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.