he may live, he is able to flee. Or would anyone doubt that that holy man, who spoke so many things in his sufferings, could have asked someone to do this to him?
For it was not that, as he grieved and rotted, his hand was lacking to kill himself, or his tongue lacking to make the request. Certainly he could have asked this even of his own wife. Yet she did not so much as suggest that it be done—she who desired him to die by his blasphemy while God was angry, and therefore, in wicked counsel saying something against God, still did not dare to say to him that he should kill himself. The devil has more power over you, who so easily persuades you of what he could not persuade a foolish woman—the woman whom, when all else had been taken from him, he reserved as his handmaid to deceive the man. And so that just man said that he could not ask anyone to slay him, thereby showing plainly that it was indeed not lawful.
For what a just man cannot do justly, he cannot do at all, since by first resolving upon it he loses his justice, so that what the just man cannot do, the unjust man can. Thus therefore he said: 'And would that I could kill myself,' as if he said, 'And would that it were just'; for then it could be done by a just man. For he did not wish injustice for himself in order to be able to do what none but the unjust can do, but if it could be done, he would wish this to be justice. And because it could not be done that this should be justice, the just man could not do what injustice alone would do. And therefore it is not unjust for a just man to wish for death when life is most bitter; but if God does not grant the death wished for, it will not be just except to endure that most bitter life.
Just as it is not foreign to a just man to wish for life when a bitter death threatens, but when he sees that he cannot obtain it, he says what the Lord, transfiguring us into Himself, said: 'Yet not what I will, but what You will, Father.' Now these things are to be said to those whom those who persecute seek to drive to do evil, not to those whom those who love invite to share in good; these things, I say, are to be said to those who suffer persecution for the sake of justice, not to those who bring it upon themselves for the sake of injustice.
Accordingly that aged Razias too—whom these men, being destitute of examples for their own crime, boast to have found in the books of the Maccabees as one to be imitated—ought to have done what in those same writings we read those seven brothers did, at their mother's exhortation: namely, that, once seized and not turned away from the law of his Lord, he should accept whatever was applied to him, endure it in pain, and in his humility keep patience. Wherefore, not being strong enough to bear humility among the hands of his enemies, he gave an example plainly not of wisdom but of folly, to be imitated not by the martyrs of Christ but by the circumcellions of Donatus. Nevertheless, if we consider more carefully, you appear estranged even from him.
For he indeed, when he was already being seized by the enemy, had no free flight. Therefore he struck himself with a sword, and when he had not been able to kill himself, he threw himself down from the wall; then, when he could no longer live, still yet breathing and moving his body by its own impulse, though bloodless he reached the sheer rock by running, where, drawing out his own entrails with both hands, he tore them, scattered them, and fell dead—so surrounded by the crowd that he could not escape, even though he could yet live. You therefore, who neither hear the Lord saying 'Flee' nor imitate Razias, who wished but could not flee, assuredly, because you do not have him in the precept, neither do you have this man in the example. What of the fact that this Razias, according to your own reasoning, is without doubt to be blamed?
For you said, on account of the Gospel saying where the Lord says 'The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak,' that you have fled to the short cut of the furnaces, because forsooth you are too weak to endure the hands of your enemies, if you should be seized by them. Can it then be said of that man—who wounded himself grievously with a sword, who, wounded, made for the wall, who threw himself headlong from it onto his neck, who afterward could still run to the rock, stand upon the rock, draw out his entrails, pluck them, scatter them—that the spirit was willing but the flesh weak? For not only did his spirit appear so willing, but his flesh so strong, that it is scarcely credible that he could have wished and been able to do what he did.
And so this man ought to displease you, who by his strength overturns the plea of your weakness. Moreover, if, being able to flee yet unwilling, he had heaped up wood in his own house and, as his enemies rushed in to seize him, had set fire to it and burned himself together with his own dwelling, he would indeed have furnished you an example, but would have acquired for himself a great torment. But now, since he was not able to flee, he is perhaps somewhat less guilty of his own blood, because he brought upon himself the death that the enemy, had he been captured, was already going to bring. 'But Razias was praised by the authority of the holy Scriptures.' In what way was he praised? Because he was a lover of the city.
This he could do even carnally—love, that is, of that earthly city Jerusalem, which is in bondage with her children, and not of that which is above, our free mother. He was praised because he kept continence in Judaism: but these things the Apostle says were to him loss and dung in comparison with the justice of Christ. He was praised because he was called father of the Jews: this is rather the very thing whereby impatience of humility crept upon him too, as upon a man, so that he chose to die first rather than be subjected to enemies. It is said that he chose to die nobly: it would have been better to die humbly, for so it would have been profitably. But with such words the history of the gentiles is wont to praise the brave men of this world, not the martyrs of Christ.
It is said that he manfully threw himself from the wall into the crowds: nor do we say that he did this in a womanly way. Although you, who have profited much by this example, have even taught your women to do this; but we grant that even they do this not in a womanly but in a manly way—yet not in a saving way, because not in a faithful way. Finally, as for the fact that he is said to have called upon the Ruler of life and spirit to render these again to him—that is, life and spirit—not even then did he ask for anything by which the good are distinguished from the evil. For God will render these things even to those who have done evil, not in the resurrection of eternal life, but in the resurrection of eternal judgment.
And so this Razias was praised as a lover of the city, as one very well spoken of—that is, of good repute—because he was called father of the Jews and because he held continence in Judaism. But that death of his, more marvelous than prudent, the Scripture narrated as it was done, not praising it as though it were to be done. But it is ours, as the Apostle admonishes, to test all things, to hold fast what is good, to abstain from every evil appearance. And indeed this Scripture, which is called that of the Maccabees, the Jews do not hold as they hold the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms, to which the Lord bears witness as to His own witnesses, saying:
'All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law and the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me'—yet it has been received by the Church not unprofitably, if it be read or heard soberly, chiefly on account of those Maccabees who, for the law of God, as true martyrs, endured from persecutors things so unworthy and horrible, that from this too the Christian people might take note: that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that shall be revealed in us, for whom Christ has suffered, if they most patiently bore such great things for the law which God gave through His servant to those men, for whom He had not yet delivered up His Son.
Although this Razias too has something that may profit those who read—not only that the mind may be exercised in judging rightly what it reads, but also that the human soul, nay rather the Christian soul, may take note how great are the things to be borne from enemies through the ardor of charity, since this man endured such great things from himself through the fear of humiliation. But the ardor of charity descends from the height of divine grace, whereas the fear of humiliation arises from the love of human praise; and therefore the one strives through patience, but the other sins through impatience.
We ought not therefore, whatever we read that men praised even by God's testimony in the Scriptures have done, to approve it by consenting to it, but to discern it by considering it, applying a judgment not indeed of our own authority, but of the divine and holy Scriptures, which permit us neither to imitate nor to praise all the deeds even of those men to whom a good and illustrious testimony is there borne, if any things were done by them not rightly, or things that no longer befit this present time.
But concerning those things which were then right and now are not, what need is there to discuss anything in this question, since the matter at issue—that a man should inflict death upon himself, especially one to whom it is granted, or rather who is compelled, to live—is among those deeds which never could be right nor ever were, as we have already sufficiently shown? Accordingly, however the praised life of this Razias be taken by you, his death has no wisdom to praise it, because it has no patience worthy of God's servants; and rather that voice of wisdom befits him which is not of praise but of detestation: 'Woe to those who have lost endurance.' For if you believe that all the deeds of those praised are to be imitated, is this Razias then better than David?
Why then does no good man set before himself as to be imitated David's deed concerning coveting another's wife and killing her husband, but rather as to be guarded against and shunned? Is Razias better than Solomon? Does it then please you that we set before ourselves as an example to be imitated his wantonness toward women, by whose seductions he was led even to the building of temples for idols? Is Razias better than the Apostle Peter, who, when he said 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,' was called so blessed by the Lord that he deserved to receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and yet is not believed to be imitated in that where soon, in that same moment, being rebuked he heard: 'Get behind me, Satan; for you do not savor the things that are of God, but the things that are of men'?
And to pass over these things which the holy Scripture of the Church has censured with a most open voice, and to speak of those which are there merely narrated and written down, and concerning which no sentence of praise or blame is passed either way, but which are left to us to judge: is Razias better than Noah? But who, when sober, would praise that man for lying drunk? Is Razias better than Judah the patriarch? Yet who would approve him, who would be pleased with him, whom he would not most rightly take offense at in that fornication, since it was not to his own daughter-in-law—for this he did not know—but nonetheless to her whom he thought a harlot that he went in? Is Razias better than Samson?
Dare then to say, if you can, that the great and divine secret of strength which he had in his hair ought to have been betrayed to a coaxing little woman. For as to that in which he killed himself together with his enemies, when he threw down the house upon himself and them, he willed to have in common with them the death he was soon about to suffer from them, because he could not escape. And this indeed he did not of his own accord, but it is to be ascribed to the Spirit of God, who used him, so that he did, when the Spirit was present with him, what he could not do when that same Spirit was absent—just as with Abraham's deed, when he willed to sacrifice his son, which, God commanding it, was obedience, but, God not commanding it, what would it have been but madness?
Instructed by these sacred writings, the blessed Cyprian in his confession said that discipline forbids that anyone should offer himself. See how great an evil you do, when you wish to kill yourselves—you who would be undisciplined even if you were to offer yourselves while others wished to do this to you. He whom you call Savior enjoins flight; the persecutor permits flight: what then do you follow, so that you perish in your own fires, but your own frenzy? And yet you say: 'Is this not persecution, which has forced so many thousands of the innocent to death?' Show how you are innocent, you who divide Christ and kill yourselves. Show how you are forced to death, you for whom flight is both divinely commanded and humanly allowed.
Show how, by the short cut of the furnaces, you snatch your souls away from defilement—the souls which you rather make most defiled by the sacrilege of the furnaces, as by a diabolical sacrifice. Ask Christ: He bids you flee; ask the tribune: he permits you to flee; if you could also ask Razias himself, he would answer us: 'I could not flee.' You therefore have neither Christ as Savior, nor the tribune as persecutor, nor Razias as author. But as to what you said, that your people killed themselves not having feared in vain, because whoever fell into our hands or those of our people did not escape—I ask what he did not escape. If death, why do you inflict it on yourselves with your own hands, if you fear it from ours?
But it is manifest that you do not speak of death. For how much we desire you to live, you yourselves also know; therefore you frighten us with your own death. Accordingly, if you say that no one of you who fell into our hands escaped our communion, would that you spoke the truth! For they would very happily not escape the communion which is offered by Catholics, so that they might escape the damnation which is prepared for heretics. But that what you say is false, you could have gathered even from your own Emeritus, who, when he had come to us, was more easily convicted by the truth than compelled to communicate. There are others too, lesser indeed in fame, but equal in folly.
For whoever was of like vanity, so as against the most manifest truth to become obstinate through a most perverse bashfulness—being ashamed to be thought inconstant—withdrew from us, deprived of Catholic communion. But for this reason you said, 'Whoever fell into their hands did not escape,' because you supposed that a very few, persistently resisting the most open truth and departing, escaped notice. But to Emeritus you did, according to your own view, a most grievous injury, who lost with you the praise of his hardness—as though he wished to be in vain among the few who do not consent to the truth, because he did not deserve to be reckoned among those who lie hidden. Who among us would not believe that you envy your colleague? Or if you do not envy him, imitate him.
Come to us, you too, as he did; hear what we say, as he did; answer, if you can, what he could not; but if you are unwilling either to answer or to communicate, depart as he did. Behold, he withdrew unharmed from our hands; why do you say, 'Whoever fell into their hands did not escape'? Behold, he did not believe that places would fail him where he might lie hidden; why do you determine to burn? Do you then not yet see that it is rather you who do not belong to God and who act against God—not only by the common plague, whereby you resist the unity of Christ, but especially against us, you who hasten to add even deaths to this so great crime of yours? The words of the letter:
'But since the office of an executioner did not befit your prudence,' he says, 'I beg you attend in a few words. There is, as I think, one thing, the solid truth, and another, the likeness of truth. Since truth stands firm, strengthened by its own vigor, an idol or image is that which human presumption has made in likeness of the true to the injury of the true; yet falsehood can never prejudice the truth. I speak of the worshippers of images, who do not hold the truth; under an alien name I reckon him a heathen who makes for himself something to worship. Whence it is public and open that by threats or terror and frequent persecutions those who removed Gabinius and the like from the liberty of nature are known to have fabricated for themselves as objects of veneration the very faithless men, to whose worship they are compelled against their will.' To these the reply: